Coalition Of American Mayors To Announce Support Same Sex Marriage, Omaha City Councilman To Introduce Measure To Ban Discrimination Against Homosexual And Transgender Individuals While State Senator Wants To Prohibit Local Anti-Discrimination Ordinances, Holland Michigan City Council Honours Gay Rights Group While Attempts To Add Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity To City’s Fair Housing and Equal Employment Policies Fail, Special Gender Identity Committee To Determine Where To House Illinois Transgender Inmate

A group of mayors is set to announce on Friday a largely symbolic push to legalize same sex marriage in states across the country, echoing what they say is growing popular support for marriage equality. While marriage laws are dictated by states and the federal government, rather than cities, the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, which is coordinating the effort, is hoping the mayors can help sway political opinions. Reuters reports that more than 75 mayors are involved in the campaign, it said. "Mayors are the elected officials closest to the people, and they know what's going on in their communities and they see that marriage strengthens communities," said Marc Solomon, the National Campaign Director of Freedom to Marry. Some 30 states explicitly ban same sex marriage -- and it is strongly opposed by social conservative groups -- but the number of states that allow it is growing. Last year, New York became the most populous state to legalize same sex marriage. Five other states allow it: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa. Gay marriage is also legal in the District of Columbia. New Jersey and Washington state are now considering legislation to legalize gay marriage, and gay rights activists in Maine say they plan to bring the issue to voters in a referendum. The National Organization for Marriage, which advocates that marriage be defined as being between a man and a woman, has said it will spend $250,000 to help fund primary challenges of Republican lawmakers in Washington who vote in favour of gay marriage, and another $500,000 in New Jersey to support lawmakers who oppose gay marriage. A representative for the National Organization of Marriage was not immediately available to comment on the campaign. The issue promises to feature prominently in the 2012 elections. President Barack Obama has supported rights for same sex couples, but has stopped short of endorsing marriage, while most of the Republicans seeking to challenge him in November have come out against it. Still, most polls now show a majority of Americans support gay marriage, with the strongest support coming from young people. Last May, Gallup found for the first time that a majority of Americans believe "same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages." The mayors' announcement will be made at the Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington. While composed mostly of Democrats, the group also includes Jerry Sanders, the Republican mayor of San Diego, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is an independent. In addition to Bloomberg and Sanders, Democrats Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Thomas Menino of Boston and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles will serve as the group's co-chairs.

A new debate is brewing at Omaha City Hall and in the State Capitol over who can qualify as a "protected class" under discrimination laws. According to The Omaha World-Herald, City Councilman Ben Gray says he plans to place a measure to ban discrimination against homosexual and transgender people on the council's agenda — as early as the end of the month or by late February. But an Omaha state senator wants to bar cities and local governments from unilaterally creating such protected classes. Instead, the bill would grant such authority solely to the state. The conflicting proposals are likely to reignite debate about more than a municipality's rights. The conversation will center on sexual orientation, the rights of private enterprise, religion and civil rights. Local business groups and religious-based organizations were pitted against a cadre of supporters of the anti-discrimination ordinance during Gray's first attempt to place a similar measure on city books in 2010. State and federal governments and the court system continue to wrangle with such issues. The U.S. Supreme Court last week upheld a "ministerial exception" to employment discrimination laws, a move that would often clear religious institutions to dismiss their leaders with legal impunity. In the Legislature, State Sen. Beau McCoy's Legislative Bill 912 would amend state law to prohibit local governments from creating new classes of residents protected from discrimination. Such changes could only come from the Legislature, the proposed law says. "It just merely says that if we're going to change the protected classes ... we need to come to the Capitol to do it so that it's consistent across the state," McCoy said. "If it's the right thing to do, it ought to be the right thing to do border-to-border, not just in one city or municipality." In Omaha, Gray said he knows of gay or transgender people who have left the city "because they saw it as an unfriendly place towards them," Gray adding, "I've seen enough smoke that I think there's a fire. If we have a segment of our community that is not enjoying those freedoms, or are in fear of not enjoying those freedoms, government has an obligation to act." Meanwhile, data from a federal auditor's review of discrimination cases filed in 2007 and 2008 suggest that only a fraction of complaints are based on sexual orientation. During that period, roughly 3-percent of complaints that were filed cited sexual orientation as part of the basis for the complaint. The review included 22 states, including Iowa, all of which had laws to prohibit discrimination against gays. Nebraska was not included because its discrimination laws — and federal regulations — do not cover homosexual and transgender residents. Barbara Albers, executive director of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, said the agency does not track employment complaints based on sexual orientation. "Most people know that it's not a covered basis," Albers said. But, she said, a lack of complaints shouldn't be interpreted to mean that the state hadn't had problems with gay discrimination. Michael Gordon, executive director of the local gay rights group Citizens for Equal Protection, said gay residents, and particularly transgender ones, are often fired from their jobs or have trouble being hired because of their orientation. "If people say there's not a problem, they don't know what they're talking about," he said. McCoy —whose legislative district covers part of Omaha, Valley and a part of north-western Douglas County — declined to say whether he'd support a state-wide proposal to include the gay and transgender population as a protected class, because a specific proposal isn't on the table. But McCoy said allowing municipalities to create their own policies and supersede the state's lawmaking authority could create a "patchwork quilt" of uneven regulations. "Nebraskans want uniformity," he said. "If it's discrimination in Omaha, why wouldn't it be the same in Scottsbluff, Gering, Kearney, Grand Island, you name it?" Gray said Omaha needed to act on its own to pass expanded anti-discrimination regulations. "When you look at various communities, they're made up differently," Gray said. Gray has been working to revive an anti-discrimination proposal for several months. Last August, results of a poll commissioned by the nation's largest gay rights group indicated that a majority of Omahans favoured passing an ordinance that would prohibit firing people because of their sexual orientation. Language for his latest proposal is still being drafted, but Gray said the ordinance will cover the same core issues as his original proposal. As originally written, the ordinance would have applied to all Omaha employers, employment agencies, labour groups and government contracts. Employers could be sued if they used sexual orientation or gender identity to reach decisions on hiring, firing or pay — but they would not be required to provide benefits to same-sex partners. The first proposal also barred denying the use of a public facility or service based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's executive committee, some churches, Christian-oriented policy groups and others resisted the ordinance and urged council members to vote against it. Pressure from the Archdiocese of Omaha prompted Gray to exclude religious groups from his proposal; his new ordinance will also exempt churches. Chamber officials say the ordinance would impose ambiguous and unclear regulations and would be difficult for businesses to implement. Businesses, they said, opposed discrimination but also opposed additional city regulations for businesses that were best approved at the state or federal level. The chamber would not elaborate on those arguments this week, citing the lack of final language for the latest proposal. The 2010 effort eventually failed on a 3-3 council vote. Council member Franklin Thompson abstained from voting after calling for a public referendum on the issue. This time, Thompson said he plans to vote on the matter, though he declined to say whether he would support the proposal.

