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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101900346_pf.html
Gays hope ally becomes first black Mass. governor
By Jason Szep
Reuters
Thursday, October 19, 2006; 8:41 AM
BOSTON (Reuters) - Deval Patrick, widely expected to become Massachusetts' first black governor, says a nearly century-old law used to stop gays fromelsewhere in America from marrying in the liberal state is rooted in racism.
If the Democrat wins on November 7, he would not only be the secondAfrican-American elected governor in the nation but he could also pave theway for gay couples from Alaska to Maine to marry in the only U.S. statewhere gays can legally wed.
Under Patrick, conservative Christians warn, Massachusetts will become theLas Vegas of gay marriage.Patrick, comfortably leading in polls, has sharply criticized a 1913 law
invoked by Massachusetts Republican Gov. and presidential hopeful MittRomney -- and upheld by the state's highest court in March -- that barsout-of-state gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts.
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Sarasota Herald Tribune
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061019&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=610190725&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Priest tells of Foley relationship
Then-altar boy may have found some things inappropriate
By MATTHEW DOIG and MAURICE TAMMAN
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
maurice.tamman@heraldtribune.com
A Catholic priest told the Herald-Tribune on Wednesday about an intimate two-year relationship he had with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley when the congressman was a teenage altar boy living in Lake Worth.
From his home on the island of Gozo, near Italy, Anthony Mercieca describeda series of encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually
inappropriate.
Among them: massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being naked in the same room onovernight trips.
One night, when Mercieca says he was in a drug-induced stupor, there was anincident he says he can't clearly remember that might have gone too far.
"I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," he said. "Iwas taking pills -- tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. Theyaffected my mind a little bit."
Mercieca's description of his relationship with Foley is similar to detailsprovided to the Herald- Tribune by sources close to Foley's family.
Those sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mercieca is thepriest Foley has claimed sexually abused him.
They say Foley and Mercieca had only one sexual encounter that took placewhen Foley was 12 or 13.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/washington/19brfs-001.html?pagewanted=print
October 19, 2006
Massachusetts: Spouse Denied Benefits
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
For the first time, the federal government is denying death benefits to thespouse of a congressman because he was gay. Former Representative Gerry E.Studds died early Saturday. He was 69. Mr. Studds married Dean Hara in 2004after same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts. Unlike the spousesof other members of Congress who have died, Mr. Hara will not receive any ofMr. Studds's estimated annual $114,000 pension. The 1996 federal Defense ofMarriage Act, which Mr. Studds voted against, blocks the federal governmentfrom recognizing the marriage between Mr. Studds and Mr. Hara, 48.
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http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/10/the_global_aids.html
New from DIRELAND: October 18, 2006
THE GLOBAL AIDS CRISIS: PLEASE TAKE 8 MINUTES TO WATCH THIS VIDEO
A lot of us are affected by AIDS fatigue--we're tired of hearing about theepidemic, we're tired of hearing the same tales of suffering over and over,we're tired of having to think about the friends and loved ones we've lostbecause it's painful, we're tired of do-nothing governments, we're tired ofself-serving, supposedly philanthropic image-makeovers by political conartists like Bill Clinton who failed miserably the test of a science-basedresponse to AIDS when he was president, we're tired of seeing pictures ofAIDS babies, we're tired of promises unkept. We wish the AIDS problem wouldgo away. Sometimes, we pretend it has.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801681_pf.html
Evangelicals Broaden Their Moral Agenda
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; A19
Evangelical Christian leaders are tackling a growing list of domestic and international issues, such as genocide in Darfur and global warming, despitedissension in their ranks over whether this broader moral agenda will dilutetheir political power just before crucial elections.
Yesterday, two dozen prominent evangelicals issued a joint appeal forPresident Bush to take the lead in sending a multinational, U.N.-backedpeacekeeping force into the Darfur region of Sudan. They included not justliberal religious leaders but also several notable conservatives, includingthe Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Rev. TedHaggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Today, another broad coalition of evangelical leaders will begin airingadvertisements on Christian radio stations calling for action to addressclimate change. Among them is the new president of the Christian Coalition,who has said he plans to "rebuild and rebrand" the conservative lobbyinggroup.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-gaygop18oct18,0,2662938.story
Some Seek 'Pink Purge' in the GOP
By Johanna Neuman
Times Staff Writer
October 18, 2006
WASHINGTON In recent years, the Republican Party aimed to broaden itsappeal with a "big-tent" strategy of reaching out to voters who mighttypically lean Democratic. But now a debate is growing within the GOP aboutwhether the tent has become too big by including gays whose politicalviews may conflict with the goals of the party's powerful evangelicalconservatives.
Some Christians, who are pivotal to the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort, arecharging that gay Republican staffers in Congress may have thwarted theirlegislative agenda. There even are calls for what some have dubbed a "pinkpurge" of high-ranking gay Republicans on Capitol Hill and in theadministration.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/newsst/newsst1161175944.aspx
'One marriage law for all'
Wednesday October 18, 2006 14:52 - (SA)
The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) has come out in favour of a single law forall marriages, including gay unions.
It made the proposal in a submission this week to Parliament's home affairsportfolio committee, which is weighing up whether to approve a Civil UnionsBill, separate from the existing Marriage Act, to cater for same sexpartnerships.
"We are of the opinion that there should be one law for everyone. It is theonly way in which we will truly recognise the equality of all people," theDRC said.
The DRC standpoint is in sharp contrast to that of the Catholic church,which said earlier this week that man-made laws "cannot legitimise what isagainst the natural moral law".
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/10/indonesia_gays_.html
October 18, 2006
INDONESIA: GAYS FIGHT SHARIA LAWS
I wrote the following for Gay City News,
New York City's largest weekly gay newspaper:
Indonesia's fledgling LGBT group, Arus Pelangi (Rainbow Flag), last Mondaylaunched a national campaign against a welter of ultra-homophobic regionalstatutes based on Muslim Sharia law.
"Many LGBT people are arrested and detained, often without charges or clearreason, only to be released after a few days," said Widodo "Dodo" BudiDarmo, the 35-year-old director of campaigning for Arus Pelangi, which wasformed in January this year as Indonesia's first explicitly activist LGBTgroup on the legal and political fronts.
"In 2004, the region of Palembang introduced a regional law that proscribeshomosexuality as an act of prostitution that 'violates the norms of commondecency, religion, and legal norms as they apply to societal rule,'" Dodo-aco-founder of Arus Pelangi-told Gay City News from Jakarta. "That law saysthat included under the term 'act of prostitution' are 'homosexual sex,lesbians, sodomy, sexual harassment, and other pornographic acts.'"
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2006/10/17/2
FBI releases anti-gay hate-crime data
published Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Hate crimes in the United States dropped last year by 6 percent, the FBIreported, though hate crimes based on sexual orientation accounted for 14.2percent of reported incidents.
More than half of all hate crimes were triggered by victims' race, withreligion coming in a distant second, the FBI reported Monday, but JoeSolmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, noted that changes infederal law sought by gay activists would more accurately reflect the extentof anti-LGBT violence.
"Sexual orientation remains the third-highest recorded bias crime in ourcountry, which underscores that anti-gay hate crimes are a very real problemnationwide," Solmonese said Tuesday in a written statement.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-17-gay-judges_x.htm
Amid debate over rights, number of gay judges rising
Posted 10/17/2006 11:09 PM ET
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - When a case testing whether Oregon should allow same-sexmarriages came before the state's Supreme Court in 2004, one of the court'sseven justices quietly wrestled with a vexing question: Should he, a gay man, take part in the case? Or did part of RivesKistler's identity - his sexual orientation - mean that he should sit itout, to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest?
Kistler, a former Oregon assistant attorney general and the firstopenly gay member of the state's highest court, consulted an ethics book todecide "whether it was permissible for me to sit on the case." Then hechecked with a judicial ethics panel, which told him it would not be aconflict.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.startribune.com/587/story/749631.html
Alex Whitney out for votes as a gay Republican
His grandfather and uncle have been Republican Party stalwarts, is running against the DFL House leader.
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
In the deep-blue DFL election precincts around Minneapolis' Lake of theIsles, a young Republican legislative candidate with strong GOP bloodlinesis trying on a new campaign color: lavender."My name is Alex Whitney and I am a Gay Republican," reads a campaignmailing sent Tuesday by the GOP-endorsed opponent of state House DFL LeaderMargaret Anderson Kelliher. "There ... I said it."
Whitney, 26, is making his first run for office in a district that hasn'tbeen friendly to Republicans of any orientation for decades. Kelliher haswon four elections there, all with more than 70 percent of the vote.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/749617.html
Last update: October 18, 2006 - 1:15 PM
Bus driver gets OK to avoid gay-themed ads
The Metro Transit dispute raises questions about the point at whichaccommodating one group's beliefs infringes on the rights of others.H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
A city bus driver who complained about a gay-themed ad got officialpermission not to drive any bus that carries that ad, according to aninternal memo confirmed Tuesday by Metro Transit.Transit authorities call it a reasonable accommodation to the driver'sreligious beliefs.
Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 1005 officials at the bus company say itcondones intolerance; besides, drivers never have been excused from otherbuses carrying ads they found objectionable -- from political candidates topink bras.
