NAMIBIAN PREZ DECLARES WAR ON GAYS
The president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, told police to arrest, imprison and deport gays March 19.
"The Republic of Namibia does not allow homosexuality, lesbianism here," Nujoma said in a speech to students at the University of Namibia. "Police are ordered to arrest you and deport you and imprison you."
Nujoma previously has said that "those who are practicing homosexuality in Namibia are destroying the nation. Homosexuals must be condemned and rejected in our society."
Minister of Home Affairs Jerry Ekandjo has said, "We must make sure we eliminate them [ gays and lesbians ] from the face of Namibia."
The Namibian Society for Human Rights called Nujoma's latest attack "dangerous and violent."
The gay Rainbow Project said: "Nowhere does our constitution state that gay and lesbian people are not members of the human family and therefore do not enjoy the same rights as all other citizens. We would also like to know whether the president has made arrangements with the prison authorities to accommodate some 10 percent of the population."
It was not immediately clear if police would act on Nujoma's demand.
TRANSGENDER WOMAN ELECTED TO PARIS CITY COUNCIL
In addition to the election of openly gay Mayor Bertrand Delanoe March 18, Paris also elected a transgendered woman to the City Council.
Camille Cabral won the seat for the 17th arrondissement. She is the first known transgendered person elected to public office in France.
"This is historic for the transgender community," Cabral told Gay.com France. "But I don't put my sexual identity first. Above all, I am a citizen."
Delanoe, a 50-year-old Socialist, came out in a 1998 TV interview.
"Yes, I'm a homosexual," he said. "Perhaps I'm underestimating the consequences of the discussion we are having today, but I'm 48 years old. ... I must live with my convictions ... and my career has never been the most important thing to me."
Delanoe campaigned on the slogan "Let's Change Eras." He promised reduced smog, more parks, fewer cars, protected pedestrian zones along the Seine River, less dog poop on the streets, more day-care centers and renewed cultural vitality.
"Today Parisians freely chose change in the capital," he said following his victory. "Tonight hearts are moved among all those who for so long dreamed of putting Paris back on the road of the future, the road of imagination and of hope."
Delanoe works out, enjoys soccer, smokes cigars and likes to stroll in the city.
"With an openly gay mayor [ and ] gays and lesbians dancing to 'I Will Survive' under a rainbow flag in front of City Hall ... some are having a hard time believing their eyes and ears," wrote Gay.com France Editor Olivier Monnot. "Sunday night was a taste of something never seen before."
AUTHOR: COMMONS SPEAKER WAS SECRETLY GAY
A former speaker of Britain's House of Commons, the late George Thomas, was secretly gay, former Labour MP Leo Abse says in a new book entitled Tony Blair: The Man Behind the Smile.
A very popular British political figure, Thomas was speaker from 1976 to 1983. He died in 1997 at age 88.
Abse said Thomas was blackmailed repeatedly by persons threatening to expose his homosexuality and that he, Abse, helped pay off some of the blackmailers.
ISRAELI LESBIAN MOTHERS GAIN RIGHTS
The Israeli High Court of Justice overturned a rabbinical court ruling March 19 that prohibited a lesbian from seeing her children from a previous heterosexual marriage if her female lover was present.
"I feel that I am beginning to live my life freely, the way everyone is supposed to live in this country, without anyone interfering in my private affairs," the unidentified women told the Jerusalem Post following the decision. "The hardest thing was the knowledge that someone can interfere with your most private affairs, especially when you know that you are living a good life and are happy with the choice you made."
PARAGUAYAN GAY CENTER OPENS
The first gay community center in Paraguay opened this month in Asuncion.
The facility was created by the Gay-Lesbian Action Group with funding from Spain's Triangle Foundation. It is at Calle Artigas 306 at the corner of Luis de Salazar, downtown.
"The Gay-Lesbian Action Group plans to move forward with information projects for the general population and Paraguayan gays and lesbians to achieve simple equality for gays and lesbians in society," GLAG said in a press release. "We also will continue recognizing and confronting all cases of discrimination against gays and lesbians."
FINES IN LEBANESE WEB SITE CASE
A case that started when Lebanon's Internal Security Force attempted to find out who owned the web site name www.gaylebanon.com has ended with fines of $219 each for Kamal Batal, director of the human-rights organization Multi-Initiative on Rights: Search, Assist, Defend ( MIRSAD ) , and Ziad Mughraby, owner of the local Internet service provider Destination.
They were convicted of violating Article 157 of the Military Penal Code which bans defamation of the army or the flag.
Batal and Mughraby allegedly tarnished the reputation of the vice squad by distributing a printed flyer. They deny distributing any flyer and believe the document in question was a printout of an e-mail MIRSAD sent its members after police visited Destination and demanded the names of the owners of gaylebanon.com, which, it turned out, was not hosted by Destination or any other Lebanon-based Internet provider.
MAN WHO TRANSMITTED HIV JAILED
An Edinburgh, Scotland, man who infected his girlfriend with HIV while aware of his own HIV status was jailed for five years March 16 for culpable and reckless conduct.
Stephen Kelly, 33, learned he was HIV-positive in 1993 then had unsafe sex with his girlfriend six months later.
"She has suffered several years of serious illness and her life expectancy has been seriously reduced," judge Lord Mackay said in handing down the sentence.
EUROPEAN UNION TAKES ANTI-GAY STAND
The registered partner of a Swedish gay man does not deserve spousal benefits when his partner goes to work for the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels, according to a preliminary ruling in a lawsuit over the matter.
An advocate-general delivered his preliminary opinion to the European Court of Justice last month. The court does not have to follow an advocate-general's conclusions, but, in practice, usually does.
The AG said the term 'spouse' in EU staff regulations does not extend to registered partnerships—even ones such as in Sweden which grant more than 99 percent of the rights and obligations of marriage.
A final ruling is expected in a few months' time.