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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1995)
just out ▼ nowsmbor 3, 1995 ▼ 3 Howie Baggadonutz presents world briefs S .F . D y k e C o m ic S e n s a t io n From TV's “Out There III" ARGENTINA Members of Lesbianas a la Vista marched through Buenos Aires on Sept. 16 to protest the Argentine government’s anti-lesbian position at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The conference deleted a call for protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation from its “Platform for Action” when the del egates, who came from 189 countries, could not reach consensus on that point. The demonstrators painted their faces white and wore black “to symbolize mourning for the exclusion of our rights from Beijing’s final state ment” and to “denounce...w hat conservative forces wish for lesbians: our invisibility and, finally, our elimination,” said a press release. They carried banners reading: “Lesbian Rights Are Human Rights” and “Menem [Argentina’s president], the Pope and the Ayatollah—Together they stopped us.” Many observers of the march “expressed soli darity” with the action, the marchers reported. AUSTRALIA AIDS has peaked in Australia, Prime Minister Paul Keating announced on Sept. 27. “A decade of hard and unremitting effort in this country has resulted in a welcome reduction in the rates and incidence of both HIV and AIDS,” Reuters quoted him as saying. Keating said the nation will launch its third five-year campaign in July, when the current campaign wraps up, targeting research, treat ment, education and prevention. Australia has seen about 19,000 cases of HIV infection. New infections have leveled out to about 600 yearly. ▼ ▼ ▼ The attorney general of New South Wales, Jeff Shaw, will present the State Cabinet with a series of far-reaching legal reforms recognizing same-sex couples and transsexuals, reported Dominic O ’Grady in the gay newspaper Brother Sister. “I would like to see legislation which treats a variety of stable relationships in a nondiscrimina- tory way,” Shaw said. “That includes same-sex relationships and other relationships, irrespective of their sexuality. “We want to treat all relationships in a way which is not governed by the traditional hetero sexual view,” Shaw said. “I think society has changed, and the community is ready to accept that relationships ought to be dealt with equitably, whether they are based on marriage or other wise.” The most likely option for gay men and lesbi ans is a “domestic-relations act” which would give homosexual couples equal rights in such areas as property rights, bail, compensation claims and hospital decisions. Brother Sister said. Shaw hopes to change other laws that discriminate against same-sex couples, in areas such as wills and probates, he said. Shaw also will present two proposals support ive of transsexuals. One would extend the protec tions of the state Anti-Discrimination Act, and the other would allow transsexuals to change their gender on their birth certificates. SA B R IH A MATTHEWS suffer, among other things, regular police harass ment and serious media defamation. The commission will refer the complaint to the Costa Rican government for an exchange of views prior to undertaking formal consideration of the complaint’s substance and admissibility. DENMARK To prove a point, the male president and fe male vice president of Denmark’s national gay organization, Landsforeningen for Boesser og Lesbiske, got married to each other Sept. 22 at the Copenhagen Town Hall. Unlike same-sex couples, who marry under Denmark’s gay-marriage law, Soeren Laursen and Birgitte Eckwald— even though they are a homosexual couple—will be allowed to adopt children and obtain artificial insemination through the state health care system. Denmark legalized same-sex marriage in 1989, followed later by Greenland, Hungary (common- law only), Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian and Swedish laws contain the same restrictions as in Denmark. FRANCE The mayors of six Paris arrondissements (dis tricts) pledged on Sept. 20 to begin offering part nership registration for gay and lesbian couples, reported Agence France Presse. plus special musical guest SARA SHORTT CHRIS STEVENS SAT, N O V . 1 8 • 8 p m Vancouver Nissan-Ki; C lin ton S treet T h e a tre 2 5 2 2 SE Clinton New & Used Cars & Trucks $ 1 1 advance at all Fastixx outlets (224-8499) & It's My Pleasure (236-0505), $ I 3 door 503 226-0006 1 800 527-7542 - - - IIT ravel A gents H I nternational , "Set y if// O ut Co/n/nunify ... fit/ Aleefin// Yota N refis FREE plus A ir FREE to CAR!!! H a w a ii C lassic Receive 1 FR EE round-trip airline ticket to Hawaii from the west coast for each room booked. Maximum o f one credit per room. Th is offer combinable w ith Classic's Free Car Special, offering savings up to $500.001 All travelers m ust: ■ Buy a minimum of 7 nights accommodations from Classic Hawaii using any combination of participating hotels ■ Buy Classic Hawaii's Change & Cancellation Waiver ■ Bookings must be paid for w ithin 7 days C ustom The officials, all Socialists or members of the leftist Movement of Citizens, said they will issue “certificates of cohabitation...to contribute to equality between all citizens whatever their per sonal situation may be.” Applicants must have li ved together for a year. The certificates do not confer the rights of mar riage but lesbian and gay groups said they are a step in the right direction, nonetheless. NEW ZEALAND Transsexual Georgina Beyer, a member of the Caterton District Council, is now running for mayor of the small Wiararapa township. Voting, which was by mail, concluded on Oct. 14. Beyer was the first transsexual elected to pub lic office in New Zealand, beating five other candidates in the process. POLAND The Polish Catholic Church’s attempt to get the film Priest banned led a record 75,000 people to see it the first week it played, in late September. Pawel Dutkowski of Solopan distributors said the church protest was “solely” responsible for the huge turnout. “Massive audiences have been attracted,” he told Reuters. “We ourselves could not have af forded such a large promotion campaign.” COSTA RICA The New Jersey-based Magnus Hirschfeld SPAIN Center for Human Rights has filed a complaint Several Spanish gay groups have called for the with the Inter-American Commission on Human firing of Basque region Attorney General Jesus Rights against Costa Rica, over its treatment of Cardenal after he wrote that diversity, divorce, gay men and lesbians. abortion and homosexuality are corrupting the The commission is the arm of the Organiza natural order. tion of American States charged with enforce Cardenal made the comment in his annual ment of the American Convention on Human official report. The groups fear the remark will Rights, an agreement among Western Hemisphere lead to increased gay-bashing. nations to which Costa Rica is a party. 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