Click photo to enlargeLGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Grant County held their annual meeting recently to inform members about recent developments in the organization. About 30 attendees looked over the annual report, shared a potluck dinner.
LGBT Grant County has recently received funding from The United Way of Southwest New Mexico to fund a 24/7 Help Line and help with the opening of an LGBT Community Center in Silver City to provide a base of operations. The focus of services will include: support and programs for LGBT Youth, an LGBT reference library, HIV testing and counseling, an HIV support group, and support groups for the friends and family of LGBT Youth. Volunteers are needed to get involved in their area of choice and support programs and events. Training for the Help Line will take place July 13.
The organization is working towards a day when sexual orientation is simply not an issue. Everyone is welcome to participate in any of the programs regardless of their orientation.
A coalition of the nation’s leading LGBT advocacy organizations called several amendments to the Senate immigration reform bill “poison pills that threaten the entire legislation.” The Senate is considering amendments to the immigration reform bill this week that could negatively impact all immigrants and LGBT immigrant in particular, according to a statement released Wednesday by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, GetEQUAL, National Center for Transgender Equality, Equality Federation and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance.
Increased Enforcement: The Senate rejected two amendments requiring more enforcement at the border as a condition of implementing or completing a legalization program: Vitter 1228, which failed 36-58, and Thune 1197, which failed 39-54.
“Harsher enforcement mechanisms for immigrants will have a disproportionately very negative impact on LGBT immigrants, whom studies have shown receive harsher punishments than their non-LGBT peers — especially in the case of LGBT people of color,” according to the statement released by LGBT advocacy groups.
Health Benefits: One amendment being considered would continue to deny health benefits to immigrants five years after they become legal residents. This means immigrants could be eligible for citizenship after 13 years, but wouldn’t be able to get health care subsidies for at least 15 years or longer.
“Many LGBT people are unable to get health benefits for their partners and children because of a lack of family recognition. Morevoer, because LGBT people are more likely to live below the poverty line, access to affordable health care is especially important to the community,” according to leading LGBT advocacy groups. “These factors make access to the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid particularly crucial for the LGBT community. The 13-year roadmap to citizenship is too long as it is; these punitive provisions make that road even more difficult.”
Social Security: The Senate is also considering amendments that would require undocumented immigrants to pay back taxes and limit their access to Social Security retirement benefits.
“These punitive amendments go against the moral imperative of compassionate immigration reform,” according to LGBT advocacy organizations. “What’s more, LGBT immigrants and families – especially those of color – would be even more adversely affected by these harsh measures, as they experience unemployment and poverty at higher rates than their non-LGBT peers.”
A coalition of the nation’s leading LGBT advocacy organizations called several amendments to the Senate immigration reform bill “poison pills that threaten the entire legislation.” The Senate is considering amendments to the immigration reform bill this week that could negatively impact all immigrants and LGBT immigrant in particular, according to a statement released Wednesday by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, GetEQUAL, National Center for Transgender Equality, Equality Federation and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance.
Increased Enforcement: The Senate rejected two amendments requiring more enforcement at the border as a condition of implementing or completing a legalization program: Vitter 1228, which failed 36-58, and Thune 1197, which failed 39-54.
“Harsher enforcement mechanisms for immigrants will have a disproportionately very negative impact on LGBT immigrants, whom studies have shown receive harsher punishments than their non-LGBT peers — especially in the case of LGBT people of color,” according to the statement released by LGBT advocacy groups.
Health Benefits: One amendment being considered would continue to deny health benefits to immigrants five years after they become legal residents. This means immigrants could be eligible for citizenship after 13 years, but wouldn’t be able to get health care subsidies for at least 15 years or longer.
“Many LGBT people are unable to get health benefits for their partners and children because of a lack of family recognition. Morevoer, because LGBT people are more likely to live below the poverty line, access to affordable health care is especially important to the community,” according to leading LGBT advocacy groups. “These factors make access to the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid particularly crucial for the LGBT community. The 13-year roadmap to citizenship is too long as it is; these punitive provisions make that road even more difficult.”
Social Security: The Senate is also considering amendments that would require undocumented immigrants to pay back taxes and limit their access to Social Security retirement benefits.
“These punitive amendments go against the moral imperative of compassionate immigration reform,” according to LGBT advocacy organizations. “What’s more, LGBT immigrants and families – especially those of color – would be even more adversely affected by these harsh measures, as they experience unemployment and poverty at higher rates than their non-LGBT peers.”
now it’s time for reply al. great to hear from so many of you. please keep them coming. steve writes why do so many african-americans refuse to acknowledge the similarity between the civil rights
struggle and the lgbt struggle when it’s so apparent that they are one and the same, a grand struggle for human rights
? well, i believe that there is no way to fight for some human rights
with the other. every struggle has its own distinct way of engagement, and we have all gone through certain levels and certain oppression and certain bias or discrimination. so even though some have suffered differently or more than others, it’s one fight against all discrimination. and i think that we cannot distinguish between the two. one of the worst things in the world is to say did you suffer as much as i did, do you hurt as much as i do. all of us need to not suffer. all of us need not to have pain. and you cannot have bragging rights
on discrimination. we must have the bragging rights
of saying we all must stand together against all bias, all wrong. and even if i may be different for religious reasons with others, i must defend their right to make their choice. there is nothing that i see that trains me to have the right to impose my faith and my belief on others. and in fact, i must fight for their right so that someone will protect and respect mine right. sheri writes, dear reverend al, i would like to know how much money and time that i and other taxpayers have spent on the attempted repeal of the aca after 37 times. if we are going to pay them, then they should be using their money and our money on issues that can be worked upon instead of this constant and only symbolic repeal process. i couldn’t agree more, sheri. taxpayers should know about this. the gop has spent over 80 hours, two full workweeks trying to repeal the health care
care law. and it cost american taxpayers $55 million. and they know they will not be able to pass it through the senate. they know the president won’t sign it. this is just to continue this kind of motion and symbolic gesture, playing to the base and harassing the president that money could be used to help do concrete things for vulnerable americans. we want
After Nike unveiled its #BeTrue line in celebration of LGBT pride, the NFL Players Association is getting in on the act by offering colorful t-shirts to celebrate gay pride.
The shirts feature an illustration of a football player under “#Pride.” The shirts also show the the jersey numbers of LGBT-supportive players including Brendon Ayanbadejo, Chris Kluwe, and the recently retired Scott Fujita. Also available are shirts from Domonique Foxworth, the current president of the NFL Players Association’s executive committee, Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin, linebacker and free agent Chris Gocong, Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, offensive tackle and free agent Eric Winston, and newly signed Washington Redskins wide receiver Donté Stallworth.
Attorney General Eric Holder stands between singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay senator, as she addresses the Justice Department’s LGBT Pride Month event at the Justice Department.
The departments of Justice and State this week are holding back-to-back LGBT events in honor of gay pride month, and as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver two landmark decisions on same-sex marriage.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department celebrated pride with speeches from Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay member of the Senate, singer-songwriter and gay and lesbian activist Melissa Etheridge, and Attorney General Eric Holder, all on the theme “A Year of Firsts,” according to DOJPride.com, the official site for LGBT Employees at the department.
And on Wednesday, the State Department will follow suit with its own pride event in which Secretary John Kerry will deliver his first speech on LGBT policy and personnel issues.
“This is an opportunity for Secretary Kerry to state his position and confirm his support for LGBT employees,” says Aaron Jensen, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. “The thrust of his speech will be that he’s equally committed to the steps Secretary Clinton took on this.”
After speaking, Kerry will answer questions submitted by State Department employees abroad, such as if and when health insurance and travel benefits will be provided for same-sex foreign partners.
The event, which is being put on by the group Gays and Lesbian in Foreign Affairs Agencies, an official resource group for LGBT employees at State and other government agencies, will also feature speeches by transgender activist Mara Keisling and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as well as a performance of the National Anthem by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s a capella group Potomac Fever.
SHORT HILLS, N.J., June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Heart2Soul.com, the independent website for perspectives on death and grieving, addresses end-of-life challenges facing same-sex couples in “LGBT Issues in the Death of a Partner or Spouse” for National LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Pride Month.
As the debate over marriage equality continues, an emotional and legally intricate facet of same-sex relationships is often ignored: what rights does one partner have when the other dies?
The 2013 documentary “Bridegroom” underscores this point. It’s the story of same-sex couple Tom and Shane. At Tom’s death, his family stepped forward to claim control of Tom’s assets and excluded Shane from the funeral. Because the couple lacked the proper planning documents, Shane had no legal recourse.
“Many LGBT couples don’t realize this is an issue,” says Heart2Soul.com founder Karen Zinn. “Sadly, ‘Bridegroom’ happens regularly. Properly drafted plans are crucial for same-sex couples to help them make medical and financial decisions if one partner is incapacitated, protect shared assets, and even claim remains without interference.”
The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages, so each state has its own laws. ”We recommend working with an attorney who knows your state’s LGBT statutes,” Zinn continues. “If cost is prohibitive, be sure that any information or pre-packaged kits you use come from a trusted source. Our article has tips for both scenarios.”
Joshua Slocum, Executive Director of the Funeral Consumer’s Alliance and a contributor to Heart2Soul.com adds, “Be sure to communicate your wishes to your loved ones. Even in the best situations, death can bring out emotions that lead to uncharacteristic behavior. But with proper planning and open communication, you have a better chance of having your wishes carried out.”
About Heart2Soul Heart2Soul.com is the leading independent online source for compassionate end-of-life information. We help people from all walks of life understand how to be supportive during the grieving process; know more about funeral traditions and etiquette; get information on funeral planning, and offer ways for family and friends to connect in times of need. Our information is reviewed by world-renown experts to provide the very best in impartial consumer advice. Our goal is to help readers find the most appropriate and helpful ways to support others during difficult times, and to ultimately be at peace with one of the most natural parts of life: death itself.
Media Contact: Karen Zinn,
Founder, Heart2Soul.com
973.218.2515 karenz@heart2soul.com
LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) – The largest and oldest civil rights organization for the Latino community is hosting its annual convention in Las Vegas. and bringing in some political heavy hitters.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, is a democratic organization that spans across the country. The group has more than 132,000 members nationwide with about 300 here in the valley.
Its focus is on bringing issues important to the Latino community to the forefront.
This is just one of several conferences going on during the weeklong convention. There are also some key speakers including Gov. Brian Sandoval and Vice President Joe Biden.
LULAC Executive Director Brent Wilks says their programs do a lot for the community.
“We do leadership development; we do a lot of work on housing, building housing projects to let people get in their own homes. We do health, fitness and trying to improve health outcomes for Latino communities but the overall goal is trying to improve the quality of life for Latino families across the country,” Wilks said.
They say they feel accepted at school, but not at home. Today LULAC and the human rights campaign released a study providing insight into the attitudes of gay and lesbian Latino youth. News 3′s Sergio Avila spoke with some of the people behind the study. As he explains, the results are promising but there’s still a lot of work to do.
The study focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Latino youth in the high school age range and found that one in four feel they have no one to talk to and fear their families will not accept them.
Daniel Hernandez, 23, was thrust in to the spotlight January 8, 2011. He was the intern that was by representative Gabrielle Giffords’ side when she was shot in Tucson, Ariz.
“I went from being someone who was on the city of Tucson’s LGBT committee when I was 19 and 20. To now becoming someone who is nationally recognized for being a part of these communities,” Hernandez said.
Since the tragedy, Hernandez now speaks against gun violence and continues to pour his heart in to equal rights for the LGBT community.
A study just completed by the human rights campaign and the league of united Latin American citizens found that three quarters of gay Latino youth feel school is a safe place for them to be themselves.
So while we’re making great strides, 75 percent is not enough.
Lisbeth Rivera helped put the survey together and says this study shows the Latino community is making strides when it comes to acceptance.
“It’s incredible the stories of acceptance and of joy that many of these people have in saying I’m glad my child trusted me enough to give me his or her truth completely,” Hernandez said.
What’s concerning is many of those interviewed say they don’t feel accepted where it may be most important, at home.
Hernandez says the key is to educate not only the youth but also their parents. For Hernandez it’s all about focusing on your own growth.
“There is no perfect way to be Latino, there is no perfect way to be LGBT,” Hernandez said. “What we can do and what we must do an what is our charge is to make sure we’re providing the space and opportunities for people to feel they’re accepted and even though we don’t understand that we’re listening figure out who they are.”
Support for teens who Hernandez says are coming out at a younger age but who need the help to make it through some tough challenges.
NEW YORK (AP) — Even as they acknowledge greater acceptance by society, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are, on average, less happy than other U.S. adults, and many report instances of rejection and harassment, according to a sweeping new survey.
The survey, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, is one of the largest and most detailed ever conducted among LGBT respondents by a major U.S. polling organization.
