Tammy Baldwin

The teleconference, sponsored by the Victory Fund, an advocacy group that works to elect LGBT leaders into public office, gave Baldwin a chance to face reporters and discuss why she should be elected the next senator from the Badger State.

"I’m appreciative of the tremendous support I’ve had from the LGBT community and I’m officially in," Baldwin said.

“As I’ve traveled around this summer people have told me again and again how disgusted they are with what’s going on in Washington and in Madison. They tell me that they just don’t think that anyone is listening to their immediate concerns on the economy and on jobs. The middle class is getting slammed in this current economic crisis.”

Baldwin told journalists that her largest hurdle in the state is name recognition (which is roughly at 52-55 percent, depending on the poll), but emphasized the weary fate of the economy will be her major focus.

A recent Gallup poll showed increased frustration across the nation with how Congress handled the debt deal and other economic issues in August -- 75 percent of those surveyed in the most recent poll believed that the economy will continue to get worse with only 20 percent having a positive outlook for the economy.

Baldwin is no political outsider -- she has been serving Wisconsin’s 2nd District since 1999 when she was elected as the first women to represent the state on a national level -- but her plan to stabilize the economy and create jobs will be a deciding factor for voters in November 2012.

“It will be a tough race as Wisconsin is pretty evenly divided,” Baldwin said. "But Wisconsinites are looking to elect someone who will go to Washington and be a fighter."

"If voters look at my record in they house, they will learn that I have taken on incredibly tough challenges. I stood up and opposed the war in Iraq and I’ve stood up against Wall Street. I have shown a lifetime commitment for equality for all -- I’m a fighter and I will continue to stand up to special interests."

With Wisconsin’s unemployment continuing to rise (it rose to 7.8% in July), voters will be expecting its Senate candidates to bring more than just empty rhetoric to the campaign. As voters across the country continue to ask, “Where are the Jobs?”, Baldwin said she believes she has a bold vision to spur job development in the state.

“I’m in that 80 percent who are disgusted about how things have been handled," she said, commenting on voter's frustration with the debt deal.

"I feel that frustration and anger that Wisconsinites feel toward the economic problems and how [elected officials] in Washington and Madison are not listening," Baldwin said. "So many people believe that our best says are behind us, but we have to have optimism. We can’t give up on what is offered by having a democracy that can change."

Reflecting on her 12 years in Congress, Baldwin said her vision on job creation and the economy, and progressive voting record in the House, will stand for itself.

"I’ve been very successful working across party lines to get things done and being effective," she said "I will continue to do that when elected to the Senate."

Unfortunately, the political outlook isn't quite so positive.

Job market conditions across the Nation deteriorated for the second month in a row. Gallup poll released their Job Creation index and the numbers paint a bleak picture of the potential for more jobs in the upcoming months. The job creation index fell to +13 in August, down from +14 in July and +15 in June. New hiring is at about the level it was during the 2008 recession.

The question remains, will Wisconsin voters believe in Baldwin’s record as much as the Wisconsin LGBTQ community has expressed belief in her.

Asked by Edge Media's senior political reporter Mike Lavers how the Baldwin campaign would respond to homophobia from within Wisconsin or outside the state, she did not directly answer, instead saying, "I am opposed to discrimination in any form and believe in equal opportunity for all Americans ... and equal opportunities for all and I make no apologies for that."

Former Republican Congressman Mark Neumann, who has already declared his candidacy for the same Senate seat, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 1997 that he would not hire an openly gay employee because the "gay and lesbian lifestyle is unacceptable."

Pressed for an answer on the same subject by Washington Blade Senior Political Correspondent Chris Johnson, Baldwin replied, "To the extent that I'm faced with it in my campaign, I plan on responding very directly. The campaign is unfolding across the country, but to the extent that it is raised in the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, I am certainly not going to turn the other way."

On the subject of whether she'll promote LGBT rights, particularly the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, while on the campaign trail, Baldwin said she has been talking about such issues in the context of larger discussions, noting that in 1982, Wisconsin was the first state to enact protections based on sexual orientation.

"When I talk about the proud tradition of the state of Wisconsin and labor and equal rights — they are all in the same conversation," Baldwin said. "People in Wisconsin feel proud of those firsts, all of them, and view them as interlinked. That's the same sort of way, I think, at the national level that we weave these things together."

Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund noted that Baldwin has never shied away from her sexual orientation, and it would seem that Wisconsin voters don’t believe being an lesbian should dictate whether or not she should be elected to the Senate.

"We are enormously proud that Tammy has taken this courageous step, and we will be strong supporters of her campaign. Tammy’s record in Congress proves she’ll be a fighter in the Senate for expanding fairness and freedom for all Americans and Wisconsin families will have no better advocate in Washington."

Wolfe stated that since the organization endorsed her in 1992 “she hasn’t lost a race."

