Two gay legislators in Connecticut took a bill meant to “clean up” gaps in Connecticut’s civil union law off the agenda of the Connecticut Judiciary Committee. They say they are waiting on the state Supreme Court ruling on the legality of denying full marriage equality to same-sex couples, but that the bill could still go before the full General Assembly before the session ends May 7.- Florida officials told Eric Breidenbaugh he was “not an actual family member,” and they they couldn’t inform him whether his partner of six years, missing for hours aboard a small private plane, was alive or dead. It turned out that Joseph Bellamy died in a crash along with his parents.
- The Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a long article on Simmie Williams Jr., a gay teen who was killed in February in a possible hate crime.
- The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision and cleared lesbian mom Elizabeth Hadaway from contempt charges stemming from her refusal to send her foster daughter Emma back to the girl’s biological mother, who was insisting that Hadaway take care of Emma. (I love the SoVo photo of Elizabeth and Emma, showing their blue tongues after some sticky treat.)
- Organizations and individuals filed more than 17 amicus briefs at the Iowa Supreme Court on behalf of six same-sex couples and their families seeking to overturn the state’s ban on the marriage of same-sex couples.
- The Kentucky House Health and Welfare Committee killed a bill that would have prevented public universities and other government agencies from providing health insurance to unmarried domestic partners.
- Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern, who gained notoriety for her recent anti-LGBT rant, met with a local group of parents from PFLAG, and says she opposes discrimination against gay people in the workplace. PFLAG said “Representative Kern expressed a commendable desire to consider every family, every Oklahoman and every constituent. Today, she took an important first step forward that, we hope, will be the beginning of many conversations with our families and our community.”
- The mayor of Salt Lake City is proposing “Mutual Commitment Registry” as the new name for Salt Lake City’s domestic-partnership registry. State legislators passed a bill earlier this year that allows cities and counties to adopt the registry as long it is not called a “domestic partnership,” which some fear could be interpreted as “akin to gay marriage.” (WTF? Wasn’t the whole reason people came up with “domestic partnership” because it wasn’t the same as a marriage? How long until “mutual commitment” devolves into a similar almost-but-not-quite synonym for marriage?)
Around the world:
- Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, and head of the government-funded National Centre for Sex Education, is leading the push for legislation to recognize same-sex unions and inheritance rights. Adoption by same-sex couples is not, however, included, nor is the term “marriage.” The legislation would also give transgender individuals the right to free sex-reassignment surgery and allow them to switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery.
- Rosanna Queirolo, a member of Ecuador’s National Assembly, took a page from Sally Kern’s playbook and publicly compared homosexuality to paedophilia and bestiality. (Kern didn’t say exactly that, but the hate is the same.)
- A campaign has started in Scotland to save a gay Syrian teenager from deportation to his homeland, where he claims he will be executed. He has been held for a year after being caught with a fake Belgian passport. His lawyers say a U.K. asylum application was withdrawn by mistake.
- 150 demonstrators rallied outside 10 Downing Street in London last Saturday to protest the government’s plans for deporting gay Iranian Mehdi Kazemi to his homeland where he faces probable execution. For the moment, the plans are on hold, pending formal reconsideration