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Gay Peoples Chronicle

NATIONAL NEWS.

COURT BACKS SODOMY LAWS

In a 9 to 7 decision the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Texas sodomy law prohibiting "deviate sexual intercourse with another person of the same sex" is constitutional.

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This is another case with complex history. In Don Baker, president of the Dallas Gay Association filed a class-action suit against the state, charging that the sodomy law deprived him of constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. In 1982 the case came before U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer, who ruled the law unconstitutional.

Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox decided against appealing Buchmeyer's ruling. But one district attorney Danny Hill, filed an appeal with financial aid from a right-wing homophobic organization called Dallas Doctors against AIDS.

When a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court ruled Hill could not appeal after the Attorney General had accepted the ruling, he asked for a ruling by the

entire court.

The majority opinion held

that state laws legitimately cover issues of morality and so a law passed to implement morality does not violate the constitutional rights of gay people. In a statement that raised a number of eyebrows and a lot of blood pressure, the majority wrote

in view of the strong objection to homosexual conduct, which has prevailed in Western culture for the past seven centuries, we cannot say that the Texas law is totally unrelated to the pursuit of implementing morality a permissible state goal:

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In an interview with the Gay Community News, Dallas attorney James Barber, who represented Baker, pointed out that six of the 9 judges constituting the majority had been appointed by Reagan. The outook for gay rights seems grim, considering the recent New York Times column by James Reston pointing out that while Reagan appointments have so far had little effect on the Supreme Court, they were changing the lower courts. The case will probably be appealed the Supreme Court.

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October 1985

BY : Casmir Kuczynski

PROVIDENCE LETS US DOWN

Gay rights suffered another defeat September 5, when the Providence, R.I. city council removed all references to sexual orientation from an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Although the city council had unanimously passed the bill in its original form on August 1, Providence requires two passages before an ordinance becomes law.

After the first passage, opposition forces organized. The Providence Journal ran an editorial opposing the gay provisions, arguing that people and institutions Should be free to express their belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Bishop Louis Galineau of the Providence Catholic Diocese warned that homosexual acts are against God's commands and should not be encouraged by extending civil rights to gay people.

Catholic and fundamentalist Protestant clergy and their supporters packed an emotional city Council session, charging that gay civil rights threaten the Judeo-Christian tradition and the American

family.

When the ordinance again came before council, majority leader Thomas Glavin moved to delete references to sexual orientation. The Gay Community News reports that during the debate councillor Josephine Di Ruzzo tearfully proclaimed herself a Christian and argued that the rights of those discriminating against gay people should be protected. The amendment passed by an 8 to 6 vote.

The Gay Community News reports that some local activists criticized the Rhode Island Alliance for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, which conducted the campaign for the ordinance, because it failed to build alliances with other groups, particularly women and blacks.

As some compensation for the deletion of gay rights from the Providence ordin-. ance, Rhode Island governor Edward Di Preto issued an executive order banning discrimination against gay people in state employment. He is the first Republican governor to do so.

Rothenberg & Thoms Lose, Sociologists Denounce

Scondras Wins

Two New York gay candidates were defeated in the September primary.

David Rothenberg, whose campaign for city council was the most ambitious so far waged by a gay candidate in New York and who was endorsed by the Daily News, Village Voice, and Amsterdam News,

lost by a 53 to 49 margin to incumbent Carol Greitzer, whom Mayor Koch backed. Greitzer, who des cribed herself as a friend of the gay community, argued that she has consistently supported gay rights. Rothenberg held her support had not been strong enough. The New York Native described a last-minute smear campaign against Rothenberg that featured literature accusing him of criticizing the Catholic archbishop, the SalvaHarvard Bans

Discrimination

Harvard recently joined the universities that prohibit discrimination against gay people. In July its vice president for public affairs announced this policy, noting it affects students, faculty, and all employees as well as applicants for admission. Earlier, Western Michigan University added

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orientation crimination policy. But the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted against doing so.

tion army, a homophobic Jewish group, and the American family.

Judge William Thoms, whose interim appointment to an

seat on the civil court bench by Mayor Koch made him New York's first openly gay judge, was narrowly defeated by a 51-49 vote. His defeat leaves a residue of bitterness against liberal Democrats and some gay leaders him. who had refused to support

In Boston, gay incumbent David Scondras handily won renomination by a 67.3 margin against three other canseat. didates for his city council

In Rochester, N.Y., Tim Mains, also openly gay, was one of five Democratic candidates winning nomination for council seats in a citywide race.

Who Cares?

Some icons of the gay male community have not been getting a particularly good press lately, at least in the gay media. An Advocate story about Donna Summer quoted a closeted gay executive of her record company as explaining that she isn't homophobic, she's "just dumb ****,

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More recently Joan Rivers has been blasted for publicly expressing concern about actresses Rock Hudson had kissed.

Cameron

Paul Cameron, the vicious homophobe who compulsively distorts facts about home sexuality but misrepresents himself even more than gay people, is in trouble again. Since the American Psychological Association expelled him for unethical behavior Cameron has been trying to pass himself off as a sociologist. The Washington Blade reports that the 85member Sociologists' Gay Caucus presented a resolution to the American Sociological Association charging its Committee on the Status

Dignity Chapters to Refute Bishops

Dignity, Inc.'s biennial convention in New York in August drew over 800 participants, breaking all previous records. Taking note of

the

growing tendency for Catholic bishops to oppose gay civil rights measures Its 237-member House of Delegates passed a resolution that reaffirmed Dignity's commitment to establish dialogue with the National Council of Catholic Bishops and to refute statements by the bishops that "deny or go against the civil rights of gay and lesbian people."

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Homosexuals in Sociology 'critically evaluate and publicly respond to Camer

lies, which include claims that homosexuals are particularly likely to commit murder and molest children. The Association passed the resolution.

The September 23 New York Native included an interview of Cameron by Ann Guidici Fettner. Now a consultant to California Republican representative William Dannemeyer, Cameron is obviously a very disturbed and dangerous man.

Episcopalians Almost Accept Gay Clergy

At the Episcopal Church's General Convention in September, the House of Bishops approved a law forbidding discrimination against prospective clergy who are gay but not sexually active. The House of Deputies, however, narrowly defeated the proposal. On the other hand, newly elected Presiding Bishop Edmund L. Browning, who has strongly supported the ordination of women, holds that sexual orientation should not preclude ordination.