Morning Sweep

The Queens Chronicle editorializes against recent hate crimes in Queens, including those motivated by anti-LGBT bias, and asks individual residents to make a difference: "The only way to live in a borough of 2.3 million people of most every race, ethnicity, religion and sexual preference is to go out of your way to be tolerant of others. Any steps that people can take to forestall government harassment, hate crimes and gang violence are welcome. Do your part to make Queens the best place it can possibly be."

This past weekend's rally in Queens against hate crimes brought much-needed attention to the issue.

The Watertown Daily Times writes on Dede Scozzafava, current NY Assemblywoman and candidate in the 23rd U.S. Congressional District race. Scozzafava has voted twice in the Assembly in support of marriage equality.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked Wash. state officials from releasing the names of people who signed petitions in support of Referendum 71, which would strike down the state's new domestic partnership law.

The D.C. Council on Monday will hear the stories of nearly 100 people during a hearing on marriage for same-sex couples, an issue that they are anticipated to pass soon.

Pride in My Workplace and Dewey & LeBoeuf Host “Marriage Equality: What Employers, Employees and Insurers Need to Know”

Last Thursday evening, Pride in My Workplace and Dewey & LeBoeuf hosted a panel on marriage equality that drew 80 participants from dozens of law firms; financial, consulting and insurance companies; and media, pharmaceutical and energy firms. The Pride Agenda’s Ross Levi and Lambda Legal’s Thomas Ude gave an overview of marriage law and marriage recognition in New York and across the country. Pride Agenda Board Member and Pride in My Workplace Co-Chair Marla Hassner outlined the differences between marriage, civil unions and domestic partnership laws and their impact on employee relations.

First Deputy Superintendant Kermitt Brooks, from the NY Department of Insurance, outlined the effect of New York State’s marriage recognition policy on different sectors of the insurance industry. Dewey & LeBoeuf’s partner Mitchel Pahl articulated how federal ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) protections of employees and their families are turned into the opposite by the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages. He also outlined the disparate federal tax burden faced by same-sex couples whose employers provide same-sex spouse or domestic partner health benefits. This disparity is due to the lack of federal government recognition for any of the legal categories that currently apply to these families.

For more information on the activities of Pride in My Workplace, contact the program's coordinator, Wazina Zondon at (212) 627-0305 or wzondon@prideagenda.org

Pride Agenda Board Member & Pride In My Workplace Co-Chair Marla Hassner and Pride Agenda's Director of Public Policy & Education Ross Levi

First Deputy Superintendant Kermitt Brooks from the NY Department of Insurance and Dewey & LeBoeuf partner Mitchel Pahl

Powerful editorial for marriage in Albany Times Union

Today the Times Union in Albany called on the State Senate to stop delaying and vote on marriage immediately. The powerful editorial is below.

Time to take the plunge

It is time for Democrats to show that they were deserving of the trust placed in them last year when voters gave them control of the chamber. They must recognize that with power comes not only privilege, but the responsibility to use it. That means, among many other things, acting on one of their party's clearest planks and following through on an implicit promise to pass a gay marriage bill. Or, at the very least, to bring it to the floor for a vote.

Instead, what we see is "inactivity," the word that repeatedly came up last week as the state's top judges heard two cases over whether state and local governments could recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

That inaction has left it to politicians, government agencies, gay marriage opponents and gay and lesbian couples to fight this battle on the fringes. In the two cases before the court, the judges are deciding whether Westchester County and the state Department of Civil Service rightly or wrongly recognized same-sex marriages from neighboring states and Canada in providing couples with health benefits.

On one side is the Alliance Defense Fund, a self-proclaimed defender of religious liberty and what this group from Arizona declares to be the interests of New York taxpayers.

On the other is what New Yorkers are really about: equality and tolerance, and the real meaning of religious liberty. Last we read, it was the right to live in a nation where "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Implicit in that is not having religious views concerning marriage imposed on citizens by those like the Alliance Defense Fund.

As for the interests of New York taxpayers, the lawmakers who were elected to represent their interests could save some small measure of public funds by not leaving it to other governments and the courts to be their proxy on this issue.

The Democrat-led Assembly earlier this year passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Democratic Gov. David Paterson is ready to sign it. Only Senate Democrats, insistent on trying to first finesse this behind the scenes rather that put this bill on the floor and make every lawmaker stand up and be counted, are holding it up.

Enough. Senate Democrats should put this bill on the agenda when the Legislature next returns to Albany and let it win or lose in a fair, open fight.

It is time to bring clarity to this issue and stop leaving it to the courts to have to express the will of New Yorkers every time some right-wing group tries to challenge this state's progressive traditions.

Morning Sweep

NY State Senator Jeffrey Klein released a report Thursday showing that some Yorkers' insurance companies are limiting their access to HIV/AIDS medication. Klein's office monitored the 12 most widely used HMOs in the state and found they limit the number of allowable doses and block coverage of so-called single source drugs -- those which are patented, brand name medications with no generic equivalent. "This should be as simple as a doctor telling a patient what they need to get better and a patient being able to get it from their health insurance company, period. When New Yorkers are not served well by their HMOs, everyone suffers," said Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle.

NY Congressman Jerrold Nadler, primary sponsor of legislation to repeal DOMA, editorializes on David Mixner's blog on the need to repeal the anti-gay legislation.

NYC mayoral candidate Bill Thompson has clarified his answer to a question about gay rights at this week's debate.

A federal appeals court on yesterday reversed a previous decision to block release of petitions signed in support of repealing Wash. state's expanded domestic partnership law.

The Advocate examines the ban on gay men donating blood.

Morning Sweep

U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker yesterday refused to grant a request by backers of the Prop. 8 campaign to dismiss the federal lawsuit against the ban. Judge Walker had many challenging questions for the lawyer for the Prop. 8 backers about how allowing gay couples to wed threatens marriage for straight couples. His response: "My answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know.’’

A new poll shows a slight lead for supporters of same-sex marriage in Maine's Nov. 3 referendum, with 51.8% those surveyed saying they plan to vote to uphold the law legalizing it and 42.9% percent planning to vote for repeal.

The assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has said that pending legislation allowing him to do so, he will take a more active role in fighting discrimination against the LGBT community.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments yesterday on whether signatures in support of repealing Washington state's expanded domestic partnership law should be made public.

Morning Sweep

A second man has been arrested in connection with last week's brutal attack that left an openly gay Queens man hospitalized.

New York's Court of Appeals heard arguments yesterday in two cases that could have a profound impact on how New York defines same-sex marriage. The Alliance Defense Fund suits contend that Westchester and the Civil Service Department have no right to extend benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in out-of-state jurisdictions.

In last night's mayoral debate between Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson, the "lightning round" included the question "Has President Obama done enough for gay rights?" Bloomberg said no. Thompson said “He’s been there nine months.” Then when pressed for a "yes or no" response, said yes.

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn spoke at the Equality March rally over the weekend, urging opponents of same-sex marriage to ""look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person that you are; look me in the eye and tell me my family is worth less than yours; look me in the eye and tell me I am not an American."

Morning Sweep

An openly gay Queens man was assaulted by two men on Friday in an anti-gay attack. A 26-year-old man was arrested Sunday in connection with the crime and charged with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime, and a second man is being sought in connection with the crime.

The New York Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments today in the Alliance Defense Fund's suit against New York extending benefits to same-sex couples legally married in jurisdictions outside the state.

At last week's panel on transgender hate crimes in Brooklyn, remarks by family members of Syracuse transgender woman Lateisha Green, who was killed nearly a year ago, were particularly poignant.

Authorities estimate this weekend's Equality March in D.C. was attended by "tens of thousands."
The New York Times writes on the national vs. state-by-state strategies of LGBT activists illuminated by the Equality March.

President Obama said on Saturday at the HRC's fundraiser that he will end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but some LGBT advocates and members of the media have expressed disappointment at his continued failure to offer a timetable for the law's repeal. Others urge patience.

California Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed the bill establishing Harvey Milk's birthday as a state holiday. He has also signed a bill that calls on the state to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who were legally married in other states during the brief time that same-sex marriages were legal in California, as well as legislation to expand services for LGBT survivors of domestic violence.

The chief justice of the California Supreme Court draws attention to the state's "dysfunctional" referendum process to alter laws.

Maine voters have a huge decision coming up in November. Their state will be the first state to decide whether to repeal or uphold a law passed by their Legislature and signed by their governor that extends marriage equality to gay couples.

A new national poll shows rising support for civil unions, but the same numbers on marriage as last year.

The Washington Post profiles several same-sex couples who are waiting to wed until marriage becomes legal in their home jurisdiction of D.C.