GLBT DIGEST May 5, 2008

**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.


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

-Manila Bishop Says Against Gay Men In May Parade
The head of Manila's Roman Catholic Church has frowned on the participationof gay men in the "Santacruzan" flower festival held across the Philippinesevery May in honor of the Virgin Mary.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-philippines-church.html?scp=3&sq=GAY&st=nyt

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

-Cayman Islands Police Detain Gay Kisser
The Royal Cayman Islands Police detained a visiting homosexual man forkissing his partner on a dance floor last week. The man, 23-year-old AaronChandler from Amherst, Massachusetts, was dancing at the Royal Palms lastWednesday night with his partner. His partner's sister and brother-in-lawalso came along to the popular nightspot after they had all dined at ReefGrill. While dancing, the two men kissed several times.

-5 Questions About Pink Pistols
Ryan Marvin believes in the right to bear arms, a right he says isespecially crucial for people who are more likely to be attacked. That's whyMarvin, who is gay, recently resurrected the Granite State chapter of thePink Pistols. The group will hold its first event May 25 at a shooting rangein Deerfield. The Pink Pistols aims to help gay men, lesbians and otherslearn to shoot guns for self-defense, practice shooting safely and getpermits to carry concealed weapons. We caught up with Marvin, who's 24 andmoved here from Texas less than a year ago as part of the libertarian FreeState Project.

-Israel: Court Turns Down Restraining Order Against Gay Partner
A Family Court judge in Ramat Gan turned down a request by a man for arestraining order against a former male partner on the grounds that Israel'sfamily and domestic violence laws do not apply to homosexual partnerships.
The complainant told the court that the former lover, a younger man who hadlived in his Ramat Gan home with him for two years, was abusing himpsychologically.

-Dead or Alive - Burns Slam Gay Marriage
DEAD OR ALIVE star PETE BURNS has split from his civil partner of ninemonths - and now insists gay marriage "doesn't work". The singer, 49,married boyfriend Michael Simpson in a civil ceremony last July (07), but isnow planning to file for a divorce after alleging his partner wasunfaithful. He says, "There's a lot of promiscuity in the gay community. Idon't understand why they take that union. How low is their self esteem?

-Gay Rights at Standstill
Gay and lesbian activists thought they had a friend in Martin O'Malley. As aprogressive mayor in Baltimore, O'Malley attended gay pride parades andsigned into law a measure to protect transgender people from discrimination.
When he ran for governor, he said he supported civil unions and wanted toextend benefits to same-sex partners of state employees, as he had done forcity workers.

-Battle Rages on Over Transgender Rights
Members of the transgender community say they are the next group of peoplewho need to fight for, even demand, their rights. Those are basic rightssuch as not being fired from a job and having insurance coverage for theirmedical needs. Critics argue that being transgender isn't a social justiceissue, it's a matter of personal choice.

-Gay Ex-Gov, Wife Divorce Trial to Start
She claims she was duped into marriage by a closeted gay man who needed thecover of a wife to advance his political career. He says he gave her a childand the coattails she rode to the governor's mansion, thus fulfilling themarriage contract. As Jim and Dina Matos McGreevey's three-and-a-half-yearseparation approaches the duration of their marriage, the former firstcouple is about to become unhitched _ finally _ when their divorce trialstarts Tuesday.


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

-Opponents of a domestic partnership proposal in Miami-Dade governmentthreatened county commissioners with political retribution at a newsconference Friday. ''Every commissioner who does vote for the proposal willbe held accountable,'' said Anthony Verdugo, executive director of theChristian Family Coalition. The bill would give all Miami-Dade residentsthe right to visit their partner in jails and hospitals. It would also allowcounty employees to buy insurance coverage for their partner and thatpartner's children. A final vote on the package will likely come May 20,but it already has six cosponsors on the 13-member commission and appears tohave at least the one remaining vote it needs for approval.


