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February 27, 2009

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 3

Cleveland partner registry campaign heats up

by Eric Resnick

Cleveland-Two campaigns are revving up to preserve Cleveland's domestic partner registry once it hits the ballot.

The registry, passed in December, quickly came under fire from anti-gay ministers and community activists who began collecting signatures to repeal it by voter initiative.

The group opposing the registry, called the Cleveland Coalition of Churches, is headed by Rev. C. Jay Matthews of Mount Sinai Baptist Church.

The measure, similar to ones in Toledo and Cleveland Heights, allows unmarried couples, both same and opposite-sex, to register with the city and receive documentation of their relationship. It grants no rights or responsibilities, but will be helpful in gaining benefits such as health coverage

from private employers.

If Cleveland voters repeal it, the move could send a chill across Ohio. Other cities, including Columbus, are considering registries of their own. A repeal may also make LGBT equal rights laws more difficult to pass in other areas, such as job discrimination.

This has brought assistance for Matthews from the national anti-gay groups from as far away as Alabama.

Two campaigns have emerged to defend the registry. One is made up of known community leaders, including Cleveland LGBT Center director Sue Doerfer and Equality Ohio director Lynne Bowman.

The other is comprised of activists, many with experience running door-to-door voter identification campaigns.

Doerfer is the spokesperson for the first

Harvey would have loved Oscar speeches for 'Milk'

by Anthony Glassman

Los Angeles-It was no Slumdog Millionaire, but the Gus Van Sant film of Harvey Milk's life from the time he left New York until his death won two Academy Awards on February 22.

Writer Dustin Lance Black picked up the first of the film's Oscars, in the category of Best Original Screenplay.

Black, a former Mormon who helped create HBO's Big Love and wrote the screenplay for the Pedro Zamora biopic Pedro, talked about first learning of the gay San Francisco supervisor as a boy.

their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours."

Later, Sean Penn won Best Actor for his portrayal of Milk. His left-wing political stances have made him the target of repeated criticism from right-wing bloggers and pundits, and he hit the ground running in his acceptance speech.

"Thank you. Thank you. You commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns,” Penn joked. “I did not expect this, but I, and I want it to be

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group, called Cleveland Families Count, which was formed in December.

She said CFC is preparing for a rally on May 7. They have also hired attorneys to check the signatures collected by Matthews' group, and challenge any that aren't valid.

"We have been identifying coalition partners inside and outside the LGBT community," Doerfer said, "and attempting to educate the press."

CFC successfully lobbied the AfricanAmerican weekly Call and Post to editorialize for the registry, and for the Cleveland NAACP to pass a resolution supporting it.

Doerfer said CFC has gotten pledges from the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to help with developing the campaign message, training volunteers and campaign tactics. The second group, formed earlier this month, is Ask Cleveland.

"My biggest concern is that when the registry passed in December, there were 39 weeks to September 8, now it's just 28 weeks," said Doug Braun of Ask Cleveland. "Time keeps ticking away."

September 8 is the Cleveland primary election, when the registry may be on the ballot.

Braun and several others in the group were part of Heights Families for Equality, which created the Cleveland Heights registry by voter initiative in 2003. Some members came from Barack Obama's presidential campaign, which involved canvassing at the local level.

Ask Cleveland runs its campaign under the name Keep the Registry.

It was formed because its members believed CFC was concentrating on areas they didn't believe were productive, and not spending enough time canvassing Cleveland neighborhoods to identify voters, volunteers and donors.

In volunteer participation, Ask Cleveland is the larger campaign.

Braun, who spoke to a reporter while setting up a phone bank for 12 volun-

teers, said the group has been calling voters twice a week and canvassing weekly with around 25 volunteers out at a time. The Ohio City neighborhood was canvassed on February 21. Because campaigns of this type grow as canvassing brings in more volunteers, those numbers will increase.

Lisa Hazirjian, also an Ask Cleveland spokesperson, said the group has the goal of building an LGBT equal rights movement in the Cleveland area. This includes increasing the number of people working on LGBT rights and strengthening the political skills of those involved.

"The fundamental thing we are doing is asking," said Hazirjian, "for votes, volunteers and funds. That's where the name comes from."

"The act of asking is central to our existence," Hazirjian added.

Hazirjian said she attended a Lakewood screening of the film Swing State-about Lee Fisher's 2006 campaign for lieutenant governor and asked for volunteers.

"Half the room signed up," Hazirjian said.

Ask Cleveland is also seeking the help of non-LGBT people.

"So many people who are not LGBT care passionately about LGBT rights,” Hazirjian said.

"Most Cleveland voters are persuadable,” she noted, "because most are not aware of the registry yet."

"It's a big undertaking," Hazirjian said, "and there's not an infinite amount of time to do the work, but we're going to stand up and defend our rights."

The registry is expected to be on the ballot in either September or November depending on what city council does when the petitions are filed.

Cleveland Families Count can be conthrough

tacted

www.clevelandfamiliescount.org.

Ask Cleveland can be contacted via www.askcleveland.org.

WINNER 8 TONY AWARDS INCLUDING

BEST MUSICAL

Dustin Lance Black

"When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk," he said during his acceptance speech. “And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave

Sean Penn

me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married."

"I want to thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to," he continued. "But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he'd want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by

very clear, that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me often. But I am touched by the appreciation and I hoped for it enough that I did want to scribble down, so I had the names in case you were commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns."

After thanking his cast, crew, family and friends, his speech returned to a political bent as he noted the picketers outside the Kodak Theater from Fred Phelps' family in Topeka, Kansas.

"And finally, for those two last 'finallys'-for those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support," he said. "We've got to have equal rights for everyone. And there are, and there are, these last two things. I'm very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man president and a country who, for all its toughness, creates courageous artists.”

The late Heath Ledger, who was a Best Actor nominee for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, picked up the Academy's second posthumous Best Supporting Actor award for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Photo by Timothy White

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