DECEMBER 19, 1997 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

11

NEWS BRIEFS

Bar-pickup basher sentenced to 16 years in prison

Akron-The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Summit County Common Pleas Judge Beth Whitmore sentenced 24-year-old Kirk Pollack to 16 years in prison for robbing and severely beating a man he met at Rudy's Tavern, a Cleveland gay bar.

Co-defendant Gene Scott, 21, is scheduled for trial February 5. Scott and Pollack confessed to going home with Raymond Peden, 43, on August 24, where they repeatedly kicked him in the face and left him for dead.

The two men were arrested after a police officer stopped them for a traffic violation and noticed they were covered with blood. Police found Peden drowning in his blood in his Northfield apartment. Peden survived, and has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery.

Poster stays in classroom

Chesterton, Ind.

After months of debate, the Duneland School Corp. voted 4-1 that a poster promoting tolerance for gays and lesbians can stay in Bonney Leckie's English classroom.

The poster depicts ten famous historical figures, including Cole Porter, Walt Whitman, Michaelangelo and Eleanor Roosevelt, and reads, “Sexual orientation has nothing to do with the ability to make a mark, let alone make history." It has been displayed in Leckie's classroom for the past six years.

The controversy erupted when parents Cathy and David Podguski, whose son Michael had been a student of Leckie's, complained about the poster. They eventually sought the help of evangelist Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice.

The Poduskis plan to appeal the decision to the Indiana State Board of Education, and are considering filing a civil lawsuit.

School will let lesbians sing

Corvallis, Ore.-A private school has reversed its decision against letting lesbian folk singers Cris Williamson and Tret Fure perform at its theater.

The Ashbrook Independent School had denied the duo use of the theater because the Corvallis Folklore Society had refused to change promotional materials that referred to them as "life partners."

After the Folklore Society complained, the school announced December 8 it would rent the theater to the group.

"Our policy against promotion of sexuality in a school theater was interpreted as antigay," Headmaster Dave Gore said, "and we felt the need to make this offer. We have a new appreciation of how important this is to members of a minority."

Gays may wed on campus

Atlanta-Methodist-affiliated Emory University will allow same sex couples to say commitment vows in its chapels under strictly limited circumstances that effectively exclude most gay couples on campus, including Methodists.

The policy, approved by the Emory board of trustees, requires that a religious leader from one of the 24 religious groups on campus perform such ceremonies, chaplain Susan Henry-Crowe said.

Of those groups, only the Reformed Jewish leader and the United Church of Christ leader now perform ceremonies for same sex couples.

Houston elects open lesbian

Houston, Tx.-Former Lesbian and Gay Victory Fund board member Annise Parker won a run-off election for an at-large seat on the Houston City Council December 6. Parker is also known as an ally to the transgender community.

Parker came in second to opponent Don Fitch in a seven-way election November 4. Parker garnered 57.9% of the vote in the runoff election.

Although Fitch had made a campaign promise not to make Parker's sexual orien-

tation an issue, he later distributed flyers emphasizing Parker's connections to Houston's lgbt community. He also ran radio ads saying, "I'm married with two sons and five grandchildren. My opponent is a gay activist."

Bill would ban partner benefits

Lansing, Mich.-Legislation to ban the use of state money to provide health and other benefits for the unmarried partners of state employees won approval in a senate committee December 3.

The Senate Human Resources, Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee voted 4-1 to send the bill to the full senate. It is sponsored by Sen. Bill Schuette, R-Midland.

The legislation follows similar attempts by Schuette to attach such provisions to annual budget bills. An aide to Schuette said the bill is an attempt to comply with a ruling by Attorney General Frank Kelley that such restrictions should be written into a new state law to be effective.

Four state universities offer health benefits to same-sex partners of their employecs-three University of Michigan campuses and Wayne State University.

Michigan State University is scheduled to begin offering partner benefits on Jan. 1.

Cop arrested for soliciting sex

The Akron Beacon Journal reported that Akron police officer Alan Azar was arrested December 9 on charges of soliciting prostitution. Police say the 26-year-old Azar offered men money for sexual favors while on duty. The arrest came after an anonymous tip that an officer was approaching men for sex in Grace Park, near Akron University.

Azar has been suspended, and could be fired if convicted. Azar could also face a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail for soliciting prostitution, which is a misdemeanor. School pulls The Color Purple

Kenna, W.V.-Despite the pleas of students, teachers and parents, the school board voted 3-2 to remove 17 books from the high school library shelves.

Books removed included John Grisham's The Client, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy and 100 Q & A About AIDS.

The panel agreed it would review those books. But Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prizewinning novel The Color Purple was banned outright because it deals with incest, lesbianism, and racism.

Jackson County school board member Happy Joe Parsons, who supported the removal of the books, acknowledged that he had not read all of The Color Purple. He added, however, that "What it said on the first page was all I needed to hear."

