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, October
4th. I'm John Greene.
And I'm Heidi Williams. We'll start out today with a call to action on
an inclusive ENDA.
Yesterday, HRC president Joe Solmonese issued a call to action on an
inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Watch Joe's video on our
homepage and then go to http://www.passendanow.org to contact your member of
congress and tell him or her to support an end to employment
discrimination against the entire GLBT community.
In legal news, a California Appeals Court ruled for domestic partners in
the Golden State this week. A number of property tax assessors sued the
state saying that current law governing how domestic partners to leave
property to one another conflicted with other state laws. The court
upheld the law that treats domestic partners on par with married couples
for inheritance purposes.
Another case in California - although this time a decision against a
lesbian woman. Charlene Nguon sued her school after the principal outed
her to her mother. She says she was treated differently than other
students after kissing her girlfriend at school which led to the outing.
A judge ruled this week that her rights were not violated in the
disclosure.
The Governor of Kansas who recently signed a non-discrimination
executive order banning discrimination against GLBT state workers is
urging other branches in government to do the same. Kathleen Sebelius's
order covers about 25,000 state employees but thousands more fall under
the jurisdiction of county and other local governments.
In a speech this week to the human rights body, The Council of Europe,
the head of the Russian Orthodox Church blasted homosexuality as an
illness. Patriarch Alexy The Second's other comments were well received
by the body but his anti-gay tirade seemed out of place.
Finally, is a little bit of offbeat news, for the first time an asteroid
has been named after a gay man. George Takei, known best for his roles
in the Star Trek series, was given the honor for his work as a
spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's coming out project as well
as his work with the Japanese-American Citizens League.
That's the news from us today. Thanks for tuning in to Equally
Speaking.
Enjoy your day and we'll see you back here again tomorrow morning.