Ammiano to pen memoir
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Out Lutheran bishop named
ARTS
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21 see page 9
Rhino Season
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 43 • No. 32 • August 8-14, 2013
Obama blasts Russian anti-gay law City ponders bathhouse P rules by David-Elijah Nahmod
by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco officials and community members are trying to determine whether gay bathhouses should be allowed after an absence of nearly three decades. Most such businesses shut down almost 30 years ago, as the AIDS epidemic raged. In 1984, a San Francisco Superior Court judge issued an injunction forcing several bathhouse owners to remove doors from private rooms and have staff monitor patrons to ensure they were practicing safe sex. The order was to remain in place until the city’s public health director declared the AIDS epidemic over. Virtually all of the clubs closed rather than comply with the rules, but one city official noted this week that bathhouses themselves were never banned. The Castro neighborhood sex club Eros, which has offered a steam room and sauna for years, is applying for a bathhouse permit, but one of the owners has no desire to add private rooms. The city’s handling of gay bathhouses has come to the forefront in recent weeks as many straight-oriented massage parlors and spas have sought bathhouse permits. The decision on whether to allow private rooms – which is what makes a bathhouse a bathhouse for many gays – rests with Health Director Barbara Garcia. In response to a request to interview Garcia, Health Department spokeswoman Eileen Shields said in an email that Garcia “has assigned staff to look at the issue and once they have reported back to her, we should have something substantive to say. We know this is an issue of concern to many members of the community.” Local gay activist and blogger Michael Petrelis, who’s been pushing for bathhouses to be allowed, recently reported on his Petrelis Files blog that Garcia told him she would give staff until Saturday, August 10 to come up with a statement. Asked about allowing private rooms and not requiring monitors, Dr. Tomás Aragón, San Francisco’s health officer, said in a Wednesday, August 7 interview that health officials are reviewing how the minimum standards established in the late 1990s were developed. He said staff also “met yesterday with a UCSF researcher to look at the evidence to see whether we believe there might be any evidence one way or another about the impact of the minimum standards.” Aragón said those guidelines “were developed with a lot of input from the community. We feel that changing the minimum standards without involving the community would not be the best thing to do.” See page 15 >>
resident Barack Obama this week weighed in on Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law, saying that he has “no patience” for countries that treat gays in ways that are harmful. The comments came as condemnation of Russia’s new anti-gay law continues to escalate around the world as activists, athletes, and others count down to February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. The president made his remarks in front of a national television audience Tuesday, August 6 during an appearance on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Obama was responding to Leno’s question about how shocked he was at the sudden turn against gays in Russia. “I mean, this seems like Germany,” Leno said, according to a White House transcript. “Let’s round up the Jews, let’s round up the gays, let’s round up the blacks. I mean, it starts with that. You round up people who you don’t – I mean, why is not more of the world outraged at this?” “Well, I’ve been very clear that when it comes to universal rights, when it comes to people’s basic freedoms, that whether you are discriminating on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, you are violating the basic morality that I think should tran-
Rick Gerharter
Trey Allen, right, and other protesters shout “Shame!, Shame!, Shame!” at the Russian Consulate Saturday, August 3 during a demonstration against the new anti-gay propaganda law and anti-gay violence in Russia.
scend every country,” Obama said. “And I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”
Obama also mentioned his recent trip to Africa, where he said some countries persecute gays. See page 17 >>
Ecuadorian couple launches marriage equality campaign
by Heather Cassell
L
esbian activist Pamela Troya and her partner, Gabriela Correa, filed an application to marry at a civil registrar in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito this week to kick off the Red LGBTI campaign to win marriage equality. The couple expects that their application will be rejected, setting them up to launch a legal challenge to the country’s constitutional samesex marriage ban. This isn’t Troya’s first challenge against Ecuador’s marriage ban, reported BuzzFeed. Troya, who heads the group Equal Rights Now, made headlines when she got into a Twitter fight with Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa over same-sex marriage in May. Ecuador’s marriage equality campaign launched the same time the first same-sex couples began getting married in Uruguay on Monday, August 5. The activists are hopeful that the campaign will be successful, with other South American countries ringing wedding bells for same-sex couples.
First marriages begin in Uruguay
Meanwhile, in Uruguay, same-sex couples lined up to get married. The first couple to tie the knot was producer
Courtesy www.andes.info.ec
Gabriela Correa and Pamela Troya exchange rings after registering to marry in Quito, Ecuador.
Sergio Miranda and artist Rodrigo Borda, who have been partners for 14 years. “This is a historic day for us and for the country,” Borda told the Associated Press. “No longer will there be first- and second-class citi-
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zens. This will be seen in many countries where this option still isn’t possible, and hopefully help people in those places live more freely.” See page 15 >>