Friday December 30, 2005 SGN.org |
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Volume 33 Issue 52 |
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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Rex Wockner |
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| Wockner Wire | |
| THE BIG NOT-SO-EASY
I've been in New Orleans for the past couple of weeks. It's a fascinating and awful time to be here. Thirty percent of the city is sort of normal, including the famed French Quarter. I say "sort of normal" because it's not normal for Military Police and their Humvees to be on Bourbon Street. It's not normal for storefronts to be closed in the heart of the Quarter. And it's not normal to walk by trucks handing out U.S. government Meals Ready-to-Eat. The other 70 percent of New Orleans remains wiped out and unpopulated - the sectors where tsunami-like torrents from burst levees created scenes that still, more than three months later, look nothing short of apocalyptic. I put a bunch of photos on the Web. Go to wockner.com/photos.html and click on "Temporary link to the New Orleans photos." The pics from what they're calling "The Dead Zone" are numbers 10-29 and 47-52. "New Orleans has become two cities - an enclave of survivors clustered along the Mississippi River's crescent and a vast and sprawling shadow city where the water stood, devoid of power and people," Times-Picayune Managing Editor Jim Amoss wrote recently. All I can complain about personally is that the electricity - and thus the Internet - are not fully reliable at Keith's house, where I'm staying, that we have to drive to the burbs to shop for most anything, that all the piles of trash everywhere are ugly, and that the mail hasn't come for 10 days. On my blog, I blamed the flooding on "shoddy work" by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That generated a fair amount of response and e-mails from people who feel Louisiana politicians were equally if not more to blame for the disaster. The article by Jim Amoss tends to support my take on it. I put a link to that on the above-mentioned photos page as well. Click on "Washington Post article." Gay life seems to be one of the things that is bouncing back - even as schools remain closed, telephone service remains widely unavailable, and many people who left the city no longer have homes to come home to. There are at least three reasons one might be able to cite for that: 1. Many of the areas in which Gays are concentrated (French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater, Garden District) happen to be the ones that didn't drown when the levees blew out. For people from these neighborhoods, if they still have a job here, it was just a matter of waiting for utilities to be restored and then cleaning up from the wind and water damage caused by the hurricane itself. 2. Gay men tend not to have kids. Since most schools aren't open, people with kids can't come back yet, if only for that reason. 3. Gay men may have a more adventurous or pioneer spirit than people in general. And life here now definitely requires a spirit of adventure and a willingness to forego conveniences. Saturday night, Keith and I hit five of the Gay bars. There were between 40 and 100 people in each one, fewer than usual, I'm told, but not bad. The sleazy upstairs bar at The Phoenix was definitely, shall we say, hopping. I'm working on a long, serious news story in which I talk to Gay leaders, bartenders and city officials about, among other matters, the rebound of the Gay scene, the possible demise of the impoverished Gay community center, and the fact that Lesbians, transpeople and people of color took a harder hit from the disaster than many Gay white men. The story will hit the Gay press around Dec. 19. CALL ME DISTURBED It's disturbing how out-of-step with the rest of the world the U.S. is becoming on Gay equality. Since my last column here, South Africa's Constitutional Court made that country the fifth to allow same-sex marriage and the United Kingdom's Civil Partnership Act took effect, granting registered same-sex couples all the rights and obligations of marriage. The other countries where Gays can marry are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain. The list of nations where same-sex couples can enter registered partnerships or civil unions that grant most or all the rights of marriage has become very long in recent years. Of course, there is a snag in these comparisons. Marriage law is state law not federal law in the U.S. - so we have 50 marriage laws. One state, Massachusetts, lets same-sex couples marry and six states (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Vermont) have partnership or civil-union laws that grant same-sex couples many, most or all state-level rights of marriage. Had Canada dealt with this issue province-by-province rather than federally (as it had to, in the end), same-sex marriage may have remained unavailable in places such as Alberta, Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories. Likewise, there are provinces of Spain where the vast majority of Gays are closeted and likely would not have had the clout to successfully lobby legislators for legalization of same-sex marriage. But still, some 45 U.S. states explicitly ban same-sex marriage - and 19 of them have done so by amending their constitutions to permanently discriminate against us. This places us definitively out-of-step with the majority of developed nations - and even with some so-called Third World nations like Argentina and Brazil. And yet, I think if one of these state constitutional marriage bans makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, precedent there will result in the striking down of all these amendments, just like the remaining sodomy laws were smashed. I think the many anti-Gay-marriage laws (as opposed to constitutional amendments) are similarly endangered. But in the meantime, the rest of the developed world is careening toward full Gay equality while the U.S. inches forward in some respects and hurls itself backward in others. American Gays will, in all likelihood, win this fight in the end - but that doesn't make today any less disturbing. |
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| Quote/Unquote - sorry, no column in this week's edition | |
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| International News | |
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| UK GAYS TIE THE KNOT
