Money For Adoptions

‘Seattle - President Bush signed

expanded adoption legislation early
last month and was hailed by
Families Like Ours, a nonprofit
group focusing on gay and lesbian
adoption and foster care issues.
Executive Director David Wing-
Kovarik commended Bush: “Overall,
this reauthorization will help place
more children in families, regardless
oftheir structure, including those
headed by gay. or lesbian parents.”
Currently, the federal gov-
ernment pays states $4,000 per child
that is adopted. Under the new legis-
lation, states may receive an addition-
al $4,000 for each adoption. This will

encourage more placements and may

result in good news for gay and les-
bian adoptive families.
Only three states — New

York, New Jersey and California —
have made it illegal for public agen-
cies to reject adoptive parents based
on sexual orientation. Currently there
are more than 500,000 children in the
foster care system nationally.

Judge Grants Gay Divorce
Sioux City, lA— In an Iowa District
Court last month, Judge Jeffrey
Neary granted a divorce to two
women who had had a civil union in
Vermont, becoming one of the first
judges outside Vermont to dissolve a
civil union. The Iowa women had
agreed to the settlement and did not
have children, according to a report
in The Boston Globe.

Neary said he wasn’t trying

to expand rights for same-sex cou-
ples. ‘‘I’m not changing state law
here,” he said. ‘‘I’m not recognizing
marriages. l’m recognizing that
Vermont has recognized this
[union].”

Other non-Vermont dissolu-
tions have been less than successful.
A Texas judge‘s grant of a civil union
divorce was reversed. A case filed by
a Connecticut man became moot
when the man died.

Iowa is one of 36 states
that-have adopted the Defense of
Marriage Act, which restricts mar-
rrage to the union of one man and
one woman.

NTAC Sponsors 0
Assessment Survey
Washington, DC —A perennial prob-
lem for the nation’s transgender and
gender-queer community has been
the dearth of reliable statistical data
about trans and gender-variant identi-
fied persons. In an effort to help
change that, a study has been created

to address the community and the
National Transgender Advocacy
Coalition is seeking participants.
This study, conducted by a

graduate student at Claremont
Graduate University, is open to any-
one residing in the United States,
with a particular focus on collecting
demographic and experiential infor-
mation about gender-variant identi-
fied persons. The study is seeking
1500 responses from the transgender
community. Participants must be at
least 18 years old and self-identify as
a part of the gender-variant commu-
nity. The confidential survey can be
accessed online at http://www.trans-
academics.org/ (click on “research
projects”). '

MSU Bans Gender Identity-
Harassment

East Lansing — Michigan State
University became one of the first
public institutions in Michigan to .
prohibit harassment of people based
on the way they express their gender.
Last month, the Board of Trustees
unanimously approved a policy ban-
ning harassment based on gender
identity, a classification that includes
people who are transgender, transsex-
ual or in the process of changing
their gender.

The policy, however, does

not prohibit discrimination based on
gender identity. MSU prohibits dis-

crimination on the basis of race, gen- L

der, disability status and sexual orien-
tation, among other reasons. 0
“We don’t have any laws

that protect us, and we need to have
it in the words,” said Melissa Sue
Robinson, founder and president of
the National Association for the
Advancement of Transgender People.
“lt’s not enough to just not harass
us,” she said.

Naval Academy Alumni
Denies Gays ‘
Santa Barbara, CA — The Board of

‘ Trustees of the US Naval Academy

Alumni Association unanimously
rejected a proposal last month to cre-
ate a chapter for its LGBT graduates.
As reported by the University of
California’s Center'for the Study of
Sexual Minorities in the Military,
USNA Out had filed a petition for
official recognition on Veteran’s Day.
_ According to the Naval
Academy Alumni Association’s state-
ment, the boardvdenied the request
because “the Alumni Association has
never before chartered a special-
interest chapter and does not want ‘I0
begin that practice.” Rather, the state-

ment says, the Association will sanc-
tion chapters on the basis of geogra-
phy- -

Jeff Petrie, president of
USNA Out, noted, however, that the

‘Association has extended official

recognition to at least one alumni
chapter that is based on common
interests, not geography: an official
“Recreational Vehicle” chapter is not
based on members’ geographic loca-
tion. According to Petrie, “It is diffi-
cult for many of us gay graduates to
participate in the regular chapter
meetings, because we are not wel-
come. We still take great pride in '
having graduated from the Naval
Academy.”

