LEGISLATION BANNING GAY BARS TESTED IN VIRGINIA

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LEGISLATION BANNING GAY BARS TESTED IN VIRGINIA

A new gay bar as well as dining establishment in Alexandria has gone to federal court to overturn a 1930s Virginia law restricting establishments with liquor licenses from utilizing homosexuals or serving as a meeting place for them.

The lawsuit, submitted yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, is a preemptive strike by the French Quarter Coffee shop, said owner Murray I. Greenberg, that was afraid state authorities will utilize the regulation to close the dining establishment.

Greenberg said 3 top officials of the Virginia Liquor Control panel saw the restaurant Thursday and showed that they could hesitantly need to act.

\" Approximately this factor, we essentially lived and also allowed live,\" Greenberg stated. \"We didn't want to lose our certificate. The regulation must be off the books. The regulation is incorrect.\"

William M. Glasgow Jr., of Alexandria, stated the other day that he had actually filed a problem with the drink control panel against the bar before it opened.

\" The laws of the state of Virginia say you can closed a gay bar,\" Glasgow stated. \"I'm certainly for the law. We've reached shield family life. We can not shield domesticity if we have people going around declaring what they do in the room, whether it's homosexual or heterosexual. It's just taking a trip a pathway to anarchy.\"

The three beverage control panel officials who checked out Greenberg, led by Chairman George M. Hampton Sr., are named as offenders in the match.

Greenberg stated he was told by Hampton that they were reacting to problems made to the board as well as the state Attorney general of the United States's Office. \"It's remained in the code for a long time,\" Hampton said of the legislation. \"To my knowledge, it hasn't been applied in concerning ten years, on the suggestions of the Chief law officer's Workplace.\"

Hampton decreased to state why he is neglecting that recommendations currently. He would not comment further, claiming he had actually not had time to go over the legal action with counsel. The Attorney General's Workplace might not be reached for remark.

\" It's absurd that organizations catering to the gay and lesbian area have to be policed by the state as to that their customers can or can not be,\" said Robert Bray, public information director for the National Gay as well as Lesbian Task Force. \"Gay individuals need to have the ability to go anywhere as well as invest their hard-earned gay revenue without the invasion of homophobic state legislations.\"

The legislation states the board might suspend or withdraw the liquor license of any type of company that has \"come to be a meeting place or affair for customers of narcotics, drunks, homosexuals, woman of the streets, panders, panderers, casino players or habitual legislation lawbreakers.\" One more provision prohibits a certificate holder from working with \"an individual of sick repute, a person who drinks to excess or a B-girl,\" along with a homosexual.

Greenberg is asking the government court to state the state legislation unconstitutional, stating it violates his civil liberties to equal security, due procedure and also flexibility of association.

\" From a legal point ofview, it's a little like stating Episcopalians can not go to a dining establishment together,\" stated Kenneth E. Labowitz, among Greenberg's lawyers.

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, making political appearances in New Hampshire yesterday, claimed he understood nothing about any kind of enforcement of the law. He said he would not comment additionally due to the pending legal action. \"It ought to be left to the Attorney General's Workplace,\" Wilder stated.

Some Virginia lawmakers stated the regulation most likely might not endure a lawful challenge, but the values of the prohibition have actually not been an issue over the last few years.

\" It's most likely that a judicial strike ... would be successful,\" claimed Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr. (D-Mount Vernon), an elderly participant of the Rehabilitation and also Social Provider Board, which supervises the drink control board.

Gartlan claimed that he has actually obtained a couple of letters in recent times grumbling regarding the ban on gay bars but that there has actually never been a lobbying campaign to obtain the General Assembly to change it, presumably because \"it hasn't been a circumstance aggravated sufficient for advocates of these gay communities to obtain steamed up.\"

Sen. Mark L. Earley, a Chesapeake Republican who attracts solid assistance from Christian diehards, claimed one factor to toss out the restriction on gay bars is that it is so loosely enforced currently.

\" You either have to implement it throughout the board or take it off the books,\" he claimed.

Patrick W. Hell, of Virginians for Justice, which lobbies for gay rights, stated the team has functioned unsuccessfully for 3 years to obtain the Virginia General Assembly to pass an expense that would certainly reverse the regulation. \"We could not obtain anyone to fund it,\" he claimed.

Barnhard is a lesbian that was disallowed last year from G.W.'s, an Alexandria restaurant, because she danced with an additional woman on the dance floor, according to court papers. Barnhard was thrown away of the dining establishment after she was told that her activities can endanger its liquor permit.

\" I hope one day being gay will no more be an issue,\" Barnhard claimed yesterday. \"However at the same time, adjustments have to be made. As well as I can't consider a far better area to start than to eliminate the crazy regulations that restrict our flexibility.\"

Greenberg's King Road establishment, thought to be the only honestly gay bar in Northern Virginia, has had previous brushes with the beverage control board.

The dining establishment obtained its control board permit in May. When it opened, Greenberg offered to repaint trousers on four male nudes in an ornamental mural in the coffee shop's upstairs lounge after he was told the paints would need to be examined by the board to determine whether they went against a law forbiding salacious photos in restaurants.

The beverage control board obtained included with the murals after an issue from Glasgow. Last month, he submitted a $100,000 libel suit versus Greenberg because the shorts that were repainted on the murals to cover the \"back parts\" of the naked men consisted of words \"Glasgow Coverups.\"

Staff writers John F. Harris in Richmond as well as Donald P. Baker in Nashua, N.H., added to this record.