Friday, March 30, 2012

Advocate: Antigay Attack Under Investigation in Ohio College Town

Antigay Attack Under Investigation in Ohio College Town


 Michael Bustin
 

Two Ohio men who were beaten while walking home from a drag show were apparently targeted because they’re gay, police say.

Michael Bustin, a student at Miami University in Oxford, was walking home Saturday with a friend, with whom he briefly held hands, when he heard someone yell a derogatory term, he told Cincinnati TV station WLWT. Then four men approached them, and one began beating Bustin’s friend.

“I got in the way of the two, saying we wanted to go home. We didn’t want any harm. Then I got sucker-punched twice in the face,” Bustin said. The attackers fled after some other students intervened.

Oxford police believe Bustin and his companion were attacked because they’re gay, and the police department is working on sketches of the suspects, the TV station reports. There has also been quick reaction from the university, which sent out a bulletin about the attack, and the dean contacted Bustin.

“It actually made me feel humbled that the university looked into my matter,” Bustin said. “I just want this to be a message. Just stop hate.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Rick Santorum Tells Boy Not to Use Pink Bowling Ball




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 28, 2012
Dan Rafter 

Rick Santorum Tells Boy Not to Use Pink Bowling Ball

Washington – At a campaign event at a bowling alley in Wisconsin today, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told a boy who reached for a pink bowling ball: “You’re not gonna use the pink ball. We're not gonna let you do that. Not on camera.” Santorum went on to say “Friends don’t let friends use pink balls.” The comments were tweeted by Reuters reporter Sam Youngman.

“This is another example of Rick Santorum intentionally making ignorant statements that have a real impact on LGBT people,” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “Whether he’s comparing our marriages to inanimate objects, saying our children would be better off with a parent in prison as opposed to two loving same-sex parents, or calling open military service a ‘tragic social experiment;’ he’s proven that he thinks LGBT people are second-class citizens not worthy of dignity or respect. In this case, he’s advancing tired gender norms by implying a boy should be ashamed or embarrassed to use a certain color bowling ball.”

Santorum’s anti-LGBT record speaks for itself: in addition to his frequent and vitriolic remarks about issues like marriage equality or LGBT families, he consistently voted against workplace protections while serving in the U.S. Senate, and was an early and vocal supporter of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.

“Kids have enough to worry about,” added Sainz. “They don’t need Rick Santorum telling them that using a pink bowling ball is a bad thing.”

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
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Sponsor Testimony for the Equal Housing and and Employment Act




Sponsor Testimony for EHEA

For immediate release:
March 28, 2012  

For more information contact:
Ed Mullen, Executive Director
Zac Branstool, Communications Director

Columbus - Today at 4:00pm, the Ohio House Committee on Commerce and Labor will hear sponsor Testimony on HB 335 (the Equal Housing and and Employment Act), which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Ohio state laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.  Representatives Nickie Antonio (D) and Ross McGregor (R) will be testifying as to the importance of this legislation.

For at least several years, the vast majority of Ohio registered voters have believed discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity should be prohibited by state law (74% of respondents to a 2009 Glengariff poll of Ohio voters commissioned by Equality Ohio Education Fund).

When sexual orientation and gender identity are included in non-discrimination laws, companies are more proactive at preventing and responding to discrimination claims.  Workplace discrimination against employees based on race, gender or sexual orientation costs businesses an estimated $64 billion annually, a recent report from the Center For American Progress finds. Businesses incur costs in a variety of ways, including through the turnover of about 2 million employees who leave their jobs due to discrimination. More than 40 percent of gay employees reported facing harassment and discrimination at work, according to a recent survey by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force.Non-discrimination policies have been adopted by many major corporations, including those in Ohio, because companies recognize that adopting non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity allow them to attract, retain, and compete with companies based in other states.

21 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia currently protect people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, putting Ohio and its businesses at a competitive disadvantage for recruiting and hiring the best and brightest professional talent.  The businesses of the future require innovation and creativity, and those companies want to locate where the laws are protective of all people.

“The vast majority of Ohioans are fair-minded people who understand that discrimination is wrong,” says Ed Mullen, Executive Director of Equality Ohio.  “If Ohio is going to retain and attract young workers and the businesses of the future, it is important that our state laws reflect these values.  If Ohio is truly open for business, it should be open for everyone.”

Testimony will be held in Room 121 (the McKinley Room) at 4:00pm.

Equality Ohio advocates and educates to achieve fair treatment and equal opportunity for all Ohioans regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. For more information, visit www.equalityohio.org or call us at (614) 224-0400.
# # #

Equality Ohio | 61 Jefferson Ave | Columbus, OH 43215 | 614.224.0400

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

HRC’s Exposure of Secret NOM Documents Shows Dark Underbelly of Anti-Gay Movement





FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 27, 2012
 


HRC’s Exposure of Secret NOM Documents Shows Dark Underbelly of Anti-Gay Movement

Key Themes Unveil NOM’s Despicable Tactics

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign exclusively obtained copies of the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential strategy documents yesterday. As part of a continuing investigation by the state of Maine, this court-ordered disclosure shows NOM fighting a losing battle with strategy and tactics that are racially and ethnically divisive, filled with false political calculations, and out of touch with the majority of fair-minded Americans. Based on an initial complaint filed by Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, the Maine Ethics Commission launched a formal investigation into NOM’s fundraising tactics in late 2009.

“With the veil lifted, Americans everywhere can now see the ugly politics that the National Organization for Marriage traffics in every day. While loving gay and lesbian couples seek to make lifelong commitments, NOM plays racial politics, tries to hide donors and makes up lies about people of faith.  The contrast could not be any starker,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “The reason that Americans are steadily moving in the direction of marriage equality is because they identify with the loving and committed couples who want to enter into the institution, not NOM’s underhanded tactics of lies and manipulation.”
The key themes that emerge from the documents are:
  • Racial Politics
    • NOM’s admitted key goal is to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks.”
    • NOM aims to manipulate Hispanic communities by “making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity” and “to make opposition to gay marriage an identity marker, a badge of youth rebellion to conformist assimilation to the bad side of ‘Anglo’ culture.”
  • Facing a Losing Battle
    • They were 0 for 3 in their 2010 priority: “Roll back gay marriage in New Hampshire, Iowa, and D.C.”  Marriage equality remains on the books in all three with the New Hampshire Republican legislature just last week rejecting a move to repeal their law.
  • Huge Coffers Fund Phony “Research”
    • NOM outlined a plan to spend $100,000 on a “study of what schools are teaching in gay marriage/civil union regimes.”
    • $150,000 is earmarked for videotaping stories of those supposedly harmed by marriage equality called “The Face of the Victims” project.
    • $60,000 in salary earmarked for an “outreach coordinator to identify children of gay parents willing to speak on camera.”
    • $50,000 earmarked for “Expert Witness Project” that couldn’t cultivate a single credible witness to stand up in the Prop 8 trial for example.
  • Painting Themselves as Victims
    • NOM pushes the false notion that Americans are under attack: “Gay marriage is the tip of the spear, the weapon that will be and is being used to marginalize and repress Christianity and the Church.”
    • Embracing marriage equality supposedly “affects economic performance, expands the regulatory and taxing powers of government, and threatens the family businesses that generate economic growth and prosperity.”
    • Despite every court to hear the issue finding no evidence of any harassment or intimidation, NOM continues to claim “gay marriage advocates have focused relentlessly on harassing and intimidating local donors.”
  • Ignoring Campaign Finance Rules
    • NOM brags that “one key advantage we now have is the capacity to protect the identity of our donors.”
    • Worried about disclosure laws, NOM encourages donors to give to a slush fund for use around the country saying, “It is critical that we have a reserve fund to give to these efforts to ensure victory and protect donor identity.”
  • Small Movement with a Big Voice
    • Recognizing that they are a fringe movement, they brag about having wide media exposure writing: “there is an opportunity for a small countercultural community to have a disproportionate cultural impact.”
  • It’s Not Just About Marriage
    • NOM can no longer claim that they’re only focused on marriage.  Their “American Principles Project” seeks to “Expose Obama as a social radical” by “develop[ing] side issues” like “pornography” and veering off into issues around the Guantanamo Prison and opposing administration appointments.
    • As part of their “cultural strategies” they suggest “raising the negatives on homosexuality.”
    • Their state affiliate in Rhode Island “hopes to introduce divorce reform legislation in an effort to strengthen Rhode Island’s marriage and families.”
  • Taking their Movement Internationally
    • “The movement for gay marriage is global.  The counterrevolution protecting marriage needs to have a similar international reach.”
The original documents are available below and at: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/breaking-previously-confidential-documents-shed-light-on-nom-strategy.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
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86834855-20100716- Doc-128b- NOM- Depo- Exhibit-2- NOM- Depo- Exhibit-12- Nat-l- Strategy-for- Winning-12-15-09

Friday, March 23, 2012

White House LGBT Update: Deep in the Heart of Texas


The White House
Friday, March 23, 2012


Earlier this week, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, joined Attorney General Eric Holder in Arlington, Texas to deliver keynote remarks at the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools & Communities. 

