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CALIFORNIA
tate Sen. William “Pete" Knight, R-Palm-
dale, filed suit Sept. 22 in the Superior Court
of Sacramento County
to block implementa
tion of the l Tomes tic
’ Partners Rights and
Responsibilities Act of
2003.
The measure, which
Gov. Gray Davis signed
into law Sept. 19, grants
to all registered domes
tic partners, both same-
sex and opposite-sex,
the overwhelming ma- William “ Pete” Knight
jority of state rights,
benefits and responsibilities enjoyed by legally mar
ried spouses. However, domestic partners will not
be permitted to file joint tax returns and will not
receive any of the marital privileges granted under
federal law, nor will their relationship be recog
nized in most other states.
Knight is a well-known opponent of equality
for queer Californians. He served as the author
of 2000’s Proposition 22, which attempted to
prohibit the state from recognizing marriages
between same-sex couples performed in other
jurisdictions.
“This lawsuit proves th at Pete Knight and
his allies do nor support families,” said G eof
frey Kors, Equality C alifornia executive direc
tor. Assembly Bill 205 “is a law that protects
all C alifornia families, no t just narrowly
defined families th at m eet with the approval
of th e religious right. Family values should
m ean that all families are valued. By filing
this lawsuit, Knight is arguing that the gov
ernm ent should discrim inate against families
th a t he does not value.”
D uring th e Proposition 22 cam paign,
spokesperson Robert Glazer stated M arch 6,
2000, on Fox’s The Edge with Paula Zahn that
th e measure “was so narrowly defined, with
just 14 words, not just for simplicity’s sake but
for the legal impact. It will not affect domes
tic partnership rights. It will not affect hospi
tal visitation rights or child custody rights or
inheritance rights.”
K night claim s AB 205 nullifies many
aspects of Proposition 22 and goes against the
voters’ wishes. However, Californians make a
clear distinction between domestic partner
ship rights and marriage, according to a recent
Field Poll th at found widespread support ior
extending specific legal protections and oblig
ations to same-sex couples. About 72 percent
are OK with legal recognition in areas of fam
ily rights, such as hospital visitation and m ed
ical power of attorney. About 61 percent sup
port granting financial dependence status,
including pension benefits, health insurance
and family leave.
S
COLORADO
m anagem ent team s & lenders to m eet
everyone’s financial needs
T ïï
aying th at one of th e n atio n ’s largest
H M O s may cost a D enver man his life by
refusing to cover a kidney transplant because
he has HIV, Lambda Legal filed a formal
appeal Sept. 22 with Kaiser Perm anente and
asked it to reverse its denial in light of a range
of scientific data and the m an’s personal
h ealth history and experience.
“To deny our client the care he needs,
Kaiser is ignoring published reports on organ
transplants for HIV and not kxiking at its
patient’s individual health status,” attorney
Hayley Gorenberg said. “In the last seven years
since the advent of better treatm ents for people
with HIV, the medical community nationwide
has learned a great deal about organ trans
plants. Kaiser’s decision denying this m an’s
transplant is not based on gixxl medicine or
sound science, and it may cost him his life.”
S
John C arl, 53, began experiencing kidney
failure in th e fall of 2001 and receives dialysis
three times a week. This summer, he request
ed coverage for a kidney transplant, but
Kaiser denied his request in late July, saying,
“kidney tran sp lan tatio n for H IV -positive
patients is co n traindicated...due to its exper
imental status and nonfavorable outcom es.”
G orenberg said Kaiser’s justification is
simply untrue. “It’s flat-out wrong that kidney
transplants for people with HIV are experi
m ental and have unfavorable outcom es.
T h ere’s a solid and growing hexly of scientific
and medical evidence that clearly shows HIV
does not significantly affect th e outcom e of
kidney transplantation.”
MICHIGAN
his bigotry, not gay A m ericans," he said.
“Suggesting th at som eone is a bigot because
they w ant th e legal right to visit a dying p a rt
ner in th e hospital is wrong and, frankly,
disgusting.”
