Twice, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the application of the San Francisco Women's Motorcycle Contingent, a.k.a. Dykes on Bikes, on the grounds that 'dyke' is vulgar, offensive and 'scandalous,' according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) issued a scathing release regarding Hawaii's governor, Linda Lingle, who vetoed a bill that would have added protections based on gender identity and expression to the state's employment discrimination law. 'No one should be fired simply for who they are,' noted HRC President Joe Solmonese. 'Employment protections increase business productivity and ensure that employees are evaluated on their work, not their gender identity.' However, The Advocate reported that Lingle did sign a new law stopping Hawaii's landlords from discriminating against GLBT individuals.
In addition, the HRC commented on a revelation by The New York Times that White House officials have sought out advice on a Supreme Court nominee from arch-conservative Rev. Jerry Falwell. Joe Solmonese, the HRC president, commented that ' [ a ] nti-gay extremists are trying to gain a stranglehold on government.' According to the release, news of Falwell's consultation came a day after Jay Sekulow, leader of Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, urged the President to nominate a hard-line conservative.
HRC called on Washington, D.C., minister Willie Wilson to explain comments he made during a sermon. According to the Washington Blade, Wilson said, 'Lesbianism is about to take over our community. ... I ain't homophobic because everybody here got something wrong with him.' Rev. Wilson's sermon also included explicit anti-gay comments about relationships between same-sex couples.
In California, the quest to legalize gay marriage was revived by a Senate committee that approved the measure that was slipped into a fisheries research bill after it failed in the state assembly, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-1 in favor of the bill that mirrors one that fell four votes shy last month in the Assembly.
In Iowa, a resolution by the United Church of Christ's general synod supporting same-sex marriage has caused several Black pastors in Burlington to denounce gay unions, the Burlington Hawk Eye reported. Seven pastors and two assistants from city churches met to clarify that their churches do not support same-sex marriage.
The Baltimore Circuit Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments July 27 in a Maryland lawsuit seeking to legalize same-sex marriage, the Washington Blade reported. The suit, Deane and Polyak vs. Conaway, was filed in July 2004 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of nine same-sex couples and a gay man whose partner died.
One of the six Episcopal priests who has opposed the Connecticut bishop's support for the ordination of gay bishops was temporarily removed from his duties as rector of a church in Bristol because he had taken an unauthorized sabbatical, according to The New York Times. The Rev. Mark Hansen, the rector of St. John's Church since 1990, was removed from his post for six months.
The Anti-Defamation League and members of the gay and lesbian community promised an 'avalanche of correspondence' to force Broward County ( Fla. ) public schools into accepting a music video that shows Muppets and other children's characters welcoming people from diverse backgrounds, according to Sun-Sentinel.com .
In New York, a prosecutor dropped all charges against New Paltz mayor Jason West, who could have faced up to a year in jail for marrying gay couples on the steps of the village hall, according to the Associated Press. West, then 26, was among the first public officials in the nation to marry same-sex couples, following San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in February 2004. He had been charged with 24 misdemeanor counts of violating the state's domestic relations law.
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., verbally slammed fellow senator Rick Santorum, R-Penn., demanding an apology for the Pennsylvania Republican's online comments connecting Boston's ''liberalism' to the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the Boston Globe reported. ''Senator Santorum has shown a deep and callous insensitivity to the victims and their suffering, in an apparent attempt to score political points with some of the most extreme members of the fringe right wing of his party,' Kennedy stated.
