18
nTÌVìTìTTÌTlnews
ILLINOIS
CALIFORNIA
uperior Court Judge William Cahill has
pulled the latest pull in the ongoing tug of
war between medical marijuana advocates and
opponents.
No sooner had state Attorney General Dan
Lungren managed to close San Francisco’s
Cannabis Cultivators Club on the grounds that
it was not a primary caregiver—a condition for
legal distribution of marijuana under the state’s
recently passed Proposition 215—than a new
club went up in its place. True to character,
Lungren sued to close the successor, Cannabis
Healing Center.
Cahill’s April 29 ruling, reports The
Associated Press, ordered the new club to curb
drug sales within the immediate neighborhood
but fell far short of putting it out of business.
The new club bills itself as a primary care
giver for 300 to 500 patients daily.
Proudly
Serving
Our
Community
he Boy Scouts of America have been
dumped from the list of beneficiaries of a
citywide charity drive in San Francisco.
The organization’s official policy of non
admittance for openly gay people was the reason
behind the action, according to the San
Francisco Chronicle.
Supervisor Mabel Tung led the move to omit
the group, stating, “Gay and lesbian kids face
tremendous obstacles in school and elsewhere.
For their sake it is important to decry discrimi
nation based on sexual preference, wherever it
exists.”
The move is far more political than fiscal,
considering last year’s charity drive netted the
local Boy Scouts chapters just $628.
T
Cobb &
Woodworth
Attorneys at Law
503-226-0088
920 Crown Plaza
1500 Sw First Avenue
Portland, OR 97201
Fax 503-226-9005
ivorA hard to yet to t/ic top
T
KANSAS
ax Movsovitz, an artist who was arrested
for soliciting sex from an undercover
police officer in Topeka’s Gage Park in April
1995, has lost his courtroom challenge of the
state’s anti-sodomy law and a city ordinance,
reports the Wichita Eagle.
With backing from the American Civil
Liberties Union, Movsovitz argued the law and
ordinance violated his rights to privacy, equal
treatment under the law and freedom of expres
sion. He also charged the law discriminates
against gay men and lesbians.
The state Court of Appeals panel unani
mously rejected all the arguments. The court’s
statement opined, “As societal values evolve,
the Legislature may follow some other state leg
islatures and decriminalize private sexual behav
ior between all consenting adults. However,
these are issues that should be addressed by leg
islatures and not courts.”
M
MICHIGAN
oters in Ypsilanti retained an anti-discrim
ination ordinance that includes protection
ssemblyman Pete Knight, a Palmdale
Republican who failed in two attempts to based on sexual orientation. According to the
Rights Campaign, the 1997 ordinance
get a bill banning gay marriages through the leg Human
islature, needs to collect 433,269 signatures by was kept in place by a 56 percent to 44 percent
June 25 in order to get his initiative on the vote May 4 in the city, which is about 25 miles
west of Detroit and home to roughly 25,000
November ballot.
people.
According to The Associated Press, Knight’s
The city council unanimously approved the
measure, entitled the California Defense of
Marriage Act, would add one sentence to the ordinance in December, then suspended it in
Family Code: “Only marriage between a man February after petitioners called for its repeal.
and a woman is valid or recognized in The measure bars discrimination in 14 areas,
including race, height, weight, disability and
California.”
The state currently allows marriage only sexual orientation.
Ordinance opponents included professional
between a man and a woman, but California law
recognizes all marriages performed elsewhere football player and Baptist minister Reggie
and thus would recognize same-gender unions White. The balloting came five days after
should the practice be legalized in another state. White appeared at a rally held by opponents of
the ordinance’s sexual orientation provision.
A
GEORGIA
nion City, a small town just southwest of
Atlanta, was the scene of a recent sex-toy
raid, reports the Southern Voice.
Police told the Voice they confiscated 3,500
sexual devices during
the April 14 raid on
New York Video. The
store’s parent compa
ny, Intersection, esti
mates the value of the
confiscated merchan
dise—mostly dildos,
butt plugs, vibrators
and inflatable dolls—
at $50,000.
“They cleaned out
all of the sex toys across the line,” says Alan
Begner, Intersection’s attorney. “But we’re
restocking as we speak.”
Georgia law reads: “Any device designed or
marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation
of human genital organs is obscene”—and
.therefore illegal to sell.
.
.
U
Locations
he Queer Kiss-In, christened in Evanston
in 1997, returned this year to the
Northwestern University campus. In an attempt
to raise awareness and empower queer students,
the university’s Bisexual,
Gay
and
Lesbian
Alliance coordinated a
public display of same-
sex affection, reports the
Daily Northwestern.
“We just wanted to
make it clear that gay people should be able to
show affection in public,” says student Ian
Hlawati. “We need to be accorded respect.”
RHODE ISLAND
group in South Kingstown that helps les
bians and their families deal with cancer
has won tax-exempt status from the Internal
Revenue Service after an initial rejection.
Kathys’ Group says it originally was told by
the IRS that it would only be given a tax
exemption if it extended its service from les
bians to all women.
According to the Associated Press, a lawyer
for Kathys’ Group, who called the initial denial
an instance of anti-gay discrimination, says the
status will help the counseling group gather
donations by relieving contributors of the oblig
ation to pay taxes on the money they donate.
Kathys’ Group provides free counseling to
lesbians, their partners and families. The group
was founded in 1995 after one member of a les
bian couple—both named Kathy—became sick
with breast cancer.
■ Compiled by
SORENSEN
S
orensen
.
WILL
O’B ryan and
..
1NGA