UK partnership law may have undesirable consequences
Activists are concerned that the United Kingdom's Civil Partnership Act, which takes effect in December, will negatively affect same-sex roommates and unregistered same-sex couples.
'All cohabiting same-sex couples will experience a reduction in state benefits as a side effect of the new Civil Partnership Act,' said the gay-rights group OutRage! 'Even couples who don't want a civil partnership and have not registered their relationship will face cuts. In addition, same-sex friends or ex-lovers who live together will have to prove that they are not in a relationship—otherwise they, too, will lose out financially.'
The group said it fears that 'the pensions and benefits agencies will assume that all cohabitees are partners and cut their benefits accordingly.'
Two people living together and receiving individual government pensions would see their benefits drop by about a third if they were recategorized as a couple, OutRage! said.
The group has written to the work and pensions secretary urging the government to offer transitional protection to existing gay and lesbian state-benefit claimants.
Same-sex couples will be able to register their relationships starting Dec. 21. The act takes effect Dec. 5 but requires couples to give advance notice of their intention to tie the knot.
Registered partners will receive all the rights and obligations of marriage. Couples who have entered a legal same-sex union overseas will not need to re-register in the U.K. to be recognized. There will be a formal, court-based process for dissolution of a civil partnership.
N.Z. gays not
rushing to altar
Only 205 civil unions have taken place in the six months since New Zealand began offering them, local media reported.
And some of the unions were between opposite-sex partners.
There were more than 5,000 heterosexual weddings during the same period. New Zealand has a population of 4.1 million.
Provisional figures indicate that slightly more gay men than lesbians are tying the knot, the reports said. The details were not available on the Statistics New Zealand Web site at press time.
Gay activists think there will be more civil-union ceremonies as summer weather arrives in the Southern Hemisphere.
Brits to crack down
on homophobic
soccer fans
Britain's Football Association has announced a crackdown on soccer fans who hurl antigay taunts at players, referees and each other, The Observer reported Oct. 30.
The paper said such fans will be 'identified and prosecuted.'
'There is a problem with homophobic abuse in the game directed at not just players but also referees and also opposing fans,' said Lucy Faulkner, the association's ethics and sports equity manager. 'Such behavior is offensive and runs totally counter to both the game's family image and efforts to make football [ soccer ] more acceptable to all sectors of society.'
Fans who observe antigay behavior are encouraged to call the association's toll-free hotline for reporting racist incidents.
The association also recently staged a 'homophobia summit' which was attended by a wide variety of people associated with the sport, the newspaper said.
Swedish Social Democrats call for same-sex marriage
Sweden's ruling Social Democrats have expressed support for opening marriage to same-sex couples, Radio Sweden reported Oct. 31.
The idea was put forth by Health and Elderly Care Minister Ylva Johansson and approved by a vote of delegates at the party's annual convention.
Since 1995, Swedish gays and lesbians have had access to registered partnerships that grant nearly every right and obligation of marriage.
Israeli couple demand recognition of marriage
A gay couple who married in Canada filed a petition with Israel's High Court of Justice demanding that the Population Registry recognize their marriage, the Haaretz newspaper reported Nov. 1.
Attorney Jonathan Herland, a 29-year-old Canadian, and Ayal Wallrauch, a 26-year-old Israeli, have lived together in Israel for two years. They got married in July in Toronto.
'By refusing to register the petitioners as a married couple, the Population Registry deviates from its authority, behaving with unlawful discrimination against the petitioners and same-sex couples in general,' the couple wrote in their petition.
Canada is one of four nations where same-sex couples can marry.
U.N. official blasts So. Africa's AIDS efforts
The United Nations' special envoy to Africa on HIV/AIDS, Stephen Lewis, says South Africa still isn't getting anti-HIV drugs to enough of its citizens, Johannesburg's Business Day reported Oct. 26.
'I have great respect for SA's increase in funding, but what I have taken exception to is the slow rollout of treatment—the situation is too dire ... to be proceeding so slowly,' Lewis said.
'The ambiguity and hesitation ... expressed by [ Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang ] and others about the appropriateness of antiretrovirals, the possibility of looking for alternatives, and giving a platform to professional denialists [ who claim HIV doesn't cause AIDS ] has cast a pall over the energy that would otherwise be released.'
About 837,000 of South Africa's 6.3 million HIV-positive citizens need to be on antiretrovirals right now, Lewis said, but only 78,000 are getting them from the government. Another 60,000 people are thought to be accessing treatment via private health care.
South Africa has a population of 47 million.
Singapore bans gay Web site, fines another
Singapore's Media Development Authority banned one gay Web site and fined another one, local media reported Oct. 28.
The banned site, fluffboy.com, is hosted outside of Singapore but offers substantial Singaporean content. The authority said the site recruits underage boys for sex, promotes homosexual promiscuity and contains nude photos.
The local site sgboy.com was fined $5,000 ( US$2,950 ) for displaying 'offensive content,' and ordered to remove it.
The authority said both sites were in violation of the nation's Internet Code of Practice, which prohibits depictions of 'nudity or genitalia in a manner calculated to titillate' as well as promotion of homosexuality or pedophilia.
Singapore has a list of 100 banned Web sites—98 of which offer porn and two of which promote religious extremism, the reports said.
