May 19. 2004 Page A2 Rights Battle Leads to Gay Marriages But Ray McNulty, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Family In­ stitute. one of the leading organiz­ ers of opposition to same-sex mar­ riage, criticized some of the protest­ ers, saying there was no need for hateful speech. "W hat's going on down there is legal, and as far as I’m concerned, give those people their happiness for the day," McNulty said. Massachusetts was thrust into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage when the state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 in November that gays and lesbians had a right under the state consti­ tution to wed. The court's ruling touched off a frenzy o f gay marriages in a few cities across the country earl ier this year, including Multnomah County in Portland. Even though courts ordered a halt to the wedding march, opponents pushed for a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage, w hich President Bush has en ­ dorsed. In M a ssa c h u se tts, m a rrie d couples are entitled to hundreds of Gina (left) and Heidi Nortonsmith celebrate with their two sons, Avery, 7 (left), and Quinn, 4. at city rights under state law. But federal hall in Northhampton, Mass, after receiving a marriage license Monday. The couple were plaintiffs rights are not available to gay mar­ in a Massachusetts lawsuit that led to a state supreme court decision allowing same-sex mar­ ried couples because federal law riages. (AP photo) defines marriage as between a man the landmark Suprem e Judicial ners for life" at the end of the cer­ Baptist Church, stood near Cam ­ and a woman. bridge City Hall carry ing signs with The Netherlands, Belgium, Den­ Court decision that legalized gay emony. There were scattered protests anti-gay slogans Sunday night. The mark and Canada’s three most popu­ marriage was read as an invocation at the U n ita rian U n iv e rsa list amid a largely festive atmosphere. group, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps lous provinces are among the only About 15 protesters, most from Sr., travels around the country pro­ places in the world where gays can church. marry. They were pronounced “part­ T opeka, K an.-based W estboro testing homosexuality. Massachusetts is first state to grant licenses (AP) - Same-sex couples began exchanging marriage vows in Mas­ sachusetts on M onday, marking the first time a state has granted gays and lesbians the right to marry and making the United States one o f at least five countries where homosexuals can legally wed. T anya M cC loskey, 52, and Marcia Kadish, 56, of Malden went at a breaknec k pace to fill out paper­ work, get a waiver from the three- day waiting period, then return to city hall - where they got their mar­ riage license and exchanged vows. At 9:15 a.m., Cambridge City C lerk M argaret Drury told the couple: “ I now pronounce you married under the la ws o f the Com ­ monwealth of Massachusetts.” It was among the first - if not the first - same-sex weddings taking place throughout the state on Monday, the day that same-sex couples could wed under a court order. In Boston, David Wilson and Robert Compton became die first of the seven couples who sued the state to be married. At the Arling­ ton Street Church, W ilson and Compton exchanged vows under a rainbow flag and to the strains of the Boston Gay M en’sChorus sing­ ing "M arry Us.” An excerpt from Hate Crimes Probed at Goodyear Plant ( AP) — An investigation is under way at a G oodyear tire plant in T ennessee after o ffi­ cials there received reports about threatening notes and a noose being left in areas w here black em ployees work. O bion County S h eriff Jerry V astbinder said the incidents at the G oodyear T ire and R ub­ ber Co. plant in U nion City, T enn., are being investigated as a hate crim e. FBI spokesm an G eorge Bolds said the agency had been alerted and was re­ view ing the evidence. O ne incident involved the discovery o f a note scraw led on the bottom o f a desk draw er that used a racial epithet and threatened blacks. In another case, som eone clogged up a toilet in a bathroom cleaned by an A m erican A m erican jan ito r and scraw led racial epithets on the w allso rd erin g him to clean up the mess. A k ro n , O h io - b a s e d G oodyear issued a statem ent Friday saying it is cooperating with the law enforcem ent agen­ cies in v e stig a tin g th e in c i­ d en ts. “T he G o o d y ear T ire and Rubber Co. is deeply com m it­ ted to m aintaining a harass­ m ent-free environm ent for its e m p lo y e e s ,” th e sta te m e n t said. Landmark Brown Decision Altered Lives Powell Concedes Plaintiffs recall Scandal Hurts U.S. ,.l ' “ '1 j ■ desegregation 50 years later (A P)— Linda Brown had no idea she was making history in the fall of 1950when her father, the Rev. Oliver Brown, took her by the hand and marched her to an all-white school near her home. Several other black parents in Topeka also tried to enroll their children in all-white schools that fall. Their requests were denied, laying the groundwork for a legal Linda Brown Smith stands in front o f the Sumner School in case that would overturn segre­ Topeka, Kan., in this May 8, 1964 file photo. (AP Photo) gated education nationw ide 50 She and other family members of media attention it brought. years ago this week. Linda Brown, now Linda Brown have stressed that their story is just In the years since. Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education has Thompson, has mostly shied away one o f many in the struggle for been a blessing and a burden for from reporters, although she has racial equality. Linda grew up in a racially mixed the Brown family: A blessing be­ spoken at several events in recent cause the family helped change months in anticipation of the 50th neighborhood, where the children played with white, Hispanic and history; a burden at times because anniversary of the ruling. J lo r t la n h (D h s c ru c r Established 1970 USPS 9 5 9 6 8 0 ___________________________________ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 E ditor - in -C hief , P ublisher : Charles H. Washington EDiToicMichael L eighton R e p o r t e r : Jaymee R. Cutí D istribution M anager : C reative D irector : O ffice M anager : M ark W ashington Paul N eu feld t K athy L inder The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a sell addressed envelope All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMIS SION IS PROHIBITED The Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication- is a member of the Na­ tional Newspaper Association--Founded in ,885. and The National Advertising Representa tive Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York. NY. and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver P ostmaster : S e n d a d d re s s c h a n g e s to P o rtla n d O b se rve r PO B o x 3 1 3 7 , P o rtla n d , 0 R 9 7 2 0 8 black youngsters, said her mother, Montgomery, who'remarried who remarried I Leola cola Montgomery^ after her husband’s death. When Linda began attending a segregated school 20 blocks away, the chi Idren were confused because the all-white school was only five blocks away. “She was always sad every year when it was time for school that she had to go one way and her play­ mates the other way," Montgom­ ery recalled. “It was just silly to think they couldn’t go to school together.” Now 83, Montgomery said her late husband was reluctant at first when a former high school class­ mate and local civil rights attorney asked him to become one o f 13 plaintiffs in a desegregation case. But the attorney, Charles Scott, persisted. "He said for the good of all children as well as your own you need to get into this," Montgomery recalled. R&B Artist Shot Dead (AP)— John Whitehead, a promi­ nent R&B artist best known for the 1979 hit song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” was shot dead in Phila­ delphia. W hitehead, 55, and another man w ere w orking on a vehicle when they w ere shot by tw o gun­ men, police said. T he assailants fled. W hitehead was shot in the neck and collapsed. Ohmed Johnson, who was shot in the buttocks, sur­ vived the May 11 shooting. Police said the gunm en fired a series o f bullets; a young neigh­ borhood girl said she heard about a dozen shots. A uthorities had no im m ediate m otive or suspects. “W hy did they do this to my dad?" Dawn W hitehead, 33, asked at the scene. "I ju st talked to him yesterday. ... He was a fun p er­ son. Who would want to kill him ?” G ene M cF ad d en , w ho w as W h itehead's partner in the sing­ ing group M cFadden and W hite- head, went to the scene in the c ity ’s W est Oak Lane neighbor­ hood and stood there trem bling, W PVI-TV reported. The two men formed a group called the Epsilons in their youth and w ere d isc o v ered by O tis Redding, touring with the legend­ ary performer in the 1960s, accord­ ing to their Web site. “A in't No Stoppin' Us Now" went to No. I on the R& B chart and reached No. 13 on the pop chart. Policy may have opened door to prisoner abuse (AP)— Secretary of State Colin Powell conceded Monday the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq has had a “te rrib le im p a c t” on America's international image and said President Bush is committed to correcting the problem. Secretary o f State Colin Powell listens to a question in Arabic Sunday during a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Southern Shuneh on the Dead Sea in Jordan. Powell said in a commencement address at Wake Forest Univer­ sity in W inston-Salem, N.C. that the furor over American abuse of Iraqi prisoners was a recurring theme at an i ntemational economic conference he attended in Jordan over the weekend. He said told the foreign leaders: “Watch America. Watch how we deal with this. Watch how America will do the right thing.” He said the Defense Depart­ ment will launch “multiple investi­ gations to get the facts." Above all, Powell said, President Bush is “determined to find out where ac­ countability and responsibility lie.” Powell said there were high-level discussions within the Bush ad­ ministration last fall about informa­ tion from the International Commit­ tee of the Red Cross alleging inmate abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. His comments came as the scan­ dal shifted to the q uestion o f whether the administration erected a legal foundation that opened the door for the mistreatment. Regarding Red Cross complaints last fall o f abuse at Abu Ghraib, “we knew that the ICRC had concerns, and in accordance with the matter in which the ICRC does its work, it presented those concerns directly to the command in Baghdad.” Powell added, “All of the reports we received from ICRC having to do w ith th e situ a tio n in Guantanamo, the situation in Af­ ghanistan or the situation in Iraq was the subject o f discussion within the administration, at our principals’ committee meetings” and at National Security Council meetings. “We were aware of them,” he said. Congressional critics suggested the administration may have un­ wisely imported to Iraq techniques for prisoner interrogation used in the war on al-Qaida. In early 2(X)2, the W hite House announced that Taliban and al- Qaida detainees would not be af­ forded prisoner-of-war status, but that the United States would apply the Geneva Conventions to the war in Afghanistan. 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