10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
JUNE 11, 1993
NEWS BRIEFS
Gays OK on student council
Bremerton, Wash.-Openly-gay teens are welcome on Bremerton High School's student council after the school's students on May 19 rejected an amendment to the school constitution that would have let students oust their gay and lesbian peers from the elected body.
The measure, which identified homosexuality as 'immoral behavior' akin to indecent exposure and sexual harassment, was denied 635-475, said Principal Marilee Hansen.
"I'm delighted it's not going to be added to the constitution," Hansen said. “But I'm a little taken aback by the number of students who have this (anti-gay) feeling. We have a lot of educating to do.” Hansen said administrators probably would have overridden the measure had it passed.
The proposal gained national attention when it was passed 49-47 the week before at the school's annual constitutional convention.
One student came out during the debate. "Someone in the meeting said, 'Nobody gay would ever stand up and say they were gay because they know it is wrong," "Todd McCauley, 19, told the Seattle PostIntelligencer. "I had to speak up. I told them what I do in my bedroom is none of their business. I'm here for an education."
Anchorage kills protections for lesbian and gay city workers
Anchorage, Alaska-The city assembly here has canceled an ordinance which would have protected about 3,500 city workers from anti-gay job discrimination.
The Anchorage Assembly in May voted 7-4 to remove the law after little debate. The vote was expected following election last month of Assembly members who vowed to rescind it.
About 30 people stood up at the meeting to sing and rally in favor of the measure. "We're going to teach our children courage, we are never turning back," the crowd sang.
A referendum on the law slated for April 22 was canceled when the Alaska Supreme Court said the petition triggering the vote was biased in its wording. Its title referred to a "special homosexual ordinance."
Ernie Cahoon 463-2572
Gays voted to N.Y. school board
New York-Up to three openly-gay candidates won seats on New York's school board in elections following a sometimes acrimonious controversy over a new "Rainbow Curriculum" that, among other things, taught tolerance of gays and lesbians. The controversy resulted in the ouster of chancellor Joseph Fernandez, "Rainbow's" author.
Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, in an alliance with the Roman Catholic church, distributed voting guides that indicated which candidates opposed the Rainbow Curriculum.
At press time, two lesbians, Angelica
Rovira and Jill Harris, had won seats. Jane Moore of the Empire State Pride Agenda said Jon Nalley was winning in District 2. Rovira, Harris and Nalley were the first openly-gay candidates to run and win, Moore said. A fourth openly-gay candidate, Patricia Hayes, could still win, she said. A fifth, Robert Rygor, lost.
Ten seats went to Christian Coalition candidates.
Cincinnati church fights order to rescind gay man's ordination
Cincinnati-Leaders of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church say they will fight their denomination's ban on ordaining lesbians and gays.
The 260-member congregation's governing body voted May 14 to file a complaint with the Synod of the Covenant, a governing body one step below the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.
Mount Auburn's leadership wants to prevent a Cincinnati Presbytery disciplinary commission from intervening in the 143-year-old congregation's affairs. The congregation's leaders also want the ban to be examined by the General Asembly's ecclesiastical court.
"As far as I'm concerned, I will never be part of any church law that says gay and lesbian Christians cannot be ordained simply on the basis of being gay and lesbian, nor do I think our church will," said Mount Auburn's pastor, the Rev. Harold Porter.
The congregation came under criticism when its leadership appointed a gay man,
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Michael Adee, as an elder. Ten other area Presbyterian congregations complained to the presbytery, the church's regional governing body. They said Mount Auburn was violating the denomination's ban on ordaining gays.
The presbytery's ecclesiastical affairs committee recommended that it discipline Mount Auburn by establishing a commission to deal with the situation. It agreed May 11 by a 95-94 vote.
The commission can ask the presbytery for authority to remove the congregation's pastor, deacons and elders. Such action would require another presbytery vote.
Couple may pursue loophole in Michigan marriage law
Ann Arbor, Mich-Charley Sullivan and Rob Koplan plan to marry in a traditional Jewish ceremony. On May 15, they applied for a marriage license at the Washtenaw County clerk's office. They said Michigan law prohibits a man from marrying his mother, sister or first cousin-but not another man.
Clerk's office supervisor Sandy Szufnar refused the couple a license, saying that although the law doesn't specifically prohibit two men from marrying, one side of the license form specifies male' and the other side female.
"Even if we issued a license in Washtenaw County, the state would not recognize it," County Attorney Robert Guenzel said. "Ultimately, I think it's a question that will end up in the courts."
Sullivan and Koplan say they may challenge the state's position in court-after their June wedding.
AMA refuses gay doctors' ad
Chicago-The Journal of the American Medical Association has refused to run an advertisement by a gay doctors' group calling for a ban on discrimination against gays in the AMA.
An AMA official said in a statement that the association rejected the ad because it publishes apolitical journals.
The ad was submitted by the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, a San Francisco-based group with 1,000 members in 46 states.
Benjamin Schatz, executive director of the AAPHR said his group had offered to pay about $7,000 the going rate for a fullpage ad in the journal-for publication of an ad headlined: "Warning: Homophobia May Be Hazardous to Your Health." The text below listed abuses suffered by gays and fears gays have about revealing their orientation to most doctors.
Synagogue barred from parade
The Salute to Israel Parade went on here
May 29 without a contingent from Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a gay synagogue.
The American Zionist Youth Foundation, the parade organizer, had initially agreed allow the gay group to march. But it refused after what it called a violation of an agreement not to talk to the press.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat said using the issue of media contact "is misleading.”
Under the compromise agreement with the foundation, she said, members of her congregation had only agreed to keep quiet about the exact wording of the banner they were to carry. "We didn't agree to a onesided gag order," Kleinbaum said.
Gov. Mario Cuomo and Mayor David Dinkins headed a coterie of politicians who marched in the parade, then attended a separate event held by the synagogue. Maine, Illinois rights bills fail
A bill to amend the Illinois Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation fell a vote short May 5 of moving to the full Senate for
consideration.
In a sometimes heated exchange, the committee voted 7-5 to move the bill to the
full chamber, but eight votes were needed. Three senators voted present, meaning they did not take a position on the bill.
Demonstrators in Maine took to the streets and briefly blocked traffic after the Maine Senate sustained Gov. John R. McKernan's veto of a gay civil rights bill, passed earlier by both houses.
A rally earlier in the evening had been small but boisterous, as the demonstrators criticized McKernan and rallied behind Lewiston's gay-rights ordinance, the focus of a repeal referendum in November.
"Now it's on to Lewiston, and let's win there," State Sen. Dale McCormick told the crowd that included Lewiston Mayor James P. Howaniec, a 1994 Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, and police Chief Laurent Gilbert Sr.
Indiana town passes rights law
Lafayette, Ind.-The City Council has voted to enact the first known ordinance in Indiana barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. Council President Ron Corbett cast the tie-breaking vote May 3 that carried the ordinance by a 5-4 margin.
Corbett said his stand on the issue changed during the course of an eight-month debate that has divided the community of 50,000. He said everyone has a right to equal access to housing and a job. That, along with what he called rudeness among ordinance opponents, swayed his vote.
"One girl talked about getting beat up and almost killed, and someone said, 'Can't she take the hint?" " Corbett said, shaking his head.
Lesbian Avengers zap Texas capitol after sodomy repeal fails
Austin-Blaring horns and paper airplanes interrupted business during the last day of the legislative session May 31, as people opposed to Texas' sodomy law staged a protest in the gallery of the Texas House.
Ten members of the Austin chapter of the Lesbian Avengers spread out throughout the third-floor public gallery overlooking the House chamber and began blowing horns and unfurling banners reading LEGALIZE LESBIAN SEX and HOMOPHOBIA STINKS. The protesters also flew paper airplanes with the messages onto the House floor.
The Senate earlier this session had voted to remove a gay-only sodomy law, but the House retained it. An appeal of the current statute is pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
Rep. Glen Maxey, the state's only openlygay legislator, said that while he did not condone the protest, he understood the need for the demonstration.
Youngstown State University gay group showing growth
In April, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) of Youngstown State University held its first meeting. The group formed as an outgrowth of a gay men's discussion group operated by the university's counseling and testing service. However, GALA members include both women and men.
GALA has won the Nova Award given each year to the most outstanding new organization at Youngstown State. Group members addressed the university's Coalition for Diversity on lesbian and gay issues. Future projects include participation in upcoming gay pride events in Cleveland and Columbus; a committee has begun work on a banner for display in marches. GALA also plans a July picnic. Subsequent meetings have attracted more than 20 people and the group shows steady growth. N.Y.senate GOP holding rights law in committee
Albany, N.Y.-Republican New York City mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani is pressing the state senate's GOP majority to allow gay rights legislation to come to a vote in that chamber.
New York Newsday reported June 4 that