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Discharged service members among first to marry in Wash.

Cammermeyer planning to wed as new law takes effect

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Grethe Cammermeyer (left) and Margaret Witt will be among the first to marry their partners in Washington State. (Blade file photo by Pete Exis)

A number of those who will be among the first to enter into same-sex marriages in Washington State are high-profile gay service members discharged for their sexual orientation who say the legalization of same-sex marriage represents the next step forward for LGBT rights.

In Washington, where voters legalized marriage equality on Election Day by a 54 percent majority via a measure known as Referendum 74, same-sex couples were set to be able to obtain marriage licenses on Thursday. The three-day waiting period in the state means gay couples that obtain licenses on that day will be able to legally marry beginning Sunday.

Washington is the first of three states ā€” which includes Maine and Maryland ā€” where voters legalized same-sex marriage at the ballot on Election Day to allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses and legally wed.

Col. GretheĀ Cammermeyer, who in 1992 was discharged from the Washington National Guard under the military’s gay ban in the years before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is set to marry her partner of 24 years,Ā Diane Divelbess, in their Langley, Wash.,Ā home on Sunday after obtaining a marriage license from the clerk’s office in Island County.

ForĀ Cammermeyer, the ability to marry in Washington represents the next step in advancing LGBT rights following the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ā€” and she said the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act is in her sights. That ban on the federal recognition of same-sex partners precludes gay service members from obtaining health and pension benefits for their partners.

“I think, for me, it was a 20-year battle to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” Cammermeyer said. “That felt like a vindication of those who started to change the policy and was truly monumental for me on a personal level. What you realize is that once you get done with one hurdle, there is another one right ahead of you, and that now is marriage equality. Because until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed, those serving in the military now who happen to be gay service members who have family still are treated as second-class citizens and their families have no standing.”

Cammermeyer, 70, andĀ Divelbess, 77, said they’ve invited other same-sex couples into their home to marry on the same day and are expecting 10 couples to wed during their own individual ceremonies. It’ll be the third ceremony forĀ Cammermeyer andĀ Divelbess: the couple previously wed in Oregon in 2004, when marriage licenses were briefly offered to same-sex couples in Multnomah County for unions that were later nullified, and again in a religious ceremony in Washington State.

Divelbess said she’s already felt she’s like been married toĀ Cammermeyer for years following their religious ceremony and expressed excitement that religious organizations that want to legally marry same-sex couples in Washington can now do so under the law.

“When we were married in 2004, all you heard was the voices of the churches that were unhappy with gay marriage,” Divelbess said. “The public was never aware of the churches who wanted their ceremony recognized as being legal by the state. I’m thrilled that now we’re going to have a legal status accepted as well as the spiritual commitment.”

Another couple planning to wed had a similar involvement in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. Maj. Margaret Witt, an Air Force nurse who was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2007, and her partner of nine years, Laurie Johnson, intend to be the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license in Spokane. They’ll marry on Dec. 15 in a small ceremony officiated by James Lobsenz, Witt’s attorney from her ACLU case against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” known as Witt v. Air Force.

Witt said the legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington State is “absolutely thrilling and surreal all at the same time,” but, like Cammermeyer, she said itĀ demonstrates the battle for gay service members must continue and DOMA must be lifted from the books.

“The work is definitely not done because now we can serve our country openly, but the marriages still aren’t recognized by the military or the federal government,” Witt said. “That’s kind of painful for those that are willing to serve their country and have been willing to serve their country for so long.”

The Defense Department could offer limited partner benefits to gay service members even with DOMA on the books ā€” includingĀ joint duty assignments, issuance of IDs, use of the commissary and family housing ā€” through administrative change. The Pentagon has said since the lifting of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in September 2011 that it’s been looking into these benefits, but hasn’t yet enacted them.

The couple has been talking about marriage for years, but Witt took the opportunity to make things final during a speech at an ACLU dinner on Nov. 15 where she received a civil libertarian award. Following her speech at an ACLU dinner, the couples joined onstage amid applause and tears in the audience and Witt announced her proposal to Johnson.

Witt, 48, said she decided to propose to Johnson, 54, at the dinner in part because of the ACLU’s effort as part of the campaign to win marriage equality at the ballot in Washington.

“I just thought it was really perfect to share it with the ACLU, not only for what they did for me, but all that they did for marriage, and I wanted them to see that in real life,” Witt said.

‘An overwhelming sense of joy’

These military couples are among the estimated 19,000 same-sex couples who will be able to legally marry in Washington State amid anticipation an increased number of couples will flock to the clerk’s office when same-sex marriage becomes available in the state.

County auditorsā€™ offices have updated their forms and their websites to prepare for these same-sex couples. On Thursday, King and Thurston counties were set to open at midnight, Pierce at 6:30 a.m. and Clark and Island counties at 8 a.m.

Anne Levinson, one of Washington’s first lesbian public officials and strategic adviser to the Approve Referendum 74 campaign, said she’s hearing from couples across the state that intend to marry and many of them have been waiting for the opportunity for decades.

“There is an overwhelming sense of excitement and joy, among the couples themselves, but also from friends, neighbors and colleagues,” Levinson said. “What makes it even more special is that we have seen an amazing outpouring of support all across the state, from county auditors working with us on how they will issue licenses, from judges and clergy helping make sure ceremonies are all set, from businesses offering to help however they can.”

A retired municipal judge, Levinson said on Sunday she intends to officiate some of the first weddings in Seattle on the stage of its grand concert hall as the Seattle Men’s Chorus and the Seattle Women’s Chorus perform.

Other same-sex couples that intend to be among the first to marry in California are noteworthy, but not for their participating in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal efforts.

Paul Harris (right) manages marriage licenses at the clerk’s office and is now able to receive one for him and his partner, Jamer Griener (photo courtesy Griener)

One such couple living in Camas, Wash., is James Griener, 58, and Paul Harris, 64, whose wedding is noteworthy because Harris is the manager of marriage license and recording for Clark County. After delivering marriage licenses to opposite-sex couples for 17 years, he’ll finally be able to obtain one of his own.

Harris said he’s surprised that same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington because marriage equality had been defeated previously in every state where it’s come up for a vote.

“To me, it’s a great surprise because I never thought it would happen,” Harris said. “Since I have been responsible for issuing marriage licenses for 17 years, it makes me feel great to be able to get one of my own.”

Griener and Harris were set to claim their marriage license on Thursday and were planning a small wedding in their home on Wednesday ā€” 12/12/12.

The couple, who’ve been together for 39 years after in meeting in New York in 1973, has many differences between them. Harris was born and raised in Brooklyn, while Griener was raised in Southeast Oregon on a ranch.

Griener said the upcoming ceremony makes more permanent their union and builds off a previous wedding they had in Multnomah County in 2004 that was later nullified.

“We’re very pleased that the legislature of Washington passed same-gender marriage, the governor signed it and even though it was challenged and put on a referendum, the majority of Washington citizens voted in favor,” Griener said. “I think it’s a wonderful thing, and everyone knows, a long time coming.”

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U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court declines to hear case over drag show at Texas university

Students argue First Amendment protects performance

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The U.S. Supreme Court justices on June 30, 2022. ((Photo by Fred Schilling of the U.S. Supreme Court)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a First Amendment case over a public university president’s refusal to allow an LGBTQ student group to host a drag show on campus.

The group’s application was denied without the justices providing their reasoning or issuing dissenting opinions, as is custom for such requests for emergency review.

When plaintiffs sought to organize the drag performance to raise money for suicide prevention in March 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler cancelled the event, citing the Bible and other religious texts.

The students sued, arguing the move constituted prior restraint and viewpoint-based discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment. Wendler had called drag shows ā€œderisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” adding that “a harmless drag show” was “not possible.”

The notoriously conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who former President Donald Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled against the plaintiffs in September, writing that ā€œit is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive.”

Kacsmaryk further argued that the High Court’s precedent-setting opinions protecting stage performances and establishing that “speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend” was inconsistent with constitutional interpretation based on ā€œtext, history and tradition.”

Plaintiffs appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is by far the most conservative of the nation’s 12 appellate circuit courts. They sought emergency review by the Supreme Court because the 5th Circuit refused to fast-track their case, so arguments were scheduled to begin after the date of their drag show.

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Federal Government

EXCLUSIVE: USAID LGBTQ coordinator visits Uganda

Jay Gilliam met with activists, community members from Feb. 19-27

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U.S. Agency for International Development Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam (Photo courtesy of USAID)

U.S. Agency for International Development Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam last month traveled to Uganda.

Gilliam was in the country from Feb. 19-27. He visited Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and the nearby city of Jinja.

