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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 2002)
12 august 1(L2QQ2 nci.ynnews Everybody needs a little help sometimes Sincere, C onfidential S u p p o rt FLORIDA Self-esteem • Spiritual E xploration • A nxiety Family Patterns • C o m in g O u t • A lcoholism T e>oul Tending Marie Nishchala Lassell * Clinical Hypnotherapist/Clairvoyant 5 0 3 -8 8 8 -S O U L (7 6 8 5 ) • Convenient NW Location Phone 503 274-9936 KAREN M. 5WEIGERT, MD O bstetrics and Gynecology pax 503 274-2660 Q m c î M s f ]&&&, P C 1130 N.W. 22nd, 5uite 320, Portland, OR 97210 Mechanic^ ■that fix ■ everythingJ I Including I I yo u f consM •X When an ordinary Realtor simply won’t do... PDX Automotive Is a certified Eco-Logical Business. ( 5 0 3 ) 282 -3 3 1 5 M th ank i ’ •d Mukmda Gerard Lillie *5934 N .E Halsey _ ^ H ® 3144 SE Belmont Portland, OR 97214 office: 503-238-7617 Providing Specialized Pharmacy Services for HIV and Organ Transplant Patients, Coordination of Benefits and Insurance Billing 1215 » s V. .. .. f ‘ WjgRftgjS I PDXI IM Q i he Gay &. Lesbian Victory Fund, a polit ical action committee that endorses openly gay candidates, has condemned a state ment by Doug Head, Orange County Demo cratic Party chairman, comparing an openly gay Republican to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Head was interviewed by the Orlando Sen - tinel abtxjt Patrick Howell, a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives who has the Victory Fund’s endorsement. The July 30 arti cle read, in part, “Head said, however, that gay Democrats crossing party lines to support Howell would be like a ‘Jew voting for Hitler.’ ” Bob Kearney, Victory Fund political director, responded: “H ead’s . analogy IS D oug Head alarming and reprehensible. There is no Represented by Lambda Legal, the plaintiffs comparison between a man who is participating charge that, despite receiving 40 percent of its bud in the democratic process and a totalitarian responsible for the slaughter of millions o f inno get from the state of Georgia, the Home only will cent people, including Jews and gays. Head’s hire Christians, fired a lesbian counselor because her sexual orientation conflicted with its religious attem pt to make sexual orientation a partisan teachings and refused to hire a highly qualified psy issue is divisive and ignores the positive contri butions made to our society by openly gay pub chologist because he is Jewish. The lawsuit also alleges that the Home requires its staff to provide lic servants of every political affiliation.’’ services to youth based on its own religious beliefs Kearney and Victory Fund board member David de Silva Cornell of Miami Beach respond rather than on sound professional practices. For example, the Home instructs its staff that ed to Head’s statement with a letter to the editor queer kids should be sent into of the Sentinel, stating: “As your potentially dangerous inter- story documented, gay ‘ vcntion therapy to and lesbian candi Is Republican undermine their dates and office Patrick H owell sexual orienta- holders are in ashamed to be gay? tio n . In addi. the extreme tion, all youth minority, but at the state- all of them— funded facility no matter are required to their party attend Methixl- affiliation— are ist services, regard making great less of their religious strides toward a " y beliefs. more inclusive “Citizens of Georgia do democracy. Shame on * not expect their tax dollars to be Head for suggesting otherwise used to fund religious discrimination, and the Head lashed back by implying Howell is a sellout. “I...was shocked by the bizarre cam C onstitution does not allow it,” attorney Susan paign Web site photo of ‘proudly’ gay Mr. How Sommer said. “T h e state must hold the U nited M ethodist C hildren’s Home accountable and ell posing as the happy heterosexual family man stop funding the Home as long as it continues to with his arm around a female campaign worker use tax dollars to force its religious beliefs on and the son of a marriage he left when the boy young people in state custody and to discrimi was 2 months old bouncing on his knee.” nate in employment.” T he lawsuit charges that the lead plaintiff, GEORGIA Aimee Bellmore, was fired because she is a les n a new case challenging public funding of a bian and does no t share the Hom e’s religious religious organization, the U nited Methodist beliefs about homosexuality. She was a highly C hildren’s Home in Decatur has been accused capable youth counselor at the Home who had of using state tax dollars to discriminate in been notified in July 2001 that she soon would employment and to indoctrinate foster youth in be promoted to the position of family therapist. religion. Seven Georgia taxpayers filed the law Instead, Bellmore was terminated in Novem suit July 31 to stop the state from funding the ber of that year after the Home learned she was a organization unless it changes its practices. NW 2 3 r d Y APfX Pharmacy Avenue, Portl and, OR Free Parking Community-Based Private one-on-one consultation (503)525-9094