April, 1989 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE Page 7

Hate crimes bill introduced

When a group of San Francisco teenagers dragged David Johnson from his car in a supermarket parking lot, they did so solely because he was gay.

They called him a "diseased faggot," beat him with their skateboards, broke his jaw and three ribs, gashed his head and bruised his kidneys.

Johnson is just one of thousands of victims of the anti-gay violence that has been growing at an alarming rate in the past several years.

Legislation was introduced in Congress on February 22 that takes the first step towrad ending the national .epidemic of hatred and "crimes of bias."

The Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1989, H.R. 947, was introduced in the House by Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn., and Hamilton Fish, R-NY. The bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate soon by Sens. Paul Simon, D-Ill., and Orrin Hatch, RUtah.

Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-20, is the only Ohio representative cosponsoring the bill. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum is cosponsoring the Senate version. The bill presently has 40 House cosponsors,

and 25 in the Senate.

Last year, the Hate Crimes bill passed by an overwhelming vote of 383-29 in the House, after members rejected attempts to remove gays and lesbians from the bill. This was the first piece of pro-gay related legislation passed in the history of the U.S. Congress. The bill stalled in the Senate, however, after being unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, because of threats by Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC, to attach anti-gay amendments.

The bill requires the Justice Department to collect comprehensive national data on crimes of prejudice committed because of race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

"From verbal harassment to 'physical assault', violence against lesbians and gay men is born of irrational fear and hatred of such individuals," said Vic Basile, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund. "AIDS hysteria and the 'wrath of God' beliefs of conservative religious groups have no doubt helped spurn much of the ever-increasing violence against our community."

Incidents of hate crimes against gays

ABA endorses rights laws

by Lisa M. Keen

It came too late for him to cherish the victory, but the February 6 vote by the American Bar Association to endorse laws protecting lesbians and gays from discrimination was Dan Bradley's success story.

Bradley, who succumbed to AIDS a year ago, initiated the fight within the ABA's powerful House of Delegates to put the organization on record as urging federal, state, and local governments to adopt laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Abby Rubenfeld, who served this year on the same ABA committee from which Bradley launched his project in 1983, said the vote came up this year as a "tribute" to Bradley. Rubenfeld said that when the Committee on Individual Rights and Responsibilities met last year, she suggested its members try to get the

gay civil rights resolution passed at the ABA's February 1989 mid-year meeting in Denver.

When the prestigious governing body voted on the resolution in 1983, they rejected it by 24 votes. In 1985, it failed by nine votes. But this time around, the resolution passed, and by 130 votes.

The big turnaround, said Rubenfeld, reflects a number of things-for one, a change within the House of Delegates membership that includes more women and younger, more progressive lawyers. This year, too, supporters of the resolution were able to carry in the endorsements of a number of state and city bar

associationsfrom Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York, and Oregon, as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Dade County, (Miami) Florida. It even had the endorsements of six ABA divisions Family Law, Individual Rights, Young Lawyers, General Practice, Litigation, and Law Students.

Bradley had said, when the resolution was defeated in 1985, that the "best strategy" for getting it passed would be to get the endorsements of many different lawyer groups.

What also helped, said Rubenfeld, was that this year, the resolution was introduced by the ABA's incoming president-elect Jack Curtain of Boston.

"He feels deeply this is an important civil rights issue and he's not afraid to debate," said Rubenfeld, who went on to say there was considerable debate and parlimentary maneuvering to defeat the

and lesbians have risen dramatically during the 1980s. Recent attacks on homosexuals and other minorities by "skin-heads" and other gangs have received national attention. Groups that monitor acts of violence and intimidation against gays agree that 80 percent of “gay bashing" cases may go unreported.

Random surveys by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reflect the alarming frequency of verbal or physical abuse aimed at the gay community: in 1985, 2,042 reported cases; in 1986, 4,946 reported cases; and in 1987, 7,008 reported cases.

Surveys by federal, state, and local organizations indicate that the problem of anti-gay violence may be far worse than

Page 5

suspected. An October 1987 report on hate violence solicited by the Justice Department stated that "homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims [of hate crimes]."

The new bill will be considered first in the judiciary committees of both chambers. Activists are predicting a floor vote within the next few months.

"We are very excited by the level of interest this bill is generating already," said lobbyist Peri Jude Radecic of the National Gay And Lesbian Task Force. "Strong leadership by the bill's chief sponsors, bipartisan support, and a broad, united coalition lobbying for the bill puts us well ahead of where we stood last year."

