WASHINGTON (AP) November 30, 1998 -- A California policeman ousted as a Boy Scouts leader because he is gay lost a Supreme Court appeal today.
The Boy Scouts' ban on homosexuals has been challenged in California and other states, and El Cajon policeman Charles Merino's case is the first to reach the nation's highest court.
The justices, without comment, refused to review a state court ruling that said Merino's suspension as leader of a law enforcement Explorer Post violated no state law.
Merino became a Boy Scouts adult leader in 1989 after applying for an Explorer Post charter from the national organization's San Diego County Council.
Exploring is the coed young-adult program of the Boy Scouts for ages 14 to 20, and is sponsored by community organizations.
After learning that Merino was gay, the Boy Scouts in 1992 suspended his registration as an adult leader. His homosexuality was viewed as inconsistent with Scouting principles, specifically the requirement in the Scout Oath to be ``morally straight.''
The police department then discontinued the Explorer Post program. Merino sued the Boy Scouts' local council, and a state trial judge ruled in 1994 that the group had violated a state anti-discrimination law that applies to public agencies and accommodations.
But a state appeals court reversed the judge's ruling after concluding that the Boy Scouts are not a business covered by the anti-bias law.
Merino appealed to the California Supreme Court, but it dismissed his case after ruling in another that the state public accommodations law does not apply to the Boy Scouts.
In contrast, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled that the Boy Scouts and their local councils were ``places of accommodation'' with open membership and covered by the state's civil rights law.
In the appeal acted on today, Merino argued that the Boy Scouts violated his constitutional right to equal treatment.
Only governmental action -- not acts by private citizens, groups or companies -- can violate someone's constitutional rights such as the 14th Amendment right to equal protection of the law. But private citizens and companies can be deemed to have been governmental agents under certain circumstances.
Merino's appeal said the state appeals court ignored ``the fact that the Boy Scouts, in overseeing an Explorer Post within the El Cajon Police Department, were not purely private actors.''
Lawyers for the Boy Scouts called Merino's appeal frivolous, noting that he never raised an equal-protection claim in the state courts.
They also said Merino suffered no harm in his capacity as a public employee because he ``lost only his role as a volunteer leader in a private organization.''
The case is Merino vs. San Diego County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, 98-544.
The pair stopped talking after an argument about the star's handling of the publicity surrounding his arrest in a Los Angeles toilet in April.
Salt Lake Tribune, November 26, 1998 --- It was root-beer floats and Oreos all around at the home of Wendy Weaver and Rachel Smith on Wednesday when news came that a federal judge ruled in favor of Weaver in her civil-rights lawsuit against the Nebo School District.
"I didn't realize I'd be this excited, but I'm just really grinning,'' Weaver said over the din of eight children -- seven of theirs and one of the neighbor's.
U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins granted Weaver's every wish in her 1997 lawsuit, which she filed after Nebo School District officials ordered her not to talk about her homosexuality in most circumstances and placed a letter to that effect in her permanent employment file. The school also refused to allow her to return to coaching the girls volleyball team, a position she had left in 1995 to pursue a master's degree.
After the lawsuit was filed, district officials narrowed the order, saying Weaver could not talk about her sexual orientation "in situations such as classroom teaching, extracurricular school-sponsored activities and parent- teacher conferences'' and placed a second letter in her file.
Weaver's sexual orientation became public after a student asked her in 1997 if she was a lesbian and she said she was. In April of that year, Weaver divorced her husband, a psychologist in the school district, and purchased a home with her partner, Rachel Smith.
Weaver was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the action that was resolved Wednesday when Jenkins ordered the school district to remove the letters from Weaver's file and allow her to coach during the 1999-2000 volleyball season. Jenkins also awarded her $1,500 in damages -- the amount she would have earned coaching the team this year.
"It's obviously a wonderful victory not only for gay and lesbian teachers in Utah, but for gays and lesbians everywhere,'' said ACLU attorney Stephen Clark.
Assistant Atty. Gen. Martha S. Stonebrook, who represented Nebo School District in the suit, said through her secretary that she had no comment.
Attorney fees were not discussed in the final ruling, but Clark said he and two other out-of-town attorneys who assisted intend to file a request for yet-to-be-determined payment with the court.
Weaver still faces a state lawsuit filed last spring by a group of Spanish Fork residents represented by attorney Matt Hilton, who claimed she is unfit to be a teacher because she is a lesbian and had improper contact with female students. The case is pending in 4th District Court.
Weaver currently teaches advanced psychology and a co-ed volleyball class at Spanish Fork High.
Between 1979 and 1994, Weaver led the girls volleyball team to four state championships.
This year, the team placed second in the state under the direction of one of Weaver's former students.
Even though a judge now has cleared the way for her to return to coaching, Weaver is unsure.
"With seven children, it will definitely be something Rachel and I will have to decide on together,'' she said. "I don't want to go back to coaching if I can't devote enough time to it.''
Michael said yesterday Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Charles Rubin denied his bid in retaliation for Michael's comments about his arrest by a plainclothes policeman in a men's toilet.
"I have talked openly about police entrapment and in my latest video made light of recent events," Michael said, reading from a statement.
He said that when he was sentenced in May to community service, he asked to be allowed to help Project Angel Food. It delivers about 1000 meals a day to people who are HIV positive or have AIDS.
Speaking from the carpark of the charity's Hollywood headquarters, Michael said he had just found out his request had been denied and he asked the judge to reconsider.
He said the judge ordered him to perform community service with a program that urged schoolchildren to do charity work.
"This is a worthwhile cause, obviously, but I can't really see how it can possibly measure up to the needs of the sick and dying," Michael said.
In addition to ordering Michael to perform the community service, the judge told him to have sexual counselling.
Michael had pleaded guilty to exposing himself to the plainclothes policeman in April in the men's room of Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills.
In statements after his arrest, Michael said he was gay and embarrassed by the arrest. - Reuters.
"Sodomy laws are the linchpin in attacks against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community," said Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "They are used to criminalize our behavior and are the basis for discrimination in employment, housing, health care and against families. We applaud the Court for its vote today and also salute the tireless work of Georgia activists who have helped change the climate in the state."
The Georgia law has been the basis of two U.S. Supreme Court cases. The first was the landmark Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986, when it found no constitutional right to privacy for same-gender conduct. And earlier this year, the Court refused to hear the case of attorney Robin Shahar, whose job offer from then-Attorney General Michael Bowers was rescinded after discovering she was planning a commitment ceremony with her partner. Bowers claimed her lesbian relationship violated the Georgia sodomy law, which he himself defended in Bowers v. Hardwick.
"We must be vigilant not only in the passage of civil rights laws, but also in the repeal of sodomy laws," continued Lobel. "Even though they are rarely enforced, they are frequently used as the basis for other forms of discrimination in the workplace, in the schools, and with the custody of our children."
With the Georgia law now invalid, thirty-one states and the District of Columbia will have no laws forbidding same gender sexual relations. Of the nineteen states that will have sodomy laws in place, six state¹s laws apply only to same-gender activity - Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Maryland. Thirteen other states have an opposite and same-gender sodomy law - Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota.
November 23, 1998, Alexandria, VA ---- A Federal court today struck down a Loudoun County, Virginia, Library Board Internet policy that violated adults' First Amendment rights by requiring filtering software on all public library computers.
The landmark decision by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria comes as communities all across the nation - from Boston, Mass. to Austin, Texas - are struggling to write Internet policies that conform with the First Amendment.
"This is the first decision in the nation that fully applies First Amendment principles to the Internet in public libraries," said Elliot Mincberg, legal director for People For the American Way Foundation. "The court agreed with us that a public library may not reduce adults to the electronic equivalent of the children's reading room."
In October 1997, the Loudoun County Library Board adopted a policy requiring filtering software in all library computers at all times for adults and minors. The library subsequently contracted with Log-On Data Corp, which manufactures filtering software known as X-Stop. X-Stop has been found to block access to numerous sites containing mainstream, valuable, constitutionally protected information - ranging from the Quakers' web page to information on sexuality education to even a site dealing with Beanie Babies.
People For the American Way Foundation and the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan and Hartson L.L.P. late last year challenged the policy in federal court, suing on behalf of Mainstream Loudoun, a group of Loudoun County parents who oppose censorship. Later, the American Civil Liberties Union intervened in the lawsuit.
People For the American Way Foundation and Hogan and Hartson L.L.P. argued that the Loudoun County Library Board's policy so blatantly violated the First Amendment that it should be struck down without a trial. Today U.S. District Judge Brinkema agreed.
PFAWF President Carole Shields noted that Mainstream Loudoun had proposed a less restrictive Internet policy that would have let parents decide whether their children's Internet access should be filtered. The Loudoun County Library Board rejected the proposal in favor of the more Draconian policy overturned today by the Court.
"The Court has given public library patrons a green light when they travel down the Information Superhighway," Shields said. "Meanwhile, it remains up to us, as parents, to decide how our children should access the Internet."
(NEW YORK, November 20, 1998) -- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said outside a Houston court Friday that it will challenge the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" law in defense of two men arrested in a private home on charges of engaging in consensual sex.
Lambda Staff Attorney Suzanne B. Goldberg, after the arraignment hearing in The State of Texas v. Lawrence and The State of Texas v. Garner, said that the national organization for lesbian and gay civil rights will seek to strike down the Texas sodomy law that the men are charged with violating.
Violation of the "Homosexual Conduct" law, which forbids most sexual contact between people of the same sex, is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $500.
"A $500 fine and offensive police intrusion do not begin to reflect the real harm that this archaic law does to lesbian and gay Texans," Goldberg said outside the hearing. "The Texas sodomy law tramples on one of the most intimate aspects of people's lives and singles out lesbians and gay men for harsh treatment. It is an unconstitutional assault on privacy and equal protection rights," she said.
Lambda and its cooperating attorneys, Mitchell Katine and David Jones of the Houston law firm Williams, Birnberg & Anderson, L.L.P., represent the defendants, who pleaded "no contest" before Justice of the Peace Mike Parrott.
The men were jailed overnight after being arrested on September 17 by Harris County police who entered one of the men's apartment in response to a false report of an armed intruder. Police said the men were engaged "in deviate sexual intercourse, namely anal sex, with [a] member of the same sex."
Goldberg stressed, "The state's 'Homosexual Conduct' law, even when not used in criminal proceedings, classifies gay people in Texas as unequal to their fellow citizens, stigmatizes them as criminals, and forbids them from engaging in the same private acts with their partners that are allowed for non-gay Texans."
"This law puts people at risk of losing their jobs and their homes, simply for sexual intimacy with another consenting adult," she continued, adding, "We will challenge the law's violation of the United States and Texas Constitutions."
Texas is one of only five states that singles out same-sex couples for criminal status based on private, consensual sexual behavior.
Lambda, which has worked on earlier efforts to overturn the Texas sodomy law, currently is challenging a similar same-sex ban in Arkansas and helped overturn such sodomy laws in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Montana. The United States Supreme Court's 1996 decision in Romer v. Evans provides a powerful federal tool for attacking these discriminatory criminal laws.
Marking its 25th anniversary, Lambda is the oldest and largest legal organization defending the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV and AIDS. With its headquarters in New York, Lambda has regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta.
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) 11-19-98-- Gay college student Matthew Shepard was beaten and tied to a fence by his attackers as they grilled him for information so they could burglarize his apartment, a prosecutor said Thursday.
