May 7, 1999 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 7

newsbriefs

State's first openly gay GOP official leaves the party

Charlotte, N.C.-A Mecklenburg County judge and first openly gay Republican officeholder in North Carolina has left the party, saying he can't support the GOP after a hate crime measure was defeated in the state house.

Superior Court Judge Ray Warren, who came out last December, is now registered as an unaffiliated voter.

The North Carolina House rejected a measure in late April that would have expanded the state's hate crime law to include sexual orientation. All but two Republicans, as well as a handful of Democrats, voted against the bill. Warren said he couldn't stay in a party that "condones discrimination, intimidation and violence."

"I predict [gays] will be made part of the hate crimes law, but it probably won't happen until somebody is murdered or beaten and [legislators] find their conscience," Warren said April 30.

"I don't think anybody in the Republican Party ever endorsed discrimination, intimidation or particularly violence," said Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Frank Whitney in response to Warren's comments.

Shaheen signs adoption repeal

Concord, N.H.-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen

nearly 100 people, Jill Pierson and Christine Trinh sat outside a campus building for seven hours, holding a large white cloth sign that read: "Hope College is crumbling around us because it no longer demonstrates unconditional caring. Harassment is committed in the name of love [and] evangelism."

The protest was in response to the school's recent series on sexuality that critics said lacked balance. A guest speaker, the Rev. Mario Bergner, argued for reparative therapy, saying that gays' and lesbians' sexual orientation could be changed through faith.

At one point during the protest, which attracted several professors, students from a nearby dormitory blasted Christian music toward the gathering.

School spokesman Thomas Renner issued a statement saying Hope College, like its founding denomination, the Reformed Church of America, distinguishes between homosexual orientation and homosexual behavior.

"The college remains steadfast that it will not recognize or support persons or organizations that advocate the moral legitimization of homosexuality," the statement read.

The college is located in a western Michigan town five miles from the popular gay and lesbian resort of Saugatuck.

on May 3 signed a law that repealed New Anti-gay money disappeared

Hampshire's

ban on gays and lesbians serving as foster or adoptive parents. The law, which takes effect in 60 days, leaves Florida as the only U. S. state to bar gays and lesbians from being adoptive or foster parents. Other states, however, are considering adoption bans.

Shaheen

Enacted in 1988, the adoption ban went so far as to prevent foster or adoptive parents from having gays and lesbians as members of their households or as long-term visitors to their homes.

Portland, Maine-The attorney for the Christian Civic League has changed his story about where funds raised to overturn Maine's gay rights law were sent, according to a report by WMTW-TV.

The league is under investigation by the state Ethics Commission for allegedly failing to register as a political action committee when raising the funds, totaling about $6,100.

Steve Whiting, an attorney for the league, has told the committee that the funds were sent to other PACs set up to receive funds for the campaign.

But a letter Whiting sent to the committee dated April 26 says the league did not write any checks to the PACS at all, but instead wrote a $6,100 check to the Christian Coalition.

Paul Volle, who is in charge of the PACS and is also executive director of the Christian Coalition, has said that he never received the funds. He is scheduled to testify before the Ethics Committee on May 10.

"This law [the repeal] is good for New Hampshire and good for our children," School unveils gay and lesbian mural

Shaheen said.

San Francisco-Ethnically diverse Mission High School unveiled a new mural on

Clinton re-affirms support for ENDA April 30 that features gay and lesbian figures

Washington, D.C.-In a written proclamation declaring May 1 as "Law Day," President Bill Clinton again pledged his support for the gay and lesbian Employment NonDiscrimination Act, or ENDA. The proclamation was issued on April 30.

"In May of 1998, I was proud to sign Executive Order 13087, which amends federal equal employment opportunity policy to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian work force." Clinton said. "My administration is working with congressional leaders to pass ENDA, which would prohibit most private employers from firing good workers solely because they are gay,or lesbian.”

The proclamation added, "We must reaffirm our goal of building an America where all people have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential and where no American is denied his or her rights because of race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or disability. By doing so, we will fulfill our founders' vision of a nation where all citizens share equally in the blessings and protections of the law."

Students decry anti-gay seminar

Holland, Mich.-Students staged a daylong public protest on April 29 against Hope College's decision to allow an unbalanced presentation during a seminar on sexuality.

As part of the demonstration that drew

t

past and present.

The mural, measuring about 15 feet by 8 feet, features 20 people, including poet Langston Hughes, assassinated San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, ice skater Rudy Galindo, singer Elton John, artist Andy Warhol, author Truman Capote and singer k.d. lang. Artist Toby Jacome left room to expand the mural to about 30 people.

"This mural is the first of its kind in any school in the nation and it's about time," said San Francisco school board president Juanita Owens, who unveiled the mural inside the main entrance to the school.

"With hate crimes continuing across the country, and even here in San Francisco, what better way to educate all our youth than to honor this wide array of meaningful figures from history who just happen to be gay or lesbian?" she said.

Rainbow flag called violation

Myrtle Beach, S.C.-The owner of a Myrtle Beach business who has been told the two rainbow flags displayed on her building violate a city ordinance vows to keep them flying.

Linda Robertson, owner of Rainbow House Bistro, went before City Council last week and argued that the rainbow flags she flies outside her business fall under her First Amendment rights.

"This is absolutely 100 percent unconsti-

tutional," Robertson said. "It restricts freedom of speech, which is allowed by the First Amendment."

According to city code, though, the flags

violate a zoning ordinance that doesn't permit commercial flags except in an amusement park of more than five acres.

However, international, national, state, city, county and church flags are allowed in any zoning district.

The rainbow flag was recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers in 1986. It came into existence in 1978.

Three other businesses, two of them the gay night clubs Metropolis and Time Out, were notified in writing on April 19 that they are also in violation of the city's sign ordi-

nance.

Hate crime bill is dying

Montgomery, Ala Even after the brutal murder of Billy Jack Gaither made news throughout Alabama and the country, a bill that would prohibit hate crimes against gays and lesbians appears to be dead in committee.

Its sponsor, Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, sought to revive it by turning to a rare procedural tactic to try to force debate on the legislation by the House Judiciary Committee, but committee chairman Rep. Bill Fuller, D-LaFayette, said he does not expect committee action on the measure for another month. By then, it likely would be too late for passage in the 1999 session.

The bill would extend Alabama's existing hate-crime statute to include sexual orientation.

"I am very, very frustrated," Holmes said. "I think it should have been considered, it should have been passed, it should have been into law now."

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"There's a fair chance it will come up on May 26," Fuller added.

AIDS activists take over office

Albany, N.Y.-"We die. They take names," was the message delivered by AIDS activists on April 28 during a peaceful protest at the office of a top state health official. The demonstration sought to draw attention to what activists see as the inhumanity of the state's new HIV reporting and partner notification law.

The activists' synopsis of their life-anddeath position on the law was printed on the back of phony dollar bills featuring Gov. George Pataki's picture. The measure will discourage people, particularly young people, from getting tested for HIV, said Jennifer Smith, who identified herself as a member of the group Fed Up Queers.

After almost six hours of the sit-in, the half-dozen activists in the state health department's AIDS Institute left voluntarily after they were asked. There were no arrests and the state's business wasn't disrupted, officials said.

Three of the demonstrators had chained themselves to furniture in Dr. Guthrie Birkhead's office and used a conference table to barricade the door.

The activists hung a banner in one of the office's windows that read: "Stop Pataki's AIDS Police."

While 43 other states require such HIV notification, New York has previously only required reports on those patients diagnosed with AIDS.

Compiled by Doreen Cudnik from wire reports

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