GLBT DIGEST May 24, 2008

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

-California rewrites marriage forms for gays
Current one-page form uses 'bride' and 'groom'
You have to figure "bride" and "groom" are out.
So, what will the California marriage license look like in the new era ofsame-sex marriages? Will it list "Partner A" and "Partner B"? "Intended No.1" and "Intended No. 2"? Or will it contain just blank spaces for thebetrothed?
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18488

-Gay marriage opponents seek five-month delay
Alliance Defense Fund wants ruling stayed until Nov.
A conservative legal group asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday tostay its decision legalizing same-sex marriage until voters got a chance toweigh in on the issue.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18515

-DeGeneres needles McCain on gay marriage
'Agreements' preferable, McCain says
Republican John McCain says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter intolegal agreements for insurance and other purposes, but he opposes gaymarriage and believes in "the unique status of marriage between and man anda woman."
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18475

-Clovis High yearbook features gays
Editor-in-chief wanted to show diversity
Clovis High School students are defending the decision to publish photos andinterviews with gay couples in the yearbook.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18516

-Gambia gay death threat condemned
Gay rights activists have condemned Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's threatto behead homosexuals.
Last week he told a political rally that gay people had 24 hours to leavethe country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7416536.stm

-TIMES / KTLA POLL
Times Poll: Californians narrowly reject gay marriage
Voters also back a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions,a new Times/KTLA survey shows.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll23-2008may23,0,2084360.story

-Facing hate crime in Turkey
A report by Human Rights Watch says gay and transgender people in Turkey aresubject to "endemic abuses", and calls on the government to act to protectthem. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford met some of the victims.
"This is my first photograph as a transsexual," a woman tells me, in herflat in back-street Istanbul.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7416369.stm

-Md. governor signs two gay bills
New rights, tax breaks effective July 1
Despite the objections of some religious leaders, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed into law two bills that grant gays hospitalization rights and taxbreaks.
http://washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18498

-GLBT Democrats nab delegate seats
Party makes gay 'quota' but rattles gay caucus leaders
On May 17 the Florida Democratic Party State Executive Committee met inTampa to elect the final 40 members of the state's 242 -member contingent ofdelegates and alternates to the national Democratic convention in August.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2008/5-22/news/localnews/4687.cfm

-Friend or Foe?
FRIEND OF THE WEEK
Save Dade
When the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners opened the vote on thecounty domestic partnership registry, it seemed like it was a sure thingfrom the start. Bruno Barriero, Chairman of the Board, opened his remarksto the group by acknowledging this policy was a "long time coming," hesmacked down efforts to postpone the vote, and along with seven of hisfellow Board members, he pushed through the policy even while proudlytelling the chambers he was doing so as a Republican.

FOE OF THE WEEK
Natacha Seijas, Joe Martinez, Javier Souto, José "Pepe" Diaz
The four Commissioners who voted against the domestic partnership registrytried to say the right things. Saying the policy was "unfair" because itdidn't go further to grant health insurance to, say, single parents orgrandparents raising their grandchildren, they said they were voting againstthe measure because they thought it was important to have "compassion."
It's a dangerous road politicians take, when they put politically-correctlanguage on public record to hide their own malicious actions. If you're abigot, admit it!
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2008/5-22/view/friendfoe/4693.cfm


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

-S.F. City Hall Unveils Harvey Milk Tribute
On what would have been the slain rights leader's 78th birthday, the city ofSan Francisco unveiled a monumental statue of former city supervisor HarveyMilk in the rotunda of City Hall.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid54853.asp

-Ernst & Young Kicks Off Pride With Christine Quinn
Ernst & Young hosted a speaker event at its New York City office Tuesdaynight with New York City council speaker Christine Quinn. The event servedas a jump start to Pride Month for Ernst & Young's LGBT Employee Group,bEYond. In attendance was Christine Crespo, the company's LGBTAInclusiveness Strategy Leader.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid54839.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:

-Texans Could Play Big Role in California Amendment Battle
Texas residents need to get ready for a bitter, expensive fight - eventhough it's occurring several states away, according to the state's LGBTactivists. The expected ballot referendum in California in November todetermine if the state Supreme Court's recent decision legalizing same-sexmarriage will be invalidated will affect Texas and every other state, saidPaul Scott, executive director of Equality Texas.

