From: David Sangurima <sangu@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 19 Jul 92 11:09 PDT
Subject: NY Times on Nica Anti-Gay Bill
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1473800069:000:6615
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!sangu    Jul 19 11:09:00 1992


From: David Sangurima <sangu>
Subject: NY Times on Nica Anti-Gay Bill

/* Written  6:45 pm  Jul 14, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua */
/* ---------- "NY Times on Nica Anti-Gay Bill" ---------- */
NEW YORK TIMES COVERS NICARAGUA'S ANTI-GAY LEGISLATION

The New York Times finally covered Article 205 of Nicaragua's
revised penal code on July 10--one month after the legislation
was passed.  Article 205 is the law which penalizes lesbian-gay
activities and speech if conducted in a "scandalous" manner.  The
most notable feature of the Times article is its lack of clarity
on which party supported the law and which party opposed it;
instead of simply stating that the Sandinistas opposed the law,
the article skirts around the issue with vague references to
"Sandinista leaders" and "Sandinista intellectuals and
journalists."

In line with US government policy, the Times has been promoting
the right wing of the UNO party's bench in the Nicaraguan
National Assembly.  The rightists are depicted as "democrats"
striving to return property to its rightful owners, curb
Sandinista "totalitarians" retaining their civil service jobs in
the police and the government bureaucracy, and so on.  To help
them pressure President Chamorro around these points, the US
Congress is holding up the $100 million in aid promised Nicaragua
for this summer.

Under these circumstances, it is embarrassing to be reminded that
the UNO rightists are not now and have never been anything
remotely resembling democrats or defenders of human rights. 
Hence the need to play down their role in the repression of
lesbians and gays, which wouldn't play so well among much of the
Times readership, especially around the time of New York's Gay
and Lesbian Pride Week at the end of June.

We are enclosing the text of the article and a response we have
sent to the Times.  We urge others to send their own responses as
soon as possible.

Newest Storm in Nicaragua: Anti-Gay Law

by Shirley Christian

[New York Times 7/10/92]

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, July 8--Nicaragua's largely traditional
Catholicism has clashed with secular, modern reality after the
National Assembly, as part of a reform of the penal code,
strengthened the existing law against engaging in homosexuality
in a "scandalous" manner.

Gay rights groups, Nicaragua and abroad, have condemned the
legislation and demanded that President Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro veto it.

But aides to Mrs. Chamorro expressed doubts that she would do
that, noting that she felt her religion very deeply and would do
nothing that would offend the church.

Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, a trusted confidant of the
President's, said in a recent Sunday homily that "any sensible
and responsible Christian ought to be in agreement" with the
tougher law.

Vague Meaning of Scandalous

As revised by the legislative vote on June 11, the law provides
for one to three years in prison for "those who induce, promote,
propagandize or practice concubinage with those of the same sex
in a scandalous form."

The penal code had already provided for the one-to-three year
jail term for engaging in homosexuality in a "scandalous" manner,
but now it has been expanded to cover inducing, promoting and
propagandizing it in a scandalous way as well.

The law in question, Article 205 of the penal code, does not
declare that homosexuality as such is a crime.

But critics of the legislation and some Government officials
speaking privately said it was impossible to interpret a word as
vague as "scandalous."  Further, the critics say the reference to
not "propagandizing" in a scandalous way could inhibit
journalists and commentators from writing or speaking on the
subject.

Sandinista Criticism

On many issues, the United National Opposition, the coalition
that backed Mrs. Chamorro for election in 1990 and has a small
majority in the assembly, has ceased agreeing with Mrs.
Chamorro's Government because of the policy of her chief
minister, Antonio Lacayo, of governing the country in close
association and consultation with leaders of the defeated
Sandinista Front.

But on this one they found common ground.

While leaders of the Sandinista Front have had little to say
publicly about Article 205, Sandinista intellectuals and
journalists have taken a strong lead in writing on the anomolies
[sic] and discrepancies in the law and attacking it as
repressive.

An anonymous group that maintained that it included the leaders
of a gay organization threatened to start revealing the names of
members of the Government and assembly who are homosexual or
bisexual if the law is allowed to stand.

Right to Preferences

Another group said it would challenge the law in the Supreme
Court if Mrs. Chamorro does not veto it.

One of the United National leaders, Luis Sanchez Sancho, a
Socialist who normally expresses liberal social views, rose to
the defense of the legislation, noting that it did not outlaw
homosexuality and that homosexuals "have no reason to worry about
their right to their amorous preference."


                              July 14, 1992

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43 Street
New York, N.Y. 10036

To the Editor:

"Newest Storm in Nicaragua: Anti-Gay Law" (news article, July 10)
is unclear on one important point: how the various Nicaraguan
political parties voted when the National Assembly passed Article
205 of the revised penal code on June 11.  All 39 members of the
Sandinista bench voted against Article 205, under which lesbians
and gays can be penalized even for exercising their right to free
speech, while most members of the governing United National
Opposition (UNO) coalition supported the law.  In other words,
the Sandinistas, generally depicted in this country as anti-
democratic totalitarians, opposed anti-gay legislation; the UNO
legislators, elected in 1990 with millions of our tax dollars in
a supposed effort to "restore democracy" to Nicaragua, supported
the restrictive law.  Is this what our government and media mean
when they talk about democracy--repression of lesbians and gays?


                              David L. Wilson
                              Nicaragua Solidarity Network
                              of Greater New York

[For more information, contact the Nicaragua Solidarity Network
of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette Street #8, New York, NY 10012. 
Phone: 212-674-9499.  PeaceNet: nicanetny.

[We also have special temporary hotline on the Nicaraguan sodomy
law: 212-475-7159.

[Please note that information on the sodomy law is available on
PeaceNet in two conferences: queerplanet and reg.nicaragua.]