MOUNT LAUREL, New Jersey (AP)

After persuasion from New Jersey’s governor and attorney general, shipping giant UPS Inc. said Monday that it would extend health insurance benefits to the civil union partners of gay employees in New Jersey covered by a union contract.

The policy change has to do with New Jersey’s civil unions law, which took effect in February, and seeks to give gay couples the same rights in the state as married couples.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine sent Atlanta-based UPS a letter on July 20 asking the shipping company, also known as United Parcel Service, to change its stance.

The company had previously said that civil union partners were legally different from spouses, and therefore, the partners were not entitled to the same benefits that spouses of the company’s hourly workers receive.

Management and administrative staff in the company nationwide already receive domestic partnership benefits.

Before Monday, the company had said it wanted to extend benefits to all its hourly union workers, but could not outside its collective bargaining agreements. The only exception was in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal.

Gay rights advocates say UPS had a faulty legal interpretation.

They say that many other employers, though, have taken the same stance. The advocates maintain that gay couples would get equal treatment only if they are allowed to marry.

UPS spokesman Norman Black said the company is reviewing its policies in Connecticut and Vermont, which also offer civil unions.

BOISE, Idaho (AP)

US District Court Judge Mikel Williams says the state must offer female hormone therapy to an inmate who believes she is a woman trapped in a male body.

Jenniffer Spencer changed her name from Randall Gammett after she was imprisoned for possession of a stolen car and escape in 2000.

She told the Idaho Department of Corrections in 2003 that she believed she had gender identity disorder and wanted psychotherapy and female hormone therapy. But doctors working for the state prison system said she didn’t have the disorder and didn’t need female hormones.

Spencer became despondent and ultimately castrated herself in her cell, using a disposable razor blade.

Now that her body is producing no male hormones, doctors say she is at risk of osteoporosis and other medical problems. Prison officials offered her treatment with testosterone, but Spencer refused and filed a lawsuit instead, hoping a judge would force the state to give her estrogen.

A trial in the case will likely take a year or more. But the federal judge says until that trial comes, the state must give Spencer estrogen therapy and psychotherapy.

Spencer’s attorney Shannon Minter says the inmate was thrilled by the ruling. Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray says the state is still considering the implications of the ruling.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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Today’s Headlines
Federal Judge Orders Idaho to Give Transgender Inmate Hormone Therapy
Changing Stance, UPS Offers Benefits to Partners of Gay New Jersey Workers

ROME (AP)

Italian gay rights groups said Saturday they would hold public “kiss-ins” near the Colosseum next week to protest the detention of two men for expressing affection in front of the famous monument.

The men have said they were only kissing, but police maintain they committed “lewd acts.” Gay rights groups have accused the police of discrimination and some lawmakers promised to raise the incident in parliament.

The Carabinieri paramilitary police confirmed the two men were held for about 40 minutes early Friday and released after being accused of committing lewd acts in public – a crime that can carry a sentence of up to 2 years in jail.

The two were “not just kissing” and the officers would have detained a heterosexual couple engaged in the same act, said Carabinieri official Col. Alessandro Casarsa.

“They acted because there was a couple that was committing a lewd act in front of one of the most-viewed monuments in Italy,” Casarsa said without elaborating. “We apply the law to all in the same way, men and women.”

Homosexuality has been gaining wider acceptance in this overwhelmingly Catholic country, especially in large urban centers. Recently, rights groups have been pressing Italian politicians to pass a proposed bill that would grant some legal rights to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples.

Arcigay, the main Italian gay rights group, hired a lawyer for the couple and identified the men as Roberto L. and Michele M., saying that the two, aged 27 and 28, had only shared a gesture of affection after a night out in the gay bars that line one of the streets near the Colosseum.

“Roberto and Michele were only kissing; all other statements are false,” the group said .

Arcigay said it would hold its protest near the Colosseum on Thursday, while another group, the Mario Mieli Club, scheduled a rally of public kissing in front of the 2,000-year-old arena for Sunday night.

Vladimir Luxuria, a Communist politician and Italy’s first transvestite lawmaker, is one of the representatives who said they would call on the government to explain the incident in parliament.

“It’s worrying that a gesture of affection is considered a crime,” Luxuria told La Repubblica daily. “It’s absurd that two young people who love each other should spend the night in a police station without having done anything obscene.”

The detention came the same day that Italy’s highest criminal court said that homosexuals who migrate clandestinely to Italy should not be deported if they would face persecution at home, news reports said.

