Berita baik dan buruk dari LGBT di Amerika

Ada dua berita hari ini yang layak disimak:

Berita pertama dari negara bagian Utah, pusat dari aliran Mormon di Amerika yang sangat menentang LGBT, bahkan yang mensopnsori Proposition 8 di California yang membuat pernikahan sesama jenis menjadi dilarang kembali. Ternyata pihak gereja Mormon akhirnya menyetujui untuk mendukung aturan non-diskriminatif terhadap LGBT. Padahal sebelumnya, jemaat gereja Mormon yang paling santer melakukan aksi diskriminatif homophobia.

Undang-undang ini akhirnya disetujui setelah para pembicara dari pihak LGBT selalu mengadakan diskusi dengan damai bersama pihak gereja. Diskusi damai ini dilakukan semenjak tahun lalu, ketika gereja Mormon 'ketahuan' mendukung dana untuk 'YES on Proposition 8' dan seringkali menjadi sasaran demonstrasi bagi aktivis LGBT. Terutama sekali karena keberpihakannya untuk melakukan diskriminasi terhadap LGBT.

Walaupun undang-undang ini berhasil dikeluarkan, pihak gereja tetap menyatakan bahwa mereka tidak menyetujui pernikahan sejenis. tetapi ini tetap merupakan langkah luar biasa karena gereja mormon terkenal sering melakukan kekerasan terhadap minoritas.

Ternyata diskusi damai pun bisa berhasil, dan tidak butuh waktu lama. Yang penting komitmen dan selalu berprasangka baik terhadap lawan bicara.

Ini berita lengkapnya:

SALT LAKE CITY – The Mormon church for the first time has announced its support of gay rights legislation, an endorsement that helped gain unanimous approval for Salt Lake city laws banning discrimination against gays in housing and employment.

The Utah-based church's support ahead of Tuesday night's vote came despite its steadfast opposition to gay marriage, reflected in the high-profile role it played last year in California's Proposition 8 ballot measure that barred such unions.

"The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage," Michael Otterson, the director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said.

Passage made Salt Lake City the first Utah community to prohibit bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the two new ordinances, it is illegal to fire someone from their job or evict someone from their residence because they are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender.

Utah lawmakers tend to quickly fall in line when the influential church makes a rare foray into legislative politics. So Tuesday's action could have broad effects in this highly conservative state where more than 80 percent of lawmakers and the governor are church members.

"What happened here tonight I do believe is a historic event," said Brandie Balken, director of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah. "I think it establishes that we can stand together on common ground that we don't have to agree on everything, but there are lot of things that we can work on and be allies."

But the church has pointed out an inherent dispute it has with gay relationships. Mormonism considers traditional marriages central to God's plan. Gays are welcome in church, but must remain celibate to retain church callings and full membership.

Its strong support for Proposition 8 in California last year drew a sharp reaction from gay rights supporters nationwide, with many protesting outside temples that singled out Mormons as the key culprits in restricting the rights of gay couples.

Since then, however, Utah's gay community has sought to engage church leaders in quiet conversations to help foster better understanding, said Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center.

"I thought this conversation would never come to be while I was here in Salt Lake City," said Larabee, adding that the discussions have "shifted her perspective of what's possible" and could foreshadow a different relationship between the two sides.

But addressing the council on Tuesday, Otterson said the endorsement is not a shift in the church's position on gay rights and stressed it "remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman."

Church support for the ordinances is due in part to the way the legislation was drafted to protect those rights. Exceptions in the legislation allow churches to maintain, without penalty, religious principles and religion-based codes of conduct or rules.

"In drafting these ordinances, the city has granted commonsense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations," Otterson said Tuesday.

Previous Utah legislation that sought statewide protections for the gay community did not contain those exceptions.

And although this was the church's first public endorsement of specific legislation, it is not the first time the church has voiced support for some gay rights. In August 2008 the church issued a statement saying it supports gay rights related to hospitalization, medical care, employment, housing or probate as long as they "do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."

Last year, church leaders were silent on a package of gay rights bills known as the Common Ground Initiative, dooming them from the start, despite the bill having the support of the most popular governor in state history, Jon Huntsman. Huntsman resigned this summer to become U.S. ambassador to China.

His successor, Gov. Gary Herbert, has repeatedly said it shouldn't be illegal to discriminate against someone for being gay.

Berita buruknya, datang dari negara bagian Rhode Island:

Gubernur Rhode Island memveto undang-undang pengaturan pemakaman bagi LGBT. Undang-undang yang diveto ini adalah undang-undang agar pasangan 'domestic partner' memiliki hak untuk melakukan pemakaman bagi pasangannya. Tetapi gubernur memveto undang-undang ini. Ini berarti, pasangan sejenis tidak memiliki hak apapun untuk melakukan pemakaman untuk pasangan sejenisnya. Pasangan sejenis tidak memiliki kuasa untuk menguburkan, atau melakukan kremasi, atau bahkan melayat pasangan sejenisnya tersebut di rumah sakit setelah dia meninggal.

Rhode Island legislators learned yesterday that Gov. Carcieri vetoed the gay funeral rights bill that passed in October.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Rhoda Perry and state Rep. David Segal, would have added “domestic partners” to the list of people legally authorized to make funeral, cremation or burial arrangements for their deceased partners. Heterosexual married couples already have these rights.

The Providence Journal reported that the bill was proposed after one man was unable to retrieve the body of his late partner from the state medical examiner for weeks because they weren’t married or next-of-kin.

Gov Carcieri’s veto message, said:

“This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.

“If the General Assembly believes it would like to address the issue of domestic partnerships, it should place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the state of Rhode Island decide.”

The bill defined a domestic partner as someone who was in an “exclusive, intimate and committed relationship” with the deceased person and had lived with them for at least a year. The bill also said the couple had to be financially “interdependent” by joint mortgage, shared credit card or domestic partnership contract.

Gov. Carcieri said the bill would allow the decisions of a “partner” of a year to take precedence over “traditional family members.” He said a “one year time period is not a sufficient duration to establish a serious bond between two individuals.”

Rep. Segal said Carcieri took his opposition to same-sex marriage too far. He and Sen. Perry plan to override the veto.

Segal also said, “‘I think the man is heartless and this has become a bad joke that has carried on for far too long.”