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Russian Gay Bar Targeted by Hooligans |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report Amnesty International Complains to Greece
Seven men are on trial in Athens for engaging in indecent acts between males for financial gain. They could be jailed for up to five years. "All people have the fundamental right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex, which includes sexual orientation," Amnesty said. "Men are discriminated against under Greek legislation because in certain circumstances homosexual acts between men are criminalized while those between women are not." Male-female prostitution and female-female prostitution are not illegal in Greece, Amnesty said. "[Amnesty] would on principle consider any man, including a 'professional' prostitute, imprisoned ... solely for engaging in consensual homosexual activity in private with another adult, for financial gain, or as a profession, to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned on account of his sexual orientation," the group said. Amnesty also protested Greece's unequal age of consent -- 15 for heterosexual sex but 17 for male-male sex. Russian Gay Bar Targeted by Hooligans
Murmansk is 600 miles (965 km) north of St. Petersburg and has a population of 450,000. It is Russia's main Arctic Ocean port and the world's largest city above the Arctic Circle. |
Amnesty International has written to Greek Minister of
Justice Mihailis Stathopoulos denouncing anti-gay
discrimination in the nation's penal code.
