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ARIZONA
pproximately 5,000 people turned out for a
Feb. 13 march in response to the stabbing
of a gay man.
The 20-year-old University of Arizona stu
dent was stabbed at a coffeehouse a few days
before.
Accord
ing to a
Feb. 14 Ari
zona Daily
Star report,
police have
described the
stabbing as a hate crime.
The alleged assailant, 37
year-old Gary Grayson, has been
charged with aggravated assault. He is being
held in the Pima County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
The Arizona Legislature passed a hate crimes
statute in 1997. It permits judges to impose more
severe penalties if a crime victim is targeted
because of race, color, sexual orientation, reli
gion, national origin, gender or disability.
Rally organizers requested that reporters not
identify the man who was stabbed.
“He’s already been targeted once. He doesn’t
need to be a target again,” said organizer Dace
Park.
During an open microphone session at the
rally, 15 people told of their personal experi
ences with homophobic violence.
Said Park: “This is a symptom, a symptom of
hate, a symptom that our society has started to
accept as normal.”
Speaking at the rally, the injured student
said: “Fear will not victimize me, discrimination
will not discourage me and hate will not stop
me. I hope that people everywhere will add their
voices to my own.”
A
CALIFORNIA
L
ast month, senior management at the
Atascadero Gazette dropped a calen
dar listing for a gay support group. That
action, and the explanation for it,
prompted the resignations of nearly a
dozen employees, including the publish
er and the editor, reports the San Luis Obispo
Tribune.
The controversy has also led to the cancella
tion of roughly 200 subscriptions and sparked a
protest on the local courthouse steps.
"They said we don't carry advertising,
articles or letters which advocate
homosexuality or abortion.
But we do carry materials which
are against those things."
— Steve Martin, former publisher
of the Atascadero Gazette
According to the Feb. 18 Tribune, Steve
Martin, the publisher who resigned, said man
agement explained the decision at a meeting
with publishers of the five San Luis Obispo
County weekly gazettes owned by David
Weyrich.
“They said we don’t carry advertising, arti
cles or letters which advocate homosexuality or
abortion. But we do carry materials which are
against those things,” he said.
Following Martin’s resignation, editor Ron
Bast quit, and reporter Anne Quinn gave
notice.
According to Todd Hansen, the gazettes’
chief executive officer, the newspapers’ policy
concerning gays and abortion should not have
come as a surprise to staff members.
"We do not hesitate on our philosophy. We
stand by it," Hansen
said. “T his isn’t any
thing new. T hat’s why
we started the gazettes,
to offer family-values
newspapers. If people didn’t
know that, it’s been a misunder
standing or not clearly spoken.”
Hansen insisted Weyrich’s publications are
not trying to single out the gay and lesbian com
munity.
“We don’t have anything against the people;
it’s the act they do,” said Hansen. “We just want
our paper to go into everyone’s household and
be able to have 5-year-olds to grandparents read
it.”
Marie Moore, a board member of the Central
Coast Gay and Lesbian Alliance, said the deci
sion came as a surprise to her.
“It’s a blow to the community. It tries to force
us to stay invisible. It’s like chopping off an
arm,” she said. “There are entities involved in
advertising that are very conservative, very right
wing, so maybe they’re getting pressure from
them."
he 68 ministers who blessed a lesbian wed
ding to protest the Methodist Church’s ban
on gay and lesbian marriages
received a reprieve in February
from any disciplinary action.
According to a Feb. 12 Associ
ated Press account, church inves
tigators decided the charges were
not serious enough to merit a trial
under United Methodist law.
Had the pastors been convict
ed of violating church law,
they could have faced dis
missal.
“N o further steps or
actions will be pur
sued,” said Bishop
Melvin Talbert of the
California-Northern
Nevada Conference.
“T his decision will
not resolve the ten
sion within the community.”
The January 1999 ceremony that united
Ellie Charlton, 64, and Jeanne Barnett, 69, was
attended by 1,500 guests and 92 ministers. The
formal complaint named only the 68 ministers
who are within the jurisdiction of the Califor
nia-Northern Nevada Conference.
The lead defendant, the Rev. Don Fado of
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Sacra
mento, compared the ceremony to an act of
civil disobedience. Fado said he sought a church
trial to force the Methodist Church to confront
the needs of gay and lesbian members.
COLORADO
ith a close Feb. 21 vote in the House of
Representatives, the state Legislature
approved a ban on same-sex marriages, The Den'
ver Post reported Feb. 22.
W
According to the newspaper, Gov. Bill
Owens has said he will sign the measure into
law— a marked contrast to the position of
Owens’ predecessor, Democrat Roy Romer, who
vetoed two such bills.