Washington Blade - October 27, 2006

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing open revolt in his cabinet after blocking a proposal that would ban schools, hotels, bars and social service agencies from refusing services to gays, the Observer reported on Oct. 15. The struggle is between more liberal members of the cabinet and what's being described as the "Catholic tendency" of Blair and his Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, who is a Roman Catholic, the newspaper reported. The pair acted after religious groups protested the proposed rules. The prime minister, who sent three of his children to Catholic schools, is said to be worried over the impact of the legislation on faith-based schools and adoption agencies, which have demanded exemption. The paper quoted one government source as saying the cabinet is looking for compromise over the issue. "You can't have Satan worshippers going into the local church to have their annual meeting," said the anonymous source, "but if there's a publicly funded school and it wants to open its facilities to everyone else but not a local gay and lesbian group - that's discrimination."

HIV infection rate climbs among gay men in China

YICHANG, China - The rate of HIV infection among sexually active gay men in China is increasing dramatically, to nearly 1.5 percent, an expert on the issue told China Daily. The increase is attributable to a lack of information about the disease and how to prevent infection, said Zhang Beichuan, a professor with Qingdao University's Medical School. "The health authorities have to do something to curb the rising infection rate among gay men, who account for two to four percent of the sexually active adult male population," Zhang told an HIV/AIDS forum in Yichang, according to China Daily. The Chinese government's only official statistics on male homosexuality put the total number of gay men in the country between 5 and 10 million out of a total population of 1.3 billion. Zhang said he found in one northeastern Chinese city that only 20 percent of the 215 gay men he interviewed used condoms and 90 percent of them ruled out any likelihood of having contracted HIV, even though half were college graduates.

Gays demand marriage as South Africa weighs 'unions'

PRETORIA - Gay activists are protesting a civil union bill under consideration as falling short of full marriage rights, IOL reported last week. A coalition of gay groups rallied Oct. 17 outside government buildings in Pretoria to criticize the measure. "The bill allows gay and lesbian people to form civil partnerships," Alex Ringelman, a student organizer, told IOL. "However, in our view civil partnerships are not equivalent to marriage. They entrench institutional segregation in our law and a separate, inferior status for gay relationships." The protesters complained that the civil union measure was in defiance of a ruling by the country's constitutional court that legislation must be adopted according gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples. South Africa's constitution is one of the few in the world that expressly promises equality based on sexual orientation.

In reversal, Dutch grant asylum to gay Iranians

AMSTERDAM - Under growing criticism, the Netherlands last week promised asylum to gay Iranians, Reuters News Service reported. Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk had drawn fire for threatening to deport the gay Iranians, claiming they would be safe in Iran so long as they were discreet. Last week she reversed that position, citing an unpublished report by Human Rights Watch that chronicles widespread abuse of gays, Reuters reported. "Homosexual Iranian asylum seekers can now find a safe haven in the Netherlands from the persecution and inhuman treatment they face in Iran," Frank van Dalen, of the gay rights group COC Nederland, told Reuters. "A year ago, an Iranian asylum seeker with a death sentence hanging over his head was still sitting at Schiphol airport waiting to be deported." Condemnation of homosexuality by Muslims has drawn attention in Holland ever since anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn, who was gay, accused Islam of being homophobic before being murdered by an animal rights activist in 2002.

Jamaican senator moves to block HIV screening by employers

KINGSTON, Jamaica - An opposition senator has been forced to put on hold his proposal to ban HIV screening by private employers, Radio Jamaica reported Oct. 13. Senator Dwight Nelson criticized the practice as discriminatory and counterproductive. "Such practices are a violation of the fundamental principles and rights at work and undermine efforts for prevention and care," Nelson was quoted as saying, and are widespread among Jamaican workplaces." He pointed out that other major diseases are not subjected to similar screenings. He was forced two weeks ago to temporarily table a resolution calling on the Jamaican government to ban the practice, but he vowed to renew a push for passage, Radio Jamaica reported.

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