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Gay unions 'bad for family,' says Aussie PM
Australia's John Howard has ruled out following suit as Britain began recognising same-sex couples and according them similar rights to heterosexually married ones last week.

The Prime Minister's comments came after the widely covered "wedding" of pop star Elton John and his long-term partner, David Furnish who were among 700 same-sex couples to "marry" last week in the UK.

Howard last Thursday said that he opposed legislating civil partnership laws in Australia and believed marriage could only exist between a man and woman.

"But I believe very strongly that marriage is exclusively a union for life of a man and a woman to the exclusion of others," he told reporters.

"That is the common understanding of marriage in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and I would be opposed to a recognition of civil unions.

"I would be opposed to a recognition of civil unions, although I am strongly in favour... of removing any property and other discrimination that exists against people who have same-sex relationships," he told reporters.

Following the media reports on Howard's opposition, the Australian Coalition for Equality (ACE), a gay rights group has called for a meeting with Howard early in 2006 to discuss changes to laws affecting people in same-sex relationships.

The group says it hopes to work out a timetable for major reform of laws to ensure equality for gay couples as Howard expressed that he was in favour of removing forms of discrimination against people in same sex relationships.

ACE spokesman Rod Swift said, "Immediate reform is needed in areas like parenting and families, medical safety nets, taxation, superannuation contribution splitting, social security and veterans' benefits."

"Until now, the Australian government has only been willing to accept same-sex couples for terrorism laws, some areas of immigration and passport laws, and for some superannuation choice - but recently rejected amendments to legislation in the Senate which would have provided equal treatment under Medicare and Pharmaceutical benefit safety nets."

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Activists honored for contributions to GLBT communities in Asia
Rosanna Flamer-Caldera of Sri Lanka and Dr Peter Jackson, a well-known Australian academic and expert on Thai gay culture have been named winners of the 2005 Utopia Awards to recognise their contributions to the gay, lesbian, and transgendered communities in Asia.

Flamer-Caldera, a lesbian and founding member of Women's Support Group (1999) and Equal Ground (2004) in Sri Lanka, has championed homosexual issues in the general public through TV, radio and print media, challenging the human rights community to expand their scope to include LGBT concerns. As the the International Lesbian and Gay Association representative for Asian females, she was also instrumental in organizing the ILGA-Asia Regional Conference in Mumbai, India (2002).

The second Utopia Award for 2005 honours Dr Peter Jackson for his landmark publications and his contributions towards the development of queer studies in the Southeast Asia region. A Fellow in Thai History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, Dr Jackson specialises in the cultural history of modern Thailand. He also (co)authored Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys: Male and Female Homosexualities in Contemporary Thailand and "Gay and Lesbian Asia: Identity, Community, Culture.

In 2001, he co-founded AsiaPacifiQueer, an Australia-based network of scholars researching homosexuality and transgenderism. He was also instrumental in organising the world's first International Conference of Asian Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies in Bangkok in July 2005.

Previous recipients of the Utopia Awards include Thai Senator Jon Ungpakorn; Taiwan lesbian activist, Wang Ping; Hong Kong gay activist Chung To; Singaporean gay activist Alex Au; transgender Thai kick boxer, Parinya Jaroenphon; Nepal's Blue Diamond Society; Malaysia's PT Foundation; Indonesian gay activist Dede Oetomo; and ProGay of the Philippines.

Utopia Asia is a publisher of online guidebooks to gay life in the region, and of the printed Utopia Guide to 45 cities in China, and major cities in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.