Ind. School District Settles With Trans Student

By Advocate.com Editors

Lambda Legal has reached a settlement with the Gary, Ind., school district, in the case of a transgender student who was barred from attending prom in a dress in 2006, and the district has adopted LGBT-inclusive policies as part of it.

K.K. Logan, who at the time identified as a feminine male and now identifies as female, was physically blocked by the school principal from entering the West Side High School senior prom in May 2006. The principal was enforcing a school policy forbidding the wearing of clothing or accessories that “advertise sexual orientation” or “portray the wearer as a person of the opposite gender,” although a female student was allowed to attend wearing a tuxedo, according to Lambda.

Lambda sued on Logan’s behalf in 2007, contending that the policy violated First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression and that barring Logan from the prom constituted gender discrimination. The settlement, which Lambda announced Friday, provides for monetary compensation to Logan, with the amount not made public, and includes changes to Gary public schools’ dress code and nondiscrimination policies. The policies will now include specific protections for LGBT students, and school administrators and board members will receive training on LGBT issues.

The revised policies “will help to ensure that other students don’t face discrimination because of who they are or what they wear,” said Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney in Lambda’s Chicago office, who handled the case with co-counsel from the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He added that the case should send a clear message to schools around the country.

Read more here.

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Ugandan Gay Activist Murdered

By Julie Bolcer and Andrew Harmon

David Kato, a prominent Ugandan gay rights activist in threatened in October with hanging on the front page of a Kampala newspaper, was found brutally beaten to death Wednesday at his home.

Kato was the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), which confirmed his murder in a news release. He was one of the plaintiffs who won a case against the Rolling Stone newspaper earlier this month (despite a shared title, the Uganda publication has no affiliation with the American magazine).

“David has been receiving death threats since his face was put on the front page of Rolling Stone Magazine, which called for his death and the death of all homosexuals,” said SMUG. “David’s death comes directly after the Supreme Court of Uganda ruled that people must stop inciting violence against homosexuals and must respect the right to privacy and human dignity.”

Mark Bromley of the Council for Global Equality said concerns remain for the safety of the other litigants in the case, who sued the newspaper after it posted "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos," accompanied by the words "Hang Them."

"Our mandate and focus is to make sure that the U.S. government, our State Department, our embassy, and our leaders in Congress to understand and respond to this human rights tragedy," Bromley said.

According to Bromley, State Department officials have been watching the case closely. "Clearly it's a high priority for them," Bromley said. 

The Guardian reports that Kato was bludgeoned to death at his home in the town of Mukono in the afternoon. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the scene in a car.

SMUG called for the police and government to investigate the murder seriously and for religious leaders, politicians, and media to stop demonizing LGBT people. David Bahati, a member of parliament with close connections to American evangelicals, continues to push for a bill that would impose the death penalty on gay people in some circumstances.

Val Kalende, the board chair at Freedom and Roam Uganda, said in the news release,“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S Evangelicals in 2009. The Ugandan Government and the so-called U.S Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

SMUG executive director Frank Mugisha said, “No form of intimidation will stop our cause. The death of David will only be honored when the struggle for justice and equality is won. David is gone and many of us will follow, but the struggle will be won. David wanted to see a Uganda where all people will be treated equally despite their sexual orientation.”

Burial arrangements for Kato are under way for Friday afternoon at his ancestral home in Namataba, Mukono District.

The BBC offers an obituary. Kato was a primary school teacher turned activist who proudly claimed the label of the first out gay Ugandan.

Read Jeff Sharlet's October cover story for The Advocate on the deadly consequences of antigay rhetoric in Uganda.

Update:

U.K. human rights activist Peter Tatchell released the following statement on Kato's murder:

"David will live on in our memories. He will also live on through the rights and equalities that LGBTI Ugandans will win eventually thanks to his many years of tireless groundwork and campaigning. I express my admiration and appreciation to all the members of SMUG who are battling for LGBTI freedom in conditions of great adversity and danger. Their courage and tenacity is awesome.

"This savage killing will, I hope, finally prompt Uganda's political, religious and media leaders to cease their homophobic witch-hunts. Their hatred helps create the bigoted atmosphere that leads to queer-bashing violence."

The U.S. embassy in Kampala has also issued a statement on Kato's death:

"The U.S. extends its sympathies to David's family, friends and human rights colleagues. David's courageous devotion to promoting the universal human rights of members of Uganda's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community improved the lives of minority populations in Uganda and throughout Africa, and his selfless dedication to defending human rights and speaking out against injustice served as inspiration to human rights defenders around the world."

The White House issued this statement from President Obama:

"I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder of David Kato. In Uganda, David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom. The United States mourns his murder, and we recommit ourselves to David’s work.

"At home and around the world, LGBT persons continue to be subjected to unconscionable bullying, discrimination, and hate. In the weeks preceding David Kato’s murder in Uganda, five members of the LGBT community in Honduras were also murdered. It is essential that the Governments of Uganda and Honduras investigate these killings and hold the perpetrators accountable.

"LGBT rights are not special rights; they are human rights. My Administration will continue to strongly support human rights and assistance work on behalf of LGBT persons abroad. We do this because we recognize the threat faced by leaders like David Kato, and we share their commitment to advancing freedom, fairness, and equality for all."

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Ugandan gay activist murdered, another’s life hangs in the balance

David Kato Kisulle

By Jamie McGonnigal

Ugandan activist David Kato Kisulle has been murdered in his home in Kampala, according to the Box Turtle Bulletin and the BBC.

He was found having been beaten in the skull with a hammer a his home and there is little more information than that at this time. What we do know is that Kato was featured in the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, which featured names and photos of gay men under the headline “HANG THEM!”

Kato was one of three plaintiffs seeking a permanent injunction against the tabloid, which was successful. And in recent days, he had told friends of several death threats he’d received and was in fear for his life.

Since the introduction last year of the “Anti-Homosexual Bill” which has come to be known as the “Kill the Gays Bill” has been the topic of outrage from LGBT organizations around the country. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has brought this bill to light in the US and featured the author of the bill, David Bahati in a two-part interview last month.

Today’s murder also highlights an important case regarding Ugandan Brenda Namigadde living in the UK and facing deportation back to Uganda after failed please for asylum. All Out has launched a campaign to keep Brenda in the UK, which may quite literally save her life.

“Kill the Gays Bill” Author Bahati said of Namigadde:

“Brenda is welcome in Uganda if she will abandon or repent her behaviour. Here in Uganda, homosexuality is not a human right. It is behaviour that is learned and it can be unlearned. We wouldn’t want Brenda to be painting a wrong picture of Uganda, that we are harassing homosexuals.”

It would seem Bahati may be correct, Uganda is doing far worse than harassing homosexuals.

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HUD proposes new LGBT anti-discrimination rules in federal housing programs

By Dana Rudolph
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Thursday announced proposed new regulations intended to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in its core housing programs — programs that impact 4.4 million units of housing across the country.

The proposed new rules would:

• Clarify that families who are otherwise eligible for HUD programs may not be excluded because one or more members of the family may be an LGBT individual, have an LGBT relationship, or be perceived to be such an individual or in such relationship.
• Prohibit owners and operators of HUD-assisted or HUD-financed housing from inquiring about applicants’ sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Prevent lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant as a basis to determine eligibility for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages. FHA mortgages represent one-third of all new mortgages in the country.

The first two policies above would apply to HUD’s rental assistance and home ownership programs, including FHA mortgage insurance programs, community development programs, and public and assisted housing programs.

In total, there are currently 4.4 million HUD-funded units of housing in the U.S., said a department spokesperson, including public housing, housing subsidized by the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8 housing), and multi-family housing assisted by HUD funding.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan called the move “a fundamental issue of fairness” and said, in a press briefing, that he wants HUD to be a “leader” in the fight for LGBT equality, as it has been in other civil rights battles.

Last October, HUD announced its intent to institute the new rule as part of a series of measures to address housing discrimination against LGBT people.

HUD also announced last July a clarification of existing policy, stating that, although the Fair Housing Act—a pivotal civil rights act that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and familial status—does not specifically cover sexual orientation- or gender identity-based discrimination, it may still cover them in other ways. For example, gender-identity discrimination may be seen as sex discrimination.

HUD has also instructed staff to inform individuals about state and local LGBT protections that may apply to them. And HUD has told its grant applicants—who seek a total of $3.25 billion in federal funding—they must comply with such state and local laws, where they exist.

There are currently no explicit federal protections that ban housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Twenty states plus the District of Columbia have housing protections specific to sexual orientation, and 13 states plus the District have protections specific to gender identity. Approximately 150 cities, towns, and counties have LGBT protections as well, according to HUD.

No national study has quantified how many LGBT people have faced housing discrimination, although several smaller studies and examples have indicated pervasive discrimination, especially against transgender people and LGBT seniors.

HUD is now preparing a national study to fill this gap. The agency collected input for the study last year via a national listening tour and online submissions. A HUD spokesperson said the target date for reporting findings is late 2012.

