Showing posts with label Caribbean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caribbean. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Latest in 2007: Cuba and Nepal.

On a move that will surely add more fuel to the bonfires the worldwide Christian ultraconservative right lighted against same sex marriages, two nations of the so called Third World ended 2007 with awesome achievements in such a field. In Nepal, the High Court ruled that the government must create new laws to protect gay rights and change current ones that might be tantamount to discrimination. Until some days ago, Nepal was an almost feudal kingdom, but recently the nation has announced plans to transform itself into a republic in 2008 after the Constituent Assembly election, abolishing monarchy.

On the other side of the world, in that tiny green lizard island named Cuba,  Monica and Elizabeth (featured on the picture in the right) dressed in white and staged a marriage, though still with no legal validity. IPS News brings an extensive report of the ceremony, which was supported by government bodies and associations, since the country's preparing to take to parliament a legal reform advocated by CENESEX and the Cuban Women’s Federation calling for the recognition of de facto unions between same-sex couples and equal rights for heterosexual and homosexual couples, as well as eligibility to adopt children and, for women, access to assisted fertilization services.

The legal machinery is already rolling and the initiative may reach parliament in 2008, but no one can predict how long it will take to come to a vote. Meanwhile, CENESEX was advised by the ruling Communist Party to make efforts to prepare the public through a media campaign, says IPS News, but both women's ceremony wasn't intended as part of the media machinery.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Bajans are going mad

"Darcy Dear was the victim of a recent stone-throwing incident that left two windows in the upper level of his home broken", reports The Nation. I'm probably not the right person to state whether this has been a hate crime or just vandalism, and there are Party for the Rights editors who would, more appropriately than me, tell us about the Darcy Dear story, its implications, and with a little push of readers, maybe even describe first hand what a Bajan has to face if (s)he comes out of the closet. But it was Trinidad which wanted to stop Elton John from going to the island for fear that he could inoculate homosexuality, one or two years ago. Fellow Bajans, correct my wrongs.