It was conducted April 11-29 among a national sample of 1,197 adults who had previously identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It was administered online, a survey mode that Pew says produces more honest answers on sensitive topics than less anonymous methods.
“What we find is that for LGBT Americans, these are the best of times, but that doesn’t mean these are easy times,” said Paul Taylor, the Pew Center’s executive vice president. “Many are still searching for a comfortable place in a society where acceptance is growing but remains limited.”
The survey’s findings — released as gay-rights supporters await U.S. Supreme Court rulings this month on same-sex marriage — reveal an intriguing mix of outlooks and experiences.
For example, 92 percent of the respondents say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade, and an equal number expect even more acceptance in the decade ahead.
Yet 39 percent said that at some point they were rejected by a family member or close friend because of their sexual orientation; 30 percent said they had been physically attacked or threatened; 29 percent reported feeling unwelcome in a place of worship; and 58 percent said they’d been the target of slurs or derogatory jokes.
Compared with the general public, the LGBT respondents are more liberal politically, less religious and less happy with their lives. Only 18 percent of LGBT adults describe themselves as “very happy,” compared with 30 percent of all adults.
Additionally, their family incomes were lower than average, which Pew said could be linked to the smaller size of their households and the fact that the LGBT respondents were younger, on average, than adults overall. Only 20 percent of the survey respondents reported family incomes of more than $75,000, compared to 34 percent for the general public, while 39 percent of the LGBT adults reported family income of under $30,000, compared to 28 percent of all adults.
The survey illustrated how religion is problematic for many LGBT adults. A large majority of respondents described the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, evangelical churches and Islam as unfriendly toward LGBT people. Views of Judaism and mainline Protestant churches were mixed.
Forty-eight percent of the respondents said they had no religious affiliation, compared with 20 percent of the general public. Of the LGBT adults with religious affiliations, one-third said there is a conflict between their religious beliefs and their sexual orientation.
Survey respondents were asked about their decisions regarding how and when to tell others about their sexual orientation. About 56 percent said they had told their mother and 39 percent have told their father; most who did tell a parent said it was difficult, but relatively few said it damaged the relationship.
The poll found gay men and lesbians were far more apt than bisexuals to have told important people in their life about their sexual orientation.
Without giving their names, Pew quoted several respondents discussing their own coming-out experiences.
“I wish I would have told people sooner,” said a 43-year-old man who first told someone about being gay when he was 22. “I wasted too many years being afraid of my sexuality and making choices that allowed me to hide in the background of life.”
A 58-year-old woman recalled that two of her friends shunned her after she told them, as a 17-year-old high school student, that she was a lesbian.
“That was painful,” the woman said. “Everyone else has been great, and for 40-plus years I have never hesitated about or regretted being out.”
The respondents surveyed by Pew included 398 gay men, 277 lesbians, 479 bisexuals and 43 transgender people — roughly reflecting the breakdown reported by demographers who have tried to quantify America’s LGBT population. Pew did not attempt to estimate the share of the U.S. population that is LGBT, but noted that other recent studies have made estimates in the range of 3.5 percent to 5 percent.
Pew’s survey found that lesbians are more likely than gay men to be in a committed relationship (66 percent versus 40 percent). It also found that women, whether lesbian or bisexual, are significantly more likely than men to either already have children or to say they want to have children.
According the survey, 93 percent of LGBT adults favor legalization of same-sex marriage. However, 39 percent said the marriage debate has drawn too much attention away from other issues, such as employment rights, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and adoption rights.
The survey found that one in six LGBT adults — mostly bisexuals with opposite-sex partners — are married, compared with about half the adults in the general public.
Large majorities of LGBT adults and the general public agree that love, companionship and making a lifelong commitment are very important reasons to marry. However the LGBT respondents are twice as likely as other adults to say that obtaining legal rights and benefits is also a very important reason to marry, while the general public is more likely than LGBT respondents to say that having children is a very important reason.
Survey respondents were asked to name public figures most responsible for advancing LGBT rights.
President Barack Obama, who announced his support for same-sex marriage last year, was the top pick — named by 23 percent of respondents. Next, at 18 percent, was comedian and TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who came out as a lesbian in 1997. No one else was named by more than 3 percent of respondents.
The survey was administered by the GfK Group using KnowledgePanel, its nationally representative online research panel. The margin of sampling error for the full LGBT sample is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
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Online:
http://pewresearch.org/lgbt
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Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/craryap
While 92 percent of the 1,197 LGBT adults surveyed agree that not only has life gotten better for those who identify as LGBT, but the next decade will bring even more acceptance, there was one discrepancy. The survey points out that just 39 percent have revealed their sexual identity to their father; 56 percent have told their mother.
“Nine in 10 of LGBT surveyed feel they have become more accepted in the past decade and just as many say they expect the acceptance to increase in the coming decade. In our business, when you see those numbers, that’s pretty dramatic,” Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center, told TIME.
“But that needs to be kept in perspective, because while these are the best of times, that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest time. Even in a time of feeling more socially accepted, fewer than 6 in 10 have told their mothers about their sexual orientation or gender identity and fewer than 4 in 10 have told their fathers–that suggests the complicated realms of their lives.”
There’s still room for improvement, the survey shows:
*39 percent said they’ve been rejected by a family member or close friend because of their sexual orientation or gender identity
*30 percent said they have been physically attacked or threatened
*58 percent said they have been the target of slurs or jokes
The group, in general, is less happy with their lives than the general public, but happier with the direction the country is headed. The recent changes in acceptance were attributed to people knowing someone who identifies as LGBT, advocacy by public figures, and LGBT parents.
June 16th
1858 – King Gustav V of Sweden was born on this date. Reigning from the death of his father Oscar II in 1907 until his own death 43 years later, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the second-longest reigning after Magnus IV. He was a devoted tennis player, appearing under the pseudonym Mr G. The king was said to have taken up the game to be near the willowy blonds who specialized in knowing how to serve. Kurt Haijby claimed that he was the lover of the king in the years between 1936 and 1947 who attempted to blackmail Gustav and was thrown in prison for 8 years.
1949 – Colombian-American author, poet, and journalist Jaime Manrique was born on this date. His first poetry volume won Colombia’s National Poetry Award.
After nine years of reporting on the LGBT community from the perspective of an out woman of color living in North Carolina, Pam Spaulding announced today that she will discontinue her blog Pam’s House Blend July 1.
Spaulding is a veteran activist and prolific blogger whose Blend received numerous awards for powerful, in-depth reporting and commentary, often highlighting intersections of the fights for LGBT and racial equality.
“All good things must come to an end, even after numerous awards and accolades, it’s time to acknowledge that I cannot continue to run on fumes alone,” writes Spaulding. “If I cannot produce material at the frequency or with the same level of quality, enthusiasm and effectiveness, it’s really time to close the doors to this coffeehouse — and work to ensure it continues to have a life as an archive, a snapshot in our digital political history.”
In a matter-of-fact post with just a hint of sadness, Spaulding cited her ongoing health struggles with chronic pain conditions and rheumatoid arthritis eating into her energy and ability to carry on as the Blend‘s primary content producer, in addition to her full-time “offline” job.
Reflecting on the impact of citizen-run blogs like hers in the mainstream media and even on beltway Washington politics, Spaulding offered a brief retrospective.
“I brought the perspective of a black lesbian living in the South to the dialogue — broadcasting a voice certainly not represented in the power structure of the LGBT movement,” explains Spaulding. “It was the first major blog to feature a transgender contributor, and it was important to me to bring talent to the blog from under-represented regions and voices.”
Starting July 1, Pam’s House Blend will be converted to archives, and Blend contributors Autumn Sandeen, Alvin McEwen, and Laurel Ramseyer will continue to write for the Blend‘s parent site, FireDogLake, which began hosting the Blend in 2012.
arrested after staging a sit-in outside house speaker
john boehner
‘s office on capitol hill
thursday. the group refused to leave after being denied a meeting to discuss the important non-discrimination act. meanwhile, the president was welcoming the lgbt community
to a pride celebration at the white house
where he urged members of congress to act on.
in 41 states you can be fired because of who you are or who you love. that’s wrong. we have to change it. a bipartisan bill moving through in the senate would bab all discrimination in the workplace now and forever. we need to get that passed.
the president rattled off a list of accomplishments for his administration and the lgbt community
but ending workplace discrimination
is a huge sticking point. heather, good to have you here. eight of your activists were arrested yesterday. another one of your members confronted the first lady at a recent fund-raiser in d.c. that created a backlash. the protester wrote an op-ed in the ” washington post
” saying time and again the first lady has come to our community and asked us to max out on our contributions to the d in. c despite the democratic party
despite them happily cashing lgbt
checks. is this disruptive approach the best strategy for getting your points across?
well, look. what we found last week was that we were finally able to open a national conversation
about workplace discrimination
, something that impacts every lgbt
american in this had country. so what we’re looking to do is not only to open that conversation, but to push that conversation forward. now we are looking to move from talk to action. so we’re looking for the president to pick up his pen, make sure that he’s not just talking, but moving us toward action, sign an executive order
that would cover about 22% of the american work force
, get us about a quarter of the way there, then show leadership for congress to pass the employment non-discrimination act after decades of languishing and finally make it illegal in this country to discriminate against people based on who they are or who they love.
heather, senator marco rubio
was recently questioned — he said, “i haven’t read the legislation. i think, by and large, all americans should be protected but i’m not for any special protections based on orientation. what’s your reaction to that especially if the president is relying on members of congress to do something with that before an executive order
?
it is not surprising that senator rubio said that. what is surprising is that he was willing to say it outloud. so with the republican party
looking to senator rubio as the future of the party, it’s clear that he’s looking to take the party backward, not forward. what i’m hoping for is for the president to come out and say, actually, senator rubio, that’s wrong and not only is it wrong, but i’m going to take action to correct it. i’m going to take action to finally and fully make it illegal to discriminate against lgbt
folks in this country and to separate himself — separate the democratic party
from the republican party
taking this country backward.
Republican Congressman Ralph Hall of Texas accidentally opened the wrong door last week and wandered into a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender event for the Victory Fund on Capitol Hill.
Hall, the oldest serving member of Congress at age 90, is a supporter of the Defense of Marriage Act, and his appearance at the reception was met with shock and confusion.
After getting some refreshments and making small talk, Hall inquired as to the whereabouts of the lawmaker whose event he thought he was attending.
It turns out he and his staff were supposed to be in another event hall. After discovering he was in the wrong place, the anti-gay conservative quickly left the premises.
“At that moment I realized that this was not the reception I intended to attend, and I put down my glass, thanked the sponsor, and told him we would be leaving,” Hall said.
Following an article about the event mix-up entitled “Ralph Hall Lets His Hair Down,” Hall joked, “I would just say that while I do have a good head of hair for a 90-year-old, I do not have the quantity of hair, nor the inclination, to let it down.”
Let’s move on now to a sweeping survey here in the U.S. of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender adults. It reveals a community undergoing major change. LGBT adults say they’re optimistic about increasing social acceptance.
But as NPR’s Jennifer Ludden reports, many also describe stigma and rejection.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Until just recently, demographers have had precious little information on this group. But with the debate over same-sex marriage and a Supreme Court ruling on it coming soon, pollsters are asking more questions. Today’s survey is the first time the Pew Research Center has polled LGBT adults.
Lead author Paul Taylor says it shows a dramatic shift.
PAUL TAYLOR: When you ask the question: Is society more accepting now than it was a decade ago? More than 90 percent say yes. Do you think society will be more accepting 10 years from now than it is today? Ninety percent or more say yes.
LUDDEN: And yet, just 1-in-5 say they feel a lot of acceptance where they live. Taylor says reading between the data points, there’s clearly a lot of pain.
TAYLOR: For example, only slightly over half of folks in this community say that they have told their mother about their sexual orientation, and just 4-in-10 have told their father.
LUDDEN: Taylor says 4-in-10 LGBT adults report being rejected by a close family member or friend because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third have felt unwelcome at their place of worship. Almost 6-in-10 say they’ve been subjected to slurs or jokes.
GARY GATES: I think it says that social stigma around sexual orientation and gender identity is still quite high.
LUDDEN: Gary Gates is a demographer with the Williams Institute, a think tank on same-sex issues, and a consultant to the Pew report. He’s struck by the high numbers who’ve not come out to family or colleagues.
GATES: It’s still important to remember that the closet, that keeping one’s identity hidden, we know from other literature that that’s a fairly constant stressor for people.
LUDDEN: The group least likely to have come out: Bisexuals. Pew finds they make up 40 percent of LGBT adults. Perhaps one reason for not disclosing their sexual orientation, bisexuals are overwhelmingly likely to be married to someone of the opposite sex.
The Pew Research Center conducted this survey online, a mode shown to produce more honest answers on sensitive topics. Some respondents gave long, detailed accounts – an invaluable resource, says demographer Gates.
GATES: The lives of LGBT people are debated every day in this country – at ballot boxes, in legislatures, in the courts, in corporate boardrooms. And it seems to me only fair that the public have some information about who they are and how they experience the world.
STEVE MAJORS: It reaffirms what we know to be true, that our community, the LGBT community, is more alike than different than the general population.
LUDDEN: Steve Majors is with the Family Equality Council, which advocates for same-sex couples raising children. He says the survey shows LGBT people marry for the same reasons as straights, that legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption is a priority, along with equal rights in the workplace.
MAJORS: So this data is so important for us to be able to walk in to a lawmaker’s office, in Mississippi, in Texas, to be able to say: We know that there are families out there in your community and here are their concerns.
LUDDEN: Despite the stories of stigma and rejection, Majors sees mainly hope and optimism for more acceptance. One possible sign of this, the Pew survey shows young gays and lesbians are coming out at an earlier age than the previous generation.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.
WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) — Eight workers associated with an LGBT activist group were arrested during a protest outside House Speaker John Boehner‘s office in Washington.
The activists taken into custody Thursday are affiliated with GetEQUAL, the same lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization that disrupted first lady Michelle Obama‘s speech during a Democratic National Committee event last week. They were seeking President Obama’s signature on an Executive Order that would bar any company that contracts with the federal government from discrimination based sexual orientation or gender identity.
The LGBT workers arrested Thursday were from states that don’t have employment protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity, GetEQUAL said in a release. They were calling on Boehner, R-Ohio, to support and advance for a vote the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which GetEQUAL said has languished in Congress for nearly 40 years.
“It’s clear that Speaker Boehner has absolutely zero intention of supporting or moving forward the Employment Non-Discrimination Act for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Sean Watkins, a gay Iraq War veteran and one of the speaker’s constituents. “In the face of Republican obstructionism, the only hope the LGBT community has of garnering any degree of workplace protections this year is for President Obama to make good on his promise to sign the federal contractor Executive Order sitting on his desk. Such an order would protect a quarter of America’s workforce from discrimination.”
“We are somebody! We deserve full equality! Right here! Right now!” the group chanted outside Boehner’s office, CNN reported.
After several warnings, U.S. Capitol Police arrived with plastic handcuffs and removed the activists.
Several of the activists told CNN they prepared for arrest by getting legal advice and writing their attorney’s phone numbers in marker on their arms.
Nearly 60 percent of the LGBT community reports being discriminated against via jokes and slurs.
Americans have grown dramatically more accepting of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in recent years, but America’s LGBT population is still far from feeling entirely accepted, both by society and those closest to them.
That’s a key finding from a new survey of the LGBT population by the Pew Research Center. Of a sample of nearly 1,200 LGBT adults, the survey finds that 92 percent say society is more accepting of them now than 10 years ago, and the same percentage expect society to be yet more accepting 10 years down the road. Yet LGBT Americans clearly also see many barriers to fitting into American society. While a majority, 59 percent, of LGBT adults say there is “some” acceptance of the LGBT population, only 19 percent say there is a lot of social acceptance. Nearly the same share, 21 percent, say there is “little or no” acceptance.
“This population obviously recognizes the change that’s going on around them in terms of attitudes towards them, and there’s a very positive recognition of that,” says Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center. “But balancing into that is as we asked about the lives they’ve led, their perceptions of discrimination and stigma, they’re pretty sharp.”
Those perceptions of discrimination stretch across all areas of life, from careers to religion to personal safety. By far, perceived anti-LGBT discrimination most commonly comes in the form of jokes and slurs, which 58 percent of LGBT adults say they have experienced. Smaller but sizable shares of the population say they have been pushed away by loved ones or victimized in other ways. Thirty-nine percent say a family member or friend has rejected them over their identity, and 30 percent say they have been threatened or physically attacked. Over one-fifth also say that their sexual orientation or gender identity has also led an employer to treat them unfairly.
In addition, large shares of LGBT people report self-censorship around the people they know best. Only around half, 54 percent, of all LGBT people say that all or most of the most important people in their lives know they are LGBT. Only 56 percent have told their mothers about their sexual orientation or gender identity, and only 39 percent have told their fathers.
The survey reveals a few topics on which most of the LGBT community agrees — most believe society is becoming more accepting, and 93 percent are in favor of same-sex marriage. However, the survey also uncovers clear demographic divisions within the LGBT community. Bisexuals, for example, are far less likely than other LGBT people to say all or most of the important people in their lives know of their sexual orientation. Only 28 percent of bisexuals report this is true, compared to 77 percent of gay men and 71 percent of lesbians. Fifty-three percent of bisexuals say being LGBT is not important in their overall identities, compared to just 21 percent of lesbians and 25 percent of gay men.
There are also age divides in the population. Younger LGBT people tend to have come out earlier than their older counterparts, and younger LGBT adults are also less likely to see growing societal acceptance of LGBT people. Forty-six percent of LGBT adults age 18 to 44 say society is more accepting of LGBT people today than 10 years ago, compared to 61 percent of adults 45 and older.
“They have less of a sense of sort of an increase in social acceptance,” says Taylor. “If you stand back and think about it, of course that’s the case. They haven’t lived the experience that the middle-aged and older folks in this community have.”
Despite all of the diversity among LGBT Americans, survey respondents identified two primary LGBT community leadership figures, one of whom is straight. When asked who are the most important public figures in advancing LGBT rights, 23 percent of LGBT respondents named President Barack Obama. He was followed closely by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, at 18 percent. No other figure came close — in a distant third place were Anderson Cooper and Hillary Clinton, with 3 percent each.
Festive street parties, parades and marches usually mark the annual celebration of Pride month in June by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in the country and elsewhere.
“But Pride Month is not just about parties,” Michael David Tan, executive director of Bahaghari Center for LGBT Research, Education and Advocacy, stressed. “What we want to do in Bahaghari Center, or in the LGBT community in the Philippines in general, is to change [public] perception and [instead] look at the conditions and situations of the LGBTs more closely.”
In recent years, LGBT organizations have resorted mainly to plain street parties to celebrate Pride Month, which do not fully convey the real meaning and message of such celebrations in the country.
This year, Bahaghari Center and the Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (ProGay Philippines) aim to promote a more thorough LGBT acceptance and education in the coming Pride celebrations.
“We want everyone to know that LGBTs are not just about being happy-go-lucky or the stereotyped ‘softies’; we are just like everyone else [entitled to equal rights],” Tan said.
The LGBT community is holding the annual Pride celebrations to let everyone know that they are asking for equal rights (not special rights) in their daily activities— in schools, offices, public establishments like malls and restaurants, and many other places.
For instance, early this year a high school teacher in a province brought her girlfriend to one of the weekend school activities. After a couple of days, the principal asked the teacher to submit her resignation, saying that the school decided to revoke her employment for fear that she might teach the students the wrong kind of lifestyle.
Last year, Dr. Andres Gumban, 63 years old from Bacolod City, was bashed and then stabbed to death 35 times by two male sex workers. The worst thing about the crime was the recording of the incident by one of the teen suspects via his mobile phone, which eventually spread online.
The police said the suspects admitted they were drug users and that they had bad experiences with gays, which eventually turned them into gay haters.
“People need to know about these things, that LGBT killings and everyday discrimination have been happening in our country,” Oscar Atadero of ProGay Philippines said. “We (LGBT organizations) have been monitoring these kinds of instances, and yes there is really indifference when it comes to the treatment of the LGBT community.”
Pride Month is usually the only time when LGBT killings, discrimination and other issues are given enough attention. And so in the month of June, LGBT organizations in the country hold awareness programs in different locations, organize small festivals, and other related activities, which aim to empower LGBTs aside from merely showcasing their talents.
“We’re planning to have more extensive programs and festivals in the coming years, so as when Pride Month comes, people from all over the country can really learn and experience how diverse the LGBT community in the Philippines is,” Tan added.
The month of June was chosen by the LGBT community as their Pride Month because of the series of violent activities against the gay community, leading to demonstrations against the police that happened in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, USA.
In the Philippines, the first Pride celebration was held on June 26, 1994, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. LGBTs, led by ProGay Philippines and the Metropolitan Community Church Manila (MCC), marched and paraded along EDSA to Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.
Through the years, the celebration of Pride Month in the country has evolved from just holding marches and parades within Metro Manila or in several provinces, to a more dynamic celebration involving improved partnerships with the local government (such as Quezon City and Makati). Thus, the celebration is becoming more and more effective in advancing the equality movement.
In 2003, organizers of the Philippine Pride events decided to move the annual Pride March from June to December to mark other significant events, namely: World AIDS Day (Dec. 1), Philippine National Lesbian Day (Dec. and International Human Rights Day (December 10).
(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)
(CNN) - Police arrested members of an LGBT group on Thursday during a protest outside of House Speaker John Boehner’s district office on Capitol Hill.
The activists who were handcuffed and taken into custody are affiliated with GetEQUAL action, the same lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization that disrupted the first lady’s DNC event last week.
The LGBT group is demanding federal employment protection for gay, lesbian and transgendered workers and is calling on Boehner to move forward with a vote on related legislation.
“We are somebody! We deserve full equality! Right here! Right now!” the group chanted outside Boehner’s office in the Longworth House Office Building.
After several warnings, U.S. Capitol Police arrived with plastic handcuffs and removed the activists. Eight people were arrested, police said.
CNN spoke exclusively to the group as they gathered at a nearby hotel before marching to Capitol Hill.
Preparing for arrest, members of the group received legal counsel and even wrote an attorney’s phone number on their skin with a marker before marching.
“We are here today because there are currently no federal workplace protections for LGBT folks in the United States of America, which we believe is wrong. If you live in a state where there are no protections you can literally be fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered,” said Ohio resident and Iraq War Veteran Sean Watkins.
“The president of the United States of America in 2008 promised us an executive order protecting federal contractors and anybody who does business with the federal government workplace protections for LGBT folks, he hasn’t done that and continues to punt to Congress.”
President Barack Obama hosted a LGBT Pride Month event on Thursday at the White House.
After she was already well into filming The New Black, documentary director Yoruba Richen thought she might visit the home of National Black Justice Coalition‘s Executive Director Sharon Lettman-Hicks for a family BBQ. Yoruba Richen wanted to see a private side of Lettman-Hicks, away from her work as a vocal civil-rights advocate for all groups, including the fight for same-sex marriage in the LGBT community.
“Sharon had told me there are varying opinions on [that] issue within her own family,” says Richen, whose film premieres at the Los Angeles Film Festival the week of June 13. “I didn’t realize quite the extent of their varying opinions until I got there.”
The black community, to quote one pastor who appears in the film, ‘isn’t monolithic,’ nor is the LGBT community.
The fiery debate inside the house was hot enough to fuel up the grill.
The diversity of opinions around homosexuality within one African-American family confirmed that Richen was on to something with her documentary about Maryland’s 2012 vote on Question 6. The ballot initiative to legalize gay marriage in the state was the first where African-Americans had a sizable enough constituency to have a major say in determining the matter.
Another election initially inspired Richen to make the film. In California for the 2008 election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama, the New York-based filmmaker observed commentators linking the strong turnout of the African-American vote with the passing of the state’s anti-marriage equality Proposition 8.
“I was kind of baffled at how these two groups were being pitted against each other,” Richen says now. “Of course, the black LGBT people were left nowhere and made invisible.”
Richen puts LGBT people of color front and center in The New Black, depicting young activists going door to door asking neighbors for their vote and challenging their community to reexamine their beliefs around an issue that’s been traditionally taboo, particularly among a group that is deeply religious.
The director also reflects many other points of view. The LGBT community’s struggle for civil rights might have many surface resemblances to the struggle that African-Americans still endure today, but the black community, to quote one pastor who appears in the film, “isn’t monolithic,” nor is the LGBT community.
“One of the things that surprised me, and I’m a black person, is that for the African-American community, the marriage issue is bigger than just about marriage,” says Richen. “It’s not just about the right to get married and love who you love, it brings up these notions about how we conceive of family, who’s allowed to have a family, who’s not allowed to have a family, and then the anti-gay marriage forces, a lot of times their rhetoric is about the fragility of the family, and whether you agree with that or not, it’s certainly evocative of the higher rates of divorce and pregnancy and nontraditional families that we have in the black community.”
Richen explores deep into the past to explain the present, going all the way back to the days of slavery when African-American families were broken up and had only their faith to cling onto. She hopes people who see The New Black can take her findings rooted in the past and apply them to the future.
“History is moving so quickly right now around gay rights issues,” says Richen. “I would love audiences to have a sense of where we’ve been and where we are in terms of the movement, in terms of looking at race and LGBT issues and what are the next steps in that movement. The civil rights movement is something that African-Americans have a unique relationship and history with; [so] what does it mean to expand that to other communities and to other issues. I would like for the audience to really think about that and how they can move that even further.”
What can you do personally to expand the civil rights movement to include LGBT rights? Share your plan in COMMENTS.