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, delivers keynote remarks along with Attorney General Eric Holder at the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools and Communities at The University of Texas at Arlington, Tuesday, March 20th, 2012. (Photo courtesy of The University of Texas at Arlington).

In speaking before an audience of over 400 teachers, students, parents, community advocates, law enforcement officers and officials, and elected officials, Valerie described the steps the Obama Administration has taken to ensure safety and security for all our young people – including LGBT students – in our schools and neighborhoods.

As she closed her remarks, Valerie told the story of Tempest Cartwright, a 12th grader from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who experienced – but was able to overcome – bullying and whose story inspires us to continue to fight for safe schools and communities: 

So in closing, I would share one more story from a leader who is here today. Because change doesn’t begin in Washington. Change happens because ordinary people do extraordinary things … people like Tempest Cartwright. 

Tempest is from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma – she’s 18 years old. When word first got around her high school that she was gay, she lost friends. Some people stopped talking to her at church. Other students called her hurtful words that no young person should ever hear. For a while, Tempest was depressed. But she refused to let bullies ruin her life. As she put it, “Their attitudes and assumptions need to change, not me. If I don’t help that along, who will?

So today, Tempest is the president of her school’s gay-straight alliance – an alliance that has more than quadrupled its membership since she became involved. It’s not easy. In fact, it is hard. When her organization places posters around the school, they often get torn down. But she and other members keep putting them right back up.  And every day, bit by bit, she changes the world around her. As she put it, “When people put me down, it inspires me to stand up.”

Well, young people like Tempest should inspire us all to stand up, and keep standing up, for what is right. To stand up for the safety of our children and neighbors. To stand up for the belief that in America, no one should face bullying, harassment, or violence because of who they are, because that’s not who we are. 

Read Valerie’s remarks as prepared for delivery

Since launching the White House LGBT Conferences, we’ve been in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Dallas/Ft. Worth to discuss issues such as Health, Housing and Homelessness, and Safe Schools and Communities.  Stay tuned for announcements about future White House LGBT Conferences on issues including HIV/AIDS, Aging, and Families.

Best regards,
Gautam Raghavan
Office of Public Engagement
The White House


In Case You Missed It: White House LGBT Conference on Housing & Homelessness
Earlier this month, hundreds of advocates, community organizers, and interested members of the public came together in Detroit, Michigan for the White House LGBT Conference on Housing & Homelessness to participate in a dialogue with the Obama Administration on these issues.  The Conference was hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and the Ruth Ellis Center, a Detroit-based center for runaway and homeless LGBT youth.

Secretary for Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan delivered keynote remarks at the Conference.  In his remarks, Secretary Donovan described the important steps HUD has taken to ensure that all people – including LGBT people – have “a place to call home” and announced that HUD’s new Equal Access rule has gone into effect.  Thanks to that rule, no one can be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity when trying to access HUD funded programs or FHA insured mortgages.

Watch archived video of the opening session and Secretary Donovan’s keynote
Two panel sessions followed Secretary Donovan’s remarks: first, a panel of senior leaders that discussed the work being done across the Administration to address housing for LGBT people, and second, a panel of nationally recognized advocates who work directly with runaway and homeless LGBT youth.

Watch archived video of the panel discussions 

President Obama Announces New Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy
Last week, President Obama announced the appointment of one of the nation’s leading public health policy experts as the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) – Grant Colfax, M.D., the former Director of the HIV Prevention Section in the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  Dr. Colfax will coordinate the continuing efforts of the federal government to reduce the number of HIV infections across the United States.  A component of the White House Domestic Policy Council, ONAP emphasizes prevention through wide-ranging education initiatives and helps to coordinate the care and treatment of citizens with HIV/AIDS.  

“Grant Colfax will lead my Administration’s continued progress in providing care and treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS,” said President Obama. “Grant’s expertise will be key as we continue to face serious challenges and take bold steps to meet them.  I look forward to his leadership in the months and years to come."
Read more about Grant and the Office of National AIDS Policy 

Tweet of the Week
 
What You May Have Missed 

President Barack Obama visits the Dubliner, an Irish pub in Washington, D.C., with his Irish cousin, Henry Healy, center, and Ollie Hayes, a pub owner in Moneygall, Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Gay Peoples Chronicle: Ohio marriage petition drive moves forward




March 23. 2012

Ohio marriage petition drive moves forward
Amendment will be resubmitted after first version was rejected
Columbus--The leader of a group hoping to amend Ohio’s constitution to include same-sex marriage is undaunted by Attorney General Mike DeWine’s rejection of the initial language, and says another attempt will be made.

