by Peter DelVecchio

Obama, McCain favor return of ROTC to Columbia

During their back-to-back appearances at Columbia University Sept. 11 to discuss national service, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama said they supported the return of ROTC to the university’s campus.

The Reserve Officers Training Corps — ROTC — was kicked off the Columbia University campus in 1969 during the anti-Vietnam War movement. More recently, however, ROTC has been linked to the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which conflicts with the non-discrimination policies at many universities, including Columbia.

McCain called for Columbia to “re-examine” the ROTC-exclusion policy and Obama agreed.

“I recognize that there are students here who have differences in terms of military policy,” Obama said. “But the notion that young people here at Columbia or anywhere, in any university, aren't offered the choice, the option of participating in military service, I think is a mistake. That does not mean we disregard any potential differences in various issues that are raised by the students here, but it does mean that we should have an honest debate while still offering opportunities for everybody to serve, and that’s something that I’m pretty clear about.”

“We want to work with the next president in ending the ban on open service of all qualified LGBT service members. And we want ROTC to attract all the best and the brightest Americans without regard to sexual orientation. ROTC will be stronger on every campus once it is able to recruit from the full talent pool of all qualified Americans,” Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, told IN Los Angeles magazine in a statement.

According to SLDN, the Pentagon has discharged nearly 12,500 service members since the law was implemented in 1994.

McCain, the Republican nominee, supports the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, saying that military leaders have told him the policy is working “so leave it alone.”

Obama, the Democratic nominee, says he favors a repeal of the anti-gay law, but would not make it a “litmus test” for selecting the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In an interview with the Advocate, he added, “I think there’s increasing recognition within the Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy ... we’re spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need … That doesn’t make us more safe.”

Florida judge holds gay adoption ban unconstitutional

A lower court state judge in Florida has held that state’s 31-year-old gay adoption bar unconstitutional in a case involving a 13-year-old boy with special needs being raised by two gay men in Key West, the Miami Herald reported Sept. 10.

Monroe Circuit Court Judge David J. Audlin Jr. held that the ban violates Florida’s Constitution by singling out a group for punishment and is contrary to separation of powers principles.

“Contrary to every child welfare principle,” Audlin wrote, “the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that … it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual.” The ultimate import of Audlin’s decision is unclear. Two other circuit courts have held the bar unconstitutional, both in 1991. One decision was never published or appealed. An appellate court overturned the other ruling, and the Florida Supreme Court upheld the appellate court. One-third of lesbians and 16 percent of gay men have children, according to a 2007 study released last year by UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, a think-tank for LGBT legal and policy issues.

Only Florida and Mississippi prohibit gay adoption.

FYI

Cancer kills about one American every minute, or roughly 1,500 each day, according to Stand Up 2 Cancer (standup2cancer.org), a celebrity and educational telethon that aired simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC Sept. 5 that raised more than $100 million for promising research since the campaign began May 28.

Florida Gov. Crist won’t actively campaign for anti-gay initiative

Though Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he’ll support and vote for the anti-gay amendment on the November ballot that would ban same-sex marriage, he will not actively campaign for the measure. “It’s not top tier for me, put it that way,” Crist told the Orlando Sentinel, adding that he’ll focus on Sen. John McCain’s presidential election. Crist was considered on McCain’s short list for a vice presidential pick.

Florida state law already prohibits same-sex marriage, but to avoid having the law overturned in by the courts, initiative backers Florida4Marriage are pushing the amendment. The same group failed to qualify a similar measure in 2006.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Sept. 8 indicated that while 55 percent of voters supported the initiative, that does not meet the 60 percent bar necessary to amend the Florida constitution.
—Karen Ocamb

Most new HIV infections among gay men, CDC reports

Fifty-three percent of new HIV infections in 2006 were among men who have sex with men (MSM), according to new sub-population-specific statistics released Sept. 11 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among MSM, the highest rate of new infections was in men in their 30s, followed by those in their 40s, which the CDC attributes in part to safe-sex fatigue and the higher incidence of already-infected men in those age groups. African-Americans were also hard hit, constituting 46 percent of new infections. To read the report, visit cdc.gov/mmwr.

Clergy seek IRS help against pastors’ political endorsements

Religious leaders from several states filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service Sept. 9 to scuttle a plan by conservative pastors to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, The Associated Press reports. The conservative Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund has designated Sept. 28 “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” and is encouraging ministers nationwide to give political sermons, including candidate endorsements, that day. The Internal Revenue Code prohibits nonprofit, tax-exempt entities, including churches, from participating in or intervening in “any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office,” according to the Washington Post.

“The rightful place of religious leaders and communities of faith in American life is not electoral politics,” said United Church of Christ Rev. Eric Williams. “Pastors have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment,” said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Erik Stanley.

Colorado town welcoming for transgenders

A village in the Colorado Rockies has become known as the “sex-change capital of the U.S.,” CBS News reported Sept. 7. Trinidad, population 10,000, has earned that moniker largely because it is there that Dr. Marci Bowers, formerly Dr. Mark Bowers, regularly performs sexual reassignment surgery, taking over from Dr. Stanley Biber, who started the first private gender reassignment practice there in 1969. Mayor Joe Reorda calls Trinidad a “live-and-let-live” kind of place. Some who come for surgery, like Michelle Miles, never leave. Miles cited the townspeople’s “respect for your choice.”

McDonald’s accused of firing man because of HIV status

An Iowa gay man accused a McDonald’s franchise of firing him because he is HIV-positive, the AP reported Sept. 6. Daniel Carver, 46, filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and notified the Dyersville franchise he intends to sue. Federal law prohibits termination for physical disability, including HIV-positive status, and Iowa law forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Carver alleges that after the franchise learned of his HIV status, he was denied promotion, his hours were reduced, and he suffered insults, violence and death threats. He claims a manager punched him in the stomach, and another employee slapped his face and made anti-gay slurs.

“In November 2007, I was threatened by other employees because of my HIV status and my sexual orientation, that I ‘better watch my back or I might get shot,’” Carver’s Civil Rights Commission filing says.