
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 14, 1993                   TAG: 9308140136
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FRANCONIA                                LENGTH: Medium

LESBIANS OUSTED FROM RINK OWNERS SAY SKATING NOT FOR GAY COUPLES

Two lesbians were asked to leave a roller rink because they held hands and skated together during a designated couples' period.

Clarity Haynes and Lynn Borowitz were part of a group that went to the Franconia Skating Center to celebrate a friend's 24th birthday.

"What happened is horrifying," said Haynes, 22. "All we did was hold hands on the roller rink floor."

The women said occasionally the floor was cleared and it was announced that for several songs only girls or only boys could skate.

Then the floor was reserved for couples, said Borowitz, 22. "They did announce it was male and female couples beforehand," she said, "and we knew that potentially there would be a problem. But we felt that was all the more reason to do it."

"If anyone doesn't follow our rules, we ask them to leave," manager Charles Lowe said of last Friday's incident. He refused further comment.

Rink rules posted near the front entrance do not specify who is allowed to skate together.

When Haynes and Borowitz went onto the floor, a skating rink worker immediately approached them, the two said.

"He kept following us and asking us if we had a hearing problem," Borowitz said.

Haynes said, "I told him we were a couple, but he said it was only male-female couples."

By the time the women left the floor after they were told that police were being called, several teen-age girls had gathered to offer their support, the women said.

Police said the women left without incident and that a 14-year-old girl, who had loudly supported the women, was arrested for trespassing because she refused to leave the rink. The girl was released to her parents and has not been charged, police said.

"I'm confident most people in Fairfax County are not bigots and would be surprised to learn that people can be thrown out of a public establishment for skating together," said Gregory J. King, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a national gay-rights organization based in Washington.

by CNB