Saturday, September 22, 2007

GLBT DIGEST September 22, 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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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 out
to "Florida Red and Blue."

Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net



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NationalGayNews.com

http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=7618

Largest gay news magazine asks Clinton if she's a lesbian

09/21/2007 @ 9:11 am
Filed by John Byrne

According to the NY Daily News, in an interview with the magazine's news andfeatures editor Sean Kennedy to be published next week, the editor asks,"How do you respond to the occasional rumor that you're a lesbian?"

"People say a lot of things about me, so I really don't pay any attention toit," Clinton remarked. "It's not true, but it is something that I have nocontrol over. People will say what they want to say."

Clinton has been chased by tabloid rumors of her sexuality for years, nonewith credible evidence, some fostered by conservatives, including themuch-maligned The Truth About Hillary.

The New York Times' company's About.com even includes an entry, "Is HillaryClinton a Lesbian?"

Gaydar-saavy Kennedy told the Daily News he's convinced she's not.



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ExpressGayNews.com

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/21/gay_gop/

The gay voter's guide to the GOP

How should a right-wing homosexual vote in the upcoming primaries andcaucuses? Salon rates the Republican candidates for gay friendliness.By Michael Scherer and Ben Van Heuvelen

Sep. 21, 2007 | Imagine this: You are a gay man or a lesbian woman who justcan't stand Democrats. Maybe you are rich and you don't want anyone to raiseyour taxes. Perhaps you are just determined to stay the course in Iraq,privatize Social Security, and drop oil wells into the Alaskan wilderness.Jack Abramoff might even be an old drinking buddy.

It doesn't really matter. Whatever the cause, you are in a quandary. Youronly viable choice in the coming presidential election is to vote for aRepublican, and that means voting for a party that has spent much of thelast decade casting you and your way of life as an assault on the wholesomegoodness of the American family. "Homosexuality is incompatible withmilitary service," declared the 2004 GOP platform. "Attempts to redefinemarriage in a single state or city could have serious consequencesthroughout the country."

What is a right-leaning homosexual to do in this presidential election?Start by taking a closer look at the candidates in the Republican field.There is substantial variation, and not just in their positions on aconstitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Call it the Giuliani-KeyesSpectrum of Gay Friendliness. On one end, there is Rudy Giuliani, a formerNew York mayor who has lived with gay friends, favors gay domesticpartnerships, and sometimes dresses in drag. At the other end, there is AlanKeyes, who calls lesbians "selfish hedonists," even though his only daughteris a lesbian. There exists, shall we say, a veritable rainbow of variationin between.

In service to the one in four gay voters who chose George Bush over JohnKerry in 2004, and anyone else who might want to know, Salon now presentsits first ever Gay Guide to the Republican Candidates.

more . . . . .



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Advocate.com

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49093.asp

09/22/07-09/24/07

Giuliani Builds Political Base in Texas

Republican Rudy Giuliani -- thrice-married, liberal on social issues, and aconsummate New Yorker -- seems an unlikely White House contender to beembraced by a Texas GOP establishment rooted in the energy industry anddominated by religious conservatives.

But the former New York mayor has built a formidable political base in Texaswith the help of well-connected Republican money men. He owes his advantagein part to his role as a name partner with a powerhouse, Houston-based lawfirm known for its impressive roster of energy-giant clients, Bracewell &Giuliani.

His partnership in the law firm has also brought Giuliani unwelcomecriticism in connection with some of the firm's more controversial clients,including a Spanish contractor involved in planning part of a Texassuperhighway toll road known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Texas farmers and other landowners are worried their property rights will betrampled to make way for the highway. Conspiracy theorists see Giuliani,because of his highway connections, as allied with a cabal of internationalmonied interests plotting to supplant the United States with a NorthAmerican Union that includes Mexico and Canada.

more . . . . .



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Advocate.com

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49100.asp

09/22/07-09/24/07

Anglican Head Says 'Compromise' on Gay Issue Is Key

The archbishop of Canterbury indicated Friday that the Episcopal Churchisn't on the brink of losing its place in the world Anglican fellowship,despite the uproar over Episcopal support for gay clergy.

Anglican leaders, called primates, had set a September 30 deadline for theAmericans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop orapprove an official prayer service for gay couples. Episcopal bishops havededicated their meeting here to crafting a response.

But after two days of private talks with Episcopal leaders, Archbishop ofCanterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, said ''there is noultimatum involved.'' The goal, he said, is ''compromise.''

''It's been presented sadly as a set of demands,'' Williams said in a newsconference before he left. ''I don't think that what was in the primates'minds. In fact, I'm sure it isn't.''

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has amore liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas. Tensions overBible interpretation erupted in 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated thefirst openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

more . . . . .



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Advocate.com

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49106.asp

09/22/07-09/24/07

Newark Execution Murders May Have Been Gay Hate Crime

New Jersey gay rights activists are urging the mayor of Newark toinvestigate an execution-style murder that occurred in August as a possiblegay hate crime.

The Washington Blade reports that at least one of the victims was gay.Officials have denied that the attack was a hate crime but rather a robbery.

The Newark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer &Two-Spirited Concerns Group wrote to Mayor Cory Booker, questioning why themurdered young adults' sexual orientation was not taken into account orreleased to the media.

"This happened despite the fact that several sources, including friends,boyfriends/lovers of at least one of the victims, and perhaps one of theparents knew that one or more of the murdered students were gay," wroteJames Credle, a local activist, on behalf of the group.

Garden State Equality, New Jersey's statewide gay rights advocacy group, hasendorsed the letter.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092107murder.htm

Gay Man's Killer Seeks Reduced Sentence

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 21, 2007 - 11:00 am ET

(Denver, Colorado) A Colorado man sentenced to 22-years in prison for themurder of a Montrose gay man is asking the Colorado Court of Appeals toreduce his sentence or order a new sentencing hearing.

In a brief filed by his attorneys, Jason Fiske claims that the trial courtviolated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, resulting in anexcessive sentence.

The appeal does not take issue with the plea bargain Fiske agreed to in the2005 strangling death of Kevin Hale in Montrose, Colorado.

Fiske pleaded guilty last December to charges of manslaughter and robbery.He originally was charged with murder

Fiske's partner in the killing, Adam Hernandez, 21, was sentenced last yearto eight years in prison on reduced manslaughter and theft charges. He toowas originally charged with murder.

more . . . . .



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092107club.htm

Gay Students In Illinois Town Win GSA Right

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 21, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET

(Rockton, Illinois) Despite objections from a handful of parents theHononegah High School's Board of Education has voted to allow LGBT studentsto form a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus amid warnings a negative votewould prompt a lawsuit.

"The students are aware of their legal rights, and are willing to stand upfor those rights," student Brian Carrell warned the board at a publicmeeting before the vote.

The GSA was proposed last May by English teacher Cathy Aubrecht.

She said the organization would serve as a "safe zone" where LGBT studentscould discuss the issues they face and educate students about gay andlesbian issues.

When opposition began to mount students approached the American CivilLiberties Union which told the board that under the Equal Access Act itwould be illegal to block the club.

more . . . . .



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092107chambers.htm

Nebraska Senator Supports Gay Rights, Sues God

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff with files from The Associated Press
Posted: September 21, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET

(Lincoln, Nebraska) A legislator who filed a lawsuit against God has gottensomething he might not have expected: a response.

One of two court filings from "God" came this week under otherworldlycircumstances, according to John Friend, clerk of the Douglas CountyDistrict Court in Omaha.

"This one miraculously appeared on the counter. It just all of a sudden washere - poof!" Friend said.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha sued God last week, seeking a permanentinjunction against the Almighty for making terroristic threats, inspiringfear and causing "widespread death, destruction and terrorization ofmillions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

Chambers, a self-proclaimed agnostic who often criticizes Christians, saidhis filing was triggered by a federal lawsuit he considers frivolous. Hesaid he's trying to makes the point that anybody can sue anybody.

more . . . . .



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092107hiv.htm

Merck's Experimental AIDS Drug Fails

by The Associated Press
Posted: September 21, 2007 -5:00 pm ET

(Trenton, New Jersey) A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDSvirus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infectedwith HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study.

Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination ofvolunteers in the large international study, which is partly funded by theNational Institutes of Health.

It was a significant setback in the daunting quest to develop a vaccine toprevent AIDS. Merck's vaccine was the farthest along and was closely watchedby experts in the field.

Officials at the New Jersey-based company told The Associated Press that 24of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one segment of the experiment laterbecame infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In a comparison groupof volunteers who got dummy shots, 21 of 762 participants also becameinfected.

"It's very disappointing news," said Keith Gottesdiener, head of Merck'sclinical infectious disease and vaccine research group. "A major effort todevelop a vaccine for HIV really did not deliver on the promise."

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-21/news/legal/11260.cfm

Legal analysis
Experts call ruling 'troubling'

By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Sep. 21, 2007

Some legal experts called "troubling" and "narrow" a ruling this week thataffirmed Maryland's ban on same-sex marriage, while others praised it as theright decision.

Jana Singer, a University of Maryland law professor who filed paperssupporting the 19 gay and lesbian plaintiffs who challenged the ban, saidthe decision represented "a step backward" for the court.

"It seems in many ways to have taken a step backward in its interpretationof the Maryland Declaration of Rights," she said, "and the protections ithad affirmed for individuals under the Maryland Constitution."

Singer said the decision has "troubling implications that go beyond thecontext of marriage" and "throw into question" a long line of decisionsprotecting Marylanders against discrimination.

Barbara Babb, director of the Center for Families, Children & the Courts at
the University of Baltimore, also noted the ruling had a surprisingly "crueltone."



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-21/news/localnews/11265.cfm

Three juveniles charged in Chinatown gay-bashing spree

By LOU CHIBBARO JR
Sep. 21, 2007

D.C. police have arrested three juvenile males and were looking for at leastone more in connection with three separate incidents in which the youthsallegedly assaulted a transgender woman and a gay man and smashed the carwindows of another gay man.

All three incidents took place on separate nights in the Chinatown-GalleryPlace area between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13, according to Lt. Alberto Jova,commander of the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, which is investigatingthe crimes.

Commander Diane Grooms of the First Police District, whose officers made thearrests, said the juveniles appeared to belong to an informal group or gangthat targeted gay people in the area of Chinatown or Gallery Place. She saidthe youths live in Southeast D.C.

"What we're finding is we have a group of juveniles that either knows somepeople or they are targeting certain individuals due to their sexualorientation," Grooms said.

She said police consider the incidents hate crimes but she could notdetermine whether the D.C. Attorney General's Office, which prosecutesjuvenile cases, formally charged the youths with a bias-related crime underthe city's criminal code.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/AR2007091902002.html

Judge: Ten Commandments Display Can Stay

By SAMIRA JAFARI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; 7:44 PM

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- A courthouse display featuring the Ten Commandments canstay, a federal judge ruled, rejecting arguments that it endorses religionin violation of the constitution.

The "Foundations of American Law and Government" exhibit at the little-usedRowan County Fiscal Court in the rural, eastern Kentucky town of Moreheadcame under fire in 2001, when the American Civil Liberties Union's statechapter sued.

The display also includes the Mayflower compact, the Declaration ofIndependence, the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. The ACLU argued thedisplay amounted to state-sponsored religion.

In his ruling released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester said thedisplay "does not have the effect of endorsing religion." He cited avirtually identical display in Mercer County that was upheld by the 6th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the Morehead case, the ACLU sued Rowan County in 2001, more than twoyears after the Ten Commandments were posted with the other documents in theFiscal Court.


more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-than-12000-pflag-allies-ask.html

September 20, 2007

More Than 12,000 PFLAG Allies Ask Congress to Protect Gay Workers

On Monday, September 24, the National Staff of Parents, Families and Friendsof Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National will hand-deliver more than 12,000pro-equality postcards from constituents across the country to both the U.S.House of Representatives and the Senate. The individually written cards werecollected from 40 states across the country as part of PFLAG's campaign,"People Don't Get Fired for Being Straight" to support the passage of theEmployment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

"Constituents are sending a clear, strong message, urging their members ofCongress to support workplace fairness by passing ENDA," said Jody M.Huckaby, PFLAG's executive director. "More than 170 Representatives and 70Senators will be receiving PFLAG postcards from their constituents."

PFLAG National's ENDA campaign has brought a chorus of voices from statesthat are not the usual suspects when it comes to supporting gay, lesbian,bisexual and transgender (GLBT) equality. Georgia, Ohio, and Indianagenerated over 1,000 postcards each, exceeding expectations and leading thecampaign turnout. PFLAG members wrote personal messages to their members ofCongress including their names and addresses, and returned them to the PFLAGNational office in Washington, D.C. for delivery on Capitol Hill.

"Lawmakers can not ignore the thousands of constituent demands for workplaceequality," said John Cepek, PFLAG President. "From Georgia to Ohio andIndiana, from New York to California, the time has come to pass this billand protect all American workers."

ENDA, if passed, would extend federal employment discrimination protectionsthat are currently provided on race, religion, gender, national origin, age,and disability to also cover sexual orientation and gender identity.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6944122

LDS forums to discuss gay issues

By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:09/20/2007 02:16:04 AM MDT

Just days after this week's Evergreen International conference ends, the LDSChurch will publish another look at same-sex attraction.

Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland, in the October issue of Ensign, the church'sofficial magazine, will discuss the church's perspective on several topicsto be explored Friday and Saturday at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building bymembers of Evergreen, an outreach organization for Mormons dealing withhomosexuality.

In the article, a copy of which the LDS Church gave The Tribune, Hollandreiterates the church's position that same-sex attraction is not a sin; onlyacting on it is immoral. He does not try to explain the causes of theseattractions, but acknowledges they are real.

"Through the exercise of faith, individual efforts and reliance on thepower of [Christ's] Atonement, some may resolve same gender attraction inmortality and marry," he writes. "Others, however, may never be free ofsame-gender attraction in this life."

Further, Holland writes, marrying a person of the opposite sex "is not anall-purpose solution. Same-gender attractions run deep, and trying to forcea heterosexual relationship is not likely to change them. We are thrilledwhen some who struggle with these feelings are able to marry, raise childrenand achieve family happiness. But other attempts have resulted in brokenhearts and broken homes."

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://lgbtyouthnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/rockton-illinois-school-board-caves.html

Rockton, Illinois School Board Caves, Allows Gay-Straight Alliance Club

ROCKTON, IL - After months of controversy and warnings from the AmericanCivil Liberties Union that blocking a gay-straight alliance club fromforming would violate federal law, a school board in Rockton, Illinois votedlate Wednesday night to allow the club to meet on campus. The board's 5-2vote reversed an earlier decision by a board committee that had recommendedthe board ban the club.

"We're very pleased that the board has decided to follow the mandate of thefederal Equal Access Act and treat all student clubs at Hononegah HighSchool equally and fairly," said John Knight, director of the Lesbian GayBisexual Transgender Project at the ACLU of Illinois. "And we're so proud ofthe students from the GSA for standing up for their rights and demanding theequal treatment that the law requires."

The club was first proposed by students in May. In spite of warnings fromthe school board's own attorney that legal precedents overwhelmingly favorthe formation of such clubs, the board's co-curricular committee voted torecommend to the board that the club be denied. Wednesday's vote by theboard overruled the committee and will allow the club to begin meeting asearly as next week.

"The law clearly supports the right of students to form any kind of clubthey want, rather than allowing schools to arbitrarily pick and choose whichkind of student organizations they'll allow," said the ACLU of Illinois'Youth at Risk Project attorney Sarah Schriber, who along with Knight sent aletter to the board in late July explaining the requirements of the federalEqual Access Act. "Schools everywhere need to know they simply can't getaway with trampling students' rights and violating federal law."

Gay-straight alliances are student-formed groups that address issues ofdiscrimination, tolerance, and school safety in hundreds of schools acrossthe United States. According to the federal Equal Access Act, students mustbe allowed to form gay-straight alliances if the school permits othernon-curricular clubs. Federal courts have upheld the right of students toform GSA clubs in several states - including Utah, Georgia, Kentucky,Minnesota, Texas, California, and Florida.



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-21/news/national/11272.cfm

Critics claim 'ex-gay' study flawed, biased
Gay Activist says researchers 'don't want the truth'

KATHERINE VOLIN
Friday, September 21, 2007

A new study of "ex-gays" conducted by two evangelical Christians is raisingcharges of bias and flawed methodology by critics.

"Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in SexualOrientation," published by a Christian firm and researched by evangelicalChristian psychologists Mark Yarhouse and Stanton Jones, addressed twoissues: whether it's possible to change sexual orientation and whethertrying to do so is harmful.

"I'm hopeful that our study will actually help to provide a scientific andfactual context for the discussion," Jones told the Blade.

The study, which ran for four years, started with 98 subjects and ended with73. Losing subjects over the course of a long study is de rigueur, Jonessaid. Results of the study showed 15 percent of the 73 remaining subjectshad achieved what the researchers dubbed "Success: Conversion," meaning thatthe subject self-reported their same-sex attractions were significantlyreduced and considered themselves satisfactorily converted to heterosexualattraction.

Jones and Yarhouse also considered another 23 percent of the cases assuccessful. This chunk of the sample they dubbed "Success: Chastity" and itincluded those in the study who still experienced some same-sex attractionbut were not currently engaging in "overt sexual activity."

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-21/news/national/11273.cfm

Craig scandal brings issue of sexual identity to light Gay

Gay, straight, bi, MSM all valid terms, researchers say
ELIZABETH PERRY
Friday, September 21, 2007

Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) arrest last June for allegedly soliciting sexfrom another man in an airport restroom and his insistence that he isstraight has reawakened the debate over sexual behavior, identity andorientation.

"I am not gay. I have never been gay," Craig said at an oft-quoted Aug. 28news conference. "I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis Airport."

Craig made a surprise visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he apologized tohis colleagues for "any embarrassment" at a Republican Senate luncheon,according to media reports. He said it is still uncertain whether or not hewill return to political office. Another hearing is set for Wednesday oncharges filed against him in the bathroom sting charges. He pleaded guiltyon Aug. 8 to a disorderly conduct charge and said he planned to resign fromthe Senate Sept. 30. He filed papers Sept. 10 to withdraw his guilty plea.

Craig's arrest has sparked debate about what it means to be straight, gay,lesbian or bisexual, or more specifically, how a self-identified straightman can have feelings of attraction for another man. One of the first peopleto scientifically study sexual orientation and identity was sex researcherAlfred Kinsey.

In his 1948 book, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," Kinsey introduced hisHeterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, which ranged from zero, meaning aperson was exclusively heterosexual, to six, meaning a person wasexclusively homosexual.

more . . . . .



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

Salon

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/21/gay_gop/print.html

The gay voter's guide to the GOP

How should a right-wing homosexual vote in the upcoming primaries andcaucuses?

Salon rates the Republican candidates for gay friendliness.
By Michael Scherer and Ben Van Heuvelen

Sep. 21, 2007 Imagine this: You are a gay man or a lesbian woman who justcan't stand Democrats. Maybe you are rich and you don't want anyone to raiseyour taxes. Perhaps you are just determined to stay the course in Iraq,privatize Social Security, and drop oil wells into the Alaskan wilderness.Jack Abramoff might even be an old drinking buddy.

It doesn't really matter. Whatever the cause, you are in a quandary. Youronly viable choice in the coming presidential election is to vote for aRepublican, and that means voting for a party that has spent much of thelast decade casting you and your way of life as an assault on the wholesomegoodness of the American family. "Homosexuality is incompatible withmilitary service," declared the 2004 GOP platform. "Attempts to redefinemarriage in a single state or city could have serious consequencesthroughout the country."

What is a right-leaning homosexual to do in this presidential election?Start by taking a closer look at the candidates in the Republican field.There is substantial variation, and not just in their positions on aconstitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Call it the Giuliani-KeyesSpectrum of Gay Friendliness. On one end, there is Rudy Giuliani, a formerNew York mayor who has lived with gay friends, favors gay domesticpartnerships, and sometimes dresses in drag. At the other end, there is AlanKeyes, who calls lesbians "selfish hedonists," even though his only daughteris a lesbian. There exists, shall we say, a veritable rainbow of variationin between.

more....



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

The LGBT Cancer Project

Liz Margolies, LCSW
Executive Director
thelgbtcancerproject@earthlink.net

I am proud to announce the official launch of The LGBT Cancer Project,the country's first program for LGBT cancer survivors and those atrisk.

While the United States has many of the world's best cancer researchand treatment facilities, cancer has a disproportionate impact onlesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people. I am sure youhave heard many of the same painful stories I have: lesbians whotragically postponed their mammograms; gay men who couldn't talk totheir oncologists about their sex lives; or cancer survivors whosepartners were denied access to the emergency room.

The research shows that these are not isolated stories. LGBT peoplehave a dense cluster of cancer risk factors, many of which are linkedto the stress of minority status and discrimination, like smoking anddrinking. Unfortunately, this increased risk is coupled withdecreased screening behaviors, resulting in cancer being picked up ata later stage when it is more difficult to treat. Once diagnosed, thecancer experience for LGBT people can affect our sexuality and"families" in some unique ways that are not adequately addressed bygeneral healthcare providers.

That's why the LGBT Cancer Project was founded. Until now, there wasno organization addressing the cancer health disparities of the LGBTcommunity as a whole. The LGBT Cancer Project was created to fillthis gap. Our work focuses on educating health care providers,participating in national cancer organizations, advocating for LGBTinclusion in cancer research and developing a multi-lingual website,offering information and resources for both professionals and LGBTpeople with cancer.

more....



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Forwarded by Joe Van Eron
GayDania Beach.com

Website Highlighting Diversity

In an effort to heighten awareness of the diversity among Broward County's1.8 million residents, Broward County's Office of Public Communications haslaunched a new website on the Broward County's home page.

