U.S. House moves to extend health benefits to gay couples

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a health care reform bill Saturday that recognizes gay unions and makes health care more affordable for gay families.

Titled The Affordable Health Care for America Act, it extends Medicaid to subsidize moderate-income people who otherwise could not afford quality health insurance. Also tucked inside the bill is U.S. Representative Jim McDermott's (D-Washington) Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act of 2009 introduced in May.

The bill alters the tax status of health benefits granted to the spouses of gay employees (for states that have gay marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships). Under the bill, such benefits would no longer be considered taxable income for employees.

A report released in 2007 by M. V. Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute, found that gay employees with partners pay, on average, $1,069 per year more in taxes than would a married employee with the same coverage.

"Collectively, unmarried couples lose $178 million per year to additional taxes," the report says. “U.S. employers also pay a total of $57 million per year in additional payroll taxes because of this unequal tax treatment."

Fifty-nine percent of Fortune 500 companies offer partner benefits, up from 40% in 2003, a 2009 Human Rights Campaign report says.

The legislation now moves to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain.

Kentucky's Mitch McConnell (R) a senior Senator and the U.S. Senate Minority Leader will like vote against it, or worse still, attempt to stop the bill in the U.S. Senate.

Gay community morns the death of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy

The gay community has lost a valuable ally in the United States Senate, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy. U.S. Senator Kennedy represented the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but was a very powerful and influential figure as the Chairman of key U.S. Senate Committees; he therefore represented the entire LGBTI community.

Though facing medical problems of his own, when I emailed Kentucky Equality Federation President Jordan Palmer about the death of U.S. Senator Kennedy, he had the following to say:

"Senator Kennedy in the early years of his career was 'a man before his time' with his progressive thinking,' he had strength of character, unwavering perseverance, and his death is a loss not only for equality, but our entire nation."

For nearly 50 years, Kennedy served alongside 10 U.S. Presidents, his brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy ("JKF") among them. Kennedy was best known for his impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, and immigration. Though he disagreed with church leaders on the issues of abortion and gay rights, Kennedy was a devout Catholic who clung to his religion's belief in the potential for human redemption.

U.S. Senator Kennedy responded to Kentucky Equality Federation's disapproval and condemnation (story) of the University of Kentucky's Dr. James Holsinger (story) being nominated for U.S. Surgeon General (mainly a ceremonial post, but acts as the face of public for anti-gay U.S. Surgeon General.

U.S. Senator Kennedy Chaired the U.S. Senate Committee that refused to confirm him.

Kennedy fought for HIV/AIDS funding, was one of the few Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, he helped the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act pass the Senate in 2009, and he also introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

“The promise of America will never be fulfilled as long as justice is denied to even one among us," Sen. Kennedy said when speaking about ENDA. "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act brings us closer to fulfilling that promise for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.”

Kennedy had recently urged Massachusetts lawmakers to change current laws so the governor, if necessary, could quickly fill a U.S. Senate vacancy as the chamber debates the contentious healthcare issue.

Serving the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate has been — and still is — the greatest honor of my public life. As I look ahead, I am convinced that enabling the Governor to fill a Senate vacancy through an interim appointment followed by a special election would best serve the people of our Commonwealth and country should a vacancy occur.

U.S. Senator Kennedy died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.


© Michael J. Thomas, Kentucky Equality Federation and Marriage Equality Kentucky Blogger

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) and the U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) oppose Michael Jackson resolution; Peter King (R-NY) says he was a pervert

One of Kentucky's Representative to the United States House of Representatives, John Yarmuth (D) walked out of the U.S. House chamber when the Congressional Black Caucus called for a moment of silence for Michael Jackson, saying he was "nauseated" by the reaction to Jackson's death.

New York's Peter T. King (R) a military veteran and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993 went as far as to call Michael Jackson a "pervert."

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D) announced during Michael Jackson's memorial service on Tuesday that she would introduce the resolution in the house. In her speech she pointed out that Jackson was acquitted on criminal charges of having sexually molested a child in 2005.

As you can see, the proposed resolution caused unease in the United States House, concerned about Michael's mixed legacy; despite his musical and dance brilliance, the singer remained mired in lawsuits of various hues during the last 15 years of his life.

