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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2008)
FEBRUARY 1, 2008 Gay Nursing Home Opens in Berlin • Facial • Hair • Waxing out, and this exhibition will help them to understand their own identity and to begin to live their own lives,” she told Radio Prague. The first gay nursing home in Europe opened in Berlin this month. The state-of-the-art facility will house 28 patients, who will be allowed to bring their own furniture Protester Found and sundries. Guilty in Riga Pride Jiri Hromada is coordinating a The man behind the home, activist Attack government-curated exhibition that documents and and architect Christian Hamm, told An assistant to Latvian celebrates Czech gay history. the German Press Agency that gay MP Dainis Turlais was found people often feel ostracized in ordinary guilty of gross public disor- nursing homes. “When you are old, the last thing derliness Jan. 15 for throwing what was likely a bag that you want to do is to have to hide,” he said. of feces at celebrants attending the 2006 Gay Pride The home is the first piece of a planned com events in Riga. plex that wilt include apartments, a cafe, function Janis Dzelme was sentenced to 100 hours of rooms, a gym and a health care center with doctors compulsory labor by the Vidzeme District Court for and therapists, the report said. demonstrating what the court called an obvious Traveling Government Exhibit Celebrates Czech Gay History A government-curated exhibition documenting and celebrating Czech gay history has opened in Prague and later will travel around the nation, includ ing to small towns, Radio Prague reported Jan. 9. The exhibition’s curator is the government’s minister for human rights and minorities, Dzamila Stehlíková, and its coordinator is veteran Czech gay activist Jirii Hromada. “Twenty years ago homosexual citizens were the first group who began to speak about human rights,” Stehlíková said. “Now, after 20 years of gay and lesbian development, we have a registered partnership law, and the homosexual minority is part of democratic society, with its own structure and with a very interesting cultural and social life.” The exhibition, now at the capital’s House of National Minorities, includes gay magazines, old photos and videos of a disturbing debate in the Chamber of Deputies concerning the registered partnership law. Openly gay singer Pavel Vitek told Radio Prague: “What I have been most taken by is the history, which you now forget, of the period at the end of the 1980s and the start of the ’90s. And I have also really been struck by the discreditable language used by our politicians, both men and women, when registered partnerships were being discussed. It’s certainly worth hearing Justice Minister Parkanová and others again!” Stehlíková is excited about taking the exhibit on the road. “In some small towns many people with homo sexual orientation have complications with coming lack of respect toward the public by ignoring uni versally accepted norms of behavior. “This is an enormously important precedent which will send very strong signals to those people in Latvia who believe that freedom of assembly and freedom of speech should be limited with vio lence,” said Kristine Garina, chairwoman of the Pride organizing group Mozaika. Turlais is among the Parliament’s more anti-gay members. He reportedly has called gays “faggots” and “scum.” Last year’s Riga Pride went relatively smoothly, but in 2005, when activists first attempted to march, the 150 people were heavily outnumbered by around 1,000 anti-gay protesters who hurled insults, bottles and rotten eggs; blocked the streets; and forced the parade to be rerouted. The protesters chanted “No sodomy” and “Gays fuck the nation.” Then, in 2006, the City Council banned the parade. Organizers responded by holding a religious service at a church and meetings at a hotel. Attendees at both were attacked by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelt ed them with eggs, rotten food and feces. Last year, armed with a court ruling that the 2006 ban was unconstitutional, more than 500 queer people marched around a fenced-in park under heavy police protection, dodging only a paint bomb, an ice cream cone and a few firecrackers. Police out numbered the marchers and the approximately 100 jeering anti-gay demonstrators. © 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 JUSt|OUt¡21 • Pedicures • Manicures • Massage 2045 SE Division St. 503-232-2547 www.bliss-salonandspa.com Monday-Friday 10am-6pm* Saturday/Sunday 10am-5pm Reliable Income Tax Service Portland's Oldest Professional Tax Service • No Appointment Necessary • Free Quotes 5816 N. Greeley Portland, OR 97217 503-289-4500 reliable tax.net 3804 SE Belmont Portland, OR 97214 503-235-2727 P ortland A uto R epair • Electrical • Alignment • DEQ • Tires • Suspension • Computer Diagnostics Servicing All Makes and Models Specializing in Subarus and Cadillacs FULL SERVICE BODY SHOP • FREE ESTIMATES PORTLAND AUTO REPAIR 99th & SE Pine • Portland, OR 503.253.7500 ^^Approved Service Facility reporter. Tune up your vacation plans —and your car! 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