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the rest of our world

Conciseness counts?

St. Louis — Here is the entire text of
presidential candidate Richard
Gephardt’s statement on President
George W. Bush’s support for an
anti-gay marriage constitutional
amendment, all three sentences:

_ “It is time for President

Bush to end his alliance with homo-
phobic bigotry once and for all and
speak out against the Republican
Party’s hostile election-year attempt
to amend the United States
Constitution to include a ban on gay
marriage. Throughout our history, the
Constitution has been amended to
afford expanded rights to disenfran-
chised citizens, not to unfairly single
out a particular group of Americans
by limiting their rights. The president
should stand up against these kinds

of intolerant forces in his own party

and‘should espouse views of toler-
ance and equality that truly reflect
the values of the American people.”
Gephardt is on record as
not supporting gay marriage,
although he would support a civil

union-type arrangement.

Bush Congratulates MCC?
West Hollywood — During the same
week that President Bush endorsed
the anti-gay Marriage Protection
Week. he sent enthusiastic 35th
anniversary congratulations to
Metropolitan Community Churches,
a group that performs more than
6000 same-sex weddings annually.
President Bush’s letter to
MCC Los Angeles left Rev. Neil
Thomas. senior pastor of
Metropolitan Community Church of
Los Angeles, baffled. “How does one
denounce the right of gays and les-
bians to marry in theirchurches and

. Suggest they are incapable ofhaving

healthy marriages in one moment,
and in the next rejoice in God’s faith-
fulness to a gay and lesbian congre-
gation that performs such same-sex

' marriages?" Rev. Thomas asked.

Clark Says Review Service
Ban

Boston — Early last month. during the
America Rocks the Vote live forum
for Youth. General Wesley Clark said,
"I think everybody deserves the right
to serve. And when 1 am president,
rm g0ing to make sure that we treat .
Wery man. woman. and child in
America with dignity and respect.
And that includes the opportunities to
serve in the United States armed '
forces."

As announced by the

Servicemembers Legal Defense

 

Network, Clark called on military
leaders to review the policy saying it
“needs to be reviewed because there
are so many indications that it’s not
working.”

us Naval Academy
Alumni Out
Annapolis, MD — For the first time, a
US. service academy alumni associa-
tion will be asked to recognize its .
gay, lesbian, and transgendered grad-
uates by creating a chapter for them.

On Veteran’s Day, former
U.S. Navy officer Jeff Petrie and a
contingent of other former naval offi-
cers who served with distinction pre-
sented a proposal to establish a gay
alumni association chapter — USNA
Out — to the United States Naval
Academy Alumni Association. The
proposal included the bylaws and a
roster of more than 25 members, as
required to organize a new chapter.

Petrie, a l989 Naval
Academy graduate who is gay,
worked with fellow graduates and the
unrecognized Service Academy Gay
and Lesbian Alumni Association.
“The environment at Annapolis has
been disapproving and damaging for
high-achieving gays and lesbians for
many years,” Petrie said.

No NJ Gay Marriage Yet .
Trenton, NJ — A lower state court
ruled last month against legalizing
marriage for same-sex couples in
New Jersey. The seven plaintiff cou-

~ ples have been together between 11

and 32 years. Five of them have chil-
dren. All of them need the legal secu-

-rity that comes with marriage but has

been denied to them.

“This ruling propels us for-
ward to higher courts where both
sides have always known it will be
decided,” said David Buckel,
Lambda Senior Staff Attorney, as he
announced that the ruling will be
appealed. ’

The words “husband,”
“wife,” “spouse,” or some form of
the word “marry” appear in more
than 850 provisions of New Jersey
law. The New Jersey Supreme Court
will have the last word.

Dakota court Scraps Anti-
“Gay Ruling

Bismarck,‘ND — Unanimously agree-
ing to allow a lesbian mother to
maintain custody of her two children,
last month the North Dakota
Supreme Court struck down a 1981
decision used to deny custody of
children solely because of a parent’S
sexual orientation. The court ruled

that possible prejudice from others is
not a valid reason to take children
from lesbian and gay parents.

The court had ruled 22
years ago that having lesbian or gay
parents was inherently harmful to
children because they may suffer “the
slings and arrows of a disapproving
society.”

‘‘It seemed inconceivable to
me that my children could be taken
away simply because other people
might be prejudiced against us,” said
Valerie Damron, represented by the
American Civil Liberties Union. ‘‘I’m
thrilled that the court saw that it was
wrong to punish us for other people’s
bigotry.”

The decision leaves only
four states — Alabama, Mississippi,
North Carolina, and Virginia — where
courts still deny custody based on
sexual orientation alone.

