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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com. February 27, 2009 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5

Firefighters win harassment suit against Pride parade

San Diego A jury determined February 16 that four San Diego firefighters were sexually harassed for being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade and awarded them combined damages of $34,300.

The firefighters claimed they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade, which drew about 150,000 spectators.

The firefighters' attorney, Charles LiMandri, said during his closing argument that his clients were targets of vulgar gestures and catcalls while being forced to watch barely clothed men and women simulate sex acts and touch themselves and one another.

"The Fire Department knew what goes on there," LiMandri told the jury.

This was the second trial on the firefighters' claims. In October, jurors were unable to reach a verdict.

LiMandri requested up to $1 million for each client at the first trial. He didn't propose specific damages at this trial.

A crew that had volunteered to ride a fire engine pulled out shortly before the parade because the captain's mother died. LiMandri told the jury that department supervisors didn't try to find other volunteers, but gave the assignment to the crew in the city's Hillcrest area, home to a large gay population where the parade is held.

Deputy City Attorney Don Shanahan said the firefighters weren't satisfied after Chief Tracy Jarman apologized and promised to change the department's policy and use only volunteers in the parade.

"The department bent over backwards," Shanahan told jurors.

The Pride parade organizers questioned the firefighters' motives.

"The mini-sized payout the jury awarded for emotional distress to the firefighters speaks volumes about the so-called notion that they endured severe or pervasive trauma while wearing earphones, sitting six feet off the ground inside a fire truck with the windows rolled up and a roaring diesel engine powering them along a one-mile parade route," said San Diego LGBT Pride director Ron deHarte in a statement.

DeHarte pointed out LiMandri's connection to the Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan anti-gay group, and that the attorney's web site states, "Don't let the radical gay agenda trample our Christian beliefs."

The city will appeal the verdict and oppose any motions to pay the firefighters' legal fees, Shanahan said.

Homecoming queen is a drag queen

Fairfax, Va.-George Mason University students have elected a drag queen as homecoming queen.

Student Ryan Allen beat out two women

for the title at the at the 30,000-student college in suburban Washington, D.C., famous for its run to the national basketball championships a few years back.

Allen competed in his drag queen persona of Reann Ballslee.

Allen, who is gay and performs in drag at nightclubs, said he entered as a joke. But he considers the victory one of his happiest moments and proof the school celebrates its diverse student body, according to the Washington Post.

The senior from Virginia won the pageant about a week ago at a sold-out homecoming basketball game against Northeast-

ern.

Michigan court recognizes adoption

Lansing, Mich.--Michigan courts can oversee a custody dispute between lesbian parents who adopted in Illinois even though Michigan doesn't formally recognize samesex relationships, the state Court of Appeals said February 20.

The court ruled 2-1 that the U.S. Constitution requires state courts to recognize Diane Giancaspro and Lisa Congleton as adoptive parents. It reversed a trial judge who said Michigan's 2004 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage kept her from enforcing the women's parental rights.

"The only relevant consideration in this matter is each individual party's established relationship as an adoptive parent with the children, not their relationship with each other," Judges Alton Davis and Stephen Borrello wrote.

Judge Kurtis Wilder dissented because he said Giancaspro didn't show documents authenticating the Illinois adoption.

The couple adopted from China while living in Illinois, and the children began living with them in 2003. But the couple's relationship ended in 2007 after they moved to southwestern Michigan.

Giancaspro sued for custody under Michigan law, but Congleton said the case should be dismissed because neither parent has rights since the state constitution doesn't allow the recognition of domestic partnerships. The couple never married.

Berrien County Circuit Judge Mabel Johnson Mayfield ruled for Congleton in September 2007, recognizing the validity of the adoption. But the judge said Michigan's amendment banning gay marriage kept her from enforcing either woman's parental rights.

The appeals court disagreed with the trial judge and sent the case back to her for a child custody hearing.

