8 GAY PEOple's ChronICLE MARCH 20, 1998

Methodist minister is cleared in lesbian wedding

Continued from page 1

There are 144 "Reconciling United Methodist Congregations" which have policies welcoming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered members. More than 1,000 Methodist ministers have signed "In All Things Charity," a petition supporting inclusion of lesbians and gay men in the church, including in marriage rites.

The jury was made up of four women and nine men, all ministers from Nebraska. Eight voted against Creech and five for him, but under church law, nine guilty votes were necessary for a conviction.

Creech could have lost his position as senior pastor of Omaha's largest United Methodist church and been stripped of his ministe-

rial credentials.

The Rev. Grant Story of Omaha, the jury foreman, said the vote reflected the difficulty the church has experienced with the issue.

"We

have

struggled-no, ago-

MIKE DUBOSE

nized together in a Jimmy Creech spirit of love and our hope is that United Methodists everywhere will receive our verdict in that same spirit of love and respect," he said.

The 53-year-old Creech conducted the commitment ceremony between two women in Omaha in September. Martinez suspended

Creech from the leadership of his congregation on Nov. 10.

Creech had testified during the trial that he was simply serving the spiritual needs of two church members.

In 1996, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church added a ban on "homosexual unions" to the Methodist Book of Discipline's Social Principles.

Creech's counsel had argued these principals are pastoral guidelines, not binding rules. The church had maintained that the ban was worded strongly enough to make it law.

The Rev. Dale Lambert, a juror from Plymouth, Neb., said jurors turned to a sentence in a preface of the Social Principles. It state the principles are "intended to be instructive and persuasive.” According to Lam-

bert, “that sentence is key."

Churchgoers gave Creech a standing ovation when he returned to the pulpit at First United Methodist Church March 15.

"This is a real gift to me," he told the congregation. "I'm very grateful for the strong witness that you have given me."

Creech's supporters said the church has undergone a revival because of their pastor's leadership and ministry. One member of his congregation, Deb Keeney, said the church would still try to become more inclusive— including to gays and lesbians.

Some parishioners might decide to leave as a result, Keeney said.

"I hope they can find a church they are happy with," she said. ✓ From wire reports

Supreme Court rules same-sex harassment illegal

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"Conduct that is not severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment-an environment that a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive-is beyond Title VII's purview."

In previous rulings, the court has said a hostile environment can come about not only by overtly sexual behavior but also by "discriminatory intimidation, ridicule and insult... sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment."

A federal appeals court had ruled in Oncale's case that the federal law cannot be applied to same-sex harassment. Other courts have split on the issue, some agreeing that the law didn't cover same-sex harassment, and some saying that it did.

Still other courts have said that there can only be same-sex harassment if the harasser is gay or lesbian, and thus possibly attracted to the victim. The high court rejected that argument.

"Harassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire to support an inference of discrimination on the basis of sex," Scalia wrote.

When Oncale's case was argued before the nation's highest court in December it appeared clear the appeals court would be reversed.

"I don't see how we could possibly sustain the ruling," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said back then.

Oncale's lawsuit stems from his four months of work in 1991 as a roustabout assigned to a Gulf of Mexico oil rig with Sundowner Offshore Services.

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His lawsuit against Sundowner and three co-workers said he was sexually assaulted, battered, touched and threatened with rape.

Oncale, who now lives in a small town near Baton Rouge, said he twice reported the situation to his employer's highest-ranking representative on the job site, but no action was taken. He said he quit because he feared the harassment would escalate to rape.

All three men named as defendants say no illegal harassment occurred, and portray their conduct as hazing or locker-room horseplay.

The Supreme Court sent Oncale's case back to the lower courts to decide the issue of whether he was harassed or not.

Other case is sent back

The following Monday, March 9, the Supreme Court ordered a federal appeals court in Chicago to rethink its decision allowing two brothers to sue for alleged sexual harassment by their male co-workers.

The court directed the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case of the brothers, using the same approach the justices took in the Oncale case.

The twin brothers, 16 at the time, took summer jobs in 1992 with the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Ill. They were allegedly subjected to "unrelenting harassment," as the appeals court said, for not being masculine enough.

Among other things, they were taunted for wearing earrings, and called "queer" and "fag." One co-worker, with the encouragement of others, allegedly threatened one of the boys with rape and grabbed his testicles to "finally find out if you are a girl or a boy." The brothers quit, and sued the co-workers and the city.

A trial court rejected the suit, saying that, since the teens and their co-workers were heterosexual, sexual harassment was impossible. The appeals court reversed that ruling saying, "No court would have any difficulty construing such abusive conduct as sexual harassment."

Doug Heise, an attorney for the city, said he believed Belleville will win when the appeals court applies the Oncale decision, pointing out it cautioned courts to reject claims that involve only "teasing or roughhousing."

"I think there is a chance the court will take a look at it and say, 'No, this does not go beyond the bounds of horseplay,'” he told the Chicago Tribune.

But the brothers' attorney said the Oncale decision did not contradict the appeals court ruling. She said she believed the brothers would prevail once again.

"The holding is within the realm of what the Supreme Court said in Oncale," Ferne Wolf told the Tribune. "While the Seventh Circuit's ruling was much longer, the result was the same.”

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