Now published every other week!
October 30, 2006 Volume 15, Issue 14
www.stonewallnews.net Serving the GLBTQA Community of the Pacific Northwest since 1992
Decadence & dance
Inaugural Odyssey Masquerade Ball raises funds and visibility for needed GLBTQA youth center
Photo by Northern Exposures Photography
Photo by Pat Devine
THIS ISSUE
Photo Above Left: Michael Wernz and Michael Nestor pose at the Ball. Nestor later won the award for Best Hand Made Costume (Nestor made both costumes). Photo Above: Masquerade Ball partiers celebrate to the sound of Milonga Band at CenterStage.
SPOKANE, WA - The GLBTQA 21 and over crowd regaled each other with laughter and celebration Oct. 28 as they enjoyed great food and rocked to the jazzy Latin dance music of Nicolas Vigil’s Milonga Band at CenterStage. Milonga means “party & dance” as translated from Spanish... and dance we
EMCC Rebuilds Newly appointed Pastor, Wayne Shull, talks with Stonewall. | Page 4 Anything But Straight............................7 Arts & Entertainment...........................10 Business Directory . ..............................15 Calendar....................................................18 Classifieds.................................................17
National / International ......................13 Odyssey Masquerade Photos....... 2, 10 Politicklers..................................................5 Resource Directory................................16 Reviews & Previews .............................11 Spokane......................................................2 Spokane Map..........................................19 Voices...........................................................3
Fly your Flags on Fridays!
biggest bribe. Costume awards ranged from the Most Humorous to the Best Group Costume to the Best Costume Part. (Use your imagination for this one.) The goals for this event were to raise Please see MASQUERADE page 15 Additional PHOTOS on pages 2 & 12
N.J. grants equality New Jersey Supreme Court Rules SameSex Couples Deserve Equal Rights as Married Heterosexuals By Troy Espera , GayWired.com
Joe’s Eve of Civilization..........................6 Leaders in Gay History...........................8
did! Costumed figures galore tore up the floor to the lively first-rate entertainment that helped make a great success of the inaugural Odyssey Masquerade Ball. Merrymakers engaged in friendly competition for costume prizes, The Best Costume that Money Can Buy going to the contestant who gave the judges the
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday that same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights as married heterosexuals and left it to the legislature to decide on the name to be given to such unions. “The court does not consider whether committed same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, but only whether those couples are entitled to the same rights and benefits afforded to married heterosexual couples,” the justices wrote in their decision, reports Reuters. Massachusetts is the only state in the U.S. that recognizes marriages between people of the same sex. Fifteen states have passed constitutional amendments
banning such unions. New Jersey is one of only five states with no such statutory or constitutional ban. “The issue is not about the transformation of the traditional definition of marriage, but about the unequal dispensation of benefits and privileges to one of two similarly situated classes of people,” the court said in its 4-3 ruling, reports the Associated Press. According to Reuters, the state high court in Trenton was ruling on claims by seven same-sex couples seeking to wed. The suit, filed in 2002, reached the court last year after a lower appeals court ruled 21 that gay marriage isn’t recognized under the New Jersey constitution. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that a ban on same-sex
marriage violated the state constitution. The following year, the same court ruled that only full marriage rights for gay couples would satisfy constitutional requirements. The state doesn’t extend marriage rights to same-sex couples living outside the state. Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, who is retiring from the New Jersey court today, dissented from the majority, saying that gay couples have the “fundamental right to participate in a state- sanctioned civil marriage,” reports Reuters. State lawmakers in New Jersey passed a domestic partnership law in 2004 that grants gay couples some of the same rights available to married couples, including pension and health coverage for partners of state employees. Until the Massachusetts court’s ruling, only Vermont extended similar benefits to same-sex couples.