French Senator Comes Out Gay Filipino Sex Slave Seeks Reparations Slovenia Bans Workplace Discrimination

By Rex Wockner International News Report French Senator Comes Out Sen. Bertrand Delanoe French Senator Bertrand Delanoe, a Paris Socialist, came out of the closet on the M6 network TV program Zone Interdite (No-man's Land) November 24. "I'm a homosexual," Delanoe said. "Perhaps I'm under-estimating the consequences of the discussion we are having today but I'm 48 years old [and] I must live my convictions. ... And my career has never been the most important thing to me. "I would really prefer the citizens to be indifferent [to my sexuality]," he said. Delanoe also is secretary of the Senate's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and is planning to run for mayor of Paris in 2001. According to French media, the only other open gay in French politics is Pau Mayor and National Assembly Deputy Andre Labarrere. Gay Filipino Sex Slave Seeks Reparations A 74-year-old gay man in Manila, the Philippines, is seeking reparations from Japan for being kept as a sex slave during World War II. Walter Dempster says he and five of his drag-queen friends were kidnapped, taken to a garrison in suburban Manila, and forced to service Japanese soldiers for several months. "We were mauled, punched, kicked, slapped, pinched with cigarette butts and hit with bayonets until we bled," Dempster told the Manila Standard newspaper. "Then we were pushed on the table face down where a long queue of Japanese soldiers waited their turn." Dempster is receiving assistance in his court case from a Manila city councilor. Slovenia Bans Workplace Discrimination Slovenia banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace October 24. Article 6 of the Law On Work Relations now reads: "An employer may not put an employment-seeker in an unequal position because of his/her race, skin color, gender, age, medical condition, religious, political or other belief, membership in a union, national or social origin, family status, wealth status, sexual orientation or other personal circumstance."

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