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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2003)
f l march 21.2003 • Just m *|23 7 7 77 1 news ÎT T ïï ÎT U N IQ U E . ! be inseminated, Drs. Christine Brrxly and Dou glas Fenton said that because of their personal religious beliefs about gay people, they would not administer the treatment. No other doctors within the medical group were available or will ing to perform this procedure, so she was forced to go outside her health plan to receive services. Benitez sued the clinic based on a California law outlawing discrimination by business establish ments, including health care facilities, along with other legal claims. A state court in San Diego dis missed her entire case last year, ruling that a federal law bars a state civil rights claim against doctors whenever the services are paid for through an employer-provided health plan. This ruling clarifies that the federal law does not release providers from their obligation to serve all their patients equally. Quality Custom Frantilit>. || i\ f A JFl One ? A I n m and Personalized Service M l.t-4S SODI • 7>SOS S \yc «i»m l fhv\ • O/ h - h I iii s Sul r ! • YHUnu t itiniiiiiuliitilti is.i uw ARKANSAS he American Civil Liberties Union is chal- !.. lenging officials at Jacksonville Junior High concerning repeated punishment of a 14-year-old student for being openly gay. In a letter sent March 13, it demanded that they stop violating State Rep. Arlon Lindner of Minnesota believes Thomas McLaughlins rights and remove from his gay men and lesbians are “rewriting history” by record all unconstitutional disciplinary actions chiming to have been victims of the Holocaust taken against him by March 21 or face legal action. “My school forced me out of the closet when I nity and now smears African Americans as well," should have been allowed to come out to my fami he said. “He just doesn’t get it. This is America in ly on my own terms and when 1 thought it was the 2003— not some mral backwater circa 1953. right time. And now the school has been trying to Minnesotans should not stand for his indefensible shove me back into it ever since,” McLaughlin said. rants.... His intolerance is breathtaking and “I’m through with being silenced, and I don’t want deeply offensive all at the same time.” this happening to other gay kids at my school." The Nazi campaign against homosexuality tar McLaughlin’s troubles began last year, when geted the more than 1 million German men who, a school official called his mother to tell her he the state asserted, carried a “degeneracy” that was gay. A lthough he was not ready to reveal his threatened the nation’s “disciplined masculinity.” sexual orientation to his parents yet, they were Denounced as “antisocial parasites,” more than accepting and understanding. 100.000 were arrested under a broadly interpreted “It’s shameful how Jacksonville Junior High anti-gay law. About 50,000 men served prison terms School has trampled on Thomas McLaughlin’s as convicted homosexuals, while an unknown constitutional rights to intimidate and silence number were institutionalized in mental hospitals. him from being honest about who he is,” attor Others— perhaps hundreds— were castrated ney Leslie Cooper said. “If this were civics class, under court order or coercion. Analyses of frag the school would he failing.” mentary records suggest between 5,000 and Now that McLaughlin has become more 15.000 gay men were imprisoned in concentra open about his sexual orientation, the school tion camps, where many died from starvation, has made numerous attem pts to punish and disease, exhaustion, heatings and murder. silence him for being out: Because women were valued primarily for • Schrxil officials preached their religious views their ability to bear children, the state presumed on homosexuality and forced him to read aloud that lesbians were still capable of reproducing. from the Bible in clear violation of the establish They were not systematically persecuted under ment clause of the First Amendment. This was Nazi rule hut nonetheless did suffer the loss of done as punishment after McLaughlin, who is him their own gathering places and associations. self a Christian, disagreed with a teacher for calling him “abnormal” and “unnatural.” N E W H A M P S H IR E • In violation of his free speech rights, offi he Log Cabin Republicans called March 4 cials suspended him for two days for telling other for G O P Gov. Craig Benson to withdraw the students about being made to read the Bible in nomination of Gary Daniels to the state’s Human school. T he principal and assistant principal Rights Commission. also said that if he told friends why he was sus- ' The former state rep pended, they would recommend expulsion. resentative made anti • He is not even allowed to participate in typ gay comments concern ing civil rights legislation ical teen-age conversations about crushes. In Jan uary he was punished for talking between classes six years ago. Daniels with a female friend about a boy they both consid called homosexuality unnatural, immoral and ered “cute.” He was disciplined; the girl was not. unhealthy in opposition M IN N E S O T A to a hill being debated tate Rep. A rlon Lindner recently said gay on the House floor. men and lesbians are “rewriting history” by “The Human Rights claiming to have been victims of the Holocaust. Commission, by its very In a flcxir debate on his bill to strip queers of nature, deals with issues of discrimination," said Patrick Guerriero, Log Cabin executive director. state human rights protection, the Republican upped the ante by attacking black people as well. “Mr. Daniels has made it clear that he lacks the fair-minded perspective necessary to be a voice for He claimed that if Minnesota did not protect children from AIDS, the United States soon inclusion and equality for all.... In a more inclu sive America and increasingly inclusive Republi would become another “African continent." T he Log C abin Republicans called for Lind can Party, there are other New Hampshire citizens more worthy of a gubernatorial appointment to ner to step down March 13. His views clearly violate President Bush’s “agenda of compassion the Human Rights Commission." J H ate conservatism,” according to executive direc tor Patrick Guerriero. C<tmpiled by News Editor JlM RADOSTA, who can be reached at jim@justout.com. "Lindner gratuitously attacks the gay commu- T S L e M e ito u r G a llery The only museum where you get to take the treasures home. I 7814 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland • 503/246-3631 Remember your first trip to the CANDY STORE? Experience the excitement all over again... Sweets, Etc. Fine Chocolates and Imported Candies 7828 SW Capitol Hwy (503)293-0088 /huUncntah ~DiUaqe. /4 ?oe?iise*s... c l o t h i n g . . infic in e “ -». 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