februaiy 6. 2ÛÛ4 • J m t aaftj
news
NATIONAL
epublican Senate Leader Bill Frist
believes gay families do not consti
tute a family unit. He made the remarks
Jan. 23 at the Conservative Political
Action Conference Reagan Banquet.
After asking the audience, “What is
family?” the Tennesseean said, “The
issue before us today is that activist
judges in Massachusetts are intent on
destroying the traditional definition of
family.” Frist added that he supports
amending the U.S. Constitution to ban
same-sex marriage.
As a result of President Bush’s com
mand that the country “defend the sanc
Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee told
tity of marriage” in his State of the Union
conservatives last month that gay families do not exist
address Jan. 20, Republicans unleashed a
rash of anti-gay legislation. GO P members of the
D-N.C., and John Kerry, D-Mass., for opposing
Arizona House of Representatives and the Vir
1996’s Defense of Marriage Act.
ginia House of Delegates introduced resolutions
He said the presidential candidates’ position is
the day after the speech that voiced support for
that “a gay couple should be able to get married in
the Federal Marriage Amendment.
John Kerry’s Massachusetts, move to John
Edwards’ North Carolina, and Tarheel State citi
“Millions of American families are legally
threatened because lawmakers like Sen. Frist
zens would be compelled to recognize that mar
riage.” Gillespie continued to mock the records of
simply pretend that they don’t exist,” said Dave
Noble, National Stonewall Democrats execu both senators in an effort to demonstrate that they
are “out of sync with most voters” on social issues.
tive director. “We have continually heard what
the Republican leadership is against, hut we
When elected as R N C chairman last July,
have yet to hear what it is for. Congressional
Gillespie was hailed by gay Republicans as a
Republicans still have no plan that addresses
moderate party activist; however, his tenure has
• legal inequality faced by gay families.”
seen a torrent of anti-gay attacks. Most recently,
he told A BC News that it would he the fault of
❖
gay families if Republicans chose to use same-sex
ddressing the Republican National Com-
marriage as a wedge issue in the 2004 election.
J,
mittee’s winter meeting Jan. 29, chairman
He also has pledged that the R N C will codi
Ed Gillespie blasted “unelected, activist judges” fy its support for the Federal Marriage Amend
for recognizing marriage equality in Massachu ment in its national platform this summer.
setts while ridiculing U .S. Sens. John Edwards,
Additionally, under Gillespie, the R N C ’s Web
R
SO MANY SHOES...
site continues to attack Democratic presidential
candidates for supporting queers.
Meanwhile, the R N C dismissed a nation
wide queer voter mobilization program recently
launched by the Democratic National Commit
tee. Press secretary Christine Iverson reacted to
the “Pride at the Polls” effort by stating Jan. 27,
“We don’t target our voter outreach on sexual
orientation.”
DN C chairman Terry McAuliffe was quick to
criticize her remark. “After President Bush’s anti
gay comments during the State of the Union
address, and now Iverson’s clear ignorance of the
1.1 million G LBT Americans who voted for
Bush in 2000, it is now evident how little respect
Bush has for G LBT Republicans,” he said.
KANSAS
he Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 30
that it is constitutional to give a bisexual
teen-ager a sentence 13
times longer than a straight
teen-ager would receive for
the same crime. The 2-1
decision upholds the state’s
“Romeo and Juliet” law,
which gives much lighter
sentences to heterosexual
teen-agers who have sex
Matthew Limon
with younger teens but
specifically excludes gay teen-agers.
Matthew Limon is serving 17 years in prison,
instead of the 13 to 15 months he would have
faced if he were heterosexual. In June, the U.S.
Supreme Court vacated his conviction and
instructed the appeals court to give it further
consideration in light of the historic ruling on
sexual intimacy in Lawrence vs. Texas.
In its decision, the court gave three explana
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penly gay U .S. Rep. Barney Frank has
declined a solicitation from the Boy Scouts
of America asking him to endorse a new nation
al service initiative called Good Turn for Amer
ica. In a letter sent Jan. 27 to chief executive
Roy Williams, the Massachusetts Democrat
expressed surprise at the organization’s request,
considering it has characterized gay men as unfit
to associate with, and he declined to engage in
an act of “hypocrisy.”
“Where there is much about what the Boy
Scouts do that I admire and I am a former Scout
myself, I was under the impression that you con
sidered people like myself to be unworthy of
association with the Boy Scouts,” Frank wrote.
“I am a gay man, which, according to your poli
cy as I read it in various court decisions, means
that I am neither ‘morally straight’ nor ‘clean.’
Why do you want a person you so characterize
to he signing a tribute to you T'
OHIO
he Legislature passed a bill Jan. 21 that not
only prohibits marriages between same-sex
couples but also precludes the “recognition or
extension of the specific statutory benefits of a
T
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