Photo Credit: Pete Souza, The White House/Public Domain.
Clinton: I signed DOMA to prevent ban
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Writing in an op-ed in The Washington Post on March 7, President Bill Clinton said he signed the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 in order to “defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more.”
Clinton’s op-ed comes barely a month before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments against DOMA.
“On March 27, DOMA will come before the Supreme Court, and the justices must decide whether it is consistent with the principles of a nation that honors freedom, equality and justice above all, and is therefore constitutional,” wrote Clinton. “As the president who signed the act into law, I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those principles and, in fact, incompatible with our Constitution.”
Clinton also wrote that the bill he signed has become a tool “providing an excuse for discrimination.” He wrote, “It should be overturned.”
Log on to goqnotes-launch2.newspackstaging.com/clintonmarriage/ to read the full op-ed.
— Matt Comer
Poll: Texas voters on marriage
AUSTIN, Texas — Support for marriage equality continues to grow in Texas, as a new poll shows a minor plurality of voters now favor legalizing same-sex marriage.
By a margin of 47.9 percent to 47.5 percent, Texas voters now support the freedom to marry, according to the poll, conducted by Glengariff Group and commissioned by Equality Texas, a statewide LGBT advocacy organization.
The percentage represents an increase of 5.2 percent in support since September 2010.
Support for the freedom to marry increased by 11.3 percent among Independents, increased by 15.7 percent among African Americans, increased by 14.3 percent among 18-29 year-olds and increased by 11.1 percent among those over age 65.
“The updated poll clearly shows that our vision of a state of equality for all Texans is, indeed, a mainstream value shared by the vast majority of Texans,” reported Equality Texas. “This concrete data demonstrates a bipartisan shared vision of equality that crosses all demographic lines, political party affiliation, race, age, and geographic location.”
The survey of 1,000 registered voters has margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence.
— LGBTQ Nation
Chattanooga elects gay councilmember
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Chris Anderson has become Chattanooga’s first openly gay city council person, winning an election on March 5. Anderson beat a two-term incumbent to represent the city’s seventh district.
“We are thrilled for Chris and for the people of Chattanooga, who will benefit from his passion, drive and leadership skills. This is also a huge victory for the LGBT community in southeast Tennessee, who finally have an authentic voice for equality in government,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund.
Anderson is one of only two openly LGBT elected officials in Tennessee.
— Matt Comer
Woman beats son after gay sex act
FOREST HILL, Texas — A Texas woman is facing felony charges for badly beating her 15-year-old son after she caught him receiving oral sex from a male cousin last December.
Police in Forest Hill have charged Erica Moore with assault with bodily injury to a family member and felony child abuse after she admitted to beating her son with with an electrical cord.
Moore said it is a form of discipline she was taught, and that she “doesn’t believe in homosexuality.”
“My cousin at the time, he was 18. My son, he was 15, and I had walked in the room on [my cousin] giving oral sex to my son and I started whooping my son, and I’m the one who got in trouble as a result of me whooping him,” Moore told KTVT-TV.
“The police department told me that it was consensual, but they was committing a homosexual act in my house and we are totally against that. So I whooped my son, and about three or four months later they came and arrested me for abuse,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Forest Hill Police department said that the incident was brought to their attention after the boy’s grandmother had taken him to a local hospital. The staff there alerted Texas Child Protective Services who launched an investigation. Police officials said that Moore’s actions went beyond legally acceptable standards of discipline as she caused bleeding and leaving marks on the boy’s thighs, forearms, hands, torso and back.
— LGBTQ Nation
Mexico court: slurs not protected
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled on March 6 that two words commonly used as anti-gay slurs in the nation are not a protected form of freedom of expression. The court ruled 3-2 in favor of a journalist who in 2010 sued another reporter who had written a column in which the writer called the journalist and others a “puñal” and “maricones.” The words can be translated “fag” and “faggots,” respectively.
The ruling will likely apply only to the words’ use in media.
— Matt Comer, LGBTQ Nation contributed
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