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colleenw(a>mtgad vocates.com
www.mtgadvocates.com
Colleen Weed
JJA
mortgage
M A rW A Advocates
9900 S.W. Wilshire Street • Portland, Oregon 97225
C orn er o f Sandy Blvd. & N E 6 4th
3 1 0 6 N E 6 4 th
P ortlan d, O R 9 7 2 1 3
Gifts
fo r Romance
in an
Elegant Setting
It 1 * My Plmtwt
A riace o f R om antic Invention
CANADA
utch gay marriage legislation cleared its
final hurdle in the Senate on Dec. 19 and
will take effect in April. The new laws will allow
same-sex couples to marry under the same
statutes as heterosexuals and to adopt children.
Although several nations have passed gay
registered partnership laws, the Netherlands is
the first to grant gay couples access to regular
marriage. “We’re the first country in the world
where there is no distinction made on the basis
of gender,” said Onno Hoes of the national gay
rights group COC.
Dutch gays have had access to a registered
partnership scheme since 1998. Gay couples will
not be allowed to adopt foreign babies— because
of the Dutch government’s fear of Third World
homophobia— and couples from other coun
tries, gay or straight, cannot marry in the
Netherlands.
The legislation was supported by the liber
al and labor parties of the governing coalition,
with additional support from left-wing opposi
tion parties. The opposition Christian Demo
crat party and small religious parties opposed
the bills.
The Vatican denounced the laws’ passage.
“The Catholic church contests these revolu
tionary innovations which in the name of free
dom seek to legitimize a union regarded by the
universal consciousness as going against nature,”
the church said. “The family in its natural and
Christian model is undergoing a serious affront
and is losing its role as the base of society.”
7 ancouver’s Little Sister’s Book & Art
V Emporium suffered “excessive and unnec
essary prejudice” from Customs Canada officers
who repeatedly seized gay erotica sent to the
store, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled
Dec. 15. The court rewrote Customs law to
D
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Email
THE NETHERLANDS
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switch the burden of proof in obscenity cases
from the importer to the government.
“This changes in our view utterly the rela
tionship of Canada to expression materials,”
John Dixon of the British Columbia Civil
Liberties A ssociation told the Canadian
Press wire service. “From now on, it will be
503 280 8080
www.teleport.com/~pleasure
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Kate Winslet (left) had no problem with same-sex nookie in 1994’s Heavenly Creatures
UNITED KINGDOM
H P itanic star Kate Winslet is upset that her
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JL newly acquired $1.16 million home on a
island in the Thames river in Surrey, England,
is next door to a popular gay cruising spot, the
Sun reported. “Every day dozens of homosexu
al men cruise past her home, park around the
comer and have sex with strangers,” the news
paper said.
According to a police spokesman, Winslet
“said she had nothing against gay people and has
lots as friends, but there is a big difference when
men are driving past the front door and stopping
150 yards up the lane to have sex in the bushes.
It is a one-way lane and she has to drive past
them daily. We have said we will monitor the
situation and send patrol cars down there.”
A Sun reporter claimed to have been “beck
oned” twice “by lone men standing by a tree.”
“Two men climbed together into the hack of
a camper van,” the newspaper said. “A search
revealed scattered used condoms and gay pom
magazines.”
almost impossible to prove a book— the
text— is obscene. That is an enormous ratch
et forward.”
Little Sister’s manager Janin Fuller called
the ruling an “incredible indictment” against
Customs’ “unscrutinized tyranny at the bor
der.” The court’s decision was a 6-3 split with
dissenting justices wanting to strike down
entirely the laws under which the Customs
service operates.
Since 1984, officers seized material headed
to Little Sister’s 261 times and destroyed it if
the bookstore did not prove the material was
not obscene. Now, they must release material
after 30 days if the government has not
proved it is obscene.
The Little Sister’s case first went to court in
1994- Lower courts foumf that foreign erotica
headed to the store was seized routinely while
the same books and magazines often arrived
safely at straight bookstores and, in some cases,
were even on the shelves of British Columbia
public libraries.