**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT
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=
LATimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-chait3dec03,0,5168497.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
JONATHAN CHAIT
The right's education fantasy
Conservatives' model for improving schools relies too much on highexpectations, and not enough on money.
Jonathan Chait
December 3, 2006
MY WIFE spent a few years teaching in a mostly low-income elementary school.The main thing I remember her telling me was that parental involvement was anear-perfect predictor of her students' performance. The kids with activeparents did well, and the kids with disengaged parents did poorly.
The great bugaboo of education reform has always been the role of parents.But if a child's family determines his educational future, then there's notmuch point in trying to perfect the school environment. Or so it would seem.
Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine featured a fascinating article by PaulTough on the conundrum of the education gap between rich and poor (and whiteand black). The bad news is that this gap is indeed deeply rooted inparenting styles from a very young age. There is a stark difference betweenthe way middle-class or professional parents raise their children and theway poor parents do. The former talk with their children far more, exposethem to a broader range of vocabulary and give them far more positivereinforcement. "The professional parents were giving their children anadvantage with every word they spoke," Tough wrote, "and the advantage justkept building up."
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/16151888.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006
SUPREME COURT
Diversity in class on trial
The racial mix at K-12 schools across the nation is at stake in twocases going to the high court.
BY NANCY BENAC
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court is diving into a debate over schooldiversity that is as old as Reconstruction-era efforts to integrate blacksinto the mainstream and as new as the 5:35 a.m. start time on some busescarrying students across town in Louisville, Ky.
At a time of rising de facto segregation in public schools, the highcourt is to hear arguments Monday on lawsuits by parents in Louisville andSeattle challenging policies that use race to help determine where childrengo to school.
The school policies are designed to keep schools from segregatingalong the same lines as neighborhoods.
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latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-kotkin3dec03,0,4446501.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Rebuilding the middle class
Forget tax cuts and minimum-wage hikes; it's time for massive infrastructureprojects that put millions to work in well-paying jobs.
By Joel Kotkin and David Friedman
JOEL KOTKIN is an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation and theauthor of "The City: A Global History." DAVID FRIEDMAN is also a seniorfellow at the foundation.
December 3, 2006
OVER THE LAST 20 years, the United States has regressed into what oneeconomist calls a "plutonomy" - a society in which the largest economicgains flow to an ever smaller portion of the population. According to recenteconomic statistics, from 1999 to 2004, the inflation-adjusted income of thebottom 90% of all U.S. households grew by 2%, compared with a 57% jump forthe richest 10%. Incomes rose by more than 87% for households annuallymaking $1 million and more than doubled for those that take home about $20million a year.
Most disturbingly, workers losing the most economic ground are not theuneducated and unskilled but those with high school, community college andeven four-year degrees. Overall, the middle class, in relative if notabsolute terms, has lost purchasing power, especially in big coastal citieswhere the highest earners and the super-rich have driven up prices forhousing and the cost of living.
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Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4374091.html
Dec. 2, 2006, 10:36PM
Pelosi must ride herd on old bulls and young turks
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
The most important tension within the new Democratic majority in the Houseof Representatives is not between liberals and conservatives or free tradersand fair traders. It is between older members who once enjoyed the power andperks of majority status, and their younger colleagues who will experiencereal power for the first time.
The older members - many of whom will be taking over committeechairmanships - came to political maturity in the pre-Clinton, pre-Gingrichera, before the full flowering of the permanent campaign. They governed froma House in which committee leaders typically had more power than the speakerin shaping legislation.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101326_pf.html
Russia's Hidden Power Struggle
By Masha Lipman
Saturday, December 2, 2006; A15
MOSCOW -- "Give the elections back to the people, bastards!" These wordswere emblazoned on a bright yellow banner more than 30 feet long that hungover the Moscow River facing the Kremlin. A couple of young activistspositioned themselves in the ropework holding up the banner for about 30minutes, until they were taken off and delivered to a police station.
Such extravagant political performances may be typical at, say, a Greenpeaceprotest but not over something that has in fact become increasingly common:a government encroachment on voting rights.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101402_pf.html
Profiled In Prince George's
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Saturday, December 2, 2006; A15
I have a question for Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson andPolice Chief Melvin C. High.
It concerns my youngest son, who is 21. He was walking to his car at BowieTown Center after working a shift at one of the stores there Sunday nightwhen a police officer met him at his car and asked if he had seen anything"suspicious." Bryan said no. The officer asked where he was coming from.Bryan told him. The officer asked for his license and registration. Bryangave them to him.
After 20 minutes my son was allowed to drive away. Less than two minuteslater he was pulled over, still at the mall. He asked why. "I'll ask thequestions," said this officer. The questions were: Where are you going,where are you coming from? Again, Bryan answered. Again, he was asked forhis license and registration. A few minutes later, he was ordered out of hiscar with his hands up, and police began to search the vehicle.
Six police cars converged on this scene. Having received a call from afriend who happened to be at the mall, I went, too.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101511_pf.html
Move Over, Hoover
By Douglas Brinkley
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01
Shortly after Thanksgiving I had dinner in California with Ronald Reagan'sbest biographer, Lou Cannon. Like many historians these days, we discussedwhether George W. Bush is, conceivably, the worst U.S. president ever.Cannon bristled at the idea.
Bush has two more years to leave his mark, he argued. What if there is anews flash that U.S. Special Forces have killed Osama bin Laden or thatNorth Korea has renounced its nuclear program? What if a decade from nowIraq is a democracy and a statue of Bush is erected on Firdaus Square wherethat famously toppled one of Saddam Hussein once stood?
There is wisdom in Cannon's prudence. Clearly it's dangerous for historiansto wield the "worst president" label like a scalp-hungry tomahawk simplybecause they object to Bush's record. But we live in speedy times and, thetruth is, after six years in power and barring a couple of miracles, it'ssafe to bet that Bush will be forever handcuffed to the bottom rungs of thepresidential ladder. The reason: Iraq.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/world/europe/03germany.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Germany to Restrict Smoking, Joining Other Nations in Europe
By MARK LANDLER
FRANKFURT, Dec. 2 - Yielding grudgingly to the growing European campaign
against smoking in public places, Germany announced Friday that it would
seek to ban smoking in restaurants, discos, schools and other publicbuildings, but not in pubs, bars or beer tents.
The compromise, worked out by the coalition government, would bring thiscountry, Europe's biggest tobacco market, closer to its neighbors incurtailing public smoking. But it would fall short of the recent laws passedby Britain, France, Ireland and Italy, which stamp out cigarettes in pubsand bars as well as other public places.
Antismoking groups said the proposal was a milestone, given Germany's longresistance to any restrictions. They called on the Parliament to broaden theban when it votes on it, probably next year.
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The Miami Herald
Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006
SUPREME COURT
A slide toward segregation
BY RUTH MARCUS
marcusr@washpost.com
A half-century after Brown v. Board of Education, it's come, amazingly, tothis: The Supreme Court, in the name of preventing race discrimination, isbeing asked to stop local schools from voluntarily adopting plans to promoteintegration.
Even more amazingly, the federal government -- a government that sided withthe black schoolchildren in Brown and has spent years helping enforce thecourt's desegregation decree -- has entered the case on the side of whiteparents challenging the plans. Thurgood Marshall must be spinning in hisgrave.
This perverse notion of constitutional rights would mean that the guaranteeof equal protection makes it harder, not easier, to integrate schools. AsJack Greenberg, Marshall's co-counsel in Brown, put it in a recentfriend-of-the-court brief, the justices are being urged ``to hold, ineffect, that integration and segregation are equally offensive to the 14thAmendment insofar as they involve any consideration of race.''
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16142986.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006
Not Third World, Miami is a new world
OUR OPINION: IMMIGRANTS OFFER AMERICA ADVANTAGES IN A GLOBAL CENTURY
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., doesn't like multicultural Miami. Too badfor him. He's spitting into hurricane-force winds trying to turn away thetide of immigrants, or preaching that doing so would be good for thiscountry.
Face it, globalization is a reality. Immigration is one of the definingforces of that process in this country. Not only did the United States amasswealth and power as a nation of immigrants, but in this new era the countrywill thrive by cultivating the competitive advantage offered by Americansfluent in multiple languages and cultures.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun1.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Editorial
Is the New Congress to Be Believed?
Well before Election Day, the smart-money lobbyists of K Street were alreadyshifting campaign donations to safe Democratic incumbents, greasing accessto the next Congressional majority. That should be warning enough to theincoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader,Harry Reid, to deliver quickly and credibly on their campaign vows to attackthe corrupt, quid-pro-quo culture that besotted the Republican-controlledCapitol.
Yet even before the new Congress arrives, there is disquieting talk ofadvance compromises on what will be done - or not done. It's fortunate theincoming members will be in the Capitol this week, preparing for Januaryand, not incidentally, observing the lame-duck finale of the Congress thatfailed on this vital issue.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/washington/03dems.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Democrats Face a Tough Job, Leader Says
By JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - The Democratic National Committee chairman, HowardDean, warned party leaders on Saturday not to revel too long in thevictories from last month's midterm elections or treat their Congressionalmajorities as a permanent directive from voters.
"The other party made mistakes in the past claiming that elections aremandates," Mr. Dean said. "Elections are not mandates. The voters of thiscountry loaned the Democrats the power of the country for two years. Nowit'sour job to earn it back again."
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http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0817F63D5A0C7A8DDDA80994DE404482
November 19, 2006
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 11-19-06: QUESTIONS FOR KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI;
State of the Church
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
Q: You just took office as the first woman to head the Episcopal Church, andcuriously enough, you come from a science background, having worked as anoceanographer for years. I worked on squids and octopuses.
As a scientist with a Ph.D., what do you make of the Christianfundamentalists who say the earth was created in six days and dismissevolution as a lot of bunk? I think it's a horrendous misunderstanding ofboth science and active faith tradition. I understand the great creationstory in the scientific sense -- big bang and evolutionary theory -- as thebest understanding of how we have come to be what we are: not the meaningbehind it, but the process behind it. Genesis is about the meaning behindthat.
Your critics see you as an unrepentant liberal who supports the ordinationof gay bishops. Are you trying to bolster the religious left? No. We're notabout being either left or right. We're about being comprehensive.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun2.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Editorial
Closer to and Farther From Europe
The strained relationship between Europe and Turkey took two steps forwardlast week and, we fear, at least that many backward.
On the plus side, the visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI helped sootherelations, especially after Benedict backed off his opposition to Turkey'sapplication to join the European Union. The pope - who infuriated Muslims afew months ago with a tone-deaf speech criticizing Islam - may have doneeven more good with his visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, where heprayed facing Mecca.
But those efforts at conciliation may be undercut if the European Unionfollows through on a recommendation by its enlargement commissioner, OlliRehn, to freeze part of the negotiating program for Turkey's membershipunless Turkey opens its ports to shipping from Cyprus. To many in Turkey -and to us as well - that looked like another ploy to keep Turkey out of theunion. Some members are pressing for the European Union to suspend the talksaltogether.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03kristof.html
December 3, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
If God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can't help wondering why she doesn'tpull out a thunderbolt and strike down Richard Dawkins.
Or, at least, crash the Web site of www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com. That's asnarky site that notes that while people regularly credit God for curingcancer or other ailments, amputees never seem to enjoy divine intervention.
"If God were answering the prayers of amputees to regenerate their lostlimbs, we would be seeing amputated legs growing back every day," the Website declares, adding: "It would appear, to an unbiased observer, that Godis singling out amputees and purposefully ignoring them."
That site is part of an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheistoffensive led in part by Professor Dawkins - the Oxford scientist who isauthor of the new best seller "The God Delusion." It's a militant,in-your-face brand of atheism that he and others are proselytizing for.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03rich.html
December 3, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Has He Started Talking to the Walls?
By FRANK RICH
IT turns out we've been reading the wrong Bob Woodward book to understandwhat's going on with President Bush. The text we should be consultinginstead is "The Final Days," the Woodward-Bernstein account of Richard Nixontalking to the portraits on the White House walls while Watergate demolishedhis presidency. As Mr. Bush has ricocheted from Vietnam to Latvia to Jordanin recent weeks, we've witnessed the troubling behavior of a president whoisn't merely in a state of denial but is completely untethered from reality.It's not that he can't handle the truth about Iraq. He doesn't know what thetruth is.
The most startling example was his insistence that Al Qaeda is primarilyresponsible for the country's spiraling violence. Only a week before Mr.Bush said this, the American military spokesman on the scene, Maj. Gen.William Caldwell, called Al Qaeda "extremely disorganized" in Iraq, addingthat "I would question at this point how effective they are at all at thestate level." Military intelligence estimates that Al Qaeda makes up only 2percent to 3 percent of the enemy forces in Iraq, according to JimMiklaszewski of NBC News. The bottom line: America has a commander in chiefwho can't even identify some 97 percent to 98 percent of the combatants in awar that has gone on longer than our involvement in World War II.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101523_pf.html
In Iraq, an Obligation Coming Due
By Michael Goldfarb
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B07
Every time I read about the United States pulling out while Iraq takes thefinal step into the abyss of civil war, I find myself thinking of aconversation I had with my translator and my driver in April 2003 as thefirst phase of the war was reaching its climax.
We were coming back from inspecting the damage caused by American airstrikesin a small town at the edge of Saddam Hussein's control in northern Iraq. Mytranslator, Ahmad Shawkat, and driver, Sami Abdul Qader, were chatting inKurdish.
"What are you guys talking about?" I asked.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101506_pf.html
At Least He's Not Nixon
By David Greenberg
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman was under fire for "losing" China tocommunist forces, engaging in deficit spending and seeking to expandunemployment insurance. Harold E. Stassen, a prominent Republican, blastedhim as "the worst president ever to occupy the White House."
Four years later, under Dwight D. Eisenhower, job growth had slowed andwages were down. West Virginia Sen. Matthew M. Neely declared Ike "the worstpresident in United States history."
In 1973, as Richard M. Nixon foundered amid the worsening Watergate scandal,crippling stagflation and increasing social strife, labor leader GeorgeMeany asserted, "He will go down in history as one of our worst presidents."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101509_pf.html
He's The Worst Ever
By Eric Foner
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01
Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure,"such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study theAmerican past.
Changes in presidential rankings reflect shifts in how we view history. Whenthe first poll was taken, the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil Warwas regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by grantingblack men the right to vote. As a result, President Andrew Johnson, afervent white supremacist who opposed efforts to extend basic rights toformer slaves, was rated "near great." Today, by contrast, scholars considerReconstruction a flawed but noble attempt to build an interracial democracyfrom the ashes of slavery -- and Johnson a flat failure.
