GLBT DIGEST March 30, 2008

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-The City Visible: Finding Her Voice
WHEN I first met Nicole Von Valkenburg, she was sitting in front of amirror, intent on her morning grooming ritual, which involved tweezing,applying makeup, parting her dark blond hair, and fitting her long streakedblond wig over her head. When she was finished, she emerged as anotherperson, a diva who had stepped from a '70s movie, ready for a night out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/thecity/30tran.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=GAY&st=nyt&oref=slogin

-Students of Virginity
There was a time when not having sex consumed a very small part of JanieFredell's life, but that, of course, was back in Colorado Springs. It seemedto Fredell that almost no one had sex in Colorado Springs. Her hometown wasextremely conservative, and as a good Catholic girl, she was annoyed by allthe fundamentalist Christians who would get in her face and demand, as sheput it to me recently, "You have to think all of these things that we think." They seemed not to know that she thought many of those thingsalready. At her public high school, everyone, "literally everyone," worechastity rings, Fredell recalled, but she thought the practice ridiculous.
Why was it necessary, she wondered, to signify you're not doing somethingthat nobody is doing?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/magazine/30Chastity-t.html?scp=5&sq=gay&st=nyt

-German Expressionism
EXPATS IN BERLIN HAVE TURNED THE CITY INTO ONE BIG ARTY PARTY.
"What New York was in the '80s, Berlin is now," says Nadja Vancauwenberghe,the French editor in chief of Berlin's English-language magazine, theExberliner. "That's the cliché." She shakes her head and smiles. "Thereality," Maurice Frank, the Exberliner's publisher, chimes in, "is thatrents here are a third of what they are in Paris or London."
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/03/30/style/t/index.html#pageName=30berlinw

-A Case of the Blues
The Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole is 58 years old, but he has never beenfamous before, and after this year, he will most likely never be famousagain. Even this kind of fame, brief and slight, is uncomfortable on him.
Cole is a party man, a lifelong Republican consultant, campaign worker andpolitician whose career, like that of a typical European Social Democrat,has recognized only a fluid and fungible line between political operativeand elected official. It sometimes seems an accident he's in Congress atall. He is tall and slightly formal, and slightly awkward; people who meethim casually describe him as cordial or gentlemanly. The Republican Party,in its current uncertainty, might have chosen an ideologue to fill Cole'spost or, as is its habit, a money man. Its choice of Cole, an operative, wasthe establishment insisting that its own learned habits were enough to saveitself. "Right now, with where we are," Ken Mehlman, a former chairman ofthe Republican National Committee, told me, "Tom Cole is the perfectleader."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/magazine/30Republicans-t.html?scp=14&sq=gay&st=nyt

-Grim Outlook for an AIDS Vaccine
Back in 1984, federal health officials, flush with excitement over discoveryof the virus that causes AIDS, famously predicted that they would have avaccine ready for market within three years. Now, after almost aquarter-century of toil and struggle, the effort has crashed in failure. Noone yet knows whether a vaccine to prevent the disease will ever bepossible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/opinion/30sun3.html?ref=opinion


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Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Public Death, Private Life
What should a newspaper print about a person's most private life in a storyafter his death?
The Post ran a story March 22 about the burial at Arlington NationalCemetery of Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers, a decorated war hero killed in anexplosion in Baghdad. The subject of much journalistic soul-searching, thestory did not mention that Rogers's friends said that he was gay and waswell known in local gay veterans' circles. The Washington Blade, agay-oriented newspaper, identified him as gay in a story Friday that wascritical of The Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032803062.html

-Loyal Bishop Named In Breakaway Diocese
LODI, Calif. -- A bishop loyal to the Episcopal Church leadership waselected Saturday to take over a California diocese that was the first tobreak away over the church's support for gay and women's rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902114.html

