September 24th, 1997 to September 30th, 1997

World Roundup

by Rex Wockner

Report: Almodovar, Gaultier detained in Cuban gay crackdown
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and French designer Jean Paul Gaultier were among the several hundred people detained in the Aug. 23 raid on Havana's most popular gay discotheque, El Periquiton, according to an unconfirmed report from the Cuban Independent Press Agency.

Cuban customers of the club were fined 30 pesos (U.S.$1) and released from a police station the next day. Two busloads of foreigners were transported to immigration authorities for a document check.

Marianela Ferriol, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Relations, said police targeted the disco because prostitutes, pimps and minors were present.

Revolutionary National Police head Angel Diaz told Radio Rebelde that the raid netted "prostitutes, pimps, some underage youth and various foreigners."

But sources in Havana and Miami say the raid was, in fact, the latest move in a widescale crackdown on all things gay.

"Gays are falling under the thumb of the government," said Alberto Montano of Miami's Cuba AIDS Project. The government "needs to keep everyone in their place and these [private house- discos] had become a place of freedom for gays. El Periquiton was the ... gay Tropicana, and drew a lot of foreigners."

According to Miami's El Nuevo Herald, several of the dozen or so other private gay clubs in Havana also have been raided, including Mi Cayito, Jurassic Park and Fiestas de Serrano y Correa.

Several government nightclubs whose customers were predominantly homosexual also have been raided, including La Red, El Karachi and El Joker, all located in the Vedado nightlife district. Since the raids, police have restricted entry at the official clubs to opposite-sex couples, sources said.

In addition, the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, which formed in 1994, has been squashed and its members were taken into custody from their places of employment, El Nuevo Herald said.

"Homosexuals and transvestites are regularly detained by the police and accused of public scandal for which they can be condemned to three months in jail or a 500 peso fine," the newspaper said.

Article 303 of the Cuban Penal Code punishes "publicly manifested" homosexuality with up to one year in prison.

Hungary's 1st pride parade
About 400 people staged Hungary's first gay-pride parade Sept. 6 in Budapest's busiest shopping district. They carried pink triangles, rainbow flags and signs reading, "Proud To Be Gay" and "Equal Rights For Homosexuals."

Halfway through the two-kilometer march, the group stopped at Vorosmarty Square-the traditional site for demonstrations in Budapest-to hear a speech by Hungarian Radio's Balazs Palfi, one of the nation's few openly gay public figures.

He urged the marchers to accept their gayness and come out of the closet.

Passersby and onlookers were surprised but tolerant, participants said. There were no anti-gay incidents. The police cooperated fully.

After the march, the group descended on Capella Cafe for a show and all-night dancing.

"In Hungary, where laws are liberal but public opinion still fairly conservative and suspicious of 'otherness,' this march may be the beginning of a gradual process of acceptance and integration," said a correspondent from the Hungarian gay magazine MASOK. The events were organized by Lambda Budapest and Meleg Hatter (Gay Background).

Mexican Catholic Church launches anti-condom campaign
Mexican Catholic leaders have launched an aggressive anti-condom campaign in response to a pro-condom ad blitz by the government.

Church officials are claiming that condoms have a "40 percent failure rate" and have threatened to sue Health Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente and the national anti-AIDS committee, CONASIDA, which produced the ads.

Mexico City Archbishop Norberto Rivera is demanding that condom packets be labeled: "This product may be hazardous to your health."

The government ads are appearing on billboards, subway cars, radio and television.

Official figures-considered inaccurate-show that 49,000 Mexicans have developed AIDS and 200,000 more are HIV-positive. Neither figure includes Mexicans who live or died in the U.S.

Mexican groups are requesting letters of support to CONASIDA Exec. Coordinator Patricia Uribe at e-mail conasida@cenids.ssa.gob.mx, and copy to the gay Colectivo Sol at colsol@laneta.apc.org. They urge activists to fax President Ernesto Zedillo asking him to support the ad campaign. His fax number is 011-52-5-515-5729.

N.Z. gay marriage appeal heard
New Zealand's highest court has heard the appeal of three lesbian couples seeking the right to marry. The Court of Appeal said it will take its time to make a decision.

The couples-Lindsay Quilter and Margaret Pearl, Juliet Ann Joslin and Jennifer Daphne Rowan, and Sarah Jane Anderson and Samantha Jane Court-lost a lower-court case in 1996, with the judge saying such a major law change should be made by parliament not a court.

New Zealand has a national ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and the 1955 Marriage Act does not specify that spouses must be of opposite sexes.

Dutch lesbian adoption rejected
Holland's Supreme Court Sept. 5 refused to allow a lesbian couple to adopt each other's children, who were conceived via artificial insemination.

The women, named in court as Van Ijzendoor and Louman, plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

"Our children are the victims in this affair," they said in a statement. "In everyday life, they are brother and sister but society does not grant them any rights which go with this."

The Netherlands is often considered the most gay-friendly nation in the world.

Paris gays protest club closures
Seven hundred gays demonstrated in Paris' Marais quarter Sept. 7 against the closure of five nightclubs shut down for allegedly tolerating drug trafficking. They carried banners reading, "Re-open the gay spots." Hit in the late-August bust were Queen, Les Folies Pigalle, Scorpion, l'Enfer and Cox. They will remain shut for six months unless appeals reverse the decision.

The National Union of Gay Enterprises and ACT UP/Paris have charged that police target gay clubs more than straight clubs. Club owners complain that they have no legal right to search customers for drugs.

ILGA confab in London
The International Lesbian and Gay Association's 19th European Regional Conference is set for Oct. 9-13 in London. For further information, contact Kursad Kahramanoglu, UNISON, Civic House, 20 Grand Depot Road, London, SE18 6SF, England. Fax 011-44-181-316-7770. E-mail: K.Kahramanoglu@unison.co.uk.

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