Friday September 22, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 38 |
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Monday, Oct 13, 2008
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Rex Wockner |
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| International News | |
| CANADIAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE EXPECTED TO SURVIVE CHALLENGE
Gay people apparently have little to fear this fall when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper engineers a promised vote in Parliament to determine if MPs want to undo Canada's legalization of same-sex marriage. For one thing, the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic parties have promised that all their members - who total 79 of the 308 in the House of Commons - will oppose the move. And more than enough members of the Liberal and Conservative parties seem to feel that reopening the matter is not the best way to spend their time and energy. The vote is expected to favor Gays more strongly than the 158-133 vote on June 28, 2005, that legalized Gay marriage in the first place. "We're cautiously optimistic that a majority of MPs will vote against reopening the issue of equal marriage," said Gilles Marchildon, executive director of the national Gay lobby group Egale. "A majority of Canadians want their MPs to move on. ... They don't want him [Harper] to try and roll back the clock on equality." Beyond that, nine of Canada's 13 provinces and territories already had legalized same-sex marriage by the time the federal Parliament did so. As a result, Harper and Parliament could undo same-sex marriage only in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Prince Edward Island - unless they manage to utilize the never-used and widely reviled "notwithstanding clause," which allows provinces or the federal government to enact temporary laws that contradict Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That is considered to be very unlikely. More than 10,000 same-sex couples have married in Canada since June 2003 when Ontario became the first province to redefine the institution. The total includes many couples from the United States. There is no residency requirement for marriage in Canada and no waiting period after acquiring a license, except for a few days in the province of Quebec. QUEBEC MAY GET GAY PREMIER Openly Gay Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair could be the next premier of the Canadian province of Quebec, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has reported. A new poll found the PQ with a 5 percent lead over the currently ruling Liberals in the 2007 provincial election. The leader of the largest party in a provincial legislature is customarily appointed premier. "The chances are good [I'll be premier]," Boisclair, 40, told Radio-Canada, "but I have to earn the confidence of people." If chosen, Boisclair has promised to push for a new referendum on Quebec independence. He told Radio-Canada he also hopes to change attitudes toward Gay politicians. POLL: PM SHOULD HAVE ATTENDED AIDS CONFAB Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have attended the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in August, a CanWest News Service/Global National/Ipsos Reid poll has found. Fifty-four percent of those questioned said Harper was "wrong" to skip the event while 43 percent supported the decision. Opposition was highest in Quebec (61 percent) and among younger adults (62 percent) and women (60 percent). Ipsos Reid senior vice president John Wright told the Ottawa Citizen that Harper, a Conservative, might have gotten booed if he did show up, so it probably was a "lose-lose" situation for him. The survey questioned 1,002 adults and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20. URUGUAY TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX UNIONS A civil-union bill passed Uruguay's Senate Sept. 12 in a 25-2 vote. The Gay-specific sections of the bill were voted on separately and passed 16-12. The measure advanced to the House of Representatives where it is expected to pass easily. Under the legislation, two people who have lived together for five years in a marriagelike relationship - "whatever their sex, identity or sexual option may be" - will automatically acquire the rights and obligations of a married couple. They also could choose to officially register their relationship after five years. The law is expected to be in force by the end of the year. UGANDAN LESBIANS OUTED Following up on its recent outing of 45 alleged Gay men, the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Red Pepper outed 13 alleged Lesbians Sept. 8. They include two boutique owners, a basketball player and the daughters of a former member of Parliament and a prominent sheik. "To rid our motherland of the deadly vice, we are committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city," the newspaper said, inviting readers to "send more names" of the "lesbin (sic) in your neighborhood." Activists said the outing campaigns will lead to loss of jobs, homes, family and friends. Gay sex is illegal in Uganda under Penal Code articles 140, 141 and 143. The punishment for "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" is up to life in prison. In 1999, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said of Gays: "These few individuals [who became known] were either ignored or speared and killed by their parents. They wouldn't just go and wed another man publicly." He also said: "I have told the CID [Criminal Investigations Department] to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them. Even the Holy Bible spells it out clearly that God created Adam and Eve as wife and husband, but not men to marry fellow men." U.K. SISTERS SEEK PARTNERSHIP STATUS Two elderly sisters in Marlborough, England, have hauled the national government before the European Court of Human Rights demanding the same exemption from inheritance taxes that is granted to straight and Gay spouses. Joyce and Sybil Burden, ages 88 and 80 respectively, say dramatic increases in housing prices mean that if one of them dies, the other will have to sell the home they have shared for decades in order to pay the 40 percent inheritance tax on assets valued at more than £285,000 (US$534,788). The couple's farm, on which they were born, and their house, which they built in 1965, are now worth $1.6 million. "They [the government] are just hoping we die before we get to court," Joyce told The Times. "But they don't know how determined we are to see this through." GAY ADOPTION OK'D AT SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT A measure to allow Gay and unmarried couples to adopt children cleared its first hurdle in the Scottish Parliament Sept. 14. The vote was 103-8. The bill must pass through two additional stages, and Christian organizations and some members of Parliament have promised a vigorous battle against it. The measure also would allow children who are not suitable for adoption to remain with a foster family indefinitely. |