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Two mums registered for baby born through artificial insemination
10/18/2006
http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/life/first-case-in-spain--two-mums-registered-for-baby-born-through-ar?itemId=B24_15968&cl=%2Feitb24%2Fsociedad&idioma=en
A prosecutor immediately protested and warned of an appeal. He said thatunder Spanish law the non-birthgiving partner first has to file adoptionpapers before she can be officially considered the baby's second mother.
A baby born to a married Spanish lesbian through artificial insemination canbe registered right away as having two mothers _ the biological one and herspouse, a judge said in a landmark ruling disclosed on Tuesday.
A prosecutor immediately protested and warned of an appeal. He said thatunder Spanish law the non-birthgiving partner first has to file adoptionpapers before she can be officially considered the baby's second mother.This can take up to four months.
It's not that way for heterosexual couples. After a child is born throughartificial insemination, all the man has to do is come forward and claim thechild and the baby is immediately registered as his.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Journal Of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy
Volume 10, Number 3/4, 2006
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATON OF GAY AND LESBIAN PSYCHIATRISTS
(AGLP)
http://www.aglp.org/
Special Issue
Crystal Meth and Men Who Have Sex with Men
What Mental Health Care Professionals Need to Know
Guest Edited by Milton L. Wainberg, MD, and Andrew J. Kolodny, MD Editor-in-Chief: Jack Drescher, MD
For subscribing information contact:
The Haworth Press
http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J236
Table of Contents (also retrievable on-line at
https://www.haworthpress.com/store/Toc_views.asp?sid=W9FRSD3DVHAH8PKSCBWHW05
HJ8K660A1
<https://www.haworthpress.com/store/Toc_views.asp?sid=W9FRSD3DVHAH8PKSCBWHW0
5HJ8K660A1&TOCName=J236v10n03%5FTOC&desc=Volume%3A%2010%20Issue%3A%203%2F4>
&TOCName=J236v10n03%5FTOC&desc=Volume%3A%2010%20Issue%3A%203%2F4
1. Introduction: A Look Inside the "Crystal" Ball
by Milton L. Wainberg, MD, Andrew J. Kolodny, MD and Jack
Drescher, MD
(text of introduction below)
2. A Public Forum - Challenging The Culture of Disease: The Crystal
Meth-HIV Connection
Harvey Fierstein
Dan Carlson
Bruce Kellerhouse, PhD
Peter Stanley
Trevor P,
Steven Tierney, EdD
Steven Lee, MD
Abstract: Following a 2003 community forum on unsafe sexual practices amonggay men, a follow up community forum was held on February 3, 2004 to addressthe insufficiently studied linkage between unsafe sexual practices, HIVtransmission and crystal methamphetamine abuse. The forum was moderated byaward-winning playwright and actor, Harvey Fierstein.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=42927&rnews_story_type=18&category=10
Concerned Parents Approach Board
by Kate Welshofer
Published Oct 17, 2006
Fallout over a transgender teacher continues in the Batavia school district.A small, but vocal group of parents attended a school board meeting to voiceits concerns Tuesday night.
Rules about discussing specific teachers or students during the publiccomment period of school board meetings precluded the parents from sayingtoo much to the board. They did speak to us about their concerns about theteacher undergoing a sex change.
Prior to this, we haven't heard much publicly from parents or students whodo not support the teacher. Three parents and one student attended theschool board's regular meeting to voice their concerns. They feel theteacher is not a proper role model.
The science teacher was a man and now is living as a woman. The teacher isdiagnosed with gender identity disorder. It is considered a disability andis covered by state law. But some parents believe the district is puttingthe teacher's rights and choices above their children's.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
NEWS RELEASE Contact: Jeffrey
Montgomery
FOR IMMEDIATE USE 313-537-3323; cell:
313-506-1847
Admired Lesbian Officer Fired by Catholic School
(Bloomfield Hills; 18 October 2006----) A dedicated and much-loved employeeof a Detroit-area high school was fired last week following the publicationof her book which detailed the harassment she endured for being a lesbian onthe Detroit Police force.
Charlene Genther was fired on 13 October from her position of Campus SafetyOfficer at Marian High School, a position she held since 2001. Genther saysthe president of the school, Lenore Pochelski, told her that she had toleave because, as an out lesbian, her "lifestyle did not go along with theteachings of the Catholic Church." Marian, a Catholic, college preparatoryhigh school for young women, is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese ofDetroit.
Genther left the Detroit Police Department after nearly 15 years. She wasone of the "first 100" female police officers assigned to patrol duty in1975.
Since her firing last Friday, hundreds of former and current Marian studentsand families have expressed outrage and sorrow that Genther had been fired.Many students have begun a petition to bring her back.
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