**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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Don't Forget! We need your response!
Florida Red And Blue!!!!
Do your part to fight the right-wing state-wide anti-gay initiativeto amend the Florida constitution.
Friday, September 28, at the GLCC, Ft. Lauderdale - 11:45am to 1:30pm.
Michael and I promised to get a minimum of 10 people to attend thislow dollar boxed lunch - only $25 - to learn about Florida Red And Blue andthe multiple efforts to overcome this hateful amendment. Florida Red andBlue has already raised over $1 million, but our work is only beginning.
Will you support us with this? Every GLBT person in Florida needs to be apart of this effort.
Boxed Lunch Series
$25
Friday, September 28
Noon - 1:30pm
Networking 11:45am
GLCC - Ft. Lauderdale
Send us an e-mail and let us know if you'll join us on the 28th.
And...... If you can't attend, we'll be glad to accept your check made outto "Florida Red and Blue."
Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net
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The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070911/OPINION03/709110318
Closeted anti-gay politicians can run but not hide
by Deb Price
Fed up with Republican attacks on gay marriage, longtime gay activist Michael Rogers decided in 2004 to fight back.
"It was simply no longer acceptable for me to sit there and watch a political party filled with so many closeted gay men beat up on gay Americans," recalls Rogers.
So, like an Internet-age Howard Beale of "Network" fame, Rogers got "mad as hell" and urged other self-respecting gays to join him in exposing anti-gay oliticians who engage in gay sex.
Rogers logged on to Internet chat rooms and set up his own Web site -- blogactive.com -- to inquire about hypocrites. Tips flooded in, but one stood out:
"I've hooked up with Craig."
That Aug. 9, 2004 e-mail message started Rogers on a wild trek to find men claiming to have had sex with Larry Craig, a Republican senator with a long anti-gay history. On his Web site last Oct. 17, Rogers described his gumshoe eporting efforts to confirm the original tip on Craig, concluding that his unnamed sources' "stories are valid."
That posting ignited ethical debates in mainstream print, radio and TV newsrooms. Some outlets decided to immediately report Rogers' charges, the Idaho Statesman launched its own investigation and others only jumped in 10 months later -- after Craig's arrest record surfaced.
Many lessons can be drawn from the sad spectacle of a U.S. senator protesting he's not gay at a news conference called to explain his guilty plea to a misdemeanor in an airport restroom sex sting:
a.. Lesson 1:
The political closet is dead.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/opinion/11herbert.html?pagewanted=print
September 11, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Fantasies, Well Meant
By BOB HERBERT
I must have hit a nerve. While in Las Vegas last week, I interviewed themayor, Oscar Goodman, who enthusiastically explained how legalizingprostitution and creating a series of "magnificent brothels" could be a boonto his city's development.
Vegas is already a paradise for pimps, johns and perverts, and I accused themayor in a column of setting the tone "for the systematic, institutionalizeddegradation" of women.
Mr. Goodman was not pleased. He snarled to the local press that he had nouse for me, and added, "I'll take a baseball bat and break his head if heever comes here."
The mayor, who made a name for himself as a defense lawyer for mobsters,loves to slip into a clownish, tough-guy persona. (He never lets anyoneforget that he had a walk-on as himself in the movie "Casino.") But behindhis bluster is a serious issue that should be addressed.
A lot of people more thoughtful than Oscar Goodman believe that prostitutionshould be legalized as a way of protecting and empowering the women who gointo the sex trade. I've lost patience with those arguments, however wellmeaning. Real-world prostitution, in whatever guise, bears no resemblance atall to the empowerment fantasies of prostitution proponents. I have neverseen such vulnerable, powerless women as those in the sex trade, legal orillegal.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/10/AR2007091000482.html
Craig Asks Court to Waive His Guilty Plea
By Paul Kane
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 11, 2007; A02
Sen. Larry E. Craig yesterday sought to withdraw his guilty plea tomisdemeanor disorderly conduct in an airport men's restroom, saying he adbeen "deeply panicked" that the incident would prompt a home-state newspaperto publish allegations that he is gay.
The Idaho Republican wrote in a sworn statement that he never engaged in"offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy conduct" in the restroomat the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 11, when he wasarrested in a sex sting that led to demands from many Republicans that thethree-term senator resign. Craig has said that if he cannot overturn theguilty plea by a self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline, he intends to step down.
Craig's attorneys filed motions in Hennepin County District Court asking fora speedy hearing and arguing that the plea should be waived because theundercover officer who arrested Craig had promised the senator he would notcall the news media -- a major concern to Craig because the Idaho Statesmannewspaper had been investigating his sexual orientation after allegationsfrom a gay rights activist.
