march 15.2002 • Jvat
rTiTTTTTiTI news
fare proposal calling for significant federal and j death of Paul Chmiel, his gay cellmate at Brooks
state funding of programs to promote and foster Correctional Facility.
A Muskegon Q iunty jury deliberated for less
heterosexual marriage.
than a day before announcing the verdict. Keep
Released Feb. 26, his plan encourages
“healthy marriages and two-parent married fam faces a possibility (if life in prison during sen
ilies as a goal.” This includes the expenditure of tencing March 19.
He killed Chmiel in a brutal attack, using
$300 million for projects devoted to promoting
his bare hands to crush the inmate’s ribs and
heterosexual marriage, of which $100 million
will subsidize state and local experimental proj strangle him. The mur
ects for premarital counseling and education as derer admitted in a writ
ten confession he hated
well as research to foster sound marriages.
“Lesbian mothers on welfare cannot marry,” gay men.
said Sean Cahill, NGLTF Policy Institute direc
Chmiel allegedly of
tor. “T he safety net should support all families in
fered oral sex to his
roommate in exchange
need, not only those which pass a conservative
litmus test.”
for a cigarette. Although
no sexual contact or
assault was claimed to
C A L IF O R N IA
have occurred, Keep still
Q anta Barbara resident C lint Scott Risetter,
7 37, died Feb. 24 as a result of hums he sus felt the need to slap him,
tained to his body after being doused with gaso crush several ribs and his
neck, and press his neck
line and set on fire.
into a bunk railing, eventually killing him.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Martin
“It was a pretty vicious death,” Michigan
Thomas Hartman, 38, attacked him because he
State Police Detective Sgt. Gary Miles told the
was a gay man who was “unhappy and depressed
so he didn’t need to he around in the world.” Muskegon Chronicle. “The motive is his dislike of
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and
homosexual males.”
Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle Foundation
the Pacific Pride Foundation condemned the
executive director, added: “This case helps bring
killing March 4.
to light the risk and vulnerability of gay prisoners.
According to the lead investigator in the
W ithin the correctional system, gay people are
case, Hartman admitted he has a lot of hatred
horribly devalued. A t least this jury understood
toward gay people. He has been charged with
the value of Paul’s life, even if too late to save it.”
murder, arson and a hate crime.
“Acts of violence such as this against mem
M A S S A C H U S E TTS
bers of our community are unthinkable, yet they
occur with alanning frequency around the coun n p h e Supreme Judicial Court ruled Feb. 21
that the state’s centuries-old sodomy laws
try," said Darrel Cummings, NGLTF deputy exec
are inapplicable to private, consensual conduct.
utive director. “We are deeply saddened, angered
In a brief unanimous ruling, it found that two
and ever more committed to changing the envi
ronment that fosters and supports this kind of provisions providing penalties of up to five and
20 years for convictions for oral and anal sex,
hate violence. Those in religious and political
respectively, may not be enforced against people
leadership— such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson
and, most recently, Chief Justice Roy Moore of as long as they did not intend public exposure.
Nine individuals who engage in conduct of
the Alabama Supreme Q iurt— must once and for
all end the hateful rhetoric that inspires homo the type prohibited by the laws challenged their
constitutionality because they criminalize com
phobia and accompanying hate crimes.”
mon acts of intimacy. Although the court techni
Pacific Pride organized a candlelight vigil and
memorial March 4. NGLTF encouraged the sexu cally dismissed the case because none of the plain
tiffs was subject to prosecution, it declared for the
al minorities community and its allies to contact
first time that neither of the Massachusetts
officials and urge that this hate crime, and all bias-
statutes applies to private, consensual conduct.
motivated activity and rhetoric, not go unnoticed.
“This is a tremendous victory,” said Jennifer
“We are outraged and saddened by the news
Levi, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defend
of such a heinous crime,” said Janet Stanley,
ers attorney. “The court today clarified that
Pacific Pride executive director. “This is a time
these antiquated laws may not be used to
for all Santa Barharans to come together to
intrude on individuals’ rights to engage in com
denounce such actions.”
mon acts of intimacy in private settings." J H
M IC H IG A N
M
ichael G lenn Keep was found guilty of
second-degree murder in the April 2000
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Mourners attend a candlelight vigil and memorial for Clint Scott Risetter on March 4 in
Santa Barbara, Calif.
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