Gay People

CAUSE and effect is always an iffy kind of thing, but reasonable people may discern a relationship between Ballot Measure 9 and the firebomb murders of Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock in Salem, Ore.Four people, barely out of their teens and already devotees of white supremacist groups, have been charged with lobbing a Molotov cocktail into the apartment where the black lesbian and white gay man lived. The murder indictment said motive could be found in "defendants' perception of the race, color and sexual orientation" of the victims.

I'm not surprised that virtually all of your printed responses to Sunday's editorial on same-sex marriage were in agreement with your paper's position in favor of it ("Rethinking marriage," May 10). The fear of being called homophobic, bigoted or even worse prevents most intelligent people who may be opposed to the idea from weighing in on this issue. There are two points in the argument for allowing same-sex marriages that are almost always avoided by those supporting it, and I thought it might be worth mentioning them.

Once again, Republicans have made a lame attempt to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage. Once again, referenda will appear on the ballot in various states not only to ban gay marriage but also to forbid gay adoption. Clearly, Republican Party strategists figure that this dying horse can be beaten for at least one more set of election victories. They may be right. There is a singular terror shadowing this issue that defies rational argument and defeats any appeal either to civil rights principles or to basic human empathy.

A few Star Trek fans were shocked by the official revelation that actor George Takei - aka Mr. Sulu - is gay. But many accepted the news with the respect for diversity that devotees say is the hallmark of the sci-fi series. Takei, 68, revealed his homosexuality in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community. Takei said he and his partner of 18 years, Brad Altman, have been open about their relationship to friends and family for many years.

OMAHA -- Americans are sharply divided over whether gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation, a split that shapes attitudes on everything from homosexuals in the military to gay life in general, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.Americans who say individuals cannot change their homosexuality -- 43 percent of those surveyed -- are more sympathetic to the gay view on these issues than the 44 percent who see it as a choice. The country is split evenly, 43 to 43, on whether homosexuals should be allowed to serve in the military.

When I interviewed Randy Shilts six months ago, he still looked healthy -- he even offered to drive me back to my hotel. But he could not fly to premieres of his TV movie ''And the Band Played On.'' One lung had already collapsed, and doctors feared the other would collapse in the rarer atmosphere of an airplane.This week Mr. Shilts died, at 42, one of the best journalists of his or any other generation. Among other things that lend it horror, AIDS is a great brain drain.Mr. Shilts came of a conservative family.

The phone call had been typical of many calls that reach the small office at Western Maryland College. The caller, the manager of a Westminster retail store, felt he was being undermined at work because he is openly gay."An assistant manager had been cutting him down in front of other employees," said Wade Fannin, a 27-year-old WMC senior who founded the college's Lesbian and Gay Resource Center. "We went to his company and helped to get the problem resolved."Since the center's help line opened in June, 300 such calls have been logged.

Chicago. -- Blunt and cantankerous Barry Goldwater is back in the news. The famous right-wing candidate of 1964 is telling interviewers that he supports gay rights, even though homosexuality remains a mystery to him.Senator Goldwater's gay grandson, Ty Ross, says that he is close to the old man, even though he laughs at the way Mr. Goldwater says, '' 'You people need to stand up for your rights' -- one of those 'you people' kind of things.''Senator Goldwater, a military man and a longtime defender of a strong military, supported President Clinton's effort to remove the ban from gay participation in the nation's defense.

CAN HOMOSEXUAL men and women change? A recent study by a Columbia University psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Spitzer, purports to show that some highly motivated individuals can change from homosexual to heterosexual. However politically and culturally objectionable Dr. Spitzer's claim may be, it stands as the latest in a long evolution of changing ideas about homosexuality. During the last 200 years, homosexuality has gone from being a behavior to a condition to an encompassing identity. People have always recognized homosexual behavior, but it was Sigmund Freud and others in the mid-19th century who moved beyond behavior and introduced the word "homosexual" to define the condition of having same-sex attractions.

Martha Horn and Barbara White are ready. If a Massachusetts court legalizes gay marriage soon, the lesbian couple from Laurel plan to head north and be among the first to apply for a license. The women, who have been together for 13 years, aren't out to prove a point about gay rights, they say. They just want the legal benefits of marriage. Specifically, they want health insurance for Horn, who suffers from diabetes but doesn't qualify as a spouse under the policy that White's employer provides.