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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