Wojahn for City Council

As I previously wrote, Patrick Wojahn, one of the plaintiffs in the recent court decision to uphold Maryland's same-sex marriage ban, is running for a District 1 seat in the College Park City Council.

It would be great to have an openly-gay city council member so near to the University of Maryland.

To read today's Washington Blade's story, click here.

Senate passes Matthew Shepard Act

The Human Rights Campaign announced today in a press release:

WASHINGTON– In an historic step toward equality for GLBT Americans, the U.S. Senate voted to pass the Matthew Shepard Act, which updates and expands the federal hate crimes laws to include bias motivated violence based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability, and provides new resources and tools to assist local law enforcement in prosecuting vicious crimes.

To read the entire press release, click here.

In an email sent to those on HRC's email list, HRC President Joe Solmonese also noted:

But even as we celebrate this victory – we know we face a tough road ahead. The bill has to survive final negotiations between the House and Senate before it gets to President Bush. Even then, he has threatened to veto it.

Misleading, misleading, misleading!

I went to The Chronicle of Higher Education's website today, and was shocked to read this on the homepage:

U. of Arizona is the first state university to hire a paid full-time director of gay-and-lesbian affairs

"Huh?" I said. "That's not true! What about Luke Jensen (Director of the Office of LGBT Equity, UMDCP)??"

I then followed the Chronicle's link to the Tucson Citizen story that it was reporting, which can be seen here.

"Yes, ok, now I see," I said. University of Arizona is the first state university in ARIZONA to hire someone for this type of position.

Hmm.

Why would the Chronicle write its tease for the story in such a misleading way?? If you go to the website for The National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education, you can view a very long list of people in positions similar to the one being announced at the University of Arizona. To get there, click here.

Was the lack of unclarity unrealized? Were they trying to make the story seem more monumental than it was, to draw more readers?

For someone unfamiliar with LGBT issues in higher education, the Chronicle's tease could cause a severe misunderstanding of where the LGBT community stands in higher education.

Not to mention that this comes not long after the Chronicle botched a story on the number of "openly gay" university presidents there are in the country.

Shoddy.

Column on Ahmadinejad

Towson University's The Towerlight today included a "Pespective" piece on why Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had a right to speak at Columbia University (where, by the way, he denounced homosexuality and claimed the "phenomenon" didn't exist in his country).

I like student writer Andrew Carton's argument supporting the freedom of speech and the value of dialogue.

His column begins:

I really wonder if Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, upon receiving the invitation from Columbia University, said to his staff, "I've been invited to a city full of people I want to see eradicated. What a splendid idea. Perhaps my awesome powers of persuasion will stop them from hating me."

Check out Carton's entire piece here.

In the News

Today, in a story titled "Struck down, but undeterred," The Diamondback asked questions about the Maryland Court of Appeals' recent decision to uphold the state's ban on same-sex marriage to two plaintiffs in the case - Dave Kolesar and Patrick Wojahn - who live in College Park.

For the story, click here.

Also:

Wojahn is running for a city council position, aiming to represent District 1 in College Park.

For information on voting in College Park, click here. The deadline to register is October 7.

In the News

Not long ago, I wrote a story about The Chronicle of Higher Education having a bit of a mix-up in terms of the number of "openly gay" university presidents in the country. (This is not the post immediately prior to this one, which details an entirely different story from the Chronicle.)

Well, the Associated Press sat down with Ralph Hexter, the openly gay president of Hampshire College, to ask him a few questions about "some of the issues facing gay college presidents."

Check out that Q&A here.

In the News

In the September 28 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, a very informative article titled "Gay Professors Face Less Discrimination, but Many Still Fight for Benefits" addresses a changing tide in the number of colleges and universities that offer domestic partner benefits. It begins:

Gay and lesbian faculty members may no longer be desperate to hide their true identities in academe, but many are desperately seeking health insurance for their partners.

