**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Colorado: Death of a Transgender Woman Is Called a Hate Crime
Angie Zapata began living as a woman six years ago even though she was bornmale and named Justin. While Ms. Zapata, 18, was accepted by her manyfriends and five siblings, she was bullied in school and at times was lonelyand troubled, an older sister, Monica, said. Eventually, Ms. Zapata droppedout of school and got her own apartment here in Greeley. It was in thatapartment that Ms. Zapata's badly beaten body was found on July 17.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/us/02murder.html?scp=4&sq=gay&st=cse
-Baby, You Can Drive My (Rented) Car, and Other Perks
With Massachusetts deciding this week to allow marriages of same-sex coupleswho live out of state, and Gov. David A. Paterson of New York directingstate agencies in May to recognize gay marriages performed legallyelsewhere, many expect scores of New Yorkers to soon become husband andhusband or wife and wife.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/nyregion/02marriage.html?scp=3&sq=gay&st=cse
-New York Gay Couples Head to Massachusetts With Marriage in Mind
Gabriel Blau and Dylan Stein will be heading to Amherst, Mass., in a matterof weeks to complete a marriage ceremony they started two years ago. At thecouple's Jewish wedding in a Hell's Kitchen loft in 2006, they had afloral-embroidered chuppah, stomped on a glass in front of 175 friends andrelatives, and were hoisted on chairs amid a hora-dancing throng. But onething was missing: a marriage certificate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/nyregion/02gay.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:
-Now Liberals Are Public Enemy
Below is an excerpt from "On Faith," an Internet feature sponsored by TheWashington Post and Newsweek. [...] The pastor of thenow too-well-known Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Churchoccasionally wrote columns for the local newspaper, the Knoxville NewsSentinel. Last March, he wrote one entitled ''Tolerance,'' in which hecompared past intolerance of interracial couples to today's intolerance ofgay couples.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102975.html
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Steve Rothaus
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-CDC boosts U.S. HIV rate 40%; people living with HIV, allies
demand response from Presidential candidates
Eyes Wide Open, But is Vision Still Lacking? As CDC boosts current andhistorical HIV rate in United States, people living with HIV and alliesdemand response from Presidential candidates
In country lacking national AIDS strategy, data confirms 40% higherinfection rate, persistent epidemic in Black Americans, and rising rates ingay men
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Elizabeth Taylor to return home from hospital
Condition called 'nothing to worry about'
Elizabeth Taylor was hospitalized for an undisclosed reason but was expectedto return home soon, representatives for the Oscar-winning actress saidThursday.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20108
-Gay rights protest at Anglican summit
Group led by human rights activist Peter Tatchell
Gay rights campaigners have waved placards as Anglican bishops from aroundthe world met to discuss homosexuality at the Lambeth conference -- thechurch's once-in-a-decade summit.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20106
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Democrats Told To Include Gay Issues In Platform
Democrats crafting the party platform were told Friday to include LGBTissues. The National Platform Drafting Committee is holding hearings acrossthe country to hear from various groups on what should be included in the2008 platform. In Cleveland on Friday, Allison Herwitt, the legislativedirector for the Human Rights Campaign, called for a clear position by theparty on several issues, including repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell - the banon gays serving openly in the military - and the addition of sexuality andgender expression in federal workplace laws.
http://www.365gay.com/news/080208-dnc/
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Prop. 8 Brings in Boatloads of Dough
A total of about $8 million has already poured in from supporters andopponents of California's marriage ban, with everyone from Mary Cheney toPG&E throwing money at the epic battle.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid58745.asp
-Haiti Prime Minister Hit by Allegations of Lesbianism
Haitian lawmakers ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the impoverishedcountry's prime minister on Thursday, ending more than three months ofpolitical bickering and deadlock in Parliament. Haiti's senate approvedPierre-Louis to be the country's number 2 leader by a 12-0 vote, making herthe second woman to become prime minister of Haiti. There were fiveabstentions. [...] While political wrangling went on behind the scenes,public debate on Pierre-Louis's nomination centered on claims that she isgay. Many in the socially conservative nation consider homosexuality to beimmoral, and clergy had denounced her. Pierre-Louis denied the claims in alocal radio interview on Wednesday. ''I have already said that it wasslander and lies,'' she told Radio Caraibes.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid58683.asp
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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Most Impressive Democrat of the Week--Mass. governor Deval Patrick
Link: Huffington Post
There were a few minor contenders this week for Most Impressive Democrat OfThe Week, but I have to give the award to Massachusetts Governor DevalPatrick, for signing a law which overturns a previous (and outdated) lawwhich barred people from getting married in the state -- if their home statedidn't recognize the marriage. This law was passed in 1913, to avoid havingto marry interracial couples from other states. But it was dusted offrecently, when the state legalized gay marriage, to again bar people fromgetting married in the Bay State unless they were residents. Now, it can beargued that Massachusetts took a close look at what happened in Californiawhen they legalized gay marriage for all (including out-of-state couples),and reaped a flood of tourist money as a result.
-"Does Recognition of the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry Impose Undue
Burdens on People Who Reject Same-Sex Marriage on Account of ReligiousConvictions?"
Link: FindLaw's Writ
Some critics of the state Supreme Court rulings in Massachusetts andCalifornia that recognize the right of same-sex couples to marry havesuggested that these cases create a conflict between religious believers andproponents of religious liberty, on one side, and gay men and lesbians andsupporters of gay rights, on the other. Click here to find out more! Theirargument is more practical than normative. The rulings' critics maintainthat recognizing same-sex marriages will inevitably lead the state tointerfere with and burden the religious liberty of faith communities thathold traditional beliefs deeming homosexual conduct immoral. For example,the critics fear that religious employers may be forced to violate thetenets of their faith if they are required by state law to extend health andretirement benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees, just as theyare for opposite-sex spouses.
-"Eulogy for 'Marriage Evasion' in Massachusetts: 1913-2008"
Link: Huffington Post
Another Step for "Coast-to-Coast" Gay Marriage. On July 31, Massachusettsfinally repealed a law passed in 1913 that prohibited residents from otherjurisdictions from marrying in Massachusetts if they were unable to marry intheir home state. This so-called "marriage evasion" law was passed byMassachusetts to prevent out-of-state couples -- most notably, interracialcouples -- from "evading" their home states' marriage laws by traveling toMassachusetts to take advantage of its less restrictive marriagerequirements.
-Ireland: Commentary--"Growing up with my lesbian parents"
Link: Herald.ie
My name is Ailbhe and I am 17. I grew up in an amazing, happy house livingwith two brilliant parents. But our house is not recognised as a familyhome. My parents have been together since they were my age, they love eachother and me very much, but we are not recognised as a family unit. Myparents are gay. My mam's partner, Anto, is no blood relation to me, but sheis still very much my mother. She was at my birth, she taught me to ride abike and bake bread, and all the things a parent should. Every day, she putsup with my mood-swings and loud music, the same as my biological motherdoes. I'm closer to Anto than a lot of my friends are with their ownparents, but in the eyes of the law she is a stranger to me. The way ourlegal system stands, one of my parents has absolutely no rights over me.There is only one name on my birth cert and I only have one legal guardian.If Fiona, my biological mam, goes away for a few days, my other mother can'tsign my permission slips for school or consent forms should I need medicaltreatment.
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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
-Amsterdam Gay Pride draws half a million
Amsterdam is hosting its 13th annual Gay Pride canal parade. A record eightyboats will be carrying thousands of gays and lesbians clad in scanty orextravagant clothing through Amsterdam's historic centre. An estimated500,000 spectators are expected to line the canals. This year's canal paradewill for the first time be joined by a large number of politicians. Amongthem are Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk, who is alsoresponsible for gender equality, Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst andAmsterdam Mayor Job Cohen.
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5902123/Amsterdam-Gay-Pride-draws-half-a-million
-Record Stockholm Pride parade despite rain
Saturday's Stockholm Pride parade may have started with heavy rainfall, butit´s set to be the biggest Stockholm Pride parade ever, with over 80,000participants. While last year's parade attracted 50,000 people with 89floats, this year's has 152 floats, almost double. Part of the explanationfor this year's bump in attendees is that StockholmPride is also hostingEuropride, greatly increasing the number ofinternational guests.
http://www.thelocal.se/13442/
-Castration law for Swedish transgenders
Published: 2 Aug 08 13:02 CET
A new proposal to introduce castration as a prerequisite for thoseundergoing
gender reassignment surgery in Sweden has been met with outrageby a leading
gay and transgender rights organization. Today, those undergoing gender
reassignment surgery in order to achieve sexchange usually complement their
surgery with hormone treatment. A side-effect of the hormone treatment is
natural sterilization. However, hormone treatments may be broken off,
whether permanently orshort-term, allowing for the possibility of pregnancy,
as was the case of aBritish transgender "man" who got pregnant this year.
http://www.thelocal.se/13448/
-Gay Nigerian tells of death threats
By Christopher Landau
Davis Mac-Iyalla is an Anglican from Nigeria - nothing unusual about that -
but he is also gay and the death threats he has received since being open
about his sexuality led him to seek asylum in the UK.
Now he is campaigning at the Lambeth Conference, hoping that bishops will
face up to the existence of gay Christians in Africa. I met him just before
he began a demonstration at the conference venue on the Kent university
campus, joined by lesbian and gay Anglicans from six African countries.
With dancing accompanied by traditional drumming, the campaigners held a
banner proclaiming, "We're here!" Many gay Anglicans around the world still
feel that the church would prefer to deny their existence. Mr Mac-Iyalla's
message is simple. "Homosexuality does exist in Africa - it's not a
Western thing, as our African bishops would want people to believe," he
says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7535533.stm
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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
-GLAAD's "The Best & Worst of National News"
The Best:
...Washington Post Examines Needs of LGBT Youth
Since the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King was first reported in
lateFebruary, the need for comprehensive support systems for middle and
highschool LGBT students has been spotlighted. Most recently, Theresa
Vargas'July 14th Washington Post article, "Owning His Gay Identity: at 15
YearsOld," shared the story of Saro Harvey, a 15 year old from Virginia who
hasbeen openly gay since middle school. This respectful and
detailedexamination of what it means to be openly gay in middle and high
schoolpoints out the lack of supportive schools with inclusive
anti-bullyingpolicies and the presence of Gay-Straight Alliances. Saro
Harvey's story ofbravery is touching and encourages readers to remember the
importance ofmaking sure that schools are a welcoming and safe environment
for all.
...Reuters Profiles the Struggles of Binational Couples
Mary Milliken's Reuters article, "Gay Marriage: Until Deportation Do
UsPart?" shed light on risks binational couples face because of the lack
ofimmigration access for gay and lesbian couples. Milliken highlighted
thestory of Rita Boyadijian, a California resident who must move out of
thecountry in order to stay with her German partner whose student visawillsoon run out. Boyadijian's story put a powerful face on the losses wefaceas a country due to the lack of marriage recognition for same-sexcouples,and pointed out the urgent need for reform to address theseproblems....ABC News Offers In-Depth Look at Challenges and Triumphs of LGBTStudentsThis month ABC News offered a detailed look at how to ensure LGBTmiddleschool students are given all the opportunities necessary to flourish.
In"Young Teens Openly Express Sexuality; LGBT Pre-Teens Proud, NotSafe,"Susan Donaldson James examined the importance of respecting youngerteens'recognition of their orientation, and supporting them through thisprocess.The article called for implementation of teacher training topreventbullying, which too often leads to physical violence if leftunaddressed. James also tracked the growth of gay-straight alliance (GSA)clubs in recentyears, noting that while 110 now exist at the middle schoollevelnationwide, an increase may be helpful in the effort to create safeandeffective schools for all students.
...Washington Post Examines Challenges for Gay Hispanic people with HIVThe
week before President Bush signed the bill lifting the United States'ban on
visitors and immigrants who are HIV-positive, The Washington Postarticle
"AIDS Among Latinos on Rise," presented compelling portraits ofthree Mexican
immigrants affected by HIV. Reporter Ceci Connolly highlightedthe need for
better policies to address the growing rate of Hispanic HIVinfection, such
as increased Spanish-language health initiatives. Thearticle also emphasized
the negative effects of the immigration ban onHIV-positive people, pointing
out that fear of deportation often leads tolate diagnoses and lack of
treatment.
THE WORST
...Offensive Coverage of Transgender People by Boston Herald
A story by Jessica Van Sack of the Boston Herald published in the July8thedition of the paper repeatedly used offensive slurs to describetransgenderpeople. The article, titled "Undercover 'John' Takes on Trannies,Pimps,"focused on one Boston-area detective's undercover investigations among sexworkers. The article opens by describing how the detective hasbeen"trapped inside houses of ill repute by giant naked trannies" and goesonthe repeatedly refer to transgender women as "trannies." Such slursareunacceptable in any credible news outlet. Together with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), GLAAD issued a Call toAction onJuly 11th, encouraging people to contact the Boston Herald andJessica VanSack to call for an apology. To date, the paper has beenunresponsive.
...Denver Daily News Publishes False Claims Regarding Children of GayandLesbian Couples
On July 15th, the Denver Daily News published an article written byPeterMarcus Marcus, titled, "Gay Parents= Gay Kids?" The story reportsthat21percent of children raised by gay and lesbian parents will be gayorlesbian themselves, and that these children will also have a moredifficulttime fitting into society. This statistic is based on a biasedreview by Dr.Trayce L. Hansen, of studies done concerning children raised bygay andlesbian parents. Dr. Hansen has drawn fire in the past for attemptingtopass off anti-gay beliefs as science and has been refuted bymainstreamdevelopmental psychologists. To back up Dr. Hansen's claims,Marcus quotesDr. Bill Maier, a psychologist, from the anti-gay group, Focuson theFamily, a well-known opponent of protections for gay and lesbiancouples.The story sparked many reactions, which resulted in a responsearticlepublished by the Denver Daily News the following day. Together withtheGLBT Community Center of Denver and Children of Lesbians and GaysEverywhere(COLAGE), GLAAD contacted Marcus and assisted him in obtainingsources forhis follow-up, "Gay Kids Study Wrong?," which offered the counteropinion ofa representative from the GLBT Community Center. While this isto becommended, a debate pitting one side against another wasunnecessarilyignited by initially publishing a so-called evaluation onresearch from abiased source and backing it up with quotes from thenotoriously anti-gaygroup, Focus on the Family.
...Rick Santorum Attacks the LGBT Community in Op-Ed Published by The
Philadelphia Inquirer
On July 3, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an opinion piece by Rick Santorum regarding Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's decision to stopsubsidizingthe Boy Scouts' rent due to their discriminatory policies towardgay people.The Boy Scouts' refusal to allow membership of gay Scouts andScout leadersviolates Philadelphia's non-discrimination laws. Santorum pitsLGBTadvocates for equality and the Boy Scouts against one another, claimingthatLGBT advocates are somehow opposed to basic moral issues such asloyalty,courteousness, kindness, and braveness. Santorum also wronglyasserts thatMayor Nutter and the City of Philadelphia are "bowing to gayspecialinterests over the interest of the safety of the city" when in factthechange in policy regarding the Boy Scouts' rent assures that city lawisbeing followed.
-Efforts Against AIDS Among Black Americans Criticized
A prominent AIDS organization accused the federal government yesterdayofdoing too little to fight AIDS among black Americans, in whom the sizeandscope of the epidemic resembles that seen in many African nations. In a55-page report, the Black AIDS Institute argued that the diseaseshould beviewed as a threat to the entire black population, and not justspecifichigh-risk groups. Unlike in white Americans - and in the citizensof mostindustrialized nations - HIV in American blacks is increasinglytransmittedheterosexually through "networks" where men especially have manysex partnersat the same time, the report noted.
http://www.truthout.org/article/efforts-against-aids-among-black-americans-criticized
-The Reality of Living - and Dying - Without Respect
By Beth Littrell, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney
On the campaign trail this spring, former presidential candidateMikeHuckabee touted the need for a federal constitutional amendmentbanningmarriage equality and barring civil unions, claiming that legaldocumentscan alleviate inequality in most matters of life. "The power ofattorneywould give same-sex couples a chance to visit one another at ahospital,transfer assets," he said. "There are a lot of things that could behandledthat don't require a civil union."
Tell that to Janice Langbehn
Janice arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Fl, at the same timeas the ambulance carrying her life partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond.Forty-fiveminutes later, the hospital received Lisa's durable power ofattorneyidentifying Janice as the person authorized to make medicaldecisions. Eighthours later, Janice was still pleading with hospitalemployees to allow her,and their three jointly adopted children, permissionto be with Lisa as shewas taking her last breaths on this earth.
http://www.lambdalegal.org/our-work/publications/general/the-reality-of-living-and.html
-Olympic Problems with Sex Testing
BY ALICE DREGER
Ah, Beijing, where men are men and women are. women until proven otherwise.As reported in the New York Times, "Organizers of the Beijing Olympics haveset up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate 'suspect' femaleathletes." According to the Times, "only athletes whose gender has beenquestioned will be tested in Beijing." This approach betrays fuzzy-headedthinking of - well, of Olympic proportions. So I'm laying out here myquestions to the Olympic officials involved in this business, in the hopessomeone on the inside will send them along. But first, let's get thelanguage straight. These are not gender tests, they're sex tests. Theofficials don't need to test for gender, since gender is about social roleand self-identification. And the concern of the Olympic testers is notsocial role or self-identification, it's biology. They're concerned thatsome women athletes might "really" have "male" anatomy that would give theman unfair advantage. So, here's what I would like to know from those chargedwith sex policing for the Olympics:
http://www.bioethicsforum.org/sex-testing-Olympics.asp
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Gay & Lesbian Leadership SmartBrier
http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Out, black lesbian candidate trying to make history in Georgia
A Democratic runoff Tuesday will determine whether Keisha Waites will becomethe first lesbian of color to win state office in Georgia. Waites, who isbacked by The Victory Fund, is running for the state House seat beingvacated by Rep. Bob Holmes, D-Atlanta. Southern Voice (8/1)
-Military will adjust to presence of out soldiers
Although the military is likely to undergo a period of adjustment if the gayban is lifted, writer and Army veteran Rafael Enrique Valero believes therank-and-file, with the guidance of their superiors, would be able to handlehaving out soldiers in their units. "If gay soldiers were to openly servebeginning tomorrow, for a time the military would be unsettled,undoubtedly," he writes. "But they are, after all, soldiers. They can toughit out." The Atlantic.com/The Current blog (7/30)
-Trans workers make progress with acceptance on the job
Although transgender people still face discrimination at work, the overallclimate is improving, with almost 150 Fortune 500 companies includingtransgender employees in their anti-bias policies, according to thisarticle. "The issues transgender people face in the workplace are anoffshoot of what they face in society," says Ray Carannante, coordinator ofthe Gender Identity Project at New York's LGBT Community Center. "Asprofessional as we all aspire to be, folks hiring us are human beings andthey're part of our culture. And our culture views transgender as weird."
New York Post (7/28)
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Saturday, August 02, 2008
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - August 02, 2008
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Editorial: Time, Finally, for Real Fuel Economy
The political landscape is littered with squandered opportunities to avertthe $4-a-gallon gasoline mess we find ourselves in now. Americans would beusing far less gas - and consumers and the automobile industry would be muchbetter off - if Congress had summoned the wisdom and political courage 20,10, even five years ago to impose tough fuel economy standards on the nation's
transportation fleet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02sat2.html?ref=opinion
-Op-Ed Columnist: Running While Black
Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office -say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford - the opposition feels compelled to runlow-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women whohave no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
-Automakers Race Time as Their Cash Runs Low
As G.M. and Ford burn through reserves and slash more costs to stay afloat,the future looks tenuous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/business/02gm.html?hp
-F.C.C. Vote Sets Precedent on Unfettered Web Usage
The Federal Communications Commission formally voted Friday to uphold thecomplaint against Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, saying thatit had illegally inhibited users of its high-speed Internet service fromusing popular file-sharing software. The decision, which imposes no fine,requires Comcast to end such blocking this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/technology/02fcc.html
-Don't Want to Talk About It? Order a Missed Call
When Alexis Gorman, 26, wanted to tell a man she had been dating that thecourtship was over, she felt sending a Dear John text message was tooimpersonal. But she worried that if she called the man, she would face anawkward conversation or a confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/us/02sly.html?hp
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-A Strategy for Pakistan
The United States must support the new democratic government but also dowhat is needed to stop al-Qaeda. PAKISTAN'S NEW democratic government iscommitted to fighting al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamist movements -- andthat may distinguish it from the country's other power centers. Gen. PervezMusharraf, who ruled the country from 1999 until this year and remainspresident, has been an enemy of al-Qaeda but did little to disrupt bases ofthe Taliban, a onetime client of his army. The country's powerfulintelligence service, meanwhile, has long nurtured jihadi groups and nowstands accused by the CIA of collaborating in recent terrorist bombings inAfghanistan. The new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, who was inWashington this week to meet President Bush, says he is doing his best toconvince his country that "this is Pakistan's war." But he seems not to havewon the argument within his own government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102880.html
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-From the Los Angeles Times
Scientists create first personalized stem cells in ALS patients
Researchers for the first time are able to reprogram cells from sickpatients. Though hurdles remain, such cells could be used to help screendrugs to treat the crippling disease.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/la-sci-stemcells1-2008aug01,0,2014530.story
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-McCain's ad doesn't do him justice
Y ou know we've officially entered the silly season of the presidentialcampaign when Barack Obama is being compared to a dumb blonde.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/626748.html
-Falling oil production perplexes Mexico
MINATITLAN, Mexico --
Pungent smoke billows from aging petrochemical plants here. Foul-smellingbluish water gathers in pools outside the walls. Fading paint announces thecreaky Lazaro Cardenas refinery, a perfect metaphor for one of the world'sbiggest and most antiquated state oil companies. Petroleos Mexicanosemploys more than 147,000 people and has long operated as a state within astate, with its own hospitals, pensions and integrated business operations.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/625802.html
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Forwarded by Ron Mills
http://RonMills.us
-Electoral College Map with Numbers (Barack Obama vs. John McCain)
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/general-election/electoral-college-results.html
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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Who's playing the race card?
Did Barack Obama play the race card when he accused the McCain camp oftrying to convince voters "he's risky" because "he doesn't look like allthose other presidents on the dollar bills?" Or did the McCain camp play therace card, by accusing Obama of playing the race card? Was it McCain whoplayed the race card in the first place, with an ad juxtaposing Obama withwhite sexpots Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? My neck hurts from watchingthe two campaigns volley these incendiary race accusations furiously all dayThursday, so I'll step in and play ref.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/08/01/race_card/
-McCain depicts Obama as too close to teacher's union and against schoolchoice for the poor
John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democraticrival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for hiskids.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap-mccainaug01,0,646454.story
-McCain draws criticism for views on affirmative action
With the issue of race hanging over the presidential campaign, John McCainappeared today before the National Urban League where he drew criticism forhis opposition to affirmative action.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080801/BREAKING/174652804/2056&title=McCain_draws_criticism_for_views_on_affirmative_action
-Obama pushes for $1,000 rebates
Energy relief checks would go to customers
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pushed yesterday for awindfall profits tax on oil companies to fund $1,000 emergency rebate checksfor consumers besieged by high energy costs, warning voters that Republicanrival John McCain would mean another four years of economic troubles.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/02/obama_pushes_for_1000_rebates/
-Analysis: Race Remains The Political Wild Card
Analysis: Race The Political Wild Card For Obama And McCain
By accusing Barack Obama of playing the race card, John McCain hopes toshuffle the deck in a White House campaign that is scarcely begun, much lesssettled.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/ap/politics/main4316162.shtml
-McCain chides Obama over school vouchers
John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democraticrival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for hiskids. The difference, according to the Arizona Republican, is that he --not Obama -- favors vouchers that give parents more school choices.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/02/mccain_chides_obama_over_school_vouchers/
-As Congress Recesses, Republicans Protest
GOP Representatives Stage Talk-In To Protest Democratic Energy Policies
The last House vote before a vacation usually sparks a stampede toward thedoors and waiting planes. Not so on Friday, when Republicans occupied theHouse floor for a rare, and at times bizarre, protest against Democraticenergy policies
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/politics/main4316334.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4316334
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Editorial: Time, Finally, for Real Fuel Economy
The political landscape is littered with squandered opportunities to avertthe $4-a-gallon gasoline mess we find ourselves in now. Americans would beusing far less gas - and consumers and the automobile industry would be muchbetter off - if Congress had summoned the wisdom and political courage 20,10, even five years ago to impose tough fuel economy standards on the nation's
transportation fleet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02sat2.html?ref=opinion
-Op-Ed Columnist: Running While Black
Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office -say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford - the opposition feels compelled to runlow-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women whohave no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
-Automakers Race Time as Their Cash Runs Low
As G.M. and Ford burn through reserves and slash more costs to stay afloat,the future looks tenuous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/business/02gm.html?hp
-F.C.C. Vote Sets Precedent on Unfettered Web Usage
The Federal Communications Commission formally voted Friday to uphold thecomplaint against Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, saying thatit had illegally inhibited users of its high-speed Internet service fromusing popular file-sharing software. The decision, which imposes no fine,requires Comcast to end such blocking this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/technology/02fcc.html
-Don't Want to Talk About It? Order a Missed Call
When Alexis Gorman, 26, wanted to tell a man she had been dating that thecourtship was over, she felt sending a Dear John text message was tooimpersonal. But she worried that if she called the man, she would face anawkward conversation or a confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/us/02sly.html?hp
=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-A Strategy for Pakistan
The United States must support the new democratic government but also dowhat is needed to stop al-Qaeda. PAKISTAN'S NEW democratic government iscommitted to fighting al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamist movements -- andthat may distinguish it from the country's other power centers. Gen. PervezMusharraf, who ruled the country from 1999 until this year and remainspresident, has been an enemy of al-Qaeda but did little to disrupt bases ofthe Taliban, a onetime client of his army. The country's powerfulintelligence service, meanwhile, has long nurtured jihadi groups and nowstands accused by the CIA of collaborating in recent terrorist bombings inAfghanistan. The new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, who was inWashington this week to meet President Bush, says he is doing his best toconvince his country that "this is Pakistan's war." But he seems not to havewon the argument within his own government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102880.html
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-From the Los Angeles Times
Scientists create first personalized stem cells in ALS patients
Researchers for the first time are able to reprogram cells from sickpatients. Though hurdles remain, such cells could be used to help screendrugs to treat the crippling disease.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/la-sci-stemcells1-2008aug01,0,2014530.story
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-McCain's ad doesn't do him justice
Y ou know we've officially entered the silly season of the presidentialcampaign when Barack Obama is being compared to a dumb blonde.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/626748.html
-Falling oil production perplexes Mexico
MINATITLAN, Mexico --
Pungent smoke billows from aging petrochemical plants here. Foul-smellingbluish water gathers in pools outside the walls. Fading paint announces thecreaky Lazaro Cardenas refinery, a perfect metaphor for one of the world'sbiggest and most antiquated state oil companies. Petroleos Mexicanosemploys more than 147,000 people and has long operated as a state within astate, with its own hospitals, pensions and integrated business operations.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/625802.html
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Forwarded by Ron Mills
http://RonMills.us
-Electoral College Map with Numbers (Barack Obama vs. John McCain)
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/general-election/electoral-college-results.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Who's playing the race card?
Did Barack Obama play the race card when he accused the McCain camp oftrying to convince voters "he's risky" because "he doesn't look like allthose other presidents on the dollar bills?" Or did the McCain camp play therace card, by accusing Obama of playing the race card? Was it McCain whoplayed the race card in the first place, with an ad juxtaposing Obama withwhite sexpots Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? My neck hurts from watchingthe two campaigns volley these incendiary race accusations furiously all dayThursday, so I'll step in and play ref.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/08/01/race_card/
-McCain depicts Obama as too close to teacher's union and against schoolchoice for the poor
John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democraticrival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for hiskids.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap-mccainaug01,0,646454.story
-McCain draws criticism for views on affirmative action
With the issue of race hanging over the presidential campaign, John McCainappeared today before the National Urban League where he drew criticism forhis opposition to affirmative action.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080801/BREAKING/174652804/2056&title=McCain_draws_criticism_for_views_on_affirmative_action
-Obama pushes for $1,000 rebates
Energy relief checks would go to customers
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pushed yesterday for awindfall profits tax on oil companies to fund $1,000 emergency rebate checksfor consumers besieged by high energy costs, warning voters that Republicanrival John McCain would mean another four years of economic troubles.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/02/obama_pushes_for_1000_rebates/
-Analysis: Race Remains The Political Wild Card
Analysis: Race The Political Wild Card For Obama And McCain
By accusing Barack Obama of playing the race card, John McCain hopes toshuffle the deck in a White House campaign that is scarcely begun, much lesssettled.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/ap/politics/main4316162.shtml
-McCain chides Obama over school vouchers
John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democraticrival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for hiskids. The difference, according to the Arizona Republican, is that he --not Obama -- favors vouchers that give parents more school choices.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/02/mccain_chides_obama_over_school_vouchers/
-As Congress Recesses, Republicans Protest
GOP Representatives Stage Talk-In To Protest Democratic Energy Policies
The last House vote before a vacation usually sparks a stampede toward thedoors and waiting planes. Not so on Friday, when Republicans occupied theHouse floor for a rare, and at times bizarre, protest against Democraticenergy policies
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/politics/main4316334.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4316334
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST - August 02, 2008
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~
MARK LAFONTAINE FOR FLORIDA HOUSE DISTRICT 92
www.MarkLaFontaine.com
-NATIONAL WOMEN'S POLITICAL CAUCUS
SUPPORTS MARK LAFONTAINE IN DISTRICT 92
The National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), Gwen Cherry Chapter,recommends Mark LaFontaine for the District 92 House seat. Founded in 1971,the NWPC is a bipartisan, multicultural grassroots organization designed toachieve equality for all women. The Gwen Cherry Chapter represents BrowardCounty. "I welcome the support of the National Women's Political Caucus,because it underscores that my campaign is reaching out to everyone in thedistrict," LaFontaine said. "The NWPC knows how my community activism andgrassroots background will benefit the residents of the district as I workfor them in Tallahassee." In addition to the NWPC, LaFontaine has beenendorsed by the Broward County Council of Professional Firefighters; theFlorida Professional Firefighters; Florida AFL-CIO; Gay & Lesbian VictoryFund; Equality Florida; US Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House FinancialServices Committee; and Florida Rep. Kelly Skidmore, as well as a host ofBroward's other leaders. Owner of a successful accounting practice based inOakland Park, LaFontaine is a board member of Oakland Park Main Street,which is guiding that city's development, and also has been a member of theFort Lauderdale Audit Advisory Board, which oversees the city's finances.He promises to help bring fiscal accountability to Tallahassee and tocontinue reforms of property taxes and insurance. Florida House District 92includes parts of Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, LazyLake, Poinsettia Heights, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Victoria Park and WiltonManors.
