Author: Indy Trans News

Your help is needed to get the HRO passed and to stop discrimination.
Task #1 – – Contact your City-County Councillor and tell him/her that discrimination is wrong and that they should support the HRO amendment. Write, call, phone or all three –just do it. Find out who your Councillor is by calling 327-4242 or by going to: http://imaps.indygov.org/GovntProfile/
Task #2 – – Attend the Council committee hearing on the HRO amendment on Tuesday, December 13th from 5:00pm to 6:30pm at the City-County Building, 2nd floor. We must pack the house!
Task #3 – – Attend the City-County Council meeting for the HRO amendment on Monday, December 19th at 7:00pm (arrive at 6:30pm) at the City-County Building, 2nd floor Public Assembly Room. We must pack the house! The final vote will be taken this night!
You can park in the lot just east of the City County Building off Market Street downtown for any of these events. Enter the city-county building through the north revolving doors. There is a security pass through, and you’ll be heading upstairs and to your right. There should be a crowd, and it’s fairly obvious where to go.

Thanks to the tireless work of Indiana Equality Region 8 (especially Bil Browning, Jerame Davis, Jeff Newman, Seth Kreigh, Gary Welsh and many others including the folks from Greater Indianapolis Fairness Alliance) in getting information and education about anti-gay descrimination to the city-county council, the president of the council, Steve Talley (D) has decided to vote in favor of Proposition 622 to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the city’s Human Rights Ordinance. This is a great sign for the ordinance, and is a real victory for justice and fairness in Indianapolis.
There’s still a ways to go; a second committee hearing is on Tuesday, and the vote in the full council is coming up soon. For both events, we need everyone possible to attend the meetings at the city-county building downtown (I’ll post directions and parking info before each event). And I need you to attend Tuesday for moral support!
You can thank Steve Talley for working hard to get information and education by talking to GLBT people about their experiences by e-mailing him: stalley@indygov.org. While you’re at it, stop by Bilerico and thank them as well.

Advance Indiana does an excellent job of narrating the action from last night’s city county council meeting, so I won’t duplicate the effort here.
If you want to see it for yourself, the committee meeting will be broadcast several times on Channel 16, so haul out your TIVO.
I was asked to speak at the council meeting, and I was too freaked out by the idea to do so. I won’t make that mistake again. I’ll be speaking about my experiences at the next Committee meeting on Tuesday, December 13th. I’ll need all the moral support I can get, so if you could make it, I’d appreciate it.
Several things that struck me as really interesting: the obviously miserable “ex-gay” couple (notice how they always marry each other so they don’t have to make excuses for why they don’t want to have sex) who testified were strange and heartbreaking. The man, who flamed more than any other gay man I know, actually said that “I can’t guarantee that I won’t slip and fall back into the lifestyle. But I’m here to testify that it can be done.” Um, if there’s a greater indicator that this law is needed than that, it was this:
19 people, most of them ministers and religious people, stood up and testified against the HRO, and every one of them spewed hatred and malice against gay people, and then had the audacity to claim that there’s no real discrimination against gay people and that the laws aren’t needed. It’s was as ironic as if we held a civil rights hearing, and the KKK showed up in their cloaks and testified that black people are 2/3rds of a person, then tried to claim that there’s no discrimination against blacks so civil rights laws are not really needed anyway.
And every single person against Prop 622 invoked the Christian God. So those of you who aren’t Christian — if you’re Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, agnostic or atheist, be aware that your beliefs aren’t important to the city-county council.

I will be at this meeting. Please, please, please come with me, or meet me there. If you’ve never been to the city-county building, it’s very easy to find parking; just east of the building, where Market Square used to stand is a parking lot that charges 3 dollars. You can park there easily. I’ll be running in because it’s after work, but meet me when you get there. Please, whether you’re gay or not, come. It’s so important.
On December 5, 2005 at 5:30pm, the Indianapolis City-County Council will hold a public committee hearing on Proposition 622 [pdf description] – the proposed update to the city’s human rights ordinance that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Rules and Public Policy Committee, meeting in the Public Assembly Room (council chambers) will hear testimony on the proposed changes from the community. The meeting will be televised.

Your help is needed!

Attend Monday night’s hearing and ask your friends, family and neighbors to join you. A large public turnout will help ensure the committee’s support.
WHO: City-County Council Rules and Public Policy Committee
WHAT: Proposition 622 public testimony hearing
WHEN: December 5, 2005 5:30pm (arrive early for seating)
WHERE: City-County Building (200 E Washington St – downtown)
Take action now! Take a moment right now to contact the members of the City-County Council and ask them to support equality and fairness for all Marion County citizens.
Or if you’d feel more comfortable contacting councilors directly (just be aware that Patrice Abduallah doesn’t read any of his e-mail):
rboyd@indygov.org
kingro@sbcglobal.net
rgibson@indygov.org
jmsanders@msn.com
angelamansfield@aol.com
jimthod7@aol.com
schneider725@yahoo.com
CainforCouncil@aol.com
PABDUALL@Indygov.org
L8638@aol.com
Greg@GregBowes.org
mgray@indygov.org
jnytes@indygov.org
WD_Oliver@hotmail.com
stalley@indygov.org
sherronfranklin@yahoo.com
esalisbu@indygov.org
mphister@indygov.org
keller@indy.net
mmadams@iquest.net
VABrown2022@yahoo.com
dmmahern@hotmail.com
susieday20@yahoo.com
llan@att.net
m.speedy@sbcglobal.net
lincolnplowman@aol.com
jmilarc@indygov.org

According to the IndyStar:

Leaders from a dozen African-American churches held a prayer vigil today in the City-Council building in advance of an upcoming vote on a proposal to protect gays from discrimination — a proposal the church leaders firmly oppose.
Taking turns praying by name for each of the 29 members of the City-County Council, the church leaders asked God to help the elected leaders see the danger in the proposal, which they said threatens the very concept of a family unit.
Calling homosexuality a perverse “lifestyle choice” and an “abomination to God” that demands repentence, the church leaders also voiced anger that gay rights activists have likened their struggle to the civil rights movement.
“It is an offense to black people to be used – that the blood of our fathers and our own blood that was spilled on the pathways to civil rights should be used as a lever to get legal license to make their own choices law,” the Rev. Melvin Jackson, pastor at Christian Love Missionary Baptist Church and a participant in the civil rights marches of the 1960s, said after the vigil.
“I lived in it and it’s a lie. We are the sons and daughters of slaves who were held in chains physically and by the laws so that we could not exercise our will. These are people who can exercise their will, but they must not do it under the guise of civil rights.”
The proposal that would ban discrimination against gays in the workplace and the housing market is scheduled for a vote in mid-December.

Wow. I’m so stunned by the blatant homophobia and bigotry that I can’t even collect my thoughts. Unbelieveable that something so filled with hatred could come from the black community.
Let me repeat it so everyone can hear: YOUR RELIGION IS A CHOICE. It’s protected by the HRO, and it’s a choice — if you choose to be Buddhist, or Hindu, or Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish, it’s protected under the law, but it’s something you choose. I personally worship a giant monkey. And I can, because my choice is protected by the HRO.
My homosexuality on the other hand, is NOT A CHOICE. I didn’t pick it. I wouldn’t change it if I could, any more than any black person would deliberately go out and change the color of their skin. It’s a part of me. But I certainly didn’t choose it, any more than the color of my hair, my height, or any other part of me.
I’ve written this a billion times, and I’m writing it again. What makes me gay isn’t my behavior, it’s my feelings. Homosexuality isn’t about behavior, it’s about who you fall in love with and are attracted to. Choice has nothing to do with it.
Of course I could choose to marry a man and have a monogamous relationship with him for the rest of my life. But that wouldn’t make me heterosexual. That would make me a gay woman in a relationship with a man. A miserable relationship that I hated, he hated, and any children we had hated. It would be a destructive mess to everyone concerned. Want proof of that? If you’re heterosexual, picture yourself in a relationship with someone of your own sex. Think you could make it work? Think you would be happy? I thought not. Thousands of gay people have entered into relationships with someone of the opposite sex and can attest to the destruction and misery it causes.
I’m not even going to go into the “Abomination before God” bullshit, because, as I mentioned, I worship a giant monkey, and I don’t care what they hell these ministers are on about. They certainly shouldn’t be allowed to put their religious bullshit into law. I wonder why they got to have access to the city-county building. Can we get access to hold a prayer vigil in favor of Prop. 622? I want to pray to Hanuman about it.

If you have a few minutes to write to your city-county councilors asking them to amend the city’s Human Rights Ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections (aka Proposition 622), please take some time to do so.
If you’ve been discriminated against, or if you know someone who has (here’s a hint I have) tell them about it and why it’s important to you.
The council needs to hear from you, because the votes to support the proposition aren’t solid, and some councilors are still making up their minds. The right-wing is enlisting support from outside of Indianapolis and Indiana for an email bombing campaign against the change.
Also, take a bit of time to read a couple of responses from councilors. Last year, city countil member Ginny Cain, sent one of her constituents this very telling remark: recounted in full on Advance Indiana: “I will never support something that is meant for destruction of human beings and our civilization.”
And just this morning, Councilor Earl Salisbury, in response to a story from a constituent about discrimination, gave this flippant reply: “So if the laws change does the abuse stop? No more suicides? Promise?”
Yes, including GLBT rights in the HRO will help prevent suicides. It will improve the quality of life for GLBT people, who will be less depressed as a result. The high suicide rate among gay and lesbian and transgendered people is because they suffer from discrimination, not because they are gay or transgendered. The way to reduce the suicide rate is to end the discrimination, and passing Prop. 622 is the first step in doing so.
Another good reason to pass to pass Prop 622 — preventing the massive brain drain that is currently going on in the state of Indiana, by making the state more attractive to people like me — technical people that the city is spending money hand over fist to attract to the city.
Tell the council about your professional field, and how passing the ordinance would make you feel about remaining in the state.

According to the Indiana Daily Student:

About 25 members of the Old Paths Baptist Church protested Monday afternoon outside The Inner Chef, chanting anti-gay slogans, burning a gay pride flag and brandishing signs with messages like “Fags Die, God Laughs.”
Bobb Easterbrook, a clerk at the store, was the only person working there at the time.
Bloomington police officers responded to the scene but only to prevent it from getting out of hand, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Mick Williams. He said police did intervene, stopping protestors when they began burning the New Glory, a gay-pride variation of the American flag that features rainbow colors as the stripes.
John Lewis, pastor of the Old Paths church, said his group burned the flag there because it believes gay people will burn in hell.
“The elite city of Bloomington harbors an elitist, faggot business called The Inner Chef which openly and unabashedly claim they are against God Almighty,” Lewis said. “… We were there to cry against it. We burned the flag, and we will do it again.”
Lewis said he plans to research the legality of burning the flag and intends to burn the flag legally the next time his group protests.
This protest came less than a month after two minors stole and burned a version of the New Glory that had been hanging outside The Inner Chef’s storefront. The minors admitted to stealing the flag Oct. 8 because they thought it was “unpatriotic.”

Burning a gay flag is the equivalent of burning a cross on someone’s lawn. It’s intended to intimidate and harrass.

Regarding Indiana’s proposed Orwellian plan to criminalize “unauthorized reproduction”:
State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement this afternoon saying: “The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission.”
Scott was lamenting yesterday that we look even more like hicks now that the entire country reacted with horror to this idea… but I think it was a very Good Thing. However creepy and dystopian the idea was, it wasn’t a dumb-ass, igner’nt idea… just a totally fascist idea. While that’s not great, what it did do was expose the right-wing, conservative (radical) Republican party for what it really is, which more people really need to catch onto, not just those of us who pay attention to the news every day.

When an amendment to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance was proposed to the city council last year which would introduce protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, the council was bombarded with e-mail from the religious right — most of it from outside of Indianapolis, and some of it from even outside the state of Indiana (generated by a campaign from the extreme religious right).
Many councilors changed their votes to dismiss the legislation, only learning later that the mail against the ordinance was not from their constituents at all.
As you can tell from this Sunday’s Indy Star article, the councilors have figured it out, especially since they’ve sat down and had meals with Indianapolis residents who would be protected by this legislation.

In Tampa, Florida, the 21-year old father of a small boy went on trial this week for killing his son, whom he was boxing with because he thought the boy was gay.

Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn’t want his son to grow up to be “a sissy,” the boy’s mother testified Monday.
“He was trying to teach him how to fight,” said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris’ sister. “He was concerned that the child might be gay.”
Even Sheldon Bostic, who was Ronnie Paris Jr.’s Bible-study friend, said he warned the father several times not to play so rough with his son.
“He really did what other fathers do – slap box,” Bostic said. “He always said he didn’t want his son growing up to be pushed around.”
“Did Ronnie use a term for that?” asked Jalal Harb, an assistant state attorney.
“He didn’t want him to be a sissy,” Bostic said.

Gene Stone at the Huffington Post has some very eloquent thoughts on the subject:

The right wing’s relentless propaganda machine has a pernicious effect throughout society. Not only does it remind gays how much they’re hated by a segment of the population, it helps convince parents who don’t know much about homosexuality that it’s evil, a perversion, something that no family could possible want in its midst. When people are exposed only to the hateful bigotry of the right, what’s the result? When taken to the extreme, infanticide — as the Tampa case reveals.
Is this really what the right wing wants? A war against homosexuality in which innocent children are slaughtered in the name of righteousness?
Sometimes, it seems that, yes indeed, this is exactly what the right wing hopes for. Because where else can such anger, hatred, and intolerance lead?