In the Life: Ep. 2009, "A Message of Hope"

in the life is funded in part by the hvan american foundation patricia kind in honor of her brother henry van ameringan arcus foundation the estate of richard w weiland gill foundation dr l diane bernard heller bernard fund and these funders and by the annual support of in-the-life members like you [Music] this month the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender community celebrates pride and what it means to express one's authentic self tonight on in the life we send out a message of hope by featuring a gospel choir that raises spirits and awareness about hiv and aids in oakland's black churches this is what hiv looks like strong people people of faith and later we look at employment discrimination and how some employees are making a difference by bringing their whole self to work one of the things about civil rights laws is it protects you being who you are doesn't require you to hide [Music] yay [Music] oakland has been hit really hard by aids much i mean especially in the black community people who find out that they're positive are not going to get treatment because of the shame associated with it and a lot of a lot of that has to do with what we were taught in church [Music] the ambassadors is an organization of about 40 people made up of dancers musicians and singers all from oakland california and what we do is we use music gospel music as a means to go into the church and into the community and engage people about hiv and aids [Music] praise the lord everybody come on somebody give god some praise i've been living with hiv for a number of years now and i'm thriving now better than i was before i was diagnosed when i tell people in the services that i'm hiv positive i see a bunch of different reactions sometimes i see shock on people's face i can't tell why they're shocked because they found out that i'm positive or they're shocked that i said that i was positive i see relief on people's faces because i'm looking at people who i know are positive but they haven't been able to say it at church i want to take some time out now and if there's anybody else in this room today that is hiv positive and you're not ashamed you're not afraid come and stand here with me [Music] ernest inspired me to come out and i hope what he did today was by us to come out also this is what hiv looks like strong people people of faith black people this is my first time here at this church in this congregation speaking about hiv and nays it was not so difficult at all because i am ashamed to join this fight with us and you not against aids in hiv i want you to stand on your feet sometimes people won't come up and say anything of the church but they'll get my number and call me and they'll tell me about them being positive and how they haven't gotten any support from family or they're afraid to tell their family and make this pledge with me i will i talk about hiv about hiv no one else will die in our community from this disease from this disease in jesus name at the concerts that we do we always have partnered with um aids and hiv workers in the community and we actually give time in the service for people to go and take advantage of those services [Music] people actually get up in the middle of the concert and go and get tested even our own members i myself was tested at the first event that the ambassadors offered i think it's a great idea to have a gospel choir collaborate with an hiv testing center because i don't think that people will go on their own so if it's a an environment that's safe where we're all worshiping god he's there so you're gonna be okay i think it really works hand in hand i believe that gospel choir has a reach that definitely extends our reach here at the clinic our capacity to to go out into the community is limited so organizations like the ambassadors really do provide that bridge to help bring awareness to the community about hiv the need for testing and the need to really speak out about this reality when i first found out i was hiv-positive i spent two weeks in my room um by myself and i could do nothing but cry every time i thought about it i was like lord as hard as i work in the church i don't deserve this and i was i was really mad at god and if it wasn't for my family being there and my church family included being there um i wouldn't have made it through that period he's not only my brother he's my father he's been there for me through anything that i've ever needed and i respect him to the day i die as being the best man that i know we love him to death and because we love him we're right there with him fighting this battle if my family wasn't a part of this with me i wouldn't be able to do this work because there are times when it gets really hard the things people don't see when i'm sick my family sees all that they're there with me through doctors appointments and hospitals days and it's also important that the community see a family doing this together because it sets a model for other families sometimes it gets really hard to say that you're positive because you really don't know how people are going to react and though i may look strong i i feel it in the inside sometimes i'm terrified but to look back and see all those how to look back and see those ambassadors standing behind me like soldiers and i'm forever grateful to them for that [Music] i go to a pretty traditional baptist church but i'm openly gay in my church and i'm a minister there i was licensed and ordained at my church my pastor ordained me knowing i was gay our mistake has been we have decided we wouldn't do anything about it because we thought it only affected gay people [Applause] we couldn't [Music] [Applause] [Music] and it's your brothers and your cousins and your uncles and aunties and you know they're dying everyone knows somebody who is living with aids or hiv that's close to them we are in 12 or 13 of this population but more than oh we represent over 50 percent of all new infections in this country all the way across the board black teens represent 58 of all new cases of aids and hiv that's staggering that means we're dying from the bottom up and from the top down and pretty soon our whole race will be eliminated what can we do about it what should we do about it what can you do about as an individual the first thing you should do is if you're having sex you should be tested right all right i'm gonna say it again if you're having sex you should be tested whether you're having protective sex or not you should also at your home mothers fathers grandparents talk to your children about aids in hiv talk to them about sex black people it's time for sex being a taboo at church and at home the reason why to allow earnest and people to talk about hiv in church is very revolutionary because we never talked about it you know we we hid it we didn't want to talk about sex we don't want to talk about hiv the reason for