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Ray's List will be offline Thursday, and Friday - November 9 and 10.
This will allow your computers to cool down a bit.
Best wishes!!!
Ray and Michael
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/110806victory.htm
Record Number of Gays Elected To Office
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
November 8, 2006 - 10:00 am ET
(Washington) The wave that swept Democrats to victory on Tuesday led tounprecedented success in electing openly gay candidates.
Sixty-seven candidates endorsed by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, anorganization that helps LGBT candidates gain office, were elected innational, state and local races.
Some of the victories were historic said Victory Fund president Chuck Wolfe.
"This is the tipping point election for openly gay candidates," said Wolfe.
"We're proving that qualified, well-prepared candidates matched withcommitted donors means gays and lesbians can move from having a stake inpolicy to actually making policy. There's no reason to sit on the sidelineswith our fingers crossed anymore."
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From Marc Adams
HeartStrong
An Open Letter to Ted Haggard
November 2006
Dear Ted,
There comes a time in every man's life where his true character is allowedto show. I've never met you but from the events over the past years ofyour life, it would be safe for me to say that this is your time.
Struggling with being gay is nothing new. In fact, for millions of peoplearound the world, through every place and time, people have struggled tounderstand their homosexuality.
The most common reaction to this fight is to find something to blame forthe struggle. As a former fundamentalist Baptist Christian, I struggledfor many years as a young gay man. I was taught that my family structure,coupled with my inability to resist Satan was the cause for my giving into homosexuality.
It was much easier for me to find something to blame my homosexuality onthan to look into my heart and find that being gay was as much areflection of my true self as my sister's heterosexuality was a reflectionof her true self.
This is your moment for you to show your true character; to stand and be areal man and learn how to accept yourself and respect yourself as you are.
Reparative/restorative therapy does not work. You can convince yourself,your family and friends that you have changed your behavior over time. Infact, you can manipulate your brain enough to actually believe that yourfaith in God will help you with overcoming what you view as a sin.
Your own personal history has already shown that regardless of your faith,regardless of your desire to be a heterosexual and regardless of yourattempts to build a heterosexual life, you are not a heterosexual.
Discovering that is not a reason for sorrow, remorse or shame. Rather, itis a time to reflect, count your blessings and find a way to move into aplace of self acceptance.
You may want to try reparative/restorative therapy since it has alreadybegun for you. But keep in mind as you go through the process, that whileyour family, church, accountability partners and others may not see yourreality, every single person who has ever struggled to find a place ofself acceptance knows exactly what you are going through. We know what itis you will be thinking about when you are alone. We know how easy it isto think about ending your life rather than moving into a place of selfacceptance.
Believe it or not, your struggle, and the recent events regarding yourremoval from religious leadership can be the catalyst that allows you tobe a real man and stand for what you know in your heart has always beentrue and real for you.
Instead of continuing the charades and duality in your life (yes, many ofus have lived that way as well), you can begin your life anew. A lifelived honestly and with confidence is the best life to live.
Forgiveness for your past of deception and your deadly anti-gay words isfairly easy to come by. But you have to take that first step, which ishonesty.
You are not alone.
Over the past ten years, HeartStrong has helped many hundreds of peoplewho have attended religious schools like yourself. And, we are here tohelp you now.
Your friend on the journey,
Marc Adams
marcadams@heartstrong.org
http://www.heartstrong.org
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/15939059.htm
Posted on Mon, Nov. 06, 2006
Carnal Knowledge
Looking at porn through a gender gap
By Faye Flam
Inquirer Staff Writer
Last month researchers at McGill University in Canada reconfirmed what we'llcall the porn paradox: When hooked up to instruments measuring sexualarousal, men and women reacted with equal speed when watching pornographicfilms.
This raises several questions, including why women are so much less likelythan men to consider viewing porn a valuable use of our time. But the typeof material used in the study also raises broader questions about theeffects of porn on both sexes.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
National Review Online, November 6, 2006
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGZkYTBiZTI3MDkyMGE2ZjNjNTY4NjgyZmVkNDdmYjM=
Saving the Conservative Soul
Don't take the wrong lesson from Ted Haggard's fall.
By David Klinghoffer
The meaning of evangelical leader Ted Haggard's downfall needs to be wellunderstood by religious conservatives, lest the tragedy be compounded. Thepain that has befallen the man - now resigned as president of the NationalAssociation of Evangelicals - along with his family and church is theconsequence of his poor decisions.
What would be worse than his personal destruction, however, is if the sideof the culture war that Haggard ably fought against in his public life wereallowed to define his sins as a final proof that religious conservatismitself is cruel, stupid, and morally corrupt. On the contrary, the Haggardstory confirms some truths of the worldview he defended.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
The Age, Australia, November 6, 2006
http://www.theage.com.au/news/relationships/licence-to-wed/2006/11/06/1162661583031.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Licence to wed
Steve Dow
Should marriage be accessible to all? Many gay couples are finding their wayaround Australian law.
Young love can be such a trip. On a Thursday evening in 1993, Theo Phillip,a Yorkshire-born 27-year-old of West Indian and English heritage, wasenjoying his weekly convivial at Cruise, a gay bar near London's TrafalgarSquare.
His group of friends' briefcases lay at their feet as they drank."This cute boy - I thought he was American - came and tripped over ourbags," Phillip says. "He smacked his face and I helped him up. So I pickedhim up in a bar, literally."
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
PA: Pastor welcomes church trial for lesbian marriage
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, PA, November 6, 2006
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06310/735978-51.stm
Pastor welcomes church trial for lesbian marriage By Ann Rodgers, PittsburghPost-Gazette
Most people send formal invitations for weddings, but the Rev. Janet Edwardshas gone a step further with invitations to her church trial for conductingthe wedding of two lesbians.
"I feel such delight in having an opportunity to engage in the absolutelyessential discussion that has to go on in the Presbyterian Church over theplace of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people among us that Ireally do want the church to come and join in it and witness it. I can'tquash that delight," said the Rev. Edwards, a minister of the PresbyterianChurch (USA) and a pastoral associate at the Community of Reconciliation inOakland.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Deb Price--Saginaw group plots ways to overturn gay marriage ban
Detroit News, MI, November 6, 2006
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061106/OPINION03/611060309/1008/OPINION01
Saginaw group plots ways to overturn gay marriage ban Deb Price
Americans instinctively hunt for creative solutions.
So it's only natural that, after a series of elections in which votersamended their state constitutions to ban marriage for gay couples,industrious gay and gay-friendly folks came together to start drawingblueprints for a workable 10-year plan to erase their state's ban.
It happened on a recent Saturday night in Saginaw -- historically a hotbedof innovation and inspiration -- when 70 people brainstormed at a town hallappropriately billed as "Turning the Anti-Gay Tide."
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2006/2006-11-07-scandals-usat_x.htm
Sex, money scandals figure into some House races
Updated 11/8/2006 2:22 AM ET
By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
Sex, money and influence - the trifecta of political scandals - dominatedmore than a dozen Congressional races.
Many of the candidates in trouble were linked to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyistwho pleaded guilty in January to felonies including bribing a member ofCongress, or to former congressman Mark Foley, the Florida Republican whoresigned in September after being confronted about sexually explicitcomputer messages and improper e-mails sent to teenage boys serving asCongressional pages.
Democrats took three seats vacated as a result of scandal: those of Foley;former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned his Texas seat in Juneafter a fundraising scandal; and former Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney, whoresigned last week after pleading guilty to corruption in the Abramoffscandal.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2006/11/07/us/07pedophile.html&tntemail1=y
November 7, 2006
Prosecutor Kills Himself in Texas Raid Over Child Sex
By TIM EATON
TERRELL, Tex., Nov. 6 - A prosecutor in this North Texas town killed himselfSunday as the police tried to arrest him on charges of soliciting sex overthe Internet from a person he thought was a 13-year-old boy.
The prosecutor, Louis Conradt Jr., 56, had been caught in a sting operationset up by Dateline NBC, the television news magazine, and an Internetwatchdog group called Perverted Justice. An NBC camera crew was outside thehouse to film the scene when the fatal shot was fired.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Townhall.com, November 7, 2006
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/DennisPrager/2006/11/07/is_a_gay_who_opposes_same-sex_marriage_a_hyprocrit
Is a gay who opposes same-sex marriage a hyprocrit?