From left: Andrea Grill and Lee Ann Hopkins, from Alexandria, Va. kiss after becoming engaged during a rally outside of the U.S Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 2013.
In its first-ever survey of Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the Pew Research Center found that while respondents to its online survey feel more accepted by society than they did a decade ago, much more progress is needed before they will be fully accepted by the mainstream or even by those who are close to them. Their struggles include everything from being rejected by friends to physical attacks or threats by others.
Overall, the report — which was released today and includes the responses of 1197 people in the LGBT community — indicates great strides in terms of the group’s feelings of inclusion in American society. Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center, tells TIME, “9 in 10 of LGBT surveyed feel they have become more accepted in the past decade and just as many say they expect the acceptance to increase in the coming decade. In our business, when you see those numbers, that’s pretty dramatic. But that needs to be kept in perspective, because while these are the best of times, that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest time. Even in a time of feeling more socially accepted, fewer than 6 in 10 have told their mothers about their sexual orientation or gender identity and fewer than 4 in 10 have told their fathers–that suggests the complicated realms of their lives.”
While the survey indicated that the group as a whole is more more satisfied with the direction of the country than the general public, its members have frequently faced rejection and discrimination in the past. About 60% say they have been the target of slurs or jokes. 40% said they were rejected by a close friend or family member due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. 30% say they had been physically attacked or threatened, and 21% claim they have been unfairly treated by an employer.
When it comes to overall social acceptance, respondents felt that the general public was most accepting of bisexual women and least accepting of transgender individuals. Similarly, lesbians were perceived as more socially accepted than gay men. Only 3% of survey respondents say there is a lot of acceptance of transgender adults.
The study also asked respondents about their coming out process. 12 is the median age when LGBT adults first felt they might be something other than heterosexual or straight. For those who now know for sure that they are LGBT, they realized it at a median age of 17. Gay men reported coming out to their family at an earlier age than lesbians and bisexuals.
When it comes to politics, a significant proportion of the LGBT population reports being socially and politically active. 5 in 10 say they have both bought products made by a company that’s LGBT friendly and have refused to buy products from companies that were not. 3 in 10 have donated to politicians who support LGBT rights. Besides the hot political button of same-sex marriage, employment rights, HIV and AIDS prevention are also top issues they feel most strongly about. When asked in an open-ended question who they felt as most responsible for advancing LGBT rights, the most commonly cited person was President Barack Obama, with television host Ellen DeGeneres trailing closely in numbers.
While this is the first time Pew has surveyed the LGBT community, others have taken a look in recent years. A 2011 survey by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that 9 million Americans—about the population of New Jersey–identify as an LGBT and that bisexuals comprise a slight majority over lesbians, gays, and transgender.
Even as an overwhelming number of America’s LGBT adults say society has become more accepting, members of the LGBT community are less happy with their lives than the general public, according to a new Pew survey released today.
Additionally, LGBT adults were split on the best way for the LGBT community to pursue equality. Half of the survey respondents said LGBT people could best achieve equality by becoming a part of mainstream culture and institutions. An equal percentage said LGBT people should be able to achieve equality while maintaining a distinct culture and way of life.
Pew’s survey, which draws from the responses of 1,197 self-identifying LGBT individuals, may be one of the first comprehensive studies of the attitudes, values and experiences of LGBT Americans. It covers an impressive range of topics, including social acceptance, internet use, and religious beliefs. The research group also compiled the coming out stories of about 300 individuals in a pretty nifty interactive.
That thoroughness is why Pew’s report happens to be 158 pages long. To spare you some reading, I’ve picked out a few of the survey’s more important and intriguing findings:
92 percent of American LGBT adults say society has become more accepting in the past decade, with an equal number predicting society will be more accepting in the decade to come.
83 percent of LGBT adults described themselves as happy, compared to 87 percent of the general public. Additionally, only 18 percent of LGBT individuals said they were “very happy” compared to 30 percent of the public at large.
Survey respondents were more likely to have come out to their mother than their father. 56 percent had mentioned their sexual orientation with mom, compared to 39 percent discussing it with dad.
Gay men were more likely to come out at younger ages (the median age was 18) than lesbians (21) or bisexual individuals (20).
39 percent of those surveyed says they were rejected by a friend or family due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, while 30 percent say they’ve been threatened or physically attacked
39 percent of LGBT adults said same-sex marriage has drawn too much attention away from other issues important to the LGBT community
Bisexual individuals were far less likely to say that most of the important people in their life were aware of their sexual orientation, with only 28 percent saying this compared to 71 percent of lesbians and 77 percent of gay men.
The survey found lesbians to be more likely than gay men to be in committed relationships (66 percent compared to 40 percent), and bisexual women more likely than bisexual men (68 percent compared to 40 percent).
Even as they acknowledge greater acceptance by society, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are, on average, less happy than other U.S. adults, and many report instances of rejection and harassment, according to a sweeping new survey.
The survey, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, is one of the largest and most detailed ever conducted among LGBT respondents by a major U.S. polling organization.
It was conducted April 11-29 among a national sample of 1,197 adults who had previously identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It was administered online, a survey mode that Pew says produces more honest answers on sensitive topics than less anonymous methods.
“What we find is that for LGBT Americans, these are the best of times, but that doesn’t mean these are easy times,” said Paul Taylor, the Pew Center’s executive vice president. “Many are still searching for a comfortable place in a society where acceptance is growing but remains limited.”
The survey’s findings — released as gay-rights supporters await U.S. Supreme Court rulings this month on same-sex marriage — reveal an intriguing mix of outlooks and experiences.
For example, 92 percent of the respondents say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade, and an equal number expect even more acceptance in the decade ahead.
Yet 39 percent said that at some point they were rejected by a family member or close friend because of their sexual orientation; 30 percent said they had been physically attacked or threatened; 29 percent reported feeling unwelcome in a place of worship; and 58 percent said they’d been the target of slurs or derogatory jokes.
Compared with the general public, the LGBT respondents are more liberal politically, less religious and less happy with their lives. Only 18 percent of LGBT adults describe themselves as “very happy,” compared with 30 percent of all adults.
Additionally, their family incomes were lower than average, which Pew said could be linked to the smaller size of their households and the fact that the LGBT respondents were younger, on average, than adults overall. Only 20 percent of the survey respondents reported family incomes of more than $75,000, compared to 34 percent for the general public, while 39 percent of the LGBT adults reported family income of under $30,000, compared to 28 percent of all adults.
The survey illustrated how religion is problematic for many LGBT adults. A large majority of respondents described the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, evangelical churches and Islam as unfriendly toward LGBT people. Views of Judaism and mainline Protestant churches were mixed.
Forty-eight percent of the respondents said they had no religious affiliation, compared with 20 percent of the general public. Of the LGBT adults with religious affiliations, one-third said there is a conflict between their religious beliefs and their sexual orientation.
Survey respondents were asked about their decisions regarding how and when to tell others about their sexual orientation. About 56 percent said they had told their mother and 39 percent have told their father; most who did tell a parent said it was difficult, but relatively few said it damaged the relationship.
The poll found gay men and lesbians were far more apt than bisexuals to have told important people in their life about their sexual orientation.
Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs is among a group of football players who have put their names and jersey numbers on a T-shirt line that celebrates LGBT Pride Month.
The NFL Players’ Association has launched a One Team Pride Shirts T-shirt line meant to raise awareness for equality. Proceeds from the shirts (which are being sold on the NFLPA’s official online store) benefit Athlete Ally, a nonprofit seeking to promote inclusion and tolerance in sports.
While Suggs has voiced his openness to an openly gay teammate, he has been far from the Ravens’ most vocal player on the issue of LGBT rights. That distinction belongs to former teammate Brendon Ayanbadejo, an outspoken gay-rights advocate whose name also graces the back of a “Pride Shirt.”
“I am extremely excited that the NFLPA’s One Team Shop is adding its name to the list of ever-growing allies,” said Ayanbadejo in a statement. “The simple fact that football players believe in equality for every human being is going to make an impact on a lot of peoples’ lives.”
In addition to Suggs and Ayanbadejo, shirts are also available with the names and jersey numbers of former Ravens Donte Stallworth and Domonique Foxworth, as well as Chris Kluwe, Connor Barwin, Scott Fujita, Steve Gleason, Chris Gocong and Eric Winston.
What do you think of the vintage-influenced shirt design? Will you buy one?
PORTLAND, Ore. – The second annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit is happening this week at the same time the city gears up for Portland’s Pride Festival.
The summit held in downtown Portland is made up of more than 100 participants who are leaders in LGBT sports community. There are various initiatives, all centered around ending bias and discrimination of LGBT athletes and their fans.
Cyd Zeigler of OutSports.com is one of the founders of the summit, and credits Nike for hosting the event.
“I cannot express how big Nike’s support is– they really stepped up to the plate. Last year they kind of dipped their toe in. This year they are diving head first. And I think what they’ve seen is their consumers and their fans are very much OK with this, and a lot of them love that Nike is supporting this,” said Zeigler.
At the same time Nike is rolling out its second year of “Be True” Merchandise with rainbow colors. LGBT advocates in Portland think the Oregon-based sports apparel giant is on the right track for gay and transgender athletes, and for its own bottom line.
“When you’re a good corporate citizen you’re gonna stand up and deliver those kinds of messages that really resonate with a broad audience. And that “Be True” campaign resonates no matter what age you are,” said Barbara McCullough-Jones, Executive Director of Portland’s Q Center.
From Jason Collins of the NBA, to Brittney Griner of the WNBA, to professional soccer stars Robbie Rogers and Megan Rapinoe, who played for the University of Portland Pilots before going pro, It has been a year of coming out for major sports athletes.
The second annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit aims to make it easier for athletes to come out, whether they are pros or students. Some of the summit participants will stay in Portland and join the Pride Parade this Saturday.
CHERRY HILL, N.J. and PORTLAND, Maine, June 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, will proudly participate in 14 Pride events across its Maine to Florida footprint in continued support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
At TD Bank, pride is valued and acknowledged every day. To continue the celebration across borders with its Canadian parent, TD is introducing the Win a Trip to WorldPride Sweepstakes, where entrants are eligible to win a first-class trip to Toronto for WorldPride 2014, which will include four nights at a 5+ star hotel on the parade route, VIP access to festival events, performances and parties and a $1,000 TD Bank Visa gift card. The contest runs now through July 31, 2013. To enter, text “pride” to 77982 or visit www.tdbankpride.com.
“TD Bank is invested in its commitment to diversity and inclusion and we value the events and initiatives that matter to our employees and customers who we serve. We are not just a sponsor of Pride, but rather a full community partner and supporter of the LGBTA community,” said Robert Pompey, Head of Commercial Management Administration at TD Bank and Co-Chair of the bank’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Allies Subcommittee.
TD Bank employee volunteers will participate in the Pride events by marching in the parade, engaging the crowds and distributing giveaways.
Upcoming TD Bank sponsored Pride events include:
Rhode Island Pride (Providence), June 15, 2013
Southern Maine Pride (Portland), June 15, 2013
New York City Heritage of Pride, June 30, 2013
Charleston Pride, August 4, 2013
Provincetown Carnival (Mass.), August 22, 2013
Worcester Pride, September 7, 2013
Burlington (VT) Pride Parade Festival, September 15, 2013
LGBT Coalition of Western MA, September 21, 2013
The series of Pride festivals is just one part of TD Bank’s unwavering commitment to equality and creating a truly inclusive workplace. In 2013, TD Bank became one of the first banks in the nation to offset the tax burden its LGBT employees incur to pay for domestic-partner benefits. The bank also extended the national conversation on the issue of bullying and teen suicide within the LGBT community by creating the “Make it Better” video, which highlights TD employees and a message of support from TD’s President and CEO, Ed Clark. In fact, TD Bank’s dedication to inclusion was recently recognized by DiversityInc when named one of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity in 2013. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation also distinguished TD Bank as one of “The Best Places to work for LGBT Equality.”
About TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank® TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing nearly 8 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,300 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth®, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Portland, Maine. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDMoneyLoungeUS and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.
TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol “TD.” To learn more, visit www.td.com.
Russian lawmakers today approved antigay legislation that would ban LGBT events or public discussion of LGBT issues that might be accessible to minors, reports The Washington Post.
The so-called gay propaganda bill passed in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, by a 436-0 vote. One member, Ilya Ponomaryov, abstained.
Individuals who break the law by holding LGBT Pride events or providing information to minors about the LGBT community would face fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($156), with foreigners facing a jail sentence of 15 days and deportation. Companies and media organizations could be fined up to 1 million rubles ($31,000) and would face suspension of their activities for up to 90 days
Though the measure still needs to be approved by Parliament’s upper house and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, it is expected to pass easily.
