Free Speech Threatened

BOSTON — A woman who wrote an
article in Sojourner last spring about
her radical politics and activities 35
years ago was investigated by the
Massachusetts State Police. Ann
Withorn reported in the September
issue of the same newsjoumal that a
state police officer told her a “com-
plaint” had been filed regarding her
story under a post-September 11 law
establishing “a hotline” for any resi-
dent to call in “anonymous com-
plaints” about “suspicious activity.”

The trooper was making “a
threshold inquiry” to evaluate how
serious the complaint was. The troop-
ers denied that what she wrote had
triggered the inquiry, but said they
were “checking up on the caller’s
fear that I might ‘currently be
involved in potentially dangerous
activity.’”

Withom had written about
a group of four friends who called
themselves the Red Coven. It had
never been “active” in any sense of
protest. The troopers wanted to know
whether the group still existed.

A record is being kept,
somewhere in some database con-
nected to the hotline, of the com-
plaint and the result of the visit. But
because the complaint will be charac-
terized as unsubstantiated, of course
such things aren’t threats to free
speech. And Brutus is an honorable
man.

Dade Defeats Anti-Gay
Measure

MIAMI — The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force and local gay
rights organization No to
Discrimination/Save Dade celebrated
last month as voters defeated an anti-
gay measure that would have
removed 4-year-old civil rights pro-
tections in housing, employment,
credit and accommodations for gays
and lesbians in Dade County.

NGLTF contributed
$l00,000 and voter identification and
mobilization expertise to the cam-
paign, which ended “what Anita
Bryant began 25 years ago,” crowed
Lorri L. Jean, NGLTF’s executive
director. "The people of Miami-Dade
County have sent the Christian
Coalition and its small band of gay-
obsessed zealots packing!” The mar-
gin of victory was 53 percent to 47
percent.

Other organizations that
worked on or invested heavily in the
No to Discrimination/Save Dade
campaign included LLEGO — the
National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual. and Transgender
Organization — the American Civil
Liberties Union and People for the
American Way.

LGBT Veterans Asked to
Share Their Stories

NEW YORK — The Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) recently unveiled a
new area on their website dedicated
to LGBT veterans. In collaboration
with the Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network (SLDN) and the
American Veterans for Equal Rights
(AVER). HRC is collecting stories of
gay. lesbian. bisexual and transgender

veterans, some of which will be post-
ed on their web site at www.hrc.org
in honor of Veterans Day, November
11, 2002.

_ “It is time to recognize the
contributions of LGBT men and
women who have given their time,
talent and, in some cases, their lives
in service to their country,” said HRC
Senior Policy Advocate John Vezina,
who specializes in military issues.
“The ‘Documenting Courage’ project
is a way for us to preserve the stories
of LGBT American vets for future
generations and to demonstrate the
undeniable contribution the LGBT _
community has made in service to
the country.” Stories can be submit-
ted via the form located at
www.hrc.org/documentingcourage/sh
arestory.asp.

First NY Times Same-Sex
Union Announcement
Eeatures VT CU

NEW YORK - Two weeks to the day
after announcing it would offer gay
and lesbian couples equal access to
its Weddings/Announcements pages,
The New York Times announced the
September 1 civil union of Daniel
Gross and Steven Goldstein — the
paper’s first-ever same-sex union
notice.

Gross, 32, and Goldstein,
40, celebrated their civil union cere-
mony in North Hero. “Obviously,
Daniel and I are thrilled to be the
first gay couple featured on the Times
Weddings and Announcements
pages,” Goldstein said. “We hope this
prompts more couples in New York
and across the country to submit their
wedding announcements and put a
face on our lives and our relation-
ships.”

As of mid-September, 125
US newspapers had newly agreed to
print same-sex union announcements,
according to GLAAD, and The New
York Times had printed its first les-
bian union announcement on
September 8: Dr. Leslie Jennifer
Miller (38) and Dr. Alicia Jana Salzer
(36) affirmed their partnership in a
commitment ceremony on Fire Island
led by a nondenominational spiritual
counselor.