The board ordered the books taken off shelves in early November when parent Jean Rectenwald objected to profanity, sexually explicit language and descriptions of rape, molestation and gay and lesbian sex she claims the books contain.

Nurse preached hellfire

New Haven-A gay man with AIDS has filed a lawsuit against his home-care nurse, claiming that she subjected him and his lover to her fundamentalist Christian beliefs during an official home visit.

In the suit filed Nov. 17 in U.S. District Court by Kenneth Johnson and Byron Benton, the couple claims that Jo Ann Knight asked Johnson if he believed in God, and told the two men they would "burn in hell" unless they were "born again." At the time Knight initiated the conversation, Johnson was lying in bed with a feeding tube in his chest.

"I considered myself to be a captive audience," Johnson told the Hartford Cou-

rant.

Knight's lawyer Vincent P. McCarthy said his client was simply showing love and compassion by sharing her deeply held religious beliefs.

In October, Knight sued state Public Health Commisioner Stephen A. Harriman,

claiming that he violated her free-speech rights when he disciplined her over the incident.

Blame it on the computer

Vatican City-Much to the delight of Italy's gay rights group Arcigay, a computer glitch made it appear as if the Vatican had come out in support of gay and lesbian rights.

Father Gino Concetti, 71, was shocked when he read pro-gay quotes attributed to him in the November 13 issue of L'Osservatore Romano. The Roman Catholic daily, which is considered the "voice of the Vatican," quoted Concetti as saying, "Homosexuals do have the right to be considered to be different, to practice their homosexuality, to live together, to make up a couple and to have children."

Gay rights supporters said this seemed to be quite a departure for Concetti, a staunch moralist who has spent the last 30 years opposing such ideas as the theologian for the paper.

Arcigay's celebration of Concetti's change of heart was short-lived, however, once the computer error was discovered. A virus had erased the negative "nots" from the article, making Concetti's anti-gay comments appear pro-gay.

Vandal fouls gay library books

Dayton-For over two years, Dayton and Montgomery County libraries have been victimized by a bizarre form of vandalism.

A man identifying himself as the "Mad Shitter" has defecated on library books having to do with homosexuality or the United Nations. The vandal leaves notes with the soiled books in which he claims to be "the righteous guardian of public decency." He has struck over a dozen times at library branches in Dayton, Kettering and Huber Heights, costing the library system close to $1,000.

"This goes beyond political protest," said Tom Weitzel, manager of the Kettering-Moraine branch. "This guy is on the edge."

Mark Hawk, who is a board member at the Dayton Lesbian and Gay Center, said the man "made a few deposits" at the center's old location, and once mailed a pair of soiled underwear.

Hawk added that the center believes the same man is responsible for making harassing phone calls to their office.

Police have no suspects at this time, but have saved some of the ruined books and feces for possible DNA analysis.

While library officials fail to see the humor in the attacks, Comedy Central's The Daily Show has dubbed the man "the Uni-pooper" and plans to air a segment on the story in January.

Est. 1981 Inc. 1996

Actress returns award

Washington, D.C.-Susan Sarandon gave her alma mater a piece of her mind by returning an alumni achievement award it gave her 15 years ago.

The Oscar-winning actress was upset over Catholic University's decision to rescind openly gay actor-director Joseph Sicari's alumni achievement award after he said he was a founding member of the AIDS activist group ACT UP, the Washington Post reported December 5.

Catholic University cited a 1989 ACT UP protest in which several activists disrupted Communion at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Sicari told the Post he took no part in the protest and said the university's move "was like a Catholic witch hunt."

Priest stole to pay extortionist

Tampa, Fla. A Florida man was sentenced recently to fifteen years' probation for extorting nearly $400,000 from a Catholic priest with whom he was having a sexual relationship.

According to prosecutors, Joseph Mondeau blackmailed the Rev. Simeon Gardner, claiming to have videotapes of their sexual encounters. Gardner paid Mondeau with money he stole from the parish he was assigned to, St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lutz, Fla. The 71-year-old Gardner, now retired from the church, was sentenced to two years house arrest for stealing the money.

Judge Barbara Fleischer, who sentenced Mondeau, called the St. Mary parishoners the "real victims in this case."

Buyers clubs can't sell pot

San Francisco-Marijuana clubs cannot sell the drug legally to patients despite California's medical marijuana initiative, a state appeals court ruled December 12.

The 1st District Court of Appeal ordered the reinstatement of an injunction that shut down the Cannabis Buyers' Club after a raid by state agents in August 1996.

Proposition 215, approved by voters in November 1996, allows possession and cultivation of marijuana upon a doctor's recommendation to ease the pain and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.

After the measure passed, a state judge allowed the reopening of the club, ruling that Proposition 215 allowed a nonprofit organization to sell marijuana to patients who had designated the club as their "primary caregiver.""

But Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson said in an opinion that a primary caregiver cannot be a commercial enterprise like the Cannabis Buyers Club.

Compiled from wire reports by Doreen Cudnik and Dawn Leach.

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