GAY RIGHTS
See Editorial page
E
LIEP
augi
BONNY
High 61O
Low 43
See Today for details
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 23 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, October 4, 1977 Ten Cents Ten Pages plus Supplment
High Court
refuses to
overturn anti-gay ruling
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Supreme Court, in a busy first
day of its fall term, let stand
yesterday the ruling of a state
court in Washington that homo-
sexuals are immoral and may
be fired from their jobs.
The court refused to hear the appeal
of James Gaylord, fired in 1972 because
he admitted being a homosexual to-of-
ficials at the Tacoma high school where
he had taught for 13 years.
GAYLORD, contended that his con-
stitutional rights were violated when
his status as a homosexual was used to
dismiss him. The Washington Supreme
Court ruled that homosexuality is im-
moral and Gaylord could be fired even
though he was accused of no
homosexual act. -
Supporters of homosexual rights ex-
pressed dismay at the Supreme Court's
refusal yesterday to hear the Gaylord
case. But they emphasized that the
court decision set no precedent and
would not overturn existing state or
local laws protecting gays against
discrimination.
Civil liberties attorneys, who had
hoped to use the case to have the
Supreme Court review the rights of
homosexuals, predictably were
outraged by the court's action.
"THE CASE presented the Supreme
Court with an opportunity to say that
discrimination against people by
government because of their status as
homosexuals is impermissable," the
American Civil Liberties Union said.
"This Supreme Court maintains its
record of gross insensitivity to in-
dividual rights," the organization said
in a statement from its New York
headquarters.
In the 40 pages of orders handed
down, the justices also:
" Agreed to decide the legality of
pension plans requiring women to con-
tribute a greater portion of their
salaries than men based on studies
showing that women on the average
live longer to collect benefits. At the
same time, the justices let stand a state
court's decision outlawing pension
plans which pay smaller monthly
retirement benefits to women based on
the same life-expectancy tables.
* Let stand a lower court's order
requiring the busing of students
throughout 11 school districts in the
Wilmington, Del., area. A plan to put
the racial desegregation order into ef-
fect is being worked out but school of-
ficials had hoped to make such a plan
unnecessary.
" Agreed to decide whether one party
may own a newspaper and broadcast
station in the same community. A lower
court said such cross ownership almost
never can be allowed. That ruling
would affect an estimated 170 such
ownerships across the country.
* Agreed to decide if a newspaper,
the Stanford Daily on the California
university's campus, enjoys greater
protection than other non-criminal
suspects against police searches. The
case asks the court to review the cir-
cumstances in which police may search
the premises of anyone not suspected of
a crime.
" Left untouched a lower court's
ruling that allows telephone sub-
scribers to use equipment-extension
telephones, answering devices and the
like-of their own choosing without
paying the telephone company for a
protective device. The court's action
could cost the American Telephone &
Telegraph Co. and smaller telephone
companies a lot of money.
" Ruled, in essence, that the once-,
secret 880 reels of White House tape
recordings left behind by former
President Richard Nixon may be
released for use in civil suits. The
court's 1974 decision that the tapes
could be used in the criminal Watergate
trials of Nixon's top aides probably
hastened his departure from office.
IN THE HOMOSEXUAL case,
Justices Thurgood Marshall and
William Brennan Jr. the court's only
two consistently liberal members,
voted to hear Gaylord's appeal.
They also were the only two justices
to vote in favor of hearing the appeal of
a Paramus, N.J., schoolteacher, John
Gish, who was disciplined and ordered
to take a psychiatric examination after
assuming the presidency of the New
Jersey Gay Activist Alliance.
The votes of four justices are needed
to grant review.
GAYLORD'S attorneys had argued
that he was denied his constitutional
rights to privacy, liberty, freedom of
expression and equal protection under
the law.
Federal laws and past court inter-
pretations of the constitution make
illegal-most forms of discrimination
based on race, religion, sex, age, color
and nationality. But sexual preference
has been given no special protection.
Many states and communities have
passed such anti-discrimination laws.
The repeal of
County, Fla.,
homosexual
prominence.
one such law,
propelled the
rights into
:
in Dade
issue of
national
IN OTHER orders, the court
" Let stand the conviction and death
sentence given to Marcus Wayne
Chenault, the condemned killer of Mar-
tin Luther King Jr.'s mother. Chenault
was found 'guilty of gunning down the
civil rights leader's mother in 1974 as,
she played the organ in an Atlanta'
church.
" Refused to hear an appeal aimed at
forcing the Kiwanis International ser-
vice club to accept female members.
The court let stand rulings in lower
courts in. New York 'that Kiwanis is a
private club and therefore exempt from
federal laws barring sexual
discrimination.
Campus gay leaders
blast, court decision
By BRIAN BLANL-HARD
Calling the decision both
"outrageous" and "a breakthrough"
after years of governmental inaction,
gay leaders on campus voiced their
disapproval of yesterday's Supreme
Court refusal to review the appeal of a
high school teacher fired for his sexual
preference.
From the Gay Advocate's Office in
the Union, Jim Toy reported that
"years of indecision have led people to
get optimistic." Now homosexuals
"have something to work on," he said.
TOY ALSO said the decision "points
out more than ever the need for federal
legislation" on sexual preference to
clear up laws concerning gays.
But Dan Tsang, Gay Academic Union
Coordinator, said the ruling demon-
strates that laws will not protect gays.
The decision "just proves that you
can't depend on the U.S. legal system
to deal with the question," said Tsang.
