Tag Archives: Alabama

Student Suspended By Her School After Asking Her Girlfriend To Prom

A students was punished by her high school after she asked her girlfriend to prom during a school talent show.

After her girlfriend had performed in the talent show at Alabama’s Alexandria High School, Janizia Ross got up on stage and asked her to prom.

But despite her girlfriend saying yes to the prom-posal, Ross was given an in-school suspension, as was another female student who was acting as MC at the show and helped her.

Ashley Fadely, another student at the high school, told AL.com that school officials called the sweet act of public affection a “disruption.”

“I was there when it happened. It was right after her performance. No words were spoken by them. They just got happy, hugged and that was it. If it was a male and a female student, nothing would have been done.”

Writing on Facebook, Ashley said “Literally no amount of punishment was necessary.”

A recent graduate of the school, Nick Wyville, posted publicly on Facebook and wrote to the Superintendent of the Calhoun County Schools to bring attention to the situation.

https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.wyville/posts/1824468867577572

Nick, who is now a sophomore at Harvard College, said that straight couples had previously asked each other to prom – and even to marry each other – with no consequences.

“I write to you to urge the principal of Alexandria High School to drop all charges against the two young girls and to the hosts of the talent show, and any others involved. Federal law and the United State Constitution bars the harassment of LGBT students in public high school.

If the case is made that this was a public display of affection in front of an audience, then there is precedent that contradicts that very action.

When the talent show first unveiled itself, a male proposed to a female, and they faced no consequences. I, along with many others, can stand witness to that.”

Alexandria High Principal Anthony Mack Holley and the Calhoun County Schools Superintendent did not immediately respond to email requests for comment Wednesday evening.

Several current and former students posted on social media about the incident. Fadely said some students have started a movement to boycott prom if the two girls are not allowed to go together.

Supreme Court Sides With Lesbian Mother In Alabama Adoption Case

The Supreme Court has blocked an Alabama court from denying parental rights to a lesbian woman who was granted an adoption in Georgia.

The high court’s action could restore the woman’s visitation rights with the three children, now 13 and 11-year-old twins, while the justices decide whether to hear her appeal of the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court.

Adoption rights for same-sex couples is one of the issues remaining in the wake of the high court’s June decision legalising same-sex marriage. More than 20 states allow gay and lesbian couples “second-parent adoptions.”

Such adoptions benefit adults who do not share a biological connection, while ensuring that children have two legal parents — particularly in case one dies or is incapacitated.

The case was brought by “V.L.,” as she is identified in court papers, against her former partner “E.L.”

The Alabama couple had three children in 2002 and 2004, but E.L is the birth mother. To get adoption rights for V.L., the couple established temporary residency to Georgia.

Now that they have split up, E.L. agrees with the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled in September that Georgia mistakenly granted V.L. joint custody. Her lawyers argued that

“the Georgia court had no authority under Georgia law to award such an adoption, which is therefore void and not entitled to full faith and credit.”

Lawyers for V.L., including the National Center for Lesbian Rights, say the case has broad implications for any gay or lesbian adoptive parents who travel or move to Alabama.

They told the justices in court papers that same-sex adoptions “have been granted since at least the mid-1980s, long before same-sex couples could marry.” They estimated that hundreds of thousands of such adoptions now exist; the most recent statistics from the Williams Institute at UCLA indicate an estimated 65,000 adopted children live with a lesbian or gay parent.

Alabama Minister Jailed for Trying to Marry Lesbian Couple

Alabama has handed out a prison sentence to a minister for exercising her ‘religious freedom’ and trying to marry a lesbian couple, even though state’s ban on same-sex marriage was declared unconstitutional.

Anne DiPrizio – a non-denominational minister – was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine of $250 after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanour disorderly conduct. The sentence was then suspended for six months.

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DiPrizio was arrested on 10 February after she offered to wed a lesbian couple inside Autauga County Probate Office, where the pair had received their marriage license just a few minutes before.

Anne DiPrizio 01

But Probate Judge Al Booth had banned all marriage ceremonies in the office the day before – coincidentally the same day that gay marriage became legal in Alabama – and called the police when DiPrizio refused to leave.

Six deputies arrested DiPrizio, who they found kneeling on the floor in protest.

She spent about three hours in jail then immediately returned to continue her protest after posting bail.

After sentencing DiPrizio said

I’m glad this is over and we can put this behind us.”

Living in Limbo – What it Means to Be a Lesbian Family in America’s Deep South

In 2011, when Carolyn L. Sherer started photographing lesbians and their families in Birmingham, Alabama, many chose not to show their faces. They were scared, they said, of losing their jobs or be discriminated against in other ways. Other people she asked to participate refused to be photographed at all.

However, Sherer, who is a lesbian, was determined to make members of her community be less invisible, in part because she hoped that letting others see them would help them become fully recognised and protected citizens.

My wife and I have been together since 1979 and it’s been very painful to me that my family hasn’t been acknowledged as a family unit. So that’s why I wanted to explore what a family is, what a family looks like. I wanted it to be about relationships and how people relate to each other in front of the camera.

I asked the participants to consider their feelings about words. In sequence, they were, ‘lesbian,’ ‘pride,’ and ‘prejudice.’ I got a range of responses,” she said. “Many of the older women in the beginning cried when I said ‘prejudice,’ or even when I said ‘lesbian.’ They said they’d been afraid to use the word or talk about it. Young people were like, ‘Lesbian?! We’re queer.’ ”

Conditions for gay Alabamans, in some respects, have improved since Sherer began her project. However, in March, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the same-sex marriage ban there, and the state still doesn’t have any laws on the books addressing discrimination or hate crimes against LGBTQ citizens.

It’s important for people to understand what’s going on. People need to know we need to have protections.”

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“Living In Limbo: Lesbian Families In the Deep South” is on display at the Stonewall Museum’s Wilton Manors Gallery in Wilton Manors, Florida until June 28.

Watch | Alabama Couple Fight Back Against Discrimination

Tori Sisson and her partner, Shanté Wolfe, became the first same-sex couple to get married in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 9.

Same-sex marriage may soon become the law of the land in after the US supreme court hears oral arguments next week, but the fight for equal rights for gay people promises to be long and bitter.

Like many states in the US, Alabama has no legal protections for LGBT people facing discrimination in employment, housing or education. ‘In the south, gay couples don’t really show affection’, Tori says

Shanté Wolf-Sisson and Tori Wolfe-Sisson 01 Shanté Wolf-Sisson and Tori Wolfe-Sisson 02