G illespie said that although a decision
hinges on the outcom e of a potential m ar
riage ruling in M assachusetts, the R N C seems
ready to support a constitutional am endm ent
outlaw ing recognition of same-sex relation
ships. He noted th at he sees no difference
betw een civil unions and same-sex marriages.
“T h e last thing the G O P needs to do is to
p attern th e 2004 R epublican c o n v en tio n
after th e 1992 H ouston co n v en tio n, which
started a culture war in A m erica," said Patrick
G uerriero, Log C abin Republicans executive
director. “Log C ab in ’s message is clear: For
our party to be a pro-family party, we must
value all A m erican families. We should not
marginalize gay families. A nd, to be true to
our conservative roots, we should not tinker
with the sacred U nited States C o n stitu tio n to
score tem porary political points.”
Responding to concerns of religious free
dom and tolerance and C ath o lic C hurch
teach in g s in th e article, G u erriero, a
C atholic, added: “T h e last tim e 1 checked,
the C atholic C h u rch was opposed to the war
in Iraq and the d eath penalty. 1 doubt we will
see those planks in our platform ."
he Board of Commissioners of Lapeer
C ounty last m onth passed a viciously
anti-gay resolution that supports an am end
m ent to the state constitution defining m ar
riage as an institution strictly between one
m an and one wom an. W hile two o th e r
M ichigan counties, Jackson and O akland,
have passed similar resolutions, the Lapeer
resolution was especially m ean-spirited as it
linked gay and lesbian U.S. citizens with ram
pant disease and painted gay parents as a
threat to “innocent children.”
“T he resolution...is particularly malicious
as it plays upon deep-seated prejudices by
tw'isting data to the point that it flies in the
face o f both expert opinion and research as
well as basic com m on sense,” said Seth Kil- j
bourn, H um an Rights C am paign national
field director. “T he Lapeer C ounty resolution
is an assault on gay and lesbian citizens of
M ichigan and their loved ones, and it helps
fuel anti-gay discrim ination that can lead to
hate violence."
Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle Foundation
executive director, condem ned the measure.
“This resolution has n othing to do w ith c o u n
ty governance and everything to do with m ar
ginalizing and discrim inating against gay men
and lesbians by propagating lies and danger
ous slander.”
T he Lapeer resolution cited a biblical ref
erence as a further reason for denying civil
marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.
“N o one is trying to alter the religious def
inition of marriage," K ilboum said. “T his is
about equality under the law. Denying rights
and protections to one group of Am ericans
based on the religious views of some is blatant
Pope John Paul II
discrim ination and is contrary to founding
principles of this country.”
rom inent media coverage o f the C atholic
N A T IO N A L
C h u rch sexual abuse scandals has re
he Republican N ational C om m ittee will
inforced inaccurate and misleading stereo
move to oppose civil recognition of
types r»t gay m en as child abusers, according
to a new study. ’
same-sex marriages in its 2004 platform, The
Washington
T he report, titled Subtle Stereotyping: The
Times reported
Media, Homosexuality and the Priest Sexual Abuse
Sept. 23. C h air
Scandal, analyzed the content of 1,326 news
man Ed G illes
articles reported in the Boston Globe during the
pie also referred
first year of the scandal. Throughout the cover
to gay U.S. citi
age, readers were exposed to an average of two
zens as intoler
articles a week that tied homosexuality to child
ant bigots.
sexual abuse.
“I think when
The study’s authors, psychologists Glenda
people say, ‘Well,
Russell and Nancy Kelly, suggest the Globe’s
no, that’s not
linkages were not necessarily intentional. How
enough that you
ever, as Russell adds: “Linkages don’t have to be
accept me for
intentional to be hannful. T he stereotype of
who I am, you
gay-man-as-pedophile gets used in many policy
have to agree with—and condone—my choice,’ contexts to justify discrimination and violence
that to me is religious bigotry and I believe that’s against gay people.”
intolerant,” he said. “I think they are the ones who
Russell serves as acting executive director of
are crossing a line here."
the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic
Dave Noble, N ational Stonew all Democ- b Studies, which released the study Sept. 15.
rats executive director, strongly denounced
“W hen C atholic C hurch spokespeople began
the remarks. “Gillespie is the one displaying
to place the blame for the abuse explicitly on
T