www.MarkLaFontaine.com
~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-U.S. Rep. Wexler plans talks in South Florida
He will tout Medicare drug benefits bill
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler will be in South Florida next week for the firsttime since coming under scrutiny in recent weeks for owning a home inMaryland and using his in-laws' house in Delray Beach as his officialresidence.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpwexler0802pnaug02,0,7812902.story
-Wachovia Economics Group says Florida's in a recession
Florida is in a recession. So says a report from the state's second largestbank. The state's economy shrank from April through June, according toWachovia Economics Group. It was the first quarterly decline in 16 years.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flzhlprecession0802sbaug02,0,2118221.story
-Give Lori Parrish another term as Broward property appraiser
Re-elect Parrish. When Lori Parrish took over as Broward County propertyappraiser four years ago, one of her first concerns was bringing 21stcentury technology into a somewhat antiquated office. Parrish has made heroffice up-to-date, professional and efficient, to the extent that the SouthFlorida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board strongly recommends voters select herin the Democratic primary on Aug. 26.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editgspropertyappraisersbaug02,0,3336048.story
-Letter: Sunpass transponders are a joke - on us
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-brmail719sbaug02,0,3772549.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-ENERGY POLICY: Obama alters drilling stance
Barack Obama signaled he might support a compromise that allows offshore oildrilling.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/626787.html
=
Chris Chiari, Democrat for State House, District 91
You are cordially invited for Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres
Thursday August 7, 2008 From 6 to 8 PM
Coconut's - 429 Seabreeze Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33316
(Located just north of the Swimming Hall of Fame on A1A South)
$25 Suggested Minimum Contribution
If you have any questions please feel free to contact the campaign at(954)803-4844
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-McCain meets tough crowd in Orlando
Urban League audience peppers candidate with questions on issues
Facing a tough crowd, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCainopened with an attack on his opponent Friday, as he spoke to a polite, butunenthusiastic, audience at the National Urban League's convention.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080802/NEWS01/808020327/1006&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL
-Lawsuit says Everglades deal is illegal
Lawyer claims it was brokered in meetings that violated state law
Florida's proposal to acquire 300 square miles of Everglades land from U.S.Sugar Corp. was illegally brokered in closed-door meetings, an attorneyclaimed in a lawsuit filed Friday.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080802/ARTICLE/808020331/2070/news05
-Need for nurses soaring
State center says immediate action to get more is crucial
While many of her fellow new grads struggle to start their careers thisyear, Rachel Spare snagged a job more than six months ago.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080802/BUSINESS/808020314/1006/NEWS01
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~
MARK LAFONTAINE FOR FLORIDA HOUSE DISTRICT 92
www.MarkLaFontaine.com
-NATIONAL WOMEN'S POLITICAL CAUCUS
SUPPORTS MARK LAFONTAINE IN DISTRICT 92
The National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), Gwen Cherry Chapter,recommends Mark LaFontaine for the District 92 House seat. Founded in 1971,the NWPC is a bipartisan, multicultural grassroots organization designed toachieve equality for all women. The Gwen Cherry Chapter represents BrowardCounty. "I welcome the support of the National Women's Political Caucus,because it underscores that my campaign is reaching out to everyone in thedistrict," LaFontaine said. "The NWPC knows how my community activism andgrassroots background will benefit the residents of the district as I workfor them in Tallahassee." In addition to the NWPC, LaFontaine has beenendorsed by the Broward County Council of Professional Firefighters; theFlorida Professional Firefighters; Florida AFL-CIO; Gay & Lesbian VictoryFund; Equality Florida; US Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House FinancialServices Committee; and Florida Rep. Kelly Skidmore, as well as a host ofBroward's other leaders. Owner of a successful accounting practice based inOakland Park, LaFontaine is a board member of Oakland Park Main Street,which is guiding that city's development, and also has been a member of theFort Lauderdale Audit Advisory Board, which oversees the city's finances.He promises to help bring fiscal accountability to Tallahassee and tocontinue reforms of property taxes and insurance. Florida House District 92includes parts of Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, LazyLake, Poinsettia Heights, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Victoria Park and WiltonManors.
www.MarkLaFontaine.com
~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-U.S. Rep. Wexler plans talks in South Florida
He will tout Medicare drug benefits bill
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler will be in South Florida next week for the firsttime since coming under scrutiny in recent weeks for owning a home inMaryland and using his in-laws' house in Delray Beach as his officialresidence.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpwexler0802pnaug02,0,7812902.story
-Wachovia Economics Group says Florida's in a recession
Florida is in a recession. So says a report from the state's second largestbank. The state's economy shrank from April through June, according toWachovia Economics Group. It was the first quarterly decline in 16 years.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flzhlprecession0802sbaug02,0,2118221.story
-Give Lori Parrish another term as Broward property appraiser
Re-elect Parrish. When Lori Parrish took over as Broward County propertyappraiser four years ago, one of her first concerns was bringing 21stcentury technology into a somewhat antiquated office. Parrish has made heroffice up-to-date, professional and efficient, to the extent that the SouthFlorida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board strongly recommends voters select herin the Democratic primary on Aug. 26.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editgspropertyappraisersbaug02,0,3336048.story
-Letter: Sunpass transponders are a joke - on us
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-brmail719sbaug02,0,3772549.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-ENERGY POLICY: Obama alters drilling stance
Barack Obama signaled he might support a compromise that allows offshore oildrilling.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/626787.html
=
Chris Chiari, Democrat for State House, District 91
You are cordially invited for Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres
Thursday August 7, 2008 From 6 to 8 PM
Coconut's - 429 Seabreeze Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33316
(Located just north of the Swimming Hall of Fame on A1A South)
$25 Suggested Minimum Contribution
If you have any questions please feel free to contact the campaign at(954)803-4844
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-McCain meets tough crowd in Orlando
Urban League audience peppers candidate with questions on issues
Facing a tough crowd, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCainopened with an attack on his opponent Friday, as he spoke to a polite, butunenthusiastic, audience at the National Urban League's convention.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080802/NEWS01/808020327/1006&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL
-Lawsuit says Everglades deal is illegal
Lawyer claims it was brokered in meetings that violated state law
Florida's proposal to acquire 300 square miles of Everglades land from U.S.Sugar Corp. was illegally brokered in closed-door meetings, an attorneyclaimed in a lawsuit filed Friday.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080802/ARTICLE/808020331/2070/news05
-Need for nurses soaring
State center says immediate action to get more is crucial
While many of her fellow new grads struggle to start their careers thisyear, Rachel Spare snagged a job more than six months ago.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080802/BUSINESS/808020314/1006/NEWS01
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Thursday, July 31, 2008
GLBT DIGEST - July 31, 2008
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Same-Sex Marriage Barrier Nears End in Massachusetts
Massachusetts moved closer on Tuesday to erasing a hurdle that blockedmostout-of-state gay men and lesbians from marrying here. Following a votebythe state Senate two weeks ago, the House of Representatives votedonTuesday to repeal a 1913 law that prevented Massachusetts frommarryingout-of-state couples if their marriages would not be legal in theirhome states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/30marriageweb.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=gay&st=cse&oref=slogin
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Injured victim in Tenn. church shooting no longer backs death penalty for'this kind of evil'
An injured victim of Sunday's church shooting rampage said the tragedy hasshaken his support for the death penalty, even after an old friend waskilled and three family members were wounded. Hit by more than 20 shotgunpellets in the back, neck and head, 76-year-old Joe Barnhart said Wednesdayhe had always supported capital punishment. But after the gunman attackedthe Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, killing twoand wounding six, the retired college professor said the death penaltydoesn't seem the answer for "this kind of evil." If suspect Jim D.Adkisson, 58, is convicted, he should "never see the light of day in anorderly society" again, Barnhart said
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sns-ap-church-shooting,0,4354683.story
=
Steve Rothaus
http://www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:
-ACLU: Okeechobee high school Gay-Straight Alliance wins groundbreakingfederal lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that Federal Judge K.Michael Moore ruled that school officials in Okeechobee, Florida, must allowa gay-straight alliance (GSA) club to meet on campus. In aprecedent-setting order, the judge upheld his earlier ruling that GSAs donot interfere with abstinence-only education and in a legal first, holdsthat schools must provide for the well-being of gay students.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Justice denied
A shocking report resulting from an internal Justice Department
investigation confirmed this week that Monica Goodling, senior counsel toformer Attorney General Alberto Gonazles, violated federalnon-discrimination laws by denying job opportunities to a female stafferbecause Goodling believed the woman was a lesbian.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=7/25/08&end=8/1/08#20042
-What a difference 15 years makes
Gay service members find warm reception on Hill, unlike 'hostile' 1993hearings
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20060
-Gay rights activist detained, abused in Uganda: NGO
Rights groups on Wednesday urged Uganda to investigate thealleged detaining and torture of a gay rights activist on trial forprotesting against discrimination last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080730/wl_africa_afp/ugandagayrights_080730185524
-Man in county's 1st gay marriage dies
Guerneville resident had bad headaches, but cause of death is unknownThey had met 15 years ago that day in Santa Rosa. And that's what made ChrisLechman and Mark Gren's historic wedding even more special.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080729/NEWS/807290319/1033&title=Man_in_county_s_1st_gay_marriage_dies
-John McCain on gay adoption ... again
John McCain spoke to George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" on Sunday andre-confused America as to what's really going on in his head regarding gayadoption. McCain told the New York Times that he's against gay adoption.His staff later clarified his statement, saying that McCain thinks decisionsregarding things like gay adoption should be left up to the states. SoGeorge asks: "What is your position on gay adoption? You told the New YorkTimes you were against it, even in cases where the children couldn't findanother home. But then your staff backtracked a bit. What is your position?"The first thing out of McCain's mouth is that he's not running his campaignon this issue. But ... you told the New York Times your position on it. Andyour specific position on it matters because you're running for PRESIDENT OFTHE UNITED STATES.
"My position is, it's not the reason why I'm running for president of theUnited States. And I think that two parent families are best for America,"McCain said. Most of the gay adoption cases in this country involve eithergay men or lesbian couples, and "couple" means two, so that answer's notcutting it.George pressed on, asking McCain to clarify. "Because I think -well, I think that it's - it is important for us to emphasize family values.But I think it's very important that we understand that we have otherchallenges, too. I'm running for president of the United States, because Iwant to help with family values. And I think that family values areimportant, when we have two parent - families that are of parents that areparents that are the traditional family." "So you're against gay adoption,"George said, trying to help McCain out. "I am for the values and principlesthat two parent families represent. And I also do point out that many ofthese decisions are made by the states, as we all know. And I will doeverything I can to encourage adoption, to encourage all of the things thatkeeps families together, including educational opportunities, including abetter economy, job creation. And I'm running for president, because I wantto help families in America. And one of my positions is that I believe thatfamily values and family traditions are preserved." McCain avoids answeringthe question again. He avoids saying why he thinks a gay couple adopting achild would be a slap in the face to family values. What family values areyou talking about specifically, John McCain? Watch for yourself. Thediscussion begins at 3:31. Link to video below:
http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=7/28/08&end=8/1/08#19985
-Gay-dar, Quantified
How long does it take to decide if a man is gay? It turns out that peoplemake their decisions within 50 milliseconds of seeing someone, and thatfirst instinct is accurate the majority of the time, according to researchby Nick Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University who have a study in anupcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/odd-numbers/2008/07/30/gay-dar-quantified
-HIV News
The HIV vaccine is a total bust. but researchers in Houston claim to havefound the Achilles' heel, a part of the fast-mutating virus that doesn'tmutate. Blast away at that, and you can "disable" the virus in infectedpersons.
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/hiv_news
-PFOX Lies About Teens with HIV
Regina Griggs of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) continues to tellwhoppers. In this article at OneNewsNow she tells a huge lie: "Why are weallowing people to tell them, 'Try it -- you might like it?' Over 70percent of young kids 13- to 24-years-old, men having sex with men, are nowHIV-positive," Griggs notes. Over 70% of 13 to 24 year olds who are menhaving sex with men (MSM) are HIV-positive? That's absolutely ridiculous,not even in the ballpark. Here's the most recent CDC report, which does infact note that HIV infections have increased among MSM between 13 and 24.But 70%? Not even close.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/07/pfox_lies_about_teens_with_hiv.php
=
365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Colo. Man Charged In Transwoman Slaying
A Colorado man is accused of fatally battering a sex partner with a fire
extinguisher after discovering that his companion was a transgender woman.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073108-trans-murder/
-Bush Signs AIDS Bill
President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that triples U.S. funding to
fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073108-aids-bill/
-Another AIDS Stat That Will Be Ignored
A few years back when I was gainfully employed at a weekly newspaper, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention released a press release thatnoted blacks accounted for 50 percent of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses "in theUnited States in the 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIVreporting." I was convinced this was a story we should be all over; however,my editor at the time yawned. He thought the numbers tragic (!) but notparticularly newsworthy.
http://www.365gay.com/blog/073008-hiv-stat/
-Interview with "Brideshead Revisited" Director and Star
As you may have heard, an all-new, gay-injected adaptation of Evelyn Waugh'sclassic 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited is currently opening across thecountry. John Polly recently had a chance to sit down with the film's youngstar Matthew Goode (Charles Ryder) as well as director Julian Jarrold (KinkyBoots) to ask them about the film's making the character of Sebastian Flyteexplicitly gay, and his relationship with Charles more overtly romantic.
http://www.365gay.com/features/073008brideshead-revisited/
-Homophobic Attacks Mar EuroPride
(Stockholm) Homophobic attacks that left two gay men fighting for theirlives, two others seriously beaten, and three churches vandalized haveshocked this city known for its liberal attitude toward homosexuality.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-europride-attacks/
-Major Calif. Company To Fight Anti-Gay Ballot Measure
California's largest public utility has given a quarter-million dollars tothe fight against a proposed constitutional amendment that would bansame-sex marriage in the state.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-company-calif-ballot/
-Iran Pres. Blames West For AIDS
(Tehran) Iran's president is blaming the United States and other "`bigpowers" for AIDS, nuclear proliferation, and other global ills, and accusingthem of exploiting the United Nations and other organizations for their owngain and the developing world's loss.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-iran-aids/
-Ballot Measure Would Cancel Gainesville LGBT Protections
A social conservative voters group opposed to a Gainesville law protectingthe rights of transpeople in employment and housing has mounted a repealeffort that could terminate rights of all LGBT people in the city.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-gainesville-ballot/
=
The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Black U.S. AIDS Rates Rival Those of Some African Nations
A new report published by the Black AIDS Institute is intended to raiseawareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over inAmerica, especially not in Black America," reports CNN. "AIDS in Americatoday is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of theinstitute to CNN. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black."
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid58515.asp
-California Town Debates Pride Parade
Residents of Salinas, Calif., located near Monterey, on Tuesday debatedhosting a gay pride parade. Two weeks ago the city's administratorsapproved a permit for a downtown gay pride parade, but dozens of residentson both sides of the issue showed up during the regular city council meetingTuesday to express their opinions.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid58582.asp
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Amendment 2 Will Lead to Tragedy
Mathew Staver, president of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, represents agroup of Californians described as "extremists" who want to go beyondbanning same-sex marriage to "strip away gay rights" of any kind in theGolden State. He also authored Florida's Amendment 2, the November ballotmeasure that would alter our state's constitution to define marriage asbetween only a man and a woman and ban its "substantial equivalent."
-AIDS Hitting Asian Gays at High Rates
HIV infection rates among gay men in many parts of Asia are as severe asthose which devastated US homosexual communities in the late 1980s, topofficials of the UNAIDS agency said here Tuesday. Launching his agency's2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, Peter Piot, UNAIDS executivedirector, urged more action to prevent the spread of the disease among gaymen who have unsafe sex and stressed the importance of working with affectedcommunities.
-NGLCC Welcomes Top Law Firm to LGBT Supplier Diversity Program
Today the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and NGLCCNYannounced the addition of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP, a prestigiousnational law firm with major operations in thirteen U.S. cities includingChicago, New York, and Washington, DC. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP,had joined the organizations in an effort to attract more diversity to thefirm's supply chain, specifically by adding LGBT-owned companies to the mix.
-Anal HPV Common in Hetero Men
Roughly one in four heterosexual men have anal human papillomavirus (HPV)infection and, in many cases, a cancer-causing type of the sexuallytransmitted wart virus is present, a study shows. Certain strains of HPV,which can be transmitted from male to female partners, are responsible formost cases of cervical cancer. Although much is known about HPV infection inwomen, this is not the case in men.
-Gay Congressman Barney Frank Proposes Legalization of Marijuana
Openly gay congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass, announced a proposal onWednesday to make it legal for pot smokers to light up. The proposed HR 5843bill would call an end to federal penalties targeting Americans carryingless than 100 grams of marijuana. "The vast amount of human activity oughtto be none of the government's business," Frank said at a news conference onCapitol Hill, CNN reported. "I don't think it is the government's businessto tell you how to spend your leisure time."
