Quest News Volume 12 No. 8
May 14, 2005Compiled & written by Mike Fitzpatrick
Top
Stories:
Closeted GOP
Mayor Allegedly
Molested Boys In The 70’s
Have you been cruised by
Cobra82nd, RightBi-Guy on gay.com?
He whines about the “sex police”chat
room denizens claim.
Spokane - Mayor James E.
West, accused of molesting two boys decades ago and of recently
offering a City Hall internship to someone he met in a gay online chat
room, is leaving two youth group boards, The Spokesman-Review reported
May 6.
West, 54, a former Senate Republican majority leader and gay
rights opponent, denied the molestation accusations but acknowledged he
has
had relations with men and resigned May 5 from the executive board of
the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts, said Tim McCandless, a
scouting executive.
West has been affiliated with the group for at least 30 years,
including a brief period as the council’s endowment director in the
early 1990s, but his registration would have been revoked if he had not
resigned, McCandless said “The Boy Scouts does not recognize as
volunteer leaders avowed homosexuals,” McCandless said.
West also appeared set to resign from the board of Morning Star
Boy’s Ranch, which operates a state-licensed residence for 18 boys from
troubled backgrounds and a transitional residential facility for five
young men, public relations and funding director P.J. Watters said.
West was scheduled to meet with the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, Morning
Star director and founding counselor, and “what I believe is that Jim
West is going to tell us he’s going to step down,” Watters said.
On May 5, the day the newspaper reported on the molestation
accusations and West’s more recent involvement with young men, the
mayor acknowledged that he visited the wesite Gay.com and “had
relations with adult men. I don’t deny that.”
West said he intended to serve out the three years left in his
term despite calls for his resignation from City Council member Cherie
Rodgers and a longtime Republican activist, Shaun Cross. “I am a
law-abiding citizen,” West said during a brief news conference in which
he did not take questions.
Later in the day he skipped a National Day of Prayer and
Remembrance observance in the City Council chambers but attended an
evening Holocaust remembrance service at Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom,
where he made a brief apology without saying what he was apologizing
for and then read a city proclamation.
Rodgers and Cross, a conservative Republican who ran for
Congress last year but lost in the primary, said West was no longer fit
to hold office. “He can’t survive as mayor,” Rodgers said.
“There’s no way, given the gravity of the allegations and his
admission of Internet activity, that he can effectively lead the city,”
Cross added. Cross is a partner in the city’s largest law firm. “I
think it’s a sad day for Spokane and a sad day for Jim West,” he said.
“I hope he can get the help he needs.”
State Senator Bob McCaslin, a longtime GOP colleague of West,
said he should remain as mayor because he has been effective. “Let’s
say he is gay,” McCaslin said. “If he’s a good mayor, he should
continue. On (charges of) pedophilia, that should have to be proved in
court.”
The May 5 Spokesman-Review article included photographs of
Robert J. Galliher, 36, of Seattle, and Michael G. Grant Jr., 31, of
Spokane, convicted felons with drug problems who say West molested them
when they were in the Boy Scouts in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
“I categorically deny allegations about incidents that
supposedly occurred 24 years ago as alleged by two convicted felons and
about which I have no knowledge,” West said. No criminal investigations
are under way, according to the sheriff’s office and police department.
In an e-mail issued to city employees, West apologized for
bringing embarrassment to the mayor’s office. “I stumbled and let you
down,” West wrote. He also said he considered his private life
off-limits.
In the past year Spokane has been rocked by dozens of claims of
past sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Spokane has filed for bankruptcy protection because
of legal claims from the abuse. The newspaper, which endorsed West for
mayor in 2003, said its investigation stemmed from tips received in
2002 during its investigations of the Catholic sex abuse.
NIH Shocker: Feds
Tested AIDS Drugs On Foster Kids
Washington DC - To gain
access to hundreds of HIV-infected foster children, federally funded
researchers promised in writing to provide an independent advocate to
safeguard the kids’ well-being as they tested potent AIDS drugs. But
most of the time, that special protection never materialized, an
Associated Press review has found.
The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned
the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care
agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t
yet available in the marketplace.
The practice ensured that foster children mostly poor or
minority received care from world-class researchers at government
expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it
also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research
and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and
for which the safety for children was unknown.
The research was conducted in at least seven states Illinois,
Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Colorado and Texas and
involved more than four dozen different studies. The foster children
ranged from infants to late teens, according to interviews and
government records.
Several studies that enlisted foster children reported that
patients suffered side effects such as rashes, vomiting and sharp drops
in infection-fighting blood cells, and one reported a “disturbing”
higher death rate among children who took higher doses of a drug,
records show.
The government provided special protections for child wards in
1983. They required researchers and their oversight boards to appoint
independent advocates for any foster child enrolled in a narrow class
of studies that involved greater than minimal risk and lacked the
promise of direct benefit.
Some foster agencies, including those in Illinois and New York,
required researchers to sign a document agreeing to provide the
protection regardless of risks and benefits. However, researchers and
foster agencies told the Associated Press that foster children in AIDS
drug trials often weren’t given such advocates even though research
institutions many times promised in writing to do so.
Illinois officials believe none of their nearly 200 foster
children in AIDS studies got independent monitors. New York City could
find records showing 142 less than a third of the 465 foster children
in AIDS drug trials got such monitors even though city policy required
them. The city has asked an outside firm to investigate. Likewise,
research facilities including Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital
and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said they concluded they
didn’t provide advocates for foster kids. Some foster children died
during studies, but state or city agencies said they could find no
records that any deaths were directly caused by experimental treatments.
Researchers typically secured permission to enroll foster
children through city or state agencies. And they frequently exempted
themselves from appointing advocates by concluding the research carried
minimal risk and the child would benefit directly because the drugs
already had been tried in adults.
“Our position is that advocates weren’t needed,” said Marilyn
Castaldi, spokeswoman for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New
York. If they decline to appoint advocates under the federal law,
researchers and their oversight boards must conclude that the
experimental treatment affords the same or better risk-benefit
possibilities than alternate treatments already in the marketplace.
They also must abide by any additional protections required by state
and local authorities.
Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at the University of
Pennsylvania, said advocates should have been appointed for all foster
children because researchers felt the pressure of a medical crisis and
knew there was great uncertainty as to how children would react to AIDS
medications that were often toxic for adults. “It is exactly that set
of circumstances that made it absolutely mandatory to get those kids
those advocates,” Caplan said. “It is inexcusable that they wouldn’t
have an advocate for each one of those children.When you have the most
vulnerable subjects imaginable kids without parents you really do have
to come in with someone independent, who doesn’t have a dog in this
fight.”
Those who made the decisions say the research gave foster kids
access to drugs they otherwise couldn’t get. And they say they
protected the children’s interest by carefully explaining risks and
benefits to state guardians, foster parents and the children
themselves. “I understand the ethical dilemma surrounding the
introduction of foster children into trials,” said Dr. Mark Kline, a
pediatric AIDS expert at Baylor College of Medicine. He enrolled some
Texas foster kids in his studies, and doesn’t recall appointing
advocates for them.
“To say as a group that foster children should be excluded from
clinical trials would have meant excluding these children from the best
available therapies at the time,” Kline said. “From an ethical
perspective, I never thought that was a stand I could take.”
Illinois officials directly credit the decision to enroll
HIV-positive foster kids with bringing about a decline in deaths from
40 between 1989 and 1995 to only 19 since.
Some states declined to participate in medical experiments.
Tennessee said its foster care rules generally prohibit enlisting
children in such trials. California requires a judge’s order. And
Wisconsin “has absolutely never allowed, nor would we even consider,
any clinical experiments with the children in our foster care system,”
spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said.
Officials estimated that 5% to 10% of the 13,878 children
enrolled in pediatric AIDS studies funded by NIH since the late 1980s
were in foster care. More than two dozen Illinois foster children
remain in studies today. NIH, the government health research agency
that funded the studies, did not track researchers to determine whether
they appointed advocates. Instead, the decision was left to medical
review boards made up of volunteers at each study site.
A recent Institute of Medicine study concluded those
Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) were often overwhelmed, dominated by
scientists and not focused enough on patient protections. The U.S.
Office for Human Research Protections, created to protect research
participants after the notorious Tuskegee syphilis studies on black men
in the 1930s, is investigating the use of foster children in AIDS
research. The office declined to discuss the probe.
A review found that if children were old enough usually between
5 and 10 they also were educated about the risks and asked to consent.
Sometimes, foster parents or biological parents were consulted; other
times not. Research and foster agencies declined to make foster parents
or children in the drug trials available for interviews, or to provide
information about individual drug dosages, side effects or deaths,
citing medical privacy laws. Other families who participated in the
same drug trials told the Associated Press that their children mostly
benefited but parents needed to carefully monitor potential side
effects. Foster children, they said, need the added protection of an
independent advocate.
