Compiled by Dawn Wolfe
Marriage Rights
Supreme Court declines to hear equal marriage rights case
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Nov. 29 sidestepped a dispute over equal marriage rights, rejecting a challenge to the nation's only law sanctioning such unions.
Justices had been asked by conservative groups to overturn the year-old decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalizing equal marriage rights for same-gender couples. They declined, without comment.
Critics of the November 2003 ruling argue that it violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of a republican form of government in each state. They lost at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
The lawsuit was filed by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel on behalf of Robert Largess, the vice president of the Catholic Action League, and 11 state lawmakers.
Civil Rights
Alarming rates of hate crimes reported by FBI
Sexual Orientation-based crimes now second highest category of reported hate offenses
WASHINGTON – Sexual orientation-based bias crime is now the second highest category of hate crime offenses in the United States, according to new information from the FBI. Previously the third category behind race and religion, 1,430 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation were reported in 2003. Six murders were reported based on sexual orientation – the highest category, followed closely by four murders based on race bias.
According to the FBI report "Hate Crime Statistics 2003," 8,715 criminal offenses were identified as being motivated by hate. 1,430 of these offenses – or 16.4 percent – were crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation. The data also does not track crimes based on bias against transgender people. Nov. 20 marked the sixth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, when the LGBT community mourned the loss of 21 transgender individuals to hate violence over the past year.
The entire report is available at www.fbi.gov.
Shepard's killers deny attack was hate crime in first interviews
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – In their first public interview since attacking gay college student Matthew Shepard, his killers said they were motivated not by homophobia, but the prospect of robbery to fuel a methamphetamine binge.
"He was pretty well-dressed, had a wallet full of money," Aaron McKinney said of meeting Shepard at a Laramie bar in October 1998. "All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him. … Seemed like a good idea at the time."
The interviews aired Nov. 26 on ABC's "20/20."
The robbery got out of hand, said McKinney and his buddy, Russell Henderson, and Shepard was beaten into a coma while tied to a fence outside the small college town. The 21-year-old died five days later.
Representatives of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs called the segment "irresponsible, biased, shameful," and "destructive."
"I was in Laramie after Matthew's murder and at the trial, his murderers acknowledged that they killed him because of his sexual orientation, and they in fact offered a 'homosexual panic' defense," said Jeff Montgomery, NCAVP's Board Co-Chair.
PDF versions of the NCAVP's Report on Anti-LGBT Violence in 2003 are available at www.ncavp.org.
ACLU sues school for banning pro-gay t-shirts
WEBB CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in federal court Nov. 23 against a high school that twice punished a student for wearing t-shirts bearing gay pride messages and banned him from wearing the shirts to school again. Attorneys for 16-year-old Brad Mathewson also asked for a court order to stop the school from further censoring his speech.
"The school lets other students wear anti-gay t-shirts, and I understand that they have a right to do that. I just want the same right," said Mathewson.
Mathewson was disciplined twice in October by Webb City High School officials for wearing t-shirts supporting LGBT people, and was later suspended after school officials refused to meet with his mother without the Mathewsons' attorney present. Although Mathewson had worn one of the shirts to school at least six times before without incident, Principal Stephen P. Gollhofer now claims he was concerned the t-shirts might offend other students. Students with opposing beliefs on the same issues are allowed to express their views, as anti-gay t-shirts and bumper stickers are common in the hallways at Webb City High School.
In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark ACLU case Tinker v. Des Moines that students have a Constitutional right to free speech.
Controversy lingers over student gay rights group
CANNONSBURG, Ky. – Ten months after the Boyd County school board settled a lawsuit over a student gay rights group, the controversy continues to divide the northeastern Kentucky community that surrounds the high school.
Boyd County High School's Gay-Straight Alliance has disbanded, and the teacher-adviser who formed it has left the school.
As many as one-third of the students have skipped the settlement's requirement of tolerance training, an hour-long video.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit against the district, said it may return to court in an effort to enforce mandatory training for students who missed it.
And now the school district is facing a possible lawsuit from an Arizona-based law group affiliated with several conservative Christian organizations. The group wants the district to adopt a formal policy by Nov. 30 allowing students to opt out of the training.
Parent challenges book meant to stop name-calling
DAVENPORT, Iowa – A book read aloud to sixth-grade students at Bridgeview Elementary in Le Claire has been questioned by a parent because one of the main characters is gay.
"The Misfits," by James Howe, is about four middle-school students in a small town in New York state. It focuses on their efforts to eliminate name-calling in their school.
