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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 24, 1994
LAWYERS THAT CARE
"Jim Brown and Marcia Margolius handled my claim as if I was the most important client they had. They were not only my lawyers but my friends." G.I.
"Without Marcia Margolius I would have never won my claim for SSI. Now I get some money every month and my medical bills paid." R.P.
"I didn't know that you could get Social Security and Workers' Compensation at the same time until I retained Brown and Margolius. With Comp and Social Security I had coverage for all of my medical bills." B.B.
"When it comes to disability benefits, no one can get you every penny you deserve better than Marcia Margolius and Jim Brown." J.S.
"When Jim Brown won my Workers' Compensation claim all of my medical bills were paid, I was compensated for my time off work and I even received money after I returned to work." LP.
If you or your friends have Social Security or Workers' Compensation questions, have them call the people with the answers.
BROWN AND MARGOLIUS L.P.A.
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Sharon Bottoms regains custody of her son
Richmond, Va.-Sharon Bottoms, a Virginia lesbian who last year lost her son Tyler Doustou in a custody battle with her mother, Kay Bottoms, regained custody of her son June 21. A state appeals court decision reversed a lower court's ruling that her relationship with her lover made her an unfit parent.
The opinion by a three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals, which is likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court, was unanimous. Among other things, it turned aside the lower court's finding that the fact that same-sex acts are illegal in Virginia should disqualify a lesbian as a mother.
Judge Sam W. Coleman III wrote that the evidence fails to prove that Bottoms “abused or neglected her son, that her lesbian relationship with April Wade has or will have a deleterious effect on her son, or that she is an unfit parent.'
""
"A child's natural and legal right to the care and support of a parent and the parent's right to the custody and companionship of the child should only be disrupted if there are compelling reasons to do so," Coleman wrote. The court said the child's grandmother
has no more legal standing in the custody dispute than any other third party seeking custody, even if she is able to provide the child a more nurturing environment.
The attorney for Kay Bottoms has said he would appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.
The child's father, Dennis Doustou, separated from Sharon Bottoms when she was two months pregnant and they later divorced. He has said he supports giving custody to his ex-wife. Their son turns 3 next month.
The appeals court said "the fact that a mother is a lesbian and has engaged in illegal sexual acts does not alone justify taking custody of a child from her and awarding the child to a non-parent."
The court said there was no evidence Tyler was subjected to any harmful behavior.
Psychologists who testified in the custody hearing last September said Tyler seemed happy and well-adjusted, and Sharon Bottoms appeared to be a loving mother.
Also, the "social science evidence showed that a person's sexual orientation does not strongly correlate with that person's fitness as a parent," the court said.
Nevada anti-gay petition fails
Carson City-Backers of a petition drive to limit the civil rights of gays and lesbians in Nevada say they have fallen far short of the number of signatures needed to put the measure on the November 8 ballot.
"It's a defeat, for the moment," said Daisy Stanley of Nevada Citizens Alliance in Reno. She said her group, an offshoot of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, would try again in 1996.
Stanley said the groups, which began gathering names in January, didn't have enough time or sufficient organization to
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collect the 51,339 signatures needed by the June 21 deadline and would end up with 27,000 to 29,000.
Eddie Anderson, of Nevadans Organized Human Advocacy for Tolerance and Equality, or NO HATE, said he was not surprised by the failure, but was somewhat disappointed.
“I was rather hopeful they would garner enough signatures so we could have a blowout in November," he said.
Nevada's governor and the mayor of Las Vegas had campaigned vigorously against the measure.
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