Mississippi’s gay marriage ban challenged in federal court

Mississippi’s gay marriage ban challenged in federal court

By Ashton Pittman October 20, 2014

Deep South Daily

While Becky Bickett and Andrea Sanders apply for a marriage license in Jackson, Mississippi, one of their twin sons – whose adoptions were only completed the day before – makes friends with Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn. Though Dunn said she was required by state law to deny their request for a marriage license, she made a promise: “When the law changes, I’ll change with it.” Their request for a license was part of a series of actions by the We Do Campaign and the Campaign for Southern Equality on March 25, 2014. / Photo by Ashton Pittman

The attorney who successfully  argued for the overturn of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in United States v. Windsor has a new target: Mississippi. Lead counsel Roberta Kaplan filed a suit Monday against Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage on behalf of two Mississippi couples and the Campaign for Southern Equality, which issued an afternoon press release announcing the suit. Kaplan was joined by local counsel Robert McDuff of McDuff & Byrd in Jackson.

“As the lawyers who represented Edie Windsor, we are so honored to be able to file this case today on behalf of Rebecca Bickett, Andrea Sanders, Jocelyn Pritchett, Carla Webb, and the Campaign for Southern Equality,” Kaplan said. “The Supreme Court took a gigantic step forward last year in Windsor, and since then, dozens of courts around the country have followed suit so that today, gay people in thirty-two states have the right to marry.

“It is now time to take the next big step by making sure that gay families in Mississippi are accorded these same protections. The Supreme Court has made it clear that no matter where a gay person lives —whether it is in Maine, Minnesota, or Mississippi—our Constitution requires that they be treated with the same dignity and respect under the law as everyone else.”

The 2013 Windsor ruling overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred the federal government from recognizing gay marriages even when performed in states that recognize them. That ruling set the stage for the barrage of pro-marriage equality rulings that have followed since.

Activists, led by Campaign for Southern Equality Executive Director Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, march for marriage equality in Jackson, Mississippi on March 25, 2014. / Photo by Ashton Pittman

“It’s time we are able to live with legal protections in our home state,” said plaintiff Jocelyn Pritchett, a Mississippi native who shares a son with her partner, Carla Webb. “We love Mississippi – it is home for us and we have many beautiful friends and family members here. We hope to help create a Mississippi that reflects the hospitality of her people – by creating a legally safe environment for all Mississippi families.”

In Mississippi, 26 percent of gay couples are raising children, according to the Williams Institute. That means that – despite Mississippi’s poor record on LGBT rights – Mississippi has the highest proportion of LGBT couples raising children in the United States.

“My family is no less a family than any other,” said plaintiff Rebecca Bickett, who is raising twin sons with her partner Andrea Sanders, who she’s been with for ten years. Despite their long relationship, they have been unable to afford to travel out-of-state to wed.

“All across Mississippi, we work with loving, committed LGBT families who are proud to call the state home. But they also suffer the harms of discrimination daily. Equality cannot come quickly enough to Mississippi for these families,” says Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality.

The filings for the lawsuit, Campaign for Southern Equality, et al. v. Bryant, can be seen here.

LGBT Images from the Deep South

Images from the Deep South

October 20, 2014 | by Michael Key

Blade reporter Michael K. Lavers and I earlier this year pitched the idea of going to Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to see what LGBT life is like in the South. Living in D.C., we wanted to see for ourselves just how different the experience was for our brothers and sisters who make their homes in places not known for LGBT inclusiveness. Our editor sent us out to gather stories and pictures. We had absolutely no idea what was in store for us. – See more at: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/10/20/pictures-from-the-south/#sthash.8XYo2fl8.dpuf

LGBT Health Care Equality Index

HRC Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index and the Future of LGBT-Inclusive Care

October 15, 2014 by Beth Sherouse, ACLS Public Fellow, HRC Senior Content Manager

 

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) today, with some significant changes from last year. For the first time, our Health and Aging Program team proactively researched hospitals that chose not to participate — significantly increasing awareness of how hospitals are treating LGBT patients and employees across the United States. We featured an additional 640 hospitals — which we researched but didn’t participate.

“In the past, if someone needed to find an LGBT-friendly hospital and there wasn’t an HEI participant nearby, they might be out of luck,” said Tari Hanneman, associate director of the Health and Aging Program. “We tried to fill in those gaps this year, so even if a facility isn’t meeting all of our standards, at least LGBT patients and employees know what to expect and where to start.”

We also hope that our attempts to engage the hospitals we researched will lead them to participate in the HEI in the future. This year’s HEI included a record 507 active participants, including 48 hospitals that we researched that accepted our invitation to participate in the HEI survey. Of the 507 active participants, 426 earned “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” status, including 34 of the hospitals that were originally part of the research group.

Another new feature of this year’s HEI is a Google Maps lookup feature that allows people to search for HEI-rated facilities based on their location, making it even easier for people to find LGBT-inclusive care more quickly and easily.

As with HRC Foundation’s other reports and indices, the 2014 HEI isn’t the end of our efforts to encourage providers to adopt best practices for LGBT employees, patients and their families. Next year, we plan to add even more researched hospitals to our list. And we expect many of our researched hospitals this year to participate fully next year.

In addition to adding more proactively-researched hospitals, we will also expand next year’s trainings and best practices — with an increased focus on HIV/AIDS. Stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS is still something that keeps many HIV-positive LGBT people from getting the patient-centered care they need and deserve.

According to a 2010 report from Lambda Legal, more than half of respondents living with HIV experienced discrimination in health care. And 20 percent of respondents living with HIV reported such a high degree of anticipation around receiving discriminatory care that such concerns were a barrier to even seeking care.

Added Hanneman, “As we continue our work with the HEI, we want it to have the greatest impact for LGBT people — and that includes offering training to staff and administrators to reduce HIV stigma and provide high-quality, patient-centered care.”

Source: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-foundations-healthcare-equality-index-and-the-future-of-lgbt-inclusive

One man’s quest to undermine his cousin’s marriage to a transgender man

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ROB WATSON
Dad, LGBT activist, businessman and blogger, evoL

Sunday, October 12, 2014

8 Comments

Nick, a transgender male, and his wife Jessica

Once upon a time there were two cousins, Jessica and Robby. They grew up together in the warm and wet Mississippi back lands. They swam, they fished and Jessica loved and respected her cousin. He gave her the sense of understanding family and loyalty.

That sense of family and loyalty was upended completely recently when Robby recently ran to the American Family Association — an entity defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate” organization — to get their help in humiliating and attacking Jessica’s marriage. Robby has never met Jessica’s husband.

Jessica and her husband, Nick, are legally married. Nick is a transgender male. A mutual friend introduced them a few years ago.

Jessica states:

“Nick has been my best friend since day one. We can always count on the other one during the hardest times in life. While he was in paramedic school, Nick felt my full encouragement through the whole way and I never gave up on his dream with him.  We stand by each other through every thing just as a husband and wife should. I know at the end of the day I can count on him and that’s what real romance looks like. Our love is the kind some people only dream about and I’m very lucky to be able to say I found that in this life with him.”

On the afternoon of September 23, Jessica got a private message from her cousin Robby out of the blue.

It said: “Jessica, I want you to know that I love you both as a person and as my family. You hand I practically grew up together, and I don’t want you to think that I am angry with you. But I have to tell you that what you and Nick are doing is wrong, and I am going to be doing all that I can to challenge it. I realize this might upset you, but I have to do what is right as difficult as it is going to be.”

Jessica had no idea what he meant about “challenging it,” but she was soon to find out.

That evening, Robby posted this to his Facebook wall: “Last week I learned of a same sex marriage that took place right here in the state of Mississippi. Two females, one of which is a family member of mine, applied for and was granted an official marriage license in Desoto county. One of the partners poses as a man and managed to obtain a driver’s license that legally identified her as a male. I would like to urge all Mississippians who are outraged to join me. This is a battle that has come to us and we cannot afford to lose traditional marriage.”Then he then gave the phone numbers of the attorney general, lieutenant governor and the governor.

Around midnight, Jessica received another private message from a woman she had never met.

“You need to see this video,” the message said. The video was her cousin Robby on a show with the AFA’s Bryan Fisher. Bryan Fisher is infamous for homophobic statements that include the encouragement of the kidnapping of children from LGBT families. They were making public Jessica and Nick’s names, implying that they were criminals, that their marriage was a fraud scheme and stating out and out lies as fact.

Click here to watch the Video

“The video makes it seem like we did all of this to pull one over on the state of Mississippi, and that’s nowhere close to the truth.” Jessica said.

“Mine is not an illegal marriage in any state, because it is not a same sex union at all. That is not legal in this state, and there is no ‘loop hole’ for that to be possible. Nick actually transitioned from female to male, and had his name and gender legally changed complete with birth certificate, social security card, drivers license, and all medical licenses. After all of that was completed we were able to apply for our marriage license and got married, the same as any other opposite gender couple.” Bryan Fisher characterizes Jessica and Nick as two lesbians, one of which had a hormone shot, and then fraudulently had records changed.

Nick’s process to his correct gender started before 2010. He had undergone full psychiatric exams in preparation. In 2010 he started a permanent hormone therapy program and had physiological operations in support of his transition.

Nick works as a paramedic saving lives and he has been seen as a true hero in his community. The AFA’s intrusion into his private life, and their dishonest portrayal has now caused him issues at work.

Jessica reports, “While he is out saving strangers lives, we have to worry about the safety of our family and his career. It takes teamwork from his fellow co-workers and since the videos and articles have come out, he has been treated like an outcast.”

Many that Nick worked with had only known of him as male, his actual gender. Now feel they have license to judge.

Jessica reached out to the popular Twitter site Stop-Homophobia. “Help us,” she asked, attaching a link to the AFA video. She began hearing from many people who have showered love and support. Those messages helped her deal with her feelings of betrayal and crisis over what family was supposed to be about.

“For me when I saw the video I felt it was one of the worst betrayals ever, to find out that someone made us out so horribly, and on top of it for it to come from a family member. The feelings we felt over this outrage, words can’t describe. We are being vilified for the same loving and commitment other married Mississippi couples share with each other. Our right to commit to each other for the rest of time is being portrayed as everything it’s not. The video want to portray us as deceivers who did all of this to pull one over on the state of Mississippi, and that’s nowhere close to the truth. The truth is our marriage is built out of the love we have for each other.”

“We are very grateful for the support and love that we have come across through this attempt to humiliate us,” Jessica states. “So much of our family have stepped up and let us know they are open minded and accepting and loving. The members of Nick’s family are powerful defenders of him as a man and a hero. Especially his dad, who has always been his biggest supporter. My family accepts Nick as the person for who he really is, especially my sister and most of them right here in Mississippi.”

This has given Jessica and Nick a new definition to, not the word “marriage,” but the word “family.”

Blood cousin Robby is not family. The “American Family Association” is not an association of families; it is an association of those who want to attack families that do not look exactly like a set of limited parameters. Those who see his life saving work but who cannot see Nick as he is, are not family. It is the people who love, support and celebrate him who are the true family, and Jessica and Nick are blessed to have many who have such qualifications in their lives.

“Nick taught me what marriage is,” Jessica commented. “Now someone I grew up with has caused me to re-look at what I thought being family meant. It does not mean blood and telling falsehoods to meet an agenda. It means love and honesty. I stand corrected, and we are now a stronger family as a result.”

Sharing DNA is no big deal. A person’s ability to look deep, push past their own pre-conceived notions to better understand a family member they love, and then stand up for them, that ability brings the greatest value in life. Some will learn they have that ability within themselves and stand proud. Others will make videos.

