National
National news in brief: Jan. 6
Washington Guv. supports marriage rights, Johnny Weir reveals New Years wedding, Gay Games group sees more conflict
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire told reporters this week that she now supports full marriage rights for same-sex couples. (Photo by Evan Derickson)
Washington guv to support marriage rights
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Christine Gregoire, a longtime LGBT rights supporter, announced Wednesday that she supports extending full marriage rights to same-sex couples in Washington state, according to Reuters.
Several Democrats are expected to introduce a bill extending full marriage rights to same-sex couples in the next legislative session. Democrats hold a sizable majority in both houses in the state whose domestic partnerships have since 2009 offered almost all of the same state rights to same-sex couples as those offered to married opposite-sex couples.
In a historic first, that domestic partnership law was upheld by the voters of Washington state in November 2009, when they approved Referendum 71.
“The speculation is that she’ll support marriage equality and we are looking forward with great anticipation to her speech,” Josh Friedes, director of marriage equality for Equal Rights Washington, told Reuters.
The change in law could be a boon for Washington if it follows New York’s lead. According to the Wall Street Journal, since legalizing marriage in June, the New York City clerk’s office reported a 14 percent increase in new marriage licenses.
Efforts to legalize full marriage for same-sex couples in 2012 are anticipated in Maine, Maryland and California as well.
Conservative Colo. group to push for civil unions
DENVER — A self-described group of conservative Republicans has formed to help push Republican lawmakers to support an effort to pass same-sex civil unions in Colorado, according to the Denver Post.
The mostly heterosexual leadership of Coloradans for Freedom — which includes business leaders, political activists, lobbyists and former and current lawmakers — plans to lobby lawmakers in support of a civil unions bill in 2012. A similar bill passed the Colorado Senate but died in the House in 2011.
“The point is not to create conflict within the Republican Party,” Republican Jefferson County attorney Mario Nicolais, who believes the ability to form a civil union is a matter of personal freedom, told the Post. “It’s to provide resources to people interested in the conservative argument for civil unions.”
Tenn. group wants exemption from bullying law
NASHVILLE — The Family Action Council of Tennessee is seeking a religious exemption from an anti-bullying law in that state, an exemption LGBT advocates call a “license to bully.”
According to the state’s most prominent newspaper, the Tennessean, the changes to the law would protect religious speech that some may consider offensive or insulting, which LGBT advocates charge is aimed at giving a pass to anti-gay rhetoric in the classroom. Teachers and administrators in Tennessee are already barred from discussing LGBT issues in the classroom.
In addition, the proposed changes would remove the protected classes in the state’s anti-bullying law, and instead focus on specific behaviors, which opponents of the changes say is another blow to protecting students bullied for either real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We need to be focusing on ways to ensure that Tennessee students receive an education free from bullying, harassment and intimidation,” Tennessee Equality Project board president Jonathan Cole wrote on the group’s website in regard to the proposed legislation. “The health and welfare of Tennessee children may depend on it.”
Detroit LGBT activist and MCC pastor dies
DETROIT — Former Detroit Metropolitan Community Church pastor Mark Bidwell — who stepped down in September after a scandal involving a drug overdose death at his home — died on Tuesday, according to Michigan’s LGBT weekly, Between the Lines. He was 52.
Bidwell was also forced to resign from his position as Ferndale police chaplain at the time of the death of Steven Michael Fitch.
Bidwell took over the Ferndale-based church in 1989. Detroit’s MCC was founded in the 1970s and flourished in the gay-friendly Detroit suburb under Bidwell. The pastor was well known for performing same-sex union ceremonies on the steps of the Ferndale City Hall during Motor City Pride throughout the 2000s.
In 2011, Motor City Pride moved from Ferndale to the Detroit riverfront, returning to the city for the first time in 10 years. According to MCC’s website, funeral services are set for Saturday.
Weir rings in New Year with NYC wedding. (Photo by Dan Leveille)
Weir rings in New Year with NYC wedding
LOS ANGELES — Ringing in an especially joyful new year, on Jan. 1 at midnight in New York City, Olympic skater Johnny Weir said ‘I do’ to his partner Victor Voronov, whom the skater has known for many years, but only began dating this summer.
“[Victor is] kind of everything that I’ve ever looked for and aspired to be in a relationship with,” the 27-year-old Weir told Icenetwork.com in late December, during an interview about his plans to return to competition. “I’m very happy with my personal life and also my professional life, and I thank God I can be exactly where I’m at.”
The second season of “Be Good Johnny Weir” returns to the Logo network this year.
Gay Games leader resigns over reunification
SEATTLE — The former Federation of Gay Games communications co-chair, has resigned his position on a crucial planning group for the 10th global LGBT sports event to take place in 2018, over a major impasse, according to the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco.
Kelly Stevens left the 1 Quadrennial Event Working Group — which is planning an event that will bring back together for the first time since 2006 the International Gay Games and the Outgames — over the decision to bring athletes together to choose the 2018 city at the 2013 Outgames in Antwerp, rather than the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland. Stevens believes holding the vote in Antwerp rather than Cleveland will detract from the 2014 event. The schism between the Federation of Gay Games — which hosts the Gay Games — and the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association — which hosts the Outgames — stems from a disagreement between the FGG and the Montreal 2006 planning committee, leading to the 2006 games being revoked from Montreal and awarded to second choice, Chicago.
