IRIS
The Newsletter of the Lesbian,
Gay and Bisexual Classical Caucus
APA-AIA Meeting, Washington, DC, 1998: LGBCC Events
Business Meeting of the LGBCC: 28
December (Monday), 7-8pm, Room TBA.
Wine, cheese, good talk—all welcome.
1998 Panel: ìMenís Culture: Its Formulation and Transmission,î with
papers by Pam Gordon, Mark Anthony Masterson, David D. Leitao, Hans-Friedrich
Mueller, and Daniel B. McGlathery.
Also: Andrew Lear, ìThe Portrait of the Erastes in Meleagerís Garland,î Greek Poetry panel, 30 December (Wednesday), 1:30pm.
WCC Party and Awards Presentation:
December 27, 10pm to midnight, place TBA.
Table of Contents for This
Issue:
John Rundin on Univ. TX policies 1
Books, including review by N. Endres 3
Upcoming Conferences 6
Calls for Papers and
Presenters 6
Requests for Information 9
North American Campus News 9
News: National 11
News: International 14
Domestic
Partnership Benefits at the University of Texas
by John Rundin
It is unlikely that the
University of Texas [UT], one of the largest university systems in the country,
will offer its employees domestic partner benefits soon. It thus lags behind several other
comparable institutions that already do, such as the University of California,
the State University of New York, the University of Iowa, the University of
Michigan and the University of Minnesota.
The Texas Insurance Code,
passed by the legislature, establishes guidelines for the UT systemís health
plan. It restricts those who may
be covered under the plan to children and spouses as defined by the Texas
Family Code. The Texas Family
Code, also passed by the legislature, dictates that marriage licenses cannot be
granted to same-sex couples; it also dictates that common-law marriages,
recognized in Texas law, must be between a male and a female. Accordingly, the UT Administration
claims, a same-sex partner cannot be a ìspouseî (a term actually undefined in
the Family Code) and, it follows, cannot get benefits unless the Legislature
changes the law. Jay Jacobson, who
heads the ACLU in Austin and supports the establishment of domestic partner
benefits, believes that the Administrationís claims are correct. (continued
next page)
(continued from previous
page)
Donít hold your breath waiting
for any action on the part of the Texas Legislature. It has not been a great friend to gays and lesbians. Diana Hardy-Garcia, Director of the
Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby [LGRL] of Texas, claims that the Legislature has
actually been trending against the interests of gays and lesbians over the last
few years.
In 1993, in a general reform
of the Texas Penal Code, despite widespread opposition, the legislature kept a
law prohibiting homosexual sodomy on the books. (The law is now hobbled though still standing. When Mica England, a Dallas lesbian who wished to be a
police officer, filed a lawsuit against the City of Dallas, whose police
department would not enlist people who admitted breaking the sodomy law, a
lower court ruled the sodomy law unconstitutional. Dallas appealed, but a technicality kept the Texas Supreme
Court from hearing the case and making a final ruling as to the lawís
constitutionality. As a result, a
governmental agency could still try to enforce the sodomy statute, but it would
immediately be subject to a lawsuit that it would stand a good chance of
losing—possibly after much expensive litigation. Under these circumstances the law is
unlikely to be invoked.)
In 1997, fearing an invasion
of married gays and lesbians from Hawaii and the resultant corrosion of Texas
morality, legislators almost passed a law denying recognition to same-sex
marriages from other states.
In the upcoming legislative
session, Texas House Representative Warren Chisum will introduce legislation to
make it illegal for gays and lesbians to adopt or to be foster parents. If the law passes, it would be even
impossible for parents, should they die, to leave their child in the care of a
gay or lesbian relative or friend whom they have designated to be the childís
caretaker.
Representative Chisum, who has
been called ìa Bible-thumping dwarfî and is largely responsible for the legislatorsí
attacks on gays and lesbians, may well be the Speaker of the Texas House in
1999. Representative Chisum, who
has opposed programs to alleviate the AIDS crisis and has fought against sex
education which helps to prevent the spread of AIDS, has been in a position to
profit from the disease.
Terminally ill patients often sell their life insurance benefits at a
discount to investors in order to get some money while still alive; the
investors then get the life-insurance distribution after the patient dies. In 1994, Representative Chisum said
that he was hoping for at least a 17% profit on his investments in the
life-insurance policies of six people with AIDS.
The lesbian and gay community
at the Universityís flagship campus in Austin, a progressive city by Texas
standards, is the most likely source of any movement towards domestic partner
benefits. Unfortunately, it is
still reeling from a major defeat in 1994. In 1993, the Austin City Council had voted to extend
benefits to city employeesí domestic partners. Encouraged by these events, activists on campus had begun to
push for similar measures at UT.
The religious right, however, mobilized and in 1994 got a proposition on
the ballot to rescind the City Councilís action. The proposition passed 62.4 to 37.6%. In the disillusionment after the
proposition passed, efforts to obtain domestic partnership benefits at UT
largely disappeared.
The Texas State Employees
Union and the University Staff Association are both on record as supporting
domestic partner benefits at UT but are not actively seeking their institution.
A paltry few people, invoking
UTís non-discrimination policies, still regularly petition to enroll their
domestic partners in benefit plans and are refused. With the support of the ACLU, they have made efforts to work
out a solution with the University, which has not been unresponsive. Indeed, the University administration
may be favorably disposed to domestic partner benefits.
