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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1996)
4 T m ay 3 . 1 9 9 6 ▼ juat o u t world briefs The finest imported coffee beans, teas, chocolates, and beverage brewing accessories. Since 1980 SPRING SCHEDULE ••• THE BROADW AY COFFEE M ERCHANT 1637 N.E. Broadway 284-9209 THE HAWTHORNE COFFEE MERCHANT 3562 S.E. Hawthorne 230-1222 MORNING TRAIN 10a.m.-2p.m. Wed-Sunday AFTERNOON 3p.m.-7p.m. Saturday & Sunday SCENIC RAIL TOURS ARGENTINA Members o f the groups Argentinean A ssocia tion o f Transvestites and Gays for Civil Rights protested outside Buenos Aires’ police station No. 23 on March 20, alleging that officers from the station routinely beat and arrest transvestites. Travel from the Columbia Gorge to spectacular view s of Mt. Hood. _____ Kids under two ride free.______ 110 RAILROAD AVE. HO OD RIVER, OR 97031 RESERVATIONS k FREE BROCHURE 1 800 872-4661 MT. HOOD RAILROAD - - 1 HOUR FROM PORTLAND SEE US FOR ALL YOUR COLLISION REPAIR NEEDS Police responded by arresting and beating three transvestite protesters, according to corre spondent Alejandra Sarda. AUSTRALIA Openly gay candidate Bob Brown won elec tion to the Australian Senate on March 19, repre senting the island o f Tasmania. He is the first out gay in the federal parliament and, at present, the only among the 756 members o f the federal, six state and two territory parlia ments. A Green Party environmentalist. Brown was formerly a member o f the Tasmanian parliament. Tasmania is the only remaining Australian state to ban gay sex. ▼ ▼ ▼ A gay and lesbian bank will open in Australia later this year, reported Britain’s The Guardian. The still-unnamed institution will have of fices in Melbourne and Sydney and offer joint accounts, home loans, superannuation, insurance and credit cards to same-gender couples. BRAZIL Gay registered-partnership legislation is pend ing in Brazil’s parliament, and activists are seek ing lobbying assistance from abroad. Federal Deputy Marta Suplicy introduced the bill last October, and it is now being studied by the parliament’s Social Security and Family Com mission. It grants registered same-sex couples rights in such areas as inheritance, social security and immigration. ▼ ▼ ▼ The British lover o f Brazilian gay leader Toni Reis was forced out o f the country March 15 after his visa expired, and immigration authorities re fused to recognize the couple’s “marriage-like relationship,” gay activists reported. David Harrad can obtain a new visa from outside Brazil and then return, said gay activist Luiz Mott. Foreign opposite-sex spouses o f Brazilians are granted automatic residency. CANADA Canada’s Liberal Party government will at long last make good on its pledge to ban discrimi nation based on sexual orientation under the Human Rights Act, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said March 20. According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Chrétien’s statement came one day after federal Human Rights Commissioner Max Yalden is sued a “scorching report” accusing the Liberals o f breaking their promises to gay men and lesbi ans. CHINA Although homosexuality is not illegal, China jails gays for “disturbance[s] against the social order" (a violation o f Penal Code section 158), says the British organization War on Want. Sen tences can run up to five years. Other gays are treated with electric shocks to “cure” their homosexuality, the group said. China also reportedly is requiring certificates o f negative HIV status from all visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. War on Want recently launched a “War on Prejudice” campaign after discovering “that no other [British] aid organization funds lesbian and gay projects...in the developing world.” COSTA RICA The Costa Rican gay group Triangulo Rosa won a lawsuit last week against the federal Civil Registry office, which was charged with denying legal charters to groups it disapproved of. The Defensoria de los Habitantes court ruled that the Constitution’s free-association clause guarantees all legal organizations the right to official registration. Triangulo Rosa had been denied a charter until on-line foreign queers bombarded the registry office with complaints. The group continued its lawsuit after the regi stry backed down, in hopes o f achieving a legal precedent. Triangulo Rosa recently opened a gay center in Alajuela, outside San Jose, with funds provided by the Dutch government. ICELAND Following in the footsteps of its Scandinavian neighbors, Iceland will legalize marriage-like reg istered partnership for gay men and lesbians by July 1, reports Samtokin ’78, the island’s main lesbian and gay organization. As in Denmark, Greenland, Norway and Sw e den, the partnerships will carry all the rights and responsibilities of marriage except access to church weddings, adoption, artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization. Unlike in the other nations, Icelandic same- sex couples will be permitted joint custody o f each other’s biological children. Parliament also is expected to pass a measure banning defamation based on sexual orientation. SW EDEN Despite news reports over the past 10 years that Iran executes homosexuals, Sw eden’s Aliens Appeals Board is sending a gay Iranian home, saying it doesn’t believe his story. The man claimed that in November 1994, shortly after his arrival in Sweden, his parents were visited by police who said they would kill him if they ever found him, just as they had killed his lover. The officers reportedly made the threat after searching the man’s room and finding banned movies (one showing two gay men joking about Ayatollah Khomeini), along with a collection o f prohibited anti-Islam poems and a photo of the ex-Shah o f Iran and his wife. In Denmark, meanwhile, the Refugee Review Board granted a 26-year-old Armenian gay man refugee status March 22 because Armenia alleg edly mistreats homosexuals. It was the first time a citizen o f that former Soviet republic won asylum in Denmark for this reason. The board took more than two years to make its determination. SOUTH AFRICA South Africa’s Metropolitan Life Ltd. will issue insurance policies to people with HIV, the company announced on March 20. Applicants must be between ages 15 and 55 and not have AIDS symptoms. The premium is $32 a month for a $2,544 policy. “Considering the eventual outcome o f the epidemic, it makes business sense to be in this market,” said a company spokesman. Experts say up to 27 percent o f South Africans will be HIV positive by the year 2010. Compiled by Rex Wockner