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NEW YORK
3rd Annual
To P urcha se Trckcts Contact:
ambda Legal
Defense and
Education Fund
said April 18 it
likely will go to
the U.S. Supreme
Court now that
the Texas Court
of Criminal Ap
peals refused to
consider a case
involving a Hous
ton couple con
victed of violat
ing the “Homo
sexual Conduct”
Law by having
consensual sex in Houston lawyer Mitchell Katine (center) is helping Tyron G am er (left) and
the privacy of one John Lawrence fight the Texas “ Homosexual Conduct” Law
man’s home.
crashed Nov. 12 off Kennedy Airport, claiming
They had petitioned the state’s highest court
on criminal cases after their constitutional chal the lives of all on board.
Both couples had executed various legal pro
lenge was rejected by the intermediate Court of
cedures to afford themselves protection. They
Appeals. That court said “preserving public
had health care proxies and documents desig
morality” justified the anti-gay law.
With this ruling, there is no other court in nating one another’s partners as insurance,
Texas where the men can appeal their convic 4 0 l(k ) and pension beneficiaries. Both couples
also were registered as domestic partners with
tions. In an earlier case, the Texas Supreme
the city of New York.
Court ruled that this high criminal court had
“Just like married couples, Gene and I were
jurisdiction over any challenge to the law.
a partnership in every way— emotionally, finan
Yet now that court also offers no hearing and
no chance at justice on this subject. “It’s shock cially, legally and in our everyday lives," Court
ney said. “Gene would want me to seek the pro
ing that neither of the supreme courts in Texas
will even consider the serious constitutional
tections we should have as a married couple
because
we always believed we were a married
problems with this law,” said Ruth E. Harlow,
couple. I’m still wearing the ring to prove it.”
Lambda legal director.
Valentine added: “Joe was my spouse. It
Houston attorney Mitchell Katine added:
would be an insult .n our relationship and Joe’s
“This law greatly harms not just our clients but
m< moiy if he were 'ecogntzed as anything less.
gay men and lesbians throughout the state. We
now are left with no recourse hut the U.S.
And that’s why I’m bringing this claim, to honor
Supreme Court.”
the reality of what Joe and I and our families and
The case began Sept. 17, 1998, when sher friends all knew we had.”
The two cases are the first brought by same-
iff’s deputies, responding to a false report of an
sex partners related to either tragedy. Thev are
armed intruder, entered a private Houston
also the first to be brought by gay or lesbian
apartment where they found two men engaging
in sex. Both were arrested and jailed overnight.
partners seeking coverage undei the stare
Workers’ Compensation Law. which gives first
A county criminal court convicted and fined
priority to surviving spouses to receive benefit
John Lawrence and Tyron Gamer. Lambda
appealed on their behalf to challenge the con of up to $400 a week for the rest of trieir life or
until they retr.am
stitutionality of the law
5 0 3 2 2 6 2 5 8 8 or
T
wo Manhattan residents
whose domestic partners
died in separate tragedies last
year held a news conference
April 22 to announce legal
action against the insurance
companies denying. them
spousal benefits.
The survivors have filed
claims with the New' York
State Workers’ Compensation
Board to receive spousal bene
fits. The insurance companies
now are challenging their right Bill Valentine (left) and Joe Lopes
to receive benefits, asserting
that same-sex domestic part
ners do not qualify as spouses.
The administrative heanng
for one of the survivors, Larry
Courtney, cook place April 23 in
Manhattan. His partner of 14
years, Gene Clark, died Sept. 11
at the World Trade Center,
where he was an administrative
assistant at Aon Consulting.
The hearing of the other
survivor, Bill Valentine, will
take place in July. His partner of
2 1 years, Joe Lopes, was a stew
ard on American Airlines Larry Courtney (left) and Gene
Flight 587 when the plane Clark
ess than one week
after the New York
City Council voted 45-5
to extend civil rights jyo-
tection to trans people,
Republican
Mayor
Michael
Bloomberg
signed the bill into law
April 30. The amendment
takes immediate effect.
The ceremony made
New York City the 42nd
and the most populous
jurisdiction in the country
to provide basic protec
tions to trans people in
employment, housing, pub
lic accommodation and
other areas of everyday life.
As much as 75 percent of
the state’s trans population
lives in the Big Apple.
The passage of this
measure in New York City,
with a population of just
more than 8 million, dra
matically increases at the
national level the number
of people covered by
explicitly trans-inclusive
anti-discrimination laws to