Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013, October 06, 2000, Page 22, Image 22

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    2 2 J u s t s u t * October 6.2000
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First Congregational
United Church of Christ
■i news
GREECE
lesbian tour group from Britain was wel­
comed at Sapphos hometown on the
Greek island of Lesbos in mid-September after
organizers agreed to tone down some of their
activities.
Among other changes, a
“Wet Pussy Pool Party” was
renamed. Mayor Polydoros
Ahatzis had objected to
brochures that “cast our town in a
vulgar light” and threatened to
ask a court to ban the tour.
"Everyone should enjoy the
sexual life they want, and all
are welcome in Eressos,” he
told Britain’s The Guardian.
“But what is not acceptable is to insult the
image of our entire community and for
tour operators to plan trips here with profit
as their only motive. It is unfair that Lesbos
and lesbianism should always go together.”
Tour organizer Rachel Wood gate comment­
ed: “Not all lesbians want that staying-in-a-
muddy-tent-in-Comwall experience. What we
are offering wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow in
the gay men’s resorts in Mykonos.
“It’s outrageous talking about [moral] corrup­
tion. Greece invented the word homosexual.
You go into any museum and it’s filled with pic­
tures of women with huge breasts and men bug­
gering each other.”
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ha
TI
A
ustralia let open gays into the military in
1992, and they haven’t caused any
problems.
That’s the finding of a new study by Aaron
Belkin of the Center for the Study of Sexual
Minorities in the Military at the University of
California at Santa Barbara and Jason McNich-
ol, a doctoral student in sociology at the Uni­
versity of California at Berkeley. Prior to the lift­
ing of the ban, Australian Defence Forces lead­
ers argued that allowing homosexuals to serve
openly would jeopardize recruitment, troop
cohesion and combat effectiveness; spread
AIDS; and encourage predatory behavior.
Now, senior officials, commanders and mili­
tary scholars admit that lifting the ban has con­
tributed to greater equity and effective working
relationships within the ranks, the report said.
Gay soldiers and commanders served successful­
ly in recent active deployments in East Timor,
the study found.
“The Pentagon claims that lifting the Amer­
ican gay ban would undermine the military,”
Belkin said. “Data from the 23 nations that
allow known gays to serve— including Australia,
Israel and Britain—suggest that the lifting of a
gay ban does not jeopardize military perform­
ance.”
The report, “The Effects of Including Gay
and Lesbian Soldiers in the Australian Defense
Forces: Appraising the Evidence,” is on the
Internet at www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu.
P
olice raided a lesbian event Sept. 15 at
Toronto’s Club Baths.
Five male officers walked around the premis­
es for an hour, took the names and addresses of
a few of the 300 patrons, then left. Police offi­
cials said afterward that bathhouse patrons were
drinking alcohol in areas of the club that were
not covered by the organizers’ special-event
liquor license and that disorderly conduct
charges might be filed.
Organizer Janet Rowe is angry. “There are
hundreds of special-occasion permits issued
every day in this city, so we have to question
why they would choose this particular one to
investigate,” she told the Toronto Star.
“Our women report feeling intimidat­
ed, violated and humiliated by this
experience.”
GUATEMALA
Between six and 10 transvestites
are murdered each year in Guatemala,
the International Gay & Lesbian
Human Rights Commission reports. The
two most recent victims were Beverly Lineth
and AIDS activist Astrid La Fontaine.
According to the commission: “Astrid
was a sex worker in Zone 1 of Guatemala
City. She was attacked with gunshots
while working on a street comer in the early
hours of May 20, 2000. Her attacker and mur­
derer stepped from a car nearby and shot her.
“Beverly Lineth was murdered in the early
hours of July 5, 2000. Beverly was known to her
companions as a calm, shy and highly ethical
person. Her colleagues say that she had been a
sex worker for only one year and a half.”
Lineth was beaten beyond recognition,
apparently with a pipe. Activists blame “para­
military forces” for the attacks and say the police
are of no help.
According to the commission: “The Nation­
al Civil Police (PNC) hound and harass trans­
vestites, taking away the money they earn,
arresting and abusing them, and, in some cases,
raping them. The PNC offers this vulnerable
group only terror, not protection. Obtaining jus­
tice for the victims will be difficult. Those who
file complaints do so in the face of a long histo­
ry of impunity, in which paramilitary brutality
and other criminal acts went unhindered by offi­
cial inquiry or investigation. And the friends of
the victims fear retaliation.”
For more information, e-mail alejandra®
iglhrc.org and iglhrc@iglhrc.org.
NETHERLANDS
J he Netherlands’ lower house of parliament
J voted to legalize gay marriage Sept. 12. Not
registered partnership, like several countries
have done, but marriage itself.
However, married gay couples still will not
be able to adopt children from foreign countries
while married heterosexual couples can, so it’s
still not absolutely the same laws for gays and
straights.
The vote was 109 to 33. The measure still
must pass the Senate, but that is considered a
formality.
It is expected the law will take effect Jan. 1.
Couples, gay or heterosexual, from other coun­
tries cannot get married in the Netherlands.
“We will be able to call it what it is, and
that’s marriage,” said Henk Krol, editor in chief
of the magazine De Gay Krant. “[It is] the first in
the world.”
Evan Wolfson, director of the Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund’s Marriage Project
in New York, added: “What the Dutch parlia­
ment has done is...create a marriage for same-
sex couples...on the same footing as other peo­
ple. That’s a wonderful recognition that love is
what counts.”
Gay couples who previously got hitched
under the Dutch registered-partnership law sim­
ply can convert their partnership to full marriage.
MEXICO
he head of Mexico’s National
Action Party (PAN) has de­
nounced a PAN official in the state
capital of Aguascalientes who OK’d
the posting of a sign banning gays and
T