Page 10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
National Notes
..December, 1991
What to do about Wilson
Washington, D.C.-The smoke has settled from protests following California governor Pete Wilson's veto of a gay rights bill, but the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is fanning the flames of activism ignited by what has been called a "betrayal" of gay people.
On September 29 Wilson vetoed a bill that would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace. Wilson had promised to support the legislation during his campaign and earlier this year. The veto sparked demonstrations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
NGLTF director Urvashi Vaid and public information director Robert Bray proposed several strategies for thwarting the Wilson veto at the Creating Change West conference in Los Angeles October 18-20, including:
• Strengthen Life Lobby, the statewide AIDS and gay rights lobbying group, through grassroots organizing and media activism;
● Join a recall-Wilson campaign and build coalitions with environmental, labor, feminist, and other groups;
●Beef up more traditional political work, including voter registration and constituent lobbying;
• Continue, and increase, street activism and direct actions against Wilson and the far right.
Other strategies being debated by California activists include a wine boycott and a drive to place a gay rights bill on the state ballot, preceded by polling to determine if that is a viable strategy.
"Governor Wilson's veto sounds an alarm for all of us," said Vaid. "We must organize and not rest on the assurances of so-called allies in our struggle for equality. This is our Selma. This is our Birmingham. This is our social revolution."
Oberlin gay alums gather
Oberlin College's Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alumni group met October 11-13 for its first reunion as an officially recognized body. The reunion, which coincided with National Coming Out Day, was held at the Oberlin campus about 20 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin College, which formally recognized same-sex lovers among its alumni in September of 1989, was the first institution of higher learning in the United States, and perhaps in the world, to do so.
The alumni group has more than 800 registered members. Forty-one alums and five of their partners attended the reunion. Acting College President Alfred McKay gave the keynote address at the welcoming dinner on the first night of the event. He reiterated the college's commitment to diversity.
It was noted that despite laudable progress at Oberlin, a remarkably high proportion of LGB students, staff, and faculty feel persecuted on campus. Anti-LGB biases in admissions and foot-dragging on domestic partner policies were discussed. Alums also took part in a tape-recorded oral history project, recounting their Oberlin experiences. Song and poetry marked a memorial event entitled "We're All Living with AIDS." The weekend closed with a Cotillion Ball and a pledge to return in even greater numbers for next year's reunion.
Roasting military "chestnuts"
Washington, D.C.--Members of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America took their appeal for an end to the Pentagon's anti-gay personnel policy to President Bush October 13, but had the gates of the White
The Sum of Us
by David Stevens Celebrate the Holiday Season with Jeff and Greg
House literally slammed in their faces.
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The march came just days after the Pentagon officially released commissioned report critical of the primary argument used by the government to defend the policy--that gays are a "security risk." Department of Defense directive No. 1332.14 states that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service."
But the report, "Homosexuality and Personnel Security," concludes that data does not exist to "support the belief that being homosexual predisposes a person to be unreliable, disloyal, or untrustworthy."
The document was prepared by Theodore R. Sarbin, Ph.D., for the Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center.
On Columbus Day weekend, some 30 activists participated in "Operation Old Chestnut," a march to military bases in the Washington, D.C. area and to the White House. Miriam Ben-Shalom, former Army drill sergeant and national president of GLBVA, Ferry Watkins, former Army Sergeant who won a federal court case over the Pentagon in 1989, and other marchers delivered letters to base commanders calling for an end to the policy. (Defense Secretary Cheney last summer referred to the military's anti-gay position as an "old chestnut.")
In other military news, the FBI has notified the NGLTF that it will not intervene in the investigation of the publicized murder-suicide at Fort Irwin Army Base in Southern California last summer. The victims of the case were two soldiers who, at the time of the incident, were under investigation for "sodomy." Handling the case is the same military Criminal Investigation Division unit that was investigation
the soldiers at the time of their deaths. NGLTF and the veterans' group requested an impartial FBI investigation of the incident.
NGLTF has been informed by the Freedom of Information Office that it will not fulfill his request for an internal Pentagon memo dated Nov. 14, 1990, citing the " deliberative" nature of the information. NGLTF believes the memo, requesting a
FUN UNIQUE!! MEMORABLE!!!
legal opinion from the Defense Dept. general counsel, would establish that a formal policy review occurred in autumn of 1990. The opinion was leaked to NGLTF at the end of last August.
Virginia drops ban on gay bars
Washington, D.C.--Facing a highly publicized lawsuit and 1,000 gay and lesbian activists openly and eagerly breaking the law, Virginia state officials have ruled unconstitutional a 1930s-era statute that forbid bars, restaurants and hotels from serving gay people.
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board statute says that the board may suspend or revoke the liquor license of any business that has "become a meeting place or rendezvous for users of narcotics, drunks, homosexuals, prostitutes, pimps, panderers, gamblers or habitual law violators." The law also bans a license holder from employing a "person who has the general reputation as a ... homosexual."
On October 18, representatives of Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry met with attorneys for plaintiffs involved in a suit to repeal the law. Out of the meeting came an agreement whereby the laws, as they pertain to homosexuals, are hereby declared unconstitutional . " and the control board is "hereby permanently enjoined from enforcing the provisions...
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Denver official orders sick leave for lesbian to care for her spouse
In a landmark legal ruling, an employer has been ordered to grant sick leave to a lesbian employee to care for her life partner. A hearing officer of the Career Service Authority of Denver, Colorado ruled that Denver General Hospital violated Department of Health and Hospital regulations when it refused to allow a lesbian employee to take three days sick leave to care for her injured companion. The decision continued on next page
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