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http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=8426
Transgender politician quietly makes waves in central Missouri
She's one of two openly transgender officeholders in country
CENTRALIA, Mo. (AP) | Jul 28, 1:08 PM
Politicians looking to launch high-profile careers awash in the cable newsklieg lights and the Sunday network gabfests should avoid this town's Boardof Aldermen.
Jessica Orsini didn't give up when she lost a 2004 election to a write-incandidate. Last April she was elected to the Centralia Board of Aldermanwithout opposition. (Photo by AP)
Around here, the agenda is more likely to involve street closings, stopsigns or a stern warning to go easy on the City Hall copier.The nuts and bolts of small-town government are hardly the stuff of headlines - which is exactly what Jessica Orsini prefers.
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http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=2912
Rev. Dozier speaks out on gays, Islam
Preacher who called Koran 'evil' has also been leader in anti-gay marriage
effort
By PHIL LAPADULA
Jul. 29, 2006
Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in PompanoBeach, made national headlines recently when he publicly opposed therelocation of a mosque in his neighborhood. On a local radio show, Dozierdescribed Islam as a "cult" and a "dangerous religion" and the Koran as
"evil."
The comments led to Dozier's removal from a state panel that recommendsjudicialappointments. Gov. Jeb Bush had appointed Dozier to the panel, andhis office sought to distance itself from the preacher after his anti-Muslim remarks.
But the mainstream coverage of Dozier paid little attention to the key rolehe has played in efforts to pass an anti-gay marriage amendment in Florida.
When the group www.Florida4Marriage.org launched its anti-gay marriagepetition drive in
February 2005, he spoke at a news conference in Orlandosupporting the effort to ban gay
marriage, as a bride and groom stood behind him as props.
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http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=2906
Express Gay News
Medical Report
Gates Foundation gives $287 million for AIDS vaccine research
Jul. 29, 2006
SEATTLE (AP) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced July 19 it'sawarding $287 million in grants over five years to create an internationalnetwork of scientists to speed up the development of an AIDS vaccine. Thecollaboration is critical to making HIV vaccine development more efficient,said the Gates Foundation's Dr. Nicholas Hellmann. "Unfortunately,
developing an effective HIV vaccine has proven to be tremendously difficult,and despite the committed efforts of many researchers around the world,progress simply has not been fast enough." Hellmann acknowledged that aneffective vaccine may still be 10 years away.
Each of 165 investigators in 19 countries to receive money agreed to sharefindings in real time and compare results - even if projects had beencompetitive in the past. Mitchell Warren, of the AIDS Vaccine AdvocacyCoalition, complimented the Gates Foundation on the approach but warnedagainst assuming the money is enough.
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Latvian president defends gays and lesbians
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=1775
Riga, July 28, Interfax - Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga has comeout in defense of sex minorities and called her fellow-citizens to showtolerance towards gays as one of the most important European values.
In an interview to the Austrian Die Presse published in part by the LativanChas on Friday, Vike-Freiberga said that at the time planned for a gayparade that never took place in Riga there were actions staged by somereligious circles and 'one Russian sect' who 'believe the non-traditionalorientation to be a sin and protest against advertising such way of life and relations'.
'I reminded our fellow-citizens that according to the Latvian Constitution,church is separated from state. The freedom of religion is certainlyimportant but it remains a private affair of each person', the Latvian president noted.
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http://mediamatters.org/items/200607280001
Above is a link to the clip of Hardball for those who could not open or find it.
Everyone should write to MSNBC about this.
On MSNBC, Coulter called Gore a "total fag," while Matthews said "we'd love
to have her back"
Summary: Chris Matthews asked pundit Ann Coulter, "How do you know that Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But Al Gore -- total fag." In concluding the interview, Matthews said of Coulter, "We'd love to have her back."
On the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, "How do you know that [former President] Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But [former
Vice President] Al Gore -- total fag." She went on to defend her theory about Clinton's sexuality by stating that "everyone has always known, widely promiscuous heterosexual men have, as I say, a whiff of the bathhouse about them." Coulter claimed she was "just kidding" about Gore, but said of her theory about Clinton, "It's not only not a joke, it's not even surprising."
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Lesbian marriage - Judge decides Monday
High Court to rule on validity of same-sex marriage
British lesbians married in Canada want legal recognition in the UK
High Court, London, Monday 31 July 2006, 9.30am
London - 28 July 2006
The High Court in London will rule this Monday (31 July) whether aBritish lesbian couple lawfully married in Canada should have theirmarriage recognised in the UK.
"This case is a historic challenge to the UK's non-recognition ofsame-sex marriage. If Wilkinson and Kitzinger win in the High Court,it will pave the way for further legal action to strike down the banon lesbian and gay marriages in Britain," said Peter Tatchell of thegay human rights group OutRage!, which has backed the couple's testcase from the outset.
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UK - Gay men earn less and are more likely to be jobless, survey shows
Angela Balakrishnan and Elizabeth Bauer
Friday July 28, 2006
The Guardian
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1831989,00.html
Gay men face considerably lower wages than their heterosexual colleagues andare less likely to be in work, despite the introduction of a law to preventdiscrimination against sexual orientation in the workplace more than two anda half years ago, a report says today.
Men in same-sex relationships were paid 6% less than their heterosexualcounterparts and were 3% less likely to be employed, according to an articlein the Centre for Economic Performance's CentrePiece magazine.
However, lesbian women in couples were paid about 11% more than heterosexualequivalents and were 12% more likely to be in work, partly down to childcare commitments heterosexual women might have, the report said.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/27/national/main596268.shtml
Utah Polygamy Ban Challenged
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 27, 2004
(AP) When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas' law against sodomy lastyear, at least one justice foresaw the likes of Brian Barnard.
Justice Antonin Scalia warned that the ruling would unleash a wave ofchallenges to state laws against "bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest,prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, andobscenity."
Sure enough, Barnard, a civil rights attorney, has brought a lawsuitchallenging Utah's ban on polygamy. And some legal experts say the casecould have a fighting chance because of the Supreme Court's gay-sex ruling.
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Lithuania: Klaipeda authorities ban gay parade planned to coincide with the
city's anniversary
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=1773
Vilnius, July 28, Interfax/BNS - Klaipeda mayor refused to issue permissionfor a march of sex minorities through the city during the celebrations tomark another anniversary of this port city.
Klaipeda is to celebrate its 754th anniversary on August 1. To mark thisoccasion,representatives of sex minorities requested Mayor RimantasTaraskevicius to permit a march of sex minorities through the city.
The initiators of the march, members of the League for Equal Opportunities,suggested that their event would underscore the historical and culturalidentity of the city and foster the public spirit of the Klaipeda people.
The mayor's office however, having considered the request, refused to issuea permission, Jolanta Braukyliene, press secretary of the Klaipedaself-government, informed the BNS agency. She said the mayor's officerefused the permission because of the failure of the request to indicate theaim of the march, its time and venue, its route and number of participants.
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CZ Republic: First 49 same-sex couples register as partners
Prauge Daily Monitor
http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?story_id=w37619i20060728;story=First-49-same-sex-couples-register-as-partners
Prague, July 27 (CTK) - The first 49 same-sex couples had their partnershipsofficially recognized in July, the first month after the law on registeredpartnerships took effect in the Czech Republic, the daily Pravo reportedThursday.
"I´m surprised by this number, which seems high to me, since one week beforeJuly 1 the registry offices had not yet had enough information on how toproceed," Gay and Lesbian League spokesman Martin Strachon told the paper.
Men prevailed among the first same-sex couples. Nine couples were registeredin Prague, and eight in Ostrava, north Moravia, and Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia.
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ACLU and Lambda Legal Urge Federal Appeals Court to Reconsider Ruling
Upholding Nebraska's Extreme Anti-Gay Family Law (7/28/2006)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
July 28, 2006
ST LOUIS - The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal today asked afederal appeals court to reconsider its July 14th ruling upholding anextreme Nebraska law that bans all protections for same- sex couples.
"The federal appeals court panel that decided this case just ignored theU.S. Supreme Court, which has ruled that states can't pass laws just todiscriminate against gay people," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU'sLesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project. "We are hopeful that the courtwill recognize this decision simply can't be squared with Constitutional guarantees of equality."
The motion for rehearing comes after a three-member panel of the FederalCourt of Appeals for the 8th Circuit reversed a district court rulingstriking down Nebraska's extreme anti-gay family law.
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http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_530/debatingiran.html
Volume 5, Number 30 | July 27 - August 2, 2006
PERSPECTIVE/ INTERNATIONAL
Debating Iran
BY SCOTT LONG
Is there a battle over Iran? In Washington and London, yes. Nations with immense military machines at their disposal argue the merits of peace and war.
