Same-sex policy change rejected
 The General Assembly rejected a policy change Thursday that would have allowed same-sex partners of UN staffers to receive family benefits, and asked secretary general Kofi Annan to review it. Representatives of dozens of Islamic and African nations, as well as the Vatican, led the revolt against Annan's recent directive to offer medical, pension and other benefits for same-sex partners whose home governments have recognized their domestic partnerships. The new policy took effect Feb. 1.


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Few in Congress back gay marriage
Rep. Frank claims at least 50 in House favor full rights
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights group, is studying the ebb and flow of every development surrounding the status in Congress of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

“We’re mobilizing all of our resources to defeat it,” said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC’s political director


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Gays keep fighting after Brazil retreats on U.N. resolution
Proposal would have asked all nations to end anti-gay discrimination
By ADRIAN BRUNE
WASHINGTON — Sumil Pant was on a mission to get to Geneva and nothing was going to stop him. The founder of the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s sole gay and lesbian advocacy group, had stories to tell from his country, stories about gay men blackmailed by police and lesbians tortured into marriage.


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New legislative maps pit gay-friendly lawmakers
Revised districts may impact political support of gay issues in General Assembly
By RYAN LEE
Georgia’s redrawn legislative districts will put at least one gay-friendly lawmaker out of the General


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On the record under the Gold Dome
Advocates on both sides of the gay marriage amendment debate aired their views one last time before the House voted 122-52 to pass the amendment on March 31.


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Where have the activists gone?
President Bush dropped the ball in the battle against AIDS, and gay marriage is banned in Boston. Too many of our advocates are MIA in that fight

Remember the days when AIDS activists engaged in colorful street protests that dramatized the government’s indifference to the deadly epidemic? Those poignant demonstrations have been replaced by — well, by nothing really, except for funding and grant proposals.



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Activists call for Singapore to scrap gay sex ban
SINGAPORE (AP) — Gay rights activists in Singapore are urging the government to do away with a decades-old law that criminalizes gay sex acts, claiming the law is archaic and unconstitutional. “Here in Singapore, we continue to demand rapid social changes to support economic development: in education, job retraining, immigration,” said Alex Au, founder of gay rights group People Like Us. But the government has been far too slow in allowing changes to the city-state’s sex laws, Au said. The criminal code’s Section 377 bans men from engaging in “any act of gross indecency” with other men, punishable by a maximum two years in jail. In November, the government promised to review the law in response to public outrage over the imprisonment of a police officer for engaging in oral sex — also banned under Section 377. The government has, however, dragged its feet over the promised reforms. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in an interview with Time magazine last July that gay Singaporeans would be safe, “but don’t flaunt your gay rights.”