-Ft. Lauderdale's Royal Palms Resort Named 2008 Best Gay Resort By Planetout"Opening the first upscale B&B exclusively for gay travelers, Richard Grayand the Royal Palms has helped put Fort Lauderdale on the gay map, " says EdSalvato, editor-in-chief for PlanetOut "The Royal Palms continues toreinvent itself offering luxurious touches, both small and large to enticethe ever-more-demanding gay visitor. Not only is it a 2008 PlanetOut TravelAward winner, it's also a personal favorite."

-D.C. Black Pride: Past, Present & Future
As a founding member of Black Pride D.C., I always feel nostalgic andreflective this time of year as thousands of black gay, lesbian, bisexualand transgender men, women, youth and their families travel to the nation'scapital for Memorial Day weekend. In 1990, the creation of Black Pride D.C.was a direct response to an urgent need to raise funds for black LGBTorganizations, specifically to those that served individuals affected byHIV/AIDS. In addition, there was a need for us to become more visible, vocaland proud of who we were as a people.

-Taxing Questions
There is no doubt that the ruling in California is a great step for the gayand lesbian community. It is likely just a matter of time - five years,perhaps 10 years - before much of the nation follows in California's andMassachusetts' footsteps. Until then, the California ruling does one thingfor certain: It creates more confusion for the gay and lesbian community andthe advisers who serve us when it comes to putting together financial andestate plans.

-Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition Issues Summary of 2008Legislative Session
The second session of the 105th Tennessee General Assembly adjourned onWednesday, May 21, 2008. During the session, the Tennessee TransgenderPolitical Coalition (TTPC) tracked 125 bills and was active lobbying on anumber of issues. Education: TTPC worked against a bill which would havebanned public school teachers from discussing sexual diversity. The HouseK-12 Subcommittee sent the bill to the Tennessee Department of Education forstudy. We were part of a broad coalition of opponents which included theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and the Tennessee Equality Project. TTPC alsosupported Safe School and anti-gang bills and which should provide moreprotection for GLBT youth against harassment and bullying.

-St. Paul Saints' 'Bobblefoot' Lampoons Larry Craig
While not saying it directly, the St. Paul Saints are having fun with IdahoSen. Larry Craig's incident at Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport by offering abathroom-stall "bobblefoot" giveaway for the first 2,500 fans at Sunday'sgame at Midway Stadium against Fort Worth.

-Hospital Worker: I Performed Oral Sex on Patient
A Mount Sinai Medical Center employee surrendered Wednesday after police sayhe performed oral sex on a male patient who was just waking up fromanesthesia following surgery. Pedro J. Gonzalez, 27, of Hialeah, confessedand was charged with sexual battery, Miami Beach police said. Gonzalez,whose job is to transport patients within the hospital, was immediatelyfired after the April 30 incident.

-A Place to Call Home
Two weeks before opening the District's first transitional home for homelessGLBT youth, Brian Watson is working on only four hours of sleep, consumed byall the work yet to be done on the house, as well as by how much informationto share. ''At first I was hesitant,'' admitted Watson, the director ofprograms at Transgender Health Empowerment (THE) and president of the D.C.Coalition of Black LGBT Men and Women, of officially announcing the openingdate of the Wanda Alston House at THE's pageant fundraiser, May 18, thenight before speaking with Metro Weekly. ''But now it's really comingtogether.''

-The Guys Next Door
LATER this year Harvey Stern plans to marry another man in Palm Springs townhall. A wedding strikes him as the appropriate way to solemnise a 25-yearrelationship-and besides, it is about time his straight friends gave himsome presents. Does he think that local people will be alarmed by theprospect of a gay wedding? Not really, he says. Anybody who has lived inPalm Springs for the past few years is probably expecting it.

