Singular Heroic Efforts to Gay Legacies
Ulash Rana


I heard somewhere that it is foolish to make a singular heroic effort in a war because you will surely be killed and your cause will be lost. Very logical indeed!

But just being what you are can be a singular feat of heroic effort for a gay person! But again, the above logic holds very true when the death of Matthew Sheperd comes back vividly into a lone gay persons mind.

Every normal day is a war for a gay person in which he/she stands alone against the normal society. Hence, “singular heroic effort” does apply to every single gay person who is out of the closet.

That “singular heroic effort” can be magnified several times fold for the visible group of gay men known as “metas” (male cross-dressers in Nepal). One of the despicable acts of human hate crimes that I came across was when I read Mr. Sunil Babu Pant’s (Chairman of the Blue Diamond Society) article, “Gay Resolution”in the June 2004 Issue of the Wave Magazine in which he gave an earth shattering example about 2 metas being raped by more than 10 policemen and left to die, and worst no justice done to the offenders, who ironically were policemen, the enforcers of the law!


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Court sets date on gay marriage appeals
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES


OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Supreme Court will hear the appeal March 8 of cases from King and Thurston counties backing gay marriage.

In recent months, judges in those two counties have struck down prohibitions on same-sex marriages.

Gay and lesbian couples won their first step toward being able to legally wed in Washington state Aug. 4, when Superior Court Judge William Downing called it "a fundamental right" for people to be able to marry whomever they want.


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Topeka passes version of ordinance banning discrimination against gays
Associated Press


TOPEKA, Kan. - The Topeka City Council on Tuesday night approved a version of an ordinance making it illegal for the city to discriminate in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.

Council members voted 5-4 to approve the ban. City attorney Brenden Long said the measure affects the city of Topeka's hiring practices and not the public at large. He said Shawnee County commissioners passed a similar measure last year.

The council initially considered a proposal that would have inserted the terms "sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression" into sections of city code that ban discrimination based on other reasons, such as race, gender or disability.