Florida Agenda

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – President Obama’s announcement last week that his “evolving” views on same sex marriage had led him to support full marriage rights for all Americans has placed the topic squarely in the forefront of political topics in this presidential election year. However, his personal endorsement aside, it has no weight of law behind it (unlike, for instance, an Executive Order signed by the Commander-in-Chief). At present, ten countries have expanded their laws over the past dozen years to include same sex marriage:

The Netherlands (2000): The Low Countries made history at the dawn of the new millennium by becoming the first nation to pass marriage equality. At the time, 62 percent of the Dutch population supported it, and over 2,400 gay couples took advantage of the new law within 9 months of its passage.

Belgium (2003): LGBT rights had support in both Belgium’s Frenchspeaking south and Flemish-speaking north, and the Belgian parliament extended tax and inheritance benefits to gay couples three full years before they permitted same-sex partners to adopt children.

Spain (2005): Although the Roman Catholic Church mounted strong opposition to its passage, Spanish lawmakers legalized same sex marriage by adding a single line to existing matrimonial statutes: “Marriage will have the same requirements and results when the two people entering into the contract are of the same sex or of different sexes.

Canada (2005): Court rulings had made gay marriage legal in nine of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories by the time Members of Parliament passed the national law. Although Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper had promised to upend the apple cart when he became prime minister in 2006, the law remains in effect.

South Africa (2006): The first and so far sole African nation to codify marriage equality. The measure was passed by lawmakers after a 2005 decision by the nation’s Constitutional Court, which ruled that the nation’s constitution— which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation—guarantees marriage rights to same sex couples. The law, however, allows civil officials and members of the clergy to refuse to perform gay marriage ceremonies for reasons of conscience.

Norway (2008): The country with the world’s highest human development index ranking (which measures a nation’s comparative quality of life, including life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living) gives same sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, among other things. Clergy have the right—but are not required—to perform same-sex marriages.

Sweden (2009): In the 1990s, Sweden became one of the world’s first countries to permit “partnership” rights to same sex couples. Three years ago, lawmakers passed—in a landslide 226 to 22 vote, full marriage equality, with 70 percent of Swedes supporting passage. After its approval, the Lutheran Church of Sweden decided to allow its priests to officiate at gay marriages unless they abstain for reasons of conscience (in which case another priest will perform the ceremony).

Portugal (2010): Portugal’s Socialist parliament passed legislation permitting gay marriages, over the stiff objections of President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, a member of the Iberian nation’s conservative Social Democratic Party. “I feel I should not contribute to a pointless extension of this debate,” the Portuguese head of state offered resignedly when he signed the law.

Iceland (2010): Iceland passed marriage equality (unanimously, in a 40 to 0 vote) a year after electing the world’s first openly gay head of government, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, who became one of the first citizens to wed under the measure, marrying her civil partner of nearly a quarter century, Jónína Leósdóttir.

Argentina (2010): The first Latin American country to pass gay marriage (see previous article), in spite of strong Roman Catholic opposition. At the time, Mexico City, which became the first Latin American metropolitan area to legalize same sex marriage the previous year, offered an allexpenses- paid trip for the first same sex Argentine couple who wed.

DENVER, CO — the same day that President Obama endorsed same sex marriage, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced a special session for the state legislature to debate a civil unions bill that Republican lawmakers had stalled. Although the measure was defeated by House Republican leaders, who refused to allow it to come to a vote, Hickenlooper said that the matter was a “fundamental question of fairness and civil rights.”

Democrats plan to use the bill’s defeat in November in a bid to gain control of the House. “My family is the same as every one of yours,” said state Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the openly gay Democratic House Minority Leader and co-sponsor of the civil unions bill. Republicans hold a 33 to 32 seat majority in the House, and the GOP leadership has refused to allow floor debate on the civil unions bill, killing it twice through procedural measures.

In 2006, Colorado voters banned same sex marriage, but the civil unions legislation would grant similar rights as marriage, including hospital visitation and caretaking rights, along with greater latitude in inheritance and parental matters. President Obama—who delivered a commencement address yesterday at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs—carried Colorado and its nine electoral votes in 2008.

ORLANDO ? The endorsement last week by President Barack Obama of same-sex marriage places both the president and the state?s African American pastors in a position similar to a spinster sister at her younger daughter?s wedding. Although many want to remain supporters of the nation?s?and the industrialized world?s?first African-American chief of state, they find themselves in strong opposition to his public policy stance concerning marriage equality.

