NEWS BRIEFS
APRIL 3, 1998 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9
Presbyterians keep ban on gay and lesbian ministers
New York City-The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination has rejected a proposal to overturn a 10-month-old church law that effectively bars ordination of openly gay men and women, the New York Times reported March 19.
Amendment B, adopted last June, states that any person ordained as a minister, elder or deacon must refrain from sexual activity outside marriage. The move, according to the Rev. Jack Haberer of Houston, indicates that the "center of the church" believed that "sex belongs inside a marriage, and we want our leaders to model that."
Since October, a majority of the 2.6 million-member Presbyterian Church USA's regional bodies turned down a broader statement that would have asked ministers, elders and deacons to "demonstrate fidelity and integrity in marriage or singleness and in all relationships of life," church officials told the Times.
The alternative proposal, Amendment A, failed by a 2-to-1 ratio in balloting by the denomination's 173 presbyteries, according to church officials.
No gays in New York parade
New York City-Over 150,000 marchers, including Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani participated in the annual St. Patrick Day parade in New York City. But once again, Irish gays and lesbians were officially excluded from the celebration.
Hours before the March 17 parade, about 100 members of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization protested against the organizers of the march, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. According to police, 13 protesters were arrested when they tried to block traffic by sitting in the intersection.
Homeless witness thanked
San Francisco-A homeless man has been honored for helping identify a suspect who allegedly beat a gay man to death outside a bar.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave awards March 16 to Michael Gillespie and two police inspectors who apprehended Edgar Mora of South San Francisco.
Mora reportedly uttered anti-gay slurs March 1.3 before striking Brian Wilmes, 45, who fell and hit his head on the concrete, lapsed into a coma and died the next day. Mora has been charged with murder, which police are treating as a hate crime. If he is convicted, the hate crime charge could add three years to Mora's prison time.
Gillespie, the humble homeless man who helped police track the suspect's getaway car, said he did not consider himself a hero.
"All this hero stuff ain't needed," Gillespie, 37, said after receiving his award. "I didn't even think about what I was doing. I just did it."
City straightens out Gay Avenue
Callaway, Fla.-Many people who live on Gay Avenue are anything but happy about a decision to rename their street after a neighbor who donated $10,000 for re-paving it in this small Florida Panhandle town.
"It's going to cost us to change our driver's licenses, checks, vehicle registration and it'll be a mess with the mailing," said Gay Ave. resident Patricia Korkoske. "That's going to be a lot of aggravation."
City commissioners voted to rename the street Jim Crews Road. Crews, a developer who has lived on Gay for 30 years, said that he didn't care if the street was not named for
The chy had dented the group a permit to him as long as it gets renamed.go hold a separate protest march.
Gay and lesbian groups participated without incident in St. Patrick's Day parades on the Emerald Isle in Cork, Dublin and Belfast, as well as in Chicago and San Francisco.
This was the eighth year the gay and lesbian group was excluded from the New York parade. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld such exclusions in 1995, saying that Boston's parade was a form of free speech. Protesters shouted "Homophobia!” as Giuliani marched by. Others waved placards with slogans like, "What is St. Patrick's Day without Faeries? A sham."
State to make college life safer
Boston, Mass.-The Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth unveiled a new state program March 27 designed to make college life easier for gay and lesbian students. It is believed to the first of its kind in the nation.
A similar state program for high school students was begun five years ago as the first of its kind at that level. The program now has student groups at 120 schools.
The State Colleges Program for Gay and Lesbian Students will give four regional antidiscrimination workshops to train college faculty and staff in gay and lesbian issues. Included will be crisis intervention and violence prevention.
The state also will provide $2,000 grants for groups at 14 state colleges that coordinate activities for homosexual and heterosexual students.
Anti-bias order is suspended
Houston, Texas-A judge has blocked the city, at least temporarily, from enforcing Mayor Lee Brown's executive order banning discrimination against lesbians and gays in city government.
State District Judge Patrick W. Mizell agreed with City Council member Rob Todd and conservative businessman Richard Hotze that Brown lacks authority under the city charter to impose such an order.
