PAGE 26 T Q-Notes ▼ March 31, 2001
News
Continued from page 24
for 38% of new AIDS cases reported in the
United States. Dr. Ross Herron of American
Red Cross Blood Services said the policy doesn’t
exclude most gay men from donating because
they’re gay, but because of their behavior with
other gay men.
Sodomy law upheld
HOUSTON, TX—Texas’ sodomy law was
upheld by an appeals court March 15 in the
case of two men charged with having sex in a
private home. The nine-member Fourteenth
Court of Appeals voted 7-2 to overturn a June
ruling by three members of the same panel that
said the law was unconstitutional because it
forbids sex between same-sex partners, yet it
allows the same acts between heterosexuals. The
sodomy law was challenged after John Geddes
Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested on
Sept. 17, 1998, and charged with engaging in
homosexual conduct. Harris County sheriff’s
deputies entered Lawrence’s apartment after
receiving a false report of an armed intruder
inside and found the men having sex. Texas has
had a sodomy law since 1860 but decriminal
ized it for opposite-sex partners in 1974.
SLDN gets grants
WASHINGTON, DC — Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network (SLDN) announced
March 20that it has received multiple year
grants totaling $30,000 from the Paul Rapoport
Foundation, to be used in assisting service mem
bers harmed by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t
Pursue, Don’t Harass.” The total grant amount
includes a two-year, $20,000 general operating
grant and a rwo-year, $10,000 matching grant.
Under the terms of the matching grant, all new
and increased donations to SLDN will be
matched by the Rapoport Foundation. The
Rapoport Foundation, based in New York, has
a strong history of funding projects addressing
the concerns and needs of the lesbian and gay
community.
Wrong about Beddingfield
WASHINGTON, DC — Contrary to ear
lier reports, it seems gay, conservative. Repub
lican activist Tom Beddingfield will not be ad
vising the Bush administration on gay and les
bian issues after all. Charles Francis, a Wash
ington, DC-based public relations executive
whom the Washington /bit calls a Bush “family
friend who is openly gay,” says if anyone were
appointed to advise the president on gay and
lesbian issues, he’d be in the loop. Francis says
Bush hasn’t appointed Beddingfield to any po
sition. Mr. Beddingfield, who had said he would
be the Bush liaison for gay and lesbian issues,
was an activist on gay issues in California, an
gering the gay political establishment with his
conservative views. For example, he supported
Proposition 22 last spring, which now prohib
its same-sex marriages in California.
Queen makes hall of fame
CLEVELAND, OH — The glam-rock
band Queen was inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of fame in a ceremony March 19 fea
turing a rare live performance by the surviving
members of the band. Queen, whose lead singer
was the openly gay and highly colorful Freddy
Mercury, was one of thousands nominated for
admittance to the Hall this year, 28 years after
the recording of the group’s self-titled first al
bum. Performers become eligible for consider
ation 25 years after their first recording was re
leased. A musical featuring the songs of Queen
is in the works and is slated for opening in Lon
don late this year, to coincide with the tenth
anniversary of Mercury’s death.
VFW .to host Boy Scouts
SOUTH RIVER, NJ — While an East
Brunswick synagogue will not support the
Boy Scouts of America as long as it bars gays
from leadership positions. South River vet
erans are eager to open their doors to the
group. Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post
1451 has invited any interested troop to use
its 23-acre property off Reid Street for camp
ing or meetings. VFW members were dis
mayed when Temple B’nai Shalom closed its
doors to Boy Scout Troop 252 and Cub Scout
Pack 250 after prohibiting groups that dis
criminate on the basis of gender or sexual
orientation from using their facilities. In
January, the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, the leadership of Reform
Judaism, urged member temples, like Temple
B’nai Shalom, to withdraw sponsorship from
the Scouts.
Merger is out, for now
LOS ANGELES, CA —The titans of gay
media, PlanetOut and Liberation Publications
(LPI) halted their merger last week, citing
changing market conditions. The original
merger deal no longer reflects the new, more
realistic values of the two privately held com
panies after the dot.com nosedive of this past
winter. PlanetOut’s other merger with Web
company Online Partners, parent of Gay.com,
nears completion with a California state review
March 21. Liberation Publications is owner of
The Advocate a.nA 0«r magazines.
International
Court affirms lesbian mothers
JERUSALEM —Jerusalem’s High Court of
Justice ruled March 20 that the rabbinical
courts were unauthorized to decide on a request
by a man to prohibit his ex-wife from letting
their children spend time with her lesbian part
ner. The decision paved the way for the two
divorced women and their children, who live
in a communal settlement in the North, to meet
as a family legally for the first time since May
12, 1999. The women appealed to the High
Court in January 2000, after a lower court
agreed it could not rule on the plaintiffs main
petition — reduced child support; then ruled
that the women were setting a bad example and
upheld the ex-husband’s request for reduced
visitation. When the women appealed, the
Chief Rabbinical Court upheld the lower court.
In overturning the decisions, the High Court
ruled that once the rabbinical court had de
cided it was not authorized to rule on the ques
tion of child support, it automatically should
have disqualified itself from dealing with his
secondary request.
Gay liberal elected mayor
PARIS — Socialist Bertrand Delanoe, one
of France’s few openly gay politicians, claimed
a victory for “courage and reason” as he was
declared the French capital’s first left-wing
leader since 1871. The left also appeared to have
taken France’s third city, Lyon, which has also
been a traditional right-wing bastion for many
years. Mr Delanoe’s victory in Paris against
Philippe Seguin, the candidate for the right-
wing RPR, signified a powerful rejection of the
city’s existing system of government, which is
closely associated with French President Jacques
Chirac, who served as mayor for 18 years. T
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