Court rules St. Paul

referendum valid

by Bill Calaman

ST. PAUL-The gay rights ordinance in this city is no longer in limbo It is dead.

That's the word from Minnesota gay activists since the state Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of a city referendum repealing the ordinance.

The Minnesota Committee for Gay Rights, which was largely responsible for funding the pro-ordinance legal effort. has amassed a $14.000 debt. Consequently. an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is improbable.

"We would appeal it but we just can't afford to." said Carla Messman of the St. Paul Citizens for Human Rights, who were the apellates in the case.

A member of the Minnesotal Committee for Gay Rights was even more blunt: "I don't think we could win anyway."

St. Paul City Council first approved of an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual preference in employment and housing in 1974. It was not until four years later that an anti-ordinance faction culminated its effort by getting a referendum on the primonthepin mary election ballot.

The voters of the city voted to repeal the ordinance. which prompted the human rights group to file suit. claiming the referendum was illegal (see Gay News. May 4, 1979)...

The suit offered three arguments: OK

1) The referendum was initiated long after the 45-day legal limit.

2) The referendum was muddled by the presence of two questions. Because voters are allowed but one vote each, a two-question referendum should be deemed invalid, the suit said.

3) It is unconstitutional, the suit charged, to take away one's civil liberties after they have been granted by governmental decree.

The case appeared to be a strange one.

"Yes, I was surprised (by the ruling)," said Donald Heffernan, attorney for the appellates. thought we probably might win."

די

The court disagreed, however. by a 5-3 vote with one justice abstaining. "In this state. that is quite close." Heffernan noted. He went on to say that the closeness of the vote would be taken into consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court in the event of an appeal. But because of the financial problems. of the human rights and gay rights groups that fact is of small consolation..

"It (the ruling) was a surprise in the sense that we thought we had the better legal grounds." one gay activist said. "But, on the other hand, it's typical of the attitude out here (in the Midwest)."

Messman said another ordinance might be in the working, but not until about 1982. "It's just my view of the political climate," she

Short Takes

Berner files $3.5 million suit against Briggs

. HEALDSBURG. CA-Larry Berner, the second grade teacher who became a focal point in California State senator John Briggs anti-gay Proposition 6 campaign in that state, has filed a $3.5 million invasion of privacy suit against Briggs and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

Also named in the libel and slander suit are Healdsburg school member Lee Lee and the California Defend Our Children Committee, a pro-Briggs initiative group.

In the lawsuit filed by Jerel McCrary of San Francisco's Gay Rights Advocates. Berner charges that public statements by Lee and Briggs during the campaign, as well as advertisements broadcast on KNBCTV. Los Angele. damaged Berner's reputation and.

chances for future employment and subjected him to humiliation and scorn (see Gay News, February 1979).

Berner is seeking $1 million each from the television station, Briggs, and Lee, and $500,000 from the campaign committee.

The Briggs-sponsored Proposition 6 on the November 1978 statewide ballot would have granted school boards wide discretion in firing gay teachers and teachers that "supported" homosexuality.

The initiative was rejected by the state's voters after a vituperative campaign.

Berner became the center of national attention after Briggs cited him as an example of the need for the initiative.

Novel Cruising's author says it's not homophobic

NEW YORK-The author of the novel Cruising has responded to critics of the not-yet-completed movie version of the same name.

In a letter to the editor in the Sept. 3 Village Voice. author Gerald Walker lashed out specifically at the Ad Hoc Coalition Against "Cruising" and Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell, saying. "It's astonishing that they so miss the point of the novel and the film."

"The book does not portray gay people as 'violence prone." Walker wrote in the letter. The two violent characters are depicted as latent homosexuals who cannot admit their gay tendencies.

He continued. "Almost every homosexual reader of the book who has been in touch with me or who has

written about it... has come to the identical conclusion.

Walker said in the letter that he has read the screenplay, written by director William Friedkin, but had agreed not to comment on it publicly.

The movie version of Cruising has been heavily protested and condemned by gay activists. On-location filming in Greenwich Village gas been the site of demonstrations during the past months.

Critics have charged that the movie script depicts gay people as stereotypically violence-prone and. thus dehumanizes them.

said. "I think the groundwork will Gays rap Albany's minority hiring plan mem ther

be laid for a comeback in gay rights.Y

"There are enough people coming out of the woodwork saying I'm tired of this."

Minister urges genocide

ontinued from page 21

Lovely distributed circulars throughout Watertown in midAugust. urging citizens to act against "the invasion of the homos. The following week the task force threatened to file a civil suit against Lovely for his "persecution of gays." a task force member said. Glassford later said the lawsuit threat "was more or less a tactic to get media attention.

