In a study of 444 junior high, high school and college age students between the ages of 11 and 22, the researchers found 54 percent reported an incident of cyberbullying within the past month. Cyberbullying, in the study, included “electronic distribution of humiliating photos, dissemination of false or private information, or targeting victims in cruel online polls,” according to an ISU statement.

The bullying resulted in a range of negative emotions, researchers said. More than 1 in 4 in the study reported suicidal thoughts, 28 percent felt anxious about school and nearly half (45 percent) expereince depression.

“There’s a saying that we’ve now changed to read, ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can kill,’ “ said Warren Blumenfeld, the study’s lead author, in the statement. “And especially at this age – pre-adolescence through adolescence – this is a time when peer influences are paramount in a young person’s life. If one is ostracized and attacked, that can have devastating consequences – not only physically, but on their emotional health for the rest of their lives.”

The move provides funding to maintain the district’s existing program, which includes an anti-discrimination curriculum at all grade levels and a Web site to help educators.

While San Francisco is considered a gay mecca, district officials contend gay and lesbian students are more likely to be bullied, skip school or attempt suicide according to an article in Education Week.

A district survey found that 13 percent of San Francisco’s middle schoolers and 11 percent of high schoolers identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

According to the Education Week story, “The school board approved the resolution unanimously after hearing testimony from more than two dozen students, teachers and parents who urged support for the measure.”

The Elsie Frank House is named after openly gay Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s mother who passed away in 2005. The elder Frank was a longtime supporter of LGBT issues.

The house is a Green House model, which “is an innovative model of nursing care that provides skilled nursing and daily care services to residents in a home environment,” according to a story in the Golden Rainbow Times.

“We have chosen to dedicate one of our Green Houses to the LGBT community because everyone deserves to live and receive care in a place that is filled respect for who they are, and for their dignity,” Green House CEO Barry Berman told the Golden Rainbow Times. “Be assured that the staff at Elsie Frank have chosen to work with LGBT residents and we look forward to creating a strong sense of community in this house.”

The Elsie Frank House has room for ten residents who will live in condo-style houses. Each resident has a separate bedroom and bathroom, with shared kitchen and living areas. The main floor of the building – called “Main Street USA” – has a café, bakery, chapel, deli, day spa and peace garden.

“We want to ensure that they’re going to be able to provide the best LGBT-focused care that they can,” Lisa Krinsky, director of the LGBT Aging Project, told Bay Windows in 2007 when the project was first announced.

The letter states, “tens of thousands of binational families are either already living separately, face imminent separation, or have left the U.S. entirely in order to remain together. This is unacceptable, and we believe comprehensive immigration reform legislation must include a strong family reunification component inclusive of LGBT families.”

The current immigration law does not allow LGBT Americans to sponsor their partners – mainly due to a lack of marriage recognition.

According to 2000 Census data compiled by the Williams Institute, a UCLA-based think tank that focuses on sexual orientation, more than 36,000 LGBT binational Americans would benefit by having the ability to sponsor their partners for residency. And almost half of those families – 47 percent – are raising children.

Until changes are made, the members of Congress contend the current situation is punishing families.

“No one should be forced to choose between the person they love and the country they call home.” the letter states. “It is time that our immigration laws kept families together instead of tearing them apart.”

Currently at least 20 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel, allow citizens and legal residents to sponsor their same-sex partners for immigration purposes, according to the Williams Institute.

Annise Parker is more than willing to talk about her place in history. The 53 year old was inaugurated in a private ceremony this past weekend as the mayor of Houston, making her the first openly gay politician to run a major American city. However, that conversation bores her. She gets animated when discussing the Houston and Texas she knows and how her win is not that odd.

“A lot of the media coverage has been about me being first in Houston and this has given me an  opportunity to talk about Houston and Texas as I know them,” Parker said in an interview with 365Gay. “Houston is a very diverse, open, tolerant, and business oriented city.  People care more about what you can do,  as opposed to who you are. It is the most diverse and international city under the radar.”

