A court in Yemen on May 18 convicted three journalists of violating the nation’s morals and customs for writing a story about gays.

The March 2003 article in the Arabic-language newspaper This Week quoted men jailed for engaging in gay sex.

“The ruling came as a huge shock to me,” former editor-in-chief Jalal al-Sharaabi told Reuters.

Al-Sharaabi, who received a three-month suspended sentence, and the other two journalists, who received five-month suspended sentences, vowed to appeal.

They all now work for other newspapers.

Members of the gay direct-action group OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance took part in a London demonstration urging greater respect for human rights in Palestine May 15. They also carried signs urging the Palestinian Authority to stop arresting and torturing homosexuals, which led to friction with other demonstrators.

When they arrived in Trafalgar Square to join the protest, the gay activists were surrounded by Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican priests and members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who called them “racists”, “Zionists” and “CIA and MI5 agents,” said OutRage!’s Peter Tatchell.

He said the protest organizers told the gay group to move to the rear of the demonstration and, when they refused, the organizers blocked the gays’ placards and shouted down their interviews with reporters.

“We call on the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to condemn homophobia, uphold queer human rights and to order an immediate end to the abuse of lesbian and gay Palestinians,” said OutRage!’s Brett Lock.

“Gay Palestinians,” said Tatchell, “live in fear of arrest, detention without trial, torture and execution at the hands of Palestinian police and security services. They also risk abduction and so-called honor killing by vengeful family members and vigilante mobs, as well as punishment beatings and murder by Palestinian political groups such as Hamas and Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

“For over 30 years I have supported the Palestinian struggle for national liberation,” Tatchell said, “but I cannot remain silent while the PLO, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are abducting, brutalizing and murdering lesbian and gay Palestinians.”

Taiwan’s Sister Radio, FM 105.7, was fined by the Government Information Office May 15 for airing the sounds of women having orgasms during the Valentine’s Day broadcast of Lez Radio, the Taipei Times reported.

The office said the two-minute segment was indecent and “adversely affected good social customs.”

Station head Wang Li-ping denounced the fine as “a blow against progressive thinking in Taiwan” and said she will appeal the ruling.

Sister Radio broadcasts to Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties. Lez Radio airs on Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to midnight.

Canada’s Department of Citizenship and Immigration announced May 18 that it will recognize marriages of same-sex couples and process their immigration applications accordingly.

“It’s encouraging to see the federal government follow through on its commitment to equal marriage,” said Alex Munter, co-chair of Canadians for Equal Marriage. “Same-sex couples have been getting married in Canada for almost a year. Legal recognition of those marriages is tremendously important, both for the couples and for the rule of law.”

Canada’s national gay lobby group, Egale, also praised the decision.

“The importance of marriage for immigration purposes highlights the international aspect of marriage,” said Executive Director Gilles Marchildon. “Marriage travels well. That’s just one of many aspects that set marriage apart from any other form of recognition.”

The new policy applies only to couples where one spouse is a Canadian citizen or resident.

Christine Morrissey of the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Task Force said recognition also should extend to “couples who marry in other jurisdictions that permit same-sex couples to marry.”

“The number of those jurisdictions is growing rapidly,” she said, “and these marriages must also be recognized by the federal government.”

The mayor of a suburb of Bordeaux, France, is refusing to back down on his promise to perform the marriage of a same-sex couple on June 5.

Bègles Mayor Noël Mamère maintains there is nothing in French law to prohibit the marriage and that gays should have full equal rights.

“France is a hypocritical country,” he told the International Herald Tribune on May 20. “For many, the validity of marriage is procreation. It’s an extremely archaic vision in my opinion, an idea encased in glass. The Americans are much more advanced in the fight against discrimination despite their puritanical and their slightly Protestant bent.”

Justice Minister Dominique Perben has said French law does prohibit marriage between people of the same gender and that the wedding will be null and void.

French gays have had access to civil unions, called Civil Solidarity Pacts, since 1999, but the unions do not carry all the rights of matrimony.

Full marriage is available to same-sex couples only in the Netherlands; Belgium; the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; and the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Canada has no residency requirement for marriage.

Mamère also is a member of France’s National Assembly and vice

president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux.