Equally Speaking
Equally Speaking
Monday, June 18, 2007
In our top story on HRC's daily webcast, Colombia extends rights to same-sex couples. The Latin American nation has approved a bill to give GLBT families full rights to health insurance, social security and inheritance benefits. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe is expected to sign the measure into law. Colombia, a predominantly Catholic country with a conservative government, will become only the second nation in the Americas to extend such rights at the federal level. Canada was the first.
Last week’s vote by the Massachusetts Legislature to preserve the state’s marriage equality law is continuing to make waves. Supporters of GLBT rights are advocating for repeal of the 1913 law that prevents same-sex couples who live in other states from getting married in the Bay State. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, called the Legislature’s action "unfortunate."
In Dallas, Texas, an openly gay candidate was defeated Saturday in a runoff election to become mayor. Ed Oakley, a three-term City Council member, received 42 percent of the vote. If he had won the election, Oakley would have been the first openly gay mayor of one of the nation’s 10 largest cities.
A Chicago man says he was abused by police because he was gay. Alexander Ruppert was detained in March following an altercation at a bar. Ruppert says two police officers then brutally beat him while shouting anti-gay slurs. He says he was then held for 48 hours without food or water. Ruppert has filed a federal lawsuit against the city.
Yesterday, New Jersey became the ninth state in the nation to outlaw discrimination against transgender people. It’s now illegal in the Garden State to discriminate based on gender identity in housing, employment, credit, business contracts or public accommodations. By January, similar laws will also have gone into effect in Iowa, Vermont, Colorado and Oregon.
A gay homeless man in Colorado has been ordered to leave a shelter because of his sexual orientation. The pastor who runs the shelter accused the man of "flaunting his sexuality." The pastor went on to say that gays and lesbians were permitted to eat in the shelter but not to sleep there, saying that in the shelter, "Men have to sleep next to other men."