The new site looks at diversity in the workplace, in business and thecommunity. It recognizes individuals who have received honors and awards fortheir leadership and efforts to create a more inclusive community.

Visit the new website at
http://www.broward.org/celebratingdiversity/welcome.htm



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Forwarded from Michael Emanuel Rajner
National Secretary - Campaign to End AIDS
Founding Member - Campaign to End AIDS-FLORIDA
merajner@gmail.com

Promising AIDS vaccine fails; testing halted
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-21-aids_N.htm

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDSvirus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infectedwith HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study.

Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination ofvolunteers participating in the international study, which is partly fundedby the National Institutes of Health.

Officials at Merck told The Associated Press that 24 of 741 volunteers whogot the vaccine in one segment of the trial later become infected with HIV,the virus that causes AIDS. In a comparison group of volunteers who gotdummy shots, 21 of 762 participants also became infected with HIV.

"It's very disappointing news," said Keith Gottesdiener, head of Merck'sclinical infectious disease and vaccine research group. "A major effort todevelop a vaccine for HIV really did not deliver on the promise."

The study volunteers were all free of HIV at the start of the experiment.But they were at high risk for getting HIV: most were homosexual men orfemale sex workers. They were all repeatedly counseled about how to reducetheir risk of HIV infections, including use of condoms, according to Merck.

more.....



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Gay & Lesbian Leadership
SmartBrief

http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp

Will beat go on for circuit party scene?

The circuit party is not quite over, but the staple of the gay party crowdhas much less appeal to younger men, who are more likely to socialize withstraight friends or take a gay cruise for same-sex bonding, according tothis article. Some circuit party aficionados hope the dance floor -- inwhatever incarnation -- will still be a key part of the gay subculture. Out(9/16) http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=22864

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Gay welcome mat not out in New York Post newsroom
The absence of gay reporters and editors at the New York Post is due lessfrom its strident editorial voice than its newsroom culture, according tothis media blog posting by writer Jeff Bercovici. While the management'sintent may not be to rid the paper of gays, the effect -- giving The Postfree rein to antagonize gays -- makes them "guilty of something a whole lotmore sinister than journalistic malpractice," Bercovici writes.Portfolio.com (9/19)
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2007/09/19/how-the-post-keeps-gays-from-the-newsroom

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GayCityNews.com

http://gaycitynews.com:80/site/news.cfm?newsid=18838006&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569346&rfi=6

Terror Campaign Escalates

By: DOUG IRELAND
Gay City News, 09/20/2007

The daily newspaper Red Pepper in the Ugandan capital of Kampala haspublished another installment of its hate-filled expose of allegedsame-sexers, this time describing in detail 14 supposed lesbians and eightmore gay men and attacking the U.S. Astraea Foundation.

Sunday's edition of Red Pepper on September 16, claiming it was "exposingpeople with errant behavior in society," fingered people including"Fatumah - she is brown, and beautiful, stays in Bunga, drives one of theposh VX Land Cruisers in town and owns shops on William Street," and"Baker - a medium sized brown man who stays in Bwaise and sells clothes inOwino Market."



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Forwarded from Nikki H

[Transgender-Equality] reflections

I wanted to share a recent experience because I think it makes animportant point. A few months back I "came out" as a Trans personto my former boss, the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital that Iworked for in Saudi. He is an American man who also happens to be aChild Psychiatrist and is gay. We immediately hit it off from dayone but never divulged anything about our sexuality or genderidentity due to the sensitive nature of that topic in Saudi Arabia.Without saying anything, I think we both intuitively thought eachother was gay.

We e-mail each other from time to time just to say hello. When Idecided to tell him that I was actually TG and not gay, that is whenhe told me he was gay and had been in a 20 year relationship with aguy who he claimed was his nephew while in Saudi. He began to ask mequestions about being TG and said he really didn't know much aboutit. I have since tried to inform him about my feelings as a childand my search to figure out who and what I was.

What is so amazing to me is how uninformed the public, includingthe medical community, is about transexuality. I could not imaginethat a Child Psychiatrist had very little knowledge ofTransgenderism, let alone a gay one at that. He has been very open,supportive, and willing to be educated on the topic.

I thought about the remarks of the Oakland Park CouncilwomanMurphy that people fear the unknown. As we continue to educate thepublic about who we are, as we continue to develop friends andassociates who know that we are TG, then we break down that fear ofthe unknown. I truly believe that as the Oakland Park City Counciland Mayor came to recognize us over the past 3 meetings when ourissue was discussed, that they became our friends and learned tolike and respect us. That is what breaks down the fear andultimately the intolerance and discrimination.

I guess we never realize the impact that we can make on a personor a community by just being ourselves and politely and patientlyanswering their questions. That's how we breakdown fear and dispellthe stereotypes. Education and building relationships are the key toit all.

Nikki



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22brown.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

September 22, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor

The Forgotten H.I.V. Test

By JEREMY BROWN
Washington

TWENTY-FIVE years after the outbreak of H.I.V. in the United States, thereare about 40,000 new cases of infection a year, and an estimatedquarter-million people who have H.I.V. but do not know they are infected.

That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommendedthat every emergency room patient ages 13 to 64 should be offered an H.I.V.test. It doesn't matter if the person is there for a sprained ankle, a cutfinger or appendicitis: the C.D.C. wants him to be offered a test for H.I.V.New tests requiring only a painless swab of the gums can reveal in 20minutes if a person is infected.

If the problem is so serious and the solution so simple, then why, one yearafter these recommendations were made, are there are still almost noemergency rooms that offer routine H.I.V. testing?

It all comes down to money. Although the C.D.C. recommendations were based
on impeccable science and more than two decades of experience in dealingwith the disease, they did not address the question of how this universaltesting campaign would be paid for.

Health insurers generally pay for an emergency room visit based on the finaldiagnosis. An H.M.O. will pay a fixed amount for a sprained ankle, forexample, whether the patient had an X-ray, an M.R.I. or no costly imagingtest at all. So if the patient with a sprained ankle receives aneasy-to-perform but unrelated H.I.V. screening, the hospital is unable torecover the additional fee. And in those states where H.I.V. tests are notdistributed free of charge - and this includes virtually all of them - orwhere no extra staff members are available, it is simply not possible tooffer an H.I.V. test as the C.D.C. recommends.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101954.html

A Defeat for Gay Marriage
Maryland's legislature should take up the challenge in a Court of Appeals decision.
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A16


IN 2004, NINE same-sex couples in Maryland challenged the state's ban on gay marriage; in 2006 they achieved a surprising victory before Baltimore trialJudge M. Brooke Murdock. Judge Murdock concluded that the state's law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman violated a state law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. Yet in handing the couples this win, Judge Murdock also sowed the seeds for a predictable defeat this week before Maryland's highest court. By a 4 to 3 vote, the Maryland Court of Appeals rightly rejected Judge Murdock's reasoning, noting that the law preventing discrimination on the basis of sex was written in the 1970s to protect women; lawmakers never intended it to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation. Still, the analysis in the decision was disturbing. Before upholding the ban as constitutional, the court had to examine whether Maryland had a rational basis for limiting marriage and its benefits to heterosexual couples. The court explained its finding in support of the state this way: "The State has a legitimate interest in encouraging . . . a union that is uniquely capable of producing offspring within the marital unit."

This gem of illogic became the foundation for maintaining a status quo that ontinues to leave the nine couples and thousands of others with no legal avenues of appeal and without a panoply of benefits, including rights of inheritance and the right to make medical decisions for incapacitated partners.

Fortunately, the Court of Appeals all but invited gay rights advocates to take their case to the legislature: "[O]ur opinion should by no means be read to imply that the General Assembly may not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the right to marry a person of the same sex."

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[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####

NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST September 22, 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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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 out
to "Florida Red and Blue."

Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flaepiscopal0922nbsep22,0,5667591,print.story

No ultimatum issued, says Anglican leader

Compromise sought with Episcopalians
By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press

September 22, 2007

NEW ORLEANS

The archbishop of Canterbury indicated Friday that the Episcopal Churchisn't on the brink of losing its place in the world Anglican fellowship,despite the uproar over Episcopal support for gay clergy.

Anglican leaders, called primates, had set a Sept. 30 deadline for theAmericans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop orapprove an official prayer service for gay couples. Episcopal bishops havededicated their meeting in New Orleans to crafting a response.

But after two days of private talks with Episcopal leaders, Archbishop ofCanterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, said "there is noultimatum involved." The goal, he said, is "compromise."

"It's been presented sadly as a set of demands," Williams said in a newsconference before he left. "I don't think that what was in the primates'minds. In fact, I'm sure it isn't."

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has amore liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas.



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/sfl-0921donotcall,0,7499222,print.story

Don't get stuck falling off telemarketing Do Not Call list

By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
11:34 AM EDT, September 21, 2007

WASHINGTON

The cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year formillions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national Do NotCall list.

The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the list, says there is asimple fix. But some lawmakers think it is a hassle to expect people tore-register their phone numbers every five years.

Numbers placed on the registry, begun in June 2003, are valid for fiveyears. For the millions of people who signed onto the list in its earlydays, their numbers will automatically drop off beginning next June if theydo not enroll again.

``It is incredibly quick and easy to do,'' Lydia Parnes, director of theFTC's bureau of consumer protection, said in an interview with TheAssociated Press this week. ``It was so easy for people to sign up in thefirst instance. It will be just as easy for them to re-up.''

But Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., says people should not be forced to re-registerto keep telemarketers at bay. Doyle introduced legislation this week, withbipartisan support, to make registrations permanent.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22episcopal.html?pagewanted=print

September 22, 2007
Episcopal Church Remains Divided on Gay Issues

By NEELA BANERJEE

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 21 - Talks between Episcopal Church bishops andtop-ranking representatives of the worldwide Anglican Communion ended withfew signs that the bishops would change the church's liberal stance onhomosexuality. The standoff only increases the possibility of splits withinthe church and in the rest of the communion, the world's third-largestChristian denomination.

The Episcopal Church is the American arm of the Anglican Communion. As thechurch's bishops began their twice-yearly meeting on Thursday, at the top ofthe agenda was a directive from the primates, or regional leaders of thecommunion, asking the church to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbianbishops and to ban the blessing of same-sex unions, or risk a diminishedstatus in the communion.

At a news conference on Friday, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop ofCanterbury, emphasized that the directive was not an ultimatum to theAmerican church. Anglican leaders including Archbishop Williams, who is thespiritual leader of the global communion, met with the American bishops onThursday and Friday.

"Some primates would give it a more robust interpretation, some less so,"Archbishop Williams said of the directive. "But it is inevitably a matter ofcompromise."

