SPANISH POL COMES OUT
Spanish Member of the European Parliament and Madrid mayoral candidate José María Mendiluce came out as gay in the January issue of the Spanish gay magazine Zero.
A member of the Green Party, Mendiluce, 51, said he had been closeted due to 'cowardice' and to protect his career.
'The gay community can count on me to defend our rights together,' he said.
The mayoral election is in May. Paris and Berlin both have openly gay mayors.
INDIA SEES GAY 'MARRIAGE'
Indian fashion designer Wendel Rodricks tied the knot with his French partner, Jerome, in Goa, India, Dec. 30.
The couple was united by a French government consular official under France's civil-unions law, PlanetOut reported.
Other reports said some of India's biggest celebrities attended the wedding.
JOURNALISTS BAN GAYS
The St. Petersburg, Russia, Union of Journalists refused to let gay activists hold a press conference in the city's House of Journalists Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day.
'I can't stand gays,' said union president Vladimir Ugryumov, editor of the daily newspaper Vecherny Peterburg. 'I don't mind lesbians that much. I don't think the intimate life of certain people has anything to do with human rights, and I don't think sexual questions should be discussed in the public arena.'
Russia legalized gay sex in 1993 but some gay activists say there has been minimal societal movement on gay issues since then.
PRIDE SCOTLAND GOES BROKE
Pride Scotland was put into voluntary liquidation in late December, unable to pay creditors an estimated $96,000, Glasgow's The Herald reported Jan. 3.
The seven-year-old parade and festival alternated between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The 2002 events suffered from infighting, bad weather and a switch from free to paid events, the Herald said. Less than 3,000 tickets were sold.
Gay leaders lamented the news but Neil Baxter, founder of Glasgow's Festival of Love, had a different take.
'Much of the enthusiasm that fuelled the early pride marches and events has inevitably dwindled because the acceptance that everyone was fighting for has substantially been achieved,' he told the newspaper.
Scotland is not the only place with pride problems. New Zealand's big pride parade, the Hero Parade, went under last August, as did Sydney, Australia's famous gay Mardi Gras parade. It was later rescued by other gay organizations. London's gay Mardi Gras festival was reported to be $628,000 in debt last August.
DUTCH LESBIANS REPORTEDLY HAVE CLONE BABY
A Dutch lesbian couple had a clone baby Jan. 3, the Clonaid organization said.
Clonaid head Brigitte Boisselier said the parents want to remain anonymous. She offered no proof for her claims.
'If we assume sexuality is genetic then the baby will be the same sexuality as the parent,' Boisselier told 365Gay.com . 'Perhaps this will prove one way or the other the debate over nurture versus nature.'
Clonaid also has failed to provide proof of its claim that the world's first cloned human was born in December.
That alleged child's parents are wavering on whether to allow DNA testing, Boisselier said, because legal steps taken in Florida, where the birth announcement was made, could lead to the child being taken away from its parents.
Clonaid was founded in the Bahamas in 1997 by Claude Vorilhon who leads a religious sect, the Raelians, that believes interplanetary visitors created life on Earth. The Raelians see cloning as a step toward eternal life.
BRIT HEALTH WORKERS TO BE FORCE TESTED
All new staff of Britain's National Health Service whose jobs involve invasive procedures that might expose a patient to a worker's blood must test negative for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the government said Jan. 2.
Such exposures could occur in, among other areas, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, dentistry and midwifery.
'These new measures, based on expert advice, are designed to improve protection for patients still further by extending existing health checks,' said NHS Deputy Chief Medical Officer Pat Troop.
SWAZILAND HIT HARD BY HIV
Almost four of every 10 adults in the small African nation of Swaziland are HIV-positive, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said Jan. 2.
The rate is similar to that of Botswana, which has been pegged as having the world's highest HIV rate—38.8 percent of adults.
Swaziland, population about one million, is a mountain kingdom situated between South Africa and Mozambique.
SWISS REGION NIXES PARTNER LAW
The Swiss canton (region) of Valais rejected the national government's gay-partnership proposal Dec. 6.
'The local government ... has made a social decision to support the family, not the 'Civil Solidarity Pact',' canton spokesman Jean-Rene Fournier told local reporters.
The vote was 64 to 51 with five abstentions.
The Federal Council, the cabinet, unveiled the legislation Nov. 29.
'The recognition by the state of the partnership between persons of the same sex will contribute to ending discrimination, which hits homosexual couples particularly hard, and to lessening prejudice against homosexuality,' the government said in a press release.
'The picture of same-sex couples hugging and kissing on the street should become normal,' Justice Minister Ruth Metzler told reporters.
Same-sex partners would register at the Civil State office, where they would commit to living together and to mutual respect, assistance and economic life. A non-Swiss partner would be granted residency.
Registrees would acquire marriage rights in the areas of inheritance, social security and divorce. Adoption and assisted-procreation rights are not included.
Gay groups welcomed the measure but denounced the adoption and pregnancy restrictions, and the fact that same-sex couples are not simply being granted access to regular marriage.
MCKELLEN E-MAILS
Fans who visit British gay actor Ian McKellen's Web site (www.mckellen.com) and send him an e-mail likely will receive a personal response, Toronto's The Star reported.
'His ... Web site invites fans to really get to know him, by perusing his stage and screen work of the past five decades and by communicating directly with him via e-mail—which he actually answers,' The Star said.
