ju st o u t T o c to b o r 3, 1097 ▼ 5
national briefs
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
A group of transgender activists has filed a
complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.
The complaint alleges that a policy which
prohibits male cross-dressers from entering the
Lorton Prison to visit inmates violates the city’s
human rights laws, which ban discrimination
based on personal appearance and sexual orienta­
tion.
Despite a 1991
agreement arranged
by the office to resolve \
a similar complaint,
the prison’s ban on
cross-dressing visitors
remains in place and (
is announced in bold
letters on a large sign
on the exterior of one of the prison’s buildings,
reports the Washington Blade.
OHR rules require that parties begin media­
tion procedures before the office makes a formal
determination on whether probable cause of dis­
crimination exists.
Dee Curry, president of Transgenders Against
Discrimination in the District, has sent a letter to
D C. Corrections Department head Margaret
Moore urging the immediate discontinuation of
the policy.
▼ ▼ ▼
The Washington, D.C.-based Log Cabin Re­
publicans, a gay and lesbian group, applauded the
decision by the Human Rights Campaign to hire
Tracey St. Pierre, who resigned as chief of staff to
Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fla.) in August, and
came out as a lesbian Republican.
According to a front-page story in the Sept. 10
issue of the Hill newspaper, St. Pierre will lobby
Congress on behalf of HRC.
Canady, St. Pierre’s former employer, was a
lead supporter of the Defense of Marriage Act and
the chief sponsor of a bill to roll back federal
affirmative action programs.
RichardTafel, LCR ’s executive director, says,
“I know HRC will get a great deal of flak from the
left of our community for hiring someone from a
socially conservative Republican office, but it
reflects [HRC’s] growing understanding that you
have to have contacts in all parts of the Republi­
can Party.”
FLORIDA
Undercover police officers arrested 20 men
for various sex offenses during an Aug. 13 raid of
a gay nightclub in Sunny Isles Beach, which is
located in North Miami Beach.
The men’s names, addresses and mug shots
were then publicized, reports the Washington
Blade. Although police routinely make such in­
formation available to the public after an arrest is
made, it is rarely released unless requested.
Metro-Dade Police spokesman Ed Munn, how­
ever, appended the personal information to a
department press statement in the absence of a
request from reporters.
In the statement,
Munn told reporters
that photos of the ar­
rested men were
“available for repro­
duction.”
A ccording
to
Munn’s statement, de­
tectives observed patrons and entertainers “mas­
turbating either themselves or others” and three
detectives were allegedly groped. The 20 men
were generally charged with the misdemeanor
offense of lascivious behavior.
Louis J. Terminello, a lawyer for the bar’s
owners, disputed the police’s claim, saying that
the dancers were simulating sex acts, not per­
forming them.
ILLINOIS
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
and the City of Chicago defeated an attempt by
conservative religious activists Sept. 16 to block
benefits for domestic partners of lesbian and gay
city employees.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas
Durkin upheld the domestic partner benefits pro­
gram and ruled that the city has authority to make
such personnel decisions, according to a Lambda
news statement.
In March, the City Council passed an ordi­
nance granting health and other benefits to same-
sex partners of city workers. Opposition forces
led by the Rev. Hiram Crawford failed to obtain
a temporary restraining order before the legisla­
tion took effect in May, and this latest ruling is an
explicit rejection of their argument that the ordi­
nance exceeded Chicago’s home rule power.
MAINE
Maine’s gay-rights law was put on hold Sept.
18—one day before it was to take effect—after
opponents gathered enough signatures for a pos­
sible referendum on the antidiscrimination act,
reports The Associated Press.
Elections officials have 30 days to certify the
signatures. If an insufficient number are valid, the
law will take effect the following day, Secretary
of State Dan Gwadosky said. Otherwise, the law
will remain on hold until the referendum comes to
a vote, which would be scheduled after Novem­
ber and before April.
The law, approved by the Legislature earlier
this year and signed by Gov. Angus King, bars
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
in housing, public accommodations, credit and
employment.
In 1995, Maine voters narrowly defeated a
referendum that sought to outlaw civil rights
protections for lesbians and gay men.
MICHIGAN
Towing the party line, Michigan State Univer­
sity trustees voted 5-3 to extend insurance and
benefits to the live-in partners of sexual minority
employees.
The policy, ratified Sept. 12, does not include
unmarried partners of the opposite sex, reports
the Detroit Free Press.
School officials expect about 40 employees to
sign up for coverage that will cost MSU as much
as $100,000 a year. To obtain the coverage, em­
ployees must meet eight requirements, including
having shared a home for at least six months and
signing a partnership agreement.
NEBRASKA
The Rev. Jimmy Creech of Omaha could be
the first United Methodist pastor to face official
church charges for violating church rules enacted
last year that prohibit same-sex commitment cer­
emonies from being performed on church prop­
erty.
Despite a warning from his presiding bishop
that disciplinary action would follow, Creech
announced Sept. 10 that he would perform a
ceremony for a lesbian couple at his First United
Methodist Church, according to the Omaha World
Herald.
Mark Bowman,
executive director of
Reconciling Congre­
gation Program, a Chi­
cago-based network
of Methodist congre­
gations that publicly
welcome sexual mi­
norities, said he does
not know of any cases under the new rules and can
recall only one other case—in Boston nearly 25
years ago—in which a pastor was disciplined for
conducting a commitment ceremony.
Possible penalties for Creech include suspen­
sion, involuntary leave of absence and loss of
ministerial credentials.
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