News

LGBTQ Youth Equality Ride Across the U.S.

During March and April The Soulforce Equality Ride will be visiting 19 religious and military schools to give voice to those who can not speak up themselves because of oppressive school policies. Many of these schools expell lgbtq students who come out or are outed.
At military and religious colleges around the nation, bans on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender enrollment force students into closets of fear and self-hate. These bans devalue the life of GLBT people and they slam the door on academic freedom. The Equality Ride empowers young adults to challenge these college bans.

Scheduled to take place in the spring of 2006, the Equality Ride will take 25–30 young adults on a seven-week bus tour to confront numerous religious and/or military colleges that ban the enrollment of GLBT students. At each stop along the journey the members of the Equality Ride will present a powerful case for GLBT equality.

Like the Freedom Rides of the 50’s and 60’s, the Equality Ride is a student-led effort that takes young adults into epicenters of intolerance and oppression to make a better tomorrow. In going on this journey, the Equality Riders draw inspiration from those Freedom Riders over forty years ago.

The goal of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.

Continue ReadingLGBTQ Youth Equality Ride Across the U.S.

Corett Scott King Quotes

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice,” she said. “But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people” – Coretta Scott King
“Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood,” – Coretta Scott King

Continue ReadingCorett Scott King Quotes

Indiana Equality Presents “Our Families Count” Rally at the Statehouse

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Equality will host a Statehouse gathering, the “Our Families Count!” rally, on February 9, 2006 from 1pm – 3pm. This event has been organized in response to a recent spate of legislation aimed at relegating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Hoosiers to second-class status.

“With daylight-savings time, toll roads, and property taxes on the docket, one would think the legislature has more important business to attend to than attacking gay families in this short session,” stated Walter Botich, Indiana Equality legislative committee co-chair.

Angered by advances in local human rights protections, Representative Jeff Thompson (R – Lizton) offered a proposal that was aimed at the LGBT community specifying that local government may not extend protections for employment or housing that is greater than existing state of federal statute. This proposal would have banned human rights protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity – effectively overturning existing laws in Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Michigan City, West Lafayette, and Tippecanoe County.

All too often, LGBT families are either overlooked or discounted completely. Indiana Equality encourages all of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of the state to join them in announcing to the state government that “Our Families Count!”

“This is an exercise of our rights – and it’s happening in the Statehouse rotunda,” observed Kathy Sarris, president of Indiana Equality. “It’s time the State of Indiana started recognizing those rights.”

“It’s time for our community to stand up and be counted. We need to show that our families are just as important as other families around the state,” commented Jerame Davis, Indiana Equality communications committee chair and rally organizer. “We will not be forced into second-class status. We pay our taxes, participate in our communities, and raise our families just like all other Hoosiers. We should be treated equally.”

The “Our Families Count!” rally will feature speakers from several community organizations from around the state. Several legislators have been invited to speak.
Founded in 2003, Indiana Equality is a coalition of organizations from around the state who are focused on providing basic human rights for Indiana’s LGBT citizens. Participating organizations include Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination (ICON), Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance (INTRAA), Indiana Action Network (IAN), Justice, Inc., Indiana PFLAG, Indianapolis Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Social Workers (NASW) as well as regional steering committees in the Indianapolis, Bloomington, Evansville, Richmond, Ft. Wayne, Lafayette, and South Bend areas.

see more information about Indiana Equality.

Continue ReadingIndiana Equality Presents “Our Families Count” Rally at the Statehouse

Human Rights Ordinance Elimination Bill Withdrawn

Representative Thompson withdrew his amendment today to House Bill 1010 which would have eliminated local human rights protections in cities throughout Indiana. The House reconvened at 1:30 pm today. Rep Thompson withdrew his amendment and the House was recessed until 5:30pm tonight.