“If they did not fulfill that requirement, how can you be sure
the community participant really got the benefit and the informed
consent that is needed,” said Michelle Lopez, a New Jersey woman whose
daughter has participated in drug trials. “I was very concerned about
that because the argument we are getting is the kids are getting better
and we are enhancing their lives, but none of these drugs save these
kids lives.”
Many studies that enlisted foster children involved early Phase
I and Phase II research the riskiest to determine side effects and safe
dosages so children could begin taking adult “cocktails,” the powerful
drug combinations that suppress AIDS but can cause bad reactions like
rashes and organ damage. Some of those drugs were approved ultimately
for children, such as stavudine and zidovudine. Other medicines were
not.
Illinois officials confirmed two or three foster children were
approved to participate in a mid-1990s study of dapsone. Researchers
hoped the drug would prevent a pneumonia that afflicts AIDS patients.
Researchers reported some children had to be taken off the drug because
of “serious toxicity,” others developed rashes, and the rates of death
and blood toxicity were significantly higher in children who took the
medicine daily, rather than weekly.
At least 10 children died from a variety of causes, including
four from blood poisoning, and researchers said they were unable to
determine a safe, useful dosage. They said the deaths didn’t appear to
be “directly attributable” to dapsone but nonetheless were “disturbing.”
“An unexpected finding in our study was that overall mortality
while receiving the study drug was significantly higher in the daily
dapsone group. This finding remains unexplained,” the researchers
concluded.
Another study involving foster children in the 1990s treated
children with different combinations of adult antiretroviral drugs.
Among 52 children, there were 26 moderate to severe reactions nearly
all in infants. The side effects included rash, fever and a major drop
in infection-fighting white blood cells.
New York City officials defend the decision to enlist foster
children en masse, saying there was a crisis in the early 1990s and
research provided the best treatment possibilities. Nonetheless, they
are changing their policy so they no longer give blanket permission to
enroll children in preapproved studies.
“We learned some things from our experience,” said Elizabeth
Roberts, assistant commissioner for child and family health at the
Administration for Children’s Services. “It is a more individualized
review we will be conducting.”
World & National News:
Colorado: Governor Gives No Clue On Signing
Gay Rights Bill - Colorado Governor Bill Owens is not saying if
he will sign or veto an LGBT civil rights bill passed this week in the
legislature. The legislation would protect gays and lesbians against
bias in the workplace. Similar bills have failed in the Legislature
eight consecutive years.
In 1992 proposed civil rights protections were put to voters.
The measure was narrowly defeated, but when the Colorado-based Coors
Brewery announced its opposition to gay rights LGBT groups across the
country boycotted the company, forcing it to eventually reverse its
position.
Republicans fought the current bill as it made its way through
the legislature. In the Senate, when it became clear they did not have
the votes to defeat the legislation GOP lawmakers attempted to have
protections for the transgendered removed. House Republicans argued
there was no need for the law, saying that businesses should have the
right to fire an employee if the company fears the employee “could
drive away customers.”
Conservative groups have appealed to Gov. Bill Owens, a
Republican, to veto the bill. On May 4 an Owens spokesperson said that
the governor had not made a decision and would have nothing to say on
the issue.
House Majority Leader Alice Madden of Boulder urged Owens to
sign the bill.Owens said Coloradoans have changed and LGBT civil rights
should not longer be an issue. “The more that people learn about
an issue, the more comfortable people are with diversity,” Madden said.
Earlier this week a proposed constitutional amendment to ban
same-sex marriage died in the legislature. Republicans on May 3 failed
to get a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the November ballot
after opponents called it an attempt to write discrimination into the
state Constitution.
GOP Representative Kevin Lundberg said recent attempts by gays
and lesbians in other states to get legal recognition of their civil
unions threaten the institution of marriage, which Lundberg said is
clearly defined as a union between a man and a woman. He said voters
should make the final decision. “It’s a referred ballot measure because
we should let the voters decide. I’m not asking you to make the
decision, I’m simply asking that we put this before the people of
Colorado,” Lundberg told the House Judiciary Committee.
The committee killed the measure on a 6-5 party line vote after
Democrats said it was unconstitutional and would cost taxpayers to
defend in court if it passed. Last year, Lundberg also failed to get a
majority of members in the Republican-controlled House to back GOP Rep.
