NEWS BRIEFS

JANUARY 14, 1994

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 7

'If gays march, no parade'

Boston-The group that runs the city's St. Patrick's Day parade is threatening to cancel it this year if gay and lesbian IrishAmericans are allowed to march.

Gays and lesbians have marched, under court order and police protection, in the last two annual St. Patrick's Day parades. On December 15, Suffolk Superior Court Judge J. Harold Flannery permanently barred the veterans from excluding gay marchers.

Parade sponsors said they will cancel the parade if the court order stands allowing the group to march. The city may stage the parade if they do.

In New York, the Ancient Order of Hibernians successfully fought in federal court to ban gay marchers from that city's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Medicinal pot being considered

San Francisco-The Clinton administration is reconsidering the ban on the medical use of marijuana, the director of the Public Health Service said.

Phillip Lee said January 4 that his office is looking into reversing a 1992 decision by the Bush administration that forbade the medical testing or use of marijuana.

Advocates of the medical use of marijuana contend that the illegal drug eases nausea and promotes appetite in people with AIDS or cancer.

Public Health Service spokesman Marty

Davis later confirmed that "the policy is under review." But he said that reconsideration did not necessarily mean that the order would be reversed.

North Carolina gay bar owner stabbed by marine

Jacksonville, N.C.-The owner of a gay bar that allegedly was firebombed during the gays-in-the-military debate earlier this year is recovering from stab wounds.

Police said Danny Leonard, who runs the Friends Lounge, was stabbed twice in the back and twice in the face early December 22 by Pfc. Raul Fernandez, a Marine based at the nearby New River Air Station.

Fernandez was charged with attempted murder.

The motive is unclear. But police said Fernandez told them he lost control of himself after Leonard asked him to sniff a vial of liquid. Police are analyzing the sub-

stance.

Leonard occupied the national spotlight in March after his bar allegedly was firebombed. The bar is located near the Camp Lejeune Marine base.Leonard has said his house also was firebombed recently.

Russian gay man wins libel suit

Moscow-A court awarded a gay man 500,000 rubles ($400) in a libel lawsuit against Russia's main state-run television

OBITUARIES

Michael Callen, activist and musician

Michael Callen, a composer, singer and prominent AIDS activist who was among those to survive the longest with the disease, died of AIDS complications December 27. He was 38.

Callen was diagnosed in 1982 as having the disease that later was named acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said his life partner, Richard Dworkin.

Callen never took the commonly prescribed AZT, an act he attributed to his long survival, and received alternative chemotherapy for AIDS-related cancer, Dworkin said.

For more than a decade, Callen worked to improve the quality of life for people with AIDS and promoted buyer's clubs providing low-cost access to AIDS treatments. He urged use of the term "people with AIDS" as an alternative to "AIDS victims” and was an early advocate of safer sex practices.

A member of the New York City Mayor's Interagency Task Force on AIDS and the New York State AIDS Institute, he testified before state and congressional committees and published several works on the disease, including Surviving AIDS. He was a founding member of the vocal group Flirtations and released a solo album in 1988 entitled Purple Heart.

In addition to Dworkin, Callen is survived by his parents, Barbara and Clifford Callen, a sister and a brother.

ACT UP Cleveland's Marcos Rivera provides a personal homage:

A Tribute To My Hero

"Michael, you were an inspiration to Brian and I. You taught us that to fight is to

Obituaries

Obituaries may be placed in the Chronicle free of charge. They can be sent by mail or fax (see editorial page for address); but we can't take information over the phone. Include your name and phone, so we may contact you. A photo can be included; please send a selfaddressed stamped envelope if you want it returned.

survive and to survive is crucial and great, no matter what our government thinks. Survivors, always survivors.

"A fallen hero you will never be. You will always be a hero in my heart. The rage that consumes me... you feed that rage.

"We die every five minutes. When is someone going to take charge and end this madness, this genocide? Or is it that nobody cares?

"I feel so lost at times, but I know that you will inspire me for yet another round. The struggle to achieve what you strived for in life-dignity-will continue in me.

"How many more have to die? How many more of our leaders and heroes are to be slaughtered by our government? We die, and they don't care, they just don't care."I

Darrell Yates Rist, writer, activist

Darrell Yates Rist, a writer and gay activist who helped found the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has died. He was 45. Rist died December 23 of complications from AIDS, said his life partner, Robert M. Cataldo.

Rist wrote about politics, gay activism and the arts for a variety of publications including the Nation, the Village Voice, Harper's, the Advocate, and the New York Native. His 1992 book, Heartlands: A Gay Man's Odyssey Across America, was praised by Gore Vidal as "a marvelously interesting and wise book."

In addition to Cataldo, survivors include his parents, Louis and Geraldine Rist of Shelby, North Carolina, and his sister, Jerolyn Rist Szuch of Rochester, Michigan.

company, saying it had denigrated "his dignity and honor," a newspaper reported December 22.

Although Russian courts often handle libel cases, it was believed to be the first time a gay man had sued a government agency and won. Until last May, homosexuality was a crime, and gays could face years in prison.

The court in Moscow's Dzerzhinsky district ordered Ostankino TV to pay the man, identified as Vladimir T., for airing a 1992 interview without his permission, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported.

Vladimir T. told the court he gave the interview to a Western television company, Pilot Productions, on a gay-only swimming area in a Moscow suburb on condition it never be shown in Russia or any other former Soviet republic.

Idaho legislators not supportive of anti-rights initiative

Idaho Falls, Idaho-A statewide survey of Idaho's 105 legislators shows only nine support a ballot initiative to limit gay rights. In a statewide survey conducted in December, 60 legislators said they oppose or are leaning against an anti-gay initiative sponsored by the Idaho Citizens Alliance.

The state legislature could play a key role in Idaho's anti gay-rights debate. If voters approve the ICA initiative in November, 1994, it will be up to the 1995 Legislature to put it into law.

Smith gets partner benefits

Northampton, Mass.-Smith College will have begun a new policy January 1 by granting health insurance and other benefits to live-in partners of gay and lesbian employees. The move was drafted in keeping with the campus ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians.

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