Razzle Dazzle Dallas — the gay Pride Month celebration and fundraiser on Cedar Springs —  today announced its 2012 beneficiaries and preliminary event schedule.

According to a press release, Razzle Dazzle Dallas runs June 6-9 and will include a Wine/Dog Walk on Wednesday, a Pub Crawl on Thursday, the 7th annual MetroBall on Friday, and a street party on Saturday night.

Singer Taylor Dayne, who appeared at Black Tie Dinner last year, will return to Dallas to headline MetroBall, which benefits the Greg Dollgener Memorial AIDS Fund.

Also this year, Saturday at Razzle Dazzle Dallas will include LifeWalk Waterpalooza, in addition to the sidewalk sale, street fair and antique car show.

On Saturday night, according to the release, Cedar Springs will become “a big crazy dance club with LIVE ‘80s music and DJs on the Main Performance Stage!”

Razzle Dazzle Dallas, which distributed more than $60,500 in 2011, this year will benefit Resource Center Dallas, AIDS Interfaith Network, Turtle Creek Chorale, Legacy Counseling Center, Legal Hospice of Texas, AIDS Arms, GLBT Leadership Education & Advocacy Program (LEAP), Uptown Players and the Cedar Springs Road Beautification Fund.

Razzle Dazzle is also planning three events in April: a bus trip to the WinStar Casino, a Rising Star Show featuring D Alexander at the Rose Room, and a Razzle Dazzle-sponsored installment of GayBingo.

For more info, visit Razzledazzledallas.org.

Fashion Cited benefit for Legal 

Hospice of Texas set for March 22

Fashion Cited, benefiting Legal Hospice of Texas, takes place at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on Lemmon Avenue at 6:30 on Thursday, March 22. The fashion show begins at 7:15 p.m.

More than a dozen designers including local couturier Emmanuel Tobias will be represented, with about 150 looks showcased.

Designer Francisco Flores will direct the show and participate.

Flores said LHT played an important role in his personal life.

“It was through Legal Hospice that my partner was able to get his life back, and in turn I was able to get my life back,” Flores said. “I truly believe that it is because of Legal Hospice he is alive today.”

LHT is a non-profit law firm that provides legal services to low income who are terminally ill or HIV positive. Purchase tickets online at LegalHospice.org.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 16, 2012.

Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — A House committee has rejected a New Orleans lawmaker’s bill that would allow two unmarried, same-sex adults to adopt a child together.

Democrat Helena Moreno said that public opinion has warmed to the idea of gay adoption since the bill failed last year, but the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee disagreed and shelved the proposal Monday, May 23.

Louisiana law allows for adoption by a legal relative, but the House bill would add “second parents” to the list of people who can petition for such adoptions. The bill doesn’t specify whether the second parent would be male or female, so it would allow both members of a same-sex couple to adopt a child for the first time.

Currently, if a same-sex couple in Louisiana adopts a child, only one parent can be recognized as the legal guardian. Lesbian mothers at the hearing testified that their children face the risk of not having both parents recognized in the event of a divorce, the death of the primary guardian or a medical emergency involving the child.

“This really is something that’s in the best interest of a child, to have two parents and two names on the adoption papers,” said Moreno.

New Orleans City Councilman Arnie Fielkow testified in support of the bill, arguing that children need a loving home, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation.

“We have so many kids out there that are in foster care, that are in orphanages here in the United States and around the world, that simply do not have parents, do not have people around them that can love them, support them and sustain them,” said Fielkow.

He said that current adoption law doesn’t recognize that concepts of a “traditional family” are outdated, and that expanding the ability of parents to adopt would be compassionate.

But Rob Tasman, assistant director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the church doesn’t sanction adoption to unmarried couples, homosexual or heterosexual.

“The best interest of the child extends beyond purely the physical and the material, and what it also pulls in is the spiritual and the moral,” said Tasman.

And Gene Mills, who leads the conservative Louisiana Family Forum, said the bill would go against a 2004 amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as between one woman and one man.

“We think it’s fraught with the possibility of instability in the life of the child, and would respectfully request that you vote no,” said Mills.

Rep. John Schroder, a Republican, proposed to defer the bill. No committee members objected.

Marjorie Esman, who leads the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the courts will likely overturn the state’s prohibition against gay parents adopting if the legislature doesn’t take action.

“What is happening nationwide is that as these discriminatory laws are challenged, they are falling,” said Esman. She said that courts are striking bans down in order to protect children, but she said there isn’t currently any active litigation that could overturn Louisiana’s law.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a related issue in April.

A gay couple who wanted both their names to appear on the birth certificate of the Louisiana child they adopted in New York has lost their latest round in federal court.

In Louisiana, adopted children get new birth certificates with their new parents’ names on them, but the state contends that putting both men’s names on the birth certificate would violate the state ban against adoption by unmarried couples.