Finally, the final word has perhaps been given by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who opposes such a resolution (U.S. House Resolution 600).

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has opposed proposed House Resolution 600 honoring Michael Jackson as a global humanitarian, saying a discussion on it would allow contrary views, not desirable at this time, to be expressed.

Pelosi said she doesn't "think it's necessary for us to have a resolution."

"What I have said to my colleagues over the years, and certainly as leader and as speaker, is that there's an opportunity on the floor of the House to express their sympathy or their praise any time that they wish," she said.

"A resolution, I think, would open up to contrary views to -- that are not necessary at this time to be expressed in association with a resolution whose purpose is quite different," she said.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts sues U.S. Government over DOMA; federal law violates states' rights

Only a few months after the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders complained about DOMA, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (the first to legalize gay marriage) sued the United States government today over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, argues the act "constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law."

Specifically, the lawsuit challenges the section of the law that creates a federal definition of marriage as limited to a union between one man and one woman.

Before the law was passed, Coakley said, the federal government recognized that defining marital status was the "exclusive prerogative of the states." Now, because of the U.S. law's definition of marriage, same-sex couples are denied access to benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including federal income tax credits, employment benefits, retirement benefits, health insurance coverage and Social Security payments.

"In enacting DOMA, Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states' efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people." - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley

The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted when it appeared Hawaii would soon legalize same-sex marriages and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize them. It defines marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" and defines "spouse" as "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."

U. S. Department of State to Offer Equal Benefits to Gay Diplomats

The U.S. State Department is preparing to provide equal benefits for gay and lesbian American diplomats, according to a leaked noticed to employees being prepared by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, The New York Times reported.

“Historically, domestic partners of Foreign Service members have not been provided the same training, benefits, allowances and protections that other family members receive,” the notice says. “These inequities are unfair and must end.”

Read the previous story about this: Pets more important than gays; even if you're a U.S. Ambassador.

Powerful anti-gay groups goes on high alert

Liberty Counsel, one of the most powerful anti-gay (anti-equality) groups in the nation slips in this email sent today to its members, admitting, for the first time that LGBTI people are entitled to FULL AND INCLUSIVE RIGHTS (see below):



Did you catch that? Isn't it great to see an anti-equality group at 'red alert' rather than equality groups?

Liberty Counsel goes as far as to call the Office of U.S. President and the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives an 'axis of power.' I'm sure they had to restrain themselves to keep from using the former U.S. President's phrase 'axis of evil.'

From their email and their need to gather 50,000 signatures as quickly as possible, in addition to asking for donations, I'd say Liberty Counsel isn't just at 'red alert,' but close to declaring 'battle stations' as all of the suppressive policies they have enjoyed for the past 8 years begin to unravel.

As allies instead of opponents, the U.S. President and the U.S. Speaker of the House can be a huge powerhouse; left us not forget the U.S. Vice President is the ex-officio (you get one office automatically by being elected to another) President of the U.S. Senate. An axis of power indeed Mr. Staver.

Here it is again:

1. Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act...
2. Granting full rights (including adoption) to not only lesbians and homosexuals but bisexuals and transsexuals...
3. Giving special workplace protection based on sexual orientation and even the wide-open category of "gender identity" that will stifle Christian businesses, religious organizations... and possibly even your church! (not true; the U.S. and state constitutions protect religious organizations......in addition, they didn't forget to twist the president's words on this point as they did in # 2)
4. Making the military an open forum for homosexuals... (this is not what the president said; they twisted his words to suit their needs)
   

Instead of making a donation to a suppressive, and anti-LGBTI group, make one to a statewide organization such as Kentucky Equality Federation; with the federal government on the right track, it is even more critical that we continue to push for pull protection and equality here in the Commonwealth.

Desktop Activism

By: Davina Kotulski, Ph.D. - Author of Why You Should Give A Damn About Gay Marriage (http://www.whygaymarriage.com) and Advisory Board Member for Marriage Equality USA (http://www.marriageequality.org)

Presidential Candidate Dick Gephardt said that “Politics is an alternative to violence” and Gandhi said “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” I say let’s get fired up and make sure that LGBT equal rights are at the top of everyone’s radar screen. Not all of us can make every rally, donate $1000, or go to an organizing meeting, but everyone can do desktop activism.

