Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1994 15:15:15 -0400 (EDT) From: FIDELIO@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (Jorge A. Fiedler) From: Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY Subject: Wkly Update on the Americas #235 7/31/94 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #235, JULY 31, 1994 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 NICARAGUAN SUPREME COURT REJECTS SODOMY LAW APPEAL On March 7, Nicaragua's Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to an anti-gay law--Article 204 of the Penal Code-- which had been passed by the National Assembly on June 11, 1992 and signed into law by President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro one month later. Article 204 punishes anyone who "induces, promotes or practices in scandalous form sexual relations between persons of the same sex" with sentences of 1-3 years in prison. The appeal was presented in October 1992 by a group of about 30 Nicaraguans including lawyers, lesbian and gay people, AIDS educators and human rights activists. With the high court's decision, made more than a year and a half after the appeal was filed, the law will now become enforceable. The court rejected 5-2 the plaintiffs' claims that the law violated Constitutional provisions for all Nicaraguans to enjoy unconditional equality and to exercise all political rights. The court upheld the law on the grounds that "[t]o authorize the performance and freedom of sodomy would be a legal attack against the increase of the Nicaraguan population, a step back for its political, economic and social advancement, due to the lack of men and women to push Nicaragua's progress forward. One cannot attack matrimony..." The feminist magazine La Boletina notes that this precedent provides legal grounds for "[f]orbidding kisses, masturbation, premarital relations, cohabitation among unmarried people, and the use of contraceptives... They'd have to put almost the whole population of the country in jail!!!" [Court Brief, Corte Suprema de Justicia, Managua, Sentencia No. 18, 3/7/94; La Boletina (Managua) No. 16, March-April-May '94 edition] ISSN#: 1068-5332. These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is $25 by first class mail. Please send check or money order payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012). Back issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.) Subscriptions to the Electronic Edition of this Update are delivered directly to your e-mail box. To subscribe to the electronic edition, send your e-mail address with a check or money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to: NY Transfer News Collective, Attn: Kathleen Kelly, 39 West 14th Street, Room 206, New York, NY 10011. Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from them, but please credit us, and send us a copy. We welcome your comments and ideas: send them via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org.