GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 30, 2011 • www.GayPeoples Chronicle.com

Michigan law bans local domestic partner benefits

by Anthony Glassman

Lansing, Mich.-Gov. Rick Snyder gave public employees in Michigan a stockingful of coal for Christmas, signing a ban on domestic partner benefits on December 22. The measure bars cities, schools and other local entities from giving the same health benefits to their workers' partners that they give to married spouses, as some have begun to do. The banned benefits are similar to those offered by several Ohio universities and the cities of Cleveland, Columbus and Cleveland Heights, along with a number of private companies.

Snyder and some of the measure's supporters in the legislature said that it does not apply to employees of public universities, which have wide-ranging autonomous powers under the Michigan constitution, or to state employees, who signed a contract earlier this year granting them domestic partner benefits.

However, other supporters in the Michi-

gan House of Representatives said that the legislation does cover the public universities, which are the largest providers of domestic partner benefits in public employment in the state.

Only Lake Superior State University fails to offer some form of domestic partner benefits, and Snyder himself pointed to the constitution as preventing the legislature from regulating the provision of benefits to public university employees.

The University of Michigan provides benefits to 570 adults and 48 minors under their domestic partner policy, while the city of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, which contain the school's main campus, only provide domestic partner benefits to 21 adults, nine partners of county employees and 12 of city workers.

"These benefits remain important to reviving Michigan's economy and in helping our state to compete for the best talent to

educate our students," Leigh Greden, executive director of government and community relations for Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, told the Ann Arbor News. "That's why Michigan's universities worked with business groups to oppose this legislation."

His counterpart at nearby U of M, Cynthia Wilbanks, expressed concern at the varying opinions as to the law's reach.

"There seems to be some difference of opinion about whether the approved legis-

ion applies directly to state universities. That remains a very serious concern," she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has promised to file suit against the legislation.

"We're so very disappointed in the governor," executive director Kary L. Moss said. "This was the moment for him to show real leadership, to rise above what I believe

is petty politics, to tell the rest of the country that Michigan is not living in the dark ages and to create an open, inclusive Michigan."

Snyder had asked the legislature to take the bill back and amend it so that it specifically excluded public universities; House analysts said it would not exclude state universities, while Senate analysts said it would.

In his signing statement, Snyder asserted it would not apply to public universities under the state constitution, or to employees of the state civil service, whose employment terms are dictated by the Michigan Civil Service Commission under the constitution.

"The decision to take health care benefits away from families just in time for the holidays is mean-spirited and cruel,” Moss said. "We are prepared to challenge this law on behalf of Michigan families in the coming weeks."

Student can't push beliefs on gay clients, court rules

by Anthony Glassman

Atlanta-A federal appellate court rejected an appeal from a counseling graduate student who claimed that forcing her to work with LGBT students violated her First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

Jennifer Keeton was going for a masters degree in educational counseling, but refused to abide by American Counseling Association ethics guidelines, which requires prospective counselors be trained to work with people of differing views without foisting the counselor's opinions on them.

Keeton was a student at Augusta (Ga.) State University, but before beginning her practicum, where she would work oneon-one with clients, she made it clear that her Christian beliefs conflicted with the requirements to treat clients without imposing her own beliefs, which include that "sexual behavior is the result of personal choice for which individuals are accountable, not inevitable deterministic forces; that gender is fixed and binary (i.e., male or female), not a social construct or personal choice subject to individual change; and that homosexuality is a 'lifestyle,' not a ‘state of being.' She told professors and classmates that she believed LGBT people suffered from identity confusion and she would try to convert gay students to heterosexuality.

She told a professor who posed a hypo-

Councilor

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Richard Trojanski

constituents," he noted. "My focus during the last two years has been bringing a sense of cohesion to the community.”

That effort has been difficult; he is a gay white man representing a district that is at least 80 percent African American, and the city has suffered from business closings, foreclosures and "white flight."

While Lansky has accused Trojanski of trying to stir up unrest against his adminis-

thetical question about being approached by a student who was questioning his sexual orientation that she would tell him that it was "not okay to be gay," according to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal's December 16 ruling.

"Similarly, Keeton told a fellow classmate that, if a client discloses that he is gay, it was her intention to tell the client that his behavior is morally wrong and then to try to change the client's behavior, and if she were unable to help the client change his behavior, she would refer him to someone practicing conversion therapy," the three-judge panel wrote in their unanimous decision.

School administrators viewed these and other incidents as an expressed intent to violate provisions of the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics; they asked her to participate in a remediation program so that she could comply with the ethics code before beginning her practicum. The ACA ethics code, administrators argued, required them to try to enlighten Keeton as to why she should not impose her own beliefs on her clients.

The remediation plan would have required her to attend workshops on crosscultural communication, multicultural competence or diversity sensitivity, read articles in counseling or psychology journals on counseling effectiveness with the LGBT community, familiarize herself

tration, Trojanski prefers to stay above the name-calling.

"People prefer that their candidates take the high road instead of flinging mud at one another," he said.

Last June, Lansky was accused of racism in his response to an e-mail that said he took too high a salary in a city facing financial hardships. Lansky accused his opponent Mitchell of collecting a full Cuyahoga County pension while also taking Maple Heights council salary, according to a story by WJW Channel 8.

In his response, Lansky asked if the emailer knew a "crack dealer named Silk" or "Keisha Kornbread." He then accused Trojanski of having a hand in the e-mail.

Trojanski denied any involvement, but accused Lansky of racial insensitivity.

Beyond the squabbles, however, Trojanski is concerned with one thing: the people of Maple Heights.

"I think that people are the number one asset of any community, your human capital," he said. I worked with the Cleveland Clinic to get outreach into the community. I'm here to be a middleperson, connecting community members with various nonprofits to fulfill their needs and get them moving forward."

Among Ohio's openly gay or lesbian elected officials, Trojanski will be joined by Chris Seelbach, who was elected to Cin-

with the LGBT community by attending events, read the "Competencies for Counseling Gays and Transgender Clients," and submit a monthly reflection on what she had learned.

While she initially agreed to the remediation plan, she soon changed her mind and sent administrators an e-mail, withdrawing from the program. She filed motion for a preliminary injunction in July of 2010. This was denied by a federal circuit court before she appealed that decision and received the current ruling.

Keenon was represented by the Alliance Defense Fund of Arizona, which often brings anti-gay cases using a "freedom of religion" argument.

The three-judge panel of the appeals court cited cases positing that the power to restrict free speech "depends on the nature of the relevant forum," and that the Counseling Education Program at ASU was not a public forum that guarantees free speech. Instead it was a private forum reserved for "a supervised learning experience," connected to a professional association whose accrediting powers require that their codes be followed.

The court also found their requirement of the remediation plan to be "viewpointneutral," and thus not unconstitutional.

"We conclude that the evidence in this record does not support Keeton's claims that ASU's officials imposed the remediation plan because of her views on

cinnati City Council in November, State. Rep. Nickie Antonio of Lakewood, Wood County Commissioner Tim Brown, Summit County Councilor Sandra Kurt, Athens City Council member Jim Sands, Portsmouth councilor Kevin Johnson, school board members Joe Lacey in Dayton, Carol Fey in

homosexuality. Rather, as the district court found, the evidence shows that the remediation plan was imposed because she expressed an intent to impose her personal religious views on her clients, in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics, and that the objective of the remediation plan was to teach her how to effectively counsel GLBTQ clients in accordance with the ACA Code of Ethics," the court continued.

The court also noted that many professional groups argue against reparative therapy as damaging. "Moreover, the ACA, in addition to several other professional organizations, including the American Psychology Association, holds that '[t]he promotion in schools of efforts to change sexual orientation by therapy or through religious ministries seems likely to exacerbate the risk of harassment, harm and fear for [GLBTQ] youth.'

The court continued to pick apart Keeton's arguments for another ten pages before dismissing her appeal. One of the judges on the panel, William Pryor, has in the past been criticized for his outspoken Christian beliefs. He was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush.

Keeton's case mirrors one currently on appeal against Eastern Michigan University. Julea Ward, the student expelled from EMU's counseling program, is also represented by the Alliance Defense Fund.

Bexley and Amanda Armstrong in Medina, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman and Akron Municipal Judge Jerry Larson.

Eleven more out Ohio officials have left office, as of year's end.

United Nations

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change their sex on official documents, including the U.K., Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Uruguay and Portugal.

Another note of prohibited governmental behavior comes in the section marked "Denial of recognition of relationships and related access to State and other benefits." The report notes that, while U.N. human rights treaties do not require recognition of same-sex marriage, they bar uneven recognition between unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

The 25-page report puts the United Nations hierarchy firmly behind LGBT rights, repeatedly positing that in instances where human rights and local religion conflict, human rights must win out. It also refers to

sodomy laws in many parts of the world as a holdover from colonial history, a counter to the argument in some African nations that homosexuality was the result of colonial-

ism.

In addition to Clinton's speech in favor of global LGBT human rights and directions from the Obama Administration to American agencies working in foreign nations to support LGBT equality and rights organizations, the United Kingdom also said it would pull funding from nations that violated LGBT human rights. "That announcement was supported by the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth, Australia.