Black Coalition Supports
Gay Marriage

Washington DC —An ad hoc group of
African-American gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender leaders has
come together as the National Black
Justice Coalition. Early last month,

_ the group launched a national cam-,

paign opposing the Federal Marriage
Amendment, a proposal _that-awould
permanently deny same-sex couples
the rights, benefits, responsibilities
and protections of civil marriage.

NBJC leaders announced a
major fundraising drive to generate
black support for marriage equality.
The goal of the $100,000 campaign is
to_advertise in the black media, and
to develop a website to counter right-
wing misinformation about blacks
and same-sex marriage. “The right-
wing fired the first shots in this bat-
tle, but today. we fire back,” said
Coalition member Donna Payne. She.
added, “Permanently denying the
rights, protections and responsibili-
ties of marriage to same-sex couples .
in this country does nothing to
strengthen our families.”

The coalition announced
the support of Coretta Scott King,
Congressman John Lewis,
Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun,
Rev. Al Sharpton, Whoopi Goldberg,
and several other key African
Americans who are in favor of same-
sex marriage.

Homecoming Queens?

Big Piney, WY — When Amanda
Blair and her female date arrived at
their rural high school homecoming
dance last September, they were met
by police ofiicers and escorted off the
premises without explanation.

Blair is heterosexual but

chose to attend the dance with a
female friend as her date in order to
support lesbian and gay students.

in response to the ACLU,
the School District made assurances
that students can bring same-sex
dates. The ACLU cited a 1980 feder-
al case which established that stu-
dents who want to bring same-sex
dates to school dances are not only
protected under the free expression
provisions of the First Amendment,
but that schools must take steps to
ensure their safety. In the 23 years
since the case was decided, students
throughout the U.S. have brought
same-sex dates to school dances
without incident.

Gay Is Not a Dirty Word
Lafayette, LA — Seven-year-old
Marcus McLaurin was disciplined at
school for telling a classmate that he
had two mothers and explaining that
gay meant “when a girl likes a girl.”
The ACLU has intervened.

As reported in The New
York Times early last month,
McLaurin was lined up for recess
when a second-grade classmate asked
him about his parents. Marcus
responded that he had two mothers,
not a mother and father. When the
other child asked why, Marcus

' responded it was because his mother

was gay. When the other child asked
what that meant, Marcus explained,
“Gay is when a girl likes another
girl.” Marcus’s teacher scolded him,
told him that “gay” is a bad word,
and sent him to the principal’s office.
He was referred to the school’s
behavior clinic where he was ordered
to write the sentence “I will never
say the word ‘gay’ in school again”
over and over. '

The ACLU contacted the
Ernest Gallet Elementary School in
Youngsville, La., demanding that it
remove all mention of the incident
from Marcus’s record, refrain from
restricting his speech in the future,
and apologize to the child and his
mother. The School Board has voted
to refuse any apology.

A book drive protest has
been organized by the Family Pride
Coalition. Family Pride is asking
community members to purchase
children’s books that include and cel-
ebrate LGB"l3-headed families, and
donate them to their children’s
school, or to the district in which
they live, in support of the Marcus
McLaurin family. Details ofthe drive
are at www.familypride.org.

No Name-Calling Week
New York — The Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network in con-
junction with Simon & Schuster and

 

the rest of our world

almost forty other partners, late this
fall announced a new initiative called
“No Name-Calling Week.” During
the week of March 1-5, 2004, schools
serving grades five through eight
across the nation will be asked to
take part in educational activities
aimed at stopping name-calling and
verbal bullying of all kinds. Former
NFL player and activist Esera Tuaolo
is the official spokesperson.
The project was inspired by
James l-lowe’s novel The Misfits, in
which four outcast students run for
student council and come together to
end name-calling in their school.
Partners in this project include
Amnesty International, Big
Brothers/Big Sisters ol'America, Girl
Scouts of the USA, and Planned
Parenthood Federation ofAmerica.

Polygamist Claims
I-_a_mence Rights
Salt Lake City —A Utah man with
five wives argued early last month
that his bigamy convictions should be
thrown out following last summer’s
Supreme Court decision deerimir\a\-
izing gay sex. The decision struck
down the Texas sodomy law, ruling
that what gay men and women do in
the privacy of their homes is no busi-
ness of government. its no different
for polygamists, argued Tom Green’s
attorney to the Utah Supreme Court
and reported in the Associated Press.

“It doesn’t bother anyone,
(and with) no compelling state inter-
est in what you do in your own home
with consenting adults, you should be
allowed to do so,” Green’s attorney
said. ‘
The state said the court
should reject the appeal because
Green failed to raise the issue during
his trial two years ago or at any time
since then. V