~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=9092
In 4 cities, mixed grades on police relations with gays - Amnesty International recognizes departments' progress
NEW YORK (AP) | Sep 13, 1:07 AM
Amnesty International examined relations between police and gays in Chicago,New York, Los Angeles and San Antonio in a report last year. Each police department was credited with improving relations, but Amnesty saidsignificant problems persisted.
A look at the current situation in those cities:
.Chicago police have appointed liaison officers in precincts with large gay populations and introduced late-night bike patrols to reduce anti-gay assaults. Activists still fault police dealings with homeless gay youths,but they credit authorities with good intentions.
"Historically, the Chicago Police Department's reputation has been a rough,tough, discipline-only approach," said gay alderman Tom Tunney, whorepresents the Lakeview district. "Here, the community has been demanding,and getting, a much better response."
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Gay-Governor-Oprah.html?pagewanted=print
September 14, 2006
Former N.J. Gov. Tells Oprah of Affair
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:50 a.m. ET
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey revealed during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he was having an affair with another man while his wife was hospitalized for the birth of their child, according to audience members.
The nation's first openly gay governor told Winfrey he believed he was in love with the man, who would become a central figure in his downfall, said two audience members who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity. Winfrey asked them not to divulge the contents of the broadcast, which was taped in Chicago on Tuesday.
A dozen friends of McGreevey who attended had to sign confidentiality agreements for Regan Books, which is publishing McGreevey's political memoir. The hourlong program will be broadcast Sept. 19, the day McGreevey's much-anticipated ''The Confession,'' hits bookstores and he embarks on a national book tour.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/fashion/14gguide.html?pagewanted=print
September 14, 2006
Ivy Halls and Open Arms
THE Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students" recognizes 20 colleges and universities as "pioneering" lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders in higher education.
The list includes their "Gay Point Average," ranking campus policies, programs and practices, with 20 being the highest possible score.
20: University of Pennsylvania; University of Southern California
19: American University; Ohio State University; Princeton; Pennsylvania State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Oregon; University of Puget Sound
18: Duke; Indiana University; Oberlin College; Stanford; Tufts University; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Michigan
17: New York University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/fashion/14guide.html?pagewanted=print
September 14, 2006
Is This Campus Gay-Friendly?
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
THIS fall, stacked amid the hefty new college admissions books like "The Best 361 Colleges" and "Financial Aid for the Utterly Confused" is a guide about an entirely different sort of college acceptance.
"The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students" (Alyson Books) profiles 100 of the country's "best campuses" for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, and it arrives at a time when gay students are more vocal and visible.
"It's looking more like half or most gay and lesbian Americans are coming out before they get to college," said Bruce Steele, the guide's editor in chief. "Unlike in the past, the experience they will have on a campus is something they can think about before they go to college."
Among the top 20 colleges in the guide are the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. Lance Sun, 17, of Flushing, Queens, said he had purchased the glossy yellow guide as a supplementary resource to help him gauge how well he might fit in at various campuses.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/obituaries/14garner.html
Tyron Garner, 39, Plaintiff in Pivotal Sodomy Case, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: September 14, 2006
Tyron Garner, one of two plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case in 2003 that overruled a Texas sodomy law in the broadest possible terms, effectively making homosexual relations a basic civil right, died Monday in Houston. He was 39.
The cause was complications of meningitis, said his brother Darrell.
Mr. Garner and John G. Lawrence, were arrested between 10:30 and 11 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1998, and charged with violating the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law by a sheriff's deputy who said he had witnessed them in the act.
The men pleaded not guilty at their arraignment but later changed the pleas to no contest at the urging of lawyers eager to challenge the constitutionality of the law, not the factual basis of the arrests.
The men were represented throughout the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which defends gay men and lesbians.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/us/14brfs-006.html
September 14, 2006
Episcopal Bishops Fail to Find Agreement
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Conservative Episcopal bishops failed to win approval for their request to stay in the denomination without answering to its national leader, who supports gay relationships. The proposal was the subject of a private meeting in New York of 11 Episcopal bishops, organized at the request of the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury. In a statement, the bishops said they recognized the need to accommodate the seven dioceses that have rejected the authority of Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori. But they said they "were unable to come to common agreement on the way forward."
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/us/14brfs-007.html?pagewanted=print
September 14, 2006
Minister Charged Over Gay Wedding
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Presbyterian minister was charged on Tuesday with breaking church law for performing a marriage between two women. The minister, the Rev. Janet Edwards, of the Community of Reconciliation Church in Pittsburgh, is accused of presiding at a June 2005 wedding in violation of church standards. In March, another Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael, Calif., was the first in the denomination to be tried for officiating at same-sex marriages. Ms. Spahr was acquitted, but an appeal has been filed.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/us/14gay.html?pagewanted=print
September 14, 2006
Gay Groups Renew Drive Against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
MADISON, Wis. -The three young men who tried to enlist at an Army recruiting
station here appeared to be first-rate military material.
