GLBT DIGEST May 15, 2007

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Gay-Marriage.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

May 14, 2007
Conn.'s Civil Unions Law Faces Challenge
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:48 a.m. ET

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut's civil unions law, the first in thenation passed without court intervention, faces a stern test in the stateSupreme Court.

Eight gay couples say the state's refusal to grant marriage licensesviolates their constitutional rights and denies them the financial, socialand emotional benefits of marriage.

A ruling in their favor could have nationwide implications for states thathave adopted or are considering civil union-like legislation. Connecticut in2005 passed a civil unions law, which state officials say gives same-sexcouples the equality they seek.

The court takes up the issue Monday.

Currently, only Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry. Connecticut,Vermont, California, New Jersey, Maine and Washington have laws allowingeither civil unions or domestic partnerships. Hawaii extends certain spousalrights to same-sex couples and cohabiting heterosexual pairs.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pope-Brazil.html?pagewanted=print

May 14, 2007
Pope Assails Marxism and Capitalism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:49 a.m. ET

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI lamented the deep divide betweenrich and poor in Latin America but told priests to steer clear of politicsas they work to reverse Roman Catholism's waning influence in the region.

Wrapping up five-day visit to Brazil, the 80-year-old pontiff denouncedMarxism in an hour-long speech Sunday opening a 19-day conference of LatinAmerican bishops in the shrine city of Aparecida.

''The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only lefta sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painfuldestruction of the human spirit,'' the pope said.

He also warned of unfettered capitalism and globalization. Before boarding aplane for Rome later Sunday, he said the two could give ''rise to a worryingdegradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptiveillusions of happiness.''

Marxism still influences some grassroots Catholic activists in LatinAmerica, remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict worked tocrush when he was cardinal. Liberation theology holds that the Christianfaith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people frominjustice.



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National Gay News

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_5890230

The Canalis Report: Gay veterans ask for freedom to tell

By John Canalis
Article Launched: 05/13/2007 10:03:12 PM PDT

Go ahead and ask. Lige Miller will tell.

He's gay. He's a war hero. He's as out as the sun.

In Vietnam, where he served as an Army medic in 1967-68, he kept hissexuality private, but the others could tell.

"They knew, but they didn't know," said Miller, 61, of Long Beach.

Miller plans to pay tribute to gays in the military Saturday and Sunday atthe Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Celebration and Parade. He'll be thetall, lanky guy wearing a "Vietnam veteran" cap and shirt.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/05/051307radio.htm

Shock Jocks Fired, But Not For Gay Slur
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 13, 2007 - 12:00 pm ET

(New York City) A New York radio station that ignored criticism after twoof his morning show stars called a musician a "fag" on air has fired theshock jocks following a prank phone call to a local Chinese restaurant thatwas filled with ethnic slurs.

The firing of "JV" and "Elvis", announced Saturday by WFNY comes three weeksafter the pair were suspended when Chinese Americans expressed theiroutrage.

The call was made by the shock jocks the day after WFAN's Don Imus made hiscomments about the Rutgers women's basketball team and was replayed a weekafter Imus was fired.

Both stations are owned by CBS Radio.

In the mock call, a woman employee at the Chinese restaurant was told by thecaller that he would like to "come to your restaurant" to see her naked,especially the body part he referred to as "hot, Asian, spicy."



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/05/051407brokeback.htm

Parent Sues Chicago School Board Over Brokeback Mountain Showing
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 14, 2007 - 7:00 am ET

(Chicago, Illinois) A man who claims his granddaughter was traumatized overa screening of gay cowboy movie "Brokeback Mountain" has filed ahalf-million dollar lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, claims that a substitute teacher showed the movieto a grade 8 class last year.

Court papers obtained by the Chicago Tribune claim that student JessicaTurner, suffered psychological distress at seeing the film.

It is claimed the teacher told students at Ashburn Community ElementarySchool "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class." Shethen is alleged to have told a student to close the classroom door andproceeded to show the movie.

"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this,"Kenneth Richardson, Turner's grandfather and legal guardian told theTribune.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/05/051407conn.htm

Connecticut Supreme Court Hears Gay Marriage Case
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 14, 2007 - 8:30 am ET

(Hartford, Connecticut) The Connecticut Supreme Court hears arguments todayin a case involving 8 same-sex couples seeking the right to marry.

