Focus On The Rainbow

HEARING SET IN LESBIAN TEENS SUIT OVER MS HIGH SCHOOL PROM

School officials in a rural Mississippi county told a lesbian student to get “guys” to take her and her girlfriend to a high school prom and warned the girls against slow dancing with each other because that could “push people’s buttons,” according to documents filed Tuesday in federal court.

In the court documents, McMillen said Rick Mitchell, the assistant principal at the school, told her she could not attend the prom with her girlfriend but they could go with “guys.” Superintendent Teresa McNeece told the teen that the girls should attend the prom separately, had to wear dresses and couldn’t slow dance with each other because that could “push people’s buttons,” according to court documents.

The school district last week said it wouldn’t host the prom “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.” District officials said they hoped private citizens would sponsor a dance. The decision came on the same day the ACLU asked the district to act on McMillen’s prom requests.

McMillen said she approached school officials weeks ago about wanting to take her girlfriend to the prom.

“I want my prom experience to be the same as all of the other students, a night to remember with the person I’m dating,” McMillen said.

The district, located in northern Mississippi near the Alabama state line, prohibits same-sex dates at the prom. The ACLU has said that violates the rights of gay and lesbian students.

The school district had not responded to the ACLU filing by Tuesday afternoon. – Source – AP

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DISCUSSION BUT NO UPCOMING VOTE ON GAY ADOPTION IN FLORIDA

After years of trying unsuccessfully to get lawmakers to discuss gay adoptions and pass a bill allowing them, Sen. Nan Rich won a victory of sorts on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon.

Senate President Jeff Atwater allowed Sen. Charlie Justice to offer an amendment to another bill dealing with adoptions — one (SB 530) that would clarify already existing state law barring adoption agencies from discriminating against families that own guns.

Justice’s amendment would bar adoption agencies from refusing to allow gay couples to adopt. But he only offered it long enough for several Democrats, including Rich, to speak in favor of it before he withdrew it without seeking a vote.

Justice, D-St. Petersburg, said he was told that the Republicans, who have a majority in the chamber, would use a procedural maneuver to not have a vote, so he withdrew it because the goal was “for the first time in decades to have this issue discussed on the floor of the Florida Senate.”

More than 3,000 Florida kids are waiting to be adopted and about 25,000 children are now in foster homes. Gay Floridians are welcome to be foster parents but a state law passed more than three decades ago prohibits them from permanently adopting the children. – Source – The Palm Beach Post

HIV INCREASE IN GAY MEN CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO ANTI-GAY POLICIES BUT WHY IN US

New HIV infections are increasing among homosexuals, drug users and prostitutes who don’t seek help because of laws that criminalize these practices, the head of the U.N. AIDS agency said Monday.

Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, said “it is unacceptable” that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing same sex relations among adults, including seven that impose the death penalty for homosexual practices.

He called a proposed Ugandan law that would impose the death penalty for some gays “very unfortunate” and expressed hope it will never be approved.

Sidibe told a group of journalists at a luncheon hosted by the United Nations Foundation that in countries from China to Kenya and Malawi, about 33 percent of new HIV infections are in men having sex with men, a significant increase.

By contrast, he said that in the Caribbean where most countries don’t have repressive laws, only between 3 and 6 percent of HIV infections are in male homosexuals.

Even in the United States, where laws are not restrictive and the gay community was the first to tackle AIDS, Sidibe said it is “shocking” that more than 50 percent of new HIV infections last year occurred among homosexuals. And he said in the 19-25 age bracket the infection rate was even higher.

“It seems like we have come full circle” in the United States, he said. “After almost no cases a few years ago we are seeing again this new peak among people who are not having access to all the information, the protection that is needed.” – Source – AP

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN STALLS IN PENNSLYVANIA

A bill to ban same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania stalled Tuesday in the Senate.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-6 to table the measure defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

State law already defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

But proponents of a constitutional amendment said a judge could overturn the law even though the courts are not believed to be considering a challenge to that law. – Source – WGAL-TV

FIRST SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN MCC CHURCH IN WASHINGTON DC

History happened at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C., on Sunday.  Willard Knicely married Robert Whitman in front of more than 100 family members and friends.

When the District legalized same-sex marriage March 3, people lined up for licenses and a few days later ceremonies were performed at a government building. So, same-sex marriages themselves may no longer be breaking news, but where this one happened is noteworthy.

The Rev. Dwayne Johnson, who helped preside over the ceremony, said Metropolitan Community Church has actually been performing same-sex ceremonies since 1971.

“We have believed all along that God has recognized our relationships, but the meaning of this day is what God has recognized all along,” Johnson said. ”And what we’ve recognized all along is now recognized by the District of Columbia.” -Source – NBC Washington DC

MAN WHO WAS SEXUALLY HARRASSED AND FIRED WINS LAWSUIT

A restaurant worker sacked after being discriminated against because of his sexual orientation has been awarded has been awarded nearly $15,000.

The Employment Relations Authority found that the man, whose name was not disclosed, was unfairly dismissed in July 2009 after three just three weeks as front manager at Auckland’s Mission Bay restaurant El Centro.

He was awarded $7000 damages and $7600 for lost wages and holiday pay.

The man said his employer, Graeme Edwards, was difficult to work with and began to make “inappropriate” comments based on his sexual orientation.

Mr Edwards alluded to sexually transmitted disease in front of customers and other employees.

Mr Edwards would often refer to him as a “f***ing faggot” and telling others present “not to bend over” around him.

The applicant described Mr Edwards’ treatment as “humiliating, sexually discriminatory and abusive,” making him feel “insignificant, worthless and isolated”.

He said he was fired on July 25 with Mr Edwards saying he couldn’t manage his way out of a brothel and not to bother coming back. – Source – NZHerald