Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 28/99) - There's good news and bad news for gay Yellowknifers.

Though Out North, Yellowknife's gay lobby group still sees work ahead pushing for recognition of same sex spouses in several GNWT acts, one positive development for the group is an information telephone line set to be installed within the month.

To Out North president Zoe Raemer, the problem with achieving legislative changes to bills she said are discriminatory is that "collective rights need to be resolved before the government is willing to pursue a more fulsome individual rights protection act."

Acts such as the Adoption Act, the Child Welfare Act and the Family Law Act, among others, define spouse as an opposite sex partner even though several provinces have been progressive in making "inclusive" changes, she said.

"(The government's decision is to) focus on the rights of aboriginal people through land claims and self-government agreements before they will spend any time concerned about individual rights," she said.

"Aboriginal people are a collective to whom special rights, and I mean special rights, are provided. In some cases they are guaranteed through constitutional arrangements and many feel those haven't been realized."

Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus disagrees.

"There's resistance (to include same sex partners in the definition of spouse) but I don't think it has anything to do with collective or individual rights. It's that people don't want to deal with the issue," he said.

But even as Raemer and other Out North members spend time advocating equal rights for gay and lesbian families, some time remains to plan monthly social events.

At the Out North board's last meeting the group voted to initiate a phone line giving information on upcoming events.

The line will likely be operational within the month and is set to be installed in the Yellowknife Women's Centre.

Out North vice- president Heather Hay said the women's centre receives a lot of calls from people asking for information on the group.

"As well we've also had requests from some of the schools for outreach, for role models as speakers -- things like that."

She said whether people are new to town or are just coming out, they often have the same questions, such as where to go to meet people.