Badpuppy Gay Today

Friday, 4 April 1997

IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S SUPERGAY!
Mexico has a history of activist superheros and the newest one, SuperGay, is making quite a splash in Mexico City.

Sporting a black suit with pink trim and a pink-triangle shield on his chest, he promises to lead marches, enliven meetings and negotiate with the authorities.

In his first appearance, SuperGay slapped a "Closed" sticker on the offices of the anti-gay National Action Party, the most conservative of Mexico's three main political parties.

"I will try to unite the gay community," he told the IPS news agency. "We must keep together in order to end homophobia. I will not rest in the fight to defend our community and the cause of justice."

In real life, SuperGay is a 27-year old office worker, he said.

The head of Mexico City's Gay Cultural Center, Jose Maria Covarrubias, welcomed the masked activist.

"He is a youngster with a lot to offer and so we support him--we want him to grow within our community," Covarrubias said.

NEW STATISTICS ON DANISH GAY MARRIAGE
The Danish gay newspaper Pan-Bladet has reported new official statistics on gay marriage that differ somewhat from earlier reports.

As of March, 1997, Pan-Bladet said, 3,301 individual Danes had entered into the marriage-like registered partnerships that became legal on October 1, 1989.

"However," the newspaper cautioned, "the Danish Bureau of Statistics bases its figures on information received from local civil registers. This means that only Danish nationals are included. The Bureau of Statistics itself judges the statistical uncertainty resulting from this method to be 10-25 percent. Figures for registered partners in Denmark may actually be approximately 4,000, (i.e. 2,000 registered couples)."

Twice as many men as women have registered--2,194 to 1,107. One hundred eighty women and 250 men have dissolved their partnerships. Twenty-seven female and 220 male partnerships ended due to death.

That makes the lesbian divorce rate 16.2 percent compared with 11.4 percent for gay men.

Four countries offer marriage-like gay partnerships: Denmark (and Greenland), Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The laws grant all rights of matrimony except access to adoption, artificial conception technology and church weddings. In Iceland, though, partners can obtain joint custody of each other's biological children.

Hungary last year legalized common-law gay marriage after the Constitutional Court mandated the move. All matrimonial rights are included except access to adoption.

Denmark's law took effect following a 71-47 vote by the Folketing (parliament). Greenland, a Danish dependency, hesitated then adopted the Danish law in 1994. Norway's law came into effect August 1, 1993, following parliamentary votes of 58-40 (Odelsting chamber) and 18-16 (Lagting chamber). Sweden joined the club January 1, 1995, following a vote of 171-141 with 5 abstentions and 32 absences.

Gay partnerships became legal in Iceland last June 27, gay-pride day there. The Althing, the parliament, voted for the law 44-1 with 1 abstention and 17 MP's missing from the chamber. Public opposition was minimal and Icelandic President Vigdis Finnbogadottir was guest of honor at the nation's first gay wedding reception.

Foreign couples may not travel to Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden for a gay wedding. At least half of a couple must be a citizen of the nation in question and must be living there when the wedding occurs.

Unrestricted gay marriage (i.e. letting gays marry under the same laws as heterosexuals) is expected to become available in Hawaii in 1998 and Holland in 2000. Gays from anywhere then would be able to get married in those locales.

GERMAN JUDGE THROWS OUT TOILET ARRESTS
Three men masturbating together in a Munich, Germany subway toilet did not "breach the peace" or commit "gross indecency," a judge ruled March 24, reported Sueddeutsche Zeittung.

The men were arrested by two plainclothes police officers who allegedly were looking for drug dealers.

But the judge said the officers would have to have felt personally sexually molested for the charges against the men to make sense.

One of the men, a married Turkish father, denied he had been masturbating and explained to the court in great detail how his urination ritual might be misconstrued as self-stimulation.