Minnesota Lesbians Loose Discrimination Suit

Amy and Sarah Monson, a same-sex couple raising a daughter together in Rochester, Minnesota was attempting to get a family membership at the Rochester Athletic Club and was turned down.

The couple sued the athletic club back in 2007 on the basis of discrimination, but the Minneapolis Court of Appeals has upheld a previous ruling by an Olmsted County judge that the club did not discriminate against the women when it denied them a family membership.

The club stated it was following it’s policy by providing family rates only to married couples.

The previous ruling that was upheld found that the Monsons couldn’t prove that heterosexual unmarried couples were treated any differently than same-sex unmarried couples.

The club would not repsond to my question that if I was a single parent with children old enough for membership, if I would qualify for a family plan.

Connecticut Seeks To End Trans-Discrimination

Transgender activists in Connecticut are hopeful they will gain equal protection under the state’s anti-discrimination laws in 2009.

Jerimarie Liesegang, who leads the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition said:

“We feel good. We’ve done the groundwork, we’ve done the education and we know we have the votes.”

A proposal, will be introduced in the legislative session that begins Wednesday, that would prevent people, who in any way blur gender lines, from being discriminated against in the workplace or while seeking housing or obtaining credit. Similar laws have been enacted in over a dozen states, including California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Rhode Island.

Bills barring discrimination based on gender identity or expression have been introduced several times over the past few years, but have yet to pass. In 2007, both the judiciary committee and the Senate approved a similar bill, but it did not pass in the House of Representatives.

Connecticut was one of the first states to prohibit discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation (gay and lesbian) for many years.

Those in favor of the bill say the new law would extend protections to those whose appearance aren’t in line with gender stereotypes, meaning women who favor traditionally “masculine” clothing or hairstyles, or men who appear effeminate. Such individuals would be protected under the new law even if they don’t view themselves as transgendered.

The law would also protect a wide variety of people, including: transsexuals, who physically alter their gender through surgery, cross-dressers, and intersex individuals who are born with ambiguous genitalia.

Hamilton Faces Gay Discrimination Charges

Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One champion fears he may be dragged into a tribunal hearing over gay discrimination allegations.

According to reports, Lewis could be called to give evidence at the projected ten-day hearing, which starts tomorrow.

The hearing involves claims from the personal private jet steward to Ron Dennis, who is Lewis’s McLaren’s team boss, that he was unfairly fired over rumors that he is gay.

Peter Boland, 27, told an initial hearing last year in Southampton that relations with Dennis broke down after the rumor was circulated among colleagues.

This may get even more crazy as Lewis Hamilton has faced rumors about his own sexuality, not too long ago!

Filtering OUT the GLBT in Video Games = Discrimination?

Sony’s ambitious PS3 Home virtual world program has certainly had a rough time of things since its open beta launched earlier this month. Besides an unimpressed press and technical problems, the service has recently come under fire for the way it “filters” certain words from text chat.

The word filters, which prevent certain words and terms from being used in chat (the words are typically replaced with asterisk symbols), were initially instituted during closed testing of the program, however, Sony claims that many filters still leftover from the testing period remain in place, and they are still working on a fix to change them. Among the filtered word are “gay”, “lesbian”, and “bisexual.”

You can read the rest of this post at WhatTheyPlay.com!

Vatican Opposes Decriminalization of Gays

Pope Benedict’s envoy to the United Nations which includes Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has announced the Vatican will oppose a U.N. proposition aimed at ending discrimination against homosexuals. Although it really comes as no surprise that the Catholic Church is in disagreement with gay rights activists, it is tragic in this case because the French-sponsored proposal (which has the backing of all 27 European Union countries) calls for an end to criminalizing and punishing people for their sexual orientation, which in the most severe cases, as in Iran and Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can be punished by death.

Father Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesperson commented that the Vatican condemns the use of the death penalty for any crime, including those associated with homosexuality but insisted the Vatican’s opposition to the U.N. proposal was driven by concern that countries that prohibit gay marriage would somehow be targeted.

“Countries that don’t recognize the union between people of the same sex as marriage will be punished and pressured.”

However, the U.N. declaration does even mention gay marriage.  Furthermore, most of the nations that support the proposal do not have legalized same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Migliore also confirmed Tuesday that the Vatican had also refused to sign a U.N. document last May in support of the rights of the disabled because it did not include condemnation of abortion, and the rights the fetus with birth defects, but said Vatican officials support the principles of the disabled rights document.

Arcigay, the Italian gay rights association claims the Vatican’s opposition to the anti-discriminatory measure is “unprecedented,” and the citing of gay marriage is an “excuse” to distract people from the real intent of criminalizing gays. One Rome-based priest was disappointed the Vatican decided to publicize its opposition to what appears a rather innocuous declaration. “When you’re always trying to look for new ways to make your point, you lose credibility,” says the priest. “Better sometimes to keep quiet.”

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