The bishops conclude their meeting here on Tuesday, when an officialresponse to the directive is expected. But several bishops with a range ofviews on homosexuality said they did not expect the House of Bishops toendorse the directive. In such an event, those who disagree with theEpiscopal Church have said they might break with the church or with thewider communion.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/nyregion/22plumb.html?pagewanted=print

September 22, 2007
Witness Describes Chat With Gay Victim

By MICHAEL BRICK

Hiding his face beneath a jacket as he was led into a courtroom in handcuffsyesterday, a 17-year-old witness mumbled, nodded and shrugged his waythrough an account of the fatal attack on a gay man in Sheepshead Bay lastfall.

The witness, Gary Timmins, avoided the gaze of the defendants, one of them achildhood friend, as he gave the prime testimony meant to convict them. Bothhave been charged in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn with murder as a hatecrime, a distinction that could draw extended sentences.

Though Mr. Timmins has pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in exchange forhis testimony, he stretched any reasonable definition of the term"cooperating witness."

Cutting a squat figure in sagging jeans and a butch haircut, he spoke intones that seemed to defy amplification. He gave answers including "hum,""hunh" and what sounded like "mnyes." Again and again, the judge imploredhim to speak up.

A prosecutor, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, had to ask him at least half a dozenquestions to elicit an acceptable identification of the defendants. Withoutpointing or looking, Mr. Timmins told jurors the men were "over there."

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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101696.html

Protecting Maryland's Diverse Families

Sunday, September 23, 2007; B08

In the wake of their defeat last week in the Maryland Court of Appeals, gayrights advocates are turning to the General Assembly, where sympatheticlegislators will introduce a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. Thelegislature should take this opportunity to reevaluate the place ofmarriage -- straight or gay -- in the state's laws.

The Court of Appeals recognized that most households no longer follow "thetraditional model of what constitutes a family." All families and householdsneed the economic stability and emotional peace of mind that usually extendonly to married couples. Unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, singlemothers pooling resources to raise their children together, committedfriends or siblings who live together, and intergenerational households arejust some of the many family forms that need recognition and protection. TheGeneral Assembly should put Maryland in the forefront of valuing allfamilies.

Maryland already has at least one model law to draw on. When an employeedies on the job, the state awards workers' compensation death benefits toanyone who depended on the person who died. Marriage is not a requirement.As far back as 1950, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that workers' compis "not a code of morals." Rather, it's designed to economically protectworkers and those who depend on them. The legislature should extend thisreasoning to other laws. All death benefits should be based on dependency,not marriage. Wrongful-death lawsuits should also be available to anyone whofinancially depended on the person who died; that's the law now in WestVirginia.

The General Assembly can find other models for laws that value all families.In Salt Lake City an employee can cover on her health insurance anyeconomically dependent or interdependent adult she has lived with for a yearand intends to continue living with, as well as that person's children. Thefederal government allows employees to use paid sick leave to care foranyone close enough to have "the equivalent of a family relationship."

Washington state allows courts to equitably divide the property of unmarriedcouples when they separate. The District of Columbia gives unmarriedpartners priority in making health care decisions when one partner isincapacitated. New York gives unmarried partners priority in disposing ofremains. Colorado admits a will to probate even if it lacks all the willformalities, if it can be proven that the deceased intended the document tobe his will. This last provision would have protected Maryland marriageplaintiff John Lestitian, who lost his home when his partner died becausehis partner's will had only one witness instead of the required two.

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Fort Report

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Giuliani+says+Michigan+can+rebound+with+lower+taxes%2C+have+less+government&expire=&urlID=24054947&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.detnews.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcs.dll%2Farticle%3FAID%3D%2F20070921%2FUPDATE%2F709210443%2F1020%2Frss09&partnerID=162731

MACKINAC ISLAND -- Rudy Giuliani kicked off a weekend of pitches frompresidential hopefuls at the Mackinac Republican Leadership ConferenceFriday night, telling 1,200 party activists that the solution to Michigan'seconomic woes is lower taxes and less government.

"Michigan is going through a situation that to me looks like déjÀ vu allover again," the former New York mayor told Republicans gathered in theornate dining room of the island's Grand Hotel. Giuliani said he faced thesame problems Michigan now faces -- job losses, an exodus of population --when he took over as mayor in 1994.

"There is a game plan for what you do when you have a budget deficit, peopleleaving, high unemployment: lower taxes, smaller government, lessregulation," Giuliani said.

Giuliani was the first of a half-dozen presidential hopefuls expected tospeak to the conference this weekend. Later Friday night, CaliforniaCongressman Duncan Hunter addressed the dinner audience, calling the declineof manufacturing jobs in Michigan and across the country an issue ofnational security as well as economics.

Giuliani is the leader in most national polls among Republican presidentialhopefuls, but in Michigan is competing against candidates with moreextensive campaign operations and political networks. Mitt Romney and JohnMcCain, both of whom speak to the conference on Saturday, have both spentmore time the state, and have lined up support from powerful GOP organizers,activists and office-holders.

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FortReport.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-warcosts22sep22,1,6931196,print.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

Iraq war budget jumps for 2008

Bush plans to increase his request to nearly $200 billion. The troop buildupand new gear are the main reasons.
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 22, 2007

WASHINGTON - -- After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress todrastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to asklawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totalingnearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officialssaid.

If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive yearof the Iraq war.

U.S. war costs have continued to grow because of the additional combatforces sent to Iraq this year and because of efforts to quickly ramp upproduction of new technology, such as mine-resistant trucks designed toprotect troops from roadside bombs. The new trucks can cost three to sixtimes as much as an armored Humvee.

The Bush administration said earlier this year that it probably would need$147.5 billion for 2008, but Pentagon officials now say that and $47 billionmore will be required. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and otherofficials are to formally present the full request at a SenateAppropriations Committee hearing Wednesday.

The funding request means that war costs are projected to grow even as thenumber of deployed combat troops begins a gradual decline starting inDecember. Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to rise from $173billion this year to about $195 billion in fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1.

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FortReport.com

http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Feds+look+at+fraud+in+area%27s+soaring+HIV%2FAIDS+billing&expire=&urlID=24052951&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmbeachpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcontent%2Fnation%2Fepaper%2F2007%2F09%2F22%2Fm1a_MEDICARE_AIDS_0922.html&partnerID=491

Feds look at fraud in area's soaring HIV/AIDS billing

By LARRY LIPMAN
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Saturday, September 22, 2007

WASHINGTON - Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties accounted for halfof the drug costs billed nationwide for Medicare beneficiaries with HIV/AIDSin the last half of 2006, according to a government report released thisweek.

That's even though only 10 percent of the roughly 100,000 Medicarebeneficiaries with HIV/AIDS nationwidelive in the three South Floridacounties.

The area also accounted for 79 percent of the drugs themselves and 37percent of the HIV/AIDS services provided from July through December 2006,according to the report by Department of Health and Human Services InspectorGeneral Daniel R. Levinson.

The numbers were released as federal officials already are keeping a closeeye on potentially fraudulent medical billings in South Florida.

The report said the "aberrant claims patterns differentiated South Floridaproviders and beneficiaries from those in the rest of the country."

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22sat1.html?ref=opinion

September 22, 2007
Editorial

Climate Week

The coming week could set a record for the number of high-profile hoursspent discussing global warming and what to do about it. It begins with aspecial one-day session at the United Nations, at which Al Gore will pressthe case for strong collective action to stop the rise of greenhouse gases.It ends with a two-day White House "summit" involving all of the majoremitters, including India and China. Both of those nations have beenconspicuously absent from climate negotiations, but their help in arrestingglobal emissions is essential.

The problem needs all the attention it can get. But if talk is good, it isalso cheap. And it will change nothing unless it leads to a real treaty withreal, and enforceable, limits on the production of greenhouse gases. Thatmeans a broader and more inclusive version of the Kyoto Protocol, a noblebut flawed treaty that expires in 2012.

As we know, firm targets are not what President Bush has in mind. Mr. Bushannounced this summit in June at a time when he was under serious pressurefrom scientists, the Supreme Court, his Europeans allies and the nation'sgovernors to do something about global warming.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22collins.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

September 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Women Behind the Men

By GAIL COLLINS
Daisy Bates had to march with the wives.

When the nation observes the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock schooldesegregation on Monday, there will undoubtedly be a great deal said aboutBates, who was head of the city's N.A.A.C.P. chapter. She helped recruitnine black teenagers and escorted them through irate mobs of white adultsand into their first classes. As a result, she and her husband, Lucius, losttheir business. She was jailed, threatened and the Ku Klux Klan burned an8-foot cross on her lawn.

Bates was invited, of course, to the famous March on Washington in 1963,when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Rosa Parkswas invited, too, and Pauli Murray, the lawyer and feminist who had stagedthe first sit-in at a Washington restaurant during World War II.

When they got there, they were all assigned to walk with the wives of themale civil rights leaders, far away from the cameras. "Not a single womanwas invited to make one of the major speeches or be part of the delegationof leaders who went to the White House. The omission was deliberate," Murraysaid later.

Dorothy Height, the head of the National Council of Negro Women, and othersbegged that at least one woman be included among the speakers. Theynominated Diane Nash, the student leader who had been perhaps the one personmost responsible for the success of the Freedom Riders in the South. Nodice.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

September 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
In 2008, Bush v. Gore Redux?

By BOB HERBERT

Right now it's just a petition drive on its way to becoming a ballotinitiative in California. But you should think of it as a tropicaldepression that could develop into a major storm that blows away theDemocrats' chances of winning the White House next year.

And it could become a constitutional crisis.

It's panic time in Republican circles. The G.O.P. could go into next year'selection burdened by the twin demons of an unpopular war and an economicdownturn. The party that took the White House in 2000 while losing thepopular vote figures it may have to do it again.

The Presidential Election Reform Act is the name of a devious proposal thatRepublican operatives have dreamed up to siphon off 20 or more of the 55electoral votes that the Democrats would get if, as expected, they winCalifornia in 2008.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?hp

September 22, 2007

Giuliani Tells N.R.A. He Opposes New Gun Limits

By MARC SANTORA

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - Rudolph W. Giuliani appeared Friday before theNational Rifle Association - a group he once likened to extremists - anddefended his very vocal past advocacy of tougher gun laws while affirmingthe right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.

The appearance by Mr. Giuliani was perhaps his biggest test yet of how hisliberal record on gun control and abortion as a New York City mayor wouldsquare with a core Republican constituency now that he is running forpresident. And he confronted his past directly, saying he faced differentchallenges taming crime in New York City a decade ago, while signaling thathe opposes new restrictions on gun ownership.

"I believe that law enforcement should focus on enforcing the laws thatexist on the books as opposed to passing new extensions of laws," Mr.Giuliani said. He added that his views have been shaped by his time as aprosecutor, mayor and even by the Sept. 11 attacks, which he said, "puts awhole different emphasis on what America has to do to protect itself."

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Blackwater-Probe.html

September 22, 2007
Feds Target Blackwater in Weapons Probe

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:18 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employeesof the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraqweapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in thehands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigationwith help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concludedthere is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The AssociatedPress. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday.The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, GeorgeHolding, declined to comment, as did Pentagon and State Departmentspokesmen.