After a briefing by city attorneys, Brown said he is considering an appeal.
Brown signed the order in January, fulfilling a campaign pledge to ban discrimination in city government on the basis of sexual
orientation.
"I'm not prejudiced against the word, but when I travel a lot of people have a different idea," Crews said. "When I check into a hotel and when I write down 'Gay Avenue,' about 90 percent of people smirk or laugh and ask, 'What about you?" "
The city has received petitions with 313 signatures against the name change and 150 favoring it.
Partner law survives vote
Oak Park, Ill.-A domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples is still in effect in this Chicago suburb, after it survived a March 17 repeal referendum. It was originally established on September 2 by the town
trustees.
Those opposed to the registry collected enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, claiming that a vote would allow residents who might oppose the registry to express their views privately.
The final vote count was 4,942 in support of the registry and 4,712 opposed.
The registry confers no benefits and establishes stringent criteria for couples to qualify. Only same-sex couples may register because, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they may not legally marry. The registry also gives couples a certificate and a legal tool to fight discrimination.
Oak Park is the first city in Illinois to register same-sex couples. Since its inception, 23 couples have registered.
Notre Dame priest resigns
South Bend, Ind.-A Catholic priest has resigned from the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, saying he believes his sacramental duties were taken away after he declared he is gay.
The Rev. David Garrick, an assistant professor of communication and theater, made his resignation effective at the end of this school year.
Garrick announced his sexual orientation in an April 4, 1996 letter in the campus newspaper, The Observer, in which he also stated that he has observed his priest's vow of celibacy.
Notre Dame has had an continuing and very public struggle with the issue of gay and lesbian students. In 1995, Gays and Lesbians of Notre Dame and St. Mary's College, a
student group that had been in existence for nine years, was told it could not meet on university property.
"I had this tremendous sense that I had been removed from public ministry because I had become the chief spokesman of openly gay people on campus,” Garrick said.
Garrick added he will begin seeking a teaching job where he can be both a priest and a teacher in a place that provides protection for gay and lesbian people.
Illinois civil rights bill advances
Springfield, Ill.—A bill advanced by an Illinois House committee March 19 would prohibit landlords, employers and creditors from discriminating against gays and lesbi-
ans.
The measure, sponsored by openly gay Rep. Larry McKeon, D-Chicago, would amend the state's human rights law by adding the phrase "sexual orientation" to the list of categories protected against bias.
McKeon said religious institutions that regard homosexuality as immoral would be exempt from the proposal, and the bill also would not require employers or unions to give preferential treatment or other affirmative action to gays and lesbians.
The committee approved the bill on an 8-2 vote. The House defeated a similar measure by McKeon last April.
State sues after gaybashing
Worcester, Mass.-Two men accused of using an Internet chat room to lure a gay man
First Tribe
to a deserted field where they beat him have been sued by the state of Massachusetts for civil rights violations.
William D. Peters, 21 and Frank Labbe, 18, both of Webster, Mass., allegedly attacked a 46-year-old Cambridge man on the early morning of January 8 after exchanging messages in a gay chat room.
In addition to the suit, Labbe and Peters were set to be arraigned April 3 on five criminal charges, including armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and civil rights crimes.
The attorney general's civil rights division filed a preliminary injunction March. If successful, it would mandate stiff punishments should the men commit additional civil rights crimes. Assistant Attorney General Richard Gordon said the civil rights action, which is separate from the criminal charges, was brought because of the severity of the case.
According to court documents, Peters and Labbe used anti-gay language to taunt the victim and warned him, "If you go to the cops, we will kill you. And if we ever see you online again or in any [chat] rooms again, we will kill you!" The defendants also allegedly stole the victim's compact disc player and wallet and locked him out of his car.
In a sworn affadavit, the victim said, “The defendants' threats and intimidation towards me have made me fearful for my safety, even in my own home.”
Compiled from wire reports by Doreen Cudnik, Dawn Leach, and Eric Resnick.
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