Pastor Beverly Brown of Redeeming Light Center in Eatonville?located about a half-dozen miles north of Orlando?told the Orlando Sentinel, ?For me as an African American pastor, I?m disappointed. I?m trying to separate his personal view from his political view.? Brown?s support for Obama is separated by the thin wall of his personal support for gay marriage and the possibility that he will press for legalization of it and a reversal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). ?I think it can be a game-changer,? offered Rev. Paul Wright, pastor of Calvary Temple of Praise in Sanford, the seat of Seminole County, which includes Kissimmee. ?I think it is going to cause him to lose some support from the faith-based community because of the conviction of a large number of faith-based institutions that this is an immoral act.?

The result, predicts Wright, is that many African-American members of those congregations who flocked to the polls in droves to support Obama in 2008 may stay home?or vote for the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney. Some suggest that Wright reflects the majority position of African American evangelical ministers, while others think that the backlash is a momentary reaction that will not significantly impact voter turnout among blacks. ?I believe the vast majority of African Americans will support the president,? Rev. Randolph Bracy Jr., the senior pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel.

?When all is said and done, African Americans will not abandon the president for Mitt Romney and the Republican Party.? And, Bracy argues, demographics are destiny. ?I think things are changing whether I embrace it or not. Who am I to say these are not children of God? Who am I to stand in judgment??

Photo: Australian P.M. Julia Gillard (left), and President Obama, at the White House, 3/7/2011 (Photo: UPI/Kevin Dietsch)

By RORY BARBAROSSA

Australia- Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who personally opposes marriage equality, hosted three same-sex couples for dinner this week at The Lodge, the official residence of the island-nation’s head of government. The event was arranged by the LGBT rights groups Australian Marriage Equality (AME) and GetUp!, which won the dinner as part of a charity auction prize.

AME national coordinator Alex Greenwich was optimistic about the evening’s results. “When you talk about issues like this across the dinner table, you’re really able to engage with people in a meaningful way,” Greenwich said.

Sharon Dane, 54, a social scientist from Queensland—known as Australia’s “Sunshine State– said prior to the evening that she was encouraged to be able to make the case first hand for marriage equality. “It’s very simple,” she told The Australian. “Talking about love is not a difficult thing.” Dane, who married her partner in Canada, said she asked Gillard why their marriage could not be recognized in the land of their birth. “Apart from the sex of the people we’re attracted to, our feelings of love and commitment is not different to anyone else’s,” Dane emphasized.

“We own a business and a property together and my name is not on any of that,” offered John Dini of the Prime Minister’s home constituency of western Melbourne, who, along with his life partner Steve Russell, discussed the business and financial implications of the same-sex marriage ban with Gillard. “Marriage is the easiest way to cover all that,” Dini suggested.

The couples who dined with Gillard claim the Prime Minister said the tides of history are in their favor, and that legislative changes that will permit marriage equality are inevitable.

Gillard added that her own position on samesex marriage remains unchanged. The 50-year-old Prime Minister was born in Wales, but moved to Australia with her family when she was five. A member of the Australian Labor Party, she became Prime Minister in 2010. Gillard, who has never been married and has no children, resides in the Prime Minister’s official residence with her longtime partner, Australian realtor Tim Mathiesen. She does not support the legalization of same-sex marriage, saying that Australia’s “Marriage Act is appropriate in its current form: that is recognizing that marriage is between a man and a woman,” which she believes “has a special status.” However, at the Australian Labor Party conference last December, Gillard negotiated an amendment on marriage equality which will allow a conscience vote for members of parliament.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith attended a private dinner with President Obama. She was among 30 or so community leaders and political activists invited for a Q & A.

Nadine took the time to thank President Obama for his efforts to pass anti-hate crimes legislation, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” while urging an end to anti-LGBT discrimination in health care. She also urged further action to stop marriage and employment discrimination.

“I was able to talk one-on-one with the President about the challenges my family faces and the complexity of gaining or losing protections for my wife and my son as we cross state lines.”

2012 Budgetary Battle Lines Drawn

By BOB KECSKEMETY

President Obama against cuts. Courtesy, Wikimedia.org

President’s opposition to proposed cuts to necessary HIV/AIDS health programs

Bipartisanship does not look like it will become a reality regarding the upcoming budget for the 2012 fiscal year especially when it comes to HIV/AIDS prevention and programs. While President Obama’s budget maintains a commitment to HIV/AIDS programs including proposed increases for medications, prevention and research, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed massive cuts to both domestic and global HIV/AIDS programs. The budget President Obama proposed this week for 2012 maintains the administration’s commitment to domestic and global HIV/AIDS programs and proposes increases for domestic AIDS medications and HIV prevention, along with research at the National Institutes of Health.

