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http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070611/OPINION03/706110304
The Detroit News
Deb Price
Gay-friendly states influence presidential race
At the recent Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire, CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer started a question about rights for gay couples by noting that the state's governor had just a few days earlier signed civil unions into law.
At the mention of the new milestone, the New Hampshire audience clapped wildly, so much so that clock-minder Blitzer felt compelled to shush them by aying, "Let's try to keep the applause down."
Trying to keep the applause down for support for gay rights may prove to be a bit of a challenge, given the much-changed calendar for the 2008 presidential primary/caucus season.
While many dates are still in flux, it's clear that New Hampshire and Iowa will be joined at the front end of the contest by several other gay-friendly states. Presidential wannabes who back gay rights are finding they're in sync with the very states they are stumping in.
That's new, and it hints at the welcome changes ahead in the presidential-picking season for those of us who're gay and for our friends.
After all, at this time four years ago when Democrats were jockeying for the chance to take on President Bush, Massachusetts' top court had yet to even issue its groundbreaking ruling saying gay couples must be allowed to marry, and only tiny Vermont had civil unions.
Key states await
Let's take a quick peek at some key 2008 states: Starting with Iowa, still
expected to kick off the candidate culling on Jan. 14, Gov. Chet Culver signed a bill May 25 to prohibit job and other discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Twenty states now ban anti-gay job bias, including primary and caucus heavy hitters like California, Nevada, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Even on gay parenting, America is growing up. Want proof? The White House's Web site features a photo of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife proudly showing off their new grandbaby, Samuel, above a wonderfully accurate caption: "His parents are the Cheneys' daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe." (To see this historic photo, Google "Cheney + grandchild photo.")
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/opinion/l11civil.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
June 11, 2007
Unions, Civil and Religious (2 Letters)
To the Editor:
In "The Inadequacy of Civil Unions" (editorial, June 7) you claim that "inestablishing civil unions two years ago, Connecticut lawmakers created aseparate and inherently inferior institution that continues to deny gaycouples the equality they seek and deserve."
The solution: get the state out of the marrying business.
What the government should be conferring upon its citizens (regardless ofgender choice), is civil union with all of the legal rights that thisconveys. The spiritual blessings of marriage, when desired, should beconveyed by the clergy, using whatever criteria their religious persuasionconsiders appropriate.
Then there wouldn't be a second class of citizens, and churches wouldn't beobligated to violate what it regards as sacred law, to convey deserved legalrights.
Ross S. Basch
New York, June 7, 2007
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To the Editor:
I long for the day that the citizens of this country finally agree that allforms of discrimination is wrong - morally and legally.
The bogus arguments against gay marriage are not even worth repeating. Icertainly don't believe that my marriage would somehow be degraded if gaysmarried.
I have one question for those who are against gay marriages: What benefitsaccrue to our society from a policy that makes others unhappy?
The real answer is none.
Salvatore J. Bommarito
New York, June 7, 2007
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/us/11legislature.html?pagewanted=print
June 11, 2007
States Finding Fiscal Surprise: A Cash Surplus
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
State lawmakers across the country, their coffers unexpectedly full of cash,have been handing out tax cuts, spending money on fixing roads, schools andpublic buildings, and socking something away for less fruitful years.
Budget surpluses have largely stemmed from higher than expected taxcollections - corporate tax revenues alone were 11 percent higher thanbudget estimates - and booming local economies. There has also been somerelief in Medicaid spending, which fell from an 11 percent annual growthrate to something closer to 7 percent in the past few years.
More than 40 states have found themselves with more money than they plannedas they wound down their regular sessions. Governors in 23 of those statesproposed tax cuts, and a majority of states with surpluses chose to shore uptheir roads, schools and rainy day funds. For example, lawmakers in Utahagreed to a $1 billion bond act to fix state roads and add lane miles, whilein Idaho state spending on education outpaced that on Medicaid for the firsttime in 20 years.
The extra cash over the last two budget sessions (many states work on atwo-year cycle) is at the highest level since 2000, state budget expertssay. States, burned by several years of shortfalls, kept their estimates oftotal revenues on the conservative side and are now reaping plenty.
"Because states cut back so in the early part of the decade," said RayScheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association,"they put off maintenance, they put off building, things like that, so theyare beginning to do some one-time spending."
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WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061000958_pf.html
Don't Ask the Republicans
Candidates for president get it all wrong on gays in the military.
Monday, June 11, 2007; A16
WHEN IT CAME to answering questions in the New Hampshire debates last weekabout the Defense Department's wrongheaded "don't ask, don't tell" policy ongays in the military, all the Democratic candidates for president got itright: The policy should be scrapped. What was appalling was the responsefrom the Republican contenders. If they didn't try to avoid the question bysteering the conversation to the Iraq war or immigration, they praised thepolicy and engaged in tired explanations for why gays and lesbians shouldnot openly serve their country.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, after trying unsuccessfully tochange the subject the conversation to immigration, said that "you don'tpunish people for their attitudes; you punish them if their behavior createsa problem." Yes, people should be punished for bad behavior. But they shouldnot be discharged for who they are. Former New York mayor Rudolph W.Giuliani declared, "At a time of war, you don't make fundamental changeslike this." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney agreed. "This is notthe time to put in place a major change, a social experiment, in the middleof a war going on," he said. And Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) pronounced: "Thepolicy is working."
No. It's not working. It's harming people who want to honorably serve theircountry, and it's harming the country they want to serve.
"Don't ask, don't tell" was a messy compromise that President Bill Clintonsigned into law in 1993 to quell a rebellion among military brass andCongress over his effort to keep a campaign promise to end the ban on gaysin the military. As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said in theDemocrats' ebate, "It was a transition policy." While the Republicancandidates used the war in Iraq as an excuse for inaction on this issue, Ms.Clinton poignantly used the war to show how the policy is hurting ourtroops. "We've had Arabic linguists discharged under 'don't ask, don't tell'when we are, unfortunately, so short of having people who speak the verylanguage that our men and women in uniform have to understand in the streetsof Baghdad," she said. Since 1993, more than 11,000 people, including 58Arabic linguists, have been drummed out of the armed forces just for beinggay.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), who was in Congress during the battlethat brought about "don't ask, don't tell," said, "This is ridiculous. . . .This is not a rational policy." Considering that gays and lesbians areserving openly in 24 countries, including staunch allies Israel, Australiaand Britain, Mr. Biden is absolutely right.
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washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001266_pf.html
Street Fest Lets Gays Revel in Freedom
Rural Couples Enjoy Openness Among City Peers
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 11, 2007; B08
Among the tight T-shirts, the leather vests and rainbow-colored mohawks atthe District's gay pride street festival yesterday, a couple of guyswandered down Pennsylvania Avenue in matching Dallas Cowboys T-shirts andkhaki cargo shorts.
Where they live -- in Winchester, Va., less than two hours' drive -- "youhave to keep quiet, try not to draw any attention to yourself," said DavidMauk, 36.
"We can't do this," he added, holding up the clasped hand of his partner,Jeremy Mullens, 29.
That's why the couple and hundreds of other small-town gay Americans headedto the District for the 32nd annual Capital Pride street festival. Thecelebration culminated a week of events that included a ladies dance, a promfor youth, a transgender dinner and dance and a Mr. and Ms. Capital PrideLeather competition.
Since the first gay rights rallies were organized to commemorate the 1969Stonewall riots, sparked when police raided a gay bar in New York'sGreenwich Village, gay pride events have proliferated in cities large andsmall throughout the country.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-aparade11jun11,0,5321542,print.story
Sao Paulo gay pride parade draws more than 3 million
By Stan Lehman
The Associated Press
June 11, 2007
SAO PAULO, Brazil · Millions packed the streets of Sao Paulo for whatorganizers said was the world's largest gay pride parade, dancing and wavingrainbow flags in a carnival-like atmosphere to condemn homophobia, racismand sexism.
At least 3 million filled the canyon-like Paulista Avenue, organizers said,surpassing last year's count of 2.5 million. The larger count was confirmedby a police spokesman who is not authorized to be quoted by name underdepartment rules.
"This is the biggest parade on the planet," Tourism Minister Marta Suplicysaid. "Our city is showing, once again, its respect for diversity."