Last July a lower court ruled that said same-sex couples do not needmarriage because they already are entitled to civil unions.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based legal group that wonsame-sex marriage in Massachusetts, is handing the case.

It argues that denying same-sex couples access to marriage violates thestate constitution in two ways: gay and lesbian citizens are denied bothequal protection and due process.

Connecticut allows civil unions. GLAD says that when lawmakers debated andenacted the civil union statute, they recognized that same-sex couples havethe same capacity for love and commitment and the same need for protectionsunder marriage laws as heterosexual couples.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/opinion/besen/besen.htm

Small-Town Gay Mogul Calls a Bigot--a Bigot
by Wayne Besen

Mitchell Gold is an openly gay, Jewish furniture magnate who is larger thanlife in small town America. While most people leave New York to liveunassumingly in the countryside, Gold has brought charisma and pizzazz tothe sleepy hamlet of Taylorsville, N.C.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams furniture factory is the largest employer inthe area. It has offered Gold a unique opportunity to converse intimatelywith a wide variety of people in rural America. In many cases, he haschallenged their basic assumptions, engaged in sensitive debates on theseparation of church and state and examined the underpinnings of anti-gaysentiment.

What is most striking about Gold is that he is "out," with a capital O-U-T.While most nationally known spokespeople have a platform in a large gaycommunity, the Internet or on television shows, they can generally walk downthe street without being identified as "the town's gay activist." This isnot the case for Gold, who is seemingly recognized by everyone within a25-mile radius.

As a result of his work for the GLBT community, the Advocate magazine namedhim one of its 2006 "Persons of the Year" and this month, Out Magazinecalled him one of the "Top 50 most powerful gay people in America."

With his penchant for challenging the status quo, it is no surprise that theorganization founded by Gold, Faith in America - which is led by Rev. JimmyCreech - has launched a controversial and ambitious venture to take onanti-gay prejudice.



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The Advocate

http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid45201.asp

May 12, 2007
Recalled sailor to be discharged again

A sailor who was discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" and then recalledto active duty in an apparent bureaucratic snafu has been summarilydischarged again after telling his story in the Stars and Stripes newspaper.


A sailor who was discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" and then recalledto active duty in an apparent bureaucratic snafu has been summarilydischarged again after telling his story in the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Knight learned Thursday that the Navy intendsto discharge him just weeks before he completes his most recent one-yearcommitment, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group forgay and lesbian service personnel, said in a written statement.

Knight, a Hebrew linguist with four years' service, came out to his commandin 2005 and was discharged soon after, losing his $13,000 sign-on bonus. Hewas pleasantly surprised to be recalled in June 2006 and completed a tour ofduty with Naval Customs Battalion Romeo in Kuwait.

Once again he was entirely open about his sexual orientation; his interviewwith Stars and Stripes was published May 6.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13rapture.html?pagewanted=print

May 13, 2007
A Downtowners' Club for Poets on a Curfew
By TIM MURPHY

IN the annals of New York's postpunk, polysexual downtown bohemia,celebrated haunts are best known by their memorable evenings. The night atthe Pyramid in 1984, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers first played the EastCoast and shocked the dive's drag queens with wardrobes limited to artfullyplaced socks. Or the final marathon, in December 2000, of the cult partyJackie 60, which reigned on Tuesdays in the 1990s at Mother, theclub-cum-salon in the meatpacking district.

If the Rapture Cafe - which opened last December at 200 Avenue A, between12th and 13th streets - joins that pantheon of clubs, its opening-nightparty may well have been the first evening there to attain such loftystatus.

When the old-school demimonde of the Lower East Side heard that the cafe wasbeing managed by Brian Butterick, whose drag alter ego, Hattie Hathaway, hadbeen a fixture at places like Pyramid and Mother, 200 people turned out fora night of catered booze (pre-liquor license), burlesque performances andeven an appearance by the former Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry, 61, whommany consider the godmother of the downtown scene. (The cafe takes its namefrom Blondie's hit song.)

"It was a little bit of a family reunion, that's for sure," said the videoartist Rob Roth, 37, who attended the party with Ms. Harry as well as JohnnyDynell and Chi Chi Valenti, the longtime husband-wife D.J.-promoter teamthat owned Mother. "It just felt great, like something was going to happen."

