Lawrence is about to become the first city in Kansas to legally recognize gay partnerships, according to the Lawrence Journal-World. A majority of commissioners said that they would support a program that would create a domestic partnership registry for gay couples who are prohibited by state law from marrying. However, commissioners stopped short of formally approving the idea, asking staff members to seek an opinion from new Attorney General Paul Morrison about the registry’s legal validity.
In Houston, Izza Lopez, a transgender woman, is allegedly the victim of gender-based discrimination. A Lambda Legal release stated that Lopez applied for a job with River Oaks Imaging and Diagnostic, and was hired; however, the job offer was rescinded less than a week later when the human resources director reportedly discovered that Lopez is transgender and accused her of ‘misrepresenting’ herself as a woman on her application. Lambda Legal is representing Lopez in a lawsuit charging River Oaks with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment.
Scott Oak, a gay police officer from Missoula, Mont., is heading to Afghanistan to help train that country’s National Police force, according to the Associated Press. Oak, the Missoula police department’s gay liaison officer, said he is taking a one-year leave to complete the task. The State Department became aware of Oak after he came out in the news media and took the job as Missoula’s first police liaison to gays and lesbians.
Geraldo Cruz, Jr.—an HIV-positive truck driver who accused his employers of illness-related discrimination in McAllen, Texas—has settled his federal case, according to the San-Antonio Express News. A defense attorney for E.C. Trading Ltd., one of the two companies that hired Cruz in 2004, denied Cruz’s claims and said the settlement was for less than $10,000.
A New York City judge who said the Massachusetts marriage of two gay men was void has ruled that the couple’s separation agreement is valid and legally enforceable, according to the Associated Press. State Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob issued the decision in the divorce case of David Gonzalez and Steven Green, who married in Massachusetts on Feb. 14, 2005. Gonzalez wanted a divorce, and Green wanted a ruling that they were never married.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn—the first female and first openly gay individual in that position—has taken the first concrete step to enter the 2009 mayoral race by hiring a fundraiser who previously worked for Gov. Spitzer, The New York Post reported. Quinn’s campaign is reportedly bringing aboard Hilary Keller, a deputy fundraiser in Spitzer’s successful operation.
The International Federation of Black Prides, Inc. (IFBP) honored Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street and filmmaker Aishah Saidah Simmons for their contributions to Philadelphia LGBT communities at a reception, according to an IFBP release. In addition, the IFBP held its ‘Annual and Technical Assistance Meeting’ in Philadelphia over the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend; over 30 Black Pride took part in the forum.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would review its investments to determine whether its holdings were socially responsible, The Los Angeles Times reported. The Times found that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments—totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41 percent of its assets—have been in companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy. Before the announcement, the records of the foundation—which has HIV/AIDS prevention as one of its stated goals—showed that it had made only one program-related investment: a $1.4-million interest-free loan to a Seattle school.
However, in related news, the New York-based Treatment Action Group (TAG), in a press release, announced that it has been awarded a four-year, $4,736,587 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its TB/HIV advocacy project and strengthen global responses to the overlapping TB/HIV epidemics. The grant will enable TAG to, among other things, lead community activist efforts to help ensure universal access to TB and HIV diagnosis and treatment by the year 2010.
A 1994 videotape mysteriously posted on YouTube.com has prompted Republican Mitt Romney to declare that he ‘was wrong on some issues back then,’ while also insisting that he is a social conservative, PlanetOut.com reported. The tape of a Senate debate between Romney and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy showed Romney defending a woman’s right to abortion, saying he supported allowing gays in the Boy Scouts and noting he was a registered independent.
A two-tier life insurance plan will now be offered to people living with HIV/AIDS, according to a press release from General Strategic Marketing. The tier for which an applicant is eligible is based on factors such as age and medical condition. However, both plans offer affordable pricing options—something which may not have been possible previously. The plan is offered in all states except New York, New Jersey and Vermont. For more info, contact Wayne Smith at 908-403-7004 or at WMSmith4@verizon.net.
In San Francisco, Police Chief Heather Fong defended the police officers who broke up a street beating of members of a Yale University singing group on New Year’s Eve, saying they made no arrests because they could not find anyone to substantiate any charges, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Accusations of delay and inaction by police have dogged the incident that left one member of the Baker’s Dozen singing group with a broken jaw and another with a concussion. The situation began when uninvited party guests hurled homophobic slurs at the all-male a cappella group.
