Equally Speaking
Equally Speaking
Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007
First up on HRC's daily webcast, HRC’s Coming Out Project announces plans for the upcoming National Coming Out Day. October 11 this year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and the unfurling of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall. National Coming Out Day was first celebrated a year later. HRC announced yesterday that the theme for National Coming Out Day 2007 will be "Talk About It" – continuing the slogan that encourages people to live openly and honestly every day.
Ex-gay watchdogs are warning about a new report set to be released that they say is junk science. A professor at the conservative Wheaton College is expected to release a report claiming that gay men and lesbians in so-called "reparative therapies" have supposedly changed their sexual orientation. The group Truth Wins Out says there is no physical or scientific proof behind the study.
When a constitutional amendment battle was brewing in Massachusetts, activists started publishing the names and addresses of people who signed anti-gay ballot initiative petitions. Now the idea has moved on to Oregon, where anti-gay organizers are trying to put a domestic partnership law and a non-discrimination law up to voters for repeal. As signatures are collected the information will be posted at http://www.knowthyneighbororegon.com/.
Now, to Los Angeles. A fire at a popular gay bar is being investigated by authorities. Luckily no one was killed in the fire at Mickey’s in West Hollywood on Tuesday that took firefighters an hour and a half to contain.
The L.A. Fire Department has been involved in some high-profile scandals recently and the mayor hopes his newly appointed fire chief will end what many see as a culture of discrimination. Just last month a black lesbian firefighter won a record $6.2 million settlement from the city in a discrimination claim.
This week the groups Soulforce and Atticus Circle announced the launch of http://www.sevenstraightnights.org/ – an educational resource for straight supporters of GLBT equality. The site will help organize "Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights," a coordinated campaign of events in mid-October where straight people will collectively and publicly demonstrate their support for equality.