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(Auckland) New Zealand's national LGBT film
festival is under fire for offering new members a chance to win a prize to Fiji.
Out Takes presents festivals in the country's
three largest cities. To boost membership it has been offering people who sign
up a chance to win a five day holiday for two
adults at a Fijian resort
But LGBT activists are blasting the festival for
offing a trip to one of the most homophobic areas in the region.
Although Fiji's Constitution bans discrimination
on the basis of sexuality, consenting homosexual sex is illegal - punishable by
imprisonment. The country also bars people with HIV/AIDS.
"Why
would we encourage people to spend their money in Fiji when they discriminate
against people living with HIV and Aids," asked Bruce Kilmister, chair of Body
Positive.
"I
just note the irony."
Some LGBT rights activists are calling for a
boycott of the festival.
Out Takes is defending the contest.
"While
we recognize that there is a high incidence of homophobia and related
persecution in Fiji. . . we also recognize that it is incumbent on the queer
community to stand up and be present in the face of unjustified
persecution," the group said in a statement to LGBT Web site GayNZ.com.
The organization said that boycotting the film
festival would not advance the cause of equality.
Gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison
with hard labor.
Last year an Australian and a Fiji local were
arrested for consensual sex. Thomas McCoskar, 55, and Dhirendra Nadan, 23, were
convicted. The magistrate described their behavior as ``something so disgusting
that it would make any decent person vomit.''
The case was later overturned on appeal following
an international outcry.
Attacks on gays in Fiji are common, with police
often refusing to investigate. In 2001 John Scott, the head
of the Fiji Red Cross, and his New Zealand partner Greg Scrivener were murdered.
On Monday the Methodist Church, the largest
Protestant denomination in Fiji, called on the government to remove the
reference to sexuality from the Constitution.
Church president Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca
said pastors were concerned the reference promoted immorality. Earlier in
the day another Methodist minister said that homosexuality was "was against
the holy law of creation.".
©365Gay.com 2006
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