National Coming Out Day – Coming Out – Yes, it still does matter

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National Coming Out Day

Coming Out – Yes, it still does matter

BARBARA WEICKSEL
Columnist, Barb’s Gift of Gab

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Today is National Coming Out Day. You may be thinking: Who Cares? Or you might be saying to yourself: why does this even matter? Allow me a few moments of your time to tell you why this matters.

Please understand that I can only speak for myself on this matter; as everyone who has ever come out has had to walk their own path, and inevitably has their own story to tell.

I didn’t come out until I was 50. In those 50 years I lied, cheated on a husband, denied who I was and tried desperately to be the daughter, sister, wife, cousin, friend that I was expected to be.

It didn’t work – it never works. And those who believe that to be gay is a choice we make, well, they will never, ever understand the struggle that takes place within most of our souls.

Truthfully, most people believe that just saying the words “I’m gay” means you’ve come out. In a sense it does, however, the real coming out, in my opinion, is when you look at that reflection you see in the mirror and say “I’m Gay” and you don’t look away in shame – that’s when you’ve come out.

When you can accept yourself and love who you are and understand that the world can be cold and lonely and ignorant and intolerant – and you can still smile at your own reflection – you’ve come out.

But don’t, for one moment, allow yourself to be bullied into coming out. It’s your life, your journey. No one, and I mean no one, has the right to tell you when and how and why you have to come out.

Again, it’s your life, your path to walk.

For me, the more I was told I had to come out, the more I insisted I would not.You have to be ready to face the world and not care about the consequences. You have to be ready to say: “I’m gay” and let the chips fall wherever they fall, and know that your life won’t end if people walk away from you or spew hateful rhetoric at you.

You have to be able to wear words like pervert, deviant, fag, dyke and anything else certain people may throw at you like badges of honor and you have to know that these words do not define who you are.

The people who spew them are merely specks of dirt, not worthy of your time or energy.

There are those who will say

it’s easier to come out now then it was in the 1960’s. In the ways of the world, maybe it is. But, in the dynamics of families, there is still pain, hurt, rejection and intolerance that one must suffer.

I could tell you “it gets better” but the truth is, sometimes it doesn’t get better. Sometimes families just disappear, or worse, they stick around and make sure you know what a disappointment and embarrassment you are.

What I can tell you from experience is this: Family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Your life won’t end if you don’t have hateful, judgmental people in your life. You will surround yourself with people who will love you for who you are — people who will encourage you to grow and be and live the life that is yours to live.

These people will become your strength – your support – your family.

There is nothing in my life I’m more proud of then that moment, under the 600′ flag at my first gay pride parade, when I knew I could no longer live a lie — 50 years was long enough.

I was more than ready to face whatever the world could throw at me. With tears streaming down my face and a smile so big it hurt my face… finally, finally I was free.

I’ve discovered that along with my freedom has come responsibility. To help, to guide, to listen, to advocate, to write so that others know and understand they are never alone. We are all responsible for one another.

On this day – this “Coming Out “day – if you’re ready, your “family” is waiting for you.

State’s gay marriage ban’s days appear numbered

Geoff Pender, The Clarion-Ledger 10:39 a.m. CDT October 9, 2014

UPDATE: Gov. Phil Bryant statement:

“In 2004, over 86 percent of Mississippi voters supported a constitutional amendment providing that marriage in Mississippi is valid only between a man and a woman. I will continue to uphold the constitution of the state of Mississippi.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, could provide the catalyst for the Supreme Court to decide the gay marriage issue once and for all, nationwide.

And it’s likely, many legal experts believe, bans on gay marriage such as Mississippi’s will fall.

“I am opposed to same-sex marriage, but I believe the time has come for people of faith in Mississippi to prepare for the overturning of our constitutional ban on it,” said state Rep. Andy Gipson, House judiciary chairman.

Here’s why:

• The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals from five states where federal appeals courts declared same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. This will essentially expand same-sex marriage to 11 states covered by these districts, bringing the total to 30.

• The cases the high court let slide were all federal rulings against gay marriage bans. A ruling from another district appeals court upholding a state’s ban would essentially force the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and deal with conflicting rulings. The conservative Fifth Circuit or Sixth Circuit are the most likely to uphold a same-sex marriage ban.