So why do the differences of a few lesbian and gay activists in New Yorkmatter? Because lesbian and gay Iranians are not abstractions, shelteredfrom politics-or missiles. Their lives should not be reduced to the agendasof well-meaning strangers in the West.
For eight months, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has researched a report on abusesbased on sexual orientation and gender identity in Iran, interviewing dozensin Iran and the diaspora, trying to separate fact from rhetoric and rumor.As a prominent Iranian dissident said last week, "We need cases!"-documentation, not speculation.
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Gay for Boycott on Waffle House
No waffling on Reed (Gay)
Anti-gay leader's bid aided by Waffle House
By ZACK HUDSON
Friday, July 28, 2006
http://www.washblade.com/2006/7-28/view/actionalert/alert.cfm
A GEORGIA STATE SENATOR who wanted to help his friend Ralph Reed win the GOP lieutenant governor primary this month may have put the embattled politicianin more hot water with ethics investigators.
Georgia state Sen. Dan Balfour (R-Snellville), is also a vice president ofWaffle House Inc., and in that capacity he sent a July 7 internal companymemo to nearly 400 Waffle House locations in the state instructingrestaurant employees to display a Ralph Reed campaign sign. The memo barscampaign displays from any other candidate in any other political race.
"Waffle House Inc. has given Ralph Reed permission to put a yard sign atevery Waffle House in the state of Georgia," Balfour wrote.
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Mending court fences
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?
StoryID=20060727-083005-6075r
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Published July 28, 2006
Rep. John Hostettler, Indiana Republican, is a mechanical engineer, who made it his mission to serve among the lawyers on the House Judiciary Committee. Before he came to Congress, he worked on maximizing the efficiency of coal-burning power plants.
But listening to Dr. D. James Kennedy's radio show on his homewardcommute inspired him to start studying the facts behind constitutionalcontroversies. He soon discovered our national charter was itself anexquisite mechanism, calibrated by its Framers to maintain a working balancebetween the branches of government.
Unfortunately, some of its parts had grown rusty from lack of use, allowingfederal courts to usurp authority from Congress and the states. Mr. Hostettler ran for Congress in 1994, intending to do somethingabout that. He was elected. Eventually, he secured a seat on the Judiciary Committee.
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Boston mayor joins ad campaign for same-sex marriage
The Advocate
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid34723.asp
July 28, 2006
Boston's mayor, Democrat Thomas Menino, is joining a growing cadre ofinfluential leaders taking part in an advertising campaign promotingsame-sex marriage.
The campaign, which will run in 50 newspapers across the country, isspearheaded by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gay and LesbianAlliance Against Defamation, and the Freedom to Marry group.The campaign will feature five pictures of committed gay couples.
Menino's participation includes an endorsement and recognition of thecampaign. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco mayorGavin Newsom are also lending their names to the campaign, as are sixadditional mayors and 11 religious leaders.
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Opposition Research: Bauer State Marriage Victories No Guarantee the Battle Is Won
2006-07-27 -- WDC Media
(via AgapePress) - New York ... Nebraska ... Georgia ...
Connecticut ... and now Washington. Defenders of traditional marriage havecelebrated several court victories of late as state courts have ruled thatexisting statutes -- enacted via legislation or voter initiative -- areconstitutional. Marriage traditionalists, however, are cautioning that the
battle to preserve marriage is not over.
A homosexual lawmaker from Seattle told Associated Press there were "a lotof tears and anger" in the homosexual community after the Washington stateSupreme Court upheld that state's Defense of Marriage Act this week. Ed Murray says he could not describe "how hurt people in the gay and lesbiancommunity are." But Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington said his group
is not giving up the fight.
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http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=8433
S.C. Episcopal bishop who opposed gay clergy retiring
Another conservative will replace him
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) | Jul 28, 6:56 PM
Bishop Edward L. Salmon Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, avocal opponent of ordination of gay clergy, is retiring and three clergymenhave been nominated to replace him, the church said Friday.
Salmon, who turns 72 in January, was elected bishop in 1989. The diocese iscomprised of 75 parishes in the lower and eastern part of South Carolina.
Last month, the diocese and two others opposing consecrating gay bishopsvoted to reject the authority of the national church's presiding bishop, butstopped short of a full break with the church.
