Michele Bachmann Confronted By Gay Robot And Hecklers At Iowa City Campaign Stop, Michigan Man Claims He Was Fired From Dental Centre Because He Disclosed HIV Positive Status, Michigan Governor Snyder Signs Ban On State Domestic Partnership Benefits Into Law, Compromise Reached On Chicago Pride Parade, Gay Irish Teachers Required To Led Double Lives

On Thursday afternoon in Iowa City, Iowa Michele Bachmann encountered a man dressed in a robot suit, who shouted her down with the aid of a built-in megaphone. He called himself, "roboprof," and was booed and quickly asked to leave Hamburg Inn No. 2, where Bachmann made the campaign stop, reports The Iowa City Patch. "I am a gay robot. I oppose Bachmann's position on gays, whether they are human or robot," said the man, who declined to give his name, although he admitted to being the same robot who heckled Bill Clinton at the University of Iowa in 2007. At that time, the person in the robot suit was revealed to be Kembrew McLeod, a communications professor at the University of Iowa. Bachmann swept through the popular diner in about 20 minutes, shaking hands, signing autographs and taking pictures, but made no statements and did not comment to the media. The restaurant was packed to the brim with well over 100 people — both proponents and plenty of opponents. The lack of support was not altogether surprising in the liberal enclave. Police were called, and four officers arrived towards the end of the visit to help keep the peace in the ruckus crowd. A group of Occupy Iowa City protesters tried to shout over the noise of the eatery while Bachmann was there. "Michele Bachmann will fix the economy by laying off workers and cutting their pay. Michele Bachmann fights proudly for marriage unless the couple happens to be gay," about 15 people scattered around the restaurant said. "You're not wanted here. You're not wanted here so go, just go." Eva Roethler, 24, of Iowa City, who was among the people who spoke out, saying, "We think the electoral process and our politicians are flawed. We are speaking against politicians in general. Bachmann is just today's example." According to the Hamburg, the campaign brought in music and speakers, which were cranked up to drown out protesters. Supporters, some of whom who were seen later on the Bachmann tour bus, chimed in saying "We love you, Michele," and "You are our next president." Michael Clark, 70, of Coralville, who attended with his wife, Myra, 56, said, "She is the only one I can trust. We feel she is the most conservative.” The Minnesota Congresswoman has been campaigning heavily in Eastern Iowa of late. She made 10 stops on Wednesday, including in Washington, and had 10 more stops on the books for Thursday. Bachmann is languishing in the polls. In the most recent poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers by Iowa State University/Gazette/KCRG poll, Bachmann had 7.4-percent of the support, which was good enough for fifth place behind Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, respectively. Currently, only Rick Santorum and Rick Perry have visited Hamburg Inn this caucus season. Hamburg Inn has gained a national reputation as a stopping point for political candidates. The restaurant has reached out to all of candidates, but the lack of Republican visits is understandable given Iowa City is heavily Democrat. Bachmann also came to Iowa City this summer and stopped two blocks away at Hamburg's competitor, the Bluebird Diner.

