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Out
and Elected: Rare Words
On
Thursday, September 19, AEN is proud to present Georgia Rep. Karla
Drenner and Victory Fund Political Director Bob
Kearney. Two years ago, Karla Drenner made history as
first out openly gay person elected to the Georgia legislature
and remains the only openly gay figure in the southeast.
She's
a mother of two, she's listed as one of the most influential women
in Georgia, she's an accomplished author, she holds a doctorate,
and she once owned a new-age bookstore.
Drenner will return to the Georgia General Assembly for a second
term in January, as she will win her district seat in an uncontested
election.
Bob
Kearney serves as political director of the Victory Fund, where
he oversees the candidate endorsement process and implements strategies
for supporting openly gay and lesbian candidates nationwide.
Previously,
Bob served as the national field director for the American Civil
Liberties Union, where he created and managed a grassroots lobbying
program to educate Congress on civil rights and civil liberties
issues. Kearney has also done political work for the Human Rights
Campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and has helped
manage Get Out The Vote programs for a variety of Congressional
candidates and ballot initiatives.
Since its founding in 1991, the Victory Fund has raised over $3
million for the candidates it has endorsed, and it has helped
quadruple the number of openly gay office holders in the country
to over 200 today.
In
addition, AEN wishes to welcome new friends from the 12th annual
Southern Comfort
Conference to the meeting. (Click here
to find out more information about the conference.)
Doors
open at the Sheraton Colony Square Hotel at 5:45 p.m.
Web sites:
KarlaDrenner.org
VictoryFund.org
Sccatl.org
SoVo.com:
Two
gay candidates win office
WashingtonPost.com: Gay
Georgia legislator a novelty and model
Georgia.gov: Legislation
sponsored or co-sponsored by Rep. Drenner
Dale |
Dale
charms AEN
On
August 15, AEN was proud to have as its speaker, James Dale,
who spent most of his young life working with the Boy Scouts of
America. He ultimately achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and volunteered
as an assistant scoutmaster until he was expelled in 1990 after
being featured in a Rutgers University student newspaper as a
gay youth leader. His lawsuit against the Boy Scouts ultimately
reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the ban on gays as an
essential right of private organizations.
As
a Rutgers University sophomore Dale was elected co-president of
the gay student union and spoke to high school teachers about
reducing the risk of teen suicide. Days after being quoted in
a local newspaper, Dale received a letter stating that he no longer
met the Boy Scout's standards of morality and cleanliness.
Although
only 19 years old, Dale followed his core beliefs and contacted
the non-profit civil rights group Lambda Legal Defense, who filed
his suit for reinstatement into the Boy Scouts. After many delays
in the legal system the case grew stronger when New Jersey expanded
its non-discrimination law.
In
a 1995 decision against Dale, a judge called him a "sodomite"
and generated national attention as he quoted from the Bible,
declaring homosexuality "criminal and immoral." That ruling was
overturned in 1998 by a state appellate court and one year later
the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down a landmark civil rights
decision, ruling unanimously that anti-gay discrimination violated
state law.
The
Boy Scouts appealed their loss to the U.S. Supreme Court on First
Amendment freedom of association grounds, and Dale's case was
heard on the last day of the 1999-2000 term. Two months later,
a deeply divided Court ruled 5-4 that the Scouts had the right
to expel gay youth and leaders. The one-vote majority stated that
the Scouts' right to "free association" would be violated if the
organization were forced to admit those who disagree with Scouting
values, as defined by the national board of the Boy Scouts of
America.
Since
the ruling, corporations, schools and individual citizens have
begun to disassociate themselves from the Boy Scouts of America,
continuing to stand up in a show of support for gay and lesbian
civil rights. Many religious and deeply conservative organizations
have redoubled their efforts to support the Boy Scouts of America,
but the pinch is being felt as many refuse to participate in active
discrimination against gay and bisexual men. Courts in many states
have upheld the rights of these individuals and organizations
to disassociate themselves from the Boy Scouts' mindless anti-homosexual
bigotry.
Speaking to a standing-room only crowd, Dale, an Eagle Scout,
told the history of the landmark case. After twelve years of distinguished
service to the organization, Dale was fired as assistant scoutmaster
of the Matawan, New Jersey, troop in 1990.
Dale addressed
the issue of gay marriage, morality, and a correlation between
HIV-infection rates and youth sexual discrimination.
Today,
James Dale lives in New York City and works as the vice president
of a healthcare publishing company. He also serves on advisory
boards of GenderPAC and the global YouthAIDS initiative. Dale
regularly speaks to universities and business about personal empowerment
and the social marketing of civil rights and HIV prevention. He
recently documented his travels to Egypt in an article in the
Advocate magazine.
"I was
looking for a role model," Dale wrote in the Rutgers University
newspaper article that the Boy Scouts cited when it severed ties
with the scout.
We
don't need to look anymore.
Lambda
Legal: Boy
Scouts of America v. Dale
Dale's article in The Advocate: In
search of gay Egypt
Exploring options for domestic partner benefits
Throughout
the last decade, a growing number of employers in both the public
and private sectors began to offer domestic partnership benefits
to their employees. Currently, one-third of Fortune 500 companies
offer such benefits, and that figure rises above 50% for the Fortune
50 companies. Although complete statistics are elusive, the Human
Rights Campaign’s WorkNet project has documented more
than 4,000 employers that offer domestic partner health insurance
benefits.
While these statistics are encouraging, the fact remains that
the majority of LGBT employees do not have access to health insurance
or other benefits for their uninsured partners. So what can you
do if you and your partner find yourself wishing that one or the
other of you had a more progressive employer? Let's explore some
options.
Generally speaking, group health insurance coverage (which is
what most employers provide) is more affordable than individual
coverage. So, if either you or your partner needs health insurance
but can’t get it through the other's employer, first explore
other group options. Often a trade, professional, or even civic
organization can be a good place to start. A wide variety of nonprofits
use their group buying power to get discounted health insurance.
If you belong to any sort of nonprofit association — or are
eligible to join one — contact their member services department
to see what they have to offer. Most of these organizations are
more than happy to speak with you — in fact, many use these
benefits as a recruiting tool to increase their membership. If
you can find good coverage at a fair price through a nonprofit
organization, becoming a member may just be the way to go!
If an uninsured domestic partner is self-employed or maintains
a part-time side business, he or she may have even more alternatives.
First, health insurance agents and brokers sometimes are aware
of opportunities to "pool" small businesses to create
a small group; ask your financial adviser if he or she is aware
of any such opportunities in your area.
Another possibility that is often overlooked for helping self-employed
individuals obtain health coverage is the Medical Savings Account
(MSA) program. MSAs were authorized by Congress in 1996, but have
never really caught on as intended. An MSA combines high-deductible
health insurance with a saving account that later is used to pay
out-of-pocket expenses until the deductible is met. The theory
behind MSAs is noble: By putting individuals in charge of health
care purchases (via the high deductible and savings account),
a modicum of market discipline would be restored to the health
care industry. While the policy's goals haven’t really played
out, the fact remains that the MSA program can be a great way
for eligible individuals to trim their health care expenditures.
A financial adviser can direct you to the insurers in your area
who offer MSAs and help you evaluate if MSAs can play a roll in
your tax overall planning.
If your employer doesn’t offer domestic partner benefits,
try to find out why. Sometimes, it’s simply because no one
has asked. Other times, it’s because employers are unsure
about the issues and costs surrounding domestic partner benefits;
in this case, there are resources available to help you help your
employer understand why domestic partner benefits are good for
business. A good place to start is HRC's Web site (www.hrc.org).
A final — albeit somewhat radical — strategy for couples
seeking domestic partner benefits is for one or the other to change
jobs. Although job hunts are stressful and time-consuming, especially
in a recovering economy, one way to make employers who do not
provide domestic partner coverage understand the value of their
benefits programs is for talented employees to vote with their
feet. While this solution clearly isn’t for everyone, don’t
rule it out if it's available to you — people have switched
jobs for less compelling reasons.
It’s important to remember that there are tax consequences
to domestic partner benefits. Under the law, the value of the
additional benefit an employee receives for domestic partner coverage
(that is, the difference in value between individual coverage
and coverage for two people) is considered income for tax purposes.
Generally, an employer includes this amount proportionally in
each paycheck, so additional income tax withholding can be spread
out over the course of the tax year. In any case, the additional
value is included on the annual Form W-2, and the amount filters
down to the bottom line on the annual tax that you file.
For this reason, it's helpful to know in advance how your employer
values its domestic partner benefits. In rare circumstances, the
additional tax that arises actually can be more expensive than
having an uninsured partner find coverage elsewhere. This can
happen when the value of the benefit is extremely high, or when
the employee-partner is in a high tax bracket. If you think you
might be in such a situation, ask a financial adviser to determine
whether opting for domestic partner coverage makes sense for you
and if so how to make tax planning a consideration. You may also
want to consult a professional tax-preparer to crunch the numbers
for tax purposes.
Announcements
|
Next
Meeting
> Thursday,
Sept. 19
Karla Drenner
Bob Kearney
5:45 p.m.
Sheraton Colony Square
October
Meeting
> Thursday,
Oct. 17
Cathy Cox
GA Secretary of State
5:45 p.m
Sheraton Colony Square
Luncheons
Reservations
»
>
Tuesday, September 24
Allen Jones
Houlihan's, Colony Square
11:55 a.m.
Thursday,
September 26
Bonnie Barton
New Member Luncheon
Portofino
11:30 a.m.
Wednesday,
October 2
Ann McAllister
Violette
11:45 a.m.
Friday,
October 4
David Payne, Ronald Moore
Maggiano's, Perimeter
11:30 a.m.
Saturday, October 5
Patrick Greco
Highland Tap
1 p.m.
>
Friday, October 29
Don George
Après Diem
11:30 a.m.
Founded
in 1992, AEN's mission is to:
• Enhance
business contacts and friendships through networking
• Eliminate
discrimination and promote diversity in the workplace
• And
foster leadership in business, government and the arts.
Board
Members
Steve
Koval, President
David Payne, Vice President
Joe Guthridge, Treasurer
Ann McAllister, Secretary
Margie Archer
Bonnie Barton
Jamie Ensley
Don George
Patrick Greco
Sandy Hoke
Carl Lange
Ronald Moore
Gregory Nance
Sean Robinson
Newsletter
Editor
Jason Cecil
Webmaster
Drew Barton
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