Liberty Avenue

Overall number of hate crimes drops in L.A. County but crimes against gays increase, new report says

Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people increased, prompted in part by last November’s highly charged Proposition 8 initiative, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California, according to a new report released today.

There were 134 sexual-orientation hate crimes reported last year, up from 111 in 2007, and were more likely to be violent than hate crimes motivated by race or religion, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

“I am very sad to be here today because my presence means that my community – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – were horribly impacted by hate crimes in 2008,” Lorri Jean, chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, said at a news conference.

“Anti-gay and anti-transgender hate crimes do not happen in a vacuum,” she said, “they happen in the context of a society that still tolerates and even promotes discrimination against us.”

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Texas marriages in legal limbo due to 2005 error, Democrat says

AUSTIN — Texans: Are you really married?

Maybe not.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.

The amendment, approved by the Texas Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by Texas voters, declares that “marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.” But the trouble-making phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

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Gay Couple Awarded Benefits Compensation

A federal judge in California has awarded a couple benefits compensation previously denied because the couple is gay, the Los Angeles Times reported.

U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt’s opinion called the denial of benefits a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Public defender Brad Levenson was denied spousal benefits for his husband, Tony Sears. The couple married on July 12, 2008 in California before voters approved a gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, in November.

“The denial of federal benefits to same-sex spouses cannot be justified simply by a distaste for or disapproval of same-sex marriage or a desire to deprive same-sex spouses of benefits available to other spouses in order to discourage them from exercising a legal right afforded them by a state,” Reinhardt said.

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New website will out gay priests

The Catholics better gird their loins for this one. The Village Voice is reporting that a new webiste, called Church Outing.org, will start outing closeted priests “to expose the hypocrisy of Archdiocese of Washington priests who go along with the church’s routine emotional assault on gays while living lives of quiet desperation that involve them having gay sex themselves.” According to their website, the group’s mission is not to drag priests out of the closet per se, but to get them to work with the site in battling the church’s hierarchical ant9—gay stance and to fight for gay marriage equality. Church Outing.org’s mantra is simple: The hypocrisy must end.

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India Adds Third Gender Option to Voting Rolls: ’Other’

Transsexual and intersex people going to the polls in India will no longer have to choose between identifying themselves as male or female, now that a third category for gender has been added.

The new option—“O” for “Other”—has been added alongside the “M” and “F” choices for use by transsexual people, eunuchs, intersex people (born with indeterminate genitalia), or those who for various reasons do not identify themselves according to binary gender. Though the percentages of such people in any given community may be small, in a country of one billion—and a voting roll of more than 700 million—the raw numbers are large enough to warrant a third category.

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Tampa council's transgender vote ruffles some feathers

Last Thursday, the Tampa City Council preliminarily approved expanding the city’s human rights ordinance to offer protection to transgendered people. Other than a discussion about whether the new law would protect the occasional cross dresser, the vote came with little opposition, passing by a 7-0 vote.

Every speaker at the meeting spoke in favor of the change. But when the council takes its final vote on the ordinance Nov. 19, they could face a different scene. Terry Kemple, president of the Community Issues Council, an organization with the stated mission of promoting Judeo-Christian values, is rallying troops to fight the new protections.

“We’re trying to mobilize people to stand in opposition to what is a bad law,” Kemple said. “It discriminates against Christians and provides special privileges for people based on sexually aberrant behavior.” Kemple sent an e-mail to supporters warning them that, among other things, the Tampa law will allow sexual predators to go into restrooms designated for the opposite sex and force business owners, regardless of their religious beliefs, to hire cross dressers. Already, Council members have received a handful of e-mails from people who oppose the measure.

In response to Kemple’s actions, members of Tampa Bay Pride also say they plan to send representatives to Thursday’s meeting.

“Now that Kemple sent out his alert to his people we’re mobilizing furiously,” said Zeke Fread, director of Pride Tampa Bay.

Kemple said no one from his organization went to last week’s meeting because they learned of the vote too late to organize. Fread said his group didn’t go last week because they knew the expanded ordinance would pass.

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Gwyneth Paltrow to Play Wife of Transsexual Nicole Kidman in New Flick

Gwyneth Paltrow has a gender-bending new role to add to her resume.

The actress, 37, has signed on to star in The Danish Girl opposite Nicole Kidman, in a role that brings the story of the first post-operative transsexual to the big screen.

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Argentine judge allows gay wedding in legal first

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine judge has granted a homosexual couple permission to get married, setting a precedent that could pave the way for the Catholic country to become the first in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage.

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Lawmakers defy church pressure on DC gay marriage

WASHINGTON — The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to stop providing some social services unless lawmakers change a proposal to legalize same-sex marriages.

The city council has refused to change the measure, which is expected to pass next month.

The church says the marriage bill would force the church to offer employee benefits and adoptions to married same-sex couples. But council members say threats shouldn’t determine D.C. laws.

Council member Jim Graham says the church hasn’t abandoned social services in New Hampshire, Connecticut or Vermont after they began same-sex marriages.

In Boston, Catholic Charities has halted city adoption programs because Massachusetts bans public discrimination against same-sex couples.

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