GLBT DIGEST - March 07, 2009

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Tonight! It's time for clocks to 'spring forward' 1 hour
Daylight saving time began early Sunday, meaning that clocks needed to be turned forward one hour as of 2 a.m.


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

-Ruling could mean civil unions for all in Calif.
By LISA LEFF
The California Supreme Court could decide that there are two kinds of same-sex couples: those who can't get married, and those who already did. A ruling that upholds both voters' November decision to ban gay marriage and the 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted earlier in California could come off as a safe compromise. But it also promises to keep alive an issue that has split the state as few others have.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030600240.html

-Gays and lesbians recreate prom at weekend fete
By GILLIAN GAYNAIR
Back in his small Iowa hometown, Tate attended his high school senior prom by himself, dressed in slacks and a tie. It was an awkward night, one he likened to standing outside a window watching people inside having fun at a gathering that "was not designed for you," said 24-year-old Tate, a Silver Spring, Md., accountant who is biologically female, but presents a masculine exterior in clothing and mannerism. He prefers the masculine pronoun to refer to himself, and does not use his legal first name, listing himself as D. Tate on his company directory.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/07/AR2009030700253.html

-Ill. panel seeks advice preventing youth suicide
By DEANNA BELLANDI
Trying to come to grips with the recent suicides of three young children, Illinois lawmakers are asking experts for advice about how to prevent future tragedies. With many families struggling to cope with a widening recession, it's more important than ever to identify at-risk children and get them help, experts told a House committee on Friday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/07/AR2009030700397.html

-Conn. bill would update law for same-sex marriages
By STEPHANIE REITZ
As Connecticut lawmakers consider updating state law to conform with a court ruling that allows same-sex marriages, opponents of gay marriage fear their effort will go too far to promote homosexuality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030602641.html


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Gay.Com
http://www.gay.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-On A POZitive Note: Full Disclosure
Posted by Todd Zax
On my final loop of the crowded gay bar I had to squeeze by this cute guy. Our eyes met, we smiled, and before I knew it we were making out.
http://lifestyle.gay.com/2009/03/on-a-pozitive-note-full-disclosure.html


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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay Marriage: Is California's Supreme Court Shifting?
By Michael Lindenberger
The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year's historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. "You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution," said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two key judges. "You ask us to willy-nilly disregard the right of the people to change the constitution of the state of California. But all political power is inherent in the people of California." (See the top 10 ballot measures.)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1883508,00.html


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if you can't access the article

-THE Legal Challenge to DOMA (the "Defense of Marriage Act") is Filed!
Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has filed a challenge to the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a provision of federal law that requires the federal government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages, or to treat the partners in same-sex marriages as spouses, for any purpose of federal law. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston under the name of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management on March 3, brings together the claims of fifteen plaintiffs, all of whom were lawfully married in Massachusetts soon after the Goodridge decision went into effect on May 17, 2004.
http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2009/03/the-legal-challenge-to-doma-the-defense-of-marriage-act-is-filed.html

-Calif. high court weighs gay marriage ban
The mood was somber among gay rights supporters after a bruising, three-hour hearing before the justices of California's highest court, who expressed considerable skepticism at the idea of overturning the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. Thursday's arguments pitted the right of the people to change their constitution against the right to wed. The California Supreme Court's seven justices indicated a wariness to override the will of voters, who approved Proposition 8 in November -- 41/2 months after the same court had ruled 4-3 to legalize gay marriage. Couples like Chloe Harris, 28, and Frankie Frankeny, 42, who married during the 41/2-months same-sex marriage was legal, said they were disheartened by the tone of the hearing and not very hopeful the justices would rule in their favor.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1464080,w-california-gay-marriage-court-030609.article

-Cook County: Craigslist's 'erotic' section must go
by Greg Sandoval
The sheriff of Illinois' Cook County, which includes Chicago, filed suit in federal court Thursday against Craigslist, alleging that the Web's largest classifieds publication is "facilitating prostitution." Sheriff Tom Dart has asked the court to force Craigslist to remove the Web publication's erotic section. Cook County also wants $100,000 in compensation for the man hours the county has had to pay police to investigate alleged criminal services being advertised on the site. In an interview with CNET News following a press conference, Dart made clear that he isn't blaming Craigslist for prostitution in his county and said Craigslist is great for renting rooms or selling cars and hundreds of other legal uses. But he said all the statistics shows Craigslist is the country's biggest marketing tool for the illegal sex trade and also makes it harder for law authorities to catch bad guys.

-National AFL-CIO Calls On California Supreme Court To Invalidate Proposition 8
Miami, Florida- As the AFL-CIO Executive Council gathers in Miami this week, hearing addresses from Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis dealing with the economic crisis and its impact on workers across the country, the Executive Council has spoken up again for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers by passing a resolution, in unanimity, calling on the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8. The resolution strengthens a previous resolution, passed in 2005 that called for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace. The most recent resolution, passed yesterday, on the eve of the day that the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case, states that Prop 8, "ended the right to marry enjoyed by gay and lesbian couples in California and cast a cloud over the legal status of thousands of California marriages...depriving one class of citizens of rights enjoyed by all others."
http://prideatwork.org/page.php?id=636

-IGLHRC Update: More on the Anti-Gay Seminar in Uganda
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) have learned new details about the ongoing 3-day anti-gay conference in Uganda featuring some of the most virulent homophobes from the U.S. religious right. Here are some developments from the first day, reported by our partners who attended the event: 1. Prior to the start of today's workshop, Stephen Langa, leader of Family Life Network (the Ugandan organization hosting the workshop) and his American guest speakers met with several members of the Ugandan parliament. 2. During the morning session, Stephen Langa told the group that homosexuality is a big problem in Uganda and the existing laws that criminalize gay people are not good enough. He claimed that gay rights activists recruit young people into homosexuality. Langa told the audience that he knows 2 girls at a particular boarding school who were given a lot of money by gay activists in Uganda to recruit their colleagues into lesbianism. "By the end of the year, they had managed to recruit 13 friends, all of whom were given money to recruit others," Langa alleged. 3. Don Schmierer, a member of the board of the American "ex-gay" organization Exodus International told participants that one of the biggest causes of homosexuality is the lack of "good upbringing" in families. He said that 56% of homosexuals experience abuse and violence in their families during their childhood. The abuse leads to pain, anger and hatred in the life of a child and this turns them into homosexuals. IGLHRC and SMUG will continue to monitor the situation and will post new updates on our blog as more information becomes available. The workshop will end on Saturday, March 7.
http://iglhrc.wordpress.com/

-CREATORS OF MILITARY GAY BAN TELL AUTHOR IT WAS 'BASED ON NOTHING'
Definitive Book on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Out Tuesday; Speaking Tour Begins Today
SANTA BARBARA, CA - Military officials exaggerated the threat to unit cohesion and ignored research and data when formulating the current policy on gay troops, according to the much-anticipated new book, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America," out tomorrow. The book, based on a a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, was written by Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, and one of the nation's most widely recognized authorities on gays in themilitary. Dr. Frank is appearing with Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher today at the Center for American Progress. Publication of the book by St. Martin's Press falls on the 15th anniversary of the policy. Frank spoke to key military and political architects of the policy, many of whom acknowledge in the book that "don't ask, don't tell" was "based on nothing" but "our own prejudices and our own fears."
www.unfriendlyfire.org

-Increasing Risk of HIV Among Older People,
Doctors Failing To Diagnose Cases in Population, WHO Study Says People ages 50 and older are more likely to have unprotected sex than younger groups, increasing their risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, according to a recently released World Health Organization study, Reuters UK reports. According to the WHO Bulletin report, "The Unexplored Story of HIV and Aging," physicians are failing to diagnose new HIV cases in this population because the virus still is considered to affect mostly younger populations. Older generations are "assumed not to be at risk," but HIV prevalence and incidence in people ages 50 and older "seem surprisingly high, and the risk factors are totally unexplored," the study said.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=57280

