Subject: APS on Colorado
From: [email-masked] (Kenji Matsuoka)
To: [email-masked] (Kenji Matsuoka)
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 17:07:15 -0500 (EST)

I ordinarily don't read the American Physical Society News, but I was
just tidying my desk when this popped out at me, from the front page
of the March issue.  It's concise and well worth reading.  

To summarize: the APS will not sponsor meetings in any place that
either discriminates or legalizes discrimination against GLB folk
(among other groups).  This is welcome news, and somewhat surprising
for me, as physics seems like an overwhelmingly straight field.

A friend of mine belongs to a small but prestigious society of
ecologists (don't know the name), and reported that his society had
adopted a similar position last year -- at the initiative of one of
its members.  Does someone have a list of professional societies that
have openly rejected discrimination against GLB people?  Has *your*
professional society done so?

Kenji

===  lifted sans permission from APS News:  ===

APS Council Issues Statement in Response to Colorado

The APS Council approved a statement on protection of its members
against discrimination at its November meeting, resolving not to hold
Society-sponsored meetings in any state or locality that discriminates
or prohibits protection from discrimination of any group.  Drafted in
response to a state constitutional amendment in Colorado that would
deny homosexuals legal protection against discrimination, the
statement was endorsed by the APS Executive Board last September and
forwarded to the Council for final approval.

The APS ban does not apply to continued participation of individual
physicists engaged in activities for Colorado-based physics
organizations.  With regard to meetings, the ban remains in suspension
as long as the court-ordered injunction against implementation of the
Colorado constitutional amendment remains effective.

``It is tempting to say that this is not an issue for the APS, but we
do have homosexual members whose safety and concerns must be taken
into account,'' said Stephen Adler (Institute for Advanced Study), a
member last year of the APS Panel on Public Affairs, which drafted the
statement in tandem with the Committee on the International Freedom of
Scientists.  ``By scheduling meetings in Colorado, we would
potentially place those members in the position of having to risk
discrimination by attending.''  He added that because APS meetings can
be held anywhere in the country, and are often hotly contested for,
implementation of the policy would not impede APS activities.

In November of 1992, a majority of voters in Colorado ratified a
ballot proposition amending Article II of the State Constitution to
prohibit the adoption or enforcement of any law entitling homosexual,
lesbian and bisexual persons to minority status or protection from
discrimination.  Implementation of the amendment was blocked by the
Colorado courts, but the test of the amendment's constitutionality is
likely to reach the United States Supreme Court.

According to Adler, the amendment would effectively legalize
discrimination against gays and lesbians in Colorado.  In addition, it
would nullify actions in such communities as Boulder, Aspen and
Denver, in which a majority of the citizens had passed ordinances
affording protection against discrimination based on sexual
orientation.  ``By eliminating legal protections, the amendment
sanctions prejudicial acts against homosexual, lesbian and bisexual
persons,'' said Adler.

Similar statements against the Amendment to Article II of the Colorado
Constitution have been issued by other professional societies,
including the Committee of Concerned Scientists, the American
Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America
(MAA).  Because of the passage of the amendment, the AMS and the MAA
have canceled plans to hold their 1995 annual joint meeting in Denver,
and the American Association for the Advancement of Science canceled
its plans to hold its 1999 annual meeting in Denver.  The APS
statement will be distributed to many of these societies, as well as
such organizations as the Colorado Legal Initiatives Project.

The text of the APS statement follows.

[in italics:]

The elected Council of The American Physical Society affirms the
commitment of the Society to the protection of the rights of all
scientists, including freedom from discrimination based on race,
gender, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.  The Society
bears a particular responsibility to protect the participants in its
meetings from possible discrimination.

Therefore, the Council resolves that The American Physical Society
will not sponsor meetings in any state or locality that discriminates
or prohibits protection from discrimination.

Specifically, the Council deplores the passage on 3 November 1992 of
Amendment II to the Constitution of the State of Colorado removing and
prohibiting protection from discrimination of persons owing to sexual
orientation.  Although implementation of Amendment II has been
suspended pending judicial review of its constitutionality, the APS
prohibition on meetings would apply if the suspension were lifted.

=== end quote ===