JULY 8, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
5
Cobb County gays get an unexpected ally
Atlanta Opponents of Cobb County's anti-gay resolution won a well-connected ally June 22: the lesbian daughter of the county commission chairman who backed the measure.
Shannon Byrne, 24, said she believes the resolution "should be burned."
Byrne, the daughter of Cobb County Commission Chairman Bill Byrne, first spoke out against the resolution in an interview pub-
lished by Southern Voice, weekly Atlanta gay newspaper.
"I'm sorry for what my dad has done," she told the newspaper. "My dad and the commissioners... have absolutely no right to condemn us."
Bill Byrne, Cobb County's chief elected official, said his daughter's sexual orientation is irrelevant to the debate over the resolution, which he still supports.
Cincinnati bookstore says
film is art, not obscenity
Cincinnati A gay bookstore and three employees were charged with pandering obscenity after undercover police rented a video of the 1975 Italian film "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom."
Cathy Adams, lawyer for the Pink Pyramid bookstore and the employees, called the arrests June 30 another example of city officials' homophobia.
"I think they suspect they have a gay film, but it's not," Adams said. "It's an anti-Fascist film. It's a very disturbing film, but it has great artistic value and has received a lot of artistic acclaim."
The Video Movie Guide 1994 describes Pier Paolo Pasolini's film as "a shocking,
repulsive film set during World War II in Italy, where a group of bourgeois Fascists brutalize and sexually degrade teenagers."
Italian courts declared the film obscene and delayed its release for months. Cincinnati Safety Director William Gustavson said the film has no artistic or social value.
The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and $1,000 fine. An arraignment is scheduled for July 14.
The incident is a familiar one in Cincinnati. In 1990, city prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to charge the Contemporary Arts Center with obscenity violations for displaying photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.
Byrne, who has been out to her father since she was 17, said she didn't tell her father in advance that she would publicly oppose the resolution.
The five-member Cobb County Commission last summer approved a resolution saying that gays and lesbians violate community standards. The
county,
On June 24, the Cobb Citizen's Coalition submitted its own proposal to replace the
"I'm sorry for what my dad has done, my dad and the commissioners .. have absolutely no right to condemn us.'
"
-Shannon Byrne
which has a population of 475,000 and is about 15 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, is believed to be the only one in the country whose government has officially condemned lesbians and gay men.
resolution. "This proposal is a positive solution designed to end the controversy. It does not endorse any lifestyle, but it removes the condemnation of gays," said Noel Lytle, co-chair of the coalition.
The proposal says the board of commissioners is committed
to upholding everyone's human rights and the protection of human rights is the responsibility of all levels of government. It also says the new resolution would supersede the previous one.
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Oberlin considers lesbiangays job protection
Oberlin-A proposed charter amendment that would protect lesbians and gays from discrimination in hiring may be put before city voters in November.
Councilman Richard Lothrop said he would be surprised if the City Council did not give voters the chance to decide the issue.
"Where something like this might be new for other communities, Oberlin has a long history of civil rights," City Manager Gary Goddard said June 24. "Diversity has always been accepted here."
"Everyone else from the state to the federal level is making this kind of a change,"
Lothrop said. "Since our charter is going to have to carry us into the 21st century, I would hope we'd be able to look forward."
Councilman Calvin Waite said the amendment was unnecessary.
"Both gender discrimination and racial discrimination have a long history, but I don't think very many people have been dismissed because they were gay," Waite said.
If the legislation passes, Oberlin would join Cleveland, Columbus, Youngstown, Cincinnati and Yellow Springs as Ohio cities with protective anti-discrimination legislation.
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Idaho to have anti-gay vote
Continued from page 1
defeat the initiative now that all doubt has been removed about it's ballot status.
In Nevada, anti-initiative activists were cheered as supporters failed to produce by June 21 the necessary signatures for a November ballot issue. Nevada, where the governor and the Las Vegas mayor have cam-
paigned vigorously against the measure, joins Maine and Florida as states where anti-gay signature campaigns have failed.
The word is still out on Michigan, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Missouri. Deadlines for ballot issues in those states are July 7-11. Ohio's deadline is also July 11, but anti-gay activists here have said they would not attempt an initiative in 1994.
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