Chile settles row over gay paper

BBC News/December 31, 2004

The Catholic conservative movement Opus Dei has lost a legal battle to force a Chilean newspaper for homosexuals to change its name from Opus Gay.

The local chapter of Opus Dei had argued that the name had been a deliberate attempt to cause offence.

But after a two-year legal challenge, Chile's intellectual property authorities settled the case in favour of the newspaper.

Officials ruled that both names could "co-exist peacefully".

"It is difficult to see how the public could be exposed to mistakes or confusions" between the two, they said.

A gay rights group, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), called the ruling an "unprecedented victory" against powerful groups in Chilean society.