Oregon Passes Gay Equal Rights Law
Passage Of Second Bill Creating Same-Sex Domestic Partnerships Also Expected
Salem - Oregon’s Gay and lesbian residents won a victory more than three decades in the making April 19 when the state’s Legislature passed a law protecting them from discrimination in housing, work and public places.
  Oregon is now the 18th state to adopt a law protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination. According to National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman, equal rights protection for gay and lesbian people now covers more than half the U. S. Population.
  The neighboring state of California has a similar anti-discrimination law. Washington’s went into effect last year. The passage also comes just weeks after Wisconsin - the first state in the country to pass such legislation - quietly celebrated the 25th anniversary of its equal rights law.
  The Oregon Senate passed the bill 19-7 just days after it cleared the House. At Quest’s deadline, Governor Ted Kulongoski had said he would sign it into law.
  The law bans discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, the workplace and public places such as restaurants and theaters. It defines sexual orientation as “an individual’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or gender identity.”
  Melissa Chernaik, spokeswoman for Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s largest gay-rights group, was pleased with the bill’s passage. “There are a lot of Oregonians who feel a lot better about living in the state today,” she told The Oregonian.
  Opponents had argued the law was not needed, using the oft-repeated so-called “special rights for gays” rhetoric and claimed the legislation might be used to trigger cases that might question such as what constitutes discrimination against cross-dressers. “We can only hope that years from now, it will not be viewed as problematic by the majority of Oregonians,” Nick Graham, spokesman for the Oregon Family Council, a “nonprofit Christian” group.
  Legislators had amended the bill to make an exemption for religious organizations more explicit prior to passage. The exemption allows a “bona fide church or other religious institution” that has religious conflicts with homosexuality to decline hiring or serving gays and lesbians. The amendment clarifies that the exemption applies to work in a school, hospital or church camp “closely connected with or related to the primary purpose of the church or institution.”
This would include jobs relating to “clergy, religious instructors and support staff,” and to a nonprofit religious school, camp, day-care center, thrift store, bookstore, radio station or shelter, the amendment says.
  “They broadened it out quite a bit,” Oregon Family Council political director Tim Nashif said. He added that the council still opposed the law and was weighing whether to challenge the bill by collecting 55,179 signatures of registered voters and putting the measure on the November 2008 ballot. If it is not challenged, the law will go into effect January 1, 2008.
  Several other fringe groups oppose the new law. The Voice of Oregon Youth, a group of hundreds of young people associated with Slavic churches in one part of the state, lobbied against the bill. The Constitution Party of Oregon, whose members hold no elected offices in the state, issued a statement condemning state legislators for “passing special rights to homosexuals.”
  Lobbyist Stephen Kafoury of Portland, along with one-time Portland mayor Vera Katz, first introduced an anti-discrimination bill in 1973 when both were members of the Oregon House. He was jubilant about the bill’s passage. “I feel vindicated and gratified,” Kafoury said. “I just wish it could have happened a long time ago.”
  The Oregon Senate soon will take up a second bill that would create legal domestic partnership contracts, giving gays and lesbian couples benefits similar to those of marriage. That bill has passed in the House, is expected to pass the Senate and also be signed by Kulongoski.

New Hampshire On Verge Of Civil Unions
Governor Backs Bill Expected To Pass This Week
Concord - New Hampshire is on the verge of becoming the fifth state in the United States to adopt legislation providing broad-based legal recognition for same-sex couples, similar to that granted to heterosexual couples by civil marriage.
  Governor John Lynch has announced that he will sign legislation establishing civil unions for gay couples in New Hampshire. “I believe it is a matter of conscience, fairness and preventing discrimination,” Lynch said April 19.
  Lynch had previously declined to take a public position on civil unions, though he has supported expanding health benefits to same-sex partners of state workers. The governor had come under fire from both sides for not weighing in, especially after a recent delay of the Senate vote on the House-passed bill.
  The Senate is to vote the week of April 23, and Lynch said he is confident the legislation will pass. It would authorize civil unions beginning next year.
  New Hampshire would become the fourth state to adopt civil unions, following Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey. Massachusetts established gay marriage.

