News
VT's 'Gay Gun Nut' Blogs Between Worlds
The Rest of Our World
The
Rest of Our World
Civil
Union Contempt
Rutland, VT - According to media reports, a Vermont judge has found Lisa
Miller-Jenkins to be in contempt for taking her child to Virginia and
disobeying a court order involving custody of a child.
Judge William Cohen released a sharply
worded decision granting a motion by Janet Miller-Jenkins to hold her
former partner, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, in contempt for failing to abide
by a temporary visitation order he handed down earlier this year.
The Family Court judge did not impose any
sanctions against Lisa Miller-Jenkins for violating a temporary visitation
order. Civil contempt sanctions range from fines to jail.
A Virginia judge took jurisdiction
in the case, despite Vermont's prior ruling, and declared that Lisa Miller-Jenkins
is the child's sole parent. The decision was based on Virginia's Affirmation
of Marriage Act, a law that bars the state from recognizing same-sex civil
unions or any rulings issuing from civil unions.
Hospital Denies Benefits
Fall River, MA - St. Anne's Hospital has adopted a plan to deny health
care benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees, despite the
legalization of same-gender marriage, according to a report in Gay City
News. Changing to a "self funded" benefits program "allows
the hospital's managing group, Caritas Christi Health Care, to stop extending
insurance benefits to same-sex spouses of employees," the Fall River
Herald News reported.
Michele Granda, staff attorney with Gay
and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which won the right of same-sex couples
to marry in Massachusetts, said it was the first case she was aware of
in which an employer changed health plans to avoid providing spousal benefits
to gay married couples.
No Love Lost
Toronto, Ontario - A Canadian television station has apologized publicly
to viewers for a mid-September telecast of American evangelist Jimmy Swggart's
television program in which he threatened to kill gays, according to 365Gay.com
The program aired on Omni 1, a Toronto multicultural
station, and throughout the US, prompting an investigation by the Canadian
Radio Television Commission.
During a rambling sermon Swaggart, said,
referring to gay marriage, "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted
to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like
that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."
The program was taped in New Orleans where
voters Saturday agreed to amend the Louisiana constitution to bar same-sex
marriage.
Under Canadian law hate speech is a criminal offense. Broadcast lawyers
say that both the station and Swaggart could be charged in addition to
any penalty imposed by the CRTC.
Swaggert has since issued an apology of sorts.
Spirit of Justice
Boston - Tim Gill, founder of both Quark, Inc., and the Gill Foundation,
receives the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders' "Spirit of
Justice" Award at its annual dinner on October 1 in Boston.
The dinner celebrates a landmark year in
which GLAD won same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts, made possible
in part by the Gill Foundation's long-time support of gay and lesbian
causes. As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, the foundation has invested
more than $67 million in hundreds of organizations throughout the U.S.
serving the lgbt community and people with HIV/AIDS.
Prior Spirit of Justice honorees are
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons, founders of Daughters of Bilitis; playwright
Tony Kushner; Professor Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School; and Mary
Bonauto, director of GLAD's Civil Rights Project.
Deceptive Amendment
Atlanta, GA - A lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County seeks
to remove an amendment dealing with same-sex couples from Georgia's November
ballot. Represented by Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Georgia, and the law
firm of Alston & Bird LLP, the plaintiffs allege that the ballot language
is deceptive and unconstitutional.
Earlier this year, the state legislature
approved an amendment to the Georgia Constitution that would prohibit
same-sex couples from marrying, may prohibit civil unions, and could limit
the court's jurisdiction on matters involving same-sex couples.
"This amendment is constitutionally
flawed, period. Not only does it combine four different subjects, in violation
of the Georgia Constitution, the clearly deceptive language voters will
see on the ballot creates the misperception that its only purpose is to
define marriage," said Jack Senterfitt, Senior Staff Attorney in
Lambda Legal's Southern Regional office in Atlanta.
"Separate from the lawsuit, Lambda
Legal believes that a group's civil rights shouldn't be put to a popular
vote."
Abandoning Youth
Washington, DC - In recent months the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
has been under fire for its decision to implement a new U.S. AIDS policy
strategy emphasizing HIV testing over HIV prevention.
According to a press release from the National Youth Advocacy Coalition,
HIV infections among lgbt adolescents have risen as government resources
were shifted from proven prevention efforts to abstinence-only education.
CDC's most recent surveillance data, released in August, shows an increase
in new infections among adolescents, and both African American and Hispanic
young people.
In August, the CDC awarded contracts to
just eight community-based organizations. In 2000, there 88 youth-serving
agencies receiving funding.
Spending on abstinence-only education has
exceeded $500 million during this same period.
Suing Oklahoma
Norman, OK - In a federal lawsuit Lambda Legal is seeking to overturn
a law that may legally orphan children adopted by same-sex couples in
other states when the families are in the state of Oklahoma.
"This drastic law could... nullify
legal adoptions of children by same-sex couples in other states when they
are in Oklahoma," said Brian Chase, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's
South Central Regional Office in Dallas.
The law, passed hastily at the end of the
Oklahoma legislative session earlier this year, says that Oklahoma, "shall
not recognize an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex
from any other state or foreign jurisdiction."
Unit Cohesion
Santa Barbara, CA - A new study released last month concludes that gays
and lesbians serve openly in the Middle East without undermining unit
cohesion or the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study, by Dr. Nathaniel
Frank, is titled Gays and Lesbians at War: Military Service in Iraq and
Afghanistan Under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
When gays are out, they report greater
success in bonding, morale, professional advancement, levels of commitment
and retention, and access to essential support services.
The study also finds that 'Don't Ask, Don't
Tell' impairs the ability of gay troops to develop bonds of trust, minimize
stress, prepare for deployment, focus on their mission, advance professionally,
and access support services, including medical and psychological consultations.
These effects have an impact not just on gays, but on those around them.
Essentially, the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
policy creates the very lack of unit cohesion that has been used to justify
its implementation.
P&G Supports Equal Rights
Cincinnati, OH - The following note was forwarded by "Ian,"
who observed that "subscribing to the anti-gay [listserves] is often
the best way to obtain pro-gay information..." What follows are excerpts
from an alert letter from the American Family Association, distributed
over the signature of Donald Wildmon.
"Procter & Gamble, makers of Crest
toothpaste and Tide detergent, has publicly thrown their support and money
behind the homosexual political agenda.
"P&G recently wrote to their
Cincinnati employees urging them to support the repeal of a city law that
forbids giving special rights to homosexuals. In 1993, the citizens in
Cincinnati adopted the law by a vote of 62% to 38%. P&G is now working
to get that law repealed and has given $10,000 toward that goal.
"To our knowledge, Procter & Gamble
is the first company to support the political agenda of the homosexual
movement."
The emailed letter urges recipients
to "Take Action" by boycotting Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent,
two P&G products, and calling the chairman of the board to "politely"
tell him that they are boycotting and why.
CIS
Says No to Married Trans
Washington, DC - The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) condemned
a memorandum issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
announcing that the Department would not recognize any marriage in which
either party has changed or plans to change their sex. The policy would
prevent foreign spouses from obtaining immigration rights in marriages
- or engagements to be married - where one spouse is transgender and either
one is an American citizen.
Said GenderPAC Executive Director Riki Wilchins,
"This policy not only singles out one group of Americans for discrimination,
but it carves out a special exception to the states' [marriage] prerogatives
to do so."
A memo enacting the policy approved by Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge admitted that recognizing such marriages
for the purpose of obtaining immigration status is "arguably the
most comprehensive, internally consistent agency approach." How-ever,
the memo argued, "Recognizing sex changes for federal immigration
purposes, especially if they involve marriages, is likely to be politically
controversial."
Murder Music Under Pressure
New York - A gay-led boycott and protest against certain Jamaican "dancehall"
performers has been generating press. The controversy is over lyrics by
a number of performers that advocate the burning, stabbing, execution,
and beating of gays.
The artists include Beenie Man, Capleton,
Bounty Killer, and Vybz Kartel, among others.
Beenie Man's 33 scheduled appearances had
been cut to five as of last month, under pressure from gay activists,
who have also been educating the tours' corporate sponsors and record
labels about how their profit is tied to what they call murder music.
The rallying cry came from London's Outrage
(www.outrage.org.uk).
United Kingdom police are investigating Beenie Man and other Jamaican
singers for inciting public disorder and homophobic hate crimes. German
sports clothing maker Puma, a sponsor of Jamaican music events, warned
all its artists of a zero tolerance stand on hate statements and lyrics.
Jamaica is considered one of the world's
most overtly anti-gay nations. Prominent Jamaican gay activist Brian Williamson
was knifed to death in his Kingston apartment June 9, in what gay leaders
called an anti-gay hate crime.
According to a report in Gay City
News, an appearance by Bounty Killer (Rodney Price), whose single "Another
Level" includes the line, "Bun a fire pon a puff and mister
fagotty" (burn a fire on puffs and faggots), was cancelled from the
Krakrock Festival in Belgium, in September.
Virgin Records hastily issued an apology
on Beenie Man's behalf in early August, but his management company denied
on Jamaican radio that it was an apology.
The "no apology" stance
is now enshrined on T-shirts sported by the performers' hardcore fans
as a free-speech defense of the artists and their rhetoric.
Compiled this month by Editor Euan Bear.