Poll, DADT, NC vote, Tyler Clementi, transgender issues/beating, France, youth, Chaz
Articles for your perusal. Time stamps at the end of each storm contain the filing date.
Poll: Near-split in US over legal gay marriage
By LAURIE KELLMAN and JENNIFER AGIESTA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barbara Von Aspern loves her daughter, “thinks the world” of the person her daughter intends to marry and believes the pair should have the same legal rights as anyone else. It pains her, but Von Aspern is going to skip their wedding. Her daughter, Von Aspern explains, is marrying another woman.
“We love them to death, and we love them without being judgmental,” the 62-year-old Chandler, Ariz., retiree said. “But the actual marriage I cannot agree with.”
It’s complicated, this question of legitimizing gay marriage. Americans are grappling with it from their homes to the halls of government in the shadow of a presidential election next year. The ambivalence is reflected in a new poll that shows the nation is passionate, conflicted and narrowly split on same-sex marriage.
Fifty-three percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed believe the government should give legal recognition to marriages between couples of the same sex, about the same as last year, according to the nationwide telephone poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center. Forty-four percent were opposed.
People are similarly conflicted over what, if anything, the government should do about the issue.
Support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage has shifted in recent years, from a narrow majority opposed in 2009 to narrow majority support now. Some of the shift stems from a generational divide, with the new poll showing a majority of Americans under age 65 in favor of legal recognition for same-sex marriages, and a majority of seniors opposed.
In some places, government has moved ahead while the nation debates. New York in July became the sixth state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize same-sex marriage. Still, the issue played a part in the special election Tuesday to replace disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. Democrat David Weprin’s support for gay marriage cost him support among the district’s Orthodox Jews, and he lost to Republican Bob Turner.
Also Tuesday, lawmakers in North Carolina, the only state in the Southeast that does not have language in its constitution banning gay marriage, voted to put the question on the 2012 ballot. Most Americans who live in states where gay marriage is not already legal say it is unlikely their state will pass such a law; just 20 percent think it is likely to become law in their state.
Americans also are conflicted on how to go about legalizing or outlawing gay marriage.
One option is banning gay marriage by constitutional amendment. About half of the poll’s respondents, 48 percent, said they would favor such an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Most who feel this way do so intensely. About 40 percent would strongly favor such a change. Forty-three percent said they would oppose such an amendment, and 8 percent were neutral, according to the poll.
Most - 55 percent - believe the issue should be handled at the state level, however, and opinions on how states should act are split. People are about evenly divided on whether their states should allow same-sex marriages - 42 percent favor that and 45 percent are opposed - and tilt in favor of state laws that allow gay couples to form civil unions - 47 percent in favor, 38 percent opposed and 13 percent neutral, according to the poll.
“The different moral standards in different areas, probably, are the biggest reason that same-sex marriages are an issue,” said Dale Shoemaker, 54, a military retiree from Boise, Idaho. If gay couples who want to get married live in a state that doesn’t allow it, they can move to one that does, he said.
Either way, gay couples “should have benefits,” Shoemaker said. “If they’re living together and cohabitating and are a couple, (they should have) the insurance and retirement and that type of thing, the monetary benefits.”
Nearly 6 in 10 (57 percent) in the poll shared Shoemaker’s take when it comes to government benefits. They said same-sex couples should be entitled to the same legal benefits as married couples of the opposite sex. Forty percent felt the government should distinguish between them.
The poll did uncover some inequities. It suggests, for example, that opponents of same-sex marriage were far more apt to say that the issue is one of deep importance to them. Forty-four percent of those polled called it extremely or very important for them personally. Among those who favor legal marriage for gay couples, 32 percent viewed the issue as that important.
Von Aspern is an example of an American whose opposition to gay marriage is deep and abiding. It’s based on her religion - she is Mormon - and as such it overrode other considerations when it came to her daughter’s wedding.
“It was very difficult,” Von Aspern says. “We had to bring them to the house and hug them and love them and tell them these things and not let that keep us apart.”
General foresees muted response to gay ban repeal
By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Army general who co-directed a Pentagon study on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military said Wednesday that repeal is likely to prove “pretty inconsequential.”
Gen. Carter Ham said he expects civilians who strongly oppose the move - and some gay rights advocates - will voice their views when the repeal takes Tuesday. But inside the military the prevailing attitude likely will be business-as-usual, with no call for further debate about the merits of repeal, he said.
“My hope, my expectation, my belief is that it will be pretty inconsequential,” he told The Associated Press in a brief interview. His comments echoed the prevailing view among senior U.S. military and civilian officials at the Pentagon, who think repeal will largely be taken in stride.
Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, co-chaired a Pentagon group that in 2010 studied how to implement a repeal law, which was subsequently passed by Congress in December. Some in Congress, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., have criticized President Barack Obama’s decision in July to certify that repeal of the ban would not harm the military’s ability to fight.
Homosexuality has been prohibited in the military since World War I, and for years recruits were screened and questioned about their sexual orientation. Then-President Bill Clinton relaxed the policy in 1993, saying the military could not ask recruits or serving members about their sexual orientation, and gays could serve as long as they did not openly disclose their status. That law became known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The Army’s new chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, said last week that he does not expect to make any public pronouncement when repeal takes effect next week.
“We’re beyond that now,” Odierno said. “I’m not concerned it. I think we’ll be okay.”
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Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
NORTH CAROLINA VOTERS TO DECIDE ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
BY KIM SEVERSON
c.2011 New York Times News Service
ATLANTA -- North Carolina on Tuesday took a big step toward losing its status as the last state in the Southeast without a constitutional amendment making it clear that marriage is legal only when there is a bride and bridegroom.
The Senate, in a 30-16 vote, agreed to let voters decide during the May primaries whether the state Constitution should ban same-sex marriage. The House approved the measure the day before, 75-42.
It is already illegal for people of the same sex to marry in North Carolina. If the amendment passes, it will serve to reinforce that ban and make it more difficult for future legislatures to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.
It could also call into question domestic partnership benefits offered by public institutions and the application of domestic violence laws, said Holning Lau, an associate professor of law at the University of North Carolina. The proposal also would bar the state from sanctioning civil unions. Originally, backers wanted the issue on the ballot in November 2012, where it might help attract voters more likely to vote against President Barack Obama and Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat. To quell accusations that the ballot initiative was driven solely by politics, the date was moved to the state’s primary election in May.
Instead, the timing may help ensure passage of the measure, as it will probably receive significant support from those drawn to the polls by the main event: the Republican presidential primary.
As it has in the 29 other states where same-sex marriage is constitutionally illegal, the issue of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples has been divisive in North Carolina. For nearly a decade, the Democratic-controlled Legislature held off efforts by social conservatives to change the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
But with Republicans now in control of both houses, the movement to put the matter to voters found enough support to squeeze through the Legislature.
The issue brought out people to rally on both sides. The Rev. Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh calls homosexuality a “deathstyle” and has long fought against those who equate the battle for gay rights with other civil rights struggles.
Wooden called Tuesday “a great day for the citizens of this great state.”
“They will overwhelmingly support this measure,” he said. “I do believe the majority of most Americans today still believe a marriage is a union between a man and a woman.”
But for people like Vicki Threlfall, 47, who married her partner, Molly O’Neill, in Massachusetts in 2004, it was a day to sit down with their 10-year-old daughter to try to explain it all.
“We told her that this is something about civil rights,” Threlfall said. “We said, ‘Do you remember a long time ago how African-Americans weren’t treated fairly? This is like that. There are a lot of people who are afraid and don’t know gay people."’
The ballot measure didn’t come as a surprise to many in the state. But it made Threlfall and others in cities like Chapel Hill and Raleigh, with large and prominent gay and lesbian communities, brace for months of what will surely be a heated debate over their lives. National organizations on both sides of the issue will be offering monetary and strategic support as the campaign heats up.
“Our intent is to defeat the amendment at polls,” said Alex Miller, the executive director of Equality NC, a statewide advocacy group that will be working with national organizations like the Human Rights Campaign.
“It has been a point of pride that North Carolina was the only Southern state that has never done this. But this is an ongoing war. They have succeeded in throwing up a temporary bulwark against the inevitable tide of history.”
AMX-2011-09-13T22:27:00-04:00<
Few clear answers in Rutgers webcam case
By George Anastasia
The Philadelphia Inquirer
TRENTON, N.J. - It is a case built around many indisputable facts, most gleaned from the text messages, emails and tweets that define the way a generation now communicates.
But there are few clear answers in the disturbing account of how Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi’s sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room was secretly viewed via his roommate’s computer webcam.
The incident has become the focus of international discussion about cyber-bullying and the difficulties faced by gay youth, a cause celebre fueled by intense media attention.
Yet defense attorneys for Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, say that spotlight has distorted and helped to criminalize what, at worst, were insensitive acts by their client.
The criminal prosecution is inextricably linked to Clementi’s decision to take his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010.
But the suicide has nothing to do with the charges against Ravi, which focus on his motivation and role in events that took place in Davidson Hall on the Piscataway, N.J., campus in the days leading up to Clementi’s death.
Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., has been charged with invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail.
The case moved a step closer to trial Friday when Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman rejected a defense motion seeking to have all charges dropped. Berman is expected to set a trial date at a hearing Oct. 20.
The defense motions and the prosecution’s response were supported by hundreds of pages of evidence, including emails, text messages and Twitter messages sent by Clementi and Ravi; testimony of law enforcement investigators; and statements from Rutgers students, including Ravi and Molly Wei, who - like Ravi - has left Rutgers. Wei, who was a fellow freshman, is charged in the case with invasion of privacy and is cooperating with authorities.
Rarely has so much information been publicly available before the start of a trial.
Here, based on those documents, is a look at some of the key issues and individuals who have surfaced in the investigation on which the case against Ravi is built.
Clementi, Ravi, Wei and an individual identified as “M.B.,” the man who visited Clementi’s room, are the central figures in the story.
Clementi, an 18-year-old from Ridgewood, N.J., is portrayed through his own words and those of friends as an introverted aspiring musician - he was an accomplished violinist - trying to establish his identity as a gay man.
