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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JANUARY 28, 1994

Councilman shows true colors

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-The mood was perfect for a city councilman to retract his antigay remarks. Three hours of lectures about homophobia and pleas for peace, understanding and healing.

Then Al Boris apologized for the second time for saying gay men who have sex in city parks should be shot. He questioned why no one believed him the first time. As he kept talking, it became clear.

"It seems the park has been monopolized by the homosexuals," Boris said at a January 13 council meeting. He referred to "semen all over the place."

Boris repeated suggestions that WilkesBarre's gay men recruit retarded people for sex and said the media hides gays' "deadly activities" behind the cloak of civil rights.

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The crowd of 125 shouted him down twice. In the end, even Boris' colleagues abandoned him, voting to adjourn before he finished speaking. If voters want to abandon Boris, they'll have to wait until 1995, when his term expires.

Hard feelings first surfaced at a December 21 council meeting. Boris was upset over complaints about gay men having sex in two parks. "You should shoot half of them anyway," he said.

Gays in this eastern Pennsylvania town were upset the council didn't censure him and became more agitated when Boris decried federal spending for AIDS research because he said gays "are getting what they deserve."

West Va. looks at hate crime bill

Charleston, W.Va.-If the legislature approves a bill to protect gays from hate crimes, it will be abused by victims falsely claiming they are gay, opponents say.

The bill, sponsored by Delegate Bonnie Brown, D-Kanawha, would ban hate crimes and give stiffer penalties to those who commit crimes against gays and the disabled.

Such a law would "send a clear, unequivocal message to victims, perpetrators and law enforcement officials that crimes motivated by bigotry will not be tolerated," said Barbara Steinke of the West Virginia Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

The bill is also supported by the West Virginia Civil Liberties Union and the West Virginia Developmental Disabilities Planning Council.

HIV brain-damage link found

New York-Scientists have found new evidence that a single protein of the AIDS virus may damage brain cells and lead to the impaired thinking and movement seen in some infected people.

Strains of mice made to produce the protein gp120 in their brains showed brain abnormalities like those in infected humans, researchers said. The mice should be useful in assessing drugs to ward off such damage from HIV, the researchers suggested in the January 13 issue of the journal Nature.

Gp120 is shed from HIV-infected cells in people, researchers said. For the experiment, mice were given a gene to make them produce the protein without HIV infection.

Several drugs are thought to reduce cell damage from gp120, and tests in humans are in progress.

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Be sensitive (except to gays)

Monroe, Mich.-A sensitivity-training team canceled anti-bias workshops at Monroe Public Schools after it was asked to skip the section on gays and lesbians.

the gay and lesbian issues workshop, so we "We were told that the board objects to decided as a group we would not come," said Dr. Ivy Goduka, who leads the team from Central Michigan University.

Goduka said the group would have been condoning discrimination of gays if it agreed to delete the section from the workshop.

The workshop and a video were to be part of a series presented to teachers and staff as part of a district "Diversity Day" on January 17.

Seminary gets couples housing

New York-A leading Episcopal divinity school is opening its seminary housing to gay couples despite church policy declaring sex is appropriate within marriage only.

Unmarried heterosexual couples are still prohibited from living together on campus, under the policy adopted by the General Theological Seminary, the divinity school with the oldest and closest ties to the Episcopal Church.

Under the policy, the 150-student seminary is willing to make apartments available to "committed same-sex couples." However, gay seminarians seeking ordination and gay clergy would need the approval of their diocesan bishop.

Diane Porter, a member of the seminary board of trustees and an executive at Episcopal headquarters in New York, said that the policy "is a major step forward for the seminary and the church."

Blockbuster worker sues

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-A former Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. manager claims he was fired for including lesbian and gay examples in an anti-sexual harassment policy he developed as part of his job.

Ronald Episcopo charges his supervisor objected to written materials, calling them unrealistic, and said it would make the company appear "gay sympathetic," according to a lawsuit filed this week.

He filed the suit under a little-used provision of the federal civil rights law that protects from harassment anyone engaged in fighting discrimination.

Episcopo, 47, of Boca Raton, worked at Blockbuster's Fort Lauderdale headquarters from August 1991 to March 1992. The suit says he was denied promotion in January 1992 and was later fired because of the sexual harassment policy.

Blockbuster has said Episcopo was laid off during a corporate restructuring.

The suit marks the second time Episcopo has taken Blockbuster to court. A 1992suit alleges that he had been harassed and fired because his supervisor, Dan Barr, thought Episcopo, who is gay, had tested positive for HIV. That suit is pending.

Gov. to OCA: Stay out of Nevada

Carson City, Nev.-Proponents of antigay proposals in the Pacific Northwest who plan a similar petition in Nevada were criticized January 19 by Gov. Bob Miller for "sending out messages of intolerance and discrimination."

The governor said he'll send a letter to the Oregon Citizens Alliance, which was to have filed its petition here in mid-January, "to tell them in no uncertain terms that in Nevada we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, race gender, religion, physical condition, sexuality or any other factor."

Similar initiative drives, also being assisted by the OCA, are being mounted in at least seven states.

Mabon said his group decided to work on a Nevada ballot proposal after the legislature repealed the sodomy law last year.

MicroGeneSys wants taxpayer AIDS contributions

Hartford, Conn.-MicroGeneSys Inc. is paying an influential lobbyist to to seek some of the money being generated for AIDS assistance by voluntary state taxpayer contributions.

"How sleazy can you get?" asked AIDS activist Phil Haskell of New Haven. "Clearly the intent was to provide money and treatment for people with AIDS through community-based services."

Deputy State House Majority Leader Patricia Dillon, D-New Haven, a key sponsor of the tax-donation legislation, said the impact of regulations being recommended by MicroGeneSys would drain dollars away from nonprofit AIDS groups that sorely need money.

Washington politicians rally against anti-gay initiatives

Olympia-Washington's two anti-gay initiatives are divisive, hateful and could lead to violence, Democratic Gov. Mike Lowry and Republican Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard said January 12.

The pair joined much of the state's political establishment-particularly Democrats who hold most of the power positions-in an unusually early campaign to head off the measures. News conferences were held around the state, and also featured U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, labor leaders, congressional representatives, and others.

Architects of Oregon's Measure 9, which was turned down by voters in that state in 1992, on January 10 filed a similar initiative for Washington.

Sponsors have until July 8 to gather 181,667 valid signatures to gain a place on the fall ballot.

Lowry said the initiatives probably are unconstitutional and almost certainly would be rejected if on the November ballot. But he said he still is asking citizens not to sign initiative petitions.

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