Gay And Lesbian News Today

2009-03-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

2009-02-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

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Gay Supported Receives Death Threats

2008-11-22T15:08:00.001-08:00

Police are investigating a death threat against Vermont Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, made a day after the Democrat announced he would introduce a marriage equality bill in the new session of the legislature.

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The threat was made by an anonymous woman angry over the proposed bill who telephoned Campbell. Campbell said she threatened to blow up his home.

“It is disturbing,” Campbell told the Times Argus newspaper. “You never can tell if this is someone who is giving an emotional reaction or if there is some seriousness to it.”

Campbell said the threat was not just directed at him but also at his family.

“They should not be exposed to threats of this type,” Campbell said. “You don’t expect that in Vermont.”

Campbell already has drafted the same-sex marriage bill. It would amend Vermont’s landmark civil union law to allow gay and lesbian couples full marriage.

Vermont was the first state in the country to legalize civil unions in 2000.

Campbell acknowledges the marriage bill will likely face opposition and will depend on the support of Gov. Jim Douglas, who has not yet taken a stand on the legislation.

Last year, an 11-member commission was set up by the leaders of the Vermont House and Senate, both Democrats, to look into Vermont’s civil unions law to see if it is providing equality for gay and lesbian couples.

It submitted its report to the legislature in April, but made no recommendations on revising the law to allow for same-sex marriage.

The Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection detailed months of hearings it held throughout the state, where same-sex couples complained they were still discriminated against because employers, hospitals and insurance companies do not see their relationships as the equivalent of marriage.

The commission was chaired by former state Rep. Tom Little (R). Little was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when it passed the law legalizing civil unions in 2000.

Little said the commission purposely decided not to include recommendations in the report. “That’s a decision for Vermont’s elected officials,” Little said at the time.

A public opinion survey earlier this year found that the majority of people in the state believe gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry.

Earlier this week, the Boston-based group that won equal marriage rights in Massachusetts and Connecticut announced an ambitious plan to fight for equal marriage throughout New England and predicted success in the four additional states by 2012.

Wow, someone planning to bomb a no on Prop8ers home up. How very terroristy of them?

Gay Advocates Angered By Shelving in Chicago School

2008-11-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO - As far as Miguel Garcia is concerned, Chicago already has a gay high school.

Jones College Prep, where the 16-year-old is a junior, has the city's largest Gay Straight Alliance, an organization of more than 100 students that he and other members say wields considerable influence at their downtown campus. When he heard about the now-scuttled proposal to open a gay-friendly high school, Garcia said to his classmates, "Don't we already have that?"

But not every Chicago Public Schools student has access to an environment like Jones, and gay rights advocates say the city lags behind its peers nationwide in making sure campuses are safe for gay students.

Unlike its two larger counterparts -- New York and Los Angeles -- the nation's third-largest district has yet to implement comprehensive programs and policies to support the needs of gay youth.

"There has been ... a lack of translation between central office to local schools," Sullivan said.

Before a proposal to create Chicago's Social Justice High School: Pride Campus was refocused and eventually withdrawn this week, planners intended for it to become one of the country's only schools dedicated to gay students. The school's design team modeled it as a haven for gay youth who disproportionately face bullying and harassment, resulting in absentee rates more than seven times the national average, according to a 2007 GLSEN survey.

But days before Chicago's board of education was to vote on the proposal Wednesday, the plan was retooled and renamed to focus on serving any bullied or harassed student. Officials have hinted that those changes -- including the removal of key references to the gay community -- went too far.

The eight design team members agreed to withdraw their proposal "in order to protect its integrity," said Bill Greaves, the city's liaison to the gay and lesbian community, and a design team member. He said the team plans to re-approach the board next year.

"We don't know what the proposal will look like at this point, but we will make sure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students are not invisible," Greaves said.

The Pride Campus plan, with its college preparatory focus, clearly hoped to duplicate the success of New York City's Harvey Milk school, which primarily serves gay youth.

Harvey Milk sends 60 percent of students to advanced programs or college and has a 95 percent graduation rate, both higher than the district's overall rates. Formerly managed and financed by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a gay-rights youth advocacy group, Harvey Milk is now run by New York City's Department of Education.

New York also recently expanded its Respect for All initiative, a citywide training program for educators on how best to address bullying and harassment, with a focus on gay students.

"Harvey Milk High School is an incredible program that has reached students who would not otherwise graduate," said Eliza Bayard, executive director of GLSEN. "At the same time the city has also recognized that there is a need to address these issues across the board."

