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http://expressgaynews.com/2006/10-13/view/editorial/editorial.cfm
The Express Gay News
Gay Republicans in the hot seat
Closeted members of the GOP are making national news these days, reminding us all of the importance of coming out.
Friday, October 13, 2006
WITH THE MAINSTREAM media engaged in wall-to-wall Mark Foley scandal coverage for a solid week, attention turned awkwardly (and predictably) to the subject of gay Republicans.
Who are these people? How can they work for a party that demonizes them? Is D.C. controlled by a Velvet Mafia? And, most importantly, what about "The List," a compendium of closeted Republicans that is rumored to be circulating on the Hill?
The salacious story of "The List" emerges every year or two, usually before an election, to vex the Hill's closet cases. The ironic twist this time around concerns the strange bedfellows seeking to out those closeted Republicans.
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http://expressgaynews.com/2006/10-13/view/actionalert/actionalert.cfm
Foley blame game
Watchdog group accuses media outlets of bias in coverage
By ERIC ERVIN
Friday, October 13, 2006
A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA WATCHDOG group is alleging conservative news organizations are spinning the congressional page instant message scandal surrounding gay former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley to direct blame away from the GOP congressman and the Republican Party.
"The blame game is in full swing," said David Brock, Media Matters for America president and CEO, in a prepared statement. "Conservatives in the media are going out of their way to place blame on every boogie man they can think of.
Foley resigned his post Sept. 29 after ABC News reported he exchanged sexually explicit instant messages with an underage male congressional page.
MEDIA MATTERS SAID THE MOST glaring reports that lay blame on others come from TV and radio talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin, who have all claimed that Democrats somehow orchestrated the scandal.
The group points to the Fox News show "Hannity and Colmes" in which Hannity repeatedly questions the proximity of ABC's release of Foley's instant messages to midterm elections, suggesting that Democrats held on to the information before releasing it as a strategy to gain more seats in Congress.
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http://expressgaynews.com/2006/10-13/news/national/pundits.cfm
Express Gay News
Activists denounce 'scapegoating' of gays in Foley scandal
But attempts to links gays with pedophilia are not helping Republicans, experts say
By PHIL LAPADULA
Friday, October 13, 2006
As the "Foley fallout" continued to descend on the mid-term elections this week, several national gay activists voiced concerns that some of the toxic political dust from the sex scandal could land on the gay community.
Gay activists of both political parties denounced anti-gay conservatives whom they said were trying to shift the blame for the Congressional page scandal from former Congressman Mark Foley and the House Republican leadership's alleged cover-up, to homosexuality itself.
Foley resigned Sept. 29 after sexually explicit e-mails that he sent to underage male pages surfaced in the media.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, described the response to the Foley scandal as "shockingly homophobic." He objected to what he characterized as anti-gay remarks about the scandal by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan and the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins.
"The GOP leadership and their supporters trying to deflect blame by making gay people scapegoats," Foreman said. "The media coverage has been not only salacious but completely unbalanced."
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http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid37517.asp
The Advocate
October 13, 2006
Constitutional bans on same-sex marriage may fail at the ballot for first time
Support for same-sex marriage bans is weak in three of the eight states that will vote on them this November, and in one-Colorado-a competing measure to establish domestic partnerships for same-sex couples is currently backed by a majority of voters. The growing sense that key victories will be had this Election Day is in stark contrast to 2004, when constitutional bans on same-sex marriage were approved in 13 states, USA Today reports.
"It could be a watershed year," Carrie Evans, state legislative director at the Human Rights Campaign, told the paper. Indeed, defeat of even one of the proposed marriage bans would be a major triumph, since all 19 state measures that have been voted on to date were overwhelmingly approved, with support averaging 70 percent.
