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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

July, 1990

We Are Everywhere

by John Hubert

Denmark The Danish government reports that gay and lesbian marriages have totaled over 1,800 since Oct. 1 for a monthly average of almost 260. Approximately one out of every five Danish weddings involves lesbian or gay couples.

Holland, Sweden and Norway are all competing to be the next nation to legalize homosexual marriages and to be the first to permit lesbian and gay adoptions.

Thailand-The Asian Lesbian Network, based in Bangkok is looking for groups interested in twinning with emerging Asian lesbian groups to help the new organizations to survive and prosper.

The purpose of twinning is to exchange information, materials and ideas. Groups interested should write to The Ladies Lodge, P.O. Box 322, Rajdamnern, Bangkok 10200, Thailand.

During the second week of December 1990 the Asian Lesbian Network will host the first Asian Lesbian Conference in Bangkok for activists who want to build a supportive regional network, to share organizing experiences, and to plan future actions. For information on the conference, write to the above address in Thailand or to the International Lesbian Information Service, c/o COC, Rozenstraat 8, 1016 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

South African lesbians organizeThe International Lesbian Information Service has also formed a new ILIS committee to support lesbians in South Africa. This was the result of a January meeting with representatives of "Malibongwe," a conference of South African women activists against apartheid.

For more information contact ILIS, c/o COC, Rozenstraat 8, 1016 NX Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

the envelope.

Singapore The efforts of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the police to eradicate gays and their discos and cruising places have met with little

success.

In 1988 and 1989 police attempted to close all popular gay discos and ordered all night spots to reject gay customers or lose their licenses.

Most night club and disco owners and managers were not willing to accept the

government's order to stop gays. Latest reports tell us that Shadows disco is still

AIDS bias on

the rise, says

operating to a gay clientele. Additional ACLU report

ly, three new establishments have opened. The cruising parks have also been returned to gays with the police roundups and forced blood tests apparently a thing of the past.

Lambda Czechoslovakia growing fast. "Lambda Czechoslovakia", which operated secretly in Prague for nine years, has just become legalized and is forming lesbian and gay groups all over Czechoslovakia. Their first concern is AIDS education.

According to Our World, a lesbian and gay travel magazine, Lambda will be happy to hear from lesbians and gays from around the world and they will also arrange lodgings for those visiting their country.

For more information, write to Lambda Czechoslovakia, c/o Jan Lany, Pod Kotlarkou 14, CS-15000 Prague 5, Smichov, Czechoslovakia.

Gai Pied of France reports that another Czechoslovakian group with a more political agenda has been founded by Czechoslovakian intellectuals. The "Movement for the Legal Equality of Homosexual Citizens" aims to reform the anti-gay laws of Czechoslovakia,

which penalize homosexual prostitution,

public displays of affection, and persons with AIDS and AIDS-related complex.

AIDS and HIV disease has reached critiDiscrimination against people with

cal levels, bringing hardship and suffering to thousands of Americans every year, says a study by the American Civil Liberties Union AIDS Project.

Epidemic of Fear is the first national survey to address the growing problem of prejudice against people with HIV/AIDS and their care providers. The survey was conducted with funds from the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the nation's largest private organization dedicated to AIDS research, education and public policy.

Epidemic of Fear also examines the causes of discrimination, highlights gaps in anti-discrimination laws and identifies priorities for strengthening protections.

"This study shows how extraordinarily persistent discrimination remains in this country, even after science has proven there is no risk of casual transmission," said Nan D. Hunter, director of the ACLU AIDS Project.

The study also found that HIV-related discrimination occurs all over America, cutting across lines of race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation; and that there is a shortage of lawyers to represent persons with HIV disease, especially for people of color. Another finding was that laws protecting against discrimination remain fragmented and inconsistent. The new Americans with Disabilities Act will provide essential protection, but it will not take effect for two years.

Most discrimination cases were linked to ignorance and irrational fears about the disease, racial and anti-gay prejudice, and economic bias based on the perception that people with AIDS are unable to meet certain financial demands.

Hunter said that enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act and strengthening state and local laws will be the top priorities for civil rights groups in the next decade. "During the 1980s, our society struggled to understand the basic science of HIV disease," she said. "In the 1990s, we must commit to overcoming the stigmas."

Copies of the report are available by mail for $23 prepaid from the ACLU AIDS Project, 132 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036. The phone is 212-9449800, ext. 545.▼

Texas police department refuses

This group can be contacted at: to hire lesbian;

H.R.H.O., c/o Simon Formanek, Polska 24, 12000 Praha 2, Czechoslovakia.

Costa Rica Las Entendidas De Costa Rica is an organization of lesbians in Costa Rica whose principal object is to break the barrier of fear that makes many lesbians feel they are different from other women.

Founded in 1987, the members of Las Entendidas are proud to be lesbians. "We are persons, women, no more nor less than other women, who establish affectionate relations the same as anyone else."

In April 1990, Las Entendidas hosted the second "Latin American and Caribbean Lesbian Feminist Conference," taking over for GALF of Lima, Peru, after political instability and antihomosexual and anti-feminist violence made the conference too risky to be held in Peru.

Las Entendidas can be reached at: G.L.F.C., Partado 1057, San Pedro do Montes de Oca, San Jose, Costa Rica.

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A Texas woman has filed suit against the state of Texas, the city of Dallas, and the Dallas police chief for denying her employment as a police officer there solely because of her sexual orientation. The Dallas police department refuses to hire lesbians and gay men, citing the Texas sodomy law as their reason. The suit also challenges the constitutionality of that law, which by its terms specifically discriminates against gay people.

In March 1989, the plaintiff, Mica England, interviewed in her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma for a position on the Dallas police force. At the time, a recruiter told her that her being a lesbian would not be a bar to employment, and encouraged her to come to Dallas. Based on that assurance, England went to Dallas to complete interviews. There, England was subjected to intrusive questioning about her personal life and private sexual activity, and was not permitted to complete the application process because of her statement that she is a lesbian. Dallas police chief Mack Vines told England that the department "doesn't hire gays."

"The use of the Texas sodomy statute to justify discrimination in hiring by the government is a classic example of how these highly intrusive and stigmatizing laws harm lesbians and gay men, even

sodomy law cited

when they themselves are not arrested or prosecuted for violating them," said Evan Wolfson, the Lambda Legal Defense staff attorney representing England.

"The mere existence of these laws is used to justify all kinds of discrimination." said Wolfson. "As long as lesbians and gay men can be branded criminals for ordinary private intimacy, we will always by second class citizens and fair game for any bigot, even when it's the government."

Texas is one of twenty-four states (along with the District of Columbia) that have sodomy laws, and one of seven with laws specifically for lesbians and gay men. Ohio repealed its sodomy law in the early 1970s.

"Dallas is one of the few large cities in Texas where openly gay people cannot work as police officers," noted William Waybourn, president of the Dallas Gay Alliance, a local advocacy group supporting England's case. "The Texas state department of public safety and the police departments of San Antonio and El Paso, to name just a few, all recognize that anti-gay discrimination is unconstitutional, unfair, and counter-productive to the interests of the taxpayers who need the best officers they can get.”

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