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2QQÛ ■ I im i'iï\mnews rically opposite to admonitions in the Bible,” she wrote. “T his mission is founded on bibli cal principles, and we cannot give a public forum to a public official who is blatantly flaunting those principles.” Kolbe, who came out in 1996, downplayed the snub. He indicated in a statement that he didn’t want the controversy to undermine the essence of Thanksgiving. “God made many diverse people in his image,” Kolbe wrote. “Judeo-Christian tradition tells us that no people should be made to feel smaller than others.” CONNECTICUT n p he C onnecticut Commission on Human à. Rights and O pportunities ruled last month that the state laws prohibiting sex dis crim ination include transgendered people within those protec tions. T h e ruling came in response to a request for a decla- tory ruling filed by Stamford at torney Bruce Goldberg. “T h is is very important decision for tra n sg e n d e re d people, who have historically been excluded from many civil rights pro tections,” said Jennifer Levi, Gay &. Lesbian Advo cates &. Defenders staff attorney. “T h e commission’s ruling takes note o f the still- pervasive discrimination that many people face simply because they do not meet society’s stereotype o f what people th in k a ‘real woman’ or a ‘real m an’ should look like. This decision affirms the recent trend correcting the historical error of excluding transgen dered people from our laws.” T h e decision relies, in part, on a 1989 U .S. Supreme Court case in which A nn Hopkins, an associate at the accounting firm o f Price W aterhouse, was denied partnership because she was considered too masculine, m acho and aggressive. T h e commission’s ruling recog nizes that the form of discrimination many transgendered people face also is grounded in enforcing sex stereotypes, a practice harmful to all people. T h e ruling clarifies that transgendered people may bring claims of sex discrimination and defines transsexual people to include a broad range o f individuals who do not co n form to gender stereotypes regardless of whether they have or intend to have surgery. T h e ruling also includes intersexed people— for exam ple, people who are horn with ambiguous genitalia or chromosomal ambigu ity found in people with Androgen Insensitiv ity Syndrome, Klinefelter’s Syndrome and Turner’s Syndrome. PENNSYLVANIA S overeign Bancorp, a $35 billion financial institution headquartered in Wyomissing, Pa., has reconsidered a plan to roll back domestic partner benefits for its New England employees and announced it would extend them companywide. T h e decision came after Kim 1. Mills, Human Rights Campaign edu cation director, wrote to C E O Jay S. Sidhu, detailing why such benefits are a low-cost means o f attracting and keeping the best employees. “This is excellent news and another sign that domestic partner benefits are good business,” she said. “Sovereign has shown great leadership by being willing to re-examine its initial deci sion and then reversing it because it was the right thing to do.” H R C has found only two U .S. companies that ever have rescinded domestic partner benefits: Perot Systems Inc. in 1998 and ExxonM obil Corp. in 1999. Neither has rein stated the benefits, even though their major competitors offer them. In O ctober, H R C obtained a copy o f a benefits brochure sent to Sovereigns New England employees stating: “Beginning in 2001, eligible dependents for Flex Benefits will be limited to a team member’s spouse and dependent children. If you currently cover a domestic partner or other adult dependent, you may continue coverage for that individ ual. However, future dependents will be cov ered under the new guidelines.” T h e reason given for all benefit changes outlined was that the company needed to manage the costs of rising health care. “Eliminating an inexpen sive perquisite to save money rings hollow, especially since Sovereign recently posted a 51 percent increase in third- quarter cash earnings, among other positive results during this market downturn,” Mills wrote. Jo h n H am ill, Sovereign Bank New England chairman, called Mills on Nov. 17 to say the company had decided to reverse its initial position. GEORGIA he Mary-Helen Mautner Project for Les bians with Cancer kicked off its 10th year of fighting tobacco use by participating in the first National G L B T Forum on Tobacco Pre vention and Control on Nov. 8 and 9 in Atlanta. "Tobacco is a killer, and our community smokes at significantly higher rates than the general population,” said Mautner Project executive director Kathleen DeBold, who attended the forum. “It is especially alarming that G L B T youth— the future of our move ment— are lighting up in unprecedented num bers. T h e good news coming out of this forum is that there is a growing network of G LB T activists and health professionals dedicated to helping us stop.” T h e goal of the forum was to provide tan gible recommendations for reducing tobacco use among youth, increasing quit rates among smokers and reducing exposure to second hand smoke. It was organized by the Am eri can Legacy Foundation, an independent pub lic health organization that has desig nated the queer community as one o f five priority popu lations in the bat tie to decrease tob acco c o n sumption. “Wh en you work at a project serv ing lesbians with cancer, the devastation caused by smoking is self-evident,” De- Bold said. “But for the G L B T population in general, smoking can seem like the least of our worries. Our challenge now is to change that perception.’ Call today for a free qualification over the phone First Time Buyers ♦ FHA/VA Loans Self-Employed ♦ Complicated Borrowers Bankruptcies & Foreclosures ♦ Credit Problems Investment Properties ♦ Pre-approvals “ When 100% Financing Programs we learned the landlord was selling Christine C. Hall our house, we called Christine in a panic. Being Mortgage Broker President's Club self employed, we thought it might be impossible to buy, but Christine came to the rescue. 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