May 19. 2004
Page A2
Rights Battle Leads to Gay Marriages
But Ray McNulty, a spokesman
for the Massachusetts Family In
stitute. one of the leading organiz
ers of opposition to same-sex mar
riage, criticized some of the protest
ers, saying there was no need for
hateful speech.
"W hat's going on down there is
legal, and as far as I’m concerned,
give those people their happiness
for the day," McNulty said.
Massachusetts was thrust into
the center of a nationwide debate
on gay marriage when the state's
Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 in
November that gays and lesbians
had a right under the state consti
tution to wed.
The court's ruling touched off a
frenzy o f gay marriages in a few
cities across the country earl ier this
year, including Multnomah County
in Portland. Even though courts
ordered a halt to the wedding march,
opponents pushed for a federal
constitutional ban on gay marriage,
w hich President Bush has en
dorsed.
In M a ssa c h u se tts, m a rrie d
couples are entitled to hundreds of
Gina (left) and Heidi Nortonsmith celebrate with their two sons, Avery, 7 (left), and Quinn, 4. at city
rights under state law. But federal
hall in Northhampton, Mass, after receiving a marriage license Monday. The couple were plaintiffs
rights are not available to gay mar
in a Massachusetts lawsuit that led to a state supreme court decision allowing same-sex mar
ried couples because federal law
riages. (AP photo)
defines marriage as between a man
the landmark Suprem e Judicial ners for life" at the end of the cer Baptist Church, stood near Cam and a woman.
bridge City Hall carry ing signs with
The Netherlands, Belgium, Den
Court decision that legalized gay emony.
There were scattered protests anti-gay slogans Sunday night. The mark and Canada’s three most popu
marriage was read as an invocation
at the U n ita rian U n iv e rsa list amid a largely festive atmosphere. group, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps lous provinces are among the only
About 15 protesters, most from Sr., travels around the country pro places in the world where gays can
church.
marry.
They were pronounced “part T opeka, K an.-based W estboro testing homosexuality.
Massachusetts
is first state to
grant licenses
(AP) - Same-sex couples began
exchanging marriage vows in Mas
sachusetts on M onday, marking
the first time a state has granted
gays and lesbians the right to marry
and making the United States one
o f at least five countries where
homosexuals can legally wed.
T anya M cC loskey, 52, and
Marcia Kadish, 56, of Malden went
at a breaknec k pace to fill out paper
work, get a waiver from the three-
day waiting period, then return to
city hall - where they got their mar
riage license and exchanged vows.
At 9:15 a.m., Cambridge City
C lerk M argaret Drury told the
couple: “ I now pronounce you
married under the la ws o f the Com
monwealth of Massachusetts.”
It was among the first - if not the
first - same-sex weddings taking place
throughout the state on Monday,
the day that same-sex couples could
wed under a court order.
In Boston, David Wilson and
Robert Compton became die first of
the seven couples who sued the
state to be married. At the Arling
ton Street Church, W ilson and
Compton exchanged vows under a
rainbow flag and to the strains of
the Boston Gay M en’sChorus sing
ing "M arry Us.” An excerpt from
Hate Crimes
Probed at
Goodyear Plant
( AP) — An investigation is
under way at a G oodyear tire
plant in T ennessee after o ffi
cials there received reports
about threatening notes and a
noose being left in areas w here
black em ployees work.
O bion County S h eriff Jerry
V astbinder said the incidents
at the G oodyear T ire and R ub
ber Co. plant in U nion City,
T enn., are being investigated
as a hate crim e. FBI spokesm an
G eorge Bolds said the agency
had been alerted and was re
view ing the evidence.
O ne incident involved the
discovery o f a note scraw led
on the bottom o f a desk draw er
that used a racial epithet and
threatened blacks. In another
case, som eone clogged up a
toilet in a bathroom cleaned by
an A m erican A m erican jan ito r
and scraw led racial epithets on
the w allso rd erin g him to clean
up the mess.
A k ro n ,
O h io - b a s e d
G oodyear issued a statem ent
Friday saying it is cooperating
with the law enforcem ent agen
cies in v e stig a tin g th e in c i
d en ts.
“T he G o o d y ear T ire and
Rubber Co. is deeply com m it
ted to m aintaining a harass
m ent-free environm ent for its
e m p lo y e e s ,” th e sta te m e n t
said.
Landmark Brown Decision Altered Lives Powell Concedes
Plaintiffs recall
Scandal Hurts U.S.
,.l
'
“
'1
j ■
desegregation
50 years later
(A P)— Linda Brown had no idea
she was making history in the fall of
1950when her father, the Rev. Oliver
Brown, took her by the hand and
marched her to an all-white school
near her home.
Several other black parents in
Topeka also tried to enroll their
children in all-white schools that
fall. Their requests were denied,
laying the groundwork for a legal
Linda Brown Smith stands in front o f the Sumner School in
case that would overturn segre
Topeka, Kan., in this May 8, 1964 file photo. (AP Photo)
gated education nationw ide 50
She and other family members
of media attention it brought.
years ago this week.
