M . JUStjOUt JANUARY &. Wil
Our faith is 2000 years old,
Give the perfect gift
. this holiday season:
world
Our thinking is not.
EUROPE
Swedish Church to Bless
Gay Unions
Sweden’s dominant Lutheran Church announced
Dec. 6 that it will offer blessings of same-sex regis
tered partnerships starting in January.
Individual priests will he permitted to opt out
of performing the ceremonies, but in such cases
the local church will be responsible for finding
another priest to perform the task. Sweden’s 1995
partnership law grants registered couples all rights
and obligations of marriage.
Scotland OKs Gay Adoption
The gift of home!
our 15 th A nniversary
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J oin
CONGREGATION
Music by Portland Lesbian Choir
Rev. Jean Erb, guest preacher
Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007
10:25 a.m.
No matter who you are, no matter where
you are on life’s journey, you're welcome here!
Weekly worship services and church school
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03 â
Scotland’s Parliament legalized adoption by
same-sex couples Dec. 7. The vote was 101-6 with
Gay activist and Colombian native Andrés Duque
six abstentions.
expressed incredible disappointment over the
An attempt to exempt faith-based adoption legislature's decision to kill a civil union bill.
agencies from having to consider same-sex couples
was defeated. Lawmakers attempted to appease
AMERICAS
Colombian Civil Union Bill Dies
religious opponents by adding a clause requiring
that those who adopt have formed “a stable family
A civil union bill that had passed Colombia’s
unit,” The Scotsman newspaper said.
Senate died Dec. 20 in the House of Representatives.
According to the Bogotá daily El Tiempo, “Up
Italy to Introduce
until the last moment of the [2006] legislature, [the
Civil Union Legislation
bill] was on the agenda, and when it came time to
Italy’s government will introduce a bill by the
vote...the quorum disintegrated.”
end of January to extend some of the rights of
New York City activist Andrés Duque, a native
marriage to same-sex and other unmarried couples.
of the South American nation, explained: “The bill
The civil union measure is expected to cover
was actually brought to the floor for a vote, but
areas such as health insurance, health care deci some cowardly legislators jumped up and left their
sions, hospital and prison visitation, inheritance,
seats. Incredibly disappointing if not necessarily
immigration, transfer of leases and alimony. Prime
surprising."
Minister Romano Prodi told local media that such
The bill passed the Senate in October by a 48-
a law will be a “fundamental step forward.”
40 vote. It would have set up a registration mecha
nism and granted registered couples marriage rights
in the areas of social security, health benefits,
pensions and joint ownership of property.
Canada Will Not Revisit
Same-Sex Marriage
Canada’s House of Commons voted 175-123 on
Dec. 7 not to reconsider its 2005 legalization of
same-sex marriage.
A motion put forward by the ruling
Conservatives asked if MPs wanted to see introduc
tion of “legislation to restore the traditional
definition of marriage without affecting civil unions
and while respecting existing same-sex marriages.”
The move was seen as a fulfillment of a cam
paign promise by Prime Minister Stephen Harper
to revisit the matter. It was widely expected to fail.
“We made a promise to have a free vote on this
issue, we kept that promise, and obviously the vote
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi called civil
union legislation a "fundamental step forward."
was decisive, and obviously we’ll accept the demo
cratic result of the people’s representatives,” Harper
Faroe Islands Ban Discrimination
told reporters. “I don’t see reopening this question
The parliament of the Faroe Islands, known as
in the future.”
the L0gting, voted 17-15 to ban discrimination
Most Liberals, 12 Conservatives and all mem
based on sexual orientation Dec. 15.
bers of the New Democratic Party and the Bloc
Similar bills failed in 1988, when only one MP Québécois voted against the measure. Among the
voted to protect gays, and in 2005, in a 12-20 vote.
Conservative opponents were Cabinet members
The new push for the law followed a homo- John Baird, Lawrence Cannon, David Emerson,
phobic attack in a bar in Torshavn, the capital, on
Peter MacKay, Jim Prentice and Josée Verner.
popular local radio host Rasmus Rasmussen, who
There have been more than 12,000 same-sex
is openly gay. He and his family also received
marriages in Canada since 2003, when courts in
threatening phone calls after local media report individual provinces began legalizing them.
ed on the beating.
Foreigners are welcome to go get married in
The Faroes, population 47,000, are a self- • Canada, and there is no waiting periixl after acquir
governing overseas administrative division of ing a license except in Quebec, which has a 20-day
Denmark located north of Scotland, halfway
delay that can be waived if advance arrangements are
between Norway and Iceland.
made with the person who will conduct the wedding.