It is hard to imagine,
however, that it would be eager to ask the notoriously volatile and
increasingly right-wing Legislature to make changes in the law in order to
allow domestic partner benefits.
Accordingly, it is unlikely, in the present political climate, that
success can be achieved through normal means. The legislature is unlikely to change the pertinent laws,
and the courts, which have been drifting ever rightward in Texas recently, will
probably not give a sympathetic hearing to lawsuits brought on the grounds of
non-discrimination.
Books
Alexander Nehamas and Paul
Woodruff, trs., Plato:
Symposium, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989. 80+xxvi. ISBN 0-87220-076-0 (pb).
Review by Nikolai Endres
nendres@email.unc.edu
The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Alexander Nehamas and Paul
Woodruff provide an eminently readable translation of Platoís Symposium. The
distinguished Plato scholar Gregory Vlastos has bestowed high praise on the
translators: ìThe Symposium, Platoís poetic masterpiece, is notoriously hard to
translate. The present effort by
Nehamas and Woodruff succeeds better in making the philosophical message of the
work intelligible to the modern reader than does any previous translation into
Englishî (publisherís blurb). My
successful use of this translation in the classroom testifies to the validity
of Vlastosí claim. In my review, I
therefore want to focus on the translatorsí critical apparatus.
In their introduction, they
address the most relevant issues of and modern obstacles to the Symposium: Platoís
continuing presence, the historical background, the problem of dating the Symposium, the historicity of the dinner party and Diotima (here
one can now refer to David Halperinís seminal article), the necessary
distinction between Platoís and Socratesí views (esp. at the end of Socratesí
speech), the dynamics of the Greek sumposion, the meanings of eros and philia,
the socio-erotic model of the erastes/eromenos relationship, the structure of the work, an outline,
summary, and critical evaluation of the speeches (I hope that no undergraduate
will mistake the summary as Cliffs Notes on Platoís Symposium), a thorough explanation of Diotimaís scala amoris that turns ìthe lover from a purveyor into a pursuer
of wisdom,î Platoís theory of Forms and other ìradically new ideas,î why Plato
introduced Alcibiades after Socratesí high-minded speech, and Alcibiadesí
portrait and praise of Socrates as Eros.
The introduction is keen, but
I have some suggestions for improvement.
A rather unqualified and hence potentially troubling use of the word
ìpederastyî could have been avoided by explaining the etymology of the word (paid-erastia). Their
use of the term ìhomosexualî is equally problematic, and no mention is made of
the wider implications of the history of sexuality and the clashing arguments
of essentialists (most notably John Boswell) and constructionists (Foucault,
David Halperin, and John Winkler); this controversy could have been
conveniently introduced in the context of Aristophanesí myth. Next, I am not so sure whether Plato
would agree that ìSexual desire, properly channeled, leads not simply to
gratification but to the good,î for the role of sex, even at the very bottom of
Diotimaís ascent, remains ambiguous.
A footnote would have been helpful here; as a matter of fact, they later
explicitly refer to ìPlatoís condemnation of the sexual act between malesî and
thus seem to be contradicting their earlier opinion; moreover, the evidence
they adduce (Phdr. 250e and
255e-56e, Rep. 403b-c, and Laws 636-37 and 838e) is also quite controversial,
especially the role of physical gratification in the allegory of the
charioteer. Finally, they draw a
portrait of Platonic love (ìPlato has succeeded in convincing generations of
readers that his idea of love is not simply a wild philosophical fantasy but
rather an ideal according to which life can almost be livedî) that sounds too
good to be true. Plato himself
changed his mind about Eros in the Laws (because, I think, he found Diotimaís [his own?] model impracticable),
and a reading of Petroniusí Satyrica,
E.M. Forsterís Maurice, Thomas
Mannís Death in Venice, or AndrÈ
Gideís Corydon would clearly
illustrate the utter failure of Platonic love.
The notes in the translation
offer useful background information on names, etymology and puns, historical,
geographic, literary, rhetorical, and mythological allusions, intertextuality,
alternative translations, semantic differences between Greek and English, and
hints for further reading. The
bibliography is also helpful but now, unfortunately, already ten years
old. I recommend this fine
translation (not the least for its inexpensive price in paperback).
Ed. Note: Thanks to Nikolai Endres for offering a
new response to this 1989 book, a copy of which was recently received from the
publisher. Books for review should
be sent to the newsletter (for address see publishing box). Interested reviewers welcome!
Books Noted
Gardner, Jane F., Family
and Familia in Roman Law and Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1998. Pp. x, 305. $85.00. ISBN
0-19-815217-5.
Gera, Deborah, Warrior
Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De
Mulieribus. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava, supplement 162. Leiden & NY: E.J. Brill 1997. Pp. xi, 252. Notes, bibliography, index locorum, general index. Nlg 151.00. US $95.50 (cloth).
ISBN 90-04-10665-0.
Gill, Christopher, N.
Postlethwaite and R. Seaford, eds., Reciprocity in Ancient Greece. New
York: Clarendon Press 1998. Pp. viii, 370. $90.00. ISBN 0-19-814997-2.
Hankinson, R.J., Galen on
Antecedent Causes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1998. Pp. xv, 349. $80.00. ISBN 0-521962250-6.
Heuberger, Valeria, A. Suppan
& E. Vyslonzil, Das Bild vom Anderen. Identit”ten, Mentalit”ten, Mythen und Stereotypen in
multiethnischen europ”ischen Regionen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 1998. Pps. 261. Bibliography.
DM 79.00 (cloth). ISBN
3-631-32533-9. Ed. Note: see a
review of this book by Armin Flender on line at
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/
showrev.cgi?path=30134850102220
Korzeniowski, Georg, Verskolometrie
und hexametrische Verskunst r–mischer Bukoliker.
G–ttingen 1998.
Lee-Stecum, Parshia, Powerplay
in Tibullus: Reading Elegies Book
One. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998. Pp. xii, 328. $64.95. ISBN
0-521-63083-5.
Reeve, C.D.C., trans., Plato. Cratylus.
Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Co. 1998. Pp. liii,
103. $12.95. ISBN 0-87220-416-2 (pb).
Stewart, Andrew, Art,
Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece. Cambridge 1998.
Tyldesley, Joyce, Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh. NY:
Viking Books 1996. (Printed in
paperback by Penguin Books).
$14.95 (pb). ISBN
0-14-024464-6. $27.95
(cloth). ISBN 0-670-85976-1.
Van Keuren, Frances, Myth,
Sexuality and Power: Images of Jupiter
in Western Art. Louvain-La-Neuve: UniversitÈ de Louvain 1998. Pp. xi, 113. $45.00. No ISBN
(pb).
Venarde, Bruce L., Womenís
Monasticism and Medieval Society:
Nunneries in France and England, 890-1215. Ithaca:
Cornell Univ. Press 1997. Pp. xvii,
243. $42.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-801-43203-0. Reviewed for BMR-L by J.M.B. Porter
(jporter@indy.net), BMR 98.10.03.
also: Web Page for Feminist Publishers in
Asia
http://www.peg.apc.org/~women/asiapublish.html
It has links to publishers in India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Vanuatu and the Philippines.
College Guides and
Miscellanea
Best Colleges of 1999, published by Princeton Review. NY 1998. (This publisher is not affiliated with Princeton
University.) Four New England
schools ranked in the top 20 for having a good environment for gays and
lesbians: Mount Holyoke College,
Boston Conservatory of Music, Bennington College, and the Berklee College of
Music. Some from among the
worst-ranked: University of Rhode
Island, Morehouse College, Washington and Lee University (Virginia), and
Valparaiso University (Indiana; Valparaiso ranked last).
Womenís Colleges, ARCO Guide series, by Joe anne Adler with Jennifer
Adler Friedman (mother/daughter team), NY/London: Prentice Hall 1994.
The Gay, Lesbian, and
Bisexual Studentsí Guide to Colleges, Universities, and Graduate Schools, by Jan-Mitchell Sherrill and Craig A. Hardesty,
NY/London: New York University
Press 1994. Generated from a
two-year study, based largely on responses from student groups registered with
the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Includes the survey sent out, and recommends that students use it on
administrators of schools they are considering which are not covered in the Guide.
Out on Fraternity Row, published by the Lambda-10 Project, which works to
heighten the visibility of lesbian, gay and bisexual members of the college
fraternity by serving as a clearinghouse for resources and educational
materials related to sexual orientation and the fraternity/sorority
system. Visit their web site at
http://www.indiana.edu/~lambda10
Upcoming
Conferences
Saturday, February 13,
1-6pm, Chicago Humanities Institute, Regenstein Library Room S-102, Univ. of
Chicago: ìQueer Republic?
Homosexuality in Greek Politics and Political Thought.î Half-day
conference will look at the ways that the popularity of homosexual
relationships in Classical Greece inflected the political dynamics of the
city-state and provided powerful imagery for writers and artists to use in
their portrayals of the classical polis.
In both papers and discussion, this conference will address the question
of whether homosexual relationships were central to the development of the idea
of the republic we have inherited from the Greeks. Papers by Gloria Pinney (Harvard), Kathryn Morgan (UCLA),
David Leitao (San Francisco State), Andrew Lear (UCLA), Matthew Crawford
(University of Chicago); responses by Martha Nussbaum and James Redfield. Sponsored by the Lesbian & Gay
Studies Project of the Univ. of Chicago.
Further info: David
Dodd, dbdodd@midway.uchicago.edu, (773) 667-6945.
Friday, April 16, through
Sunday, April 18, 1999, University of Minnesota/Morris. ìGLBT
College Conference,î sponsored by
E-Quality, Otto Bremer Foundation, and Philanthrofund. Activities to include workshops, film,
keynote dinner, cabaret, dance.
Registration through March 30:
$30 (college students $20); after March 30 $35 (college students
$25). Registration includes four
meals and all activities. Further
info: equality@cda.mrs.umn.edu,
(320) 589-6091; co-chairs Quinn McBreen and Gina Cesario.
Calls
for Papers and Presenters
9-10 April, 1999,
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Constructions of the
Self: The Poetics of Subjectivity. First
Annual Univ. of South Carolina Comparative Literature Conference. Plenaries by Joan Copjec (SUNY Buffalo)
and Wayne A. Rebhorn (UT Austin); featured speakers include Joel Black
(Georgia), George Elliot Clarke (Duke), Suzanne Guerlac (Emory), Micaela Janan
(Duke), Sharon Nell (Texas Tech), Chuck Platter (Georgia), Sally Spence
(Georgia). This conference seeks
to offer the broadest possible forum for discussing the problem of the
discursive construction of the self as it has been examined in the fields of
literature, philosophy, history, semiotics, and psychoanalysis. Select papers will be published in Intertexts. One page
abstracts and all inquiries should be sent to Paul Allen Miller, Director,
Program in Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
29208, or to pamiller@sc.edu, by March 1, 1999.
