Just out., January 01, 1992, Page 7, Image 7

Juat ou* T January
199
2
▼ 7
national news
Thompson
granted
guardianship of
Kowalski
Karen Thompson and Sharon Kowalski's
eight-year nightmare is over. Now they will live
together, thanks to a Dec. 17 ruling by the Minne-
• sola Court of Appeals.
Kowalski was left brain-damaged and para­
lyzed in 1983 after a car crash. Thompson, her
lover, wanted to care for her but Kowalski’s
parents opposed it, saying she had never told them
she was a lesbian. They placed their daughter in
a nursing home with no physical rehabilitation
facilities, and forbade Thompson to visit
Thompson kept fighting. In 1989, Kowalski
was moved to an institution that offered physical
therapy, and Thompson was allowed to visit her.
Thompson continued her court challenges. By
1990, Kowalski’s father, Donald, had grown weary
of the battle and resigned as his daughter’s
guardian, citing his health and unwelcome press
attention.
A district judge appointed a childhood friend
of Sharon Kowalski’s as her guardian. Thompson
appealed. The Dec. 17 appeals court decision
granted Thompson sole guardians hip of Kowalski.
“Karen and Sharon are a family of affinity, which
ought to be accorded respect,” the three-judge
panel wrote in a unanimous decision. Lower
courts had ignored the fact that Kowalski had
repeatedly communicated that she wanted to live
with Thompson, the court said. And Kowalski’s
doctors had testified that Thompson was the most
qualified candidate for guardian! “It is undisputed
that Thompson is the only person willing or able
to care for Sharon outside an institution,” the
court said.
At a press conference Dec. 17, a tearful
Thompson said, “There aren’t words to express
the hell the system has put us through.” Kowalski
was “visibly moved” when Thompson told her of
the court decision, Thompson said. “Now we
have the freedom to build our lives,”
Gay and lesbian activists hailed the ruling.
The case had become a cause celebre for both gay-
rights campaigners and advocates for the disabled.
“It’s a landmark decision anytime a lesbian couple
is recognized by law as a family,” said Paula
Ettelbrick, legal director of the Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund in New York. “It’s
a significant decision that could be used as a guide
by courts in other states where similar cases are
being initiated.”
Rex Wockner
orientation, men and women alike can undress,
sleep, bathe and use the bathroom without fear or
embarrassment that they are being viewed as
sexual objects,” he wrote.
Experts on sexual behavior generally agree
that the human population cannot be neatly di­
vided into homosexuals and heterosexuals-es-
pecially at the age most young men and women
enter military service. Tens of millions of
American adults have had both types of sex,
studies have shown. '
Steffan’s lawyers from the Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund had sought to remove
Gasch from the case after he called Steffan a
“homo” three times during a hearing. But an
appeals court sided with Gasch, who claimed he
was not homophobic. Lambda will appeal Gasch’s
“absolutely outrageous” ruling, again arguing the
gay ban violates Steffan’s constitutional right to
equal protection under the law.
U.S. Senator Brock Adams from Washington
criticized the ruling saying, “Judge Gasch has
used the AIDS epidemic as a crutch to prop up the
military’s outdated policy. His decision was not
based on Midshipman Joe Steffan’s conduct,
which was exemplary. It was based on pure
prejudice against gay men and lesbians.”
Rex Wockner
Not funny
Derogatory “jokes” about lesbians, one of
them sexually explicit, have landed the two na­
tional political figures who told them in hot water
with gay and lesbian activists.
In the first incident, U.S. Sen. Bob Kerry (D-
Neb.) told a sexually explicit joke about lesbians
at a party function, not realizing that a live C-
SPAN microphone was picking up his comments.
In the second episode, David Beckwith, Vice
President Dan Quayle’s press secretary, told a
lesbian joke at a Bush-Quayle fundraiser.
In response to statements of shock and disap­
pointment from representatives of the gay and
lesbian community, both Kerry and Beckwith
have publicly apologized. Beckwith said he had
actually told his joke purposefully in an attempt to
deflect attention away from the joke told by his
friend Kerry.
tried to shut the festival down a year ago by
Cleary represents a youth who was arrested in
doubling the camp’s rental fee, pjerhaps in re­ June 1990 on charges that he burned two make­
sponse to complaints from nearby residents that shift crosses in an African-American family's
lesbian couples were “opjenly affectionate.” yard.
UAHC officials have called those claims “ridicu­
lous,” and have said their change in policy simply
reflects a decision not to rent the camp to outside Gay graduates
groups.
gather
Hate crim es
debated .
