I • , 1 1 + • .• 1 1 iffff01171E1 LesBiGay Wisconsin's Community Newspaper. Founded in 1984 May 28, 1998 • Vol. XV, Issue XI • $2.95 Outside of Wisconsin Ef I! tq III fyf l: Inside: The History of the Male Nude Plus: An Exclusive Report from SAGE's National Aging Conference • • ARCW • • • BECAUSE • Legal • • Assistance • • • people • Program • • • • Lestal services for • with • The AIDS all people living • • • • Resource Center with HIV and AIDS • HIVE • of Wisconsin in Wisconsin: • • • • is pleased • Discrimination • • • • to announce the • Breach of confidentiality • AIDS • • Civil rights • • statewide expansion • Insurance advocacy • • • • of its • Disability benefits • deserve • • Public entitlements • Legal Assistance • Estate planning • • • • Program ♦ Landlord/tenant disputes • • ♦ Debtor/creditor issues • a shim • • • and introduces • Bankruptcy • • Attorney ♦ Consumer protection • • •• •• • • ♦ Municipal violations • legal • CHRISTOPHER • • • • • • ♦ Child & family issues • • • • KRIMMER • • • Non-traditional ••• advocate • family protection • as its new director. •• • •• ARCW attorneys are available by appointment to meet with individuals with HIV and AIDS at ARCW offices in Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Kenosha, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Rhinelander, Superior and Wausau. ARCW AIDS RESOURCE CENTER OF WISCONSIN 8001591272 • 44-273-2729 IN STEP into new areas, like allowing domestic partners of police and other uniformed 7,500 March at Sweeping NY City Partners employees to be eligible for death benefits if the employee is killed in the line of Boston Gay/Straight duty. Ordinance Proposed A domestic partner would also have the right to be buried with a partner in the Pride Celebration New York (AP) — In what is touted The proposal is likely to receive quick city-owned Canarsie cemetery, a right Boston, MA (AP) — The 140 pub- as an important advance in gay and les- passage in the Democratic City Council, now reserved for spouses. Other changes licly funded Gay/Straight Alliances in bian rights, New York City plans to where it has the support of Speaker Peter involve rights to parking permits and dis- Massachusetts high schools have given ensure that unmarried couples are treated F. Vallone. closure statements filed by city employees. new life to gay students who are lonely, the same as married ones on everything Since the settlement of a lawsuit in "The thing that's really important in terrified of being found out, and even from housing to parking permits to burial 1993, the city has provided health and this law is it does as much as the city can suicidal, advocates said. rights. dental benefits to the domestic partners of do to recognize domestic partner relation- Last week, a handful of student lead- The legislation "moves closer to the city workers. Under the proposed legisla- ships. That's not what other cities have ers, some of them victims of gay-bash- ideal of human rights, and treating every- tion, labor negotiations would be required done," said Matt Foreman, executive ing who had considered suicide, one fairly," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, director of Empire State Pride Agenda, a pumped the already soaring spirits of a Republican whose office drafted the gay and lesbian advocacy group that the gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, proposal. worked on the bill. parents, and teachers at the fourth "I believe New York is setting the pace Giuliani fulfilled a campaign pledge in annual Gay & Straight Youth Pride Day for the rest of the country," he said. proposing the bill, but the legislation is in Boston. Organizers had expected For years, the city has been recognized likely to hurt him among conservatives. about 2,000 to turn out, but Boston for accommodating policies toward gay The mayor has been trying to raise his Police estimated the crowd at 7,500. and lesbian couples. A series of directives, national profile in recent months, and "I'd sit at a lunch table and the girls at least one of which dates to 1989, aides have said he could be a candidate for would talk about boys, but I couldn't extended to domestic partners the rights national office. talk about girls," said Emily Delisle, 16, once reserved for spouses and family The mayor "has done a swell job a sophomore at Bromfield High School members, such as visitation in city jails cleaning up the streets, but the real prob- in Harvard. Recalling that she wrote in and hospitals, and succession for city- lem is in the culture," said Robert H. her diary about committing suicide, supervised housing. Knight of the Family Research Council, Delisle came out to her parents three Giuliani's legislation, proposed Mon- which lobbies on conservative causes. "He years ago and to her friends last June. "I day and written in cooperation with advo- is marginalizing himself, and will not be felt isolated. I was so afraid to come out. cates for gay and lesbian rights, would taken