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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060918/OPINION03/609180305&SearchID=73257240590213
September 18, 2006
By Deb Price
The Detroit News
Gays should exploit new voter openness
W ould you be willing to vote for a gay candidate for state legislature?
If you answered "yes," you share something important with mostAfrican-Americans, Hispanics, men, women, residents of Bush-won "red"states, young adults, seniors, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, high schoolgraduates, married folks, parents of children younger than 18, Wal-Mart shoppers, those with close ties to the military and NASCAR fans.
And that's just the start of the many kinds of Americans who agree with you.
In fact, if you'd "definitely" or "probably" vote against the candidate whomost shares your views if that candidate were gay, you're in sync with amajority of only two demographic groups: 57 percent of Americans lacking ahigh school diploma and 55 percent of people who label themselves "very conservative," according to a Zogby America poll.
Born-again Christians are closely divided, with 49 percent definitely or probably willing to vote for a gay candidate who shares their outlook and 46definitely or probably unwilling.
As we move into the general election season, the poll offers a fascinatingsnapshot of American voters: Just 15 percent -- fewer than one in six -- "definitely" rule out voting for gay candidates.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa, September 17, 2006
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=284218&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
Gays and lesbians now 'separate but equal'
Pierre de Vos
One of the most popular, and ridiculous, arguments put forward to justifyapartheid, was that it provided "for separate but equal"opportunities and was therefore fair and just.
We know, of course, that this was never the case. Not only wereopportunities and amenities unequal, but the policy was based on theassumption that black people were "inferior", "impure" or "dirty" and thatsegregation was necessary to "protect" whites from being "contaminated" bythem.
So it is sad and surprising that an ANC Cabinet has approved legislativeproposals providing for "civil unions" between same-sex partners thatreplicate this bankrupt logic. The Civil Unions Bill purports to give effectto a decision by the Constitutional Court ordering an extension of marriageto same-sex couples; in effect it denies them that right.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Daily Nation, Kenya, September 18, 2006
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=39&newsid=81620
Can one inherit in same sex marriage?
Under Kikuyu customary law, where a husband dies leaving a childless widow,who is past child-bearing age, the widow may marry a wife. The widow paysruracio (dowry) to the family of the woman selected, and arranges for a manfrom the deceased husband's age-set to be with her.The resulting children are regarded as those of the widow's husband.In the estate of Priscilla Nduta Gitwande [2006] eKLR ( www.kenyalaw.org ), High Court at Nairobi (Lady Justice K.H Rawal), May 30, 2006.
Priscilla Gitwande, a woman of Kikuyu ancestry, died on April 20, 1994. TheKikuyu give tacit recognition to the social arrangement of woman-to-womanmarriage.
In his 1969 book, Restatement of African Law, Eugene Cotran, then a memberof a Presidential commission on customary law and a respected legal scholar,attempted to explain this kind of marriage:
"Where a husband dies leaving a childless widow, who is past child-bearingage, the widow may marry a wife. The widow pays ruracio(dowry) to the family of the woman selected, and arranges for a man from thedeceased husband's age-set to have ... her. Children resulting from such[union] are regarded as those of the deceased husband."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700405_pf.html
Race, Class and Sex Breed Contempt in Greenwich Village
A Neighborhood Grown Older and Wealthier Is Tired of Today's Rowdies
By Michelle García
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 18, 2006; A03
NEW YORK -- A pair of shapely legs in low-slung jeans strut throughGreenwich Village, sequined rainbows stitched onto the back pockets jigglingfrom side to side. A lanky teenage girl with red-dyed braids, wearing baggyred basketball shorts, gazes at the rainbows and yells, "I like your jeans."
The rainbow-wearing girl yells back: "I like you ."
The girls trade flirtatious smiles and rejoin the nightly parade alongChristopher Street, past Village Pleasure with its inventory of gay erotictoys, past a church, and a gay bar with an older black and Latino clientele,and another frequented by white gays. Just beyond is Badlands, once anotorious leather bar and now a triple-X video shop.
They stroll toward the Hudson River and the action on Pier 45, where the gayteenage crowd practices vogue moves (runway poses immortalized by Madonna),flirt and gossip. But at 1 a.m., when the pier shuts down, the crowd thatlooks and oozes fabulous chic strolls back up Christopher Street. Theirscreaming and music drives the locals nuts.
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