Same-sex couples started tying the knot under the United Kingdom's new Civil Partnership Act Dec. 19. The act grants registered couples all the rights and obligations of marriage. "This landmark measure ends the situation where same-sex relationships were invisible in the eyes of the law, denied any recognition of their commitment," said Prime Minister Tony Blair. "It gives Gay and Lesbian couples who register their relationship the same safeguards over inheritance, insurance and employment and pension benefits as married couples. No longer will same-sex couples who have decided to share their lives fear they will be denied a say over the partner's medical treatment or find themselves denied a home if their partner dies." Grainne Close and Shannon Sickels were the first to do the deed as regular registrations kicked off (a couple where one partner was gravely ill were allowed to "wed" before the act's start date). Close and Sickels, who is American, got "married" at City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as fundamentalist Christians and Gay-rights supporters yelled at each other outside. "This is about making a choice to have our civil rights acknowledged and respected and protected, and we could not be here without the hard work of many Queer activists and many individuals from the Queer community," Sickels told reporters. The ceremonies began in Scotland the next day and in England and Wales the day after that. Sir Elton John, 58, and longtime partner David Furnish, 43, were among the first to tie the knot, in the royal town of Windsor, at the town hall where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles got married. Furnish's father Jack called it "one of the happiest days of my life." His mother, Gladys, said, "I'm very proud." A star-studded reception costing more than $1.7 million followed the ceremony. John and Furnish made no remarks as they exited the hall. Nearly 700 other same-sex couples registered Dec. 21 as well. Same-sex couples have access to full marriage in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Massachusetts. South Africa's highest court recently legalized same-sex marriage but gave legislators one year to make the necessary legal adjustments. Partnership or civil-union laws that grant registered same-sex couples some, most or all rights and obligations of marriage are in force in Andorra, the Australian state of Tasmania, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. states of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey and Vermont. LATVIA BANS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga signed legislation amending the nation's constitution to ban same-sex marriage Dec. 21. The measure passed Parliament 65 to 6 with 9 abstentions on Dec. 15. Latvia already had a law prohibiting Gays from marrying but conservative politicians feared it might not stand up to challenges from the European Union. The European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association denounced the amendment. "As an EU member state, Latvia is acting contradictory to and disrespectfully to the principles of equality and non-discrimination agreed and confirmed by various EU treaties," said Executive Director Patricia Prendiville. "Not only has Latvia now a discriminatory constitutional provision motivated solely by homophobia, but Latvia is still the only EU member state which did not ban sexual orientation discrimination in employment as required by the EU employment equality directive." CZECH LOWER HOUSE PASSES PARTNERSHIP BILL The Czech Republic's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, voted 86 to 54 in favor of a same-sex registered-partnership law Dec. 16. Seven deputies abstained and 53 were not present for the vote. The measure now moves to the possibly less-friendly Senate. If it passes there, it would advance to President Vaclav Klaus for his signature. If the Senate rejects the bill, the deputies could override the Senate with an absolute majority of 101 votes in the 200-member chamber. The legislation was favored by Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's Social Democrats and many Communists but opposed by the Christian Democrats, who are part of the three-party governing coalition. POLISH PARADE BAN WAS ILLEGAL An administrative court in Poznan, Poland, ruled Dec. 14 that Poznan Mayor Ryszard Grobelny's banning of November's Gay pride parade violated both Polish and European law. Grobelny had cited "security concerns" in blocking the march. Local media reports did not say what penalty Grobelny might face for the infraction. Despite the ban, a few hundred people marched anyhow. They were harassed by members of the group All Polish Youth, who shouted "Let's gas the fags" and "We'll do to you what Hitler did with Jews." Police intervened near the end of the march, roughed up several marchers, and arrested and interrogated more than 65, who were later released. TEL AVIV TO BUILD GAY COMMUNITY CENTER The city of Tel Aviv has approved spending $900,000 to establish an official Gay and Lesbian community center. The initial outlay will be used to renovate a building to house the center. The city also committed to spending $67,000 a year to fund the facility. The funding is structured so that future city administrations cannot cancel it. The project was spearheaded by City Councilor Itai Pinkas, who told Ynetnews: "By building this center, Tel Aviv joins an honorable club of advanced cities like New York, Los Angeles and Paris. I thank the mayor, who was a full partner in the initiative and understood the community's needs. ... This municipal building is designated to serve as the place where the community members will find the core of their lives." The center will offer, among other things, exhibitions, cultural events, concerts, workshops, classes, health services, HIV support groups, youth groups, legal aid, social services, a library and a kindergarten. CHINESE POLICE SHUT DOWN GAY FESTIVAL Police shut down the first Beijing Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival as it opened Dec. 16, saying organizers had failed to secure permission to hold the events. The festival initially was scheduled for the Factory 798 arts complex in the Dashanzi area of Beijing. But on Dec. 14, the Public Security Bureau banned the organizers from that site. The organizing committee, some of whose members reported police surveillance, then moved the festival to the private On/Off bar, which police raided as the festival kicked off. The officers reportedly ripped down signs and decorations, videotaped attendees and closed the bar for a week. The festival was to feature three days of exhibitions, seminars, plays and movies. |
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