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Study director: Dr. David Roacmtaio, Oregon Health Sciences University
Supreme Court will
review Amendment 2
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last month to
hear the case Romervs. Evans, involving Colorado’s
controversial Amendment 2. The Colorado Su­
preme Court upheld a permanent injunction against
Amendment 2 last October. That ruling was ap­
pealed by the State of Colorado. Colorado courts
have ruled that the measure, passed by voters in
1992, violates the constitutional rights of gay,
lesbian and bisexual citizens by denying these
citizens the right to participate equally in the politi­
cal process.
Amendment 2 would repeal any existing ordi­
nances, such as those in Denver and Boulder, that
prohibit discrimination based on sexual orienta­
tion. It would also amend the state constitution to
prohibit all branches of state government (cities,
school districts, courts, etc.) from passing such
legislation in the future.
At issue is the question of whether or not
Amendment 2 violates the equal protection guar­
antee provided in the I4th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. That amendment forbids states from
making laws that deny the privileges of citizenship
and equal protection under the law to any person.
Virginia, Alabama and Idaho filed a friends-of-
the-court brief, written by Robert H. Bork, that
supports Colorado’s appeal and the validity of the
initiative. According to a story in The Washington
Blade, Bork has written that the Colorado Supreme
Court decision to uphold the injunction “is a sig­
nificant threat to the right of direct self-govern­
ment through citizen initiatives....” Bork’s brief
goes on to say that this decision “seriously threat­
ens not only the right of popular democracy, but
also many basic individual liberties guaranteed by
provisions of federal law and state constitutions....”
The last time the Supreme Court heard a case
involving homosexuality was in 1986. At that time
the high court’s ruling allowed states to outlaw
consensual homosexual conduct. A ruling in the
Colorado case is expected by July 1996.
Kristine Chatwood
P ro je c t D e n ta l
H e a lth at th e
To participate in the
Oral Care Project call:
M elody Scheer
Russell St. C linic/
Project Dental Health
national news
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Bend woman to
head NAACP board
By a 30-29 vote the executive board of the
National Association for the Advancement of Col­
ored People elected Myrlie Evers-Williams to head
its board of directors. Evers-Williams, the widow
of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, becomes
the first woman to head the NAACP in its 86-year
history.
Evers-Williams was selected over William F.
Gibson, who had held the chairmanship for a
decade. Board members filed a federal lawsuit in
December alleging fiscal mismanagement on
Gibson’s part.
Evers-Williams, who now lives in Bend, Ore.,
spent 30 years fighting to bring Medgar Evers’
murderer to justice. Last year Byron De La
Beckwith, of Mississippi, was convicted of Evers’
murder. The Oregonian quoted Evers-Williams as
saying “Medgar died for the NAACP, and I have
always said that I will live for the NAACP.”
Kristine Chatwood
"Don’t ask, don’t tell”
doesn’t work
According to a report issued last month by the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the
Clinton Administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell,
don’t pursue” policy is routinely ignored by many
military commands. Violations of the policy have
occurred in all four branches of the military.
The organization reports that according to Pen­
tagon figures, the expected decline in the rate of
discharge for gay men and lesbians in fiscal year
1994 did not materialize. Efforts to target and
discharge gay men and lesbians in the Air Force,
for example, have increased. In 1991 the Air Force
accounted for 15.9 percent of all such discharges.
That figure nearly doubled, to 30.1 percent, in
1994.
Kristine Chatwood
Proposed AIDS-funding cuts
fall, while others remain
AIDS funding was one of only two areas where
the full House Appropriations Committee voted to
reverse cuts called for by its subcommittees. A
majority of Republicans joined with Democrats to
“restore” $ 13 million in Ryan White CARE money
and $23 million for AIDS prevention and educa­
tion activities to the current fiscal year budget.
However, the committee supported the recom­
mendation to delete $ 186 million, the entire appro­
priation, for the Housing Opportunities for Per­
sons with AIDS program. The actions came on
March 2.
“I was really surprised at the depth of bipartisan
support—the number of Republicans and people
we wouldn’t have expected,” said Gary Rose,
lobbyist with the National Association of People
with AIDS. He cited conservative Republicans
like Jim Istook (Oklahoma) and Jay Dickey (Ar­
kansas) who voted
for cuts in the sub­
committee but re­
versed themselves
in the full commit­
tee.
“ We
h av e
crossed a historic
threshold
on
AIDS with this
vote,” said Rich
Tafel, executive
director of Log
Cabin R epubli­
cans. He cited
those same con­
servative Republicans who voted for the funding
“in a climate of the most severe budget cuts in
years.” It points out the need, he said, “to educate
both Democrats and Republicans and not write
anyone off on AIDS issues.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the efforts to
restore funding. She acknowledged the impor­
tance of the victory while noting the loss on
HOPWA funding. “The net result of that action
will be a competition for funds for housing and
care, thereby greatly reducing the services we can
provide to people.”
Gay Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) greeted the
wins as “one of the few pleasant surprises we have
had this year.” He called himself “not normally a
partisan soul,” but then went on to characterize the
Republican “Contract with America” as “zero fund­
ing for people with AIDS and housing.”
His gay Republican colleague, Steve Gunderson
(Wisconsin) interprets the broad cuts as “more an
effort to keep faith with paying for the ‘Contract’
than it is long-term policy.”
Everyone agrees that HOPWA became an easy
target last December when President Clinton at­
tempted to eliminate funding for it from his pro­
posed budget for fiscal year 1996. Clinton reversed
that decision only after a wave of protest from
AIDS activists.
But Gunderson is optimistic that some fund­
ing for HOPWA can be salvaged before the pro­
cess is over. He believes there is “an education
focus that has to be dealt with.” When members of
Congress learn that the program serves people
“abandoned by family...[and] in hospice care at
the end stages of disease, then they have a totally
different perspective,” he said.
He also understands the political process. “The
Senate isn’t even going to take up rescision, but, if
they do, it is going to be vastly different than ours
[in the House].”
Bob Roehr