GLBT DIGEST April 29, 2008

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The National Center for Transgender Equality
www.nctequality.org
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Opening the Door cover(Washington, DC)-The National Center for TransgenderEquality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today released a jointpublication titled Opening the Door to the Inclusion of Transgender People:
The Nine Keys to Making Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender OrganizationsFully Transgender-Inclusive, geared toward lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender (LGBT) organizations. "Transgender inclusion has been animportant issue in the LGBT community, particularly in the past year. Yet,many organizations struggle with how exactly to become fullytransgender-inclusive. We are excited to offer this free new resource," saidMara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for TransgenderEquality
(NCTE).


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

-Comprehensive European study of transgender people's rights and experiencesof healthcare is published
ILGA-Europe and TransGender Europe published the first comprehensive reporton the experiences of health care by transgender people in European Union.
This report is a result of the largest and most comprehensive datacollection on transgender people's lived experienced to date. The legalsurvey confirmed that very few countries had fully embraced the range oftransgender protections available in Europe. Some have made very littleprogress, leaving their transgender citizens in fear for their safety,unable to work due to discrimination, and facing great difficulties inobtaining access all health care, not just to gender reassignment services..... PDF version of the study is available at ILGA-Europe website:
www.ilga-europe.org/europe/publications/non_periodical


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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-McCain backer John Hagee tempers Hurricane Katrina comments
Pastor John Hagee has revised his view of God's wrath, and chances are JohnMcCain couldn't be happier.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/mccain-backer-j.html

-The New York Times on young gay marriage
The New York Times Magazine cover story this weekend was called 'Young gayrites' and author Benoit Denizet-Lewis (a young, gay man) described a groupof 20-something white, gay men who were already tying the knot inMassachusetts. There were also some anecdotes about young gay men who hadalready experienced divorce.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=4/23/08&end=4/30/08#17960

-Transgender official: I'm not a stereotype, I'm a person
Jessica Orsini, formerly Jeff Orsini, is an rarity in small town life. As anopenly transgender individual, her fellow citizens elected her to serve onthe Board of Aldermen of Centralia, Missouri.
http://www.gaypolitics.com/?p=439


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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Parents Of Murdered Gay Man Plead For Anti-Bully Law
(Tallahassee, Florida) Dozens of gays and lesbians converged on the Floridalegislature to press lawmakers to enact a bill aimed at curbing bullying ofLGBT students.

-Heated Campaign Souring Democratic Voters
(Washington) Loyal Democrat Richard Somer says if Hillary Rodham Clintongets his party's presidential nomination, he just may sit it out thisElection Day.

-N.C. Gov. Endorses Clinton
(Charlotte, North Carolina) Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the endorsementof North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a surprise boost to her candidacy in astate where Barack Obama is heavily favored to win the Democratic primary.

-UK Cops Arrest Gay Cannibal
(London) A gay Yorkshire man has been charged with murder in the death of aman he picked up.

-Australia Government Digs In Heels Over Gay Unions
(Canberra) For Australian gays the more things change the more they stay thesame.

-Ontario Pressed To Pull Funding From Faith-Based Groups
(Toronto, Ontario) Ontario should consider pulling funding from a Christiangroup that has a history of human rights complaints and was recently orderedto compensate a worker who had to quit after revealing she was gay, theprovince's opposition parties say.

-Florida Lawmakers Mull Ban On Ornamental Testicles
(Tallahassee, Florida) They're proudly displayed by any self-respectingbull, but dangling big metal ones on the back end of a truck could be bannedin Florida.

-Moscow Gays To Defy Gay Pride Ban
(Moscow) Moscow gay leaders said Monday they intend to go ahead with gaypride celebrations next month despite a ban by the city.


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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-The Exit Interview
After 18 years as one of our most visible LGBT activists, Matt Foreman hasstepped down as head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Tradinggrassroots power for financial influence, his new role at the Evelyn &Walter Haas Jr. Fund has him allocating $8 million in annual funding forLGBT causes. Kerry Eleveld asks him about the switch, what's in store forthe movement, and where we're missing the mark.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid53690.asp


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National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Parents of Murder Victim to Urge Lawmakers to Protect Gay Kids
The parents of Ryan Keith Skipper, the victim of a gay-hate-crime murder inPolk County, will mark what would have been his 27th birthday Monday byjoining others in support of anti-bullying legislation in Tallahassee. Hatecrimes against gays can start with bullying of gay students in high schools,said Brian Winfield, communications director for Equality Florida, a gaycivil-rights organization.

