GLBT DIGEST - April 13, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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Watch Rev. Dr. Mel White on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 tonight [Monday] discussing the resignation of Dr. James Dobson.


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

-Iowa's G.O.P. Lawmakers Take Aim at Gay Marriage
By MONICA DAVEY
Opponents of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling last week allowing same-sex marriages said Friday that they would step up pressure on state lawmakers to block the marriages through a constitutional amendment and predicted political fallout for Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Chet Culver, if they did not join the opposition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/us/11iowa.html?scp=8&sq=gay&st=cse

-American Idol's Big Tease
By GUY TREBAY
LET'S say you are an "American Idol" contestant with a criminal history.
Let's say you claimed to have had an affair with Paula Abdul. Let's imagine that you are found to have posed for topless photos or been charged with identity theft. These are not hypothetical scandals. Each has occurred during the eight-season run of the top-rated show. And each has duly been processed out of consciousness at a speed accorded most show business scandals - forgotten in the nanosecond it takes us to move on from the latest reality TV distraction and back to our ordinary lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/fashion/12gayidol.html?scp=7&sq=gay&st=cse

-Paterson Wants Public Debates on Gay Marriage
By Jeremy W. Peters
Gov. David A. Paterson has been saying that a bill legalizing same-sex marriage should come to a vote in the State Senate even if the measure does not have enough support to pass. But is this really a good thing for gay rights advocates, a constituency that Mr. Paterson has solidly supported for most of his political career?
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/paterson-wants-public-debates-on-gay-marriage/?scp=6&sq=gay&st=cse

-Commander Says U.S. Still on Schedule to Leave Iraq
By R.M. SCHNEIDERMAN
Despite a recent spate of attacks, the United States will leave Iraq on schedule, the top American commander in Iraq said on Sunday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/politics/13talkshows.html?scp=2&sq=gay&st=cse

-French Minorities Have Doubts on Political Success
By CAROLINE BROTHERS
PARIS - Is an Obama really impossible in France? For French minorities who watched the rise of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, it certainly looks that way. His election was equivalent to "the fall of the Berlin Wall times 10," in the words of France's Senegalese-born human rights minister, Rama Yade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/world/europe/13iht-france.html?scp=6&sq=gay&st=cse

-Tea Parties Forever
By PAUL KRUGMAN
This is a column about Republicans - and I'm not sure I should even be writing it. Today's G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/opinion/13krugman.html?scp=5&sq=gay&st=cse


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

-On Its 100th Birthday, Modern Israeli City Revels in Its Openness and Vibrancy
By Howard Schneider
TEL AVIV The city's story starts south of town in the ancient port of Jaffa, where the Old Testament says Jonah departed on the voyage that took him into the belly of a whale and the New Testament says Peter sorted out some of the basics of Christianity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041202557.html

-Outlook: Are Gay Activists Too Wedded to the Cause?
James Kirchick
Assistant Editor, The New Republic and Contributing Writer, The Advocate James Kirchick , assistant editor of The New Repubic and contributing writer to The Advocate, will be online Monday, April 13, at 2 p.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article about a gay organization that closed its doors in Connecticut because its mission was accomplished.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/04/10/DI2009041002364.html


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Gay-Rights Outreach Grows in California
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
Gay-marriage proponents in California, anticipating another loss, this time in court, have turned their focus to trying to win over potential voters in some unlikely places. Last month, 200 gay-rights activists gathered at a Holiday Inn in this city at the heart of California's conservative Central Valley for a two-day training course on how to pair Internet-based social networking with old-fashioned canvassing to promote a gay-friendly agenda. It is part of a wider effort to reach out to the state's more conservative precincts, with polls showing Californians are evenly split on the issue.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958048734012149.html


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

-Gay West Point graduates fight 'don't ask, don't tell' standard
By David Crary
As a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, Dan Choi faced an ethical dilemma. The academy's honor code was clear, beginning "A cadet will not lie." Yet as a gay man, Choi felt bound by the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to be untruthful about who he was.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-west-point-gays-a041309sbapr13,0,3240238.story


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

-Longtime activist Cindy Brown is organizing Miami Beach's first Gay Pride parade and festival
By STEVE ROTHAUS
Cindy Brown's close friends and family have known her sexual orientation since she was 18. But back in the '70s during the Anita Bryant era, being a lesbian wasn't something she wanted to broadcast. In 1992, Brown joined dozens of others in successfully lobbying Miami Beach commissioners for a citywide gay-rights ordinance. After she spoke at City Hall, a news broadcast identified her as a ``lesbian gay-rights activist.''
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2009/04/longtime-activist-cindy-brown-is-organizing-miami-beachs-first-gay-pride-parade-and-festival.html


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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Amazon.com decides gay books are "adult"
By Christie Keith, AfterElton.com
What does a classic gay novel like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room have to do with gay porn? You'd think the answer would be pretty much "nothing." But if that's true, why would Amazon.com strip the sales ranks of almost all gay and lesbian books on their site - including E. Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story and 20s lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness - at the same time it's removing the sales rankings for adult novels?
http://www.365gay.com/blog/amazoncom-decides-gay-books-are-adult/


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

-Denver Post: Gay Iraqi Killings Shouldn't be Ignored;
Hello HRC, HRW, IGLHRC, NGLTF?
After reading this excellent editorial in today's Denver Post, two thoughts came immediately to mind. First, we need to save daily corporate newspapers such as the Denver Post and the New York Times, two papers that devoted staff time and resources, and column inches, to the plight of gay Iraqis and the death threats they suffer from lots of forces. Unlike the Human Rights Campaign, the Human Rights Watch, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Denver Post and NY Times are not silent about the murders of gay Iraqis. Second, if either paper wants to offer memberships to gay advocates who appreciate and support their advocacy on behalf of gays around the globe, I'd like to be among the first to sign up. This forceful editorial puts HRC, HRW, IGLHRC and NGLTF to shame. The headline alone should cause much embarrassment at those organizations, and their ability to ignore the gay blood flowing in the streets of Baghdad. Here we have the corporate media doing a better advocacy job than our own gay advocates, calling on the State Department to investigate the gay murders. Thank you very much, Congressman Polis and the editorial writer responsible for this editorial at the Denver Post, for raising your voices on behalf of gay Iraqis.
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2009/04/denver-post-gay-iraqi-killings-shouldnt.html


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

-EU directive could open up faith schools to non-believers
Plans drawn up by the European Union to combat discrimination would allow non-believers to send their children to faith schools and could pave the way for gay marriage in church.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5140959/EU-directive-could-open-up-faith-schools-to-non-believers.html


-The Blairs challenge the Pope over gay sex and condoms
As a recent convert to Roman Catholicism, Tony Blair must know that Lent is a period for repentance, quiet reflection and taking stock. Which makes it all the more curious that the former Prime Minister has chosen the holiest time of the year to take on the Pope, of all people, on the position of the Catholic Church in today's society. Mr Blair began last month with an article insisting political leaders needed to "do God". Then, last week, he directly criticised Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican for their "entrenched attitude" towards homosexuality.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-blairs-challenge-the-pope-over-gay-sex-and-condoms-1667530.html


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Truth Wins Out - TWO
by Wayne Besen
http://www.truthwinsout.org/

-National Jamaican Boycott Campaign To Kick-Off in New York City With 'Rum
Dump' at Birthplace of Gay Rights Movement
Stonewall Inn Owners To Dump Their Stock of Myers Rum and Red Stripe Beer in Sewer; Urge Other Bars To Follow Lead
What: Gay advocates are launching a national boycott of Jamaica in New York City at the famed Stonewall Bar - birthplace of the gay rights movement. The bar's owners and boycott supporters will dump Jamaican liquor - Red Stripe beer and Myers' Rum - down the sewer. Human rights activists have given Jamaica the infamous title: "The Most Homophobic Place on Earth." Gay people have regularly been beaten and murdered on the island, while authorities do little to stop the violence.
Where: Stonewall Inn - Wednesday, April 15 - 53 Christopher Street 6:30 PM
Who: Bill Morgan, Stonewall Inn, Kurt Kelly, Stonewall Inn, Tony DeCicco, Stonewall Inn, Wayne Besen, Boycott co-organizer Background: GLBT activists Michael Petrelis, Wayne Besen and Jim Burroway launched this boycott after a State Department report highlighted the violence faced by GLBT people. According to the report:
http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/rum-dump/


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

-Polymorphous Perversity, USA
The bathroom canard lives on
The incessant refrain of those who insist that anti-transgender discrimination should remain legal is "bathrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms." Prohibiting discrimination in jobs, housing and public accommodations is, to hear them tell it, an assault on the privacy and safety of women in children in loos everywhere. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this parade-of-horribles argument is that it keeps popping up, and seemingly keeps working, despite the fact that more than a dozen states http://www.thetaskf orce.org/ downloads/ reports/issue_ maps/non_ discriminati\ on_7_08_color. pdf>and a hundred localities have proven it false http://polyperversity.blogspot.com/2009/04/bathroom-canard-lives-on.html


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Forwarded from Susan Frishkorn
frishkorn@bellsouth.net
Go to this link for the following article:

-Ginsburg Shares Views on Influence of Foreign Law on Her Court, and Vice Versa
COLUMBUS, Ohio - In wide-ranging remarks here, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended the use of foreign law by American judges, suggested that torture should not be used even when it might yield important information and reflected on her role as the Supreme Court's only female justice. The occasion was a symposium at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University honoring her 15 years on the court.
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/g/ruth_bader_ginsburg/index.html


