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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

February 24, 2012

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Partner benefits

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Council members said that heterosexual partners can get married to access the benefits, which gays and lesbians cannot do in Ohio.

The benefits will likely begin in April, and the county expects that just over fifty workers might sign up for them, at most. If all the expected employee partners sign up, it will add about $300,000 to the budget, much less than the existing cost of covering spouses.

At the top of the meeting, the anti-gay groups that have attended the measure's committee meetings were conspicuously absent from the public comments. Four people spoke, all of whom are either LGBT or are staunch supporters of the community. They included Cleveland Stonewall Democrats president Rob Rivera, Rev. Bob

Amendment

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"By defining yourselves clearly and making it eminently clear that religious. organizations will not be forced to perform or recognize, and lock that into the constitution, we have the ability to say to people who will misrepresent the amendment that it will not happen,” he noted.

Churches already have almost complete authority over who they do or do not marry, up to refusing to marry interfaith couples or couples in which one of the spouses has been divorced. But anti-gay activists often point to marriage equality laws as violating freedom of religion, claiming that they would force clergy to violate their religious beliefs.

In addition to undercutting hard-line opponents who might lie about the effect of same-sex marriage, specifying a religious exemption would "provide all the comforts that we can to those who are soft-leaning opponents, to know that their vote will not open up their church, synagogue, mosque or temple to marriages they do not condone."

According to James, the amendment has "broad support among religious leaders, people of faith, and people of color that we would never have gotten, had we not put that language in."

He expects to turn in several thousand signatures to the Ohio attorney general's office this week. If the language is accepted

Strommen and his wife Joyce, and Mary Ostendorf. At the end of the meeting, Kevin Schmotzer, a city of Cleveland employee, commended the council for passing the benefits, which were granted to city employees last year.

Rivera noted that granting benefits and other pro-LGBT measures do not run afoul of the state's marriage ban amendment, which was limited by the Ohio Supreme Court to banning only marriage and civil union.

The ordinance was amended twice at the meeting. The first amendment, brought forward by councilor Dale Miller, changed wording on a partner's children, altering it from "under 26" to "26 or under," bringing the age more in line with state and federal

by the attorney general, it goes to the secretary of state's office, which gives it to the ballot board.

If the attorney general's office rejects the language, it will generally provide tips on why it was rejected, so that it can be fixed, more signatures gathered, and it can be resubmitted.

Once the measure is approved for full signature-gathering, they will need 385,245 valid signatures of registered voters, from at least 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio.

James expects that the final petition will be approved for circulation by around March 25.

Assuming the petition drive is successful, there is no set date for which ballot the measure will go on. It might be too late for 2012 to be viable, and 2014 presents problėms because of the huge number of volunteers that will be mobilized for the Gay Games in Cleveland, one of the state's liberal strongholds.

State marriage group formed

While James' effort is bottom-up, the top-down approach is being used by Freedom to Marry-Ohio, whose efforts have been touted by Equality Ohio in a series of press releases to draw attention to them.

Equality Ohio executive director Ed

regulations on health coverage for dependents.

Council vice president Sunny Simon, who introduced the ordinance last summer, changed the partnership documentation requirements to include a marriage license from another "jurisdiction" instead of another "state," to include ones from countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Spain that allow same-sex marriage.

"I do want to say that, should this ordinance pass, I too believe that this ordinance will move us significantly, this whole county, into the 21st century," Simon said before the vote, "to ensure that all of our citizens are treated equally, without discrimination, to say we're a county of inclusiveness, of fairness, and competitiveness, and that we welcome everybody to live in

Mullen found out two days before it was announced on January 20 that the national organization Freedom to Marry was creating a new initiative, Mayors for Freedom to Marry.

At the time, four mayors in Ohio had joined around 70 of their colleagues in joining the initiative, and press coverage of the announcement at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter gathering drew others to sign on as well.

The list now has nine Ohio mayors; Michael Coleman of Columbus is the latest to join.

"After this hubbub about the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, a grassroots group of people here in Central Ohio started calling their elected officials to see if they would sign on to a similar pledge," Mullen said. "When their website was launched, we decided to send out another press release talking about the number of politicians who signed onto the pledge."

The website is managed by James' office, but the co-chairs of Freedom to Marry-Ohio are not involved in the petition drive he is spearheading, Mullen said. Four of the group's co-chairs are elected officials.

The one-two punch of efforts in support of marriage equality "has shown me and other members in the community that there has been a dramatic paradigm shift about how people think about our civil rights," Mullen noted.

While marriage equality is already part of Equality Ohio's overall agenda-it was founded in response to the ban amendment

Cuyahoga County and work here with open arms, whoever you are."

Councilor Dale Miller noted that he had attended the opening of the Global Cleveland Welcome Center, which has a goal of increasing the region's population by 100,000 people. He said he supports the legislation because it would help meet that goal and illustrate the openness of Cuyahoga County.

