Friday February 23, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 08 |
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Friday, Aug 29, 2008
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Rex Wockner |
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| International News | |
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COLOMBIAN HIGH COURT RULES FOR GAY COUPLES Same-sex couples who have lived together for at least two years have the same property and inheritance rights as common-law opposite-sex couples, Colombia's Constitutional Court declared Feb. 8. In an 8-1 decision, the justices said the law governing such rights for heterosexual couples was unconstitutional to the extent it excluded Gay couples. The Gay group Colombia Diversa had asked the court for the determination. ITALIAN GOVERNMENT SENDS CIVIL-UNION BILL TO PARLIAMENT The government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi finalized its civil-union legislation Feb. 8 and sent it to Parliament for a vote. The parliamentary coalition aligned with the ruling party is expected to provide enough votes for the measure to pass. The proposed law applies to both Gay and straight couples, and grants rights in areas such as health care, social benefits, pensions, inheritance, rental contracts, and hospital and prison visitation. Inheritance rights would apply only to relationships of at least nine years' duration and rental rights to those that have lasted at least three years. The amount of time after which pension rights would kick in is not yet specified. Other countries with civil-union laws include Andorra, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Greenland, a self-governing administrative division of Denmark, also has a civil-union law. There are state or local partnership laws in parts of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. Full marriage is available to same-sex couples in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Informal cohabitation of same-sex partners has become legally recognized in Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Hungary, Israel and Portugal -- and in parts of Australia, Italy and the U.S. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT HUMAN-RIGHTS CHIEF DENOUNCES GAYS The Ukrainian Parliament's human-rights chief denounced Gays again on Feb. 9, reported Kiev's Our World Gay and Lesbian Center. Leonid Grach, head of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations, said: "My colleagues and I in Parliament have to defend society from infringements upon morality and not admit into the consciousness and souls of people of any age the thought that the state is on the side of the people who are sowing debauchery, propagandizing for dissoluteness [or] sexual permissiveness, or bringing the abomination of seduction into society. [The] state must protect society from evil, from violence, including such evil as homosexuality, Lesbianism and the like." Our World, which translated the comments, responded that "such public statements by a high-ranking politician whose duty it is to protect human rights are simply inadmissible in civilized democratic society." The center asked activists in other nations to alert their governments to the situation and write protest letters to Grach and Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko. Last November, Grach called homosexuality "an anomaly that is caused by the amorality and depravity of man," Our World said. ONTARIO DEPUTY PREMIER TO MARRY The deputy premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, George Smitherman, will marry his partner, chocolate company manager Christopher Peloso, on Aug. 5, the Toronto Star reported. The couple will tie the knot at the Laurentian Lodge resort 325 miles northwest of Toronto. Smitherman, who also is provincial health minister, told the Star, "I'm going to make a long-term commitment to Christopher in August and then I'm hoping that the people of my riding are going to make a long-term commitment to me [in the next election] on Oct. 10." The two men have known each other for 10 years but only reconnected 18 months ago. Once married, they plan to adopt a child. A huge hockey fan with a feisty political reputation, Smitherman has been a Liberal legislator since 1999 and health minister since 2003. His district includes Toronto's Gayest neighborhood. In 2006, Smitherman acknowledged that in the 1990s he was addicted for five years to illegal stimulant "party drugs" that are popular on the Gay scene. Canada is one of six nations where same-sex couples have access to traditional marriage. GAYDAR COFOUNDER, CHAIRMAN DIES The cofounder and chairman of the popular Gaydar Web site died in an eight-story fall from the balcony of his London penthouse Feb. 10. Scotland Yard said it didn't know if Gary Frisch, 38, jumped from the building or fell by accident. In a statement, Gaydar's corporate parent, QSoft Consulting, said: "Gary's legacy as a co-founder of the Gaydar phenomenon is immense and it is one that we shall both celebrate and continue into the future. Gary will never be forgotten and is deeply missed by us all." MOLDOVA'S SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST PRIDE BAN The Supreme Court of Moldova ruled Feb. 13 that the city government in the nation's capital, Chisinau, acted illegally in banning a Gay-pride march in 2006. According to a translation provided by the International Lesbian and Gay Association, the court said the activities of the pride organizing group, Information Centre GenderDoc-M, are legal and the court "considers unjustified the refusal of the Chisinau city hall to authorize a march of solidarity by GenderDoc-M reasoning it with possible threat to the public order, as this motive is disproportional with the right to freedom of assembly, guaranteed by ... the European Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms." GenderDoc-M Chair Alexei Marcicov said he hoped the ruling "will put a political end [to the] open discrimination of the LGBT community by Chisinau city authorities. It is the win of consciousness, law and human rights over prejudice and intolerance." The organization is planning pride events this year from April 27 to 29. "The program foresees public celebration of diversity and equality in the central part of the capital," Marcicov said. |
