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Out in the Mountains

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WISH LIST

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The Brattleboro Area AIDS Project seeks the following items:
a desk, a kitchen table, “straight” chairs (5 or 6), a stroller, and a
king-size bed. If you can help, call Maryann or Marguerite at
254-8263.

National News

V

Anti-Marriage Initiatives
Come Close to Home

It appears that our neighbors to the east will be
faced with another anti-gay ballot initiative next
year, this one to prevent recognition of same—sex
marriages and unions perfomted either inside or out-
side of Maine.

Concerned Maine Families, the same group
which sponsored the 1995 initiative to repeal anti-
discrimination legislation, has collected enough sig-
natures to present the new anti—marriage initiative
to Maine’s voters. According to Carolyn Crosby,
the leader of the group, CMF will also work to re-
peal the recent decision of the University of Maine
to extend domestic partner benefits to employees.

Authors of the new referendum claim that they
intend “to encourage the traditional monogamous
family unit as the basic building block of our soci-
ety, the foundation of harmonious and enriching
family life.”

The recent enactment of DOMA and pro-gay
developments in Hawaii have led other states to con-
sider anti—marriage initiatives as well. Seventeen
states have already passed such bills, while two
states have seen executive orders handed down from
their Governors.

Texas legislators will consider"’such a measure
in the upcoming session, as may Florida’s.lawmak—
ers if the state’s Baptist lobby has anything to say
about it. Oregon may also face a ballot initiative
similar to Maine’s in 1998. V

Activists Protest “Gender
Identity Disorder”

Transgendered activists and their allies joined
together in Washington DC last month to protest
the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) clas-
sification of transgenderism as a “disorder.” Par-
ticipants at the rally claimed that such a determina-
tion stigmatizes those who question their gender
orientation or seek to change it.

The action, which took place during the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual Creating
Change conference, was sponsored jointly by Trans-
sexual Menace, the National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force (NGLTF), Herrnaphrodites With Attitude
(HWA), Bi—Net USA, and the International Gay &
Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

The groups plan to continue their picketing and

T leafletting around meetings of the APA, with the
-next protest scheduled for San Diego in May. Ac-

tivists claim that ofticials within the APA have “gen-
der-pathophilia” and an unwillingness to admit to
the fluid diversity of human gender and sexuality.

Some members of the transgendered movement,
however, uphold the GID diagnosis, particularly
those who are able to use the classification for health
insurance purposes. Others note that the rarity of
such cases stands in sharp contrast to the over-
whelming number of discriminatory acts against
transgendered people.

NGLTF Media Director Robert Bray compared
the current protests to the activism which occurred

_ in 1973, when gay and lesbian people fought the

APA to remove homosexuality from their listing of
mental diseases. “No one,” said Bray, “whether gay,
lesbian, bi, transgender or intersexed, should have
to accept being pathologized as mentally ill in or-
der to obtain wholeness, completeness and civil
equality.”

Though NGLTF has not moved to request elimi-
nating the GID classification entirely, it has urged
the APA to consider reforming its current definition

. so as not to “pathologize transpeople or genderqueer

youth.” The group has also called for increased fund-
ing for transgendered research, and inclusion of trans
representatives on relevant policy-makin g commit-
tees at the APA. V

10

“Jenny Jones” Killer
Sentenced to 25-50 Years

Jonathan Schmitz, the man who murdered
openly gay Scott Amedure after his friend con-
fessed to having a crush on him on the Jenny Jones
talk show, was convicted of second—degree mur-
der on November 12. Schmitz received a sentence
of 25-50 years in prison, plus two years on weap-
ons charges. Had he been convicted of first—degree
murder, he would have faced a life term.

“I’d like to say the word sorry,” Schmitz told
Judge Francis X. O’Brien in a poem he recited
shortly before the sentence was handed down. “The
word ‘sorry’ is a very powerful word. It has a lot
of meaning, and it is meant.”

Jurors wrangled over whether to convict
Schmitz of first or second degree murder. His medi-
cal history, which included a thyroid condition,
major depression, and severe alcoholism and sub-
stance abuse, led jurors to decide against a first-
degree conviction.

On the unaired program, Amedure confessed
that he was in love with his next door neighbor.
Schmitz was then brought out on stage to meet the
person he knew only to be a “secret admirer,” be-
lieving it would be a woman. Though he did not
appear overly surprised when Amedure stepped
forward as the admirer, witnesses claimed that

Schmitz had been deeply disturbed by the revela— V

tion, and that subsequent contact from Amedure
pushed him over the edge.

Three days after the show was taped, Schmitz
withdrew some money from the bank, then drove
to two local stores to purchase a shotgun and am-
munition He continued on to Amedure’s trailer and
broke his way in, shooting the stunned gay man
twice in the chest‘ at point blank.

Oddly, only the prosecuting attorney, Roman
Kalytiak, addressed the homophobic aspects of the
murder. When asked if the subject came up during
the jury’s deliberations, juror Joyce O’Brien
claimed, “I don’t think that homosexuality entered
into our discussion whatsoever.” Members of the
jury did believe, however, that the talk show had
triggered Schmitz’s violent response.

Amedure’s family remained unsatisfied with
the verdict, and will continue legal actions against
Warner Brothers and TelePictures, the co—produc-
ers ofthe “Jenny Jones” show. Ironically, Schmitz
will also file a suit against the companies. 7

Episcopalians May Allow
Same-Sex Unions

By a margin of 5 to 2, members of the Episco-
pal Diocese of Pennsylvania have voted to sup-
port “a rite or rites for the blessing of committed

relationships between persons of the same sex.”

In her proposal for the rites, Reverend Ruth
Kirk challenged the church to end the centuries of
condemnation, and to support the love between gay
and lesbian people.

Following heated discussion, lay representa-
tives of the diocese’s parishes also approved the
proposal, a result which surprised a number of
church leaders, including Bishop Allen Bartlett.
The Bishop claimed that publicity around the her-
esy trial of Bishop Walter Righter added momen-
tum to the initiative. Righter had been accusing of
violating church doctrines by ordaining an openly
gay and non-celibate man. The case was subse-
quently dismissed.

Even if the resolution succeeds in being ap-
proved at the general convention of the Episcopal
Church in July, weddings and unions performed
within the church would have no legal standing in
Pennsylvania, which recently passed legislation
prohibiting state recognition of same-gender unions
of any kind. V