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Newsletter of the Rainbow Alliance
at the University of Florida Next Rainbow Alliance Dinner Meeting, Wednesday, January 21, 2004, 6:30 pm, at Olive Garden on Archer Road. Other Dates to Remember:
The Rainbow Alliance is the staff and faculty organization at the University of Florida concerned with matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity. RA welcomes all members of the University community who share its goals to join. |
Bisexuality 101On January 26, the Pride Student Union will host an event titled "Bisexuality 101: Myths and Realities." The speaker will be Robin Ochs. Ochs has been an activist on biseuxality issues for over 20 years. Her home-base is Boston. She co-founded both the Bisexual Resource Center (formerly East Coast Bisexual Network) and the Boston Bisexual Women's Network. Ochs created and continues to oversee the Bisexual Resource Guide, a book compiled by an international team of over 200 editors who provide information about resources in 66 countries. She taught the second known course on bisexuality in the country at MIT, and she's been teaching courses on bisexuality for the past 12 years at Tufts. Learn more about Robin Ochs at: http://ochs.bi.org/ |
Same-Sex Hand-holding DaysThe Gator Gay-Straight Alliance will host ever popular Same Sex Hand Holding Days on Tue. Jan. 27 and Wed. Jan. 28 during People Awareness Week. Gator GSA will also be tabling in Turlington on both of those days. GGSA has sponsored excellent public awareness events over the last few years on the University of Florida campus. They also have a program for training dormitory resident assistants in LGBT issues, and they have conducted forums that brought together members of the LGBT community and fraternity leaders. Learn more about Gator GSA at: http://www.gatorgsa.org |
Victory Foundation Trains LGBT CandidatesOn February 5-8, in Tampa, Florida, the Victory Foundation will hold a workshop of candidate & campaign trainings for LGBT candidates (and future candidates) for public office. From the Victory Foundation's Web site: "The Victory Foundation's Candidate & Campaign Trainings provide comprehensive, nonpartisan training to present and future openly LGBT candidates, campaign personnel, and community leaders. The trainings provide attendees with the intellectual and technical skills required for success through practical training from proven campaign professionals. Participants are empowered by the acquisition of skills that make them viable players in the political life of their communities." Victory Foundation training aims to help potential candidates understand the complexity of running for office. Topics covered in the workshop include:
Former participants have become public officials and activists, including Atlanta City Council president Cathy Woolard; Washington state Rep. Ed Murray; Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign; and California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl. To learn more about the Victory Foundation: http://www.victoryfoundation.org |
Gay Marriage: State of PlayLast year was an important year for LGBT relationships. In the Summer, the Supreme Court handed down Lawrence v. Texas, which declared unconstitutional laws that criminalize a wide range of sex acts between consenting adults. In Fall, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed down a decision stating that the state laws on marriage were unconstitutionally discriminatory against same-sex couples. Massachusetts has created domestic partnerships similar to those recognized in California and Hawaii. Civil unions between same-sex couples are legal in Vermont. The New Jersey senate has passed a domestic partenrship law, and the governor is expected to sign it. Those who oppose same-sex unions promise to oppose these moves on every level, including a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a opposite-sex partners only. Such an amendment has been filed in the House of Representatives. President Bush has not endorsed this amendment, but he has stated that traditional marriage should be "codified" in some way. Bush has announced plans for a substantial Healthy Marriage Initiative. The Initiative has been seen by some as an effort to assuage the president's conservative supporters and deflect demands for a constitutional amendment. The vice president -- whose daughter is a lesbian -- has stated that he would support the president whatever he decides about an amendment, but that he prefers for this matter to be left to the states. On January 12, the leader of Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Sean O'Malley, took a public stand against same-sex unions, stating that marriage and the family are "threatened as never before." The Catholic church has made itself a major player in the debate through statements issued from the Vatican calling on Catholic legislators -- primarily in the U.S. and Europe -- to oppose any efforts to legitimate same-sex unions. Several European nations had already legalized same-sex unions. Two provinces in Canada have taken this step, and a national same-sex union law is being prepared in Canada. Conservative religious leaders in the U.S. uniformly oppose same-sex unions. An important player is Phil Sheldon, director of the Traditional Values Coalition. Sheldon is typical of the conservative viewpoint which sees the growing acceptance of LGBT people as threatening to the moral fabric of the country. Such conservatives also circulate the belief that Christian faith resulting in blessings from God is the main ingredient in the success and power of the United States, and that God shields the U.S. from devastation for the sake of true believers. Readers may recall the unfortunate remarks of Jerry Falwell no long after the September 11, 2001 attacks in which Falwell stated the attackes were some kind of divine retribution against the country for its permissivness toward homosexuality. Some conservative commentators propose that allowing same-sex couple to "marry" will destroy the very definition of marriage and allow polygamy and other practices. Ironically, the ascendancy of conservatism over the last few years has coincided with many LGBT advances. Powerful opposition has forced people to take more of a stand on LGBT issues. The president must hold together a coalition of religious conservatives, political conservatives, moderates and swing voters. The last two or three of these groups might be alienated by an administration that appears intolerant, especially among moderates and swing voters. The Human Rights Campaign is campaigning for support of gay marriage through its "Million for Marriage" petition, nearing 250,000 signatures. Add your name to the Million for Marriage petitions: <http://www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/index.shtml> Go to <http://www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/news_actions.html> to learn more about the battle for partner rights and what else supporters can do to promote these rights. |
ResourcesRA-online > www.ra-online.org |