The February 20 ruling prompted American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn to call for a ballot measure that would ban gay adoptions in the state.

Gay couples in Michigan were allowed to jointly adopt children in Washtenaw

Chiropractic Health Services, Inc.

County but the practice stopped in 2002 after the county's chief judge said such adoptions violated state law.

Hawaii civil union bill may pass

Hawaii Hawaii senators may take the extraordinary step of bringing civil union for same-sex couples up for a full Senate vote even though they failed to get approval in a committee vote on February 24.

The six members of the Senate Judiciary Committee split 3-3, which would not be enough to keep the bill alive without help.

The Democrat-controlled 25-member Senate would only need one-third of its members to vote to recall the bill from the committee, essentially neutralizing the committee's ability to stop the bill with a tie

vote.

Several thousand people rallied at the state Capitol against the measure on February 22, equating it with same-sex marriage. A much smaller group gathered the following day in support of the bill, which passed the House. on February 12

The group gathering in support of the bill, however, included a contingent of clergy from a variety of religions and denominations.

At least 18 senators have said they support civil unions, which would be enough to pass and override a potential veto from Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, said Majority Leader Sen. Gary Hooser. Lingle has not stated her position on the bill.

"If a supermajority of the Senate supports the issue, then that's a pretty powerful statement toward moving the issue forward," said Hooser, D-Kauai-Niihau.

Hoover probed Jack Valenti's sex life

Washington, D.C.-Longtime Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti was among the Washington figures whose sex lives were secretly investigated by the FBI in the 1960s.

Valenti, who died in April 2007, was a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 when J. Edgar Hoover's FBI investigated rumors that he was gay, the Washington Post reported February 29, based on agency files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The FBI records show that the Republican Party carried out a similar investigation.

Valenti had been married to Johnson's personal secretary for two years at the time. But he was suspected of having a sexual relationship with a male commercial' photographer friend.

When the FBI initially reported its suspicions to Johnson, the president defended his top aide as "all right." He prevented the bureau from getting a sworn affidavit from Valenti or interviewing the photographer. But days later he relented to an investigation.

When the FBI approached the photographer, he swore that Valenti "never engaged in homosexual activities and he does not have these tendencies," according to the records.

The investigation was apparently abandoned shortly afterward.

Valenti, a Texan who served as a consultant to Vice President Johnson and was in the Dallas motorcade the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, became Johnson's special assistant immediately after he was sworn in as president.

He served Johnson until taking over as chief of the Motion Picture Association of America in 1966. He retired in 2004.

Anti-gay comments halt Utah Senate

Salt Lake City-The Utah state Senate stopped working for about two hours on February 23 as Republicans privately met to discuss a lawmaker's comments that gay people don't have morals and that gay activists are among America's greatest threats.

Not a single bill was debated on the Senate floor that morning, increasing the backlog of bills that may never become law simply because lawmakers will run out of time to approve them before the 45-day session ends.

Republican Sen. Chris Buttars told documentary filmmaker Reed Cowan on January 30 that gay people don't have any morals and he compared LGBT activists to radical Muslims.

In the documentary, Buttars calls the gay rights movement "probably the greatest threat to America." He also says "homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion," adding that same-sex relationships are "abominations."

Last week, Senate President Michael Waddoups removed Buttars from a judiciary committee he chaired. Buttars frequently took pride in using the chairmanship to kill gay equal rights legislation.

Waddoups said he wanted to remove a distraction and wasn't trying to punish Buttars for the comments. Waddoups also said that his colleagues agree with many of Buttars' statements, but has refused to say which statements.

Buttars' comments and his removal from the judiciary committee have created a rift in the Senate Republican caucus, prompting the private meeting. Senate leaders said Buttars wouldn't face any more sanctions and that no position was taken on the issue during their meeting.

Buttars' comments first aired the previous week on the Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX and a copyrighted audio clip is posted on its web site.

Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.

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