match 17 "finn J—i m U| f g
Mark Nassif, coordinator of the school’s gift
ed program, said the protest “was unpleasant,
not unsafe.”
“The protest,” he added, “was done in a way
that anyone who values freedom would under
stand. They have a right to protest. They should
not have disrupted school, but they did not cre
ate an environment that compromised safety.
No one was ever unsafe.”
Thirty-six students from the high school
received three-day suspensions for their roles in
the demonstration against the formation of a
Gay-Straight Alliance.
M IC H IG A N
t was a close vote in Femdale, but voters
opposed to a human rights ordinance that
would have banned discrimination against gay
men and lesbians, as well as other groups, won
out.
The
measure
failed 51.2 percent to
48.8 percent, reports
a Feb. 23 Detroit Free
Press story.
The ordinance
would have banned
discrimination
on
the basis of race, reli
gion, disability and
sexual orientation, as
well as other grounds.
It was the sexual ori
entation
category
that caused outrage.
Former Mayor Robert Paczkowski led the
battle against the ordinance. His group received
a $5,000 donation from the American Family
Association, a Christian fundamentalist group
headquartered in Tupelo, Miss.
Paczkowski denied that outside sources had
any effect on the election.
Said Craig Covey, the city’s first openly gay
councilman: “We’re really, really disappointed.
We had to deal with last-minute issues raised by
outsiders. We’ll probably take a breather and
work on it again in a couple of years.”
I
❖
eneral Motors Corporation has
J made its first donation to a gay
and lesbian group, giving $10,000
to Affirmations, the largest gay and
lesbian community center in Michi
gan.
In a March 1 Detroit Free Press
story, members of the gay and les
bian community called the donation
historic. They said the gift, coming
from one of the state’s more conser
vative companies, signals a shift in
attitude.
“First the closet doors came
open, and now the financial doors
are open,” said Affirmations Execu
tive Director Leslie Ann Thompson.
The Femdale-based community
center offers counseling and youth-group activi
ties.
GM spokeswoman Marcia McGee said the
company was acting on the recommendation of
its gay and lesbian employees.
M IS S IS S IP P I
he state House Judiciary Committee passed
a bill that would ban adoption of children
by same-sex couples and would forbid state
recognition of such adoptions granted by courts
in other states, according to a National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force press release.
NGLTF Executive
Director Kerry Lobel
said: “The goal of adop
tion is to make sure that
the child has a perma
nent home with people
who have the skills to be
good parents. The issue
of adoption is best decid
ed by judges and profes
sionals on a case-by-case
basis, not by politicians
or the government. If
the anti-adoption bill
passes, it will result in
Mississippi children who
are desperately seeking
placement in loving families, including commit
ted gay and lesbian couples, being denied per
manent homes. This legislation is not just an
attack on gay and lesbian people. It’s an attack
on children.”
According to a recent review by the Ameri
can Psychological Association, “not a single
study has found children of gay or lesbian par
ents to be disadvantaged in any significant
respect relative to children of heterosexual par
ents.”
The APA report concluded that “home
environments provided by gay and lesbian par
ents are as likely as those provided by heterosex
ual parents to support and enable children’s psy
chosocial growth.”
T
W EST V IR G IN IA
he state Legislature voted March 11 to ban
same-sex marriages and prohibit the state
from recognizing such marriages performed in
other states.
The Senate had already passed the bill, and
the House approved it by
a 96-3 vote, sending it to
the governor for his signa
ture.
According to The
Associated Press, Gov.
Cecil Underwood intro
duced the ban, so his
agreement is expected.
The bill would allow
marriage licenses to be
issued only to opposite-sex
couples. It would add to
marriage license applica
tions the phrase: “Mar
riage is designed to be a
loving and lifelong union
between a woman and a
man.”
The measure also pro
hibits West Virginia from recognizing same-sex
marriages performed in other states.
T
■ Compiled by KRISTINE C h ATWOOD, a longtime
Just Out contributor.
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