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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE February 24, 2012
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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
Top officials initiate White House LGBT health forum
by Anthony Glassman
Philadelphia-Luminaries in social service organizations and government on the local and federal level descended upon Philadelphia on February 16 for the inaugural White House LGBT Conference on Health at Thomas Jefferson University's Dorrance H. Hamilton Building.
The morning plenary session, which included a panel discussion on LGBT elders, saw a parade of high-ranking officials, from Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Gautam Raghavan to Office of Personnel Management director John Berry, the highest out LGBT official in the administration.
Dr. Robert Barchi, the president of Thomas Jefferson University, noted that the school and the Mazzoni Center, a local LGBT health and wellness organization, partnered on a practice site integrating medical students and staff from the university. Barchi said the program will "create the next generation of informed providers."
Berry was introduced as the highest-ranking out gay member of any administration, and he praised President Barack Obama while also noting the triumphs and tragedies of the past.
"I knew form a very young age that I was gay. My first crush was on Aquaman," he said, noting to loud applause that he just loved those green tights.
Berry brought up the case of gay activist Frank Kameny, who was fired from a federal job for being gay in 1957--by one of Berry's predecessors. Kameny then sued to govern-
ment
"When I was a young man, I did not know Frank Kameny, but every day I thank God for Frank Kameny because he made it possible for me to have this job," he said.
Berry also noted, "It is not hyperbole to say that this president has done more for our
ANTHONY GLASSMAN
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wait to be introduced at the February 16 White House LGBT Conference on Health.
community the last three years than all the others since the founding of this nation together," citing, among other things, the repeal of “don't ask, don't tell” and the refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.
The eldercare panel included Assistant Secretary for Health Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee and Deputy General Counsel Ken Choe.
Koh noted the administration's efforts to create "culturally and linguistically appropriate standards," and urged attendees to check into a four-part online seminar on LGBT health at www.healthypeople.gov. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter also
spoke about his dedication to the rights and well-being of the LGBT community, before Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius came out for the keynote address.
She pointed to executive orders barring hospitals that accept Medicaid or Medicare from discriminating against LGBT patients, and noted both the Patients Bill of Rights and the Affordable Care Act as game-changers for LGBT health care.
"Central among [American] values is the value of fairness," she said. "America is at its best when everyone works under the same set of rules."
She also assuaged fears of those living in
Full marriage bills advance in three states Washington governor signs law but New Jersey's vetoes it
by Anthony Glassman
Olympia, Wash.-Marriage equality advanced in three states last week, with Washington's governor signing a bill, New Jersey's governor vetoing one, and Maryland's passing the state House, seen as the more difficult chamber.
"As governor for more than seve years, this is one of my proudest moments," Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said as she signed the state's marriage equality bill on February 13. "And most surely today is a proud day in the history of the legislature and the state of Washington."
"It is a day historians will mark as a milestone for equal rights. A day when we did what was right, we did what was just, and we did what was fair," she continued. "We stood up for equality and we did it together-Republicans and Democrats, gay and straight, young and old, and a variety of religious faiths."
MASSAGE THERAPY
"I'm proud of who and what we are in this state," Gregoire noted.
The law will go into effect on June 7, unless opponents gather over 120,000 valid signatures to force a referendum. Anti-gay groups filed paperwork to begin gathering signatures minutes after the law was enacted, but even before their applications were approved, equality advocates started a counter-campaign, called “Decline to Sign Referendum 74,"
Marriage opponents have until June 6 to gather the signatures. If they are successful, the law will go on November's ballot. Progay activists would then launch an effort to educate voters to vote yes on the referendum to retain the law, instead of voting no.
In 2009, Washington voters upheld the state's sweeping domestic partner law, which gave all the state benefits and responsibili-
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ties of marriage without the name, one of the few LGBT victories in a statewide initiative race.
Last November, 55 percent of respondents in a statewide poll said they would vote to uphold marriage equality.
