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By Rex Wockner
International
News Report
Azarbaijan
Prison Pardons Overlook Gays
The president of the former
Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, Haydar Aliyev, pardoned 10,000 criminals
May 14 in honor of the 80th anniversary of the first Azeri state, which
existed briefly in 1918.
But persons convicted of
homosexuality were not included in the amnesty. They stayed in prison along
with murderers, rapists, traitors, terrorists and thieves.
Nine of the 15 former Soviet
republics have legalized gay sex -- Belarus, Estonia, Kazakstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Those that
have not are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan
Partners
Bill Moves in New Zealand Parliament
A bill that would grant gay
and lesbian couples property rights is moving through the New Zealand Parliament.
The De Facto Relationships Property Bill and Matrimonial Property Amendment
Bill passed a second reading and now faces public submissions and consideration
by a select committee before returning to Parliament for a final vote.
Romanian
Government Hopes to Legalize Same Sex Love
The government of Romania
promised May 7 to legalize homosexuality but the draft measure still has
to make it through an unreceptive parliament.
The nation must decriminalize
homosexuality before its application for admission to the European Union
can receive proper consideration.
Current law states: "Same-sex
relations taking place in public or resulting in a public scandal shall
be punished by one to five years imprisonment. Enticing or seducing a person
to practice same-sex relations -- as well as propaganda, association or
other forms of proselytizing with the same aim -- shall be punished by
one to five years imprisonment."
Gay activists point out that
the wording of the law not only outlaws gay organizations but also criminalizes
private relations between consenting adults if some member of the "public"
manages to become "scandalized" by the relationship.
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.
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