challenges that our community faces daily, I thought I’d take
this opportunity to highlight some good progress that has been made
recently.
The Texas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
honored its LGBT chapter (the only one in the country), known
as the Dallas Rainbow Council, with the statewide Council of the
Year Award. The Texas League has about 200 chapters, and the
Rainbow Council will now be eligible for the national award, which
will be announced in July. The Rainbow Council not only worked to
raise awareness and acceptance of the Latino LGBT community but
also successfully worked toward many of LULAC’s other goals, such
as voter registration, antiviolence protests, and more.
In a huge victory for safe schools work, Florida Governor Charlie
Crist (R) just signed an anti-bullying
and anti-harassment bill, known as The Jeffrey Johnston Stand
Up For All Students Act. The bill was named for a student who
committed suicide after being harassed and bullied with homophobic
slurs for two years. The legislation has been in limbo for three
years, passing through the House but not the Senate, and finally
passed this year. Although it does not state specific categories of
students protected, a Senator who sponsored the bill has gone on
record saying that it is intended to protect against sexual
orientation-based harassment, as well as other kinds of bullying
and harassment.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed last week a lawsuit brought
against Action Wisconsin, an advocacy group, by Grant Storms of
the Reformer Ministries, who alleged that the group defamed him.
Storms was a speaker at the “International Conference on
Homo-Fascism,” and Action Wisconsin widely distributed the video
of his speech, in which he seemed to be advocating the murder of
gays. The court called Storms’ lawsuit “frivolous” and
ordered him to pay Action Wisconsin $87,000 in legal fees.
Finally, in entertainment news, in the stage version of Disney’s
wildly popular “High
School Musical,” the character Ryan Evans, who many
speculated was gay in the movie, will be unambiguously presented as
gay. The character will also save the day at the end of the
musical, creating a strong and successful gay character.