Colorado governor Bill Owens is not saying if he will sign or veto an LGBT civil-rights bill passed last week in the legislature, 365Gay.com reported. The legislation would protect gays and lesbians against discrimination in the workplace. House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, urged Owens to sign the bill. Owens said Coloradoans have changed and LGBT civil rights should no longer be an issue. The Human Rights Campaign also asked the governor to sign. ‘We urge Governor Owens to ensure this important protection becomes law, making certain that Coloradoans’ employment opportunities are based on the quality of their work and nothing more,’ said organization president Joe Solmonese.
Transgender activists from all over America will make their way to Capitol Hill May 19-20 for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition’s third biannual Lobby Days. The objective is to push Congress for passage of inclusive hate-crimes prevention and employment equality legislation.
Bucking the national trend, New Jersey’s support for marriage for same-sex couples is at its highest point ever, according to a Garden State Equality-Zogby poll released of 804 voters surveyed from April 12-14. PR Newswire reported that the poll’s 55-40 percent pro-gay marriage result is virtually identical to that of Zogby’s July 2003 New Jersey poll, whose result was 55-41 percent. Even more incredible, 81 percent of voters say the legislature has more important priorities than to spend time trying to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban gay marriage.
In California, jury selection began in the retrial of three men charged with murder in the October 2002 slaying of a Newark transgender teen, almost a year after the first jury failed to reach a verdict, Inside Bay Area reported. The victim, who was born Eddie Araujo but was living as a woman named Gwen, was beaten, strangled, and buried in a shallow grave after the defendants discovered the 17-year-old was biologically male, prosecutors say.