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Obama won't fight for us if we don't push
Letter to Editor - The Washington Blade
Frank Rich observed last month in the New York Times that the culture wars are ending as Americans are forced to concentrate on the truly serious challenges of economic survival. The end of the culture wars is creating a uniquely favorable moment for gay rights. Rich noted that President Obama ended the Bush stem cell research restrictions with barely a murmur of protest. He predicted that when Obama tardily ends "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," this action too "will be greeted by more yawns than howls." In the midst of economic crisis, FDR acted quickly to repeal Prohibition, likewise quick actions by Obama to ban the culture warriors' intrusions into private lives will meet with feeble resistance.


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FLORIDA DIGEST - April 13, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~


VALUING OUR FAMILIES
DAY OF LEARNING AND FUN
Saturday, April 25, 9:30 - 4:00
Campus of the Sunshine Cathedral
1480 SW 9th Ave, Fort Lauderdale
Workshops, Panels, Sharing Groups for LGBT Community and Friends, including...Prospective parents.....Parents with school age children...Couples or singles.....Transgender youth and adults....Gay and Lesbian youth... Youth with LGBT parents. ALL TOGETHER! PLUS...THE VALUING OUR FAMILIES COMMUNITY AWARD will be presented at the 2:45 pm General Session to JENNIFER GOTTLIEB -Vice Chair, Broward County School Board & KEN GOTTLIEB - Former Florida State Representative for their public service in championing LGBT equality Costs: $15 per adult (lunch included) WWW.SUNSERVE.ORG (or call 954-764-5150)


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LOCAL FILM PRODUCER LAUNCHES WORLD-WIDE PREMIERE OF HIS DOCUMENTARY AT MIAMI
& FT.LAUDERDALE GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL
On Saturday, May 2, at 4 p.m., local film producer, Bruce Presley's first full-length documentary, Amancio... Two Faces on a Tombstone, will be screened at the Gateway Cinema in Fort Lauderdale as an entry in the 2009 Miami & Ft. Lauderdale Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Bruce has served on the board of Safe School South Florida for the past ten years. The Gateway Cinema is located at 1820 East Sunrise Blvd in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are available through the box office or online at the film festival website -- http://mglff.com/2009. More information on the film can be found at www.amancio-themovie.com.


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Broward County's oldest and largest HIV/AIDS community service organization with over nine locations and providing care to over 6,000 South Florida residents, cordially invites you to one of their signature events of the year!
http://ww12.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm?userid=E921386&product=Spirit%20of%20Hope%20Award%20Seat&price=85&qty=1&return=www.browardhouse.org%2Fevents.html


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
You Are Invited To A Town Hall I'm Hosting This Monday In Weston
Whether it is housing or the downturn in the economy, South Florida is facing a challenging time. Since the first of the year I've been traveling around South Florida, listening to people, talking with community leaders, and announcing initiatives we've passed in Washington to help South Floridians. Many families are facing immediate challenges paying bills, finding jobs, or are worried about their future. That's why this Monday I'll be hosting a Town Hall Meeting in South Florida with experts who can explain how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and other programs can help Floridians. You are invited to attend this Monday's Town Hall Meeting in Weston. Whether you want to express your opinion, or need answers to a question, I want to hear from you.
Town Hall on the Recovery Act
Helping Homeowners and the Unemployed
Monday, April 13, 2009, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
City of Weston City Hall, Commission Chamber
17200 Royal Palm Blvd.,


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

-U.S. energy stimulus money to aid cities but leave Broward County in cold
No money for county, but $14 million for 18 of 31 cities
By Scott Wyman
Broward County has been passed over for a share of $168 million that President Barack Obama's administration is distributing across Florida to help local governments improve energy efficiency and start conservation projects. Miami-Dade County will receive $12.5 million and Palm Beach County $6.6 million, but the U.S. Department of Energy earmarked nothing for Broward in the economic stimulus package.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-stimulus-energy-041209sbapr12,0,7395466.story


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

-Right's agenda loses traction
By Shannon Colavecchio, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE - Legislation that would open the door to school prayer and discourage teaching evolution has been declared dead. Prospects don't look good for a proposal to require ultrasounds for first-trimester abortions. Same goes for a bill to make marriage licenses more expensive for couples who don't take a premarriage education course. Conservative Republicans' hallmark legislation, some from sessions past, is stagnating this session, victim of the all-consuming state budget deficit and the political realities of a Senate that is Republican, but moderately so. "Some of these things would definitely pass in the House," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. "But in the Senate, the numbers just aren't there."


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