Issue 10 Volume 42
Celebrating 41 Years!
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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Pope OKs civil unions, maybe Christopher Furlong / Getty
Pope Francis
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Pope Francis said in an interview published March 5 that the Catholic Church might support civil unions, but same-sex marriage is still off the table.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the Pope contradicted previous Vatican assertions that he did not support any legal recognition for same-sex couples. “[M]arriage is between a man and a woman,” the Pope insisted,
but he also added that “We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety.” The comment was “the first time a Pope has indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions,” Catholic News Service said. Both the National Catholic Re-
porter, a liberal-leaning American Catholic publication, and the New York Times have reported that Francis supported civil unions as an alternative to samesex marriage in 2010, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. In the interview, the Pope acknowledged that civil unions could provide legal and financial security to couples, “as for instance in medical care.” In January, Francis recalled a little girl in Buenos Aires who told her teacher that she was sad because “my mother’s girlfriend doesn’t like me.” “The situation in which we live now provides us with new challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand,” the Pope told a conference of religious orders, adding that the church “must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them.” Vatican officials later denied that those comments signaled an opening toward same-sex unions. Francis also signaled that he might be less rigid on the subject of contraception than his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
While the Pope praised Pope Paul VI for having the “courage” to “go against the majority” when he reaffirmed the ban on birth control in 1968, he added that the church must also be “merciful” and “attentive to concrete situations.” Contraception and the church’s ban on divorced Catholics receiving holy communion, will likely be addressed at major meetings of Catholic bishops in Rome in 2014 and 2015. “We must give a response. But to do so, we must reflect much in depth,” the Pope said in the interview. In the interview, Francis also tried to deflate his rock star image. “To paint the Pope as a sort of Superman, a kind of star, seems offensive to me,” he said. “The Pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps soundly and has friends like everyone else. A normal person.” The Pope specifically denied the urban legend that he sneaks out of the Vatican at night to feed the homeless. “It never occurred to me,” he said.
Hospice care at the AIDS Care Training and Support Initiative in South Africa
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer South African scientists announced on March 2 that they have discovered potent new HIV antibodies that might eventually lead to an effective vaccine against the disease. Researchers said they and their American colleagues had identified 12 closely related antibodies capable of recognizing and de-
stroying multiple strains of HIV. The research team was able to track their evolution over time and figure out how to replicate them through cloning in the laboratory. The antibodies were isolated from one specific volunteer subject known only as CAP256 to protect her identity, and tracked back in time over four years. Few research groups had access to such long time-series of blood
samples, which were housed by the Centre for AIDS Research in Africa (CAPRISA), according to Professor Lynn Morris. Morris is head of HIV virology at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), and co-author of a paper describing the research that was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The antibodies isolated from patient CAP256 had protruding “long arms,” which enabled them to reach through the sugar coating that normally protects HIV. The antibodies target a specific part of the HIV-1 strain, known as V1V2. The new research opens up two new lines of attack on HIV/ AIDS. First, the cloned antibodies would be investigated as a possible treatment or prevention tool for HIV/AIDS, and second, the knowledge gleaned about the antibodies’ evolution over time offered clues for future vaccine development. Morris said it might be possible to design a vaccine that elicited these kinds of antibodies. The research team is planning to test the antibodies in macaque monkeys, to see whether they could prevent
businesslawsw.com
AP / Denis Farrell
South African scientists discover 20 Republicans say marriage bans are new HIV antibodies unconstitutional
Byron White U.S. Courthouse - U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Twenty prominent Republicans filed an amicus brief March 3 urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down state bans on same-sex marriage. Among those signing the brief were former U.S. Senators Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas. The Tenth Circuit will soon hear cases from Utah and Oklahoma in see AFRICA page 16 which district courts have already
ruled that laws banning same-sex marriage violate the rights of Gay and Lesbian couples. The appeals court has scheduled hearings on the Utah and Oklahoma cases for April. If the Tenth Circuit upholds lower court rulings, same-sex marriage would effectively be legalized in states within the court’s jurisdiction – Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. see Republicans page 17