Marc Ott: City of Austin Upholds Domestic Partner Benefits

by: Edward Garris

Tue Apr 30, 2013 at 04:40 PM CDT

The fallout from yesterday's opinion on domestic partner benefits by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott continues.  Equality Texas this morning issued a press release arguing that the opinion letter had, in fact, given a domestic partners and their public employers a way forward - a roadmap for how to achieve their aims while complying with the laws of the state of Texas.  

This afternoon, Marc Ott, City Manager for the City of Austin, responded with a resounding "whatever."  In an open memorandum, Ott stated:

"While we will continue the evaluate the Attorney General's opinion, it continues to be our belief that the City's domestic partner group benefits program is not prohibited by the Texas Marriage Amendment, and that the Texas Legislature did not intend the Amendment to have that effect when it was placed before the voters in 2005."

"The Attorney General's opinion does not require the City to take any specific, action, and we do not intend to change domestic partner eligibility for our benefits program at this time."

Notably, the City of Austin and its domestic partner eligibility program had been one of the specifically enumerated programs in State Sen. Dan Patrick's request for an opinion to the Attorney General.  The full text of Marc Ott's response can be read here.

Way Forward: Equality Texas Sees Beyond Texas AG Greg Abbott's Opinions

by: Edward Garris

Tue Apr 30, 2013 at 02:30 PM CDT

In the wake of yesterday's watershed opinion on domestic partnerships by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Equality Texas has taken an intensely practical, glass half-full approach. Equality Texas Executive Director Chuck Smith today released an analysis of what the Attorney General's nonbinding opinion letter means, and what persons in domestic partnerships and their public employers can do.  That analysis is below.

Texas Sodomy Law Repeal Bill Passes 5-0 Out of Senate Committee

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 17, 2013 at 09:45 PM CDT

SB 538 would repeal §21.06 of the Penal Code, the Homosexual Conduct Law, which was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision. The bill would also amend the Health and Safety Code to delete the statement that "homosexual conduct is not an acceptable lifestyle and is a criminal offense under §21.06, Penal Code."

SB 538 is the first legislation ever filed in the Texas Senate to repeal the unenforceable §21.06 of the Penal Code. Identical legislation has been filed in the Texas House this session (HB 1701 by Farrar & HB 3232 by Coleman) and in every session since the Lawrence v. Texas decision. Today's action is the first time the repeal legislation has ever been advanced by a Texas legislative committee subsequent to Lawrence v. Texas.

This and other LGBT legislation are being tracked as part of the 2013 Equality Texas Legislative Agenda.

How We Defeated the Zedler Amendment

by: Chuck Smith

Wed Apr 10, 2013 at 02:53 PM CDT

At Equality Texas, we’re celebrating the defeat of the Zedler amendment. 

We spent the last year educating the public about the threat of an amendment like this and networking with student leaders at campuses around the state. Even before Zedler filed the amendment, we were ready to fight it.

As soon as the amendment was filed, messages immediately went out to the student leaders list we had developed and to HIV/AIDS organizations. Five prominent HIV/AIDS organizations wrote letters opposing the Zedler amendment which we copied and hand-delivered to every House office. We developed messaging and resources for the student leaders who then distributed it to their contacts, all in an effort to have the people who use the resources of the LGBT resource centers contact lawmakers with stories of how the centers help them make healthier decisions.

One group of student senators with the University of Houston Student Government Association worked to unanimously pass a resolution opposing the Zedler amendment. Equality Texas provided them with resources, answered their questions, and purchased bus tickets for them to travel to Austin. We helped pull members of the Harris County delegation, Republicans and Democrats, off the House floor so the students could hand-deliver their petition.

All of this public pressure led to Zedler withdrawing the amendment.

We can’t do anything without the work of grassroots activists; it was the pressure from the grassroots that ultimately killed the Zedler Amendment.
The grassroots were able to be activated quickly because Equality Texas has a professional expert staff who know how to (i) read and analyze legislation, and (ii) prepare and execute a plan to get the grassroots activists going and keep them on message.

Donations from supporters like you made this possible. But, there is so much more we could do! We are Building a State of Equality in Texas and every volunteer who calls or writes or gets engaged is an important building block.

Zedler’s amendment is just one of the many amendments and bills that we are tracking to help build a state of equality. For more information on the legislation we are tracking and where it currently stands in the legislature, please click here.