``As he lay there bleeding and begging for his life, he was then bound to the buck fence,'' prosecutor Cal Rerucha told a packed courtroom as a preliminary hearing for Aaron James McKinney got under way.
McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson, both 21, are accused of killing Shepard, a University of Wyoming student, after luring him out of a campus bar to an isolated area outside town.
The slightly built Shepard, who had been pummeled with the butt of a .357-caliber Magnum, suffered 18 blows to the head, and his hands were bound so tightly that a sheriff's deputy had difficulty cutting him free, Rerucha said.
``(The deputy) found what she thought was a 13-year-old boy with severe head injuries,'' Rerucha said.
A student passing by on a mountain bike found the student, initially mistaking the nearly lifeless body for ``a scarecrow or a dummy set there for Halloween jokes.''
Shepard's blood-caked face had been partially washed clean by tears; he died five days later.
As the prosecutor spoke, McKinney sat quietly at a nearby table, showing no emotion. Shepard's mother, Judy, bowed her head at times during the hearing as she sat in the front row next to her husband, Dennis.
McKinney is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily injury or to terrorize the victim. The murder charge carries a possible death sentence, but Rerucha has not indicated whether he will seek the death penalty.
Henderson earlier waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He and McKinney are being held without bond.
Rerucha and law enforcement officers outlined a timeline of the crime, which drew international attention because authorities believe Shepard was targeted, at least partially, because he was gay.
McKinney and Henderson lured Shepard from a campus bar Oct. 7 by telling them they were gay and that they wanted to get ``better acquainted,'' Rerucha said. As they drove away in McKinney's truck, McKinney pulled the handgun and said, ```We're not gay, and you're jacked,''' Rerucha said.
Outside town, they ``beat him for $20, your honor, the contents of the wallet,'' Rerucha said.
McKinney and Henderson repeatedly grilled Shepard for information so they could burglarize his apartment and then left him with the ``constant Wyoming wind'' as his companion, Rerucha said.
The crime outraged the gay community and focused debate across the United States on the effectiveness of laws that enhance the penalty for hate crimes.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, November 19, 1998 --- The issue is clear-cut: Peter and Stan, Lois and Holly, Nina and Stacy all want to tie the knot. But Vermont law says they cannot because they would be husband and husband, wife and wife.
In closely watched arguments before five Vermont Supreme Court justices yesterday, an attorney for the couples urged the court to follow the lead of the California ruling that struck down a ban on interracial marriages 50 years ago. It was a ``controversial, courageous and correct'' decision, and gay couples deserve no less of an opportunity to share the ``little bundle of rights and privileges'' enjoyed by heterosexual married couples, she said.
``The status of marriage is . . . a value and a benefit,'' said attorney Beth Robinson. ``The state of Vermont can not have a separate but equal provision here.''
Lawyers for the state argued that marriage is exclusively a union between one man and one woman. Vermont's marriage law is underpinned by a desire to link intercourse and procreation, they said.
The lawsuit challenges a 1975 ruling advising town clerks that Vermont law defined civil marriage between ``a bride and a groom.'' All three couples -- Stan Baker and Peter Harrigan, Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles, and Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh -- sued last year when town clerks refused them marriage licenses.
Farnham and Puterbaugh, who have an adopted 18-year-old daughter, have been a couple for more than 26 years. Beck and Jolles have been together for nearly 10 years, and Baker and Harrigan for almost six.
A Superior Court Judge dismissed the suit in December, upholding the state's procreation argument. The Supreme Court could affirm or reverse that decision or send it back for a trial. A decision is expected in several months.
Since Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, 29 states have passed laws banning same-sex marriages or recognition of out-of-state marriages between gay couples. Same-sex marriages were most recently blocked by referendums in Hawaii and Alaska.
Long known for its independent streak, Vermont has a steady track record of supporting civil rights for homosexuals. The state offers domestic partner benefits to its employees and bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public accommodations and credit.
It also permits homosexuals to adopt children and allows second- parent adoptions, allowing gay couples to be legal parents of the same child.
Beside a picture of an F16 fighter plane in flight in the GAY Krant runs the caption "There are more exciting places on earth than the dark room."
Below, next to an application form, it continues: "Imagine yourself in the cockpit of an F16. You start it up and only moments later you have 15 million people beneath you...Do you know a more exciting place than the F16's cockpit? Please let us know."
A dark room is an unlit or dimly lit room traditionally at the back of some gay bars or clubs where customers can engage in more intimate activities.
A defence ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the advertisement, but added the Dutch armed forces had for years adopted a liberal attitude to gays in the military.
WASHINGTON Thursday, Nov. 5, 1998 -- Just as HRC has been predicting for months, Congressional candidates who are supportive of gay and lesbian equality won overwhelmingly, while candidates who ventured too far to the right were resoundingly rejected by voters. 90% of HRC endorsed candidates won their races, compared to only 46% of candidates backed by Gary Bauer's ultra-conservative Campaign for Working Families, according to HRC. The election results, which included a five seat pick-up for House Democrats, suggested a rejection of the mean-spirited, anti-gay rhetoric and legislation that was promoted by religious political extremists. Exit polls by the Washington Post illustrated the trend toward moderation by reporting that the proportion of voters who describe themselves as conservative dropped 6% compared with 1994.
"American voters rejected the mean-spirited, anti-gay positions that have been expressed throughout this election season, and registered their dissatisfaction at the polls," said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. "In most cases where the voters had a choice, they picked the moderate, fair-minded candidate. This should be a clear message to the Republican leadership: Extreme right candidates don't make good candidates. The GOP must stop taking orders from religious political organizations, including the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council."
This past summer, right wing Republican members of Congress introduced a stream of anti-gay measures, all of which were defeated. An expensive ad campaign attacking gay Americans was also taken out this Summer by eighteen right wing political organizations -- many of whom, such as the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council -- are now blaming the GOP election losses on moderation.
An HRC poll released on July 30, conducted by the polling firm Penn, Schoen, and Berland, warned that dire political consequences awaited the GOP if they continued down their path of anti-gay rhetoric and discriminatory legislation. Among the key findings:
* 48% of voters said that they would be "less likely" to vote for a Congressperson who voted to overturn President Clinton's executive order banning job discrimination against gays. Only 17% of respondents said overturning the executive order would make them "more likely" to vote for their Congressperson. The Hefley Amendment, which would have overturned the executive order, was defeated 252-176. Of the 235 representatives who opposed the amendment and ran for reelection, 233 were reelected. Rep. Jon Fox (R-Pa.) was defeated by HRC backed Democrat Joe Hoeffel and HRC endorsed Jay Johnson (D-Wis.) was defeated by Republican Mark Green.
* The poll asked how the recent attacks on gay Americans by the GOP affected the respondents opinion of the Republican party. 40% said their opinion was "less favorable." Only 18% said anti-gay rhetoric made their impression of the party "more favorable."
* According to the poll, Americans overwhelmingly believed that the anti-gay rhetoric was divisive. 62% said they believed that the recent public "discussion" on the equality of gay Americans hurts the country and fosters a climate of intolerance and hostility, while just 24% of say it helps the country.
Just as the electorate shifted away from right-wing extremism on Tuesday, religious political activists tried to shift the blame for the losses away from themselves and onto the GOP leadership.
"Right wing political leaders are deluding themselves if they think their divisive messages are not responsible the losses. Even after a series of stinging defeats, the far right is still demanding that the GOP leadership continue the losing strategy of dividing America. If the GOP leadership continues to adopt Bauer's strategy, surely they will fail," said HRC executive director Elizabeth Birch.
Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council said that the defeats were due to the GOP "bailing out on social issues." Christian Coalition's Randy Tate echoed Bauer and declared that the GOP will continue to suffer if they did not move further right.
"If the 106th Congress does not immediately take up pro-family, conservative issues and talk about them, not just for one day, but day in and day out, if they don't do these things, things will get worse before they get better for them [GOP Congressional leaders]," said Christian Coalition Executive Director Randy Tate in today's Washington Post.
The dissention caused by the uncompromising right wing intensified after two leaders, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and the rest of the House leadership should be ousted.
As the right wing counted their losses, 90% of Human Rights Campaign endorsed candidates were elected, winning 171 out of 189 elections. HRC-backed candidates -- 173 Democrats, 16 Republicans and one independent-- were victorious in every region of the country. The victories of gay friendly candidates stood in stark contrast to the rejection of candidates backed by Gary Bauer's far-right Campaign for Working Families. Bauer-backed candidates won less than half of their races-- 20 out of 43--, including high-profile defeats -- such as Tom Bordonaro's loss to Lois Capps, in California -- in which the Campaign for Working Families intervention was considered largely responsible for the candidate's demise.
"The issues that are important to working families have nothing to do with the narrow, discrimination-based, agenda espoused by Gary Bauer and the candidates he supports. Voters want solutions instead of scapegoats," said HRC political director Winnie Stachelberg.
The Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, played a pivotal role in races across the nation, including the key states of Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, California, and Nevada, by providing campaign contributions, strategic advice and staff. HRC's PAC contributed nearly $1 million to fair-minded candidates, political parties and allied PACs for this election cycle -- $754,272 to Democratic candidates, $95,425 to Republican candidates, $2,500 to an independent, $69,135 to political parties and $64,600 to other PACs. HRC members also privately raised an estimated $1.5 million dollars for candidates who support gay and lesbian equality.
A total of 26 HRC staff members worked in campaigns across the country, providing experience and expertise. Twenty members of HRC's Youth College, an intensive political training program for gay youth, also joined campaigns for 12 weeks -- many playing key roles. In addition, HRC sent out 40,000 direct mail pieces to members in targeted states, placed 20 "get out the vote" (GOTV) ads in targeted communities and made 40,000 GOTV phone calls.
HRC also embarked on the Pacific Northwest "Equality Tour," --a 17 day, 3,500 mile tour, visiting 33 communities in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington -- which encouraged voter participation in the gay and lesbian and broader communities. The tour helped candidates in the region by distributing almost 20,000 voter registration packets and holding 44 events to benefit candidates in the region. The following are some of the key races targeted by HRC:
* Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin made history by becoming the first open gay or lesbian non-incumbent elected to the House of Representatives.
* Washington Senator Patty Murray trounced Religious Right icon Rep. Linda Smith -- with an HRC rating of zero percent-- 58% to 42%.
* In California, State Treasurer Matt Fong was mortally wounded in the closing days of his campaign to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer by a report that he had contributed $50,000 to the virulently anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition. With the help of HRC, Boxer won 50% to 47%.
* David Wu, an Asian American attorney from Portland won his race with the support of HRC. His district includes part of Portland, Beaverton and the areas to the west of the city. The Equality Tour visited Wu's district this Summer.
* In his rematch against Republican Rep. Jon Fox (R-Pa.), Joe Hoeffel won election with the financial and staff assistance of the Human Rights Campaign.
* In a closely watched race, HRC endorsed Washington Democrat Brian Baird defeated anti-gay Republican Don Benton 55% to 45%, to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Linda Smith. Don Benton tried to resuscitate his campaign against Baird with a failed anti-gay ad campaign focusing on gay marriage. The ads ran on various television stations. In a pamphlet attacking Baird, Benton lied about Baird's position by saying, "Oh, my! Did you know Brian Baird supports requiring our churches to perform same-sex marriages?"
