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SJJRF’S UP LIVECHAT • POLLS DISCUSSION BOARDS PERSONALS • CALENDAR The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper http * //WWW. tCS. COm Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper > Volume 13, Number 10 • October 3, 1998 • FREE Another challenge to military ban falls short by Peg Byron Special to Q-Notes NEW YORK—On September 23, a three- judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in the case oiAhle V. USA that courts owe total deference to Con- ' gress regarding military policies and that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is not in violation of the First Amendment nor the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Beatrice Dohrn, Le gal Director of Lambda Legal Defense and Edu cation Fund, said, “The court abdicated its con stitutional responsibility by refusing to even ex amine ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Lesbian and gay sefvicemembers are pre pared to defend the Constitution with their lives, but the court today says they are not en titled to basic protections simply because Con gress and the military say they aren’t.” “Tomorrow or the next day, just like yester- “Tomorrow or the next day, just like yesterday and the day before, the government will discharge five or seven or ten loyal, brave Americans who it will admit have served their country well. The day after, they'll do it again. And so it will go for the foreseeable future.” discharge five or seven or ten loyal, brave Ameri cans who it will admit have served their coun try well. The day after that, they’ll do it again. And so it will go for the foreseeable future,” said Matthew Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. “The shame and dis grace in this belongs not to these good people, but to those in govern ment who passed this law and those who allow it to govern the mili tary,” he added. The 23-page deci sion does not analyze the rationale behind “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It begins with a strong presumption of the policy’s validity and then narrows the scope of the equal protection review customarily af forded discriminatory government action. The Court concluded that where the military is concerned, “...we will not substitute our judgment for that of Congress.” The decision reverses a ruling by US Dis- day and the day before, the government will trict Court Judge Eugene Nickerson that had handed the anti-gay military policy its most comprehensive defeat. In July 1997, Nickerson said that the special rules that the military im poses on lesbian and gay servicemembers serves only to accommodate the anticipated anti-gay feelings of other military personnel. Nickerson’s decision was hailed by civil rights advocates for its insightful analysis of the government’s defense of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as nothing more than euphemisms for discrimi nation against lesbian and gay servicemembers. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” prohibits any off- duty sexual and affectionate conduct by lesbi ans and gay men, but not by heterosexu^s. The military policy also prohibits gay personnel from making statements that indicate their sexual orientation. It remains for the government to decide J J X * whether to expel the six plaintiffs because they canaiaate wins disclosed their sexual orientation in order to challenge the policy. Able differs from previous challenges in that the servicemembers proactively sued, asserting that both the conduct and speech portions of the ban are unconstitutional. Other cases re garding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have been in response to discharge proceedings and most have focused on the “speech” portion of the ban and its presumption that anyone who speaks out also engages in prohibited conduct. There are no other cases involving the mili tary ban before district or appellate courts. T US House candidate Cammermeyer Third lesbian First multi-drug resistant HIV infection documented by Dan Van Mourik Q-Notes Staff SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Researchers at the University of California have discovered the first evidence of transmission of a multi-drug resistant strain of HIV from an infected person to a non-infected person. Scientists have feared this possibility and this case report presents the first hard evidence that such transmission is now a reality. In the case reported, a person began suffer ing symptoms of acute HIV infection a few days after an unsafe sexual encounter (receptive anal intercourse without a condom). While a stan dard test for HIV returned an expected nega tive result, the more sensitive p24 antigen and polymerase chain reaction tests confirmed HIV infection. Treatment was begun a few weeks after the patient joined the Options Project, a study of primary HIV infection at the Univer sity of California. Unlike other primary infec tion patients in the study, this patient did not respond to triple drug therapy nor to a subse quent change to a second protease inhibitor. Since there was little doubt as to the initial source of infection, researchers contacted the source patient who volunteered for study. Re searchers learned he had been failing on the same treatment regimens as the other patient. He also acknowledged poor adherence in us ing the treatments. Extensive resistance analy sis of the virus present in each patient showed them to have nearly identical strains of the vi rus and nearly all of the same mutations and patterns of drug resistance. Some European researchers have reported similar cases. It is still possible that multi-drug resistant HIV is less potent, but it is now clear that it remains a source of infection. Therefore, the need for careful adherence to therapy regimens and the need to pick the most appropriate regi men to begin with are even more important to help avoid the possibility of producing multi drug resistant virus. Despite the alarming nature of this case re port, researchers say the public sholild not panic. They do not yet know how common this form of transmission might be and it is too early to determine the scope of the public health issues concerned. What this case report should tell people is that safer sex is still a requirement to reduce the potential for HIV infection. Even if two people are both HIV positive, there is substan tial evidence that different strains of HIV can be transmitted from partner to partner, requir ing safer sex practices no matter what one’s HIV status. For information on safer sex practices, con tact your local AIDS Service Organization. ▼ by Karen Henein Special to Q-Notes EVERETT, WA—Congressional candidate Grethe Cammermeyer won the Democratic primary for Washington’s 2nd District seat by a margin of more than 2 to 1. A retired Army colonel who served as chief nurse of the state National Guard, Cammermeyer is set to face Republican incumbent Jack Metcalf in this ' swing district. Swept into office in the GOP tidal wave of 1994, Metcalf fared poorly for an incumbent, garnering less than 49 percent of the vote in the Republican primary. “The District’s history and [the] primary results clearly show that Metcalf is vulnerable and Grethe Cammermeyer has the qualifica tions, courage and character to win this race,” said Kathleen DeBold, deputy director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national po litical action committee (PAC) that works to increase the number of qualified openly gay and lesbian public officials. This historic win makes Cammermeyer the Victory Fund’s third openly lesbian Congres sional candidate to advance to this year’s No vember 3 general elections, following in the footsteps of San Diego City Councilwoman Christine Kehoe, who won the Democratic nomination for California’s 49th District seat in June, and Wisconsin State Assemblywoman Tammy Baldwin, who won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s open 2nd District seat. Openly gay, US House incumbents Barney Frank (D-MA) and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) also won their primary elections. “The unprecedented number of openly gay See CANDIDATE on page 23 Ga^ October National Gay and Lesbian History Month National Breast Cancer Awareness Month OutCharlotte ’98 Cultural Festival National Coming Out Day CHARLOTTE 1998 gSCTIMft (sm October 1-31 October 1-31 October 7-11 October 11
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