Linda Brown, now Linda Brown have stressed that their story is just
In the years since. Brown vs.
Topeka Board of Education has Thompson, has mostly shied away one o f many in the struggle for
been a blessing and a burden for from reporters, although she has racial equality.
Linda grew up in a racially mixed
the Brown family: A blessing be spoken at several events in recent
cause the family helped change months in anticipation of the 50th neighborhood, where the children
played with white, Hispanic and
history; a burden at times because anniversary of the ruling.
J lo r t la n h
(D h s c ru c r
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black youngsters, said her mother,
Montgomery, who'remarried
who remarried
I Leola
cola Montgomery^
after her husband’s death.
When Linda began attending a
segregated school 20 blocks away,
the chi Idren were confused because
the all-white school was only five
blocks away.
“She was always sad every year
when it was time for school that she
had to go one way and her play
mates the other way," Montgom
ery recalled. “It was just silly to
think they couldn’t go to school
together.”
Now 83, Montgomery said her
late husband was reluctant at first
when a former high school class
mate and local civil rights attorney
asked him to become one o f 13
plaintiffs in a desegregation case.
But the attorney, Charles Scott,
persisted. "He said for the good of
all children as well as your own you
need to get into this," Montgomery
recalled.
R&B Artist Shot Dead
(AP)— John Whitehead, a promi
nent R&B artist best known for the
1979 hit song “Ain’t No Stoppin’
Us Now,” was shot dead in Phila
delphia.
W hitehead, 55, and another
man w ere w orking on a vehicle
when they w ere shot by tw o gun
men, police said. T he assailants
fled.
W hitehead was shot in the neck
and collapsed. Ohmed Johnson,
who was shot in the buttocks, sur
vived the May 11 shooting.
Police said the gunm en fired a
series o f bullets; a young neigh
borhood girl said she heard about
a dozen shots. A uthorities had
no im m ediate m otive or suspects.
“W hy did they do this to my
dad?" Dawn W hitehead, 33, asked
at the scene. "I ju st talked to him
yesterday. ... He was a fun p er
son. Who would want to kill him ?”
G ene M cF ad d en , w ho w as
W h itehead's partner in the sing
ing group M cFadden and W hite-
head, went to the scene in the
c ity ’s W est Oak Lane neighbor
hood and stood there trem bling,
W PVI-TV reported.
The two men formed a group
called the Epsilons in their youth
and w ere d isc o v ered by O tis
Redding, touring with the legend
ary performer in the 1960s, accord
ing to their Web site.
“A in't No Stoppin' Us Now"
went to No. I on the R& B chart and
reached No. 13 on the pop chart.
Policy may have
opened door to
prisoner abuse
(AP)— Secretary of State Colin
Powell conceded Monday the Iraq
prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq has
had a “te rrib le im p a c t” on
America's international image and
said President Bush is committed
to correcting the problem.
Secretary o f State Colin Powell
listens to a question in Arabic
Sunday during a press
conference at the World
Economic Forum in Southern
Shuneh on the Dead Sea in
Jordan.
Powell said in a commencement
address at Wake Forest Univer
sity in W inston-Salem, N.C. that
the furor over American abuse of
Iraqi prisoners was a recurring
theme at an i ntemational economic
conference he attended in Jordan
over the weekend.
He said told the foreign leaders:
“Watch America. Watch how we
deal with this. Watch how America
will do the right thing.”
He said the Defense Depart
ment will launch “multiple investi
gations to get the facts." Above
all, Powell said, President Bush is
“determined to find out where ac
countability and responsibility lie.”
Powell said there were high-level
discussions within the Bush ad
ministration last fall about informa
tion from the International Commit
tee of the Red Cross alleging inmate
abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq.
His comments came as the scan
dal shifted to the q uestion o f
whether the administration erected
a legal foundation that opened the
door for the mistreatment.
Regarding Red Cross complaints
last fall o f abuse at Abu Ghraib, “we
knew that the ICRC had concerns,
and in accordance with the matter
in which the ICRC does its work, it
presented those concerns directly
to the command in Baghdad.”
Powell added, “All of the reports
we received from ICRC having to
do w ith th e situ a tio n in
Guantanamo, the situation in Af
ghanistan or the situation in Iraq
was the subject o f discussion
within the administration, at our
principals’ committee meetings”
and at National Security Council
meetings.
“We were aware of them,” he
said.
Congressional critics suggested
the administration may have un
wisely imported to Iraq techniques
for prisoner interrogation used in
the war on al-Qaida.
In early 2(X)2, the W hite House
announced that Taliban and al-
Qaida detainees would not be af
forded prisoner-of-war status, but
that the United States would apply
the Geneva Conventions to the war
in Afghanistan.
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