On "Meet the Press" this morning, Vice President Joe Biden told host David Gregory he believed gay couples deserve full marriage equality.
Administration officials, however, are slow-stepping what Biden said to say that Biden's intent was to say he and Obama agree on this issue — all loving couples deserve "all the civil rights, all the civil liberties" — whether gay or straight, said progressive political blog Think Progress.
"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that. […]," Biden said this morning.
By a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, Georgia House Judiciary subcommittee tabled a bill that would provide workplace protections to all state employees, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers.
Voting against the bill were Reps. Stephen Allison (R-Blairsville), Billy Maddox (R-Zebulon) and Randy Nix (R-LaGrange). Voting to oppose the tabling of the bill were Reps. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) and Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur).
"Tabling it is not as not as bad as beating it. But tabling it means they killed it," said state Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) immediately following the hearing. Last year, Drenner drafted House Bill 630, which included protection for gay and transgender state employees. The bill was introduced with 70 sponsors and co-sponsors, including 12 Republicans and one Independent. It would cover Georgia’s 174,000 state employees.
"It could come back, but that is unlikely," Drenner said.
'It is going to be a huge challenge to get it through this year'
Proactive efforts got underway this month to allow gay couples to marry in at least three more states.
Democratic leaders in the New Jersey legislature announced Jan. 9 their intent to introduce a marriage equality bill. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D), a long-time supporter of rights for same-sex couples, announced Jan. 4 that she would introduce such a bill in her state.
And in Maryland, where a marriage equality bill passed the state Senate but not the House in March 2011, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has said he will sponsor marriage legislation in 2012 and will take an active role in moving the bill forward this year. And Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) has indicated his chamber will shortly take action on such a measure.
Hint: None are in the Deep South
Georgia Equality is in the midst of a $15,000 fundraising campaign, hoping to reach the goal by Monday when the first day of the legislative session opens. And it needs the money to fend off nasty attacks being put out opposing an employment non-discrimination bill introduced late last session.
In an email to supporters, Georgia Equality points to a May newsletter of GeorgiaInsight.org to explain, "this is what we are up against" when it lobbies this year in favor of House Bill 630, an employment non-discrimination bill that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
The anti-gay newsletter states in part, "H.B. 630 gives civil rights protection to pedophiles, peeping toms, cross-dressers, flashers and those practicing bestiality or necrophilia (sex with corpse). The American Psychiatric Association (APA) lists these and other acts as deviant and abnormal sexual behaviors. They are chargeable offenses under Georgia law, as well."
A town hall meeting to discuss the impact of the recent federal appeals court ruling upholding a lower court's ruling that transgender woman Vandy Beth Glenn was discriminated against by the state will be held Jan. 10 at the Phillip Rush Center.
Hosted by Georgia Equality, the state's largest LGBT advocacy organization, the town hall forum will feature Lambda Legal attorneys who worked on the Glenn case. Glenn sued the state after she was fired from her job as a legislative editor when she told her superiors she was transitioning from male to female.
The town hall forum will also be a time to discuss House Bill 630, introduced last year by state Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates). The bill, titled the Georgia Fair Employment Practices Bill, calls for employment non-discrimination for state employees and includes sexual orientation and gender identity. It would cover Georgia’s 174,000 state employees. Currently 21 states bar job discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation, while 12 also ban job bias against state employees based on gender identity, according to Georgia Equality.
LGBT job protections on agenda at tonight's town hall meeting
'Tis the season for giving and many of Atlanta and Georgia's LGBT nonprofits as well as gay-friendly community groups are sending out emails asking for a final donations before the start of 2012.
Georgia Equality, the state's LGBT advocacy organization that works under the Gold Dome during the legislative session to track anti-gay bills as well as support pro-equality bills and does other advocacy work throughout the state, notes in its year-end message that less than 1 percent of the state's LGBT people regularly donate.
"In 2011, between Georgia Equality and Equality Foundation of Georgia, we raised and spent some $250,000 to advance your rights and the rights of your loved ones. Imagine what we could have accomplished if we had raised an additional $50,000 that could have been used for education, outreach or support of fair-minded candidates," says its letter titled, "Equality is Within Reach."
More than 1,000 people are currently on Georgia’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting list and funding for the program is threatened with cuts, according to Georgia Equality.
In an email today titled "ADAP funds in the balance," Georgia Equality said that as of April 1, there were 1,278 people waiting to receive life-saving drugs to treat HIV and AIDS. ADAP provides the medication to low-income people who have no other options for receiving medical care.
When the state House passed its version of a budget, members cut $600,000 from ADAP. However, that money was restored by the Senate but now the funding issue sits in committee to see if the program will retain this money or not. The Georgia legislature is set to finish up April 14.