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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 20, 1992

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Father loses battle to delete AIDS from son's headstone

by Chris Glaser

George Lawrence's father lost his bid in a Los Angeles probate court Sept. 25 to alter his son's epitaph that refers to his dying from AIDS and includes a Jewish family name. In court, the father's attorney, John Gantus, retreated from an initial request to remove the cause of death, asking only that "Eisenberg" be removed and that the father be added to the short list of those the decedent thanked.

The epitaph, distilled from a longer one the son had written on his computer, reads: "I give thanks for my beloved spouse, Gus, my friends, my mother, Mira, my dogs, and the beauty of living. AIDS is a hard disease to die from, but I rejoice in knowing that my friends will carry on against AIDS and gay oppression."

George Lawrence and his lover Gus DiClairo, who shortly followed Lawrence in death, were well known for selling and restoring historical properties in the Los Angeles districts of Highland Park, Mt. Washington, Eagle Rock and Montecito Heights through their real estate firm, Uptown Properties. They also founded the Uptown Gay and Lesbian Alliance, primarily a social group that also let politicians and police know that there were gay people in these communities who demanded equal protection and public services.

"They lived and died out of the closet." said friend and executor Alberto Valdivia. Contending that Alexander Lawrence was ashamed of his son, Valdivia hailed the

court decision as "a victory against homophobia, and a defeat for parents who hate their gay children."

The attorney representing the father disputed this claim. John Gantus told Frontiers, a Los Angeles gay magazine, that the father was proud of his son, and that they were prepared in court to have a former lover of the son testify on the character of the father's relationship with his son.

Gantus said, "Regardless of the evidence, [the judge] did not believe this court had the authority to change the headstone." He suggested that there might be another avenue for his client to pursue his claim, should he choose to do so.

Los Angeles probate and estate planning attorney David G. Maseredijian, who represented Valdivia, said that the judgement came because George Lawrence had executed a power of attorney, nominated an executor in his will, and added a clause recommended by a longtime friend in the gay community, attorney Albert Gordon, specifically giving the executor the right to make funeral and burial arrangements. Under the present California Health and Safety Code these rights would have gone first to a spouse, then to children, and finally to a parent. Since gay spouses are not legally recognized by the state, George's father would have had the power to change the epitaph had it not been for this provision in the will.

Reprinted with permission from Frontiers, Los Angeles.

5,300 year old 'bottom' has gay & straight papers fooled

In its April 1 issue, an Austrian gay magazine ran a story that said traces of semen had been found in the anus of a Stone Age man, whose well-preserved remains had been discovered in the Alps. He was, said the magazine, the "first known gay man who enjoyed being fucked."

The article was apparently an April Fools' joke, but half a year later, the story continues to circulate among gays around the world as fact, rather than fiction. Following a prominent feature article on the Stone Age man in the October 15 Washington Post--an article which contained no mention of the sperm "findings"--one reader wrote to the Washington Blade, that city's gay paper, to complain about the "mainstream media's homophobia in failing to include this very important revelation."

The remains of the 5,300 year old man, nicknamed Otzi, were discovered last year in the Alps, on the border between Italy and Austria, and have been heralded by researchers as the most important evidence of prehistoric man yet uncovered.

Only days after the Austrian gay magazine, Lambda Nachrichten, published its joke that scientists had attempted to cover up the discovery of semen traces in Otzi's anal canal, the “story” was picked up and published as fact by three daily newspapers in Europe--one in Switzerland and two in Austria. A Norwegian gay paper, Blikk, also reprinted the story; as did the Advocate on Sept. 22.

The Chicago-based Outlines News Service, which supplies a large number of U.S. and foreign gay papers with national and international gay news, published the story on Sept. 2 after obtaining copies of the reports in the European dailies. Several subscribers, including the Bay Area Reporter and QW in the U.S. and Capital Gay in England, immediately ran the report.

But only days later, Outlines' Rex Wockner said, Capital Gay told him that a British magazine had attempted to verify the report and found it might have been a prank. After contacting Lambda Nachrichten and discovering the report had been an April Fools' joke, Outlines on Sept. 8 sent out a correction. But by then, the story of the "world's first known bottom" had left the pages of gay papers to assume a life of its own.

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

LaRosa sentenced in lover's murder

Jan LaRosa, 49, was found guilty of aggravated murder in the July shooting death of her lover, Tressa Tonni. LaRosa received the maximum sentence of twenty years for murder and three years for the use of a gun during the commission of a felony.

Entering a plea of guilty, LaRosa was examined by a court-appointed psychiatrist prior to sentencing and was declared sane. LaRosa, who said in earlier statements regarding the murder, "I knew what I was doing" agreed that she was sane and requested the maximum sentence. Her stated motive for murduring her lover of three years was to end the harassment she claimed Tonni was receiving from Tonni's family regarding the two women's relationship. "I couldn't see her suffer like that no more," said LaRosa. Her sentence will be carried out at Marysville Correctional Facility for Women in Marysville, Ohio.▼