Local News
Homosexual Father
Wins Suit:
Allowed Overnight
Visits With Son
Raleigh—The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled
on December 18th that a homosexual father
may have unsupervised overnight visits with
his 4-year-old son, according to a report in
The Greensboro Daily News.
Sammy Woodruff of Forsyth County had
filed a complaint with court officials
contending that his former wife, Janet
Woodruff, had refused to allow him to visit
their son.
The Court of Appeal’s decision upheld a
March 1979 order by District Judge Gary B.
Tash of Winston-Salem that the father be
allowed alternate weekend, summer and
holiday visits.
“We concede that the trial judge was faced
with a very serious and difficult problem in
this case. . .” commented Judge Richard C.
Ertfin, writing for the state court in a four
page opinion. “We do not find any evidence
from the record that would lead us to reverse
this case.”
Tash’s ruling ordered that Woodruff be
allowed to visitation rights after he conluded
that Woodruff and his wife were fit parents.
The court also ordered that Woodruff
“shall not have boyfriends visit him in his
home when he is with the child.” Court
records showed that Mrs. Woodruff had
attempted to limit visits to keep the boy from
his father’s “open and gay lifestyle.”
Winston-Salem
Group Organizes
Winston-Salem—The first steps have been
taken to organize a gay support group in
Winston-Salem, according to the December
issue of CGA’s LAMBDA newsletter.
Twenty-one gays, mostly men, met in
Winston-Salem on October 29 to discuss
organizing in the Twin City.
HOrganization will come slowly,” a
spokesman said, “given the social and
political climate in the city.” The primary
focus of the group will be social meetings for
now, with topical programs chosen from
suggestions.
Meetings are scheduled for the third
Sunday of each month. For further
information, call (919) 723-8607.
Gay Students At
UNC-G Gain
Recognition
Greensboro—The Gay Student Union at
UNC-G gained official recognition as a
student organization from the
administration on Oct. 15. The recognition
was given “without question,” according to a
GSU spokesman.
Gay students at UNC-G met in September
to begin organizing the Gay Student Union
as a general support group. Membership
currently averages 20 students.
Meetings are held on the first and third
Thursday of each month at 8:00 pm in the
Kirkland meeting room at Elliott Student
Center.
For further information, contact: GSU,
P.O. Box 5214, Greensboro, N.C. 27403.
ECU Gay Group
Denied Funds
Greenville—After a tiebreaker vote, the
Student Government Association at East
Carolina University decided in a difficult
session on November 19 to deny funding to
the East Carolina Gay Community (ECGU).
According to the student paper, The East
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Carolinean. this controversy was the result
of a decision made on Nov. 12 that added
approximately $14,000 to the funds
available to student organizations.
At the November 19th meeting, a heated
discussion ensued concerning ECGU, its
nature and its support among students. The
student legislature reached a 13 to 13 vote
standoff on whether or not to grant the
group its $140 request, but student Mike .
Adkins, Speaker of the Legislature, broke
the tie with his “no” vote.
The final vote was noticeably split along
sexual lines: of the 13 legislators who
supported the bill, 11 were women; of the 14
who opposed it, 12 were men. Mark
Zumbach, a legislator who is also president
of the ECGU, told The East Carolinean that
defeat of the bill was unfair.
“I don’t think the bill was defeated on the
grounds of the bill itself,” he said, “but
because of the personal prejudices against
the organization.”
Zumbach added that the organization was
approved officially last year, and that its
primary purpose is educational. “We
sponsor speakers, and we also have the Peer
Counseling Center on Campus, which is for
all students.”
Harrasement In
Virginia
Norfolk Va.—Norfolk police apparently
launched a campaign in October to enforce
sections of Virginia’s Alcohol Beverage
Control laws which prohibit the serving of
alcohol to homosexuals. Representatives of
several local gay organizations met with
members of the police dept, to discuss this
problem early in November.
According to Our Own, it is believed that
police intimidation of bar owners and their
staffs is part of a general effort to rid
downtown Norfolk of persons considered
“undesirable” by merchants and poUce.
Under Virginia’s ABC laws, an
establishment’s liquor license can be revoked
if said establishment has “become the
meeting place or rendezvous for users of
narcotics, drunks, homosexuals, prostitues,
pimps, plunders, gamblers, habitual law
violator, person of ill repute, user of a
peddler of narcotics or a person who drinks
to excess or any B girl.”
In meeting with the police, much of the
discussion focused on the police
department’s definition of “homosexual,"
and its use in enforcing the ABC laws. John
L. Andrews, Deputy Chief of Operations for
the Norfolk Police department, said that in
order for a gay person to be prohibited from
drinking, he or she must be a “known
homosexual,” or one who has been
convicted of a crime involving a prohibited
sexual with someone of the same sex.
The police use the term “known
t homosexual” when they wish to impart
information which - technically - they are
forbidden to give out. Although a “known
homosexual” must be a person who has had
a prior arrest and conviction, the police
cannot - according to Andrews - tell anyone
else of such convictions because doing so
would violate Virginia’s Freedom of
Information Act.
When asked if a conviction on a charge of
soliciting someone of the same sex would
cause the offender to be classed as a “known
homosexual” Andrews said that, in his view
it would not. He further said that he did not
believe a person could become a “known
homosexual” merely, by telling the police
what his or her sexual orientation was. He
did add, however, that he would try to get the
Commonwealth Attorney’s Opinion on this.
Police harassment has apparently
subsided for the time being. It is not know if
this meeting was a factor.
As a side note, members of the gay
community - as a result of this meetng - will
speak to police trainees at the Police
Academy at some undetermined date.
Atlanta Gayline
Gets A Busy Signal
Atlanta, GA—Gayline Atlanta, an audio
news service for the Atlanta Gay
Community, has had much more response
that originally anticipated, according to a
story in a recent issue of Cruise Weekly.
The telephone news service officially
commenced operations on November 19th
at 10 a.m. Gayline is similar to a radio news
report, consisting of local and national news
and interviews and supported by commercial
announcements.
“We underestimated the amount of
callers,” commented Brian Hadley of the
Atlanta-based Gayline Communications
Network. “Our experience with Gayline in
Detroit has been approximately 900 to 1.000
calls daily. It appears that we will receive
considerably more calls in Atlanta.”
Coni, on p. 14
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