The Ohio House reversed a $200,000 proposed budget cut to Ohio HIV Drug Assistance Program to a $300,000 increase in funding for OHDAP. State Rep. David Burke, a Republican from Marysville, is credited with the change.

Last week, Equality Ohio and the Ohio AIDS Coalition sent out an action alert, urging Ohioans to tell their representatives to oppose the proposed funding cut to OHDAP. According to Equality Ohio, 223 Ohioans contacted 71 legislators through its system.

The proposed increase will not eliminate the waiting list for HIV medication in Ohio. Currently, 378 HIV+ Ohioans are on the OHDAP waiting list.

Crossposted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

A federal judge ruled in favor of a lesbian Cuyahoga County, Ohio, employee who sued the county for discriminating against her because of her sexual orientation.

Shari Hutchinson, who works for the county child support enforcement agency, sued the county because she believes she was denied promotions based on her sexual orientation and administrators retaliated against her when she complained.

U.S. District Judge James Gwin ruled that Hutchinson’s claim falls under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which reads: “No state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

But many of Hutchinson’s claims were thrown out because of a two year statue of limitations. The judge also rejected her complaint that the county discriminated by denying her a maximum $100-per-paycheck credit for opting out the county health plan, which is awarded to married employees. Hutchinson, who opted out in favor of her domestic partner’s insurance plan, said to the Cleveland Plain Dealer the “program’s failure to provide a similar opt-out incentive for the county’s homosexual employees amounts to sexual orientation discrimination.”

Ohio does not have employment non-discrimination legislation for LGBT people who are not state employees; however, Cuyahoga County has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation.

The case will now proceed to trial, and the burden is still on Hutchinson to prove her claims.

Crossposted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

Ohio has two important pro-LGBT equality bills that have been or will soon be introduced in the current legislative session:

Comprehensive Safe Schools Act
State representatives Nickie Antonio, a Democrat from Lakewood, and Michael Stinziano, a Democrat from Columbus, introduced the Comprehensive Safe Schools Act in April.

Ohio House Bill 208 defines actual or perceived sexual orientation as well as gender identity and expression as traits commonly exploited by bullies, and calls for these characteristics to be specifically mentioned in anti-bullying policies in Ohio schools. Other protected statuses include age, color, creed, national origin, race, religion, marital status, gender, physical attributes, physical or mental ability or disability, ancestry, political preference, political belief, socioeconomic status and familial status.

This legislation would give schools jurisdiction over cyberbullying and harassment through other electronic means. It would also require school districts to provide anti-bullying training to staff and volunteers, so they know their legal responsibilities to prevent and respond to bullying.

Equal Housing and Employment Act
The Ohio House approved the Equal Housing and Employment Act (a state-level Employment Non-Discrimination Act) in the last legislative session, the first pro-LGBT equality legislation to pass any chamber of the Ohio General Assembly. The bill saw no movement in the Ohio Senate, so it died when the current legislature took office in January. A version of this bill will be reintroduced this year.

Lobby Day 2011
The Comprehensive Safe Schools Act and Equal Housing and Employment Act won’t get anywhere if Ohioans don’t talk to our lawmakers. Equality Ohio is asking constituents to join them for the sixth Lobby Day to tell your state elected officials LGBT people and our allies live throughout Ohio, and we support this legislation. (For more on the importance of talking to lawmakers, read Equality Ohio Director Ed Mullen’s account of his first lobby day in Illinois.)

Equality Ohio Lobby Day 2011 is slated for May 18, in Columbus.

Crossposted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

An Akron-area 13-year-old took his own life Feb. 23, after relentless bullying and rumors that he was gay.

Nicholas Kelo Jr., a Rittman High School freshman, gave up football to play tenor sax in the high school band. Classmates then assumed Kelo must be gay if he preferred band to football, escalating the continued taunting.

The mother of another RHS student, whose son is also a victim of bullying, recalls a teammate spitting on Kelo during a school bus ride home after a football game.

Kelo’s mother was aware of the bullying and had even visited the school twice this year to address the problem with administrators. Other parents of RHS students have come forward after Kelo’s suicide complaining of similar issues.

A fund has been established in Kelo’s honor to help with character education in the district, and all grade levels will have anti-bullying programs built into the curriculum.

This isn’t the only story like this to come out of Northeast Ohio this school year. Students chanted “powder blue faggots” at a Cleveland-area high school football game between rivals Eastlake North High School and Willoughby South High School to taunt the opposing team. Nearby Mentor High School is embroiled in legal trouble after parents of four bullied students, who committed suicide over a two year period, sued the district for not stopping the harassment.

Crossposted form Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

Funding for Stop AIDS Cincinnati case managers will be redistributed to Caracole, a Cincinnati nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Case managers help clients obtain affordable medication (and manage the mountain of paperwork that comes with it), maintain their health and utilize other services like temporary housing. Ryan White Part B funding, federal money allocated to each state, supports case management services for clients living with HIV/AIDS. The Ohio Department of Health distributes these funds to HIV/AIDS service organizations throughout Ohio.

Two weeks ago, the ODH notified Stop AIDS that the $700,000 in Ryan White Part B funding the agency was scheduled to receive for case management services would be granted to another agency, effective April 1.

Stop AIDS is currently working with Caracole to help 1,100 clients make a smooth transition between the agencies.

Crossposted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

The Ohio House approved its version of union-busting Ohio Senate Bill 5 yesterday.

The vote was so wrought with protesters, Tom Niehaus, Ohio Senate president and Southwestern Ohio Republican, had to pause the vote when the audience shouted down individual Republicans who voted for the bill, and again when the audience broke into song.

The Ohio House approved the legislation 53–44. Five House Republicans joined the Democrats in opposing the bill. The Ohio Senate then quickly approved the new version of S.B. 5 by the same 17–16 vote it used to initially pass the bill. The law is now on Gov. John Kasich’s desk, and he has promised to sign the bill into law, via Facebook no less:

S.B. 5 weakens collective-bargaining rights for about 360,000 public-union workers by prohibiting public-worker strikes and banning safety forces from using binding arbitration as a way to settle contract disputes. It also eliminates automatic pay increases for longevity and replaces it with a merit pay system for all public workers, and layoffs no longer can be based solely on seniority.

Not only does S.B. 5 crush labor, as an added bonus, it would also jeopardize domestic partner benefits extended to LGBT public workers, including school and university employees. As the bill reads now, the language of section 3101.01 that defines marriage as between one man and one women mirrors existing statutes. But the vague subsequent clauses could rescind domestic partner benefits won by employees through collective bargaining, depending on how S.B. 5 is interpreted.

S.B. 5 creates a system for current collective bargaining agreements to be dissolved, and it prohibits future collective bargaining, particularly for health benefits. If S.B. 5 becomes law, collective bargaining will no longer be a tool for public employees to negotiate domestic partner benefits — a tool that has had some success at public universities in Ohio, including the University of Cincinnati.

Opponents of the legislation have vowed to collect the more-than 230,000 signatures needed to recall S.B. 5 on the November ballot. If the adequate number of signatures is collected within 90 days of the governor signing the bill, S.B. 5 would not take effect until Ohioans vote on it.

Proponents of S.B. 5 and legislation like it in other states have repeatedly said it is time for public employees partake in the shared sacrifice of the recession and take a hit like everyone else. For public employees the sweet life they will soon be over because the government is strapped for cash and just can’t pay them the exorbitant salaries and benefits they used to. Some lawmakers even shamed union members for being so greedy as to expect decent pay and benefits, saying workers should be grateful to even have a job in a state with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent. (This video sums up these attitudes nicely.)

But these comments are not only ridiculously offensive and ironic (I haven’t seen any bills to cut lawmaker or government higher-ups pay or benefits. In fact, some even got raises.), they are easily debunked. American companies are producing and profiting more now than when the recession began, despite employing fewer workers, because Americans are doing more work for less pay. Two-thirds of American corporations pay no federal income taxes. And seeing as corporations are people in the eyes of the law, shouldn’t they share the sacrifice like the rest of us? Or at the very least, pay their taxes? Then the government would not be in such dire straits and wouldn’t be forced enact laws like S.B. 5.