Mr. Dynell, a longtime East Villager, says the evening "was like old-homeweek" for a certain downtown crowd that has partied and made art and musictogether as far back as the late 1970s.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/nyregion/13gay.html?pagewanted=print

May 13, 2007
Couples Enter New Terrain in Push for Gay Marriage in Connecticut
By JENNIFER MEDINA

HARTFORD, May 11 - When the Connecticut legislature approved civil unionsthree years ago, gay rights advocates viewed it as only a half-victory, akind of pit stop in their quest for same-sex marriage.

On Monday, lawyers representing eight same-sex couples will take up thesecond half of the fight in oral arguments before the Connecticut SupremeCourt, where they will tell the judges that civil unions essentially createa "separate and unequal" status for gay men and lesbians.

With civil unions now legal in a handful of states and gay marriagepermitted in Massachusetts, advocates and scholars on both sides of thedebate are watching the case closely to see how judges navigate the newlegal terrain.

Last July, a Superior Court judge ruled against the plaintiffs, saying thatthe state's civil unions already gave same-sex couples the rights andprotections of marriage. The couples are being represented by the Gay andLesbian Advocates and Defenders, the same group that successfully sued formarriage in Massachusetts.

But Bennett Klein, one of the lawyers leading the plaintiffs' case, said thecivil union law made the argument for marriage "more powerful andcompelling."



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/nyregion/thecity/13ball.html?pagewanted=print

May 13, 2007
Urban Tactics
Spangles All Around
By WINTER MILLER

WITH ink-black hair and silver-streaked eye shadow, Camille Wojtasiak, 47,is a dancer who inspires women to dip and swoon and men to take notes on hertechnique. As she confidently leads a swift fox trot or a gliding waltz, theonly thing belying her calm is a pesky trickle of sweat.

Ms. Wojtasiak, in tuxedo tails, with her 31-year-old partner, Barnaly Pande,in a silver dress, won the ballroom championship last Saturday in the 5-BoroDance Challenge, the first international same-sex competition held in NewYork. The event attracted about two dozen dancers, about a hundred fans, andwares for sale that included cosmetics, gowns and, yes, Tupperware.

Same-sex dance contests began in Europe more than a decade ago but are stillin their infancy here. USA Dance, the governing body for amateur ballroomdance, requires opposite-sex competitors, so in 2004, Ms. Wojtasiak, aCalifornian, formed the World Federation of Same-Sex Dancing. Unlike theircounterparts, same-sex partners are free to switch leads, even mid-dance.

Fishtailing across the polished floor of the Park Central Hotel, on SeventhAvenue near Carnegie Hall, was an array of women's attire ranging from blacktuxedos and red skirts to turquoise spangled pantsuits and silver-glitteredChuck Taylor high-tops outfitted with specially tailored suede soles. Thewardrobe must-have? An abundance of eye shadow.

Richard Lamberty, 47, visiting from Florida, wore an ensemble unmissableamid men in black tuxes. His vibrant orange tuxedo, made from stretch velvetand satin, included a flowing cape of Thai silk chiffon, and his lapels werefinished off with sequins and appliquéd orange and red flames. His outfithad all the subtlety of a fiery sun skittering across a beige wooden sky. OnJune 2, Mr. Lamberty and his dance partner, Stuart Nichols, 43, will be thehosts of the United States Alternative Dance-sport Championship in Orlando,Fla.

Such events have been referred to as gay ballroom dancing, but not all thecontestants are homosexual, and some compete professionally withopposite-sex partners. But Ms. Wojtasiak has no use for traditional ballroomroles. "I feel sexy when I lead," she said. "I don't feel sexy when Ifollow."


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

http://www.thestar.com/article/212749

Quest for a queer cure
Controversial doc on 'converting' homosexuals screens at 17th Inside Outlesbian and gay film fest
May 11, 2007
John Terauds

ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

In a country where same-sex couples get legal status after they've livedtogether for a year - and in a city where a gay or lesbian wedding ceremonyneed only be a streetcar ride away - it's easy to assume that we havereached the end of history in the politics of homosexuality.

Not so, as seen through the eyes of filmmakers at the annual Inside OutToronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. The 17th edition serves upa heavy dollop of fun, escapist fare among its 276 features and shorts, butpolemics are never far below the surface.

It's not easy being gay, lesbian or transgendered in most of the world. Andfestival films reflect that reality.

