Gay rights groups slam media over bias

Gay groups, human rights and women groups protested at media bias putting homosexuality in a negative light through association with and negative reporting of a serial murder case allegedly committed by Verry Idham Henryansyah.

"Much of the murder coverage focused on the homosexuality of the alleged perpetrator and not on the crimes. I am gay, but I don't kill people," Hartoyo, an activist at Our Voice, an NGO that supports homosexual and bisexual males, told reporters here on Thursday.

He said his gay group was annoyed after reading experts' statements on Internet news portals and in printed media pointing the finger at homosexuals and conveying prejudice.

Verry is currently under police custody for allegedly killing five people, one of whom was mutilated in Jakarta, while the others were found in Jombang, East Java.

"How come some experts link homosexuality with cruelty in the serial murders allegedly committed by Verry? Anyone can commit murder!" he said.

Hartoyo said homosexuality was already stigmatized in this country and the highlighting of the sexual aspect to the serial murders case made this worse.

"We feel more intimidated and scared," he said.

He gave the example of a master of ceremonies in a pub in Central Jakarta, which was a gathering place for homosexuals, who kept reminding the customers to be careful, as they heard that the police were calling reinforcements.

"Please avoid holding hands in public. We have been pinpointed recently, so please be more careful," the master of ceremonies repeated several times to the pub customers, Hartoyo said.

He also regretted some experts' statements that homosexuality was a sickness and should be cured, a notion which was completely wrong, Hartoyo said.

He said some experts might not have a good understanding or might hold a completely different perspective on homosexuality.

Agustine, an activist of the Ardhanary Institute, which is concerned with lesbians and transgender issues, said news media outlets took advantage of the alleged murderer's confession that he was gay.

"Things would be completely different if the serial murder was committed by a heterosexual. Who would write newspaper headlines like 'Heterosexual kills five people,'? she said.

On behalf of Civil Care to Stop Stigma against Homosexual and Bisexual Groups she passed on her sincere condolences to the families of Verry's victims.

"We hope the news media do not link the murder, allegedly done by Verry, with emphasis on sexual orientation that points the finger at us," she said.

She said she hoped police, who were investigating the case, would still respect humanity when they questioned Verry.

"We hope police treat Verry fairly, giving him his rights as an alleged murderer," she said.

The protesting groups Thursday included groups advocating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender/transsexual rights like Arus Pelangi, Transsexuals Communication Forum, Srikandi Sejati; and women groups like Institute Pelangi Perempuan, Kalyanamitra, Kapal Perempuan, Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan and Koalisi Perempuan.

Palin breaks with McCain on gay marriage amendment

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a break with John McCain who has said he believes states should be left to define what marriage is. In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, the Alaska governor said she had voted in 1998 for a state amendment banning same sex marriage and hoped to see a federal ban on such unions.

"I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that's where we would go. I don't support gay marriage," Palin said. She said she believed traditional marriage is the foundation for strong families.

McCain, an Arizona senator, is supporting a ballot initiative in his state this year that would ban gay marriage. But he has consistently and forcefully opposed a federal marriage amendment, saying it would usurp states' authority on such matters.

As governor, Palin vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In a debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden, Palin said she was "tolerant" of gays and said she supported certain legal protections for same-sex couples, like hospital visitation rights.

In the CBN interview, Palin also said she would speak out if she heard a supporter at a rally yell violent or threatening comments about Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

"What we have heard through some mainstream media is that folks have hollered out some atrocious and unacceptable things like 'kill him,'" Palin said, referring to a Washington Post story two weeks ago about angry supporters at a Palin rally in Florida. "If I ever were to hear that standing up there at the podium with the mike, I would call them out on that, and I would tell these people, no, that's unacceptable."

CBN released excerpts of the interview Monday and planned to broadcast it in its entirety Tuesday.

Palin also claimed religion and God had been "mocked" during the campaign, although she offered no evidence to support that.

"Faith in God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and choose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit," she said.

Palin is a conservative Christian who was baptized and grew up attending Pentecostal churches. In September, Obama defended Palin's religious beliefs and said it would be "offensive" to portray her faith as strange or wrong.

Palin also reaffirmed her view that Obama had been "palling around with terrorists" because of his association with Bill Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who helped found the violent Weather Underground group to protest the Vietnam war. The group was responsible for bombings of several government buildings.

"I would say it again," she said.

Ayers and Obama live in the same Chicago neighborhood and have served together on charity boards. Ayers also hosted a house party for Obama when he was first running for the Illinois state Senate.

Australian adult industry flirts with politics

The name may seem like a joke, but the Australian Sex Party is serious - serious about sex, according to their slogan.

The country's newest political party is also serious about a number of other issues: quashing a government proposal for a national Internet filter that would block 10,000 Web sites; instituting a national sex education curriculum; and pushing for the legalization of gay marriage.

