Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 19, 2004)
r i'jm iin e w s F or the first time, Britain’s Conservative Party has chosen an open lesbian as a parliamentary candidate, The independent reported March 3. Millionaire businesswoman Margot James, 46, will challenge Labor’s Frank Dobson in the London seat of Holhorn and St. Pancras, according to the paper. “It is one of many signs that the Conservative Party has changed,” James said. There is one openly gay male Conservative MP, shadow Secretary of State for Constitution al Affairs Alan Duncan. B ritain’s Conservative Party will stage a gay summit to broaden its appeal, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Feh. 25. About 140 organizations are slated to attend. “ In the past we have often been seen in terms of what we are against rather than what we are for,” the Tory spokesman for young A W people, Charles Hendry, told the BBC. “My hope is that people across the party will recognize that to win • Charles Hendry Sections we have to show that we are representative. Tory leader Michael Howard supports the summit, which will he held March 29 in the House of Commons’ Grand Committee Room, the report said. TH E V A T IC A N ope John Paul II lashed out at same-sex unions again Feh. 28. “This [is] a time in which there is no lack of attempts to reduce marriage to a mere individual contract, with characteristics very different from those that belong to marriage and the family, and that end up degrading it as if it were a form of accessory association within the social body,” the pontiff said. “It seems to me opportune to remember that the legislator, and the Catholic legislator in particular, cannot contribute to the formulation or approval of laws contrary to the primary and essential norms that regulate moral life, an expression of the highest values of the human person, which proceed in the final instance from God, the supreme legislator.” P C A M B O D IA ambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, 81, said ✓ Feh. 24 that he is not gay. The remark, pub lished on his Web site, NorodomSihanouk.info, followed by four days Sihanouk’s coming out in favor of same-sex marriage. “I am not gay, hut I respect the right of gays and lesbians,” he said. “It’s not their fault if God makes them bom like that. Gays and lesbians would not exist if God did not create them. As a Buddhist, 1 must have compassion for human beings who are not like me hut who torture nobody, kill nobody.” Sihanouk wrote Feb. 20, “I think (Cambo dia) should allow marriage between man and man or between woman and woman if they desire it.” He has no executive powers hut is deeply revered by many Cambodians. “ It’s a great step forward,” activist Hagai El-Ad, executive director of Jerusalem Open House, told the Post. “ [But] it’s a far cry from the marriage-like arrangement in Western European countries. We can check off item No. 7 on our list of 200 (spousal rights we don’t have]. If we continue this way, it will take 50 years. I’m a patient person, hut I’m not that patient.” JAPAN he Tokyo District Court rejected Feh. 26 an asylum request from a 40-year-old gay Iranian who fears he will face the death penal ty because of his homosexuality when he returns home. “Not being permitted to express himself sex ually in his own way does not fall under the kind of persecution in the refugee convention,” Judge Yosuke Ichimura said. Ichimura also spec ulated that it is unlikely the man would he tar geted based on his sexual orientation because he is closeted. The man had lived in Japan since 1991 and was arrested in 2000 for being an illegal alien. He plans to appeal to the Tokyo High Qiurt. According to The Japan Times, Iranian adults who have anal sex can be put to death, two men who sleep naked under a cover face 99 lashes, and two men who kiss “with lust” can get 60 lashes. Repeated lesbian sex acts also can result in the death penalty, the paper said. T M a r i a G e r P O LA N D oland’s G uincil of Ministers refused Feb. 24 to create a government office charged with promoting equality between men and women and battling discrimination, including against gays. The council cited budget problems. In 2002, the council itself had instructed the Government Plenipotentiary for the Equal Sta tus of Women and Men to draft the legislation that would have created the office. The ¿nove was aimed at harmonizing Polish law with that of the European Union, which Poland is set to join this year. P After becoming the world’s first openly transsexual member of parliament, Georgina Beyer (left, with X ena: W arrior Princess actress Lucy Lawless) is calling it quits N E W ZE A LA N D he world’s first openly transsexual member of parliament is quitting when her term is up in 2005, The Scotsman reported March 4. New Zealand MP Georgina Beyer said, “Pol itics and I don’t seem to sit too well together.” She said that the “discipline and rigors” of an MP’s life “have become more and more difficult” and that she wants to “disappear into the wtxid- work” for a time. Beyer represents the rural constituency of Wairarapa. j n T Complied by R ex WOCKNER, who has reported for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor's degree m journalism from Drake University and started his career as a radio reporter. t i f - i * A e C P d m k r ic a n C a l l e r s o n a l or« o u n c i l C a T h a n r a i n e r x k r c i s e L et m e h e l p you r e v i s e y ou r w o r k o u t — S pri ng T une U p $100 103 - 8716 I ETMELI IEL@MSN.COI Health Care You Can Trust M on. thru Sat. & evening appointments T C IS R A E L he Israeli State Attorney’s Office has extended the spousal exemption from property-transfer taxes to same-sex couples, Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post reported Feb. 25. The office announced its decision during a Supreme Q uirt hearing in the case of two men who were hit with the tax after one transferred half of the rights to their apartment to the other. Tax officials had maintained the exemp tion was available only to opposite-sex couples living as a family. FITNESS O C O M Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic O regon College o f O riental M edicine Appointments: 503-253-3343 ext. 550 www.ocom.edu 10541 SE Cherry Blossom Dr., Portland (by Mall 205) We cover both sides of the fence. W ell find you a home and get you the loan. Shea Steel Realtor sheasteel@remax.net 503-282-4000 Ext 112 Dawnie Grubstein Loan officer dawnie@rosecitymtg.com 503-768-4248 Ext 106 mi>T« Signature Properties Call now and well give you $100 off of your dosing costs, and we will also donate $100 to one of ten charities sponsored by Rose City Mortgage. Time for a financial check-up or a second opinion? G riffon F inancial * G roup , LLC I inanri.il Planning A Im m inent Management Securities offered exclusively through RAYMOND JA M E S FINANCIAL SERVICES. INC. M • m b • r N A S O / S t P C Antoinette Loferriere, CFP® - President, Griffon Financial Group, LLC - Financial Advisor 503.528.2800 • 5440 SW Westgate Dr , Ste 110. Portland OR 97221 www.griffonfinancial.com • 541.317.1617 *131 NW Hawthorne A ve. Ste 105 Bend, OR 97701