The two organizations have been at odds for many years, but overtures of reconciliation have led to the possibility of hosting a combined event at the end of this decade.
Washington, D.C. was a finalist for the 2014 games, but lost out to Cleveland in the vote at the 2010 games in Cologne.
The White House
Trump travels to Middle East countries with death penalty for homosexuality
President traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates
Homosexuality remains punishable by death in two of the three Middle East countries that President Donald Trump visited last week.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the handful of countries in which anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations could face the death penalty.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia from May 13-14. He traveled to Qatar on May 14.
“The law prohibited consensual same-sex sexual conduct between men but did not explicitly prohibit same-sex sexual relations between women,” notes the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, referring specifically to Qatar’s criminalization law. “The law was not systematically enforced. A man convicted of having consensual same-sex sexual relations could receive a sentence of seven years in prison. Under sharia, homosexuality was punishable by death; there were no reports of executions for this reason.”
Trump on May 15 arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department’s 2023 human rights report notes the “penalty for individuals who engaged in ‘consensual sodomy with a man'” in the country “was a minimum prison sentence of six months if the individual’s partner or guardian filed a complaint.”
“There were no known reports of arrests or prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ identity, real or perceived, could be deemed an act against ‘decency or public morality,’ but there were no reports during the year of persons prosecuted under these provisions,” reads the report.
The report notes Emirati law also criminalizes “men who dressed as women or entered a place designated for women while ‘disguised’ as a woman.” Anyone found guilty could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,722.60.)
Trump returned to the U.S. on May 16.
The White House notes Trump during the trip secured more than $2 trillion “in investment agreements with Middle Eastern nations ($200 billion with the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion with Saudi Arabia, and $1.2 trillion with Qatar) for a more safe and prosperous future.”
Former President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup took place in Qatar.
State Department
Rubio mum on Hungary’s Pride ban
Lawmakers on April 30 urged secretary of state to condemn anti-LGBTQ bill, constitutional amendment
More than 20 members of Congress have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to publicly condemn a Hungarian law that bans Pride events.
California Congressman Mark Takano, a Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), who is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe Subcommittee, spearheaded the letter that lawmakers sent to Rubio on April 30.
Hungarian lawmakers in March passed a bill that bans Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs last month amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
“As a NATO ally which hosts U.S. service members, we expect the Hungarian government to abide by certain values which underpin the historic U.S.-Hungary bilateral relationship,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, this new legislation and constitutional amendment disproportionately and arbitrarily target sexual and gender minorities.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government over the last decade has moved to curtail LGBTQ and intersex rights in Hungary.
A law that bans legal recognition of transgender and intersex people took effect in 2020. Hungarian MPs that year also effectively banned same-sex couples from adopting children and defined marriage in the constitution as between a man and a woman.
An anti-LGBTQ propaganda law took effect in 2021. The European Commission sued Hungary, which is a member of the European Union, over it.
MPs in 2023 approved the “snitch on your gay neighbor” bill that would have allowed Hungarians to anonymously report same-sex couples who are raising children. The Budapest Metropolitan Government Office in 2023 fined Lira Konyv, the country’s second-largest bookstore chain, 12 million forints ($33,733.67), for selling copies of British author Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who is gay, participated in the Budapest Pride march in 2024 and 2023. Pressman was also a vocal critic of Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
“Along with years of democratic backsliding in Hungary, it flies in the face of those values and the passage of this legislation deserves quick and decisive criticism and action in response by the Department of State,” reads the letter, referring to the Pride ban and constitutional amendment against public LGBTQ events. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to publicly condemn this legislation and constitutional change which targets the LGBTQ community and undermines the rights of Hungarians to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”
U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) signed the letter alongside Takano and Keating.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment.
Federal Government
HRC memo details threats to LGBTQ community in Trump budget
‘It’s a direct attack on LGBTQ+ lives’
A memo issued Monday by the Human Rights Campaign details threats to LGBTQ people from the “skinny” budget proposal issued by President Donald Trump on May 2.
HRC estimates the total cost of “funding cuts, program eliminations, and policy changes” impacting the community will exceed approximately $2.6 billion.
Matthew Rose, the organization’s senior public policy advocate, said in a statement that “This budget is more than cuts on a page—it’s a direct attack on LGBTQ+ lives.”
“Trump is taking away life-saving healthcare, support for LGBTQ-owned businesses, protections against hate crimes, and even housing help for people living with HIV,” he said. “Stripping away more than $2 billion in support sends one clear message: we don’t matter. But we’ve fought back before, and we’ll do it again—we’re not going anywhere.”
Proposed rollbacks or changes at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will target the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, other programs related to STI prevention, viral hepatitis, and HIV, initiatives housed under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and research by the National Institutes of Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Other agencies whose work on behalf of LGBTQ populations would be jeopardized or eliminated under Trump’s budget include the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Department of Education.
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