More often, however, the rankings display a remarkable year-to-yearuniformity. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Rooseveltalways figure in the "great" category. Most presidents are ranked "average"or, to put it less charitably, mediocre. Johnson, Franklin Pierce, JamesBuchanan, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Richard M. Nixon occupy thebottom rung, and now President Bush is a leading contender to join them. Alook at history, as well as Bush's policies, explains why.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/16087447.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Nov. 24, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Richards' rant leaves no doubt he's a racist
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
``Throw his ass out! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! A nigger!Look, there's a nigger!''
-- Michael Richards,
The Laugh Factory, Nov. 17
``I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this.''
-- Michael Richards, The Late Show with David Letterman, Nov. 20
You'd think one of the first things a stand-up comic learns is how to dealwith hecklers. One recalls Richard Pryor's jab at some fool who blew awhistle during his monologue. ''This ain't Kool and the Gang,motherfornicator!'' Except, he didn't say motherfornicator.
Apparently, Michael Richards was absent from Comedy 101 the day they studiedHeckler Management. Hence, his epic, headline-making meltdown. It happenedlast week after Richards was razzed -- benignly, by most accounts -- by someblack folks in the crowd.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
California leads way to hybrid democracy
California leads way to hybrid democracy By Steve Geissinger Sacramento
Bureau San Gabriel Valley Tribune Saturday, December 2, 2006 Expectsurprises. It's no longer politics as usual.
Want to overhaul the Legislature into a single, non-partisan house?How about creating universal health care or a bullet train? Voters may soonget the chance.
Californians are so tired of Sacramento and Washington that they arecreating a "unique, hybrid democracy" to dissolve political gridlock on keyissues - a trend that could spread across the nation.
That's the conclusion reached by California's two foremost pollsters,looking back to the Nov. 7 election and ahead to coming sessions of theLegislature and Congress.
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From the Washington Post
More Muslims Gaining Political Ground
Although Md. Delegate-Elect Doesn't Trumpet Faith, His Win Signals New Surge
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006; A01
Since Gaithersburg software engineer Saqib Ali was elected to the MarylandHouse of Delegates this month, he has been flooded with calls and e-mailsfrom across the country asking: How'd you do it?
The calls come from American Muslims like Ali, who, longtime politicalwatchers and Muslim activists in the area say, is the first Muslim electedto a statewide -- or districtwide -- office in Maryland, Virginia or theDistrict.
Although the 31-year-old made little of his faith during the campaign -- infact, he bucked those who said he should put it on his campaignliterature -- he is part of a concerted march of Muslims into civic andpolitical life. His campaign was part of a push that began after Sept. 11,2001, with worries about civil liberties and immigration policy and hasblossomed this year.
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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net
Subject: Democratic Congressman, Henry Waxman, Has The Bush AdministrationIn His Sights
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006
THE PALM BEACH POST / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov 25, 2006
Waxman has Bush administration in sights
By: ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The lawmaker poised to cause the Bush administration'sbiggest headaches when Democrats take control of Congress may just be agrocer's son from Watts who's hardly a household name off Capitol Hill.
Rep. Henry Waxman has spent the last six years waging a guerrilla campaignagainst the White House and its corporate allies, launching searinginvestigations into everything from military contracts to Medicare pricesfrom his perch on the Government Reform Committee.
In January, Waxman becomes committee chairman and thus the leadcongressional hound of an administration many Democrats feel has blunderedbadly as it expanded the power of the executive branch.
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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net
http://www.nytimes.com/
November 24, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
When Votes Disappear
By: PAUL KRUGMAN
You know what really had me terrified on Nov. 7? The all-too-realpossibility of a highly suspect result. What would we have done if theRepublicans had held on to the House by a narrow margin, but circumstantialevidence strongly suggested that a combination of vote suppression anddefective, or rigged, electronic voting machines made the difference?
Fortunately, it wasn't a close election. But the fact that our electoralsystem worked well enough to register an overwhelming Democratic landslidedoesn't mean that things are O.K. There were many problems with voting inthis election and in at least one Congressional race, the evidence stronglysuggests that paperless voting machines failed to count thousands of votesand that the disappearance of these votes delivered the race to the wrongcandidate.
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Muslim women planning to form council on rights
Associated Press
Nov. 18, 2006
NEW YORK - Muslim women from the United States and around the world aremeeting this weekend on forming the first international Islamic advisorycouncil for women.
The American Society for Muslim Advancement, the lead organizer of theevent, said the goal of the council is to promote women's rights thatadvocates say are part of Islamic teaching.
"Women's rights often get debated in the press or they get debated amongscholars who are not women," said Daisy Khan, executive director of theAmerican Society for Muslim Advancement, which is based in New York. "Wefeel there are many Muslim women who are coming of age who have thescholarly background to be able to step up to the plate to speakauthoritatively about it."
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
####
Sunday, December 03, 2006
GLBT DIGEST - DECEMBER 3, 2006
**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.
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2006/12-1/news/worldnews/trend.cfm
3 countries see progress in gay marriage fight
Trend seen as promising for U.S. couples
By ELIZABETH A. PERRY
Friday, December 01, 2006
While voters in seven U.S. states approved constitutional bans on same-sexmarriage last month, courts and lawmakers in three other countries madeheadline-grabbing progress on the issue of gay unions, providing someencouragement to activists here.
Mexico City now allows civil unions, Israel officially recognizes the statusof gay couples married in other countries. And South Africa has legalizedsame-sex marriage. U.S. gay activists viewed those developments as steps inthe right direction for marriage equality in the U.S. and abroad.
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3261
Guess who's not coming to dinner
This Thanksgiving marked a turning point for my mother in accepting herson'ssexual orientation.
By STEVE KOVAL
Dec. 01, 2006
MY MOM ASKED my partner and me to come over for Thanksgiving this year. Forthe last few years, we've been out of town. Other family members hadcommitments, so she told me there was room if I wanted to invite a fewfriends. I invited another gay couple. It wound up being five of us - fourhomos and my mom.
When I came out to my mom 15 years ago, she said she had been clueless aboutmy attraction to men. Although I don't care for stereotypes, I found it oddthat my interest as a kid in antiquing, Broadway shows and baking didn'tprovide any hints. And, of course, there was that incident when, at the ageof 5, I was caught fellating my best friend. But I digress.
Although my mom is very accepting of my being gay, it has caused her somediscomfort in dealing with others. About a year ago, she proudly showed me aphoto of my partner and me prominently displayed with other family photos.She explained to me that the photo presented a dilemma for her. She reallyliked it, but didn't display it because she didn't want to deal with theinevitable questions from guests. Mom said she finally got to the pointwhere she really didn't care what other people thought about her having agay son. This time I confessed to being clueless - my mom is so comfortablewith my partner and me, I never realized that she gave much consideration towhat other people thought.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/02/AR2006120200953_pf.html
1st Openly Gay Congressman Memorialized
By DAVID WEBER
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 2, 2006; 7:56 PM
BOSTON -- Friends of the nation's first openly gay congressman rememberedhim Saturday as a man who went to Washington to end the Vietnam War andprotect the environment, then became a champion of gay rights.
