Polish pride case accepted by Euro court
The European Court of Human Rights has accepted a lawsuit filed against Poland by Warsaw gay activists after the mayor banned the 2005 gay Equality Parade.
Former Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is now Poland's president, cited traffic issues in prohibiting the march. He also said he opposed 'propagating gay orientation' and objected to the parade taking place on the same day the city unveiled a monument to anti-Nazi hero Gen. Stefan Rowecki.
Some 2,500 GLBT people marched anyway. They were confronted by around 300 anti-gay protesters shouting slurs and hurling eggs. Ten people were arrested and three were injured, including a policeman.
Ontario sperm banks can ban gay ejaculate
The Ontario Court of Appeal in Canada ruled Jan. 29 that regulations requiring sperm banks to reject donations from men who had had sex with men since 1977 do not violate the nation's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The case was filed by a Toronto lesbian who wanted to use a gay friend's sperm, had been unable to get pregnant via self-insemination, and sought a clinic's help.
The court called the ban a 'rational and health-based' approach to minimizing the possibility of HIV and hepatitis transmission.
There is a process under which men who have sex with men can donate sperm. They must submit a special request to the minister of health, have their ejaculate tested for diseases, have it quarantined for six months, then have it tested again.
But the unnamed lesbian plaintiff called that process unfair to lesbians who personally know their gay-male donors.
Jerusalem registers same-sex marriage
Two Jerusalem men who got married in Canada were officially registered as married in Israel's Population Registry Jan. 29.
Binyamin and Avi Rose were allowed to record their marriage following last November's ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice that same-sex couples who marry in a place where it is allowed—Belgium, Canada, Massachusetts, the Netherlands, South Africa or Spain—are considered married in Israel.
The case was brought by five Israeli same-sex couples who married in Canada.
'The protests last year over the gay pride parade in Jerusalem really spooked us, and many of our friends here chose to leave the city,' Avi Rose told the Jerusalem Post. 'But we are very committed to building our lives in Jerusalem and the Interior Ministry provided us with a very positive experience today.'
African gay paper
celebrates 200th issue
The South African gay newspaper Exit held a party at Johannesburg's chic Oh Bar on Feb. 2 to celebrate its 200th issue.
Publisher and Editor Gavin Hayward told the South African Press Association, 'Exit will never make me a millionaire, but I earn a living out of it.'
The monthly, free publication is 12 years old.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
CLARIFICATION
Through an editing error, three items adapted from other publications ran with Rex Wockner's international news column in the Jan. 31 issue of WCT. They were not supplied by Wockner. ( Bill Kelley did not assist in those items, either. )
Windy City Times regrets the error.