ju s t out ▼ n o v e m tx r 2 1 , 1007 ▼ 5
n atio n al b rie fs
ARIZONA
Tempe began a city wide effort Nov. 6 toward
eliminating prejudice and discrimination, reports
the Arizona Republic.
Mayor Neil Giuliano kicked off the campaign
to celebrate diversity in the community by speak
ing with several dozen people who gathered at the
Tempe Public Library for an event called To
gether We’re Better.
It aims to unite people in Tempe to help make
everyone feel welcome in the city.
In January, the City Council passed a one-
page resolution to celebrate diversity, but the
meeting was marred by a few speakers who
claimed the council was trying to promote a
hidden gay agenda.
Giuliano, who last year acknowledged he is
gay, denied there was any gay agenda.
CALIFORNIA
Facing a deficit of $ 110,000 and counting, the
committee that produces San Francisco’s annual
pride parade is looking for ways to cut costs,
according to the Bay Area Reporter.
While the group’s creditors— including Wells
Fargo Bank, several city departments and nearly
20 community groups that staffed beverage out
lets at the celebration and are entitled to a share of
the sales— are satisfied with the debt payment
arrangements, it’s clear that changes must be
made before next year.
Hoping to retire the debt in a single parade
cycle, event organizers have accepted a proposal
that cuts costs and enacts procedures for approval
and tracking of expenditures. The group is also
working to increase corporate sponsorship, de
spite the controversy surrounding the large profit
taken away from last year’s event by the non-gay,
for-profit contract vendor Best Beverages.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Motivated by the grief of losing two friends to
AIDS-related illness and by frustration with the
inadequate medical care they had received, Vir
ginia resident Elizabeth Solomon, 52, donated $ 1
million to the D.C.-based Whitman-Walker Clinic.
According to the Washington Blade, it is the
second-largest fiscal gift ever received by the
clinic, which provides services for two-thirds of
the people living with AIDS in the Washington,
D.C., area.
the Fleming-Morgan Access Center, where full
time care coordinators are available to help cli
ents obtain housing, food, medical, legal and
mental health services, as well as alcohol and
substance abuse treatment.
GEORGIA
Robin Shahar announced on Oct. 31 that she is
petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review her
case against Michael Bowers, the former Georgia
attorney general who dismissed her from his staff
upon learning she was planning to hold a commit
ment ceremony with her lesbian partner.
Shahar's petition seeks to overturn a federal
appeals court decision, saying the firing violated
her First Amendment rights to intimate and ex
pressive association.
According to a Lambda Legal Defense and
Education Fund news release, if the court hears
Shahar’s case, it “will have the opportunity for
the first time to rule on whether gay relationships
are protected by the right of intimate association,
which protects all kinds of deep personal bonds,
such as family relationships, from government
intrusion.”
Travel the w o rld ,
but call us first.
▼ ▼▼
The Georgia Supreme Court on Nov. 3 upheld
the City of Atlanta’s policy to extend health
benefits to dependent domestic partners of mu
nicipal employees.
In a news release the Lambda Legal Defense
and Education Fund said the challenge to the
ordinance was brought by a single plaintiff, At
lanta resident Lamar Morgan, who claimed that as
a local government the city did not have the power
to enact such a measure.
The American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees Local 1644, the At
lanta Executive Network, the Georgia Equality
Project, the National Employment Lawyers As-
sociation-Georgia chapter, the Service Employ
ees International Union Local 1985 and the Stone
wall Bar Association of Georgia joined Lambda
in Filing an amicus brief supporting the ordinance.
The city had created a more comprehensive
domestic partner benefits package in 1993 that
was struck down in court.
ILLINOIS
With seven couples signing up on Oct. 27, Oak
Park became the first municipality in Illinois to
offer a same-sex partner registry, the Chicago
Sun-Times reports.
The partnership
registry was estab
lished to recognize
committed relation
ships of gay men and J
lesbians, says Village
Clerk Sandra Sokol.
While registration
in Oak Park doesn’t grant any rights, “the gesture
has its own importance,” Tony Dobrowolski, an
actor who registered with his partner early that
morning, told the paper.
Oak Park is one of 13 municipalities nation
wide with domestic partner registries.
NATIONAL
On Oct. 16, two months after an internal audit
found that Parents, Families and Friends of Les
bians and Gays was in a “state of crisis,” the
organization’s executive director, Sandra Gillis,
proffered her resignation.
During an August meeting, PFLAG’s regional
director’s council confronted the board of direc
tors with charges of financial mismanagement
and other failings at the national office, and called
for Gillis to resign, reports the New York Blade.
A native of New York, Gillis first became
active in national queer politics in 1984 as presi
dential nominee Walter Mondale’s liaison to the
sexual minority community. She became head of
PFLAG’s national office in 1993.
She told the Blade her resignation was unre
lated to the recent complaints.
Get Involved in
Washington County!
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The Washington
County Community
AIDS Network needs
new members
1939 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregon
This voluntary committee
advises the Washington
County Department of
Health and Human Services
on policy issues related to
HIV prevention efforts.
In Downtown Seattle.
Offering you the amenities, comfort
and style you expect and deserve.
Deadline for membership
applications is
December 24,1997.
BY THE SPACE N E E D LE
200 Sixth Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98109
(206)441-7878 FAX (206)448-4825
Call 693-4734 for an
application or for more
information.
1-800-578-7878
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S T A Y
S A T I S F I E D
The Community’s Home Loan Resource
► New purchase
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Office
Evenings/Weekends
297-9900
780-1561
M O R TG A G E
Colleen Weed
9 9 0 0 S. W. W ilshire Street • Portland, Oregon 9 7 2 2 5
YYY
New York businessman and gay civil rights
leader Fred P. Hochberg was nominated Oct. 10
by President Clinton to be deputy administrator of
the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Hochberg, 45, is the sixth openly gay person to
be appointed by Clinton to a high-level govern
ment position in the preceding five weeks, ac
cording to the Washington Blade.
If confirmed by the Senate, Hochberg will
become the second in command at the SBA, which
has 4,839 employees and cabinet-level status—
making him the second-highest ranking openly
gay person to serve in the U.S. government.
Richard Socarides, Clinton’s liaison to the
queer community, said the White House does not
expect any obstacles to the confirmation.
Hochberg currently serves as co-chair of the
Human Rights Campaign and as head of the
Heyday Company, a private management and
investment firm which he founded and owns.
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