GLBT DIGEST - September 23, 2008

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

-A Real McCain Supporter? Or Just a Clintonite on the Rebound?
Lynette Long's friends can barely sputter their objections. "How could you?" they say. "What about the environment? What about gay rights? What about Roe v. Wade?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092002245.html


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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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-Steven Spielberg donates money to support gay marriage
Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, are the latest celebrity donors to the fight against California's November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/sfl-spielberg-0923,0,4318658.story


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

-Tonight: Food For Thought
Dine at area restaurants and raise money for GLCC
Tonight, 16 area restaurants will donate 20% of their sales to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida. GLCC is making a much-hyped move to a new building in Fort Lauderdale, so their fundraising has been kicked into high-gear. Someone has to pay for their new place!
http://www.floridablade.com/blog/index.cfm#21179

-South Florida Blade's Guide to the 'Tube
Recap of the latest and greatest internet videos
We just found out our admin assistant/resident princess Dave did NOT see the Sarah Palin skit from Saturday Night Live. What is he doing with all his spare time? Going out with his friends?!? Crazy. Lucky for him, we spend hours every day on the internet. A recap in case you've missed them as well;
http://www.floridablade.com/blog/index.cfm#21180


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

-Kailey: Let's see what you've got
"I've never met a female-to-male transsexual before." Yes, of course. I get this all the time from gay men. But this particular gay man had just spent the last 15 years living in San Francisco. If a gay man lives in San Francisco for 15 years and has never met an FTM, I can only assume that he spent those 15 years: A) incarcerated. B) homebound. C) in a hut on the far side of Alcatraz island. Almost every major urban center in the United States is teeming with transmen. If we don't live there already, we often migrate there in search of a more welcoming community, better access to health care and other resources, and a larger trans population with which to connect. San Francisco, with its rainbow flags down Market Street and its "anything goes" Castro district, is particularly attractive, especially for gay transmen.
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/kailey-lets-see-what-youve-got/

-Withers: Manhunt money still supports McCain
Just when you thought it was safe to reopen your Manhunt.net account, the hook up site is back in the news. When it was revealed last month that the site's co-founder Jonathan Crutchley made the maximum donation to John McCain's campaign, the blogosphere hit code red.
http://www.365gay.com/blog/092308-mccain-keeps-money-from-manhunt/

-Anti-gay church raided in child porn case
Six minors have been temporarily placed in state custody as part of a child porn investigation after a raid on a ministry run by a man who says "consent is puberty" when it comes to sex, officials said Sunday.
http://www.365gay.com/news/anti-gay-church-raided-in-child-porn-case/


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

-McCain Chief of Staff Outed?
Republican presidential candidate John McCain's chief of staff was outed Monday after radio host Michelangelo Signorile quoted additional sources to confirm the long-blogged-about rumors. Mark Buse, 44, previously served as a lobbyist for several large corporations including AT&T and ExxonMobil, the only Fortune 10 company without a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Signorile said on his blog that he had previously been contacted by three sources, all wishing to remain anonymous, claiming Buse is gay. The radio host says he was then contacted by 46-year-old Brian Davis, who claims to have had a past intimate relationship with the McCain staffer.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid62106.asp

-L.A. Protesters Take Aim at Bolthouse Farms
In front of a busy supermarket on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, a handful of protesters on Saturday stood up against Bolthouse Farms, a produce grower whose founder contributed $100,000 to get Proposition 8 -- the initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California -- on the ballot.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid62084.asp


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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
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-Surviving Civil Union Partner Wins Appeal Against Insurance Company
Link: Leonard Link
by Arthur S. Leonard
John R. Langan, the surviving Vermont civil union partner of Neil Conrad Spicehandler, an attorney who died at St. Vincent's Hospital after being run down on the street by homicidal motorist Ronald Popadich in February 12, 2002, has finally won an appellate ruling after two losses in his struggles to seek compensation for his partner's death. However, Langan's September 16 victory in the New York Appellate Division, 2nd Department, based in Brooklyn, was not based on his relationship to his partner. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Langan, 2008 N.Y. Slip Op 06980. Langan's first defeat came when the 2nd Department ruled that his status as a Vermont civil union partner would not be recognized for purposes of New York's Wrongful Death Statute, so he could not sue as a surviving partner for the economic loss flowing from the death of his partner. The second defeat came at the hands of the Appellate Division, 3rd Department, in Albany, which upheld the Workers Compensation Board's determination that Langan was not entitled to the death benefit normally paid to a surviving spouse of a person whose death is due to work-related incident. Spicehandler was walking between business appointments when he was struck by the car.

-Commentary: Black Voters Not to Blame if Proposition 8 Passes
Link: The Bilerico Project
A troubling New York Times article on Proposition 8, the proposed California anti-marriage constitutional amendment, asserts that some marriage supporters are concerned that strong support for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy among Black voters may spell trouble for efforts to defeat the proposal to take away marriage rights for same-sex couples. Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is against the measure. But opponents of the proposed ban worry that many black voters, enthused by Mr. Obama's candidacy but traditionally conservative on issues involving homosexuality, could pour into voting stations in record numbers to punch the Obama ticket -- and then cast a vote for Proposition 8.

-Mormon Priest Threatened with Excommunication in Marriage Row
Link: EDGE Boston
A Hastings, Neb., Mormon man has been threatened with excommunication by his bishop for working against an anti-gay amendment in Calif. This past summer, the leadership of the Mormon church has instructed its membership to support Proposition 8, the ballot initiative in Calif. that, if approved in Nov., will rescind marriage parity for gay and lesbian families. Also this past summer, the church published a new document that clarified the church's stance on marriage for gay and lesbain families, as reported at EDGE. The new document was seen by some as a reversal of the church's earlier opposition to all forms of recognition for gay and lesbian families, because it included language supportive of existing domestic partnership laws in Calif., while condemning marriage equality.


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

-New Zealand Parliament recognises contributions of LGBT community
The New Zealand Parliament has dedicated one of its select committee rooms, renamed "The Rainbow Room" to the LGBT community's contributions to society.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9083.html

-Sex and the City star shows support for gay families
An organisation that represents lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender headed families has attacted support from one of the most prominent out women in Hollywood. Cynthia Nixon, the star of TV and movie hit Sex and the City, will speak about the importance of equality for LGBT families at the Family Equality Council's 5th annual National Awards Dinner in California next month.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9080.html

-Gay American TV characters reach all-time high
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) have announced that the number of gay and lesbian TV characters on broadcast networks will double this season. GLAAD's yearly survey reveals that there will be 16 regular LGBT characters on major network scripted series in the 2008-2009 season.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9079.html

-Lesbian soldier seeks damages for sexual harassment
Kerry Fletcher, a former lance bombardier in the Royal Artillery, is seeking damages of £400,000 from the Ministry of Defence. An on-going employment tribunal in Leeds found in January that Ms Fletcher, a lesbian, was the victim of sexual harassment from a male sergeant at the North Yorkshire stables where she worked.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9074.html


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

-Attack on the Participants of the Belgrade Queer Festival
On Friday night, September 19, a group of ten unknown perpetrators brutally attacked and hurt four participants of the Belgrade Queer Festival. Two of them were foreigners, one from Russia, and another from the USA. The attack happened in the central part of the city. The injured people have been taken care of at the Emergency Medical Center. Thanks to the quick response of the police, which guarded the event, two perpetrators have been taken into police custody soon after the attack. Queer Belgrade Collective condemns the last night's homophobic attack and thinks that what happened was a violation of the right to physical and psychological integrity, right to sexual orientation, right to freedom of movement and freedom of peaceful assembly.
http://www.queerbeograd.org/

-Greece: A call for solidarity
Dear friends, we seek your solidarity and support in the fight for achieving equal rights and for the removal of all kinds of discrimination in Greece. On Monday, the 29th of September, the Athens Pride Committee organises a support and solidarity event in front of the Greek Parliament. The event is organised in anticipation of the forthcoming trial for the marriage of the two same-sex couples that took place on Telos, last June. The two same-sex couples (a gay couple and a lesbian couple) took advantage of the existing legal gap (as the current legislation does not specify sex, but refers exclusively to persons), and committed through civil marriage, on the island of Telos. This caused the direct reaction of both Minister for Justice, Mr Chatzigakis, and Supreme Court Public Prosecutor, Mr Sanidas, who called the marriage "false and null". The public prosecutor of the Rhodes Court of First Instance responded to Mr Sanidas' order by submitting a nullity suit against the two couples and against Anastasios Aliferis, Mayor of Telos. The trial will take place on Thursday, the 2nd of October 2008.


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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

-DICTIONARY OF HOMOPHOBIA:
A Global History of Gay and Lesbian Experience
By Louis-Georges Tin
Reviewed by Doug Ireland
Louis-Georges Tin's "Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay and Lesbian Experience," just published in a translation from the French by Arsenal Pulp Press, aims to revive the Age of Enlightenment tradition of critical dictionaries, in which philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot employed the format to fight prejudice and other forms of intolerance. With contributions by more than 70 people worldwide - writers, academics, sexologists, and gay activists - this well-illustrated, wide-ranging collection of nearly 200 mini-essays is a rich, rewarding, enlightening, and often entertaining read that belongs on the bookshelf of every sentient, self-respecting queer.
http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20128047&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=592782&rfi=6

-The Strange History of Sodomy Laws
By Margot Canaday, The Nation
On the June day in 2003 when the Supreme Court announced its landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas holding state sodomy laws to be unconstitutional, I was working in the library of the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, as part of a summer workshop for historians of sexuality. This was an appropriate place to be at that particular moment. Dr. Kinsey, after all, had been in his day a fierce critic of those laws. And the setting was even more fitting because our party of historians included several who -- led by George Chauncey -- had written an amicus brief in the case that was influential in Justice Kennedy's majority opinion. So when one of our group checked the headlines and then alerted the rest of us that the Court had announced its decision, we all clustered excitedly around a computer monitor, checking the available news. A joint cheer went up. But that was really it. Minutes later, we shuffled back to our tables and quietly resumed our research.
http://www.alternet.org/story/99092/

-Transgender Veteran Wins Sex Discrimination
Lawsuit Against Library of Congress
NCTE Congratulates Diane Schroer and the ACLU on This Significant Victory "True to form, Diane Schroer has once again demonstrated her bravery and her commitment to American democracy. By fighting for her rights, she has defended the honor and rights of all transgender people who have been discriminated against on the job. NCTE congratulates her on this historic win and applauds the tremendous work of the ACLU in securing this victory for us all." Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/lgbt/schroer_decision.pdf

-Latest Findings From NSRC and SRSP Debunk Abstinence-Only Education
Special Issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy identifies flaws, faults and overall failures of strict abstinence-only education San Francisco, September 16, 2008-As pregnant teens take the national stageand the merits of sexual education are suddenly being debated by pundits across the country, the latest research findings from the National Sexuality Resource Center's Sexuality Research and Social Policy journal leave no room for doubt: abstinence-only education programs do not help teens delay initiation of sex, and there is no scientific evidence to support them. These findings in this study, from a review of sexuality education program evaluations by Douglas B. Kirby, are just a part of a collection of evidence in articles that uncover the problems in the abstinence-only education programs-programs that have received up to $1.5 billion dollars in federal funding.


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PANDORA EVENTS CELEBRATES IT'S TENTH ANNIVERSARY WITH A SPECTACULAR EVENING
TO BENEFIT THE SUSAN G. KOMEN BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION - Saturday, October 11
Miami , Fla. -Over the past ten years Pandora Events has grown to become the top women's event producer's on the East Coast. Their signature style is seen in the hundreds of events they produce every year, which attract over 20,000 women annually. From South Beach to Atlanta, Orlando to New York and cities in between their "estrogen only" parties, soirees, shows and week long festivals have not only brought the lesbian community together but have created a new culture in giving back. [...] Tickets and VIP passes will definitely be a hot commodity for Pandora's Ten Year Anniversary Bash and can be purchased in advance by visiting the www.pandoraevents.com
Pandora Ten Year Anniversary Bash
Moore Building
4040 NE 2nd Avenue
Design District, Miami , FL 33137
10pm to 4am
General Admission tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door VIP Tickets are $75 in advance and $85 at the door
For additional information visit www.pandoraevents.com or call the
information line at 954-288-8691.


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Detroit News
http://detnews.com/

-Activist tries to break cycle of gay teen suicide
"Why did God create me this way?" That's what Mitchell Gold asked himself as a teenager in the mid-1960s as he hid his homosexuality from family and friends. The better he got at the hiding game on the outside, the more torn up he became on the inside. What he called "the black cloud" swallowed him up. And he found himself thinking of ways to kill himself -- from overdosing on sleeping pills to driving off a cliff.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080922/OPINION03/809220347/1031


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From Triangle Foundation - Michigan
Help Get the Word Out! Sponsor a Youth!
The Camping.OUT Conference will be held this weekend in Ferndale! The first collaborative youth conference hosted by both Triangle Foundation and Affirmations, this event will provide a safe space for LGBT and allied youth from around the state to gather and talk about issues that exist in their hometowns. The Camping.OUT Conference is designed to help youth learn the best ways to advocate for themselves both in their schools and in the state. This event will be held at Affirmations Community Center in Ferndale at 290 W. 9 Mile Rd. For further information or to register for the event, contact our Youth Iniatives Coordinator, Brett Beckerson at 313-537-7000 x 107.

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