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June 1985

NATIONAL NEWS.

BY: Casmir Kuczynski

Court Overrules O'Connor on Executive Order

Archbishop John J. O'Connor and the New York Roman Catholic Archdiocese have suffered another important defeat in their long and bitter fight against gay civil rights.

In 1984 the Archdiocese filed suit against Mayor Koch's Executive Order 50, forbidding contractors with New York City to discrimi nate against employees because of sexual orientation or affectional preference, as well as race, creed, age, gender, marital status, or physical handicap. The suit centered on the order's inclusion of gay people, O'Connor argued that agreeing not to discriminate against them in hiring constituted an endorsement of sin. The Archdiocese won the first round in Septem-

ber, 1984, when State Supreme Court Justice Alvin Klein ruled the gay provisions of the Executive Order unconstitutional. The city appealed his rulings to the State Appellate Division

Meanwhile the city's Board of Estimate passed a resolution reaffirming the provisions of Executive Order 50. The Archdiocese also appealed this resolution, but lost when State Supreme Court Justice David Saxe ruled that the Board of Estimate could legally pass the resolution, adding that he considered discrimination against gay people a violation of the constitution.

The Archdiocese

lost again May 7, when the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court ruled 3 to 1 that the Executive

Forum Sale Fans Flames

Controversy continues to center on Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence. Barbara Grier, owner of the lesbian/feminist Naiad Press, which published the book, has precipitated a major crisis by selling the serialization rights to Forum magazine. Some women, including at least one contributor, object to Forum because it is a Penthouse subsidiary. The most important conflict opposes Grier's desire to obtain maximum readership

"Gay" Got by

NY Times Ban

Describing Rio de Janeiro's beaches in the May 11 New York Times, correspondent Alan Riding wrote, "Intellectuals, high society, the young and beautiful, gays and surfers all have their sections." Apparently this sentence does not signal the end of the Times ban on the word "gay," except in organization names. Probably it was only an oversight, missed by an editor.

and the lower profile preferred by the book's editors. One editor, Barbara Curb, complained that they had intended Lesbian Nuns for a strictly women's readership and described herself as appalled that men will also be reading it. But in an interview published in the May 11 Gay Community News, Curb expressed pleasure in' the possibility of the book's becoming the basis for a movie or a daytime TV

coriac

Zeh Given Prison Term

The

Activist John Zeh, a founder of the Greater Circinnati Gay Coalition, was sentenced to two years in prison after his conviction of sexual battery against a male of 16. prosecution charged that even though the younger man was of age, his below-normal IQ made him incapable of voluntary consent. The Gay Community News reports that Zeh's trial split the Cincinnati gay community, with only the Lesbian/Gay Academic Union supporting him.

Order was legal. In a strongly worded opinion, the majority added that the mayor had an obligation to protect gay people from discrimination. The opinion, written by Judge Sidney H. Asch, said, "Where sexual proclivity does not relate to job functions, it seems clearly unconstitutional to penalize an individual in one of the most imperative of life's endeavors, the right to earn one's daily bread."

Undaunted by the ruling and a New York Times edi torial supporting it, the Archdiocese announced its intention to appeal. Its spokesman, the Rev. Peter Finn, explained that sexual activity between gay people is "an evil" comparable to "a married man committing

adultery."

He did not explain why the Archdiocese does not oppose civil rights for adulterous heterosexual males.

O'Connor's blatant homophobia was underscored by statements emanating from members of the Catholic hierarchy in other cities. In remarks made in January but only recently publicized, Cardinal Bernadin of Chicago reiterated the Church's view that sexually active gay people are sinners, but gave qualified support to basic civil rights for them

Chicago's GayLife reported that a similar but stronger statement by Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee had been instrumental in the passage of the Wisconsin Gay Rights Bill.

AIDS Blamed on Bites

The southern Florida city of Belle Glade has the highest known incidence of AIDS, according to state epedemiologist Jeffrey Sacks. The New York Times reports 31 cases among Belle Glade's residents. 20,000 Their breakdown among specific

groups diverges from what is described as the usual pattern. Thirty victms are black, including 9 Haitians. Fourteen were described as intravenous drug users. Only 5 were gay men. Some local authorities suggsted mosquito bites might be responsible.

Breeders Bare Bigotry

Koger Simon reports in his April 12 column that William F. Buckley, durng a debate with George McGovern, referred to Gore Vidal as a fag, an epithet he has used publicly on other occasions.

In another case, pressure from gay people forced a

public apology from New York drama critic John Simon for, among other statements, terming a play "faggot nonsense." Even so, his statement that he couldn't wait until AIDS got rid of all homosexuals in the theatre is completely unforgivable.

Foe Born Again as Friend

Republican California state senator Ed Davis, who as Los Angeles Police Chief was considered homophobic, supported the state gay rights bill that would have protected gay people from discrimination in employ-

ment.

When his stand drew a reprimand from the fundamentalist American Coalition

for Traditional Values, Davis wrote back, "By even suggesting the abridgement of anyone's constitutional rights, you lost whatever presumptuous claim you may have had to speak for traditional values."

In less formal words, Davis told a group of young Republicans last month, "No fundamentalist jerk is going to tell me what to do."