Florida Agenda

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.

Heritage South Florida LGBT Event Celebrates 35 Years

By Rory Barbarossa

This Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11, Pride South Florida rolls out the 35th annual “Pridefest: Beyond the Rainbow” at Fort Lauderdale’s Holiday Park and War Memorial Auditorium, with events taking place all week at local venues throughout Greater Fort Lauderdale, including Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, and elsewhere, embracing an off-site Official After Party.

Pride South Florida, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, is composed entirely of volunteers with a mission to promote positive images of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals. The group also actively furthers the progress of educational, civic and cultural activities in order to enrich the lives of LGBT persons and the larger South Florida community as a whole, working together to achieve common goals. Pridefest is the organization’s signature annual event, with all proceeds generated being donated to other local charities and LGBT community organizations.

Organizers are faced with the typical challenges of throwing a large outdoor event, as well as the peculiarities of a recovering economy, and the realities of demographics: in a world where gays are actively courted to destination places across the globe, and where gay couples bedecked in red can hold hands walking down Main Street, USA, during Orlando’s “Gay Days,” can they keep this heritage festival relevant?

“Very much so,” emphasizes co-chair Marc Hansen, who—in one capacity or other—has served on Pride South Florida’s board for years. “The very existence of ‘Gay Days’ and other great organized events can trace their roots to—and thank their lucky stars for— the sort of outdoor festival we are bringing to life. This is especially true at the time in which we are living,” he adds.

“Think about it: DADT [the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy], done. Gay marriage: on the books. Marriage equality is on the lips of every Republican candidate. Sadly, most oppose it. But these are the sorts of issues we come together and celebrate at Pridefest,” says Hansen. “I love the very idea of ‘Orlando Gay Days,’ and the fact that kids are taking their same-sex boyfriends and girlfriends to prom in places that wouldn’t have dreamed of it when I was that age,” the Pridefest co-chair and former U.S. service member insists.

“But that sort of gets lost during some other events that celebrate being LGBT. At Pridefest, we open the doors to everyone celebrating the very things that give us ‘Pride,’ and to acknowledge the struggles that lie ahead ahead.” He laughs. “Pluto and Donald won’t help you do that.”

Hansen also notes the abundance of space and entertainment they have on the menu. For its 35th anniversary year, Pridefest 2012 will have outdoor and indoor stages, to take advantage of the air-conditioned War Memorial Auditorium, which will likewise host vendors and a display of Florida’s largest HIV/AIDS Memorial Quilt. In addition, the event will feature worldclass entertainers, including Logo TV’s Jonathan D. Lovitz, comedian Michelle Balan of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and Logo’s “Out Laugh Festival,” NBC’s “The Voice” finalist Beverly McClellan, Billboard Dance/Club Play recording artist and songwriter Julissa Veloz (“Tiara Girl” in season eight of “American Idol”), South Florida performer Tony Cruz, comedy-hypnotist Jon Simon (“Simon Sez”), legendary Freestyle artist Ray Guell, and the Pridefest headliner, 18-time Billboard Top Ten recording artist Taylor Dayne, among others.

The event will also include a dance tent equipped with an enormous dance floor area, as well as more than 250 vendors, music, food, and activities all day, and lots of opportunity to socialize and connect with friends old and new.

Pridefest 2012: Beyond the Rainbow, takes place both days from noon until 7 p.m. Holiday Park and the War Memorial Auditorium are located at 800 NE 8th Street in Fort Lauderdale, directly south of Sunrise Blvd. and directly east of Federal Highway/US 1.

More information on PrideFest can be found online at pridesouthflorida.org

By Rory Barbarossa

SAN?FRANCISCO, CA – The top members of the House Republican leadership have filed an appeal with the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, to overturn the decision of a lower court that declared the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law prohibiting the federal government from recognizing gay marriages, to be unconstitutional.

On Friday, Feb. 24, attorneys for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group notified the lower court that they are requesting a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of a ruling made last week by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. In that decision, White told the federal Office of Personnel Management that it could not use DOMA to deny medical coverage to a gay attorney who had enrolled her wife in a family health insurance plan.

Last year, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appointed the five-member advisory group to defend DOMA against legal challenges. This came after Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. said that Justice Department would no longer defend the law in court because the President Barack Obama had announced that it violates the civil rights of LGBT Americans.

Boehner was joined by the other Republican members of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor  (R-Virginia), and Majority Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-California)  in bringing the appeal. The two Democratic House members of the advisory group, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), refused to take part.

Last year, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) introduced separate  bills to repeal DOMA. So far, the Republican leadership has brought neither to a floor vote.

Dean Trantalis, a Wilton Manors-based attorney, LGBT rights activist, and former Vice Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, said of the GOP triumvirate’s actions: “Once again government interference in private lives rears its ugly head.”

“Hypocrisy seems to be the Republican theme in this presidential year,” added Trantalis, who co-authored the 1995 Broward County Human Rights Ordinance and the 1999 Broward County Domestic Partnership Ordinance, both seen as public
policy landmarks which helped set the stage for this decade’s battles for marriage equality.

By Rory Barbarossa

The star of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” films is solidifying his credentials as an LGBT hero. Actor Daniel Radcliffe has long been a supporter of anti-bullying efforts and, for the past two years, an unofficial spokesperson for the Trevor Project, the not-for-profit organization which provides crisis and counseling services for LGBT youth.

Now Radcliffe is starring in a new antibullying public service announcement for the group, which awarded the actor its Hero Award last year in New York. The campaign made its first U.S. airing on Feb. 21, in which Radcliffe urges kids to seek help if they are being victimized by bullies. In the PSA, the actor says, “I’m Daniel Radcliffe, and I believe that reaching out for help is the bravest thing a person can do. If you are struggling and need support, call the Trevor Lifeline. It’s free and confidential, and trained counselors are there to listen 24/7 without judgment.”

Photo: MAX ADLER plays Dave Karofsky on FOX’s
‘GLEE’, a teenager struggling with his identity.

Rory Barbarossa

Last week’s episode of the hit series “Glee” (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET, WSVN-7) drew attention to the national epidemic of gay teen suicides, with the outing of character Dave Karofsky (Max Adler), a jock and bully who had previously tormented the openly-gay Kurt (Chris Colfer). After Karofsky’s football teammates haze him with Facebook posts (“Go back into the closet.”) and vandalize his locker with the word “fag,” the teen attempts suicide, after which his father finds him and rushes him to the hospital.

“I was incredibly happy that the writers and producers chose to go there, and I said that to them, ‘It’s so brave and honest, and you’re really treating this character with the integrity that he deserves,’” Adler told “E!” The actor explained his choices in depicting the character’s struggles of self-acceptance. “I felt like to not show the struggle and to have him just kind of flip over and be nice and be happy, I just felt like it wouldn’t have done it the proper justice and it wouldn’t have been treated with the honesty that it deserves,” Adler described. He also believes that from near-tragedy springs a positive note. “I feel like the message that results out of that in the end is one of hope and optimism,” he offered.

The stage for the teaching moment had been set during the hit series’ 2010 season, during a show-shocker when Adler’s Karofsky character planted a wet one on nemesis Kurt in the episode “Never Been Kissed.”

Prior to this, Karofsky had treated Kurt with only scorn and disdain. The openly-gay virgin Kurt was widely believed by fans to be getting his first kiss in that episode, but they were stunned to find out by whom it would be delivered. Producers had lulled viewers with a red-herring: a gay rival glee-clubber named Blaine.

Kurt was smitten with Blaine after the latter’s glee club performed Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Sparks flew. Having led the audience down the garden path, the writers then locked Karofsky’s lips with Kurt’s, although it took more bullying and a near-death-experience to resolve things for the characters, at least up until this point. Views should settle in and ready themselves for a few months of wondering: “Glee’s” next new episode airs April 10

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.

By RORY BARBAROSSA

TALLAHASSEE  – One of the state’s most influential anti-gay and anti-abortion rights organizations is urging lawmakers to defeat a measure which would permit prayer for Florida students grades K-12 at all school events. In an example of “politics makes for strange bedfellows,” the Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC), which successfully led the 2008 campaign for a state constitutional amendment banning marriage equality and civil unions, is urging Florida House members to defeat the school prayer bill, which has already passed the state Senate. Sen. Gary Siplin (D-Orlando), the bill’s Senate sponsor, is spearheading efforts to get the bill passed in the Republican-majority House of Representatives.

The FFPC is the Sunshine State affiliate of the Washington, DC-based Family Research Council (FRC), which has a long record of anti-homosexual policies and statements. In 2004, FRC Senior Researcher for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg was widely criticized for stating that consensual gay sex should be outlawed and that government should enforce “criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.” In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated the FRC as a hate group.

During the 2008 constitutional amendment fight, the FFPC’s president, John Stemberger, an attorney, released a statement that raised the specter of “homosexual recruitment,” a strategy that critics called a scare tactic. “Failing to ban gay marriage in the state constitution could result in the indoctrination of schoolchildren into a gay lifestyle,” Stemberger wrote. “Florida schools might have to teach that gay weddings are the same as traditional unions if the proposal fails at the polls.

The school prayer legislation has also been denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the ACLU of Florida, which have cited the measure’s unconstitutionality. In a statement this week, the ADL—acknowledging its traditional opposition to the FFPC and FRC “on issues of religion in the public schools”—announced: “When advocacy groups as divergent as ADL, ACLU, Florida Family Policy Council and Liberty Counsel all agree that the bill is unconstitutional – the legislation must be inherently flawed.” The statement added that the ADL “urge[s] the [House] Judiciary Committee to oppose this unwise measure and save taxpayers the completely unnecessary litigation expenses that will undoubtedly be incurred should CS–SB98 become law.”

The FFPC’s Feb. 17 Insider’s Report: echoed the ADL statement: [Matthew] Staver of Liberty Counsel who is also Dean of the Law School at Liberty University and one of the leading Religious Liberty experts in the country has recently come forth and publicly opposed the bill and asked the legislature to defeat it. Our own President and General Counsel John Stemberger has many of the same concerns. Both these lawyers believe the bill has major constitutional problems and is likely to get struck down under the current case law and only after many years and legal expenses has [sic] been invested trying to defend it.”

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Matthew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University Law School, said that he is ”an advocate of student speech, but this bill will run into constitutional problems and I don’t think it’s right to make school districts litigate this issue again–and they will have to.”

By RORY BARBAROSSA

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL  – Porn star Jason Andrews, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree murder in the 2010 killing of tattoo parlor owner Dennis “Scooter” Abrahamsen. Andrews was facing capital murder charges and the death penalty. His plea means the adult film actor, 28, will spend the  rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In an emotional hearing, a relative told the accused “You should rot in hell,” adding, “You shouldn’t breathe the same air we breathe,” according to Pasco County Assistant State Attorney  Mike Halkitis.

“Is this in lieu of the state seeking the death penalty?” Circuit Judge Michael Andrews—no relation to the defendant—asked his defense attorney.

“It is,” the lawyer answered.

Abrahamsen, 41, was found dead on a massage table in his New Port Richey home in May 2010. He had been bludgeoned and stabbed after having hosted a sex party the previous night before, according to detectives.

Investigators say that Andrews, a part-time DJ and porn actor, and his girlfriend, Amanda Logue, then-28, killed the tattoo parlor owner after Logue was hired to work at the party as a prostitute. The married Logue met Andrews on the set of a 2009 porn shoot, and began a relationship with him. Police say the pair sent text messages to one another while she “serviced” Abrahamsen and Andrews waited outside.

“I’m so glad you’re really committed to this take [sic],” courts records indicate Andrews sent to Logue. “Keep eyes for a knife, etc for me!”

Logue replied that she was looking forward to having sex with Andrews “after we kill” Abrahamsen.

“Just get him on his face either bash or tell me to get in and where to go,” Andrews advised.

After killing Abrahamsen, police say that Andrews and Logue stole a laptop and several cameras, as well as $6,000 in cash. The couple was arrested a few days later in Largo, Florida after they attempted to steal less than $70 worth of items from a local Beall’s department store.

They were arrested a few days later on charges of stealing $67.97 worth of clothes from Beall’s in Largo. Detectives then questioned them about the murder, but both were released on bail. By the time Logue was arrested on the murder charge May 27, 2010, Andrews had vanished. He was caught in July 2010 in Chattanooga, Tenn., by U.S. Marshals and likewise charged in the killing of Abrahamsen.

Logue’s trial is expected to begin in May. It is not known whether Andrews will testify against his girlfriend.

By Rory Barbarossa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A gay teen from California has committed suicide just a month after he made an anti-suicide video urging others to “never give up.” Eric James Borges made the video in December for the “It Gets Better” campaign, which features inspiring videos targeting LGBT teens to help them get through difficult times.

In the video, Borges, 19, describes his own personal experiences as a gay youth, discussing the bullying he was subjected to from kindergarten through high school. “I know it is hard and I know what it feels like to be rejected and abused for your biological sexual orientation,” he offered. “I was physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally assaulted on a day-to-day basis for my perceived sexual orientation,” Borges added. “I was stalked, spit on, ostracized and physically assaulted.”

He also described an assault upon himself by students during high school while a teacher was present. This motivated Borges to leave formal school and finish his high school equivalency.

Borges was also open about his coming out experiences at home, describing it as an “extremist Christian household.”

“My mother knew I was gay and performed an exorcism on me in an attempt to cure me,” Borges said on the video. “My anxiety, depression, self-loathing and suicidal thoughts spiked. I had nowhere safe to go, either at home or school.” He was forced by his parents to leave home at the end of September.

Things seemed to have changed for the teen after he began working for the Trevor project to help bullied gay teens. “I have met and befriended the most incredible and authentic people since I’ve come out,” Borges noted.

He then offered assurances that reiterated the theme of the anti-suicide campaign:  “You will love and be loved and I love you. You have an entire life, fit to burst with opportunities ahead of you. Don’t ever give up and don’t ever for one second think that you’re not a valuable and beautiful contribution to this world. It gets better.”

Distraught friends say that Borges gave no indication in recent days that he was planning to end his own life. “He seemed like the normal old Eric the last time I saw him,” friend James Criss told ABC News. “He was fine. I couldn’t tell anything was wrong with him,” Criss added.

By Rory Barbarossa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The White House issued a document last week entitled “Two Important Developments that Impact the Health and Well-Being of LGBT People.” The document outlined a revision to the FBI’s definition of rape in order to encourage more comprehensive reporting of rape crimes nationwide, including male victims. It also detailed a major grant by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for high-impact HIV prevention.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced revisions to the Uniform Crime Report’s definition of rape last week.  The revised definition includes rapes committed against men, and encompasses a broader range of sexual acts understood to be rape. This revised definition will be used to collect data from local law enforcement about these crimes and will be published in the Uniform Crime Report.

The CDC announced that it has begun awarding almost $339 million to state and local health departments across the United States to fund HIV prevention activities this year. The awards are a component of CDC’s new approach to HIV prevention, designed to better align resources to reflect the geographic burden of the HIV epidemic, and achieve a higher level of impact with every federal HIV prevention dollar spent.