Keen News Service
Since the start of the year 12 states have tried to carve out religious exemptions so business owners do not have to serve LGBT people. Ten have failed and today – March 11 – Mississippi votes on their proposed law. Photo: Shutterstock
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MISSISSIPPI HOUSE READIES TO VOTE: The Mississippi House is expected to vote today a bill, cleared by the Senate, to enable people to discriminate against others by claiming a religious motivation to do so. The House bill has been amended from the Senate version, but opponents say it still leaves a lot of room for discrimination against gays, blacks, and others.
LESBIAN COUPLE FOUND DEAD: Police near Galveston, Texas, are investigating the apparent murder of a lesbian couple whose bodies were found near a dumpster outside a convenience store in Port Bolivar Friday morning. A neighbor identified the women – Crystal Jackson and Britney Cosby, both 24 of Houston — as a couple. Police say they believe the women were killed elsewhere. Their vehicle is missing.
GUESS WHO SAID THIS: "Legislators in Kansas, Arizona and 23 other states who are properly determined to protect religious freedom can begin by asking themselves: Does any religious conviction justify denying lesbians and gays a basic legal promise of non-discrimination in hiring, public accommodations, and housing? Surely the answer to this question is no. Correcting that inequity would begin the process of recognizing that both sides – gay couples and religious objectors – have rights and that reasonable accommodation is possible only when both sides have something to gain." – David Blankenhorn and Leah Ward Sears in a Time magazine essay Sunday. Blankenhorn was a witness in support of Proposition 8 in January 2010. Sears is a former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and presumed to be a potential nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
DEMOCRATS MOCK DeMAIO: He's openly gay and running for Congress from San Diego, but the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund recently declined to endorse his candidacy and last week the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released an ad mocking him. The Victory Fund has not offered an explanation for why it chose not to back Republican San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, but the DCCC ad suggests DeMaio may not be as strong on LGBT related issues as one might expect. The ad appears to quote DeMaio saying, "When I say gay rights, I don't mean actual rights." It appears to be riffing off of a DeMaio campaign ad released last week, quoting DeMaio as saying, "When I say no special exemptions for Congress, I. Mean. It."
SERIOUS MINORITY STATUS: Only seven out of the world's 1,645 billionaires are openly LGBT, according to a report March 3 from Forbes magazine. They include six gay men: Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen, Facebook funder and Paypal creator Peter Thiel, fashion designers Dominico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, and Michael Kors; and medical equipment heir Jon Stryker. The seventh LGBT billion is also the first transgender billionaire, Jennifer Pritzker, of the Tawani wealth management firm in Chicago.
