HRC announced its first round of U.S. Senate endorsements. Some criticized their omission of openly gay North Carolina candidate Jim Neal. HRC responded.- Most gay, lesbian, and bisexual people do not know their basic rights, according to a poll by New York’s Hunter College. The poll asked “whether same-sex marriages were legal in the respondent’s state, if the U.S. Constitution bans same-sex marriage, whether gays can serve openly in the U.S. military and if there’s a federal law barring the firing of workers based on their sexual orientation.” Only 38 percent got all four questions right. Perhaps the trans community, notably absent from the poll, can do better.
- Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Daniel Tepfer spoke out against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Among the scenarios he asks readers to imagine is this:
Before work, a military mom takes her pre-schooler to the base child-care facility. Before they hug goodbye, she reminds her child, as she does every day, “Don’t tell anyone, not even the other kids, about your other mommy.” She knows an overheard comment could jeopardize her career.
That’s very similar to the scenario painted by the LGBT military mom and her partner whom I interviewed in January, except that they don’t even risk using the day care.
- The killing of Lawrence King in February spurred students at another California high school to start a gay-straight alliance and organize a benefit that raised $200 for The Trevor Project, a gay teen suicide help line.
- The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on May 28 in the case of Guadalupe “Lupita” BenÃÂtez, a lesbian whose doctors at North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group denied her fertility treatments based on their religious beliefs. Lambda Legal represents BenÃÂtez.
- The Colorado House gave initial approval to a bill barring discrimination against lesbians and gays in housing and public accommodations. It faces one more House vote and would then move back to the Senate.
- Shameca Davis, a young, black lesbian mom in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was shot in the head and her partner Shanesa Conaway was killed only two blocks from where gay teen Simmie Williams was shot in February. The shooter was the father of Davis’ two children. (It is unclear if the children viewed Conaway as their mother.) Police are investigating it as a domestic dispute, not a hate crime.
- The Florida Senate voted unanimously for the “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act,” an anti-bullying measure prohibiting harassment against public school students and teachers. The legislation was named after Cape Coral teenager Jeffrey Johnston who killed himself at 15 years old after years of harassment in school.
- The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee passed several measures for modest funding increases to programs for LGBT youth, HIV/AIDS, and LGBT domestic violence, even in the midst of a period of overall budget cutes.
- New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed legislation granting employees up to six weeks off with limited pay to take care of a new child or a sick parent, child or spouse, making the Garden State the third in the nation to create a paid family leave program. Benefits will be available starting in July 2009.
- The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an expedited review in the lawsuit filed by out-of-state groups seeking to revive last year’s failed referendum against Oregon’s domestic partnership law. This means the case could be decided as early as July.
- A Rhode Island woman seeking divorce from the spouse she married in Massachusetts is asking the state Supreme Court to rule on whether the Superior Court can dissolve her marriage. The state Supreme Court already ruled that she can’t get divorced in Family Court.
- The mayor of Philadelphia named Gloria Casarez, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, as the mayor’s liaison to the LGBT communities.
- A proposed Tennessee measure to ban unmarried, cohabiting couples (straight and gay) from adopting children was referred to summer study. This means it is most likely off the table for the rest of the legislative session.
- A teacher in Tennessee is facing criticism for outing two gay students in a list of those who engaged in public displays of affection. The mother of one of the boys says the principal told her the school did not tolerate homosexuality, and her son, an honor student, faced verbal harassment. He was also taken out of the running for a class trip to help with New Orleans rebuilding efforts, for fear that he would embarrass the school by “inappropriate behavior.”
Around the world:
- Excellent if also mixed news from Australia this week, as federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the government would introduce legislation to modify 100 federal laws that discriminate against same-sex couples. LGBT-rights advocates point out, not surprisingly, that same-sex couples will not get full equality until they can marry. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government is now arguing that the federal government should now recognize civil unions in the ACT, under legislation the ACT will introduce this week. ABC News (Australia) reports, however, that McClelland has said: “What we don’t support – and again consistently with our policy – we don’t support a measure that mimics marriage.” ABC clarifies: “By that he means not allowing legal ceremonies to recognise gay and lesbian relationships.”
- A Canadian gay couple who immigrated to the U.S. spoke of the Visa problems they face because the U.S. does not recognize their relationship.
- Two girls at a Colombian high school, who claim they were expelled because they are lesbians, were allowed to return to class. They faced an openly hostile reception from classmates. The school contends they were expelled for behavioral problems, not their sexual orientation.
- Gay and lesbian rights activist JiřàHromada has become the first openly gay candidate to run for Senate in the Czech Republic.
- Frederic Minvielle, a French citizen living in the Netherlands for six years, married a Dutch national in 2003. French authorities earlier this year informed him that they were revoking his French citizenship because the Netherlands recognizes same-sex unions but France does not.
- Meir Gardens in Tel Aviv will be the site of the first monument in Israel to honor gay men and lesbians who were persecuted and killed during the Holocaust because of their sexual orientation.
- Nepal’s new constituent assembly has gotten its first gay representative.
- The U.K. Home Office has offered Jojo Jako Yakob, a gay Syrian asylum seeker, only £46 in cash to return to his homeland where homosexuality is illegal and he faces possible death. Yakob was arrested, shot, and then tortured in a Syrian jail when he was caught distributing anti-government leaflets. He was then severely beaten when prison guards discovered he was gay.
- Prossy Kakooza, a Ugandan woman who was jailed, raped and tortured in her home country for being a lesbian, is appealing a decision by the U.K. Home Office to refuse her asylum.
- A couple in the U.K. have spoken out about how they had to annul their 30-year marriage so that Emma, who is a transgender man, could be legally recognized as male. They had a civil partnership ceremony, which they do not view as equivalent, in order to regain their life insurance and pension rights.
(Thanks to PageOneQ for several of these links.)