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Judge says Salt Lake school must allow gay club, for now

Salt Lake City--A student club that focuses on gay and lesbian issues will be allowed to meet while its case against the school district is considered, a U.S. federal judge has decided.

U.S. Judge Tena Campbell on Wednesday granted PRISM--People Respecting Important Social Movements-a preliminary injunction, ruling that the school district unfairly denied the East High School students permission to meet.

In the ruling, she suggested that school officials violated their own policy and the U.S. Constitution in snubbing PRISM.

In 1996, the school district eliminated all nonacademic clubs rather than allow a gay club at East High, a move that was upheld in federal court.

In response, Jessica Cohen and Maggie Hinckley applied in February to set up PRISM

standing of American history and government."

But Cynthia Seidel, assistant superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District, turned them down.

She said the club's gay subject matter was too narrow, and thus not curriculum-related.

Judge Campbell disagreed, saying the school board was being unfair because no narrowness provision had been put in writing.

"She has vindicated the important Constitutional requirement that when government regulators, including school officials, set about restricting free speech ... they can't keep moving the goal posts," said Stephen Clark, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented Cohen and Hinckley.

as an academic club. The club's goal is to Anti-gays want Bush's ear

discuss history through gay and lesbian issues, and their application said the club would “expand and enhance our study and under-

Boy Scouts

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why they need the exception," said Wolfson. "To allow them to disobey the law simply because they don't want to follow it would swallow up all civil rights law."

Wolfson said he thought Justices William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia were intent on finding reasons to side with the Boy Scouts.

"The Boy Scouts didn't present anything they didn't say to the New Jersey Supreme Court," said Wolfson, “And the New Jersey court found their arguments either unpersuasive, or untrue."

Wolfson told the court that gay and lesbian groups that open their membership to all as the Boy Scouts do, and become public accommodations, also cannot discriminate against heterosexuals that want to join.

"It's [the Boy Scouts'] burden...to show that their specific expressive purposes, not simply views they hold implicitly, but expressive purposes of conveying any such views are significantly burdened . . .' Wolfson told Scalia.

Wolfson said the Boy Scouts have not shown the court how the exclusion of gays is an expressive purpose of the organization.

"The classic example of this," said Wolfson, "is the Klan prohibiting blacks from joining. because it is the expressive purpose of the Klan to exclude blacks. But the Boy Scouts have not shown that their purpose is to exclude gays."

The Boy Scouts themselves seemed to contradict their own case along that line when asked if losing this case would cause them to cease operations in New Jersey.

"No it wouldn't," said Boy Scout spokesperson Brian Thomas. "We don't want to see scouting end anywhere."

"That further shows that allowing gay people to participate will not undermine the purposes of the Scouts," said Wolfson.

Davidson indicated that the Boy Scouts would likely change their handbook to make its policy prohibiting gays more explicit, if the court denies their freedom of association claim, rather than allow gays.

Wolfson countered, "I doubt that. The only way they have gotten away with this discrimination for so long is by not promoting it. They can't have it both ways."

Thomas was quick to point out that the Boy Scouts have practiced non-discrimination with regard to other groups.

"There has been no prohibitions with regard to color or religion in our 90-year history," he said. "I think no one is a fan of discrimination."

Thomas added, "These 20 years of litigation have been focused on our morally straight principles, not any anti-gay stance. We believe we will win this case, then be able to get back to what is important, which is the kids."

Thomas said the Boy Scouts have no plans to change the ban on gays. "Proposals have

Austin, Texas-A coalition of anti-gay and religious groups is demanding equal time with Republican candidate George W.

Bush, after the Texas governor met with gay and lesbian Republicans last month.

The group, which includes the Southern Baptist Convention, the American Family Association, and the Family Research Council, sent Bush a letter April 28 imploring him to meet with them.

Bush has been trying to run on a platform of inclusion, dubbing himself a “compassionate conservative.'

According to Bush spokesman Scott McLellan, the candidate regularly meets with "pro-family" leaders, but no decision has been made whether or not he will meet with the groups who sent the letter.