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

-The Day of Silence in Russia: Sexual minority groups in St. Petersburggathered for a rally on Saturday to mark the Day of Silence, despite anofficial ban. A gay activist could be seen standing in the center ofChernyshevsky Park with his mouth plastered, and another 15 were seated on abench, also with plastered mouths, an Interfax correspondent reported. Theaction brought together more journalists than participants. It is beingguarded by about ten loyal policemen. Coordinator of the Russian LGBT-net oflesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals Igor Petrov told the press thatthe organizers had applied to the city authorities for a permit to stage amass Day of Silence action and that they wanted to hand out leaflets in thepark urging tolerance.
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4632

-First time in Moldovan history LGBT community will have legal publicmanifestation
Pride in Moldova "Rainbow over the Dniester"
LGBT community will go on pubic manifestation on the the cental squre ofChisinau. The aim of the action is to support adoption of anti-discrimination law in Moldova. During three previous consecutive years public authoritieswas banning public manifestations on various pretexts. This year after weapplied to the City Hall to inform the authorities about planned public anifestation within the Pride we got the information, which gave us hope. The representative of theCity Hall informed us that now according to the new law "About public anifestations" we have right to organize public manifestation in the format we indicatedand for this we do not need permission of the authorities. For holding thismanifestation this year we only need to have with us the document which saysthat our application is registered at the City Hall. A couple of days inadvance we have to call City Hall to confirm our event and to check if itdoes not coincide with any other events.


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

-Fierce Fighters for Equal Rights - Steve Krantz
This is the 5th installment in our series on straight dads talking abouttheir gay sons. Today's entry comes to us from Steve Krantz, PdD. Steve(pictured below) serves as Director of PFLAG's Southern Pacific Region, andis also the founder of Jews for Marriage Equality. Here is what Steve has tosay about the Details Magazine article on fathers and gay sons. Enjoy! Ihave two sons - one who happens to be straight and one who happens to begay. I love both of them. My younger son and I have a great rapport - thekind of rapport I had with my father. As he was growing up, we went campingtogether, we went to Disneyworld together - we loved each other everyminute. However, when he was 11, he went into a shell, his behavior changedand he lost his friends. Neither his mother nor I understood these changes.
Finally, when he was 17, he came out to us. At the time, I cried because offear for his welfare in this difficult world. However, his coming out wasn'ta big surprise and mattered only a little. He was still the beautiful,wonderful boy that we loved. This led us to PFLAG and becoming fiercefighters for our son's equal rights. Considering other male parent'sreactions, I believe it comes down to truly loving your child. If you do,acceptance is the first step, then education, then advocacy.
http://www.pflag.org/blog/?p=275

-DNC official sees 'historic' numbers of gay delegates
Daughtry asserts party's commitment to inclusion at convention
http://washblade.com/2008/5-2/news/localnews/12500.cfm

-Gay pride marches in 'Hamp
The 27th annual Northampton Pride March & Rally drew about 7,500 peopleyesterday on an overcast and cool day, but there still was plenty ofenthusiasm.
http://www.lgbt.bz/2008/05/gay-pride-marches-in-hamp.html

-A Black Parents Guide on What to Do and NOT to Do When Your Child "ComesOut"
So after the principal in Memphis and then Tatianna, I've been giving a lotof thought to this never-ending issue of coming out as it relatesspecifically to Black families.
http://www.jasmynecannick.com/blog/?p=1667

-How does America get its great presidents?
Does America get its great presidents because the voters have a good eye forchoosing those who eventually become great? Or do we get great presidentsbecause the well-oiled machines in our political parties offer up greatcandidates who then become great in office?
http://citizenchris.typepad.com/citizenchris/2008/05/how-does-americ.html

-More Obama-Clinton on gay rights
With the pivotal (aren't they all?) North Carolina primary just days away,the gay paper there tried a different tactic for getting answers from thecandidates on gay rights. Rather than press for phone interviews, Q-Notesapparently sent questions to both campaigns and published the answers.
I say "apparently" because the stories don't say so specifically, butthey're credited to "Q-Notes staff" rather than a particular reporter andthe answers (especially Hillary Clinton's) read very much like the work of acampaign staffer. This isn't the first time a prominent e-mail/fax interviewin the gay press masqueraded as the real thing, and Q-Notes really shouldhave said so explicitly.
http://citizenchris.typepad.com/citizenchris/2008/05/more-obama-clin.html

