febmary 7.2003
L’LUHCT news
relationship with Sheila as being similar to that
of a spouse and compensated her accordingly,"
attorney Jennifer Middleton said Jan. 23. “This
is the first time the federal government has rec
ognized a same-sex relationship this way."
Neff, who called Hein “my entire world and
my soul mate, my closest confidante and my best
friend," applied for assistance from the federal
fund after being rejected by a state fund in Vir
ginia, where the Pentagon is located. The federal
Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund is reviewing
claims from hundreds of people who lost spouses
or family members in the attacks and, based on
several factors including lost financial support,
already has awarded money to dozens of them.
would be extended to more than 400,000 same-sex
couples and their children under the legislation are
decision-milking authority for funeral arrangements
and disposition of remains, community property,
protection from threats and crimes against the fam
ilies of public officials, custody provisions and child
support obligations, and death benefits for surviving
partners of firefighters and police officers. The bill
also would require mutual responsibility for debts,
disclosures of conflicts of interest and joint assess
ment of income for determining eligibility for gov
ernment assistance programs. Even with passage of
this law, Kors noted, domestic partners still would
be denied more than 1,000 federal rights and
responsibilities available to married couples.
Two other pro-gay bills have been intnxJuced:
A B 196, which would make it clear that laws pro-
hihiting sex discrimination in in housing and
employment also prohibit bias based on gender
identity, and A B 17, which would prohibit state
agencies from contracting with companies that
fail to provide equal benefits to employees with
spouses and those with domestic partners. Assem-
blymember Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, also has
sponsored legislation broadly prohibiting discrim
ination and harassment in the foster care system.
NEW YORK
Police arrest Ken Einhaus, Kara Speltz and
Mike Perez on Nov. 11 in Washington, D .C .
T
hree gay Catholics who were arrested dur
ing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bish
ops last November in Washington, D.C., were
found guilty of the criminal misdemeanor of
unlawful entry Jan. 31 after a two-day bench
trial in the District of Columbia Superior Court.
However, Judge Mildred Edwards refused to
order the defendants to stay away from the
Hyatt Regency in the future and declared the
complete suspension of the imposition of sen
tence. They could have received six months in
jail and a fine of $350.
Kara Speltz, Ken Einhaus and Mike Perez had
been denied Communion for no apparent reason
during the bishops’ Mass on Nov. 11 at the Nation
al Shrine. The defendants testified that they
entered the Hyatt lobby the next day and knelt in
hopes that at least one bishop present would serve
them the Eucharist. None came forward, and the
three spent more than 30 hours in jail.
“Terrible violence was done to you when the
Kxly of Christ was denied to you," said Edwards,
who ordered each defendant to pay $50 to the
Victims of Violent Crimes Compensation Fund.
“You are in solidarity with all victims of vio
lence. I am terribly sorry for what happened to
you. As a member of the church, 1 ask you to for
give our church. There is no way 1 am going to
order you away from the Hyatt. You can engage
in peaceful demonstration as long as it is law
abiding. G o in peace."
CALIFORNIA
egislation was intnxJuced Jan. 28 to grant
registered domestic partners nearly all the
rights, benefits and obligations available to spous
es under state law. Assembly Bill 205, known as
the Domestic Partner Rights and Respoasihilities
Act of 2003, is co-authored hy the five members
of the recently formed Legislative Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Caucus.
“Rather than improving a handful of laws per
year, it is time to upgrade the domestic partner
law so it can protect families now," said Geoffrey
Kors, California Alliance for Pride and Equality
executive director. “To delay and instead con
tinue making piecemeal changes merely creates
confusion and potential legal problems for
everyone trying to navigate the law.”
Among the rights, benefits and obligations that
S
aying that the physical anatomy of trans peo
ple is not relevant to gender identity, a New
York State Supreme Court judge ruled Jan. 16 in
favor of a leading Latino H1V/AIDS agency that
was being threatened with eviction from its
offices by a commercial landlord who sought dis
closure of its clients’ anatomical sex at birth.
The landlord also sought to make the Flis-
panic A ID S Forum reveal its clients’ names.
The judge sided with the agency that such a
requirement would violate the clients’ confiden
tiality rights because it largely treats people with
HIV and AIDS.
“ By evicting us and forcing us to relocate,
this landlord has already cost us too many pre
cious resources— resources that could have
helped keep people alive,” said Heriberto
Sanchez Soto, the fomm’s executive director.
"These rulings send the message that discrimi
nation and prejudice are wrong, especially when
so many lives are at stake.”
According to the suit, the landlord told the
forum that its lease would not be renewed because
of complaints from other tenants concerning
“men who think they’re women using the
women’s bathnxims.” When
asked whether he was referring
to the agency’s trans clients, he
reportedly replied: “1 don’t care
what they are. They can’t use
the wrong restrixims.”
The landlord insisted that
the forum sign a written agree
ment that none of its clients
would use restrooms in the
building. When it refused, he
began eviction proceedings,
forcing the agency to incur
higher rent and substantial
moving expeases by relocating
to WcxxJside, Quccas, which
is less central to Latino gay
and traas communities.
VIRGINIA
Virginia legislator who
* oversees a committee
responsible for reappointing
judges across the state says he
opposes a local judge if she is
a lesbian and is violating the
state’s sodomy statute.
“There is certain homosex
ual conduct that is in violation
of the law," said Robert F.
McDonnell,
Republican
A
member of the House of
Delegates and chairman
of the Legislature’s
House Courts of Justice
Committee. “It certain
ly raises some questions
about the qualifications
to serve as a judge.”
Newport News Cir
cuit Judge Verbena
Askew is one of 60
judges statewide up for Robert F. McDonnell
reappointment this year,
but she is the only one facing a challenge. The
Legislature appoints judges to eight-year terms,
and reappointments rarely are challenged.
“This is yet another deeply disturbing exam-
pie of how these laws are used to justify discrim-
ination against gay people," Lambda Legal’s
Ruth Harlow said Jan. 15. “These laws are wide
ly used to deny gay people jobs, custody of their
children and the fair and equal treatment we’re
all guaranteed in this country."
Virginia’s sodomy law criminalizes private,
consensual oral and anal sex between straight
and gay adults hut is almost exclusively used to
discriminate against queers. An array of organi
zations filed briefs Jan. 16 urging the U.S.
Supreme Court to overturn Texas’ sodomy
statute and 12 others like it nationwide.
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GEORGIA
he Georgia Supreme Court unanimously
struck down the state’s fornication law
Jan. 13, saying the government may not “reach
into the bedroom of a private residence and
criminalize the private, noncommercial, con
sensual acts of two persons legally capable of
consenting” to sexual activity.
The court found that Georgia’s constitutional
right to privacy protects 16-year-old “J.M.,” who
was prosecuted for engaging in sexual intercourse
with his girlfriend in her bedrixim. Added to the
court’s 1998 Powell decision overturning the
state’s sixJomy statute, “the court has essentially
ruled that adults have the right to make private
sexual decisions without interference from the
state,” said Debbie Seagraves, American Civil
Liberties Union of Georgia executive director.
State law sets the age at which a person legal
ly can consent to sexual intercourse at 16. Chief
Justice Norman Fletcher noted in his opinion that
“the only remaining rationale for the fornication
statute is to enable the state
to regulate the private sexu
al conduct of persons who
the Legislature has deter
mined are capable of con
senting to that conduct,
and that is an iasufficient
state interest to overcome
Georgia’s constitutional
protections of privacy."
Matt Coles, A C L U
Lesbian and Gay Rights
Project director, said: "This
decision signals how far
we’ve come since the state
convinced
the
U .S.
Supreme Court in Bowers
v. Hardwick to let it prose
cute lesbian and gay men
for being intimate in their
own homes. Let’s hope the
U.S. Supreme Court fol
lows the Georgia court’s
lead later this year when it
decides the fate of Texas’
law
against
same-sex
intimacy.’ ■jn
Verbena Askew should be disqualified
Compiled by New s Editor
from serving as a judge because she
J
im R adosta , who can be
might violate Virginia’s sodomy law,
reached at jim@justont .com.
according to a key state legislator
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