Scott Evertz, the openly Gay director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, told a gathering of nearly 150 members and guests of the Log Cabin Republicans on May 5 that President Bush is strongly committed to addressing the AIDS epidemic.

In his first public appearance since Bush appointed him to the AIDS office post on April 9, Evertz said he has already given the president an Oval Office briefing on domestic and international AIDS issues and has met several times with high-level administration officials, including Cabinet members. "I can absolutely, positively, categorically confirm that, in President Bush, we have a friend and we have a decent human being," Evertz said. "And by the way, he asked very good questions about HIV/AIDS," Evertz added. "So lest anyone think that he’s a man of few words and a man who doesn’t get it — he gets it. He really gets it." Evertz said that, to his amazement, Bush switched gears briefly during the Oval Office meeting to talk about how he did among Gay voters in the 2000 presidential election. "He said, ‘I did pretty well in the Gay community, didn’t I?’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. President, you got a million votes, 25 percent of the Gay vote.’ And he said, ‘Yea.’ He had that look on his face and that glee in his eyes." Evertz drew laughter and applause when he told the Gay GOP gathering, "I am incredibly honored to be here as the first director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy who is openly … Republican." Evertz delivered his remarks at a banquet hall at D.C.’s Union Station, where Log Cabin Republicans held a black-tie dinner to celebrate the Bush administration’s first 100 days in office. Among the other speakers at the event was Maria Cino, political director of the Bush presidential campaign whom Bush nominated to be assistant secretary of commerce. Log Cabin officials have credited Cino with being the unofficial liaison between the Bush campaign and the national and local Log Cabin groups that campaign for Bush in the Gay community. Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Rich Tafel presented Cino with the group’s Spirit of Lincoln Award. "There’s a complacency that exists in our country right now that is making our efforts at [AIDS] prevention even more difficult than ever before," Evertz told the gathering. "The challenges are enormous. But the team that has been assembled to help address this is unbelievable. … You have the president, the man at the top, very, very strongly committed to this issue. He has enlisted his secretary of health and human services and my friend, Tommy Thompson; Secretary of State Colin Powell; and his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. And I’ve had the opportunity and the pleasure to participate in meetings with these people, and they care deeply, and we’re so proud of them — or I’m so proud to be a part of that administration."

While efforts to reauthorize the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act have been dominated by debates over school vouchers, teacher quality, and student academic gains, advocates for Gay students are fighting for federal "safe schools" initiatives.

"Current federal safe schools initiatives fail to comprehensively address the need to eliminate harassment of and violence against LGBT students," said leaders at the New York-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in a position paper. "President Bush’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ proposal fails to recognize this need, and it is unclear whether initiatives advanced by federal agencies in these areas will continue."

The landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides federal funds for more than 40 education initiatives that affect schools nationwide, is reauthorized every five years. It was last reauthorized in 1994, but efforts to do so again failed last year in the Senate.

On Wednesday, the Senate postponed floor debates about reauthorizing the ESEA in order to resume federal budget discussions.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved its version of the proposed education reauthorization plan Wednesday by a bipartisan vote of 41 to 7.

Of the two ESEA reauthorization bills, leaders at GLSEN and other pro-Gay groups said they favor the Senate’s version because it contains language added in 1994 that addresses the need to protect Gay students from harassment.

In a letter dated May 1 that the Human Rights Campaign, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Association of University Women sent to Senate members, they said they support the anti-bias and hate crimes prevention programs retained in the Senate bill.

"We ask that the Senate reject any amendments to the bill that would eliminate existing authority for the Department of Education to develop and support anti-bias and hate crimes prevention programs in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," the letter stated.

"We strongly urge you to oppose any effort to prevent the Department [of Education] from assisting schools and local communities in developing and implementing these critical anti-violence prevention initiatives," they added.

Winnie Stachelberg, who signed the letter along with Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference, Michael Lieberman at the ADL, and Nancy Zirkin at the American Association of University Women, said a diverse coalition is working to ensure that the hate crime prevention provision in the Senate bill remains.

"Our strategy now is talking to Senate and House Republicans and Democratic staff to ensure that whatever language moves forward is language that will allow these programs to serve the young of this country in a very positive way," she said. "We are hopeful that will happen."

Congress approved various initiatives as part of ESEA in 1994 that addressed providing training and technical assistance to help communities address violence related to prejudice and intolerance. This included authorizing educational and training programs to reduce hate crimes in schools, as well as educational and curricular materials to improve conflict and dispute resolution skills of students, teachers, and administrators, the letter stated. The 1994 reauthorization also supported allowing grant-making authority for partnership programs between local educational agencies and community-based organizations to develop community initiatives to reduce bias-motivated violence in schools and communities.

The ESEA re-authorization bill being considered by the Senate retains all existing authority for educational programming in this area.

The conservative Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., issued an action alert May 3 urging its supporters to block any efforts to include hate crime prevention programs or language in the House bill to reauthorize the ESEA. The group noted that the bill does not and should not include such language.