that was because if we had talked about sex everyone would have to talk about it from the past run down and we were in denial i think it's appropriate to talk about sex and church and i think some people talk about hiv the less that we talk about it the more that we contribute to the issue and so people want to take more courage and to have an open and honest conversation about that issue [Music] one of the biggest things that we do is that we build relationships it's about building a bridge of communication between the hiv community and the faith-based community but if you're a person living with hiv this is your time and i'm going to ask you to join me just down front because you really are the warriors [Applause] don't be ashamed don't be embarrassed amen is just a disease i'ma say it again it's just a disease it is not a life sentence it's just a disease and god is greater than hiv this choir brings effervescence and joy and power while they're messaging hiv messages to their audiences that's an incredible incredible ministry two years ago no church would talk about aids or hiv nor homosexuality the churches are beginning to open up and have these discussions more now since the ambassadors has been pushing we've actually noticed homosexual ministries popping up in churches we've also seen aids in hiv outreach ministries popping up in churches the dialogue has been started now we just have to continue it right now what we're doing is we're we're operating here in oakland in the bay area but this isn't a just a local problem it's a national and a global problem so what we would love to do is replicate this across the country and globally [Music] [Music] one of the songs that we sing is called it won't last and the words say it won't last hiv it won't last too much longer and the message of that song is that together we can win this fight against aids and hiv if we come together as a community we come together as a church come together as a people we can win this fight against aids and hiv there is no reason for anybody else to die from [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we all need a job look in this economy right how important it is to have a job to pay the bills there is nothing as devastating as being fired from a job because you're black because you're a woman because you're a muslim or because you're gay in 2010 andre cooley was working as a corrections officer for juvenile detainees for the forest county sheriff's department in hattiesburg mississippi i mean i just wanted to become a corrections officer because it would give me the opportunity to give back through service considering where i came from and where i am today i was the first person in my family to graduate from a four-year university and so that really meant a lot because there are a lot of children coming behind me and i want to be a role model for them as well after a domestic dispute with his boyfriend the sheriff's department found out that he was gay on the day of the incident me and my boyfriend we were at my house and he became violent and i called for help and when i called for help the local police and the sheriff's department responded to the call and when they responded my boyfriend outed me to my boss the sheriff's department fired andre with the help of the aclu he filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation it's a risk any place but in mississippi it's certainly a big risk to announce to the world i'm gay in a very public way which is what he had to do when he brought this case it's not something that i just hid it just wasn't discussed when i got hired they weren't looking at the fact that i was gay it was looking at my resume and the fact that i had been to school and and that i came from foster care and that and that i was trying to make a difference and so they were very impressed with that and so it's like you will be a very good people for the job and and then like when everything came out it's like oh you're fired and i'm like why researchers are studying whether cases like andres are isolated or more widespread at the nationally recognized williams institute at ucla survey research has revealed the extent of the problem according to the best data that we have available the williams institute estimates that there are over seven and a half million lesbian and gay and bisexual workers in the u.s labor force today there are consistent research findings of very high levels of discrimination against lgbt people when asked in surveys lgb people report ranges of discrimination from 10 to 50 depending on whether they're asked about harassment or being fired when you survey transgender people the level of discrimination is even higher there is no uniform federal law in the united states on discrimination against lgbt people in the workplace the equal employment opportunity commission is a federal agency charged with enforcing existing employment anti-discrimination laws hai felblum an out lesbian is one of the commissioners of the agency we are the first step anytime someone feels that they have been discriminated against in employment so that's race sex religion color national origin age disability and genetic information on these bases you can't fire someone refuse to hire them treat them differently in employment we have not finished our civil rights journey in terms of employment and we clearly need a explicit law as president obama has said that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and when that law gets passed it's again this agency that's going to be responsible for implementing it because there's no federal legislation a limited number of states have passed anti-discrimination laws so there's still a majority of states in the united states where it's legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and even in those states that do have laws the coverage of these state laws varies from state to state and in some cases doesn't provide adequate protection for example most most laws do not include protections for transgender people often the remedies are not as strong as we want them to be sometimes they don't have attorney's fees attached to it so you might have a right but if you can't find a lawyer to represent you there's hard to get a remedy sometimes they don't cover a lot of employers so it's very much of a patchwork although mississippi has no state law protecting lgbt workers andre was fortunate enough to fall within one of those patchwork rules because he worked for the sheriff's department a local government entity public employees really don't know they have rights because there's not a statute that says it there's not a law you can look up in the books that says you're protected it's you know the protection is really based on constitutional issues and case law a public employer can't just put a policy in place take an action based on what's called unanimous they can't say we don't like this we don't like it that