GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

March 9, 2012

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Marriage

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James was a leader of the 2004 effort

James is the chief executive officer of the Strategy Network, a campaign consulting firm. According to its website, the firm's specialties include ballot planning and management, voter identification and persuasion, petition and ballot placement, door to door canvassing and web based communications.

In 2004, the Strategy Network was contracted by Ohioans for Growth and Equality to run a campaign against the marriage ban amendment. That campaign was called Ohioans Protecting the Constitution. James was the political director of that campaign. His then business partner Alan Melamed was the campaign's manager. Until just before the election, all campaign employees were considered employees of the Strategy Network, paid by fund transfers between the campaign and the company.

The 2004 campaign was criticized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for having too little field operation, too little fundraising effort, and an ineffective message. NGLTF withdrew its support for the campaign.

The Strategy Network was criticized for running a campaign that was too dependent on raising money to buy ads—ads for which James and Melamed were to get commissions.

The commission was estimated to be about ten percent of the buy, though neither Melamed nor James would disclose the figure at the time. The campaign spent $500,443, about half of what it raised, on commissioned media.

Melamed acknowledged receiving his share of the commission. James told the Gay People's Chronicle in 2004 that he did not get his.

A financial stake in the new campaign?

At the end of his presentation at the summit, James took questions. The first one

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asked whether James would have any financial stake in the campaign.

"I am a volunteer," he answered. "My husband and I are contributors."

Freedom to Marry Ohio lists its address as 1349 East Broad Street in Columbus, which is also the address of the Strategy Network.

When asked in an e-mail, "Will your company, the Strategy Network, or any company you may affiliate with professionally, have a stake in this campaign, should it go forward?" James ignored the question.

James said at the summit that the fiscal agent for the new campaign would be Progress Ohio.

Progress Ohio's managing director Joyce Patton confirmed that, but would not disclose how much money has been raised.

"The campaign is a week old," said Patton, later explaining that what she meant was the arrangement was a week old.

"We're not revealing that information at this time," Patton said. "When the reports are required, that information will be available."

Asked if there was more than one dollar, Patton said there was, indicating the existence of some funds.

When asked if he would withdraw or postpone the initiative if he didn't have the support of the LGBT community at this time, James said, "Freedom to Marry continues to receive broad support from the community and allies. As Freedom to Marry Ohio seeks a place on the 2013 ballot, the coalition will continue to have a thoughtful dialogue with the LGBT community and Ohio this year and next. Ample time remains for people to be heard, and the processes to move forward. As it does so, the Freedom to Marry Ohio Coalition seeks to strengthen the community and lead a statewide winning effort to guarantee equal protection under the law."

"Justice delayed is justice denied,” he concluded. V

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Springfield

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state-level anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation and gender identity. The first time, they voted 4-1 to send a letter to the legislature in support of antidiscrimination legislation, and the second time, they voted 4-1 to endorse Copeland's testimony at the Statehouse, so he could speak for the city commission and not just himself. Three out of those four people are still on the commission, but only two voted in favor of expanding Springfield's human rights ordinance.

"People did in fact move, did change their positions," Copeland said. "Both of the previous times there were four people who supported either the letter or me testifying."

He declined to say why any specific commissioner may have voted against the measure, but he did note, "Early in this process, two of us stated our support for the ordinance, and we're the two that remained supportive throughout the process. The other

News Briefs

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The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White, found that it merits heightened scrutiny as the Department of Justice has suggested, and that the section, which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages for any purpose, might not pass the lowest levels of scrutiny.

The Obama administration has stopped defending DOMA from challenges to Section 3 after the president and Attorney General Eric Holder decided last year that the portion of the law was unconstitutional. The House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group then voted along party lines to take up defense of the law in court, using taxpayer money to hire private attorneys to appeal rulings against the law and defend it in court in the Golisnki v. Office of Personnel Management suit, which is the one before Judge White.

Karen Golinski, a federal employee, challenged the law after she was denied health insurance benefits for her wife, to whom she is legally married.

In his ruling, White noted, "Although the Court finds that DOMA is subject to and fails to satisfy heightened scrutiny, it notes that numerous courts have found that the statute fails even rational basis review."

A similar ruling was handed down in July 2010 by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. United States. Both of those cases, which were bundled together, are awaiting appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Anti-gay principal quickly resigns

Haywood, Tenn.—The principal of the local high school resigned on March 1, days after she came under fire for anti-gay remarks she made.

Former Haywood High School principal Dorothy Bond threatened to expel students who showed affection for members of the same sex at school, and said that gay students were “ruining their lives” and “not on God's path." The school district has à discipline policy for public displays of affection on school property that is gender-neutral, and did not call for expulsion.

Bond is also alleged to have said that "life is over" for girls who become pregnant. The American Civil Liberties Union also said that Bond exhibited a pattern of anti-

three didn't take a position until the end."

"I think one of the things that's always a problem with these issues at the local level is that each side said at various times that the majority of people supported their position, so there's no way to really know since we don't do polling at the local level," he said, pointing out that elected officials often feel the need to reflect what they feel are their constituents' positions.

Presently, 17 other Ohio cities include sexual orientation in their equal rights ordinances, covering about a fifth of the state's population. Twelve of these also include transgender people. They are Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Shaker Heights, Bowling Green and Oxford. The ones with sexual orientation only are Canton, Oberlin, Yellow Springs, Athens and North Olmsted.

No state or federal civil rights law covers either category.

gay remarks and policies, and proselytized and prayed at school events. Students were once threatened with discipline if they did not bow their heads in prayer, and Bond once told a lesbian student she would go to hell.

The ACLU sent a letter to the school asking them to clarify students' rights to identify as LGBT, to acknowledge LGBT youths' relationships, to express pro-equality views and to be free of religious indoctrination by school officials.

"Haywood County School District's swift action makes it clear that they do not condone the type of harassment and targeted discrimination that was taking place at the high school," said ACLU of Tennessee executive director Hedy Weinberg.

Tenofovir may cause kidney damage

San Francisco-One of the most widelyprescribed drugs to treat HIV may increase the risk of kidney damage by 34 percent each year it is taken, a new study shows.

The study, which followed 10,000 HIVpositive veterans, was conducted by the San Francisco V.A. Medical Center. It examined tenofovir, a daily antiretroviral that is used on its own as Viread, as well as combined in a two-medication pill known as Truvada and the three-drug pill Atripla.

Antiretrovirals were acknowledged to carry the risk of kidney damage, but this is one of the first studies quantifying that risk. In the short term, while preventing the development of full-blown AIDS is considered worth some increased risk of long-term damage to kidneys, prolonged usage of the drug as HIV is viewed more as a chronic condition could leave people in more dire situations as years elapse.

It also calls into question the prophylactic use of HIV medications in healthy people to prevent infections.

In a recent study of 2,500 men given HIV medications as a prophylaxis, only a few evinced signs of kidney damage, and those symptoms cleared once the drug was halted.

Researchers are not calling for people using tenofovir to stop; the risk of developing one of three signs of kidney damage increased 11 to 34 percent for each year on the drug, but still had a relatively low risk of long-term kidney damage.

Compiled by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.

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