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The Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/09/post_3.html
The Sleuth
Satiated By Craig Scandal, Gay Outer Backs Off Staffers
by Mary Ann Akers
Closeted gay congressional staffers can rest easier. Their worst livingnightmare, vigilante gay outer and activist blogger Michael Rogers, hascalled a truce of sorts: he says he'll stop targeting Capitol Hill aides andwill instead limit his campaign solely to publicly elected officials andcandidates.
"Enough readers expressed concerns that I have decided to now focus onelected officials, those running for office and to high level politicalappointees in the administration," Rogers tells the Sleuth.
His tactical change comes in the wake of Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) arrestand guilty plea in connection with a men's room sex sting at the Minneapolisairport, a saga in which Rogers played a central role. Craig said he pleadedguilty to the charges because of a "witch hunt" carried out by the IdahoStatesman newspaper, which was following up on reports by Rogers that Craigcruised men for sex in public bathrooms, including the Union Station traindepot in the District.
Until today, in addition to targeting politicians, Rogers had beenaggressively either naming or threatening to out scores of gay staffers whohe deemed to be hypocritical because they either pushed anti-gay rightsagendas or worked for members of Congress with anti-gay rights votingrecords. His first threat was sent in the form of a mass email tocongressional aides in 2004 warning them: if you are gay, secretly oropenly, and you or your boss are pushing legislative agendas seen as unfairto gays and lesbians, then watch out.
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Anything But Straight
by Wayne Besen
www.waynebesen.com
PFOX Cried Wolf
It was the oddest event in my fifteen-year activism career.
I had ventured to Orlando, Florida last summer to attend the NationalEducation Association's annual meeting. Crashing the conference was theso-called "Ex-Gay Educators Caucus," a sham organization run primarily byanti-gay lobbyists, who are attempting to get the viewpoints of "formerhomosexuals" into public schools. To counter their presence, I staged apress conference outside the huge convention center.
Following the media event, I unassumingly straggled into the gargantuanshowroom where there were booths as far as the eye could see, representingnumerous causes and products. Eventually, I spotted the ex-gay booth,staffed by a man who ran a Focus on the Family offshoot, ex-lesbian JanetBoynes and a woman who claimed to represent Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays(PFOX). I slowly walked up to the booth and began peering at the group'sliterature.
Over the years, I have visited anti-gay booths or conferences dozens oftimes. In almost every case, we engaged in light banter, shook hands andpolitely agreed to disagree. They regularly come to our events and we, inturn, visit theirs - and there is an unspoken rule that the opposition willbe treated courteously, if only because you don't want to be harassed whenin "enemy territory."
This time it was different.
I asked one of the volunteers if any of the people in the Ex-Gay EducatorsCaucus were actually ex-gay educators. As far as I could tell, thecontingent consisted of only one teacher's assistant with the rest beingright wing lobbyists with a political agenda. One older woman, whoidentified herself as the PFOX representative, became belligerent andaccused me of starting trouble. Sensing I was not welcome, I turned aroundto exit, but was confronted by "ex-gay" Ohio lobbyist Greg Quinlan, whobumped my chest and got in my face. I sternly warned him to back off and letme leave in peace.
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Inside Higher Education
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/11/alumnisuit
Not That There's Anything Wrong With It
The mythical tradition of the alumni magazine prank was elevated (orlowered?) to the level of litigation last month, when Ross Weil and BrettRoyce sued American University for printing a "Class Notes" blurb announcingtheir wedding in Boston.
The trouble, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on August 30 infederal court in New York City, is that the item published in AmericanMagazine this spring wasn't true. Weil and Royce are not married, and Weilis not the "chief operating officer of the Gay Rights Brigade, which lobbiesfor constitutional amendments providing for homosexual privacy and marriagerights."
The suit seeks a combined $1.5 million for the two plaintiffs, who graduatedin 2002. It accuses the magazine of libel, acting "in malice, reckless andgross negligence" - and says it falsely "imputes homosexual behavior"between the men.