Guest Post: Mother of Gay Son Reaches Out to Senator Patrick Staffer After Rude Treatment

by: Katherine Haenschen

Tue Mar 19, 2013 at 10:28 AM CDT

Mother of Gay Son reaches out to Capitol Staffer After Rude Treatment
By Daniel Williams

Equality Texas held our Lobby Day last Monday, March 11. Equality Texas seeks to build a state of equality in Texas where all people are treated equally regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. We had almost 500 people at lobby day from 103 House Districts and all 31 Senate Districts.

Burnt Orange Report was kind enough to ask us for a report of the day. As I sat down to write this e-mail popped up on my screen. It's from a mother from Spring. She participated in Lobby Day with a group of parents and grandparents of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender kids. Some members of the group had been treated rudely by a staffer for Sen. Dan Patrick. The staffer told the group that "homosexuals" were seeking "special rights," compared homosexuality to "bestiality" and said that she would be disgusted if her child or grandchild was gay. The group of constituents she spoke with, all straight, was so upset that one of the mothers wound up in tears.

After reading the response from this mother I couldn't think of a better explanation of why we do
what we do at Equality Texas.

Read her letter below the jump.

Republican Drew Springer Wants To Give Rights To Shopping Bags, Take Them Away From LGBT Texans

by: Katherine Haenschen

Mon Mar 18, 2013 at 01:30 PM CDT

Republican State Rep. Drew Springer

Y'all, someone who puts the rights of shopping bags over the rights of human beings has a real serious problem.

Freshman Representative Drew Springer was elected last November to HD-68 to represent a sprawling North Texas district. Yet his most high-profile legislation seems fixated on telling Travis County communities what they can and can't do.

First, Springer introduced a bill that would deny state health care funding to independent school districts that allow employees to add domestic partners to their health insurance. Springer's bill is aimed squarely at Pflugerville ISD, which became the first school district in Texas to offer insurance benefits to same-sex and heterosexual domestic partners.

Fear not, homophobes hiding behind a veneer of "fiscal conservativism" -- the premium for these non-dependents' insurance policy is paid for by the employee or non-dependent, not the school.  

This kind of open bigotry against LGBT Texans is nothing new from the Republican Party, and it's a cheap way for Springer to score points with the lowest common denominator of his primary electorate.

Now, of course, Springer has sprung to the rescue of the much-oppressed single use plastic bags with his "Shopping Bag Freedom Act," designed to restore the rights of flimsy petroleum-based sacks that were recently banned here in Austin. How can Texans truly be free if each individual canned good purchased from an HEB is not double-wrapped in a single-use bag? (Oh, it turns out you can put all of your groceries in sturdy, reusable bags that hurt your hands a lot less than overburdened plastic ones. Cool.)

I doubt Springer has done much polling on the plastic bags' feelings on the matter, but when it comes to the Pflugerville ISD policy, recent Equality Texas polling showed that 65.7% of Texas voters support extending domestic partner benefits to government and university employees.  

Friday Equality Roundup

by: Nick Hudson

Fri Jul 13, 2012 at 00:00 PM CDT

Google announced a worlwide campaign to promote safer working conditions for its LGBT employees called "Legalise Love" last week. Google's campaign kicked off in Singapore, and Google has plans to eventually expand the initiative to every country where it has an office. Google has a new webpage dedicate to the campaign. The Homophobic American Family Association is considering a boycott of Google in response.

The Episcopal Church backed churchwide blessings of Gay Couples at their General Convention on Tuesday. Under the new policy, each Episcopal bishop will decide whether to allow the ceremonies in his or her local diocese.

Noting that the Episcopal Church's approval of marriage equality signifies changing social attitudes about gays in the United States, the Baltimore Sun Newspaper endorsed gay marriage yesterday. From the Maryland paper's editorial:

"...it's important for Maryland to be a welcoming place for families of all kinds. The only reason the state is involved in marriage at all is that strong marriages make strong families, and strong families make strong communities. That's true whether the couples involved are gay or straight."

A new study suggests a strong connection between family rejection and abuse and homelessness for LGBT youth. 68% of LGBT homeless youth surveyed reported having experienced family rejection, and 54% reported having experienced family abuse.

ABC News reports that a New Jersey couple is threatening to sue the antigay group Public Advocate of the United States over its use of the couple's engagement photo (below left) in a homophobic political advertisement (below right). The antigay group stole the couple's engagement photo from a personal blog.

A Phillipene immigrant filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and seeking the legal right to stay in the United States baed on her same-sex marriage to an American Citizen.

The Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP), an organization of black clergy members, protested the NAACP's support of marriage equality at the NAACP's annual convention in Houston.  

Equality Roundup from Texas and the Nation

by: Nick Hudson

Sat Jul 07, 2012 at 07:03 PM CDT

The U.S. Presbyterian Church nearly approved marriage equality on Friday. A proposal by marriage equality proponents to redefine marriage in the Church's constitution as between "two people," rather than between a woman and a man, was defeated by a vote of 338-308 at the Church's General Assembly in Pittsburgh.

As Joe Deshotel reported on Wednesday, the Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to examine the Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in its next term. The Federal Government will ask the Supreme Court to apply a heightened standard of scrutiny to the Defense of Marriage Act and rule it unconstitutional.

The former president of Exodus International, a network of ministries that holds gays can be "cured" through reparative therapy and Christian prayer, last week declared ex-gay therapies ineffective and potentially harmful. He also said he believed that gays can be saved by Christ and go to heaven.

As Edward Garris reported yesterday, Police released a sketch of the suspected shooter of Mollie Olgin and Mary Kristene Chapa (see below). The two women, who were romantically involved, were found shot in the head on June 23 in Portland, Texas.

A New York state appeals court dismissed an anti-equality lawsuit filed by a conservative group last week, refusing to nullify marriages between gay couples in the state. That suit challenged the process by which New York's same-sex marriage law was passed.

Anderson Cooper came out publicly last week on Andrew Sullivan's blog at the Daily Beast. Cooper's email to Sullivan is worth reading in its entirety, but here's an excerpt:

"...I've begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It's become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.

I've also been reminded recently that while as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.

The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

The Latest Equality News from Texas & the Nation

by: Nick Hudson

Fri Jun 15, 2012 at 00:00 PM CDT

Texas Democrats added marriage equality to their platform during the convention in Houston last weekend.

President Obama will host a reception at the White House today in observance of Gay Pride Month

Equality Texas is hitting back hard against University of Texas associate sociology professor Mark Regenerus's methodologically-flawed research which purports to demonstrate that children of straight, married parents do better on a range of social, emotional and relationship outcomes than children of same-sex parents. Unsurprisingly, homophobic groups like the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, and Texas Eagle Forum are trumpeting the junk science as proof of the dangers of gay parenting.

Less than one year after the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Pentagon announced today that it will mark June as Gay Pride month and hold its first event honoring gay and lesbian troops. A Navy Spokesman said about Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, "Now that we've repealed 'don't ask, don't tell,' he feels it's important to find a way this month to recognize the service and professionalism of gay and lesbian troops."

Boy Scouts of America is being petitioned to end its longstanding ban on gay scouts by Scouts for Equality, and Ernst and Young CEO James Turley, a prominent national Boy Scouts board member, issued a statement this week demonstrating support for ending the Boy Scouts discriminatory policy

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association recently released their State Sponsored Homophobia Report. The report is a world survey of laws prohibiting same sex activity between consenting adults. Check out their world map below, and click here to view maps of other areas of the world.

The Latest Equality News from Texas & the Nation

by: Nick Hudson

Thu May 31, 2012 at 01:02 PM CDT

El Paso County Democrats elected Latina lesbian Mary Gonzalez (pictured right) to represent Texas House District 75 on Tuesday night. Since there is no Republican opponent in November's general election, Mary Gonzalez's victory in Tuesday's primary ensures that Mary is the State Representative-Elect from District 75. The Texas Equity PAC gave Mary its first-ever endorsement in a primary election race, and it actively supported Mary Gonzalez's candidacy. Congratulations to Mary and to Texas Equity PAC!

A 3-judge federal appeals court this morning unanimously ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The court said the denial of federal benefits to married gay couples was not " adequately supported by any permissible federal interest."

California is poised to become the first state to limit 'Ex-Gay' Therapy. The California Senate passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit children younger than 18 from undergoing the repudiated therapies that purport to change a child's sexual orientation.

More than two dozen gay and lesbian couples in Illinois filed lawsuits Wednesday challenging the state law that denies them the right to marry. Currently, gay and lesbian couples in Illinois are only able to enter into the downgraded version of marriage, civil unions.

Gay marriage opponents in the State of Washington say they have the signatures to qualify a proposed referendum, R-74, seeking to deny gay couples the right to marry. Washington's governor signed Marriage Equality into law in February, and a poll released yesterday shows it has strong public support. By a margin of 54-33, Washington voters support the new law.