The packed memorial service for former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds featured hisfavored choral music and stories _ some bittersweet, some humorous _ abouthis keen devotion to Cape Cod and his skill at balancing the oft-competinginterests of commercial fishermen in his Congressional district withenvironmentalists concerned about dwindling ocean resources.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/us/02child.html?pagewanted=print
December 2, 2006
Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn't Clear
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 1 - Until recently, many children who did not conformto gender norms in their clothing or behavior and identified intensely withthe opposite sex were steered to psychoanalysis or behavior modification.
But as advocates gain ground for what they call gender-identity rights,evidenced most recently by New York City's decision to let people alter thesex listed on their birth certificates, a major change is taking place amongschools and families. Children as young as 5 who display predispositions todress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of youngparents, educators and mental health professionals.
Doctors, some of them from the top pediatric hospitals, have begun to advisefamilies to let these children be "who they are" to foster a sense ofsecurity and self-esteem. They are motivated, in part, by the high incidenceof depression, suicidal feelings and self-mutilation that has been common inpast generations of transgender children. Legal trends suggest that schoolsare now required to respect parents' decisions.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun3.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Editorial
Losing the Race Against AIDS
Despite all the lofty goals set by world leaders, and billions of dollarsthrown into the fight to quench the global AIDS pandemic in recent years, itis discouraging to learn the world is still falling behind.
A recent update issued by the United Nations AIDS program and the WorldHealth Organization found some encouraging signs of progress, including adrop in H.I.V. infections in young people in eight African countries, thanksto aggressive prevention programs. But the number of people living with theAIDS virus continued to grow, reaching a record 39.5 million in 2006; 4.3million people became infected this year; and the number of deaths due toAIDS reached an all-time high.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/16138360.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Dec. 02, 2006
STRONG BONDS
Dogs enhance gay celebs' lives
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
In a new collection of essays, 25 gay celebrities tell how theirlives have changed by becoming doggie daddies.
''Having a dog is like having a child,'' said Neil Plakcy ofHollywood, who edited the book, Paws And Reflect: Exploring the Bond BetweenGay Men and Their Dogs. ``You have to make your life with this othercreature work. You have to be sure to be home to feed and walk this animal.You have to schedule your life. You can't just go off from work in theevening. You have to make a pit stop at home.
''In Florida, it's hard for gay men to have children. For a lotof even coupled men, the dogs become their children. I thought that would bean interesting thing to explore,'' said Plakcy, 49, who writes mysteries andis an assistant English professor at Broward Community College.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70617F63D5A0C7A8DDDA80994DE404482
November 19, 2006
Gay Donor or Gay Dad?
By JOHN BOWE
R. described himself as ''a man in his 40s, voluntarily employed in thearts,'' a situation made possible, he explained, by a private family income.His six-foot frame is fit and slim; his eyes, blue and bright. He dresses ina cultured but casual way, an aesthetic captured in his speech, in whichphatic blips like ''kind of'' or ''sort of'' are interspersed with termslike ''Richter-esque.'' As in Gerhard, the German painter.
In an effort to become a parent of a sort, R., who is gay, agreed, 11 yearsago, to donate sperm to a lesbian couple aspiring to pregnancy. A few yearsbefore, R. became friendly with a woman -- white and upper class likehimself -- through the gay activist world. They weren't good friends, hesaid, ''just friendly.'' The woman had a partner, a middle-class blackwoman, whom R. knew less well but who seemed solid.
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This excellent article has some reflections applicable to the controversyover Iran which played out on this listserve and elsewhere.
Scott Long to QueerNet
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/magazine/03arabs.html
Prisoners of Sex
Published: December 3, 2006
By NEGAR AZIMI
Mostafa Bakry has a knack for reinventing himself. He is an old-school Arabnationalist, newspaper editor and parliamentarian, and has managed to keephimself in the middle of the Egyptian political scene for almost twodecades. He rails against decadence, against corruption - anything that canget the otherwise sleepy Egyptian public excited. This past July, he took onthe issue of homosexuality, introducing a motion in Parliament calling forcensorship of several scenes in a popular new film, "The Yacoubian Building," and denouncing the racier parts of the movie as "spreadingobscenity and debauchery." One of the central characters in the story - amosaic of downtown Cairo life complete with political intrigue, lovetriangles, the specter of extremism and more - is an affluent, dashing,Francophone newspaper editor who happens to be gay. He has an affair with asimple soldier from the countryside, and thus begins a tale of lust thatends in murder.
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Dublin to host gay rugby world cup
Colin Coyle
The Sunday Times December 03, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2484018,00.html
IRELAND has won the scrum to host the next gay rugby world cup in 2008. Thebiennial competition was awarded to Dublin at a meeting in Seattle ofrepresentatives from 30 countries. Paris and Sydney had been Ireland's mainrivals to host the Bingham Cup, a three-day competition.
Richie Whyte, the tournament director, said beating off Paris and Sydney wasa huge achievement. "We had to compete with the natural attractions of twoof the world's greatest cities," he said. Philip Browne, the chief executiveof the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), sent a message of support to theorganising committee yesterday.
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The Sit-In at the Altar: No 'I Do' Till Gays Can Do It, Too
By KAYLEEN SCHAEFER
The New York Times | December 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/fashion/03delay.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
LAST July, Kelly White and her boyfriend became engaged. They had a cozypicnic of wine and cheese on a hill before he presented her with awatermelon-flavor Ring Pop and asked her to marry him. "I'd rather not sayif he got down on one knee or not," she said. "It's embarrassing."
But they won't end up at the altar anytime soon: they said they would notmarry until gay and lesbian couples are also allowed to.
"I usually explain that I wouldn't go to a lunch counter that wouldn'tallow people of color to eat there, so why would I support an institutionthat won't allow everyone to take part," said Ms. White, 24, a law studentat the University of California, Davis. "Sometimes people don't buy thatanalogy."
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State faces intense campaign for gay marriage Posted by the Asbury Park
Press on 12/2/06
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS03/612020365/1007
[New Jersey]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - A dozen political operatives from around the country are in NewJersey running an intense campaign, but there's no candidate.Their goal is to convince state lawmakers - and residents - that gay couplesshould have the right to marry.
Gay rights advocates are raising money, lobbying state lawmakers and goingdoor-to-door to drum up support for their cause: legislation that would givegay unions the same legal status as marriage.
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Canada: Gay marriages will stand despite vote outcome
Gay marriages will stand despite vote outcome
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=70719621-fe4b-427f-82f3-1759a2046964&k=87130
Times-Colonist
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, December 02, 2006
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government says it is not looking to revoke morethan 12,000 gay marriages that have taken place in Canada in the last threeyears, regardless of the outcome of a vote in the Commons next week onwhether the traditional definition of marriage should be restored.
The government will introduce a motion "to call on government to introducelegislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage withoutaffecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."
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The current issue of The Independent Gay News is online
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2035183.ece
Special report: Gay rights - how hardline Christians use shock tactics against new law
Former lord chancellor backs religious coalition that claims new equalityrules for homosexuals threaten freedom of belief.
Anthony Barnes reports
Published: 03 December 2006
One of Baroness Thatcher's closest political allies is behind a push toderail new laws designed to end discrimination against homosexuals.
Lord Mackay of Clashfern, a former lord chancellor during the Thatcher era,is the patron of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF), part of acoalition of religious groups opposed to the new rules which they say willride roughshod over their beliefs. The new rules, which ban those offeringgoods and services from discriminating against gays and lesbians, will forcethem to act against their consciences, they say.
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Saturday, December 02, 2006 7:15 AM
To: wff-newslist@lists.woodhullfoundation.org
Sexual Intelligence; Issue 82
an electronic newsletter written & published by
Marty Klein, Ph.D.