"Basically we want to return the law and order that human government has not given us." Lovely told the Gay News. "I want to rehabilitate them if they'll repent... (but) it is the government's job to take them away if they don't And when I say (take them away) I do not mean incarceration..

Lovely said he has had nine gay people come to him who were interested in being liberated from being gay since his public outcry began.

"I don't want you slanting the view we hold as being one of blood and guts. There is blood and there is guts but there is also mercy." Lovely said.

Lovely said gays have the choice of repenting. If they choose not to repent. he said. they should be killed.

Other Christian ministers in Watertown who have taken more liberal stances on subjects such as homosexuality have called Lovely's outspokenness an embarrass-

ment. Most. like Rev. Jack Steves of the Assembly of God Church, do not condone homosexuality. but neither do they favor governmental genocide.

"I'm not defending the gay rights movement. Steves said. "I'm de-

ALBANY, NY-The city council here has adopted an affirmative action plan to promote the hiring of minorities and women, without including a clause for protection of homosexuals.

Vincent Quackenbush, president of the Capital District Gay Community Council, said his group was "disappointed" that the Albany Common Council passed the affirmative action plan without considering a measure that would prohibit discrimination on "sexual or affectional" grounds.

He said he had approached some aldermen earlier in an attempt to have the ordinance include a clause similar to one in the affirmative action plan the Troy City Council passed last winter. He said he expects to

-Bill Calaman

meet with Albany Mayor Erastus Corning II to discuss the question further."

"We haven't been sternly refused," he said.

At the council meeting, Quackenbush did not speak publicly about the plan, and no alderman discussed the question of including a sexual anti-discrimination clause.

The affirmative action plan, which has been passed in preliminary form at previous meetings, is required by the federal government as part of the city's Community Development Act funding. The council also agreed to set up an office within the city government to handle complaints about discrimination in housing.

fending the Bible and the Christian Court says gayness can't be used as character attack in trials

stand on this issue which is being misrepresented by Dan Lovely."

Steves and Lovely had tentatively agreed to debate the issue. but a disagreement in the terms of the debate has left the matter in a state of uncertainty.

As for the gays in Watertown themselves. the growing pains are not easily masked. An unwritten rule of the task force is that its members should not go out alone after dark. A doberman pinscher and a German shepherd guard the task force's downtown headquarters.

And. despite Glassford's statement that the task force is on good

COLUMBIA. SC-A state court here has ruled that in trials. evidence of a defendant's homosexuality should be used "only for relevant and proper purposes." and not as an attack on the defendant's character.

The Prosecutor, the official journal of the National Association of District Attorneys. reports that in the case State vs. Hartfield, the decision of a lower court was remanded because of the way the defendant's homosexuality was handled.

"It was not improper for the judge to admit evidence relative to the (homosexual) relationship which existIed between the defendant and the deceased (in a murder prosecution)." the state judges wrote: "however we are not at all sure but that the evidence al-

lowed. together with the argument of counsel to the jury. tended to try the defendant for being a homosexual.

"It is common knowledge that a substantial portion of the populace, and presumably a substantial portion of the jurors, look with distain (sic) upon homosexuals. When pursued for any purpose other than to prove or disprove some fact in issue, evidence of a homosexual relationship tends to become an attack upon the character of the defendant. Upon remand and at a new trial. the judge should be meticulous to see that such evidence and argument. if presented. is kept in bound and used only for relevant and proper purposes.

terms with the city's finest. the Maryland center plans conference on healing

Watertown Police Department would be just as happy if the gay people had never come out.

These people. as far as I'm concerned. are their own worst damn enemies. They bring it (harassment) or themselves." said Joseph Loftus. chief of police

Still the task force appears determined to persevere. "We're making our plans. Glassford said. "And we're going to be here (to see them through).

FREELAND. MD-A fall conference. Healing Ourselves/Women and Health. will take place Pct. 5. 6. and 7 at Heathcote Center. The theme of the weekend centers around alternatives to traditional health care offered to women. Women have relied on established medical technology. giving up control and responsibility for their health. Healing Ourselves/Women and Health hopes to provide an atmosphere..in which alternatives can be explored.

Planned workshops include Politics of Traditional Women's Health Care Self-examination. Women's

Spirituality. Natural and Home Birth. Nutrition. Mental Health, and more. In addition, there will be a celebration of the full moon and morning yoga.

Cost of the conference is $40 for women and $20 for children, which includes meals and lodging. Child care will be provided by advance arrangement. Space is limited. so please pre-register. Contact Heathcote. .Center. 21300 Heathcote Road. Freeland. MD (Northern Baltimore County). or call (301) 329-6041 for more information.

GAY NEWS-Sept. 21, 1979