Arson investigators are looking into a "suspicious" fire that severely damaged a Ventura, Calif., gay bar, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The fire began at Rumors nightclub at about 4:30 am on a Friday late last month. It quickly spread, damaging the roof, floor and bar. The damage is estimated at more than $40,000.
Bar owner James Dean questioned whether the fire was an anti-gay attack, and he told the Times it isn't uncommon for people to drive by and yell anti-gay slurs or throw trash or eggs at the club's door.
A witness told authorities that he saw a man throwing liquid at the club's front door just before the fire began. The man then ran off, the witness said.
The bar hopes to reopen by Cinco de Mayo.
Bush keeps bias ban for clearances
The Bush Administration will keep an Executive Order issued by President Clinton that prohibits using sexual orientation as a factor in issuing security clearances, the Washington Times reports.
The order applies to all military personnel, and government employees and federal contractors. It reads, "sexual orientation, in and of itself, may not be used as a disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for security clearance."
The first Bush Administration did use sexual orientation to deny security clearances.
Lutheran church ordains lesbian
A Lutheran church in St. Paul, Minn., last week bucked the policies of its national denomination by ordaining a non-celibate open lesbian.
Anita Hill was ordained on Saturday, April 28, at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, just down the street from her home parish, St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church. Four Lutheran bishops helped ordain Hill, in violation of current Evangelical Lutheran Church in America policy, which prohibits the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians. Those who participated will face discipline from church leaders.
Hill has served as a staff member and pastoral minister at her parish for 18 years. In December, her congregation voted unanimously to call and ordain her.
ELCA is based in Chicago, and about a dozen members of the national staff attended the service in St. Paul.
An estimated 1,000 people attended Saturday's service, more than 200 of them clergy.
SF to finances workers' sex changes
With a vote last week, San Francisco became the first city in the country to pay for sex changes for municipal employees, Reuters reports. The city's Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve the proposal, which lets workers claim up to $50,000 of the cost of a sex change, including psychotherapy, hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
NY court hears suit against univ.
The first lawsuit in the country challenging a university's spouses-only housing policies is currently before New York's high court, the American Civil Liberties Union reports. The ACLU lawsuit seeks to strike down a Yeshiva University policy that offers subsidized housing only for graduate students and their spouses.
"Under policies like Yeshiva's, 100 percent of straight couples have access to this housing, but zero percent of gay couples do," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project. "Under any reasonable definition, that's discrimination."
Gfn.com names top gay execs, cos.
The Gay Financial Network named American Express its Company of the Year in announcing its annual list of the 25 most powerful gay and lesbian executives and the 50 most powerful Fortune 500-ranked, gay-friendly publicly traded companies.
Gay and lesbian executives nominated for and named to the 2001 gfn.com 25, for the second year in a row, include: David Bohnett of the David Bohnett Foundation; Wesley Combs and Robert Witeck of Witeck-Combs Communications; Tim Gill of the Tim Gill Foundation; Fred Hochberg, formerly of the Small Business Administration; Kathy Levinson, formerly of E*Trade; Cynthia Martin, formerly of Eastman Kodak; and Robert Page, of Replacements Ltd.
Aside from American Express, the companies making the top 50 included: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc., FleetBoston Financial Corp., Bank of America Corp., Merrill Lynch & Co., Charles Schwab Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Chubb Corp., Allstate Corp., Honeywell International and Fannie Mae.
For the lists, visit www.gfn.com/gfn/gfn25.phtml and www.gfn.com/gfn/gfn50.phtml.
African leaders pledge AIDS funds
Fifty heads of state in Africa have vowed to reserve at least 15% of their annual budget for healthcare and lift tariff barriers on AIDS-related programs, AFP reports.
The action came at the end of a two-day HIV/AIDS summit, the largest in Africa's history.
"We consider AIDS as a state of emergency in the continent. To this end, all tariff and economic barriers to access to funding of AIDS-related activities should be lifted," the statement issued in Nigeria's capital said. "We also resolve to take immediate action to use tax exemption and other incentives to reduce the prices of drugs and all other inputs in healthcare services," it continued.
Labor union cuts ties with Scouts
The Communication Workers of America ( CWA ) , one of the largest labor unions in America, has voted to cut ties with the Boy Scouts because of the group's ban on gays, Planetout.com reports.
CWA's Executive Board ended its relationship with the Scouts "until such time as its leaders reverse their policy of excluding gays from membership or volunteer activities in scouting." The union goes on to say that the Scouts' gay ban is "an appalling step backward."
CWA has 780,000 members from companies such as AT&T, Lucent, NBC and The New York Times.
Gay man held in fatal fire in Oregon
A 28-year-old gay man is being held without bail in Oregon for allegedly starting a fatal fire after an argument with his lover, KPTV in Portland reports.
Alex Joe has been charged with murder in the Nov. 19, 1999, blaze that left a friend dead. Joe, who was intoxicated at the time of the fire, was allegedly upset with his lover for not disclosing his HIV status, and he decided to burn down the house they shared. Instead the fire killed Kenneth Avery Sharp, 44, a mutual friend who was visiting. Sharp died of smoke inhalation, authorities said.
He eluded police for nearly a year, and was apprehended after reporting to authorities that he was the victim of domestic violence in Seattle. Police there discovered his outstanding warrant.