you're gay and so we're going to fire you after andre filed his lawsuit the sheriff's department reversed its decision and took andre back i'm basically just glad to be back because i really like the job and the people in this area i'm not going to say that going back isn't going to have its challenges but the sheriff's department has made a lot of changes i think that that's going to make transitioning back into the position a lot easier and so i mean i'm very optimistic about going back when you work for the government you thankfully do have the constitution that is protecting you i mean that's why the aclu can bring a suit against a sheriff's office in mississippi but remember the federal constitution applies only to government action in the private sector we need to have legislation in the absence of protective laws progress has come from a surprising source corporate america bill hendricks is a scientist working for dow agrosciences in indianapolis indiana dao being a middle america company that doesn't sell directly to consumers you might think wouldn't be overly supportive of their lgbt employees but that's not the case at all and i found it to be quite the opposite we hire a lot of scientists and it's difficult to find good scientists period and why would you ever want to go out and exclude part of that population it doesn't make sense and so the company early on understood the business case of that gao has over the last 10 years implemented a whole range of policies and procedures and benefits that are absolutely equitable to all employees be that for same-sex couples or opposite-sex couples it's one and the same specifically speaking about transgenders we've got a new benefits program that allows people to elect various different procedures processes that they wish to take changing gender gender programs hormones counseling all sorts of things like that dow's lgbt friendly policies came about after employees took the initiative to form an employee resource group and push for rights internally in 1999-2000 a group of employees got together and realized that we didn't have protections in our eeoc statement that would protect our gay and lesbian employees from being fired they brought that to the attention of the ceo and that really formed that basic group of glaad gays lesbians and allies at dow our employee resource group different companies call them different things a business network an employee resource group but they're basically ways for lgbt people to get together find one another and begin to organize within their company for domestic partner benefits for having the right policies in place they've been really the catalyst for change on so many levels within corporate america i didn't come out until they formed the network and then i watched for like a year or two to see what they were doing just to make sure that they weren't rubber stamping things and once i recognized that they were actually serious about it and wanting to change the environment then i then i joined the network like most companies you know we had to uh grow into it if you will and to get our legs underneath us so it was a lot in the beginning of putting together the basic sort of business case foundation but then as time has gone on and the company saw the benefits of supporting the lgbt employee it really made i think the company feel more comfortable in stepping up to be out front leader we're basic chemical business in a very middle america kind of place if we can make it work i think any company can make it work and we're proof of that today the majority of fortune 500 companies and put sexual orientation in their eeo policies to 40 include gender identity over half of fortune 500 companies now offer domestic partner benefits because there is no federal law to protect the lgbt community from the work from discrimination it's important for the companies to do that work themselves during a conversation with my boss he said well one day you'll find a husband and get married and have all sorts of kids a house i'm not gonna have a husband and he you know kind of went red face on me and i said well i'm gonna have a wife he's like okay well a wife a house you know kids in cars and it kind of eased up the situation and i've never been happier as an employee then i have always felt much more open about who i am in my work environment than say in my other environments at home in other places because of the way the state is the state of indiana has no protection for lgbt workers in the private sector indiana also does not recognize same-sex marriage and is moving to ban civil unions and possibly domestic partnerships we have protections from eight to five that i don't have once i leave the gate dow has facilities in a lot of smaller communities that don't offer protections to lgbt employees it's a sad state of affairs that i'm better protected inside the dow gate than the second i leave and try and go home that state of affairs has prompted bill and dow to take the fight for employment equality to congress mr chairman and members of the subcommittee my name is the proposed federal law that would protect lgbt workers is the employment non-discrimination act or enda enda is really the successor bill to the gay civil rights bill that was introduced in the mid 70s i don't think many of us have a lot of expectations that it can pass in this current congress but there's still a lot of work to do on it and i know a lot of us are very anxious to educate all these new members of congress so that when it can pass we've done our work and educated people one of the things about civil rights laws is it protects you being who you are it doesn't require you to hide once there is a law that says you can't discriminate based on sexual orientation that also means you can't fire someone because they have a picture of their husband the male guy with the male husband on the desk right or if i had pictures of my partner and kids that it allows people to breathe i mean my personal beliefs on it are i mean people should be free to you know be i mean who they are and be accepted as a part of you know having a diverse workplace because i mean most workplaces you know they they say you know we embrace diversity but do we thank you for watching in the life to learn more about the issues in tonight's program or to tell us your thoughts about the show text itl to 69866 on your mobile phone and visit itlmedia.org to watch our web exclusive on transgender discrimination injustice at every [Music] turn by disease so don't you give up hope that's where i plant my seed so hold my hand and speak foreign [Music] [Music] in the life is funded in part by the hvan american foundation patricia kind in honor of her brother henry van aameringen arcus foundation the estate of richard w weiland gill foundation dr l diane bernard heller bernard fund and these funders and by the annual support of in-the-life members like you [Music]