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Gay Peoples Chronicle

May 1, 1985

NATIONAL NEWS...

Court Confirms Candor

In the first gay rights case it has agreed to hear in almost 18 years, the Supreme Court deadlocked 4 to 4 on the constitutionality of an Oklahoma law forbidding public school teachers to advocate rights for gay people.

Hailed by many gay leaders as a significant victory, the tie vote automatically affirms the ruling of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that the law is unconstitutional. However, it does not serve as a precedent for other cases.

acted in 1978 by the Oklahoma legislature at the urging of Anita Bryant, the law provided that any teacher who advocated gay rights, in any context, "in a manner that creates a substantial risk that such conduct will come to the attention of schoolchildren or school employees" could be dismissed.

National Gay Rights Advocates, the San Franciscobased gay legal group, filed suit on behalf of the National Gay Task Force against the Oklahoma City Board of Education.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violated the First Amendment by prohibiting speech that deserved constitutional protection.

The Board of Education then appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, backed by the state government and several conservative

groups. The National Gay Task Force was supported by gayrights groups as well as the American Association of University Professors, the National Education Association, the American Jewish Congress, and the New York and California attorney generals.

The NGTF arguments before the Supreme Court were presented by Lawrence H. Tribe, Harvard professor and authority on constitutional law. University of Oklahoma law professor Dennis ArrOW argued the case for Oklahoma City.

Observors noted that Arrow portrayed the act much more moderately than had the Oklahoma legislature and state officials. He argued that it only prohibited teachers from openly encouraging "homosexual sodomy" and stressed that no teacher had been accused of violating its provisions. He maintained that the issue of constitutionality should be tabled until such action had been taken. (One wonders whether Oklahoma allows its teachers to advocate heterosexual sodomy).

Justice Powell did not take part in the decision. Although the positions of individual justices were not announced, it has been generally assumed that Blackmun, Brennan, Marshall, and Stevens voted to affirm the ruling of the lower court, while Burger, O'Connor, Rehnquist, and White voted to reverse it.

Case Concerns Calif., Idaho

Part of the fallout after the Supreme Court's decision was an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, praising the decision but criticizing the Court for its reluctance to deal with gay-rights issues.

Another piece of fallout hit the state of Idaho. After the Idaho Education Association filed a "friend of the court brief" against the Oklahoma law, Republican

Myron Jones introduced a bill in the state House of Representatives making it illegal for Idaho teachers to imply that homosexuality is normal or acceptable. Any teacher violating his proposed law would be dismissed, and barred from ever teaching again. The Education Committee of the Idaho House defeated Jones' but by a 9-8 vote.

bill,

Convention Cuts Chorus

The American Choral Directors Association refused to allow choral groups whose names include the words "gay" or "lesbian" to perform during their annual convention in April, held in Salt Lake City.

The Association rescinded its invitation to the New York City Gay Men's Chorus, chosen to sing after the directors had heard it but

before they knew its identi-

ty.

Under a rule passed last year, the ACDA excludes groups that publicize "special interests of a nonmusical and controversial nature."

Apparently non-musical and controversial interests consist of gays and lesbians; military choruses as well as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, are acceptable.

Homophobia has surfaced before among choral directors. Last year, at a regional choral competition in Peria, Illinois, the directors denied the traditional encore to the winning Men's Chorus. Another group, the Windy City Gay group, the Sweet Adelines, blocked the exits and refused to allow anyone to leave until the directors capitulated and permitted the encore.

ABC Airs Nixed Nuns

Boston television station WBZ, an NBC affiliate, cancelled a discussion with the two editors of the recently published book Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence. Boston viewers, however, were not denied exposure to the two women or their book. They appeared on a Phil Donohue program carried by the ABC affiliate. WBZ cancelled the program after receiving a letter from Reverend Peter Conley, communications director for the Catholic archdiocese. Gay Community News reports that Thomas Goodgame, general manager of WBZ, denied that Conley's letter had affected his decision to cancel the program. He explained that a discussion of homosexuality would have been acceptable, but lesbian nuns were too narrow a topic. Conley's attack on Lesbian Nuns

as insensitive and antiCatholic was dismissed by Rosemary Curb, one of its editors. Pointing out the Conley had obviously not read the book, she characterized the Church's reaction as homophobic and gynophobic.

The GCN quoted Curb as saying, "Conley came charging up to rescue the good name of women because there might be lesbians in their midst. I'm not saying all nuns are lesbians. But some nuns are lesbians. Lesbians are everywhere."

Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence is published by Naiad Press. Naiad Press. Barbara Grier, Naiad's founder and direc-

tor, expressed gratification at the wide interest in the book, extending far beyond the lesbian commnity. Grier noted that while the existence of the book might be a sensation, the book itself was not.

Marquee Message Miffs

In Superior, Wisconsin, fundamentalist minister Craig Hultgren, having turned a movie theatre into a church, drew national attention when he posted on its marquee the message "Stop AIDS now, quarantine gays." His act drew demonstrators as well as a coun-

ter-message on a marquee in the neighboring Minnesota city of Duluth. The next week Hultgren's new message was "Women Liberals are Marxists. Marx was a Satanist." We expect women liberals were as taken aback as Karl Marx would have been. Where does Hultgren place male liberals?

BY: Casmir Kuczynski