• The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday agreed to expedite hearing cases challenging Texas’ and Louisiana’s bans on gay marriage. Early this year, a Texas federal judge ruled the ban was unconstitutional, but issued a stay pending the state’s appeal. A Louisiana federal judge recently upheld that state’s ban.

• With the Supreme Court this week allowing the decisions against the state bans to stand, legal experts say it’s unlikely the court would then rule in favor of any state bans.

“It’s really hard to imagine the Supreme Court would have allowed thousands of same-sex couples to get married, including in some very conservative areas like Utah, and then turn around and say, ‘Just kidding, there’s nothing wrong with state bans,'” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign.

Mississippi attorney Wesley Hisaw said, “If the federal government can’t discriminate on same sex marriage, logically, how could the state discriminate?” Hisaw is representing Lauren Czekala-Chatham, who is suing to have Mississippi recognize her California same-sex marriage so it can grant her a divorce.

A DeSoto County Chancery judge in 2013 ruled Mississippi’s Constitution and laws prevent granting a divorce. The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear Czekala-Chatham’s appeal. Gov. Phil Bryant, represented by a Christian legal group, is intervening in the case, opposing the appeal.

Hisaw said he doesn’t know when the state high court might hear the case or rule, but it’s possible Czekala-Chatham’s case “could be the one that goes up there” to the U.S. Supreme Court if it were decided and appealed before other federal cases.

In Mississippi and other Bible Belt states, the gay marriage issue remains contentious.

“I do think the bans are in jeopardy because of out-of-control, rogue renegade judges at every level of our federal judiciary,” said Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis at the Tupelo-based American Family Association. “The federal judiciary has become the place where the Constitution and democracy go to die.”

Fischer said federal government and courts should have no jurisdiction over state marriage laws.

“There is no mention of the word marriage or homosexuality in the federal Constitution, so it should be left exclusively to the states,” Fischer said.

Brian Little of Crystal Springs, who recently married his longtime partner in an out-of-state ceremony, said the courts are needed to establish fairness.

“Had the South voted on ending slavery or segregation, I’m not sure when those would have ended,” Little said. “The courts are here to make educated and fair decisions that are blind, noble and above the level of the general population …. I wish the Supreme Court would go on and strike (same-sex marriage bans) down nationwide.”

Gipson, who is also a Baptist minister, said he believes his opposition to same-sex marriage is consistent with the views of most Mississippians. He points to the 2004 vote on a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages being conducted or recognized in Mississippi. It passed with 86 percent of the vote.

But Gipson said that legally, the writing appears to be on the wall for such bans with federal courts.

“I’ve said that preaching at my church,” Gipson said. “It’s coming. People of religious conviction need to be processing what this means for the culture, and how we will respond to these issues in coming years – how we will maintain our religious convictions in this environment.”

Youth suicide and bullying: what’s the connection?

Youth suicide and bullying: what’s the connection?

• By Dorothy Espelage and Peter Goldblum
• October 2^nd 2014

The role of bullying in suicide among our young people has been intensely scrutinized in both media and research. As the deleterious impacts on mental and physical health for both perpetrators and targets—suicide being the most severe—become more evident, calls for framing of the problem from a public health framework have increased. A scientifically grounded educational and public health approach to both bullying and suicide prevention is required.

So let’s look at the science regarding the connection between bullying and suicide. As with most highly emotional phenomena, there has been a tendency to both overstate and minimize the connection. As Jeffrey Duong and Catherine Bradshaw point out: while the prevalence of bullying is high (approximately 20% to 28%), “most children who are bullied do not become suicidal.” At the same time, children who have been bullied have an increased risk of mental and physical problems. Melissa Holt warns us that bullying should be considered one of several factors that increase a young persons risk for suicide. We must be careful, though, not to confuse correlation with causation. That is to say, that bullying most typically has an indirect effect on a young person taking their life, rather than being the sole cause. Finally, the suicide rate (both attempts and completions) among our young people is unacceptably high and requires systematic efforts for prevention and intervention.

