GLBT DIGEST - December 19, 2006

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Irish Times, 19 December 2006

State to let transsexuals alter gender in passports

Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent

Transsexuals will be able to have their gender changed in new Irishpassports in what will be the first statutory recognition of transgenderrights in Irish legislation.

However, the change comes as the State contests a landmark case in which atranssexual is trying to have her birth certificate changed from male tofemale.

Dr Lydia Foy, a dentist from Kildare in her 50s, was born a male, marriedand fathered two children before undergoing gender realignment surgeryalmost 15 years ago. Dr Foy, whose marriage ended in the 1990s, changed hername by deed poll in 1993.

The case will raise significant issues about the legal recognition andrights of Irish transsexuals. It is due to be heard in the High Court inApril next year.




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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
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http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb66/eb66_en.htm

Standard Eurobarometer 66 : first results,questions on same-sex marriage and adoption are on pages 42-43.


2.4 ATTITUDES TOWARDS HOMOSEXUALITY

"A majority opposed to homosexual marriages and to child adoption byhomosexual couples"

The survey also shows that openness towards homosexuality tends to be quitelimited. On average, only 32% of Europeans feel that homosexual couplesshould be allowed to adopt children throughout Europe. In fact, in 14 of the25 Member States less than a quarter of the public accepts adoption byhomosexual couples. Public opinion tends to be somewhat more tolerant asregards homosexual marriages: 44% of EU citizens agree that such marriagesshould be allowed throughout Europe. It should be noted that some MemberStates distinguish themselves from the average result by very highacceptance levels: the Netherlands tops the list with 82% of respondents infavour of homosexual marriages and 69% supporting the idea of adoption byhomosexual couples. Opposition is strongest in Greece, Latvia (both 84%and 89%, respectively) and Poland (76% and 89%).

One has to remember that homosexual marriages (or similar union between topersons of the same gender) are allowed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain,Sweden and in the UK.



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



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-2506319,00.html

The real experts on underage sex
In all this talk about lowering the age of consent in Scotland, shouldn't wetake time to talk to the children, asks Joan McFadden


When Paul lost his virginity to an older girl, he never thought he might becommitting a crime. Emma, his first girlfriend, was a year older than him at15 and already sexually experienced. But when her parents discovered thenature of their relationship, it was 14-year-old Paul who was threatenedwith the law.

"All hell broke loose, made worse when they phoned my parents, who rushedround for a mortifying conference," he recalls. Paul thought his parentswould be reasonably supportive, as they liked Emma and had always beenstraightforward about sex education.



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


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 18, 2006
Luis Vizcaino | Phone: 202/216.1547 | Cell: 310/869.5700
Brad Luna | Phone: 202/216.1514 | Cell: 202/812.8140

Human Rights Campaign President's Statement on Selection of New Log CabinRepublican President

WASHINGTON - Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign,released the following statement today in response to the appointment ofinterim-President, Patrick Sammon, to become the new head of the LogCabin Republicans.

"I want to congratulate Patrick on his selection as President of the LogCabin Republicans," said Joe Solmonese. "During his time asinterim-President of Log Cabin Republicans and previously as VicePresident of the Liberty Education Forum, Patrick has established areputation as a dedicated advocate and valued partner in our strugglefor equality. We look forward to continuing a great relationship withPatrick. As we enter a new session of Congress, it will be vital toseek out bipartisan support for our community's top legislative agendaitems and Patrick's leadership will be essential to those efforts."




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December 19, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
When Prudishness Costs Lives
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
POIPET, Cambodia

This is an impoverished, authoritarian, war-ravaged country, but it offersan important lesson for President Bush and American school boards: Don'tfear those lifesaving bits of latex known as condoms.

Cambodia has become one of the world's few success stories in the struggleagainst AIDS, and it has achieved that success partly by vigorouslypromoting condoms. This strategy has saved thousands of lives.

Cambodia has cut the prevalence of H.I.V. in adults from 3 percent in 1997to about 1.8 percent today. In rural Cambodian towns like this one,billboards and posters promote condoms, and clinics and brothels havebuckets of them. Health centers don't have X-ray machines or oxygen tanks,but they have phalluses to show visitors how to put on condoms.



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


PinkNews.co.uk, UK, December 18, 2006

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3303.html

EU nations "sharply divided" over gay marriage Torsten Højer

Attitudes towards gay marriage are sharply divided depending on where inEurope you live, and survey has found.

A EU funded Eurobarometer poll, which asks 30,000 people around Europe on arange of issues twice a year, found that European nations are split onwhether gays should be allowed to marry.

Attitudes also differ hugely depending on geographical location - withnorthern Europe coming out in support of gay rights but eastern Europeancountries still against equality.

The Dutch are the biggest supporter of gay rights, with 82% backing same-sexmarriage whereas less than 20 % supported the idea in several eastern andsouthern countries.




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


Edinburgh Evening News, UK, December 18, 2006

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1878722006

Editorial: 'Church must accept reality of gay partnership'

NEARLY 1000 same-sex couples have "tied the knot" since civil partnershipswere introduced in Scotland last year. And Edinburgh has quickly establisheditself as the gay wedding capital, with more such ceremonies here thananywhere else in Scotland.

