GLBT DIGEST - November 29, 2009

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A Friend Dies of AIDS

Having a President that cares matters, because AIDS is still with us and is very real.
More often than not, like last week in Fort Lauderdale, when the Office of National AIDS Policy solicited public opinion, we hear stories of survival. More and more people are living longer and longer with HIV. It is so encouraging. Too encouraging.
As a result of better treatments, higher standards of care, and more attention to the pandemic, we have become too complacent. Apathy has set in. People are still dying. Too many of us are looking at living with the disease comfortably instead of ending the pandemic urgently. On this day, where we celebrate the lives of so many who died too young, one particular person jumps out at me. His name is Jerry Michael James, and he died of HIV last Friday, at the age of 38. He was a friend too be sure, and his loss hurts very much. As I go about the process of starting a new South Florida gay newspaper, he was the first one I considered as an editor and writer. However, I knew he was in hospice, working on a horror film, a project he loved.
Remember those friends, past and present, this Tuesday nite.

Norman Elliott Kent
Attorney at Law
110 Southeast 6th Street
Suite 1970
Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33301
(954) 763 1900
The President's AIDS Day address is online, and in city after city, communities will gather this Tuesday to pay tribute.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23172777/2009aidsday-prc/
http://nationalgaynews.blogspot.com/2009/11/friend-dies-of-aids.html/

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

In Support of Abortion, It’s Personal vs. Political
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
In the early 1950s, a coal miner’s daughter from rural Kentucky named Louise McIntosh encountered the shadowy world of illegal abortion. A friend was pregnant, with no prospects for marriage, and Ms. McIntosh was keeper of a secret that, if spilled, could have led to family disgrace. The turmoil ended quietly in a doctor’s office, and the friend went on to marry and have four children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/weekinreview/29stolberg.html?scp=4&sq=gay&st=cse/

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

Davie students protest ban on same-sex marriage
By Scott Fishman
Students at Nova High in Davie recently threw their support behind NOH8, the campaign protesting Proposition 8, the vote which last year banned same-sex marriage in California. Ryan Sasse, 17, was motivated to take action after watching Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. In the episode, the comedian decides to get involved in the fight for gay rights.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/davie/sfl-fl-cn-marriage-1129cwnov29,0,6974663.story/

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

Same-sex marriage: All or nothing? Some gays seek renewed focus on civil unions
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press
Leland Traiman, who runs a sperm bank in California, worries about his lesbian clients in more conservative parts of the country when he hears fellow gay rights activists talk about winning the right to wed. With 34 states lacking any legal recognition of same-sex relationships, Traiman wonders if all the emphasis on matrimony is misplaced.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2009/11/same-sex-marriage-all-or-nothing-some-gays-seek-renewed-focus-on-civil-unions.html/

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

Gay-friendly Vegas is on a winning streak
Sin City isn't teeming with gay businesses, but its anything-goes attitude and big, gay marketing push attract LGBT travelers in spades.
BY LOANN HALDEN
There's always been something a little bit queer about Las Vegas, dating to the drag queens who performed at the Kit Kat Club in the 1940s and a bedazzled Liberace becoming the city's highest-paid entertainer when he appeared at the Riviera Hotel in 1955.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/travel/story/1348613.html/

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Memorial for Rusty Gordon
Friends are invited to the Memorial for Rusty Gordon which will take place December 5, at the home she shared with her long-time partner, Davilyn "Davy" Whims.
Memorial: This coming Saturday, December 5.
1pm Arrival - 2pm - Memorial
1156 Park Lane
W. Palm Beach
33417-5957

Windy City Times: Rusty Gordon passed away Oct. 27 after losing her fight with progressive supranuclear palsy.
Gordon was a music producer for many years ( Rustron Productions and
Publishing ) ; produced one of the first-ever women-only women's music
festivals ( Yale University, 1972 ) ; started the Whimsey Political
Clearinghouse for women ( 1967 ) ; heavily involved with NOW ( 1970
onwards ) ; helped start the Florida LGBT Democratic Caucus ( 1995 ) , with
which she held various offices; involved with many LGBT causes through
Equality Florida and other groups; and was named as a Feminist Who Changed
America and awarded the Veteran Feminists of America medal ( 2008 ) . Most
recently, the Palm Beach County Democratic Committee established the Rusty
Gordon Award, to be given to people who have exhibited extensive commitment
to local community activism. She is survived by her life partner, Davilyn "Davy" Whims of West Palm Beach, Fla.

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