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The virulently homophobic Methodist Church of Fiji has postponed plans for an anti-gay hate march following a speech by a Fijiian activist last week at the Pan Pacific AIDS Conference.

Assistant general secretary Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu says the Church has been misunderstood by the gay community. "We will conduct seminars and studies to get them to listen to us and we will try to listen to their side of the story before we go for the march," he told the Fiji Times.

Carlos Perera of the Sexual Minorities Project spoke last week about life as a gay man in Fiji at the Opening Plenery of the Pan Pacific AIDS Conference in Auckland. He said the Methodist Church was the worst perpetrator of anti-gay rhetoric in the country, and had issued press releases calling for gays to be put to death. At the same conference Fiji's speaker of the House, Ratu Epeil Nailatikau also challenged Pacific churches to change their attitudes to homosexuality and HIV infection prevention. "Before our churches can save souls they must save lives,2 he stated.

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[ 04 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]