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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2001)
October ! 9. 2001 trillili ï h y n n e w s St. Stephens Epi piscopaJ Welcoming All People Since 1863 T i l H D O W N T O W N 1 PARISH >1 an order was issued in 1998 prohibiting either parent from spending time with the children “during any time where one cohabits with or has overnight stays with any adult” to whom they are not married or related. She initially agreed to the order hut does not believe it should apply to her relationship with her life partner. Last year the couple entered into a civil union in Vermont, and Bums adopted her part ner’s last name. She took the position that this should he treated as a marriage and that she could live with her partner and still visit her children. Her ex-husband took her to court, and the trial judge ruled against her. According to attorney Stephen R. Scarbor ough, the court should he guided by the best interests of the children and the reality of each family rather than rigid formulas when deter mining custody and visitation. He said no evi dence indicates the kids are harmed in any way by Bums’ committed relationship. “What matters most is getting this family hack together and making sure that these chil dren are allowed to maintain a loving and sup portive relationship with their mother,” Scar borough said. “These children need their mother’s guidance and support.” KANSAS T 9 1 1 1 he states so-called “Romeo and Juliet Law” is unconstitutional because it gives lesbian and gay youth much higher prison sentences than straight youth who engage in the same behavior, the American Civil Liberties Union said in an appeal brief filed Sept. 28. Matthew Limon is appealing a 17-year prison sentence he received because shortly after he turned 18, he performed oral sex on a 14-year-old male at a residential school for developmen- tally disabled youth where they both lived in Miami Coles County. If he instead had performed oral sex on a 14-year-old female, he would have received 12 months in jail under the law, which applies only to heterosexuals. “The only difference between a year in jail and 17 years is whether or not you’re gay,” said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Limon’s behalf. “Matt Limon will be 36 years old by the time he’s released, having spent half of his life in prison— while a heterosexual per son would have been released before turning 19.” Under the law, consensual oral sex between two teens is a lesser crime if the younger teen ager is 14 to 16 years old, if the older teen-ager is younger than 19, if the age difference is less than four years, if no third parties are involved and if the two teen-agers “are members of the opposite sex.” The Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution forbids singling out a group of peo ple— based on bigotry toward that group— and punishing them more severely for the same behavior. “That’s exactly what Kansas is doing,” Coles said. The A C LU appeal doesn’t seek to change age-of-consent laws or reduce sentences for sex ual contact with minors, he added. “The question here isn’t whether young adults should he punished for unlawful sexual activity,” Coles said. “It’s whether gay people should he punished more severely than straight people for committing the same crime. We don’t think the Constitution allows that, and we hope this court won’t, either.” NEBRASKA E ven though the state’s highest court said a judge “shocked the conscience” by award ing very little money to the mother of Bran don Teena, the same judge now has raised only slightly the amount a county sheriff must pay for his biased conduct, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Oct. 5. “This latest ruling flaunts the Nebraska Supreme Court’s clear directions,” said attor ney David S. Buckel, who represents JoAnn Brandon. “Fortunately, the Supreme C ourt’s legal standards govern in this state, and those standards tell law en forcement officials they will he held account able if they don’t respect and protect vic tims of bias violence. It’s too had this lower court judge didn’t get the message.” The Supreme Court last April rejected Judge Orville L. Coady’s ruling, which had valued Brandon’s life at zero in setting damages to be paid by Richardson County Sheriff Charles Laux for failing to provide protection after the victim reported being raped by two men who later mur dered him in 1993. In a new ruling issued Oct. 3, he raised that amount to merely $5,000. In addition, for the emotional distress caused Brandon by Laux’s abusive interrogation when he reported the rape— abuse the Supreme Court said was “extreme and outrageous, beyond all possible hounds of decency, and is to he regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized commu nity”— Coady now has set damages at just $7,000. The film Boys Don't Cry told the story of the victim, who was raised as a girl named Teena Brandon and lived briefly as a man in Falls City. “One big part of our job is to persuade courts to adopt fair rules, as we did in the prior appeal of this case, hut another part of our job is to make sure that those rules are followed properly in courts below," Buckel said. “We will appeal this lower court decision and fight on for JoAnn Brandon. ”jn The tragedy depicted in the film Boys Don’t Cry, starring Chloe Sevigny (left) and Hilary Swank, Isn’t over yet Compiled by News Editor JlM R a DOSTA, C(m be reached at jhn@justout.com. 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