March 2000 continued from p.3 Later in the day, he back- tracked, saying rather that he had had suspicions and might have been told that certain men were gay. He made it clear that it was a private matter that he did not pursue. The important thing is not whether McCain can spot gay people but what he does about it, said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group. “I think we all have thoughts about people beyond what we know. When it leads to discrim- ination, that’s wrong.” Yes to nail iurors SANTA ANA, Calif. —Jury duty shouldn’t depend on someone’s sexuality, says a California appeals court. The court says jurors cannot be excluded simply because they are gay and cannot be asked by lawyers about their sexual orientation. Rulings dating from 1978 have banned discrimination againstjurors based on race and gender because of a defendant’s right to a jury chosen from a cross—section of society. The same right bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, the 4th District Court of Appeal said Monday. The court said gays and les- bians meet the standard of past rulings: a definable group with a common, unique perspective, based on its status in society. “It cannot argued in this era of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ that homosexuals do not have a common perspec- tive,” Justice William Bedsworth said in the 3-0 rul- ing. “They share a history of persecution comparable to that blacks and women share.” “W SB!II'B!IaIIOIl WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing seg- regation of prison inmates with AIDS. The court declined to take a L case from Alabama where inmates argued that the policy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The justices were toldthat only Mississippi and South Carolina similarly require such iv extensive segregation of HIV- .. positive inmates. “It’s unsettling that no one I with the power to influence Alabama’s prison policy — including the Alabama Legislature and all branches of the federal government — is will- ing to address this total under- mining of the ADA’s language and intent,” said Catherine Hanssens of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. seriously be I I Hale and IIBBIIOIII LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — An interesting debate has erupt- ed in southern California about free speech and potential hate crimes. It began with a homophobic remark — dirty words yelled out a car window as William Petrasich walked along a street in Southern California. When he told police, Petrasich was turned away. No crime committed, they said. So he took his case public in a letter-writing campaign. The result is a new police policy of documenting hate speech even when no crime is committed. The policy has ignited a debate about free speech in this Orange County oceanside resort community. “When the government starts to record what people say, is your speech really free?” said Peter Eliasberg of the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles. “If the speech is pro- tected, the government has no business of keeping track of it. They are trampling on the Constitution.” But those who have been tar- geted by such remarks say it’s a matter of safety and being able to walk the streets withoutfear of harassment. “I respect the First Amendment, but I also have a right to be free of verbal S O m assault,” said Petrasich, an attorney at 20th Century Fox studios. He is also gay. Ilruus slow AIDS Sllfeall 0 SAN FRANCISCO — Protease inhibitors have not only been vastly successful in saving lives, but also appear to be slowing the spread of AIDS. But health experts worry this victory will be wiped out by a new complacency among those at risk. Protease inhibitors and other drugs have changed AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable chronic disease over the past four years. In the process, they lower people’s virus levels dra- matically, often to the point where the virus cannot be detect- ed on the most sensitive tests. Doctors have speculated that since many people have vastly lower virus levels in their bod- ies, they are also probably less likely to pass the virus on to others through sex. Indirect evidence of this was made public at the 7th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. - llral I'ISI(S SAN FRANCISCO — There are new health concerns about oral sex. Scientists say oral sex appears to be a surprisingly fre- quent way of spreading AIDS. A study found that oral sex C I’ O foundation of Vermont Our Mission- , The Samara Foundation of Vermont is a '" charitable foundation» whose mission is to support and strengthen Vermont's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities today and build an endowment for tomorrow. How To Contact Us; 90 main street p.o. box 1263 burlington, Vermont 05402-1263 p. 802-860-6236 f. 802-860-6315 info@samarafo'undation.org www.samarafoundation.org was probably the cause of 8 percent of recent HIV infec- tions among a group of gay men examined in San Francisco. In the past, there have been occasional reports of people apparently catching HIV orally. But health investigators have had difficulty being certain, since gay men who have oral sex also may engage in other, riskier sex practices, such as anal intercourse. Now diagnostic tests allow doctors to narrow down the timing of HIV infections. They were used in the latest study, described as the most definitive on the subject to date. The work was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of California at San Francisco, and was presented in San Francisco at a scientific conference. Ill} AIIIS crisis KANSAS CITY — The Roman Catholic Church is being forced to confront the AIDS crisis right at home. Priests in the United States are dying from AIDS—related illnesses at a rate four times higher than the general popula- tion and the cause is often con- Out in the Mountains 5 cealed on their death certifi- cates, the Kansas City Star reported in Feburary. In the first of a three-part series, the newspaper said death certificates and interviews with experts indicated several hun- dred priests have died of AIDS- related illnesses since the mid- 1980s and hundreds more are living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease. “I think this speaks to a fail- ure on the part of the church,” said Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit. “Gay priests“ and heterosexual priests didn’t know how to handle" their sexu- ality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy.” The Star received 801 responses to questionnaires that were sent last fall to 3,000 of the 46,000 priests in the United States. The margin of error of the survey was 3.5 percentage points. Six of 10 priests responding said they knew of at least one priest who had died of an AIDS-related illness, and one- third knew a priest living with AIDS. Three-fourths said the church needed to provide more education to seminarians on sexual issues. V ‘ ‘:9 /i/ee co//Le, .9 /iée fea... OPEN-IVIIC COFFEEIIOUSE S/\'I‘°|VIAIlCI'l Bring your talents and charm to an open-mic evening of wit, song, verse, and surprises. Gender-bend with queer folks from your neck of the woods and Tl2ANS-form your winter woes into \X/O\X/S! Admission: $5 (more if you can, less if you can't) Stone Soup Cafe (College St. Burlington) All Ages Welcome 860-1044 - ru12@blgheavyworld.com http://homepages.together.net/~lerpad/ru12/index.html 11°7:30-11PM SPECIAL GUEST HOSTS: The Youth Planning Committee of Outrlght VT TRANSGENDER ARTISTS ENCOURAGED TO PERFORM Brought to you by Burlington I2.U.1.2? Community Center and Outright Vermont with financlal support from the Samara Foundation.