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Case to Consider Fitness of Lesbian Aunt in Adoption Matter
By Ed Thomas
October 12, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/122006d.asp
(AgapePress) - A pro-family First Amendment law firm is assisting in a casein Texas involving opposition to the attempted adoption of two siblings,ages seven years and five months, by an aunt who lives in a lesbianlifestyle.
According to an attorney for the American Family Association's Center forLaw & Policy (AFA Law Center), the issues in question in the Lufkin Countycase styled "In the Interest of Taylor Emory Menefee,"include whether Texas law distinguishes any difference between the sexualorientations of potential adoptive parents.
Steve Crampton, chief counsel
for the Law Center, says the aunt lives with a same-sex partner in NewMexico, and has also been diagnosed with a "major depressive disorder."Crampton says those facts should merit some questions from the state ofTexas about fitness for adoption.
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The Business Journal of Phoenix, AZ, October 11, 2006
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/10/09/daily26.html
Tempe police, firefighter groups oppose gay marriage ban
by Mike Sunnucks,
The Business Journal
Groups representing firefighters and police officers in Tempe are opposing aproposed state ban on gay marriages.
The Tempe Officers Association and Tempe Firefighters Association have takena stand against Proposition 107. The ballot question would prohibit gaymarriage and bar governments from offering benefits and health insurance tounmarried couples both straight and gay.
Prop. 107 supporters include conservative Christian groups and Republicanlawmakers who want to define marriages as a traditional heterosexual union.
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Falls Church News Press, VA, October 12, 2006
http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363&Itemid=33
N. Va. Business Leader Warns 'Marriage Amendment' Will Hurt CompetitivenessCommercial Edge For Region Put at Risk, Boss Says
By Nicholas F. Benton
If passed next month, Question 1 on the November 8 Virginia ballot, theso-called "Marriage Amendment," would be bad for business in NorthernVirginia, the managing director of an important regional telecom businessstated last week.
Douglas Koelemay of Qorvis Communications said the constitutional amendmentto ban gay marriage and equal rights guarantees to all unmarried coupleswill put businesses in this area "at an unnecessary competitivedisadvantage."
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For Gays, a Loud New Foe
Sacramento's large enclave of immigrant Slavic evangelicals is becoming aforce on social issues. Their actions shock many.
By Rone Tempest, Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2006
SACRAMENTO - Organizers of the annual Rainbow Festival were prepared fortrouble.
The Q Crew, a local "queer/straight alliance," distributed cards tellingpeople what to do if approached by hostile demonstrators. Sympathetic localchurch groups formed a protective buffer along the festival ground's cyclonefence. Mounted police were on patrol.
Jerry Sloan manned a table for Stand Up for Sacramento, a recently formedgay self-defense organization.
"So far, so good," he said. "No Russians."
The festival, held last month amid the gay bars, restaurants and shops ofmidtown's "Lavender Heights" neighborhood, went off without conflict. Butthe elaborate security preparations reflected growing tensions betweenSacramento gays and the city's large and vociferous community offundamentalist Christians from the former Soviet Union.
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New book reveals Australia's gay past
Ref: Sydney Star Observer (m)
http://www.gaynz.com/news/print.asp?artid=3851
October 14, 2006
An ambitious new book on gay history covers more than 2,000 years ofsame-sex culture and reserves special attention for Australia.
Robert Aldrich's knowledge of gay history was already expansive when apublisher asked him to edit an ambitious new work on the topic a few yearsback.
Head of history at the University of Sydney, Aldrich already had volumes onthe Mediterranean's gay past and gay culture in Australia to his name.But the two-year project that resulted in the recently released Gay Life AndCulture contained some surprises.
"A few examples surprised me a little bit," Aldrich told the Sydney Star Observer.
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Polls show Ariz. leads groundswell for equality
Friday, October 13, 2006 / 05:18 PM
http://www.planetout.com/news/article-print.html?2006/10/13/6
SUMMARY: Only 38 percent of polled voters support Arizona's harshconstitutional ban, with police and fire unions the latest to come out inopposition.