“We realize the resources of the federal government are severely constrained, therefore, under today’s fiscal environment, we are pleased the President has maintained his commitment to HIV/AIDS programs and even proposed some minimal increases,” said Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. “While the proposed funding levels are far from what is needed to provide the necessary care and treatment for people with HIV/AIDS or to significantly reduce the number of new infections, The AIDS Institute appreciates the budget requests and now urges the Congress to show a similar level of support.”

However, Schmid is not as complimentary when it comes to the budgetary cuts as put forward by the Republican House which has proposed massive budget cuts to both domestic and global HIV/AIDS programs which he feels will have severe ramifications to millions of people’s lives both in the United States and around the world.

“While it may help achieve short term goals to reduce federal government spending, this reckless action will have long term impacts on the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV/AIDS and on efforts to prevent HIV infections in the future. In the long run, the costs to society and individual’s lives will be far greater than any short term savings,” added Schmid.

Under the budget proposed by the President, funding for the Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) would increase by $105 million over 2010 levels. There are currently over 6,000 people on ADAP waiting lists in ten states and thousands more are being removed from the program. ADAPs are in desperate need of additional money to keep people with HIV/AIDS healthy. Congress is still considering the 2011 budget and the Senate proposed an increase of $65 million in the 111th Congress.

AIDS activists were counting on this increase of at least $65 million including the continuation of $25 million that state ADPSs received last summer to help reduce waiting lists.

“Not only did the House Republicans erase any funding increase,” said Schmid, “they failed to continue to fund the $25 million in 2011 and, in effect, will be taking away medications from people. If we have long wait lists now, just imagine what the situation will be like next year with no increases in funding,” he added. Access to early quality care and treatment keep people with HIV/AIDS healthy and free from opportunistic infections, resistance to medications, and away from expensive emergency rooms.

House Republicans in the 112th Congress are proposing to cut ADAP by $25 million under the 2011 Continuing Resolution. “While we know what the President proposed for 2012 is far from what is adequate, in the near term Congress must support at least an increase of $65 million for ADAP in 2011. If we have long wait lists now, just imagine what the situation will be like next year with no increases in funding,” added Schmid. If the Congress approves the $65 million 2011 increase, the President’s proposed increase for FY12 would be $45 million.

The President’s plan also included other increases in HIV/AIDS spending: $5 million for the early intervention and primary care services for people with HIV/AIDS, an increase in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by $58 million and the National Institutes of Health would receive an increase of $740 million of which $74 million would be allocated to AIDS research for prevention research, including vaccines and microbicides, and to the discovery of new drug therapies that prolong and improve people’s lives. “The President has put forth a federal budget that seeks to restore fiscal responsibility while investing in some key areas,” commented Michael Ruppal, Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. “Now it is up to the Congress to do its part and demonstrate its commitment to the over 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S.”

Activist Rajner attends Ceremony with the President

(Photo: Courtesy of Michael Emanuel Rajner)

BY DMITRY RASHNITSOV

In the United States, approximately 56,000 people become infected with HIV each year and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV.  To combat this growing epidemic, the White House released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and accompanying NHAS Federal Implementation Plan.

Health and Human Services Secretary Katherine Sebelius also announced that $30 million of the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention Fund will be dedicated to the implementation of the NHAS.  This funding will support the development of combination prevention interventions.  It will also support improved surveillance, expanded and targeted testing, and other activities.

“We can’t afford complacency – not when in the ten minutes I’ve been talking to you, another American has just contracted HIV,” Secretary Sebelius said.  “That’s why our strategy calls for aggressive efforts to educate Americans about how dangerous this disease still is and the steps they can take to protect themselves and their loved ones.”

The vision of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy is to make the United States “a place where new HIV infections are rare, and when they do occur, every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socio-economic circumstance will have unfettered access to high-quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination.”

The NHAS has three primary goals:

1) Reducing  the number of new infections;

2) Increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes for people living with HIV;

3) Reducing HIV-related health disparities;

“Now, it’s been nearly 30 years since a Center for Disease Control publication called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report first documented five cases of an illness that would come to be known as HIV/AIDS,” President Barack Obama said. “In the beginning, of course, it was known as the “gay disease” — a disease surrounded by fear and misunderstanding; a disease we were too slow to confront and too slow to turn back.

In the decades since — as epidemics have emerged in countries throughout Africa and around the globe — we’ve grown better equipped, as individuals and as nations, to fight this disease.”

