gay sex.

Mr. Svend Robinson, an openly gay member of Canada's House of Commons, has called on the Hon. Sir John Swan to scrap the law.

The 41-year-old MP, who announced he was gay in 1988, is international human rights spokesman for Canada's third party, the New Democrats.

In a letter he tells the Premier the law violates privacy and non-discrimination parts of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers Bermuda.

He says such laws "unfairly attach a criminal stigma to the social, cultural and political activities of the gay and lesbian community.'' The law "undermines the very credibility of the Bermuda penal code, which professes to protect the rights of all citizens of Bermuda,'' he adds.

Mr. Robinson, who represents a suburb of Vancouver, is known as a campaigner for human rights. He is honorary director of the new Toronto Centre for Lesbian and Gay Studies.