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"Angie [Angelina Jolie] and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able." -Actor Brad Pitt to Esquire magazine in the October issue. "A little announcement [that you're Gay] and you're everywhere. ... I'm totally happy, I'm a completely different person, I think. It just sucks with all the lies you have to tell. ... It's been crazy because everyone's paying attention to what I'm doing now. ... Everyone's been very supportive." -Former 'N Sync singer Lance Bass to Warner Brothers Studios' ExtraTV.com, Aug. 29. "I think if they want to get married, God bless them. Gay marriage is probably 1 percent of the population, so it's not like it's going to be an epidemic. Hey, trust me, I'm never going to kiss you and say, 'Chris, you're sexy.'" -Former National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Charles Barkley on Fox SportsNet's CMI: The Chris Meyers Interview, Sept. 3. Meyers is considering a run for governor of Alabama. "[M]y video for 'Beautiful' ... had a visual of two Gay men kissing, which I thought was important because 'Beautiful' was about going against the grain and just being proud of who you are. The feedback was incredible. That's when I knew that they [Gays] got who I am." -Singer Christina Aguilera in an interview published in the Delaware Gay magazine EXP, Aug. 18. "I've never dreamt that I would kiss James Bond, it's not something I have ever aspired to. Now I've done it, I can say that I hope I am the first of many. ... It was slightly abrasive, but ultimately rewarding. And neither of us are Gay." -British actor Toby Jones on kissing the current James Bond, Daniel Craig, in the new movie Infamous, as quoted by Reuters and other media, Aug. 31. "I saw him [Tom Cruise] doing the couch jumping. I wasn't mad at him. I was mad at Oprah. Oprah, couldn't you have said, 'Tommy, come here! Don't jump'. ... For me, to love someone is not to get rid of them when they do something you don't think is appropriate. I love him, and love is eternal. [But] it never went to sexual. My Angelina Jolie crush was much more sexual than my Tom Cruise crush ever was." -Rosie O'Donnell to Newsweek, Sept. 11. O'Donnell added that if Cruise had lost it on her show, she'd have sat him down and retaped the segment. "There are people who think that I'm strident and bossy and much too New York and left-wing liberal. You get what you paid for, and there's no way that I'm going to change." -Rosie O'Donnell to Newsweek, Sept. 11. "I used to use security a lot because you're supposed to be scared. And then my therapist said, 'When was the last time a celebrity was killed or nearly killed?' In your lifetime, you can name three: Theresa Saldana, Rebecca Schaeffer and John Lennon. You probably know three teachers who were killed'." -Rosie O'Donnell to Newsweek, Sept. 11. "I'm just a performer who plays people some music. I hope that my music helps people to forget about their problems for a few hours. But I'm also a Gay man and I've heard that Gay people face violence in Poland. Leave us alone. We don't want to harm anybody. We just want to love and be loved." -Elton John during a performance at Poland's Sopot Festival on Sept. 2, as relayed by members of Poland's Campaign Against Homophobia organization. "Instead of waging efforts to change hearts and minds, Gay movement leaders have tried to bludgeon opponents and pursued a strategy where a very small minority would impose its will on a vast majority through judicial fiat. While activists relied on the courts for victory, supporters of traditional marriage took the debate to the ballot box and won every single time. A failed strategy appears to have put Gay marriage out of reach for a long time to come." -Jeff Gannon, the man at the center of that White House press corps/Gay-prostitution brouhaha, in his regular column in the Gay newspaper Washington Blade, Sept. 1. "The people don't matter to this gang [the Bush administration]. They pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms. They've got the troops. They've got the army. They've got Congress. They've got the judiciary. Why should they worry? Let the chattering classes chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something really wrong with him. ... There should be a great deal of reaction to the total incompetence of this Administration. It's going to take two or three generations to recover what we had as of twenty years ago." -Gay writer Gore Vidal to The Progressive, August issue. "A huge number of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. You have a people that don't know anything about the rest of the world, and you have leaders who lie to them, lie to them, and lie to them. It's so stupid, everything that they say. And the media take on it is just as stupid as theirs, sometimes worse. They at least have motives. They are making money out of the republic or what's left of it. It's the stupidity that will really drive me away from this country." -Gay writer Gore Vidal to The Progressive, August issue. "I can understand the frustration of older Lesbians who worked long and hard for safe spaces, only to be told to share with those they might see as pretend or pseudo-women. But transwomen face so much discrimination; that we dykes should provide more is ironic, wrong, and gives me hives. I suspect another part of the problem is the yuck factor, the discomfort around those who play fast and loose with their anatomy. Well, remember that we're in the process of demanding the larger world get over its yuck factor where Gays are concerned." -Syndicated Gay-press columnist Leslie Robinson on the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's policy of admitting only "womyn-born womyn," in an early September filing. "The whole red carpet thing is your worst nightmare. It's like every time in junior high where you wondered whether anyone would notice you while the really popular kids are getting all the attention. A publicist was introducing me, but then Kate Burton, who was nominated for her excellent work on Grey's Anatomy, showed up, and they literally shoved me out of the way to talk to her. It's horrendous. If I ever win again, I'm gonna do like Brando and send in an Indian woman to make an announcement: 'Mr. Jordan will not accept until we legalize Gay marriage!'" -Leslie Jordan, who won an Emmy for playing Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace, to the Gay newspaper Dallas Voice, Aug. 25. "We benders sniff out authentic masculinity like maniacal sexed-up truffle pigs. And trades such as building, plumbing, and plastering, which involve working with your hands and actually getting your clothes dirty (gasp) represent ... the least constructed, least contrived of all male images. Other beacons of fetishised masculinity - policemen, firemen, soldiers, sportsmen and City gents - are inherently less masculine, as their appearances take more effort. So, add in the behaviour often (unfairly) associated with tradesmen - builders in particular, namely wolfwhistling, bum cleavage-flashing, fry-up-eating, Sun-reading (and in more recent times, spliff-smoking), and you have the most diametrically opposed image to the stereotypical Gay as is possible. And that, dear droolers and class tourists, is the fascination." -From an unbylined front-page article on the Web site of the British Gay glossy Attitude, Aug. 30. |
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International Readers |
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006