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386 Gay Couples Marry in the Netherlands |
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By Rex Wockner
Activists Remain Jailed in Lucknow, India
Several employees of the Lucknow, India, AIDS
organizations Bharosa Trust and Naz Foundation
International remain jailed, charged with conspiracy
to commit "unnatural sexual acts" and possession of
obscene material.
The agencies were raided on July 7. A judge refused the arrestees' bail requests on July 11, accusing them of "polluting the entire society by encouraging the young persons and abating [sic] them to committing the offence of sodomy." The AIDS work of both organizations has been supported by the Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society and India's National AIDS Control Organization. The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission denounced the arrests on July 25. "The use of police force to raid agencies and arrest staff engaging in government-sanctioned HIV/AIDS prevention activities -- the conflation of this educational activity with abetting, spreading, and conspiring to commit sodomy -- reflects ignorance and prejudice masquerading as enforcement of the law," IGLHRC said. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code punishes sodomy with up to 10 years in prison. 386 Gay Couples Marry in the Netherlands
Gay couples from other nations can marry in The Netherlands as long as one of the individuals has lived there for at least four months. Readers of De Gay Krant magazine are assisting foreign couples in establishing residency. "These foreigners have to prove that they are using the Amsterdam address for at least four months," said De Gay Krant Publisher Henk Krol. "During these months it is possible that the City Hall will ask them to come by. If this is asked, they have to show up within three weeks. American citizens need a permit to stay that long in The Netherlands, but it is rather easy for Americans to get that permit." For more information, e-mail h.krol@gaykrant.nl. |