This year, however, opposition to such a measure in Arizona is currently at 51 percent, with only 38 percent of voters supporting it, according to a recent poll, while the proposed marriage ban in South Dakota is opposed by 49 percent of voters, with 41 percent in support. In Colorado, which has ballot measures both to ban same-sex marriage and to create domestic partnerships, a recent poll showed that only 52 percent of voters are in favor of the former, but that 58 percent favored the latter.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_health16oct12,0,5194958.story
New HIV Infections in Australia Surge
By MERAIAH FOLEY
Associated Press Writer
October 12, 2006, 7:30 PM EDT
SYDNEY, Australia -- New HIV cases in Australia surged more than 40 percentfrom 2000 to 2005, according to study results released Thursday, promptingfears that drug treatment advances are making people lax about practicingsafe sex.
The annual survey report, issued by the National Center in HIV Epidemiologyand Clinical Research, found that new HIV infections reported in Australiarose from 656 in 2000 to 930 in 2005 -- a 41 percent leap. HIV is the virusthat causes AIDS.
Gay men accounted for about 70 percent of the new cases. Heterosexuals madeup 19 percent, while intravenous drug users and unknown transmission pathsaccounted for the rest.
According to the report, new infections hit an all-time high of about 1,700in 1984, then declined steadily through the late 1990s. But in 2000, thetrend apparently reversed.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
SAN FRANCISCO
Anchor's comments anger gays, lesbians
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/12/
BAG61LNN5V1.DTL&type=gaylesbian
San Francisco public officials and leaders of the gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender community are demanding that a prominent radio host andtelevision news anchor apologize for comments he made on the air aboutnontraditional families.
Pete Wilson, the anchor of ABC's local evening news and host of a radio showon KGO 810 AM, criticized Supervisor Bevan Dufty and his friend RebeccaGoldfader, who are sharing a home and co-parenting a newborn, during a radiobroadcast Tuesday.
Their daughter, Sidney, was born last week. Wilson, who said he supportssame-sex marriage and lesbian and gay couples raising children, referred toher as an "experiment" because they're not in a romantic relationship.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Opponent Outs Florida GOP Governor Candidate
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
October 12, 2006 - 7:00 pm ET
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101206crist.htm
365Gay.Com
(Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has beenthe subject of speculation for several years but on Wednesday a politicalopponent used National Coming Out Day to say he's known for years that Cristis gay.
Appearing on WFTL, a South Florida news-talk station, independentgubernatorial candidate Max Linn said it is common knowledge in Tallahassee that Crist is gay.
And, Linn said it is time Crist acknowledged it.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/10/11/notes101106.DTL
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 (SF Gate)
Gay Republicans? All My Fault/I caused it. I did it. Foley, sex, pedophiles and the implosion of the GOP. And I apologize
By Mark Morford, SF Gate
Columnist
I secretly hoped for it. I secretly prayed for it. Actually, it wasn't asecret at all. I was shouting it from the cosmic rooftops, extolling itsvirtues to anyone who would listen, tossing shiny pennies of burning hopeinto karmic wishing wells. Couldn't help it, really.
And I'm here to say: I'm sorry for it.
See, for years, I've wanted in my heart of hearts for some sort of nastyand riotous and well-deserved scandal to rock the GOP, to shake it to itshomophobic hypocritical core and reveal these jackals and warmongers andabusers of women's rights and gay rights and human rights as what theyreally are, to have their glistening masks of sweat and wax and false pietypeeled away to expose the rashy psoriatic snakeskin underneath.
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The current issue of The Express Gay News is online
http://expressgaynews.com/
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201587_pf.html
To Curb the Trend, Magic Tells His Story
'In Real Life, I'm Not Supposed to Be Here'
By Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; B03
On the basketball court, he was Magic, dribbling past defenders, dishing no-look passes and tossing in three-pointers from beyond the arc.
But yesterday Earvin Johnson Jr. came to the District as a man living with a disease and a mission, testifying before audiences hushed by the power of his grim yet uplifting tale. At a high school and a Baptist church, Johnson recounted how his charmed basketball career ended abruptly in 1991 after a routine blood test revealed that he has HIV.