To accomplish these goals, the NHAS calls for a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic and includes a NHAS Federal Implementation Plan that outlines key, short-term actions to be undertaken by the federal government to execute the outlined recommendations.  Additionally, the White House issued a Presidential Memorandum directing agencies to take specific steps to implement this strategy.

Since taking office, President Obama’s administration has taken extraordinary steps to engage the public to evaluate what we are doing right and identify new approaches that will strengthen our response to the domestic epidemic.  The Office of National AIDS Policy hosted 14 HIV/AIDS Community Discussions with thousands of Americans across the U.S. and reviewed suggestions from the public via the White House website.  ONAP also organized a series of expert meetings on several HIV-specific topics, and worked with Federal and community partners who organized their own meetings to support the development of a national strategy.

Fort Lauderdale HIV/AIDS activist Michael Emanuel Rajner attended a presentation at the White House last week that coincided with the announcement. He came back thinking that Obama is working to help those affected with HIV/AIDS.

“While I have yet to have the chance to read the strategy and implementation documents, based on the presentation, I’m confident that our President and his administration are working incredibly hard to address the domestic crisis of HIV/AIDS,” Rajner said. “The President and his administration have openly shared that the plan is not perfect, but it is a starting point for our nation to fix its infrastructure and, in tough economic times, make certain agencies are held accountable.”

Rajner said he had a chance to tell the president personally how much he appreciated his work.

“While President Obama spoke, he parted the gray clouds that have dismissed the anguish and tears of so many of my brothers and sisters,” Rajner said. “As a gay man living with AIDS, I was proud to stand in the White House and say, “Thank you Mr. President” as I shook his hand. My soul that has been tortured for so long from silence, I began to heal from some of that pain.”

Also, Rajner stated that Florida Gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink committed to developing a state strategy for HIV/AIDS while speaking before the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus last week.

by MATTHEW TSIEN

President Barack Obama is chipping away at his long list of promises to gay voters but has yet to win the enthusiastic backing of the reliably Democratic voting bloc.

The Obama White House has accomplished more than any other on gay rights, yet has drawn sharp criticism from an unexpected constituency: the same gay activists who backed the president’s election campaign. Instead of the sweeping change gays and lesbians had sought, a piece-by-piece approach has been the administration’s favored strategy, drawing neither serious fire from conservatives nor lavish praise from activists.

Last week the Labor Department announced that it would order businesses to extend unpaid leave for gay workers to care for newborns or loved ones.

This move, coming less than five months before November’s congressional elections, seems likely to incite conservatives and Republicans who stood in lockstep against the Obama administration’s earlier efforts to repeal a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It also appears likely to be popular with loyal Democrats and organized labor.

Nevertheless, some gay activists, who long ago stopped giving Obama the benefit of a doubt, will continue not to be satisfied.

Many Washington-based activists believe that gays need far more comprehensive and bolder legislation to achieve the goals these small, mostly symbolic

and marginal piecemeal efforts attempt to achieve.

The little things to which the White House pays attention and claims, “to be making so much progress” does not translate into a sense of progress outside of Washington.

Mr. Obama had a long list of accomplishments to tout during last week’s Pride Day meetings with gay and lesbian organizations at the White House, but their reach is limited.

For instance, Obama signed a hate crimes bill into law, expanded benefits for partners of State Department employees and ended the ban on HIV-positive persons from visiting the United States. He referenced families with “two fathers” in his Father’s Day proclamation in June and devoted 38 words of his State of the Union address to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on gays serving openly in the military. But there remains reason for frustration.

Obama’s campaign pledged to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” yet that goal remains years away. His Justice Department invoked incest in a legal brief defending the traditional definition of marriage, prompting some gay donors last year to boycott the Democratic National Committee. And just last week, a committee at his Health and Human Services Department recommended the nation retain its policy barring gay men from donating blood.

Some of Obama’s gay allies say the small-bore changes are the best activists can hope for despite Democrats controlling the White House, the Senate and the House.

Perhaps the reason why these policy changes are important is because Gay Democrats do not have ironclad LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) majorities in either house of Congress. People wrongly assume that having large Democratic majorities in Congress means that gay-oriented legislative goals will be met. That’s not the case.

Gay constituents are hardly the only members of the Democratic bloc to come up disappointed with this White House . Environmental groups groan as a comprehensive climate bill has languished on the Hill. Organized labor saw its signature legislation, which would make it easier for workers to form unions, go nowhere without the White House’s backing. And women’s groups were in open revolt during the debate over the health care overhaul because of anti-abortion provisions.

It’s small consolation for gay rights activists.