-Risk Behavior Does Not Account For Higher Rates Of HIV In Black MSM
Far higher rates of HIV among black MSM (men who have sex with men) comparedwith white MSM are not accounted for by any significant difference in riskbehavior, according to a large study review by the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC) completed late last year.
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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-John Aravosis: My take--"Mass. House votes to let out-of-state gays marry"
Link: AMERICAblog
I've been saying for years that neither our national groups, nor state-basedadvocates of gay marriage, are preparing for the day when one state will beforced to recognize another's marriages of gay couples. When that day comes,it will be very interesting to see what the "plan" is to convince members ofCongress not to walk. Far too many members of Congress, for my comfortlevel, said they were opposed to the Federal Marriage Amendment because "itwasn't necessary yet." That could change the day Massachusetts lets gaycouples come from all over America to be wed. And I don't hear of anyonedoing any real work at the national level to change the public's, orcongress', mind about marriage.
-"A minister speaks out for marriage equality"
Link: Milpitas Post
Fortunately, the meanings of words change over time. Although it is commonto hear that marriage is the same now as it was 5,000 years ago, this ispatently false. In ancient civilizations marriage was often a propertyexchange rather than a relationship based on love, shared interests, andcommon values. And in Biblical times it was not even a union between one manand one woman, but rather between one man and one or more women. (RememberSolomon's 700 wives?)
-CA: Opinion--"Is this historic or not?"
Link: Ventura County Star
If voters reject Proposition 8, it would be the first time the public hasaffirmed the right of gays and lesbians to marry. In the civil rightsarena, that would be as historic as the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Boardof Education decision - a moment in time when the tide turned againstunequal legal treatment of separate classes of people. At least that's theway opponents of Proposition 8 seek to frame things. Interestingly, it isthe proponents who seek to downplay the significance of Proposition 8, whichwould amend the California Constitution to state that only "marriage betweena man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
-CA: "Group warns Inland pastors about same-sex weddings"
Link: Press-Enterprise
A Sacramento-based conservative legal group arrives in Corona this week towarn local pastors that they might be sued for refusing to host same-sexweddings, and to advise them on how far they can go in supporting a ballotinitiative that would ban same-sex marriage.
-Will Arizona be abandoned?
Link: Box Turtle Bulletin
This is a question I am asked nearly everyday from folks in Arizona and fromfolks around the country. They ask questions like how much support came fromoutside Arizona in 2006? Will anyone outside of Arizona give money this timeto defeat Prop 102? Will anyone inside Arizona give money? How do you feelabout so much money going to California? What about Florida? Can Arizona winthis one too? Do you feel abandoned by those supporting Californiaespecially but also Florida since Arizona is the only state in the nation todefeat an anti-marriage amendment? There is no easy answer to any of thosequestions.
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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Concern for gay Iranian refused asylum in Cyprus
The Commissioner of Administration in Cyprus has warned that a gay Iranianman faces death in his homeland if he is deported.
-Sex determination tests for female Beijing athletes
A decision to test female contenders for the Beijing 2008 Olympics to see ifthey are men has caused uproar
-Transsexual gene identified by scientists
A gene variant has been identified that could explain female-to-maletransexuality.
-"Orthodox Christians" target EuroPride churches
A pastor in Stockholm has revealed that three Lutheran churches in the cityhave been targeted by vandals, apparently because they are supportingEuroPride.
-Gay man re-elected chair of Royal College of Nursing Congress
The world's largest trade union for nurses, the Royal College of Nursing(RCN), has re-elected a gay man as the Chair of the RCN's Annual Congressfor a further two years.
-Estonia debates same-sex partnerships
The Ministry of Justice in Estonia is preparing a draft law which wouldallow same-sex partners to register their cohabitation.
-South African radio host leads protests against homophobic journalist200people protested yesterday outside the Sunday Sun newspaper's offices inJohannesburg against a controversial homophobic article from columnist JonQwelane.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:
-55 Arrested During Raid on "Gay Party" in Saudi Arabia
Police in the Gulf kingdom of Saudi Arabia have launched another raid on aso-called gay party, this time in the coastal Qatif province. Drugs,alcohol were reportedly found at the gathering. TV channel al-Arabiyareports that two young men wearing women's make up and dancing together wereamong 55 people arrested by religious police. Last month more than 20 menafter a raid on another property in Qatif. Quantities of alcohol wereseized at a gathering of young men. Many were initially arrested onhomosexuality charges but later released. The state Commission for thePropagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was acting on a tip off.In Saudi Arabia homosexuality is illegal under sharia, or Islamic Law.
-Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity On Accused Shooter's ReadingList
Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shellboxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked achurch in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," courtrecords show. Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive homeof Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee ValleyUnitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six othersduring the presentation of a children's musical. Knoxville PoliceDepartment Officer Steve Still requested the search warrant afterinterviewing Adkisson. who was subdued by several church members afterfiring three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation.
-Messages That Lead to Murder
By Wayne Besen | Anything But Straight
This week, I attended the Commercial Closet's Images In Advertising Awardsin Manhattan, which honored corporations that produced gay affirming ads.The pro-gay plugs showed genuine progress and highlighted that many leadingcompanies "get it." The work of Commercial Closet is vital because imagesmatter and repeated exposure to messages shape our views and create positivechange in society. The cleverness and creativity in these ads imparts tomillions of people that homosexuality is nothing to be feared and that GLBTpeople are part of the human family.
-Out & Equal to Host 2008 Workplace Summit in Austin, Texas
Keynote Speakers to Include Syndicated Columnist Arianna Huffington andFormer U.S. Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest, among OthersOut & EqualWorkplace Advocates, the only national nonprofit organization exclusivelydedicated to advancing workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender (LGBT) people, expects nearly 3,000 attendees to gather at theAustin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, September 10-13 forthe annual Out& Equal Workplace Summit. For more information or to register, visitwww.outandequal.org. The early bird registration deadline is August 8,2008.
-TN: Neighbors Help Troubled Transgender Woman
To say that 43 year-old Duanna Johnson leads a difficult life would be anunderstatement. At her small, rundown, North Memphis house you'll findcondom wrappers on the ground outside her door.Her power meter is missing.Not that it matters because her electricity was turned off months ago aftershe stopped paying her utility bill. She has one extension cord runningfrom her bedroom window to the neighbor's house. They charge her $20 amonth to plug into their electricity. It powers the single fan Duanna usesto cool her house. And because Johnson has no running water in her home,neighbors often let her use their bathrooms to wash up and take care of herpersonal hygiene."Well, she would come over and talk," says 82 year-oldHattie Mae Benson. "And I mean, it was a good while before I knew what washappening."
-MI: Play About Gay Christians Moves to World Stage
Having grown up gay in the Catholic church, Nathan Gregorski mostlyassociated religion with feelings of rejection. So he said he is excited bythe chance to perform a play about gay Christians for the world's Anglicanbishops this week in Canterbury, England. Gregorski, 22, is part of aWestern Michigan University acting troupe that will perform "Seven Passages," a locally produced play based on the stories of West Michigangays, for many of the 650 bishops attending the once-a-decade LambethConference. "I just hope they get a little bit clearer understanding aboutthe issue and about gay people in general - that gay people are likeeverybody else," said Gregorski, a 2004 graduate of Mason County CentralHigh School and a WMU senior.
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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei Detained in Iran
Sign the petition to free Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei
Physicians for Human Rights today urged the Iranian government to end theincommunicado detention of Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei, two Iranianphysicians who have reportedly been detained in Iran by Iranian authorities.The physicians, who are brothers, were apparently arrested at the end ofJune, 2008 and their current whereabouts are unknown. The doctors areexperts on HIV/AIDS and have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS preventionand treatment activities in Iran and internationally. PHR calls on thegovernment of Iran to disclose their whereabouts, provide them access tolawyers and family, and either to charge them with an internationallyrecognized crime or release them immediately.
http://actnow-phr.org/campaign/iran_free_the_docs
-Execution of 29 people in Evin prison in Iran (July 29, 2008)
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union
The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the 29 simultaneousexecutions which took place in Evin prison, Iran, on Sunday 27 July 2008. Itconsiders that the Iranian regime's action of staging these executions andmaking them the focus of media attention is an affront to human dignity. TheEuropean Union remains convinced that capital punishment cannot form thebasis of a fair and effective prosecution policy: the dissuasive effect ofthis penalty has never been proved and any judicial error is irreversible.
The European Union is deeply concerned by the increasing recourse to thedeath penalty in Iran in recent months. It urges the Iranian authorities toput an end to death sentences and executions, to establish a moratorium witha view to abolishing the death penalty in accordance with the resolutionadopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2007 and torespect international human rights standards for all Iranians.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files_156/iran_301/human-rights-and-iran_6490/death-penalty_6491/execution-of-29-people-in-evin-prison-in-iran-29.07.08_11709.html
-Iran: Risk of stoning of nine Iranians (July 24, 2008)
Declaration of the Presidency on behalf of the European Union
The European Union, which has just reaffirmed to Iran its opposition tocapital punishment under any circumstances, is deeply concerned by thesentencing of eight Iranian women and one Iranian man to stoning and by therisk of their imminent execution. It recalls that the Islamic Republic ofIran pledged to introduce a moratorium on stoning. The European Union urgesIran to abide by its commitments and international human rights standards.
The European Union calls on the Iranian government and parliament toabolish, in law and in practice, recourse to cruel and degrading punishmentand in particular the use of stoning as a method of execution, in accordancewith the latest resolution concerning the situation of human rights in theIslamic Republic of Iran adopted by the United Nations General Assembly inDecember 2007.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files_156/iran_301/human-rights-and-iran_6490/death-penalty_6491/risk-of-stoning-of-nine-iranians-24.07.08_11696.html
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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
-Turkey's Governing Party Avoids Ban
ISTANBUL - Turkey's governing party narrowly missed being banned in a courtruling on Wednesday that released months of pressure in the country andhanded a victory to the party's leader, a former Islamist. The party,Justice and Development, or AKP, as it is know in Turkish, was kept alive byjust one vote - six members of Turkey's Constitutional Court voted to closeit, but seven were required. A ban would have brought down the government,forcing national elections for the second time in a year and pitching thecountry into chaos. "A great uncertainty blocking Turkey's future has beenlifted," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the party,speaking in Ankara, Turkey's capital. The court case was the culmination ofan epic battle between Turkey's secular establishment - a powerful coterieof judges and generals that have deposed elected governments four times inTurkish history - and Mr. Erdogan, a broadly popular politician who saysthat his past as a political Islamist is firmly behind him.
-Not all plain sailing for Gay Pride
Amsterdam is gearing up for the high point of gay pride week this Saturdaywhen lesbians, gays and their friends take part in a boat parade through thecity's canals. More politicians are jumping aboard for Canal Pride, withthree more ministers announcing they intend to take part in the parade.
Their boat will sail under the (English) motto 'Simply Gay'. However,opposition MP Boris van der Ham (pictured below), whose progressive liberalD'66 party has had a boat in the gay parade for years, is trying to make itanything but plain sailing for the government. He welcomes the goodintentions, but says there are "still Dutch laws which discriminate againsthomosexuals". His party wants to amend the article in the constitutionthat outlaws discrimination by adding homosexuals to the list of those whoenjoy constitutional protectection. The Christian Democrat-led rulingcoalition is also under fire for allowing civil servants to opt out ofperforming marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples.
-Peter Tatchell interview while in Northern Ireland regarding statement from
MP and MLA Iris Robinson.
Link to video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7531514.stm
-Greenland's gays fail to measure up to society's expectations
A masculine culture makes homosexuality tougher for men than for womenAn explanation for recent reports that gay Greenlanders are more likelytofind themselves ostracised by their communities than lesbians can befoundin the island's masculine culture, according to one historian. JensRydstöm explained that while lesbians are seen as being able tofulfiltraditional female roles, the discrimination experienced by gays stemsfroma belief that they are incapable performing traditional male roles suchashunting and trapping.
http://sermitsiaq.gl/indland/article48722.ece?lang=EN
-Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex with Men & HIV
To Examine Gaps in HIV/AIDS Research, Care and Prevention atXVIIInternational AIDS Conference
Peter Piot of UNAIDS to Address Over 450 Participants from 80 CountriesGathered to Raise Awareness of Unique Issues Facing Gay MenLos Angeles, Calif., July 30, 2008 - Continuing the work it began at itslaunch at AIDS 2006, The Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex with Men & HIV(MSMGF) today announced a full program of activities at the XVIIInternational AIDS Conference - to be held in Mexico City August 3-8 - tobring much-needed attention to a population at heightened risk for HIVinfection around the globe. MSMGF will hold a pre-conference satellitefocused on MSM and HIV on Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 2, with ajust-announced address and question and answer session from Peter Piot,executive director of UNAIDS, scheduled for August 1 at 1:30 p.m. (CDT).MSMGF will hold a press conference to recap its satellite at noon onWednesday, August 6 in the XVII International AIDS Conference Media Center.
In addition, MSMGF will exhibit at the AIDS 2008 Global Village, re-launchits online presence with a new Web site and participate in a first-everinternational march against stigma, discrimination and anti-homophobia setfor August 2. "As the eyes of the world focus on AIDS in August, we want toensure that the dire situation facing men who have sex with men, theircommunities and, ultimately, their governments, is addressed head-on at AIDS2008," said Don Baxter, executive director of the Australian Federation ofAIDS Organizations and a co-chair of MSMGF's Steering Committee. "The impactof HIV on MSM cannot be overlooked, and there is an urgent need forinternational action now."
www.msmandhiv.org.
-Children's books become ideological battleground in Sweden
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Two new publishing houses for children's books havesparkeddebate in gender-equal Sweden over their professed aim of instillingthecountry's open-minded social values in the next generation. "Our goal isfor all people, regardless of gender, sexuality, ethnicity orother suchthings, to have the freedom to create their own identity and berespected fortheir personal qualities," said Karin Salmson, the co-founderof the newVilda publishing house. But several critics are outraged, saying they aresimply pushing propaganda disguised as literature. Vilda and another smallpublisher, Olika, both opened their doors last yearwith the express aim ofmaking children's books that promote liberal valuesand challenge traditionalviews on gender, race and sexual orientation.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3W-Qb1YrytPS23Mch8hzqIc6Nqw
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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
-Young Voters Use Online Video Platform to Voice Concerns About Human
andCivil Rights
Human and civil rights are a key issue for young people
WASHINGTON - In response to record-setting young voter turnout this year,Campus Progress Action has launched I'mVoting For, an online videotestimonial project that gives young people aplatform to talk about howtheir personal experiences and passion for theissues are driving them to thepolls. Young people aren't turning out just because of a particularcandidate -they are reacting to important issues like health care, the warin Iraq, andcivil rights. And of the hundreds of videos on the I'm VotingFor website,human and civil rights are consistently one of the top issuesthat youngvoters identify as their primary concern, often citing a need forimmediategovernment action.
http://www.imvotingfor.org/
-The Worst Kept "Secret" In Public Health
For more than a year, U.S. federal officials have attempted-sometimesinvain-to quell rumors that the number of new HIV infections in the UnitedStates is on the rise. The Washington Blade first broke the story inNovember2007, reporting that the CDC was poised to raise the officialestimate forthe number of HIV infections believed to occur in the UnitedStates to arange as high as 58,000 to 63,000 per year-a greater than 50percent increaseover the current estimate of 40,000 annual HIV infections. By December2007, World AIDS Day media coverage in The New York Times, TheWashingtonPost, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and other outletsamplified theleaks. They also described growing frustration among AIDScommunity advocateswith delays in making the important research findingspublic.
http://www.aids2008.com/blog/40
-FCC's Porn-Free Broadband Plan Draws Fire from Public Interest GroupsAgency could face lawsuits if proposal passes. More than half a dozenadvocacy groups ranging from liberal to libertarian agree on one thing: theproposal for a porn-free national broadband service put forth by FederalCommunications Commission Chair Kevin Martin is "unconstitutional andunwise." The Friday filing illustrates the plan as a "government mandated'blacklist' of websites." The filtering system would restrict the system"so dramatically that the usefulness of the service would be radicallyreduced."
http://avn.com/internet/articles/31498.html
-Michigan lawmakers look to expand hate-crime laws
Lansing Police Chief: "We need to send a strong message"
Lawmakers and law enforcement both say it is time to get tough onhatecrimes. Legislation spearheaded by Rep. Paul Condino (D-Southfield)wouldexpand Michigan's hate-crime law to include additional classes ofpeople. Vowing to get it through the current lame-duck session of the house,Condinointroduced legislation on Thursday that would add intimidation ofgays andlesbians and people with disabilities to the hate-crime list. Themeasurewould also bring stiffer penalties to those who do thingscommonlyassociated with bias and prejudice, such as hanging a noose orburning across on someone's property. While the measure is expected to passin the House, its future in the Senate is uncertain. State Senator HansenClark stood by Condino and the otherspushing for the change. The DetroitDemocrat said, "I want to send themessage that we need to be tolerant ofeveryone's differences. We also wantto attract jobs. We want to show thatMichigan is a welcoming, acceptingstate of everyone." He said he will do hisbest to convince the Senate thatthis is the right thing to do.
