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NATIONAL
t. Col. Steve Lximis, a dec
orated Vietnam combat vet
eran and recipient of the Purple
Heart, filed suit July 7 with the
U.S. Court of Federal Claims
challenging the constitutionality
of “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ and the
federal sodomy statute, among
other claims.
The case is based on the Steve Loomis
recent U.S. Supreme Court
opinion in Lawrence vs. Texas, which declared
that sodomy statutes violate the U.S. Constitu
tion’s guarantee of a right to privacy. Loomis is
seeking to reverse his 1997 discharge from the
U.S. Army.
C. Dixon Osburn, Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network executive director, said this is
likely the first of several cases to he filed in the
wake of Lawrence. “Under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’
the federal government regularly intrudes in the
most personal aspects of our lives. That is wrong,
and it is time for the government to change."
The Pentagon has discharged more than
9,000 scrvicememhers for being gay since “don’t
ask, don’t tell” was implemented 10 years ago.
The law requires gay, lesbian and hi people to
keep their sexual orientation an absolute secret
or face the risk of discharge.
The Army discharged Loomis, a former engi
neer war plans officer, for being gay eight days
prior to his 20-year retirement date. As a result,
he forfeited his retirement pension worth an
estimated $1 million.
Each of the Army officers sitting on the dis
charge hoard who determined his fate called
homosexuality "a sickness” or said they had “no
tolerance" for it. Efforts to remove these people
from the panel for bias failed.
The Army based its discharge on a videotape
seized during an investigation launched after an
arsonist set fire to Lcxrmis’ home in 1996. Civil
ian authorities found the videotape, which
depicts him in private adult consensual sexual
conduct, and handed it over to military officials.
The Army used the videotape as the basis for
discharge, ending the decorated veteran’s distin
guished career. It also provided him no assis
tance in responding to the tragedy of losing his
home or possessions.
L
longtime Topeka activist and
member of Parents, Families and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “A
public library, of all places, should
understand why 1, as the mother of
a gay son, took a few minutes of
time to talk about it.”
Cuevas was approached June 26,
the day of the Lawrence vs. Texas
decision, by one or two co-workers
and received a few unsolicited calls
from friends who wanted to share
their excitement about the decision with her. The
next day, two library managers called her into a
meeting where they said she was absolutely pro
hibited from ever speaking about the ruling at
work again.
To justify the censorship, they said an employee
had complained that Cuevas was creating a “hostile
work environment.” Since then she has complied
with the restriction on her speech, although some
of her co-workers continue to discuss the ailing
without being reprimanded.
TEXAS
n court papers filed July 8, Lambda Legal is
suing LuhbtK'k Independent Schixil District
for barring students from forming a Gay Straight
Alliance on campus and recognizing it as a legit
imate school club.
“The...group is being discriminated against
and held to standards that other schixil groups
aren’t, which is kith wrong and unlawful,”
attorney Brian Chase said. “These students have
a right to access the same resources as any other
on-campus school group.”
Ricky Waite, 18, who graduated from Lub
bock High Schixil in May, began to organize the
GSA in the fall of 2002. The group’s purpose is
to provide support for gay and straight students
and to promote equality.
Mirah Curzer, 16, a heterosexual member of
the club and plaintiff in the case, joined to show
other straight students that fairness is important to
everyone. After constructing a number of proce
dural roadblocks to prevent the GSA from form
ing, school officials formally denied its application.
Attorneys argue that Lubbock High is not
only in violation of the Equal Access Act and
the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
but also its own policy regarding the formation
of on-campus groups, which states that the
sch<x)l “shall not prohibit student expression
solely because other students, teachers, adminis
trators or parents may disagree with its content."
Lambda Legal has successfully argued two
other GSA lawsuits, one in California and
another in Utah, which set legal precedent in
the area. There are now 1,200 such groups at
schools across the nation.
KANSAS
iting serious First Amendment violations,
the American Civil Liberties Union sent a
letter July 16 to the Topeka and Shawnee Coun
ty Public Library asking that it reconsider its
actions in forbidding one of its staff members from
talking at work about the recent historic U.S.
Supreme Court decision banning sodomy laws.
The employee, Bonnie Cuevas, was ordered
CONNECTICUT
June 27 to stop discussing the ruling’s effect on
her family. No other staff members were placed
federal appeals court ruled July 9 that the
under the same restriction.
state of Connecticut may exclude the Boy
“This was the biggest legal step forward in | Scixits of America from the State Employee Char
itable Campaign because of its anti-gay policy.
lesbian and gay rights in history,” said Cuevas, a
“This ruling confirms that as long as the Boy
Scouts retain their anti-gay policy, they may not
receive special privileges from the state,” said
Jennifer L. Levi, Gay &. Lesbian Advocates &.
Defenders senior staff attorney. "We are proud of
Connecticut for standing behind its non
discrimination law and, in so doing, protecting
all its citizens, including and especially gay
youth."
This case resulted when the Connecticut
comptroller, who oversees the charitable cam
paign, took action to exclude the Boy Scouts
after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 2000
case of Dale vs. BSA that the organization has
the right to discriminate against gay leaders.
A librarian in Topeka, Kan., has been ordered
The motivation behind the comptroller’s action
not to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court
was to ensure proper administration of Con
sodomy case brought by John Lawrence (left)
necticut’s Gay Rights Law, which prohibits use
and Tryon Gamer