Here’s what you need to begin:

Action #1
Needed: Telephone

Call the White House Comments Line at 202-456-1111 between 9AM and 5PM EST Monday-Friday. (I’ve programmed it into my cell phone). Tell President Obama that you want him to:

a) Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
b) Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act
c) Help pass the Uniting American Families Act
d) Help pass the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
e) Pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill
f) Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Remind him that he supported marriage equality before he ran for president and that his religious beliefs are not a sufficient reason to deny LGBT Americans marriage equality. Call the White House Comments Line frequently. Share this number with others and encourage them to call frequently. Like I said, I have this programmed into my cell phone. LGBT rights need to stay on everyone’s minds. If you are a straight ally identify yourself. If you are religious identify yourself.

For example, “Hello, I am a married heterosexual man from Colorado. I belong to the United Church of Christ and I am calling to ask President Obama to elevate LGBT Americans by…” See above list.

Action #2
Needed: Paper, Pen, and Stamp.

Send a letter every week to President Obama and ask five people to do the same. With your letter you can send him a picture of you, your family, your wedding photo, your wedding announcement, your marriage license, etc. If you are in a same-sex marriage-ask him why your marriage license is not recognized throughout the country and to help you make it so. If you are in a heterosexual marriage ask him why your license comes with more rights that your LGBT friend’s, family member’s, or neighbor’s marriage license. Get creative. The president may never see your letter or photo, but the White House Staff will and it will create buzz and maybe help change their hearts and minds. Remember a lot of the White House Aids and Staffers may be big time politicians someday and they can tell our stories for us and advocate for LGBT rights if we give them the tools.

Below is a sample letter. Feel free to copy, amend, share, etc. Let’s take this to a new level. Yes we can!

January 21, 2009

Barack Obama, President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

Congratulations on your victory! Your candidacy and election to President of the United States is an incredible breakthrough and gives us hope for a more inclusive and just America. With your leadership, we can finally begin to end sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. We call on you to pass the following legislation to extend equality to LGBTI American citizens!

1. Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Let LGBT people serve openly in our military. Polls confirm that most Americans think this policy is outdated and wastes money. A GAO report released in February 2005 found that the DADT policy cost the government “$95.4 million in recruiting costs and $95.1 million for training replacements for the 9,488 troops discharged from 1994 through 2003.” We could use that money right now to put America back on track.

2. Pass the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
Pass a trans-inclusive ENDA protecting the rights of LGBT Americans in the workplace. No one should be fired from their job because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.

3. Repeal the “Defense of Marriage” Act (DOMA)
Repeal DOMA which denies LGBTI Americans seeking to marry someone of the same-sex 1,138 federal rights that heterosexual married people have access to including: health insurance benefits, social security, filing joint federal income taxes, and having their marriage recognized outside of the state they were married in. Repealing DOMA would also save the federal government one billion dollars annually according to a 2004 GAO report.

4. Pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), (HR 2221, S 1328)
This bill would allow LGBTI Americans to sponser their partners for immigration and citizenship as heterosexual couples can through their marriage.

5. Pass the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (DPBO)
Under the DPBO LGBT federal employees would be able to give their unrecognized same-sex spouses/partners health insurance, life insurance, government pensions, and other employment related benefits that married heterosexual federal employees enjoy by being married and heterosexual. It’s time to eliminate this second-class status in the workplace.

6. Pass the Matthew Shepard Act Federal Hate Crimes Bill (H.R. 1592)
This bill would provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes.

Now is the time for equality for all Americans. Thank you for your leadership,

______________________________ Signature
______________________________ Printed Name
_______________________________ City, State, Zip

McCain, the next U.S. President?

The McCain camp has a new TV add for the Democratic National Convention:

“I'm a proud Hillary Clinton Democrat,” says Debra Bartoshevich, a Racine-area nurse, as she looks into the camera. “She had the experience and judgment to be President. Now, in a first for me, I'm supporting a Republican, John McCain.”

Additionally, McCain’s campaign said that Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who has become among the GOP’s most visible women surrogates, will be in town to meet privately with some Democrats who backed Clinton in the primary and not yet fully committed to Obama.

Large numbers of Clinton backers — 30 percent in a recent ABC/Washington Post poll — are still not backing Obama over McCain.

