by Peter DelVecchio

New Hampshire civil union law takes effect

Thirty-seven couples and a crowd of about 200 others braved below-freezing temperatures just past midnight on Jan. 1 for a ceremony celebrating New Hampshire’s new civil union law, reports The Associated Press. The statute, signed by Democratic Gov. John Lynch last May, affords same-sex couples all the rights and obligations of marriage under state law. Openly gay state Rep. Jim Splaine (D-Portsmouth), one of the law’s sponsors, told the crowd, “We really didn’t believe that we’d be able to see this accomplished within one year, but it has happened. One thing we have to keep in mind is that there is much more to do. We have to continue the journey to make sure that we have marriage equality—full marriage equality—with the word marriage—soon.” Said state Rep. Gail Morrison (D-Belknap), “We are a citizen legislature, and we legislated this into being.” Morrison was a co-organizer of the event and entered into a civil union with her partner there. To date, there is no effort to repeal the statute, but it is thought it could become an issue in the 2008 election.

Poll: Americans split on same-sex unions

A new poll conducted by Knowledge Networks and released by the AP and Yahoo! shows Americans are divided about legal recognition of same-sex unions, Angus Reid Global Monitor reported Dec. 31. Asked whether they favored “[g]iving gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits that opposite-sex couples get from the federal government,” 34 percent responded affirmatively; 40 percent negatively; 25 percent chose “neither.” Forty percent favored “[a]mending the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus barring marriages between gay or lesbian couples;” 43 percent opposed such an amendment; 26 percent responded, “neither.” Same-sex marriage is currently legal only in Massachusetts. Civil union and domestic partnership laws in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont afford same-sex couples all the state-law rights of marriage in such areas as state income tax, inheritance and hospital visitation. More limited domestic partnership provisions are on the books in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine and Washington. More than 1,000 federal rights and obligations of marriage, however, are beyond the states’ jurisdiction, and federal law does not recognize any form of same-sex union. Same-sex marriage exists in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa.

Prominent gay black journalist Thomas Morgan dies

Thomas Morgan III, openly gay former president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), died Dec. 24 of an AIDS-related heart attack, reports a Black AIDS Institute statement. Morgan was 52.

Morgan was a reporter and editor at the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Miami Herald. He headed the NABJ from 1989-1991 and greatly expanded the group’s membership and solidified its finances. “When we talk about standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, we mean Tom,” said Marcus Mabry, NABJ LGBT Task Force chair. Morgan told the NABJ Journal in 1995, “We are all mortal, and we will all die of something.” Morgan is survived by his long-time partner, Tom Ciano.

Judge blocks Oregon domestic partnership law

A federal judge, on Dec. 28, issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Oregon’s new domestic partnership statute from taking effect Jan. 1, reports the Oregonian. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman issued the ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by the Alliance Defense Fund, an anti-gay Christian group, challenging Oregon’s verification of signatures for a November 2008 referendum that would repeal the statute. The group argued that, under Oregon law, once such a referendum qualifies for the ballot, the statute is automatically stayed pending the outcome of the election, and that permitting the statute to take effect would violate the constitutional rights of voters whose signatures were thus rejected. Basic Rights Oregon said on its website that Mosman “demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of Oregon’s initiative and referendum law.” The next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1.

Murders of two gay Chicago black men could be hate crimes

Chicago black LGBT organizations announced a “community alert” Dec. 27 in the wake of the slayings of two South Side gay black men, WMAQ TV Chicago reports. Donald Young, fourth-grade teacher and prominent deacon and choir director at Trinity United Church of Christ, was found dead in his home on Dec. 23. Authorities said jewelry and Christmas presents were missing from the home. Larry Bland, 24, was shot in the head at his home on Nov. 17, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Marc Loveless, speaking for LGBT groups calling on police to investigate the murders as hate crimes, said, “We are concerned the police department has not issued a necessary community alert. We’re here because we’re scared.” However, Interim Police Superintendent Dana Starks said that so far, no evidence links the two crimes, which occurred about five miles apart. “We normally would not put out a community alert unless there was some type of activity leading us to believe there was a serial incident,” Stark said. “And in this case, we are investigating the two incidents separately.”

Stark added that police are nonetheless keeping all possibilities open. No arrests has been made in connection with either killing.

Episcopal leader says church unfairly criticized

Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, says her church is being unfairly criticized for its relatively liberal attitude on homosexuality, the BBC reported Jan. 1. The Episcopal Church is the American component of the Anglican Communion, a loose-knit, worldwide group of churches associated with the Church of England. The appointment of openly gay New Hampshire Bishop Gene V. Robinson, in 2003, touched off a rift between the American church and traditionalist Anglican bodies around the world. With respect to Robinson, Schori said, “He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop [or] a gay partnered bishop. He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who’s open about that status.” Schori urged other Anglican churches to admit to having gay bishops, adding, “There’s certainly a double standard.” The U.S. church has also been criticized for services blessing gay couples, which it does not officially authorize. Schori conceded such services take place, but said the matter should be left to individual churches. She added that “far more” such services are happening in England than in America. Some African churches have threatened to boycott this summer’s Lambeth Conference, a gathering of bishops held every decade, especially if Robinson attends.

Black AIDS Institute demands accountability

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene statistics show that, while AIDS deaths and HIV infection rates declined in the city over the last five years, the number of new infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) under 30, particularly blacks and Latinos, increased sharply, the New York Times reported Jan. 2. The annual number of new infections among black and Latino MSMs rose 34 percent from 2001-2006.

On Jan. 2, the Black AIDS Institute released the first in a series of educational briefs on electoral politics, We Demand Accountability: The 2008 Presidential Elections and the Black AIDS Epidemic. “Ending AIDS is about … personal, professional and political leadership,” Phill Wilson, the institute’s founder and CEO, said in a release. In October, the institute sent written surveys to each presidential candidate. The results reveal what the institute calls “a stark comparison” between Democrats and Republicans. The release states, “All eight Democratic candidates have robust public records on the core questions; there is scant information available on any of the questions for all of the Republicans. The information available about the Republican candidates does not bode well for the Black epidemic.”

For more information, visit www.blackaids.org and Wilson’s blog at www.blackvoices.com/blogs/category/aids-25-years-and-counting

Numbers as of 1:15 p.m., Jan. 2, 2008

American Deaths in Iraq: 3,904 • www.icasualties.org

American Wounded in Iraq: 28,773 • www.antiwar.com/casualties

Iraqi Dead since 2003: 80,272-87,683 • www.iraqbodycount.org

Cost of War: $482,321,000,000+ • www.costofwar.com

National Debt: $9,127,246,620,540.39 • www.brillig.com/debt_clock

U.S. Trade Deficit: $3,219,000,000.00+

www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp