02.08.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 6:13 pm by pikapp44
During his Senate run for Illinois, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is said to have declined to have his picture taken with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who at the time was in the center of a national turmoil over his decision to allow same-sex marriage in the city.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the snub took place at a fund-raiser in 2004 hosted by former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.
“I gave a fund-raiser, at his [Obama's] request at the Waterfront restaurant,” Brown told the Chronicle. “And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn’t get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin.”
While the Obama campaign has denied the rumors, Newsom’s staff has corroborated the event. In a Reuters interview in January 2007, Newsom alluded to the event when asked about his thoughts on potential Democratic candidates Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore. He was also asked about his peers’ reaction to his allowing same-sex marriages, which some allege helped Republicans by introducing a wedge issue in an election year.
Newsom said he received harsh reactions from other politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike.
“One of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates, as God is my witness, will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room with me,” Newsom told Reuters, “even though I’ve done fund-raisers for that particular person — not once, but twice — because of this issue.”
San Francisco supervisor Bevan Duffy told the Chronicle that the mayor’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton over Obama, which was announced six months ago, was due to repaying political favors. Newsom says that the snub did not influence his decision, though Brown thinks otherwise.
“I think he has harbored this resentment for years,” Brown said about Newsom in the Chronicle story. “I would guess that is part of the rejection of the Obama campaign.”
During the same campaign season, then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry also worked to avoid San Francisco, following the controversy. Brown said that he doesn’t blame Obama for his caution because of the heavy conservative vote in southern Illinois.
Newsom, who attended a Town Hall meeting with the Clinton campaign on Monday, said he still looked forward to voting for Obama — in eight years.
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02.06.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 1:44 pm by pikapp44
Among many historic events last night, mainstream news organizations decided gays, lesbians, and bisexuals exist and asked them to identify as such in the exits polls. A solid majority of those polled preferred that Sen. Hillary Clinton be their next president.
Kenneth Sherrill, political science professor at Hunter College, said the polling was not an absolute first. “The national exit polling going back into the 1990s in the presidential election has asked about sexual orientation,” said Sherrill, adding that the question has also been asked in some New York and California primaries. But he also noted that asking about sexual orientation is not the norm.
Joe Tarver, communications director for New York’s Empire State Pride Agenda, said he is often asked to cite specific numbers for the LGBT community and those statistics are hard to come by. “I was glad to see the networks and news services that do exit polling decided to ask New Yorkers and Californians who voted yesterday about sexual orientation,” Tarver said. “Exit polls are one of only two instances where any objective data on our community is gathered that shows how many of us there really are in this country. The other is the U.S. Census and there are real limitations to what that data shows.”
Tarver added that having hard data is particularly beneficial when lobbying elected officials on issues important to the community.
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02.05.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 3:04 pm by pikapp44
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Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 1:05 pm by pikapp44
A measure to deny family benefits to unmarried couples in Florida now has enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot, according to state election officials. Florida4Marriage spearheaded the petition drive, which was contested by a coalition of organizations called Fairness for All Families.
“After four years of signature gathering the only surprise is how narrowly it seems they reached the minimum requirements,” said Barbara DeVane, FFAF board member. “As Floridians come to understand that this measure strips away essential family protections, the more they are saying no to the deceptively named amendment.”
Fairness for All Families plans to continue to educate voters and mobilize volunteers across the state. According to DeVane, the amendment also threatens the basic employment and health care benefits of municipal employees such as police officers and firefighters as well as domestic-partner benefits relied upon by many Florida seniors.
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02.04.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:47 pm by pikapp44
Same-sex couples who have entered into marriages outside of New York State must be recognized, a state appellate court ruled Friday. The case, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, is the first known appellate court decision made nationwide that validates same-sex marriages.
The case, Martinez v. County of Monroe, was filed in 2005 by Patricia Martinez, who sought health care benefits for her female partner whom she married in Canada the previous year. She was employed by the Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y.
New York State law requires legal bodies to recognize marriages that were solemnized outside of the state.
“This is a victory for families, it’s a victory for fairness and it’s a victory for human rights,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said in a statement. “Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York State: You are now considered married in New York as well. Now we need to work toward a New York where you don’t have to cross state or country lines to get married.”
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02.02.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 9:15 am by pikapp44
The state Division of Elections made the surprise announcement late Friday, after the signature-petition drive launched more than two years ago by social conservative groups managed to beat the signature deadline to make the presidential election ballot.
The group pushing the ban collected more than 649,000 signatures — well over the 611,000 required to place a citizens’ initiative before voters statewide.
However, another hot-button proposal called the Florida Hometown Democracy that sought to limit growth by requiring public votes on development decisions fell 60,000 signatures short by Friday’s deadline.
The Florida4Marriage group backing the gay-marriage ban had announced in December that it had enough signatures to put it on next fall’s ballot, only to discover weeks later it was more than 20,000 signatures short of the number needed.
The main reason: About 27,000 signatures from Miami-Dade County and some results from other counties had been electronically reported twice to the state.
The foul-up prompted the state to scrap its new electronic signature verification process and set off an eleventh-hour drive by Florida4Marriage and Hometown Democracy to try to make up the lost ground.
“In less than 2 weeks we were able to collect 92,000 signatures, which we thought was remarkable,” said John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer and Florida4Marriage chairman.
Florida4Marriage’s amendment would define marriage as “the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife,” and that “no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”
It has drawn attacks from opponent who say the amendment could deny rights to unmarried heterosexual couples in addition to gays and lesbians.
Florida already has a law banning same-sex marriage.
But social conservative groups such as Focus on the Family, Florida Family Action and the Florida Baptist Convention launched the constitutional drive in 2005, arguing the state’s law could be invalidated in courts much as it was in Massachusetts.
The state Republican Party helped finance the drive in 2006, although it failed to make the ballot that year.
Gov. Charlie Crist distanced himself from the issue when he took office, proclaiming himself a “live and let live” governor.
Now with voters being asked to decide on gay marriage when they head to the polls to pick the next president, the amendment could drive more voters on both sides of the issue to the polls.
“These kinds of moral issues usually do push people in one direction or another,” said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political scientist.
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