A Gallup poll last month found 70 percent of American favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. That same poll, however, included a reminder: 53 percent opposed legalizing gay marriage. Among that opposition to same-sex marriage are three out of five Black and Hispanic voters — minority groups that gays would like to consider their natural allies, but a voting bloc that is decisively against gay marriage.

(Photo: Courtesy of Women for Equality Hosted by Equality Florida, photo by Vanessa Brito)

Obama issues Father’s Day Proclamation Acknowledging Gay fathers; DOJ Honors LGBT Employees

By Dmitry Rashnitsov

Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith and Deputy Director Stratton Pollitzer will be in attendance at Tuesday June 22^nd’s White House reception celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited LGBT leaders from across the nation with a focus on state organizers and youth activists.

Equality Florida leaders took part in a briefing on LGBT Equality and used the occasion to draw attention to Florida’s anti-gay adoption law- the only state with such a law in the country. An appeals court decision, expected any day, will determine whether Florida’s law is unconstitutional or whether plaintiff Martin Gill’s adopted sons will be taken away from him. The President included recognition of gay Dads in his Father’s Day proclamation.

“We intend to bring a picture of Martin Gill’s children standing in front of the White House during the Easter Egg Roll and ask President Obama to help us end the adoption ban that tears families apart and to do it before these bans become a state-by-state ballot measures,” said Smith.

Equality Florida is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

President Obama has declared June “LGBT Pride Month,” issuing a proclamation urging Americans to “renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.”

“Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian,” Obama said on father’s day.

A recent study published in the latest issue of the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, showed that gay fathers were more likely to leave their jobs in order to focus on parenting their children. The study examined 40 gay dad couples who received their child through surrogacy. Another difference was that gay fathers also saw their self-esteem and relationships with their extended families greatly improve when they had children. The average age of the men in the study was 41 years old with an annual household income of $270,000.

Religious and anti-gay groups were quick to react to President Obama’s proclamation.

“It is wrong to force children into a situation where they have two men modeling immoral behavior — condemned by God and all major religions — as the most important role models in their lives,” said Peter LaBarbera from Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.

Another one of the guests that was at the White House on Tuesday was Constance McMillan, the 18-year-old high school graduate from Mississippi who was not allowed to bring her girlfriend to her prom.

Even the Department of Justice is getting into the pride filled mood. Attorney General Eric Holder recently held an event honoring all LGBT employees.

“We have much to celebrate today. In the year since we last gathered, our nation – and the Justice Department – have taken steps to address some of the unique challenges faced by members of our country’s LGBT community,” said Holder in remarks at the annual DOJ LGBT Pride Month event.

DOJ Pride was founded in 1994, and flourished when Miami’s own favorite lesbian Janet Reno was Attorney General.

For more information about Equality Florida’s involvement in the White House event, visit: www.eqfl.org.

President Hopes to Sign Legislation Soon to Extend Benefits to Same-Sex Domestic Partners of Federal Employees

Photo: President Barack Obama listens to a point being made during a meeting in the Oval Office (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

Hoping to give congress a nudge in the right direction, President Barack Obama has sent out a memo to all legislators, asking them to pass the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, a bill that would allow LGBT federal employees to give their unrecognized same-sex spouses and partners health insurance, life insurance, government pensions, and other employment related benefits and obligations that married heterosexual federal employees enjoy by being married and heterosexual.

“Last year, I issued a Presidential Memorandum that instructed the Office of Personnel Management and the Secretary of State to extend certain available benefits they had identified to gay & lesbian federal employees and their families under their respective jurisdictions,” Obama wrote.  “I called upon the federal agencies to undertake a comprehensive review and to identify any additional benefits that could be extended to the same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees under existing law.   That process has now concluded.”

If the bill passes, it would also extend benefits to heterosexual domestic partners, even if they are not married.

“My administration continues to be prevented by existing Federal law from providing same-sex domestic partners with the full range of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples,” Obama wrote. “That is why, today, I renew my call for swift passage of an important piece of legislation pending in both Houses of Congress—the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act.  This legislation, championed by Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, would extend to the same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees the full range of benefits currently enjoyed by Federal employees’ opposite-sex spouses.  I look forward to signing it into law.”

The history of this bill, is similar to many other pieces of LGBT legislation, it is introduced and then it languishes in congress.

The bill was originally introduced by Rep.

Baldwin in the house and Sen. Lieberman in the Senate in December 2007, but it died in committee in September 2008 without ever coming to a full vote. It was reintroduced in May 2009 in both houses, and cleared out of committee’s by the end of last year.

Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) indicated that he believes supporters of the act “have a shot” at passing the bill. Neither branch of Congress has scheduled the bill for a vote yet.