In comparison, recent gay pride parades in New York and San Francisco havedrawn tens of thousands, and world gay pride day celebrations in Berlin in2004 attracted between 200,000 and 500,000 participants.
Parade organizer Nelson Matias Pereira said this year's participants areappealing for a "world where racism, sexism and homophobia, in all theirforms, no longer exist."
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The Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-apowell11jun11,0,3398031,print.story
Powell backs closing prison for detainees
By Paul Richter
Los Angeles Times
June 11, 2007
WASHINGTON · Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called Sunday for theclosing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a rethinking of the"don't ask, don't tell" policy he authored as head of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff. The public comments represent Powell's effort to further distancehimself from the Bush administration he once served.
A key architect of the Pentagon's policy on homosexual troops, Powell saidthe country "is moving away" from the attitudes about gay people it had in1993, when the policy was adopted. But he stopped short of calling for aredesign while the country is "at war."
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Powell urged that the military commissionsystem for accused terrorists be scrapped and detainees at Guantanamo betaken to the United States and handled through the federal justice system.The United States continues to hold about 380 persons in the detentioncenter, despite the complaints of human-rights advocates and other foreignand domestic critics. Their continued imprisonment there, he said, has"shaken the belief of the world in America's justice system."
Responding to defenders of the system who are reluctant to allow detaineesaccess to lawyers and judicial protections, Powell said, "So what? Let them... America, unfortunately, has 2 million people in jail, all of whom hadlawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus ... We can handle bad people inour system."
With authoritarian world leaders citing Guantanamo to "hide their ownmisdeeds," he said, Guantanamo "is causing us far more damage than any goodwe get from it."
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cdems11jun11,0,6850681,print.story
Florida Democrats, meeting in Hollywood, make plans to woo Hispanic voters
By Anthony Man
Political Writer
June 11, 2007
HOLLYWOOD · No longer willing to write off Hispanics on the assumption thatthey're automatically Republican voters, Florida Democrats are increasinglycourting them as a promising source of support.
"We're not going to cede one Hispanic vote," said U.S. Rep. Debbie WassermanSchultz, D-Weston, one of dozens of elected officials at a weekendDemocratic Party conference at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa.
Invigorating the party's efforts to court Hispanic voters could yield apowerful advantage for Democrats, but Wasserman Schultz said Hispanic votersoften get too little attention in South Florida campaigns.
"People automatically think Republican and they're totally wrong," she said."In election after election in South Florida, Hispanics are the swing votethat makes the difference."
State Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, agreed. "They will go `Viva Bush' oneyear and they will go viva someone else another year."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://nationalgaynews.com/content/view/799/176/
Monday, 11 June 2007 09:00
The OutField
by Dan Woog
Outward Bound courses are intense. During nine days in the wilderness,teenagers can learn more about themselves and the world than in a decade ofschool. That's particularly true when the program includes leadership anddiversity training, like those with instructor Kaki Flynn.
So the out lesbian - a former University of North Carolina rower, and highschool track and cross country captain - was surprised when, on the finalday of a course in the summer of 2006, a "Take a Stand" exercise stirred upa welter of antigay feelings.
In this exercise, Flynn and other leaders offered a variety of statements.After each, participants placed themselves on a continuum, ranging from"strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Topics included women's rights, themilitary, and this: "Gay people should be married and have children."
Five of the 12 teenagers disagreed with that statement. "These are kids whogo back and become leaders in their schools, and on their teams," Flynnsays. "I told them I was hurt. They said they liked me, but I was'different' from other gay people."
A few months ago, a boy who had strongly disagreed that gays should marrye-mailed Flynn. He said he missed her and everyone on the course. Hementioned his MySpace page, so she checked it out. It was festooned withrainbows and gay references.
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The Advocate
http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid45869.asp
June 09, 2007
Task Force urges Congress to abandon abstinence-only sex education
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is urging Congress to removeabstinence-only funding from the Labor Health and Human ServicesAppropriation Bill, according to a press release sent Friday. The bill is tobe voted on next week by the House Appropriations Committee.
While the legislation includes much-needed increases in funding for HIV/AIDSprevention, runaway and homeless youth, and domestic violence programs, italso includes large increases in abstinence-only funding for the CommunityBased Abstinence Education program, the government's largest abstinence-onlyfunding program.
