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 LGBT news from the Human Rights Campaign for Wednesday, October 1st. I’m Breanna Bianco.
And I’m John Greene. First up, exciting news from the campaign trail.
The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, an organization that works to elect openly gay candidates to political positions, announced yesterday that they have endorsed a record 100 candidates for office this fall. The announcement makes it the group’s largest endorsement slate ever. According to a released statement, LGBT candidates can be found running for offices on national, state and local levels—a sign of increased political change, according to Victory Fund president Chuck Wolfe.
In other news, a Montana district court judge granted adoption rights to a woman who was seeking the right to adopt the children of her former same-sex partner. In a landmark ruling for the state and for same-sex couples in the United States, Michelle Kulstad was granted joint custody of the two children, ages eight and five, after she and her partner ended their ten year relationship in 2006. Among other things, the ruling gives Kulstad decision making authority in the lives of the children.
In the nation’s capital this morning, an arrest has been made in connection with a July 2008 hate crimes incident in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. In a statement released late Monday, Washington police said the suspect was a teenage male but further information was being withheld because he is a juvenile. The incident, involving five attackers who assaulted three gay men while shouting anti-gay slurs, received mainstream media attention last month when one of the victims, Todd Metrokin, allowed images of his badly swollen face to be posted online.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new plan that would protect federally-funded health care providers from refusing to administer care if they disagree with the mode of treatment or the patient’s lifestyle on moral or religious grounds. According to the agency, the measure is intended to protect health care workers who disagree with abortion on moral or religious grounds. But because of the confusing nature of the new rules, LGBT advocates say the plan could allow the healthcare community to discriminate against the LGBT community or those living with HIV/AIDS. Many advocates say that the LGBT community and those living with HIV/AIDS already receive unequal treatment by health care providers.
Gavin Newsom, the pro-equality mayor of San Francisco, is being used in a new ad that lashes out against the gay community and supports California’s ban on marriage equality. The ad, which is paid for by the supporters of the state’s Proposition 8, which would end marriage equality in the state, depicts Newsom speaking after same-sex marriage was legalized earlier this year. The commercial also claims that if the amendment fails people would be sued for their beliefs and churches that refuse to marry gay couples would lose their tax-exempt status.
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.