Gays rally against Howard
By JANE LOVIBOND

GAY activists have urged Tasmania's state and federal Labor politicians to oppose Federal Government plans to ban gay couples marrying and adopting children from overseas.

The call comes as the federal Labor caucus prepares to examine Primer Minister John Howard's overhaul of the Marriage Act.

Opposition justice spokeswoman Nicola Roxon last week indicated Labor would support the legislation but the gay movement yesterday challenged Labor to vote against it, or at the very least to send it to a Senate committee for thorough investigation.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman Rodney Croome warned that the Labor Party would relinquish any claim it had to being a party of equality and justice if it failed to oppose the legislation.


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Liberal Glen Murray's office vandalized

WINNIPEG - Police are investigating after someone wrote anti-gay messages on the walls and windows of Liberal Glen Murray's campaign office in Winnipeg.

The former mayor of Winnipeg is not commenting on the vandalism, said campaign worker Judy Edmonds. She added his supporters are not letting the incident get them down.

Vandals spray-painted the word "fag" twice, on the office's back door and wall.

They used a black felt pen to scrawl "Unhonest (sic)," "Liers (sic)" and "I am the devil" on the window in front of promotional material for the Liberal Party of Canada and pictures of Murray and Paul Martin.


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Spain's left draws ire of church
 Dale Fuchs NYT


MADRID Spain's new Socialist government is clashing with the Roman Catholic Church over the administration's plans to allow gay marriages, speed up divorce and make abortion easier to obtain in this traditionally Catholic country.

Like several other European countries, including Germany and France, some regions in Spain already allow "registered cohabitation," which gives same sex-couples some of the same benefits under the law as marriage, according to the Gay and Lesbian Intergroup of the European Parliament. Belgium and the Netherlands allow gay couples to wed, and Finland and Sweden allow "registered partnerships," which confer nearly the same rights as matrimony, the group said.

With regard to abortion, a 1985 law allows women in Spain to seek an abortion in cases of rape or fetal deformity or if the pregnancy endangers the woman's health.


A ban on divorce was lifted after Franco's death in 1975. But Justice Minister Juan Fernando pez Aguilar said Tuesday that he planned to push Spanish law much further. He told a parliamentary committee that the ministry would seek to make gay marriages legal, giving same-sex pairs "the same rights and faculties" granted to heterosexual couples, like pensions and inheritance rights. The government appears to have the support in Parliament to pass the measures.