One typical non-fictional effort is Abomination: Homosexuality and theEx-Gay Movement, a 34-minute documentary produced and directed by New Yorkpsychiatrist Dr. Alicia Salzer.

"It's a funny film because we're not filmmakers, we're psychiatrists," saysSalzer during a break in taping the Montel Williams daytime television show,where she works as "onscreen trauma expert and director of aftercare."

Through the stories of several individuals, Abomination reveals how manyfundamentalist Christian organizations in the United States encouragehomosexuals to "convert" to heterosexuality through behaviour modificationand myriad other therapies, including electro-shock and hypnosis.

Salzer will be in Toronto for the screening of Abomination on May 20 at theRoyal Ontario Museum. It will be shown with three other films that all focuson reconciling Christianity with same-sex love.



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

Secretary General of the Council of Europé: Hate,
hypocrites and human rights

Hate, hypocrites and human rights

12 May 2007 - Issue : 729
New Europé - The European Weekly
http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=73740

In 1936, the SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler created the Gestapo's CentralOffice for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. As a result, anestimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals, and some 50,000 of thesemen were sentenced. Some spent time in regular prisons, some were forcefullycastrated as an alternative to incarceration, and thousands were sent toNazi concentration camps.

By Terry Davis

Men with pink triangles were often treated particularly severely by guardsand other inmates alike. Some homosexuals were also victims of cruel medicalexperiments, designed to change them into heterosexuals. Estimates are thatmore than half were executed or died from disease and malnutrition, but forthose who survived, the liberation from the Nazi concentration camps did notend the suffering and humiliation. They were not acknowledged as victims ofNazi persecution, and compensation was refused. Some homosexuals liberatedfrom the concentration camps were even forced to serve out their terms ofimprisonment.

Sixty years later, no one has apologised for this tragic and shamefultreatment of camp survivors. Regrettably, the wall of prejudice,discrimination and hypocrisy has not yet disappeared, and Europe is oftenmore tolerant of homophobes than their victims.

While it is true that, also thanks to the work of the Council of Europe,sexual orientation will no longer get you jailed, the bigots in severalEuropean countries are free to speak and act on their homophobic beliefswithout any fear of sanction from the authorities. Very often the officialsthemselves - mayors, parliamentarians and even ministers - will be the firstto voice and promote homophobic ideas.



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


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1832342/posts

Free Republic

Same-Sex Marriage Vote Not Likely(Connecticut)

Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and Rep. Mike Lawlor, D-East Haven, saidFriday afternoon they do not intend to push for a vote on same-sex marriagethis legislative session, saying the bill does not have enough votes to win.

McDonald and Lawlor, co-chairmen of the powerful Judiciary Committee andstrong supporters of same-sex marriage, said many lawmakers from both sidesof the aisle have expressed their support for the measure.

However, these lawmakers also asked for more time. Gov. M. Jodi Rell hasalso stated her opposition to the bill, reiterating it again this week.

A significant number of legislators have told us that they are currently infavor of same-sex marriage personally, but feel the state will be ready forit in another year or two. With time, these are the people that will createa majority," Lawlor said in a press release issued Friday. "This doesn'tsurprise me because we've been seeing the same trends happening in thegeneral public, too, with more people gradually coming out in support forsame-sex marriage. When it passes, I hope it is a strong bipartisan vote aswas the case with civil unions in 2005."



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Iranian Queer Organization - IRQO
Formerly Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization - PGLO
www.irqo.net
info@irqo.net
+1-416-548-4171

80 Gay Men Have Been Arrested in Isfahan
May 13, 2007
Translated by Shadi

Eighty members of the Iranian gay community have been arrested by thesecurity personnel in Isfahan. On May 10th close to 10 pm security forcesraided Farhad's birthday party, assaulted brutally the host, his parents,and all the guests. Everyone at the party were arrested on the spot.

Police used batons to beat those arrested before taking them into custody.Farhad's family who were present at the party have been also arrested. Thefirst report put the number of those arrested at eighty; yet more recentreports have raised the number to eighty seven.

In a phone call, Peyman said: "I went to buy a gift for Farhad and so Iarrived late for the party. As soon as I turned in to their street, I sawpolice cars parked everywhere; all my friends were arrested while seven oreight policeman beat them with batons. Fearing the usual punishments forattending a party, two had jumped from the second-floor window and were in abad condition. Farhad's family were also arrested. Everyone was transportedinto a big car and taken into custody. All their cell phones are off and wehave no information about the situation inside the jail."

In another phone call, Kia reported: "Guests had come from Shiraz, Tehran,Shahin Shahr to Isfahan for Farhad's birthday. When they were coming out ofthe house followed by the police, their clothes were ripped, their faces andbodies were covered in blood. They were beaten up badly."


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The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hate13may13,1,1857172.story

Anti-gay crimes are hate crimes
Federal laws should be expanded to cover this real and present threat.
May 13, 2007


THE HOUSE OF Representatives has passed a new hate crime bill that pleasesgays and lesbians, angers the religious right and has provoked a veto threatfrom President Bush. But the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes PreventionAct should be judged not on the basis of who is for or against it - or onthe message it sends - but rather on its merits.

They are considerable, but there also are problems that need to be resolvedin the Senate. That will be easier if both supporters and opponents stopmaking extravagant claims about the bill. It is neither "one of the mostsignificant civil rights measures in this or any other Congress," as HouseJudiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) boasted, nor athreat to the right of preachers to sermonize against homosexuality, as someconservatives complain.

The bill does two important things: It expands a key definition of hatecrimes to include acts of violence inspired by a victim's sexualorientation, and it provides federal assistance to local and state lawenforcement agencies seeking to prevent and prosecute hate crimes. Both areworthy refinements of existing federal law.



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Gay City News

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?ewsid=18325436&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569328&rfi=6

Get in the F***in' Game!
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
05/10/2007

Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly
As a community, here's where we stand in the spring of 2007 in our fight formarriage equality. Governor Eliot Spitzer has introduced his bill, SenateRepublican Majority Leader Joe Bruno has said he will not move the issue inhis chamber, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Lower East SideDemocrat, has signaled that he expects the matter to be discussed in themajority party conference, made up of a whopping 108 of the 150assemblymembers.

That means a vote could happen in the Assembly prior to its recess on June21. Passage would dramatically alter the debate in New York State.

Daniel O'Donnell, the Upper West Side gay Democrat who is the marriagebill's new Assembly sponsor, is pledging to put his all into the effort toget that floor vote and is looking to sign up co-sponsors by next Tuesday,May 15. The Empire State Pride Agenda, in its running tally, shows 68Assembly votes in favor of marriage equality, in a chamber where 76 is amajority. Micah Kellner, an out bisexual Democrat who is the currentfavorite in a June 5 contest to fill an Upper East Side vacancy, would make69 ayes.

Only 33 assemblymembers have voiced clear opposition, which leaves 48 votesup for grabs.


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http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v21n2/history.html

History is Powerful
Why the Christian Right Distorts History and Why it Matters
By Frederick Clarkson

The notion that America was founded as a Christian nation is a centralanimating element of the ideology of the Christian Right. It touches everyaspect of life and culture in this, one of the most successful and powerfulpolitical movements in American history. The idea that America's supposedChristian identity has somehow been wrongly taken, and must somehow berestored, permeates the psychology and vision of the entire movement. Nounderstanding of the Christian Right is remotely adequate without thisfoundational concept.

But the Christian nationalist narrative has a fatal flaw: it is based onrevisionist history that does not stand up under scrutiny. The bad news isthat to true believers, it does not have to stand up to the facts of historyto be a powerful and animating part of the once and future Christian nation.Indeed, through a growing cottage industry of Christian revisionist booksand lectures now dominating the curricula of home schools and many privateChristian academies, Christian nationalism becomes a central feature of thepolitical identity of children growing up in the movement. The contest forcontrol of the narrative of American history is well underway.



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The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware)

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070512/LIFE/705120306

Faith files: A biblical scholar looks at sexual ethics
By GARY SOULSMAN, The News Journal

As a New Testament scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Robert Gagnonis one of the leading critics of gay and lesbian sexuality and says suchlifestyles are not endorsed by the Bible.

Next Saturday the author of "The Bible and Homosexual Practice" will lay outhis scholarship on the Bible and sexual ethics at St. John's UnitedMethodist Church, Pine and Poplar streets in Seaford.

"His biblical knowledge and historical research are unsurpassed, yet he alsotakes a thoughtful, caring approach," says the Rev. Karen Booth, executivedirector of Transforming Congregations. "That's exactly what Christians needto hear as we continue to wrestle with the difficult issues around humansexuality."

