Equality On Trial

This is going to be a very nasty fight.

Opponents of a new California law that gives transgender students certain rights said Sunday that they had collected enough signatures for an initiative that would repeal the law.

A coalition of conservative groups called Privacy for all Students submitted 620,000 signatures to get the initiative on the November 2014 ballot, said Frank Schubert, the political strategist handling the signature gathering effort.

To qualify, at least 505,000 valid signatures must be submitted.

Just like its predecessor in California was in August, New Jersey’s ban on so-called ex-gay therapy was just upheld in federal court.

Judge Freda Wolfson of the U.S. District Court in New Jersey issued a ruling Friday declaring that the New Jersey law “restricts neither speech nor religious expression,” according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The judge dismissed a legal challenge from the right-wing legal group Liberty Counsel, filed on behalf of therapists who wanted to engage in the scientifically discredited, harmful practices on minors.

Good summary of the final day of House debate, and looking ahead.

Excellent article highlighting the distinction between protected ‘religious belief’ and speech and conduct that creates a hostile and intolerant work environment for coworkers.  Pertinent to workplace discrimination in the military and under ENDA.

The Williams Institute has an encyclopedic command of the demographics of LGBT America.  As usual, everything you ever wanted to know about marriage equality in Illinois.

With Illinois, 37 percent of the entire U.S. population now live in states that extend marriage to same-sex couples.

A new infographic by the Williams Institute shows that the decision to extend marriage to same-sex couples in Illinois affects more than 368,000 LGBT adults and 23,000 same-sex couples living in the state. It would also bring up to $103 million to the state economy.

Did you know?

• An estimated 3,831 same-sex couples in Illinois are raising nearly 7,700 children.

• The boost in wedding spending will generate approximately 281 jobs in the state.

The Cabinet has agreed to hold a referendum on same sex marriage before the summer of 2015.

At their meeting today, Ministers accepted the recommendation of Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that they should follow the advice of the Constitutional Referendum and put the issue of same sex marriage to the people.

It is now expected that same sex marriage and a number of other proposed constitutional changes including a reduction in the voting age to 17 will be put to the electorate in May 2015.

This article surveys the landscape in which ENDA moves closer to passing, even in the House.

For those following the Hawaii hearings it has a been a tedious, repetitive, out pouring of:  …gays are responsible for everything bad in the world and if you vote for SB1 the human race will disappear and God’s wrath will be upon us…and we will no longer be able to teach our children the way we want…and our marriages will be less sacred…

 It is reminiscent to pre-science/pre-internet times where all feared a terrible God that is always displeased and people are subject to charismatic leaders and their scare tactics.  For the current sessions, 5000+ persons signed up to testify, as of Sunday Morning, around 500 yet to speak. NOM participated in this mindless babble of incoherent “testimony”:

Warning same-sex marriage will bring “devastating consequences for society,” John Eastman this past week asked lawmakers when marriage became “simply a welfare delivery system?” Eastman, the chairman of the board of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, testified in Honolulu against SB-1, the same-sex marriage bill currently before the Hawaii House.

There is a link to the speech.

‘THIS IS WRONG’: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last night that he is directing the chief of the National Guard Bureau to take “immediate action” to force the National Guard units in nine states to comply with a post-DOMA directive that all spouses of married military personnel receive identification cards that enable them to use base facilities. In a speech before the Anti-Defamation League in New York, Hagel said the state Guards’ refusal to issue cards to the same-sex spouses is “wrong.” Gay military personnel “and their families,” said Hagel, “are entitled to all the benefits and respect accorded to all of our military men and women.” The nine states are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

Retired Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor today married a same-sex couple in the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the nation’s highest court, married a couple together for 36 years, Jeffrey Trammell and Stuart Serkin.

Trammell is a rector (academic, not religious, leader) at The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where the former justice was chancellor. O’Connor was appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan.