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C A LIF O R N IA
KANSAS
nder a bill signed last month by Gov. Gray
Davis, gay men and lesbians cannot be
rejected for jury service because of their sexual
orientation, reports a June 27 story in the San
Francisco Chronicle.
In addition, potential jurors cannot be
excused by attorneys because of a belief that
their sexual orientation makes them biased.
The new law, sponsored by Assemblywoman
Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, makes law of
federal and state court decisions that a person
cannot be prevented from serving on a jury be
cause of sexual orientation or dismissed because
of a perceived bias based on sexual orientation.
A number of factors that cannot be used to
exclude someone from jury service—job, race,
color, religion, sex or nationality— already exist
in the law.
Earlier this year, the Fourth District Court of
Appeals in Orange County issued a decision
that said gay men and lesbians should be added
to the list.
According to the courts ruling, gay men and
lesbians have a common perspective and, because
of that perspective, represent a class of citizens
that cannot be excluded from jury service.
The court also said sexual orientation should
not be a part of the questioning of potential
jurors.
ccording to J ’Noel Ball Gardiner, her 11-
month marriage to Marshall Gardiner was
a happy one. The difference in their ages was
not a problem. They were in love. After their
first date, in 1998 when she was 40 and he was
85, she knew “he was my soul mate.” Her life
was shattered when he died suddenly of a heart
attack.
When Marshall Gardiner died, reports a July
7 Wall Street Journal story, he left an estate val
ued at $2.5 million and no will. Under Kansas
law, the estate would normally be divided even
ly between a widow and any children.
Marshall Gardiner’s only child,
Joe Gardiner, was suspicious of his
stepmother. He knew she was
young, and he thought the rela
tionship was odd. He hired an
attorney who hired a private
investigator, and it was the
private investigator who dis
covered what the others
did not know: J ’Noel
Gardiner’s
Social
Security number had
been issued to a man; she had had a sex change
operation.
Joe Gardiner filed a lawsuit contesting the
legality of his father’s marriage. In January, a
state judge agreed with Joe Gardiner, issuing a
ruling that says, essentially, once a man always a
man. J ’Noel Gardiner is appealing the niling.
This case could prove to be precedent
setting. The number sex-change operations in
the United States is growing about 10 percent
annually according to Nancy Cain, executive
director of the International Foundation for
Gender Education, located in Boston. Approxi
mately 5,000 people in the United States had a
sex change last year, Cain says.
The state of Wisconsin, where J ’Noel Gar
diner was bom, reissued her birth certificate to
say she is female. Kansas is one of the few states
that does not recognize new birth certificates
issued to reflect a sex change. This circumstance
makes J ’Noel Gardiner a woman in Missouri,
where she lives, and a man in Kansas, where she
got married.
J ’Noel Gardiner was very cautious about
sharing information about her past as a man.
She said Marshall Gardiner was the first person
outside her family she trusted enough to tell.
According to her, he replied, “I love you to the
core.” They married a month later.
Joe Gardiner does not believe his father ever
knew about J’Noel Gardiner’s past. “He was a
religious person,” he said, and conservative. “He
was bom in 1912 and concerned about his
stature in the community.”
J ’Noel Gardiner declined a settlement offer
U
“No one should be ‘outed’ in order to take
part in the civic enterprise which is jury duty,”
the court wrote. “The whole point is that no one
can be excluded because of sexual orientation.
That being the case, no one should be allowed
to inquire about it.”
There was opposition to Migden’s bill,
which goes into effect Jan. 1.
The Committee on Moral Concerns, writing
in opposition to the bill, argued: “Gays, lesbians
and bisexuals are a politically charged, activist
minority fighting to advance a sexual lifestyle
that has never been accepted in American his
tory.... The bill’s findings identify them as a
group that might have a chip on its shoulder.
That is exactly the type of social segment that
should be excluded from certain trials.”
A
made by Joe Gardiner. She vows to continue
with her appeal.
LO U IS IA N A
L
ouisiana’s 195-year-old sodomy law has been
upheld by the state Supreme Court.
Violation of the law could be punished with
up to five years in prison for engaging in oral or
anal sex, reports a July 7 Associated Press story.
Writing for the majority in the 5-2 decision,
Justice Chet Taylor said, “Simply put, commis
sion of what the Legislature determines as an
immoral act, even if consensual and private, is
an injury against society itself.”
The two dissenting justices, Chief Justice
Pascal Calogero Jr. and Justice Harry Lemmon,
said the law represents an intrusion of gov
ernment into citizens’ homes.
“The only apparent purpose of the pro
hibition is to dictate the type of sex that is
acceptable to legislators,” wrote Lemmon.
“Two married persons should be able to
choose how they conduct their non
public, voluntary sexual relations in
the security of their own home; a
law that takes that choice away
from them is an intrusion by the legislative
branch that is constitutionally intolerable.”
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal had
reversed the conviction of a man who had oral
sex with a woman, saying the law violated pri
vacy rights. The man’s conviction for a crime
against nature and his suspended three-year jail
sentence were reinstated by the Supreme Court.
A civil rights lawsuit filed by gay activists is
not affected by the ruling. It challenges the
sodomy law on different issues.
NEW YORK
he state of New York has a new hate crimes
law, signed by Gov. George Pataki earlier
this month, reports a
July 10 Associated
Press story.
In the past, Sen
ate Republicans had
blocked the bill. They
argued that it is unfair
to single out some
crimes for higher penal
ties.
Times change. Pres
sure grew over the years.
When the bill came to
the floor last month, it
passed with Republi
can support.
“The people of
New York are saying
at last that all of us—
black and white, gay
W c ' k
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UHfA
and straight, Christian, Jew and Muslim— we
will fight this battle together,” said Matt Fore
man, executive director of Empire State Pride
Agenda.
The law increases penalties for many crimes
if they are motivated by bias against someone’s
race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability
or age.
W E S T V IR G IN IA
A
rthur Warren Jr., 26, was a slender, quiet
man who walked everywhere in Grant
Town. An African American gay man, he had
spoken often of being harassed because of his
sexuality.
“He said he was attacked by some high
sc hex) 1 boys in Grant Town before. People would
throw things at him as he walked down the
street, call him ‘queer’ and other names,” said
Angela Dunlap of the gay and lesbian support
._____...
group at nearby
Fairmont State
College.
According to
various
media
sources, Warren
apparently was
beaten to death
and then repeat
edly run over by
two teen-agers in
early July. His
body was found
by a newspaper
carrier the morning after the attack.
A break in the investigation came when a
16-year-old boy told his mother, and then law-
enforcement deputies, that he had witnessed the
two 17-year-old boys beat Warren. He also con
fessed to having helped them clean up the mur
der scene.
Members of the local gay and lesbian com
munity believe Warren’s death should be de
fined as a hate crime. But West Virginia’s hate
crimes law does not include sexual orientation.
Police say they have no evidence pointing to
a hate crime because of either Warren’s
race or sexual orientation.
The two 17-year-olds, who are
white, reportedly confessed and
have been charged with first-
degree murder. The prosecutor
has not yet decided whether to
try them as adults.
Compiled by K ristine C h atwood ,
a Portland-based
^
free-lance writer
and longtime
Just Out
»I
contributor.
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