Study: Gays face daily discrimination

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[chance33_98]

Study: Gays face daily discrimination

JIM BARON , Journal Register News Service 01/29/2004

PROVIDENCE -- Despite being better educated, with better jobs, and more generous with their money and time to charitable and volunteer organizations, gays, lesbians and others with "different gender identities" are discriminated against regularly, in some cases daily, in schools, workplaces and places of public accommodation.

Those are some of the results of a six-month study called "Meet the Neighbors," conducted by the group Equity Action, established by the Rhode Island Foundation to support the equitable treatment of "lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and queer individuals" -- LGBTQ, for short. The study was done by John Snow Inc., a Boston firm.

"Despite many positive events of the last few years -- including the election of a gay mayor in Providence, the appointment of a gay bishop to the Episcopal Church, and the decision in Canada to allow gay marriages --- we still have a climate of misconceptions and prejudice rather than understanding and compassion," said Ronald V. Gallo, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

What is most insidious, says Rick Schwartz, the foundation's vice president for communications, is that even when there is good news for the LGBTQ community -- for instance, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's ruling in favor of gay marriage -- "instead of being happy they were scared. They can't really enjoy anything."

Scared, Schwartz explained, because whenever the news features events or issues favorable to the gay community "it unleashes the hounds -- very conservative organizations bring all their resources to bear" as a backlash to the good news.

"Anything you do that makes you stand out is going to get you hit down," Schwartz said.

Among other things, the online survey of 371 LGBTQ individuals, supplemented by discussions with community groups and non-profit organizations, will be used to determine the needs and priorities for funding for non-profit groups and agencies that serve LGBTQ clients.

Alex Gorriaran, co-chair of R.I. Pride who worked to assemble the survey, described it as "a snapshot of the GLB (gay, lesbian, bisexual) community. It will assist the general community in a general awareness of GLB concerns -- the demographics, the services that are needed and the discrimination that still exists. It is a valuable resource for state leaders, individuals and organizations on what the focus should be and what the needs are."

Schwartz said the Rhode Island Foundation has already collected about $85,000 toward a goal of $200,000 needed to get a $100,000 matching grant from the National Lesbian and Gay Community Funding Partnership (NLGCFP), a national organization offering the challenge to community foundations across the country. If the Rhode Island Foundation reaches $100,000, Schwartz said, NLGCFP will release the first $50,000 of the matching grant.

"The study was a necessary first step for Equity Action," said co-chair Nancy Hetherington, a former state representative. "Both the statistics and the anecdotal information in 'Meet the Neighbors' will instruct us how to make grants, where to prioritize our activities, and what the different LGBTQ communities identify as needs."

Most of the money will go directly into grantmaking, said Peter Hocking, Equity Action's other co-chair; the rest will establish a permanent endowment at the foundation to address LGBTQ issues in perpetuity.

Among the statistical findings in the "Meet the Neighbors" are:

• One third of those who responded to the questionnaire are Rhode Island born and bred; more than half (54 percent) have lived here 15 years or more;

• 85 percent are white/Caucasian, 5.4 percent black, and 4.3 percent Latino (versus 85 percent, 4.5 percent, and 8.7 percent, respectively, nationwide);

• 81.1 percent of the LGBTQ respondents have obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, versus 25.6 percent of all Rhode Islanders;

• 11.4 percent were military veterans, vs. 12.9 percent of Rhode Islanders and 12.7 percent nationwide;

• 77.2 percent work full or part-time versus 64.7 percent of all Rhode Islanders

• 65.8 percent had household incomes from $25,000 to $100,000, compared to less than the 70.9 percent nationwide rate, but 21.4 percent had incomes more than $100,000, versus 11.4 percent nationwide; and

• 54 percent had volunteered in the past 12 months, versus 44 percent of all Rhode Islanders; slightly more than half (52 percent) reported making charitable gifts to one or more organizations, versus the 33 percent of Rhode Islanders who claimed charitable deductions on their income tax returns.

Despite that, Hetherington said the survey reported that:

• One in 10 respondents said they experienced or witnessed homophobia or discrimination in the workplace at least monthly;

• One in three suffers discrimination on the street and/or at a public establishment; and

• 10 percent experience some form of discrimination by professionals.

"Virtually every respondent could point to act of bias, not once or twice in their lives, but in each and every year of their lives," said Hetherington.

"That translates to an oppressive daily living experience," added Hocking. "Another set of statistics from 'Meet the Neighbors' shows that LGBTQ individuals are afraid to reveal their sexual orientations or gender identities even to family members and non-LGBTQ friends."

Among the priorities listed by the survey respondents and the groups and agencies interviewed were ensuring safe schools and youth services, advocating for civil rights and protection, expanding access to welcoming health care, recognizing the needs of LGBTQ senior citizens, supporting families, creating a community/resource center and sustaining HIV services.

But, "Meet the Neighbors" reveals, of seven LGBT specific groups surveyed, five had no paid staff, two had no operating funds while three had assets less than $50,000.

"The front line will be the organizations working directly on these issues," said Hetherington. "Whether it's YouthPride dealing with the fragile period of adolescence, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) pressing on the political concerns, Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE) ensuring the dignity of our seniors, or AIDS Project Rhode Island protecting the health of all people against the crisis of AIDS, the battle for equity is fought by the organizations who address these issues every day."

[cyborg]

I'm going to pop some popcorn and wait for the responses to roll in on this one.