While no such school exists in the West Coast gay mecca of San Francisco, that city's school district has adopted systemwide policies against name-calling, established gay-friendly student organizations at all middle and high schools and hired staff trained to provide health-related information to gay and questioning students.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has a similar program, Project 10, which GLSEN has identified as the country's first in-school program for gay students. Dozens of students in L.A. who identify as GLBT also have sought refuge in classes at Central High School/Tri-C, a dropout prevention program.

"We usually take part in the gay pride parade in West Hollywood, sometimes with the (school) board members," said Central High School principal Janet Seary. "We're very supported by the school district."

Bayard noted that other states and school districts, from Massachusetts to Minneapolis, have programs to support gay students and said she hopes Chicago can follow suit.

"I can guarantee you that it's started a dialogue," said Rufus Williams, president of the Chicago Board of Education. "What we should do is try to create tolerance in every single environment that we have so we have a culture of tolerance."

"We're getting there," Williams said. "By this whole conversation, it proves that we're getting there."

Transgender Awareness Day

2008-11-20T12:59:00.001-08:00

As “GLBT” becomes increasingly standardized as an acronym for the “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” community, and as certain forms of gay and lesbian activism become increasingly visible and mainstream, we ask: “Do you remember the T?” Do you remember any of the intersections between movements for social justice?

We remember. Thursday marks the 10th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance; a time and space for transgender, gender-queer, intersex and gender-nonconforming people and their allies to gather, honor and grieve the lives of those who have died as part of gender violence, claim voice and build community. The fear and risk that accompany performing a non-normative gender are shaped simultaneously by their experiences of identities.

For many transgender people, the threat or the fact of physical and psychological violence is a daily reality. The terrain of work for justice, equity and compassion for people who experience gender violence demands that we uplift and engage in all of these struggles. Thus, the challenge — and the promise — lies in working together, and in creating space to honor the multiple dimensions of each of our identities so that each person might be able to be present, to live in their bodies in their fullness.

Projects to create coalitional and safe space stand in powerful contrast to media representations that attempt to divorce and oppose identities. Perhaps most recently, in the wake of the passage of several anti-same-sex-marriage state constitutional amendments, mainstream, white, gay pundits continue to make vicious accusations toward communities of color: accusations that divorce race and class from sexuality and gender.

We must take part in social justice together, which means that we must speak out against violence and abuse. We can do this work by creating space with one another, and by working in circulation with the University of Minnesota and Twin Cities communities.

Crafty GLBT Members Garner $60k in the name of LDS Church President Thomas Monson

2008-11-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

In a move that shows how much more resourceful and mirthful GLBT activists are than their self-righteous opponents with the funny underwear, the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center has raised over $60,000 since the election to invalidate Prop. 8--and each of their 2,300 world-wide donors did it in the name of Thomas Monson, head of the Latter-Day Saints.

In a statement released last week, the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center Communications Editor Thomas Soule revealed that for every one of those donations, a postcard was sent to President Monson bearing the following message:

Dear President Monson:
A donation has been made in your name by _______ to "InvalidateProp8.org"... Although we decry the reprehensible role The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leadership played in denying all Californians equal rights under the law, we are pleased a donation has been made on your behalf in the effort to overturn the discrimination your church members helped enshrine in the California Constitution. Given that throughout its history the Mormon Church has been subjected to bigotry, we hope you appreciate the donation in your name to fight religious bigotry here in California.

Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame New Inductees

2008-11-20T12:54:00.001-08:00

Ten years ago, Rev. Greg Dell was suspended as pastor of the Broadway United Methodist Church in Lakeview after performing a union service for two men. Last Thursday, he was among 14 individuals and one organization inducted into Chicago's Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame.
Check out the latest new additions to gay and lesbian hall of fame.

Chicago is the only known municipality that honors its LGBT citizenry with a city-sponsored hall of fame, established in 1991.

New inductees span Chicago's sexual-minority community and include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Chicagoans, as well as those who have supported or assisted the community.