-First Ever Gay March Held in Ankara
A little bit of gay history was made in the Turkish capital on Saturdayafternoon. Over 100 gay men and women, bisexuals and transgender peopleassembled in front of the human rights monument in Yuksel Street for a marchto Parliament on International Day Against Homophobia jointly organised byKaos Gay and Lesbian Association and Pink Life LGBTT Association. Joininglocal activists were Michael Cashman MRP, the president of the EuropeanParliament's all-party Intertroup for gay and lesbian rights, and Dutchfeminist and author Anja Meulenbelt.


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

-Marriage has not suffered in Massachusetts since marriage equality wasaffirmed in 2004. In fact, the commonwealth has the lowest divorce rate inthe nation. How does that factoid fit into the man/woman marriage crowd'sscreeching proclamations that if a woman is allowed to marry a woman, thegood old traditional American way of life is going to be ripped apart? TheCalifornia high court's enlightened vote makes the Washington state SupremeCourt's affirmation of a ban on same-sex marriage two years ago feel morelike a throwback ruling to a time of prehistoric social norms.

-So says Save California, an anti-gay group that is calling asking itsupporters to call county clerks and demand that they refuse to issuemarriage licenses to gay couples. From their website:
Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had beenordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they wouldhave been convicted of murder for following this immoral order. ... Nice.


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

-Russian Health Ministry ends ban on gay blood
The Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development has repealed the banon blood donations by homosexual people, it emerged last night.

-UK is "committed to promoting LGBT rights overseas"
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed that it will engage withforeign governments about the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transpeople.

-EU must insist Turkey "respect LGBT people's basic rights"
A leading human rights group has produced a report documenting "long andcontinuing history of violence and abuse based on sexual orientation andgender identity" in Turkey.

-Polish Catholics fund treatment centre to 'cure' homosexuals
The Roman Catholic Church has helped set up a rehabilitation centre inPoland that attempts to 'cure' homosexuality.

-Homophobic abuse fails to disrupt gay football final
Manchester United may be celebrating their win on penalties at last night'sChampion's League Final, but another team from the city also went home withsilverwear earlier this month.

-Christian registrars "terrified" of civil partnerships
A council registrar has told an employment tribunal that some Christians arebeing "accommodated" and therefore allowed to opt out of performing civilpartnerships for gay couples.

-Court ruling allows legal challenge to US gay military ban
A US federal court of appeal has reinstated a lawsuit by a decorated AirForce nurse who is suing after she was discharged for being a lesbian.

-Tabloids speculate about Jodie Foster's "other woman"
Oscar winning actress Jodie Foster had another woman lined up when she andher partner of 14 years, Cydney Bernard, called it quits.


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

-Germany: Tribute to Nazis' Gay Victims
A memorial dedicated to gay men and lesbians persecuted and killed underthe Nazis will be inaugurated on May 27, the Lesbian and Gay Federation inGermany said. The $935,000 monument, designed by Michael Elmgreen ofDenmark and Ingar Dragset of Norway, will be in Berlin on the edge of itsTiergarten park and near the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Itfeatures a concrete slab with a window that will allow visitors to view alooped video that will alternate every two years between a clip of menkissing and a clip of women kissing. Germany's culture minister, BerndNeumann, and Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, who is gay, are expected toattend the ceremony.