A lengthy letter from the group Until Love is Equal has not convinced Holland Michigan City Councilman Brian Burch to change his mind and his vote. According to the letter on the group’s website, Burch was targeted because of his positive comments on June 15 — the night a recommendation from the city’s Human Relations Commission to include the terms sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s fair housing and human relations ordinances and equal employment policy failed. The Holland Sentinel reports that the open letter comes the same week another gay rights group, Holland is Ready, is being honoured by the city of Holland’s Human Relations Commission for its work. Holland is Ready is an organization devoted to the safety, rights and inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people on the lakeshore. It lobbied city officials for the ordinance and policy changes. The Human Resources Commission chooses honourees annually to receive the Social Justice Award. Those awards were presented Wednesday at the Holland City Council meeting. “I will take a minute to point out the irony, because I’m sure the irony is not lost on anyone,” said the Rev. Jen Adams, Holland is Ready organizer and pastor of the Grace Episcopal Church. Holland is Ready might be the only group that, in less than a year, has had its request to the city denied and then been celebrated for asking, Adams said. Burch was one of five no votes that defeated the changes, despite speaking favourably for equal rights. “I oppose the process that was put on us,” Burch said in Wednesday phone interview. “I strongly disagree with the government deciding moral codes. I fundamentally disagree with that. I think a community should decide that.” Until Love is Equal formed on Facebook on June 16, the day after the vote, originally under the name “I’m Boycotting Holland Until Love is Equal.” The group suffered backlash from its original name. The 2,106 word letter was never sent directly to him, Burch said. He found it Monday afternoon through a Twitter alert with a link to group’s website. “No one e-mailed me, no one sent the letter to me,” he said. It took quite a while, Burch said, but he did read it in its entirety. And he will not change his vote. “I believe strongly in equal rights,” Burch said. “If people are stepping on others’ rights, then we can look into that.”

"A gender identity committee will decide where a transgender woman with an extensive criminal record will be housed after she was sentenced this week to four years in prison on felony retail theft, battery and violation of probation charges, authorities said. The Chicago Tribune reports that Maribel Torres, identified in court records as Jose Torres, was sentenced Tuesday at the Skokie courthouse to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to incidents in the women's departments of stores in Skokie and Deerfield. "She seems like she's headed in the right direction to me," said Cook County Assistant Public Defender Lisa Ottenfeld, who represented Torres during the hearing before Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy Chambers. "She's come to terms with a lot of her issues." Torres, 41, of Chicago, who has shoulder-length brown hair, was born a male. But for more than 10 years Torres has identified as a woman, undergoing hormone treatments to enhance her female appearance, authorities said. Transgender prisoners have long presented challenges for the Cook County Sheriff's Department and the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a sheriff's department spokesman. Last March the state Department of Corrections modified its policy on transgender prisoners. The policy notes that the department's goal is to provide a safe and secure environment for all inmates who identify themselves as transgender, or who are identified by Cermak Health Services of Cook County as having gender identity disorder. Cermak is the health care provider for county's Department of Corrections. Transgender prisoners can ask to be placed in the male or female section of a prison, according to the policy, but the final decision is made by a gender identity committee of medical staff and representatives from the Sheriff's Department and Department of Corrections. Torres was housed in the male section of the Cook County Jail after her arrest last year, but was moved to a special unit in the jail where she received drug and counselling services, Ottenfeld said. Torres has 10 previous felony convictions. On Tuesday she pleaded guilty to stealing a $2,000 Burberry handbag from a Skokie Nordstrom store in 2008, and knocking down a store security worker who tried to stop her, Ottenfeld said. Torres also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1,000 worth of cosmetics from a Deerfield store in 2009. She was sentenced to three years in prison on each of the theft charges and three years in prison on an aggravated battery charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. She was also sentenced to an additional year in prison for violating her parole on a previous conviction.