This amendment may be only temporarily dead; it could still be attached to another bill sometime during the legislative session, and rumors are that Republicans intend to try just that, potentially at a very busy point in the session to reduce the chance of it being noticed or to reduce the ability of opponents to act on it.

Indiana Equality is still asking people to attend the gathering at the Statehouse at 5 p.m. tonight, to thank legislators for killing the amendment behind the scenes and to help make legislators aware that opponents of the amendment are keeping tabs on the legislature this session.

Also, don’t forget that Indiana Equality is sponsoring a rally in the Statehouse North Atrium (indoors!) on February 9th from 1-3 p.m.

Continue ReadingHuman Rights Ordinance Elimination Bill Withdrawn

Indiana Bill Amendment Would Make Illegal Local LGBT Non-Discrimination Policies

TODAY the Indiana House of Representatives will debate an amendment to House Bill 1010 that would prohibit cities and counties from providing equal rights protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity — like the Human Rights Ordinance we worked so hard on here in Indianapolis.

Please Contact your State Representative immediately (TODAY!) and tell them you oppose this amendment. Municipalities must retain the right to pass the laws that are appropriate and needed for their community and their citizens. Basic human rights should be ensured for all Hoosiers.

In reaction to the recent update of Indianapolis’ Human Rights Ordinance and other local non-discrimination laws throughout Indiana – the Religious Right, led by Advance America’s Eric Miller, tapped Representative Jeff Thompson (R) to author an amendment to HB 1010 (eminent domain). The proposal, Amendment #12, specifies that local government may not extend protections for employment or housing that is “greater than those protections or opportunities offered by the Constitution of the State of Indiana, the Constitution of the United States, or federal law, except as expressly granted by statute.”

This proposal would make illegal human rights protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including those that have been enacted in Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Michigan City, West Lafayette, and Tippecanoe County.

On Tuesday afternoon Democratic House members argued that the amendment was neither acceptable nor relevant to the bill. Nevertheless, the amendment was ruled germane and debate began. After intense questioning of Rep. Thompson by a number of Representatives (both Democratic and Republican), Speaker Brian Bosma adjourned House for the day without taking a vote on Amendment #12. As there was no vote, the House will continue discussion on the proposal when they re-convene at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, January 25th.

What You Can Do

1.) Contact your State Representative immediately and tell them loud and clear that this proposal is simply not acceptable! Municipalities must retain the right to pass the laws for that are appropriate and needed for their community and their citizens.

2.) Join Indiana Equality at the Indiana State House on Wednesday evening, January 25, 2006 and deliver a message in-person to your Representative to reject Amendment # 12. Meet at 5:00 pm at the State House Rotunda.

Don’t Forget!! – Our Families Count!

Join Indiana Equality for the “Our Families Count” rally. February 9, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm at the Statehouse. Don’t miss this historic event.

Continue ReadingIndiana Bill Amendment Would Make Illegal Local LGBT Non-Discrimination Policies

More Indiana State Legislature Attacks on Gay People

Bills that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered folks in Indiana:

Preference of Marriage Bills
House Bill 1335 (Preference for marriage over other relationships) and House Bill 1202 (Preference for marriage; instruction by schools) – Introduced by Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton) These two bills, would have Indiana law declare that marriage is preferred, encouraged, and supported over any other domestic relationship. Additionally, it would require that public schools not allow instruction that is contrary to policies established by law concerning marriage. HB 1335 has been assigned to the House Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee; HB 1202 has been sent to the House Education Committee. Neither bill is yet scheduled for committee consideration. This legislation appears to be in response to the idea among some social conservatives that schools are “promoting homosexuality.”

Patricia Miller’s Resurrection of “Unauthorized Reproduction” Bill
Senate Bill 0273 (Abandoned embryos and adoption matters) – Introduced by Sen. Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis) Among other things this legislation calls for the Health Finance Commission to study assisted reproduction, infertility, gestational agreements, and surrogacy arrangements. SB 0273 has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee; however, no hearing date has been set. The proposed study appears to be an attempt by Sen. Miller to resurrect her unsuccessful proposal to make assisted reproduction illegal for same-sex couples, unmarried couples, and single women.

What to do about it
WHAT: “Our Families Count!” rally
WHEN: Thursday, February 9, 2006 1-3pm
WHERE: Indiana Statehouse North Atrium (200 W Washington Street – Indianapolis)
WHO: Indiana Equality & Friends
WHY: Our families are not second-class! The state shouldn’t teach that they are!
Stand up and let your family be counted! Join Indiana Equality at the Statehouse for the “Our Families Count!” rally February 9.

Representatives from many area groups will be on hand. Guest speakers will start at 1:30! We have many great speakers lined up. You won’t want to miss this historic rally for equality!

Continue ReadingMore Indiana State Legislature Attacks on Gay People

IndyStar’s “In Touch” Blog

Read this blog entry from Jocelyn-Tandy Torkwase Adande:

An individual’s sexual preference should be a private matter. Recently, the Democratic caucus of the City-County Council attached an ordinance relating to sexual orientation to a human rights bill that also allows 15 percent of all business contracts with the city of Indianapolis to be awarded to minority-owned businesses.
To gain acceptance, a faction within the party, Stonewall Democrats, agreed to support this ordinance. The majority of African-American council members voted in favor of it and against the opinion of the religious community and its constituents. These council members wrongly allowed homosexuals and their supporters to identify their struggle with the plight of African Americans during the civil rights era.
Federal and state laws address acts of discrimination in employment and housing. Sexual harassment in the workplace is a type of employment discrimination. Such acts are prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and commonly by state statutes.
Passage of the ordinance was a mistake. To compare the plight of homosexuals to that of African Americans is an insult to my race.

I take issue with the very first line — my sexual orientation isn’t a matter for the bedroom, any more than any heterosexual couple’s is. When take your spouse to the company Christmas party and introduce them to people, you say “this is my wife, Christine” or “this is my husband, John.” You’re pointing out your sexual orientation and making it a part of your relationships with your co-workers and friends.
I do the same with mine. My girlfriend, someday wife, isn’t only that in my bedroom but in every aspect of my life. Our relationship may include sex, but it’s not solely about that — it’s also about love, loyalty, companionship, support, friendship, family, compassion, commitment and faith. Our relationship not a “sexual act.” It’s a beautiful, gracious gift from the universe, and I celebrate it every day.

Continue ReadingIndyStar’s “In Touch” Blog

Indiana Bill Watch

If you’re at all curious about the Indiana State Legislature, you may find the Bill Watch section of the state’s website interesting. It posts text of the bills that are currently being considered in the State legislature. You can also search for particular bills if you know the number if them, and do keyword searches. (For fun, try searching on the word “sex”.)

This is how NUVO Newsweekly reporters discovered Pat Miller’s strange, Orwellian bill about unauthorized reproduction. Back in the olden days, when I did some lobbying in the state legislature, you had to go to a room in the Statehouse and look this kind of stuff up, and it was tedious and time-consuming. But it was important to do it, because legislators would hide a lot of anti-gay shit in amendments and bills that were only semi-related, and if you weren’t aware of it, there were a lot of really crappy laws created.

Continue ReadingIndiana Bill Watch

Time on Two Crosses–The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin

My friend Marti passed along this quote from Bayard Rustin, who was a friend of Martin Luther King’s, and who worked alongside him during the civil rights movement:

“Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy, if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, ‘What about gay people?’ Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged.”
“There are four burdens, which gays, along with every other despised group, whether it is blacks following slavery and reconstruction, or Jews fearful of Germany, must address.
The first is to recognize that one must overcome fear.
The second is overcoming self-hate.
The third is overcoming self-denial.
The fourth burden is more political. It is to recognize that the job of the gay community is not to deal with extremist who would castrate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us.
The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly mainifest that hate. That’s our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.”