Dane County Board Balks At Protest Oath
Move Comes Two Days After Madison Council Uses Similar Statement Opposing New Gay Nups Ban
Madison -  The Dane County Board of Supervisors on April 19 briefly considered then balked at creating an optional protest statement against the recently passed gay marriage and civil union amendment that could have been read while taking oath of office.
 Supervisors appeared to be uneasy in their desire to show support for gay peoples’ civil rights while still pledging to uphold the state constitution. The board voted to send the oath of office protest resolution back to committee, a move that typically kills such initiatives.
  Openly gay Madison  Supervisor Kyle Richmond of Madison had supported the protest but agreed to send the plan back to committee. “People were for the protest statement but didn’t want to be against the constitution,” he told the Capital Times. “”This resolution makes people take sides.”
  The resolution had followed a similar protest statement recently enacted by the Madison City Council. Half the members of that body and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz signed a supplemental statement in taking their oaths of office on April 17. The statement denounced the state’s new constitutional ban on gay civil unions and marriage in the first protest of its kind in the nation.
  A number of supervisors went on record showing support for equal rights for all people, but didn’t want to go on record that they won’t support the constitution. “This constitutional amendment leaves a group of people out,” Madison Supervisor Dorothy Wheeler said. “They feel like second-class citizens.”
  However fellow Madison Supervisor Ruth Ann Schoer of Madison wanted to vote “no” on the resolution , not because she approves of the constitutional amendment but to show that when an elected official takes an oath, they take it for the entire constitution rather than choosing only the parts they prefer. “If we open this door for protesting part of the constitution, I can think of twenty things in it that drive me up the wall, that I might want to protest about,” Schoer said.
  Supervisors supported alternatives to the resolution such as letters from supervisors to state leaders. “We agree with the solidarity against the amendment, but we might just use a different vehicle to express it,”  County Board Chair Scott McDonell said. “We’ll try to put something together that has everyone’s support and we won’t have something that doesn’t have the votes.”
  One significant opponent of the Madison council protest, openly gay alder Eli Judge, also made county supervisors think twice about the protest. “You don’t like messing with the oath,” McDonell added. “Eli’s position did have an effect on the County Board.”

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Connecticut Clergy Rally For Gay Marriage Bill
Hartford - Thirty clergy members from across the state of Connecticut made a symbolic march on the Capitol April 19  in an attempt to increase pressure on lawmakers to approve a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry.
  For the Rev. Mary Anne Osborn the event was about putting a human face on the controversy, which is keeping her from marrying her longtime partner. Osborn, who is an associate pastor at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield, said she and the Rev. Joanne Neel-Richard have not participated in a civil union because they’ve taken steps on their own to ensure legal protections on inheritance, power of attorney, hospital visitation and other issues. “We are waiting to be married,” the 55 year-old Osborn said following a morning press conference on the Capitol’s third floor. “We’ve been together for 24 years and simply want the same dignity and opportunity afforded others.”
  Neel-Richard said she hoped her now 7-month-old granddaughter, Avery, will grow up with gay marriage as a right - and discrimination against committed same-sex couples a matter of history, similar to 80 years since women won the right to vote and the era of racially separated water fountains. “Throughout the Jewish and Christian scriptures, God is depicted as turning away from legalistic obedience, empty festivals and self-righteous, willful, religious behaviors,” Neel-Richard said. “Instead, God is found yearning for a people who will promote justice and live with compassion.”
  On April 12, the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted 27-15 to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Despite opposition from Governor M. Jodi Rell, it is on the calendar of the House of Representatives. The General Assembly’s deadline is June 6.
  Gay activists said the two-year-old civil union law falls short of the benefits enjoyed by married couples.
  Last month, hundreds of Roman Catholics from the state rallied at the Capitol to tell lawmakers to reject the gay civil marriage legislation. The clergy participating in the April 19  march, who represented a variety of faiths except Muslim and Roman Catholic, held a prayer breakfast in the nearby First Presbyterian Church, then walked to the Capitol for the news conference.
