7th August, 2001 (# 4) News Clippings Digest.

1. MONTREAL GAZETTE Revitalized Gay Village is a happening place
(Mais bien sûr!)
2. MONTREAL GAZETTE Even after Divers/Cite, Gay Village keeps on
partying
3. SEATTLE TIMES Editorial: U.S. should follow Germany's lead and
recognize same-sex relationships
4. ARIZONA REPUBLIC Column: Immigration laws hurt gay pairs

Montreal Gazette, 7 August 2001
250 St. Antoine W., Montreal, Quebec, H2Y 3R7 Canada
(E-Mail: letters@... ) (
http://www.montrealgazette.com )
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/010807/5048546.html
Revitalized Gay Village a happening place
CHARLIE FIDELMAN, The Gazette
Montreal is a city of exciting and vibrant neighbourhoods.
This
week, The Gazette and Global TV News continue a joint project called
Hot
Neighbourhoods, in which we spotlight our choices.
We also want you to vote on what you think is the hottest
neighbourhood. Go to: www.montrealgazette.com/neighbourhoods
When friends suggest that the Gay Village might be less than
an ideal
neighbourhood for raising her two young boys, Genevieve Soly shrugs
and
replies that life is never perfect.
"It bothers me that they can't play ball in the park -- not
unsupervised," Soly admits. "But they walk to an excellent public
school in
LaFontaine Park. They also walk to local video stores and pet shops
to
visit live animals that they love.
"The inconveniences are far outweighed by the advantages."
Soly, her husband, Jean Letarte, and sons Arnaud, 11, and
Matthias,
9, go almost everywhere on foot from their home on de la Visitation
St.
Their family trips take them to the theatres, movies, parks and the
Old
Port.
"What was also really great for the kids was the Just for
Laughs
festival (on St. Denis St.). We went almost every night and this
year, for
the first time, the boys also went alone."
Soly says she and her husband, both musicians, appreciate
having the
Archambault music store, "a musicians' haven," in the inner-city
neighbourhood, as well as many round-the-clock businesses. "If I have
insomnia, I know I can go buy myself a Le Monde newspaper at one of
the
kiosks.
"I have the world right here, the liquor store, the grocer, the
florist, the library, the esthetician, the church, St. Jacques market
with
its fruit, vegetable and flower stalls. We buy our Christmas tree at
the
market -- nothing is missing."
It's midsummer and the Gay Village is packed with visitors
during the
fireworks competition. Regulars stake their spots under the Jacques
Cartier
Bridge while Village residents take in the shows from their rooftops
and
balconies.
You can't beat the view, Soly says from the back terrace of
their
second-floor home. It's hard to argue as a volley of fireworks
lights the
night sky over the bridge, throwing its steel girders into
silhouette, now
framed by gothic church spires.
"Where else can you see this? It's really magnificent," Soly
said, as
friends and neighbours crowd around the pink and blue flower boxes
dotting
her 15-metre-long terrace.
It's been 13 years since the couple moved into the
neighbourhood.
Why did they move here?
"Ah, to live in the heart of the action. We love it because
it's so
alive," explained Soly, a harpsichordist who walks to work when she
plays at
such concert halls like Place des Arts and Salle Pierre Mercure.
Life on the edge of downtown where "everything is literally a
10-to-15-minute walk" brought the couple to the Gay Village.
Revellers at the hopping bar scene -- straight, gay and
transvestite -- turn Ste. Catherine St. into an unofficial nightly
street
festival. It's part of the charm of the area, Soly says.
No one is startled by 6-foot-tall drag queens. And who on the
strip
hasn't seen Mado or Michelle or Jacklyn strut their stuff? It's party
central seven days a week.
Meantime, an unprecedented economic boom has pushed the
revitalization of Ste. Catherine St. E. all the way to the Jacques
Cartier
Bridge. Art galleries, chi-chi clothing and accessory boutiques,
book,
furniture, decor and antique shops vie for space with bistros and
discos;
dozens of upscale eateries dot the enclave, sending mouth-watering
food
aromas wafting over the neighbourhood.
