Indiana Equality

Lambda Legal's Share Your Story Project

Lambda Legal is collecting personal stories of people who have been directly affected by health care discrimination as part of their National Health Care Fairness Campaign.  These stories will be used to help educate people about the need for LGBT and HIV rights.  Make your voice heard!

If you have experienced discrimination from a health care provider or institution because of your sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status, please consider sharing your story today at http://www.lambdalegal.org/take-action/partners-for-health-care-fairness/share-your-story.html and spread the word to your friends and family. 

Political Shifts

I was looking through my feedburner at old blog posts and stumbled upon this piece by Adam Nagourney published in the New York Times. 

Frankly I couldnt agree more with his arguments. It seems that all across the board, from municipalities to the federal government, contemporary politics lags far behind American culture. 

Could it be that it may just be okay to be gay now?

For 15 minutes in the Oval Office the other day, one of President Obama’s top campaign lieutenants, Steve Hildebrand, told the president about the “hurt, anxiety and anger” that he and other gay supporters felt over the slow pace of the White House’s engagement with gay issues....MORE

Senate Adopts Unwelcomed Amendments to Hate Crimes Bill

A great post covering the Hate Crimes Bill from HRC's blog Back Story

Today the U.S. Senate adopted four amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act — three of which were strongly opposed by the Human Rights Campaign.  Once the Senate votes on the final Defense Department authorization bill it will go to a conference committee with the House where HRC urges the amendments to be removed....MORE

2009 Greater Cincinnati GLBTQ Youth Summit

Date:
Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM (ET)

Location:
Northern Kentucky University's New Student Union
100 Nunn Drive
Highland Heights, KY 41099 

Free RSVP here

Broaden ban on discrimination

Here's a great post from the South Bend Equality blog. Check out the full post here!

By CHAUNCE WINDLE

On June 24, Mayor Steve Luecke issued an executive order stating that South Bend is committed to equal employment opportunity and will not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The executive order prohibits such discrimination in city employment. The city's Human Resources division is in charge of investigating and resolving allegations.

The mayor is to be applauded for his unwavering commitment to equality for all. Nevertheless, this movement toward equality is also a painful reminder of all of the residents who do not fall under the protection of the executive order. Soon, we hope that the South Bend Common Council will have the opportunity to join with the mayor and amend the human rights ordinance to protect all South Bend residents from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity...MORE

Poll Workers Needed for Nov. 3 Special Election

Save the Date: November 3, 2009
Marion County Special Election

The Marion County Election Board needs poll workers for the November 3,
2009 special election. If you are interested in serving, register online
at www.indy.gov/election. Details to follow in the coming weeks.

Questions?
Call (317) 327-VOTE or email elections@indy.gov

Democracy is not a spectator sport! Be involved by working the polls on
Election Day, November 3, 2009.

Marion County Election Board | Beth White, Secretary
200 East Washington Street | Room W144 | Indianapolis, IN
46204

Hate Crimes Passes Senate

Senate Passes Hate Crimes Amendment Lacking Free Speech And Association Protections

ACLU Calls For Adoption Of House Provision, Instead

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 17, 2009

 

CONTACT: Linda Paris, (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org 

WASHINGTON – The Senate late Thursday passed an amendment as part of the Department of Defense Authorization bill that would give the federal government new authority to prosecute certain violent acts based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. However, the Senate version of the hate crimes bill lacks the strong protections for speech and association included in legislation passed by the House of Representatives in June. The American Civil Liberties Union believes that without the speech and association protections included in the House bill, the Senate hate crimes legislation could have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech and membership.

The following can be attributed to Christopher Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel:

“It has been our experience that the fight for better and stronger civil rights protections is more successful when free speech and association are protected along the way. Fierce protection of free speech rights has historically created the space for the improvement of civil rights protections. Unless amended to block evidence of speech and association not specifically related to a crime, the Senate hate crimes amendment could chill constitutionally protected speech and association. An otherwise unremarkable violent crime should not become a federal hate crime simply because the defendant visited the wrong website, belonged to a group espousing bigotry, or subscribed to a magazine promoting discriminatory views, however wrong and repugnant those beliefs may be. We urge Congress to instead adopt the House version of the hate crimes bill, which protects both civil rights and free speech and association.”

 

Lugar and Bayh Support Matthew Shepard Act

As of late Thursday, July 16^th, the US Senate invoked cloture against the threatened filibuster of the Matthew Shepard Act (S. 909) as amended into the FY2010 Department of Defense Authorization bill on a vote of 63 to 28. 

 

Senator Bayh had been a co-sponsor of the bill, but Lugar joined four other Republican Senators (Collins-ME, Snowe-ME, Murkowski-AK, Voinovich-OH) to close off the debate on this part of the bill.  The bill now faces tough opposition in its current form due to a large appropriation for fighter jets.

 

Joe Solomnese, Human Rights Campaign President, stated,   “Once again, we have demonstrated that more than 60 Senators support the Matthew Shepard Act, legislation that will provide police and sheriffs’ departments with the tools and resources they need to ensure that entire communities are not terrorized by hate violence. Today’s key vote move this legislation one step closer to the President’s desk. With the support of an overwhelming majority of the American people, including more than 300 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations, it is past time we take this important step toward combating hate in our country.”

 

This round of the legislation had bipartisan support by sponsor Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Leahy (D-VT), Snowe (R-ME), Collins (R-ME) and Specter (D-PA. )  Attorney General Eric Holder spoke in favor of the bill at the June 25^th hearing.   The United States House of Representatives passed similar legislation by a vote of 249-175 last year.  

 

As the HRC post clarifies, "The Matthew Shepard Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It provides the Justice Department with the authority to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias. It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes."

We congratulate Senators Lugar and Bayh for making the right choice, as well as the thousands of Hoosiers who took this chance to participate in the political process by contacting their senators.  Indiana Equality will continue to monitor the progress of this bill through the US Congress. 

Pride Lafayette Hosts New Community Center

At the risk of being charged with hometown boosterism, I'd like to congratulate and praise the founders and executive directors of Pride Lafayette for their dedication to the Greater Lafayette GLBT community and the opening of the new community center this past week. 

 

This is now the only full-service GLBT community center in Indiana.  (Indiana Youth Group – IYG – primarily serves central Indiana youth up to age 21.)   If you know the Lafayette/ West Lafayette area well, you'd be surprised to find this here.  Even a university town can be hyper-conservative!   But it all comes down to the vision and will of the local folks who saw a need and sought to fill it with the programs, resources and volunteer staffing it required.  And this includes both GLBT and Allied folks.

 

The whole program began with a joint effort of Lafayette folks for Indy Pride Fest a few years ago.  We decided to join together to staff a single booth.  A prime founder, mover and shaker has been my friend Kelly Leonard, who believed from the beginning that we needed to establish a safe space and has worked to maintain it throughout these years.

 

Programs that now run from this center include but are not limited to a resource library, social programs such as game night and Sunday dining out, HIV testing programs, a youth group – PRYSM, and discussion groups on such topics as transgender, religion and gays and health issues.  They provide a meeting center for Citizens for Civil Rights and the Greater Lafayette PFLAG.  And their open office hours allow for people who are new to town to meet the locals and get acclimated to their surroundings.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to google search "gay and Lafayette IN" and have the first hit be their website.  (www.pridelafayette.org )  They maintain a unified community calendar and have an active outreach to the Purdue Queer Student Union as well as other civil rights groups in the community.

 

This all-volunteer group (headed now by President Bryan Bell, VP Leonard, and Secretary Michael Behrens) struck a new note of diversity last summer by sponsoring Lafayette's first publicly open Pride Event – which will be followed by this year's OUTfest on Saturday, August 29^th (4-12 PM).  The event last year was an unqualified success drawing over 3000 visitors and gained a lot of great press, as did the opening of the center this past week. 

 

http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local_wlfi_lafayette_Pride_Lafayette_gets_a_new_home_200907101729

 

I'd invite anyone to visit Greater Lafayette and stop in to our new center at 640 Main Street.  You'll find a bright inviting space, decorated with local GLBT artists' work and a friendly volunteer staff to answer your questions.  Couldn't ask for more!

Contact Your Senators Today!

From Indiana Equality Action

The full Senate is scheduled to vote -- this week -- on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, so Indiana's Senators need to hear from you now! Please send an email and, if you have a couple extra minutes, please call each of your Senators, too.

Every hour of every day, at least one hate crime offense is committed somewhere in the United States. Of those attacked, it's estimated that at least 15% of hate crimes are related to a person's perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity.  Click here to tell your Senators this is unacceptable.

The Matthew Shepard Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence.  It protects people based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin.