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Detroit News
October 9, 2006
Wedding dress opens doors for gay rights
By Deb Price
The Detroit News
W edding dresses aren't built for the kind of workout that Molly McKay puts them through.
The 36-year-old Californian wears a wedding dress an average of 50 days ayear -- on airplanes, in carpools, on the subway or in any other place shemight find herself. The delicate white gowns -- she's on her seventh -- needto be dry-cleaned so often that her cleaners give her a special discount,charging $25 instead of $75.
"People have a really positive response to a bride," says McKay, a lesbianlawyer. "I become my own visual aid," adds McKay, who keeps a wedding dressand bullhorn in her office and says she can "go from zero to bride in 60seconds."
On planes, for example, McKay says fellow passengers, taken aback at seeinga woman in a full bridal gown and veil, begin to console her because theyfear she has been jilted by an almost-husband.
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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/states/wisconsin/15699052.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Regents vote to oppose gay-marriage ban
Referendum on whether to amend state constitution will be on Nov. 7 ballots
BY RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
MADISON - University of Wisconsin System regents voted Friday to oppose theNov. 7 referendum banning gay marriage, saying it will hurt their ability torecruit and retain gay and lesbian employees.
Regents, who govern the UW System of 13 four-year universities and 13two-year colleges, said the amendment would threaten the state's ability toprovide domestic partner benefits.
A poll released Friday showed the amendment has enough support one monthbefore the election to pass.
The regents have long lobbied the Legislature to lift a ban on health andother benefits for partners of gay employees. Lawmakers turned down theirrequest last year, citing the cost and moral opposition to recognizing thoserelationships.
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http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=qw1160379541844B235
October 9, 2006
'Gay students more depressed than peers'
Gay university students in Taiwan are three times more likely to suffer from depression and think about suicide than their heterosexual peers, a study showed on Monday.
According to a survey of 2 600 university students commissioned by the education ministry, gay university students are nearly three times more likely to suffer from depression (12,9 per cent) compared with straight students (4,8 per cent).
When asked, "Have you had suicidal thoughts in the past week?" 24 per cent of gay students said yes compared with 8 per cent of heterosexual students.
The study found that despite Taiwan's growing acceptance of homosexuality, gay university students are still reluctant to reveal their sexual orientation to their parents.
While 81,8 per cent of gay students have told their friends that they are gay, 33 per cent have told their mothers and 22 per cent have told their fathers, the survey found.
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http://www.presstelegram.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=4463553&siteId=204
City Council may back same-sex marriage
L.B.: Three members sponsor symbolic resolution; full panel to consider approval Tuesday.
By Mira Jang, Staff writer
LONG BEACH - The City Council on Tuesday - a day before National Coming Out Day.
Sponsored by council members Bonnie Lowenthal, Suja Lowenthal and PatrickO'Donnell, the resolution calls for supporting "civil marriage licenses andany enactments which codify civil marriage equality for all couples residingin California who are citizens of the United States."
The resolution also urges state and federal elected officials to enact lawsto allow marriage for gay couples.
The proposed resolution comes on the heels of a state appeals court rulingthat upheld a ban on gay marriage. Advocates of gay rights say they willappeal that decision.
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http://www.startribune.com/462/story/727189.html
Last update: October 06, 2006 - 11:08 PM
Class discussion angers second-graders' parents
Parents want their kids out of a Interdistrict Downtown School class after a second-grade teacher talked about being gay and how people who are different are treated.
Dan Wascoe, Star Tribune
Diversity has diverse meanings, as an innovative school in downtown Minneapolis found out again Friday.
The Interdistrict Downtown School, which serves students from 10 Twin Cities-area districts, drew several parents and about a dozen supporters to protest a second-grade teacher's class discussion about the fact he is gay and related issues without first notifying parents. They also want the school to let their children switch to a different class. Principal Laura Bloomberg has turned down that request.
Dustups over school curriculums are not unknown in Minnesota. Last year, school board members and parents in Minnetonka debated a suggestion that the notion of intelligent design be included in science classes. The board turned it down.
School districts around the state use several curriculums that explain differences among families, including those with gay parents. Debra Davis, who conducts training sessions and gives speeches around the country on gender curriculum topics, said she has "not heard of anyone in Minnesota being upset" over them.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-10forum100oct10,0,1357952.story
COMING OUT
Closeted lives can exact much damage
By William ButteOctober 10, 2006
In time for Wednesday's National Coming Out Day, a new four-year study ofgay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth by clinical social workerCaitlin Ryan of San Francisco State University reveals the average age a teenager comes out is now 13.
With an array of books, magazines and Internet sites geared toward them,teen-favored TV programs like DeGrassi: The Next Generation featuring honestportrayals of gay teens, and Gay-Straight Alliances in nearly 1 in 10 highschools nationwide, wider acceptance has made it easier for today's GLBTyouth to come out.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pdonor10oct10,0,5703137.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Web site helps children conceived through sperm banks find their siblings
By Georgia East
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 10, 2006
For years, Mia Lentz wondered if her son, Brandon, was an only child.
The Fairfax, Va., sperm bank she used would not disclose that information,but a Web site did.
Two years after joining the Donor Sibling Registry, www.donorsiblingregistry.com, Lentz, a single mother who lives in BocaRaton, discovered her 10-year-old son had a 9-year-old half-sister inMaryland.
"In the beginning, you don't think about all of this. I never thought aboutsiblings at the time when I did this," Lentz said. "As they get older youstart to think, `What did I do?'"
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Kurdish objector defies Turkey's mighty army
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Turkish Daily News
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=55898
'A bomb exploded in the hands of a child in the village where I was working. You ask yourself: 'What the hell was that bomb doing there? Why do we havethis war?'' says Tarhan
SELÇUK GÖKOLUK
ISTANBUL - Reuters
Mehmet Tarhan knows a lot about the desperation and anger that led aTurkish draft dodger to hijack a plane this week hoping to avoid militaryservice.
Kurdish, a homosexual and described as a prisoner of conscience by AmnestyInternational, Tarhan is a determined activist whose refusal to serve in oneof the world's most powerful armies has cost him dearly.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
CA: Editorial--Same-sex marriage would provide equal rights
Santa Cruz Sentinel, CA, October 9, 2006
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/October/09/edit/stories/01edit.htm
As We See It: Same-sex marriage would provide equal rights.
A state appeals court last week upheld a ban on same-sex marriage, adecision that gay-marriage advocates immediately excoriated.
The court ruled that it's up to the Legislature, not the courts, to make thedecision whether same-sex couples can marry.
The issue of same-sex marriage is one of those that has not been discussedwith any sense of reason. Speaking as advocates of same-sex rights, we'reonly sorry that the issue is even in the courts at all.To an extent, the appeals court is right. The issue of same-sex marriageought to be considered at the legislative level.
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From Human Rights Watch, Oct. 9:'Netherlands, Sweden: Bar Deportations to Torture in Iran
Officials Must Not Return Gay and Lesbian Asylum Seekers to Iran
(Brussels, October 9, 2006) - As the Netherlands mulls resumingdeportations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender asylum seekers backto Iran, and Sweden begins such deportations again, both Europeangovernments must adhere to their international legal obligations not to sendpeople back to the risk of torture, Human Rights Watch said today.
In letters to Dutch and Swedish authorities, Human Rights Watch said thatstates cannot return people to countries where they face torture,9ill-treatment or death. "As the Ahmedinejad government cracks down ondissent, this is the wrong time for the European governments to beconsidering new expulsions of gay or lesbian asylum seekers to Iran," saidScott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual andTransgender Rights Program. "Penalties for homosexual conduct in Iran rangefrom torture to death. Returning people to the risk of torture would makethe Netherlands and Sweden complicit in their fate."
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