President George W. Bush signed a historic bill (HR 2944) on December 21, 2001, which for the first time allows the District of Columbia government to fund a program that will give domestic partners of city employees access to health benefits.

In 1992, the D.C. Health Care Benefits Expansion Act was passed, giving domestic partners of District employees access to health benefits purchased at their own expense. But for nearly a decade, Congress blocked the district from using any local or federal funds to implement the law. The fiscal year 2002 District of Columbia Appropriations bill lifted the prohibition on the use of local funding for this program. The district now joins 130 other state and local governments nationwide that offer domestic partner benefits for their public employees.

Allow registered domestic partners, if one of them is an employee of the District government, to purchase health insurance at their own expense for their domestic partner. It would also allow district employees to take sick leave to care for a domestic partner or bereavement leave to make the funeral arrangements for a domestic partner. For detailed local information about your district and state, please refer to http://www.hrc.org/worknet/dp/index.asp>.

Also, link to release here: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2002/020102dcdp.asp

2. Education Overhaul Bill:

The massive education overhaul bill, H.R. 1, finally cleared both the House and Senate in late December and awaits the President's signature. HRC views the compromise bill as a "mixed-bag" that includes laudable programs to reduce hate crimes and protect access to school-based healthcare for gay students, but includes a disappointing provision supporting the Boy Scouts policy of discrimination. The biggest victory was the reauthorization of programs promoting bias reduction and hate crime prevention, while rejecting amendments that would have weakened the programs. In 1994, with broad bipartisan support, Congress approved a number of initiatives as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to provide training and technical assistance for communities to address violence associated with prejudice and intolerance. Under this Department of Education authority, a number of innovative and successful prejudice reduction programs have been developed and piloted in local communities across the country.

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Anti-gay groups have repeatedly called on Congress to eliminate authority and/or funding for such programs whenever legislation to reauthorize the ESEA is considered. They argue that such programs attack or undermine their religious beliefs because they teach tolerance based on sexual orientation, among other things.

In 2001, the Senate included language to reauthorize these important programs in its education bill, the Better Education for Students and Teachers Act. The House excluded the language in its bill.

In July and again in October, HRC and coalition allies in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Hate Crimes Task Force sent a letter to conferees in support of the language from 114 civil rights, education, professional, law enforcement, civic and religious organizations.

HRC also asked conferees to oppose weakening language or amendments. The conference rejected one-such weakening amendment on October 30, 2001.

HRC also applauded compromise language in the Education bill that will protect access to school-based health care for GLBT students. During House consideration of the Education bill, an amendment by Reps. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. was adopted by voice vote. This amendment required prior written parental consent for a minor to receive any health care service in a school setting, including a school-based health center. This includes routine visits to the nurse's office, appointments with a school psychologist, sports physicals, and almost any service from a school-based health center - including, if the center offers them, STD screening and treatment programs and family-planning services.

During the House-Senate conference, the language of the Tiahrt-Graham amendment was stripped out and replaced with compromise language developed by the conference committee. This compromise language removes the parental consent requirement and replaces it with a provision that allows parents to opt their children out of certain information collection requests and school-based provision of health services.

Finally, HRC was disappointed with language that prohibits federal funding to schools that choose not to offer facilities to Boy Scout troops because of their discriminatory policy banning gay scouts. Some were concerned that the language of the provision was too broad and could have been interpreted to include sponsorship. But fortunately, in the conference committee, this provision was clarified, mitigating the potential damage of the amendment.

More information on this legislation: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2001/011212educ.asp

3. 2001: A Year of Fear:

Rhetoric aside about "virtual victims," 2001 appears to have been a record year for anti-GLBT hate crimes, including several murders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2000 Hate Crime Statistics Report, released in late 2001, showed hate crimes based on sexual orientation at an all-time high.

Sadly, statistics only give a glimpse of the problem. It is widely recognized that hate crimes based on sexual orientation often go unreported due to fear and stigmatization. A Department of Justice report released in October 2001 confirms that hate crimes are under-reported; that a disproportionately high percentage of both victims and perpetrators of hate violence are young people under 25 years of age; and that only 20 percent of reported hate crimes result in arrest.

A December 2001 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit organization that monitors hate groups and extremist activity in the United States, went so far as to say that the system for collecting hate crime data in this nation is "in shambles." SPLC estimates that the real number of hate crimes being committed in the United States each years is likely closer to 50,000, as opposed to the near 8,000 collected by the FBI. For more information, see "What's New" on the SPLC website: http://www.splcenter.org/

Casualties of Anti-GLBT Hate Crimes

Following are several murders reported by the media in 2001 that appear to be based on anti-GLBT bias. HRC tracks these and other incidents and monitors law enforcement response, providing assistance to local community activists and families when necessary.