The growing sense that key gay rights victories will be had this ElectionDay is in stark contrast to 2004, when constitutional bans on same-sexmarriage were approved in 13 states.
Support for constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage is weak inthree of the eight states that will vote on them Nov. 7, and in one,Colorado, a competing measure to establish domestic partnerships forsame-sex couples is backed by a majority of voters.
"It could be a watershed year," Carrie Evans, state legislative director ofthe Human Rights Campaign, told USA Today.
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Irish Independent, 11 October 2006
Professor questions 'rosy' reports on lesbian parents
A LEADING academic has questioned the methodology of studies showing thatchildren's welfare is not adversely affected when lesbian parents raisethem.
Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at UCD, told the High Court that she"could not draw any conclusions" from the studies because of certaintechniques used and the small sample sizes.
She was giving evidence on behalf of the State in the action by KatherineZappone, a public policy consultant, and Ann Louise Gilligan, an academic,against the Revenue Commissioners and the State.
"One has to be very cautious," she said in relation to the reports.
The couple claims that the failure by Irish authorities to recognise theirCanadian marriage breaches their right to marry under the IrishConstitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the EuropeanCharter of Fundamental Freedoms.
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Slovenia conducts first gay civil wedding
Oct. 5, 2006 at 8:33AM
United press International
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20061005-075126-4982r.htm
Two men became Slovenia's first same-sex couple married in a civil ceremony,a rite they described as humiliating and awful.
Mitja Blazic and Niki Kern, residents of Ljubljana, legalized theirpartnership under a law passed in July that permits same-sex marriages,Serbia's FoNet news agency reported Thursday.The two were married by a Ljubljana municipal registration official in astate office. No friends or relatives were allowed to attend.
Blazic criticized the law allowing same-sex marriages as discriminatory,when compared with heterosexual marriages.He said the ceremony had no solemn atmosphere and added, "It looked morelike a car registration, not a wedding ceremony," FoNet said.
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Man who died at Bismarck gay sex party was high on cocaine
October 06, 2006
By Fran Yeoman
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2391103,00.html
A MAN who fell to his death at the home of a German aristocrat after a gayorgy had taken a potentially lethal amount of cocaine, an inquest was toldyesterday.
Anthony Casey, 38, fell 60ft from the roof terrace of Count Gottfried vonBismarck's apartment in West London in the early hours of August 24.
The count, a direct descendant of the "Iron Chancellor" who unified Germanyin the 19th century, had been hosting a gathering of five men at hisexclusive residence in Draycott Place, Chelsea.
It is the second time that he has been connected to a drugs-related death.Olivia Channon, daughter of the Conservative minister Paul Channon, died ofa heroin overdose in his bed at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1986.
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Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office drops pornography case against Latvian diplomat
11.10 // 12:52 // English
http://www.naviny.by/rubrics/inter/2006/10/11/ic_news_259_260164/
The Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday issued a statement toannounce that it had dropped a pornography charge against Latvian diplomatReimo Smits.
The charge against the second secretary at the Latvian embassy in Minsk wasbrought after police raided his apartment in Minsk on July 25, allegedlyseizing videocassettes and CDs containing pornographic material.
"A preliminary criminal investigation into Latvian diplomat Reimo Smits wascompleted. The criminal case was dropped. The material was delivered to theLatvian side as required by the February 21, 1994 Treaty between theRepublic of Belarus and the Republic of Latvia on Legal Assistance and LegalRelations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters," the statement reads.
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Turkey: Gay Rights Upheld By Prosecution Again
Public Prosecutor's Office rejects request from Bursa Governorship to closedown Rainbow Association saying "homosexuality is not an offence" andreiterates that there will be no prosecution with a reference to theEuropean Convention on Human Rights.
BIA News Center
http://www.bianet.org/2006/10/01_eng/news86363.htm
10/10/2006
BÝA (Istanbul) - The Public Prosecutor's Office has formally rejected theappeal to close down the Association to Protect Transvestites, Transsexuals,Gays and Lesbians and Develop Cultural Activities - known shortly as the TheRainbow Association (Gokkusagi Dernegi).
The decision comes in response to an initiative made by the BursaGovernorship to have the association disbanded and locked down on groundsthat the formation violated current association laws that governed noassociation could be founded with intentions against the law or publicmorality.
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Budapest tourism office offers online gay and lesbian guide
http://english.mti.hu/default.asp?menu=1&theme=2&cat=25&newsid=228242
Budapest, October 11 (MTI) - After many years of handling the issue ofhomosexuality as a taboo in Hungary, Budapest's tourism office website hasstarted a section dedicated to gay and lesbian visitors.
According to the website
(http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en/free_time/gay_and_lesbian_budapest),
"Budapest has always had a significant gay and lesbian population. Thesignificant aversion against them, the legal and social exclusions startedto decrease after 1990 only".
The site lists gay and lesbian bars and saunas and also advises ongay-friendly restaurants, cafes and accommodation opportunities.
There is also a list of other useful information, including a helplinenumber and links to Hungary's online gay forums.
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Fall 2006 issue of "mental health AIDS" now available
Dear HIV Educators, Clinicians, Researchers, Colleagues, and Friends:
The Fall 2006 issue of "mental health AIDS," a quarterly biopsychosocialresearch update on HIV and mental health, is available online at
http://mentalhealthAIDS.samhsa.gov.
This issue's "tool box":
"New Thinking on Not Thinking About HIV Risk"
In recent years, concepts such as cognitive escape, ironic processing,thought suppression, spontaneous cognition, and "heat of the moment"thinking have been incorporated into explanatory models of HIV-relatedrisk-taking. Cognitive processes such as these are believed to exertinfluence upon self-awareness of HIV risk and may impede education andprevention efforts. In this tool box, notions regarding not thinking areexplored, as are paradoxes for both the structure and the content of HIVprevention interventions that spotlight precisely what is being avoided.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-rxsexabuse15oct15,0,5536451.story?coll=sfla-news-health
Misconceptions abound in child sexual abuse
By Nancy McVicar
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Health Writer
October 15, 2006
The outrage over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's actions involving teenagepages in the House of Representatives has focused attention on children'svulnerability to adults who may prey on their trust and inexperience. Butexperts say the high-profile case involving a gay man and teenage boys maygive people the impression that gay men are more likely to be childmolesters than other people, which is not the case.
That misconception is one of many that health experts say are frequentlyreinforced by sex scandals that receive widespread media attention.
The Catholic priest scandals may have given impression that boys are morefrequently targets of sexual predators than girls. Widely publicized casessuch as the abductions, rapes and killings of two young Florida girls,Jessica Lunsford and Carlie Brucia, may suggest that abusers who prey onchildren are almost always men.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/nyregion/15attack.html?pagewanted=print
October 15, 2006
From Crime to Arrest, by Way of Computer
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and AL BAKER
Michael J. Sandy almost escaped his death.
When Mr. Sandy pulled up to a Sheepshead Bay street corner last Sunday, hefound not the lone man he thought he had been exchanging instant messageswith, but two men. Uncomfortable, he drove away.
Back home, Mr. Sandy resumed his online chat with the man calling himself"fireyefox," who persuaded him to go through with the rendezvous.
Later that night, Mr. Sandy was led to a trash-strewn parking lot near theBelt Parkway, and confronted by four men who, the authorities say, werehoping to rob him. He was beaten and chased onto the highway, where he washit by a car. On Friday, a day after Mr. Sandy turned 29, his family removedhim from a respirator.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/10/15/group_to_rally_opposition_to_gay_marriage?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
Group to rally opposition to gay marriage
Romney to speak at event targeting evangelical voters
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | October 15, 2006
In an attempt to motivate religious conservatives to go to the polls next month, a national organization of family values activists will join Governor Mitt Romney and more than 1,000 local churchgoers today to argue to evangelicals that the legalization of same-sex marriage here is threatening religious liberty throughout the country.
