Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 20:20:46 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADLines - September 7, 1999 GLAADLines - September 7, 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Wonbo Woo GLAAD Communications Associate (212) 807-1700 x24 woo@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org News and Breaking Stories about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Index: 1) NYPD CITED AS NATION'S LEADER IN RECRUITMENT POLICIES 2) ARKANSAS PAPER CONTINUES TO NAME NAMES 3) DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS ON THE RISE 4) NLGJA CONFERENCE TO BRING JOURNALISTS TOGETHER IN ATLANTA 1) NYPD CITED AS NATION'S LEADER IN RECRUITMENT POLICIES: In recent weeks, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has made efforts to recruit lesbians and gay men by placing advertisements in the lesbian and gay press, distributing information to community members through mailings and posting information in lesbian and gay venues. According to a Sept. 7 article in the New York Times, it is the "nation's largest campaign to recruit gay and lesbian police officers." Since 1969, when community members rebelled against police crackdowns and brutality at the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village - an action widely held to be the birth of the modern lesbian and gay rights movement - the NYPD has had an often tense relationship with the community. Recent and ongoing examples include allegations of police brutality at an October, 1998, vigil held in honor of Matthew Shepard; charges of mistreatment of transgender persons and concerns with police response to hate crimes. Most recently, a group known as Fed Up Queers (FUQ) has alleged that NYPD officers on hand at a gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans failed to intervene when FUQ members protesting an appearance by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani were harassed by Roosevelt Hotel security [see GLAADLines 08.30.99]. Donald Jirak, president of the Gay Officer's Action League (GOAL), said, "GOAL hopes that this recruitment drive will result in hiring large numbers of members of the New York City gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. Bureaucratic government agencies can be changed by internal forces as well as by external ones." For more information, contact Jirak at (212) NY1-GOAL or by pager at (888) 910-1784, or Clarence Patton of the New York City Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project at (212) 714-1184. 2) ARKANSAS PAPER CONTINUES TO NAME NAMES: The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published the names and addresses of 13 men arrested in its Sept. 3 report on a local public sex sting, in spite of a suicide linked to its past reporting of names in 1998. Following the January, 1998, report, one of eight men named in the article committed suicide. In the note he left for his same-sex partner of 31 years, the man wrote: "My name and everything is in the paper this morning. Š Goodbye. I love you." The Democrat-Gazette never reported the man's suicide. GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry said of the Sept. 3 article: "The link between a man's suicide and the Democrat-Gazette's editorial policy of naming names could not have been any more direct - and yet the paper has patently refused to reconsider that policy. This practice is inherently problematic: if nothing else, it puts these men in harm's way by making their identities known and making them susceptible to acts of prejudice and hatred. In at least one tragic case, we've seen it go even further: we've seen it cause a man to take his own life." After the 1998 suicide, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), in conjunction with a number of local activist organizations, made contact with the paper to voice concerns with its policy of naming offenders. While the paper claimed that it had made the decision based upon a standing editorial policy on printing offenders' names, GLAAD pointed out a double-standard, referring to a 1993 Democrat-Gazette report on a heterosexual prostitution sting in which no arrested persons were named. For more information, contact GLAAD Communications Associate Wonbo Woo at (212) 807-1700 x24 or Little Rock activist David Ivers at (501) 224-9708. 3) DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS ON THE RISE: According to a new report released by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC, the 1990s have seen an enormous rise in the institution of domestic partnership (DP) benefits by U.S. employers. HRC credits San Francisco's Equal Benefits Ordinance as providing the impetus for much of the increase, noting that 2,168 of the 2,855 employers currently offering DP benefits instituted their policies as a result of the 1997 San Francisco law, which mandates that companies doing business with either the city or county must offer DP benefits. HRC has also posted a full list of employers with non-discrimination policies and domestic partner benefits online at http://www.hrc.org/worknet . The Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) also released a report on DP benefits earlier this year, entitled, "The Domestic Partnership Organizing Manual." It provides comprehensive information on the need for DP benefits, as well as sample policies and suggestions for mobilizing communities and employee groups in support of DP benefits. For more information on the HRC report, contact David Smith at (202) 628-4160. For more information about NGLTF's manual, contact David Elliot at (202) 332-6483 x3303, or visit NGLTF's website at http://www.ngltf.org for a copy of the manual. 4) NLGJA CONFERENCE TO BRING JOURNALISTS TOGETHER IN ATLANTA: Featuring NBC Today Show co-anchor Katie Couric and a host of top-ranking executives and editorial staff from the nation's leading media outlets, the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) will hold its 8th Annual Convention from Sept. 16-19 in Atlanta. Among the wide-ranging topics to be covered at the convention: addressing the delicate balance between "editor" and "advocate"; covering transgender issues in mainstream and community news outlets; examining the link between anti-gay harassment and school violence; reporting on religion and homosexuality; moving toward full and inclusive representation on television; starting a career as a young lesbian or gay journalist; identifying the ties between race, sexual orientation and civil rights; and many, many more. For a complete schedule and online registration options, visit the NLGJA website online at http://www.nlgja.org . For media inquiries, contact Cindy Abel at (404) 522-5040 or via e-mail at clabel@realworld-usa.com . GLAAD is the nation's lesbian & gay multimedia advocacy organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate, and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. 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