HUD may additionally include LGBT discrimination in its decennial study of housing discrimination, which has, in the past, looked at racial- and ethnic-based discrimination.

There is also a move in Congress to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in all housing, not just HUD programs.

At the end of the last session of Congress, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) introduced the Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Act, which would amend the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, or marital status in the sale, rental, financing, or brokerage of housing.

The bill would also expand the Fair Housing Act’s definition of “familial status” to include “anyone standing in loco parentis” to a minor—thus providing protection to same-sex couples and other families where one parent may not be legally recognized.

Individuals seeking redress under the Fair Housing Act may bring a lawsuit in federal district court or file an administrative complaint with HUD.

Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesperson for Nadler, said Nadler hopes to reintroduce the bill in this session of Congress “within the next couple of months.”

Nadler praised HUD’s proposed new rule in a statement, saying that he “[welcomes] the Administration’s more inclusive and expansive view of what defines an American ‘family.’”

With Republican control of the House this session, however, Nadler lost his chairmanship of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. The new chair for the renamed Subcommittee on the Constitution is Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.). Trent received a 0 percent score from the Human Rights Campaign for each of the past two Congresses, indicating he never voted in favor of legislation to further LGBT equality.

The proposed HUD rule must go through a 60-day period of public comment, January 24 to March 25. The date of publication for the final rule will depend upon the volume of comments received, but is expected by the end of 2011, said a department spokesperson.

Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov, or by mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street, SW, Room 10276, Washington, DC 20410-0500.

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AN AUDIENCE WITH STUART MILK

INTERVIEW BY ALEX HOPKINS

Photograph: Stirland Martin

Legends are not easy to live up to. As the nephew of gay hero Harvey Milk, Stuart Milk has taken it upon himself to keep his uncle’s light shining. Yet like the former Mayor of San Francisco, Stuart Milk refuses to rest on his laurels. He is determined to take the struggle for LGBT rights global and thereby continue Harvey’s simple yet infinitely powerful message of providing universal hope.


Stuart Milk was in London this weekend to speak at the second annual vigil against hate crime in Trafalgar Square. As an openly gay man who lost his uncle to violence 32 years ago this November it is a cause close to his heart. With the horrific spate of recent gay suicides in the United States and continuing homophobic violence on both sides of the pond it is also something that he knows has never been more relevant.


Although slightly jet-lagged, Milk’s eyes sparkle with a fearless determination as he talks about the fight that lies ahead. Central to his work is a belief that we must reach out to the international community to forge equal rights. This, he explains, was something that Harvey Milk recognised all those years ago.


“I have recordings of my uncle where he talks about young people hearing his message abroad. These are the people who really felt hopeless and even now I receive pre-suicidal messages from young LGBT individuals.


“We must remember that although 12 nations now recognise gay marriage, 75% of the world remains deeply homophobic. In places like Istanbul and Damascus the societal level of hatred is so pervasive that effeminate men, Trans people and noticeably butch women are forced to pay an extra tax if they buy a cappuccino in a coffee shop. I was shocked to find out that this coffee shop was an American run chain. America is seen to lead the way of LGBT rights and this shows just how influential they are in taking the struggle global.”


The key to meeting the challenges that lie ahead, Milk believes, lies in making allies with other minority communities. He is also adamant that we must accept that current president Barrack Obama is one of our greatest allies and cites his continued attempts to include the LGBT community in public statements and events.


“I think we are at a cross roads with LGBT rights in the United States. Most of our activists are very much to the left and we need to branch out to other communities and find common ground to reach people. We need to give the people who are against us something to hang on to. When you build your life on a dogmatic faith and then ask that faith to embrace LGBT people it is like unravelling a tapestry. It forces them to question and re-evaluate their whole belief system. This is incredibly scary for them and it just means that their intolerance becomes greater. We need to throw them a lifeline.”


This seems to be the message behind this year’s vigil in central London which now focuses on victims of all hate crime and not just homophobia. It very much chimes with Milk’s desire to forge links between all minority communities and seek out the shared obstacles as we tackle cultural barriers.


Last year 10000 people filled Trafalgar Square. Some justifiably commented that the gay bars should have been emptier and a stronger display of societal unity was needed. Apathy amongst the LGBT community remains something we must confront.


“For those who say this doesn’t affect them I would say don’t travel to 75% of the world because you will not be able to walk down the street holding hands in Milan or Rome and you cannot travel to the Middle East and be an openly gay couple without risk of being jailed. You will end up living in a very small bubble,” says Milk. They are firm and thoughtful words that we would all be well-advised to contemplate.

Stuart Milk's stay in the UK was sponsored by Out There magazine, with thanks to The Arch and Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

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