Issue #82 December 2006
1. Loving the Sin <> More Than The Sinner?
2. Fox Appointed To Guard <> Henhouse
3. Zeffirelli Tells His Truth <>
4. Civil Unions, <> si
5. Correspondence--Decency or Shame? <>
6. Rare and <> Moving Nudes
7. America's War On Sex
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State should legalize civil unions for gays
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/OPINION01/212020302/-1/OPINION04
Nashua Telegraph {New Hampshire]
Published: Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006
Fiscal reality should and will temper the aspirations of New Hampshire'snewly Democratic Legislature. But it will cost nothing to right a trulymajor wrong: the discrimination against homosexuals inherent in state law.
The next session of the Legislature should legalize civil unions and grantinheritance, visitation, custody and other rights currently enjoyed byheterosexual married couples to same-sex partners in committedrelationships.
Earlier this month, voters in seven states approved constitutionalamendments banning gay marriage. Society isn't ready to broaden thedefinition of that sacramental word to include the union of two men or twowomen.
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A&E to Premiere Wedding Wars
Written by Connie Phillips
Published December 01, 2006
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/12/01/235239.php
On Monday, December 11, A&E will premiere Wedding Wars, a two-hour originalmovie staring John Stamos, Eric Dane, and James Brolin. What sets thisromantic comedy apart from the usual fare is the focus on same-sex marriage.
Love and family get confused with politics and marriage rights when Shel, agay wedding planner (Stamos), agrees to lend his services to his brother Ben(Dane) and Maggie (Bonnie Sommerville), who is the daughter of the Governor(Brolin). After the Governor comes out against gay marriage, in a speechwritten by Ben, Shel goes on strike. His actions ultimately fuel anation-wide protest by gays for the right to marry. Sean Maher and RosemaryDunsmore also co-star.
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The current issue of The Express Gay News is online
http://expressgaynews.com/
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FL: Crash Prompts Lawsuit By Same-Sex Couple
Crash Prompts Lawsuit By Same-Sex Couple
http://www.news4jax.com/news/10445335/detail.html
News 4 Jacksonville, FL
POSTED: 10:03 pm EST December 1, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Weeks after Melinda Garrison crashed into antractor-trailer that pulled into her path as she was driving to work nearPalatka, she still needs help putting one foot in front of the other.
"I don't remember seeing this truck or anything," Garrison said. "All I cantell you is, I was going the speed limit, I had a seat belt on, I wasn't onthe phone, everything was good."
She was airlifted to Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, where she was in acoma for 28 days. When she was well enough, she was transferred to BrookRehabilitation, where her same-sex partner, Judith Bashaway, visits everyday.
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Media Matters for America, November 29, 2006
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611290003
WSJ's Miniter baselessly linked same-sex marriage to rise in out-of-wedlockbirths
In his November 28 online column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com assistant editor Brendan Miniter baselessly asserted that a study indicatingan increase in out-of-wedlock births "reveals why" the debate over same-sexmarriage "is worth having now."
Miniter wrote that a lawsuit recently filed by Massachusetts Gov. MittRomney (R) against his state's legislature, in which Romney seeks to forcelawmakers to put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot, "serv[es] as anopportunity to reach a consensus on why marriage as an institution is worthprotecting." Miniter then baselessly connected same-sex marriage to a studyby the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which, as Miniterwrote, "found that although teen pregnancy rates are dropping, the number ofout-of-wedlock births in America has been steadily rising since the 1990s."
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Queer Inc.
How Corporate America fell in love with gays and lesbians.
It's a movement.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/12/11/8395465/mailto:marc_gunther@fortunemail.com
Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
November 30 2006: 3:41 PM EST
(Fortune Magazine) -- Business is booming atthe$22-billion-a-year defense contractor that sells Tomahawk cruise missiles,laser-vision goggles and advanced radar systems to the Pentagon. This,improbably, is good news for the gay-rights movement.
A platoon of Raytheon employees wearing identical blue-and-black bowlingshirts, pins with the company's logo and black pants proudly walked thehalls of this fall's convention of Out & Equal, an organization that bringstogether the networks of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people -GLBT, in the argot of the moment - that have taken root at America's bigcompanies.
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For More Quotes Read: Breakthrough "A Brief Moment in Mind" By: Ron Mills
http://Breakthru.info/mind
http://www.breakthru.info/mind/
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of live. It turns what we have into enough,and more, It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion toclarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a strangerinto a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melody Beattie
"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I wouldnot have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything yougave me."
Erma Bombeck
For More Quotes Read: Breakthrough "A Brief Moment in Mind" By: Ron Mills
http://Breakthru.info/mind
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The Advocate, November 21, 2006
http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid39485.asp
Don't bet on Barack
LGBT voters may want to think twice about throwing their support toward2008's great blue hope.
By the Reverend Irene Monroe
Barack Obama, the lanky and charismatic U.S. senator from Illinois, is anational, if not global, phenomenon. He is being touted as the miracleelixir for a nation divided along the fault lines of race, religion, andclass.
And also a nation divided along the battle lines of Red State versus BlueState.
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From Marc Adams
HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/mailman/listinfo/heartstronglist_heartstrong.org
Diocese Attempts to Silence Gay Activist; Scraps Unitarian Congregation'sLease
HeartStrong, Inc.
PO Box 2051
Seattle WA 98111
http://www.heartstrong.org
press@heartstrong.org
CONTACT:
Marc Adams, Executive Director
marcadams@heartstrong.org
206-351-9993
SEATTLE WA - "We find what Father Lavin and the Diocese of Camden havedone to be completely unacceptable," HeartStrong Executive Director MarcAdams says. "We refuse to allow them to imply that my message and themessage of HeartStrong is wrong, sinful or unacceptable. They may be ableto attempt to try to intimidate or silence those who subscribe to theirbeliefs, but they can't silence or intimidate HeartStrong."
The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, leased space for threeyears to the Unitarian Unversalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore.Now, the congregation has been forced out of their leased space withoutwarning because of their commitment to truth.
more...
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Dutch gays widely accepted, but not in immigrant community
dpa German Press Agency
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Dutch_gays_widely_accepted_but_not__11292006.html
Published: Wednesday November 29, 2006
Amsterdam- Dutch gays and lesbians enjoy greater acceptance in society atlarge and more rights under the law than almost anywhere else. Since 2001,they have been allowed to marry, and the law specifically provides forsame-sex couples to adopt children.
Only around 6 per cent of the Dutch would object to a gay neighbour,compared to 14 per cent in Germany, 55 per cent in Poland and 66 per cent inUkraine, according to figures compiled some six years ago by thestate-funded Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP).
A new survey by the SCP published earlier this month shows that less than aquarter of the population - 22 per cent - is against same-sex marriage, withmany of these from the ranks of the strongly religious.
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ABC News Transcripts
This Week with George Stephanopoulous
November 19, 2006
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Good morning everyone. Proving that it's never too early forPresidential politics both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain set up exploratorycampaign committees this week and we're joined this morning here in thestudio by Senator McCain. Welcome back.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (REPUBLICAN)
Thanks George.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) So you're in South Carolina or Michigan talking to a countychairman when he asks why should I support you over Rudy Giuliani what doyou say?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN
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http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2062023,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
Judge to Rule on Landmark Internet Porn Law
November 20, 2006
By Jon Hurdle, Reuters
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)-A U.S. law designed to prevent children from viewingpornography online would undermine the free speech of millions of adultInternet users, opponents of the measure said on Monday.
