8 — OUT-IN THE MOUNTAINS — FEBRUARY 1999

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TORONTO — Canada’s fed-
eral government has decided to
stop fighting a losing battle and
start extending equal rights to
same-sex couples.

In mid-January, the Globe and
Mail reported that Ottawa will
proceed with amendments treat-
ing homosexual couples the same
as heterosexuals in matters from
pensions to bankruptcy.

Insiders say the legislative
changes are being sparked by
increasing numbers of lawsuits
charging that discriminatory fed-
eral laws violate the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

One lawsuit brought against
the government by a GLBT rights
organization demands changes to
58 statutes.

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. —

George Michael has performed

his public service for public sex.
Michael was sentenced to 80

hours of community service as-

part of his no—contest plea to lewd
conduct in a park restroom.

Municipal ' Court N
Charles Rubin warned the
singer’s attorney during a hearing
Monday that Mich l -is. under a
court order to stay out of Will
Rogers Park for the duration of
his probation, about 17 more
months.

“Make sure he is reinfonned
of that,” Rubin said after Brad
Bamholtz gave the judge proof
that Michael completed his com-
munity service with a youth lead-
ership program and paid $910 in
fines. He also participated in five,

‘ one—hour counseling sessions.

Michael, 35, was arrested
April 7 by an undercover police
officer in a restroom at the park
across from the ‘Beverly Hills
Hotel. He acknowledged he was
gay after the incident.

Sntlomv In Texas

HOUSTON —— Two Texas
men have taken another step in
their crusade to overturn the
state’s anti-sodomy laws.

A judge denied their motions
to quash charges against them
that they engaged in sodomy.
That sends their case to a state
appeals court, where they hope to
overturn the state’s 119-year-old
law making gay sex a crime.

John Geddes Lawrence, 55,
and Tyrone Garner, 3], were
arrested Sept. 17 in Lawrence’s
apartment and charged with
engaging in homosexual conduct,
a misdemeanor.

Both pleaded no contest last
month, but appealed to the next
court with a motion to quash the
charges.

Under an agreement reached
with prosecutors, Lawrence and
Garner again pleaded no contest.
The judge fined them $200 each

and allowed the immediate filing '

of their new appeals.

Judge ,_

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ATLANTA — The federal
government has reached what
might otherwise be an obvious
conclusion: Some gay men are
avoiding AIDS tests in part
because they don’t want their
names reported to the feds.

The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said the
survey underscores the need to
continue government funding for
anonymous HIV testing, even as
the agency asks states to start
keeping names of people who get
treated for the virus that causes
AIDS.

Last month, the CDC pub-
lished new recommendations in
which’ it asked all states to begin
reporting HIV cases either with
the person’s name or an identify-
ing code.

The CDC says the information
will help health officials track
HIV cases before they become
full-blown AIDS. But some
AIDS activists believe privacy
concerns will steer some people
away from being tested at all.

Despite the controversy over
reporting of names, the CDC’s
survey found the most common
reason for not getting tested was
that people were afraid of leam-
ing they were HIV-positive.

Matthews
attackers

LARAMIE, Wyo. — There
have been a number of develop-
ments in the case against the men
accused of attacking and killing
Matthew Shepard.

The 21-year-old University of
Wyoming student has become a
symbol of the demand for nation-
al hate crimes legislation because
of the savage way he was killed,
in large part because he was gay.

Prosecutors have notified
lawyers for Aaron James
McKinney and Russell Arthur
Henderson, both 21, that they
intend to seek the death penalty if
the men are convicted.

They’re accused of luring
Shepard out of a bar. Police say
the two robbed and pistol-
whipped the 105-pound fresh-
man, tied him to a log fence’ and
beat him into unconsciousness.
Shepard died five days later, on
Oct. 12, 1998.

Wyoming, whose motto is the
Equality State, is one of nine
states with no hate-crime law.

Less than a week before the
prosecutors’ announcement,
Henderson’s girlfriend, Chasity
Vera Pasley, 20, pleaded guilty to
being an accessory after the fact
to first-degree murder.

Attorneys said Pasley did not
plead guilty as part ofa plea bar-
gain, and she will be called as a
witness if the case against the
other defendants goes to trial.

Pasley and Kristen LeAnn
Price, 19 are accused of helping
McKinney and Henderson dis-
pose of bloody clothing
Henderson wore during the attack.

Price, McKinney’s girlfriend,
also was charged with being an
accessory after the fact to first-
degree murder. No date was set
for her trial.

AIDS and llenlistlll

BOSTON A federal
appeals court has ruled against a
Maine dentist for refusing to treat
an HIV-positive patient.

The US Court of Appeals
found that Dr. Randon Bragdon
of Bangor, Maine, violated the
Americans With Disabilities Act
by refusing to treat Sidney Abbott
in his office in 1994 for fear of
contracting the virus that causes
AIDS.

The case has had a long histo-
ry, including one appearance
before the U.S. Supreme Court,
which ruled that the disabilities
act protects people with HIV
unless they pose “a direct threat”
to the health and safety of others.

Abbott was referred to
Bragdon’s office by the Eastern
Maine AIDS Network _ after
Bragdon allegedly told another
patent that he would not treat
patients with infectious diseases.
Bragdon’s lawyer said the group
targeted his client because they

wanted to use the incident-.as a,

test case.

Bragdon had offered to fill the
woman’s cavity in a hospital,
which he argued would allow
him to take additional precau-
tions against being infected.