Tsang went on to say that the sexual
preference ruling is part of an overall
"reactionary trend" by the high court.
"IT'S TERRIBLE, especially coming
from Washington where there is so'
much Mower." said Robin Wright of the
Alice Lloyd Women's Center,
See GAYS, Page 7
VA defense 'very interested' in
weird events at Dearborn hospital
.. r. . ".w." .r..-.:tr. rrti rr a,. +lkm+ lhth hatra 1
By KEITH RICHBURG
Defense attorneys in the Ann Arbor
Veteran's Administration (VA) case
are anxiously awaiting laboratory
results from Oakwood Hospital in
Dearborn, where a patient suffered a
breathing failure after being given
an injection by a myryterious man in a
green scrub suit.'
The patient reported late Saturday
to nospital autnorities tna tne uan
experiencing breathing difficulties
after an unidentified oriental man
dressed in a green operating gown
came into his room and administered
an unauthorized injection.
THE PATIENT'S roommate con-
firmed that someone had indeed
injected the patient, whose name is
being withheld by the hospital admin-
Gas deregulation foes
end ong
WASHINGTON (AP) - Militant Sen-
ate opponents of deregulating natural
gas ended a 13-day-long filibuster yes-
terday, saying lack of support from the
White House made it impossible to con-
tinue their delaying tactics.
Sens. James Abourezk (D-S.D.) and"
Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said
they would allow the Senate to vote on
the natural gas pricing legislation.
"IN VIEW of the White House posi-
tion, we will call oft the filibuster ef-
fective immediately," Metzenbaum
ilib uster,
told reporters.
A vote on the bill could come today,
Their surrender came after Vice
President Walter Mondale joined in a
dramatic effort by Senate Majority
Leader Robert Byrd designed to break
the filibuster.
MONDALE, presiding over the Sen-
ate, began ruling amendments filed by
the filibusterers out of order at Byrd's
request, ignoring the shouts of
Abourezk and other senators seeking
recognition.
The two liberal Democrats had been
waging the filibuster by demanding roll
call votes on hundreds of amendments
they had filed to the bill.
Even though the administration wan-
ts to keep price controls on natural gas,
it joined Senate leaders in trying to
break the filibuster on grounds the im-
passe was jeopardizing the rest of Pres-
ident Carter's energy program.
MEANWHILE, in a last-ditch effort
to salvage part of President Carter's
natural gas pricing proposals, Senate
Energy Committee Chairman Henry
istration.
Oakwood ordered laboratory tests
to determine the content of . the
injection. The results of the tests
should be announced today.
"We really don't know at this point
what it was," said Oakwood Hospital
spokesman Robert Hillcoat. "We
have an incident reported by a
patient and an eyewitness, and we're
following up on it."
SIMILARITIES between the Oak-
wood incident and the mysterious
1975 breathing failures at the VA, for
which nurses Filipina Narciso and
Leonora Perez were tried and con-
victed this summer, sparked specu-
lation that the two cases might be
connected.
"It wouldn't be surprising if they
were at all related," said defense
lawyer Michael Moran.
"ONE OF the possibilities we've
always held was that there was a
man, and that he was dressed in
green," Moran told The Daily. "We
never said he was an employe of the
VA,.just someone who know his way
around the hospital."
The "man in green" surfaced
repeatedly during the ten weeks of
testimony in the trial of Narciso and
Perez. The unidentified man, dressed
in a green hospital scrub suit, was
seen lurking in the corridors of the
VA hospital at the time of several of
the mysterious breathing failures.
there.
NARCISO AND Perez, both natives
of the ° Philippine Islands, were
convicted of poisoning five of those
patients by injecting Pavulon, a
powerful muscle-relaxant used dur-
ing surgery, into the patients' intra-
venous feeding lines.
Daily Photo by BRAD BENJAMIN
A simple celebration
Rabbi Aaron Duchan (far left) and Rabbi Aaron Goldstein assist Jodi Marder in celebrating the Jewish feast of
Succoth in front of a ceremonial "sukkah" on the Diag. Jodi is holding a lulav (palm branch) and an esrog demon),
which are traditionally shaken every Succoth to ensure a good harvest.
DISCOUNTS 'MYTHS'
Mersereau: RC still viable
By SHELLEY WOLSON
The Residential College (RC) is
still philosophically and financially
viable, John Mersereau, Chairman of
the LSA-RC Review Committee, and
newly appointed RC director report-
ed yesterday.
Mersereau presented his commit-
tee's evaluation to the LSA faculty
during their second meeting of the
year, and described the college and
its requirements before dispelling
many "myths" that surround RC.
.smug ctvr~W t;.+;..., - +..+ L+t,.. ti n
contact with their professors and
allow for innovation in education
while abiding by LSA requirements.
Another "misconception" about
the RC, Mersereau added, is that its
professors separate themselves from.
LSA faculty and use "cheap labor" in
the form of many teaching fellows..
"We have only two teaching fel-
lows on the current faculty, and our
faculty is some of the finest in LSA,"
Mersereau continued. "Some of our
lecturers are 'cheap labor', being
TF's, but they are not inexperienced
nr imnalifpl
been higher in the past are now
similar.
"It's also been said that the RC
doesn't carry its share of minority
students. We know this and we are
trying to use the knowledge of the RC
to attract minority students."
In addition to addressing the
question of the RC, the LSA faculty
yesterday heard from the Director of
the University's Libraries, Fred
Wagman.
WAGMAN SPOKE of various prob-
lems in the library system and future
<
mammmmmmmm