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.
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