14 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
OCTOBER 1, 1993
NEWS BRIEFS
Continued from previous page
meeting planners to the convention center.
Two other conventions also have rejected the center atop Galleria mall, saying Cobb County's perceived intolerance would offend some participants and jeopardize attendance.
Gay and lesbian groups have called for a boycott of the center to pressure Cobb officials to rescind the resolution.
Another lawsuit against the military
Washington-A Navy officer is suing the Pentagon in an attempt to halt disciplinary action begun against him after he acknowledged he is gay to his commanding officer.
Lt. j.g. Richard Dirk Selland, who was stationed in Norfolk, Va., told his commanding officer he is gay January 21, a day after President Clinton was inaugurated. The Navy later told Selland he would be put on inactive reserve, or effectively discharged, at the end of September, said Hank Hockeimer, Selland's attorney.
The suit, filed September 15 claims the Navy's actions violated the officer's constitutional right to equal protection under the law. The Navy's decision also was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law," the suit said.
A separate motion asks the court to grant a preliminary injunction that would keep the Navy from discharging Selland until the case is decided.
In a case similar to Selland's, Marine Sgt. Justin Elzie sued the government on Sept. 8, claiming the Marines yanked him out of an early retirement program and discharged him without benefits because he declared he is gay on national television.
Missouri proposed amendment may be unconstitutional
Jefferson City, Mo.-A proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution barring special legal protection for gays is itself unconstitutional, a lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, announced September 13, was filed September 10 in Cole County Circuit Court at Jefferson City. The plaintiffs are three gay rights organizations and three individuals.
The proposed amendment would bar singling out gays and bisexuals for legal protections.
The lawsuit contends that the proposed amendment illegally covers too many subjects; that its brief description for petitions and the ballot is unfair and misleading; and that it is a statewide referendum that would wrongly reverse the local ordinances.
It asks Circuit Judge Byron Kinder to junk the proposed amendment or rewrite the petition and ballot description with another "that is sufficient, fair and complies with the requirements of the law." Vermont state employees may challenge health care policy
Montpelier, Vt.-A decision barring gay partners of state employees from receiving health insurance benefits likely will be challenged by the state workers' union.
The decision by the state Personnel Department to refuse benefits comes three months after the Vermont Labor Relations Board ordered the University of Vermont to extend health and dental benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees.
State Personnel Commissioner Thomas Torti, citing gay civil rights legislation passed last year, specifically said the civil rights policy "should not be construed to change the definition of family or dependent in employee benefit plans."
EARN SPARE Cash!
Deliver The Gay People's Chronicle!
NEWS FLASH
We need people to deliver the Gay People's Chronicle to Cleveland and suburban stores. If you have an insured vehicle, and five or six hours
to spare every other Friday afternoon, call Brian
at 621-5280, 9am to 5pm.
Is There a Doctor in the House!!
...or a Dentist or Ob-Gyn or Ophthalmologist, etc.
Let our Gay/Lesbian/Bi readership know you exist and are there for them.
Placing an ad in The Gay People's Chronicle entitles you to a free listing in our Resource Directory.
Call today for more information, 216/621-5280
Torti conceded there was some ambiguity in state laws, noting that such wording may contradict policies that ban discrimination. He suggested that the union could pursue the matter in collective bargaining sessions.
The state and the VSEA, which represents 6,500 state workers, were to begin talks for a new contract September 15.
Re-designing standards for California judges
San Francisco-A secret-ballot vote this fall will determine whether California judges can belong to organizations that discriminate against gays.
Ballots, to be mailed this November to all 2,400 members of the California Judges Association, may include as many as three counterproposals. One proposal would scrap the existing ethical standards and instead bar judges from membership in organizations that practice arbitrary exclusion based on criteria that are "unrelated to the objectives of the organization." A second proposal would preserve the existing categories and exclude sexual orientation, while a third would include sexual orientation as a criteria, but would allow judges to participate in any youth organization. The ballot proposal is seen by critics as an attack against the Boy Scouts of America.
The association's ethical standards for judges, in a provision passed narrowly in 1986, declare membership inappropriate in any non-religious organization that discriminates without legal justification on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. Princeton ROTC questioned
Princeton, N.J.-Princeton University's ROTC program came under fire from two professors who formally called for its elimination unless the military liberalizes its stance on gays and lesbians.
Even if the faculty approves the resolution, it is not binding on the university, said
ENTERTAINMENT
Sale Broadway production
„Custom Builders
Blading espesce, bill and Integrity to busted for Jums.
جازه حالا قيمة مجية .
Whis and of out mail bones
('all 730-232
SCHÖNIGER BRCY 731-
Remysleling
carpenters expertos
••fuchs & Pprobis Hepair Corpesery
4:08 734-2323
:
SCIIONIGER BROS. 731-2323
We are really pleased with our investment
in Gay People's Chronicle advertising. We have advertised with other papers and the Chronicle is our most effective investment. The leads are very high quality.
-Jack Schöniger Shöniger Bros. Construction Inc.
30,000 Chronicle Readers Every Other Friday!! It Pays to Advertise.
Call 216/621-5280 For More Information.
spokeswoman Jacquelyn Savani.
"The matter is in the hands of the university president and the board of trustees," she said.
In 1973, the faculty passed a resolution to phase out ROTC on campus and the administration ignored it, said psychology teacher Steven Greene, one of the two professors calling for the program's elimination.
Two assistant professors said the partial ban agreed to by President Clinton and the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes it impossible for students in ROTC to discuss truthfully their sexual orientation in class or in papers.
Greene and Andrew Koppelman, who teaches anti-discrimination law in the politics department, were planning to present a resolution to the university faculty demanding that Princeton end its ROTC affiliation by June 30, 1994, if the policy is not changed. Clemson turns down nondiscriminatory bylaw clause
Clemson, S.C.-Clemson University's Faculty Senate has decided against putting a nondiscrimination clause in the governing manual, even though it earlier passed a resolution endorsing gay rights that never made it into the bylaws.
The Faculty Senate on September 14 turned down putting the clause in the bylaws, despite calls from supporters who wanted the clause to become a binding contract between administrators and faculty.
Opponents argued that placing the resolution in the affirmative action section of the bylaws might lead people to believe gays would be legally accorded affirmative action status.
Steffan case brings debate over celibate gay status in military
Washington-Judges on a federal appeals court sparred with lawyers September 13 over whether an openly lesbian or gay man who is also celibate would be discharged from the military under pre-Clinton administration rules.
Such a person would not have the desire for sex and therefore would not fall under the military's definition of gay, said Justice Department lawyer Anthony Steinmeyer. He added that the government doesn't take action against people for thoughts unrelated to conduct.
Steinmeyer said the military defined a homosexual as a person whose conduct, activities, desire and intent show that he is gay.
The discussion arose in the case involving Joseph Steffan, a former midshipman who resigned from the U.S. Naval Academy shortly before graduation in 1987 after acknowledging to a superior that he is gay.
He was appealing a ruling by U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch who in 1991 upheld the Navy's right to expel Steffan, on grounds that the military ban is a justifiable weapon against the spread of AIDS. More openly gay sailors discharged
Bangor, Wash.-An openly gay sailor at the Naval Submarine Base has been taken off active duty and transferred into the standby active reserves.
Seaman Apprentice Frederick W. Seltzer Jr., 22, a journalist-in-training in the public affairs office, revealed that he is gay last year when Bill Clinton, then a presidential candidate, supported ending the ban on gays and lesbians in the service.
But the stricter "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy ultimately worked against Seltzer, who had already disclosed his sexuality.
Another openly gay sailor, Radioman 2nd Class Robert E. Matt, 22, was discharged earlier this year after a Navy administrative board found he had committed serious offenses unrelated to his being gay. A third gay sailor, Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Mark A. Philips, has been transferred to the Puget Sound Naval Station in Seattle pending disposition of his case.