1000s MARCH IN BRUSSELS
Thousands of gays and lesbians marched through central Brussels, Belgium, May 23 as the European gay-pride season got underway.
This year's parade was the biggest yet and it traveled down major streets instead of smaller streets, thanks to the work of city councilor Bruno De Lille whose campaign promises included beefing up the city's gay-pride festivities.
TEACHERS FROM ANTI-GAY COLLEGE WIN RIGHTS
Canada's Supreme Court ruled May 17 that the British Columbia College of Teachers ( BCCT ) was wrong to withhold teaching certification from graduates of the fundamentalist Christian Trinity Western University ( TWU ) .
The BCCT had determined that graduates of the school were unfit to teach because Trinity indoctrinates its students to be anti-gay.
But the court said there is no evidence TWU alumni actually discriminate against gays and lesbians once they begin teaching.
"In considering the religious precepts of TWU instead of the actual impact of these beliefs on the school environment, the College of Teachers acted on the basis of irrelevant considerations," the court said.
It added: "The freedom to hold beliefs is broader than the freedom to act on them. Absent concrete evidence that training teachers at TWU fosters discrimination in the public schools of British Columbia, the freedom of individuals to adhere to certain religious beliefs while at TWU should be respected."
BISHOP
ACCUSER JAILED
A hairdresser who testified that he had a gay sexual relationship with Limassol, Cyprus, Orthodox Bishop Athanassios was jailed for two years and eight months May 16 for defamation.
Christos Stangos, 33, was a key player in a drawn-out drama in which Athanassios was accused of being gay as part of an alleged plot by other bishops to keep him from becoming the church's national leader.
A Major Synod...only the second one in Cyprus' history...determined last year that Athanassios was not in fact a practicing homosexual.
QUEEN VISITS
L.A. GAY CENTER
Her Royal Highness Queen LaMagwaza of Swaziland and the nation's health minister visited the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center May 16 to learn about the agency's extensive HIV prevention, testing and treatment programs.
As a result of the visit, the center hopes to facilitate training of Swazi doctors at the University of Southern California's AIDS Treatment Center.
"Working together here, we are already making a bridge from America to Africa," Queen LaMagwaza told the Los Angeles Times. "It gives us strength to know there are people interested in helping us."
One third of Swaziland's population is believed to be HIV-positive and average life expectancy is expected to drop to age 30 by the year 2010. The nation has a particularly grave problem in the area of mother-to-child transmission, officials say.
REPORT: UNIVERSITY HARASSES GAYS
Guards at Universidad de Antioquia, a public university in Medellin, Colombia, are harassing students and visitors who appear to be gay, reports the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
"Those who are known or perceived to be gay are repeatedly stopped by university personnel," the group said. "They are singled out from other entrants by being asked to show their student ID in order to be allowed to remain inside the campus. Visitors are immediately forced out, in a humiliating way: they are escorted to the door by an employee, as if they had committed a crime."
In addition, posters have appeared around campus disparaging the president of the University Gay Community organization, IGLHRC said.
IGLHRC asks activists to e-mail protest letters to Rector Dr. Jaime Restrepo Cuartas at rectoria @quimbaya.udea.edu .co with carbon copies to secretar@quimbaya. udea.edu .co and to amigoscomunes@ hotmail.com, the city's gay organization.
ISRAELI GAYS PROTEST AT KNESSET
A May 21 discussion in Israel's parliament on legalizing non-religious marriages was interrupted by gay activists protesting the exclusion of same-sex marriages from the "Freedom to Marry" campaign.
The parliamentary discussion was initiated by The Coalition for Free Choice in Marriage, a group of prominent Israeli social-change organizations working toward allowing civil marriages in Israel. Israel's gay-rights organizations have been excluded from the coalition because coalition leaders consider it impractical to take on the battle for same-sex marriage.
Lior Mencher, executive director of the Tel Aviv gay group Agudah, and Hagai El-Ad, executive director of Jerusalem's gay center, interrupted the discussion repeatedly until they were granted time to formally address the Knesset.
Afterward, several members of parliament expressed their support for gay marriage.
Only religious marriage ceremonies are recognized by the Israeli state; civil marriages are not available to heterosexuals either.
SAUDI MEN
BEHEADED
Seven Saudi men had their heads chopped off in the Red Sea city of al-Kunfudah May 18 for gang-raping a man, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The executions took place in public. The men were decapitated with a sword. Saudi Arabia imposes capital punishment for murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery, the Sun-Times said.