By Dennis Prager
Why did a gay prostitute tell the media about the homosexual behavior of aleading Christian opponent of same-sex marriage on the weekend before anelection, an election in which eight states vote on whether to maintain thedefinition of marriage as between a man and a woman?
Because he knew, first of all, that the media love to publicize the sexuallives of public figures. How else to explain the extensive reporting by themainstream news media of the private sexual acts of a prominent sportscastera decade ago -- a basketball announcer, not a politician, not a religiousleader?
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gardenguy6nov06,1,5845758.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Landscapers: We don't take gay customers
A Houston company's rejection of a client shocks some in the city, wherehomosexuals have made strides.
By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer
November 6, 2006
HOUSTON - The co-owner of a landscaping company here called Garden Guyturned down a job last month by sending an e-mail to a man who had requestedan estimate for work on his yard:
"I am appreciative of your time on the phone today and glad you contactedus," Sabrina Farber wrote. "I need to tell you that we cannot meet with youbecause we choose not to work with homosexuals. Best of luck in findingsomeone else to fill your landscaping needs. All the best."
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top13nov08,0,2896547.story
Gay Marriage Ban Rejected in Arizona
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
November 8, 2006, 6:35 AM EST
In a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakotans rejected a law thatwould have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state todefeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measurebacking stem cell research.
Nationwide, a total of 205 measures were on the ballots in 37 statesTuesday, but none had riveted political activists across the country likethe South Dakota measure. Passed overwhelmingly by the legislature earlierthis year, it would have been the toughest abortion law in the nation,allowing the procedure only to save a pregnant woman's life.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_us18nov07,0,4180793.story
Dobson Quits Haggard Counseling Team
November 7, 2006, 9:19 PM EST
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Citing a lack of time, Focus on the Familyfounder James Dobson withdrew Tuesday from the team overseeing counselingfor the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amidallegations of gay sex and drug use.
"Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help -- but the reality is Idon't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility," Dobsonsaid.
The other two members of the team, Pastors Jack Hayford of The Church on theWay in Van Nuys, Calif., and Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God inPhoenix, declined to comment.
Haggard was forced out as senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Churchon Saturday after a former male escort alleged they had sex repeatedly andthat Haggard used methamphetamines.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-agender08nov08,0,1420275.story
Boy or girl? It's a personal choice
New York plans to allow changes on birth certificates
By Damien Cave
The New York Times
November 8, 2006
NEW YORK · Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, NewYork City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on theirbirth certificates even if they have not had sex-change surgery.
Under the rule being considered by the city's Board of Health, which islikely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to changethe documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits froma doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patientsshould be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that theirproposed change would be permanent.
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The Miami Herald
November 8, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15954208.htm
Wisconsin votes against gay marriage, for death penalty
CHRIS JENKINS
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - Gay rights advocates targeted Wisconsin as the one place theymight be able to turn the tide of state constitutional amendments banninggay marriage.
It didn't happen, but an Arizona surprise softened their disappointment.
Wisconsin voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment banningstate recognition of gay marriage and any type of civil union similar tomarriage. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of votersfavored the amendment according to unofficial returns.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/110706uChurch.htm
Canada's Largest Protestant Church Launches Gay Positive Media Campaign
by The Canadian Press
November 7, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Toronto, Ontario) An ad showing Jesus Christ sitting in a Santa Clauschair is part of a United Church campaign launched Tuesday aimed at reachingout to the 30-to-45 crowd in hopes of getting some of them back into thepews.
The ad, among a half dozen to appear in December issues of lifestylemagazines and community newspapers, is just one aspect of a three-year $9million campaign called Emerging Spirit that also includes an interactivewebsite and a grassroots effort to get the church's 3,500 congregationsinvolved.
The ad, depicting Jesus sitting in a shopping mall with a child on his kneeand surrounded by presents, asks: ``Would you still take your kids?''
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