Migration Category: news-1-5000-national

In response to the brutal murder of Private Barry Winchell last July, the army conducted an investigation of Winchell’s regiment, concluding that “no climate of homophobia existed at the base,” according to the New York Times. Winchell was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat while he was sleeping in his barracks by 19-year-old Private Calvin Glover, who was shouting anti-gay epithets. A report was undertaken when public outcry condemned this hate crime. Pentagon officials have concluded that, while some members of Winchell’s unit “held anti-gay attitudes,” the unit “does not suffer from an unacceptable degree of homophobia.”

Winchell’s mother was angered by the report, suspecting an army cover-up and arguing that officers must be held responsible for contributing to an anti-gay atmosphere. Earlier this year, in a worldwide survey by the Pentagon, service members agreed, with a majority reporting a pervasive anti-gay atmosphere in the military, perpetuated by officers.

Winchell’s murder has sparked renewed criticism of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy instituted by President Clinton in 1993. Officials at the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have altered their enforcement of the policy in response to large numbers of gays being barred from service. Instead of immediately discharging service members who declare their homosexuality, Lackland has instituted intermediate steps. This revision is a deterrent to soldiers who declare that they are homosexual in an attempt to return home “with no questions asked,” says the Washington Post. The problem, Lackland noted, is that “don’t ask, don’t tell” does not, in reality, make a strong distinction between “homosexual orientation,” which is not grounds for discharge, and “homosexual conduct,” which is grounds for discharge. The Post called the belief that visiting a gay nightclub was grounds for dismissal “incorrect,” and reported that Lackland’s new interpretation of the policy insures against this incorrect assumption. But the policy itself is so vague that such “incorrect” and outlandish “proofs” of homosexuality will continue to force service members out of the military until “don’t ask, don’ tell” is changed.

A new contraceptive method could be on the market within five years, Edinburgh University scientists hope. Researchers reported yesterday that a male contraceptive pill developed by the Dutch firm Organon was 100% effective, with no harmful side effects, in recent clinical trials run in Scotland and Shanghai. The pill introduces hormones into the bloodstream that stop the production of sperm, and is the first successful attempt to develop an oral contraceptive method for men. The sperm count of the 60 men who took the pill over a period of months dropped to zero, and none experienced side effects like acne or high blood pressure which have curbed previous attempts at developing a male contraceptive pill. The report was published in Human Reproduction, the journal of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, and showed that 75% of Scottish, Chinese and white South African women felt that their male partners would use the pill. Even in the more conservative black and mixed-race South African population, 40 percent agreed their partners would probably use it, the New York Post and BBC reported. Complete results of the trials, being conducted in Shanghai, Scotland, South Africa, and Nigeria, will be released this September at the World Conference of Gynecologists and Obstetricians.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued a statement on Friday urging West Virginia law enforcement to thoroughly investigate the fatal beating of Arthur “J.R.” Carl Warren Jr., an African-American gay man. David Allen Parker and Jared Wilson, both white 17-year-olds, have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. But the beating, despite evidence to the contrary, is not being investigated as a hate crime.

Warren, according to the Associated Press, HRC, and the New York Times, reported to several individuals that he had been intimidated, harassed, and attacked by high school aged boys in Grant Town, the site where he was murdered, on several occasions. Warren, who was openly gay, identified these incidents as both racist and homophobic. Many friends and supporters held a vigil on July 11 to mourn Warren’s death and to urge law enforcement to prosecute his murder as a hate crime. The vigil was disturbed by a small group of protestors shouting angry and violent anti-gay messages.

Warren’s body, in an open casket at the memorial service, was beaten and severely disfigured. Parker and Wilson, the accused teens, beat and kicked Warren to death, and then placed his body in the trunk of a car, drove to another site, and drove over his corpse repeatedly, attempting to stage a hit-and-run to cover their crime. This extreme level of violence is not uncommon in bias-motivated, anti-LGBT crimes. In a 1994 study, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reported that LGBT murder victims are more likely than heterosexual victims to die brutal deaths. In addition, anti-gay crimes are the third highest category of hate crimes reported to the FBI.

Hate crimes legislation would enforce stricter penalties on those who perpetrate bias-motivated violence. The West Virginia hate crimes statute currently excludes sexual orientation, but covers race, religion, and gender. Hate crimes laws inclusive of sexual orientation are currently on the books in 22 states and the District of Columbia. A comprehensive federal law, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999, is currently pending in the Senate. Write to your legislator to urge the passage of this important act, or visit HRC (www.hrc.org) or the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (www.ngltf.org) for more information and to fill out an online petition.

Hours after Louisiana Governor Mike Foster signed into law a bill banning so-called “partial-birth” abortions, a group of women’s health care providers filed suit in federal court. The group claims that the bill’s definition of “partial-birth” abortion is overly broad and thus the bill violates a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion. The suit claims that the overly broad definition could cover commonly and constitutionally acceptable methods of abortion. The suit also alleges that the law prevents doctors from exercising their best medical opinion when treating women. Causeway Medical Suite, Bossier City Medical Suite, Hope Medical Group for Women, Delta Women’s Clinic, Women’s Health Clinic, James DeGuerce, M.D., and A. James Whitmore III, M.D. brought the suit against the state.

The details of as many as 277 possible domestic violence related crimes involving Los Angeles police officers were posted on the internet on Friday. Bob Mullally, a lawyer from South Dakota, performed a review of personnel files of officers accused of domestic abuse and produced a report detailing 61 assaults, 28 assaults with a deadly weapon, six rapes and one sodomy. Mullally faces possible jail time for violating a court order that sealed this report but he says it was a decision of conscience to release the report anyway. Not a single one of the cases in his report were ever prosecuted, nor were any of the police officers accused of these crimes arrested. Instead, the complaints were placed in confidential personnel files, sealed, and never reopened. In an anonymous questionnaire of police officers asking if they had ever used violence in their homes, over 40 percent responded that they had. Penny Harrington, Director of the National Center for Women & Policing says, “This means that a woman calling for help has almost a 50/50 chance of getting a batterer answering her call.” The LAPD has said they have changed its handling of domestic-violence cases involving officers and they now provide domestic violence training to new recruits.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Vice President Al Gore described his change in position on abortion rights in the last 10 years. He used to oppose the idea of federal funds being used for abortion services but he is now a staunch supporter saying, “I’ve come to the very deep conviction that a woman’s right to choose must be protected regardless of a woman’s income.” Gore also pointed out that GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush has “sworn to take away a woman’s right to choose.” Bush said on Friday that in choosing a vice presidential candidate, his or her abortion stance would not be “a major factor” despite threats by many conservative leaders that Bush “cannot and will not” be elected president if he picks a pro-choice running mate. Richard Viguerie, the right wing direct mail czar who helped found the ultra-conservative pro-life organization American Life League, has launched a “Veep Survivor” contest as part of his www.bushrunningmate.com website. On this site, by way of daily cyber ballots, he will try to narrow down the vice presidential hopefuls. Viguerie’s first goal: get rid of any mildly moderate nominees, namely Christie Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge, both pro-choice Republicans. For more information on Richard Viguerie and others’ roles in the conservative movement, order our new FMF video Revelations: Exposing the Radical Right. (please provide link to Revelations page)

The United Nations has begun formal talks with the Taliban to convince them to reverse their ban on Afghan women working for international relief agencies. According to U.N. officials, women workers in Afghanistan are crucial to safeguarding the health and education of Afghan women because male workers are forbidden to meet with women in the Taliban-controlled parts of the country.

The ban has come at a time of a resurgence of fighting between the Taliban and Northern Alliance, devastating drought, severe poverty, and land decimation. United Nations aid workers estimate that tens of thousands of displaced people who refuse to submit to the Taliban are living in tents in rural areas. Abdul Karim, one soldier in the rebel force, condemns the Taliban’s interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) as oppressive and inaccurate. He remarked, “They say they’re bringing sharia. But it’s not sharia to beat women and children or build terrorist bases.”

The day after Dr. Garson Romalis, an abortion provider in Vancouver, British Columbia, was stabbed outside of his medical office, another prominent Canadian doctor received a death threat on her answering service. Dr. Ellen Wiebe, an abortion provider who also recently initiated the first Canadian clinical trials of mifepristone, immediately called police and received an escort to her office. Due to the marked increase in violence against abortion providers and a notable drop in Canadian doctors who provide abortion services, healthcare professionals and government officials will be holding an emergency meeting to discuss security issues for doctors, nurses, clinic workers. Also on Thursday, the Canadian newspaper The Province received a call from a man claiming that a group called the “The Baby Liberation Army” was responsible for the stabbing and “They were sorry that [Romalis] didn’t die.” However, after consultation with law enforcement and Canadian and American pro-choice and anti-choice groups, all say they have no prior knowledge about such a group.

Recently, an anti-abortion advocate, Stockwell Day, won the leadership of the conservative Canadian Alliance party. Day, who also opposes lesbian and gay marriages, has been hailed as a major contender in the upcoming elections for prime minister. Marilyn Wilson, president of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, commented, “Day’s going to try and deny that he would support any violence, and maybe he wouldn’t follow up his beliefs with violence, but [our] position is that his platform and his rhetoric does incite other people who shares his beliefs against abortion to violence.”

