GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Kiss or kick

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

WOLFE VIDEO

Kingston (Ludvig Bonin) and Fitz (Jay Brown) face off over a soccer ball in a most remarkable skins vs. skins game in Rikki Beadle-Blair's Kickoff, a rollicking tale of sexual orientation politics on the football pitch. See page 6.

Park board won't let gay couples have family rate

But Cuyahoga Falls city council may do so

by Anthony Glassman

Cuyahoga Falls, OhioSame-sex couples in this Akron suburb will not be able to avail themselves of the family rate at the city fitness center unless city council intervenes.

The Cuyahoga Falls Park and Recreation Board voted on March 9 against opening the spousal rate to couples in same-sex marriages and civil unions.

Many other area jurisdictions do include gay and lesbian married couples in these rates, and fitness centers often have family rates that include same-sex partners.

Board chair Tim Gorbach put forward the proposal, noting that it would lose the city $48,000 in dues, but that the money could be recouped. The

board voted 3-2 against it.

At the meeting, 18 members. of Broadman Baptist Church attended, including their pastor, Chris McCombs, who advocated keeping the existing policy. He cited the 2004 state constitutional amendment barring the recognition of samesex marriage.

However, despite being rejected by the board, the issue is not settled. City Council president pro tem Diana Colavecchio of Ward 5 attended the meeting and told the board that City Council could vote to rescind the board's authority to set rates, and take the power themselves.

She said that, were council to do that, a committee would be appointed to investigate the

matter and recommend whether or not the rate scheme should be changed.

Colavecchio noted after a January 17 city council meeting that the park board set the rates, in response to Council President Mark Ihasz saying that he would ask the law director to examine the issue. the Speaking to Gay People's Chronicle on March 20, Colavecchio could not yet say whether city council would assume the responsibility for determining the rate

structure.

"The answer is, I don't know," she said. "We have been tossing around the idea of an ad hoc committee to do that."

Continued on page 10

Volume 27, Issue 20 March 23, 2012

Ohio marriage petition drive moves forward

Amendment will be resubmitted after first version was rejected

by Eric Resnick

Columbus-The leader of a group hoping to amend Ohio's constitution to include samesex marriage is undaunted by Attorney General Mike DeWine's rejection of the initial language, and says another attempt will be made.

Freedom to Marry Ohio collected 1,764 signatures and submitted ballot language and a summary to DeWine on March 1. This is the first step to amending the state constitution.

Meanwhile, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization Equality Ohio is still being cautious about joining the effort.

DeWine found more than the minimum 1,000 signatures to be valid, but he had problems with the text.

In a letter, he told petitioners that the summary they submitted was not "a fair and truthful statement of the proposed constitutional amendment for three reasons."

The proposed amendment reads: "Be it resolved by the people of the State of Ohio that Article XV, Section 11 of the Ohio Constitution be adopted and read as follows: § 11. In the State of Ohio and its political subdivisions, marriage shall be a union of two consenting adults and no religious institution shall be required to perform or recognize a marriage."

A five-part summary was included with the amendment.

"First," wrote DeWine, "the summary is longer than the text of the amendment." He explained that this does not meet a constitutional requirement defined by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Second, DeWine took issue with a summary statement that the proposed amendment allows "political subdivisions to not recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals."

Inside This Issue

Stow mayor criticized for signing marriage statement

"The text of the amendment does not indicate that political subdivisions would retain these rights," he wrote.

"Third," De Wine concluded, "the summary states that the amendment retains 'the portions of Title 31 that codifies this Amendment.' However, the text of the amendment does not contain any reference to Title 31."

Title 31 of the Ohio Revised Code covers marriage, domestic relations and children.

The amendment's backer, Ian James of Columbus, says he expected DeWine's rejection and he's going forward with a new version.

"[W]e expected the AG rejection and drafted a revised summary petition," James wrote in a March 10 e-mail. "The issue of brevity, Title 31 and the individual recognition have been addressed. The petition process continues and we anticipate filing the new summary petition next week."

At press time March 20, the new language had not yet been filed and James had not shared what the new proposal will be.

Asked if the broader LGBT community has been consulted or surveyed as to what the new language should be, James responded, "Yes. And the Coalition and Committee continue to build a strong winning team effort."

However, James did not respond to a follow-up question on who he had spoken to.

He also remains silent on an earlier query about any financial connection to the campaign.

James was asked in a March 6 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?" He did

not answer.

James is the chief executive Continued on page 10

News Briefs ...

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Charlie's Calendar

Resource Directory ............

Queering the pitch

Classifieds

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