Transforming Congregations is a ministry of the Peninsula-Delaware AnnualConference of the United Methodist Church. Its mission is to help localchurches reach out with compassion to the sexually sinful, confused orbroken.

The presentation will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It will include alecture, question-and- answer session and small- group discussion asattendees consider "God's will for human sexual expression?"



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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618970/site/newsweek/

A growing number of Americans are taking their private struggles with theiridentities into the public realm. How those who believe they were born withthe wrong bodies are forcing us to re-examine what it means to be male andfemale.

By Debra Rosenberg
Newsweek

May 21, 2007 issue - Growing up in Corinth, Miss., J. T. Hayes had A legacyto attend to. His dad was a well-known race-car driver and Hayes spent muchof his childhood tinkering in the family's greasy garage, learning how todesign and build cars. By the age of 10, he had started racing in his ownright. Eventually Hayes won more than 500 regional and nationalchampionships in go-kart, midget and sprint racing, even making it to theNASCAR Winston Cup in the early '90s. But behind the trophies and theswagger of the racing circuit, Hayes was harboring a painful secret: he hadalways believed he was a woman. He had feminine features and a slightframe-at 5 feet 6 and 118 pounds he was downright dainty-and had alwaysfelt, psychologically, like a girl. Only his anatomy got in the way. Sincechildhood he'd wrestled with what to do about it. He'd slip on "girlclothes" he hid under the mattress and try his hand with makeup. But he knew
he'd find little support in his conservative hometown.



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The Detroit News

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION03/705140313

Deb Price

Black preacher's inclusive approach draws gays


Wanting to be like his great-grandfather, grandfather and father, CarltonPearson set his young heart on becoming a Pentecostal preacher.

By 5, the African-American boy was preaching to other kids in his poorsouthern California neighborhood. He grew into an unusually gifted preacherand gospel singer at storefront churches, the kind with colored plasticlining on their windows because they can't afford stained glass.

Pearson's talent widened his world: He went on to study at Oral RobertsUniversity, serve on the evangelical school's board of regents, move in themost elite white evangelical circles, chat with Republican presidents andhost his own gospel TV show.

He preached that AIDS was God's punishment for homosexuality, spoke intongues and laid hands on homosexuals to -- as he saw it -- cast out theirdemons.

But a few years ago, Pearson lost the trappings of success -- including hismega church, where collection plates overflowed with $60,000 a week. Hefound a more emotionally rewarding way of relating to God and people.

How?

He stopped believing in Hell. He was no longer willing to preach that aloving God would doom most of humanity to a "customized torture chamber."Deciding that "if Jesus is the savior of the world, then the world issaved," Pearson started spreading "a Gospel of inclusion" -- proclaimingthat everyone is saved, not just Christians.

Branded a heretic, shunned by other mega-church evangelists, Pearson feltshattered. But Jews reached out to him and so did gay students at OralRoberts University, who asked if his inclusive gospel included them. Yes, hereplied. Soon, he was invited to preach at a gay San Francisco church.

Afterward, everyone hugged him.



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The Independent Gay News - Ft. Lauderdale

The Independent newspaper is delighted to announce that our guest speaker at"The Indy Lunch" this coming Thursday (May 17) will be Larry Gierer who hasrecently become Mayor of Oakland Park. Larry is a terrific example to all ofus. He did not let his sexuality or HIV status stop him from running forelection to Oakland Park's City Commission in 2001 spite of an opposingcandidate making both election issues. He has since served the citycommission with distinction and was re-elected unopposed. Recently he wasmade mayor of the city - one of the first two mayors in the world who havebeen 'out' about their HIV status, and also one of the 17 gay mayors in thewhole country.

The lunch on Thursday will be at the popular Tropics Restaurant starting at12 noon. The restaurant is at 2000 Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors. Therestaurant's chef and owner Nate Horner is going to lay on a choice of thefollowing four dishes: Poached Salmon, Chicken Marsala, Prime Rib and PastaPrimavera. Lunch costs $25 per head which will also include a choice ofbeverages, tax, and gratuity.

To book your seat call 954 536 7786 as soon as you can and please have yourcredit card to hand. We look forward to seeing you at the lunch.

With best wishes,

Paul Harris
Publisher
The Independent

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