“This is a very sad day for the Russian LGBTI community and for Russian democracy. Today the Russian Parliament cemented its homophobic law at the federal level,” Martin K.I. Christensen, cochair of ILGA-Europe’s executive board, said in a press release. “Despite strong condemnation by virtually all international and European institutions and human rights organizations, Russian lawmakers have chosen to disregard their international human rights commitments and to ignore their own constitution. Today the Russian Duma demonstrated that homophobia is an official state policy.”
Shortly before the bill was passed, over two dozen protesters were attacked by a group of antigay activists and then detained by police.
The scene mirrored events from earlier this year. In January, Orthodox Christian protesters threw objects LGBT rights advocates who were protesting the State Duma’s preliminary approval of the bill. Nonetheless, when police intervened, most of the roughly 20 demonstrators they detained were from the LGBT group.
The bill is being touted by the Russian Orthodox Church as a part of a nationwide movement to reject Western liberalism and promote traditional Russian values.
“Russia is trying very hard to make discrimination look respectable by calling it ‘tradition,’ but whatever term is used in the bill, it remains discrimination and a violation of the basic human rights of LGBT people,” Human Rights Watch LGBT rights program director Graeme Reid said in a statement.
The following photos depict the events that unfolded today outside the State Duma near Moscow’s Red Square.
Russian gay rights activists shout during their protest action outside the lower house of Russia’s Parliament.
The State Duma approved the Kremlin-backed legislation, which will ban “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations,” in a 436-0 vote.
The bill still needs to be passed by the appointed upper house and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, though neither step appears in doubt.
With Russia due to stage the Fifa World Cup in five years’ time, the development raises concerns over the nation’s suitability as tournament host, as well the feasibility of LGBT fans attending the competition.
Louise Englefield, campaign director for anti-homophobia group Football v Homophobia, labelled the bill a “depressing” assault on the rights of LGBT people.
“Firstly, it’s terrible news for LGBT Russians and there are plenty of them who are active in sport,” Englefield said.
“There are a number of LGBT sports groups in Russia and they are going to have to work in this environment. The second issue is how Fifa will deal with this in terms of fans visiting the 2018 World Cup.”
Making refence to the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi, she added: “How far will this legislation go? If you were a gay athlete and took part in Sochi, would you be in trouble if you draped youself in a rainbow flag? What would come of fans who did the same thing? Is that propaganda that is promoting homosexuality according to this legislation?”
Englefield said that her organisation, which is running a fans’ conference with the anti-discrimination Fare Network in August, would discuss the issue with supporters before deciding what action to take.
“I personally have been against a boycott, because in some countries it means that we, as Western LGBT people, are simply further isolating LGBT supporters in those countries,” she said.
“Instead we can go there and say: ‘We’re here in solidarity with you.’ We can’t leave LGBT people in those countries on there own, but of course there comes a point when you say: ‘What kind of risks are we prepared to take?’”
Qatar, which also has a dubious gay and human rights’ record, is due to host the 2022 World Cup and Englefield believes Fifa have sent out mixed messages in terms of their attitude to LGBT football fans.
“We’re in a state of contradiction,” Englefield added. “On the one hand we have Fifa’s anti-discrimination taskforce recommending that homosexuality is included on their list of protected characteristics, but on the other that same organisation has licensed a global event in a country where fans who express their sexuality are at risk of being deported.
“We believe we should have the same rights at everybody else, but clearly Russia is saying that we don’t.”
This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I’m Michel Martin. Here in the U.S., June is known as gay and lesbian pride month, recognizing the contributions and concerns of LGBT people in this country. Later, we’ll talk with two people on the cutting edge of what’s become one of the markers of LGBT progress. They are the authors of a new book about how to photograph same-sex weddings. There are some interesting similarities and differences that might surprise you.
But first, speaking of weddings, here’s a clip from a recent episode of Saturday Night Live.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE”)
BILL HADER: That’s why I use Xanax for gay summer weddings.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 1: Because your gay friends have it all figured out and you don’t.
(LAUGHTER)
CECILY STRONG: At my wedding, we gave guests Cheez-Its and a mini bottle of water. Keith and William gave us two tickets to Italy and $40,000.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: And if you saw this skit then you know it’s playing off what seems to be the widely-held idea that gay couples are better off than most couples. Now though, there’s a new study from the Williams Institute that shows that poverty rates are actually higher for same-sex couples than for straight couples. We wanted to hear more about that, so we’ve called Professor Lee Badgett. She’s the Research Director at the Williams Institute. That’s a research institute at UCLA Law School that focuses on LGBT issues. She’s also an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. And she’s with us now from member station New England Public Radio. Welcome. Thanks so much for joining us.
LEE BADGETT: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
MARTIN: So is the overall picture here that same-sex couples are more likely to be poor than straight couples?
BADGETT: Yes, we do see that same-sex couples are much more likely to be poor. And even when we look at people who are not in same-sex couples – we have some data on lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals – we also see that they’re more likely to be poor.
MARTIN: Let’s focus on couples, though, because I think it’s understood that marriage, being a couple is often kind of a bulwark against poverty, right, or a hedge against poverty, because you have two incomes to draw from when, sort of, times get tough. Are there certain same-sex couples that are more likely to be poor? For example, are lesbians more likely to be poor than men? Are African-Americans more likely to be poor than white couples?
BADGETT: We definitely see some subgroups who are more likely to be poor and you hit on two of them. Lesbian couples, in particular, are combining two women’s incomes instead of a man and woman’s income and that means that they will just have lower-than-average incomes in general. So they are more likely to be poor. We do see that African-Americans are more likely to be poor than are married different-sex African-American couples but they’re also more likely to be poor than white same-sex couples. So they seem to get a double whammy.
MARTIN: What about white gay male couples?
BADGETT: They seem to be doing pretty well when you just look at their overall poverty rate. So we wanted to dig a little bit deeper and we compared white gay men and African-American gay male couples, all the different kinds of couples and tried to hold constant or to take into account all of the things that influence people’s poverty rates. So they have higher levels of education, they’re less likely to have kids, those are things that tend to protect people from poverty. But once we were comparing apples to apples, we found that the gay male couples are more likely to be poor.
MARTIN: Any idea why that is?
BADGETT: There are a couple of possibilities. One that I think you have to think hard about is the fact that there is likely to be discrimination in the workplace against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. And discrimination usually goes along with lower earnings and we do see that for gay and bisexual men, in particular, in the labor force. It also comes with a higher likelihood of losing your job and that’s a big predictor of poverty. So I think that’s likely to be one of the biggest factors driving these differences.
MARTIN: Why don’t we wheel it around, though, just referencing that Saturday Night Live skit. I mean, part of the reason that it’s funny is that people think it’s true, right? So why is there this image of LGBT couples being not just okay, but really well off?
BADGETT: Well, that clip that you played was one great example about why, in the media, those are the people that you see. Those are the gay and lesbian people you see. They have good jobs. They have nice homes. There have, over the last couple of decades, been other people pushing this image. People who oppose civil rights laws for gay and lesbian people often will point to that image and say, hey, you know, gay people aren’t a a real minority, they’re doing really well.
And even in the gay community itself, sometimes there are people who point to that image to say, hey, we’re a great marketing niche, you should have your company target our population. So there are lots of different people trying to promote that image, both intentionally and unintentionally.
MARTIN: You think part of it is that the people who tend to be most visible, at least, maybe, let’s just say in the forward flanks, right, of gay community in terms of people who are visible – they tend to be, what, artists or people who are very successful businesspeople? Is that it?
BADGETT: Exactly, yeah, big actors, big name actors, the Neil Patrick Harris, you know, who was just on the Tony’s last night. I mean, if that’s your image, if you don’t know any other gay or lesbian people and you’re thinking, who pops into my head when I think of that term, it’s likely to be those people who are out in front of the media – Tammy Baldwin in the Senate – you know, people who look powerful and who look like they’re doing pretty well for themselves. And they are, but they’re just not typical of the whole gay and lesbian population.
MARTIN: That’s what I wanted to ask you, so why do you think this new information matters? Why do you think it’s important to pay attention to? Because there’s a lot of talk now about, you know, the whole question of positive stereotypes versus negative stereotypes. Some people feel that positive stereotypes aren’t so bad because if it causes people to look at you with a little bit more respect, maybe, than they would otherwise, what’s so terrible? So why do you think this information is important?
BADGETT: Well, stereotypes definitely can cut both ways. And I think, in this case, what looks like a positive stereotype can really hold back a discussion about public policy, about the fact that we don’t have any kind of federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And I think that’s one place where the stereotype gets in the way of an important discussion. And then, you know, we’re still grappling with issues around poverty and, you know, where there’s a big debate about funding for food stamps, for instance. And that – I think what we see in this report is that that’s a gay issue, too, just like employment discrimination.
So our hope is that when people in the gay community are thinking about poverty issues, they’re thinking, yeah, this is important for us, too. And when people in the poverty world are thinking, you know, who are our clients, that they’re also recognizing that they have same-sex couples and gay and lesbian people and bisexual people and transgender people in their clientele and they’re trying to make sure that their services are welcoming to those folks, as well.
MARTIN: That was Lee Badgett. She is the Research Director at the Williams Institute. And she’s also economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Professor Badgett, thanks so much for speaking with us.
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BOSTON, June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – A new study by Digitas, a digitally led, integrated brand agency, finds that LGBT individuals and families are embracing the “mobile first” way by adopting smartphones and tablets to manage family households, plan and book travel, and leverage mobile shopping technology. Digitas partnered with Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI) to survey 1,595 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender respondents with mobile devices in the United States, ages 18 and older. The findings demonstrate that LGBT mobile device users have a higher understanding and level of activity with mobile devices compared to general population users.
“LGBT consumers have made mobile devices an integral part of how they manage their lives. They have become a bellwether for the entire population, providing a preview of what’s to come as more consumers embrace mobile connectivity,” said Chia Chen, senior vice president and mobile practice lead at Digitas.
“Digitas commissioned this survey because there is shockingly little research around LGBT mobile consumers in this mobile era. We call on brands and marketers to recognize and develop marketing strategies for this segment of our population who are making mobile moments a priority in their everyday lives,” said Tony Weisman, CEO, Digitas North America. “The equality movement is fast and furious, and Digitas is dedicated to pushing our clients and the industry forward to eliminate these missed opportunities.”
“We applaud Digitas’ commitment to educating the advertising industry on the relevance and purchasing power of LGBT consumers, especially those growing couples now with children. We hope this new data eliminates hesitations from marketers and brands and makes the LGBT community a priority,” says Jeff Krehely, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Of the LGBT mobile device owners surveyed, the findings revealed:
Today’s LGBT are mobile-first, early technology adaptors and cross-generational users
LGBT live in a post-PC world: 56% chose to use a mobile device over a “desktop” or “laptop” compared to a year ago.
Early mobile adaptors: 51% of LGBT mobile device users have used a smartphone or tablet for three years or more. This is nearly twice as much as compared to the general population at 28%1
Mobile-proficient seniors: 21% of LGBT mobile device users ages 65+ have used a smartphone or tablet for five years or more
Coming out mobile: 35% of LGBT ages 18–24 have used a mobile device in coming out. Across all age groups, of those polled who said their mobile device played a role in their coming-out process, 70% used Facebook
Apple loyalty: 55% of LGBT mobile users own and use iPhones versus Androids (40%); 30% own and use iPads versus Android Tablet (13%). This constitutes a reversal of general population findings2
Today’s modern mobile family embraces smartphones and tablets everyday
Running a household on mobile: LGBT families rely on mobile devices to manage activities in their households — 49% coordinate calendars, 47% coordinate locations, 32% manage family finances, and 27% share to-do lists
A gaming family: 61% of LGBT parents say that they purchase mobile games for their children
More mobile kids: 85% of children under the age of 18 with LGBT parents own or have access to a mobile device
Today’s mobile LGBT traveler frequently books and plans their trips on their mobile device Of LGBT mobile device users who have traveled in the past 12 months:
30% have planned a flight from their mobile device in the past 30 days; 23% have purchased a flight/airfare from their mobile device in the past three months
26% have planned a hotel stay from their mobile device in the past 30 days; 25% have purchased a hotel stay from their mobile device in the past three months
Mobile actions of the LGBT traveler on their most recent trip away from home are on average more than twice as active compared to similar general population studies.3
63% searched for restaurants
59% updated Facebook
51% checked a flight status
46% explored local activities
39% checked in for flights
35% searched for shops
Today’s LGBT mobile shopper dominates with purchase and behavior powers Gay men and lesbians are twice as likely to use mobile shopping technology than their straight counterparts4
Use retail store apps (gay men: 36%; lesbians: 30%)
Shop for and buy items on their mobile phone (gay men: 32%; lesbians 29%)
Use shopping apps on their phone (gay men: 38%; lesbians: 28%)
Use their mobile phone to scan and find the best price in town for a specific item (gay men: 39%; lesbians: 32%)
Top LGBT retail mobile behaviors rank high above general population comparisons
84% have used a store locator to find a store
75% have researched items before purchasing
67% have read a review on a recent or future purchase
67% have checked prices
59% have purchased an item on a website on a mobile device
59% have used a device to make a payment
53% have used a mobile coupon
Survey methodology Respondents were recruited from CMI’s proprietary research panel of 70,000 LGBT people worldwide. The survey was made available through an e-mail invitation to a subset of CMI’s research panelists with an incentive of a chance to win one of five $100 cash prizes. A total of 1,977 participants started the survey but 382 were branched out because they did not own a mobile device (19%). A total of 1,595 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender respondents in the United States completed the entire survey on mobile technology ownership and use. The 10-minute online survey was conducted in May 2013 and participant invitations were balanced by age, gender, and state of residence to reflect other research on the overall makeup of the LGBT community in the United States. For the complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact ron.damico@digitas.com.
