Weekly Political Roundup

• Just in time for Memorial Day, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court decision in the case of an Air Force major discharged for being a lesbian. It ruled “the government may only ‘intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals’ to ‘advance an important governmental interest,’ such as maintaining troop readiness or improving morale.” This is the first time a federal appellate court has found that the military must meet a heightened standard when infringing on a gay service member’s right to privacy, says the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). The case has now been remanded to the district court for further action. The Ninth Circuit said the Lawrence v. Texas case that struck down sodomy laws also applies to the military and requires a “searching constitutional inquiry” when the military attempts to interfere in a service member’s intimate private life.
• SLDN warns, however, that despite California’s recent legalization of marriage for same-sex couple’s the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law requires “that a service member ‘shall be separated from the armed forces’ if ‘the member has married or attempted to marry a person known to be of the same biological sex.'”.
• A federal marriage amendment may be back. Freshman U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said he plans to introduce an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
• The Alabama House voted to amend the state’s hate crimes law to include sexual orientation, and passed a measure aimed at reducing bullying in schools.
• Anti-LGBT groups have asked the California Supreme Court to delay its decision to allow same-sex couples to marry, and wait until after the November election, when a ballot initiative could invalidate the ruling. A spokesman for the San Francisco City Attorney said “they would fight any delay in issuing the marriage certificates to gay couples.”
• There are a ton of other articles on California’s marriage ruling. I recommend one at the Huffington Post by Robin Tyler, one of the plaintiffs in the case. Among other things, she notes “Our lawsuit was not a reaction, as many of the press has reported, to the annulled San Francisco marriages. It was an action, announced by our attorney . . . 3 hours before Gavin Newsome [sic] married our good friends, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. . . . Some attorneys within the gay legal community were angry at us when we announced the lawsuit. . . . ‘They’ said the court was too conservative and that we would lose.” Worth a read as always is Evan Wolfson, also at HuffPo, who urges, “We must refocus attention on the real question at hand, with efforts to undo this landmark victory already underway, what is the right outcome, and what will you do to achieve it.” Ellen DeGeneres also has a few more words to say on the matter, specifically, to presidential candidate John McCain.
• A bronze bust of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, “the first openly gay politician to win an elected office of any prominence” was unveiled at City Hall.
• In Florida, the Miami-Dade County Commission voted to give unmarried same- and opposite-sex couples the right to hospital and jail visitation. County employees will also be able to buy health coverage for their partners.
• A federal judge reopened a lawsuit to determine if the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School in Florida should be allowed to meet on the school campus. He had thrown out the case last month because the plaintiff had graduated and the club had no more members, but reopened it after learning school officials prevented another student from reviving the group.
• The governor of Maryland earlier this month signed a new law banning the harassment of students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and requiring districts to develop bullying prevention programs.
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s vetoed a domestic partner bill that would have allowed local governments to offer medical and dental insurance to their employees.
• The District Court in Missoula, Montana began hearing the case of Michelle Kulstad, who is seeking parental rights to children legally adopted by her former partner, but parented by both of them. Montana forbids same-sex couples from adopting, so Kulstad could not have adopted the children when the couple was together. Her ex-partner is now married to a man and represented by the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.
• The North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision to award joint custody of a child to lesbian former partners.
• The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a constitutional amendment banning marriage by same-sex couples, and approved by voters in 2004.
• Portland, Oregon, became the only one of the 30 largest U.S. cities with an openly gay mayor, when city commissioner Sam Adams won the primary with enough of a lead to eliminate the need for a runoff election in November. From here in Boston, home of the other Sam Adams, congratulations!
• The principal of Irmo High School in South Carolina announced that he will resign at the end of the 2008-2009 school year, because the school superintendent ordered him to allow the formation of a gay-straight student group. He feels the club implies that students have chosen to engage in sexual activity, rather than practice the school’s abstinence curriculum. LGBT advocacy group SC Equality is calling for his immediate termination.
• The Washington, D.C. Council approved 39 new provisions to the city’s domestic partners law, almost, but not quite, equalizing the rights and benefits for same- and opposite-sex couples under District law.

Around the world:

• The civil union law in the Australian Capital Territory came into effect this week, although the federal government required that the unions be devoid of any formal ceremonies.
• The province of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is finally changing the definition of “spouse” in its laws in order to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples, bringing the province into line with the federal law legalizing such marriages. The owner of a gay bed-and-breakfast on PEI notes, however, “”Friends of ours went to Florida, took the marriage licence, took their power of attorneys and everything, he had a stroke and lay on life support and his married partner had no say in anything.”
• The Cuban government backed a campaign against homophobia, and President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela, director of Cuba’s Center for Sexual Education, presided over the country’s largest gathering of the gay community.
• France’s minister of human rights and foreign affairs announced that his country will appeal to the United Nations for a universal decriminalization of homosexuality.
• Gambian President Yahya Jammeh last week told a political rally that gay people had 24 hours to leave the country, or he would cut off their heads.
• The Russian government repealed its ban on blood donations by gay people.
• The international group Human Rights Watch released a 123-page report detailing Turkish abuses against its LGBT community, and recommending to the European Union that Turkey should not be allowed to join until it guarantees it ends them. On a happier note, an LGBT pride march was held for the first time in Ankara, Turkey.
• Mehdi Kazemi, a 20-year-old gay Iranian, has been granted permission to stay in the U.K., where he has been trying for two years to get asylum.

(Thanks to PageOneQ for several of these links.)