Gilliam met with LGBTQ activists who discussed the impact of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, a law with a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality” that President Yoweri Museveni signed last May. Gilliam also sat down with USAID staffers.

Gilliam on Wednesday during an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade did not identify the specific activists and organizations with whom he met “out of protection.” 

“I really wanted to meet with community members and understand the impacts on them,” he said.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations in Uganda were already criminalized before Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act. Gilliam told the Blade he spoke with a person who said authorities arrested them at a community meeting for mental health and psychosocial support “under false pretenses of engaging in same-sex relations and caught in a video that purportedly showed him.” 

The person, according to Gilliam, said authorities outed them and drove them around the town in which they were arrested in order to humiliate them. Gilliam told the Blade that prisoners and guards beat them, subjected them to so-called anal exams and denied them access to antiretroviral drugs.

“They were told that you are not even a human being. From here on you are no longer living, just dead,” recalled Gilliam.

“I just can’t imagine how difficult it is for someone to be able to live through something like that and being released and having ongoing needs for personal security, having to be relocated and getting support for that and lots of other personal issues and trauma,” added Gilliam.

Gilliam said activists shared stories of landlords and hotel owners evicting LGBTQ people and advocacy groups from their properties. Gilliam told the Blade they “purport that they don’t want to run afoul of” the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

“These evictions really exacerbate the needs from the community in terms of relocation and temporary shelter and just the trauma of being kicked out of your home, being kicked out of your village and having to find a place to stay at a moment’s notice, knowing that you’re also trying to escape harm and harassment from neighbors and community members,” he said.

Gilliam also noted the Anti-Homosexuality Act has impacted community members in different ways.

Reported cases of violence and eviction, for example, are higher among gay men and transgender women. Gilliam noted lesbian, bisexual and queer women and trans men face intimate partner violence, are forced into marriages, endure corrective rape and lose custody of their children when they are outed. He said these community members are also unable to inherit land, cannot control their own finances and face employment discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.Ā Ā 

US sanctioned Ugandan officials over Anti-Homosexuality Act

The U.SĀ imposed visa restrictionsĀ on Ugandan officials shortly after Museveni signed the law. The World Bank Group later announcedĀ the suspension of new loansĀ to Uganda.

The Biden-Harris administration last October issued a business advisory that said the Anti-Homosexuality Act ā€œfurther increases restrictions on human rights, to include restrictions on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly and exacerbates issues regarding the respect for leases and employment contracts.ā€ The White House has also removed Uganda from a program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to trade duty-free with the U.S. and has issued a business advisory for the country over the Anti-Homosexuality Act. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 4, 2023, announced sanctions against current and former Ugandan officials who committed human rights abuses against LGBTQ people and other groups. Media reports this week indicate the U.S. denied MP Sarah Achieng Opendi a visa that would have allowed her to travel to New York in order to attend the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

Museveni, for his part, has criticized the U.S. and other Western countries’ response to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. 

Gilliam noted authorities have arrested and charged Ugandans under the law.Ā 

Two men on motorcycles on Jan. 3 stabbed Steven Kabuye, co-executive director of Coloured Voice Truth to LGBTQ Uganda, outside his home while he was going to work. The incident took place months after Museveni attended Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast at which U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) spoke and defended the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

The State Department condemned the attack that Kabuye blamed on politicians and religious leaders who are stoking anti-LGBTQ sentiments in Uganda. Gilliam did not meet with Ugandan government officials while he was in the country.

“We in the U.S. government have already made it clear our stance with government officials on how we feel about the AHA, as well as broader human rights concerns in country,” said Gilliam. “That’s been communicated from the very highest levels.”

The Uganda’s Constitutional Court last Dec. 18 heard arguments in a lawsuit that challenges the Anti-Homosexuality Act. It is unclear when a ruling in the case will take place, but Gilliam said LGBTQ Ugandans with whom he met described the law “as just one moment.” 

“Obviously there is lots of work that has been done, that continues to be done to respond to this moment,” he told the Blade. “They know that there’s going to be a lot of work that needs to continue to really address a lot of the root causes and to really back humanity to the community.” 

Gilliam further noted it will “take some years to recover from the damage of 2023 and the AHA (Anti-Homosexuality Act) there.” He added activists are “already laying down the groundwork for what that work looks like” in terms of finding MPs, religious leaders, human rights activists and family members who may become allies.

“Those types of allyships are going to be key to building back the community and to continue the resiliency of the movement,” said Gilliam.