"We eat out often and it's a real pleasure having so many good
restaurants right here," said Soly, mentioning the fashionable Au
Petit
Extra for its innovative cuisine. At lunch, most are crammed with
media
types from nearby Maison Radio-Canada, TVA, Tele-Quebec and
television-production houses.
Situated just east of downtown, residents believe it's only a
matter
of time before the rest of Montreal discovers the Village as the next
hot
spot, despite its nagging poverty, street prostitution and drug
problem.
(Last year, residents defeated a proposed city pilot project that
would have
permitted prostitutes to ply their trade in the area.)
If the hookers are still there, the junkies seem to have moved
north
to the Plateau Mont Royal because of police foot patrols; still,
residents
say life used to be tougher in the old days.
"Before it was gay it was full of rough street gangs," said
Gilles
Roberge, owner of a hair salon since 1972.
"Can't tell you how many times I had my front window shattered
in
street fights.
"They'd bring guns to get haircuts. You didn't walk here at
night.
You just didn't. Besides, there was nothing -- no fancy cafes, no
bistros,
no boutiques."
Today, commercial space on Ste. Catherine St. is at a premium.
An entire block is taken by the Bourbon Hotel complex with its
bistros and dance-club grottos spilling out to terraces and gazebos
overlooking a park.
"You can't find something to rent," said Bernard Rousseau,
owner of
Priape, the sex-toy mecca and grand-daddy of the gay shops, after
searching
for a location for his newly acquired L'Androgyne bookstore.
He settled on Amherst St., south of the St. Jacques outdoor
vegetable
market and Ecomusee du Fier Monde, a former bathhouse-turned-museum
that
pays homage to the area's working-class roots.
A restaurant near Panet St., a favourite with the senior and
itinerant crowd, still does a brisk business in 75-cent hot dogs. A
survivor of another time, it's nestled between two Chinese noodle
shops, a
liquor store that stays open till 11 p.m., a Mexican eatery and two
specialty cafes.
The factories are gone. The Carbon 14 theatre troupe now
occupies
the former jam factory at de la Visitation St. and Lalonde Ave.
With a little more improvement, the Village will become a
snazzy
extension of downtown, say merchants and politicians who are lobbying
for
upgrading.
Sammy Forcillo, independent city councillor for St. Jacques
and a
resident of the Gay Village for about 50 years, wants the city to
light up
some of the Village's architectural treasures, just like Old Montreal.
All this is a far cry from the bad old days.
"When I lived there, most of the apartments didn't even have
hot
running water," recalled Suzanne Girard, founder and director of
Divers/Cite, Montreal's gay-pride celebration.
Girard, a photographer, moved into the neighbourhood in the
mid-1970s, and fell in love with the area right away.
She spent her early days taking pictures of the neighbourhood's
spiraling staircases, mansard windows and rooftops, and courtyards
that
doubled as horse stables.
The gay bathhouses and cruising bars came in the 1980s, after
Mayor
Jean Drapeau "cleaned up" the western part of downtown to make way
for the
Olympics.
The Village has since undergone a renaissance and is
internationally
known as a tourist destination. Divers/Cite, with all its gay-pride
activities, brings a windfall of $40 million, according to Tourism
Montreal.
Today, it remains a neighbourhood of extremes. Seniors on
fixed
incomes, families on social assistance and single mothers in
subsidized
housing live alongside expensive renovated lodgings owned by
architects,
journalists, musicians and other professionals.
Gentrification has driven prices over the top, lamented
management-consultant Jerry Remillard.
A charming, red-brick fourplex he could see from his balcony
sold for
$229,000 last year. Today, it would fetch $300,000, said Remillard, a
Village resident for eight years.
"I regret not buying that one. I've looked at every property
that's
listed for the Village, and there's nothing at that price now," he
said.
New condos sprouted like mushrooms after the rain and more are
coming
up. But traditional, late 1800s triplexes that Remillard favours have
become scarce.
