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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 1997)
4 ▼ d«»camber 1 9 , 1 9 9 7 ▼ just out M world briefs e c h a n i c s A U T O M O T I V E Gerard Lillie • 5934 N.E. Halsey WITH A CONSCIENCE. 282-3315 Certified Mechanics Complete automotive service of Japanese and American cars and light trucks. G& AUSTRALIA Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has reduced the number of tickets members can pur chase for the Mardi Gras and Sleaze Ball parties from five to three because the events have become overrun with heterosexuals who obtain tickets from their gay pals. Mardi Gras President Bev Lange said she hopes members will think carefully about who they bring as guests. called for prison sentences for those caught hav ing gay sex. “Today’s declaration of unconstitutionality is the result of more than 10 years of work and pressure by the Ecuadoran and international com munities,” the plaintiffs said in a Spanish-lan- guage press release. Two other Latin American nations ban homo sexuality—Chile and Nicaragua. Gay sex is also illegal in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. BRITAIN Members of the gay group OutRage! picketed the London conference on looted Nazi gold Dec. 2 demanding compensation for gay victims of Nazism. FORMER SOVIET UNION All seven European successor republics to the Soviet Union— Belarus, Estonia, Moldova, Rus sia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine—have repealed the Soviet law that banned gay sex. In Kazakstan, same-sex relations between consenting adults are no longer a criminal of fense. In Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, penal- code reform is underway that may lead to legal ization of gay sex. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are still using the old Soviet criminal code. Uzbekistan instituted a new penal code and kept the Soviet ban: Article 120 punishes sodomy between consenting adults with up to three years in prison. Gay activists have been unable to determine the legal status of hom osexuality under Turkmenistan’s new penal code. A U T O M O T I V E . inc Todd Connelly • 6006 E. Burnside 231-8486 T W E N T Y -T H IR D A V EN U E BOOKS 1015 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97210, (503) 224-5097 Monday>Friday 9:3 0 - 8 pm □ Saturday 10 am - 8 pm □ Sunday 11 am - 4 pm NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE In the last 25 years gay men have been able to live openly in ways unimaginable before Stonewall. Yet how free are we? Even if surrounded by accepting family and supportive friends, we may find we have escaped the tyranny of the closet only to be enslaved by the tyranny of desire. More money, more possessions, more security, more men, a better bodyrThe list can go on endlessly and our acquisitiveness never leads to freedom or inner peace. In her ’60s song “ Me and Bobby McGee,’’ Janis Joplin belted out “ Freedom’s just another word for noth ing left to lose....’’ Janis probably didn’t realize that she and Jesus shared a similar view of freedom.The gospels record Jesus instructing a rich young man,“ Sell what you have, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Jesus knew that this man’s desire for more was enslaving him. Freedom would be truly available when he had “ nothing left to lose.’’ We never truly begin to experience freedom until our lives are ordered from an inner contentment which does not depend upon external circumstances. A message from the Anawim Community—gay men committed to following Jesus through a life of prayer and sendee to our gay brothers. They were greeted with a smile and wave from British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as he en tered Lancaster House. “Robin Cook’s friendliness was surprising because the Foreign Office has opposed gay par ticipation in the conference,” says OutRage!’s Peter Tatchell. “Invitations were refused to the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Or ganizations and to the International Gay and Les bian Human Rights Commission. In contrast, Jewish and Gypsy groups were officially encour aged to participate, and are attending.” OutRage! demanded that when owners of looted gold cannot be traced, the reparations should be used to compensate Holocaust victims who have been refused reparations by the German government, including East European Jews, slave laborers and gay men and lesbians. The group also says gay and lesbian commu nity groups should receive a share of the looted gold to finance a gay Holocaust memorial and museum, educational films about the Nazi perse cution of gay people for distribution to schools, and a hardship fund to support elderly gay Holo caust survivors. CANADA The Northwest Territories Legislature recently voted 10-5 against allowing same-sex alimony and survivor pensions. The NWT is one of four provinces or territo ries that do not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation; the others are Alberta, Newfound land and Prince Edward Island. Alberta is in the midst of a court challenge over the matter, and Newfoundland is expected to pass a gay-protection bill in the current legislative session. ▼ ▼ T On Nov. 24 the Manitoba Human Rights Com mission ruled the provincial government must offer health, dental and vision benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees. The decision came in a case launched 15 years ago by provincial employee Chris Vogel. Labor Minister Harold Gilleshammer said he was displeased with the ruling but will not appeal it. The decision does not apply to pension plans, which the commission said are a federal matter. ECUADOR The Constitutional Tribunal unanimously de clared the nation’s gay-sex ban unconstitutional Nov. 25. The gay groups Andean Triangle Movement and En Directo, in addition to the AIDS Educa tion and Prevention Foundation, filed suit Sept. 24 seeking to undo Penal Code Article 516, which INTERNATIONAL The International Lesbian and Gay Associa tion is lobbying Amnesty International to add sexual orientation to its statute as a fundamental category of human rights needing special protec tion. AI’s International Council will consider such a proposal at its year-end meeting in South Africa. “This proposed change to A I’s statute is...important because it recognizes the fact that sexual orientation is a fundamental, distinct and irreducible attribute of human identity,” says ILGA co-secretary general Jennifer Wilson. “[It] is not simply another dimension of gender or culture, but a basic category in its own right.” ILGA is a federation of several hundred gay and lesbian groups and individuals from more than 80 countries. SOUTH AFRICA South Africa has approved artificial insemi nation of single women, including lesbians. The change to the Human Tissue Act, an nounced by Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma, resulted from a Human Rights Commission case filed by three unmarried women. The old regulations restricted insemination to women who presented written permission from their husbands. TURKEY Turkey’s film board chose the gay-themed film Turkish Bath as the nation’s candidate for a best foreign film Oscar, but the Culture Ministry has overruled the board and submitted a hetero sexual love story instead. The gay movie—about two men, one married, who fall in love at a mainstream bathhouse— has been ex tremely popular inTurkey. “It is about lack of com munication between hus band and wife, missing the train on love, nostalgia for the past— universal themes,” says director and screenwriter Ferzan Ozpctek. “I’m saying there’s no homosexuality or heterosexuality—there is only sexuality. Who can guarantee we won’t fall in love with a man or a woman we run into one day?” Compiled by Rex Wockner
