GLBT DIGEST - January 02, 2009

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

-Portland: Largest US city with openly gay mayor
By MARY HUDETZ
Portland became the nation's largest city with an openly gay mayor Thursday as a longtime City Hall insider took the oath of office. Sam Adams, 45, was sworn into office at 12:01 a.m. New Year's Day at City Hall during a ceremony attended by a crowd of about 40 that included his mother and his partner.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101993.html

-Obama's Team Rankles the Right
To Some Conservatives, Advisers Are Alarmingly Liberal
By Carol D. Leonnig
To some staunch conservatives watching President Bush relinquish the reins of power to President-elect Barack Obama, a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101832.html

-Former R.I. Senator Claiborne Pell, 90; Sponsored Grant Program
Claiborne Pell, 90, a six-term Rhode Island Democrat who rose to be chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, died Jan. 1 at his Newport, R.I., home. He had had Parkinson's disease since 1994. [...] In 1993, amid a debate over the nomination of Roberta Achtenberg, who was gay, to be an assistant secretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sen. Pell impressed his colleagues when he took to the Senate floor to announce that one of his daughters, Julia L. W. Pell, was gay. "I would not want to see her barred from a government job because of her orientation," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101521.html


-In 2009 Religion Will Cause More Trouble and Be In More Trouble
by Deepak Chopra
Organized religion has been in decline in every developed country for decades. It has lost the culture wars, the scientific wars, and as the schism in the Episcopal Church over gay bishops evidences, quite a few moral wars. The best that religion can hope for is to live comfortably side by side with secular society. Other than that, 2009 will witness the same decline in status and membership as in previous years, with intermittent increases in the sector of fundamentalism. Now that fundamentalism has become a dreaded word in every troubled part of the globe, the taint of extremism may harm that movement as well.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/2008/12/in_2009_religion_will_cause_mo.html


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

-2 men, 2 teens held in gang rape of lesbian near San Francisco; authorities call it hate crime
By Associated Press
Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-lesbian-rape,0,4873181.story


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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Saudis beheaded for raping a man
RIYADH: Two Saudis were beheaded by the sword in Saudi Arabia yesterday after being convicted of raping a man, the interior ministry said. Nasser Al-Harby and Majid Al-Sibeiy entered a room of the unidentified man while he was sleeping before beating him, tying him up and raping him, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. The beheadings in the capital Riyadh bring to 100 the total number of executions this year in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.
http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/


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Gay American Heroes Foundation Update.
www.GayAmericanHeroes.com
Go to this link for the following articles:

-7 GAY MURDERS IN DECEMBER 2008.
1 LGBT MURDER EVERY 9 DAYS IN 2008.
19 States Do NOT Report LGBT MURDERS.

-Please watch Christine Oleary, 2 minute video.
www.iamgay.tv/video/2108675:Video:7295

-See the 1 minute 3-D Video of our Memorial
www.vimeo.com/2334727

-$11,000 REWARD
Richmond police investigate rape as hate crime.
www.gayamericanheroes.info/Rewardrape.html

-Nevada: 2 Teens Murder Gay School Teacher "Gay Panic "
A 17-year-old who told police that he and his brother strangled a high school choir teacher said the teacher made him uncomfortable with sexual advances the night the teens killed him, according to an arrest report. The juvenile and his 18-year-old brother were being held Tuesday in the Dec. 21 slaying of Matthew Cox, 32, who taught at Basic High School in Henderson. The youth told police that he and his brother were at Cox's home in Henderson, with his brother downstairs playing video games while he was upstairs with Cox. The 17-year-old told investigators that while upstairs Cox "started to get sexual with him," making him uncomfortable. The youth said in the report that he and his brother strangled Cox in his Volkswagen Beetle after Cox drove the boys home.


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Truth Wins Out - TWO
by Wayne Besen
http://www.truthwinsout.org/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-It is hard to believe that another year has passed. Thanks to your help, Truth Wins Out (TWO) had a significant impact in 2008. When our community was attacked with anti-gay lies, Truth Wins Out was consistently there to passionately defend us. We stood up to the "ex-gay" myth and educated America about these dangerous programs that prey on GLBT youth. The Henry Van Ameringen Foundation has generously awarded Truth Wins Out a matching gift of $20,000 - thus, doubling the impact of your dollars. If you are considering a tax-deductible New Year's contribution, here are a few of Truth Wins Out's accomplishments to remember: http://www.truthwinsout.org/


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

-Gay couple dreams of adopting daughters
Milestone case chisled away at Florida ban on gay adoptive parents
By Dan Renzi
Years before Frank Martin Gill successfully challenged Florida's ban on gay people adopting children, a Tampa Bay couple made a legal precedent of their own, by winning long-term parenting rights of their two foster daughters.
http://www.floridablade.com/blog/index.cfm#23262

-A Year of Wins and Losses
GLBT Floridians enter 2009 bruised, determined for change
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
"Change" was a buzzword that hovered over much of 2008, but for gay people across America defeats in gay marriage amendment were the same-old-same-old. In South Florida the rough and tumble year brought unsettling realities in the wake of the Amendment 2 battle. Political matters remain front and center as the struggle for real equality becomes a rallying cry for the increasing numbers of gay families and political leaders throughout the state. These are just a few of the stories that mattered to South Florida's LGBT community.
http://www.floridablade.com/2008/12-25/news/localnews/5400.cfm


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

-NYT Columnist Calls Out Obama on Warren Selection
New York Times columnist Frank Rich took to the op-ed pages Sunday to rail against President-elect Barack Obama for his selection of conservative pastor Rick Warren to deliver the opening prayer at January's inauguration.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid69755.asp

-The Sissy Awards
By Alonso Duralde
Among many gays, "sissy" is a distinction worthy of honor, sort of like the red badge of courage. But among closed-minded straights, it's a devastating insult, which is why?The Advocate ?bestows the word on the following irritants of 2008.
Click the byline to view more stories by this author.
http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid67108.asp


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

-Man becomes Australia's first recognised gay war widow after 10 year struggle
By Rachel Charman
Sydney pensioner Edward Young has won a decade-long legal battle to receive his deceased partner's pension. Mr Young's partner of 38 years Larry Cains served with the Australian Army in Borneo during World War II, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10220.html

-Catholic agencies turn on gay adoption rights as exemption period runs out
By Rachel Charman
50% of the Catholic adoption agencies that threatened to close if forced to work with gay couples have adopted the new equality law. 11 agencies were given a 21 month exemption period from the Equality Act in April 2007, which forbade discrimination in the provision of good and services on the grounds of sexuality.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10216.html

-Three black gay men gunned down in New Orleans
By Rachel Charman
New Orleans police are searching for the killers of three black gay men after they were found dead at their home on December 18th. Felix Pearson, 19, Kenneth Monroe, 27, and Darriel Wilson, 20, lived together in New Orleans, all from Mississippi.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10196.html

-Transgendered woman shot in Memphis as violence is blamed on lack of jobs
By Jessica Green
Another transgender woman has been shot in Memphis, becoming the third transgender shooting victim in the city in just six months. Campaigners have blamed the murders on a lack of job opportunities for transgender people, saying that some have no option other than working on the streets where they are at risk from attacks.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10167.html


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