CITY CHOOSES GAY CARNIVAL ROYALTY
ISRAEL ACCEPTS FOREIGN PARTNERS
MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER DISPARAGES GAYS
GAY INDIANS UPSET PARENTS
CANADIAN DOCTORS FACE HOMOPHOBIA
GROUP CAMPAIGNS FOR CRUISING SEX
FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION TARGETS HOMOPHOBIA
CITY CHOOSES GAY CARNIVAL ROYALTY
The East German city of Wittenberg, pop. 55,000, chose a gay— male couple as its Carnival royalty this year.
The city is famous as the place where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses to the Catholic cathedral door.
The couple, Michael I and Thomas I ( Michael Fonfara and Thomas Walter ) have lived together in the city for several years operating a company called Image Design.
According to national television reports, which have shown the couple kissing and strolling through Wittenberg's cobble— stone streets in their elaborate Karneval costumes, no one has objected to this year's king and queen being two kings.
In fact, Mayor Eckhard Naumann bragged to reporters that even sophisticated Cologne—Germany's Karneval capital—has yet to crown a gay couple.
MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER DISPARAGES GAYS
Israel this month granted permanent residency to the foreign lovers of two gay citizens.
"We agreed to their requests and they will now be considered as permanent residents," said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellinson.
The foreign partners will have all privileges of Israeli citizenship except the right to vote and have an Israeli passport. The process of obtaining full citizenship for a foreign spouse takes about five years.
The cases were championed by Member of the Knesset Yossi Paritzky who told the local Ha'aretz newspaper: "I advised the first couple who turned to me to get married because marriage is status. If the marriage was recognized in one country, another country cannot refuse to recognize it, and the Ministry of the Interior is then obligated to register their marriage. In the case of [ Israeli citizen ] Shuki [ Yatir ] and [ Belgian ] Paul [ Vanwinsberga ] , I suggested they go a step beyond. The country recognizes the status of common law spouse, even of the same sex, and thus there's no reason not to demand in the name of this status citizenship as well. I think that an important step for human rights has been taken."
MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER DISPARAGES GAYS
In his monthly newspaper column published in Tokyo's Mainichi Daily News, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he tolerates foreign cultures up to a point but not if they accept homosexuality.
In the Feb. 15 edition of "Dr. Mahathir's World Analysis" column, the premier wrote: "I had lunch with [ French President Jacques Chirac ] for about two hours. For Malaysians, we respect French culture and have no objection to them drinking wine or liquor during meals with us. ... They respect us by not serving pork but we respect that in their culture they have wine with their meals. We don't go around saying, 'Your way is wrong. Our way is right!'
"But there is a limit," Mahathir said. "For example, in Western culture they accept homosexuality, including promoting homosexual practices among school children. We cannot accept this. We admit that some people are born with their sexuality mixed up. That is not their fault. But to promote homosexual practices actively as is being done in some European countries is to purposely promote abnormality."
GAY INDIANS UPSET PARENTS
P> Gays are coming out of the shadows in India, the Kyodo News Service reported Feb. 5.
Authorities are registering one new gay activist group about every six months and the eight— year— old New Delhi gay film festival was opened to the public for the first time this year.
"An increasing number of middle— class Indian gays are 'coming out of the closet,' much to the disapproval and consternation of their families," Kyodo said.
The agency credited the growth of gay life, in part, to satellite television and the Internet.
CANADIAN DOCTORS FACE HOMOPHOBIA
The Canadian Medical Association ( CMA ) is urging medical schools to develop anti— homophobia programs in the wake of a McMaster University /CMA study which found gay physicians— in— training are afraid to come out of the closet.
The researchers also urged schools to hire faculty to be role models for gay students and to set up gay support groups.
The study appears in the current Canadian Medical Association Journal.
GROUP CAMPAIGNS FOR CRUISING SEX
In a submission to Britain's Home Office, the highly visible gay activist group OutRage! has called for legalization of gay sex in cruising locations and for reform of other anti— sex laws, British newspapers reported last week.
"We do not believe that consensual actions between adults, no matter how bizarre they might appear to the majority, are any concern of the law, or its agents," the group wrote. "Thus we seek to legitimise consenting actions in bath— houses and saunas, 'backrooms' in pubs, and all group sex in private, including sadomasochistic games."
OutRage! continued: "We would also like to extend the concept of private to include public lavatory cubicles and after— dark 'cruising' areas. ... Since recreational sex is a natural activity and popular pursuit, all laws which seek to control it should be abolished. ... The whole basis of the current homosexual control laws is moralistic and based on a largely medieval concept of Christianity which we believe has no place in a pluralistic democratic society. Terms such as immoral, indecent, unnatural, sodomy and buggery have no place in a modern legal code."
The Home Office is in the midst of a review of sex— related laws.
FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION TARGETS HOMOPHOBIA
Britain's Football Association and the gay lobbying group Stonewall are working together to reduce homophobia in the sport, the London Times reported Feb. 14.
Among the first steps will be placing anti— homophobia ads in game— day programs and putting questions about homosexuality in the association's annual survey of supporters.
"The issue of homophobia is not being properly addressed," said Football Association Executive Director David Davies.