In Maryland, Montgomery County Public Schools officials unanimously approved a new gay-inclusive sex education curriculum, but left out five recommended messages about homosexuality—including a note that gays can live happy lives, The Washington Blade reported. Officials decided to omit the messages at their meeting despite an advisory committee’s recommendation that the material be included.
In New Jersey, Attorney General Stuart Rabner announced that clergy, unlike government officials who regularly conduct marriages, do not have to perform civil unions for gay couples, according to the Asbury Park Press. In a letter to the state’s registrar of vital statistics, Rabner said the state’s anti-discrimination law does not apply to clergy whose religious beliefs prevent them from uniting two people of the same sex.
Also in New Jersey, a police officer has received a $450,000 settlement after suing Haledon, N.J., and several of its officials for anti-gay discrimination. BGay.com reported that Sgt. James Len, a 20-year veteran of the force, claimed in May 2004 that he had been passed over for promotion and suffered harassment because he is gay. He said that he was reprimanded for minor tardiness even though his colleagues were not, and that a former councilman once radioed ‘Homo, homo, homo.’
Organizers of a federally funded clinical trial in Atlanta that seeks to determine whether a drug can safely prevent HIV transmission are focusing on increasing participation among Black men who have sex with men, Reuters/Washington Post reported. The CDC granted $3.5 million to fund trials in San Francisco and Atlanta to test the FDA-approved drug Viread, which has been shown to boost immune response and lower viral levels in the blood streams of people with HIV who are resistant to other antiretrovirals.
The National Council of Negro Women, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the Black AIDS Institute will present ‘It’s All About M.E.E. (Mobilization, Education, Empowerment) !!! Sistahs Getting Real About HIV’ on Feb. 7-11 at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. See www.ncnw.org/events/calendar.htm or call 626-791-3847 for more info.
The body of Phanta ‘Jack” Phoummarathan, an 18-year-old University of Texas fraternity pledge who died of alcohol poisoning, was defaced with anti-gay epithets and obscene drawings, according to Advocate.com. The Travis County medical examiner’s office reported that partygoers used green and black markers to write ”FAG,” ”I’m gay” and ‘I AM FAT” on Phoummarath’s head, face, torso, legs and feet. A family lawyer has said that Phoummarath was not gay.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will propose same-sex legislation in the new session of the legislature, according to an item on 365Gay.com. In his inauguration speech, Spitzer did not mention the marriage issue or state’s LGBT community, raising concerns the governor had abandoned his campaign pledge to promote a marriage bill. However, ‘the governor made a commitment to advancing it this year, and he will do so,’ Spitzer’s communications director, Darren Dopp, has said.
Dr. Clark Mitchell, the former medical director of one of Florida’s most prominent AIDS clinics, has pled guilty to securities fraud and health care fraud, according to The Washington Blade. Prosecutors said that Mitchell cheated investors out of nearly $1 billion. Mitchell, accused of misleading investors by signing off on bogus life expectancy estimates, entered his plea in Miami federal court in a bargain that will result in no more than 10 years in prison.
In Massachusetts, Boston’s 7News anchor Randy Price married his longtime partner, Mark Steffen, on the steps of the statehouse, according to The Advocate. The union happened one day after a proposed ban on same-sex marriage advanced in the legislature, but Price said that the day merely coincided with the couple’s 30th anniversary.
In Houston, Texas, dozens of vehicles were vandalized outside EJ’s, a gay club, Advocate.com reported. Club patrons said that about 30 cars had damage done to their tires and windows. Some customers believe it was a hate crime.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed over a gay Latino lawyer for a state appellate court seat, instead choosing a Black Republican judge for the post, according to The Bay Area Reporter. Schwarzenegger announced that Henry Needham, of Oakland, would fill a vacancy on the San Francisco-based First District Court of Appeal. The governor also considered, but eventually passed over, a gay candidate: Michael Nava, a California Supreme Court research attorney. It is believed to be the first time an openly gay person has been considered for a seat at the appellate level.
Washington State’s five openly gay lawmakers—Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle; Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver; Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle; Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines; and Rep. Joe McDermott—have called for the right for same-sex couples to get married and said they would pursue that goal while seeking enhanced domestic partnership rights, according to The Longview Daily News. Last July, the state Supreme Court upheld the ban on same-sex marriage in a 5-4 decision.
Through the Franklin Kameny Papers Project, the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives has received a donation of five picket signs used at gay and lesbian protests that took place between 1965 and 1969 in front of the White House in Washington D.C. and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a ONE press release stated. Kameny, a government employee fired from his job for being gay in the 1950s, remains an activist in Washington, D.C., in his 80s.