* Sen. Russell Feingold defeated two-term Rep. Mark Neumann -- who has a zero percent rating from HRC -- by a vote of 51% to 49%.
* Other major religious right favorites who lost yesterday included Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), former Congressman Bob Dornan, Alabama Governor Fob James, and Rep. Bill Redmond (R-NM).
Washington, DC - 3 November 1998 ---- Wisconsin State Representative Tammy Baldwin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives - the first openly gay political candidate to be elected as a non-incumbent to federal office in America. Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic state legislator, was declared the victor in Wisconsin's Second Congressional District.
"Last week, history was made when John Glenn proved once and for all that age is no barrier. This week, history is being made here on earth as gay and lesbian candidates prove that sexual orientation is not a barrier to election," said Brian K. Bond, Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
Despite early predictions of voter disinterest, lesbian and gay Americans and other fair-minded voters turned out in solid numbers to make history last night by electing America's first openly lesbian candidate to the United States Congress.
"This is the best message voters can send Congress today. In Madison, Wisconsin, they wisely chose the best qualified candidate, and put aside the issue of sexual orientation. That's why we have worked so hard not only for Tammy Baldwin, but for scores of outstanding candidates across the nation. The Victory Fund again is helping write a new story about politics in America - and it's utterly fundamental. Americans believe each of us should be judged by our ability to do the job, and lesbians and gays are stepping up to that challenge," said Bond.
Enthusiastic congratulations were given to Congresswoman-Elect Tammy Baldwin by Victory Fund Co-Chair Jeff Soukup and by Deputy Director Kathleen DeBold, who were present in Madison, Wisconsin last night.
This year, the Victory Fund accelerated its efforts for November 3 by assisting 28 openly gay and lesbian candidates for public office. [Eight additional state and local campaigns with Victory Fund-backed gay candidates already won election in their own races before November 3.]
The total giving generated by Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund members during this election cycle exceeds $750,000 - or ¾ of a million dollars to all endorsed candidates.
WASHINGTON (AP) Nov. 3, 1998 --- A Brooklyn congressman toppled veteran Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York and a wealthy trial lawyer ousted incumbent GOP Sen. Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina Tuesday as Democrats fought to prevent Republicans from padding their Senate majority.
Democratic Rep. Charles Schumer, who like D'Amato was first elected in 1980, dispatched D'Amato in this year's most expensive Senate race - and one of its most bitter.
The race saw Schumer relentlessly challenge D'Amato's credibility, while the Republican - nicknamed ''Senator Pothole'' - boasted of his constituent service and accused his rival of missing numerous votes.
The Republicans' 55 seats in the current Congress already represent the most the party has held since the 56 GOP senators who served in 1930 and 1931.
In North Carolina, the Republicans lost a Senate seat. Democrat John Edwards, a 45-year-old attorney, a Democrat, won his first bid for public office by defeating Faircloth, a conservative elected to the Senate in 1992.
Faircloth repeatedly tried linking Edwards to President Clinton and painting him as a liberal, but Edwards cast himself as a moderate interested in boosting federal efforts for education and managed-care patients.
Just to the south, 32-year veteran Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., withstood what had been expected to be a strong challenge by conservative Rep. Bob Inglis. Republicans had been counting on an Inglis victory in a longshot bid for a filibuster-proof 60-seat Senate majority.
''There's something to be said for seniority,'' Anna Lacher, 51, of Aiken, S.C., said of her vote for Hollings.
Though Republicans were certain to retain their Senate majority for two more years, their chances of making more than modest gains in their strength in the chamber were diminishing.
Even so, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told Republicans at an election night celebration in Washington, ''Before the night is out, we will see our agenda be confirmed. ... Before the night is out, we will have a victory to celebrate.''
HONOLULU, HI - BOSTON GLOBE, November 2, 1998 ---- All these years later, Joseph Melillo and Patrick Lagon still laugh at each other's stories, even the repeats. They still fuss over each other's breakfast orders. They still want to marry each other.
Together for more than two decades, Melillo and Lagon have been unofficially engaged for almost eight years. They came close to marriage once, and they like to think they're close again. But the couple won't know if they can until every island voter has a say.
Melillo and Lagon are at the heart of one of the hardest political fights ever in Hawaii. On Tuesday, voters will consider amending their state constitution to ban same-sex marriages. Passage would empower the Legislature to do so. Failure would open up the possibility of Hawaii's becoming the first state to allow gays and lesbians to wed - unions whose legal standing could then be tested in other states with laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
''They're saying we have equal rights as long as we marry someone we don't love, which in our case would be a woman,'' said Melillo, who applied for a marriage license in 1990 and turned to the courts when he and Lagon were turned down. ''Well that's not who I want to marry.''
In 1993, the state supreme court sided with them and two lesbian couples, declaring that Hawaii was violating its own constitution by denying them the same right to marry as heterosexuals. The decision was stayed pending appeal, and it remains unclear how the court will rule if the amendment fails.
Two Maine cities vote on ordinances that extend protection against discrimination to gays. B1. As a result, Hawaii has become ground zero in the debate over legalizing same-sex marriage. Mainland money has poured into both sides. Both have gone for the gut. Amendment supporters imply homosexuality will be taught in the schools. Opponents ask whose rights will be taken away next.
''We don't want to be the first; we don't want Hawaii to be known for this,'' said Jennifer Diesman, a spokeswoman for Save Traditional Marriage-'98, the largest of the island groups formed to push the amendment. ''We don't want this decided by three politically appointed judges. This is our community and this should reflect our judgment.''
In many ways, the state is an unlikely place for such a blunt political experiment.
Proud of its ''aloha spirit,'' Hawaii outlawed discrimination based on gender long ago. It was the first state to legalize abortion. Discriminating against gays in employment is specifically outlawed. Intermarriage is common, reflected in the multi-ethnic complexion of residents. Yet Hawaii has always had a conservative undertone, one that remains strong, and gay activists say tolerance is being strained.
From the start, polls have shown that the vast majority of Hawaiians oppose same-sex marriage. The governor and his Republican challenger are against it. One-quarter of the state's 1.1 million residents belong to the Roman Catholic Church or to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which push for the amendment's passage every Sunday. The Salt Lake City-based Mormons have donated $600,000.
Still, the outcome is uncertain. Amendment supporters continue to lead in the latest polls, but both sides say the vote could be close. Blank ballots count as ''no'' votes - a considerable boost for opponents. The ballot language itself is also confusing and counterintuitive, and could lead some to think a ''no'' vote is a vote against same-sex marriage. A large percentage of voters remain undecided.
''There's so much controversy, I just don't know,'' said Mary Kwon, a hotel housekeeper. ''If gay people want to marry, I don't see why not. But if we're the first state, all the gay people will come here to get married and then want to live here.''
While some amendment supporters have played on that fear, opponents have highlighted another.
At every opportunity, the people working for the initiative's defeat have painted it as legalized discrimination: using the constitution to deny rights to a specific group. That's tough talk in a state where many Japanese- Americans remember the internment camps of World War II and native Hawaiians suffered discrimination of their own. The campaign's TV ads barely mention same-sex marriage at all. Again and again, Jackie Young, who heads the group known as Protect Our Constitution, tells audiences, ''This constitution is for all of us.'' Coalition members include the Japanese American Citizens League, African American Association of Hawaii and League of Women Voters.
''What they're trying to do in essence is write us out of the constitution,'' said David Smith, a senior strategist with the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay political group that has set up an office in Honolulu and spent more than $1 million to oppose the amendment. ''We're trying to take out the emotion of same-sex marriage and talk about giving the Legislature the power to overrule the supreme court on matters concerning civil rights.''
For the Rev. Mark Alexander, a Catholic priest and church spokesman on the issue, the survival of the ''traditional'' family is at stake. The Mormon Church opposes same-sex marriage on moral grounds, said Don Hallstrom, an elder and the senior Mormon leader in Hawaii. The Hawaii Christian Coalition's web site warns that any state that allows same-sex marriage should ''fear the wrath of God.'' But other supporters of the amendment stress that they do not condemn homosexuals in general, only their right to marry.
''There are a great many single dads, great gay parents, but I can't be for something that pushes people away from the core of family,'' said the Rev. K. C. Russ, who runs Affordable Weddings of Hawaii and whose background is in youth ministry. ''I'm not bashing gays. I'm just fighting for the kids because I see so many problems coming from the deterioration of the family.''
With an eye on Hawaii, 29 states and Congress have passed laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. A measure on the upcoming ballot in Alaska would amend its constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, a reaction to a superior court ruling that choosing a life partner was a fundamental right. In Hawaii, each side charges the other with having a hidden agenda and importing support to carry it out.
''They're religious extremists and the next thing they'll want to do is limit women's reproductive rights. Hawaii is definitely on their map,'' said Yolanda Lozano, a partner in Remote Possibilities, a Maui company that specializes in gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies.
Said Michael Gabbard, the founder of Alliance for Traditional Marriage in Honolulu, ''They're trying to force their values down the throats of the people of Hawaii. ... The bottom line is that homosexuality is not normal behavior.''
One of the TV ads being run by amendment supporters warns that homosexuals coming to Hawaii for commitment ceremonies are chasing away heterosexual honeymooners from Japan, although it cites no proof. An early TV spot featured a groom rushing past a bride on the beach, into the arms of another man. Another featured a young boy reading aloud from a children's book called ''Daddy's Wedding.'' The tagline: ''If you don't think homosexual marriage will affect you, how do you think it will affect your children?''
Amendment opponents were outraged, and retaliated with an ad featuring a female doctor warning that abortion rights could be threatened next.
''This is a unique situation,'' said Jon Van Dyke, a constitutional law expert at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu who opposes the amendment. ''On the other hand, when discrimination against one group becomes law, there is always going to be the chance of discrimination against another group.''
For their part, Melillo, 51, and Lagon, 41, do not expect to be donning tuxedos - or silk Hawaiian shirts - anytime soon. Instead, they will continue catering private parties and restart their silk-screening business. The couple has hefty legal bills, and they note that mainland gay rights organizations refused their requests for help until after they triumphed in superior court.
''We get tired of this; it weighs on us,'' Lagon said. ''But we're not going away, and we're still together.''
MADISON, Wis. -- BOSTON GLOBE, November 2, 1998 --- Tammy Baldwin walks from one end of the private dining room to the other, microphone in hand, fielding questions on everything from taxes to Social Security to campaign finance from members of the county bar association.
The six-year veteran of the Wisconsin Legislature, whose campaign literature describes her as having ''challenged traditional stereotypes of public officials,'' is trying to shatter one more: She wants to become the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress.
Baldwin's sexuality is nothing more than a blip on the voters' radar, and a non-starter for her Republican opponent.
Anti-gay comments that popped up during the primary have disappeared, and the religious right has largely become silent since the recent beating death of a gay Wyoming college student.
As a result, this state capital that is the bedrock of Wisconsin's liberalism has become Ground Zero for gays and lesbians seeking to topple one of the last hurdles in their struggle for civil rights.
In an election year unprecedented for the number of openly gay candidates for Congress, Baldwin, a 1984 graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., is regarded as having the best chance among three lesbians and one gay man.
While openly gay members of Congress have served for more than a decade - including Representatives Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, and Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican - their sexuality was not revealed until after they were in office.
''We still have to break that barrier of electing someone who the voters, when they elected them for the first time, know,'' said David B. Mixner, a former adviser to President Clinton on gay issues. Mixner predicted that just as 1992 was considered the year of the woman, one of the themes of this election could be ''the year of the lesbian.''
In addition to Baldwin, the other lesbian candidates for Congress are Christine Kehoe, a San Diego City Council member, and retired Army Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer of Seattle. All three women are Democrats running in swing districts represented by Republicans but carried by Clinton in 1996. Cammermeyer, whose district is the most conservative, is thought to be the longest shot among the three women. A recipient of a Bronze Star as a nurse in Vietnam, she became a celebrity six years ago when she was forced out of the Army National Guard after acknowledging she was a homosexual. She sued to be reinstated and won.
The fourth gay candidate, Democratic businessman Paul Barby, faces an uphill climb in his second bid to unseat Representative Frank Lucas, a popular Oklahoma Republican.
Kehoe in San Diego also faces the difficult task of trying to unseat an incumbent, Republican Representative Brian Bilbray. Although she trails slightly in published polls, tracking polls show her gaining ground, gay activists say.
But in the case of Baldwin, who is running for an open seat being vacated by Republican Scott L. Klug, many analysts say the odds look more favorable.
Although no independent polling has been done, Baldwin, 36, is widely thought to have a slight edge over her GOP opponent, former insurance commissioner Josephine Musser, a social moderate, who has riled many conservatives for refusing to oppose abortion.
''This is an election that won't be decided until the last vote from the last hamlet in this district is counted,'' said Rod Hise, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
Liberal groups like Emily's List, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and organized labor have poured money into Baldwin's campaign. As of Oct. 1, she had raised $846,788, compared to Musser's $472,066, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
As a testament to the national attention of Baldwin's effort, she has attracted more than $113,000 from out-of-state contributions, compared to $5,400 for Musser, the center said.
''There has been great national interest in this race,'' said Baldwin's campaign manager, Paul Devlin, a native of Peabody, Mass.
Regardless of who wins, Wisconsin will be sending its first woman to Congress as a result of this contest, and that has become a far bigger interest for residents here than Baldwin's sexuality, said Don Kettl, a University of Wisconsin political scientist.
Musser says she refuses to make Baldwin's sexuality an issue. ''I have said that this is not a part of our campaign, our issues, our message or our strategies, and I intend to keep it that way,'' she said.
The Times says that even ministers who support Coalition stances on social issues said they would refuse to distribute the guides this year out of fear of appearing partisan before their large and politically diverse congregations. Other minsters reportedly said they did not want to endanger their tax-exempt status by distributing what they felt to be partisan campaign material.
Though no church has ever lost its tax exemption for distributing Coalition material, ministers site the lawsuit brought against the organization by the Federal Election Commission as cause for concern. The lawsuit filed in 1996 charges the Coalition with using its voter guides, telephone banks and mass mailings to promote Republican candidates.
The suit, which is still pending, says even if the Coalition's voter guides do not explicitly favor one candidate over the other, they are in violation of the law if they are intended to mobilize specific voters in contested districts.
The Interfaith Alliance, sensing the Coalition's vulnerability on the partisanship issue, has sent 20,000 letters to clergy in 25 states urging them to reject distribution of the guides. The Alliance, representing Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy, accuse the Christian Coalition of "seeking to transform houses of worship into precinct halls for espousing partisan politics."
Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has written letters to 80,000 pastors warning churches about the potential danger to tax-exempt institutions found to be distributing partisan election material.
The guides, say the letters, list candidates' stands on select issues; they distort candidates' records, for example highlighting support for "special rights for homosexuals," and allow no means for the candidates to respond to allegations and inaccuracies listed in the guides.
"We have never seen a guide in all of these years that is slanted in such a way as to suggest you vote for a Democrat," Lynn told The Times. "They are blatantly partisan appendages of Republican campaign material." --Data Lounge Staff
"My message is about what a healthy step this is," she said Saturday at a news conference in St. Louis. "But it has to be done in one's own way and in one's own time."
And only that individual has the right to reveal his or her sexual orientation, she added. "I'm definitely against `outing.' "
Ellen DeGeneres has gone public about being gay. Her mother was keynote speaker Saturday at the Sixth Annual Greater St. Louis Human Rights Campaign gala at the Casa Loma Ballroom. She chairs the campaign's National Coming Out Project.
It is normal for friends and family members to have difficulty accepting immediately that someone they love is gay, Betty DeGeneres said, adding that gays and lesbians themselves sometimes require years to come to terms with their own orientation.
"It's a process that you go through of acceptance," she said. "It's important to keep the lines of communication open."
Police say three men were walking eastbound on Brannan Street at Third Street at 3 a.m. when a group of men drove by in a white van, shouting ``honey,'' ``fags,'' and various threats.
The driver of the van stopped and three of the occupants approached the group. One of them punched one of the victims in the face, knocking him to the ground, and the other suspects began hitting the other victims, according to police.
A fourth man driving by saw the scuffle and handed a pen to one of the men standing on the sidewalk so he could write down the license plate number of the alleged attackers.
As the driver and other suspects jumped into the van and sped away the men on the sidewalk heard gunshots and saw gun smoke coming from the vehicle.
The passerby located a police officer, who tracked down the van at the toll plaza of the Bay Bridge. A gun was found in the van. Police say 19-year-old Flanklin Chavez, 21-year-old Mariano Viramontes, 24-year-old Juan Rodriguez, 22-year-old David Zuniga and 20-year-old Genaro Rodriguez were all identified by the victims and booked into county jail on charges of aggravated assault with a gun and hate crime.
The men attacked were scratched and bruised but refused medical attention, according to police.
New York Times, October 21, 1998 ---- For some of the younger marchers, the demonstration Monday night that paralyzed parts of midtown Manhattan was their first political rally.
For some older protesters, though, the march -- to express outrage over the killing of a gay college student in Wyoming -- was a return to the angry street protests that had so often symbolized the militancy of the gay rights movement.
As the chaotic denouement of the march and the police response was debated Tuesday, one thing seemed clear: the size of the loosely organized protest showed how the killing of Matthew Shepard has galvanized gay men and lesbians in New York and around the country as has no other single event in recent years.
The demonstration began at 6 P.M. as a rally in front of the Plaza Hotel on 59th Street near Central Park, then swelled to 5,000 people on Fifth Avenue, blocking traffic.
Confrontations with police officers resulted in 110 arrests.
While the size of the midtown protest surprised even its organizers, the anger and sadness on the streets of New York was hardly unique. Candlelight vigils have taken place across the country, from Washington to Grand Junction, Colo., Raleigh, N.C., and Lubbock, Tex. In San Francisco, the giant rainbow flag in the Castro district that symbolizes the gay rights movement was lowered to half staff.
The Internet has been filled with discussion of the crime.
The cause of the passion, participants say, is a sense that even as gay people have become more accepted than ever, there are reminders of the hatred and violence of the not-so distant past.
Well before Shepard's murder, an increase of anti-gay crimes in New York City had unsettled gay people, shaking them out of what some call complacency.
Recent protests over issues like benefits for domestic partners and the right to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade have lacked the drama of the street tactics of AIDS activists. Some gay men and lesbians contend that their success in drawing attention to AIDS gave some a false feeling of acceptance, especially in the city with the largest gay population in the country.
"There was a sense, I think, in the gay community, particularly living in a certain segment of it in New York City, that we can live in a kind of bubble and feel relatively safe and feel as if we've arrived," said Tim Allis, a magazine editor. "A sense that gay rights are there, that we are so much a part of the mainstream in so many ways, so visible, with so many role models on television. It's a bit of an illusion."
Thomas Ruble, 45, had been to two gay pride rallies and parades, but never to a large protest march until Monday night. "Sometimes, in our little gay lives in the middle of America, I think we have forgotten that they kill us," he said. "They hate us."
In more than 20 interviews with gay men and lesbians in the past week, many said the killing of Matthew Shepard, 21, had struck a chord. Some cited his clean-cut image. Others spoke of the brutality of the crime, in which he was left, severely beaten, lashed to a fence in near-freezing temperatures to die.
Jay Blotcher, who was a spokesman for Queer Nation, a street protest group, in the early 1990's, said that in recent years, his group and other militant organizations had run out of steam and were failing to attract young members.
"We were looking to younger people to pick up the mantle and it wasn't really happening," he said. "I attributed that to that fact that a new generation came of age and said: 'I don't have to be a gay activist, I'm just a gay person. It doesn't have to be an issue.' "
"I think something like this reminds us that it still is an issue," he added.
"There were lots of young people at the rally on Fifth Avenue. And there were people I know there who had hung up their activist mantles and gone into semiretirements."
In New York City, 82 anti-gay bias crimes were reported this year through Oct. 4, compared with 46 during the same period last year, a 78 percent jump, said Deputy Inspector Barbara A. Sicilia, commander of the Bias Unit. Overall bias crimes rose by 2 percent, to 384 from 374.
Although the most incidents were reported in lower Manhattan, where they usually occur, more incidents were also reported in Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.
Carl Locke, the director of client services at the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of bias crimes, said the spread of bias crimes across the city shows the extent to which gay people are becoming more visible outside their usual neighborhoods, Greenwich Village and Chelsea in Manhattan and Park Slope in Brooklyn.
"Most gay-related crimes have people come to your neighborhood and seek you out to hurt you," he said. "Now people don't have to come downtown. As we are more visible outside of Manhattan, we have also seen an increase in crimes in those neighborhoods."
While many activists believe that anti-gay crimes are on the rise across the country, statistics are difficult to come by.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects, which collects data from 14 organizations across the country, reported that violent crimes against gay people rose 2 percent, to 2,445 incidents, in 1997, the last year for which statistics are available. In 1996, the report said, anti-gay crimes rose by 6 percent.
But those figures reflect incidents labeled bias crimes by local organizations, which often use different standards than the police when determining motivation.
Jack Levin, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University and an author of "Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed" (Plenum Press, 1993), said it was not unusual for anti-gay crimes to buck the trends of other bias crimes.
"Most hate crimes respond to economic factors like the unemployment rate, but not gay-bashing," he said. "Gay-bashing has nothing to do with money, with economic survival. That's why so many perpetrators are teen-agers and come from every point among the economic continuum. It is typically done by young people, with their hormones raging, feeling confusion about sexual identity.
Young guys in denial about their own homosexual feelings who see the very presence of a gay person as a threat."
Nineteen states, including New York, do not have legislation that specifically prohibits anti-gay hate crimes. In these states, someone who assaults a gay man or a lesbian can be convicted of assault, but not a bias-related assault. New York does have a law, aggravated harassment in the first degree, that outlaws harassing people because of "the race, color, religion or national origin of such person," but it makes no reference to sexual orientation.
Allis said Shepard's killing put recent history into a new light.
"There was that sense of connecting the dots," he said. "Between the well-publicized murders, the less-publicized hate crimes that we hear about across the country, Trent Lott's words calling homosexuality a disease, and small acts of intolerance, there were all sorts of indications. But the murder of Matthew Shepard brought the picture into relief."
New York Times, October 21, 1998 ---- Organizers of a midtown rally to mourn the slaying of a gay college student in Wyoming charged Tuesday that "the police created chaos" that led to a melee Monday night with sporadic clashes between the police and demonstrators and scores of arrests.
"The police refused to negotiate with us.
The police refused even to talk to us," said Sara Pursley, one of the organizers of the demonstration, which did not have a permit.
