Gay Today: World

Indian Lesbians Demand Decriminalization

No Refuge in Canada for Colombian

Fuji: Sexual Minorities Organize

By Rex Wockner
International News Report

Indian Lesbians Demand Decriminalization

India's Campaign for Lesbian Rights demanded August 10 that the government repeal a Victorian-era British Empire law that bans gay sex.

"This law has now been scrapped in England whereas in India it is still in force," the group said in a statement. "No lesbian may have been picked up and flung into jail because of this 138-year- old law drafted by Lord Macauly in the 1830s. But it is used to blackmail Indian lesbians, force them to consent to marriage and be invisible."

A 1994 Delhi High Court lawsuit seeking to overturn the law has yet to result in a ruling, according to an Agence France-Presse report.

Scenes from lesbian-themed film from India, Fire

fire3.jpg - 19.25 K

No Refuge in Canada for Colombian

Refugee Corredor Serrano, 35, cannot stay in Canada to escape homophobic abuse at home in Colombia, the Federal Court of Canada ruled August 11.

In upholding a decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board, the court said Serrano is not in serious danger in Colombia because he's not overtly gay, doesn't frequent gay venues, and doesn't live a gay lifestyle.

Nonetheless, Serrano said Colombian police had beaten him and vandalized his business due to his sexual orientation. They also outed him to his family, forcing him to leave his village of 700 people and relocate to a larger city, he said.

More than 200 foreign homosexuals have received asylum in Canada since 1992.

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Fuji: Sexual Minorities Organize

Fiji's first gay group, the Sexual Minorities Project, has formed under the auspices of the organization Women's Action for Change. And coordinator Trisa Cheer has sent out a call for information on "the study of whether being gay is genetic or not."

"At the moment there has been quite a debate in our country about it," she said. "But without actual facts we, the sexual minorities, cannot really argue with them.

"A whole page in one of our newspapers, The Fiji Times, featured a psychiatrist who is the medical superintendent of our mental hospital [who] says that we can be saved, and I quote:

'I have helped boys and girls who think they have homosexual tendencies and rescued them from such ideas. ... It's become a fad now. That the in thing to be now is gay.'

Comments like these in our dailies do not help in our work because we are already having to deal with culture and religion which is hard enough as it is."

To assist the organization, write, Trisa Cheer, Coordinator, Sexual Minorities Project, Women's Action for Change, P.O. Box 12398, Suva, Fiji. Phone 011-679-314363. Fax 011-679-305033. E- mail: wac@is.com.fj.