ILGA conference
canceled
The International Lesbian and Gay Association has canceled its 24th World Conference which was to take place in Quebec City, Canada, May 14 to 18.
' [ A recent site visit ] confirmed the impressions of the current lack of preparedness at this late date and the lack of funding necessary for the conference to take place,' ILGA's board co-chairs said in a statement.
The primary local organizer was the Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Québec.
ILGA did not reschedule the conference but did put out 'a formal call for new proposals from ILGA member organizations for hosting the world conference later this year.' It gave interested parties less than a month to submit proposals.
The board said any local organizer must take on partial responsibility for paying for the gathering.
'ILGA does not have the capacity to fully fund the conference,' the co-chairs said. 'The local hosts have in the past fundraised for resources, especially to bring scholars from the Global South.'
ILGA is a 30-year-old federation of more than 600 GLBT organizations and associated members, such as city governments, from 90 countries.
British gays fight
blood ban
A new British group called Bloodban is seeking to overturn the nation's ban on blood donation by non-celibate gay men, the BBC reported March 7.
Organizers are circulating a petition that they plan to deliver to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The National Blood Service believes gay men are too high-risk because of the short gap between one's getting infected with HIV and when the virus can be detected by a blood test.
Bloodban says people should be excluded based on their lifestyle, not because of their membership in a particular social group.
The activists propose that gay men be banned as donors only if they have had unprotected sex in the past 18 months.
Gay Jamaican cop
seeks asylum in Canada
A Jamaican police officer who recently came out publicly now feels his life is in danger and is hoping to emigrate to Canada, the Toronto Star reported Feb. 25.
Jamaican Constabulary Force officer Michael Hayden, 24, faced abuse and attacks from homophobic fellow officers even before formally coming out in The Jamaica Star newspaper.
But now he says he's received death threats and has gone into hiding.
'I want to stay here and fight,' he told the Star. 'But it's not safe for me. My life is in great, great jeopardy.'
A spokesman for the force declined comment.
Gay men are routinely attacked and beaten by anti-gay mobs in Jamaica, which international activists consider to be among the world's more overtly homophobic nations.
Activists demand release
of men jailed under
Moroccan gay-sex ban
Human Rights Watch and the Moroccan Human Rights Association on Feb. 26 demanded the release of six men jailed under a law that bans gay sex.
The men were arrested in November after a video circulated online showing them at a supposed gay-wedding celebration in the town of Ksar el Kbir, Morocco.
'The prosecution produced no evidence at trial that the defendants had violated Article 489, which provides prison terms for persons who commit 'lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex,'' the human-rights groups said. 'The men all denied the charges.'
An appeals court later upheld the men's prison sentences, which ranged from two to 10 months.
A petition demanding repeal of Article 489 is on HRW's Web site. See tinyurl.com/335oem.
Iranian Nobel laureate
denounces treatment of gays
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi expressed regrets over her nation's treatment of gays in a speech at Madrid's Cultural Center in mid-February, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
'This is the first time she openly addresses the issue of legal persecution of homosexuality in Iran,' said IGLHRC spokesman Hossein Alizadeh. 'The state-run Iranian media are now out to get her, accusing her of promoting immorality.'
IGLHRC has become increasingly vocal in the past year about Iran's ongoing executions of teens and men accused of engaging in sodomy, even though in nearly all the cases that have been publicized the individuals were accused of other crimes as well, such as rape.
The organization has said it suspects that other charges often are tacked on to 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 believes executions solely for gay sex are taking place out of the public eye.
' [ O ] ur suspicions [ are ] that their current practice really is to rid society of lesbians and gay men,' the organization said in July.
African lesbians
in Mozambique
About 75 women attended the Coalition of African Lesbians conference in late February in Maputo, Mozambique.
Spokeswoman Fikile Vilakazi told reporters the group's top goal is decriminalization of homosexuality. Gay sex is banned in 38 African nations.
'You should not be arrested and charged for how you use your own body,' she told the Reuters news agency.
Hate-crime conviction
in Zagreb pride incident
A man who was arrested as he prepared to throw gasoline bombs at marchers in last year's gay pride parade in Zagreb, Croatia, was convicted of attempted assault and a hate crime Feb. 25.
Josip Situm, 25, told the court his Roman Catholic faith drove him to oppose gay parades. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison with mandatory psychiatric treatment. The case marked Croatia's first hate-crime prosecution.
Twelve other anti-gay demonstrators were arrested during the city's sixth pride parade, and several were found to be carrying Molotov cocktails or tear gas.
Around 30 of the 300 marchers were assaulted in numerous incidents after the parade ended. At least 10 sustained minor injuries and two required medical treatment.
The marchers were jeered and spat on by right-wing youths throughout the parade route. A line of police in riot gear marched along on both sides of the parade.
Zagreb Pride called Situm's sentence 'a great turning point for the entire community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer persons and our position in society because it is the first ruling for a crime conditioned by hate based on sexual orientation.'
But Pride's Marko Jurcic also expressed 'deep disappointment with Zagreb's police for failing to file criminal charges for all the other attacks that happened simultaneously with Situm's.'
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
