Lambda Legal argued in federal court that the U.S. Department of State illegally prohibits anyone with HIV from being hired as a foreign service officer, regardless of the applicant's qualifications or health status. A press release stated that in Lambda Legal's federal lawsuit to remove the ban, leading health experts have filed papers supporting a proper approach for assessing Foreign Service applicants. Lambda Legal represents Lorenzo Taylor, who was rejected by the State Department because of his HIV status despite the fact that he speaks three languages, holds a Foreign Service degree and passed the requisite entrance exams.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced the creation of a new Department of Public Policy and Government Affairs and the hiring of three noted leaders and advocates to staff the department. A release stated that the new department will lead two new initiatives: procuring the government resources to meet the health and human service needs of the LGBT community and pressing for new, comprehensive legislation to address inequities faced by gay people well beyond workplace discrimination. One of the new leaders is new political director Dave Noble, who recently stepped down as executive director of National Stonewall Democrats.
Scouting for All has issued a press release criticizing a statement from U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas, in which he states that the Boy Scouts of America ( BSA ) 'are a national treasure' and that the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the BSA is 'beyond the pale.' The suit seeks to end more Pentagon support of the BSA. Scouting for All wants people to write letters to their representatives; to do so, visit www.house.gov/writerep.
In New York, the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a Utica couple kicked out of the wellness program at the Charles T. Sitrin Health Care Center, Inc., because they are lesbian. One of the plaintiffs suffers from severe osteoarthritis and other medical conditions and needs to use the facility's pool to avoid losing her leg. According to the ACLU, the group believes this is first time the state's anti-discrimination law has been used to bring a legal challenge against a private business for refusing to serve gay people.
The Human Rights Campaign called upon the Pontiff to promote dignity, according to a press release. Although she sympathized with his recent illness, HRC Vice President Winnie Stachelberg urged the Pope not to 'fail to address continued comments that call into question the innate value and human dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.' Stachelberg went on to express her hope 'that all religious leaders would work to bring people together, not tear them apart.' However, according to a CNN article, Pope John Paul states in his new book that gay marriages are part of 'a new ideology of evil' that is insidiously threatening society.
Kentucky's Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to uphold the conviction of Kevin Ray Hillard for paying a 15-year-old youth to fist him, Gay City News reported. A dissenting judge criticized the court for trampling fundamental due process rights of the defendant in its eagerness to find grounds for upholding his conviction in the Feb. 17 ruling. The defendant, Kevin Ray Hillard, was convicted by an Ohio County Circuit Court jury of one count of 'unlawful transaction with a minor in the first degree,' a felony, for inducing the teenager, to engage in 'illegal sexual activity.'
In Florida, the Clay County School Board agreed to uphold a principal's decision to ban a photo of a lesbian wearing a tuxedo from the Fleming Island High School yearbook, according to Local6.com . Kelli Davis, 18, had her senior class photo taken in a tuxedo top and bow-tie outfit provided for boys rather than the drape and pearls provided for girls. Kelli, a straight-A student, said she was uncomfortable to have her chest exposed in the photo. The yearbook editor, who voiced her support of publishing the photo, was fired. While the board's ruling will keep the photo from appearing with other senior pictures, it will appear in the yearbook. Kelli's parents bought a two-page ad in the back of the book for $700 that will feature the photo.
Ohio's constitutional amendment, which bars same-sex marriage, is being used to prevent a lesbian mom from seeing her eight-year old son, according to 365Gay.com . The argument is the centerpiece of a legal dispute between the boy's birth mother and her former partner. Denise Fairchild, the birth mother, had the boy by artificial insemination when she and Therese Leach were a couple and the two women cared for the child. Fairchild argued that the provisions of the amendment, Issue 1, extend to adoption.
U.S. senator Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said that Republicans have abandoned banning gay marriage this year, the New York Daily News reported. A constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman grew less urgent because 13 states banned gay nuptials in November elections, Frist said during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci kept a campaign promise by submitting a bill to the state legislature that would provide equal legal protection for homosexuals, according to the Portland Press Herald. After the bill is drafted, it will go to public hearing, probably in March. The bill basically adds the definition and term 'sexual orientation' to laws already protecting minorities and others from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation, and credit.
Massachusetts's highest court agreed to hear a challenge to a 1913 law that has been used to prevent out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state, the Associated Press reported. A spokeswoman for the court told the Cape Cod Times that the case is tentatively scheduled to be heard in May.
