Asheville, NC City Council moves forward on Benefits for Gay Couples

Asheville Citizen-Times
February 10, 2010
The City Council of Asheville, NC voted 4-2 on Tuesday to have city staff report March 9 on how workers' same-sex domestic partners could get the same benefits as heterosexual employees' spouses, including health insurance, bereavement leave and prescription drug coverage. A majority of council members said they expect to vote for a final measure after the report. [Link]

Exclusive Interview: Video: Evan Wolfson of Freedom To Marry

The Bilerico Project
February 10, 2010
Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of Freedom to Marry, sits down with Bil Browning of The Bilerico Project at Creating Change 2010 to talk about marriage equality and why he believes it's the key to full equality. [Link]

COLUMN: Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet

The New York Times
February 8, 2010
Frank Rich writes: As more gay people have come out — a process that accelerated once the modern gay rights movement emerged from the Stonewall riots of 1969 — so more heterosexuals have learned that they have gay relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers and co-workers. It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love. [Link]

A Conservative Case for the Freedom to Marry

Ponderings on a Faith Journey
February 2, 2010
Pastor Bob Cornwall of Disciples of Christ comments on Ted Olson's pro-marriage equality piece from Newsweek in January: "He offers moral, legal, and societal reasons. It is a matter of civil rights, fairness, and ultimately honesty... The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution [marriage] is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it. [Link]

Video: Voice for Equality, Sarah Silverman on the Freedom to Marry

The View
February 4, 2010
When asked if she had any marriage plans, Freedom to Marry's Voice for Equality, Sarah Silverman spoke out in favor of marriage equality: "If you're for equal rights, why would you get married right now?" [Link]

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Video Voice for Equality Update: Meghan McCain on The View

The View February 4, 2010
Meghan McCain talks about her participation - and her mother's recent photo shoot - supporting the NoH8 Campaign in California which opposes the ban on the freedom to marry. [Link]

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Hawaii backers of civil unions plan suit

Honolulu Advertiser
February 2, 2010
Gay-rights advocates are preparing a lawsuit alleging that the state is violating the equal protection rights of same-sex couples by not passing a civil-unions law. The state House voted on Friday to indefinitely postpone action on civil unions. The lawsuit will be based on a 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling which held that denying the freedom to marry was a violation of equal-protection rights under the state Constitution. [Link]

Late highway patrol trooper's partner laments lack of legal protection

The Associated Press (Missouri)
February 1, 2010
Kelly Glossip is being denied the pension of his partner, Dennis Engelhard, a Missouri state trooper who was killed on Christmas Day. PROMO's A.J. Bockelman: "It really highlights the need for better protection for gay and lesbian couples. Same-sex couples (in Missouri) are not afforded any benefits or breaks in the law." [Link]

Hawaii Senate passes civil-unions bill with veto-proof majority, 18-7

honoluluadvertiser.com
January 23, 2010
The Hawaii state Senate passed a civil-unions bill on Friday, sending a strong message to the state House and Gov. Linda Lingle with a veto-proof majority vote. The vote was 18 to 7. The bill would allow gay and heterosexual couples to enter into civil unions and receive the same rights, benefits and responsibilities as marriage under state law. [Link]

Irish Official: Public offices cannot deny gay couples' rights

Irish Times
January 22, 2010
Irish Minister of State for the Office of Public Works Martin Mansergh said that public facilities should not be closed to gay and lesbian couples who wish to obtain a civil partnership. He maintained that doing so would amount to discrimination. [Link]

New Utah State Senator Comments on Aim to Extend Benefits to Gay Couples

KSL.com (Utah)
January 22, 2010
New Utah state Sen. Ben McAdams is aiming to extend legal protections for gay and lesbian couples who wish to bring a lawsuit in the case of a wrongful death. McAdams: "We need to recognize these families and provide some support and some benefit for them." [Link]

'Marriage' benefits costly for gay couples

Chicago Tribune
January 18, 2010
Across the country, there has been a surge in gay and lesbian couples making arrangements to protect themselves in states like Illinois that do not recognize the freedom to marry or civil unions. As the nation continues to fiercely debate marriage equality, some proponents cite the added financial burden in casting it as not just a civil rights issue but an issue of economic fairness. [Link]

D.C.'s freedom to marry legislation has couples contemplating moving

The Washington Post
January 16, 2010
The possibility of marriage equality in Washington DC has led many gay couples to weigh the battle for equal rights against quality-of-life issues, pitting a yard in Fairfax County against the chance to lock in inheritance and hospital visitation rights and the other benefits of marriage. [Link]

Marriage equality advocates will push for change in statehouses as well as in courts

The Washington Post
January 8, 2010
After a stretch in which state legislatures emerged as key battlegrounds for the issue, the courts are now main venues on the horizon. Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a national marriage equality advocacy group, says that the freedom to marry is a social justice issue that will continue to have setbacks as well as advances - and that advocates will push for change in statehouses as well as in courts. [Link]

Op-Ed: The moral and constitutional case for a right to marry

Daily News (NY)
January 7, 2010
Cato Institute Chairman Robert A. Levy calls marriage equality a constitutional issue, because "[T]he primary purpose of government is to safeguard individual rights and prevent some persons from harming others [...] and no one is harmed by the union of two consenting gay people." [Link]

New Report Documents ‘Decade of Progress’ on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality in America

Movement Advancement Project and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr., Fund
December 16, 2009

Study points to dramatic gains between 2000 and 2009

SAN FRANCISCO – As the decade draws to a close, a new report shows the past 10 years have been a period of dramatic gains in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in America. Two-thirds of the 36 statistical indicators compiled in A Decade of Progress on LGBT Rights showed significant advances, including sharp increases in the number of LGBT Americans protected by nondiscrimination and family recognition legislation at the state level.

Just over a quarter of the indicators were negative, and two showed mixed results. The report is a joint project of the LGBT Movement Advancement Project and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr., Fund. The report is available at www.lgbtmap.org.

"The remarkable achievements toward LGBT equality tend to be obscured by day-to-day struggles, and overall progress often goes unnoticed nationally” said Linda Bush, Executive Director of the LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP). “By looking broadly at the last decade, this report gives a much fuller perspective on where we are today -- and how far we’ve come in just ten years."

"From over 50 years of supporting causes that help advance equality, we understand that making meaningful change requires time. But these facts make it clear that equal rights for gay people are advancing at an exceptional rate,” said Ira Hirschfield, President of the Haas, Jr. Fund. “Gay people and their families deserve equal rights and an equal opportunity to participate in their communities and the institutions that bring Americans together. We are committed to supporting work that brings our country closer to that goal.”

Matt Foreman, a longtime advocate for LGBT equality who now directs the Haas Jr. Fund’s gay and immigrant rights programs, said the Fund is excited by the accelerated rate of change. “While enormous and heart-wrenching inequities remain, progress over the last ten years has been extraordinary.”