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1620
-Don't Ask Don't Tell - Jon Stewart (beyond humorous)and The Daily Showcommentary (and video)
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6307
-Max Hardcore's Motion for New Trial Denied
TAMPA, Fla. - In an order issued today, U.S. District Court JudgeSusanBucklew has denied the motion by defendants Paul Little (a.k.a.Maxhardcore) and Max World Entertainment for a new trial and/or a judgmentofacquittal for the charges upon which they were convicted on June 5. Littleand Max World had been charged with interstate transportation ofobscenematerial and of posting obscene material on the Internet. Among themultiple bases for new trial or acquittal contained in the defensemotion,authored by Max World attorney Jennifer Kinsley, were threeinstances of juryirregularities; charges of bias against the defendantsallegedly committed byJudge Bucklew herself; failure of the prosecution toproduce enough evidencefor the defendants to be found guilty; and severallegal issues based on theSupreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.
http://avn.com/law/articles/31474.html
-Many Stories, One Voice
The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians inNew Orleans, La., Sept. 4-7
Many Stories, One Voice: The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBTChristians is a conference that will offer new tools and training intheareas of faith-based community organizing, media training,boarddevelopment, fund-raising, research, biblical studies,theology,capacity-building and other concrete skills. Participants will alsoengagein discussions about issues of race, class, ability, age,embodiment,gender identity and sexual orientation.
Register online at http://www.manystoriesonevoice.org/
-VICE PRESIDENT TIM KAINE?
Pros and Cons of a New Dominion Decision
Larry J. SabatoDirector, U.Va. Center for Politics
We have no earthly idea if Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is Obama's choiceforVice President. All we know is that distinguished reporters who claimtohave good sources are calling and saying that Kaine is on theshort-shortlist. Since the Crystal Ball is based in Virginia, and since wehave followed Tim Kaine's career since it began on the Richmond City Councilin 1994, we'lloffer our readers a brief precis on what Kaine would add tothe ticket, andwhat he would not, should the rumors prove accurate. As withall potential Veep picks, there are pluses and minuses. Let's startwithKaine's advantages:
tp://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=LJS2008072901
-Social issues crowd state ballots
Besides electing a president on Nov. 4, voters in some key battlegroundstates also will face divisive social policy choices, including whether toban gay marriage in Florida and restrict affirmative action and abortion inColorado. Michigan voters may be asked to end a 30-year-old ban onstem-cell research that destroys human embryos. Ohioans may decide whethersick workers should be guaranteed paid leave. Missouri voters' attitudestoward immigrants will be tested by a measure to declare English theofficial state language. In Washington, voters may get to weigh whether tojoin Oregon in legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=328253
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Gay & Lesbian Leadership SmartBrier
http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Pelosi proud of her "San Francisco values"
The GOP's condemnation of so-called "San Francisco values" to inspire moregiving from its supporters doesn't sit well with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,who represents the city, according to this blog posting. "I think theyhighlight [San Francisco values] because they are the forces that arefighting health insurance for our children[,] ... they are the forces thatare fighting increases in the minimum wage," Pelosi said. "So when they sortof use their winks and nods about San Francisco values, they are talkingabout the fact that we respect our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendercommunity. But what they are really afraid of is economic justice." TheHuffington Post (7/28)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/pelosi-san-francisco-valu_n_115344.html
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Anything but Straight
http://www.waynebesen.com/
-Wayne Besen Vs. Bill O'Reilly On Snickers Ad [video]
http://www.waynebesen.com/2008/07/wayne-besen-vs-bill-oreilly-on-snickers.html
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Ft. Lauderdale: ArtsUnited Features Paintings by James Goodson in August
ArtsUnited will feature the paintings of local artist James Goodson in soloexhibit at the Stonewall Library and Archives from August 4 through 29,2008. The library is located at 1717 North Andrews Avenue in FortLauderdale, FL. The exhibit opens with a reception to meet the artist from6:30 to 8:00 PM on Monday, August 4th. Admission to the exhibit andreception are free and open to the public. As a teen, James Goodson beganstudying dance, drama and play writing at Baylor University. Work in fashiondesign and retail and wholesale display followed. Later James studiedcomputer applications and digital photography. He recently retired from NSUwhere he worked in Media Services. In addition to his photography andpaintings, James has published two books - a collection of poetry and ateen/tween novella. His art has been featured in a number of venuesthroughout Broward County.
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HeartStrong
http://www.heartstrong.org
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-We just completed our Minnesota Outreach and Educational Trip. Now weare gearing up for the second part of our summer O/E trip in Colorado. Wewillbe spending just over two weeks in the states. While Colorado tends to getalot of attention for some of its anti-GLBTresidents and organizations,there are relatively few religious schools.However, every two years or so wereturn to the state to do more of ourlife saving work.
MORE INFO ABOUT COLORADO RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
Colorado has about 55,000 students enrolled in religious k-12 schools.Thosestudents are spread out among approximately 232 religious schools. [...]Finally we are still working on raising money for this upcoming trip.Infact we are still behind about $500 from our trip to MN and needabout$2000. for this Colorado trip. If you are able to help you can makeyourdonation securely online at http://www.heartstrong.org or by mailingyourdonation to HeartStrong, PO Box 2051, Seattle WA 98111. Everything helps! We appreciate everyone's support as we continue onour23rd outreach trip since 1998.
Marc Adams
http://www.heartstrong.org
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Forwarded from Bill Sterling
whaterling1@yahoo.com
-Mulling a Troubling Murder
NEWSWEEK's cover story provoked a fierce debate over homosexuality,harassment and a school's obligation to police its students. Larry King wasan openly gay 15-year-old who was shot dead by one of his middle-schoolclassmates. Could the school have done anything to stop it? That is thequestion NEWSWEEK tackled in "Young, Gay and Murdered," the cover story thisweek. The article drew a massive response online--more than 4,000 commentswere posted through the week. Many responded to reporter Ramin Setoodeh'sassertion that Larry "was a troubled child who flaunted his sexuality andwielded it like a weapon."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/148817
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From Transgender Equality
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Greeley, CO: 9NEWS has learned the man arrested in the murder ofan18-year-old transgender person was on date with who he thought was agirl.Police say when the suspect discovered his date was actually aman, he killedher. Alan Ray Andrade, 31, was arrested in Thornton on Tuesday and facessecond-degree murder and aggravated motor vehicle theft charges. In anarrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS Andrade admits to police tokilling AngieZapata, 20, who was living as a woman but born as JustinZapata.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=96741&catid=339#comments
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Same-Sex Marriage Barrier Nears End in Massachusetts
Massachusetts moved closer on Tuesday to erasing a hurdle that blockedmostout-of-state gay men and lesbians from marrying here. Following a votebythe state Senate two weeks ago, the House of Representatives votedonTuesday to repeal a 1913 law that prevented Massachusetts frommarryingout-of-state couples if their marriages would not be legal in theirhome states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/30marriageweb.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=gay&st=cse&oref=slogin
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Injured victim in Tenn. church shooting no longer backs death penalty for'this kind of evil'
An injured victim of Sunday's church shooting rampage said the tragedy hasshaken his support for the death penalty, even after an old friend waskilled and three family members were wounded. Hit by more than 20 shotgunpellets in the back, neck and head, 76-year-old Joe Barnhart said Wednesdayhe had always supported capital punishment. But after the gunman attackedthe Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, killing twoand wounding six, the retired college professor said the death penaltydoesn't seem the answer for "this kind of evil." If suspect Jim D.Adkisson, 58, is convicted, he should "never see the light of day in anorderly society" again, Barnhart said
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sns-ap-church-shooting,0,4354683.story
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Steve Rothaus
http://www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:
-ACLU: Okeechobee high school Gay-Straight Alliance wins groundbreakingfederal lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that Federal Judge K.Michael Moore ruled that school officials in Okeechobee, Florida, must allowa gay-straight alliance (GSA) club to meet on campus. In aprecedent-setting order, the judge upheld his earlier ruling that GSAs donot interfere with abstinence-only education and in a legal first, holdsthat schools must provide for the well-being of gay students.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Justice denied
A shocking report resulting from an internal Justice Department
investigation confirmed this week that Monica Goodling, senior counsel toformer Attorney General Alberto Gonazles, violated federalnon-discrimination laws by denying job opportunities to a female stafferbecause Goodling believed the woman was a lesbian.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=7/25/08&end=8/1/08#20042
-What a difference 15 years makes
Gay service members find warm reception on Hill, unlike 'hostile' 1993hearings
http://www.expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20060
-Gay rights activist detained, abused in Uganda: NGO
Rights groups on Wednesday urged Uganda to investigate thealleged detaining and torture of a gay rights activist on trial forprotesting against discrimination last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080730/wl_africa_afp/ugandagayrights_080730185524
-Man in county's 1st gay marriage dies
Guerneville resident had bad headaches, but cause of death is unknownThey had met 15 years ago that day in Santa Rosa. And that's what made ChrisLechman and Mark Gren's historic wedding even more special.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080729/NEWS/807290319/1033&title=Man_in_county_s_1st_gay_marriage_dies
-John McCain on gay adoption ... again
John McCain spoke to George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" on Sunday andre-confused America as to what's really going on in his head regarding gayadoption. McCain told the New York Times that he's against gay adoption.His staff later clarified his statement, saying that McCain thinks decisionsregarding things like gay adoption should be left up to the states. SoGeorge asks: "What is your position on gay adoption? You told the New YorkTimes you were against it, even in cases where the children couldn't findanother home. But then your staff backtracked a bit. What is your position?"The first thing out of McCain's mouth is that he's not running his campaignon this issue. But ... you told the New York Times your position on it. Andyour specific position on it matters because you're running for PRESIDENT OFTHE UNITED STATES.
"My position is, it's not the reason why I'm running for president of theUnited States. And I think that two parent families are best for America,"McCain said. Most of the gay adoption cases in this country involve eithergay men or lesbian couples, and "couple" means two, so that answer's notcutting it.George pressed on, asking McCain to clarify. "Because I think -well, I think that it's - it is important for us to emphasize family values.But I think it's very important that we understand that we have otherchallenges, too. I'm running for president of the United States, because Iwant to help with family values. And I think that family values areimportant, when we have two parent - families that are of parents that areparents that are the traditional family." "So you're against gay adoption,"George said, trying to help McCain out. "I am for the values and principlesthat two parent families represent. And I also do point out that many ofthese decisions are made by the states, as we all know. And I will doeverything I can to encourage adoption, to encourage all of the things thatkeeps families together, including educational opportunities, including abetter economy, job creation. And I'm running for president, because I wantto help families in America. And one of my positions is that I believe thatfamily values and family traditions are preserved." McCain avoids answeringthe question again. He avoids saying why he thinks a gay couple adopting achild would be a slap in the face to family values. What family values areyou talking about specifically, John McCain? Watch for yourself. Thediscussion begins at 3:31. Link to video below:
http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=7/28/08&end=8/1/08#19985
-Gay-dar, Quantified
How long does it take to decide if a man is gay? It turns out that peoplemake their decisions within 50 milliseconds of seeing someone, and thatfirst instinct is accurate the majority of the time, according to researchby Nick Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University who have a study in anupcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/odd-numbers/2008/07/30/gay-dar-quantified
-HIV News
The HIV vaccine is a total bust. but researchers in Houston claim to havefound the Achilles' heel, a part of the fast-mutating virus that doesn'tmutate. Blast away at that, and you can "disable" the virus in infectedpersons.
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/hiv_news
-PFOX Lies About Teens with HIV
Regina Griggs of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) continues to tellwhoppers. In this article at OneNewsNow she tells a huge lie: "Why are weallowing people to tell them, 'Try it -- you might like it?' Over 70percent of young kids 13- to 24-years-old, men having sex with men, are nowHIV-positive," Griggs notes. Over 70% of 13 to 24 year olds who are menhaving sex with men (MSM) are HIV-positive? That's absolutely ridiculous,not even in the ballpark. Here's the most recent CDC report, which does infact note that HIV infections have increased among MSM between 13 and 24.But 70%? Not even close.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/07/pfox_lies_about_teens_with_hiv.php
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Colo. Man Charged In Transwoman Slaying
A Colorado man is accused of fatally battering a sex partner with a fire
extinguisher after discovering that his companion was a transgender woman.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073108-trans-murder/
-Bush Signs AIDS Bill
President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that triples U.S. funding to
fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073108-aids-bill/
-Another AIDS Stat That Will Be Ignored
A few years back when I was gainfully employed at a weekly newspaper, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention released a press release thatnoted blacks accounted for 50 percent of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses "in theUnited States in the 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIVreporting." I was convinced this was a story we should be all over; however,my editor at the time yawned. He thought the numbers tragic (!) but notparticularly newsworthy.
http://www.365gay.com/blog/073008-hiv-stat/
-Interview with "Brideshead Revisited" Director and Star
As you may have heard, an all-new, gay-injected adaptation of Evelyn Waugh'sclassic 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited is currently opening across thecountry. John Polly recently had a chance to sit down with the film's youngstar Matthew Goode (Charles Ryder) as well as director Julian Jarrold (KinkyBoots) to ask them about the film's making the character of Sebastian Flyteexplicitly gay, and his relationship with Charles more overtly romantic.
http://www.365gay.com/features/073008brideshead-revisited/
-Homophobic Attacks Mar EuroPride
(Stockholm) Homophobic attacks that left two gay men fighting for theirlives, two others seriously beaten, and three churches vandalized haveshocked this city known for its liberal attitude toward homosexuality.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-europride-attacks/
-Major Calif. Company To Fight Anti-Gay Ballot Measure
California's largest public utility has given a quarter-million dollars tothe fight against a proposed constitutional amendment that would bansame-sex marriage in the state.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-company-calif-ballot/
-Iran Pres. Blames West For AIDS
(Tehran) Iran's president is blaming the United States and other "`bigpowers" for AIDS, nuclear proliferation, and other global ills, and accusingthem of exploiting the United Nations and other organizations for their owngain and the developing world's loss.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-iran-aids/
-Ballot Measure Would Cancel Gainesville LGBT Protections
A social conservative voters group opposed to a Gainesville law protectingthe rights of transpeople in employment and housing has mounted a repealeffort that could terminate rights of all LGBT people in the city.
http://www.365gay.com/news/073008-gainesville-ballot/
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Black U.S. AIDS Rates Rival Those of Some African Nations
A new report published by the Black AIDS Institute is intended to raiseawareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over inAmerica, especially not in Black America," reports CNN. "AIDS in Americatoday is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of theinstitute to CNN. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black."
