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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1999)
V rTiTTTiTTTTI news ALABAMA lightly more than a year ago, New Woman All W om en Health Care in Birmingham was the site o f a fatal bombing. Today, security cameras com b the parking area and yard where the bomb went off Jan. 29, 1998, killing an off-duty police officer and criti cally injuring a nurse. The bombing at the health clinic, which provides abortion services, set off a manhunt for Eric Robert Rudolph, 32, who is believed to he hiding in the woods around his home in western S O n the anniversary o f the bombing, a memo rial service was held in memory o f police officer Robert Sanderson, who was moonlighting as a security guard at New Woman when the blast occurred. He died instantly. Meanwhile, nurse Emily Lyons, who was badly injured, has become a spokeswoman for reproductive rights since the bombing. According to a Jan. 28 Associated Press report, thousands o f people have reached out to Lyons, including Dana Ford, who runs the Oth- erside Lounge, an Atlanta lesbian nightclub that Rudolph is accused o f bombing 11 months before the Birmingham explosion. The report says evidence found in searches o f Rudolph’s home, truck and a warehouse led authorities to charge him in the 1996 Olympic Games bombing in Atlanta, in which a woman died, as well as explosions at the clinic and the lesbian club. CALIFO RN IA 7 illie Brown flew on United Airlines. According to the Jan. 27 San Francis- co Examiner, the mayor o f San Francisco took a United flight despite the fact that his own city is embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with United over the San Francisco law that requires companies doing business with the city to provide workers with domestic partners the same benefits mar ried workers receive. Members o f the city’s Board o f Supervisors and other community members have called for a boycott o f United because o f the airline’s refusal to comply with and legal challenge o f the domestic partners law. Kandace Bender, Brown’s spokeswoman, says she does not know if the mayor was aware o f the boycott, hut he is supportive o f the law. “N o one in this city has been more support ive o f equal benefits than Mayor Brown. N o one,” she says. W hile the mayor was winging his way across the country via the “friendly skies,” attorneys for San Francisco and the Air Transport Associa tion, an airlines trade group, appeared before U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilkins to make final arguments. The ATA filed a lawsuit in May 1997 seek ing exemption from the ordinance. United A ir lines joined with the Air Transportation Associ ation in the lawsuit, which contends that only the federal government, not local governments, can force this requirement on the airline indus try. Also in court the same day were attorneys from fundamentalist minister Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice. They rep resent S.D. Myers, an Ohio-based contractor. Myers’ suit claims his company should not he Le 'Bistro forced to comply with a law that condones a “relationship based on sex outside of marriage.” It is expected that, however Judge Wilkins rules, the case will next be appearing in appeals court. S COLORADO tudent athletes in a school district near Fort Collins could be banned from playing sports if it is revealed that they have HIV or AIDS. If a student athlete reveals that he or she has an infectious disease, the Poudre School District requires that a committee o f parents, health pro fessionals and school officials decide whether the student may play sports, according to The Associated Press. Although the policy— which was approved unanimously by the school board in mid-Janu ary— applies to all sports and all “serious com municable diseases,” the only diseases actually named were HIV and AIDS. “ W e’re not automatically excluding any body," argues Joe Hendrickson, the policy’s lead author and the district’s director of pupil ser vices. “Our intention was to find a policy that did not discriminate, that would only consider exclusion if there were a medically sound rec ommendation.” MINNESOTA Minneapolis police trainee finds himself in the rather awkward position of having to leave the police department each time he wants to use the restroom. The trainee, a preoperative female-to-male transsexual claims he has been denied access to the male shower and bathroom facilities at the department. N o unisex facilities exist, and use of shower facilities is a required part o f training, reports the Jan. 21 Minneapolis Star Tribune. The trainee, known only as "John Doe," has filed a discrimination suit against the police department in Hennepin County District Court. He is undergoing medical treatment in preparation for surgery to become a man. In addition to the problem with the shower facilities, the complaint also alleges that super visors and co-workers refer to “John Doe” using female pronouns. He is seeking payment of attorney’s fees, use o f the male restrooms and showers and to be addressed as a man by his co-workers. A treating people with HIV in the United States is less than one percent o f all U.S. medical expen ditures on patients. That comes to about $20,000 per HIV- infected person each year— or $6.7 billion annually— according to the government-spon sored study, which was overseen by RAN D, a think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif. The 3,072 people interviewed for the study, which was conducted in 1996, came from dozens o f rural and urban areas around the coun try. They were all being treated in hospitals or doctors’ offices. The $20,000 figure is approximately one- third o f the estimates from the early 1990s. Those early estimates were made before the widespread use of so-called AIDS drug cocktails. “Compared to what we spend on all kinds of other things, it’s just not that much money,” says project co-director Dr. Samuel Bozzette. n online thesaurus created by America Online Inc. and Merriam-Webster Inc. was pulled off the Internet after complaints from gay and lesbian rights organizations about the derogatory references used for the word “ hom o sexual,” reports the Jan. 18 issue o f The Wall Street Journal. The list o f synonyms for “ homosexual" included such all-time greats as “fruit,” “faggot” and "hom o,” among others. The word “ped erast,” which refers to men who seek young hoys as sexual partners, also appeared. In a statement, Merriam-Webster officials said they were “reviewing policies regarding inclusion of words that are offensive or inappro priate.” The company also noted “ the thesaurus is not a political tool,” but a compendium o f words “used in our society.” Activists protesting the thesaurus did not ask for the words he removed; they simply requested the companies provide more guidance on the derogatory nature o f the words. The words were discovered by Mike Webb, a Seattle talk show host who was just checking out the thesaurus. He was stunned at the defin itions that appeared on his screen when he typed in the word “homosexual.” He notified an acquaintance at GAYBC Radio Network, and the activist groups went to work. “ I’m not for censorship,” Webb says. “ My only problem is that kids who stumble on these words might think these are words that can he used.” NATIONAL A study published in December’s New Eng- land Journal o f Medicine says the cost of One ^Hundred Cfreat 'Wines One 'BeautifuCBeer Open Seven ‘fifjghts A •Week. A SOUTH CAROLINA ay and lesbian employees o f a Missouri J school district have reason to he happy. According to the Jan. 13 St. Louis Post Dis- patch, the St. Louis School Board approved a policy banning sexual orientation discrimina tion in all aspects o f employment, including hir ing, promotions, salaries and assignments. According to school officials, the new policy is an extension o f a similar one passed last year that banned discrimination against gay and les bian students. 301 S.T. Morrison-234 1324 JUST OUT OF THIS WORLD. 'VI M ISSOURI outage ! hen Susan M. Gilman, a parolee, moved V V to South Carolina, she identified herself on her driver’s license application as a man. That made it much easier for Gilman and Mar sha Vicky Haas to get a notarized marriage license from Charleston County last spring, and for the pair to subsequently get married, reports the Dec. 17 Charleston Post & Courier. South Carolina law forbids same-sex mar riage. Both women have been charged by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division with same-sex marriage. Gilman was also convicted in September on two counts o f having false identification. The marriage was discovered during the investigation o f Gilman’s use o f a man’s name. The marriage license listed the groom as Scott Gilman Austin and the bride as Marsha Vicky Haas. Both women were released from jail on per sonal recognizance bonds. ■ Compiled by KRISTINE CHATWOOP ■ H E * TF CL P A N -Y 252-5944 P 0 R T l i N D OREGON = (¿¿u i IKS A — MORELAND VETERINARY HOSPITAL Dogs • Cats • Reptiles Pocket Pets Quality Care for your variety of pets. Robert Bruno, DVM Kay L. Bruno, DVM j 20 years combined experience N e w fa c ilitie s at 7201 SE Milwaukie Ave. 239-9972 - Monday-Thursday 7:30 - 7:3 ) Friday 7:30 - 6:00 Saturday 8:00 - 1:00 10% OFF D EN TI ST RIE, J\Nl \ ry - F k b r l \R\ I J li ! »