Just new s
Texas repeals sodomy
statute
Immigration bans
lifted
The ruling came in a test case brought by five gays and
lesbians and a human rights foundation
US. finally welcomes foreign gays and lesbians HIV
positives should be welcome soon as well.
T
▼
,
by Rex Wockner
by Rex Wockner
district court judge in Austin over­
cause, police said, she had a propensity to engage
turned Texas’ “Homosexual Conduct”
in conduct that was against state law.
law Dec. 10, saying it denied gays and
Asked to comment on the ruling, defendant
lesbians constitutional protections of
John Thomas exclaimed, “W ow!”
privacy, due process and equal protection under
“Many reporters asked me if I am surprised at
the law.
this liberal ruling,” Thomas added, “but actually
Seven other states specifically criminalize
I consider it a very conservative ruling.
gay sex and another 17 outlaw oral, anal and
“W hat it says is the governm ent does not
certain other sex acts by anyone.
have a place coming into your private life. This
The ruling by Judge Paul Davis came in a test
ruling allows gay citizens to live lives o f integ­
case brought by five gays and lesbians and the
rity and dignity.”
Texas Human Rights Foundation, a gay legal
Before the trial, state attorney general Jim
agency. Repeal of the statute, section 21.06 of
Maddox told reporters the law was “difficult to
the state penad code, has been an ongoing goal of
defend when it’s never been used and therefore
Texas activists áince 1975, according to Dallas
serves no purpose. It seems there are a lot more
Gay Alliance spokesman W illiam Way bourn.
important laws and cases that could be taking up
“This w on’t change the world overnight,” Way-
our time,” Maddox said.
boum said, “but at least one more blow has been
The state is expected to appeal the ruling,
struck.” The law permitted a maximum penalty
according to THRF spokesman Frank Stenger.
of only a $200 fine for “deviant sexual inter­ The case would go first to an appeals court and
course” between adults of the same sex— specifi­
then to the state Supreme Court.
cally “mouth to genital” and “genital to anal”
“We would just love to get this before the
sex. It had not been enforced in the past 10
Supreme Court,” commented W ayboum. “We
years, but activists say it hurt them in other ways.
have a liberal state Supreme Court.”
Among those who testified at the hour-long trial
The other defendants in the case were Pat
was Mica England, a lesbian who was denied a
Cramer, Tom Doyal, Linda Morales and Char­
position on the Dallas police force last year be­
lotte Taft.
A
ays and lesbians of the world, wel­
come to the United States of Amer-
.
*
tea.
President George Bush signed
the bill on Nov. 29 recently passed
by Congress lifting the 38-year-old ban on
homosexual tourists and immigrants.
And in a few weeks, HIV positives should be
welcome in America as well. They have been
banned from entering our nation since 1987.
Both laws were enforced only sporadically.
But since 1952, all homosexuals were technically
barred from coming to the United States because
they were officially “afflicted with psychopathic
personality...or mental d efect”
And since 1965, foreign gays and lesbians
have been classified as “sexual deviants.”
The ban on HIV positives came into being
three years ago, pushed through Congress by
anti-gay Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.).
Congress and Bush have now instructed the
U.S. Department o f Health and Human Services
to draw up a new list o f contagious diseases that
cannot enter the country, and HIV/AIDS will not
be among them.
In signing the immigration-reform package.
Bush noted: “This act...revises the politically-
related exclusion grounds for the first time since
their enactment in 1952. These revised grounds
lift unnecessary restrictions on those who may
enter the United States. At the same time, they
retain im portant adm inistration checks in the
interest of national security as well as the health
and welfare of U.S. citizens.”
The new regulations also permit more total
immigrants to the U.S. and significantly ease
restrictions on the Irish, European professionals,
Salvadoran refugees, M exicans with relatives
here, and many others.
The repeal of the gay and HIV bans has been
a pet project of gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-
Mass.) for years. He is delighted at his success
and calls it “a sign of progress that we got [the
bans] repealed with so little overt controversy.
The haters...that wanted to keep those things on
the books understood that we just had them out­
gunned,” Frank said.
Robert Bray, spokesman for the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force, called die repeal o f the
bans “the frosting on the cake for gays, lesbians
and people with AIDS at the end of a very sweet
101st Congress.”
Creating Change
NGLTF stages largest gay political conference ever
by Rex Wockner
^
n what was likely the largest gay political
gathering in history, more than 700 activ­
ists from around the nation assembled in
Minneapolis Nov. 9-12 for the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s (NGLTF)
third annual “Creating Change” conference.
An exhaustive schedule o f workshops ad­
dressed everything from outing and gay marriage
to lesbian sex and the battle against fundamental­
ists.
Key speakers included black feminist writer
Barbara Smith; C.T. Vivian, chair of the Center
for Democratic Renewal; and lesbian humorist
Kate Clinton.
A special appearance was made by Roman
Kalinin, founder o f the Moscow Gay and Les­
bian Union, who is on a nationwide tour to gar­
ner support for the emerging Soviet gay move­
m en t
Kalinin said that 800 gay men are imprisoned
each year under the Soviet Union’s sodomy law,
and that the government produces and imports
only enough condoms for each sexually active
male to buy four per year.
The workshop on outing was among the most
I
well-attended. Tim Campbell, publisher o f the
GLC Voice, a Minneapolis gay newspaper, said
it is a matter of journalistic honesty to report the
sexual orientation of public figures who become
involved in gay issues.
Cam pbell also argued that m any closeted
public figures are not really in the closet - as
evidenced by the fact that he has learned they are
gay-
Comedian Robin Tyler stressed, “Safety in
the closet is over and if anybody is here from the
press, say that I said that.”
O uting was aggressively denounced by
Nancy Buermeyer, lesbian rights program direc­
tor for the National Organization for Women.
She said no one ever has the right to make the
coming-out decision for another person.
The overflow audience at the workshop
seemed about evenly split between pro- and anti-
outing positions - again revealing that the issue
is one o f the most contentious in recent gay and
lesbian history.
This year’s conference marked the first time
NGLTF moved the gathering outside W ashing­
ton, D.C.
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