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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1997)
6 ▼ February 2 1 , 1997 ▼ ju s t out [w l orb darbsi Are you getting the response you would like from your display ad? Let us help... Better bang for your buck! Call 5 0 3 * 2 4 5 * 4 3 9 0 ... the Wizards are in! world briefs BRAZIL One hundred twenty-six gay men, lesbians and transvestites were murdered in Brazil in 1996 because o f their sexuality, according to data col lected by Grupo Gay da Bahia. That is a 12 percent increase over 1995. Eighty-five o f the victims were gay, 37 were transvestites and four were lesbians. M eanwhile, a day after GGB issued its report, an actor known as Sandro, who plays a gay man on a popular television show, was gay-bashed in Rio de Janeiro, said GGB spokesm an Luiz Mott. No details were available at press time. Woman owned since 1994 T Ray Bidegain Studio Pro Lab N.W . Inc. 133 SE M adison Portland, OR 97214 503 231-1599 - ▼ ▼ Brazil’s new official A ID S-inform ation cam paign will teach children aged 7 to 9 how to use a condom, Reuters reports. The governm ent will also distribute 250 mil lion rubbers to groups perceived to be at high risk for HIV infection. Brazil is believed to have one o f the w orld’s highest AIDS rates. PORTRAITS □ 239 NW 13th Avenue Suite 214 □ 503-796-0384 BRITAIN ISRAEL A gay man has won his fight to receive an Israeli Defense Force spousal pension. A Tel Aviv District Court Appeals Committee ruled Jan. 8 that the military engaged in illegal gender-based discrimination when it withheld benefits from Adir Steiner after his male lover, Col. Doron Meisel, died of cancer in 1991. Israeli businesses are required to provide equal benefits to lesbian and gay em ployees’ families, but the military was not covered by that law. ppigip AZT alone brought ' in $400 million last year, f f ; while 3TC generated in- com e o f $260 million. . Most o f the world’s H IV -p o sitiv e p e o p le B ^ c a n n o t a ffo rd th e o com pany’s drugs, and ^ even in the United States _"*Q the cost of anti-HIV drugs has bankrupted some local government assistance programs— and some uninsured HIV-positive people go without. Meanwhile, as was publicized late last year, Glaxo W ellcome Chief Executive Officer Richard Sykes takes home a salary o f $2.3 million a year. ▼ ▼ T “W h ere To Stay?” NEW 1997 Edition B i S l B s , Inns, Resorts, Hotels More detail than any other guide, straight OR gay Detailed descriptions Hundreds of illustrations USA <S l worldwide- Thoroughly revised and updated annually FERRARI GUIDES W e B ring Y ou T he W orld y At your favorite bookstore or call 800 - 962 - 2912 FOR FREE CATALOG INTERNATIONAL The International Lesbian and Gay Associa tion announced a boycott o f Romanian wine Jan. 23 to protest against the nation’s continued penal ization of homosexuality. Gay sex in private apparently is now permitted in Romania, but in the process o f passing the decriminalization measure, legislators created new laws banning gay bars, gay organizations, gay media, and gay sex that creates a “public scan dal”— defined as anything two or more people find offensive. Violators face up to five years in prison. W ine is Rom ania’s most visible consumer export. Twenty-five million liters are sold abroad annually. Bri tish-basedGlaxo W ellcome, m akersof3TC, AZT and other anti-HIV drugs, now controls over 50 percent o f the global $1.3 billion HIV-drug m arket, according to % / 'X Business Week. FULL SERVICE CUSTOM PHOTO LAB orientation. One new law criminalizes any action that humiliates, degrades, slanders or defames an in dividual or group based on sexual orientation. A second law makes it a crime to deny a service or commercial transaction based on sexual orienta tion. Lothian Health Authority in Edinburgh, Scot land, has told area doctors to stop prescribing combi nation anti-HI V drugs for the next two months because there is no money budgeted to pay for them, reported the B BC’s Radio 5 Live. The nucleoside analogue/protease inhibitor combos can cost up to $20,000 a year. CANADA AIDS-related deaths in British C olum bia have plummeted thanks to the new protease inhibitor- based combination anti-HIV therapies. The death rate in the last three months o f 1996 was 23 per 1,000 people with AIDS com pared to 70 per 1,000 in early 1994. COSTA RICA The assistant director o f Costa R ica’s nation alized health care system, Dr. Julieta Rodriguez, told 25 HIV-positive people Jan. 22 that the system will not pay for anti-HIV drugs. In a meeting held in the offices o f the agency, the Caja C ostariccense de Seguros Sociales, Rodriguez said the drugs are too expensive and do not cure AIDS anyway. O ne o f the 25 attendees, who called him self Antonio, told reporters afterward: “Since we started meeting three weeks ago, two members of our group have died. But the authorities here d on’t care. We are young, productive members o f this society who have contributed [via mandatory payroll deductions] to this [health care] system as workers during many years. But they w on’t give us anything. It is a horrible situation.” ICELAND Six months after becom ing the fourth nation to legalize marriage-like same-sex partnerships, Ice land has banned mistreatm ent based on sexual ITALY “The idea that attributing homosexuality to someone is an insult to the honor, in the sense of an assault on the dignity of their person, must be rejected decisively.... Calling someone homo sexual cannot constitute in i tself a di mini shment of the person. >P V j So ruled an Italian court in mid-January, in a case brought by the Brescia Blues wom en’s soc cer team. Club members sued for defamation after am a teur league Chairman Michele de Caminata dis banded the team, charging that the players had become distracted by lesbian sex. THE PHILIPPINES The Philippines will see its first national gay conference in May. The event, organized by the Progressive O rga nization o f Gays, known as PROGAY, is ex pected to draw delegates from 11 provinces. M eanwhile, on Jan. 14, PROGAY members staged a public protest against government plans to issue citizen ID cards. PROGAY head Oscar Atadero labeled the scheme “one dangerously small step away from encrypting in magnetic code the privately kept gender orientation, sexual preferences and HIV/ AIDS status o f gays.” THAILAND Thai Education M inister Sukavit Rangsitphol said Jan. 24 he will not back down from the nation’s new ban on lesbian and gay students at teacher colleges. "The ministry has not violated human rights,” Rangsitphol said. "The ruling is only aimed at banning people with improper personalities from being models for youngsters.” Compiled by Rex Wockner