Weekly Political Roundup

• Dominating LGBT news this week was Barack Obama’s choice of evangelical minister Rick Warren to give the invocation on Inauguration Day. Warren supported California’s Prop 8, but his homophobia (not to mention his anti-choice stance on abortion) mean his conservatism goes much deeper. Pam Spaulding notes wisely that the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, who will deliver the benediction, is a “civil rights giant” who “will erase the sad bigotry of Rick Warren.” We can only hope.
• The Bush administration issued a new rule that allows federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any government or health entity if they do not allow employees to refuse to provide services that they feel violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs, e.g., reproductive services to lesbians or other unmarried women, hormone prescriptions for transgender people, abortions, or birth control.
• Arne Duncan, the Chicago school superintendent whom President-elect Barack Obama picked as education secretary, supported a proposal this year for a Chicago public high school geared to LGBT students, reports the Advocate. Steve Ralls of PFLAG notes at HuffPo that Duncan “has been attuned to the pervasiveness of homophobic bullying and harassment and its negative impact on students, families and personnel who are or are perceived to be LGBT. He has been a proponent of organizing and professional development efforts in support of Safe Schools initiatives, too.”
• It looks as if there will be no openly LGBT cabinet members, after President-elect Obama nominated U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis for secretary of labor, passing over lesbian mom Mary Beth Maxwell. Obama did, however, name openly lesbian Los Angeles deputy mayor Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
• The openly gay William White, chief operating officer of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, could be the next secretary of the Navy, if some top retired military leaders and Congressional Democrats have their way.
• The Phoenix, Arizona City Council and mayor unanimously approved a domestic partner registry for city residents. It will permit unmarried same- and opposite-sex couples to register and receive hospital visitation rights.
• [Updated 9:00 p.m. ET] Supporters of California’s Prop 8 have asked the state to nullify the 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples that occurred before Prop 8 passed. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, however, changed his initial position and asked the state Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8, saying it violates basic rights guaranteed in the state Constitution.
• A new Quinnipiac University poll showed Connecticut voters support marriage equality for same-sex couples 52 – 39 percent.
• A city councilor in Sioux City, Iowa has proposed a resolution to oppose marriage for same-sex couples. The city lacks legal authority over the issue, but could direct city departments, boards and commissions to follow its position. The state Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a case to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, and is expected to rule next year.
• Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank announced the hiring of transgender advocate Diego Sanchez as senior policy adviser.

Around the world:

• 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly gave support to a declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality and condemned human rights violations based on homophobia. It was sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America. Entities that refused to support the nonbinding measure? The United States, Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church, and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
• Hong Kong celebrated its first Pride Parade.
• The Constitutional Court of Hungary annulled a law passed by Parliament and about to come into effect that would legally recognize same-sex relationships. The Court said the new law “downgrades marriage,” which has a special protection under the constitution. A partnership scheme only for same-sex couples would be acceptable, however, and the Prime Minister said a new bill would be prepared in light of this.
• Russian LGBT rights groups are concerned over a proposed law that would allow authorities to label any government critic a traitor.
• Sweden’s highest court ruled that a same-sex couple married in Canada are not married but in a civil union, and the couple cannot pay income tax at the lower rate allowed for married couples. Don’t they realize how much tax revenue the country would lose if LGBT individuals stopped patronizing IKEA?
• An employment tribunal in the U.K. found that the Islington City Council had not religiously discriminated against a civil servant who refused to carry out civil partnerships as part of her duties as a registrar.
• Uruguay’s Senate passed a bill allowing people aged 12 and older to legally change their name and gender. While aimed at transgender people, some say the bill opens the doors to same-sex marriage, because it states that people who change their gender can “exercise all of the rights inherent to the new condition.” That’s confusing issues of sexual orientation and gender identity greatly, but I can see where it might still help some couples.