J u t Out T » u g u tt a . 1 9 0 4 T 9
Survey reports
discrimination in medicine
A study detailing homophobic discrimination
in medical care was released recently by the Ameri
can Association of Physicians for Human Rights.
Of 711 gay and lesbian doctors who responded to
the survey, two-thirds knew of patients who had
been denied treatment or were given substandard
care because of their sexual orientation.
The report has been called “disturbing but
accurate,” by gay and lesbian physicians. “It’s
clear that homophobia is as invasive in the medical
world as it is everywhere else, if not a good deal
worse,” said Boston physician David Russell.
“I just had a patient the other day who was told
to get out of his doctor’s office because he asked
for an HIV test,” said physician Scott Harris,
Russell’s medical partner. “It’s clear that many
gays and lesbians are receiving inferior care. You
should be able to talk to your doctor about those
things.”
The study, inspired by President Clinton’s
health care reform package, caught the attention
of Massachusetts Democrat Gerry Studds. “Never
again must any American be denied medical treat
ment or be forced to accept an inferior standard of
care.... Reform without anti-discrimination pro
tections for every American would be a cruel
illusion.”
Benjamin Schatz, executive director of AAPHR
and author of the study, says the association rec
ommends the following: establishing anti-discrimi
nation programs for hospitals and medical asso
ciations, providing lesbians and gay men with a
choice of managed care programs and of openly
queer physicians who are knowledgeable on gay
and lesbian health issues, and prohibiting dis
crimination in health care based on sexual orien
tation by including protections in the Clinton
health care proposal.
Bob Roehr
Gay murders investigated
by D.C.-area paper
The Washington Blade reports that 25 gay men
have been murdered inside their homes in the
Washington, D.C., area during the past five years.
The murders appear to fit a pattern that area police
departments may have failed to recognize, the
paper claims.
In each of the cases the victim was killed in his
own home, with no signs of forced entry. A major
ity of the cases show what police call “overkill,”
where the perpetrator inflicts multiple wounds.
The murders were committed by varying meth
ods.
Ten of the murders have occurred in the last ten
months, prompting complaints by activists that
police have not properly investigated these cases
for links. Fifteen of the cases occurred in D C.,
four in northern Virginia, and four in suburban
Maryland. Most police investigators have said
they were unaware that similar gay-related mur
ders had occurred in neighboring jurisdictions.
In each of the 25 cases, there was no evidence
of forced entry, leading investigators to believe
that the victims most likely invited their killers
inside. In many of the cases, people who knew the
victims stated they were known to invite home
men whom they met in bars or other meeting
places for gay men.
Two of the 25 cases have been completely
solved, with defendants having been convicted
and imprisoned. In seven of the remaining 23
cases, arrests have been made. However, one
suspect has been acquitted, and one has been
acquitted on murder charges and is awaiting trial
on a manslaughter charge. Five of the suspects are
currently awaiting trial.
The investigation by Blade reporters has awak
ened interest at the FBI. Susan McClure, an offi
cial with the FBI’s National Center for the Analy
sis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., said the FBI
has a highly developed system for determining
possible links between murders within regions or
cities. Information from the FBI center reinforces
the possibility of a link in the 25 murders. The FBI
has found that serial killers often kill their victims
with different weapons, a point that has kept D.C.
police from connecting the cases.
As a result of the Blade investigation and FBI
interest, the commander of the D.C. Police homi
cide squad has issued a memo making it manda
tory for detectives to submit information about
gay-related murders to the FBI’s crime analysis
unit.
Jann Gilbert
to Affirm the Human Rights of Lesbian and Gay
People, a part of the Stonewall Celebrations in
New York this June.
Amnesty recently released its 1994 human
rights report for the year 1993. Three countries
were mentioned for homophobic abuses: Brazil,
Romania, and the former Soviet republic of
Belarus. The report did not discuss the status of
sodomy laws in a number of other countries,
including the U .S., A lbania, B osnia and
Herzegovina, Cyprus, Macedonia, Moldavia and
Serbia, because these countries fall outside the
Amnesty mandate. The Washington Blade re
ports.
amnesty
j international
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Sodomy laws targeted
The human rights group Amnesty Interna
tional is launching a campaign against U.S. sod
omy laws. Organization chapters in five states
with sodomy laws that apply only to homosexual
activity will be briefed on the campaign focusing
on homophobic human rights abuses, reports The
Washington Blade.
The five states are Arkansas, Kansas, Mis
souri, Montana and Tennessee. Texas has a simi
lar law, but a court ruling that the law is unconsti
tutional is currently in place.
In February, Amnesty International issued a
report on human rights violations against sexual
minorities called “Breaking the Silence.” At the
same time, it began a campaign to educate its
members about human rights abuses against sexual
minorities. The six-month campaign culminated
in the International March on the United Nations
cathartic co m ics I
Amnesty adopts the cases of gay men or lesbi
ans who are jailed under their country’s sodomy
laws as "prisoners of conscience.” In Romania,
Amnesty has adopted five gay men who were
jailed last year under these laws, and has docu
mented torture and ill-treatment by the police
there.
According to the report, in Brazil, an openly
bisexual politician, Renildo José dos Santos, was
abducted and killed in March 1993 by a group of
men believed to be off-duty military police offic
ers.
And in Belarus, Ministry of Justice officials
reported that 15 people were sentenced under the
country’s sodomy laws, although it was not known
how many of these were for same-sex relations.
The report also mentioned that Lithuania and
Russia repealed their sodomy laws in 1993. In
Russia, "government sources reported that all
those convicted solely of such activity would be
released.”
In Mexico, two gay activists adopted by Am
nesty as "prisoners of conscience" were reported
released in July of last year. But in Nicaragua, the
Supreme Court failed to rule on a challenge to the
country’s sodomy law. Amnesty has said it will
adopt people convicted under that law as prisoners
of conscience.
Jann Gilbert
Queers picket talk
show host
About 40 gay men and lesbians picketed out
side the Catamaran Hotel in Mission Beach, while
radio station KSOO hosted a reception inside for
advertisers.
The station is home to homophobic talk show
host and former San Diego mayor Roger
Hedgecock, who led the recent failed efforts of a
right wing group to sue its way into the local pride
parade.
In a written statement, the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation, which organized
the picket, said: ‘There is a growing nationwide
sentiment that some radio talk show hosts have
gone too far with their personal attacks, ground
less accusations and irresponsible statements ...
We are exposing... Roger Hedgecock for his big
oted hate-mongering and irresponsible broadcast
journalism.”
Hedgecock is quoted as saying. "My defini
tion of homosexuality is a person who has
dropped all moral barriers...to descend to a
level of utter depravity, to stick their penis into
the back end of the butt end of another m ale....
If you made the same assertion of your love for
a German Shepard, I would still be appalled if
you want to stick your penis into his rear end....
And what is the next step? If you’re going to go
for kids and other guys and dogs, where do we
draw the line?”
Hedgecock also reportedly said over the air:
“We are looking for 10,000 people to completely
dwarf this so-called pride parade. What is there to
be proud of, anyway— that they’ve perpetrated the
most devastating plague since the Black Death in
the 16th century?”
He also allegedly said, "It’s easy to see why
gays want so much to be in the military and be the
Boy Scout leaders, because that’s where the boys
are.”
KSOO General Manager Susan Hoffman says
Hedgecock’s statements are “his own opinions
and not necessarily the opinions of the radio sta
tion. There’s a disclaimer at the beginning of the
show,” she noted.
Rex Wockner
featuring The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé
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