Dr. Miller, who is a stafi"
forensic examiner at the Crime
Victims Treatment Center at St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt, met Dr. Salzer in
the hospital’s emergency room in
October 1999.

Nevada school Harassment
Case Settled

SAN FRANCISCO — Derek Henkle
signed an unprecedented settlement
with the Washoe County, Nevada
public school district in which he will
receive $451,000 in compensation for
years of harassment over being gay.
Henkle was called names, spat upon,
beaten by classmates wearing rubber
gloves (as protection against any pos-
sibility of getting AIDS), thrown into
lockers, and even threatened with
being roped with a lasso and dragged
behind a truck. _
According to a report in the
Boston Globe, Henkle charged that
school administrators told him to
“stop acting like a fag” and to keep
his sexual identity quiet. Rather than

punish the harassers, administrators
transferred Henkle to a succession of
schools where the harassment contin-
ued, ultimately placing the then-16-
year-old in an adult education pro-
gram at a community college.

Henkle’s sexual orientation
became public when he was 14 and
appeared on a public access televi-
sion program to discuss being gay.

“I was forced from school
to school, and treated like I was the
problem. My teachers chose not to
protect me, my administrators chose
not to protect me, and my school let
me down,” Henkel said.

School officials noted that
the settlement contained no admis-
sion of wrongdoing and said that
their position was “pretty clear: Any
kid that walks onto one of our cam-
puses — gay, straight, black, white,
Muslim, Jewish, rich, poor, whatever
— deserves to be treated with respect,
free of harassment, threats, and
intimidation.”

NGLTF Honors Rosie's
Adoption couple

LOS ANGELES — On September ‘

- 17th, the National Gay and Lesbian

Task Force (NGLTF) honored Steve
Lofion and Roger Croteau, a couple
for more than twenty years, who
launched an historic lawsuit to chal-
lenge Florida’s ban on gay adoption
in an effort to legally guarantee that
their five foster children remain a
part of their family.

Lofton and Croteau, who
were profiled in a television special
which also featured Rosie O’Donnell,
accepted the 2002 NGLTF
Leadership Award, established in
1989 to honor and recognize GLBT
allies in the straight community and
individuals in the GLBT community
who have made “unparalleled contri-
butions to advancement of freedom
and equality for the nation’s GLBT
community.”

Harvard Law School Gives
Military Recruiters Access

WASHINGTON — Harvard Law
School announced plans to allow mil-
itary recruiters on-campus access to
students. The new plan abandons pre-
vious Harvard Law School policies
preventing such recruitment because
of the armed forces’ ban on lesbian,
gay and bisexual service members.
Harvard officials had previously
noted that the military’s “don’t ask,
don’t tell” policy is in direct violation
of the school’s non-discrimination
policy, which includes sexual orienta-
tion.

Sharra E. Greer, legal
director for Servicemembers.Legal
Defense Network (SLDN), noted that
turning away military recruiters in
the name of non-discrimination is
not, in fact, about access or recruit-
ing. “Recruitment offices are in virtu-
ally every corner of our nation,"
Greer said. “Americans who want to
serve are finding their way to
recruiters. In fact, the services are all
projected to meet their recruiting
goals for the year.”

Harvard Law School’s pre-
vious policy restricting on-campus
recruiting was approved in 1998 on

V the grounds the military could recruit

through a student veterans organiza-
tion. The Air Force, however, recent-
ly demanded that the school rescind
its ban on recruiters or risk losing
$328 million in federal funds, which
are, of course, tax dollars.

“Harvard Law School has a
right to set standards for recruiters,
and to make opportunities available
to every student, regardless of sexual
orientation.” Greer said. “It was sim-
ply asking all employers to play by
the same rule: no discrimination. The
federal government should not be
exempt. In the end, patriotism is
about honoring our nation’s core val-
ues of freedom and equality for all.”

