Lawyers for a national religious liberty group said they plan to appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former Eastern Michigan University graduate who said she was kicked out of a master’s program because she refused on religious grounds to counsel a homosexual client.
As Change.org's Adam Amir put it, the Obama administration has tossed the gay and transgender communities a few more crumbs. First, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan announced earlier this month that the agency would pursue cases of housing discrimination against LGBT tenants.
Now there's news that HUD is expanding its interpretation of federal housing policy to include protections for gender identity.
Sen. John Kerry renewed his effort to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revise its current policy barring all gay men from donating blood.
"It’s past time that we examine scientifically and medically sound alternatives to the blanket ban on gay men giving blood," Kerry said at the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee hearing on Monday.
National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director Sharon Lettman responds to the comments made last month on ABC's The Viewabout black gay & bisexual men and HIV on OutCast Austin, a community radio program with interviews, news and events of interest to the LGBT Community and our allies.
As some of you may already be aware, on June 22, 2010, comments were made on ABC’s “The View” that can be construed as unfair to some, and downright inflammatory to others. The comments stated that the cause for the high rate of newly diagnosed cases of HIV in African American women were due to African American gay and bisexual men.
I spoke with Sharon Lettman, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition to get her reaction to the comments made by D.L.Hughley and Sherri Sheppard. I posed four questions of importance regarding this issue and she answered them candidly.
GBM: What was your initial reaction to the comments made on “The View”?
SL: I was taken aback like everyone else that heard them. My initial reaction was “how can someone who sits in the public eye make comments that could possibly create a negative impact on a group of people that are already stigmatized in society? I believe that everyone is entitled to make a mistake, however, if you don’t correct the mistake, you run the risk of further alienating a portion of society that are already presented with challenges just in being.
Jason Goodman didn't set out last year to be the face of gay rights in Lower Merion. He was just a college student looking for a summer job.
Fast-forward one year, and Goodman, 21, who lives in Bala Cynwyd in the township, finds himself at the fore of a small but growing trend in Pennsylvania. He is prodding Lower Merion to join 16 other municipal and county governments in Pennsylvania that have enacted laws protecting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community from discrimination.
NBJC Statement on D.C. Court of Appeals Same-Sex Marriage Ruling
July 15, 2010 -- This morning, the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld the District's same-sex marriage law, ruling in a 5-4 decision that marriage equality opponents cannot put the issue on the ballot. In response to today’s court victory, Sharon J. Lettman, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, released the following statement:
“The long and arduous road to marriage equality in the District culminated with a decided win at the D.C. Court of Appeals today. This is an incredible victory over a dogged, overzealous, and well-funded anti-gay opposition. This ruling comes after many years of hard work by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists, allies and legislators who sought the family protections that marriage confers for their loved ones. Today, we can truly celebrate the unchallenged joy and happiness of the thousands of couples who will flock to Washington, D.C. to marry."
Obama Administration Unveils National HIV/AIDS Strategy
U.S. government officials have formally unveiled the country's first national strategy for fighting HIV/AIDS within its borders. President Barack Obama gave a brief speech about the strategy in front of a group of HIV/AIDS community members at the White House, including NBJC Executive Director Sharon J. Lettman. In a press statement released Wednesday, Lettman commented:
"We are pleased with the direction the Obama Administration is pursuing in its national strategy on fighting HIV and AIDS. We have called for an informed and robust dialogue around the truths about HIV and AIDS, including discussions about safe sex, prevention, public education, and living with HIV/AIDS, among other things. That this is happening at the highest level of government sets the tone for significantly reducing the impact of HIV and AIDS in the Black community and beyond."
NBJC's full Press Statement on this policy is here.
The newly released national HIV/AIDS strategy documents are available as PDFs via The Body:
NBJC Joins GLAAD, Black AIDS Institute in Variety Ad Calling ABC, The View to Take Responsibility for HIV/AIDS Misinformation
Weeks after Perpetuating Falsehoods About African American Gay and Bisexual Men, ABC and The View Still Refuse to Share the Facts
click ad for a larger version
Washington, DC, July 12, 2010 -- In a full-page ad running in today’s Variety Magazine, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Black AIDS Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) call on the ABC Television Network and The View, its popular morning program, to correct misinformation put forth on the June 22 edition of the show.
The ad reads in part, “On June 22, ABC’s The View aired inaccurate information about HIV, blaming African American gay and bisexual men for increased HIV rates among straight African American women. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has publicly disproved this myth. And since June 22, thousands of people have written to ABC, asking that The View provide correct information to viewers. Unfortunately, those requests have been greeted with silence from both ABC and The View.”
In response to The View’s refusal to address the issue, the National Black Justice Coalition’s Executive Director Sharon J. Lettman made this statement:
“We stand by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) years of research, which concludes that there is no evidence supporting the myth that Black women are disproportionately infected by men who have sex with men, and that there are several factors that contribute to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among Black women. Dr. Kevin Fenton, the director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC, a well-regarded expert in the study of HIV/AIDS, has repeatedly debunked this myth.
"It is simply impossible to imagine a survey with such derogatory and insulting wording, assumptions, and insinuations going out about any other minority group in the military."
Many more people took issue with a wide range of the questionnaire's language and framing.
As 
Sen. John Kerry renewed his effort to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revise its current policy barring all gay men from donating blood. 
As some of you may already be aware, on June 22, 2010, comments were made on ABC’s “The View” that can be construed as unfair to some, and downright inflammatory to others. The comments stated that the cause for the high rate of newly diagnosed cases of HIV in African American women were due to African American gay and bisexual men.
