Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 19:04:05 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADLines April 5, 1999 GLAADLINES Contact: Jerry Weinstein (212) 807-1700 x18 weinstein@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 5, 1999 News and Breaking Stories about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Index to Stories: 1. HENDERSON ENTERS PLEA FOR SHEPARD MURDER 2. MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION AND IHAVE ANNOUNCE 1,600 MILE HIKE THIS SUMMER 3. TRANSGENDERED PERSON MURDERED IN GEORGIA 4. JENNY JONES TRIAL UPDATE 5. U.S. APPEALS CONTROVERSIAL INTERNET CENSORSHIP RULING HENDERSON ENTERS PLEA FOR SHEPARD MURDER: This afternoon, Russell Henderson, a co-defendant in the murder of Matthew Shepard, entered a plea for kidnapping and felony murder, which could carry up to two consecutive life sentences. There had much speculation that Henderson would plead out, carrying forward from the defense's admission during jury selection that he had been a witness to Matthew Shepard's fatal beating. Henderson's defense has maintained that the homicide was not a hate crime, but rather a robbery gone awry. Any testimony by Henderson against co-defendant Aaron McKinney, who faces trial in August, would strengthen the prosecution's case. For more information, please contact GLAAD at (212) 807-1700 or www.glaad.org . MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION AND IHAVE ANNOUNCE 1,600 MILE HIKE THIS SUMMER: The International Hate and Violence Education (IHAVE) Foundation, which works to promote non-violence through anti-hate education, announced its plans this afternoon for a hike created to raise awareness about hate-motivated violence. The trek will start on July 25, stretching from Seattle, Washington, to Fort Collins, Colorado, and end on October 12, the anniversary of Shepard's death. For further information on IHAVE please visit their web site at www.ihave.org or contact Lee Thompson, president, IHAVE, at (877) 994-4283. TRANSGENDERED PERSON MURDERED IN GEORGIA: Tracey Thompson, a 33-year-old transgendered woman, died after being beaten to death with a baseball bat in rural Georgia's Wilcox County last Tuesday. Bleeding from head wounds, Tracey managed to walk a half-mile to a farmhouse for help, before losing consciousness. Tracey, also known as Billy Joe Turner and Tracey Turner, died on Tuesday at an Albany, Georgia hospital. Law enforcement is investigating the beating as a possible hate-motivated crime. "TRANS=ACTION is saddened by the brutal death of Tracy Thompson in Wilcox County Georgia this week" said Kim Ribbans, Communications Director of TRANS=ACTION, Georgia Gender Education & Advocacy. "While it is not at all clear what the motivation for this crime was, it does highlight the high-risk position that many transgendered people are in and the importance of Senate Bill 153, the Georgia Domestic Terrorism Act, which would provide some measure of protection against those who choose their prey based on hatred for certain groups." For further information, please contact TRANS=ACTION at (770) 458-4546 or their hot-line at (770) 938-5536. JENNY JONES TRIAL UPDATE: In 1995, Jonathan Schmitz appeared on The Jenny Jones Show as part of a segment on secret crushes revealed. Although Jones' staff had prepared him that his admirer could be female or male, when Scott Amedure was revealed as his crush, Schmitz was taken by surprise. Three days later, Schmitz shot Amedure to death. A civil suit, brought by Amedure's family, seeks a $50 million judgment against Warner Brothers, the parent company of The Jenny Jones Show. The lawsuit contends that the show's ambush tactics humiliated Schmitz and drove him to gun down Amedure. The complaint further argues that The Jenny Jones Show was negligent and "should have known that by their conduct and false representations [that Schmitz would be incited] to violence." [Schmitz's murder conviction was overturned in 1996; his criminal retrial is pending.] "Any analysis of Scott Amedure's murder is incomplete without noting that this was a hate crime. If this was a case of a woman accused of murdering a man, and she used as her defense that he made a pass at her, we would not be having this discussion," observed Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. For more information, please contact GLAAD at (212) 807-1700 or www.glaad.org . U.S. APPEALS CONTROVERSIAL INTERNET CENSORSHIP RULING: The Justice Department announced Friday that it has appealed a U.S. District Judge's ruling that bans the enforcement of the controversial Child Online Protection Act (COPA). COPA is designed to protect youth online by requiring commercial web sites to secure proof of age before allowing entry. However, the language of the law is ambiguous. What it has broadly defined as "harmful to minors" has the indirect effect of restricting access to resources and sites of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and AIDS communities. "While GLAAD strongly supports child safety on the Internet, COPA has too great a potential to censor and impoverish the culture developed on the Internet," said Loren Javier, GLAAD Interactive Media Director. For more information, please contact Loren Javier at (415) 861-2244 or javier@glaad.org . GLAAD is the nation's lesbian & gay multimedia advocacy organization. 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