The law is so imprecisely written it would restrict most adult Internetusers to material that is only suitable for children, lawyers for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs said in closingarguments of a four-week trial.
The ACLU and others sued the U.S. government, claiming the Child OnlineProtection Act of 1998 violates the Constitution, and they argued on Mondaythat filtering was a more effective tool that does not curtail free speech.
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INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
The Argentinean Supreme Court Recognizes Transgender Group
<http://www.iglhrc.org/files/iglhrc/graphic/5-10.gif>
For Immediate Release: Wednesday November 22, 2006
Media Contact: Hossein Alizadeh, 212-430-6016,
halizadeh@iglhrc.org
(Buenos Aires, November 22, 2006)- Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Argentinaruled that official legal recognition must be given to the Association forthe Struggle of the Travesti and Transsexual Identity (ALITT). The courtdecision overrules earlier decisions by the General Inspectorate of Justice(a division of the Argentinean Justice Department dealing with theregistration of the NGOs, "Inspeccion General de Justicia" in Spanish) andthe civil court, which declared that ALITT's goals were unacceptable as"going against the common good."
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Journal of Homosexuality
Volume 51, Issue 3
Editor(s): John P. De Cecco, PhD
This issue is now available online and will soon be mailed to subscribers inapproximately 4-6 weeks.
NOTE: If the URLs in this email are not active hyperlinks, copy and pastethe URL into the address/location box in your browser.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sexual Minorities and Selection of a Primary Care Physician in a MidwesternU.S. City
Chalmer E. Labig, Tim O. Peterson
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?ID=90287
From "Male Bonding Rituals" to "Suicide Tuesday": A Qualitative Study ofIssues Faced by Gay Male Ecstasy (MDMA) Users
Robert Klitzman
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?ID=90289
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From Marc Adams
HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/mailman/listinfo/heartstronglist_heartstrong.org
Anger Builds a Place of Help for Others
Kay Mehl Miller Ph.d.
Marc Adams is a powerful speaker. The son of a fundamentalist Baptistpreacher and a former ex-gay, Marc is the executive director of avolunteer organization that ministers to gays and lesbians educated inreligious schools. He had me in tears when he spoke to our Santa RosaPFLAG group recently.
Adams is crackling with anger, the kind of anger that demands action. InMarc's case, he founded HeartStrong, the only organization of its kind inthe world. After 10 years HeartStrong has helped nearly 1000 students whowere abused, harassed, intimidated and/or isolated by their religiousschool experiences.
more....
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
####
rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2006/12-1/news/worldnews/trend.cfm
3 countries see progress in gay marriage fight
Trend seen as promising for U.S. couples
By ELIZABETH A. PERRY
Friday, December 01, 2006
While voters in seven U.S. states approved constitutional bans on same-sexmarriage last month, courts and lawmakers in three other countries madeheadline-grabbing progress on the issue of gay unions, providing someencouragement to activists here.
Mexico City now allows civil unions, Israel officially recognizes the statusof gay couples married in other countries. And South Africa has legalizedsame-sex marriage. U.S. gay activists viewed those developments as steps inthe right direction for marriage equality in the U.S. and abroad.
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3261
Guess who's not coming to dinner
This Thanksgiving marked a turning point for my mother in accepting herson'ssexual orientation.
By STEVE KOVAL
Dec. 01, 2006
MY MOM ASKED my partner and me to come over for Thanksgiving this year. Forthe last few years, we've been out of town. Other family members hadcommitments, so she told me there was room if I wanted to invite a fewfriends. I invited another gay couple. It wound up being five of us - fourhomos and my mom.
When I came out to my mom 15 years ago, she said she had been clueless aboutmy attraction to men. Although I don't care for stereotypes, I found it oddthat my interest as a kid in antiquing, Broadway shows and baking didn'tprovide any hints. And, of course, there was that incident when, at the ageof 5, I was caught fellating my best friend. But I digress.
Although my mom is very accepting of my being gay, it has caused her somediscomfort in dealing with others. About a year ago, she proudly showed me aphoto of my partner and me prominently displayed with other family photos.She explained to me that the photo presented a dilemma for her. She reallyliked it, but didn't display it because she didn't want to deal with theinevitable questions from guests. Mom said she finally got to the pointwhere she really didn't care what other people thought about her having agay son. This time I confessed to being clueless - my mom is so comfortablewith my partner and me, I never realized that she gave much consideration towhat other people thought.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/02/AR2006120200953_pf.html
1st Openly Gay Congressman Memorialized
By DAVID WEBER
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 2, 2006; 7:56 PM
BOSTON -- Friends of the nation's first openly gay congressman rememberedhim Saturday as a man who went to Washington to end the Vietnam War andprotect the environment, then became a champion of gay rights.
The packed memorial service for former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds featured hisfavored choral music and stories _ some bittersweet, some humorous _ abouthis keen devotion to Cape Cod and his skill at balancing the oft-competinginterests of commercial fishermen in his Congressional district withenvironmentalists concerned about dwindling ocean resources.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/us/02child.html?pagewanted=print
December 2, 2006
Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn't Clear
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 1 - Until recently, many children who did not conformto gender norms in their clothing or behavior and identified intensely withthe opposite sex were steered to psychoanalysis or behavior modification.
But as advocates gain ground for what they call gender-identity rights,evidenced most recently by New York City's decision to let people alter thesex listed on their birth certificates, a major change is taking place amongschools and families. Children as young as 5 who display predispositions todress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of youngparents, educators and mental health professionals.
Doctors, some of them from the top pediatric hospitals, have begun to advisefamilies to let these children be "who they are" to foster a sense ofsecurity and self-esteem. They are motivated, in part, by the high incidenceof depression, suicidal feelings and self-mutilation that has been common inpast generations of transgender children. Legal trends suggest that schoolsare now required to respect parents' decisions.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun3.html?pagewanted=print
December 3, 2006
Editorial
Losing the Race Against AIDS
Despite all the lofty goals set by world leaders, and billions of dollarsthrown into the fight to quench the global AIDS pandemic in recent years, itis discouraging to learn the world is still falling behind.
A recent update issued by the United Nations AIDS program and the WorldHealth Organization found some encouraging signs of progress, including adrop in H.I.V. infections in young people in eight African countries, thanksto aggressive prevention programs. But the number of people living with theAIDS virus continued to grow, reaching a record 39.5 million in 2006; 4.3million people became infected this year; and the number of deaths due toAIDS reached an all-time high.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/16138360.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Dec. 02, 2006
STRONG BONDS
Dogs enhance gay celebs' lives
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
In a new collection of essays, 25 gay celebrities tell how theirlives have changed by becoming doggie daddies.
''Having a dog is like having a child,'' said Neil Plakcy ofHollywood, who edited the book, Paws And Reflect: Exploring the Bond BetweenGay Men and Their Dogs. ``You have to make your life with this othercreature work. You have to be sure to be home to feed and walk this animal.You have to schedule your life. You can't just go off from work in theevening. You have to make a pit stop at home.
''In Florida, it's hard for gay men to have children. For a lotof even coupled men, the dogs become their children. I thought that would bean interesting thing to explore,'' said Plakcy, 49, who writes mysteries andis an assistant English professor at Broward Community College.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70617F63D5A0C7A8DDDA80994DE404482
November 19, 2006
Gay Donor or Gay Dad?