The court said that a Louisiana registrar’s insistence that only one father’s name can go on the certificate does not violate the child’s right to equal protection under the law; nor does it deny legal recognition of the New York adoption by both men.

Lambda Legal, which represented the petitioners, was not immediately available for comment on whether the case will be appealed.

DENIED | Rachel Tudor, an assistant professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, believes she was denied tenure because of school administrators’ bigotry against her identity as a transgender woman.

Despite Rachel Tudor’s research credentials being questioned by the administration, the school will honor her with an award for outstanding scholarship

DAVID TAFFET | Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Rachel Tudor, an assistant professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, was denied tenure because she is transgender, according to Tudor and her supporters.

The school is located in Durant, Okla., about 20 miles north of Denison. Tudor’s employment there terminates at the end of the spring semester.

Douglas N. McMillan, interim vice president for academic affairs reportedly said that Tudor’s “lifestyle” offends his Baptist beliefs.

Last year, Tudor’s colleagues recommended her for tenure. But, she said, the administration’s response was to contact legal council to find out if they were required to honor the recommendation of the faculty committee.

“The dean refused to discuss it with me and the vice president refused to meet with me,” Tudor said.

But the president was required to reveal his reasons. School policy states that the president must honor faculty recommendations unless there is a “compelling reason” or “exceptional circumstances.”

“One reason [he gave was that] he was unable to verify I was editor of two journals,” she said. “I co-edited it with a senior colleague.”

Tudor said her co-editor told her no one ever contacted him.

“The journals are in our library,” she said. “My name is on the cover.”

Tudor said the school’s president was also dismissive of her service for the Native American symposium held on campus.

“That’s our main academic conference,” she said. “I served on the committee several years. I gave presentations at the conference. He said my service was neither noteworthy nor exceptional.”

She called his statement insulting to the conference.

Tudor said that another reason the school’s president gave for denying her tenure was that the tenure and promotion committee didn’t justify their reasons for the recommendation. However, she said committee members told her that they were required to make an up-or-down vote only and were not allowed to back up their recommendation.

After being denied tenure during their sixth year at the school, faculty members are allowed to reapply during the seventh and final year of their initial contracts.

Tudor said she knows of three faculty members in her building who were granted tenure after initially being denied. She was set to resubmit her portfolio when McMillan issued a memo that he would not allow her to apply this year.

“He said it would be a waste of the faculty’s time — although they were on board,” she said. “And it would enflame tensions between faculty and administration.”

She filed a grievance and the faculty committee voted unanimously to recommend her for tenure.

“Someone who works in the business office who was designated by the president to take the recommendation to the president,” she said decided he was opposed to her tenure and decided not to take the recommendation to the president.

Tudor wondered if that was legal.

The president said she could not reapply because of policy and precedent, but Tudor said she knows of three who successfully reapplied.

The administration began claiming that her scholarship was flawed.

“In the past two years, I’ve have 10 peer-reviewed publications,” she said. “This is a teaching university. The department chair doesn’t have 10.”

The faculty senate passed a resolution supporting her.

“It was an act of courage for them to vote for me,” she said.

When Tudor transitioned four years ago, McMillan questioned whether she could just be summarily dismissed. He was told that would be gender discrimination. She said that gender is included under the Department of Education’s Title IX.

In addition, the faculty senate voted to add gender identity to the school’s nondiscrimination policy, although she is not sure if the administration has recognized that vote.

Oddly, on April 26, the school issued a press release announcing that Tudor would receive an award for outstanding scholarship.

Alan Burton, director of university communications for SOSU, said, “Southeastern Oklahoma State University does not discriminate in its employment practices. The university will not discuss or comment on specific personnel issues.”

Once the semester is over, Tudor said, she plans to fight.

“I’m focused on correcting this injustice,” she said. “If that means staying here in Durant, that’s what I’ll do. I’m committed to seeing justice done here.”

She’s been in touch with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission.

An online petition has been started and she is appealing to the executive director of the Regional University System of Oklahoma that oversees Southeastern State.

Rep. Sally Kern

SEAN MURPHY | Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma House voted Monday to reprimand a state lawmaker who denigrated blacks and women during a debate on an affirmative action bill last week.

Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, delivered a tearful apology on the House floor, then voted for her own reprimand as it passed on a 76-16 vote.

“Last Wednesday night while debating a bill, I said some words that were not well thought out and that offended many African Americans and many women,” said Kern, who fought back tears and quoted several Bible passages during her apology. “That was not my intent, but sadly it happened, and I take full responsibility for it and I’m truly sorry.

“While my words were not expressed well and implied things I did not mean, they were not spoken with any contempt or malice.”

Kern last week questioned whether there were disproportionately high numbers of blacks in state prisons because “they didn’t want to work hard in school.” She also said women don’t work as hard as men because they “tend to think a little bit more about their families.”

