04.30.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:07 pm by pikapp44
A motion by a Wells Fargo shareholder to remove protections for LGBT workers from the company’s non-discrimination policy was defeated this week at its annual meeting.
Wells Fargo & Co. is the fifth largest U.S. bank by assets.
The motion called for the company to “to formulate an equal employment policy …that does not make reference to any matters related to sexual interests, activities or orientation.”
It said that homosexuality has been “condemned by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more”.
The motion was crafted by Pro Vita Advisors, a group that helps promote conservative values.
The motion said that “While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern.”
The proposal was easily defeated.
Nearly 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies.
Conservative groups have attacked Wells Fargo for the past three years over its “pro-gay policies”.
In 2005 Focus on the Family withdrew its funds from Wells Fargo.
“Focus on the Family has elected to end its banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank’s ongoing efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda. These efforts are in direct opposition to the underlying principles and purpose of Focus, and thus a decision of conscience had to be made, and a stand taken,” said a statement from FOF at the time.
Focus said Wells Fargo had donated more than $14 million to pro-gay organizations in the last two decades.
Similar shareholder challenges to non-discrimination policies that include gays have been fought and lost at Ford Motor Company.
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04.29.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:27 pm by pikapp44
Dozens of gays and lesbians converged on the Florida legislature to press lawmakers to enact a bill aimed at curbing bullying of LGBT students.
Statewide gay rights groups and a number of local organizations from across the state said they wanted to bring attention to the high rate of violent crimes against members of the LGBT community.
“[Hate crimes] begin as bullying in our schools,” said Brian Winfield of Equality Florida.
“We need to challenge that at the root level,” Winfield told The Ledger. “We believe firmly that if we address bullying in Florida schools, we will put a serious dent in tomorrow’s hate crimes.”
An anti-bullying bill has been approved unanimously by the House but is stalled in the Senate.
The appeal to enact the anti-bullying law comes on the heels of the National Day of Silence where students bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools across the country.
A study released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in 2006 showed that homophobia is widespread in the nation’s schools.
Nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.
Three-quarters of students surveyed said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” - meaning stupid or worthless - frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.
The study also showed that bullying has had a negative impact on learning.
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04.28.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 6:19 pm by pikapp44
The Human Rights Campaign will announce Monday its endorsements for several U.S. Senate races, promising to launch an “unprecedented nationwide campaign” for the fall elections.
HRC spokesperson Trevor Thomas told U.S. News and World Report on Thursday that the organization will not endorse a candidate for the presidential race until the Democrats choose a candidate.
The organization is striving to mobilize gay and progressive voters by targeting 700,000 of its members and 5 million other voters in key battleground states.
Democratic strategist and Clinton ally Paul Begala will join HRC president Joe Solmonese when he announces the endorsements, according to the report
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04.25.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 7:19 am by pikapp44
The National Day of Silence brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. This year’s event will be held in memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th-grader who was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. Hundreds of thousands of students will come together on April 25 to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior.
The Day of Silence is about safer schools, tolerance and positive change. Some organizations misrepresent these facts. Here are 4 Truths about a day that has brought hope to students experiencing anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment.
For more information and to get involved, visit DayofSilence.org.
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04.24.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:13 pm by pikapp44
Study: Young Gays Expect Future Long-term Commitments
A new study shows that many lesbian and gay youths, much like their heterosexual peers, expect to have long-term committed relationships and raise families in the future.
“We seem to be witnessing the mainstreaming of lesbian/gay youth, with many of them wanting exactly what heterosexual youth have always wanted — the whole American dream complete with kids and the minivan. “Most agree that the primary issue is whether these youth will be given the equal legal rights to realize their couple and family aspirations just like their heterosexual peers.”
Social scientists Anthony R. D’Augelli, H. Jonathon Rendina, Katerina O. Sinclair of Pennsylvania State University, and Arnold Grossman of New York University recently published these findings in the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling. They report that the study may not be representative of all gay youths in the country. Researchers suspect that because the youths live in an urban environment in which they are aware of the LGBT resources available to them, “youth in rural areas might have different responses.”
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04.22.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:52 pm by pikapp44
In a few simple sentences, the muscular Republican governor of California did some heroically heavy lifting for all Americans who believe in equal marriage rights for those of us who’re gay.
Asked at the gay Log Cabin Republicans’ recent national convention whether he would join them in opposing a proposed California ballot initiative that would prohibit gay couples there from achieving marriage equality, Schwarzenegger began, “First of all, I think that (such a ban) would never happen in California because I think California people are much further along on that issue.”
Then, as every heart in the room skipped a beat, he delivered some of the most important lines of his career: “And, No. 2, I will always be there to fight against that — because it should never happen.”
The audience leapt to its feet and gave the governor of the nation’s most influential state a standing ovation.
If the court sides with fairness, it could immediately open marriage to gay couples or encourage the legislature to do so. Lawmakers have twice passed such legislation, vetoed by Schwarzenegger, who wants the court to weigh in. (He has signed more than 20 gay-rights bills.)
And Californians aren’t the only ones who should listen. So should soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee John McCain, his pal.
