Now There Are 4: GA Black Gay State Rep Comes Out

Georgia State Representative Rashad Taylor,
comes out at a press conference May 27, 2011

There are now four openly gay, African-American male state elected representatives nationwide. Previously known were Marcus Brandon of North Carolina, Gordon Fox of Rhode Island and Jason Bartlett of Connecticut. State Representative Rashad Taylor of Georgia joined these three on Friday by coming out as gay at a press conference in Atlanta on Friday.

Taylor, 30, came out in order to respond to and refute charges of improper conduct which had been emailed to various state legislators from a jealous former lover of Rashad's current boyfriend. You can watch video of the press conference here.

Georgia Voice reports:

According to the national Victory Fund which works to elect openly gay officials, Taylor is only the sixth openly black LGBT person to serve in a state legislature. State Rep. Bell was the first black lesbian elected to a state legislature in 2009. 

Yesterday and in days prior, a man who is the ex-boyfriend of Taylor's partner sent an email to state legislators outing him and alleging Taylor misused his office by promising men jobs in exchange for sex. Taylor denied those allegations today, but did say the truth is is he is gay. 

"For some it may take two days, for some it take two years or 20 years [to come out]," he said.  

"I serve in public office and try to retain some semblance of a private life. This is a journey I've been on," he said. "i wouldn't want to expedite anyone else's journey. It ought to be a personal decision."

Taylor admitted that if the allegations against him had not been made he would not have come out.

"I would not be standing here today," he said, adding he considered ignoring the allegations.

But now was the time to tell the truth, Taylor added.

"I felt like honestly this was it unless I spoke the truth," Taylor said, saying he didn't want someone to feel like they had something "over his head."

He said before today, he could "count on one hand" the people who knew he was gay. Taylor also said that he came out to his mother and family in the past 24 hours. He thanked his mother for his support and she hugged him warmly after he spoke to the media.

MadProfessah has previously blogged about Simone Bell's election as the first Black lesbian state representative in December 2009. In Maryland, Mary Washington is the other openly lesbian elected state representative in the country. There are 6 openly LGBT, Black elected representatives nationwide.


Hat/tip to Wonder Man.

RI State House Overwhelmingly Passes Civil Unions Bill 62-11

The lower House of the Rhode Island legislature approved a civil unions bill by a lopsided vote of 62-11 over the objections of several LGBT activists who had hoped that open;y gay Speaker Gordon Fox would be able to shepherd a marriage equality bill through his chamber but he announced late last month that there were not the votes this year to enact such a bill and that he would support civil unions instead.

Gay marriage advocates tried unsuccessfully to resurrect the gay marriage legislation during House debate. But their procedural move failed after House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is openly gay, ruled it out of order. A vote to overrule Fox failed 23-47.

Rhode Islanders opposed to civil unions gathered outside the House chamber during the two-hour debate to pray and sing religious songs. Rev. Santos Escobar, a pastor at Cranston's Abundant Life Church, said lawmakers were defying public opinion.

"They have ignored us," he said. "But we will remember how they voted in the next election."

Critics in the House warned that civil unions would prompt legal challenges designed to legalize gay marriage. Rep. Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence said civil unions were indistinguishable from marriage, and threated a "fundamental building block of society."

"If the founding fathers were alive today they would be rolling over in their graves," he said.

Opponents of civil unions proposed asking voters to weigh in on civil unions. Their request was rejected.

The debate was at times emotional, with lawmakers clashing over political pragmatism, Constitutional rights and personal stories. Rep. Michael Chippendale, R-Foster, voted against the bill in the House Judiciary Committee. But Thursday night he told his colleagues compassion made him change his mind.

"I'm a Republican. I'm a conservative. I was a no vote," he said. "If my lord Jesus Christ was here, he would say, what you do to the least of my people you do to me... I don't have that right."

The debate now moves to the Senate, which had been seen as unlikely to support gay marriage. Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, has opposed gay marriage but supports the civil union bill and predicts it will win broad support.

A recent poll in Rhode Island showed nearly 60 percent support for marriage equality. Rhode Island and Maine are the only states in New England which do not have marriage equality. I support moving forward with civil unions legislation but also think that Speaker Fox should also allow a bill on marriage equality as well.