After examining the records and views of the ten most frequently mentioned potential Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates, NARAL released a Report Card on Choice, with 7 out of the 10 Republican candidates receiving an “F” with comments such as “appalling job,” “dreadful work,” and “disappointing.” The majority of the Democratic candidates received an “A” for voting on choice issues using descriptions like “outstanding” for Senator Dianne Feinstein and “a superlative performance” for Governor Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire. House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, the most recently mentioned of the Democratic vice presidential candidates, received only a “C” on choice issues because he voted to criminalize safe abortion procedures used prior to fetal viability even if the woman’s health is in danger, he refused to cosponsor the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would have codified Roe v. Wade under federal law, and he also voted to ban Medicaid coverage for abortion services for low-income women even in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. NARAL does note, though, that he “continues to show steady progress and improvement.”

At the 91st annual NAACP national convention this past week, both presidential candidates addressed the crowd in part to enlist support for the upcoming election. Vice President Al Gore highlighted his past relationship with the NAACP, pointing out that he has worked with the group, “Not just in an election year, but year after year.” Gore said that he shares the same views as NAACP members on federal hate crime legislation, an increase in minimum wage, and a continuation of affirmative action. George W. Bush, the first Republican presidential candidate to meet with the NAACP in over 8 years, acknowledged his party’s tenuous relationship with the civil right’s group but still managed to largely avoid discussing the most pertinent issues on which the NAACP and the GOP are at odds. Bush failed to mention his stance on the death penalty, statistical sampling for the census, or affirmative action programs but he did vow to enforce existing civil rights laws.

The Washington DC City Council voted on July 11 to pass a bill that requires health insurance providers to pay for contraceptives including birth control pills, diaphragms, Depo-Provers shots and Norplant implants. The bill passed without a conscience clause that would exempt employers and their insurance companies from paying for contraceptives because of religious or moral beliefs. The Washington Archdiocese lobbied heavily for the conscience clause. Although the passage of the bill in D.C. was a victory for women’s rights, anti-choice members of Congress have vowed to block it from becoming law without the conscience clause. Congress has authority because Washington D.C. remains without voting representation in Congress and statehood.

International relief agencies have been working in an renewed climate of danger to their well-being since last week’s Taliban edict ordering all aid agencies and the United Nations to dismiss all Afghan women staff. The Taliban now says this edict as motivated by consensus that Afghan women international aid workers could serve as spies. Taliban officials took into custody Mary MacMakin after the release of the edict but has been deported from Afghanistan because of Taliban charges of spying and the spread of anti-Taliban propaganda. MacMakin dismisses the Taliban charges saying instead that she is a “threat for the Taliban because my work is with women.” MacMakin who heads the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan, has worked since 1997 to help Afghan women find home-based income generating projects. MacMakin states that “they (the Taliban) don’t want women to work outside of the home, don’t want them to be educated or give them a hint of freedom or be creative.” Since the Taliban control of the Afghan capitol Kabul in 1996, the extremist regime has enforced laws that refute women and girls access to education, employment outside of the home and quality medical care. The Taliban’s attacks on the human rights of women and girls have contributed to Afghanistan’s ranking of having the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. A report released by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights indicates that every day in Afghanistan an average of 45 women die of pregnancy related causes resulting in 16,000 maternal deaths annually.

Dr. Garson Romalis, an abortion provider in Vancouver, British Columbia, was stabbed yesterday outside his medical office. Dr. Romalis suffered a near-fatal shooting in 1994. James Kopp is being sought both for that shooting and the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998. Vancouver police are urging abortion service providers to go on “high alert,” and a US-Canadian joint law enforcement effort (including the FBI and the Justice Department’s National Task Force on Violence Against Abortion Providers) is now investigating the stabbing. Romalis’ assailant is believed to be a white male, about 20 years of age, between 5′ 9” and 5′ 10” with shoulder-length dark hair, and last wearing dark jeans and a black, hooded sweatshirt. The assailant fled the scene and is at-large. Several hundred abortion rights advocates demonstrated outside Romalis’ office last night, vowing to keep clinics open despite the campaign of domestic terrorism being waged against clinics, and showing their support for Romalis.

In a vote of 416 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution “objecting to” the See Change Campaign, led by Catholics for a Free Choice, that aims to change the status of the Holy See at the United Nations. Since 1964, the Vatican has held “permanent observer” status in the U.N., and has used its position to further its anti-abortion position.

Catholics for a Free Choice President Frances Kissling called the measure partly a savvy political move on the part of Republican anti-choice Representatives to counter public opinion that the Republican party is anti-Catholic, but mainly an effort to cloak their anti-abortion stance in “pro-Catholic,” pro-religious-freedom rhetoric. Kissling, in a press release issued this morning, said, “Non-binding jingoistic apple pie resolutions that mistake questions of law and of policy will not make the real issues go away.”

