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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1999)
----------- news -------------- Let Me Earn Your Business ^ li e n buying o r selling real estate, I rep resen t yo u r interests! E xperien ced. Innovative. I p-to-D ate Steve B u eh ert. Realtor Office: 228-9801 • Mobile: 970-3801 e-mail: bueherts5hasson.com HASSOM K I A L T O B S 25 NU 23rd Place. Portland. OR 97210 ALABAMA wo men accused m the February murder of a gay man from Svlacauga now face the possibility of the death penalty In March, a grand jury upgraded the charges against Steven Erie Mullins and Charles Butler Jr. to capital murder in the death of Billy Jack Gaither. Butler and Mullins allegedly lured 39-vear- old Gaither away from his home, beat him to death with an ax handle on a dirt roid, then threw his h x h atop a burning pyre of old tires. His charred remains were discovered by a passer-by. According to police, both Butler. 21, and Mullins. 25, confessed to killing Gaither because, they claim, he made a sexual advance toward them. T Y o u a r e irwi+e^d v o u t o eeviov the. fes+rvrftes fo e ■Hawthorne Bridge "R e-O pening C e le b r a tio n P r e s e n t s o f M bvJ S id ew alk S a le ! S a tu rd a y and Su n d ay A p ril 2 4 * an d 2 5 * A w e s o m e S a lé inside & O u t 3633 Hawthorne Bfvd. - 2307740 C e x toys are once again legal— at least tern- Oporanlv— m Alabama. In March. U. S. Dis trict Court Judge Lynnwood Smith of Huntsville overturned the states ban on sex tovs. saving the state had no reason to prohibit the sale of the items. In hts opinion. Smith found the state’s 1998 law to be “overly broad” and in violation of due- process rights because it bears no “rational rela tion to a legitimate state interest." reports The Associated Press. The statute forbids selling or distributing “am obscene material or anv device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimu lation o f human genital organs." Violation of the statute is a misdemeanor that carries a pos sible sentence of one vear in jail and a 5 lO.iW? fine. nn.err. X Turns, who sells sex toys at stores m Hurrs-ede and Decatur, and five other women *n o either sell the devices or said vibrators are r.ecessar. for their sexual gratifi cation. challenged the law. Thev were pleased with Sm iths ruling. Emphasizing that people who use the devices would be “denied therapy for, among other things, sexual dysfunction,” Smith also wTote that “a majority, or at least a significant minority, of the proscribed devices, as a matter of law, are not obscene under any established definition of obscenity.” Sm ith did not support the plaintiffs’ argu ment that the ban violated privacy rights by indirectly prohibiting adults from engaging in legal acts in their own bedrooms. The state attorney general’s office is con sidering whether to appeal the ruling. CALIFORNIA or $20, domestic partners in Los Angeles County can now register their partnership with the local goverment. According to a March 24 Los Angeles Times story, the Board of Supervisors created the for mal registry to provide a centralized list for businesses that extend benefits to unmarried couples. In addition to the $20 fee, those registering must sign a form stating that at least one member of the couple lives in or works for Los Angeles County, that Kith partners are older than 18, and that thev consider themselves to be domestic partners. They can also check off boxes stating that they live together or share property. T he definition of domestic partners was intentionally left a bit vague so that indi vidual businesses could have some latitude in defining what they consider to be a domestic partnership. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, w ho spoke in support of the registry to the Board of Supervisors, said: “More and more private employers have said to me they would be willing to do it if they didn’t have to F C linton P resses for H ate C rimes L aw P rescient Bill Clinton reiterated his sup> port for federal hate crimes legislation at a Wrote House event on April 6. He also as*ed the federal departments of Justice and Education to begin collecting data on hate crimes in schools. v-.inton announced “a public-private part nership' to discuss tolerance in middle schools. The program, called Dealmg uu/i Our 3 r r r v :£ > . will run in October. Among the project's participants are A . NT. Court i » and Cable in the Class- ttxxw. aiong with federal agencies. Gay and lesbian organizations are aware of the project but have vet to he involved in shapme its contents. In a statement, Clinton linked ethnic <deansmg in Kosovo with hatred in the Unit ed States. ‘ Amenca will not be able to be a force for S cxi abroad unless we are good at home," he said Clinton drew upvei his own expvnence crowmg up in the South when he said: “It is ven ear. to get into a social svstem where you in- ¿jet to think a little better of yourself rccause veuve alwavs got someone that you can dehumanize. .And that’s really what thus whoie issue with gavs is today in Amenca." I t was the onh time he used the word gay in a statement of more than 2,lX\? words. The meeting came a day after the Nation al C oalition of A nti-V iolence Programs reported a 108 percent increase in anti-gay violence in 1998 over the previous year. According to the coalition, the incidents are not only growing in number, thev are also becoming increasingly severe. “The president has always understood the importance of sending the message that a hate crime committed against one American is a enme against all Americans and is an assault on our society’s core values, savs \\ in- me Stachelherg, political director of the Human Rights Gimpaign, who then called on Congress to pass the Hate Cnmes Preven tion Act o f 1999. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has scheduled a hear ing on the bill before the committee on April 28. He held a similar hearing last July. The anti-gay Family Research Council, meanwhile, views C linton’s remarks as part of a conspiracy “to invade America’s middle schools and colleges with the homosexual agenda under the guise of ’teaching toler ance.’ ’’ said FRC ’s senior director of cultural studies, Robert H. Knight. ■ Reported by R ob R oom