March 4, Houtson, Texas - Francisco Javier Luna
June 21, Cortez Colorado - Fred Martinez
June 29, Witchita, Kansas - Marcell Eads
June 30, Las Vegas - Jerry Lee Stamper-Ousley
July 26, Ketchikan, Alaska - Steve Perry
July 26, Florida - Anthony Martilotto
July 29, Nashville - Willie Houston
August 26, Portland, Ore. - Lorenzo Okaruru
August 26, Leawood, Kansas - Gary Raynal
September 5,Queens, New York - Edgar Garzon

November 14, 2001, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Pablo Parrilla, 25, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide while armed in connection with the death of Juana Vega, 36. Friends and relatives of the woman are calling on the district attorney's office to charge the man with a hate crime for murdering his sister's girlfriend because she was a lesbian. The shooting occurred when Vega went to the home of her girlfriend's family to attempt a reconciliation. Instead, Parrilla confronted her outside the house and shot her repeatedly, the criminal complaint says. One friend quoted Parrilla as saying on numerous occasions, "I'm going to kill you because you are gay," and "You turned my sister gay." Parrilla's sister had her first lesbian relationship with Vega, according to friends. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 20, 2001)

ACTION: HRC has been active in pressing Wisconsin authorities to fully investigate this case and to prosecute the case under Wisconsin's hate crimes law. If applied, the case would be the first in Milwaukee's history to apply Wisconsin's hate crimes law as it applies to sexual orientation. HRC worked with three Members of Congress from the Wisconsin delegation, who in turn sent their own letter to the District Attorney on this matter. Spearheaded by openly gay Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the letter was also signed by Milwaukee-area Reps. Thomas Barrett and Gerald Kleczka (see letter at: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2001/011205cngrssletter.asp

Most recently, HRC's Elizabeth Birch, executive director, wrote a letter to the district attorney on December 20: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2001/011220vega.asp

November 18, 2001, Huntington, West Virginia
Michael Fife, 28, was in a coma for at least a month after he was beaten, robbed of $20 and left in an alley for dead while walking home from a gay nightclub. Fife suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding. Three people have been charged in the beating. Police have said that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The incident was reported in the press after another man's home was ransacked on Nov. 30 and hate-filled graffiti was scrawled across his walls. Police are investigating the break-in as a possible hate crime. The graffiti included a swastika and slurs against gays, Jews and blacks. "We got one, we'll get you too" was also scrawled on the wall, according to press reports, leading at least one local business owner to say he thinks the incidents are related and that Fife was attacked because the alleged perpetrators thought he was gay. (Charleston Gazette On-line, December 4, 2001)

ACTION: HRC field organizer, Dyana Mason, has been monitoring this case, assisting local volunteers and activists and communicating with law enforcement to ensure that the crime is fully investigated and prosecuted.

December 12, 2001, Jacksonville, Florida
Terrianne Summers, transgender activist, died after being shot in the back of the head in her driveway while getting out of her car. Police suspect it was an attempted robbery, but her purse was not taken from the car. Local authorities have not identified any suspects. HRC joined the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Equality Florida in urging Jacksonville, Florida., authorities to investigate the murder as a possible hate crime and will continue to work to ensure that justice is served in the case.

For more information: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2001/011218trans.asp

4. Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1343):

Many of the above cases - and others that do not necessarily result in death -- help illustrate the need for federal assistance for state and local law enforcement dealing with hate crimes. Passage of this legislation could help provide valuable financial, technical and other assistance to these communities. That is one reason why bi-partisan support in Congress continues to grow. Over the past five weeks, several members of Congress in the House of Representatives cosponsored the bill, for a total of 205 in the House and 51 in the Senate.

Only 218 votes are needed to pass a bill in the House; a motion in support of this measure passed the House in September 2000 by a vote of 232 to 192. The Senate passed the measure 57 to 42 in June 2000, and lead sponsors are confident that they currently have a filibuster- proof margin of at least 60 votes in the Senate. HRC will continue to work to ensure that this measure is brought up for a vote in 107th Congress.

New House cosponsors include: Rep. Gary Condit (D-CA), Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA).

More information on the federal Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act: http://www.hrc.org/issues/federal_leg/lleea/index.asp

5. Congress Approves Final Spending for Critical HIV/AIDS Programs:

Congress and the Bush administration agreed to final funding for critical HIV/AIDS programs for fiscal year 2002, which began on October 1, 2001. Throughout the year, HRC has been involved with our National Organizations Responding to AIDS coalition partners to ensure that the highest levels possible were approved for programs such as the Ryan White CARE Act, prevention activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), programs to fight the global epidemic and research at the National Institutes for Health (NIH).

HRC was disappointed about the lack of money appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 2002 HIV/AIDS programs. The resources provided fail to keep pace with the growing need - particularly in the areas of prevention, care and treatment - to combat new infections on the rise.

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act received an increase of $103.1 million over the President's request of $1.8 billion. This additional money brings funding for the CARE Act to $1.9 billion for fiscal year 2002. Unfortunately, the increase for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program falls woefully short at $50 million, of which $40 million will go toward account the rising costs of medication. Increased spending on domestic prevention for FY 2002 is $38 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for a total of $691.5 million. There was a bipartisan commitment to increase research money at the National Institutes of Health, which received an increase of $3 billion over last year.

HRC press release: http://www.hrc.org/newsreleases/2001/011221hivaids.asp

Detailed Breakdown: http://www.hrc.org/issues/hiv_aids/background/fy2002funding.asp

6. International HIV/AIDS Bill Passes House:

On December 11th, the House of Representative passed by voice vote legislation to provide resources to fight the international scourge of HIV/AIDS. HRC urged members of the House to support this important bipartisan legislation, which was the product of the hard work of Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois), the chairman of the International Relations Committee, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), the ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California), and Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa).

The measure would: