News: Time.Com reporting France Overruled on Gay Adoption

By Bruce Crumley

The European Court of Human Rights overturned French court rulings that
prevented a single lesbian woman from adopting a child; the move opens the
way for legal challenges in other European states, but does not oblige all
countries to allow gay adoption.

Thursday 01.24.08
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1706514,00.html


Social and political conservatives have tended to be more cautious European
enthusiasts than their leftist peers. This week provided another example
why that’s the case. In a decision setting precedence not just across the
27-nation European Union, but indeed throughout the entire 47-member
Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights overturned French
court rulings that prevented a single lesbian woman from adopting a child.
The move, gay and lesbian groups say opens the way for legal challenges in
other European states with adoption laws similar to those of France — yet
falls well short of a blanket ruling that would oblige all countries to
allow adoption by homosexuals.


In a 10-7 vote, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Strasbourg
Tuesday that a plaintiff identified only as Emmanuelle B. had been the
victim of illegal discrimination when successive French authorities denied
her request to adopt a child in 1998. The court faulted French criticism
over “the lack of a paternal referent in the household”, and elsewhere said
the woman’s homosexuality had been “if not explicit, at least implicit” in
France’s rejection of her adoption request. The Court judged France had
violated the European Convention on Human Rights — to which France and the
other 46 Council of Europe members are signatories — based on its refusal
to allow a single lesbian adopt in a manner it allows straight singles to.


“French law allowed single parents to adopt a child, thereby opening up the
possibility for adoption by a single homosexual,” the judgment found. In
addition to opening the way for the 45 year-old nursery school teacher, who
has lived with her female partner for nearly 20 years, to see through her
desire to adopt, the Court also ordered France to pay Emmanuelle B. $14,600
in damages, and $21,210 in legal costs.


Gay rights organizations in France and across Europe hailed the ruling for
taking on one of the main kinds of discrimination homosexuals continue to
face. Some conservatives, however, were as equally outspoken in the
condemnation of the decision. Michèle Tabarot, a parliamentarian for the
ruling conservative Movement for a Popular Majority Party and the president
of France’s Superior Council on Adoption, reacted with charges “the judges
are over-stepping their role by going beyond what the law says, and by
imposing their conception” of justice. Tabarot also noted that if French
rules allowing singles to adopt children as a means of increasing the
number of potential homes for orphans, they weren’t intended to alter
official French views on gay parenting. “In France the parliament never
sought to open adoption to homosexuals,” she noted.


Indeed, Tuesday’s ruling, in many ways, represents a back door to equal
treatment starkly contrasting the more traditional attitudes and laws
prevalent in most of Europe. Franck Tanguy, spokesman for France’s
Association of Gay and Lesbian Parents, confirms “this ruling is a step in
the right direction”, in that it “requires countries that, like France,
allow singles to adopt children to treat unmarried homosexual and
heterosexual applicants in exactly the same manner.” Failure to do so in
any country with such legislation, Tanguy says, means they’d “find
themselves condemned again and again for discrimination by the many single
homosexuals who’d use this precedent to base a legal defense on”. However,
Tanguy regrets the ruling “won’t change anything in countries that don’t
allow any singles to adopt, nor force nations that don’t allow homosexual
couples to adopt to change their laws”.


There are currently nine European countries that permit gay and lesbian
couples to adopt children: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Iceland,
Norway, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Sweden. Though a boon for single
homosexuals seeking to adopt children where unwed heterosexuals are allowed
to do so, Tanguy says Tuesday’s ruling may cause countries considering
allowing adoption by non-married straight couples to shelve such plans in
order to maintain the prohibition for gays and lesbians.

News: 365.com Reporting Al Gore Voices Support for Gay Marriage

Al Gore Voices Support For Gay Marriage
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 23, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET

(New York City) Former Vice President Al Gore has come out in favor of
same-sex marriage.

"I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to
heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and lesbians," Gore said in a
posting on his person blog in the Current.com website.

"Shouldn’t we be promoting the kind of faithfulness and loyalty to one’s
partner regardless of sexual orientation?"

Current is the news network founded by Gore.