The plaintiffs' lawyer, Michael Kaufman, declined to comment, but he toldthe New York Post on Sunday that no one at the magazine or theWashington-based university had contacted his clients to confirm the notice."It has nothing to do with homophobia," he said of their lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for the university, Maralee Csellar, couldn't comment on thedetails of the case but said "we depend on the accuracy of our alums" whenpublishing the "Class Notes" section, which is not posted online. Themagazine is published three times a year and is produced by the UniversityPublications division, under the president's office, with a statedcirculation of about 85,000.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070910/20070910006417.html?.v=1
Significant Majority of All Adult Americans Believe it is Unfair thatFederal Law Allows Employers to Fire Someone Because They are Gay or Lesbian
Monday September 10, 4:22 pm ET
Sixth Annual Out & Equal/Harris Interactive/Witeck-Combs Communications
Survey Explores Workplace Attitudes toward GLBT People
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. & ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly two-thirdsof all American adults (64%) believe it is unfair that federal law currentlyallows for an employer to fire someone because they are gay or lesbian. Asimilar majority (60%) of heterosexual adults were not even aware thatfederal law does not provide protections for employees on the basis ofsexual orientation. An overwhelming majority (79%) of heterosexuals alsofeel that how an employee does his or her job, and not their sexualorientation, should be the standard for judging an employee. When it comesto the issue of transgender employees in the work place, two thirds ofheterosexuals (67%) also agree that employee performance should be thestandard by which they are judged and not whether they are transgender.
These are some of the results from the latest national Out & Equal Workplacesurvey, conducted online by Harris InteractiveR in conjunction with Out &Equal and Witeck-Combs Communications, among 2,868 U.S. adults, of whom 350self-identified as, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT)(1). Thesurvey is an annual barometer of attitudes surrounding GLBT issues in theworkplace and is the longest-running survey of its kind.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
US: Schwarzenegger Should Sign Marriage Bill
California Governor's Second Chance to Support All California Families
(New York, September 10, 2007) - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldensure basic human rights to all Californians by signing the ReligiousFreedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, granting full marriage equalityfor same-sex couples, Human Rights Watch urged today in a letter to thegovernor. Schwarzenegger had vetoed a similar bill when passed byCalifornia's legislature in 2005.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger has been given one of the rarest things in life: asecond chance to do the right thing," said Boris Dittrich, advocacy directorof the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human RightsWatch. "Twice, California legislators have supported the human rights oflesbian and gay couples, and now the governor should do the same."
On September 7, by a vote of 22-15, the California State Senate approved AB43, The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, extending civilmarriage to lesbian and gay couples. The legislature's lower house, theState Assembly, had passed the Act earlier this year by a vote of 42-34. Thegovernor has until October 14 to sign or veto the bill.
The California bill would define marriage in gender-neutral terms as a unionbetween two people. It would extend the same state protections of marriageto same-sex couples as to heterosexual ones. Religious groups could continueto refuse to perform a marriage ceremony if their beliefs forbid it.
--
To view the letter from Human Rights Watch to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,please visit:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/10/usdom16835.htm
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
[euro-queer] For all you sports fans: A little bit of gay sporting history in France on Tuesday when Argentina plays Georgia in the Rugby Would Cup game in Lyon.
UK
From The Times: Tuesday September 11, 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matt_dickinson/article2426458.ece?openComment=true
Gay referee takes pride of place in the tolerant world of 'macho' rugby
By Matt Dickinson
Nigel Owens will referee the match between Argentina and Georgia at therugby union World Cup in Lyons this evening and he has a stock retort if anyof the players get lippy. "You've got two ears, one mouth. Use them inproportion," he will say.
The Welshman also has a prepared response for when he hears the accusationthat he is a "homer". "Just so long as you don't call me a homo," he willrespond. Which might sound strange coming from most referees, but not fromOwens. He is gay, you see.
His sexuality should not be worthy of note, but it is for the reasons thatGraeme Le Saux has spelt out in his autobiography and John Amaechi, theformer England basketball player, made plain in his memoirs, published thisyear. To be gay, or erroneously thought to be gay in Le Saux's case, is torisk becoming a pariah in the backward world of professional sports teams.
Amaechi summed up the dread of the gay sportsman. "Say you're a footballer,"he said. "From 6, you've been the golden boy. And there's a real reverencefor what you can do. There's hero worship upon meeting you. You've made allthis effort to get to this stage and then you risk jeopardising the wholething."
As an official, Owens does not have the hero worship to worry about, but hedid agonise that "coming out" might destroy his career. If players could beso cruel to their own, what mercy would they show to an openly gay referee?
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[GaysWithoutBorders] Anti-Gay March in the Ukraine
Christians Organize March Against Homosexuality
05.09.2007, [12:14] // Protest //
Kyiv - The Ukrainian Interchurch Council (UIC) has come out in favorof supporting an initiative to lead a march on 15 September 2007 inKyiv on Khreshchatyk under the banner "Love is AgainstHomosexuality." On the eve of the march, 14 September, the UIC iscalling for a day of prayer and fasting for the "destruction of theevil purpose of strengthening homosexuality in Ukraine." RISU'sUkrainian-language webpage covered the story on 5 September 2007.
As RISU was informed by the UIC Coordinator, Bishop VolodymyrHarbar, "the goal of the march is to call attention to the Biblicalview on the problem of homosexuality and lesbianism, to upholdgovernment authorities in defense of traditional family values, andto support criminal penalties for homosexual propaganda andpopularization."
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ILGA-Europe welcomes judgement by European Court of Human Rights on rightsof transgender person
Today the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg delivered itsjudgment in the case of L. v. Lithuania. The Court said that whileLithuanian law had recognised transsexuals' right to change not only theirgender but also their civil status, there was a gap in the law regulatingfull gender reassignment surgery which created an impediment for thetranssexual person to complete this process and therefore Lithuania violatedArticle 8 (right to respect of private and family life) of the EuropeanConvention of Human Rights.
ILGA-Europe welcomes this judgement of the European Court of Human Rightswhich is consistent with the previous case law of the Court regarding therights of transgender people. The Court has confirmed previously establishedprinciples that a transgender person has the right to full genderreassignment procedures and changes of his/her identity documents to reflectthis change of gender.
Patricia Prendiville, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, said:
"This is a very positive judgement and we welcome the Court's consistency onthis matter. This case highlights a problem with some European countrieswhich formally permit gender reassignment and amendment of identitydocuments but lack legal clarity and consistency and available medicalfacilities.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
The Independent Gay Forum
http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31325.html
Richardson was Right (Sort Of)
by John Corvino
First published at 365gay.com on August 20, 2007
It seemed like a softball question at first. During LOGO's August 10gay-rights forum for the Democratic presidential candidates, panelist (androck star) Melissa Etheridge asked New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, "Do youthink homosexuality is a choice, or is it biological?"
Richardson, who has a strong gay-rights record, responded, "It's a choice.It's."
Several audience members gasped. Wrong answer! Etheridge interrupted, "I don'tthink you understand the question," prompting nervous laughter throughoutthe studio. She tried again:
"Do you think I-a homosexual is born that way, or do you think that aroundseventh grade we go, 'Ooh, I want to be gay'?"
"Seventh grade" is right: at that moment Etheridge seemed like an indulgentschoolteacher, trying to feed a quiz answer to a hapless student.Multiple-choice: A or B (hint: it's obviously not B).
Richardson missed the hint. Instead, he rambled:
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=9806
Gay Russia
Moscow Mayor Rejected a Compromise Plan for Gay Pride from RussianGovernment
Luzhkov dismisses suggestion from Foreign Minister Lavrov made in March
A series of letters, leaked to the Russian daily newspaper MoskovskiyKomsomolets and published today, show that the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkovdismissed a request from the Russian government to reach a compromise overMoscow Gay Pride, and how he requested - and got - from the GUVD departmentof the Moscow Police what amounts to a justification for the banning of thisyear's Pride weeks before the application was made.
The letters [links to letters in Russian, and English translations, are atend of article] show that, on January 31, the secretary-general of theCouncil of Europe, Terry Davis, wrote to Russian Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov suggesting a "reasonable compromise" over the Moscow Gay Pride thisyear.
"I am very likely to be asked by the media to react to [the Moscow GayPride] situation because I am expected, as Secretary General of the Councilof Europe, to take a position on issues which directly concern the rightsprotected by the European Convention on Human Rights," Mr. Davis wrote.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20647865/site/newsweek/print/1/displaymode/1098/
Gay Rights Gain Ground Around Globe
Now mature in the west, gay power is growing worldwide, even in the land ofmachismo.
By Joseph Contreras
Newsweek International
Sept. 17, 2007 issue - After eight years together, Gilberto Aranda andMauricio List walked into a wedding chapel in the Mexico City neighborhoodof Coyoacán last April and tied the knot in front of 30 friends andrelatives. Aranda's disapproving father was not invited to the springtimenuptials. For the newlyweds, the ceremony marked the fruit of the gay-rightsmovement's long struggle to gain recognition in Mexico. The capital city hadlegalized gay civil unions only the month before. "After all the years ofmarches and protests," says Aranda, 50, a state-government official, "a seachange was coming."
The sea change spreads beyond Mexico City, a cosmopolitan capital that ishome to a thriving community of artists and intellectuals.
The growing maturity of the gay-rights movement in the West is having amarked effect on the developing world. In the United States, the RepublicanParty is in trouble in part because it has made a fetish of its oppositionto gay marriage. At least some gays in big cities like New York question whythey are still holding "pride" parades, as if they were still a closetedminority and not part of the Manhattan mainstream. Since 2001, WesternEuropean countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain have gone evenfarther than the United States, placing gay and lesbian partners on the samelegal footing as their heterosexual counterparts. And now, the majordeveloping powers of Asia, Latin America and Africa are following theliberal road-sometimes imitating Western models, sometimes not-but in allcases setting precedents that could spread to the remaining outposts ofofficial homophobia.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Dahr Jamail's Mid-East Dispatches
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000634.php#more
September 10, 2007
Clerics Begin to Take Over
Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily*
BAGHDAD, Sep 10 (IPS) - Religious clerics are beginning to play anincreasingly powerful role in Iraq. Many Iraqis now fear that they areendangering human rights and religious freedom in the once largely secularcountry.