Ravi, according to statements, text messages and his comments to law enforcement officials, is either outgoing or obnoxious, self-confident or self-absorbed. In the investigation, the self-described computer wonk emerges as someone who enjoyed calling attention to himself and never hesitated to use electronic media to do that.
During questioning by investigators Sept. 23, Ravi conceded that he probably had violated Clementi’s privacy. More complex is the question of whether he set out to harass and intimidate his roommate because Clementi was gay, a charge that carries more significant jail time.
Ravi also faces charges of tampering with evidence for, among other things, allegedly trying to alter or erase Twitter messages he sent between Sept. 19 and 21.
Though the common perception is that Clementi’s sexual encounter on Sept. 19 was streamed on the Internet, evidence indicates that it was seen live via an iChat webcam connected to Ravi’s laptop computer, and that only those linked to the video chat were able to watch it.
Ravi and Wei have told authorities they watched the tryst from Wei’s computer in her dorm room. Wei said she and other women from the dorm viewed the encounter later that night.
The second time, she said, Clementi and M.B. had their shirts off. On each occasion, Wei said, the video eavesdropping lasted “seconds.”
Both times, Wei said, Clementi and M.B. were seen “groping” and “kissing.” Because the encounter was shown live, authorities cannot retrieve the images.
Ravi said he did not know what to expect when he and Wei linked to his webcam.
“I just felt, like, really uncomfortable and, like, almost, like, guilty that I saw that,” Ravi told investigators during questioning Sept. 23.
During that session, he denied he was trying to harass Clementi.
Prosecutors say, however, that he almost gleefully texted friends, “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”
“It’s happening again,” Ravi said in a text message sent to friends Sept. 21, informing them that Clementi had again asked to have the dorm room to himself.
“I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12:00.”
Though the prosecution contends that Ravi had again set his computer in place to pick up the encounter, Ravi said he put it “to sleep” so no one could access it.
Upset after learning that the Sept. 19 visit from M.B. had been shown via Ravi’s iChat webcam, Clementi messaged a friend that he shut Ravi’s computer off on Sept. 21.
It does not appear that anyone saw the Sept. 21 encounter, despite Ravi’s mention in another message of a viewing “party.”
Both the “dare” and “party” comments were not meant to be taken literally, Ravi told investigators who recovered his text messages.
“I said that in a sarcastic way. ... That’s just the way I talk,” he said, adding that some of his friends were just “joking” about the party.
Wei, 19, has been described as a high school friend of Ravi’s. In an April 5 statement to investigators, however, she said she had distanced herself from him during their years at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School because she found him bombastic and egotistic.
She said Ravi made up stories, claiming that he was going to receive a basketball scholarship to Duke University, that he was “famous for snowboarding in Canada,” and that his picture “was on billboards all over India.”
She said she was surprised to find she had been assigned a room across the hall from his at Rutgers.
Wei has been admitted to a pretrial program that could result in the charges against her being dropped based on her cooperation and her participation in a counseling program.
She is expected to be a key trial witness.
Though the defense has contended that Clementi made light of the first webcam incident, text messages he sent two days later indicate he was upset.
He formally requested a room change, writing in an email to the dorm’s resident adviser in the early hours of Sept. 22, “I feel that my privacy has been violated and I am extremely uncomfortable sharing a room with someone who would act in this wildly inappropriate manner.”
But Clementi turned down an offer to be relocated immediately, according to a resident adviser at the dorm.
Though Clementi’s suicide is not mentioned in the indictment, the defense has contended it is the only reason Ravi faces serious charges.
Ravi’s lawyers allege that Clementi was struggling with issues related to his sexual orientation before he arrived at Rutgers.
Citing text messages Clementi sent to friends, they allege that he disclosed to his parents over the summer that he was gay, and that his mother was having problems dealing with it.
They also say that in July, before he met Ravi, Clementi took photos of the George Washington Bridge that were found on his cellphone.
M.B. has not yet been identified, but Judge Glenn Berman indicated Friday that the defense had a right to his name. That issue has not been resolved.
Wei and Ravi described him as an “older” man, about 25 or 26.
According to court documents, Clementi met M.B. through Adam4Adam, which bills itself as a chat room and “dating and hookup” website for gay men. Documents also indicate that M.B. told investigators he first visited Clementi in his dorm room Sept. 16 and that they had sex.
The defense, in an attempt to show that Ravi was not out to intimidate or harass Clementi, cited a text he sent Clementi the night of Sept. 22.
In the text, Ravi apologized for any “petty misunderstanding” and said he felt “guilt” over the “distorted and disturbing” rumors about the video iChat incident.
Prosecutors described the message, sent at 8:56 p.m., as “one of many attempts by (Ravi) to dilute, cover up and ... tamper with the facts and to fabricate evidence.”
No one knows whether Clementi ever read the texted apology.
Minutes before it was sent, he posted on Facebook from his cellphone. He changed his status to “jumping off the gw bridge.”
“Sorry,” he wrote.
AMX-2011-09-13T10:37:00-04:00<
Compassion creates a family: A seriously ill young transgender woman and a middle-age nun form a bond
By Alexandra Zavis
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - Sister Margaret Farrell peers uncertainly over her shoulder as she tries to maneuver a lumbering minivan across several lanes of morning traffic on the Hollywood Freeway.
“I used to drive a cute little nun’s car,” she says, shaking her head.
Her 23-year-old passenger, Leane, chuckles and leans out the window to guide her.
They make a cheerful pair: the Irish nun and the transgender woman.
Leane was kicked out of home at 13 and spent years cycling between group homes and the streets. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with late-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Her mother, she says, would have nothing to do with her. So Sister Margaret became the family she wished she had, ferrying her to hospital appointments and supporting her through months of grueling treatment.
Both say the unlikely friendship has been a source of strength and inspiration. Now Leane is worried about some lumps on her neck. They are headed from a Hollywood homeless shelter to the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., to find out if the cancer is back.
___
Sister Margaret, 51, grew up on a farm in southwest Ireland. County Cork is known as the “rebel county” for its history of resistance to English Protestant rule. But her Catholic parents insisted that their children be respectful of their Protestant neighbors.
“Whatever they were or weren’t, it was none of our business,” she said.
At 22, she joined the Religious Sisters of Charity, an order founded in Dublin in 1815.
“I’m not a holy, pious person, but I was always involved in social justice,” she said. “I guess that’s what my big thing was, to see where I could fulfill this need, this urge I had inside me to do something for the poor.”
In 1998, the order sent her to California, where she lives in a Culver City apartment block with four other nuns.
Through her work with juvenile offenders, she learned about Covenant House California, which operates a shelter and transitional housing for homeless teenagers and young adults in Hollywood. The nonprofit, part of an international network of shelters founded by a Franciscan priest in 1969, was looking for someone to tend to the spiritual needs of the residents, who come from all faiths.
“Ten years later, I’m still there,” Sister Margaret said.
The first time Sister Margaret attended Mass at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in her adopted Hollywood parish, a mother told the congregation how she had come to accept her two gay sons.
“It was surprising to see it done so openly,” Sister Margaret said. “It was great.”
She was soon reminded that such acceptance is not universal. Gay and transgender youth make up a disproportionate share of Covenant House residents. Many of them tell her they were kicked out of religious homes where they were taught that homosexuality is a sin and that they are going to Hell.
Sister Margaret’s tiny, cluttered office has become their sanctuary. There, amid piles of donated clothes and toiletries, they know they will find a bracing cup of tea and a sympathetic ear.
“I always tell them Jesus said, ‘Do not judge and you shall not be judged,’ so I’m not going to judge anybody,” she said.
___
Leane was born with a boy’s body. But by age 5, she knew that she wanted to be a girl.
“I put on some high heels and I just loved how it made me feel,” she said, a dreamy look on her face. “Not the baggy clothes that I was forced to wear.”
She says her parents would punish her when they caught her in her mother’s shoes and makeup. When her mother remarried, her stepfather asked if she was gay. Leane said no.
“I liked boys and I wanted to be a woman, so I was straight,” she said.
She spoke about her life on condition she be identified only as Leane. The Los Angeles Times was able to confirm parts of her account from public records and other sources. Attempts to reach her mother were unsuccessful. Other family members declined to be interviewed.
Leane said she ran away frequently from her home in Lancaster, but authorities would find her and send her back, to endure another “whupping.” At 13, she was arrested for truancy and sent to juvenile hall. Her mother, she said, refused to take her back.
“She just gave me up like I was trash. ... I told her I want to be a woman and she said you are not going to be a woman in this house.”
She was sent to a group home for gay and lesbian adolescents, but she chafed at the rules and continued to run away.
By 15, she was selling her body in Hollywood to pay for hotel rooms because she didn’t want to sleep on the streets.
It was dangerous work. Leane said she was held up at gunpoint, raped, robbed. One client stabbed her in the chest and left her bleeding on the sidewalk. She was 16.
But she found acceptance among the transgender prostitutes who work Santa Monica Boulevard and other parts of Hollywood. The money was fast and intoxicating. She could afford to dress the way she had always wanted.
“You name it, I bought it: shoes, purses, hair, makeup,” she said. “Every night was a fashion show.”
Her favorite look featured a wig of long brown hair with bangs, which she combined with tight jeans and glittery eye-shadow. She got high on crystal meth and learned where to go for black-market hormones. The estrogen injections made her face smoother, her chest fuller, her hips curvier.
“I thought, ‘This is finally who you’re meant to be,’” she said.
She did not suspect she was ill until a lump appeared on her neck. Doctors at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center delivered the news: Without treatment, she had about six months to live.
After surgery and a year of chemotherapy, she thought she had beaten the lymphoma. Then her back started to hurt. One day, she woke up in a Hollywood hotel room and couldn’t walk. Terrified and alone, she dialed 911.
___
At first, Leane didn’t know what to make of the diminutive woman who burst into her hospital room and chatted merrily in a thick Irish accent.
She thought nuns dressed in religious habits. But Sister Margaret showed up at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank in jeans and a sweater, her hair in a bob. Hospital staff members had called Covenant House for help: Leane was homeless, and the hospital couldn’t discharge her to the streets.
