20th March 2003 (# 2) News Clippings Digest

1. ASSOCIATED PRESS Presbyterian Ruling on Gay Clergy Stands
2. NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE Movie critic hates "Boat Trip"
3. BALTIMORE SUN Maryland House of Delegates votes to expand the
state's hate crimes law to gays and lesbians
4. NEWS24.COM (South Africa) Lesbian and Gay Equality Project
supports the Treatment Action Campaign's civil disobedience campaign
5. OTTAWA SUN (Canada) Gay and lesbian communities across the
country are about to be bombarded with posters and pamphlets
explaining a class-action suit affecting about 10,000 people
6. SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Movie Review: Portuguese film "O
Fantasma"
7. ASSOCIATED PRESS A lesbian couple from Vermont have won a fight
to have both of their names listed on the birth certificate of a boy
adopted from Mississippi five years ago
8. ROANOKE TIMES Christiansburg High School's gay/straight club
draws criticism from the usual suspects
9. COLLEGIATE TIMES (Virginia Tech) Lesbian journalist Deb Price
reports on the state of the gay movement

Associated Press, March 20, 2003
http://www.startribune.com/stories/670/3769514.html
Presbyterian Ruling on Gay Clergy Stands
By Jim Suhr, Associated Press Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) panel
has
upheld the denominational leader's refusal to call a special meeting
where
conservatives wanted to push for greater enforcement of a ban on gay
clergy.
The Permanent Judicial Commission still rebuked the Rev. Fahed
Abu-Akel, however, saying Wednesday that he overstepped his
authority by
imploring those who sought the showdown to reconsider.
Abu-Akel, an Atlanta minister, is the church's moderator, the
elected
titular head of the denomination. The church has 2.5 million
members.
Wednesday's ruling "could not have been worded more
strongly," said
Paul Rolf Jensen, the attorney for the Rev. William Pawson, who
pressed for
the church trial over Abu-Akel's actions.
In January, a Presbyterian elder in California presented Abu-
Akel a
petition seeking a "special assembly" to address the gay clergy
issue. The
petition had the required number of signatures from clergy and lay
members
to force the meeting under church law.
But Abu-Akel wrote to petitioners, lobbying against the
special
assembly he said would cost $500,000 and divert attention from other
church
work. Thirteen signers withdrew their names, leaving petitioners
short of
the minimum needed to call the meeting.
The special assembly would have been the first held by the
214-year-old denomination, based in Louisville, Ky.
The flap underscored the tension within the denomination,
where
conservatives have been critical of what they view as the refusal of
top
church officials to discipline congregations that are willing to
ordain
non-celibate gays in defiance of church bans.
On Monday, Jensen argued that Abu-Akel, in light of the
petition, had
a duty to call the special meeting. He had pressured petitioners to
recant,
Jensen said.
But Abu-Akel's attorney countered that the church
leader "took every
reasonable, prudent and expeditious step" to ensure the petition was
proper
and that those who recanted were not under pressure.
According to Wednesday's 10-page ruling, petitioners may join
or
withdraw from a request for a special meeting until the moderator -
Abu-Akel - issues the call for one.
Still, Abu-Akel's letter "had the appearance of seeking to
undermine
the rights" of the petitioners, the ruling read.
. On the Net: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
http://www.pcusa.org/


Newhouse News Service, March 20, 2003
http://www.startribune.com/stories/412/3768141.html
'Boat Trip'
By Bob Campbell, Newhouse News Service
"Boat Trip" is a laughless slice of gender studies that
should prove
equally embarrassing to straights, gays, blacks, whites, men, women,
Scandinavians and - especially - Cuba Gooding Jr.
The messy farce finds Gooding adrift as a heart broken
romantic whose
scheme to join his best buddy on a woman-hunting Caribbean excursion
lands
them aboard an all-gay cruise ship. Imagine the amazement. Imagine
the
misunderstandings. Imagine the hilarity. In fact, you're better off
imagining it than seeing it.
Gooding's shy Jerry is appeased by the presence of sexy dance
instructor Gabriella (Roselyn Sanchez). To get closer to the man-
weary
babe, he casts himself as her sympathetic gay confidant.
This means bribing buddy Nick (shrublike Horatio Sanz) to
pose as his
"life partner." Bumptious Nick is preoccupied with castaway members
of "the
Swedish suntan team."
Through Neanderthal Nick, the movie strains to simultaneously
mock
and defend gays. Nick exults, "They're a great bunch of guys!" No
doubt
the gay establishment will be forever indebted for his support.
"Saturday Night Live's" Sanz can't keep Nick's antics from
turning
bilious. The filmmakers' notion of wit is to have the protagonists
gloat
and excitedly rub their palms at the prospect of female company.
Still, this boobishness makes more sense than Gooding's
suicidal
choice to make Jerry coy, wide-eyed and a little effeminate. So
much for
zippy comic contrast.
Vivica A. Fox sails through smartly as Jerry's ex-fiancée,
but the
most polished piece of driftwood is devilish Roger Moore. His Lloyd
could
be a laminated gay descendant of Joe E. Brown's doddering lecher
in "Some
Like It Hot."


