GLOBAL
ated,”they said in an email.
In his ruling, Potter said: “Parliament has
not called partnerships between persons of
the same-sex marriage, not because they are
considered inferior to the institution of mar
riage but because, as a matter of objective fact
and common understanding... they are
indeed different.
“To accord a same-sex relationship the title
and status of marriage would ... fail to recog
nize physical reality.”
Kitzinger, 49, is a sociology professor at the
University of York. Wilkinson, 52, directs the
social psychology degree program at
Loughborough University in Leicestershire.
The couple said they may appeal the ruling,
though they’re very concerned that the govern
ment is now seeking £25,000 (US$46,850) in
costs from them for the High Court case — an
amount roughly equal to their life savings.
Magazine banned, parade blocked
ANKARA, Turkey — The full press run of
the summer issue of Turkey’s only gay maga
zine, Kaos GL, was confiscated by police July 24.
Judge Tekman Savas Nemli of Ankara’s
12th Justice Court approved the seizure at the
urging of the Public Prosecutor’s Press Crimes
Investigation Bureau.
The authorities took action for the “protec
tion of general morality”
The summer issue of the 12-year-old maga
zine critically analyzed the relationship between
homosexuality and pornography and contained
articles by Ahmet Tulgar, Fatih Ozguven, Giiner
Kuban, Hasan Biilent Kahraman, Mehmet Bilal
Dede and Meltem Arikan.
“It is the first time that our magazine is
banned on the same day it was delivered from
the printing house even before it is distributed
to bookstores,” editors said in a press release.
“What is attempted to be buried with a siege
of‘general morality’ is the freedom of expres
sion of Turkish national gay and lesbians.”
The magazine bears the name of the
activist group that publishes it, the Kaos GL
Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and
Solidarity Association.
In Turkey’s fourth-largest city, meanwhile,
police and antigay soccer fans stopped a LGBT
march from taking place Aug. 6.
Hundreds of members of the fan club of
Bursa’s Bursaspor team trapped about 100
members of the transgender and gay group
Gokkusagi (Rainbow) inside their headquarters
by throwing rocks and threatening to kill them.
The would-be marchers escaped only
when the protesters’ numbers dwindled as the
day’s soccer match began.
The march was planned in reaction to
attempts by the provincial governor to shut
down the newly formed Rainbow group under
laws designed to protect morality, activists said.
Rally replaces World Pride parade
JERSUSALEM, Israel — After threatening
to ban it, Jerusalem police allowed a small gay
rally in Liberty Bell Park Aug. 10 — the event
that replaced the World Pride parade.
The parade was cancelled because police
said they needed officers from other cities to
help protect it and those officers were unavail
able because of the ongoing war with
Hezbollah guerrillas and Lebanon.
Antigay Orthodox Jews had threatened a
massive counterdemonstration against the
parade, which also was opposed by Christian
and Muslim religious figures, the mayor, and
right-wing politicians.
About 200 people attended the rally, which
ended after anarchists arrived chanting against
the Israeli Defense Forces’ actions in Lebanon.
At last year’s local pride parade, an ultra-
Orthodox protester stabbed three marchers
and was later convicted of attempted murder.
Orthodox Jews tried to block the march, and
some 1,000 antigay militants staged a rowdy
action during which some threw bottles of
urine and bags of feces at the marchers.
World Pride, which was last held in 2000 in
Rome, is licensed by InterPride, the
International Association of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Pride Coordinators.
Belarus TV airs gay>sex tape
MINSK, Belarus — Belarus’ state television
aired graphic excerpts from a gay-sex tape July
30 reportedly claiming it showed the second
secretary of the Latvian Embassy, Reimo Smits,
and had been seized from his Minsk apartment.
Officials said the Belarus KGB raided
Smits’ apartment because he had been distrib
uting pornography.
The 10-minute TV report reportedly
described the several black-and-white snippets,
seemingly captured by a hidden camera with a
wide-angle lens, as “a dirty homosexual orgyf’
As a result, Smits has returned to Latvia,
and Latvia has refused to accept the creden
tials of Belarus’ new ambassador to Latvia.
Latvian officials suggest Belarus fabricated
the sex and porn allegations because the
nation’s authoritarian president, Alexander
Lukashenko, reportedly disapproves of diplo
mats who promote democracy in his nation.
Smits was a contact person for Belarus’ demo
cratic opposition.
In a BBC interview, Latvian Foreign
Minister Artis Pabriks also called the raid on
Smits’ residence a “breach of the Vienna
Convention because it was a violation of the
private space of our diplomat.”
Cayman Islands bans singer
Famous Jamaican dancehall reggae singer
Sizzla (Miguel Collins)(pictured) has been
denied a permit to perform in the Cayman
Islands because his lyrics target gays and are
allegedly profane. Cayman Net News and the
Caymanian Compass reported.
The Immigration Department reportedly
took the same action last year against Jamaican
singer Bounty Killer, for similar reasons.
In 2004, Sizzla’s tour of the United Kingdom
was canceled after gay
activists objected to the
performers lyrics.
In an interview at the
time with BBC IXtra,
Sizzla acknowledged “I
sing‘fire burn for homo
sexuals’” and said,
“They’ve got to apolo
gize to God because they break God’s law(’
Gay activists in several nations also have
targeted Jamaican dancehall singers Elephant
Man,Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, Buju Banton,
T.O.K. and Capleton. I
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AUGUST 26.2006 • Q-NOTES