ISSN 1446-4896 ISSUE 2, 2001, NUMBER 49
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2001

1) APARTHEID'S DR DEATH:
In July 2001 the head of South Africa's chemical and biological weapons programme during the apartheid era, Dr Wouter Basson, began giving evidence in his defence at his trial in Pretoria. Dr Basson, christened "Doctor Death" by South Africa's media, has pleaded not guilty to 61 charges of murder, fraud and drug peddling. He is appearing for the first time on the witness stand since his trial started 21 months ago.

Marlene Burger, observer at the trial for the Centre for Conflict Resolution told the Associated Press: "He shows no emotion. He and his legal team are very arrogantly confident that he will be acquitted."

Amongst other charges, a bacteriologist last year testified that he freeze-dried HIV-infected blood for use against enemies as part of Dr Basson's programme. Witnesses also told the court that the doctor had been involved in the illegal manufacture of drugs such as ecstasy to help in crowd control.

The trial is expected to last for three years, and follows hearings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which witnesses told of the development of chemical weapons, and substances designed to kill or sterilise black people only.
(BBC News Online - 23 July 2001)

2) US VIETNAM VET GETS LIFE FOR GAY BAR SHOOTING:
Vietnam veteran Ronald Gay, who told police he was angered about joking references to his surname and was told by God to find homosexuals and "blow them away," was sentenced to four consecutive life terms on 23 July 2001 for killing a homosexual man and wounding six other people. Gay, 55, had earlier pleaded guilty to the shootings last September (2000) at the Backstreet Cafe in Roanoke, Virginia.
(Planetout 23 July 2001)

3) AGE OF CONSENT IN AUSTRALIA:
The age of consent issue has still not been settled in Australia, where it varies from state to state. One of the worst states is still New South Wales, where a Labor government has refused to do anything about equalising the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual men. For heteros, the age of consent is 16, and for homos it is 18. In August 2001 the NSW attorney general Bob Debus ruled out reform to age of consent laws. In Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, Age of Consent is 16 for all, in Northern Territory 18 for gay men, 16 for others; South Australia and Tasmania 17 for all; in Western Australia 21 for gay men, 18 for others. This means that discrimination continues to be state supported in NSW which has an Anti-Discrimination Board, which has been powerless to effect change in this vital area.

The Federal elections on 10 November should be time for lesbians and gays to consider what state and federal governments have and have not done for them and to vote accordingly. Federally, the Coalition government has not equalised superannuation conditions for lesbians and gays and so also continues its discriminatory policies.

4) SOUTH AFRICAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND AIDS:
In July 2001 Catholic bishops from Southern Africa condemned the use of condoms to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, saying their use was immoral and dangerous. In a statement issued after the Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference (SACBC) held in Pretoria, the bishops said they considered the promotion of condoms "an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV/AIDS." (allafrica report 30 July 2001)

However, Cosmas Desmond, a former Catholic priest who was banned by the apartheid government, and editor of ChildrenFIRST magazine and a former Amnesty International official writes that "even in terms of orthodox Roman Catholic moral theology, it can be argued that using a condom to prevent transmitting AIDS, rather than to prevent conception, is justifiable. The bishops partially acknowledge this in relation to married couples. But their logic is as faulty as their theology. If, as they claim, they are 'pro-life' despite the church having waged wars and supported the death penalty for centuries, why are they not concerned about the tens of thousands of babies who are being condemned to a painful and premature death each year because of the government's refusal to treat pregnant women and their babies with nevirapine? Without the use of condoms, there will be even more of them. Viva death!"

(Weekly Mail and Guardian 9 September 2001)

5) SOUTH AFRICA'S PRESIDENT AND AIDS:
At the end of August 2001, estimated worldwide HIV infections numbered 43 million. Just as Nero was reputed to have fiddled while Rome burned, so Mbeki uses denial while his people have the highest HIV infection rate in the world, with recent estimates being that 15 to 20% of the population will be HIV positive by the year 2005.

According to a Reuters report, AIDS is now South Africa's leading cause of death, and the disease accounted for 40 percent of all those who died last year (2000) between the ages of 15 and 49, a local newspaper reported in Johannesburg on 16 September 2001. The Sunday Times, citing a South African Medical Research Council report that has not yet been released, forecasts that as many as six million South Africans might die from AIDS by 2010. The newspaper said that the report projects a threefold increase in deaths among children aged between one and five by 2010 if no effective preventive policies are put in place. "The number of AIDS deaths is expected to rise to double the number of deaths attributed to all other causes," the Sunday Times said. It added that the report saw population growth halting because of the epidemic.

