Mexico City civil-union law comes into force
Mexico City's civil-union law took effect March 16 and journalist Antonio Medina and banker Jorge Cerpa were among the first to tie the knot.
The ceremony took place in the plaza outside the offices of the Iztapalapa delegation, one of the city's 16 local governments. Medina, 38, and Cerpa, 31, kissed as a band played.
'A history of exclusion comes to an end,' Medina told reporters. 'Love between people of the same sex will now have legal recognition.'
Cerpa told La Jornada, for which Medina works, that the couple met 4 1/2 years ago while 'bar cruising.'
Mexico City's Legislative Assembly passed the partnership law last November. It allows gay and straight couples—as well as two friends, roommates or extended family members—to register their relationship and receive spousal rights in areas such as inheritance, pensions, property, co-parenting and medical decisions.
Couples must present identification, proof of residence, birth certificates and witnesses; pay a fee of about $3.90; then return in 10 business days, with the witnesses, for the ceremony. During the interim, the city's Justice Department confirms that both partners are unmarried and not already in a civil union.
Iztapalapa and some other boroughs allowed some couples to apply before the law officially took effect in order to hold ceremonies the first day.
Gay people also have access to civil unions in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. Elsewhere in Latin America, there are gay-inclusive civil-union laws in the city of Buenos Aires, in one Argentine province and in one Brazilian state.
Polish official: Out teachers will be fired, prosecuted
Teachers who come out at work or otherwise promote homosexuality 'or other sexual deviance' will be fired and fined or jailed under legislation prepared by Poland's government, Deputy Minister of Education Miroslaw Orzechowski said March 15.
'These kinds of people cannot work with children,' Orzechowski told Tok-FM radio. 'These activities need to be acted upon when there is still a chance, before it's too late to make a difference.'
The measure also targets principals, who would be fired if they allow members of gay organizations to speak to students, the Polish Press Agency said.
According to the German news service Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the legislation is the handiwork of Roman Giertych, who serves as both minister of education and deputy prime minister.
At a recent meeting in Germany, Giertych told fellow European education ministers that 'abortion must be banned immediately' and 'homosexual propaganda must also be limited so children will have the correct view of the family.'
'The propaganda of homosexuality is reaching ever younger children,' he said. 'If we will not use all our power to strengthen the family, then as a continent there is no future for us. We will be a continent settled by representatives of the Islamic world who care for the family.'
Homophobia seems to be the norm all the way to the top of Poland's present government.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has called gays 'perverse' and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, shocked attendees at a recent National Forum On Europe meeting in Ireland when he warned that if homosexuality 'were to be promoted on a grand scale, the human race would disappear.'
President Kaczynski banned the gay pride parade in 2004 and 2005 when he was mayor of Warsaw, and said he'd do it again if he were mayor today.
'I don't think it's appropriate that they should promote their sexual orientation,' he said at the Irish meeting.
Turkish gay editor cleared in obscenity case
Umut Güner, editor of Turkey's only gay magazine, KAOS GL, was acquitted Feb. 28 of obscenity charges stemming from the summer 2006 issue.
The issue looked at pornography from a mostly academic perspective via articles by several well-known writers.
A judge said that although the magazine should have been placed in an opaque package, no crime had taken place since the authorities confiscated all copies of the magazine before it was distributed.
Güner faced up to three years in prison if found guilty.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