The party - launched Thursday at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne - has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register with the electoral commission next week.

While most of its members are drawn from Eros - Australia's national adult industry association- the Sex Party believes it can attract a broader base.

"We're concerned about the Australian government becoming a nanny state, and about this conservative creep in politics," party convener and Eros head Fiona Patten told The Associated Press by phone.

Patten said she had expected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose center-left Labour Party took power nearly a year ago, to be "reasonably socially progressive."

But she was surprised when Rudd called a May exhibit of photographs of nude teenagers "revolting." Critics said the Sydney show constituted obscenity, but the artwork was eventually cleared by Australia's Classification Board as non-pornographic.

Patten called the federal government's proposal for an Internet filter "the last straw" and said the party's first goal is to alert voters to the "unprecedented censorship of legal material" encompassed by the filter.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told Parliament earlier this month that his mandatory Internet filter would block 10,000 Web sites on a government blacklist of "unwanted content," including sites showing child pornography, excessive violence, drug use or instructions in criminal or terrorist acts.

But Patten said the filter targets a far wider range of sites.

"If they were aiming to block child pornography, no problem," she said. "But they've identified any adult site, things like playboy.com, a site that shows material that you can buy in a news agency or rent or buy in an adult video shop. It was an incredible shift back 30 years."

The party's platform also includes support for an age-appropriate national sex education curriculum, gay marriage and opposition to a government policy that bans overseas aid to any organization that provides abortion information.

The Australian Christian Lobby has already condemned the Sex Party "for its inappropriate views about women."

"Pornography and prostitution do enormous damage to women and children, and the idea of mainstream political parties giving this trade seats in our nation's parliaments ... would offend the sensibilities of most Australians who believe women should be respected," the lobby's Managing Director Jim Wallace said in a statement. "The last thing we need in Parliament is a Sex Party pushing for governments to put more sex in ours and our children's faces."

But Patten believes the Australian Sex Party offers a new voice to many Australians.

"We feel we really have hit a nerve," she said. "I'm kind of blown away by the response. People appreciate our policies of education, gender equality. They are taking us seriously."

The party, whose slogan is "We're serious about sex," plans to run candidates in Senate and state upper house elections.

Gays, bisexuals, transgenders still discriminated against: Rights body

The government is failing to respect and protect those who identify as homosexual, bisexual or transgender, despite their equal rights as citizens, says the official human rights body.

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group continue to face discrimination, marginalization, torture and harassment, with the government denying them their rights as citizens, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said Tuesday.

"Under the Constitution the government must protect all citizens, so why do LGBTs still suffer ill-treatment in this country?" Komnas HAM member Yosep Adi Prasetyo said at a seminar titled "Taboo Sexuality: Challenges on Differences", co-hosted by the Finnish Embassy and women's group Kalyanamitra.

"There are even still police officers who discriminate against and harass this group of people," he added.

Yosep cited several cases of homosexual couples who were arrested by police in Banda Aceh, Aceh.

"They were instructed by local police to remove their clothing, or worse, they were ordered to re-enact their sexual activities in front of officers, who were mocking them," he said.

Siti Musdah Mulia, a moderate Muslim scholar from the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, gave another example of discrimination that she encountered while involved in selecting new Komnas HAM members.

Siti, who was the secretary of an independent committee for the selection, said the committee was subject to a lot of criticism from various groups, including the media, when it accepted the nominations of two people from the LGBT group.

"This is proof that people are still discriminating against LGBTs. The two LGBTs were recruited because they had good visions and skills. We did not choose them for any political reasons," she said at the seminar.

Siti said there was no reason for the public and authorities to discriminate against this group.

"Pluralism is not a deviation but a blessing from God as a social investment in life," she added.

Lukas Mangindaan, a psychiatrist from the University of Indonesia, said homosexuality was no longer categorized as a mental illness or sexual deviation, as declared by the World Health Organization in 1990 and the Indonesian Health Ministry in 1983 and 1993.

"LGBTs do not suffer from any mental illness or dysfunction," he said at the forum.

Lukas said human behavior could not be considered abnormal as long as it did not display any mental dysfunction.

"What makes people think that someone is not normal is when they find that person to be different from the majority. It's no problem being heterosexual or homosexual; the important thing is they take responsibility for their choices," he said.

Yosep further said that in dealing with the LGBT issue, the government should address three points: respect, protection and fulfillment.

"Respect means the government must enforce the law to stop discrimination and violence by authorities against LGBTs, and protection means the government must take action to prevent ill-treatment by non-state actors," Yosep said.

"Fulfillment means the government must guarantee the rights of LGBTs as humans by allocating resources to understand the LGBT issue in government agencies."