GLBT DIGEST - September 05, 2008

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Steve Rothaus
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-259 major companies score 100 percent on HRC's gay Corporate Equality Index
On Tuesday, September 2, HRC released the 2009 Corporate Equality Index. Thereport measures the extent to which the 583 rated employers protect theirLGBT employees. Ratings are based on factors like non-discriminationpolicies, diversity training and benefits for domestic partners andtransgender employees. The findings of this year's report include:
* 259 major U.S. businesses achieved the highest rating of 100 percent -up from 195 last year.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


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South Florida Blade
http://www.floridablade.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Barney Frank: Sarah Palin's family life is fair game
'They're the ones that made an issue of her family'
Rep. Barney Frank is among the first Democrats to publicly say Alaska Gov.Sarah Palin's family background, including the pregnancy of her unwedteenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion. "They're theones that made an issue of her family," Frank, D-Mass., said Tuesday in atelephone interview with The Associated Press.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20814

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

-Obama enlists all-woman army to blunt Palin
Barack Obama's campaign plans to employ high-profile female supporters in aneffort to blunt GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's potential topersuade women to vote Republican. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York,Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius all werescheduled to campaign for Obama in the coming weeks. Republicans say theyhope Palin, who made her national debut with a feisty speech on Wednesday,could put some female voters in play.
http://www.365gay.com/news/obama-enlists-all-woman-army-to-blunt-palin/

-Corvino: Palin, pregnancy and principles
I admit it: I was fascinated by the announcement that Sarah Palin's17-year-old daughter is pregnant. It's no surprise that teenagers havesex-even evangelical Christian teenagers, and especially very good lookingones, in Alaska, where there's not much to do but hunting and fishingand.well, you know.
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-palin-pregnancy-and-principles/

-Killing ourselves with hate
Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Philadelphia - EPPI - used tobe the place where teenagers who attempted suicide ended up. There was awhole floor of them. Nothing but kids. The walls were that paleinstitutional green of old aquariums and the cloudy windows had chicken wireimbedded in them.
http://www.365gay.com/features/090408-lgbt-teen-suicide/

-Gay man fights for life after homophobic attack
Three teenagers are in police custody following a vicious unprovoked attackin East London that has left a gay man in hospital fighting for his life.The 20-year old victim, whose name is being withheld by police for hisprotection, was stabbed seven times.
http://www.365gay.com/news/090408-gay-hate-crime/


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

-Accepting the GOP Nomination, McCain Makes Dubious References to Gays
His running mate had a "news flash" for the media Wednesday night, and JohnMcCain had one for LGBT Americans on Thursday: "Education is thecivil-rights issue of this century." It was the second thinly veiled dig atgays and lesbians the Arizona senator made as he accepted the GOP'snomination for president.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid60761.asp

-Virginia Delegation Rejects Gay-Inclusive Guidebook
The Virginia delegation to the Republican National Convention had to bravethe Minneapolis-St. Paul area without a handy guidebook, all because theguide included information on gay-friendly local attractions. According toABC News, a campaign official from the Virginia lieutenant governor's officecanceled an order for 150 of the guidebooks because they included six toeight pages dedicated to gay and lesbian nightclubs.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid60724.asp

-McCain's Top Strategist Addresses Log Cabin Republicans
Senior McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt spoke to Log CabinRepublicans, calling them "an important part" of the Republican Party andsounding a personal note about his lesbian sister. In what represents amarked shift from the Republican campaign rhetoric of 2004 - where someGeorge W. Bush advisors stoked anti-gay sentiment in an attempt to drivesocial conservatives to the polls - Steve Schmidt, senior campaignstrategist for the McCain campaign, stopped by a Log Cabin Republicanluncheon Thursday to welcome the group to the convention.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid60725.asp

- Sarah Palin's Average American Family Doesn't Support Mine
OPINION: As Sarah Palin stood before the average American family Wednesdaynight, touting hers as one and the same -- her five-months-pregnant,17-year-old daughter, Bristol, dressed in formfitting fabric appearing toalmost accentuate her baby bump while the daddy-to-be, clean-shaven (unlikehis rougher-looking MySpace photos), sat alongside adoringly, the picture ofAbercrombie perfection -- for the first time, I saw what all this gaymarriage fuss was all about.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid60715.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:

-Gene May Hold Key to
Neutralizing HIV: U.S. Study
The AIDS virus is especially hard to fight because few people developantibodies to neutralize it, but U.S. researchers said on Thursday they havefound an immunity gene that may offer a new way to fight back. They saidthe gene Apobec3 helps mice develop antibodies against an HIV-like virus,and they think the same gene in humans could lead to a potent vaccineagainst the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. "This gene is central toHIV biology," Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes at theUniversity of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

-Gay Rugby Team Plays With Pride
I first approached the team in the summer of 2007. At that stage, a verysmall group of friends, probably two or three guys, had decided to put theword around that they would meet up the following Tuesday for a kick-aroundbehind Botanic Park. About eight people turned up and that humble beginningwas the start of what was going to be a really exciting and life-changingjourney for the team.

-Gay Pride Festival Goes on
Against the Odds in Southern Utah
Salt Lake City's gay-pride festival draws tens of thousands of people. Majorsponsors such as Wells Fargo, Hilton and Bud Light line up to splash theirlogos at the event. And politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, marchin the parade - second only in size to Utah's Days of '47 procession. Notso at southwestern Utah's only pride festival.


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

-Palin no stranger to Focus on the Family
Link: The Rocky Mountain News
James Dobson went from not supporting John McCain to becoming anenthusiastic cheerleader for the Republican presidential ticket in six shortmonths. What happened? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, that's what. While anunknown quantity to many Americans, Palin has been on Focus on the Family'sradar since at least 2006.

-High School Student to McCain: You're No Leader
Link: ABC News - Political Radar
Senator John McCain had a testy exchange with a high school student inConcord, NH, Tuesday, but one that McCain himself characterized as "whatAmerica is supposed to be about." William Sleaster, a student at ConcordHigh School rose to ask McCain a question about gay rights and, ultimatelydissatisfied by the answer he received from McCain, told the Republicanpresidential contender that he'd come looking to see a leader and didn't.

-Hollywood celebrities support gay marriage rights in ad campaign
Link: PageOneQ
Engaged couple Heather Matarazzo and Caroline Murphy, actors Tyne Daly,Christine Lahti, Camryn Mannheim and Wilson Cruz, Air America comediennesFrangela, labor organizer Dolores Huerta and Rev. Neil G. Thomas are amongthose who also contributed their time and voices to the campaign, recentlyfeatured in The Advocate. "If some of us don't have civil rights, then noneof us do," said Angela Shelton, half of Frangela. "At least when we got ridof Jim Crow, I thought that was the goal." "As two black women," addedcounterpart Frances Callier, "we feel that it's really our responsibility,becaus ewe have a platform in terms of the radio, to go out there and speakabout it."

-M. V. Lee Badgett: The Summer of Love and Commitment
Link: Huffington Post
by M. V. Lee Badgett
In 1932, Louis Brandeis, one of the most respected Justices in the historyof the Supreme Court, urged that states should be seen as sociallaboratories, trying out innovative laws and policies that provide helpfulinformation for other states not yet ready to act. Over the last decade,eleven states (with almost a quarter of the U.S. population) have put thisidea into practice in the context of the legal recognition of same-sexcouples. These experiments with ways to legally recognize same-sex coupleshelp explain what we're seeing in California and Massachusetts this summer.The results should encourage social conservatives and liberals alike:
granting same-sex couples an equal right to marry reveals that marriageretains its singular value for expressing love and commitment in the UnitedStates.

-Alaska Guv's Slim, But Unfriendly Record
Republican Senator John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin, Alaska's governorand a little-known conservative with a slim record on gay and AIDS issues,to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential race has sparked scrutiny ofher views on a host of traditionally hot button social issues. "She'sfairly socially conservative, she's fairly anti-choice," said Jeffrey A.Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska(ACLU).
http://www.dailyqueernews.com/news/1781/


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

-British Army to host LGBT conference
The most senior solider in the British Army will show his support for gaytroops next month when he attends the fourth Armed Forces LGBT Conference inLondon.

-5% of Beijing gays are HIV+ say health authorities
The number of gay men in the Chinese capital who have HIV is much largerthan previously thought. New figures from the Beijing Centres of DiseaseControl and Prevention indicate that ignorance upt o 5% of gay men inBeijing have HIV.

-Video: McCain accepts nomination as oldest Presidential candidate ever
In the past two weeks we have seen history made. The first African Americanaccepted the nomination of a major party for President and the firstRepublican woman came from nowhere to take the Vice Presidential
endorsement.

-Asylum campaigners to protest in Cardiff
A campaign group who want to overturn the decision to deport a gay asylumseeker will protest in Cardiff tomorrow, the day of the city's Pride event.The 'Keep Babi Safe in Cardiff' anti-deportation campaign will be holding ademonstration by the Aneurin Bevan statue on Queen Street, Cardiff.

-US bishop attacks Rowan Williams over marginalisation of liberals
The symbolic head of the Anglican communion has been criticised by a leadingAmerican cleric for spending too much time and effort attempting to placateconservative bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has hada turbulent year trying to lead the communion towards some sort of commonposition on the issue of gay clergy.

-McCain campaign threatens to sue National Enquirer over VP 'affair' story
An American tabloid newspaper has alleged that the Republican party'snominee for Vice President had an extra-marital affair.


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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

-The historic Democratic National Convention is over but one questionremains: what the hell happened to the gays? Like so many others aroundthe world, LGBT people watched through excited tears as Barack Obamaaccepted the presidential nomination at Invesco Field last Thursday. Butthere was tremendous anxiety in LGBT land, too: after a week ofinvisibility, would Obama even mention the word "gay"? And then ithappened. Obama said: "I know there are differences on same-sex marriage -but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sistersdeserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives freeof discrimination." Tobias Wolfe, the brilliant author, scholar andCo-chair of Obama's National LGBT Policy Committee, was ecstatic.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-ocamb/requiem-for-gay-political_b_123061.html

-This week's Gay City News
http://gaycitynews.com/

-Democratic Party Platform and Republican Party Platform on Equality
Compare the 2008 Democratic Party platform and the 2008 Republican Partyplatform on gay rights and equality for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Americans.
http://www.equalitygiving.org/Party-Platform

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