F T ïï^ m n e w s
N u l l I)« I'M
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Northwest
Electrolysis
have taken a large step in the constant
struggle to have our relationships recog
nized as equal to heterosexual Canadians."
Kr
he Gay Pride parade in Ottawa had a
new twist July 13— legally married
same-sex couples. About 10,000 specta
tors cheered the newlyweds.
O ntario’s highest court forced legaliza
tion of same-sex marriage June 10. British
Colum bia’s highest court followed suit
July 8. The federal government has thrown
in the towel and is in the process of legal
izing full same-sex marriage nationwide.
T he city of Ottawa’s float was one of the
parade’s largest. It displayed a huge banner
that read, “Sex in the City: Don’t Forget to
Wrap It Up.” City workers distributed con
doms to spectators as the float moved along.
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Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (right, with
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) has started
appointing queers to fill sensitive government positions
AUSTRALIA
elegates to the national convention of
Australia’s third-largest religious denom i
nation, the U niting Church, voted July 17 to
allow ordination of gay ministers who are sexu
ally active.
About 75 percent of the delegates favored the
policy change, following two days of heated
debate. Conservatives said the decision will lead to
a mass exodus from the 300,000-member church.
T he U niting C hurch was formed in 1977
through the merger of the Presbyterian,
Methodist and Congregational churches. About
1.3 million Australians claim an association
with the denomination.
D
SWEDEN
n HIV-positive Swedish man who had
unprotected sex with nine men without
revealing his status was sent to prison for four
years July 18.
T he 27-year-old was convicted of attempted
aggravated assault and ordered to pay about
$75,000 to his casual and long-term sex part
ners. N one of them contracted HIV.
T he man claimed he thought he was unable
to transmit the virus because treatm ent had
made his viral load undetectable. Swedish law
requires HIV carriers to inform sexual partners
of their condition prior to having sex.
A
SINGAPORE
ingapore has quietly begun welcoming gays
into government jobs, including those con
sidered the most sensitive, Prime Minister G oh
C hok Tong told Time magazine June 30.
He said the policy change was inspired in part
by a desire not to exclude talented gay foreigners
ffom immigrating. But the move is not being trum
peted in order to keep from alarming conservatives.
“Let it evolve, and in time the population
will understand that some people are bom that
way,” G oh said. “We are bom this way and they
are bom that way, but they are like you and me.”
S
HUNGARY
bout 4,000 people marched in Budapest’s
Gay Pride parade July 6. Police wearing
riot gear protected the marchers from neo-Nazis
“who formed a marauding throng at the base of
Erzsebet hid” bridge, The Budapest Sun said.
Mayor G3bor Demszky attended the Pride
launch event the previcxis evening at the Muvesz
Cinema complex. He described Budapest as a
beacon of tolerance and fraternity.
A
NEW ZEALAND
ew Zealand’s government is preparing a
civil union bill under which gay and
straight couples will be able to register their rela
tionships and obtain matrimonial rights.
Some activists have welcomed the bill, while
others have denounced it as a half-measure that
N
816 NW 23rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97210
Ph/Fx: (503) 295-7965
Jean R app, R N , LE, C P E
deprives gays of equal access to marriage. Addition
al bills will rework more than 100 laws that dis
criminate against same-sex couples, officials said.
-8-
ew Zealand’s Parliament legalized prostitu
tion June 25 by a vote of 60-59.
T he law came into force in early July. Li
censed brothels will oper
ate under public health
and employment laws.
T he author of the
repeal legislation, gay MP
Tim Barnett, called the
prostitution ban “the last
significant vestige of Vic
torian moral law [in] the
New Zealand statute Tim Barnett
Ixxik." More than half of
the 354 New Zealanders arrested for prostitution
in the past five years were men.
N
JAPAN
apan’s House of Representatives unanimous
ly passed a law July 10 that will allow certain
transsexuals to change their gender in all-impor
tant “family registry” documents. T he measure
will take effect in one year.
According to The Japan Times, the law permits
people to change their registration if they have
been diagnosed by two doctors as having a differ
ent psychological makeup ffom their biological
sex and a desire to live as the opposite gender
physically and socially. Applicants must be single
and childless and no longer have functioning
reproductive organs due to sex-change surgery.
The documentation change will eliminate
problems that transsexuals face in such matters
as voting and filling out job applications, the
Times said.
Phone
^
503 274-9936 !
K KAREN M. 6 WEIGERT, M D
O bstétrica and Gynecology
pa x
J
FRANCE
ormer film actress and sex symbol Brigitte
Bardot says she’s n o t anti-gay despite
inflammatory statem ents in her new Kx>k.
“A part from my husband— who maybe will
cross over one day as well— I am entirely sur
rounded by homos,” the 68-year-old told the
French gay magazine Tribumove July 11.
“Homosexuals are for me hum an beings like
any other with their qualities and their faults. I
count some of them as my best friends.”
Bardot angered some gays with a passage in
her new Nx>k, A Cry in the Silence. It said,
“They jiggle their bottoms, put their little fin
gers in the air and with their little castrato
voices moan about what those ghastly heteros
put them through.” j H
F
Compiled by R ex Wcx.'KNER, who has reported
for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor’s
degree in journalism from Drake University and
started his career as a radio reporter.
503 274-2660
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