Just out., January 21, 1994, Page 7, Image 7

ju s t o u t ▼ Ja n u a ry 2 1 , 1 0 0 4 T 7
national briefs
ILLIN O IS
An appellate court panel in Chicago has
reversed a lower court’s ruling and restored
liberal visitation rights to a lesbian mother. In a
written decision, the court said that a lower
court’s ruling was flawed and clouded by the
judge’s “homophobic comments and personal
beliefs” when he limited the mother’s visitation
rights saying that the mother could not be trusted
with her son because she is a lesbian. Using
frank language in a decision that many believe
will be very helpful to gay and lesbian parents
throughout the state, the court wrote, “Sexual
orientation is not relevant to a parent’s visita­
tion rights.” The court went on to say that it was
relevant only if it directly harms the child.
MARYLAND
The city government of Baltimore has unani­
mously passed three amendments to the city’s
administrative manual that extend city employee
health benefits to their domestic partners and
their dependents. The amendments also allow
for family leave and leave of absence benefits to
be extended. In doing so, Mayor Kurt Schmokc,
responsible for introducing the resolution, ful­
filled a promise he made to the gay and lesbian
civil right’s group, Baltimore Justice Campaign.
According to a BJC member, the resolution was
passed after a last minute revision that limited
those eligible to be covered to only same sex
couples who are not allowed to marry by law,
therefore limiting the number of workers eli­
gible and the city’s financial liabilities. Domes­
tic partners of the city’s gay and lesbian workers
can enroll in the health plan as of September
1994 with coverage starting January 1995.
MASSACHUSETTS
After a few revisions and a somewhat pro­
tracted trip through the Boston City Council’s
bureaucracy, an ordinance that will allow the
city’s lesbian, gay and unmarried heterosexual
couples to register with the city as domestic
partners has been passed. It is expected to be
signed into law by Boston Mayor Thomas
Menino, a supporter of the measure. The ordi­
nance also establishes a panel that will study the
legality and cost of extending health insurance
to domestic partners of city employees. It also
grants visitation rights to domestic partners at
city hospitals and prisons and grants them ac­
cess to school records.
tion puts to rest a long line of cases brought by
employees who requested and were subsequently
denied domestic partner benefits. In particular,
the final decision relied heavily on an out-of-
court settlement in the discrimination complaint
brought by three librarians embroiled in a battle
with the board for six years. Jane Anglin, one of
the librarians remarked, “I think what this has
taught me is that the Minneapolis human rights
ordinance isn’t protecting us as well as we think,
and that there needs to be a lot of work at the state
level.”
M ISSOURI
Gail Williams, the school superintendent in
Lee’s Summit, has refused donations of copies
of two lesbian and gay-positive books to the
school libraries. Project 21, a national group that
monitors gay and lesbian issues in school cur­
ricula donated the books, Annie On My M ind by
Nancy Garden and All-American Boys by Frank
Mosca, to area high schools. In addition, W ill­
iams had all existing copies of Annie removed
from the shelves of the district’s school libraries.
Williams said, “We felt the book was not being
used as a reference or as a resource material in
any of our classes.”
Opposition to the books originated from li­
brary patrons and a local homophobic political
group called FIRED UP, members of whom set
fire to some copies in front of Kansas City school
offices recently.
N O RTH CAROLINA
Barney, PBS-TV’s purple dinosaur currently
popular with preschoolers is being advertised by
a minister in Charlotte as a “new age demon”
who promotes “homosexuality." Joseph Cham­
bers, a former Church of God minister is publish­
ing a booklet, “Barney the Purple Messiah” to
detail the alleged “evil homosexual" conspiracy
behind the children’s character. According to
Chambers, whose homophobic group the Con­
cerned Charlotteans is publishing the booklet,
“Barney is teaching kids that we must accept
everyone as they are — whether they’re homo­
sexuals or lesbians.”
W ASH INGTON, D.C.
