Palmer Bids Farewell to Positive Art Workshops After 11 years of teaching the Positive Art Workshops, Patrick Palmer is passing on the, er … paint brush.

To recognize his years of work teaching art to HIV-positive students, the National Council of Jewish Women will honor Palmer on February 5 with the Hannah G. Solomon Award; named for the group’s founder, the award is "the highest honor given by the organization to individuals who have been a catalyst for social change."

Palmer originally got the idea for the classes after his best friend, Jim Hemesath, died in 1990. "In my attempt to do ‘something,’" Palmer said, "I realized all I could do was teach and paint! So I set up the course, which originally was just a 10-week workshop which never stopped."

The classes were originally at the Art League, and then moved to the Museum of Fine Arts’ Glassell School in 1998. Palmer estimated that several hundred people have taken them in the 11 years.

One of Palmer’s students, Don Workmam, had a support team that included a member of the National Council of Jewish Women, so he got the two groups together. The Jewish women’s group became a mainstay support to the classes, providing lunch, holiday and birthday parties, and "just unlimited amounts of support and love," said Palmer.

Sometimes we look at community activists and leaders and think, "Oh, that’s not for me–that’s not the kind of thing I do." But Patrick Palmer is a real example of someone who figured out how to make a difference by using the gifts and experience he already possessed.

The Positive Art Workshops will continue under the guidance of well-known Houston artist Richard Fluhr, and they will move to the Houston Lesbian and Gay Community Center every Friday, noon to 2 p.m., starting January 18. The classes are free and open to anyone who is HIV-positive, regardless of artistic experience or talent. For information, call the community center at 713/524-3818.

Of Murder and Whether Gays Are Protected by the Constitution

Finally, some good news. Sort of.

Many in the community know about the 1998 murder of Marc Kajs, by his ex-lover Ilhan Yilmaz, outside Urbana restaurant. Yilmaz had been stalking and threatening Kajs for about seven months. Kajs had sought protection from the Houston police numerous times, including the early morning before his death when Yilmaz actually chased Kajs into the police storefront on Westheimer. The police told Kajs they couldn’t help him because he didn’t have a restraining order and sent him away. That morning after Kajs got off his shift waiting tables at brunch at Urbana, Yilmaz came for Kajs with a gun, chasing him down Montrose and shooting him eight times before also killing himself.

Marc Kajs’s mother, Gloria Swidriski, has sued the city of Houston, saying that they are responsible for her son’s death, asserting that they did not take adequate action to protect people in domestic violence cases, especially when the partners are gay.

"If you call up and say someone stole my car from in front of a gay bar, they’ll do something about it," says Robert Rosenberg, Swindriski’s lawyer. "But if you say your ex-lover jumps you in front of that same bar–like what happened to Marc–they just say break it up and go home." The case had enough serious implications that the national ACLU filed a brief on its behalf.

What people may not know is that the city of Houston’s lawyers contended that the police were not required to protect Kajs because gays and lesbians are not protected by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. (That’s the one that says "[No state shall] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.") And a U.S. District Court decided in favor of this incredible piece of reasoning, according to Rosenberg.

So the good news is that on December 12, 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed the lower court’s opinion and said that, yes, gays and lesbians do deserve equal protection under the law, including in domestic violence cases.

Basically, what Marc Kajs’ mother has won is the right to a trial. A date has not yet been set.

Calling All Gay Veterans

A Houston chapter has been formed of the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America, a national group with chapters from Palm Springs to San Antonio. Calling themselves America's "unwanted warriors," GLBVA dedicates its efforts to overcoming the ban on gay service in the military and on creating a sense of pride in gay service members and veterans.

There was a local chapter of GLBVA about a decade ago, but after several years of existence, it faded away. The Houston GLBVA meetings will be held the first Monday of the month at the Houston Lesbian & Gay Community Center, 803 Hawthorne. For more information, see the national website at www.glbva.org, e-mail houstonglbva@earthlink.net, or call the community center at 713/524-3818 and leave a message.

AIDS Death Rate Rising in Texas

The rate of deaths from AIDS in Texas climbed in 1999 and 2000, according to the Texas Department of Health. Gary Werntz, medical director of Austin's David Powell Clinic, and other health officials said they expect HIV eventually to become resistant to some of the drugs that produced a sharp decline in AIDS-related deaths and for death rates to begin climbing again. Department of Health figures also show that more intravenous drug users, poor people, and minorities are being exposed to HIV and are dying in Texas. Almost one third of AIDS deaths in the state since 1993 have been among African-Americans, who make up less than 12 percent of the state's population. Health officials say the AIDS death rate in Texas will continue to climb without new treatments. More than 31,000 Texans have died of AIDS complications since 1981.

• Danburg to Seek Reelection

Gay-friendly State Rep. Debra Danburg has announced she will seek reelection in the November elections, with the primaries scheduled for March. Danburg has served 10 two-year terms in the state capital. However, this election her district has been reconfigured significantly; shifting to the southwest, Discrict 134 retains the Montrose area west of Montrose Boulevard, but loses the Heights and adds West University and Bellaire.