An unidentified parent checked boxes on a request form, indicating that he or she did not want the book assigned to his or her child and wanted its availability withdrawn from other students as well.
The book, published in 2001, led to a nationwide initiative to eliminate name-calling. The Web site, www.nonamecallingweek.org, has enlisted hundreds of schools in the effort.
Family Rights
Appeals court upholds adoption by lesbian mother
GALVESTON, Texas – A state appeals court has upheld a woman's adoption of her former lesbian partner's biological daughter.
Attorneys for the child's biological mother said that the ruling cited problems with the form of the appeal, not its merits, and that they would consider appealing the decision to the Texas Supreme Court.
The biological mother appealed the case last month, claiming the judge who heard it lacked jurisdiction to validate the adoption.
State appeals court extends parental rights to lesbian
INDIANAPOLIS – Lesbian partners in Indiana who agree to conceive a child through artificial insemination are both the legal parents of any children born to them, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled.
In its unanimous ruling, the court chided state lawmakers for being slow to deal with advances in reproductive technology and urged the General Assembly to address the "current social reality" of unconventional families.
According to the ruling issued Nov. 24, "No (legitimate) reason exists to provide the children born to lesbian parents through the use of reproductive technology with less security and protection than that given to children born to heterosexual parents through artificial insemination."
The court's decision overturns a ruling by a Monroe Circuit Court judge who found that a Bloomington woman, Dawn King, had no legal standing with the girl born to her former partner, Stephanie Benham, because King was not a biological parent.
Law
NY Court: Toys 'R' Us must pay fees in transsexuals' suit
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York's top court ruled Nov. 23 that Toys "R" Us Inc. must pay the legal fees for three transsexuals who won a "moral victory" in their discrimination lawsuit against the retail giant.
The three customers charged they were verbally harassed and threatened with baseball bats at a Brooklyn store during two shopping excursions there in December, 2000.
A jury in June 2002 found the plaintiffs were harassed but awarded them only $1 each in damages. Later that year, lawyers for the three were awarded $193,551 by a federal court judge. The Wayne, N.J.-based retail toy giant appealed.
In a 5-2 ruling the court said the fees were justified because the case served "a significant public purpose" by clarifying the rights of transsexuals to be protected from discrimination.
The exact amount of legal fees to be awarded is still subject to federal court review.
Religion
Police investigating anti-gay exorcism at St. Paul Cathedral
ST. PAUL – Police are investigating an informal exorcism at the Cathedral of St. Paul, which was directed at gay Roman Catholics and will cost thousands of dollars to clean up, police and church officials said.
They said the ritualistic sprinkling of blessed oil and salt around the church and in donation boxes earlier this month amounted to costly vandalism and possibly a hate crime.
The damage was discovered Nov. 7 after the noon Mass, and after words were exchanged between members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance, a gay rights group, and the opposing group, Catholics Against Sacrilege.
The groups are at odds over gays participating in communion, one of the holiest rites in the church. Earlier this year, about 40 men, members of the group Ushers of the Eucharist, knelt in the aisles at the Cathedral to block Rainbow members from taking communion.
Episcopal bishop tries to win back breakaway parishes
LOS ANGELES – The Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles said he would stop blessing same-sex unions in an attempt to win back three breakaway Southern California parishes and appease conservative critics – but he also said his priests would be free to continue officiating at homosexual ceremonies.
The bishop of the six-county Los Angeles diocese also called Nov. 23 for an international church summit in Los Angeles. He asked that it include African bishops who have claimed jurisdiction over the three parishes that bolted in mid-August from the Episcopal Church because of differences over Scripture and homosexuality.
The bishop's proposals were rejected hours after he made them by the primate of the Anglican Church in Uganda, and the bishop of the Diocese of Luweero in Uganda.
In Other News
Lake Tahoe to host ski festival for gays and lesbians
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Lake Tahoe will host its first ski and activities festival this winter targeted toward gays and lesbians.
The week-long event, billed as "Ascent: the Winter Party at Lake Tahoe," will feature the Indigo Girls, and Judy Shepard as the keynote speaker.
The event will run Feb. 27 through March 6, 2005.
The event is modeled after the Aspen Gay Ski Week, which attracts about 3,500 visitors to the Colorado town and pumps an estimated $12 million into the local economy.
Some of the proceeds from the event will be shared with seven charities, including the nonprofit foundation founded by Judy Shepard dedicated to educational efforts that embrace and accept diversity.