If California’s court rules in gay couples’ favor, McCain will stand at his own crossroads: Will he react by choosing the tired old divisive path taken by recent Republican presidential nominees? Or will he wisely try to make the Republican Party more appealing to moderates ready to move forward by modeling himself after the Ronald Reagan of 30 years ago?
McCain unsuccessfully lobbied for an anti-gay amendment to Arizona’s Constitution. Yet he opposes amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage unless courts strike down the federal law saying no state has to recognize another’s gay marriages and that gay married couples don’t get federal spousal benefits and protections.
McCain needs to know that Schwarzenegger’s decision to oppose an anti-gay state initiative puts him in good company with another ex-actor in a very supportive role: In 1978, Reagan, then a former California governor with White House ambitions, torpedoed the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gay or gay-friendly teachers.
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04.21.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 6:42 pm by pikapp44
After meeting Tuesday with gay rights groups, representatives from the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden pledged to address the antigay slurs that are frequently screamed at the hockey team’s games, according to a story in The New York Times.
The meeting came one month after a New York Times article described gay fans’ frustration with what they saw as a homophobic atmosphere — and the team’s unwillingness to acknowledge the problem.
A regular at Rangers games, Jennings said the atmosphere was so uncomfortable that he had to stop attending. Other fans reported being booed when the name of their group, the New York City Gay Hockey Association, appeared on the monitors above the ice.
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04.17.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 9:26 am by pikapp44
Foes of gay marriage are planning a series of news conferences around the state — including Fort Lauderdale — later this morning, the other side has issued what’s known in political circles as a prebuttal.
The Fairness for All Families organization is putting out its take before Florida4Marriage holds its events.
Florida4Marriage, which wants to put the ban on gay marriage in the Florida Constitution, said this morning it would have seniors endorsing its position at its events.
So Fairness for All Families just issued the following statement about the effects it says the proposal would have on seniors:
Senior Advocates Urge Floridians to VOTE NO on Amendment 2 Florida Retirees Risk Loss of Essential Health and Family Benefits
Advocates for Florida seniors today called on voters to DEFEAT Amendment 2, the so-called Florida “Marriage Protection” Amendment.
The measure that denies benefits to unmarried Floridians will hit seniors particularly hard, according to the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans.
“Many seniors who are widowed do not remarry because, if they do, they risk losing essential pension benefits or they fear that a new marriage might upset estate plans for their adult children,” said Barbara DeVane, secretary for Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. “This amendment threatens to strip away essential health and family protections unmarried seniors count on to take care of themselves and their loved ones.”
Already, backers of the amendment are preparing to challenge Tampa’s domestic partnership policy that provides health coverage and other protections to firefighters, police officers and other municipal employees.
Bentley Lipscomb, former Head of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, agrees that the measure could have a large unintended impact on elderly couples.
“The way they drafted this amendment will cause problems and create obstacles for some Florida seniors,” Lipscomb said. “Unmarried older couples would not be able to enjoy the same ability to take care of each other. Even visiting their loved one in the hospital when they are sick would be problematic. Then, there’s the whole legal issue around making decisions about the end of life.”
Some widows and widowers see marriage as a religious commitment that they will only have once. Yet, they often form loving bonds with someone who becomes their closest family, whom they care for and love.
“We’ve seen what has happened in other states where these kind of amendments have passed. Unmarried partners are now denied vital benefits and protections. The government should not make it harder for people to take care of their loved ones and that is exactly what Amendment 2 will do,” said DeVane.
The harmful consequences of Amendment 2 are not limited to seniors. According to the Florida Legislature’s own analysis of the proposal, all unmarried couples risk losing family protections that an overwhelming majority of Floridians support.
“If domestic partnership registries are deemed substantially equivalent to marriage, their termination could place registrants at risk of losing specified rights and benefits, such as those related to health insurance,” according to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research which is required to identify the impact of any proposed amendment.
The report also warns that domestic violence laws may be impacted in Florida as they have been in Utah and Ohio.
“By invalidating any union or ‘substantial equivalent thereof,’ this amendment could be raised as a defense in domestic violence cases, resulting in fewer domestic violence convictions…”
Costs of litigation may increase the report states “involving both public sector and private sector entities and individuals.”
The Florida Alliance for Retired Americans is committed to educating seniors on the harm this measure poses. FLARA has joined the Fairness for All Families Campaign, a coalition of more than 200 civil rights groups, senior, labor, faith and student groups working to defeat Amendment 2.
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04.16.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 1:40 pm by pikapp44
Pope Benedict XVI stepped onto U.S. soil at Andrews Air Force Base for the time as pontiff Tuesday, arriving to a presidential handshake and wild cheering only hours after he admitted that he is ”deeply ashamed” of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has devastated the American church
”I do not wish to talk at this moment about homosexuality, but about pedophilia, which is another thing,” he said.
While the pope and Bush differ on such major issues on the Iraq war, capital punishment and the U.S. embargo against Cuba, they do find common ground in opposing abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.
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04.13.08
Posted in Gay Portal at 9:15 am by pikapp44
“Out in Ashville” is Ashville, North Carolinas best GLBT newspaper. It’s offered online and in print. It covers News, Thought & Lifestyles for the GLBTQ Carolinas.
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