ju s t o u t ▼ a u g u s t 1, 1 9 0 7 T 3
national briefs
CALIFORNIA
Alameda residents MikeTrelow and hisdaugh-
ter Heather are asking the state to revoke the
license of a fifth-grade teacher who discussed the
April 30 coming out episode of ABC’s sitcom
Ellen in class without parental permission.
In a formal complaint filed July 9 the Trelows
said Victoria Forrester, a teacher at Amelia Earhart
Elementary School, violated a state education
code requirement that parents be notified in writ
ing of classes that will discuss topics related to
human reproduction.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle,
the Trelows believe the teacher went too far when
she described the Ellen character as “brave and
proud.”
The Alameda school district investigated the
incident through a separate complaint process
and concluded that the teacher had not behaved
inappropriately.
The state commission has several options short
of revoking Forrester’s license, such as dismiss
ing the case or sending a letter of reprimand.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
For the first time, a leader from the gay and
lesbian community participated in an official U.S.
delegation to the annual summit of Africans and
African Americans in Zimbabwe.
Keith Boykin, executive director of the Na
tional Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum,
joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney
Slater, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other delegates
for a weeklong international conference in Harare.
The summit, held July 2 1 -25, addressed topics
including AIDS and health care, arts and culture,
business and economic development, media and
communications, education, democracy and gov
ernance, population and women’s issues.
T
▼ T
A canister of tear gas exploded in a Capitol
Hill gay bar July 12, and gay and lesbian commu
nity leaders are criticizing the initial response
from police as inadequate, reports the Washing
ton Post.
—s. 1
The paper says about
80 patrons were evacu
ated after part of the cl ub
N
filled with smoke and
fumes, but no serious
injuries were reported.
Witnesses reported
seeing two white men
with “Marine style”
haircuts near the entrance of the club about the
time the canister exploded.
Police say the case has been classified as a hate
crime.
Combined with the recent fatal stabbing of a
gay man in D.C., the tear gas incident has left
many in the city’s queer community concerned
that violence against gay men and lesbians may be
on the rise and that police aren’t responding
adequately.
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Billionaire and former Republican presiden
tial candidate Steve Forbes has launched a
$150,000 ad campaign against Initiative 57, a
proposal that would protect people with AIDS,
cancer and other serious illnesses and their health
care providers from criminal prosecution related
to the medicinal use of marijuana.
The ballot measure is the brainchild of ACT
UP Washington’s Steve Michael, himself a former
presidential candidate.
He predicts Forbes’ campaign will have little
i mpact on local efforts already underway to gather
the 16,700 signatures needed to place the medical
marijuana initiative on the ballot.
MICHIGAN
Two Lansing men are facing felonious assault
charges following a June 22 blow-dart attack that
police say targeted participants in the previous
day’s Gay Pride rally.
The Lansing State Journal reports that
Raymond Terwilliger, 33, and Kevin Hartges, 40,
have been released on bond and that two local
men suffered minor
injuries as a result of
the attack.
According to po
lice, the two men blew
darts out of small
blowguns from a mov
ing car as they passed
in front of the Esquire
Bar on Turner Street.
In addition to the two blowguns, police dis
covered a handgun when they arrested the men
shortly after the incident.
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NATIONWIDE
The federal Food and Drug Administration
issued several stern directives to Johnson &
Johnson, maker of the home HIV test kit Confide,
in the months prior to the product’s removal from
the market, says the New York Times.
Government records show federal regulators
took the corporation to task over its quality con
trol procedures and testing methods and because
it failed to report customer complaints of false test
results.
Citing weak sales, the company’s Direct Ac
cess Diagnostics unit said June 26 it would scrap
the home test kit, which cost millions to develop
and languished through 10 years of negotiations
with the FDA before hitting store shelves in June
1996.
Ninety thousand Confide tests have been pro
cessed since its release, according to Direct Ac
cess.
The company will stop accepting tests for
processing on Aug. 8, and on Aug. 29 will discon
tinue the free phone counseling it had said would
be available for up to two years to consumers who
tested positive. After that date, callers will be
referred to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for counseling referrals.
NORTH CAROLINA
Responding to the recent passage of anti-gay
resolutions in several North Carolina counties,
the grass-roots organization Citizens Against
Discrimination called for a boycott of the state by
the film industry.
Charles Edwin Merrill, 63, a member of the
Merrill/Lynch brokerage family and founder of
the group, launched the boycott effort by contact
ing entertainment executives Barry Diller, Rupert
Murdoch and Michael Eisner, as well as Holly
wood Supports, a group formed in 1991 to counter
workplace fear and discrimination based on HIV
status and sexual orientation.
Merrill, who is openly gay, said he formed
CAD in memory of two gay cousins, Stuart Merrill
and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Merrill.
He also said his main objective is to have the anti
gay legislation in the state rescinded.
TEXAS
Three educators are planning to open a private
high school in Dallas for gay and lesbian teens.
The Walt Whitman Community School is
scheduled to open in September and will offer a
normal high school curriculum for annual tuition
of $7,000.
According to United Press International, it
will be housed in a building owned by Cathedral
of Hope, a congregation of mostly lesbians and
gay men.
Director Becky Thompson says she and other
school organizers were inspired by a 1984 study
conducted in New York which found that 28
percent of lesbian and gay students drop out of
high school because of harassment. Schools simi
lar to Whitman already exist in New York. Toronto
and Los Angeles.
Compiled by Christopher p Cupone
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