Moscow Pride: Third times a charm?

(Feb 4, 2008) - Despite bans from the mayor and violent attacks from neofascists, skinheads, Christians and police in 2006 and 2007, Moscow gays will again try to stage a gay pride parade this year.     International News by Rex Wockner   (Feb 4, 2008) - Despite bans from the mayor and violent attacks from neofascists, skinheads, Christians and police in 2006 and 2007, Moscow gays will again try to stage a gay pride parade this year.   "The authorities have no legal basis for banning the event," said chief organizer Nikolai Alekseev. "That is why, even if they ban it again, we will still go on the streets to realize our constitutional right to freedom of assembly."   The parade is set for May 31, after an international human rights conference scheduled for May 30.   A lawsuit over Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's ban of the 2006 parade is presently before the European Court of Human Rights.   Last year, Luzhkov unleashed a harsh attack on the parade, saying: "[In 2006], Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children."   Activists did not attempt to defy last year's ban. Instead, they gathered near City Hall on pride day to protest the ban. A mêlée ensued and several gays and lesbians were beaten and bloodied by Orthodox Christian and ultra-nationalist protesters as hundreds of police officers stood by and watched. Thirty-one people were detained, including members of European parliaments who had traveled to Moscow to support the pride events.   "On numerous occasions," said the BBC, "nationalists circled gay rights activists as they spoke with journalists, then reached in to punch or kick the person being interviewed. Police intervened to arrest dozens of gay rights activists and only rarely detained their attackers."   "There is no rule of law in Moscow," said British gay leader Peter Tatchell, who suffered a swollen and bloodied right eye in the mêlée. "The right to protest does not exist. This is not a democracy."   Tatchell said "marauding gangs" of "neo-Nazis, nationalist extremists and Russian Orthodox fundamentalists ... infiltrated the gay pride crowd and began indiscriminately attacking participants. The Moscow police looked on and did nothing."   "It was [a] short [pride]," Dutch European Parliament Member Sophie in 't Veld said at the time. "Police did nothing to arrest hooligans. ... I saw a guy with a knife ... and I thought: 'That's it. I'm out of here.'"   Pride participant Claudia Roth, chairwoman of Germany's Green Party, said, "It has been shown once again today that human rights are systematically abused in [President Vladimir] Putin's Russia."   The 2006 pride events met the same fate. After Luzhkov banned the parade, organizers tried to lay flowers at the Kremlin's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and hold a rally near City Hall. Participants in both small events were violently attacked by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police, and the pride organizers were arrested. The charges were later dropped.

Police close Buenos Aires bear club

(Feb 4, 2008) - City inspectors and federal police shut down the Buenos Aires Bears clubhouse Jan. 23.     International News by Rex Wockner   (Feb 4, 2008) - City inspectors and federal police shut down the Buenos Aires Bears clubhouse Jan. 23.   The officials claimed they were verbally instructed by higher-ups to close the building because of a pre-existing closure order that had resulted from a noise complaint.   But a spokesman for the club, Marcelo Surano, said the noise complaint had been resolved and the facility has newer paperwork authorizing its operation.   The raiding officers had no documents to back up their claims, so the bears refused to let them into the building. But the bears left nonetheless, and the officers then slapped a "closed" notice on the entrance.   "Under this city government, it seems that the police feel protected in having discriminatory attitudes toward gays and lesbians," María Rachid, president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans (FALGBT), told the newspaper Página/12.   Rachid said FALGBT will file a complaint with federal Justice officials over the federal police's attempt "to enter a private place without a legitimate official order."   "This is a violation of human rights," she said.   The group also will send a letter to Mayor Mauricio Macri denouncing the city inspectors' "discriminatory attitudes."

Swiss experts say HIV+ people with no viral load cannot transmit HIV

(Feb 4, 2008) - Swiss AIDS officials have determined that if you're taking anti-HIV drugs and you always take the drugs on schedule and your HIV blood tests come back "undetectable" for six months in a row and you don't have any other sexually transmitted diseases, it is next to impossible that you could transmit HIV during unprotected sex (barebacking).     International News by Rex Wockner   (Feb 4, 2008) - Swiss AIDS officials have determined that if you're taking anti-HIV drugs and you always take the drugs on schedule and your HIV blood tests come back "undetectable" for six months in a row and you don't have any other sexually transmitted diseases, it is next to impossible that you could transmit HIV during unprotected sex (barebacking).   The Swiss Federal Commission on HIV/AIDS issued its stunning report Jan. 30, concluding that people with HIV who have no detectable viral load as a result of anti-retroviral treatment apparently are unable to transmit the virus.   The report said an individual becomes noninfectious if he or she has had an undetectable viral load for six months, doesn't skip any doses of HIV medication and has no other STDs.   The commission arrived at its position following an extensive review of scientific literature, after prolonged discussions, and upon recommendation of its Subcomission on Clinical and Therapeutic Aspects.   In an English summary of its report, the agency said: "During effective ART [anti-retroviral therapy], free virus is absent from blood and genital secretions. Epidemiologic and biologic data indicate that during such treatment, there is no relevant risk of transmission. Residual risk cannot be scientifically excluded, but is, in the judgment of the commission, negligibly small.   "The commission realizes that medical and biologic data available today do not permit proof that HIV infection during effective ART is impossible, because the non-occurrence of an improbable event cannot be proven. If no transmission events were observed among 100 couples followed for two years, for instance, there might still be some such events if 10,000 couples are followed for 10 years.   "The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement 'HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing' was publicized," the commission said. "This statement cannot be proven, but after 20 years' experience its accuracy appears highly plausible.   "Concerning the statement, 'An HIV-infected person on anti-retroviral therapy with completely suppressed viremia ... cannot propagate HIV through sexual contact,' however, the evidence is much better than what was available in 1986 regarding kissing."  

Ruling: N.Y. must recognize same-sex marriages from elsewhere

(Feb 11, 2008) - A New York appellate court ruled unanimously Feb. 1 that the state must recognize same-sex marriages from countries that allow them -- Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa -- and from Massachusetts, the only U.S. state that allows them.       US News by Rex Wockner   (Feb 11, 2008) - A New York appellate court ruled unanimously Feb. 1 that the state must recognize same-sex marriages from countries that allow them -- Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa -- and from Massachusetts, the only U.S. state that allows them.   "Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York state," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed the case. "You are now considered married in New York as well."   The case, Martinez v. County of Monroe, was filed in 2005 on behalf of Patricia Martinez, an employee of Monroe Community College in Rochester, who married her wife, Lisa Golden, in Ontario and then was not allowed to add Golden to her health-insurance plan.   The case dealt solely with whether the time-honored "marriage recognition rule" applies to same-sex marriages.   "If a marriage is valid in the state or country in which the marriage took place, New York law generally requires the recognition of that marriage," said Arthur Eisenberg, the NYCLU's legal director. "This case involved a straightforward application of that principle."   Canada has no citizenship or residency requirements for getting married, and numerous U.S. same-sex couples have crossed the border and tied the knot, often in a one-day visit.

Eight men jailed in Egypt on homosexuality charges

(Feb 11, 2008) - Human Rights Watch on Feb. 5 highlighted the cases of eight men incarcerated in Cairo, Egypt, following homosexuality-related arrests or convictions       International News by Rex Wockner   (Feb 11, 2008) - Human Rights Watch on Feb. 5 highlighted the cases of eight men incarcerated in Cairo, Egypt, following homosexuality-related arrests or convictions.   Two men were arrested last October while having an argument on the street, after one of them told police officers he was HIV-positive. They were handcuffed to a desk for four days in the office of the Morality Police, were later subjected to anal probes and forced HIV testing, reportedly tested positive, and remain in custody in a hospital handcuffed to beds 23 hours a day.   Two other men were arrested because their phone numbers or photographs were in the possession of the first two men. They also were force-tested for HIV and remain in custody pending possible filing of charges.   Four additional men were arrested in November after they secured a lease and moved into the apartment of one of the first four men. They were tortured in custody; deprived of food, drink and blankets; and force-tested for HIV. In January, the four were convicted of "habitual practice of debauchery" and sentenced to one year in prison. On Feb. 2, the convictions were upheld on appeal.   One of the men was told he is HIV-positive and is incarcerated in a hospital chained to a bed 23 hours a day.   "These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished," said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's LGBT Rights Program. "HIV tests forcibly taken without consent, ill treatment in detention, trials driven by prejudice, and convictions without evidence all violate international law."   HRW has urged authorities to drop all charges, stop chaining detainees to hospital beds, and make sure the eight men receive good medical care for any serious health conditions.