novembef 6. 1998 s
ili ri] jfiTi news
A nd J ustice
for
A ll ?
Amnesty International targets human rights abuses in the so-called land of the free'
A
mnesty International officials say
they plan to take a look into
human rights violations commit
ted by the United States.
Although gay and lesbian
issues are mentioned in the groups recently-
released report entitled United States of America:
Rights for All — in which Amnesty International
announces its intention to look into U .S. viola
tions— they are not among the five areas that
will be the organization’s main focus.
Those five areas deal with: violations in U .S.
prisons; detention of those seeking asylum;
police brutality; policies regarding the death
penalty; and the country’s ways of dealing with
other nations.
The report claims the United States com
mits human rights violations against its own cit
izens as well as citizens of other countries around
the world. Gay and lesbian issues, however, do
not play a major role in the report, despite the
he 105th Congress adjourned Oct.
21, leaving little anti-gay legisla
tion in its wake.
A high point came Aug. 5
*JL
when the House voted down the
Hefley amendment by a 252-175 vote. The
measure would have rolled back President Bill
Clinton’s executive order prohibiting sexual ori
entation discrimination in the federal work
place.
“It was an incredible victory, it certainly was
historic,” says Winnie Stachelberg, political
director of the Human Rights Campaign, a
national gay and lesbian political group based in
Washington, D.C.
She adds, “It was the first time the House of
Representatives, and a fairly conservative House
at that, has made it clear that discrimination
against gays and lesbians is not to be tolerated.”
Log Cabin Republicans head Rich Tafel
joined in calling the vote historic.
Perhaps a dozen Republicans consistently
vote in support of gay and lesbian issues, but on
the Hefley amendment that number swelled to
63, and, notes Tafel, “key conservative Republi
cans spoke up for us” on the floor of the House.
“It sent a message to the leadership of the
party that when they bring up these things they
are going to get their hands burned,” he says.
fact that sodomy laws remain on the books in
nearly two dozen states.
Such laws represent discrimination against
gay men and lesbians that is written into law.
Thirty-nine states do not have nondiscrimina
tion policies, representing an absence of a law
that could protect members of the sexual
minorities community.
Janice Christensen, director of Amnesty’s
U .S. violations project, says the five areas for
study enumerate violations that impact people
from all ethnic and minority groups, rather than
violations targeted at one specific group.
“What we tried to do is cover issues that if we
did address would remedy a situation for every
one,” she adds.
For example, she says, helping to end police
brutality would be a step forward in rights not
just for gay men and lesbians, but for all people
who suffer police brutality.
Sodomy laws are mentioned in the report’s
g ip
piaster
introduction, and a section of the
chapter on police brutality is devoted
to abuse against gay men and lesbians.
Despite the lack of emphasis on gay
issues in the publication, Amnesty
International is beginning a new, fully
funded project to address gay and lesbian
matters.
Michael Heflin, the director of the new
project, says there is a reason gay and lesbian
issues are not more prominent in the organiza
tion’s agenda.
He says all of Amnesty’s work is couched in
terms of a four-part mandate: to help prisoners of
conscience; to abolish torture and execution; to
ensure fair trials for political prisoners; and to
assist asylum seekers. The mandate is Amnesty’s
mission, and Heflin says everything the group
does should be related to that mission.
He also notes United States of America: Rights
for All is only an overview report about
So-so S tatus Q uo
The good news is there's not a lot of bad news to report
about the recently-adjourned 105th Congress by Bob Roehr
"It was the first time the
House o f Representatives,
and a fairly conservative
House a t that, has made it
clear that discrimination
against gays and lesbians
is not to be tolerated."
— Winnie Stachelberg
Winnie Stachelberg
The House did approve the anti-gay Riggs
amendment by two votes. The proposal sought
to block a requirement by the city of San Fran
cisco that companies doing business with it offer
domestic partner benefits. The House also adopt
Coventry
ed the L’Argent amendment, which had the
effect of blocking joint adoptions by lesbian and
gay male couples in the District of Columbia.
The Senate, however, never considered
these measures, which were dropped during bud
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get negotiations between the two chambers and
the White House.
Stachelberg says, “While we haven’t moved
backwards, we haven’t moved forward either.”
She says she is disappointed the federal Hate
Crimes Prevention Act did not pass— even after
the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. Stachel
berg hopes that measure, as well as the Employ
ment Non-Discrimination Act, will see success
come the next Congress.
Nearly 20 ambassadors were confirmed— but
not San Francisco businessman James Hormel,
the nominee for Luxembourg, who would be the
nation’s first openly gay ambassador. Senate
leaders have blocked his confirmation for
months due in part to his sexual orientation.
H IV and A ID S programs received "an
unprecedented level of new funding,” says Jeff
Jacobs, director of government affairs at the
A ID S Action Council.
Cornelius Baker, executive director of the
National Association of People With AIDS,
also praised the increases in funding, but his dis
appointments include the administration’s
backing down on funding needle-exchange pro
grams to reduce transmission of HIV, and C on
gress’s imposition of a ban on local funding of
those programs in the District of Columbia.
The 106th Congress opens in January.
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Amnesty’s look at viola
tions in this country.
Papers on specific
aspects of the violations,
which will also contain
more details about what
people can do to combat
these violations, will be issued
throughout the year. He says he is
pushing for fuller coverage of gay
and lesbian issues in one of those papers.
“We’re hoping that we can do a lot more
now that we have the resources,” Heflin says,
pointing out that the organization is still devel
oping its strategic plan for dealing with lesbian
and gay issues.
He adds he’d like to see Amnesty eventually
work in partnership with domestic organizations
like the Human Rights Campaign, a national
gay and lesbian rights group based in Washing
ton, D.C.
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