The marriage equality bill, put forward by Gregoire herself, passed the House of Representatives on a 55-43 vote, a week after the Washington Senate approved it 2821. Despite her Catholic upbringing, Gregoire's stance on full same-sex marriage has evolved over her tenure as governor, at least in part because of her daughters, who described it as the civil rights battle of their generation.
A veto in New Jersey
On the other side of the nation, however, marriage fared less well, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed his state's marriage equality bill on February 17. Christie had promised a veto, saying that he instead wanted the issue decided by voters.
That stance earned him the ire of civil. rights leaders across the board, who said a civil right should not be put to a public vote. They noted that anti-segregation and other civil rights measures probably would not have passed had they been left to the whim of the majority of voters in a number of states.
The Senate voted 24-16 in favor of the bill on February 13, followed three days later by a 42-33 vote approving it in the Assembly. While those aren't the votes needed to overturn Christie's veto, lawmakers have two years to gather more support to do so.
"We are disappointed that Governor Christie did not do what is right for New Jersey families, but we are not discouraged," said Lambda Legal deputy legal director Hayley Gorenberg. "There are many roads to justice, and Gov. Christie's veto is an unfortunate detour to marriage equality for New Jersey's same-sex couples and their families."
states whose administrations oppose universal health care, noting that if those states do not provide insurance exchanges, the federal government will do so in their place.
She also noted her own department is adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the National Health Survey. Those questions are currently being tested in multiple languages. Sebelius said that some worked perfectly well in English, but fell short when done in Spanish.
After enumerating what she saw as the positives of the legislation, she said, “For these reasons, I think the Affordable Care Act is the biggest step ever taken to closing the LGBT health care gap."
She also pointed to efforts to stem the spread of HIV, which she said started to flag in the late 1990s and the 2000s.
"We weren't adapting fast enough," Sebelius said, "and we lost a lot of the urgency we had in the '90s."
According to the secretary, there is a renewed effort to focus resources domestically on the most affected communities, all in aid of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's stated goal of a "generation without HIV."
"That is a goal that is now possible to talk about," Sebelius said. "We have to make sure the United States doesn't fall behind on that goal."
Following her keynote, the conference let out for lunch, and the afternoon was filled with break-out sessions on over a dozen topics.
The event was the first in a planned series of similar LGBT health conferences across the nation. Information about those later conferences will be issued in the future, and those interested can request updates at www.whitehouse.gov/webform/sign-updates-issues-impacting-lgbt-
community.
"We'll continue to make our case for equality with our plaintiffs in court. We also stand by our colleagues at Garden State Equality, working to gain support for a veto override in the legislature," Gorenberg continued.
New Jersey has a civil union law, but the state's human rights commission has declared that it is short of the full equality mandated in a 2006 state supreme court decision. That ruling, however, left it to the legislature to decide what construct to use for marriage equality, and lawmakers chose civil union.
Lambda Legal is currently representing plaintiffs in a case filed last June that argues that relegating same-sex couples to civil union instead of full marriage violates the New Jersey constitution. A trial in the case is expected in early 2013, following last November's ruling against a dismissal.
Maryland House passes measure
In Maryland, a same-sex marriage bill passed the House of Delegates on a 72-67 vote, and may be voted on by the senate as early as this week. Gov. Martin O'Malley has promised to sign the legislation, which died in the House last year. The senate passed last year's bill 25 to 21.
In an even more startling change, former Vice President Dick Cheney was apparently stumping in favor of same-sex marriage, with one Republican delegate, Wade Kach, being offered a chance to speak to Cheney before telling the Baltimore Sun that hearing testimony from same-sex couples changed his mind.
Cheney in 2004 said that he believed same-sex marriage was an issue for individual states to decide, and while much of his party's national leadership was pushing for a federal constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage, he refused to give it his support. Cheney's daughter, Mary, worked prominently on his campaigns, and is an out lesbian with a partner.