"And by doing so, they created far more havoc in the city than we had ever planned to create."
The police responded Tuesday that they were forced to make arrests only after demonstrators spilled out from the sidewalks into the streets, blocking traffic.
The march, called to protest the killing of Matthew Shepard, 21, who died on Oct. 12 after being beaten and lashed to a fence like a scarecrow in what the authorities called a bias-related crime, was billed as a peaceful "political funeral," organized on short notice by word of mouth among gays and lesbians, E-mail notices and flyers distributed in Chelsea, Park Slope and other neighborhoods.
But as some 4,000 protesters gathered around the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel shortly after 6 P.M., trouble quickly started.
The crowd, too large to be contained on the sidewalks, tried to march down Fifth Avenue and the police began making arrests, starting with the parade's negotiators, organizers and marshals.
Disorganized but passionate, the crowd surged south anyway, at one point becoming trapped between police lines on West 43d Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, then charged by police horses.
In the aftermath, it appeared that both the organizers and the police were stunned by the size of the turnout and the way that Shepard's death had galvanized emotions.
"We were expecting about 500 people when we started putting this together," on the night of Shepard's death, Ms. Pursley said.
The police, for their part, had only about 70 officers assigned to the demonstration as it began.
A Level 1 mobilization, doubling the police presence with officers from the Manhattan North and South task forces, was quickly called.
A Level 2 mobilization, drawing in task forces from the other boroughs, was announced at 6:20, followed 20 minutes later by a Level 3, drawing squads of officers from all Manhattan precincts.
A highly unusual Level 4 mobilization, pulling in hundreds of officers from all over the city, was announced at 7 P.M.
The police first tried to block demonstrators from marching on Fifth Avenue, but the protesters swung west on West 55th Street, then south, directly into the oncoming traffic on Avenue of the Americas.
Demonstration leaders said one police commander told them they could have Fifth Avenue, and the march went back east on West 54th Street. But another commander blocked Fifth Avenue with a solid line of officers and motor scooters at West 42d Street.
Some marshals tried, unsuccessfully, to halt the demonstration at West 44th Street, then raced ahead, linked arms and forced the marchers onto West 43d Street, where there was a long standoff.
"Shame, shame, shame," chanted the demonstrators, as brief, club-swinging charges by the police broke out. Protesters, including a woman in a wheelchair, were arrested and loaded aboard hastily commandeered transit buses.
Eventually large groups of protesters worked their way past the Public Library on Fifth Avenue and West 42d Street and went on -- in a markedly calmer, almost choreographed manner, one demonstrator remarked -- to Madison Square Park, where the rally ended around 9.
There was confusion, too, over the number of arrests. The police said Tuesday that about 110 people had been arrested, but charges were dropped in about 30 of those cases.
The organizers, at a news conference at the midtown headquarters of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, said their legal observers had counted at least 136 arrests.
One reason for the discrepancy could be that some people taken into custody were later released because, in the confusion of making many arrests, some officers failed to fill out necessary paper work.
Some of those arrested, most of whom were held at least overnight, were said to be taking a complex series of drugs to combat AIDS or infection from H.I.V.
"I'm really terrified right now," said John Irizarry, who missed two complete dosages of the 44 pills he must take daily for multiple complications from AIDS, including kidney and heart disease.
"Whatever you do, you can't miss a dose of your medicine, it could definitely be life-threatening.
I'm just scared to death.
"I had no idea whatsoever this would happen," Irizarry said, speaking from the office of his doctor, Paul Curtis Bellman, where he was being rehydrated intravenously because he had little water in jail. "I just went to a peaceful candlelight vigil.
It's my first time being arrested or having any contact with the police other than just asking directions."
As the crowd dispersed Monday night, First Deputy Police Commissioner Patrick Kelleher defended the police tactics, saying: "They had a right to gather.
But once they left the sidewalk, they were endangering the motorists, they were endangering the pedestrians.
And we were forced to make arrests."
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that, while he sympathized with the marcher's cause, "the police reacted to people attempting to block the most crowded city in America.
And if they do it again, precisely the same thing will happen.
"The police originally, obviously, did not have the correct number of police there; they didn't know this was going to take place," the Mayor said. He added: "I very much support the point that the lawful marchers were making, but I'm very unsympathetic to those who acted illegally.
I would hope the organizers of the march are responsible enough to make that distinction."
Then the scores of arrests began; most of the organizers taken away first, leaving the marchers adrift, participants said Tuesday.
It was the third time this year that the NYPD faced criticism about its crowd-control methods. In September, bricks and chairs were hurled when police took over the stage of the Million Youth March. In June, thousands of construction workers brought Madison Avenue to a standstill.
First Deputy Police Commissioner Patrick Kelleher defended the department's actions.
"They had a right to gather. But once they left the sidewalk they were endangering the motorists, they were endangering the pedestrians," he said just after the rally ended. "And we were forced to make arrests."
Police did not immediately comment Tuesday on the rally to honor the life of Matthew Shepard. The 21-year-old openly gay man was beaten and tied to a fencepost outside Laramie, Wyo., and discovered in near-freezing temperatures by bicyclists. He died five days later, on Oct. 12. Two men and their girlfriends have been arrested for Shepard's death.
While campaigning in Rhode Island for Republican Gov. Lincoln Almond, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the arrests were a matter of public safety, not of police scorn for the protest message.
"When people just kind of barge into the middle of the street, then the police can do only one thing, and that is to try to remove them as quickly as possible," Giuliani said.
Although they did not apply for a permit, organizers said that did not give police a license to use force against them. Participants allege cops beat them with batons, ran into them with mopeds and police horses kicked them.
"The failure of demonstrators to have a permit is no excuse for the way the police responded to this march," said organizer Sara Pursley. "This was a peaceful, political funeral. The police refused to even negotiate with us. They refused to even talk to us. And by doing so, they created far more havoc in the city than we had ever planned to create."
A civil rights activist called the police actions troubling.
"I think that in 1998, there's been a change in the way they police demonstrations," said Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "They're much more confrontational. They're also unwilling to allow people to demonstrate as freely as they used to."
In the past, police have allowed marchers to take up one lane of a street even if they did not have a permit, Siegel added. He said police are trying to send a message that they control the streets.
At a news conference Tuesday where organizers and participants spoke about the march, two videotapes played for reporters showed some cops in riot gear hitting participants with batons. But some participants are also shown gathered around one cop in riot gear, pushing him back and forth.
One tape shows police on horses within inches of the crowd. Some participants sitting on the ground come close to being trampled.
Some cops threatened to hurt people, participants said.
"I was lying on my back on the ground and I accidentally kicked an officer and I said 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that,"' said Gina Carducci. "He told me he would break my head open like a coconut."
Organizers did not immediately say if they would take legal action against the police. But they plan on attending a rally Thursday to protest police brutality. Organizers of that march have yet to get a permit to march from Union Square to City Hall park, starting at 4 p.m.
The nomination of James Hormel as U.S. envoy to Luxembourg died as the Senate went home for the year. Hormel, a gay San Francisco philanthropist, would have been the first openly gay ambassador.
"I think that it's troubling that members of the Republican Party ... have made clear that someone's sexual orientation is a disqualifier to serve as an ambassador,'' presidential spokesman Joe Lockhart said. "To put it more simply, you can't be an ambassador if you're gay. I think that's unacceptable.''
He said the White House would "explore the options that are available to us and move forward when we think it's appropriate.''
For example, he said Clinton could give Hormel a recess appointment or could renominate him in January when the new Congress takes office. Democratic officials also have suggested Clinton might find another post for Hormel.
A recess appointment would enable Hormel to bypass the nomination process and serve in a temporary capacity until a new Congress had a chance to act.
But such a move would likely anger congressional leaders and would not buy Hormel much time on the job.
The surprise ruling came virtually at the outset of a class-action lawsuit filed in February by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the ACLU's National Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
"In battles over civil rights, same-sex marriage, and hate crimes, our opponents have invoked laws like Maryland's to say we are not entitled to equal treatment," said Matthew Coles, Director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "They can no longer justify opposition to lesbian and gay rights by saying that we are criminals once these laws are struck from the books."
In a decision issued late Friday, Circuit Court Judge Richard T. Rombro held that the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution would be violated "if acts, considered not criminal when committed by a heterosexual couple, could be prosecuted when practiced by a homosexual couple." Rombro then interpreted the statute not to apply to any form of private, consensual, non-commercial sex.
The law, which dated back to 1916, made it a felony for lesbians and gay men to engage in oral sex and attached penalties of up to $1,000 or 10 years in prison.
"This case was about securing basic civil liberties," said Michael Adams, lead lawyer in the case for the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "Laws criminalizing sexual intimacy have left lesbians and gay men vulnerable to job discrimination and open to unfair attacks in child custody cases."
The ACLU brought the case on behalf of five men and women who represent a broad class of Maryland individuals who are negatively impacted by the state's law. Based on today's ruling, the ACLU will now seek to certify the case as a class-action suit on behalf of all Maryland residents.
"After today, everybody will be treated the same under laws concerning intimate sexual activity in our state," said Dwight Sullivan, lead attorney in the case for the ACLU of Maryland. "For the gay and lesbian people of Maryland, a dark cloud has been lifted."
Laws criminalizing sexual intimacy, including sodomy, were once on the books in all 50 states, but many have been repealed or struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Most recently, the Montana Supreme Court voided its same-sex sodomy law last July, concluding that the government has no place in the private bedrooms of consenting adults.
Sodomy and oral sex laws remain on the books today in 20 states, 15 of which target intimate activities for both gay and heterosexual couples.
An updated list of state sodomy statutes can be found at: http://www.aclu.org/issues/gay/sodomy.html
WASHINGTON ASSOCIATED PRESS, October 19, 1998 --- A gay aviator kicked out of the Navy after appearing on national television in 1992 to say he's homosexual lost a Supreme Court appeal today.
The justices, for the fourth time in recent years, rejected a challenge to the military's ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy on military service by homosexuals.
The nation's highest court never has ruled on the policy's constitutionality, but consistently has refused to hear the appeals of former service members ousted for discussing their homosexuality.
Tracy Thorne, a former bombadier-navigator, contended in a strongly worded appeal turned away without comment today that the policy is based on ``bigotry'' and ``invidious and irrational prejudice.''
Thorne appeared on the ABC news program ``Nightline'' in May of 1992 to urge an end to the ban then in place on military service by homosexuals. During the program, he disclosed his sexual orientation.
Within days of his television appearance, the Navy notified Thorne of discharge proceedings.
He was not discharged, however, until March 6, 1995. In the interim, Thorne was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for ``superb leadership, exceptional professionalism and total devotion to duty.''
Thorne was a reservist by the time of his honorable discharge for ``homosexual admission.''
He sued, contending that the military's policy violated his free-speech and equal-protection rights. A federal judge and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him.
The policy requires a board of inquiry proceeding for any service member who states that he or she is homosexual to determine whether that person is someone who ``engages in, attempts to engage in, has a propensity to engage in, or intends to engage in homosexual acts.''
The policy states that the service member can attempt to rebut the presumption that he or she has engaged in, or has a propensity to engage in, such acts.
Thorne's Supreme Court appeal said the number of people ousted from the military under the policy has increased each year since 1994. ``Almost 1,000 servicemembers were discharged ... in 1997 alone, a number that surpasses the number discharged annually under the former ban ... between 1990 and 1992,'' the appeal said.
``Gay and lesbian servicemembers who want to serve their country while living an open and honest life are the victims,'' the appeal said. ``This victimization will continue absent guidance from this court.''
Clinton administration lawyers urged the court to reject Thorne's appeal, noting that three other federal appeals courts have upheld the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy.
Thorne was 25 and based at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia when his TV appearance occurred. He grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., and graduated from Vanderbilt University.
The case is Thorne vs. Department of Defense, 98-91.
During last-minute budget negotiations, the Clinton Administration reportedly objected to provisions of the bill pushed by Rep. Michael Oxley, R-OH, citing a Justice Department analysis that it was probably unconstitutional and would likely draw resources away from more important law enforcement efforts. But negotiators apparently failed to strike the Oxley language from the $500 billion Omnibus Appropriations measure due to be voted on in both the House and Senate and signed by the President tomorrow.
The ACLU, with EPIC and EFF acting as co-plaintiffs and co-counsel, led the successful challenge to the Communications Decency Act, which the Supreme Court struck down last year in the landmark Reno v. ACLU (http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/trial/appeal.html). The groups said today that they anticipate filing a legal challenge as early as next week, on behalf of a diverse range of online speakers representing news organizations, gay and lesbian groups, artists, booksellers and any websites that distributed the Starr report.
"It's deja vu all over again," said Ann Beeson, Staff Attorney for the ACLU and a member of the legal team that led the fight against a 1996 federal Internet law. "Just like the CDA, this bill will once again criminalize socially valuable adult speech and reduce the Internet to what is considered suitable for a six-year-old.
"Following a landmark Supreme Court ruling and constitutional objections from the Justice Department," Beeson added, "Congress can plead politics, but it can't plead ignorance."
Barry Steinhardt, President of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agreed. "It is the height of irony that the same Congress that plastered the salacious Starr Report all over the Internet now passes a plainly unconstitutional law to suppress a vaguely defined category of 'harmful' material. You would think Congress would have learned that 'harmfulness' is in the eye of the beholder."
David Sobel, EPIC's General Counsel, said, "This law violates both the free speech rights and the privacy of Internet users. It requires, in effect, that any adult wishing to receive constitutionally protected material must register with a website before receiving information."
"The Supreme Court has, on several occasions, said that such procedures violate the First Amendment," Sobel added. "We are confident that the courts will continue to protect the right of all Americans to receive information without sacrificing their privacy."
LARAMIE, WY - DENVER POST, October 14, 1998 --- All four suspects in the beating death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard now face more serious charges after appearing in court Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon.
The two principal suspects, Aaron McKinney, 22, and Russell Henderson, 21, along with one of their suspected after-the-fact accomplices, Chasity Pasley, 20, appeared in court sometime around 6 p.m. Monday.
The after-hours hearing was criticized Tuesday, but officials said the evening appearance was not intentional and not planned to stymie reporters, a large number of whom have set up camp in Laramie since word of Shepard's beating was first reported by The Denver Post on Friday. Albany County Court personnel told reporters that the court closed at 5 p.m. and that the hearings were scheduled for Tuesday.
Shepard was found tied to a fence and barely alive by two mountain bikers the evening of Oct. 7. According to authorities, he had been tied up there late the night before, robbed and beaten with the butt of a pistol. Shepard was gay, and court records indicate he told told his suspected so before leaving a Laramie bar with them, an aspect of this case that has earned it the attention of politicians, gay-rights advocates and others around the world. He died early Monday morning at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.
In a news conference Tuesday morning, Detective Robert DeBree of the Albany County Sheriff's Department said hearings are often held in the evenings or over weekends.
"We had to await the arrival of the investigative team, of which I was part, to get back'' from Shepard's autopsy in Loveland, he said. "It's not an unusual thing for us.''
In Monday evening's hearing, the attempted first-degree murder charges against McKinney and Henderson were changed to firstdegree murder, which in Wyoming carries a possible sentence of death. The charges of kidnapping and aggravated robbery were unchanged. Previously, Castor had set bail for each at $100,000 in cash. But both men are now being held without bail until prosecutors determine whether they will ask for the death sentence.
Court records released Tuesday also show that McKinney was awaiting sentencing for burglarizing a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant shortly before Christmas last year.
McKinney pleaded no contest Sept. 21 to charges that he and two other men broke into the restaurant and stole $2,500. He was awaiting sentencing under an agreement that he receive probation in return for his plea, court records show.
Pasley, Henderson's girlfriend, was advised that prosecutors had upgraded the charge against her from being an accessory in an attempted first-degree murder case to accessory after-the-fact to firstdegree murder. Kristen Price, McKinney's girlfriend, was advised of the same upgrade Tuesday afternoon. Bail for each woman remains set at $30,000. Price bonded out last week. Pasley is still in custody. If they are convicted, the maximum sentence is three years in jail and a fine of $3,000.
In the courtroom Tuesday for Price's appearance were McKinney's father, Bill McKinney, Price's mother, Kim Kelley, Price's twin brother, Kevin Price, and her and McKinney's 4-monthold son, Cameron. Bill McKinney, who on Saturday submitted to an interview with The Denver Post, said he probably wouldn't talk to the press again.
Local law enforcement and county court staff have expressed frustration with the constant media presence in the Albany County Courthouse for nearly a week now.
Cathy Renna, a spokeswoman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in Washington, this week arrived in Laramie to help local gay people deal with Shepard's death and the accompanying political turmoil, which has been focused on the lack of specific hate-crime laws in Wyoming. She said she thinks local officials should realize that the public's interest in the case is not going to go away.
"I think there is certainly an element of reticence'' on the part of officials to deal with the media, she said. "I think part of it is that they are really afraid of the media exposure. These cases are very high profile and get a lot of media attention. They don't want to deal with that. But the fact is, they do have to deal with that.''
County Judge Robert Castor, who so far has allowed cameras in the courtroom but has suggested that might change in the future, said Tuesday that neither he nor his staff knew that the hearing would happen so late Monday. He dismissed speculation that the suspects' rights to an open, public hearing were violated or that he had presided over a secret hearing.
DeBree told reporters that he and others involved in the case are trying to do their jobs while dealing with reporters' constant questions.
Most important to Laramie and Albany County officials working the case is bringing Shepard's killers to justice, he said.
"Justice will be sought, and it will be done legally and by the book,'' he said. "That's what we're doing here. We're professionals, and that's how it's going to be done.''
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More on Matthew -- More on Vigils, and previous articles on his condition, statements of parents, statement from President Clinton, how you can help.
Aaron McKinney, 22, pleaded no contest Sept. 21 to charges that he and two other men broke into a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant shortly before Christmas last year and stole US$2,500 and dessert.
He was awaiting sentencing under an agreement that he receive probation in return for his plea, according to court records.
McKinney told court officials he needed a court-appointed attorney because he earned only US$1,000 a month as pipe fitter in Florida, where he shared an apartment with his girlfriend.
He also told court officials he owed his stepfather US$360.
Charges against McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson, 21, the other suspect in the beating death of Matthew Shepard, were upgraded late Monday to first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily injury or terrorize the victim.
Court records also showed about a dozen charges against Henderson, including obtaining property by false pretenses for which he paid a fine of US$360 and driving while intoxicated, which carried a US$570 fine, but none of the charges were felonies.
The justices turned away a gay-rights group's argument that the voter-approved 1993 amendment violates homosexuals' equal-protection rights just as the Colorado amendment did.
Tuesday's action is not a decision and sets no national precedent. It likely will create confusion over government policies toward homosexual rights.
Three justices took the unusual step of emphasizing that the court's action "should not be interpreted either as an independent construction of the charter or as an expression of its views about the underlying issues that the parties have debated at length."
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a brief opinion playing down the court's denial of review. His opinion was joined by Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The nation's highest court provided a dramatic victory for gay-rights advocates in 1996 when it threw out a Colorado state constitutional amendment that forbade state and local laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination.
The amendment unlawfully singled out gays and sought to "make them unequal to everyone else," the court ruled then.
The Cincinnati amendment bans any city ordinance or policy that provides gays "any claim of minority or protected status, quota preference or other preferential treatment."
Gay-rights advocates succeeded in 1994 in barring enforcement of the city amendment, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a trial judge's injunction. After its ruling in the Colorado case, the Supreme Court had ordered the 6th Circuit court to restudy the issue.
The appeals court again upheld the Cincinnati measure last October, saying it merely kept homosexuals from getting "special privileges and preferences" as opposed to what the appeals court called the broader language of the Colorado amendment.
The 6th Circuit court also said the Cincinnati measure was a "direct expression of the local community will" while the Colorado amendment interfered with local governments that wanted to protect homosexual rights.
The city amendment "cannot be characterized as an irrational measure fashioned only to harm an unpopular segment of the population," the appeals court concluded.
In his brief opinion, Stevens said "the confusion over the proper construction of the city charter counsels against granting (review)."
In the appeal acted on Tuesday, the Equality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati said the appeals court's decision conflicts with the Supreme Court's 1996 decision and "will encourage targeting of gay people and other groups for unconstitutional harm."
The Constitution's equal-protection guarantee applies to cities just as it applies to states, the gay-rights group's appeal said.
Cincinnati's lawyers urged the court to reject the appeal, saying the amendment bars only "special or preferential protection" and does not harm anyone's equal-protection rights.
A group called Equal Rights Not Special Rights told the court that "laws denying homosexuality minority or protected status are eminently reasonable" and the city amendment preserves people's freedom to associate and act on their moral beliefs.
The case is Equality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati vs. Cincinnati, 97-1795.
The vigil will be held on the west steps of the US Capitol. It is SPONSORED BY: National Lesbian and Gay Task Force (NGLTF), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and other national organizations.
GUESTS include Helen Hunt, Ellen DeGeneres, Betty Degeneres and other entertainment figures.
MIAMI HERALD, October 12, 1998 --- A gay martyr. That's what South Florida's gay community is calling the murdered Matthew Shepard.
"We do consider him that," said George H. Noel Jr. of Key West, who is helping organize a memorial service for Shepard, 21, who died Monday after being beaten and hung like a scarecrow from a fence in Laramie, Wyo.
"There is a real sincere compassion for this young man," said Noel, president of the Key West chapter of Integrity, a social-justice organization within the Episcopal Church. "Words cannot describe it. All the advances we have made . . . maybe we've made none."
The service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, 401 Duval St.
Terry Dewis, chairman of religious outreach for SAVE Dade, a group trying to pass a human-rights ordinance in Miami-Dade County, has set a memorial service for 8 p.m. Wednesday at Temple Israel, 137 NE 19th St. in Miami.
"We just need to come together to mourn Matthew, and also for our own healing," Dewis said. "When they do that to one of us, they do it to us all. We're all equally hurt by it. And especially in the light of this community, which is such a diverse community. I do not want to see this happen in Dade County."
Most gays bristle when they hear the suspected motive for the slaying: that Shepard made an unwanted pass at another man, embarrassing him in front of his friends.
"The implication that this is the result of some kind of flirtation -- it's beyond defensive, it's unconscionable," said Jorge Mursuli, chairman of SAVE Dade.
Mursuli said he felt "paralyzed" by Shepard's death.
"When I heard he passed away, it really slammed me. It was real," Mursuli said. "Our ultimate fear. I don't know who's safe."
Martha Fugate, director of Project YES, an outreach group for gay and lesbian youths in Miami-Dade County, said the young people here are "really devastated."
But Fugate doesn't want the young people to blame anyone for Shepard's slaying.
"I say that each and every one of us is responsible. I'm responsible that he died, because I haven't done enough. Forget about who is to blame. `Who is willing to be responsible?' is the question. Who's willing to be responsible, so that we can have a community that's safe for our kids?"
Monday night, about 30 people in their teens and 20s gathered at a Miami youth group to discuss what happened.
"Nobody acts that way out of frustration, but out of hate," said Christopher Martin, 20.
One 20-year-old woman, who identified herself as Angie, had a message for parents: "People don't take responsibility for their kids' behavior. Your children hate people because you hate people. . . . As far as being scared . . . I don't have time to sit down to worry that people don't like me."
The youths debated whether gays and lesbians should use violence to defend themselves.
"I hate to say what I'm about to say but . . . if I am going to die, I am going to die fighting," said Eugene, 22, who asked not to be fully identified. "OK, we still have to survive. Violence toward violence is how it's going to be at the end."
Herald staff writer Nancy Klingener contributed to this report.
The following information was released by Rulon Stacey, CEO and president of Poudre Valley Hospital, at a press conference at 4:30 a.m. October 12 at the hospital.
At 12 midnight on Monday, October 12, Matthew Shepard's blood pressure began to drop. We immediately notified his family who were already at the hospital.
At 12:53 a.m. Matthew Shepard died, his family was at his bedside.
Summary:
Matthew arrived at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, October 7, in critical condition.
Matthew remained in critical condition during his entire stay at Poudre Valley Hospital.
During his stay, efforts to improve his condition proved to no avail.
Matthew died while on full life support measures.
Funeral arrangements are pending, and we will announce those arrangements on our website as soon as they are available at www.pvhs.org, under the PVHS NEWS toolbar. Please do not call the hospital for this information; we will post the information on this web
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) Friday, October 9, 1998 -- A gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, burned and tied to a wooden ranch fence like a scarecrow until a passerby found him a half-day later, near death.
Police arrested two men and two women. Police Cmdr. Dave O'Malley said that robbery was the chief motive but that the victim was chosen in part because he is gay and that the defendants made anti-gay remarks after the attack.
The victim, Matthew Shepard, 22, told friends he had suffered two other beatings recently that he attributed to his open homosexuality.
Some fellow students said they had no doubt the latest beating was also a
hate crime.
``That has to do with the fact this is a cowboy place. People aren't exposed to it. They're too close-minded,'' said Alicia Alexander, a college sophomore.
Shepard was found Wednesday evening by a man on a bicycle who at first thought he was a scarecrow or a dummy because of how he was tied to the fence.
He was unconscious, and his skull had been smashed with a handgun. He also appeared to have suffered burns on his body and cuts on his head and face. The temperature had dropped into the low 30s during the more than 12 hours Shepard was left outside.
He was in critical condition Friday on a respirator at Poudre Valley Hospital
in Fort Collins, Colo.
``He's a small person with a big heart, mind and soul that someone tried to beat out of him,'' said his uncle, R.W. Eaton. ``Right now, he's in God's hands.''
Russel Arthur Henderson, 21, and Aaron McKinney, whose age was not immediately available, were charged Friday with attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery. They were ordered held on $100,000 cash bond.
Chasity Vera Pasley, 20, a student, waived her arraignment and was ordered held on $30,000 cash bond on accessory charges. Kristen Leann Price, 18, was expected to be charged as an accessory next week.
Police accused the two men of luring the victim from the Fireside bar, a
campus hangout, by telling him they were gay.
O'Malley said the three drove off in McKinney's truck late Tuesday or early Wednesday. He said the two men beat Shepard in the truck, then beat him some more after tying him to the fence about a mile outside Laramie. They took his wallet and shoes, O'Malley said.
Later, the two young women helped the men dump their bloody clothing, O'Malley said. He said the two men made anti-gay remarks to the two women, who told police about the crime.
Laramie, with a population of 27,000, is a Western-tinged college town about 50 miles west of Cheyenne, Wyoming's capital. It is nestled in a valley between the Snowy Range Mountains and the Laramie Range, and its downtown is dotted by small restaurants and shops selling crafts and Western wear.
Shepard spent some of his time growing up in Casper but studied around the world and had recently lived in Denver. His parents live in Saudi Arabia, where his father works as an oil rig safety inspector. They were on their way to Fort Collins.
``It's really hard to be gay and live in Wyoming because of the good-ol'-boy network. It's such a conservative state,'' said Kete Blonigen, a college junior. ``I'm almost afraid and expecting someone to say, `He was gay. What does it matter?' I can totally see that happening.''
Efforts to pass hate-crime legislation in Wyoming have failed repeatedly because critics have said it would give homosexuals special rights. In the past three years, Wyoming lawmakers also have unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation banning same-sex marriages.
``More rural states are known for having a less tolerant, more aggressively hateful political structure and social structure,'' said Lester Olmstead-Rose, executive director of Community United Against Violence, a gay rights group in San Francisco. ``If there's a feeling that you can get away with it, you might just try.''
He said that as a result, many gay people flee rural and suburban areas and move to cities, even though the level of anti-gay violence is high even in New York, San Francisco and other metropolitan areas.
O'Malley, a 25-year veteran of the police force, said there had been a few hate crimes over the years, ``but nothing anywhere near this.''
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: TAKE ACTION
FIRST:
Call Sen. Orin Hatch's office - (202) 224-5251 and urge him to pass the Hate
Crimes Prevention Act.
SECOND:
Urge Your Members of Congress to Pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act!
http://www.hrc.org/actncntr
More on Matthew -- his condition, statements of parents, statement from President Clinton, how you can help.
By Jennifer Hamilton, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer.
BOULDER, CO - Rocky Mountain News, October 10, 1998-- Name-calling, gay-bashing, pushing and tripping forced Debbie Hernandez to pull her son out of a Longmont middle school.
Much of that ridicule subsided during Robb Hernandez's high school years in Boulder. He even came out during that time, telling his friends and family that he is gay.
Now a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Robb Hernandez is active with three groups to help other gay students.
But after Debbie Hernandez saw a news report Thursday about the beating of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, she was once again gripped with fear for her son's safety.
"It scares you as a parent because that could be my child that somebody could hate like that," she said Friday, fighting back sobs.
A rally at CU-Boulder to celebrate National Coming Out Day, which is Sunday, turned into an outpouring of shock, disgust and fear ignited by the beating in Laramie.
The Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Community Services Center of Colorado responded to calls from people seeking comfort and support, said Mike Smith, the Denver center's director.
"A lot of the kids are feeling very vulnerable and are concerned about whether or not to be out when they go to college," Smith said. "They are questioning: Is it safe? Am I at risk? There isn't one of these kids looking at this right now not saying, 'This could be me."'
"It's frightening. It's intimidating," said Bev Tuel, director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center on campus. The center, established in 1995, sponsors events to promote education and awareness about gays. It provides students with emotional support, and offers literature for their parents about sexuality issues.
"There's a lot of messages in the society that it's not OK to be gay," Tuel said. "This was a response to a report that found a hostile environment on campuses towards gays, bisexuals and lesbians."
When Robb Hernandez started college last year, he was nervous, scared and sometimes intimidated.
"A lot of the young men in the dorms were very homophobic," he said. "The RA's (resident advisers) are trained in gay issues, and they put together programs. But the other guys didn't participate in these programs."
He said he worked with the university housing program to get a gay roommate before coming to school and that eased pressures. But, Hernandez said, a friend of his dropped out because she couldn't handle the discrimination. Her roommate, as well as her roommate's friends, ridiculed her for being lesbian.
"She just left. If you can't find the resources, you will fall through the cracks," Hernandez said.
by Lou Chibbaro Jr.
WASHINGTON BLADE, October 9, 1998 ---- Language banning unmarried couples, including Gay couples, from adopting children in the District of Columbia appeared to be moving toward final approval by Congress this week after Republican leaders in the House and Senate agreed late Wednesday night to put the adoption ban into the newly revised D.C. appropriations bill.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, the House and Senate GOP leaders also added language to the D.C. appropriations bill that will prohibit the District from using any of its funds to carry out a clean needle exchange program. The programs are designed to curb the spread of HIV among injection drug users.
The House added the bans on adoption and needle exchange to the D.C. appropriations measure in the form of separate amendments in August. But the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its own version of the D.C. budget bill without adding these restrictions, and Gay civil rights and AIDS activists had hoped a House-Senate conference committee would kill the two restrictions.
Richard Socarides, special assistant to President Clinton and the White House liaison to the Gay community, said yesterday that the President still stands by his position of two months ago that he will veto a D.C. appropriations bill that includes the adoption and needle exchange restrictions. But several recent developments have derailed the normal conference committee process, and Capitol Hill observers say current circumstances will make it much more difficult for Clinton to use his veto power.
Delays by Congress in approving as many as half of the government's appropriations bills, and the threat of a government shutdown due to threats of a possible veto by Clinton of some of the bills, have prompted House and Senate leaders to lump together between nine and ten appropriations bills into a single omnibus appropriations package. The D.C. appropriations bill is included in that omnibus bill.
Hill leaders have vowed to pass the omnibus bill no later than this weekend, when Congress expects to adjourn until after the November election.
Democrats on Capitol Hill said this week that it would be highly unlikely for the president to veto a package of as many as ten appropriations bills for the purpose of killing the adoption and needle exchange restrictions. Among the House Democrats who expressed this view was Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), the top ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on D.C.
"The president is not going to veto all nine or 10 appropriations bills on the basis of those two relatively minor provisions," the Washington Post quoted Moran as saying. Moran was among the strongest opponents of the adoption and needle exchange amendments during the House debate on the two provisions in August.
Socarides took exception to Moran's comment.
"It would be very much in error to suggest that the president is ready to sign this bill," he told the Blade in a telephone interview. "The anti-Gay adoption provision remains totally unacceptable to the White House. And we have let them know this is still unacceptable."
Added Socarides, "We are still negotiating with Congress. They have items on their list and we have items on our list. The process isn't over yet."
Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national Gay political group, took strong exception to Moran's characterization of that the adoption and needle exchange provisions are "relatively minor," especially the adoption provision.
"This issue is explosive," said Stachelberg, referring to the adoption ban. "The potential for damage to our community [as a result of the adoption ban] is in some sense more serious than other anti-Gay legislation, including the Defense of Marriage Act."
Stachelberg noted that the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to disregard a same-sex marriage approved by any other state, has no immediate impact because no state currently permits same-sex marriage. But the language in the D.C. budget bill barring same-sex couples from adoption, Stachelberg noted, would repeal part of an existing D.C. law that allows same-sex couples to adopt.
Capital Hill staffers said the draft D.C. appropriations bill adopted Wednesday night had not been finalized as of yesterday. Stachelberg and Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action, which represents AIDS service providers, said their groups would join D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton in opposing the two provisions.
It could not be determined by Blade deadline whether the draft D.C. budget bill agreed to by the House and Senate negotiators includes another amendment that seeks to prohibit the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics from using its funds to place a D.C. voter initiative calling for the legalization of marijuana for use as a medical treatment. The late D.C. AIDS activist Steve Michael and his partner, Wayne Turner, led efforts to place the medical marijuana initiative on the ballot for the city's Nov. 3 general election.
