Gay couples get
victory in Vermont
■ State’s Legislature
first to approve ‘civil
unions.’
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -
Lawmakers gave final approval
Tuesday to legislation making
Vermont the first state to grant gay
couples nearly all of the rights and
benefits of marriage.
The state House voted 79-68
for the “civil unions” bill, which
was approved by the Senate last
week.
Democratic Gov. Howard
Dean said he will sign it, possibly
as soon as Thursday.
“I think the powerful message
is that in Vermont, we tend to value
people for who they are, not what
they are,” Dean said
Three gay couples and their
lawyers, who sued in 1997 when
they were denied marriage licens
es, watched in the crowded House
chamber as the final roll was
called
Stacy Jolles and Nina Beck
stood cradling their 5-month-old
son, Seth. Peter Harrigan stood
embracing Stan Baker, who held a
small necklace from which his par
ents’ wedding rings dangled. And
Holly Puterbaugh held hands with
Lois Farnham, who wiped tears
from her eyes.
“This isn’t marriage, but it’s a
- huge and powerful bundle of rights
that we’ve finally gotten,” Baker
said
The bill came about after the
Vermont Supreme Court unani
mously ruled in December that gay
couples were being unconstitu
..—. ■4
tionally denied the rights and bene
fits of marriage.
The court gave the Legislature
time to decide whether to let gays
marry or to create some kind of
domestic partnership. Lawmakers
opted for a parallel system for
gays, creating what they called
civil unions.
After the bill takes effect July
1, couples will be able to go to their
town clerks for licenses. Then they
will have their unions certified by a
justice of the peace, judge or mem
ber of die clergy.
Breakups will be in family
court, just as divorces are, although
they will be called dissolutions.
The more than 300 benefits
that the state confers on married
couples now will flow to same-sex
couples, including the ability to
make medical decisions on behalf
of partners, inherit from each other
without hefty taxes and protection
from having to testify against one
another.
But there are responsibilities,
as well. For example, same-sex
partners will have to assume each
other’s debt and pay child support
Civil unions will not entitle
couples to benefits bestowed by
the federal government in areas
such as Social Security and immi
gration. And most states probably
will not recognize civil unions.
Still, no state has ever gone so
far in recognizing gay relation
ships.
“I think this definitely places
Vermont in the forefront in this
country, places Vermont on par
with Nordic and European coun
tries and Canada,” said Beth
Robinson, a lawyer who argued the
W I think the
powerful
message is that
in Vermont, we
tend to value
people for who
they are, not
what they are.”
Howard Dean
Vermont governor
gay couples’ case before the
Vermont Supreme Court.
Opponents in the Legislature
said they were being asked to grant
special rights to people whose
lifestyles they could not support.
“If this bill passes, this day
shall live in infamy throughout the
country and throughout the world.
This is against natural law,” said
Republican Rep. Henry Gray.
Supporters argued that tradi
tional marriages between men and
women would not be undermined
if gays were granted the same
rights.
“May we be the last generation
of gay and lesbian Vermonters who
have formed our committed rela
tionships without the possibility of
a law that grants us our rights, ben
efits and responsibilities,” said
Rep. William Lippert, the only
openly gay member of the
Legislature.
seven hurt in zoo shooting
Teen-ager arrested; officials call for gun control
WASHING I ON (AP) - Police arrested a 16
year-old boy Tuesday in a shooting at the National
Zoo that wounded seven youths and stunned visitors
to one of the capital’s most popular tourist attractions.
The teen-ager was taken into custody 24 hours
after the shooting at the home of a relative in
Northeast Washington, Assistant Police Chief
Terrance Gainer said.
The suspect was taken into custody without inci
dent, and a shotgun was recovered at the scene,
Gainer said. He was charged with assault with intent
to kill.
Police Cmdr. Peter Newsham said at a news con
ference that authorities would attempt to charge the
youth as an adult.
Officials had said the weapon used in the shoot
ings was most likely a 9 mm handgun, but none was
found. But Gainer said he believed ammunition used
in a 9 mm handgun was recovered.
The investigation into the shootings continued,
but “we’re still operating under the presumption there
I
was one gunman, one gun,” Gainer added.
The shootings prompted calls Tuesday from local
and federal officials for stricter gun controls, but they
insisted the National Zoo and the capital’s other
tourist attractions are safe.
Mayor Anthony Williams said more must be done
to reduce teen-agers’ access to guns and discourage
them from resorting to deadly force to resolve con
flicts.
“Instead of reaching for a bottle or a rock,” as chil
dren used to do, “you’re now reaching for guns,”
Williams said.
President Clinton echoed that theme during a
White House event on hate crimes.
“It should be obvious that we can do more, and we
must do more,” Clinton said, calling the shootings “a
senseless act.”
Seven children between the ages of 11 and 16
were shot Monday following a fight at the zoo, which
was crowded with thousands of people at an annual
black family celebration.
