MARCH 11, 1994

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

7

More gunshots at Sister Spirit

Ovett, Miss.-A television crew covering a rally near Camp Sister Spirit reported shots being fired March 5 near the feminist retreat in Jones County.

A news crew from WHLT-TV in Hattiesburg reported that about five shots were fired from a white station wagon driving by the retreat near the small Jones County town of Ovett. The incident occurred as the crew was approaching the front gate of the retreat. No one was injured when the shots were apparently fired into the air.

A dispatcher at the Jones County Sheriff's Department would not comment. He told the Associated Press that he had no official news release and refused to answer questions about the apparent incident, neither confirming nor denying it.

Boston St. Pat's back in court

Boston-The legal maneuvering has begun in a battle over whether gays will be allowed to march in the city's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Lawyers for gays and the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council filed briefs March 2 in the state Supreme Judicial Court. Oral arguments were to be heard within the next week. The veterans group has promised to withdraw as parade sponsors if the court rules against it.

Dartmouth faculty: ROTC out

Hanover, N.H.-The faculty at Dartmouth College wants to kick ROTC off campus, saying the military still discriminates against lesbians and gay men.

Their near-unanimous voice vote against the officers' training program came February 28 and Dartmouth President James Freedman said he will recommend that trustees vote the same way at their next meeting, in April.

The program has been unpopular among Dartmouth faculty for years. It was phased out by 1973 but allowed to return in 1985.

Trustees voted in 1991 to discontinue ROTC unless the Defense Department changed its ban on gays by April 1993. The board extended the deadline one year to see if President Clinton would end the ban.

Gay bashing not in Indiana law

Indianapolis-Lt. Gov. Frank O'Bannon broke a tie vote in the Senate on February 25 to win passage of a controversial bill designed to crack down on hate crimes, but which excludes anti-gay crimes.

The bill would allow longer prison sentences of up to five years for crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The original bill passed by the House had included "sexual orientation" also, but that was removed by a committee controlled by Senate Republicans-a move that was perhaps the greatest sticking point dividing lawmakers.

Indiana gay rights activists hope to be reinstated as a part of the bill in conference committee.

[Ohio's hate-crimes law also does not include gays and lesbians. Attorney General Lee Fisher, who coauthored the law with Cleveland Mayor Michael White when both were state senators, told a StonewallCleveland dinner last June that the omission

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was an oversight, which he would work to correct. To date no bill has been introduced.]

Lutherans stand by gay minister

Oakland, Calif.-Church officials have given a gay Lutheran minister a month to leave the parish he has served for more than a decade. But the congregation plans to defy the ruling.

"I guess we'll just be an unauthorized congregation," Paul Basting, president of Oakland's St. Paul Lutheran Church parish, said February 22 after hearing of the decision to oust the Rev. Ross Merkel.

Merkel told his 270 parishioners last year that he was gay and in a "committed relationship with another man.' A disciplinary committee ruled that he was in violation of an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America policy banning practicing homosexuals from the clergy.

Episcopalians split over gay couples housing at seminary

Fort Worth, Texas-A major Episcopal seminary's new policy allowing gay couples to live together in on-campus housing has drawn a rebuke from the nation's largest traditionalist Episcopal group.

The Rev. Samuel L. Edwards, executive director of the Episcopal Synod of America, based in Fort Worth, issued a statement Feb. 22 blasting the policy as "disgraceful."

The policy was adopted last month by the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, in New York City.

A spokesman for the New York seminary said that the policy is an attempt to deal with the reality that many gays and lesbians are a part of the church and are being ordained by Episcopal bishops.

Only 3 stations pull Roseanne

Pocatello, Idaho-Two TV stations pulled the plug on the "Kiss" episode of Roseanne, featuring Roseanne Arnold in an embrace with Idaho native Mariel Hemingway.

KPVI-TV in Pocatello and KKVI-TV in Twin Falls said they preempted the March 1 episode because the program included lesbian behavior. Both stations are owned by former Republican Sen. William Armstrong of Colorado.

Only one other of ABC's 220 affiliates decided not to air the program. A network spokesman said it was a southern station in a market smaller than eastern Idaho.

Nevada officials attend antilegislation rally at gay bar

Reno, Nev.-Gov. Bob Miller and Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones showed up at a gay bar February 27 to voice opposition to a petition drive for an anti-gay initiative now circulating in Nevada.

The two received rousing receptions and standing ovations from a crowd of about 200 people during a one-hour anti-initiative rally at Bad Dolly's bar.

"Today is an historic occasion," said Eddie Anderson, a radio talk show host who emceed the event. "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd see a Nevada governor in a gay bar."

Miller told the crowd that he recently talked with the governors of three other Western states-Oregon, Washington and

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Idaho and they've agreed to work together to defeat similar petitions in their states. Dance the night away

Ventura, Calif.-The City Council has repealed a 26-year-old policy prohibiting club owners from allowing people of the same sex to dance together.

After the owner of a lesbian bar raised his objections, the council voted 6-0 to rescind the resolution February 28 without discussion. "The city has no interest in regulating that kind of behavior," Mayor Tom Buford said. He added he was unaware the law even existed.

The 1968 rule stated club owners "shall not permit any person to dance with another person of the same sex" or hire entertainers "whose conduct encourages, promotes or condones the congregating of homosexuals, lesbians or persons pretending to be such." Sodomy law to be re-tried

New Orleans-The Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered a new trial on the claim that making oral or anal sex a felony discriminates against lesbians and gay men.

"This is a big victory for my client and all the people of Louisiana," said John Rawls, a New Orleans attorney representing John Baxley. "The Supreme Court now says you can't go to jail just by offering, in a nice way, to have sex with someone."

Baxley, of New Orleans, was accused of offering an undercover policeman $20 for oral sex. Rather than charge him with solicitation, a misdemeanor, authorities charged him under the Crimes Against Nature Act, which makes sodomy a felony.

However, Rawls added, he was disappointed with another part of the high court's ruling. The court ruled that Baxley cannot challenge the part of the statute that outlaws gay relationships.

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