Minorities Begin to Fear Backlash from Prop 8

According to polls taken from Blacks, Latinos, Asians and other minorities, there is a fear rising that Prop 8, California’s gay marriage ban could open the door to legal discrimination against other minority and unpopular groups if the state Supreme Court allows the voter-approved measure to stand.

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to the ballot measure, based on whether the state constitution requires support from the legislature, as well as a majority vote of the people, to strip rights from any group.

The court had overturned the previous anti-gay ruling and the state began recognizing same-sex marriages in May. Approximately 20,000 same-sex couples married prior to the passage of Prop 8 on November 4th. Those marriages may now hang in the balance. Connecticut and Massachusetts are now the only states that allow gay marriage, and New York has decided to recognize those marriages.

Legal scholars say the measure, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, breaks new ground by limiting the courts’ ability to protect minorities.

“They could take away any right from any group,” said University of Southern California Law Professor David Cruz, who filed a brief in favor of gay marriage in an earlier case.

Now’s Time for Gay Civil Rights Movement

Taking same-sex marriage into consideration, I still feel that we are wasting our time fighting at the state level when we need to be pressing forward for the next civil rights movement at the federal level.

In states such as Georgia, we are never going to mobilize enough voters to pass marriage-equality legislation, and, even if we did, it could be rescinded just like our friends in California just experienced. By moving forward at the federal level, we are securing our place in history and our equality for all of the generations to come.

At the Capitol rally, however, I experienced a sense of pride in my community. For the first time in a long time, my brothers and sisters showed up in mass to protest discrimination and advocate for equality and civil rights.

Later, we moved our activism and protests to Midtown. As I stood at the corner of 10th and Piedmont, I had a new realization. The last time I held a candle outside the local gay bookstore, we were all praying and waiting for Matthew Shepherd to recover from his severe and hateful beating.

Whatever happened after Matthew’s death? I remember the promise of hate crimes legislation and a spirit of unity within the community —- but it never came, and our spark smothered and eventually died.

Read the entire post at ajc.com!

Obama Leading the Way for GLBT Americans

President-elect Barack Obama has presented his plan to provide and strengthen civil rights for GLBT Americans. His plan is the most comprehensive proposal yet from any incoming president.

The Obama-Biden Plan includes:

* Expand Adoption Rights: Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.

* Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.

* Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.

* Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. Barack Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.

* Fight Workplace Discrimination: Barack Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. Obama also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

* Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

* Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, Barack Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Obama will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. Obama also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma — too often tied to homophobia — that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. He will continue to speak out on this issue as president.

* Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Barack Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

Gay Marriage Legalized in Nepal!

Nepal, which is a largely conservative country where the majority of inhabitants are Hindu, just legalized same-sex marriage, as it was upheld by its Supreme Court on Nov. 17.

Marriage equality came to Nepal as a direct ruling by the country’s court that issues equal protections under all aspects of the law to GLBT citizens.

Same sex marriage is also legal in other countries with higher standards of diversity such as Canada, England, France, South Africa, South Korea, and Spain.

The United States has only two states that currently recognize same-sex marriages, those being Massachusetts and Connecticut. The state of California briefly extended equal rights, but those rights were stripped away from the GLBT community by the passage of anti-gay, constitutional amendment Proposition 8 during the 2008 November election.

In 28 other states, anti-gay constitutional amendments have made same-sex marriage illegal and in 33 states it still legal for employers to fire employees based simply upon being gay.

The leader of Nepal’s GLBT equality advocate group, the Blue Diamond Society, was quoted in a Nov. 19 story at the Hindustan Times.

“The court has instructed the government against making any discrimination on the basis of sex. This is a landmark decision for the sexual minorities and we welcome it.”

Winds Of Change Are Blowing Gay Activism

There has been a paradigm shift in the movement following marriage defeats in California, Florida and Arizona — as well as an anti-gay adoption measure passing in Arkansas. From seemingly out of nowhere, people who have sat on the sidelines are now making headlines at rallies across America.

The leaders of what is being billed as Stonewall 2.0 are not coming from large, established organizations, but Internet savvy activists who can use a mouse to mobilize the masses. While Internet activism is nothing new, the fact that this huge outpouring of organic outrage is not being channeled through official organizational channels has enormous implications.

Up until two weeks ago, major GLBT groups instructed people to write a check and then essentially instructed donors to check their activism at the door. Sometimes, one was asked to take their commitment a step further by sending e-mail or attending a dinner. I think this week’s protests mark the end of the Passive Era of gay politics. A sign at protests, “No More Mr. Nice Gay”, highlighted this monumental change.

Read the entire post at truthwinsout.org!

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