Maine: Anti-gay Christian group throws in the towel

Recently we read about out of state anti-gay activists throwing in the towel, in Oregon.

Now the Christian Civic League in Maine is giving up on efforts it launched in April to repeal the state's gay rights laws.

"We're pulling the plug," said Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine. Heath said the evangelical group failed to attract voter, volunteer and financial support it needed to continue its campaign.

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Oregon: Anti-gay groups throw in the towel

Basic Rights Oregon released news today saying out of state entities hoping to reverse domestic partnership and anti-discrimination laws have given up.

It is not surprising that these anti-equality groups have again failed to meet even the minimum requirements for public support for their efforts. The truth is that Oregonians believe that loving, committed couples should have the legal recognition they need to take care of one another. Oregonians believe discrimination is wrong.

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Panelists address GLBT legal issues at law conference

TEXAS: The UT School of Law's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student association, OUTLaw, will host a conference today on national, state and personal legal questions affecting this demographic and their families in Texas.

"There's more interest now because it has been the cutting edge of civil rights work. We've gone from race to sex to sexuality," Upton said. "There really is a diverse crowd of people who have an interest, and it doesn't have anything to do with their sexuality. It has to do with their commitment to social justice."

UT may soon grapple with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender legal questions in the wake of Arabic lecturer Uri Horesh's January hunger strike. Horesh stopped eating for six days to protest UT's lack of domestic partner benefits for faculty and staff.

Though the issue has received less public attention in recent weeks, the Pride and Equity Faculty Staff Association has been working to finish a 45-page report arguing for the adoption of domestic partner benefits for UT system faculty and staff. The group will present its findings to UT President William Powers on April 21.

Karen Landolt, an association member and career development manager at the Red McCombs School of Business, said report writers have focused on arguing that UT will lose top faculty to institutions with domestic partner benefits.

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Kentucky rejects ban on universities' domestic partners health insurance

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A House committee yesterday killed a Senate bill that would bar state universities and other public agencies from providing health insurance for domestic partners of employees.

Spokesmen for the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville yesterday said the committee's decision was appropriate. The decisions since 2006 by the universities to let employees purchase health insurance for their domestic partners triggered legislative efforts to ban the policy.

The vote on SB 112 came largely along party lines, with Democrats Bob Damron of Nicholasville and John Arnold of Sturgis voting with four Republicans for the bill. The nine Democrats who voted no included Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington and a longtime opponent of the measure, who snapped "of course not" when asked for her vote on the bill.

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Florida to vote on gay-marriage ban in November

TALLAHASSEE - Florida voters will be asked to decide in November whether to write a ban on same-sex marriage into Florida's Constitution.

Florida4Marriage's amendment would define marriage as "the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife," and that "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

It has drawn attacks from opponent who say the amendment could deny rights to unmarried heterosexual couples in addition to gays and lesbians.

Florida already has a law banning same-sex marriage.

Social conservative groups such as Focus on the Family, Florida Family Action and the Florida Baptist Convention launched the constitutional drive in 2005, arguing the state's law could be invalidated in courts much as it was in Massachusetts.

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Some 5,500 ILWU members now eligible for partners' pensions

Burrows, 71, has fought for pension benefits left by his partner, Bill Swenor, since Swenor's death in March 2005 at age 66. Last week, International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals 6 and 17 - based in Oakland and West Sacramento, respectively - announced they had renegotiated their contracts to grant pension benefits to domestic partners, and made the change retroactive to include Burrows.

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