AIDS Researcher Wins Eviction Battle

A Greenwich Village co-op board 's year-long court battle to evict a doctor who treats persons with AIDS ended in defeat on October 17 [1984], due to the efforts of a gay rights group and the New York state attorney general's office.

The board, representing the tenants of 49 West 12th Street, told Dr. Joseph A. Sonnabend last year that the tenants wanted him out of the building because of concern for their health and the lowering of property values of their apartments due to AIDS patients entering his office.

Sonnabend, a microbiologist and the occupant of the ground floor office since 1977, consulted his lawyer, William Hibsher of the New York law firm Teitelbaum and Hiller. Hibsher is also a board member of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the organization which took the case to court and succeeded in blocking the eviction with a temporary restraining order. The order was issued on October 14, 1983, by the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Sonnabend had no quarrel with the board's right to evict him. "But the mistake they made," said Sonnabend, "was to say it was over AIDS."

Then it became a case of discrimination, said Hibsher,"against a population that is really more deserving of people's compassion and help. I think that all people know that very often discrimination against people with AIDS is another form of discrimination against gay people."

In New York State, there is no law prohibiting discrimination against people because of sexual orientation; however, Lambda used a provision of the state's human rights law protecting disabled people from discrimination as the basis for their lawsuit.

"Five of Sonnabend's patients," said Hibsher, "joined in the lawsuit for legal reasons. We were concerned that since Dr. Sonnabend is not himself a disabled person, the defendant might take the position that [Sonnabend] could not raise the disability statute in support of his legal position."

With the patients as co-plaintiffs, continued Hibsher, "they could say they are disabled persons, and they are potentially being discriminated against by the building's decision." Two of the five patients have since died of the disease.

In the court settlement, Sonnabend was awarded $10,000 in damages and a new one-year lease. The co-op must also pay $1,000 in legal costs to state Attorney General Robert Abrams's office, which acted as Lambda's co-counsel.

Hibsher sees the settlement as a landmark case that "projects a very strong image on the part of those who protect the rights of these citizens."

He continued: "It's, to our knowledge, the first litigation brought in connection with alleged discrimination against people with AIDS, and it established very importantly legal procedures in the State of New York and nationwide; One, that people with AIDS are considered disabled persons under the disability laws, and most states have a civil rights law which protects persons who are disabled from discrimination. Two, the court issued a preliminary injunction in the course of the litigation and part of its ruling was that it accepted the expert opinion that AIDS is not casually transmitted. Consequently, the court rejected any notion that a person with AIDS could be segregated or kept out of a public accommodation on the grounds of potential contagion. Three, and I think most important, the case stands for the proposition that the civil rights community, Lambda, the attorney general of the State of New York, and other litigants are not going to sit back and let people discriminate" against people who are gravely ill.

Sonnabend, who spends much of his time doing research, said that after the settlement, "some of the tenants offered their congratulations. Many tenants at the time [of the eviction attempt] were quite unhappy with the way the board proceeded."


This article was originally published in the Gay Community News (Boston) on November 10, 1984.

Gays Demonstrate Against Falwell Speech

Demonstrators both inside and outside Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan protested on December 10 [1984] a speech scheduled to be delivered by the Reverend Jerry Falwell, a member of the religious right wing, who views homosexuality as "a perversion." Falwell left the building undercover about an hour and a half after he was unable to complete his speech which had an 8 pm starting time.

The protest, sponsored by the People's Anti-War Mobilization, and supported by various gay and lesbian groups, among them Black and White Men Together, Lesbian Activists at Barnard College, and the National Coalition of Black Gays drew a crowd of more than 300 who carried signs and chanted slogans condemning Falwell's homophobia. One sign read "SAY NO TO REAGAN AND THE RIGHT WING." Another said "KEEP NEW YORK CLEAN, DRIVE OUT FALWELL."

Andy Humm of the Coalition of Gay and Lesbian Rights, estimated  that about two-thirds of those entering Town Hall were protesters. "Jerry Falwell is a clown, a puppet," said Humm, addressing those surrounding a makeshift platform. "The next time he comes to New York, he'll be ignored."

As the crowd chanted slogans like "Falwell and the Klan go hand in hand" from police barricades, protesters, who were mostly white, were being forcibly ejected by police from the auditorium. Some had to be dragged to the sidewalk. As each ejected person came out, they were cheered on by their supporters. The mood of the crowd was festive. Even the cops seemed to be enjoying themselves throughout the event. Protest songs were performed by a singer and a guitarist over a loudspeaker to bolster the spirits of the demonstrators as they stood out in the cold night air.

An interpreter for the deaf stood nearby as each guest speaker came to the mike.Those who spoke included the Reverend Renee McCoy, pastor of the Harlem Metropolitan Church, which has a gay and lesbian congregation and city councilwoman Ruth Messinger. McCoy told her listeners that the God she serves is "a God who sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins and not [for] our sexuality." She also pointed out that "to stand against Jerry Falwell is not to stand against God but to stand with God."

Messinger vowed that "we will see to it that [Falwell] does not intercede in his efforts to deny people their sexual preference."

This article was originally published in the Gay Community News (Boston) on December 22,1984.