/In
1
1
"W
]S
AI penrose loses a couple more
W hether we can call it a groundswell of
support for a boycott is debatable, but we do
keep hearing that more businesses are can
celling their Alpenrose accounts; the latest
being Mature s and Earthquake Ethel’s. Both
businesses cancelled for the same reason
that com pelled the people at Foodfront to do
so. Carl Cadonau's hom opnobia.
Portland's G ay Games II
team s in training
Approxim ately forty gays and lesbians
fro m Portland have joined various teams and
are in training for the upcom ing Gay Games II
to be held in San Francisco August 9-17.
Gay Games II will feature com petition in 18
sports, spectacular opening and closii iy
ceremonies, and an array of gay cultural
events.
D ubbed “Procession o f the Arts," 25 diffe
rent events will showcase the talents of the
lesbian and gay com m unity in such fields as
m usic, opera, art, poetry, literature, dance
and film , which begins August 1 and con
tinues through August 17.
Organizers of Gay Games II expect about
3,000 athletes in com petition which is about
double the number of participants in the 1982
games.
General inform ation about Gay Games II
m ay be obtained by writing Gay Games II,
52 6 Castro S treet San Francisco, CA 94117
or calling (415)861-8282.
Desert Hearts breaks out
KOIM Center Cinema’s first big h it Desert
Hearts, has set a record in audience attend
ance at the new multi-screen complex.
Desert Hearts, the story of a love affair
between two women in Reno during the late
1950s, drew sell-out crowds during the first
three weeks of its extended run. “25% over its
nearest com petitor" reported a spokesman
for the Seven Gabies chain, owners of the
KOIN Center complex.
Penny vs The Rank & File:
Stan Peters, Prop.
Penny Harrington was newly minted; she
had just been appointed Chief of the Portland
Police Bureau. One of her first acts was to
alter the image of the man on the beat, or as
she put it: “ If they look like Marines, they’re
going to act like Marines."
Mot long after Ms. Harrington made that
statement, I happened to witness the
following:
Scene: A Tri-Met bus ( 14-Hawthorne)
Characters: Stan Peters (Police union
president) accompanied by several others re
sem bling Marines in mufti.
Stan Peters reaches into his Marine Corps
gym bag, pulls out his Marine Corps baseball
cap and says, “So she doesn't want us to look
like Marines, huh? Well, I got mine."
Stan flashes a Marine Corps grin as he
shows off the Marine Corps tie tack resting on
What's » • • • * •
going • • • • • <
on
here?
by Jay Brown
his portly belly.
Sexism is what’s going on here.
Too bad Penny Harrington didn’t use the
same weapon against the "rank & file" (read
Police Union: Stan Peters, Prop.) that was
used against her and her husband: the spectre
o f involvem ent with illegal drugs.
Portland’s Bureau of Police has been
plagued for years with scandals in its drug
investigative unit (rem em ber Scott I>»npe
for instance?) When Harrington reorganized
the drug division, she didn’t take that extra
step and order drug tests for the personnel
under her com m and.
D rug testing o f police personnel is som e
thing new, but not so new that Penny Harring
ton was ignorant of its implem entation in
Boston several m onths ago. The law enforce
m ent com m un ity in this country being what it
is, she surely m ust have known that the Mew
York City Police Commissioner, Benjamin
Ward, had ordered mandatory drug testing
for current and prospective members of its
Organized Crim e Control Bureau, which in
cludes the narcotics division.
And on the same day that Ward recom
m ended random testing for all police under
his com m and, the FBI and the Drug Enforce
m ent Adm inistration announced that both
agencies had begun widespread programs
o f testing o f new employees for drug abuse:
the program s will eventually also require
urinalysis for random ly selected seasoned
FBI and D E ^ agents.
Maybe Mayor Bud Clark will take a closer
look at the obvious “drug problem ” in the
Portland Police Bureau when he appoints the
next Chief o f Police and require that testing
for drug abuse be administered where it
w ould really do some good: to the “ rank &
file" of the Portland Police Bureau.
Justice prevails?
A Mew York State court, in unanimous de
cision, recently ordered Roy M. Cohn disbar
red, calling his conduct in four legal matters
"unethical," "unprofessional,” and
“ reprehensible."
Cohn, who rose to prom inence and politi
cal influence with his work for Senator Joseph
R. McCarthy in the 1950s, can no longer
practice law before state courts or provide
clients with legal advice about matters before
Mew York State courts.
At present, Cohn and his partner, Thomas
A. Bolan, are very close to Ronald Reagan
and are said to influence the selection of CIS
governm ent officials, including judges.
