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Gay Peoples Chronicle

NATIONAL NEWS...

Supreme Court Considers Oklahoma Bill

In Oklahoma, another state that prohibits gay sex, the legislature passed a bill in 1978, at the urging of Anita Bryant, directed at public school teachers. Making gayness grounds for dismissal. the act forbids any teacher to engage in public homosexual intercourse ( or to advocate gay rights in any context that creates a substantial risk that such conduct will come to the attention of school children or school

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employees. Acting as plaintift on behalf of Oklahoma City teachers, the N6TF filed suit against the law. Last year the

10th Circuit 0.5. Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional. Oklahoma appealed the decision, and the case is now before the Supreme Court. where Laurence H Tribe, Tvler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University, is representing the NGTF.

Houston Defeats Gay Issues

Houston voters on January 19th heavily defeated two proposals that would have forbidden discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Earlier the Houston City Council had enacted an ordinance adding sexual orientation to protected categories for employsent by the city and by private companies having contracts with the city. Conservactive ministers led a drive that gathered enough petitions to place the issue on the ballot.

Council member John Goodner. the anti-gay forces, ar qued

people were trying to gain the status of an officially protected inority. Although both sides had predicted a close vote. the proposals barring discrimination against gav people were defeated by a 4 to 1 margin.

bay and pro-gay leaders singled out the opposition's misleading propaganda about AIDS as a significant factor in a vote. Mayor Kathy Whitmire announced that her administration would continue discriminatory policy in city

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February 1, 1985

A.P.A. Approves New Division The American Psychological Association, which has supported gav civil rights and was instrumental in removing the stigma of mental illness from homosexuality, has established a new interest division, the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian and Gay Issues. About half of the new Society s 500 members are gay people.

La. Sodomy Law Challenged

Louisiana. one of 24 states that stii have laws against sodomy, prohibits "unnatural carnal copulation" by any persons. whatever their sexual orientation. Si individuals, including a married heterosexual couple as well as two gav men and two lesbians, have filed suit against the statute as a class action on behalf of gavs and nongays. Besides charging that the law violates rights to privacy and equal protection under the law, their suit calls its foundation in religious belief an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. It was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. This case is expected to be a model for challenging similar laws in several other states.

Gays Rule

W. Hollywood

West Hollywood, the newly incorporated section of Los Angeles whose 35,000 residents are estimated to be at least 30% gay, elected its first city council. The unanimously chose five-person council

as Mayor lesbian Valerie Terrigno, one of its 3 gay members. Ms. Terrigno, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, received more popular votes than any other candidate. At its first meeting the West Hollywood city council also passed an ordinance forbidding bias based on sexual orientation.

Berkley Declares Partner Benefits

The Berkeley, California, city council unanimously approved benefits for the unmarried domestic partners of city employees, gay and non-gay. Among the benefits involved are health coverage, survivor benefits, and credit union membership. Unlike the similar measure passed in San Francisco but vetoed by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, the Berkeley version requires that domestic partners live together and declare themselves responsible for each other's welfare. This precedent-setting measure will by applauded by ali people, regardless of sexual orientation, who are financially penalized for choosing alternative living arrangements over marriage.

O'Connor Continues Gay Discrimination

In New York the Roman Catholic Archdiocese continues its battle against gay rights. Attempts to get a gay-rights Iaw through City Council have been repeatedly frustrated by opposition from the Archdiocese and 500e orthodox Jewish groups. In 1980 Mayor Koch issued Execufive Order 50, forbidding contractors with the city to discriminate against employees on a number of grounds including "sexual orientation or affectional preference."

Contractors include several religious organizations. First to balk was the Salvation Army. Failing to obtain an exception from the gay section of E.O. 50, it lost ten city contracts.

During Lesbian and Gay Pride Week last year, Archbishop John J. O'Connor announced that agreeing not to discriminate against employing gay people constituted an endorsement of homosexual practices. The

Archdiocese filed suit against E.0. 50 as unconstitutional, and the savor agreed to release religious organizations from its gay provisions until the courts settled the issue.

Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore, Jr.. in a strongly worded letter to the New York Times in July, 1984, announced his church's support of the gay community. Pointing out that sexual preference is acquired either at birth or at an early age, Bishop Moore said that as common social justice gay people should have equal rights as citizens and noted that several Protestant and Jewish groups agreed. He urged the mayor to take a firm stand for gay rights.

In September, 1984. State Supreme Court Justice Alvin Klein ruled the gay section

Gay Murder

Amuses Bangor

In Bangor, Maine, on July 7, 1984, teen-agers Shawn Mabry, Danny Ness, and Jim Baines attacked 23-year-old Charlie Howard, one of the few visible members of the almost completely closeted lesbiani gay community. Gay people in Bangor joined svapathetic nongays in a Gay/Lesbian/Straight Coalition to ensure a proper trail for Howard's assailants. Judge David Cox ruled against the Prosecution's move to try them as adults. During the trial, marked by harassment of gay observors by the defendants friends, the three pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and were sentenced to the Maine Youth Center until they reach 21. The Coalition has criticized the Frosecution's handling of the case as well as the sentences. According to Peter Canellos, Writing in the Boston Phoenix, the latest gay joke in Bangor High School is "Hey. did you hear they reduced the charges against Shawn and Danny and Jin to launching a fairy without a license?'

of E.0. 50 was unconstitutional because New York lacks a gay rights act.

The City Board of Estimate, consisting of the mayor, five borough presidents, and two city officials then passed a resolution reaffirming the provisions of Executive Order 50. The Archdiocese and its allies again went to the courts. This time they lost. Supreme Court Justice David Saxe ruled that the Board of Estimate had the right to pass the resolution and added that in his belier discrimination against gay people violates the United States Constitution.

Both sides are now awaiting a ruling from the State Appellate Division. to which the city appealed the E.0. Su ruling.