GLBT DIGEST - November 5, 2006

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

Tight Battle Over SD Anti-Gay Amendment
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

November 3, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/110306sdPoll.htm

(Sioux Falls, South Dakota) A new poll shows voters in South Dakota equallydivided over a proposed amendment that would bar same-sex marriage in thestate.

The Mason-Dixon poll for the Argus Leader shows that 47 percent of likelyvoters oppose the amendment and 46 percent support it. In the four daysleft before voters go to the polls both sides on the issue are targeting theseven percent who have not yet made up their minds.

In addition to banning gay marriage the proposed amendment would block civilunions, domestic partnerships, and all "quasi-marital"relationships.





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

http://www.sexualintelligence.org/

Sexual Intelligence
An Electronic Newsletter
Written and published by Marty Klein, Ph.D.
Issue #64 -- June 2005

Issue #81 -- November 2006

Contents
Austrian Parliament Celebrates Austrians
Civilization: The Ultimate Danger
Mark Foley: "Them" or "Us?"
Liquor Banned From Non-Existent Strip Clubs
New Jersey Court: Gays Are Human
How They Do It


Austrian Parliament Celebrates Austrians
Observe Gay Pride Month in Congress? With greetings from Queen Elizabeth?That's the equivalent of what happened last month in Vienna, Austria'scapital--the first national Parliament to honor a gay-lesbian organization.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110400381.html

Female Bishop Takes Helm of Episcopal Church
1st Woman to Lead Denomination Vows to Seek Healing

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 5, 2006; A18



Wearing multicolored vestments that represent a new dawn, Bishop KatharineJefferts Schori formally took office yesterday as the first woman to leadthe Episcopal Church and promised to seek healing and wholeness in adenomination threatened by schism.

Jefferts Schori, 52, a pilot, rock climber and former oceanographer whosesurprise election in June deepened existing rifts over homosexuality and theauthority of scripture, did not delve into those issues in her openingsermon as presiding bishop. But she did call for peace, intoning the Hebrewword "shalom" no fewer than seven times.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301451_pf.html


Please Say 'I Don't'

By Dahlia Lithwick
Sunday, November 5, 2006; B02



Virginia voters will go to the polls this week to decide whether to amendthe state constitution not only to ban same-sex marriage, but also to refuseto recognize any legal arrangement between "unmarried individuals" -- gay orstraight -- that confers marriage-like benefits. The ballot initiative isshocking, not only in its bigotry against all unmarried couples, but in itsattempt to transform a constitution -- a document meant to lay out ourhighest freedoms and aspirations -- into a vicious cudgel to separate "us"from "them."

The voters of Virginia have already made their feelings about same-sexmarriage clear: State statutes prohibit civil unions and marriages betweensame-sex couples. Virginia law also nullifies civil unions solemnized in anyother state.


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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opinion/05kristof.html?pagewanted=print

November 5, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Abortion, Condoms and Bush
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

It seemed the perfect way to shame President Bush for disregarding the poor:I suggested that he had presided over a surge in abortions.

In that column two years ago, I cited a study indicating that the abortionrate had risen sharply after Mr. Bush took office. Conservatives protestedfuriously, saying that the figures weren't reliable.

Now we do have better statistics, and my conservative critics seem to havebeen right.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do show a tiny increase inabortions in 2002 (the most recent year available). But more comprehensivefigures from the Guttmacher Institute, which does research on reproductivehealth, indicate that abortions fell - albeit by tiny amounts - in the firstthree years of Mr. Bush's presidency.




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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opinion/05rich.html?pagewanted=print

November 5, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Throw the Truthiness Bums Out
By FRANK RICH

EACH voter will have a favorite moment from the fabulous midterms of 2006.Forced to pick my own, I'd go for Lynne Cheney's pre-Halloween slapdown ofWolf Blitzer on CNN. It's not in every political campaign that you get towatch the wife of the vice president of the United States slug it out aboutlesbian sex while promoting a children's book titled "Our 50 States: AFamily Adventure Across America."

The pretext for this improbable dust-up was a last-ditch strategy by theflailing incumbent Republican senator of Virginia, George Allen. Desperateto resuscitate his campaign, Senator Allen attacked his opponent, Jim Webb,for writing sexually explicit passages in his acclaimed novels about theVietnam War. Mr. Webb fought back by pointing out, among other Republicanhypocrisies, Mrs. Cheney's authorship of an out-of-print 1981 novel,"Sisters," with steamy sexual interludes suitable for "The L Word."



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-religion-evangelical-scandal.html?pagewanted=print


November 4, 2006

Pastor to Resign From Church Amid Sex Scandal
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:55 p.m. ET

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - Disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard agreedto resign as pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado after the church'sboard found he committed ''sexually immoral conduct,'' church officials saidon Saturday.

Haggard, a vocal opponent of gay marriage, resigned as president of theNational Association of Evangelicals on Thursday after being accused by amale escort of having had a sexual relationship with him and using the drugmethamphetamine, better known by its street name ``meth.''

He also had stepped down temporarily as senior pastor of New Life Church inColorado Springs, a 14,000-member ''Mega-Church.''



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Anti-gay riot sparks Israeli high alert

Hassan Mirza

GAY.COM
1 November, 2006


A riot erupted Tuesday night as hundreds of ultra Orthodox Jews marched toprotest next months' Jerusalem Pride.

Members of the Haredi sect created massive uproar: blocking roads, settingrubbish bins on fire, and throwing rocks at police officers. Protestors wereled by leaders wearing sack cloths, a Biblical sign of bereavement, andcarrying placards slamming homosexuality that said "Jerusalem will not belike Sodom and Gomorrah".

Police cited similar disturbances around Israel on Tuesday.

The riot followed the Jerusalem police chief's significant decision to placethe force on an "Emergency Alert", raising the national alert to its highestlevel relative to current scenarios.

According to the Jerusalem Post the current police situation in response tothe protests resembles that of the 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip, withall police holidays suspended to ensure maximum manpower on the day of theparade, November 11.



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