Other 2008 inductees include Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams (1860-1935); Suzanne Arnold, vice co-chair of the Federation of Gay Games; Kevin Boyer, co-creator of national Gay and Lesbian History Month, co-founder of the Chicago Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and vice co-chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago; Michal Brody, founding member of the groundbreaking Chicago Gay Liberation group in 1969, a founding member of Chicago Lesbian Liberation in 1970 and author of Are We There Yet?, a landmark book of Chicago lesbian history; Sam Coady, advocate for LGBT workplace equality, co-chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago and founder of the Chicago Hoops Classic - the largest and longest-running LGBT basketball tournament in the world; Eddie Dugan (1944-1987), showman and patron of the arts; Murray Edelman, co-founder of the Chicago Gay Liberation group and pioneer of Chicago LGBT activism; Stephen Jones (who died in 1980), entertainer and sexual health awareness advocate; Joe La Pat (1943-2008), entrepreneur, for his generosity and wide-ranging support for Chicago's LGBT community, including the Center on Halsted; Jesus Salgueiro, 47, and Art Smith, 47, co-creators of Common Threads, an international children's charity; Guy Warner, activist, founding member of Mattachine Midwest, a precursor to PFLAG; Artemis Singers, the first women's singing ensemble in the U.S. to explicitly call itself a lesbian feminist chorus; and Katherine (Kit) Duffy, first mayoral liaison to Chicago's LGBT communities and advocate for LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance.

Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame New Inductees

2008-11-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Sammon Leaves the Log Cabin

2008-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

Highlights of Sammon's tenure included securing 35 Republican members of the House to vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. While Democrats have a majority in that chamber, enough of them voted no that Republicans supplied the margin necessary for victory. The bill, however, was not acted upon by the Senate.

Patrick Sammon will leave Log Cabin Republicans at the end of January after five years with the organization, the last half as its executive director. Earlier this year he had informed the board of his intent to leave after the election, and it is moving to identify a successor.

During the presidential primary, Republican Mitt Romney tried to use gay and lesbian families as a wedge issue. Log Cabin ran ads in Iowa and New Hampshire that highlighted Romney's flip-flopping on a number of social issues. Many believe the ads contributed to the demise of his candidacy and the nomination of John McCain.

"If you look at where we were four years ago, we had an incumbent Republican president who used [anti-gay rhetoric] as a key part of his re-election strategy. Four years later, we had a candidate who was the most pro-gay Republican candidate ever to run," said Sammon, referring to McCain.

"He wasn't perfect on all of the issues but I was proud of the progress we were able to make and the kind of campaign that he ran. ... We are making progress, though obviously there is more to be done."

McCain received "more votes from gay and lesbian people than President Bush did four years ago [according to exit polls]. It was not a surprise to me; John McCain is no George Bush," Sammon said.

About a quarter of the LGBT community has voted for the Republican presidential nominee over the last several elections. Sammon was disappointed by "the real hatred and venom" that was directed at gay Republicans from within the community. "Those who talk the most about tolerance within the gay community are intolerant of those who take a different political view," he said.

For Sammon, "When you look at the exit poll results, 1.3 million gay and lesbian people (27 percent) voted for Sen. McCain. With the exception of Log Cabin, there is not a single gay rights group that represents those viewpoints. Our movement needs to do some soul-searching on that."

"Not everyone in our movement is an upper West Side liberal. We have diverse viewpoints in our community and I think other organizations would be wise to understand that," he added.

Sammon won praise from the Human Rights Campaign, though the two organizations rarely agreed on the issues.

"Although Patrick and I disagreed on our share of issues and candidates, I've always respected his leadership and the hard task before him of helping to build a bipartisan movement. His voice will be missed at the movement's table," said HRC President Joe Solmonese.

The GOP
Turning to the Republican Party, Sammon used the analogy of the market: "If you are not selling a product that people want to buy, then they are not going to vote for you. The question for Republicans is, how long will it take for them to get the right message from this election? Does it take them two years, four years, 10 years, 15 years?"

He sees an encouraging sign in that the governor of South Carolina is talking about how the party's position on gay issues is driving young voters away. Another is that Texan Representative Pete Sessions recently met with Log Cabin in Dallas; he is running to lead the Republican National Congressional Committee, which recruits and supports candidates running for Congress.

Sammon believes the community has to "hold the Democrats' and President-elect Obama's feet to the fire to actually deliver on the promises they have made." With broad control of both houses of Congress and the White House "they now have no excuses for not delivering on all of their promises."

He said that over the next four years the community should realistically expect enactment of hate crimes legislation, ENDA, repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," domestic partner tax equity, and federal domestic partner benefits.

"You have the votes now in both houses of Congress, and a president who is apparently committed to getting this done. If not now, when? Let's move ahead and get this done," he said.

Sammon warned, "Over the last 10 days, I've already heard some of my Democratic friends trying to lower expectations. I think that our community needs to be very aggressive in keeping pressure on the Democrats and Obama."

"If you only ask to take three steps forward, then you are going to actually take one step forward; if you ask to take 10 steps forward, then maybe you can take six or seven steps forward. It doesn't benefit our community to play nice."

Sammon's parting words of advice to his successor are "to have a thick skin, and make decisions with principle and integrity."