GLBT DIGEST - March 28, 2009

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

-Moran Endorsed by Ebbin, Young Dems
Del. Adam P. Ebbin, the highest-ranking openly gay elected official in Virginia and the only openly gay member of the General Assembly, endorsed Democrat Brian Moran for governor. Ebbin cited Moran's long-term commitment to fighting discrimination and his opposition to the Virginia marriage amendment, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman and was passed by voters in 2006.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2009/03/post_169.html


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Singapore Lightens Up
The restrictive city-state relaxes some limits on theaters in a bid to become an arts hub
Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke stars in a production of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," staged here this week by British director Sam Mendes. Meanwhile, across town, the curtain is rising on Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," with an all-male, all-gay cast. These are the latest marquee productions in Singapore's ambitious bid to claim status as a global performing arts city on a par with London or New York -- even if it means relaxing some long-held taboos. Theaters here increasingly are allowed to take on risqué social and political themes, a sign this tightly controlled Southeast Asian city-state is starting to loosen up.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123819982120262149.html


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

-Washington Blade examines compensation paid to leaders of the LGBT rights movement
The Washington Blade has just published a great article about how much money is paid to the leaders of the nation's largest gay organizations: From Washington Blade staff reports Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends, which provides meals and nutritional services for homebound people with HIV/AIDS in the Washington, D.C. area, had the highest salary among the heads of the nation's most prominent LGBT advocacy groups and groups that provide AIDS-related services in Los Angeles, New York and D.C. A survey of the compensation paid to heads of 30 LGBT and AIDS organizations, conducted by the Washington Blade, shows that Shniderman had a total salary and benefits package of $382,200 in 2008, the latest period for which the organizations' salary and annual revenue data could be obtained for a completed fiscal year. Shniderman's earnings placed him ahead of Joe Solmonese, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT political advocacy group. Solmonese, who ranked second in the salary survey, received a total compensation package of $338,400 in 2008. To continue reading, click here.


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

- Blade Outs LGBT Leaders' Salaries
By Ross von Metzke
The Washington Blade has published a report of the country's most prominent LGBT leaders and their salaries, including bonuses and benefits packages -- and the results are somewhat surprising. Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit providing meals and nutritional services for homebound people with HIV/AIDS, topped the list with a total salary and benefits package of $382,200 in 2008.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid76640.asp

-John Berry Aces Confirmation Hearing
By Kerry Eleveld
John Berry, an openly gay man who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Office of Personnel Management, encountered a friendly confirmation hearing Thursday.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid76687.asp


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

-Heroic welcome during Parade of Nations
World Outgames participants are going to get a heroic welcome to Copenhagen at the opening ceremony this summer on the 25th of July. In a break with the traditional stadium parade, World Outgames 2009 organizers, in cooperation with the city government, have planned a sensational tribute traditionally reserved for Danish royalty and national sports heroes at City Hall Square in the heart of the city.
http://www.copenhagen2009.org/

-On the road to Copenhagen: From sissy to ironman
"I was a sissy in high school, I had no athletic abilities at all," said Dabney Tompkins, a real estate broker from Portland, Oregon who will compete in the triathlon at World Outgames this summer.
http://www.copenhagen2009.org/

-Indonesia: Coming out for his rights
When he was an NGO worker involved in gender rights in farming communities, Hartoyo says he was greeted as a hero wherever he went. Today, in his more personal battle for gay rights in Indonesia, it's a much lonelier journey. "Fighting for gay rights is so different from other humanitarian causes such as education or helping the poor, even sex workers," says the 33-year-old, known as Toyo. "If we are working for gay rights, we're considered somebody who is totally amoral. I'm not out to be a hero, but we are not even given respect as a person trying to achieve something." He puts the stigma in blunt terms. "They think I am just fighting for penises and vaginas. That is the challenge for me."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/27/hartoyo-coming-out-his-rights.html

-Uruguay: Investigate TV Discrimination
Stations Refused to Run Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Rights Public Service Spot
The Uruguay authorities should investigate whether a decision by private television stations not to run a public awareness commercial designed to reduce discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people is lawful, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Uruguayan minister of education and culture and the Communication Services Regulation Unit. Ovejas Negras, an LGBT human rights collective, opened a public awareness campaign, "A Kiss is a Kiss," on March 23, 2009. Using posters and television and radio spots, the campaign is designed to raise awareness about laws that protect against discrimination, including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Two private television stations - that together have ratings indicating they are viewed by more than 70 percent of the viewing public - refused to run the commercials. A third television station agreed to broadcast it outside prime-time for a period of 10 days at the price of a prime-time transmission.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/27/letter-minister-education-and-culture-uruguay


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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
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-Turkey: Homophobic and transphobic violence doesn't stop: Assault in Eskisehir, murders in Bursa and Edirne!
A transsexual woman was attacked and beaten in Eskisehir. A transsexual woman was found her head cut in Bursa. A man has been killed by his friend on the claim that he asked for sexual intercourse. There is still no word from the authorities about the cases of Ahmet Yildiz who were shot to death on 15 July 2008 in Istanbul and Dilek Ince who were shot to death on 12 November 2008 in Ankara. While we were in grief after them, another transsexual woman Ebru Soykan was stabbed to death on 10 March 2009 in Istanbul. We continue to ask the same question again, "When are you going to stop watching?" The murderers, who are encouraged by the silence of the state, continue on their fearless attacks. The recent news from Bursa horrified the LGBTT community in Turkey. We are in great sorrow after these brutal attacks.

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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
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-Poll: Voters reject same-sex marriage
Neither the election nor legal challenges over Proposition 8 has changed the majority of Californians' minds about same-sex marriage, a poll released Wednesday shows. Among likely voters, 45 percent favor same-sex marriage and 49 percent are opposed, according to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California. In November, Proposition 8 stripped gays and lesbians of right to marry with 52 percent of the vote. In Riverside County, the measure passed by a greater margin - 64 percent.
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200903260300/NEWS0301/903260319

-Poll: Infidelity is common knowledge in the USA
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
More than half of Americans - 54% - know someone who has an unfaithful spouse, according to a nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,025 adults. That's more than twice the rate in 1964, when 24% of those asked in a Harris Poll knew someone with a cheating spouse.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-18-infidelity-poll_N.htm

-Students Sue Prosecutor in Cellphone Photos Case
When a high school cheerleader in northeastern Pennsylvania learned that she might face criminal charges after investigators reported finding a nude photo of her on someone else's cellphone, she was more confused than frightened at being caught up in a case of "sexting": the increasingly popular phenomenon of nude or seminude photos sent over wireless phones. "They said they had a full-bodied naked picture of me, but I knew I'd never had any naked picture taken of me," the student, Marissa Miller, 15, recalled of the Feb. 10 telephone call to her mother as the two were having lunch together at Tunkhannock Area High School. Marissa is a freshman at the school, where her mother, MaryJo, works with special education students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26sextext.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

-More view cohabitation as acceptable choice
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-08-cohabitation-study_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

-Gay donors propose omnibus rights bill
Organizers of 'new approach' say activists too timid with Congress
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2009/3-27/news/national/14285.cfm

-Male Circumcision Reduces Men's Risk of Contracting HPV, Herpes, Study Says
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=57690

-Gay wedding row at Queen Mother's castle
Published Date: 24 March 2009
TRUSTEES of the Castle of Mey, the Queen Mother's former Scottish home, are at the centre of a row after insisting only religious marriages will be permitted on the property, pulling up the drawbridge to civil ceremonies or gay partnerships. Management thought they could earn extra funds during the quiet winter months by promoting the late Queen Mother's beloved castle as "Scotland's latest romantic wedding venue". But the move has led to gay groups alleging discrimination and insisting the venue should be open to all. Under the plans, couples seeking a religious wedding can apply to have it in the surroundings of the castle, in Caithness.

-WHO Report: TB, HIV Coinfection Deaths Doubled
In recognition of World Tuberculosis Day, March 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) released new data showing that 1.4 million people living with HIV were newly infected with TB worldwide in 2007. About 456,000 HIV-positive people died from TB that year, which is twice as many as previously estimated. Though the spike resulted from improved data gathering techniques, it makes TB-an infectious disease that affects the lungs-the most common cause of death among HIV-positive people globally.
http://www.poz.com/articles/tb_hiv_coinfection_401_16365.shtml

-Meghan McCain and Steve Schmidt to Address Marriage Equality at National Convention
Log Cabin Republican National Convention Speakers Urge GOP to be More Welcoming of Gays
http://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=24683


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Soulforce
http://www.soulforce.org/
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Spring 2009 Catholic Action
Now that the United States has signed on the United Nations Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - a reversal of the Bush administration stance on the statement currently backed by 66 UN member states - renewed energy must focus on the Vatican's refusal to support the measure. This April we are asking the Vatican's ambassador to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, to work with us in doing just that. And we are excited to invite you to join with us in many ways. * You can add your or your organization's name to the growing list of people who have endorsed the statement of support. Text and contact information here.
http://www.soulforce.org/catholic-action-statement


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From Transgender Equality
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Gay donors propose omnibus rights bill
Organizers of 'new approach' say activists too timid with Congress
by Lou Chibbaro Jr., Washington Blade Staff Writer
The leaders of a nonprofit LGBT donors group in Florida are calling on members of Congress to introduce a far-reaching omnibus LGBT rights bill that combines all of the gay- and transgender-related bills that have been pending before Congress, some for as long as 30 years. alled the Equality & Religious Freedom Act, the combined measure also includes new provisions, including a clause that requires the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships legalized by states.
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2009/3-27/news/national/14285.cfm


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