About CMI Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI) is a San Francisco–based, LGBT-owned and operated research and marketing company founded in 1992, serving clients throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. CMI has conducted research and provided strategic consulting for leading brands including Prudential, Wells Fargo Bank, Target, Gallo Wineries, Wyndham, Kimpton Hotel Restaurant Group, Travelocity, Chicago History Museum, American Cancer Society, U.S. Census Bureau, and dozens of other leading organizations and brands.
About DigitasLBi DigitasLBi, the leading, “most complete” global digital agency network partners with some of the foremost marketers and brands in the world. Also a top-ten global agency, DigitasLBi comprises of 5,700 best-in-class digital and technology experts in 25 countries around the world.
In 2012, Digitas and LBi received a combined total of more than 200 awards globally including two Cannes Lions Grand Prix’s and a SXSW People’s Choice Award. Digitas was also recently named OMMA Agency of the Year for 2012 and LBi was named UK Digital Agency of the Year for 2012 by Marketing magazine. Digitas USA operates the brand content platform The Third Act:, producers of the first and most renowned event on digital content, The NewFront.
With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo, and Razorfish, DigitasLBi is a member of Publicis Groupe. Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange — FR0000130577 — and part of the CAC 40 index] is the world’s third-largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Website: www.publicisgroupe.com
One year ago Lisa Young was preparing to hold the first meeting of a newly formed lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) support group in Logan County.
That first meeting took place on June 28, 2012, at the Family Resource Center in Sterling. At the time, Young was unaware of the importance of June 28 in gay liberation history. It was much later when she realized that the first LGBT Northeast Colorado meeting was held on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York.
The Stonewall riots took place in the early morning hours at a bar in Greenwich Village in 1969. The events of that uprising inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States. And now some 43 years later, on the same date, another lgbt group was starting in rural northeastern Colorado.
Young says she started the local LGBT support group with the help for several community leaders and friends in Sterling. She says she and her partner Kim had been thinking about doing something for the LGBT community for nearly two years before the moment of courage came. For Young, that moment finally came as she watched President Obama talk about his evolving views on gay marriage. Young shared her ideas with her 21-year-old daughter, who challenged her to step out and do something. Young’s first step was to write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in May dealing with marriage equality and then came the development of a Facebook page — LGBT Northeast Colorado. An online podcast followed and in a short time the first meeting was held.
The group has continued to meet twice a month for a year now and Young says she is amazed at the determination and dedication of those who attend. “We all come from different perspectives and backgrounds, but the one thing we have in common is our identifying as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender. That really bonds us together.” Young says the other factor that makes their group strong is the presence and support of straight allies. “We in the LGBT community value our straight allies. When we get discouraged or need a different perspective, we can count on our friends and family from the straight community.”
LGBT NECO has also received support and encourage from the GLBT Center in Denver, One Colorado and PFLAG (Parents,Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
While Young admits that the group has a long way to go in fulfilling its mission to reach out to all of northeastern Colorado, she is pleased with the progress that has been made in one year.
“Together we have created a safe space for lgbt persons in our community. That is the most important thing to me. It’s about community, friendship and finding a place where you belong.”
To celebrate their one year anniversary the group is planning a cookout at Jerry Wisdom park on Saturday, June 29, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. LGBT NECO will provide the meat and drinks. Guests are asked to bring side dishes and their own tableware. LGBT NECO meets the second and fourth Fridays of every month at the Family Resource Center in Sterling.
BOSTON, June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – A new study by Digitas, a digitally led, integrated brand agency, finds that LGBT individuals and families are embracing the “mobile first” way by adopting smartphones and tablets to manage family households, plan and book travel, and leverage mobile shopping technology. Digitas partnered with Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI) to survey 1,595 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender respondents with mobile devices in the United States, ages 18 and older. The findings demonstrate that LGBT mobile device users have a higher understanding and level of activity with mobile devices compared to general population users.
“LGBT consumers have made mobile devices an integral part of how they manage their lives. They have become a bellwether for the entire population, providing a preview of what’s to come as more consumers embrace mobile connectivity,” said Chia Chen, senior vice president and mobile practice lead at Digitas.
“Digitas commissioned this survey because there is shockingly little research around LGBT mobile consumers in this mobile era. We call on brands and marketers to recognize and develop marketing strategies for this segment of our population who are making mobile moments a priority in their everyday lives,” said Tony Weisman, CEO, Digitas North America. “The equality movement is fast and furious, and Digitas is dedicated to pushing our clients and the industry forward to eliminate these missed opportunities.”
“We applaud Digitas’ commitment to educating the advertising industry on the relevance and purchasing power of LGBT consumers, especially those growing couples now with children. We hope this new data eliminates hesitations from marketers and brands and makes the LGBT community a priority,” says Jeff Krehely, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Of the LGBT mobile device owners surveyed, the findings revealed:
Today’s LGBT are mobile-first, early technology adaptors and cross-generational users
LGBT live in a post-PC world: 56% chose to use a mobile device over a “desktop” or “laptop” compared to a year ago.
Early mobile adaptors: 51% of LGBT mobile device users have used a smartphone or tablet for three years or more. This is nearly twice as much as compared to the general population at 28%1
Mobile-proficient seniors: 21% of LGBT mobile device users ages 65+ have used a smartphone or tablet for five years or more
Coming out mobile: 35% of LGBT ages 18–24 have used a mobile device in coming out. Across all age groups, of those polled who said their mobile device played a role in their coming-out process, 70% used Facebook
Apple loyalty: 55% of LGBT mobile users own and use iPhones versus Androids (40%); 30% own and use iPads versus Android Tablet (13%). This constitutes a reversal of general population findings2
Today’s modern mobile family embraces smartphones and tablets everyday
Running a household on mobile: LGBT families rely on mobile devices to manage activities in their households — 49% coordinate calendars, 47% coordinate locations, 32% manage family finances, and 27% share to-do lists
A gaming family: 61% of LGBT parents say that they purchase mobile games for their children
More mobile kids: 85% of children under the age of 18 with LGBT parents own or have access to a mobile device
Today’s mobile LGBT traveler frequently books and plans their trips on their mobile device Of LGBT mobile device users who have traveled in the past 12 months:
30% have planned a flight from their mobile device in the past 30 days; 23% have purchased a flight/airfare from their mobile device in the past three months
26% have planned a hotel stay from their mobile device in the past 30 days; 25% have purchased a hotel stay from their mobile device in the past three months
Mobile actions of the LGBT traveler on their most recent trip away from home are on average more than twice as active compared to similar general population studies.3
63% searched for restaurants
59% updated Facebook
51% checked a flight status
46% explored local activities
39% checked in for flights
35% searched for shops
Today’s LGBT mobile shopper dominates with purchase and behavior powers Gay men and lesbians are twice as likely to use mobile shopping technology than their straight counterparts4
Use retail store apps (gay men: 36%; lesbians: 30%)
Shop for and buy items on their mobile phone (gay men: 32%; lesbians 29%)
Use shopping apps on their phone (gay men: 38%; lesbians: 28%)
Use their mobile phone to scan and find the best price in town for a specific item (gay men: 39%; lesbians: 32%)
Top LGBT retail mobile behaviors rank high above general population comparisons
84% have used a store locator to find a store
75% have researched items before purchasing
67% have read a review on a recent or future purchase
67% have checked prices
59% have purchased an item on a website on a mobile device
59% have used a device to make a payment
53% have used a mobile coupon
Survey methodology Respondents were recruited from CMI’s proprietary research panel of 70,000 LGBT people worldwide. The survey was made available through an e-mail invitation to a subset of CMI’s research panelists with an incentive of a chance to win one of five $100 cash prizes. A total of 1,977 participants started the survey but 382 were branched out because they did not own a mobile device (19%). A total of 1,595 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender respondents in the United States completed the entire survey on mobile technology ownership and use. The 10-minute online survey was conducted in May 2013 and participant invitations were balanced by age, gender, and state of residence to reflect other research on the overall makeup of the LGBT community in the United States. For the complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact ron.damico@digitas.com.
About CMI Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI) is a San Francisco–based, LGBT-owned and operated research and marketing company founded in 1992, serving clients throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. CMI has conducted research and provided strategic consulting for leading brands including Prudential, Wells Fargo Bank, Target, Gallo Wineries, Wyndham, Kimpton Hotel Restaurant Group, Travelocity, Chicago History Museum, American Cancer Society, U.S. Census Bureau, and dozens of other leading organizations and brands.
About DigitasLBi DigitasLBi, the leading, “most complete” global digital agency network partners with some of the foremost marketers and brands in the world. Also a top-ten global agency, DigitasLBi comprises of 5,700 best-in-class digital and technology experts in 25 countries around the world.
In 2012, Digitas and LBi received a combined total of more than 200 awards globally including two Cannes Lions Grand Prix’s and a SXSW People’s Choice Award. Digitas was also recently named OMMA Agency of the Year for 2012 and LBi was named UK Digital Agency of the Year for 2012 by Marketing magazine. Digitas USA operates the brand content platform The Third Act:, producers of the first and most renowned event on digital content, The NewFront.
With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo, and Razorfish, DigitasLBi is a member of Publicis Groupe. Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange — FR0000130577 — and part of the CAC 40 index] is the world’s third-largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Website: www.publicisgroupe.com
“The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is a reality of Indian society. Instead of ignoring the fact, socially accept them and make efforts to do away with laws that make them criminals,” documentary film-maker Betty Bernhard has said.
She was speaking to media persons at the ‘meet-the-director’ session held in connection with the ongoing sixth International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) at the Press Club here on Sunday.
Speaking about her film Out! Loud!, which deals with the lives of the LGBT community,she said it was also an opportunity for her to make a statement that the LGBT community was not a creation of the West, but it found representation even in the Indian sacred texts such as the puranas.
“One should show some compassion to these people, and do not make their life miserable by saying that this is not an Indian way. Instead of neglecting the fact, own it. Laws such as section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that make them liable for punishments and imprisonment should no more be existing in today’s world,” she said.
Ms. Bernhard said that though she had attended numerous film festivals as a delegate, this was her first experience of visiting festivals as a film-maker. She felt that while the response from the audience was very encouraging, it was also necessary to create a platform for the audience and film-makers to interact after the film screening.
Promote Indian films
Ace cinematographer and film-maker Santosh Sivan said Indian film festivals should primarily embrace and promote talented film-makers from the country than showcasing western cinema.
“In various film festivals across the world, all countries promote their own films in their festivals. But we rarely see such kind of support in our film festivals,” said Mr. Sivan to a question on the importance of film festivals in the country.
His long documentary ‘A Farmer from Kuttanad,’ which deals with the everyday life of a farmer and his conflicts with modern developments that affect his farming, was screened at the festival. Joining him on the occasion was the protagonist of the movie M.R. Vijayan, who also spoke about the lack of support for farming initiatives and the consequences one might have to face in the future due to the destruction of the agriculture lands.
Film critic Noel Burch, who has curated the ‘History of Documentary’ section for the festival, also attended the press conference. He said though he did not have any specific criterion for selecting films for the Indian audience, he tried to choose realistic films than ‘pure documentaries’ and those which were not staged for the Indian viewers.
The full-page ad on the back of Unite’s first issue featured a giant bottle of vodka.
By the Nashville-based magazine’s second issue, on racks in May, it was an impossibly attractive gay couple and their angelic daughter lying in a park, discussing their investments. The advertiser was Capital Financial Group in Brentwood. A smaller ad inside featured a same-sex couple grinning at the camera with their baby — a plug for a Brentwood pediatric clinic.
In the state that put “Don’t Say Gay” into the national lingo, businesses are starting to grab for potential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients with vigor, advertising trend-watchers say. It indicates two shifts: Advertising to that demographic is more palatable to mainstream customers, and the LGBT community’s disposable income is increasingly irresistible.
Membership in the Nashville GLBT Chamber of Commerce grew from 60 members to 180 in the past 15 months, executive director Lisa Howe said. She’s also noticed the local uptick in LGBT-focused advertising.