C.U. Bill in Massachusetts
Boston — A group of leading state
Democratic House members, work-
ing in secret, launched an effort early
last month to devise a bill that would
greatly expand legal rights for gay
couples in Massachusetts. Led by
House Ways and Means Committee

Chainnan John Rogers, long viewed

as a foe of gay rights, the group is
seriously considering a compromise
that would outlaw gay marriage
while approving Vennont-style civil
unions here.

As reported in the Boston
Globe, the members plan to draft a
bill and hope the Legislature will act
on it before the Supreme Judicial
Court issues its ruling on whether to
legalize gay marriage. That ruling
was issued November 18.

Golfer Reveals Prejudice
Washington DC — PFLAG announced
its dismay at racist and homophobic
comments made by LPGA player Jan
Stephenson in the November issue of
Golf magazine. Stephenson asserted
women’s golf is being hurt, saying
“The Asians are killing our tour,” and
“Society is more open now about gay
relationships, but it does hurt the

. tour. It hurts with sponsors. But if

you had two gorgeous girls who were
gay, I don’t think that would hurt.”
Although she has apologized to the
Asian community for her racist com-
ments, she has yet to apologize to the
GLBT community.

“This is demeaning to all
GLBT people, especially to the ath-
letes and their families. That they
should be singled out and ridiculed
for their sexual orientation is disgust-

ing,” said David Tseng, Executive
Director of PFLAG.

Stephenson, recognized
during the LPGA’s 50th Anniversary
as one of the organization’s top 50
players, is known for believing that
women should use sex appeal to mar-
ket their sport.

No Penis = No Cheating
Concord, NH — When a woman
cheats on her husband in a lesbian
affair, it isn’t adultery. At least so
says the New Hampshire Supreme

Court in a 3-2 ruling. The court ruled _

that a Dartmouth College professor
cannot use same-sex adultery as a
ground for divorcing his wife.
Adultery, the court said, takes place
only when the extra-marital sexual
liaison involves a man and a woman.

Justice Joseph P. Nadeau
wrote for the majority that New
Hampshire law defines adultery as
“sexual intercourse” outside of mar-
riage. Sexual intercourse, as defined
in Webster’s, requires a male o'rgan
and a female organ in a sexual con- '
nection, “which clearly can only take
place between persons of the oppo-
site gender,” Nadeau wrote.

The Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders in Boston
submitted a brief in the case as a
“friend of the court,” taking the posi-

« tion that cheating was cheating,

regardless of the sexuality of the
partners.

Nadeau stressed that the
decision was not a gay rights issue.
“This appeal is not about the status of
homosexual relationships in our soci-
ety or the formal recognition of
homosexual unions,” he said.

AIDS Dollars Under
Religious Threat

Washington, DC — Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter last
month instructing the Dept. of Health
& Human Services to investigate
how an anti-gay lobby came up with
a hit list ofAIDS research grants.
Each of the programs listed studied
sexual behavior. The Traditional

. Values Council compiled information

on nearly 300 grants, including
authors, dollar amounts awarded and
concise descriptions of the studies,
and forwarded the list to conservative
members of Congress for targeting.
Andrea Lafferty, executive director of
TVC, claimed the NIH needs “adult
supervision,” and has asked for a
Justice Department investigation of
the grants.

Rep. Waxman denounced
the review as “scientific

McCarthyism” and called the docu-
ment a “hit list” created by right
wing ideologues.

Ohio City Offers DP
Registry
Cleveland Heights, OH_— In a victory
for the LGBT community last month,
voters overwhelmingly supported
Issue 35, establishing a domestic
partner registry. While domestic part-
ner registries exist in more than 60
localities across the country, the win
marks the first time in 13 years that a
domestic partner registry has been
adopted via ballot.

Collaboration between
Heights Families for Equality and the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

, helped secure the victory. “Cleveland

Heights represents the future for
advancing equal rights for [LGBT]
people,” said Dave Fleischer of the
Task Force. “Instead of waiting for
the next attack by a homophobic bal-
lot initiative, we go on the offensive
and speak directly to voters about
issues affecting our community.”

The registry, open to both
same-sex and opposite-sex couples,
will provide committed couples a
certified record of their relationship.
While conferring no benefits, this
documentation has been used to
secure basic rights in otherjurisdic-
tions with registries.

Taiwan & Gay Marriage
Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s govern-
ment is drafting legislation to legit-
imize same-sex marriages, a cabinet
official told Agence France-Presse
last month. If Parliament passes the
law, Taiwan would be the first coun-
try in Asia to legalize marriages
among people of the same sex.
Jointly drafted by the presi-

dential office and the cabinet, the
proposed Human Rights Protection
Law is designed to protect basic
human rights. President Chen Shul-
bian announced that the government
is seeking to legitimize same-sex
marriages and recognize the right of
same-sex couples to adopt children.
The final draft oftlie bill is expected
to be ready for parliamentary review
in Decembery