here! News Blog

The U.S. Tax Court issued a highly anticipated decision about gender reassignment surgery on Tuesday, ruling that treatment is tax deductible.

The decision, O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, reasoned that gender identity disorder qualifies as medical care and is tax deductible. The case involved Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, a 64-year-old transgender woman disallowed a $5,000 tax deduction because the IRS said that her gender reassignment surgery was cosmetic.

According to a news release from Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which represented O’Donnabhain, the decision sets a precedent.

“In an opinion reviewed by the full bench, the United States Tax Court affirmed that medical treatments for GID, including surgery and hormone therapy, are deductible medical expenses,” said GLAD. “Moreover, the court stated that the IRS’s position that such treatment is cosmetic in nature ‘is at best a superficial characterization of the circumstances that is thoroughly rebutted by the medical evidence.’”

The New York Times on Monday delivers an article about some of the forces converging around the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the past year, and reports that the Defense Department will announce that it is suspending some discharges of gay military members during the debate over the policy.

According to the Times, at the Congressional hearing on the policy on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce a halt in discharges of service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners.

“On Tuesday, in the first Congressional hearing on the issue in 17 years, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen will unveil the Pentagon’s initial plans for carrying out a repeal, which requires an act of Congress,” reports the Times. “Gay rights leaders say they expect Mr. Gates to announce in the interim that the Defense Department will not take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law. Pentagon officials had no comment.”

The article also states that Obama, who pledged to repeal the policy during his presidential campaign, delayed acting on repeal in 2009 because of two wars and his desire not to distract from health care reform. He decided to make repeal a priority in 2010.

Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, Republican Sen. John McCain issued a statement saying he disagreed with the president’s pledge to repeal”don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy.

“This successful policy has been in effect for over fifteen years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels. We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy.” 

In response to President Obama’s call in the State of the Union address to end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Human Rights Campaign Wednesday night announced a campaign targeting the antigay policy. The Voices of Honor campaign “will organize veterans across the country, generate media coverage, and build focused campaigns in key states that will be critical to the final votes in the House and Senate,” the group announced in a release.

Said HRC president Joe Solmonese: “The commander in chief sent a clear message tonight that in a time of war, what matters is that our men and women get the job done — not whether they’re gay or straight. Our Voices of Honor campaign will bring about much needed action to end this law that the vast majority of Americans oppose. Our country simply cannot afford this discriminatory law that hurts military readiness by denying patriotic men and women the opportunity to serve. Ridding our laws of discrimination that weakens our national security will require continued leadership from the president as well as congressional allies.”

In his first State of the Union address, which focused heavily on economic concerns and bolstering the confidence of middle-class Americans, President Barack Obama touted his administration’s hate-crimes achievement and reiterated his support for repealing the military gay ban.

“This year I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are — it’s the right thing to do,” said the president during his hour-plus speech.

The pledge was seen by some as progress even as it dismayed others, especially after reports emerged earlier this week that the president might announce more specific intentions for the policy.

Ted Haggard and his wife, Gayle, appeared on Oprah Tuesday to talk about rebuilding their marriage after it was revealed in 2006 he’d been sleeping with a male prostitute.

Haggard, who was booted as pastor from his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., tells Oprah he’s been cured of being gay, and he lets his wife check in on his whereabouts via Facebook and Twitter. He says he no longer has any “homosexual compulsions,” but does this so his wife won’t have to worry.

Haggard also says he stays with a pastor rather than a hotel when he travels.

Gayle Haggard’s book, Why I Stayed, came out Tuesday. She says their marriage is stronger and more intimate than it has ever been.

Three weeks after the state of New Hampshire legalized gay marriage, opponents on Wednesday asked a House committee to repeal the law.

“I’m here today about Adam and Eve,” state Representative Alfred Baldasaro testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Baldasaro, a Republican who sponsored the legislation dealing with the repeal along with other gay marriage opponents, said the new law defies the laws of nature. “A man and a woman together create a family where individuals of the same gender cannot create a family,” said state Rep. Jordan Ulery, a Republican from Hudson. State representative Ed Butler, who is gay himself, said, “Marriage is an incredible acknowledgment of our equality. Please don’t take it away after so shortly having given us the opportunity to feel the incredibly powerful stamp of access to that word. Marriage is a powerful word.” The House Judiciary Committee was holding hearings on the measures, even though many observers expect the heavily liberal legislature to reject it when it comes to the main floor in the next few weeks. Republicans who brought forward the measure know they have little chance of getting the repeal passed, but plan to use it as a political battering ram, raising the issue at planned town halls throughout the spring. They hope greater attention to the issue will help get more anti-gay marriage representatives elected in November. The ultimate goal of these anti-gay marriage opponents is to eventually get a State Constitutional amendment adopted, defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Kevin Smith, who is the executive director of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research says he feels the constitutional ban should be on the ballot, because “People really want an opportunity to have a say.”

Sundance documentary examines Mormon church’s role in political fight over gay marriage

The Utah-based Mormon church plays a starring role in a new Sundance Film Festival documentary about the 2008 ballot initiative that successfully banned gay marriage in California.

Miami-area filmmaker Reed Cowan’s “8: The Mormon Proposition,” premieres Sunday at the Park City festival.

The film contends that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built on decades of anti-gay teachings to justify its political activism and tried to hide its role as the driving force behind the coalition of conservatives that helped pass Proposition 8. The proposition reversed an earlier court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

The film debuts just as a California federal trial over the constitutionality of the ban enters its third week.

“Karma,” said Cowan of the timing and the film’s inaugural screening in a theater roughly 25 miles from the Mormon church’s headquarters.

“There was no other place on the planet where this could premiere,” he said. “This is where the lies came from, this is where the money came from. The sharpest karma that could be leveled on the Mormon church … it has to be leveled in their own backyard.”

Church officials have not seen the film but have reviewed a trailer and other materials posted online, a spokeswoman for the faith said. Latter-day Saint leaders have given many interviews on the church’s involvement in Proposition 8, but did not want to participate in something they view as biased, Kim Farah said.

“It appears that accuracy and truth are rare commodities in this film,” Farah said. “Clearly, anyone looking for balance and thoughtful discussion of a serious topic will need to look elsewhere.”

Narrated by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black — who like Cowan is gay and was raised Mormon — the 81-minutes film opens with footage of gay couples saying, “I do,” in San Francisco’s City Hall on June 17, 2008, the first day gays could legally marry and then chronicles what some say was the most expensive initiative campaign in California’s history through election day and angry postelection protest marches outside Mormon church temples nationwide.

The film makes its case for Mormon dominance by relying on the investigative work of California political activist Fred Karger, who claims Mormons turned out some 25,000 members weekly as campaign volunteers and made up 71 percent of individual campaign contributions.

The church also disputes allegations in the film by Karger of inaccurate or deceptive campaign finance reporting practices and has posted its contributions on its Web site.

Shot over 19 months for less than $250,000, the film uses statements of past church leaders and personal accounts of gay Mormons and their families in an attempt to explain what Cowan contends is a culture of obedience and an entrenched anti-gay sentiment that permeates Mormonism. Those attitudes, he says, contribute to a myriad of social problems including a suicide and homelessness among young gay Mormons.

Mormon church officials do appear in the film, but only in footage obtained through other filmmakers, media outlets or in church-produced videos that appeared on the Web.

See the official trailer here!