To the relief of many the Congress in May finally passed the Ryan White CARE Act, a long-overdue measure that will provide $738 million for the care and treatment of people with HIV and AIDS. The bill passed the House by a vote of 402-4. A day later, it passed the Senate unanimously. The President signed the bill into law on May 22nd.
Fortunately, a last-minute amendment to the bill proposed by anti-gay Sen. Jesse Helms to prohibit federal funds from going to gay organizations that "encourage or promote homosexuality" was nullified. Instead, it was replaced by language proposed by Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., that prohibits the use of Ryan White money to directly promote intravenous drug use or sexual activity, either hetero- or homosexual.
Disappointing, however, is a provision of the bill that directs states to institute mandatory HIV testing of newborns if they cannot demonstrate by the year 2000 that they have significantly reduced mother-to-child HIV transmission. Groups ranging from the National Governors Association to the American Academy of Pediatrics to the American Medical Association oppose mandatory testing of newborns. The provision is mitigated somewhat by a provision of the bill promoting voluntary HIV counseling and testing for pregnant women as part of their prenatal care.
President Clinton, when he signed the bill, stated that the reauthorization of Ryan White CARE
Acts, "sends a clear message that this country continues to care about the thousands of our fellow
citizens affected by the AIDS epidemic."
Next Meeting: Endorsement for Congress, State Leg., Surrogate
LID's next meeting will take place on Thursday, June 13th at 7:30pm at the Park Slope Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and 8th Street. It will be perhaps the most important meeting of the political year, since we will make endorsements for State Assembly, State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the Brooklyn Surrogate Court. All members are encouraged to attend and to renew their memberships if they have lapsed. Remember, only current members can vote and there is no proxy voting. It is possible to cast a ballot and then leave the meeting if you do not have time for the entire evening. However, please be aware that if you leave the meeting, there may be run-off ballots later in the evening in which your vote will not be counted.
The Brooklyn Surrogate Court race will be particularly contentious this
year. Vying for one
of the most powerful judicial positions in Brooklyn (among other things the Surrogate Court
adjudicates wills and estates and appoints legal guardians), are Supreme Court Judge Michael
Feinberg, Civil Court Judge Lila Gold, Civil Court Judge Ferne Goldstein, and City
Councilmember Howard Lasher.
Supreme Court finds Amendment 2 Unconstitutional
In a unequivocal and unprecedented 6-3 decision, on May 20th the U.S. Supreme Court found Colorado's Amendment 2 to be unconstitutional. Amendment 2 was a statewide referendum to the State Constitution, which precluded "all legislative, executive, or judicial action at any level of state or local government designed to protect the status of persons based on their 'homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships.' "
Justice Kennedy, in the majority opinion stated that the Colorado law infringed the fundamental right of gays and lesbians to participate in the political process and violates the Equal Protection Clause assured by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He further stated that the amendment "goes well beyond merely depriving them [homosexuals] of special rights. It imposes a broad disability upon those persons alone, forbidding them, but no others, to seek specific legal protection from injuries caused by discrimination in a wide range of public and private transactions. "
He also added that "the Amendment raises the inevitable inference that it is born
of animosity toward the class that it affects. Amendment 2 cannot be said to be directed to an
identifiable legitimate purpose or discrete objective." Joining him in the majority were Justices
Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, Ginsberg and Breyer. Opposing the decision were Justices Rehnquist,
Scalia and Thomas.
NYS Assembly Passes Non-Discrimination Bill
The state lesbian & gay non-discrimination bill recently passed the New York State Assembly. The bill would add sexual orientation as a category to the existing civil rights protections against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.
A.3801 passed the Assembly May 5th, but by its lowest margin ever. All Brooklyn
Assemblymembers voted yes except the following:
Peter Abbate voted no;
Joe Lentol voted no;
Dov Hikind was absent; and
Jules Polenetsky absent (Polenetsky was a yes vote last year.)
New LID Board Member Nominated
At the most recent LID board meeting, Melissa Cook was nominated to assume an at-large
position on the board. Melissa is a resident of Prospect Heights and works for
Assemblymember Frank Barbero. Her nomination will be voted on at the next LID general
meeting on June 13th.
LID's Lisa King Appointed to CB6
LID is happy to announce that board member Lisa King has been appointed to Community
Board 6 by Borough President Howard Golden. Lisa was appointed at the recommendation of
City Councilmember Steve DiBrienza. An employee of the State Division of Housing and
Community Renewal, Lisa joins LID board member Peter Fleming as the second openly
gay/lesbian member of Community Board 6.
LID's "Lunch With Lambda" a Smashing Success
LID's annual event, held Saturday, April 27 at the Montauk Club was a smashing success. Honorees were Debra Silber, Brooklyn Touch AIDS Dinner, Cathy Cohen and Dick Dadey.
