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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

An Independent Chronicle of the Northern Ohio Lesbian and Gay Community

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THE 1993 MARCH ON WASHINGTON

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וררו ורו

FOR LESBIAN, GAY AND BI

EQUAL RIGHTS AND LIBERATION

APRIL 25

Complete March on Washington information in pull-out section inside.

Volume 8, Issue 10 April 16, 1993

Minnesota makes it eight with signing of rights law

Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson on April 2 signed into law legislation aimed at protecting gays and lesbians against discrimination in housing, employment, and education, effective August 1.

"I've always been a very strong advocate of human rights," Carlson said at a news conference shortly before he signed the bill. "It's not a position that I'm taking because I enjoy enormous popularity on the issue. I don't. I know that. But I think it's also the right thing to do."

The Minnesota Senate passed the bill 3730 the previous day.

The law includes lesbians and gay men in the state's human rights statutes, outlawing discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation.

Senate panel ponders law, bias, and 'sexual tension' as hearings open

by Lisa Keen

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee spent one of its first two days of hearings on gays in the military discussing

such delicate matters as "sexual tension,' "conceptually erotic relationships," and what "causes" a person to have a homosexual orientation.

Some gay activists declared the March 29 and 31 Congressional hearings to be a "victory" for those who want to repeal the military ban on gays, but most said they thought the hearings were a draw. All of them expressed concern that the hearings

are not fair, as Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, promised.

While Day One covered the legal considerations and the history of the military ban, Day Two opened the flood gates on a wide range of subject areas-from sexual tension to "what causes homosexuality." Senators and witnesses proffered their views on such matters as:

the "profound intimacy" of some military settings, such as sleeping bunks in submarines;

how the operation of small military

Toledo AIDS program gets grant from mayors' group

The Toledo-Lucas County AIDS Program, a collaboration between the Lucas County and Toledo health departments, was one often innovative AIDS projects across the country to receive a grant from the United States Conference of Mayors on April 2. The grant award was $121,356.

In the proposal, the agency offered "to determine the availability and need for HIV prevention services for gay and bisexual men, substance users, women in high-risk situations, and youth in high risk situations in Lucas County while building collaborative planning mechanisms among the diverse communities working with and affected by HIV and

Researchers find that HIV-

is never dormantit is always active in the lymph glands

AIDS. Expected outcomes include the establishment of an HIV/AIDS Prevention Planning Council; a stronger network of collaboration with existing agencies; and a final report, "HIV/AIDS Prevention Community Action Plan, 1994-1996."

The grants, totaling $1 million and ranging from $62,000 to $135,000, were funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

"Our targets in these ten projects are gay and bisexual men, minorities, youth, substance users and their needle-sharing partners, particularly women," said Thomas Cochran, director of the mayors Continued on Page 4

Lake County News-Herald

and other papers drop comic with gay

units are a ‘‘we are family'-like grouping; the importance of "agape love" that the service members feel for one another; the problem of even “conceptual erotic relationships" between service members;

and

"legalized insubordination" as a way to describe attempts by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to undermine President Clinton's effort to end discrimination in the service.

By the end of the day Wednesday, March 31, the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Nunn chairs, seemed to be drawing circles around the notion of a "compromise" that might allow gays to serve in the military as long as they don't identify themselves as such.

"That's a completely unacceptable road to go down," said Chai Feldblum, legal and policy adviser for the Campaign for Military Service, an umbrella group which is spearheading support for Clinton's proposed executive order.

Feldblum noted, however, that the discussion in which this idea arose was actually a beneficial dialogue because it focused the Committee's attention on the differences between "status, conduct, and misconduct."

And, although two out of three witnesses at the Wednesday hearing said they were against President Clinton's proposed executive order, all three agreed that a gay person who does not reveal his or her sexual orientation should not be excluded from

service.

But even before the hearings began, gay activists said they felt an exclusionary policy at work. The first day of hearings, Monday, March 29, included four witnesses, but the Continued on Page 10

INSIDE

It's time for lesbians and gay men to discuss their misperceptions of each other

27 how-to book A positive

for getting what you need from the HIV health-care system.

Minnesota becomes the eighth state to extend civil rights protection to gays, joining California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and neighboring Wisconsin.

Sponsors of the gay rights legislation say negative reaction to the anti-discrimination proposal hadn't eroded support for it.

"Nearly everyone has reported to me that they did get an awful lot of heat," after the House version of the legislation was approved by representatives 78-55 on March 18, said State Rep. Karen Clark, DFLMinneapolis, who is openly lesbian.

However, Clark said, House members have said "more than ever they understand the need for the bill because some of the calls they have gotten have been so hateful that if they weren't sure the bill was needed before, they're sure now.

Before the final vote, State Sen. Allan Spear, DFL-Minneapolis, who is also openly gay, said senators already had voted on the bill twice and support had not wavered. "In a week, people went through that ordeal, and nobody changed their votes," he said.

The conferees dropped unclear language, but retained all of the exceptions that were added to the House bill to initially win passage in that chamber, Clark said. For example, they retained a provision from the House bill that exempts landlord-occupied duplexes so an owner could refuse to rent to gay men or lesbians.

The negotiated bill also contains a statement from the House bill that says the legislation does not mean the state conContinued on Page 2

Self-defense claimed in lover's death

by Martha Pontoni

Tara Corethers and Shirley Johnson were lovers, involved in a violent, turbulent relationship for about a year before it ended when Corethers shot Johnson to death.

On January 8, one week from their first anniversary, Corethers says that she accidently shot Johnson during a violent argument. Corethers reports that Johnson would not leave her house or allow Corethers to leave. Corethers removed her gun from the linen closet to scare Johnson and, she says, accidently shot her. "There wasn't no why. It was an accident; my intentions were to get her out of my house," said Corethers. According to Corethers, she and Johnson had a history of violent confrontations. One Continued on Page 10

Editorials, Letters . Obituaries Entertainment Sports..

Calendar..30 Personals. . 33

Resource.. 38