Calif. Assembly modifies law seeking to cure gays
(Sacramento) California lawmakers have voted to modify a decades-old law that classifies gays as sexual deviants and calls for research on the causes of homosexuality.
Supporters say a change was long overdue in the law, which was written in 1950 in reaction to a series of sex crimes, including the molestation and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Los Angeles.
The law classifies gays as sexual deviants and requires the state to conduct research to find the causes of sex crimes against children. It also singles out gays as a group that should be studied, and calls for research into a cure for homosexuality.
The bill, approved 62-0 Monday by the state Assembly, changes that law by removing all references to homosexuals in the provision that calls for research.
The measure now goes to the state Senate.
Gay Calif. Assembly leader sworn in, breaks barrier
(Sacramento) The first openly gay lawmaker to lead either house of the California Legislature has been sworn in as speaker of the state Assembly.
John Perez, a Los Angeles Democrat, took the reins of the 80-member house on Monday, as the state tries to close a $20 billion budget deficit and …
Calif. Assembly leader sworn in, breaks barrier
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The first openly gay lawmaker to lead either house of the California Legislature has been sworn in as speaker of the state Assembly.
John Perez, a Los Angeles Democrat, took the reins of the 80-member house on Monday, as the state tries to close a $20 billion …
Gay Pride festival takes hopeful stance
NYACK – David Blau, a Nyack resident who has been with his partner for 28 years, said it’s a matter of time before New York joins a group of six states that allow same-sex marriage. But, aside from that, he added, “I would like to see a change, but … my partner is my partner and no one can change that. That’s how I feel.”
Blau and many others at Gay Pride Rockland’s 11th annual festival, held yesterday in the Riverspace Arts theater parking lot, voiced their hope that same-sex marriage would become a reality in the state, but added that they weren’t holding their breath.
“We’re definitely more hopeful, but I still don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Laurie Blase of Garnerville. “I think it’s still going to be a while.”
In May, the state Assembly passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage – the second time in two years the Assembly approved such a bill. See Gay Pride festival takes hopeful stance
Lower Hudson Journal news
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Whose Holocaust? Plan to Recognize Gay Victims at Memorial Sparks Row
A plan to memorialize gay male victims of Nazism amid a collection of memorial stones for Holocaust victims in a quiet half-acre patch of Brooklyn has provoked an outcry.
New York State Assembly Member Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat whose many Orthodox constituents include numerous Holocaust survivors, has decried the planned addition as a distortion of the Holocaust’s meaning with regard to Jews.
“It’s easy to say, let’s include everybody, let’s be universal, diversity is great,” he said. But he added, “It just isn’t fair. It diminishes and really dilutes what the Holocaust is.”
Hikind and the Holocaust Memorial Committee, steward of the tiny Holocaust Memorial Park in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, are calling for the park’s memorial stones to be restricted to Jewish victims of Hitler. But the plan, approved by the city’s parks department, to commemorate non-Jewish victims of the Nazi regime there is proceeding thus far.
On June 9, representatives of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors, which proposed the addition, could be found combing the bayside memorial to measure unmarked stone pillars and determine if memorial text could be carved on them, association co-chair Rick Landman said.
The altercation raises a question that Jews have faced with increasing frequency: Whose Holocaust is it, anyway? Roma Gypsies, the disabled and gay men were among those also especially targeted by the Nazis. According to historians, though, only Jews and Roma were targeted for annihilation. Altogether, the Nazis are estimated to have murdered some 11 million from their coming to power in 1933 until their downfall in 1945.
Flanked by Emmons Avenue and Shore Boulevard, at the easternmost end of Sheepshead Bay, the memorial, built in 1997, consists of a tall eternal flame sculpture — engraved with a short statement on the Holocaust and the nations affected by the genocide — surrounded by two adjacent gardens of stone markers, each of which features either a paragraph or two of history or a list of victims’ names.
For $360 per engraved line, donors to the non-profit Holocaust Memorial Committee can pay to have a victim’s name printed on one of the stone markers. The registration form for this service, found on the committee’s Web site, asks donors to provide the victim’s name and a brief history of his or her Holocaust experience. The committee then meets to verify the authenticity of the proposed inscription, committee treasurer and past president Alfred Gollomp said.
Gollomp complained that in signing on to the IALGCHS proposal, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the city’s parks department were ignoring a memorandum that gives the Brooklyn-based group control over the park markers.
See Whose Holocaust? Plan to Recognize Gay Victims at Memorial Sparks Row
Forward
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Vanasco: Uproar in NY Senate – gay marriage gone?
The New York Times is reporting that the Democrats have suddenly – and unexpectedly – lost control of the NYS Senate after two Democrats defected.
This comes after gay marriage advocates were fairly confidently predicting that New York State would have gay marriage by Pride. The State Assembly has already voted …
LGBT Prisoner Safety Act Passes Assembly with Bipartisan Support
Bill Sponsored by EQCA and Introduced by Assemblymember Ammiano Now Moves to Senate
Sacramento – The California State Assembly passed the LGBT Prisoner Safety Act, AB 382, today by an overwhelming margin of 64-9. The bill garnered significant bipartisan support. Sponsored by Equality California (EQCA) and introduced by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D – San Francisco), the bill is designed to prevent violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the state prison system. The bill received more Republican votes than any other piece of legislation sponsored by EQCA.
