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national briefs
W ASHINGTON, D.C.
Part o f President Bush's conservative Chris
tian coalition is pressuring him to attack homo
sexuality as part of a broader effort to place
Republicans on the side of “traditional family
values” in the 1992 campaign. Some Christian
coalition members, feel the issue of homosexual
ity is more important to them than the issue of
abortion. They expressed outrage when Bush, in
response to Barbara Walters's question about hir
ing homosexuals, said “We have no litmus test on
that question here, and there aren’t going to be
any.” Their “sense of betrayal” was not assuaged
by Bush's reiteration of his support for a ban on
homosexuals in the military. Bush has also told
The New YorkTimes that gay and lesbian parents
are “not...normal” and “to glamorize lifestyles
that are in my view not the normal lifestyles, I
don’t approve of that.”
▼ T ▼
The National Commission on AIDS, a bipar
tisan panel appointed jointly by Congress and the
White House, criticized the Bush administration
for having failed the nation by its poor leadership
in combating the AIDS epidemic. “President
Bush and the Department o f Health and Human
Services have failed to meet fully their responsi
bilities in leading the national response to the
monumental human suffering and economic loss
from the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” the statement
noted.
▼ ▼ ▼
The General Accounting Office, an indepen
dent investigating office of the U.S. Congress, has
published a 78-page report, followed by a 68-
page statistical index, that indicates that the De
partment of Defense has spent millions-$27 m il
lion in 1990 alone-in order to enforce its ban o f
gays and lesbians in the military. Between 1980
and 1990, 16,919 service members were dis
missed from the military for homosexuality, at a
cost of $493,195,968 to replace them.
CALIFORNIA
Southern California Women for Understand
ing, founded 16 years ago to gather lesbians to
educate and promote social change, has changed
its name and gone national. Now called the
National Association of Women for Understand
ing, the group is the largest of its kind in the world,
with chapters throughout southern California, as
well as a national chapter in Delaware. NAWU
encourages networking with and support for other
groups and organizations. For more information.
contact Beverly Taylor, National Coordinator, at
1-800-OK WOMEN.
T ▼ T
Amnesty International has released a report
accusing Los Angeles police officers and sheriffs
deputies of using excessive force that sometimes
amounts to torture. Former Chief Daryl Gates
d ism isse d the critic ism as com ing from
“knucklehead liberals.” The 62-page report listed
numerous cases of people, often blacks and His-
panics, being shot, beaten, shocked with stun
guns and attacked by police dogs, although they
posed little or no threat to arresting officers or
deputies.
▼ T T
A Navy board unanimously recommended
discharging a sailor who revealed his homosexu
ality on national news. Petty Officer Keith
Meinhold, 30, said, “I was aware the first time I
opened my mouth that there was a probability of
sacrificing my career.” Timing his announce
ment with the introduction of a bill in Congress to
end the military ban on homosexuality, Meinhold,
who has received high performance evaluations
throughout his 12-year career, said he intends to
file a civil suit against the Navy asserting that it
violated his constitutional right to equal protec
tion under the law.
FLORIDA
Conserv ative attacks on pro-gay ordinances in
four Florida cities appear to be organized right-
wing assault on anti-bias protections. Spear
headed by the Tupelo, Miss.-based American
Family Association, the campaign has succeeded
in persuading the Gainesv ille City Commission to
pass a resolution condemning gay-rights guaran
tees, convinced a Tampa judge to submit that
city’s ban on anti-gay discrimination to a referen
dum on the general election ballot, limited the
area covered by an anti-gay bias ban in
Hillsborough County and attempted to block the
use of a Tallahassee public library room by the
Tallahassee Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
ILLIN O IS
The Chicago Tribune has joined the list of
mainstream papers outing Assistant Secretary of
Defense Pete Williams, the Pentagon’s closeted
chief spokesman, by reporting on The Advocate's
1992 “Sissy Awards,” the magazine’s annual
send-up o f homophobes. Williams, whom The
Advocate exposed last year as being gay, supports
the military ban on gays and lesbians in the armed
services.
MASSACHUSETTS
U.S. Customs officials in the past three months
seized two separate shipments of literature en
route to Boston’s Glad Day bookshop, a gay and
lesbian bookseller. Following the first seizure of
materials in its 13-year history, Glad Day re
ported that customs officials said the literature,
including a gay guide to Spain, was in violation of
an obscenity provision in the U.S. code.
M ICHIGAN
A man ended his long and bitter dispute with
the lesbian couple who lived next door by shoot
ing the women to death in their own driveway.
Susan Pittman and Christine Puckett were killed
May 5 as they were building a fence along the
driveway. A 65-year-old man, James Brooks,
was arrested and charged with the crime, which
reportedly stemmed from a quarter-century of
sour relations between the neighbors over prop
erty lines, pets and the women’s open displays of
affection. According to Susan’s niece, “He was
always complaining about something. He was
always threatening to shoot my aunt.” She said
the women had often complained to police in the
past, but “they would always say there was noth
ing they could do until he did something. Well, he
did something.”
The Detroit News
MONTANA
Montana activists are attempting to repeal the
state’s “sexual deviate misconduct” law which
bars sexual contact or sexual intercourse between
two persons of the same sex and carries a sentence
of 10 years and/or a fine of $50,000. Activists are
encouraged to send statements opposing the law
and donations in support of the effort to: Montana
W om en’s Lobby, 101 E Broadway, #601,
Missoula, MT 59802, phone: (406) 549-4466.
NEW YORK
The publishing industry has recognized the
economic potential of books by and about gay
men and lesbians. Once restricted to specialty
bookshops and presses, now virtually every ma
jor publisher offers at least one overtly gay or
lesbian title in its catalogues, and book clubs offer
lesbian and gay titles as featured selections. Book
sellers and publishers have noted that the gay and
lesbian literary market has grown. Marketing
techniques have also spurred growth, with pub
lishers promoting the lesbian and gay theme of
books, rather than trying to hide it.
▼ ▼ ▼
nounced the creation o f the Stonewall History
Project, a collaborative effort of the Brooklyn
Historical Society, the M useum o f the City of
New York, the New York Historical Society, the
New York Public Library and the Center for
Lesbian andGay Studies o f the City University of
New York. Said Dinkins: “The Stonewall riots
represent a watershed event in the gay and lesbian
struggle to attain their long overdue civil and
human rights. The riots will serve as a point of
entry into the larger history of lesbians and gays
in New York.” Materials ranging as early as the
colonial period will be included. For information
about donating materials, call Project Director
Fred Wasserman, (718) 624-0890.
▼ T ▼
Four members of ACT UP invited themselves
to a Park Avenue “ icebreaker” to heckle Oregon’s
57-member delegation to the Democratic con
vention in New York. A spokesperson from ACT
UP told Associated Press that they were targeting
12 states for protest during the convention be
cause of their poor records on gay rights.
Specifically, the gay protestors were critical
of the Oregon Citizen Alliance’s proposed “ab
normal behaviors ” amendment to the state con
stitution and Oregon’s new plan to experiment
with health-care rationing. The gay protestors
asserted that the health-care plan would treat
people with AIDS, women and children unfairly.
Members of the delegation did not say any
thing in defense of the conservative OCA or their
anti-gay ballot measure. However, the delegates
met later with protestors to clarify specifics about
the Oregon health plan. Proponents believe the
plan will extend basic coverage to those who
presently have no health care at all, instead of
offering unlimited care to only a portion of the
population.
W A SH IN G TO N STATE
Seattle has adopted an anti-bigotry campaign,
“Summer of Reconciliation and Rededication,”
in response to the Los Angeles riots. The center-
piece of the campaign is a 60-second TV spot that
flashes bigoted epithets across the screen, fol
lowed by the message: “Hatred thrives where
bigotry is tolerated.” Nearly 100 representatives
of diverse minority groups reviewed the ad, which
was produced by Cole and Weber Advertising for
free. Seattle Police Chief Patrick Fitzsimmons
and City Attorney Mark Sidran said hate crimes
will be vigorously pursued and prosecuted.
New York City Mayor David Dinkins an
Compiled by Jim Hunger
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