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CENSORSHIP ARTIST
Four Horsemen ol the Apocalypse,
SoVo's tour-part look at the Christian
right's leaders, continues with Donald
Wildmon PAGE 7
mm
Billy McKinney physically ejected from
mayoral forum PAGE 3
Gay Atlanta man to be tossed from
military reserves pages
State health officials try to fix
minority HIV outreach program p«gm 5
NATION
New York serial killings hit home for
Atlanta woman PAGE 9
PEOPLE
Front Runners to participate in
Dekalb’s Take Rack The Night p>g E ss
Burkhart's hosts County Fair '93 to
benefit AIDS Walk Atlanta PAGE 30
OUT AND ABOUT
MUSIC
Gay rock hits Atlanta with Pansy
Division and Kristen Hall PAGE 25
M0VIE8
Cinefest premiers "Last Call at
Maud's," a look at an historic lesbian
bar PAGE 33
Long-awaited "M Butterfly” falls far
short of the play PAGE 29
VOLUME 6/NUMBER 34 PLEASE RECYCLE 75C WHERE SOLD
MIXED MESSAGE
Though a federal judge dismissed Robin Shahar’s
discrimination lawsuit against Attorney General
Michael Bowers last week, the language in his ruling
may mark a gay/lesbian rights milestone.
by KC
Atlanta—Georgia Attorney General Michael Bow
ers was within his legal rights when he withdrew a job
offer from attorney Robin Shahar after discovering she
planned to marry her lesbian partner, a federal judge
has ruled.
But in handing down his ruling last week, U.S.
District Court Judge Richard C. Freeman said that les
bians and gay men have a constitutionally-protected
right to their relationships—the First time such protec
tion has ever been recognized by a federal judge.
However, Freeman said that Shahar-’s right to pur
sue her marriage to her partner, Fran Shahar, was out
weighed by Bowers’ “interest in the efficient delivery”
of services performed by his office. He issued a sum
mary judgment in favor of Bowers, effectively dismiss
ing the suit.
“I’m very disappointed, although there are a couple
of positive points,” Shahar said.
“We are going to be appealing,” said Shahar’s at
torney, Debra Schwartz. “Summary judgment is only
supposed to be granted if there are no undisputed facts,
and we think that there are, particularly in regards to
Bowers’ alleged rationale.”
When contacted by Southern Voice, Bowers said
he was “extremely pleased” with the decision but would
not comment further on the case.
In 1991, after learning of her relationship with
Fran Shahar, Bowers withdrew an offer of employment
to Robin Shahar, even though she had previously in
terned in Bowers’ office and had graduated sixth in her
class at Emory University’s law school. The Shahars
were married in a religious ceremony a short time later.
Bowers claimed that because Georgia law does not
provide for same-sex marriages, he could not allow
Shahar to work in his office as an assistant attorney
general. Shahar sued, and, in later court briefs filed in
W 1 L D M 0 0 N
support of his case, Bowers also cited the ease of Bow
ers vs. Ilardwick, which the U.S. Supreme Court used
to uphold Georgia’s sodomy law.
Last year, Freeman rejected that argument, going so
far as to threaten the attorney general with sanctions for
using it. But in making his ruling last week, Freeman, in
a puzzling change of course, agreed that “suspected
sexual conduct of department attorneys” could interfere
with the operation of the state’s top law enforcement
office.
“This case is not about sodomy,” said Shahar. “But
there’s an underlying sense that sodomy is out there
somewhere—we just can’t pul our finger on it.”
Early in Freeman’s 23-pagc ruling, the judge says
that Shahar’s relationship with her partner, Fran Shahar,
“constitutes a constitutionally-protected intimate asso
ciation” under the right to freedom of association, the
first time a federal court has made such a ruling about
lesbian and gay relationships.
“The court finds that [Shahar] pursued her desired
association only at the price of her desired employ
ment,” wrote Freeman. “Thus, the question before the
court is whether [Bowers] justifiably imposed that price.”
Freeman ruled that Bowers did, in fact, have a justi
fiable reason to withdraw the employment offer from
Shahar, agreeing with Bowers that the operations of his
office could be detrimentally affected if Shahar’s union
with Fran were to become common knowledge.
“They’re saying I would have brought discredit to
the office,” said Shahar, who now works in the city of
Atlanta’s law department. “It hasn’t been true where
I’m working now or where I worked before this. And it
wasn’t true the summer I worked [in the attorney
general’s office as a law clerk in 1990], In fact, based
on the work I did there that summer, they decided to
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