Tag: LGBT

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President Obama announces clear support for LGBT inclusive immigration reform

At a press conference in Costa Rica last night, President Obama announced that he supports LGBT-inclusive immigration reform because it’s “the right thing to do” but admitted he was uncertain about what might happen with the provision.

Said Obama:

“The LGBT community should be treated like everybody else. That’s the essential core principle behind our founding documents. The idea that we’re all created equal and we’re equal before the law…

“And so Senator Leahy may present this provision in committee, it may be presented on the floor. It will be one of many amendments and provisions, some of which I support. Some of which I think are really bad ideas…

“I can tell you I think that the provision is the right thing to do. I’ll also tell you that I’m not going to get everything I want in this bill. Republicans are not going to get everything they want in this bill.”

(via Andy Towle)

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LGBT advocacy groups press on gay-inclusive immigration reform

Via press release jointly issued by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project:

Our primary goal is to pass a commonsense, compassionate immigration reform bill that puts our nation’s undocumented men, women and children on a pathway to citizenship. That pathway would provide at least 267,000 LGBT undocumented people the opportunity to become full participants in our economy and our democracy.

We do not believe that our friends in the evangelical faith community or conservative Republicans would allow the entire immigration reform bill to fail simply because it affords 28,500 same-sex couples equal immigration rights. This take-it-or-leave-it stance with regard to same-sex binational couples is not helpful when we all share the same goal of passing comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship.

We all deserve a chance to live with dignity, to pursue our dreams, and to work for a better future and better quality of life. Our current immigration system is broken. It dehumanizes, scapegoats and vilifies all immigrants, including LGBT immigrants, and their friends and families. Comprehensive, compassionate immigration reform is an urgent priority for our nation and the LGBT community. We stand firmly that the following principles must be included if we are to truly have comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Sen. Marco Rubio has stated that immigration reform will tank if the gay-inclusive amendment is attached.

“It will virtually guarantee that it won’t pass,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Gang of Eight negotiating group, told POLITICO in a brief interview. “This issue is a difficult enough issue as it is. I respect everyone’s views on it. But ultimately, if that issue is injected into this bill, the bill will fail and the coalition that helped put it together will fall apart.”

The proposed amendment is known as the Uniting American Families Act, first introduced by Rep. Jerry Nadler in 2000.

The bill has never advanced out of its House or Senate committees.

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Log Cabin Republicans: “Reagan’s big tent isn’t what it used to be…”

Log Cabin Republicans has a full-page ad in Politico calling on the Republican Party to grow the proverbial “big tent” by dropping its opposition to granting equal rights to the LGBT community.

The ad is a part of LCR’s relaunch efforts, which will more aggressively challenge the GOP to not be beholden to the vocal minority within the party that oppose rights for gays and lesbians.

To be fair, Log Cabin Republicans benefit by being viewed as more clear on their mission statement than the “other” gay Republican organization, GOProud. LCR remember who they are and don’t fall into the trap of wanting to please the GOP masses to such an extent they lose their own identity.

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Ohio high school fires phys-ed teacher who was outed by mother’s obituary

Bishop Watterson, a Catholic High School in Clintonville, Ohio, has students and other supporters rallying around Carla Hale, a physical education teacher who was fired by the school after an anonymous parent informed them that her partner’s name had appeared in her mother’s obituary.
 
The Columbus Dispatch reports:

According to a contract between the Columbus diocese and the Central Ohio Association of Catholic Educators, teachers can be terminated for “immorality” or “serious unethical conduct.” George Jones, a spokesman for the diocese, had no comment yesterday, saying personnel matters are confidential.

Hale, a physical-education teacher who taught at Watterson for 19 years, said she has filed a grievance under the terms of the contract, seeking her job back. Her attorney, Thomas Tootle, said they are exploring other legal options.

Hale, a practicing Methodist, said she also hopes the reaction to her dismissal spurs Catholic leaders to reconsider their stance on gay relationships.

Hale did not discuss her sexual orientation or her partner with students or teachers. No charges were filed saying she ever demonstrated anything but a professional manner in her work.  A Change.org petition to reinstate her now has more than 10,000 signatures.

