OUT ._ IN THE MOUNTAINS »-"MARCH--1999 - 7

[tall Thesaurus
DULLES, Va. —— A thesaurus is
gaining a little gay sensitivity.

America Online and the
Merriam-Webster Inc. Web site
removed a thesaurus from the
Web temporarily so it could
delete ‘fruit’ and ‘faggot’ from
the synonyms for ‘homosexual.’

The thesaurus is being further
reworked to remove all syn-
onyms for ‘homosexual’ and to
clarify symbols indicating poten-
tially offensive words.

Deborah Burns, Merriam-
Webster’s director of marketing,
said the company decided to
remove all synonyms for ‘homo-
sexual’ to conform with a 25-
year-old policy‘ not to offer
entries for racial or ethnic’ groups.

“Along the way, we should
have incorporated sexual groups
into that same policy,” she said.
“But first, we’re making an apol-
ogy about this. We were_in error
in a couple of ways and we’re

glad someone has brought it to.

our attention.”

Pone_antI gay
marriages

VATICAN CITY — Pope John

Paul II is reaffimting his intransi-
gent stance against gay mar-

riages.

The pope complained that
efforts to recognize gay unions in
the same way as marriages
between men and women con-
tribute to the “widespread deteri-
oration of the. natural and reli-
gious sense of marriage.”

Although a few small cities
and towns in Italy have recently
given gay couples benefits such
as pensions and public housing,
the Vatican frowns on such initia-
tives.

The pope’s long-standing
position is that homosexuals
should be treated compassionate-
ly. But he rules out homosexual
sex along with any sex outside
marriage.

“It’s not possible to ignore the
growing phenomenon of simple
de facto unions and the insistent
opinion campaigns to obtain con-
jugal dignity for unions even
among people from the same
sex,” John Paul said.

“It is only‘ in the ‘union
between two sexually different
persons that the perfection of the
individual can occur, in a synthe-
sis of unity and of mutual psy-
chic-physical completeness,” the
pope told officials from the
Vatican tribunal that rules on
requests for marriage annul-
ments.

Gall discharges
WASHINGTON — ‘Don’t ask,
don’t tell’ has led to a lot of dis-
charges.

Air Force and Army officials
say they‘ve had big increases in
the number of discharges of gay

personnel and the total number

for all branches of the armed ser-
vices was the largest in a decade.

Air Force officials said they
believe many of their discharges
were young recruits declaring
themselves homosexual to secure
a quick and penalty-free exit
from thegservice.

The Army said only that most
of those being discharged were
young recruits or in their first
year of service.

More than half the Air F orce’s
414 discharges were at Lackland
Air Force Base in Texas, where
recruits do six weeks of basic
training. In the vast majority of
cases, the person voluntarily stat-
ed that he or she was gay, off-
cials said. .

’ “In virtually every self-initiat-
ed disclosure, the second state-
ment made is, ‘I’d also like to be
discharged,”’ said David Smith
of Air Education and Training
Command at Randolph Air Force
Base, Texas.

He said this led officials to
conclude that a growing number
of recruits are using a gay decla-
ration to escape the service.’

The Army reported a 50 per-
cent increase in discharges last
year to 310; the Navy said its
number fell by nearly a quarter to
345; the Marine Corps had a
slight drop to 76.

Most were reported as volun-
tary statements of homosexuality,
although only the Air Force
expressed a belief they were
excuses for getting out.

IIOIIJGEIISI victims
BERLIN — Gays and lesbians
who died at the hands of the
Nazis are being recognized for
the first time.

Holocaust memorial day ser-
vices at the former
Sachs_enhausen concentration
camp remembered homosexual
victims of the Nazis. It was the

first official commemoration of .

the estimated 10,000 gays perse-
cuted during World War II.

“There were different groups
of victims, but all were victims
and all should be commemorated
in the same way. There should be
no discrimination between
groups of Nazi victims,” said
Horst Seferens, spokesman for
the memorial. ’ »

Sachsenhausen had about
1,000 homosexual inmates, more
than other concentration camps
because of its proximity to
Berlin’s thriving gay culture,
Seferens said.

Identified by pink triangles on ~

their uniforms, gay prisoners
were isolated and subjected to
particularly hard labor.

Gav treasurer

NEW YORK — The Democratic

National Committee’s nominee

for treasurer is a gay man.
Andrew Tobias‘ appointment

is expected to be confirmed at a

DNC meeting in March. He

    ® IIIG IBSI 0i 0llI' Will’

replaces Carol Pensky and will
serve at least through the 2000
election.

It’s not exactly a high-paying
job. He’ll be paid a dollar.

“I am really gonna hang
tough. I am determined to get that
dollar,” Tobias said.

Tobias is known for his witty
guide to personal finance and
thrift, The Only Investment Guide
You '11 Ever Need, his work on
Worth magazine, and his
acclaimed memoir about coming
of age as a gay man, The Best
Little Boy in the World.

unsafe SEX

ATLANTA — Perhaps it’s time
for a new campaign about safe
sex.

The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention found
that the number of gay men in
San Francisco who reported hav-
ing unprotected anal sex
increased to 39.2 percent in 1997,
from 30.4 percent in 1994.

Those who said they had
unprotected sex with multiple
partners grew to 33 percent in
1997, up from 23.6 percent in
1994, the CDC said. Males 25
and younger accounted for the
largest increase in that group.

The agency said there .is
mounting evidence that young
gay and bisexual men are less
likely to engage in safe sex than
older counterparts.

“The younger group hasn’t
grown up watching their partners
and friends die of this disease,”
said Dr. Richard Steketee of the
CDC’s HIV/AIDS prevention
branch.

Suntlavsenoal
IBSSIIIIS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Southern
Baptists are getting some interest-
ing new Sunday school lessons.

Adults attending those classes
are being given. lessons on how
homosexuals can “change.”

“I hope through this lesson that
people would see an open door
for all sinners and come and have
a changed life through Jesus
Christ,” said Ross McLaren, who
worked on the lessons.

McLaren, a biblical studies
specialist at Lifeway Christian
Resources, the publishing arm of
the 15.6-million-member
Southern Baptist Convention,
said the lessons condemn homo-
sexuality but not homosexuals.

Bill Turner, co-chairman of the
Lesbian and Gay Coalition for
Justice in Tennessee, said he finds

the idea of “hate the sin but love‘

the sinner” patronizing.

“I know plenty of lesbian and
gay Christians who are quite con-
vinced that they have a perfectly
adequate relationship with God
and are still gay,” said Turner,
adding he is not contesting
Southern Baptists’ right to teach
what they want.

Berg tlies

NEW YORK — A leader in the
struggle for better treatment of
gays and lesbians in the armed
services has died. -

Vernon Berg was an artist and
one of the first officers to stand
up to the military after he was
discharged for being homosexu-
al. He died ofcomplications from
AIDS. He was 47.

Berg was given an “other than
honorable” discharge from the
Navy as an ensign in 1976 after
an investigation revealed he was
in a gay relationship. ,

He sued, and the armed forces
later adopted a policy of general-
ly granting honorable discharges
to homosexuals.

In 1978, a federal appeals
court ruled Berg and another offi—
cer were unfairly discharged, but
didn’t reinstate them. Instead, his
discharge was upgraded to honor-
able.

llateerimes

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The
state where Matthew Shepard
died has refused to enact a hate
crimes statute.

Wyoming is one of nine states
without bias crimes laws, and
lawmakers have rejected similar
measures four times since 1995.

After Shepard’s death in
October, calls for a bias crimes
law increased, and Republican
Gov. Jim Geringer supported it
for the first time.

Two measures died in the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
Both would have increased the
maximum fine for a felony by up
to $5,000 and raised the maxi-
mum prison sentence by up to
five years if prosecutors could
prove the crime was motivated by
bias. »

Nlllffl name

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Gays
and lesbians have been specifi-
cally left out of an anti-discrimi-
nation policy at Notre Dame
University.

School ofiicials fear including
homosexuals in the anti-discrimi-
nation policy would allow the
courts to interpret Roman
Catholic doctrine.

The university’s Board of
Fellows, charged with maintain-
ing the school’s Roman Catholic
character, said in a statement
from London that they did not
“believe that the university
should leave to civil courts the
interpretation and application of
Church teaching.”

The decision thwarted plans
by homosexual students to test
the university’s discrimination
policies in federal court, exactly
what the school feared most, said
Tim Byrne, a member of the
Progressive Student Alliance that
has fought for the change.

“In the short run, we’ll try to
win some smaller battles to attack

some other things were after on
a department by department
basis,” he said. “I guess we
retract a little bit and get at the
small gains.”

Gav Teletuhllv
ROANOKE, Va. — Welcome to
the crowd, Tinky Winky.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell is try-
ing to out the purple, purse-toting
character on television’s popular
Te/etuhbies children’s show.
Falwell suggests the character is
gay.

A spokesman for ltsy Bitsy

~ Entertainment Co., which licens-

es the Telctubbies in the United
States, said the purse is actually
Tinky Winky’s magic bag.

“The fact that he carries a
magic bag ’doesn’t make him
gay,” Steve Rice said. “lt’s a chil-
dren’s show, folks. To think we
would be puttingisexual innuen-
do in a children’s show is kind of

outlandish.”
The February edition of
Falwell’s National Liberty

Journal contains an article warn-
ing parents that the Teletubby
with the triangular antenna may
be a gay role model.

To support its claim, the publi- '

cation says Tinky Winky has a

_ boy’s voice but carries a purse.

“He is purple — the gay-pride
color; and his antenna is shaped
like a triangle — the gay-pride
symbol.”

Falwell contends the “subtle
depictions” are intentional and
issued a statement Tuesday that
said, “As a Christian, I feel that
role modeling the gay lifestyle is
damaging to the moral lives of
children.”

Sotlumv in
louisiana

NEW ORLEANS — It’s legal to
have sex in Louisiana.

An appeals court has thrown
out a I94-year-old Louisiana law
against sodomy, saying that con-
sensual oral and anal sex is pro-
tected by_the right to privacy in
the state constitution.

The court unanimously
reversed the I996 conviction of
Mitchell E. Smith. He had been
accused of raping a woman but
found guilty under the state’s
“crimes against nature” statute
only of having her perform oral
sex.

“There can be no doubt that
the right of consenting adults to
engage in private non-commer-
cial sexual activity, free from
governmental interference, is
protected by the privacy clause of

the Louisiana Constitution,” the _

judges wrote.

The decision reversed Smith’s
conviction and his sentence of
two years probation. V