Florida Agenda

NEW YORK, NY – Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN this week that he supports marriage equality. “I have no problem with it,” the former fourstar general said. “In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that’s called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country—and so I support the president’s decision.” Powell, a centrist Republican who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, and as Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush, supported President Obama’s 2008 election campaign.

LONG ISLAND, NY – A 15-yearold New York City student was suspended for five days after she produced an anti-bullying video for a class project that featured a simulated suicide. Jessica Barba produced the video for her business and communications class at Longwood High School, and posted it online. The video includes a disclaimer that states the incident depicted is fictitious, however, some students who viewed it were emotionally affected, and at least one parent complained to school officials. “The principal told me I would be suspended for five days because my video disrupted the school,” said Barba.

JAMESTOWN, NY – The comments of a Jamestown councilman suggesting that the community consider marketing itself as a Mecca for gay marriage has sparked a firestorm, with the official receiving calls for his resignation and even threats against his life.

Councilman Greg Rabb, who also serves as the municipal body’s president, proposed during a recent meeting that the state’s marriage equality law could benefit the community by putting out the call for gay tourists and those looking to tie the knot.

When council members reviewed ideas for building tourism dollars within the community of 31,000 (Source: 2010 Census data), Rabb floated the suggestion that Jamestown “market itself as a same sex destination.”

Following the remarks, a flood of emails and comments hit the Web site of the Post Journal, the local newspaper. “I was appalled when I read Greg Rabb’s idea to make Chautauqua County a destination for ‘same sex marriages,’” wrote one reader. “What a despicable thing to say!

This is an abomination and is against all natural law. The morals of our country are at an all time low and it is time we turn ourselves around.”

Another reader, Pastor Donald V. Erickson, wrote with outrage “What! Is this how we are going to put Jamestown on the map? A baby San Francisco? We’ve already been in the national limelight (recall one who went about Jamestown knowingly infecting girls with the HIV virus),” adding “News flash, fellas: The second half of Romans, chapter one, is just as true as every other page in God’s Holy Word (The Bible).” Another criticized Rabb for pushing a “personal agenda.”

Supporters of Rabb organized a demonstration on front of the Post Journal editorial offices this week, to show their solidarity with the embattled councilman.

They said that the councilman had received threats since his suggestion, and note that town officials have seen an increase in tourism since the passage of marriage equality in New York, since Jamestown is near the border with Pennsylvania, a state where gay marriage is still not legal.

NEW YORK, NY – Executives at ABC television have axed a 30-second spot for Madonna’s “Truth or Dare” perfume, calling the ad too racy to run during the network’s primetime lineup. According to The New York Post, ABC programmers took a magnifying glass to the Material Girl’s commercial, making a list of editing requirements before they would allow the spot to air.

The black-and-white ad premiered last week, and was broadcast during the network’s talk show “The View,” which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Despite that, ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, refused to all the commercials to run during primetime shows “GCB” and “Scandal.”

The Post quoted a source familiar with the network’s demands. The source reported that for the ad, ABC execs wanted to tone down Madonna’s more provocative body movements, and that they “want her bra digitally made bigger, and to extend higher to cover more of her chest, and her corset longer to cover more of her bottom.”

ABC’s actions mimic those of YouTube officials, who last month blocked underage users from watching the music video for the singer’s “Girl Gone Wild.” That video— also shot in black-and-white—evokes Madonna’s 1990s videos, which included depictions of sado-masochism and hyper-homoerotic imagery.

As in the case of ABC, YouTube content chiefs labeled the video “too raunchy,” “unsuitable,” and appropriate “only [to] be viewed by those 18 or over.” And like the network, the Web content provider required Madonna to make edits and turn down the heat in some places, in particular scenes depicting bare buttocks and gyrating men.

By RORY BARBAROSSA

NEW YORK, NY – The growing support for LGBT rights among American corporate leaders is turning into tangible results for the nation’s LGBT workers, with a growing number of blue chips and other companies offering non-fiduciary benefits and other forms of compensation to their LGBT workforces, and their partners: married, domestic, or what have you.

For example, Ernst & Young, one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, is one of about three-dozen companies that now compensate their LGBT employees because of a provision in the tax code that requires them to pay income taxes on their partners’ health benefits—an amount that straight married couples are not required to pay. Approximately three-dozen companies now offer the so-called “gross-up benefit,” which, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports, is close to three times as many that offered the benefit just twelve months ago.

