GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com Volume 25, Issue 17 February 12, 2010

ERIC RESNICK

Sen. Sherrod Brown and his wife, columnist Connie Schultz, chat with Gay Community Endowment Fund president Chris Hixson, right, and his partner, Akron Art Museum director Mitchell Kahan, before the fund's annual meeting on January 31

Basketball sit-in highlights John Carroll University bias debate

by Anthony Glassman

University Heights, OhioA basketball game between John Carroll University and Mount Union University became the focal point of a debate on LGBT inclusion at JCU after a sit-in was held at center court on February 3.

Around 20 students calmly walked to the center of the basketball court, casually shaking off attempts by university police to stop them, and sat down, bearing rainbow flags and signs calling for acceptance of LGBT people on campus.

In a moment of irony, the school band began playing "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer, a song about looking for sex made popular in dance clubs

in the gay-dominated disco era.

The protesters sang "Singing for Our Lives" by Holly Near and sat peacefully as players from the two teams began shooting practice shots at their respective baskets. Eventually, the students were escorted off the court.

While LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies are now fairly standard at most universities, John Carroll is a Jesuit college, a Catholic institution. While the administration has not echoed the Vatican's sentiment that homosexuality is "objectively disordered," Father Robert L. Niehoff, the president of the university, put forward a draft of a new "Community Standards Statement" that calls for LGBT students and staff to be

Inside This Issue

welcome. He has yet, however, to bring a nondiscrimination rule to the school's board of trustees.

In October 2008, the faculty union voted in favor of adding sexual orientation to the school's nondiscrimination policy. Niehoff took the recommendation to three committees of the board, but not to the board itself. and has recommended against the change.

The Community Standards Statement reads, "John Carroll desires an authentic commitment to inclusion and diversity as constitutive elements of our Jesuit Catholic identity. Consequently. discrimination against and harassment of one member of the University Community by any other member Continued on page 2

Cambridge paper refuses couple's wedding notice

Page 3

Letters to the Editors....

Charlie's Calendar

A worthy popcorn film

Page 6

Resource Directory....... Classifieds.....

Slowly but surely

Sen. Brown says equality laws are moving, but need a push

by Eric Resnick

Akron-"Incremental, but very real progress" was the description given by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to the movement toward LGBT equality, both locally and nationally.

Brown gave the assessment to supporters of Akron's Gay Community Endowment Fund, whose annual meeting he addressed on January 31.

Brown was accompanied by his wife, Connie Schultz, a Pulitzerwinning columnist and long time LGBT and women's rights advocate. Schultz is a past keynote speaker for the event, and Brown's references to her provided some of the lighter moments of his talk.

"Connie only went out with me after checking my voting record on DOMA and choice issues," Brown said to audience applause.

Brown's congressional voting record on LGBT equality is 100 percent. He is a Democrat.

He said the couple was discussing the fund's accomplishments on the way to the Akron Art Museum, where he gave the keynote speech to 150 people.

"Connie said: How can they do all that when they're so busy undermining our marriage?" Brown recalled as the audience laughed.

Then he turned to more serious matters.

"I had the honor of presiding over the Senate the day the hate crime act was passed, and I got to gavel it down," Brown said.

Brown said the lessons about progress on LGBT issues are "how far we have come, how far we have to go, and how frustrated we all are at incremental progress."

"By 2006, the public understood the mistake it made in 2004 and stopped the gay adoption ban," Brown gave as an example of incremental progress.

In 2004, Ohio voters amended the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages and civil unions. In 2006, a bill to ban LGBT adoptions was stopped in the Ohio House.

Brown referred to House Republican Leader John Boehner's remarks on Meet the Press earlier that day against repeal of "don't ask don't tell." Boehner argued that now is not the right time.

"For guys like John Boehner, who is anti-civil rights, it's never the time," Brown said.

After the event, Brown met briefly with a reporter to discuss the growing frustration in the LGBT community with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats and the loss of the Democrats' 60-vote majority.

Asked if the LGBT legislative agenda will advance in Washington without the president's leadership, Brown replied, "No. The president needs to be engaged."

Brown said that the Senate has gotten more partisan, and that the election of Scott Brown from Massachusetts gives Republicans the opportunity to overrule Demo-

crats.

Brown also acknowledged that not all Democrats are on board with LGBT equality. But he is hopeful that some Republicans will vote for repealing "don't ask don't tell" and to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

However, Brown dodged the question of whether or not Democratic leadership would move them to a vote. He also said he didn't know of any "markers" that would show their intentions.

Brown said the LGBT community should "continue to do what's being done" to keep Democrats from stalling their legislative agenda.

During the annual meeting, Gay Community Endowment Fund president Chris Hixson noted the fund's activities. It is in its ninth year of existence, and fifth year of awarding grants.

Hixson said there were a record number of applicants in 2009 and eight grants were given totaling $29,268.

Over its history, the fund has awarded $101,242.

Grantees included the AIDS service agencies Community AIDS Network and Violet's Cupboard.

Fusion magazine and Weathervane Community Playhouse got grants for LGBT cultural projects.

The Battered Women's Shelter. CASA Board Volunteer Organization, Child Guidance and Family Solutions and the University of Akron Women's Studies Department got grants for projects dealing with LGBT youth protection. domestic violence reduction and LGBT advocacy.

A number of elected officials attended, including Summit County Executive Russ Pry, openly lesbian Akron Ward 8 councilor Sandra Kurt and Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands.

Newly-appointed Equality Ohio director Sue Doerfer was there, as was national P-FLAG vice president Rabbi David Horowitz. Fusion magazine can be seen online at www.thatgaymagazine

.com.

The Gay Community Endowment Fund is online at www. gaycommunityfund.org.