All these ceremonies are strictly non-religious, but some of the couplesinvolved do seek to have their partnership recognised with some kind ofreligious blessing as well.

A vote at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly earlier this year showedthe Kirk was sharply divided on whether or not this should be encouraged.

And subsequent votes at local presbyteries have revealed a strongtraditionalist view at grassroots level against same-sex blessings.



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http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/90617.html


Dan Walters: Gay cause reignites passions
By Dan Walters - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, December 11, 2006


California certainly doesn't suffer from a lack of visceral politicalissues -- illegal immigration, gay marriage, abortion rights, prisonovercrowding, gun control and taxes, to name but a few of the more obvious.

Topics with the capacity to stir emotional responses are very often thefodder of ballot measures. And in a Legislature composed overwhelmingly ofvery liberal Democrats and very conservative Republicans, such issuesgenerate heated debate, very often reflecting the take-no-prisoners tone ofradio talk shows.

The two other branches of state government, however, are not asideologically polarized as the Legislature. Governors, including the currentone, tend to be ideological centrists, and since Supreme Court justices areappointed by governors, they, too, have tended to reflect the ideologicaland legal middle -- as exemplified by Chief Justice Ron George. Centristsare, by their nature, less predictable than those on the left and right --and that unpredictability drives ideologues crazy, since they seeflexibility and pragmatism as unprincipled inconsistency.



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http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=172438&format=graphic


Gay condo controversy
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Special Report
Boston Herald Business Reporter

Sunday, December 17, 2006 - Updated: 07:49 AM EST


The Bay State, the birthplace of gay marriage, is on the cusp of anotherrevolution in alternative living that could prove to be just ascontroversial - gay condo communities.

Developers across the country are drawing up plans for condo projects -and sometimes even whole communities - targeted at gay and lesbian buyers.And Massachusetts is proving to be a fertile laboratory for this experiment.

Two planned developments on either end of the state, the Stonewall atAudubon Circle in the Fenway and Paradise One in Easthampton, are pioneeringcondo complexes marketed to older gay and lesbian residents.



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http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_4853067


Homophobia declining, but still a problem in schools

Stephanie Forgues Monty Tech student
Sentinel & EnterpriseArticle Launched:12/16/2006 10:56:48 AM EST


Editor's Note: This is one in a series of columns written by area highschool students, called High School Confidential, about issues that concernthem.


For those who are not up-to-date about some of the topics today's teenagersare talking about and often taking part in, I'll tell you one thing thatseems to get a lot of attention, as it does anywhere else: Homosexuality.

Knowing that homosexuality is a topic that many high school students don'twant to publicly speak about for whatever reason, I have decided I will forthem.


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The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/


Preachers found logic in denial

Article Last Updated:12/16/2006 11:29:00 PM MST


The Rev. Paul Barnes and the Rev. Ted Haggard have asked their legions ofdevout followers to pray for them. The preachers have admitted to homosexualbehavior, something that for years they railed quite lucratively against bycalling it a sin and an abomination.

"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. ... Ican't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, beggingGod to take this away," Barnes said in a videotaped statement to the GraceChapel congregation in Douglas County last week.

"There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've beenwarring against it all of my adult life," Haggard wrote in a letter to the14,000 members of his New Life Church in Colorado Springs last month.



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http://www.onlinegreensboro.com/~matthillnc/archives/1700


More proof why LGBT youth support is needed: 42% of all homeless youth aregay
December 16th, 2006 by Matt

A report was released in New York City on Thursday, December 14, 2006, bythe National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for theHomeless (AP, Newsday)

The report finds that up to 42% of all the estimated 575,000 to 1.6 millionhomeless youth in the United States are lesbian, gay, bisexual ortransgender (LGBT). In New York City alone, 8,400 out of an estimated totalof 30,000 homeless youth identify as LGBT.

The report says that the rate of homelessness among LGBT youth is becomingan "epidemic" in the United States.


More than a quarter of the LGBT youth who came out to their parents orguardians were kicked out, and once on the street they're particularlyvulnerable to mental health problems and diseases such as AIDS, said thereport, which relies mostly on government statistics and existing studies onthat population.




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The Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/columnists/sfl-abrownback19dec19,0,6691937.story

Senator will let judge's nomination go to a vote
Brownback put a stop to process over gay ceremony.
By Neil A. Lewis
The New York Times

December 19, 2006


WASHINGTON · Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who had blocked the confirmationof a woman to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitmentceremony for the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allowa vote on the nomination.

Brownback, a possible contender for the Republican presidential nominationin 2008, said in a recent interview that when the Senate returned inJanuary, he would allow a vote on Janet Neff, 61, a Michigan state judge,who was nominated to a U.S. District Court seat.

Brownback, who has been criticized for blocking the nomination, said hewould also no longer press a proposed solution he offered on Dec. 8 thatgarnered even more criticism: that he would remove his block if Neff agreedto recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions.



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