seriously as a national figure by What if my friends didn't like me? What make those policies permanent by writing introducing radical proposals like this." if they didn't talk to me anymore?" them into law. It would apply The celebration was tinged with to same-gender and opposite-gender New York City Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani tension as the Governor's Commission domestic partnerships registered with the on Gay and Lesbian Youth, which City Clerk. to extend to employees' partners the same sponsored the Youth Pride march There are about 8,700 registered benefits provided for employees' spouses, announced efforts to have the Senate domestic partners in the city, and at least potentially opening the way for those ben- restore funding recently cut by House 55 percent are heterosexual couples, efits to be expanded. lawmakers. according to the mayor's office. But the legislation also would venture In February, Acting Governor Paul Cellucci called for $1.25 million in state "Safe Schools" money for the alliances, orado of Amendment 2, which would have banned civil rights parent education, and other programs protections based on the sexual orientation. organized by the commission. It was a 'No Special Dollars' Amendment 2 was eventually overturned by the U.S. 25-percent increase over last year. Supreme Court, but the Gill Foundation has quickly become But last month, the House slashed Fundies Flip Out Over Gay/Lesbian Charity's Gifts an important institution in Colorado's philanthropic arena. In the funding to $750,000, which com- five years, Gill has given more than $4 million of his own mission chairman David LaFontaine by Keith Clark money to support a variety of causes, most of them gay and said would not allow the state to give of the In Step Staff lesbian — until now. $2,000 grants to high schools seeking Colorado Springs, CO — The Gill Foundation, a Col- And although Gill is a Denver native, the foundation is to start alliances and parent education orado Springs, gay and lesbian organization founded in 1994 located in Colorado Springs, where Amendment 2 got started groups. With proper funding, he said, by Denver software entrepreneur Tim Gill, pledged $700,000 and where far-right conservatives hold virtual sway. up to 100 more gay/straight groups in 1998 to an array of local nonprofit, nongay groups. Part of Even more to the point, of the 20 groups slated to receive could start up next year. the reasoning behind the gay-oriented charity's decision to some $700,000 from the Gill Foundation this year, more than "We are not forcing anyone to come make a significant number of grants to nongay organizations half are located in Colorado Springs. out of the closet," said LaFontaine in an was to dispel the political stereotype that gays and lesbians are In fact, the Colorado Springs Nonprofit Center, an interview yesterday. "Our focus is to only concerned about specific, narrow issues that impact their umbrella organization that monitors and helps coordinate make entire schools safe for gay and les- community almost exclusively. philanthropic giving in the city, now considers Gill one of the bian students." "People need to understand that we care about the same region's major foundations that "obviously will have some Meanwhile, the ebullient crowd issues as you do," Katherine Pease, executive director of the influence because of their funding." gathered at the steps of the State House foundation told reporters in announcing the charity's broader One of those influences is that to receive a Gill Foundation forced police to quickly close off the grant-giving emphasis. grant, an organization must have a written policy barring dis- section of Beacon Street near Park But far-right fundamentalists in the state aren't happy about crimination in its hiring practices — including of course dis- Street as the youngsters, giddy at being the charity giving money to causes and organizations they con- crimination based on sexual orientation. together, spilled onto the street. sider their own turf, either geographically or culturally. And that, anti-gay activists in the area say, is the "hidden "This shows me we are not alone," So when the Gill Foundation this year gave a small $500 agenda" behind Gill's philanthropy. said Daniel Penland, a 14-year-old fresh- grant to P.M. Wynn to help her "Unity in the Community" "It's obvious the attempt is to buy affirmation and recog- man at Bedford High School, attending program in support of gospel music in the Colorado Springs nition for homosexual behavior," said Will Perkins, head of his first Youth Pride Day. "We can reach area — the birthplace of Amendment 2 — several Christian Colorado for Family Values and the man who helped write out and connect here. It is a neat feeling." groups that had supported her program in the past abruptly Amendment 2. "When you give money and put restrictions Massachusetts is the only state with a dropped out with un-Christian-like haste.