“They’re embracing the community, putting their arms out and saying, ‘We want to do business with you,’ ” she said. “After they get their foot in the door, they’ll be judged on how well they do their jobs.”
Howe, who left her soccer coaching job at Belmont University in 2010 after it was revealed she and her partner were expecting a child, is the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the state legislature after it overturned a Metro Nashville nondiscrimination ordinance. Similar to those passed in cities nationwide, the ordinance would have prohibited Metro contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees. Oral arguments are set for Monday before the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Tennessee’s recently ended legislative session saw another try at the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would have required school counselors to tell parents if students shared that they were gay. It died when a House education subcommittee refused to hear it.
The Tennessee legislature banned same-sex marriage by statute in 1996, and voters banned it by constitutional amendment in 2006. Those measures’ legality could come into question, depending on an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
The state government’s actions don’t reflect what’s happening in business, said Josh Robbins, who owns BNA Talent Group in Nashville and has carved out a niche casting models and actors for ads aimed at LGBT consumers.
Businesses are looking at what’s happening nationwide, he said. Recent polling shows that a clear majority of Americans support same-sex marriage.
“Maybe ‘open-mindedness’ would be a great way to say it, but with what we’ve come through (economically) as a country, and with advertising dollars being spent again, ad directors want to be a little bit more wise on where that spend is targeting,” Robbins said.
That means targeting a $790 billion segment of American buying power, one widely publicized estimate last year showed. An international survey of 45,000 LGBT consumers last year showed higher interest in technology, clothing and self-improvement than consumers overall.
And where some companies have received backlash over advertising that could appeal to LGBT consumers — think One Million Moms’ campaign against JCPenney ads featuring talk show host Ellen DeGeneres last year — local advertisers say it’s been a positive experience.
Franklin financial adviser Frank Weightman said he’s advertised educational events aimed at LGBT investors in past years. His first magazine ad for that audience ran in Unite, which is geared to an LGBT readership, last month. It features a same-sex couple staring into each other’s eyes.
Some of his straight acquaintances were more curious than upset, he said.
“I’ve explained this more than once,” he said. “God put you and me and everyone else together and gave us two instructions: Love and serve Him and take care of each other. The moral issues aside, it bothers me that one segment of my country’s population is being discriminated against.”
“Most of them just said, ‘This makes perfect sense.’ ”
This month’s back page of OAN, formerly Out About newspaper, features an ad for Nissan’s all-electric car, the Leaf. “Always supporting progress,” the tagline says.
Rob Wilson, Nissan’s director for diversity and inclusion, said company employees recently formed GSAN, the Gay-Straight Alliance at Nissan, to decide how best to market cars to the LGBT community.
“The LGBT market is a key demographic with both population numbers and buying power that are considerable — even when compared to other diversity segments,” Wilson said. Nissan can’t afford to ignore it in a market where people use a company’s diversity and inclusiveness to decide where to buy, he said.
Joey Amato, Unite’s publisher, said advertising to LGBT customers in South Florida, where he helped launch a newspaper aimed at gay readers, was a no-brainer for most mainstream businesses. When he launched a magazine with circulation in Atlanta, he learned the South is more conservative, and it’s easier to attract mainstream advertisers with a product that features less overtly sexual content.
Nashville-based Bridgestone tire company is the area’s relative grandfather of advertising to LGBT consumers, first sponsoring the city’s gay pride in 2002. Last week, the company had a banner ad on OAN’s website.
In the beginning, a few straight potential customers balked at the outreach, said J. Trent Stoner, director of advertising, promotions and retail brand marketing. But he’s received complaints every time the company reached out to any diverse consumer group, he said, and those have dropped off dramatically in recent years.
“For every complaint, we’ve gotten 10 thank yous for making our brands more accessible,” he said.
Today’s entry in the annals of things that should be obvious, but aren’t: Treating employees with respect, regardless of sexual orientation, has a positive impact on a business’s workplace environment and bottom line.
The news comes from a Williams Institute report that looked at 36 research studies focusing on the impact of LGBT-supportive workplaces on business bottom lines and LGBT workers. Here are some of the highlights.
As a general rule, non-discrimination policies lead to (surprise!) less discrimination. These same policies make it easier for employees to be open about their sexual identities. One of the studies looked at even found that having a partner covered by a nondiscrimination policy makes it more likely that an employee will be open about their sexuality.
LGBT employees who work for businesses with nondiscrimination policies–and with workplaces that are perceived to be supportive–are psychologically healthier than their counterparts working in unsupportive environments. Specifically, they’re less likely to feel distracted, depressed, and exhausted. And domestic partner benefit policies boost self-esteem. Those positive well-being outcomes spill over to non-LGBT employees as well; one 2005 study discussed in the research paper found that LGBT-supportive workplaces had “significant and positive effects on job-related variables such as turnover intentions.”
Supportive policies cause LGBT employees to be more “socially and altruistically engaged in the workplace”–meaning they do nice things in the workplace that aren’t always related to their job requirements. Employees who exhibit these “organizational citizenship behaviors” (OCBs) are also more productive at work.
It’s not easy to link supportive workplaces and nondiscrimination policies to larger organizational outcomes; there just isn’t much research available. Keeping that in mind, the report surmises that giving health benefits to same-sex partners of employees could lead to higher workplace productivity and decreased use of sick days.
From the report:
In the general population, lack of health insurance is associated with decreased utilization of preventative services and delays in care among those with chronic poor health, which can lead to an increased likelihood of premature death, poorer quality of life, and greater functional impairment, including reduced work productivity (Institute of Medicine, 2009). As increased coverage can yield improvements in the health of an LGBT employee or their same-sex partner, LGBT employees may show more engagement in the workplace and higher levels of productivity.
There’s also the growing group of socially responsible consumers to take into consideration. The Williams Institute speculates that having LGBT-supportive workplace policies opens brands up to new customers who support their ideals. In one 2005 study, consumers were asked to react to one company with “gay-friendly” policies and one without. Both the LGBT and straight participants reacted more positively to the gay-friendly company. One caveat: The straight consumers had a higher brand commitment to the non-gay-friendly company. So perceived gay-friendliness can only help some of the time.
The Williams Institute even found some evidence–albeit thin–that LGBT-supportive policies can impact stock prices. A 2010 study found that the stock of companies with strong LGBT-friendly policies performed better from 2002 to 2006 than companies without those policies in the same industry. But the study doesn’t get more specific than that. The Williams report notes: “The construction of the stock price variable in that study does not allow for assessing the amount of change in the actual stock price.”
The entire Williams Institute report comes with some big caveats. The studies examined generally surveyed LGBT employees who are white, well-educated, and have high average incomes. Few of the studies included bisexual or transgendered employees. And between 9.1% and 18% of participants in studies looking at the effects of nondiscrimination policies and domestic partnership benefits didn’t even know if these policies existed at their company.
More research is undoubtedly needed in this space. But for now, it’s safe to say that having LGBT-inclusive policies will do more good than harm.
Former Ravens linebacker and outspoken same-sex marriage advocate Brendon Ayanbadejo is turning his attention from playing time to publishing.
Weeks after being released by the Super Bowl champions, Ayanbadejo announced today that he will serve as the guest editor of a sports-themed issue of LGBT newspaper The Washington Blade.
“I’m extremely honored to be able to work with the Blade,” Ayanbadejo said at a press conference. “I think through sports is the easiest way to reach a lot of people in a demographic that typically wouldn’t hear about equality and why it is so near and dear to us.”
Since his playing days ended — for now, at least — Ayanbadejo has continued advocating for the LGBT community, has made several media appearances and took part in the NFL’s inaugural sports journalism boot camp.
Now, he said, he is hoping to bring the cause of equality onto the field.
“Hopefully, I’ll be partnering up with the NFL later this month and doing some things with the NFL,” Ayanbadejo said. “I’ve already partnered with the [NFL Players' Association], and we’ll be doing some things later this June.”
LGBT issues in sports have received growing attention in recent months, with leagues launching programs to combat anti-LGBT attitudes and create a safe space for LGBT athletes. Independent campaigns like You Can Play, often working in tandem with athletics organizations, target homophobia in the locker room and look to make sports culture more inclusive.
Those intiatives appear to have come to fruition in recent weeks, culminating in late May when Robbie Rogers becoming the first openly gay man to play in American professional sports. And Rogers’ groundbreaking game came on the heels of NBA center Jason Collins becoming the first active gay male athlete in a major American team sport to come out, as well as women’s basketball star Brittney Griner’s discussion of homophobia in college athletics.
Through its partnership with Ayanbadejo, The Washington Blade hopes to further the discussion of these issues. While the content of the newspaper’s sports-themed issue, to be released on Aug. 30, hasn’t been decided, Blade editor Kevin Naff is hoping to further the culture of openness that Rogers, Griner and Collins have helped create.
“It is my hope that we will get a professional athlete or two to make an announcement,” Naff said. “We’ll see.”
A new study shows that poverty is a continuing challenge for the nation’s LGBT community.
The nation’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community has a lot to celebrate during June’s “Pride Month,” like the growing number of state governments that have made same-sex marriage legal, along with a majority of the American public favoring gay marriage. But despite all of the progress, a new study shows that poverty is a continuing challenge for the nation’s LGBT community, and that women face the greatest challenge.
The analysis of data from four different datasets finds that lesbian couples have a 7.6 percent poverty rate, higher than the 5.7 percent rate for married heterosexual couples and the 4.3 percent for coupled gay men.
The study also suggests that sexual-orientation-based poverty gaps persist among individuals, with LGBT men and women facing higher poverty rates than their heterosexual counterparts, as shown in the chart above. However, not all of those figures are statistically significant, meaning that there may not be a meaningful difference between figures for the LGBT and non-LGBT communities.
A large part of the gap between lesbian couples and other couples is due to the gender wage gap, says M.V. Lee Badgett, a co-author of the study and research director at the UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute, a think tank that conducts research on legal matters surrounding gender and sexual orientation.
“That [wage gap] is a big factor that makes it challenging for lesbians in general, but especially lesbians in couples,” she says. “You put two women together, and they will have lower household income than two men or a man and a woman.”
It’s not just LGBT women at risk for poverty. LGBT men also have a significantly higher poverty rate (20.1 percent) than non-LGBT men (13.4 percent), according to Gallup data. In addition, the study finds that when controlling for factors that contribute to poverty, like age, race and education level, gay male couples have a higher poverty rate than heterosexual married couples, by 1.4 percentage points.
Plenty of factors other than gender play a part in poverty. The study finds that African-American same-sex couples have a poverty rate more than twice that of heterosexual married African-American couples. Same-sex black male couples have a poverty rate of nearly 19 percent, with a poverty rate of nearly 18 percent for same-sex black female couples, compared to just 8 percent for married heterosexual couples.
Poverty not only affects those couples but their children as well. Over half – 52.3 percent – of children of gay black male couples live under the poverty line, compared to just over 15 percent for children of married heterosexual black couples. That astoundingly high rate is a result of “a confluence of racial disadvantages and the sexual orientation disadvantage,” says Badgett.
“It looks like that comes together in a very big and disturbing way for African American same-sex couples,” she says.
While the study might suggest that most LGBT Americans, particularly women, face economic disadvantages compared to heterosexuals, the reality is more complex. Lesbian couples may have higher poverty levels than heterosexual couples, but there is also evidence that lesbians earn more than straight women. Though there are several theories as to why that is, Badgett points out that often, these women are less likely to have children than married straight women, meaning they work more hours and do not face the career interruptions that maternity can cause.
However, as same-sex couples increasingly raise children, the gap between lesbian and straight women may diminish, she adds.
“If you look at female same-sex couples, the one in the workforce looks like she does pretty well, but the one who is the secondary earner or stays at home completely does take a hit for being a parent,” Badgett says.
When Milan Nicole was 16 years old, she went out for an ordinary walk, on an otherwise ordinary day in her New Orleans neighborhood. Moments after leaving her door, she recalls, a man approached her and invited her back to his apartment for a drink—an offer she accepted.
Seconds later, she was in handcuffs. The man was a police offer, and he was arresting Nicole for prostitution.
“I was not doing street work,” insists Nicole.
A transgender woman of color, Nicole says her story is indicative of how police continue to treat members of the LGBT community—particularly transgender women and LGBT people of color.
“I was charged with a ‘crime against nature’—a felony offense—just for being a black transgender female walking down the street,” says Nicole.
The stats show that hers is not an isolated case.
A study released on Tuesday by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs shows that transgender people are 3.32 times more likely to face violence from law enforcement than non-transgender people. As if that weren’t bad enough, transgender people of color are nearly 2.5 times more likely to face attacks by police than white members of the transgender community.
Nicole’s story underscores an often-adversarial relationship the LGBT community shares with police departments across the country—and not just in the Deep South.
Only half of LGBT victims of violence that reported their assaults to the Anti-Violence Project, reported their experiences to law enforcement.
