Louisiana Stonewall Democrats Congratulate New York on Legalizing Same-Sex Marriages

Capt. Cory F. Heitmeier: Six down, 44 states to go.

BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Stonewall Democrats President Capt. Cory F. Heitmeier released the following statement congratulating the New York State Senate for passing its same-sex marriage bill.

“How fitting, symbolic and poetic that the New York State Senate would legalize same-sex marriage today, the eve of Gay Pride weekend. While Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, the District of Columbia and now New York support the notion of equal rights for their citizens, we are a long way from equality for all everywhere.

“With upstanding leadership, New York was able to pass a same-sex marriage bill; unfortunately, Louisiana lawmakers and Governor Jindal cannot muster enough courage to even support anti-bullying legislation. While we celebrate this momentous and historical occasion, we strive to have leadership that is more focused on improving the lives of Louisianans and less focused on being the GOP’s lapdog.

“Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we continue the fight…six down, 44 states to go.”

Virginia Pushing Forward with Anti-Discrimination Legislation

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.) (1/26)
By Jim Nolan

Democratic lawmakers Tuesday announced support for bills that would make it illegal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in Virginia's state work force and in the Virginia National Guard.

Lawmakers also pushed for legislation that would strengthen anti-bullying laws regarding Virginia schools, allow local governments to set their own benefits policies for employees and repeal a 2006 amendment to the Virginia Constitution that forbids same-sex marriages.

Similar legislation has failed in past General Assembly sessions, but lawmakers said there is growing bipartisan support for legislation this time around to give equal protection under the law and in public employment to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians.

"It's simply the right thing to do," said Del. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, the sponsor of House Bill 2046, which would add sexual orientation to the list of protected classes upon which the state cannot discriminate in employment. Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico is sponsoring companion legislation, Senate Bill 747.

Last year, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued a legal opinion saying public colleges and universities could not include sexual-orientation bias in their nondiscrimination policies because it was not specifically authorized in state law.

Despite having issued an opinion similar to Cuccinelli's during his own tenure as attorney general, Gov. Bob McDonnell reacted to the ensuing uproar by issuing an executive directive — a declaration lacking the force of law — that forbade discrimination in the state work force for any reason.

"We need to get this in the code for all time," said Ebbin, the only openly gay member of the legislature, noting that it "makes good business sense" and that Virginia's top 10 employers have nondiscrimination policies that protect gays.

Joining lawmakers was Anthony Woods, an openly gay Army captain who served two tours in Iraq before his discharge from the military in 2008 for refusing to keep his sexual orientation a secret under the since-repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

"On the battlefield, sexual orientation does not matter one bit," said Woods, a West Point graduate who received the Bronze Star for his service. He was present to support House Bill 2345, sponsored by Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, prohibiting discrimination in the Virginia National Guard.

Lawmakers cited support from GOP counterparts such as Del. Thomas Davis Rust, R-Fairfax — whose House Bill 1964 would prohibit discrimination in public employment based on sexual orientation — as evidence that times could be changing.

The bills come up for consideration this week.

The Rev. Robin Gorsline of the Metropolitan Community Church in Richmond said, "Make respect the law of Virginia."

Louisiana Stonewall Democrats Call on David Vitter to Recuse Himself from Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Vote

Capt. Heitmeier: Vitter Shouldn’t Pass Judgment on Honorable, Law-Abiding Service Members


BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Stonewall Democrats President Capt. Cory Heitmeier released the following statement today calling on Senator David Vitter to recuse himself from the Senate’s expected debate and votes on repealing the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“If David Vitter had been a military officer when he admitted breaking the law by soliciting prostitutes, he would have faced a dishonorable discharge, severe punishment or even time in the brig. Vitter is not fit to wear our nation’s uniform and he shouldn’t be allowed to pass judgment on others.



“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell bans honorable and law-abiding gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans from serving openly in the armed forces and since David Vitter is neither honorable nor law-abiding, he has no place in this debate.


Louisiana Stonewall Democrats is a grassroots force for social change within the Democratic Party. Members call voters, put together campaign mailings, go door-to-door for fair-minded candidates and have tough conversations with Democratic Party officials about why LGBTQ families need and deserve more support from the Democratic Party and its elected officials.