HRC reports that other companies that began offering the benefit as of Jan. 1 include American Express, Bank of America, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Both HRC and legal experts say that the tax requirement is a federal issue, and therefore trumps even laws in states that recognize gay marriage. “Four letters,” says Chris J. Mancini, a Broward County attorney who has represented many LGBT clients on domestic partnership issues. “D-OM- A.” Mancini, a former federal prosecutor, notes that the federal Defense of Marriage Act does not recognize same-sex couples as being married, even in the eight states that have legalized marriage equality.

“Under DOMA and its federal spousal definitions, a man on his wife’s health plan doesn’t pay federal taxes on his share of benefits, but a man on his husband’s plan does,” Mancini explains.

“Big Five” accounting firm Ernst & Young has offered benefits to same-sex domestic partners since 2002. The matter of the tax inequity came up during a town hall meeting held in November by the company’s diversity department. According to HRC estimates, the gross-up benefit provides an extra $1,200 on average to an employee’s family. Competitors KPMG and Pricewaterhouse Coopers have likewise added the gross-up benefit gay employees and their partners.

Bank of America offered domestic partner health benefits beginning in 1998: the company added the tax benefit this year for both domestic partners of employees and eligible children.

NEW YORK, NY  – With a goal of ending “casual homophobia in sports,” the You Can Play Project has launched a campaign of public service announcements with the message that athletes should be judged on their athletic abilities, not their sexual orientation. The campaign has the backing of a number of influential sports figures, including professional athletes with the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Project was created by Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers professional hockey team. Burke’s brother, Brendan, came out to his family and friends while he was playing for the Miami University of Ohio hockey team. The Burkes’ father, Brian, is an outspoken sports figure who was the General Manager of the Anaheim Ducks NHL team at the time. The elder Burke supported his son Brendan’s efforts to erase the persistence of locker room homophobia.

Those efforts were cut short tragically when Brendan Burke was killed in a 2010 car accident.
Patrick Burke founded the You Can Play Project in order to build alliances between straight and gay athletes, and fans of sports, to get across the message that homophobia is not okay, on the field or in the locker room.

Several PSAs have been shot already, which include NHL All-Star players and Burke’s father, Brian, who is now the GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first announcement debuted last weekend on NBC during the first intermission of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins game.

“The goals for ‘You Can Play’ are clear,” said founder Patrick Burke. “We want to make locker rooms safe for all athletes, rather than places of fear, slurs and bullying. The casual homophobia in sports has to change, so all athletes know that what counts is whether you can play the game.”
Professional hockey star Andy Miele, who won last year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) award as the nation’s top men’s college hockey player, was a friend of Brendan Burke’s while they attended Miami University.

“The reason why I wanted to be a part of You Can Play is pretty obvious. I had a relationship with Brendan, and if he was still here he would want to promote this more than anyone else,” said Miele, who plays for the Phoenix Coyotes. “I felt privileged when Patrick came to me and asked me to be a part of it and I look forward to investing this into players all over the world to make the sports world safe for gay athletes.”

More than 30 NHL players have volunteered to support You Can Play’s PSA campaign. Burke says that the Project has contacted players and officials with several other sports associations and leagues, and that You Can Play will soon encompass all sports and their athletes and fans.

ALBANY, NY – Last week, the four Republican New York state senators who provided enough votes to pass New York’s same-sex marriage bill, got a financial boost from donors such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who promised the four lawmakers, “stand with us now, and we will stand with you later.” Other wealthy financiers who support both gay rights and Republican causes offered additional campaign funding for the four senators’ reelection bids.

According to the New York Times, a planned fundraiser is expected to raise $1.25 million in campaign funds—money that will be spread among the four senators: Mark J. Grisanti of Buffalo, James S. Alesi of Rochester, Stephen M. Saland of Poughkeepsie and Roy J. McDonald of Saratoga County. In the first six months, state senators averaged about $103,000 each in fundraising capital, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The senators have come under heavy criticism from conservatives since they cast their votes in June. A national group that opposes same-sex marriage has purchased billboards in each of their districts, vowing to unseat the lawmakers, and the senators have been eagerly raising money in an effort to defend themselves against possible challengers.

According to a Bloomberg spokesperson, the mayor made it very clear early on that he would be a vocal supporter to those senators who stood up and did the right thing in light of a tough political climate.