The International Lesbian and Gay Association is lobbying Amnesty International to add sexual orientation to its statute as a fundamental category of human rights needing special protection.

AI's International Council will consider such a proposal at its year-end meeting in South Africa.

"It would be an important legal, practical and symbolic step towards better international protection of the fundamental human rights of lesbians and gays," said ILGA Co-Secretaries General Jennifer Wilson and Jordi Petit. "This proposed change to AI's statute is also important because it recognizes the fact that sexual orientation is a fundamental, distinct and irreducible attribute of human identity. Sexual orientation is not simply another dimension of gender or culture, but a basic category in its own right."

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, the Council of Europe and the World Health Organization.

The legislature of Canada's Northwest Territories voted 10-5 last month against allowing same-sex alimony and survivor pensions.

The NWT is one of four provinces or territories that do not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, along with Alberta, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

Alberta is in the midst of a court challenge over the matter and Newfoundland is expected to pass a gay-protection bill in the current legislative session.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has reduced the number of tickets members can purchase for the Mardi Gras and Sleaze Ball parties from five to three because the events have become overrun with heterosexuals who obtain tickets from their gay pals.

Mardi Gras President Bev Lange said she hopes members will think carefully about who they bring as guests.

"You can purchase tickets for yourself and two close friends whom you know will add to the lesbian and gay atmosphere at the party," she told Melbourne Star Observer.

Rex Wockner's gay-press reporting since May 1994 is archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html.