Leane weighed less than 100 pounds, she could barely walk and her hair was falling out in clumps.
“I couldn’t even look at myself. I was just disgusted,” she said. “And when the drugs and the money are gone, who is there? Nobody.”
Sister Margaret was there. She brought Leane fresh clothes, distracted her with gossip magazines and indulged her cravings for Toaster Strudel.
“She didn’t judge me,” Leane said. “That was how my mom was supposed to be, how she was supposed to treat me. But she never did.”
After another round of surgery and more chemotherapy at County-USC, Leane’s doctors told her there was nothing more they could do. Leane wouldn’t give up. She was referred to City of Hope, where doctors recommended more aggressive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
A social worker sat down with Leane and Sister Margaret to prepare them. Leane would need a room of her own to avoid infections and someone to take her to appointments and support her through the pain, nausea and vomiting.
“I was thinking, “Oh, my God ... and she lives in a homeless shelter,’” Sister Margaret said.
Together, they prepared Leane’s final directives.
“In my last hour, I asked for someone to please hold my hand,” Leane said. “And if some godly music was available, I would like some godly prayer music to be played.”
Leane was desperate to see her mother. Sister Margaret got ahold of her stepfather by phone and explained the gravity of the situation. He told her Leane’s mother wasn’t interested.
“It was so tragic,” Sister Margaret said. “She’s a human being. It doesn’t matter what she is or isn’t. That’s why I took her on as my project.”
___
Leane has shelves full of wigs, makeup and fancy shoes. But since the stem-cell transplant in December, she rarely bothers with them. They are relics of a life she is determined to put behind her. These days she’d rather be in sweat pants and sneakers, with perhaps a pair of stud earrings to add a little sparkle.
“I have learned to be comfortable in my own skin,” she says. “I know that I’m a woman in my heart and in my mind. So it doesn’t really matter how I dress.”
Leane returns to City of Hope regularly for tests and has been hospitalized several times with infections and other complications.
When she doesn’t have medical appointments, she likes to accompany Sister Margaret on her rounds to collect donations for Covenant House and go with her to church on Sundays. She recently moved from Covenent House into an apartment subsidized by the shelter and is planning to study for the high school equivalency exam. She thinks she might become a nurse.
“I’d like to help other people who are sick,” she says. “Because I know how much it means to me and how it makes me feel to know that you have someone taking care of you.”
In the van, Leane’s face brightens as they pull into City of Hope. She feels at home here, she says. Sister Margaret points out the flower beds, which are bursting with color.
“Remember, we sat in the gardens sometimes,” she says.
“And read our gossip magazines,” Leane adds.
Inside, her oncologist, Dr. Joseph Alvarnas, checks the lumps on her neck.
“These feel like salivary glands to me. These don’t feel like lymph nodes,” he tells her. Together, they go over her latest scans.
“We don’t see any big tumor masses that we would worry about,” Alvarnas says. “I’m very happy.”
Leane and Sister Margaret exchange high fives.
“We did a great job, girl,” Leane says.
“Yes, girl!” Sister Margaret replies.
(c)2011 the Los Angeles Times
AMX-2011-09-13T08:02:00-04:00<
2 women circumvent French ban on same-sex marriage
By Clare Byrne
dpa
PARIS - Two women were legally married over the weekend in France, despite gay marriage being banned in the country, an organization that campaigns for gay rights announced Tuesday.
The French chapter of IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, announced that its vice president, Sophie Lichten, and her partner, Sarah, said “I do” in a civil ceremony in the town of Montreuil, near Paris, on Saturday.
The marriage was possible because the French state considers, Lichten, who is transsexual, to be a man, Comite IDAHO explained in a statement.
“Transsexuals are discriminated against in France. Often the state refuses to give them identity papers that correspond to their true sex,” Comite IDAHO said.
“Paradoxically, it’s this discrimination that allowed Sophie Lichten, a male citizen in the eyes of the law, to marry her partner, in a completely legal manner.”
The marriage was not the first such marriage, the group said, relating that a couple called Elise and Stephanie, one of whom is a transsexual, tied the knot in the eastern city of Nancy in June.
France does not allow gay marriage.
The closest thing in France is the civil union known as PACS, which allows two adults of the same or the opposite sex to form a union, principally for tax purposes.
___
(c)2011 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)
AMX-2011-09-13T15:11:00-04:00<
Program seeks to prevent tragic decisions by LGBTQ youths
By Kristin E. Holmes
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA - When Alena Kearney was a 15-year-old Catholic girl, she was sure God hated her.
Kearney, now a Widener University doctoral student, grew up in central Pennsylvania as part of a family for whom church life was all-encompassing. She had by then realized that she was bisexual.
The thought of a life estranged from her faith community terrified her, and in school, where she had been outed, Kearney was the subject of a stinging whispering campaign.
She wound up depressed, hospitalized, and near suicide.
Philip A. Rutter, an assistant professor at Widener, has begun a project to examine experiences like Kearney’s. He is embarking on research he hopes will develop intervention strategies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youths who might be on the brink of an unthinkable decision.
Rutter, 46, is examining factors that could help lead to or prevent suicide. His goal is to find ways to build up the protective factors such as social support, resiliency, emotional stability, and optimism. Those factors will, in turn, reduce risks, including isolation, poor coping skills, and feelings of hopelessness.
People are coming out at younger ages - a few as young as 10 and 11, Rutter said. “It’s great they are feeling courageous, but what are the environmental and peer responses and how ready are (the young people) to handle it.”
Rutter is seeking grants for the work, along with fellow researchers Sanjay Nath, an associate dean, and director of the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener, and Linda Hawkins, clinical coordinator of the Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia, which promotes the acceptance of LGBTQ youth.
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. Questioning youth are three times more likely.
“We need to do a much better job of supporting our young people and any effort must first take into account the additional stresses these youth experience because of their sexual orientation,” said David McFarland, interim executive director and chief executive officer of the Trevor Project, a California-based organization whose mission is to end LGBTQ suicide.
Nurit Shein, executive director of the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, sees the debilitating results of bullying, trauma, and rejection daily at the center, which provides comprehensive health services to the LGBT community.
Shein says research needs to delve deeper into the traumatic lives many face.
Rutter, a member of the LGBT Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, will compare high school and college-age youth to see how the factors might change over time, and will also study young people who are ethnic minorities for differences that may be attributable to cultural upbringing.
Rutter, a psychologist, views his work as a part of his hope to be a visible role model to LGBT teens who see the future as bleak partly because they have little experience seeing LGBT adults living happy lives.
Such role models were scarce when Rutter was growing up.
He realized he was gay when he was a 15-year-old in Catholic school, but he did not come out until he was a 24-year-old graduate student at Temple University.
There, he found a supportive community that also included his family and friends. A welcoming and accepting environment is also one of the protective factors needed to guard against suicide.
When Kearney, now 26 and living in Philadelphia, looks back, she can see her life in terms of the risks and protective factors.
She felt isolated spending many nights alone in her room, but she had several teachers whom she could talk to. Her coping skills were lacking, and she “self-medicated” through some of her ordeal.
“My optimism may have been my strongest protective factor,” Kearney said. “I always knew that I wanted a career.”
Kearney got a therapist and began to get well. Now, she is a therapist herself, a byproduct of her own experience, Kearney said, “and I can’t imagine my life being anything else.”
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(c)2011 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com
AMX-2011-09-12T08:11:00-04:00<
Changing of the guard
By Franco Ordonez
McClatchy Newspapers
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Next week, openly gay men and women will be able to serve in the U.S. military.
At Fort Jackson, it’s Capt. Guy Allsup’s job to ensure that recruits in Charlie Company now realize a soldier is a soldier: gay or straight.
The 29-year-old recently walked 231 nervous basic training recruits through scenarios.
Soldiers won’t be asked their sexual orientation. After Sept. 20, they won’t be kicked out of the armed services simply for acknowledging they are gay. Hand-holding and other forms of public affection on base won’t be tolerated. That goes for a guy and girl, or a guy and a guy.
“Does anybody think that this is going to be a drastic change for deployed soldiers?” Allsup called out to the group.
“No, sir,” they yelled.
“Someone give me a reason why not,” Allsup said.
Pvt. Umberto Werner, 18, of Fayetteville, Ga., stood at attention. He looked straight ahead, clutching his M-16.
“Sexual orientation has nothing to do with our mission, sir,” he said.
“I’ll buy that,” replied Allsup.
Sessions like these are happening at military bases across the U.S., and in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon says it has trained more than 2 million men and women in uniform.
The 18-year-old policy expires after years of emotionally charged debate about whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in the military. Some troops feel the repeal could be a distraction on the battlefield; others contend it violates their personal and religious beliefs.
Interviews with troops at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, and Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, reflect the mix of emotions about ending “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
About 14,000 gay service members have been discharged since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was enacted in 1993. But soon, gays and lesbians will no longer have to hide their sexual orientation or pretend they’re straight.
They will still lack some benefits. Gay couples will not be eligible to live in family housing or receive health benefits for their partners because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996.
Pvt. Brandon Eleby, 19, of Durham, N.C., was raised by his godmother, who is gay. He echoed other recruits, who said the change is less dramatic for their generation, which has grown up with a more high-profile gay community. “I never saw it as a big deal,” Eleby said.
Allsup served 14 months in Iraq. While stationed in Sadr City, one of the most dangerous parts of Baghdad, Allsup said a member of his unit came out to him.
“At one point, he said, ‘Hey, Guy, I’m homosexual,’ “ Allsup recalled. “I said, ‘Got it.’ And we moved on.”
Knowing the soldier was gay, Allsup said, made no difference in their relationship.
Many gay soldiers will finally be able to serve without fear of losing their jobs, current and former service members say.
“I’ve looked forward to this day since the day that I raised my hand and joined the service,” said a 42-year-old captain at Fort Bragg. “I lost a seven-year relationship when I joined the Army. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ played a huge role in the end of the relationship.”
The captain, who asked that his name not be used because the policy is in effect until Sept. 20, said he will no longer need to censor himself when he talks about weekend plans or is asked whether he and his “wife” would like to come over for dinner.
“That feeling of a burden is going away,” said Jonathan Hopkins, a former Army captain who was honorably discharged in August 2010. “It’s like carrying a heavy rucksack for 20 miles. You feel like a new person when you take it off.”
Hopkins, who is on the board of OutServe, a network of anonymous gay service members, said training sessions like those conducted at Fort Jackson have been professional.
The anxiety surrounding the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” is similar to that felt in 1976, when the first women enrolled at the military academies, said Aubrey Sarvis, the executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
“Some thought it would be the fall of West Point and the Naval Academy,” he said. “They’re still standing.”
A Pentagon survey of 115,000 service members last year found that 70 percent of U.S. troops felt gay men and lesbians who are out could serve without a negative effect. Thirty percent predicted “concerns about the impact of a repeal.”
At Fort Bragg, some critics of the repeal said it would add to the burdens on soldiers, officers and their families, who are stressed from repeated tours of duty in multiple wars.
Sgt. Shawn McClellan of the 82nd Airborne Division said he may be in Afghanistan when the repeal takes place. He hopes his unit’s soldiers will be focused and disciplined.
But he worries that younger, less experienced ones will be affected. It’s not only about sexual advances, he said. McClellan, 25, of Linden, N.C., said soldiers could be distracted by the gossip if word spreads that a member is gay. A soldier could also be picked on and targeted for being gay.
“It can take away from the mindset that they’re at war,” he said. “ ... I think it also makes our country look weaker.”
Other Fort Bragg soldiers disagreed. While some are still leery of the change, Pvt. 2nd Class John Clifton, 22, said the Army is too large for everyone to have the same opinion.
“If everyone keeps true to the Army values, it shouldn’t matter,” he said. “Regardless of the relationship, you’re not allowed to show public displays of affection. ... You’re more worried about each other having your back instead of looking at your back.”
SPC Marquea Hoyett, 24, of the 82nd Airborne, said most concerns are overblown. Hoyett, who is bisexual, said a gay soldier is just as likely to take a bullet for a fellow soldier as a straight one.
“There are a lot of gay people in the Army,” she said. “We’re already in here. Has it affected anything? We’re still fighting for our country.”
Of all services, the Marine Corps has least welcomed the repeal. In a Pentagon survey, nearly 60 percent of Marine respondents said their unit’s effectiveness “in a field environment or out at sea” would be negatively affected by repeal.
A Marine corporal who is based at Camp Lejeune but deployed to Afghanistan said she was not surprised by the survey results.
The 23-year-old, who is co-leader of the North Carolina chapter of OutServe, estimates there are about 400 gay or lesbian Marines based at Camp Lejeune, near Jacksonville, N.C.
In email interviews, she said she came out to her unit and hasn’t felt any backlash. Some asked why she hadn’t come out sooner, and told her: “I have tons of girls that I can introduce you to.”
She said Marines are more accepting of a female who is a lesbian, but the majority of Marines are men and they have a tougher time accepting a male Marine who is gay.
“In their eyes, male Marines are ‘manly,’ “ she said. “They are brothers and should not be involved with homosexual conduct.”
Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos was one of the most vocal opponents, arguing it could be a distraction at a time of war. But during congressional hearings, Amos said Marines would follow the law.
“I want to be clear to all Marines: We will step out smartly to faithfully implement this new law,” Amos said in a training video.
After a full day of drills in 90-degree heat at Fort Jackson, the members of Charlie Company filed into the large classroom with cement walls. Most of the soldiers are in their late teens and early 20s.
Allsup and 1st Sgt. Joseph Mulready, who helped conduct the training session, acknowledged that some of their recruits may be uncomfortable around gay soldiers. Recruits were told they are free to believe what they want, but cannot let their beliefs infringe on their duties.
There were a few chuckles during the nearly two-hour class. A couple of recruits were ordered to the back of the room for calisthenics after falling asleep. But most listened attentively, clutching their M-16s, and stood at attention when answering Allsup’s questions about religious differences, discrimination and sexual harassment.
Pfc. Jessica Reyes, 22, asked whether the change in policy would be grounds to be released after Sept. 20, because she and others signed their Army contracts when “don’t ask, don’t tell” was in effect. After the session, she said some recruits discussed whether they could leave the Army because the repeal violated their religious beliefs.
Allsup told the recruits that when they joined the Army they “gave up the ability to be different from the crowd” - a civilian. They signed up to be soldiers, he said. They signed up to accept the ethical and moral foundation that governs the Army.
“Did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘I swear I will only serve under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ “
“No, sir,” they yelled.
___
(c)2011 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com
AMX-2011-09-11T08:00:00-04:00<
Teen gets five years for attack on transgender woman at McDonald’s
By Andrea F. Siegel
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE - After a teenage girl was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for beating a transgender woman at a McDonald’s in Rosedale, some advocates for transgender people called the sentence too lenient.
“The whole incident is unfortunate and demonstrates the lack of knowledge and understanding, and discrimination against transgender people,” said Patrick Wojahn, board president of the Equality Maryland Foundation. “If anything, five years may have been too short of an amount of time for the attack and the amount of hatred that was shown in the incident.”
Joseline Pena-Melnyk agreed. “Five years is not enough for what she did. It was really horrible - nobody should do something like that to another human being,” said Pena-Melnyk, who represents parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties. She proposed legislation to prevent employers, creditors and others from discriminating against transgender people, but the measure failed in the 2011 General Assembly.
Teonna Monae Brown, 19, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime in the beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, 22. The April attack drew national attention after a video went viral online, and it became a rallying point for transgender-rights advocates.
Brown, who tearfully apologized in court Tuesday, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with five years suspended, plus three years of supervised probation, as prosecutors sought. The maximum sentence for the crimes is 35 years.
Vincent Paolo Villano, a spokesman for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the group’s focus is not Brown’s sentence, but the hope that “people use this as an opportunity to educate other people.” The point, he said, is that “everyone is treated fairly and equally.”
Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Grason Turnbull II called Brown’s attack on Polis “absolutely outrageous behavior” and said the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation was “more than reasonable.”
After the sentencing, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said that “it was very important that even though this defendant has no criminal record, that she receive substantial time in jail.” He said the violence of the repeated assaults warranted it.
“I don’t care who the victim is. This was not a political statement,” he said.
Shellenberger said surveillance video from the McDonald’s in eastern Baltimore County showed that Polis was not bothering Brown and the other teen charged in the attack. Police learned that Polis went into an empty women’s bathroom and was attacked as she came out, after the teens had complained to a McDonald’s employee that a man went into the ladies’ room, he said.
“This is the harshest penalty I have ever seen handed down to an 18-year-old first-time offender in a case of assault,” Timothy Knepp, Brown’s lawyer, said later. He called the case “a tragic set of circumstances that was really overblown by the state’s attorney’s office.”
In court, Brown asked for a second chance and apologized for the attack.
“My mother didn’t raise me like this,” Brown said before her lawyer asked the judge for probation only. “I would really like to apologize to the victim.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Rachel Cogen said Polis was too upset to come to court.
In an emotional statement submitted to the court, Polis wrote that she did not forgive Brown and her 14-year-old companion for the attack. She described a demeaning attack in which Brown and the younger girl spat on her, called her names, kicked her and pulled out her hair.
“While being beaten, I felt like I was going to die that day,” Polis wrote. After the beatings, her epileptic seizures, which had stopped for a year, started again and became more frequent, she added.
She has suffered emotional damage as well, Polis wrote.
“My private life has been exposed to the world. I lost my job. I cannot go anywhere without the fear of getting hurt again,” Polis wrote. “I want to go into a hole and hide.”
Polis wrote that she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers from sleep problems, anguish, fear of being alone, bouts of crying and anxiety. She has been admitted twice to a crisis center.
Vicky Thoms, 55, a bystander who was punched in the face when she tried to intervene in the beating, attended the sentencing. Afterward, she said she did not know if justice was served, but hoped that Brown and others would take away a message about the world needing more love and less violence.
She has also had difficulty coping with the experience. “It’s hard to go outside,” she said. “I never dreamed that I would see anything like that in my life.”
Turnbull watched the videotapes of the April 18 attack - one taken by a McDonald’s employee that was posted online and the surveillance footage from McDonald’s. The employee’s video showed Polis being kicked and struck in the head, then dragged by the hair across the floor.
The attack brought nationwide attention to the plight of transgender people, and thousands signed online petitions or attended rallies. Soon after, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said he would work with lawmakers on legislation to provide more protections for transgender people.
The 14-year-old girl charged as a juvenile in the attack admitted her responsibility July 1. She remains in juvenile detention facility, prosecutors said.
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(c)2011 The Baltimore Sun
Visit The Baltimore Sun at www.baltimoresun.com
AMX-2011-09-13T22:44:00-04:00<
NCAA adopts new policy on transgender athletes
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NCAA is adopting a new policy regarding transgender athletes.
The NCAA says athletes who have testosterone in their systems from medical treatment will not be allowed to compete against women’s teams in gender-specific sports at NCAA championships. They will be allowed, however, to compete against men.
The exception is if a male is transitioning to being a female. The athlete would then have to provide documentation showing they had testosterone suppression treatment for one calendar year. The athlete would then have to continue to document the medical treatment each successive year to remain eligible for a women’s team in postseason play.
The NCAA says individual schools can continue to make their own decisions about eligibility during regular-season play.
Chaz Bono ignores controversy, focuses on dance
By SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Chaz Bono isn’t thinking about the controversy surrounding his casting on “Dancing With the Stars.” He says he’s been flooded with fan support and is focused on the cha-cha.
Bono is the show’s first transgender contestant, and some viewers and conservative media groups have responded to his casting with hateful blog posts and calls for a boycott of the hit ABC show.
But at a Wednesday rehearsal in Los Angeles, the 42-year-old author and activist said he hasn’t looked at the negative posts on the network’s website and has received loads of support from fans on Twitter.
Bono, who began learning dance moves last week, says the controversy “hasn’t taken any type of negative toll on me at all” and that he remains intent on perfecting the dance routine he’ll perform in front of millions of viewers when the show premieres later this month.
