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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2004)
w w w .p o rtla n d o b s e rv e r.c o m Season Ends with Pride Wednesday • March 10.2004 Grant Coach Tony Broadous empowers every player See story in Sports, page B6 City of Roses’ Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXIII • Numi Week in TheReview Landmark Mai Rights over Gay Marriage Divides John Allen Muhammad Convicted Sniper Sentenced to Death Some blacks opposed to civil rights imagery A ju d g e reje cte d Jo h n A llen M uham m ad insistence o f inno cence and sentenced him to death Tuesday. C ircuit Judge LeRoy F. M ille tte Jr. o r d e r e d th a t M uham m ad be executed on Oct. 14, but that date likely will be post poned to allow appeals. See story, page A2. (AP) — W hen M ayor Jason W est o f a sm all New York town started presiding over gay w eddings, he saw it as nothing short o f "the flow ering o f the largest civil rights m ovem ent the co u n try ’s had in a genera tion.” "The people w ho w ould forbid gays from m arrying Same-Sex Marriage Battle Grows in Seattle in this country are those who w ould have m ade Rosa Parks sit in the back o f the bus,” said the G reen Parly Six same-sex couples filed a law suit seeking the right to get m ar ried after they were refused m ar riage licenses by a sym pathetic public official, as the m ayor o r dered the city to recognize the m arriages o f gay city em ployees w ho tie the knot elsew here. The couples applied for King County marriage licenses but were rejected because o f a state law defining . m arriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. m ayorof New Paltz, N. Y. W est’s w ords have a strong resonance for gays and lesbians who feel their rights are being denied, but for blacks who w orked to end racial discrim ination in the 1950s and ’60s, the reaction is decidedly mixed. Some leaders o f the civil rights m ovem ent find the com parison apt, but other blacks call it dow nright disgraceful. "The gay com m unity is pim ping the civil rights movement and the history," ja id th cR ev . G eneR ivers, a black Boston minister. “ In the view o f many, it’s racist at worst, cynical at best.” Fire Hits Farrakhan’s Farm A fire destroyed a bam at a farm ow ned by Nation o f Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, killing 22 ani mals, authorities said. The bam w a s d e s tro y e d S u n d a y b u t firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to a nearby m ainte nance shed. Farrakhan was not at his hom e at the tim e and no one was injured. The cause o f the fire is under investigation. Prison Likely for Martha Stewart M artha Stew art was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the governm ent about a superbly tim ed stock sale - a devastating v e rd ic t th a t p ro b a b ly m ean s prison for the woman w ho epito m izes m eticulous hom em aking and gracious living. Bush, Kerry Are Tied in Race John Kerry and President Bush are starting the general election cam paign tied, according to an A ssociated Press poll, w hile inde pendent Ralph N ader is draw ing enough support to m ake D em o crats squirm. The Republican in cum bent had 46 percent support. D em ocrat Kerry had 45 percent and Nader, the 2(XX) G reen Party candidate who entered the race last m onth, was at 6 percent in the survey conducted for the AP. O ther African A m ericans are conflicted o ver at P hoto by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver tem pts to equate the civil disobedience o f hom osexual unions with still-vivid m em ories o f voti ng-rights pro Abby Haywood (left) and Jamie Bolyard express the joy and love they have for each other moments after being legally married at the Multnomah County building in southeast Portland. testers m auled by snarling police dogs and knocked dow n by firehoses. Hundreds of same-sex couples line up for licenses J aymee R. C uti T he P ortland O bserver Jamie Bolyard didn’t picture her w ed ding day beginning by standing in line at 3 a m. in the cold and rain. And she certainly didn’t picture protesters shout ing, “ You are in danger” during a w ed ding cerem ony on the steps o f the M ultnom ah County building in south east Portland. Bolyard says she w asn’t able to pic ture her w edd in g day at all. until M ultnomah County com m issioners per mitted the issuing o f m arriage licenses to sam e-sex couples last W ednesday, in acontroversial move aligning the county with few other cities, including New Paltz, N ew York and San Francisco. Bolyard and Abby H ayw ood, both 32, say they knew for a w hile they would spend their lives together. They began their relationship tw o-and-a-half years ago in Nashville, Tenn., without the Some conservative groups are appealing directly popular approval. “W e’re not going to find a lot o f peers that are supportive,” said H aywood, who is African American. "In the lesbian com m unity, th ere’s racism and th a t’s diffi cult. It would be different if we were the same race. Then I could go to the black to black congregations to block attem pts to co-opt the language o f the civil rights m ovem ent in the gay m arriage debate. “W e oppose attem pts to equate hom osexuality with civil rights or com pare it to benign characteristics such as skin color or place o f origin,” says a W eb site from the conservative Fam ily Research Council. When African Americans say the gay rights issue is not a civil right issue, 1 know that it is. For me, it's fighting all the battles and I think it's compounded, being interracial and being a lesbian couple. by M eanw hile.civil rights lum inaries su ch asN A A C P board chairm an Julian Bond and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, one o f the organizers o f the 1963 m arch on W ashing ton, have spoken on the side o f gay m arriage. Bond said he supports “gay civil or religious m arriage,” and finds strong parallels betw een the black and gay - Portland newlywed Abby Haywood on the right to marry her same-sex partner. rights m ovem ents. “D iscrim ination is discrim ination - no m atter w ho approval o f their parents. “A bby’s parents are okay with it. T h e y ’re not overly supportive, but th ey 're better with it than my parents,” said Bolyard. Not only are she and H ayw ood lesbi ans, but they're also an interracial couple, which they say adds to the burden o f lesbians and get a lot o f support, but 1 ca n ’t do that because I’m dating a white women." Bolyard and H ayw ood had not co n sidered having a union cerem ony be cause they say the civil unions are sepa- the victim is, and it is alw ays w rong,” Lew is said. "There are no special rights’ in A m erica, despite the attem pts by many to divide blacks and the gay com m unity with the argum ent that the latter are seeking some im aginary on page A5 continued special rights’ at the expense o f continued on page A5 Support Boosts Youth Tennis Kimberly Moua (from left), Amelia Vang, Yee Yang, Laura Gulliksen and Mellena Giday wait their turn during a tennis clinic Friday at the St. John's Racquet Center in north Portland. The Portland Parks and Recreation facility scheduled the event to celebrate a $50,000 donation o f tennis shoes and equipment from Nike to benefit 600 kids in more than 12 community tennis programs in the city. — r~ CZl It £X £2 « > ’£ 2 -C — Oil O' • £ o> £ - o C XI 5fi w photo by I ? S i eve D ipaola