IN THE NEWS
 OUR HOUSE AND IDAHO PUBLIC TELEVISION
In 1999, IPTV broadcast the documentary film, It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In The School prompting the Idaho state legislature to rewrite the station's governing policies to favor censorship of programming. In June of 2000, before these stricter regulations were implemented IPTV general manager Peter Morrill broadcast the film OUR HOUSE. Although Morrill had presented his programming schedule to the Board of Education for review prior to the broadcast, he came under attack for not bringing specific attention to this film. The Christian Coalition, the Idaho Family Forum, and Republican state legislators have since called for the privatization of IPTV so that it can no longer receive state funding.

IPTV's broadcasting licensing is regulated by the state legislature. As a result, the Deputy Attorney General of Idaho claims that any message broadcast over Public Television is legally regulated by the state. Others disagree, believing that this defeats the purpose of public broadcasting and violates the First Amendment to the constitution. The director of the Idaho ACLU commented "...this not only undermines the quality of our public television service, and conflicts with the founding purposes of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but reflects a frightening willingness to subvert the very freedoms on which this country was founded." The law to eliminate state funding for IPTV has been criticized for conflicting with the Federal Communications Act, which created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The act states specifically that "Public Television serves the public interest to develop programming that takes creative risks and addresses the needs of unserved, underserved and minority communities."

The Idaho ACLU is monitoring the state legislature in the aftermath of censorial tactics used to restrict programming at Idaho Public Television (IPTV) stations.


LAWS AFFECTING LGBT MARRIAGE
Same sex couples are currently denied the right to legally marry anywhere in the U.S. In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the "Defense of Marriage Act" that limits the federal definition of marriage to exclude same gender couples. This law bars same gender couples from receiving the federal economic protections and recognition afforded opposite gender couples.

In December 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court held that denying same-sex couples the rights and protections that come with civil marriage violates the state constitution's equality guarantee. This ruling allows same-sex couples the ability to create "civil unions" giving them all of the state benefits that married heterosexual couples receive.

In September 2000 a bill was passed in the Netherlands converting the country's same-sex partnerships into full-fledged marriages complete with divorce guidelines and wider adoption rights. This offers Dutch gay men and lesbians greater rights than those offered in any other country at this time.

As of September 2000 sodomy laws remain on the books in 18 states and in five of these states -- Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas -- the law applies only to homosexual sex. (Source: NGLTF)


LGBT ADOPTION AROUND THE WORLD
Many states have moved to safeguard the interests of children with gay or lesbian parents. For example, at least 21 states have granted second-parent adoptions to lesbian and gay couples, ensuring that their children can enjoy the benefits of having two legal parents, especially if one of the parents dies or becomes incapacitated.

The State Supreme Court of Rhode Island recently handed down a decision giving de facto parents, including gay couples, the same rights to petition for visitation as biological and adoptive parents. New Hampshire legislature has repealed its 15-year ban on lesbian and gay adoption, after hearing extensive testimony from children's advocates that the policy was misguided.

The vast majority of states no longer deny custody or visitation to a person based on sexual orientation. State agencies and courts now apply a "best interest of the child" standard to decide these cases. Under this approach, a person's sexual orientation cannot be the basis for ending or limiting parent-child relationships unless it is demonstrated that it causes harm to a child -- a claim that has been routinely disproved by social science research.

Florida remains the only state with a law that expressly bars lesbians and gay men from ever adopting children, Arkansas passed a policy last year prohibiting lesbians, gay men, and those who live with them from serving as foster parents. Both the Florida law and the Arkansas policy are currently being challenged in court. (Source: ACLU and GLSEN)

In the United Kingdom, Children's Charities are looking to gay and lesbian couples as adoptive parents. There have now been more than 1,000 same-sex couples who have presented themselves as adoptive parents and they expect that number to rise dramatically after the European Court of Human Rights convenes next year to confirm the rights of same-sex couples to adopt. (Source: Guardian Newspaper)


LGBT ISSUES AT SCHOOL
As of spring 2000, four states have enacted state-wide non-discrimination laws protecting students from orientation-based discrimination: they are, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Five states have school administrative codes which add sexual orientation to the list of categories on which teachers, administrators, and other school personnel are barred from discrimination against students and co-workers: these states are Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania and Utah.

Statistics in the schools:
97% of students in public high schools report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers.
53% of students report hearing homophobic comments made by school staff.
80% of prospective teachers report negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals.
(references for statistics above can be found in GLSEN's "Back to School Campaign -- Appendix E")