by Christopher Cappiello

Gay cops to come out in Italy

In the face of one of Europe’s most famously macho cultures, gay police officers and some members of the military throughout Italy are forming a new organization to plan a massive joint coming-out event to increase visibility and combat homophobia, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reports.

Organizers of the new group, Polis Aperta (Open Police), say they have already attracted about 200 members. The inaugural meeting is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Bologna, home to Europe’s oldest university and a longtime stronghold of liberal thinking.

“[Polis Aperta] will move Italy closer to the rest of Europe and break with the absurd macho taboos which still pervade the armed forces,” gay rights advocacy group Mario Mieli Association said in a statement.

Milan traffic policeman Fabrizio Caiazza, 33, became an unofficial leader of the movement for greater visibility for LGBT police in Italy when he was reprimanded for winning Gaydarnation’s international gay beauty contest with photos depicting him in uniform.

“I know I should have asked, but it would have been a complicated request,” Caiazza told the Guardian. “Many policemen don’t come out because of the enmity they would face from colleagues and the isolation they would be put in by superiors,” he said.

Polis Aperta’s president, Nicola Cicchiti, said the group has received support from similar organizations throughout Europe, most notably Spain’s Gaylespol, which hosted a conference in Barcelona this year for 14 LGBT police groups.

One of the new organization’s goals is to have out officers assigned to crimes involving the LGBT community, particularly hate crimes.

“Sending officers to investigate hate crimes would help to encourage witnesses who might usually be afraid to talk to the police,” Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender former member of the Italian Parliament, told the Guardian.

Lesbian MP to have civil partnership

Britain’s Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Angela Eagle, will enter a civil partnership with her longtime partner, Maria Exall, later this month, the Telegraph newspaper reports.

News of Eagle’s plans came when the Labor Party’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, announced it unexpectedly during a question-and-answer session at a Trades Union Congress debate about equality.

“I wasn’t expecting her to say this,” the relatively private Eagle told the Daily Mail. “And I suspect Harriet wasn’t expecting to say it, either. But it is not a state secret.”

The only openly lesbian MP, Eagle, 47, represents Wallasey. She and Exall, a 48-year-old engineer for British Telecom, have been together for 18 years.

Eagle is the first female MP to form a civil partnership since the government began granting the legal recognition in December 2005. Civil partnerships come with most of the rights and responsibilities of marriage.

Nigerian state matches HIV-positive couples

The northern Nigerian state of Bauchi has begun matching up HIV-positive men and women to marry, in an attempt to diminish the spread of the virus, BBC News reports.

“Suitors who have tested positive and are willing to wed each other can reduce the spread of the virus and also cushion the psychological trauma of isolation,” said Dr. Lirwan Mohammed, executive secretary of the Bauchi Action Committee on AIDS, to the BBC.

Couples are reportedly given the opportunity to meet in counseling sessions, where they are free to say yes or no to a prospective mate.

“Marrying someone with the same HIV status will reduce the spread of the scourge,” said a man involved in the matchmaking program, who wished to remain anonymous.

Officials hope the monogamous matches will also diminish the effects of northern Nigeria’s continued practice of polygamy.

“Polygamy, as we have discovered, has become a potent source of spreading the HIV scourge in Nigeria,” Mohammed said.

Some HIV experts are dubious about the plan, pointing out that couples with different strains of the virus could create new, drug-resistant strains through unprotected sex. Bauchi’s strict Islamic Sharia law does not encourage the use of condoms.

“There may be a very big danger in terms of the spread of the disease,” said Warren Naamara of UNAIDS to the BBC. “Our advice is they should use condoms.”

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the eighth most populous country in the world, with almost 150 million people. While its estimated 3 percent adult HIV infection rate is low compared to many other African nations, it still has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, second only to South Africa in the world.