OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — AUGUST 1999 — 3 ® the rest of our worltl...... BEIIIIISIS IIII EIEIVS ATLANTA Southern Baptists aren’t too happy that President Clinton supports gays and lesbians. At their annual convention, members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination voted to rebuke the president for pro- claiming June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. “We’re not going to allow the president, especially since he is a Southern Baptist, to say that homosexuality is good,” said the Rev. Wiley Drake of Buena Park, California. The resolution also called on Clinton to rescind his appoint- ment of James Honnel, who is gay, as ambassador to Luxembourg. UNIONDALE, N.Y. — In a landmark ruling, a former police officer was awarded $380,000 by a federal jury that found Nassau County police officers discrimi- nated against him because he is Say- The Long Island federal court verdict was the first time in New York ~ and one of the few times in the nation — that a jury has held a government entity liable for anti-gay harassment, legal experts said. James Quinn, who joined the force in 1986, charged that after fellow officers learned in 1987 that he was gay, they discriminat- ed against him in the form of pranks and pornographic pictures hung around the stationhouse. He said supervisors repeatedly ignored his complaints. Quinn’s lawyers sued under a federal civil rights statute that bars law ofiicers from violating the constitutional rights of citi- zens. His lawyers then argued that gays were entitled to protec- tion from harassment. The judge ruled that the 14th Amendment to . the Constitution protects gays and lesbians “as aclass.” HIIIIIW Elliflflll CHICAGO — A family from suburban Chicago faces eviction from their cottage in a United Methodist Church campground for supporting gay and lesbian rights. The notice came after Bill and Nannette Graham’s 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, posted signs in the cottage’s windows supporting gay friends they say were being discriminated against by the campground. Her move angered trustees at the Historic United Methodist Campground, who threw the Grahams out and threatened to change their cottage’s locks. Mrs. Graham said the dispute started last summer when two men rented one of the 100 cot- tages on the campground, located in suburban Des Plaines. Rumors surfaced that the couple was homosexual, and campers ' demonstrated in front of their cot- tage. The couple was told they would not be welcome back. The Grahams sent a letter to the Chicago District Camp- ground Association board, which runs the camp, informing them that the two men would be their house guests, but they were told they couldn’t. Amelia responded by displaying posters proclam- ing: “Gays and lesbians, bisexu- als and transgenders, welcome.” SEX. lIl‘ll!IS, and demonic Biblical IGIBIBIIOES ROANOAKE, Va. — As if Tinky Winky weren’t enough. Now Jerry Falwell’s minions are warning about the “demonic legend” behind the female music tour called Lilith Fair, created in 1997 by singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. “Many young people no doubt attend the Lilith Fair concerts not knowing the demonic legend of the mystical woman whose name the series manifests,” an editor of National Liberty Journal wrote in June. According to ancient Jewish literature, God created Lilith as Adam’s first wife, but she left Eden afier refusing to be submis- sive to Adam. Lilith Fair got its name from the original aspect of the mystical character, a woman seeking equality and indepen- dence, tour publicist Ambrosia Healy said. The article in Falwell’s con- servative Christian newspaper, headlined, “Secrets of the Lilith Fair,” points out that there are many conflicting accounts of the Lilith character, and then outlines the darker aspects. It was printed in the same col- umn in which the warning was issued that the Teletubbies star Tinky Winky was a gay role model. IIW Ifflflllllfllll WASHINGTON — According to a national study of AIDS treat- ment, women and IV drug users are less likely than gay men to receive revolutionary life-pro- longing drugs. The study, which began in 1996, indicated early on that blacks, Latinos, people with Medicaid, and those without health insurance were also less likely to receive newer drugs and other important health care ser- vices. Two years into the study, the gap had narrowed significantly for Latinos and blacks. However, research found that women — who most often get HIV through sex with a drug user —— still not only received less advanced treat- ments, but were more likely not to be in treatment at all. A partial explanation for the gap is that gay men, the other large segment of the AIDS popu- lation, has greater access to health care. There are many AIDS clinics in the gay commu- nity but few that are targeted to drug users, said Peter Lurie of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “The injection drug users are a relatively forgotten part of this epidemic,” he said. Journalist Sill!!! SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A gay journalist has avoided prose- cution for allegedly using the Internet to solicit sex from a teenager. Judge Rudolph Loncke dis- missed the charge that Bruce Mirken attempted to perfonn a lewd and lascivious act on a child. The judge agreed with the defense that there was insuffi- cient evidence against Mirken, 42, who would have faced up to four years in prison if convicted. The journalist argued that he was merely doing research for a story. Police started investigating Mirken after he answered an electronic message they posted in a chat room, posing as a boy named Anthony. Anthony’s mes- sage said he was looking for an adult friend. Mirken was arrested last July in the Sacramento park where he went to meet the fabricated 13- year-old Anthony. [H |IlI||’lIBI‘8I’ SEIIIGIIBBII LOS ANGELES — A man who admitted to killing five gay men has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. ' Juan Chavez, 35, told police he killed the men to stop the spread of AIDS. He avoided a possible death sentence by changing his pleas to guilty about 10 days into his trial. In September 1996, he was charged with killing Alfred Miess Rowswell, 46, Reuben Panis, 56, Donald Kleeman, 48, Michael Cates, 45, and Leo Hildebrand, 52. cuiltv Illea in Alabama murder ROCKFORD, Ala. — One of two men accused of beating a gay man to death with an ax handle for allegedly making a pass at them has pleaded guilty to mur- der. District Attorney Fred Thompson said that in return for the guilty plea, he will recom- mend life without parole for Steven Eric Mullins, 25. A judge will make the deci- sion after a trial-like hearing set for Aug. 2. Mullins faced the death penalty. On the same day, co-defen- dant Charles M. Butler Jr., 21, will go on trial on capital murder charges in the slaying of Billy Jack Gaither, 39. Arrests in flag burning COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two protesters were arrested at the Ohio Statehouse after one of them took down the rainbow flag and burned it, authorities said. Charles Spingola, 43, and Donald Richardson, 63, were taken into custody during an altercation between the protesters and gay rights advocates, said Lt. John Born of the State Highway Patrol. Spingola, accused of taking down the flag and burning it, has been charged with rioting, crimi- nal damaging and disorderly con- duct. Richardson has been charged with disorderly conduct and misconduct in an emergency, said a Franklin County Municipal Court clerk who declined to give her name. cars (In lam ||aI'l3lIIS BOSTON -—— The highest court in Massachusetts has affirmed the right of gays and les- bians to have visitation rights with their children after a breakup. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a case of a lesbian who helped her partner raise her son, saying the woman was “de facto” — or “in fact” — a parent of the child. “It is to be expected that chil- dren of nontraditional families, like other children, form parent relationships with both parents, whether those parents are legal or de facto,” Justice Ruth Abrams wrote for the four-member majority. Bfllllllfllla IllIII‘lIBI’S REDDING, Calif. -— Two brothers suspected of killing a gay couple also are under investi- gation for torching three syna- gogues. Benjamin Matthew Williams, 31, and James Tyler Williams, 29, have been arraigned Friday on charges of receiving stolen prop- erty, which prosecutors said was linked to the killings of Gary Matson and Winfield Scott Mowder. Literature espousing white supremacist beliefs was found by deputies at the brothers’ home outside Redding in northern California, said Shasta County sheriff’s Capt. Ron Richardson. Matson, 50, and Mowder, 40, were found shot in their bed July 1 in their Happy Valley home about 180 miles north of San Francisco. The FBI said that two men possibly connected to the syna- gogue fires had been arrested by Shasta deputies. It did not identi- fy the men. IIom_an catholic renrlmand VATICAN CITY — A priest and a nun from Baltimore were ordered by the Vatican to end their 22-year-long ministry to gays and lesbians because they refused to condemn homosexual- ity as intrinsically evil. The Rev. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick are barred for life from ministering to gays and lesbians, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said. The congregation is a toned down and modern version of the institution that carried out the Inquisition, which rooted out heresies, moral infractions and challenges to church authority from the 13th century and into the 19th. The body said Nugent and Gramick “have caused confusion among the Catholic people and have hanned the community of the church.” Pope John Paul II endorsed the congregation’s decision in May, it said. cav IIIOIIBV 0|] EDIE WASHINGTON Vice President Al Gore is finding some deep pockets in the gay commu- nity. Tipper Gore scooped up more than $150,000 for her husband’s campaign last month and promised contributors he would “fight for your dreams.” A Gore administration, she pledged, would “stand against forces of hatred.” Her husband, Vice President Al Gore, “will fight for your dreams. He will fight for OUR dreams,” she added. V Next month in 0I'|'M V What is the Millenium March on Washington, and what’s all the fighting about? V A preview of Lucie Blue Tremblay