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Mag: Madison Is (Sorta) The #5 Gayest U. S. City
Advocate Ranks Wisconsin’s Capitol City Among Top Second-Tier Gay Meccas

By Mike Fitzpatrick

Madison is the fifth gayest city in the United States! Or should that be: Madison is the fifth gayest city in the United States?
A travel article written by self-proclaimed “amateur sociologist” Mike Albo in the February issue of The Advocate recently ranked Madison as the fifth-gayest city in America. That is, of course, if you leave out places like San Francisco, New York City, Miami, Key West, Provincetown, etc.

To come up with his 15 city-deep rankings, Albo created a point system that used seven criteria: same-sex couple households per capita, statewide marriage equality, gay elected officials, gay dating profiles per single male population, gay bars per capita, cruising spots per capita and gay films in Netflix favorites. Interestingly, Albo did not appear to be good at math in calculating Madison’s ranking. Cities in states with constitutional marriage bans were given a minus two. Madison’s published ranking in that area: -1.

Missing in Albo’s calculations are a number of criteria that more scholarly researchers use: things like anti-discrimination laws, gay-supportive businesses, community attitude studies and so on. Lesbian women in particular might also take objection to the male-dominated focus of the writer’s criteria, especially the gay male personals profiles and cruising spots.

As for the missing top-tier meccas, Albo stated up front that he excluded cities that most LGBT people consider as gay meccas in his “subjective search (to) reveal spots that are much more pink than you might think.”

Albo profiled Madison as: “the Berkeley of the Midwest - the east side is hippie-crunchy, there’s a brand-new gay dance club (Plan B), and heaps of cute blond dreadlocked nuevo organic farmer dudes can be found at the Willy Street Co-op or the Farmers’ Market drinking their own beer from mason jars.”

Apparently Albo hasn’t visited Madison in the last month or so. The inches Cap City dwellers are obsessing over at the moment won’t be found in a Manhunt profile.

For those who might care, Atlanta - a city many in the South consider a first-tier gay mecca - topped Albo’s list. Thanks to last year’s state Supreme Court ruling permitting same-sex marriage, Iowa City came in #3.
The piece can be found online at: www.advocate.com. The print version is in the Advocate insert in the current issue of Out magazine.

“Awful Aughts” Were Very Good For Gay People

San Francisco - Though some mathematicians may quibble, most folks consider the first decade of the new millennium over. Pundits largely have given the years 2009-2009 a decided “thumbs down.” Time magazine called the 2000s “the decade from Hell,” while others dubbed it the “Awful Aughts.”

However, a new report shows the past 10 years have been a period of dramatic gains in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in America. Two-thirds of the 36 statistical indicators compiled in “A Decade of Progress on LGBT Rights” showed significant advances, including sharp increases in the number of LGBT Americans protected by nondiscrimination and family recognition legislation at the state level. Just over a quarter of the indicators were negative, and two showed mixed results.

The report is a joint project of the LGBT Movement Advancement Project and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr., Fund.
“The remarkable achievements toward LGBT equality tend to be obscured by day-to-day struggles, and overall progress often goes unnoticed nationally” LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP) Executive Director Linda Bush said. “By looking broadly at the last decade, this report gives a much fuller perspective on where we are today - and how far we’ve come in just ten years.”

“From over 50 years of supporting causes that help advance equality, we understand that making meaningful change requires time. But these facts make it clear that equal rights for gay people are advancing at an exceptional rate,” Ira Hirschfield, President of the Haas, Jr. Fund, said. “Gay people and their families deserve equal rights and an equal opportunity to participate in their communities and the institutions that bring Americans together. We are committed to supporting work that brings our country closer to that goal.”

Matt Foreman, a longtime advocate for LGBT equality who now directs the Haas Jr. Fund’s gay and immigrant rights programs, said the Fund is excited by the accelerated rate of change. “While enormous and heart-wrenching inequities remain, progress over the last ten years has been extraordinary.”

To document the progress of the last decade, the report looked at several criteria that included: discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; recognition of same-sex relationships; hate crimes legislation; the number of openly-gay elected officials; public attitudes toward the LGBT community; safer schools laws; gay marriage losses and successes; the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military service ban.

Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation: The number of states outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation increased 83%, from 12 to 22, between 2000 and 2009. The percentage of the U.S. population living in states banning discrimination based on sexual orientation soared from 24.5 % to 44.1%, an 80% increase. In other words, today 134 million Americans are now living in states where discrimination based on sexual orientation has been outlawed, an increase of 65 million over the decade. (When local nondiscrimination laws passed by cities without statewide protections are included, the figure is over 50 % of the U.S. population.) Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on sexual orientation grew from 51% to 88%.

Discrimination Based on Gender Identity: There was an even more remarkable increase in states outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression, which rose from just 1state in the year 2000 to 14 states representing nearly 30% of the population in 2009. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on gender identity jumped even more, from just 0.6% to 35%.

Relationship Recognition: Similarly exceptional gains were made in the area of family recognition. In 2000, no state extended the freedom to marry to same-sex couples; one state gave broad recognition to same-sex relationships and one offered limited recognition. Now in 2009, five states extend marriage to same-sex couples (with New Jersey and the District of Columbia pending at press time), six offer broad recognition, and seven offer more limited recognition. Overall, the number of Americans living in a state that offers some protections to same-sex couples nearly tripled, from 12.7 % to 37.2 %.
Protection from Violence: The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is the first federal law to specifically protect LGBT people.

LGBT Elected Officials: The number of openly LGBT elected officials in America rose 73 % between 2000 and 2009, from 257 to 445.

Public Opinion Toward Gay People: The percentage of the public supporting the right of openly gay and lesbian people to serve in the military grew from 62% to 75%. Support for marriage equality has grown from 35% in 2000 to 39% today; there has been an even larger increase in support for relationship recognition that involves many of the rights of marriage, from 45 to 57 %.

Safer Schools: In 2000, only one state had a safe school law that specifically cited sexual orientation and gender identity/expression for protection; by 2009 that rose to 13states. The number of Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs in high schools grew from 700 to 4,700, a nearly six-fold increase.

Of course, all was not as positive as the above items. The report also includes data on areas with mixed or negative results.
Gay Marriage Opposition: In 2000, 5 states had blocked marriage equality through a statewide vote; today, 31 have done so, including 29 states amending their constitutions to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages.
Homophobia in schools: The percentage of LGBT students reporting hearing homophobic remarks in school has remained above 99 % and LGBT students who report experiencing harassment in school edged up (up from 83.2% to 86.2%.)
HIV/AIDS: New HIV infections among adolescent and adult men who have sex with men grew 10 %, from 28,000 to 30,800, as did the percentage of new HIV infections overall that occurred among men who have sex with men, which rose from 51% to 53%.

Military Service Ban: In spite of overwhelming public support for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military continued to discharge hundreds of gay and lesbian service members, with the cumulative number of discharges under the 1993 policy nearly doubling during the past decade. The only “positive” note was that the number of annual discharges decreased from 1,241 in 2000 to 619 in 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available), apparently because of the urgent need for soldiers to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.

A more in-depth and longer term analysis of progress toward LGBT equality can be found in MAP’s “The Momentum Report – 2009 edition,” which is available at: www.lgbtmap.org.

MAP is a think tank founded in 2006 that produces and disseminates research aimed at helping speed advancement of equality for LGBT people. The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a private family foundation created in 1953 which has awarded more than $364 million in grants to support fundamental rights and opportunities for all people. It has invested nearly $42 million in promoting equal rights and opportunities for gay and lesbian people since 2002.

Gay & Lesbian Cruises Raise Money For Earthquake Relief In Haiti

West Hollywood - On the eve of the January 17 departure of an LGBT-oriented cruise that has a scheduled stop in Labadee, Haiti, the owners of three of America’s leading LGBT cruise companies along with community activists Claire Lucas and Mark Bromley announced a coordinated fund to raise money for disaster relief in that earthquake-ravaged country. The owners of Atlantis, Olivia and RSVP are all joining forces with others in the community to raise disaster relief from their current and past guests.

