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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 3, 1998)
12 Just M t * July 3. 1998 news Let Me Earn Your Business. H igh C o u rt R ules B ias L aw C overs HIV When buying or selling real estate, I represent y o u r interests! , P , E x p e rien ced In n ovativ e U p-to-D ate Steve Buchert, Realtor Office: 228-9801 • Mobile: 970-3801 e-mail: bucherts@hasson.com 25 NW 2 3 r d P la c e , P o r tla n d , O R 9 7 2 1 0 NO POINTS NO ORIGINATION NO APPLICATION FEES 7% 30 YEAR FIXED 7.10 APR* * > ^ I With hundreds o f loan program s a va ila b le , w e'll f in d the perfect loan f o r you! Brooke Hovcy Jeff Hamel $ 0 Down Programs $ Stated Income $ First Time Homebuyers $ Hard-to-Do Loans $ Refinance/Cash O ut $ Free Pre-Qualifying $ Bankruptcy/Foreclosure A ppointm ents at Mortgage Options your convenience ( 503 ) 6 9 5 0 SW H am p to n S t., S u ite 102, T ig a rd , O R 9 7 223 •Rates subject to channe. Call for current rates. 970-4653 eople with HIV are protected by a federal ban on discrimination against the disabled even if they suffer no symptoms of A ID S, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 25. The 5-4 ruling ordered a lower court to reconsider whether a Maine dentist violated the Americans With Disabilities A ct when he refused to fill an HIV-infected womans tooth in his office. “HIV infection satisfies the statutory and regulatory definition of a physical impairment during every stage of the disease,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. According to The Associated Press, the jus tices said the dentist “had the duty to assess the risk of infection based on the objective, scientif ic information available to him and others in his profession.” The high court did not, however, determine whether dentist Randon Bragdon violated the anti-discrimination law when he refused to fill Sidney Abbott’s tooth in his office. The justices instructed the lower court to reconsider it’s rul ing that Bragdon did violate the A D A in light of their June 25 analysis of the law. Kennedy added, “We do not foreclose the possibility that the Court of Appeals may reach the same conclusion it did earlier.” Daniel Zingale of. A ID S Action, a network of organizations that provide health care and services to A ID S patients, said, “The Supreme Court today handed people with HIV their greatest legal victory since the beginning of the epidemic.” David Sm ith of the Human Rights Campaign called the ruling a great victory. The A D A protects the disabled against dis crimination in jobs, housing and public accom modations such as dentists’ offices. The law says people are disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that “substantially limits one or more major life activities.” L o tt G ets H is L um ps F ollowing his comments likening homosexu ality to alcoholism and kleptomania, the bed Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has made for himself is becoming apparent. Fellow Republican Sen. Alfonse D’Am ato of New York sent a letter urging Lott to schedule a vote on the ambassadorial nomination of James Hormel, an out gay man. Lott, who has the power to stall the vote, has been doing just that, citing Hormel’s past queer activism. In a June 17 press release, Perry insisted Lott “owes an apology to the millions of American citizens who are gay or lesbian.” The business sector had words for Lott as well. Walter Schubert, founder of the Gay Financial Network and the first openly gay member of the New York Stock Exchange, issued a June 23 press release demanding an apology from Lott. “As a self-respecting taxpayer, and a respon sibly voting American, it is my belief that as gay American citizens, we will no longer allow this sort of bullying to go unchallenged,” said Schubert. “ I will not be satisfied until Sen. Lott issues a full apology and complete retraction.” N ew Y o rk S ays ‘N o ’ to Two M ommies I n a unanimous decision, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court found that a lesbian who planned to adopt her ex-partner’s child before they split has no custody rights. A June 16 Associated Press report explained the plaintiff had no rights in the matter and that, according to the court’s three-page ruling, she also failed to prove the biological mother had relinquished her custody rights via “surren der, abandonment, persisting neglect, unfitness or other like extraordinary circumstances.” “The appellate court agreed with us that this case should never have been in family court and dismissed it for lack o f standing,” says Marsha Hunt, the biological mother’s lawyer. “It said as a nonparent she basi cally has absolutely no rights under New York law.” Had the court found for plaintiff, it would have bro ken new legal ground on the adoption rights of unmarried partners. The couple had been together for 17 years and decided to have a child through alternative insemination. Richard Alderman, lawyer for the plaintiff, says his client had a partial hysterecto my after it was agreed that her partner would carry the child, who is now four years old. The relationship ended before adoption proceedings were finalized. N a tio n a l G uard C a n ’ t A sk E ither O D’Amato wrote, in part, “I fear that Mr. Hormel’s nomination is being obstructed for one reason, and one reason only: the fact that he is gay. In this day and age, when people ably serve our country in so many capacities without regard to sexual orientation, for the United States Senate to deny an appointment on that basis is simply wrong.” From another comer, Lott has heard from the Rev. Troy D. Perry, moderator o f the Universal Fellowship of M etropolitan Community Churches. n June 19, a San Francisco judge struck down as unconstitutional a state regulation that bars gay men and lesbians who would be ineligible for the U .S. military under its “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” policy from serving in the California National Guard. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the action appears to be the first state ruling to address a state National Guard’s implementa tion of the Clinton administration’s “don’t ask” policy toward gay men and lesbians in the mili tary, lawyers for the plaintiff in the case said. The ruling by San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia was issued as part of an anti- discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a former lieutenant in the California National Guard who was discharged after he told his supervisor that he is gay. The judge ruled the lawsuit will proceed as a class action whose members will include all gay, lesbian and bisexual members of the California National Guard who face discharge if their sex ual orientation becomes known.