National unity aim of
Lesbian/Gay Pride conference
Beginning with an inspiring welcome by
Harry Hay, co-founder of the Mattachine
Society, and ending with the adoption of a
national theme for Lesbian and Gay Pride
1984, U n ity and More in 84, the Second
Annual Pride Coordinators National Confer
ence held in San Diego on October 8-9 was
an exercise in unity in diversity.
Fifty-three gay men and lesbians, repre
senting LGP coordinators from eighteen
cities spent two days in workshops and dis
cussions sharing information and ideas on
community involvement across the nation.
According to Daniel Dallabrida, a member
of the Portland Lesbian and Gay Pride steer
ing committee who attended the conference,
LGP activities range from the mainly cele
bratory Gay Pride Festival in Los Angeles to
the clearly political march and rally held an
nually in Boston. Dallabrida said that those
which are celebratory have very little political
participation and those that are political have
minimal business participation. Some, like
New York City and Minneapolis have
successfully managed to combine both poli-
tics and business. The consensus of the
conference participants was that "each com
munity needs to decide for itself. Lesbian and
Gay Pride reflects each city. It reflects the
people who work on LGP in that city,"
Dallabrida said.
A major concern of the conference is the
impact Lesbian and Gay Pride will have in the
summer of 1984. San Francisco is the site of
the Democratic Party's national convention
commencing two weeks after LGP week and
the International Olympic Games will be held
the same time as the LGP festival in Los
Angeles. “(We will] court the media to get as
much mileage as possible,” Dallabrida said.
A very important factor which elicited gen
eral agreement among the conference parti
cipants is registration of eligible voters
pursuant to the national elections in 1984.
National unity and the use of LGP will have a
major impact in 1984. Lesbians and gay men
have clout and need to use it, we need to
participate in electoral politics and we need to
work together. Unity and More in '84.
G ay Eagle Scout wins appeal
An appeals court in Los Angeles ruled, on
O c t 3, that “using the status of homosexual
ity as a basis of expulsion is substantively
arbitrary” and that the Boy Scouts of America
must show "a rational connection between
homosexual conduct and any significant
danger of harm to the association” before
they can expel a gay member.
The court decision allows Timothy Curran,
21, of Berkeley, Califonria, expelled from the
Boy Scouts in 1980, to pursue his $330,000
lawsuit against the Boy Scouts in Los Angeles
Superior Court Curran, who made no secret
of his sexual preference, was a member of
the Boy Scouts for five years. "It’d be difficult
for the Scouts to prove I’m immoral,” Curran
said. “They made me an Eagle Scout, gave
me the Order of the Arrow. They've gone to
great lengths to prove how moral I am."
In November, 1980, Curran asked to attend
a summer jamboree, but Quentin Alexander,
executive of the Mount Diablo Council of Boy
Scouts, told him that he could no longer be a
Boy Scout because he was gay. “We said we
cannot accept an application if this is some
one's lifestyle,” Alexander said last week.
Body Politic
wins case
Six years ago The Body Politic, Canada's
gay magazine, was prevented by the Attorney
General from publishing an article on gay
male pedophilia.
On September 14th, after having spent
more then $ 100,000, the Body Politic won
the case lodged against them. The proceed
ings resulted from an article, "Men Loving
Boys Loving Men,” published in 1977.
Attornery General Roy McMurtry declined
to appeal the case, but said that he only feared
the possible toleration by law of sexual abuse
of children. County Court Judge Patricia R.
German ruled that the article was “not beyond
the tolerance of the community.” Later
McMurtry denied that his government was
harassing the gay publication.
Just Out, Oct 28-Nov 11,1983
Curran, whose Scoutmaster called him an
exemplary "all-American boy," was featured
in local newspaper articles describing, among
other things, the night he took a male date to
his senior prom, during his tenure in the Boy
Scouts.
After expulsion Curran took his case to the
American Civil Liberties Union, which sued
the Mount Diablo Council. The suit, which
claimed that the Boy Scouts is a “business
establishment” argued that Curran’s rights
under both the U.S. Constitution and the
Unruh Civil Rights Act, which extends civil
rights to private businesses, had been
infringed.
Jim Tarr, chief scout executive for Boy
Scouts of America, intends to appeal the Los
Angeles court ruling. “We just don’t think
parents want homosexuals in the troops."
Tarr said. Homosexuality is "ethically and
morally a wrong example for young people,”
and predicted that churches of "all denomi
nations" would cease sponsoring troops that
admitted overt gays. And, in the meantime,
the Scouts will contiue to exclude gays.
Quaalude
restriction
reviewed
In response to a recent challenge concern
ing the medical drug methaqualone (com
monly known as quaalude), Federal officials
stated they saw no need to restrict its market
use.