By JOHN BOWE
R. described himself as ''a man in his 40s, voluntarily employed in thearts,'' a situation made possible, he explained, by a private family income.His six-foot frame is fit and slim; his eyes, blue and bright. He dresses ina cultured but casual way, an aesthetic captured in his speech, in whichphatic blips like ''kind of'' or ''sort of'' are interspersed with termslike ''Richter-esque.'' As in Gerhard, the German painter.
In an effort to become a parent of a sort, R., who is gay, agreed, 11 yearsago, to donate sperm to a lesbian couple aspiring to pregnancy. A few yearsbefore, R. became friendly with a woman -- white and upper class likehimself -- through the gay activist world. They weren't good friends, hesaid, ''just friendly.'' The woman had a partner, a middle-class blackwoman, whom R. knew less well but who seemed solid.
=
This excellent article has some reflections applicable to the controversyover Iran which played out on this listserve and elsewhere.
Scott Long to QueerNet
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/magazine/03arabs.html
Prisoners of Sex
Published: December 3, 2006
By NEGAR AZIMI
Mostafa Bakry has a knack for reinventing himself. He is an old-school Arabnationalist, newspaper editor and parliamentarian, and has managed to keephimself in the middle of the Egyptian political scene for almost twodecades. He rails against decadence, against corruption - anything that canget the otherwise sleepy Egyptian public excited. This past July, he took onthe issue of homosexuality, introducing a motion in Parliament calling forcensorship of several scenes in a popular new film, "The Yacoubian Building," and denouncing the racier parts of the movie as "spreadingobscenity and debauchery." One of the central characters in the story - amosaic of downtown Cairo life complete with political intrigue, lovetriangles, the specter of extremism and more - is an affluent, dashing,Francophone newspaper editor who happens to be gay. He has an affair with asimple soldier from the countryside, and thus begins a tale of lust thatends in murder.
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Dublin to host gay rugby world cup
Colin Coyle
The Sunday Times December 03, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2484018,00.html
IRELAND has won the scrum to host the next gay rugby world cup in 2008. Thebiennial competition was awarded to Dublin at a meeting in Seattle ofrepresentatives from 30 countries. Paris and Sydney had been Ireland's mainrivals to host the Bingham Cup, a three-day competition.
Richie Whyte, the tournament director, said beating off Paris and Sydney wasa huge achievement. "We had to compete with the natural attractions of twoof the world's greatest cities," he said. Philip Browne, the chief executiveof the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), sent a message of support to theorganising committee yesterday.
=
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The Sit-In at the Altar: No 'I Do' Till Gays Can Do It, Too
By KAYLEEN SCHAEFER
The New York Times | December 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/fashion/03delay.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
LAST July, Kelly White and her boyfriend became engaged. They had a cozypicnic of wine and cheese on a hill before he presented her with awatermelon-flavor Ring Pop and asked her to marry him. "I'd rather not sayif he got down on one knee or not," she said. "It's embarrassing."
But they won't end up at the altar anytime soon: they said they would notmarry until gay and lesbian couples are also allowed to.
"I usually explain that I wouldn't go to a lunch counter that wouldn'tallow people of color to eat there, so why would I support an institutionthat won't allow everyone to take part," said Ms. White, 24, a law studentat the University of California, Davis. "Sometimes people don't buy thatanalogy."
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State faces intense campaign for gay marriage Posted by the Asbury Park
Press on 12/2/06
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS03/612020365/1007
[New Jersey]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - A dozen political operatives from around the country are in NewJersey running an intense campaign, but there's no candidate.Their goal is to convince state lawmakers - and residents - that gay couplesshould have the right to marry.
Gay rights advocates are raising money, lobbying state lawmakers and goingdoor-to-door to drum up support for their cause: legislation that would givegay unions the same legal status as marriage.
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Canada: Gay marriages will stand despite vote outcome
Gay marriages will stand despite vote outcome
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=70719621-fe4b-427f-82f3-1759a2046964&k=87130
Times-Colonist
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, December 02, 2006
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government says it is not looking to revoke morethan 12,000 gay marriages that have taken place in Canada in the last threeyears, regardless of the outcome of a vote in the Commons next week onwhether the traditional definition of marriage should be restored.
The government will introduce a motion "to call on government to introducelegislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage withoutaffecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."
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The current issue of The Independent Gay News is online
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2035183.ece
Special report: Gay rights - how hardline Christians use shock tactics against new law
Former lord chancellor backs religious coalition that claims new equalityrules for homosexuals threaten freedom of belief.
Anthony Barnes reports
Published: 03 December 2006
One of Baroness Thatcher's closest political allies is behind a push toderail new laws designed to end discrimination against homosexuals.
Lord Mackay of Clashfern, a former lord chancellor during the Thatcher era,is the patron of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF), part of acoalition of religious groups opposed to the new rules which they say willride roughshod over their beliefs. The new rules, which ban those offeringgoods and services from discriminating against gays and lesbians, will forcethem to act against their consciences, they say.
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Saturday, December 02, 2006 7:15 AM
To: wff-newslist@lists.woodhullfoundation.org
Sexual Intelligence; Issue 82
an electronic newsletter written & published by
Marty Klein, Ph.D.
Issue #82 December 2006
1. Loving the Sin <> More Than The Sinner?
2. Fox Appointed To Guard <> Henhouse
3. Zeffirelli Tells His Truth <>
4. Civil Unions, <> si
5. Correspondence--Decency or Shame? <>
6. Rare and <> Moving Nudes
7. America's War On Sex
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State should legalize civil unions for gays
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/OPINION01/212020302/-1/OPINION04
Nashua Telegraph {New Hampshire]
Published: Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006
Fiscal reality should and will temper the aspirations of New Hampshire'snewly Democratic Legislature. But it will cost nothing to right a trulymajor wrong: the discrimination against homosexuals inherent in state law.
The next session of the Legislature should legalize civil unions and grantinheritance, visitation, custody and other rights currently enjoyed byheterosexual married couples to same-sex partners in committedrelationships.
Earlier this month, voters in seven states approved constitutionalamendments banning gay marriage. Society isn't ready to broaden thedefinition of that sacramental word to include the union of two men or twowomen.
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A&E to Premiere Wedding Wars
Written by Connie Phillips
Published December 01, 2006
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/12/01/235239.php
On Monday, December 11, A&E will premiere Wedding Wars, a two-hour originalmovie staring John Stamos, Eric Dane, and James Brolin. What sets thisromantic comedy apart from the usual fare is the focus on same-sex marriage.
Love and family get confused with politics and marriage rights when Shel, agay wedding planner (Stamos), agrees to lend his services to his brother Ben(Dane) and Maggie (Bonnie Sommerville), who is the daughter of the Governor(Brolin). After the Governor comes out against gay marriage, in a speechwritten by Ben, Shel goes on strike. His actions ultimately fuel anation-wide protest by gays for the right to marry. Sean Maher and RosemaryDunsmore also co-star.
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The current issue of The Express Gay News is online
http://expressgaynews.com/
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FL: Crash Prompts Lawsuit By Same-Sex Couple
Crash Prompts Lawsuit By Same-Sex Couple
http://www.news4jax.com/news/10445335/detail.html
News 4 Jacksonville, FL
POSTED: 10:03 pm EST December 1, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Weeks after Melinda Garrison crashed into antractor-trailer that pulled into her path as she was driving to work nearPalatka, she still needs help putting one foot in front of the other.
