Page 6

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

October, 1991

Gay activists demand independent investigation,

Sheriff's resignation following brutal mistreatment of man with AIDS

Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian March Activists (GLMA) is calling for an investigation by an outside agency into the behavior of Hamilton County corrections officers after they allegedly brutally beat a man with AIDS Sept. 4th.

GLMA also is calling for the resignation of Sheriff Simon Leis for using the case to spread misinformation about the threat of AIDS.

Steven R. O'Banion was arrested by Cincinnati City Police the morning of Sept 4th, for jaywalking, disorderly conduct, assault, and resisting arrest, and taken to the Hamilton County Justice Center.

"While I was held, all evening long, about every 15 minutes someone would come up to my cell with a billy club and scream faggot, homosexual, queer," O'Banion said during a television news interview.

During an examination, O'Banion became nauseated and warned officers he was about

to vomit. Sheriff's department spokesman Frank Weikel said O'Banion then spewed blood from his mouth and nose at three officers who tried to subdue him.

O'Banion, who suffered a black eye and extensive facial bruises and lacerations, was charged with three counts of felonious assault and three counts of attempted murder. Weikel said O'Banion's wounds came as a result of the officers subduing O'Banion. He said the incident had been investigated and the sheriff was satisfied with the officers' behavior.

Leis later called for legislation requiring that correction officials be informed of inmates' HIV status, and said the officers who had been "spit at" were being tested for infection.

O'Banion had earlier informed officials of his HIV status.

To date there have been no cases of law enforcement or correctional officials being infected by HIV on the job.

The charge that O'Banion deliberately spat blood vomited through his mouth and nose is unfounded, given the involuntary nature of the vomiting reflex.

Leis actions add to his long record of bias against gays and lesbians.

In a July 18, 1982, Cincinnati Enquirer interview, Leis said, "I believe that there are certain moral standards not protected by law but which have been established through the ages that all or us are required to adhere to. Homosexuality is one of the immoral acts.'

99

October, 1981, a young woman was raped by men hired by her own parents to deprogram her out of her lesbianism. Leis, then prosecutor, refused to bring charges against the parents, saying that if she were his daughter, he might have done the same thing. Leis lost the case and the rapists were freed.

In 1984, a prominent Cincinnati gay activist was arrested on numerous morals charges,

most of which were found to be spurious and dropped.

One charge remained, that the man had had sex with persons of "diminished mental capacity" (low IQs), although they were legally able to function in society, to marry, and even to testify in court against the defendant. Leis won a conviction, which was later overturned.

In April, 1990, Sheriff Leis led the effort to charge the Contemporary Arts Center and director Dennis Barrie for obscenity in displaying photographs by the late acclaimed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, because of the photographs' homosexual content.

Barrie and the CAC were acquitted. Leis claimed to speak for "community standards", although a poll proved 59 percent of Hamilton County residents disapproved of the prosecution's assault on freedom of expression.▼

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Amnesty

Continued from page 1

Queer Planet will closely monitor Amnesty's guidelines regarding gay prisoners of conscience.

“The question now is, will they commit resources to gay cases?" said Julie Dorf, an official with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “Or, will they only give lip service to our issues?”’

Dorf noted that, while Amnesty International has pledged since 1979 to assist gay activists who are persecuted for their political advocacy work, who knows of only one case where the organization had formally "adopted" a gay person as a prisoner of conscience.

Healey did not return a follow-up call by Blade deadline seeking a response to Dorf's assertion.

Amnesty officials have long said they have had difficulties in documenting actual cases where gays are persecuted for advocating gay rights. Critics from gay rights groups have complained that such cases have been publicized in the gay press as well as by human rights observers who monitor such countries as Cuba, the Soviet Union, China, Iran, and Nigeria.

The gay task force calling for changes in Amnesty said it is sending Amnesty officials

a formal proposal on gay related issues. The proposal calls for Amnesty to devote money and resources to researching gay persecution cases, a major study documenting anti-gay oppression throughout the world, adoption of a “major publicity campaign" on gay issues, and increased cooperation between Amnesty and international gay rights groups.

Since its founding in London in 1961, Amnesty International has worked diligently for the release of individuals imprisoned by governments because of their political beliefs or because of their race, religion, or ethnicity. In 1979, at the urging of gay rights groups, Amnesty agreed to expand its work on behalf of persons imprisoned for advocating gay rights.

To the disappointment of ILGA and other gay groups, Amnesty's leadership declined at that time to extend the organization's human rights advocacy to people persecuted or imprisoned solely because they are gay or because they engaged in homosexual acts.

While the latest resolution passed in Japan removes that gap in coverage, gay groups note that it does not add sexual orientation to Amnesty's funding mission statement or "statute". That document remains limited to protections based on race, sex, religion, ethnicity, and political beliefs.▼

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