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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1996)
just out ▼ d «ce m b er 6, 1996 ▼ 5 national briefs CALIFORNIA Nine-term Republican congressman Bob Doman is a congressman no more. Seventeen days after the polls closed, when the last of the absentee ballots had been counted, Doman lost by 984 votes to Democrat Loretta Sanchez. Sanchez called on Doman to concede and help her office with the transition, however, he refused to give up. Doman is preparing to take action on his charges of voter fraud and will likely demand a recount. ▼ ▼ ▼ A man with HIV is suing the California De partment of Motor Vehicles for $5 million, claim ing the agency’s denial of his request for a license plate reading “HIV POS” was discriminatory. Kevin Dimmick, 40, a founder of Positive Sup port, a group for HIV-positive heterosexuals, told the San Francisco Chronicle he intended the plate to “show people that it’s OK to be HIV positive.” According to DM V spokesman Evan Nossoff, the department once approved a license plate reading “HIV NEG,” only to receive a deluge of complaints. “Here ‘HIV positive’ might be seen by some as laudatory, but others are offended— not just bigots or gay-bashers, but those with HIV,” Nossoff said. “If a substantial number of people would be offended, we don’t issue the plate.” ▼ T ▼ HAF Enterprises, publisher of Girlfriends magazine, outbid The Advocate for the purchase of the controversial lesbian erotic magazine On Our Backs, which had been embroiled in bank ruptcy hearings for months. The union of the two magazines makes HAF Enterprises the only mul tiple-title lesbian magazine publisher in the world. “I’m very happy that On Our Backs will re main in the hands of lesbian publishers,” said Heather Findlay, editor in chief of Girlfriends. “The purchase bodes well for Girlfriends' vitality and for the future of lesbian publishing as a whole.” DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Donna Shalala will remain in her cabinet post as Secretary of Health and Human Services dur ing President Clinton’s second term, however, according to a Reuter report, sources in the ad ministration say that top White House AIDS advisor Patsy Fleming will be leaving her posi tion before June 1997. Fleming announced her departure to activists and to her staff, but has not made a public state ment. She has been generally well-liked by AIDS activists, who have applauded her efforts to ob tain public funding to subsidize expensive treat ments for the disease. IOWA A federal jury has awarded $325,000 to Roy Higginson, a former Iowa State University pro fessor who sued the school and the head of the English Department on the grounds that he was denied tenure because he is gay, reported The Des Moines Register. A university spokesman said that an appeal is likely. MISSISSIPPI Peter Halat Jr., a former mayor of Biloxi, was indicted Oct. 22 c n federal charges of racketeer ing, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, reports The Washington Blade. The charges stem from a “lonely hearts” scam allegedly masterminded by Halat’s former client Kirksey McCord Nix Jr.— I who was serving a life sentence for murder at the time—in which money was obtained from gay men contacted through personal ads. According to a Reuter report, the indictment said the money was laundered through Halat’s law firm. The indictment further charges that in 1986 Nix and Halat paid $20,000 to have Halat’s former law partner, Judge Vincent Sherry, mur dered because he had taken some of the money. Nix was sentenced in 1991 to 15 years for conspiring to murder Sherry. The current indict ment brings new charges against him. NORTH CAROLINA A Wake County Superior Court Judge re cently ruled that cross-dressing performances by female impersonators are permissible as long as they are not lewd, reports The News & Observer. City inspectors had cited the downtown Raleigh club Legends for violating a zoning ordinance restricting adult establishments, and the owner of the club retaliated with a lawsuit. The ruling was not based on equal protection for minorities or free expression rights, rather on the city’s definition of an adult establishment. OHIO Catholic Bishop James Hoffman recently can celed a presentation by New Ways Ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Toledo, according to a story in The Toledo Blade. New Ways speakers travel to parishes across the country to counsel Catholics on how to reach and understand disaf fected lesbians and gay men who leave the church. “I’d heard of New Ways Ministry.... It’s my impression they don’t represent the teachings of the Catholic Church in regards to homosexual ity,” the bishop said. The lecture was moved to nearby St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. PENNSYLVANIA The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania has approved the development of “a rite or rites for the blessing of committed relationships between persons of the same sex,” reports The Philadel phia Inquirer. Both clergy and lay del egates to the recent diocesan convention supported the mea- I sure, which won 176- 96, by a margin wide Enough to surprise many. When the general convention meets in July it will have an opportu nity to approve this or a similar resolution. The church’s Standing Liturgical Commission would then develop a rite of blessing. Such a blessing would have no legal standing in states that choose not to recognize same-gender marriages. TEXAS Voters in Austin have elected the town’s first female sheriff, Margo Frasier, who also happens to be a lesbian. In an unusually clean and issue- oriented race, Frasier defeated the current sheriffs assistant. WASHINGTON Three anti-gay radio ads sponsored by the Youth Action Committee began airing Oct. 7 on Bellingham’s soft-rock station KAFE-FM. Accord ing to the Northwest Gay Times, the ads were pulled after three days, presumably due to the effective ness of an activist campaign to notify other adver tisers about the offensive and divisive ads. Spokespersons for KAFE said that airing the ads was an exercise of freedom of speech. 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