B.C. GAYS WILL BE EQUALIZED
The government of British Columbia, Canada, is preparing an omnibus bill that will amend the definition of "spouse" to include same-sex couples everywhere the word appears in provincial law, reports Xtra West.
Vancouver-Burrard Member of the Legislative Assembly Tim Stevenson said the bill will be ready for the current legislative session and will take effect as soon as it is proclaimed.
"The new bill will change the definition of spouse in every single reference through every single law," Stevenson, who is gay, told Xtra West. "Every time that word comes up, it now will include gays and lesbians. This is more of a mopping-up of everything."
"Spouse" appears in B.C. laws approximately 500 to 600 times.
The changes will take B.C. gays farther along the road to equality than anywhere else in Canada, Stevenson said.
TRANNIES JAILED AND LASHED
Nine gay Saudi Arabian transvestites in the western city of Qunfuda have been jailed and will be lashed twice monthly for two years.
Five of the men were sentenced to six years in prison and 2,600 lashes at the rate of 52 lashes per semimonthly session. The other four men were sentenced to five years in prison and 2,400 lashes at the rate of 48 lashes per semimonthly session.
Police began observing the men after receiving reports they were acting strangely, a spokesman said. As the investigation continued, the police determined the men were dressing in women's clothing and having sex together, a violation of Islamic law.
LATVIAN P.M. RESIGNS
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Skele resigned April 12, one day before the Parliamentary Investigation Commission on Pedophilia announced that he and several other officials were probably connected, in some unspecified way, to a same-sex pedophilia scandal.
The commission said the officials should be considered immoral and probably should not be allowed to hold office again, according to a report from Juris Ludvigs Lavrikovs of Latvia's Homosexuality Information Center.
According to Lavrikovs: "The scandal started in September 1999 when the Latvian Independent Television company LNT showed a program where several male teenagers confessed to having been sexually abused by Ainars Eisaks, director of the agency Mrs Latvia, who it was alleged, together with Jurijs Jurjevs, director of the Logos Center, provided prominent people with young boys for sexual gratification."
Other officials named by the commission include Justice Minister Valdis Birkavs, State Revenue Director Andrejs Sonciks, Latvia Post Office Director Aivars Droiskis, and Riga Classical College Director Romans Alijevs, Lavrikovs reported.
An online Baltic states newspaper, The Weekly Crier, made no reference to pedophilia in its report on Skele's resignation.
The paper said: "Skele resigned after two of three parties in his ruling coalition, Latvia's Way and the Fatherland and Freedom party, announced they could no longer work with him. The shakeup had at least as much to do with style as substance. Skele, with a business background, was seen as an intelligent administrator capable of balancing budgets. But he was also seen as abrasive, heavy-handed and a poor team player."
CENSORED MAG APPEALS TO EURO CT.
The British gay magazine Outcast filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights April 14 in an effort to end censorship of its Web site.
The site was shut down March 29 by Outcast's Internet service, provider ( ISP ) , Netbenefit, after lawyers for the gay newspaper The Pink Paper alleged in a letter to Netbenefit that Outcast might publish an article that would defame The Pink Paper.
Under British law, ISPs are legally responsible for content that passes through their servers.
"There was nothing defamatory on our Web site," said Outcast editor Chris Morris. "NetBenefit couldn't take any chances, so they shut up our site."