Catholics for a Free Choice also notes that the non-binding resolution will not halt or otherwise affect the See Change Campaign. The Campaign has the support of many non-governmental organizations and pro-choice individuals.

On July 10, by a close vote of 187-182, the House quickly voted down Rep. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) amendment to the Agricultural appropriations bill that would have prohibited the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from testing, developing or approving drugs that induce abortion. This is a timely victory for the pro-choice movement, as final FDA approval of mifepristone is expected by late September 2000. Mifepristone, which is now available to women throughout the majority of the European Union as well as China, Israel, Switzerland and other parts of the world, is a safe and effective method of early abortion. It is non-invasive and creates no risk of infection. “Defeating the Coburn Amendment is a significant victory for women’s health care,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “Congressional interference with the FDA approval process for mifepristone would have had tragic consequences. If the Coburn Amendment had passed, US women would have faced yet more obstacles in gaining access to this safe and effective method of early abortion, and trials on mifepristone’s other potential non-abortion uses such as treatment for ovarian cancer, endometriosis, fibroid tumors, meningioma (brain tumor), and Cushing’s Syndrome would not have been able to move forward,” added Smeal.

Following the recent US Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Nebraska abortion ban, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin handed down a permanent injunction last week that forbids enforcement of a similar West Virginia law. Judge Goodwin said the law was too broad and could outlaw all abortions. The 1998 West Virginia law carried a felony charge, two year imprisonment and a fine up to $50,000 for anyone who performed what anti-choice activists call “partial-birth” abortion.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government has arrested an American relief worker, 72 year-old Mary MacMakin, in an apparent crackdown on organizations that violate the Taliban’s strict gender apartheid policies by employing Afghan women. MacMakin runs an organization called Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support of Afghan Women (PARSA) that teaches practical farming and crafts skills to Afghan widows. Citing her in connection with “anti-government activities,” Taliban authorities arrested MacMakin along with six Afghan women employees on Sunday, following an edict by the Taliban leadership prohibiting foreign relief organizations from employing Afghan women. Both the State Department and the United Nations are working to win MacMakin’s release and are pressuring the Taliban to ease up on its new edict. Although very few details on MacMakin’s arrest and detention are available, Taliban representatives say she is well. The Taliban reportedly offered to release MacMakin, but she refused to leave her employees behind, and “insisted that the others be freed.” Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal cites MacMakin’s arrest as another example of the Taliban’s strict enforcement of gender apartheid. “Clearly,” she states, “recent reports that the Taliban is easing up on its gender apartheid edicts are false. This latest assault on women’s rights proves that the Taliban leadership is more determined than ever to deny basic human rights to Afghan women and girls.” Since 1996, when the Taliban militia took control of Kabul, women in areas under Taliban rule have been oppressed by a strict system of gender apartheid, under which they have been stripped of their visibility, voice and mobility. The edicts imposed by the Taliban, which have been brutally enforced, banished most women from the work force, closed schools to girls in cities and expelled women from universities, and prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative.

President Clinton commuted the prison sentences of four women who received significantly harsher sentences than their male counterparts in recent drug related convictions. Each of the women had been sentenced to far more severe sentences than their husbands or boyfriends and the president felt they had served a “disproportionate amount of time.” In one case in California, a woman received a 24-year sentence without parole while her husband was sentenced to only three years probation.

Maj. Gen. Larry G. Smith, who was accused of sexually harassing the highest-ranking woman in the United States Army will retire September 1 with a reprimand. Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy alleged that Smith harassed her in a Pentagon office in 1996 and in a report released this week, investigators concluded that Smith “grabbed her, held her against her will, and kissed her.” Although Army investigators substantiated Kennedy’s allegation, they said Smith’s offence did not warrant more serious punishment than a written reprimand. This episode marked the first time one general has ever accused another of sexual harassment but it is one in a long line of incidents involving sexual harassment in the military and the Army’s ability to enforce new statutes and punish any wrongdoings.

The Catholic Church in Washington, DC is protesting a proposed bill that would require health care insurers to cover prescribed contraceptives. The bill would allow women rather than their insurers to determine what health services they can use and it also would provide for mandated coverage of most contraceptives. A request from the auxiliary bishop of Washington urged area Roman Catholics to contact their council members to express opposition to the bill and the absence of a “conscience clause” that would exempt religious organizations from covering the cost of contraceptives. Polls actually show that the overwhelming majority of Catholics not only disagree with the Church’s position and in fact use contraceptives but Catholic women also have abortions at a higher rate than Protestant women. Council member Sharon Ambrose said, “The intention of the bill is to provide maximum access to health care to District residents-that’s all District residents. We wanted to make sure women didn’t have to hassle to get coverage for contraception.” The DC council will vote on the bill tomorrow.