National News Briefs Queens, NY - Deportation Case v. Queens Lesbian Spouse Closed - 12.7 Acting on a motion supported by the chief counsel of the Manhattan office of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), an Immigration Judge has closed deportation proceedings against Monica Alcota, a 36-year-old Argentinean-born immigrant who lives in Queens and married her partner of three years, Cristina Ojeda, 25, in Connecticut last year. Ojeda is an American citizen. Immigration Judge Terry Bain’s decision was dated November 30 but announced on December 5, just one day before Alcota was due to appear before her for her next hearing. This is the first deportation case involving a married same-sex couple that has been closed since the Department of Homeland Security announced on November 17 that a “working group” had begun reviewing all cases currently pending in the Immigration Courts. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, in August, announced that the Obama administration would no longer pursue deportations against foreign nationals unless they are identified as security threats, convicted criminals, or repeat immigration law violators. In a press call at that time, an agency official emphasized that LGBT families would be considered “families” for purposes of reviewing existing cases.
Manchester, NH - Gay Veteran Steals the Show at Romney Endorsement Event - 12.12 At an event that was meant to highlight the endorsement of Romney by Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, veteran Bob Garon of Ebson, N.H., asked the presidential candidate, who stopped by his breakfast table, whether he supports the repeal of the New Hampshire same-sex marriage law. “I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.” “It’s good to know how you feel, that you do not believe everyone is entitled to their constitutional rights,” the 63-year-old New Hampshire resident responded. “... I learned something, New Hampshire is right, you have to look a man in the eye to get a good answer and you know what governor?” Garon said, pausing. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.” Asked by reporters after Romney left why he feels so strongly about the issue, Garon grew even more passionate. “Because I’m gay, all right?” he said. “And I happen to love a man just like you probably love your wife... I went and fought for my country and I think my spouse should be entitled to the same [benefits as they would] if I were married to a woman,” he said. “What the hell is the difference?” Source: ABC News
Source: Gay City News
Orlando, FL - Orlando votes unanimously for gay registry - 12.12
Los Angeles - George Clooney To Star in Marriage Equality Play - 12.14 George Clooney will star in 8, a play by Dustin Lance Black adapted from transcripts of the historic trial for marriage equality in California. “It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as secondclass citizens,” Clooney says. “I am confident that, very soon, the laws of this nation will reflect the basic truth that gay and lesbian people — like all human beings — are born equal in dignity and rights.” Longtime equality advocate Rob Reiner will direct the one night only production March 3 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. Other cast members are expected to be announced soon. Like the recent production in New York which starred Reiner and an all-star cast, the L.A. reading will also serve as a benefit for the American Foundation for Equal Rights in its national fight for marriage equality.
A historic day for the city of Orlando as City Council voted Monday to initiate a Domestic Partnership Registry, a move that gives homosexual couples the same basic rights as heterosexual couples. The registry would allow couples - gay or straight - to visit each other in the hospital, make health care decisions and funeral decisions. Former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings was among the many who spoke out in support of the registry. It was an emotional time inside as couples hugged and clapped their hands as Mayor Buddy Dyer announced the registry had passed unanimously. Source: WDBO.com
Source: The Advocate
Local News Briefs Appeals court hears challenges in Prop. 8 case - 12.9 Sponsors of California’s ban on same-sex marriage seemed likely to succeed Thursday in preventing the public from seeing videos of their federal court trial, but made little apparent headway in a more ambitious argument: that the judge who ruled the measure unconstitutional should have been disqualified because he is a gay man with a longtime partner. In two hours of hearings at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, a three-judge panel questioned claims by a lawyer for Proposition 8’s backers that former Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s thenundisclosed relationship gave him an improper stake in the outcome of his own ruling.
Miami, FL - More gays appear in ads, UM study shows - 12.13 In the past decade, the number of gays depicted in advertising has soared, according to a new University of Miami School of Communication study. And their image has been upgraded as well. There was a time when images of gays in mainstream commercials and print advertising were often vague, according to the study by assistant professor Wan-Hsiu “Sunny” Tsai. For example, some commercials would show two men shopping, and it wasn’t clear if they were buddies or partners. But now the relationships are more pronounced and overall the media portrays a socially desirable image of stylish consumers with high-end taste. according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Advertising. In 1994, Ikea was one of the first companies to have an American commercial that depicted two gay men shopping for a dining table together, she wrote. Today, gays and lesbians appear frequently in products that tend to experiment with edgy and unconventional imagery, such as fashion, design and alcohol, the study states. Source: The Sun Sentinel
50 groups share $690,000 to help Bay Area LGBT community - 12.14
San Francisco Interior Designer Ian Stallings Says Gay Kids Are Still Not Safe at School
The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose led the list of Santa Clara and San Mateo county non-profits winning grants from the Horizons Foundation. Based in San Francisco, Horizons announced $690,000 in grants Tuesday to 50 groups working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents of the Bay Area.
San Francisco interior designer and safe schools activist Ian Stallings is raising money for the Gay-Straight Alliance Networkand asking others to help. Last year’s rash of news reports about gay teens being brutally beaten by classmates and harassed so badly they took their own lives struck a chord with San Francisco interior designer Ian Stallings. Now one of the city’s strongest activists for gay youth, Stallings is joining with his friends to help eliminate bullying at schools by fundraising for the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSA Network) and conducting community outreach to encourage others to join the fight.
The DeFrank center won $17,500 for program that helps older LGBT residents in and around San Jose live as healthy as possible into old age. A second Horizons grant of about $3,000 will pay for technical assistance at the 30-year-old center.
“So a married judge could never hear a divorce?” asked Judge Michael Hawkins. That’s different, replied Prop. 8 attorney Charles Cooper, because Walker’s longtime relationship would raise an “obvious question” for most people - whether he would get married if he had the right to do so. That alone should have required the judge to disclose his intentions before the trial started in January 2010, Cooper said. David Boies, lawyer for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group challenging Prop. 8, retorted that Cooper was advocating a “double standard” that would disqualify minority judges from considering any civil rights case.
Horizons awarded $12,000 to Gente Latina de Ambiente, a Hispanic group in San Mateo County, to hire staff and strengthen its board of directors and volunteer programs. Trikone, a group that works with South Asians in San Francisco and the South Bay, won $11,000 to hire a management consultant to help train a new board of directors and improve outreach programs. Song That Radio, a Vietnamese-language radio program broadcast by station KSJX AM in San Jose, was awarded $5,000. The grant will provide a consultant to help measure how well the program is reaching the Vietnamese community, gay and heterosexual.
Stallings’ involvement started relatively small, but ramped up quickly. He first sought out the GSA Network and made a donation of $100. But the feeling stayed with him, and he decided $100 just wasn’t enough. Over the next three weeks, he called on all of his friends and resources and pulled together a swanky fundraising event for over 300 guests who paid close to $50 each. In total, he raised $15,000. He later learned it was the largest event GSA Network had ever hosted until then. Called “Fabulous by Design,” Stallings helped host the event at De Souza’s expansive furniture showroom in the San Francisco Design Center. The event, which included an auction, brought in $50,000 that is now being used to make schools safer.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Source: GSA Network BAY T IM ES DECEM BER 15, 2011 11