16 to 18 July, 1999,
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
ìXIth Conference of the
Australian Association for Byzantine Studies: Orthodoxy and Unorthodoxies.î Papers exploring tensions between
cultivation of truths and dissension from conformity, in any aspect of
Byzantine Studies, are sought for the eleventh conference of AABS. Topics including art history,
literature, religion, history, modern scholarship, and other fields are
welcome. Plenary speakers will
include: Averil Cameron (Oxford
University), Walter Goffart (University of Toronto), Elizabeth Jeffreys (Oxford
University). Abstracts (100 to 300
words) can be sent via e-mail, fax, or post by 31 March 1999 to: Dr. Andrew Gillett, School of History,
Philosophy and Politics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, AUSTRALIA,
email: agillett@ocsl.ocs.mq.edu.au, tel. 61- 2- 9850 9966, fax 61-2-9850
8892. 30 minutes will be scheduled
for each speaker, including question and discussion time. For registration, contact address
above, or access:
http://www.museum.mq.edu.au/docs_centre/ahdrc.html.
Saturday, April 10,
University of Chicago. ìThe Politics of
Respectability: A One-Day
Conference Organized by the Lesbian and Gay Studies Project at the University
of Chicago.î
We are interested in
investigating the changing nature of sexual politics in the context of nearly a
decade of institutionalized lesbian and gay studies in the American
academy. The goal of this
conference is to examine the assistance and restrictions ìrespectabilityî
offers various political projects.
How have struggles and negotiations over political participation,
self-definitions, and community norms appropriated, subverted, reinforced, or
been limited by definitions of respectability? We seek papers that address questions of respectability,
subversion, legitimacy, tolerance, deviance, betrayal, queerness, assimilation,
agency, scandal, utopianism in the relation of institutions to critical sexual
politics. 1-page abstracts can be
mailed to nhoad@midway.uchicago.edu or sent by regular mail to: Neville Hoad, 209 Gates-Blake Hall,
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.
Abstracts are due by January 31, 1999.
1999 Summer ACL Institute
in Amherst, MA, AND general. Call for Presenters and Others
Interested in Adding Material on Women to Latin Language Courses! If you
regularly teach Latin and have developed supplementary materials on women,
race, and/or gender issues in antiquity to accompany the textbooks you use, we
are hoping you may be willing to share those materials with others, either by
presenting them as part of a workshop at next summerís ACL institute (in
Amherst, MA) OR by sending a copy of them to us. We represent a task force of the ACL that aims to facilitate
the teaching of these issues, especially in beginning language courses. We had provisionally decided to focus
first on the Cambridge Latin series, whose publisher has expressed interest in
adding material about women, but if you use a different series and otherwise
fit the description above, please feel free to contact us. If you donít already have materials
developed but would like to participate in the task force, let us know that as
well. Thanks!
—Lillian Doherty, Univ.
of MD (LL21@umail.umd.edu)
Trudy Harrington Becker, VA
Tech (thbecker@vt.edu)
Tackling
LGBT Issues in Elementary School:
Call For Submissions
Members of GLSEN Connecticut
have decided to create a supplement to the acclaimed Tackling Gay Issues in
School resource module, with focus on
Elementary issues. Please submit:
+Teacher-friendly lesson plans
+Consciousness-raising
activities
+Social research and
theoretical rationale for the inclusion of LGBT issues in Elementary school
+Bibliographies and other
resources
Deadline for submissions: January
10, 1999.
Mail to:
GLSEN Connecticut
179 A Louisiana Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06510
If you have any questions,
contact Leif Mitchell or Michael Fiorello at 203-332-1480 or via e-mail at
Leifygreen@aol.com or MJFiorello@aol.com.
To order Tackling Gay
Issues in School (a resource module
for educators that has been endorsed by CT State Department of Education, CT
Womenís Education and Legal Fund, GLSEN National, Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, Advocates for Youth, the producers of ìItís Elementary,î Children
from the Shadows, PFLAG of CT, and nationally known sexuality educators), send
a letter including your name, mailing address, phone and e-mail address, and
check for $24 made payable to GLSEN CT, 10 Cannon Ridge Drive, Watertown, CT
06795-2445. For a copy of the
table of contents, contact GLSENCT via e-mail at GLSENCT@aol.com.
New
Electronic Discussion List on ìGender and Nations/Nationalismî
(from announcement over
H-SOZ-U-KULT [Humanities—Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte] list, 30 Nov.
1998, by Drs. Karen Hagemann of the Center for Interdisciplinary Womenís and
Gender Studies [ZIFG] at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany,
hagemann@kgw.tu-berlin.de, and Dietlind Huechtker, at the
Martin-Luther-Universit”t at Halle-Wittenberg, Germany,
diehblfg@sp.zrz.tu-berlin.de)
Re: Scholarly Discussion List ìGender and Nations/Nationalismsî
Email: fng-l@zrz.tu-berlin.de
Internet: http://www.kgw.tu-berlin.de/ZIFG
The purpose of this new interdisciplinary
list is to connect researchers in the various disciplines who have work in the
area of ìGender and Nations/Nationalisms.î the temporal emphasis will be on the modern period. The list will encompass the early
modern period and the ninteenth and twentieth centuries, not least in order to
overcome the usual emphasis in nationalism scholarship on the period around
1800 as a caesura. Regionally, the
list will focus on Europe. This
emphasis is by no means intended to foster ëeurocentrismí, since the advent and
development of most European nations cannot be understood without colonialism
and imperialism....