"There is a desire for a confrontation and an ultimatum," openly gay former Wisconsin Rep. Steve Gunderson, one of the gay Republicans who met with Bush, told the Austin American-Statesman. "There is no question that the struggle within the Republican Party is to hold together an increasingly diverse coalition . . . I would hope that could be done in ways other than public debates through press releases."

been floated from chartering organizations May will fight Army discharge

and from councils in St. Paul, Minnesota and Providence, Rhode Island, but I can tell you there will be no change in Boy Scout policy regarding homosexuals."

Wolfson reiterated why the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts are a public accommodation.

"This is one of the least-private organizations in the country. They have an association with the government. They invite all boys to join, and many of their chartering organizations are government agencies. To allow this organization to practice discrimination would harm all civil rights."

Friends of the court filed briefs on both sides. The National Law Journal observed that there were more amicus briefs filed in this case than any other.

Amicus briefs were filed for James Dale by the American Bar Association, the ACLU, teachers organizations, the NAACP, American Jewish Congress, American Psychological Association, American Public Health Association, eight major cities, the Deans of Divinity Schools and Rabbinical Institutions, and nearly every civil rights organization in the United States.

The Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty were joined by an array of anti-gay groups filing on behalf of the Boy Scouts. These include the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Eagle Forum, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United States Catholic Conference and the Mormon Church.

The Boy Scouts are not concerned that this case has pitted them against the entire civil rights establishment in the country. "The ACLU has always been against the Scouts on civil rights,” said Davidson.

"I wouldn't characterize the Mormons as fundamentalist," said Thomas. "They are pretty mainstream in that they charter more Scout units than anyone in the world."

Wolfson commented that the Supreme Court has come a long way in its treatment of GLBT issues.

"There we were, a gay rights organization standing with the rest of the civil rights community talking about civil rights, and the court engaged us on our presentation of this as a civil rights case," he said.

"There I was as an openly gay man representing Dale and the other civil rights groups and the court was respectful of that," added Wolfson. "That was a big change since the Hardwick case."

The Supreme Court upheld state laws against oral and anal sex in the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case.

"I sat in the courtroom beside Michael Hardwick when Chief Justice [Warren] Burger shook his finger at Michael from the bench and said, 'They used to put people to death for this'," said Wolfson. "What a difference."

Neither Wolfson nor Davidson would speculate on the case's outcome. A ruling is expected by July.

Phoenix-One of the Army's top chemical weapons defense officers, Arizona State Rep. Steve May, refuses to resign in the face of an impending military hearing which will likely result in his dismissal for being gay.

The Army is currently investigating the case, but sent May a letter asking him to resign from his post in the Army Reserve, and included a resignation letter for him to sign.

May's attorneys are arguing that the investigation illustrates the failings of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. May discussed his homosexuality in his capacity as a state lawmaker, while inactive in the Reserves. He was recalled soon after, during the Kosovo campaign, and the investigation started.

"The Army apparently believes that a reserve officer is prohibited from discussing his or her sexual orientation," wrote Christopher Wolf, one of May's attorneys, “even if done in the course of fulfilling his or her responsibility as a legislator, and even if

done as a private citizen."

May is seeking help from a fellow Republican, Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose presidential campaign he supported by raising money in the gay community. Publisher and AIDS activist dies

Los Angeles Robert Fenton Craig Jr., an AIDS activist and publisher of the Frontiers gay magazine, died April 28 from AIDS complications.

Craig, 65, passed away in Los Angeles, the city where he was born May 22, 1934, at Midway Medical Center.

Craig attended North Hollywood High School and spent four years in the U.S. Air Force as an MP before going to the University of Southern California.

In 1974, Craig opened the Hayloft, a gay bar in the San Fernando Valley where men could enjoy movies, and served with Christopher Street West for fourteen years.

Craig is survived by his partner Joel Heurtebise.

Two cleared in hand-holding attack

Boston-Suffolk County prosecutors have dropped charges against two of the three Boston High School students that allegedly attacked a Moroccan classmate while riding a train home from school.

The victim said January 27 she was teased, molested and beaten for holding hands with another girl, a common custom in her homeland.

Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II said April 28 that only one of the 15-yearolds would be prosecuted for a single count of assault. All three, two girls and one boy, have been expelled from Boston High.

After witnesses from the City Year youth program gave conflicting accounts of the story, several other charges were dropped.

The action comes four days after Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said he would seek a civil rights injunction against the teenagers, that would punish them with prison time for any future harassment.

Compiled from wire reports by Anthony Glassman and Michelle Tomko.

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