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Compiled by the Editors of DiversityInc

It is important that we push the idea of same-sex marriage as a civil right. That keeps the religious fundamentalists of all faiths from capturing it as a religious issue. Their outcry is that preachers will be REQUIRED to perform them in their churches. 

Click here to read "Lesbian & Gay Marriage Now Legal in Vermont; Who's Next?"

Click here to read "Does Russell Simmons Support Gay Marriage?"

Click here to read "Gay & Catholic: Confessions of My (Former) Guilt."

This is a hard battle because fundamentalists have always opposed equal rights. Remember that the Southern Baptist Church was formed because slave owners got tired of preachers who spoke against slavery. Muslim fundamentalists grievously oppress both women and gays. Even some Jewish denominations openly oppose gay marriage. And I won't go into the Catholics and Mormons.

Now their leaders are trying their best to make same-sex marriage and even more basic equality for gays into a religious issue. Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, refused to extend an executive order that specifically protected gay people in state employment. His reason: He was afraid that the faith-based groups would not help during a hurricane if he protected gays. Then he went on to say that there are already laws on federal and state levels that protect gays. Of course, this was a lie, but the hate group, Louisiana Family Forum, told him there were. Bobby wants to be president and has been neglecting his own state to speak for Republican and fundamentalist groups and spending state money to travel on these fundraising trips.

I think the issue of same-sex marriage is ultimately going to have to be handled on a federal level, just as the civil-rights movement was. At minimum, we need Congress to make it clear that marriages recognized in any state must be recognized in all states. Otherwise, we will have the same problems as we did with miscegenation laws in the 1960s.

 --Rhonda Browning

The views expressed herein are solely those of writer Rhonda Browning and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DiversityInc.

Readers' Comments

Posted: Friday, May 01, 2009
Will Clergy Be Forced to Perform Same-Sex Marriages?

Churches are under obligation to no one but their congregation and all churches reserve the right to marry anyone they deem fit.

In the Catholic church,m two people anyone who is married in the church have to be catholic man and woman, and have to go through pre-marital council.

Also if anyone want to be maried they have to have all of their sacraments completed, Baptism, confirmation, and First communion.

So do you really think after all that that magically they would allow same sex marriages? Churches these days treat marriage like a civil union that people can make and break, and this causes the uproar. You cant get married ina church until the people involved are following the churches values and doctrine.

Hence, any pastor or priest who is sequestered to complete a ceremony will only give a civil ceremony according to law and to satisfy the civil union requirements.

No US government entity has the right to dictate the premise, or doctrine of any church, nor can they enforce it, as we are all protected under the freedom of religion in the constitution.

As such, no church can be forced to marry any Same sex couples, any more than white supremacist churches can be forced to accept black and Asian people. Not in America. This country does Hate too well for that.

By Andrew Scutro

Rear Adm. Michelle Howard took command of the Navy’s counterpiracy task force with incredible timing: Within three days of her April 5 turnover with outgoing Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, Somali pirates attacked the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama and took its captain hostage.

Howard said she expected to be handed a full plate.

“It was full before I got here. I just got a little more exciting,” she said in a telephone interview from the amphibious assault ship Boxer. “It’s probably one of the most exciting missions the Navy has been on in for a long while.”

While some call for more aggressive action against pirates pending some international solution ashore, Howard said the mission of Combined Task Force 151 will remain deterring and disrupting piracy off the Horn of Africa.

“Right now, the policy is, fight piracy, and I am all about that policy,” she said. “We are quite capable of staying out here and doing this mission.”

CTF 151 operates with U.S. warships deployed to the area as well as those sent from allied nations. Naval forces from Russia, China and Korea have also deployed to the area to protect civilian merchant ships from those nations.

She said she has been impressed with the naval cooperation in the region. “We don’t ordinarily work with Russia and China.”

Howard has been in the news before. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, the dock landing ship Rushmore.

Posted By Marcia A. Wade On April 23, 2009 @ 11:18 am In Wealth For Life

Audia Cook, a sophomore at Hampton University ^[1] (No. 4 on the Black Enterprise Top 50 Colleges for African Americans ^[2] list), passed up an opportunity to apply for an internship this summer as a pharmaceuticals sales representative with Blue Care Network of Michigan. She says waitressing will allow her a better chance to enroll next fall.

“Every year that I’ve attended Hampton, I’ve been late with my [tuition]. I’ve always had to register late. I’m going to be working this summer because I don’t want to go through what I had to go through with financial aid again,” says Cook, a pharmacy major from Detroit.

Despite working 36 hours a week at two jobs during the school year and borrowing money from friends and family, Cook still owed about $2,500 dollars at the beginning of her freshman and sophomore years. She says the stress of trying to stay in school caused her GPA to slip. Her plan is to save $1,000 dollars over the summer in case funds are still needed when her Pell Grant and loans aren’t enough.

According to a report, “Contemporary HBCUs: Considering Institutional Capacity and State Priorities ^[3],”  more than 70% of students who attend historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are classified as low income. Over the past couple of months, the economic climate has caused them additional strain. For example, 91% of Fisk University ^[4] (No. 8 on the Top Colleges ^[5] list) students receive some form of financial aid, and as a result of the country’s economic crisis, 11% of students at Fisk have withdrawn ^[6] since August 2008.

