SEPTEMBER 15. 2006 jUSt|OUt 21
not inclined to call a special legisla
tive session to address the issue. He
leaves office in January before the
next term of the Legislature.
The board had instituted the ban
in March 1999, saying children
should be in traditional two-parent
homes because’they are more likely
to thrive in that environment.
Governor Nixes
Teaching Measure
Equality California director Geoff
Kors has little patience with the
Governator's latest veto.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed
a bill Sept. 6 that would have made it illegal for
teachers to use textbooks that encourage a negative
view of people based on sexual orientation or to
promote a curriculum that portrays sexual minori
ties in a negative light. He argued that current law
already protects against such discrimination.
The veto came as no surprise, as Schwarzenegger
had already registered his opposition to an earlier
version of the bill that would have required texts to
include contributions from queers.
“This bill attempts to offer vague protection
when current law already provides clear protection
against discrimination in our schools based on sex
ual orientation,” Schwarzenegger said in his veto
message.
Supporters of the bill—who believe discrimina
tion based on sexual orientation should be as
explicitly proscribed as that based on race, religion
or gender—saw the veto as a cynical political ploy.
“The only [forces in] opposition to the bill were
the extremist, anti-gay organizations. The only
rationale for his veto is to appease right-wing voters,”
Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California,
told The San Francisco Chronicle. “Even if he thinks
this new protection wouldn’t add much, why leave
one group off an anti-discrimination list that covers
every other group.7”
MARYLAND
DoD University Elects
Gay Student President
tions in the metropolitan
Washington, D.C., area.
Earlier this summer, a
West Point graduate
received a prestigious
academic award for his
thesis opposing “don’t
ask, don’t tell.”
A recent poll by the
Annenberg Foundation
also found that 50 percent
of junior enlisted personnel
now favor allowing gays to
serve openly.
In May, retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the
first woman to achieve the rank of three-star gen
eral in the Army, called for repeal of the law, saying
it is “a hollow policy that serves no useful purpose.”
WISCONSIN
Gay Youth Denied Right to Enlist
Three young Americans attempted Aug. 30 to
enlist in the U.S. Army in Madison, Wis. When
military recruiters abruptly terminated their
enlistment process, it brought to 18 the number of
openly gay men and women who have been
denied the right to enlist since May.
Earlier in the wed, President Bush authorized
an involuntary recall of Marine Corps Individual
Ready Reservists to cover a shortage of volunteers.
The would-be volunteers are part of the Right
to Serve campaign, a national effort in which gay
youth attempt to enlist in order to educate the
public about the human, financial and security
costs of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Two of the men who attempted to enlist Aug.
30 are students at University of Wisconsin. The
third, John Alaniz, is a recent graduate with a
degree in genetics and immunopathology. Alaniz
has experience working with hazardous materials
and an interest in counterterrorism. All three men
took aptitude tests and scored high enough to be
eligible for any job in the military.
Madison was the eighth city to join the Right
to Serve campaign. Oklahoma City joined Aug. 23
when two brothers, Michael and Robert Cich,
attempted to enlist together. Robert, who is hetero
sexual, halted his own enlistment process when
Michael, who is gay, was denied on the basis of his
sexual orientation.
The Cich brothers rallied supporters—gay and
straight alike—and returned for a sit-in at the recruit
ing station where Michael was rejected Sept. 6.
Several cities in the campaign have already
staged sit-ins, and 11 youth
leaders have been arrested at
sit-ins thus far. The sit-ins are
a peaceful means to bring
attention to government-
sanctioned discrimination and
to begin a national conversa
tion about ending the unjust
compromise of "don’t ask,
don’t tell.”
The Right to Serve
campaign is sponsored by
Soulforce, a national nonvio
lent organization dedicated to
ending political and religious
oppression of queers. ©
The Uniformed Services University—a
Department of Defense military medical, nursing
and graduate school in Bethesda, Md.—elected
Patrick M. High as its first openly gay student
council president Aug. 30.
The Ph.D. candidate, who will represent
graduate students at the university, previously served
nine years in the Illinois Army National Guard. He
was elected by a student body that includes
uniformed personnel
in the armed forces.
High says he
hopes to "change
military
students’
perspective that gays
can and have served
in the military and
worked well with
their straight coun
terparts.” His other
objectives include
pursuing
health
insurance for civilian
graduate
students
and keeping the uni
The Defense Department's Uniformed
versity competitive
Services University has an openly gay
with other institu-
student council president, Patrick M High.
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