Cross-posted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

March marks National Women’s History Month, and it really started off with a bang. The Ohio House saw testimony from a 9-week-old fetus, supporting the “Heartbeat Bill,” which would ban abortions after a fetus’s heartbeat can be medically detected. The testimony was delivered via an ultrasound on a pregnant woman, but the testifying fetus’s heartbeat was undetectable.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat, reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment with support for reproductive freedom. ERA guarantees “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The White House released a report, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, of how women are faring in the United States today and how their lives have changed since the last report in 1963. The results:

* Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance, but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a graduate degree.
* Gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity. At all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009. These economic inequities are even more acute for women of color.
* Women live longer than men but are more likely to face certain health problems, such as mobility impairments, arthritis, asthma, depression, and obesity.
* Women are less likely than in the past to be the target of violent crimes, including homicide, but women are still victims of crimes such as intimate partner violence and stalking at higher rates than men.

Ohioans showed up in droves Tuesday to protest union-busting state Senate Bill 5, which would effectively remove collective bargaining rights for state employees, criminalize a strike, and endanger domestic partner benefits. The Senate approved S.B. 5 Wednesday, in a 17-16 vote. Hearings on the bill in the House are expected to begin next week.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Westboro Baptist Church, the “God hates fags” group, can picket military funerals under the 1st Amendment. In an 8-1 vote, the justices indicated the organization has the right to promote a broad-based message on public affairs, such as war.

An anti-bullying bill — that would prohibit bullying based on a student’s sexual orientation, race or religion — is currently stalled in the Kentucky House. GOP Rep. Mike Harmon has filed an amendment to the bill that would allow students to condemn other students’ sexualities as long as that expression of a religious belief does not include physical harm or damaging property.

X-posted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know

March marks National Women’s History Month, a celebration of the often overlooked contributions women have made to history. The month evolved from National Women’s History Week, established in 1978 by the Education Task Force of Sonoma County, Calif., to coincide with International Women’s Day.

Women’s History Week was met with positive response, and the next year, leaders from the California group shared their project with a women’s history initiative at Sarah Lawrence College. From there, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Alaska, New York, Oregon and other states developed curriculum in all their public schools.

Within a few years, thousands of schools and communities marked National Women’s History Week. They planned engaging and stimulating programs about women’s roles in history and society, with support and encouragement from governors, city councils, school boards and the U.S. Congress.

In 1981, Congress issued a joint resolution supporting Women’s History Week. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to expand the celebration to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women’s History Month resolution has been approved every year with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

And of course, women’s history and struggles, as well as the history and struggles of other marginalized groups, should be recognized everyday — not just once a year.

X-posted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion, turns 38 today.

The court ruled 7-2 in favor of Roe, extending the right to privacy clause in the 14th Amendment to a person’s choice to have an abortion. The ruling also indicated the right to an abortion must be balanced with the state’s interest to protect prenatal life and the mother’s health.

The crux of the Roe v. Wade decision is a person’s right to have an abortion until a fetus is viable, defined in the ruling as a fetus “potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid.” This is usually  at about seven months or 28 weeks.

Several states — Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota — have trigger laws that would automatically criminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Other states did not repeal pre-1973 laws criminalizing abortion, which could be enforced if the decision is overturned.

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada and Washington have statutes legalizing abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Many states have skirted the ruling by imposing limitations on access to  abortions, such as requiring an ultrasound of the fetus or parental permission before performing the procedure for minors.

There is currently legislation in the Ohio House to ban all abortions after 22 weeks — before the time a woman carrying a planned for and/or wanted pregnancy could find out if she faces complications or a fetal anomaly. NARAL Ohio is urging pro-choice Ohioans to tell the House this legislation is unacceptable by writing their Representative.

X-posted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.

Ohio University is adding gender-neutral housing to its residence options for the next school year.

Gender-neutral housing allows on-campus residents of any gender to choose to live together, instead of compulsory same-sex roommates. While any student can take advantage of the gender-neutral housing option, it is usually implemented to help LGBT students feel more comfortable living on campus.

Ohio University will make coed rooms available on specific floors of MacKinnon, Smith and Truedley, accommodating about 50 students during the 2011-2012 school year.

The Columbus College of Art & Design, Miami University and Oberlin College have a gender-neutral housing option. Denison University and Wright State University are studying the possibility.

X-posted from Stuff Queer People Need To Know.