CAY PE PLE'S CHRONICLE November 5, 1999

newsbriefs

British Muslims call for Terrence McNally's death

London-Muslim extremists have called for the death of playwright Terrence McNally because of a play now running in London which portrays a messiah character as gay.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, judge of the British Moslem Shari'ah Court, signed a "fatwa," calling for McNally's arrest and execution if he ever travels to a Moslem country.

Al-Muhajiroun, a London-based Islamic fundamentalist group, distributed circulars October 30 quoting the Prophet Mohammed as saying: "Whoever insults a messenger of God must be killed."

Muslims have joined Roman Catholics in protesting outside the Pleasance Theatre, where McNally's Corpus Christi is playing.

Corpus Christi, which depicts a gay Jesuslike figure named Joshua surrounded by gay apostles, drew protests when it opened in

New York last year.

Officials at the Manhattan Theatre Club, where the play was staged, reported anonymous death threats against actors, audiences and McNally. Playgoers at the opening had to pass through metal detectors.

McNally

I am woman, hear me appeal

Texas-Christie Lee Littleton, a transgender woman, is expected to appeal to the state Supreme court after a Texas appeals court threw out her malpractice suit in the death of her late husband October 27 by a ruling of 2-1.

The appeals court ruled that Littleton's marriage of seven years was invalid because it was a same-sex marriage, citing the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.

Littleton's birth certificate has been legally amended to reflect her sex change, but the court said that her original birth certificate was not inaccurate, so the amended one held no weight in court. Expert medical testimony compared Littleton's physical condition to that of a typical woman following a hysterectomy and that she is medically a woman, but the court found this irrelevant because the widow's female anatomy was surgically constructed.

"Biologically, a post operative female transexual is still a male," the court wrote.

Texas transgender activists went to the state legislature for a third time this year to clarify their status as a matter of law. They were told this type of legislation is unneces-

sary.

Activists attempt to 'arrest' Mugabe

London-British police arrested four gay civil rights activists October 30 after they attempted to make a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

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Robert Mugabe

Peter Tatchell, leader of a London gay advocacy group called Outrage!, was taken away by police following the incident outside the Crowne Plaza hotel, according to one of the protesters. The group said they wanted to arrest Mugabe because of the alleged torture of two journalists in his country

The protesters had carried placards, including one which said MUGABE STOP ABUSING QUEERS.

"The United Nations convention on torture has effect in this country, and we were intending to perform a citizen's arrest, and notified the attorney general," said protester John Hunt. "We were going to hold him then call police to deal with it."

Two lesbians named on birth certificate

Boulder, Colo.-A judge has allowed the names of two lesbian partners to appear on the birth certificate of a child being carried by one of the women, even though the other woman has no biological link to the child.

Boulder District Judge Roxanne Bailin issued the ruling in September in a case involving two women identified by the court only as Anne G. and Jane K.

Anne G. is pregnant with a child she conceived through sperm implanted from an

determine whether they have the right to continue raising children after a union ends.

The decision also would extend to heterosexual relationships in which one partner has participated in parenting, but has no biological bonds to the children, lawyers said.

Earlier this year, an appellate court gave V.C. the right to visit with the children every other Sunday, reversing a lower court decision. M.B. drives the twins from her Atlantic County home to spend the day with V.C. at her home in Union County.

But the appellate court denied V.C.'s request for joint custody, which would give her the right to participate in the children's schooling, as well as obligate her to pay child support.

The supreme court will decide whether visitation can continue and whether V.C. should be given joint custody.

Arts funding pulled after Angels

Longview, Texas-Gregg County commissioners have made good on their threat to withdraw arts funding from an East Texas college that staged a production of Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tony Kushner that traces the lives of five gay Americans.

The commissioners this week voted to rescind a $50,000 grant they had promised for next summer's Texas Shakespeare Festival at Kilgore College.

While commissioners said they pulled the funding because the gift may not be legal, festival director Raymond Caldwell said the action was merely punitive.

The $50,000 initially was written into the county's budget after word spread that a Tyler group had expressed interest in adopting the financially strapped Shakespeare Festival.

The county officials weren't alone in protesting the production of Angels in America. City officials in Kilgore have threatened to take back a $15,000 donation to the theater department and hundreds of residents signed a petition against the play.

anonymous donor, the Denver Post reported. Amazon (store) asked “Are you gay?"

Boulder attorney Barbara Lavender, who represents Anne G., said the ruling assures that one of the parents will not lose custody of the child if the other parent dies.

"We are giving protection for the family unit, for their nuclear family," Lavender said. "Whether people like their style of family or not is irrelevant. This is the family they have. To me, that is family values."

N.J. court hears lesbian custody case

Trenton, N.J.-The state supreme court heard arguments in a custody battle between former lesbian partners on October 26.

The non-biological mom, named "V.C." in court documents, said she is like a mother to the twin children of her former partner, even though they have no biological bonds. Severing that relationship would hurt the kids, her lawyers argued.

The lawyer for the biological mother, named "M.B." in court documents, argued that she has the right to raise her children free of interference from a "third party" who has no legal claim to her kids.

While lawyers on both sides deny the women's sexuality is relevant, gay civil rights activists view it as a landmark case that will

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For years there has been a feminist bookstore in Minneapolis named Amazon Bookstore. The bookstore sued Amazon.com earlier this year for trademark infringement.

The bookstore claimed to have lost money and employee hours dealing with inquirers who had mistaken the bookstore for the web retail business.

Attorneys for Amazon.com asked bookstore owners if they are gay, and whether any of their employees are gay. They also asked the owners if they

have had any interest in

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