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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1992)
just out ▼ d fc tm iM r 1, 1992 ▼ 9 IX J 'W -------------7 between his department and the BS A because the local chapter refused to allow a gay officer to remain as an adviser in the department’s Explorer Scout program. “It breaks my heart to do this,” Efforts by the District of Columbia Police Burgreen said. “However, this department can Department to develop a sensitivity training pro not continue to affiliate with an organization that gram for officers has been ridiculed by commu discriminates against a group of people.” nity leaders as “poorly conceived, inadequate and insulting.” The $50,000 training program was supposed to improve relations between officers Not a military dictatorship and underrepresented people. Minority groups In a precedent-setting move, a federal judge unanimously chose to boycott the program, citing ordered the Navy to reinstate sailor Keith a complete lack of representation and availability. Meinhold, who had been discharged after he “We were outraged,” said Marshall Wong, of the acknowledged that he was gay on national televi Afro-Asian Relations Council. “We had been sion. When Navy officials at first balked at the told time and again that there would be opportu order, Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. demanded that nity for meaningful community input.” they comply, and the Navy backed down. ‘This Although Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly had prom - is not a military dictatorship,” Hatter said. “It is ised a “high-profile” program as part of her not the former Soviet Socialist Republic. Here the “multicultural initiative,” members of the mayor’s ruleoflaw applies to themilitary.” Meinhold was cabinet representing minority groups were not reinstated to his former position the day after consulted or even advised about the program Veterans Day. planning. The company hired to do the training Meinhold’s lawyer, John Maguire, said, “I was given a week to prepare it and not informed think it will have broad ramifications on policy about plans for target group participation until because the Navy has alleged up till now that the after the contract was issued. Officers from presence of gays is disruptive of good order, underrepresented groups were expected to speak morale and discipline.” Many gay-rights activists on discrimination issues, but there are no openly praised Hatter’s ruling but expressed anxiety about gay officers in the D.C. Police Department. ‘They the legal disposition of the case, which could be were asking us to accomplish something in 15 overturned on appeal by the conservative Su minutes that’s impossible to do,” said Tracey preme Court. President-elect Clinton’s promised Conaty, co-chair of Gay Men and Lesbians Op executive order overturning the military’s ban on posing Violence. The training program has con homosexual service members could be impeded tinued without community participation. by such a turn of events. D.C. police sensitivity training falls short Sentiment fnr Hawaiian sovereignty growing A movement is growing among the indig enous Kanaka Maoli people of Hawaii to seek some form of sovereignty, or at least recognition, as the 100th anniversary of the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by U.S. Marines ap proaches. The Native Hawaiian people are the only indigenous group not recognized by the federal government. “We are talking about rec ognition that an illegal action took place, and the idea that native Hawaiians have a right to self- determination,” said Gov. John D. Waihee ID, who is the first governor of Hawaii who is a Hawaiian. “We are talking about issues we dared not discuss 10 years ago,” Waihee said. Over 40 groups have formed to champion the rights of Native Hawaiians. Kalahui Hawaii, or Hawaiian Nation, has 12,000 members and seeks federal recognition similar to that accorded to mainland Native American tribes. The movement is a source of concern for many Hawaiian residents, most of whom trace their ancestry to the U.S. mainland or Asia. Some groups have called for some divestiture of lands, or even outright inde pendence, although most support less extreme goals. Scouts still resist education Two Washington, D.C., men joined the ever growing number of former scouts who have filed discrimination suits against the Boy Scouts of America for being forced out of the organization because they are gay. Roland Pool, 31, and Michael Geller, 30, both Eagle Scouts and mem bers of the Order of the Arrow, scouting’s highest rank, had continued active involvement in the organization until their sexual orientation became known and their memberships subsequently can celed. The American Civil Liberties Union and a local law firm are representing the men in their joint suit, based on the D.C. Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In San Diego, Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced the end of the 30-year agreement International gays seek asylum in United States Increasing numbers of foreign gays and lesbi ans have been using grounds of persecution in their native countries to request asylum in the United States, thus circumventing the U.S. Immi gration and Naturalization Service discrimina tory policies against gays and lesbians. Although the ban on allowing gays and lesbians to enter the country was officially lifted in 1990, the new tactic challenges continuing homophobia by im migration authorities. “Can someone who has an inclination to do something that a majority doesn’t think is right be defined as part of a social group? I think that would be debatable,” said immigra tion service spokesman Rich Kenney, exemplify ing the current agency mindset. Some of the cases involve citizens from coun tries with whom the United States has friendly relations, like Hong Kong, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Russia, causing some embarrassment for the government. According to U.S. immigration law, asylum seekers must prove that they are members of a persecuted “social group” and that their fears of returning home are “well founded.” Julie Dorf, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in San Fran cisco, noted, “Gays and lesbians are migrating to the relative safety of the United States to escape prison, torture and death squads in other coun tries. This strategy can enable us to establish legally that such persecution violates our funda mental human rights.” In one case, a bisexual man from Hong Kong said that, although Hong Kong recently softened its sodomy law, the reabsorption of the port by China in 1997 could mark the beginning of an other period of persecution since Chinese authori ties are known to subject gay men to electroshock, beatings, and “re-education” camps. In another case, a gay man from Guatemala has requested asylum in Seattle, noting that six of his friends in Guatemala were killed because they were gay, and he was imprisoned and tortured on several occasions. In recent years, immigration authori ties in other countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada, have been granting asylum to gays and lesbians. 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