The White House was the scene of a gay rights protest, Tuesday. (courtesy of scrapetv.com)

Protesters outside the White House handcuffed themselves to the fence Tuesday.

In demonstration, the people were rallying for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Among them was Lt. Dan Choi, an openly gay service member who was discharged after publicly defying “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last year.

Police arrested at least six of the protesters. In an unusual move, according to Fox News, the police also pushed reporters away from the scene.

This protest occurred one day after gay rights activists confronted President Obama at a fundraiser for California Senator Barbara Boxer. The activists urged the president to fulfill his plan to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

He responded, according to Democracy Now, with the following:

“What the young man was talking about was we need to—we need to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ which I agree with and which we have begun to do. But let me say this: You know, when you’ve got an ally like Barbara Boxer and you’ve got an ally like me, who are standing for the same thing, then you don’t know exactly why you’ve got to holler, because we already hear you. All right?”

To read more on this story, visit Democracy Now.

Openly gay Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin says the proposal is a step in the right direction. (Photo by Keen News Service)

President Obama’s new health care proposal released today eliminates the LGBTQ and HIV treatment provisions of the original House bill, according to the Keen News Service.

The original proposal included an elimination of a same-sex couple tax on health insurance plans covering a spouse and the expedited Medicare issuance during the early stages of illness for HIV and low income people, Keen News Service reported. Currently, same-sex couples whose plans cover a spouse must count the coverage as additional income to the IRS, something straight couples aren’t required to do.

LGBTQ and HIV advocacy groups, according to the report, are still optimistic and consider the President’s proposal as “an important step forward,” Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), openly gay Congresswoman, said.

First found on Towleroad, the original Keen News Service report can be found here.

Obama promotes "change" during his presidential campaign in 2008. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

So the title might be a bit out there, but has anyone really taken the time to look at all of those empty promises we’ve gotten from Barack? The Obama campaign was based around one word, “change,” something the LGBT community hasn’t seen much of.

“I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law,” Obama said while campaigning in 2008. “That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and the passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination.”

Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – A federal law passed on September 21, 1996, defining marriage (according to the federal government) as between a man and woman. Additionally, the law states that no state (or political subdivision) should treat any same-sex relationship as marriage. DOMA currently remains in effect.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) – Introduced in December of 1993, this federal law restricts openly gay individuals from serving for the United States Armed Forces. According to the law, restrictions are placed against individuals who “demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts.” The major concern of allowing homosexuals into the armed forces is simple; ”it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” DADT is also currently in effect.

Let’s review, shall we? DOMA is still in effect, Don’t Ask Don’t tell still exists and LGBT people continue to wait on the equal rights promised in Obamas campaign.

Though little has changed in the last year, some critics believe President Obama may soon become more active in fighting for LGBT rights. Obama recently defended the gays and lesbians at  the Fellowship Foundation’s National Prayer Breakfast earlier this week. .

“We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are,” Obama said.

Could this mean a change in the way equality is addressed in the United States? Maybe. I think it’s time our president stood by his word and fulfilled his promises to the gay community. Every American is entitled to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ It’s about time the LGBT community experienced that happiness.

— Christopher Clevenger, associate managing editor

President Obama signs the federal hate crimes law October 28, 2009, at the White House, hailing it as a change to “help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray.” (Photograph by Olivier Douliery, MCT)

By Jinae West

Almost a year after President Barack Obama was elected into office, he signed into law a bill that would extend federal hate crimes to include sexual orientation. Among those who attended the October signing were Dennis and Judy Shepard, the parents of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered in 1998 in Wyoming.

The bill comes at a time when people may reflect on what has transpired in the past year — how far the country has come and how very far it has yet to go.

Kim Welter, director of programs and outreach at Equality Ohio, says the federal law does not override the state’s hate crimes law, which does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Welter says it is a step in the right direction but has little effect on everyday Ohioans. In principle, it is limited.

Still, Jason Marsden, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, says the newly extended hate crimes law is a way to push more legislation through Congress.

“We’re not looking back too much at this achievement, though it was very meaningful and provides protections to people,” Marsden says. “We feel we can put that momentum to use.”