Tammy Baldwin

Baldwin is the first Democrat to officially announce her intent, and if elected, would become the first openly gay U.S. Senator.

Khol's seat is one of at least eight open spots that could determine a shift of power in the Senate, where the GOP needs to pick up just four seats to become the majority party in control.

The Congresswoman, who made her announcement in an email and video to supporters early Tuesday, is the first woman, and openly gay non-incumbent, to be elected to the U.S. House from the state of Wisconsin. For fifteen years, her domestic partner was Lauren Azar, until the couple separated in 2010.

Baldwin is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and according to a survey conducted by the nonpartisan National Journal, her voting and legislative record is considered one of the most progressive in the House.

In today's message to her supporters, Baldwin portrayed herself as moving to the political center by positioning herself as the best candidate for middle-class voters feeling squeezed in the tough economy.

"It’s time politicians looked out for seniors, working families and the middle class — instead of protecting the profits of big oil and Wall Street," she said.

Baldwin also used her video message to mention her opposition to the war in Iraq and her support for ending the war in Afghanistan, as well as to hint at the obstacles her candidacy will face as she seeks to win her first statewide election.

"I’m used to facing challenges head on," she said. "When I first ran for Congress in 1998, people counted me out. But we worked hard, campaigned across south-central Wisconsin, and we won."

Political analysts are certain that the Republicans will attack Baldwin’s liberal House voting record, hoping to sway the independent and moderate voters in Wisconsin, a state that has swung between giving Barack Obama a 14-point win in the 2008 presidential race and kicking Democrats out of power in the Statehouse during the 2010 contests.

The Wisconsin law, named the Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act, was passed in 2005, and was challenged in 2006 by three transgender inmates, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.

The court's decision was based upon the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.

In its decision, the Court looked at the science behind what is known as "gender identity disorder" (GID), a medical term used to describe the condition where ones physical gender does not match ones gender identity.

In its ruling, the Court determined that by refusing the inmates access to hormone treatments, the state was increasing the psychological stress and harm that may come to those inmates that have GID. To the Court, this meant that the state was deliberately inflicting a cruel and unusual punishment on its transgender inmates.

Wisconsin, in its defense of the law, did not disagree that gender identity disorder was a medical condition that needed to be treated. Instead, they asserted that the law was constitutional because hormone treatments were not the only way that GID could be dealt with.

Wisconsin's basis for this logic was two court cases, from 1987 and 1997 respectively which stated that the State does not need to provide hormone treatments to inmates because of the prohibitive cost of the drugs and the other treatment options available to transgender individuals.

In the judges decision, they rejected this prior precedent and asserted that not only has the cost of hormone treatments for transgender inmates become significantly less expensive, but that the long term costs to the system (such as increased security, psychological expenses, etc.) far outweigh the costs of the hormone treatments. A portion of the court's decision reads:

At trial, defendants stipulated that the cost of providing hormone therapy is between $300 and $1,000 per inmate per year. The district court compared this cost to the cost of a common antipsychotic drug used to treat many DOC inmates.

In 2004, DOC paid a total of $2,300 for hormones for two inmates. That same year, DOC paid $2.5 million to provide inmates with quetiapine, an antipsychotic drug which costs more than $2,500 per inmate per year. Sex reassignment surgery is significantly more expensive, costing approximately $20,000. However, other significant surgeries may be more expensive.

In 2005, DOC paid $37,244 for one coronary bypass surgery and $32,897 for one kidney transplant surgery. The district court concluded that DOC might actually incur greater costs by refusing to provide hormones, since inmates with GID might require other expensive treatments or enhanced monitoring by prison security.

ACLU attorney John Knight, hailed the ruling as a significant victory:

“This was a discriminatory law that cruelly singled out transgender people by denying them — and only them — the medical care they need ... too often the medical needs of transgender persons are not treated as the serious health issues that they are.

"We are glad that the appeals court has found that medical professionals, not the Wisconsin legislature, should make medical decisions for inmates.”

Wisconsin Domestic Partners Tamara Packard (left) and Renee Herber on August 3, 2009.

A judge in Wisconsin on Monday ruled that domestic partnerships are not substantially similar to marriages, and that such partnerships do not violate the state's 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Dane County Judge Daniel Moeser on Monday threw out a challenge to the state's domestic partnership law and ruled the law constitutional.

Moeser wrote in his decision that the state's domestic partnership law "does not violate the Marriage Amendment because it does not create a legal status for domestic partners that is identical or substantially similar to that of marriage. The state does not recognize domestic partnership in a way that even remotely resembles how the state recognizes marriage."

"Moreover, domestic partners have far fewer legal rights, duties, and liabilities in comparison to the legal rights, duties, and liabilities of spouses."

