the rest of

Gay Sailor

WASHINGTON — A man
kicked out of the Navy
because he’s gay is being rec-
ognized in the Smithsonian
Institution.

“It’s kind of like a valida-
tion of my service,” said Tim
Beauchamp, a native of
Tulsa, Okla., who lives in
Washington. “I was consider-
ing the Navy as a career.”

Beauchamp, a yeoman
who served in the Navy for
over four years, wrote “Sub
Sailor’s Views on
‘Glasnost in December
1987 ,on board if the USS
Henry Clay, a nuclear subma-
rine patrolling the North
Atlantic.

The poem is part of the
exhibit “Fast Attacks &
Boomers: Submarines in the
Cold War” at the National
Museum of American
History. A copy of it is dis-
played on a sailor’s bunk in a
part of the exhibit dealing
with daily life on a subma-
rine.

Harkening back to the
days of the Cold War, the
poem includes lines like,
“Reagan and Gorbachev back
and forth volley while Nancy
and Raisa put on their best.
Capitalist/Communist; politi-

995

cal folly! What does it mat?

ter? It’s East against West.”

Eight months after writing
the poem, Beauchamp, now
36, received an honorable
discharge from the Navy
after his superiors discovered
he was gay.

Newspaper-
Domestic
Partnerships

ARLINGTON, Va. — The
largest publisher of newspa-
pers in the United States has
adopted domestic partnership
coverage to same-sex part-
ners who live together.

Gannett Co. Inc., parent
company ' of The Burlington
Free Press, also will offer
benefits to unmarried domes-
tic partners of the opposite
sex. The benefits for partners
will become available in
January 2002.

To be eligible, partners
must first have had a 12-
month relationship. They
must also sign an affidavit
that declares there is finan-

cial dependence between
them.
Gannett spokeswoman

Tara Connell said there have
been several requests from
employees for equal cover-
age for domestic partners.
“We’Ve been looking at it
for years,” Connell said. She

said the company’s rapid’

growth last year slowed the
process of‘ revamping the
benefits.

Unlike married couples of
the opposite sex, an employ-
ee claiming the benefits will
still have to pay taxes on the
amount used to insure his or
her partner. The IRS does not
extend tax exemptions for
medical benefits to domestic
partners.

Gay Adoption

MIAMI — A Florida law
outlawing adoption by gays
and lesbians has been upheld
by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge James
Lawrence King said that two
gay men who challenged the
law failed to demonstrate that
“homosexual families are
equivalently stable, are able
to provide proper gender
identification or are no more
socially stigmatizing than
married heterosexual fami-
lies.”

The ruling drew sharp crit-
icism from civil rights
groups, who said an_appeal is
likely. An organization
devoted to traditional family
values praised the decision in
the closely watched case,
which could ultimately reach
the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mississippi and Utah also
ban adoptions by same-sex
couples.

But the Florida law is con- '

sipdered the nation’s toughest,
prohibiting adoptions by‘ any
gay or lesbian individual or
couple. It was passed in
1977, the same year former

" beauty queen Anita Bryant

led a crusade to overturn a
Dade County ordinance ban-
ning discrimination against

gays.
Steven Lofton and
Douglas Houghton chal-

lenged the law as discrimina-
tory after being told they
could not adopt children in
their care. Lofton, a foster
parent, wanted to adopt _a 10-
year-old boy he has raised
since infancy. Houghton is
the guardian of a 9-year-old
boy.

Editor Disciplined

LOS ANGELES — The edi-
tor of Variety magazine has
been ordered to undergo
diversity training for making
disparaging remarks about
minorities and gays.

Peter Bart served a 21-day
suspension.

“It was clear that Variety’s
staff wants him back and

does not believe the quota-
tions fairly represent the
Peter they know,” Tad Smith,
president of the media divi-
sion at Cahners, said in a
Thursday statement.

“Peter understands the dis-
tress which such comments
can cause and helknows that
he made a mistake,” Smith
said. “The company takes its
values very seriously and
expects all of its employees,
no matter how prominent or
distinguished, to set an excel-
lent example.”

In a statement issued by
Cahners, Bart said he agreed
with the decision.

“I was quoted making sev-
eral statements to a Los
Angeles magazine reporter
that do not reflect my person-
al beliefs and values or the
way that I run the news-
room,” Bart said.
“Nevertheless, I am deeply
sorry and regret that they
offended anyone. It will not
happen again.”