He adds: “It was a big relief to (Dennis and Judy). They didn’t have to hold back their hopes anymore and were actually able to do this.”

Going forward, he says Judy Shepard’s biggest focus is to change individual behavior, to get more people to embrace who they are and to encourage others to do the same. That’s where the most social change — employment non-discrimination laws, repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, marriage equality — is going to come, Marsden says.

In June 2007, Mildred Loving, a black woman whose interracial marriage sparked the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia in 1967, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court ruling’s 40th anniversary: “I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all.

“That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

After the passage of Proposition 8 in California in November 2008, which outlawed same-sex marriage in the state, many felt it was a setback for the gay rights movement. Photos taken in the following days and weeks showed people visibly upset, with arms over shoulders and heads down. At rallies held across the country, thousands carried signs and flags in protest. And more recently, Maine repealed its law that sanctified same-sex marriage, and the New York legislature voted it down as well.

So where is the love?

“I think we often forget the gay rights movement is still a very young movement,” says Michael Fleming, executive director of the David Bohnett Foundation in Beverly Hills, Calif., and lecturer of LGBT studies at UCLA. “And we live in an age where people become celebrities overnight, or rich, and the struggle for civil rights and the social justice movement is one that requires progress but not always immediate progress.”

In other words, it’s unrealistic to think change will happen in the same amount of time it takes for an unknown to emerge as the next YouTube sensation. A generation that’s used to immediacy and the concept of “now” needs to learn patience to savor the “later.”

But progress is being made. In October 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal, stating, too, that civil union statutes specifically violated the equal protection clause of the state constitution.

In the last year alone, Iowa, Vermont and, most recently, New Hampshire, approved legislation to allow same-sex marriage, bringing the grand total to five states out of 50 that permit gay couples to wed. That’s equivalent to one-tenth or 10 percent, a failing grade by any means, but a number nonetheless.

Evan Wolfson, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Freedom to Marry, says the fight for marriage equality is actually moving at a faster pace than many of the civil rights movements of the past “because it is so aligned with the lessons and the inheritance of those blowing chapters.”

“Anyone who studies history knows that no movement for justice in America — not the struggle for African Americans, Asians, Latinos, women, Jews — has ever happened overnight,” Wolfson says, “but the lesson for Americans is that it can happen when enough good people speak up and stick with it.”

Wolfson would know something about that. Before establishing Freedom to Marry, he worked at Lambda Legal for 12 years and became the organization’s first attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale in 2000, Wolfson asked the court to reject an appeal from the BSA that would ban gay members and leaders. After the 5-4 vote in favor of the BSA, Wolfson continued to advocate for equal rights and help shape national response.

In addition, he wrote “Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People’s Right to Marry” and was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2004.

Wolfson says people and ideas are malleable to change, citing a recent trip to the nation’s capital to introduce the Respect for Marriage Act. If passed, it would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as an exclusive legal union between one man and one woman. He says among those who spoke in support of the bill were former Rep. Bob Barr, who wrote DOMA, and former President Bill Clinton, whose signature enacted it in 1996.

“Both of them have changed their minds and thought it through, and ending discrimination is the right thing to do. People can change,” Wolfson says. “It’s just, you have to push, persuade and engage them.”

Wolfson and Fleming said Obama could be doing more to help further the movement. In June, the Obama administration supported DOMA when a same-sex couple married under California law challenged the act in federal court, though the administration stating it was duty-bound to defend the law until ruled unconstitutional. Obama ran his campaign in 2008 emphasizing change, including a promise to protect gay rights. But with hot-button issues, such as the economy, healthcare and the war in Iraq at the forefront of the national discourse, many feel same-sex marriage has taken a backseat for the administration.

“It’s obviously an issue that I think they’d prefer not be on the table right now,” Fleming says. “I think they feel they have much larger issues to deal with.”

Fleming also believes the administration is more likely to focus on actions it can meet in the short term to benefit the LGBT community, like a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, than to enact marriage equality in the United States, at least for now. Signing the hate crimes bill in October was perhaps one of those short-term goals.

As for state legislation, specifically in California, Fleming says there is an ongoing, constructive conversation about when to return to the ballot to overturn Proposition 8.

