GLBT DIGEST - June 09, 2008

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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-Gay Anglican U.S. bishop enters into civil union
The openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop at the center of the Anglican church'sglobal battle over homosexuality, has entered into a civil union with hislongtime partner at a private ceremony.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060800775.html?hpid=sec-religion


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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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-Anne Heche pays the price in divorce settlement
Anne Heche's five-year marriage to Coleman Laffoon is officially over, but not without a pinch to her pocketbook. A judge ruled that Heche must pay $275,000 to her ex-husband, along with monthly child-support payments of $3,700 for the care of their 6-year-old son, Homer, according to court documents released Friday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/sfl-68anneheche,0,1861674.story


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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
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-US: Leaving UN Rights Council Fails Victims of Abuse
US Failure to Engage Added to Council's Shortcomings
A decision by the United States to disengage entirely from the UN HumanRights Council amounts to an abandonment of human rights defenders andvictims, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States briefed EuropeanUnion members in Geneva on its decision to end its participation in thecouncil, and confirmed its intention to Human Rights Watch on June 6, 2008. Although the United States was not a member of the Human Rights Council, ithad participated as an observer at the council since its inception in 2006. "The US decision to walk away from the Human Rights Council iscounter-productive and short-sighted," said Juliette de Rivero, Genevaadvocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Whatever the council's problems,this decision is a victory for abusive states and a betrayal of thosefighting for their rights worldwide." The council remains a criticalinstitution for protecting human rights throughout the world, despite somesubstantial weaknesses, Human Rights Watch said.
http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=united_nations_hrc

-The Equality Parade has marched through the streets of Warsaw for thefourth time this Saturday.
At the parade whose motto was "Live, Love, Be" several thousand of peopledemonstrated against homophobia and the discrimination of the gay community. Adam Rogalewski from the Equality Foundation said that the gay community isdemanding that their rights be acknowledged, showing at the same time thatits members are part of the society. According to Rogalewski, the situationof homosexuals in Poland has been improving in the last four years, that issince the first parade was organised. As usual, there was acounter-demonstration. Members of the National Radical Camp (ONR) and theAll-P olish Youth (MW) manifested too, voicing their disapproval of theparade. However, the Warsaw police did their best to prevent the twodemonstrations from coming into contact. Apart from lavish verbal abuse thedemonstrations were peaceful.
http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=84284


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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
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-The Home Office wants to send another gay asylum seeker back to torture andpossible death - and is again claiming that 'discretion' means they can doit. Prossy Kakooza is a 26-year-old lesbian woman who fled Uganda aftersuffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexualorientation. She has an English Literature degree and would like to teachhere. Uganda's government is violently anti-gay, newspapers and religiousgroups are engaged in witch hunts and asylum campaigners have reported thatreturnees on arrival in Kampala have been immediately taken to a torturecentre. While in prison Kakooza was subjected to multiple rapes and brandedwith red hot meat skewers on her thighs by drunken police officers.
http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2008/06/another-gay-asylum-seeker-to-be-sent.html


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

-Senator Barack Obama released the following statement commemorating pride month.
"I am proud to join with our lesbian, gay, bisexualand transgendered brothers and sisters incelebrating the accomplishments, the lives, and thefamilies of all LGBT people during this Prideseason. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights isexploited by those seeking to divide us. But at itscore, this issue is about who we are as Americans."
"It's time to live up to our founding promise ofequality by treating all our citizens with dignityand respect. Let's enact federal civil rightslegislation to outlaw hate crimes and protectworkers against discrimination based upon sexualorientation and gender identity or expression. Let's repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and demonstratethat the most effective and professional military inthe world is open to all Americans who are ready andwilling to serve our country. Let's treat therelationships and the families of LGBT Americanswith full equality under the law."

-What the Science Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality
This is now on-line from Soulforce:
An important resource for gay people of faith and their families
http://www.soulforce.org/article/1365


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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
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-GA: Elite Black Male College Comes Gradually to Terms with Gay Life
Michael Brewer, a senior at Morehouse College, was strolling purposefullyaround campus on a hot spring day, his heavy frame dripping sweat, his handsclutching a small stack of fliers. "no more hate," the fliers read, instylish sans serif. "no more discrimination. no more." "What's up, brother?"
Brewer said in a lilting, cheerful voice as he approached a fellow studentin a dark business suit. "Take one of these, if you will." The young mangave the flier a glance. It was promoting what was perhaps the mostambitious week of gay-rights events in the history of Morehouse, the onlyhistorically black all-male school in America.

-AL: Gay Pride Continues in Birmingham Despite Mayor's Objections
It's been a topsy-turvy Gay Pride season in Birmingham, Ala., where manypeople might be surprised to learn that there is even such a thing as GayPride season. In reality, gay people in Birmingham have hosted a Gay Pridefestival for 30 years, produced a Pride parade for 20 years and have beenhonored by city proclamations for the past 15 years. But the streak ofreceiving city support ended a few weeks ago when Birmingham Mayor LarryLangford rejected a request from Central Alabama Pride to recognize thefestival with a proclamation and street banners. Langford did not respond tointerview requests by press time.

-God is Not Against You'
Atlanta: Rev. Dennis Meredith still preaches to a full house twice eachSunday, but the faces largely don't belong to the same people who filled thepews when he arrived in 1994. Since 1917, Tabernacle Baptist Church hadserved a historically African-American population in the Old Fourth Ward,but shortly after the turn of the century the church began to change.
Families who worshiped at the church for generations, veteran donors, leftthe church because it was becoming a "gay church." "I used to preach allover the country. I'd be gone once or twice a month preaching, that's a lot.
When I started preaching love and acceptance, people stopped calling becausesuddenly I'm the gay pastor, I'm the pastor of the gay church," saidMeredith, who is straight. In 2001, after Meredith's son told the pastor hewas gay, Meredith changed the messages he preached every Sunday andWednesday night.


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Forwarded from Bill Sterling
whsterling1@yahoo.com

-Family matters
The state Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage brings the law into sync with reality for many Pasadena parents and children
People like Jim Buss and Craig Simmons are no strangers to being told they're different, and that being different somehow makes them less human. In May2005, the Pasadena couple and their then 5-year-old twin sons, Justin andMaverick, were denied a family membership with the posh Gerrish Swim andTennis Club, where the boys had frequently attended birthday parties forclassmates. School functions, minivans and soccer practices aside, theBuss-Simmons family was not a family in the eyes of the club, where thedefinition of the word started with "married couple" - specifically,"husband and wife." A few months after their story ran in the PasadenaWeekly, a California Supreme Court decision that upheld a lesbian couple'srights to family membership benefits at a San Diego Country Club promptedGerrish to change that policy, but it was too late for the Buss-Simmonsclan, who by then had decided to take their money elsewhere. Last month'sstate Supreme Court decision to lift the ban on same-sex marriage promisesto go light years further in erasing concepts like different, separate andlesser from the way we think about family.
http://69.94.124.246/cms/story/detail/family_matters/6043/


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You are invited to view Michael Emanuel Rajner's photo album: Pride South Florida Picnic in Wilton Manors
http://picasaweb.google.com/merajner/PrideSouthFloridaPicnic682008?authkey=750yZLCZdx4

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