-Amnesty International
Your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and challenges are required!
Amnesty International is in the process of reviewing and developing itshuman rights strategies and activist tactics for the coming years. Our hopeis that your visions will make their impact felt on this process and itsoutcomes. Through an online questionnaire, Amnesty International iscurrently seeking many different perspectives and soliciting the views ofhuman rights defenders, human rights activists and people concerned abouthuman rights on the central human rights challenges we are all confrontingand on what Amnesty International's role and focus should be in helpingconfront some of these challenges. This is the first time that AI has issuedsuch a broad invitation. We would like to encourge you complete thisquestionnaire so that your understanding of the world and of AmnestyInternational's potential help structure this strategic process. We feel itis very important for your voices to be heard on issues that you have raisedwith us directly and in discussion on these listservs including:
sexual rights, including LGBT rights reproductive rights gender and human rights human rights defenders freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly intersectionality / multiple discriminations intersections between civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights tensions between sexual rights and freedom of religion or belief accountability of non-state actorsUN advocacysocial movements... and any other issues that come to your minds.
It would be good if you could also share your reflections on thequestionnaire, and whether the grouping of different issues is helpful togiving your views and constructing strategic work around them. Do you thinkthat your major concerns are well identified? The questionnaire isaccessible at:
English https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ndsqPa3WTEZXisktTq8O1g_3d_3d


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From Marc Adams
Executive Director, HeartStrong
http://www.mtdn.com/heartstrong

What does actress Jessica Biel have in common with HeartStrong? It's herwebsite for her organization, Make the Difference Now. Through Jessica'swebsite you can make a donation to HeartStrong to help us raise money forgeneral expenses or to specifically help HeartStrong to raise money forits new Outreach/Educational Team vehicle.
Find out more by going to HeartStrong's page on Jessica's site athttp://www.mtdn.com/heartstrong You will find everything you need tohelp us with this important and immense project.
You should know that ALL of the funds donated to HeartStrong throughJessica's site go directly to HeartStrong. Make The Difference Now doesnot take any money for helping you to help us.
Check out the HeartStrong page and help us raise much needed funds!


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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

-This Week in Washington Blade!
http://www.washblade.com/

-What's 'normal' sex? Shrinks seek definition
Controversy erupts over creation of psychiatric rule book's new edition
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24664654/from/ET/

-A Week Later in California, What's Next?
Huffington Post
Evan Wolfson discusses how the CA Supreme Court not only did the rightthing, it did its job -- upholding the Constitution, and now equality mustbe defended.
http://freedomtomarry.c.topica.com/maalD5GabHtNbaLp7XmcaeQCPT/>

-Thong-Clad Protesters Stripped of Civil Rights Suit
A group of young men who stripped down to thong underwear and formed aroadside pyramid to stage a protest when President George W. Bush wasvisiting Lancaster County in July 2004 have lost their bid to revive a civilrights suit against the Pennsylvania state troopers who arrested them.
The protesters claimed in the suit that they were attempting to recreate oneof the infamous photographs of abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, andthat their simulation of nudity was therefore essential to their message.
But U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond dismissed the suit in March 2006,finding that the troopers had probable cause to arrest the protesters for"open lewdness" because they "appeared to be entirely naked" and there wereyoung children in the vicinity.
As a result, Diamond concluded in his opinion in Egolf v. Witmer that thetroopers had not violated the protesters' First Amendment rights. But evenif they had, Diamond said, the four troopers named in the suit wouldnonetheless be entitled to "qualified immunity" because there is no "clearlyestablished" right to employ simulated nudity in a political protest.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421637055&pos=ataglance>
&pos=ataglance

-Morehouse College faces its own bias -- against gays
The 'Morehouse man' is a paragon of virtue and strength, a leader destinedfor great things. But can he also be gay? Michael Brewer, a senior atMorehouse College, was strolling purposefully around this storied campus ona hot spring day, his heavy frame dripping sweat, his hands clutching asmall stack of fliers. "No more hate," the fliers read, in a stylishtypeface. "No more discrimination. No more." "What's up, brother?" Brewersaid in a lilting, cheerful voice as he approached a fellow student in adark business suit. "Take one of these, if you will." The young man gavethe flier a glance. It was promoting what was perhaps the most ambitiousweek of gay rights events in the history of Morehouse, the only historicallyblack all-male school in America. "What the hell is this?" he said under hisbreath. He laughed and threw it in the trash.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-morehouse22-2008may22,0,1504077.story

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