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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July 18, 2008
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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
newsbriefs
Census will change legal spouses to 'unmarried' in 2010
Washington, D.C.-The 2010 census will record gay and lesbian married couples as "unmarried partners," even if the spouses have a legal marriage license.
Same-sex couples who married in Massachusetts, California, Canada or any other place where the unions are legal will not be recognized because of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, according to the Census Bureau.
The same policy existed for the 2000 census, although no state allowed same-sex couples to marry then. But the government is not changing it for the upcoming survey of the nation's population.
The census asks Person No. 1—the person filling out the form their relationship to other people in the household. If they indicate that someone of the same sex is their "husband/wife," the bureau will automatically change that to "unmarried partner."
According to Martin O'Connell, chief of the Census Bureau's Fertility and Family Statistics Branch, the agency will keep the original responses, even while adjusting the answers for the final tallies.
"We're not destroying data; we are keeping that data," he told the San Jose Mercury News. "We are just showing the data published in a ways that is consistent with the way every other agency publishes their data."
Only the final tallies are made available to researchers, the original responses are kept confidential for 80 years.
"I just think it's bad form for the census to change a legal response to an incorrect response," Gary Gates of UCLA's Williams Institute told the Mercury News. "That goes against everything the census stands for."
"It's a systematic hiding not only of married gay couples, but gay couples as
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families, which I would argue is a fundamentally political decision," he concluded.
Mass. Senate votes to repeal 1913 law
Boston-Lesbian and gay couples from across the country are one step closer to a Massachusetts wedding.
The state Senate voted July 15 to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying. The move to repeal the law, which prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states, is driven in part by California's recent legalization of same-sex marriage.
The state House is expected to vote on the repeal later this week. Gov. Deval Patrick, whose 18-year-old daughter came out as lesbian last month, has said he will sign it.
The law dates to a time when the majority of states outlawed interracial marriages. Critics said the law was designed to smooth relations with those states. Massachusetts has allowed interracial marriages since 1843.
Dianne Wilkerson, the Massachusetts Senate's lone black member, said the vote was long overdue. She called the law "evil."
"This is one of the most pernicious statutes on our books,” said Wilkerson, a Democrat. "This bill puts the final nail in the coffin of those dark days."
The law was rarely enforced until Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that the state could no longer bar gay couples from marrying. Then-Gov. Mitt Romney, eyeing a run for president, ordered city and town clerks to enforce the statute.
Eight gay couples from surrounding states challenged the 1913 law in court and in 2006 the same court that allowed full marriage refused to toss out the law.
Bill to end HIV+ border ban advances
Washington, D.C.-The U.S. Senate voted on July 11 to take up a stalled global AIDS bill that would also repeal a ban on HIV-positive people entering the United States.
International AIDS conferences often reject being held in the U.S. for fear that attendees won't be allowed to enter the country.
The vote was 65-3 to begin debate next week on the legislation approving
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$50 billion over the next five years to prevent and treat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other areas of the world. Sixty votes were needed to advance the bill by ending a Republican-led filibuster. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., offered an amendment to add former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms' name to the bill.
Helms, who died July 4, was a rabid homophobe who in later years backed off his opposition to all AIDS funding-but
Cudell
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Deamons, 52, is a former electrician, Paradise Club member, and former president of the Alpha Omega Society.
She has been undergoing hormone treatment for ten years, has legally changed her name and lives completely as a woman according to the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association standards, in preparation for eventual sex reassignment surgery. She has breasts and swims in a black one-piece women's swimsuit. Because of the stroke, she uses a wheelchair. She was in the men's locker room on June 21 when a young boy came in and asked her why a woman was changing her clothes in the men's room.
Deamons said all she could do was ask him to leave the room until she was done. But for her, that was the last straw. On her next visit, she used the women's locker room and was promptly suspended for seven days.
"It's embarrassing, coming out of the men's room," said Deamons, adding that the city's policy of making women use the men's room is what is confusing the children and causing complaints among adults.
Cleveland's swimming pools are open to the public and free of charge, even for nonresidents. Cudell requires that guests sign in on sheets marked "male" and "female" before using the pool or other facilities.
The city is not commenting on the matter. Cudell manager Ron Fields would not discuss it.
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only for "innocent" Africans. He continued to rail against gays, who he said were responsible for the "doubling and redoubling" of AIDS cases in the United States.
The bill is currently named for Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde, who worked for bipartisan support to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.
Michael Cox also refused comment, although he noted that, "I have been dealing with this situation for a long time."
Law Director Robert Triozzi said, "The City of Cleveland approaches with regard to its recreational centers and all its business a sense of fairness. We try to accommodate all people regardless of the issue."
Asked what accommodation the city has made for Deamons, Triozzi said, "I'm not going to go there."
Triozzi said he could not comment because the matter is now before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, but emphasized that the city "takes it seriously and has nothing to hide."
Neither Triozzi nor Cox would say whether or not the city has a policy governing the use of its facilities by transgender people.
While Cleveland has ordinances barring discrimination by sex and by sexual orientation, it does not have any that cover transgender people, as do Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Oxford.
Triozzi would also not say whether or not there had been any complaints filed against Deamons by other Cudell patrons.
Deamons says that Cudell manager Fields has used them to justify the restrictions she has been placed under, though she has never seen them either.
Deamons said that a previous manager she knew only as Mary called her into the office shortly after she started using the pool, and asked if she had the reassignment surgery.
Deamons said it was after then that the tension with the facility started.
Triozzi said the city is preparing its answer to Deamons' complaint.
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