the rest of Gay Fund NEW YORK — A fund has been established to assist the surviving partners of gays and lesbians killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The $141,000 fund, whose money was all donated, will be administered by the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. Depending on how many people file a claim by the Jan. 15 deadline, organizers expect surviving partners to get a gift of between $4,000 and $6,000. Jennifer Middleton, staff attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said gay partners do not qual- ify for many benefits that are standard for married couples. She said they include money from state workers’ compen- sation programs, Social ‘ Security benefits and some employee pension programs. ‘If there was no will left behind, gay survivors might have to fight for ownership of property, for access to retire- ment or savings accounts that both A partners‘ contributed to and for the right to handle the victim’s estate,‘ Middleton, Sa}$i.3£a. L attacks in Washington and New York have been identi- fied as leaving behind domes- tic partners, according to the Empire State Pride Agenda. Survivor Benefits WASHINGTON — Barney Frank is urging Attorney General John Ashcroft to adopt a broad definition of who gets compensated as a survivor of those killed on Sept. 11. The Massachusetts con- gressman is leading 44 of his colleagues in irnploring the U.S. government to provide compensation to “all of those who had a close relationship with the murdered victim and whose own financial position will be seriously adversely affected by the death.” "Criteria for such a relation- ship could include a domestic partner with a shared resi- dence, shared bank accounts, joint membership in a health plan or a significant sharing of living expenses, Frank and his bipartisan group said. The Justice Department is setting regulations to govern the distribution of funds approved by Congress and President Bush for victims of the terrorist attacks, The lawmakers, in making their argument, said Congress acted in order to help those 1 J victimized by the deaths of those close to them, not to “encourage or discourage people from following any ‘particular pattern in their liv- ing arrangements.” British Progress LONDON —. There hasn’t been a lot of progress on gay issues under Britain’s Labor government. That’s the view of British actor Ian McKellen. He said the Labor adminis- tration was no better than its Conservative predecessor at addressing gay issues. In an interview with the Radio Times magazine, he said Blair’s government was no more willing to act than former Conservative Prime Minister John Major, whom he called “woefully ignorant.” The actor and prominent gay rights campaigner also said it was “appalling” that gays were still discriminated against in the workplace in Britain. "The 62-year-old‘ McKellen A said Major was “woefully ignorant about gay people and their problems, as most ‘politicians at the time.” _I. -'1.-_".J -}i‘fi> 51-'-'i£:"l-~ 1 : I Twenwgfcmrz ed hm the But I dont detect the pres-_ ent government is any more willing than he was to move things ahead. It’s still legal to sack someone for being gay, which is appalling,” he added. Responding to his criticism Tuesday, the government said it recognized the “importance of tackling discrimination in the workplace.” Hate Crimes MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A major civil rights group says the FBI severely underesti- mates the number of crimes of bigotry and racism, from petty vandalism to murder. The Southern Poverty Law Center said the FBI counts about 8,000 bias-motivated crimes in America annually, but the actual number may total 50,000. “Obviously, there’s some- thing wrong with that sys- tem,” said Mark Potok, an edi- tor of an article in the center’s Intelligence Report. The national statistics are skewed because many police officers don’t label offenses as hate crimes, and some states report having none. The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 calls for compiling data on those incidents, but compli- ance by police and states is voluntary, the report said. Even blatant discriminatory crimes often go ignored, the article said. It cited the cases of 19-year-old Sasezley Richardson, a black man slain in Elkhart, Ind., and Billy Jack Gaither, a gay man beaten to death in Sylacauga, Ala. “These statistics are the basics of public policy, and we cannot effectively address hate crime without these numbers,” Potok said. The FBI flaws in the data but says the system will improve as public and police awareness of bias crimes increases, said Maryvictoria Pyne, a spokes- woman for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services. Gay Murder SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two brothers who are white supremacists and are accused of killing a gay couple have been sentenced to long feder- al prison terms for setting fires at three synagogues and an abortion clinic in 1999. ' Benjamin Matthew Williams received ‘a mandato- ry sentence of 50 years "in