Front, left to right: Transgender Italian MP Vladimir Luxuria, Dutch European Parliament Member Sophie in 't Veld and Russian MP Aleksei Mitrofanov talk to reporters near Moscow City Hall in 2007 after police arrested organizers of a gay pride rally while letting anti-gay thugs beat up Russian and foreign gays who had gathered for the event. Photo by Jonas Hansson

Conflicting Reports on Venezuelan Civil-Union Bill

Venezuela's National Assembly is set to legalize same-sex unions with a new "associations of coexistence" law, MP Romelia Matute told reporters March 20.

She said the law will extend "juridical and patrimonial effects," likely meaning the legal rights and obligations of marriage, including inheritance rights.

The law also will guarantee that people who change their gender will have the "right to recognition of their identity and the expedition or modification of the documents associated with identification."

Matute said heterosexuals historically "have been cruel" to gay people and "the revolution is about taking care of those who have been excluded."

However, on March 25, Marelis Pérez, chairwoman of the Assembly's Family, Women and Youth Committee, on which Matute sits, contradicted Matute's statements, reported Latino-issues blogger Andrés Duque.

"The Gender Equity and Equality Bill establishes respect for those who have a sexual option, safeguards their human rights, calls for no discrimination, but it is something different from granting legal (recognition) to homosexual unions," Pérez told El Tiempo newspaper. "That is not the objective of this law."

She said civil unions will be the subject of a different bill to be considered later.

Vilnius Mayor: Gay March Cannot be Downtown

The mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, Vilius Navickas, said March 19 that gays can have a pride parade, but only far from downtown.

"I respect everyone under the sun, and their personal lives, but I don't think that this personal life needs to be put on display on Gediminas Avenue," Navickas said, according to the Baltic Times. "Should there be a request to do this on Gediminas Avenue, we wouldn't allow it, but it would be welcomed on, say, Savanoriu Avenue."

Savanoriu Avenue is in a less-desirable part of town, distant from the city center, and has heavy traffic.

Vilnius' previous mayor, Juozas Imbrasas, banned pride events on public property altogether, prohibited pride ads from appearing on public-transportation vehicles, and blocked the European Union's touring anti-discrimination truck from parking on public property, forcing it into a supermarket parking lot.

Int'l AIDS Society Blasts Pope

Pope Benedict XVI's first-ever remarks on condom use were irresponsible, dangerous, ignorant, outrageous and insulting, officials of the International AIDS Society said March 20.

Speaking to reporters March 17, Benedict said AIDS is "a tragedy that cannot be overcome ... through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem."

IAS President Dr. Julio Montaner responded: "There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that condoms can increase HIV transmission -- absolutely the contrary. ... Instead of spreading ignorance, the pope should use his global position of leadership to encourage young people, who are our future, to protect themselves and others from HIV infection using all the tools we have at our disposal, including condoms. His remarks are insulting to the tireless efforts of committed scientific, public health and human rights leaders around the world."

According to IAS Executive Director Craig McClure, "Male and female condoms, used correctly and consistently, can reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV by 80 to 90 percent."

"To suggest that condom use contributes to the HIV problem is not merely contrary to scientific evidence and global consensus, it contributes to fueling HIV infection and its consequences—sickness and death," McClure said. "Such outrageous comments are not appropriate coming from the highest office in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church."

The IAS is the world's leading association of HIV professionals, with more than 13,000 members from 188 countries working at all levels of the global response to HIV/AIDS. The society is the lead organizer of the biennial International AIDS Conference and the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention.

Serbia Bans GLB Discrimination

Serbia's National Assembly banned all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation March 26.

The vote was 127-59, one more vote than was needed for passage. Sixty-four deputies did not show up to vote.

"The law says that sexual orientation is a private matter and no one should be asked to express their sexual orientation in public," the local lesbian rights group Labris said in a statement. "On the other hand, (it says) everybody has the right to express their sexual orientation in public and not be discriminated against because of that."