Italian dailies reported that the Court of Cassation, ruling on the expulsion order for a Senegalese immigrant, did not allow the man to stay but ordered a judge to re-examine his case to check his claim that he would be persecuted.

MEXICO CITY (AP)

Mexico City’s prison system has begun allowing gay conjugal visits, bowing to a recommendation by the country’s National Human Rights Commission.

Despite opposition from conservatives and religious organizations, the city’s leftist government has taken a series of controversial stands in recent months on social issues like abortion, gay marriage and prostitution.

In many Mexican prisons, special rooms are set aside for conjugal visits and, at most of them, the visitor is not required to be married to the inmate.

The decision to allow the visits was prompted by a complaint filed by a gay man after he was denied a conjugal visit with his companion.

LONDON, July 30 (UPI)

Britain’s new equality law means homosexual couples have the same right to a hotel room as do married couples, it was reported Monday.

Owners of hotels and guest houses have complained the law that took effect in April forces them to violate their religious beliefs by condoning homosexuality, The Telegraph reported.

A government official insists, however, couples must be treated the same and married couples must be banned from sleeping together if homosexual couples are being denied common rooms, The Telegraph reported.

Meg Munn, a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, said hotel owners who refuse same-sex couples should seek another line of work, The Telegraph reported.

 

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Today’s Headlines
British Hotels Told to Accept Gay Couples
Gay Convict Romance OK’d
Italy Rights Groups Protest Gays’ Arrest

Today’s Headlines
Opponents Confident They Can Defeat Gay Marriage
Court Case Tests Free Speech vs. Anti-Gay Policy

A federal appeals court heard arguments on Wednesday from a religious liberty group that opposed mandated anti-harassment training at an Eastern Kentucky high school.

The Alliance Defense Fund sued on behalf of a group of parents and Timothy Allen Morrison, a student at Boyd County High School, where the training was implemented. Morrison appealed a ruling from a lower court to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The Arizona-based group alleged that Morrison and other students were prohibited from speaking out against homosexuality at the school.

“He was not allowed to share his religious beliefs with other students because of the policy,” said Joel Oster, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, who spoke before the court on Wednesday.

The policy at the high school has since been amended with input from the Christian group and the American Civil Liberties Union, Oster said.

“What’s at issue in this appeal is whether or not the policy that existed previously violated students’ constitutional rights,” Oster said.

The American Civil Liberties Union joined the case on behalf of the school district in an effort to keep the training classes in place. But the ACLU told the court on Wednesday that anti-gay policies also need to respect the First Amendment rights of students.

“We’ve always believed that it’s entirely possible for schools to enact policies that keep gay and lesbian students safe while still respecting the First Amendment rights of students who hold anti-gay beliefs,” said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney with the group’s national Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

“The fact is, you can’t just punish speech just because the listener reacts negatively to it.”

The anti-harassment training sessions were part of a settlement in 2004 of a three-year dispute between the Boyd County school district and a now-defunct gay-rights group that wanted recognition as an extracurricular group.

Morrison, his parents and two other parents sued the Board of Education over the training requirement.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled in February 2006 that Morrison and other students had no religious or free speech right to opt out of the training.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)

Two prominent opponents to Vermont’s civil unions law expressed confidence Thursday they can defeat any push toward full marriage for same-sex couples.

“When I read that this morning, I actually laughed out loud. I had a real good belly laugh,” said Stephen Cable of Rutland, founder and president of the group Vermont Renewal.

Cable was referring to news reports about the announcement a day earlier that legislative leaders had appointed a commission to engage Vermonters in a discussion about moving from civil unions, which grant marriage-like rights and benefits to same-sex couples, to allowing those couples to get married.

“We’ve been hearing from a lot of Vermonters who want gay couples to be treated exactly the same as heterosexual couples in our laws, that is, they believe same-sex couples should be allowed to get civil marriage licenses,” House Speakers Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, said in announcing formation of the commission.

“It is time to ask whether it is in Vermont’s interest to continue to maintain a separate legal status for same-sex couples.”

Both Cable and Rev. Craig Bensen, president of the Take It To The People, said they expected gay marriage supporters would be thwarted in their efforts.

“I’m encouraged,” said Bensen, of Cambridge. “My interpretation of why they’re doing this is they’re not going to do anything. … They’re putting this out to make their gay and lesbian constituency feel like something’s going on.”

Symington and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, said they want the commission to hold a series of public meetings and report back to lawmakers about its findings in April. Since the legislative session is usually winding down by then, that likely would leave action on any bill to the 2009 session.

