GLBT DIGEST - September 11, 2008

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From Transgender Equality
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Transgender Anti-Discrimination Law in
Montgomery County, MD Safe from Repeal Effort: State's High Court Agrees that Opponents Failed in Collecting Valid Signatures
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) applauds the decision by Maryland's highest court to invalidate the mean-spirited effort to remove a local anti-discrimination law that passed unanimously by Montgomery County Council last year. The failed effort could have repealed the county law protecting people from discrimination based on gender identity depending upon voters' decision. However, the court decided that the anti-transgender measure must be removed from the November ballot because opponents did not collect enough valid signatures to qualify. [...] Concerted anti-equality efforts are also underway to repeal LGBT laws in Gainesville, FL and Hamtramck, MI.


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Human Rights Campaign - HRC
Corporate Equality Index
The seventh annual Corporate Equality Index shows an unprecedented 259 major U.S. businesses earned the top rating of 100 percent, up from 195 last year - an increase of one third. Detailed information on each employer rated is included in the report and on our employer database under "Employers with Corporate Equality Index rating".
...2009 Corporate Equality Index - Full Report pdf (739 KB)
...Human Rights Campaign press release and statement
...Statements from employers that rated 100% in 2009 Search our Employer Database
http://www.hrc.org/issues/workplace/cei.htm


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Michigan: Triangle Foundation Annual State Dinner Event
The Westin Southfield
A Chance to Renew Our Hearts, Our Hopes, and Our Commitment
You're Invited - Sunday, October 12, 2008
https://secure.ga1.org/05/trianglefoundation/events/StateDinner2008/purchase.tcl?&_cm_=1

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-DC hopes needle exchanges curb soaring AIDS rate
Reggie Jackson spends much of his day inside a Winnebago, riding through the city's hard-scrabble neighborhoods to hand out clean syringes in exchange for dirty ones. "We're saving lives, man," Jackson says. He's on a mission to protect drug addicts from HIV, which Jackson learned he had in 1990 after years of sharing needles to shoot heroin and crack cocaine.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091100319.html

-Tension mounts as Bosnian imams protest gay festival
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) _ Posters condemning gays have appeared in Sarajevo ahead of this month's first-ever gay festival in Bosnia. Two Muslim imams have been quoted as criticizing the timing of the five-day festival, which opens Sept. 24 and will occur during the holy month of Ramadan. Islam prohibits gay relationships, and Sarajevo is at least 85 percent Muslim.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091100680_pf.html


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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay Straight Alliance fights discrimination
Everglades High social studies teacher Bruce Klasner and the school's Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) are putting their efforts toward the new item on the EHS school list: the museum of tolerance. "This museum will explain how it's OK to be different," said Mellany Obel, GSA president. "And we should not discriminate against other people if they have a different skin color from our own or are attracted to those of the same sex." The GSA members will educate the student body by displaying the mistreatment of homosexuals during the Holocaust massacre, which is set to be showcased to all history classes in the late fall. "A lot of people are so involved in their own clique that they fail to accept those who are different from themselves," Obel said. "Hopefully this will teach kids to be more open-minded and accepting of those who do not follow their definition of the status quo." By Nelly Torres, Everglades High
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-fltl0911newstlbesep11,0,1742229.story

-Prosecutor: Sex offender who posed as boy to enroll in Ariz. schools to get 70½-year sentence
A sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in Arizona schools has pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges, two stemming from the charade he pulled for two years, and will go to prison for more than 70 years, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Authorities didn't find any victims of sexual abuse at the schools 30-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick II attended. But when Rodreick's ruse was discovered in January 2007, they found an extensive collection of child pornography at his home.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-sex-offender-ruse,0,5150204.story


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Biased law must go
OUR OPINION: GAY ADOPTION CASE AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW
It is a sad state of affairs that Florida's official policy is to discriminate against gay people who want to adopt children. In Florida, it is OK for gays and lesbians to be foster parents and guardians -- but not to adopt. That not only sanctions bias, but compounds it with hypocrisy. The ruling this week by Monroe County Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. to allow a gay foster father to adopt a teenaged boy won't change Florida's nonsensical law. Still, it is a victory for one family and, possibly, a chink in the state's specious legal position that bias is OK.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/681534.html


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Steve Rothaus
www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-MomsMiami.com blog:
Children's author Maurice Sendak tells New York Times that he's gay
I just read a very bittersweet story about Maurice Sendak, who is celebrating his 80th birthday. It solidified my respect and love for this grumpy, lovable children's author/illustrator, probably THE most beloved of all time (Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen). In the New York times article, Sendak quietly comes out of the closet, revealing he's gay and in mourning for his longtime partner, who recently passed away. He talks about how he kept quiet about his sexuality all these years because he didn't think the world would accept a gay man writing and drawing children's books. What the world would have missed if this man had never picked up a pen!
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/09/momsmiamicom-bl.html


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

-Miami Mayor speaks out against Amendment 2
Miami mayor Manny Diaz recently announced his opposition to Amendment 2, which would add an amendment to the Florida constitution outlawing any type of gay domestic partnership or marriage. He joins a chorus of local South Florida leaders, including the Broward Board of Commissioners and the Broward School Board, who have spoken out against the measure. Read his statement on Florida Red and Blue's web site here.
http://www.floridablade.com/blog/index.cfm#20953

-Obama's gay mentor speaks out
Occidental professor had 'strong influence' on Democratic nominee's views As an 18-year-old undergraduate student at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Barack Obama was among a coterie of students who spoke regularly with Lawrence Goldyn. Goldyn, an openly gay political science professor who served as a mentor and friend to many of the school's minority students, said Obama joined him and other students in discussions about social and political issues at a time when Obama was beginning to develop an interest in politics and civil rights causes.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20937

-Court hears Craig appeal
Ruling will come before Craig leaves Senate
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, seeking to wipe away an embarrassing criminal conviction in an airport men's room sex sting, put his hope Wednesday in the Minnesota Court of Appeals. An attorney for the retiring Republican argued that he should be able to withdraw a misdemeanor disorderly conduct plea he quietly entered last year following an arrest during a flight layover. The attorney, Billy Martin, told the three-judge panel that Craig's behavior was "as consistent with innocence as it is with guilt."
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20930


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

-As Ellen Goes, So Goes the Nation
When Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got married in California in August, there were no protests, no career fallout, and no media backlash, just congratulations from all. It was an archetypal People celebrity wedding featuring two of the beautiful people, one in pants and the other in a gown, and a dreamy setting with flowers, champagne, candlelight, the whole romantic nine yards. No expense spared, no fabulous purveyor left unmentioned. (Mark's Garden! Zac Posen! Neil Lane!) The only thing missing: a groom.
http://advocate.com/issue_story_ektid61030.asp

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