Poll: Near-split in US over legal gay marriage
By LAURIE KELLMAN and JENNIFER AGIESTA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barbara Von Aspern loves her daughter, “thinks the world” of the person her daughter intends to marry and believes the pair should have the same legal rights as anyone else. It pains her, but Von Aspern is going to skip their wedding. Her daughter, Von Aspern explains, is marrying another woman.
“We love them to death, and we love them without being judgmental,” the 62-year-old Chandler, Ariz., retiree said. “But the actual marriage I cannot agree with.”
It’s complicated, this question of legitimizing gay marriage. Americans are grappling with it from their homes to the halls of government in the shadow of a presidential election next year. The ambivalence is reflected in a new poll that shows the nation is passionate, conflicted and narrowly split on same-sex marriage.
Fifty-three percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed believe the government should give legal recognition to marriages between couples of the same sex, about the same as last year, according to the nationwide telephone poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center. Forty-four percent were opposed.
People are similarly conflicted over what, if anything, the government should do about the issue.
Support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage has shifted in recent years, from a narrow majority opposed in 2009 to narrow majority support now. Some of the shift stems from a generational divide, with the new poll showing a majority of Americans under age 65 in favor of legal recognition for same-sex marriages, and a majority of seniors opposed.
In some places, government has moved ahead while the nation debates. New York in July became the sixth state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize same-sex marriage. Still, the issue played a part in the special election Tuesday to replace disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. Democrat David Weprin’s support for gay marriage cost him support among the district’s Orthodox Jews, and he lost to Republican Bob Turner.
Also Tuesday, lawmakers in North Carolina, the only state in the Southeast that does not have language in its constitution banning gay marriage, voted to put the question on the 2012 ballot. Most Americans who live in states where gay marriage is not already legal say it is unlikely their state will pass such a law; just 20 percent think it is likely to become law in their state.
Americans also are conflicted on how to go about legalizing or outlawing gay marriage.
One option is banning gay marriage by constitutional amendment. About half of the poll’s respondents, 48 percent, said they would favor such an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Most who feel this way do so intensely. About 40 percent would strongly favor such a change. Forty-three percent said they would oppose such an amendment, and 8 percent were neutral, according to the poll.
Most - 55 percent - believe the issue should be handled at the state level, however, and opinions on how states should act are split. People are about evenly divided on whether their states should allow same-sex marriages - 42 percent favor that and 45 percent are opposed - and tilt in favor of state laws that allow gay couples to form civil unions - 47 percent in favor, 38 percent opposed and 13 percent neutral, according to the poll.
“The different moral standards in different areas, probably, are the biggest reason that same-sex marriages are an issue,” said Dale Shoemaker, 54, a military retiree from Boise, Idaho. If gay couples who want to get married live in a state that doesn’t allow it, they can move to one that does, he said.
Either way, gay couples “should have benefits,” Shoemaker said. “If they’re living together and cohabitating and are a couple, (they should have) the insurance and retirement and that type of thing, the monetary benefits.”
Nearly 6 in 10 (57 percent) in the poll shared Shoemaker’s take when it comes to government benefits. They said same-sex couples should be entitled to the same legal benefits as married couples of the opposite sex. Forty percent felt the government should distinguish between them.
The poll did uncover some inequities. It suggests, for example, that opponents of same-sex marriage were far more apt to say that the issue is one of deep importance to them. Forty-four percent of those polled called it extremely or very important for them personally. Among those who favor legal marriage for gay couples, 32 percent viewed the issue as that important.
Von Aspern is an example of an American whose opposition to gay marriage is deep and abiding. It’s based on her religion - she is Mormon - and as such it overrode other considerations when it came to her daughter’s wedding.
“It was very difficult,” Von Aspern says. “We had to bring them to the house and hug them and love them and tell them these things and not let that keep us apart.”
General foresees muted response to gay ban repeal
By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Army general who co-directed a Pentagon study on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military said Wednesday that repeal is likely to prove “pretty inconsequential.”
Gen. Carter Ham said he expects civilians who strongly oppose the move - and some gay rights advocates - will voice their views when the repeal takes Tuesday. But inside the military the prevailing attitude likely will be business-as-usual, with no call for further debate about the merits of repeal, he said.
“My hope, my expectation, my belief is that it will be pretty inconsequential,” he told The Associated Press in a brief interview. His comments echoed the prevailing view among senior U.S. military and civilian officials at the Pentagon, who think repeal will largely be taken in stride.
Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, co-chaired a Pentagon group that in 2010 studied how to implement a repeal law, which was subsequently passed by Congress in December. Some in Congress, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., have criticized President Barack Obama’s decision in July to certify that repeal of the ban would not harm the military’s ability to fight.
Homosexuality has been prohibited in the military since World War I, and for years recruits were screened and questioned about their sexual orientation. Then-President Bill Clinton relaxed the policy in 1993, saying the military could not ask recruits or serving members about their sexual orientation, and gays could serve as long as they did not openly disclose their status. That law became known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The Army’s new chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, said last week that he does not expect to make any public pronouncement when repeal takes effect next week.
“We’re beyond that now,” Odierno said. “I’m not concerned it. I think we’ll be okay.”
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Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
NORTH CAROLINA VOTERS TO DECIDE ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
BY KIM SEVERSON
c.2011 New York Times News Service
ATLANTA -- North Carolina on Tuesday took a big step toward losing its status as the last state in the Southeast without a constitutional amendment making it clear that marriage is legal only when there is a bride and bridegroom.
The Senate, in a 30-16 vote, agreed to let voters decide during the May primaries whether the state Constitution should ban same-sex marriage. The House approved the measure the day before, 75-42.
It is already illegal for people of the same sex to marry in North Carolina. If the amendment passes, it will serve to reinforce that ban and make it more difficult for future legislatures to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.
It could also call into question domestic partnership benefits offered by public institutions and the application of domestic violence laws, said Holning Lau, an associate professor of law at the University of North Carolina. The proposal also would bar the state from sanctioning civil unions. Originally, backers wanted the issue on the ballot in November 2012, where it might help attract voters more likely to vote against President Barack Obama and Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat. To quell accusations that the ballot initiative was driven solely by politics, the date was moved to the state’s primary election in May.
Instead, the timing may help ensure passage of the measure, as it will probably receive significant support from those drawn to the polls by the main event: the Republican presidential primary.
As it has in the 29 other states where same-sex marriage is constitutionally illegal, the issue of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples has been divisive in North Carolina. For nearly a decade, the Democratic-controlled Legislature held off efforts by social conservatives to change the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
But with Republicans now in control of both houses, the movement to put the matter to voters found enough support to squeeze through the Legislature.
The issue brought out people to rally on both sides. The Rev. Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh calls homosexuality a “deathstyle” and has long fought against those who equate the battle for gay rights with other civil rights struggles.
Wooden called Tuesday “a great day for the citizens of this great state.”
“They will overwhelmingly support this measure,” he said. “I do believe the majority of most Americans today still believe a marriage is a union between a man and a woman.”
But for people like Vicki Threlfall, 47, who married her partner, Molly O’Neill, in Massachusetts in 2004, it was a day to sit down with their 10-year-old daughter to try to explain it all.
“We told her that this is something about civil rights,” Threlfall said. “We said, ‘Do you remember a long time ago how African-Americans weren’t treated fairly? This is like that. There are a lot of people who are afraid and don’t know gay people."’
The ballot measure didn’t come as a surprise to many in the state. But it made Threlfall and others in cities like Chapel Hill and Raleigh, with large and prominent gay and lesbian communities, brace for months of what will surely be a heated debate over their lives. National organizations on both sides of the issue will be offering monetary and strategic support as the campaign heats up.
“Our intent is to defeat the amendment at polls,” said Alex Miller, the executive director of Equality NC, a statewide advocacy group that will be working with national organizations like the Human Rights Campaign.
“It has been a point of pride that North Carolina was the only Southern state that has never done this. But this is an ongoing war. They have succeeded in throwing up a temporary bulwark against the inevitable tide of history.”
AMX-2011-09-13T22:27:00-04:00<
Few clear answers in Rutgers webcam case
By George Anastasia
The Philadelphia Inquirer
TRENTON, N.J. - It is a case built around many indisputable facts, most gleaned from the text messages, emails and tweets that define the way a generation now communicates.
But there are few clear answers in the disturbing account of how Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi’s sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room was secretly viewed via his roommate’s computer webcam.
The incident has become the focus of international discussion about cyber-bullying and the difficulties faced by gay youth, a cause celebre fueled by intense media attention.
Yet defense attorneys for Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, say that spotlight has distorted and helped to criminalize what, at worst, were insensitive acts by their client.
The criminal prosecution is inextricably linked to Clementi’s decision to take his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010.
But the suicide has nothing to do with the charges against Ravi, which focus on his motivation and role in events that took place in Davidson Hall on the Piscataway, N.J., campus in the days leading up to Clementi’s death.
Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., has been charged with invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail.
The case moved a step closer to trial Friday when Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman rejected a defense motion seeking to have all charges dropped. Berman is expected to set a trial date at a hearing Oct. 20.
The defense motions and the prosecution’s response were supported by hundreds of pages of evidence, including emails, text messages and Twitter messages sent by Clementi and Ravi; testimony of law enforcement investigators; and statements from Rutgers students, including Ravi and Molly Wei, who - like Ravi - has left Rutgers. Wei, who was a fellow freshman, is charged in the case with invasion of privacy and is cooperating with authorities.
Rarely has so much information been publicly available before the start of a trial.
Here, based on those documents, is a look at some of the key issues and individuals who have surfaced in the investigation on which the case against Ravi is built.
Clementi, Ravi, Wei and an individual identified as “M.B.,” the man who visited Clementi’s room, are the central figures in the story.
Clementi, an 18-year-old from Ridgewood, N.J., is portrayed through his own words and those of friends as an introverted aspiring musician - he was an accomplished violinist - trying to establish his identity as a gay man.
Ravi, according to statements, text messages and his comments to law enforcement officials, is either outgoing or obnoxious, self-confident or self-absorbed. In the investigation, the self-described computer wonk emerges as someone who enjoyed calling attention to himself and never hesitated to use electronic media to do that.
During questioning by investigators Sept. 23, Ravi conceded that he probably had violated Clementi’s privacy. More complex is the question of whether he set out to harass and intimidate his roommate because Clementi was gay, a charge that carries more significant jail time.
Ravi also faces charges of tampering with evidence for, among other things, allegedly trying to alter or erase Twitter messages he sent between Sept. 19 and 21.
Though the common perception is that Clementi’s sexual encounter on Sept. 19 was streamed on the Internet, evidence indicates that it was seen live via an iChat webcam connected to Ravi’s laptop computer, and that only those linked to the video chat were able to watch it.
Ravi and Wei have told authorities they watched the tryst from Wei’s computer in her dorm room. Wei said she and other women from the dorm viewed the encounter later that night.
The second time, she said, Clementi and M.B. had their shirts off. On each occasion, Wei said, the video eavesdropping lasted “seconds.”
Both times, Wei said, Clementi and M.B. were seen “groping” and “kissing.” Because the encounter was shown live, authorities cannot retrieve the images.
Ravi said he did not know what to expect when he and Wei linked to his webcam.
“I just felt, like, really uncomfortable and, like, almost, like, guilty that I saw that,” Ravi told investigators during questioning Sept. 23.
During that session, he denied he was trying to harass Clementi.
Prosecutors say, however, that he almost gleefully texted friends, “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”
“It’s happening again,” Ravi said in a text message sent to friends Sept. 21, informing them that Clementi had again asked to have the dorm room to himself.
“I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12:00.”
Though the prosecution contends that Ravi had again set his computer in place to pick up the encounter, Ravi said he put it “to sleep” so no one could access it.
Upset after learning that the Sept. 19 visit from M.B. had been shown via Ravi’s iChat webcam, Clementi messaged a friend that he shut Ravi’s computer off on Sept. 21.
It does not appear that anyone saw the Sept. 21 encounter, despite Ravi’s mention in another message of a viewing “party.”
Both the “dare” and “party” comments were not meant to be taken literally, Ravi told investigators who recovered his text messages.
“I said that in a sarcastic way. ... That’s just the way I talk,” he said, adding that some of his friends were just “joking” about the party.
Wei, 19, has been described as a high school friend of Ravi’s. In an April 5 statement to investigators, however, she said she had distanced herself from him during their years at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School because she found him bombastic and egotistic.
She said Ravi made up stories, claiming that he was going to receive a basketball scholarship to Duke University, that he was “famous for snowboarding in Canada,” and that his picture “was on billboards all over India.”
She said she was surprised to find she had been assigned a room across the hall from his at Rutgers.
Wei has been admitted to a pretrial program that could result in the charges against her being dropped based on her cooperation and her participation in a counseling program.
She is expected to be a key trial witness.
Though the defense has contended that Clementi made light of the first webcam incident, text messages he sent two days later indicate he was upset.
He formally requested a room change, writing in an email to the dorm’s resident adviser in the early hours of Sept. 22, “I feel that my privacy has been violated and I am extremely uncomfortable sharing a room with someone who would act in this wildly inappropriate manner.”
But Clementi turned down an offer to be relocated immediately, according to a resident adviser at the dorm.
Though Clementi’s suicide is not mentioned in the indictment, the defense has contended it is the only reason Ravi faces serious charges.
Ravi’s lawyers allege that Clementi was struggling with issues related to his sexual orientation before he arrived at Rutgers.
Citing text messages Clementi sent to friends, they allege that he disclosed to his parents over the summer that he was gay, and that his mother was having problems dealing with it.
They also say that in July, before he met Ravi, Clementi took photos of the George Washington Bridge that were found on his cellphone.
M.B. has not yet been identified, but Judge Glenn Berman indicated Friday that the defense had a right to his name. That issue has not been resolved.
Wei and Ravi described him as an “older” man, about 25 or 26.
According to court documents, Clementi met M.B. through Adam4Adam, which bills itself as a chat room and “dating and hookup” website for gay men. Documents also indicate that M.B. told investigators he first visited Clementi in his dorm room Sept. 16 and that they had sex.
The defense, in an attempt to show that Ravi was not out to intimidate or harass Clementi, cited a text he sent Clementi the night of Sept. 22.
In the text, Ravi apologized for any “petty misunderstanding” and said he felt “guilt” over the “distorted and disturbing” rumors about the video iChat incident.
Prosecutors described the message, sent at 8:56 p.m., as “one of many attempts by (Ravi) to dilute, cover up and ... tamper with the facts and to fabricate evidence.”
No one knows whether Clementi ever read the texted apology.
Minutes before it was sent, he posted on Facebook from his cellphone. He changed his status to “jumping off the gw bridge.”
“Sorry,” he wrote.
AMX-2011-09-13T10:37:00-04:00<
Compassion creates a family: A seriously ill young transgender woman and a middle-age nun form a bond
By Alexandra Zavis
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - Sister Margaret Farrell peers uncertainly over her shoulder as she tries to maneuver a lumbering minivan across several lanes of morning traffic on the Hollywood Freeway.
“I used to drive a cute little nun’s car,” she says, shaking her head.
Her 23-year-old passenger, Leane, chuckles and leans out the window to guide her.
They make a cheerful pair: the Irish nun and the transgender woman.
Leane was kicked out of home at 13 and spent years cycling between group homes and the streets. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with late-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Her mother, she says, would have nothing to do with her. So Sister Margaret became the family she wished she had, ferrying her to hospital appointments and supporting her through months of grueling treatment.
Both say the unlikely friendship has been a source of strength and inspiration. Now Leane is worried about some lumps on her neck. They are headed from a Hollywood homeless shelter to the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., to find out if the cancer is back.
___
Sister Margaret, 51, grew up on a farm in southwest Ireland. County Cork is known as the “rebel county” for its history of resistance to English Protestant rule. But her Catholic parents insisted that their children be respectful of their Protestant neighbors.
“Whatever they were or weren’t, it was none of our business,” she said.
At 22, she joined the Religious Sisters of Charity, an order founded in Dublin in 1815.
“I’m not a holy, pious person, but I was always involved in social justice,” she said. “I guess that’s what my big thing was, to see where I could fulfill this need, this urge I had inside me to do something for the poor.”
In 1998, the order sent her to California, where she lives in a Culver City apartment block with four other nuns.
Through her work with juvenile offenders, she learned about Covenant House California, which operates a shelter and transitional housing for homeless teenagers and young adults in Hollywood. The nonprofit, part of an international network of shelters founded by a Franciscan priest in 1969, was looking for someone to tend to the spiritual needs of the residents, who come from all faiths.
“Ten years later, I’m still there,” Sister Margaret said.
The first time Sister Margaret attended Mass at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in her adopted Hollywood parish, a mother told the congregation how she had come to accept her two gay sons.
“It was surprising to see it done so openly,” Sister Margaret said. “It was great.”
She was soon reminded that such acceptance is not universal. Gay and transgender youth make up a disproportionate share of Covenant House residents. Many of them tell her they were kicked out of religious homes where they were taught that homosexuality is a sin and that they are going to Hell.
Sister Margaret’s tiny, cluttered office has become their sanctuary. There, amid piles of donated clothes and toiletries, they know they will find a bracing cup of tea and a sympathetic ear.
“I always tell them Jesus said, ‘Do not judge and you shall not be judged,’ so I’m not going to judge anybody,” she said.
___
Leane was born with a boy’s body. But by age 5, she knew that she wanted to be a girl.
“I put on some high heels and I just loved how it made me feel,” she said, a dreamy look on her face. “Not the baggy clothes that I was forced to wear.”
She says her parents would punish her when they caught her in her mother’s shoes and makeup. When her mother remarried, her stepfather asked if she was gay. Leane said no.
“I liked boys and I wanted to be a woman, so I was straight,” she said.
She spoke about her life on condition she be identified only as Leane. The Los Angeles Times was able to confirm parts of her account from public records and other sources. Attempts to reach her mother were unsuccessful. Other family members declined to be interviewed.
Leane said she ran away frequently from her home in Lancaster, but authorities would find her and send her back, to endure another “whupping.” At 13, she was arrested for truancy and sent to juvenile hall. Her mother, she said, refused to take her back.
“She just gave me up like I was trash. ... I told her I want to be a woman and she said you are not going to be a woman in this house.”
She was sent to a group home for gay and lesbian adolescents, but she chafed at the rules and continued to run away.
By 15, she was selling her body in Hollywood to pay for hotel rooms because she didn’t want to sleep on the streets.
It was dangerous work. Leane said she was held up at gunpoint, raped, robbed. One client stabbed her in the chest and left her bleeding on the sidewalk. She was 16.
But she found acceptance among the transgender prostitutes who work Santa Monica Boulevard and other parts of Hollywood. The money was fast and intoxicating. She could afford to dress the way she had always wanted.
“You name it, I bought it: shoes, purses, hair, makeup,” she said. “Every night was a fashion show.”
Her favorite look featured a wig of long brown hair with bangs, which she combined with tight jeans and glittery eye-shadow. She got high on crystal meth and learned where to go for black-market hormones. The estrogen injections made her face smoother, her chest fuller, her hips curvier.
“I thought, ‘This is finally who you’re meant to be,’” she said.
She did not suspect she was ill until a lump appeared on her neck. Doctors at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center delivered the news: Without treatment, she had about six months to live.
After surgery and a year of chemotherapy, she thought she had beaten the lymphoma. Then her back started to hurt. One day, she woke up in a Hollywood hotel room and couldn’t walk. Terrified and alone, she dialed 911.
___
At first, Leane didn’t know what to make of the diminutive woman who burst into her hospital room and chatted merrily in a thick Irish accent.
She thought nuns dressed in religious habits. But Sister Margaret showed up at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank in jeans and a sweater, her hair in a bob. Hospital staff members had called Covenant House for help: Leane was homeless, and the hospital couldn’t discharge her to the streets.
Leane weighed less than 100 pounds, she could barely walk and her hair was falling out in clumps.
“I couldn’t even look at myself. I was just disgusted,” she said. “And when the drugs and the money are gone, who is there? Nobody.”
Sister Margaret was there. She brought Leane fresh clothes, distracted her with gossip magazines and indulged her cravings for Toaster Strudel.
“She didn’t judge me,” Leane said. “That was how my mom was supposed to be, how she was supposed to treat me. But she never did.”
After another round of surgery and more chemotherapy at County-USC, Leane’s doctors told her there was nothing more they could do. Leane wouldn’t give up. She was referred to City of Hope, where doctors recommended more aggressive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
A social worker sat down with Leane and Sister Margaret to prepare them. Leane would need a room of her own to avoid infections and someone to take her to appointments and support her through the pain, nausea and vomiting.
“I was thinking, “Oh, my God ... and she lives in a homeless shelter,’” Sister Margaret said.
Together, they prepared Leane’s final directives.
“In my last hour, I asked for someone to please hold my hand,” Leane said. “And if some godly music was available, I would like some godly prayer music to be played.”
Leane was desperate to see her mother. Sister Margaret got ahold of her stepfather by phone and explained the gravity of the situation. He told her Leane’s mother wasn’t interested.
“It was so tragic,” Sister Margaret said. “She’s a human being. It doesn’t matter what she is or isn’t. That’s why I took her on as my project.”
___
Leane has shelves full of wigs, makeup and fancy shoes. But since the stem-cell transplant in December, she rarely bothers with them. They are relics of a life she is determined to put behind her. These days she’d rather be in sweat pants and sneakers, with perhaps a pair of stud earrings to add a little sparkle.
“I have learned to be comfortable in my own skin,” she says. “I know that I’m a woman in my heart and in my mind. So it doesn’t really matter how I dress.”
Leane returns to City of Hope regularly for tests and has been hospitalized several times with infections and other complications.
When she doesn’t have medical appointments, she likes to accompany Sister Margaret on her rounds to collect donations for Covenant House and go with her to church on Sundays. She recently moved from Covenent House into an apartment subsidized by the shelter and is planning to study for the high school equivalency exam. She thinks she might become a nurse.
“I’d like to help other people who are sick,” she says. “Because I know how much it means to me and how it makes me feel to know that you have someone taking care of you.”
In the van, Leane’s face brightens as they pull into City of Hope. She feels at home here, she says. Sister Margaret points out the flower beds, which are bursting with color.
“Remember, we sat in the gardens sometimes,” she says.
“And read our gossip magazines,” Leane adds.
Inside, her oncologist, Dr. Joseph Alvarnas, checks the lumps on her neck.
“These feel like salivary glands to me. These don’t feel like lymph nodes,” he tells her. Together, they go over her latest scans.
“We don’t see any big tumor masses that we would worry about,” Alvarnas says. “I’m very happy.”
Leane and Sister Margaret exchange high fives.
“We did a great job, girl,” Leane says.
“Yes, girl!” Sister Margaret replies.
(c)2011 the Los Angeles Times
AMX-2011-09-13T08:02:00-04:00<
2 women circumvent French ban on same-sex marriage
By Clare Byrne
dpa
PARIS - Two women were legally married over the weekend in France, despite gay marriage being banned in the country, an organization that campaigns for gay rights announced Tuesday.
The French chapter of IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, announced that its vice president, Sophie Lichten, and her partner, Sarah, said “I do” in a civil ceremony in the town of Montreuil, near Paris, on Saturday.
The marriage was possible because the French state considers, Lichten, who is transsexual, to be a man, Comite IDAHO explained in a statement.
“Transsexuals are discriminated against in France. Often the state refuses to give them identity papers that correspond to their true sex,” Comite IDAHO said.
“Paradoxically, it’s this discrimination that allowed Sophie Lichten, a male citizen in the eyes of the law, to marry her partner, in a completely legal manner.”
The marriage was not the first such marriage, the group said, relating that a couple called Elise and Stephanie, one of whom is a transsexual, tied the knot in the eastern city of Nancy in June.
France does not allow gay marriage.
The closest thing in France is the civil union known as PACS, which allows two adults of the same or the opposite sex to form a union, principally for tax purposes.
___
(c)2011 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)
AMX-2011-09-13T15:11:00-04:00<
Program seeks to prevent tragic decisions by LGBTQ youths
By Kristin E. Holmes
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA - When Alena Kearney was a 15-year-old Catholic girl, she was sure God hated her.
Kearney, now a Widener University doctoral student, grew up in central Pennsylvania as part of a family for whom church life was all-encompassing. She had by then realized that she was bisexual.
The thought of a life estranged from her faith community terrified her, and in school, where she had been outed, Kearney was the subject of a stinging whispering campaign.
She wound up depressed, hospitalized, and near suicide.
Philip A. Rutter, an assistant professor at Widener, has begun a project to examine experiences like Kearney’s. He is embarking on research he hopes will develop intervention strategies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youths who might be on the brink of an unthinkable decision.
Rutter, 46, is examining factors that could help lead to or prevent suicide. His goal is to find ways to build up the protective factors such as social support, resiliency, emotional stability, and optimism. Those factors will, in turn, reduce risks, including isolation, poor coping skills, and feelings of hopelessness.
People are coming out at younger ages - a few as young as 10 and 11, Rutter said. “It’s great they are feeling courageous, but what are the environmental and peer responses and how ready are (the young people) to handle it.”
Rutter is seeking grants for the work, along with fellow researchers Sanjay Nath, an associate dean, and director of the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener, and Linda Hawkins, clinical coordinator of the Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia, which promotes the acceptance of LGBTQ youth.
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. Questioning youth are three times more likely.
“We need to do a much better job of supporting our young people and any effort must first take into account the additional stresses these youth experience because of their sexual orientation,” said David McFarland, interim executive director and chief executive officer of the Trevor Project, a California-based organization whose mission is to end LGBTQ suicide.
Nurit Shein, executive director of the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, sees the debilitating results of bullying, trauma, and rejection daily at the center, which provides comprehensive health services to the LGBT community.
Shein says research needs to delve deeper into the traumatic lives many face.
Rutter, a member of the LGBT Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, will compare high school and college-age youth to see how the factors might change over time, and will also study young people who are ethnic minorities for differences that may be attributable to cultural upbringing.
Rutter, a psychologist, views his work as a part of his hope to be a visible role model to LGBT teens who see the future as bleak partly because they have little experience seeing LGBT adults living happy lives.
Such role models were scarce when Rutter was growing up.
He realized he was gay when he was a 15-year-old in Catholic school, but he did not come out until he was a 24-year-old graduate student at Temple University.
There, he found a supportive community that also included his family and friends. A welcoming and accepting environment is also one of the protective factors needed to guard against suicide.
When Kearney, now 26 and living in Philadelphia, looks back, she can see her life in terms of the risks and protective factors.
She felt isolated spending many nights alone in her room, but she had several teachers whom she could talk to. Her coping skills were lacking, and she “self-medicated” through some of her ordeal.
“My optimism may have been my strongest protective factor,” Kearney said. “I always knew that I wanted a career.”
Kearney got a therapist and began to get well. Now, she is a therapist herself, a byproduct of her own experience, Kearney said, “and I can’t imagine my life being anything else.”
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(c)2011 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com
AMX-2011-09-12T08:11:00-04:00<
Changing of the guard
By Franco Ordonez
McClatchy Newspapers
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Next week, openly gay men and women will be able to serve in the U.S. military.
At Fort Jackson, it’s Capt. Guy Allsup’s job to ensure that recruits in Charlie Company now realize a soldier is a soldier: gay or straight.
The 29-year-old recently walked 231 nervous basic training recruits through scenarios.
Soldiers won’t be asked their sexual orientation. After Sept. 20, they won’t be kicked out of the armed services simply for acknowledging they are gay. Hand-holding and other forms of public affection on base won’t be tolerated. That goes for a guy and girl, or a guy and a guy.
“Does anybody think that this is going to be a drastic change for deployed soldiers?” Allsup called out to the group.
“No, sir,” they yelled.
“Someone give me a reason why not,” Allsup said.
Pvt. Umberto Werner, 18, of Fayetteville, Ga., stood at attention. He looked straight ahead, clutching his M-16.
“Sexual orientation has nothing to do with our mission, sir,” he said.
“I’ll buy that,” replied Allsup.
Sessions like these are happening at military bases across the U.S., and in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon says it has trained more than 2 million men and women in uniform.
The 18-year-old policy expires after years of emotionally charged debate about whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in the military. Some troops feel the repeal could be a distraction on the battlefield; others contend it violates their personal and religious beliefs.
Interviews with troops at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, and Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, reflect the mix of emotions about ending “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
About 14,000 gay service members have been discharged since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was enacted in 1993. But soon, gays and lesbians will no longer have to hide their sexual orientation or pretend they’re straight.
They will still lack some benefits. Gay couples will not be eligible to live in family housing or receive health benefits for their partners because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996.
Pvt. Brandon Eleby, 19, of Durham, N.C., was raised by his godmother, who is gay. He echoed other recruits, who said the change is less dramatic for their generation, which has grown up with a more high-profile gay community. “I never saw it as a big deal,” Eleby said.
Allsup served 14 months in Iraq. While stationed in Sadr City, one of the most dangerous parts of Baghdad, Allsup said a member of his unit came out to him.
“At one point, he said, ‘Hey, Guy, I’m homosexual,’ “ Allsup recalled. “I said, ‘Got it.’ And we moved on.”
Knowing the soldier was gay, Allsup said, made no difference in their relationship.
Many gay soldiers will finally be able to serve without fear of losing their jobs, current and former service members say.
“I’ve looked forward to this day since the day that I raised my hand and joined the service,” said a 42-year-old captain at Fort Bragg. “I lost a seven-year relationship when I joined the Army. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ played a huge role in the end of the relationship.”
The captain, who asked that his name not be used because the policy is in effect until Sept. 20, said he will no longer need to censor himself when he talks about weekend plans or is asked whether he and his “wife” would like to come over for dinner.
“That feeling of a burden is going away,” said Jonathan Hopkins, a former Army captain who was honorably discharged in August 2010. “It’s like carrying a heavy rucksack for 20 miles. You feel like a new person when you take it off.”
Hopkins, who is on the board of OutServe, a network of anonymous gay service members, said training sessions like those conducted at Fort Jackson have been professional.
The anxiety surrounding the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” is similar to that felt in 1976, when the first women enrolled at the military academies, said Aubrey Sarvis, the executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
“Some thought it would be the fall of West Point and the Naval Academy,” he said. “They’re still standing.”
A Pentagon survey of 115,000 service members last year found that 70 percent of U.S. troops felt gay men and lesbians who are out could serve without a negative effect. Thirty percent predicted “concerns about the impact of a repeal.”
At Fort Bragg, some critics of the repeal said it would add to the burdens on soldiers, officers and their families, who are stressed from repeated tours of duty in multiple wars.
Sgt. Shawn McClellan of the 82nd Airborne Division said he may be in Afghanistan when the repeal takes place. He hopes his unit’s soldiers will be focused and disciplined.
But he worries that younger, less experienced ones will be affected. It’s not only about sexual advances, he said. McClellan, 25, of Linden, N.C., said soldiers could be distracted by the gossip if word spreads that a member is gay. A soldier could also be picked on and targeted for being gay.
“It can take away from the mindset that they’re at war,” he said. “ ... I think it also makes our country look weaker.”
Other Fort Bragg soldiers disagreed. While some are still leery of the change, Pvt. 2nd Class John Clifton, 22, said the Army is too large for everyone to have the same opinion.
“If everyone keeps true to the Army values, it shouldn’t matter,” he said. “Regardless of the relationship, you’re not allowed to show public displays of affection. ... You’re more worried about each other having your back instead of looking at your back.”
SPC Marquea Hoyett, 24, of the 82nd Airborne, said most concerns are overblown. Hoyett, who is bisexual, said a gay soldier is just as likely to take a bullet for a fellow soldier as a straight one.
“There are a lot of gay people in the Army,” she said. “We’re already in here. Has it affected anything? We’re still fighting for our country.”
Of all services, the Marine Corps has least welcomed the repeal. In a Pentagon survey, nearly 60 percent of Marine respondents said their unit’s effectiveness “in a field environment or out at sea” would be negatively affected by repeal.
A Marine corporal who is based at Camp Lejeune but deployed to Afghanistan said she was not surprised by the survey results.
The 23-year-old, who is co-leader of the North Carolina chapter of OutServe, estimates there are about 400 gay or lesbian Marines based at Camp Lejeune, near Jacksonville, N.C.
In email interviews, she said she came out to her unit and hasn’t felt any backlash. Some asked why she hadn’t come out sooner, and told her: “I have tons of girls that I can introduce you to.”
She said Marines are more accepting of a female who is a lesbian, but the majority of Marines are men and they have a tougher time accepting a male Marine who is gay.
“In their eyes, male Marines are ‘manly,’ “ she said. “They are brothers and should not be involved with homosexual conduct.”
Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos was one of the most vocal opponents, arguing it could be a distraction at a time of war. But during congressional hearings, Amos said Marines would follow the law.
“I want to be clear to all Marines: We will step out smartly to faithfully implement this new law,” Amos said in a training video.
After a full day of drills in 90-degree heat at Fort Jackson, the members of Charlie Company filed into the large classroom with cement walls. Most of the soldiers are in their late teens and early 20s.
Allsup and 1st Sgt. Joseph Mulready, who helped conduct the training session, acknowledged that some of their recruits may be uncomfortable around gay soldiers. Recruits were told they are free to believe what they want, but cannot let their beliefs infringe on their duties.
There were a few chuckles during the nearly two-hour class. A couple of recruits were ordered to the back of the room for calisthenics after falling asleep. But most listened attentively, clutching their M-16s, and stood at attention when answering Allsup’s questions about religious differences, discrimination and sexual harassment.
Pfc. Jessica Reyes, 22, asked whether the change in policy would be grounds to be released after Sept. 20, because she and others signed their Army contracts when “don’t ask, don’t tell” was in effect. After the session, she said some recruits discussed whether they could leave the Army because the repeal violated their religious beliefs.
Allsup told the recruits that when they joined the Army they “gave up the ability to be different from the crowd” - a civilian. They signed up to be soldiers, he said. They signed up to accept the ethical and moral foundation that governs the Army.
“Did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘I swear I will only serve under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ “
“No, sir,” they yelled.
___
(c)2011 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com
AMX-2011-09-11T08:00:00-04:00<
Teen gets five years for attack on transgender woman at McDonald’s
By Andrea F. Siegel
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE - After a teenage girl was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for beating a transgender woman at a McDonald’s in Rosedale, some advocates for transgender people called the sentence too lenient.
“The whole incident is unfortunate and demonstrates the lack of knowledge and understanding, and discrimination against transgender people,” said Patrick Wojahn, board president of the Equality Maryland Foundation. “If anything, five years may have been too short of an amount of time for the attack and the amount of hatred that was shown in the incident.”
Joseline Pena-Melnyk agreed. “Five years is not enough for what she did. It was really horrible - nobody should do something like that to another human being,” said Pena-Melnyk, who represents parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties. She proposed legislation to prevent employers, creditors and others from discriminating against transgender people, but the measure failed in the 2011 General Assembly.
Teonna Monae Brown, 19, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime in the beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, 22. The April attack drew national attention after a video went viral online, and it became a rallying point for transgender-rights advocates.
Brown, who tearfully apologized in court Tuesday, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with five years suspended, plus three years of supervised probation, as prosecutors sought. The maximum sentence for the crimes is 35 years.
Vincent Paolo Villano, a spokesman for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the group’s focus is not Brown’s sentence, but the hope that “people use this as an opportunity to educate other people.” The point, he said, is that “everyone is treated fairly and equally.”
Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Grason Turnbull II called Brown’s attack on Polis “absolutely outrageous behavior” and said the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation was “more than reasonable.”
After the sentencing, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said that “it was very important that even though this defendant has no criminal record, that she receive substantial time in jail.” He said the violence of the repeated assaults warranted it.
“I don’t care who the victim is. This was not a political statement,” he said.
Shellenberger said surveillance video from the McDonald’s in eastern Baltimore County showed that Polis was not bothering Brown and the other teen charged in the attack. Police learned that Polis went into an empty women’s bathroom and was attacked as she came out, after the teens had complained to a McDonald’s employee that a man went into the ladies’ room, he said.
“This is the harshest penalty I have ever seen handed down to an 18-year-old first-time offender in a case of assault,” Timothy Knepp, Brown’s lawyer, said later. He called the case “a tragic set of circumstances that was really overblown by the state’s attorney’s office.”
In court, Brown asked for a second chance and apologized for the attack.
“My mother didn’t raise me like this,” Brown said before her lawyer asked the judge for probation only. “I would really like to apologize to the victim.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Rachel Cogen said Polis was too upset to come to court.
In an emotional statement submitted to the court, Polis wrote that she did not forgive Brown and her 14-year-old companion for the attack. She described a demeaning attack in which Brown and the younger girl spat on her, called her names, kicked her and pulled out her hair.
“While being beaten, I felt like I was going to die that day,” Polis wrote. After the beatings, her epileptic seizures, which had stopped for a year, started again and became more frequent, she added.
She has suffered emotional damage as well, Polis wrote.
“My private life has been exposed to the world. I lost my job. I cannot go anywhere without the fear of getting hurt again,” Polis wrote. “I want to go into a hole and hide.”
Polis wrote that she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers from sleep problems, anguish, fear of being alone, bouts of crying and anxiety. She has been admitted twice to a crisis center.
Vicky Thoms, 55, a bystander who was punched in the face when she tried to intervene in the beating, attended the sentencing. Afterward, she said she did not know if justice was served, but hoped that Brown and others would take away a message about the world needing more love and less violence.
She has also had difficulty coping with the experience. “It’s hard to go outside,” she said. “I never dreamed that I would see anything like that in my life.”
Turnbull watched the videotapes of the April 18 attack - one taken by a McDonald’s employee that was posted online and the surveillance footage from McDonald’s. The employee’s video showed Polis being kicked and struck in the head, then dragged by the hair across the floor.
The attack brought nationwide attention to the plight of transgender people, and thousands signed online petitions or attended rallies. Soon after, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said he would work with lawmakers on legislation to provide more protections for transgender people.
The 14-year-old girl charged as a juvenile in the attack admitted her responsibility July 1. She remains in juvenile detention facility, prosecutors said.
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(c)2011 The Baltimore Sun
Visit The Baltimore Sun at www.baltimoresun.com
AMX-2011-09-13T22:44:00-04:00<
NCAA adopts new policy on transgender athletes
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NCAA is adopting a new policy regarding transgender athletes.
The NCAA says athletes who have testosterone in their systems from medical treatment will not be allowed to compete against women’s teams in gender-specific sports at NCAA championships. They will be allowed, however, to compete against men.
The exception is if a male is transitioning to being a female. The athlete would then have to provide documentation showing they had testosterone suppression treatment for one calendar year. The athlete would then have to continue to document the medical treatment each successive year to remain eligible for a women’s team in postseason play.
The NCAA says individual schools can continue to make their own decisions about eligibility during regular-season play.
Chaz Bono ignores controversy, focuses on dance
By SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Chaz Bono isn’t thinking about the controversy surrounding his casting on “Dancing With the Stars.” He says he’s been flooded with fan support and is focused on the cha-cha.
Bono is the show’s first transgender contestant, and some viewers and conservative media groups have responded to his casting with hateful blog posts and calls for a boycott of the hit ABC show.
But at a Wednesday rehearsal in Los Angeles, the 42-year-old author and activist said he hasn’t looked at the negative posts on the network’s website and has received loads of support from fans on Twitter.
Bono, who began learning dance moves last week, says the controversy “hasn’t taken any type of negative toll on me at all” and that he remains intent on perfecting the dance routine he’ll perform in front of millions of viewers when the show premieres later this month.