ARK. JUDGE STRIKES DOWN SODOMY BAN
An Arkansas circuit court judge last week ruled that the state's ban on consensual sex between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund reports.
In squashing the ban, Pulaski County Circuit Judge David Bogart agreed with seven gay and lesbian plaintiffs who challenged the law, claiming it violates the right to equal protection clause of the Arkansas Constitution.
Bogart's reading says, in part, "It is consistent with this State's Constitution to hold that an adult's right to engage in consensual and noncommercial sexual activities in the privacy of that adult's home is a matter of intimate personal concern which is at the heart of the right to privacy in Arkansas."
Four states—Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri—have sodomy laws that apply exclusively to gays and lesbians. Thirteen states have sodomy laws that cover both heterosexual and homosexual activity.
Kentucky court upholds local bias ban
A federal court in Kentucky last week upheld a local ordinance that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, the ACLU of Kentucky reports.
The law had been challenged by Dr. J. Barrett Hyman, a Louisville doctor who claimed the ban violated his religious liberties and free speech rights. He sued the city of Louisville and Jefferson County two years ago, and he has vowed to appeal last week's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
He was represented by Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice.
Wolfson leaves Lambda
Attorney Evan Wolfson will leave Lambda Legal Defense at the end of April, the organization reports.
Wolfson has been with Lambda for 12 years, serving as director of the Marriage Project and litigating a range of civil-rights cases. In June 2000, the National Law Journal honored Wolfson by naming him one of the 100 most influential attorneys in America.
"I am proud to have had the honor of working for an organization as visionary and solid as Lambda. I will continue to be a partner of this extraordinary, dedicated group as we move forward," Wolfson said, adding, "I am excited that now I will have the chance to figure out how best to build on the work we have done, win the freedom to marry, and enlarge possibilities for gay and non-gay people alike."
Wolfson has received a planning grant from the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr., Fund, and will continue work on the freedom to marry movement.
In other Lambda staffing changes, Michael Adams has been named deputy legal director.
Bush to issue new military rules on gay harassment
In response to an SLDN report on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Bush administration has vowed to issue new anti-gay harassment rules for the military, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
SLDN, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, issued the report detailing the prevalence of anti-gay harassment and violence.
Subsequently, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will issue the directive. "In the meantime," Quigley said, "there should be no doubt in any servicemember's mind that their service does not tolerate harassment."
In other SLDN news, the organization has received $30,000 in grants from the Paul Rapoport Foundation.
"We are honored to have the Paul Rapoport Foundation as a partner in fighting anti-gay harassment, witch hunts and discharge," said SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn.
The grants will help fund SLDN's work through 2002.
Supporters of military gay ban change their minds
Several vocal supporters of the military's ban on openly gay soldiers have changed or softened their positions, the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military reports.
The British military's successful lifting of its gay ban has prompted many to reconsider, while others have become disillusioned with the way Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been carried out, the Center said.
Among those reported to have had a change of heart is Lawrence Korb, President Reagan's assistant secretary of defense. Korb helped launch the military policy that required gays to be discharged, but by 1994 he had dropped his support for the ban. And Charles Moskos, a military sociologist who helped draft DADT, has publicly derided the "insidious" effects of the policy.
For more information, visit www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu .
