Dykes & Dykery

CHICAGO (AP) - More than two dozen gay and lesbian couples filed lawsuits Wednesday arguing that it’s unconstitutional for Illinois to deny them the right to marry, a move advocates hope will lead to legalized same-sex marriage.

The two lawsuits - backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the New York-based Lambda Legal - include couples from the Chicago area, Bloomington and Marion. Both challenge a state law that defines marriage as between a man and woman, arguing that the Illinois Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to marry under due process and equality clauses.

Legislation to eliminate language that prohibits gay marriage is pending, but a vote isn’t expected before the session is scheduled to end this week. And although Illinois enacted same-sex civil unions last year, the couples in the lawsuits said the limited rights and protections make them feel like second-class citizens.

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ExxonMobil today voted against protecting LGBT employees from discrimination, as it has done time and time before.

Some 80% of shareholders voted against adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the company’s anti-discrimination policy, according to the Dallas Voice, which shared photos of protesters from GetEqual rallying against the company. The company has voted against the protections every year since 1999, when Exxon merged with Mobil and stripped away rules that had been in place.

Although ExxonMobil tops the Fortune 500 list, it is a notoriously poor place to work for LGBT people, at least according to rankings provided annually by the Human Rights Campaign. For the first time ever, HRC gave companies negative scores in its 2012 rankings and slapped ExxonMobil with a -25 in its Corporate Equality Index.

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With the help of Columbia University law students, a Peruvian woman living with her wife in New York was granted asylum on May 15. Students argued she faced significant persecution and danger in her home country for being openly lesbian.

Karina de Jesus obtained asylum despite missing a crucial one-year application deadline for applicants already in the United States. Students of Columbia Law School’s Gender and Sexuality Clinic proved that trauma from her past in Peru, combined with her recent marriage, caused her to miss the deadline.

“Karina’s experience as a lesbian in Peru, supported by friends and family who still live there — as well as by reports and news articles — shows that the Peruvian government does not protect LGBT individuals from sexual orientation-based crimes,” said Julia Braker, a student who worked on the case. “Lesbians face both physical and sexual violence, and the Peruvian police fail to address this persecution.”

Someone is killed every seven days in Peru due to sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a recent study by Peruvian gay rights group Movimiento Homosexual de Lima.

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NYC Pride 2010

(Source: Flickr / plaintruthiness)

TORONTO — Ontario’s Catholic School trustees are vowing to fight a move by the Liberal government allowing students to name anti-homophobia clubs “gay-straight alliances.”

The Catholic School Trustees Association calls the word gay “a distraction” and says anti-bullying legislation is supposed to protect all students, not just those bullied because of their sexual orientation.

The Liberals first said that while Catholic schools must allow the clubs, they would not have to let students call them gay-straight alliances.

Education Minister Laurel Broten says she announced an amendment changing that after hearing from students who don’t want her or principals and trustees dictating the names of their clubs.

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(Source: Flickr / npx)

A Rare Haven for Gay Men and Lesbians in Harlem

In a church nestled among a row of residential brownstones, parishioners clapped and danced as a woman began to testify.

“Aren’t you glad Jesus got up?” the woman, Twanna Gause, asked the predominantly black congregation, which responded with enthusiastic shouts of “Amen” and “Hallelujah.”

“He got up so I can come out,” Ms. Gause said, as worshipers hopped out of their seats and cheered in agreement. “He got up so you can come out.”

For black Christians who are gay and lesbian, church can be a daunting experience, where on any given Sunday they are taught that homosexuality is not only a sin, but a one-way ticket to hell. That alienation has been a benefit for the Rivers at Rehoboth congregation, in Harlem, which has made ministry to gay men and lesbians, combined with the worship traditions of black churches, its mission.

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Last Saturday, April 14, 2012, I came across a troubling post in one of the groups I belong to on Facebook. A soldier in the United States military wrote, “I was just shoved across the dance floor by my command sergeant major for being gay…lovely end to my active duty career.”

The comments started flowing, and the soldier — we’ll call her Lucy (not her real name) — who currently holds the rank of Captain, continued to explain the situation. While dancing with her girlfriend, another officer in her unit, at the Cavalry Squaldron Ball, Lucy’s Squadron Commander took her girlfriend aside and told her, “You [both] need to stop dancing; the unit does not need this kind of publicity.” When she asked what he meant, he said again, “You [both] need to get off the dance floor.”

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A little old, but consider this our Memorial Day post.

“happy and lesbian”

(Source: Flickr / larizah)

(Reuters) - Dozens of people were detained in Moscow on Sunday after Russian Orthodox Church activists broke up two gay rights protests, throwing water and shouting prayers at demonstrators.

Some Orthodox activists threw punches at the protesters, grabbed their rainbow flags - the symbol of the gay rights movement - and trampled on them in front of television cameras.

Skirmishes took place at both protests, outside the city hall and parliament. Neither rally was sanctioned by Moscow authorities.

Almost all of the approximately 30 gay rights protesters were detained, and many fewer of the roughly 50 Orthodox activists involved.

Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of the gay rights protests, said he was detained for talking to journalists.

“I am arrested at Moscow Pride City Hall protest,” he wrote in police custody on Twitter. “I have no words.”

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