CHINESE PSYCHIATRISTS OK HOMOSEXUALITY
The Chinese Psychiatric Association has removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
Gay people who feel fine with their sexuality do not need psychiatric help, the organization's new policy states.
However, gays who do not want to be gay ( so-called "ego-dystonic homosexuals" ) should be offered therapy to change their feelings if they want it, the group said.
RUSSIANS
UNIMPRESSED WITH HOMOSEXUALITY
Thirty-six percent of Russians consider homosexuality a bad habit or perversion, according to a February poll by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Surveying, Ekho Moskvy reported.
Thirty-one percent say it is a disease, 20 percent say it has the same right to exist as heterosexuality, 12 percent have no opinion, and one percent believe gays have extraordinary talents.
Pollsters questioned 1,600 people in 83 towns and villages in 33 areas of the nation.
ALBERTA PREMIER SUPPORTS GAYS
The premier of the Canadian province of Alberta says he'll continue to fight conservatives on behalf of gays.
"These people are human beings and they have to be treated like human beings," Ralph Klein told the National Post. "That's the kind of attitude I want to foster."
The provincial government recently declined to defend Alberta's Intestate Succession Act from a challenge by a gay man, Brent Johnson. The law, which governs distribution of property after a death when there is no will, does not recognize same-sex partners.
TATCHELL TRIES TO ARREST MUGABE
Veteran British gay activist Peter Tatchell tried three times to make a citizen's arrest of virulently homophobic Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe March 5 inside and outside the Hilton Hotel in Brussels.
Tatchell was punched, kicked and knocked to the ground repeatedly by Mugabe's bodyguards. At one point, he briefly lay unconscious in the gutter after he attempted to block Mugabe's limousine and was beaten a third time.
"One [ bodyguard ] came over and said, 'We will find you and kill you,'" Tatchell said. "Another said, 'You are dead.' I am lucky to escape with a beating. If any Zimbabwean had staged this protest in Harare, they would have been shot."
On March 7, Zimbabwe's official newspaper, The Herald, commented: "Tatchell was so naive that he did not think that such action could cost him his life and should be thankful that the President's security men did not shoot him down like a dog. The severe beating meted out on Tatchell is a good signal that restores national pride and sends a clear message to the world that never again shall we stand by while our president is treated like dirt and reviled like a criminal or military leader."
In various outbursts in recent years, Mugabe has said of gays:
— "We cannot have a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman here. What an abomination, a rottenness of culture, real decadence of culture. Once you impose a foreign culture on us then you naturally evoke the devil in us."
— " [ Homosexuals are ] repugnant to my human conscience ... immoral and repulsive. ... Animals in the jungle are better than these people because at least they know that this is a man or a woman. ... I don't believe they have any rights at all. [ Gay sex is ] an abomination."
— "Unlike pigs and dogs, which know their females and can naturally become intimate with them, gays and lesbians cannot differentiate between males and females."
COLOMBIAN PAPER SAYS MAN TRIED TO INFECT PEOPLE
WITH HIV
The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported March 6 that a deceased Cartagena hairdresser, "Carlos," admitted on his deathbed that he had unprotected sex with over 100 people after he found out he was HIV-positive, in hopes of infecting them with the virus.
Dr. Heraclio Diaz Lopez, head of the District Administrative Health Department's HIV program, told the paper that 47 of Carlos' self-described sexual partners have tested HIV-positive.
"He dedicated himself to infecting others because he was not going [ to die ] alone," Diaz said. "He was taking others with him."
Colombian law punishes persons who knowingly transmit HIV or hepatitis B with three to eight years in prison. Premeditated willful transmission can result in a sentence of up to 40 years.
N.Z. SCHOOLS
UNSAFE FOR GAYS
A survey of 821 students at 107 New Zealand high schools found that one-fifth of those questioned believe the schools are unsafe for gay/bisexual students, the New Zealand Herald reported March 9.
The study by Otago University's Children's Issues Centre found gay students are likely to suffer verbal harassment and/or physical abuse.
Female, Maori and Polynesian students were found to be more accepting of gay classmates.
COSTA RICAN GAY PUBLICATION
CELEBRATES
BIRTHDAY
The Costa Rican gay publication Gayness is celebrating its third birthday March 29 with a new Web site, www.gaynesscr.com, and a party at San Jose's Detour discotheque.
Costa Rica is home to Central America's most developed gay community.
THAIS WIN GAY-FRIENDLY CONTEST
A Time Asia survey on sexual mores in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand found that Thais are the most gay-friendly of the bunch.
Forty-seven percent of Thai men said they have no problems with homosexuality and six percent of Thai women acknowledged they've had same-sex sex.
Only 23 percent of South Koreans said homosexuality is acceptable.
In other findings, thirty-seven percent of Thai men and 34 percent of Thai women said 'yes' when asked if they like to be spanked.