Two were college students, and the other was a college graduate. They had no criminal records. They were fit and eager to serve at a time when wars on two fronts have put a strain on American troops and the need for qualified recruits is great.
But the recruiter was forced to turn them away, for one reason: they are gay and unwilling to conceal it.
"Don't judge me because of my sexuality," said one of the three, Justin Hager, 20, a self- described Republican from a military family who has "a driving desire to join" the armed forces. "Judge me because of my character and drive."
As the Pentagon's search for soldiers grows more urgent, gay rights groups are making the biggest push in nearly a decade to win repeal of a compromise policy, encoded in a 1993 law and dubbed "don't ask, don't tell," that bars openly gay people from serving in the military.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36433.asp
The Advocate
Minnesota Republican wins, other gay candidates fail in Tuesday primaries
While Minnesota GOP state senator Paul Koering, who came out as gay since his last election, beat back a primary challenge from an antigay opponent, and same-sex marriage advocate Eliot Spitzer decisively won New York's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, other gay and gay-friendly candidates lost in their primary battles Tuesday. Sean Patrick Maloney, an openly gay New York lawyer vying to be that state's Democratic candidate for attorney general, was bested by political scion Andrew Cuomo. And fellow Democrats Anthony McCarthy and Mary Washington, who were trying to become the first black gay members of Maryland's house of delegates, were also defeated.
"I think I won because I continued to run a positive campaign," Koering said, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "In this race I had everything thrown at me that could possibly be thrown at me, and I still won." His opponent, city councilman Kevin Goedker, had said he asked voters to decide the race based on their values but said he was not opposing Koering because he's gay.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2006/09/12/4
Lawrence v. Texas plaintiff Tyrone Garner dies
published Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Tyrone Garner, one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Lawrence v. Texas ruling that struck down U.S. sodomy laws, died Monday, reported the legal advocacy group Lambda Legal, which argued the case.
Garner, then 31, and John Lawrence, then 55, challenged the homophobic laws after they were arrested in 1998 for having consensual sex in Lawrence's
Houston home.
The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Texas' "homosexual conduct" law, which criminalized gay sex, was unconstitutional.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Take Action: Keep Ryan White Focused on Care and Treatment
TELL CONGRESS: KEEP THE FOCUS OF RYAN WHITE ON AIDS CARE AND TREATMENT
Don't let Congress take away CDC prevention dollars to promote unnecessary and ineffective HIV testing policies through reauthorization
The latest draft of the Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization bill woulddivert $30 million in scarce CDC prevention resources towards ideologicallydriven testing initiatives and water down the legislation¹s traditionalfocus on care and treatment services. After years of budget cuts for HIVprevention, we can¹t afford this attack on funding for misguided testingstrategies.
TAKE ACTION: Call Congress and tell them to protect prevention funding andkeep it out of the Ryan White CARE Act!
Please contact us at rays.list@comcast.net for the full article.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Lube that kills HIV?
By Mike McManus
From The Advocate September 26, 2006
"Could you hand me the microbicide?" may not be the most erotic thing to sayduring sex, but with rates of HIV infection on the rise again it could saveyour life. Trumpeted in August at the XVI International AIDS Conference inToronto as a major new tool for prevention of HIV infection in women,microbicides that kill HIV could also be added to gels, lubricants, or creams to be applied during anal intercourse.
Jim Pickett, a leader in the International Rectal Microbicide Working Group,believes that making rectal microbicide products widely available couldradically change gay men's fight against HIV infection. "Gay men deservemore than one method of protection from sexual transmission of HIV,something beyond latex," Pickett says. "The development of a safe, effectiverectal microbicide would certainly reduce the amount of HIV infections amongus and must be one of our top priorities."
Please contact us at rays.list@comcast.net for the full article.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Daily Telegraph, Australia, September 14, 2006
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20410282-5001028,00.html
Uruguay to pass gay union law
From correspondents in Montevideo
URUGUAY'S Congress will pass a law to legalise gay and heterosexual civilunions, granting those couples the same rights as married ones, a rulingparty Senator said today.
The Senate already passed the Bill, and Senator Margarita Percovich toldReuters the lower house is expected to approve it easily given the governingleftist coalition's majority.
The legislation will allow gay and straight couples to form civil unionsafter living together for at least five years.
"With this initiative, we are recognizing rights that were unclear under thelaw and which judges did not know how to resolve," said Senator Percovich,one of the Bill's backers.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
UK: MSPs approve gay adoption but Church vows to fight on
Scotsman, UK, September 14, 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1356432006
MSPs approve gay adoption but Church vows to fight on LOUISE GRAY, SCOTTISH
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
CONTROVERSIAL plans to allow gay and unmarried couples to adopt children
were backed by MSPs yesterday.
The new legislation, which also provides more support services for adoptedchildren, passed its first hurdle at the Scottish Parliament by 103 votes toeight following a passionate debate.
However, Christian groups and a number of MSPs remained implacably opposedto adoption by gay couples, and said they will fight the moves.
Peter Peacock, the education minister, said it was time to update theadoption process for the first time in 30 years.
#####