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Texas

Pornhub blocks Texas accessing site over age verification law

Court battle forced statute to take effect

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Washingtonporn Blade graphic

Aylo (formerly MindGeek) the largest global adult online entertainment conglomerate, owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, has restricted access to its platforms including its flagship Pornhub in Texas after a court battle forces the state’s age verification law to take effect.

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton had appealed a U.S. District Court decision that enjoined him from enforcing House Bill 1181. Paxton and others argued that purveyors of obscene materials online needed to institute reasonable age-verification measures to safeguard children from pornography.Ā 

A week ago the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals partially vacated the original injunction, ruling that the age verification requirements are constitutional.Ā 

ā€œApplying rational-basis review, the age-verification requirement is rationally related to the governmentā€™s legitimate interest in preventing minorsā€™ access to pornography,ā€ the three judge panel of the 5th Circuit explained. ā€œTherefore, the age-verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment.ā€

While the court vacated the injunction against the age-verification requirement of the statute, it upheld the lower courtā€™s injunction against a separate section of the law that would require pornography websites to display a health warning on their landing page and all advertisements. 

Texas users are greeted with this notice.

The Houston Chronicle reported people who go to the site are now greeted with a long message from the company railing against the legal change as ā€œineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.ā€ The company calls for age verification by the makers of devices that let people on the internet, instead of individual websites.

Age verification legislation was enacted in several states in 2023 in addition to Texas, including North Carolina, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah and Virginia.

The new laws require users to provide digital confirmation via a certified approved third party vendor like London-based digital identity company Yoti. The other possibility would be a state approved digital ID such as the California DMVā€™s Wallet app, which contains a mobile driverā€™s license.

Users accessing Pornhub from within Louisiana are presented with a different webpage that directs them to verify their age with the stateā€™s digital ID system, known as LA Wallet. The law passed in 2022 subjects adult websites to damage lawsuits and state civil penalties as high as $5,000 a day if they fail to verify that users are at least 18 years old by requiring the use of digitized, state-issued driverā€™s licenses or other methods.

The Associated Press reported this past October that an adult entertainment groupā€™s lawsuit against a Louisiana law requiring sexually explicit websites to verify the ages of their viewers was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan in New Orleans.

Texas users are greeted with this notice.

Potential or existing Pornhub users in North Carolina and Montana are directed to a video that features adult film star Cherie DeVille, who recites a message also written under the video.

ā€œAs you may know, your elected officials in your state are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.ā€

ā€œMandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply,ā€ the statement continues. ā€œAs weā€™ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place.ā€

ā€œUntil a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in [the aforementioned locales]ā€ the message ends with.

The company previously blocked Utah on May 7, 2023. CNN reported at the time:

Affected users are shown a message expressing opposition toĀ Senate Bill 287, the Utah law signed by Gov. Spencer Cox in March that creates liability for porn sites that make their content available to people below the age of 18.

ā€œAs you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,ā€ the message said. ā€œWhile safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.ā€

Courthouse News reportedĀ that after Virginiaā€™s bill was passed in June, state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a Democrat, criticized the state for not creating a system for age verification, and instead leaving it up to websites to manage the process, citing security risks.Ā Ā 

ā€œWe passed a bill during this session to protect children from online porn. However the executive branch had an obligation to create a system for age verification,ā€Ā Lucas saidĀ on X, formerly Twitter. ā€œWe will continue our work to keep pornography out of the hands of minors ā€¦ but we will also work to ensure that this Governorā€™s error does not put the privacy of Virginians at further risk.ā€

Beyond the U.S. in the European Union, Pornhub and two more of the worldā€™s biggest porn websites face new requirements in the European Union that include verifying the ages of users, under the EUā€™s Digital Services Act.

According to a December 20 report from the Associated Press, Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat have now been classed as ā€œvery large online platformsā€ subject to more stringent controls under the Digital Services Act because they each have 45 million average monthly users, according to the European Commission, the EUā€™s executive branch.

They are the first porn sites to be targeted by the sweeping Digital Services Act, which imposes tough obligations to keep users safe from illegal content and dodgy products, the Associated Press reported last month.

In addition to the adult entertainment websites, any violations are punishable by fines of up to 6% of global revenue or even a ban on operating in the EU. Some 19 online platforms and search engines have already been identified for stricter scrutiny under the DSA, including TikTok, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Google and more.

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