just out ▼ juns 17. 1904 T 7
national news
Postcard campaign
targets United Nations
The U.N. Postcard Campaign is petitioning
that body’s General Assembly to demand equal
rights for all gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Organizers want the United Nations to amend
Article II of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights to include the words “sexual orientation.”
The campaign is gathering signed postcards and
will deliver 1 million of them to the General
Assembly during the fall session.
Some 3.5 million cards have been mailed to
over 2,500 lesbian and gay organizations nation­
wide. Over 1 million cards have been mailed to
bookstores and community centers. The returns
are now totaling over 1,000 postcards per day.
Some of the organizations distributing the post­
cards are Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
in Denver, Colo., Los Angeles, Calif., and Puerto
Rico; the Atlantic Coast Democratic Club in West
Palm Beach, Fla.; and Dignity, New York. Persons
and organizations interested in distributing cards
may contact: the U.N. Postcard Campaign, 245
Eighth Ave., Suite 217, New York, NY 10011,
(212)966-5876.
West Coast festival
celebrates 15 years
1994 marks the 15th anniversary of the West
Coast Women’s Music and Comedy Festival. The
festival will be held Thursday through Monday,
Sept. 1 to 5, in North Hills, Calif.
This year the entertainment runs all day and all
evening, and includes a wide variety of perfor­
mances. From household names to newer faces,
from rock ’n’ roll to jazz rap, the festival stage will
present a star-studded line-up throughout the week­
end.
Performers this year will be Cris Williamson,
Holly Near, Teresa Trull, Dianne Davidson, Geor­
gia Ragsdale, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Diane Amos,
Mimi Freed, Lynda Montgomery, Sally Landers
and the Fixations, Laura Love, and Strange Fruit.
The festival setting is a private, wooded camp,
near Yosemite National Park. The site boasts a
lake, a pool and a river, and women may camp, stay
in cabins or use R Vs. Activities will include dances,
workshops, sports, a crafts fair, hiking and fishing.
Festival organizers anticipate over 3,000 women
for this anniversary celebration.
San Diego extends benefits
to domestic partners
The San Diego City Council voted in mid-May
to extend health insurance and other benefits to
domestic partners of lesbian, gay and heterosexual
city employees. City workers will pay for the
partner insurance with a payroll deduction.
City Councilor and out lesbian Christine Kehoe
sponsored the measure. She called it “a fairness
issue” and urged private businesses to follow suit.
Mayor Susan Golding, a member of the City
Council, voted against the benefits. She said she
opposed the plan because it recognizes relation­
ships of as little as three months’ duration.
Thirty U.S. cities currently recognize unmar­
ried couples, in a variety of ways. Several corpora­
tions offer benefits to lovers of gay and lesbian
employees, among them The New York Times,
Lotus, Levi Strauss, and Ben & Jeny’s.
The California state Assembly approved in
May a measure to allow gay and lesbian couples to
register their relationships and to receive some
benefits. That legislation has now moved to the
Senate.
Court ruling revives
transsexual inmate’s suit
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled to
limit the legal responsibility of prison officials
regarding the treatment of inmates, at the same
time warning officials they could be forced to pay
damages for ignoring obvious risks to a prisoner’s
health or safety. Both prison officials and inmates
are claiming a victory, due to the flexibility of the
ruling.
The Court’s decision allows the case of a 28-
year-old transsexual inmate to be reopened. Dee
Farmer was allegedly beaten and raped after being
placed in a federal penitentiary heavily populated
by violent men.
The case hinged on the meaning of “deliberate
indifference.” State and federal officials argued
that it meant an inmate must prove officials actu­
ally knew of the danger and ignored it. Inmates
such as Farmer argued that it was sufficient to
show that prison officials should have been aware
of the risks. Justice David H. Souter rejected
Farmer’s argument but allowed him to return to a
federal trial court to try to prove his case under the
new ruling.
Farmer was bom a male, and began undergoing
estrogen therapy at 14. He later received silicone
breast implants and underwent surgery to remove
his testicles.
“We can now prove that the prison at Terre
Haute [Indiana] has a long history as a dangerous
place and is thus a greater risk for sexual assault.
We could also prove statistically that people with
feminine characteristics like Dee Farmer tend to be
victims of predatory behavior,” said Alvin J.
Bronstein of the ACLU’s National Prison Project,
and Farmer’s lawyer.
cathartic comics I
OR AS O B SESSED
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused in May to hear
the appeal of Tom Metzger, his son John, and their
White Aryan Resistance organization. The family
of the late Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man
murdered by Portland Skinheads, can finally begin
to collect the $12.5 million damages awarded by a
Multnomah County jury four years ago.
Just days before Seraw was killed, his attackers
were in the company of a man whom Metzger had
sent to Portland as a recruiter for his organization.
Jurors learned during the 1990 trial that the re­
cruiter encouraged the Skinheads, members of
East Side White Pride, to assault African Ameri­
cans and other minorities. The link was enough to
persuade jurors to give the Seraw estate every cent
asked for in the suit: $ 1 million from the three men
who killed Seraw and $ 11.5 from the Metzgers and
their organization.
The money awarded is largely symbolic. The
awards, which will go to Seraw’s son, Hennock,
who lives with his mother and grandfather in
Ethiopia, will be paid from a trust account of
$ 100,000 resulting from the seizure of the Metzger’s
California home and a percentage of contributions
from followers. Ironically, those same followers
who subscribe to Metzger’s racist propaganda will
now be helping to pay for some of the damage it has
caused.
Grave discrimination
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust—we all eventually
confront the fact of our own mortality. For people
living with AIDS, thought of burial or cremation
may come sooner than for others. At 43, Raymond
Paul is one of these people.
“Both Richard and I decided that we wanted to
buy our own grave,” said Paul. “There are family
plots, but you get all involved with who is going to
go where. So, we decided to avoid that whole thing
and just buy our own.” Paul has lived with his
partner Richard Creede for 20 years. They planned
to be buried together in their own family plot.
Paul came upon Greenfield Cemetery while
driving near his home in Hempstead, N.Y., on
Long Island. The cemetery is owned and operated
by the town. Because space is at a premium, burial
is restricted to residents of the town and their blood
relatives.
“I drove in. It was nice. I talked to the man. He
gave me a price of $725, plus whatever expenses.
That’s a good deal,” Paul said. Creede liked it too.
About a week later they went back to fill out the
papers.
“The guy said that only married people and
blood relatives can be buried in the same plot.
That’s just the way it is. He suggested we buy two
plots right next to each other. We just left,” said
Paul. "We weren’t about to buy two plots.”
“We’ve lived in the town of Hempstead for 16
years. When they were collecting taxes, they didn’t
ask me if I was married,” Paul pointed out.
The couple called their lawyer, who referred
them to Beatrice Dohm, legal director of the
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. She
decided to take the case.
“We are always looking for state action be­
cause constitutional provisions like the 14th
Amendment don’t come into play until you have a
state actor,” explained Dohm. “This was a munici­
pality that was really very directly doing the acting,
it was a clear state public accommodation.”
She said, “Usually on public accommodations
you are dealing with something where we have to
argue there is a state action, because it is not
directly the state acting but maybe the state helps
fund something.” But this was clear and direct, and
that made it a good potential case.
Dohrn thought a phone call or two might clear
up the situation. The two were tax-paying residents
of the town for 16 years, she said, “being deprived
of an equal benefit that would arise from the fact
that they paid taxes.” And, even if the matter went
to litigation and lost, there was tremendous educa­
tional potential for the case.
After more than a few phone calls, and several
exchanges of letters, the town of Hempstead guard­
edly agreed to treat Paul and Creede like any other
family and sell them a family burial plot. The
difference was that the town demanded the pair
sign an affidavit saying they would use the plot
only for themselves and would not transfer it to
anyone else.
The men and Dohm bristled at the affidavit
because no one else is forced to sign one. But they
eventually agreed to it because it did not impinge
on their intent. They had won the major battle.
“We were told that other people have been
turned down, and they just walked away,” Paul
said. “We are the first ones whodidn’t walk away.”
Compiled by Junn Gilbert and Bob Roehr
featuring The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé
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