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IN: South Bend Considering LGBT Human Rights Ordinance

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Activists’ renewed efforts in Indiana’s fourth largest city to pass an LGBT-inclusive human rights ordinance into law have unexpectedly met with some disparaging and bizarre claims from socially conservative organizers who oppose the measure.

With a vote expected from the South Bend’s Common Council on Monday, July 26, the Citizens for Community Values of Indiana have ramped up their efforts to thwart the amendment. The CCVI claimed in an e-blast “radical GLBT activists are back to try to push their agenda once again in the middle of summer when many families are on vacation.” The message further encourages South Bend residents to pray and contact their council members and urge them to “lovingly oppose the special rights for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendereds [sic], agenda.”

The e-mail goes on to contend the amendment’s passage would affirm “homosexual behavior,” promote “pro-homosexual propaganda” and even lead to an invasion of “men in dresses” into women’s restrooms and same-sex couples into neighborhoods.

Full Story from Edge Boston

Click here for gay marriage resources in Indiana.

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FL: Leon County Considering Gay Anti Discrimination Ordinance

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Lisa Comingore, an assistant attorney general for the state of Florida, knows what it’s like to be forced out of a job over sexual orientation. Comingore, 39, took a job as a staff attorney with a state agency Nov. 1, 2006, and by the following February, she’d put in her notice. She’d been told that if she didn’t, she;d be fired.

The reason why, she says, had nothing to do with job performance – a supervisor wanted her out because she’s a lesbian. Comingore, a Tallahassee resident who was recovering from breast cancer, decided to leave on her own. She knew if she was fired, she’d have a hard time landing another state job and keeping her health insurance. “It just felt extremely unfair,” Comingore said. “Just being discriminated against and having no recourse – it’s very demoralizing.”

Currently, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community aren’t protected from workplace discrimination in local, state or federal law. They also aren’t protected from housing discrimination in state or federal law. The county’s housing code has a protection for gays and lesbians, but LGBT advocates say it has no enforcement mechanism and is ineffective.

Full Story from Tallahassee.com

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

OH: Gay Protections Bill Stalled in State Senate

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Gay advocates in Ohio remain optimistic that a stalled gay protections bill approved last fall by the House remains viable. Representative Dan Stewart’s measure would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (transgender protections) in the areas of employment, public accommodations and credit.

In September, five Republican lawmakers crossed the aisle to join all Democrats in attendance in voting in favor of the bill on a 56 to 38 vote. Five Democratic lawmakers did not attend the session. The bill then headed into the Republican-controlled Senate with an uncertain future.

Kim Welter, director of Programs and Outreach at Equality Ohio, the state’s largest gay advocate, told On Top Magazine that Senate President Bill M. Harris, an Ashland Republican who has publicly questioned whether the bill’s protections are needed, remains the measure’s largest obstacle. Harris, Welter explained, has yet to assign the bill to a committee seven months after the House approved the measure.

Full Story from On Top Magazine

Click here for gay marriage resources in Ohio.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.