Bullying is an abuse of power. By definition, bullying is seen as behavior that is intended to be hurtful and targets individuals perceived to be weaker and unable to defend themselves. Bully can be direct and face-to-face, or may be conducted through social media. Amanda Nickerson and Toni Orrange Trochia reviewed recent research showing that all children involved in bullying (targets, perpetrators, and those who are both) are at higher risk for mental health problems and subsequently higher risk for suicidal behavior. This risk increases with repeated involvement in bullying and, for targets, the belief that they are alone in their plight. At the same time, social environments (community, school, family, peer) that support differences and caring relationship provide greater protection from the harmful effects of bullying.

Excluded girl. © SimmiSimons via iStock.

While the question of who gets bullied and why is complicated, we know that some groups are more likely to be the target of bullying than others. Those children who present themselves as “different” are more likely targets than those who fit in comfortably to school norms. Children from stigmatized or marginalized groups, including those with psychiatric problems, physical disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, are at higher risk for being targets of bullying and for suicidal behavior. Again, individuals from stigmatized groups with higher community, school, and family support fare better than those who perceive themselves to face torment alone.

A cultural perspective is important to understand the connection between bullying and suicide. The research on the complexity of ethnic differences in bullying and suicide is sparse and in some cases contradictory. By paying attention to bullying behaviors that happen between people of different ethnic groups and those that exist within the same ethnic group, a clearer picture arises. Different cultural patterns related to aggression and emotion expression help to understand and decode what behaviors warrant being labeled “bullying” within different cultures. Differences between ethnic groups of youth need to be taken into consideration when trying to understand whether bullying and/or suicidal behavior are on the increase. Finally, specific care and attention must be paid to the risk of both suicide and bullying among sexual and gender minority youth. Both of these groups are among the highest at risk.

In conclusion, even one suicide death that is triggered by a recent torment of bullying is too many. As we move to better our responses to the threat of suicide due to bullying, we are assisted by the careful scientific exploration of differential risk and protective factors. By taking community oriented, culturally informed approaches, we believe that current interventions can be improved and new interventions can be created.

– See more here

Peter Goldblum and Dorothy Espelage are the co-editors of Youth Suicide and Bullying: Challenges and Strategies for Prevention and Intervention with Joyce Chu and Bruce Bongar. Peter Goldblum, PhD, MPH, is a Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University, where he is Co-Director of the Multicultural Suicide Research Center and the Center for LGBTQ Evidence-based Applied Research (CLEAR). He received the APA Division 44 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award in 2013. Dorothy L. Espelage, PhD, is the Edward William Gutgsell and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has conducted research on bullying, homophobic name-calling, teen sexual and dating violence, bully prevention programs, and the overlap between various forms of youth violence for 20 years.

National Coming out Day: ‘Beyond boxes and prescribed labels’

The Reflector

Tuesday, October 7, 2014 7:00 am

D.J. Wormley

Nicholas Guittar, assistant professor of sociology at University of South Carolina-Lancaster, will present “Beyond Boxes and Prescribed Labels: Coming Out in 2014” Oct. 8  at Mississippi State University on behalf of National Coming out Day on Oct. 11.

Kimberly Kelly, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at MSU, said Guittar’s talk will mainly focus on his interviews with different people who are of the homosexual orientation and different experiences they have had with coming out.

“Guittar for his dissertation did a large number of interviews with different people who are gay or lesbian about the coming out process and wrote a book on this, so his talk is going to be based on the data he has collected from various people who talked to him about their experiences of coming out,” Kelly said.

Kelly said events like this help increase awareness about the history of the gay rights movement and the lives of people who are gay.

“Having events like this honors the struggle and the history of the movement for gay rights and the personal experiences and lives of people who are LGBT,” Kelly said. “This is important because it is about recognizing their humanity and equality with everyone else.”

