U.N. panel rejects advisory status for 2 gay rights organizations

A United Nations committee on May 17 rejected consultative status for the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany and the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. The groups sought access to the Economic and Social Council.

The status was opposed by Cameroon, China, Iran, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe. It was supported by Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Romania and the United States. India and Turkey abstained from the vote.

"We believe this completely unfair decision is motivated by prejudice and ignorance," said Patricia Prendiville, executive director of the International Lesbian and Gay Association of Europe.

In January, the same committee turned down the gay and lesbian association along with Denmark's National Association for Gays and Lesbians. That time, the United States sided with the anti-gay faction.

Afterward, a coalition of 40 organizations, led by the Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights Watch, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling "for an explanation of the vote which aligned the United States with governments that have long repressed the rights of sexual minorities."

Achieving consultative status is the only way nongovernmental organizations can participate in discussions among member states at the United Nations. Nearly 2,900 groups have the status.

European Parliament president headlines anti-homophobia seminar

European Parliament President Josep Borrell headlined a seminar to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, held May 17 at parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, France.

May 17 is the day on which, in 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

A British member of the European Parliament, Michael Cashman, lashed out at European Union nations from the former Eastern Bloc that have rejected European standards for gay equality.

"There is a worrying trend in some of the new member states where politicians encourage discrimination and persecution of homosexuals and where, in some cases, they actually endorse and call for violence," he said.

Mounties to marry, suffer "'Brokeback Mounties' jokes

Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers will marry each other June 30. It will be a first.

Constable Jason Tree, 27, and Constable David Connors, 28, will tie the knot, in uniform, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, before friends, family and co-workers.
Canada legalized same-sex marriage nationwide last July.
Tree and Connors met at the University of New Brunswick, and have been together for eight years.

"The RCMP welcomes a workforce that is representative of Canadian society," the Mounties' provincial spokesman, Sgt. Frank Skidmore, told the Canadian Press news service.

But that doesn't mean the couple hasn't suffered jokes from fellow officers about "Brokeback Mounties."

"I've heard that, and it's funny," Connors said.

Norway immigration agency grants automatic asylum to gay Iranians

Norway's immigration agency will grant automatic residency to Iranian asylum-seekers who say they are gay, the newspaper Aftenposten reported May 19.

Iran has a death penalty for having sex with a member of the same gender and apparently has used it several times in recent years.

Killer of gay leader in Jamaica gets life in prison

The man who killed leading Jamaican gay activist Brian Williamson in 2004 was sentenced to life in prison this month. Dwight Hayden, 25, will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

Amnesty International called Williamson "a courageous individual prepared to speak out for one of the most marginalized and persecuted communities in Jamaica: the gay and lesbian community." Jamaica is widely considered to be one of the world's most overtly anti-gay nations.

Gays participate in inaugural Pride march in Mauritius

Several hundred people staged the first gay pride parade in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius on May 20. Reports said Saturday shoppers were shocked by the display in a busy section of Rose Hill. Drag queens led the parade wearing feather boas and high heels.

Attorney General Rama Valayden called the march "a new page in the history of Mauritius ... the page of freedom." Located off the southeast coast of Africa, Mauritius has a population of 1.2 million.

Australian prime minister says
gays are fundamentalists
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said May 24 that gays who seek full equality are fundamentalists.

Answering a question about same-sex marriage from a student at Ireland's University College Dublin, Howard said, "I think it is a form of minority fundamentalism to say that you have to, in every aspect of one's institutions and one's arrangements in society, have technical equivalence."

Constitutional Court in Costa
Rica rejects same-sex marriage
Costa Rica's Constitutional Court ruled 5-to- on 2 May 23 that same-sex couples do not have a right to marriage. But the court urged legislators to grant gay couples justice and legal security by creating a way to regulate stable, loyal same-sex unions.

Plaintiff Yashín Castrillo, a gay lawyer, sought to have the Family Code's heterosexual definition of marriage declared unconstitutional. He said he will appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Editorial assistance was provided by Bill Kelley.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, June 2, 2006.