The report was published almost a week after reports that President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, once again stated that AIDS was not the biggest killer in the country. In a letter to his minister of health, published in the Business Day newspaper on Monday 17 September 2001, Mbeki said HIV/AIDS was only attributable to 2.2 percent of total deaths in South Africa.

The figures that Mbeki cited were compiled by the United Nations World Health Organization in 1995. The HIV virus that causes AIDS is believed to have infected 20 percent of the country's adult population. The epidemic has been linked to rising poverty and crime as it kills off breadwinners and leaves an army of impoverished orphans. (PlanetOut 21 September 2001)

Mbeki and his health minister, and other members of the ANC government who support his views, should immediately resign for allowing the pandemic to run out of control for so long without doing something to stop the disaster from increasing.

6) CAIRO 52 CHARGED WITH SODOMY:
The trial of the 52 men accused of 'deriding religion' and 'committing immoral acts' resumed on 3 October in Cairo as the judge heard the last of the cases for the defence The lawyers argued previously that the cases should be dismissed on the grounds of false arrest, improper arrest procedures, falsified evidence and police intimidation.

One of the young lawyers, Fawzy El Haggan, dropped a bombshell at the end of the hearing by quoting a previous case with exactly the same details: trumped up charges, almost exactly the same date last year, by the same team of arresting officers, led by Taha el Embaby, the prime mover in the case. The lawyers remain concerned that the integrity of the judge might be in question, especially since the case is not being heard in a civil court, and is being heard under emergency regulations in Egypt, and that he may be under pressure "from higher up" to find the detainees guilty.

The case has been postponed until 14 November during which time the verdict will be delivered. And since the hearing did not take place in a civil court there will be no right to appeal.

Meanwhile reports from Cairo say that arrests are continuing unabated and that a number of men have been arrested in Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo. The Egyptian government has banned reports on the anti-gay arrests and the Egyptian press is not allowed to publish any news on the case or the arrests. The news blackout followed an international outcry over the "Cairo 52" last month and letters of protest from the likes of Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch. (Q-online 6 October 2001)

7) GAY HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS CAN FILE CLAIMS:
Reuters reports that the small number of homosexuals still alive who survived Nazi concentration camps were urged, during September 2001, to file claims for belated compensation being organized by an international aid agency. The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it estimates there are about 100 homosexuals still alive who survived the concentration camps or Nazi slave labour regiments during the Third Reich.

Historians estimate some 50,000 homosexual men were imprisoned by Nazi courts for their sexual orientation and around 5,000 were sent to camps for "re-education through work".( HateWatch.org 21 September 2001)

8 ) GORAN IVANISEVIC, WIMBLEDON AND HOMOPHOBIA:
Goran Ivanisevic was reported to have said: "And that guy, he looks like a faggot little bit, you know. This hair all over him." This happened at Wimbledon in July 2001 and the comment drew scattered laughters from the reporters in attendance. The Wimbledon Web site edited it to remove the offending comment, as well as a comment in which Ivanisevic called a female line judge an "ugly, ugly lady." The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in the USA expressed outrage over the lack of coverage the sports media gave the remarks. (Planetout 12 July 2001)

9) GAYS UNDER ATTACK IN NAMIBIA:
The (South African) Democratic Alliance condemns homophobic statements made by SWAPO (Namibia's government party) to a South African delegation in Windhoek in August 2001. Responses from members of the Namibian portfolio committee on Security ranged from defensive to insulting when asked for their reaction to their President's homophobic statements. Unlike South Africa, sexual orientation rights are not protected in Namibia's constitution.

One Namibian representative likened gays to criminals. She could not understand the outcry because, she explained, when her president came out publicly against criminals, there was no reaction, but when he did the same in regard to gays and lesbians, people complained. She also said that if all people became gay and lesbian, there would be no-one left to reproduce. She believed it was acceptable for the President to say what he felt, just as any minister or commoner was entitled to do.

The chairperson of the committee went further by saying homosexuality was an abnormal way of life and that sodomy was illegal in Namibia. No-one had yet been arrested and he believed that people should be discouraged from a homosexual way of life. He failed to elaborate on how people would be persuaded to change their lifestyle.

The response from the South African High Commissioner was just as shocking - it demonstrated his complete ignorance around the issue. He said human rights were entrenched in the Namibian constitution and therefore gays and lesbians were protected (which they are not). He added that the President habitually made statements which were not enacted. Consequently, said the Commissioner, although gays and lesbians lived in fear of retribution, there was nothing really to worry about. During the South African delegation's visit to Namibia, a report by the National Society for Human Rights for 2001 was released which showed that the President of Namibia alone accounted for 17 percent of all incidents amounting to homophobia, racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.

