LA 2009 Legislative Session

The Forum for Equality is proud to inform you we prevailed on all bills of concern to the LGBT community. Some of the victories were ugly, one was only partial, and all had surprises. The results exceeded our expectations, and are truly impressive, given the strength of our enemies and the fact that the Governor was strongly working against us. This is our community's best legislative session in the last 12 years!

A number of Legislators took courageous stands against the bills we were opposing and the Forum extends its deepest gratitude to Senators JP Morrell, Dan Claitor, Butch Gautreaux, Ed Murray, and Representatives Juan Lafonta, John Edwards, Rosalind Jones, Patricia Smith and Walker Hines.

Everyone who met with, sent an email to, or made a phone call to a legislator played an important part role in this phenomenal outcome. The Forum thanks you and especially extends its thanks to our staff and key volunteers in the legislative session. Forum Statewide Coordinator David Wilburn did a great job of educating legislators. Forum Managing Director Mary Griggs handled responsibilities at the office, including the email blasts to you. Ted Baldwin spent numerous hours filming legislative meetings to provide us with film documentation of the true intentions of our enemies, produced video clips to keep the public informed, and even testified in hearings. Jeff Sbisa kept the website updated and assisted with the email blasts. John Hill and Steve Majors worked on public relations strategies and testimonies. Kenny Tucker and Thomas Robichaux both testified and made numerous personal appeals to legislators. Marc Behar and Morris Welch also made numerous calls to legislators. All of these activities were coordinated by Forum Political Director Randy Evans. The Forum extends our organization's and community's gratitude to all of these individuals.

Our statewide advocacy and outreach activities conducted by Forum for Equality Foundation have been supported in part by a grant from the Tides Foundation’s State Equality Fund, a philanthropic partnership that includes the Evelyn and Walter Hass, Jr Fund, the Gill Foundation, and anonymous donors. We also extend thanks to the ACLU, Acadiana PFLAG, LAN, HRC, Louisiana Log Cabin Republicans, Louisiana Stonewall Democrats and PACE who each assisted the Forum during the session. These partnerships are of great importance to the Forum and we are honored to work with each of these organizations.

Everyone should be very proud of the Forum for Equality. These victories help everyone in our community. But our members and donors are the ones who make everything that we do possible. Your financial support is critical to our future success. Please join the Forum as a dues paying member (or make an additional donation) now, so we can continue our mission or make society free from discrimination. Thank you.

Here is the final result on the bills.

House Bill 60 (Birth Certificate)

Status: VICTORY

• The bill was effectively filibustered by Senators JP Morrell, Dan Claitor and Butch Gautreaux. After it became obvious that they intended on speaking until the clock ran out, the bill was returned to the calendar. It could have been pulled from the calendar had 2/3 of the senators voted to do so, but this did not occur and the bill died.

Summary:

• HB60 would change Louisiana law regarding birth certificates for adopted children, providing that only the names of married couples or a single individual can be listed on a Louisiana birth certificate. While the bill will not directly impact the entire Louisiana LGBT community, it will adversely impact some LGBT adoptive parents (out of state same-sex couples adopting a Louisiana-born child) and many unmarried adoptive parents.

House Bill 340 (Constitutional Amendment)

Status: VICTORY

• Since the Senate & House passed 2 different versions of the same bill, a conference committee was appointed to work out differences. The Speaker of the House appointed Representatives Cameron Henry, Tim Burns and John Edwards. The Senate President appointed Senators Nick Gautreaux, Dan Claitor and himself. The bill died in conference committee.

Summary:

• This is a constitutional amendment to redefine "Freedom of Religion." We are concerned that it would allow a "freedom to discriminate" based upon "sincere religious belief."

House Bill 517 (Patient Abandonment)

Status: PARTIAL VICTORY

• This bill started out as an awful bill that would have allowed medical care providers and pharmacists to refuse treatment to anyone for anything as long as they claimed a moral objection. This would have left many HIV patients without medical care in some areas of the state. It was amended several times and what was passed allows a health care provider (including pharmacists ) to refuse to perform an abortion, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, human cloning and stem cell research, or to dispense "abortifacient drugs". Basically the only change in Louisiana law is that a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription for the morning after pill. While this is still a bad result, it is not as bad as the original bill.

Summary:

• HB517 would threaten access to health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
• HB517 would allow healthcare providers to refuse to participate in certain health care services that violate their religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Gay Adoption Ban

Status: COMPLETE VICTORY

• Late last year we learned that the extreme fundamentalists intended on introducing a bill to ban any adoptions by lesbians and gays. In response, the Forum began an education campaign focused on elected officials and members of the press on this important issue. Our efforts were so successful that no such bill was introduced and no attempts were made to amend a bill to create such a ban. Our opponents conceded defeat on this issue in Gambit, saying that they didn't have the votes to create such a ban.