Rhode Island Trying Civil Unions "Compromise" Over Marriage Equality

Rhode Island has long been on the list of states marriage equality activists think will  likely be the next to enact marriage equality (which includes Maryland, Minnesota and New York). However, in Maryland marriage equality legislation recently died, and in Minnesota the 2010 election gave Republicans control of the legislature, which they are using to try to put a constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage equality on the 2012 ballot.

This week, openly gay (and multiracial)  Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox announced that he would try to pass a civil unions bill because he felt that marriage equality legislation could not pass both houses of the legislature.

Both Marriage Equality Rhode Island and Freedom To Marry (predictably) sent out press releases denouncing the move.

Marriage Equality Rhode Island:

The Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI) board of directors issued a statement expressing staunch opposition to civil unions now being supported by Speaker Gordon Fox and restated their support for full marriage equality for same-sex couples in Rhode Island.

“Civil unions are unacceptable because they marginalize gay and lesbian couples in very significant ways. The General Assembly will essentially be legalizing a two-class system that subjects thousands of Rhode Island same-sex couples to discrimination. We cannot support legislation that establishes a second class of citizens in Rhode Island,” said Martha Holt, chair of MERI’s board of directors.

Freedom To Marry:

“Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox has made a serious miscalculation.  With support for the freedom to marry topping 60 percent—higher than in any other state in the country—and with a strongly supportive governor, the Rhode Island House should send a marriage bill—and nothing less—to the Senate now.  Couples who are doing the work of marriage in their day-to-day lives, who have made a commitment in life, deserve to have an equal commitment under the law.  That legal commitment is called marriage.  Freedom to Marry is prepared to join with Speaker Fox, advocates on the ground, and a super-majority of Rhode Islanders to make the strongest case to the Senate. 

“Civil union is a separate and unequal half-step that has proven to be terribly inadequate in practice.  That’s why every New England state that started with civil union—Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont—has moved to marriage.  It is also why the official New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission found that “the separate categorization established by the Civil Union Act invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children.

Although I am a strong supporter of marriage equality, I disagree with MERI and Freedom To Marry here and support Gordon Fox's actions. I believe it is better to enact legislatively what you can right now to protect same-sex couples and their families, while at the same time acknowledging that you are interested in passing marriage equality in the future. Just recently, Hawaii and Illinois have done exactly that earlier this year, with Colorado coming one vote short of joining them in enacting civil unions. In Maryland, marriage equality advocates refused to support a civil unions bill and were rewarded with passage of a bill in one legislative house and bitter recriminations. New York is also only going for marriage equality. Interestingly, in New York and Maryland if you are married someplace else those states will recognize those unions under state law, so maybe the pressure is off for same-sex couples who really need the protections of marriage.

Rhode Island should be an interesting place next week. Both heterosexual supremacists and marriage equality activists will be opposed to civil unions legislations. Presumably, Governor Lincoln Chafee will sign it into law if it reaches his desk, just like he said he would a marriage equality bill.

The Providence Journal reports about the reaction to Speaker Fox's action:

Fox, in an emotional appeal to gay marriage advocates protesting outside his State House office, said his decision to support civil-union legislation was a sign of the strong opposition in both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate for gay marriage, and did not mean that he was stepping away from his drive for full-fledged marriage rights.


"I am the Speaker of the House and I am an openly gay man. This is very emotional for me,” he said. “But as speaker, I understand counting votes and what I can deliver for all of us. And I believe I am delivering rights to us today and it’s not killing the cause.”

Protester Wendy Becker, of Providence, begged him to put gay marriage to a vote, saying: “We need to let people do the right thing.”

Fox replied: “I understand that. This is the right thing for now. We’ll keep working.”

His move won support from both Governor Chafee, a strong advocate of same-sex marriage, and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, an opponent, but it was lambasted by the lead sponsor of the abandoned same-sex marriage bill, the protesters outside Fox’s State House office, and a phalanx of advocacy groups, including Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

As a same-sex marriage advocate, Chafee said he “had hoped that legislation enacting it would have reached my desk this year,” but he respects Fox’s political assessment and believes “passage of civil-union legislation would be a step forward for our state and I would sign such a bill if and when it reaches my desk.”

Paiva Weed reiterated her own support for civil unions, and said she believes this approach has “broad support” in the Senate.

I also support Speaker Fox's actions.