D O M E S T I C
National News
by David Stout. Q-Notes staff
D.P. benefits bill before Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. — National gay lead
ers hailed the introduction of the Domestic
Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act in
the U.S. Congress earlier this month. The leg
islation would provide domestic partner bene
fits for federal employees and their partners.
The bill was introduced by U.S. Reps. Tammy
Baldwin (D-WI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-
FL) and U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
and Susan Collins (R-ME).
The benefits that would be provided
include federal health insurance and
enhanced dental and vision benefits; retire
ment and disability benefits; family, medical
and emergency leave; group life insurance;
long-term care insurance; compensation for
work injuries; and benefits for disability, death
or captivity. It is unclear at this time when the
bill may come up for consideration in either
chamber. Rea Carey, executive director of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action
Fund, applauded the bill’s introduction, but
decried the fact that the government is playing
catch-up with the measure.
“Currently, the majority of Fortune 500
companies, 16 states and over 200 local gov
ernments offer their employees domestic
partner benefits. It is unconscionable that the
federal government, the country’s largest
civilian employer, does not provide these
benefits,” she said.
“The time has come to rectify this injustice
and provide domestic partner benefits for fed
eral employees. Thankfully, through House
and Senate leadership, this legislation would
provide vital benefits to many lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender federal employees.”
HIV+ man sues retirement home
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Rev. Dr. Robert
Franke, a 75-year-old retired university
provost and Unitarian minister, relocated here
to be closer to his daughter, Sara Franke
Bowling. Franke moved into Fox Ridge of
North Little Rock, an assisted hving facility,
after fulfilling all residency requirements —
including submitting medical evaluation
forms from a local physician.
Rev. Dr. Robert Franke and his daughter
Sara Franke Bowling have filed a suit in
Arkansas with the help of Lambda Legal.
But the day after Franke moved in. Fox
Ridge officials forced him from the facility
when they learned he has HIV, despite the fact
that he requires no special medical attention
beyond daily medication and regular check
ups with a physician. A Fox Ridge staffer went
so far as to tell Bowling that her father’s per
sonal effects could stay, but that the “body”
had to be out by the end of the day.
Lambda Legal filed suit in U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
against Fox Ridge, on behalf of Franke and
Bowling. The group is suing for damages
under Ae Fair Housing Act, the Arkansas Civil
Rights Act and the Arkansas Fair Housing Act
and, by seeking intervention from the court,
intend to prevent Fox Ridge from continuing to
engage in this kind of discriminatory conduct.
“I was stunned,” Bowling said. “The people
at Fox Ridge were supposed to make sure that
[my father] was comfortable and cared for,
and instead they shunned and rejected him,
making him feel like a complete outcast.”
Fox Ridge is licensed by the state to pro
vide Dr. Franke with the kind of assistance he
and his daughter were seeking for him.
“This isn’t about money to me,” says
Franke. “1 want to make sure something like
this doesn’t happen to anyone else —
because no one should ever be made to feel
the way I did.”
Schools’ sued for web censorship
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The American Civil
Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee
sued two Tennessee school districts in federal
court May 19, charging the schools are uncon
stitutionally blocking students from accessing
online information about LGBT issues.
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools,
Knox County Schools and as many as 105
other school districts in Tennessee use
Internet filtering software to block websites
containing pro-LGBT speech, but not websites
touting so-called “reparative therapy” and “ex
gay” ministries.
The “LGBT” filter is not used to block sites
containing pornography, which are filtered
under a different category, but it does block
the sites of many well-known LGBT organiza
tions including Parents, Families, And Friends
of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Gay
Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
and Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
“Allowing access to websites that present
one side of an issue while blocking sites that
present the other side is illegal viewpoint dis
crimination,” said Catherine Crump, a staff
attorney with the ACLU First Amendment
Working Group and lead attorney on the case.
“This discriminatory censorship does nothing
to make students safe from material that may
actually be harmful, but only hurts them by
making it impossible to access important edu-
cationd material.”
The ACLU filed the case in the U.S.
District Court for the Middle District of
Tennessee on behalf of two high school stu
dents in Nashville, one student in Knoxville
and a high school librarian in Knoxville who
is also the advisor of the school’s Gay-Straight
Alliance (GSA).
“Students need to be able to access infor
mation about their legal rights or what to do if
they’re being harassed at school,” said Keila
Franks, a 17-year-old student at Hume-Fogg
High School in Nashville and a plaintiff on the
case. “It’s completely unfair for schools to keep
students in the dark about such important
issues and treat websites that just offer infor
mation like they’re something dirty.” I
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Saturday July 4, 2009
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MAY 30.2009 • QNotes 9