News anchor, anti-abortion activist to be the ‘face’ of anti-gay marriage amendment in Minnesota

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Kalley King Yanta, a former KSTP anchor and anti-abortion activist, has joined the Minnesota for Marriage group to anchor videos intended to convince Minnesotans to vote for the anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot in 2012. The videos — and Kalley — have come under immediate scrutiny. The American Independent reported on Yanta on Monday and her connections to anti-abortion activists.Here’s the first video in the series:Yanta launched her new project with Minnesota for Marriage on the Brad Brandon show on Wednesday.Yanta said she has been talking with people who ask her about well-adjusted children of same-sex parents. She said that simply does not happen.“I have to beg to differ with that opinion. There are studies about how children being raised — and how that affects somebody in their psyche and self esteem — being raised by a man and a man and a woman and a woman.”She added, “It’s not natural.”She also said that if the amendment doesn’t pass, Christian parents will be arrested.“If marriage between homosexuals is legalized, what will some of the consequences be?” she asked rhetorically. Continue Reading

Eagan City Council passes domestic partner registry

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The Eagan City Council passed an ordinance creating a domestic partner registry for couples who cannot or wish not to marry. The ordinance includes same-sex couples. The city becomes the 17th city in Minnesota to pass such an ordinance.It follows Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Paul, Edina, Golden Valley, Red Wing, Rochester, Maplewood, St. Louis Park, Richfield, Robbinsdale, Falcon Heights, Hopkins, Shoreview, Crystal, and Shorewood.The registry passed Tuesday night by a vote of 4 to 0 with one city council member absent.Council member Gary Hansen said it would help businesses that already provide benefits. Continue Reading

What does Senjem election mean for LGBT issues in 2012?

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Republicans in the Minnesota Senate elected Rochester Sen. David Senjem as the new Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday after ten hours of deliberation. Senjem will replace former majority leader, Amy Koch, following revelations that she had an inappropriate relationship with one of her employees. Some see a potential for good news in his election for the LGBT community.“While we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, Senator Senjem has a proven history of willingness to sit down at the table with leaders of the LGBT community to discuss how legislation affects the families of same-gender households,” said David DeGrio, Chair of Stonewall DFL. “I recall visiting with Senator Senjem at a Log Cabin Republican luncheon in September 2008 during the Republican National Convention when LCR announced their endorsement of US Senator John McCain for the GOP Presidential nomination. Productive conversations were had that day on issues important to LGBT people and our families. Continue Reading

What does Senjem election mean for LGBT issues in 2012?

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Republicans in the Minnesota Senate elected Rochester Sen. David Senjem as the new Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday after ten hours of deliberation. Senjem will replace former majority leader, Amy Koch, following revelations that she had an inappropriate relationship with one of her employees. Some see a potential for good news in his election for the LGBT community.“While we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, Senator Senjem has a proven history of willingness to sit down at the table with leaders of the LGBT community to discuss how legislation affects the families of same-gender households,” said David DeGrio, Chair of Stonewall DFL. “I recall visiting with Senator Senjem at a Log Cabin Republican luncheon in September 2008 during the Republican National Convention when LCR announced their endorsement of US Senator John McCain for the GOP Presidential nomination. Productive conversations were had that day on issues important to LGBT people and our families. Continue Reading

HRC ranks Minnesota businesses on LGBT equality

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The Human Rights Campaign released its annual ratings of fortune 500 companies and their policies regarding LGBT employees. Fourteen Minnesota-based companies scored a perfect 100 percent on the list, while one, CHS Inc., scored a zero.The businesses that scored a 100 percent were 3M, Ameriprise Financial, Best Buy, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Cargill, Dorsey and Whitney, Faegre and Benson, General Mills, Medtronic, Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi LLP, Supervalu, U.S. Bancorp, and UnitedHealth.Five companies scored higher than 80 percent: Ecolab and Land O’Lakes got 90 percent, and Carlson Companies, RBC Wealth Management, and Target all got 85 percent.Eight companies were at 60 percent and above: Xcel Energy got 75 percent. Imation got 70 percent along with the Mayo Clinic. Allianz, Hormel, Lindquist and Vennem, Patterson Companies and St. Jude all got 60 percent.Among those with a failing grade were Alliant Techsystems at 35 percent, Mosaic Company at 30 percent, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Nash Finch and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans at 15 percent. Continue Reading