"[T]he loyalty and love that two people feel for one another when they fall
in love ought to be celebrated and encouraged and shouldn’t be prevented by
any form of discrimination in the law," Gore said in the video posting.

In 2000 when he ran for president Gore said he supported civil unions or
contracts but not marriage.
His turnaround was hailed by gay Democrats.

"We applaud Vice President Gore for firmly stating his support for allowing
same-sex couples the freedom to marry. It is a position which some would
still call courageous, but which a new generation of Americans would call
common sense," said Jon Hoadley, Executive Director of National Stonewall
Democrats.

"Vice President Gore has demonstrated leadership on this subject, and we
encourage all Democratic leaders who restrain their consciences out of
political expediency to demonstrate their leadership as well."
None of the frontrunners seeking the Democratic nomination for president
supports same-sex marriage.

"Clearly, the environment is not the only thing that Al Gore is right
about," said Sean Kosofsky a spokesperson for Triangle Foundation,
Michigan's largest LGBT rights group.

In New Jersey, where gays are pressing the legislature for same-sex
marriage, Garden State Equality said Gore's remarks made him the
highest-ranking public figure in the United States to endorse marriage
equality for same-sex couples.

New Jersey allows civil unions but Garden State Equality says it has
received complaints from 512 couples since the law took effect on February
19, 2007 that employers are not respecting their civil unions because civil
unions are not marriage.

Nearly 100 civil-unioned couples and other witnesses recently testified
about the failure of the civil union law over eight hours of hearings of
the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, which will release its first
interim report on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, the one-year anniversary of
the law.

"Al Gore gets it in a way that the others don't," said Steven Goldstein,
chair of Garden State Equality.

"In the real world, civil unions don't give same-sex couples the rights and
benefits of marriage, because employers view civil unions as inferior. In
New Jersey, the failure of employers to recognize civil unions like
marriage has resulted in a failure rate of our civil union law of at least
1 in every 5."

Legislation to allow gays and lesbians to marry in Maryland will be
introduced on Friday.

The issue of same-sex marriage will be argued in the California Supreme
Court later this year, and in Vermont, the first state to allow civil
unions, a committee set up by lawmakers will deliver its report on whether
to convert civil unions to marriage sometime this spring.

Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex marriage is legal.

©365Gay.com 2008 [source]

News: Gay and Lesbian Medical Association: Press Release on MRSA Infection

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 19, 2008

CONTACT: Joel Ginsberg | jginsberg@glma.org | 415-255-4547 x314

GAY AND LESBIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON
MULTI-DRUG-RESISTANT MRSA BACTERIA STRAIN

SAN FRANCISCO – There has been widespread media coverage recently about a drug-resistant strain of MRSA bacteria, known as USA300, found in gay men in San Francisco and Boston. The findings were reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Unfortunately, some of the media stories have made claims not fully supported by the research or have stigmatized gay men by distinguishing them from “the general population.” Further, some right wing groups and commentators have seized upon this story as an opportunity to spread misinformation about homosexuality.

Epidemiological research documenting the spread of this strain was posted in an online article on the Annals of Internal Medicine website. The strains of MRSA described in the article have mostly been identified in certain gay men in only two geographic regions and specific sexual behaviors were not assessed, so no conclusions can be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all gay men or about the association of the infection with specific male-male sexual practices.

While the infection may be linked to intimate contact, the infection can also be spread by skin-to-skin contact and by sharing towels and other personal items. The CDC states that there “is no evidence at this time to suggest that MRSA is a sexually-transmitted infection in the classical sense.”

MRSA infection can be a serious matter, but if recognized early, the infection can be treated effectively. The CDC recommends the following to prevent the spread of MRSA:

1. Cover your wound. Keep wounds that are draining or have pus covered with clean, dry bandages. Follow your healthcare provider’s instructions on proper care of the wound. Pus from infected wounds can contain staph and MRSA, so keeping wounds covered will help prevent the spread to others. Bandages or tape can be discarded with the regular trash.

2. Clean your hands. You, your family, and others in close contact should wash their hands frequently with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially after changing the bandage or touching the infected wounds.

3. Do not share personal items. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, washcloths, razors, clothing, or uniforms that may have had contact with infected wounds or bandages. Wash sheets, towels, and clothes that become soiled with water and laundry detergent. Drying clothes in a hot dryer, rather than air-drying, also helps kill bacteria in clothes.

4. Talk to your doctor. Tell any healthcare providers who treat you that you have or had a staph or MRSA skin infection.

To read the CDC’s statement about this issue, go to http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/2008/t080116.htm.

The mission of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association is to ensure equality in healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and healthcare professionals. More information is available at www.glma.org.

Pink News: Cameroon men get six months jail for being gay

16th January 2008 18:35
PinkNews.co.uk staff writer

Three men have been sentenced to six month hard labour for being homosexual.
The men were arrested in Bonapriso, Douala, on August 31st 2007 by police officers making random arrests in search of armed robbers.
After being beaten at the police station, one of the men confessed to being homosexual and implicated his two colleagues.
"As soon as the shadow of homosexuality enters into a case due process goes out of the window," commented International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Campaign Programme Associate Joel Nana, who has been monitoring the cases.
The three men's lawyer said she would appeal the convictions and none of the men had been found guilty of homosexual acts.
Article 347 of the country's penal code prohibits consensual same-sex relationships. The men have been held in jail since August.
People currently detained on grounds of homosexuality all have cases riddled with irregularities and have been subject to procedures that are inconsistent with the new Cameroonian code of penal procedure.
After arrest, alleged homosexuals are detained for investigation for longer time periods that the law prescribes.
If they are lucky enough to find a lawyer, then they undergo an endless number of trials.
"This is a tactic that the court frequently uses in the cases of gay men and lesbians," said Sebastien Mandeng, human rights researcher at Alternatives-Cameroon, the national LGBT organisation.
"They needlessly prolong the process with no legal justification in order to unofficially punish and imprison the accused."
More than 30 people have been arrested in Cameroon in the last two years on charges of homosexuality, despite an October 2006 ruling by the United Nations that such arrests to be arbitrary and unfair.
Dozens of students, particularly girls and young women, have been expelled from schools as result of their real or perceived sexual orientation.
Alternatives-Cameroun has documented the cases of more than 13 other men currently being detained in Cameroon under Article 347.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has declared that detention on the basis of sexual orientation in Cameroon constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty contrary to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The UN human rights body called on the government of Cameroon to adopt necessary measures to remedy the situation, including the possible repeal of Article 347.
The human rights groups Alternatives-Cameroun, Amnesty International, IGLHRC, Les Pantheres Rose, and OUT are calling for the repeal of Article 347, the release of all individuals detained under this law, and an end to official discrimination based on sexual orientation in Cameroon.

News: Bad News from Morocco

Morocco court upholds jail for 6 for homosexual acts
Tue 15 Jan 2008, 21:00 GMT

RABAT, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A Moroccan appeal court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of six men jailed for homosexual acts after video images of a man dressed as a woman dancing at a party sparked street protests and a police investigation, lawyers said.

The six were arrested in late November after rumours spread that a party they had held in the northern town of Ksar el Kebir was really an illegal gay wedding.

The national press pounced on the story, and Islamist groups condemned what they saw as an attack on public morals and demanded an official investigation.

Hundreds of angry residents marched through Ksar el Kebir to demand "justice" and put pressure on the authorities to hand out harsh sentences.

The six men were found guilty and given jail sentences by a lower court last month. They had all pleaded not guilty.

The appeal court upheld a 10-month sentence against the party's alleged organiser, identified as F., for homosexuality and the illegal sale of alcohol, defence lawyer Mohamed Sebbar said.

The five others had their jail terms cut to between two and four months from between four and six months, he said. All six had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"It's a very severe judgment because this case is empty," said Sebbar. "There is no proof that these men practised homosexuality in the affair of Ksar el Kebir."

"Lewd or unnatural acts" between people of the same sex are crimes under Moroccan law and those found guilty face between six months and three years in jail and a fine of up to 1,000 Moroccan dirhams ($130).

Amnesty International said it considered the men to be prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate release.

"We're also concerned for their safety," said Amnesty's Benedicte Goderiaux. "Some of them should get out of prison within about 15 days -- what will happen to them after all the public threats against them?"