-Joe Cole: Hotter Than Beckham
English soccer star Joe Cole has surpassed David Beckham as the biggest iconamong gay male soccer fans, according to a gay and lesbian dating website.
Joe Cole and his Chelsea namesake Ashley's wife Cheryl have scored aremarkable double in a popularity poll - for a gay website. JC hasleapfrogged over David Beckham as football's No 1 male gay icon, whileCheryl is named as "the most desirable lesbian date with a soccer WAG".
Michael Owen and his wife Louise, together with Steven Gerrard and hispartner Alex Curran, are also big hits with gay fans of both sexes accordingto the online dating agency gay-PARSHIP, who claim football has "a gaygroundswell of passionate support while players remain closeted."

-Sydney: Judge Against Anti-Gay Message
THE church's teachings continue to be a cause of hatred and prejudiceagainst the homosexual community, outspoken High Court judge Michael Kirbysaid. The comments came yesterday in Sydney as Justice Kirby addressed alight-hearted forum on ageing and ageism in the gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender (GLBT) community, calling on members to lobby against inequalityand prejudice.

-2008: The Year to Win for GLBT Equality
The economy. The Supreme Court. War. The lives of those on the frontlines.
We all know how much is at stake in the 2008 elections. For the gay,lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, matters of life and livelihoodare on the line. In the coming years, some of the issues most criticallyimportant to us will be addressed in the 50 statehouses, in the halls ofCongress, and in the White House. These include employment discriminationlaws to ensure that hardworking employees can't be fired just for beingthemselves, hate crime protections, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,"and the legal protections that committed couples need to take care of and beresponsible for each other.

-A Trip Through the Gayborhood
"Philadelphia - Get your history straight and your nightlife gay," is thecatchphrase of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.'s gaytourism campaign. It will be put to the test this week as thousands of gayvisitors come to town for this year's Equality Forum. Besides the 34 panels,14 parties and 15 special events planned for this year's forum, Bruce Yelk,director of gay initiatives at the GPTMC, suggests that visitors make timeto see these sites of special interest to the GLBT community.


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

-New York: About five dozen people stood in a steady rain outside theOyster Bay clerk's office yesterday, holding signs and chanting, "Let Danand Lee Marry," as an East Hills gay couple applied for a marriage license.
Dan Pinello, 58, and Lee Nissensohn, 50, walked in at 3:30 p.m. and whenthey walked out nearly two hours later, they each had a ticket fortrespassing. The two men had been prepared to be arrested to make a pointabout the need for a law in New York that would allow same-sex marriage. Butthe couple relented and agreed beforehand with town officials to leave oncethey were ticketed.

-Pennsylvania: The week after state Sen. Mike Brubaker introduced
legislation to limit marriage in Pennsylvania to unions of one man and onewoman, he spoke to elementary school students about the importance oftolerance and acceptance of differences. Some might see irony there, butBrubaker doesn't.
The senator said during a 45-minute one-on-one interview Thursday that hisleadership on marriage isn't about self-righteousness or demagoguery and hasnothing to do with religious ideology.


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

-Obama ally defends anti-gay comments
Continuing to drive a wedge between Barack Obama and the hopeful new Americahis campaign aims to impart to voters, Rev. Jeremiah Wright further defendedcomments he made during a YouTube taped Chicago Sermon while speaking beforea group of journalists Monday.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7513.html

-Court hears that aide was "predator" in gay Royal blackmail case
One of the men accused of blackmailing a member of the Royal Family in a gaysex blackmail case has told a court at the Old Bailey that he was intendingto reveal a "predatory homosexual".
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7510.html

-Scientist's discover protein that may help halt the spread of HIV
Scientists have discovered an HIV Aids treatment that may help sufferersavoid the problem of drug resistance.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7508.html


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if can't access the article

-Booksellers Join Challenge to Oregon Censorship Law
Six Oregon booksellers will join
the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and acoalition of groups in filing a lawsuit in federal district court inPortland tomorrow challenging a new Oregon law that unconstitutionallyrestricts the display and sale of books and magazines that are protected bythe First Amendment. House Bill 2843 makes it a felony to allow a minorunder 13 to view or purchase a "sexually explicit" work. "We do not doubtthe good intentions of the Oregon legislature," ABFFE President Chris Finansaid. "But H.B. 2843 lacks the safeguards for booksellers that the U.S.Supreme Court has mandated in this kind of law." Finan said thatbooksellers are concerned that H.B. 2843 does not include a requirement thata book or magazine be judged as a whole in determining whether it isillegal; such a test may exempt works that contain only a few sexuallyexplicit images or passages.

