GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

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BRIAN DEWITT (3)

On the morning of the Cleveland partner registry's opening, city hall's Division of Assessments and Licenses is a busy place as Martin Witkowski and Tim Kempf wait for the clerk to check their papers, while Ovetta Joi and Angel Hill share an embrace after being registered (upper left) and later, Nicholle Kirk puts a ring on Amber Colby's finger (upper right).

Anti-bias bill may pass Ohio House

Senate will be more difficult

by Eric Resnick

Columbus-A measure to prohibit discrimination by sexual orientation and gender identity or expression has been reintroduced in the Ohio House, where it is expected to pass quickly.

Its future in the Senate is far less certain.

The bill, dubbed H.R. 176, the Equal Housing and Employment Non-Discrimination Act, covers public and private employment, housing and public accommodations. It was introduced jointly on May 12 by Democrat Dan Stewart of Columbus and Republican Ross McGregor of Springfield, and has 25 cosponsors in both parties.

Inside This Issue

Letting it all hang out Page 8

Last year, a similar bill had only 17 cosponsors in the 99-member House. Its companion in the Senate had 12. In that session, both chambers were controlled by Republicans.

This year, the House is controlled by Democrats, some of whose campaigns were helped by Continued on page 5

Moscow police smash a Pride march for the fourth time

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Community Groups .................. 6 Charlie's Calendar Resource Directory

Classifieds

Volume 24, Issue 23 May 22, 2009 24

City Hall celebration marks Cleveland registry opening

by Eric Resnick

Cleveland-"Today I stand on the steps of City Hall to celebrate--not to protest or to say no to something-but to say thank you," Cleveland LGBT Center director Sue Doerfer told a rally marking the opening of the city's domestic partner registry.

In all, 75 couples registered on May 7, the first day. First in line were Maya Simek and Rebecca Olarte of Cleveland.

"A tidal wave of justice has swept in from Lake Erie and landed on these shores," declared Rev. John Tamilio III of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ, who was one of nearly two dozen diverse members of the clergy who stood in support.

Later that evening, Pilgrim hosted an ecumenical worship service celebrating the registry.

The witticism going around the crowd of at least 260 was that there were more clergy outside city hall celebrating the registry than inside city hall at a National Day of Prayer service trying to pray it away.

"These are people I want to spend time with," said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, reminding the crowd that some of the 13 members of city council who voted in favor of the registry did so at great political risk, especially Mamie Mitchell of Ward 6, who could face primary opposition because of it.

Mitchell and Kevin Conwell of Ward 9 were the only black members of council to vote for the registry, in defiance of pressure and threats from a small group of black ministers.

Lawson Jones, who is black, compared the pair to the Freedom Riders who rode on buses into the segregated South to test the 1960 Supreme Court decision desegregating public

accommodations.

"This is about a full throttle embrace of diversity we all represent," Jones said. "I never got up and made a decision to be heterosexual. None of us do. We are what we are."

The crowd erupted when Mitchell was introduced by the registry's sponsor, Ward 13 councilor Joe Cimperman.

Fighting tears, Mitchell said, "In my life came a time when it didn't matter to me whether I won a seat or not. I did what God wanted me to do." Cimperman also recognized

Ward 14 councilor Joe Santiago, who is gay, and Ward 18's Jay Westbrook, who has been an advocate of the LGBT community since taking office in 1980.

Westbrook was the first Cleveland official to attend Pride. This year, 12 of the 13 who voted for the registry will be the Pride parade's grand marshals.

Cimperman, flanked by most of them, told the crowd that the members who voted against the registry “are friends we haven't met yet. They will be our friends tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, people will register and there will be no crowd," Cimperman said. "That's the way it should be."

Former Cleveland councilor Mary Zunt-who with Mary Rose Oakar in 1973 were the first two women elected to office in Cleveland-told the assembly how she felt "furious" when her daughter Cal came out to her, how she was afraid to say it in public, and how she grew to appreciate her lesbian daughter.

Cal Zunt and her partner then walked up the steps, joining her mother inside to register their relationship. Rev. Joan Salmon Campbell, the first black woman elected as a moderator of the Presbyterian Church, talked about living in an open and affirming way.

"This is the day God made to rejoice," she said before telling the story of her first husband, the late Rev. John Luther Salmon, also a Presbyterian, whom she learned was living a double life as a gay man, only when he died.

"I wish I was able to stand with him the way I stand with you today," Salmon Campbell said. "No secrets." Columnist

Mansfield Frazier addressed the black ministers head-on.

Frazier invoked Bayard Rustin, the gay man who designed the civil rights movement that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the face of.

It was Rustin, who was also a Communist, who taught King and the others about civil disobedience and the teachings of Gandhi, as well as how to organize political movements.

"Do I have the courage to say the truth and not worry about what others say?" Frazier began.

"Ask them," Frazier continued, “do they want to give back Continued on page 4