Video: Beating In Burlington: Was It A Hate Crime?

WCAX TV
Burlington, Vermont

A young man was assaulted in downtown Burlington early Wednesday morning, and he says it happened because he is gay.

Daniel Wilson says he was hanging out in the Half Lounge on Church Street at around 2 a.m. when another young man flicked his wrist in an effeminate manner, apparently making fun of Wilson for being gay. When Wilson stepped outside for a cigarette he says he asked the man why he was making fun of him.

"I wasn't trying to instigate nobody, wasn't trying to fight nobody, and I asked him like why would you do that?" says Wilson of the incident. "All of a sudden he hit me in the chest full force, he boxed his shoulders up and hits me, and I said 'Why are you hitting me?' and that's all I remember."

Lisa and Janet split, Isabella pays the price

BACKSTORIES

Lisa Miller must really dislike her former lover Janet Jenkins.

Lisa continues her attempts to deny Janet visitation with their daughter.

According to a AP article the judged dismissed Lisa's most recent attempt.

Dear Lisa,

You sound very self centered [ie: if you love your daughter you wouldn't do this to her], using your daughter as a wedge for your anger only harms everyone [yourself, Isabella and Janet]. It seems you are okay with the "fallout"!

Darling Lisa, if you wish to be angry, spiteful and end up with high blood pressure that is your choice and should affect ONLY YOU!

Isabella has feelings and would like to make her choice as well.

It is very very wrong for you to deny Isabella her choice!

As a part of the GLBTQIA community it seems very hypocritical to tell your daughter who she can love!

Holocaust Museum exhibition on homosexual persecution planned at UVM

Burlington Free Press

BURLINGTON -- The Holocaust Museum's traveling exhibition, "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: 1933-1945," will be on public display at the University of Vermont's Living/Learning Center Gallery from Aug. 18 through Sept. 30.

The Living/Learning Gallery and Outright Vermont this week announced the exhibition that examines - through reproductions of some 250 photographs and documents - the rationale, means and impact of the Nazi regime's attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead.

The exhibition will be free and open to the public.

full article

Update: Virginia upholds Vermonts' lesbian child custody ruling

Windy City Times

Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins entered into a civil union in Vermont in 2001, and daughter Isabella was born shortly thereafter. ( Lisa was artificially inseminated. ) After the couple broke up, Lisa—who changed her surname to Miller—moved to Virginia and renounced her lesbianism. A Vermont court gave Miller primary custody and awarded Janet Jenkins visitation rights. Then, a Virginia court granted Miller sole custody and denied Jenkins visits. However, on June 6th, the state's supreme court employed a federal statute to enforce the Vermont court's ruling.

backstory

full article

Vt. commission stops short of recommending gay marriage

By Dave Gram

MONTPELIER, Vt.—A special commission appointed by legislative leaders to study same-sex marriage stopped just short in its final report Monday of recommending that the state become the second in the country -- after Massachusetts -- to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

The Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection was appointed last summer to study whether Vermont, which became the first jurisdiction in the United States to offer legal recognition to same-sex couples with its civil union law in 2000, should take the next step.

The 11-member panel, chaired by the former legislator Thomas Little, who chaired the House Judiciary Committee when it wrote the 2000 law, said it decided not to make a final recommendation, because to do so "would undercut the purpose and usefulness of its work and this report."

"It is the role of Vermont's policy-makers and elected officials to read and reflect on this report and in their best judgment determine what steps to take in their role as public servants of the people of Vermont," it said.

full article

Janet, Lisa and Isabella

Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller got hitched and had a baby together. Vermont says that's a simple truth. Virginia said it was all null and void. The future of a little girl hangs in the balance.

BLOGGER NOTE: As I read the words above I noticed a similar story. I had to look at them both a couple of times because the tone of each were polar opposites.

JANET AND LISA MILLER-JENKINS MADE LOVE IN THE MORNING BEFORE LEAVING FOR THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE. At least that's how Janet remembers it. "We had a connection in the morning before we left," Janet said. Afterward, eager to keep their tender connection alive amid the clinical setting of the infertility specialist's office, Janet laid her hands upon her partner -- one palm on Lisa's thigh, the other on Lisa's upper arm -- as a doctor inseminated Lisa with sperm from an anonymous man the two women knew only as donor No. 2309. It was, according to Janet, a ritual the Virginia couple repeated more than once before Lisa gave birth April 16, 2002, to a 5-pound, 15-ounce baby girl named Isabella Ruth Miller-Jenkins.

"This baby was made in love," said Janet, now 42 and living in Vermont.

Lisa, 38, offers a dramatically different account of the begetting of Isabella. According to her, Janet didn't even go with her to the fertility doctor's office on the day Isabella was conceived.

That's just one of many issues Lisa and Janet are arguing in court, where the final chapters of their modern love story are being written. As with other couples who have split, their truths have diverged; through the lens of loss, each views their time together differently. Unlike most warring couples, however, the once hopeful and happy Miller-Jenkinses are at the center of a high-stakes, ideologically charged legal dispute waged across several courtrooms in two states. On one side are lawyers who are leading gay-rights activists; on the other are legal combatants for a conservative Christian foundation associated with Jerry Falwell.

Full article here

Christian Right article here