For more information about Louisiana Stonewall Democrats visit: www.louisianastonewall.org

Louisiana Stonewall Dems travel the State this past weekend in support of EQUALITY

Having fun and making a difference


NEW ORLEANS
NO/AIDS Walk 2010

LAKE CHARLES

Pride Festival 2010

SHREVEPORT

North West Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2010

Target refuses HRC request to “make it right”

Human Rights Campaign, Minnesota, Target

Target Corp. has informed the Human Rights Campaign that it will not take action to “correct” its $150,000 donation to a group supporting an anti-gay candidate for governor in Minnesota, according to an HRC release tonight.

“If their initial contribution was a slap in the face, their refusal to make it right is a punch in the gut and that’s not something that we will soon forget,” said Joe Solmonese, HRC’s president.

HRC also announced it would spend $150,000 in the state this year to help elect a pro-equality governor and state legislature. ”With full marriage equality hanging in the balance in Minnesota, regardless of Target, it’s important that we as a community send a message that we will work tirelessly to elect pro-equality candidates,” Solmonese said.

Meanwhile, protests outside Target stores continue. Fifty protesters descended on a new Chicago store Saturday in the city’s Uptown neighborhood.

PROP 8 OVERTURNED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katrina L. Rogers
info@louisianastonewall.org
225-308-1607

Louisiana Stonewall Democrats Congratulate Judge Vaughn Walker on Overturning the Proposition 8 Ban in California

The Louisiana Stonewall Democrats commend the federal court of California for overturning the Proposition 8 Ban, allowing same-sex couples to marry in the state.

"It is our desire that this is a sign that marriage will be an option for all Americans. We are merely asking for equality and this decision signifies that we are deserving. Now we work towards equality for LGBT couples across this great nation who want to get married," says Captain Cory F. Heitmeier, President of Louisiana Stonewall Democrats.

In his ruling, Judge Vaughn Walker stated, ""Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8."

Louisiana Stonewall Democrats is an organization dedicated to supporting candidates and policy that will help combat discriminatory legislation based on sexual orientation and sexual identification. We are a grassroots establishment within the Democratic Party that advocates social change that will improve the lives of people in LGBTQ communities and families in Louisiana and across the country.
###

We can only hope that one day a video like this can be made by students here in Louisiana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bwyVYD2vwk&feature=player_embedded

BR gay leaders: Groups will now lobby for law

• By GREG GARLAND
• Advocate staff writer
• 
  

The leaders of groups representing Louisiana’s gay community said Thursday they were disappointed by the failure of a resolution expressing tolerance for the city’s gay population.

But the longer-term battle over the issue appears far from over.

The chairman of the Capital City Alliance, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organization, Kevin Serrin, said his group is trying to lay the groundwork for a local ordinance that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“Now that the resolution has been pulled, we’re really going to lobby for an actual law, not a resolution,” Serrin said.

He said Baton Rouge needs such an ordinance to be able to compete economically with other cities — including many in the South.

Serrin said the group hopes to build support over the next two years for a law that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, public employment and public accommodations.

He said his group has presented information to the staff of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber about the positive economic impact passing such a law can have on a community and plans to make a presentation next month to BRAC’s board of directors.

Serrin said his group also plans to reach out to ministers and others who opposed the One Baton Rouge resolution to try to persuade them of the merits of passing such a law.

Serrin has been at odds with Joe Traigle, a gay businessman who spearheaded the One Baton Rouge resolution, over strategies.

Traigle worked out compromise language with Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker on a non-binding resolution that recognizes people of different sexual orientation as part of the community.

But Walker and Councilwoman Alison Cascio, who co-sponsored the resolution, withdrew the measure Wednesday amid fierce opposition. They said they didn’t have the votes to pass the resolution so it was pointless to go forward.

Serrin said he believes conservative opponents of the resolution might find an anti-discrimination law more acceptable.

Traigle called the failure of the resolution “a black eye for the city.” He praised Walker and Cascio for trying to get it passed while others sat on the sidelines.

Katrina Rogers, a spokeswoman for Louisiana Stonewall Democrats, said the failure of the One Baton Rouge resolution sends a negative message about Louisiana’s capital city.

Based in New Orleans, Louisiana Stonewall Democrats is a statewide advocacy group on gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender issues, Rogers said.

The group’s president, Cory F. Heitmeier, said in a written statement that opponents were using the Bible to try to justify what he said was their prejudices against gays.

“In an open letter to Mayor-President Kip Holden, a group of church leaders claim to hate prejudice; however, their entire letter is about their collective prejudice against non-heterosexual people,” Heitmeier wrote.

The church leaders published the open letter to Holden and the Metro Council as a full page advertisement in The Advocate on Wednesday. It was signed by more than 50 local ministers.

