News notes
Continued from page 12
measure to launch a US Senate bid. As the states
main attorney, Norton vigorously defended
Amendment 2, which would have voided ex
isting gay rights laws and banned passage of
future ones. Norton expressed deep disappoint
ment when the US Supreme Court struck down
Amendment 2 in May 1996. Norton lost her
Senate bid and remained attorney general un
til last year. She had served in the Interior De
partment during the Reagan administration.
DC TG survey reported
WASHINGTON, DC—The Transgender
Needs Assessment Survey released its findings
November 30, showing that nearly half the 252
respondents have no health insurance; 42 per
cent are unemployed; 40 percent have not fin
ished high school; 25 percent have imagined
committing suicide; and there was an overall
HIV infection rate of 25 percent. The report
also recommends that HIV prevention meth
ods stop looking at male-to-female transgender
women as part of “men having sex with men”
population, as their needs are unique. Survey
criteria allowed anyone who was visibly “gen
der-variant” and a resident of DC to partici
pate. It is not known whether results would be
similar in other communities.
Outright VT Director fired
BURLINGTON, VT — The executive di
rector of Outright Vermont has been dismissed,
in part because of a dispute over the denial of
the state Education Department’s funding for
the organization. Keith Elston was fired last
week, officials said, after the Education
Department’s decision that $12,000 would not
be turned over to Outright, although the money
had originally been appropriated for that pur
pose. Elston and Outright said at the time that
they understood the state’s decision and were
supportive of Education Commissioner David
Wolk. Subsequently Elston, upset with what
he believed were implications in news reports
about the funding denial suggesting that Out
right Vermont’s school programs would be end
ing as a result, telephoned Wolk at home and
expressed his concerns in what he described as
an "inappropriate way.” Outright Board Chair
man David Ryan said the incident was not the
only factor that led to the dismissal. Ryan said
that Outright would continue offering its ser
vices, but its board was examining what its fo
cus should be.
MTV lists hate-crime victims
NEW YORK — MTV broke away from
regular programming for 17 hours on January
10 to run a continuous list of hate crime vic
tims’ names. Guest celebrities read a short syn
opsis of numerous hate crimes, along with the
person’s name, date and location in which the
.crime occured. This began at 10 pm EST and
kicked off a year-long public service campaign
against discrimination. The commercial-free
airing of victims’ names, along with informa
tion on how to gain assistance, cost MTV about
$2 million in advertising, said Brian Graden,
the network’s programming president. The
campaign is prompted, at least in part, by
MTV’s own corporate soul-searching over its
role in the rise of Eminem. During the same
week, the cable music channel aired a made-
for-MTV movie about the bias-related murder
of Matthew Shepard and an MTV News spe
cial on hate crimes.
Gill director leaving
DENVER, CO — Katherine Pease, Gill
Foundation Founding Executive Director, will
leave the foundation this spring. In 1994, Pease
became the foundation’s first employee. Since
then, the charitable organization has grown to
include 40 full-time staff members. The
foundation’s mission is to secure equal oppor
tunity for all, regardless of sexual orientation
or gender identity Pease said the time she has
spent at the foundation has been rewarding.
Founder Tim Gill, former chairman of software
company Quark, Inc., said the search for Pease’s
replacement will begin at once.
LA sodomy law contested
NEW ORLEANS—Gay rights activists are
seeking to overturn Louisiana’s 196-year-old law
that bars sodomy, maintaining that it unfairly
targets gays and lesbians. In 1999, Judge
Carolyn Gill-Jefferson upheld the law, ruling
that it violates Louisiana’s right to privacy, but
does not violate other rights protected by the
state constitution. An appeal was filed by the
Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians (LE
GAL) Inc., and nine gay and lesbian individu
als, on grounds that the law denies GLBT
people the possibility of having sex under any
circumstances.
Poll: Religious right okay
UTICA, NY—More than half of all Ameri
cans say the religious right represents their po
litical views at least some of the time, accord
ing to the recent Zogby “American Values” poll.
In a survey of 1,005 likely voters, 46 percent
said religious conservatives sometimes represent
their point of view, 13 percent said they re
flected their point of view all the time, com
pared with 35 percent who said they never rep
resent their own opinion. A majority of those
polled also said the National Rifle Association
(NRA) more closely represents their views than
either the religious right or the AFL-CIO. The
poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.
International
Gay men increasingly unsafe
LONDON, UK — Unsafe sex between
men is becoming increasingly acceptable in the
West and appears to be a backlash among the
gay community against what are seen as mo
notonous health campaigns, according to Brit
ish research released in December. Michele
Crossley of Manchester University told a Brit
ish Psychological Society conference in London
that “barebacking” — unprotected anal inter
course — was often a reaction to men being
told not to do it. Crossley cited British and US
statistics showing a significant rise in unpro
tected sex among gay men. Crossley put the
trend down to a number of factors including
complacency over safety issues particularly
among young gay men, but also noted that the
promotion of good health as a symbol of moral
rectitude was triggering a reverse reaction in
Britain and the United States. Gary Taylor of
Sussex University said his research showed that
the perception of HIV had shifted since the
early 1980s, when it was tistially associated with
full-blown AIDS and, ultimately death. But
rather than simply encouraging men to have
unprotected sex more frequently, the treatments
were actually being cited by people to reduce
anxiety after they had had unprotected anal
intercourse.
Belfast gay man murdered
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND —
Neighbors heard an alarm and called
firefighters to a flat on Eglantine Avenue in
Belfast at 2:26 am. Minutes later, a crew broke
into the flat and extinguished a small fire in
Q-Notes ▼ January 20, 2001 ▼ PAGE 13
the kitchen. On searching the home they
found Alister David Holmes, whom police
identified as a gay man at the outset of the
investigation, and determined that he had
been “severely assaulted and stabbed” some
time before the blaze was detected. By late on
the night of January 1 police had arrested a
16-year-old youth in connection with Holmes’
murder and were questioning him.
AIDS activist near death
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—
Nkosi Johnson, one of South Africa’s most well-
known AIDS activists, is seriously ill. The boy,
who was born infected with HIV, became un
conscious after suffering convulsions, said Dr.
Ashraf Coovadia of Coronation Hospital.
Though he has regained consciousness, he is
not communicating, the doctor said. It is im
possible to predict how long the boy can cling
to life, the doctor added. He became well-
known in 1997 when he and his foster mother
waged — and won — a public battle to force a
primary school to accept him despite his infec
tion. Johnson has been lauded for being open
about his HIV-status in a country where people
who are suspected of carrying the virus often
are shunned by their families and chased away
from their communities. About 4.2 million
South Africans — roughly 10 percent of the
national population — are estimated to be HIV
positive. ▼
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UNITY
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UNITY
It Takes Conununity
THE CARDLINAS’ 6IH ANNUAL
HUMAN WGHTS CAMPAIGN GALA DINNER
Saturday Febniary 17,2001
Emba's>y Suites" Caiy NC
C'Lill
1-S(X>494-S497 ior re'si'ivalion.s
l'idets: $ 165 until lEliniarv 7ll i, $ 175 afitT
HUMAN
RIGHTS
CAM i:»A I G N
Keynote Sfieakers:
The Honorable Barney H ank
Cbiigressmaii Irom Massacliusetts
Donna Red Wing, Tl ie Gill Foundation
Silent Auction • Gala thinner • Club Idancing