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| "I'm 53 years old. I grew up in a small town in the rural South. I was raised in the Southern Baptist church. And so I have a belief system that arises from that. It's part of who I am. I can't make it disappear. ... Do I believe they [Gays] should have the right to marry? I'm just not there yet -- me, I'm not there yet." --Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to ABC News, Dec. 31. "I guess I come from a more eclectic background [than my husband] and so it's [same-sex marriage] less problematic, I think, probably for me. But I think both sides of this argument understand the desire for equality and equal treatment. I don't think there is anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand it and I don't think there's anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand the trouble people have. ... [I]t just seems something that they've not been around. Of course, they haven't because we haven't had it in this country." --Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, to ABC News, Dec. 31. "I now believe that if Gay men and Lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job." --Retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997, writing in The New York Times, Jan. 2. "It is amazing how many politicians claim they support equal rights and oppose discrimination against Gays, but then favor a ban on same-sex marriage, oppose allowing Gays to serve openly in the military, even oppose adoption by Gay couples. ... I don't know about you, but I am getting a little tired of people who say they are for Gay legal equality -- except when they are against it, or saying they are against discrimination -- except when they are for it, and then using all sort of verbal evasions to wriggle out of acknowledging how anti-Gay they are." --Syndicated Gay-press columnist Paul Varnell, Jan. 3. "Senator John Edwards ... described same-sex marriage as 'the single hardest social issue' for him and said he had had a lot of 'personal struggles' over the issue. Oh, John, John, we feel your pain! How hard it must be for you to grant others the same right you have to marry the person you love. Edwards said he favored civil rights for Gays but that it was a 'jump for me to get to Gay marriage -- I am not there yet.' ... Apparently a civil marriage is not a civil right. And he has the effrontery to teasingly imply that he might change his position ('I'm not there yet') but suggests no sorts of reasons or criteria he would use in reevaluating his position. Apparently it is all just a mucky ooze of subjective feelings." --Syndicated Gay-press columnist Paul Varnell, Jan. 3. "Equal treatment of Gay couples will be a hallmark of the 21st century, just as racial equality before the law was a sea change in 20th-century America. Someday we'll look back and wonder what all the fuss was about, the same way we now shake our heads at laws that once banned inter-racial marriage. ... The whole threat-to-marriage argument against Gay unions never made sense. Stable, monogamous relationships are an important building block of a strong society, and we ought to support them. Why shouldn't that premise apply to Gay couples? How can extending legal protections to them cause harm to anyone else?" --The San Jose [Calif.] Mercury News in a Jan. 8 editorial. "It's a decidedly American concept that in America, it's still perceived that being Gay is bad and that being Gay and out in Hollywood will hurt your career. That's a false concept that I don't believe. I don't buy into it. I'm not going to perpetuate it because it's not true. I dare you to name one person who came out and their career went to the ---- after. If anything, it will help. All the comings-out have helped." --Mario Lavendeira of PerezHilton.com fame to the Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 6. "Coming out and being Gay may actually help some [actors] who don't have careers. At least it's something to promote and you have an audience to start with. You can get work at one of the Gay networks and have something to bring to the table instead of being another out-of-work actor in Los Angeles or New York." --Paul Colichman, creator and CEO of the here! TV pay channel, to the Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 6. "[F]or so long, everyone was so worried about it [coming out]. 'Will it hurt my [Hollywood] career?' 'Is that all people are going to talk about?' 'Will the audience care?' The fact of the matter is, we are now at a place where it now doesn't matter. You can come out, acknowledge your sexuality and move on." --Actor Chad Allen (Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, End of the Spear) to the Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 6. "I've marched on Washington three times: twice for reproductive freedom and once for Gay and Lesbian rights, and it was very empowering for me. The political side of this has been important to me for a very long time." --Actress Cybill Shepherd, now starring on The L Word, to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, January issue. "First of all, my brother is Gay. So I grew up with a Gay brother and nothing surprised me about the issues in the script. I know how it feels to be thought of as 'different' as a deaf person, and I also know my brother's experience. No one should tell us who we should be with or shouldn't be with. It's as simple as that. There should be no judgment, no attitude toward the community because we all live the same life. The only difference is who we choose to be with." --Actress Marlee Matlin, now starring on The L Word, to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, January issue. "I have come to realize, having played the part, the inequality is striking. It is actually shocking to me. I had no idea about the rights that are not afforded to Gays and Lesbians. I think that because I am playing a Gay woman, I started to take it really personally when I read stories about it to become aware of issues." --The L Word actress Jennifer Beals to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, January issue. "I bike everywhere. It can be kind of amusing, arriving on a bike in black tie -- but it's just so enormously efficient. You're never late to anything on your bike. It's the only exercise I really have. ... I can't exist in LA. I don't drive. ... I am always waiting for a friend to come pick me up. It's too frustrating. I am just too much of a control queen." --Village Voice columnist Michael Musto to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 6. "I've had a few [boyfriends] and had one earlier this year for about six months and it was pretty sweet. But the more he was looking for a life partner, the more frightened I became -- and it kinda destroyed the whole thing. I could have a more casual relationship, but he basically wanted a wife. You know, I am the last person for that. I've spent too many years developing my way of life -- and my hours." --Village Voice columnist Michael Musto to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 6. "I don't even want Kevin Spacey to come out anymore. He's not really a noteworthy celebrity anymore. So he really missed the boat. And as much as Jodie Foster has never come out and said, 'Hey, I am straight,' she has never come out and expressed her private issues. I would just love for her to take a stand. That would make a huge difference in the world." --Village Voice columnist Michael Musto to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 6. "It is urgent that pro-family citizens -- Republicans, Democrats and independents alike -- contact their U.S. Representative and Senators, as well as President Bush, to state their opposition to passage of all pro-homosexuality 'sexual orientation' bills in the new Congress. At the top of the 'Gay' wish-list is ENDA, which we are calling the 'ENDA-Our Freedom' Bill because it would use federal power to force businesses to support and subsidize homosexuality and gender confusion ('Transgender' lifestyles: think men in dresses, using female restrooms)." --From a Jan. 5 e-mail alert from "Americans For Truth." |
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