MARCH 19, 1999 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 7

MILESTONES

Lesbian honored as 'Woman of the Year' by legislators

Sacramento, Calif.-The executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Kate Kendell, was honored as a California State Legislature "Woman of the Year" by California State Senator Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, during a special legislative session on March 15. Kendell was recognized with other select

women at the Monday morning event, held in the Senate chamber at the state capitol in Sacramento.

Speier chose Kendell, a San Francisco resident, to receive the honor based on her many years of commitment to legal advocacy on behalf of lesbians, gay men and their families.

Professor named chair of gay-lesbian issues section

Columbus Capital University law professor Richard Wood was elected chair of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues, the university announced in a March 9 release. The honor was announced recently during the association's annual meeting in New Orleans.

Woods will be responsible for publication of the section's news letter, coordination of the section's input on positions taken by the association on gay and lesbian legal issues and organization of programs and symposiums during the year.

In the past, the section has addressed issues such as the inclusion of sexual orientation in the association's policy on non-

discrimination, and its responses to federal and state legislation designed to force law schools to allow employers who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation like the military-to use law school facilities to recruit.

Wood is already planning programs for the association's meeting next January in Washington, D.C., including a jointly sponsored presentation with the section on law and religion titled "The Religious Exception to Anti-Discrimination Laws."

The Association of American Law Schools is a non-profit association of 162 law schools. Ohio State University College of Law dean Gregory H. Williams is the organization's current president.

"Kate Kendell is one of the nation's most prominent advocates," Speier said. "As an attorney she has worked on historic litigation which has been instrumental in securing a place on the legal map for families who are often rendered invisible by courts across the nation."

The 13th annual Woman of the Year celebration is sponsored by the Women's Legislative Caucus. Legislators in the Assembly and Senate are each encouraged to select a woman from their district who has made a significant contribution to her community.

Kendell is the second open lesbian to be honored with this award. The first was Sheila Kuehl, now speaker pro tem of the California State Assembly, in 1991.

"To be recognized by Senator Speier for this tremendous honor is overwhelming," Kendell said. "I have the great privilege of

Milestones

doing work I love in a community of very courageous and proud families, and I share this award with them." Kendell continued, "I am keenly aware of the responsibility that accompanies this acknowledgment and know that I stand in remarkable company with many accomplished and creative women."

Kendell joined NCLR as legal director in 1994 and became executive director in 1996.

She is also an adjunct professor at Hastings College of Law and Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley teaching sexual orientation and the law. She also teaches legal ethics at the New College School of Law.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, a legal resource and advocacy organization, has advanced the rights of lesbians and their families for more than twenty years.

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Diocese will minister to gays

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something else. As individuals who identify themselves as gay, it seems like the Catholic church is saying, 'That's okay.' How the archdiocese will continue to support gay and lesbian Catholics while stopping short of honoring their relationships, will "unfold as the ministry unfolds," Andriacco said on March 16.

"The first step is establishing the ministry, and as it unfolds, it will be clear as to what sort of dimensions it undertakes," he said.

The proposed ministry is not an attempt at reparative therapy, Andriacco added

"The [Catholic] church does not get into that at all," he said. “We certainly do get into chastity in relationships, but we don't get into reparative therapy. No way. There's no document that I know of that talks about that."

The announcement is an outgrowth of community meetings that Auxiliary Bishop Carl Moeddel led last October to discuss the U.S. bishops' document on homosexuality, “Always Our Children," which was aimed at helping Catholic parents accept their gay and lesbian children, but later watered down to more accurately reflect church teaching.

"Always Our Children," Black said in the March 13 Cincinnati Enquirer, “encouraged parents to continue to love their children despite their homosexual orientation."

The teaching of the Catholic church holds that same-sex genital activity is "contrary to the natural law" and "objectively disordered," but that those with a homosexual orientation should be "accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity."

During those discussions, there was a 'sense of urgency" among parents that the archdiocese provide a ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics and their families, Rev. Michael Leshney said.

Leshney, chaplain to a Cincinnati chapter of the lesbian-gay Catholic group Dignity in the 1980s, will serve as spiritual director for the new archdiocese ministry. Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk will inaugurate the ministry

with three prayer services in April.

The first of the three meetings, each at 7:30 p.m., will be held Thursday, April 8 at St. John Nuemann Church in Cincinnati; the following two meetings will take place on Wednesday, April 14 at St. Peter's Church in the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights; and Wednesday, April 21 at Holy Redeemer Church in New Bremen, an Auglaize County town about 30 miles southwest of Lima.

These services and gatherings afterwards will provide an opportunity to learn more about the new ministry, to articulate needs, and to become involved in the ministry. Invitations have been sent to all parishes in the archdiocese inviting interested persons to attend.

Leshney said gay and lesbian Catholics often feel isolated because their parents are caught between the church's teaching on homosexual relations as "objectively disordered" and their love for their children.

"There's that whole element of gay and lesbian Catholics who feel alienated from the church and have felt marginalized," he said. The new ministry "brings all of this together."

Conservatives in the archdiocese reacted cautiously to the announcement.

Michael Rose, editor of the conservative St. Catherine Review, is taking a wait-and-see approach, but said he was troubled by Leshney's past affiliation with Dignity.

Andriacco acknowledged the hurt felt by some gay and lesbian Catholics, and expressed hope that this ministry will heal some of that.

"Just because the church has a strong stand on some of these moral issues, that doesn't mean that the church thinks it's easy for everyone to accept," he said. "The fact that the church thinks that it's right doesn't mean the church thinks that it comes without pain. Because a lot of moral teachings of the church are difficult for people."

Ultimately, Andriacco said, the church teaches Catholics to follow their conscience in all matters.

"In one of his latest encyclicals, Veritas Splendor, Pope John Paul said that it's a requirement to follow your conscience, even if your conscience is wrong. It's what you're called to do."

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