Prop 8 Losing by Slim Margin, Poll Says

On July 24, California Attorney General Jerry Brown changed the title and summary of the anti-gay Prop. 8 to better reflect the consequences of the initiative, if passed. The ballot title now reads: “Eliminates Right of Same-sex Couples to Marry. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.”

The summary also reflects the fiscal impact reported by state legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill on July 22. “Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact to state and local governments.”

A new Field Poll released July 18 indicates that California voters are marginally supportive of same-sex marriage. Of 672 likely voters, 51% oppose Prop. 8, a ballot initiative that would re-impose the ban on gay marriage, while 42% support the measure; 7% were undecided.

“There has been a long-term [shift] in voter attitudes towards greater acceptance of same-sex marriage,” poll director Mark DiCamillo told the Los Angeles Times, noting that in 2000, the anti-gay Proposition 22 passed with 61 percent of the vote.

DiCamillo told the Sacramento Bee that the poll indicates a "reluctance by Californians to tinker with the constitution. … Older voters, especially, are more reticent about changing the constitution where younger folks are more in favor of allowing same-sex marriage.”

Citing a May Field Poll showing 54% opposed to a gay marriage ban, Jennifer Kerns, spokesperson for the pro-Prop 8 group ProjectMarriage, said the new poll shows the anti-Prop. 8 activists “lost a few percentage points and indicates they are losing momentum.”

DiCamillo noted that the new poll specifically used Prop. 8's actual text, while the May poll was taken before the initiative qualified for the ballot. —KAREN OCAMB (For more info, see www.equalityforall.com)

UCLA Demographer Slams Census Plan to Alter Marriage Data

The U.S. Census Bureau intends to change the 2010 forms of legally married same-sex couples who describe themselves as “married,” re-categorizing them as “unmarried partners,” the San Jose Mercury reported July 12. Same-sex couples may legally marry in California and Massachusetts, and such marriages are recognized in New York.

“That means that more than one in five Americans lives in a state that recognizes the marriages of same-sex couples,” Gary Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles law school's Williams Institute, wrote in a July 18 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece.

The Census policy is based on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which the bureau says “instructs all federal agencies to recognize only opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of enacting any agency programs.”

“The Census Bureau has a well-deserved reputation for producing 'gold standard' data of uniformly high quality,” Gates wrote, pointing out that official agencies, including the Congressional Budget Office, use Census data “to estimate the effect on the federal budget if same-sex couples were permitted to marry.” Noting that an estimated 780,000 same-sex couples live in the U.S., Gates urged the bureau to “acknowledge the reality that same-sex couples are legally married in this country” and “stop altering the accurate responses of same-sex couples who describe themselves as married.”

Regarding the policy's underlying motives, Gates wrote, “Decisions about data collection should not be driven by political and value-laden judgments. ... They should be grounded in the demographic and legal realities of this nation.” Accurate data, Gates wrote, “would permit scholars, policymakers, and the American public to form opinions based on facts instead of anecdotes and stereotypes.”

Golden Girls’ Estelle Getty Dies

Gay icon Estelle Getty, who played Bea Arthur's wisecracking mother on The Golden Girls, died July 22. She was 84.

Before she wowed gays as Sophia Petrillo, for which she won an Emmy, Getty played Harvey Fierstein's mother in Torch Song Trilogy.

"The only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on, Sophia will always be with us," said Golden Girls co-star Betty White.

"She was the least actressy of anyone in the cast,” Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, who wrote and produced The Golden Girls, told Entertainment Tonight. "In my mind she will always be everyone's grandma."

Bragman's Marriage Helps Fight Prop 8

Prominent out entertainment and publicist Howard Bragman married his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, July 14 and celebrated with an unusual request. “We have an overabundance of material things,” Bragman said, “and if you feel compelled to honor our nuptials, please make a contribution to overturn the marriage initiative on the ballot in November [at] www.eqca.org, Equality California's Web site. Contributions poured in, including from actor Isaiah Washington, who Bragman helped deal with the Grey's Anatomy controversy and LAPD Chief William Bratton who told the Los Angeles Times, "I see no reason why gays can't pursue happiness through marriage."

Police Rescue Gay Dancer, Shoot Him Dead

Steven Hirschfeld, 37, of West Hollywood who reportedly jumped into San Diego Bay from a cruise ship on which he was performing as a dancer was shot dead July 19 by police after a rescue attempt, AP reports. Hirschfeld allegedly took one officer's stungun, beat him in the face with it, and reached for the officer's gun when he was shot by a second officer, according to harbor police Lt. John Forsythe. Toxicology reports on Hirschfeld, who court records indicate underwent drug rehabilitation in 2006, are expected next month.

Obama and McCain To Attend Religious Forum Together

Presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, respectively, will appear together for the first time during their campaigns at an August 16 forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, the New York Times reports. The megachurch's Rev. Rick Warren, author of the bestselling The Purpose-Driven Life, said the candidates would appear together briefly, but that he would interview them separately about some of his “main areas of focus,” AIDS, poverty, human rights, and the environment. Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders will also provide input for Warren's questions.

North Carolina Bullying Bill Expected to Die

An anti-school-bullying bill is expected to die in committee in the North Carolina state senate because it includes “sexual orientation” among reasons children might be bullying targets, newsobserver.com, North Carolina's News & Observer's news Web site, reported July 18. Christian groups, including the Christian Action League and the N.C. Family Policy Council had argued that writing protection for gay kids into the law would give gay rights groups leverage to obtain other rights. “The failure of this bill to pass … sends a bad message,” said Sen. Doug Berger (D-Franklin County).

Kentucky Lesbian Appeals Firing by Tax-Funded Baptist Home

In a case with potential implications for tax-funded “faith-based” social services programs favored by President Bush and supported by Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, a Kentucky lesbian has appealed a federal district court's dismissal of her suit challenging her termination by the Baptist children's home where she worked, The Advocate reported July 18. The home, which received Kentucky public funds, terminated Alicia Pedreira because her “homosexual lifestyle” clashed with the home's “core values.” “This case illustrates the all-too-real dangers of the government funding religious organizations without adequate safeguards,” ACLU attorney Ken Choe said in a statement.

This page compiled by Peter DelVecchio from The Associated Press and other news reports.

Congress Holds Hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The timing of the first congressional hearing on the Pentagon's anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't tell policy in 15 years coincided with the 60th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman's directive to integrate the military.

Unlike the hostile hearings in 1993, which denigrated decorated Vietnam hero Col. Margarethe Cammemyer and others by luridly dwelling on the prospect of gay men sharing showers and cramped quarters in a submarine, the hearing on July 23 repeatedly underscored the rights of patriotic gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military as the “last frontier” in American civil rights.

The House Armed Services subcommittee hearing convened by chair Rep. Susan Davis of California which was designed to educate the public about the discharges of 12,000 gay service members, including nearly 800 specialists with critical skills needed as the country fights three wars. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that 75% now support gay people serving openly in the military, up from 62% in early 2001, and 44% in 1993.

The day before the hearing, California Democrat Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who has authored a bill to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, told reporters that the hearing would be “a good first step,” but “we don't believe that this bill will come forward until we have a new president.”

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports repealing the policy, while presumptive Republican nominee John McCain supports it and doesn't want to see a change during a time of war.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, was one of two witnesses supporting the anti-gay policy. Her testimony and responses to questions from congress members tried to focus on "forced cohabitation" and “sexuality,” arguing that homosexuality made gays and lesbians predisposed to harassing heterosexuals, repeatedly referring to one female service member who was allegedly harassed by a “gang of lesbians.” She also prompted a few chuckles when she referenced GOP Sen. Larry Craig and gay cruising at a certain Minneapolis airport.

At one point she suggested that lifting the ban on gays serving openly would also put other military personnel at risk of getting HIV.

Democratic Arkansas Congress member Vic Snyder blew his stack at Donnelly, noting that by her logic, only lesbians should be allowed to serve in the military because they have the lowest risk of contracting HIV.

Three retired military servicemembers with exemplary records testified calmly and directly if favor of repealing the policy. Maj. Gen. Vance Coleman, a heterosexual African American, spoke movingly about his experiences as a “second-class citizen” in an all-black unit after having attended an integrated academy and said he felt the discrimination suffered by gays was comparable.

Retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, a decorated intelligence officer, told how on Sept. 11 she was in the Pentagon when the plane hit, and would have been killed if she had not left seven minutes earlier. She said her longtime partner would have been the last to know about her death because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Marine Sgt. Eric Alva, who became the first American injured in the war in Iraq when he stepped on a landmine after his convoy crossed from Kuwait into Iraq, talked about how his unit knew he was gay, and saved his life—and that was true “unit cohesion.”

Among the congress members who expressed emotional outrage at the policy was Republican Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut.

"It's an outrage that you even have to be here to account for your service," Shays said to Darrah. "I think the Don't Ask, Don't tell policy is unpatriotic, it's unproductive, and in fact, it's absolutely cruel."

Then, with a catch in his voice, Shays said he talked to his friend Jim Kolbe, the openly gay former congress member from Arizona, about how Kolbe was a “river rat” risking his life in Vietnam while Shays was a conscientious objector who went into the Peace Corps. Shays was eligible to serve, but Kolbe wasn't. "For nothing else,” Shays said, “I'm here for Jim Kolbe." —KAREN OCAMB

For more information on the hearings go to www.sldn.org and to read the prepared remarks of the former service members, go to www.hrc.org.