Clerics began to play a major role since the U.S.-led occupation began inApril 2003. Despite the promises of U.S. President George W. Bush to turnIraq into a secular and free country, clerics have become the real leaders,and are beginning to control most political matters.
"It is the Iraqis' misfortune that the international coalition has broughtclerics to power," Dr. Shakir Hamdan, an expert on Islamic issues told IPSin Baghdad. "They will only lead the country into sectarian wars and takethe whole country into the dark ages where one man rules and freedom islost."
Hamdam cited a recent meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikiand the powerful Shia Grand Ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, wherematters of state were discussed.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
The Independent Gay Forum
http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31340.html
The 'Ick' Factor Strikes Again...and Again...
by Steve Sanders
First published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 2, 2007
Not long ago, the "family values" crowd thought the best way to oppose gayrights was to slander gay people. To them, being gay was synonymous withbehavior that was objectionable, anti-social or illegal. Republicanpoliticians insisted that marriage had to be "defended" from gay couples.Paul Cameron, a "psychologist" whose junk science is still a staple ofright-wing Web sites, has written that gay people are "sexual bums" whosuffer from a "preoccupation with sex" and "seek excessive distraction"through sex, drugs and other risk-taking behaviors.
The political argument that followed from this picture was simple andinsidious: Why should these people be allowed to marry one another, or beprotected against hate crimes or job discrimination?
But lately, it seems, Republicans and the religious right have stumbled ontosomething even more deviously effective. Rather than talking about ickybehavior, they are modeling icky behavior, and forcing the rest of us totalk about it.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op
Bay Area Reporter
Migden's 'sperm' lands on guv's desk
by Dr. Deborah Cohan
Well, not actually sperm, but Senate Bill 443, state Senator Carole Migden's(D-San Francisco) sperm-washing bill, has passed both houses of theCalifornia Legislature with almost no opposition and is on Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger's desk awaiting his signature.
SB443 would reverse the current restriction on the use of semen fromHIV-infected men for the purposes of assisted reproduction (more commonlyknown as artificial insemination). The original law was put into effect inthe late 1980s when it was crucial to ensure the safety of the blood supplyas well as sperm and organ donations.
Technology exists now, however, to wash semen of HIV such that couples inwhich the man is HIV-positive and the woman is HIV-negative (also known asdiscordant couples) can safely get pregnant using assisted reproduction. HIVis not located inside sperm but is found within seminal fluid and whiteblood cells. It is unlikely that HIV is able to infect spermatozoa, becausespermatozoa lack the receptors that HIV typically latches onto. Spermwashing can separate the sperm from the other components in semen that maycontain HIV. The washed sperm is then used for either intrauterineinsemination or in-vitro fertilization.
Since the early 1990s, there have been numerous published studies reportingover 4,500 assisted reproduction procedures using washed sperm fromHIV-positive men.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Concord Monitor
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/OPINION/708300353
GOP should get government out of bedrooms, bathrooms
Scandals show danger of policing morality
By Nick Gillespie
Los Angeles Times
Aug 30, 2007
As we all look forward to more sputtering news conference anticsfrom Sen. Larry Craig, here's hoping that the Idaho politician will eventuallydraw on traditional Republican principles and stand up for his right toengage in consensual sex in toilet stalls with men. Craig, a critic of thePatriot Act who weakened some of its worst provisions during last year'srenewal vote, clearly understands the need to keep the government fromsnooping willy-nilly on its citizens.
At first flush, the news that the 62-year-old senior senator from theGem State pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to misdemeanor charges of disorderlyconduct in a Minnesota airport men's room is not simply embarrassing buthumiliating - especially to the people of Idaho, who returned him to officefor the third time in 2002 with 65 percent of the vote. According to policereports, Craig tapped his foot near and ran his hand alongside his toiletstall divider, which the arresting officer said he recognized as a come-onfor sex. After the cop, who was sitting in the adjacent stall, flashed hisbadge and made the arrest, Craig compounded his poor judgment by trying toinvoke senatorial privilege. He handed the police officer his U.S. Senatebusiness card and intoned, "What do you think of that?" Craig paid almost$600 in fines and fees and was sentenced to a year of probation and 10 daysin a county jail (the latter was stayed).
It is easy - because it is accurate - to savor the rank hypocrisy ofCraig's personal and public behavior. An arch-social conservative, Craigvoted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that barrednational recognition of gay unions, and he is a strong supporter of aconstitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-7/view/editorial/11189.cfm
Washington Blade
Media coverage of Craig scandal reinforces anti-gay stereotypes at aninconvenient time.
KEVIN NAFF
Friday, September 07, 2007
THE PAST COUPLE of weeks proved sad and frustrating. First, the compulsivelyhypocritical Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was exposed as trolling for gay sexin a men's room. Then, the mainstream media did their usual sloppy best atcovering the story.
Almost immediately, CNN began airing grainy and ominous footage of two mensitting in stalls, their feet tapping away. In one particularly gallingsegment, CNN included scenes of children playing in the foreground with amen's public restroom visible in the background.
Such images miss the point of Craig's preferred sort of sexual encounter.The men who engage in that behavior are so afraid of being exposed as gaythat their techniques are painstakingly subtle. The average men's roompatron would have absolutely no idea what's going on in the adjacent stall,because that's exactly the point. And bathroom sex certainly has nothing todo with children, no matter what that pansy homophobe Tucker Carlson thinks.
Linking gay men to pedophilia and illicit sex are the most enduring slursdirected at us and this story feeds both. At a dinner party last weekend, astraight friend worried aloud about the safety of his children in publicbathrooms. This is the worst story at the worst time. And the cable newsnetworks aren't the only guilty party.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
The Seattle Times
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=brewer06&date=20070906
Jerry Brewer
UW ex-player's pledge is more than a cash figure
By Jerry Brewer
Seattle Times staff columnist
Forty-five years ago, David Kopay was crumbling.
He was a football player, a future All-American, but he didn't even letterhis junior year at Washington. He was a gay man in shoulder pads, surroundedby machismo, trapped in a world he knew wouldn't accept him.
He was lost.
"That year, oh, it was black," Kopay said. "It was so dark."
After all this time, Kopay still must stop an interview, sniffle and say,"I'm sorry. I get so emotional sometimes."
His pain lessens, but it never evaporates. That's OK, though. This angstfocuses his mission to defy athletic custom and champion gay rights. In1975, Kopay became the first openly gay American professional athlete inteam sports. Now he's putting half of his life savings toward the cause.
Washington announced Wednesday that Kopay has pledged to give $1 million tothe university's Q Center, a haven for people of all sexual orientations.
Kopay isn't one of those athletes with an extra $1 million resting in hissofa cushions, either. He says he never made more than $29,000 a seasonduring his nine-year NFL career. He played without signing bonuses, withoutguaranteed money. From 1964 to 1972, he tortured his body, and during thepast four years, he's had both hips, a shoulder and a knee replaced.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flanationdig09110nbsep11,0,7112790,print.story
Minnesota: Sen. Craig files to withdraw guilty plea in airport sting
September 11, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS INDIANAPOLIS LOGAN MOUNT LAUREL
Sen. Larry Craig sought to undo his guilty plea in an airport sex sting onMonday, claiming that he admitted to the charge in a panic to avoidtriggering a story about his sexuality in his hometown newspaper.
Craig had denied to editors at the Idaho Statesman that he was gay justweeks before his June 11 arrest in the bathroom of the Minneapolis airport.The paper didn't run a story, but Craig thought his arrest would changethat.
Craig's attorneys wrote that "faced with the pressure of an aggressiveinterrogation and the consequences of public embarrassment, Senator Craigpanicked and chose to plead to a crime he did not commit."
The timing could become important because more than a month and a halfpassed between Craig's June 11 arrest and Aug. 1, when he signed a guiltyplea to a disorderly conduct charge.
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Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid48737.asp
September 11, 2007
Israelis shocked by discovery of neo-Nazi ring of immigrant youths
Israelis were shocked by the arrest of eight young immigrants from theformer Soviet Union who wore Nazi insignia while filming themselves carryingout violent crimes of hate, rejecting in the most belligerent way theunderpinning of the Jewish state founded after the Nazi Holocaust of WorldWar II.
Police announced the arrest of the eight on Sunday and released videosshowing them kicking helpless victims on the ground to a bloody pulp,hitting a man over the head with an empty beer bottle, and proclaiming theirallegiance to Adolf Hitler in a Nazi salute.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who viewed the footage with his ministers at theweekly cabinet, reacted with outrage at what he called ''violence for thesake of violence.''
''I am sure that there is not a person in Israel who can remain indifferentto these scenes, which indicate that we too as a society have failed in theeducation of these youths,'' he said.
