New York gays try again for state civil rights law

Albany, N.Y.-Led by a lawyer and former day care worker who both said they lost jobs because they were gay, activists began an uphill struggle March 23 to seek passage of a gay civil rights bill in New York.

The state Assembly passed the legislation for the second straight year that day. The vote was 88-56.

The real battle, however, is in the state Senate, where the Republican majority killed the bill last year without a public vote. Its chief Senate sponsor, Manhattan Republican Sen. Roy Goodman, said he saw no change in opinion among his colleagues.

Gay and lesbian rights advocates promised a more persistent-and perhaps louder-lobbying effort than in past years.

The bill adds sexual orientation to the list of classes protected from discrimination by the state's civil rights law. The law bars discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and education.

The initial stage of the lobbying campaign involved bringing people with stories of discrimination to a news conference with Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo said it was shameful that the bill is not law in New York.

State Senate Majority Leader Ralph Marino said he will probably do what he did last July and discuss the bill in a closed-door Republican conference.

Rhode Island House rejects discussion of gay rights measure

Providence, R.I.-The Rhode Island House refused to bring to the floor a measure, rejected in committee mid March, that would have extended civil rights protections to gays in the areas of housing, credit and employment.

A teen-ager who yelled "This is disgusting" after the 56-43 vote March 22 was escorted from the gallery by Capitol police, but there was no other protest..

Last year about 100 activists were ejected from the galleries, one was arrested and several hundred loudly rallied in the rotunda after the House voted 59-38 against setting aside a committee's recommendation of no passage on the measure.

Rep. George Caruolo, D-East Providence, and Senate Minority Leader Wayne Salisbury, R-Scituate, said bringing the measure to the floor after the committee rejected it would have undermined the committee process.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Knowles, D-Narragansett, said the full

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House did not need to debate and vote on the measure because his committee had given it a full and fair hearing.

The civil rights measure for gays, which has been defeated every year for the past 10 years, was approved by the Senate last year but was defeated in the House Judiciary Committee. Representatives also rejected a

motion to revive it on the floor.

Landmark ruling for Tokyo gays

Tokyo In a landmark ruling for gay rights in Japan, a court told authorities today they were wrong to bar a gay group from using a public lodge and must pay them $2,600 in compensation.

The Tokyo metropolitan government had rejected an application by the Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement, known as OCCUR, to stay overnight at the lodge. It said other guests would be disturbed because they would assume members of the gay group were having sex.

But Tokyo District Court Judge Toshiaki Harada ruled the rejection was discriminatory because authorities had no basis for their claim that the group would engage in sexual activities.

Except for a small number of transsexual entertainers and patrons of gay bars in Tokyo's Shinjuku area, most Japanese gays hide their sexual preference, fearing discrimination at work and elsewhere in a society where pressure to conform is intense.

The suit filed by three OCCUR members demanded $63,000 in damages.

Utah Log Cabin sends delegates to state GOP conventions

Salt Lake City-At least 10 members of the Utah Log Cabin Club, a Republican gay-rights organization, have been elected as delegates to state and county GOP conventions.

"The main goal is to get our party's ear, to let them know we're out here and who we are," said club President Chris Ryan, who was elected a delegate to the Salt Lake County GOP Convention. “It's a first step, a tiny one, but it's a start."

Parties elected thousands of delegates at neighborhood meetings held in voting districts throughout the state. Democrats and Republicans each try to fill the slots for about 2,500 state delegates.

State GOP officials do not discourage Log Cabin's efforts, said party chairman Bruce Hough. But some do suspect the group is interested more in promoting an agenda than electing Republicans.

The 150-member state Log Cabin Club

Community Shares grows

by seven new members

Greater Cleveland Community Shares has added seven new agencies for membership, the largest single increase in the nine year history of the fundraising coalition.

"We've thought long and hard about this great leap in growth. But we think we're ready for it and we know these are the kind of groups that can only make an organization stronger," said Lana Cowell, executive director of Community Shares. "It's exciting to be able to offer people the opportunity to help fund groups who are doing so much to shape Greater Cleveland from the grass-roots up."

Community Shares is the fundraising arm of a network of agencies, among them the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center, dedicated to confronting difficult issues. Many of the member agencies are locked out of traditional funding sources like United Way. All members are dedicated to the Community Shares philosophy of social advocacy, choice in workplace giving and getting to

the roots of problems.

New member organizations are involved in a wide variety of social concerns that includes children's rights and advocacy, maintaining affordable neighborhood housing, job training for people on welfare, and the empowerment of women and girls.

The seven new agencies are Adoption Network Cleveland, Inc.; Children's Support Rights; Cleveland Works; HardHatted Women; Near West Side Housing Corporation; Planned Parenthood; and the Women's Community Foundation.

This year, Greater Cleveland Community Shares raised more than $358,000 in workplace giving. This breaks down into an average allocation of $12,400 for the 23 agencies who were members in 1993.

For more information on workplace giving, opening a worksite to charitable giving, volunteering or questions about Community Shares or its member groups, call 371-0209.

APRIL 8, 1994

supports gay rights including legal recognition of same-sex marriages and gays in the military, but the members tend to share their party's view on crime, abortion and parental choice on schools.

Washington Board of Education protects gay students rights

Lacey, Wash.-The state Board of Education has approved an "equity in education" policy that has been both criticized and praised for its call for equal opportunities for gay students.

The new statement, approved March 25 with only one dissenting vote, says all public school students have the right to equal access to education "without regard to race, creed, color, political and religious beliefs, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, socioeconomic status, health status or... disability.”

The only new elements are the references to religious beliefs and health status. For years, the state has forbidden discrimination in the schools based on sexual orientation.

A day earlier, at a public hearing attended by more than 100 citizens, that provision was both denounced and praised.

Board members and staffers were amazed by the sudden controversy. The issue has become more high-profile with the Legislature's recent debate on an anti-discrimination bill and with the filing of two anti-gay rights initiatives, said Carol Gregory, policy director for the state school superintendent's office.

At the pressing of board member Mary Schwerdtfeger of Yakima, the panel approved amendments to make clear that sections on staff training and recruitment and equitable use of a district's resources will not apply to sexual orientation.

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