Chicago Free Press Reports on World Happenings
WORLD
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
September 13, 2006
QUEBEC READY FOR GAY LEADER, SAYS BOISCLAIR
The openly gay leader of Quebec’s Parti Quebecois said Sept. 5 that the province is ready to elect its first gay premier.
“I think I can contribute to changing the mentality,” Andre Boisclair told CBC News. “All the better if people hear my story and recognize themselves in it.”
Boisclair took over leadership of the PQ last November. A recent poll showed the PQ with a huge lead over current Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal Party. An election is expected to be called in 2007.
Boisclair has pledged to seek a referendum on Quebec independence if elected premier. In the interview, he played down questions about his sexual orientation and admitted cocaine use in the 1990s.
“Quebecers are looking for sincerity,” Boisclair said.
IRAQI GOVERNMENT CAN’T PROTECT GAYS, GROUP SAYS
A British gay rights group blasted the “Blair-backed” Iraqi government last week for failing to prevent the “terrorization of gay Iraqis byÉIslamist death squads.”
“Iraq is sliding fast toward theocracy and is likely to end up similar to Iran,” said activist Peter Tatchell, of Outrage. “The power and influence of fundamentalist militias is growing rapidly.”
An Outrage investigation, carried out in cooperation with loosely organized gays and lesbians in Baghdad, found that militias aligned with parties in Iraq’s coalition government routinely kill, threaten and blackmail gays.
“Gay Iraqis cannot seek the protection of the police,” Tatchell said. “Iraq’s security forces have been infiltrated by the fundamentalists, especially the Badr militia. They have huge influence in the interior ministry and the police, and can kill at will and with impunity.”
Amid the chaos and lawlessness, Outrage leaders said, hundreds of young boys have been forced into child sex rings.
“They are trapped,” Tatchell said.
A British government spokesman responded that British officials “are in dialogue with the (Iraqi) government about the need to be aware of human rights for all communities.”
SOUTH AFRICAN MARRIAGE BILL STUMBLES
South African government officials insisted last week that a bill legalizing same-sex marriage is still on track, despite a state law adviser’s opinion that the proposal was insufficient to bring marriage laws into compliance with a high court ruling last year.
Last December, South Africa’s highest court ordered Parliament to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples in one year. If Parliament fails to act, the court said, it would simply order the words “or spouse” added after the words “or husband” in the country’s Marriage Act.
But last week, the state law adviser, who previews proposed legislation and certifies it as constitutional, refused to certify the government’s legislation, saying the proposal fails to meet the court’s requirements.
The adviser faulted the bill because it allows officials to refuse to grant same-sex couples marriages “on the grounds of conscience” and because it includes a section on domestic partnerships.
A parliamentary committee chair said he was confident the government would fix the legislation.
“It’s not a train smash,” said MP Patrick Chauke. “We’ll meet the deadline.”
GAYS ALLEGE POLICE BEATING IN MEXICO CITY
Three gay men alleged last week that plainclothes police in Mexico City assaulted them Sept. 2 after assuming they were engaged in prostitution.
Two journalists, Victor Espindola and Sergio Tellez-Pon, said they were walking with a friend, Oscar Mendez, in the city’s famed gay neighborhood, Zona Rosa, around 11:30 p.m., when eight men in two cars began pursuing them, shouting, “Stop, damned little whores.”
The three gay men ran but were soon apprehended by the other men, who punched and kicked them.
The gay men were able eventually to run away and flagged down a police car and told the officers what had happened. Moments later, the two cars that had held the men’s attackers appeared on the scene, with one turning out to belong to the commander of the Secretariat of the Public Police in the Federal District, Javier Gonzalez del Villar.
The three men tried to file a complaint but were refused. On Sept. 6 they said they have filed complaints with Mexico City’s human rights commission.
“I have lived for 25 years in the DF, nine of them as an openly gay person,” Tellez-Pon said. “What happened was something of a surprise to me.”
LESBIANS SETTLE SCHOOL BOARD CASE
A lesbian couple in the Canadian city of Surrey, British Columbia, settled their complaint over a hostile environment at school board meetings last week.
Carol Pegura and Kim Forster said the school board failed to maintain a tone of respect and tolerance at school board meetings at which controversial books including gay references were discussed.
The couple cited remarks at the meetings comparing gays to animals and linking gay men and pedophiles.
The CBC reported Sept. 7 that board chair Shawn Wilson acknowledged that some comments were inappropriate. The board, he said, has agreed to change some of its rules governing public hearings.
“It just seemed so correct to resolve it,” Wilson said.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal had been scheduled to hear the case this fall.
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
September 13, 2006
QUEBEC READY FOR GAY LEADER, SAYS BOISCLAIR
The openly gay leader of Quebec’s Parti Quebecois said Sept. 5 that the province is ready to elect its first gay premier.
“I think I can contribute to changing the mentality,” Andre Boisclair told CBC News. “All the better if people hear my story and recognize themselves in it.”
Boisclair took over leadership of the PQ last November. A recent poll showed the PQ with a huge lead over current Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal Party. An election is expected to be called in 2007.
Boisclair has pledged to seek a referendum on Quebec independence if elected premier. In the interview, he played down questions about his sexual orientation and admitted cocaine use in the 1990s.
“Quebecers are looking for sincerity,” Boisclair said.
IRAQI GOVERNMENT CAN’T PROTECT GAYS, GROUP SAYS
A British gay rights group blasted the “Blair-backed” Iraqi government last week for failing to prevent the “terrorization of gay Iraqis byÉIslamist death squads.”
“Iraq is sliding fast toward theocracy and is likely to end up similar to Iran,” said activist Peter Tatchell, of Outrage. “The power and influence of fundamentalist militias is growing rapidly.”
An Outrage investigation, carried out in cooperation with loosely organized gays and lesbians in Baghdad, found that militias aligned with parties in Iraq’s coalition government routinely kill, threaten and blackmail gays.
“Gay Iraqis cannot seek the protection of the police,” Tatchell said. “Iraq’s security forces have been infiltrated by the fundamentalists, especially the Badr militia. They have huge influence in the interior ministry and the police, and can kill at will and with impunity.”
Amid the chaos and lawlessness, Outrage leaders said, hundreds of young boys have been forced into child sex rings.
“They are trapped,” Tatchell said.
A British government spokesman responded that British officials “are in dialogue with the (Iraqi) government about the need to be aware of human rights for all communities.”
SOUTH AFRICAN MARRIAGE BILL STUMBLES
South African government officials insisted last week that a bill legalizing same-sex marriage is still on track, despite a state law adviser’s opinion that the proposal was insufficient to bring marriage laws into compliance with a high court ruling last year.
Last December, South Africa’s highest court ordered Parliament to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples in one year. If Parliament fails to act, the court said, it would simply order the words “or spouse” added after the words “or husband” in the country’s Marriage Act.
But last week, the state law adviser, who previews proposed legislation and certifies it as constitutional, refused to certify the government’s legislation, saying the proposal fails to meet the court’s requirements.
The adviser faulted the bill because it allows officials to refuse to grant same-sex couples marriages “on the grounds of conscience” and because it includes a section on domestic partnerships.
A parliamentary committee chair said he was confident the government would fix the legislation.
“It’s not a train smash,” said MP Patrick Chauke. “We’ll meet the deadline.”
GAYS ALLEGE POLICE BEATING IN MEXICO CITY
Three gay men alleged last week that plainclothes police in Mexico City assaulted them Sept. 2 after assuming they were engaged in prostitution.
Two journalists, Victor Espindola and Sergio Tellez-Pon, said they were walking with a friend, Oscar Mendez, in the city’s famed gay neighborhood, Zona Rosa, around 11:30 p.m., when eight men in two cars began pursuing them, shouting, “Stop, damned little whores.”
The three gay men ran but were soon apprehended by the other men, who punched and kicked them.
The gay men were able eventually to run away and flagged down a police car and told the officers what had happened. Moments later, the two cars that had held the men’s attackers appeared on the scene, with one turning out to belong to the commander of the Secretariat of the Public Police in the Federal District, Javier Gonzalez del Villar.
The three men tried to file a complaint but were refused. On Sept. 6 they said they have filed complaints with Mexico City’s human rights commission.
“I have lived for 25 years in the DF, nine of them as an openly gay person,” Tellez-Pon said. “What happened was something of a surprise to me.”
LESBIANS SETTLE SCHOOL BOARD CASE
A lesbian couple in the Canadian city of Surrey, British Columbia, settled their complaint over a hostile environment at school board meetings last week.
Carol Pegura and Kim Forster said the school board failed to maintain a tone of respect and tolerance at school board meetings at which controversial books including gay references were discussed.
The couple cited remarks at the meetings comparing gays to animals and linking gay men and pedophiles.
The CBC reported Sept. 7 that board chair Shawn Wilson acknowledged that some comments were inappropriate. The board, he said, has agreed to change some of its rules governing public hearings.
“It just seemed so correct to resolve it,” Wilson said.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal had been scheduled to hear the case this fall.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:18 PM
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