The Rev. Tommy G. Middleton of Woodlawn Baptist Church said their opposition was based on strongly held moral views — not prejudice against homosexuals.

“We took a stand for morality and faith,” Middleton said. “That was the driving motivation behind it.”

He said the resolution was “foisting upon our community morals and values that a huge majority finds unacceptable and offensive.”

Louisiana Stonewall's Response

Dear Members,

Yesterday, Baton Rouge Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker and Councilwoman Alison Casio pulled the ‘One Baton Rouge’ resolution from the Metro Council’s agenda in the face of adversity. Fighting for what is right has never been an easy task. Often times, there is more opposition than support but that never negates our obligation to doing what is in the people’s best interest.
We find it ironic that the God that says practice love, compassion, forgiveness and patience is the same God that has inspired groups of people to treat others with hatred and scorn. In an open letter to Mayor-President Kip Holden, a group of church leaders claim to hate prejudice; however, their entire letter is about their collective prejudice against non-heterosexual people.
‘…To address personal sexual preference in a special gesture of respectability goes against our conscience,’ the letter says. I ask when did publicly acknowledging that people deserve to be treated with decency and respect become an attack on one’s conscience and if that is what “One Baton Rouge” is doing to them, maybe they need to explore how prejudice works and ask God to fill their hearts with love and kindness.
This group disputes other pastors’ interpretation of John, Chapter 8, where Christ defends the adulteress. They say the story is not about accepting people despite their ‘sins,’ but it is about having redemption from sin. Well, since sin is an on-going theme in this letter and the reason they cannot support ‘One Baton Rouge,’ I am elated that is a burden they are above carrying.
Ultimately, we live in a nation that is supposed to have a distinct separation between church and state. If there are no reasons for not supporting “One Baton Rouge” beyond citing the Bible, our country and fellow Americans have been failed terribly.
We are not asking, nor have we ever asked, for anything beyond the basic rights that every American should be granted. If we cannot advocate having respect for others, how can we possibly move forward…together?

Standing tall in the fight for equality,

Captain Cory F. Heitmeier
President
Louisiana Stonewall Democrats

One Baton Rouge resolution pulled from agenda

• By GREG GARLAND
• Advocate staff writer
• 
  

The sponsors of a proposed One Baton Rouge resolution expressing tolerance of the city’s gay population pulled the resolution from the Metro Council’s agenda Wednesday.

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker and Councilwoman Alison Casio said there was no point in going forward because they lack the votes to pass the resolution.

“It’s not going to pass,” Walker said shortly before the meeting. “We don’t have the votes. Let’s move on.”

The resolution, on the agenda for introduction Wednesday, would have then gone to a council committee and the full council for public hearings.

The One Baton Rouge resolution had prompted heated debate, including an open letter to Mayor-President Kip Holden and the council signed by more than 50 local church pastors opposed to the resolution.

The open letter, published as a full page ad in The Advocate on Wednesday, called homosexuality a sin and said that gays should not be afforded “special recognition.”

The ad continued, “We believe you are being encouraged to press an agenda that has long-range implications. We plead with you to drop this agenda. It will divide good-hearted citizens whose consciences are offended by a resolution that is wholly unnecessary.”

Walker, Cascio and other council members said they have been inundated in recent days with e-mails and phone calls about the One Baton Rouge resolution.

Cascio said she didn’t want to see the hostile tone of some of the opposition play out in public at the council.

She said that type of debate would be more damaging to the city’s image than pulling the item from the agenda.

“For whatever reason, people just get fired up over this issue,” Cascio said.

The resolution was meant to recognize people of different sexual orientations as a welcome part of the community and that there was never any intent to confer special recognition to gays, she said.

Joe Traigle, a gay Baton Rouge businessman who had spearheaded the resolution, said its failure sends a bad signal to the rest of the country about Louisiana’s capital city as a place to do business.

He said many progressive cities go well beyond non-binding tolerance resolutions and have local laws specifically prohibiting discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.

The proposed resolution stated that Baton Rouge “has a strong commitment to diversity and equal opportunity for all of our citizens, including recognition and integration of people of all colors, religions, sexual orientations, nationalities and people of all abilities and all walks of life into every aspect of Baton Rouge community life so that we all will be enriched by one another.”

Walker had voted against a similar resolution on a previous council in 2007.

But he said he agreed to co-sponsor the resolution this time because of a wording change — from acceptance to recognition — that addressed his concerns.

“I would love for us as a community to say to each other, ‘I love you as a brother or a sister and I recognize your existence as a human being,’ ” Walker said.