Wisconsin’s domestic partnerships allow same-sex couples to visit each other in hospitals, make end-of-life decisions, and inherit each other's property. The partnerships do not guarantee any ability to share benefits, and same-sex couples still don’t have the right to adopt.

The registry was created in 2009 under Democratic Governor Jim Doyle.

Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative advocacy group that filed the court challenge, said it would not give up the fight.

"We will appeal this decision because this domestic partnership scheme is precisely the type of marriage imitation that the voters intended to prevent," said Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action.

Mark Pocan

State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), said he has long told people of his desire to run for Congress, and he may soon get that chance.

Baldwin, one of only four openly gay members of Congress, is rumored to be considering a run for the Senate seat currently held by Wisconsin’s senior Congressman Herb Kohl.

Last month, Kohl (D) announced he would not seek a fourth term in office in 2012.

Pocan says he has been asked about his interest in Baldwin’s seat by numerous organizations, including the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which provides financial and campaign support to gay and lesbian candidates across the country. Pocan, who is gay, says the D.C.-based group is “very enthusiastically” promoting his interest in Baldwin’s seat.

Pocan says he has spoken to Baldwin and that she is fine with his beginning to publicly discuss his interest in her seat should she run for Kohl’s seat.

If victorious in a Senate race, Baldwin would become the first ever openly gay U.S. Senator.

Watch this week's Marriage News Watch here:

Transcript to this episode is here.

Click here to subscribe to our new YouTube channel, and visit us over at MarriageNewsWatch.com to find our new Facebook page, our Twitter feed, our RSS feed, and our email newsletter.

Scott Walker

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has asked a judge to allow his state to stop defending a new domestic partner registry that grants gay couples hospital visitation and other rights, because he said it violates the state constitution.

Democrats who controlled the Legislature in 2009 changed the law so that same-sex couples could sign up for domestic partnership registries with county clerks to secure some -- but not all -- of the rights afforded married couples.

Wisconsin Family Action sued last year in Dane County circuit court, arguing that the registries violated a 2006 amendment to the state constitution that bans gay marriage and any arrangement that is substantially similar.

Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has also refused to defend the suit, and said he agreed the new law violated the state constitution.

Former Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat who proposed the registry, argued it was legal, and hired an outside attorney to defend the state.

Gay rights group Fair Wisconsin is a party to the case and will continue to defend the registry if the judge dismisses the state.

Delton D. Gorges, a school bus driver for 33 years, was sentenced on counts of sexual assault of a child, repeated sexual assault of a child and two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

"I think that if anyone believes that in the last 10 years or 15 years all of a sudden you developed an interest in homosexuality and young boys, then I must have looked ravishing in my prom dress this year,” said Judge Philip Kirk, dismissing Gorges' claim that he is heterosexual.

Critics said they were concerned about the judge’s comments linking homosexuality with pedophilia.

"Sometimes people don't say the right thing, but they potentially mean well, “said Andrew DeBaker, co-chair of the gay advocacy group New Pride. “The thing that concerns me is the linking homosexuality, linking being gay with, in this case, child molestation.”

Raymond Chase

Raymond Chase, a 19-year-old openly gay sophomore studying culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, committed suicide on Wednesday by hanging himself in his dorm room.

Details of the incident are scarce and unlike previous reports, it is not known at this time what the circumstances were leading up to Chase's death.

Johnson and Wales Vice President Ronald Martel emailed students with the news on Thursday:

Today I contact you with the deeply sad news of the passing of Raymond Chase, sophomore, 19, culinary arts major. The campus community is mourning the loss of this vibrant young man who leaves many JWU friends and teachers, and a loving family of Monticello, New York.

We have also learned of another gay teen whose death was sadly, but unintentionally, overlooked.

Cody Barker

In Shiocton, Wisconsin, Cody J. Barker, a 17-year-old openly gay teen, took his life on September 13.

Cody attended Shiocton High School, where he was active in choir. He recently attended a seminar aimed at helping him establish a gay/straight alliance at his school. Cody also enjoyed bicycling and gardening, and was a Lady Gaga fan.

Maria Peeples, Barker’s peer mentor through GSA for Safe Schools, said he was a passionate activist for all students, especially those, “targeted or ostracized for their sexual orientation or their gender identity and expression. … He really cared about making schools a safe place for students. That wasn’t always his own experience with school.” [Wisconsin Gazette]

Raymond and Cody mark the fifth and sixth known teen suicides in the month of September among openly gay, and perceived gay, teens in what has become an epidemic of gay suicides:

On September 9, Billy (William) Lucas, of Greensburg, IN, was was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home — he had hanged himself. While Billy never self-identified as gay, friends report he was tormented for years because other kids thought he was gay. Billy was 15 years old.