[Mr. Mojo]

Gays face daily discrimmination

Yep, I'm very discrimminating, and I don't go near the freaks.

[JoJo Gunn]

Another quota piece to satisfy the Diversity guidelines of the SPJ and the ASNE has been made.

http://www.maynardije.org/news/diversityheadlines/

[RWR8189]

[chance33_98]

"Despite many positive events of the last few years -- including the election of a gay mayor in Providence, the appointment of a gay bishop to the Episcopal Church, and the decision in Canada to allow gay marriages --- we still have a climate of misconceptions and prejudice rather than understanding and compassion," said Ronald V. Gallo, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

IE - there is nothing to be gained without being a victim. You have to have that status to get people to listen to you. It is the perpetual (Jesse Jackson syndrome) of 'We have made gains, but have not reached the goal (a goal we will never reach because then we will have no whining rights)'

[Coroner]

I saw a homo today, and sure as $h-t I couldnt help but look at him funny. (I mean that in a manly sort of way..................how about those red-wings)!!!

[cyborg]

This stuff is getting old :(

[Polycarp IV]

10. ``Sexual orientation'' does not constitute a quality comparable to race, ethnic background, etc. in respect to non-discrimination. Unlike these, homosexual orientation is an objective disorder (cf. ``Letter,'' no. 3). 11. There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the consignment of children to adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or coaches, and in military recruitment.

Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in "Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons," 1990

Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, just send me a FReepmail. Please realize that some of my "ping" posts are long.)

[I got the rope]

Study: Gays face daily discrimination

Maybe it's male homosexuals have the following diseases or conditions more frequently than heterosexuals: syphilis - 14 times, gonorrhea - 3 times, genital warts - 3 times, hepatitus - 8 times, lice - 3 times, scabies - 5 times, penile-contact infection - 30 times, oral/penile infection - 100's of times, AIDS - 5000 times.

Then again it could be because homo/lesbians have a higher reported number of these cases:

Rectal fatty tumors/Physical abrasions, Oral gonorrhea, Herpes progenitalis I and II, Nongonococcal pharyngitis (Chlamidia and others), Oral condyloma acuminatum, Syphilis, Enteric diseases, Lymphogranuloma venereum, Granuloma inquinale, Chancroid,Herpes type 1 and 2, Nongonococcol urethritis (Chlamidia and others), Gonorrhea, Neisseria meningitidis, Escherichia coli, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, B, non-A/ non-B, Herpes, Warts -molluscum and condyloma, Trichomoniasis, Epididymitis/prostatitis, Fungal infections, Lymphogranuloma venereum, Granuloma inguinale, Chancroid, Cytomegalovirus

[umgud]

When I look at a homosexual man, I try not to visualize that special act they are famous for.......you know, the one where both partners need toilet paper when done....

It causes me great disgust. If that makes me a homophobe, so be it.

[RightWingAtheist]

[thoughtomator]

Well, hint - if you don't want people to treat you like dirt, then stop pushing your perversions into everyone's faces!

[little jeremiah]

• 54 percent had volunteered in the past 12 months, versus 44 percent of all Rhode Islanders; slightly more than half (52 percent) reported making charitable gifts to one or more organizations, versus the 33 percent of Rhode Islanders who claimed charitable deductions on their income tax returns.

Maybe the homosexuals are volunteering for all these Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered non-profits and donating their money to them as well...

Homosexual Agenda Ping list. The nausea continues. More propaganda stating that anyone who considers same sex attraction a disorder, unnatural, unhealthy or immoral is a bigot, cruel, and ignorant.

This makes me angry - it's time to take get in fighting trim and take back the moral high ground.

As usual, if you want on or off the ping list, notify or pingify me!

[longtermmemmory]

just whining because the majority of people do not want to know about their private sexual behavior.

Does anyone want to know what the swedes are doing with animals? homosexuals are no different.

[little jeremiah]

Correction: it's time to GET in fighting trim and TAKE back the moral high ground...

Time to go to bed. Eyes aren't working.

[little jeremiah]

Yeah, those articles about the Swedes and bestiality are beyond belief. If anyone needs any proof, here it is; that humans are meant to abide by restrictions on who/what and how they have sex. Libertarians and what to speak of liberals want to destroy every vestige of traditional sexual morality. In fact, this is one of their dearest held tenets. It is one of their very core beliefs.

When humans behave more animalistic than animals, the result is individuals ruined, families destroyed, children's innocence destroyed, and finally, civilization down the drain. If someone doesn't see this, it's because they don't want to see it. And that makes me wonder WHY they don't want to see it.

[longtermmemmory]

Yesterday the 11th shot down the homosexuals who wanted to adopt in FL. Said homosexuals have no constitutional right to adopt children.

State has a legitimate interest in promoting heterosexual couples as the best way to raise children. Homosexuals are only about sexual behavior, they are not for raising children. They are defined by their sexual act.

[spodefly]

Homosexuals do not ask for much from the rest of society.

They just want all of us to overlook every single thing we have ever seen in nature that makes it clear that life itself is as a result of heterosexual design, and that any creatures aside from humans that exhibit homosexual tendencies do so as a result of disease or environmental stress.

That, and the fact that homosexuals are many times more likely to have various diseases than heterosexuals, and that this fact should not be a public health concern.

Oh, and the fact that homosexuals more than almost any other group embrace Orwellian 'thought-crime' legislation, making them the 'more equal than others' animals on the farm.

Aside from that, they don't ask for much.