  The Rev. Joshua M. Pawelek, a Unitarian minister who is chairman of the 200-member Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality, said the issue is simply a matter of equality and justice. “While we respect the right of all religious institutions to make their own decisions and practice their own traditions regarding religious marriage, we do not think there is any place for discrimination in the civil-marriage laws,” he said. “We are here today to say to Governor Rell, if and when this bill comes before you, we expect you will reconsider your intention to veto it,” Pawelek said. “Please think of the lives -  not only the couples, but their children -  you will enhance. Please consider going down in history as the first governor in the United States to say yes to marriage justice for gay and lesbian families.”
  “Marriage is a blessing,” Rabbi Kim H. Blumenthal said. “When any two people find each other and choose to spend their lives together, the union should not only be recognized, but celebrated.”
  “It is time for us to do the right thing, to answer the clarion call for justice in our state and extend marriage equality to include all God’s people,” Rev. Ronald B. Brown said. Brown is the associate conference minister for clergy concerns in the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Worldwide Survey: 1 In 4 Don’t Want Gay Neighbors
Brisbane - One household in four would prefer their neighbors not be gay - unless you’re a Swede. That’s the result of a recently published three year study completed by John Mangan, professor of economics at the University of Queensland here.
  Mangan is co-author of Love Thy Neighbor: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries?, a paper interpreting statistics from the Human Beliefs and Values Survey, conducted in 24 Western countries between 1999 and 2002. The study was co-authored by Professor Vani Borooah of the University of Ulster in Scotland.
  According to the study, 22.3% of New Zealanders would not like gay or lesbian people as neighbors. 24.7% of Australians said they didn’t want gays living next door either.
  However, the results showed anti-gay prejudice was by no means confined to Mangan’s neighbors.  The “down under” figures were exceeded by survey respondents in Austria (26.7%), Greece (26.8%), the Republic of Ireland (27.5%) Italy (28.7%) and Portugal (25.6%). Northern Ireland topped the list with 36% saying they did not want gay neighbors.
  The least prejudiced nationality in the survey was Sweden, where only 6% said they would object.
  “The conclusion is the most prevalent form of bigotry is homophobia. It’s everybody except Scandinavians, so it’s not a particularly Australian thing,” the professor said.
  Racial and ethnic prejudice were also explored by the researchers. Italians topped the list of those who didn’t want a different race next door with 15.6% objecting.
The Northern Irish held the strongest views on immigrants and foreign workers, with 19% saying they were not desirable neighbors. In Mangam’s home country of Australia only 4.6% of people saying they would not like people of a different race as neighbors and 4.5% objecting to immigrants or foreign workers next door.
  Mangan believes that the reasons the various national attitudes evolved would be the subject of further research. Factors influencing bigotry included income, employment, education levels and political leanings. “Tolerance seems to rise with education more than anything else,” he said. “But you can have quite wealthy people who are older and probably have less formal education who tend to have more fixed beliefs.”

VIRIP: A Human Blood Protein May Mean RIP For HIV
Ulm, Germany - German researchers have discovered the path to a potential new AIDS drug with the isolation of a small protein circulating in human blood that blocks multiple strains of HIV, even those resistant to existing medications.  The naturally-occurring anti-HIV factor - a chain of twenty amino acids known as a peptide - interferes with a feature on the surface of the AIDS virus that otherwise allows the virus to penetrate the membrane of cells it is about to infect, a process known as fusion.
  University of Ulm researcher Frank Kirchhoff and colleagues found the peptide in the residue left in filters used by kidney dialysis patients to cleanse their blood. These filtrates have proved to be a rich source of biological agents because they are derived from high volumes of blood carrying an astonishing variety of peptides, proteins and other factors whose functions are often unknown.
  “The big advantage of this source is that it is available in huge quantities,’’ Kirchhoff said in a telephone interview from Germany. In addition to toxins and waste material strained from blood, the dialysis filtrates contain more than a million molecules.
  In his study describing the peptide was released April 19 by the  medical journal Cell, Kirchhoff called the newly discovered factor VIRIP, and claimed that it was shown in test-tube studies to inhibit sixty strains of HIV.