Criticism
of Reno
continues
■ Meanwhile, Elian and his
family move to a secluded place
and plan to have schoolmates visit.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Elian Gonzalez
and his Cuban family moved Tuesday to a
secluded location on Maryland’s Eastern
Shore as the Clinton administration arranged
to have four playmates visit him.
In a closed-door meeting, Attorney
General Janet Reno failed to quiet
Republican criticism of her decision to use
force to reunite father and son.
Reno told 13 senators that the possibility
of firearms in the house of Elian’s Florida rel
atives was a key consideration for the mili
tary-style raid, participants said.
While several Democrats praised her per
formance, Republican senators emerged
from the session with fresh criticism of Reno
and the pre-dawn raid in Miami.
“Many of the questions were not ade
quately answered,” said Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who had
arranged the meeting.
Lott announced hearings into the raid
next week by the Senate Judiciary
Committee - and suggested that Elian’s
father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, would be
among those sought for testimony. He con
ceded, however, that Gonzalez probably
couldn’t be compelled to testify, given his
status as a Cuban citizen.
Members of both parties said the
exchanges with Reno had been cordial, but
that criticism was freely expressed by many
attendees.
Meanwhile, U.S. marshals moved Elian,
his father, stepmother and half brother from
the apartment at nearby Andrews Air Force
Base, where they had stayed since Saturday
night, to an estate at Aspen Institute’s Wye
River Conference Center to await court
action over whether Elian should be allowed
to return to Cuba.
State Department spokesman James P.
Rubin said that, at the father’s request, four
playmates of Elian - each accompanied by an
adult - will be allowed to come from Cuba to
visit him for about two weeks. A teacher and
cousin, previously granted visas, planned to
fly to the United States today.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell of the
National Council of Churches, a supporter of
the father’s effort to be reunited with his son,
said the children were being brought here to
create “a sense of normalcy for him about the
life he has led and will lead.”
President Clinton, meanwhile, said
Elian’s reunion with his father, nearly five
months after the boy’s rescue in the Atlantic,
“was long overdue.” He urged that the family
be given “the space it needs to heal its
wounds and strengthen its bonds.”
Speaking at an unrelated White House
ceremony, Clinton also praised the federal
agents who swooped in and removed the 6
year-old boy from the Miami house on
Saturday morning for a “very, very difficult
job to do with no easy choices.”
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■ Netherlands
Prosecutors request further
delay in bombing trial
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)
-Scottish prosecutors Tuesday
requested a further delay in the trial of
two Libyans accused in the 1988
Lockerbie bombing, after the defense
submitted new evidence and a list of
more than a hundred witnesses less
than two weeks before proceedings
were to start.
If granted by the special Scottish
court at Camp Zeist, a former U.S. air
base 45 miles east of The Hague, the
trial could be bumped back several
weeks - its third postponement since
the original starting date of June 7,
1999.
Proceedings were scheduled to
begin May 3 following two defense
requested delays since Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi surrendered Abdel
Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen
Khalifa Fhimah last year to stand trial
for the murder of 270 people, includ
ing 189 Americans, killed in the Dec.
21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight
103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Prosecutors said the delay was
needed to help them prepare to deal
with 119 new witnesses and further
evidence submitted by the defense on
April 20.
■ Iran
University students skip class
to show support for president
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Hundreds
of university students cut classes
Tuesday to rally behind Iran’s presi
dent, whose reforms movement suf
fered a blow this week when hard-line
opponents closed down 13 pro
democracy newspapers and maga
zines.
The press crackdown, which
included the arrests of two leading
journalists, was an indication of the
power that hard-liners in the ruling
clergy wield and are willing to use
despite the unquestioned popularity of
President Mohammad Khatami and
his allies.
■ Washington, D.C.
Report shows minority youth
more likely to be imprisoned
WASHINGTON (AP) - A black
youth is six times more likely to be
locked up than a white peer, even when
charged with a similar crime and when
neither has a prior record, says a new
civil rights report contending racial
bias exists at every step of the juvenile
justice process.
Many policies and practices have
led to a “cumulative disadvantage” for
black and Latino youth, civil rights
leaders and youth advocates said
Tuesday as they released the report by
the Youth Law Center. The National
Council on Crime and Delinquency, a
criminal justice think tank, did the
research.
■ Washington, D.C.
Clinton vetoes legislation
to transport nuclear waste
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Clinton vetoed legislation as expected
Tuesday that would have cleared the
way for thousands of tons of highly
radioactive nuclear waste to be
shipped to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Nevada lawmakers and national
environmental groups hailed the
action for blocking transportation of
40.000 tons of the lethal material that
piled up at commercial reactors in 31
states.
But Sen. Frank Murkowski, R
Alaska, who heads the Energy and
Resources Committee, blasted the
president for leaving unresolved
where the country will permanently
store the waste that remains lethal for
10.000 years.