GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 21, 1996

Columbus

Eagle Bar

Celebrates

GAY PRIDE

singing "We Als K

with

thy edge

Of Sister Sledge'

SUNDAY

30th

It's Gay Pride Day!

232 North Third St. Columbus, Ohio (614) 228-2804

Tennessee court says sodomy

law should remain dead

by Karin Miller

Nashville, Tenn.-Chris Simien no longer has to worry that Tennessee's sodomy law will be used to deny him a license to practice clinical psychology.

That is because the law, which makes it illegal for gay men and lesbians in Tennessee to have sex, is no longer enforceable.

In a one-line decision June 10, the state's highest court declined to review a January ruling by the state Court of Appeals that private sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex is protected by the state constitution.

"What it does is lift part of the yoke of oppression on us," attorney Abby Rubenfeld said.

She represented Simien and the other four people who filed a lawsuit challenging the state's Homosexual Practices Act, enacted in 1989.

The law made illegal any "sexual penetration" between people of the same sex, including sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio or anal intercourse. The law did not cover heterosexuals.

If convicted, gay and lesbian Tennesseans faced fines of at least $50 and 30 days in jail, but many could and did lose their jobs, homes

and children simply for being arrested or accused, Rubenfeld said.

At least 25 people were prosecuted under the law between 1989 and 1993, when the lawsuit was filed, Rubenfeld said.

None of the plaintiffs had, but she said they lived with that worry every day.

Sharon Curtis-Flair, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office, declined to comment on the Supreme Court's action except to say there would be no further apReals.

That is because the lawsuit relied upon the state constitution's privacy protection, rather than the federal constitution. A federal challenge of sodomy laws in 1986 produced the infamous Bowers v. Hardwick decision upholding states' right to outlaw gay sex.

Rubenfeld said some 20 other states have anti-sodomy laws on the books, including most in the South. Six of these, Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma, prohibit only same-sex activity. (Ohio's sodomy law was repealed in 1974.)

Recently, Georgia's supreme court upheld its anti-sodomy law, while Kentucky's was overturned. A state district court in Montana struck down its law last February. Louisiana's law has also been challenged.

Lesbians killed in mountains

Continued from page 1

bility that the women were sexually assaulted. The women worked on outdoor programs for Woodswomen Inc., a Minneapolis-based adventure vacation travel organization.

Several friends of Williams and Winans told the Blade, a lesbian and gay weekly, that both women were lesbians, but that most of their aquaintances did not know. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition of AntiViolence Programs wrote letters to Attorney General Janet Reno informing her that the FBI may have ruled out the posibility of bias motivation because of the comments of FBI spokesperson John Donahue.

"We are asking for your help to ensure that the FBI and the National Park Service are diligent in investigating all aspects of these crimes, including the possibility that the murders were motivated by anti-lesbian bias," wrote NGLTF director Melinda Paras.

Donahue was quoted in media reports saying, There has been no indication that this is a hate crime of any particular type."

Unaware of other killings

He also told NGLTF field organizer Tracey Conaty that he was unaware that the victims were lesbians, and he was also unaware of other similar incidents involving lesbian campers. In one of these, Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner were tracked down and shot in 1988 by a fugitive living in the woods. Steven Roy Carr said he was enraged when he spied on them kissing and making love in a secluded area off the Appalachian Trail near Gettysburg, Pa. Brenner survived five gunshot wounds, but Wight died of a wound to her liver. Carr is currently serving a life sentence for the attack.

Another female couple was found, also with their throats slashed, near Williamsbug, Va. in 1986. Three other couples, all heterosexual, have been murdered in eastern Virginia national parks since then, according to the Blade.

Donahue's statements "raise serious concerns by the Task Force about the judgement and apparent expertise of agents assigned to the case," an NGLTF press release stated.

Jeffrey Montgomery of the anti-violence coalition said, "We've been meeting at least two times a week with other antiviolence programs to kind of monitor

what's been going on [with the investigation], and we are sending a letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh."

Maybe bias crime, but FBI mum

However, Montgomery said, "we're getting the feeling now through conversations that some of us have had with people in the FBI that the [the FBI has] at best, been misrepresented and some of their comments have been misinterpreted by the media."

"They have not ruled out bias, but they continue to be very skittish about saying that," Montgomery said. "I guess it should be clear that police investigations are very tricky things and there are many times when it is very appropriate that the police don't divulge much of what they're doing in an investigation. We clearly understand."

Department of Justice spokesperson Gregory King, former director of communications at the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group, said the attorney general received the groups' letters, but that questions about an ongoing investigation cannot be answered, the Blade reported.

A spokeswoman for the family of one of two women said the family welcomes looking into the suggestion that the slayings might be motivated by anti-gay hatred.

"We want them to be looking into all aspects of this case," Sue Mackert, a spokeswoman for the family of Julianne Williams of St. Cloud, Minn., told the Washington Post.

The FBI and Park Service have declined to discuss whether the women were sexually assaulted.

Woodswomen director Denise Mitten, who has organized outdoor trips for 20 years, said women who go camping together are often perceived to be lesbians, even if they are not.

"Some people consider hiking and camping as outside a woman's domain," she said. "For some people, that makes them angry enough to do this kind of violent crime. If they are also perceived to be lesbians, that would infuriate them even more. Their actual sexuality doesn't matter. People sometimes jump to that conclusion."

About 900 people attended Williams' funeral June 7 in St. Cloud. A funeral was also held for Winans in Michigan on that day.