He quit basketball and was shunned by players who feared they could contract the virus simply by touching him. He stopped counting those who predicted that he would be dead in a year. Not a day goes by when he does not think about how sleeping around changed his life. Johnson said his fame made him the "face of the disease," a mantle that he has embraced and run with."I'm here so that what happened to me will not happen to you," he told an audience of feisty high schoolers, some giving his words rapt attention. "I had your same mindset, your same mentality. But HIV is running through our community in a big way. And sex among teenagers is up."
Johnson's visit to Washington is part of a 10-city tour focused on HIV/AIDS among African Americans, and it comes amid a District campaign urging residents ages 14 to 84 to get tested. In the first three months of the campaign, nearly 3 percent of the more than 7,000 people tested positive -- more than double the national rate.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201576_pf.html
The Abstinence Shtick, Minus Jesus
Assembly Attended by 1,000 Students Watched Warily by ACLU
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; B01
Christian comedian Keith Deltano did a lot of things at Loudoun County High School yesterday to encourage teenagers to stay away from sex. He sang bad hip-hop, told stories about oozing diapers, read from a government report on how condoms can fail and waved a cinder block over one unfortunate male student's genital zone.
But he never once talked about Jesus. Although he often delivers one-liners tailored to his faith, Deltano gave a routine expunged of religion to more than 1,000 students at the public high school in Leesburg.
Some civil liberties advocates, skeptical of such shows, said school officials must enforce a line that is tested by religious performers who are invited into public schools to entertain and educate but not preach.
"Having so-called secular performances or speeches in public schools by Christian evangelists" is a growing trend, said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Schools need to be extremely careful when they tread into these waters."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13fri4.html?pagewanted=print
October 13, 2006
Editorial
AIDS Tests, Everywhere
At the beginning of 2004, AIDS treatment in Botswana - a country with theworld's second- highest rate of H.I.V. cases - was stagnating. The countrywas providing free antiretrovirals, but only one in 10 who needed the drugswas taking them.
Then Botswana made a simple change in the rules for AIDS testing thatallowed the program to soar. Previously, Botswanans could get tested onlyafter providing written consent and accepting extensive counseling. Now,unless they object, all patients entering a clinic or hospital are routinelygiven an AIDS test. The rate of testing has quadrupled. A third ofBotswanans now know their H.I.V. status, and 85 percent of those who needtreatment get it.
The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended latelast month that such routine AIDS testing - called opt-out - become thestandard in the United States. This is an important reform. It is even morecrucial for poor countries, where 90 percent of those infected do not knowit.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101206animals.htm
'Gay Animals' Exhibit Angers Conservative Christians
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
October 12, 2006 - 1:00 pm ET
(Oslo) Oslo's internationally acclaimed Natural History Museum is beingassailed by Norwegian church groups over an exhibit called "Against Nature"which shows same-sex animal pairs.
The exhibit documents homosexuality among penguins, parrots, giraffes,whales and other animals and insects. A translation fromNorwegian into English of a statement at the exhibit says "We may have opinions on a lot of things, but one thing is clear - homosexuality is found throughout the animal kingdom, it is not against nature."
The exhibit opened Thursday features a photograph that attractedconsiderable attention of two sexually aroused whales rubbing together.
Another shows two male giraffe's engaged in sex.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101206arizona.htm
Police, Fire Unions Join Fight Against Arizona Anti-Gay Amendment
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
October 12, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Tempe, Arizona) The Tempe Firefighters Association and the Tempe OfficersAssociation Thursday announced their opposition to Prop. 107, a proposedamendment to the Arizona constitution that would ban gay marriage, civilunions and void domestic partner benefits for both gay and non-gay unmarriedcouples.
"Our organization is opposed to Prop. 107 because it puts our candidate poolfor future firefighters at risk," said Rich Woerth, president of the TempeFirefighters Association.
"Domestic partner benefits are an excellent recruitment tool and appeal tomany of our new recruits. This benefit helps us secure the most qualifiedand experienced individuals who will serve Tempe residents. If Prop. 107passes it would eliminate our ability to offer these benefits in the future,as well as impact all of the families of firefighters who are currentlycovered."
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