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Fall Institute on Racism, Heterosexism, Bias, and Oppression at UVM
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Gay Sailor
WASHINGTON c A man kicked out of the Navy because he’s gay is being recognized in the Smithsonian Institution.
“It’s kind of like a validation of my service,” said Tim Beauchamp, a native of Tulsa, Okla., who lives in Washington. “I was considering the Navy as a career.”
Beauchamp, a yeoman who served in the Navy for over four years, wrote “Sub Sailor’s Views on ‘Glasnost’” in December 1987 on board the USS Henry Clay, a nuclear submarine patrolling the North Atlantic.
The poem is part of the exhibit “Fast Attacks & Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War” at the National Museum of American History. A copy of it is displayed on a sailor’s bunk in a part of the exhibit dealing with daily life on a submarine.
Harkening back to the days of the Cold War, the poem includes lines like, “Reagan and Gorbachev back and forth volley while Nancy and Raisa put on their best. Capitalist/Communist; political folly! What does it matter? It’s East against West.”
Eight months after writing the poem, Beauchamp, now 36, received an honorable discharge from the Navy after his superiors discovered he was gay.
Newspaper-Domestic Partnerships
ARLINGTON, Va. — The largest publisher of newspapers in the United States has adopted domestic partnership coverage to same-sex partners who live together.
Gannett Co. Inc., parent company of The Burlington Free Press, also will offer benefits to unmarried domestic partners of the opposite sex. The benefits for partners will become available in January 2002.
To be eligible, partners must first have had a 12-month relationship. They must also sign an affidavit that declares there is financial dependence between them.
Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell said there have been several requests from employees for equal coverage for domestic partners.
“We’ve been looking at it for years,” Connell said. She said the company’s rapid growth last year slowed the process of revamping the benefits.
Unlike married couples of the opposite sex, an employee claiming the benefits will still have to pay taxes on the amount used to insure his or her partner. The IRS does not extend tax exemptions for medical benefits to domestic partners.
Gay Adoption
MIAMI — A Florida law outlawing adoption by gays and lesbians has been upheld by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said that two gay men who challenged the law failed to demonstrate that “homosexual families are equivalently stable, are able to provide proper gender identification or are no more socially stigmatizing than married heterosexual families.”
The ruling drew sharp criticism from civil rights groups, who said an appeal is likely. An organization devoted to traditional family values praised the decision in the closely watched case, which could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mississippi and Utah also ban adoptions by same-sex couples.
But the Florida law is considered the nation’s toughest, prohibiting adoptions by any gay or lesbian individual or couple. It was passed in 1977, the same year former beauty queen Anita Bryant led a crusade to overturn a Dade County ordinance banning discrimination against gays.
Steven Lofton and Douglas Houghton challenged the law as discriminatory after being told they could not adopt children in their care. Lofton, a foster parent, wanted to adopt a 10-year-old boy he has raised since infancy. Houghton is the guardian of a 9-year-old boy.
Editor Disciplined
LOS ANGELES — The editor of Variety magazine has been ordered to undergo diversity training for making disparaging remarks about minorities and gays.
Peter Bart served a 21-day suspension.
“It was clear that Variety’s staff wants him back and does not believe the quotations fairly represent the Peter they know,” Tad Smith, president of the media division at Cahners, said in a Thursday statement.
“Peter understands the distress which such comments can cause and he knows that he made a mistake,” Smith said. “The company takes its values very seriously and expects all of its employees, no matter how prominent or distinguished, to set an excellent example.”
In a statement issued by Cahners, Bart said he agreed with the decision.
“I was quoted making several statements to a Los Angeles magazine reporter that do not reflect my personal beliefs and values or the way that I run the newsroom,” Bart said. “Nevertheless, I am deeply sorry and regret that they offended anyone. It will not happen again.”
North Carolina Senate
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Superior Court judge who disclosed his homosexuality two years ago has entered the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jesse Helms.
Ray Warren, who quit the Republican Party after his announcement and now is a Democrat, was elected to a term that runs until the end of 2002. He said he will resign from the bench in about a month; until then, rules of judicial conduct bar him from officially announcing his candidacy for another office.
“I think it’s going to happen,” he said. “Legally and technically, I’m still considering (making a bid). I’m anticipating it will change.”
Warren, who lives in Charlotte, began his political career as a conservative Republican member of the state House of Representatives in 1985.
In 1996, he nearly unseated Burley Mitchell as chief justice of the state Supreme Court in 1996. Two years later, Warren lost another close race for the state court of appeals.
Soon afterward, Warren announced he was gay, making him the first openly gay judge and Republican officeholder in the state’s history.
Warren said he doesn’t think his sexual orientation will be a major issue. “I would think it would be of some interest to some people, but less in the Democratic primary,” he said. “While we are thinking about the November race, our focus right now is on the May primary.”
Gay London
LONDON — Britain has registered its first gay unions.
The London Partnership Register, which is also open to heterosexual couples, was launched by the capital’s left-wing mayor, Ken Livingstone, who hopes it will eventually lead to same-sex relationships being treated on a par with traditional marriages.
The registration doesn’t confer any legal rights but is Britain’s first civil recognition of a gay couple’s commitment to one other. Most gay activists applauded the register as a big step for Britain, but complained that the country still lags behind its more liberal European neighbors.
“Well, this is a start, a tiny start, but it raises the issue,” said Ian Burford, who signed his name twice alongside that of his partner of 38 years, Alexander Cannell, during a ceremony that lasted less than five minutes.
The men, both dressed in cream suits, were followed by Linda Wilkinson and Carol Budd, who have been together for 16 years. Wilkinson and Budd concluded their ceremony with a kiss, which they said was “for equality and freedom … for everyone around the globe who can never hope to dare.”
Gay Scholarships
BOSTON — A Massachusetts college has begun offering scholarships to students whose parents have cut off financial support because of the childrens’ sexual orientation.
Bridgewater State University says it’s the only program of its kind.
Bob Haynor, Bridgewater’s outreach education coordinator, started raising funds for the scholarship in April 2000 after meeting students who were cut off after they came out. About $8,200 has been donated so far. Haynor hopes the first awards will be given next year.
The college’s Frank-Tremblay Safe Colleges Scholarship is named for lesbian folk singer Lucie Blue Tremblay, who’s raised money for the scholarship, and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay and represents the Bridgewater area.
Frank has not raised money for the scholarship but said he was flattered to be associated with it.
“The potential for rejection or the fact of rejection is a crushing blow,” he said. “Add to that an inability to continue your education… Obviously we wish this situation didn’t happen but it’s important to have this resource available.”
Gay Conviction
CAIRO, Egypt — A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to three years in prison for practicing homosexuality.
The youth, who was found guilty of homosexuality and debauchery, will serve his sentence in a prison for young offenders, a juvenile court ordered.
The youth screamed and sobbed as the verdict was read. The court said he underwent a medical examination that proved he had committed debauchery.
Gasser Abdel-Razek, an Egyptian human rights activist, said the ruling was “alarming (because) I believe it is based on what the judge thinks is socially acceptable or rejected, which ruins the whole concept of the rule of law.”
The teen-ager was arrested May 11 along with 52 other males aboard a Nile riverboat restaurant in Cairo.
The trial of the 52 other defendants, which is being conducted in an emergency state security court, resumed. They have all pleaded not guilty.
The court said it ordered the maximum penalty after the youth confessed to practicing homosexuality and being a member of a gay organization. Defense lawyers earlier disputed confessions of some of the defendants, saying they were made under duress during interrogation.