While one accepts that people have their own opinions, it is unacceptable that leaders of a country, including the President, use a minority as a beating board. Gays and lesbians do not want special rights. They want equal rights. South Africa's leaders must demonstrate their pride in our own constitution by standing up when minorities in neighbouring countries are ridiculed, insulted and persecuted. (Mike Waters, Democratic Alliance, Q-online, 23 August 2001)

10)  BUSH-BLAIR WAR:
Gays and lesbians around the world have joined protest marches and demonstrations to show that not everybody supports the push for all-out war against Afghanistan or other countries accused by the "war" duo of harbouring "terrorists". There have, at last, been more and more questions asked as to why the attacks on the USA have occurred in the first place, and facts relating to US foreign policy since World War 2 are being brought out into the open. Related to the "war" issue in Australia is the Howard government's disgusting behaviour in relation to the Afghani and other middle eastern asylum seekers and the Beazley opposition support for the government's hard-line stance on the issue. Here too, gays and lesbians have been appalled at the behaviour of Australia's politicians in the cynical lead-up to the 10 November election and the bids by the major parties to win back the support they have lost to the " if possible" more extreme right-wing stance of the Pauline Hanson One Nation party.

11) OPTUS BOUGHT BY SINGTEL - SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT OWNED COMPANY:
The news that Cable and Wireless Optus has been bought by Singtel, a company owned by the Singapore Government, has a great sense of irony about it. Many gay and lesbian people use Optus as their Internet Service Provider. The Singapore Government is renowned for its homophobia. So now we have gays and lesbians "feeding the hand that bites them!!!"

12)BOOKS:

FEAR OR FAVOUR by David Heilpern - SEXUAL ASSAULT OF YOUNG PRISONERS:
In an environment characterized by brutality and control, one in four young men can expect to be the victims of an unpoliced, unreportable crime. Through his work as a defence lawyer and prisoner advocate, David Heilpern has witnessed the fear of young prisoners living with sexual and other assault, and the implications for society when these men are released. In this book legal arguments and research, from both Australia and the United States, are interspersed with frank, first-hand accounts from victims and perpetrators. The causes and effects are identified, and potential solutions offered. Fear or Favour should be read by students and practitioners of the law, victims, counsellors and anyone with an interest in social justice." Foreword by Justice Michael Kirby. Published by Southern Cross University Press, $32.50

An Underground Life: MEMOIRS OF A GAY JEW IN NAZI BERLIN by Gad Beck:
That a Jew living in Nazi Berlin survived the Holocaust at all is surprising. That he was a homosexual and a teenage leader in the resistance and yet survived is amazing. But that he endured the ongoing horror with an open heart, with love and without vitriol, and has written about it so beautifully is truly miraculous. This is Gad Beck's story." Published by The University of Wisconsin Press.

Further information about this man's dramatic experiences may be seen in the documentary film "Paragraph 175" available soon on video.

13) SPAIDS PROJECT:
There have been three plantings in the Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves this year despite failure to find replacements for the coordinators. It's difficult to organise publicity for each planting from Melbourne especially when the Sydney gay newspapers aren't interested in publishing the information provided to them in media releases. Distributing flyers by hand a week or so before plantings became impossible although the year's first planting (SPAIDS' 21st) on Sunday 27 May was a special launch of Council's permanent AIDS memorial area above the Groves, South Sydney Council itself did the publicity. However, the twenty second planting, Sunday 29 July, and the twenty third Sunday 2 September, proved the need for coordinated publicity because attendances were so tiny. Obviously few people were aware of the plantings.

Our thanks to the gay male nuns from the Order of Perpetual Indulgence for their support at these plantings. Special thanks to Sister Mary Mary Quite Contrary for standing in for us at the 23rd Planting.

We live in hopes that before the year is over, coordinators will be found for this established AIDS project in Sydney Park. This is a project that does require a personal touch. People come to commemorate and mourn loved ones.

SPAIDS website: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken/spaids


13) FEEDBACK ON (1) IN ISSUE 1 2001 WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE - MARXISM AND GAY POLITICS:
We have received two emails in response to this item and we will print them in full, if possible:

From Robert Stainsby, International Socialist Organisation:

