GAY PEOPLe's ChronICLE JULY 4, 1997

NEWS BRIEFS

Starr agents grill White House official on gay hiring

Washington, D.C.-Interior Department official Bob Hattoy says his grilling by Whitewater investigators was "something out of the McCarthy era" when questions swung to his recruitment of gays for government jobs.

Hattoy said two Whitewater prosecutors and an FBI agent probing payments to fallen presidential friend Webster Hubbell questioned Hattoy for two hours in April about whether he attended any fundraisers or helped Hubbell's wife get a job in the Interior Dept.

Hattoy, is White House liaison for the Interior Dept., and a gay activist who spoke movingly of living with AIDS at the 1992 Democratic convention.

Early in the interview, investigators switched gears and asked Hattoy about his former job in the White House personnel office, he said.

"All of a sudden they said, 'By the way, one of your jobs was to hire homosexuals in the highest positions in government,' "Hattoy said. "They said, 'Do you think you were successful?'

Hattoy said the "question was way off the subject. I was appalled. It chilled me."

"I told them I was very successful, that gays were at the State Department, the Commerce Department, the Interior Department and I think I saw a few coming into the building," he said.

Debbie Gershman, a spokeswoman for Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, declined comment.

Four states pass hate crime laws

Washington, D.C.-The Nebraska, Louisiana, and Delaware legislatures, following the passage of an Arizona hate crimes measure in May, all passed hate crime bills in June that included anti-gay violence. With the enactment of these bills, 20 states

plus the District of Columbia have enhanced penalty hate crime laws that include sexual orientation: Ariz., Cal., Conn., Del., Fla., łowa, III., La., Maine., Md., Mass., Minn., N.H., N.J., Nev., Ore., Texas, Vt., Wash., and Wis. (Ohio's ethnic intimidation law, enacted in the late 1980s, does not include gays.)

Gay dad will keep his son

Pomeroy, Ohio—A state appeals court has declared that a gay father should not have lost custody of his son, ruling that sexual orientation has no significance in child custody decisions.

The case began in 1995 when Herbert Inscoe's former wife was awarded custody of Herbie Jr, now 12, because of her exhusband's sexual orientation. The boy later was found "living in deplorable conditions" with his mother, said Inscoe's attorney, Patricia Logue. The appeals court subsequently returned custody to the father, pending its decision.

The appeals court unanimously ruled: “A parent's sexual orientation, standing alone, has no relevance to a decision concerning the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities... [and] a trial court must disregard adverse impacts on the child that flow from society's disapproval of a parent's sexual orientation."

France moves toward gay vows

Paris-France on June 24 took a small step toward legalizing unions between loving couples, be they homosexual or unwed heterosexuals, with a group of lawmakers presenting a proposal to put such unions on a par with marriage.

Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin, appointed earlier this month, had promised during the

campaign for parliamentary elections to set aright what is perceived by many as an anachronism in the law books concerning couples.

The proposed new status for couples is expected to be taken up by the parliament this fall.

"That is a commitment we made, and we will keep it," Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou said in the newspaper Le Monde.

"The homosexuals have raised the issue, but they are not the only ones concerned," Guigou said. "We cannot lump together all unions between two people under the single institution of marriage."

The proposed "contract of civil and social union" covers everything from health insurance to inheritance to taxes.

Mayors back needle exchanges

San Francisco-The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in San Francisco, passed a resolution June 26 in favor of needle exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The mayors asked Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to lift the ban on spending federal money for needle exchange programs.

Anti-marriage initiative sought

Sacramento, Calif.—A proposed ballot initiative which would define marriage in California only as the union of a man and a woman is being prepared for circulation, the attorney general's office said June 20.

The measure would amend the Family Code to read: "Only marriage between one man and one woman is valid or recognized in California." It is supported by the Sacramento-based Defense of Marriage Committee.

Several attempts to enact similar laws have been killed in the Legislature in the past two years.

The proposed ballot measure was submitted to the attorney general's office for titling. Once certified to start circulating petitions, backers will have 150 days to collect at least 433,269 signatures of registered voters to place the measure on the June 1998 ballot.

Shahar wants new hearing

Atlanta Claiming former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers' admission of an adulterous affair showed he ran his office with a double standard, attorneys for a lesbian he refused to hire asked a federal appeals court on June 20 to reconsider its dismissal of her suit.

"The new facts about Bowers' own relationship are extremely relevant and in the interests of justice should be considered by this court," Robin Shahar's lawyers said in a motion filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled 8-4 on May 30 that Bowers acted within his rights in refusing to put her on the payroll.

Bowers offered Ms. Shahar a job after she interned for him in 1990 but reneged after learning that the Emory University law school honors graduate intended to marry another woman in a Jewish ceremony.

Bowers argued that if he hired her, her personal conduct would be at odds with his vigorous enforcement of the state's sex laws-which also ban adultery—and could undermine his credibility with the public.

A week after the 11th Circuit ruling, Bowers disclosed that for more than a decade while attorney general he carried on an adulterous affair.

Compiled by Tom Rappa, Doreen Cudnik, and Brian DeWitt.

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