WINNIPEG ELECTS GAY MAYOR

Openly gay City Councillor Glen Murray, 41, was elected mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Oct. 28.

He received 50.5 percent of the vote. His nearest opponent, grocer Peter Kaufmann, got 45 percent.

Murray's sexuality did not become a campaign issue although fundamentalist preachers and talk-radio hosts railed against it.

Considered to be politically center-left, Murray may be the first openly gay mayor of a large city anywhere in the world. Winnipeg, the provincial capital, has 677,000 residents.

COSTA RICANS BLOCK GAY TOUR BUS

Anti-gay activists blocked an Atlantis Events gay tour bus Oct. 24 at Costa Rica's Blue Bay Village Papagayo resort in the Pacific Guanacaste region.

The 300 tourists, mostly Americans, reported that the only road to the airport was blockaded with tires and wood by followers of a local politician and a local priest who want the government to ban gay tourism.

"They were in a frenzy, waving sticks and clubs and shouting," San Francisco stockbroker Stephen Seewer told The Chronicle. "It was frightening."

The protest ended when national police in riot gear charged the demonstrators and cleared the road. The pandemonium delayed the tour group's departure by almost a full day.

Sixty-two percent of Germans support the new "Red-Green" government's plan to give same-sex couples spousal rights.

In a poll by the Infratest-Dimap Institute, conducted for the current issue of the monthly magazine Queer, 17 percent said the plan was a "very good" idea and 45 percent said it was a "good" idea.

Among people under age 45, 81 percent favored the proposal. "Same-sex life-partnerships must not be discriminated against any more," commented Oskar Lafontaine, chairman of new Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic party (SPD). "The SPD's position is based on the experience under [Hitler's] National Socialism."

The Nazis exterminated thousands of homosexuals.

GAY MARRIAGE OK'D IN ARGENTINA

According to the Agence France-Presse news service, a court in Argentina's Mendoza province, 600 miles west of Buenos Aires, has recognized the marriage of two men.

Judge Graciela Mastracusa granted the couple, a 35-year-old public employee and a 25-year-old machine operator, all benefits accorded to heterosexual legal spouses, AFP said.

Mastracusa said the couple had an "evident, stable and permanent" life together.

The couple's lawyer, Sergio Breitman, told reporters, "The important aspect of the ruling is recognition of a social phenomenon that is understood the world over: that there are many gay couples."

New Zealand Navy frigates will soon sport pink triangles to let gays know they are welcome in the military, Navy Today reported.

The symbols will be distributed by the Navy's equal-employment opportunities coordinator as part of an anti-discrimination drive.

Lieutenant-Commander Washer said he hopes to encourage "a climate where those who choose to declare their sexual orientation can do so without risking retaliation."

"The Royal New Zealand Navy is an organization that will not allow homophobia in the workplace," he said.

ILGA TARGETS EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS

One hundred delegates from 26 countries turned out for the International Lesbian and Gay Association's 20th European regional conference Oct. 22-25 in Linz, Austria.

They discussed plans for increased lobbying of the Council of Europe, the European Union and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

An "action plan" was developed to push for sexual-orientation protections in Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is being rewritten.

The group also announced plans to screen candidates for secretary-general of the Council of Europe and voiced its opposition to the nomination of Walter Schwimmer who has voted against gay interests while serving in the Austrian parliament.

The conference was addressed by Austrian Women's Affairs Minister Barbara Prammer at a reception hosted by the Minister President of Upper Austria and the Lord Mayor of Linz. Three members of the Austrian Parliament -- from the Social Democrat, Liberal and the Green Parties -- gave speeches at the opening plenary session.

ILGA is a federation of 400 gay-rights groups from 75 countries, including, as of this year's confab, Albania. Next year's European regional gathering will be in Viareggio, Italy, and the 2000 meeting will be in Bucharest, Romania. ILGA's 1999 world conference will be in South Africa.

MALAYSIAN GROUP AIMS TO WIPE OUT HOMOSEXUALS

A new Malaysian organization called the People's Voluntary Anti-Homosexual Movement (Pasrah) hopes to "wipe out" gays, local newspapers reported last week.

The group is calling for severe penalties against gay sex and the closure of gay nightclubs. Organizers claim there are 24,000 homosexuals in Kuala Lumpur.

The organization was quickly denounced by the human-rights group Suaram and by Marina Mahathir, daughter of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and head of the Malaysian AIDS Council.

"Hate campaigns such as that advocated by Pasrah only inflame prejudices and make anti-social acts such as harassment of certain groups acceptable," Ms. Mahathir said.

Local newspapers said Pasrah was formed by supporters of the prime minister, who recently fired Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and oversaw his arrest for corruption and homosexual sodomy. Anwar has denied the charges and said he was framed by Mr. Mahathir who, he charged, is threatened by Anwar's popularity. Anwar's firing and arrest led to weeks of rioting by his supporters.

In a press release, Suaram said Pasrah's attempt to "incite discrimination and condemnation of a minority group is a misguided form of political support for the prime minister."

"When a country is facing a crisis, there is often a tendency to scapegoat groups of people to deflect society from the real issues that need to be dealt with," Coordinator Elizabeth Wong stated."

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