As a former Houstonian, lived there for three years in the early 1990s, it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. From its vibrant art scene (I was lucky enough to see the birth of Project Row Houses), great bookstores (Brazos baby!), and  a food scene that will add delicious pounds, there is enough in the country’s fourth largest city to keep anyone occupied and happy.

Today the city will have public inaugural  ceremonies and celebrations for Parker, who also is Houston’s former controller. Her previous gig as number cruncher will help her as she, like other public executives, handles a bumpy economy.

“Every government entity is facing tough economic times.  Houston is slightly better but we still have budgetary challenges, like how to provide high services for few dollars. We also have a severely understaffed police department and will have to find a way to recruit new officers.”

While she started her political career as a LGBT activist, Parker did not enter the mayoral race for symbolism or to serve only one community. Instead she wants to handle what local politics are all about:  garbage pick up and pot hole care, or what she calls “the minutia of people living together.”

Parker insists she was very clear in the campaign that she was a candidate who happened to be a lesbian, not a candidate for the LGBT community. Gay issues, such as they are, will not magically become a reality because the buck stops with her.

“I’ve paid my dues as  an activist and  always stood up to be counted, but have said very clearly that I’m not  a spokesperson of the LGBT community. I’ve been asked my opinion on gay marriage and said that as mayor, I can’t impact gay marriage. I support domestic partnership for city employees but there is a city charter that prevents me from making it a law. That requires a citizen charter vote and that has to come from the community.”

Parker will hold on to a little slice of her historical win, a phone message from President Barack Obama. He called her after the election to offer congratulations, but Parker was being interviewed so her phone was on silent.

“His message  went straight to voice mail. That’s a cool souvenir on my voice mail.”

By the way, Parker did help out with questions about her family. On her political website it’s mentioned she and partner Kathy Hubbard  have been together since 1990 and have two children. In her mid December victory speech Parker introduced three,  a son and two daughters. Their oldest son, who is now 33, moved in with the couple when he was 16, but was never formerly adopted.

Black Friday came, and I stayed away from the stores.

I’m not anti-consumerism or anti-gifts or anti-Christmas, just anti-crowds — 134 million shoppers is 134 million too many for me. So I’m letting the commotion die down before I begin my holiday shopping.

I’ll be shopping with a list this year — a list of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. It’s not the list of names that Santa uses — though I wish he would borrow some leads from mine. My list does not contain the names of those I plan to spend money on, but rather the names of businesses I will or will not patronize.

Don’t worry, I’ve checked it twice, after doing the research — an examination of corporate donors to anti-gay ballot campaigns, a review of the Human Rights Campaign’s extensive Corporate Equality Index and Buying for Equality Guide, which rank companies based on LGBT-friendly employment practices; a survey of the year’s past news articles about corporate flare-ups and a look at Ave Maria Mutual Funds — trust me, you don’t want to put your money where they put their money.

LGBT buying power in the United States this year is estimated at $712 billion, according to the research and marketing company Witeck-Combs Communications. That’s a lot of dollars to pump into the marketplace, especially in an ailing economy. And that’s a lot of leverage for change. I like to think I’m among the 78 percent of LGBT consumers who put my money where my heart and cause lie — equality and acceptance.

When I lived in Chicago, patronizing LGBT-friendly businesses was as simple as walking out my front door on Clark Street in Andersonville, affectionately known as Girlstown.

Now, I need to do some homework to come up with a naughty and nice list. Fortunately HRC’s Buying for Equality 2010 Guide — which can be downloaded at the organization’s Web site — offers a comprehensive examination of the larger businesses with pro-LGBT policies, specifically workplace policies. The guide breaks businesses into three categories — top-ranked “green” companies, middle-ranked “yellow” companies and bottom-ranked “red” companies that have a lot of work to do.

So, what is noted under “nice” on my list?

Well, someone in my two-person household is going to get a new 8GB Apple iPod Nano for Christmas, maybe even two people in my two-person household. Apple tops the nice list, along with Best Buy and Dell, while Acer/Gateway and Radio Shack come at 50 percent or below on HRC’s scorecard.