"Any amendments to add ‘hate crime’ preventions must be rejected to stop federal funding of activities and programs that support a pro-homosexual agenda," the action alert stated.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, issued a similar warning last month.

"If members want to fund ‘hate crimes’ programs," officials there said, "they should do so in separate legislation. Many Americans, wedded to traditional American principles of equal justice under law, oppose funding programs that teach children that thoughts and beliefs can make some crimes more grievous than others."

Ultimately, members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce cobbled together an amendment that protects a program initially funded in 1995 to block harassment of Gay students, Capitol Hill aides familiar with the negotiations told the Blade. The amendment allows for the use of safe and drug-free school funds for "the development of educational programs that prevent school-based crime, including preventing crimes motivated by hate that result in acts of physical violence."

But Republicans fought and won the right to have language added to the amendment that states: "Any programs or published material that address school-based crime shall not recommend or require any action that abridges or infringes upon the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, religion, and equal protection of students, their parents, or legal guardians."

The House is expected to begin floor debates on the bill next week.

As recently as 1990, a U.S. Department of Energy training academy taught security investigators about Gay people by using a 15-page glossary that seeks to define terms such as "homos," "drag queens," "fruits," and "rough trade."

Officials at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee released the glossary, entitled "The Homosexual Argot," on March 13 as part of a package of DOE records ordered released in a lawsuit.

The glossary was accompanied by a separate document instructing investigators to ask Gay employees seeking security clearances to disclose the number of sex partners they have had and to identify "by name or general nature" the type of sexual acts they have engaged in.

"Approximately how many such acts have occurred and over what period of time," the document instructs investigators to ask during security clearance interviews with Gay DOE employees.

DOE spokesperson Lisa Cutler said the glossary apparently was last used in 1990 in a training course at DOE’s Central Training Academy in Albuquerque, N.M.

"This was not created by or for DOE," Cutler said, adding that an instructor most likely obtained the glossary from another source. "We found a copy of it in training binders for courses offered between 1987 and 1990," Cutler said.

She said DOE officials discontinued using the second document pertaining to interview questions for Gay employees "sometime in the 1980s."

Cutler initiated a search for the documents at the request of the Blade, which learned about their existence from Gay civil rights attorney Edward Slavin. Slavin filed the lawsuit on behalf of a heterosexual contract employee who lost her security clearance and was fired for publicly disclosing potential safety problems associated with nuclear material at the Oak Ridge lab. Slavin said DOE officials released the glossary and interview documents as part of a collection of hundreds of documents he requested for the lawsuit. Slavin said most of the documents pertain to techniques used by investigators to delve into the private lives of employees.

Veteran D.C. Gay activist Frank Kameny said nearly all discriminatory practices against Gay applicants for clearances stopped in the early 1990s under the Clinton administration. Kameny assisted Gays under investigation for clearances and is considered an expert on the subject of security clearance policies and Gays. Kameny noted that Clinton directed government officials to end anti-Gay discrimination in the clearance process and later codified his non-discrimination policies in the form of an executive order in 1995.

Among the terms and definitions in the DOE "Gay" glossary are: "auntie — elderly homosexual, usually a procurer or a housekeeper in a fairy flat"; "faggotty elegance — indicates homo is just too, too neat, but does not involve his wearing of feminine clothing"; "invert — medical term applied to homosexuals"; "king — male type female homosexual"; "lady lover — aggressive Lesbian."

SAN FRANCISCO - When officials at R.J. Reynolds tobacco company created a plan to promote smoking among Gay people in San Francisco’s Castro District and homeless people in the Tenderloin District, they named their campaign Project SCUM, internal documents show.

The San Francisco Weekly, an online edition of that city’s news and arts publication, reported May 2 that advertisers at the North Carolina-based company apparently adopted the Project name from an acronym for its aim — "subculture urban marketing."

The advertising campaign ran from 1995 to 1997.

Anne Landman, an American Lung Association researcher in Colorado, discovered "Project SCUM" last month while looking through documents various tobacco companies had to publicize as part of a 1998 litigation settlement with attorneys general of several states.

"Philip Morris is very careful with its language and is very straight-laced in its presentations," Landman told SF Weekly. "But what we find on the R.J. Reynolds site is more raw and unpolished. They are more direct in saying what they mean, and have much less finesse in hiding their true purpose."

R.J. Reynolds spokesperson Lisa Eddington said the company does not respond to information publicized as part of the settlement agreement.

The documents Landman found noted that R.J. Reynolds wanted to market Camel cigarettes to Gays in the Castro and advertise Doral to people in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.

"This is a hate crime, plain and simple," said Kathleen DeBold, executive director of the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer in Washington, D.C. "What else do you call it when a group thinks of Gays and Lesbians as ‘scum’ and then targets us with something that kills?"

San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly, who represents the Tenderloin District, described the advertising campaign as "racist, classist, and oppressive."

Bob Gordon, vice president of San Francisco’s Coalition of Lavender Americans on Smoking and Health, said Project SCUM is a reminder that "gay or straight, black or white, we are all victims of the tobacco industry."