There are a couple of significant differences in what gay and transgendered people face than other oppressed groups of people. One of them is that our families usually don’t prepare us for the hatred and discrimination that will be directed at us as we grow up, or to help us understand who we are and why we are before we face that hatred. Many time the people who discriminate against us are our own family members, which makes it doubly painful.
The other significant difference in the struggle that gay people face is that much of our history is completely lost to time. We know that gay people have been persecuted, oppressed, tortured and executed for centuries because we have seen the evidence of it in our history books, but only from the view of the persecutors, and very little of it survives from the point of view of gay people.
Other oppressed groups were able to pass history of their people through oral tradition through families and communities, and although that is a fragile method, it’s still significant.

Continue ReadingTime on Two Crosses–The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin

Local FBI spying on vegan groups

In another article about the domestic spying on left-wing organizations, this time from the New York Times, the article mentions in passing:

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a “Vegan Community Project.”

Wow. If they’re spying on vegetarians in Indy, what do you think they’re doing about all those crazy homos? I wonder how to file for the Freedom of Information Act.
UPDATE: Okay, the ACLU press release is a bit clearer on what this is about. Our local FBI was investigating PETA, and one of the group’s events was passing out vegetarian starter kits to students and faculty on the “University of Indiana” campus. (They mean Indiana University.)
Well, I guess that actually isn’t any clearer to me what the FBI was doing.
A link to the redacted PDF document that the ACLU obtained through the FOIA.

Continue ReadingLocal FBI spying on vegan groups

Hate Crime Legislation: A Respectful Response to Common Assertions

I had this article on my site a few years ago while the State legislature was debating the hate crimes legislation. It was written by Chris Douglas. I’m re-posting it because he needed to find it again, and because it’s an informative and well-written piece.
It’s quite long, though, so I’m putting the body of the piece below the jump.

Continue ReadingHate Crime Legislation: A Respectful Response to Common Assertions

Prop 622 passed out of committee; vote to be Monday

Last night, Proposition 622 to amend the Human Rights ordinance passed out of committee by a vote of 5 to 3. It will be voted on in the full committee in a special session on Monday night. I’ll post details of time and room as soon as I hear them. Here are the undecided councilors that need to hear from people before Monday:
Ron Gibson (D) rgibson@indygov.org
Patrice Abduallah (D) pabduall@indygov.org
Lynn McWhirter (R) L8638@aol.com
Suzie Day (R) susieday20@yahoo.com
Marilyn Pfisterer (R) (distant maybe)
Bob Cochrum (R) (distant maybe) 856-5549
Mike Speedy (R) (distant maybe) m.speedy@sbcglobal.net
We kicked butt last night. The gay community in Indianapolis really rose to the occasion and gave strong testimony and coherent arguments. I found myself saying “that’s a really good point!” on about ten different occasions during testimony.
There were about 2 of our supporters for every one of theirs, and they hauled out the same lame, illogical, irrelevant arguments that they did last week. I’m totally proud of the GLBT community. You’re rock stars, people.
The local media, however, sucked raw eggs. Fox was the only news station that covered the committee hearing well. Channel 6 had lots of coverage; all of it was yellow journalism, showed dis-proportionate speakers. They also kept airing the “there are already laws on the books” argument — there AREN’T laws on the books to cover this. I didn’t see anything on Channel 8, and Channel 13 had a 10 second overview. The IndyStar has a decent article on the issue, but with the completely lame headline: “Gay Rights plan stands chance of passing this time.”
IT’S NOT A GAY RIGHTS PLAN. It’s a human rights plan, and the ordinance also has changes for people with disabilities, veterans of any war (not just vietnam) and it also covers STRAIGHT people — making it clear you can’t be fired for any sexual orientation or PERCIEVED sexual orientation. Yes there are straight people fired because people think they’re gay.

Continue ReadingProp 622 passed out of committee; vote to be Monday