What others rank at the top of the nice list? Barnes & Noble and Borders, Costco and eBay, GameStop and Hallmark Cards, Target and Walgreens, Sears and Macy’s.

Amazon, Limited, Staples, Bath and Body Works, Staples, CVS, OfficeMax, Harry & David and Whole Foods also make the list.

Top-ranked brands include Herman Miller and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Craftsman and Kenmore, KitchenAid and Magic Chef, Abercrombie and Fitch and Gap, Levi Strauss and Liz Claiborne, Nike and Converse, Land’s end and Kenneth Cole, Microsoft and Mattel, Estee Lauder and Walt Disney and Kodak and Motorola.

My naughty list includes retailers at the bottom of HRC’s scorecard. About these companies, HRC kindly suggests, “Make the choice to support a fairer company.” The retailers include Radio Shack, Meijer, Office Depot, Big Lots, Children’s Place, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dillard’s, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and, surprise, Wal-Mart.

Lower-scoring brands include La-Z-Boy and Lennar, Sealy and Sherwin-Williams, Anne Klein and Evan-Picone, Gloria Vanderbilt and Joan & David, Nine West and Bandolino, ClosetMaid and John Deer — fortunately a tractor or a lawn mower isn’t on any relative’s wish list this year.

Though I always pay off my credit cards from week to week, I likely will shop with my Visa, which earned a 100 percent from HRC, and not my Discover, which has a 58 percent rating. I like Discover’s miles program, but…

To get from store to store, mall to mall, I’ll be filling up my car at the island BP or Shell rather than the stations affiliated with the naughty Exxon Mobil.

And, for that pick-me up during the holiday shopping expedition, Starbucks and Seattle’s Best fall under nice on my list.

To LGBT consumers: If you braved Black Friday and perhaps now have some buyer’s remorse about patronizing the naughty over the nice, well, we’re consumers year ’round. Make a list, check it twice.

And to the companies who want our LGBT dollars: Be good for goodness sake.

Yesterday, we found out that the Washington Blade, along with many other local LGBT papers and media were closing. It’s another blow to the LGBT advocacy project and a blow to print media.

Now maybe I shouldn’t knock blogging. I do it, after all, three or four times a week on two different websites. But as a blogger, I am all too aware of the pitfalls and shortcomings of our particular form of media. Blogging is generally unpaid, or paid very badly. No one is giving you budgets for investigative reporting, interviews, travel. Your greatest asset is the internet, the reporting of other papers and your own particular expertise.

So, I can pore over a recent court decision and give my opinion, but I certainly cannot go to Puerto Rico and find out exactly how the police force handles hate crimes when a 19 year old gay boy is murdered.

When you lose publications that actually report on LGBT events, you start to notice how bloggers are everywhere and reporters are scarce. You start to notice how no one is going to Puerto Rico to report on the LGBT angle.

This is a problem in all media: the rise of blogging, of recycled media, and the fall of investigative journalism. However, when a community is fighting for recognition, against discrimination and for legal equality, reporting is even more important. Officials aren’t always willing to give us the facts about LGBT related events. Reporters aren’t always worried about LGBT issues. Investigative media IS the backbone of our civil rights struggle.

I hope, against hope, that a new publication dedicated to reporting and investigating the news springs up to replace the Washington Blade and it’s sister publications. We need that more than any lobbying effort or any new liberal politician.

After the announcement today about the Fort Worth Bar Raid, I think it’s about time we had a frank discussion about police officers. Throughout LGBT history in the United States, the gay/trans community has been pitted against police. It’s police, in fact, who inspire our holiest of high holidays: Pride.  The clashes are universal, span from coast to coast and need to stop.

But it’s not suspensions and internal reports that are going to end this problem.

To be a police officer in Fort Worth, TX one must have completed high school or achieved a G.E.D. And that’s it. No diploma from a community college. No college degree. No Masters program in criminology or forensics or law. Then officers are trained, by the police force rather than an independent body.

A Lieutenant in the Fort Worth police department gets paid $36,000 a year.

But police officers are outfitted with guns, given immense amounts of power and asked to make sophisticated legal decisions in an instant. Are we surprised that they screw up a lot? Are we surprised that the people they recruit are not the most open-minded, educated members of a community?

The Fort Worth police department wants to solve this problem by doling out a few suspensions or by instituting training that considers the rights and experiences of LGBT community members.

I think there’s no chance the Fort Worth Texas police force, or pretty much any police force, is going to improve their relationship with the LGBT community until we start insisting the officers get more life experience and academic training, the salaries increase to be competitive with degree requirements and the force itself start to take its job seriously enough that bare minimum standards just aren’t good enough anymore.

Through its Administration on Aging, HHS will award a single resource grant in the amount of $250,000 annually, depending on the availability of funds.  According to HHS, the center will provide resources to LGBT organizations, as well assisting mainstream aging services providers in developing cultural competence in serving LGBT elders. 
 
“Despite the many advances our community has seen, LGBT elders face significant discrimination from senior care providers, including in places where we are most vulnerable, such as assisted living facilities and end-of-life care,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “As more and more openly LGBT people reach their later years, it is incredibly important to ensure that we are treated with dignity, respect and fairness.  We applaud HHS for taking this important step on behalf of older LGBT Americans.”
 
HRC and Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) host a collaborative forum on LGBT aging issues, available at www.hrc.org/issues/aging/.  As part of the New Beginning Initiative, coordinated by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, SAGE has advocated for policy changes that would benefit LGBT elders.  Earlier this month, the Administration on Aging issued the first-ever grant focused on LGBT aging to the Los Angeles LGBT Community Service Center.  

“SAGE, the entire LGBT aging field, and  all those who work with and care for LGBT older adults, are thrilled by this announcement,” Michael Adams, executive director of SAGE, said in a statement. “For too long, programs that serve LGBT older people have been ignored and shut out from most public funding, and there has been no federal funding to help mainstream aging services become educated about and sensitive to the unique needs of  LGBT older adults. This resource center is a truly historic recognition of the needs of LGBT older adults across the country  and will make a huge difference in the lives of so many seniors.”

(Washington) U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a series of proposals to ensure that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end,” said Donovan. “President Obama and I are determined that a qualified individual and family will not be denied housing choice based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The initiatives announced today will be a proposed rule that will provide the opportunity for public comment. The proposed rule will:

• clarify that the term “family” as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of our public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs include otherwise eligible lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT) individuals and couples. HUD’s public housing and voucher programs help more than three million families to rent an affordable home. The Department’s intent to propose new regulations will clarify family status to ensure its subsidized housing programs are available to all families, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

• require grantees and those who participate in the Department’s programs to comply with local and state non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation or gender identity; and
• specify that any FHA-insured mortgage loan must be based on the credit-worthiness of a borrower and not on unrelated factors or characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity.

In addition to issuance of proposed rule, HUD will commission the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.

HUD expects to begin the regulatory process immediately. The LGBT discrimination study is similarly fast tracked. HUD undertook important research in 1977, 1989 and 2000 to study the impact of housing discrimination on the basis of race and color.

It is believed that LGBT individuals and families may remain silent because in many local jurisdictions, they may have little or no legal recourse. HUD’s study will examine housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

While there are no national assessments of LGBT housing discrimination, there are state and local studies that have shown this sort of bias. For example, Michigan’s Fair Housing Centers found that nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when attempting to buy or rent a home (http://www.fhcmichigan.org/images/Arcus_web1.pdf).

In response, HRC issued this statement:

“Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced an unprecedented set of initiatives that will protect LGBT people and our families in one of the most fundamental aspects of life – finding and keeping a home,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “The policies proposed today will help some of the most vulnerable people in our community and the nationwide survey will finally shed light on the discrimination LGBT people face every day in trying to make homes for themselves and their families.  We thank Secretary Donovan and President Obama for taking this historic step forward.”

As part of its Blueprint for Positive Change, HRC submitted more than 70 recommendations for executive action which would improve the lives of LGBT Americans to the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.  Since the administration began, HRC staff have met and communicated with numerous federal agencies on how to implement these policies.  The three policy changes proposed by today were part of HRC’s recommendations for HUD.