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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2005)
October 7.2005 • JlMt OUt 23 fWHFl news Sept. 24 in Kathmandu, reported the British gay rights group OutRage and Nepal’s gay Blue Diamond Society. The attack began with plainclothes policemen sexu ally harassing several metis who.were socializing outside the Himalayan Java Cafe. One officer, Nava Raj Adhikari, allegedly stuck a lit cigarette onto the hand of a meti and demanded she have sex with him. When she refused, he reportedly pulled This ad campaign for Ra-Re clothing is causing controversy in Italy. her hair and slapped her. Adhikari later returned S panish O pposition W ants with other cops who beat several metis with to U ndo M arriage L aw sticks and rocks, kicked them with heavy Spain’s main opposition party, the Partido boots, then arrested at least one of them, the Popular, plans to file a Constitutional Court case gay organizations said. to attempt to undo the nation’s legalization of The Blue Diamond Society said it asked the same-sex marriage. National Human Rights Commission and Party leader Mariano Rajoy believes the Human Rights Cell of the Nepal Police to inves Spanish Constitution restricts marriage to tigate the incident, but they refused, claiming it opposite-sex pairings. The move is opposed by was merely a fight between a “meti gang" and a the president of the party’s Madrid region, “police gang.” Esperanza Aguirre, who said it would be per “These assaults are a continuation of a long ceived as gay-bashing. history of homophobic abuse and violence by The Congress of Deputies legalized same-sex sections of the Nepali police,” said Peter marriage June 30 in a 187-147 vote with four Tatchell of OutRage. “We are concerned that abstentions. LGBT people in Nepal have no legal redress “Today, Spanish society is responding to a against state violence and that they get little group of people who for years have been support from mainstream human rights groups humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, and political parties.” their dignity offended, their identity denied and their freedom restricted,” Prime Minister Jose M alaysian O uting L eads to L awsuit Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said. “Today, Spanish Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister society grants them the respect they deserve, Anwar Ibrahim says he is suing former Prime recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, Minister Mahathir Mohamad for nearly $27 affirms their identity and restores their liberty.” million for calling him gay. Full marriage also is available to same-sex Mahathir has outed Anwar repeatedly for couples in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands several years—and did so again last month, say and Massachusetts. ing he fired Anwar in 1998 to prevent Malaysia from ending up with a homosexual leader. “I cannot have a person who is like that in my Cabinet who may succeed and become the prime minister,” Mahathir said in late September. “Imagine having a gay prime minis ter. Nobody would be safe.” Anwar was jailed for nine years in 2000 for allegedly engaging in same-sex sodomy, but he was released in 2004 after the Federal Court ruled the evidence against him had been un reliable. He and human rights groups have said that the charges were bogus and that he was framed because Mahathir feared that Anwar was scheming to replace him. Anwar called Mahathir’s latest comments “defamatory” and noted that he recently won $1.55 million in a court case against publishers of a Exxtk that repeated the stxlomy allegations. Spain's main opposition party leader, Mariano Rajoy, believes the Spanish Constitution “1 will not allow this lie and slander to con prevents marriages between same-sex couples. tinue,” he said. “From the very beginning, I have stressed that my sacking from the government [was] part of a high-level political conspiracy.” H ospital M ust A ccept G ay B lood Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace The maximum punishment for having gay ordered Milan’s Policlinico hospital to stop sex in Malaysia is 20 years in jail and a flogging. banning gays from donating bkxxl Sept. 21, N ew Z ealand P.M. W on ’ t S upport according to the ANSA news agency. G ay M arriage The facility was told to “eliminate all New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark references to homosexuality as a screening fac said Sept. 14 that she doesn’t plan to support tor.” Storace called the ban “grave and offensive legalization of same-sex marriage, GayNZ.com discrimination.” reported. The situation came to light when Paolo She made the remark in response to a Pedone, a staffer at rhe gay magazine Pride, was question at a meeting with the senior citizens turned away from the donation center “because organization Grey Power. Clark reportedly young gay males pose a high risk of having AIDS.” acknowledged that the Marriage Act discrimi nates against gay and lesbian couples but said rhe people of New Zealand support that. A comprehensive civil union law ttx>k effect P olice A ttack N epalese G ays Nepalese police have attacked gays and metis in April. It grants registered same-sex couples all rights and responsibilities of matrimony. (transgender women) again, assaulting a group RA^RE ASI A/PACIFIC N ew Z ealand G ets F ive G ay MP s New Zealand’s 122-member Parliament now has five openly gay members, The Sydney Star Observer reported. Labour MPs Tim Barnett and Chris Carter were re-elected in last month’s elections, as was transsexual Labour MP Georgina Beyer. Labour MP Maryan Street and National Party MP Christopher Finlayson were elected for the first time. “It will have some impact on Parliament as a whole, because having an openly gay MP in your party allows you to see and understand some of the issues that affect LGBT people,” activist Calum Bennachie told the paper. Premium :pa iv Tood Tor Cats cat (kat) n. - a domesticated carnivore SI/E free-range poultry and organic ingredients. 503-736-4649 www.RadFood.com ‘Teed your felines (ike the carnivores they are. ’ Available in fine markets and pet stores throughout the Portland area. Cfackjnir website for new locations. Created locally * for the love of cats. L esbian S elected for N ew S outh W ales P arliament A lesbian was elected to the Parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales in late September. Penny Sharpe, 34, was chosen by Parliament to fill a vacancy in the Legislative Council. “Yes, I am gay,” Sharpe told reporters. “Yes, I have two children.... Beyond saying that I have been in a relationship for 12 years and 1 have two children, 1 am not saying anything. No other parliamentarians are asked about their families and how their children are con ceived, and I don’t see why I have to. I have children to protect, and 1 don’t want to go into it.” AMERICAS C anada U ps M eth P enalties Canada has increased the penalty for producing, trafficking or selling crystal methamphetamine to a maximum of life in prison, Xtra! West reports. Use of the especially harmful drug is believed to have reached epidemic levels in some North American gay enclaves, where it has been blamed for rising rates of HIV transmission. “We have taken action to bring the penalties for methamphetamine offenses in line with those substances that pose a comparable level of risk to health and safety,” said Health Minister Ujjal Dos¡jnjh. P anamanian G ays P resent A nti -D iscrimination M easure Panama’s New Men and Women’s Asscxriation has presented a bill to the National Assembly that would criminalize discrimination, stigmatization and physical and verbal abuse based on sexual orientation or gender identity. “We want them to prohibit and penalize dis crimination in the workplace, schools and pub lic services, along with the commission, instiga tion or promotion of hate crimes based on these two categories,” said Ricardo Beteta, president of the organization. The proposed punishment is six months to one year in prison and a fine of 50 to 100 days’ salary. C uba S tages G ay F ilm F estival The Cuban government staged a gay film fes tival last month. The five-day event was spon sored by the Cuban Institute of Cinema tographic Art and Industry and the National Center for Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS. The festival kicked off with Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game. As patrons entered the theater, employees of the center handed them condoms and safe-sex pamphlets and posters. 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