Florida Agenda

By RORY BARBAROSSA

NEW YORK, NY – The growing support for LGBT rights among American corporate leaders is turning into tangible results for the nation’s LGBT workers, with a growing number of blue chips and other companies offering non-fiduciary benefits and other forms of compensation to their LGBT workforces, and their partners: married, domestic, or what have you.

For example, Ernst & Young, one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, is one of about three-dozen companies that now compensate their LGBT employees because of a provision in the tax code that requires them to pay income taxes on their partners’ health benefits—an amount that straight married couples are not required to pay. Approximately three-dozen companies now offer the so-called “gross-up benefit,” which, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports, is close to three times as many that offered the benefit just twelve months ago.

HRC reports that other companies that began offering the benefit as of Jan. 1 include American Express, Bank of America, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Both HRC and legal experts say that the tax requirement is a federal issue, and therefore trumps even laws in states that recognize gay marriage. “Four letters,” says Chris J. Mancini, a Broward County attorney who has represented many LGBT clients on domestic partnership issues. “D-OM- A.” Mancini, a former federal prosecutor, notes that the federal Defense of Marriage Act does not recognize same-sex couples as being married, even in the eight states that have legalized marriage equality.

“Under DOMA and its federal spousal definitions, a man on his wife’s health plan doesn’t pay federal taxes on his share of benefits, but a man on his husband’s plan does,” Mancini explains.

“Big Five” accounting firm Ernst & Young has offered benefits to same-sex domestic partners since 2002. The matter of the tax inequity came up during a town hall meeting held in November by the company’s diversity department. According to HRC estimates, the gross-up benefit provides an extra $1,200 on average to an employee’s family. Competitors KPMG and Pricewaterhouse Coopers have likewise added the gross-up benefit gay employees and their partners.

Bank of America offered domestic partner health benefits beginning in 1998: the company added the tax benefit this year for both domestic partners of employees and eligible children.

NEW YORK, NY  – With a goal of ending “casual homophobia in sports,” the You Can Play Project has launched a campaign of public service announcements with the message that athletes should be judged on their athletic abilities, not their sexual orientation. The campaign has the backing of a number of influential sports figures, including professional athletes with the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Project was created by Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers professional hockey team. Burke’s brother, Brendan, came out to his family and friends while he was playing for the Miami University of Ohio hockey team. The Burkes’ father, Brian, is an outspoken sports figure who was the General Manager of the Anaheim Ducks NHL team at the time. The elder Burke supported his son Brendan’s efforts to erase the persistence of locker room homophobia.

Those efforts were cut short tragically when Brendan Burke was killed in a 2010 car accident.
Patrick Burke founded the You Can Play Project in order to build alliances between straight and gay athletes, and fans of sports, to get across the message that homophobia is not okay, on the field or in the locker room.

Several PSAs have been shot already, which include NHL All-Star players and Burke’s father, Brian, who is now the GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first announcement debuted last weekend on NBC during the first intermission of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins game.

“The goals for ‘You Can Play’ are clear,” said founder Patrick Burke. “We want to make locker rooms safe for all athletes, rather than places of fear, slurs and bullying. The casual homophobia in sports has to change, so all athletes know that what counts is whether you can play the game.”
Professional hockey star Andy Miele, who won last year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) award as the nation’s top men’s college hockey player, was a friend of Brendan Burke’s while they attended Miami University.

“The reason why I wanted to be a part of You Can Play is pretty obvious. I had a relationship with Brendan, and if he was still here he would want to promote this more than anyone else,” said Miele, who plays for the Phoenix Coyotes. “I felt privileged when Patrick came to me and asked me to be a part of it and I look forward to investing this into players all over the world to make the sports world safe for gay athletes.”

More than 30 NHL players have volunteered to support You Can Play’s PSA campaign. Burke says that the Project has contacted players and officials with several other sports associations and leagues, and that You Can Play will soon encompass all sports and their athletes and fans.

ALBANY, NY – New York Supreme Court Judge Robert Wiggins has agreed to allow the organization, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom to proceed with their lawsuit seeking to overturn the passage of the state’s same-sex marriage law.

The judge’s four-page decision was critical of Governor Andrew Cuomo for issuing a “message of necessity” that rushed the legislation onto the Senate floor on the final evening of session. In the case of same-sex marriage, the message stated that speed was required as long as 50,000 New York gay couples were being denied their right to marry, a set of circumstances that had pertained for the previous 200 years without prompting emergency action.

However, Wiggins admits that since the Senate accepted the message, the matter isn’t one for the courts to meddle in.

NEW YORK, NY – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA), announced that Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) was awarded an Innovative Senior Center (ISC) contract to open the nation’s first full-time center for LGBT older adults. SAGE is the country’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBT older adults. The SAGE Center, slated to open in January 2012, will include program sites in all five New York City boroughs bringing a comprehensive array of services and support to LGBT elders throughout the city.

The new Center will offer hot meals, programs covering issues from health and wellness to workplace skills, comprehensive social services, a wide range of social activities, and much more.

“SAGE is honored to have this opportunity to strengthen the programs and services we offer to address the unique needs of LGBT older people in New York City,” said Michael Adams, Executive Director of SAGE in a written statement. “Opening The SAGE Center has been our dream for many years. We are thrilled to be part of a bold initiative that emphasizes innovation in aging services; SAGE is committed to building program models that can be replicated in New York City and nationwide.”

NEW YORK, NY – Following in the footsteps of California, advocates rallied on the steps of the New York City hall last week calling for city schools to teach key moments in LGBT history and portray their contributions in American History.

According to New York 1, a resolution has been introduced asking the state’s Department of Education to implement such a curriculum and acquire the textbooks needed to teach it. The announcement was made on National Coming Out Day.

DOE officials said they already include the works of many gay artists in class discussions and even have schools named after gay leaders like Bayard Rustin and Harvey Milk.

NEW YORK, NY – In what has been described as a brave move, one of New York’s bravest is busting out of the box and becoming the first transgender firefighter in the city’s history.

According to the New York Post, the male-to-female firefighter has been openly welcomed by the FDNY, even as a Brooklyn judge handling a discrimination lawsuit against the department has blasted it for its lack of diversity.

Country Music Star Comes Out in Favor of Gay Rights

NEW YORK, NY – In an interview on the cable television show “CMT Insider” last weekend, country music star Toby Keith spoke out in favor of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” although he did question the safety of females who are sent to the front lines of battle.
“That whole gay issue thing, that’s never bothered me,” he told CMT Insider correspondent Allison DeMarcus. “I’ve never seen what that affects and [why] anybody should care — and they never do affect me.”

He then continued, “First of all, we’re going to stop somebody from getting a marriage license because they’re gay? You won’t stop them from living together, so what have you accomplished

? Wasting a lot of money here and a lot of time that could be spent working on this deficit that we’re under. I never saw the reasoning behind getting in people’s personal lives.”

LEDYARD, NY – Claiming that God has condemned homosexuality as a sin, Ledyard, New York, Town Clerk Rose Marie Belforti has refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

According to the New York Times, Belforti is at the heart of an emerging test case, as national advocacy groups look to Ledyard for an answer to how the state balances a religious freedom claim by a local official against a civil rights claim by a same-sex couple.

Belforti is being represented by a Christian legal advocacy group based in Arizona. The Alliance Defense Fund is arguing that state law requires New York to accommodate her religious beliefs.

Belforti has arranged for a deputy to issue all marriage licenses by appointment.

NEW YORK, NY – An airman stationed in Germany who, for the last few months has been posting anonymous videos on YouTube under the screen name “AreYouSuprised?” has revealed his identity to ABC News. For months he has been posting videos telling what it was like serving in the military while living under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Last week, immediately following the repeal of DADT, he posted another video, showing his face for the first time, of him calling his father in Alabama, and telling his father he was gay.

The airman, Randy Phillips, spoke with ABC News about coming out and his whole family now knows he’s gay.

“ It feels great.

It’s nice not having to look over your shoulder or worry about who you are talking to,” Phillips told ABC News. “I think everybody knows. I never thought I’d be so comfortable with it. It’s very supportive. Everybody’s been absolutely great.”

Phillips father told ABC News that he wasn’t thrilled that his son put the video clip on YouTube but repeated that he loved his son and always will.

NEW YORK, NY – During the opening session of the United Nations last week, President Barack Obama spoke out in favor of gay rights worldwide:

“And to make sure our societies reach their potential, we must allow our citizens to reach theirs.

No country can afford the cancer of corruption. Together, we must harness the power of open societies and open economies. That is why we have partnered with countries from across the globe to launch a new partnership on open government that helps ensure accountability and empower citizens. No country should deny people their rights, the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere. And no country can realize its potential if half its population cannot reach theirs.”