Nebraska Dept of Health and Human Services Bans Discussion about Gay Parenting

Diversity committees for state of Nebraska Health and Human Services can celebrate food from around the world. They can bring in Polynesian dancers for a program on Pacific Rim and Asian cultures. They can talk about Mardi Gras, black history and the Chinese New Year. But they cannot provide any information that relates to people who are gay.

In fact, Nebraska state HHS leaders recently ordered a Lincoln-based diversity committee to remove one speaker from an informational forum focusing on family diversity because the woman was in a same-sex partnership. The team was told to remove the speaker involved in same-sex parenting from the lineup, even though the agency policy statement says the team should promote and encourage the appreciation of human diversity in the workplace and communities served by HHS, said Cathy Kingery, diversity committee co-chairwoman.

The forum was neither condoning nor condemning gay life but simply recognizing its existence and the special circumstances families may encounter, Kingery said in an e-mail description of the issue. The administration was unwilling to waiver, she said.
Concerned they were being asked to discriminate when their goal was to recognize and encourage appreciation of diversity, 11 of 18 committee members, including the two co-chairmen, resigned. In Omaha, at least 10 of 24 team members quit when administrators stopped a program and panel focusing on gay and lesbian issues.

One of the invited speakers said the administration first stopped a daylong training and then said the group could not host a shorter program offered after work hours.

Committee members were told they could not discuss gay, lesbian and transgendered issues on state time, said Betty Dorr, past president of Omaha PFLAG, a group representing parents, family and friends of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons.

"This is just another episode of the state denying an opportunity for stories to be told by the wonderful gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people we have in our community, in Nebraska," Dorr said.

HHS CEO Chris Peterson says the agency’s diversity teams must limit topics to the protected classes in federal law, which does not include homosexuals.

In response to a request for a short interview with Heineman on the diversity controversy, the governor’s chief spokesperson said: "I don’t think that is going to happen."

"I don’t think the governor is interested in commenting," spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein said. "The governor believes the director is handling it appropriately."

Hein was also unwilling to say whether Heineman agreed or disagreed with the policy.

"The governor does not want to interject himself into this discussion," she said repeatedly, offering a one-note answer to a number of questions about the governor’s attitude on the issue.

"He is not going to interject himself into this discussion."
At their most logical, these assaults on gay rights and the "gay lifestyle" are meant to make members of the LGBT community rethink their own identity... to second guess themselves. And in this sense they have succeeded: they have convinced many bright young men and women to question their identity as Nebraskans.

And who can blame them? If the wingnuts leading this anti-homosexual crusade really believed their rhetoric (that gay marriage is a threat to civilization itself, that gay adoption is a pox upon the children) there would be no need to silence this discussion. Those confident of their positions don't shy away from debate, they embrace the opportunity to respond and persuade.

But the anti-gay rights movement isn't about discussion; isn't about debate. It isn't really about anything. It's a senseless and classless attempt to use the law to bully a population that makes some people uncomfortable.

And it's worked. Discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution. It is a cornerstone of our campaign rhetoric. It is the undeniable, unquestionable, fundamental truth of Cornhusker politics.

But it is not Nebraska. Not the Nebraska I know. And not the place I call home.

web links:

DailyKos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/12/161650/821

New Nebraska Network: http://newnebraska.net/2007/05/state-agency-bans-discussion-about-gay.html