The bill recently had been removed from active consideration in Parliament following objections from the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was then slightly reworded by the government and reactivated, following what Labris called "strong pressure from the public and relevant international organizations."

Enactment of a national law covering discrimination based on sexual orientation is a requirement for nations that seek visa-free travel to the European Union for their citizens.

MEPs Take Up Russian Gay Rights Crusade

Twenty-two members of the European Parliament have sent a letter to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers complaining about Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's permanent ban on public gay events and similar bans elsewhere in Russia.

"Since May 2006, the Russian Federation officials have banned 167 public events planned by the local LGBT community in Moscow and other cities across the country," the letter states. "Several Members of the European Parliament were present during attempts to stage marches in support of freedom and rights for sexual minorities in May 2006 and May 2007, marches which led to the beating of LGBT activists in the streets of Moscow."

The letter noted that seven legal cases over the bans are pending at the European Court of Human Rights, with the oldest of the cases dating to February 2007.

It pointed out that Moscow's fourth annual gay pride is scheduled for May 16, the same day the campy Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Moscow, and suggested that the CoE's Committee of Ministers should take some sort of action to end the Russian Federation's systematic breach of the GLBT community's right to freedom of assembly, which is guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to which Russia is a signatory.

Mayor Luzhkov has said he will never allow a gay pride parade in Moscow. He has called the parades "satanic" and "weapons of mass destruction."

The letter to the Committee of Ministers was signed by MEPs Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (Netherlands), Sophie in 't Veld (Netherlands), Graham Watson (United Kingdom), Marco Cappato (Italy), Alexander Alvaro (Germany), Chris Davies (United Kingdom), Johannes Lebech (Denmark), Maria Robsahm (Sweden), Ignasi Guardans (Spain), Jules Maaten (Netherlands), Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France), Kathalijne Buitenweg (Netherlands), Satu Hassi (Finland), Milan Horácek (Germany), Raül Romeva (Spain), Anne van Lancker (Belgium), Lissy Gröner (Germany), Marie-Arlette Carlotti (France), Glenys Kinnock (United Kingdom), Martine Roure (France), Britta Thomsen (Denmark) and Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland).

Meanwhile, the third Russian Week Against Homophobia took place March 23-31 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk and Naberezhnye Chelny.

The various cities saw workshops, discussions, debates, film screenings and press conferences.

The Russian LGBT Network and the Moscow Helsinki Group unveiled a report looking at sexual-orientation and gender-identity legal issues and discrimination.

Denmark OKs Gay Adoption

Denmark, which enacted the world's first same-sex civil-union law in 1989, extended adoption rights to gay couples March 17.

Parliamentarians voted for the measure 62-53, with 64 legislators not present.

The bill was supported by the opposition Social Democrats and Socialist People's Party. The ruling Liberal Party opposed it, though seven Liberal MPs broke ranks and voted for it.

Denmark's groundbreaking 1989 "registered partnership" law granted same-sex couples more than 99 percent of the rights and obligations of marriage—a model that later was copied by several other European nations.

Beginning in 2001 with the Netherlands, gay couples began gaining access to marriage itself. Same-sex marriage now is possible in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain and the U.S. states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

From June to November 2008, gays in California also could marry, until voters amended the state constitution to stop it. The constitutionality of the amendment, known as Proposition 8, is now being reviewed by the California Supreme Court.

Obama Reverses Bush Opposition to UN Declaration

The administration of President Barack Obama has reversed a decision by the administration of former President George W. Bush and added the United States' signature to a pro-gay declaration delivered in the United Nations General Assembly last December.

Sixty-six nations supported the groundbreaking statement that called for the decriminalization of gay sex worldwide and affirmed that international human rights standards include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

"The United States supports the UN Statement on 'Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity,' and is pleased to join the other 66 UN member states who have declared their support of this Statement that condemns human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity wherever they occur," the State Department said March 18. "The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world. As such, we join with the other supporters of this Statement and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora."