Rich Campbell, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis Events, which had the gay and lesbian cruise departing last Sunday from Miami with a scheduled stop on the northern coast of Haiti, noted that while the area they will visit was not directly damaged by the quake, “our guests have been watching with horror and concern as the painful images of suffering in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince come spilling forth on our televisions.” Emphasizing that “now is the time for us to lend our gay dollars to a compelling human tragedy that knows no gender or sexual orientation,” Campbell vowed to raise awareness and direct funding during the upcoming Atlantis cruise.

Judy Dlugacz, President and founder of Olivia Companies, a lesbian-oriented vacation company, explained that many LGBT Americans have visited Haiti on gay cruise ships and that “so many of our passengers have been touched by the destruction and poverty in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. It is important that as LGBT Americans, we come together to show our community’s solidarity and support for those living through this unimaginable disaster.”

Claire Lucas, an international development expert and a well known community activist and political fundraiser, is raising awareness within the community and worked with the American Red Cross to set up a dedicated donation site to collect donations from the LGBT community. She explained that “all of the money collected through this appeal will be managed by the American Red Cross.” The Red Cross will bundle these funds and record them as contributions from the LGBT community in America to the people of Haiti. “The symbolism of a unified, community-based financial response is important,” Lucas emphasized, as it “represents a fitting effort to reach beyond our borders with a message of hope and goodwill from LGBT Americans.”

“We are thrilled with this partnership with the LGBT community and we are delighted to be working with organizations which take such a strong interest in humanitarian response,” American Red Cross Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Floyd W. Pitts said.

In addition to Atlantis and Olivia cruises, Charlie Rounds, President of RSVP cruises (a subsidiary of Atlantis), has also joined the effort. Mark Bromley, Chair of the Council for Global Equality, is also seeking to raise awareness within the LGBT community in response to the disaster. “Too often the LGBT community in the United States is portrayed as inwardly focused and unattached to the larger suffering beyond our borders,” Bromley lamented, “but we know that to be untrue, and as we watch the devastation in Haiti today, we can also send a message about our community’s larger concern for human suffering.”
Atlantis/RSVP pledged $15,000 in matching contributions, Olivia has pledged an additional $7,500 for a total of $22,500. Olivia is also offering a limited number of free cruises to those who contribute $7,500 or more. They are urging all LGBT individuals and organizations to contribute and provide matching funds when possible. To contribute to the fund, visit: www.american.redcross.org/LGBT-pub

Dutch Couple First To Arrive After HIV Travel Restrictions Lifted

New York – The first HIV-positive people to enter the United States after the HIV travel restrictions were lifted by the Obama administration arrived at JFK airport January 7.

Clemens Ruland and Hugo Bausch, a Dutch couple, arrived from Amsterdam on KLM flight 641. The Dutch cultural attache, Ferdinand Dorsman, on behalf of the Dutch ambassador, and Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch, met the couple.

“Travel restrictions on HIV-positive people fundamentally affect their human dignity,” Dittrich said. “Lifting the HIV travel ban was a victory for human rights.”

For years Human Rights Watch campaigned against the travel restrictions for HIV-positive people, imposed during the Reagan administration. Human Rights Watch regards limiting the mobility of people living with HIV as discriminatory and stigmatizing. It hurts the people involved and does not serve public health purposes. The Obama administration lifted the ban as of January 5.

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on LGBT rights, please visit the organization’s website at: www.hrw.org

Wisconsin News

Domestic Partner Insurance Benefits Take Effect In Wisconsin

Madison - State workers and employees at the University of Wisconsin now can receive domestic partner health insurance and other benefits. The insurance benefit for same-sex couples was one of several new insurance mandates that became effective January 1 this year. Also mandated: young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance longer, and birth control and autism coverage must be included in insurance policies written in the state.

The domestic partner benefits are being extended to unmarried partners of state employees who live together, share expenses and meet other requirements. It is open to unmarried couples of the opposite sex as well as same-sex couples.

As of December 30, 710 people and 57 dependents had signed up for the health insurance, according to the Department of Employee Trust Funds. Another 300 state workers have signed affidavits saying that they qualify for the benefits, indicating that they may sign up later. Another 179 university employees added a domestic partner to their health insurance as of December 21.