-Same-sex spouses sue federal government
Legally married couples say they suffered injustices under the Defense of Marriage Act, which deprives them of benefits accorded others.
By Carol J. Williams
Saying they suffered injustices under the Defense of Marriage Act, a dozen legally married same-sex spouses filed suit against the federal government Tuesday, alleging that the 1996 law deprives them of a range of benefits accorded other couples. The suit filed in Boston by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, challenges a section of the federal law denying gay couples access to more than 1,000 federal programs and legal protections in which marriage is a factor.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-defense-of-marriage-act4-2009mar04,0,3987332.story

-Weighing their own decision on marriage
Army Sgt. Bob Claunch and Lt. Jack Reavley fell in love in 1951. Still together today, they had no interest in wedding when same-sex unions were briefly legal. Now they think differently.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bobandjack5-2009mar05,0,1874140.sto

-Uganda: The U.S. Religious Right Exports Homophobia to Africa
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) condemned a seminar designed to attack lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans under the cloak of religion. The 3-day seminar in Kampala, which opens Thursday, March 5, features an array of U.S. speakers known for their efforts to dehumanize LGBT people and for their belief that homosexuality can be "cured." The speakers include Scott Lively, Don Schmierer, and Caleb Lee Brundidge-leading voices in the crusade by religious extremists to roll back basic human rights for LGBT people in the United States. Brundidge is affiliated with Extreme Prophetic Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona. Schmierer is on the board of the so-called "ex-gay" organization Exodus International. Lively is well known for his belief that the Nazi Holocaust never happened.
http://www.iglhrc.org

-Post editor to uphold policy on identifying sources as gay
Brauchli speaks out on gay topics, bloggers and state of industry The new executive editor of the Washington Post intends to maintain the newspaper's policy of not mentioning a subject's sexual orientation in an article unless it's relevant to the story. Marcus Brauchli, who took the Post's reins in September, discussed his views on sexual orientation and the state of the newspaper industry in an interview Jan. 30 with the Blade.
http://www.washblade.com/2009/2-6/news/localnews/14057.cfm

-RAINBOW HUMANISTS AWARD MADE TO NIGERIANS
The executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement Leo Igwe, and his Humanist colleagues, have been awarded the Rainbow Humanist Award by Nordic Rainbow Humanists (NRH) for their outstanding and risk-filled public support of LGBT rights in that African nation. The award was made to Leo Igwe and his colleagues "for their courageous defence of LGBT rights and dignity in the face of ferocious attacks from homophobic Nigerian politicians, parliamentarians and religious leaders calling for the imprisonment of those having homosexual relations and those who dare to support such relations, and for reminding fellow countrymen and women in Nigeria of the need to safeguard the spirit of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the need for reason, common sense, thoughtfulness, knowledge, love, tolerance, solidarity and empathy, instead of hate and homophobia." "We are very proud to salute African humanists for speaking out so forcefully on behalf of LGBT rights which have long been supported by the International Humanist and Ethical Union", said NRH secretary Bill Schiller.
http://www.pinktriangle.org.uk/


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

-Guyana: Stop Dress Code Arrests
Repeal Discriminatory Laws
Georgetown, March 5, 2009) - Guyana should halt arrests and police abuse of transgender people and repeal a repressive law that criminalizes wearing clothes considered appropriate only for the opposite sex, six human rights organizations said today in a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo.The letter was signed by the Caribbean Forum for Liberation of Genders and Sexualities (CARIFLAGS), Global Rights, Guyana Rainbow Foundation (Guybow), Human Rights Watch, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD). They called on the Guyanese authorities to drop the charges against seven people arrested under the law in February, 2009, and investigate allegations of abuse by the police. "Police are using archaic laws to violate basic freedoms," said Scott Long director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "This is a campaign meant to drive people off the streets simply because they dress or act in ways that transgress gender norms."
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/05/letter-president-republic-guyana

-Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, answers ILGA-Europe's question
On 6 March 2009, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, participated in a "Townhall" meeting with young Europeans hosted by the European Parliament. Maxim Anmeghichean, ILGA-Europe's Programmes Director, was one of the participants and as Ms Clinton was excited by the fact that Maxim was wearing a t-shirt saying 'I love Hillary', he had a chance of posing a question on how the US foreign policy in the field of sexual rights and LGBT issues is going to change under a new administration. Ms Clinton said that it is unfortunate and unfair that discrimination against gay and lesbian people still exists around the word and sometimes is even condoned or protected by the states. She went on to say that it will be one of the priorities for the administration to tackle the issue and some of changes in the policy on HIV prevention have already started. She also expressed a hope that she will witness the day when any type of discrimination, including on the ground of who one loves, will be abolished.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/frd/vod/player?eventId=20090306-1030-SPECIAL&language=en&byLeftMenu=research

-National AFL-CIO Calls On California Supreme Court To Invalidate Proposition 8
Miami, Florida- As the AFL-CIO Executive Council gathers in Miami this week, hearing addresses from Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis dealing with the economic crisis and its impact on workers across the country, the Executive Council has spoken up again for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers by passing a resolution, in unanimity, calling on the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8. The resolution strengthens a previous resolution, passed in 2005 that called for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace. The most recent resolution, passed yesterday, on the eve of the day that the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case, states that Prop 8, "ended the right to marry enjoyed by gay and lesbian couples in California and cast a cloud over the legal status of thousands of California marriages...depriving one class of citizens of rights enjoyed by all others."
http://prideatwork.org/page.php?id=636

-IGLHRC Update: More on the Anti-Gay Seminar in Uganda
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) have learned new details about the ongoing 3-day anti-gay conference in Uganda featuring some of the most virulent homophobes from the U.S. religious right. Here are some developments from the first day, reported by our partners who attended the event: 1. Prior to the start of today's workshop, Stephen Langa, leader of Family Life Network (the Ugandan organization hosting the workshop) and his American guest speakers met with several members of the Ugandan parliament. 2. During the morning session, Stephen Langa told the group that homosexuality is a big problem in Uganda and the existing laws that criminalize gay people are not good enough. He claimed that gay rights activists recruit young people into homosexuality. Langa told the audience that he knows 2 girls at a particular boarding school who were given a lot of money by gay activists in Uganda to recruit their colleagues into lesbianism. "By the end of the year, they had managed to recruit 13 friends, all of whom were given money to recruit others," Langa alleged. 3. Don Schmierer, a member of the board of the American "ex-gay" organization Exodus International told participants that one of the biggest causes of homosexuality is the lack of "good upbringing" in families. He said that 56% of homosexuals experience abuse and violence in their families during their childhood. The abuse leads to pain, anger and hatred in the life of a child and this turns them into homosexuals. IGLHRC and SMUG will continue to monitor the situation and will post new updates on our blog as more information becomes available. The workshop will end on Saturday, March 7.
http://iglhrc.wordpress.com/

-CREATORS OF MILITARY GAY BAN TELL AUTHOR IT WAS 'BASED ON NOTHING'
Definitive Book on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Out Tuesday; Speaking Tour Begins Today
SANTA BARBARA, CA - Military officials exaggerated the threat to unit cohesion and ignored research and data when formulating the current policy on gay troops, according to the much-anticipated new book, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America," out tomorrow. The book, based on a a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, was written by Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, and one of the nation's most widely recognized authorities on gays in themilitary. Dr. Frank is appearing with Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher today at the Center for American Progress. Publication of the book by St. Martin's Press falls on the 15th anniversary of the policy. Frank spoke to key military and political architects of the policy, many of whom acknowledge in the book that "don't ask, don't tell" was "based on nothing" but "our own prejudices and our own fears."
www.unfriendlyfire.org

