Pa. Court Strikes
Down Partner Laws
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled that the City of Philadelphia's Life Partnership ordinance provisions are invalid, reports the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in Philadelphia.
The city's laws provided health benefits for the registered life partners of city workers, non-discrimination protections, and an exemption from the city's real estate transfer tax equivalent to other relationship exemptions. The Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the attorneys for the amici curiae, filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting partnerships.
The ordinance was adopted May 7, 1998. The challenge was mounted by individuals.
See www.center4civilrights.org
Harvard Ends Ban
on Military Recruiters
The Boston Globe reports that Harvard Law School has lifted its longstanding ban on military recruiting on its campus, saying that it had "no reasonable alternative" in the face of the Department of Defense's stepped-up enforcement of a six-year-old law.
The ban, a protest of the military's policy against gays serving openly in the armed forces, risked costing Harvard University an annual $328 million in federal funding, according to law school Dean Robert C. Clark.
Clark said the greater good of the university would have to override the law school's stance against discrimination and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Other law schools are expected to also cave in.
The 1996 Solomon Amendment made federal research funding to colleges and universities contingent on those institutions allowing military recruiters to visit, but Harvard didn't feel its effect until this summer.
Hospital Accused of Negligence in Death
The Los Angeles Times reports that a man stabbed outside a Riverside, Calif., gay bar in an alleged hate crime may have bled to death
because of hospital error. A nurse accidentally gave Jeffery Owens 100,000 units of an anticoagulant drug—100 times the recommended dose—according to a report by the Riverside County coroner's office. Prosecutors said the error does not lessen the culpability of five alleged gang members charged with Owens' murder, the paper said.
Prison Kissing OK?
AFP news agency reports that gay inmates may exchange hugs and kisses with their partners in prison visiting rooms, the three-member Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
The court reinstated a lawsuit challenging an Arizona state rule prohibiting same-sex physical contact between gay inmates and their partners, AFP said.
Top Cop Candidate Gay
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a possible candidate for LAPD's top job is gay. David J. Kalish, 49, describes himself as one of those lucky few who has succeeded in a career he loves, while enjoying an enviably stable and happy personal life, the paper said. He is in a long-term relationship with a Thai man, and he dotes on his 3 1/2-year-old son, born to a Latina lesbian friend through artificial insemination. Kalish, a police officer, wants to be the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. The decision will be made by the mayor, James Hahn, probably in late September, the Chronicle reported.
