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SOUTHERN VOICE NOVEMBER3/1994
Gay Millionaire Dies In Murder-Suicide: An o P em y
gay millionaire philanthropist in Wisconsin has been murdered in what police say is a
murder-suicide, the Washington Blade reported. Janesville, Wis., police say that
Virgil Duane Rath was found stabbed to death Oct. 6 in the bedroom of his mansion,
and that Rath’s lover, Frederick Hurdman, was found dead of carbon monoxide
poisoning in a garage on the estate. Rath was president of his family’s steel tubing
business and made generous contributions to AIDS charities. Rath donated $1.5
million last year to Washington, D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Clinic to open a new
medical center.
Germany Gets First Openly Gay
Lawmaker: Volker Beck won elec
tion to Germany’s Parliament on Oct.
16, becoming the first openly gay per
son to do so. Beck, a member of
Germany’s Greens party, says he will
push for legalizing same-sex marriages
and will defend all minorities during
his four-year term. “All minority groups
in Germany feel left out,” he said,
“whether they are gays, refugees or the
handicapped.” Beck also said he is pre
pared for “the possibility that some
right-wingers...will whisper to each
other stupid men’s jokes when I de
liver a speech. In my mind, these kinds
of people make fools of themselves.”
Bookstore Obscenity Case To Go
TO Trial: The case of a Cincinnati gay
and lesbian bookstore accused of pan
dering pornography is set to go to trial
in January. Hamilton County judge William Mallory, Jr., on Oct. 3 refused to dismiss
the charges against the Pink Pyramid for renting a 1975 Italian art film, “Salo or The
120 Days of Sodom,” directed by openly gay filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. A clerk at
the Pink Pyramid rented the film—a searing look at World War II fascism in Italy—to
an undercover vice officer on June 16. The National Coalition Against Censorship and
the ACLU are involved in the case, protesting that Pasolini’s film has “serious literary,
artistic, political [and] scientific value.”
Relative Of AIDS Patient Gets Insurance Benefits: The daughter of a man who
died of AIDS has been awarded $87,500 in an out of court settlement of a lawsuit
against an insurance company filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. William Vernon
died in 1992, but Connecticut Mutual refused to pay the benefits of Vernon’s $100,000
life insurance policy to his daughter and beneficiary, Ashley Vernon, claiming that
Vernon had lied when he applied to reinstate a lapsed policy. A question on the
application asked if Vernon’s health had changed “since the lapse of the policy.”
Vernon answered “no” because he had been HIV-positive prior to the policy’s lapse.
Anti-Gay Minister Cited For Contempt: Notorious anti-gay activist Rev. Fred
Phelps, famous for picketing the funerals of gay men who die of AIDS, and his
daughter Margie have been found in contempt of court in Topeka, Kan., for preaching
against the judge in a case against them and for sending out a fax depicting the judge as
a snake. District Court Judge Michael Barbara is presiding over a lawsuit filed by St.
David’s Episcopal Church against the Phelpses and their church, Westboro Baptist,
seeking to keep Phelps followers away from St. David’s churchgoers. The Phelpses
plan an appeal of the contempt charges, which carried fines and an order to pay for
court proceedings, and have threatened a lawsuit against Barbara.
Woman Who Killed Lesbian Lover Is Paroled: a woman convicted of fatally
stabbing her lesbian lover has been approved for release by Massachusetts’ state
parole board after serving five years of a 9- to-14-year sentence for manslaughter.
Debra Denise Reid is one of the “Framingham Eight,” eight inmates of the women’s
prison in Framingham who petitioned in 1992 to have their prison sentences com
muted on the grounds that they had killed their husbands, boyfriends, or lovers in self
defence. Reid claimed that she had suffered from years of abuse at the hands of her
partner, Jacqueline Gary, before stabbing Gary to death in 1989. The state’s Advisory
Board of Pardons had earlier ruled that Reid was not a battered woman and did not kill
Gary in self-defense, but several members called her an “excellent candidate” for early
parole.
Fight Heats Up In Oregon: Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts spoke to a crowd of about
200 in Salem last week, saying the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s Measure 13 shows the
same intolerance as Measure 9, the group’s anti-gay initiative rejected by voters in
1992. “Why are they back?” Roberts asked. “Why won’t they mind their own busi
ness? It’s because discrimination is their business.” Meanwhile, the OCA has begun to
use claims that gays played major roles in Germany’s Nazi party as a campaign tool for
their measure. OCA spokesman Scott Lively wrote in a letter to a local newspaper that
gays “were an integral part of the Nazi party throughout history.” Lively is trying to
refute claims that his organization uses Nazi-like techniques. “If anybody is using
Nazi-like tactics, it is gay rights groups like Queer Nation and ACT UP,” he said.
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