One of the chief objectives of
the list is to increase communication among scholars in the various disciplines
who treat issues of ìGender and Nations/Nationalismsî in order to facilitate
discussion across disciplinary borders.
A common point of departure could be an understanding of ìgenderî and
ìnationî as constructed and contested relational systems of cultural and social
meanings. Together, the two
systems not only shape the political national culture in historically specific
ways, but also legitimate and limit the access of (groups of)
people—women and men—to national movements as well as to the
resources of nation-states.
The list (fng-l) will be
conducted as a closed scholarly discussion list, available to those who have
requested a subscription. In order
to ensure broad participation and to connect researchers in Western, Central
and Eastern Europe, we have decided to make English the main language of the
list. Contributions in other
languages are also welcome.
To subscribe send a brief
message to the following email address requesting membership: fng-L-owner@zrz.tu-berlin.de. Requests for membership can also be
sent directly to the list address:
fng-L@zrz.tu-berlin.de.
Requests
for Information
Loyola University Chicago: Faculty
members here are in the process of proposing an undergraduate-level five-course
certificate program in gender diversity and sexuality.
It would be broadly based
(drawing on courses in Anthropology, Biology, Philosophy, Psychology, History,
Political Science, Communication, Sociology, English, Classical Studies, and
Theology). Briefly, it would provide
students with the skills to analyze the relationships between gender and
sexuality and socio-cultural contexts and how different socio-cultural contexts
affect the expression of gender and sexuality. It will also offer students a way to approach the cultural,
historical, literary and ethical relations of power.
The organizers of the program
would like to find information on comparable programs elsewhere. If your school has such a program and
youíd like to provide some supporting comparanda, please reply to dbirge@orion.it.luc.edu.
—Darice
Birge
University of Michigan: Ofice of
Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Affairs (LGBTA) requests information about
successful Safe Space/Safe Zone or equivalent programs across the U.S. University of Michigan is interested in
beginning such a program.
Assistance might include:
providing resource guides, promotional and educational materials,
training manuals, any other relevant literature. Contact office of LGBTA (734) 763-4186 (ask for Alisa
Claeys, Research Assistant), or e-mail to aclaeys@umich.edu.
North
American Campus News
Oregon Appeals
Court Upholds Benefits for Partners of Gay College Employees
(excerpted from article by Courtney Leatherman, via GYLBGAY list of Univ. of
Texas—thanks to John Rundin for forwarding this to the classicslgb list,
14 December 1998)
A state appeals court ruled on
Wednesday that three lesbian workers at Oregon Health Sciences University were
entitled to health benefits for their partners. The ruling is being described as a ìmilestoneî that may give
more rights to gay employees of Oregonís public colleges and other state
agencies.
The decision stemmed from a
1992 lawsuit filed by Christine A. Tanner, Barbara J. Limandri, and Regenia M.
Phillips. All three were nursing
professionals at the university and sued after it denied them health benefits
for their partners. The three
women were each involved in long-term relationships, owning homes with their
partners and, in the case of Ms. Tanner and her partner, rearing children
together. Still, the university
had said that the womenís partners were not eligible for coverage under the
state health plan because it excluded benefits for unmarried domestic
partners. Wednesdayís unanimous
ruling by a three-judge panel upheld a 1996 lower-court ruling that found that
while the university had not intended to discriminate against homosexuals, its
policies had that ìundeniable effect.î
Writing for the panel, Judge
Jack L. Landau said that the universityís argument—that its health plan
was the same for all married couples, regardless of their
sexuality—ìmisses the point.î
He explained, ìHomosexual couples may not marry. Accordingly, the benefits are not made
available on equal terms. They are
made available on terms that, for gay and lesbian couples, are a legal
impossibility.î
The courtís decision said that
gays and lesbians were entitled to constitutional protection from
discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. The ruling also required the state to
make its employee benefits available to domestic partners. And the court further held that the
state statute prohibiting sex discrimination covers sexual orientation. Carl G. Kiss, the lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said that the ruling was a first in the country for an appellate court.
Kristen Grainger, executive
assistant to Oregonís Attorney General, Hardy Myers, agreed that the decision
ìbroke new ground.î The milestone,
she said, was the ìprohibition on employers from discriminating against
employees based on sexual orientation.î
She said the state had not yet decided whether to appeal the
ruling. Ms. Grainger noted that
even before the appellate court had ruled, Oregon had voluntarily begun
providing health benefits to the domestic partners of public employees. Moreover, in 1995, the university had
become a private entity, she said, and it now also provides health coverage to
employeesí domestic partners.
In
a Rush: Gay fraternities spreading
(excerpted from Chicago
Tribune, 12/4/98,
article by Glen Elsasser,
Washington Bureau)
[Ed. Note: Delta
Lambda Phi, ìthe nationís first and only gay social fraternity,î founded in
1986, recently held its 1998 Washington DC ìrush,î and this is the focus of the
article.]
