08.31.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 1:55 pm by pikapp44
American Legion Group is expected to reaffirm position against gay marriage
A lesbian who served 10 years in the Air Force said she’s hesitant to join the American Legion because the veterans organization supports the idea of a “natural family” that doesn’t include same-sex relationships.
“To think that my family wouldn’t be embraced by the American Legion saddens me,’ said Valerie Larabee, 45, who served during the first Gulf War and reached the rank of captain.
Larabee lives with her partner in Salt Lake City and is executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah.
The American Legion is holding its 88th annual national convention here from Aug. 26-31. The group is expected to reaffirm a 2004 policy statement on the family Aug. 30 during its general session.
Resolution 401 is considered an expression of American values, said William Pease, deputy director of Americanism and Children and Youth for the American Legion.
“The American Legion believes that marriage is an institution,” Pease said. “And it’s based on a union between a man and a woman.”
The resolution states the Legion’s belief in a child’s biological connection to a married father and mother “reduces the likelihood that either parent would abuse the child.” It also claims children in so-called natural families have better health, fewer behavioral and emotional problems and are less likely to use drugs or be arrested.
Utah state Sen. Scott McCoy (D-Salt Lake) one of two gay Utah legislators, called the resolution exclusionary, insulting and “holier than thou.”
But the Legion’s stance may seem familiar to Utahns.
In 2004, the Utah Legislature passed a bill defining marriage only as being between one man and one woman. And earlier this year, the city of Kanab passed a resolution defining the “natural family’ as a marriage, “ordained of God,” between a man and a woman who are “open to a full quiver of children.”
Larabee said she’ll need to do a little more research before deciding to join fellow vets as a Legion member.
“It’s kind of discouraging when you look at the fabric of America and understand that it’s built from many different origins of what people call family,” she said.
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08.30.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 12:58 pm by pikapp44
Joe Quesada, editor in chief of Marvel Comics, has announced that Marvel Comics will no longer use the warning labels “Max” or “Explicit” for comics with gay characters, reports Newsrama.
”It’s given us the opportunity to spark some internal discussions and revisit this issue, especially in light of the fact that we have characters like Freedom Ring and that we’ve had more gay and lesbian characters appearing in Marvel Comics than ever before. In many ways, the old policy over the last few years has just sort of faded away, so let me just say that there is no longer any policy,” Quesada told Newsrama last week.
Earlier this month at Wizard World Chicago, Marvel Comics announced that no ongoing solo series starring gay or lesbian characters would go out without a warning label. Quesada said the policy came about because of the negative media attention Marvel received for their 2003 series featuring the Western character Rawhide Kid and his sexuality.
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08.29.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:48 pm by pikapp44
Primary Election Day is One Week Away - Sept. 5th
1 - PRINT OUT YOUR VOTER’S GUIDE, Take it to the Polls
Equality Florida has surveyed over 2000 candidates for local, state and federal office. Visit www.EQFL.org for your Voter Guide. Be sure to print it out and take it with you to the polls. Share this information - send this email to anyone who lives in Florida and cares about fairness and equality for LGBTG Floridians.
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08.26.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 4:06 pm by pikapp44
As the World Turns, Luke Snyder (Van Hansis) will come out to his best friend, Kevin (Karl Girolamo), the object of his affection. According to a spokesperson for the show, the reaction Luke receives is a cold one, and in a twist of fate Luke has to save Kevin’s life in an episode airing later in the week, when Kevin gets hit on the head with an oar and is knocked unconscious. While Kevin is out in the middle of a lake drowning, Luke comes to his rescue and performs CPR to save him. All scenes were shot on location in Staten Island, N.Y.
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08.24.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:40 pm by pikapp44
Debate over a bill that would let registered domestic partners in California file joint state tax returns devolved into a shouting match as state lawmakers in Sacramento accused each other of intolerance and one Republican said his gay colleagues live a deviant lifestyle. Discussion of the bill Wednesday began to heat up when Republican assemblyman Jay La Suer called the measure “part of the homosexual agenda.” He said it would negatively affect California’s children by teaching them “that this is an acceptable lifestyle.”
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Democrat, countered that “the real homosexual agenda is simple equality and freedom from discrimination.” He said the bill would move California closer to that goal.
Existing state law allows married couples to file joint or separate tax returns. The bill, sponsored by state senator Carole Migden, a Democrat who is one of six openly gay members of the legislature, would extend that same right to registered domestic partners.
California bans same-sex marriage but allows same-sex civil unions or domestic partnerships that confer most of the same state-level legal rights, such as access to family benefits at work and the ability to adopt children as a couple. The debate took a personal turn when Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Democrat, said she felt personally offended by La Suer’s remarks, telling him he was “castigating me and mine.”
After La Suer argued that he had every right to disagree with Goldberg’s lifestyle, efforts to bring the discussion back to the specifics of the bill were thwarted by an outburst from Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, a Republican. “What you seek in society is acceptance,” he said to Goldberg, addressing his comments to her and the other two openly gay members of the assembly. “But your lifestyle is abnormal. It is sexually deviant.”
