JANUARY 18, 2008
A
'uÆ/illainette Financial
WW Group, LLC
A View of the Sea
thing about it when people do something like this.
There are enough laws and legislation to take on
discrimination and threats.”
AMERICAS
Canadian Bill Would Protect
Transgender People
Canadian Member of Parliament Bill Siksay has
introduced a bill to ban inciting hatred or advocat
ing genocide against transgender people, the
Vancouver gay newspaper Xtra! West reported.
Gays have had such protections since 2004-
The bill would add “gender identity” to the list of
distinguishable group traits in the Criminal Code.
The measure also gives judges leeway to
impose harsher sentences for crimes motivated by
“bias, prejudice or hate” based on gender identity.
Siksay, who is gay and represents a Vancouver-
area district, said Canadian “transgender and
transsexual people are regularly victims of abuse,
harassment and physical violence.”
Only one of Canada’s 13 provinces and territo
ries—the Northwest Territories—explicitly prohibits
anti-trans discrimination.
New Bolivian Constitution
Not All Good for Gays
Although the final wording of Bolivia’s planned
new constitution bans discrimination based on sex
ual orientation, the document also will ban same-
sex marriage, defining matrimony as the union of
a man and a woman, according to a report in La
Paz’s La Prensa. The definition also would apply to
common-law marriage.
If the constitution is ratified in a national
referendum, Bolivia will become the sixth nation
to ban anti-gay discrimination via its constitution,
and the first to protect transgender people
constitutionally.
Gay groups called the planned protections
a huge advance but lamented that the document
might impede recognition of same-sex partnerships.
The other nations that protect gays constitu
tionally are Canada, Ecuador, Fiji, South Africa
and Switzerland. The Swedish Constitution, in
a section on press freedom, prohibits agitation and
threats against gay people as a group.
Uruguay Civil Union Bill
Signed into Law
President Tabaré Vazquez signed a bill Dec. 27
making Uruguay the first Latin American country
to grant same-sex couples access to civil unions on
the national level.
The legislation,
which passed the
Senate in September
and the House of
Representatives in
November, took
effect Jan. 1.
Toni Poveda says the
Couples must live
National Federation of
together for five Lesbians, Gays,
years before they can Transsexuals and
take advantage of Bisexuals might sue a
Protestant minister
the law, which
concerning his "gay
grants spousal rights
cure" seminar.
in areas that include
inheritance, property ownership, pensions, parent
ing and health care.
The law applies to “two people—whatever their
sex, identity, orientation or sexual option may be—
who maintain an emotional relationship of a sexu
al nature [and] an exclusive, singular, stable and
permanent character without being united in
matrimony.”
Other Latin American localities with civil
union laws include the city of Buenos Aires, the
Argentine province of Rio Negro, the Brazilian
state of Rio Grande do Sul, Mexico City and the
Mexican state of Coahuila, which borders Texas.
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R ex WOCKNER 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.
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Nepal Supreme Court Mandates
Gay Protections
Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government
Dec. 21 to pass new laws and rewrite old ones to
extend equal rights and anti-discrimination
protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual
and intersex people.
The ruling came in a public-interest case filed
by four gay organizations.
Current Nepalese law prohibits “unnatural” sex
under penalty of up to two years in prison.
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex
are natural persons irrespective of their masculine
and feminine gender, and they have the right to
exercise their rights and live an independent life in
society,” the court said.
The court also ordered the government to form
a committee to study same-sex marriage in other
nations with a view to changing Nepalese law in
that área, as well. ©
JUStpUt.21
DHARMA RAIN ZEN CENTER
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503.239.4846 www.dharma-rain.org
Financial Planning Strategist
Retirement Income Distribution Strategist
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3529 NE Broadway, Ste 101
5O3-445-939O ext.101
floreid@wfgadvisors.com
www.wfgadvisors.com
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