BU "Academy” Drops Gay
Group

BOSTON —According to a report in
the Boston Globe and passed along
by the Human Rights Campaign,
Boston University’s Chancellor John
.Silber has ordered the headmaster of
the prestigious BU Academy (grades
8-12) to disband its gay-straight
alliance. James Tracy, the headmas-
ter, complied, under threat of losing
substantial funding from BU, accord-
ing to two teachers at the school.
A BU spokesman said

Silber, who founded the Academy in
1993, does not believe the school
should host any organization that

‘deals with student sexuality. Silber

“is not hostile to any particular gen-
der orientation, but he feels that it’s »
not appropriate for a school  to be
getting involved in the sexuality of
its students,” according to the
spokesman.

State Senator Cheryl
Jacques, an openly gay member of
the Senate, criticized the decision.
“It’s misguided,” she said. “Gay-
straight alliances are important
organizations that help teach toler-
ance and prevent tragedies.”

The school’s gay-straight
alliance was two years old and
offered information and support to
students who are questioning their
sexuality.

Gay-straight alliances start-
ed in Massachusetts nine years ago as
an antidote to the exceptionally high
suicide rate among gay and bisexual
high school students. According to a
Massachusetts Department of Public
Health report released in May 2001,
about 40 percent of that student pop-
ulation have attempted suicide.

Since the 1993-94 school
year, Massachusetts has helped pay
for gay-straight alliances at schools
that want them. It is the only state
that does so. Last year, the
Department of Education handed out
a total of $285,725 in grants of
between $500 and $3,000 to 156
schools.

Quebec Court Agrees With
Ontario on Gay Marriage

QUEBEC — A Quebec Superior Court
justice ruled last month that denying
gays and lesbians the right to marry
is a violation of Canada's Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, reports Planet
Out.

The landmark decision par-
allels a decision by the Ontario
Superior Court earlier this year. And,
like the Ontario ruling, the court gave

 the rest of our world

the federal government two years to
amend the law or it would be
declared invalid.

“We’re overjoyed,”
declared Michael Hendricks, who
with his partner Rene LeBoeuf took
the government to court in 1998.
Leboeuf and Hendricks have been
together for more than 25 years.

While the case was under
consideration, the Quebec govern-
ment passed legislation creating a
civil union registry, granting gay and
lesbian couples many ofthe same
privileges of marriage. But Friday's
court ruling said that the creation of
civil unions in Quebec "does not
replace the right of access to mar-
riage."

Under Canadian law mar-
riage is defined as “a union between
one man and one woman to the
exclusion of all others.”

A third challenge to the
constitutionality ofthe definition will
be heard in the Supreme Court of
British Columbia. Ultimately it is
expected the issue will be decided by
the Supreme Court of Canada, a
process that could take up to five
years.

Philly Fights to save Same-
Sex couple Benefits

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s
mayor will appeal a Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Court decision that
struck down a property transfer tax
break and city health benefits for
same-sex partners, according to a
statement issued by the mayor’s
spokesman. In addition, “we are also
seeking a stay of the opinion so those
employees currently receiving bene-
fits will continue to receive benefits
until this issue is resolved,” the
spokesman said in a report in the
Philadelphia Inquirer.

The American Civil
Liberties Union said an appeal would
likely succeed there, noting that the
Supreme Court recently allowed
same-sex couples to adopt children.

The ruling to be appealed
was issued when the Commonwealth
Court threw out two of the city’s
three laws granting benefits to same-
sex partners, saying that the city was
trying to redefine marriage and that
only the state could do that.

One of the bills gave same-
sex Philadelphia couples an exemp-
tion from the city’s three percent real
estate transfer tax when transferring
property from one partner to the
other, an exemption already enjoyed
by married couples. A second bill,
designed to cover only city employ-
ees, gave city health benefits to the
partners of about I20 city workers. 7