“If I were on the other side of the issue, I would be sputtering,” Bensen said. Gay marriage supporters “are essentially being told to behave until after the election — we’ll put a commission on but don’t expect any results.”

A leading supporter of same-sex marriage, Beth Robinson of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, said she didn’t mind taking some time on the issue.

“We’re fully supportive of this approach,” she said. “We’ve been trying for some time to try and figure out a way to really re-engage Vermonters in this issue. We’re thrilled with this opportunity.”

Cable said his laughter was prompted by the thought that the civil unions law granted same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of marriage.

“This gives them nothing more than what they have now, legally, and this is why I laughed,” Cable said.

“Really what they’re looking for is acceptance every way they can get it, rather than legal benefits,” Cable said. “They’re trying to force that acceptance on the rest of Vermonters who don’t appreciate it and consider it offensive.”

Robinson said she and her allies always regarded civil unions as a compromise, a step on the way to full equality. “We’re engaged in a generation-long civil rights movement,” she said. “I don’t think anybody pretended when civil unions passed that it delivered full equality.”

He said he believed the Democratic leaders in the Legislature would hurt themselves by pursuing the issue. “As long as Jim Douglas remains governor, this would be vetoed. I actually think this move that they’re making is not going to help them; it’s going to hurt them in the long run.”

Douglas on Wednesday said he does not want to reopen the debate over civil unions or gay marriage.

“I don’t think it would be in the state’s best interest to reopen those wounds to have that controversial debate because we’ve extended full privileges, full legal rights and benefits to same-sex couples,” the governor said. His spokesman, Jason Gibbs, did not immediately return a call Thursday.

Bensen also maintained that the political calculus favors gay marriage opponents. “Unless the 2008 elections give her (Symington) 112 Democrats (in the House), she’s not going to have the political clout to pull this off. So it will be a non-issue in 2009 unless there’s a historic takeover by Democrats in 2008.”

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

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Today’s Headlines
Spain: Offending Judge Under Investigation
VT Sets Open Process to Consider Gay Marriage
NM Gays Can Marry in MA

BOSTON (AP)

Gay couples from New Mexico can marry in Massachusetts because their home state has not explicitly banned same-sex marriage, Massachusetts officials say.

New Mexico joins Rhode Island as the only states whose gay residents are allowed to marry in Massachusetts, the only state that has legalized same-sex marriage.

Stanley Nyberg, Massachusetts’ Registrar of Vital Records, instructed city and town clerks in a July 18 notice to give marriage licenses to gay couples from New Mexico.

Massachusetts began marrying same-sex couples in 2004. Then-Gov. Mitt Romney prohibited out-of-state couples from marrying in the state, citing a 1913 law that bars Massachusetts home state expressly prohibited gay marriage.

MONTPELIER (AP)

The leaders of the state House and Senate said yesterday they have appointed a commission to ask Vermonters if the Legislature should allow same-sex couples to marry.

The 10-member commission will be led by Tom Little, a former state representative who served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 2000, the year the Legislature passed a law that granted same-sex couples the rights and responsibilities of marriage through civil unions.

The volunteer commission will hold public hearings and is scheduled to complete its study by the end of April and report to the Legislature.

“I think many people saw civil unions as a first step,” House Speaker Gaye Symington said after a Burlington press conference with the Senate president pro tem, Peter Shumlin. “I think for many Vermonters the question has been when, not so much as whether, we would eventually recognize same-sex union through marriage.”

Symington said it is unlikely the Legislature can begin a debate about gay marriage before the 2009 session.

Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican, said yesterday that he believes the civil union law is sufficient to protect the rights of same-sex couples and that the Legislature will be better served by focusing on issues such as high property taxes and the high cost of living in the state.

“We went through a very difficult experience seven years ago when the Legislature enacted the civil unions law,” Douglas said. “. . . I don’t think it would be in the state’s best interest to reopen those wounds to have that controversial debate because we’ve extended full privileges, full legal rights and benefits to same-sex couples.”

MADRID, July 26 (UPI)

A Spanish judge has drawn the attention of a women’s group for his controversial remarks about a lesbian mother during a recent court case.

Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita ordered the woman to turn her two daughters over to their father, saying her homosexuality would harm the children and increase their chances of becoming lesbians, EFE news agency reported Wednesday.

“It is understood that (a parent’s) drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody,” said Ferrin Calamita. “Well, it’s the same with homosexuality.”

A women’s rights group was investigating the judge because of his statement in court, EFE reported.