After the vote, Councilor Yvonne Conwell congratulated Simon on the success of her efforts.

"I would just like to commend Councilwoman Simon for her hard work and dedication with this legislation and I agree that this legislation does promote everything about the county," she said.

passing the timeline for their efforts might be moved up as Freedom to Marry-Ohio gains steam and the petitions start rolling out.

Mullen also pointed to the fact that there is no immediacy in the use of the petition signatures. "One of the advantages of the signatures in Ohio is that they're evergreen,' he said. "As long as the people stay registered at that address, they're still valid."

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He also believes that the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland might actually be a boon for the effort, instead of a hindrance with an exhausted volunteer base.

"Having all of these openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from around the world come to Ohio and all the media attention surrounding them might increase the support for our civil rights," he noted. "I think there will be a huge impact from having the Gay Games here in Ohio in terms of equal rights."

Equality Ohio is having their eighth annual Leadership Summit on March 3, and marriage equality will be one of the top items being discussed.

"As an organization, having heard from the community at the leadership summit and having our board meeting the night before, we'll have a much better understanding as to our position in supporting the amendment initiative," Mullen concluded.

More information about the petition drive and Freedom to Marry-Ohio are available at www.freedomohio.com and www.face book.com/MarriageEqualityOhio.

Helmink

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in northwest Lake County that includes much of the present District 62, now represented by Lorraine Fende, also a Democrat. The main reason Helmink is running is because he believes he should.

"I saw the need in my community," he noted. "I was always involved when I was young. I just don't like the way things were going in Columbus."

Attending law school at Ohio State University, Helmink, who turned 29 on February 23, worked with Ohio Senate Democrats, and believes the legislature needs to focus its attention better.

"My primary objectives are getting the general assembly focused again on fixing the economy, restore funding to our schools, keep our public universities affordable, protect seniors and stop the assault on women's rights," he noted.

Other than Troy, 63, Helmink also faces Eastlake councilor Laura A. DePledge, 48, in the primary.

"Our representative needs a better grasp and understanding of the technical issues facing the state today-innovation, facing the future," Helmink said. "My opponent [Troy] is opposed to things like domestic partner benefits. I think we need Democrats who stand up for core Democratic values and can make Ohio a better place."

Helmink was valedictorian of Eastlake North High School in 2001, then studied undergrad at Georgetown University, garnering a bachelor's degree in foreign ser-

vice, and had a strong focus in his studies there on economics.

His platform centers around bringing high-tech and green jobs to Ohio, and improving the education system at all levels. He also supports the House Democrats' proposed Ohio Voter's Bill of Rights, which opposes the gerrymandering that has occurred in the state. While he does not oppose the economic benefits of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," he believes that strong regulations need to be in place to protect the environment.

He also supports enumerating groups in Ohio's anti-bullying laws, and is an advocate of the LGBT Equal Housing and Employment Act, among other issues.

His campaign has been knocking on doors and making calls. There are 5,100 registered Democrats in the district, and he's hit 6,500 doors and made over a thousand phone calls.

"They're getting really excited and we're getting a great response," he enthused. "I think we've got a really good shot at pulling this off. We have a fantastic plan for the last two weeks."

While the Plain Dealer endorsed Troy in the primary, their comments on Helmink were very positive, calling him "an energetic candidate who has done his homework." The paper also called him "impressive."

Helmink has also been endorsed by the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats. ♡

News Briefs

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Boehner and other Republican leaders in the House of Representatives pushed through a measure in a bipartisan committee allowing the House to take up defense of DOMA, which he has done at taxpayer expense. The speaker is likely to do the same thing with the Cooper-Harris case.

Civil union proposed in West Virginia

Charleston, W. Va.-Del. John Doyle introduced legislation to legalize civil union for same-sex couples on February 16.

Doyle said that same-sex couples should not be deprived of the safety net that opposite-sex couples enjoy.

It is the first time such a bill has been put before the state legislature, although Doyle has also put forward a bill barring discrimination by sexual orientation in housing and employment, which has not moved.

Is Illinois next for marriage?

Springfield, Ill.-Illinois Reps. Deb Mell, Kelly Caddisy and Greg Harris filed a bill on February 8 for full same-sex marriage in the state, which already has a civil union law.

Their bill, the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, specifies that religious groups cannot be forced to perform same-sex marriage that are against their beliefs, an increasingly common tactic in marriage equality legislation designed to undercut the false claims that same-sex marriage laws would force churches to perform gay weddings.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed onto the Mayors for Marriage Equality initiative of the Freedom to Marry organization at the United State Conference of Mayors winter meeting in January, but the legislature is likely to focus first on their March 20 primaries and then on the state budget.

Civil union legislation supporter David Koehler, a state senator, told the Chicago Tribune, "It's going to be a tough year to pass any legislation that's outside of budget and pension issues. It's going to more of an election-year agenda in the state legislature." V

Compiled by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.