On September 19, Seth Walsh of of Tehachapi, CA, was found unconscious and not breathing after attempting to hang himself. Seth, age 13, spent the better part of 10 days on life support -- he died on September 28. Seth was openly gay and suffered years of relentless bullying.

On September 22, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, NJ, jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge, just days after his college roommate broadcast live images on the internet of him having a sexual encounter with another man.

On September 23, Asher Brown, age 13, came home from school and shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at his middle school in Houston, TX. Asher told his parents he was gay that morning.

On Thursday, the Human Rights Campaign issued a nationwide action alert asking Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to speak out immediately and to push every school in the nation to implement anti-bullying policies inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Our schools and our nation cannot sit back and wait for the next tragedy,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Tools and resources are available to protect our children and it is adults who must act to put strong laws, policies and procedures in place.”

According to Milwaukee Public Radio:

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Professor William McConkey filed suit in Dane County Circuit Court seeking to have the marriage amendment declared invalid because the amendment consisted of two questions that could have reached different results had they been asked separately: whether to ban gay marriage, and whether to ban civil unions.

Polling at the time reportedly showed much greater support for civil unions.

McConkey alleged the referendum’s wording that included the phrases gay marriage and civil unions violated the single subject rule set forth in the state constitution. He says he’s disappointed and angry with the high court’s ruling.

Justice Michael Gabelman says both sentences included in the amendment, “carry out the same general purpose of preserving the legal status of marriage in Wisconsin as between one man and one woman.”

From the Wisconsin Radio Network:

In 2006, voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage and civil unions. The measure passed by a wide margin, and University of Wisconsin political scientist Mordecai Lee says that could end up being a factor in Wednesday’s decision.

Lee says justices serve in an elected office, and he believes that could result in them giving a benefit of the doubt to voters.

The Constitutional Amendment is being challenged by a UW Oshkosh professor, who claims voters were asked to vote on what amounted to two questions. William McConkey argued the ballot measure was improperly before voters because it asked whether to ban gay marriage and any similar union.

If the State Supreme Court rules against the amendment, that's doesn't mean gay marriage is legal in Wisconsin because state law already defines marriage as a union between a husband and wife.

The court offered no explanation in an order issued Tuesday.

The law took effect in August, allowing gay couples to register with counties so they could get about 40 of the 150 rights afforded married couples, such as hospital visitation rights.

Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative group, filed a lawsuit in July claiming the registry violates the state constitution's ban on gay marriage and civil unions. The group asked the state Supreme Court to take it up directly without going through trial or appeals courts because of the issue's statewide significance.

The court decided Tuesday not to take the case, but did not say why, although it rarely takes cases filed directly to the court, allowing most cases to come to it from lower courts.

The group's attorneys, Richard Esenberg and Michael Dean, issued a statement saying they were disappointed but the they could now bring the suit at the trial court level.

More than 900 Wisconsin couples have signed up since it went into effect in August.

Currently, gay couples in Wisconsin can register for domestic partnerships rights, enacted through legislation that took effect August 3. Since then, about 1,000 couples have applied, according to gay rights advocacy group Fair Wisconsin. Now, those domestic partnerships are in jeopardy.

Family advocacy group Wisconsin Family Action has filed a lawsuit to overturn domestic partnerships, calling them unconstitutional. In 2006, the voters passed an amendment barring gay marriage or anything substantially similar to gay marriage.

Gay rights advocates Lambda Legal filed their own legal challenge on behalf of Fair Wisconsin on Tuesday. They argue the voters may have rejected gay marriage, but they did not reject gay rights.

Fair Wisconsin executive director Katie Belanger says the group is intervening "so that we can protect the interests of our members."

The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a motion before the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday on behalf of five same-sex couples asking that the couples be allowed to participate in the challenge that will determine the domestic partner law's future.

Anti-gay activists have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to strike down the domestic partner law as inconsistent with the marriage amendment.

Van Hollen believes the state's new domestic partnership law, which took effect August 3, is unconstitutional. It allows gay and lesbian partners dozens of the same legal protections as married spouses. To date, more than 400 couples have been added to the state registry.

The conservative Wisconsin Family Council asked the state Supreme Court last month to invalidate the law, saying it conflicted with a voter-approved 2006 constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and any "substantially similar" relationships. The Supreme Court has not yet decided if it will take up the case. If it does, the state would likely have to hire an outside attorney to defend the law.

Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat, responded, “The attorney general’s job is to represent the state and defend state law when there is a good-faith defense to be made. His representation should not be based on whether he likes the state law.”

Van Hollen is a registered Republican.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services cautions the numbers are incomplete because only 58 out of 72 counties responded to the department's request for numbers. Dane County had the most with 115 couples.

Applicants need to sign a document in front of a notary and file it with the register of deeds to become official. The registry gives same-sex couples dozens of the same benefits as married couples, such as hospital visitation, medical leave and inheritance rights.