juna 5.1
15
hen Beth got some time off from her hectic job it took no
time at all for her to convince Charity to cruise down the
Oregon coast. It would be a spur of the moment trip, no plans, no
reservations. Charity couldn't resist, she hadn't spent any quality
time with Beth for months and their relationship was faltering
because of it.
They headed south down Highway 101, passing through Yachats
when they noticed a little motel off to the side of the road with
magenta doors and blue trim. Beth said, that place looks good, so
they stopped. They were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by
lesbian hosts who escorted them to the Princess and the Pea
room. Charity said, this is the room I want, without seeing
any of the others. Beth agreed. They spent the next three
days lingering by the fire, watching the sun break through
the waves, while falling in love with each other—again—
and with the magic of the See Vue.
W
artistic egotism than greed or ingrained criminal
behavior.
Blarek and Pellecchia, business and intimate
partners, were convicted of money laundering
after designing custom furniture with secret
compartments for a leader of a Colombian
cocaine cartel.
Blarek was sentenced to five years and eight
months; Pellecchia to four years. For their
crimes, federal sentencing guidelines would
have punished Blarek with 10 to 12 years in
prison and roughly eight years for Pellecchia.
The pair are free on bail pending appeals.
C ondom D ebut
Is a D utch T reat
he package might read “Made in America,”
but running down to the pharmacy for the
new “baggy” condom would be premature.
EZON, a new type of condom manufactured
by Oakland, Calif.-based Mayer Laboratories,
has hit the market—but only in the
Netherlands, reports Reuters news service.
T
The new condom is made of polyurethane
instead of latex and is half the thickness of ordi
nary condoms. It fits snugly only at the base, can
be rolled on in either direction, and it isn’t com
promised by oil-based lubricants. Polyurethane
is five times stronger than latex, according to
some studies, and is a better conductor of heat.
David Mayer, head of Mayer Laboratories,
understandably has nothing but good things to
say about the EZON.
“It addresses those millions of men who don’t
like condoms,” he touts.
“The traditional condom was designed to
constrict the penis. This one moves with the
penis and creates sensation,” adds Frits Kist,
whose firm is marketing the product in the
Netherlands.
It also costs about twice as much as tradi
tional condoms. In Amsterdam, a pack of three
EZONs is selling for about U.S. $6.50.
Mayer says the earliest possible date for Food
and Drug Administration approval and sale in
the United States is about a year away. The
baggy condom should be available in the rest of
Europe within six months.
HRC M ourns
G oldwater ’ s P assing
aying he was a staunch defender of individ
ual liberty and equality for gay men and les
bians, the Human Rights Campaign, a national
sexual minorities rights group, lamented the
May 29 death of former U.S. senator and
Republican presidential candidate Barry
Goldwater.
“Barry Goldwater envisioned an America
where equal rights and liberty extend to all peo
ple. He exemplified honorable conservative
principles such as respecting individual rights.
Many of today’s right-wing politicians, who mis
takenly call themselves conservatives, can learn
a lot about true conservatism by studying Barry
Goldwater,” said HRC Executive Director
Elizabeth Birch.
In 1993, Goldwater came out in support of
allowing openly gay people to serve in the mili
tary. Goldwater, whose grandson is gay, contin
ued his support for equal rights by crafting a July
1994 Washington Post op-ed column asking
Congress to pass the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act, which is designed to pro
tect gay men and lesbians from job discrimina
tion.
“It’s time America realized that there was no
gay exemption in the right to ‘life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration of
Independence. Job discrimination against
gays—or anybody else—is contrary to each of
these founding principles,” Goldwater wrote in
his opinion piece.
S ee V ue
D on ’ t S ay Y ou C an ’ t G et A H ome L oan
U ntil Y ou ’ ve P honed E agle H ome
G ender R eassignment
in the R ockies
he Washington Post let the rest of the coun
try in on a little-known piece of transsexu
al trivia with its May 13 profile of surgeon
Stanley Biber, 75, who has quietly been per
forming gender reassignment surgery in
Trinidad, Colo., for more than 30 years.
Trinidad’s unofficial moniker, “sex-change
capital of the world,” is apparently well-known
in the former mining town, population 8,500.
Biber has completed more than 3,500 gender
reassignment surgeries during his career, with an
operation costing about $10,000 and taking
roughly two and a half hours—compared to
seven or eight hours for most other surgeons
who perform the operation.
Biber told the Post his long career helping
transsexuals began by accident. Already a sur
geon with field experience in the Korean War,
Biber says he was approached by a friend in the
late 1960s who confided that she wasn’t
anatomically a woman and asked if Biber could
help her make the change.
T
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boasts he’s only improved his technique over the
years.
“Originally, I probably accepted it as a surgi
cal challenge,” Biber explained, adding that he
later understood the humanitarian nature of his
work.
“Once you begin to understand what [trans
sexuals] go through and how they’re hiding all
the time, how they can’t find a good job, how
they can’t pass a physical examination, how
they’re not accepted anywhere if they come out,
you start thinking, ‘1 could offer them a service,’
and it was a satisfactory service and it seemed to
me I was turning out good products and making
good citizens out of them,” he said.
Biber, who also serves as Trinidad’s general
surgeon, currently performs one or two gender
reassignment surgeries weekly.
■ Compiled by
W ill O’B ryan
•f .s
ILI
Karen Qorensen, Licensed Assistant
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