“The California Assembly sent a powerful message today that all Californians deserve protection from violence,” said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors. “This vital bill seeks to end abuse and assault against LGBT prisoners, ensuring they receive equal and fair protection under the law.”
According to a recent study from the Cali¬fornia Department of Corrections and Re¬habilitation, 67 percent of LGBT inmates report being sexually assaulted by another inmate, a rate 15 times higher than the overall prison population.
By amending the Sexual Abuse in Detention Elimination Act (SADEA) of 2005 to include sexual orientation and gender identity on the list of factors for consideration when classifying and housing prisoners, the legislation promotes safety for and prevents assault against LGBT people in the prison system. The list of factors currently includes age, gender, type of offense, and prior time served.
“All people deserve basic protections – including those serving time in our state prisons,” Assemblymember Ammiano said upon introducing the bill. “No prisoner should fear for his or her life or be the target of abuse because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The bill developed following a Senate Public Safety Committee meeting held in San Francisco this past December and chaired by Senator and former Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles). The meeting, which was sponsored by EQCA along with Just Detention International, the Transgender Law Center, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Transgender Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, exposed the dire issues facing LGBT people in California prisons in order to produce concrete solutions. The LGBT Prisoner Safety Act is an important step toward ensuring the safety of this highly vulnerable population. Last month, the bill passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee unanimously by a 7-0 vote.
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Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in California. In the past decade, EQCA has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil-rights protections in the nation. EQCA has passed over 50 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org
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LI: Battleground for gay marriage
he state Assembly approved a gay marriage bill by a fairly comfortable 89-52 margin, but the odds of passage remain much longer in the state Senate.
Fivethirtyeight.com, a national political Web site that uncannily picked primary and the presidential election result last year, breaks down the chances of gay marriage making it through New York. Their take? It won’t be easy unless Long Island’s state Senators overwhelmingly vote in favor of it.
According to fivethirtyeight.com, 20 state Senators are in favor, 16 are against and 26 have said nothing.
On the other hand, while no Republican has publicly come out in favor of the bill, we have 9 Republicans who we characterize as undecided (although several are thought to be leaning no). A majority of these Republicans are from Long Island, a swing region in New York state politics.
From the site:
On the other hand, while no Republican has publicly come out in favor of the bill, we have 9 Republicans who we characterize as undecided (although several are thought to be leaning no). A majority of these Republicans are from Long Island, a swing region in New York state politics.
For a complete breakdown on who is for it and against it, click here.
See LI: Battleground for gay marriage
Long Island Business News – Ronkonkoma,NY,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Same-Sex Unions Supplant Abortion As Social Priority for Conservatives In Fight Over High Court Pick
As President Obama prepares to name his first Supreme Court justice, conservatives in Washington are making clear that his nominee will face plenty of questions during the confirmation process on the legal underpinnings of same-sex marriage.
In addition to shedding more light on the nation’s most contentious unfolding social drama and legal frontier, Senate Republicans say the debate could provide a road map to an Obama nominee’s judicial philosophy.
“It may reflect the degree to which they think that they’re not bound by the classical meaning of the Constitution, and that they may want to let a personal agenda go beyond what the law said,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Questions on social issues in confirmation hearings have tended for the past 30 years to focus squarely on abortion, with partisans from both sides poring over a nominee’s writings and rulings and presidents typically denying that any “litmus test” was employed in the selection.
Same-sex marriage carries the same freighted potential to dominate a hearing, conservatives say.
“It is now the flash point where politics and law meet. That flash point used to be abortion. I don’t think anybody thinks that’s going to be the flash point in this nomination,” said William A. Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and conservative blogger.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), another GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, said conservatives are particularly eager to avoid a Supreme Court ruling akin to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide and has divided the country ever since. “I don’t think members of the court, or any of us, ever want to see a decision like that again,” Hatch said. Obama assured the senator in a recent meeting that he will not pick a “radical” to replace Souter, but Hatch added: “Presidents always say that. That’s why we have the hearing process.”
Same-sex marriage gained national resonance in the wake of last month’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized the practice in that state. And in the two weeks since Justice David H. Souter announced his retirement, Maine also legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth state to do so; the New Hampshire legislature sent a marriage-equality bill to the governor; the New York State Assembly approved gay-marriage legislation; and the District of Columbia voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Those actions, in so short a time, have outstripped the ability of Democrats in Washington to stake out their public position on the issue. MORE at Washington Post
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Out N.Y. lawmaker makes marriage his priority
Out N.Y. lawmaker makes marriage his priority
This article looks at out New York state Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell’s “intensely personal” lobbying effort win passage of a marriage measure that’s scheduled to be considered today. Passage is considered highly likely in the 150-member Assembly. O’Donnell reportedly has secured the backing of almost 90 colleagues. A similar bill passed the state’s Assembly in 2007. The New York Times (5/11) , Daily News (New York) (5/12) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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