BELGIUM PLANS GAY MARRIAGE
Belgium plans to be the second country to let gays get married under the regular marriage laws, Health Minister Magda Alvoet said April 2.
Legislation will be introduced at the end of this month.
"The government considers that the right to marry is a constitutional right and that access to marriage is the only real guarantee that homosexual and heterosexual couples will be treated the same way," Alvoet said.
The Netherlands opened regular marriage to gay people April 1. Amid an international media frenzy, Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen married four same-sex couples at the stroke of midnight in the City Council chambers.
Several nations have registered-partnership laws or common-law marriage statutes that apply to gays. In some cases, up to 99 percent of the rights and obligations of marriage are granted by these laws. Only The Netherlands, however, lets gay people simply get married.
Foreigners can marry in The Netherlands after they have lived there four months.
TORONTO BASHERS TARGET GAYS ONLINE
Gay-bashers in Toronto are using Internet chat rooms and Web sites to arrange trysts with gay men whom they then assault.
"The culprits list a phony [ cruising ] location and they then sit and wait," Police Detective Doug O'Driscoe told the Toronto Sun. "The homosexuals are assaulted or robbed when they show up.
"People have to be leery of what's on the Net," O'Driscoe said. "What you read isn't always true."
ISRAELI GAY GROUP CELEBRATES
Agudah, the Association of Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender People in Israel, celebrated its 25th anniversary March 25.
More than 100 people gathered at the group's headquarters in the heart of Tel Aviv's Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall.
"To call it a great success would be an
understatement," the group said in a press release.
Agudah was formerly the Society for the Protection of Personal Rights.
PARAGUAYAN GAY CENTER OPENS
The first gay community center in Paraguay has opened 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."
GAY MAG BANNED
Belarus' only gay magazine, Forum Lambda, has been banned by the State Committee for Mass Media.
"The magazine was registered as an educational and cultural publication but has been running erotic content for more than a year now," the committee said in a notice cancelling the publication's registration.
The magazine plans to file suit in the nation's Supreme Arbitrage Court with help from the Belarus Association of Journalists. "Forum Lambda has never been any more explicit than Men's Health," said its editor.
BRITISH HOME SEC. PROMISES SECTION 28 REPEAL
British Home Secretary Jack Straw said March 29 that the government will repeal Section 28, an 11-year-old law that prohibits cities from "intentionally promot [ ing ] homosexuality" or teaching "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" in schools. He called the law a piece of "discrimination and prejudice."
"It has caused confusion in schools and local councils, inhibiting teachers who are unsure about their ability to provide information, guidance and support to young people who are, or think they may be, gay," Straw said. "It undermines our commitment to fair treatment for all irrespective of their sexuality."
The U.K.-wide law was repealed locally in Scotland by the newly created Scottish parliament on June 21, 2000.
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.
