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Vocal Minority Sings Out Across VT
Ontario Courts Gay Marriage; Ottawa Declines Appeal
MIddlebury College Adds Trans to Policies
The Rest of Our World
The Rest of Our World
NY Gov. Intervenes for Unemployment
Albany, NY – According to reports in The New York Times and from gay organizations, Governor Pataki has intervened in an unemployment benefits case on behalf of a lesbian who quit her job to follow her partner to a better job in another state.
Pataki asked state Labor Department officials to reconsider their denial of benefits to Jeanne Newland because she and her partner, Natasha Doty, are not married. New York law provides unemployment benefits to spouses who quit their jobs to follow their marriage partners to another state. The Labor Department has agreed to reconsider.
Newland’s appeals were denied. At the request of several New York glbtq advocacy groups, Governor George Pataki, a Republican who signed the state’s first gay and lesbian nondiscrimination measure into law last December, stepped in to urge reconsideration.
The two women have been together for 6 years, and own property together. People who quit jobs voluntarily can qualify for jobless benefits only if they quit for “good cause,” and quitting a job and following a partner out of state was good cause so long as the claimant was married.
Newland has filed suit against the state to overturn the decision, but the lawsuit has been suspended pending the board’s reconsideration. Even Newland’s former employer is on her side – despite facing an increase for unemployment insurance taxes if she wins.
Newland has in fact found a job, but won’t drop the lawsuit in hopes of setting a precedent that will benefit other same-sex couples in a similar situation.
Associated Press Offers DP Benefits
Washington, DC – In part because of organizing and pressure by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), the Associated Press has agreed to offer domestic partner benefits to its gay and lesbian employees effective June 1, 2003.
The decision came as part of contract negotiations with the News Media Guild, the union which represents nonmanagement employees at AP. The far-reaching decision will cover the same-sex unmarried partners of the Associated Press’ 3,700 employees working in 242 bureaus in the U.S. and around the world.
“For years, the gay and lesbian employees of The Associated Press have been pressing for equal benefits,” said Ross Sneyd, an AP reporter in Montpelier, VT, and chairman of the NLGJA’s domestic partnership task force. “I’m thrilled the AP has recognized that equal treatment of all its employees is the right thing to do.” Sneyd made a presentation to the company about domestic partner benefits in October 2002 along with representatives of the NLGJA and the News Media Guild.
With the AP decision, NLGJA now reports that at least 75 U.S. major media companies and unions offer domestic partner benefits to employees at more than 1,400 newspapers, broadcast stations, online news outlets and other operating divisions.
Brit. Gay Bishop Appointed, NH Gay Bishop Elected
London – The conservative wing of the Church in England is demanding that the appointment of a gay man as Bishop of Reading be rescinded, reports 365Gay.com.
Canon Jeffrey John was appointed last week although his appointment does not become effective until he is consecrated in the fall. Although he is no longer sexually active, John had an ongoing relationship with another man for more than 20 years.
The Anglican Church, called Episcopalian in the US is likely to face years of controversy of the issue of gay clergy, as New Hampshire Episcopalians elected a gay man as their bishop last month.
After the election, Rev. V. Gene Robinson said: “It’s just gratifying to get this kind of affirmation from people who have known me for the past 28 years.” Robinson, 56, of Weare, is a divorced father of two adult daughters. He’s been with his partner, Mark Andrew, for about 15 years. He was elected on the second ballot in a vote by clergy and laypeople from churches around the state.
The Episcopalian national leadership must ratify the election by a two-thirds vote at its convention next month.
Meanwhile, Michael Ingham, the bishop of New Westminster, Canada, has been declared “out of communion” with some other Anglican churches across the globe. His sin was in recognizing a same-sex marriage.
Violence Delays Jerusalem Pride
Jerusalem – When a member of Israel’s lgbtq community was killed in a bus bombing in mid-June, community leaders decided that the Pride march should be postponed for a week. The shared experience of violence did not stop members of an outlawed Jewish extremist group from torching and pulling down rainbow flags in the center of Jerusalem where Pride was to be celebrated.
More than 100 flags were destroyed. The militant Kach movement claimed responsibility, according to a report on 365Gay.com.
Baruch Marzel, an ex-leader of the Kach movement, defended the flag-burning and said the Pride celebrations would “violate the holiness of Jerusalem.” Other ultra-Orthodox politicians refused comment on the flag burnings but agreed that the Pride parade should be banned.
NEA to Honor Service to GLBTQs
Washington, DC – The National Education Association (NEA) is recognizing several individuals’ commitment to promoting Îtolerance’ of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons as part of its 37th annual Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner. The awards are being presented on July 2 in New Orleans.
Barbara Williams and the student cast and crew of The Laramie Project will receive an award for putting on the play about Matthew Shepard’s hate-crime murder, despite controversy. Newark is a small suburban town 35 miles south of San Francisco that had seen several hate crimes committed against gays.
Despite a backlash from some members of the community, Williams and her student cast and crew went ahead with the production – and then a seventeen-year old transgender student from a nearby high school was beaten and strangled to death by three local men. Williams and her students courageously pushed forward with the play. As the cast president says, “The play was about living tolerantly with each other, and accepting everyone.”
Gary and Millie Watts are being honored for overcoming their own religious upbringing in the conservative Mormon church to educate to educate religious, political and family leaders about tolerating and accepting homosexuality. They took on the task when two of their six children “came out” as homosexuals.
IBM Supports Ending Homophobia in Sports
East Meadow, NY – IBM has agreed to sponsor an educational publication, called It Takes A Team, aimed at making sports safe for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes and coaches. The publication is an outreach effort of the Project to Eliminate Homophobia in Sport. This educational “kit” was developed for athletes, their parents, guardians, coaches, administrators and the general public as a turnkey 40-minute program that includes a curriculum guide, posters, stickers and a video hosted by tennis champion Zina Garrison and former professional football player Don McPherson.
IBM will help fund project outreach, provide all videos for inclusion in each educational kit and offer its employees the opportunity to volunteer for the project.
IBM wants “to help ensure that our future customers and employees, including today’s high school and college athletes, are educated on the value of inclusion while still in school – because that will certainly be their experience in doing business with IBM, where we respect our customers and colleagues in all their humanity,” said Sarah Siegel, IBM’s Program Director, GLBT Sales and Talent.
Ex-Student Convicted in Anti-Gay Hate Crime
Atlanta, GA – A former college student was convicted in the beating of a dorm mate he thought was making sexual advances towards him. Aaron Price, 19, was found guilty of assault and battery charges that carry up to 40 years prison. The hate crimes charge could bring an additional five years. Gregory Love suffered a fractured skull in the attack in a Morehouse College dormitory bathroom in November after Price beat him with a baseball bat.
Price claimed he was acting in self-defense when he left the bathroom and returned to assault Love with the bat. The beating evoked strong emotions at Morehouse and charges of persistent and widespread campus homophobia were leveled by students, alumni and community members.
“This case was emblematic not just of anti-gay hate at Morehouse, or other historically black colleges and universities, but of anti-gay hate on campuses in general across the country,” said Clarence Patton, Acting Executive Director of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). “In 2002 alone, there was a 118% increase in the number of reports we received of incidents occurring in an academic setting.”
NCAVP’s 2002 Report on Hate Violence can be read and downloaded at: www.avp.org
Rainbow Flag Turns 25
New York, NY – The world’s longest rainbow flag was unfurled last month in Key West, Florida. The mile-and-a-quarter-long Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag spanned the entire length of Key West’s Duval Street – from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow flag and long considered the “gay Betsy Ross,” hand-sewed the Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag. Following Sunday’s event, more than 100 sections of the flag were given to Pride organizations in cities worldwide, including: Atlanta, Berlin, Boston, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and, Toronto.