...Despite the civil rights
revolution of the last 30 years, fraternities and sororities—once
bastions of economic, ethnic and racial segregation—have only recently
begun to diversify their ranks when it comes to sexual orientation. Being openly gay often means being
ostracized from the Greek system, a popular campus institution dedicated,
according to Bairdís Manual of American College Fraternities, to ëenduring friendships founded on shared principles
and personal affinities.í Although
it calls itself the only gay fraternity, officials of Delta Lambda Phi emphasize
that bisexuals and straights are also welcome as members. Several chapters claim heterosexual
members, including two California chapters and the one at Penn State.
...
Delta Lambda Phi claims other
distinctions. For one, it looks
beyond the traditional university setting and accepts new members who are in
their 20s and 30s (the average age is around 26), have finished college and no
longer lead a campus-centered life.
Chapters generally do not maintain a residence for members because of
the hefty liability insurance it would entail.
ëGay men often come out of the
closet and accept themselves during college or right after they leave college,í
[Kevin] Kiger [the fraternityís national director] said. ëIf it happens during college, they
donít always have time to join a fraternity—and if it happens later, they
are not eligible to join a college-based fraternity.í
...
According to Peter Colohan,
the fraternityís national vice president, Delta Lambda Phi offers gay men ëa
social space outside the bar scene, which is not exactly the most amenable
place for creating strong bonds of friendship.í ëUsing a very traditional model, we provide a bridge between
traditional fraternities and the modern gay community,í he said.
Delta Lambda Phi traces its
founding to 1986, when three older men set up a trust for the creation of a
national social fraternity that would not discriminate on the basis of sexual
orientation. This led to the
formation of the Alpha chapter in Washington, the fraternityís first, the
following year. The chapter is the
nationís largest, with an active membership generally around 20 and more than
220 alumni. Nationally, the
fraternity has more than 1,200 members, of whom roughly one-fifth are
active—that is, attend meetings as well as rush and pledge events.
The fraternity lists active
chapters on a number of campuses:
the University of Oregon, Eugene; California State University,
Sacramento and San Diego; San Francisco State University; the University of
California, Davis; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; as well as in cities
including Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Phoenix and Richmond, VA.
Both Kiger and Colohan
described the Midwest as the fraternityís new growth area, while the South lags
because it is a region ëwhere tolerance is at a minimum.í They reported that the Purdue
University chapter is being reactivated and reorganized, while ëcoloniesí or
small groups of individuals seeking to establish chapters have been formed at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ohio University and Western
Michigan. At Northwestern
University, Margaret Barr, vice president of student affairs, recently noted
that ëthere is much more openness about sexual orientation now than ever before
on college campuses. More people
are more comfortable now about their sexuality and talking about it. That is not to say they are free of
homophobic behaviors,í she added.
ëBut in terms of the Greek system, in the last five or six years, it has
become less of an issue and is not talked about much.í
Ed.ís note: For more information about
fraternities, sororities and how they deal with homophobia these days, see
Lambda 10 Projectís ìOnline Statement for Greeks against Homophobia and Hate: Shared Principles to Change Our
Communities,î and submit your signature to it, at the website
www.indiana.edu/~lambda10, or e-mail the project to find out more at
lambda10@indiana.edu. See also the
new book Out on Fraternity Row, noted in book section above.
News: National
The
Queer Middle Ages Conference
November 5-7, 1998. General report available from Paul
Halsall (halsall@fordham.edu), and published over LT-ANTIQ list (electronic
list for students of Late Antiquity), 11/9/98. See archives of this list for the entire report, which
includes interesting commentary on papers by Michael Camille (Univ.
Chicago: ìThe Pose of the Medieval
Queer: Danteís Gaze and Brunetto
Latiniís Bodyî), Judith Bennett (ì ëLesbian-Likeí and the Social History of
Medieval Lesbianismî), and Carolyn Dinshaw (ìTouching on the Past,î about the
possible pasts that might be claimed by a sexual community).
National
Womenís Health Information Center and Hotline Launched
(from LHINetwork@aol.com,
via Gay Lesbian Bisexual & Transgender Student Support Services at Indiana
University [glbtserv@indiana.edu] and the Great Lakes/Midwest GLBT College
Network listserv [GLMGLBCN@listserv.uic.edu])
The U.S. Public Health Service
has launched the National Womenís Health Information Center (NWHIC), a
combination World Wide Web site and toll-free hotline that serves as a
ìone-stop shoppingî resource for womenís health information. NWHIC can be reached at www.4woman.gov
or 1-800-994-WOMAn. ìThis
information center represents the federal governmentís most comprehensive
resource for womenís health,î said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. The web site links to all federal
agencies and publications on womenís health, and to hundreds of
government-screened private sector organizations. NWHIC also provides FAQs on top health issues of concern to
American women. The toll-free
number connects the caller to a health information specialist who will refer
the caller to the right source of information. Women and their health care providers can also order fact
sheets, brochures and other printed materials by phone.
Lesbian
Health Information Network
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or
post to this list, send request to LHINetwork@aol.com. For subscriptions, include full name
and a brief description of your work in lesbian health (e.g. organization or university affiliation, research,
etc.).
Hiv
Insurance Caps Violate Americans With Disabilities Act
(Doe v. Mutual of Omaha,
No. 98 C 325)
(from Lambda Legal Defense
and Education Fund, AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, news release 3 December
1998, LLDEFNY@aol.com)
(CHICAGO, December 3, 1998) — A federal judge ruled
that drastic restrictions on Mutual of Omahaís coverage for HIV- and
AIDS-related medical expenses are illegal under the Americans with Disabilities
Act, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and AIDS Legal Council of Chicago
announced Thursday.