With anti-gay discrimination fading, obtaining health and other benefits for partners is still a major concern for many gay and lesbian academics. A growing number of colleges and universities have been adding such benefits since they were first introduced in the early 1990s. No full tally exists, but a survey this year by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources found that 40 percent of 544 institutions responding — or 217 — extended health insurance to same-sex domestic partners. The Human Rights Campaign, which describes itself as the country's largest advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, has identified a larger number: 304 institutions, up from 178 five years ago.

For those of us frustrated with the limbo-status of domestic partner benefits in our own state system, this article is particularly interesting in its detailing of how other states have dealt or are dealing with the same situation.

For the full story, click here.

New Direction at Towson University

As reported by Towson University's student newspaper The Towerlight at the beginning of this month:

The Center for Student Diversity has expanded its offerings to students by adding a director of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender student development.

Samuel Santos, who started two months ago, now serves as Towson's first director of LGBT development.

Such positions are quite rare. In fact, I believe Towson and UMD College Park are the only institutions within the University System of Maryland to have positions of this sort. The lack of such positions elsewhere is something to be considered, and challenged.

Check out the entire Towerlight story here.

Opinion

A guest opinion column of mine regarding last week's court decision upholding Maryland's ban on same-sex marriage was published today in The Diamondback. It begins:

There is nothing appealing about the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision last week to uphold the state's 1973 ban on same-sex marriage.

Even though we are in a country where civil rights are granted an almost divine reverence, gay and lesbian couples in Maryland are still second-class citizens denied the right to one of the most cherished institutions of our citizenry.

Although gay and lesbian couples are capable of maintaining loving relationships and are competent in raising well-rounded, healthy children, the court supported the ban by citing the "[s]tate's legitimate interests in fostering procreation and encouraging the traditional family structures in which children are born."

Check out the entire column here.

Out For Work

The Third Annual
National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Ally Student
Career Conference & PRIDE Career Fair

September 29-30, 2007
Washington, D.C.

http://www.outforwork.com

'Change of Heart'

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced yesterday that he had changed his mind on same-sex marriage - from being supportive of civil unions to being supportive of full marriage rights.

After stating on Tuesday that he would veto a City Council decision to support same-sex marriage before the state Supreme Court - which will soon review the state's ban on such marriages - Sanders said yesterday that he would back the Council instead.

He attributed his change of heart to conversations with gay and lesbian friends and with his daughter Lisa, a lesbian.

This is proof that personal stories from gay and lesbian individuals and couples can change people's minds on same-sex marriage, and these are exactly the type of conversations that Marylanders need to have with their own legislators!

With the court decision on Tuesday to uphold the ban on same-sex marriage in Maryland, state legislators may soon be dealing with their own feelings on same-sex marriage. Conversations they have with lesbian and gay people during that time can be extremely effective in building support for same-sex marriage in the legislature.

If you don't know how to meet with your own legislators, contact Equality Maryland for some advice. Now is the time.

I applaud Mayor Sanders for having an open mind and an open heart.

In the News

The Diamondback reports today:

For faculty looking to gain the right to collect health and tuition remission benefits for their gay or lesbian partners, the fight became all the more urgent Tuesday.

Maryland's highest court upheld the state's 34-year-old statute defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. And, unless the state legislature decides to reverse the ban on gay marriage in the future, the decision leaves partner benefits the only foreseeable option for those seeking the same rights extended to spouses of university faculty.

For the full story, click here.

Anger and Frustration

I went to sleep thinking about it last night, and woke up this morning doing the same.

Tuesday's decision, in one inarticulate but fitting word, sucked! And, it had me shying away from writing here all day.

I've instead spent the day really trying to wrap my mind around it all, thinking about my former co-workers at Equality Maryland and all the hard work they and the plaintiffs put into this case.

Last night's rally was reviving. Dan Furmansky, Equality Maryland's Executive Director, was inspirational, as were the many other speakers.

Still, it is hard to realize that my summer dream of having my home state accept same-sex marriage is not yet to be.

But I won't lose hope. Someday same-sex marriage will be realized in Maryland. Until then, we just have to keep up the fight!

My heart goes out to all the same-sex couples in the state.

All the best.

Equality Maryland Rally Pictures

Same-Sex Marriage Ban Upheld in Maryland

Here is the lede from the Washington Blade:

Maryland's highest court on Tuesday upheld a state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, ending a lawsuit filed by same-sex couples who claimed they were being denied fundamental rights.

Check out the full story here.

For more details, go to Equality Maryland's website, which offers the written decision, legal documents, plaintiff biographies and questions and answers.

To get to Equality Maryland's press release on the decision, click here.

Also:

RALLIES TONIGHT AT 6:30 PM!

BALTIMORE CITY

First Unitarian Church
1 West Hamilton Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
(at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets)
http://www.firstunitarian.net/

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

St George's Episcopal Church
7010 Glenn Dale Rd.
Glenn Dale, Maryland 20769
http://www.stgeo.org

A Rough Road Home - By Damien Frierson

Here is the first of what I hope will be many contributions to my blog!

“A Rough Road Home: Voices of Black LGBTs in the Academy”

For Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender scholars, the journey from objects within the discipline of African American Studies to subjects at the center of discourse has been, as our elders would say, “a rough road home.” From its inception, the discipline of African American Studies proved to be a project immersed in revelation and truth through its telling of “our” stories, history and most importantly our everyday experience. Yet, in this endeavor for liberation, empowerment, consciousness, and social change, Black LGBTs were some how erased from this project. Because it chose to exclude its own LGBT community, the discipline fell short in accomplishing its goal of empowering the larger community. The home that had been built for us in academia had become a place that had no room for our lives, our stories, our truths. It was to this end that my foremothers and forefathers before me began that proverbial “rough road home.”

I have had the privilege to count myself as both alumni and adjunct faculty in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. While in the past the department has been adamantly against the inclusion of Black LGBTs, I have been honored to have both advocated for and taught the first course within the department that speaks to the Black LGBT experience. For the last four years, it has been my desire to emphasize the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation, and class so that Black LGBT lives are not marginalized but viewed as a part of the overarching progress of African American Studies. That is, to make the scholarship, research, and relevance of African American Studies authentic. However, I stand on the shoulders of many activists, scholars, writers, and poets who throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s challenged not only the homophobia within their Black communities but racism and bigotry within their white LGBT communities.

It was Black feminist lesbian scholars such as Cheryl Clarke, Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Jewell Gomez, Donna Allegra, and Pat Parker who challenged the ideology of patriarchy and sexism as an accepted aspect of our community. It was Black gay writers, poets and activists such as Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs, Joseph Beam, Ron Simmons, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin who refused to be silenced and demanded inclusion regardless of their sexuality or race. It was Hemphill who challenged African American Studies by demanding that we as gay men and lesbians be allowed to “come home” as who we truly are:

“It is not enough to tell us that one was a brilliant poet, scientist, educator, or rebel. Who did he love? It makes a difference. I can’t become a whole man simply on what is fed to me: watered-down versions of black life in America. I need the ass-splitting truth to be told, so I will have something to emulate, a reason to remain loyal.”

It was this desire to give voice to their experiences that was captured in Hemphill’s declaration, “We are coming home.” It is on the backs and shoulders of these men and women that I have been allowed to teach as a Black, openly gay man in the academy. Through their making “our truths from scratch” African American studies becomes a true and holistic discipline. It is because of these African American Studies foremothers and forefathers, contemporary scholars and writers such as Keith Boykin, Dwight McBride, Cathy Cohen, Horace Griffin, Lisa Moore, etc. that we are able to find room where there was once no home. It is because of these early pioneers that I am able to say my “road isn’t so rough after all.”

Damien T. Frierson, MA, MSW

Damien Frierson is an adjunct faculty member at Temple University and former Outreach and Education Director at Equality Maryland.

