Jul 27, 2007   | COMMENTS     

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court rejected a ban last week on public gay sodomy, another victory for the Chinese territory’s gay rights movement. The case stemmed from the prosecution of two men who acknowledged committing sodomy in a car parked on an isolated road at night, the ruling said. Public gay sex was a crime with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. After the two men challenged the charges, lower courts ruled in their favor, but the government appealed to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. A panel of five top judges unanimously dismissed the government’s appeal. Chief Justice Andrew Li said in the ruling that the law targets gays and “does not criminalize heterosexuals for the same or comparable conduct.” The case was the first prosecution of the 1991 law. Now that the ban of public gay sodomy and the higher consensual age for gay sex have been struck down in court, such restrictions are unenforceable, but lawmakers still need to repeal them, lawyers say.

South African police arrest
alleged sex blogger

KROONSTAD, South Africa — The alleged mastermind behind a controversial anti-crime web site in South Africa and a male prostitute blog in which several prominent men there were outed was arrested last week according to the Sunday Independent, a South African newspaper. Juan Duval-Uys was taken into custody by South African police at his mother’s house in Kroonstad, the paper said. Uys is the president and may be the only member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance. He was apprehended on a theft charge but had a number of outstanding arrest warrants against him, the paper said. The alliance gained notoriety on several occasions, most notably in 2006 when it announced that thousands of its gay male members would donate blood to the South African National Blood Service without disclosing their histories of having sex with other men. Other gay rights groups distanced themselves from the alliance. The blood donation scheme turned out to be a hoax, the Sunday Independent said.

U.K. tribunal rules bishop
discriminated against gay man 

LONDON — A gay man in the United Kingdom won his case last week for unlawful discrimination after he was refused a youth official’s job by a Church of England bishop, according to a BBC report. The employment tribunal said John Reaney, 42, was discriminated against “on grounds of sexual orientation” by the Hereford diocesan board of finance. Reaney, from Conwy, a walled town in North Wales, said he was “delighted” at the decision. The Bishop of Hereford, Rev. Anthony Priddis, said he was “naturally disappointed” and may appeal. During a tribunal in April, Reaney said he was questioned by Priddis on his previous gay relationship during a two-hour meeting last July. It came after he was told he had emerged as the outstanding candidate for the job during an eight-man interview, the hearing heard. During his evidence, Priddis said he made it clear to Reaney that a person in a committed sexual relationship outside of marriage, whether they were straight, gay, bisexual or transgender, would be turned down for the post. But the tribunal found that the bishop should only have considered the present lifestyle of Reaney, who is single.

Indonesian province may ‘tag’
AIDS patients with microchips

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Parliament-arians in Indonesia’s remote province of Papua say they are considering a controversial bylaw to “tag” people infected with AIDS with microchips so they can better monitor their behavior and sexual activities. “We need to make a major breakthrough to speed up the fight against AIDS in Papua,” lawmaker John Manansang said last week, adding that such a measure would also make it easier to keep track of the real number of infections. Indonesia has one of Asia’s fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million people, fueled more by injecting drug users and prostitution than gay sexual activity, experts say. Parliament-arians are likely to consider public opinion before discussing the draft bylaw with the local government and seeking to enact it. The proposal has already drawn protests from AIDS activists and health workers, some of whom say the chips would violate human rights.

Global AIDS conference
kicks off in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — The world will not be able to celebrate enormous advances in HIV diagnosis and treatment until the ...