"As one of those involved in one of the events discussed, I would like to reply to the article on Marxism and gay politics in the first LGS Newsletter for 2001. The item stated that "the Sydney Branch of the ISO instructed members who were attending" LGS meetings to stop doing so. This is not true. I was one of the ISO members involved in LGS, and I instigated our withdrawal from the meetings. I discussed the issue with the other members who were attending, and we made the decision collectively. The account in the newsletter paints us gay ISO members as passive victims of a belligerent, presumably straight leadership. I am pleased to say this bunch of gays were not that easy to push around! You state that our "walkout" reduced LGS membership from 20 to 10. This is surprising, as I think only 3 ISO members were involved in LGS. Behind our decision to withdraw from LGS, and the stance that this article and Simon Edge have taken, is a political disagreement about the priorities for lesbian and gay activism. Gay and lesbian issues are as important as any form of oppression, but that doesn't tell us what the priorities are at any given time for gay and lesbian activists. I do not believe that lesbian and gay activists are obliged to focus on "our" issues or groups at all times. Your claim "Rights which have been won  by gays" and lesbians" own activism" is dangerously incomplete. Stonewall and its impact were only possible because of the surrounding social ferment, resulting from the struggles of millions against racism, sexism, the Vietnam War and the exploitation of workers. We left LGS because we felt we were not using our energies productively there. While the group continued (and continues) to do useful work linking other issues with gay and lesbian concerns, we were frustrated that it was increasingly timid about promoting direct and militant action. More and more the emphasis was on pre-Stonewall lobbying strategies. I remain convinced that in order to win liberation, the highest priority for gay and lesbian activists is to build the general struggle against the capitalist system on which our oppression rests. Today this might mean, for example, putting more energy into the Socialist Alliance or CHOGM protests than into specifically lesbian and gay groups."

From Liz Ross, International Socialist Organization:

           "Simon Edge's book - and the commentary in the last LGS Newsletter - take a negative view of the left's involvement in gay politics over the years. I'd like to put a different point of view. I first got involved in liberation movements in 1971 and there's no doubt that the left was there - and active - right from the beginning, especially in Australia and the US, often as founders and leading activists in the movement. However I do accept that in the UK, where Edge is based, there was not such a good record, initially. The British SWP (sister organization of the ISO) has publicly acknowledged that they were mistaken at the beginning and changed their practice, publishing articles and generally becoming active ever since.

            I've now been involved in three left wing groups in Australia, the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) during the late 70s and since the early 80s, Socialist Action and the ISO. In all these groups we have to make decisions, choices about what campaigns to be involved in. With limited resources - after all, no left group except the Communist Party of Australia has had the luxury of being a mass party - the groups simply cannot maintain commitment to every campaign. The decisions on whether to stay or go, have always been based on the group's political understanding of the period, the state of the campaigns and fundamentally on what will then advance the struggle for liberation. And for Marxists that means building a movement based on the only class that can permanently change society - the working class.

            At no stage has any left group I've been in argued that lesbian and gay issues are secondary to the main class struggle. Always the argument has been that it is only a united working class - a class that fights against oppression wherever it is found and a class that embraces its many varied members - that can win against the system that oppresses us all. I hope that the continuing lively debates about the best way forward for our movement help us to build that working class movement, uniting us all in the fight to overthrow the capitalist system that is responsible for our oppression."

IF YOU READ ITEM (1) IN THE LAST ISSUE OF THE NEWSLETTER, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE YOUR OWN COMMENTS. Send us your letter, but keep it to under 150 words if possible!

15)WORLD AIDS & TELEVISION:
In Melbourne we have just had, between 1 October and 10 October, four important conferences at which South Africa was well represented - 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia & Pacific; 13th Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Conference; 1st Asia-Pacific Regional Forum for People living with HIV/AIDS and the 3rd Conference of the International Association for the Study of Sex, Culture & Society, all linked to lesbian and gay lifestyles But an equally important event came to light at the same time in South Africa, Steps in the Right Direction. 30 Southern African filmmakers are involved in producing the largest HIV-awareness television series to date.

Jann Turner, writing for the South African Mail and Guardian, explained about " Steps" - Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects. "I can't help wondering what it takes to stir the people of this planet to action?" she wrote. "It doesn't surprise, but it certainly amazes me that there is no outcry at the carnage being wreaked on the African population by a disease that has been left to spiral out of control. How many jumbo jets full of passengers, how many World Trade Centre office blocks worth of people have died and are dying of AIDS in Southern Africa?" she asks. "And where is the coalition of world leaders and wealthy nations gathering to unleash a response to this monster?"

Then she goes on to tell about being present with one of the film makers in a Sowetan back yard filming an animated discussion about vibrators between a group of men while next door a mother and her neighbours are talking about masturbation. The film maker, Dumisane Pakhati, told her that he didn't want to do "an AIDS film" but a story about people, not about an issue. That's why he was filming in his neighbour's back yard. The neighbour had tested positive for HIV. 'The documentary is about relationships, about how everything connects. Nothing exists as an island. Unemployment is not an island, AIDS is not an island." It seems the whole European documentary world is focussed on this project as it mushrooms towards broadcast week around World AIDS Day in December.
(edited version by josken)

16) DONATIONS: Many thanks to the anonymous donors for donations received to assist with the production of the newsletter. You know who you are!

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MONEY FOR AIDS DRUGS!

           NOT FOR WAR!