"Obama not making Clinton his running mate will likely make McCain the next U.S. President," is what I continue to hear in the LGBT community.

Obama only got the number of delegates he needed very, very late in the season and the Senator Clinton had an impressive campaign. By campaign's end, Clinton had won 1,640 pledged delegates to Obama's 1,763, a mere 3.6 percentage point difference.

The Obama campaign is doing their best to paper over the deep divisions in their party among the many Hillary Clinton supporters who do not want Barack Obama to be president.

“There are a significant number [of Democrats] that want Hillary Clinton,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan told reporters today during an open house of the temporary war room the GOP has opened up to counter-program the Democrats this week. “Typically when parties are split, the other one wins.”

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released last week made plain why Republicans are trying to play up divisions. According to the survey, 21 percent of Clinton supporters are supporting McCain and that another 27 percent are still holding out.

Pets more important than gays; even if you're a U.S. Ambassador.

What a great man….a person who stood up to injustice for himself, his partner, and our entire community. How sad. The U.S. Department of State cares more about an Ambassador's pets than the person he or she loves; Dogs and Cats are higher on the "food chain" than humans.

By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer

Michael E. Guest, a tall, soft-spoken man with salt-and-pepper hair, looks every bit the diplomat. At the young age of 43, at the start of the Bush administration, he was named ambassador to Romania, and since he returned in 2004 he has trained new ambassadors before they ship out overseas.

But last month, after 26 years in the Foreign Service, he did something uncharacteristically undiplomatic.

Ambassador Guest resigned from the State Department, giving up a career he loved, in order to protest rules and regulations that he believes are unfair to the same-sex partners of Foreign Service officers, giving them fewer benefits than family pets. He had spent the years since his return from Bucharest trying to win changes in policies, appealing directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but said his proposals were met with indifference and inertia.

"I've felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner, who is my family, and service to my country," Guest told a crowd of 75 senior State Department officials, a few steps from Rice's office, at his retirement ceremony on Nov. 20, according to a transcript of his remarks. "That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the secretary's leadership, and a shame for this institution and our country."

Same-sex partners -- or unmarried heterosexual partners -- are refused anti-terrorism security training or foreign-language training and are not evacuated when eligible family members are ordered to depart. Unlike spouses, they do not receive diplomatic passports, visas or even use of the State Department mail system. They also must pay their own way overseas, get their own medical care and are left to fend for themselves if a partner is sent to a dangerous post such as Iraq.

Many of these rules, Guest said, could be changed with Rice's signature, which he said was not a matter of gay rights but of equal treatment.

There are 12,000 Foreign Service officers, and about 5 percent are gay.

J. Michelle Schohn, an officer in the intelligence bureau, said she gave up a budding career in archaeology and joined the Foreign Service simply because of the hassles she encountered when her partner was based in Azerbaijan, shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. One of her partner's colleagues got married and his spouse immediately got a diplomatic passport, but Schohn was treated no differently than any American tourist. Because of the difficulties, she ended up flying to Azerbaijan a month at a time to stay with her partner, and received no housing allowance for staying home.

At one point, during violent protests, "had there been an evacuation, we would have had to pay to evacuate me," she said.

Once Schohn joined the Foreign Service, she said, the department "has been very good to us," posting the two together in Jerusalem and now back in Washington, though same-sex couples technically cannot bid for jobs in tandem.

Another Foreign Service officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of her counterterrorism work, said she had to pay for her partner's evacuation when she was based in an African country that erupted in conflict. Her partner was not allowed to attend embassy security briefings and was prohibited from using the diplomatic postage service. "Effectively, she doesn't exist," she said.

The travel costs of family pets, however, are paid for by the State Department.

When Guest was ambassador, he signed a waiver allowing his partner and other unmarried partners to pay to use the embassy medical facilities. When Guest returned to Washington to head the management and leadership school at State's Foreign Service Institute, he began a campaign to get the rules altered. He won an annual award in 2006 from AFSA for "constructive dissent," but saw little or no response from top officials. Finally, he wrote Rice directly in December, knowing that soon he would be posted again overseas.

"This was my last chance. I never got a response," Guest said yesterday. "I don't know that I expected a response. What I wanted was attention to the issue." He said that in the State Department culture, "one word from the secretary" would have spurred action.

"That's what I was hoping, that I would somehow get to her heart," he said.

Anti-gay groups working overtime to stop the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Anti-gay organizations are really worried about the possibility of not being able to fire someone because of their sexual orientation.

This is the 4th message I have received from different organizations asking me to help stop it. I subscribe to all friendly and opposing organizations because it is critical that we monitor their actions.

This particular organization (below) wants to stop this legislation in the name of Christianity no less. I'm so tired of organizations using Christianity to justify their hatred.

Across Kentucky I've talked to police officers, firefighters, Wal-Mart employees, government employees, etc. over the past couple of years who have been terminated because they are homosexual or bisexual. It's time to stop this!

In less than one month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the main speaker at the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) annual gala dinner.

I think she wants to bring a gift to the homosexual community.

My sources tell me Pelosi and the House leadership are working to bring to a vote and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), perhaps in time for this gala dinner.

Jordan, ENDA is the Trojan horse that will usher in radical homosexual rights and the criminalization of Christianity. In many ways, ENDA is even more dangerous than the hate crimes legislation currently being pushed because ENDA will put Christian business owners at great risk.

Last week, a House subcommittee held a hearing on ENDA. More hearings are expected as Pelosi’s team pushes toward a vote, most likely in the next 30 days.

I am deeply concerned that Christian business owners are in jepordy. If the Pelosi Congress has its way with ENDA, Christian businesses will quite possibly face the most severe restrictions and worst flood of crippling lawsuits in our nation’s history.

If ENDA passes, there will be no turning back. That's why I want to flood Congress with at least 25,000 faxes and I need your help.

+ + Help stop the Trojan horse

Again, ENDA is clearly a Trojan horse that the homosexual lobby is trying to use to advance its radical agenda and move our nation toward the criminalization of Christianity.

We cannot let this happen!

Please send your faxes today, and thank you for being the blessing you are to this great Nation.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

Visit www.kefaction.org to help pass this legislation.

Personal Privacy: U.S. Patriot Act under fire again

Your right to privacy just got a little safer.

The federal government has been under increased scrutiny from gay rights activists after it was revealed that the Pentagon had been spying on gay groups. The Pentagon also confirmed the previous existence of a "gay bomb."

A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act today, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers."

The ACLU said it was improper to issue so-called national security letters, or NSLs — investigative tools used by the FBI to compel businesses to turn over customer information — without a judge's order or grand jury subpoena. Examples of such businesses include Internet service providers, telephone companies and public libraries.

In 2004, ruling on the initial version of the Patriot Act, the judge said the letters violate the Constitution because they amounted to unreasonable search and seizure. He found that the nondisclosure requirement — under which an Internet service provider, for instance, would not be allowed to tell customers that it was turning over their records to the government — violated free speech.

After he ruled, Congress revised the Patriot Act in 2005, and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directed that Marrero review the law's constitutionality a second time.

The ACLU complained that Congress' revision of the law didn't go far enough to protect people because the government could still order companies to turn over their records and remain silent about it, if the FBI determined that the case involved national security.

FBI to spy on gay groups instead of the Pentagon

This news story states the Pentagon (headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) is closing an anti-terror database that was found to be spying on gay and anti-war groups, but in reality it is simply being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the United Stated Department of Justice. (Click here to read about the Sunshine Project....another brilliant example of how the Pentagon spends our tax dollars)

I guess the United States Government continues to believe gay rights groups are a threat to national security. But this doesn't add up.....the Bush Administration has identified Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc. as the breeding ground for terrorists (all Muslim countries). What does this have to do with gay groups? Muslim countries executive and/or stone homosexuals to death.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that was found to be spying on gay and anti-war groups.

A Pentagon spokesperson said that the database will be closed on September 17 but that much of the information it contained will be sent to the FBI where it will be placed on a database known as Guardian.

The Threat and Local Observation Notices surveillance program, known as TALON, was launched in 2003 track and monitor domestic terror threats.

But it came under intense scrutiny after news reports revealed officials were collecting data on demonstrators and protestors, including those within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Pentagon spokesperson Army Col. Gary Keck denied that pressure from the groups had anything to do with the decision to move the material. Keck said the Pentagon database is being shut down because "the analytical value had declined."