Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, August 9, 1983
Anchorwoman wins
sex discrimination suit
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) -
Television anchorwoman Christine
Craft, who said her boss demoted her
because she was too old and unattrac-
tive, won her sex discrimination suit
yesterday against Metromedia Inc. and
was awarded $375,000.
Craft, 38, smiled as the jury foreman
read the decision. The four-woman,
two-man jury then returned to
deliberations to decide if she was en-
titled to punitive damages.
THE JURY deliberated about nine
hours before ruling in favor of the an-
chorwoman in the suit against
Metromedia, former owner of KMBC-
TV. The jury also said Metromedia was
not in violation of the equal pay law.
Craft sued Metromedia for rein-
statement as a co-anchorwoman, $200,000
in double back wages and $1 million in
damages. She claimed a former boss at
KMBC-TV said she was too old, too
unattractive and not deferential to men
when she was demoted from a co-anchor
position to reporter two years ago.
Craft admitted she left the station on
her own rather than take a demotion to
reporter, but claimed she was fired
from the position for which she was
hired - co-anchor of the prime-time
evening news.
Craft was hired in December, 1980 to
co-anchor KMBC-TV's 6 p.m. and 10
p.m. newscasts, but was demoted the
next August after the station conducted
a viewer survey through Media
Associates of Dallas.
Apes help scientist
learn about humans
EAST LANSING (UPI) - Modern of the great apes of Africa and has used
parents could benefit from "aping" the results as models for human
some of the ways in which gorillas and behavior in the child-rearing process.
orangutans relate to their young, a He said these apes have exceptionally
psychologist said yesterday at close parent-infant bonds which help to
Michigan State University. promote confidence and security in
Terry Maple - a comparative everyday activities.
psychologist at the Georgia Institute of Parents must try not to keep children
Technology - told members of the distant from their own lives, Maple
American Society of Primatologists he said. For example, he said, even very
is interested in studying what animals small children should eat meals with
can tell humans about themselves. their parents.
Maple conducted behavioral studies
Gay rights activists ask
for equal treatment at rally
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press international reports
U.S. begins talks with Saudi
leaders on Palestinian conflict
MIDEAST - Rival Palestinian factions battled in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley
yestcuday as U.S. Middle East envoy Robert McFarlane conferred with
Saudi Arabian leaders on negotiating a removal of foreign forces from the
country.)
The renewed fighting between factions supporting and opposed to
Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat came as Syria said it
shot downa pilotless Israeli spy plane over Lebanon and accused the United
States of representing the Israeli viewpoint in the region.
the battles between the Palestinian factions took place near the city of
Chtaura, 22 miles east of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley, Beirut radio said. The
radio gave no indication of the casualties.
Syria's official radio in Damascus radio said Syrian gunners in the Bekaa
Valley shot downa remote-controlled Israel8i spy plane when the craft tried
to fly over their positions. An Israeli army spokesman in Tel Aviv said he
knew nothing of the incident.
Army takes over Guatemala
GUATELMALA CITY - Army troops shot their way into the presidential
palace and overthrew the goverment of Efrian Rios Montt yesterday in the
second military coup in Guatemala in 17 months.
Rios Montt's place as head of the government was taken on a provisional
basis by the defense minister, Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia, 58. He said two
presidential guards and a civilian were killed in the coup.
The president of the Supreme Court, Ricardo Sagastums Vidaurra, swore
in the new military president at the National Palace, the seat of government,
yesterday afternoon.
An unconfirmed report said Rios Montt and some supporters were holding
out in the Presidential House, adjacent to the National Palace.
Earlier, Guatemalan radio reports said as many as five were killed and 25
wounded in the fighting around the presidential palace that involved
machine gune and mortar fire. A U.S. embassy spokesman said the fighting
continued for about 90 minutes.
Mejia pledged in a news conference to legalize political parties and to go
ahead with plans for a constituent assembly election next July that would
lead eventually to presidential balloting.
Libyans attack Chad
NDJAMENH, Chad - Chad's embattled government said its forces came
under new Libyan air raids yesterday, and Libyan pilots were ordered to
shoot down U.S. AWACS spy planes interfering with Libyan operations.
A Libyan pilot whose Soviet-built plane was shot down said Libyan crews
dropping thousands of pounds of napalm and fragmentation bombs on
targets in northern Chad were acting on the direct orders of Col. Moammar
Khadafy.
Some 1,200 miles to the west, the pro-Libyan officer who seized power in
Upper Volta in a coup Friday said Khadafy took it on himself to send aircraft
laden with supplies to his country.
"We have courteously requested the Libyan authorities not to continue the
airlift, which we did not ask for," said Capt. Thomas Sankara, speaking in
his capital, Ouagadougou, in an interview broadcast over French radio.
The situation in Chad, where for six weeks Libyan-supported rebels loyal
to ousted president Goukouni Weddeye have been fighting to topple
President Hissene Habre, was described by the Reagan administration as
serious.
Nicaraguan officials call U.S.
commission military ploy
WASHINGTON - Top-ranking Nicaraguan government officials charged
yesterday that the Reagan administration is using the Kissinger commission
and prospects of Central American peace negotiations to stall for time while
it focuses on an armed effort to topple the Sandinista government.
The administration "has no real desire for dialogue," said Saul Arana,
former ambassador to the Organization of American States and the top U.S.
expert in the Nicaraguan foreign ministry.
Arana, who is visiting Washington, said the administration's decision to
send U.S. warships and hold military maneuvers in Honduras reflects the
failure of CIA-supported guerrillas to threaten the Sandinista government
despite two years of trying.
"The presence of the American fleet means the covert actions of the CIA
have been defeated," Arana said at a briefing at the Nicaraguan embassy
here for American reporters.
The new Nicaraguan ambassador, Antonio Jarquin, said he met last week
with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, head of the ad-
ministration's commission on Central America, but still doesn't know what
the panel's role is.
He said Kissinger, who requested the meeting, told him the commission
wants to visit Nicaragua and Jarquin assured him he would be welcome. He
said Kissinger stressed the commission would not be involved in
negotiations, but would focus on long-range policy.
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JOEY LEIBER, carrying a briefcase
and wearing a dark suit, said he thinks
rallies will help get laws against gay
discrimination passed, although they
still may not eliminate prejudice.
The gay community "needs to (per-
suade), more straight people to see that
gay people are not a threat to them and
then everything will fall into place,"
Leiber said.
Jean Galley, a spokesman for
Dignity, a gay Catholic organization
which meets at St. Mary's church, said
that he had originally planned to be a
priest but was forced to change his
plans when rumor spread that he might
be a homosexual.
THROUGHOUT his struggle to ex-
press his gayness, Galley said, "my
spirituality has really helped me.
"I feel very confident about myself
and I know that God is going to make
this a safe place for us."
Some at the rally though, such as
Chris Coatney think God views gays in
quite a different light. Coatney, who
carried a Bible and a sign saying "Get
smart, go straight, stop perversion
now!" said "Homosexuality is a sin
because men are not built to have sex
with men, and women are not built to
have sex with women."
COATNEY said he had considered
becoming a homosexual himself at one
time, but said the love of God turned
him around.
"I've been in mental hospitals, jail
and I have masturbated ... I used to be
deceived like they are," he said. "I just
want to let them know they are headed
for hell. I want to save them."
Coatney also said he is trying to begin
an anti-pornography group in the area
which would try to close down
bookstores that sell pornographic
items.
SINCE THE beginnng of the year, a
group calling itself the Lesbian and Gay
Rights on Campus (LaGROC) has been
campaigning to require the University
to state that it will not discriminate on the
basis of sexual orientation. University
President Harold Shapiro however, has
not told the group whether the University
will support such a policy, Mack said.
David Piontkowsky, a Southfield at-
torney, said many of the state's laws
don't offer protection to gay people. But
that may change next month, he added,
when an amendment will be introduced
to the Michigan Civil Rights Act to in-
clude a clause prohibiting
discrimination against gay men and
lesbians.
PIONTOWSKY said the amendment
will be introduced in the House of
Representatives next month by a con-
servative Republican from the west
side of the state, but he did not give the
name of the representative.
To some at the rally, though, amen-
dments and lobbying will never be
enough to stop hatred toward gays. A
spokeswoman from the Revolutinary
Workers League said the growing right
wing is attacking the rights of gays and
lesbians and "oppressed" people must
fight for their views.
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