Among the report’s key measures of progress:
• Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation: The number of states outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation increased 83 percent, from 12 to 22, between 2000 and 2009. The percentage of the U.S. population living in states banning discrimination based on sexual orientation soared from 24.5 percent to 44.1 percent, an 80 percent increase. In other words, today 134 million Americans are now living in states where discrimination based on sexual orientation has been outlawed, an increase of 65 million over the decade. (When local nondiscrimination laws passed by cities without statewide protections are included, the figure is over 50 percent of the U.S. population.) Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on sexual orientation grew from 51 percent to 88 percent.
• Discrimination Based on Gender Identity: There was an even more remarkable increase in states outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression, which rose from just 1state in the year 2000 to 14 states representing nearly 30 percent of the population in 2009. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on gender identity jumped even more, from just 0.6
percent to 35 percent.
• Relationship Recognition: Similarly exceptional gains were made in the area of family recognition. In 2000, no state extended the freedom to marry to same-sex couples; one state gave broad recognition to same-sex relationships and one offered limited recognition. Now in 2009, five states extend marriage to same-sex couples (with New Jersey and the District of Columbia pending at press time), six offer broad
recognition, and seven offer more limited recognition. Overall, the number of Americans living in a state that offers some protections to same-sex couples nearly tripled, from 12.7 percent to 37.2 percent.
• Protection from Violence: The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is the first federal law to specifically protect LGBT people.
• LGBT Elected Officials: The number of openly LGBT elected officials in America rose 73 percent between 2000 and 2009, from 257 to 445.
• Public Opinion: The percentage of the public supporting the right of openly gay and lesbian people to serve in the military grew from 62 percent to 75 percent. Support for marriage equality has grown from 35 percent in 2000 to 39 percent today; there has been an even larger increase in support for relationship recognition that involves many of the rights of marriage, from 45 to 57 percent.
• Safer Schools: In 2000, only one state had a safe school law that specifically cited sexual orientation and gender identity/expression for protection; by 2009 that rose to 13 states. The number of Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs in high schools grew from 700 to 4,700, a nearly six-fold increase. The report also includes data on areas with mixed or negative results.
• Marriage Opposition: In 2000, 5 states had blocked marriage equality through a statewide vote; today, 31 have done so, including 29 states amending their constitutions to prohibit the recognition of samesex marriages.
• Homophobia in schools: The percentage of LGBT students reporting hearing homophobic remarks in school has remained above 99 percent and LGBT students who report experiencing harassment in school edged up (up from 83.2 percent to 86.2 percent.)
• HIV/AIDS: New HIV infections among adolescent and adult men who have sex with men grew 10 percent, from 28,000 to 30,800, as did the percentage of new HIV infections overall that occurred among men who have sex with men, which rose from 51 percent to 53 percent.
• Military Service Ban: In spite of overwhelming public support for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military continued to discharge hundreds of gay and lesbian service members, with the cumulative number of discharges under the 1993 policy nearly doubling during the past decade. The only “positive” note was that the number of annual discharges decreased from 1,241 in 2000 to 619 in 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available), apparently because of the urgent need for
soldiers to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.

A more in-depth and longer term analysis of progress toward LGBT equality can be found in MAP’s “The Momentum Report – 2009 edition,” which is available at www.lgbtmap.org. MAP is a think tank founded in 2006 that produces and disseminates research aimed at helping speed advancement of equality for LGBT people.

The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a private family foundation created in 1953 which has awarded more than $364 million in grants to support fundamental rights and opportunities for all people. It has invested nearly $42 million in promoting equal rights and opportunities for gays and lesbians since 2002. [Link]

Austrian Parliament OKs Civil Unions for Same-Sex Couples

The Associated Press
December 10, 2009
Austria's parliament on Thursday voted 110-64 to pass legislation to allow civil unions for gay couples in the country. The bill is slated to become law Jan. 1. [Link]

Op-Ed: Approve the Freedom to Marry for a More Equitable Society

The Star-Ledger (NJ)
December 10, 2009
Steven M. Clayton urges New Jersey lawmakers to approve the freedom to marry in the state: "This is the time -- and this is the place -- to make history and do our part to create a more equitable society." [Link]

Marriage Equality: "A Basic Civil Right"

The Huffington Post
December 8, 2009
James Rotondi advocates for marriage equality: "If our Constitution, and those of the States we live in, cannot provide true equal rights for all our citizens, including those who live in committed same-sex relationships, simply because enough ideologically rigid people choose to 'bring it up for a vote,' then what do our civil rights really mean?" [Link]

Reflections on Massachusetts and Marriage Equality

Street Prophets
December 6, 2009
Danish Brethern writes about the Mass. Supreme Court decision that allowed gay couples to marry in the state, saying it "is not only simply a determination of legality, but an affirmation of the morality and justice behind recognizing the rights of homosexuals to be fully equal. [Link]