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march 21.2003 • Just m *|23
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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.
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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
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