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by
an 11-year old boy from Illinois who sued the
Boy Scouts of America when they excluded him
for being an agnostic. The action by the Court
thereby lets stand a lower court’s ruling that the
Boy Scouts of America, unlike restaurants and
places of entertainment, is not a public accom­
modation covered by Title II of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. Upon hearing the news, the boy’s
father Elliott Welsh remarked, “Encouraging a
proper moral standard or proper ethical standard
is certainly a reasonable thing to do in a youth
organization.” “But,” hc added,“thequestion...is
do you make a prejudiced assumption about
people’s moral and ethical fitness on the basis of
whether or not they believe in God.”
The Scouts, in an unusual move, asked the
Court to review the boy’s appeal citing the huge
costs in defending its policy from similar attacks
in five other states.
▼ T ▼
Labor Secretary Robert Reich has reportedly
said that lie would not tolerate discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation in his department.
He stated that if supplemental agreements with
the employee’s union were submitted to provide
those protections formally, he would sign them.
Reich also said that he was not in a position to
change the overall federal policy on discrimina­
tion but that he would use his influence to pro­
mote changes in federal policy to include protec­
tions for gay men and lesbians.
T T ▼
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
announced the appointment of activist Betsy
Gresslcr to the newly created position of Orga­
nizing Director. Gressler’s duties will include
supervising NGLTF’s organizing activities on
health care, campus, workplace and anti-vio­
lence organizing and leading NGLTF’s effort to
assist stale and local communities to pass civil
M INNESOTA
The Minneapolis Public Library Board has
voted to extend full domestic partner benefits to
its employees. The decision reversed the origi­
nal health plan package approved a month ear­
lier that denied any benefits for the domestic
partners of library employees. The board’s ac­
cathartic comics I
rights legislation. Gressler is a long-time Ohio
activist who served as president of Stonewall
Cincinnati, was media director on the Equality
Cincinnati/No on 3 campaign and founder of
OutVoice, Ohio’s gay, lesbian and bisexual coa­
lition. Gressler commented on her appointment,
“I’m looking forward to working with grassroots
organizers across the country to secure legisla­
tion that guarantees gay men, lesbians, and bi­
sexuals equal protection from discrimination.”
T ▼ ▼
The Human Rights Campaign Fund has an­
nounced that Terry Bcswick will work on AIDS
research issues with Kristine Gebbie, the Na­
tional AIDS Policy Coordinator for the While
House. Beswick has been with HRCF since 1992
and has served as co-chair of the research task
force of the National Organizations Responding
to AIDS coalition. The HRCF also announced
two appointments to its new program, the Fed­
eral Advocacy Network. Congressional aide
Kris Pratt has been hired as a Public Policy
Advocate to work with newly appointed coordi­
nator, Cathy Woolard. FAN is designed to m obi­
lize citizens to lobby its members of Congress,
work to elect candidates and to affect the out­
come of state and local ballot initiatives.
▼ ▼ ▼
The Human Rights Campaign Fund has also
announced that an ongoing study of post-meno­
pausal nurses, the Nurse’s Health Study, will
include questions on sexual orientation. Thus,
the study will now collect information on the
health of lesbian and bisexual nurses. The deci­
sion to include the question came as a result of a
letter writing campaign organized by a coalition
of lesbian and gay health and civil rights groups.
“This is a major step in creating a greater base of
knowledge on the health of lesbians,” said Marci
Wasserman, a Public Policy Advocate at HRCF.
W ASH INGTON STA TE
A Court of Appeals judge has stalled a
mother’s legal battle to adopt her biological son
in order to remove him from foster parents who
arc gay. A commissioner with the court in Seattle
halted the placement of the boy in the m other’s
home and granted a discretionary review to the
stale Department o f Social and Health Services
that is opposed to the adoption bid. The mother,
Megan Lucas, who originally gave up the child
for adoption, is trying to adopt her son because
she wailed too long to reverse her decision to
relinquish her parental rights after she found out
he had been placed with gay foster parents.
Lucas says she has nothing against gay men but
thinks such a home is not suitable for her son.
i
Compiled by Lee Norwood
featuring The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé
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