Aussie officials told to detail homosexual experiences
Some 300 ministerial staffers in need of security clearances in the government of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have been told to fill out a 25-page form detailing their sexual partners, extramarital affairs, homosexual experiences, personal finances and drug use.
The questions allegedly are designed to ferret out individuals who might be vulnerable to blackmail.
Government officials also plan to interview friends of the staffers to attempt to confirm the accuracy of the self-reported information.
Special Minister of State John Faulkner told The Sunday Telegraph: 'I'm ensuring the government makes the obtaining of these security clearances a high priority, given the nature of the work and the sensitivity and classification of material that is handled. ... The higher level of clearance is more intrusive.'
Ministers' chiefs of staff and media advisers are among those who have been told they need clearance.
Israeli bashers sent to prison
Four Jerusalem gay-bashers were sent to prison for two to eight years March 6 by the Tel Aviv District Court, Ynetnews reported.
Typically, the bashers used a decoy cruiser to pick up men seeking sex with men at Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Once in the victim's car, the decoy would direct him to another location where the other bashers joined in beating, stripping and robbing the victim.
Two other men have been indicted for nearly identical crimes at Jerusalem's central bus station. In one case, one of the bashers bit off a portion of one victim's ear, Ynet said.
Spanish gay-marriage PM wins re-election
Spanish voters re-elected Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on March 9, apparently unperturbed that he made Spain one of only six nations that grant gay couples access to full marriage.
Zapatero's Socialist party took 43.7 percent of the vote, besting the conservative Popular Party, which grabbed 40.1 percent.
Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and the U.S. state of Massachusetts also have opened up ordinary marriage to same-sex couples.
Swedish government
to sell dildos
Sweden's government-run Apoteket pharmacy chain will begin selling dildos because customers want them, the Stockholm English-language publication The Local reported March 6.
'We are aware that sex is a very important part of everyone's life. It is important to help people in this area, and there is a certain demand for the products,' spokeswoman Elisabet Linge Bergman told the newspaper.
In a survey conducted last year by Apoteket and the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, customers chose dildos and massage oils as the top items they'd like to see added to the chain's stock.
The dildos, oils and possibly other sex toys will become available in 50 of the chain's stores starting in May, for a one-year trial period, The Local said.
More Egyptian men
arrested in HIV crackdown
Four more men have been arrested in Cairo on suspicion of being HIV-positive, bringing the number of detainees to 12, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said Feb. 15.
Four of the first eight arrestees have been convicted of 'habitual practice of debauchery' and imprisoned for one year.
The other eight remain in custody pending filing of charges. All 12 were force-tested for HIV and those reported to be positive are kept handcuffed to hospital beds for 23 hours a day.
'In their misguided attempt to apply Egypt's unjust law on homosexual conduct, authorities are carrying on a crackdown against people living with HIV/AIDS,' said Rebecca Schleifer of HRW's HIV program.
'This not only violates the most basic rights of people living with HIV. It also threatens public health by making it dangerous for anyone to seek information about HIV prevention or treatment.'
Moscow Pride organizers
again appeal to Euro court
Moscow Pride organizers have filed suit in the European Court of Human Rights over Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's ban of last year's aborted gay pride parade.
A similar suit over Luzhkov's ban on the first attempted parade in 2006 is already pending before the court.
Pride organizers say the bans violate Russia's Constitution and several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. They seek $1.5 million in compensation.
'It is not possible to calculate all the sufferings created by the Moscow and Russian authorities when they banned Pride,' said chief organizer Nikolai Alekseev. 'That is the reason for such a heavy compensation which we are claiming.'
A third attempt at a pride parade is planned for May 31.
Luzhkov has called gay pride parades 'satanic' and said he never will allow one to take place.
Activists did not attempt to defy the ban last year. Instead, they gathered near City Hall on pride day to protest the ban. A mêlée ensued and several gays and lesbians were beaten and bloodied by Christian and ultra-nationalist protesters while hundreds of police officers stood by and watched.
Thirty-one people were detained, including members of European parliaments who had traveled to Moscow to support the pride events.
The 2006 pride activities met the same fate. After Luzhkov banned the parade, organizers instead tried to lay flowers at the Kremlin's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and hold a rally near City Hall. Participants in both small events were violently attacked by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police, and the pride organizers were arrested. The charges were later dropped.
N. Ireland sports minister:
Gay sports teams
are exclusionary
The Northern Ireland government's sports minister, Edwin Poots, said Feb. 19 that he doesn't understand why gays need their own sports teams.
Discussing Belfast's Ulster Titans, a gay rugby team, Poots said: 'I just cannot fathom why people see the necessity to develop an apartheid in sport.
'It would be unacceptable to produce an all-black rugby team or an all-white team or an all-Chinese team. To me, it's equally unacceptable to produce an all-homosexual rugby team, and I find it remarkable that people who talk so much about inclusivity and about having an equal role in society would then go down the route of exclusion.'
A spokesman for the team, Declan Lavery, said the Titans do not discriminate based on sexual orientation and, in fact, have some straight players.
