The 50 Spot: Colorado Family Institute Targets LGBT Benefits

by Michael Jones · 2009-02-05 11:28:00 UTC
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rainbowRinse, wash and repeat.  Same story, different year coming out of Colorado, where the Colorado Family Institute has gone on the offensive to try and stop a domestic partnership benefits bill from moving forward in the Colorado legislature.  We also hit up Tennessee in today's 50 spot, where a mass murdering truck driver is set to plead guilty for killing two people at an LGBT-friendly church.

Colorado:  To say that the Colorado Family Institute fosters discrimination and is anti-LGBT is kind of like saying, "The sky is blue."  So it comes as no surprise that the CFI (an off-shoot of the more popular Focus on the Family) is trying to put the kibosh on a Colorado State Senate bill that would make domestic partners of state employees eligible for coverage under state group-benefit plans.  Despite the CFI's opposition, the bill passed its first hearing yesterday in a Senate legislative committee, by a vote of 4-3.  It now moves forward to the Senate Appropriations Committee.  One conservative lawmaker, State Sen. Shawn Mitchell, told the Denver Post that his opposition to same-sex domestic partner benefits is not rooted in discrimination.  "I respectfully resent any implication that my judgment on policy might result from seeing anyone as less than a human being or wanting to punish someone," Mitchell said.  But "Earth to Senator Mitchell...": not allowing gay and lesbian state employees the same benefits that straight employees have is punishment.

Tennessee: The AP is reporting that 58-year-old truck driver Jim Adkisson will plead guilty to barging into a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church last July (while the congregation was watching a children's performance of "Annie," no less) and opening fire with a sawed-off shotgun, killing two people and injurying six.  What was the reason for Adkisson's outburst of violence?  He didn't like the fact that the Unitarian Universalist Church was tolerant and accepting of LGBT people.  At least that's according to a note found in his car after the attack, which lambasted liberals and gays.  As if we needed more proof that intolerance leads to violence.  The Unitarian Universalist Church, for its part, offered some healing thoughts in the wake of Adkisson's plea: "We affirm the actions of the Tennessee justice system, which has both provided appropriate sentence for his crimes and assured the community that he will never again be able to act violently in our midst.  We continue to seek healing for the people hurt by this man and for him as well, that he, too, may be healed by whatever motivated his actions."

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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