Condos are selling even before the foundations are dug. Pre-
sales
ads for a building on St. Hubert St., corner of Rene Levesque Blvd.,
are
asking $97,000 for a studio apartment to $370,000 for the penthouse.
"It's not like you're in the Old Port with a view of the
river," said
Yves Lafontaine, editor of Fugue, a magazine for gays. "But the area
has
become chic." The Centre Sud counted more than 340 condominiums
built last
year alone.
What's going on? Fugue just ran a story that says it best:
"Revitalisation du Village: Enfin le Boom!"
Despite the name, people who know the area tell you that only
about a
third of the Gay Village is gay. And they say the influx of
residents is
due to its proximity to downtown, not because of its gay lifestyle.
"It's close to everything -- shops, where I work, where I eat,
the
park," said computer analyst Sunnie Kim who invested in a new, two-
bedroom,
split-level condo on Montcalm St. near Ontario St. to share with her
elderly
mother.
"I walk to work and I love that. It is also quaint with many
small
restaurants and antique shops around. It surely beats the monotonous
suburban life.
"It reminds me of Soho in New York," said Kim, who lived
almost three
years in New York. Her mother enjoys being near LaFontaine Park,
where she
walks an hour a day.
The vibrant nightlife is an enticing part of the Village, but
the
area is also full of tree-lined residential side streets where church
bells
peal every morning.
Outsiders are finally discovering what many residents already
know:
that there's more to the Gay Village than the name implies. This is
a truly
"hot" neighbourhood for everyone, Soly says, "even children."
. Hot Neighbourhoods appears Tuesdays in The Gazette. Watch
Global
TV, cable 3, on Mondays at 5:30 p.m. for its report on Hot
Neighbourhoods.
This Morning Live will also carry a feature between 6:30 and 9 a.m. on
Tuesdays. View Global's video reports online at
www.montrealgazette.com/neighbourhoods or www.montreal.globaltv.com
. Charlie Fidelman's E-mail address is
cfidelma@...

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, including the Gay Village, at a glance
Vacancy rate 2000
- Two-bedroom apartment: 1.3%
- Average rent: $549
Vacancy rate 1996
- Two-bedroom apartment: 5%
- Average rent: $502
Average selling prices
June 2001 (Centre Sud)
- Single-family home: $270,000
- Condo: $137,000
- Plex: $198,000
Average selling prices
June 1996 (Centre Sud)
- Single-family home: $205,000
- Condo: $95,000
- Plex: $130,00
Rent/Own
- Number of dwellings rented: 19,430
- Number of dwellings owned: 3,260
Language spoken
- English: 10 %
- French: 84 %
- Other: 16 %
. Sources: Statistics Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corp.,
Greater Montreal Real Estate Board
. Note to Readers: We want your feedback on this week's Hot
Neighbourhood. Go to www.montrealgazette.com/neighbourhoods and tell
us what
you think of the neighbourhood and our story on it. Some of the
feedback
will be printed in The Gazette on Monday.


Montreal Gazette, 7 August 2001
250 St. Antoine W., Montreal, Quebec, H2Y 3R7 Canada
(E-Mail: letters@... ) (
http://www.montrealgazette.com )
Gay Village keeps on partying
MIKE BOONE, The Gazette
You were on a flatbed truck in the midday sun, with the
temperature
in the low 30s. You were buck naked except for a thong. You danced
non-stop, to deafening disco, for 2 1/2 hours.
And when the Divers/Cite parade finally reached Berri St., you
were
very thirsty.
So maybe you and a few other tanned, buff and dehydrated
dancers
hooked up with other celebrants at Sky Pub. The popular bar at the
southwest corner of Ste. Catherine St. and Alexandre de Seve St. was
post-parade party central in the Gay Village on Sunday night.
When I stopped by yesterday morning, Sky's owner, Montreal
realtor
Peter Sergakis, was tallying up the totals on an epic night of beer
consumption.
"It's like the day after a war," Sergakis said. Not that he's
complaining, because battle casualties kept Sky's cash registers
humming
late into the night.
The bar sold 150 barrels of beer on Sunday. Each barrel
yields about
300 drafts of beer, depending on who's pouring.