-Tulsa named emerging city for same-sex couples
What do Tulsa; Plano, Texas; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Anchorage, Alaska, andJacksonville, Fla., have in common?
Not much. However, The Advocate, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendermagazine, has named Tulsa among those "top five emerging cities for gays andlesbians." According to the magazine, Gary Gates, a senior research fellowat the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles, Schoolof Law, "used the 2006 U.S. Census estimates of the country's 100 largestcities" and "ranked those cities by the portion of same-sex couples (again,determined by Census data) among all couples and compared that to thefigures from 2000." Tulsa, which had 7.74 same-sex couples per 1,000households in 2006, went from a rank of 77 in 2000 to 46 in 2006. Planomoved from 98 to 16; Fort Wayne from 90 to 52; Anchorage from 74 to 54and Jacksonville from 63 to 44.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080426_38_D2_span08203


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Anything but Straight
http://www.waynebesen.com/

-Between the Wild Party and the Wedding Party
When I first came out in 1988, if two young gay people met, the reactionoften was, "You too! I thought I was alone." As my twenty-year high schoolreunion approaches, I witnessed an identical response in a seminal New YorkTimes Magazine cover story. At a coffee shop in Boston, two gay men, Aaronand George, met for the first time. "I thought I was the only one." "Metoo!" they exclaimed. What differed was that these two young men wererelieved to meet because they were legally divorced and had not met peerswho had experienced similar situations. While we have a long journey towardsfull equality ahead of us, it is a dramatically different world than the oneI came out in. In fact, more than 700 gay men 29 or younger have married inMassachusetts through last June, the latest date for which statistics areavailable. While Massachusetts is still the only state that allows same-sexmarriages, gay men who are my age, 37, never dreamt these unions would occurin our lifetime.

-TWO Slams Mississippi College Rag For Printing Hate Propaganda
In a disgraceful example of journalistic malpractice, the college newspaperThe Daily Mississipian printed right wing talking points - while calling itan op-ed. "Homosexuality is unhealthy," writes Zack Williams, "Not in theway that cigarettes and booze are unhealthy, but in the way that drinking ashot of turpentine every Wednesday afternoon while perusing real estatecatalogues for houses near nuclear waste dumps is unhealthy."
TWO responded with a letter to the editor:
Dear Editor:
I read the anti-gay rant by Zack Williams with a mix of horror and
amazement. How could a real newspaper allow such transparent lies to findtheir way into print? His error-laced article is not only profoundlyimmoral, but statistically and scientifically inaccurate. For example,Williams cites that the life-span of gay men is 20 years less thanheterosexuals. This lie came directly from Dr. Paul Cameron, a discreditedpsychologist who was kicked out of the American Psychological Associationand Nebraska Psychological Association for distorting statistics about gaymen. One would think that the Mississippian would fact check before itprints a hateful article that defames an entire population by citing adebunked researcher. Clearly, you have shoddy journalistic standards. Shameon you.


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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gays and Lesbians in the Muslim World Equality Forum 2008 - InternationalFocus
PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The international focus ofEquality Forum 2008 is Gays and Lesbians in the Muslim World. Equality Forumpresents the largest annual national and international GLBT civil rightsforum. Equality Forum 2008 (April 28-May 4) in Philadelphia has 34 panels,14 parties and 15 special events.
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9083349

-Campaign for Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Lands on the Vegas Strip
Las Vegas part of Six City Tour Highlighting Efforts to Repeal "Don't Ask,Don't Tell"
LAS VEGAS, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A reception at the Gay &Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada marks the midway point in a sixcity tour organized by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) tohighlight efforts to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The tour, which takesSLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis from San Diego to Palm Springs beforemaking stops in Las Vegas, Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs, is aninitiative aimed at educating Americans on the effort to lift the ban onlesbian, gay and bisexual service personnel.
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9083685

-Homosexuals: Police raided our meeting place
Police raid building in Krayot area over weekend, arrest 11 men suspected ofprostitution. Gay Association claims place is a sauna used as meeting place.
Sauna-goers enraged: Police ignorant and stupid
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3536695,00.html

-Colorado Springs Gazette Defends Paul Cameron
This was shocking. Two weeks ago, the Colorado Springs Gazette defended PaulCameron against the Southern Poverty Law Center's naming his Family ResearchInstitute a hate group:
The story about elevated hatred included a list of Colorado hate groups, asidentified by the Southern Poverty Law Center - a thoroughly discreditedorganization that labels organizations with opposing political philosophiesas hate mongers.
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/04/28/1898

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