At Anoka Hennepin, proposed policy changes prompt protest by anti-gay parents group

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“We were a model for the nation in protecting kids from classroom homosexual propaganda,” said Lori Thompson, a parent in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. Thompson made her remarks at the district’s school board meeting where the board is considering scrapping a policy that prohibits discussion of LGBT issues in most situations, and replacing it with a policy that limits teachers ability to discuss controversial issues. Anti-gay activists came out in force, including an “ex-lesbian”, to protest the move while members of the community supportive of LGBT students were concerned that those students might be labelled “controversial” by the new policy.The Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy (SOCP) says that LGBT issues are to not be discussed in schools and are better left to parents, churches and community groups. The board is proposing to eliminate that policy and replace it with a policy that limits how teachers teach controversial subjects and prohibits teachers from engaging in advocacy.The Anoka-Hennepin School District has long been a target of social conservatives who have tried to get conservative Christian beliefs taught in the district’s schools. In the 1980s and 1990s, they focused on creationism, the teaching that God created the heavens and the Earth. Continue Reading

Anoka-Hennepin to reevaluate policy that singles out LGBT issues

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The Anoka-Hennepin School Board will debate at their next school board meeting whether or not to keep a policy that limits discussion of LGBT issues in the district’s schools. The board is considering replacing its “neutrality policy” with an updated one.The district has been at the heart of a national discussion on anti-LGBT bullying after a number of suicides in the district were linked to bullying.In addition, six students and their families have sued the district for lax enforcement of its bullying policies. At the heart of that lawsuit is a policy adopted in 2009 that says teachers and staff are to remain neutral on issues of sexual orientation. The school district has admitted that the policy only applies to LGBT issues and not to heterosexual ones.The Southern Poverty Law Center together with the National Center for Lesbian Rights are representing those students and their families in the lawsuit.In a statement, SPLC said that it is encouraging that the school board is considering reevaluating the policy.“The students and families are pleased that the school board is reevaluating its policies,” the SPLC said. “They feel that policy improvements are one important step forward in making the school district a more welcoming environment for all students. Continue Reading

How Minnesota got the nation’s worst anti-bullying law

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Minnesota is ranked dead last among states that have anti-bullying laws on the books according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education. Further, as Gov. Mark Dayton noted last week, Minnesota’s law is also the shortest at just 37 words. Minnesota had an opportunity to enact one of the nation’s strongest in 2009, but it was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty under pressure from the Minnesota Family Council.The Department of Education report released on Tuesday found Minnesota’s anti-bullying law among the weakest of the 47 states that have anti-bullying laws.Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins noted that in 2007, when Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws were passed, the Legislature was more concerned with naming a highway after Walter Mondale:It was a bad piece of legislation passed by legislators behaving badly by not providing any guidance or definition, even when they were told by people closer to the problem that it was bad legislation that did nothing but allow lawmakers to say they “took action” on bullying.On the day the Minnesota Senate passed the bill, there was no debate. That day, it spent a considerable amount of time whether to rename a stretch of highway in Duluth after Walter Mondale.The Minnesota Legislature did pass a very strong anti-bullying law in 2009, but it was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.Pawlenty said the bill was unnecessary because Minnesota has already enacted anti-bullying legislation. He said the bill “duplicates current law relating to school board policies prohibiting bullying, intimidation, violence and pattern of harassment in schools.” He pointed out that Minnesota law already prohibits sexual, religious and racial bullying.Pawlenty was praising a law the feds have now determined is one of the nation’s weakest.Pawlenty’s motivation for vetoing the 2009 law was based on opposition from the Minnesota Family Council.The group, in an email to supporters at the time, said that the bill “gives preferential treatment and status to homosexuals, bisexuals, cross dressers, transvestites and transsexuals – persons who have sex change operations – by singling out sexual orientation and gender identity or expression for special protection. Continue Reading