One Community

One Com­mu­nity is an inter­ac­tive web and events com­mu­nity for gay,lesbian and allied indi­vid­u­als and busi­nesses.

Our motto is: For. By. Com­mit­ted to the Community.

Visit Our Web
Site: One-Communnity


One-Community Cal­en­dar Of Events

Hawaii lawsuit seeks equal rights for gay couples

HONOLULU (AP)  — Six gay cou­ples in Hawaii are fil­ing a law­suit Thurs­day ask­ing for the same rights as mar­ried cou­ples, three weeks after Gov. Linda Lin­gle vetoed a same-sex civil unions measure.

The law­suit doesn’t seek the titles of “mar­riage” or “civil unions” for gay part­ners. Instead, it requests that the court sys­tem extend them the ben­e­fits and respon­si­bil­i­ties of mar­riage based on the Hawaii Constitution’s pro­hi­bi­tion against sex discrimination.

We con­tinue to be dis­crim­i­nated against,” said plain­tiff Suzanne King, who has been in a rela­tion­ship with her part­ner for 29 years. “We’re a fam­ily unit, and we live our lives just like every­one else, but we aren’t treated the same.”

The legal action in state court comes as a response to the Repub­li­can governor’s veto July 6, when she said vot­ers should decide whether to reserve mar­riage for cou­ples of a man and a woman.

Five other states and the Dis­trict of Colum­bia per­mit same-sex mar­riage. Five more states essen­tially grant the rights of mar­riage to same-sex cou­ples with­out autho­riz­ing mar­riage itself.

Hawaii passed the nation’s first “defense of mar­riage” con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment in 1998, giv­ing the state’s leg­is­la­ture the power to reserve mar­riage to opposite-sex cou­ples. The amend­ment is silent on civil unions and rights for same-sex couples.

Most Hawaii res­i­dents don’t want the gov­ern­ment to endorse equal rights for gay cou­ples, said Gar­ret Hashimoto, chair­man for the Hawaii Chris­t­ian Coalition.

I feel insulted. They keep bring­ing up Mar­tin Luther King, black rights and women’s suf­fer­age. This is not about that. This is about two males or two females prac­tic­ing sex,” he said. “It’s behav­ior. It’s no dif­fer­ent from smok­ers or drinkers.”

The office of Hawaii Attor­ney Gen­eral Mark Ben­nett declined com­ment Wednes­day because it hadn’t yet been served with the lawsuit.

The state grants some rights to gay cou­ples through its rec­i­p­ro­cal ben­e­fi­cia­ries system.

But they lack the same legal priv­iledges and oblig­a­tions of adop­tion, child sup­port, alimony and access to fam­ily court, said Jen­nifer Pizer, senior coun­sel for Lambda Legal, which is bring­ing the case along with the Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union.

This case is not about mar­riage. It’s about the right of same-sex cou­ples to at least have a sys­tem that is under­stand­able and com­plete,” Pizer said. “The state’s equal­ity guar­an­tee at least has to mean same-sex cou­ples should have the same rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties, even if it’s seg­mented off into a sys­tem that isn’t as respected, under­stood and revered as marriage.”

The case likely won’t be set­tled until it reaches the Hawaii Supreme Court, or if state law­mak­ers and the next gov­er­nor approve a new civil unions bill, Pizer said. 

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

Elton John slams Arizona boycotts

by Ed Masley — Jul. 27, 2010 05:28 PM
The Ari­zona Republic

Fresh from per­form­ing at Rush Limbaugh’s wed­ding recep­tion, Elton John spoke out against musi­cians engag­ing in SB 1070 boy­cotts at a sold-out show last week at the Tuc­son Arena.According to the Ari­zona Daily Star, he told the crowd, “We are all very pleased to be play­ing in Ari­zona. I have read that some of the artists won’t come here. They are (expletive)wits! Let’s face it: I still play in Cal­i­for­nia, and as a gay man I have no legal rights what­so­ever. So what’s the (exple­tive) with these people?”

 

Con­tinue read­ing Elton John slams Ari­zona boycotts

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

CEO defends Minn. donations">APNewsBreak: Target CEO defends Minn. donations

By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tar­get Corp.‘s CEO on Tues­day defended the dis­count retailer’s polit­i­cal dona­tions to a Min­nesota group help­ing the state’s Repub­li­can can­di­date for gov­er­nor, telling employ­ees at its Min­neapo­lis head­quar­ters that the company’s sup­port of the gay com­mu­nity is “unwavering.”

Chief Exec­u­tive Gregg Stein­hafel said gay employ­ees have been rais­ing con­cerns about the money help­ing state Rep. Tom Emmer, who opposes gay mar­riage. Tar­get gave $150,000 to MN For­ward, a group staffed by for­mer insid­ers from out­go­ing Repub­li­can Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s admin­is­tra­tion. MN For­ward is run­ning TV ads sup­port­ing Emmer.

We rarely endorse all advo­cated posi­tions of the orga­ni­za­tions or can­di­dates we sup­port, and we do not have a polit­i­cal or social agenda,” Stein­hafel said in an e-mail.

He added: “Let me be very clear, Target’s sup­port of the GLBT com­mu­nity is unwa­ver­ing, and inclu­sive­ness remains a core value of our company.”

Con­tinue read­ing APNews­Break: Tar­get CEO defends Minn. donations

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

MTV Gets Top Marks for Gay Inclusion on Shows">MTV Gets Top Marks for Gay Inclusion on Shows

The Real World” and “America’s Best Dance Crew” helped MTV became the first TV net­work to win an “excel­lent” rat­ing for its por­trayal of gay, les­bian and trans­gen­der peo­ple on tele­vi­sion, the U.S. activist group GLAAD said on Fri­day. In its fourth annual report map­ping the quan­tity and qual­ity of gay images on TV, the Gay & Les­bian Alliance Against Defama­tion also gave high marks to young female-oriented net­work the CW for shows like “America’s Next Top Model”, “Gos­sip Girl” and “One Tree Hill.” But despite wel­com­ing gay teen sto­ry­lines on hit musi­cal com­edy “Glee” on Fox, and the appoint­ment of les­bian Ellen DeGeneres as a judge on “Amer­i­can Idol”, the Fox net­work was slammed for offen­sive stereo­types on “Fam­ily Guy” and “The Cleve­land Show”. GLAAD said that on both ani­mated series last sea­son, char­ac­ters vom­ited at the thought of hav­ing sex with a trans­gen­der woman. “It is with great pride that GLAAD hon­ors MTV with our high­est mark of excel­lence in recog­ni­tion of the network’s com­mit­ment to fair and accu­rate rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the les­bian, gay, bisex­ual and trans­gen­der com­mu­nity,” said GLAAD pres­i­dent Jar­rett Bar­rios. Read the rest of the story here.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

Judge blocks Arizona law on domestic-partner benefits

 azcentral.com: A fed­eral judge has blocked Ari­zona from deny­ing fam­ily health insur­ance to employ­ees’ same-sex part­ners, say­ing the state vio­lated the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. Dis­trict Judge John Sed­wick granted a tem­po­rary injunc­tion that will pre­vent the state from enact­ing House Bill 2013, a 2009 law that changed eli­gi­bil­ity require­ments for insur­ance ben­e­fits in an effort to deny cov­er­age to domes­tic partners.

The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer in Sep­tem­ber, amended the def­i­n­i­tion of “depen­dent” under state law to mean either a child or “a spouse under the laws of this state.” That change pre­vented the part­ners of gay and les­bians, who are legally unable to marry, from receiv­ing benefits.

The state argued that all unmar­ried cou­ples were treated equally under HB 2013, which cre­ated a new part, known as Sec­tion O, of exist­ing law. But in his rul­ing, Sed­wick disagreed. 

Con­tinue read­ing Judge blocks Ari­zona law on domestic-partner benefits

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

ADL Decries Neo-Nazi Patrols, Lack of Community Outrage">ADL Decries Neo-Nazi Patrols, Lack of Community Outrage

 

Phoenix, AZ, July 20, 2010…..The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today con­demned the recent activ­i­ties of neo-Nazi J.T. Ready and his “cit­i­zen patrols” of the bor­der, and lamented the lack of com­mu­nity out­rage over those patrols.  Ready­has long held ties with neo-Nazi groups, most recently the National Social­ist Move­ment (NSM), a group ADL calls one of the largest of its kind in Amer­ica.  The NSM clings to an ide­ol­ogy that only non-Jewish, white het­ero­sex­u­als should be Amer­i­can cit­i­zens and that every­one who isn’t white should leave the coun­try “peace­fully or by force.”  

Bill Straus, the ADL Ari­zona Regional Direc­tor, and Miriam Weis­man, Regional Board Chair, issued the fol­low­ing statement:

ADL is always con­cerned when insuf­fi­ciently trained or untrained groups take it upon them­selves to enforce our laws.  But when those groups are directed by J.T. Ready, or any­one
who for that mat­ter adheres to such a hate­ful ide­ol­ogy, that con­cern is height­ened, and the poten­tial for vio­lence esca­lates, appre­cia­bly.  ADL is also pro­foundly dis­ap­pointed at the lack of com­mu­nity out­rage over this despi­ca­ble sit­u­a­tion.  Regard­less of where one stands on the issue of ille­gal immi­gra­tion, our hope would be that the com­mu­nity can at least come together in con­demn­ing law enforce­ment by neo-Nazis.

At the same time it con­demned Ready and the patrols, the ADL com­mended Pinal County Sher­iff Paul Babeu for his week­end com­ments dis­cour­ag­ing Ready and “those who espouse hatred or big­otry such as his” from con­tin­u­ing the patrols.

See ADL’s web­site for infor­ma­tion on the National Social­ist Move­ment: NSM
 

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

Mississippi school pays damages to lesbian teen over prom dispute

By the CNN Wire Staff
July 20, 2010 1:14 p.m. EDT 

(CNN) — A school dis­trict in Mis­sis­sippi has agreed to pay a recent high school grad­u­ate $35,000 in dam­ages and adopt a pol­icy pro­hibit­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion based on sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion, accord­ing to a state­ment released Tues­day by the Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union.

The set­tle­ment comes after the ACLU sued the school dis­trict in Ful­ton, Mis­sis­sippi, on behalf of Con­stance McMillen, a les­bian teen who was told by Itawamba Agri­cul­tural High School offi­cials she and her girl­friend would be ejected if they attended the school-sponsored prom.

The agree­ment, which was filed Tues­day, ends the law­suit.  

Read the rest of this article

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

UR Vote Is UR Voice">UR Vote Is UR Voice

Local LGBT lead­ers gath­ered to pro­mote sign­ing up for Arizona’s per­ma­nent early vot­ing list. One Com­mu­nity coor­di­nated the effort and video shoot.

Click here to reg­is­ter for per­ma­nent early vot­ing here!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

Kentucky’s Gay Hope

MATTHEW VANDERPOOL X390 (FACEBOOK.COM) | ADVOCATE.COM

He’s 24, he’d had a brush with death, and he hasn’t even fin­ished col­lege, but Matthew Van­der­pool might be Kentucky’s best chance at oust­ing one of the state’s most anti­gay legislators.

At just 24 years old and with a mea­ger $150 in cam­paign finances, ear­lier this week, Matthew Van­der­pool pulled off the unthink­able, beat­ing an Air Force vet­eran and a lawyer to win the Demo­c­ra­tic pri­mary for the 45th dis­trict of Kentucky’s house of rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Now, as the openly gay can­di­date gears up to face one of the state’s most noto­ri­ously anti­gay politi­cians, Van­der­pool talks to The Advo­cate about what made him run, what he expects from cam­paign sea­son, and why he’s sick of hear­ing politi­cians talk. Read the story here.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites

Degrassi Premiere to Include Trans Teen

Jordan Todosey DEGRASSI X390 (HANDOUT) | ADVOCATE.COM

Now enter­ing its 10th sea­son, the hit teen TV show Degrassi is once again chart­ing new ter­ri­tory — this time by fea­tur­ing a trans­gen­der char­ac­ter.
As Degrassi pre­pares to cel­e­brate a decade on Teen­Nick, Nickelodeon’s pro­gram­ming block geared toward a teenage audi­ence, the cast is excited to wel­come a new char­ac­ter to the story. The show will fea­ture Adam, a bio­log­i­cal female who presents him­self as a boy.
Adam will be por­trayed by Jor­dan Todosey, a 15-year-old actress from Life With Derek. For the role, she under­went a sig­nif­i­cant makeover, includ­ing adopt­ing a more mas­cu­line gait. Todosey describes Adam as a char­ac­ter who “was born phys­i­cally as a girl but between the ears, he feels like he’s a guy.“
The show’s direc­tor and pro­ducer, Ste­fan Bro­gren, who also plays the role of the school prin­ci­pal, explained the impor­tance of the char­ac­ter, telling CTV News, “I can truly say that when we decided to do this episode we real­ized this is brand new ter­ri­tory for us. We’ve never even tried to breach this sub­ject before. Of course, we’ve dealt with gay and les­bian sto­ries, but you can’t approach this the same way.” Read the arti­cle here.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • PDF
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS
  • Add to favorites
Page 1 of 29123451020...Last »

Sponsors

120x60.gif