http://cyberzine.org/html/GLAIDS/Wockner31.html (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)President Clinton's new crime bill makes it illegal for a U.S. citizen to have sex with someone under age 18 while visiting a foreign country.
It doesn't matter if the age of consent in the other country is lower than 18. Ages of consent worldwide for gay and heterosexual sex vary from 12 to 21.
The penalty for violating the new law is up to 10 years in prison.
British Airways has extended cheap-travel rights to lovers of gay and lesbian employees, reported Capital Gay.
Live-in partners are entitled to air tickets for as little as 10 percent of the regular price.
An airline spokesman said the company wanted "to ensure the policy reflected modern lifestyles (and) met our equal-opportunity ethos."
Meanwhile, B.A. continues to run HIV tests on applicants for pilot and flight-attendant positions.
Israel's Supreme Court Nov. 30 ordered the national airline El Al to give lovers of its gay/lesbian employees a free ticket each year, just as it does for heterosexual employees' spouses.
The case, filed by flight attendant Jonathan Danielevitz, had wound through the courts for five years. El Al appealed two lower-court losses.
"This will affect all walks of life," said Ilan Shenfeld, a spokesman for the gay group Society for the Protection of Personal Rights. "We will try to apply this decision to other areas."
"It's a very happy day for me and for other lesbians and gays ... in Israel," student David Meiri added, writing on the Internet.
Earlier in the case, an El Al spokesman reportedly had said that if the airline gave free tickets to gays' partners, it would next have to give them to employees who were "goat lovers." (Israeli Radio, AP)
An arbitrator ordered Bell Canada to offer spouse benefits to gay employees Nov. 29.
In a binding decision, Rick MacDowell said Bell had breached its contract with the Canadian Telephone Employee's Association, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Most Canadian government employers and government-affiliated corporations have extended benefits to same-sex spouses but the private sector has moved slower. (Toronto Star)
Fourteen members of the gay group OutRage! released 55 helium-filled condoms during mass at London's Westminster Cathedral Nov. 27 to protest the Catholic Church's opposition to safer sex.
They chanted, "Condoms stop AIDS, condoms save lives."
"The Catholic ban on condoms discourages a safe, effective method of HIV prevention," OutRage's Peter Tatchell told Reuter. "The church is condemning millions of people to becoming infected. Catholic teaching kills."
The all-gay town being built in rural Thailand is 70 percent sold, developers told Associated Press.
The 800 homes of "Flower Town" will accommodate around 2,000 homosexuals, spokesman Dejdeow Srichai said.
The development includes bars, cafes, health clubs, swimming pools, massage parlors, lakes and fountains.
More than 40 police inspectors and superintendents from around Britain attended a Nov. 22 conference on improving relations with gays in order to deter gay-bashing.
The meeting, held at Bramshill police-training college, was the first of its kind.
"Police have been trying to be more positive and constructive in their dealings with homosexuals," said Norman Greenhill, a senior tutor at Bramshill. "This is a new venture to compare notes on policy and practice."
Police were alarmed last summer by a spate of bashings at public cruising spots in London, Brighton, Derby, Blackpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Leicester.
Thugs attacked gays with dogs, knives, mace, baseball bats and iron bars, sometimes using sexy young men to lure victims. (Sunday Telegraph)
Residents of the town of Thies in the African nation of Senegal prevented the burial of a gay man at a Moslem cemetery Nov. 19, said the newspaper Le Soleil, published in Dakar, the capital.
They halted the funeral procession and ordered the man's family to bury him outside of town, the newspaper said.
Ontario Attorney General Marion Boyd is supporting a Toronto lesbian who is suing her former lover for spousal support.
Boyd's lawyers told a court the Ontario Family Law Act is unconstitutional because it ignores same-sex unions, and said gay pairings should be considered common-law relationships.
The lesbian, known only as "H," claims the Family Law Act violates the national Charter of Rights and Freedoms by barring her from obtaining financial support based on her sexuality. (Capital Xtra!)
The Berlin chapter of the Lesbian Avengers will be launched with a public kiss-in the weekend before Christmas, according to the Internet's Euro-Queer mailing list. The group's e-mail address is henrisch@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de.
A survey by Poland's Demoskop Institute found that half of 958 Poles questioned think gays are treated worse than other members of society.
Fifty percent also said gypsies are treated poorly, 29 percent said Jews receive bad treatment, and 22 percent believe former communists face discrimination. (Polish Press Agency)
The German AIDS-Help organization and the Benneton clothing company draped a 50-foot-long pink condom over the obelisk in front of Potsdam's Nikolai Church Nov. 27 to mark World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, reported AP.
The church called the action an "abuse of freedom" but the city government disagreed and OK'd the stunt.
The prophylactic was designed by French artist Jean-Pierre Lostis.
Islamic morality can prevent AIDS, Saudi Arabian Deputy Gov. Prince Sattam ibn Abdel-Aziz said Nov. 29, addressing an AIDS conference in Riyadh, the capital.
"One of the great sources of relief stems from teachings of Islam, which like other divine religions, prohibits illegal sexual activities or drug abuse," the prince said.
Ninety Saudis have AIDS and 300 are HIV-infected, according to the Health Ministry.
The nation tests foreign workers and deports those who are HIV-positive. It also bans young people from travelling alone to countries known for "sex tourism," such as Thailand.
ENSENADA, Baja California Norte, Mexico -- Members and supporters of Ensenada's only gay group, Grupo Hippocampo, celebrated the first anniversary of the association's official government registration Nov. 26 with a large party at the city's only gay bar, La Ola Verde.
About 150 people danced, listened to an impassioned speech by group founder Manuel Del Rio Arce, and cheered a performance by Ensenada's World Miss Fantasy Gay 1994, "India" (Jose Saray). San Diego singer Shemm performed two of his original compositions.
The owner of the bar, Paulina Conteras, was presented a plaque for her support of the gay community.
Gays in Ensenada still live in fear of the police, even inside La Ola Verde. Kissing is discouraged in the bar because of a belief that the police, who stop in regularly, consider it a violation of "public morals" laws. Homosexuality itself is not technically illegal in Mexico.
The bar also does not play danceable music until after a nightly visit by a government doctor and several policemen, who, Del Rio Arce said, make the rounds of all the bars in the area to check that female prostitutes have their government-issued prostitute identification cards.