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid58515.asp
-California Town Debates Pride Parade
Residents of Salinas, Calif., located near Monterey, on Tuesday debatedhosting a gay pride parade. Two weeks ago the city's administratorsapproved a permit for a downtown gay pride parade, but dozens of residentson both sides of the issue showed up during the regular city council meetingTuesday to express their opinions.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid58582.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:
-Amendment 2 Will Lead to Tragedy
Mathew Staver, president of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, represents agroup of Californians described as "extremists" who want to go beyondbanning same-sex marriage to "strip away gay rights" of any kind in theGolden State. He also authored Florida's Amendment 2, the November ballotmeasure that would alter our state's constitution to define marriage asbetween only a man and a woman and ban its "substantial equivalent."
-AIDS Hitting Asian Gays at High Rates
HIV infection rates among gay men in many parts of Asia are as severe asthose which devastated US homosexual communities in the late 1980s, topofficials of the UNAIDS agency said here Tuesday. Launching his agency's2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, Peter Piot, UNAIDS executivedirector, urged more action to prevent the spread of the disease among gaymen who have unsafe sex and stressed the importance of working with affectedcommunities.
-NGLCC Welcomes Top Law Firm to LGBT Supplier Diversity Program
Today the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and NGLCCNYannounced the addition of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP, a prestigiousnational law firm with major operations in thirteen U.S. cities includingChicago, New York, and Washington, DC. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP,had joined the organizations in an effort to attract more diversity to thefirm's supply chain, specifically by adding LGBT-owned companies to the mix.
-Anal HPV Common in Hetero Men
Roughly one in four heterosexual men have anal human papillomavirus (HPV)infection and, in many cases, a cancer-causing type of the sexuallytransmitted wart virus is present, a study shows. Certain strains of HPV,which can be transmitted from male to female partners, are responsible formost cases of cervical cancer. Although much is known about HPV infection inwomen, this is not the case in men.
-Gay Congressman Barney Frank Proposes Legalization of Marijuana
Openly gay congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass, announced a proposal onWednesday to make it legal for pot smokers to light up. The proposed HR 5843bill would call an end to federal penalties targeting Americans carryingless than 100 grams of marijuana. "The vast amount of human activity oughtto be none of the government's business," Frank said at a news conference onCapitol Hill, CNN reported. "I don't think it is the government's businessto tell you how to spend your leisure time."
-Risk Behavior Does Not Account For Higher Rates Of HIV In Black MSM
Far higher rates of HIV among black MSM (men who have sex with men) comparedwith white MSM are not accounted for by any significant difference in riskbehavior, according to a large study review by the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC) completed late last year.
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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-John Aravosis: My take--"Mass. House votes to let out-of-state gays marry"
Link: AMERICAblog
I've been saying for years that neither our national groups, nor state-basedadvocates of gay marriage, are preparing for the day when one state will beforced to recognize another's marriages of gay couples. When that day comes,it will be very interesting to see what the "plan" is to convince members ofCongress not to walk. Far too many members of Congress, for my comfortlevel, said they were opposed to the Federal Marriage Amendment because "itwasn't necessary yet." That could change the day Massachusetts lets gaycouples come from all over America to be wed. And I don't hear of anyonedoing any real work at the national level to change the public's, orcongress', mind about marriage.
-"A minister speaks out for marriage equality"
Link: Milpitas Post
Fortunately, the meanings of words change over time. Although it is commonto hear that marriage is the same now as it was 5,000 years ago, this ispatently false. In ancient civilizations marriage was often a propertyexchange rather than a relationship based on love, shared interests, andcommon values. And in Biblical times it was not even a union between one manand one woman, but rather between one man and one or more women. (RememberSolomon's 700 wives?)
-CA: Opinion--"Is this historic or not?"
Link: Ventura County Star
If voters reject Proposition 8, it would be the first time the public hasaffirmed the right of gays and lesbians to marry. In the civil rightsarena, that would be as historic as the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Boardof Education decision - a moment in time when the tide turned againstunequal legal treatment of separate classes of people. At least that's theway opponents of Proposition 8 seek to frame things. Interestingly, it isthe proponents who seek to downplay the significance of Proposition 8, whichwould amend the California Constitution to state that only "marriage betweena man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
-CA: "Group warns Inland pastors about same-sex weddings"
Link: Press-Enterprise
A Sacramento-based conservative legal group arrives in Corona this week towarn local pastors that they might be sued for refusing to host same-sexweddings, and to advise them on how far they can go in supporting a ballotinitiative that would ban same-sex marriage.
-Will Arizona be abandoned?
Link: Box Turtle Bulletin
This is a question I am asked nearly everyday from folks in Arizona and fromfolks around the country. They ask questions like how much support came fromoutside Arizona in 2006? Will anyone outside of Arizona give money this timeto defeat Prop 102? Will anyone inside Arizona give money? How do you feelabout so much money going to California? What about Florida? Can Arizona winthis one too? Do you feel abandoned by those supporting Californiaespecially but also Florida since Arizona is the only state in the nation todefeat an anti-marriage amendment? There is no easy answer to any of thosequestions.
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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Concern for gay Iranian refused asylum in Cyprus
The Commissioner of Administration in Cyprus has warned that a gay Iranianman faces death in his homeland if he is deported.
-Sex determination tests for female Beijing athletes
A decision to test female contenders for the Beijing 2008 Olympics to see ifthey are men has caused uproar
-Transsexual gene identified by scientists
A gene variant has been identified that could explain female-to-maletransexuality.
-"Orthodox Christians" target EuroPride churches
A pastor in Stockholm has revealed that three Lutheran churches in the cityhave been targeted by vandals, apparently because they are supportingEuroPride.
-Gay man re-elected chair of Royal College of Nursing Congress
The world's largest trade union for nurses, the Royal College of Nursing(RCN), has re-elected a gay man as the Chair of the RCN's Annual Congressfor a further two years.
-Estonia debates same-sex partnerships
The Ministry of Justice in Estonia is preparing a draft law which wouldallow same-sex partners to register their cohabitation.
-South African radio host leads protests against homophobic journalist200people protested yesterday outside the Sunday Sun newspaper's offices inJohannesburg against a controversial homophobic article from columnist JonQwelane.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:
-55 Arrested During Raid on "Gay Party" in Saudi Arabia
Police in the Gulf kingdom of Saudi Arabia have launched another raid on aso-called gay party, this time in the coastal Qatif province. Drugs,alcohol were reportedly found at the gathering. TV channel al-Arabiyareports that two young men wearing women's make up and dancing together wereamong 55 people arrested by religious police. Last month more than 20 menafter a raid on another property in Qatif. Quantities of alcohol wereseized at a gathering of young men. Many were initially arrested onhomosexuality charges but later released. The state Commission for thePropagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was acting on a tip off.In Saudi Arabia homosexuality is illegal under sharia, or Islamic Law.
-Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity On Accused Shooter's ReadingList
Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shellboxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked achurch in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," courtrecords show. Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive homeof Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee ValleyUnitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six othersduring the presentation of a children's musical. Knoxville PoliceDepartment Officer Steve Still requested the search warrant afterinterviewing Adkisson. who was subdued by several church members afterfiring three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation.
-Messages That Lead to Murder
By Wayne Besen | Anything But Straight
This week, I attended the Commercial Closet's Images In Advertising Awardsin Manhattan, which honored corporations that produced gay affirming ads.The pro-gay plugs showed genuine progress and highlighted that many leadingcompanies "get it." The work of Commercial Closet is vital because imagesmatter and repeated exposure to messages shape our views and create positivechange in society. The cleverness and creativity in these ads imparts tomillions of people that homosexuality is nothing to be feared and that GLBTpeople are part of the human family.
-Out & Equal to Host 2008 Workplace Summit in Austin, Texas
Keynote Speakers to Include Syndicated Columnist Arianna Huffington andFormer U.S. Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest, among OthersOut & EqualWorkplace Advocates, the only national nonprofit organization exclusivelydedicated to advancing workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender (LGBT) people, expects nearly 3,000 attendees to gather at theAustin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, September 10-13 forthe annual Out& Equal Workplace Summit. For more information or to register, visitwww.outandequal.org. The early bird registration deadline is August 8,2008.
-TN: Neighbors Help Troubled Transgender Woman
To say that 43 year-old Duanna Johnson leads a difficult life would be anunderstatement. At her small, rundown, North Memphis house you'll findcondom wrappers on the ground outside her door.Her power meter is missing.Not that it matters because her electricity was turned off months ago aftershe stopped paying her utility bill. She has one extension cord runningfrom her bedroom window to the neighbor's house. They charge her $20 amonth to plug into their electricity. It powers the single fan Duanna usesto cool her house. And because Johnson has no running water in her home,neighbors often let her use their bathrooms to wash up and take care of herpersonal hygiene."Well, she would come over and talk," says 82 year-oldHattie Mae Benson. "And I mean, it was a good while before I knew what washappening."
-MI: Play About Gay Christians Moves to World Stage
Having grown up gay in the Catholic church, Nathan Gregorski mostlyassociated religion with feelings of rejection. So he said he is excited bythe chance to perform a play about gay Christians for the world's Anglicanbishops this week in Canterbury, England. Gregorski, 22, is part of aWestern Michigan University acting troupe that will perform "Seven Passages," a locally produced play based on the stories of West Michigangays, for many of the 650 bishops attending the once-a-decade LambethConference. "I just hope they get a little bit clearer understanding aboutthe issue and about gay people in general - that gay people are likeeverybody else," said Gregorski, a 2004 graduate of Mason County CentralHigh School and a WMU senior.
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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei Detained in Iran
Sign the petition to free Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei
Physicians for Human Rights today urged the Iranian government to end theincommunicado detention of Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei, two Iranianphysicians who have reportedly been detained in Iran by Iranian authorities.The physicians, who are brothers, were apparently arrested at the end ofJune, 2008 and their current whereabouts are unknown. The doctors areexperts on HIV/AIDS and have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS preventionand treatment activities in Iran and internationally. PHR calls on thegovernment of Iran to disclose their whereabouts, provide them access tolawyers and family, and either to charge them with an internationallyrecognized crime or release them immediately.
http://actnow-phr.org/campaign/iran_free_the_docs
-Execution of 29 people in Evin prison in Iran (July 29, 2008)
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union
The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the 29 simultaneousexecutions which took place in Evin prison, Iran, on Sunday 27 July 2008. Itconsiders that the Iranian regime's action of staging these executions andmaking them the focus of media attention is an affront to human dignity. TheEuropean Union remains convinced that capital punishment cannot form thebasis of a fair and effective prosecution policy: the dissuasive effect ofthis penalty has never been proved and any judicial error is irreversible.
The European Union is deeply concerned by the increasing recourse to thedeath penalty in Iran in recent months. It urges the Iranian authorities toput an end to death sentences and executions, to establish a moratorium witha view to abolishing the death penalty in accordance with the resolutionadopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2007 and torespect international human rights standards for all Iranians.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files_156/iran_301/human-rights-and-iran_6490/death-penalty_6491/execution-of-29-people-in-evin-prison-in-iran-29.07.08_11709.html
-Iran: Risk of stoning of nine Iranians (July 24, 2008)
Declaration of the Presidency on behalf of the European Union
The European Union, which has just reaffirmed to Iran its opposition tocapital punishment under any circumstances, is deeply concerned by thesentencing of eight Iranian women and one Iranian man to stoning and by therisk of their imminent execution. It recalls that the Islamic Republic ofIran pledged to introduce a moratorium on stoning. The European Union urgesIran to abide by its commitments and international human rights standards.
The European Union calls on the Iranian government and parliament toabolish, in law and in practice, recourse to cruel and degrading punishmentand in particular the use of stoning as a method of execution, in accordancewith the latest resolution concerning the situation of human rights in theIslamic Republic of Iran adopted by the United Nations General Assembly inDecember 2007.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files_156/iran_301/human-rights-and-iran_6490/death-penalty_6491/risk-of-stoning-of-nine-iranians-24.07.08_11696.html
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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
-Turkey's Governing Party Avoids Ban
ISTANBUL - Turkey's governing party narrowly missed being banned in a courtruling on Wednesday that released months of pressure in the country andhanded a victory to the party's leader, a former Islamist. The party,Justice and Development, or AKP, as it is know in Turkish, was kept alive byjust one vote - six members of Turkey's Constitutional Court voted to closeit, but seven were required. A ban would have brought down the government,forcing national elections for the second time in a year and pitching thecountry into chaos. "A great uncertainty blocking Turkey's future has beenlifted," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the party,speaking in Ankara, Turkey's capital. The court case was the culmination ofan epic battle between Turkey's secular establishment - a powerful coterieof judges and generals that have deposed elected governments four times inTurkish history - and Mr. Erdogan, a broadly popular politician who saysthat his past as a political Islamist is firmly behind him.
-Not all plain sailing for Gay Pride
Amsterdam is gearing up for the high point of gay pride week this Saturdaywhen lesbians, gays and their friends take part in a boat parade through thecity's canals. More politicians are jumping aboard for Canal Pride, withthree more ministers announcing they intend to take part in the parade.
Their boat will sail under the (English) motto 'Simply Gay'. However,opposition MP Boris van der Ham (pictured below), whose progressive liberalD'66 party has had a boat in the gay parade for years, is trying to make itanything but plain sailing for the government. He welcomes the goodintentions, but says there are "still Dutch laws which discriminate againsthomosexuals". His party wants to amend the article in the constitutionthat outlaws discrimination by adding homosexuals to the list of those whoenjoy constitutional protectection. The Christian Democrat-led rulingcoalition is also under fire for allowing civil servants to opt out ofperforming marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples.
-Peter Tatchell interview while in Northern Ireland regarding statement from
MP and MLA Iris Robinson.
Link to video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7531514.stm
-Greenland's gays fail to measure up to society's expectations
A masculine culture makes homosexuality tougher for men than for womenAn explanation for recent reports that gay Greenlanders are more likelytofind themselves ostracised by their communities than lesbians can befoundin the island's masculine culture, according to one historian. JensRydstöm explained that while lesbians are seen as being able tofulfiltraditional female roles, the discrimination experienced by gays stemsfroma belief that they are incapable performing traditional male roles suchashunting and trapping.
http://sermitsiaq.gl/indland/article48722.ece?lang=EN
-Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex with Men & HIV
To Examine Gaps in HIV/AIDS Research, Care and Prevention atXVIIInternational AIDS Conference
Peter Piot of UNAIDS to Address Over 450 Participants from 80 CountriesGathered to Raise Awareness of Unique Issues Facing Gay MenLos Angeles, Calif., July 30, 2008 - Continuing the work it began at itslaunch at AIDS 2006, The Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex with Men & HIV(MSMGF) today announced a full program of activities at the XVIIInternational AIDS Conference - to be held in Mexico City August 3-8 - tobring much-needed attention to a population at heightened risk for HIVinfection around the globe. MSMGF will hold a pre-conference satellitefocused on MSM and HIV on Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 2, with ajust-announced address and question and answer session from Peter Piot,executive director of UNAIDS, scheduled for August 1 at 1:30 p.m. (CDT).MSMGF will hold a press conference to recap its satellite at noon onWednesday, August 6 in the XVII International AIDS Conference Media Center.
In addition, MSMGF will exhibit at the AIDS 2008 Global Village, re-launchits online presence with a new Web site and participate in a first-everinternational march against stigma, discrimination and anti-homophobia setfor August 2. "As the eyes of the world focus on AIDS in August, we want toensure that the dire situation facing men who have sex with men, theircommunities and, ultimately, their governments, is addressed head-on at AIDS2008," said Don Baxter, executive director of the Australian Federation ofAIDS Organizations and a co-chair of MSMGF's Steering Committee. "The impactof HIV on MSM cannot be overlooked, and there is an urgent need forinternational action now."
www.msmandhiv.org.
-Children's books become ideological battleground in Sweden
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Two new publishing houses for children's books havesparkeddebate in gender-equal Sweden over their professed aim of instillingthecountry's open-minded social values in the next generation. "Our goal isfor all people, regardless of gender, sexuality, ethnicity orother suchthings, to have the freedom to create their own identity and berespected fortheir personal qualities," said Karin Salmson, the co-founderof the newVilda publishing house. But several critics are outraged, saying they aresimply pushing propaganda disguised as literature. Vilda and another smallpublisher, Olika, both opened their doors last yearwith the express aim ofmaking children's books that promote liberal valuesand challenge traditionalviews on gender, race and sexual orientation.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3W-Qb1YrytPS23Mch8hzqIc6Nqw
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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
-Young Voters Use Online Video Platform to Voice Concerns About Human
andCivil Rights
Human and civil rights are a key issue for young people
WASHINGTON - In response to record-setting young voter turnout this year,Campus Progress Action has launched I'mVoting For, an online videotestimonial project that gives young people aplatform to talk about howtheir personal experiences and passion for theissues are driving them to thepolls. Young people aren't turning out just because of a particularcandidate -they are reacting to important issues like health care, the warin Iraq, andcivil rights. And of the hundreds of videos on the I'm VotingFor website,human and civil rights are consistently one of the top issuesthat youngvoters identify as their primary concern, often citing a need forimmediategovernment action.
http://www.imvotingfor.org/
-The Worst Kept "Secret" In Public Health
For more than a year, U.S. federal officials have attempted-sometimesinvain-to quell rumors that the number of new HIV infections in the UnitedStates is on the rise. The Washington Blade first broke the story inNovember2007, reporting that the CDC was poised to raise the officialestimate forthe number of HIV infections believed to occur in the UnitedStates to arange as high as 58,000 to 63,000 per year-a greater than 50percent increaseover the current estimate of 40,000 annual HIV infections. By December2007, World AIDS Day media coverage in The New York Times, TheWashingtonPost, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and other outletsamplified theleaks. They also described growing frustration among AIDScommunity advocateswith delays in making the important research findingspublic.
http://www.aids2008.com/blog/40
-FCC's Porn-Free Broadband Plan Draws Fire from Public Interest GroupsAgency could face lawsuits if proposal passes. More than half a dozenadvocacy groups ranging from liberal to libertarian agree on one thing: theproposal for a porn-free national broadband service put forth by FederalCommunications Commission Chair Kevin Martin is "unconstitutional andunwise." The Friday filing illustrates the plan as a "government mandated'blacklist' of websites." The filtering system would restrict the system"so dramatically that the usefulness of the service would be radicallyreduced."
http://avn.com/internet/articles/31498.html
-Michigan lawmakers look to expand hate-crime laws
Lansing Police Chief: "We need to send a strong message"
Lawmakers and law enforcement both say it is time to get tough onhatecrimes. Legislation spearheaded by Rep. Paul Condino (D-Southfield)wouldexpand Michigan's hate-crime law to include additional classes ofpeople. Vowing to get it through the current lame-duck session of the house,Condinointroduced legislation on Thursday that would add intimidation ofgays andlesbians and people with disabilities to the hate-crime list. Themeasurewould also bring stiffer penalties to those who do thingscommonlyassociated with bias and prejudice, such as hanging a noose orburning across on someone's property. While the measure is expected to passin the House, its future in the Senate is uncertain. State Senator HansenClark stood by Condino and the otherspushing for the change. The DetroitDemocrat said, "I want to send themessage that we need to be tolerant ofeveryone's differences. We also wantto attract jobs. We want to show thatMichigan is a welcoming, acceptingstate of everyone." He said he will do hisbest to convince the Senate thatthis is the right thing to do.
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1620
-Don't Ask Don't Tell - Jon Stewart (beyond humorous)and The Daily Showcommentary (and video)
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6307
-Max Hardcore's Motion for New Trial Denied
TAMPA, Fla. - In an order issued today, U.S. District Court JudgeSusanBucklew has denied the motion by defendants Paul Little (a.k.a.Maxhardcore) and Max World Entertainment for a new trial and/or a judgmentofacquittal for the charges upon which they were convicted on June 5. Littleand Max World had been charged with interstate transportation ofobscenematerial and of posting obscene material on the Internet. Among themultiple bases for new trial or acquittal contained in the defensemotion,authored by Max World attorney Jennifer Kinsley, were threeinstances of juryirregularities; charges of bias against the defendantsallegedly committed byJudge Bucklew herself; failure of the prosecution toproduce enough evidencefor the defendants to be found guilty; and severallegal issues based on theSupreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.
http://avn.com/law/articles/31474.html
-Many Stories, One Voice
The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians inNew Orleans, La., Sept. 4-7
Many Stories, One Voice: The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBTChristians is a conference that will offer new tools and training intheareas of faith-based community organizing, media training,boarddevelopment, fund-raising, research, biblical studies,theology,capacity-building and other concrete skills. Participants will alsoengagein discussions about issues of race, class, ability, age,embodiment,gender identity and sexual orientation.
Register online at http://www.manystoriesonevoice.org/
-VICE PRESIDENT TIM KAINE?
Pros and Cons of a New Dominion Decision
Larry J. SabatoDirector, U.Va. Center for Politics
We have no earthly idea if Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is Obama's choiceforVice President. All we know is that distinguished reporters who claimtohave good sources are calling and saying that Kaine is on theshort-shortlist. Since the Crystal Ball is based in Virginia, and since wehave followed Tim Kaine's career since it began on the Richmond City Councilin 1994, we'lloffer our readers a brief precis on what Kaine would add tothe ticket, andwhat he would not, should the rumors prove accurate. As withall potential Veep picks, there are pluses and minuses. Let's startwithKaine's advantages:
tp://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=LJS2008072901
-Social issues crowd state ballots
Besides electing a president on Nov. 4, voters in some key battlegroundstates also will face divisive social policy choices, including whether toban gay marriage in Florida and restrict affirmative action and abortion inColorado. Michigan voters may be asked to end a 30-year-old ban onstem-cell research that destroys human embryos. Ohioans may decide whethersick workers should be guaranteed paid leave. Missouri voters' attitudestoward immigrants will be tested by a measure to declare English theofficial state language. In Washington, voters may get to weigh whether tojoin Oregon in legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=328253
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Gay & Lesbian Leadership SmartBrier
http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Pelosi proud of her "San Francisco values"
The GOP's condemnation of so-called "San Francisco values" to inspire moregiving from its supporters doesn't sit well with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,who represents the city, according to this blog posting. "I think theyhighlight [San Francisco values] because they are the forces that arefighting health insurance for our children[,] ... they are the forces thatare fighting increases in the minimum wage," Pelosi said. "So when they sortof use their winks and nods about San Francisco values, they are talkingabout the fact that we respect our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendercommunity. But what they are really afraid of is economic justice." TheHuffington Post (7/28)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/pelosi-san-francisco-valu_n_115344.html
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Anything but Straight
http://www.waynebesen.com/
-Wayne Besen Vs. Bill O'Reilly On Snickers Ad [video]
http://www.waynebesen.com/2008/07/wayne-besen-vs-bill-oreilly-on-snickers.html
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Ft. Lauderdale: ArtsUnited Features Paintings by James Goodson in August
ArtsUnited will feature the paintings of local artist James Goodson in soloexhibit at the Stonewall Library and Archives from August 4 through 29,2008. The library is located at 1717 North Andrews Avenue in FortLauderdale, FL. The exhibit opens with a reception to meet the artist from6:30 to 8:00 PM on Monday, August 4th. Admission to the exhibit andreception are free and open to the public. As a teen, James Goodson beganstudying dance, drama and play writing at Baylor University. Work in fashiondesign and retail and wholesale display followed. Later James studiedcomputer applications and digital photography. He recently retired from NSUwhere he worked in Media Services. In addition to his photography andpaintings, James has published two books - a collection of poetry and ateen/tween novella. His art has been featured in a number of venuesthroughout Broward County.
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HeartStrong
http://www.heartstrong.org
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-We just completed our Minnesota Outreach and Educational Trip. Now weare gearing up for the second part of our summer O/E trip in Colorado. Wewillbe spending just over two weeks in the states. While Colorado tends to getalot of attention for some of its anti-GLBTresidents and organizations,there are relatively few religious schools.However, every two years or so wereturn to the state to do more of ourlife saving work.
MORE INFO ABOUT COLORADO RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
Colorado has about 55,000 students enrolled in religious k-12 schools.Thosestudents are spread out among approximately 232 religious schools. [...]Finally we are still working on raising money for this upcoming trip.Infact we are still behind about $500 from our trip to MN and needabout$2000. for this Colorado trip. If you are able to help you can makeyourdonation securely online at http://www.heartstrong.org or by mailingyourdonation to HeartStrong, PO Box 2051, Seattle WA 98111. Everything helps! We appreciate everyone's support as we continue onour23rd outreach trip since 1998.
Marc Adams
http://www.heartstrong.org
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Forwarded from Bill Sterling
whaterling1@yahoo.com
-Mulling a Troubling Murder
NEWSWEEK's cover story provoked a fierce debate over homosexuality,harassment and a school's obligation to police its students. Larry King wasan openly gay 15-year-old who was shot dead by one of his middle-schoolclassmates. Could the school have done anything to stop it? That is thequestion NEWSWEEK tackled in "Young, Gay and Murdered," the cover story thisweek. The article drew a massive response online--more than 4,000 commentswere posted through the week. Many responded to reporter Ramin Setoodeh'sassertion that Larry "was a troubled child who flaunted his sexuality andwielded it like a weapon."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/148817
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From Transgender Equality
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Greeley, CO: 9NEWS has learned the man arrested in the murder ofan18-year-old transgender person was on date with who he thought was agirl.Police say when the suspect discovered his date was actually aman, he killedher. Alan Ray Andrade, 31, was arrested in Thornton on Tuesday and facessecond-degree murder and aggravated motor vehicle theft charges. In anarrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS Andrade admits to police tokilling AngieZapata, 20, who was living as a woman but born as JustinZapata.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=96741&catid=339#comments
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - July 31, 2008
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-A Senate Lion Brought Down
The lesson in the indictment of Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens strikes at theheart of the back-scratching political culture of Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31thu1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
-For Your Displeasure
By Chris Suellentrop
Ed Kilgore of The Democratic Strategist says Barack Obama is almost certainto "displease a significant number of people" when he picks his runningmate: "If it's true, as the CW holds today, that Obama's pretty much down toa choice of Kaine, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, or Kathleen Sebelius, there's not aname in that group who wouldn't displease a significant number of people."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/for-your-displeasure/index.html?ref=opinion
-Grow Your Own
"Edible landscape" seems to be going head to head with "staycation" as themost popular catch phrase of Summer 2008. Lawns may not be disappearingbefore our very eyes, but citizens are definitely swapping out blades ofgrass for bushels of beans in increasing numbers. Take me for instance, abona fide city dweller: As a follow up to my column in March on thereclamation of urban and suburban land for agricultural use, I've spent thelast several weeks putting theory into practice, literally getting my handsdirty (and whatever other cliché I can unearth) in the interest of urbanagriculture.
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/grow-your-own/index.html?ref=opinion
-Editorial: A Fresh Start With Pakistan
Pakistan's new civilian prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is in Washingtonthis week for what we are sure will be a difficult set of meetings. Mr.Gilani's constituents deeply resent the United States for propping up andenabling their former dictator, Pervez Musharraf. President Bush, whodirected that enabling, must have his own serious doubts about Mr. Gilani'swillingness to fight Taliban and Qaeda forces that are using Pakistan as asafe haven.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/opinion/28mon1.html?ref=opinion
-With Commercial, McCain Gets Much More Than His Money's Worth
The number of times Senator John McCain's new advertisement attackingSenator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germanylast week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cablenewscasts: well into the hundreds. The number of times that spot actually,truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30ads.html
-Bluff Called, Karadzic Awaits Trial in U.N. Cell
THE HAGUE - Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who wastransferred early Wednesday from Serbia to a jail cell near here, willappear in public court on Thursday for the first time to answer charges ofgenocide and war crimes. Open to spectators and recorded by an officialcourt camera, the hearing will begin legal proceedings against him, as wellas offer a first public glimpse of the man who evaded capture for 13 years,most recently hiding behind a bushy beard and white hair as a practitionerof alternative medicine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/europe/31hague.html
-China to Limit Web Access During Olympic Games
BEIJING - The International Olympic Committee failed to press China to allowfully unfettered access to the Internet for the thousands of journalistsarriving here to cover the Olympics, despite promising repeatedly that theforeign news media could "report freely" during the Games, Olympic officialsacknowledged Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/sports/olympics/31china.html
-A New Generation of Republicans in Alaska
For the first time in four decades, politics in Alaska is a brand-new gamefor both Republicans and Democrats because of the indictment of Senator TedStevens, the state's longtime Republican patriarch. Gov. Sarah Palin was apolitical upstart and Mr. Stevens was still the powerful, irascible seniorsenator from Alaska, delivering billions of federal dollars to his homestate, when federal agents raided the offices of six state legislators twoyears ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/us/politics/31alaska.html?hp
-Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart
The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count. At a schoolwhere economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender.Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions; he turned them down.While most colleagues published by the pound, he never completed a singlework of legal scholarship.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html
-Shorts Crack the Code
FIRST came Casual Fridays, that dread episode in the history of fashion,with their invitation for men to trade in suits for Dockers and to swap aproper shirt and tie for an open neck and a daring flash of masculinedécolletage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts.html
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-When Congress Works
If you were to ask Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd -- the principalarchitects of the massive housing bill signed yesterday by President Bush --which of its many features pleases them most, the answer would surprise you.It is not the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the embattled mortgagegiants, or the aid the bill provides for thousands of homeowners strugglingto afford their subprime loans in a faltering real estate market.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002950.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Workers' Religious Freedom vs. Patients' Rights
Proposal Would Deny Federal Money if Employees Must Provide Care to WhichThey Object
A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health-care workers whoobject to abortion, and to birth-control methods they consider tantamount toabortion, has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religiousfreedom and patients' rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073003246.html?hpid=topnews
-One Billion Lives
A global initiative aims to keep tobacco from ravaging the developing world.DISEASES CAUSED by tobacco killed an estimated 100 million people during the20th century and could kill 1 billion in the 21st if nothing is done torestrain tobacco companies from pushing their products in the developingworld. Those companies show no sign of slowing their marketing campaigns ontheir own; Philip Morris International's sales, for example, were up 18.5percent this year over the same period last year in Eastern Europe, theMiddle East and Africa. Tobacco companies are bringing a new public healthdisaster to countries that can least afford one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002908.html
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Studies link missing DNA to risk of schizophrenia
Two huge international studies show that people who lack certain chunks ofDNA run a dramatically higher risk of getting schizophrenia, a finding thatcould help open new doors to understanding and diagnosing the disease.These deletions are rare, each found in less than 1 percent of schizophreniapatients. But each one boosts the risk of disease by as much as 15-fold, byone estimate.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flaschizophrenia031sbjul31,0,2903539.story
-Effort to get Obama to pick Clinton as his No. 2 ends with conclusion shewon't be picked
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-obama-clinton,0,3125588.story
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-POLITICAL HIRING REPORT REQUIRES FURTHER INVESTIGATION
The most damning part of the report on political hiring within theJusticeDepartment is the evidence of a systematic, deliberate effort tobreak downthe walls between law enforcement and politics that was fullyencouraged byPresident Bush's White House. It defies belief to think thatzealous mid-level operatives like Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson couldengage in outrageous, clearly improper political vetting of candidates forJusticeDepartment jobs without the explicit consent, if not direction,ofhigher-ups. The report of the department's inspector general shows thattheWhite House was actively involved in hiring decisions, even to the pointofdeveloping a ''seminar'' on how to weed out those deemed
politicallysuspect.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/622644.html
-Tear down the walls in the West Bank
By YOUSEF MUNAYYER
Before leaving Israel last week, Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obamatold reporters that, if elected, he plans to immediately engage inpeacemaking efforts between Israelis and Palestinians, based on theprinciple of two states for two peoples. However, before Obama's planelanded in Germany for his next stop, an Israeli government panel approvedthe building of a new settlement deep inside the West Bank's Jordan Valley.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/622654.html
-THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Do Latin Americans pay fewer taxes? Sure
It's official: Latin Americans pay fewer taxes than people in almost anyother region of the world. Two new studies by the United Nations EconomicCommission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) say that LatinAmerican governments' tax collection is not only way below that of theworld's 30 most industrialized countries, but also lower than that ofSoutheast Asia and Africa.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/624097.html
-The liberals made him do it
by Leonard Pitts
Had it not been liberals, it would have been something else. Let's grantthat from the beginning. Broken people, after all, can always find someequally broken rationale for the carnage they cause. And the brokenness of58-year-old Jim Adkisson can hardly be doubted after he walked into aUnitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday and, accordingto police, shot eight people, killing two.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/622640.html
-BBC banned but pornography for sale in Beijing Olympics village
London, July 29 : Athletes staying in the Beijing Olympics athletesvillagewill be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography, butcannotwatch the Chinese news page of the BBC as it is still banned. Theblocking of politically sensitive sites, including those dealing with Tibetand Taiwan, remained in place today despite government assurancesthatcensorship would be lifted during the Games, The Telegraph reported.The ban is in contrast to the more liberal attitude of the Games villagebookshop, which sells erotic books featuring provocative pictures of nakedwomen with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude".
