National roundup: Houston mayor may marry soon; drag Santas don't go over well in Alabama
COMPILED BY ANDREW DAVIS
Houston Mayor Annise Parker is reportedly planning to marry longtime partner Kathy Hubbard in mid-January in a low-key ceremony in Palm Springs, Calif., according to CultureMap Houston. Parker had vowed that she and Hubbard would not marry until gay marriage is legal in Texas. Couples who wed in a state that allows gay marriage are treated as a married couple for federal tax purposes; however, Parker and Hubbard would also be eligible for city of Houston health and life insurance benefits, thanks to an announcement Parker made in November regarding married gay and lesbian municipal workers.
Alabama townspeople were not too pleased to see a group of drag Santas dancing in their annual Christmas parade, according to TV Guide. The Prancing Elites, a Black all-male dance team from Mobile, Ala., was invited to perform at the event in Semmes. However, the troupe was received with jeers, as the unprepared paradegoers were "outraged and appalled" by the men's sexy outfits and dance moves; Karen McDuffie, who accepted the applications, claimed she had no idea "they would be dressed the way they were." Since the mix-up, the Prancing Elites have received an outpouring of support.
The defensive line coach for Colorado State University's ( CSU's ) football team was suspended for two weeks for using an anti-gay slur with Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday, according to Advocate.com . ESPN caught the exchange after the quarterback threw a touchdown pass in the first half of the New Mexico Bowl game, which CSU won 48-45. Lupfer later apologized, and will have to undergo anger management and diversity training.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona certified, as a class action, Lambda Legal's lawsuit on behalf of lesbian and gay Arizona state employees fighting a move by the state legislature to eliminate healthcare coverage for their families, according to SDGLN.com . Lambda Legal represents five lesbian and gay state employeesincluding from the State Department of Game and Fish and state universitieswho are challenging the legislative move. The equal health coverage plan had been put in place in 2008 under former Gov. Janet Napolitano; Arizona lawmakers eliminated health coverage for domestic partners of state employees while retaining access to spousal benefits for heterosexual workers in a budget deal Gov. Jan Brewer signed in 2009.
The Missouri History Museum is on the verge of the St. Louis region's first mainstream collection of gay artifacts, according to an Associated Press item. Museum curator Sharon Smith is spearheading the effort. Kirkwood resident Steven Brawley's collection will be a major component of the display; Brawley has been collecting items such as drag queen dresses, leather vests, handwritten protest signs and Pride Parade T-shirts for six decades.
The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) has sued a central Florida school district for saying a seventh grader can't form an on-campus gay-straight alliance, according to Reuters. The complaint actually marks the second time this year the ACLU has sued Carver Middle School in Leesburg. The ACLU sued the school district for the first time in May on behalf of then-eighth grader Bayli Silberstein, 14, who fought for a year to establish a gay-straight alliance at the middle school. This time, a 12-year-old was elected vice president of the club for the 2013-2014 school year; however, the school district superintendent rejected her application for the club to operate in the new school year.
In San Diego, three men screamed anti-gay slurs before hopping out of a car and beating a gay man with a bat, according to Advocate.com . Dwayne Wynn suffered a broken eye socket, fractured fingers, and three cracked ribs that required 18 stitches in his side. The attack occured in a residential section of Hillcrest, the city's gay neighborhood.
Iowa State University ( ISU ) assistant professor Dong-Pyou Han resigned after being accused of spiking rabbit blood to falsely show that an AIDS vaccine was working in the research animals, according to USA Today. Han resigned in October after admitting responsibility for the results, which reportedly helped an ISU research team gain $19 million in federal money.
Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit Dec. 26 against Houston Mayor Annise Parker ( herself a lesbian ) and the City of Houston seeking to preserve spousal benefits, including health insurance, covering the same-sex spouses of city employees, according to a media release. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on behalf three city employees legally married to same-sex spouses and follows notification these employees received recently that the cityone month after extending the employee coverage for their spouseswas being forced to withdraw these benefits and cancel the coverage.
Civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson has said that Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson recently publicized statements "are more offensive than the bus driver in Montgomery, Ala., more than 59 years ago," according to Deadline.com . Jackson continued, "At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law." In a GQ article, Robertson equaled gay relationships to bestiality, and praised what he said was the lack of racism in pre-civil-rights South.
In Maine, prospective Republican U.S. Senate candidate Erick Bennett has already found himself at the center of controversy after calling sitting U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud ( D-Maine ) a "homo" during a pro-gun Facebook tirade, according to Think Progress. Bennett actually said of Michaud that he's a "closet homo in DC who voted to discriminate against same sex couples." Bennett later defended himself by saying the term "is short for HOMOsexual. It is a REAL word that in context means a person who engages in sexual activities with the SAME sex." Michaud, who is running for governor of Maine, recently came out in an op-ed, saying that he is gay, "But why should it matter?"
Democrats used their lower threshold for defeating filibusters to win Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's nomination of former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh C. Johnson to be secretary of homeland security, according to CBS News. On a 57-37 vote, Democrats broke a GOP blockade against Johnson before the Senate minutes later confirmed him on a 78-16 vote. Johnsona 1979 graduate of Morehouse College and a 1982 graduate of Columbia Law Schoolwas co-chair of the Pentagon working group in 2010 that drafted the Department of Defense report connected to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
The Boy Scouts of America accepted openly gay youths starting on New Year's Day, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The historic change has prompted the Scouts to ponder a host of potential complications, from policies on tentmates to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades. However, gay Scouts may face some limitations; one document reads, "No member may use Scouting to promote or advance any social or political position or agenda, including on the matter of sexual orientation."
Hector Vargashead of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality ( previously known as the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association )released a statement acknowledging the 40th anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association voting to declassify "homosexuality" as a mental disorder. While noting "the incredibly brave men and women who worked so hard to remove 'homosexuality' from the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual]," Vargas also stated, "[W]e must look ahead and recommit ourselves to ensuring all within our LGBT community can be free from the stigmatizing weight of being considered as having a mental illness or disorder."
In Indiana, four Fort Wayne businesses are part of an "Employers for Freedom" group statewide campaign Freedom Indiana has started to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages and civil unions in Indiana, according to the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly. Freedom Indiana announced the formation of the group, which includes six other businesses from Indianapolis and Bloomington, on Dec. 20. House Joint Resolution 6, the proposed constitutional amendment, is expected to go before the General Assembly during its next session.
Signs of protest greeted drivers outside Sen. Marco Rubio's ( R-Fla. ) office in West Miami as members of a local religious community rallied in support of a gay Black judge whose nomination to the federal bench has been blocked, The Huffington Post reported. Rubio originally recommended Judge William Thomas for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; however, Rubio's office said in September he intends to block the nomination altogether over concerns about Thomas' "temperament."
In Oregon, the Eugene School District has paid $5,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of failing to stop students at a middle school from bullying and harassing a boy they perceived as gay, according to Insurance Journal. The suit said the Cal Young Middle School student was subjected to slurs daily in the sixth through eighth grade. He was reportedly diagnosed with depression, panic disorder and social phobia, and he moved to a private school where tuition was $10,000 a year. In the settlement agreement, the district denied wrongdoing and said it settled only to avoid legal costs.
The University of Minnesota is preparing to offer gender-neutral housing at its Twin Cities campus, according to LGBTQ Nation. Starting in the fall of 2015, up to several dozen students will be able to live in campus apartments with any roommate, regardless of sex or gender. Transgender students had been pushing for the change.
Lambda Legal filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to rule quickly for three same-sex couples seeking the freedom to marry, according to a press release. The state attorney general's office has asked a judge to throw out the suit, The Charleston Gazette noted. The state claims state law doesn't cause them any immediate harm and the couples aren't married, so the fact West Virginia doesn't recognize same-sex marriages from other states doesn't affect them.