On December 2, Judge Suzanne
B. Conlon of the United States District Court for the Northern District of
Illinois entered a final judgment against the company in Doe v. Mutual of
Omaha.
Lambda and AIDS Legal Council
of Chicago (ALCC) brought the lawsuit on behalf of two policyholders, ìJohn
Doeî and ìRichard Smith,î Chicago residents who are HIV-positive. The insurance
giant places a cap on HIV-related coverage that is a fraction of the total
amount the company pays for other medical care associated with any other
illness.
Lambda Staff Attorney Heather
C. Sawyer said, ìThis is a tremendous victory. Weíve stopped Mutual from jeopardizing our clientsí lives.î
... Mutual had put a lifetime ceiling for HIV-related benefits on Doeís health
insurance policy at $100,000, and Smithís at $25,000. By contrast, Mutual extends coverage for other medical
conditions to $1 million, and permits more coverage if the policyholder makes
no new claims after two years. These
restrictions have forced Doe and Smith to consider going without
state-of-the-art therapies that could prolong their lives. As a result of the judgment, Mutual
will lift the caps for Doe and Smith.
Expert testimony submitted by
Doe and Smith proved that Mutual, when it first initiated the coverage
restrictions, knew that the cost of treating HIV and AIDS was similar or less
than the cost of treating other medical conditions, and that the coverage
restrictions were unnecessary.
Plaintiffsí expert witnesses also established that Mutualís practice of
limiting HIV-related care has no basis in sound actuarial principles, nor
actual or reasonably anticipated experience, and is illegal under Illinois
law. With the judgment, Mutual
avoided a trial. While the company
conceded the factual issues in this case and agreed to the final judgment,
Mutual is still expected to appeal the overall legal issue of whether or not
the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination in health
insurance coverage.
Should Doe and Smith prevail
on appeal, however, under the terms of the udgment Mutual must remove
HIV-related limits in all of its health insurance policies.
Lambda Cooperating Attorney
Stuart Graff, a partner at the Chicago law firm Schiff Hardin & Waite and a
member of the ALCC Board of Directors, assisted in the litigation. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
is the nationís oldest and largest legal organization serving lesbians, gay
men, and people with HIV and AIDS.
The ALCC is a not-for-profit organization that promotes and protects the
legal rights of men, women, and children affected by HIV and AIDS in the
Chicago area. LLDEF maintains a
web site, http://www.lambdalegal.org.
Philadelphia
Gives Documents to 30 Gay Couples in Ceremony
(from article by Julie
Stoiber, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, forwarded by Kathleen Doherty of
Gettysburg College)
October 9, 1998,
PHILADELPHIA—Last night, in a milestone ceremony, ... same-sex
relationships were recognized for the first time by the city as ìlife
partnershipsî and endowed with benefits once reserved for married couples. Last night, in a ceremony in the
Mayorís Reception Room, 30 couples—some carrying bouquets, all smiling
broadly for the cameras, received their certificates. Many were holding hands; Mary Louise Cervone and Kathleen
Burke were holding their 2-year-old son, Danny. A standing ovation greeted Charles Rudolph and David Kloss,
who have been together 35 years.
The document means city workers can add their partners to their city-paid
health insurance policies—saving them hundreds of dollars a month in
premiums—and name them as beneficiaries for city pensions. For all gay couples in the city, life
partner status means an exemption from the cityís 3 percent real estate
transfer tax if they sell each other property. Couples also can use the life-partner document when applying
for insurance, joint bank accounts and joint credit cards.
Compared to other large
cities, Philadelphia was slow to pass domestic partnership legislation: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York,
Seattle and Washington already had laws on the books. Many corporations—including IBM, Levi Strauss and Bell
Atlantic—provided such benefits.
The humans relations office
has received more than 100 calls requesting domestic partnership registration
packets.
Toledo
Passes GLBT Civil Rights Ordinance
(excerpted from article by Dawn E. Leach, in Gay
Peopleís Chronicle, 11 December 1998, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, OH
44101—e-mail chronicle@chronohio.com; web page www.cleveland.com/community/gay)
TOLEDO, OH—City Council
members on December 8 unanimously passed one of the most comprehensive lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights laws in Ohio. The ordinance bans discrimination based
on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations, and
also creates stiffer penalties for anti-gay hate crimes. Sexual orientation is defined for the
purposes of the ordinance as ìreal or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality,
bisexuality, or gender identity.î
Mayor Carleton Finkbeiner is
expected to sign the measure.
Openly gay council member Louis Escobar introduced the ordinance
November 10, and nine of twelve members co-sponsored it. It was passed unanimously by a full
roll-call council December 8. Ö
Among those who testified [at the Dec. 7th hearing] in favor of the
ordinance were State Rep. Jack Ford, Toledo police chief Mike Navarre, Toledo
fire chief Mike Bell, attorneys Mark Prajsner and Cindy Voller, three clergy
members, and four GLU members....
Toledo is now the 11th city in
Ohio to include sexual orientation in its civil rights ordinances. The others are Columbus, Cleveland,
Youngstown, Yellow Springs, Athens, Oberlin, and the Cleveland suburbs of Lakewood,
Westlake, North Olmsted and Cleveland Heights. Dayton and Cuyahoga County have measures covering city or
county employees only.
