Gay Community

Attack on gay rights is attack on us all I wondered after reading Gregory Kane's column ("Gay rights law opponent says logic, not hate, is issue," Aug. 8), whether Mr. Kane has ever connected with the gay community. Has he ever spoken to anyone who was fired, refused hospital services, or thrown out of a restaurant simply because of his or her perceived sexual orientation? Does Mr. Kane know that many gays laugh when the notion of "choice" is mentioned, for they have long known that their being gay is as much an inborn part of them as the color of their eyes or the shape of their nose?

BALTIMORE REALLY knows how to make you feel good about being gay. And you could feel the pride all around. During the city's gay-pride weekend festivities June 16-17, Fragrance, the cross-dressing host of the block party on Greene and Lexington streets, stepped on stage - in such neon makeup and bright plumes, he almost appeared radioactive - and screamed, "Hey Baltimore ... we've got to love each other!" To him, it didn't matter if you were gay, straight, black, white, old, young; if you were having a good time, you were welcome to the party.

The winter's chill that marred relations between Mayor Martin O'Malley and his supporters in the gay community was all but forgotten in yesterday's bright sunshine at Druid Hill Park, where cheers and applause greeted the mayor at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore's annual Pride Festival. O'Malley took the festival stage to announce the creation of a Gay and Lesbian Task Force, made up of eight community activists and representatives of every city agency. The task force will meet four times a year to help frame city policy on issues raised by gay and lesbian activists, O'Malley said, and it will also serve "a trouble-shooting function" to prevent misunderstandings between the gay community and City Hall.

WASHINGTON - When Brian Bennett was working on George W. Bush's transition team, some administration hopefuls would nervously approach him with a question: Did they need to hide their homosexuality to get a job? "I told them you wouldn't plaster across your resume, `I AM GAY,' but if their qualifications included participation in a gay and lesbian organization, then they should list it," says Bennett, one of two openly gay Republicans who advised the Bush staff during the transition. "When you've been told for such a long time that you're not welcome into the party, people have a little trepidation.

Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano returned to his job yesterday as he and the O'Malley administration continue trying to mend their relationships with gay and lesbian leaders, many of whom were calling for his resignation little more than a month ago. Appearing refreshed and confident, Graziano faced the media at the housing agency's offices near City Hall on the morning of his first day back from a monthlong paid leave for alcohol treatment....

The city's housing commissioner is set to return today from a monthlong leave he took after a drunken episode during which witnesses say he made anti-homosexual remarks at a bar - and he has scheduled a meeting with gay activists. Paul T. Graziano, who was sworn in as commissioner in December, took the paid leave Jan. 4 after admitting to a drinking problem and saying he would enter an alcohol treatment program. Many leaders in the gay and lesbian community wanted Mayor Martin O'Malley to fire Graziano for making what witnesses said were sexually explicit, disparaging remarks about homosexuals on Dec. 29 at Bertha's bar in Fells Point.

Mayor Martin O'Malley met privately with gay community leaders yesterday in his latest attempt at damage control a week after he chose not to fire the city's new housing commissioner for making anti-gay remarks while drunk. The mayor and the commissioner, Paul T. Graziano, also wrote conciliatory letters to the gay community, published yesterday in Baltimore-based Gay Life magazine, in the wake of Graziano's use of the word "fags" and disparaging, sexually graphic remarks about gays at a Fells Point bar Dec. 29. And City Council President Sheila Dixon issued a statement yesterday criticizing O'Malley's handling of the matter, but not calling for Graziano's dismissal.

O'Malley was right to stand by embattled housing commissioner Mayor Martin O'Malley has showed once again his strength of character by standing by City Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano ("O'Malley under fire for Graziano incident," (Dec 31). Instead of bowing to political pressure by the gay and lesbian community to fire Mr. Graziano for ridiculous remarks he made in a drunken state, the mayor is choosing to defend a man he knows well. The gay community's argument that, since it supported Mr. O'Malley during his mayoral bid, he should therefore fire the housing commissioner for making anti-gay remarks astonishes me. I didn't realize that was how it worked.

Baltimore gay-rights advocates sharply rebuked Mayor Martin O'Malley yesterday for not firing the city's new housing commissioner for making loud homophobic remarks at a Fells Point bar, marking the first serious split with the mayor for a community that strongly backed his campaign. Paul T. Graziano, tapped by O'Malley in October and sworn in this month, told patrons at Bertha's at 734 S. Broadway early Friday that the "whole place is full of fags" and made sexually explicit, disparaging remarks to two men he apparently thought were homosexual, according to witnesses and a police report.

Members of the gay community, including the Washington-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, plan to come to Baltimore tomorrow to protest last week's Supreme Court decision barring gay leadership in the Boy Scouts of America. The group plans to gather tomorrow at 5 p.m. in front of Baltimore's chapter of the Boy Scouts of America at 701 Wyman Park Drive. David Baker, a spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said Baltimore is being targeted because it's "the public face of the group in Maryland."