He said he is going to encourage people on both sides of the issue to come together to come up with a diversity resolution that will be satisfactory to all parties.

“We need this to be able to compete with other cities,” Walker said.

Although he endorsed the One Baton Rouge resolution in 2007, Holden remained on the sidelines of the debate over the issue this year.

The business community, through the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, also took no position on the resolution.

Obama to expand leave rights for gay families

June 22, 2010
Obama to expand leave rights for gay families
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act will soon give some gay workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for the sick or newborn children of their same-sex partners, according to sources who spoke to the New York Times:
The policy will be set forth in a ruling to be issued Wednesday by the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, the officials said.
Under a 1993 law, people who work for a company with 50 or more employees are generally entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or for a spouse, son or daughter with “a serious health condition.”
The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if the worker has not legally adopted the child.
The ruling, in a formal opinion letter, tackles a question not explicitly addressed in the 1993 law. It is one of many actions taken by the Obama administration to respond to the concerns of gay men and lesbians within the constraints of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.
In April, Mr. Obama announced plans to grant hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners, and the Justice Department concluded that the Violence Against Women Act protects same-sex partners.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama plans to welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocates to a White House reception celebrating June as “LGBT Pride Month.”
The policy will be set forth in a ruling to be issued Wednesday by the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, the officials said.
Under a 1993 law, people who work for a company with 50 or more employees are generally entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or for a spouse, son or daughter with “a serious health condition.”
The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if the worker has not legally adopted the child.
The ruling, in a formal opinion letter, tackles a question not explicitly addressed in the 1993 law. It is one of many actions taken by the Obama administration to respond to the concerns of gay men and lesbians within the constraints of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.
In April, Mr. Obama announced plans to grant hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners, and the Justice Department concluded that the Violence Against Women Act protects same-sex partners.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama plans to welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocates to a White House reception celebrating June as “LGBT Pride Month.”

Landmark IRS ruling recognizes same-sex couples

A ruling by the Internal Revenue Service has recognized the legal partnerships of same-sex couples for the first time ever. Gay couples in registered domestic partnerships in California must each report half of their combined incomes on individual tax returns, the IRS said. The ruling may mean significant tax advantages for affected couples, and it may also apply to other states with domestic-partner registration, such as Washington and Nevada.

Wall Street Journal, The | 06/05

Discrimination Is Not A Partisan Issue

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST:

Discrimination is not a partisan issue. As leaders of the National Stonewall Democrats and the Log Cabin Republicans -- the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans in the nation's two major political parties -- we share a commitment to full equality for all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. While we disagree on matters of elections and political leadership, we agree that now is the time for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to become the law of the land for all Americans.

Employers in 29 states can legally discriminate based on the actual or perceived sexual orientation of employees and job applicants, and in 38 states they can do so based on gender identity and expression. As a result, hardworking and qualified LGBT Americans are fired, harassed, and denied promotions and job opportunities.

Congress has the opportunity to finally take action on ENDA, starting with the United States House of Representatives. For LGBT Americans, who have been waiting 40 years since the bill's original introduction, that vote cannot come soon enough.

Americans of both parties are opposed to discrimination in the workforce based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. Recently Tony Fabrizio, one of the nation's most respected Republican pollsters, released a study showing that 77% percent of Republicans support non-discrimination in the workforce. Now is the time for Congress to follow the lead of the people and give every American the freedom to seek and hold meaningful employment without fear of unfair discrimination.

This legislation is about freedom. It is about ensuring that every American can work without the fear of discrimination based upon his or her sexual orientation, a policy that has broad support in the business community. 86% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their workplace non-discrimination policies, and nearly a quarter prohibit discrimination based upon gender identity.

This legislation is about fairness. It is not about creating 'special rights' for a single group of Americans, or forcing increased litigation on businesses. In fact, in a 2000 study of states which have enacted similar laws, the Government Accountability Office found "no indication that these laws have generated a significant amount of litigation."

When it is signed into law, ENDA will protect all Americans from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, just as current law protects those based on race, religion, sex, national orientation and disability. Under ENDA, employees working for both the government and in the private sector would be free from being judged on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity when it comes to decisions about their being hired, fired, promoted or on any matter relating to their compensation.

Employment non-discrimination enjoys strong bipartisan support, is good for American business, and goes a long way to ensure that all hard-working Americans are judged based solely on job performance. Congress must act now to pass ENDA.

This piece was also published at the Daily Caller.