As some legislators groaned during her debate remarks, Kern added: “Women like to be willing to have a moderate work life with plenty of time for spouse and children and other things like that. That’s all I meant.”

A retired teacher serving her fourth two-year term in the House, Kern was criticized in 2008 after saying at a political forum that gay people posed a greater threat to the U.S. than terrorists. In 2009, she campaigned for a proclamation criticizing the government for drifting from traditional Christian values.

The president of the Oklahoma chapter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party both have called for Kern’s resignation. Her speech didn’t change their minds.

“I applaud her colleagues for stepping forward and doing the right thing,” said Oklahoma’s NAACP President Anthony Douglas.

Douglas said he planned to meet with community leaders before deciding whether to withdraw his request for her resignation.

The bill, which won final approval on a 59-14 vote, sets an election for next year on a proposed constitutional amendment to end discrimination and preferential treatment in state government hiring and contracting based on race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

Thirteen Republicans and three Democrats voted against Kern’s reprimand Monday.

“I just don’t think you should reprimand somebody for saying stupid things,” said Rep. Randy Grau, R-Edmond. “If we reprimanded people for every stupid thing that they said in debate or everything they said that offended somebody in that chamber, we would be doing reprimands all day long.”

Rep. Purcy Walker said he opposed the reprimand because he felt Kern’s apology was sincere.

“I don’t agree with what she said, but she was willing to come back and really give a sincere apology and get up in front of everybody and apologize,” said Walker, D-Elk City. “If we’re not willing to forgive others, than we’re not going to be forgiven. I guess it’s just a spiritual conviction that I have.”

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin said she believes the House took the right action in reprimanding Kern.

“When I was informed last week of Rep. Kern’s comments regarding African-Americans and women, I made it clear that day that I disagreed with those comments and found them inappropriate,” Fallin said in a statement. “It’s my hope that lawmakers can now put this unfortunate incident behind them and work together to address the many issues facing Oklahoma’s families and businesses.”

From staff and wire reports

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A nonprofit center that has provided services to gays and lesbians in Memphis for 22 years is facing possible closure.

Like other nonprofits struggling in the weak economy, the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center is seeing fewer donations and grant opportunities. It already has cut back its $125,000 budget.

Board chairwoman Christy Tweddle told The Memphis Daily News that even laying off the executive director would not save enough money to keep the center open for long.

The center was founded in 1989 by a group of citizens who wanted to make Memphis safer for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community members. They also hoped to foster an environment of acceptance and equality.

The center offers several programs including free HIV testing and sexual health counseling, referrals, education and community outreach.

Although the center is partially funded by grants, much of that money is restricted to use on specific programs, Tweddle said.

“We rely on community and individual donations to do things like pay the executive director and the basic bills, and to basically keep the center open,” she said.

Tennessee Equality Project board chairman Jonathan Cole, who is a former board member at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, said the nonprofit’s youth programs are at the heart of its work.

Cole said he knows a young man who was thrown out of his home by a parent due to his sexual orientation and was rejected by several shelters.

The center can provide temporary food, shelter and clothing for youth with no place to go, he said.

“Sadly, because many in our community don’t really understand GLBT kids and turn them out into the world, they’re often left quite vulnerable at an age where, without some social support from adults, they’re not going to succeed in life,” Cole said. “You may not access these services yourself, but there are people in this community who desperately need it. It will be a travesty for the center to close for lack of funding.”

A fundraising drive seeks to raise $45,000 by the end of May.

For more on the center or to make a donation, go here.

TAMMYE NASH  |  Senior Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com

Investigators with the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Department in Arkansas have no new leads in the March 8 murder of transgender woman Marcal Tye, according to Chief Deputy Gene Wingo.

“It’s kind of at a standstill right now,” Wingo said in a telephone interview Wednesday, March 16. “We have a lot of phone records and stuff to check, still, and that’s about all I can say right now.”

Tye, 25, was found shot to death in a rural area right outside the Forrest City limits early on March 8, and evidence at the scene indicated her body had been dragged by a car. Wingo confirmed that investigators had found two .32-caliber shell casings and had made plaster casts of tire tracks found at the scene.

Special Agent Steve Frazier with the FBI office in Little Rock on Wednesday confirmed that the FBI has “a pending civil rights violation investigation under way” and is assisting the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Department with the investigation.

Frazier said he was unable to comment further because the case is pending.

According to media reports immediately after the murder, a friend said Tye had been at a party at a friend’s house on Monday night, March 7, and had left there saying she was going home.
Tye’s body was discovered in the early morning hours on March 8 by a motorist on Hwy. 334, just outside Forrest City, who notified authorities.

Possible hate crime

Because news reports published right after the body was discovered seemed to indicate that Tye’s body had been deliberately dragged behind a car either just before or after she was shot, LGBT activists from Little Rock, about 95 miles to the west, and Memphis, about 45 miles to the east, immediately raised the possibility Tye had been the victim of an anti-transgender hate crime.

Arkansas does not have a state hate crimes law, but the federal Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Act passed in 2009 does include transgenders.

But St. Francis County Sheriff Billy May has since said several times that the shooting was “an ordinary murder” and not a hate crime. He said that while Tye’s body had been dragged by a car, the dragging appears to have been accidental.

May told reporters that Tye was shot to death and then the suspect appears to have tried to “straddle” her body with a vehicle while driving away, and that Tye’s body inadvertantly got snagged on the undercarriage of the vehicle. May said that tire tracks at the scene indicated the driver had stopped and backed up in an attempt to dislodge Tye’s body.

Frazier said the FBI has made no determination on whether the murder was a hate crime. That determination, he said, is based on evidence and the evidence gathered so far in the Tye murder is not conclusive either way.

But activists in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, about 95 miles west of Forrest City, and in Memphis, Tenn., about 45 miles east, still believe anti-trans phobia played a role in the killing.

Murders in Memphis

The murder hits an especially raw nerve in Memphis, where at least three trans women have been murdered since 2006. And activists say many others have survived brutal attacks.

“Memphis has developed a reputation across the country for being a very dangerous place for transgender women, especially transgender women of color,” said Will Batts, executive director of the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center. “There is a real climate of fear here.”

Batts said that as far as he knows, Tye was not known around the Memphis community center and did not access programs there.

“We do have a transgender group here at the center, but attendance is rather sporadic,” he said. “The trans women are afraid to come here. They don’t want to be seen here, to be publicly identified as transgender.”

One of the murdered Memphis women was Duanna  Johnson, who made headlines nationwide in February 2008 after video of her being beaten by Memphis police officers in a police station booking area was leaked. Johnson survived that attack but nine months later was found murdered in North Memphis, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.

Two officers involved in Johnson’s beating lost their jobs and faced federal charges, but Memphis authorities never filed any local charges against them.

That lack of action by local authorities is common in cases involving attacks on LGBT people, and especially on trans women.

“We have tried and tried to get a city ordinance [protecting LGBTs] passed here in Memphis and it has always failed,” Batts said. “The community center has been around for 22 years, and it is located in a fairly progressive and diverse part of the city. But other areas of Memphis are much, much more conservative and anti-LGBT.  We have a lot of strong churches in Memphis, a couple of mega-churches, and a lot of our lawmakers have some very strong ties to those churches.”

Marisa Richmond with the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, headquartered in Nashville, agreed that violence against LGBT people and trans women in particular is “much more common than it should be” in Tennessee and especially in the Memphis area.

“Memphis is, I think, a city that feels under siege, specifically the transgender community and especially African-American trans women,” Richmond said. “We have made some progress here in Nashville, but they just can’t seem to gain any ground in Memphis. I think it is making them very, very frustrated.”

Richmond said that some people have suggested that there may be a serial killer targeting transgender women in the Memphis area, but she says there is no real evidence to support that theory.

“I can’t say that possibility doesn’t exist. But I think it’s not a matter of one person, a serial killer, targeting trans women. It’s the atmosphere, the attitude toward LGBT people, toward trans people, in general that is the problem.”

Reaction in Little Rock

Jeana Huie, coordinator for the youth/young adult program at the Center for Artistic Revolution, an LGBT advocacy organization in Little Rock, said this week, Arkansas also has its progressive havens and pockets of phobia.

“The climate [toward LGBT people] is different in different areas of the state. In places like Little Rock and Eureka Springs, it’s pretty progressive. But in the more rural areas, there’s a lot more hostility, more violence, though most of it is verbal, rather than physical,” Huie said.

“It [physical violence] doesn’t happen a lot, but it does still happen. It probably actually happens more than we realize but it just isn’t reported.”

Huie also said that her organization knew little of Tye or her murder other than what has been reported in the media. And she said that CAR had responded to early media reports that described Tye as a crossdresser, a “man in a dress” and a “man in drag” by trying to educate reporters on the correct language to use in reference to transgender people.
CAR was, she said, pleased at the response they received from media outlets in the area.

“When we saw the language that was being used, we put together some educational materials, including a guide we downloaded from the [Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] on the language to use when reporting on transgenders, and we went to every national affiliate here in the Little Rock area,” Huie said.

“We actually got a really good response. We were a little surprised at how well they responded to us,” she continued. “When it came to the garish headlines and coverage, I think it wasn’t so much about them being homophobic or transphobic, but more about just a lack of knowledge.

“They all told us they were glad that we came to talk to them and they were glad to have the resources we brought them,” she said. “And most of the stories and headlines [that were objectionable] were changed very quickly after that.”

Huie said her organization was not so satisfied, though, with statements by Sheriff Mays in St. Francis County.

“He has made some pretty callous comments , and he continues to use some problematic language,” she said.

Huie said CAR has had no contact with the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Department, but that the organization has been in contact with Department of Justice representatives in Little Rock and with the LGBT liaison in the FBI’s Little Rock office.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 18, 2011.

_________________________________________

The Memphis victims

LGBT activists in Memphis say their city has developed a national reputation as a dangerous place for transgender women, especially for trans women of color, in the wake of the murders of at least three African-American trans women there since 2006, and attacks on several more.

The attacks, according to Will Batts with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, have created a “climate of fear” in the city.

Trans women who have been murdered or attacked include:

• Tiffany Berry, 21, murdered Feb. 16, 2006 in North Memphis. Berry was shot to death as she exited her apartment, and police soon arrested D’Andre Blake, who allegedly bragged to friends that he had killed Berry because he didn’t like the way she had touched him.
Blake, however, was released on bond of only $20,000, and remained free for more than two years until August 2008, when he was arrested again, this time for the murder of his own 2-year-old daughter.
To date, Blake has not been brought to trial in connection with Berry’s death.

• Ebony Whitaker, 20, murdered July 1, 2008. Whitaker, who relatives later said had had a troubled home life and had received little support or care from her parents, had a history of prostitution dating back to age 16. Her body was found, with a single gunshot wound, in a parking lot near a daycare center in Southeast Memphis.
No one has ever been arrested for Whitaker’s murder, and no suspects have ever been named.

• Duanna Johnson, 43, murdered Nov. 9, 2008. Johnson became the subject of national headlines in February 2008, when a videotape showing two Memphis police officers beating her in the booking area of a Memphis police station was leaked to the press. Johnson said at the time the officers began hitting her after she refused to respond when they spoke to her using anti-trans slurs after she was arrested on prostitution charges.

In the videotape, Officer Bridges McRae is seen striking Johnson repeatedly with his fists and with a pair of handcuffs clutched in one hand as she sits in a chair. A second officer, J. Swain, is seen holding Johnson down as McRae hits her. Both officers were fired and later faced federal charges, although local prosecutors refused to level local charges against them.
Ten months later, Johnson was found lying dead in a downtown Memphis street with a single gunshot wound to the head. No one has ever been arrested in the murder, and no suspects have been named.

• Leeneshia Edwards, shot Dec. 23, 2008. Friends and family members said Edwards worked as a prostitute, and investigators said she appeared to have been in a car with someone and had turned to get out of the vehicle when the suspect shot her at close range in the jaw, side and back.

The attack, which happened in south Memphis, left Edwards in critical condition and she had to undergo several surgeries. No one has ever been arrested in the attack, and no suspect has been named.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 18, 2011.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s 200-year-old law against solicitation of oral and anal sex is archaic, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.

So says a coalition of lawyers and social activists who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s “crimes against nature” law, which makes solicitation of such acts illegal.

In Louisiana, prostitutes do not have to register as sex offenders unless they are charged more than once with having oral or anal sex. Those who are paid for only those types of sex do have to register if arrested a second time.

Attorney Alexis Agathocleous of the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights said Wednesday that distinction targets homosexuals, transsexuals and poor and minority women who work as prostitutes.

“Four in 10 of the people in Orleans Parish Prison are there because of a ‘crime against nature,”’ Agathocleous said.

And 97 percent of the women registered as sex offenders in the state are charged with “crime against nature,” said co-council Andrea Ritchie.

Not only is the law unconstitutional, it is enforced completely at the discretion of the arresting officer, Ritchie said.

“This leaves the door wide open to discriminatory enforcement targeting black women, transgender women and gay men for a charge that carries much harsher penalties,” Ritchie said. “That decision can change the entire course of a person’s life.”

People who are registered as a sex offender must notify their neighbors, have their name and offense published in the newspaper, appear on the sex offender website, and have the words “Sex Offender” stamped in bright orange on their driver’s license or state ID.

The registration is for at least 15 years and can be for life.

Ritchie said one woman convicted of the crime cannot take her daughter to day care now because of the sex offender designation which restricts the amount of contact she can have with minors.

“It can hurt people for years and keep them from getting their lives together,” said Deon Haywood, executive director of Women With a Vision, which works with women at risk.

Lawmakers modified the law last summer, rescinding the need for those charged with crimes against nature to register as sex offenders, but only after the first arrest. If arrested a second time they must register. They did nothing to modify the requirement for those previously arrested on the charge to remain registered, Agathocleous said.

“All other sex offender crimes involve children, violence, coercion,” he said. “None of those things are involved in the crimes against nature.”

The state attorney general’s office said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Lisa Keen  |  Keen News Service lisakeen@me.com

THE NEXT STEP | Kristin Perry, from left, and Sandra Stier, listen as attorney Theodore Olson speaks at a news conference at the Federal Building in San Francisco in July 2009. A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case on Monday, Dec. 6. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

A federal appeals panel in San Francisco will hear oral arguments Monday, Dec. 6, in the landmark challenge to Proposition 8 — California’s voter-passed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Broadcast of the district court trial last January was disallowed due to objections by some witnesses who said they feared harassment. But only attorneys will appear before the court Monday, and the 9th Circuit has agreed to allow the proceedings to be broadcast on C-SPAN and in other venues around the country.

A three-judge panel will hear arguments regarding the appeal of a lower court decision that held Proposition 8 violates the federal Constitution’s guarantees to equal protection and due process of law.

The Aug. 4 decision from Judge Vaughn Walker was the first time a federal court had struck down a statewide same-sex marriage ban, and similar bans exist in the constitutions or statutes of 38 other states.

Another six states have interpreted existing law as excluding same-sex couples from marriage licensing. Only five states and the District of Columbia have marriage equality laws.

If the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upholds the lower court decision, the ruling would make the bans in California and eight other western states unenforceable. But the decision of the 9th Circuit — whatever it is — will almost certainly be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a decision there could affect bans in all states.

But there are also numerous potential variations to this simple scenario.

The most prominent potential variation at the moment concerns whether the group that has been defending Proposition 8 in court has legal standing to bring its appeal to the 9th Circuit.

It is a dull question compared to the drama of the original three-week trial of witnesses who testified about how Proposition 8 had damaged their lives. But its resolution could have enormous consequences for the case and will consume one of two hours set aside for Monday’s appeal.

Here is some key information most court watchers will need to know and will want to take notice of Monday:

Case name: Perry v. Schwarzenegger is the shorthand name for the case. The full name is Perry v. Schwarzenegger and Hollingsworth et. al.

Time and Place: Monday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m. PDT (noon, CST) at the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in San Francisco.

Where to watch: Nationally, C-SPAN will be broadcasting the proceedings live. Court enthusiasts can also go to the federal courthouse in select cities around the country to watch a live feed — in Boston; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; Pasadena, Calif.; and two other courthouses in San Francisco.

The Parties: Perry is Kristin Perry, one of four plaintiffs who originally filed the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8. Perry seeks to marry her partner of 10 years, Sandra Stiers. They have four children. The other two plaintiffs — also a couple — are Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, who have been together for nine years.

The city of San Francisco was also designated as a plaintiff-intervenor in the district court, meaning the city did not bring the lawsuit but established that it had a governmental interest in the outcome.

Schwarzenegger is, of course, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who represents the California government in the case. Neither Schwarzenegger nor California Attorney General Jerry Brown (now governor-elect) was willing to defend Proposition 8 in the appeal.

So the real appellants in the case are the original “proponents” of the ban, identified as the Yes on 8 campaign (aka ProtectMarriage.com), and include State Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and others. In addition, the board of supervisors and clerk of Imperial County are seeking the right to serve as appellants as well.

The schedule: The first hour of the two-hour argument will be focused on the issue of whether the Yes on 8 appellants and/or Imperial County have legal standing to appeal the lower court’s decision (see below). There will be a “brief” break, and then the second hour will be focused on the merits of the appeal (see below). The entire proceeding is likely to be concluded by around 12:15 p.m. Pacific Time.

The attorneys: At least six attorneys will be involved in Monday’s argument — three on merits and three on standing.

On merits, famed conservative attorney Ted Olson will argue for the four plaintiffs, and Therese Stewart, the openly gay chief deputy city attorney for San Francisco, will present arguments for the city, which would like to see the ban struck down. Conservative attorney Charles Cooper, who led the defense of Proposition 8 at the district court trial, is expected to argue the merits for proponents.

On standing, it has not yet been announced who will argue the standing issue for plaintiffs, the Yes on 8 Proponents, or Imperial County.

Legal standing issue: Not just anybody can initiate a lawsuit and appeal the decision, but courts err on the side of allowing a party to appeal.

Nevertheless, a party or parties seeking to appeal must still show they are at least vulnerable to an “actual” injury because of the decision below. That injury can include an economic one, but it has to be an injury more “concrete” than the fact that appellants disagree with the lower court decision.

Proponents will argue that the fact they were allowed standing in the U.S. District Court should mean they should naturally have standing on appeal.

The merits: Two provisions of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment are at issue, both encompassed in this language: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Concerning due process, a state cannot deny citizens a fundamental right, including the right to marry, unless it can show a compelling reason to do so. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said proponents failed to establish “any historical purpose for excluding same-sex couples from marriage, as states have never required spouses to have an ability or willingness to procreate in order to marry.”

With equal protection, the government may not treat one group of citizens with less favor than others unless it has a reason to do so. It may not treat oppressed minorities with less favor unless it has a compelling reason to do so.

Judge Walker ruled that gays and lesbians are an oppressed minority and that proponents failed to establish evidence of even a simple, rational reason to treat them differently, much less a compelling one.

The Judges: The 9th Circuit on Monday, Nov. 29, announced the three judges that will make up next Monday’s panel — and it’s a dramatic line-up.

The senior-most judge — in age and experience on the federal appeals bench — is Stephen Reinhardt, 79, a Carter nominee who has ruled favorably on gay-related cases before.

The least senior is N. Randy Smith, 69, a native of Utah, an appointee of President George W. Bush, and a graduate of Brigham Young University Law School, an entity of the Mormon Church which played an enormous role in promoting Proposition 8.

In the middle is Judge Michael Hawkins, 65, a Clinton appointee, based in Phoenix, Ariz.

Prop 8 proponents on Wednesday, Dec. 1, filed papers asking Reinhardt to recuse himself because his wife, Ramona Ripston, is executive director of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, which has been actively involved in trying to invalidate Prop 8.

But Reinhardt on Thursday morning, Dec. 2, issued a statement refusing to step down from the trial, saying there is no legal reason to question his impartiality.

Timetable after argument: There is no deadline by which the three-judge panel must issue its opinion, however, a decision is likely to be forthcoming within a few months. The losing party then will almost certainly appeal that decision to the full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals,which may or may not agree to hear an appeal.

The losing party at that point would then likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The earliest the Supreme Court would likely get such an appeal would be in the fall of 2011, and the earliest it would rule would be in the late spring of 2012.

If the proponents or Imperial County lose on the question of standing, the 9th Circuit could decide not to make a ruling on the merits. But proponents and/or Imperial County would almost certainly appeal the decision concerning standing to the Supreme Court.

Should the Supreme Court rule that either of those parties has standing, it would then send the question on the merits of the appeal back to the 9th Circuit for a decision.

That eventual decision on the merits from the 9th Circuit could then be appealed to the Supreme Court. Wild guess timetable for a decision from the Supreme Court on merits with this scenario? 2014.

© 2010 by Keen News Service. All rights reserved.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 3, 2010.

Ceara Sturgis

SHELIA BYRD  |  Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. — A school district wants a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by a lesbian who claimed her rights were violated because the senior photograph of her in a tuxedo was left out of the high school yearbook.

The Copiah County School District said in court documents that Ceara Sturgis didn’t identify a constitutional right that had been violated in the suit filed in August.

“Ms. Sturgis has no constitutionally protected right to appear in the yearbook at all, let alone in a protected right to appear in the senior photo section wearing a tuxedo,” according to the documents filed Friday, Oct. 1.

The district has asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Ball to dismiss the case, and referenced a similar 2002 lawsuit in Florida that had been dismissed by a federal judge. That case, though, was later appealed and a settlement was reached.

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on Sturgis’s behalf, said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that discrimination based on gender stereotypes is illegal.

“We brought this case because no student should have to compromise her identity in order to participate in an activity, like the yearbook, that is essential to the high school experience,” said Christine P. Sun, senior counsel with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project.

“It’s peculiar that the school district would rely so heavily on that one judge’s decision in Florida, since that decision was appealed and eventually led to the district changing its discriminatory policy in a settlement agreement,” Sun said.

The suit names the district, superintendent Rickey Clopton and Wesson Attendance Center principal Ronald Greer. Clopton didn’t immediately respond to calls seeking comment Monday.

Sturgis, who is now attending Copiah-Lincoln Community College, graduated from Wesson Attendance Center this past spring. While other photographs of her were in the yearbook, her name and photograph were left out of the senior section.

The ACLU’s suit claimed the district discriminated against her on the basis of sex and gender stereotypes.

Female students could only wear drapes in the yearbook portraits and males wore tuxedos. Sturgis has dressed in masculine clothing for years, and said she wasn’t comfortable in the drapes.

The district’s motion referenced a similar case in Hillsborough County, Fla.

In 2002, Nicole Youngblood, then 17, sued the county’s school board and school district because she wasn’t allowed to wear a white shirt, tie and jacket instead of a drape in her senior portrait, court records show.

The suits filed by Youngblood and Sturgis both claimed discrimination under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on gender.

U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew dismissed Youngblood’s lawsuit in September 2002, saying there was no constitutionally protected right involved in the school’s decision regarding senior yearbook portraits.

A settlement was reached after Youngblood appealed the judge’s decision, said Linda Cobbe, spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Public Schools.

As part of the settlement, the district now gives its seniors two weeks to appeal their principal’s dress policies, said Cobbe.

“We’ve had nothing exactly like that again. We’ve had students who wanted to wear the clothing of other gender for dances, and I think they allowed it,” Cobbe said.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker speaks during Dallas Pride on Sunday, Sept. 19. (Photo courtesy Steve Krueger)

DAVID TAFFET | Staff Writer taffet@dallasvoice.com

Houston Mayor Annise Parker said she was delighted to be asked to come to Dallas to be Honorary Grand Marshal of the Pride parade. And she was a little surprised other cities hadn’t asked her.

“It’s a little hot outside,” she said soon after arriving in Dallas. “We do our parade at night for a reason.”

Parker said she forgot to bring a hat, but she never wears hats in Houston. Her reason sounded a bit like another Texas Democrat, Ann Richards.

“My hat covers the hair,” she said. “They have to see the hair.”

Unlike many gay or lesbian politicians, she didn’t come out after successfully launching her political career. She said she started as a lesbian activist on the front lines.

“I was debating the nutballs in public,” she said.

Parker came out in high school. In college she founded Rice University’s first LGBT group and began her political career as president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.

During each campaign, the GLBT Political Caucus and her partner, Kathy Hubbard, have always been included in her literature.

“That way I owned it,” she said. “Kathy describes our relationship as not being out of the closet but being out on the front lawn,” she said.

The election received an overwhelming amount of media coverage.

“It’s unprecedented for an election for mayor of Houston to make the front cover of the Times of India,” she said. “It was difficult to slog through. It was a distraction at the beginning.”

Parker said she doesn’t think most of Texas was as surprised by her election as the rest of the country or the world. She mentioned a number of lesbian elected officials around the state including Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez.

She attributed her victory to a number of factors. Houston always elects moderate Democrats, she said.

Of the seven candidates running in the general election, she started with the highest name recognition. This was her eighth election and her opponent’s first.

“He made some rookie mistakes,” she said. “He got distracted. He got in bed with the right-wing hate-mongers.”

The week before coming to Dallas, Parker had been in New York and met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She said he joked that he was partially responsible for her win. Had he stepped aside, Christine Quinn, the lesbian who heads New York’s city council, would have probably made a bid for office.

“All the gay money across the country would have flown to New York,” she said.

Actually, most of Parker’s donations were local, and while she didn’t have the most money for her campaign, she had a greater number of donations than her six opponents combined.

Parker seems to be settling into her new position.

She strengthened the city’s non-discrimination policies by executive order. Her revisions included gender identity and expression and extended protection to all city-run facilities.

Partner benefits for city employees can only be granted by popular vote in that city. She said she expects that the LGBT community will soon begin collecting signatures to bring that proposition to a vote and said she would like to be able to include Hubbard on her insurance.

Parker said that in effect she is making less than Bill White did as mayor because she has to pay for Hubbard’s health insurance.

With 2.2 million constituents, Parker said she couldn’t be just the gay mayor, but she would continue to use her position to advance LGBT rights when possible. She helps raise money and speaks for the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund around the country and said their training was extremely helpful.

And Parker said Houston has benefited from being the largest city in the world with a lesbian mayor. Her recent trade mission to China is an example.

Earlier in the year, Parker was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most powerful people in the world. She said she never would have made the list had she been “just another white guy.” One of China’s top trade officials was also on the list.

In August, Parker led a trade delegation to China. The Chinese trade official, she said, probably met with her because both were on the list and because of the curiosity factor. Men hold most government positions in China, she said, not out lesbians.

She said that while that was how her being a lesbian has benefited Houston, she can also use her position as a bully pulpit.

She may make a return trip to China where Houston and Moscow are competing to bring a convention to their cities. She said she hopes the mayor of Moscow is there and that Houston wins the convention over his city.

Parker said she plans on calling the Moscow mayor out on his terrible treatment of gays and lesbians. Among other things, he has canceled permits for Pride parades in the city and last weekend had his city’s best-known gay activist arrested.

With the November election approaching, Parker said she is remaining officially neutral in the state’s races.

“To represent my city I have to get along with everyone,” she said.

As mayor of the state’s largest city, Parker said she’s had more contact lately with Gov. Rick Perry than former Houston mayor Bill White.

“But I am absolutely livid that Rick Perry has an attack ad on Bill White that features me,” she said. “I don’t want to be used as a wedge in that campaign.”

Parker said that Perry used a quote of something she said while controller. She said it was not out of context and might have even been impolitic to say at the time. But she described her relationship with White as a good working relationship despite a disagreement on a particular issue at one time during their three terms in office together.

Parker maintains a high popularity rating in Houston and said she thinks her city is getting used to their new high-profile mayor. Among the reasons, she said, is that she is the only mayor of a major American city who hasn’t had to lay off any workers.

Parker did admit just one area where Dallas beats Houston — light rail. However, she said the two cities are working together to get a high-speed rail link built between them.

In January, Parker and Hubbard will celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Parker said one thing Hubbard did not share with her was the parenting gene. It took several years before she convinced Hubbard they should be parents.

They have raised three children together. Their foster son was an openly gay teen who they took in at age 16. Later, they adopted their two daughters at ages 12 and 7. Their younger daughter is 15 now and still at home. Her son, who is now 34, rode in the car in the parade with her.

Houston’s mayors serve two-year terms so Parker will be running for re-election next year.