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o u w o r/ t /j a r o to
CALIFORNIA
GEORGIA
he Boy Scouts of America strike again. T he
Sept. 12 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle
reports that Dave Rice, an assistant scoutmaster
of a Petaluma troop, was dismissed by the
national organization for what Gregg Shields,
national scout spokesman, called an “inappro­
priate use of his leadership position.”
Specifically, Rice, a scouting veteran of near­
ly 60 years, was accused of involving a 13-year-
old scout, Steven Cozza, in “a campaign to fur­
ther [Rices] own personal and social agenda,”
said Shields.
Earlier this year
Cozza, reacting to a
March ruling by the
California Supreme
Court that said the
Boy Scouts have the
right to exclude gay
people and atheists,
started a nationwide
petition drive to
encourage the Boy
Scouts to end dis­
crim ination against
gay people.
According to Rice, Cozza and his father, also
a scoutmaster, asked Rice for help in running
the petition campaign. Rice also stated he
“absolutely did not” encourage Cozza to join
Scouting for All, an organization he started in
1993 to combat the gay ban.
According to Scouts leaders, neither the
local troop nor the local Boy Scouts Council
had requested Rice’s ouster.
he state of Georgia is nothing if not consis­
tent in its refusal to recognize same-sex
relationships as valid in any arena.
T he state, through its insurance commission­
er’s office, has ruled that the Hartford Company,
a national insurance company, cannot offer
same-sex couples rates and discounts on auto
insurance that match the rates and discounts it
offers married couples in Georgia.
In a Sept. 3 story, Southern Voice reports the
insurance commissioner also refused to allow
health insurers to write policies providing
domestic partner coverage.
Currently, the Hartford Company offers its
“diverse household” program in 34 states.
T
T
HAWAII
recent poll conducted by the Honolulu
Advertiser and Channel 2 News shows
that, while voters in the Aloha State oppose
same-sex marriage, they don’t necessarily want
to change the state constitution to give legisla­
tors the power to ban such marriages.
Poll results, released in the Sept. 18 issue of
the Advertiser, show that same-sex marriage is
opposed by 72 percent of the voters. Only 52
percent want the state constitution changed,
however.
Jackie Young, campaign director for Protect
Our Constitution, believes the numbers show
that people are getting the message that a “dan­
gerous precedent” would be set by using the con­
stitution to limit rights.
A
FLORIDA
aul Facchina Jr., 27, a former model who
claims he was made to be a “poster boy” for
gay men living with AIDS, has a right to sue
over the use of his photograph, an appeals court
ruled Sept. 23.
According to an Associated Press report,
Facchina said he signed an agreement in
November 1994 with Mutual Benefits Corp. to
use his image for advertisements related “solely
to the purchasing of life insurance policies.”
A year later, Facchina filed suit, claiming his
photograph was published in magazines across
the country directed to “sexually active homo­
sexuals” and that the text of the ad implied he
was a gay man with AIDS.
P
Janice Pechauer, president of Save Tradition­
al Marriage ’98, said the poll results mean that
people just don’t understand the constitutional
amendment question.
One thing both sides do agree on is that a lot
of work remains to he done between now and
the Nov. 3 general election to educate the vot­
ing public about the constitutional amendment.
T he proposed amendment was placed on the
ballot by state legislators in an effort to head off
a possible state Supreme Court ruling legalizing
same-sex marriage.
ILLIN O IS
C
ve 90t one of them
Location*
The AP reports that three different versions
of the lawsuit have been thrown out by a
Broward County circuit judge. The 4th District
Court of Appeals, however, maintained
Facchina should be able to sue over use of his
photo without authorization, invasion o f priva­
cy and defamation.
Named in the lawsuit are Viatical Benefits
Foundation, which buys life insurance policies
on discount from terminally ill patients, and its
affiliate, Mutual Benefits, which matches people
interested in buying policies with those wanting
to sell them.
Facchina’s attorney, J. Davis Connor, told
the AP Facchina had no idea his image would
be used to advertise a company that buys insur­
ance policies from gay men with AIDS.
Attorney Kerry Wilson added, “This young
man, his family is Italian, he is intensely hetero­
sexual. It embarrassed the hell out of him."
^ook County, which includes the city of
✓ Chicago, is Illinois’ only county that pro­
vides workplace discrimination protection to
gay men and lesbians. T he 1993 ordinance
extending workplace protection is enforced by
the Cook County Commission on Human
Rights.
T he commission recently made it very clear
that such discrimination will not be tolerated
when it ordered a Red Lobster restaurant to
reinstate a gay man who had been fired because
of his sexual orientation.