‘Abbott refused the offer,
which would have required her to
pay $185 for a procedure that
would cost only $35 at the office.
She eventually had the cavity
filled by another dentist.

Bragdon has long argued that
performing an invasive proce-
dure on Abbott without special
precautions would put him at risk
for infection. ‘

Another appeal to the
Supreme Court is considered
likely.

lersev Scouts

TRENTON, N.J. — New
Jersey’s Supreme Court is con-
sidering whether the Boy Scouts
can legally prohibit gays from
being group leaders.

The Boy Scouts of America
want the high court to overturn a
1998 appeals court decision say-
ing dismissal of assistant scout-
master James Dale violated state
anti-discrimination law.

Dale’s attorneys told the court
the Boy Scouts are not protected
by First Amendment rights of
expression because discriminat-
ing against gays is not the specif-
ic purpose for which the group
was formed, citing such protected
groups as the Ku Klux Klan.

George Davidson, an attorney
for the Boy Scouts, said the
group has a right to pick its own
leaders without interference from
“an all powerful state.”

“An essential part of the Boy
Scout message is to be morally

straight,” Davidson said. “The
view that homosexual conduct is
an acceptable way of conducting
oneself is not morally straight.”

Evan Wolfson, representing
Dale for the Lambda Legal
Defense & Education Fund, said
the state’s laws against discrimi-
nation “are simply too com-
pelling” to overturn the appeals
court ruling.

“The Boy Scouts’ hierarchy
has a policy of discrimination,
but it is not a specific purpose of
the organization, the reason that
brought members together,” said
Wolfson. She said there is no
mention of a policy excluding
homosexuals in thousands of
pages of Boy Scout literature.

63“ Bill}

PHILADELPHIA —— The first
openly gay recruit to the
Philadelphia Police Department,
who was signed up through an
outreach campaign to the gay and
lesbian community, committed
suicide in a park near
Independence Hall.

Thomas Kalt Jr., 26, shot him- .
«self with his service revolver just

a month after’ reaching his goal of
joining the force. He reportedly

was distraught after breaking up

with his boyfriend.

Some in the gay community
fear the suicide could brand
homosexual officers as unstable.

“This is‘ not about the ability
of gay officers to serve, it is about
the personal tragedy of one man,”
Andrew S. Park, executive direc-
tor of the Center for Lesbian and
Gay Civil Rights, said Thursday.
“Many lesbians and gay men are
serving with distinction in the
police force in Philadelphia and
across the country.”

Georgia Holocaust
ATLANTA — Controversy

erupted in Georgia over literature
discussing gays who were vic-

‘ tims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Two paragraphs describing the

. Nazis’ persecution of homosexu-

als, were deleted from the 92-
page guide on advice of the
Georgia Commission on the
Holocaust. J

The deletion angered gay
leaders, who urged the commis-
sion to reconsider.

Though the state agency did
change its decision, it was too
late to reprint the 6,000 guides.
Instead, it agreed to send the
excised words in a separate letter
to all teachers who ordered the
guide.

The Holocaust commission
initially recommended the lan-
guage for. deletion out of concern
it was too sexually graphic for
young students.

Providing the missing para-
graphs separately will allow
teachers to present the material
“in an age-appropriate manner,”
said I-Iany Knox, director of the
Georgia Equality Project, a gay
advocacy group.

Here’s what the paragraphs
that offended say:

“German male homosexuals
were targeted and arrested
because they would not breed the
master race: they were an affront
to the Nazi macho image.”

“The doors of the third (cattle)
car open and the homosexuals
spill forth, males only, because as
Himmler concluded, ‘lesbians
.can give birth.’ The taunting
jeers, and blows of the guards
stun the men. They will stay a
night and then be rerouted to
Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald
to be with their kind. The pink tri-
angle they will soon wear is a
result of a judgment that they
have broken Article 175A, by
sexual act, by kissing, by embrac-
ing, by fantasy and thought.
Some will be given an opportuni-
ty to recant by successfully com-
pleting sexual activity with a
woman in the camp brothel. Most
others will find themselves tor-
mented from all sides as they
struggle to avoid being assaulted,
raped, worked and beaten to
death.” in

Don’! anneal

WASHINGTON -— The U.S.
Supreme Court justices message
on the military’s ”don’t ask, don’t
tell” policy is a simple one: Don’t
appeal to us.

The court again has refused to
consider a case appealing the pol-
icy governing gays and lesbians
in the military.

The court, without comment,
turned away arguments by two
servicemen that the policy is
based on prejudice against homo-
sexuals and violates their free-
speech rights.

The action was not a definitive
ruling, but it marked the fifth
time in recent years that the high-
est court has rejected efforts to
invalidate the_policy.

It prohibits inquiries into a
service member’s sexual orienta-
tion but allows discharge for
homosexual conduct or for a
“propensity” to engage in homo-
sexual conduct. A service mem-
ber’s statement that he or she is

"gay is considered evidence of a

propensity to engage in such acts.

Every federal appeals court
that has considered the issue has
upheld the policy.

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WASHINGTON — President
Clinton is not giving up in his
determination to appoint an
openly gay San Francisco philan-
thropist an ambassador.-

The president has sent the
nomination of James Hormel to
the Senate for confirmation as
ambassador to Luxembourg. I The
White House said it hopes “fair-
ness will prevail” in the new
Congress so he can be approved
for the job.

The Senate last year refused to
vote on the nomination of

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