NGRA hits insurance industry
National Gay Rights Activists (MGRA) has
been very busy of late and insurance c o m
panies are feeiing the brunt of their efforts.
MGRA recently filed a com plaint with the
California Departm ent of Insurance on behalf
o f Edward Miller o f San Diego after North
Am erican Life & Casualty Company hired a
private agency to investigate his "m orals"
and living arrangem ent with another man
when Miller applied for a small life insurance
policy. Following the investigation, North
Am erican dem anded that Miller undergo
“ HTLV-III screening.” The com plaint names
both the insurance com pany and Hooper-
Holm es investigating agency: Hooper-
Holm es subm itted an investigative report to
N orth Am erican in which th$y noted that a
“ residential inform ant (Miller's neighbor) felt
that applicant was a little too close to his
partner."
Earlier MGRA and the Em ploym ent Law
Center o f the Legal Aid Society of San
Francisco filed the nation’s first m ajor lawsuit
challenging the AIDS-related underwriting
practices o f a health insurance company.
The com pany, Great Republic Insurance
Company, has published underwriting guide
lines which target unmarried males, in stereo
t y p ic a l gay occupations, for discrimination.
The E m ploym ent Law Center and MGRA
contend that these guidelines violate both the
California insurance code and the state's civil
rights laws, which forbid arbitrary discrim ina
tion by business establishments.
The lawsuit, HGRA u. Great Republic, has
been filed on behalf of the members of Na
tional Gay Rights Advocates and David Hurl-
bert, a resident of San Francisco. Hurlbert
was rejected by Great Republic after he re
fused to fill out their supplemental question
naire. The s u it filed in San Francisco Superior
Court, dem ands $ 100,000 in damages for
pain and suffering and $ 10 million in punitive
damages. The suit also demands that Great
Republic be permanently enjoined from dis-
LaRouche initiative
qualifies in California
An initiative backed by followers of political
outcast Lyndon LaRouche that could help
spread the AIDS epidem ic by making people
afraid to seek medical help or tests has been
certified by the California Secretary of State
and will appear on the November ballot in
that state.
The initiative, signed by more than
443,000 eligible voters, would require health
officials to quarantine thousands of people
suspected of exposure to the AIDS virus as
crim inating against applicants for health in
surance on the basis of gender, marital status
and sexual orientation.
MGRA has also recently published the
AIDS Practice Manual: A Legal and Educa
tional Guide. The manual offers instruction
and sample form s for lawyers to use when
dealing with the special legal problems faced
by persons with AIDS or ARC. The publica
tion is a joint project with the San Francisco
Chapter of the Anti-Sexism Comm ittee of the
National Lawyers Guild. The manual includes
chapters on such issues as wills, employment
discrim ination, and the military.
The manual can be purchased for $ 10
(including postage and handling) by writing
MGRA at 540 Castro St.. San Francisco, CA,
94114. It is designed for a three-ring binder,
and additional chapters and updates will be
published in the future. MGRA is a non-profit
public interest law firm which deals with gay
civil rights issues and has a fully staffed AIDS
Civil Rights Project The Anti-Sexism C om
mittee of the San Francisco Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild is an organization of
lawyers, legal workers, and law students
com m itted to working on issues impacting
wom en and gay people.
Kimble Pendleton Mead,
thank you.
The drawing for the cover of Just O ut’s
June 1986 issue was a gift from Kimble
Pendleton Mead, a gay artist who lives in
Brooklyn, MY. We hope he accepts this be
lated note of appreciation.
Thanks, Kimble, you made our month.
Credit where credit is due
Just O ut wishes to credit Ina Cohen, Art
C oordinator of Gay C om m unity Mews, for
inspiration for the illustration in our tribute to
Sim one de Beauvoir and Jean Genet in our
May 1986 issue.
well as people already diagnosed with the
disease.
The measure, which has been denounced
by the California Medical Association, would
require blood testing on anyone suspected of
carrying the HTLV-III virus, requires that the
test results be reported to state authorities
and bar people with positive test results from
working in schools, restaurants, and the
health field.
Since scientists do not believe that AIDS is
spread by casual contact or through the air
the LaRouche initiative "serves no public
health or health care purpose at all," said a
California Medical Association spokesperson.
B etter H ealth C h ir o p r a c tic C l in ic
“A Total Personal H ealth Concept”
X?
dki
Rena Sandler. D.C.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spinal realignment
Non-force techniques
Nutrition/Prevention
Massage/Kinesiology
Physical therapy
Sports medicine
1130 S W M o rris o n , Ste. 301
222-2888
Doctor on page for emergencies
œ
W orker’s C om p & Auto Injuries Cover C h iro p ra ctic C are
Insurance A c c e p te d
Just Out July, 1986
5