Issue 52 Volume 37
Celebrating 36 Years!
UGANDA p. 5
A SINGLE MAN p. 28
HONDURAS p. 7
Seattle Gay News
FRIDAY December 25, 2009 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands
SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
MEXICO CITY APPROVES Marlon Reis The first Gay Congressional spouse FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY SGN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Adam Tow / tow.com
Marlon Reis
by Scott Rice SGN Contributing Writer I met Marlon Reis in a writing workshop at the University of Colorado. I believe it was the spring semester of 2001. He was a shy, skinny 19-year-old with pretty skin, sweet eyes, and big feet. He had a profound proclivity for
Mexico City’s Legislative Assembly became the first legislative body in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage on Monday, December 21. The bill changes the definition of marriage in the city’s Civil Code. Marriage is currently defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new definition will be “the free uniting of two people.” The new law also allows samesex couples to adopt children, apply for bank loans together, inherit each other’s property, and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse. While Mexico City passed a same-sex civil union law in December 2006, these rights were denied to same-sex couples. The bill passed easily, 39-20, to the cheers of supporters who yelled: “Yes, we could! Yes, we could!” “We are so happy,” said Temistocles Villanueva, a 23-year-old film student who celebrated by kissing his boyfriend in front of the Assembly’s offices. Assembly member Victor Romo called it a historic day. “For centusee reis page 20 ries, unjust laws banned marriage
Victorian literature and Cher. We became friends and later edited CU’s undergrad literary journal together. I’ve always had Marlon’s e-mail address in my contacts, and we’d catch up intermittently. About a year ago, we exchanged our usual semiregular biennial e-mails. Marlon wrote saying, “You’ll never guess what I’m doing.” He was correct. I would never have imagined that the skinny, shy kid who wrote like Edgar Allan Poe and listened to Cher would land in the political spotlight as the partner of Jared Polis, the first openly Gay candidate for, and eventual member of, the U.S. House of Representatives. Marlon has become the political poster boy and trailblazing pioneer of the marriage equality debate. He is smack in the middle of Washing-
Prop 8 federal trial update Ludovic Bertron
by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer On December 16, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said he expects to keep a trial challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage on track for January 11, 2010. Walker will preside over a no-jury trial, expected to last several weeks, of a lawsuit in which two same-sex couples claim the
marriage ban violates their federal constitutional rights. California voters enacted the prohibition in 2008. The ban, known as Proposition 8, amended the state Constitution and made same-sex marriage illegal. The years-long series of court cases based on the issue came to an end on May 26 when California Supreme Court ruled that voters, in approving Prop. 8, had the power
to amend the state document to prohibit same-sex marriage. Proposition 8 added the words “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” to the state Constitution. Kristen Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkley and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillio of Burbank filed the federal lawsuit in May. The Gay and Lesbian couples’ highprofile attorneys, Theodore Olson and David Boise, will argue that Proposition 8 violates their federal constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. “We’re ready,” Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general, said at a news conference following the December 16 pretrial hearing. “It’s obvious that our opponents and the judge are very well-prepared.” The lawsuit has garnered the public’s attention, in that it takes a new tack in legal battles over Gay marriage by centering on the U.S. Constitution. In the past, the merits of same-sex marriage have been argued as a separation between church and state or on the grounds of morality. Olson and Boise are saying Gay marriage is a 14th Amendment issue, and seek
reuters
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
rattles D.C. just by showing up
Gay rights activists cheer the vote
between blacks and whites or In- and state legislature for a metrodians and Europeans,” he said. politan area of almost 9 million “Today, all barriers have disap- people, is controlled by the leftist peared.” The Mexico City Legislative Assembly, a combination city council see mexico page 19
Love Takes Over targets newspapers to promote marriage equality
by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer
Love Takes Over, a nationwide initiative which calls on citizens to write to their local newspapers about marriage equality during the week of January 3-9, is gearing up for a campaign that its organizers say could make a difference in the way people talk about same-sex marriage. The articles are being coordinated to hit newspapers during the same week all around the nation. College students on winter break are encouraged to write their hometown newspapers and submit a piece to their campus newspaper at the start of the 2010, say the activists behind Love Takes Over. “The idea behind Love Takes see prop 8 page 19 Over is simple,” Jen Dugan,
proud to Be Different
We are conveniently located on-site at Lifelong AIDS Alliance below the Thrift Store.
founder and coordinator of Love Takes Over, told SGN. “One week. One unified voice. Everyone will take over America’s local newspapers to get people talking about marriage equality across the entire country at the same time.” Love Takes Over came about as a response to the astronomical cost of the same-sex marriage fight in America. Dugan says in California alone, $83 million was spent on Proposition 8. And yet, she said, there was a news article this year reporting that the governor of California had to cut funding for domestic violence shelters because the state is in an economic crisis. “Opponents of marriage equality were willing to come together and shell out millions to prevent samesee lto page 19
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