NEWS

World Report

BY REX WOCKNER

CANADA PLANS TO EQUALIZE GAYS

Canada's government introduced legislation Feb. 11 that grants gay couples all the federal benefits received by common-law opposite-sex spouses and extends to gay and straight common-law couples many marriage rights that neither group currently has.

The bill is a response to a string of recent court decisions, the most important of which was last year's Supreme Court ruling that Ontario's definition of "spouse" was unconstitutionally heterosexist.

The legislation will rewrite more than 60 federal laws in areas ranging from pensions and insurance to income tax and prison visits.

"This is a historic day for our communities," said Kim Vance, president of the national lobby group Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE). "The federal government has recognized in unequivocal terms the right of same-sex couples to equal treatment before the law. This farreaching piece of legislation not only

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recognizes same-sex relationships as equivalent to opposite-sex commonlaw relationships, it also extends many of the rights and responsibilities of married couples to both samesex and opposite-sex common-law partners."

EGALE Executive Director John Fisher added: "For too long, samesex relationships have been stigmatized as inferior to oppositesex relationships. This bill provides a symbolic affirmation of the equal validity and worth of same-sex relationships. As federal law, these amendments will set a national standard across Canada, requiring our relationships to be treated with equal dignity and respect."

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia already give gay and lesbian couples the rights accorded common-law opposite-sex couples. Other provinces and territories are expected to follow suit shortly.

LORDS THWART SECTION 28 REPEAL Britain's House of Lords Feb. 8

Authors at 57th Street Books

BIL WRIGHT

writer, playwright, and activist,

reads from his debut work of fiction,

Sunday You

Learn How to Box

blocked repeal of Section 28, a 10year-old law that prohibits cities from "intentionally promot[ing] homosexuality" or teaching "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" in schools.

The Lords' 165-201 vote was a big defeat for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government, which has promised to get rid of the homophobic statute.

"[Our] view that this is bad legislation, and has got to go, remains," said Blair's official spokesman.

Opponents say they will not repeal the section unless it is replaced with another law that regulates the teaching of sexuality in schools.

"The government cannot get past the House of Lords and they cannot put this on the statute book until the Lords agree," said MP Stuart Bell.

Ordinarily, Britain's House of Commons, which is elected, can vote to overrule the unelected House of Lords, but not this time, since the bill originated with the Lords.

Meanwhile, anti-Section 28 protesters halted traffic in Piccadilly Circus Feb. 8 by hijacking a double-

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at 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street in Hyde Park. This stunning debut tells the story of Louis, an African American youth living in a housing project in 1968 who slowly discovers his desire for Ray Anthony, the "hoodlum" in purple polyester pants. Invoking James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain in its subtilty and power, Sunday You Learn How to Box is a groundbreaking contribution to American Literature.

"Heartbreaking and heartwarming. I was touched in so many ways by this absolutely dazzling and elegant debut. You won't be able to put it down." --E. Lynn Harris

Bil Wright is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, and social activist who was born in the Bronx. He has worked at The Door, an internationally known walk-in center for youth, directed the performing arts program at the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change, and taught English at new York's Housing works, a service organization for people with H.I.V. Mr. Wright is a graduate of New York University and Brooklyn College. His plays have been produced at Yale University, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Dixon Place, Nuyorican Cafe, and the Samuel Beckett Theater. His short stories and poetry have been published in Men on Men 3, Shade, The Road Before Us, and Art and Understanding.

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decker bus and painting it pink.

They brandished banners reading "Repeal Section 28" and "Let there be love."

Ten of the demonstrators were arrested for causing criminal damage.

COMMONS VOTES

TO LOWER AGE

FOR GAY SEX

Britain's House of Commons voted

but courts generally support its findings.

BASHERS TARGET MELBOURNE PARK

Teenage bashers have viciously beaten at least seven gay men in Melbourne, Australia's cruisy Alma Park recently, police said Feb. 10.

The police force has responded with a special operation to patrol the

263 to 102 Feb. 10 to lower the age of park after dark.

consent for male-male sex from 18 to 16, in line with that for heterosexual and lesbian sex.

The bill now moves to the unelected House of Lords, which will probably oppose it; they have rejected it twice since 1997. However, the government is now prepared to use the Parliament Act to ignore the Lords' wishes and enact the change without their consent, spokesmen said.

"For me the issue raised in this bill is one of equality, of seeking to create a society which is free from prejudice, of one where our relationships with others, including with strangers, are based upon respect and not upon fear," said Home Secretary Jack Straw.

DUTCH CLINICS SHOULD INSEMINATE LESBIANS

The Netherlands' Committee for Equal Treatment cited four of the nation's 13 in vitro fertilization clinics Feb. 9 for refusing to inseminate lesbian couples.

The committee is an independent, government-appointed agency that investigates citizens' discrimination complaints. Its rulings are not binding

According to news reports, several closeted married men also have been bashed but did not report the attacks for fear their wives would learn they have homosexual sex.

BRAZILIAN MAN

KILLED BY BASHERS

Skinheads in Sao Paulo, Brazil, killed a gay man in the city's cruisy Republic Plaza Feb. 6 by beating him with brass knuckles and chains and kicking him with steel-toed boots while they shouted anti-gay epithets.

Dog trainer Edson Neris Da Silva, 35, died in a nearby hospital shortly after the attack.

Police promptly swooped down on a nearby skinhead bar and arrested 30 people. The 18 who were adults were charged with aggravated homicide and illegal congregation. Witnesses have fingered three of the adults as participants in the beating.

Gay groups, politicians and humanrights activists staged a large anti-violence rally Feb. 12 at the site of Neris' death.

According to activist records, 1,600 homosexuals and transvestites have been murdered in Brazil in the past 10 years because of their sexuality.

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