In the News

In the September 14 issue of the Washington Blade, Joan Garry - the former executive director of GLAAD - wrote a "Viewpoint" piece titled "A freshman's orientation."

The article recapped the experience of one of Garry's daughter's friends, who arrived at college to find he had a homophobic roommate. His college was one described as "a large university in the Northeast."

The article brings up important lessons for both housing officials and for students who may find themselves in a similar situation.

To check out the article, click here.

Chronicling the Numbers

As a journalism major with a blog on LGBT issues in higher education, the following information has me intrigued.

On August 10, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article discussing the politicized - and assumedly quite rare - process of naming a lesbian or gay man president of a university. The article was titled "And Now There Are 3," and the lede read:

With Sean T. Buffington's appointment as president of the University of the Arts late last month, the number of openly gay university presidents in the United States appears to have increased by 50 percent, from two to three. "We have a long, long way to go," says Charles R. Middleton, president of Roosevelt University, one of the small group, which also includes Ralph J. Hexter, president of Hampshire College. Mr. Middleton, 62, says a "Plexiglas ceiling" has prevented the appointment of more gay presidents.

Then, on September 7, the Chronicle published another article that seemed to be a correction of the first. This article, titled "Openly Gay Presidents: 11 and Counting," began:

The Chronicle (August 10) recently reported that the nation's colleges now count at least three openly gay presidents among them. In response, several presidents have written to ask, "What about me?"
The wording of the article was slightly hedged, and referred only to "university" presidents. That's a good thing, because by press time the list of openly gay college presidents had grown to 11.

The article goes on to list all 11 presidents, and ends with the following:

Although the list is now more complete, the question remains: How many openly gay presidents has the Chronicle left out?

Both articles are very interesting reads, but troublesome.

The first article offered, among other veins of discussion, this insight:

Self-selection contributes to the lack of openly gay college presidents, experts say. Many up-and-coming administrators who are gay may give up on becoming presidents to avoid unpleasant examinations of their lifestyles. Others might stay completely in the closet or steer clear of discussing their private lives.

Could that impulse of presidents to "steer clear of discussing their private lives" be the reason the Chronicle got their numbers mixed up and lost the bigger picture?

Even though the new list was tabulated in part after some of those presidents left off the list came forward to claim their deserved spot on it, why wasn't the information already widely available? Why didn't we already know?

People definitely shouldn't have to disclose their sexual orientation in any work situation. But if these presidents are indeed "openly gay" already, why aren't they making more noise about it?! It could only help the LGBT community.

Is this shoddy journalism, or a systemic avoidance of announcing the "abnormal"?

I'm tempted to think the latter.

Both articles can be found on LexisNexis.

"And Now There Are 3," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Pg. 18 Vol. 53 No. 49

"Openly Gay Presidents: 11 and Counting," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Pg. 37 Vol. 54 No. 2

Show Your Support

The following is a letter drafted by Phil Nash of the University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program regarding domestic partner benefits within the USM. With help from Equality Maryland, Phil and others have created an online petition that system faculty and staff can sign to show their support for those benefits.

Last I heard, about 400 people had signed!

Check it out:

Dear University System of Maryland
Faculty and Staff,

What would you say if some of our colleagues
were going to be denied health insurance
coverage based on their race? Surely the
unfairness of a system that rewards equal work
with unequal compensation for one racial group
would lead to a loud outcry and demands for fairness.

Today, a similar situation faces our brothers
and sisters who are lesbians, gays, bisexuals
and transgendered (LGBT). On every campus
and in many classrooms and offices, LGBT
employees are putting our students and university
first, but are being asked to accept a second-class
level of health insurance coverage.

The Board of Regents may soon decide
whether to extend domestic partner benefits
to the unmarried partners of USM employees, and
if we raise our voices now then we can make a difference.

