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HOUSTON VOICE • APRIL 28, 2000
NEWS
INSIDE
NEWS
Thousands expected to march on National Mall
Around Ihe South 6
Judge permits adoption challenge in Flo 6
Fired lesbian worker sues Baptist home 6
Around the Notion 7
NGLTF tops newly out NOW official 7
Military not 'testing ground' for gays,
official soys 7
Health News 18
Tuberculosis outbreak among transgendered 18
Survey: Depression top gay health concern . 18
VOICES 8, ECHOES
Editorial: Gays may ruin Traditional marriage' .8
Kubiok: Lifestyles of the vain, self-absorbed .9
OUT ON THE BAYOU
Stand-up Girl Sandra Bernhard comes calling 15
GLAMA-rous! The goy Grammys 15
On Stage: Melody on o lost path 16
Out in Print: Memoirs of o hustler 20
Bestsellers 20
Ealing Oul: Daring dishes stand out 21
Community Calendar 22
Occasions 26
My Stars! 27
CLASSIFIEDS 24
Issue 1018
l,MINM,l
voice
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WASHINGTON (AP)—There's nothing
better than a march on the National Mall to
build on the victory that gays and lesbians just
won in Vermont, Diane Hardy-Garcia says.
That's because every step forward gays
and lesbians make—like the brand-new
Vermont civil unions law—there is a step
back, like the slaying of Pfc. Barry Winchell
at Fort Campbell, Ky., after rumors surfaced that he was gay, said Hardy-Garcia,
executive director of Sunday's Millennium
March on Washington and the Lesbian Gay
Rights Lobby of Texas.
Organizers are expecting 300,000 people
at the fourth rally for gay, lesbian and bisexual right on the Mall in the last 21 years.
They have been planning for years, hoping
the rally will mobilize supporters into an
important voting bloc this presidential election year.
But it is not without its critics. .And the
most vocal ones are other gay and lesbian
rights groups who claim the event has little
grassroots support.
"There's many things to celebrate and a
lot of work to yet to do," Hardy-Garcia
said. "One of the reasons we do marches on
Washington is something that is important
to the gay community—the real need to
bring more people into this movement."
To do that, they're staging a concert fea
turing Garth Brooks and Melissa Etheridge,
rallying between the Washington
Monument and the Capitol and broadcasting the events over the Internet.
Also scheduled to attend are the parents
of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay
University of Wyoming student who died in
October 1998 after being beaten into a coma
and tied to a fence, and Winchell's mother,
Patricia Kutteles of Kansas City, Mo.
Critics praise the intentions of the event
but question how it has been organized.
William Dobbs, member of a committee of
activists formed to oppose the march, says
decisions about the event were made by
people in Washington who failed to garner
enough support on the local level and from
minority groups.
"Celebrities draw attention but in the end
it's supposed to be a civil rights march,"
Dobbs said. "It shouldn't be just a feel-good
event. But those past marches came about
when there was a real community consensus to march on the capital and push the
government changes."
New York City Councilwoman Christine
Quinn, whose Manhattan district is home to a
big portion of the city's gay and lesbian population, urged her constituents to stay away to
concentrate on efforts closer to home instead.
The National Association of Black and White
Texas activist and Millennium March organizer
Dianne Hardy-Garcia said despite criticism,
Sunday's event will 'help celebrate gay
victories' like the civil unions bill in Vermont.
Men Together rescheduled a board meeting
originally set for this weekend in Washington
to show its opposition to the march.
March supporters dismiss the criticism.
"There have been disagreements, with
every social justice movement and past
marches," said David Smith, spokesman
for Human Rights Campaign. "The controversy right now is not as important as the
fact that we are all coming together to work
for the common goal."
Scouts' gay ban argued before high court
WASHINGTON (AP)—
Walking with his lawyer and
parents, James Dale ignored the
anti-gay activists who followed
him across the Supreme Court's
broad marble plaza.
"Save yourself from this
awful, horrible lifestyle!" yelled
Philip Benham of Dallas, president of the anti-abortion group
Operation Rescue. "Mr. Dale,
Jesus will set you free!"
Daniel Martino of
Washington stood with a cross
and a large sign declaring, "A
homosexual Boy Scout leader is
like asking a fox to guard the
chickens."
Dale has seen and heard such
statements before and says they
do not affect him.
"The only person I am is me,
and I've always been true to
myself, and I think that's the
most important thing," he said,
addressing a mob of reporters
and curious tourists after the
court heard arguments in his
case against the Boy Scouts of
America.
Expelled as a scouting supervisor in 1990 when the Boy
Scouts learned he was gay, the
Eagle Scout two years later
launched a legal challenge to
the scout's claim that gay people do not meet the organiza
tion's standard of "morally
straight."
Without saying how they will
ultimately vote, several justices
voiced skepticism about how far
the court could go to force open
admissions upon private organizations.
"In your view, a Catholic
organization has to admit
Jews'' and "a Jewish organization has to admit Catholics,"
Justice Stephen G. Breyer told
Evan Wolfson, Dale's lawyer.
Founded in 1910, the Scouts
have an oath and law that long
have required members to
promise to be "clean" and
"morally straight." But no written rule specifically addresses
homosexuality.
Wolfson said the Scouts are
not primarily an "anti-gay
organization" and therefore
Dale's presence did not burden
the group's message.
New Jersey's highest court
ruled that the Boy Scouts' ban
on gay troop leaders violated a
state prohibition on discrimination in public accommodations.
But the Scouts say the state law
violates the organization's
rights of free speech and free
association under the
Constitution's First
Amendment.
Former Eagle Scout James Dale (center) talks to the press at the Supreme
Court in Washington Wednesday after Supreme Court justices joined in a
spirited debate over whether Boy Scouts can bar gays from serving as
troop leaders.
Justice John Paul Stevens
asked George Davidson, the
Scouts' lawyer, whether gays
could be excluded if they did
not publicly declare their sexual orientation, but it was discovered against their wishes.
Yes, said Davidson, arguing
that the organization had a
right "to choose the moral
leaders for the children in
the program."
Dale, 29, lives in New York
City and is advertising director
for a magazine for people who
are HIV-positive.
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