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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 16, 1997)
Just out ▼ m ay 16. 190? T 7 To know us... ...is to love us. Deborah Betron CRB. GRI Jude Matson, GRI John Terrill. GRI Chris Bonner. GRI l inda Welch, GRI Broker Associate Broker Associate Broker Associate Broker Broker/President Clinton and Gore met with ENDA supporters on April 24 attitudes about homosexuality are changing in immigrant communities. Gay émigrés at the pageant told the Mercury News that a female impersonation contest was an appropriate celebration because gay men in Viet nam have for years used cross-dressing as the only available way to express their sexuality and meet other gay men. To many Vietnamese, transvestitism and ho mosexuality are synonymous, 23-year-old Dewey Nguyen told the newspaper. Nguyen is a co founder of Sunshine Productions, California’s first gay Asian production company, which spon sored the pageant. He and the group’s other founder, Huy Nguyen, hope to make Miss Gay Asian an annual event. Although many Vietnamese Americans dis approve of such behavior and deny its prevalence in their homeland, gay culture in Vietnam has increasingly come out of the shadows over the past decade. Web sites list more than a dozen bars and cafes in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi that are either gay or gay-friendly, and in early April Reuters news agency reported the country’s first gay wedding. Arizona governor relents, signs hate crimes bill which looks at the origins of queer communities in the Pacific Northwest, is the second proposal in 10 years to be denied funding for fear of offending taxpayers. The project had received a favorable recom mendation from Idaho’s Higher Education Re search Council, which advises the board. During the same meeting at which it turned down Boag’s project, the board voted to revamp the research council. The board says it plans to replace the council’s research officers (such as graduate school deans and vice-provosts) with the presidents of Idaho’s four public colleges. Rayburn Barton, the Board of Education’s executive director, denies any connection be tween the two decisions. He said the reorganiza tion reflects the board’s desire to shift research money toward pressing issues for the state, such as water quality and nuclear cleanup. He added that the decision was not meant to rule out future funding of social science projects. Russell Wahl, a philosophy professor who chairs the Idaho State University Faculty Senate, said he believes the reconstitution of the council is indeed linked to the board’s rejection of Boag’s proposal. Boag plans to continue his research without the grant and publish his findings about the con nections between urban and rural gay communi ties in Seattle, Boise and Portland between 1870 and 1920. After vetoing a hate-crimes penalty enhance ment measure last year, and following months of heated debate over this year’s hate crimes bill and threats of another veto, Gov. Fyfe Symington j signed Arizona’s hate crimes statute on April 28. The law allows judges to implement maximum sentences for bias-motivated crimes; its passage Prospects for the Employment Non-Discrimi comes after more than five years of lobbying and nation Act look good, following a meeting of coalition building among minority groups com President Clinton, V ice-President Gore, civil rights mitted to overcoming violence, reports Echo leaders and key sponsors of the bill, says a Human Magazine, a Phoenix gay and lesbian publication. Rights Campaign press release. HRC and other “We are all different from each other in many organizations working for passage of the bill, ways,” Symington said b y way of explaining his which would provide job protections for sexual decision. “In a free society, we are not required to minorities nationwide, are also encouraged by the like or embrace these differences. However, soci results of a recent bipartisan poll indicating that 68 ety does require that the intolerant among us not percent of voters support the legislation. express their beliefs through criminal conduct.” The poll revealed that support for ENDA is He also cited Arizona Department of Public Health strong across party lines and in every region of the statistics that indicate an increase in hate-moti country: 59 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of vated crime. independents and 79 percent of Democrats favor When he vetoed last year’s hate crimes legis the bill; while 77 percent of voters in the North lation, the governor said he did so because of his east, 71 percent in the Midwest, 68 percent in the personal beliefs and concerns about state death West and 62 percent in the South support this penalty laws. legislation. A White House press statement summarizes the president’s feeling on the issue: "[T]he bill in its current form appears to answer all the legiti mate objections previously raised against it, while ensuring that Americans, regardlessof their sexual The Idaho Board of Education voted April 17 orientation, can find and keep their jobs based on not to fund a sociological research project being their ability and the quality of their work. .. I conducted by an Idaho State University profes support it and I urge all Americans to do so. And sor, Peter G. Boag, because the topic might be I urge Congress to pass it expeditiously.” considered offensive. According to a report in the Chronicle o f Higher Education, Boag’s study, ! Compiled by Christopher D. Cintone Clinton and Gore give ENDA a hand Turn-of-the-century gay life too hot to handle Kirsten Jenkins Scott Bottaro, GRI Laurie SantaMaria Steve Henrickson Val Thorpe-Galvin. GRI Jim Bean Donald Falk, GRI Lee McKnight Gerry Federico, GRI Carolyn MacMurray Julie Yoho Gary Sadleir Chris Hardy Kathleen Ira Anita Trudeau Greg Washington Cathy Martine Janelle Miller Kathy Tysinger Robert Amhes Associate Broker mm Sandy Mort Philip Beausoleil Karen Biising Jay Pevney Bridgetown Realty " " y * For Those Who Appreciate Superior Service Lloyd Center Office Clackamas County Office 1000 N.E. Multnomah Portland, OR 97232 21570 Willamette Drive West Linn, OR 97068 503/ 287-9370 503/ 655-8015 e-mail: bridgetownl@solnlogic.com e-mail: bridgetown2@solnlogic.com Visit our Web site at: http://www.solnlogic.com/bridgetown