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Catholics once had gay marrige rites

The Vatican will deny that Catholic Gay marriages were in any way erotic, Yale historian John Boswell predicted in a recent talk in Chicago about his forthcoming book on the subject, says a story by William Burks in the Bay Area Reporter.

"What they will say is that Boswell has a dirty mind and these are not erotic relationships at all." Boswell said.

The Vatican currently teaches that homosexuality is intrinsically evil, but gay marriages services are printed in old Roman Catholic books under the rule Gamos, or marriage, next to the heterosexual marriage ceremony.

Boswell says "there are a lot of references to the ceremony and the kind of relationships it creates from medieval times, in fact, into the 1940s, where anthropologists or people from other cultures came and saw the ceremony being performed and asked the locals, 'What is this?' And the locals describe it, and they said, 'It's the marriage of two men; it's just like the marriage between a man and a women; it wouldn't be right for them to have sex unless they were married, but once they've married in the church it is all right'."

Heterosexual marriage was a civil matter until church ceremonies for hetersexuals were first held in the eleventh century. Boswell says church

measure. "Our argument was that this is Chronicle

a civil rights issue, and it's time the ABA got on the bandwagon. The opponents were very emotional and talked about things like child molesters."

The victory has both symbolic and practical importance, said Rubenfeld.

"It puts the voice of the organized American bar on board as being against discrimination," she added, "and the ABA has a very active lobbying arm. Now they can lobby on behalf of civil rights legislation in Congress and the states."

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

Benefit bowling party set

The GIFT '89 bowling tournament, Cleveland's largest organized gay sporting event, will be held in June. To raise money for the event, the Moonlight Bowling Party will be held April 1 from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. at AmbassadorSuperior Lanes, 1500 Superior Ave., downtown.

Proceeds will benefit The Cleveland Gay Invitational Fellowship Tournament committee, which is hosting the tourney in Cleveland for the fourth consecutive year June 16-18.

With a field of 160 bowlers last year, GIFT brought together gay bowlers from across the nation and Canada.

The tournament is one of many held in association with the International Gay Bowling Organization. IGBO is the world's largest gay sports organization,

with more than 51,000 members, whose main purpose is to promote fellowship through friendly competition. IGBO tournaments are held throughout the United States and Canada.

A great deal of money is needed to successfully accomplish a first-class undertaking like GIFT '89. The committee holds fund-raisers to meet this need. Besides bowling parties, these events include "bar nights," raffles and cruises on the Goodtime II.

Cost for the April 1 bowling party is $7 per person for three games, and tickets are available at the door. Shoe rental is free, and safe indoor parking is available for 50 cents. Prizes will be awarded and raffles are planned. Music will be provided and the lounge will be open.▼

Expands

The Chronicle, in an effort to serve a broader spectrum of community concerns, is expanding its coverage to include the area of sports.

Sports coverage will be provided by K.D. Mahnal and will be a monthly feature of the Chronicle, beginning with the May 1989 issue. All league organizations are strongly encouraged to participate. League officials for volleyball, bowling, and softball will contacted by April 7 to discuss coverage arrangements.

A post office box has been established to send league scores, sports information, and coverage inquires to the Chronicle. Please send information and inquires to P.O. Box 556, Edgewater Branch, Lakewood, OH 44107.

marriages for homosexuals date to the fourth century.

If Boswell can substantiate such an early date for Christian Gay marriages, it would imply an Apostolic origin for the Christian custom, which seems credible.

The civil vs. religious difference continues pre-Christian Greek custom, where heterosexual relationships were civil agreements but special temples existed for homosexual marriages. Boswell says heterosexual marriage services included prayers chiefly for wealth, success, long life, and children while gay marriage ceremonies emphasized commitment, fidelity, and love.

Boswell says he also found gay friendship ceremonies as well as marriage ceremonies. That distinction may be related to Greek gay marriage customs. In the final stage, committed Greek gay male couples "shared" ownership of their property. The word for this "sharing" is "koinonia,” a term used in the New Testament to describe the life of the church.

When his book is published a year from now, Boswell says it will merely "provide what I regard as convincing evidence to the fair-minded." As for the Vatican, "You can't reasonably argue someone out of a position he didn't reasonably get into."

Reprinted with permission from Update, San Diego

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