  After discovering the peptide’s anti-HIV properties, the researchers began to tinker with it. By changing just two amino acids, they increased its antiviral potency a hundredfold, Kirchhoff said.    That peptide, which can be manufactured in a lab, has been licensed to a German biotech company, Viro Pharmaceuticals GmbH, whose scientific director is a co-author of the paper.
  The German company is conducting animal studies of VIRIP to determine if it is safe to test in humans. “So far, the results look promising,’’ Kirchhoff said, although it will take five or more years of success in animal and human clinical trials before the drug could be ready to market.   
  However, since the 1980s, dozens of AIDS drug candidates that performed well in initial studies have failed to pass muster in rigorous and large-scale trials though VIRIP might be an exception to that rule.
  Dr. Warner Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology in San Francisco, said that this particular drug candidate stands out because it was gleaned from human blood.   “I thought it was a masterful piece of work,’’ he said. “They’ve identified a naturally occurring peptide that has antiviral activity, then they figured out how it works.’’

McGreevey Divorce Gets Ugly
Trenton - The nation’s first openly gay governor exposed his preschooler to erotic and inappropriate artwork, showing that he is a poor judge of what a 5-year-old should see, his estranged wife said in divorce papers filed April 19.
  Dina Matos McGreevey fired back at former Gov. James E. McGreevey in a harshly worded, 18-page response to his recent divorce filing in Union County Superior Court. Matos McGreevey now seeks legal and primary residential custody of their only child, Jacqueline.
  In the papers, McGreevey’s wife of four years denies being homophobic and disputes her husband’s contention that her “seemingly irrational fears” about his sexual orientation could cost him time with the child.
  The McGreeveys’ increasingly contentious divorce comes as Matos McGreevey prepares to release a tell-all book on May 1 about her marriage to the gay governor.
  McGreevey, 49, penned his own memoir, released last year. McGreevey launched his national book tour on the Oprah Winfrey show, and his wife is following suit, with an interview scheduled for publication date.
  When McGreevey filed for divorce in February, he said the couple had resolved custody issues. Matos McGreevey now counters that no such agreement had been made. The former governor has filed revised complaints seeking joint custody and a parenting coordinator to help settle visitation disputes.
  “Unfortunately, divorces are contentious by nature, if not painful,” McGreevey said. “I believe Dina and I want to serve the best interests of Jacqueline. Hopefully, with the court’s assistance, we’ll come to an amicable resolution.”
   Matos McGreevey’s papers slam the man she married when he was a rising Democratic political star, claiming he had little time for his baby daughter while he was running the state.
  Matos McGreevey also charges the former governor did not bother to meet his wife at a hospital emergency room after the toddler had fallen and cut her chin in 2003. “We were there [at the hospital] between five and six hours,” Matos McGreevey said in the complaint. “Plaintiff never even came to the hospital even though he passed not too far away en route to a Democratic Party function” that night.
  A practicing Roman Catholic, Matos McGreevey appears especially concerned about Jacqueline’s exposure to her father’s living arrangement. He and partner Mark O’Donnell, an Australian money manager, share a home in Plainfield with two dogs and two cats.
  In the motion, she seeks to prohibit Jacqueline from again seeing the “life-size photograph of a nude male model” by artist Richard Renaldi. McGreevey and his partner took down the photo from the master bedroom of their home, Matos McGreevey says, but only after she threatened to withhold visitation.
  “If plaintiff truly believes that it was appropriate for his ‘little girl’ - to use his description of our child - to be viewing the photograph in question, then he should bring the photograph to court so that the court can make its own judgment,” she wrote.
  Matos McGreevey also wants to make sure the child does not share a bed with McGreevey and his mate. “This situation is very different from our child getting in bed with me - there is never anyone else, male or female, in my bed,” she wrote. “It is one thing for children to sleep with parent or parents,” Matos McGreevey added. “It is quite another for children to sleep with a parent and a third party.”
  McGreevey’s ex also accuses her husband of not shouldering his share of the child’s $995 per month preschool tuition, and of exposing her to the media during his book tour. She calls him hypocritical for seeking to bar the child from participating in her book promotion, and asks for the record pertaining to the child to be sealed for her protection.

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