The health insurance benefit is separate from other rights that all same-sex couples became eligible for in the state starting in August. Under that law, couples had to sign a registry in order to receive a host of rights already afforded married couples, including hospital visitation and inheritance.

Under another insurance change taking effect in Wisconsin, adults up to age 27 could remain on their parents health insurance plans unless they have access to cheaper plans through their employers. Current law had not addressed how long a child can remain on their parent’s coverage, leaving it up to individual insurers to decide. About 20 states require insurance companies to offer parents coverage of adult children, according to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

Opposition to one of the mandates came from anti-abortion and Catholic groups who object to the new rule requiring contraceptives to be covered under health insurance policies. Opponents argued that birth control is not medically necessary and insurance companies should not be forced to pay for what is a personal decision. The Wisconsin Catholic Conference is lobbying lawmakers to provide an exemption for religious organizations.

Three of the state’s five Catholic dioceses purchase private health insurance, which would be required to include contraceptive coverage, he said. However, their policies aren’t up for renewal until later in 2010, so the hope is the Legislature will provide for the exemption before then.

Those three dioceses in Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay insure about 6,000 clergy, staff and other employees according to Catholic Conference spokesman John Huebscher. The other two in La Crosse and Superior are self-insured and not bound by the law, he said.

Planned Parenthood opposes any exemptions because that will limit women’s access to birth control, the group’s legal and policy analyst Nicole Safar said. “An exemption really defeats the purpose.”

Wisconsin is joining 24 other states that already require birth control to be covered, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two additional states require insurance companies to offer contraceptive coverage as an option to employees, but it can be declined. Federal law requires insurance coverage of contraceptives for federal employees.

Cupid’s Auction Benefits Milwaukee LGBT Center

Milwaukee - The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center will hold its second annual Cupid's Arrow online auction to celebrate the season of love and compassion from January 31 to February 14. The auction will help the center to raise much needed funds for programs and services, which include, but are not limited to: the Anti-Violence Project, HIV support services, the LBT Breast Health program, the Project Q youth program, the Environmental Awareness program, maintenance of the David Bohnett CyberCenter, the LGBT community library and the sponsorship of Community Breakfasts

The center is looking for auction items to add to the Cupid's Arrow catalog. If you have valuable merchandise, rare collectibles, business or personal services or access to unique events, the center can use your contribution. Contact Patrick Price, Director of Philanthropy, by phone at 414-292-3065 or by email at: pprice@mkelgbt.org to receive a auction donation form. The last day the center can accept donations is Tuesday, January 26.

Auction sponsors are also needed. Contact auction organizers by email at: mkelgbt@cmarket.org or by phone at: 414-292-3065 to take advantage of promotional opportunities for your business or to pledge individual support.
To access the auction beginning January 31, visit the center’s website at: www.mkelgbt.org.

Voices of Faith Workshop Set For FeB 6

Brookfield - The Voices of Faith project of Equality Wisconsin will hold a workshop lead by the Reverend Keith Kron, Director of the Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgender (LGBT) Concerns of the Unitarian Universalist Association here Saturday, February 6.

The workshop will run from from 10 AM to 1 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church West, with a luncheon following. “Allies for LGBTQ Equality: Discovering How Being an Ally Is a Practice of Faith” will be Rev. Kron’s topic. Kron will explore with participants what it means spiritually to be an ally, pointing to examples from scriptures in the world’s religions, to leaders who stepped out of their comfort zones to take up a cause of the oppressed.

Voices of Faith is a coalition of clergy and their congregations who support members of the LGBT community in their struggles for equality. They originally came together to fight against the state constitutional ban on gay marriage in 2006, speaking out against the ban and for fairness and justice. Their focus continues to be on helping congregations become open and welcoming to the LGBT community.

The Equality Wisconsin Fund is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Milwaukee that serves to educate area citizens on issues of equality and fairness for the state’s LGBT community.

OutReach Mardi Gras Party Set For Feb16

Madison - OutReach will sponsor a Mardi Gras party at the Cardinal Bar, 418 E. Wilson St., on Tuesday, February 16 from 5-9 PM.

