BIG GAY WORLD – December 9th, 1999
New rights in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Gay partners applying for South African residency must be given the same consideration as married spouses, according to a recent Constitutional Court ruling The decision, which further broadens the rights of gay men and lesbians in post-apartheid South Africa, amends the 1991 Aliens Control Act, which allows only foreign husbands or wives of South African citizens to apply for permanent residency.
Judge Laurie Ackermann said the Department of Home Affairs used the law to unfairly discriminate against the partners of gay South Africans. “Such unfair discrimination limits the equality right of such people, ” he said, “and their right to dignity.”
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is outlawed under the constitution adopted in 1997 by a Parliament dominated by anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandelas African National Congress. In 1998, the Constitutional Court struck down laws that criminalized sex between men. Sex between women was never officially banned but was symbolically stigmatized by the old laws, the court said. Before the repeal, sodomy could be punished with up to seven years in prison. Men were not even allowed to have casual contact at social gatherings that could be construed as homosexual behavior.
Condoms pulled off
BEIJING — China pulled its first nationally televised advertisement promoting condom use as an AIDS prevention measure because the announcement reportedly violated a ban on advertising sex products.
The broadcast ad aired for two nights on China Central Television’s Channel 1, the premier broadcast station in the People’s Republic.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce banned the ad the following day citing the prohibition on what it called “the promotion of sexual aids.
Few at anti-gay rally
DES MOINES, lowa. — A protest against lowa governor Tom Vilsack’s executive order banning state discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity attracted a collection of anti-gay personalities to a small rally in downtown Des Moines recently.
The Des Moines Register reports Bill Horn, president of the anti-gay group Straight from the Heart Ministries, sponsored the rally which hosted retired football star Reggie White and long-shot presidential candidate Gary Bauer. All three argued gay men and lesbians don’t deserve the same civil rights as other minorities.
“Every black person in America should be offended that a group of people should want the same civil rights because of their sexual orien-ration,” White said.
Horn cried as he introduced White to the Crowd, lamenting the fact that White has been labeled a bigot and a hate-monger for comments he has made about gays and other minorities. “Reggie doesn’t hate homosexuals; he loves them so much he is going to be honest with them and tell them that what they are doing is destructive,” Horn said.