International News Report


GAY MAN TORCHES HIMSELF AT THE VATICAN

A gay man from Palermo, Sicily, torched himself in the Vatican's St. Peter's Square January 13 then rushed fully ablaze toward the entrance to the basilica.

Alfredo Ormando, 40, collapsed before he could enter the church. Documents found in his nearby coat said he was protesting society's and his family's failure to understand homosexuals.

Police doused Ormando with fire extinguishers. He is hospitalized in serious condition with burns over 90 percent of his body.

The Catholic Church does not condemn homosexuals per se but it insists that any sex act that is not open to the possibility of procreation is a "mortal sin" that leads to Hell.


AUSTRALIAN MILITARY CAN KICK OUT HIV-POSITIVES

The Australian military has the right to kick out any member who tests positive for HIV, chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C, a federal court in Brisbane ruled January 13.

The court ordered the Equal Opportunity Commission to reconsider a finding that the policy was discriminatory, saying the risk of bloodshed during military service is too great to tolerate soldiers with permanent blood-borne infections.


U.S. ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE ROMANIA

Two U.S. gay activists visited Romania January 12-15 to encourage authorities to legalize gay sex.

At a press conference, Jeri Laber of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Scott Long of Human Rights Watch presented a report entitled "Public Scandals: Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania."

"This report documents case after case of detentions, beatings, and harassment directed at gay men and lesbians," Long said.

Romania bans gay sex that "provokes a public scandal" including sex in private that somehow upsets a third party.

It also bans gay organizations and everything else gay. It is an offense punishable by one to five years imprisonment "to entice or seduce a person to practice same-sex acts, as well as to form propaganda associations, or to engage in other forms of proselytizing with the same aim."

Romania needs to liberalize its anti-gay laws before its application for admission to the European Union can receive proper consideration.