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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2004)
may 7.2Q04< ou t 23 r n i M i 'i n e i v s CANADA C anada’s national gay penly gay Member of lobby group, Egale, expressed Parliament Svend Rob distress at the news. inson announced April 15 “We are all deeply sad that he will take a medical dened to hear about the leave ffom politics after hè ordeal that Svend Robinson stole a $50,000 diamond ring is now going through,” exec ffom a sale he attended. utive director G illes Robinson, who has repre Marchildon said. “Svend has sented. a Vancouver, British been a bold and effective Columbia-area district for 25 champion of equality and a years, was not apprehended role model for countless les at the time of the theft. He bian, gay, bi and trans peo went to the police and con ple. He has made C anada a fessed four days later. better place for all those who Openly gay Canadian Member of The following day, Feder are different. Despite the dif Parliament Svend Robinson says he al Auction Services said it ficulties he is now facing, he stole jewelry’ in a “ moment of utter had provided video evidence continues to demonstrate his irrationality” of the crime to the Royal personal integrity in the way Canadian Mounted Police before he turned he is handling this matter.” himself in. “For some time now, I have been suffering ffom severe stress and emotional pain,” Robin andanna-wearing lesbians stormed the son told reporters. “I have experienced great national convention of the Concerned inner turmoil. The reasons for this are of course Christian Coalition on April 17 in Calgary, intensely personal, and I am not prepared to Alberta. Seven women and one man burst into discuss them, but among others relate to the the conclave at the Coast Plaza Hotel, scream cumulative pressures of dealing with the emo ing, “Right-wing bigots go away, Gay Militia is tional consequences of a nearly fatal hiking here to stay.” accident [in 1997]. According to The Calgary Sun, conven- “This accumulated stress culminated last Fri- tion attendees held hands and prayed as the day in my engaging in an act that was totally protesters unfurled a banner reading, “Libera- inexplicable and unthinkable. While attending tion: Queer Invasion.” Police are reviewing a public jewelry sale, I pocketed a piece of jew- tapes o f the intrusion and might charge mili- elry.... Something just snapped in this moment tia members with mischief or with disturbing of utter irrationality. a peaceful assembly, Calgary Constable Doug “Immediately upon leaving the premises I Jones said. realized that 1 must return the jewelry. Too afraid to go back and unable to contact the owners by ❖ telephone... I spent a weekend of great anguish, enizens of Vancouver’s famed gay nude determined to return the jewelry at the first beach, Wreck Beach, are upset about Uni- opportunity. On Tuesday morning, I attempted versity of British Columbia’s plans to build 20- to contact the owners, and not being able to do story dormitories nearby, so directly, I went to the police and gave them a They say their privacy will be invaded by full account of what I had done and returned the dorm dwellers with binoculars and Web cams, jewelry to them .... I await the decision of A university spokesman said the school will take Crown Counsel and will not seek to in any way sunbathers’ worries into consideration when avoid full responsibility for my actions should designing the buildings, charges be laid in these circumstances. “I have sought and am receiving profession- <- al medical help to understand and deal with T n a first, a Canadian gay military man has these issues...and I look forward to full healing 1 publicly married his partner, The Kingston and recovery,” said Robinson, 52. “A s you can (Ontario) Whig-Standard reported April 6. imagine this has been a nightmare. I cannot Navy Officer Cadet Jason Stewart, 19, mar- believe that it has happened, but I am human ried Joey Schwehr, 20, April 3 in Toronto. The and I have failed.” couple will live together in married quarters at Federal Auction Services said April 16 Canadian Forces Base Kingston, that it will not press the authorities to lay Stewart is a first-year cadet at Royal Military charges and “accepts Mr. Robinson’s apology,” College. The two men met just four months ago. which was offered in a letter that was not “Our first date was at the Second Cup down- made public. town, and we sat there for hours just talking and O B D FRANCE ' ‘T he mayor of Bègles, a suburb of Bordeaux, A plans to perform a same-sex marriage in June. There’s nothing in French law to prohibit the marriage, and gays should have full equal rights, Noel Mamère says. “This act is the continuation of a struggle I have fought for a long time— for equal rights and against all discrimination,” he told Britain’s The Guardian. “Homosexuals in this country, as in many others, suffer from a great deal of discrimination. They are the last cate- gory of French people who are banned from getting married. There’s nothing extraordinary about marrying two people of the same sex in the European Union, because Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands have done it n unscientific poll con already and the new Spanish ducted by the Web site of prime minister...has already the Toronto gay magazine fab put it in his political program.” found that only about one-third of gay people care about having Actually, Sweden does not access to full marriage. offer same-sex marriage but rather gay registered partner About 36 percent of respon dents said gays should “settle for ship that provides the same marriage and nothing less,” rights. France has offered gay and straight couples m ar while 47 percent said gays should "go for something like riage-like civil unions since civil unions and develop our 1999, but they lack certain own customs as long as we have matrimonial rights in areas the same rights as straight mar such as adoption and eco ried couples.” About 11 percent Bègles Mayor Noël Mamère nomic benefits. refuse “to buy into the hetero- says French laws don’t Mamère, who also is a mem sexist, oppressive institution of prohibit same-sex marriage ber of France’s National marriage,” and 7 percent wish Assembly and vice president of gays would “help lead a movement to abolish the Urban Community of Bordeaux, plans to the institution of marriage.” marry the gay couple June 5 talking,” Schwehr told the Whig-Standard. “It was instant. He told me that he loved me, and I felt the same way toward him. Everything seemed to connect, and we just hit it off. We both felt really strongly for each other. “It’s just one of those things that you know,” Schwehr said. “You don’t want to let that person go to find out five years from now that they were the person you were supposed to be with for the rest of your life.” During the past 11 months, top courts in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec extended full marriage to same-sex cou- pies. In response, the federal government is planning to open up marriage nationwide. A SPAIN rime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promised to legalize same-sex marriage dur ing an April 15 speech to Parliament. “It is time to bring to an end, once and for all, the intolerable discrimination still suffered by many Spaniards exclusively by virtue of their sexual preferences,” he said. “Homosexu als and transsexuals deserve the same public consideration as heterosexuals and have the right to live freely the life that they themselves have chosen. We will recognize, on an equal basis, their right to marriage, with the conse quent effects on labor rights, inheritance and social security protection.” Full marriage is offered to same-sex couples only in Belgium, the Netherlands and the Cana dian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. It will become available May 17 in Massachusetts. Several other nations offer same- sex domestic partnerships or civil unions that include up to 99 percent of the rights and oblig ations of matrimony. P PORTUGAL he commission reviewing Portugal’s C on stitution approved adding a ban on dis crimination based on sexual orientation April 23. “Portugal is now one of the few coun tries in the world that includes nondiscrimina tion on the basis of sexual orientation in the fundamental law of the nation,” said Joào Paulo, editor of the Web site PortugalGay.pt. Other nations that ban anti-gay discrimina tion constitutionally include Canada, Ecuador, South Africa, Switzerland and, possibly, Fiji. At last report, Fiji’s government had announced it wanted to repeal the protections because it had no idea how they ended up in the 1997 consti tution in the first place. T DAGESTAN he Culture Ministry of Dagestan blocked a concert by gay Russian pop singer Boris Moiseyev in the capital city of Makhachkala, T Continued on Page 24 Celebrating the joy of marriage, and the freedom of diversity MCC is honored to provide sacred marriage services in tin’s most historic of times just as we have for moro than years. Rev. Glenna Shepherd, Pastor Metropolitan Community Church 2400 NE Broadway 503.281.8868 www.mccportland.com Sunday Worship 9 & 11A Children's Sunday School 11A