“Because everyone agrees the question is: When?” he says. “And what needs to be in place when you go back (to the polls). You need to know: Have the numbers moved? Have the voters shifted? Has there been a change that we can see since? Can all the LGBT groups and allies and friends be on the same page working in the same direction? How much will it cost? And those are all really good, healthy questions people can ask.”

In Ohio, the conversation is a little different. Welter says the organization’s first priority is to eliminate discriminatory state laws and keep people safe in their workplaces.

“In the process of all of that, we continue to educate the populace of Ohio of why relationship recognition is needed, and that’s hopefully trying to bring up the numbers,” she says.

In November 2004, voters amended Ohio’s constitution by defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Because of that setback, Welter says there are two ways to repeal it: The Supreme Court of Ohio could rule the amendment unconstitutional, which she says is unlikely because of the court’s conservativeness, or the issue could be taken back to the voters.

But to introduce such legislation, Welter says: “You go into it if you want to win it,” meaning it’s necessary to have at least 65 percent or greater in the public polls to put an issue on the ballot.

“We don’t have that yet in Ohio, so when you’re talking about steps (that need to be taken), we need more Ohioans to support this,” she says. “The last polling was about 51 or 52 percent supporting civil unions, so we’re nowhere near the numbers.”

But Fleming says he still takes heart. Equal rights for all will come, he says. It’s just a matter of time.

“I get up every morning thinking it’s our job to move the ball forward,” he says, “and I don’t know if it will come in two years or 20 years. I just know that if we get up every morning knowing it’s our job to achieve marriage equality, we will. In all 50 states. And in my lifetime, we will.”

Jinae West is a senior magazine journalism major.

(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2009-10 print edition.)

President Joe Derkin, center, of College Republicans talk about about issues relevant to Ohians and the LGBT community.

A lot changed in 2009, especially for the LGBTQ community. The first black president was sworn in this year, promising to be a fierce advocate for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals. Four states legalized gay marriage, however one, Maine, later rejected it through a voter ballot, Measure 1. New legislation was introduced in Uganda that if passed could in some cases put to death anyone found guilty of homosexuality. 2009 marked a beginning for bi-partisan support on gay issues as republican leaders like Dick Cheney, Ted Olson and younger generation republicans announce their support for marriage equality.

Ohio also saw changes in 2009.  After a several year long battle, voters finally legalized casino gambling in the state. Ohio’s largest industry, agri-business, has turned in a new direction. The powers of regaluting and standardizing farming livestock has shifted from the state legislature to a new, more private, 13 member board. The state house also passed this year the Ohio Equal Employment and Housing Act, which now waits for a vote from the republican controlled state senate.

Fusion Magazine reporter Simon Husted sat down with three different panels to talk about these issues.

Heidee Miller, Max Harrington, Jason Troyer and Darren Stevenson of PRIDE! Kent, Kent State’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, talks about the status of gay marriage in the nation and Ohio, the resistance in the state senate against the Ohio Equal Employment and Housing Act, and the merits behind President Obama’s title of “Fierce Advocate.”

Bryan Staul, Chadd Smith, Kate Fridley and Mark Miller of Kent State’s College Democrats talks about the slow repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Uganda’s new anti-gay bill and how the United States should respond, and Ohio’s newly passed amendment this November that now legalizes casino gambling.

Greg Allison, Joe Derkin and Steven Scerbovsky of Kent State’s College Republicans talks about the Republican party’s status concerning gay rights and social issues, Ohio republican lawmakers reluctance to vote on equal housing and employment opportunities for LGBT and Issue 2′s passage, which plans to reform the enforcement of livestock regulations.

- Simon Husted

President Obama Senior Domestic Policy Aide, Melody Barnes, is questioned about her views on same-sex marriage. Photo courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

The questioner and Paul Sousa, co-founder of LGBT rights organization Equal Rep described Barne’s response to her personal position as supporting marriage equality and appreciating the frustration the LGBT community feels. She also said she is working toward furthering other action items such as DOMA, DADT and ENDA.

However, two other students at the college speech reported Barnes providing a less confident answer by expressing her concern for same-sex marriage but also said she not only advises the president but also works for him. A White House official also said Barnes was not delivering her personal views on marriage equality or other issues.

“As she clearly stated at the event, her personal views on issues are irrelevant to her work of advancing the administration’s agenda,” the official told huffingtonpost.com “In response to the questioner, she did provide an overview of what the president is doing to help advance equal rights for LBGT Americans.”

If the observer viewpoints are accurate, Barnes will be the highest-ranking White House official to signal support for same-sex marriage.

Read the full article here.http://bit.ly/7BgEQ

-Kim Brown

President Obama lifted the HIV travel and immigration ban in the U.S., a 22-year law. Photo courtesy of babble.com

 President Obama announced Oct. 30 his administration would publish this new rule on the discriminatory ban, ending the 22-year ban.

 Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lamda Legal, told LamdaLegal.org it is past time the government ends the stigma and discrimination for people living with HIV in the U.S.

 ”We applaud the Obama Administration for its leadership in ending this kind of government-sponsored discrimination against people living with HIV,” he said. “The 22-year ban was discriminatory, violated basic human rights, and could not be justified on public health grounds. U.S. policy will finally reflect the broad consensus among the scientific, medical and public health communities that admission of individuals living with HIV into the U.S. as visitors or immigrants does not present a threat to the public health of this country nor pose any danger to its citizens.”

 Cathcart also said he is hopeful the government will eliminate other discriminatory laws and policies soon.

 Last year, Congress repealed the statutory language barring people with HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then proposed rules this summer after a period of public comment approving the new rules that eliminate the ban.

 Read the full article here.

 -Kim Brown

President Obama names Assistant Minneapolis Police Chief Sharon Lubinski to be the first openly gay person to serve as a U.S. Marshal. Photo courtesy of Advocate.com

Lubinski has worked for the department for 20 years, according to the Associated Press.

Her appointment to the U.S. Marshals is not the first from Obama. He also appointed or nominated openly gay people for the director of U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.

Read the article here.

— Kim Brown

President Obama addressing the Human Rights Campaign picture from http://thedailyvoice.com

Obama talked about the history or the gay civil rights movement and said his main goal is to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and sign a brand new bill hate crimes bill.

“This struggle has been long. Time and again we faced opposition. Time and again, the measure was defeated or delayed. But the Shepards never gave up. They turned tragedy into an unshakeable commitment. Countless activists and organizers never gave up. You held vigils; you spoke out, year after year, Congress after Congress. The House passed the bill again this week. And I can announce that after more than a decade, this bill is set to pass and I will sign it into law.”

To read the full article go here.

To see the video of his speech go here.

-Katelynd Jarvis

Gay rights supporters marched in Washington, D.C. Sunday to pressure President Obama's lack of LGBT campaign promises. Photo courtesy of New York Times.

About 150,000 supporters were present for the demonstration, according to organizers. The demonstration was in response to disappointment with Obama and very little action with his LGBT campaign promises. Many feel Obama’s greater concern continues to revolve around his domestic agenda, including health care and the economic recovery, according to a New York Times article.

President Obama spoke at a black-tie gala Saturday hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, motivating his supporters with his commitment to repeal the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” military policy and promise to support gay rights. Some criticize he did not cover anything new and did not acknowledge a tentative plan for repealing the legislation that prohibits LGBT people to openly serve in the military , the National Equality March happening that weekend or many of the states pushing for same-sex marriage rights.

“In our community, there are people working hard to build a relationship with the president and people screaming in the streets for their rights,” Robin McGehee, co-director of the march, told the New York Times. “There is an urgency with the people on the streets and a sense of ‘Oh, he’ll come around’ with the people who ate dinner with him.”

The demonstration Sunday was led by the Stonewall 2.0/Prop. 8 Generation with many of them displeased with President Obama’s lack of response.

“I think this march represents the passing of the torch,” Corey Johnson, an activist and blogger for the gay-themed Web site Towleroad.com, told the New York Times. “The points of power are no longer in the halls of Washington or large metropolitan areas. It’s decentralized now. You have young activists and gay people from all walks of life converging on Washington not because a national organization told them to, but because they feel the time is now.”

Read the full article here

—Kim Brown