In opposing the declaration, the Bush administration had said the document's broad language could reach into areas that fall outside of federal jurisdiction, such as the right of each U.S. state to define marriage.

It was the first time a statement condemning rights abuses against GLBT people was presented in the General Assembly.

Gay activists hailed the State Department decision.

"It is terrific that the Obama administration is joining the United Nations' resolution calling for an end to laws that make physical intimacy between same-sex couples a crime," said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project. "Many of these laws are ... used to put people in prison and sometimes result in people being executed."

"That the Bush administration refused to endorse the resolution is pretty unbelievable considering the U.S. Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to criminalize physical intimacy between consenting adults back in 2003," Coles added. "We urge the United States to match its action on human rights abroad with bold commitment to respect and promote human rights at home. We can begin putting an end to discrimination against (LGBT) people by, as the president has proposed, banning job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and by repealing the section of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal protections to those same-sex couples who have legally married."

More than 80 of the world's 195 nations criminalize gay sex, and it is punishable by death in 10—Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In Pakistan and the UAE, however, the criminal code, which does not punish sodomy with death, tends to take precedence over the equally legal Shariah law, which does punish sodomy with death. In Somalia, Shariah law is in force in portions of the nation. Somalia presently has no national government. In Afghanistan, the penal code does not punish sodomy with death, but Shariah does—and is in force in much of the country. Nigeria has the Shariah death penalty for gay sex in northern provinces only, where Shariah takes precedence over federal law and people have been sentenced to death for gay sex, though executions apparently have not been carried out. The remaining five nations have an unambiguous national death penalty for sodomy—Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

The UN declaration's original signers were Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Venezuela.

CoE, HRW: Serbia Needs to Protect Gays

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's human-rights commissioner, said March 11 that Serbia is doing a bad job of protecting gay people.

"Discriminatory statements made by political figures and the media go largely unpunished," he said. "Human rights activists in particular are victims of intolerance, hate speech and threats, sometimes resulting in physical attacks. Such instances must be condemned from the highest political level and sanctioned appropriately."

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe seeks to develop common democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other texts. Forty-seven nations are members of the body.

On March 10, Human Rights Watch urged Serbia to relaunch efforts to pass a gay-inclusive anti-discrimination bill that recently was removed from active consideration in Parliament following objections from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Homophobic Bullying is 'Rife' in British Schools

A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers has revealed that homophobic bullying affects more than just the 150,000 gay pupils in British schools, the gay lobby group Stonewall reported March 10.

The "Teachers Report" found that boys who work hard, girls who play sports, young people with gay parents and young people who are presumed to be gay all experience anti-gay harassment.

Findings included:

* Nine in 10 secondary school teachers and two in five primary school teachers said pupils experience homophobic bullying even if they are not gay.

* Homophobic bullying is the most prevalent form of bullying after bullying because of weight.

* The vast majority of incidents go unreported by pupils.

* Forty-three percent of secondary school teachers and three in 10 primary school teachers have heard anti-gay remarks by other school staff.

* Nine in 10 teachers have received no training about homophobic bullying.

"This survey reveals how much remains to be done by our schools to demonstrate to all pupils that homophobic bullying is unacceptable," said Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill.

HRW: Cayman Islands Should Protect Gays

The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, should revise a draft constitution that will be submitted to voters May 20 to ensure it protects everyone from unequal treatment, and the British government should ensure this happens, Human Rights Watch said March 11 in letters to Caymanian Gov. Stuart Jack and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

The draft constitution will eliminate a free-standing guarantee of equality before the law and limit anti-discrimination protections only to rights expressly included in the constitution.

"This means that large and critically important areas of daily life would not be covered, including access to jobs, housing, and medical treatment," HRW said. "Reportedly, the government succumbed to pressure from religious groups, and the action was apparently intended to deny protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of HRW's LGBT Rights Program, accused the British government of "using a double standard, approving a draft constitution for an overseas territory that gives fewer protections than British citizens enjoy at home."