Free State Justice Information/Schedule

Schedule:

1. Upcoming Rap Session at Out Front
2. Frederick March and Demonstration
3. Gay Prom in Columbia
4. Baltimore PFLAG Meetings
5. State Employees Credit Union
6. MD Gay Law Enforcement Association
7. Baltimore Men's Chorus
8. Washington Post Article on Montgomery County Incident

1. Upcoming "Out Front" Rap Session

Tues, May 2, 7-9pm - "Politically Incorrect: The Basics of Gay Rights," Blake Humphreys, Free State Justice, Managing Director, will host an entertaining and informative discussion about politics, civil rights, what we should know and why we should care. At Chase Brexton, 2nd floor (1001 Cathedral /next to City Cafe). Out Front sponsors this monthly discussion with Chase Brexton's youth outreach program.  Come and meet people for an entertaining talkshow-styled discussion about gay politics.
(Out Front is Baltimore's new program for young men who love men and their friends. Out Front is a collaboration of AIDS Action Baltimore, the GLCCB, and Planned Parenthood, with links to Chase Brexton and local universities. If you want to meet new people and want to find out more about Out Front, call 410 539-6010.)

2. JOIN MARCH AND DEMONSTRATION FOR EQUALITY IN FREDERICK ON SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1:00 P.M.

Kip Koontz, Frederick County gay/rights activist, invites all supporters to join a short march and demonstration in Frederick on Saturday, May 6. Meet at 1:00 p.m., bring flags and banners to help make this a festive occasion. For more information contact Kip Koontz, 301-620-1663, email: magsutton@aol.com

3. PFLAG COLUMBIA'S SECOND ANNUAL DIVERSITY PROM

All LGBT students, friends and allies of all ages are invited to a gala evening event in Columbia, Friday, June 2, 8:00 p.m. to midnight, Sheraton Hotel at Wincopin Circle, Columbia Lake Front. Tickets are $15. For information contact Collette Roberts, 410-290-8292, email: roberscp@aol.com.

4. PFLAG BALTIMORE MEETINGS

Support meetings are the second Sunday of the month, from 2-4 p.m. at the Episcopal Diocesan Center, N.Charles St at University Parkway. Mark your calendars for May 14 and June 11 meetings.

5. State Employees Credit Union

SECU President Halleck has assured the governor that after 10 years, the domestic partnership issue WILL be on the SECU Organizational Committee's agenda.
NOW MORE THAN EVER it is important for SECU members and ALL MD State Employees to contact SECU IN WRITING and urge them to do whatever is necessary to amend the bylaws to include domestic partners. Ms. Halleck has requested that we send her emails. Send them to: Teresa A. Halleck, CEO/President Email address: greyhnd@erols.com

6. Maryland Gay Law Enforcement Association

Free State Justice received substantial assistance (via testimony and letter writing) from the Maryland Gay Law Enforcement Association in Annapolis this year. Please get the word out that they are available for officers that need their assistance.
The contact is Kate Meeks. Her email address: Marylandglea@aol.com

7. The Baltimore Men's Chorus proudly presents "Just Walt!"

Music from The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and More! We look forward to seeing your group at our upcoming concert. Saturday May 6 at 8 pm and Sunday May 7 at 2:30 pm Saints Phillip and James Roman Catholic Church on the corner of 28th and Charles Streets in Baltimore

8. Washington Post article on Montgomery County Incident

Slur Charges Bring Protective Order
By Steven Gray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page B02

A Montgomery County judge ruled yesterday that a Germantown man was the aggressor in an April 15 incident in which the man allegedly attacked a neighbor because she is a lesbian.

District Court Judge Patricia L. Mitchell made the finding in granting Jude M. Brickman, 43, a six-month protective order against Charles Jackson, 62, which bars him from having any contact with Brickman, her daughter and her partner. The judge also ordered Jackson and Brickman to "avoid hostile contact" at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, where their children are in different sixth-grade classes.

"You were the one who got in the truck and came" to the woman's home, the judge told Jackson yesterday. "It's not plausible, and not likely, that she would be the aggressor . . . without some provocation."

Brickman and Jackson also have filed criminal charges against each other in District Court. Mitchell's ruling, made yesterday after an hour-long hearing, has no direct impact on whether either complaint will be prosecuted by the state's attorney's office. Brickman, of the 13100 block of Country Ridge Drive, filed second-degree assault charges against Jackson, who lives less than one block away in the 20100 block of Club Hill Drive. In it, Brickman said the incident began when Jackson's 12-year-old son made slurs about her sexual orientation.

In his second-degree assault complaint against Brickman, Jackson said that she began the fight and that she and her daughter called his son a racial slur just before the attack. The Jacksons are black; the Brickmans are white.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler said yesterday he has not decided whether to prosecute either case. Because no police officer witnessed the incident, Gansler's office must investigate and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute either complaint.

Gansler said that Jackson's allegations about racial slurs would not necessarily support any hate crime charges. In Maryland, crimes based on race are covered under the hate crime law but crimes based on sexual orientation are not.

"Given the history of [harassment] of Brickman's daughter based on the sexual orientation of her parents, we would need more support before we would pursue a race angle on this case," Gansler said yesterday.

A neighbor of Brickman said in an interview that he has heard or seen Brickman's daughter being teased because of her mother's sexual orientation. Sergio Castillo, 27, recalled an incident some months ago when a group of children teased the girl, saying, "You're not a girl, you're the daughter of lesbians." "I said she's a girl, just like any other. So just leave her alone," Castillo said he told the youths.

Jackson said in an interview that about three years ago Brickman's partner, Perrian Baldwin, spoke to him about problems between their children. At that time, they agreed to keep the children apart.

Montgomery County District Court records show that Baldwin filed second-degree assault charges against another neighbor three years ago, alleging Kevin Roman and his wife screamed homophobic slurs at her during an argument about their son's alleged assault on her daughter.

Prosecutors opted not to proceed with those charges, sending them to mediation. Gansler said yesterday that mediation between Jackson and Brickman is a viable option if the case is not prosecuted before a judge in District Court or a jury in Circuit Court. Others in their racially mixed Germantown neighborhood said that Brickman, Baldwin and the girl mostly kept to themselves.

"I talk to them all the time. They mind their own business. They're just like any other family," said Louis Spinks, a 46-year-old disabled retiree who lives directly across the cul-de-sac from Brickman's home.

According to police and court records, Brickman said the April 15 incident began about 4:30 p.m., when Jackson's 12-year-old son approached Brickman's 11-year-old daughter while she was playing in her front yard and made slurs about the women's sexual orientation.

Twenty minutes later, Brickman and Jackson agree, he pulled up to the women's house in a car, while a group of children followed on foot. Jackson, in charging documents he filed against Brickman, said Brickman approached the car and, while screaming obscenities, reached into the car and grabbed his shirt.

In court records and during an interview last week, Jackson said he struck Brickman and threw her to the ground.

Records show that Jackson's son told police that he called Brickman and her partner homophobic epithets and that the girl then called him by a racial slur.

Jackson and Brickman have said that their children did not use any slurs against the other.

Jackson also denied that his son kicked Brickman while she was on the ground; police records show that a footprint was found on the woman's shirt. Jackson refused medical treatment, records show, and Brickman was taken by ambulance to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, where she was treated overnight for severe scrapes and bruises to her chest, arms, knuckles and legs.