Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
Politics
Schwarzenegger to veto equal marriage bill
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Sept. 7 he will veto a bill that would have made California the first state to legalize equal marriage rights through its elected lawmakers.
Schwarzenegger said the legislation would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved an initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 was placed on the ballot to prevent California from recognizing marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states or countries.
Speak OUT!
Contact Gov. Schwarzenegger and tell him to sign, not veto, this important legislation to protect LGBT families. Schwarzenegger can be reached at the State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814; by phone at 916-445-2841, and by email by visiting www.govmail.ca.gov.
Schwarzenegger vetos anti-discrimination campaigning bill
SACRAMENTO, Calif Ð On Sept. 6 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 866, which was designed to prevent discrimination against LGBT individuals in political campaigns.
Specifically, the legislation would have prohibited the use of any negative appeal based on prejudice of sexual orientation or gender identity by candidates or campaign committees who sign the voluntary pledge provided for in the Code of Fair Campaign Practices.
Currently, existing law establishes a Code of Fair Campaign Practices to which a candidate may voluntarily subscribe and provides a pledge by which the candidate declares that he or she will not use or permit any appeal to negative prejudice based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical health status, or age.
Activists to post names of petition signers
BOSTON – Two activists are promising to post on the Internet the names and addresses of anyone who signs a petition that could lead to a statewide ban on equal marriage rights.
The move came after the state Attorney General certified a ballot question that bans equal marriage and civil unions.
One activist said the name, street address, hometown and ZIP code of everyone who signs the petition will be posted on the Web site KnowThyNeighbor.org.
Support collapsing for anti-equal marriage amendment
BOSTON – An effort to block equal marriage rights in Massachusetts appears to be faltering.
A poll conducted on behalf of The Associated Press finds at least 104 state lawmakers plan to vote against a proposed constitutional amendment. The amendment needs the votes of at least 101 of the state's 200 lawmakers to get on the 2006 ballot. The vote is scheduled for Sept. 14.
The proposed measure would ban gay marriage but create civil unions.
Anti-marriage forces circulate competing marriage bans
SAN FRANCISCO – A rift among conservatives has led competing groups to promote two different equal marriage bans and snipe at each other over which is best. Both petitions would do away with rights associated with domestic partnerships as well as unions between same-sex couples.
In the ballot initiatives, a group called Vote Yes Marriage favors a detailed, multi-paragraph amendment rescinding the marriage-like rights lawmakers granted domestic partners over the last five years while defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The other group, Protect Marriage, does it in one sentence: "A marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state."
West recall organizers near signature goal
SPOKANE, Wash. – Organizers of a campaign to recall Spokane Mayor Jim West think they have enough signatures to get on the ballot, but they'll continue to gather more as a buffer.
The petition alleges West used his elected office for personal gain, specifically, that he wrote a recommendation to help someone he believed to be an 18-year-old man he had met in an online gay chat room get a City Hall internship. The man turned out to be a computer forensics expert hired by The Spokesman-Review newspaper.
West has acknowledged having relationships with adult men, but denies any legal wrongdoing. He has not been charged with a crime and has vowed to fight the recall.
Litigation
AIDS quilt legal battle ends with home in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO Ð A section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be permanently housed in San Francisco now that the foundation that owns the artwork and the quilt's designer have reached a legal settlement, according to a foundation lawyer.
Thirty-five panels of the AIDS quilt will be moved to a permanent space in San Francisco and will be available for display throughout the Bay Area. The quilt, which features hundreds of hand-sewn panels that commemorate people who died of AIDS, has toured widely.
Cleve Jones started the foundation in 1987, and was fired by the organization in 2003. He claimed he was terminated because he wanted to take the quilt on a national tour in an election year, and filed a lawsuit against his former employer. Earlier this year, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled the foundation had grounds to fire Jones and had breached no employment agreement in doing so.
Hate Crime Watch
Man admits to strangling cross-dressing doctor
GOSHEN, N.Y. – A Monroe man on Sept. 9 admitted to strangling to death a doctor who had posed as a woman and performed oral sex on him.
Jason Bardsley, 27, said he suffered extreme emotional distress when Dr. Robert Binenfeld lifted his dress and revealed male genitalia on Dec. 21, 2004.
Bardsley pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and fourth-degree grand larceny.
Bardsley, who went to the doctor's home to buy a car, admitted to taking Binenfeld's credit cards and using them in the days following the killing.
Bardsley faces five to 25 years in prison when sentenced Oct. 25.
Obituary
Marilyn Maneely, plaintiff in equal marriage case, dies
HADDONFIELD, N.J. – Marilyn Maneely, a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking state recognition of equal marriage rights, died Sept. 7. She was 55.
Maneely, who was diagnosed earlier this year with Lou Gehrig's disease, died at home with her partner, Diane Marini, and her children at her side.
Maneely and Marini were one of seven same-sex couples who sued the state in 2002 for the right to marry. A Superior Court judge dismissed the suit a year later, and the state Appellate Court ruled against the couples in June 2005. The case is headed for the state Supreme Court.
Civil Rights
New Jersey lesbian claims school failed to halt anti-gay abuse
NEWARK, N.J. – A lesbian student claimed that abuse from fellow teenagers at Holmdel High School was so severe she avoided bathrooms and wore gym gear under her clothes so she would not have to change in the locker room.
Nancy Wadington said she was forced to leave the school in her junior year because of persistent assaults, including one in which she was pushed down a stairway and hurt an ankle.
According to the lawsuit, Wadington's backpack and books were stolen several times.
The lawsuit, filed in Monmouth County's state Superior Court in Freehold, seeks unspecified monetary damages and charges that the district violated the state's Law Against Discrimination by failing to take effective steps to halt harassment.
Student sues district over discipline for lesbian kissing
Santa Ana, Calif. – A lesbian student claims in a lawsuit that Garden Grove school officials suspended her several times and forced her to temporarily transfer to another campus because she refused their orders to stop hugging and kissing her girlfriend on school grounds.
In the federal court lawsuit filed Sept. 7, 17-year-old Charlene Nguon also alleges that a school principal told her parents of her sexual orientation and disciplined her while allowing similar behavior by heterosexual couples.
The suit seeks unspecified damages, an admission that the district violated Nguon's civil rights and a policy change preventing officials from disciplining students because of their sexual orientation.
University settles lawsuit over its anti-discrimination policy
PHOENIX – Religious student groups at Arizona State University can discriminate against those who don't share their religious beliefs, according to the settlement of a lawsuit against the school by a Christian legal organization.
But the settlement says religious organizations at the university cannot exclude students from membership on the basis of sexual orientation.
In its lawsuit, the university chapter of the Christian Legal Society had sought a court order to allow the group to discriminate on both religious and sexual orientation grounds.