-Dear Wise Guys:
I don't think I am crazy, but I remember when The Washington Post wouldprint pictures and announcements of weddings when the couples were same-sex.Now I look and everyone is heterosexual! What gives with that? Has The Postchanged its mind, or is no one gay getting married in the D.C. area?
Proud PFLAG Mom
Justin: You are correct: No one gay is getting married in the D.C. area.
While the District allows gay couples to formalize their relationshipsthrough domestic partnerships, it doesn't allow them to marry. And Marylandand Virginia are at least as restrictive, if not more so.
Same-sex union announcements can be found on the Celebrations page inSunday's Style & Arts section, but they are listed as "CommitmentCeremonies." Of course, some gay couples, as well as straight people such asmyself, may feel that doesn't carry the same weight. The Post is always opento feedback from readers, so feel free to express any concerns about thispolicy to the ombudsman at ombudsman@washpost.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032702782_pf.html


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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Regardless of your political affiliation, one debate that usually inflamespassions in the Washington Metro Area is whether it's best to live in D.C,Virginia or Maryland. The question becomes more important if you are asame-sex couple. While the law at the federal level for gay couples is quiteclear - marriage only exists between a man and a woman - when it comes to adiscussion of estate taxes, whether you reside in D.C., Virginia or Marylandcan have a significant impact on the taxes your estate will pay if you areleaving money to a partner.

-After a two-year-long delay, the interior ministry has issued a circularoutlining the residence rights and obligations of non-European Unioncitizens who are the spouses, children or other dependent family members ofEU citizens living in Greece. The 33-page circular is aimed at bringingorder to the chaos that for years has hounded these immigrants' residenceapplication and renewal process. The rules are based on a European Uniondirective (2004/38/EC) that came into force across the EU in April 2006. Asoutlined in the circular, these family members may include the spouses andchildren under 21 and/or other dependent relatives of all EU citizens,including citizens of Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

-Buddy G has been named the first animated member of an education-focusedgay rights group. The lead character of the recently released Buddy G: MyTwo Moms and Me, the boy joins a coalition of children and young adults ofthe gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender parentage who dedicate their timeand efforts to advocacy and education. COLAGE, a national organization whosebenchmarks include establishing a prideful connection within the gay rightscommunity, has announced that Buddy G serves as a more than perfectproponent of the organization's goals.

-The New York Appellate Division, 2nd Department, issued a ruling inFunderburke v. New York State Department of Civil Service, No. 6186/05(March 25, 2008), granting the defendants' motion to dismiss the appeal of adecision by the trial court refusing to recognize the plaintiffs' Canadiansame-sex marriage for purposes of benefits eligibility under a public schoolemployee benefits plan as moot, and granting the appellant's motion tovacate the decision of the trial court, which is reported as Funderburke v.New York State Department of Civil Services, 13 Misc.3d 284, 822 N.Y.S.2d393 (N.Y.Sup.Ct. 2006).


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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Scottish campaign aims to stop deportation of gay teenager
A campaign has been launched to save a teenager from Syria being deported tohis homeland. Jojo Jako Yakob, 19, claims he will be executed if he isreturned. He has been held at Polmont Young Offenders in Falkirk, Scotlandfor the last 12 months after being arrested for possessing a fake Belgianpassport. His lawyers say an asylum application for his stay in the UK wasmistakenly withdrawn.
click here for the full article

-Evangelicals attack Ecuador's protection of sexual minorities
A member of Ecuador's National Assembly has caused outrage throughout thegay community by comparing homosexuality to paedophilia and bestiality.
Rosanna Queirolo, a former model, television news anchor and triathlonathlete, won election on a manifesto of environmental protection. However,since joining the Assembly she has caused controversy by embracing thecountry's ultra-conservative Christian Evangelical movement.
click here for the full article


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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:

-I would like to invite you to Krakow Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival'Culture for Tolerance' which is taking place from 24th to 27th of April2008. Enclosed you find Festival programme and pressbook (pdf file)


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