GLBT DIGEST - November 4, 2006

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http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/Latin_America_And_Caribbean/St_Maarten_Tourists_Attacked.html

4 Convicted of Beating Gay Tourists

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Four French nationals were convicted Thursday ofbeating two gay American tourists in this Dutch Caribbean island and weresentenced to between six months and six years in prison.

One of the victims, Ryan Smith, suffered brain damage and could not speakproperly for six months after he was attacked with a tire iron in April.Smith and the second victim, Richard Jefferson, were employees of CBS Newsin New York at the time of the attack.

Three citizens of the French part of the island - Glen Cockly, MichelineDelaney and Allan Daniel - and a man from the nearby French Caribbean islandof Guadeloupe, Michel Javois, were found guilty of public violence andcausing grievous bodily harm.



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http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-2902.html


Tennis ace joins "gay sheep" protests

03-November-2006
Marc Shoffman

Animal rights campaigners have praised lesbian tennis icon MartinaNavratilova after she criticised experiments taking place on sheep perceivedto be gay.

Navratilova spoke out against Oregon State University (OSU) and OregonHealth & Science University (OHSU) this week after it emerged that theinstitutions are conducting hormone-altering experiments on "gay sheep" tomanipulate their "sexual preferences."

The tennis star has been backed by the PETA (People For The EthicalTreatment Of Animals) after she wrote to the presidents of both universitiesdemanding they stop the experiments and spend the money on a worthy cause.

She wrote, "How can it be that, in the year 2006, a major university wouldhost such homophobic and cruel experiments? ... I respectfully ask that youpull the plug on this appalling and misguided research. Surely you can finda way to redirect the millions of public tax dollars that are being wastedon these experiments to a more fruitful venture-perhaps by funding a gay andlesbian community centre to foster dialogue and acceptance for people of allsexual preferences?"




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The Rocky Mountain News


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5115625,00.html

Haggard's sex accuser fails polygraph
By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
November 3, 2006


A former male prostitute who accused Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard ofengaging in gay sex over the course of three years failed a polygraph testadministered Friday morning in Denver.

The polygrapher, John Kresnik, said the results "indicated deception" but healso believed the results may have been skewed because the accuser, MikeJones, was suffering from a migraine and didn't get much sleep.

"I'm disappointed with myself," Jones said on Peter Boyles' morning talkshow on KHOW radio after taking the 90-minute polygraph. "I feel like I'vedisappointed a lot of people. I initiated it and I'm willing to accept theconsequences of it."

However, Jones said he "would not back down" from his original accusations.He also said - at the prompting of Kresnik - to take two more lie detectortests after he got some sleep. Jones said he only got two hours of sleep.



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The New York Times


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Haggard-Sex-Allegations.html?pagewanted=print

November 4, 2006
Evangelical Leader Says He Bought Drugs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:43 a.m. ET

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- The Rev. Ted Haggard said Friday he boughtmethamphetamine and received a massage from a male prostitute. But theinfluential Christian evangelist insisted he threw the drugs away and neverhad sex with the man.

Haggard, who as president of the National Association of Evangelicalswielded influence on Capitol Hill and condemned both gay marriage andhomosexuality, resigned on Thursday after a Denver man named Mike Jonesclaimed that he had many drug-fueled trysts with Haggard.

On Friday, Haggard said that he received a massage from Jones after beingreferred to him by a Denver hotel, and that he bought meth for himself fromthe man.



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The New York Times


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-People-Neil-Patrick-Harris.html?pagewanted=print

November 4, 2006

Actor Neil Patrick Harris Says He Is Gay
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:01 a.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumorsto the contrary. ''(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gayman living my life to the fullest,'' Harris tells People magazine's Website.

The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexualitybecause of recent ''speculation and interest in my private life andrelationships.''

Harris stars on the CBS comedy ''How I Met Your Mother.'' He started on TVas a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series ''Doogie Howser, M.D.''



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The current issue of The Express Gay News is online

http://expressgaynews.com/



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The current issue of The Independent Gay News is online

http://www.indynews.4t.com/



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301617_pf.html

Minister Admits to Buying Drugs and Massage

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A02

The Rev. Ted Haggard, the Colorado minister who resigned Thursday aspresident of the National Association of Evangelicals, admitted yesterdaythat he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a maleprostitute.

But Haggard told reporters outside his home in Colorado Springs that themassage was arranged by a Denver hotel and was not sexual. He also said hethrew the drugs away. "I never kept it very long, because it's -- it waswrong. I was tempted. I bought it, but I never used it," he said.

The 11-member executive committee of the NAE said late last night that ithad accepted his resignation. Given "the seriousness of Rev. Haggard'smisconduct while in the leadership roles he held, we anticipate an extendedperiod of recovery will be appropriate," the board said.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301580_pf.html

Marshall Admits No Doubts About Marriage
Senator's Campaign Against Same-Sex Couples Outrages Opponents

By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Write
Saturday, November 4, 2006; B04

The debate was over, and the stately atrium at the University of VirginiaSchool of Law was nearly empty. But Del. Robert G. Marshall, a PrinceWilliam County Republican who wryly refers to himself as Virginia's "chiefhomophobe," was just warming up to his next showdown over same-sex marriage.

"There is a natural order of things, a natural order where gay marriage isan impossibility," he said, books tucked under his arm and waving a hand foremphasis, like the disheveled college professor he often resembles. "Forexample, a woman's arm is constructed at a certain angle so that she canadequately cradle a baby. This is the way we're created. There are justcertain things that nature intended."



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Contra Costa Times


http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15912811.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Thu, Nov. 02, 2006

Poll shows increased support for banning gay marriage

GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Support for banning gay marriage in New Jerseygrew in the days after the state Supreme Court ruled that gay couples shouldhave the same rights as married heterosexuals, according to a poll releasedThursday.

A little over half the Rutgers-Eagleton poll's 809 respondents favoredchanging the state constitution so that gay marriages would be banned. InJune, a poll showed the opposite, with a little more than half opposing sucha constitutional amendment.

The state Supreme Court last week ruled that New Jersey's Legislaturehad six months to extend to gay couples the same protections thatheterosexual couples get when they are married. But the court said thelawmakers do not have to call it marriage.



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JIM DAVIS SIGNS END AIDS NOW PLEDGE

Congressman Jim Davis - Florida Gubernatorial Candidatesigns END AIDS NOW PLEDGE

Never before has a Gubernatorial Candidate signed a pledge to End AIDS!

Fort Lauderdale, FL - Tonight Congressman Jim Davis demonstrated leadership to the nation and the 125,000+ Floridians living with HIV/AIDS when he signed the END AIDS NOW PLEDGE. For the past several months exhaustive efforts to have been made to have any gubernatorial candidate to provide an official response to Florida having the third-most cases of HIV/AIDS in the nation and South Florida accounting for 3 of the 4 counties having the highest HIV infection rate in the nation per capita.

T0night, Gubernatorial Candidate Jim Davis committed to "work to develop and implement a plan to end AIDS including universal access to education, awareness, prevention, treatment, care and support.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz joined Jim Davis in taking a stand to demand leadership and sign the END AIDS NOW PLEDGE! She kept asking me, "Michael, tell me what I can do to help and I will!"


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http://www.speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=6389


Transcripts of Pastor Ted Haggard soliciting drugs

Gay escort releases recordings of phone messages allegedlycontaining the voice of Pastor Ted Haggard soliciting methamphetamines

Friday, November 03, 2006
Spero News


Mike Jones, a 49-year-old male escort who lives in Denver accused Rev.Ted Haggard, Evangelical Senior Pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Churchin Colorado Springs, of engaging in a three-year homosexual relationshipwith him that he said included methamphetamines use. Jones said he has theproof in recordings of telephone messages Rev. Haggard left for him.

Haggard confessed to his church's board of overseers about some of theaccusations although the board has not revealed details of the confession.

Jones provided two voice messages to the local news channel, 9News,claiming they include the voice of Haggard calling him. A voice expert told9NEWS that the messages left for the male escort matched the voice of PastorHaggard. Jones claims Art is really Haggard and is referring tomethamphetamines in the messages.

August 4, 2006 2:18 pm
"Hi Mike, this is Art. Hey, I was just calling to see if we couldget any more. Either $100 or $200 supply. And I could pick it up reallyanytime I could get it tomorrow or we could wait till next week sometime andso I also wanted to get your address. I could send you some money forinventory but that's probably not working, so if you have it then go aheadand get what you can and I may buzz up there later today, but I doubt yourschedule would allow that unless you have some in the house. Okay, I'llcheck in with you later. Thanks a lot, bye."


more....


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

The Christian Right's scare tactics and the GOP's retreat into homophobia
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Nov 3, 2006

Online Journal [Blog]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_1391.shtml

Hitler's National Socialist German Workers Party used the Bible and theirperversion of Christianity to promote bigotry, discrimination and hatred ofJews, gypsies, the physically and mentally impaired and, of course,homosexuals. The Klu Klux Klan still uses the Bible and their perversion ofChristianity to promote bigotry, discrimination and hatred of Blacks, Jewsand, of course, homosexuals. The American Family Association constantly usesthe Bible and their perversion of Christianity to promote bigotry,discrimination and hatred, but they have a more focused target:homosexuals and any group or company that supports the social recognition orlegal equality of gay and lesbian Americans, such as the dastardly"pro-homosexual" Wal-Mart chain.

Don Wildmon's American Family Association -- which is dedicated todemeaning, denigrating and, if possible, destroying gay and lesbianAmericans and their families -- "has called on Christian consumers to spendtheir dollars elsewhere as a sign of their displeasure with Wal- Mart'spro-homosexual leanings, says the nation's largest retailer is not justworking with the homosexual agenda of the NGLCC [National Gay and LesbianChamber of Commerce], it is promoting it.


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org


The GOP's dwindling anti-gay parade

Polls show Americans turning their backs on the divisive politics ofhomosexuality. Will hard-liners in the heartland, like Colorado's MarilynMusgrave, be forced to follow?

By Michael Scherer

http://salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/03/colorado/

Salon.com

Nov. 3, 2006 | LOVELAND, Colo. -- In this season of porno-themed politicalads and anti-gay marriage amendments, Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave is,surprisingly, tacking in a different direction. She no longer wants to talkin public about the "radical homosexual agenda"and its malicious impact on the American family. "I am running on a platformof security. Economic security. Border security. National security," thecorn-husk blond Republican announced at the start of a candidate debate lastweek in Windsor.

This is a dramatic departure from the Musgrave of old, the Pentecostalmother of four who came to politics in 1990 as a school committee memberdetermined to stamp out sex education. As a state legislator in Colorado,she campaigned constantly against gay marriage and attempted to denybenefits to the same-sex partners of state employees. In Congress, she hastwice served as the chief sponsor of a constitutional amendment to ban gaymarriage. "As we face the issues we're facing today, I don't think there isanything more important than the marriage issue," she announced, just sixweeks ago, at a Washington conference for values voters. "If we have gaymarriage, our religious liberties are gone."



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

Parliamentary committee in South Africa delays decision on civil unions

The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/03/africa/AF_GEN_South_Africa_Gay_Marriage.php

Friday, November 3, 2006
A key parliamentary committee on Friday delayed a decision on proposedlegislation to enshrine same-sex partnerships in the law to give more timefor discussion the measure.

The Home Affairs Portfolio Committee said it now planned to vote on thelegislation Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Civil Unions Bill was introduced to comply with a Constitutional Courtruling that the government must accord homosexual couples the same rightsand reponsibilities as heterosexual couples. The government has until Dec. 1to comply.



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org


AZ: McCain Makes TV Ads Against SSM

McCain gets heat on homefront as he heads to California

The Business Journal of Phoenix http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/
phoenix/stories/2006/10/30/daily42.html


As the election enters the homestretch, Sen. John McCain is helpingCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, while facing criticism forsupporting a gay marriage/domestic partners benefits proposition onthe homefront.

The Arizona Senator appears in television advertisements favoringProposition 107, a measure than would ban same-sex marriages andprohibits public employers from offering domestic partnershipbenefits and legal status to all unmarried couples.

Prop. 107 also is supported by social conservatives and the CatholicChurch, and opposed by most Democrats, labor unions and gay rightsadvocates who have focused on its domestic partner benefitsprohibitions.



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http://www.washblade.com/2006/11-3/news/localnews/decision.cfm


N.J. marriage ruling could impact Md. case
Appeals court to review decision in December

By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Nov. 03, 2006

A New Jersey court decision mandating equal marriage rights for gay couplescould influence the outcome of a similar case pending in Maryland, accordingto local observers.

Although the Maryland Court of Appeals is not bound by the New JerseySupreme Court's ruling of Oct. 25, legal observers said the decision couldimpact the Maryland case.

"I think it will have more of an effect psychologically," said Barbara Babb,director of the Center for Families, Children & the Courts at the Universityof Baltimore.

The Maryland Court of Appeals is scheduled to review on Dec. 4 a lower court'sruling that a 1973 state law limiting marriage to heterosexuals isunconstitutional.


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