PAGE 6 THE WEEKLY NEWS MARCH 9, 1988

NEWS lines

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL,

SENATOR ALBERT GORE (D-TENN.) TOLD A SAN FRANCISCO GAY NEWSPAPER LAST MONTH THAT A PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER BANNING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAY AND LESBIAN PERSONS WOULD BE THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT

DISCRIMINATION.

PHOTO BY STACY RINE.

Gore Pledges To Sign Executive Order?

SAN FRANCISCO Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Albert Gore (D-Tenn.) told a San Francisco gay newspaper last month that, if elected, he would sign an executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. In response to questions from Bay Area Reporter on how he would stop discrimination, he stated, "We should eliminate such discrimination through, for example, an executive order banning it in the federal government and through leadership from a President who understands why such prejudice has to be a thing of the past." Addressing AIDS, Gore said, "Ninety percent of the political rhetoric has had to do with testing when that is really five percent of the problem. In rare cases testing can be justified, but to do it on low risk groups and to do it on a random basis, that's crazy and it's a waste of resources. And what do you do when you find someone who has the virus?" Meanwhile, in Georgia, five openly gay delegates were elected on January 30, the state's delegate selection day. As many as three gay delegates are expected to make it to the Democratic Convention in Atlanta this summer. All of the openly gay candidates have pledged to Gore, as they expect he will win the largely middle-class Atlanta vicinity districts from which they hail.

Lesbian Wins Round In Legal Battle

MINNEAPOLIS Karen Thompson, a Minnesota lesbian who has been battling for the last three years to regain guardianship of her disabled lover Sharon Kowalski, won one round in her legal battle last month when a state judge ruled that Sharon's father, Donald Kowalski, was in violation of the terms of his guardianship for not having Sharon annually tested for competency. Sharon Kowalski had lived with Thompson for four years in a closeted lesbian relationship before Kowalski was critically injured in a 1983 car accident. Thompson asserts that Sharon was recovering until her parents learned of their lesbian relationship and Donald Kowalski subsequently gained unlimited guardianship of Sharon. Thompson has been waging her legal battle in hopes that Sharon would be tested before an impartial evaluator that would find that Sharon is indeed competent to make her own decisions. If allowed to make those decisions, Thompson adds, Sharon would express her desire to be cared for by Thompson, rather than in the nursing home where she is now being kept. CBS's West 57th is currently still working on a documentary of Thompson's battle. No date had been announced for the airing of the segment.

Civil Rights Restoration Act Passes Congress WASHINGTON Despite threats of a veto from the White House, the Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act last Wednesday by a large margin. The bill mandates the withdrawal of any and all federal funds from institutions whose components discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race or handicap. An amendment to the bill proposed by Senator Gordon Humphrey (RN.H.), which would have removed protection as a handicap for the HIV infected, was averted last month and supplanted with provisions which retain handicap protections intact. The bill, as passed by the Congress, bars employment discrimination against AIDS patients and those with other diseases unless the disease poses a threat to the health and safety of others or prevents the worker

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from performing her or his job. All Florida Democratic Representatives voted for the measure and were joined by Republicans Bill McCollum (R-Altamonte Springs) and C.W. Bill Young (R-St. Petersburg). Republican House members voting against the measure were: Michael Bilirakis (RClearwater), Andy Ireland (R-Winter Haven), Tom Lewis (R-Palm Beach Gardens) and Clay Shaw (R-Ft. Lauderdale). Rep. Connie Mack III (R-Ft. Myers) did not vote.

Civil Rights Commission Snubs Gay Inclusion

WASHINGTON On February 12, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), a body created by Congress in 1957 to provide advice on civil rights, passed a resolution on the Hate Crimes Statistics Act which excluded provisions for the collection of statistics on hate crimes based on sexual orientation. According to a USCCR press release, the original resolution included the sexual orientation clause which was removed later when Commissioner Clarence Pendleton objected to the inclusion of the clause. Commissioner William B. Allen stated that he was "not. comfortable with the language of sexual orientation prejudice," adding that he would be "much happier if it were not in there." The commission has been criticized by civil rights groups in recent years for being an advocate of conservative views, most members having been appointed by President Reagan. Kevin Berrill, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Anti-Violence Project Director, called the commission's exclusion of the sexual orientation clause "a revolting act of bigotry a slap in the face of the lesbian and gay community." He added, "We can only infer that the commission believes that violence against gay people is less reprehensible than violence against other groups." The Hate Crimes Statistics Act will be up for a vote before the House of Representatives in less than two months and NGLTF has learned that at least one Representative will be making a motion to strike the sexual orientation clause. (A sample letter to your legislator appears elsewhere in this week's edition.)

Chris Williamson Concert Picketed

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Anti-gay protesters picketed a February 6 concert by women's music singer Chris Williamson after a local mainstream newspaper, Creative Loafing, ran a large story on the upcoming concert characterizing it as a lesbian coming-out event, reports The Front Page, a North Carolina gay and lesbian weekly. Producers of the concert insist that press releases promoting the concert were never sent to Creative Loafing. Promoters touted the event by writing, "Chris Williamson's Charlotte appearance has given many local lesbians a tough choice stand up and be counted or stay in the shadows." A group of ten protesters from a group called Concerned Chalotteans picketed the event and took photographs of the concert-goers as they entered the facility's parking lot. Joe Chambers, who headed up the anti-gay group, told The Charlotte Observer, "Homosexual acts are illegal in North Carolina. To conduct a program that would appear to be an effort to promote that kind of a lifestyle would be an affront to everything that is decent in this community." Women's music promoters have stressed that in order to keep women's music from being "run out of Charlotte," locals should support an upcoming concert by Deidre McCalla, another women's music act.

Marines Harass Female Trainees At Base

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. Gay Community News reports that the U.S. Marine Corps had charged two female Marines with having committed "indecent sex acts with other women" at a women's Marine training camp. Court martial hearings are pending for the two recruits and investigations are underway on eight other women. Gay military activists are characterizing the court martials and investigations as the latest anti-gay witch-hunt on the part of the military institution. Attempts on the part of GCN to contact the women or their military attorneys were unsuccessful. Jim Klinasky of the National Lawyers Guild stated that the upper-echelons of the military have been in an uproar ever since last month's federal court ruling on the case of Perry Watkins which found that the military could not ban the reenlistment of openly gay soldiers.

Les/Gay Rights Bill To Voted On In Vermont Senate

MONTPELIER, Vt. Out In The Mountains, a New England gay publication, reports that Vermont State Senator Harvey Carter has proposed a statewide gay and lesbian civil rights bill which would ban discrimination on the basis of "sexual or affectional orientation" in housing, public accommodations, employment or credit. Last week, the bill passed the state Senate. The bill is now awaiting a vote in the state House of Representatives.

Boston CD'ers To Come To Trial

BOSTON Fourteen lesbians and gay men arrested last January at the Massachusetts State House during a protest of the stalling tactics that successfully killed the state's gay and lesbian rights bill were scheduled to come to trial last Friday. Members of MASS ACT OUT, who helped organize the acts of civil disobedience and the accompanying rally in the state building, have stated that it is likely that trespassing charges will be dropped against the 14. A broad spectrum of civil rights organizations have decried the violent attacks and verbal assaults on the protesters on the part of the State House officers who arrested the 14. A closed-circuit camera taping the arrests showed a State House officer stomping on the chest of one prone protester. National Gay Rights Advocates has joined MASS ACT OUT in defending the protesters. Plans for a suit against the officers are still pending. A February 17 candlelight vigil in support of the "State House 14" drew over 300 people.

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