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The New York Times

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

September 22, 2007
Ex-President Is Returned to Peru

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:06 a.m. ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was flownto his home country in police custody Saturday, one day after the ChileanSupreme Court authorized his extradition on charges of human rightsviolation and corruption charges.

A Peruvian police aircraft carrying the 69-year-old former ruler departedjust before 9 a.m. EDT from the Santiago airport for the 4 1/2-hour flightto Lima, the Peruvian capital, with at least one refueling stopover.

A blue-and-white Chilean police helicopter had flown Fujimori to the airportfrom the suburban residence where he remained for months under house arrestawaiting the court ruling on his extradition trial.

The Supreme Court ruled that Fujimori should be extradited on two rights andfive corruption charges. The rights abuse charges include sanctioning thedeath-squad killings of 25 people.

Chilean police officers formally transferred control over Fujimori to theirPeruvian counterparts inside a vehicle at the airport tarmac. Fujimori wasexamined by a Peruvian doctor before boarding the aircraft, officials said.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22shop.html?pagewanted=print

September 22, 2007

Currency Parity Brings Canadian Shoppers South

By WILLIAM YARDLEY and KATIE ZEZIMA

BLAINE, Wash., Sept. 21 - Tracey Carle checked the Web on Friday morning tosee the wait times at the border and then bolted to the United States toshop.

Ms. Carle left her home in the border town of Surrey, British Columbia,cruised through the increasingly tight border here in a relatively breezy 34minutes, stopped immediately to gas up her sport utility vehicle on thecheap at the U.S.A. Mini Mart and shot down Interstate 5 toward her realtarget, Target.

"Anytime in the last few years it's been better," said Ms. Carle, 49,explaining that she has long crossed the border for bargains. "But now, thisis just whoo-hoo!"

The whoo-hoo part, as Ms. Carle and countless other Canadians havedemonstrated recently, is tied directly to the steady rise of the Canadiandollar against its American counterpart in recent years, becoming itseconomic equal this week for the first time in three decades.

On either side of the border, a buck is now a buck, or as Canadians call iton their side, a loonie. Coupled with high prices and high taxes for manythings in Canada, the strength of the Canadian dollar is driving Canadiansinto the United States to shop for shoes, school supplies, gasoline, usedcars and second homes.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/washington/22cong.html

September 22, 2007
News Analysis

As Bills to End War Stumble in Congress, Partisan Din Swells
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - With the Senate sinking into a legislative quagmireover Iraq, lawmakers and their allies are shifting to what has proved to bemore solid ground when it comes to the war: political recriminations.

Every twist and turn of this week's grinding Senate stalemate wasaccompanied by a new round of political advertisements and accusations.Republicans were portrayed as putting loyalty to President Bush beforesupport for strained troops, while Democrats were characterized as beingbeholden to the ultra-left, as embodied by MoveOn.org. The partisan clamorwill grow louder as the policy fight recedes.

"This is a political consultant's dream, this war," said Senator LindseyGraham, Republican of South Carolina, referring to the myriad possibilitiesfor 30-second spots to be found in the multiple votes on the war.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101510_pf.html

A Day To Edit Our Lives
What Yom Kippur Means to Me

By Jim Sollisch
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17

When I was in my 20s, I wrote a novel and sent it to Doubleday. In myhubris, I skipped the editors and sent it directly to the president. Shecalled five days later to tell me she liked it. An editor was assigned andsuggested major revisions. I refused and got an agent, who sent it to otherpublishers.

The novel never made it into print.
I blew it, not because I thought that my novel was perfect but because I
clung to the idea that its nature was unchangeable.

As I've gotten older, it's become easier to revise. Not just my writing butmy life. And I finally understand the genius of Yom Kippur, the Jewishholiday that asks us to acknowledge mistakes and make amends.

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, each of us is askedto reread our manuscript of the past year and make revisions. We are taskedwith asking such questions as "What could I have done differently?" and"What were the effects of my choices on others?" When I realized these werethe questions novelists ask of their characters, it became easier to askthem of myself.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101508_pf.html

Three Wrongs to Right

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17

Three conflicts; three outcomes, with only one positive. That about sums upmy feelings on the "Jena 6," the dust-up over the West End land deal and theJim Moran controversy.

The 'Jena 6'

If the schoolyard fight had involved only white high school students or onlyblack students, we wouldn't be reading about Jena, La. But it's not thatsimple.

A tree for white students only. Three hangman's nooses. Fights between blackstudents and white students.

Enter, a white prosecutor out to put blacks in their place. White studentswere suspended. Black students were expelled, arrested and charged (asadults) with felonies.

The disproportionately heavy hand of the law on black males -- a story asold as America.

Sick and tired. Converge on Jena. Vigils. Wear black. Peaceful protest thistime.

Next time -- and there will be a next time, unless that unfair prosecutionis reversed and our unjust criminal justice system is changed -- there's notelling what an angry community acting in solidarity can and will do.

more....



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101542_pf.html

What Makes Up My Mind?

By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, September 23, 2007; B01

If I were to be eaten by a shark, I'm pretty sure the worst part would benot the pain or the mutilation or the actual dying and so forth, but ratherthe thought balloon over my head with the words, "I'm being eaten by a[expletive] shark!"

Whereas a fish doesn't have this problem. A fish has no thought balloon, orjust a teensy little one, with a monosyllabic fish-word like "Urp!" A fishprobably suffers, but it doesn't have the additional suffering that comesfrom knowing that it's suffering, and from regretting that it went swimminginstead of watching the golf tournament, and from hearing, as we all dowhenever we're devoured by sharks, the theme music from "Jaws." You know:that tuba.

All of which is a deft way of introducing our subject today: The Mystery ofConsciousness. It's one of the biggest unknowns, right up there with theorigin of life. But it's under a multi-pronged assault by scientists, whovow to crack the code of the mind in the same way that they are decipheringthe human genome. It's all very exciting, with the one catch that no one canreally agree on what the mind is.

"With consciousness, there is no agreement on anything," says Giulio Tononi,a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, "exceptit's very difficult."

more....



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101944.html

Weak Excuses

Senators who opposed D.C. voting rights should hear from their own voters.
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A16

SILLY US. We had thought that this week's Senate vote on D.C. voting rightswas about fairness for those who live in the nation's capital. Turns out itwas Montana's interests that were at stake. At least that's Montana Sen. MaxBaucus's explanation for being the lone Democrat voting against the measure.Mr. Baucus's concern over his state's influence being watered down by anexpanded House is laughable -- even if it's no more far-fetched thanRepublican claims of being committed to District representation if properlydone.

It's heartening that supporters of the voting rights bill have not beendeterred by such flimsy excuses. Short the three votes needed to bring thebill to the Senate floor, proponents told The Post's Mary Beth Sheridan thatthey will wage a grass-roots campaign targeting eight senators, some facingreelection. Included are senators who proponents claim had indicatedsupport, only to back out at the last minute. The thinking is thatRepublican senators such as Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) or Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)might be able to resist pressure from party leaders if they get a differentkind of pressure from voters in their states. Then, too, perhaps Sen. RobertC. Byrd (D-W.Va.), who stayed away from the vote, could be persuaded to atleast bring the measure to the floor, where he could then voice any concernshe might have about its constitutionality.

more....



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101507.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

The Story We Needed Ken Burns to Tell

By Cecilia Alvear
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A17

There's an application on my computer called the "Ken Burns effect." It candress up my picture slideshows by inserting pans and zooms, adding a feelingof motion to the still images. It mimics the technique filmmaker Ken Burnsuses to hold the attention of viewers in his epic documentaries, which relyheavily on historic paintings and photos.

As a Latina, I've unfortunately run across another kind of Ken Burns effect,one that leaves Hispanics largely invisible in those documentaries.

For " The War," his 14 1/2 -hour PBS series that begins tomorrow, Burnsconcentrated on how World War II affected the lives of people fromSacramento; Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; and Luverne, Minn.

I recently attended a screening of highlights of "The War." I found itstunning, moving and sadly incomplete. Deftly cutting between the battlelines and the home front, Burns shows the cruelty of war in intimate detail.We see hundreds of bodies floating in the ocean during the Pacific campaign.We see the injustice of a black soldier from Mobile serving his country in asegregated Army. We see law-abiding Japanese Americans herded off tointernment camps.

During a segment on the liberation of Nazi death camps, a Jewish Americanveteran bitterly describes the atrocities he saw there. A woman in the rowbehind me began sobbing audibly as the film illustrated the veteran's wordswith shots of emaciated survivors.

more...



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102151.html?hpid=topnews

After the War, A Struggle For Equality
Latino WWII Veterans Needed Another Kind of Courage at Home

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page C01

Latinos came home from World War II to a different struggle. A Medal ofHonor for bravery didn't guarantee service in certain restaurants. Asoldier's body in a coffin and an American flag for his widow didn't meritadmission to some funeral homes.

Fast-forward to 2007. One of the nation's premier documentarians is ready to
unveil his opus on World War II. It's mainly the stories of non-Hispanicwhites, but Ken Burns made sure to include the experience of AfricanAmericans and Japanese Americans. Missing in action: half a million or soLatinos who served, out of the 16 million total.

more....



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092200105_pf.html

Neo-Nazi Web Site Probed In Jena Case

By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A08

FBI agents are looking into a neo-Nazi Web site, which has listed the homeaddresses and phone numbers of the six black teenagers charged in thebeating of a white schoolmate in Jena, La., a bureau spokeswoman said lastnight.

The Thursday posting on the site that lists the information also encouragesreaders to "get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."

The FBI is investigating to see whether the posting violates federal laws,special agent Sheila Thorne said from New Orleans.

Deputies had already stepped up patrols around the six families' homes "tokeep reporters away," LaSalle Parish Sheriff Carl Smith said last night.Smith added that he did not think the posting was "any kind of viablethreat," but that his officers would remain vigilant.

Parish officials have not encouraged the families to leave their homes, thesheriff said, "because we don't want to make people feel like they're livingunder siege."

Also yesterday, a judge denied a request to release Mychal Bell, the onlyteenager still jailed.

more....




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100987.html?hpid=sec-politics

Edwards Unveils Plan to Revamp Education

By DAVID PITT
The Associated Press
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:20 PM

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards rolledout a program for reforming primary education in the United States onFriday, proposing to pay teachers up to $15,000 more in high poverty areasand initiating universal preschool. Edwards detailed the proposals, whichalso include longer school years and overhauling the No Child Left Behindeducation law, in a speech at Brody Middle School in Des Moines.

He called the federal law enacted by the Bush administration "a case studyin what's broken in Washington, D.C." and said it needs to be radicallyreformed, to which he received the largest applause from a crowd of 300,largely supporters and school staff, who filled the school auditorium.

more....




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100483.html?hpid=sec-education

Columbia U. to Let Iran President Speak

By AMY WESTFELDT
The Associated Press
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:27 PM

NEW YORK -- Columbia University planned Friday to go forward with a speechby Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while the city mobilized securityto protect him from protests during his New York visit.

Ahmadinejad, who is to arrive in New York on Sunday to address the UnitedNations General Assembly, is scheduled to speak at a Columbiaquestion-and-answer forum on Monday. His request to lay a wreath at theWorld Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family membersand politicians.

more....


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#####

FLORIDA DIGEST September 22, 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.


=

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 out
to "Florida Red and Blue."

Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net



=

Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbdig09222nbsep22,0,2113582,print.story

Fort Lauderdale: Youth group to meet at Sunshine Cathedral

September 22, 2007

The Broward Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth Group will starthaving its weekly meeting at the Sunshine Cathedral, 1480 SW Ninth Ave.,from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday.

The tri-county group, run by a youth-led board of directors, is for lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgender students and their friends. The group has metat the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, but decided to change the locationto help expand its program.

The group will continue to meet at the church's SunServe Center everyTuesday. Call 954-764-5557.



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail980xpnsep22,0,3243942,print.story

Rev. Kennedy's bias didn't stop with homosexuals

September 22, 2007

A letter writer of Sept. 15, "Coverage unfair," complains that your paper isbiased because it gave an equal number of letters in support of the Rev. Dr.D. James Kennedy as the number in condemnation of him.

His contention is that those who condemned him were gay and that Kennedy'shatred, bigotry and intolerance was limited only to gays. If it did not gofurther than that - as some suggest - then why all the controversy?

Let us not forget that he has also been criticized for his attempts torevise history by endorsing the claim that our Founding Fathers, Jefferson,Madison, Paine, Adams, etc., were strong religious biblical followers, whileKennedy, as a well-educated individual, knew that this was far from thetruth.

He was again criticized for his malicious attempts to trivialize theHolocaust by suggesting that Hitler was a Darwinist, evolutionist andatheist, while he knew that the truth again was quite the opposite.

When an individual endowed with the Rev. Kennedy's oratorical eloquence, hisincredible intelligence, profound education and God-given charisma usesthese traits and qualities for purposes of manipulation, incitement (weshall claim this nation for Christianity; and no power on Earth can stop us)and deception, he must be held accountable.

I am sure that the good Lord is doing that now.

Samuel N. Kram
Pompano Beach



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flnb3bdig09221nbsep22,0,5560538,print.story

Broward County: Two top Jenne aides leaving sheriff's office

September 22, 2007

Two of former Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne's top aides are leaving theagency, acting Sheriff Al Lamberti said Friday.

Ed Dion, the chief attorney under Jenne's regime, and Candace Hartsell,deputy chief of staff, both resigned and will leave in the next two weeks,Lamberti said.

Jenne resigned earlier this month, one day before he pleaded guilty to mailfraud conspiracy and three counts of income tax evasion.

Dion, who was county attorney until he joined the agency in 2004, is goinginto private practice with the government law firm of Nabors, Giblin &Nickerson. Hartsell does not have another job lined up yet.

Lamberti said Kim Kisslan, an attorney in the agency's legal department,will serve as interim general counsel.



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Local10.com

http://www.local10.com/news/14177402/detail.html?treets=mia&tid=2655619429813&tml=mia_dailyforecast&tmi=mia_dailyforecast_1_04000609222007&ts=H

Men Charged Posting Manatee Video
Video Shows Men Harassing Manatee, Police Say

POSTED: 8:44 pm EDT September 21, 2007
UPDATED: 8:52 pm EDT September 21, 2007

MIAMI -- Two men who videotaped themselves hooking and fighting a manateewere charged with attempting to harass, capture and kill the protectedanimal, authorities said Friday.

Karl F. Kuhn, III, 19, and Charles V. Podesta, Jr., 20, face up to a year injail and a $100,000 fine for violating the Endangered Species Act, accordingto a statement from U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta's office.

Podesta posted videotape clips on a MySpace web site on March 13 showing himand Kuhn hooking and fighting a West Indian Manatee in a FortLauderdale-area canal, the statement said.

They were both released on $50,000 bond. An arraignment is scheduled forSept. 27.

Telephone messages left after hours Friday at Kuhn and Podesta's attorneyswere not immediately returned.

Last year, 417 manatee deaths were recorded, the deadliest year on recordfor the animal.



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Fort Report

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/22/news_pf/Hillsborough/Religious_right_summi.shtml

Religious right summit draws prominent speakers

Conservative Christians from around the nation come to Brandon.
By S.I. ROSENBAUM, Times Staff Writer
Published September 22, 2007

BRANDON -- In a fluorescent-lit, ice-cold room, Dr. David Prentice explainedthe dangers of cloning.

One building over, a young schoolteacher earnestly lectured on the religionof the Founding Fathers. Down the hall, lawyer John Stemberger passed outpetitions to ban gay marriage.

In its first day, the Family Impact Summit at Bell Shoals Baptist Churchcovered the full platform of the Christian Right, from "Life Issues" to "TheHomosexual Agenda" and "What Every Christian Should Know About Islam."

The summit featured some of the national movement's biggest names. Itincluded a rare appearance by former Florida Secretary of State KatherineHarris as well as Bobby Schindler, the late Terri Schiavo's brother.

With a congregation of more than 6,000, Bell Shoals Baptist has always beena politically active church. Two years ago, when a bikini bar came toValrico, Bell Shoals members stood outside with picket signs. For years, thechurch has hosted candidate lunches at every election.

more . . . . .



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The Fort Report

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/v-print/story/246676.html

Posted on Sat, Sep. 22, 2007
Fla.'s no-fault insurance law may not expire

BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA

Florida's no-fault auto insurance law, set to expire Oct. 1, is likely toget another life, legislators said Friday.

A plan that calls for extending the controversial law through the end of theyear and makes significant changes in January has been hashed out inTallahassee.

The deal adds a fee schedule on medical payments for care to accidentvictims and pumps in more money to fight insurance fraud. Reached afternearly two weeks of intense negotiations, the deal must be reviewed by Gov.Charlie Crist as well as House and Senate leaders.

''It looks like we saved PIP,'' said Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, who saidhe is optimistic a bill will be passed.

The key element is preserved: the requirement for Florida drivers to buy atleast $10,000 of personal injury protection, or PIP. PIP covers medicalbills after an auto accident regardless of who caused the accident.

more . . . . .



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FortReport.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/v-print/story/246548.html

Posted on Sat, Sep. 22, 2007

State's jobless rate edges higher

BY NIALA BOODHOO

Miami-Dade's labor market so far remains insulated from the economicdownturn that is hitting unemployment rates in Broward and the stateoverall, according to government data released on Friday.

Unemployment levels in Miami-Dade, Broward and the state have slowly climbedthis summer. But Miami-Dade County's seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3.7percent in August was still lower than 3.9 percent last year.

Broward County and Florida's rates were both significantly higher thisAugust than the same time last year.

''We've known that the state of the job market in Florida has beendeteriorating, and we expected that would translate to a rise in theunemployment rate,'' said Moody's Economy.com's Per Gunnar Berglund, whoadded the same is true for Broward and Palm Beach counties. ``In the case ofMiami, I'm a little bit more optimistic than for the rest of the state.''

Berglund said the increase in the number of workers without jobs has beenfaster than anticipated -- he had thought Florida's unemployment rate, whichwas 4 percent in August, wouldn't hit that level for another few months.

more . . . . .



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FortReport.com

http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Constitution+doesn%27t+apply+in+Jena&expire=&urlID=24052088&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmbeachpost.com%2Fopinion%2Fcontent%2Fopinion%2Fepaper%2F2007%2F09%2F22%2Fa10a_jeffersoncol_0922.html&partnerID=491

Constitution doesn't apply in Jena
By Stebbins Jefferson

Palm Beach Post Columnist

Saturday, September 22, 2007

The perception that there are two Americas, separate and unequal, supposedlywas ended by the civil rights movement of the 1960s and replaced withrenewed commitment to equal justice for all without regard to race orethnicity. The disparate prosecution of the Jena Six in Louisiana is proofthat constitutional promise is yet to be realized.

Consequently, while Americans die fighting to deliver democracy to the Iraqipeople, here at home, far too many citizens of good conscience are in denialthat blatant, racial discrimination continues in our justice system.

Last year, during an assembly at Jena High School, a black student askedwhether blacks could sit under the shade tree in the school courtyard. Localtraditions notwithstanding, a school administrator answered no school rulesprohibit any student from sitting there. The next morning, three nooses werefound hanging from the tree.

The principal wanted to expel the three white students responsible, but hewas overruled by the superintendent. Calling the incident a "prank," adistrict official suspended the culprits for three days. In a state wherethe Tuskegee Institute documented 335 black lynchings from 1882 to 1968,such a cavalier response to a hate crime defies rational understanding.

Subsequently, racial tensions escalated with fights between white and blackstudents on and off campus. In two such instances, white participants werecharged with misdemeanor offenses or not at all. Black participants werecharged with felonies.

more . . . . .



=


[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####

Friday, September 21, 2007

GLBT DIGEST September 21, 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.


=

FLORIDA RED AND BLUE!!!! A week from today!

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 out to "Florida Red and Blue."

Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net



=

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Episcopal-Bishops-Gays.html?pagewanted=print

September 21, 2007
Meeting Held on Anglican - Episcopal Split

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:38 a.m. ET

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- In closed-door talks with the archbishop of Canterbury,Episcopal leaders are confronting demands that they roll back their supportfor gay priests or lose their place in the world Anglican fellowship.

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has amore liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas. Tensions overBible interpretation erupted in 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated thefirst openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, suggested Thursdaythat Episcopalians show greater concern about the impact of their decisionson the wider Anglican Communion, according to Canon Jim Naughton, spokesmanfor the Diocese of Washington.

more....



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/nyregion/21schools.html?pagewanted=print

September 21, 2007
New York Just Says No to Abstinence Funding

By JENNIFER MEDINA

New York is rejecting millions of dollars in federal grants forabstinence-only sex education, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F.Daines, announced yesterday. The decision puts New York in line with atleast 10 other states that have decided to forgo the federal money in recentyears.

New York has received roughly $3.5 million a year from the federalgovernment for abstinence-only education since 1998. The abstinence programwas approved as part of welfare overhauls under the Clinton administrationand was expanded and restructured under President Bush.

In a statement posted on the Health Department's Web site, Dr. Daines said,"The Bush administration's abstinence-only program is an example of a failednational health care policy directive." He added that the policy was "basedon ideology rather than on sound scientific-based evidence that must be thecornerstone of good public health care policy."

more...



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UK

Government publishes new guidance to help schools tackle homophobic bullying

Stonewall commissioned to produce pioneering advice

Stonewall welcomes today's publication by the Department for Children,Schools and Families (DCSF) of groundbreaking new guidance for teachers:'Preventing and Responding to Homophobic Bullying in Schools'.

www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/tacklingbullying/homophobicbullying/.

The pioneering guidance, commissioned from Stonewall by the DCSF, providesschool governors, heads, teachers and other staff with practicalinformation - including lesson plans - about how to prevent and respond tohomophobic bullying.

The School Report, Stonewall's recently-published research into homophobicbullying in Britain's secondary schools, demonstrated that almost two thirdsof young gay people have experienced homophobic bullying. Ninety seven percent of gay pupils regularly hear homophobic insults at school; three in tenof the 1100 young people surveyed said that it was adults in schools whocarry out the bullying.

Ed Balls MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said:"Homophobic insults should be viewed as seriously as racism. Even casual useof homophobic language in schools can create an atmosphere that isolatesyoung people and can be the forerunner of more serious forms of bullying."

more....



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Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-hatecrime_20_bothsep20,1,5507632.story?track=rss

2nd girl gets year of probation for anti-gay fliers

By Carolyn Starks
Tribune staff reporter
September 20, 2007

A second teenage girl was sentenced Wednesday to 1 year of probation andordered to write letters of apology for distributing anti-gay fliers earlierthis year outside Crystal Lake South High School.

The girl, 16, also was sentenced to 14 days in the McHenry County Jail, butJuvenile Court Judge Michael Chmiel suspended the sentence as long as sheabides by the rules of her probation.

Prosecutors had asked for a 30-day suspended sentence, but Chmiel noted thegirl had spent 18 days in a Kane County juvenile detention facility afterher arrest.

The girl's mother told Chmiel that her daughter had stopped using drugs andalcohol and had done well in summer school classes.

"I think 18 days of jail was a huge, eye-opening experience," the mothersaid.

more....



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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=9/15/07&end=9/22/07#14407

by Kevin Naff

O'Malley betrays gays

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is the new Mitt Romney.

Just when you thought a politician could sink no lower in the duplicitousart of flip-flopping comes the hidden tale of how O'Malley assured gayrights activists and plaintiffs in the Maryland marriage case that hesupported same-sex marriage, only to reverse course and ultimately invokehis Catholic religious beliefs to justify his support of discrimination.

It's an all-too-familiar story of a Democratic candidate promising to standup for an all-too-loyal gay constituency, then kicking us when we're down.

That's an apt description of O'Malley's actions this week. As gayMarylanders were reeling from the high court decision upholding the state'smarriage ban - shedding tears and canceling wedding plans - the governorreleased a statement that didn't offer sympathy or condolences. Instead, hesaid he respected the court's decision - an opinion unparalleled in itsgratuitously offensive language - and that lawmakers shouldn't tellreligions how to define the sacraments.

With that statement, O'Malley kicked us all at a time when we were down andwe should not forget it. No more gay money. No more gay votes. No moredoor-to-door gay support or green bumper stickers or yard signs. Afterdistinguishing himself as a brash young politician of a new generation, hehas revealed himself to be a typical climber, so blinded by nationalambition that he would break any promise to pad his resume and preserve hispower.

more....



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The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-gunther/gay-rights-gathering-ste_b_65207.html?view=print

by Mark Gunther

Gay Rights, Gathering Steam
Posted September 20, 2007 | 01:32 PM (EST)

A whole lot is happening on the issue of gay rights here in your nation'scapital. A new Human Rights Campaign survey finds a big leap in the numberof companies achieving a perfect score for their workplace practices. TheHouse of Representatives is likely to vote next week on a federal law to banworkplace discrimination against LGBT people. And a record 2,100 people areexpected next week in D.C. for the annual conference of Out & Equal, anetwork of LGBT workplace groups.
Taking them in order:

The HRC Corporate Equality Index brings (mostly) encouraging news. A totalof 195 employers received a perfect score, up from 138 last year and only 13in 2002. This is true even though HRC has raised the bar since then -- now,to get a top ranking, companies must provide full domestic partner benefitprograms, support for transgender inclusion and insurance coverage, supportfor GLBT employee resource groups and either marketing or philanthropicdollars to back gay causes. You can find all the data here.

"Employee non-discrimination is the floor, not the ceiling anymore," saysBob Witeck of Witeck Combs, which consults with Fortune 500 companies onGLBT issues. What was once "a radical concept has become the standard," hetold me.

Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, says GLBTemployees looking for a friendly workplace can now "pick and choose fromstrong employers in nearly every major industry."

more....



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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=9/20/07&end=9/22/07#14421

by Rebecca Armendariz

Cheer up, Maryland

After the ruling in Maryland this week, you might need a pick-me-up. In SanDiego this week, Mayor Jerry Sanders reversed his position on gay marriage.
Here are his remarks in full:

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
Gay Marriage Resolution
September 19, 2007

· With me this afternoon is my wife, Rana

· I am here this afternoon to announce that I will sign the resolutionthat the City Council passed yesterday directing the City Attorneyto file a brief in support of gay marriage.

· My plan, as has been reported publicly, was to veto thatresolution, so I feel like I owe all San Diegans an explanation for thischange of heart.

· During the campaign two years ago, I announced that I did notsupport gay marriage and instead supported civil unions and domesticpartnerships.

more....



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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/9-20/news/localnews/4039.cfm

Local governments pass trans ordinances
Transgender bills face hurdles at county and state level

By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Thursday, September 20, 2007

While lobbyists and strategists meet with county and state politicians toadvocate adding the words gender identity and gender expression to humanrights ordinances, several local governments in Florida have moved aheadwith transgender legislation.

Amending current ordinances to include the language protects transgenderedmen and women from discrimination in areas such as employment, housing,public services and accommodations.

On Sept. 19, Oakland Park commissioners were expected to approve a measureto include the language in the city's anti-discrimination policy. Theresolution was unanimously passed at a first reading on Sept. 5 with nopublic opposition. The Oakland Park resolution will apply only to cityemployees, but the city is working on a separate measure that will cover allresidents, said Suzanne Boisvenue, the Oakland Park commissioner whointroduced the resolution.

"It says that we treat all people with respect," Boisvenue said.

more....



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The Advocate

http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49063.asp

September 21, 2007
Inmate Recants Story on Boys Don't Cry Murders

One of two men convicted in the 1993 murders that spawned the movie BoysDon't Cry now says he was the only attacker who shot and stabbed atransgender person and two other victims.

Marvin Nissen's new account that he was the lone killer could reignite acase that drew the country's attention to the issues of transgender people.

The man Nissen once blamed for the killings, John Lotter, is now on deathrow in Nebraska and has asked for a new trial.

Brandon Teena was born a female but for a time lived as a man in ruralsoutheast Nebraska and dated a female friend of the two men. Prosecutorssaid the 21-year-old was killed in a farmhouse near Humboldt after reportingbeing raped by Lotter and Nissen. During the trial, Nissen said he hadstabbed Teena but that Lotter fired all the shots that killed Teena and theothers.

''He has finally admitted that the testimony that secured John Lotter'sconviction was all a lie,'' Lotter attorney Paula Hutchinson said Thursday.

more....



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365Gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092007canada.htm

Canadian Province Moves To Amend Family Law For Gay Parents

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 19, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET

(Halifax, Nova Scotia) Faced with a human rights complaint that it wasdiscriminating against same-sex parents who are legally married the NovaScotia government Thursday announced it would change its birth-registrationprocess.

Earlier this week Jamie and Emily O'Neill filed a complaint with theprovincial human rights commission over Nova Scotia's refusal to recognizeJamie O'Neil as a parent of the couples newborn baby. (story)

In Nova Scotia only the names of the birth mother and the birth father couldbe listed on a birth certificate.

The O'Neills were legally married in Halifax two years ago, after theCanadian government legalized same-sex marriage in 2005.

more....



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[euro-queer]

Gay Iraqis win asylum

Refusal of refugee status overturned on appeal
Victims of homophobic terror in Iraq defeat the Home Office
London, UK - 21 September 2007

Two gay victims of attempted assassinations by Shia Islamist deathsquads in Iraq have been granted asylum in the UK.

Ibaa, aged 30, worked as a cultural programmes officer for the BritishCouncil in Baghdad. Haider, 29 years old, was a doctor at theAl-Nu'man General Hospital, also in Baghdad. He had lived briefly inEngland as a young boy, when his parents were students at SussexUniversity.

Both men had their initial applications for asylum turned down by theHome Office, despite compelling evidence of homophobic persecution andthreats to kill them.

more....



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http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-na-transgender16sep16,1,7374883.story

Los Angeles Times, CA, USA

"Transitioning into new jobs and genders"

At the first transgender career expo, men and women meet companiesthat accept them for who they are becoming.
By Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 16, 2007

ATLANTA -- -- The woman pulled her resume from a pink file folder andhanded it to a recruiter.

Across the top of the page, in bold type, she had printed her nametwice: first as "Mark," then as "(Meghan)." She was not quite sure ifthis was appropriate.

At the nation's first transgender Career Expo, job seekers wereencouraged to use their new gender names on resumes.

But Meghan, 42, a transsexual who declined to give her last namebecause her current employer knows her as Mark, wanted to make sureprospective employers could find her -- or him -- if they ran abackground check.

The etiquette of transgender resumes was just one of the myriadchallenges facing job seekers who packed the Atlanta convention hall.For transgender people -- at Friday's expo, they ranged fromcross-dressers to those who had changed their gender through hormonetherapy or surgery -- the workplace can be a minefield.

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Picket Akinola Sunday, Sept. 23, outside Chicago

Filed under: Anglican, Anti-Gay Violence, Blogroll, Christianity,Episcopal Church, Isaac Orama, LGBT Rights, Nigeria, Peter AkinolaDavis Mac-Iyalla, director of Changing Attitude-Nigeria

Archbishop Peter Akinola, the infamous anti-Gay bigot and schismaticAnglican, is coming to the Chicago area later this month to celebratethe Eucharist with five local breakaway churches which are part ofthe Anglican Mission in America. He will be greeted by a picket linein protest of his ongoing campaign of intimidation and violenceagainst LGBT Africans.

His visit comes three weeks after a Nigerian bishop he appointed lastyear, named Isaac Orama, denounced Gay people as "inhuman, insane andnot fit to live."

Akinola himself has advocated passing a law in Nigeria which wouldmake all forms of Lesbian and Gay organizing or socializingpunishable by five years in a Nigerian prison. This bill has beencriticized by the U.S. Department of State and the EuropeanParliament.

In addition, Akinola's press secretary, Canon Tunde Popoola, hasconducted a smear campaign against Nigeria's leading Gay activist,Davis Mac-Iyalla, director of Changing Attitude-Nigeria, anorganization of LGBT Anglicans. Mac-Iyalla has been forced to fleehis native country after receiving multiple death threats.

Akinola seeks to split the worldwide Anglican Communion, the world'ssecond-largest Christian church with 70 million members, apparentlyto replace the historic leadership of the Archbishop of Canterburywith himself as head of a new "Global South Communion."

Akinola will appear at the chapel of ultra-conservative WheatonCollege at 10:30 a.m. The chapel is located at the corner ofWashington and Franklin Streets in Wheaton, Illinois, about 30 mileswest of downtown Chicago. (Wheaton College is not the target of thisprotest.)

