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U
news
GEORGIA
Walton County judge is holding a woman
in “willful contempt” simply because she
shares a residence with her same-sex partner.
Jean Ann Vawter was divorced from Douglas
Alan Vawter in 1994- At that time, she was
given sole custody of the couples children.
According to the American Civil Liberties
Union, Douglas Vawter knew his ex-wife was in
a committed relationship with another woman.
In 1996, the two women participated in a reli
gious commitment ceremony.
Last year Douglas Vawter requested that a
local court issue an order that his wife be incar
cerated in the Walton County jail because, he
claimed, she violated their divorce agreement
by exposing the children to a "meretricious rela
tionship."
The judge found
Jean Vawter’s rela
tionship was “un
wholesome.” She
and her children
were ordered to
leave the home
they had shared
with her partner
for more than four
years.
In April, the
ACLU filed an
appeal in the Supreme Court of Georgia on
behalf of Jean Vawter. The appeal asserts that
the relationship between Jean Vawter and her
partner is not “meretricious,” and that the con
tempt order requiring her and her children to
leave their home is a violation of her constitu
tional rights.
A
IOWA
he April 27 Des Moines Register reports that
Seattle-based sex columnist Dan Savage,
who allegedly cast a vote earlier this year in
Iowa presidential caucuses, has been charged
with felony voter fraud.
According to attorney Mark Weinhardt,
who represents Savage, his client is to appear
May 9 in Polk County District Court.
Savage is looking at both a felony charge and
a serious misdemeanor charge. If convicted,
Weinhardt says, Savage could spend up to six
years in prison.
In January, Savage ventured to Iowa to write
a story for the online magazine Salon. The arti
cle, titled Stalking Gary Bauer," details Sav
age’s efforts to infiltrate the conservative Repub
lican candidates Iowa campaign. Savage also
wrote of his attempt to infect Bauer with the flu
by, among other things, licking doorknobs at
Bauer’s campaign headquarters.
According to Savage, he used his temporary
address at the Kirkwood Hotel in Des Moines to
vote in the caucuses.
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I n April, Mississippi became the second state
1 in 2000 to pass legislation banning gay and
lesbian couples from adopting.
Utah passed a similar law earlier this year.
Previously, Florida had been the only state to
forbid adoptions by gay and lesbian couples.
The Associated Press reports that the state
Senate passed the ban in April with no debate
and no opposition. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove has
said he will sign the bill.
Religious leaders were divided over the ban.
The state Episcopal bishop urged lawmakers to
prayerfully examine all evidence before passing
such a bill; Baptists and Methodists, meanwhile,
lobbied for the measure’s passage.
There was pressure from the religious right,
and they caved in to that pressure even though
they were aware that it would be litigated. This
is just an invitation to litigate,” says David Inge-
bretsen, head of the Mississippi chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
The law takes effect July 1.
NATIONAL
I) resident Bill Clinton is gearing up to revive
1 stalled hate crimes legislation with the hope
of forcing a congressional vote before the
November elections, reports an April 25 Asso
ciated Press story.
Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno
met with state law enforcement officials in April
at the White House to formulate a strategy for
mobilizing public support for the hate crimes bill
and to force the Republican congressional lead
ership to take up the issue.
The bill would add crimes motivated by a
victims sexual orientation, sex or disability to
the list of hate crimes already covered by feder
al law. Those include crimes motivated by race,
religion, color or national origin. The bill would
also give federal prosecutors the option of pursu
ing a hate crime case if local authorities declined
to press charges.
White House officials admitted using the
hate crimes issue as a wedge to force the Repub
lican Party to back up its “compassionate con
servative” rhetoric with action.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a
senior White House official told the AP that
Gov. George W. Bush’s “trouble with Bob Jones
and extremist elements in the Republican
Party” were factors in deciding to push for a hate
crimes bill. The official was referring to Bush’s
failure to denounce Bob Jones University’s
interracial dating ban during a speech he gave at
the South Carolina school.
Clinton has
criticized Bush for
opposing
hate
crimes legislation
introduced
in
the
Texas after James
Byrd, an African
American, was
tied to a pickup
truck and dragged
to death by a
group of white
men.
“All he had to
do was lift his hand and they would have had a
hate crimes bill,” Clinton said at the time. “And
it did not pass because they [Republicansi did
not want it to pass.”
Stating that “all crime is hate crime,” Bush
refused to get involved in the Texas debate con
cerning hate crimes legislation.
he U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments
April 26 in a case that will determine
whether the Boy Scouts of America can bar gay
men from serving as troop leaders.
New Jersey’s highest court previously ruled
that the Boy Scouts’ firing of a gay troop leader
violated a state law prohibiting discrimination
in public accommodations. But laywers for the
Scouts say the law violates the organizations
rights of free speech and free association under
T
the Constitution’s First Amendment.
“Boy Scouting is so closely identified with
traditional moral values that the phrase ‘Hes a
real Boy Scout’ has entered the language, said
lawyer George A. Davidson, arguing that the
Scouts had a constitutional right to oust New
Jersey troop leader James Dale after learning he
is gay.
“Mr. Dale had created a reputation for him
self ” by becoming publicly known to be gay, and
that would harm his ability to be a role model to
Scouts, Davidson told the justices.
But, according to The Associated Press,
Dale’s lawyer, Evan Wolfson of Lambda Legal