While Israel has experienced isolated incidents of anti-Semitism in thepast, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the arrests were the first timean organized cell has been discovered.
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Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid48746.asp
September 11, 2007
Suit dropped over gay-related bar exam question
A Boston man who claimed he failed the Massachusetts bar exam because of hisrefusal to answer a question about same-sex marriage has dropped his case infederal court.
Stephen Dunne, a graduate of the New England School of Law, called for thequestion not to be counted toward his score and for it to never be placed onfuture tests. He said the question violated his Irish Catholic beliefs andFirst Amendment rights, according to the Boston Herald.
Dunne said he would not pursue the suit because a subsequent exam did notinclude what he called the "patently offensive and morally repugnant"same-sex marriage question. According to the Herald, he characterized thatas a corrective action by the board.
The exam question read: "Yesterday, Jane got drunk and hit (her spouse) Marywith a baseball bat, breaking Mary's leg, when she learned that Mary washaving an affair with Lisa. As a result, Mary decided to end her marriagewith Jane in order to live in her house with (children) Philip (and) Charlesand Lisa. What are the rights of Mary and Jane?"
An attorney representing the Massachusetts bar said that the bar will notstrike questions pertaining to same-sex marriage, which is legal in thestate, on future exams. (The Advocate)
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Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid48741.asp
September 11, 2007
NJ Gov. Corzine vows to sign marriage bill but said it would not make hisagenda in 2008
New Jersey's governor this weekend vowed to sign a marriage equality billbut said he would not seek one in an election year, while California'sgovernor did get such a bill but kept quiet about it as he exhorted fellowRepublicans toward centrism.
New Jersey governor Jon Corzine on Sunday called same-sex marriage in hisstate inevitable but said it "won't be on my agenda" until after the 2008presidential election for fear it would be used as a wedge issue by theright wing, New York's Gay City News reported.
"I don't think I'd like to see this debated in a presidential electionyear," the paper quoted Corzine, a Democrat, as telling members of theNational Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association at a gathering in Newark,N.J.
"I don't know whether it's three years or five years, but in some time framein the not so distant future, I suspect that New Jersey will embrace themoniker of gay marriage or same-sex marriage," he said.
Corzine asserted he will sign a bill to allow same-sex marriage if thelegislature sends him one.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=14233
Craig blames press for his plea
Said hounding by journalists caused extreme stress
WASHINGTON (AP) | Sep 10, 10:37 AM
Sen. Larry Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a sexsting because he was under extreme stress after being hounded by journalistsasking questions about his sexuality, his lawyer argues.
Craig, an Idaho Republican, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conductfollowing a sting operation in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis airport.His lawyer, William Martin, said he will file court documents Monday tryingto undo that decision so Craig can fight the charge.
Martin said Monday that Craig did not "knowingly and intelligently enter aguilty plea." The senator simply admitted conduct that "itself does notconstitute a crime," Martin said.
"He admits to going into the bathroom, he admits to moving his foot, headmits to reaching his hand down," Martin said on NBC's "Today" show."That's not a crime."
Persuading a judge to withdraw a guilty plea is difficult but Craig willargue that he was under too much stress to knowingly plead guilty, Martinsaid.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/28/aids.drugs/index.html
updated 10:53 a.m. EDT, Wed August 29, 2007
Saving lives with leftover AIDS drugs
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jesus Aguais was working as an AIDS counselor for Latinopatients when a woman from his native Venezuela entered his New York medicalcenter office with a desperate plea.
She had sold her home and all her possessions to come to the United Statesto seek AIDS treatment for her son and daughter-in-law, but the medicinesthey needed cost $1,000 a month. She had nothing left to give and nowhereelse to go.
Aguais reached into his desk drawer where he had been storing unusedmedications and handed her a three-month supply.
He had not planned to use the medicine this way; he had only collected itbecause some patients had died or experienced adverse reactions.
"Some people couldn't tolerate it, and treatment that cost $1,200 [was]being thrown away," Aguais said. "I just knew it was wrong, purely wrong.... I was telling people, 'Why don't you bring it to me?'"
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091007sisters.htm
Spinster Sisters Ask For Same Rights As Lesbian Couple
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 10, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(London) Two elderly sisters who live together say they should have the samerights as a lesbian couple and are taking their case to Europe's highestcourt.
The women, who have lived together since birth and have never married aresuing the government in the European Court of Human Rights.
In their lawsuit Joyce Burden and her sister Sybil, both in their 80s, claimthat when one of them dies the other would be required to pay massiveinheritance taxes.
They argue that the taxes would be unfair since unmarried same-sex couplesare exempt from the tax under Britain's civil partnership law.