Several studies have shown abstinence-only sex education to be largelyineffective. In a study posted by the National Campaign to Prevent TeenPregnancy, over 60% of men and women have had sexual intercourse by their18th birthday. In 2005 a report released by the National Center for HealthStatistics showed that just over half of American teenagers ages 15 to 19have engaged in oral sex.
"It is appalling that anyone would even consider increasing funds for athoroughly debunked and harmful program like abstinence-only education,"Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,explained in the press release.
Abstinence-only sex education often omits information on safer-sexpractices; instead, it urges teenagers to wait until marriage to have sexualintercourse. According to the press release, this approach tends toincorporate religious doctrine, inaccurate medical information, andstereotypes about the LGBT community. It completely fails to address theneeds of gay and lesbian teenagers.
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365gay.com
http://365gay.com/opinion/libby/libby.htm
Marriage Dollars and Sense
by Libby Post
The French philosopher Voltaire said "When it is a question of money,everybody is of the same religion." If that were true in 21st centuryAmerica, all the controversy about same-sex marriage would be a thing of thepast, because there's money to be made when we say, "I do."
New York City Comptroller William Thompson issued a study this week entitledLove Counts: The Economic Benefits of Marriage Equality for New York. In ithe concluded that the economic windfall for the state and the city in thefirst three years after Governor Spitzer's proposed same-sex marriage billbecomes law is quite substantial-to the tune of $184 million.
The potential greenbacks would come primarily from the spending of in andout of state gays who have their weddings here as well as the bucks theirout of town guests will part with to help celebrate the love of theirlesbian and gay friends.
So how many weddings are we talking about? Well, the Comptroller used theexperience of Massachusetts where approximately 51 percent of the same-sexcouples had nuptials. According to the U.S. Census, there were 50,854same-sex couples living in New York State in 2005. 23,321 were in New YorkCity. So we're talking a little over 25,000 couples across the state sayingI do.
Couple the money they'll be spending on their weddings with the cash 56,000out of state couples who come to New York to get married will be laying out,we're talking about $184 million coming into the state's economy over athree year period-that's nothing to sneeze at.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/06/061007romania.htm
Attackers Stone Romania Gay Rights March
by The Associated Press
Posted: June 10, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Bucharest) Police used tear gas against protesters who hurled stones at theannual gay rights parade in the Romanian capital Saturday, officials said.
About 100 people were detained for throwing stones and fireworks at policeand about 400 participants in the gay rights march, said Christian Ciocan, apolice spokesman. Police responded with tear gas. Nobody was injured, hesaid.
"We regret that our opponents use violence ... Police only did their job toprotect an authorized march," said Florin Buhuceanu, one of the organizersof the gay rights march. "It is our right to express our beliefs and we willnot renounce in the face of violence."
Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2001.
On Tuesday, two men leaving a Bucharest cinema that hosts the annual "GayFest" festival were beaten by eight attackers. Police stopped the attack andarrested several people.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/06/061107brownback.htm
Brownback: No Surrender On Opposing Gay Marriage, Abortion
by The Associated Press
Posted: June 11, 2007 - 8:30 am ET
(Taylors, South Carolina) Sen. Sam Brownback, campaigning for presidentbefore the National Catholic Men's Conference over the weekend, questionedwhether rape victims should get abortions.
"Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing aninnocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped?"the Kansas Republican asked at the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers gathering.
"We need to protect innocent life. Period," Brownback said, bringing thecrowd of about 500 to its feet.
Brownback also talked about keeping marriage between a man and a woman,saying nations that have allowed same-sex marriages were engaging in badsocial experiments, with bad results.
He also encouraged married couples to stay together, saying studies haveshown that if couples weather hard times for five years, their marriagestend to last. After five years, "people are happier than those who have hada divorce," Brownback said.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Principal Moscow Gay Pride Organiser Alekseev Also Guilty
Fined, but plans to appeal â?" to European Court if necessary
The main organiser of Moscow Gay Pride was today found guilty of disobeyingpolice officers while breaching traffic rules on May 27 as he and otheractivists, including European parliamentarians tried to deliver a petitionto Moscow City Hall signed by around 50 Members of the European Parliament.