The Democrats immediately broke for a caucus meeting, an apparent effort to cool the rhetoric. When the session resumed, Mountjoy apologized if he had personally offended anyone, saying his remarks were an effort to defend his values and principles.
The bill, which had previously passed the state senate, later was approved by a 44–28 vote, largely along party lines. It now returns to the senate for a final vote.
Migden’s bill was one of several gay rights measures getting attention Wednesday. The other bills are designed to promote tolerance and to prohibit discrimination or negative portrayals of gay people, bisexuals, and transsexuals within public schools and organizations that receive government funding.
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08.23.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:23 pm by pikapp44
Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon is opposing an Arizona constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, saying its prohibition of domestic-partner benefits could hurt the city’s ability to recruit talented employees. Gordon said Tuesday that if the city of Phoenix cannot offer health insurance to the domestic partners of its employees, it could jeopardize the city’s “ability to compete against the private sector or other cities” as the city grows rapidly.
A Maricopa County superior court judge ruled that the measure can remain on the ballot because it does not violate the requirement that constitutional amendments address a single subject. Opponents say the initiative deals with two subjects: same-sex marriages and domestic-partner benefits. The state supreme court is taking up the question on appeal and is expected to rule this week or next week.
Proposition 107 would amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriages, which are already illegal under state law. It also bars political subdivisions of the state—such as cities, counties, universities, and school districts—from recognizing any relationship similar to marriage, such as civil unions or domestic partnerships.
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08.18.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:31 pm by pikapp44
A national gay rights group hailed President Bush’s signing on Thursday of the federal Pension Protection Act, a new law that includes two provisions that extend important financial protections to more Americans, including same-sex couples. “This is an incredibly exciting victory that will be helpful to millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender families,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Solmonese noted that HRC fought hard to have the two provisions included in the final version of the measure. “Basically what this means is that these two provisions ensure that the U.S. tax code, in times of emergencies, is fairer to more Americans, including our community,” he said, “and puts us on a more equal footing with other couples.”
The first provision, called “Non-Spousal Rollover,” allows for transfer upon an individual’s death of their retirement plan benefits, like a 401(k), to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) for a nonspouse beneficiary like a domestic partner, sibling, or any other designated person. In the past gay partners were forced to withdraw the amount as a lump sum and faced immediate tax penalties, diminishing savings intended for retirement.
The second provision, known as “Hardship Distribution,” allows individuals who list their same-sex partner or other nonspouse beneficiary under a 401(k) plan the ability to tap into their retirement funds in the case of certain medical or financial emergencies of the beneficiary. In the past, federal law permitted such withdrawals only for employees’ legally recognized spouses or dependents.
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08.17.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 12:37 pm by pikapp44
A Long Island, N.Y., judge has dismissed the wrongful-death suit filed by the lesbian partner of a woman killed in a car accident, ruling that she has no case because the two women were not legally married. Linda Saegert of Valley Stream, N.Y., filed the suit after her partner of 18 years, Victoria Sarafino, died after being hit by a car in 2003, but Saegert will not be allowed to pursue the case in Sarafino’s name, reports New York’s Newsday.
New York supreme court judge Daniel Palmieri noted that existing state law makes “a legal distinction between same-sex partners and heterosexual spouses,” adding that the state judiciary’s appellate division had already ruled that “a same-sex partner, as executor, has no standing to sue in wrongful death on the partner’s own behalf,” according to Newsday.
Although the judge was only following previous court precedent as he was required to do, the ruling dismayed gay rights advocates. “Here in the state of New York, you have different classes of people,” Alphonso David, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal, told Newsday. “Same-sex partners are assigned a second-class-citizen badge.”
Said Saegert, 53, who owned a house and business with Sarafino, whom she married in a Unitarian ceremony: “We did everything that’s the criteria for a nuclear family. We were a couple as well as any husband and wife.”
Because Saegert was named the beneficiary and executor of Sarafino’s will, the court decision does allow her to continue pursuing damages related to the pain and suffering her late partner experienced in her dying moments. Were she not so named, Saegert would not have legal standing in that case either.
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08.15.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 5:04 pm by pikapp44
Fort Campbell kicked out 49 soldiers under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy against gays, putting the Kentucky post second on the list for most discharges.
That number grew from 19 in 2004 and represented the single biggest increase in discharges anywhere, according to Defense Department documents shared with the Associated Press by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
It was at Fort Campbell that Pfc. Barry Winchell was bludgeoned to death in 1999 by a fellow soldier who believed Winchell was gay. Gay discharges from the post went up sharply on the heels of that murder, but later subsided.
The Pentagon has said overall there were 726 military members discharged under the policy last year — up 11 percent from the year before — but the Pentagon did not publicly release base-specific information.
The Pentagon policy, which went into effect in 1994 following passage of congressional legislation, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires those who openly acknowledge being gay to be discharged.
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08.14.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 8:33 am by pikapp44
Ellen, the syndicated daytime talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, has renewed its contract with NBC. The deal will guarantee DeGeneres a place on network television covering more than 90% of the country through 2009 and 70% of the country through 2010, including the top three markets of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
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