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Killing gays is OK, says Muslim Imam
Manchester Imam defends execution of gay people
Manchester, England - 20 October 2006
Manchester's leading Imam has confirmed that he thinks the executionof sexually active gay men is justified. Mr. Arshad Misbahi, who isbased at the Manchester Central Mosque, confirmed his views in aconversation to Dr John Casson, a local psychotherapist.
Dr Casson said: "I asked him if the execution of gay Muslims in Iranand Iraq was an acceptable punishment in Sharia law, or the result ofculture, not religion. He told me that in a true Islamic state, suchpunishments were part of Islam: if the person had had a trial, atwhich four witnesses testified that they had seen the actualhomosexual acts."
"I asked him what would be the British Muslim view? He repeated thatin an Islamic state these punishments were justified. They mightresult in the deaths of thousands but if this deterred millions fromhaving sex, and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protectthe wider community."
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Pope urges Italians to oppose "deviant" love
By Philip Pullella
Reuters
October 19, 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1551482006&format=print
VERONA, Italy (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Thursday urged Italian Catholics to defend the traditional family and in an apparent reference to gaymarriage, said they should oppose any moves to legalise "weak and deviant"
unions.
The Pope made his comments in a long, wide-ranging speech to a nationalconvention of Italy's politically powerful Roman Catholic Church in thenorthern Italian city of Verona, famous as the setting for Shakespeare's"Romeo and Juliet".
While he did not specifically mention gay marriage, thousands of listenersat the fairgrounds in Verona's outskirts strongly applauded the two parts ofhis speech about the family and "other forms of unions".
He urged them to fight "with determination ... the risk of political andlegislative decisions that contradict fundamental values and anthropologicaland ethical principles rooted in human nature".
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Ohio Republican Governor Candidate raises
the specter of NAMBLA in televised debate
Candidate raises the
specter of NAMBLA in televised debate
by Eric Resnick
http://www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/stories06/october/1020061.htm
October 20, 2006
Columbus--In what is being viewed as a desperate move from someone trailingby double digits in the polls, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwellaccused his Democratic opponent Ted Strickland of being supported by theNorth American Man-Boy Love Association.
Blackwell threw the bomb on October 16 at the fourth candidate debatebetween the men, at WBNS Channel 10 in Columbus.
NAMBLA is a mostly defunct organization that tried to legalize sex betweenmen and boys in the 1970s. It is denounced by every LGBT advocacy group, andis no longer incorporated.
Since 1995, its only presence has been a barely maintained website and a boxat a private San Francisco mail service. The organization no longer hasmeetings. Its founders and membership base are mostly deceased.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6066606.stm
Curators say a Norwegian exhibition on homosexuality among animals has beenwell received, despite initial indications of strong opposition.
The Oslo Natural History Museum opened the show last week and says it hasbeen well attended, not least by families.
Organisers reported early criticism of the project, and being told by oneopponent they would "burn in hell".
But there has been strong interest in an aspect of animal behaviour themuseum says is quite common.
It says homosexuality has been observed among 1,500 species, and that in 500of those it is well documented.
The exhibition - entitled Against Nature? - includes photographs of one malegiraffe mounting another, of apes stimulating others of the same sex, andtwo aroused male right whales rubbing against each other.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Same-Sex Marriage in New Jersey May Soon Be Legal
By Gena Hymowech
October 19, 2006
http://www.247gay.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=11157
The [New Jersey] Supreme Court is expected to rule in favor of same- sexmarriage in New Jersey by October 25.
"Several legal scholars and political insiders expect the court-known to beamong the more activist in the country on social issues and individualrights-to find that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry inthe state," writes Katherine Hamilton in the Daily Princetonian.
Furthermore, she quotes Tom Bohnett, president of the Princeton JusticeProject, as noting that "The New Jersey State Supreme has a history oftaking risks in line with what they understand to be in the stateconstitution, and so one could very plausibly imagine that the case would bedecided in favor of the seven gay and lesbian couples seeking to marry."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901114_pf.html
'Anatomy' Star T.R. Knight Says He's Gay
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 19, 2006; 8:06 PM
NEW YORK -- "Grey's Anatomy" star T.R. Knight says he's gay, but hopespeople don't consider that "the most interesting part of me." The33-year-old actor addressed rumors of his sexuality in a statement to Peoplemagazine Thursday.
"I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I'd like toquiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there," Knight's statementread. "While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact thatI'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me."
Knight plays Dr. George O'Malley on the popular ABC drama. A former stageactor, his television credits also include "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."
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Salon
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/20/outing/index_np.html
The glass closet
As Foleygate shows, Washington has a unique definition of what it means tobe "openly gay." Should the media keep playing along?
By Alex Koppelman
Oct. 20, 2006 | In 2003, the Washington Blade was preparing a story on thesexual orientation of Florida congressman Mark Foley. By then, Foley'shomosexuality was an open secret -- he had been outed by journalist KurtWolfe on a New York radio show in 1996.
What was not widely known was that Kirk Fordham, Foley's then-chief ofstaff, was also gay. The Blade knew it, however, and so editor Chris Crainasked Fordham how, and whether, he wanted his sexual orientation identifiedin the paper. Fordham's response was that he was "out in the community butnot in the press," and so the Blade refrained, for a time, from printinganything about Fordham's life as an openly gay man.
This situation is one now faced on a regular basis by reporters and editorsin Washington, forcing them to ask questions about how and when they shouldreport on sexual orientation. In an era in which the closet is no longerwhat it once was, when supposedly closeted individuals may be out to nearlyeveryone in their life, is it the media's responsibility to help publicfigures hide the truth from voters? And in the wake of the Foley scandal,does the press need to reevaluate how it deals with the issue?
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The Miami Herald
October 20, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15802460.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Surrender your identity at gate to GOP's big tent
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
LPitts@MiamiHerald.com
I guess the tent wasn't big enough after all.
Meaning the ''big tent'' strategy dreamy-eyed Republicans have been toutingsince the 1990s. Theirs was, they said, a party big enough to encompasspeople from all walks of life. Now we learn they meant all walks except thegay walk.
If this wasn't clear before (and it was), it sure is now, in the wake ofrevelations that Mark Foley, former congressman from Florida, wasnot-so-secretly gay and not-so-secretly sending explicit e-mails to teenagepages. For at least some in the GOP, the former seems the greater sin.Indeed, the party has responded to news of gays in its midst with anuncoordinated clunkiness fascinating to those of us who have grown used to aGOP machine that hums along like a new car.
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http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/10/polands_antigay.html
Posted by Doug Ireland
October 19, 2006
POLAND'S ANTI-GAY PRIME MINISTER OUTED
as the government continues to spew homo-hate
I wrote the following article for Gay City News, New York City's largestgay weekly, which published it today:
Poland's homophobic Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski-the identical twinbrother of Polish President Lech Kaczynski-was outed as a homosexual inmajor Polish media last week in the midst of a political crisis thatthreatened to cause his government's downfall.
Poland's second-most important newspaper, Rzeczpolita, published documents- some only recently declassified, and some that were leaked-from the files ofthe Polish Secret Service that discussed Prime Minister Kaczynski'shomosexuality.
As part of an investigation, begun in 1992, of right-wingpolitical parties that, the documents said, "could threaten democracy," aSecret Service department then headed by Colonel Jan Lesiak reported, "It isadvisable to establish if Jaroslaw Kaczynski remains in a long-termhomosexual relationship and, if so, who his partner is." (Photo above right:the Kaczynski Twins, Prime Minister Jaroslaw on the right)
Jaroslaw Kaczynski was appointed prime minister in July 2006 by his brother,the president. Both Kaczynski brothers, known as the "Terrible Twins," arenotorious for their public homophobia, and Jaroslaw has proposed banninggays from teaching in the schools.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901931_pf.html
The Washington Post
Hill Republicans Air Out the Closet
Foley Scandal Points Up Acceptance And Anxieties of Gay Staffers
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006; C01
In October 1993, after the ban on gays in the military was replaced with a"don't ask, don't tell" policy, three Oklahoma congressmen said theywouldn't hire an openly gay person onto their staffs. Then-Rep. Jim Inhofe(R) told the Tulsa World: "I would not appoint a gay person in that type ofleadership position."
That declaration sent a ripple of fear across a certain set on Capitol Hill.A small, bipartisan group of staffers huddled and formed the Lesbian and GayCongressional Staff Association, which now has a confidential e-mail list ofmore than 200. And a frustrated aide contacted the Tulsa World and gave ananonymous interview.
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Netherlands: Asylum Rights Granted to Lesbian and Gay Iranians
(New York, October 20, 2006) In a major policy shift, the Dutch government's recognition that lesbian and gay Iranians are a "special group" facing persecution at home and deserving protection in the Netherlands sets an example for other European states of their legal responsibility not to return people to the risk of torture, ill-treatment or execution, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch, which worked closely with the Dutch lesbian and gay organization COC on the issue, applauded this change in policy by the Dutch government.
"The Dutch government has affirmed its international legal obligations in asserting that it will not send gay and lesbian Iranian asylum seekers to a country where they face the risk of torture or execution," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "The priority now is to ensure that this policy is implemented fully and fairly, and that no one in the Netherlands is sent back to face torture."
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http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061013&Category=NEWS08&ArtNo=610130344&SectionCat=&Template=printart
More admit same-sex relations
Survey: Number of gays reporting ties on rise in Ohio, Mich.
By KARAMAGI RUJUMBA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Not only are Ohioans increasingly identifying their same-sex relationshipstatus, but so are gay, lesbian, and bisexual couples in the Midwest andother parts of the country, according to a study by the Williams Instituteon Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the University of Californiaat Los Angeles' school of law.
The study says Ohio had a 62 percent growth in the number of people who saidthey were in same-sex relationships between 2000 and 2005, from 18,937couples in the 2000 census to 30,669 couples in last year's AmericanCommunity Survey. Michigan had a 48 percent increase from 15,368 in 2000 to22,701 in 2005.
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http://www.local10.com/news/10110212/detail.html?treets=mia&tid=2655619429813&tml=mia_9am&tmi=mia_9am_1_08000210192006&ts=H
Child Porn Sting Nets Bible Camp, Boy Scout Leaders
Videos Show Infants Engaged In Sex Acts
POSTED: 7:49 am EDT October 19, 2006
NEWARK, N.J. -- A Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader were among 125people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case in whichsubscribers purchased photos and videos of children engaged in sex acts withadults, federal authorities said Wednesday.
The case originated in New Jersey, but quickly spread to 22 states. Thedefendants were charged with either possession or receipt of childpornography. Additional arrests were expected.
Prosecutors said the Web site alerted subscribers that its content wasillegal and urged them to be discreet about their purchases.
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