My Japanese American mother and my English
American father were married in 1951, and
if people like you had not fought to legalize
interracial marriage, my family would have
faced the same issues facing LGBT families today.

That is why, as a straight man who has spent over
a decade teaching at College Park and over two
decades working as a civil rights lawyer, I am
strongly supportive of this extension of domestic
partnership rights. Will you join me?

Please go to http://eqfed.org/campaign/benefits to
read, sign and forward the petition urging the Board
of Regents to support and implement domestic
partner benefits.

Thank you for taking the time to stand up for your
University of Maryland colleagues!

In solidarity with our LGBT brothers and sisters,

Phil

Phil Tajitsu Nash
Asian American Studies Program
UMCP

Transgender is Good - A Look Back

If you don’t learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it. Doing a little research on the history of the University of Maryland’s Human Relations Code, I found an example of just that.

Digging through old bound copies of The Diamondback, I found one news story and one editorial that shine some light on how the mistake to exclude the transgender community from the Human Relations Code in 2003 mirrors a similar mistake in 1974.

In 2003, the university’s Senate voted unanimously to add “gender identity and expression” to the Code – an addition that would have directly protected transgender university community members from discrimination.

Although President Dan Mote immediately signed off on the addition in approval, the state attorney general’s office suggested the addition was unnecessary, and the Board of Regents never approved the addition.

Instead, President Mote told the campus community that the university would interpret the code to protect transgender community members.

The following news story and editorial from The Diamondback of 1974 shine light on how the same mistake was made concerning the addition of sexual orientation to the Human Relations Code that year.

“Gays object to being excluded from relation code’s protection
By Harvey Schevitz
The Diamondback
Friday, October 18, 1974

After four years of attempting to set up a human relations code that would guarantee protection to everyone, the University has a code which leaves homosexuals out in the cold.
Homosexuals were denied protection because the Board of Regents recommended not to include them, according to Human Relations Director Yolande Ford.
The board took this action because of a legal requirement to do so, said Louis L. Kaplan, board chairman.
“As a state agency, we cannot go beyond the state or the county code on human relations,” Kaplan said. “We adopted the language used in the Prince George’s County code.”
The code provides for protection from discrimination on the basis of “race, color, creed, sex, age, marital status, political opinion, national origin, personal appearance and occupation,” according to Betty Lee, an employee of the county’s Human Relations Office.
It applies to any resident or person served by the county in the areas of housing, law enforcement, public accommodations, community services and employment, Lee said.
“Homosexuals are not covered per se,” she said, “but they could be covered under the other areas, if they are applicable.”
However, if no other criteria fit the person, they are not protected from discrimination, Lee said.
The code, adopted earlier this month by the College Park Senate, is the result of four years of bickering between the senate and the regents over the extent of protection to be included in the University code.
The senate approved a code last semester which did extend protection to homosexuals, but it was rejected by the regents. The approved code was amended to comply with the regents’ recommendations.
The University’s code includes all measures of protection mentioned in the county code. It will go into effect after Dorsey forwards it to Elkins if it is approved by the state Attorney General, Ford said.
Don Cris, a spokesman for the Gay Student Alliance, said “I don’t see why they used the Prince George’s County code, this is a state university.”
He said he has sent letters to Acting Chancellor John W. Dorsey and University President Wilson H. Elkins explaining the GSA’s position, and he plans to write a letter to the editor of the Diamondback.
Cris admitted there is little to be done now, “but we’re going to do what we can.”
Ford said she regrets the lack of protection for homosexuals. “I hope we’re able to make more progress in the area of covering homosexuals,” she said. “They appreciate efforts being made in their behalf.”
Ford said her office will continue to talk to people who may be able to win legal protection for homosexuals.
“We will lobby and try to persuade people in this county to help us,” she said.
Under the present code, homosexuals are covered under a category if they fit the description, she said, but “They will suffer extreme discrimination” without a separate grouping for sexual discriminations.
She was unable to provide information concerning the frequency of discriminations toward homosexuals, but she said it could happen frequently since there is no protection for them.
Kaplan said if homosexuals want “specific mention” in the code, they will have to “try and get it themselves.””

