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Volume 126 Issue 78
Monday, February 17, 2014
kansan.com
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STATE
Bill passes House, concerns LGBT community
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, and the Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives discusses the bill at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, Senate President Susan Wagle said the bill goes beyond protecting religious freedom.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, left, a Lawrence Democrat, has upset some gay-right advocates who believe his opposition to a gay marriage bill has been lukewarm.
House Bill 2453 passed the Kansas House of Representatives on Feb.12 with a majority vote of 72-49.
The LGBT community, as well as other people in the state of Kansas, feel that the wording is too broad and may allow legalized discrimination.
President of the Senate Susan Wagle issued a statement on Feb. 13 saying that she doesn't believe the bill will pass the senate in its current form.
TOM DEHART news@kansan.com
House Bill 2453, a bill that would allow legal protection for individuals who may wish to deny a service to others based on their religious beliefs regarding marriage, passed the state House legislation on Feb. 12 and was referred to the state Senate judiciary committee on Feb. 13. The bill has caused a rise in concern from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in respect to what it means regarding same-sex marriage.
Despite its passing the House with a 72-49 vote, a number of people from Lawrence, the state of Kansas and other parts of the United States have spoken out against the bill. A Facebook page opposing the bill has obtained over 50,000 supporters since it was created on Feb.11. The President of the state Senate, Susan Wagle, also released a statement regarding its unlikely of passing the state Senate.
The issue for many people, such as the LGBT community, is the concern that this bill would legalize discrimination against citizens who identify as a sexual or gender minority.
"They will say this is only about marriage, but the way that the bill is worded was so broad that it could be anywhere from the caterer doesn't want to do this, to now the police don't want anything to do with me," said Christine Noriega, a sophomore from Union City, N.J., who serves as the director of educational outreach for the University's Queers and Allies, and who also identifies as a lesbian
The bill has been perceived by opponents as a legislative safeguard against a possible future overturn of the same-sex
marriage ban in Kansas. Clay Barker, the executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said in an email that he believes the motivation for the bill was two lawsuits that took place in New Mexico and Oregon, in which a photographer and a baker refused to provide services to a same-sex couple.
Rep. Emily Perry, D-Mission, said she thinks that the act is only discriminatory.
"Personally, it is the way the bill is worded. It's pretty vague and to me it is very broad," Perry said. "I think the proponents are arguing that it preserves their religious beliefs in that they don't have to participate in same-sex marriages. However, under current law they don't have to participate in same-sex marriages. We passed the religious freedom bill last session and sexual orientation is not a protected class under the anti-discrimination laws in Kansas."
Rep. Charles Macheers, R-Shawnee, stated his stance on the bill in a statement released online and said the bill does not allow discrimination based on any person's sexual orientation or identity, and grants rights that are already in effect because of Title VII of the federal civil rights act.
"The bill is tightly drafted to advance a simple principle that should unite all of us as Kansans." Macheers then stated the principle of the bill: "The state should never force anyone to perform an action he or she believes to be wrong as a matter of sincerely held religious belief, unless it has good reason, not merely to have the action performed, but to insist that even those who find it wrong perform it."
SEE BILL PAGE 3
CAMPUS
Funding cuts hinder University research
MCKENNA HARFORD
news@kansan.com
Due to an $11.5 million decline in federal funding, officials are worried for the longterm future of federally funded research at the University of Kansas. The trend of decline, partially due to the government sequester, threatens research because federal funds account for 86.6 percent of the University's total research funds.
Steve Warren, president of the KU Center for Research, believes that the cuts will affect students as well as faculty.
"I fear that we will have less students coming into the sciences and research areas, which will hurt our success as a society in the long run,"Warren said.
Legislation that restores the majority of the cuts made in the sequester only focuses on the short-term, which means that the source of future funding is unclear.
"The fact that the money is decreasing is in some ways
surprising because research funding has historically been something that both Republicans and Democrats have supported," Warren said. "It's kind of gotten caught up in the politics that we all experience now days."
a $3 million increase in the appropriation of federal research funds, there seems to be fewer government funds devoted to university research. This means that faculty must be more competitive to get the funds needed for their research projects.
Kevin Boatright, director of Communications for Research
"I fear that we will have less students coming into the sciences and research areas, which will hurt our success as a society in the long run."
"When you're in a field or
STEVE WARREN KU Center for Research president
STEVE WARREN
and Graduate Studies, said that while the legislation is a welcome starting point, more needs to be done to correct the consequences of the sequester.
"The reality is if you look at what the federal government has been doing in funding for research it was already starting to decline before the sequester, so the sequester has just added to that," Boatrigh said.
Although there has been
in an industry where there, is in essence, declining support, it means that first of all really good, important things in the case of research don't happen." Warren said. "Some research is still happening, but there's less of it."
In order to battle the decline, the University works to make funds a top priority for legislators by showing the impact the research can have.
"We work to make ourselves more efficient and more effective so that we can operate better with less money," Warren said.
Beyond educating legislators, the University deals with the decline by learning how to adjust.
Because research universities conduct the majority of basic research, it is important that the government continue funding it to keep the country competitive.
"I have the concern about in a highly competitive world, where the U.S. has usually been the leader in breakthrough research, that if we are supporting it less then we can lose the position that we've
"There are several arguments we try to make. One is just that this kind of investment helps people, but it also has an effect on the economy that is positive and it helps make us more competitive with other countries." Boatright said.
CRYPTOQUIPS 5
OPINION 4
SEE FUNDS PAGE 3
SPORTS 14
SUDOKU 5
CLASSIFIEDS 13
CROSSWORD 5
BREAKDOWN OF RESEARCH FUNDING IN 2012
Don't Forget
BUSINESS
$8,432,075
3 percent
Index
NONPROFIT
FEDERAL
$223,446,767
81 percent
NONPROFIT
$34,820,277
13 percent (12.6)
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
$7,888,894
3 percent (2.8)
OTHER
$566,542
0.02 percent
TOTAL:
$275,154,555
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2014 The University Daily Kansan
To watch Jimmy Fallon host "The Tonight Show."
- 2012 KU research annual report, sponsored research
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