The Philippines’ Supreme Court on April 8 overruled the nation’s Elections Commission and ordered that the gay group Ang Ladlad can register as a political party and run candidates for Congress. The ruling was 14-1.

In blocking the group, the Elections Commission had said it is “crystal clear ... that (Ang Ladlad) tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs.”

“Should this Commission grant the petition, we will be exposing our youth to an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith,” the agency said.

Its determination went on to assert that the Bible and the Koran call homosexuality unseemly and transgressive.

But the Supreme Court was having none of it and ruled that Ang Ladlad had complied with all legal requirements for accreditation as a party-list group.

“(M)oral disapproval, without more, is not a sufficient governmental interest to justify exclusion of homosexuals from participation in the party-list system,” the court wrote. “The denial of Ang Ladlad’s registration on purely moral grounds amounts more to a statement of dislike and disapproval of homosexuals, rather than a tool to further any substantial public interest. ... It is this selective targeting that implicates our equal protection clause.”

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission commented, “The Philippines Supreme Court has sent a clear message that regardless of political affiliation, people cannot be excluded from the political process simply because of their identification with or support of the rights of GLBT people.”

An AIDS activist in Uzbekistan, psychologist Maksim Popov, reportedly has been sentenced to seven years in prison because a brochure he was distributing allegedly encouraged immoral behavior and drug use.

He may also have been convicted of fiscal impropriety and other alleged crimes.

A website called uznews reported, “Maksim was found guilty on the charges of embezzling fund, involving minors in antisocial behaviour, molesting individuals aged under 16, concealing the hard currency, involving individuals in drugs and tax evasion.”

Other accounts said the charges regarding minors stemmed solely from the brochure’s alleged promotion of homosexuality.

In regard to the fiscal-impropriety charges, a Facebook page called “Amnesty for Maksim Popov!” states: “The charges of fiscal impropriety come in the wake of years of harassment of NGOs (nongovernmental

organizations) by the Uzbek government via such measures as restricting or blocking access to foreign funds in bank accounts, repeated tax audits, and threatening visits from secret police or others urging NGO heads to close their organizations to avoid trouble. Popov kept (his organization) Izis open even when the government blocked all access to funds, operating without pay and in collaboration with local community councils and volunteers.”

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called all of the charges “fabricated.”

“A Tashkent court convicted Popov on six fabricated criminal charges, including embezzlement and concealment of funds, tax evasion, incitement to drugs use, corrupting minors, and provoking antisocial conduct,” the group said.

The pamphlet reportedly was funded in part by UNICEF, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Britain’s Department for International Development, Population Services International, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It is said to have provided detailed information on correct use of condoms and disposable syringes.

Reports said officials confiscated the entire print run and burned it.

Popov, 28, is said to be jailed in the city of Navoiy.

The Facebook page, which can be found at tinyurl.com/maksimp, also says:

“Those of us who have worked with Maxim Popov know him to be a witty, humble, curious, enthusiastic and effective educator and psychologist. We urge the international donors who supported him to ... speak out for his release.”

An Indian languages professor at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India, who was driven from his job in mid-February after a TV news crew burst into his house and taped him having sex with a male “rickshaw puller,” apparently committed suicide in early April, local media reported.

Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras was suspended from his job for “gross misconduct” and then resigned, after students reportedly sent the TV crew to his residence. He was found dead April 7 on his bed in his new, off-campus apartment.

Some gay activists and media reports have suggested the timing of the apparent suicide was curious, given that a court had just ordered the university to reinstate Siras.

“The police are suggesting suicide because that’s a convenient verdict for them, but it really seems unlikely,” said one gay leader, speaking privately. “He had just won a victory in the Allahabad High Court, which directed AMU to revoke its suspension. ... The people who spoke last to him ... say that he was cheerful and upbeat. The whole process had been a sort of rebirth for him, from the utter disgrace of the exposure and early newspaper reports, then the support he got from the gay and lesbian community, and even from people within AMU. ... It just seems so completely unlikely that he would commit suicide when things were going his way.”

The AMU Teachers Association and GLBT activist groups have demanded that officials conduct a high-level examination of the circumstances of Siras’ death.

In a joint statement, the gay groups and other nongovernmental organizations said: “That Dr Siras had to undergo the trauma, fear, harassment and humiliation in his own beloved university in what would turn out to be his last weeks is condemnable. If these events and that trauma are in any way linked to his death, then all actors involved must be held culpable.”

Assistance by Bill Kelley