North Carolina
Senate

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A
Superior Court judge who
disclosed his homosexuality
two years ago has entered the
race to succeed retiring Sen.
Jesse Helms.

Ray Warren, who quit the
Republican‘ Party after his
announcement and now is a
Democrat, was elected to a
term that runs until the end of
2002. He said he will resign
from the bench in about a
month; until then, ‘rules of
judicial conduct bar him from
officially announcing his
candidacy for another office.

“I think it’s going to hap-
pen,” he said. “Legally and
technically, I’m still consid-
ering (making a bid). I’m
anticipating it will change.”

Warren, who lives in
Charlotte, began his political
career as a conservative
Republican member of the
state House of
Representatives in 1985.

In 1996, he nearly unseat-
ed Burley Mitchell as chief
justice of the state Supreme
Court in 1996. Two years
later, Warren lost another
close race for the state court
of appeals.

Soon afterward, Warren
announced he was gay, mak-
ing him the first openly gay
judge and Republican office-
holder in the state’s history.

Warren said he doesn’t
think his sexual orientation

 

NEWS october 2001 OlTl"l_ ° 3,

will be a major issue. “I
would think it would be of
some interest to some people,
but less in the Democratic
primary,” he said. “While we
are thinking about the
November race, our focus
right now is on the May pri-
mary.” '

Gay London

LONDON — Britain has
registered its first gay unions.

The London Partnership
Register, which is also open
to heterosexual couples, was
launched by the capital’s left-
wing mayor, Ken
Livingstone, who hopes ‘ it
will eventually lead to same-
sex relationships being treat-
ed on a par with traditional
marriages.

The registration doesn’t
confer any legal rights but is
Britain’s first civil recogni-
tion of a gay couple’s com-
mitment to one other. Most
gay activists applauded the
register as. a big step for
Britain, but complained that

the country still lags behind.

its more liberal European
neighbors.

“Well, this is a start, a tiny
start, but it raises the issue,”
said Ian Burford, who signed
his name twice alongside that
of his partner of 38 years,
Alexander Cannell, during a
ceremony that lasted less
than five minutes.

The men, both dressed in

cream suits, were followed«

by Linda Wilkinson and
Carol Budd, who have been
together for 16 years.
Wilkinson and Budd con-
cluded their ceremony with a
kiss, which they said was
“for equality and freedom 
for everyone around the
globe who can never hope to
dare.”

Gay Scholarships

BOSTON — A
Massachusetts college has
begun offering scholarships
to students whose parents
have cut off financial support
because of the childrens’ sex-
ual orientation.

Bridgewater State
University says it’s the only
program of its kind.

Bob Haynor,
Bridgewater’s outreach edu-
cation coordinator, started
raising funds for the scholar-
ship in April 2000 after meet-
ing students who were cut off

after they came out. About
$8,200 has been donated so
far. Haynor hopes the first
awards will be given next

yean
The college’s Frank-
Tremblay Safe Colleges

Scholarship is named for les-
bian folk singer Lucie Blue
Tremblay, who’s raised
money for the scholarship,
and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., who is gay and rep-
resents the Bridgewater area.

Frank has not raised
money for the scholarship but
said he was flattered to be
associated with it.

“The potential for rejec-
tion or the fact of rejection is
a crushing blow,” he said.
“Add to that an inability to
continue your education 
Obviously we wish this situa-
tion didn’t happen but it’s
important to have this
resource available.”

Gay Conviction

CAIRO, Egypt —.A 15-
year-old boy has been sen-
tenced to three .years in
prison for practicing homo-
sexuality.

The youth, who was found
guilty of homosexuality and
debauchery, will serve his
sentence in a prison for
young offenders, a - juvenile
court ordered. _

The youth screamed and
sobbed as the verdict was
read. The court said he
underwent a medical exami-
nation that proved he had
committed debauchery.

Gasser Abdel-Razek, an
Egyptian human rights
activist, said the ruling was
“alarming (because) I believe
it is based on what the judge
thinks is socially acceptable
or rejected, which ruins the
whole concept of the rule of
law.”

The teen-ager was arrested
May 11 along with 52 other
males aboard a Nile riverboat
restaurant in Cairo.

The trial of the 52 other
defendants, which is being
conducted in an emergency
state security court, resumed.

_They have all pleaded not

guilty.
The court said it ordered
the maximum penalty after

the youth confessed to prac- I

ticing homosexuality and
being a member of a gay
organization. Defense
lawyers earlier disputed con-
fessions of some of the

defendants, saying they were

made under duress during
interrogation.

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