by Peter DelVecchio

Early marriage-equality champion Mildred Loving dies

Mildred Loving, an African-American woman whose challenge to Virginia’s interracial marriage ban resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1967 decision striking down such laws nationwide, Loving v. Virginia, died at 68, The Associated Press reported May 5. Loving’s husband died in a car crash in 1975.

“When my late husband ... and I got married ... in 1958,” Loving said in a statement last year on the case’s 40th anniversary, “it wasn’t to make a political statement or to start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married. ... I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. ... I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

“Freedom to Marry mourns the loss of Mildred Loving, a woman of faithful conviction and an open heart. Called to civil rights leadership through the simple act of getting married, Mrs. Loving helped end restrictions on the freedom to marry in the historic court case bearing her name, and went on to speak out for that same freedom to marry for all loving couples, gay and non-gay,” said Freedom to Marry Executive Director Evan Wolfson. “Mrs. Loving’s actions remind us all of the power of love and the basic human right to choose the person whom you wish to marry.”

Michigan Supreme Court: Ban on marriage means no gay partner health benefits

On May 7, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2004 also prohibits local governmental bodies and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of same-sex employees.

Approximately 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments have benefits policies covering at least 375 same-sex couples, with some benefit plans dating back to the early 1990s, the Detroit News reported.

The impact of the ruling is unclear since many of the public employers have revised their policies to creatively continue to cover gay partners as “other qualified adults,” the News reported.

Justice Marilyn Kelly dissented from the majority. “First the language of the amendment itself prohibits nothing more than the recognition of same-sex marriages or similar unions. It is a perversion of the amendment’s language to conclude that, by voluntarily offering the benefits at issue, a public employer recognizes a union similar to marriage,” Kelly wrote. —Karen Ocamb

Survey shows gays ‘ignorant’ on rights issues

A recent national survey suggests many gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans are ignorant about basic LGBT rights issues, the Washington Blade reported May 1. The survey, conducted last November by City University of New York’s Hunter College, involved 768 self-identified gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and asked respondents four questions: (1) whether same-sex marriage was legal in their state (94 percent knew); (2) whether the U.S. Constitution forbids same-sex marriage (78 percent knew it does not); (3) whether gays may serve openly in the military (82 percent knew they may not); and (4) whether federal law bars firing workers for their sexual orientation (59 percent knew it does not). Only 38 percent of respondents got all four questions right, according to Pat Egan, an openly gay New York University politics professor who helped analyze the survey’s results.

“So only six in 10 lesbians, gays and bisexuals know there is no national law protecting them from employment discrimination,” Egan said. “Considering this has been the top priority for advocates in Washington for the past 20 years, that is pretty astounding and disappointing.”

The survey also found that 2.9 percent of Americans over 18 identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the Advocate reports.

Memphis principal accused of outing gay students

School board officials in Memphis, Tenn., rejected an ACLU demand that a school principal who allegedly outed two male students be reprimanded, 365Gay.com reported May 5.

Hollis F. Price Middle High School Principal Daphne Beasley included the boys’ names on a list of students believed to be couples that was posted in full view next to her desk, states an ACLU release. While the list apparently also included straight couples, Beasley allegedly called one of the gay student’s mothers and asked, “Did you know your son is gay?” adding that she did not like gays and would not tolerate homosexuality at her school, according to the release.

The school board says Beasley was simply following a policy intended to decrease public displays of affection on school grounds. School staff, however, had never observed the boys in any such display, the release says.

Methodists protest church gay policies

More than 200 Methodists attended a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas, May 2, in protest against church policy regarding homosexuality, the AP reports. The ceremony took place in a park near the Fort Worth Convention Center, where 3,000 people were attending the United Methodist Church’s General Conference, a gathering convened every four years to determine church policy. The conference upheld church law stating that gay relationships are “incompatible with Christian teaching,” voted to retain a provision in the church’s “Book of Discipline” stating the church “does not condone the practice of homosexuality” and continued a policy permitting pastors to bar gays from Methodist congregations.

No clergy officiated at the ceremony; to do so would violate church rules and could result in charges being filed in the church’s courts. A senior pastor in Omaha, Neb., was defrocked by a church court in 1999 for performing a same-sex union.

Rev. Julie Todd, however, spoke at the couple’s ceremony and led communion. “I believe so strongly that this is the role of the church and of the ordained clergy in blessing loving relationships,” she said, “that I am not concerned about the consequences.”

Vigil to honor Sean Kennedy

May 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of 20-year-old Sean Kennedy outside a gay bar in Greenville, N.C. To honor his memory, his mother, Elke Kennedy, organized a candlelight vigil.

On her website (www.seanslastwish.com), Elke described what happened to Sean. “On May 16, 2007, at about 3:45 a.m., Sean was leaving a local bar in Greenville when a car pulled up beside him, a young man got out of the car, came around the car, approached my son and called him fagot [sic] and then punched him so hard that it broke his face bones, he fell back and hit the asphalt. This resulted in his brain to be separated from his brain stem and ricochet in his head. Sean never had a chance. Sean’s killer got back into the car and left my son dying there. A little later he left a message on one of the girl’s phone, who knew Sean saying: “You tell your fagot [sic] friend that when he wakes up he owes me $500 for my broken hand.” —K.O.

N.J. family-leave law covers gays

On May 2, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law legislation providing paid family leave to married couples and same-sex partners who have entered into civil unions or domestic partnerships, 365Gay.com reports. New Jersey’s 2006 Civil Union Act superseded its 2004 Domestic Partnership Act, but domestic partnerships predating the civil union law remain valid. Under the law, workers are eligible for six weeks off and up to two-thirds of their pay while caring for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a sick parent, child, spouse or partner. California is the only other state with paid family leave as broad as that under the new law. The 1993 federal unpaid family leave law does not cover same-sex partners. A state commission evaluating New Jersey’s civil union law recently found same-sex couples encountering legal and other problems their married counterparts do not face.

Numbers as of 4:30 p.m., May 7

American Deaths in Iraq: 4,073 • www.icasualties.org

American Wounded in Iraq: 30,004 • www.antiwar.com/casualties

Iraqi Dead since 2003: 83,447-91,012 • www.iraqbodycount.org

Cost of War: $517,646,000,000+ • www.costofwar.com

National Debt: $9,359,537,030,399.35 • www.brillig.com/debt_clock

U.S. Trade Deficit: $250,036,000,000.00+

www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp