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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1998)
17 SHTTTTm news ■* K* ■ ■? «P si 8 ' s I an i - ENGLAND AUSTRALIA Plaza businesses, Frontera Gay reports, are now being urged to hire “rent-a-cops," which are either off-duty policemen or graduates of the police academy who do not actually work for the city but rather work foil-time as “commercial police.” These officers also are issued city police uniforms, badges and guns. “The business owners have so far elected not to pool their money together to hire commercial police, and probably won’t until the crime in the plaza gets so bad again that it affects their cash registers in the way of a drastic drop in cus tomers,” says Frontera Gay. “Local political and human rights activists should, without much more delay, commence pressuring the police department by whatever means it takes to reas sign the two cops at the plaza again at night.” A typical assault involves three assailants. One hits the victim from behind then grabs him by the neck while a second assailant hits him in the testicles and a third takes his money, watch, jewelry and jacket. Tijuana, with a population estimated at up to 2 million, is located 15 miles south of downtown San Diego. penly gay former British soccer star Justin he Tweed Radio network was forced to take Fashanu, 36, apparently committed suicide out ads in seven gay and lesbian newspa in London May 3 after fleeing the United States pers apologizing for a talk show host’s attacks on where he was wanted for alleged sexual assault queers and people with HIV. Overnight Australia host Steve Schimanski on a 17-year-old male. Fashanu was charged April 3 with assault told an HIV-positive caller, “You’re a sick indi vidual and I hope you die horribly.” And in ref and sexual assault after the teen said he awoke erence to Sydney’s well-known queer Mardi to find Fashanu having sex with him following a Gras parade, he said, “Unbelievably nauseating. beer and pot party at Fashanu’s apartment in The antithesis of human kind.... I would like to Ellicott City, Md., about five miles west of see someone dig a very big hole and drop the Baltimore. The teenager’s claim that the two had sex whole stinking lot of them down it.” was corroborated by a medical exam, according The ads settle a complaint filed with the to court documents. If convicted, Fashanu could New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board have been jailed for 20 years. by the AIDS Council of New South Wales and In a letter found beside his body, Fashanu the Queensland AIDS Council, which charged said the sex had been consensual. the broadcasts violated New South Wales’ anti “I want to say that I did never and have vilification laws. never sexually assaulted that young man,” he Schimanski was later fired for offending lis wrote. “Yes we did have a relationship of mutu teners. al consent but the next day he demanded money off me. When I said no, he said, ‘You wait and see.’ ” he New South Wales attorney general’s Fashanu had been in Maryland to coach a office is launching a campaign to reduce new minor league professional soccer team. anti-gay crime committed by young people. SOUTH AFRICA Australian researchers have found 70 per n May 8, a judicial ruling covering the ISRAEL cent of anti-gay assaults are perpetrated by 15- Gauteng province (in which Johannesburg sraeli transsexual pop diva Dana to 24-year-olds. is located) struck down several laws that ban gay International won the Eurovision song con The campaign, Homophobia—What are you test in Birmingham, England, May 9, setting off sex. afraid of?, is being coordinated by the Lesbian The ruling said the common-law crimes of wild celebrations in the streets by Israeli queers. and Gay Anti-Violence Project. Featuring competitors from 25 nations and sodomy and unnatural sexual offenses violate “It is most important that this message be garnering 600 million television viewers, the nation’s post-apartheid constitution, the promoted to and by young people," says Peter Eurovision is considered a major event in only constitution in the world that includes a Homel, director of the attorney general’s crime ban on discrimination based on sexual orienta prevention unit. “They ought to be tolerant to a tion. variety of ways of living in our society and “Constitutionally, we have reached a stage of should not respond to difference with violence.” maturity in which recognition of the dignity and innate worth of every member of society is not a AZERBAIJAN matter of reluctant concession but is one of easy aydar Aliyev, the president of the former acceptance, ” wrote Judge Jonathan Heher. “(To Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, pardoned penalize a person] for the expression of his or her 10,000 criminals May 14 in honor of the 80th sexuality can only be defended from a stand anniversary of the first Azeri state, which exist point which depends on the baneful influences ed briefly in 1918. of religious intolerance, ignorance, superstition, Persons convicted of homosexuality were, bigotry, fear of what is different from or alien to however, not included in the amnesty. They everyday experience and the millstone of histo stayed in prison along with murderers, rapists, “ My victory is my personal birthday gift to ry” traitors, terrorists and thieves. Nine of the 15 former Soviet republics— the state (of Israel) on its 50th birthday,” says International, 29, who performed her dance hit Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and “Diva” wearing a clingy dress designed for her by Ukraine—have decriminalized gay sex. Those Jean Paul Gaultier. International, bom Yaron Cohen, was a pop that have not are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, ular drag performer in Israel’s gay clubs before Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. her 1993 sex-reassignment operation. Her nomination to represent Israel in the CANADA contest angered some conservative legislators in he federal departments of justice, women’s the Knesset (Israel’s legislative body), with one issues and Canadian heritage are funding calling her “an abomination” and another fum the first national survey of gay men, lesbians and ing: “Undergoing a sex change is worse than an The laws were challenged by the National bisexuals. act of sodomy. Choosing her is sending a mes Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and the Thirty thousand surveys in English and South African Human Rights Commission. 10,000 in French will be distributed over the sage of darkness to the world.” But Israeli President Ezer Weizman gushed, The ruling African National Congress wel next few months by the national lobby group “1 stayed glued to my television set until late and comed the decision, saying, “The judgment rep Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere. I was very proud of her because it’s a victory for resents a significant milestone in the alignment our country.” of South Africa’s laws with the basic human International is scheduled to perform at the rights contained in the Constitution’s Bill of Gay Games V in Amsterdam in August. Rights. It is a victory for the values and freedoms on which our Constitution is founded and MEXICO which underpin our fledgling democracy. It ijuana’s very gay area, the Plaza Santa stands as a challenge to all South Africans to Cecilia pedestrian mall, has again become tackle the prejudices and misconceptions which unsafe after dark, reports the local newspaper enabled such legislation to exist intact for so many years, and which continue to pervade our Frontera Gay. According to the paper, in April the police society." Last August, a similar ruling decriminalized “This survey will help meet a number of department withdrew officers assigned to patrol the plaza at night. Soon after, queers visiting the gay sex in Western Cape province, where Cape important governmental objectives, including improving our understanding of this often-mar bars El Ranchero and Villa Garcia were once Town is located. South Africa has nine ginalized group,” says federal Justice Minister again being mugged. The officers had been provinces. Anne McLellan. “The first step is clearly to placed in the plaza about a year ago to halt an ■ Compiled by R ex WOCKNER epidemic of muggings at that time. have access to accurate information." T T I Photography with a Bias Linda Kliewer 503-287-3256 Out and Out Productions Financial planning is a long term client-advisor relationship built upon two-way communi cation. By listening to you. I can understand your individual needs, concerns and goals. Then, together, we make de cisions that prepare you with the solutions, strategies and honest answers that take you toward achieving those goals. Finally, someone to do the homework. H E ric D. 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