by Rex Wockner - SGN Contributing Writer

Gay declaration to be presented to UN General Assembly
An unprecedented declaration against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly in mid-December.

The initiative follows a campaign by the International Day Against Homophobia's coordinating committee, which received support from the French government.

All 27 countries of the European Union have signed the declaration, and efforts are ongoing to secure more signatories. The IDAHO committee president, Louis-Georges Tin, said that after the declaration is presented, work will begin to convince the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide.



Norwegian bishop proposes Gay marriage liturgy
The state Church of Norway needs to create a special marriage liturgy for Gay couples, given that they will have access to full marriage starting in January, South Hålogaland Bishop Tor B. Jørgensen told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation on November 13.

"Adopting a new liturgy is now urgent," Jørgensen said, according to the Aftenbladet newspaper. "This is something that applies to many in the church, and for some of us it is starting to be a matter of conscience."

As things stand now, individual ministers will be permitted to say consecration prayers for married Gay couples if they so choose.

Some 82 percent of Norwegians are members of the church, which is Lutheran, but only about 3 percent attend services regularly.



Activists from 81 countries attend ILGA conference
Some 200 delegates from 81 countries and five continents attended the 24th World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association Nov. 3-6 in Vienna.

During the conference, some 200 new LGBT organizations were accepted as members of the association, bringing its total membership to approximately 600 organizations from 111 nations.

The conference passed a resolution condemning the Vatican for its plans to administer psychological tests to seminary applicants to determine if they have "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." Another resolution criticized the Nicaraguan government for alleged persecution of human-rights activists.

A third resolution saluted U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for his "favorable position to the LGBT population."

Austrian Parliament President Barbara Prammer and the city of Vienna hosted separate receptions for the delegates, and the Green Party hosted a dinner.

The next ILGA world conference will be in Rio de Janeiro in 2010. The association's Latin America and Caribbean caucus will hold a regional conference in September 2009 in Curitiba, Brazil.



Sweden to strike six sexual diagnoses from list
Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare will strike six sexual diagnoses from the nation's official list of medical diagnoses on January 1, Stockholm's The Local newspaper reported.

The agency will remove transvestism, fetishism, fetishistic transvestism, sadomasochism, gender-identity disorder in youth and multiple disorders of sexual preferences from the list.

"We don't want to contribute to certain sexual behaviors being thought of as diseases," said board director Lars-Erik Holm. "These diagnoses are rooted in a time when everything other than the heterosexual missionary position was seen as sexual perversions."

Homosexuality was removed from the list 30 years ago.



Dutch police report 150 anti-Gay incidents in six months
A new report on homophobic violence from the Dutch Home Affairs and Justice ministries says police received more than 150 reports of anti-Gay violence in the first half of 2008.

The actual number of such incidents is believed to be much higher because many likely go unreported, said Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst.

It was the first time police made an effort to count instances of anti-Gay violence, which represented 10 percent of all violent discriminatory incidents.

Some 28 percent of the anti-Gay attacks were physical assaults, with the remainder involving verbal abuse, threats, intimidation or vandalism. A high percentage of the incidents took place in Gay-bar districts and other places where Gays congregate.

Nearly all the victims and attackers were male, and the attackers were usually young people.



Euro MPs seek intervention in Iranian asylum case
Thirteen members of the European Parliament urged the European Commission to quickly intervene in a Gay Iranian's asylum case in Cyprus on November 21, the parliament's Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights reported.

"According to reports, the government of Cyprus has rejected an application of an Iranian Gay asylum seeker on the grounds of his sexual orientation," the MEPs wrote to the commission, suggesting that the move likely violated Council of Europe directives because Iran is not "a safe country for Gay Iranian asylum seekers to be returned to."

The MEPs submitted their input as a "priority written question," which forces the European Commission to respond quickly.

In recent years, Iran has executed several teens and men accused of engaging in sodomy but, in the cases that have been publicized, the individuals were accused of other crimes as well, such as rape.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has said it suspects that other charges are tacked onto sodomy cases to prevent the public outrage that would accompany executions carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult Gay sex. The group also has said it believes executions solely for Gay sex are taking place out of the public eye.

Human Rights Watch, however, says it cannot fully document any Iranian executions carried out in recent years solely for the crime of consensual adult Gay sex.



Burundi's parliament votes to ban Gay sex
The parliament of the Central African nation of Burundi voted to specifically criminalize gay sex November 22 as part of a package of more than 600 legal changes that included abolition of the death penalty, news reports said.

According to Amnesty International, male-male sex previously was banned and punished under laws governing "immoral acts."

The vote on the changes was 90 to 0 with 10 abstentions. The measure now moves to the Senate, then to President Pierre Nkurunziza. Neither is expected to oppose it.

The small, landlocked nation has a population of 8.7 million, a life expectancy of less than 52 years, and a per capita gross domestic product at purchasing-power parity of $300. The comparable figure for the U.S. is $45,800. Norway's is $53,300, Mexico's is $12,400 and Vietnam's is $2,600.



With assistance from Bill Kelley