Baltimore Sun, March 20, 2003
501 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD, 21278
(Fax: 410-332-6977 ) (E-Mail: letters@... )
( http://www.sunspot.net/ )
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.hate20mar20.story
House OKs expanding hate crime law
The House of Delegates voted 90-44 yesterday to approve a
proposal to
expand the state's hate crimes law to gays and lesbians.
The measure, which goes to the Senate, would make it a
separate crime
for someone to obstruct, injure, intimidate or interfere with a
person
because of their sexual orientation. Currently, Maryland's hate
crime law
protects people on the basis of their race, color, religious beliefs
or
national origin.
The initial bill also sought to add ancestry, disabilities
and age to
the measure, but those provisions were removed.


News24.com (South Africa), 20 March 2003
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Aids_Focus/0,6119,2-7-
659_1336167,
00.html
Gays, lesbians back TAC drive
Johannesburg - The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project said on
Thursday
it supported the Treatment Action Campaign's civil disobedience
campaign.
"When a government denies its people that which so many
people need
to sustain their life, a people is entitled to rise up in peaceful
protest,"
the project said.
A day before the civil disobedience campaign was due to
start, TAC
supporters descended on a Cape Town police station on Thursday and
announced
they wanted to lay a culpable homicide charge against Health
Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang.
The TAC claims she is responsible for the deaths of 600
people a day
in South Africa from Aids-related illnesses for dragging her feet on
the
rollout of a HIV/Aids treatment plan.
"The right to treatment for a life-threatening condition -
when
treatment is available - is a fundamental and basic right.
"To deny this right, is to deny the very essence of human
rights,
which is the absolute and fundamental respect for life," said the
project.
'Respected members of society'
The organisation said that on Human Rights Day on Friday, it
would
celebrate the changed social status that gays and lesbians enjoyed.
No longer were they marginalised, but were "respected and
participative members of society".
Gays and lesbians now contributed to the building of a just
and
equitable society.
"Since liberation in 1994, our nation has together achieved a
great
deal in building respect for human rights and redressing the
inequalities of
the past."
However, the project wished to focus attention on two issues -
same-sex relationships and HIV/Aids treatment.
Same-sex relationships still did not enjoy "full and equal
recognition" in law and society.
"This has a negative impact, not only on perceptions of self-
worth,
but also on the ability of especially poor lesbian and gay people, to
exercise their rights in relationships."


Ottawa Sun, March 20, 2003
380 Hunt Club Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 5H7 Canada
(E-Mail: oped@... ) ( http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSun/ )
http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaNews/os.os-03-20-0026.html
Same-sex couples launch CPP expose
By Lisa Lisle, Ottawa Sun
Gay and lesbian communities across the country are about to be
bombarded with posters and pamphlets explaining a class-action suit
affecting about 10,000 people.
Acting on unprecedented direction from the courts, lawyers
handling a
suit aimed at claiming survivor benefits from CPP for same-sex
couples are
sending out comprehensive promotional material.
"Our aim is to ensure that this large and diverse group be
made aware
of their legal rights," said Douglas Elliott of the firm McGowan
Elliott &
Kim LLP.
The $400-million discrimination lawsuit was launched in
November 2001
against the federal government for the denial of survivor benefits.
It alleges that the government discriminates against same-sex
couples
by denying surviving partners a survivor's pension under the CPP,
unless the
deceased died on or after Jan. 1, 1998.
Survivor Benefits
"Working gays and lesbians have paid into the CPP throughout
their
working lives, but the benefits are not being received," said
Elliott.
The federal government amended its law three years ago to
extend CPP
survivor benefits to same-sex partners but imposed a Jan. 1, 1998
cutoff
date.
The suit seeks benefits for all gay and lesbian survivors
retroactive
to April 17, 1985, the day equality guarantees were enshrined in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Elliott said he's had about 200 people contact him so far,
including
a couple dozen from the Ottawa area.
Anyone wishing to get more information on the lawsuit can
visit the
firm's website at www.mek.ca.


San Francisco Examiner, March 19, 2003
988 Market St., San Francisco, CA, 94102
(Fax: 415-359-2766 ) (E-Mail: letters@... )
( http://www.examiner.com )
http://www.examiner.com/ex_files/default.jsp?story=X0319FANTASMAw
One man's trash...
By Jeffrey M. Anderson of The Examiner Staff
Fresh - or actually not so fresh - from the 2001 San Francisco
International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, "O Fantasma" crashes
into Bay
Area theaters for a belated official opening.
This odd, distant Portuguese import more or less borrows
from "Bad
Lieutenant" and "Les Vampires," and comes up with a kind of art-
house gay
porn film. But ironically, because of its devil-may-care manner, it
comes
across far better and braver than many other whiny, timid gay
films. ("All
Over the Guy" comes to mind.)
A Lisbon garbage man, Sergio (Ricardo Meneses), seeks darker
and
weirder forms of pleasure with men, quickly becoming bored as he
achieves
them. A beautiful female co-worker, Fatima (Beatriz Torcato), keeps
coming
on to him, but he shows no interest. His only real friend is a dog
named
Lorde. In the end, he abandons all reason and dons a
rubber "phantom" suit
and runs around town.
Though the film, a debut feature from writer/director Joao
Pedro
Rodrigues, has little dialogue and no plot, and takes place in an
emotionless, vacuum-like state, it still manages a certain
recklessness.
Though Sergio never shows much feeling, he always lives for the edge
of
danger. The effect is oddly mesmerizing.
Of course, the garbage in the film represents more than just
an
occupation. It's a metaphor for the worthless life Sergio has thrown
himself into. As a result, the film may ultimately leave viewers
feeling
more miserable than tantalized.
. O Fantasma (2 ½ stars): Starring Ricardo Meneses, Beatriz
Torcato;
written and directed by Joao Pedro Rodrigues. In Portuguese with
English
subtitles. Not rated. Opens today at the Opera Plaza.
. E-mail: janderson@...


Associated Press, March 19, 2003
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/078/region/Lesbian_couple_prevails_in
_ado:.s
html
Lesbian couple prevails in adoption suit
By Anne Wallace Allen, Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A lesbian couple from Vermont have won
a fight
to have both of their names listed on the birth certificate of a boy
adopted
from Mississippi five years ago.
A Mississippi judge this week ordered the state Bureau of
Public
Health Statistics to issue a revised birth certificate reflecting
the name
of the boy and his parents, Holly Perdue and Cheri Goldstein of
Worcester.
If the ruling stands, ''we can get him a passport; we can
register
him in school, we can get him a social security number,'' said
Perdue, who
adopted the boy as a newborn. ''And he can go to Canada for the
baseball
game.''
Perdue and Goldstein filed suit in the fall of 2001 in Hinds
County
Chancery Court asking the judge to order the state to issue the birth
certificate showing them as the boy's adoptive parents.
New York-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay
rights
advocacy group, and a Mississippi attorney represented the couple.
The Bureau of Public Health Statistics held up the issuance
of the
birth certificate because they noticed on documents that both
adoptive
parents were female.
But in his decision, Judge William Hale Singletary said there
was
nothing in state law at the time of the adoption saying what gender
the
parents should be. Mississippi has since outlawed adoptions by gay
couples.
''...the Bureau has no discretion to deviate from the
statute's
terms,'' Singletary wrote. He granted Lambda's request for a summary
judgment in the case, and ordered the bureau to deliver the revised
birth
certificate to the Mississippi lawyer for Perdue and Goldstein
within 10
days of the decision.
''(The child) was lawfully adopted in Vermont and that
adoption is
due the recognition of the courts and administrative agencies of
Mississippi,'' the judge wrote.
The validity of the adoption was never at issue in Vermont,
where a
court approved it in April 2000.
Peter W. Cleveland, the lawyer who handled the case for the
Mississippi attorney general's office, said Wednesday the state had
not
decided if it would appeal.
Perdue and Goldstein have eight adopted children ages 5 to 23
and
also serve as foster parents to two mentally retarded adults in
their home.
Perdue, 46, said Wednesday that when she and Goldstein filed
their
suit, they were seeking only to get the birth certificate for
practical
reasons. But now she considers the court decision to be ''a huge
victory''
for the people of Mississippi.
''Here in Vermont, lesbian and gay people almost have full
civil
rights,'' she said. ''In Mississippi, they don't have any rights.''
She added that she could probably get her son registered at
school or
get him a Social Security number without the birth certificate,
using his
adoption certificate instead.
But with the birth certificate, ''people don't have to know
the
circumstances of him joining the family; it doesn't separate him out
from
other kids,'' Perdue said. ''It offers him a level of privacy.''


Roanoke Times, March 20, 2003
P. O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA, 24010
(Fax: 703-981-3204 ) (E-Mail: karent@... )
(http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes )
http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story146760.html
Gay/straight club draws criticism
More than 300 people signed a petition calling for the
Christiansburg High
group to be disbanded. But schools may not discriminate against
clubs that
follow federal guidelines.
By Jill Hoffman, The Roanoke Times
CHRISTIANSBURG - A high school teacher and a minister want the
Montgomery County School Board to disband Christiansburg High
School's new
gay/straight alliance club, saying that it taints the "moral
character of
our community."
Randy Bailey, a physical education teacher at Christiansburg
High
School, said that he has "deep concern and regret over a pro-
homosexuality
club" at the school.
He gave the board a petition of more than 300 signatures of
people
who want the club, called Spectrum, to go.
He noted that the state bans homosexual acts and beseeched
the board
"to do what is right, not what's politically correct."
Otto Conley, minister of Faith Christian Church in
Christiansburg,
said that he and his congregation are "greatly concerned for certain
influences introduced into our schools and community."
He suggested that the school may have caved to pressure by
national
gay and lesbian organizations.
"I am here to give to each of you members my full support to
oppose
those who hope to demoralize our students and our community," he
said.
Board members didn't immediately respond to the speakers
during a
public address portion of the meeting, since the board's policy is
not to
comment at that time. Board chairman Wat Hopkins observed later
that the
334 names on the petition include people from Blacksburg, Floyd and
Radford - not just from Christiansburg.
Superintendent Fred Morton said that he's had about a dozen
conversations with people about the club, which was formed in the
fall and
meets county policies and federal laws. But he hasn't heard from
anyone in
months.
Principal George Porterfield said that he'd only gotten one
or two
phone calls from people inquiring about how the group banded. About
30 or
40 students attend meetings.
"It gives them an outlet beyond the classroom," he said.
The club formed because some students felt targeted or
harassed by
others, Morton said. He said that the group is "not about
proselytizing."
In Montgomery County public schools, clubs that aren't
directly
related to the curriculum are permitted as long as they follow
federal
guidelines. Schools are prohibited from discriminating against
clubs.
In Ashland, Ky., seven students at Boyd County High School
have filed
a lawsuit against the school system, saying it violated students'
rights by
voting in December to suspend all nonacademic clubs. The American
Civil
Liberties Union asserts that the school board took this action to
prevent a
gay/straight alliance from forming.
A variety of clubs - from the Christian Athletes Club to the
Key
Club - are based in Montgomery County public schools, and all have
adult
chaperones. To form a club, individuals must apply at school and
wait for
principal approval.
Blacksburg High School's Gay/Straight Awareness Organization
formed
several years ago. Some people complained at the beginning, but the
club
still exists. About 25 to 30 students attend, Morton said.
. Jill Hoffman: 381-1679, jill.hoffman@...


Collegiate Times, March 20, 2003
Virginia Tech, 362 Squires Student Center, Blacksburg, VA 24061
(Fax: 540-231-2481) (E-Mail: opinions@... )
( http://www.collegiatetimes.com )
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/index.php?ID=1041
Lesbian journalist reports on state of 'gay movement'
by Julia Lupone, News Assistant
Last night, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance
welcomed
to Squires Student Center Deb Price, the first openly gay columnist
of the
Detroit News.
A Stanford University graduate who received both her
bachelor's and
master's degrees in English, Price said she originally planned to
become a
professor.
Price began her lecture with an introduction to her nationally
syndicated column on gay rights.
"This column takes a positive approach to gay people and our
issues,"
she said.
In 1992, her column on gay rights became the first nationally
published column addressing the subject. Since then, she has been
producing
the column every week.
During her lecture, Price focused on the rapid progression of
gay
rights, America's views on same-sex marriages and the role of the
Supreme
Court in this aspect of civil rights.
Price and her partner, Joyce Murdoch, recently co-authored a
book,
"Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court."
"The gay movement," Price said, "has reached turning point."
One-third of America now supports same-sex marriage, she said.
Price ended her talk by answering a series of questions from
the
audience and addressing issues involving gay rights, employment and
America'
s views on same-sex marriage.
People often shy away from discussing the issue of
homosexuality
because it is a touchy subject, Price said.
"I really encourage people to articulate their discomfort,"
she said.
"Embrace the controversy."
When it comes to gays in the workplace, Prices said she urges
people
to be themselves and stand up for what they believe. She encourages
all
those struggling to "come out" to speak up.
"If you feel frightened, walk through the fear," she said.
America displays some ignorance toward gay rights, she said,
especially concerning marriage.
The only state that allows civil unions between homosexuals is
Vermont, Price said.
It was in Vermont that Price and Murdoch formed their legal
bond, she
said.
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