United We Stand (Official blog of Kentucky Equality Federation): May 2008

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Will Healthcare Inequality Strike Twice?

By: P.S. Johnson

Martin Cothran with the "Family" Foundation of Kentucky was quick to jump on this news today (below is an edited version of the email Kentucky Equality Federation on Wednesday).

Today, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that same-sex partners could not get health benefits in government or public universities because of state’s 2004 constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage.

This decision is important to the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s LGBT population because conservative groups and lawmakers in Kentucky have been closely monitoring the Michigan Supreme Court case.

The Michigan Supreme Court’s 5-2 decision affirms a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and city governments in Michigan have benefits policies covering at least 375 gay couples. Some of the plans began as far back as the early 1990s.

After the appeals court ruled in February 2007, universities and local governments rewrote their policies to try to comply with the gay marriage ban (similar to what the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville did after the Kentucky Attorney General issued a legal opinion on this issue in 2007).

Former Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo referenced the Michigan court case, in addition to the Michigan Attorney’s General opinion in his 2007 legal opinion.

Michigan’s anti-gay law, which passed 59 percent to 41 percent, says the union between a man and woman is the only agreement recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose."

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Cothran apparently forgets that both Michigan and Kentucky are sovereign states within this Union. The conclusions the Michigan Supreme Court reaches have no jurisdiction here in Kentucky, and no one has any idea what the Kentucky Supreme Court would decide should the decision by Northern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, and the University of Louisville to offer domestic partner benefits ever be challenged and heard all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

I think Rep. David Watkins (D-Henderson) did a great job of putting the "Family" Foundation of Kentucky in their place in a House Health and Welfare Committee meeting to bar Kentucky's universities from offering domestic partner benefits.

Why is a "Family" foundation so opposed to people having healthcare? Oh, wait, it is just homosexuals they want to exempt.

Monday, May 05, 2008

United Methodist Church: "homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching."

Delegates at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (held every four years to set church poliy) upheld a church law that says gay and lesbian relationships are "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Gay advocates at the conference also failed to remove a sentence from the Methodist Book of Discipline that says the church "does not condone the practice of homosexuality."

Methodist delegates retained a policy that lets pastors deny memberbeship to gays and lesbians.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Help the University of Louivsille - Office of LGBT Services

Students at the University of Louisville are really excited about establishing the university's Office for LGBT Services and making its new home in the Red Barn on the Belknap Campus. Already, it's becoming a vibrant place where students gather to work on issues and projects and guests can stop in for help or information.

Would you like to help? Their vision includes a working resource library with books, DVDs, and other materials students can check out or use. But, in a time of budget cuts, they have no funds to purchase materials. So here's how you can help...

Would you consider donating anything from your own library that you aren't using anymore? Books you've already read, movies you've watched a hundred times, etc? Anything LGBT-themed that would be useful to students or even just entertaining.

To make it easier to deliver any donations, the university's Human Resources Department has offered to serve as a drop-off site.

For directions to HR, go here:

http://louisville.edu/hr/contact/directions.html

If you have any question, contact the university's Office of LGBT Services by clicking here.

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