A couple days later, an editorial titled “backtalk: Gay is good” was printed in The Diamondback:

“We, the members of the Gay Student Alliance, in order to promote the cause for humanity, establish justice and ensure civil liberty, hereby request a reversal in the decision to exclude homosexuals from the human relations code. We decry this order as being unfounded in the principles of ethics and self-defeating in its state purpose.
Therefore, we call upon the Board of Regents and the College Park Senate to recall the code before its final approval, to reinsert the clause prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to repass the code in this form.
Merely a year ago, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a classification of mental disorders. Also, in that same year, the D.C. Court of Appeals passed Title 34, which guarantees equal rights to gay people in housing and employment in the nation’s capital.
We can only view this recent shift in the human relations code as a giant step backwards in the struggle for civil rights and matters of free choice. It is time for the administration to wake up, change their medieval attitudes and amend the present code in order to serve the basis needs of the gay community at the University. Gay is good.

Gay Student Alliance
Don Cris
Senior”

If nothing else, this is much to think about – and hopefully, learn from.

Transgender is good.

Domestic Partner Benefits Status

Extending health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of LGBT faculty and staff members within the University System of Maryland has been a concern for more than a decade, especially at the University of Maryland.

Such benefits make up a substantial portion of employee compensation, and both straight and LGBT employees who are not married to their partners get the short end of the stick, receiving unequal pay for equal work.

The problem is especially poignant for LGBT employees because they are not allowed to marry, and so they are essentially barred from attaining the status of having a “spouse,” the term which dictates many of the benefit policies within the USM.

In April of this year, I reported for The Diamondback that the University of Maryland had requested that the USM Board of Regents allow it to extend domestic partner benefits to its employees with its own funding. That story can be found here.

However, the Board of Regents has yet to address the request, or the issue at large, since then.

Wanting an update on the status, I emailed USM spokesman John Buettner, who replied with the following:

"Recently, Maryland's Department of Budget Management began a feasibility study on extending domestic partner benefits to state employees. It is preparing this for the Governor and the General Assembly, as it will require legislation to enact changes to the rules affecting state employees. The Chancellor [Brit Kirwan] has expressed his support for providing a domestic partner benefit plan to USM faculty and staff, and he has agreed to refer it to the Board of Regents for consideration once USM gets the information generated by this report and direction from the Governor and General Assembly."

So, that is where we stand for now. I think if state employees are granted domestic partner benefits, the Board of Regents will face much higher levels of pressure to extend the same benefits to USM employees.

For more information on what is happening with the state employees union – which employees of the USM are not part of – click here.

Introduction

In the fall of 2004, I was a sophomore at the University of Maryland eager to begin expressing my identity as a gay student. I had already come out to a number of close friends, but was still in the proverbial closet to most of the important people in my life.

At the time, the media were streamlining same-sex marriage into the public discourse – albeit as “gay marriage” – with previously unknown persistence, yet I felt dialogue on the issue in my own university’s student newspaper, The Diamondback, was lacking.

In an act of sudden (and terrifying) bravery, I wrote an opinion column addressing gay marriage and outing myself as a gay student. When it was published the next day, my world changed forever; I was essentially out to everyone in my life.

That initial (and guest) participation in The Diamondback eventually evolved into a year of staff opinion column writing, two years as a reporter and a summer as an editor. Throughout that time, I remained passionately tied to LGBT issues on and around the campus.

My experience at The Diamonback made me conscious of how intricate (and complicated) many LGBT issues in the state’s higher education system are, and how important it is for academia to address those issues in a constructive way.

My hope for this blog is that it becomes a resource for understanding, challenging and creating dialogue on LGBT issues in the state’s academic communities.

Log on. Gather information. Broach new subjects. Teach what you know. L.G.B.T.