16 J o s t o u t • January 3.2003
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President Bush slipped anti-gay language into an H IV /A ID S fund regulation
N A TIO N A L
ctivists expressed disappointment Dec. 12
with an attempt by the White House to
give special privileges to anti-gay groups. Failing
to win approval hy Congress for his faith-based
initiative, President Bush issued a proposed mle,
to take effect next month, allowing charities
receiving federal funding to discriminate in hir
ing practices.
“The Bush administration is giving away spe
cial privileges to bigoted institutions,” said Chad
Johnson, National Stonewall Democrats execu
tive director. “This rule opens the dixir for fed
erally funded charities to cloak anti-gay preju
dice in the form of religious discrimination.”
The language of the rule, issued in response
to Executive Order 13198, allows for employ
ment discrimination on religious grounds, which
historically has served as a hack dtx>r for anti-gay
bigotry. The directive would allow charities to
fire or refuse to hire a person who does not hold
to the strictest form of the employers faith.
“Institutions can easily argue that employees’
sexual orientation is incompatible with their
faith,” Johnson said. “Therefore, a gay Catholic
can he fired from a Catholic charity if his or her
employer happens to believe that homosexuali
ty is inconsistent with Catholicism.”
More alarming, the rule pennits bias on the
basis of sexual orientation among institutions com
peting for HIV/AIDS funding. The propositi specif
ically allows charitable groups receiving money
from the Housing Opportunities for Persons with
AIDS program to fire or refuse to hire queers.
C A L IF O R N IA
federal lawsuit was filed Dec. 17 on behalf of
Ashly Massey, an eighth-grader in Banning
who was forced to sit in the principals office dur
ing physical education class after the gym teacher
learned she was a lesbian. Attorneys said the
schools actions violated her rights under the U.S.
Constitution and the Student Safety and Violence
Prevention Act of 2000, a state law prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
When the teacher told Massey’s mother that
there was a problem with her daughter being in
the girl’s locker room, the mother asked whether
her daughter had misbehaved. The teacher report
ed that Massey had not acted improperly or made
any inappropriate comments to other students.
The mother asked the teacher to contact her
again if any future problems arose. She never
received another call.
When Massey showed up for physical educa
tion the next day, she was told she no longer
would be allowed in the class. For a week and a
half, she sat in the principal’s office during the
time she was supposed to be in gym.
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“It wasn’t right for the schixil to discriminate
against me because of my sexual orientation,”
Massey said. “I’m hoping this inspires other peo
ple to take a stand when they feel they haven’t
been treated right or when they see someone
treated unfairly. It’s not right for anybody to
have to go through this.”
Massey’s complaint, filed in Riverside, asks
for damages and for an injunction requiring the
school to develop policies, teacher training and
other measures to ensure that students do not
suffer similar discrimination in the future.
M IS S IS S IP P I
he Mississippi Commission on Judicial Per
formance recommended Dec. 20 that the
Mississippi Supreme
Court penalize a judge
who publicly advocat
ed that gay men and
lesbians should be
institutionalized.
Officials said his com
ments clearly violated
the state’s Code of
Judicial Conduct and
indicated he would
not
decide
cases
involving queers fairly G
Nevjns
and impartially.
The decision marks only the second time a
commission in the South has recommended
penalizing a judge for anti-gay bias and is the
first such ruling in Mississippi. A growing num
ber of states explicitly include sexual orientation
in their codes of conduct prohibiting judges
from demeaning people based on gender, race,
religion and other factors.
“This is a significant step forward for Missis
sippi and for the South," attorney Greg Nevins
said. “Judges are duty-bound to give a fair hear
ing to everyone, and these kinds of extremely
homophobic statements make gays and lesbians,
who often face an uphill battle for equality, feel
that the justice system is closed off to them."
In March, Mississippi Justice Quirt Judge
Q m nie Wilkerson wrote in a letter to the editor
of the George County Times, “In my opinion,
gays and lesbians should be put in some type of
mental institute instead of having a [domestic
partnership] law like this passed for them.” He
was referring to an Asstx:iated Press article about
the ability of same-sex survivors to sue for the
wrongful death of their partners. “I got sick on
my stomach as I read the news story,” he wrote.
Wilkerson invoked a biblical passage sug
gesting those who break GtxJ’s law “arc worthy
of death.” The right-wing American Family
Association’s Center for Law and Policy is