GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com Volume 24, Issue 14 January 2, 2009

BRIAN DEWIT

The Blazing River Freedom Band marches in the Cleveland Pride parade last June. Musicians from three Ohio bands will be part of the 177-piece Lesbian-Gay Band Association contingent in Barack Obama's inaugural parade on January 20.

Ohio musicians join lesbian and gay band in presidential parade

by Anthony Glassman

Washington, D.C.-When Barack Obama leads his inaugural parade ow Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, he will have a contingent of gay bands behind him, including some from Ohio.

The Lesbian and Gay Band Association will be the first ever LGBT contingent to march in an inaugural parade.

Ohio's three LGBT marching bands, the Queen City Rainbow Band, the Capital Pride Band of Columbus and Cleveland's Blazing River Freedom Band will all have members in the 177-member contingent.

"The registration and elimination process was like being part of a reality TV show, waiting to see if

you were going to be voted off the island," said Fred Martens of the Queen City band, one of five musicians from Cincinnati heading to D.C. "I was sweating bullets for two days."

The first time he tried registering online to perform in the Lesbian and Gay Band Association bloc, he couldn't get on the web site, which had gone down due to too many hits.

The following day, the association changed their registration process to ease the load: Musicians logged on at different times depending on the instruments they play.

Martens got shut out of the saxophone group, but then successfully registered for clarinet.

He was one of the lucky ones-

Inside This Issue

The sacred and the profane

Page 8

a total of 350 people vied for the spots in the parade.

"This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said fellow clarinetist Sarah Morris, who had to register as a banner carrier after logging on too late to be with the clarinets. "I am so proud to have the opportunity to represent Cincinnati and the Queen City Rainbow Band."

The idea of playing the inauguration was brought up when the Blazing River Freedom Band was in New York City for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in October.

"It's an amazing thing considering when the national organization initially talked to us back in October, they thought if we did get Continued on page 10

Cuyahoga County is sued for anti-lesbian job bias

Page 2

Community Groups

....... 6

Charlie's Calendar .........

Resource Directory

Classifieds ......

A mixed bag

2008 had both gains and losses for the LGBT community

by Anthony Glassman

While 2008 started off like any other year, by the time it ended, there was a mortgage crisis, a credit crunch, an historic election, a crushing recession, an almost unprecedented ebb and flow of LGBT civil rights and "Stonewall 2.0."

A January 22 "census snapshot" by the Williams Institute of UCLA Law School illustrating the prevalence of same-sex couples across the state showed that even in Ohio's most sparsely-populated county, Vinton, there were 18 couples who self-identified to census takers.

The county, whose 13,372 residents are fewer than many suburbs, is 40 miles a southeast of Columbus.

The report drew on data from the 2000 Census and from the 2005 American Community Survey, a government study that serves as a mini-census in between the official counts every ten years.

Almost one quarter of the 30,669 Ohio same-sex couples are raising children, although they have less access to economic resources to assist their families than do their

Partner

heterosexual counterparts.

While just less than one-tenth of heterosexual married couples in the state are non-white, the study found more racial diversity among domestic partners, with 14 percent of same-sex couples being nonwhite.

The growing visibility of Ohio's LGBT families was reflected in city councils and county commissions across the state.

Oxford City Council voted unanimously on March 4 to expand the city's non-discrimination ordinance, less than two months after the idea was first floated in a meeting between Miami students, staff, community members and city manager Douglas R. Elliott, Jr. It became the 15th Ohio city to protect citizens on the basis of sexual orientation, and the fourth to protect against anti-transgender discrimination.

The Franklin County Commissioners on April 1 barred discrimination in county employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the first county in the state to cover transgender work-

ers.

Continued on page 2

registry

ballot battle heats up

by Eric Resnick

Cleveland-Friends and foes of the city's new domestic partner registry are organizing for a ballot showdown. The only question now is when it will be.

The registry was passed 13-7 by city council on December 8 and signed by Mayor Frank Jackson two days later. It will open April 9 unless opponents can collect 10,228 valid petition signatures before then to force a referendum. Registry opponents are circulating two petitions simultaneously. One is for a referendum, the other is to put a repeal on ballot later in the form of an initiative. That would requires only 5,000 signatures

The only difference is timing. A successful referendum drive would stop the registry from taking effect; an initiative--which can be done any time could challenge it even after it takes effect.

A referendum election could occur as early as February 3, and anti-LGBT churches are pushing petition circulators to collect enough signatures to do that by next Monday, January 5.

The registry allows unmarried couples over the age of 18, samesex or opposite sex, to register their partnership with the city. It is open

to both residents and non-residents of Cleveland.

The registry confers no rights or benefits. It will allow couples to access benefits offered by insurance companies, employers and health care providers.

Petition circulators are claiming to voters that Cleveland City Council broke the law by passing the registry, and that council is trying to dodge Ohio's constitutional marriage ban amendment. Both claims are false.

Ohio's first partner registry. passed by Cleveland Heights voters five years ago, was challenged in court unsuccessfully. Cleveland's is modeled after that one.

An appeals court unanimously agreed with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert Glickman's ruling that the registry does not violate the amendment and is an appropriate "act of selfgovernance."

Glickman said that a domestic partner registry "does not create any result, either within the city or outside its territory, other than the mere existence of names on a list." The Ohio Supreme Court later determined that the ban amendment applies only to marriage and civil union.

Continued on page 7