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Volume 5 Issue 9

Cleveland, Ohio

Kent Gay-Lesbian Foundation to host All-Ohio conference this year

The Kent Gay-Lesbian Foundation is hosting the Ninth Annual All-Ohio Lesbian-Gay Conference this year as part of Kent State University's Gay Heritage Week, April 23 through 28.

The conference, to be held at the Kent State Student Center on Saturday, April 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., will feature nine separate workshops. Author Sarah Shulman will be a luncheon speaker that day, and Brian McNaught will speak on the previous Wednesday evening.

Lori King, conference coordinator and co-program director of KGLF, said this conference will be the largest educational program for KGLF in her three years of activism in the group.

"I am hoping the variety of workshops will satisfy the needs of our community. We've [the conference staff] set that as our main goal," King said. "Case Western Reserve is giving us the ball this time and we are proud to run with it."

The CWRU Lesbian-Gay Student Union has organized the All-Ohio spring conference since 1981, devoting a large part of their budget to the event. In recent years it was a weekend-long event with an attendence of about 300 people.

According to a statement given to the Chronicle by 1989 Case conference coordinators Josette Farah and Greg Davis, the Case LGSU needed to direct their funding to activities more directly benefting CWRU students on campus. The statement reads, in part:

"In the past years, the conference has been held on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. However, we felt a change was long overdue for the survival of the CWRU Lesbian-Gay Student Union. Rather than divert the majority of the Lesbian-Gay Student Union's funding into the conference, we felt it was necessary to utilize our budget in order to boost the group's presence and activities on campus.

"Double the energy will be put forth in planning this year's conference as we work in conjunction with the Kent Lesbian-Gay Foundation. We are dedicated to bringing the community informative workshops, nationally known speakers and lively entertainment. But remember, no matter how much planning the committee does, the conference depends on you, the participant.

"We thank you for supporting our efforts last year, and look forward to meetContinued on Page 3

Photo by Pat Young

March, 1990

An Independent Chronicle Of The Lesbian & Gay Community

Heather Thorp and Susan Bennett prepare for the opening of their new alternative bookstore, Gifts of Athena, in Cleveland Heights. Story on page 3.

Court to say if gay couple can adopt boy

"Sometimes we'll just sit here and cry," Lee Balser says. "Both of us are raw. We don't know how much longer this can go on.”

"But we're learning to stagger our depressions," his lover of three years, Tom Kuzma, adds.

The two men are waiting for the Ohio Supreme Court to decide whether Balser can adopt an eight-year-old boy that no one, except them, seems to want. They're hoping the court will reverse a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which forbade the adoption. The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on Sept. 13, and the decision is overdue.

"We're on pins and needles every day," Balser says, knowing the decision could be only moments away."

The struggle began officially in January, 1988 when Balser filed a petition to adopt the child known to the courts as Charlie B. He was at the time, and still is, the only person who attempted to adopt the boy, who has been on a national adoption registry since 1985.

Charlie B. has leukemia. He has delayed speech and language development, and as a result of leukemia, may have learning disabilities. His natural parents surrendered custody of him to Licking County Human Services two months before his fourth birthday. Licking County is just east of Columbus.

Since April of 1985, Charlie B. has had five different foster parents and a number of social workers and counselors.

In July, 1986 Charlie B. was referred for counseling to Balser, who is a psychologist. Balser decided in the following February to adopt him. He ceased to be Charlie's counselor and the human services agency agreed to visitations between Charlie, Balser and Kuzma. It granted regular visitation between February and November 1987. In December of 1987, the agency agreed to visits on every other weekend.

From the beginning, Balser did not hide his relationship with Kuzma. He claims the agency encouraged the bonding taking place between Charlie and Balser's lover. When Balser was the subject of a home study as Charlie's

prospective parent, he and Kuzma presented themselves as a couple. The two have since decided that being so open and honest, they made a terrible mistake.

On the day before the first hearing on the petition for adoption, Licking County Department of Human Services filed to withhold consent. During the hearing the agency did not present any testimony of witnesses who had direct personal knowledge of the case. In fact, the agency had only one witness, Kathleen Handley, the agency's administrator of social services. In the entire time the agency had custody of Charlie, Handley had had less than an hour's contact with him.

Balser, on the other hand, presented testimony from psychologists and a social worker, all of whom had substantial experience in adoption. The court also heard testimony from C. William Rickrich, a Columbus attorney appointed to represent Charlie's interests. Rickrich testified emphatically in favor of the adoption.

In its decision, the court found that the agency's consent was not required since

Hate Crimes bill passes Senate

First pro-gay bill to pass both houses; a setback for Jesse Helms

Washington In a stunning setback for Senator Jesse Helms, R-N.C., on February 7, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act, including a provision requiring the Justice Department to collect statistics on anti-gay violence. Only three senators, William Armstrong, R-Colo., Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., voted with Helms to oppose the bill.

Senator Paul Simon, D-Ill., and Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, led the fight for passage of the bill in the Senate. "Hate crimes against homosexuals are

disgusting and outrageous," Hatch stated early in the debate. "We are not going to put up with hate crimes anymore," he continued.

Lesbian and gay activists expressed surprise at the strong bipartisan support shown for the bill as well as the overwhelming 19 to 77 defeat for an anti-gay Helms amendment. That amendment, which, among other provisions, would have urged states to enforce their sodomy laws, was opposed by the bill managers and the minority leader, Senator Robert Dole, R-Kan.

Both Ohio senators, John Glenn and

Howard Metzenbaum, voted against the Helms amendment, and for the bill. Throughout the three and a half hours of Senate debate, the North Carolina legislator was the only senator to speak against the bill from the Senate floor. "This bill is the flagship of the homosexual and lesbian legislative agenda," Helms said. In an effort to defeat the bill, Helms stated that Human Rights Campaign Fund had admitted that the bill was an important part of the gay movement's political agenda.

Continued on Page 9

it had not filed its objections within the legal time limit. On May 9, the court granted the adoption, deciding that it was in Charlie B's best interest. Immediately after the ruling, Licking County Department of Human Services filed an appeal and got a stay against the court's order. On October 28, 1988 the Fifth District Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court and denied the adoption. In its judgment against Balser, the Appeals Court stated that "it is not in the best interest of a seven-year-old male child to be placed for adoption into the home of a pair of adult male homosexual lovers."

Ohio adoption law states that an "unmarried adult" may adopt a child. It does not state that an unmarried gay adult may not. Balser and his attorney, Robin Lyn Greene are claiming that because Ohio law does not prohibit adoptions by gay parents, the Appeals Court overstepped its bounds. A dissenting member of the court, Justice Earle Wise agrees. He wrote, "Clearly there is no law prohibiting a homosexual or any other person from adoption based on personal sexual preferences." Judge Robert Moore, Continued on Page 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorials

Letters

Elias found not guilty Mass. rights law

Rooney suspended Just Jocks

Aesthetic Realists

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page 7

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page 9

page 11

page 12

page 13

page 14

Resource Directory

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Marine gets 2nd trial AIDS in the Riviera Bits & Pieces Personals Classifieds Charlie's Calender