•Grand Marshal Nominations

The Pride Committee of Houston will accept nominations for grand marshals of the 2002 Houston GLBT Pride Parade until January 11. You can find a nomination form at www.pridehouston.org.

•City Council Watch

The Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus is starting a Councilwatch Committee, a watchdog group whose purpose is "to keep current on the history of the voting record(s) and actions of individual and groups of city council members and the mayor of Houston so that we may better educate members of the GLTB and progressive communities while also holding our elected officials accountable to their constituents." If you are interested in being a council watchdog, contact Deborah Rogers, caucus president, at voter@HGLPC.com.

NATIONAL BRIEFS

Now We Can Get Them!

Two AIDS activists were jailed November 28 in San Francisco under the new federal anti-terrorism legislation, with bail set at $500,000 each, in a case that calls up concerns about Bush’s use of the September 11 attack to eliminate our civil liberties.

Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli were arrested as a result of a "phone zap" action, in which they urged people to call public health officials and news reporters about the proposed Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, what they describe as an AIDS quarantine proposal.

"The men currently languish in jail with little prospect of release," said a letter protesting the arrests signed by such gay public persons as Steve Ault and Harvey Fierstein. "The prospect of high bail and escalating criminal charges for protest is a genuine threat to civil liberties.

"All of these cases send a clear message to others who might engage in protest. In this new legal and political climate, activists must beware."

Relief for 9/11 Gay Widows and Widowers

Gay and lesbian partners of those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States will be able to apply to the federal victims compensation fund for relief.

Congress directed the Justice Department to make rules for how the claims should be heard and gave broad discretion to Kenneth Feinberg, who was named to oversee the fund. Feinberg (whose title is "Special Master") is required to award funds based on individual circumstances. Feinberg will therefore consider the merits of each same-sex partner claim under the regulations, and can provide recovery to same-sex partners based on a variety of determining factors. The Special Master can grant the same funding to same-sex partners as married spouses would receive should he determine the partner was a "dependent" of the victim.

"Gay and lesbian survivors will get relief from the fund, and we applaud the Justice Department and Ken Feinberg for achieving this important federal milestone," said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "We would have preferred that the regulations were more specific and the recovery process simpler, but we are fully confident that Ken Feinberg, on behalf of the Bush administration, will settle every case fairly and equitably."

LGBT Youth-Run Action

On April 10, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) will stage the Day of Silence Project, in partnership with the United States Students Association –making it the largest youth-run LGBT action in the country.

First started in 1996 by students at the University of Virginia, the Day of Silence Project is a full-day action in which students take a vow of silence to protest the discrimination faced by LGBT people. Instead of speaking, participants hand out "speaking cards" printed with a message that explains why they have chosen not to talk. The Day of Silence Project now occurs in hundreds of high schools and colleges across the country.

If you’d like to organize a Day of Silence in your university or high school, you can get the info you need at www.dayofsilence.org.

"The Day of Silence Project can be a tremendously powerful launching pad for youth to make a concrete difference in their school communities," said Chris Tuttle, national student organizer.

LGBT Journalism Scholarships

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force will award four scholarships to LGBT graduating high school seniors or undergraduate students who plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in journalism at an accredited four-year college or university.

Each of next year's four Messenger-Anderson scholarships will provide $5,000 the first year, renewable at $2,500 over the next two years for a possible total award of $10,000. Winners are required to participate in a paid summer internship at NGLTF offices in Washington, DC.

Deadline is February 1. Download guidelines and an application at www.ngltf.org/about/messenger.htm. For questions, send an e-mail to mcruz@ngltf.org.

TG Activist Murdered in Florida

Transgender activist Terrianne Summers was gunned down outside her home December 12. Summers was a human rights activist who worked closely with local and state human rights organizations and who helped to organize and empower the transgender community in the Jacksonville area. Summers founded the Transgender Action Group and was the first openly transgender person to serve on the Duval County Democratic Executive Committee. She had helped organize a protest against Winn-Dixie in response to their firing of truck driver Peter Oiler.

The Jacksonville sheriff’s office has no suspects at this time, but the circumstances surrounding the murder indicate the attack may have been a hate-crime.

Terrianne Summers is survived by a spouse and two children.

AMA Includes Gay Medical Group

The American Medical Association, that bastion of conservative traditional medicine, voted in December to include the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association in its Specialty and Service Society. The decision is the first step in the process that could allow the nation’s largest LGBT medical association to vote on resolutions and policies brought before the AMA.

Clinton Given International AIDS Award

The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care presented former President Bill Clinton with its Dag Hammarksjöld Award on December 8 for his leadership in the battle against HIV/AIDS during the eight years of his presidency. The award was presented to Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa in 1999. In his acceptance of the award, Clinton gave a speech about the global AIDS pandemic.