january 17.2003 j t r t j 19
FTTÎTTïïlTTÎTI
bureau, more than 50 people handed in their
gifts. “As long as A P’s policy is all chain and no
key, doors remain closed,” they wrote in a letter.
Queer employees have demanded equal treat
ment for more than a decade. They have
watched the number of media companies that do
not extend health benefits to domestic partners
dwindle to nearly none. They have watched
some of their best and brightest colleagues leave
jobs they loved for companies that showed com
passion for their spouses and children.
AP and the News Media Guild— the employ
ees’ collective bargaining unit— have been nego
tiating a new contract. The guild once again
demanded the extension of benefits to domestic
partners; AP’s response was, once again, silence.
adamantly urge Bush to reconsider this ptxir
choice for a crucial judicial circuit."
In a speech before the 1984 Mississippi
Southern Baptist Convention, Pickering
lumped homosexuality with social problems,
according to The Clarion Ledger, a Jackson,
Miss., newspaper. “We as Southern Baptists
should lead the way in strengthening tradition
al moral values,” he said, adding that society has
been degraded by such things as pornography,
homosexuality and divorce.
Pickering was nominated last year by Presi
dent Bush. But his nomination was rejected in
March by the Senate Judiciary Committee
along party lines, mainly out of concern about
his record on civil rights.
F
M IS S IS S IP P I
A
fter reviewing Judge Charles Pickering’s
record, the Human Rights Cam paign
strongly restated Jan. 8 its opposition to his
nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals. According to political director Winnie
Stachelberg, his career has been punctuated by
racial divisiveness, and he publicly has shared
anti-gay sentiments.
“Past behavior is usually the greatest indica
tor of future behavior, and Pickerings past has
included highly disturbing racial overtones that
make him an unusually unacceptable nominee,”
she said. “ His opiniorwof gay people also seems
to mirror other unpleasant and disturbing preju
dices that have defined his career and been the
hallmark of his time on the bench.... We
Charles Pickering would sit on the 5th U .S .
Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans,
which serves Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana
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ollowing the lead of its flagship publication,
The Orange County Register, Freedom Q>m-
munications Inc. has become the first national
chain to enact a policy encouraging all of its news
papers to print same-sex union announcements.
The change— confirmed Dec. 17 by Janet
Ryan, assistant to the president of Freedom G>m-
munity Newspapers— involves a total of 35 pub
lications across 11 states, including The [Alton,
111.I Telegraph, The Bnnmsville [Texas] Herald and
The [Panama City, Fla.] News Herald. Since
August 2002, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation has kept a tally of newspa
pers that print same-sex union announcements,
and this decision brings the total to 181.
“This is another huge step for gay and lesbian
couples,” executive director Joan M. Garry said.
“We are proud to have fueled a discussion in the
newspaper industry that leads corporations to
consider the equity of their policies towards gay
and lesbian readers. Freedom Communications
deserves to he congratulated and should serve as
a role model for other companies.”
Traveling the Silk
B
y a vote of 8-1-1,
the Springfield City
Council has voted to
prohibit discrimination
on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender
identity. It now becomes
the states 13th jurisdic
tion to enact queer civil R jck Garcia
rights legislation and the
fourth central Illinois city to do so in the past year.
“The passage of a strong gay rights bill in the
heart of the heartland sends the distinct and
clear message that fair-minded middle Ameri
cans support gay and lesbian civil rights,” said
Rick Garcia, Equality Illinois political director.
“This is a great success and paves the way for a
statewide bill to ban anti-gay discrimination.”
The City Council heard almost two hours of
testimony supporting and opposing the ordi
nance. Opponents, mostly fundamentalist
Christians, claimed that the law would violate
religious institutions’ ability to preach against
homosexuality and that queers spread disease
and are a threat to children and society.
The Illinois House and Senate are expected
to take up a statewide nondiscrimination bill
shortly, and activists in the cities of Rtxkford and
Peoria are coasidering introducing nondiscrimi
nation legislation. In Illinois, G xik Giunty and
the cities of Bl(X)mington, Champaign, Chicago,
Decatur,
DeKalb,
Evanston,
LaGrange,
Naperville, Normal, Oak Park and Urbana
include sexual orientation in kx:al ordinances.
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s3 ivil rights activists are applauding the Key
^ West City G>mmission’s unanimous deci
sion to amend the local nondiscrimination law
to include trans people. The ordinance is now
the most inclusive in Florida and the first in the
state specifically protecting trans people from
bias in employment, housing, public accommo
dations and lending.
“Key West’s slogan is ‘One Human Family,’ ”
said Scott Fraser, Key West Gay & Lesbian G nti -
munity Center director. “The City Gimmission
demonstrated that those words are not hollow.”
Stratton Pollitzer, Equality Florida’s Southern
regional director, predicted that at least three
other communities in the state might amend
their laws this year to provide similar rights for
trans people. “Efforts to protect transgender peo
ple are currently under way in St. Petersburg,
Monroe County and Seminole,” she noted.
Although Key West is the first city in Florida
to amend its human rights law to add gender
identity or expression, it is not the first in the
state to recognize the need to protect trans peo
ple from bias. In 2000, Wilton Manors passed a
law requiring all business that contract with the
city to include sexual orientation and gender
identity in their nondiscrimination policies. JT1
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Compiled by New s Editor J im R a d o s t a , who can
be reached at jtm @ justout.com .