In Michigan, an Oakland County dental center is at the center of a federal complaint and a grassroots online campaign after a former employee claimed he faced workplace discrimination — and was fired — because he has HIV. The Detroit News reports that James White, a Macomb Township resident, claims that after he disclosed his health condition to his supervisor, he experienced numerous incidents of discrimination, including employees sanitizing his work station, until he was terminated. But Great Expressions Dental Centers — a Bloomfield Hills company with 150 dental centers in seven states — claims the allegations are false and is using legal manoeuvres to fight back. It filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking a judgment that their employees didn't discriminate against White, 26. It also sent a cease-and-desist letter on Wednesday to James Harris, a student at the University of Oklahoma, advising him to remove a petition he put up on change.org or face legal action. Late Wednesday, Harris took down the petition with 41,000 signatures. But another petition in support of White was started within hours. The flurry of legal and grassroots activity followed a recent finding by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that there is reasonable cause to believe that White was discriminated against by employees of the company's Sterling Heights location. The EEOC suggested $224,000 for back pay and damages for White and staff training. Joshua Moore, an attorney and owner of Detroit Legal Services, said he has never seen a case like White's. "It's the most clear-cut case of HIV discrimination I have ever witnessed," said Moore. "He was going through constant harassment." But it was White's excessive absences and tardiness that led to his termination, according to the company's federal lawsuit. Richard Beckman, CEO of Great Expressions Dental Centers, added that he would not normally comment on something like this but it has "gotten out of control,” adding, "He did work for us and he was terminated. But it had nothing to do with his illness. We are very sympathetic toward anybody who has HIV." According to the EEOC complaint, White began working for the Great Expressions Dental Centers in August 2008 as a patient coordinator who answered phones and checked patients in and out. When he was diagnosed with HIV in January 2009, White said he told his supervisor because he thought it might be easier in the long run, and asked her not to tell anyone. But she told the regional manager, who called White into an office and said he heard that White had AIDS. "I told him I didn't have AIDS, I had HIV, there was a difference," White said in an interview. "He said it wasn't a big deal as long as I wasn't working in the back with patients." But then, employees were instructed to constantly sanitize things he touched, according to White. On one occasion, when he developed a rash, his supervisor screamed that he was "knowingly putting the entire staff at risk," then he was escorted out of the building and not allowed to touch anything on his way out, according to the EEOC complaint. He wasn't allowed to come back until he got a doctor's note stating he wasn't contagious. "It made me feel like I wasn't even human," White said. "I felt ashamed and humiliated." White also was allegedly told by his supervisors to switch his schedule on numerous occasions, yet was marked as unexcused tardy, according to the EEOC complaint. He also brought notes from doctors when he was absent, yet was still marked as an unexcused. White was fired on the phone just before he was scheduled to return to work after a hospitalization in July 2009, White said. He sought legal representation after his termination, and his lawyers took the case to the Detroit chapter of the EEOC. After a three-year investigation, it concluded in October there was reasonable cause to believe that company employees had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The agency suggested monetary damages and employee education that so far hasn't been addressed by the company, according to White's attorneys In a letter to White's attorneys, EEOC officials said the terms are subject to negotiation. The agency told White that if a settlement can't be reached with the company, he could sue in federal court, which his attorneys said they plan to do soon. But the company has filed a federal lawsuit, which claimed White has made numerous false allegations publicly and also fostered the change.org campaign, which has resulted in a barrage of harassing phone calls and e-mails to company officials and shareholders. It also said White was late to work 51 times and absent 16 times. He was given five written disciplinary warnings about his absence and tardiness, yet he continued to violate the company's attendance policy, the lawsuit alleges. White also did not show up for work for 11 days and provided a doctor's note that did not cover all of the days he was gone. "What they have alleged is false," Beckman said.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a heavily-debated and controversial domestic partner benefits ban into law today. Public employees, including state and local government workers and public school teachers, will no longer be allowed to extend their health care benefits to domestic partners. It is unclear whether the bill applies to state universities, although Snyder asserts that it does not. House Republicans, meanwhile, say it does apply to university employees, reports Ann Arbor.com. The move is a blow to gay and lesbian activists throughout the state. "We’re so very disappointed in the governor," Kary L. Moss, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union's Michigan chapter, said in an interview. "This was the moment for him to show real leadership, to rise above what I believe is petty politics, to tell the rest of the country that Michigan is not living in the dark ages and to create an open, inclusive Michigan." The legislation was strongly opposed by the Ann Arbor City Council, Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce, University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

Organizers of Chicago’s annual gay pride parade have agreed to keep their regular noon start time, rather than begin at 10:00 am, after one of Chicago’s oldest Roman Catholic churches objected that the proposed earlier start, along with a new parade route, would have blocked access to Sunday Masses. According to The Associated Press, the new route will take the parade past Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church for the first time. The parade is held the last Sunday in June and draws a crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands. “We met with representatives from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church last week,” Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) and Chicago LGBT Pride Parade organizer Richard Pfeiffer said in a written statement Thursday. “We discussed moving the start time back to 12 noon to help accommodate Sunday services along the parade route . . . We believe this is an agreeable compromise to help keep the parade safe.

Schools in Ireland can be hostile places for gay people, particularly the staff rooms. Reuters reports that gay, lesbian or bisexual teachers in many Irish schools (which are still dominated by the Catholic Church) risk discrimination or even the sack if they reveal their sexuality, thanks to a law that permits religious employers to penalize employees for actions undermining their religious standards. "When you are in the school system, you are caught up in the ethos of the school, you are caught up in the silence," said Leo Kilroy, 34, who used to teach in a Catholic-run primary school in Dublin's inner city. "You are aware that if you come out as a gay or a lesbian you may experience discrimination. Your very existence in that post is up for challenge." The Church has been toppled from its once pre-eminent position in Irish life thanks to rising prosperity, membership of the European Union, the shift from farm to city and wave after wave of sex abuse scandals. Ireland's recent decision to close its embassy in the Vatican brought relations to a historic low. But the Church's influence is still profound in two key areas -- schools and family law, which is governed by a constitution still bearing the legacy of Ireland's Catholic past. More than nine in ten primary schools and half of all high schools are run by the Church. The boards of such schools are typically chaired by a parish priest and, although the state pays the teachers' salaries, the Church still has a say in enrolment and recruitment. Kilroy came out as a gay man in his late 20s after he left his teaching post. He now lecturers trainee teachers and is treasurer of a group representing lesbian, gay and bisexual primary school teachers. It has 45 members out of a sector with an estimated 31,000 employees. "One of the reasons that I was freer to come out was because I was free of the school system. A gay and lesbian person in a staff room has to censor themselves," he said. "I know of gay teachers who have been passed over for promotion, they have been verbally abused and discriminated against and had to suffer jokes about gay or lesbian people." Up until 1993, it was a crime to commit a homosexual act in Ireland -- anal sex could land you in prison for life. Before that, most people opted to hide their sexuality. Gay pride parades in 1980s Dublin were paltry affairs, attracting a few hundred people and the odd bigot shouting taunts about AIDS. Attitudes have changed dramatically since then. This year's gay pride event attracted 25,000 people, the second-largest procession in the country after the St. Patrick's' Day Parade. Polls show a majority of the public are in favour of same sex marriage, including many practicing Catholics. "The Lord made them that way. They should have equal rights," said Ita Phelan, 91, on her way into Sunday Mass at Dublin's main Roman Catholic church.