The secretariat general of the Council of Europe granted consultative status to the International Lesbian and Gay Association November 12.

It takes effect January 15 unless objections arise from the Council's Committee of Ministers or Parliamentary Assembly.

ILGA's consultative status at the United Nations has been suspended since 1994 due to the group's inability to prove that no ILGA member organization condones sex between adults and persons under the age of consent (which varies from 12 to 21 worldwide).

ILGA kicked out three pedophile organizations, including NAMBLA, in 1994 after right-wing politicians in the U.S. raised the issue but the U.N. seeks written proof that no other ILGA member group is lax on underage sex, and some ILGA members have resisted signing such a pledge.

ILGA is a federation of several hundred gay groups and individuals from more than 80 countries. It stages conferences, publishes a bulletin, issues action alerts, and networks Western nations with the growing gay movements of the Third World and former communist nations. Recent ILGA initiatives have increased gay clout within the European Union, World Health Organization and Amnesty International.

Turkey's film board chose the gay-themed film Turkish Bath as the nation's candidate for a best-foreign-film Oscar, but the Culture Ministry has overruled the board and submitted a heterosexual love story instead.

The gay movie -- about two men, one married, who fall in love at a mainstream bathhouse -- has been extremely popular in Turkey.

"It is about lack of communication between husband and wife, missing the train on love, nostalgia for the past–universal themes," says director and screenwriter Ferzan Ozpetek. "I'm saying there's no homosexuality or heterosexuality--there is only sexuality. Who can guarantee we won't fall in love with a man or a woman we run into one day?"

Switzerland's two leading gay groups, Pink Cross and the Swiss Lesbian Organization, have presented the Federal Department of Police and Justice with two new partner measures.

One asks for legalization of gay marriage and the other seeks a registered-partnership law that grants the same rights as marriage.

"These detailed proposals are now introduced to the government," said correspondent David Haerry. "The responsible minister has to discuss with his six colleagues. The seven ministers will work out a bill which needs approval in the parliament."

Gay groups obtained the authority to force introduction of the measures by collecting 85,000 signatures in support of legal gay unions, Haerry said.