ASIA
Hong Kong – In a victory for gay rights campaigners, Hong Kong’s highest court has rejected a ban on public gay sodomy. The case stemmed from the prosecution of two men who admitted to committing sodomy in a car parked on an isolated road at night.
Public gay sex carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison but the two men challenged the charges. When the lower courts ruled in favour of the couple, the government appealed to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. According to the Associated Press, a panel of five top judges unanimously dismissed the government’s appeal.
Singapore – Actor Sir Ian McKellen has called Singapore’s laws criminalizing homosexuality ‘archaic’ and has called for change if the Asian city state wants to be a major economic player in the world. Sir Ian was in Singapore as part of a world tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in a quote on 365gay.com said, ‘It’s about time Singapore grew up, I think, and realized that gay people are here to stay,’ he said. Last year Singapore announced plans to decriminalize oral and anal sex for adult heterosexuals but sex between homosexuals would remain banned. Under the current law, ‘gross indecency’ between two men can lead to up to two years in jail.
AFRICA
South Africa – Coinciding with the release of the government’s latest crime statistics, two lesbians have been brutally murdered in Soweto. The incident has called to attention the ‘scourge of crime’ in the country- particularly crimes of violence. The Witness’ Timothy Trengove-Jones reported that Sizakele Sigasa, a lesbian activist and outreach worker with the Positive Women’s Network (PWN) and her friend Salome Masooa were savagely assaulted, raped, murdered and then abandoned next to their car.
EUROPE
UK – A London transsexual woman is seeking thousands of dollars in compensation after she was allegedly forced out of her job as a truck driver. Vikki-Marie Gaynor, 37, has been a transport trailer driver since her teens but when she began to transition and appeared as a female she says her shifts were cut, she was subjected to verbal abuse, and eventually had to quit her job. Ms Gaynor told the Daily Mail, ‘It is not right that I should be forced out of my job simply because I want to live as a woman and wear the clothes I was born to wear.’ If Ms Gaynor’s case is successful, the company may have to pay out close to $1 million.
Spain – In the southeast region of Murcia, a Spanish lesbian has lost a custody battle over her two daughters. Judge Fernando Ferrin awarded custody to the girls’ father, arguing that a homosexual environment threatened their education and upbringing comment which sparked outrage in the gay community. The incident is surprising considering homosexuals in Spain enjoy some of Europe’s most liberal gay rights legislation. Homosexuality was legalised in Spain in 1979 and two years ago the Socialist government legalised gay marriage.
THE AMERICAS
Mexico – Prisons in Mexico City are allowing gay prisoners the right to conjugal visits after a recommendation made by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission. After a complaint by a male inmate, the commission ruled that not allowing him a conjugal visit from his partner was discrimination. ‘The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual,’ the commission said in a statement to the BBC. Discrimination based on sexual orientation was outlawed in Mexico in 2003 and last year Mexico’s centre-left government supported same-sex civil unions.
US – After criticism from gay rights groups, delivery company UPS has announced it will offer health care benefits to civil union partners of its employees in New Jersey. The extension of benefits to civil union partners will cover approximately 8,700 workers, although it is not known how many of these employees have joined in civil unions.