The event, dubbed ``Liberty Sunday" by its organizer, the Family Research Council, will be simulcast from the Tremont Temple Baptist Church , near Boston Common, to hundreds of churches. It will also be broadcast on several Christian television and radio networks as well as over the Internet. The council, which over the last two years has staged six similar events at other sites around the country, estimates a potential audience of 79 million, but says it is impossible to measure exactly how many people really tune in.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/opinion/15rich.html?_r=1&hp
The New York Times
October 15, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Gay Old Party Comes Out
By FRANK RICH
PAGING Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council: Here's a gay Republican story you probably did not hear last week. On Tuesday a card-carrying homosexual, Mark Dybul, was sworn into office at the State Department with his partner holding the Bible. Dr. Dybul, the administration's new global AIDS coordinator, was flanked by Laura Bush and Condi Rice. In her official remarks, the secretary of state referred to the mother of Dr. Dybul's partner as his "mother-in-law."
Could wedding bells be far behind? It was all on display, photo included, on www.state.gov. And while you're cruising the Internet, a little creative Googling will yield a long list of who else is gay, openly and not, in the highest ranks of both the Bush administration and the Republican hierarchy. The openly gay range from Steve Herbits, the prescient right-hand consultant to Donald Rumsfeld who foresees disaster in Iraq in Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial," to Israel Hernandez, the former Bush personal aide and current Commerce Department official whom the president nicknamed "Altoid boy." (Let's not go there.)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/us/15studds.html?ei=5094&en=faff38c1e44a381a&hp=&ex=1160884800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
October 15, 2006
Gerry Studds, Gay Congressman Who Served 12 Terms, Is Dead at 69
By DAMIEN CAVE
Gerry E. Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress and a demanding advocate for New England fishermen and for gay rights, died early Saturday at Boston University Medical Center, his husband said.The cause was a vascular illness that led Mr. Studds to collapse while walking his dog on Oct. 3 in Boston. He was 69.
From 1973 to 1997, Mr. Studds (whose first name was pronounced GAIR-ee) represented the Massachusetts district where he grew up, covering Cape Cod and the barnacled old fishing towns near the coast. He was the first Democrat to win the district in 50 years, and over the course of 12 terms, he sponsored several laws that helped protect local fisheries and create national parks along the Massachusetts shore.
A former Foreign Service officer with degrees from Yale, he was also a leading critic of President Ronald Reagan's clandestine support of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He staunchly opposed "Star Wars," or the Strategic Defense Initiative, which Mr. Studds once described as "the Edsel of the 1980's" - overpriced and oversold.
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New Republic
13 Oct 06 (Issue date 23 Oct 06)
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061023&s=crowley102306
Gay GOP misery
Crossfire
by Michael Crowley
In the bars and clubs frequented by Washington's gay men, a new characterhas recently cropped up: the hammered gay Republican. Until recently, saysone gay Republican lobbyist, his counterparts on the Hill "had reached apoint where you come to your work, you do a good job, you don't causeproblems for your boss, and you go home." But then along came the MarkFoley scandal, with its rightwing anti-gay moralizing, liberal snickersabout closeted hypocrisy, and a merciless wave of Internet gossip and"outings."
The lobbyist says he assumes every gay Republican staffer is"terrified right now." And that has been enough to drive some of them tothe bottle. One gay Washingtonian recalls running into an aide to a seniorHouse Republican at a gay bar soon after FoleyGate broke: "He went out toget shitfaced, because he was so stressed out." Chris Crain, a blogger andformer editor of the Washington Blade, a gay weekly in Washington, D.C.,also says such encounters have become typical.
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