-Increasing Risk of HIV Among Older People,
Doctors Failing To Diagnose Cases in Population, WHO Study Says People ages 50 and older are more likely to have unprotected sex than younger groups, increasing their risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, according to a recently released World Health Organization study, Reuters UK reports. According to the WHO Bulletin report, "The Unexplored Story of HIV and Aging," physicians are failing to diagnose new HIV cases in this population because the virus still is considered to affect mostly younger populations. Older generations are "assumed not to be at risk," but HIV prevalence and incidence in people ages 50 and older "seem surprisingly high, and the risk factors are totally unexplored," the study said.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=57280

-Same-sex spouses sue federal government
Legally married couples say they suffered injustices under the Defense of
Marriage Act, which deprives them of benefits accorded others.
By Carol J. Williams
Saying they suffered injustices under the Defense of Marriage Act, a dozen legally married same-sex spouses filed suit against the federal government Tuesday, alleging that the 1996 law deprives them of a range of benefits accorded other couples. The suit filed in Boston by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, challenges a section of the federal law denying gay couples access to more than 1,000 federal programs and legal protections in which marriage is a factor.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-defense-of-marriage-act4-2009mar04,0,3987332.story

-Weighing their own decision on marriage
Army Sgt. Bob Claunch and Lt. Jack Reavley fell in love in 1951. Still together today, they had no interest in wedding when same-sex unions were briefly legal. Now they think differently.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bobandjack5-2009mar05,0,1874140.sto

-Uganda: The U.S. Religious Right Exports Homophobia to Africa
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) condemned a seminar designed to attack lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans under the cloak of religion. The 3-day seminar in Kampala, which opens Thursday, March 5, features an array of U.S. speakers known for their efforts to dehumanize LGBT people and for their belief that homosexuality can be "cured." The speakers include Scott Lively, Don Schmierer, and Caleb Lee Brundidge-leading voices in the crusade by religious extremists to roll back basic human rights for LGBT people in the United States. Brundidge is affiliated with Extreme Prophetic Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona. Schmierer is on the board of the so-called "ex-gay" organization Exodus International. Lively is well known for his belief that the Nazi Holocaust never happened.
http://www.iglhrc.org

-Post editor to uphold policy on identifying sources as gay
Brauchli speaks out on gay topics, bloggers and state of industry The new executive editor of the Washington Post intends to maintain the newspaper's policy of not mentioning a subject's sexual orientation in an article unless it's relevant to the story. Marcus Brauchli, who took the Post's reins in September, discussed his views on sexual orientation and the state of the newspaper industry in an interview Jan. 30 with the Blade.
http://www.washblade.com/2009/2-6/news/localnews/14057.cfm

-RAINBOW HUMANISTS AWARD MADE TO NIGERIANS
The executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement Leo Igwe, and his Humanist colleagues, have been awarded the Rainbow Humanist Award by Nordic Rainbow Humanists (NRH) for their outstanding and risk-filled public support of LGBT rights in that African nation. The award was made to Leo Igwe and his colleagues "for their courageous defence of LGBT rights and dignity in the face of ferocious attacks from homophobic Nigerian politicians, parliamentarians and religious leaders calling for the imprisonment of those having homosexual relations and those who dare to support such relations, and for reminding fellow countrymen and women in Nigeria of the need to safeguard the spirit of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the need for reason, common sense, thoughtfulness, knowledge, love, tolerance, solidarity and empathy, instead of hate and homophobia." "We are very proud to salute African humanists for speaking out so forcefully on behalf of LGBT rights which have long been supported by the International Humanist and Ethical Union", said NRH secretary Bill Schiller.
http://www.pinktriangle.org.uk/


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