Michigan
Defamation Case Settled
(from PlanetOut NewsPlanet, http://www.planetout.com/, via
the GLBT-NEWS List <glbt-news-owner@duh.org>)
Detroitís gay and lesbian
Triangle Foundation announced December 7 that it has accepted a cash settlement
in its defamation lawsuit against Michigan state Republican Representative
Deborah Whyman, setting aside rulings in Triangleís favor by Wayne County
Circuit Judge Susan Borman and all three members of a mediation panel. The move will save Triangle the expense
of a jury trial, and Whymanís term of office will end after January 1. Whyman had implied in campaign
literature that Triangle supported child molestation, knowing the
characterization was false.
News: International
Conference: ìGeschlechterrollen, k–rperlichkeit und
gesellschaftliche Ordnung.
Geschlechtergeschichte der Fr¸hen Neuzeitî
Took place 12-14 November
1998 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim. Tagungsleitung:
Dieter R. Bauer, Stuttgart; PD Dr. Susanna Burghartz, Basel; Dr. Andrea
Griesebner, Wien; Dr. Olivia Hochstrasser, Basel. The program included talks by: Dr. Ulrike Strasser, Irvine (California), ìWeibliche K–rper,
Heilige Leiber und die moralische Ordnung im konfessionellen M¸nchen. ein klerikaler Konflikt aus dem Jahr
1662;î Prof. Dr. Claudia Opitz,
Basel, ìVaterliebe. Zum Wandel der
Vaterrolle in der Aufkl”rung;î Dr. Waltraud Pulz, M¸nchen, ìDie
Geschlechterdifferenz im fr¸hneuzeitlichen Diskurs ¸ber aussergew–hnliches
Essverhalten,î and others.
ìFireî
Debate in India Grows After Mob Violence
(from article by Data
Lounge Staff; Data Lounge collects information from daily newspapers on gay
topics—http://www.datalounge.com/; thanks to Fred Small for forwarding
this article)
NEW DELHI—The Boston
Globe reports a highly unusual
national conversation has been sparked in India by attacks on movie theaters
screening the film ìFire,î an internationally acclaimed drama that broaches the
taboo subject of homosexuality. In
New Delhi, a group of protesters belonging to Shiv Sena, a rightist Hindi
organization streamed into a downtown movie theater smashing windows, ticket
and concession counters and slashing movie posters. They declared the movie depicting a lesbian romance between
two married Indian women corrupting and immoral. Fearful of similar attacks, other movie theaters in the
Indian capital cancelled screenings of the film. ... All Bombay theaters withdrew the films after a group of some
200 attacked a cinema and forced its management to cancel the rest of its
scheduled shows. Movie theaters in
two other cities also pulled the film citing threats.
Written and directed by
Toronto filmmaker Deepa Mehta, ìFireî tells the story of two sisters-in-law
trapped in loveless and arranged marriages who fall in love with each other. Ö
[A] scene in which the women kiss and another where one of the leadís breasts
is exposed have proven highly controversial.
... The Indian release of ìFireî was delayed for more than a
year by censors who finally caved in to international pressure and released the
film last month. For three weeks
the film played to full theaters until the attacks brought its national run to
an abrupt halt.
ìDeepa Mehta popped open the
lid,î Roshmila Battacharya, an editor of a Bombay film industry newspaper, told
the Globe. Reaction from mostly educated and
mostly middle class theatergoers has been almost universally positive. ìThe attacks on cinema halls were
politically motivated,î Battacharya said.
The national debate over ìFireî has dominated newspaper editorials and
even reached the Indian Parliament owing to the apparent victory of mob
violence in stopping the film.
Israeli
Gay Groups Barred From Educational Fair
(from Data Lounge,
http://www.datalounge.com)
Dec. 16, 1998, TEL AVIV,
Israel—The Jerusalem Post
reports Israelís Education Ministry is under attack by gay civil rights
advocates for willfully excluding gay issues and material from its ìThe Right
to Respect and The Duty to Respectî education fair, which opened Wednesday at
the Jerusalem International Convention Center. A coalition of groups including the Klaf—representing
the feminist lesbian community—, the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel (ACRI) and the Association of Homosexuals, Lesbians and Bisexuals in
Israel, petitioned Israelís High Court of Justice to force the ministry to
allow them to participate. Ö. The chairman of the ministryís
pedagogic secretariat, Prof. Ozer Schild, [told] Klaf the ministry was giving
priority consideration to matters involving the education system, cultural
differences and matters involving ìchild bearing families.î Schild said that as homosexuality and
lesbianism did not fall under these categories, there was no place for them at
the fair. According to ACRI,
despite Schildís outline regarding what subjects were appropriate for the fair,
proponents of animal rights, ecology, and equality between the sexes were
permitted to participate.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE OF THE
LGBCC
The Lesbian, Gay, &
Bisexual Classical Caucus is an affiliate of the American Philological
Association. The purpose of the Caucus is twofold: scholarly and political. Our
scholarly purpose is to facilitate and promote research that reflects the personal
and intellectual interests of Lesbians, Bisexuals and Gay Men; and our
political purpose is to focus upon and educate about the effects of homophobia
in the profession, and actively assist Lesbian, Gay Male and Bisexual scholars
in their struggles against stigmatization.
Iris, the newsletter
of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Classical Caucus, is published quarterly
(February, May, August, November).
Send material to Jeri Fogel, Dept. of Romance and Classical Languages,
214 OHB, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824. Email: fogelj@pilot.msu.edu