RA-news Newsletter of the Rainbow Alliance at the University of Florida July 2006, Vol. 4, No. 10

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Please contribute to the Rainbow Alliance Fund. Next Rainbow Alliance Dinner: Wednesday July 12 at "Liquid Ginger" in the Sun Center, downtown Gainesville. 6 PM for a glass of wine or beer, and 6:30 for dinner. Please RSVP. Upcoming Local Events 10/7  Second Annual LGBT Homecoming 10/6-15 Pride Days (Pride Celebration of Gainesville) 10/6 - Awards Banquet 10/14 - Parade and Festival 10/11 National Coming Out Day Other Events  7/15-22 7th Gay Games, Chicago  7/20-23 Central Florida Black Pride (others)  7/20-23 Miami Beach Bruthaz 2006 Theme: Bridging the Gap between the Gay and Straight Communities (Seminars and Social Events)  7/29-8/5 1st World OutGames, Montreal  8/4-6 Jacksonville Black Pride 9/14-16 Out & Equal Workplace Summit Pride Events -- Worldwide Calendar The Rainbow Alliance is the organization for University of Florida faculty, staff, and alumni concerned with matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity. RA welcomes all members of the University community who share its goals.

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Contents Features National . . . . . . . . . National Workplace Equity Summit Scheduled for September Court Decisions in Georgia and New York Challenge LGBT Marriage Rights Arkansas Court Overturns Ban on Gay Foster Parents Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity Adopts Far-Reaching Policy on Gender Identity Departments Help us Build the Rainbow Alliance Contributing to the Rainbow Alliance Fund Resources How to Join the Rainbow Alliance Contributors to This Issue of RA-News

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Features

National Workplace Equity Summit Scheduled for September From September 14-16, 2006, the 16th annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, Ill. Out & Equal champions safe and equitable workplaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The organization advocates building and strengthening successful organizations that value all employees, customers and communities. The first Out & Equal Summit was held in 1999 in Atlanta with about 200 attendees. This year, as many as 2,000 are expected to participate. In 1999, less than 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies offered domestic partner benefits. In 2006 a healthy majority of these companies have recognized the importance of these benefits to their employees, to society, and to their bottom lines. The number of public institutions extending benefits to their LGBT employees has also increased. This year's summit features a number of keynote speakers, including well-known actor George Takei, president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group Nina Jacobson, best-selling author Richard Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class), and artist-communicator Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. In addition to an outstanding regular program, there will also be several pre-seminar workshops on the topics LGBT Leadership Development, Building Bridges Transgender: Speaker's Bureau Training, and Understanding Whiteness/Unraveling Racism: A Model for Diversity Work Within and Outside the LGBT Community. [top]

Arkansas High Court Overturns Ban on Gay Foster Parents Arkansas's Supreme Court on June 29 unanimously upheld a lower court decision that rejected a ban on gays and lesbians serving as foster parents. Four people sued after the policy was put in effect in 1999. The state Child Welfare Board dropped the policy after losing a court fight in 2004. The court said testimony in the state's appeal demonstrated that "the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals." The court also said that being raised by gays or lesbians doesn't cause academic problems or gender identity problems, as the state had argued. The court ruling left open the possibility that legislators could enact a ban by law or possibly give a state board authority to do so. But Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, said the court ruling itself could make legislation difficult to pass. She cited language in the ruling that said there was no connection between homosexuality and a child's welfare. The court agreed with Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox's ruling that the ban seeks to regulate "public morality," which the board was not given the authority to do. The high court also said that in adopting the ban, the state Child Welfare Agency Review Board violated the separation of powers doctrine. Republican governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee has said he hopes the Legislature will consider reimposing the ban. A Florida ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians was upheld in a federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the ACLU. Utah and Mississippi also restrict gay adoptions. Read the ruling [top]

Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity Adopts Far-Reaching Policy on Gender Identity Sigma Phi Beta was founded "to build character in gay, straight, bisexual and transgender male college students." As inclusive as this seems, the fraternity's national board has taken it further by allowing individuals who self-identify as male to seek membership, regardless of their sex at birth and whether or not they have obtained legal recognition of their gender identity. Furthermore, the policy allows full members to maintain their membership, even if at a later date they decide to change their gender to female. Jamison Green, a nationally-recognized transgender activist and educator who serves on the board of directors of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute, expressed support for the decision. "Sigma Phi Beta's decision to welcome transgender fraternity members is in direct fulfillment of the Greek Life values of self-determination, self-actualization, and brotherhood. The inclusion of gay and transgender students in the fraternity system ensures the formative experience of true brotherhood," said Green, who is also the author of Becoming a Visible Man (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004). "Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity wants to make it known that we are committed to being inclusive and supportive of transgender students while maintaining our identity as a Fraternity for men," said the fraternity's national president and chairman, Sam Holdren. "Students develop best in environments where they feel valued, protected, accepted and socially-connected to their peers." "Brotherhood is about respect, and Sigma Phi Beta is demonstrating true leadership by adopting a fully inclusive policy that recognizes that our sense of self as men and women is far deeper than what's on the outside," said Donna Rose. Rose is a nationally-recognized transgender activist from Arizona who serves on the Human Rights Campaign's national board of directors and who authored Wrapped in Blue: A Journey of Discovery (Living Legacy Press, 2003). Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green Wrapped in Blue: A Journey of Discovery by Donna Rose Sigma Phi Beta Web Site [top]

Departments

Help Us Build the Rainbow Alliance 1) UF Faculty and Staff: We want every LGBT staff or faculty member and ally to be a Rainbow Alliance member. Tell interested friends and colleagues about Rainbow Alliance. They can check out the Web site at <www.ra-online.org>, or bring them along to a monthly dinner. They can join by sending an e-mail to <info@ra-online.org>. 2) Alumni: Our mailing list of UF alumni is growing. Alumni are a vital part of the University community. Anyone with an interest in improving the LGBT envrionment at the University of Florida should look into Rainbow Alliance. Working together with Pride Student Union and the Director of LGBT Affairs, we are working to keep alumni informed, to help them connect, and to draw on their expertise. 3) Contribute: The Rainbow Alliance Fund at the University of Florida Foundation (established March 2003) is the only one of its kind at the UF Foundation specifically dedicated to the support of the LGBT community at UF. The Fund needs continuing support if we are to realize our goals. As always, details about contributing to the Rainbow Alliance Fund can be found at the end of the newsletter. Details about payroll deduction will be e-mailed to RA members soon. A word to out contributions: Your donation is fully tax-deductible, and the RA Fund is not used to support operations of the Rainbow Alliance. Learn more below. 2) Statewide: Help us connect with staff and faculty on other Florida/Deep South campuses working on LGBT issues. We have some unique challenges in the South. Maybe we can support each other and collaborate on progress. [top]