AIT

Clara Fraser Loses A Round Fights On

New York (LNS)-When Hearing Examiner Sally Pasette issued a report in late June upholding former Seattle City Light employee Clara Fraser's claim of discrimination on the grounds of political ideology, it appeared that Fraser's six-year battle was almost over. On July 21, however, the three-woman hearing panel, by a 2-1 vote; overruled Hearing Examiner Pasette and stated that Fraser had been legally fired from her position as director of the Electrical Trades Trainee program for women.

Fraser herself, a veteran socialist and feminist activist, was "outraged and indignant" about the deci-

sion but hardly prepared to throw in the towel. She vowed to take her case into the courts if necessary and "continue this fight until free speech in the workplace and the related right to criticize and challenge management policies are legally vindicated." Her outrage was seconded by the city Human Rights Department and by literally hundreds of organizations and individuals-women, labor activists and supporters of civil liberties and human rights who have come out in support of Fraser.

The broad support for Fraser stems from the importance of her case as the first test of the clause in

New Hope in Lesbian Custody

New York (LNS)-In a decision that both New Jersey feminists and Superior Court Judge William D'Annunzio said they hoped would be "groundbreaking," a Trenton, New Jersey law student who is a lesbian was granted permanent custody of her children aged 10 and 11 on July 22. The decision favoring Rosemary Dempsey is considered a landmark ruling and a step on the road to establishing gay parents' sexual preference as-"only one factor in many in determining the best interests of the child." Dempsey told a reporter for the New York Daily News that the ruling will begin to "make it possible for women who are living together in fear to lead normal lives."

When asked what charges had been brought against Dempsey, Maggie Wales, who shares a house with Dempsey and has three children of her own, told LNS, "That she is a lesbian:" Describing the outcome, Wales added, "But even the judge ruled that it was not the court's role to judge the relative merits of

Miss-Nomers

(HerSay)—The California founder of a right-wing organization called Concerned Women for Action has begun expanding her group's activities beyond the state's borders. Beverly LaHaye of El Cajon, California, founded the organization in 1978. The. group, which opposes the women's movement,) abortion and gay rights, now claims 105,000 members, plus 11,000 new converts per month.

Concerned Women for Action paid $30,000 for anti-ERA television ads in Illinois just prior to that state's June vote on the proposed amendment. Says LaHaye, "If it becomes necessary, we will go to other states".

Unions Woo Women

(HerSay)-Labor organizations are apparently taking an interest in organizing women. The AFLCIO has announced it is setting up a new program forwomen under its Department of Professional Employees, which will study such issues as pay inequities, sex segregation, automation, alternative work schedules and sexual harassment. The head of the department, Jack Golodner, says the new Women's Project will study women in salaried professional, occupations and women on union staff positions, as well as women in such occupations as nursing, engineering, teaching, science, acting, banking, filmmaking, social work and administration jobs. These women reportedly make up more than 16 percent of all American women who work, yet they *earn only 70 percent of what men receive in the same fields.

that relationship as opposed to a heterosexual relationship.'

D'Annunzio called plaintiff Edward Belmont's evidence against Dempsey "woefully inadequate” and said that he had failed to prove the charge that the children's environment interfered with their psycho-sexual development. "But even if the burden of proof were on the mother," Judge D'Annunzio wrote in his opinion, "that burden has been carried. The children are doing well in every respect, being brought up in a loving, though unconventional, family."

Belmont based his plea for custody on the belief that a more conventional upbringing would benefit the children, a common strategy in custody cases. According to Wales, "He tried to paint a picture of the bad inner city of Trenton. Whether or not the school system is better out here or there, whether or not the children have trees and grass, wasn't reallyruled on because, all in all, he [D'Annunzio] could see that what we have here is good. The children are well-adjusted, and that should be the criteria."

Wales added that she hopes "other women will benefit" from what she called "an outstanding decision."

Catholics vs. Sex

(HerSay)-Catholic bishops in the United States have called on Catholic hospitals not to perform sterilization operations on, women. The bishops acknowledged their decision could mean problems in cases where "pregnancy might pose serious risks to the life and health of the mother." However, a state-

TAP!

Marlette/College Press Service ment included with the bishops' directive, written by lay theologian Dr. William May, explained that couples with such problems ought to abstain from sex, if natural family planning didn't work. Wrote May: "Such couples need the help of the church and of Christ," and, to refrain from doing evil, should "open their hearts to the reign of God".

Seattle's fair employment practices ordinance that bars job discrimination on the basis of political ideology. The selective harassment and firing of an outspoken radical woman who played a leading rolę during a 1974 walkout by City Light emplyees helped forge an unusual alliance among labor unions, feminists and leftists.

Over the dissent of Elizabeth Ponder, the lone Black woman on the panel, Fraser was found guilty of being "argumentative [and] contentious...in dealing with colleagues and management." Apparently those qualities are grounds for firing a woman employee but are perfectly acceptable in a male manager. The same report described Fraser's chief adversary, then-Superintendent Gordon Vickery, as "an outspoken, arrogant and demanding manager known to speak pejoratively to or about any subordinate who has displeased him."

"I was being tried for my personal style and all those things that women must not be but which are assets for a man," Fraser commented.

JP Stevens Boycott Goes On

New York (LNS)-From the headlines, it sounded like a great victory for labor. Settlement was near between the J.P. Stevens textile company and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. And so was an end to the long boycott of the company.

According to a spokesperson for ACTWU, negotiations are going on, but a settlement is not in sight. The union representative charged that the news stories had been planted by J. P. Stevens to break the boycott during a crucial period..

Double Discrimination

(HerSay)-Dorothy Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women, attended both the official and the alternative women's 'conferences in Copenhagen in July to speak out against apartheid. Addressing the alternative conference, Height ⚫ cited a remark she heard from an Alabama black woman following the civil rights struggle in the American south. The black woman said she "didn't stand up for my rights as a black person to sit down on them as a woman." Height added, "Now we have to address the global sphere. Unless we deal with the double discrimination of race and sex, the black women and women of color will not have their needs met....Unless we deal with the race problems of all women, the goals of this conference will never þe fully realized."

Spanish Feminists Outlawed

(HerSay)-Members of the Feminist Party in Spain are appealing to women in other nations to put pressure on their governments to allow their party to operate legally.

The Interior Minister of the Spanish monarchy, according to a report in the West German feminist magazine Courage, has refused to grant legal status to Spain's feminist political party., Thé minister reportedly rejected the request for legal status on the grounds that the party membership requirements were "too authoritarian". The Feminist Party of Spain allows only women members,

As a result of the decision, Spanish feminists, as a political group, have become an "outlaw" organization, Courage says.

September, 1980/What She Wants/Page 5