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-2910.html
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Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-CASE IN POINT: Hong v. Grant (2007)
When It Comes to Free Speech, Is a Professor Just Another GovernmentEmployee? A case pending in a federal court of appeals in California mayclarify a surprisingly murky question: Do faculty members at publicuniversities enjoy a special privilege to speak freely about institutionalmatters, or, as far as the First Amendment is concerned, are they justanother category of government hirelings?
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=DTyDX5bkpDbbV4pDRHkW2wYhGsdbK5xd
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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-BARACK STAR: WILL McCAIN'S ATTACKS BACKFIRE?
"The new McCain ad depicts Obama as a celebrity akin to Britney Spears andParis Hilton -- pretty, pampered . . . not up for being president," ABC'sJake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "Now Obama iscasting McCain -- who already has a reputation for having a temper -- asnegative and angry."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1
-Oil Boom: Exxon Breaks Record for Profits by U.S. Company
Buoyed by High Oil Prices, ExxonMobil Reports $11.68B Profits
Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, thebiggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results fellwell short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell in premarket trading.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/PainAtThePump/story?id=5487220
-Poll: Obama, McCain tied in Ohio, Florida
THE RACE: The presidential race in Florida
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/31/poll_obama_mccain_tied_in_ohio_florida/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
-Obama's remarks spark a skirmish
The latest skirmish over whether Barack Obama is being presumptuous revolvedyesterday about what exactly he told congressional Democrats in a pep talk.The Washington Post reported that in the closed meeting Tuesday evening,Obama talked about his triumphant visit to Europe and declared, "I havebecome a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our besttraditions."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/31/obamas_remarks_spark_a_skirmish/
-Obama's best strategy? Attack
McCain's 'maverick' myth and ties to Bush should be prime targets. Ifyou've heard anything at all about John McCain during the last few weeks,what you've probably heard is that he's losing. His advisors hate eachother, the media are ignoring him, and he's getting photographed in golfcarts and supermarket cheese aisles while his opponent strikes Kennedyesqueposes.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-chait31-2008jul31,0,4864579.story?track=rss
-Fox News, Pat Buchanan get 'Thumbs Down'
As part of the UNITY convention, the National Association of Black Journalists have released their annual Thumbs Down awards -- handed toindividuals or media organizations taking actions at odds with the effortsof NABJ to spread fair and comprehesive coverage of minorities.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/07/fox-news-and-pa.html
-In presidential fundraising ranks, a gender gap is showing
In a historic election in which a woman almost won the Democraticnomination, men dominate the ranks of elite fundraisers in the presidentialrace, a USA TODAY analysis shows. Women account for 59 out of more than 500top fundraisers in Republican John McCain's campaign. Democrat Barack Obamahas 148 female fundraisers out of more than 500.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-30-gender_N.htm?csp=34
-McCain's Tax Blunder
One of the miracles of this Presidential election campaign is that JohnMcCain still has a chance to win, notwithstanding his best attempts to kickit away. In his latest random policy improvisation, the Arizona Senatortried to give up the tax issue.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737539116495163.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
-Q&A on mortgage rescue bill
Bush signs legislation to aid many distressed homeowners.
President Bush signed a housing bill Wednesday intended to rescue about 15percent of the cash-strapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure in the nextyear or so. Early in the morning and out of public view, the presidentsigned it without fanfare in the Oval Office, adding his signature to ameasure he once threatened to veto. The White House said he was accompaniedby Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Housing and Urban Development SecretarySteve Preston and other administration officials.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/BIZ01/807310346&imw=Y
-Scraping the bottom of the oil barrel a significant new climate riskExploitation of North America's shale and tar-sand oil reserves couldincrease atmospheric CO2 levels by up to 15%, a new report from WWF-UK andthe major UK financial group Co-Operative Financial Services (CFS) haswarned.
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/37783
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-A Senate Lion Brought Down
The lesson in the indictment of Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens strikes at theheart of the back-scratching political culture of Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31thu1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
-For Your Displeasure
By Chris Suellentrop
Ed Kilgore of The Democratic Strategist says Barack Obama is almost certainto "displease a significant number of people" when he picks his runningmate: "If it's true, as the CW holds today, that Obama's pretty much down toa choice of Kaine, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, or Kathleen Sebelius, there's not aname in that group who wouldn't displease a significant number of people."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/for-your-displeasure/index.html?ref=opinion
-Grow Your Own
"Edible landscape" seems to be going head to head with "staycation" as themost popular catch phrase of Summer 2008. Lawns may not be disappearingbefore our very eyes, but citizens are definitely swapping out blades ofgrass for bushels of beans in increasing numbers. Take me for instance, abona fide city dweller: As a follow up to my column in March on thereclamation of urban and suburban land for agricultural use, I've spent thelast several weeks putting theory into practice, literally getting my handsdirty (and whatever other cliché I can unearth) in the interest of urbanagriculture.
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/grow-your-own/index.html?ref=opinion
-Editorial: A Fresh Start With Pakistan
Pakistan's new civilian prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is in Washingtonthis week for what we are sure will be a difficult set of meetings. Mr.Gilani's constituents deeply resent the United States for propping up andenabling their former dictator, Pervez Musharraf. President Bush, whodirected that enabling, must have his own serious doubts about Mr. Gilani'swillingness to fight Taliban and Qaeda forces that are using Pakistan as asafe haven.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/opinion/28mon1.html?ref=opinion
-With Commercial, McCain Gets Much More Than His Money's Worth
The number of times Senator John McCain's new advertisement attackingSenator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germanylast week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cablenewscasts: well into the hundreds. The number of times that spot actually,truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30ads.html
-Bluff Called, Karadzic Awaits Trial in U.N. Cell
THE HAGUE - Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who wastransferred early Wednesday from Serbia to a jail cell near here, willappear in public court on Thursday for the first time to answer charges ofgenocide and war crimes. Open to spectators and recorded by an officialcourt camera, the hearing will begin legal proceedings against him, as wellas offer a first public glimpse of the man who evaded capture for 13 years,most recently hiding behind a bushy beard and white hair as a practitionerof alternative medicine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/europe/31hague.html
-China to Limit Web Access During Olympic Games
BEIJING - The International Olympic Committee failed to press China to allowfully unfettered access to the Internet for the thousands of journalistsarriving here to cover the Olympics, despite promising repeatedly that theforeign news media could "report freely" during the Games, Olympic officialsacknowledged Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/sports/olympics/31china.html
-A New Generation of Republicans in Alaska
For the first time in four decades, politics in Alaska is a brand-new gamefor both Republicans and Democrats because of the indictment of Senator TedStevens, the state's longtime Republican patriarch. Gov. Sarah Palin was apolitical upstart and Mr. Stevens was still the powerful, irascible seniorsenator from Alaska, delivering billions of federal dollars to his homestate, when federal agents raided the offices of six state legislators twoyears ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/us/politics/31alaska.html?hp
-Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart
The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count. At a schoolwhere economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender.Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions; he turned them down.While most colleagues published by the pound, he never completed a singlework of legal scholarship.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html
-Shorts Crack the Code
FIRST came Casual Fridays, that dread episode in the history of fashion,with their invitation for men to trade in suits for Dockers and to swap aproper shirt and tie for an open neck and a daring flash of masculinedécolletage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts.html
=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-When Congress Works
If you were to ask Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd -- the principalarchitects of the massive housing bill signed yesterday by President Bush --which of its many features pleases them most, the answer would surprise you.It is not the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the embattled mortgagegiants, or the aid the bill provides for thousands of homeowners strugglingto afford their subprime loans in a faltering real estate market.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002950.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Workers' Religious Freedom vs. Patients' Rights
Proposal Would Deny Federal Money if Employees Must Provide Care to WhichThey Object
A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health-care workers whoobject to abortion, and to birth-control methods they consider tantamount toabortion, has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religiousfreedom and patients' rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073003246.html?hpid=topnews
-One Billion Lives
A global initiative aims to keep tobacco from ravaging the developing world.DISEASES CAUSED by tobacco killed an estimated 100 million people during the20th century and could kill 1 billion in the 21st if nothing is done torestrain tobacco companies from pushing their products in the developingworld. Those companies show no sign of slowing their marketing campaigns ontheir own; Philip Morris International's sales, for example, were up 18.5percent this year over the same period last year in Eastern Europe, theMiddle East and Africa. Tobacco companies are bringing a new public healthdisaster to countries that can least afford one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002908.html
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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-Studies link missing DNA to risk of schizophrenia
Two huge international studies show that people who lack certain chunks ofDNA run a dramatically higher risk of getting schizophrenia, a finding thatcould help open new doors to understanding and diagnosing the disease.These deletions are rare, each found in less than 1 percent of schizophreniapatients. But each one boosts the risk of disease by as much as 15-fold, byone estimate.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flaschizophrenia031sbjul31,0,2903539.story
-Effort to get Obama to pick Clinton as his No. 2 ends with conclusion shewon't be picked
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-obama-clinton,0,3125588.story
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
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-POLITICAL HIRING REPORT REQUIRES FURTHER INVESTIGATION
The most damning part of the report on political hiring within theJusticeDepartment is the evidence of a systematic, deliberate effort tobreak downthe walls between law enforcement and politics that was fullyencouraged byPresident Bush's White House. It defies belief to think thatzealous mid-level operatives like Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson couldengage in outrageous, clearly improper political vetting of candidates forJusticeDepartment jobs without the explicit consent, if not direction,ofhigher-ups. The report of the department's inspector general shows thattheWhite House was actively involved in hiring decisions, even to the pointofdeveloping a ''seminar'' on how to weed out those deemed
politicallysuspect.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/622644.html
-Tear down the walls in the West Bank
By YOUSEF MUNAYYER
Before leaving Israel last week, Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obamatold reporters that, if elected, he plans to immediately engage inpeacemaking efforts between Israelis and Palestinians, based on theprinciple of two states for two peoples. However, before Obama's planelanded in Germany for his next stop, an Israeli government panel approvedthe building of a new settlement deep inside the West Bank's Jordan Valley.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/622654.html
-THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Do Latin Americans pay fewer taxes? Sure
It's official: Latin Americans pay fewer taxes than people in almost anyother region of the world. Two new studies by the United Nations EconomicCommission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) say that LatinAmerican governments' tax collection is not only way below that of theworld's 30 most industrialized countries, but also lower than that ofSoutheast Asia and Africa.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/624097.html
-The liberals made him do it
by Leonard Pitts
Had it not been liberals, it would have been something else. Let's grantthat from the beginning. Broken people, after all, can always find someequally broken rationale for the carnage they cause. And the brokenness of58-year-old Jim Adkisson can hardly be doubted after he walked into aUnitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday and, accordingto police, shot eight people, killing two.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/622640.html
-BBC banned but pornography for sale in Beijing Olympics village
London, July 29 : Athletes staying in the Beijing Olympics athletesvillagewill be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography, butcannotwatch the Chinese news page of the BBC as it is still banned. Theblocking of politically sensitive sites, including those dealing with Tibetand Taiwan, remained in place today despite government assurancesthatcensorship would be lifted during the Games, The Telegraph reported.The ban is in contrast to the more liberal attitude of the Games villagebookshop, which sells erotic books featuring provocative pictures of nakedwomen with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude".
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-2910.html
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Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/
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-CASE IN POINT: Hong v. Grant (2007)
When It Comes to Free Speech, Is a Professor Just Another GovernmentEmployee? A case pending in a federal court of appeals in California mayclarify a surprisingly murky question: Do faculty members at publicuniversities enjoy a special privilege to speak freely about institutionalmatters, or, as far as the First Amendment is concerned, are they justanother category of government hirelings?
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=DTyDX5bkpDbbV4pDRHkW2wYhGsdbK5xd
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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-BARACK STAR: WILL McCAIN'S ATTACKS BACKFIRE?
"The new McCain ad depicts Obama as a celebrity akin to Britney Spears andParis Hilton -- pretty, pampered . . . not up for being president," ABC'sJake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "Now Obama iscasting McCain -- who already has a reputation for having a temper -- asnegative and angry."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1
-Oil Boom: Exxon Breaks Record for Profits by U.S. Company
Buoyed by High Oil Prices, ExxonMobil Reports $11.68B Profits
Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, thebiggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results fellwell short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell in premarket trading.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/PainAtThePump/story?id=5487220
-Poll: Obama, McCain tied in Ohio, Florida
THE RACE: The presidential race in Florida
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/31/poll_obama_mccain_tied_in_ohio_florida/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
-Obama's remarks spark a skirmish
The latest skirmish over whether Barack Obama is being presumptuous revolvedyesterday about what exactly he told congressional Democrats in a pep talk.The Washington Post reported that in the closed meeting Tuesday evening,Obama talked about his triumphant visit to Europe and declared, "I havebecome a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our besttraditions."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/31/obamas_remarks_spark_a_skirmish/
-Obama's best strategy? Attack
McCain's 'maverick' myth and ties to Bush should be prime targets. Ifyou've heard anything at all about John McCain during the last few weeks,what you've probably heard is that he's losing. His advisors hate eachother, the media are ignoring him, and he's getting photographed in golfcarts and supermarket cheese aisles while his opponent strikes Kennedyesqueposes.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-chait31-2008jul31,0,4864579.story?track=rss
-Fox News, Pat Buchanan get 'Thumbs Down'
As part of the UNITY convention, the National Association of Black Journalists have released their annual Thumbs Down awards -- handed toindividuals or media organizations taking actions at odds with the effortsof NABJ to spread fair and comprehesive coverage of minorities.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/07/fox-news-and-pa.html
-In presidential fundraising ranks, a gender gap is showing
In a historic election in which a woman almost won the Democraticnomination, men dominate the ranks of elite fundraisers in the presidentialrace, a USA TODAY analysis shows. Women account for 59 out of more than 500top fundraisers in Republican John McCain's campaign. Democrat Barack Obamahas 148 female fundraisers out of more than 500.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-30-gender_N.htm?csp=34
-McCain's Tax Blunder
One of the miracles of this Presidential election campaign is that JohnMcCain still has a chance to win, notwithstanding his best attempts to kickit away. In his latest random policy improvisation, the Arizona Senatortried to give up the tax issue.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737539116495163.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
-Q&A on mortgage rescue bill
Bush signs legislation to aid many distressed homeowners.
President Bush signed a housing bill Wednesday intended to rescue about 15percent of the cash-strapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure in the nextyear or so. Early in the morning and out of public view, the presidentsigned it without fanfare in the Oval Office, adding his signature to ameasure he once threatened to veto. The White House said he was accompaniedby Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Housing and Urban Development SecretarySteve Preston and other administration officials.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/BIZ01/807310346&imw=Y
-Scraping the bottom of the oil barrel a significant new climate riskExploitation of North America's shale and tar-sand oil reserves couldincrease atmospheric CO2 levels by up to 15%, a new report from WWF-UK andthe major UK financial group Co-Operative Financial Services (CFS) haswarned.
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/37783
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