GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OCTOBER 24, 1997

NEWS BRIEFS

Calling it 'unnecessary,' governor vetoes rights bill

Sacramento, Calif.-Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill that would have given gays and lesbians more legal protection from discrimination on the job and in housing, calling it unnecessary.

"Since adequate protections already exist for those who suffer discrimination in housing and the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation, this bill is unnecessary," Wilson wrote in a veto message October 10.

On October 8, Republican State Senator Dick Mountjoy warned Wilson that he would lead the charge to put the issue up to a vote on California's November 1998 ballot if the governor did not veto the bill.

Current law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of a person's sexual orientation. But the law, part of the state Labor Code, doesn't cover nonprofit organizations, and is more difficult to enforce than the state's antidiscrimination law for other minority groups.

The bill Wilson vetoed would have moved the gay protections into the other antidiscrimination law, and extended the law's prohibitions to cover nonprofit groups that aren't church-related. It also would have extended the time period for filing discrimination claims, from the current 30 days to one year. On the same day, Wilson also vetoed a bill that would have helped expand Medi-Cal state health coverage eligibility to HIV-positive Californians before they progressed to a full-disability AIDS diagnosis, calling the bill "premature."

Michigan mulls hate crime law

Lansing, Mich.-About 50 people attended a meeting of the Constitutional and Civil Rights Committee of the Michigan House of Representatives to ask to add sexual orientation to the list of groups protected by

REALIOG

Michigan's ethnic intimidation law.

The 1989 statute creates stiffer penalties for bias-motivated violence and intimidation based on race, religion, ethnicity and gender.

While the act adds misdemeanor penalties for hate crimes, the amended version would provide a two-year felony penalty for those motivated by sexual orientation bias.

All who spoke before the committee on October 14 supported the amendment. They included victims of gay bashing, the Detroit Police Department and Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III.

Sixty-nine people were killed or hurt in 127 anti-gay attacks in Detroit last year, according to a report by the Triangle Foundation, a Michigan gay rights group. Experts say only 26 percent of all hate crimes are reported to police.

Prosecutor comes out

Charleston, S.C.-Solicitor David Schwacke revealed he was gay October 8, after local Republicans accused him of using solicitor's office computers to download pornography off the Internet. He denies wrongdoing and an investigation is under

way.

Schwacke, who has three years left in his second term as chief prosecutor, won his first race in 1992 with widespread GOP support. Some Republicans now say he should step down.

"He's confessed to actions that the Bible calls sin and state law calls a felony," Rep. John Graham Altman III said. "His effectiveness is greatly impaired."

Schwacke says he does not want to be a pioneer for gay rights, but does plan to keep his job and still considers himself a Republi-

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Bearded man sought in bombing

Atlanta-A federal task force is trying to identify a bearded man seen at the Otherside Lounge lesbian nightclub before a bomb exploded there in February.

The man, who is wanted as a witness and not as a suspect, may be the same person seen near an abortion clinic bombed five weeks earlier, agents said.

Sketches made from witness descriptions look very similar. Both show middle-aged white men with full, gray beards.

Investigators have said they are almost sure the two bombings are linked, and are increasingly confident they are related to a third bombing at the Atlanta Olympics in July 1996.

Black gay group leader resigns

Washington, D.C.-National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum director Keith Boykin will leave his position with the group when his contract runs out in February.

Boykin has recently signed a new contract with Avon to write a nonfiction book for 1998. He wrote One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America. In addition to writing, he will also concentrate on public speaking and possibly teaching and consulting, and will continue to assist the Forum in fundraising.

Boykin has been the Leadership Forum's director since September 1995. The group has begun a search for a new director.

Sentence stays for sailor's killer

Washington, D.C.-The Naval Parole and Clemency Board held a hearing Oct. 8 at the Washington Navy Yard on whether to reduce the life sentence of Terry Helvey, a sailor convicted of killing gay shipmate Allen Schindler in 1992.

At the time of his murder, the Navy was in the process of discharging Schindler because he was gay.

Kirk Childress, a lawyer from the Servicemember's Legal Defense Network who represents Schindler's mother Dorothy Hajdys-Holman at the annual hearings, said a representative from the Navy called him on October 15 to say that Helvey's request had been denied.

The cases of all Navy prisoners serving sentences of more than one year are reviewed each year by the clemency board for possible reduction. Helvey is eligible for parole in October 2002. By that date, Hajdys-Holman hopes to collect one million signed petitions

urging the Navy not to release him. Petitions are available online at http://www.sldn.org or by calling 202-328-3244.

ACLU appeals custody ruling

Hernando, Miss.-The American Civil Liberties Union has filed an appeal with the state supreme court on behalf of gay father who was denied custody of his 13-year-old son on the basis of his sexual orientation.

In denying the request for a change in custody, Judge Percy Lynchard cited the father's "moral fitness," and cited Mississippi laws that prohibit sodomy.

Lynchard wrote, "This court refuses to condone, endorse, sanction or tolerate homosexual activity in any fashion, mode or manner."

The father, who lives in California with his partner, asked the court to award him custody, claiming that his son was being exposed to mental and emotional abuse in his mothers' home.

The child has said he wants to live with his father.

Partner benefits put 'on file'

Milwaukee-A committee of aldermen voted to place "on file" a proposal to extend health and funeral leave benefits to unmarried partners of city employees, after two hours of debate about money and morality.

"On file" means that the measure has been put away and is technically inactive.

Two members of the committee who spoke after the vote said their concerns were financial, citing a city budget office estimate that said it would cost $600,000 a year to pay for the additional benefits.

Miss America OKs needles

Washington, D.C.—In a preview of the AIDS prevention measures she'll promote during her year-long reign as Miss America, Kate Shindle said she now supports dispensing clean needles to intravenous drug users.

When the 20-year-old Northwestern University senior was crowned last month, she said she favored giving condoms to high school students to stem the spread of the disease, but opposed needle exchange programs.

But Shindle said she changed her mind after learning more about the issue.

Shindle said she developed a heightened awareness of AIDS when she joined the theater community in college. ♡

Compiled from wire reports by Doreen Cudnik, Dawn Leach, and Brian DeWitt.

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