The demonstration will be peaceful and will not disrupt the churchservice. It is aimed not only at the archbishop but at his Americanenablers, former Episcopalians with a particular antipathy for Gaypeople who are splitting the Church to keep Gay people out.

Gay and Straight Episcopalians will gather at 8 a.m. for Mass at St.James's Cathedral, 65 E. Huron St., Chicago, then drive to Wheatonfor the demonstration, which will last one hour, from 10-11 a.m.Protesters will march in procession on the sidewalk opposite theWheaton College Chapel and will not interfere with those attendingthe church service.

The demonstration is co-sponsored by dailyoffice.org, a prayerwebsite serving the Episcopal Church, and the Gay Liberation Networkof Chicago.

Dailyoffice.org sponsored an American speaking tour for Davis Mac-Iyalla earlier this summer, with appearances in 20 U.S. cities.

For more information contact Josh Thomas at josh@dailyoffice.org

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Conference of European Pride Organisers in Stockholm

By Danny Sonnenschein

http://gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1854&lead=1

(Sweden) - By tradition EPOA, European Pride Organisers Association, holdsits annual meeting in the city that is hosting the next Europride. Pridefestival organisers from the whole of Europe come to Stockholm for theweekend in order to, among other things, choose who will arrange Europride2010. Delegates come from Spain, Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, Poland andseveral other european countries.

"That members of European organisations visit us in Stockholm is a perfectkickoff before the work really starts with the Europride festival," saidSofia Sjöö, chairperson for Stockholm Pride. "We have never been this earlywith the preparations for a festival."

The organizers look forward towards meeting the guests from all over Europe,in particular from Eastern Europe. Stockholm Pride has financially supportedsome of the activist groups in order to give them an opportunity toparticipate in the conference. During the conference, Stockholm Pride willrelease the theme for EuroPride 2008 in Stockholm and also which artist hasbeen awarded the commission to compose the year's official Pride Song.

more....



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://ncflr.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=press_juvenilejustice091107

September 11, 2007Crisis Of Abuse In Juvenile Justice System Addressed InEQCA-Sponsored Bill

Assembly Approves Migden Measure, Calling for Better Protections for allYouth in California's Juvenile Justice Facilities

(Sacramento, CA, September 11, 2007) - The state Assembly on Monday approvedcritical safeguards to protect youth from abuse and mistreatment inCalifornia's Department of Juvenile Justice facilities.

SB 518, the Juvenile Justice Safety and Protection Act, creates a Youth Billof Rights to protect all young people, including youth who identify aslesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), from abuse and discriminationin the state's justice system. Authored by Sen. Carole Migden, D-SanFrancisco, and sponsored by Equality California, the measure passed theAssembly with a 46-27 vote. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)helped draft the bill and was a key supporter.

The bill will return to the Senate for a routine concurrence vote beforegoing to the governor for final consideration.

"It is shocking that homophobia in our society results in so many LGBT youthbeing kicked out of their homes and dropping out of school," said EQCAExecutive Director Geoff Kors. "As a result, youth who identify as LGBT aredisproportionately at-risk of entering the juvenile justice system, wherethey report being threatened, harassed and subject to isolation by peers andstaff members," Kors said. "All youth need and deserve adequate protectionsand safeguards when under the supervision of the state's juvenile justicesystem. We have an obligation to protect and support LGBT youth in publicfacilities."

Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless youth in the U.S., between 20 and 40percent identify as LGBT, according to a 2006 report issued by the NationalGay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Coalition forthe Homeless. The Task Force also reported that 26 percent of LGBT teens whocome out to their parents or guardians are kicked out of their family'shome.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://citizenchris.typepad.com/citizenchris/2007/09/give-brownback-.html

September 19, 2007

Give the Post 'Fact-Checker' a Pinocchio

The Washington Post's new "Fact Checker" feature gave conservative GOPpresidential candidate Sam Brownback three out of four "Pinocchios" for"significant factual error and/or contradictions" in his oft-repeated claimthat gay marriage is to blame for the plummeting number of married couplesand soaring out-of-wedlock births in Holland.

Here's the Kansas senator's claim, which was a regular Republican refrainduring the Senate debate of the failed federal marriage amendment:

"In countries that have redefined marriage, where they've said, 'OK, it'snot just a man and a woman, it can be two men, two women,' the marriagerates in those countries have plummeted to where you have counties now innorthern Europe where 80 percent of the first-born children are born out ofwedlock... And currently in this country -- currently -- we're at 36 percentof our children born out of wedlock."

Post fact-checker Michael Dobbs reports in response:

Brownback posits a strong correlation between the introduction of civil
unions and gay marriages and the rise in children being born out of wedlock.His argument appears to rely on two premises: (1) the marriage rate hasplummeted in countries that have "redefined" marriage; (2) the decliningmarriage rate has in turn resulted in a dramatic rise in the number ofchildren born out of wedlock. .

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=New+York+Times+Co.+Rated+Most+Gay-Friendly+Chain&expire=&urlID=24002659&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fnews%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1003642420%26imw%3DY&partnerID=60

New York Times Co. Rated Most Gay-Friendly Chain

By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: September 18, 2007 1:01 PM ET

CHICAGO The New York Times Co. is the most gay-friendly chain in thenewspaper industry, and the only one to earn a "perfect score," according tothe latest Corporate Equality Index of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Foundation.

HRC describes itself as the largest civil rights organization dedicated toachieving equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Theannual rating, its sixth, evaluated 519 companies on criteria includingwhether they offer domestic-partner benefits, and include sexual orientationin non-discrimination policies and diversity training and councils.

Only three big newspaper companies are included in the list. Many mediagiants, such as Tribune Co. and E.W. Scripps, were not evaluated at all.

The Times Co. scored a "perfect" 100 in the HRC Index. Cox Communicationswas rated a 95. Gannett Co. was rated 65, and Dow Jones & Co. was scored as30.

The full report is posted on HRC's Web site here.



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

20 September 2007

Contact: Angela Corbalan

Tel: + 32 2 286 94 17. Mobile: + 32 485 57 47 68. Email:
press@youthforum.org

Six European NGO networks co-organise a seminaron Multiple Discrimination as it affects young people

A European Youth Forum (YFJ) seminar on 'Multiple Discrimination as itaffects young people' is being held in Brussels from 20-22 September.

This YFJ event is being organised in partnership with five other civilsociety platforms: the European Region of the International Lesbian and GayAssociation (ILGA-Europe); the European Older Peoples' Platform (AGE); theEuropean Network Against Racism (ENAR); the European Disability Forum (EDF)and the European Women's Lobby (EWL).

Around 50 participants will be attending this seminar which is aimed atraising awareness on multiple discrimination and addressing its main effectson youth. The event will advocate for the development, at EU level, of alegal framework recognising the additional harm that multiple discriminationimplies for victims. EU anti-discrimination and gender equality law hasevolved to include protection, in varying degrees and scope, for six groundsof discrimination (race, religion and belief, gender, sexual orientation,disability and age) without considering the interplay between differentgrounds.

As Bettina Schwarzmayr, President of the European Youth Forum, outlines,'multiple discrimination merits particular attention since thoseexperiencing these complex forms of discrimination are among the mostvulnerable, marginalised and disadvantaged.'

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

Washington Post refuting Marriage Statistics

Politicians on the religious right distorting scientific statistics forpolitical gain? Who would have imagined such a thing? Money quote:

"We are prepared to be persuaded otherwise if more experts weigh in, but forthe moment we can see no factual basis for [Senator Sam] Brownback'sassertion of a connection between same-sex marriage and out-of-wedlockbirths. We award him three Pinocchios."

Jack Drescher, MD
jadres@psychoanalysis.net
www.jackdreschermd.net

--

THE CLAIM

Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A06

"In countries that have redefined marriage, where they've said, 'Okay, it'snot just a man and a woman, it can be two men, two women,' the marriagerates in those countries have plummeted to where you have counties now innorthern Europe where 80 percent of the firstborn children are born out ofwedlock. . . . And currently in this country -- currently -- we're at 36percent of our children born out of wedlock."

-- Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), Republican TV debate, Sept. 5

THE FACTS

Republican presidential hopeful Sam Brownback posits a strong correlationbetween the introduction of civil unions and same-sex marriage and theincrease in the number of children being born out of wedlock. His argumentappears to rely on two premises: (1) that the marriage rate has plummeted incountries that have "redefined" marriage, and (2) that the decliningmarriage rate has in turn resulted in a dramatic rise in the number ofbabies born to unmarried parents.

Both parts of Brownback's claim are questionable. The decline in marriagerates and the increase in the number of children born out of wedlock longprecede attempts to "redefine" marriage by permitting civil unions andsame-sex marriage. Domestic partnerships or civil unions were introduced inthe District in 1992, Hawaii in 1997, Vermont and California in 2000, Mainein 2004, Connecticut in 2005, New Jersey in 2006, and Washington state thisyear. Only one state permits same-sex marriage: Massachusetts, since 2004.

Marriage rates in the United States have been falling steadily since atleast 1960, according to the National Marriage Project at RutgersUniversity. They have not dropped appreciably faster in the past decade thanduring the preceding four decades.

According to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics,36.8 percent of children born in the United States in 2005 were born out ofwedlock. (The senator is correct on that detail.)

As support for Brownback's statement, his campaign cited articles inNational Review by Stanley Kurtz, an adjunct fellow at the HooverInstitution, on marriage rates in northern Europe, particularly theNetherlands. Kurtz has also cited counties in northern Norway where 80percent of firstborn children are born out of wedlock.

more....



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

To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News

Information, news, and discussion about the legal recognition of same-sexcouples and their families, including marriages, domestic partnerships,civil unions, adoptions, foster children and similar issues.

http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/

Go to the website, above, for the following articles:

1. Dale Carpenter: Commentary--Republican mayor says I Do to SSM

2. Md. Senate President Won't Back Gay Unions

3. Maggie Gallagher: New Poll--Harris Interactive on SocialIssues/SSM

4. CA: In reversal, [San Diego mayor] Sanders supports gay-marriageresolution

5. Dobson Says He Won't Support Thompson

6. Leonard Link: Washington Appeals Court Rejects Challenge toSeattle Executive Order

7. California Court of Appeal hears arguments in case challengingbasic property tax protections for domestic partners

8. Commentary: Gays and Children

9. GA: Court Asked To Dismiss Jail Sentence For Lesbian Mom

10. Daily Kos: Stuck in the wrong decade at the Politico

11. Fact Checker: Sen Brownback's claim about marriage equality andgeneral drop in rates of marriage

12. Prof. William Eskridge-- Live online discussion of Marylanddecision

13. Calif. Gays Hold Statewide Marriage Protest

14. Romney's New Radio Ad [Against Freedom to Marry

15. CA: Open letter--Arnold Schwarzenegger's lesbian chief of staff,Susan Kennedy, called on to resign

16. MD: Editorial--A civil right


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