The International Lesbian and Gay Association will celebrate its 20th birthday this summer.

"It's a good time to reflect on ... just how far we've come [but] it's also important to remember how far we still have to go before lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered people are given equal recognition in all areas of life," the group said in its quarterly bulletin.

The publication described ILGA's mission as "to recognize the global family of lesbians and gay men, to work on those international laws and bodies that affect our lives, and to use our international networks to support those fighting nationally for their rights."

ILGA is a federation of several hundred gay groups and individuals from more than 80 countries. It stages conferences, publishes the bulletin, issues action alerts, and networks Western nations with the growing gay movements of the Third World and former communist nations. Recent ILGA initiatives have increased gay clout within the European Union, the World Health Organization, Amnesty International and other international bodies.

"With e-mail whizzing messages around the world, borders undergoing reconsideration and readjustment around the world, and lesbians and gay men still fighting for their lives -- the world is a much smaller place," the group said. "Those tools that make it smaller also give us the means to publicize the news and start to agitate about the problems."

The group may be reached at ilga@ilga.org.

International Gay & Lesbian Association & Amnesty International Meet

Meeting with Amnesty International Secretary General Pierre Sane March 25 in Barcelona, International Lesbian and Gay Association Secretary General Jordi Petit asked Amnesty for a greater commitment to the human rights of gays and lesbians.

At its last International Council Meeting, Amnesty agreed to intensify its work on behalf of people imprisoned because of their homosexuality, to boost its efforts in researching and publicizing such cases, and to organize a network of Amnesty members working on gay issues.

But, Petit noted, Amnesty still has not added "sexual orientation" to its mandate -- a necessary step if persons jailed under laws that ban homosexuality are to receive Amnesty's strongest support.

"Pierre Sane acknowledged that [this] would be a necessarily sensitive task in countries with a tradition of homophobia and said that it would be a gradual process to achieve full recognition of the rights of gays and lesbians," Petit said after the meeting.

Zimbabwe: Former President Banana's Sodomy Case to Go to Trial

Zimbabwe's highest court ruled March 26 that former President Canaan Banana will go to trial for allegedly forcing himself sexually on several male aides.

Banana, who was president from 1980-1987, had claimed he could not receive a fair trial because of extensive media attention but the court disagreed. He is charged with 11 counts of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault on seven aides, a cook, a gardener and a bodyguard.

Banana, 62, claims innocence. "The so-called allegations are a mortuary of pathological lies, a malicious vendetta of vilification and character assassination," he has said.

Contributing to this week's report: Coordinadora Gai-Lesbiana, GLAAD, NewsPlanet, Slawek Starosta.

Rex Wockner's weekly international news reports dating back to May 1994 can be searched at http://www.wockner.com. The reports in their original form are archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html, which also archives Wockner's Quote Unquote column and some of his longer gay-press articles.