www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
•
May 8, 2009
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5
newsbriefs
Louisville High School relents, allows male prom date
Louisville, Ohio-Louisville High School quickly changed position and allowed a gay student to bring a male date to prom, after receiving a letter from the American Civil Liberties
Union.
The school, just east of Canton, originally refused to accept the student's application because his date was also male.
The student, according to the ACLU, tried to speak with the administration on several occasions about the situation, but was rebuffed.
However, after receiving the letter from the ACLU, the school reversed itself.
"This is a clear case of discrimination simply because these young people are gay," ACLU of Ohio staff attorney Carrie Davis told the Canton Repository. "Many schools permit groups of students of the same sex to attend proms if their relationship is platonic, but Louisville officials have banned this student because he is in a same-sex relationship."
She also pointed out that in most cases where incidents like these go to court, the judges find in favor of the students.
$491K award for TG job bias
Washington, D.C.-A federal judge awarded a former Army Special Forces commander nearly $500,000 because she was rejected from a job at the Library of Congress while undergoing a gender change from man to woman.
Diane Schroer of Alexandria, Va., applied for the terrorism analyst job in 2005 while still a man named David Schroer. He was offered the job, but the offer was pulled after he told a library official that he was having surgery to change his gender.
U.S. District Judge James Robinson ruled April 28 that Schroer was entitled to $491,190 in back pay and damages because of sex discrimination.
Schroer said she was happy with the judgment but more importantly that the judge recognized her treatment as job discrimination. She said it's a problem many transgendered people face.
"They are hugely underemployed, at best," Schroer said. "If they are fortunate enough to get something, it's well below their capabilities. It's not just about money, it's about knowing you are a valuable person."
of
The Library of Congress and the Justice Department argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act. A Justice Department spokesman said the department had not yet determined whether to appeal.
Schroer is a former U.S. Army colonel who directed a classified group that tracked and targeted terrorists. Schroer retired in 2004 and worked briefly in the private sector before applying for the Congressional Research Service job at the Library of Congress.
After being offered the job, Schroer had lunch with a Library of Congress official and explained the upcoming
surgery. Schroer testified the official called the next day and said the position would not be a "good fit."
Presbyterians nix gay clergy again
Louisville, Ky.-Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Presbyterian Church (USA) have been defeated again, sealed by votes on April 25.
But the margin of defeat the final tally has yet to be determined is already guaranteed to be much closer than in previous years. That is encouraging for gay clergy supporters and concerning to opponents, with both sides expecting the issue to be revisited in the future.
Last summer, the 2.3 million-member denomination's General Assembly voted to drop a constitutional requirement that would-be ministers, deacons and elders live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between and a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."
Any such change requires approval by a majority of the nation's 173 presbyteries, or regional church bodies. Those votes have been trickling in for months, and on Saturday enough "no" votes had been recorded to clinch the measure's defeat.
Before April 25, the total was 68 presbyteries for and 86 opposed, or one shy of the margin needed for defeat, according to Presbyterian News Service, the denomination's official press
arm.
Previous efforts to delete the "fidelity and chastity" provision failed at the presbytery level by votes of 57-115 in 1997-1998 and 46-127 in 2001-2002.
Twenty-eight of the 127 presbyteries that voted no in 2001-2002 have voted in favor of this year's amendment. Many of them were in traditionally conservative states such as Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennes-
see.
One surprising exception was the San Francisco presbytery, which voted
no.
Kelly McGillis comes out
Los Angeles-Top Gun's sexy lead, who led Jodie Foster through the aftermath of a brutal rape in The Accused, is lesbian, she confirmed.
Kelly McGillis, whose most recent on-screen roles have been of a more Sapphic nature, told the internet show Girl Rock! that she faked heterosexuality for years because, during her childhood, "I had a lot of things happen that convinced me that God was punishing me because I was gay," including a 1982 assault and rape in her apartment in New York City.
After roles in the Oscar-nominated Reuben, Reuben and Witness, she was cast as the female lead in Top Gun, alongside Tom Cruise. She also appeared with Jodie Foster in The Accused, for which Foster won the Best Actress Academy Award.
This decade, she starred in the independent film Monkey's Mask, and played a closeted Army colonel in season five of The L Word.
Methodist clergy can't do gay vows
Denver-United Methodist clergy cannot perform same-sex marriages or civil unions, even if their regional
XXXX
church district supports the idea, the denomination's high court ruled.
The Judicial Council said that a church district, or annual conference, cannot "negate, ignore or violate" churchwide discipline, even if they disagree with the policy.
Last year, the top church legislative body, or General Conference, voted to retain its ban on same-sex marriages and bar clergy from performing the ceremonies or consecrating same-gender unions in the church. Pastors who violate the discipline risk losing their clergy credentials.
The council decision, released April 27 after a court meeting in Denver, came in the case of two regional Methodist groups that had issued resolutions supporting clergy who perform same-gender marriages.
The California-Nevada Annual Conference had backed retired pastors who perform the ceremonies. The California-Pacific Conference had recognized "the pastoral need and prophetic authority of our clergy and congregations to offer the ministry of marriage ceremonies for same-gender couples."
Angie Zapata's killer gets life in prison
Greeley, Colo.—A jury on April 22 took two hours to convict Allen Andrade of murdering a transgender teenager.
Andrade was convicted of the murder of Angie Zapata, an 18-year old transgender youth whose head he smashed with a fire extinguisher.
Andrade's defense team claimed the murder was a crime of passion after finding out that the young woman with
Continued on page 7
BOOKSTORE
XXX
WWW.THESEXTOYSTORE.COM
FUNKTION
The larger, more powerful 2009 Scion xB
Experience the Metro difference!
See or Call Jim Greenfield
New & Used Sales & Leasing Toyota and Scion Certified
METRO TOYOTA SCION
mg@metrotoyota com
metrotoyota com
38 Years of
Sales &
Service
Ixcellence!
W. 137th & Brookpark Road OFF 1-480 216-267-7000
Chiropractic Health Services, Inc.
DAVID A. BUDNY, D.C.
16900 DETROIT AVE
LAKEWOOD, OHIO 44107 216-228-6622
Dedicated to your wellness
21+