“Seventy-five percent of those kids left because of funding issues,” says Hazel O’ Leary, president of Fisk and former U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Tuition, along with donations, make up the largest share of a school’s revenue base. Fisk, like many schools, has had to resort to budget cuts, but because HBCUs have fewer resources, the loss in scholarship money can be detrimental for students.

More help is coming from the federal government. President Barack Obama proposed a $2,500 American Opportunities Tax Credit ^[7], which allows students from low-income families who do not pay taxes to receive aid for college. Congress voted to increase Title III funding ^[8] dedicated for public and private HBCUs by $85 million for the 2009 fiscal year. Obama wants to increase Pell grants ^[9] to $5,550 for fiscal year 2010, up $200 from fiscal year 2009, while ending subsidized loans. Pell Grants are the only source of federal money students do not have to pay back.

This spring, for the first time in a few years, enrollment at Alabama A&M University ^[10] increased.  “We think that students who were not able to come back in the fall came back in the spring,” says Juarine Stewart, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at the school. Stewart attributes the spring enrollment increase to an increase in Pell grant allotments.

But Hasan Jamil, assistant vice president of enrollment management at Texas Southern University ^[11], says that since Pell grants don’t cover 100% of tuition and fees, low-income students have to depend on loans. “People still have to rely on borrowing money whether it is from Uncle Sam or Bank of America,” he says.

Lakeisha Simpson, a business major from Raleigh, North Carolina, has accrued about $60,000 in loans during her two years at Clark Atlanta University ^[12] (No. 13 on the Top Colleges list ^[2]).

“I am stressed about how to attend Clark next year. [My aunt] said she cannot co-sign another loan for me,” says Simpson, who, with a 3.35 GPA, is the first person in her household to attend college. “I don’t understand why students with high GPAs like mine cannot get scholarships from the school. I’ve gone to the financial aid office numerous times and they always give me the same answer, ‘Well your family is making good income so we can’t give you a scholarship.’ Right now I am applying for scholarships and hoping for a miracle to occur.”

“Tuition at black colleges are 50% lower than at white institutions, however, the amount of institutional aid that they can contribute is also lower,” says Mary Beth Gasman, an expert in HBCU history and an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Governors will be receiving $8.8 billion in stimulus money to use in any way they see fit, and the U.S. secretary of education has $5 billion in discretionary funds. Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, says it is important that schools and organizations petition to get this money invested in HBCUs. But while these funds could be available for any school, Lomax says that governors are predisposed to helping public institutions not private institutions.

Corporate donations are also a vital tuition resource, but they are dwindling because of the economy. ExxonMobil has agreed to immediately donate $500,000 to the UNCF’s Campaign for Emergency Student Aid, and committed to matching up to $500,000 of funds raised by the UNCF. Things are looking up at Fisk as well. The school entered into a partnership with Volkswagen ^[13] that will result in $120,000 in scholarships each year for the next five years.

In addition to institutional and corporate grants, loans are a significant part of the financial aid package. Obama wants to transfer the management of student loans to the federal government, but some in the private sector disagree. In HBCU Part III ^[14], BlackEnterprise.com takes a look at the fall-out when the Federal Parent Plus Loan failed one low-income student and her family.

By: By Daryl C. Hannah

If people who have had less opportunity are given an extra boost, does that harm the majority? That is the crux of a critical legal decision debated before the U.S. Supreme Court today.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Ricci v. DeStefano case, the most recent "reverse-discrimination" lawsuit to hit the legal main stage in more than two years and the first time this particular conservative-leaning court will hear the issue.

The case stems from a 2003 city-administered officers' exam in New Haven, Conn., a test to determine which firefighters could be promoted to captain and lieutenant. When the results of the test came back, 14 of the top scorers were white and one was Latino. None of the Black firefighters who took the test scored high enough to be considered for a promotion. After deliberating publically over the results, city officials in a split vote ultimately uncertified the test results and prevented the top test scorers from being promoted.

The firefighters contend that the city's refusal to certify the results on the basis of race violate the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause.

Click here to read "When Does Affirmative Action End and 'Reverse Discrimination' Begin?"

Click here to read "Are You a Victim of Reverse Discrimination?"

Click here to read "Feds Lose $7M Reverse-Discrimination Lawsuit But Won't Have to Pay Up."

Click here to read "Do Video Résumés Help or Lead to Discrimination?"

The case is complicated because the city's process was problematic and its publicly stated reasons fueled resentment.

New Haven officials say they threw the test out because they feared racial backlash from the Black firefighters who didn't pass the test. The city also held that, by going forward with the test, it would be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But it's not quite that simple, contends NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund President and Director-Counsel John Payton, who says that while the city's act was the right thing to do, it should not have been done because of fear.

"I'm open to there being a test, but when you get these results, New Haven, as a responsible body, ought to be able to go back and rethink the test. New Haven should not have to worry when it acts responsibly in the face of clear signs of a problem that it will be sued," Payton told the Connecticut Law Tribune.

