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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 1997)
6 ▼ ju n e 2 0 , 1 0 9 7 ▼ j u s t o u t Package Deals from $99.00 We think you deserve the Best! That’s why we offer our customers several types sires!! of packages to best f it Party Birthday • Wedding Coastal • Night Life ...and “A Night with Parcelle XV & Co.’ For information on these packages or hourly rates please call: 503 * 246*9646 ior e-mail u s at? IMPantheon@aol.com The Pantheon Limousine Service Experience the Best We move to get you into your own home. F g frW u ie , couftesv of Hom ebodies on Bioodw oy Ron Dickinson ■ pfl Founders Funding Group Mortgage Professionals Call today for Pre-approval. ( 503 ) 274-1500 world briefs ARGENTINA In a first for Argentina, longtime gay activist and high-school teacher Rafael Freda has won domestic-partner health care benefits for his lover of 10 years, Eduardo Vazquez. When Vazquez lost his job, the couple turned to the teachers’ social security provider, known as OSPLAD, which, it turned out, offered coverage to spouses, children and “any person/s living with the affiliate and being overtly subjected to the same treatment as the primary family members.” Freda and Vazquez obtained a cohabitation certificate from a civil court, got a required signa ture from the principal of Freda’s school, then presented their papers. A few days later, OSPLAD said Vazquez was covered. AUSTRALIA Starting in July, the state of New South Wales will teach grade- and high-school students about gay men and lesbians. The program will be test-run in six primary and two secondary schools in the Sydney area, in hopes of reducing anti-gay vilification. If it suc ceeds, it may be expanded statewide. Students will be taught that gay sexuality, attitudes and lifestyles are normal. They will study gay-positive theater and literature, role play, and learn that anti-gay discrimination is illegal. Some conservative politicians are predicting an outcry from parents who believe homosexual ity is sinful. BRAZIL Brazil’s Superior Military Tribunal in May recommended legalizing homosexuality in the military. At present, mili tary personnel who engage in gay sex can be sentenced to from six months to one year in prison. SEr.f'l The proposal ad vances to the Ministry of Justice, then to Con gress, according to the newspaper Folha de Sâo Paulo. V, HOW FAR OUT OF THE C LO SET ARE YOU? S ince S to n e w a ll g a y m en have in cre a sin g ly ch o se n to live their lives o p e n ly even th o u g h th e y m a y face d is a p p ro v a l a n d d is c rim in a tio n from others. Yet even m en w h o at first a p p e a r to have c o m p le te ly s la m m e d the clo se t d o o r b e h in d them can h a rbo r c o n c e rn that a pa rticula r relative o r pe rha p s a “b o s s ” m ig h t d is c o v er their actual identity. O thers m a y o n ly be out to a fe w straight p e o p le . T he d e cisio n o f h o w out to be is v e ry p e rso n a l and there is no rule that w o rk s for e ve ryo n e . S a d ly so m e g a y m en w ill live their entire lives un d e r the ty ra n n y o f fear and sham e. E ven the m ost out m a y have skele tons still lurkin g in the clo se t they th o u g h t th e y had left behind. T hese s ke le to n s prevent them fro m bein g w h o le in sp ite o f b e in g o p e n ly gay. Jesus taught that the pure in heart are b le sse d but h o w can a n yo n e be truly pure in heart an d hide the essential truth o f his being? Such s e cre cy carries w ith it a heavy b u rd e n o f de sp a ir w h ic h can o n ly be re lie ve d by livin g authentically, no m atter w h a t the co n se q u e n ce s. E very gay m an faces the life lo n g task o f g ro w in g into w h o le n e s s . C reated g a y b y a lo vin g G od w e are a gift to o u rse lve s an d to the w o rld w h e n w e w a lk the path o f authenticity. A message from the Anawim Community—a group of gay men committed to following Jesus through a life of prayer and service to our brothers. BRITAIN Britain’s MI5 spy agency lifted its ban on homosexuals at the end of May. In a communiqué sent to London’s Pink Pa per, the agency urged gay men and lesbians to apply during the present recruitment drive. At the same time, MI5 staff received a memo announcing that discrimination against homo sexuals would no longer be tolerated. MI5 had fired all known homosexuals since the 1950s, when gay traitors Guy Burgess and Sir Anthony Blunt were caught and the KGB suc cessfully blackmailed gay Admiralty clerk John Vassall. CANADA In the weeks prior to the June 2 elections, Canada’s Reform Party came out against same- gender marriage. Marriage is about procreation and child-rear ing and should not be available to homosexual couples, party leader Preston Manning told French- language media in Quebec. ▼ Y Y The U.S. package-shipping company United Parcel Service is refusing to transport the new gay sex magazine Canadian Male. The Nova Scotia gay newspaper Wayves said three boxes of the third issue sent to U.S. stores were returned to the publisher, Toronto’s Pink Triangle Press, which also publishes the Xtra! gay newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. According to Wayves, UPS has a policy against shipping pornography across international bor ders. ▼ ▼ ▼ Edmonton, Alberta, Mayor Bill Smith is refus ing to proclaim gay pride day in that city because sexual minorities are a "special interest” group. Smith signs over 150 proclamations a year, including, recently, one for "Teddy Bear Day.” The previous mayor proclaimed gay pride day for six years in a row. COLOMBIA Lesbian kissing on the soap opera The Per fume o f Agony led the Inextra corporation (part of Procter & Gamble Co.) to cancel its ad vertising on the show, El Tiempo reported May 15. i The move will cost the producers $47,259 (U.S.) a month, El Tiempo said. The lesbian story line is between Helen and Elvira, played by ac tresses Alejandra Borrero and Marcel Gallego. The program airs nightly at 10 pm. DENMARK Denmark’s state Lutheran Church will soon offer wedding-like ceremonies for gay men and lesbians. A church commission in May presented bish ops with three options ranging from a brief prayer to a gay-specific service that mirrors the tradi tional wedding. Denmark is one of four nations where gay and lesbian couples can register their partnerships with city officials and obtain all the rights of matrimony except access to adoption, state-funded artificial- conception services and church weddings. The others are Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Denmark is more than 87 percent Lutheran, but less than 10 percent of the population goes to church. ESTONIA Linnar Priimaegi, “one of Estonia’s leading personalities in the field of culture,” has come out of the closet via a photographic exhibition at Tallinn’s Deco Gallery in which he appears nude with his male lover, according to local media. It is the first homoerotic exhibition in Estonia and only the second time a celebrity has come out of the closet. Author Emil Tode is “fairly” openly gay, according to local activists. EUROPE Here’s a partial list of European Pride celebra tions. June 21: Edinburgh, Scotland; Oslo, Norway. June 28: EuroPride (in Paris); Berlin, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal; Rome, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Dublin, Ireland. July 5: London, England. July 7- 13: Valetta, Malta. July 12: Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. July 18-19: Zurich, Switzer land. July 26: Stockholm, Sweden. Aug. 2: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Aug. 8-10: Oulu, Finland. FRANCE Attendance was down at the annual AIDS marches in several French cities in late May, most likely because protease inhibitors have made the disease seem less horrible. About 10,000 people walked in Paris’ “March for Life”—half of last year’s number. Smaller gatherings took place in five other cities. IRELAND Ireland will soon have national gay civil- rights protections, activists report. Two bills are expected to pass parliament (the Dail) in coming weeks, the Employment Equality Bill and the Equal Status Bill. Together, the measures will ban discrimina-