Nikolai Alekseev was fined 1,000 roubles (£20, Ë?29, $39), the same asco-organiser and leader of the â?oRussian Radicalsâ? movement NikolaiKhramov when he was found guilty yesterday in the same court.
After the hearing, Mr. Alekseev vowed that he would not pay the fine andwould be launching an appeal to the Moscow Tverskoy District Court.
â?oThe court session looked like a farce,â? he said. â?oThe judge refusedto admit photo and video evidence proving that we had not disturbed law andorder.â?
He said he considered his detention, during the May 27 action in support ofthe rights of sex minorities, was illegal. Mr. Alekseev â?" along with Mr.Khramov and another Gay Pride organiser â?" was kept in police custody for24 hours before being brought to court where he was released.
On May 28 the judge considered witness evidence by European politicians.But this was not taken into account in todayâ?Ts hearing.
Two police officers testified in court on the circumstances of Mr.Alekseevâ?Ts detention.
However, Mr. Alekseev claimed that â?onone of the officers were, in fact,involved in my detention, which, he pointed out, can be proven withphotographic evidenceâ?.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.afa.net/aatemplate/images/bottom.jpg>
June 8, 2007
Boycott helps drop Ford sales 6.8% in May
General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota sales increase during same period
For the 13th month out of the last 15, the boycott of Ford Motor Company byAFA and other pro-family groups has helped cause Ford to lose sales. Salesdropped 6.8% during May when compared with May 2006.
The drop came as sales for GM [up 9.6%], Chrysler [up 4.3%] and Toyota [up14%] were all increasing. Of the big four, only Ford showed a loss.
AFA has identified Ford as a leading corporate promoter of homosexualmarriage and the homosexual agenda. For more information on Ford'spromotion of the homosexual lifestyle, click here
Even while losing billions of dollars and laying off of thousands ofemployees, Ford continues to financially support various homosexual groups.
Despite the effectiveness of the boycott, the mainstream media has refusedto cover the story. Had homosexuals been boycotting Ford, the boycott wouldhave been given extensive play in the mainstream media.
Because the mainstream media refuses to cover the boycott, AFA is askingthat individuals forward this e-mail to friends and family.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
[euro-queer] Russia: Moscow gay parade organizers left thecourtroom in protest
Moscow gay parade organizers left the courtroom in protest
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=3176
Moscow, June 9, Interfax - The organizers of a failed gay parade in Moscowleft the courtroom in protest on Saturday as the administrative punishmentfor one of the parade organizers, Nikolay Alexeyev, was being considered.
"It was some sort of farce in the courtroom. The judge rejected all ourrequests that photo and video documents showing that we did not violatepublic order be attached to the case, and said there was enough otherevidence in the case," Alexeyev said to Interfax.
Two police officers testified in court on the circumstances of Alexeyev'sdetention, Alexeyev said. He, however, claimed that "none of them in factwas involved in my detention," which, he said, can be proven withphotographic evidence.
Also on Friday another organizer of the event, Nikolay Khramov, the leaderof the Russian Radical organization, was found guilty and fined 1,000rubles.
The gay parade organizers were accused of resisting the police.
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Forwarded from EuroQueer Groups
euro-queer@groups.queernet.org
Dear all:
Just back from Bucharest. There is plenty of news items on this years pride, byt in Romanian. :)
A counter march took part in the morning of Saturday with some 300 people,extreme right, neo-nazis and Orthodox priests together screaming "no tofaggots" and carrying homophobic slogans. They were met on the way of the march by left activists (not ACCEPT) with posters saying "All Different - All Equal".
This is where the clashes occured.
The march itself started at 17:00, and some 400 participants took part, LGBT and their supporters, protected by some 800 policemen. It lasted for 1,5 hours, and attempts were made by extreme right to "intervene" in the march and attack the participants. But the police did a very professional work, and being in themarch one could only hear the incidents and not see them. The participantswere guarded by tall iron police trucks on one side, which, being literally half ameter behind each other, formed a protection fence, behind which most of theviolence occured. And hundreds of policemen stood on the other side of themarch, also forming a "live fence of protection". Knowing that most of theattacks on the LGBT community happened last year in the metro stations afterthe end of the march, the police was heavily present there, and beforealloing pride participants to get down into the metro, "cleared" it from neo-nazisandensured safety. As of the end of Sunday, no reports of attacks on prideparticipants after the march were received.