Lambda Lit Award for Judy Shepard
Los Angeles – At the 15th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in Los Angeles, emotion ran high when actress Judith Light presented the Bridge Builder Award to Betty DeGeneres, mother of actress Ellen DeGeneres, and to Judy Shepard, mother of the late Matthew Shepard. Awards were presented in twenty categories.
Honors in Gay and Lesbian Fiction went to two historical novels, Irish author Jamie O’Neill’s At Swim Two Boys and English author Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith.
Among the presenters were mystery writer Katherine V. Forrest, poet Rod McKuen, and performance artist Tim Miller. Among the winners was Plattsburgh, NY author Bonnie Shimko with Letters from the Attic, competing in the same category as Harvey Fierstein.
Shimko, who was “stunned” when she won, described her book as “a mother/daughter-coming-of-age/coming-out story I wrote for my daughter who ‘came out’ to our family five years ago. It’s a labor of love and also an apology for acting less than kind when I heard the news. Since then,” she added, “I’ve come to my senses (the wonderful members of the Burlington, Vermont PFLAG chapter worked their magic) and we’re closer than ever.”
In addition to the twenty juried categories, the Editor’s Choice Award was presented to historian/activist John D’Emilio for The World Turned; and the Pioneer Award went to Naiad Press founder Barbara Grier.
Gay Activists Murdered in Nogales, Mexico
Nogales, Mexico –The president of the Lesbian & Gay Collective in Nogales, Sonora, and his partner were brutally murdered with a hammer in their own home the first week of June.
The bodies of Jorge Luis Armenta Peñuelas, 27, and Ramón Arming Gutiérrez Enríquez, 33, were found at the couple’s residence in Nogales by the brother of one of the victims. A bloody hammer was nearby. Neighbors said they had not seen or heard anything unusual the night before. Police investigators have no suspects. Nogales, Sonora is located about one hour south of Tucson.
Deaf Leather & Deaf Bear Contests
Orlando, FL – According to a press release, the International Deaf Leather and Deaf Bear & Cub Organization held its contest in downtown Orlando early last month. The winners of IDL are Juan Zazueta, International Mr. Deaf Leather 2003) and Reneta Millet, International Ms. Deaf Leather 2003, both from San Diego, CA.
David Pikington, from London, England, is Mr. Deaf Bear 2003, George Shishmanian of New Jersey is Mr. Deaf Grizzly 2003 and John Maxwell, Jr., is Mr. Deaf Cub 2003 from Newark, NJ.
The next IDL 2004 contest will be held in conjunction with Ms. World Leather in Dallas, TX during the 2nd weekend of August 2004.
Books to Watch Out For Online
San Francisco, CA – Carol Seajay, the publisher of the sorely missed Feminist Bookstore News from 1976 until its closing in 2000, has introduced two e-mail newsletters and will launch a third in the fall, according to Publishers Weekly.
The first two versions of Books to Watch Out For are BTWOF: The Lesbian Edition and BTWOF: The Gay Men’s Edition. BTWOF: More Books for Women to Watch Out For is the third.
Sent once or twice a month, the newsletters feature short reviews and announcements about the best new lesbian and gay books as well as news and what Seajay calls “good gossip” from the book world.
Subscriptions are $2.50 a month per newsletter or $4 a month for both newsletters and will be billed annually. (The pricing is “less than the cost of a bag of movie popcorn,” she noted, and 15 percent of subscription income will go to supporting gay and lesbian communities.)
The idea for BTWOF came because Seajay herself had a “hard time finding the books I wanted to read,” she said. The newsletters are geared to people who “don’t have a feminist or gay bookstore in their town and are too busy to wade through superstores or search through a zillion Web pages to find their leisure reading.”
Richard Labonte, who managed A Different Light bookstores and was the “Gay Men’s Lit” columnist for Feminist Bookstore News, will edit BTWOF: The Gay Men’s Edition.