Report Focuses on Negative Recruiting

by Ross Forman | The Windy City Times

Helen Carroll knows first-hand the value and importance—and certainly the potentially damaging consequences, especially on recruiting—of addressing discrimination in college athletics, especially related to sexual orientation, either actual or perceived.

She is a former college basketball coach, who claimed the NAIA National Championship in 1984 at the University of North Carolina-Asheville; and she later was a Division III athletic director for 12 years.

She is now the Sports Project Director for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a post she’s held for six years.

read more (page 22)

More Great News from Maine!

From our colleagues at GLAD:

This morning, the Maine Senate voted 20-15 in favor of LD 1020, the marriage equality bill that GLAD and our local partners filed in January.

The next critical step is the vote in Maine’s House of Representatives. If you live in Maine, please call or email your state representative’s
office now to urge them to vote in favor of the bill. If you have friends or family in Maine, please ask them to do the same!

GLAD and our partners in Maine have been working for years for this moment, building legislative and public support from Freeport to Ft. Fairfield. We are so proud of GLAD’s work in Maine, and in each New England state where we have played a vital role in bringing marriage equality. With the recent win in Vermont and progress in New Hampshire, winning in Maine could put us only one state away from our goal of “6×12″ – equality in all six New England states by 2012.

Many thanks for all your support.

Sincerely,
Lee Swislow
GLAD Executive Director

Marriage Equality Legislation Moving in Albany!

From our colleagues at Empire State Pride Agenda:

Just two days after 2,000 LGBT New Yorkers and our allies went to Albany to show the power of our community, our voices have been heard: the marriage equality bill has moved through committee and has been put on the Assembly calendar as a live bill, meaning that marriage could be brought to the floor for a vote at any time starting next week.

We need YOU to call your Assemblymember and ask them to vote for the marriage equality bill (A.7732/O’Donnell).

Tell them you support marriage for same-sex couples and want them to do the same.

Assembly switchboard: 518-455-4100

Ask to be connected to your Assemblymember or click here to send your representative a letter.

The time is NOW to take action–make your call TODAY!

This is Why We March

This Friday, May 1st, we are so proud to announce that NCLR will participate in a National Day of Action for Immigration Reform and International Workers’ Day, which is celebrated around the world on May 1st. We march so that people around the world, including our policy makers and political leaders, will see that we will not tolerate violence against members of our community. We march because we believe in the social and economic struggles of the Labor movement. We are standing up against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, incarceration, deportation of hard-working immigrants, and asking for comprehensive and humane immigration reform that doesn’t tear families apart.

We will be marching alongside EL/LA for Trans Latinas, OUT4Immigration, Marriage Equality USA, and Communities United Against Violence (CUAV) representing the LGBT immigrant community. LGBT immigrants face specific and varying challenges including U.S. immigration laws that unfairly discriminate against LGBT people and people with HIV and/or AIDS.

One of the major pieces of immigration reform currently before Congress is the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). This is a bill that would grant U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the right to sponsor their same-sex permanent partners for immigration purposes. Passage of the UAFA would be a huge step towards full equality and justice under the law for LGBT people in this country.

But this legislation is not enough. We need a system that values the humanity of our immigrant communities and not one that seeks to shut people out. We need reform based in today’s reality not ignorance and fear. We march to demand such a change.

Join us along with students and community, labor, and faith-based organizations who will gather to represent the profound positive impact that immigrants have in our communities and in our country.

The schedule of events will be as follows:
10:00 a.m. – Sign-making at the CUAV office (170 A Capp Street)
12:00 p.m. – Gather at Dolores Park
2:00 p.m. – March to Civic Center Plaza
4:00 p.m. – Rally at the Civic Center

We march in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters because we recognize that our struggles are not isolated—that the fight against prejudice, discrimination, and ignorance is not unique to our community and that there are countless people who are members of both the LGBT community and the immigrant community. We must not be blind to the intersections of persecution and oppression. We must maintain a united front against injustice wherever it exists. This is why we march.

In solidarity,

Noemi Calonje, NCLR Immigration Project Director
Amos Lim, Out4Immigration
Alexandra Byerly, EL/LA for Trans Latinas
Chris Waddling, Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA)
Carolina Morales, Community United Against Violence (CUAV)

California Courts News Report on the March 5th Oral Argument

read more

Poll: Rising U.S. Support for Social Issues, Such as Gay Marriage

by Jennifer Agiesta and Alec MacGillis | The Washington Post

Republicans may not be able to rely on social issues as they try to rebound against a popular president and increasingly dominant Democratic Party, as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows rising support for same-sex marriage…

But the shifting views in the new poll suggest Republicans face a greater hazard: An inability to use those issues to rally their base and appeal to conservative Democrats and independents who previously would have been put off by Democrats’ more liberal stances on social issues.

Most striking is the sharp shift in public opinion on same-sex marriage. Forty-nine percent said it should be legal for gay people to marry, and 46 percent said it should be illegal. About three years ago, a broad majority said such unions should be illegal (58 percent illegal to 36 percent legal).

read more

LGBTs Should Support the Employee Free Choice Act

Two upcoming fights in California offer an opportunity to strengthen the coalition between the LGBT community and the labor movement: the upcoming marriage equality battle and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

Marriage equality activists and the LGBT community must step up their support for EFCA over the next month and help win the support of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California). EFCA is the single most important piece of legislation for labor in decades, passage will make it easier for working people to organize into unions, and raise families – gay and straight alike – out of poverty and into the middle class. Labor has already shown its support for marriage equality during the last election, and we will need union members even more for our upcoming battle at the ballot box.

read more

Maine Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill

The Maine Senate this morning passed a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in Maine.

The Senate voted 20-15 in favor of the measure.

Supporters say it would end discrimination against gays and lesbians and opponents say the proposal is an attack against the institution of marriage.

This morning’s vote means the bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Legislature. However, it still needs to pass through the House of the Representatives. And if it passes the Legislature, it will need the signature of Gov. John Baldacci, who has not yet said whether he will support it.

read more

Breaking News: House Passes Hate Crimes Bill

Great news! The House of Representatives voted 249 to 175 to pass the fully inclusive Hate Crimes Bill, also known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act/The Matthew Shepard Act. This is an incredible victory on much-needed legislation to protect the entire LGBT community. NCLR extends our thanks to all congressmembers who voted for the measure.

We now look to the Senate to act quickly on the companion bill that was introduced in the Senate yesterday as The Matthew Shepard Act.

President Obama has made it clear that he supports swift passage of the this bill.

The Hate Crimes Bill protects the LGBT community against hate-motivated crimes by giving the federal government jurisdiction over these crimes and providing resources for state and local law enforcement. It also sends a clear message that hate-motivated crimes are taken seriously by our government.

Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news from Washington as this crucial legislation makes its way through Congress. Our thanks go to our colleagues at the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and all who have advocated for this bill for their extraordinary work.

Unfortunately, there continue to be many families affected by hate violence, but today I want to extend a special word of thanks to Judy and Dennis Shepard, whose loving work in Matthew’s name for more than a decade has helped to bring us to this moment.

Ever onward,

Bill Addresses Transgender Inmates in California

by Don Thompson | AP

SACRAMENTO—The state Assembly will consider a bill as early as Thursday that would require state prison officials to take inmates’ sexual preference and gender identity into account when they make housing decisions.

The bill by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, is supported by gay rights groups that cite studies showing that homosexual, bisexual or transgender inmates are more vulnerable to abuse. It has cleared two committees with little opposition.

read more

read NCLR’s press release “Meeting to Highlight Issues Faced by LGBT People in California Prisons”