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Mass. to protect gay students

Boston-The Massachusetts Senate has given all-but-final approval to a bill that supporters say would make Massachusetts the first state to bar discrimination or harrassment against gay students.

The bill, which has already passed the state House, passed the Senate December 1 on a 28-2 vote but needs final approval from the House and Senate. It would prohibit discriminating against gay students in public schools or interfering with their studies based on their sexual orientation. Gov. William Weld supports the bill.

David LaFontaine, political director of the state Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, said he hoped enactment of the law would prompt other states to adopt similar measures.

"This is a whole new frontier of the gay

rights movement," he said.

Four years ago, Massachusetts became the second state, after Wisconsin, to enact a gay rights law. But activists said it does not cover adolescents or the school setting.

LaFontaine said no other state has a law prohibiting discrimination against gay students, although about 20 school systems across Massachusetts already have adopted similar policies.

The bill has been advocated by gay teenagers who have described the physical and verbal abuse they have suffered from their peers. Activists say such harassment has led to a disproportionately high rate of dropouts and suicides among gay teen-agers.

LaFontaine said the law would give gay students legal recourse to pressure schools to end harassment against them.

Library group drops Cincinnati

Cincinnati-The American Library Association said it will not bring its 1995 convention to Cincinnati because voters repealed a measure protecting gays from discrimination in housing and employment.

"The issue is not special rights for a few, but equal rights for all," association President Hardy R. Franklin said Tuesday.

The cancellation may cost the library association about $200,000 since it will likely be held liable for hotel contracts it already signed, said Paul Graller, director of

the group's conference services.

Gay activists urged a boycott of the city because of the Nov. 2 vote that stripped the city's human rights ordinance of its gay and lesbian protections.

A federal judge on Nov. 16 blocked the voter-approved city charter amendment until he can hear a lawsuit challenging it.

The Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau is trying to persuade other organizations not to cancel, spokeswoman Beth Charlton said.

FBI must stop barring gays

Continued from Page 1

Reno's order came as a federal class action case brought by gay former FBI agent Frank Buttino, 48, began in San Francisco.

Buttino is a decorated 20-year FBI veteran who was fired in 1990. His supervisors in San Diego received an anonymous note in 1988 saying he was gay. Buttino denied it at first, explaining later that he knew he would be fired if he told the truth. After he acknowledged his homosexuality several weeks later, he lost his security clearance and then his job.

The FBI says Buttino was fired because he lied, not because he is gay. As the case got under way, a statement outlining the new policy was given to government attorneys. It was not clear if the new policy would affect his case.

Representative Don Edwards, a former FBI agent who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee that oversees the FBI, said, "It's a new day at the FBI and it's something that should have come a long time ago."

"The FBI will be a better organization because of this new policy," Edwards said, recalling the half-dozen gay agents who have spoken to him over the years about ruined careers. "It's the same principle that

we've been insisting upon, that the FBI must include persons representing the diversity of our society."

The outcome of Buttino's nonjury trial, which began December 2 in U.S. District Court, could set standards for similar disputes in other law enforcement and military agencies.

In the Buttino case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation denied it automatically barred gay agents or applicants, but said homosexual conduct was a significant negative factor in employment and creates security risks.

Buttino's lawyer, Michael Fitzgerald, called that "a pretext . . . to hide discrimination founded on bigotry and ignorance."

On the stand Thursday, Deputy Assistant Director Gary Stoops, who decided to fire Buttino, faulted him for not volunteering the name of a sexual contact with initials similar to those of the letter writer, not disclosing the names of gay associates, and using law enforcement files to investigate the source of the letter.

Buttino countered by citing cases of heterosexual agents who kept their jobs despite committing crimes.

U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong certified the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of all gay FBI employees and applicants.

County reverses Apple vote

Continued from Page 1

ues has offered seminars and videotapes to groups who want to launch anti-gay initiatives in other states, and contributed $75,000 to the group behind Cincinnati's anti-gay charter amendment.

Other locations were ready to welcome Apple with open arms. Following the original anti-tax abatement vote, Apple officials were "deluged with inquiries both within Texas and across the United States from counties and communities interested in talking to us," said Lisa Byrne, a spokeswoman for the Cupertino-based company.

Officials in Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, other parts of California and "many many" parts of Texas have approached the company since the vote, she said.

In the days following the original "no"

vote, Apple supporters in Austin criticized the Williamson County commission, saying that local officials should not tell companies how to run their businesses.

Business, political and economic development officials rallied in Austin on December 3 in support of Apple. Says NGLTF information director David Smith, "The business community has rallied behind Apple and the company's right to make benefit policies for their employees. This vote should send a positive signal to other companies that are considering implementing domestic partner policies."

Dianne Hardy-Garcis, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas agrees. "It's an important victory for Texas and the nation. If a conservative state like Texas can change, anybody can change."