“In New York City, we’ve seen law enforcement arresting members of the LGBT community for possessing condoms—which they cite as evidence of prostitution,” New York City Anti-Violence Project community organizer Ejeris Dixon tells TakePart.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Community United Against Violence organizer Maria Carolina Morales says that an enhanced deportation scheme by local police has driven undocumented victims of LGBT hate crimes underground—afraid to even go to the hospital after an attack, for fear that police will come and start asking questions.
“Victims of violence are seeing their survival criminalized by the state,” says Morales.
The result of this police antagonism is that huge numbers of hate attacks against the LGBT community go unreported, and uninvestigated. As a result of the accumulated distrust that has built up over the years, “Only half of LGBT victims of violence that reported their assaults to the Anti-Violence Project, reported their experiences to law enforcement,” says Dixon.
Nationally, according to the NCAVP report, the raw numbers of reported anti-gay hate crimes in 2012 are shocking on their own. There were 2,016 incidents of anti-LGBT violence in 2012, and 25 documented LGBT-hate homicides.
“Though the recent spate of hate violence incidents in New York City has captured the media’s attention, this report demonstrates that severe acts of violence against gay men, transgender people and LGBTQ people of color are, unfortunately, not unique to Manhattan nor to the past month, but rather part of a troubling trend in the United States,” says Chai Jindasurat, NCAVP Coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. “NCAVP’s report findings are a wakeup call that LGBTQ people are facing extremely high levels of violence that need to be addressed as a priority in the United States.”
Ending violence against the LGBT community will take a massive overhaul in the way huge segments of the population continue to regard LGBT rights—a battle for hearts and minds that shows no immediate end in sight.
But that is no excuse for making the LGBT community wait to receive equal protection and treatment from law enforcement.
How can you help influence attitudes and ultimately end violence against the LGBT community? State your plan in COMMENTS.
The survey from the Small Business Majority, a national small business advocacy organization, also found that 63% believe an employer shouldn’t be able to fire or refuse to hire someone who is gay, lesbian or transgender if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Another 6 in 10 small business owners said laws that protect against discrimination can improve their revenues because these kinds of laws help employers attract the best and brightest employees.
“Policies that encourage workplace discrimination introduce inefficiencies and costs that cut into profits and undermine small businesses’ bottom lines,” John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, said in a statement.
More than two-thirds of small business owners believe federal law should prohibit employment discrimination against people because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. About 81% didn’t realize there is no federal law that consistently protects LGBT individuals from employment discrimination.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. In addition Washington, D.C., and 16 states prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.
There are no laws in 29 states that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and in 34 states that do so based on gender identity.
As of April about 88% of Fortune 500 companies had implemented non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and 57% had policies that include gender identity, the Human Rights Campaign said.
“Implementing nondiscrimination laws that allow employers to treat all people equally, regardless of sexual orientation, will help small businesses retain quality employees and free them from an extra administrative burden,” Arensmeyer said.
The poll was conducted in April by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - One of the nation’s first LGBT-friendly senior housing projects reached a major construction milestone Wednesday.
credit: Cherri Gregg
Applause, hugs and smiles were plentiful as crews hoisted the construction panel signed by LGBT community leaders and politicians atop the six-story John C. Anderson Apartments building at 13th and Irving Streets.
“People who have need for this kind of housing, which doesn’t exist almost anywhere else in the country, will finally have a place,” says Mark Segal, president of dmhFund and Philadelphia Gay News. He says the $19 million, 56-unit affordable housing project is on track to be complete by December.
“I know too many LGBT pioneers who don’t have the money and who are almost homeless,” he says. “This is place for them to love with dignity in their own community.”
Segal says folks can begin applying late Summer or early fall at the William Way Center, with the first residents to move in early 2014.
AIDS activist Donald Carter says he plans to apply.
“I live in a third floor walk up now- and there will be an elevator here,” he says. “If that is the only reason to apply, I’ll be applying.”
Plans for the Anderson Apartments include a 5,000 square foot enclosed courtyard and nearly 2,000 square free of ground floor retail space.
The Department of State joins people around the world
in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
(LGBT) Pride Month. Forty-four years after Stonewall, we see
incredible progress in the fight to advance the human rights
and fundamental freedoms of LGBT people, both here in the
United States and globally. Protecting universal human
rights is at the very heart of our diplomacy, and we remain
committed to advancing human rights for all, including LGBT
individuals.
Unfortunately, recent events underscore that
we can’t be content with the progress we’ve made. We
still have a long way to go. All over the world, people
continue to be killed, arrested, and harassed simply because
of who they are, or who they love. There are LGBT people of
all ages, all races and all faiths, citizens of every
country on Earth. In too many places, LGBT people and their
supporters are still attacked if they just attempt to stand
up for their rights and participate in peaceful rallies or
marches, or simply for being who they are.
The United
States condemns this violence and harassment. LGBT persons
must be free to exercise their human rights—including
freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of
assembly and association—without fear of reprisal. Human
rights and fundamental freedoms belong to all individuals,
regardless of their sexual orientation or gender
identity.
The United States will continue to stand up for
the human rights of all people, during this month and every
month throughout the year, and we are proud to do
so.
In keeping with his administration’s tradition President Obama has released a proclamation that the month of June will be recognized as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.
The proclamation, which can be seen in full HERE, begins by stating, “The story of America’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
While President Obama has highlighted progress in his annual proclamations for several years, this is the first year that the Department of Defense has also recognized the month of June as LGBT Pride Month. A statement from the DoD remarks that that “the LGBT community has written a proud chapter in this fundamentally American story by reminding us that integrity and respect remain corner stones of our military and civilian culture.”
After going into some detail on all of the advances made on the LGBT front during the recent past the President’s proclamation takes a moment to express confidence in the future stating, “We have a long way to go, but if we continue on this path together, I am confident that one day soon, from coast to coast, all of our young people will look to the future with the same sense of promise and possibility,” says the proclamation reads. “I am confident because I have seen the talent, passion, and commitment of LGBT advocates and their allies, and I know that when voices are joined in common purpose, they cannot be stopped.”
Wells Fargo Company is set to kick off Pride 2013 with participation
planned in more than 50 Pride events across the country. In some cities,
including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.,
Wells Fargo team members will march alongside several organizations
focused on raising awareness for anti-bullying efforts to support LGBT
and non-LGBT youth who face harassment.
To bolster Pride 2013 efforts, Wells Fargo convened leaders from a
number of prominent organizations, including, GLSEN
(Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network), It
Gets Better Project™, Point
Foundation, The
Trevor Project and Teach
For America, to join with Wells Fargo to magnify the anti-bullying
message. Maximizing existing relationships with each organization, Wells
Fargo championed the collaborative support around the It Gets Better ™
platform with an emphasis on hope versus despair. Through co-branded It
Gets Better ™ themed advertisements, posters, t-shirts and banners, the
collective team aims to reach broader audiences while influencing action.
“It’s important for a company as visible as Wells Fargo to help shed
light on the progress of the LGBT community. Our goal this year is to
empower and uplift by celebrating the fact that it does get better,”
said, Mark Ng, LGBT Segment Manager. “We are excited and honored to
collaborate with the organizations we work with year-long to help make
this progress possible.”
Wells Fargo’s engagement with groups speaking out against harassment
dates back to 1994 with The Trevor Project, an organization that
provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBT
youth. In 2010, Wells Fargo partnered with GLSEN to launch the Safe
Space Campaign dedicated to providing educational/instructional
“kits” designed to help schools create safe and positive learning
environments for students.
“Wells Fargo’s support of anti-bullying efforts is consistent with the
company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion,” said Pat Callahan,
Wells Fargo’s chief administrative officer. “When children learn the
value of inclusiveness at school, they carry it with them throughout
life. Investing in students today is a down-payment to ensure an
inclusive workforce and society tomorrow.”
Most recently, Wells Fargo became a founding corporate sponsor of the It
Gets Better Project™, joining in the social movement to end harassment
against LGBT youth. In support of this effort, the company created its
own It
Gets Better ™ video and booklet where senior leaders and team
members from across the company share personal stories of overcoming
adversity. The company also launched an interactive
website (wellsfargo.com/itgetsbetter) where visitors can watch the
video and learn more about participating organizations as well as ways
to get involved in helping to create a better future for youth
everywhere.
“The It Gets Better Project is grateful to Wells Fargo for the support
it has given the LGBT community year after year. Its actions will have a
direct impact on the lives of young people, especially in those
communities where LGBT youth are most at risk,” says co-founder Dan
Savage.
For more than 25 years, Wells Fargo has actively supported programs and
nonprofit organizations serving the LGBT community through grants,
sponsorships and volunteer activities. Wells Fargo’s support for the
(LGBT) community is part of the company’s commitment to serve diverse
customers; to hire, develop, engage and retain team members who reflect
the community; and to encourage team members to value and respect each
other for who they are and for the skills and experiences they bring to
the company.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo Company (WFC) is a nationwide, diversified,
community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets.
Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides
banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial
finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, and the Internet (wellsfargo.com),
and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s
customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than
270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the
United States. Wells Fargo Company was ranked No. 25 on
Fortune’s 2013 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells
Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help
them succeed financially.
About It Gets Better ™
The mission of the It Gets Better Project® is to communicate to lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth around the world that it gets
better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better
for them. The Project was founded in September, 2010, when the original
it gets better® video was created and posted to YouTube, igniting a
worldwide phenomenon. That first video offered a needed message of hope
to LGBT youth. It urged young people to stay true to themselves even
through the bullying and other challenges that confronted them in their
adolescent years. It described the positive future they could experience
as adults. The message was simple: that no matter how difficult things
may be, it gets better. Today, the It Gets Better Project has a library
of over 50,000 videos and focuses its efforts in three major program
areas: media, community engagement and international.
for Wells Fargo Company Media: Valerie Miller Williams, 704-383-8025
The report has determined that among the estimated 5.4 million LGBT workers in 93% of U.S. counties, nearly 2 million leave their positions each year due to workplace discrimination. In addition, these workers are far more likely to be poor. An estimated 21% of LGBT couples have incomes close to the poverty line, compared to 6% of straight couples.
The study also draws attention to the absence of federal protections for LGBT workers and their families, which can still be denied benefits related to health, retirement, and disability in the United States. Under federal law, these employees can still be fired for their sexual orientation and gender identity.
In addition, “A Broken Bargain” examines the emotional impact of workplace harassment and discrimination, which has led one third to one half of gay and lesbian employees to be closeted about their sexual orientation.
“Even if same-sex couples could marry in all 50 states tomorrow, it would still be perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay under federal law and in a majority of states. In other words, workers would be able to marry the person they love, but if they put that wedding picture on their desk, they might lose their job,” Winnie Stachelberg, executive vice president of external affairs at the Center for American Progress, said in a press release announcing the study. “While we are seeing recent victories on the marriage equality front, we must do more to address the real and serious problem of employment discrimination against LGBT workers.”
In response to the results of the study, the coalition is urging leaders in business and politics to reexamine discriminatory policies and to find “common-sense solutions,” which would not only provide equal protections for LGBT workers and their families but also increase profits.
“America’s most successful businesses want a level playing field for workers across the country,” said Chad Griffin, president of HRC. “In addition to treating their own LGBT employees with dignity and respect, over 90 major businesses have also joined the Business Coalition for Workplace Fairness. Treating everyone fairly through federal law is not just the right thing to do, it’s good for companies’ bottom line.”
In order to expand its subscriber base, Comcast Corp (CMCSA) – the largest cable MSO in the U.S. – started a new online site for the U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (:LGBT) community.
A growing presence of LGBT groups across the country has induced Comcast to offer dedicated service to that community by offering the Xfinity.com/LGBT website. The new portal will offer content that includes award winning movies, articles, TV series, music and documentaries for the LGBT community.
Moreover, Xfinity TV digital subscribers can enjoy all the HERE TV programs on Xfinity On Demand for free during the first week of June.
In addition, all HERE TV content on Xfinity On Demand and online will be available for free to Xfinity TV digital customers for the first week of June.
Evolution of low-cost video streaming companies like Hulu and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) has resulted in a huge drop in cable subscriber growth. Furthermore, large telecom players like ATT, Inc. (T) and Verizon Communication Inc. (VZ) are offering triple-play services, which include voice, video and Internet through its U-Verse and FiOS TV brand, respectively. This is affecting Comcast’s cable subscriber growth.
Comcast reported mixed financial results for its first-quarter 2013 with the bottom line outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate but the top line missing the same. During the quarter, the company lost of 60,000 video customers compared with a net loss of 37,000 customers in the prior-year quarter.
So, in order to meet its customer expectations as well as drive its subscriber growth and revenues, Comcast has rolled out this progressive service. We believe that this will attract a particular group of customers toward Xfinity service, driving the topline.
Currently, Comcast carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
and International Human Rights Day (December 10).
