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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15659900.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Wis activists hope to end streak for gay-marriage amendments
DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - When it comes to statewide votes on gay marriage, the score sofar is 20-0 in favor of keeping it a one-man, one-woman institution.
If there's a chance to break the streak on Nov. 7, it might be in Wisconsin,where activists believe that support from unions, college students andchurch leaders - coupled with hoped-for conservative apathy - could enablethem to finally overcome the string of losses.
Among the hopeful are Debbie Knepke and Candice Hackbarth, devoted partnersfor nine years, raising a 3-year-old daughter and 7-month-old son inpleasant Milwaukee neighborhood. They have joined some 8,000 othervolunteers in a bid to defeat a proposed state constitutional amendment thatwould ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.
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Labour "blows hot and cold" on gay rights
Ministers still block gay equality
Hove - 23 September 2006
Speaking at the Green Party annual conference LGBT fringe meeting, atHove Town Hall, on 23 September 2006, Peter Tatchell, OutRage!activist, human rights campaigner and member of the Green Party said:
"Labour blows hot and cold on lesbian and gay human rights. It hasenacted several very positive reforms, such as equalising the age ofconsent and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. But theseprogressive changes are no excuse for the government's current backingof homophobic discrimination in several key policy areas:
"The new Commission for Equality and Human Rights is welcome butflawed. It's effectiveness and fairness will be inhibited by theuneven patch-work of equality laws. Some communities have moreprotection than others. Race legislation is, for example, muchstronger that legislation on gender and sexual orientation. We don'thave a level playing field. What is needed is the upward harmonisationof all equality laws, to bring them into line with the gold standardset by race equality legislation. For the CEHR to operate effectivelyand fairly, we need a comprehensive, all-inclusive Equal Rights Act,to guarantee equal treatment and protection against discrimination toeveryone.
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Paul Scholes's anti-gay abuse under fire
Call for an apology and opposition to homophobia
UEFA & Football Association must stamp out homophobic abuse
London - 27 September 2006
Manchester United player Paul Scholes is under fire after it isalleged that he shouted homophobic abuse during last night's UEFA match against Portuguese team Benfica at the Stadium of Light.
About 10 minutes into the game, Scholes was booked and appeared to react by shouting "fucking poof".
His homophobic abuse was witnessed by millions of viewers watchingITV1's coverage of the match.
"Homophobic abuse is no more acceptable than racism. It is shockingthat the football authorities allowed Paul's bigoted insult to passwithout taking any action," said Peter Tatchell of gay human rightsgroup OutRage!, which is campaigning against homophobia in sport andis pressing the Football Association to take tougher action againsthomophobia on the pitch and on the terraces.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/02/AR2006100200333_pf.html
Ex-Rep. Foley Checks Into Rehab
By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 2, 2006; 9:44 AM
Former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) checked himself into a rehabilitation center over the weekend to undergo treatment for alcoholism, his attorney said today.
Foley resigned Friday after disclosures he had sent sexually explicit electronic messages to teenage House pages.
The attorney, David Roth, told the Associated Press today that Foley accepts responsibility for his actions. Roth also confirmed the authenticity of a statement Foley purportedly released to news organizations yesterday, the AP said.
"I strongly believe that I am an alcoholic and have accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and other behavioral problems," Foley said in the statement.
Foley added: "I deeply regret and accept full responsibility for the harm I have caused."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/washington/02pages.html?hp&ex=1159848000&en=5b772860c2416e51&ei=5094&partner=homepage
October 2, 2006
Former Pages Describe Foley as Caring Ally
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 - In the hierarchy of Congress, the high school students who serve as Congressional pages fall somewhere near the bottom, seemingly invisible as they scurry through the hallways of the Capitol ferrying messages to powerful lawmakers who often fail to give them a second glance.
In that rarefied world, Representative Mark Foley, the silver-haired Republican from Florida, stood out.He took pains to befriend the 16- and 17-year-old aides, several former pages said in interviews on Sunday. He chatted with them on the House floor, they said, sent handwritten notes and urged them to keep in touch when they left Washington for their hometowns.
In 2002, he even stood up on the floor of the House, his eyes welling with tears, and commended the young men and women for their year of service. In his speech, Mr. Foley mentioned several of the high school students by name, describing a handwritten note to celebrate one young man's graduation and a lunch with another at Morton's steak house.
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-foley.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
October 2, 2006
FBI Looking Into Congressman Foley
By REUTERS
Filed at 0:47 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A scandal over a U.S. Republican congressman sending sexually explicit e-mails to underage boys ratcheted up on Sunday with theFBI and a congressional ethics committee looking into the accusations.
The scandal has plenty of political implications for President George W.Bush's Republicans in the November elections, as it puts in jeopardy anotherRepublican seat in the House of Representatives, where Democrats need only15 to retake control.
FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak said the bureau was conducting an ``assessmentto determine if there has been any violation of federal law'' involving Rep.Mark Foley of Florida who resigned on Friday amid allegations he sentinappropriate messages to young people working at the U.S. Congress.
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-michael.html?pagewanted=print
Thej New York Times
October 2, 2006
Police Caution George Michael on Drugs
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:40 a.m. ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Pop star George Michael has been arrested and cautioned after being found once again slumped over the wheel of his car in London and in possession of cannabis, media said on Monday.
The Sun splashed the story that Michael had been arrested across its front page. It was his fourth motoring incident in eight months, including three involving him asleep at the wheel, the newspaper said.
A police spokesman said that a 43-year-old man was taken into custody on Sunday, was cautioned by police for having an illegal drug on him and was released on bail pending inquiries on being unfit to drive.
``At about 3.22 a.m. on Sunday morning officers were informed of a stationary vehicle with a driver inside causing an obstruction'' in north London, the spokesman said, declining to confirm the identity of the driver as a matter of routine.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101058.html
Va. Ban's Reach Is At Center Of Fight
Same-Sex Marriage On November Ballot
By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 2, 2006; B01
Backers of a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage contend that the measure wouldn't change life for Virginians, gay or not, one iota.
So why are they asking voters to alter the state's 230-year-old Bill of Rights -- a document that served as a model for the U.S. Bill of Rights -- for the first time in a decade?
Supporters say action is needed to protect the commonwealth's laws against same-sex marriage from state judges who could rule that they are unconstitutional, as happened in Massachusetts in 2003 and in Maryland in January when a circuit court judge ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was discriminatory.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/nyregion/02hiv.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
October 2, 2006
Federal Policy Calling for More H.I.V. Testing Poses a Unique Challenge in New York
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
When it comes to H.I.V. and AIDS - the epidemic and its politics - New York has always looked different from the rest of the country. It has the nation's highest rates of infection and illness, an unusual range of public and private services for those affected, and some of the biggest and best-organized advocacy groups.
Yet New York closely mirrors the national epidemic in some distressing ways, including this: About one of every four new H.I.V. diagnoses comes when the patient is found already to have AIDS. That means that in those cases, the infection went not only untreated, but undetected for a decade, on average.
Less than two weeks ago, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted a new, more aggressive policy on H.I.V. testing, saying that it should become a routine part of doctor visits. The agency and its supporters argue that finding more hidden infections would save lives, getting people into treatment earlier and persuading them to change their sexual behavior and reduce the spread of the virus.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
SC: Same-sex marriage debate low-key in S.C.
The State, SC, October 1, 2006
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/15649756.htm
Same-sex marriage debate low-key in S.C.
By CAROLYN CLICK, cclick@thestate.com
To S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, marriage is between a man and awoman.
Period.
And McMaster wants to make sure that union, recognized in tradition andcommon law since ancient times, is enshrined in the South Carolinaconstitution by voters in November.
"I would call it the ultimate clarification," said McMaster, who said thereis already a state statute on the books that prohibits same-sex unions.
Opponents fear enshrining a ban on same-sex marriage in the stateconstitution would relegate homosexuals to second-class citizenship, unableto access the same rights as other Americans.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
The Free Lance-Star, VA, October 1, 2006
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/102006/10012006/224532
Virginia: Same-sex marriage?
Gay marriage would not serve society's best interests--just ask the experts
LINDA J. WHITE
TO PARAPHRASE G.K. Chester- ton, before you take down a fence you'd betterpause and figure out why it was put there to begin with. In Europe andAmerica--including Virginia--people are being asked to remove the fence thathas, for thousands of years, defined marriage as the union between one manand one woman. Is this a discriminatory barrier that needs to be torn downor a protective boundary that should be reinforced?
The question is timely. This November, voters will be asked to give thumbsup or down on an amendment to the Virginia Constitution defining marriage.Further, they will choose between two senatorial candidates with divergentviews on the subject.
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Salon
September 29, 2006
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/29/mcgreevey/index.html
The passion of Jim McGreevey
"The Confession" charts the New Jersey governor's path from Nixon-lovingCatholic boy to Democratic player to proud "gay American." But his attemptat repentance amounts to little more than an egomaniac's memoir.
By Richard Kim
As long as we're trafficking in confessions, let me begin with one of myown. Some years ago, I was a closeted homosexual. I was also -- and this isthe embarrassing part -- YMCA Youth Governor of New Jersey, an "office" I campaigned for with cheerful determination and ruthlessness in rank highschool gymnasiums up and down the turnpike. I admit that as I signed a stackof student-authored bills into "law" -- most of which legalized drugs orprostitution -- I dreamed that I might one day do this for real. I had itall planned: the Ivy league, law school, a judicial clerkship, electedoffice, even a political wife in the mold of Hillary Clinton, a safelysexless fantasy who at the time was peddling her disastrous healthcare planthrough Congress. The first part worked out fine, but I was far too lazy toget into law school and much too faggy to deceive anyone for long, and soended my fledgling career as a closeted homosexual politician.
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