Banning “hate crimes” such as cross-burning,
as reprehensible as they may be, violates the right
of free expression, the Supreme Court was told
this month.
“Political discourse involves outrageousness,”
lawyer Edward J. Cleary said in urging the court
to overturn a St. Paul, Minn., ordinance that bars
displaying a burning cross, Nazi swastika or other
offensive symbols.
Tom Foley, a Ramsey County, Minn., attorney,
defended the ordinance, saying the government
has a compelling interest in preserving public
safety.
"The First Amendment was never intended to
protect an individual who bums a cross in the
middle of the night in a fenced yard of an African-
American family’s home,” Foley said.
Oberlin College in Ohio has become the first
college ever to sponsor a reunion of gay, lesbian,
and bisexual graduates.
The reunion, sponsored by the college ’ s alumni
office, drew 42 graduates from throughout the
U.S. and from as far away as Amsterdam during
the weekend of National Coming Out Day, Oct.
11-13. The oldest graduate in attendance was
from the Class of 1937.
Musica Femina, a flute-guitar duo from Port­
land, was part of the official entertainment for the
event Kristan Aspjen, the flutist, is a 1970 gradu­
ate of Oberlin.
The Oberlin College Lesbian, Gay and Bi­
sexual Alumni Network hopjes to publish a book
of memories and feelings to analyze the “Oberlin
lesbian and gay experience.” The network also
wants to serve as a resource for other colleges and
institutions interested in tapjpring the skills, talent
and expertise of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons
within its organization.
Please Si thank you aren't the only
magic words: When supporting our
ad ve rtise rs mention J u s t Out.
Maximize your profit.
Duke’s tired
Republican presidential candidate David Duke,
the ex-Ku Klux Klansman and failed candidate
for Louisiana governor, says “the gay lifestyle” is
bad for America and he’s tired of seeing it pro­
moted in the media.
Duke answered gay-related questions Dec. 4
as he announced his presidential candidacy at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
M ilitary ban
“I think anybody who commits a violent act or
an illegal act should be prosecuted to the fullest
upheld
extent of the law. I don’t care who those acts are
committed against, whether they are straight
The U.S. military’s ban on gays is proper pjeople or gay pjeople,” Duke said in response to
because gays get AIDS and because gay and questions from Gregory King from the Human
lesbian soldiers would view straight soldiers as Rights Campaign Fund.
“sexual objects,” a federal judge ruled Dec. 9.
“But, frankly,” Duke continued, “I don’t en­
The odd ruling came in the widely publicized case dorse the gay lifestyle. I don’t think that it’s good
of Midshipman Joseph Steffan, who was forced to for the country and I don’t think it’s good for my
resign from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 after children. And I resent that being presented as a
normal lifestyle to my p>eople in the national
he acknowledged that he is gay.
Judge Oliver Gasch of the U.S. District Court media and to my children in the national media.”
Duke also said he suptpxxts U.S. military poli­
for the District of Columbia called the military
gay ban “rational in that it is directed, in part, at cies barring gays and lesbians from service in the
preventing those who are at the greatest risk of armed forces.
dying of AIDS from serving.”
Applicants for military service are tested for
HIV and HIV-positive people are rejected. About Not available
The seemingly liberal Union of American
3,500have been turned down since 1985. Persons
Hebrew
Congregations (UAHC) is refusing to
who test positive after entering the military are
allowed to serve until they become too ill to work. rent a rural Georgia retreat camp to the predomi­
Gasch’s second major argument was also un­ nantly lesbian Southern Women’s Music and
usual. "The quite rational assumption in the Navy Comedy Festival, after seven years of doing so.
Festival producers are charging that the UAHC
is that with no one present who has a homosexual
Ie s-re a l estate can be a
very profitable venture.
We all know that
But at Bridgetown Realty we
believe you can profit in
other ways as well. You can
make your money work for
you by doing business with a
company which returns a
portion of its earnings to the
community.
For over a decade, the agents of
Bridgetown Realty have con­
tributed to many progressive
organizations Some of them
include Cascade AIDS Project,
Amnesty International.
National Organization
for Women, KB(H),
Lesbian Community Project,
Friends of Gail Shibley,
Osbirg, American Civil
Liberties I'nion, Our House,
Right to Privacy PAC.
S o . when you, or a friend, or a co-worker, think about moving, remember us
We sell properties throughout the Portland area, be it city or country,
east or westside.
Know where you are putting your money .
Bridgetown Realty
Red Lion Lloyd Center • 1000 N.F. Multnomah • Portland, Oregon 97232 • (503)
287-9370