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Volume 34
Issue 12

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International News

CZECH PARLIAMENT OVERRIDES VETO OF PARTNERSHIP LAW In a surprising move, the Czech Republic's Chamber of Deputies overrode President Vaclav Klaus' veto of a same-sex partnership bill March 15. Klaus called the vote "a defeat for all of us who believe that the family in our society is fundamental, unique, unrivaled." Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, on the other hand, said legislators were "liberating one minority of ... our fellow citizens." The bill passed 101-76 - the minimum needed for an override in the 200-seat chamber. The original measure had passed 86-53. In his February veto message, Klaus had argued that such a law should be approved by a majority of legislators rather than a majority of those present for the vote. He also said Gay unions undermine traditional values. Paroubek later denounced Klaus as "unable to overcome his prejudices." In a press statement, the Gay Initiative in the Czech Republic commented: "The public and the lawmakers have sent out the clear signal to the world - The Czech Republic has found its place among the democratic countries of the world and it considers its citizens from [the] Gay and Lesbian minority as the equal to others." A recent poll found that 62 percent of Czechs support same-sex registered partnership. GERMAN GAYS ZAP POLISH PRESIDENT Dozens of German Gays yelled at Polish President Lech Kaczynski March 9 at Berlin's Humboldt University, where he was giving a lecture on European solidarity. The protesters shouted, "Solidarity without exclusion and homophobia" and "Homophobia is curable." Police attempted to halt the invasion but a university official reportedly intervened and allowed the demonstrators to make a statement. As mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski banned the Gay pride parade in 2004 and 2005, calling it "sexually obscene." He also refused to meet with pride organizers, reportedly saying, "I am not willing to meet perverts." Following the Berlin protest, Kaczynski commented: "I don't agree to see this issue in a way that there is a heterosexual culture and a homosexual culture and that they are equal. I see no reason to promote such attitudes, because if they were common, the human race would have to die out." BRITISH GAY CELEBRITY TIES THE KNOT European Parliament member and former British TV star Michael Cashman "married" his partner of 23 years, Paul Cottingham, in London March 11 under the United Kingdom's Civil Partnership Act, which provides the rights and obligations of marriage. Cashman starred in the TV series EastEnders before being elected to the Euro Parliament. Numerous celebrities attended the ceremony, including EastEnders stars Barbara Windsor and Michelle Collins, Coronation Street actress Helen Worth, The Bill star Trudy Goodwin, Gay actor Sir Ian McKellen, Star Trek's Patrick Stewart, and Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair. While on EastEnders, Cashman became a Gay activist, chairing the national Gay lobby group Stonewall. "I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime," he told Sentinel Sunday. "It is a huge step, and I am so proud." AMNESTY ADOPTS JAILED CAMEROON GAYS Amnesty International USA said March 8 that it considers eight men and a 17-year-old boy who are being tried in Cameroon on charges of practicing homosexuality to be prisoners of conscience. The organization mobilized its members to petition for the detainees' release. "These defendants are being held unjustly solely on the basis of their alleged sexual orientation," said Michael Heflin of Amnesty's Gay-rights program. "Additionally, we fear that they are in grave danger of being subjected to intrusive medical examinations that would amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." The High Court trial began in late February. If found guilty, the individuals could face five years in prison and a $350 fine. They were arrested at a nightclub in the capital, Yaoundé, in May 2005 and have been jailed since, in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with inadequate food, Amnesty said. Cameroon bans Gay sex under Article 347 of its Penal Code. NEW ZEALAND GAYS WILL BE ALLOWED TO DONATE SPERM New Zealand's largest fertility service is dropping its ban on sperm donations by Gay men. After consultation with the nation's Human Rights Commission, which was investigating Fertility Associates' rejection of a Gay donor, the agency decided it will treat Gays' sperm the same as straights' sperm - testing it for HIV and hepatitis B and C. MUSSOLINI GRANDDAUGHTER: FASCISM BETTER THAN FAGGOTRY Member of the European Parliament Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, said March 9 that it's "better to be fascist than a faggot (frocio)." The outburst occurred during taping of the TV talk show Porta a Porta when Mussolini was criticized by drag queen Vladimir Luxuria, who is running for Parliament. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CRITICIZES DUTCH ASYLUM THREAT A threat by Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk to end a moratorium on deporting Gay asylum-seekers back to Iran rested on a misunderstanding of Iranian law, Human Rights Watch says. The deportation ban was implemented last year after reports of executions in Iran for homosexual conduct. But in a recent letter to Parliament, Verdonk stated: "It appears that there are no cases of an execution on the basis of the sole fact that someone is homosexual. ... For homosexual men and women it is not totally impossible to function in society." In fact, Article 111 of the Code of Islamic Punishments, Iran's criminal code, states that sexual intercourse between men "is punishable by death." Articles 121-122 punish nonpenetrative sex between men with 100 lashes, and with death on the fourth conviction. Article 123 allows for 90 lashes "if two men who are not related by blood lie naked under the same cover without any necessity." Articles 127-134 punish sexual intercourse between women with 100 lashes, and with death if the offense is repeated three times. "Men and women suspected of homosexual conduct in Iran face the threat of execution," said Scott Long of HRW's Gay-rights program. "We have documented brutal floggings imposed by courts as punishment, and torture and ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, in police custody. "The legal machinery of persecution is oiled, ready and operating in Iran - and the Netherlands has a binding and absolute legal obligation not to send people back to face it," Long said. The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits member nations from deporting a person who may be at risk of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In a letter to Verdonk, Long cited a 2005 report in Iran's Etemad newspaper about two men who were sentenced to death by the Teheran Criminal Court after the wife of one of them found a video of the two having sex. Long also cited a 2005 report in the Teheran daily Kayhan about the hanging of two men - Mokhtar N., 24, and Ali A., 25 - in Shahid Bahonar Square in the town of Gorgan for the crime of sodomy (lavat). HRW said "other reports show extensive police surveillance as well as torture of men suspected of homosexual conduct." "Human Rights Watch has communicated with and interviewed a number of [GLBT] Iranians, both inside and outside Iran," the group said. "Their accounts largely confirm the picture of a society where the social stigma, and attendant violence, attached to homosexual conduct is high - and where police and authorities repeatedly target and persecute suspected homosexuals in the name of social cleansing." GAYS FORM ORGANIZATION IN HANOI A Gay organization was formed in Hanoi, Vietnam, in late February, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported. Hai Dang (Light House) is funded by Family Health International and operates within the city's HIV and STD center. It has 25 members, the report said. For more information, call (011) 84-4-736-6653.