GLBT DIGEST - January 26, 2009

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

-Oregon Mayor in Sex Dispute Is Staying Put
Mayor Sam Adams, who has admitted lying about a sexual relationship with a teenager, said Sunday that he would not resign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/26portland.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=gay&st=cse


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

-`Slumdog' far from underdog with SAG win
By CHRISTY LEMIRE
"Slumdog Millionaire" continued its unlikely rise from low-budget underdog to the highest Hollywood heights, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best cast of a motion picture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012600368.html

-God Enjoyed Inauguration Rhetoric
I thought God - the real God, the One Who cares passionately about justice, peace, and diversity - came out rather well in the Inaugural ceremonies. God's official spokespersons did better than I had expected. Rev. Rick Warren - whose choice I had strongly criticized because of his views about gay and lesbian sexuality - did much better than I had feared. I was especially moved by his speaking, in English, the Jewish "Sh'ma" about God's Unity and the Muslim "Bismillah Er Rachman Er Rahim" -- "In the name of God Who is Compassionate and Merciful." I doubt that most Christians knew what he was doing in either case, but Jews and Muslims did.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/arthur_waskow/2009/01/god_in_the_inauguration_rhetor.html

-Gay leaders mull taking fight to 2010 vote
By LISA LEFF
Gay rights activists are weighing the wisdom of rushing in front of voters a repeal of the state ballot measure that banned gay marriage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012600381.html


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

-Facebook Group to Rally in Support of Portland Mayor Sam Adams
Though politicians and media outlets have called on gay Portland mayor Sam Adams to resign on the heels of his announcement that he'd had an affair with an 18-year-old former intern, one Portland based group is planning to rally in support of Adams.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid71579.asp

-Clinton's Senate Replacement Backs Full Gay Marriage Rights
New York governor David Paterson's pick to take Hillary Clinton's seat in the U.S. Senate, former representative Kirsten Gillibrand, said she would support full marriage rights for gay couples during a noon press conference Friday in which the governor announced the appointment.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid71562.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:

- Sigourney Weaver Brings Star Power to "Prayers for Bobby"
Sigourney Weaver was doing the red carpet stroll at the Golden Globes last weekend when she met Beyoncé and revealed she'd just downloaded the pop star's hit "Single Ladies." Well, actually, her college-age daughter did it for her. "I don't spend a lot of time downloading music," she admits the next day by phone, a twinkle in her voice. Read More...


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

-Prime Minister honours gay victims in Holocaust Memorial Day statement
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has released a statement ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day tomorrow, the international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10877.html


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

-Early this year, the Swedish government set a dangerous precedent in settling an important asylum case involving a gay man from Iran. Now that precedent may be used to expel a number of gay Iranians from Sweden, to face imprisonment or death at home. Swedish asylum policy is governed by the Aliens Act of 1989. An amendment which came into effect in 1997 (Chapter 3, paragraph 3.3) explicitly includes gays and lesbians as a protected category, offering asylum to any person "who due to her/his sex or homosexuality experiences a well-founded fear of persecution."
http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2009/01/swedish-threat-to-gay-iranian-refugees.html


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

-Gay humanists welcome Barack Obama's humanistic agenda
The UK gay humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust has welcomed the humanistic agenda announced in the new American President's inauguration speech in which he called for a more inclusive and progressive America. Making a commitment to "restore science to its rightful place", Barack Obama said: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers", and spoke of "our common humanity." George Broadhead, the PTT's secretary, said: "This humanistic agenda which acknowledges non-believers in the American population, and by implication their status on a par with religionists, is very encouraging for humanists worldwide. It is especially encouraging after the heavily pro-religious agenda espoused by former presidents, notably George W Bush.
http://www.gayandlesbianhumanist.org


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From Transgender Equality
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-Would It Kill You To Look Like A Man?
Transgender Employees in Indiana
Judge Robert L. Miller, a Reagan appointee who sits on the federal district court for the Northern District of Indiana, has recently issued yet another curious decision in the case of Creed v. Family Express Corp. Amber Creed was fired from her job in 2005 because she is transgender. [...] There is a considerable amount of debate as to whether, in protecting "gender identity" - one's self-identification as male or female - the law should also protect "gender expression" - one's expression of gender through clothing, styling and other behavioral and social characteristics. Judge Miller's decision in Creed I turned this debate on its head. He decreed that the federal sex discrimination protection extends to discrimination based on gender expression, but that discrimination based on gender identity is not. Under Judge Miller's rule, a crossdresser who makes no claims about sex would be covered, but a transsexual who claims to change their sex would not. In other words, sex discrimination covers a person whose sex is not implicated, but doesn't cover a person whose sex is implicated. Sheesh.
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/01/i_hope_you_dont_think_im_being_stereotyp.php


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