Equally Speaking
The following is a transcript of HRC’s morning news webcast "Equally Speaking." To view the current videos visit the main Equally Speaking page.
Good morning, and thanks for tuning in to Equally Speaking, your morning dose of GLBT news from the Human Rights Campaign for Thursday, May 22. I’m John Greene
And I’m Janice Hughes… First up, news from Oregon:
Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams made history yesterday by becoming the first ever openly gay mayor elected in a Top 40 U.S. city. In addition, heavily favored Oregon Secretary of State candidate Kate Brown won her Democratic primary. If elected in November, Brown would become the nation’s highest ranking openly bisexual politician to gain office.
Florida’s Miami-Dade County Commission voted 8-4 Tuesday to create a domestic partner registry and extend health insurance and other benefits to the domestic partners of county employees. The plan allows registered partners to have visiting rights in Miami-Dade healthcare facilities, jails and juvenile detention centers. Gay-rights advocates in Miami-Dade will use this milestone to invigorate their campaign against the county’s Amendment 2—to be voted on in November—which would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, would bar civil unions and would strip domestic partner benefits from all unmarried couples, gay and straight.
In other Florida news, a federal judge has reopened a lawsuit that seeks to allow the establishment of a Gay-Straight Alliance at Okeechobee High School. The battle for recognition of the Gay-Straight Alliance began in 2006 and, although the student who filed the initial case has since graduated, another student has joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to revive the club. The ACLU is arguing that the Equal Access Act stipulates that when a school allows any non-curricular club to meet on campus, it must allow all non-curricular clubs to meet on campus, which should include Okeechobee’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
A new study reveals violent attacks and threats against members of the GLBT community in Michigan grew by one hundred and thirty three percent last year. The results, released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, also show a national increase in hate crimes by twenty four percent. Although alarming, the results also indicate that members of the community are more willing to report hate crimes than in previous years.
In international news, Great Britain granted a gay Iranian student asylum in order to avoid execution upon returning to his homeland. Member of Parliament Simon Hughes led the student’s campaign for asylum, arguing that no gay or lesbian person should be sent back to a country where he or she is at risk of torture, persecution, or death. According to Iranian human rights activists, over four thousand men and women have been executed in Iran since 1979 for being gay.
A recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive shows twenty two percent of gay and lesbian Americans now lack proper health insurance and are twice as likely to have no health insurance at all compared to straight Americans. Additionally, the results emphasize that a large majority of gay and lesbian participants want their employers to choose health care providers who offer domestic partner coverage.
That’s the news from us today. Thanks for tuning in to Equally Speaking.
Have a great day, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow morning.