'Yes, it was primarily something established as a vehicle for gay people but that doesn't mean somebody who isn't gay can't join; everyone is welcome,' Lavery said.
Euro Commission
warns Netherlands
on discrimination
The European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has told the Netherlands to fix laws that permit anti-gay churches and religious schools to discriminate against gay people in hiring, local media reported Feb. 4.
Vladimír Spidla said the European Commission could haul the country before the European Court of Justice if it doesn't beef up gay protections within two months' time.
European Union law bans employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation, disability, age, race and religion.
The European Commission is the executive branch of the 27-nation European Union.
Several other nations also received warnings about their implementation of various aspects of the EU's Employment Equality Directive, which was supposed to be fully implemented by the end of 2003.
Eight men jailed in Egypt
on homosexuality charges
Human Rights Watch on Feb. 5 highlighted the cases of eight men incarcerated in Cairo, Egypt, following homosexuality-related arrests or convictions.
Two men were arrested last October while having an argument on the street, after one of them told police officers he was HIV-positive. They were handcuffed to a desk for four days in the office of the Morality Police, were later subjected to anal probes and forced HIV testing, reportedly tested positive, and remain in custody in a hospital handcuffed to beds 23 hours a day.
Two other men were arrested because their phone numbers or photographs were in the possession of the first two men. They also were force-tested for HIV and remain in custody pending possible filing of charges.
Four additional men were arrested in November after they secured a lease and moved into the apartment of one of the first four men. They were tortured in custody; deprived of food, drink and blankets; and force-tested for HIV. In January, the four were convicted of 'habitual practice of debauchery' and sentenced to one year in prison. On Feb. 2, the convictions were upheld on appeal.
One of the men was told he is HIV-positive and is incarcerated in a hospital chained to a bed 23 hours a day.
'These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished,' said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's LGBT Rights Program. 'HIV tests forcibly taken without consent, ill treatment in detention, trials driven by prejudice, and convictions without evidence all violate international law.'
HRW has urged authorities to drop all charges, stop chaining detainees to hospital beds, and make sure the eight men receive good medical care for any serious health conditions.
Mayors won't sign
ILGA-Europe appeal
The mayors of Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia, have declined to sign a pledge from the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association in support of the rights of GLBT people to freedom of assembly and expression.
Nineteen European mayors have signed the document—from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Ljubljana, London, Luxembourg, Manchester, Nicosia, Paris, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Winterthur and Zurich.
In his written refusal, Riga Mayor Janis Birks said: 'The Riga City Council truly supports your initiative, greatly appreciates the actions of the campaign and all the possible positive effects generated by the project [ but ] the decision on the appeal should rather remain an individual competence of each city.'
Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar submitted the pledge to a City Council committee, which advised him that his signature was unnecessary because minorities are not mistreated in the city.
There has been no response yet from several cities.
Police reportedly
close Beijing
gay bathhouses
Beijing police raided and closed two gay bathhouses on March 20 and 21, according to a report circulated on Asian gay mailing lists by AIDS activists in China and Malaysia.
The March 26 report said the city's most popular gay bathhouse, Club Oasis, was raided March 20, and 70 patrons and employees were taken into custody. It said the patrons were released 30 hours later but the staff remained jailed.
The report said another Oasis bathhouse near Dongsishitiao Bridge was raided March 21 and the staff, but not the customers, were taken into custody.
The report, which carried the byline of well-known Chinese AIDS activist Wan Yanhai, said a third bathhouse reportedly had met a similar fate at the same time, but provided no details.
The report also included a list of other recent alleged police actions against gay men, including a bar raid and temporary closure, raids of cruisy parks, and arrests of sex workers tracked down via their Web postings.
Netherlands plans
legalization of
park sex
It will no longer be illegal to have sex in Amsterdam's Vondel Park under regulations set to take effect later this year, De Telegraaf reported March 7.
'Why should we try to maintain something that is actually impossible to maintain, which also causes little bother for others and, for a certain group, actually signifies much pleasure?' asked Oud-Zuid district Alderman Paul van Grieken.
People having sex in the park will be expected to do so only after dark and out of public view. They also must not leave condoms lying about.
Meanwhile, the police institute's National Diversity Expertise Center is advising other cities to follow Amsterdam's lead. It said legalizing park sex would help protect gay men from queer-bashers.
The Amsterdam branch of the Dutch national gay group COC ( now known only by its formal initials ) welcomed the news.
'Cruising is something belonging to all times and banning it does not work anyway,' said chairman Dennis Boutkan. 'They do it surreptitiously and mostly without others being annoyed by it. [ B ] y agreeing on rules of behavior, safety can be increased.'
Israel grants gay
Palestinian residency
to live with partner
Israel has granted residency to a 33-year-old gay Palestinian to live with his Israeli partner in Tel Aviv because the Palestinian had received anti-gay death threats while living in the West Bank.
The move was unprecedented, and even straight couples rarely receive such permission.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces' coordinator of government activities in the territories said an exception was made because the man's life was apparently in danger.
The man will be required to renew the IDF-issued residence permit monthly until the Interior Ministry rules on his five-year-old application for a more permanent status.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