In UK law there is a 40 percent inheritance tax an exemption for the first$500,000. Married couples, and couples in civil partnerships, are exemptfrom the tax.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091007israel.htm
Israeli Justice Minister Backs Down On Definition Of Marriage
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 10, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET
(Jerusalem) Despite intense pressure from ultra-Orthodox religious partiesIsrael's Justice Minister has backed down on a plan to define common-lawmarriage as between "a man and a woman" in a new bill on inheritance rights.
Earlier this month it was disclosed that Justice Minister Daniel Friedmannhad revised the draft bill to specifically exclude gay and lesbian couples.(story)
The original draft was gender neutral and approved by the cabinet. Friedmanchanged it following a meeting with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
Marriage under Israeli law is the monopoly of rabbis. There is no civilmarriage in Israel. But cohabitating opposite-sex couples are regarded as ina common-law marriage with many of the rights of married couples.
Friedman's revision ignored the recommendations of a government commissionthat recommended partners in same-sex relationships have the same rights toinheritance as married couples when one partner dies without a will.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091007ny.htm
Denied Death Benefits, Gay Man Sues State Farm
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 10, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET
(Albany, New York) A man who was denied workers' compensation benefitsfollowing the death of his same-sex partner is taking his case to a New YorkState appeals court.
At issue is whether a civil union conducted in Vermont is equivalent tomarriage under New York State law.
John Langan and Neil Conrad Spicehandler were united in Vermont. but inFebruary 2002, Spicehandler was struck by a car driven by a New Jersey man.
When he was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, in Greenwich Village, with abroken leg, the only person Spicehandler asked the staff to call was Langan,who in turn called Spicehandler's other family members. By the time Langanarrived at the hospital, Spicehandler was being taken into surgery to repairthe leg.
A couple of days later, on Valentine's Day, Spicehandler's broken leg wasoperated on a second time. He, Langan and the rest of the family allthought he would be fine, and were told that he would be released from thehospital within a few days.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091107zim.htm
Fake AIDS Drugs Flood Zimbabwe
by The Associated Press
Posted: September 11, 2007 - 6:30 am ET
(Harare) AIDS drugs - some of them contaminated, diluted or faked - arebeing sold at flea markets and hairdressing salons in the face of growingshortages in clinics linked to Zimbabwe's economic crisis, the healthministry said Monday.
State media quoted Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa appealing to peopleliving with HIV/AIDS to buy their medicines from registered pharmacies,clinics and hospitals only.
"These fake drugs increase chances of one becoming resistant to treatmentand it becomes even more expensive for that person to remain on treatment,"he was quoted as saying by the official Herald newspaper, which said thatthe "prohibitive" cost of antiretroviral drugs at private pharmacies hadfueled the illegal market.
State radio said that the illegal medications were either adulterated withother substances or useless fakes.
About 50,000 HIV-infected patients are receiving free medication fromgovernment hospitals in a nation where an estimated 3,000 people die a weekfrom AIDS-related conditions. The Herald said 300,000 more are in urgentneed of treatment.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091107enda.htm
Majority Of Americans Support Passage Of Federal Gay Job Protections
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 11, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(Washington) Nearly two-thirds of all American adults believe it is unfairthat federal law currently allows for an employer to fire someone becausethey are gay or lesbian according to a new poll.
The survey also found that almost as many people were not even aware thatfederal law does not provide protections for employees on the basis ofsexual orientation.
The poll was conducted online by Harris Interactive in conjunction withWiteck-Combs for Out & Equal, a San Francisco-based national LGBT group thatadvocates for equitable workplaces.
Seventy-nine percent of people who self identified as heterosexual said thatthat how an employee does his or her job, and not their sexual orientation,should be the standard for judging an employee.
When it came to the issue of transgender employees in the work place, twothirds of heterosexuals 67 percent said that employee performance should bethe standard not sexuality.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091107memorial.htm
Sixth Anniversary Of Terrorist Attacks Marked
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 11, 2007 - 10:30 am ET
(New York City) Moments of silence Tuesday in New York City and across thecountry marked the sixth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In New York 2,750 people died when the twin towers of the World Trade Centercollapsed after being hit by two hijacked airliners. In Washington 184perished when a third hijacked plane stuck the Pentagon . And in a lonelyfield in Pennsylvania another 40 people died when the plane they where itslammed into the ground before it could be used as a weapon, possibly on theCapitol.
Each year at the New York ceremony a different group has been asked to readthe names of the people who died in the attacks
Last year at Ground Zero the names of the victims were read off by familymembers, including for the first time by same-sex domestic partners.
But this year the ceremony was moved from the site of the attack to a nearbypark because of construction and some families opted not to attend.
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