ATLANTA - Home Depot officials are recommending that stockholders vote against a proposal at their annual meeting in Atlanta May 30 that calls for amending the company’s equal employment opportunity policy to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The EEO policy now prohibits discrimination based on color, race, age, sex, national origin, religion, or disability. Home Depot officials said this mirrors the protected categories required by federal law.

"We believe this proposal is not necessary," Home Depot officials said in the 2001 proxy. "If we go beyond legal requirements, it would be impossible to enumerate additional categories that fully express our inclusiveness."

The proponents of the proposal said that, by implementing a written policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, "our company will ensure a respectful and supportive atmosphere for all employees and enhance its competitive edge by joining the ranks of companies guaranteeing equal opportunity for all employees."

The Southern Voice newspaper in Atlanta reported that a Home Depot spokesperson said the company had received feedback from the public about the stockholder proposal. He would not say how many responses the company has received.

Home Depot officials also said in response to the proposal that the company already has taken a number of steps to recognize domestic partners and "to respect the relationships of our associates and customers."

"Moreover, it is an essential part of our company’s values to respect all people," they said, "and we require each of our associates to act in accordance with that value every day."

Harry Knox, executive director of Georgia Equality Inc., a statewide Gay civil rights group in Atlanta, does not agree with Home Depot’s stance.

"They’re missing a terrific opportunity to show themselves to be truly inclusive, which they claim consistently but have not backed up with offering domestic partner benefits on an equal basis with what they provide to their married associates," he told the Southern Voice.

Knox is leading efforts in Atlanta to get Home Depot and other Georgia companies to be more supportive of their Gay employees. The campaign has included meeting with Home Depot officials to get them to provide domestic partner benefits.

Home Depot officials said that last year they extended a number of "family benefits" to employees for their same- and opposite-sex domestic partners and dependents. Those benefits include providing leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, bereavement pay, relocation expenses, inclusion in the employee assistance program, and membership in the fitness and health program.

The company does not, however, offer medical benefits to provide insurance coverage for Home Depot employees who have domestic partners.

NEW DEAL: The Los Angeles Sparks women’s basketball team and the owners of a California bar popular with Lesbians co-sponsored their first event May 4 to increase ticket sales and game attendance.

Sparks players and representatives met last Friday with fans at The Factory, a club in West Hollywood where the Girl Bar holds weekly events. The Women’s National Basketball Association players signed autographs and fans bought Sparks pennants, notebooks, basketballs, and season-ticket packages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

It was the first time that a WNBA franchise publicly acknowledged that Lesbians are a demographic group worth targeting to boost ticket sales at games.

Robin Gans and Sandy Sachs, a Lesbian couple and co-owners of the Girl Bar, agreed to promote Sparks events after Penny Toler, the team’s general manager, approached them.

Toler said Sparks officials wanted to proactively reach out to Lesbian fans to increase game attendance.

"Women’s sports have moved beyond old stereotypes," Toler told the Times. "We don’t sell tickets for Section D, Rows 1-4 for black fans and Section C, Rows 1-4 for white fans and Section F, Rows 1-4 for lesbian fans. We’ve reached out to many different parts of this city looking for fans."

FAITH PROTEST: Soulforce, an interfaith network of Gay people and their supporters, is scheduled to hold a series of vigils and a symbolic "jazz funeral" June 12-13 when Southern Baptist Convention leaders gather in New Orleans.

Organizers said the non-violent protests are designed to publicize Soulforce’s opposition to the denomination’s teachings on homosexuality.

"Southern Baptists are a primary source of misinformation about sexual and gender minorities," said the Rev. Mel White, co-founder and executive director of Soulforce. "Their teachings lead to discrimination, suffering, and even death."

White said the jazz funeral is a way for Soulforce organizers to show "we weep when their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender children are born."

LIFE SENTENCE: Brown County, Wis., Circuit Judge Donald Zuidmulder sentenced Daniel R. Chipman to life in prison Tuesday on a first-degree intentional homicide charge, the Associated Press reported.

Chipman, 31, of Green Bay, was charged in connection with the 1997 murder of Jeff Wahlen, an AIDS activist and Gay youth outreach worker for Lutheran Social Services in Marinette.

The judge said Chipman and Paul Foss, another defendant in the case, "picked a certain type of people and preyed upon them" when they targeted Wahlen.

The men stabbed Wahlen more than 50 times after they went with him to drink beer at a motel in Green Bay.

Chipman and Foss blamed each other for Wahlen’s death.

Foss, 27, is to be sentenced June 18.

BENEFITS DENIED: Milwaukee’s Common Council rejected a labor contract Tuesday that proposed granting health benefits to same-gender partners of city employees, the Associated Press reported.

The 11-6 vote against the contract marked the first time in 40 years the Common Council had turned down a contract approved by city and labor leaders.

Opponents of providing domestic partner benefits said they did not want to ask taxpayers to pay for wage increases and the $60,000 a year it would require to offer the additional health coverage.

EWDD Enterprise Changes Name

An Eaiser to Remember Company Name Boasts Membership