Board of elections spokesperson Bill O'Field said the city's election ballots have already been printed and the board has no plans to remove the medical marijuana measure from the ballot. According to O'Field, the language banning city funding of such an election - if passed by Congress later this week - would not have any effect on the Nov. 3 D.C. election because the city has used fiscal year 1998 funds to pay for the election. Any restrictions adopted by Congress this week would apply to fiscal year 1999 funds.
Openly Gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (R-At-Large) has joined Republican D.C. mayoral candidate Carol Schwartz in lobbying Republicans on Capitol Hill to kill the adoption and needle exchange provisions, according to Carl Schmid, Catania's press spokesperson.
Schmid said GOP sources told him that the draft D.C. appropriations bill retains House language initiated by Catania that funds a D.C. police civilian review office for fiscal year 1999.
NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1998 - The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced the theme of the fourth annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month: "Find the Facts, Know the Truth." Throughout the month, nationwide observances will honor lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender historical figures and events that have helped shape the modern world.
"This year's theme - 'Find the Facts, Know the Truth' - speaks to the historical exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from the record of human history," said GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry. "We hope that this year's History Month will empower people to explore the richness of our community's prominent legacy and the continuing contributions of its members."
In January 1994, Rodney Wilson, a high school teacher in Missouri, appalled by the exclusion of lesbian and gay history from textbooks, set out to make a change. Wilson organized community leaders to educate the public about lesbians and gay men, past and present. They formed a national grassroots network to create a celebration and education campaign that continues today.
October was chosen as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month to commemorate the anniversaries of the first two lesbian and gay marches on Washington, in October of 1979 and 1987.
A partial list of events planned for this year's History Month celebration follows:
… Friday, October 9, 1998, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm: In collaboration with the National Historical Society, GLAAD's Director of Community Relations Cathy Renna will moderate a panel entitled, "Pink Politics in the Nation's Capital: Looking Back, Moving Forward." Panelists include: Kathleen DeBold, deputy director, The Lesbian and Gay Victory Fund; Carl Schmid, vice-president, National Capital Area Log Cabin Club; Jeff Coudriet, vice-president, Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; John Burlison, legislative co-chair, Free State Justice. The event will be held at the Historical Society of Washington, DC (New Hampshire Ave., one block south of Dupont Circle).
… Tuesday, October 13, 1998, 8:00 pm EST: Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) will be featured in a Virtual Town Meeting sponsored by GLAAD. Jennings will discuss his role as editor of the newly published Telling Tales Out of School, a collection of over 30 essays of people of all ages who share their experiences growing up gay, lesbian and bisexual in schools across the country; and as co-producer of Out of the Past, a documentary which traces the emergence of gay men and lesbians in American history. A former teacher himself, Jennings has edited two other books: One Teacher in Ten, featuring essays by lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers, and Becoming Visible, which chronicles the history of the lesbian and gay community.
… Wednesday, October 21, 1998, 7:00 pm EST: Internationally renowned author and veteran activist Rita Mae Brown takes part in a GLAAD-sponsored Virtual Town Meeting in celebration of the 25th anniversary printing of her groundbreaking novel, Ruby Fruit Jungle. Brown, who has published numerous novels and was a longtime member of the lesbian activist group known as the Furies, will share her experiences as an author and an activist.
Other events will take place nationally on college campuses, bookstores and libraries and on the Internet. For more information and schedule of events, please visit GLAAD Online at http://www.glaad.org/glaad/history-month .
GLAAD has also linked its website to more than twenty lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender archives across the country in order to provide community members with access to research information and assistance in planning celebratory events. A quick-reference timeline of relevant historical events is also posted on the GLAAD website.
GLAAD is the nation's lesbian and gay media advocacy organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in all media as a means of combating homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
It said Robinson's meeting with the two secretary generals of ILGA, Jordi Petit and Jennifer Wilson, was at the request of the global federation of 400 gay rights groups in 60 countries.
ILGA, which has played a key role in getting gay equality recognised as a human rights issue in international forums, said this would be the first time its voice would be heard at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva.
WASHINGTON Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 --- A plan by the Culinary Institute of America to honor Cracker Barrel Old Country Store President Ronald N. McGruder with an award next week is an `insult to all lesbian and gay Americans, especially those who work in the food service industry," according to Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign.
"It is unconscionable that the Culinary Institute of America is honoring America's No. 1 corporate symbol of anti-gay job discrimination," Birch said "Cracker Barrel's recipe for gay employees has been prejudice, discrimination, and a trip to the unemployment line. By offering this award, the CIA is tacitly endorsing blatantly discriminatory behavior."
Birch sent a letter to CIA President Ferdinand Metz urging him to reconsider the award. "We find it difficult to understand how CIA could honor a restaurant chain whose very name is synonymous with flagrant anti-gay job discrimination," she wrote.
The Culinary Institute of America plans to honor Cracker Barrel's president at its annual gala Oct. 14, at the New York Marriott. Gay and lesbian leaders in New York and across the nation are urging the school to withdraw its invitation to McGruder.
Cracker Barrel drew national attention in 1991 when it instituted a company policy to fire gay employees. Under this policy, at least 11 workers were fired. When a Cracker Barrel restaurant in a suburb of Atlanta fired cook Cheryl Summerville in 1991, her supervisor wrote on the termination slip that she was fired expressly and solely because she was gay.
Cracker Barrel has never fully repudiated this policy, which was once described as a "well intentioned over-reaction to the perceived values of our customers." The fired workers were never rehired or offered compensation, Birch noted.
The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support, and educates the public to ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community.
"The real message behind these ads is that lesbians and gay men exist. There it is: We exist. No amount of slickly packaged advertising can change that. The unmitigated gall of the people behind this campaign is appalling. When you get right down to it, these groups are showing their hand to the entire country and their message isn't really about 'hope' or 'healing' or 'understanding,' but rather, about intolerance, deception and moral bankruptcy. This new campaign represents what has become a relentless, well-financed and reprehensible assault on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. So there you have it: Bottomless pockets overflowing with hollow messages."
GLAAD is the nation's lesbian and gay media advocacy organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in all media as a means of combating homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
PAGE SIX
By RICHARD JOHNSON with Jeane MacIntosh and Kate Coyne.
Caan, 23, was arrested after a punch-up with James Alleyna in a West Hollywood bar called the Firehouse. Reports following the incident claimed Caan had gone ballistic after Alleyna attempted to hit on Caan's date.
In fact, the Firehouse draws a primarily gay clientele, and the date referred to in police reports was Caan's companion.
New police details indicate that Caan and the man he was with that evening, Ross Porterfield, were both arrested for assaulting Alleyna and a friend, Joshua Sher.
Shortly before 2 a.m., Sher allegedly tried to put the moves on Caan's pal by asking him to dance. Caan then approached Sher, who was sitting at a table, and began yelling, police say. One witness claims Caan shouted, This is my lover - what are you doing? Before long, fisticuffs ensued.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's office, when Alleyna tried to intervene, he was knocked to the ground, at which point club security stepped in.
But as Caan and Porterfield were being shown the door, the couple and several other unidentified men jumped on Alleyna and Sher, rendering Alleyna unconscious and knocking Sher to the ground.
Deputies caught Caan and Porterfield as they tried to flee the scene. Caan and Porterfield were held on US$20,000 bail each, which they both posted the next day.
Following the incident, articles referred simply to Caan's date - making no mention of his companion's gender. But when word got out that the fight had broken out at the Firehouse, club insiders quickly started putting two and two together.
Scoffed one late-night denizen: That boy was there with his man, and everyone got into a good 'ol catfight.
Police reports also refer to Caan's lover only as his date, but Deputy Sheriff Boris Nikolof commented that the phrasing certainly is interesting. While I can't say that occurred to me, now that you mention it, there are a lot of gay bars in West Hollywood.
In 1995, Caan starred in A Boy Called Hate, a box office bomb in which he played the leading man role to buxom beauty Missy Crider. Laughs one critic who saw the film, It was just totally implausible. Caan is so incredibly handsome, but you just never in a million years believed he was interested in this girl. You could tell something was up.
Neither Caan nor Porterfield could be reached for comment. Calls placed to the Firehouse were not returned.
(NEW YORK, October 5, 1998) -- In an important victory for lesbian and gay law enforcement personnel and the Puerto Rican gay community, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Monday that a federal judge has struck down a disciplinary rule that absolutely prohibits Puerto Rico police officers from associating with lesbians and gay men.
Lambda brought the case, Ramos v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, after the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) harassed lesbian and gay police officers during their 1995 convention held in San Juan. Members of GOAL, the Gay Officers Action League, had hoped to form a local affiliate to advocate on behalf of lesbian and gay law enforcement personnel in Puerto Rico.
The Federal District Court for the District of Puerto Rico ruled that the section of the PRPD disciplinary code known as Regulation 29 violated the First Amendment. Regulation 29 states, "It is a grave offense for police officers to associate with prostitutes, homosexuals, or other persons of dubious reputation." Police officers who violated this regulation risked official reprimands or even dismissal.
The court issued its ruling on Wednesday, September 30, but news of the decision was delayed by the effects of Hurricane Georges. In a 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge Hector M. Laffitte said, "The evidence in the record, including the testimony of police department officials and Plaintiffs' proposed experts, all lead to the conclusion that the rule is unnecessary....Therefore, the Court is compelled to hold that the prohibition in Regulation 29 against associating with homosexuals furthers no state interest and violates the First Amendment."
Lambda Managing Attorney Ruth Harlow said, "Regulation 29 made lesbian and gay Puerto Ricans pariahs to their own police force. The regulation's demise means that they can now expect equal access to members of their police department and to no longer be treated as outcasts."
"The court's decision exposes the fatal constitutional flaw of this absolute ban -- there is no justification for any law enforcement agency to prohibit its officers from associating with lesbians and gay men," said Lambda Staff Attorney Suzanne B. Goldberg. "Police officers and the communities they serve must be free to associate with one another," she added.
Heavy police presence greeted members of GOAL when they arrived for the convention. Some PRPD officers jeered and shouted anti-gay epithets. The PRPD also prevented GOAL from holding a short, symbolic walk designed to raise lesbian and gay visibility. In another incident, a squadron of police, in riot gear and with guns drawn, illegally raided a lesbian bar on the night of a widely publicized reception for the lesbian and gay police organization.
Along with their challenge to Regulation 29, GOAL and Dr. Rosalina Ramos Padro, a Puerto Rico lesbian activist who owned the bar at the time of the raid, also challenged the harassing incidents as violations of their first amendment rights and equal protection guarantees under the constitutions of the United States and Puerto Rico. The court ruled that the plaintiffs' challenge to the PRPD's interference with the symbolic walk must go to trial.
In a separate 22-page ruling, the court also ordered that GOAL and Ramos can go to trial on several of their claims regarding the 1 a.m. bar raid. The question for trial will be whether the officers had singled out the bar and its patrons for anti-gay harassment and to retaliate against GOAL and Ramos for publicly supporting lesbian and gay police officers.
New York attorney Colleen Meenan, who with Lambda is co-counsel to GOAL, added, "Our victory sends a clear signal to other police departments that they must treat the lesbian and gay community with the same respect that all communities deserve. Impeding the basic first amendment rights of police officers with such an across-the-board rule is unconstituti