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Receives Letter Bomb Report: Taiwanese Gays are Invisible Turkey Bars Gay Tourists Then Apologizes |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report Brazilian Gay Group Receives Letter Bomb
The return address was for a skinhead, neo-Nazi group, police said. Another letter bomb bearing the same return address was received Sept. 5 by Amnesty International. It, too, was diffused by police. On the same day, two lawmakers who head human-rights commissions received hate mail from the same address. The skinhead group has declared a new campaign against gays, blacks, and migrants from the northeast of the nation, according to Brazilian newspapers. Report: Taiwanese Gays are Invisible
At present, many gays are more preoccupied with finding a mate than with fighting for political recognition, Ping told the paper. "A search for support in their personal lives is an even more immediate concern for gays and lesbians in Taiwan," he said. "As long as finding a partner remains difficult for most people, we can hardly expect them to think of the higher goal of fighting for rights." According to Jan Jin-yen, chairman of the Taiwan Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Association, "We know collective action is important for us to achieve many things, but at this moment we need some sort of momentum." Momentum could come from a government-sponsored, first-ever gay festival that was held September 3 at Warner Village Square near City Hall. The event, staged by the city's Bureau of Civil Affairs, featured a band, dancers, a gay history exhibit, and booths staffed by gay organizations. An accompanying forum at City Hall featured U.S. activists Michael Bronski and Nan Hunter discussing gay civil rights and activism. In preparation for the events the bureau printed pamphlets for the general public explaining gay history and culture and that homosexuality is biologically based. It also published a guide to the island's gay groups and meeting places. Turkey Bars Gay Tourists Then Apologizes Turkish police barred about 800 mostly American gay tourists from visiting sites near the Aegean port of Kusadasi September 6. Turkish press reports said the authorities feared the gays would disrupt a traditional all-male wrestling contest at Edirne near the Bulgarian border. Earlier this year, organizers of the contest expressed disgust when a Turkish gay "bears" organization announced plans to attend the event. Most of the American tourists were rounded up and forced to return to their Atlantis Events cruise ship; others were prevented from leaving the ship. U.S. State Department officials protested the incident to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and told U.S. consul general Frank Urbancic to join the gays for the remainder of their trip to prevent further problems, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told The New York Times. A spokeswoman for the Turkish Embassy in Washington scoffed at suggestions the tourists were mistreated because they are gay. But gay activist David Mixner, who spoke with the tour organizer, told the Times: "They were not allowed off the ship because they were gay. This was not a secret. There was no issue other than that." According to other reports, the mayor of Kusadasi boarded the ship later in the day to apologize for the mistreatment, and Turkish Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu told local media: "We are not in a position to make judgments about peoples' sexual preferences. They are in Istanbul now, and I think they will end their visit without meeting any more problems." Police met the group in Istanbul and escorted them throughout their visit there to prevent further troubles. Nineteen people who tried to harass the group in the city's historic Sultanahmet quarter were arrested, according to a Reuters dispatch.
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Police defused a letter bomb sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil's Gay
Pride Parade Association Sept. 6.
