First some very good news! The Bloomington Human Rights Commission voted last night (Sept 26) to recommend to the city council that gender identity be added to the city's human rights ordinance. The recommendation is expected to pass the city council overwhelmingly.

Bloomington was the first city in Indiana to add sexual orientation to their human rights policy, so it's no surprise that they would also be first to add gender identity. (As a side note, the day after the contentious city council meeting the night that sexual orientation was added to the HRO, my then-boyfriend and I were on the front page of the Herald Times newspaper. We'd attended the council meeting and had gotten photographed holding hands while listening to testimony. The picture was huge - and above the fold. I still have a print of that photo around the house somewhere.)

The definition for gender identity that will be included is as follows: "Gender identity means a person’s actual or perceived gender-related attributes, self-image, appearance, expression, or behavior, whether or not such characteristics differ from those traditionally associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth."

Secondly, I'd like to again plug the GLBT civil rights training for rural areas that's being held in Bloomington on October 1st. The Unitarian Universalist Church in Bloomington is hosting a training event for Indiana Equality focused on LGBT Civil Rights for the Rural Community. It will deal with the legislative process, interacting with the public and the media and specifically rural tactics for grassroots organizing. Presenters include lobbyist Mark St. John (Lambda Consulting) and Seymour PFLAG founder and president Rhea Murray.

The training, which is free, will be held on Saturday, Oct 1, 2005, from 1-5pm in Fellowship Hall-Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, 2120 North Fee Lane (at corner of Fee Lane and 45/46 Bypass).

To register and for additional information, please contact Judi Epp, Chair of the Civil Marriage Is A Civil Right Task Force