Freedom to Marry Ohio collected 1,764 signatures and submitted ballot language and a summary to DeWine on March 1. This is the first step to amending the state constitution.

Meanwhile, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization Equality Ohio is still being cautious about joining the effort.

DeWine found more than the minimum 1,000 signatures to be valid, but he had problems with the text.
In a letter, he told petitioners that the summary they submitted was not “a fair and truthful statement of the proposed constitutional amendment for three reasons.”

The proposed amendment reads: “Be it resolved by the people of the State of Ohio that Article XV, Section 11 of the Ohio Constitution be adopted and read as follows: § 11. In the State of Ohio and its political subdivisions, marriage shall be a union of two consenting adults and no religious institution shall be required to perform or recognize a marriage.”

A five-part summary was included with the amendment.

“First,” wrote DeWine, “the summary is longer than the text of the amendment.” He explained that this does not meet a constitutional requirement defined by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Second, DeWine took issue with a summary statement that the proposed amendment allows “political subdivisions to not recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals.”

“The text of the amendment does not indicate that political subdivisions would retain these rights,” he wrote.

“Third,” DeWine concluded, “the summary states that the amendment retains ‘the portions of Title 31 that codifies this Amendment.’ However, the text of the amendment does not contain any reference to Title 31.”

Title 31 of the Ohio Revised Code covers marriage, domestic relations and children.

The amendment’s backer, Ian James of Columbus, says he expected DeWine’s rejection and he’s going forward with a new version.

“[W]e expected the AG rejection and drafted a revised summary petition,” James wrote in a March 10 e‑mail. “The issue of brevity, Title 31 and the individual recognition have been addressed. The petition process continues and we anticipate filing the new summary petition next week.”

At press time March 20, the new language had not yet been filed and James had not shared what the new proposal will be.

Asked if the broader LGBT community has been consulted or surveyed as to what the new language should be, James responded, “Yes. And the Coalition and Committee continue to build a strong winning team effort.”

However, James did not respond to a follow-up question on who he had spoken to.

He also remains silent on an earlier query about any financial connection to the campaign.

James was asked in a March 6 e‑mail, “Will your company, the Strategy Network, or any company you may affiliate with professionally, have a stake in this campaign, should it go forward?” He did not answer.

James is the chief executive officer of the Strategy Network, a campaign consulting firm. According to its website, the firm’s specialties include ballot planning and management, voter identification and persuasion, petition and ballot placement, door to door canvassing and web based communications.

He is also the CEO of Professional Petition Management, LLC, which is a signature-gathering firm.

In order to make the ballot, Freedom to Marry Ohio will need to submit 385,253 valid signatures from all around Ohio.

Freedom to Marry Ohio lists its address as 1349 East Broad Street in Columbus, which is also the address of the Strategy Network and Professional Petition Management.

Firms who consult for campaigns get paid whether the end result is favorable or not.

Equality Ohio is still cautious

Equality Ohio is still not endorsing the effort and issued a second statement pointing to “reasonable questions” about the language as one of the reasons.

Equality Ohio director Ed Mullen said the organization has “engaged in the due diligence and deliberation on the marriage amendment” and the research has shown three significant findings.

Mullen wrote: “There are three clear takeaways from this research:

“1. There is a lot of excitement in Ohio for an effort to achieve marriage equality;

“2. There are reasonable questions about the current language, process and timing that will need to be resolved before many of the community members we have spoken to will support this effort; and

“3. The effort to achieve marriage equality in Ohio will be a difficult one that will require significant resources, particularly financial resources.”

The organization’s caution comes from the response to a presentation made by James at Equality Ohio’s Leadership Summit on March 3.

About a month earlier, James had created a Facebook page to cajole Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman into joining a national list of mayors that support marriage equality.

The social media effort was successful, and as it grew, James decided to launch an effort to amend Ohio’s constitution.

However, James did not get consensus on the language to be proposed, or find out if there is support for a campaign that could cost $10 million and tens of thousands of volunteer hours.

Jacob McClain of Ask Cleveland noted at the Leadership Summit that James had not been in touch with organizations expert in LGBT ballot initiatives or sought counsel from a campaign in Maine that also seeks to overturn that state’s marriage ban by initiative this year.

“We have stirred it up a bit,” James responded. “This is what democracy looks like.”

“And at the end of March we’ll birth a petition,” he said.

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