GLBT DIGEST - October 26, 2008

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

-Gay Groups Use Donations to Become a Force in Elections
The city of Rochester and its suburbs along Lake Ontario may seem an unlikely focal point for the national gay rights movement. But many of the philanthropists who have bankrolled gay and lesbian causes throughout the country have poured tens of thousands of dollars in the past month into the State Senate campaign of Rick Dollinger, a Democrat and ally of the gay community. Mr. Dollinger is challenging a Republican incumbent, Joseph E. Robach, whose district includes Rochester.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26gays.html?scp=2&sq=gay&st=cse


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

-GOP Candidates Warn Voters About Perils of One-Party Rule
On the defensive across the country and staring down an election that could see them reduced to an ineffective minority in the House and the Senate, congressional Republicans are offering a new argument to voters: the danger of single-party rule in the nation's capital.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/25/AR2008102501998.html


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

-Florida's Amendment 2 marriage vote: Are domestic partners at risk?
A proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage has critics worried about its effect on domestic partnerships, but backers say that's not a valid concern. Although gay marriage is already illegal in Florida, Amendment 2 would enshrine the prohibition in the Florida Constitution, making it nearly impossible for a judge to overturn. Supporters, primarily conservative and Christian groups, say their goal is straightforward and deserving of constitutional shelter: to ''protect'' marriage by defining it exclusively as a union between a man and a woman. Doing so, they say, would benefit children by promoting a traditional family with a mother and father -- not two moms or two dads.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/10/floridas-amendm.html



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Jesse's Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
jessemonteagudo@aol.com

-Coming Out Politically
"Coming Out" has many meanings and can happen more than once in a person's life. In previous articles I wrote about "coming out" as a gay man, a Jew, a bear and a nudist. Now I want to talk about my "coming out" into politics. Though I never served in public office I consider myself to be a political person, if we define politics as a citizen's healthy concern for his society and the way that it is governed. My political views, like those of other people, were shaped by my upbringing, my environment, my education, my life experiences and by events that changed my life. Two events were particularly influential in determining my life and politics: the Cuban Revolution (1959) and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Movement (1969).
For the full article, contact Jesse @ jessemonteagudo@aol.com or Ray's
List.


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

-San Diego Mayor Sanders and Daughter Featured in Magazine Opposing Prop 8
Source: San Diego 6
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is featured in the current issue of "The Advocate" with his 25-year old lesbian daughter discussing their opposition to Proposition 8. The national magazine covers gay and lesbian issues and features the Republican mayor in an article titled "When Politics Becomes Personal." Prop 8 is an issue on the November 4th ballot that would amend the state constitution to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry. Jerry Sanders' personal views on the topic changed abruptly a year ago when he decided against vetoing a city council resolution supporting same-sex marriage.

-Governor's wife Maria Shriver against a ban on marriage
Source: AP via San Jose Mercury News
California's first lady says she is voting against a ballot initiative that would prohibit same-sex couples from getting married in California. Maria Shriver said in an interview with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that she is voting no on Proposition 8. Shriver said, "I believe in people's right to choose a partner that they love, and that's a decision that I have come to, and I have felt that way for a long time."

-Video: Violinist Itzhak Perlman talks about why he opposes Prop 8 - Talks
about gay daughter.
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/

-E-mail targets gay state House hopeful in Mich.
Source: AP via Chicago Tribune
An activist who opposes gay marriage and same-sex benefits for public employees is trying to raise sexual orientation as an issue in a state House race. Gary Glenn sent an e-mail Friday to supporters and the media targeting openly gay Democrat Garnet Lewis. Glenn wrote that Lewis is a "homosexual activist with an extremely liberal agenda" not representative of voters in the 98th district, which covers parts of Saginaw and Midland counties.

-CA: Republican Sheriff Says NO to Prop 8
Link: No On 8
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, one of the state's leading law enforcement officers, today announced his opposition to Proposition 8. A forty-three year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Baca has long been dedicated to the principle of equality for all Californians. "The Gay men and lesbian women of the law enforcement community are some of the most responsible and virtuous people I know. To deny them their ability to further responsible lives outside of the job is inconsistent with the core values of public service," said Baca.


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

-Murky truth behind Swiss suicide 'clinic' Dignitas
Roger Boyes in Zurich
The Swiss call it the Gold Coast, the string of silent, discreetly guarded villas fringing Lake Zurich. Bankers, tycoons and the heirs to family fortunes live here, so the lakeside is fenced off and there is only one narrow rocky strip where the public can plunge into the water. That is where hundreds of small fragments of bone were recently washed ashore, the macabre flotsam from leaking crematorium urns. Who is dumping human ashes in the lake in such industrial quantities? Accusing fingers were, rightly or wrongly, pointed at the assisted-suicide organisation Dignitas, which claims to have helped 100 Britons to die. These include, most controversially, a 23-year-old rugby player who had been paralysed in a training accident. The Crown Prosecution Service is deciding whether to press charges against the parents of Daniel James after it learnt that they had accompanied him to Dignitas, where he ended his life last month. The case has provoked sympathy and condemnation in almost equal measure because, unlike most previous cases, Mr James was not terminally ill. But that is not the only cause for concern about the organisation.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5006805.ece

-'Thus began the worst journey I've been on...'
Christopher Pailthorpe was among the Britons who have travelled to Dignitas to end their lives. His friend David England, who accompanied him, describes the journey
Case study
It was June 2006 when Chris invited me for lunch at a French bistro in Clapham. Tearfully he explained that he thought he had a terminal illness and was going to put his affairs in order, say goodbye to his friends and go off to Switzerland to die. Shocking as this sounded, it was typical of Chris to have a plan. I met Chris in 1982 when he was a raffish young lecturer at Birkenhead College. Our partners were friends and we became a great foursome - we often took holidays together. Chris was the most "together" gay man I'd met, I adored him. But now he needed my help. I went along to all the hospital visits and was there when the news came that his prostate cancer had spread to the bones and he was going to die. I moved into his spare room and became his live-in companion and, later, carer. I recall no discussion about going to Dignitas - that was simply how Chris was going to die.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5010336.ece


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