Elected officials who attended or supported the event with an ad in our journal included: Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messenger; Congressmembers Jerrold Nadler, Major Owens, Ed Towns, and Nydia Velazquez; State Senators Martin Connor, Marty Markowitz, Velmanette Montgomery, and Ada Smith; State Assemblymembers Jim Brennan, Eileen Dugan, Dan Feldman, Tony Genovesi, Deborah Glick, Rhoda Jacobs, Clarence Norman and Felix Ortiz; City Councilmembers Sal Albanese, Stephen DiBrienza, Tom Duane, Ken Fisher and Joan Griffin McCabe, Judges Michael Feinberg, Bernard Fuchs and Lila Gold; District Leaders Lew Fidler, Jake Gold, Lori Knipel, Joan Millman, Ralph Perfetto, Earl Johnson, Freddie Hamilton and Steve Cohn; Community School Board members Betty Feibusch, Jill Harris, Chris Owens, and Albert Wiltshire. We apologize if we have missed anyone.
Congratulations to Lunch Chair Peter Fleming and all those who helped make this one of our most successful lunches.
LID encourages you to patronize the following businesses that advertised in the "Lunch With
Lambda" journal in April:
LID apologizes for omitting the name of State Senator Marty Markowitz from the list of those
Brooklyn State Senators who recently voted against lifting the ban on military recruitment on
State of New York (SUNY) campuses. Senator Markowitz has once again demonstrated his
strong historical support for the lesbian and gay community.
School Board Election Update
In District 15, the district where Jill Harris ran for re-election to the School Board as part of the Good Schools Coalition, under 6,000 votes were cast in the May 7th School Board race. That is down from 18,000 3 years ago and even a decline from six years ago.
The good news is that approximately 1,800 of those votes came from the three heart-of-the-slope polling places: Camp Friendship, PS 321, and John Jay High School. In addition, the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that gay men and lesbians VOTED. The vote in Sunset Park was very low, perhaps as little as 750 votes, enough to elect only one board member. The vote totals in the Cobble Hill schools were expected to be strong and very high.
Campaigning was fierce until the last moment. Unfortunately, it became rather ill mannered in district 15. Campaigning at Roman Catholic churches on the Sunday before the election, Windsor Terrace candidate Robert Ray's brother reportedly told worshipers, "the School Board is controlled by six lesbians. Vote for my brother, he is not." (Obviously he failed to see the humor in that statement.) Incumbent school board member Robert Bell reportedly told worshipers not to vote for another candidate, Mark Peters, because "he's affiliated with the homosexual slate." (Peters ran on the Good Schools Coalition slate.)
Just days before the
election, a Robert Ray volunteer literally threw Jill Harris' literature in the face of an LID
volunteer who was leafletting at a Windsor Terrace subway station. One wonders if these people
have children and, if so, what kind of example they set by their gay-baiting and banshee-like
demonstrations.
LID Visible at National L&G Democrat Conference
Lambda was very involved at a recent conference of lesbian and gay Democrats and Democratic clubs held in Philadelphia on May 4th-5th. The two-day conference, "Win With Pride in '96," was designed to bring together lesbian and gay clubs across the nation and featured a host of workshop-style discussions on issues ranging from planning political campaigns, writing club by-laws, using the internet to develop clubs, to improving club membership and fundraising. Plenary sessions were held to discuss increasing diversity and gender parity within club membership/ leadership as well as 3 sessions on using the media to develop local clubs. The idea for the conference was conceived at a February meeting of lesbian and gay Democrats hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
At the conclusion of the conference, the group continued its February efforts to eventually form a national federation of lesbian and gay Democratic clubs by voting to create 2 interim co-chairs to facilitate relations between the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton/Gore Campaign and local lesbian and gay clubs. Three representatives from each DNC region will be chosen to serve on a national ad-hoc board. The federation will meet again at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
LID First Vice President, Rodrick Dial, served on the Programming Committee for the
conference, while Board Members Alan Fleishman, Kay Mackey, Derek Mapp, and David
Shanton served as workshop presenters.
NY Becomes 34th State to Consider Anti-Marriage Bill
It was bound to happen. The State Legislature's two biggest homophobes have introduced an anti-marriage bill. The battle has been joined in NY. Sen. Maltese and Assemblymember Seminerio have introduced bills (S.7345) to ban same-sex marriage in New York. These bills say: "A MARRIAGE IS ABSOLUTELY VOID IF CONTRACTED BY TWO PERSONS OF THE SAME SEX, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SUCH MARRIAGE IS RECOGNIZED BY ANOTHER JURISDICTION."
Please see the attached Pride Agenda Action Alert and let your Senator and Assemblymember
know that you oppose such legislation. Also, remember that the LID endorsement meeting on
Thursday, June 13th will be an opportunity for LID to question the State legislators who are
ALL running for re-election about this issue.
New York Part of Nationwide Anti-Marriage Efforts
New York is only one state among many to join the anti-lesbian and gay marriage initiative. Since May of 1993, when a Hawaii court issued a ruling that may pave the way for lesbian and gay marriage in that state, nine state legislatures have passed anti same-sex marriage bills: Utah, South Dakota, Hawaii, Idaho, Georgia, Kansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alaska.
Most of the recent legislation is directed at recognizing (or not) marriages entered into in other states. However, a number of states already have anti same-sex marriage laws that focus on marriage as it is conducted in the state. These may be statutes expressly limiting marriage to one man and one woman, and/or statutes explicitly forbidding same-sex marriage: Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia.
Currently, anti same-sex marriage bills are pending in a number of states:
In early May, Republicans in Congress introduced H.R. 3396, also called the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and would deny federal pension, health and other benefits to same-sex couples.
Despite the fact that same- sex unions are not yet legal any state, the bill also absolves any state from recognizing a same-sex marriage performed in any other. Among other thing, it creates a situation many believe violates the constitutional guarantee that each state give ``full faith and credit'' to the laws of other states.
To the dismay of many lesbian and gay Democrats, the President entered the fray in late May by stating he would sign the bill if it comes to him in its present form. LID urges you to write and call your Congressional representatives to oppose this divisive and useless legislation. Please plan to attend our June 13th Endorsement meeting to demand to know where our Brooklyn Congressional delegation stands on this Act.
Ostensibly, DOMA was crafted as a response to an as yet undecided case before the Hawaii Supreme Court that may allow same-sex marriages in that state in the future. Experts do not expect a Hawaii decision for at least two years, however. More likely it is a device of religious, political extremists to alienate traditionally Democratic lesbian and gay voters in a Presidential election year.
In a May 13th press conference, White House spokesperson, Mike McCurry further angered opponents of the bill when he explained the President's opposition to same-sex marriage saying Clinton "believes this is a time when we need to do things to strengthen the American family," clearly implying that same-sex marriage would be an assault on the family. In the same press conference, McCurry intimated that the President's opposition goes beyond just the institution of marriage and into other areas such as spousal benefits and domestic partnership for Federal workers. Instead, according to McCurry, the President believes those questions are best left to state and local governments.
In the weeks since, Clinton himself said several things about DOMA. On May 23rd he said, "As I understand it, what the bill does is to state that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman, that, among other things, is used to bring children into the world, but the legal effect of the bill is to make it clear that states can deny recognition of gay marriages that occurred in other states. And if that's all it does, then I will sign it."
President Clinton went on to say, "I do not favor discrimination against people because they're homosexual....look at my record. Name me another President who has been so pilloried for standing up for the fact the we shouldn't discriminate against any group of Americans, including gay Americans, who are willing to work hard, pay their taxes, obey the law and be good citizens." He called the Republican-authored bill "one more attempt to divert the American people from the urgent need to confront our challenges together."
The Defense of Marriage Act has already engendered national debate among many of the president's most prominent gay supporters. David Mixner, a California fund raiser and old friend, called the President's decision ``nauseating and appalling,'' and an ``act of political cowardice.'' Mixner also claims that Clinton is using this issue as ``this year's Sister Souljah.''
``They are beating up and taking away our rights in order to prove that they are not beholden to
the gay and lesbian vote,'' Mixner said. ``They are participating in a hate-filled and divisive bill
for short-term political comfort.'' He added: ``Both Harry Truman and JFK were reluctantly
drawn into the civil rights battle, but when they had to choose between political expediency and
the moral high ground, both chose the moral high ground. Regrettably, this president has not.''
HRC Offers Talking Points on "Defense of Marriage Act"
Below are listed several talking points offered by the Human Rights Campaign in a recent press release regarding the proposed Federal Defense of Marriage Act.
1. Religious political extremists have orchestrated the introduction of anti-gay marriage bills...to score political points through gratuitous gay-bashing. DOMA, the "Defense of Marriage Act" is now before the U.S. Congress, and attempts to give states the authority to reject the legality of same-sex marriages performed in any other state.
2. Marriage between two individuals of the same sex is not currently legal anywhere in the United States. The Hawaii Supreme Court will probably not consider this issue in that state until 1997, with a final decision coming as late as 1998. Thirty-three legislatures have considered this issue. Seventeen of those states decided against moving forward with legislation.
3. DOMA is another example of the general, pervasive discrimination gay men and lesbians face in society. Not only can we not marry each other anywhere in this country, we can be fired from our jobs simply for being lesbian or gay. No federal law protects people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
4. DOMA is premature & purely political: it counteracts a Hawaii decision that is years away.
5. Congress has bigger, more important problems that it should be concerned with. Attempting to legislate social issues is mean-spirited and inappropriate.
6. The so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" is nothing more than gratuitous gay-bashing. It does
not provide any positive defensive measures for marriage or the family.
Recent Newsweek Poll on Same Sex Marriage
A recent Newsweek poll of likely voters says that 58 percent oppose legally-sanctioned gay marriages, although 84 percent support equal rights for gays in jobs and 80 percent in housing. Forty-five percent said they were less likely to support a political candidate who favors gay rights, although a quarter said such a stand would make them more supportive. The poll also shows that Clinton holds a 17-percentage-point lead against prospective Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole.
Most of the 779 polled on May 22-23 said the main reason they opposed same-sex marriages was because it would violate their religious beliefs. If the election were held today, the poll said 52 percent of registered voters would support Clinton, 35 percent Dole and 6 percent a third party candidate.