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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1998)
march 6 . 1998 * BRAZIL LATVIA gay bar was bombed in Riga on Feb. 10. s Superior Tribunal of Justice A T he ruled country’ The 4:15 am explosion outside the Feb. 11 that businessman Milton club Purvs destroyed the front wall and blew Alves Pedrosa is entitled to half the estate of his deceased partner, Jair Batista Prearo. In an ongoing battle with his partner’s par ents, Alves Pedrosa won in a lower court then lost at the appeals level before winning this final ruling. Meanwhile, Brazilian Congresswoman Marta Suplicy has introduced legislation to rec ognize same-sex civil unions. The measure is slated to be considered by the Chamber of Deputies later this year. CANADA Columbia’s groundbreaking law giv B ritish ing gay and lesbian couples the same rights and obligations as heterosexuals in the areas of child support, custody and access took effect Feb. 4. It is the first law of its kind in North America. If a same-sex couple breaks up, children will be entitled to spend time with and receive sup port from both parents. The partners can seek child-support payments from each other and the children can sue for support. British Columbia has adopted several other gay-inclusive measures: Partners of civil ser vants receive spousal benefits, welfare officials recognize same-sex households when calculat ing benefits, same-sex couples have equal adop tion rights, and gay and lesbian partners are rec ognized under provisions regulating insider trading of securities. Representing your best interests.... Deborah Betron CRB. GRI Chris Bonner, GRI Associate Broker Donald Falk. GRI Karen Bilsing Greg Washington Broker President NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister Jenny Shipley became the first head of state to attend the country’s large annual gay and lesbian parade Feb. 21. The parade attracted extra attention this year after the Auckland City Council refused to provide its customary funding for the event. Auckland Deputy Mayor David Hay said Shipley’s appearance “sends out very negative signals to the young people of New Zealand.... It’s obvious she’s doing it to endorse their [gay] lifestyle and their behavior.” The prime minister’s spokesperson called her attendance “no big deal.” Despite the rain, about 100,000 people attended this year’s festivities. Gerry Federico, GRI Val Thorpe-Galvin, GRI John Terrill, GRI Scott Bottaro, GRI Associate Broker Kathleen Ira Associate Broker Jim Bean. GRI Beate Kanter George Marvin Kirsten Jenkins Carolyn MacMurray Cathy Martine, GRI j ay Pevney Julie Yoho. GRI Gary Sadleir Chris Hardy Kathy Tysinger Robert Ambes Tina Schafer j udy Sardella Hilary Nally EUROPE wo unnamed European men have become the first gay people to receive aid from the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust, according to the Washington Blade and Swiss gay activists. The fund—which targets Nazi victims who never received Holocaust compensa tion or have other wise suffered ongoing hardship—was creat ed after the Swiss gov ernment and Swiss banks were accused of storing gold stolen by the Nazis, failing to disclose the location of the gold after the war, and denying Holocaust survivors and their descendants access to dormant accounts. The two men, of whom one lives in France and the other in Poland, received about $1,330 each from a pot of $195 million that is awaiting distribution. The French man was held in a concentra tion camp for six months at age 18 and then forced into the German army. The Polish man was jailed at age 17 for violating Nazi Germany’s sodomy law and remained jailed until the end of the war. T out all the windows in the club and surrounding buildings. No one was injured in the blast, which, according to media speculation, may have been the work of the extremist Latvian National Democratic Party. LNDP literature has called for a wide-rang ing campaign against gay men and lesbians and referred to Purvs as “a den of degenerates.” A spokesman for Riga’s Homosexuality Information Center called the blast “a logical consequence of the reluctance of Latvian state authorities to resolve the problems which les bians and gay men face and to prohibit and tackle discrimination on the basis of sexual ori entation.” Just out 1 5 PANAMA Gay men and lesbians in Panama have launched their own political party, reports Agence-France Presse. The Association of Panamanian Homosexuals said it represents 75,000 citizens and has “the numbers necessary to constitute a powerful political force to compete against the [ruling] Democratic Revolutionary Party and the [opposition] Amulfista Party.” ROMANIA Amnesty International is urging activists to send letters and nonperishable food to Romanian Mariana Cetiner, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for asking another woman to have sex with her. Amnesty believes the letters will focus Romanian authorities’ attention on the case. President Emil Constantinescu recently promised foreign activists he will pardon all gay men and lesbians jailed under the nation’s anti gay laws, but according to Amnesty, the process has not yet begun. Romanian law bans gay sex between con senting adults “if the act was committed in pub lic or has produced public scandal.” It is also illegal “to entice or seduce a person to practice same-sex acts, as well as to form pro paganda associations, or to engage in other forms of proselytizing with the same aim.” The FRANCE penalty is one to five years in prison. he government is planning to change its Write Mariana Cetiner, Penitenciarul Aiud, civil code so that cohabiting same-sex cou Judetul Alba, Romania. ples can sign contracts that give them most of Appeals calling for the release of all the legal and tax benefits of matrimony. Romanians jailed for consensual gay sex—and The “common interest pacts” will also be available to heterosexual partners and couples for repeal of the laws under which they were convicted—should be sent to President whose relationship is not sexual. The scheme will not extend rights to adop Constantinescu, Excelenti Sale, Presidentele Romaniei, Palatul Cotroceni, Bd. Geiuli 1, tion or state-funded alternative insemination. Other nations with gay-partnership laws 76238 Bucuresti, Romania. that resemble marriage include Denmark, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, ■ Compiled by R ex W ockner Norway and Sweden. Lee McKnight Jaye Kraus ...since 1979 . T Lloyd Center Office Clackamas County Office 503 / 287-9370 e-mail: Bridgetown 1 ©solnlogic.com 503 / 655-8015 e-mail: bridgetown2@solnlogic.com 1000 N.E. Multnomah Portland, OR 97232 21570 Willamette Drive West Linn, OR 97068 Visit our Web site at: http. vu'W. sol nlog i c. com/b ridge to u n ’