WorldPride postponed
The Jerusalem WorldPride 2005 march and festivities scheduled for mid-August have been postponed.
Organizers said police would have been unable to provide security for the events because the festivities were set to take place just after the planned evacuation of Jews from Gaza.
'The homo-lesbian community in Israel is not oblivious to what is going on in the country and to the major public event that the Gaza pullout will be,' said activist Hagai El-Ad.
In late March, a dozen Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders held a press conference in Jerusalem to denounce WorldPride as a 'severe affront to the hearts and souls of adherents of all religions.' They demanded that the government and police 'prohibit any march of this kind.'
There was no immediate word on a new date for the events.
The last WorldPride was in Rome in 2000. The celebration is licensed by InterPride, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Coordinators.
New Zealand civil-union law takes effect
New Zealand's first same-sex weddings took place in early May after a comprehensive civil-union law came into force.
In Wellington, civil-union 'poster boys' John Jolliff, 75, and Des Smith, 65, tied the knot in the city council chambers May 1 before 200 of their friends and family members after arriving in a silver Rolls-Royce and being welcomed by an honor guard carrying 17 huge rainbow flags, The Dominion Post reported.
Mayor Kerry Prendergast conducted the ceremony, pronouncing the couple 'civilized.'
'Not many of us would have thought this was possible,' Prendergast said. 'The [ civil union ] act can now create an atmosphere of acceptance for us all.'
After the ceremony, a brass band led the wedding party through Civic Square to a reception at the historic Boatshed building.
Other weddings took place in Auckland and Christchurch, reports said.
Amnesty supports arrested Saudis
Amnesty International on April 27 expressed support for 35 men jailed and sentenced to flogging in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, for the crime of attending a 'gay wedding party.'
The 35 are among about 105 men who were jailed and sentenced to beatings for alleged homosexual conduct in conjunction with the March 10 party.
Thirty-one of the men were sentenced to from six months to one year in prison and to 200 lashes each. Four were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and 2,000 lashes. About 70 other men were released, reportedly because they had influential connections, but they later were called back to a police station and informed that they, too, had been sentenced to a year in jail.
'The men may be prisoners of conscience, punished solely for their sexual orientation,' Amnesty said. The organization asked its supporters to write to Saudi officials demanding that the sentences be commuted, that the nation stop punishing people solely for being gay, and that the exact charges against the men be made known.
Amnesty said writers also should point out that flogging is 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture, contrary to Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.'
See www.amnesty.org .uk/ .
