U.N. TO VOTE ON GAY RIGHTS
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) will vote on a groundbreaking gay human-rights resolution during its 60th session in Geneva in March and April.
The vote was postponed at last year’s session because of opposition from Muslim, African and Latin American countries, Vatican City, China and India. The United States was planning to abstain from the vote.
The resolution, introduced by Brazil, ‘expresses deep concern at the occurrence of violations of human rights in the world against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation’ and ‘calls upon all States to promote and protect the human rights of all persons regardless of their sexual orientation.’
Gay activists say they are better prepared this year.
In 2003, ‘delegates from both member states and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] were caught unawares,’ the International Lesbian and Gay Association said Jan. 13. ‘This will certainly not be the case at the 2004 annual session. … The delegates from member states and NGOs who support the … resolution and who have been lobbied by associations which defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, will ensure that the UNCHR is reminded of the historical and symbolic significance of voting in its favor.’
CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST MAN WHO STABBED MAYOR
Charges against the man who stabbed and seriously wounded gay Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë in October 2002 were dismissed Jan. 11.
Judge Nathalie Frydman said Azedine Berkane is not mentally fit to stand trial and ordered that he be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Berkane stabbed Delanoë during an all-night party at City Hall because he dislikes homosexuals and politicians, he said. Delanoë spent two weeks in the hospital and underwent surgery to repair internal organs.
SEMINARY’S HIV TESTING IRKS ACTIVISTS
Gay activists have denounced the Roman Catholic Grand Séminaire de Montréal for instituting a policy requiring that priesthood candidates submit to an HIV test.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte said the testing is not aimed at ferreting out homosexuals but rather at discovering applicants’ health status.
Some other Canadian Catholic seminaries require the test and some do not.
The Quebec Human Rights Commission said it will study whether the forced tests violate the provincial human-rights charter, Toronto’s Globe and Mail reported.
RAIDED BOOKSTORE ASKS FOR GAY JUDGE
The Taipei, Taiwan, gay bookshop Gin Gin’s has requested that a gay judge hear the case resulting from a police raid last August, the Taipei Times reported Jan. 14.
Police nabbed more than 500 gay-sex magazines, including the Taiwanese title His and several publications from Hong Kong.
Owner Lai Jeng-jer was charged with offenses against morals.
‘Taiwan is a place where people don’t know very much about homosexuals and where there is considerable discrimination against homosexuals, so to get a fair trial, I would like to ask heterosexual judges to avoid the case,’ he told the Times.
Lai’s petition to the court also requested that the confiscated magazines be reviewed by 100 homosexuals to see if they consider the contents indecent.
‘The definition of indecency may vary from person to person, and a homosexual male’s perception of indecency cannot be arbitrated by a heterosexual male,’ he said.
RAPE SHELTER ALLOWED TO REJECT TRANSSEXUAL
The Supreme Court of the Canadian province of British Columbia ruled Dec. 19 that Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter did not discriminate against Kimberly Nixon by refusing to let her volunteer because she used to be a man.
Nixon previously had won a $7,500 (US$5,767) payout courtesy of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, with which she had filed a complaint.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled on appeal that Rape Relief, a private organization, may define ‘woman’ as it sees fit even though British Columbia considers Nixon female and has given her female identification documents.
Nixon may appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
LATVIA REJECTS GAY PROTECTIONS
The Latvian Parliament’s Social and Employment Affairs Committee rejected a proposed ban on anti-gay discrimination in the workplace Jan. 14.
The Welfare Ministry introduced the measure in an effort to comply with European Union mandates. Latvia will become an EU member this year.
‘It is … disappointing and shocking now when there are only four months left before Latvia officially joins the EU and still [it] openly ignores obligations to harmonize its legislation with EU standards, thereby compromising the EU’s dedication to protect LGB people from discrimination,’ said activist Juris Ludvigs Lavrikovs.
The committee will consider the matter further this week.
NO. IRISH GAYS REPORT TROUBLES
Twenty-nine percent of 360 GLBT youths surveyed in Northern Ireland have tried to kill themselves, the Belfast Telegraph reported Jan. 13.
A further 26 percent have harmed themselves.
The Department of Education-sponsored survey questioned GLBTs age 25 and under via support groups and the Web.
It also found that gay youths are five times more likely to be taking antidepressants and 20 times more likely to have an eating disorder.
‘We as a society can no longer ignore what is happening to thousands of our young people,’ said P.A. MagLochlainn, president of the Northern Ireland Gay and Lesbian Rights Association.