"Reverse discrimination" is at the crux of the issue. But does it really exist? It usually is associated with white men who complain they're disadvantaged by virtue of the mere existence of an affirmative-action or diversity program, which results in alleged "preferences" for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians and/or women. While there is no legal definition for "reverse discrimination" the issue has been disputed in court since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978.

In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of affirmative-action policies in a 5-4 decision with retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor casting the deciding vote. With her absent, experts believe the court may rule in favor of the white men.

"White men are still a very privileged group and affirmative action may reduce their privilege a little bit, but it is a discrimination in the same way as traditional discrimination," Fred Pincus, associate professor, Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, wrote in his book "Reverse Discrimination: Dismantling the Myth."

***

"Fried chicken anyone?" "You speak really well." "Is that your real hair?"

In 2008, you'd think the taboo subjects and phrases would be clearly outlined and understood by all when it comes to what is and is not acceptable to say to a Black colleague. But that's far from the case. Here are 10 things you never want to say to a Black coworker or boss.

1) You're so articulate

You're so … articulate? Smart? Different? Yes, the speaker may intend a compliment, but what may be meant as praise instead comes across as being condescending. It implies the person being complimented is an exception to the rule and is exhibiting behavior atypical of others of his or her ethnic background.

"I haven't had it said to me, maybe I'm not articulate enough, but I've heard a number of Blacks say they've had it said to them … you're so articulate or you're so smart or intelligent," says Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson, former director of diversity at Disney ABC Television Group. In her many years in the diversity industry, Fontenot-Jamerson has seen and heard it all. Some of it still makes her cringe.

"I feel like education and awareness is my mission, so I try to be kind when I check people to help them understand what they just said," she says. "I might make a joke to help them understand that it was a faux pas, and hopefully I have good enough relationships with them to have further conversations with them."

2) Is That Your Real Hair?

Danielle Robinson, director of diversity, talent and organizational design at Diageo, a wine, beer and spirits company, said she was amazed when she got this question from a colleague. But instead of getting angry, Robinson explained to her coworker why the question was inappropriate.

"There are a number of ways to respond. But I told the person they had no idea if they might be asking that question to someone suffering from a medical condition [such as] someone recovering from cancer treatment," she says. "I wound up giving this one woman a little lesson because you never know what the situation might be of the person you're asking a question."

3) "You" people

"I've heard this one several times," says Fontenot-Jamerson. Who exactly are "You people," and how do they differ from regular people? Use this poorly chosen phrase at your own risk.

4) Do you eat a lot of … (plug in the offending stereotype here)

Some stereotypes simply refuse to die. There's nothing wrong with natural curiosity about the ethnic eating habits of some of your coworkers. The problem lies in focusing on stereotypical Black fare such as fried chicken, watermelon, etc. It reveals the speaker has a very limited and narrow perception of Black culture and cuisine.

"One of my young relatives told me when they go out on interviews they may get queries about fried chicken and the stereotypes about the food that we like to eat," says Fontenot-Jamerson.

5) Why are you so angry?

This one is more often directed at Black males, thanks in large part to the media, which often portrays Black men as being angry and/or criminals.

6) Why are you acting white?

Consider this a relative of "You're so articulate." Why would exhibiting proper behavior, manners or dialect be categorized as acting white? If that's the case, what does it mean to act Black?

7) You don't sound Black over the phone.

What does Black sound like?

8) I don't think of you as Black.

DiversityInc Partner and Cofounder Luke Visconti received a letter from a reader who was presented with this particular compliment. He responded, "What you are experiencing is the first instance of a person accepting another person who is outside of their 'tribe.' Although the words and the sentiment are insulting, the person expressing them is (usually) not consciously trying to insult you. In their backward and ignorant way, they are actually trying to give you a compliment."

9) You graduated from where?

This particular offense came to our attention directly from one of our readers, Beatriz Mallory, who wrote, "In a career of nearly 30 years, I've heard them all. I am both African American and Hispanic, so I get it from both sides, on top of being a female. In trying to recall the worst, I'd have to nominate this one. It is the unguarded question "YOU went to CORNELL? WOW!" The implication is that in their mind, someone like me isn't automatically worthy of such an accomplishment. I never express my annoyance."

10) The N-word

The ultimate faux pas. Just because you've seen repeats of Dave Chapelle's show where the word is used liberally, that doesn't give you--or anyone--license to make conversational use of the word. To read more on the debate, read Double Standard: Can You Use the N-Word? in the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of DiversityInc.

And don't fall into the trap of thinking substituting an "A" for the "er" makes the word acceptable. Fontenot-Jamerson believes it's a word used far too casually among youths, both white and Black.

"The new generation uses the N-word very loosely [and] the white kids do it too," she says. "I've been in the company where the youngsters have been using the word because they don't understand the history that comes with it."

Like Fontenot-Jamerson, Robinson looks at each misspoken phrase as an opportunity to teach and educate. "A lot of the questions are usually out of ignorance or genuine curiosity. So I always look at opportunities like these as a chance to educate," says Robinson. "Instead of getting angry, you don't want them to make this mistake with someone else. There are ways to ask a question more inquisitively that won't offend." ***