Marilyn Musgrave’s proposed gay marriage amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
Cathryn Hazouri, representing the American Civil Liberties
Union, said the measure would probably face a court challenge if
lawmakers tried to put it on the ballot. “It’s just plain wrong to
write discrimination into the constitution,” she told lawmakers.
Hazouri also noted that the title of the referred measure
mentioned nothing about civil unions, which would also be excluded.
“Clearly this is a deceptive title,” she said.
Michael Brewer, spokesman for Equal Rights Colorado, said the
state already has a statutory ban on legal recognition of gay marriage.
In 2000, lawmakers and Gov. Bill Owens approved a “Defense of Marriage
Act” restricting marriage to between one man and one woman.
Florida: Veteran Gay Activist
Jack Nichols Succumbs To Cancer - Influential gay leader and
activist Jack Nichols died May 2 in Cocoa Beach after a battle with
leukemia. He was 67 years old.
“Jack helped launch the movement in the mid ‘60s, when the
federal government would not hire gays and lesbians, the American
Psychiatric 
Association
considered gays per se mentally ill, and many
states had criminal sanctions precluding gays from congregating in
bars,” said Malcolm Lazin, executive director of Philadelphia gay
rights organization Equality Forum. “Jack was among the gay pioneers
who stepped out of a debilitating closet and helped crack the cocoon of
invisibility.”
Nichols helped plan one of the first organized and annual gay
and lesbian civil rights demonstrations in Philadelphia, Washington DC,
and New York City from 1965 to 1969, prior to Stonewall. The first of
those demonstrations was held on July 4, 1965, at Independence Hall in
Philadelphia.
He co-founded a Mattachine Society in Washington, D.C., and
Florida in 1961 and 1965, respectively. In August 1963, Jack and nine
other members of the Washington, D.C., Mattachine Society openly
participated in the civil rights demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial.
Nichols helped organize the first gay and lesbian protest at the White
House on April 17, 1965.
Nichols was among the first gay activists to challenge the
American Psychiatric Association’s position that homosexuality was a
mental illness. In 1967 he appeared as a self-identified gay male in an
interview with Mike Wallace. It was the first CBS documentary ever
broadcast about homosexuality.
From 1969 to 1973, Nichols and his partner, the late Lige Clark,
were editors of Gay, the first gay weekly newspaper in the country.
Together they wrote the first nonfiction memoir by a gay male couple,
“I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody.” Nichols authored several other
books, including Men’s Liberation: A New Definition of Masculinity and
The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists.
Minnesota: Archbishop Tells
Churches To Refuse Communion To Pro-Gay Catholics - Allegedly
responding to a directive from the Vatican, Archbishop Harry Flynn has
advised all parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to
deny communion to anyone wearing a rainbow-colored sash.
For the past four years, supporters of the Rainbow Sash Alliance
USA -- a group of Catholics who are active in the gay, lesbian,
bisexual 
and
transgendered community -- have worn the sashes to receive
communion at the St. Paul Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday, the
anniversary date of the group’s founding in 1998. Last year the service
was disrupted when a group of 40 laymen protested the activists
receiving communion by kneeling in the aisles in an attempt to block
the path to the altar.
The sashes are worn as a symbol of celebration of God-given
sexuality, according to Brian McNeill, an organizer of the alliance,
who lives in Minneapolis. He said the sashes also represent an
invitation to the church to open dialogue on the issue of human
sexuality. As he has in the past, McNeill wrote to Flynn in early April
to advise him of the group’s intended presence at the Pentecost service
on May 15.
In a reply sent May 2, Flynn told McNeill that he had received a
directive from the Vatican declaring that wearing the sash during
communion is unacceptable. Flynn said the sash has increasingly been
perceived as a protest against church teaching, and asked that group
members remove their sashes before receiving communion.
“The request to take off the sash makes no sense,” McNeill said.
“The church is saying it only wants closeted gay people going to
communion. That’s troubling to me as a gay man. I think God would want
me to be proud of who she created me to be.”
Flynn’s letter emphasized that the policies of the Church and
the archdiocese will continue to welcome baptized Catholics of all
backgrounds, including those with same-sex orientation.
“The central issue is that we can’t let the holy communion be
used to make a statement or as a forum for dissent,” said archdiocese
spokesman Dennis McGrath. He said the change from tolerance to refusal
was made because of the way the annual rite has “deteriorated and
unraveled” in the past year.
