Ukrainian Authorities Pick on Gay Group

Officials in Ukraine continue to pick on the Our World Gay and Lesbian Center in Lugansk, the center reports.

In the latest volley, the Tax Inspection agency ruled that the organization must pay 30 percent tax on grants it receives because it does not engage in educational, cultural, scientific and health-care activities.

The center's officers say this is exactly what they do and their grants should therefore be tax-free. They have filed suit to reverse the ruling.

A year ago, Our World was denied government registration as a non-profit organization. The center sued, won and was registered.

The Czech Republic's human rights commissioner, Petr Uhl, announced plans May 4 for a new registered-partnership measure. Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Rychetsky said the ruling Social Democrats support the idea and will draft a bill. The Communists also favor it; the Christian Democrats oppose it. The announcement came on the heels of a hundreds-strong lesbian conference in Prague called Aprilfest, which was held April 28- 30. News reports said the conference injected new life into the partnership-law campaign.

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Partnership legislation was rejected by Parliament last December in a 91-69 vote. It would have granted gay couples all rights of marriage except for access to adoption.

Gay couples have nearly all the rights of marriage in Denmark, France, Greenland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. state of Vermont.

Thirty percent of 1,500 gay men surveyed in Sydney, Australia, have anal sex without condoms.

That's an increase of 15 percent since 1996.

But some of the "unsafe" sex can be classified as simply "unprotected" since it involves people who are HIV-positive having sex with each other -- or negatives having sex with each other, said Prof. Susan Kippax, director of the National Centre in HIV Social Research at the University of New South Wales.

Researchers attributed the increase, in part, to the perception that HIV infection is a less serious matter now that the virus can be kept in check in many infected people with a combination of antiretroviral drugs.

They also said there is a greater number of healthy HIV- positives available to have condomless sex together.