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 Friday, June 20. I’m John Lake.
And I’m Sarah Birnie. First up, news from Congress.
Yesterday, the House Committee on Education and Labor announced that its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on workplace discrimination against transgender people. The hearing, entitled “An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace,” will be held on Thursday, June 26 at 10:30 a.m. and will be the first ever hearing in Congress exclusively on transgender issues. HRC has been working with a number of groups, including the ACLU, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to prepare for the hearing.
The California Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejected a conservative group's latest effort to block marriages for gay and lesbian couples in California before the November election. Florida-based group Liberty Counsel asked the state appeals court to stop weddings for gay and lesbian couples until voters could decide the issue on the November ballot. The appeals court argued that the high court made it clear that marriage for gay and lesbian couples should be allowed.
A citizen's initiative campaign to repeal Maine's anti-discrimination law is calling it quits. The Christian Civic League of Maine said the evangelical group that led the push collected only a third of the number of voters' signatures it wanted and failed to draw the volunteer support it had hoped for. The initiative also ought to ban the use of state funds by the attorney general's office for its civil rights teams and reaffirm Maine's law that restricts marriages to one man and one woman.
The Arizona Senate gave preliminary approval to legislation barring schools from discriminating against religious beliefs, a move opponents say will encourage students to bully GLBT students. Senator Linda Gray, one of the bill's sponsors, said the measure is necessary because some school officials are violating the constitutional rights of students while Senator Debbie McCune Davis proposed an amendment that would bar bullying in schools on the basis of race, religion and sexual orientation. The bill, which passed without the amendment, still needs final approval in the Senate.
An Ohio appeals court has ruled that the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage cannot be used to terminate a child custody agreement between partners. The Court of Appeals ruling upheld a decision that the state’s amendment has no bearing on a signed agreement between Denise Fairchild and Therese Leach that they would share custody of a son born to Fairchild. In order to ensure that Leach had a protected legal relationship with the child, the two women signed a joint custody agreement. After Leach and Fairchild ended their relationship, Fairchild sought to terminate the custody agreement, citing Ohio’s 2004 state amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
Yesterday, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network condemned President Bush’s plan to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to General Peter Pace, saying it would be disrespectful to the thousands of gay and lesbian troops currently serving in the armed forces. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called lesbians and gays "immoral" in a 2007 interview with the Chicago Tribune. President Bush honored General Pace and five other recipients yesterday at a White House ceremony.
That’s the news from us today. Thanks for tuning in to Equally Speaking.
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