-Why must Don Wildmon 'open mouth'?
We haven't been the least bit surprised that the American Family Associationis up in arms over the same-sex kiss that recently aired on "As The WorldTurns." But what we have found bizarrely shocking is the obsession they'veshown in declaring the kiss to be an "open mouth" smooch.
http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/05/why-must-don-wi.html

-The Principal Issue: Did she out or not?
And now in "widely conflicting accounts of what went down during two gaydudes' school days" news: We have a followup to the situation in Memphis inwhich a high school principal is being accused of outing and harassing twoqueer students. Yesterday, Memphis City Schools issued a statementcountering the ACLU's claims and defending principal Daphne Beasley. Read itafter the jump:

"Memphis City Schools is committed to providing its students with the bestpossible learning environment. Hollis F. Price Middle College is anaccelerated high school, which is located on the historically blackLeMoyne-Owen College campus. Eligible students may enroll in college classesin pursuit of completing the first two years of college while attending thishigh school.
http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/05/the-principal-i.html

-Blurring the Lines between News and Entertainment
Over the past few months, cable and network news programs have been askingwhy Sen. John McCain's campaign pursued the endorsement of anti-gaytelevangelist John Hagee. Media scrutiny of the Rev. Hagee reached a wideraudience on ABC's popular daytime talk show The View on April 30. During aheated exchange between co-hosts Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck aboutthe political relevance of Sen. Barack Obama's relationship withcontroversial pastor Jeremiah Wright, Behar quoted the Rev. Hagee'sstatement that God's anger at New Orleans for having a gay pride paradecaused Hurricane Katrina.
http://glaadorg.nexcess.net/2008/05/blurring-the-lines-between-new.html

-Classic preaching, scandalous lifestyle
What a scandalous contradiction, but that's how the Charlotte Observerdescribes gay christian Rev. Peter Gomes who is stump preaching at Duke andUNC Chapel Hill for a sumester.
http://gcmwatch.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/gomes-lifestyle/

-How I Convinced Myself That I Was Changing My Sexual Orientation
Daniel Gonzales a former patient of Joe Nicolosi, explains.
Oftentimes when I meet someone who's been through ex-gay therapy I ask themif they ever reached the point where they believed they were beginning tochange - It's how I gauge just how deeply they got into the whole "ex-gaything." Ex-gay leaders often assert, "change is possible and I'm proofbecause I changed." In my opinion the strongest response is "I too oncebelieved I had changed." Here's my own explanation of how I believed I hadchanged:
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/05/04/1934

-Homophobia in soccer, Part 67: Luciano Moggi and Jorge Luis Pinto
Jorge Luis Pinto, the technical director of the national Colombian soccerteam has backed recent comments by former Italian soccer trainer LucianoMoggi who riled against gays back in April in what an AFP report called a "abizarre television interview."
http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/2008/05/homophobia-in-soccer-part-67-luciano.html


=
DetNews.com
detnews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Bishop urges gays to walk into faith storms
Ironically, we can feel the most spiritually alive when we're being batteredby life's fiercest storms. For Gene Robinson, such storms have struck twice:
First, when he could no longer deny his homosexuality and divorced hisbeloved wife. And now, as the Anglican Communion battles over the place ofgay people, a struggle that intensified in 2003 when he was consecrated asthe nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/OPINION03/805050340/1007/OPINION


=
Inside Higher Education
http://www.insidehighered.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Is Phyllis Schlafly Worthy of an Honorary Doctorate?
Most of the graduating seniors at Washington University in St. Louis weren'teven born when Phyllis Schlafly led the successful campaign in the 1970s todefeat the Equal Rights Amendment. But they will get to learn about her atcommencement ceremonies next week when the university awards her a doctorateof humane letters.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/05/05/schlafly

-When Equity Official Takes Anti-Gay Stance
At many colleges, human resources officials are leaders in promoting equityand diversity among those who study and work together. And while collegesperiodically debate views of various officials that are seen as biasedagainst various groups, it is highly unusual for the head HR official at auniversity to be the source of such a controversy.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/05/05/toledo

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####