From: Eric Hunt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 23:07:36 CDT

The Birmingham News
June 18, 1994
GAY USA STUDENTS SAY LAW BANNING FUNDING IS ILLEGAL
Page 10A
by Stan Bailey, News Staff Writer

MONTGOMERY -- A lawyer for a homosexual student group at the University
of South Alabama asked a federal judge Friday to rule unconstitutional a
state law that has been used to deny the group funds from the school's
student government association.

Ruth Harlow, attorney for the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance at USA, told
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson that the 1992 Public Funds and
Facilities Statute violates GLBA members' constitutional rights.

"The danger of a law like this is that it will be repeatedly used to
infringe on the rights of other groups," Ms. Harlow, a New York
attorney, told Thompson. "No one covered by the law can ascertain what
is prohibited and what is not."

The statute, signed into law by former Gov. Guy Hunt, bans the use of
college funds and facilities by any group which "fosters or promotes a
lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct
laws."

USA officials have used the law to ban GLBA from maintaining a
university bank account and from receiving money approved for the group
by the SGA, Ms. Harlow siad.

GLBA has been able to use university facilities, but is "fearful it may
not be able to do that much longer," she said.

Assistant Attorney General George Jones urged Thompson not to strike
down the law, which he said is clearly written and does not violate the
rights of GLBA members. "The statute does not make it a crime to be a
homosexual," Jones told Thompson. "It's not a crime to be a homosexual,
just like it's not a crime to be a drug addict."

The law is aimed at seeing that campus funds and facilities are "used
for the purposes for which they are intended," Jones said. The college
also will not give money to groups that promote any sexual activities,"
[sic] he said. "But a group which has the name Gay Lesbian Bisexual
Alliance puts a reasonable public official on notice that this group may
foster, aid and abet violations of the sodomy laws," he said.
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