The Dispatch adds that Hale’s firing may violate city law:

The firing of a gay physical-education teacher from a Columbus Catholic high school would be a violation of a city ordinance if a complaint were filed and investigators determined the dismissal was based on her sexual orientation…A Columbus city ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to discriminate against an employee based on sexual orientation. City law also states that an employer cannot have a policy that discriminates based on sexual orientation. Those who are found guilty could face up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Students have left testimonies in support of Hale.

Wrote Amanda Lux:

When I was a student at Bishop Watterson, we were always taught to treat others with dignity and compassion. As an alumni, I still credit Bishop Watterson with shaping me into the person I am today — both morally and ethically. I am deeply saddened to learn that, in spite of what Watterson taught me about respect for all humanity, a longstanding and well-respected faculty member was treated so unfairly. Ms. Hale has always been an excellent coach and teacher. Her sexual orientation and lifestyle choices have no bearing on her capacity to educate her students and should NOT be grounds for termination of employment.

Wrote Lauren Bogenrief:

Bishop Watterson demands that we all treat each other with equality and respect. I hope they see that their students are standing up for the morally right thing, not to just rebel against the school. Carla Hale is a child of God and equal in his eyes to all of us. Bishop Watterson needs to recognize that.
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Texas A&M student senate votes to allow students to “opt out” of funding LGBT Center

The student senate at Texas A&M University voted Wednesday night, by a vote of 35-28, to allow students to “opt-out” of having their activities fees fund the campus LGBT center.

Originally, the measure was called the “GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill” but was renamed the “Religious Funding Exemption Bill” so that it would not sound as bigoted. Thomas McNutt, a co-author of the bill, tried to say the name change changed the point of the bill and that it did not discriminate against specifically against gays. “We came up with the new bill — the new bill that does not point out anyone,” McNutt said of the reworked proposal. “If you think this is pointing someone out, it is a fabrication in your head that you have created on your own.”

Student Andrew Lupo, who identified as openly gay, spoke against the bill.

“The Religious Funding Exemption bill is a facade to deprive GLBT students of resources to create a safe environment,” Lupo said to the senators. “I see so many of you, you’re young — 18 and 19 years old– and there is a great future for you. Is this how you want to begin your career — by attacking your own Aggies, your own community?”

Student Aaron Ackerman disagreed and somewhat overly dramatically compared forcing students to pay for the GLBT center to forcing doctors to perform partial-birth abortions.

The bill now moves to the desk of student body president John Claybrook, who told The Eagle that a “veto is always on the table” but that he was still mulling the decision.

The traditionally conservative university landed at the top of the list of “LGBT-unfriendly” schools in Texas by the 2012 installment of Princeton Review, and was ranked as the seventh least-friendly public university nationwide.

(source)

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Undocumented LGBT immigrants profiled in powerful video

It is believed that there are at least 267,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants in the United States and some of them are speaking out in a new video calling out for LGBT-inclusive immigration reform.

In conjunction with the recent release of the report “Living In Dual Shadows: LGBT Undocumented Immigrants,” the Center for American Progress today announced the launch of out4citizenship.org, a new website designed to tell the stories of LGBT undocumented immigrants and continue the momentum toward providing a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants.

(via Towleroad)

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110 members of Congress ask President Obama to issue executive order as ENDA stopgap

Last year, 72 members of the House of Representatives wrote to President Obama asking him to issue an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Today, 110 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama asking for the same action.

In lieu of the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, those members of Congress are asking the President to at least put in place a stopgap measure to end workplace discrimination against members of the LGBT community.

From the Advocate:

On Wednesday 110 Congress members wrote, “We remain committed to passage of the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban employment discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. However, you can take action today to help prevent these types of unfair labor practices and to lay the groundwork for passage of ENDA.”

At least 16.5 million Americans would be protected under the proposed executive order, according to the Williams Institute, as federal contractors are one of the largest employer subsets in the country. But currently, it is legal to fire people on the basis of their sexual orientation in 29 states, and legal to fire people on the basis of their gender identity or expression in 34 states. Because of this, approximately 43% of LGB people, and 90% of transgender people have experienced some sort of workplace discrimination.

“With a majority of American workers living in states that have not passed laws granting LGBT employees legal protections from workplace discrimination, an executive order will provide broad protections that will level the playing field,” the Congress members wrote.