gay peoples CHRONICLE

Vol. 2 No. 7

Cleveland, Ohio

CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

AUG 15 1386

PERIODICALS

GAY PRIDE

PARADE

August 1986

LESBIAN/GAY ANGER RISES NATIONALLY

Justice Powell

suggested

Supreme Hardwick's case would have

On June 30 the Court ruled, 5 to 4, that states have the legal right to ban homosexual sex.

Hardwick vs. Georgia The case began in 1982,

been stronger had he been convicted and sentenced to a long prison term.

Minority Opinion

The dissenting opinion was Georgia policeman, written by Justice Blackmun entering Michael Hardwick's and concurred in by Justices room to serve a warrant for an unrelated matter, found him engaged in sex with anman. He arrested both men, charging them with violating Georgia's sodomy law.

Brennan, Marshall, and Stevens. Noting the majority's "almost obsessive focus on homosexual activity," Blackmun wrote:

"I can only hope that the The local district attorCourt soon will reconsider ney said he would not proseits analysis and conclude cute the case without more that depriving individuals evidence. But Hardwick chalof the right to choose for lenged the Georgia law as a themselves how to conduct violation of his privacy. In their intimate relationships May 1985 a U.S. Court of Apposes a far greater threat peals panel ruled it unconsto the values most deeply titutional. Georgia appealed rooted in our nation's histo the Supreme Court, argutory than tolerance of noning that sodomy is unnaturconformity could ever do. al, violates "the laws of Because I think the Court man," and spreads today betrays those values,

Media Reaction

AIDS, besides threatening I dissent." the "sacred" American family.

Premature Optimism

Leading newspapers harshly and scornfully criticized What observors regarded as the ruling. The New York a fumbling presentation of Times called it "gratuitous Georgia's arguments before and petty...an offense to the Supreme Court raised exAmerican society's maturing pectations of a victory for standards of individual diggay people. This hope rested nity." Calling White's opinon Justice Lewis Powell. Alion "rigid and hostile," the though Powell initially votLos Angeles Times endorsed ed that the law was unconBlackmun's hope that the will soon reconsider. stitutional, he reversed his court

position before the vote was The Washington Post termed announced.

Majority Opinion

sodomy laws anachronistic and embarrassing, and called state legislatures to

The majority opinion was on written by Justice White, strike them down. joined by Justices Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, and 0'Connor.

The

Gay Anger anger immediately exUpholding the right pressed by gay and lesbian a majority to legislate spokespersons quickly erupt"morality," it stressed the ed into demonstrations in antiquity of laws against the large cities. On July 1 homosexual sex. over 2,000 gay people staged Chief Justice Burger, in a sit-ins in Greenwich Village concurring opinion based on that blocked exceptionally shoddy scholAvenues. July 4 about 9,000 arship, traced the roots of marched down Broadway to the anti-homosexual legislation Statue of Liberty Celebraback to ancient Rome and action in Battery Park, peacetually quoted Blackstone's fully swamping a police line reference to homosexual formed to halt them.

coy

Sex as "a crime not fit to be named."

In his concurring opinion,

and 7th

Darrell Yates-Rist, of the Alliance and Lesbian Page 11, col. 1

Gay

T

Virginia Apuzzo

APUZZO JOINS NY

AIDS ADVISORY COUNCIL

On July 2 New York Governor Mario Cuomo announced the appointment of Virginia Apuzzo as vice chair of the state AIDS Advisory Council.

"As one of the most widely known and respected leaders in the lesbian and gay community, Virginia Apuzzo was one of the first in our country to testify before House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging adequate federal funding for research into the cause, treatment, and cure for AIDS. As former Executive Director of the National Gay Task Force, she met with White House representatives and negotiated with top officials of federal agencies

to secure disability benefits for persons with AIDS," Cuomo said.

a

Cuomo also announced that Apuzzo will function as his liaison and to the lesbian gay community. Since April 1985 Apuzzo has been Deputy Executive Director of the State Consumer Protection Board, position in which she will continue to serve. She was Executive Director for the National Gay Task Force from November 1982 through April 1985. She served for 13 years on the faculty of Brooklyn College as a lecturer and was the Assistant Commissioner for Operations of the New York City Department of Health.