Join OutReach and host Ricardo Gonzalez on Fat Tuesday to celebrate Mardi Gras with New Orleans style food and music, a cash bar, dancing with a DJ, and brief program about OutReach’s work. A $25 suggested donation includes a complimentary coupon for a beer, glass of wine or soda. Handmade masks and Mardi Gras beads will be provided free by OutThere,OutReach’s 18 to 24 year old LGBT group.

FMI about the party, contact Outreach, 600 Williamson St, by phone at: 608-255-8582, or by email at: info@lgbtoutreach.org

There is much more in our print version of Quest. Music Top 15's DVD Reviews etc. to see it all pick up a copy of Quest at your neighborhood LGBT establishment or to see the PDF of the mag online, just click here!

Letters To The Editor:
Quest’s Top 25 Of 2009 Gets Bouquets & Brickbats

Dear Quest Team,

I wanted to take the time to write you and give you some healthy congratulations on a great issue of Quest. I just spent the last hour reading Vol. 16 Issue 22 (Dec-30 - Jan-20) from nearly cover to cover. The review of the Top Stories of 2009 was written with a style and finesse that I have not experienced before in your publication. I found the style that of a focused and well informed writer, that summed up the year better than anything I have read, thus far. Kudos!
I’m sadden(ed) to hear that so many great LBGT publications and even some the more mainstream papers are stopping the presses across the nation. I have felt that in recent years there is a momentum in the community working on civil rights, AIDS prevention and other key issues, that NEED a reliable and informative news media to keep us on track and united for successful change in the future. I’m glad that Quest is available in the greater SW-Wisconsin area, and I look forward to some great future literary triumphs coming from your press in 2010!
Thanks for serving us in Wisconsin and Congratulations on a great 2009, and best of luck in 2010!!

A Very Satisfied Quest Reader
James Kaufman
Milwaukee, WI

Dear Mike:

I read your year-end summary of forecasts, and wanted to clarify that your inclusion of CCA in “5. Cold Economic Climate Causes Consolidation Or Collapse” isn’t quite appropriate, although casual observers would not know that.
CCA didn’t get “absorbed” by GLAAD, nor was the change for economic reasons. CCA suffered from an all-too-common problem in the LGBT community of eating our own. The organization had a record year financially, as well as our last Images in Advertising Awards, in 2008. Rather, the CCA board decided to merge with GLAAD long before the economic crisis, then used the crisis as a partial rationale to do so. GLAAD was handed CCA for free, on a silver platter against my wishes, and when I fought this the board proceeded to cut me out.
GLAAD has never expressed much interest in CCA but was willing to take it as long as it had no obligations to do anything.
In fact, the future of the once-thriving web site is in jeopardy without commitment or funding from GLAAD, who has also made no intention of continuing the educational corporate trainings, community education, or best practices that were the hallmark of CCA over its 8 years. You can thank the former board of CCA for that “visionary” thinking.

Sincerely,
Mike Wilke, Founding Executive Director
Commercial Closet Association

To The Editor:

Near the end of your 2010 predictions article, you say the following: “Expect to see the truly polarizing Mark Neumann to drop out before the Spring primary and the still well-loved Tommy Thompson to be at Walker’s side during the Fall campaign. My confidence here is 70%.”
There is no Spring primary, it’s in September. How can anyone take you seriously as a ‘news organization’ and respect your opinion if you don’t even know when the primary is. Clearly, your ‘crystal ball’ is a bit....cloudy.

Jonathan P Mason
Waukesha

Mike’s Response: The prediction is Neumann will drop out by the Spring primary (perhaps I should have said primary “season” or just said Spring). The point was the the timing: before the State GOP convention in June. It is not the gubernatorial primary. I never said it was.

Editor’s Note: Candidate Neumann loaned his campaign a million dollars, reportedly to mask a serious shortfall in campaign contributions, according to statewide media reports at Quest’s deadline.

Correction: In The “Quest Top 25 of 2009 feature, there was one conflicting bit of information. In the #2 national story, “Gay Marriage Retreats In California and Maine, Stalls Elsewhere,” the state having its marriage law repealed by voter referendum was listed in the text as Vermont. As the headline noted, it was Maine.