Equality Utah Report Suggest Anti-Gay Discrimination “Pervasive” Across State, Human Rights Campaign Partners With The Trevor Project Housed At Harvey Milk’s Castro Camera Storefront, Supreme Court Rejects Attempts To Put D.C. Same Sex Marriage Law To Voter Referendum, 1997 Letter Suggest Vatican Attempted To Control Cases Of Child Molestation By Priests Asking Irish Bishops Not To Report Incidents To Authorities

Wednesday, reports the Salt Lake Tribune, Equality Utah will distribute a report to 104 legislators, the report, prepared in partnership with the University of Southern California’s Williams Institute, is a non-random survey of 939 lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender Utahans that concludes “the problem of employment discrimination (against gay and transgender employees) is both pervasive and persistent.” The report is tool intended for use by Equality Utah in attempting to pass state-wide legislation, sponsored by Senator Ben McAdams (Democrat-Salt Lake City) that would ban employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay advocacy group in the United States, announced it was partnering with The Trevor Project, a national non-profit that provides suicide support services for gay youth, the Associated Press reporting that the plan is partially aimed at silencing critics angry that the HRC is occupying the San Francisco Castro neighbourhood storefront location where Harvey Milk waged his historic political campaign that changed the gay civil rights movement. HRC President Joe Solmonese said “We are honoured to partner with The Trevor Project in offering this important resource for LGBT youth across the nation from such a historic location.” The HRC said it plans to donate $10,000 a year and space inside the site of Milk’s old Castro Camera to The Trevor Project, which in turn plans to run a crisis hotline there, the deal in place for as long as the Washington, D.C.-based organization leases the store. AIDS Quilt founder Cleve Jones, who campaigned for and worked with Milk, said “It is wonderful that Harvey’s message of hope will again emulate from the site of Castro Camera. He spoke often of our responsibility to our young people and experienced firsthand the pain of losing loved ones to suicide ... I think he’d approve.”

The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to revive a lawsuit meant to allow a voter referendum on the District’s same sex marriage law, reports the Washington Post. Local courts had said the District’s Board of Elections and Ethics was justified in denying attempts by opponents of same sex marriage to the issue to a vote. Without comment, the Supreme Court said that they would not review the latest decision upholding the board’s ruling by the D.C. Court of Appeal. The board had argued that a ballot initiative on same sex marriage would, if approved, violate the city’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. A judge later agreed, and the appeals court voted 5-4 to uphold the ruling. The challenge was led by Bishop Harry Jackson.

A new disclosed letter written in 1997 by the Vatican to the bishops of Ireland says that the Catholic hierarchy had serious reservations regarding the bishop’s compulsory policy of reporting priests suspected of child abuse to the police or to civil authorities, according to the New York Times. The letter then contradicts claims made by the Vatican that church leaders in Rome did not seek to control the actions of local bishops in abuse cases, and that the Roman Catholic Church did not obstruct criminal investigations of child abuse. Victims of abuse in Ireland and the United States quickly identified the letter to be the “smoking gun” that would serve as important evidence in lawsuits against the Vatican. Colm O’Gorman, a victim of abuse in Ireland, now director of that country’s Amnesty International, said “The Vatican is at the root of this problem. Any suggestions that they have not deliberately and willing been instructing bishops not to report priests to appropriate civil authorities is now proven to be ridiculous.”