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July 29-August 4, 2010

Army DISCHARGES DAN CHOI

WASHINGTON – Lt. Dan Choi, the U.S. Army officer who’s been arrested twice in recent months for chaining himself to the White House fence to protest the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers, has been discharged from the Army for being gay.

Choi said he received the terse memorandum informing him of the discharge July 22.

“Based on the approved board findings that 1Lt. Choi did publicly admit, on more than one occasion and through the media, that he is a homosexual...I direct 1Lt. Choi be discharge from the New York Army National Guard with an Honorable characterization of service,” stated the memo, signed by Brig. Gen. Patrick Murphy.

A West Point graduate, Choi was a veteran of the Iraq War, where his Arabic language skills made him a prized asset. He came out as gay in March 2009 on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, and subsequently has been an increasingly vocal opponent of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military’s anti-gay policy.

Though the discharge had been expected, Choi said it still hurt.

“After 11 years since beginning my journey at West Point and after 17 months of serving openly as an infantry officer this is both an infuriating and painful announcement,” he said. “But my service continues. To all those veterans who have endured similar trials and injustices or prematurely ended their military service because of the unjust policy: Our fight has only begun.”

Prosecutors in the District of Columbia recently dropped charges against Choi that stemmed from his second White House arrest.

President Obama said in January that he wants the military policy to change, and the Defense Department is in the middle of a year-long study to determine how to lift the ban on openly gay and lesbian personnel. Choi and other critics, including many members of Congress, want the ban, which was enacted in 1993, lifted immediately.

ACLU SUES MONTANA FOR
GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES RIGHTS

These seven couples filed suit in Montana last week seeking the rights and benefits the state accords to married couples.

Photo courtesy ACLU Montana

HELENA, MT – The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana filed suit against the state of Montana July 22 on behalf of seven gay and lesbian couples, saying the state violates those couples’ constitutional rights by denying them the rights and privileges it grants to married couples.

“It’s unfair for same-sex couples who have made commitments and formed families to be treated by the state like legal strangers,” said ACLU of Montana Legal Director Betsy Griffing. “Lesbian, gay and bisexual Montanans are valuable and productive members of society who should be treated fairly if their partner is in the hospital or dies without a will.”

The seven couples who filed the suit said not being legally recognized as partners has placed a hardship on them that violates the Montana Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.

“Denise has stood with me through 56 brain surgeries and over 300 spinal taps, yet to Montana we’re nothing more than strangers,” said Kellie Gibson, who is raising two children with her partner, Denise Boettcher. “Knowing we have legal protections for our family sure would make it easier on both of us the next time I have a medical crisis.”

The couples said they are explicitly not asking for the right to marry since Montana has a constitutional amendment banning recognition of the marriages of gay and lesbian couples. Instead they are asking the state to grant them the same rights and benefits it gives to couples who are married. ACLU attorneys cited as examples Vermont and New Jersey, states that implemented civil unions and domestic partnerships, respectively, after their high courts ruled in favor of couples who filed lawsuits similar to the Montana suit.

“We want our relationship to be recognized for what it clearly is – a loving commitment of responsibility worthy of security and protection by the state,” said Jan Donaldson, who has been with partner Mary Anne Guggenheim for 27 years.

The lawsuit is to be assigned to a Montana state district court, but attorneys said they expect to ultimately argue it before the Montana Supreme Court.

OUTED GOP SENATOR APOLOGIZES
TO LGBTs URGES RIGHTS

BAKERSFIELD, CA – In a guest opinion column July 19 for GayPolitics.com, California state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), who was outed in March when he was arrested for drunk driving after leaving a gay bar with another man, apologized to LGBTs for voting against LGBT rights for more than 25 years.

“I am sincerely sorry for the votes I cast and the actions I took that harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” Ashburn wrote. “Regrettably and selfishly, I took another path in my life and political career – I chose to conceal who I truly am and to then actually vote against the best interests of people like me. All this was done because I was afraid – terrified, really – that somehow I would be revealed as gay.”

Prior to his arrest, Ashburn had one of the most anti-LGBT voting records in the California Legislature. When police pulled him over as he drove his state-owned SUV out of a Sacramento gay bar’s parking lot in March, he said he realized instantly that there would be serious ramifications.

“Startled by the blurry reality of a red light glaring in my rear-view mirror at 2 a.m on the morning of March, 4, 2010, I knew my life was about to change,” Ashburn wrote. “My private life as a closeted gay man was now the public’s business, and I had a lot of explaining to do.”

Ashburn said he realizes the harm he did as a legislator who opposed LGBT rights at every turn, and he pledged to try to reverse that record by advocating for LGBT issues within the Republican Party.

“It’s time for fair-minded Republicans to speak up for what our party really stands for – individual freedom and limited government,” Ashburn wrote. “It may have taken me a strange, incoherent and long path to get here, but this is where I find myself as a gay Republican senator. It’s time for Republicans to find our way and fight for equal treatment for all people, especially the freedom to be unique and have our rights acknowledged and protected.”

world

MEXICO CITY LAUNCHES
GAY TOURISM OFFICE

The Zocalo, the grand plaza in the heart of Mexico City, which opened an Office of Lesbian and Gay Tourism last week.

Photo by Gary Barlow

MEXICO CITY – Officials of the Ministry of Tourism of Mexico City announced a new Office of Lesbian and Gay Tourism July 21, saying they believe the Western Hemisphere’s largest city is also poised to become one of its top lesbian and gay tourist destinations.

“Mexico City has merited this office for many years because it has everything to emerge as the No. 1 gay-friendly destination in Latin America,” said Secretary of Tourism Alejandro Rojas Díaz Durán. “It has vast wealth in all aspects – culture, services, infrastructure and tourism.”

Among the city’s leading attractions are its heavily gay Zona Rosa neighborhood, a business and residential area that features numerous LGBT bars, restaurants and shops. Zona Rosa is also well connected to other popular tourist destinations, such as major art museums, dining and shopping districts and historic sites, via Mexico City’s low-cost, modern subway system. There are also popular LGBT nightspots in other neighborhoods around the city, as well as highly regarded theater and dance scenes.

Mexico’s capital has also become one of the most progressive cities in the Western Hemisphere on LGBT legal rights, with laws banning discrimination and allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Tourism Ministry officials noted that gays and lesbians, on average, spend 47 percent more than other tourists and make up 15 percent of the international tourism market.

“Worldwide, 55 percent of gays and lesbians travel at least three times a year and 33 percent five times a year, and 33 percent of the Canadian and U.S. market travels to Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Jaime Rogel, one of the gay tourism specialists hired to staff the new office.

The city’s Tourism Ministry also recently offered an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Mexico City and Cancun to the first gay or lesbian couple to wed in Argentina, where marriage rights were just granted to gays and lesbians. Tourism Ministry General Manager Felipe Carreon said the office has been swamped with offers from hotels, airlines, restaurants and other businesses wanting to donate services to the Argentine couple, should they accept the offer.

IGLHRC WINS RECOGNITION AT UN

UNITED NATIONS – After a three-year battle that saw American conservatives join with Islamic fundamentalists to oppose them, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission won consultative status at the United Nations Aug. 19.

The move means that the group has access to the U.N. and can participate in open U.N. meetings and programs.

“The U.N. was founded on the premise that only through mutual respect, diversity, and dialogue can the international community effectively pursue justice and equality,” President Obama said after the vote. “Today, with the more full inclusion of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the United Nations is closer to the ideals on which it was founded, and to values of inclusion and equality to which the United States is deeply committed.”

The Obama administration fought hard for recognition for IGLHRC, lobbying African countries that opposed the action to either abstain or not show up for the vote. Some conservative American politicians, led by U.S. Reps. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), had supported efforts by Islamic countries to keep IGLHRC’s application for status bottled up in a committee dominated by those countries.

But the Obama administration pressed for a vote by the full U.N. Economic and Social Council, got it and won on a 23-13 vote, with 13 abstentions and five absences. IGLHRC becomes only the 10th group granted consultative status, out of more than 3,000 overall, that focuses on LGBT issues, and only the second such group that’s international in focus.