Ashley Baker, program assistant for gender studies, said Guittar will address different topics involved with coming out.  “Guittar will be discussing topics about identity, coming out, and how to make campus a safer environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual (LGBT) individuals,” Baker said.

According to Baker, these topics are important because discrimination and abuse of homosexuals are still dominant in today’s society.

“These  topics are important because we still live in a time where everyone does not feel comfortable or safe being themselves in public,”  she said.  “We still have issues of discrimination and hate crimes that occur in our country because of individuals sexual and/or gender identity.  LGBT individuals still do not have equal rights in Mississippi and in other states across the country.”

Baker said Guittar’s  research on coming out will benefit MSU’s campus and the state of Mississippi. “His book ‘Coming Out: The New Dynamics’ was released this year and helps expands our knowledge and understanding of the coming out process,” Baker said.

Jennifer Carruth, president of  Delta Omega Lambda, said coming out is important because gays and lesbians need to know they have people who support them and accept them for who they are.

“The topic of coming out is important for many reasons. LGBT people have a higher rate of depression, anxiety and suicide because they are marginalized and discriminated against. Coming Out is not just about LGBT people being seen, it is about straight allies coming out as well,” Carruth said.

Carruth also said having a support system is essential for creating a place where people feel comfortable discussing issues facing LGBT people.

“It is about becoming catalysts for positive change. It is about telling people that they are loved for who they are and that they should not feel like they have to hide or put up with being bullied. Words hurt, and it makes a huge difference when you speak up for someone who is being treated unfairly or bullied. All MSU Bulldogs should feel safe, loved, and comfortable to be themselves,” Carruth said.

SCOTUS Action Spurs LGBT Activists in Mississippi

SCOTUS Action Spurs LGBT Activists in Mississippi

Jackson Free Press By R.L. Nave October 6, 2014

The Human Rights Campaign issued the following statement on today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision declining to hear several marriage equality cases before the court:

HRC Mississippi committed to advancing fairness and ensuring justice across Mississippi

WASHINGTON, DC—Today’s Supreme Court action provides momentum for equality work across Mississippi, and reinforces the need for protections in housing, employment and public accommodations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Mississippians. The Supreme Court made history—bringing final marriage victories to five states and paving the way for possibly six more. But although marriage equality is now the law of the land in 24 states, today’s victory didn’t extent to LGBT Mississippians.

“Any time same-sex couples are extended marriage equality is something to celebrate, and today is a joyous day for thousands across America who will immediately feel the impact of today’s Supreme Court action,” said HRC Mississippi Director Rob Hill. “But this news is an unfortunate reminder that LGBT Mississippians still lack basic legal protections against discrimination, and cannot legally marry the person they love in the place they call home.”

LGBT Mississippians are just as worthy of full legal equality as folks living elsewhere across the country, and they should be given the same dignity and respect. It is for this reason that HRC remains fully committed to creating one America for LGBT people, united under a single banner of fairness.

HRC Mississippi is working to advance equality for LGBT Mississippians who have no protections in housing, workplace, or public accommodations; legal state recognition for their relationships and families; state rights to jointly adopt children; and state protections from hate crimes. Through HRC Mississippi, we are working toward a future of fairness every day–changing hearts, minds and laws toward achieving full equality.

If I Have Gay Children: Four Promises From A Christian Pastor/Parent

john pavlovitz

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll have gay children.

I’m not sure if other parents think about this, but I do; quite often.

Maybe it’s because I have many gay people in my family and circle of friends. It’s in my genes and in my tribe.
Maybe it’s because, as a pastor of students, I’ve seen and heard the horror stories of gay Christian kids, from both inside and outside of the closet, trying to be part of the Church.
Maybe it’s because, as a Christian, I interact with so many people who find homosexuality to be the most repulsive thing imaginable, and who make that abundantly clear at every conceivable opportunity.

For whatever reason, it’s something that I ponder frequently. As a pastor and a parent, I wanted to make some promises to you, and to my two kids right now…

1) If I have gay children, you’ll all know it.

My children won’t…

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