SWISS
PARLIAMENT FAVORS PARTNER LAW
Switzerland's Council of States (Senate) and National Council (House of Representatives) have voted, in principle, for a same-sex partnership-registration measure that would extend some marriage rights to gay couples, Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported June 3.
The legislation next returns to the National Council to resolve minor differences between the two bodies' versions of the bill.
The proposed law would extend spousal rights in areas such as kinship, inheritance, pensions, taxes and health insurance but not in the areas of adoption, fertility treatment or a common surname, the report said.
CANADIAN
ANGLICANS
AFFIRM GAY UNIONS
The leaders of Canada's Anglican church, meeting June 3 in Ontario, affirmed 'the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships' but delayed voting on a proposal to bless gay unions.
Liberal Archbishop Andrew Hutchison of Montreal, who was elected the new head of the Canadian church, said postponing the vote on blessings until 2007 could prevent 'a major schism in the life of the church.'
Full same-sex marriage is allowed in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
AMNESTY
TARGETS JAMAICA
Amnesty International launched an urgent campaign June 1 asking people to write Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson insisting he protect gays from violence and legalize gay sex.
'Amnesty International has received many reports of vigilante action against gay people ... and of ill-treatment or torture by the police,' the group said. 'Gay men and women have been beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot on account of their sexuality. Once a person's homosexuality becomes known to family or community, they are frequently at risk.'
The organization quoted a Jamaican man who witnessed an antigay attack. 'The crowd stood around watching, chanting 'Battyman, battyman, battyman,'' he said. 'They beat, punched and kicked him, and then they dragged him down the road for half a kilometer. They shouted, 'Battyman fi dead.' As I stood across the street I realized there was nothing I could do to help him. Some mothers were actually in tears at what they were witnessing but there was nothing that they could do either. The crowd was saying: 'Give him to us! Let us kill him! He's a battyman!''
Lesbians are also at risk, Amnesty said. '[We have] received reports of acts of violence against lesbians, including rape and other forms of sexual violence,' the group said. 'There are reports of lesbians being singled out for attack on the grounds of 'mannish' physical appearance or other visible manifestations of sexuality.'
Amnesty also is concerned that Jamaican musicians actively promote antigay hatred. 'In January 2004,' the group said, 'around 30,000 people attended a huge stage show and Rastafarian celebration, Rebel Salute, in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. Throughout the night, Capleton, Sizzla and other groups sang almost exclusively about gay men, urging the audience to 'Kill dem, battybwoys haffi dead, gun shots pon dem—who want to see dem dead put up his hand' ('Kill them, gay men have got to die, gun shots in their head— whoever wants to see them dead, put up your hand').'
Elephant Man, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, TOK and Capleton are among the stars who have written lyrics variously urging the shooting, burning, rape, stoning and drowning of gay men. Gay sex ('the abominable crime of buggery') is punishable by up to 10 years in prison at hard labor under Article 76 of the Jamaican Offenses against the Person Act. Article 79 of the same act punishes any act of physical intimacy between men in public or private with up to two years in prison.
To participate in Amnesty's action, visit takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp.
HIV RISKS
INCREASE IN LONDON
A higher percentage of gay men are barebacking in London than was the case in 1996, and up to a third of them are HIV-positive and don't know it, the Independent reported June 1.
Those are the results of a study of (and saliva samples from) men who frequent gay bars, clubs and saunas. The research was conducted by the Royal Free and University College Medical School, and the Central Public Health Laboratory, and was written up in the June 1 issue of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
More than 8,000 men were questioned and 1,206 were tested anonymously for HIV via a saliva test. Forty-two percent admitted to engaging in unsafe sex, compared with 30 percent in 1996. One hundred thirty-two of the men who gave saliva samples were HIV-positive. Forty-three of them were unaware of their infection. HIV cases increased about 20 percent in England and Wales in 2003 compared with 2002.
FRENCH P.M.:
GAY MARRIAGE
NOT ALLOWED
Same-sex marriage is not allowed in France, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said June 2. Raffarin was responding to a pledge by Noël Mamére, mayor of the Bordeaux suburb of Bégles, to perform the marriage of a gay male couple this month.
'The Civil Code does not allow or authorize the marriage of two people of the same sex,' Raffarin told the National Assembly. 'So if such an event were to take place, one could not speak of marriage. ... This would be an illegal event, null and void under the law. ... Any elected official who does not respect the law in this respect, who does not respect the Civil Code, lays himself or herself open to the punishments provided for by the law.'
French gays have had access to civil unions, called Civil Solidarity Pacts, since 1999, but the pacts do not carry all the rights of matrimony. Full marriage is available to same-sex couples only in the Netherlands; Belgium; the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; and the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Canada has no residency requirement for marriage.
CRUISE SHIP
WELCOMED IN
THE BAHAMAS
Problems that were expected when Carnival Cruise Lines' 'Gay Days Cruise' ship arrived in the Bahamas June 1 did not materialize, The Nassau Guardian reported.
'In fact, the only activists anywhere near the Festival Place welcome centre were members of the Rainbow Alliance, who, along with allies, set up a welcoming committee,' the newspaper reported.
Earlier reports suggested the ship's arrival would be protested by members of the Bahamas Christian Council and other church organizations, as was the case when three gay/lesbian cruises visited in 1998.