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Forwarded from EuroQueer Groups
euro-queer@groups.queernet.org
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09656251.htm
Protesters clash with police at Romania gay parade
BUCHAREST, June 9 (Reuters) - Romanian riot police detained dozens ofmilitant protesters on Saturday as hundreds tried to violently break up agay rights march in the capital, Bucharest.
Around 500 gay activists marched through the city to demonstrate againstdiscrimination in this essentially conservative country and to call for thelegalisation of same-sex marriages.
Police fired tear gas to hold the protesters at bay after hundreds threwstones and attempted to break through protective cordons manned by 700officers.
Gays are viewed with hostility by much of the public as many people in thecountry of 22 million largely accept the powerful Orthodox church's view ofhomosexuality as a sin and a disease.
"No one was hurt during the parade, we detained dozens of violent (any-gay)
protesters," police spokesman Christian Ciocan told Reuters.
"We deeply regret that our opponents use violent ways to express themselves.Our march was peaceful," Florin Buhuceanu, one of the parade organisers toldRealitatea TV.
Although homosexuality is legal in Romania, which joined the European Unionthis year, thousands were jailed during the communist era after a 1968 ban.
Hundreds more were sent to prison after the 1989 bloody revolution whichousted Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
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Forwarded from EuroQueer Groups
euro-queer@groups.queernet.org
Activists demand legal recognition of same sex couples
08/06/2007 - 17:35:08
Gay rights activists marked the beginning of Dublin's Pride festival bydemanding the next government prioritise legislation recognising same sexcouples.
The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) said the election manifestos ofall parties included commitments to giving legal recognition to same sexpartnerships.
As talks continue over the formation of a new government for the 30th DáilGLEN was among the groups lobbying to have its concerns forced to the top ofthe agenda.
"The Programme for a new government provides a key opportunity to act onthis consensus for change" said GLEN's Eoin Collins.
"The Government Working Group on Domestic Partnership (the Colley Group) asidentified the way forward, coming out strongly for equality based legalrecognition of same-sex couples.
"GLEN urges all parties to support the implementation of the Colley WorkingGroup report in the next programme for government and to enact legislationat the earliest opportunity."
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COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF BROWARD AWARDS A JOHN C. GRAVES CHARITABLE FUND
GRANT TO GLSEN SOUTH FLORIDA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contacts:
Donald Cavanaugh 561-582-0971
dcavanaugh@glsensouthflorida.org
Chip Arndt PR Director
305.895.9466 x113
chip@arndtstrategies.com
Fort Lauderdale /Miami, Florida (May 20, 2007 ) -- GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) South Florida has received a grant of $10,000 from the John C. Graves Charitable Fund at the Community Foundation of Broward to support its Safe School Project.
"We are thrilled to receive this generous gift from the John C. Graves Charitable Fund at the Community Foundation of Broward," said GLSEN South Florida executive director, Robert Loupo. "We are expanding the Safe School Project into Broward and this money will help improve the lives of hundreds of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth."
According to Loupo, the Safe Schools Project is a four-pronged program designed to help make schools safer for all students, with special attention to the issues facing sexual minorities in the schools. "We train educators, empower youth, educate the public and maintain a continuous feedback loop to refine and improve our programs," he said.
"We are pleased to be able to help expand the fine work GLSEN South Florida has been doing for years," said Carl Trough a trustee for the John C. Graves haritable Fund at the Community Foundation of Broward. "We know how difficult it can be for gay kids in schools and other environments and the work GLSEN South Florida does is so important to helping make things better for them. As a long time close friend of John's I know that he'd be pleased with our support for this project considering his background as an openly gay man and an educator."
GLSEN South Florida continues its history of 16 years helping make South Florida schools safer for all students, faculty and staff regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, real or perceived. For more information visit www.glsensouthflorida.org.
The Community Foundation of Broward's mission is to provide leadership on community solutions, and foster philanthropy that connects people who care with causes that matter. A public organization with more than $70 million in assets, it has allocated $30 million to the community since its founding in 1984. For Good. For Ever. For more information please visit ww.cfbroward.org.
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article.
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