prison under the guiltyjplea — he: entered insSept’ember. younger. brother, James 4 Tyler Williarns,lWas’séntence’dl to;21 I years, 3 months — the maxi- mum. I The brothers also face trial in April on state murder charges in the slayings of a gay couple in Shasta County in 1999. Prosecutors are seek- ing the death penalty. Benjamin Matthew Williams received a longer sentence because he planned the arsons. Since his arrest, Benjamin Matthew Williams repeatedly professed anti-Semitic, anti- gay and white supremacist views, and has said his defense in the upcoming mur- der case will be based on his belief that the Bible con- demns homosexuality. Cruise’s Crusade LOS ANGELES — Tom Cruise has dropped for now his crusade to prove he’s not 833’- He dropped a $100 million defamation lawsuit against a magazine publisher after the publisher stated he does not have a videotape showing the actor having sex with another man. “Cruise does not appear on the videotape to which said defendant referred a Superior Court stipulation said. “(Cruise) is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homo- sexual affair." acknowledges \ NEWS january 2002 OITM ° 7 Our W0 Cruise’s lawsuit, filed June 4, accused Michael Davis of Bold magazine of sending news releases to at least a dozen U.S. media organiza- tions alleging Cruise engaged in a homosexual relationship during his marriage to Nicole Kidman. Under terms of the settle- ment, Davis must pay his own legal fees and is prohibited from “issuing or authorizing the issuance of any statement contrary to any of the forego- ing findings.” V Cruise’s attorney, Bertram Fields, said his client was sat- isfied. “Essentially, what Tom was after was the very finding that the _court made,” hesaid. “The story was false. He’s not gay, and the judge so ruled.” Inmate Condoms LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County is trying to do something about the - spread of AIDS. , The "county has begun ' giv- -ing’ c'o'ndoms"'to gay inmates at“ its‘ ‘downt'ow'ri‘i jail," in an effortto stop the spread of . AIDS‘and other sexually trans- mitted diseases. The county Sheriff’s Department, which runs the largest jail system in, the coun- try, said it spends‘ $180,000 monthly on AIDS medicine to treat 220 inmates. Dutch Marriage AMSTERDAM — Marriage has proven popular among gay and lesbian couples in the Netherlands. Dutch civil servants wed nearly 2,000 same-sex cou- ples in the first six months after gay marriage was legal- ized this year. The gay marriage law that took effect on April 1 made the Netherlands the first coun- try to grant gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children. ' The Central Bureau of Statistics said 2,100 men and 1,700 women had married someone of the same sex by Sept. 30. . Gay marriages» comprised 3.6 percent of all new mar- riages. In April, this figure was more than 6_ percent as gays V rushed to take advantage of the new law, but it gradually stabilized at around 3 percent. Sixteen percent of the peo- ple who married someone of the same sex had earlier been r\° in a heterosexual marriage. Most were divorced, and a few were widowsor widow- ersf ' Salvation Army NEW YORK - Those weren’t all $5 bills being dropped into the Salvation Army’s red kettles this holiday season. ' Shoppers were tossing in notes across the country chas- tising the Salvation Army for its policy toward its gay and lesbian workers. The protest campaign start- ed in Flint, Mich. after the Salvation Army’s national leadership last month rescind- ed a decision by its 13-state Western branch to offer health benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees. “It seemed so mean,” said , _ Mary Scholl, mother of a gay 0 man, who started the cam- paign along, with, her col- leagues in the Flint branch of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays. . Since then, Scholl said, she , has received scores of'mes- Sages from .a¢ro$.s the ,<:<.>.un.try. tile. “I’ve had 100.e—mails from people, telling me I’m going to hell,” she said- The Washington, headquar- A ters of_PFLAG has taken,up the , cause. Its, -Int_erne,t,,sit;e shows supporters how to , make copies of the protest notes, which vaguely resem- ble $5 bills. . “I would have donated $5,” the note says. “But the Salvation Army’s decision to discriminate against gay, les- bian, bisexual and transgen- dered employees prevents my donation now and in the future.” At the Salvation Army’s national headquarters in Alexandria, Va., officials say the protest appears to have caused little financial damage. They make no apologies for a policy that limits family health benefits ‘to married couples and their dependent children. Some. conservative activists, angered by the protest cam- paign, have offered to match every protest note placed in a kettle with a real $5 bill. The protest notes “are the very currency of intolerance,” said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan. “They’re attacking a Christian organization in the holiest season of the Christian faith.”.g some supportive, others hos— '-