Former Miss Alabama and Miss America Dr. Deidre Downs is about to have a baby girl with her wife, Abbott, so congratulations Deidre. You’ve come a long way since 2005.
THE MINISTRIES WE LOVE TO HATE
Here’s a fun one. You know the Southern Poverty Law Center, right? They’re the ones who, among other things, maintain a list of official hate groups based on a range of unpleasant criteria to the general annoyance of most organizations that find themselves so categorized. One of those organizations is the antigay Coral Ridge Ministries, also known as Dr. James Kennedy Ministries, which was dropped from the list of charities eligible to get money from Amazon’s Smile fundraising drive. Coral Ridge sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for defamation, and then sued Amazon for discrimination, losing on both counts.
In a unanimous decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, (normally not friends of Dorothy so to speak), a three-judge panel ruled that the SPLC did not label Coral Ridge maliciously, and thus did not meet the legal standard for defamation. As for the AmazonSmile Foundation, the court ruled that private charities are allowed to pick and chose their own beneficiaries; indeed they have a First Amendment right to include or exclude whoever they like. In other words, Coral Ridge was sent packing. Hah!
Meanwhile, before we weave the wonderful world of winning wawsuits, last month saw another fine decision from an Illinois state appellate court, ruling that our friends at Hobby Lobby violated the state’s civil rights law in refusing to allow a transgender staff member to use the women’s bathrooms. The employee in question, Meggan Sommerville, was denied access to the ladies room for years after transitioning, even as Hobby Lobby recognized her female name and gender identity. The unanimous decision was a textbook recounting of recent precedent in favor of including transgender men and women in civil rights statutes that protect employees and others on the basis of sex and/or sexual orientation.
Lambda Legal’s litigation director, Camilla Taylor, said the decision was “sweeping” and would be cited in future cases. “The court went out of its way to knock down every justification for treating trans people differently in public,” she told NBC News. “It made it clear there’s no justification.”
BAD BOARD MEMBERS, NO PINOT GRIGIO!
There are always a number of rainbow flag stories circulating somewhere every month that another issue of THE FIGHT goes to press, but in mid-August, a story out of Oregon caught the public’s imagination. On a 4-3 vote, the Newberg public school district some twenty miles south of Portland voted to ban Rainbow, as well as Black Lives Matter signs, flags and clothing, along with anything else that could be considered “political” or “divisive.”
Please note, dear readers, that the only way such symbols could “divide” the student body would be if a contingent of kids believe that Black Lives don’t matter, and that GLBT students should return to the closets of the previous century. Regardless, this situation got national press after local farm owners erected their own giant progressive flag on a hillside that overlooks the main high school.
Yesterday I was listening to a version of this story on NPR and heard one kid, who supports the ban, explain that he was tired of being surrounded by political images, including GLBT symbols, and that he was starting to feel overwhelmed and pressured by it all. That interview inspired me to cover Newberg rather than toss it into my mental scrap heap along with another dozen rainbow flag situations, because this pompous little high school creep makes me want to scream. And kowtowing to self-centered straight white teenaged boys is no way to improve society. On the other hand, a little pressure might help.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, just passed a strong GLBT civil rights bill, roughly five years after an earlier version of same led state lawmakers to pass the Tobacco State’s infamous bathroom bill that reversed gender rights and outlawed local protections in the future. That anti-gay and anti-trans law, in turn, triggered national boycotts against North Carolina from companies and sports teams alike. Eventually, the law was repealed, although the state legislature included a moratorium on new local civil rights measures.
The moratorium expired in December, and Charlotte has become the tenth city in the state to pass an inclusive non-discrimination ordinance. This time, the legislature does not seem inclined to take issue with the protections, although I did notice that lawmakers recently decided to lift the age requirement for marriage from 14 to 16. That’s progress, right?
Up until now, pregnant 14-year-old Tar Heels have been allowed to wed with a judge’s permission. Now they will have to wait until 18, unless they are 16, have their parent’s permission and are marrying someone within four years of their age. Guys? Just make it 18 for Christ’s sake! As for pregnant 14-year-olds, I’m not even going to go there. These are the same state authorities that hoped you and I would never have the chance to marry our partners, ever.
I have to point out that while Charlotte was doing its thing, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, managed to vote down an inclusive civil rights ordinance on a 5-4 council vote. As I went to check that vote count, I couldn’t help but notice that a state legislator named Thad McClammy has just died in a hospital at age 78. I checked him out, and he was a Democrat, with a nice low rating from the conservative union, so God rest his soul. But I had to cover him because I had to let you know that there (once) existed a politician from Alabama named Thad McClammy.
And to conclude, while we’re in Alabama, you should know that, earlier this year, Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill that strips antigay language from the state’s education code, removing text that, for example, called homosexuality an unacceptable lifestyle and a crime under state law. So yes, is nice that they cleaned that up a bit. But really!
Oh, and former Miss Alabama and Miss America Dr. Deidre Downs is about to have a baby girl with her wife, Abbott, so congratulations Deidre. You’ve come a long way since 2005. n
