From Legal Services Corporation

U.S. House cuts off gays

By a vote of 281 to 124 on June 18th, the United States House of Representatives passed an amendment to a funding bill for the Legal Services Corporation which would keep the Corporation from handling any cases involving gay individuals or gay rights.

This is the third time in four years that the House has voted to keep men and women who are gay from having access to Legal Service Corporation assistance. As on the two previous occasions, the anti-gay amendment was introduced by Representative Larry McDonald, a Democrat from Georgia.

Established in 1974, the Legal Services Corporation is an inde-

pendent agency, federally

funded, which provides legal aid for low income individuals involved in civil cases. (The agency does not handle criminal cases.)

McDonald's amendment would prevent Legal Services Corporation funds from being used to "promote, defend, or protect homosexuality."

It would also prevent the Legal Services Corporation from putting into effect a rule it proposed on March 23 that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in its hiring of employees or in its supplying of services.

an issue, whether or not the issue of homosexuality is raised by the gay individuals themselves.

The bill for operating funds for the Legal Services Corporation was still in committee in the U.S. Senate as this issue of HIGH GEAR was going to press. Presi-

dent Reagan has said that he would like the Legal Services Corporation to be scrapped entirely and replaced by a state administered block grant program.

A Republican led effort to send the bill back to committee to have

How Ohio voted

House members from Ohio Johnstown, and Ronald M. Mottl voted as follows: of District 23-Parma.

Voting against the anti-gay McDonald amendment were Tony P. Hall of District 3-Dayton, John F. Seiberling of District 14Akron, Mary Rose Oakar of Dis-

trict 20-Cleveland, and Louis

Stokes of District 21-Cleveland. Seiberling was one of those who spoke against the McDonald amendment on the floor.

Stokes, incidentally, is the only Member of Congress from Ohio listed among 55 co-sponsors of House Resolution HR 1454: The Civil Rights Amendments Act of 1981, the federal gay rights bill that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

With the exceptions of Thomas A. Luken of District 2-Cincinnati and Dennis Eckhart of District 22-Euclid, who were recorded as not voting, all other House Representatives from Ohio voted yes--including J. William Stanton of District 11-Painesville, John M. Ashbrook of District 17-

The amendment would effectively prevent any gay individuals from being assisted by the Legal Services Corporation in any civil cases in which homosexuality is All local baths raided

Toronto police bashing gays

Reprinted with permission of GAY COMMUNITY NEWS, 22 Bromfield Street, Boston, MA. 02108

By Joanne Brown TORONTO, Ontario -On June 16 the Toronto police raided two more gay bath houses, the Back Door Gym and the International Steam Bath,

apparently undaunted by the public outrage generated over police raids on February 5 in which more than 250 men were arrested as found-ins.

In these latest raids on the only two gay bath houses in the city that were not hit in the February raids, 21 men were arrested as found-ins. The most recent arrests bring the total to 337 men

facing charges as found-ins in a "bawdy-house," defined under the Canadian Criminal Code as a

in a spontaneous outburst of rage at the violent manner in which police conducted raids on

the five baths.

The demonstration on June 20 was equally high-pitched. At 10 p.m. the crowd heard speakers Dan Healey of the Right to Privacy Committee, Chris Bearchel! of the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario and writer for Toronto gay monthly The Body Politic and Reverend Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church. During the speeches police threatened to turn off the sound system if rally organizers did not clear the streets of protestors. This turned out to be an empty threat.

As marchers arrived at a major downtown intersection, a spontaneous sit-down began and they occupied the spot for a short time, after which the march place resorted to for the pur-resumed. By now the march had poses of prostitution or the pracattracted a group of queertice of acts of indecency. bashers who ran alongside taunt-

The June 16 raids spurred a

late-night demonstration, with 2000 gays and lesbians meeting

at the familiar Yonge and Wellesley intersection. A similar dem

Constration happened at midnight on February 6, when 3000 gays on and lesbians clashed with police

Ashbrook, a Republican, has announced that he intends to run for Senator from Ohio next year against Howard Metzenbaum.

legal aid for the poor transferred to jurisdiction of the states was defeated by a vote of 221 to 165, mostly along party lines. The U.S. House is currently controlled by Democrats.

Conservative critics have complained that the seven year old Legal Services Corporation, once a major element of the government's war on poverty, is used by politically active staff lawyers to promote liberal

causes.

The 245 to 137 vote by which funding for the Corporation for two more years passed the House on June 18 indicates strong continuing support for the Corporation, but it is below the

A Congressional first

AUGUST 1981HIGH GEAR Page 3

two thirds margin that would be needed to override a presidential veto.

McDonald's anti-gay amendment was one of several measures designed to cut back Legal Services Corporation activities and expenses.

House members also agreed to bar the Corporation from using federal funds for abortion related lawsuits in which the mother's life is not immediately endangered and for most cases involving undocumented aliens.

The budget passed by the House for the Corporation for 1981 and 1982 is $241 million per year--25 per cent below current funding.

McDonald anti-gay amendment gets 2 hour House debate

For the first time the rights of American citizens who are gay have been discussed at length on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The June 18 vote in the House, to keep funds from the Legal Services Corporation from being spent on cases involving gay individuals, was preceded by two hours of debate. Republicans as well as Democrats spoke out against the amendment introduced by Congressman Larry McDonald from Georgia.

Of 17 Members of Congress who took part in the debate, only McDonald himself spoke in behalf of his amendment.

As on two previous occasions when McDonald introduced amendments to restrict the use of the Legal Services Corporation by men and women who are gay, his amendment was at first rejected by an untallied voice vote and passed only after McDonald demanded a recorded roll-call vote.

According to a front page news story by Margot Hornblower in the June 19 issue of the Washington Post, "a hush fell over the chamber" when Congressman Wynch Fowler Jr., a Democrat from Georgia, was speaking.

Said Congressman Fowler, "The amendment is simply unconstitutional on its face."

"Let us invent a preposterous example of what could happen

under this amendment. Let us suppose that a Member of Congress in a public building on the Capitol Grounds was accused of homosexuality and that his accused partner was an indigent. If the McDonald amendment passes, the Member of Congress could purchase any and all legal ing the protesters. council and defend himself or More speeches were made herself against that charge. The outside the Jarvis Street police indigent accused partner would Station and protesters burned. be prohibited in any civil court, in effigies of Police Chief Ackroyd any manner, contrary to the U.S. and Attorney General Roy Constitution in the 5th and the (Continued on page six) 44th amendments, of having

legal representation by the Legal Services Corporation."

Fowler seemed to be referring to two recent, widely publicized scandals involving conservative Republicans who were House Members.

Robert F. Bauman, a Congressman from Maryland, lost his seat in last year's election after being arrested for purchasing the sexual services of a sixteen year old male. John Hinson, a Republican from Mississippi, resigned his House seat earlier this year after being arrested in a restroom of the House of Representatives Office Building for performing fellatio on a black Congressional aide. Welss's attempt

Before the final vote on McDonald's amendment, Representative Ted Weiss, a Democrat from New York, a chief co-sponsor of the National Gay Rights Bill, introduced an amendment to the amendment which would have restored the provision about using funds for gay cases to what it is currently in the Legal Services Corporation Act as passed last year.

McDonald's amendment says that Legal Services Corporation funds shall not be used for any cases that seek to "defend or protect the practice of homosexuality." Weiss's amendment would have struck out the words "defend or protect" and would have inserted in place of them the words "the legalization of."

The Weiss amendment was defeated by a vote of 245 to 151. A news story by Lou Chibbaro on the front page of the June 26 issue of the Washington Blade

quotes Steve Endean, Director of the Gay Righs National Lobby as saying, "Although I'm disappointed we lost, I think it was the most significant thing that has happened in Congress concern ing gay rights

The vote on Weiss's amendment, said Endean, is the "true litmus test" of how strong support is for gay rights in the House.

"A hundred and fifty one votes is a record number of votes for a pro-gay position," he said. Anti-McDonald Republicans

According to Endean, the biggest surprise in the floor debate over the McDonald amendment was the vigorous opposition to it expressed by five Republicans.

Representative Jim Leach, Republican from lowa, told his house colleagues during the debate, "I am concerned that the McDonald amendment, which prevents an attorney from advocating all a client's legal rights, interferes with the ethical obligation to represent a client fully within the law...I am concerned that passage of the McDonald amendment implies handicapping some and not others and that by thus upsetting the competitive adversarial balance the Congress will be unleashing an arrow into the heart of a legal system founded on the principle of equal protection of fundamental

human rights for all."

Representative Tom Railsback, Republican from Illinois, followed Leach on the floor, saying, "I think that it takes a great deal of courage on his part to make the statement that he has made and I think that he is absolutely right."

EDITOR'S NOTE: You can read the entire House debate on the anti-gay McDonald amendment in the Congressional Record for June 18, 1981. See pages H 3073 through H 3086. We suggest that you go to a library, read those pages, and then write to your local Member of Congress to tell him or her that you have read them.

Don't hesitate to send your opinions to HIGH GEAR.