TX Panel OK's Sodomy repeal
A Texas House committee has approved a measure that would repeal the state's same-sex sodomy law. The Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence passed, 7-2, House Bill 687, sponsored by Rep. Debra Danburg ( D-Houston ) . Under current law, sodomy between people of the same sex is a class C misdemeanor. Sodomy between people of the opposite sex has been legal in Texas since 1973.
The bill would not only repeal the sodomy law, it would end all of the legal challenges to it that have come before state courts over the years. The measurel now goes to the full House for a vote.
Meanwhile, two Houston men who were convicted under Texas' Homosexual Conduct law are asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review their case, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund reports.
The men were arrested in 1998 after police responding to a false report of an armed intruder entered one man's apartment and found the two having sex. They were held for over 24 hours, and a county criminal court convicted them of a Class C misdemeanor, which carries up to a $500 fine. Lambda appealed on their behalf.
An appeals court ruled, 7-2, in March to uphold the law. Texas is one of only three states, along with Kansas and Oklahoma, that only prohibit consensual sex between same-sex partners.
Reports: Lesbians at risk for disease
Representatives of the Mary-Helen Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer participated in a recent briefing on the U.S. Surgeon General's new report on women and smoking, the group reports.
During the briefing, Mautner Project Health Education Director, Cheryl Fields, MPH, questioned the report's editor about the lack of attention paid to lesbians and bisexual women.
"I am thrilled that this document focuses on women and smoking," said Fields, "However, I am sad and frustrated that from what I've seen in the advance materials there is no mention of lesbians and women who partner with women. There is an increasing amount of data coming out ...including findings from the Women's Health Initiative, which is population based...that shows that lesbians smoke more than heterosexual women. There is also data to show that lesbians may be 2-3 times more likely to develop certain kinds of cancer than heterosexual women. My appeal to you is that as you begin to develop educational campaigns, and begin advocacy work, that you include this population."
Meanwhile, a recent study indicates that lesbians are more likely to be overweight, to drink and to smoke than heterosexual women, HealthScout.Com reports. "There tends to be a sense that if the healthcare system addresses the needs of women, it will address the needs of lesbians, [ but ] to some extent that's not true," says study co-author Susan Cochran, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
According to the study, about 28% of lesbians are obese, compared with about 19% of a demographically similar group of women in general. About 56% of lesbians are current or former smokers, researchers said, compared with 36% of women in general. And lesbians are slightly more likely to be regular drinkers. Details appear in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
women gay-bashed on Louisiana campus
Four women were attacked on the campus of Lousisiana State University in an apparent hate crime, the StoneWall Society reports. Lacey All, Reagan Ilgenfritz, Crystal Guillory, and Christina LaFleur were attacked as they walked to their car early Easter morning.
Two men began by shouting sexist and anti-gay slurs at the women, and then began hitting, punching and pushing them. Injuries sustained by the women included multiple contusions and bruises, one sprained wrist and cuts. The women got the license plate number of their assailants' car as they drove away, and a police investigation is ongoing.
POZ magazine downsizes
POZ Publishing LLC, publisher of POZ magazine, announced the company is restructuring and regrouping...but not retiring. Effective April 19, the company's staff was cut by one-third. The July and August issues of POZ are set to be published, while the June issue is due out May 7.
POZ will continue with its new programs, jincluding an eight-city tour of seminars and POZ en Espanol.