Representative Henry A Waxman, Cali
fornia Dem ocrat Chairman of the House
Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on
Health, argued that he felt the abuse potential
of methaqualone outweighed its therapeutic
value.
Federal officials then responded by saying
they would not oppose the legislation which
would remove the drug from the legitimate
market, that is if Congress did not advise
them to.
Supreme Court to rule on anti-gay law
Early this month the U.S. Supreme Court
agreed to decide whether a New York law
used to prevent gay people from gathering in
public places is unconstitutional.
The court will hear an appeal by prose
cutors in Buffalo, N.Y., from a ruling by the
New York Court of Appeals striking down the
law. The justices will hear arguments next
year, probably early next spring, and will
announce their decision by next July.
The provision under review by the court
prohibited loitering for the purpose of engag
ing in sodomy. The New York court voided
the law because it had previously ruled that
the state may not prohibit sexual behavior
conducted in private between consenting
adults.
During the past two decades, the Supreme
Court has ruled that a right to privacy implicit
in the U.S. Constitution protects the right of
an individual to use birth control devices, to
keep obscene material at home or to have an
Studded
wristbands
confiscated
On September 9th in Boston, Massa
chusetts, a young man riding on his
motorcycle was stopped by a state police
trooper. After examining Keith Nordin's
license and registration papers, officer Robert
Krom confiscated his studded leather
watchband, read him his rights and booked
him on possession of a dangerous weapon.
The controversial bill making studded
leather wristbands illegal was filed by
Massachusetts State Representative Michael
Flaherty, an outspoken opponent of gay rights
legislation. When asked FHaherty could not
remember filing the bill, and believed he had
done so at the request of law enforcement
lobbyists.
In Canada, a similar law caused custom
officials to confiscate a wristband belonging
to singer Grace Jones; she was not, however,
arrested.
abortion in the early months of pregnancy.
The justices, however, have repeatedly
resisted all suggestions that they review
whether state sodomy laws violated the right
to privacy. The New York case will be the first
time the court will review the question.
The New York prosecutors who urged the
court to hear the case argued that even if
states may not prohibit acts of sodomy in
private they may still make it illegal to meet in
public and arrange to engage in sodomy. The
court may rule only on the validity of a “loiter
ing" law without deciding whether gay people
are protected by a right to privacy.
The New York Court of Appeals ruled "the
object of the loitering statute is to punish
conduct anticipatory to the act of consentual
sodomy.” Because the state court had previ
ously ruled that bans on sodomy are uncon
stitutional, It reasoned that the loitering law is
also unconstitutional.
,
A cceptable
conduct queried
in California
In a trial scheduled next year in Los Angeles,
issues concerning "public romance” will be
debated. The proceedings, resulting from a
recent sex discrimination suit, will explore the
fine line between what is socially acceptable
beyond what is actually lawful.
In a pretrial proceeding, Superior Court
Judge Bruce Geenaert stated that although
two women had indeed been refused service
in a "couples only" restaurant, “society gen
erally has different modes of acceptable con
duct for homosexuals in public." He went on
to add, "Homosexuals choose their lifestyle;
they are not bom with it" Geenaert thought
that although blacks were granted rights in
the 1960s, he sees no parallel between their
group and gay people.
U.S. court rules gays
"psychopathic personalities”
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New Orleans ruled on September 28, that
gay people have psychopathic personalities
and may be denied U.S. citizenship even if
immigration officials do not obtain medical
certificates specifying sexual deviation. The
ruling was in apparent contradiction to a rul
ing earlier in the month by a different appeals
court
The court’s opinion that a man living in
Dallas, Texas cannot become a naturalized
citizen seems to conflict with a ruling by the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco
which stated that such Public Health Service
certificates must be obtained before gay
immigrants could be denied citizenship.
In a 2-1 split the three judge panel of the
New Orleans court held that Richard Long-
staff was unlawfully admitted as a permanent
resident in 1965 when he wrote “No" when
asked if he had "ever been afflicted with
psychopathic personality, epilepsy, mental
defect, fits, fainting spells, convulsions or a
mental breakdown.”
The court’s opinion said that Congress
intended the term “psychopathic personal
ity" to include homosexualiy and since Long-
staff was unlawfully admitted, he cannot
become a naturalized citizen.
Since 1979, the Public Health Service has
refused to examine incoming aliens in regard
to homosexuality, contending that it is not a
medical condition that can be diagnosed.
In 1979, the surgeon general announced
that the service would no longer consider
homosexuality a mental disease or defect
because medical standards classify homo
sexuality as simply a form of sexual behavior,
not by itself a psychotic disorder.
Following the New Orleans court ruling,
the National Gay Rights Advocates, a San
Francisco-based public interest law firm that
specializes in gay rights cases, said it may
appeal the decision to the Supreme Court
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