The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is asking the Kansas Court of Appeals to follow the
intent of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated anti-gay sodomy laws nationwide.
Matthew Limon was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
ACLU lawyers argue that the state's 'Romeo and Juliet' law that excludes near-aged teens
from severe punishment should have covered Limon's consensual gay sex. The exclusion,
which applies only to heterosexual teens, would have reduced Limon's sentence to less than
two years. Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline argues that the sentence should stick.
The U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association unanimously rejected the application to establish
a gay alumni chapter, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military.
USNA Out applied last month to create a chapter for gay alums. The Board of Trustees said in
a statement that alumni chapters must be based on geography, not special interests. The
association's chapter startup guidelines confirm the statement, though the gay group says a
recreational vehicle special interest alumni group was allowed to form.
The California Domestic Partner Rights & Responsibilities Act of 2003 will stay in tact, at least
until next November, according to Equality for California Families. A group of lobbyists and
politicians, including state Sen. Pete Knight, apparently failed to garner enough signatures to
get a repeal measure on the March ballot. If enough signatures are collected, the measure
could appear on the November 2004 ballot. Knight initiated the successful ban of gay
marriages in California through a ballot initiative.
American officials say they will not support a plan by the International Conference of the Red
Cross to reduce AIDS transmission, reports AFP. The Red Cross and Red Crescent revealed a
prevention plan including prisoner education, needle exchange, and condom distribution. A U.S.
official told AFP that needle exchange leads to increased drug use.
Two lesbians in Nebraska are in a first-of-its-kind bitter custody battle over their 7-year-old
son, reports the Omaha World Herald. Serenna Russell and Joan Bridgens adopted their son in
1996 in Pennsylvania since Nebraska does not allow same-sex parent adoptions. The custody
case now in court is a Nebraska first. A state judge initially ruled that the Pennsylvania
adoption was not valid and threw out Russell's petition for custody. The Nebraska Supreme
Court intervened and gave Russell the opportunity to fight for custody.
Meanwhile, a California lesbian couple battles over their seven-year-old fraternal twin sons,
reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The twist in this story is that both women are biologically
connected to the children. One woman provided the fertilized eggs and the other woman
carried the children. California law, until now, has sided with the birth mother.
The University of South Carolina (USC) finally complied with a 10-year-old request to add
sexual orientation to the school's nondiscrimination policy, reports the Free Times. The faculty
senate approved a resolution in 1993 asking then-USC president John Palms to implement the
policy change. In December 2001, the faculty senate again asked for the change—prompting
the introduction of a state bill that would ban state institutions from protecting gays and
lesbians. That bill failed. Last month, the university quietly instituted the policy change.
Last week's Federal Register officially revealed that three researchers associated with a
safe-sex study admitted to fabricating interviews, reports UPI. Three researchers at the
University of Maryland at Baltimore made up data about supposed interviews. The finished
report, published in the January 2003 journal Pediatrics, concluded that teens who attended
safe-sex educational sessions with their parents were less likely to engage in unsafe sexual
practices than were teens who attended sessions without their parents. The National
Institutes of Health says the fabrication was discovered two years ago and all of the
interviews from the three researchers in question were removed before the data were
published.
A new book about the National Football League (NFL) delves into the gay sex lives of NFL
players, reports the Nashville City Paper. New York Times sports reporter Mike Freeman
touches on the standard football topics, but also talks to a current NFL player who admits to
being gay and says he's dated other NFL players. The player estimates that at least 10 percent
of the NFL is gay.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin replaced his entire advisory committee on gay and lesbian
issues last week, one month after all the committee's previous members quit in protest over his
endorsement of the Republican candidate for governor, reports Associated Press.
The recent divorce granted in Woodbury County, Iowa, to two women in a case where the
couple received a civil union in Vermont is unlikely to be a landmark decision, a civil-rights lawyer told the Sioux City Journal.
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