s~ — -- r‘)-‘xx’. ‘io — ‘om LEGAL BY SUSAN MURRAY AND BETH ROBINSON y request, we’re departing B from our usual column style in order to report on a con- ference we recently attended. The fifth annual “Sexual Orientation and the Law” confer- ence was held at Vermont Law School on March 19, l999. While past conferences focused mainly on gay and lesbian family law issues — adoption, estate plan- ning for couples, and relationship contracts '— this year’s confer- ence had a much wider focus and featured several prominent guest speakers. New York Law School profes- sor Arthur Leonard, editor of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, report- ed on the status of state sodomy laws. He first discussed the infa- mous US Supreme Court Bowers v. Hardwick decision. In that l986 case, the court ruled that the Constitution doesn’t give gays a right to privacy against police intrusion into our own bedrooms and that a state can criminalize private consensual sex between adults of the same gender. Leonard said that ever since -!s:’l‘l;‘:“s -~ 2-:~4m.‘rszsu=;‘~i‘/‘»._ 3 ; IN THE MOUNTAINS —-A And Now For Something commerelv nirrerem T.‘ Lil 7.30 PRIL 1999 Bowers, gay rights activists have fought sodomy laws in state, not federal, courts, and have been very successful. In the last few years, state courts in “conserva- tive” states such as Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, and Georgia have struck down sodomy laws, ruling that they violate the consti- tutional right to privacy. Maryland has also voided its sodomy law, simply saying that the law doesn’t apply. to consent- ing adult homosexual conduct. Similar cases are pending in Arkansas, Texas, and Puerto. Rico; lawyers are optimistic that intrusive, discriminatory sodomy laws in those places will fall as well. Vermont’s sodomy law, which applied to gays and straights alike, was repealed by the legislature in the 1970s. Another panel at the confer- ' ence discussed the suit three VLS student groups have filed against the Department of Defense. It challenges the federal Solomon Amendment requiring VLS to allow military recruiters on cam- pus, even though the military dis- criminates against gays and both Vermont state law and VLS pro- hibit such discrimination. VLS Professor Sheldon Novick and Burlington attorney Eileen Blackwood told confer- ence attendees that the students in the suit enrolled at VLS because the school promised tolerance and inclusion; the federal govem- ment’s.insistence on discrimina- tory recruiting on campus deprives students of their funda- mental sense of well-being. The students are still waiting for the federal government to answer their complaint. In the meantime, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank and California Republican Tom Campbell have filed a bill in the US House of Representatives to repeal the Solomon Amendment. ‘ A third panel discussed mar- riage. Both of us were privileged to talk about the Vennont.mar- riage case, along with Mary Bonauto, our co-counsel from Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. VLS professor Greg Johnson updated the audience on the status of the Hawaii and Alaska marriage cases, both of which are still pending despite unfavorable votes by the public to prohibit gays from marrying. Finally, John Fisher, director of Egale, Canada’s gay civil rights organization, discussed an unfavorable ruling by a Canadian trial court on the issue of gay -i. . ,.='+»?r Ru12?. Communit ofieehouse marriage. He talked about Canadian gay rights leaders’ strategic decision to pursue “incremental” rights such as employment and immigration rights. He explained that leaders. do not think the Canadian court system is ready to grant full mar- riage rights —— and the broad range of protections it would automatically provide —— to gay citizens at this time. The conference keynote speaker was Cheryl Chase, Director of the Intersex Society of North America. She provided a heart-wrenching description of the ' physical and psychological pain suffered by those subjected to unnecessary genital surgery as children, simply because their genitals are not typically male or typically female. We’ll talk more about this issue in our next col- umn. The final event was a recep- tion at which the VLS gay stu- dent alliance presented its inau- gural Vermont Vanguard Award recognizing “those visionary members of the surrounding legal . community whose dedicated efforts in achieving equality before the law and furthering civil rights inspires action and respect by others.” Since our editor requested that we “report on the conference,” we’ll report, somewhat sheepish- ly, that the Vanguard Award was presented to yours truly, the authors of this column, as well as to our terrific co-counsel Mary Bonauto, We were honored, flat- tered, and humbled to be chosen by the incredibly dedicated and energetic VLS students. We know they will be terrific advo- cates for the rights of gay people. The conference was sponsored by an impressive array of groups: the VLS Alliance, the Equal Justice Foundation, the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, the_ Jewish Law Student Association, the Student Bar Association, and the Deans’ Office at VLS. The conference owes it success to several hard- working students, including Michael Mercer and Andrew Tarasevich, as well as Professor Greg Johnson, who organized the conference (our apologies to any- one we left out). They all did a terrific job bringing this impor- tant conferenceito the Vermont community.V Susan lllurray - and Beth Robinson are attorneys at Langrock Sperry & Wool in Middlebury whose practices include general commercial and civil litigation, employment, fam- ily, estate, personal injuery and workers compensation cases. If you ’d like our column to cover a particular legal issue of interest to our community, please write 01 TM or call us at 388-6356. Coffeehouses Saturday, April 10 from 7:30-11 :OOpm (More if you can, less if you can’t) proudly sponsored the first of our monthly Burlington GLBT Community at the Penny Cluse Cafe (Cherry and S. Winooski) during ‘which Yolanda serves and protects the open mic. hors d’ouevres, coffee, pastries, "and softdrinks come included with your $5 donation. A substance-free, all-ages event Burlington R.U.1 .2? Community Center with generous support from Outright Vermont, UVM Free to Be: GLBTA, Vermont Gay Social Alternatives (VGSA), and Mountain Pride Media by: