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December 4, 2009
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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Center director Sue Doerfer to lead Equality Ohio
by Eric Resnick
Cleveland LGBT Center director Sue Doerfer will lead Equality Ohio starting January 18, according to Equality Ohio board chair Rev. Mike Castle of Dayton.
Doerfer was chosen from 45 applicants, mostly from Ohio, but some from as far away as San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
She will replace Lynne Bowman, who is stepping down as director of the statewide LGBT rights group to become director of programs and services for the Equality Federation, a national organization.
The federation provides resources for statewide organizations like Equality Ohio in fundraising, building capacity, peer support, data management, mentoring, and building professional relationships.
"Sue brings knowledge of Ohio, executive director experience, including fundraising, and she is well versed in the equality movement," Castle said.
Equality Ohio's fundraising is about 25 percent below goal, which is roughly $65,000 less than needed this year. Castle acknowledged that the budget is being balanced by staff vacancies. There are currently only four paid employees.
Doerfer has been successful raising funds at the Cleveland LGBT Center, and has grown that agency's budget by one third over her five-year tenure.
Castle said the job was advertised to pay $50,000 to $65,000 per year.
"[Doerfer] will be at the upper end of that range," Castle said, adding that compensation has not yet been agreed to.
Castle and Doerfer both say that she will continue to live in Cleveland.
"Hopefully, her car will be her office," Castle said, also recognizing that difference will help challenge the perception that Equality Ohio is becoming a Columbus organization.
"But that's not why she was hired," Castle said, "She brings great gifts in fundraising."
Castle also said that no decisions have been made about filling the empty staff positions yet.
According to Castle, the goals going forward for the new director are to complete the organization's strategic plan in 2010 and develop a new one, and to move the Equal Housing and Employment Act through the Ohio legislature.
The Ohio House passed the LGBT
newsbriefs
equality measure in September, and it is now in the Senate.
Castle said Bill Brownson and Steve Farrell, both Columbus area leaders and former city council candidates, assisted Equality Ohio in its search.
The board expects Doerfer to get to know coalition leaders, get to know Equality Ohio's donors, and get grounded in the legislative process very soon after arriving on the job, Castle said.
Doerfer's accomplishments as center director include sustaining programs already in place while adding new ones, making it the largest LGBT agency in the state, growing the budget, doing community advocacy increasing the visibility of the Center in the larger community, and working to pass legislation including Cleveland's domestic partner registry last year, and this week's ordinance protecting transgender citizens from discrimination.
Doerfer's appointment will be officially announced at Equality Ohio's fourth annual Leadership Summit to be held in Columbus December 5. The event will be Bowman's last official duty, and a fundraising reception will be held in her honor that evening.
Executive leadership of the organization will be provided by the board until January.
Doerfer's last day as executive director of the center will be December 30.
"The board faces a real challenge in
Sue Doerfer
finding a new executive director to replace Sue," said board president Scott Morgan in a December 3 press release. "During Sue's tenure, she has done an outstanding job and has taken the center to new heights. Although we will miss her, we congratulate Sue on her new position and believe that the center's work with Equality Ohio will strengthen."
Morgan said the center's full board of directors will meet next week to finalize plans for a new executive director.
Washington, D.C. council passes full marriage law
Washington, D.C.-Within a month and a half, couples may be allowed to marry in the nation's capital.
The District of Columbia council voted 11 to 2 in favor of an ordinance allowing full same-sex marriage in the municipality, which is not part of any state.
The council will need to vote again on the proposed legislation in two weeks. If passed, it will then go to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who has expressed support for it.
Congress would then have 30 days to approve or reject the legislation. If they do not take it up, it will become D.C. law without their intervention.
The two votes against it came from councilors Yvette Alexander and former mayor Marion Barry, who is perhaps best known for his crack cocaine arrest in the 1980s.
Full same-sex marriage is presently legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont; and in January, New Hampshire. Seven other nations, including Canada, also have it.
Senate nixes New York marriage
Albany-A bill that would allow full samesex marriage in New York was defeated in the state senate on December 2.
Eight Democrats voted against the measure, which was championed by Gov. David Paterson. No Republicans voted for it.
The final vote was 38 to 24 in the narrowlydivided chamber.
The bill has passed the state assembly, the lower house of New York's legislature, three times. This was its first senate vote. The Democrats have a far stronger majority in the lower chamber.
A number of polls taken of New York state residents have shown them to either be in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, or evenly split on the issue.
Police to look at hate crime in slaying
San Juan, Puerto Rico-After meeting with representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, authorities say they will investigate the brutal murder of a young gay man as a hate crime.
Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was found beheaded, stabbed and burned on November 13. Days later, Juan A. Martinez confessed to the crime, claiming a "gay panic" defense that he thought Mercado was female.
However, police were criticized both for not investigating a hate motive for the crime and also because one of the investigators said that someone "like that" who goes out in public should know what could happen to him.
The FBI office in San Juan has also noted that it might become involved in the investigation.
Puerto Rico is an American protectorate,
and the recently-passed Matthew ShepardJames Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act would allow federal authorities to step in to aid in the investigation and prosecution of the murder.
New papers rise in Window's wake
Washington, D.C.-Two iconic LGBT newspapers that were shuttered last month with the bankruptcy of Window Media will survive, although in different forms.
The staff of the Washington Blade has already begun publishing the D.C. Agenda, which put out its first issue two weeks ago.
Shortly afterward, news came out that the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation in Atlanta will donate $12,000 to Southern Voice founder Chris Cash and former editor Laura Douglas-Brown to launch a new publication.
Cash sold the paper to Window Media in 1997. She has also received donations from various members of the community and subjects of Southern Voice stories.
The Lloyd E. Russell Foundation is a private charitable trust that supports the LGBT community in Atlanta and the surrounding area. Russell was a gay activist and Libertarian candidate in local political races.
Cash said she is forming a new corporation to run the upcoming newspaper, and she will sell shares in it, with the goal of raising enough capital to support the paper through its first year. New Jersey marriage bill not likely
Trenton, N.J.-Same-sex marriage will likely not come to a vote in the state legislature, following the defeat of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the November election.
When legislators returned from break after the election, leading Democratic lawmakers viewed the elections results as an indication that voters want them focused on the struggling economy. They fear that there will be reprisals from the citizenry if they appear to be distracted by social issues, according to Democratic leaders like Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney.
While a same-sex marriage bill is likely to pass the lower house, the Senate failed to schedule it for a vote after appearing to garner less than the 21 votes needed to pass the bill.
Cops sued for Atlanta Eagle raid
Atlanta Almost 50 police officers and the chief of police were sued in federal court on November 24 after a September 10 raid on a gay bar.
Some of the Atlanta Eagle's employees were arrested in the raid and charged with violating the city's adult entertainment statutes because of four dancers who were allegedly dancing in their underwear..
However, none of the patrons were arrested, although police restrained some of them with handcuffs and forced others onto the ground.
The officers are also accused of kicking some of the patrons who were on the ground.
Some of the patrons were forced to lie on or near broken glass, and were told to "shut the fuck up" when they asked to move away from the glass.
"The Atlanta Police Department dispatched about 20 to 30 officers to the Atlanta Eagle... but inside the bar, the APD found no public sex, no drugs or illegal weapons," the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said in a statement, according to CNN.
Lambda Legal filed the suit on behalf of 19 Eagle customers who were there during the raid.
The suit accuses the police of false imprisonment, battery and violation of the staff and patrons' constitutional rights.
Among the officers in the raid was the "Red Dog" unit, which is generally used in high-drug areas to provide strong police presence. They were wearing SWAT gear.
Women kissing? OK. Men kissing? Blur New York City CBS' Early Show on November 25 blurred out former American Idol
SOCHEM
ROCHEM
contestant Adam Lambert's same-sex kiss with a keyboardist, originally broadcast on the American Music Awards on ABC.
In the same broadcast, however, they showed Madonna and Britney Spears engaging in a rousing game of tonsil hockey from the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. The blurring drew accusations of a double standard between depictions of gay male sexuality and lesbian sexuality. Lambert is also openly gay, while Madonna has at points claimed bisexuality and Spears is apparently heterosexual.
"The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times, including many times on morning television," a CBS representative said. "The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated and, for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences."
ABC claims that they received 1,500 calls complaining about Lambert's lip-lock, out of a nationwide audience of 14.2 million.
Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.
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