Do the math: 45,000 frosty glasses of the suds that soothe
sunstroke. And that's in addition to the bottled beer, wine and
whatever
guzzled by Sky's thirsty patrons.
Sergakis estimated that Sky used 10,000 pounds of ice on the
day of
the parade -- the output of the club's three basement ice-making
machines,
running non-stop, plus two supplemental truckloads of cubes.
Impressive -- but how's business on the 364 days when there's
no
parade?
Sergakis is betting Sky can rock 7 on 52. The owner has anted
up $5
million in extensive renovations that will turn the club into what he
thinks
will be the hottest nightspot in town.
He rattled off dollar stats -- $300,000 to renovate the
washrooms,
$15,000 for the interior wooden doors, $1 million for steel beams --
as he
led me on a whirlwind tour of the bar/resto that he's owned for 18
months.
When work is completed in November, Sky will feature nine separate
rooms and
40,000 square feet of floor space for eating, drinking and being
extremely
merry, even by the Gay Village's elevated standards of joie de vivre.
More stats: Sky's third-floor lounge has a ceiling nine
metres above
the dance floor. Renovations on the 80-year-old building have filled
125
dumpsters with debris -- and they're not done yet.
Sky has been a Village fixture for 15 years. What began as a
simple
bar -- one of a dozen lining that stretch of Ste. Catherine St. -- has
become a swank joint.
Sergakis pointed with pride to a bar top made of British
Columbia
fir -- a 14-metre length of the solid, beautifully grained wood,
protected
from beer-stein stains by 15 coats of varnish.
Designer Jean-Denis Leblanc likes wood and the natural
material gives
Sky's main floor a warm, welcoming look. On the upper levels, steel
girders
buttress floors that will absorb the pounding of 1,000 dancing feet.
As Sergakis led me sprinting up dimly lit staircases and
stepping
gingerly over flimsy plywood boards on the club's unfinished upper
floors, I
imagined a misstep and the resulting headline: Moderately Well-Known
Journalist Plunges to Death in Gay Bar.
The heart of the Gay Village may seem a bit off the beaten
track for
Montrealers accustomed to hoisting a few at a shopping mall Cheers.
But
Sergakis, who owns 15 bars and restaurants around town, thinks that
Sky
could become the epicentre of red-hot nightlife.
"I really believe in the potential of the Gay Village," he
said.
"This could be a lot bigger than Crescent St." Sergakis says the
Village
has the advantage of stretching for a ways along Ste. Catherine,
whereas the
popular places on Crescent are compressed into one block. He
believes that
the ambience of the Village makes it a natural tourist mecca.
"It's just a lot of fun here," he said. "Gays are peaceful,
non-violent people who like to party. Straight people come (to Sky)
and
they really enjoy themselves."
The morning-after Village could have used a good hosing down
yesterday. The streets were littered with plastic beer cups, half-
eaten
pizza slices and crushed Styrofoam takeout containers.
But at 10:30 a.m., shirtless patrons were sipping beer and
dancing in
the first-floor window of Sisters, a bar two blocks west of Sky.
The Divers/Cite parade is over for another year. But in the
Village,
the beat goes on.
. Mike Boone can be reached by phone at (514) 987-2569 or by E-
mail
at mboone@...


Seattle Times, August 6, 2001
P. O. Box 70, Seattle, WA, 98111
(Fax: 206-382-6760 ) (E-Mail: opinion@... )
( http://www.seattletimes.com )
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134326374_wedd
ed06.h
tml
Editorial: Germany's 'great step'
Sober, conservative Germany joined many of its European
neighbors
when a new law granted same-sex couples marital rights in the eyes of
government.
The United States needs to take the same mature outlook about
the
reality of gay life in this country. A civil-union law provides a
legal
framework to support long-term, committed relationships.
The German law allows gay couples to register their unions at
government offices, and requires a court decision for divorce. They
also
will receive inheritance and health insurance rights given to
heterosexual
spouses.
The law, roundly described as a "great step forward" is not
complete
in the eyes of many gay advocates. The upper house of Germany's
parliament
withheld some tax privileges granted married couples, and same-sex
couples
cannot adopt children.
Formally recognizing committed gay unions has nothing to do
with
defending marriage between a man and a woman.
Civil unions and formal registries add a measure of compassion
and
reality to a fact of life in this country and abroad.


Arizona Republic, August 7, 2001
Box 1950, Phoenix, AZ, 85001
(Fax: 602-271-8933 ) (E-Mail: opinions@... )
( http://www.arizonarepublic.com )
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opinions/articles/0807pimentel07.html
Immigration laws hurt gay pairs
O. Ricardo Pimentel
Joel Laurin is a family man.
He breakfasts with his partner, goes to work, comes home and
dines
with his partner. They share the day's triumphs and travails with one
another. They do everything together.
His partner is his love and his life. He is his partner's.
Unfortunately, our immigration laws begrudge Laurin this
particular
love and this particular pursuit of happiness.
As you might have suspected by use of the word partner, Laurin
is a
gay man. His partner, Hernan Fascella, is as well. But, as if
sustaining a
loving, committed relationship isn't hard enough today for gay
couples, this
one is complicated by the fact that Fascella is also an immigrant from
Argentina.
He is here on a two-year student visa, after exhausting the
time
periods for legal stays permitted while traveling here under a
passport,
then under a six-month visa.
In a heterosexual relationship, the solution is pretty
straightforward. You get married, and one partner sponsors the other
for
immigration, a process that can be laborious but which usually has a
happy
ending.
Gay couples like Laurin and Fascella have no such option.
They can
love one another, start a home together and be as committed to one
another
as heterosexual couples. But one can't sponsor the other for
immigration.
So, while most couples can leisurely grow in their relationships,
this one
is being clocked by a stopwatch.
There is, however, the Permanent Partners Immigration Act,
sponsored
by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. It would allow Laurin to sponsor
Fascella
after proving a committed relationship through affidavits and other
methods.
Right now, the bill is languishing in committee -- has not even
gotten a subcommittee hearing. It will be a very big surprise if it
ever
emerges.
That's because, to cut to the chase, in these enlightened
times we
believe as a matter of national policy that Laurin and Fascella are
perverts, sinners and threats to our national fabric.
Oh, we wring our hands about how gay immigrants will feign
loving,
committed relationships to scam us into letting them stay. We insist
that
the culprit is really that we have no civil mechanism -- Vermont
notwithstanding -- for gay marriage, hence no mechanism for
sponsorship.
Laurin and Fascella have heard all the arguments. They all
say the
same thing to Laurin, 35, a high school drama teacher.
"I feel like a second-class citizen," he said.
The scam argument might actually be valid for some gay
couples. But
then they probably number about the same as heterosexuals who get
married
purely for immigration purposes.
So what we're really saying is that people like Fascella are
bad
people.
Fascella, 26, is realizing a lifelong dream. He is in chef
school.
As the couple went through the gyrations to get him his
student visa,
they considered doing things illegally. But they want to do things
by the
book. And that presents some problems.
"It's hard for us to plan for the future knowing that the ax
will
fall," Laurin said.
They moved in together into their Scottsdale home in
December. They
first met in October 1999. In between, they tried the best they
could to
maintain a long-distance relationship, Laurin in the United States and
Fascella in Rosario, Argentina.
"He's my life," Laurin said. "I've never been in a
relationship in
which a person is so important to me."
Said Fascella, "I know I will never stop loving him. It
doesn't
matter what the state says, what the government says."
They want to have the same chance to build a life together --
here --
as most of us have.
Fourteen countries have enacted immigration laws that allow
this to
happen, according to the Lesbian/Gay Immigration Rights Task Force.
They
include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Israel, the United
Kingdom
and South Africa.
What these countries have recognized is that there is nothing
perverse in the kind of love Laurin and Fascella have, but that there
is in
denying basic rights to people simply because they are gay.
. Reach Pimentel at ricardo.pimentel@... or
(602)
444-8210. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
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