Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 16:09:34 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: UDK: LesBiGays DIRECTOR QUITS AMID CONTROVERSY OF SEX CHARGE FROM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - LAWRENCE APRIL 6, 1995 FRONT PAGE ================================ LESBIGAY DIRECTOR QUITS AMID CONTROVERSY Candidate ends bid; sex crime charge revealed By Christoph Fuhrmans Kansan staff writer Eric Moore, Lawrence sophomore, announced yesterday in a press release his resignation as director of LesBiGay Services of Kansas and withdrew his name as a social welfare senator candidate for Student Senate. In a release read by David Stevens, Wichita junior and presidential candidate for the REAL coalition; and Scott Manning, Lawrence graduate student and LesBiGayS OK speaker's bureau coordinator; Moore said his decision was based on health concerns. Last night, at the Greg Louganis speech in the Kansas Union, Moore announced that he had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Moore is the first KU student to announce publicly that he is HIV positive. But what remains unclear is whether Moore's decision was motivated only by health concerns. Moore, 26, refused to comment on whether the possible disclosure of his conviction for a sexual offense had influenced his decision to resign from LesBiGayS OK and withdraw from the election. In November 1989, Moore was charged with aggravated sodomy of a three-year-old child in Lawrence. Kansas law defines sodomy as oral contact or penetration of the female genitalia, oral contact with the male genitalia or anal penetration of a female or male. Aggravated sodomy is sodomy with a child under 14 years of age. In January 1990, Moore pleaded no contest to aggravated indecent solicitation of a child under the age of 12. The charge is defined by Kansas law as enticing or soliciting a child under the age of 14 to commit or submit to an unlawful sexual act. Moore was sentenced to one to five years at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility in Ellsworth. Moore would not comment on the length of time he served in prison. The University Daily Kansan learned of Moore's prior record when Kansan staff reporter Teresa Veazey conducted background checks of all Senate candidates. After Veazey discovered Moore's crime Tuesday, she informed Stevens, REAL coalition's presidential candidate. Veazey then told Kansan editors of Moore's prior record. In addition to being involved in LesBiGayS OK and running for Senate, Moore is also a resident assistant in Templin Hall. Stevens would not directly comment on Moore's record but said that he had asked students to run for Senate on the REAL coalition who would make good student senators. He also said that he would not judge senator candidates by their past records. "I believe that's a question the voters will have to decide," Stevens said.