GLBT DIGEST - February 25, 2007

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365gay

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022407njrc.htm

NJ Catholics Reminded Church Opposes Gay Unions
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 25, 2007 - 12:01 am ET

(Mount Laurel, New Jersey) At the behest of the state's seven Roman Catholicbishops, the Prayer of the Faithful in parishes across the state Sunday wasto focus on the importance of marriage.

The prayer says, in part, "God our almighty Father has given married love,its faithfulness and its fruitfulness, a special significance in the historyof salvation."

The timing of the prayer, about a week after New Jersey became the thirdstate in the nation to offer civil unions to same-sex couples, isdeliberate.

While not specifically addressing the issue, the prayer is intended toremind Catholics that the church opposes gay marriage, according to PatrickR. Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference.

Gay-rights advocates see the new law allowing civil unions as a step towardgay marriage. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples tomarry; New Jersey joined Vermont and Connecticut in allowing gay couples tojoin in civil unions.



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365gay

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022407congress.htm

Gay Hate Crimes, Civil Rights Protections Expected To Pass This Year
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 24, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET

(Washington) Anti-gay bias has flared up in Hollywood and pro basketballrecently, and soon the topic will be thrust dramatically into a new forum -a reshaped Congress likely to pass the first major federal gay-rights bills.

Wary conservative leaders, as well as gay-rights advocates, share a beliefthat at least two measures will win approval this year: a hate-crimes billthat would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure thatwould outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Also on the table - although with more doubtful prospects - will be ameasure to be introduced Wednesday seeking repeal of the "don't ask, don'ttell" policy that bans openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in themilitary.

All three measures surfaced in previous sessions of Congress, at timeswinning significant bipartisan backing but always falling short of finalpassage. This year, with Democrats now in control and many Republicanslikely to join in support, the hate-crimes and workplace bills are widelyexpected to prevail.

"With liberals in control, there's a good possibility they'll both pass,"said Matt Barber, a policy director with the conservative group ConcernedWomen for America. "They're both dangerous to freedom of conscience, toreligious liberties, to free speech."



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365gay

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022407rape.htm

Air Force Officer Denies Gay Rape In Video
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 24, 2007 - 11:00 am ET

(Eglin Air Force Base, Florida) An Air Force officer admitted in avideotaped interview that he had sex with one of the four men he is accusedof raping, but said the man initiated the encounter and threatened to outhim if he refused.

The video played at Capt. Devery L. Taylor's court-martial Friday showed himinitially denying he had sex with the man, then changing his story when aninvestigator said the man accused him of rape.

"He initiated it," Taylor told the investigators. "He was trying to get medown and he said I can tell on you if you don't do this."

Investigators said the man, a fellow Air Force captain who Taylor met at abar, reported to authorities that he was raped in Taylor's apartment by morethan one person and that he was drugged.

Taylor, a medic and the former chief of patient administration at EglinRegional Hospital, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without paroleif convicted of all the charges against him. The charges are two counts ofattempted sodomy, four counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of kidnappingand one count of unlawful entry.



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365gay

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022407prodi.htm

Prodi To Stay On, Gay Unions Bill Appears Dead
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: February 24, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET

(Rome) Italian president Giorgio Napolitano asked Prime Minister RomanoProdi on Saturday to remain in office but face a confidence vote inparliament. Whether or not he survives the vote it appears that a bill torecognize same-sex couples is off the table.

Prodi stepped down Wednesday after an embarrassing parliamentary defeat overforeign policy.

Following two days of meetings with Napolitano and scrambling by Prodi toexpand his left-of-center coalition, he has managed to escape, at least forthe moment, being thrown out.

But the cost of his new-found allies has been costly for gay couples.

The expanded coalition forced Prodi to agree to a 12-point plan that callsfor respecting Italy's international commitments in Afghanistan andelsewhere, and for the construction of a high-speed rail line linking Turinwith Lyon, France.



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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=11590

Gay rights law can't be enforced in some cases, state officials say

Federal law said to preempt state's new anti-discrimination law
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) | Feb 24, 4:10 PM

Washington's state law that bars discrimination can't be enforced on thebasis of sexual orientation and gender against some private employers'health benefit plans because it conflicts with federal law, state officialssaid today.

Marc Brenman, director of the state Human Rights Commission, said officialsinvestigating a discrimination complaint found the state law doesn't applyto certain providers of health insurance under the 1974 federal EmployeeRetirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.

That federal law governs private employers' health benefits, and supersedesany protections in state law. Since there is no federal statute prohibitingdiscrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the statelaw can't be applied when discrimination complaints are based on thosefactors, Brenman told the Associated Press.

"Effectively, because of the federal law, in this type of case, our handsare tied," he said.

Lawmakers expanded Washington's anti-discrimination law last year to includesexual orientation, after nearly 30 years of failed attempts by gay rightsadvocates. It was quickly signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire and tookeffect in July.

The measure was aimed at protecting Washington's gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender residents. But its language is broader, banning anydiscrimination based on sexual orientation.



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http://tinyurl.com/2o8c9h

[Bahrain] Sex change woman faces cash crisis

Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

Saturday 24th February 2007

Sex change woman faces cash crisis
By geoffrey bew


A BAHRAINI woman who is undergoing a sex change and has gone to thecourts in a bid to legally recognise her status as a man is facingyet more hurdles.

The case of the 33-year-old, whose identity is being protected, willnext be heard at the Third High Civil Court on Wednesday.

However, her lawyer Fowzia Mohammed Janahi told the GDN that she isnow facing a potential cash crisis, as well as ridicule from fellowBahrainis.

She said her client was due to undergo her second major operation atthe Yanhee General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, in May following amastectomy in September.

But she says the telephone operator, whose employers have allowed herto take a year off work, is struggling to pay for the treatmentbecause she is not earning and comes from a poor family.



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

033301c75858$e6183160$6401a8c0@masterken>

Census 2010 Plays Six Not-So-Easy Questions

By JUNE KRONHOLZ
WSJ, February 23, 2007; Page B1

Who knew that asking people their age, gender and how they're related to thefolks they live with could be so complicated?

Three years before the next census -- just around the corner by thedeliberate pace of the U.S. Census Bureau -- the nation's enumerators havecome up with the six seemingly simple questions they want to ask everyone inthe country on April 1, 2010.

Simple, it seems, is quite hard. The bureau has spent years developing andfield testing questions to make them so user-friendly that everyoneunderstands them -- and answers.

"You only get one chance with the census," says Preston Waite, the associatedirector of the decennial census. "If the wording isn't right, it's 10 moreyears before you can ask that question again. You only get one chance atbat."

The old long-form census questionnaire, with its queries about house size,commutes to work and other details about daily life is out -- spun off in2000 to the new American Community Survey, which questions 3 millionhouseholds a year. For the 2010 census, every member of the country's 120million households will get a one-page form asking for information thatCongress has said it wants to know.



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

A message from our friends at Focus on the Family

Jack Drescher, MD
jadres@psychoanalysis.net
http://www.jackdreschermd.net

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000003985.cfm

Gay Pressure Threatens Counseling
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor

Task force will review "appropriate therapy practices."

Under pressure from homosexual activists, the American PsychologicalAssociation (APA) plans to re-examine its policy on therapy for gay men andwomen seeking change.

At least two homosexual groups--the National Gay and Lesbian Task ForcePolicy Institute (NGLTF) and PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbianand Gays)-want the APA to get tough on anyone who tries to help gays change.

The groups "came to us and said from their perspective issues related toreparative therapy are still very important issues that affect thewell-being of lesbian, gay and bisexual people," Dr. Clinton W. Anderson,director of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual concerns office at the APA, toldCitizenLink. "They said, 'We think it would be a good idea if you tookanother look at it.' "

The APA is inviting nominations for a five-member task force to consider theissue.

Anderson said he isn't sure if there will be a panel member appointed torepresent homosexuals who have successfully sought change.



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

LINK:

SF Ex: Prediction gay Dem v gay Dem CA race will become "bloodbath"

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2007/02/sf-ex-prediction-gay-dem-v.html

Elected gay Dem leader Mark Leno makes it official; he's challenging fellowgay leader and Dem Carole Migden for her CA senate seat, and a consultantsays it gonna be a bloodbath.



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

http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=1842063&f=130262&u=2286185

Urban Argentines Support Same-Sex Marriage

Link: Angus
http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/130262/2286185/http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/14827

Reid Global Monitor.

Excerpt:

Many residents of Argentina's capital have no issue with same-sex couplesgetting married, according to a poll by Analogías released by Página 12.73.1 per cent of respondents in Buenos Aires agree with gay and lesbianweddings.

Same-sex marriage is currently illegal in Argentina, although the countrywas the first in Latin America to authorize same-sex civil unions in 2003.This legislation does not contemplate several rights currently available formarried couples, such as inheritance, adoption, or a survivor's pension inthe event one of the partners dies. Two regions allow gay and lesbian civilunions: the province of Río Negro and the federal district autonomous cityof Buenos Aires.

According to the Buenos Aires Civil Registry Office, 344 civil unions wererecorded in 2006. Of these, 239 involve heterosexual couples, 65 involvemale same-sex couples, and 40 involve female same-sex couples



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The Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cgayhomelessfeb25,0,6882966,print.story

Gay teens rejected by their families often face homelessness

Gay teenagers rejected and forced out by their families find themselvesthrust into the harsh world of homelessness
By Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

February 25, 2007

Chris Moore celebrated his 18th birthday with a crash course in survival.

That day nearly two years ago, his family told him to get out because, hesays, they could not accept him as a gay person.

Unprepared to face the world on his own, Moore stumbled. He dropped out ofhigh school two months before graduating. He found refuge on the couches offriends for four months. He spent three nights sleeping in a Miami parkbefore going to a youth homeless shelter.

"Yeah, I was scared," said Moore, 19, who now lives in Oakland Park. "Ididn't call my family because I knew that they didn't want me back unless I[became] straight."

Gay youth advocates estimate Moore is one of thousands of gay, bisexual ortransgendered young people who have become homeless after their familiesreject them. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the NationalCoalition for the Homeless recently released a report that estimates as manyas 672,000, or almost 42 percent of all homeless youth nationwide, identifythemselves as gay or lesbian. That is a large share of the nation's gaypopulation, which is usually estimated at between 3 to 5 percent of totalpopulation.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/16779685.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Sun, Feb. 25, 2007

CONGRESS
Federal gay-rights bills `a major step'

An employment nondiscrimination act and a hate-crimes bill are expected tobe passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress.
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press

NEW YORK - Anti-gay bias has flared up in Hollywood and in pro basketballrecently, and soon the topic will be thrust dramatically into a new forum --a reshaped Congress likely to pass the first major federal gay-rights bills.

Wary conservative leaders, as well as gay-rights advocates, share a beliefthat at least two measures will win approval this year: a hate-crimes billthat would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure thatwould outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Also on the table -- although with more doubtful prospects -- will be ameasure to be introduced Wednesday seeking repeal of the ''don't ask, don'ttell'' policy that bans openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in themilitary. Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami is co-sponsoring thatlegislation.

All three measures surfaced in previous sessions of Congress, at timeswinning significant bipartisan backing but always falling short of finalpassage. This year, the hate-crimes and workplace bills are widely expectedto prevail.

''With liberals in control, there's a good possibility they'll both pass,''said Matt Barber, a policy director with the conservative group ConcernedWomen for America.


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