- The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill. This means its fate is tied to whether the president will veto the bill because it also includes funding for F-22 fighter jets, which he opposes.
- The NAACP announced a partnership with National Black Justice Coalition to create an LGBT Equality Task Force. NBJC Deputy Director Jason W. Bartlett, the first openly gay black state legislator, this week became the first representative of a black LGBT group to address the NAACP Board of Governors.
- The Episcopal Church’s general convention voted overwhelmingly to allow gay men and lesbians to become priests and bishops. This means, of course, that they can conduct marriages for others, but still can’t themselves marry in most states. (Straight Episcopal priests may marry.) The Church has, however, just authorized the drafting of a blessing for same-sex couples.
- The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force signed onto the “Prepare to Prevail” statement released by API Equality-LA, HONOR PAC and the Jordan Rustin Coalition, urging supporters of marriage equality to forego a rush to repeal California’s Prop 8 in 2010. It calls instead for efforts to build “campaign infrastructure and robust public education efforts” needed to win back marriage equality.
- A federal judge removed the state of California as a defendant in a lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), because the plaintiffs in the case were legally married in California last year, before Prop 8 passed.
- The Connecticut state Department of Children and Families has removed links to “open and affirming” (i.e., LGBT-inclusive) churches from its Web site after the conservative Family Institute of Connecticut said the links violate both the First Amendment and parental rights and threatened legal action. A DCF spokesperson cited concerns over the separation of church and state.
- Colorado passed a designated beneficiary law, under which LGBT people can name a next-of-kin, whether that is a same-sex partner or a close and trusted friend.
- Openly gay Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis was named to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy. The Board reports regularly on the academy to Congress and the Pentagon.
- A jury found 20-year-old Dwight DeLee guilty of manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old African American transgender women who was shot and killed in November 2008 in Syracuse, New York. The Transgender Legal Defense Fund notes, “Today’s verdict is the first hate crime conviction for the slaying of a transgender person in New York State. It is only the second such conviction in the United States.”
Around the world:
- The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered that “transvestites,” (by which I assume they also mean “transgender people”) are “equal citizens,” should benefit from the federal and provincial governments’ financial support schemes, and should receive protection from law enforcement authorities. (Thanks, PageOneQ.)
- LGBT-rights activists in the U.K. are criticizing the government for not including protections against harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in a new “equality bill.” The bill does ban harassment based on age, disability, gender reassignment, race and sex.