Global gay
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE WOULD FIGHT AIDS IN CHINA
China’s leading researcher on homosexual issues has suggested that legalising same-sex marriage would help combat the spread of HIV in the country.
Prof Zhang Beichuan of Qingdao University said that a lack of legal recognition was partially responsible for Chinese gay men having multiple partners.
“To legalise same-sex marriage could help stabilise and sustain gay relationships, thereby lowering the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS,”
It is estimated that eighty percent of China’s 40 million gay men are in heterosexual marriages because of social pressure to marry, putting their wives at risk of infection.
POLAND GETS FIRST GAY POLLIE
Poland has its first openly gay politician after voters from the district of Mokotown elected GLBTI activist and nightclub owner Krystian Legierski in Warsaw City Council elections.
Legierski is a member of the Polish Greens party but was elected on a Social Democrats council ticket.
Poland is rated one of the most homophobic countries in Europe.
CIVIL UNIONS FOR ILLINOIS
The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill legalising Civil Unions for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples last week in a vote of 61 to 52.
The bill will now go to the State Senate where it is expected to be passed before being signed into law by the state’s Democratic Governor, Pat Quinn.
Illinois will become the eighteen US state to offer same-sex couples some form of formal relationship recognition, with Hawaii expected to become the nineteenth early next year.