“It has become patently a protest,” McGrath said. “You can see
that from their website, the way they’ve been recruiting. To use the
celebration of the eucharist, that which we consider most sacred, to
use this as a protest or a rallying cry is inexcusable.”
David Pence, who organized the Ushers of the Eucharist, the
group that tried to block members of the Rainbow Alliance from
receiving communion last year, was pleased with Flynn’s directive. “We
did perceive the wearing of the sash as a clear attempt to integrate
homosexual relationships into the sacramental life of the church,” said
Pence.
Pence had publicly criticized Flynn last year, calling him a
good but extremely weak man for allowing the group to receive
communion. He has since written Flynn an apology. He’s also promised
that his group would not interfere at this year’s Pentecost service.
The archbishop’s letter notwithstanding, McNeill said, he and
other supporters plan to wear their sashes to the cathedral on May 15.
If denied communion, they will return peacefully to their pews and
remain standing, he said.
“We’ll show up and hope that the archbishop changes his mind,”
he said. “I’ve said many times that the rainbow sash is a symbol of
celebration, not dissent.”
New Jersey: Poll Says State’s
Voters Back Same-Sex Marriage 55-40% - New Jersey voters favor
allowing same-sex couples to marry and oppose any attempts by lawmakers
to constitutionally ban gay marriage, according to a poll commissioned
by a gay rights group and released May 4.
According to the poll, 55% of those surveyed favor allowing
same-sex couples to marry, while 40% were opposed. Additionally, 61%
said 
they disagree with
having a constitutional amendment blocking gays
from marrying. Respondents overwhelmingly said the Legislature has more
pressing business to handle. In New Jersey, an appeals court has been
asked to decide whether the state Constitution’s equal-protection
provisions allow gays to marry. Any ruling in that case is expected to
be taken to the state Supreme Court.
The Garden State Equality-Zogby telephone poll of 804 voters was
conducted April 12-14 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus
3.5 percentage points. Garden State Equality is a statewide political
action organization that advocates equal rights for gays. It
commissioned Zogby International, a worldwide polling company, to
conduct the survey.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, said the
poll was commissioned to track voter sentiment on gay marriage
following its hot-button status in the 2004 election, and to assess the
prospects of gay political candidates statewide.
“We found that New Jersey is as strongly supportive of gay
marriage as it has ever been,” Goldstein said.A Zogby poll on the
subject released in July 2003 found nearly identical results.
The Garden State Equality-Zogby International poll also suggests
a comeback is possible for former Gov. James E. McGreevey, whose
political career was dashed by his announcement last year that he is
gay and had engaged in an extramarital, homosexual affair.
49% of the respondents said they would consider voting for
McGreevey if he ran for office again; 6 percent said his sexuality is a
reason they would never vote for him. An additional 43 percent said he
has forever lost their vote but that his being gay didn’t contribute to
their decision.
Goldstein said McGreevey was a good test case for vetting the
potential success of other gay candidates because the former governor
comes with “more baggage than Terminal C at Newark airport.”
“If only 6% say they wouldn’t vote for Jim McGreevey because he
is gay, and half the electorate say they would consider voting for him,
then consider how well a lesbian or gay candidate would do without his
baggage,” Goldstein said.
Nearly a year ago, the state enacted a law recognizing domestic
partnerships and granting those couples joint rights in filing state
taxes and exempting them from inheritance taxes in the case of a
partner’s death. The law also extends the benefits given to state
employees to cover domestic partners.
At least 13 states have statutorily and constitutionally banned
same-sex marriage. A similar measure is working its way through Texas’
Legislature. President Bush supports conservative advocacy groups
pushing for congressional approval of a federal constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage.
Texas: Scalia’s Thinking On
Constitution “Set In Stone” - Parroting current Republican
partisan rhetoric, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the public
- not the courts - should make decisions on controversial issues such
as abortion, the death penalty and gay 
rights. He said too many courts
are interpreting the Constitution as a document that evolves with
society, but that he believes it should be interpreted as it was
written.
“The Constitution is not a living organism. It is a legal
document ... and like all legal documents it doesn’t change,” Scalia
told about 1,000 people during a 30-minute speech May 5 at the George
Bush Presidential Library Center at Texas A&M University.
Scalia said if the American people want to ban or uphold issues
like abortion, the death penalty or gay rights, they need to convince
their fellow citizens to do so and not leave it up to judges.
“The Constitution has nothing to say about it either way,” said
Scalia, who has discussed his stance in many other speeches.
When the public supported the right of women to vote, Scalia
said, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Scalia
said that would not happen today, but instead judges would simply read
in such a right into the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which
doesn’t address the subject.
“You should not use the Constitution as a means to enforce your
own social views,” he said.
The crowd at this generally conservative university greeted the
speech with cheers and applause, which though paid for with
public tax dollars, almost had all the trappings of a GOP political
rally. Former President Bush, Barbara Bush, and three justices from the
conservative Texas Supreme Court attended the speech. The former
president introduced Scalia.
“Am I totally preaching to the choir here?” Scalia joked.
Other Supreme Court justices have argued the Constitution is a
living document. Scalia, who has been on the court since 1986,
described himself as an “originalist,” someone who thinks the
Constitution means the same thing now as when it was first drafted.
Calling the idea of the living Constitution “terribly seductive” for
judges, Scalia said originalism is the “only game in town.”
“You either tell your judges to be bound by the original meaning
of the Constitution or you evolve our Constitution the way you think is
best,” he said. “That is not a road that has a happy ending.”
Scalia also criticized the increasing politicization of
nominating and appointing federal judges. “We want a moderate
judge. What in the world is a moderate judge?” he said. “What is a
moderate interpretation of the Constitution? Halfway between what it
really says and what you’d like it to say?”
Washington: Microsoft Flip Flops
Again On Gay Civil Rights - After weeks of controversy over the
issue, Microsoft has decided to return to a position of legislative
support for gay and lesbian rights, at both the state and federal level.
In a May 6 letter to employees, Chief Executive Officer Steve
Ballmer said that the company would support antidiscrimination
legislation, after backing off support for a Washington state bill on
the issue last month.
“After looking at the question from all sides, I’ve concluded
that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our
business that it should be included in our legislative agenda,” Ballmer
wrote in the email. “I respect that there will be different viewpoints.
But as CEO, I am doing what I believe is right for our company as a
whole.”
The issue exploded into public consciousness several weeks ago
after Seattle newspaper The Stranger reported that Microsoft had backed
off support for a state antidiscrimination bill after being contacted
by a conservative local pastor, the Rev. Ken Hutcherson of the Antioch
Bible Church.
Hutcherson, a leader in conservative religious organizations’
opposition to gay marriage equality and nondiscrimination legislation,
said he had threatened Microsoft with a boycott of the company’s
products if it supported the state bill. Microsoft executives later
said their position on the bill was not related to the pastor’s
pressure, but connected to a broader company policy of avoiding taking
divisive positions on “social issues.”
The Washington bill subsequently failed by a single vote. Gay
and lesbian organizations, which previously had applauded the company’s
internal policies of support for nondiscrimination, criticized the
company widely over the situation. At least one prominent gay employee
resigned this week from the company, according to The Stranger.
In his May 6 e-mail, Ballmer said the company would join other
companies in supporting federal legislation barring employment
discrimination based on sexual orientation. If the Washington state
bill comes up in next year’s legislative session, the company will
support that as well, he added.
Ballmer said he was not prepared to pursue similar legislative
goals overseas, where other countries have “different political
traditions for public advocacy by corporations.” Nor would the company
take a position on most other public policy issues, aside from those
such as free trade, intellectual property rights and Internet safety,
which directly affect the company’s business.
“It all boils down to trust,” Ballmer wrote, explaining his
decision to change the company’s direction and articulate a clear
policy. “Even when people disagree with something that we do, they need
to have confidence that we based our action on thoughtful principles,
because that is how we run our business.”
Gay and lesbian rights groups welcomed the decision. “Microsoft
is a world leader in technology, and we’re pleased that the company has
also chosen to be a world leader in supporting equality for (lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender) people,” Equal Rights Washington
Executive Director George Cheung said. “We’re also looking forward to
working with Microsoft and other business leaders to pass this
legislation next year, ensuring that all Washingtonians enjoy the
protection that Microsoft provides for its own employees.”
Multiple attempts to reach Hutcherson for his reaction failed.
Washington DC: New FDA Sperm
Donation Rule Upsets Gay Civil Rights Groups - Food and Drug
Administration guidelines barring gay men from donating their sperm
anonymously have raised the ire of gay rights groups who say that the
recommendations are 
without
scientific merit. An FDA rule that goes
into effect in late May says that all sperm banks must screen out
anonymous donors who are at increased risk for HIV.
It’s a concomitant “guidance” document that critics oppose: It
says men who have had sex with men in the last five years are at such
an increased risk. Critics of the guidelines said they are not
enforceable by law, unlike FDA rules. But some are still outraged.
“It doesn’t make scientific sense,” said Hayley Gorenberg,
deputy legal director at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. “And
the fallout from it is stigmatizing and unnecessary because we have the
testing procedures and protocol in place to protect people receiving
donor sperm.”
At the Sperm Bank of California in Berkeley, donors are tested
and screened, the sperm is quarantined for six months, and then donors
are tested again, said Alice Ruby, the executive director. “It’s
incredibly safe,” Ruby said. “In 23 years in business, we have never
had an incident of disease transmission.”
There are a few documented cases of HIV transmission through
sperm donation, but those cases arose in the early stages of the
epidemic before current procedures were in place, Gorenberg said.
“They’re asking all the wrong questions,” said San Francisco
Assemblyman Mark Leno, who has protested similar rules that prohibit
gay men from donating blood. “It’s not with whom you are having sex,
it’s what kind of sex you are having. Heterosexual men engaging in
risky heterosexual behavior are not denied the opportunity to donate
sperm. This is not about protecting the public.”
Both Ruby and Leland Traiman -- director of Rainbow Flag Health
Services and Sperm Bank in Alameda, CA which has a large gay and
lesbian clientele -- said they plan to continue to accept sperm from
gay donors because they do not consider the FDA guidelines legally
enforceable. Many lesbians eventually want to know the identity of
their donor, and “a lot of them feel they will find more acceptance of
their families from gay donors,” Traiman said.
Many sperm banks won’t be affected by the new guidelines because
they already reject gay donors. Also, the new rules affect only
anonymous donors, not “directed” donors, who give sperm to someone they
know.
State
News:
Sturgeon Bay: Bar Brawlers Found Innocent of Hate Crime Charge -
After deliberating for three hours, a jury of eight women and four men
found father and son Mark and Joshua Sawyer guilty of misdemeanor
disorderly conduct but innocent of serious battery charges. The younger
Sawyer was also found innocent on the hate crime penalty enhancer.
Originally five men were charged with a variety of crimes, and
four had the hate crime enhancer attached to their charges. Adam Bley
pleaded guilty to a minor offense. Two others, Robert Wagner and Andrew
Ostrand, pled guilty to lesser charges in plea deals that dropped the
hate crime penalty. The elder Sawyer’s hate crime charge was also
dropped in pre-trial negotiations.
The week long trial was held in front of a courtroom packed with
spectators supporting both the defendants and gay victims Bryon
Groeschl and Darrin Day. The “not guilty” verdict on the more serious
charges brought near pandemonium from the Sawyer’s supporters and an
admonishment from presiding Judge Peter Diltz.
From the beginning the jury heard two widely divergent versions
of what happened June 6, 2004 at Bley’s Tavern in rural West
Jacksonport. Prosecutor Joan Korb attempted to lay out a scenario of
terror caused by intolerant men who could not accept the fact that
several gay men had chosen to be themselves in a rural tavern. Photos
of the bloodied Day were offered in evidence. The gay men’s story was
supported by Tina Ostrand who alleged Mark Sawyer’s use of the word
“fag” triggered the fight.
Defense attorneys Michael Fitzgerald and William Appel weaved a
story that could only be described, according to one court watcher, as
the gay version of the “uppity nigger” syndrome: openly gay men
flaunted their lifestyle in front of intoxicated straight men, thus
causing a fight that got way out of hand. A defense witness claimed Day
ripped of his shirt as if he were professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and
started the fight. Photos of Mark Sawyer’s severely brutalized face
caused by a single defensive punch by Day were also shown to the jury.
The prosecution did get the younger Sawyer to admit he barred
the door, preventing the victims from leaving the fray. However,
Sawyer’s reasoning for blocking the exit was because he did not want
Day and Groeschl to leave before the police arrived.
In the end, Groeschl and Day’s failure to follow up with the
police after the incident appeared to confirm the defense’s
allegations, made most effectively by fellow assailant Ostrand, that
the gay couple incited the brawl. Jury foreman William Sturdevant,
speaking to the Green Bay Press Gazette, summed up his impression of
the brawl as an liquor-infused affair. “I think it was just a matter of
too much alcohol. The guys that were supposedly victims were just as
culpable in starting the fight as anyone else,” Sturdevant told
reporter Paul Brinkman.
Milwaukee: LGBT Film Festival To
Feature Shorts Mini-Fest at PrideFest - The Milwaukee LGBT Film
Festival will offer a program of “edifying and entertaining shorts” at
the LGBT History Project booth at PrideFest June 11-12. The
mini-festival hopes to call attention to the 18th Annual Milwaukee LGBT
Film/Video Festival to be held at the UW-M September 29 through October
9.
Festival director Carl Bogner announced the projects at the
recently held “Coming Out Party” for the new Cream City Foundation
executive director Maria Cadenas, and the new CCF board president Kevin
Loos, held May 3 at the Bella Cafe. Bogner has credited CCF’s early
support of the film festival for the event’s nearly two decades of
success.
Madison: Outreach To Hold
Transgender In-Service - There will be an in-service
presentation at OutReach, on transgender/genderqueer issues for agency
volunteers and the broader public on Saturday, May 21 from 1-3 PM at
the agency’s offices at 600 Williamson St. The informal panel will
discuss gender identity/expression issues from the vantage point of
definitions, experiences and resources. If interested in attending,
please RSVP with Harry by May 14 by phone at 608-255-8582 or by email
at: programs@outreachinc.com. Space is limited.
Madison: Action Wisconsin Sets
Capitol Based Action Group - According to many political
strategists, the state’s LGBT community cannot win the fight
against the constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage without
winning big in Madison. Action Wisconsin has begun 
planning
for a
local coalition of amendment opponents. Stop the Ban-Madison will
focus on educating and mobilizing voters in Dane County area about the
ban.
The first meeting of the Stop the Ban coalition will be on
Thursday, May 12 from 3-5 PM at the SEIU office--148 E. Wilson in the
conference room on the first floor.
Action Wisconsin is inviting LGBT activists, faith groups,
non-gay progressive allies, and supportive local elected officials and
expect this to be the first of many gatherings through November
2006. At the meeting, Action Wisconsin will share more
information about AW’s campaign and give activists a chance to share
and brainstorm ideas for defeating the ban. Let AW know if you can
attend the event by emailing Josh Freker at:
josh.freker@actionwisconsin.org.
Appleton: New LGBT Group Targets
Young Adults - A new group for LGBT young adults18-30 has begun
meeting weekly at the Harmony Cafe here. Etcetera - Beyond The Rainbow
held its first social May 2, an early Cinco De Mayo celebration. The
group is holding events every Monday beginning at 7 PM. Advocacy issues
will be discussed on May 16 and a presentation on transgender
experiences is slated for May 23. The second Monday of the month has
been set aside as a support group night. When fifth Mondays occur,
Etc.(the group’s informal name) will sponsor fund raising events. For
more information about Etc., call the Harmony Cafe at 920-734-2233 or
email Rebecca at harmonycafe@gwicc.org.
Sheboygan: Rainbow Over
Wisconsin Benefit Brat Fry Benefit Planned - Rainbow Over
Wisconsin will be the beneficiary of a 
Memorial
Day Weekend Brat Fry,
Tea Dance and Show to be held at the Blue Lite, 1029 N. Eighth St. here
from 3-7 PM, May 29. Food will be available for purchase from 4-7 PM.
Showtime will be 9 PM. Proceeds from brat sales, raffle and performer
tips will benefit Rainbow Over Wisconsin, Inc. the charitable
foundation Serving the central, eastern & northeast Wisconsin LGBT
community since 1996.
LaCrosse: Overcrowded LGBT
Library Needs Shelving - The 7 Rivers LGBT Center is
experiencing a population explosion - of gay and lesbian books and
media. According to the Center’s Jan Wulling, recent donations
have created a second need: for shelving and storage. “We need more
good-quality bookcases so we can display them all,” she said.
Wulling is looking for either direct shelving donations or
someone to make the needed units. Contact her at 608-784-0452 for more
information about the center’s needs.
Milwaukee: Volunteers &
Advertisers Sought for 5th Annual Rainbow Home & Garden Tour -
The Milwaukee LGBT Center is seeking interested volunteers for the 5th
Annual Rainbow Home and Garden Tour to be held on Saturday, June 18.
Six homes and gardens in the Walker’s Point neighborhood will be
featured. Walker’s Point is a historic area and one of the three
original villages that eventually grew into the City of Milwaukee.
Volunteer greeters, tour guides and general helpers needed for several
hours. Advertisers are also being sought for ad placement in the Home
Tour Guide. For more information, please call Angie Guerra, Director of
Development at 414-271-2656, Ext. 121 or email her at
aguerra@mkelgbt.org.