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October 16, 2006
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061016/OPINION03/610160309/1272
Gay closet doors open wide, research finds
By Deb Price
The Detroit News
California researcher Gary Gates has been hearing things lately:
Lots of closet doors opening like never before -- and in places where mostgay folks five years ago were too wary of government census takers toacknowledge being in a same-sex relationship.
"The closet door is really opening. That's especially true in the Midwest,"says Gates, author of a fascinating study based on the newly released 2005American Community Survey -- a sort of mini-Census -- and the NationalSurvey of Family Growth, both conducted by the federal government.
Overall, the number of same-sex couples identifying themselves to thegovernment soared 30 percent in five short years -- to 776,943. To put thatin perspective, the U.S. population grew 6 percent in that period.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.startribune.com/217/story/733234.html
Withering Glance: It's guys like Foley who give gays a bum rap
Withering Glance: Rollin' with the Foley mess.
Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing,relationships, grooming and more in a weekly dialogue.
CP: This advice to disgraced Florida congressman Mark Foley is not justunsolicited, Rick, it's days late. Nonetheless: Do not e-mail acongressional page, age 16, about his body, your body, another page's body,your gym trips, your bike rides or his birthday wish list. I don't think wecan stress this enough.
RN: Freud would have said that Foley's escapades were so profoundly stupidthat he clearly wanted to get caught. I'm surprised he wasn't using awebcam, although I sure don't want to picture that YouTube download, do you?Just mentioning Foley's name makes me instinctively reach for the Purell.
CP: Who among us hasn't regretted pushing that "Send" button? But Foleydispatched his horny-guy messages over and over, including one time when theCongress was waiting for him to vote on legislation. What did he tellcolleagues? "Sorry I'm late -- I was e-canoodling a minor."
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Cruise to Hawaii with NCLR and Olivia
Set sail as NCLR joins Sheryl Swoopes and Rosie Jones onboard Olivia's Hawaiian Cruise, November 8-18, 2006
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Attorney and NCLR board member Emily Doskow will guide you through the ups and downs of the legal landscape to help you make sure you have the greatest level of legal security for you and your loved ones.
Travel with the Pros!
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/US_Supreme_Court/Scotus_Scouts.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild167=Fz1zRPMYSJvlNrtmwgAYoQxe21k8dIQ1YVNFrA1CUbTdy9NoJ1bq!795938298&UrAuth=aNaNUObNZUbTTUWUXUWUZTZU_UWU_UVUZU%5dU\UcTYWYWZV&urcm=y
Boy Scouts Face Setback in Supreme Court
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Six years after the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts couldban gay leaders, the group is fighting and losing legal battles with stateand local governments over its discriminatory policies.
The latest setback came Monday when the high court without comment refusedto take a case out of Berkeley, Calif., in which a Scouts sailing group lostfree use of a public marina because the Boy Scouts bar atheists and gays.
The action let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that thecity of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from othernonprofit organizations because of the Scouts' membership policies.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/nyregion/17mbrfs-005.html?pagewanted=print
October 17, 2006
Brooklyn: Two Indicted in Belt Parkway Death
By MICHAEL BRICK
A grand jury indicted two men yesterday on charges of second-degree murderas a hate crime in the death of a gay man who was beaten and then struck bya car on Oct. 8 during a robbery attempt. Prosecutors said the men who werecharged, John Fox, 19, and Ilya Shurov, 20, were among four men who used theInternet to lure the victim, Michael J. Sandy, 29, of Williamsburg, to aspot in Sheepshead Bay. Mr. Sandy was beaten and chased onto the BeltParkway, where he was hit by a car. He was removed from life support anddied on Friday as prosecutors were presenting evidence to the grand jury.
Prosecutors attached the hate crime distinction, which can affectsentencing, on the theory that Mr. Sandy was chosen by his assailantsbecause they believed a gay man would be too weak or unwilling to put up afight. A third suspect, Gary Timmins, 16, has also been arrested; all threeare being held without bail. A fourth man who was questioned has not beencharged.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Lowell Sun, MA, October 16, 2006
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_4501727
Federal law blocks Studds' gay husband from pension
By EVAN LEHMANN,
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Gerry Studds, the nation's first openly gay congressman,pushed the country to another landmark development when he diedSaturday: the federal government for the first time will deny death benefitsto a congressman's gay spouse.
The federal government does not recognize the 2004 Massachusetts'marriage between Studds and Dean Hara, and won't provide a portion ofStudds' $114,337 annual pension to his surviving spouse.
The federal law, defined by the Defense of Marriage Act, not only trumps theBay State's gay marriage law but reveals its limitations.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/101606scalia.htm
Scalia: Gay Rights Up To Lawmakers & Public, Not Judges
by The Associated Press
October 16, 2006 - 11:00 am ET
(Washington) Justice Antonin Scalia on Sunday defended some of his SupremeCourt opinions, arguing that nothing in the Constitution supports gay orabortion rights and the use of race in school admissions.
Scalia, a leading conservative voice on the high court, sparred in aone-hour televised debate with American Civil Liberties Union presidentNadine Strossen. He said unelected judges have no place deciding politicallycharged questions when the Constitution is silent on those issues.
Arguing that liberal judges in the past improperly established new politicalrights such as abortion, Scalia warned, "Someday, you're going to get a veryconservative Supreme Court and regret that approach."
"On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, wedebate with each other and persuade each other and vote on it either throughrepresentatives or a constitutional amendment," the Reagan appointee said.
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GAY AND LESBIAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION
NATIONAL OFFICE
34 SPRING LANE, KENILWORTH
WARWICKSHIRE CV8 2HB
UNITED KINGDOM
TEL AND FAX 01926 858450
EMAIL secretary@galha.org
WEBSITE www.galha.org
Affiliated to Amnesty International &
the International Humanist & Ethical Union
News Release
15 October 2006
UK GAY GROUP DEMANDS THAT RUTH KELLY RESIGN IMMEDIATELY
Our rights are at risk from a woman whose first allegiance is to Opus Dei
Reports that UK Communities Minister Ruth Kelly, who is a member of the Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, has delayed legislation that would outlaw discrimination against gay people have prompted the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) to call for her resignation.
GALHA's Secretary, George Broadhead, said: "There was a strong suspicionwhen Ruth Kelly was given this job of looking after the interests of thenot be even-handed as far as LGBT people were concerned. We raised the alarmat the time of her appointment that there would be a conflict between herallegiance to an extreme wing of the Catholic Church and her ability toserve the interests of LGBT people fairly. These latest events indicate thatshe is putting her loyalty to Opus Dei first.
"We fear that Ms Kelly is going to grant large-scale opt-outs for religiousgroups from these new regulations. The pressure for these opt-outs has comefrom - among others - the Catholic Church which has been agitating more andmore against LGBT rights. LGBT people are getting a raw deal from this womanwho should never have been given this sensitive post in the first placeconsidering her membership of Opus Dei."
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2006/10/antimarriage_ba.html
Anti-Marriage Ballot Measures; From the bad to the ugly
by New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard, October 15, 2006 in Legal Issues
Voters in eight states will decide on November 7 whether to amend theirstate constitutions to ban same-sex marriages. In most of those states,however, the proposed amendments go further to restrict the ability of thestate to extend legal recognition to unmarried couples regardless of gender,suggesting that their proponents have a broader agenda than just disapprovalof gay relationships.
If past experience holds true, all eight of the measures would pass handily,but polling suggests that a few of the measures might go down to defeat ifvoters do in the privacy of the voting booth what they are telling pollstersthey would prefer to see enacted on this issue. With just a few weeks to gountil election day, opponents of the measures are seeing hopeful pollingresults in Arizona, South Dakota, and Colorado.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Tucson Citizen, AZ, October 16, 2006
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/29327.php
Not married to single stance on gay unions
ROBERT ROBB, The Arizona Republic
If you like crisp, decisive opinions, this column is not for you. Thiscolumn is about conflicting views regarding Proposition 107, theconstitutional ban on gay marriage - and they are all my own.
There are basically three strands of thought about gay marriage.
The first holds that traditional marriage, between one man and one woman, isthe fundamental building block of civil society and therefore should begiven a special and unique legal status.
That requires not only reserving the term marriage for such relationships,but also reserving the benefits associated with marriage for them. Thatmeans no gay marriage, civil unions or domestic partner registers orbenefits.
That view, of course, is codified by Proposition 107.
The second strand of thought accepts that traditional marriage deserves aspecial status apart from other relationships. It supports, however,providing some sort of legal recognition to other relationships, throughcivil unions, registers and domestic partner benefits.
The third strand holds that anything short of full-fledged marriage for gaysis discriminatory and that government does not have a right to discriminateon the basis of sexual orientation.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
In These Times - Oct 12, 2006
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2863/
The Role of the Religious Right in the Foley Affair
Complete lack of independence from the GOP is one reason the religious right has a hand in the scandals like the Foley affair.
By Hans Johnson
A telltale habit of extremism is its refusal to look in the mirror.
Take Focus on the Family: Reacting to the revelation of former Republican Rep. Mark Foley's predatory behavior, Jim Dobson, the head of the $100-million-a-year mega-nonprofit based in Colorado Springs, sounded neither concerned nor contemplative, but instead like a conspiracy theorist. "(It was released by liberals) on the last day of the session of Congress," he told a nationwide audience of radio listeners on Oct. 6. "They've held it for years, and they threw it out there on the last day of the session demanding that the Speaker of the House resign."
Dobson has practice in wild-eyed accusation. Indeed, it's a tone he's perfected to the point of being stuck in a rut. Whereas most bona fide religious leaders would treat misdeeds by cronies of their cause somberly and look to the scriptures of their faith as a reference point, Dobson and his peers on the religious right shift straight into attack mode.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=103362&ntpid=1&ntpid=1
Research: Kids of gay parents fare at least as well as others
JASON STEIN 608-252-6129
October 16, 2006
Abbie Marie Hill has three moms and that fact, to the Madison teenager, isat once crazy and completely unremarkable.
Hill was born to a lesbian couple who later separated. Today she has a thirdparent, a stepmother, in her life. The 17-year-old high school junior takesa viola to youth symphony sessions and carries straight As home from MadisonEast.
"It's crazy and confusing but it works," Hill said of her family, whichmakes sense to her but isn't what some strangers expect. "In some ways itdoesn't even seem like that's different."
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