ju s t o u t T aprii 4 . 1 0 9 7 ▼ 5
national briefs
Florist
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Under legislation being proposed by U.S. Rep.
Tom Colburn (R-Okla.) states would be required
to alert people of possible contacts with HIV
positive individuals, reports The Associated Press.
The measure, which has won the endorsement of
the American Medical Association, would also
create a national reporting and tracking system
for the virus, require testing of anyone accused of
a sex crime, allow disclosure of the HIV status of
children up for adoption, and require insurers to
notify applicants of their HIV test results.
The bill “will return sound medical practices
to our nation’s public health policy and curtail the
spread of the deadly HIV epidemic,” said Colburn,
who is also a physician. The Human Rights Cam
paign disagrees, however, saying that the mea
sure would undermine the authority of local pub
lic health officials and has no provisions to help
at-risk individuals alter their behavior.
▼ V V
Following the departure March 28 of author
and historian John D’Emilio from his director
ship of the Policy Institute of the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force, Urvashi Vaid assumed
the post, the agency said
in a press release.
D’Emilio has received
a fellowship to write a
biography of civil rights
activist Bayard Rustin;
he will remain as a se
nior fellow with the
Policy Institute.
Vaid is an attorney
and author of Virtual
E quality, and previ
ously worked with NGLTF as public information
director and as the group’s executive director
from 1989 to 1992.
ILLINOIS
Against a backdrop of noisily protesting anti
abortion and church groups, the Chicago City
Council voted on March 19 to extend health
benefits to same-sex partners of city employees.
The 33-18 vote followed more than 90 minutes of
emotional debate, according to a United Press
International story. Mayor Richard M. Daley
strongly supported the ordinance and was ap
plauded by civil rights groups for his leadership
on the issue.
V ▼ V
On March 12 the Illinois House Human Ser
vices Committee approved a bill that would amend
the state’s Human Rights Act to outlaw discrimi
nation on the basis of sexual orientation in hous
ing, employment, public accommodations and
credit transactions, reports the Illinois Federation
for Human Rights in a press release. The bill,
introduced by Larry McKeon (D-Chicago), the
state’s first openly gay representative, and 36 co
sponsors, now goes to the full House of Represen
tatives for a vote.
Twenty-seven proponents of the bill and five
opponents contacted the committee before its
vote. The IFHR is planning a lobby day April 9 to
bolster support for the measure.
MICHIGAN
A University of Michigan study released March
8 found that 35 gay and lesbian Lutheran clergy
who have ignored church laws and remained
sexually active have been able to avoid scandal
and sustain the strength of their faith. The study
examined the lives of 26 male and nine female
pastors in the U.S. Evangelical Lutheran Church,
according to a San Diego Union Tribune story.
All of the pastors had been sexually active, and 21
lived in long-term homosexual relationships, de
spite a church rule requiring gay and lesbian
clergy to be celibate.
“No church policy has stopped these persons
from falling in love, from having sex, from being
parents...[or] from hearing a call to ordained
ministry,” sociologist Carolyn Riehl, director of
the study, told reporters.
NEW JERSEY
World health experts at a Feb. 23 meeting at
Princeton University discussed what some called
the world’s largest health issue, tuberculosis, re
ports The Associated Press. The number of people
infected with the airborne disease continues to
grow, resulting in some 3 million deaths each year
worldwide. The disease continues to spread, the
experts say, because of improper treatment, un
precedented levels of international travel, refugee
crises, and diseases such as HIV/AIDS that de
stroy the immune system.
With nearly one-third of the world’s popula
tion infected with TB and 300,000 children under
15 dying from the disease each year, “nothing that
we have done has interrupted the transmission of
the disease,” said Dr. Gordon Douglas, president
for global vaccines at the drug maker Merck & Co.
Six months of daily medication— at a total
cost of about $40 in developing countries—can
cure the disease, but incomplete treatment often
results in drug-resistant strains which can then
take years and up to $250,000 to cure. Douglas
and other panelists, including consumer advocate
Ralph Nader, are pushing for increased funding
and better organization of existing campaigns
against TB, as well as grass-roots efforts in the
United States and abroad.
OHIO
Civilian employees at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base have formed USAF GLOBE, an asso
ciation to support sexual minority civilian work
ers throughout the Air Force. The name is an
acronym for United States Air Force Gay and
Lesbian or Bisexual Employees.
Founder Stephen Bickford told the Dayton
Daily News that although federal law prohibits
discrimination against civilian employees for non
job related conduct—including sexual orienta
tion—and many federal agencies have adopted
internal nondiscrimination policies, the Air Force
has not yet followed suit.
PENNSYLVANIA
An anti-gay student group at Penn State Uni
versity won official recognition by reversing a
student court decision that it violated the
institution’s nondiscrimination codes, reports The
Associated Press. In early March an appeals board
found that STRAIGHT, or Students Reinforcing
Adherence In General Heterosexual Tradition,
didn’t discriminate in selecting members and
gave no indication that it would discriminate on
the basis of sexual orientation.
Recognition means that the 50-member orga
nization may use Penn State letterhead and meet
in university buildings—and that it will have to
admit lesbians and gay men as members.
SOUTH DAKOTA
When internationally known hot-air balloon
ists Jacques Soukup and Kirk Thomas refused to
support the annual Governor’s Cup balloon race
.
last year in protest of the
‘ v state’s ban on same-gen-
| j j dermarriages, officials re-
1 /. sponded by canceling the
race. But it’s back on, now
,
that Soukup and Thomas,
^
who co-founded a balloon
■ museum in Mitchell, have
sent a letter of apology to
Gov. Bill Janklow, also a
balloon enthusiast. The race has a new name as
well: the Governor’s Challenge.
According to a story in the Rapid City Journal,
in the letter Soukup and Thomas acquiesced to the
governor’s statement that politics has no place in
balloon racing.
Compiled by Christopher D. Cuttone
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