NEWS BRIEFS

OCTOBER 1, 1993

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13

employer, threatened with high premiums, will fire her. The illness will soon make it impossible for her to work in any case.

Burdine was one of 21 people the White House invited to help open Clinton's push for health care reform.

New blood-based AIDS treatment to start

Los Angeles-A Southern California biotech firm has received permission from the state to proceed with clinical trials for a new blood-based treatment for AIDS patients.

Officials of Sherman Oaks-based HemaCare Corp. announced September 15 that the food and drug branch of the state Department of Health Services has approved a 600-patient study of a new, biological AIDS therapy.

The treatment involves collecting blood plasma from healthy people infected with HIV. Researchers will inject AIDS patients with plasma from healthy patients that contains a large number and wide variety of HIV antibodies.

The blood-based treatment, previously used for viruses including hepatitis, polio and tetanus, has several advantages over current AIDS drug treatments.

Drugs including AZT were originally developed to fight cancer and are toxic. So far, the plasma injections have shown no toxicity.

Moreover, because the plasma will contain antibodies from as many as 50 healthy people, it should be effective against many of the virus's mutations

HemaCare applied for testing in California under a new law designed to speed new treatments into practice without formal approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration. HemaCare has also applied for FDA approval, and has asked for permission to conduct national clinical trials.

Benetton under attack for tasteless ads

Paris Two French AIDS groups sued the Italian clothes-maker Benetton September 15 for using what it called "degrading" images-tattoos of the words "HIV Positive" on buttocks and other body parts-in its latest advertising campaign.

The French Agency for the Fight Against AIDS and the National AIDS Council, both government-sponsored, denounced the "commercial exploitation of suffering." The groups said the images of such tattoos "evoke in the collective memory Nazi practices."

Catherine Renaudie, spokeswoman for the Fight Against AIDS agency, said Benetton was being sued for "responsibility for damages" inflicted on others by its "use of degrading images."

Benetton, known for using shock as a gimmick in its publicity campaigns, introduced the new advertisements for the fallwinter collection September 13.

The two organizations filing the lawsuit are demanding an unspecified amount of damages to be paid to agencies fighting AIDS.

Lesbian adoption case on hold

Madison, Wis.-The Wisconsin Supreme Court has postponed its plan to hear arguments in the case of two Green Bay lesbians who want to adopt a baby.

Chief Justice Nathan said the lesbian case was dropped from the Green Bay agenda because not all witnesses will be available. The court would make a decision soon on when the adoption case would be rescheduled.

The case has significant implications for state law because it involves a girl adopted in a heterosexual marriage by a woman who later entered a lesbian relationship. The adoptive father did not maintain a relationship with the child. Throughout court proceedings the father has consented to the adoption of the girl by the mother's lesbian partner.

Brown County Circuit Judge Richard

Dietz ruled the adoption would be in the girl's best interest but was barred because state law allows such adoptions only by stepparents.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals asked the high court to take the case directly because of its significant state law and constitutional implications.

Not all humans' rights upheld by Indiana commissioner

Columbus, Ind. The city's human rights commissioner claims he was pressured to resign after making public comments earlier this year against gays.

Bobby Woodall, who served on the commission since April 1989, said two members of the city council told him last month that some people considered his views intolerant, contradicting his position to uphold human rights.

Woodall had announced his resignation Aug. 26, but only recently said he felt pressured by city officials.

Councilman Fred Anderson said members of the NAACP had brought up concerns over Woodall's statements and his ability to remain neutral as a member of the commission.

The minutes from the Jan. 27 commission meeting say Woodall "stated that race, color, sex and handicap are groups that we have covered over and over again as giving them special rights, and he thinks that this is right, but that gays should not be given those special rights."

Woodall's resignation has been accepted and a replacement will be named when his term expires in April.

Forget Met, it doesn't pay

Utica, N.Y.-Metropolitan Life Insurance says it will honor the auto insurance policy of a gay couple that was mistakenly approved under its "married" classification.

However, it will not approve any further married classification policies for gay couples for the time being, a decision that has incensed some gay rights activists.

Richard Berstein, vice president and general counsel with MetLife in Providence, R.I., said an error was made by underwriters in the MetLife Property and Casualty Office in Utica, N.Y. when the married classification was approved for a gay couple in East Providence.

The married classification provides a monthly discount to the policy holder.

The mistake surfaced September 14 when a group calling itself the Rhode Island Gay and Lesbian News Bureau issued a statement saying MetLife had set an important precedent by considering the gay couple married on its auto insurance application.

Academic freedom under fire in lowa

Iowa City, Iowa—A teaching assistant at the University of Iowa has received a letter of reprimand for failing to warn students before showing a documentary about transvestites.

The teaching assistant in the American Studies Program was disciplined for showing Paris Is Burning without warning the class about the contents, said Ann Rhodes, vice president for university relations.

The critically-acclaimed film about a drag queen subculture in New York has appeared in mainstream movie theaters.

"The person was not reprimanded for showing the film but for not complying with our expectation that students be warned about contents," Rhodes said. The warning would have allowed students to skip the screening if they felt it might prove upsetting.

The policy was adopted in response to a directive from the state Board of Regents following an outcry when two films containing gay scenes were shown on campus. Some faculty members have complained that the policy infringes on academic freedom.

Portland gay-rights ordinance gets test case

Portland, Maine-A woman who claims Bath Iron Works fired her because she is a lesbian has sued the company under Portland's gay-rights ordinance, setting up the first legal test of the nine-month-old law.

One BIW supervisor told Cynthia Dowd that she looked like a "dyke" and another asked her to dress more femininely, the lawsuit said. She was then transferred and, soon after, dismissed-all because of her sexual orientation, it said.

Susan Pierter, a BIW spokeswoman, refused to discuss details of the case. Pierter said BIW last spring adopted a policy prohibiting discrimination among employees on the basis of sexual orientation.

Dowd worked at BIW for seven years. She advanced through the ranks and eventually became a buyer of specialized equipment, a job her lawyer described as prestigious and high-paying.

Portland's gay-rights law has no enforcement provision. A victim seeking relief must file a lawsuit.

Another convention drops Cobb County

Marietta, Ga.--The state's hospitality industry is moving its convention out of Cobb County because of the County Commission's resolution denouncing what it termed "the gay lifestyle."

The Georgia Society of Association Executives canceled a booking for next summer because of “the human rights issue," Don Poor, manager of the new $43 million Galleria Centre, said September 15. The booking was an attempt to expose

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