"I don't remember seeing this truck or anything," Garrison said. "All I cantell you is, I was going the speed limit, I had a seat belt on, I wasn't onthe phone, everything was good."
She was airlifted to Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, where she was in acoma for 28 days. When she was well enough, she was transferred to BrookRehabilitation, where her same-sex partner, Judith Bashaway, visits everyday.
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Media Matters for America, November 29, 2006
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611290003
WSJ's Miniter baselessly linked same-sex marriage to rise in out-of-wedlockbirths
In his November 28 online column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com assistant editor Brendan Miniter baselessly asserted that a study indicatingan increase in out-of-wedlock births "reveals why" the debate over same-sexmarriage "is worth having now."
Miniter wrote that a lawsuit recently filed by Massachusetts Gov. MittRomney (R) against his state's legislature, in which Romney seeks to forcelawmakers to put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot, "serv[es] as anopportunity to reach a consensus on why marriage as an institution is worthprotecting." Miniter then baselessly connected same-sex marriage to a studyby the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which, as Miniterwrote, "found that although teen pregnancy rates are dropping, the number ofout-of-wedlock births in America has been steadily rising since the 1990s."
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Queer Inc.
How Corporate America fell in love with gays and lesbians.
It's a movement.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/12/11/8395465/mailto:marc_gunther@fortunemail.com
Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
November 30 2006: 3:41 PM EST
(Fortune Magazine) -- Business is booming atthe$22-billion-a-year defense contractor that sells Tomahawk cruise missiles,laser-vision goggles and advanced radar systems to the Pentagon. This,improbably, is good news for the gay-rights movement.
A platoon of Raytheon employees wearing identical blue-and-black bowlingshirts, pins with the company's logo and black pants proudly walked thehalls of this fall's convention of Out & Equal, an organization that bringstogether the networks of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people -GLBT, in the argot of the moment - that have taken root at America's bigcompanies.
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For More Quotes Read: Breakthrough "A Brief Moment in Mind" By: Ron Mills
http://Breakthru.info/mind
http://www.breakthru.info/mind/
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of live. It turns what we have into enough,and more, It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion toclarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a strangerinto a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melody Beattie
"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I wouldnot have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything yougave me."
Erma Bombeck
For More Quotes Read: Breakthrough "A Brief Moment in Mind" By: Ron Mills
http://Breakthru.info/mind
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The Advocate, November 21, 2006
http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid39485.asp
Don't bet on Barack
LGBT voters may want to think twice about throwing their support toward2008's great blue hope.
By the Reverend Irene Monroe
Barack Obama, the lanky and charismatic U.S. senator from Illinois, is anational, if not global, phenomenon. He is being touted as the miracleelixir for a nation divided along the fault lines of race, religion, andclass.
And also a nation divided along the battle lines of Red State versus BlueState.
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From Marc Adams
HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/mailman/listinfo/heartstronglist_heartstrong.org
Diocese Attempts to Silence Gay Activist; Scraps Unitarian Congregation'sLease
HeartStrong, Inc.
PO Box 2051
Seattle WA 98111
http://www.heartstrong.org
press@heartstrong.org
CONTACT:
Marc Adams, Executive Director
marcadams@heartstrong.org
206-351-9993
SEATTLE WA - "We find what Father Lavin and the Diocese of Camden havedone to be completely unacceptable," HeartStrong Executive Director MarcAdams says. "We refuse to allow them to imply that my message and themessage of HeartStrong is wrong, sinful or unacceptable. They may be ableto attempt to try to intimidate or silence those who subscribe to theirbeliefs, but they can't silence or intimidate HeartStrong."
The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, leased space for threeyears to the Unitarian Unversalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore.Now, the congregation has been forced out of their leased space withoutwarning because of their commitment to truth.
more...
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Dutch gays widely accepted, but not in immigrant community
dpa German Press Agency
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Dutch_gays_widely_accepted_but_not__11292006.html
Published: Wednesday November 29, 2006
Amsterdam- Dutch gays and lesbians enjoy greater acceptance in society atlarge and more rights under the law than almost anywhere else. Since 2001,they have been allowed to marry, and the law specifically provides forsame-sex couples to adopt children.
Only around 6 per cent of the Dutch would object to a gay neighbour,compared to 14 per cent in Germany, 55 per cent in Poland and 66 per cent inUkraine, according to figures compiled some six years ago by thestate-funded Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP).
A new survey by the SCP published earlier this month shows that less than aquarter of the population - 22 per cent - is against same-sex marriage, withmany of these from the ranks of the strongly religious.
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ABC News Transcripts
This Week with George Stephanopoulous
November 19, 2006
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Good morning everyone. Proving that it's never too early forPresidential politics both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain set up exploratorycampaign committees this week and we're joined this morning here in thestudio by Senator McCain. Welcome back.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (REPUBLICAN)
Thanks George.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) So you're in South Carolina or Michigan talking to a countychairman when he asks why should I support you over Rudy Giuliani what doyou say?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN
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http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2062023,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
Judge to Rule on Landmark Internet Porn Law
November 20, 2006
By Jon Hurdle, Reuters
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)-A U.S. law designed to prevent children from viewingpornography online would undermine the free speech of millions of adultInternet users, opponents of the measure said on Monday.
The law is so imprecisely written it would restrict most adult Internetusers to material that is only suitable for children, lawyers for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs said in closingarguments of a four-week trial.
The ACLU and others sued the U.S. government, claiming the Child OnlineProtection Act of 1998 violates the Constitution, and they argued on Mondaythat filtering was a more effective tool that does not curtail free speech.
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INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
The Argentinean Supreme Court Recognizes Transgender Group
<http://www.iglhrc.org/files/iglhrc/graphic/5-10.gif>
For Immediate Release: Wednesday November 22, 2006
Media Contact: Hossein Alizadeh, 212-430-6016,
halizadeh@iglhrc.org
(Buenos Aires, November 22, 2006)- Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Argentinaruled that official legal recognition must be given to the Association forthe Struggle of the Travesti and Transsexual Identity (ALITT). The courtdecision overrules earlier decisions by the General Inspectorate of Justice(a division of the Argentinean Justice Department dealing with theregistration of the NGOs, "Inspeccion General de Justicia" in Spanish) andthe civil court, which declared that ALITT's goals were unacceptable as"going against the common good."
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Journal of Homosexuality
Volume 51, Issue 3
Editor(s): John P. De Cecco, PhD
This issue is now available online and will soon be mailed to subscribers inapproximately 4-6 weeks.
NOTE: If the URLs in this email are not active hyperlinks, copy and pastethe URL into the address/location box in your browser.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sexual Minorities and Selection of a Primary Care Physician in a MidwesternU.S. City
Chalmer E. Labig, Tim O. Peterson
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?ID=90287
From "Male Bonding Rituals" to "Suicide Tuesday": A Qualitative Study ofIssues Faced by Gay Male Ecstasy (MDMA) Users
Robert Klitzman
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?ID=90289
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From Marc Adams
HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/mailman/listinfo/heartstronglist_heartstrong.org
Anger Builds a Place of Help for Others
Kay Mehl Miller Ph.d.
Marc Adams is a powerful speaker. The son of a fundamentalist Baptistpreacher and a former ex-gay, Marc is the executive director of avolunteer organization that ministers to gays and lesbians educated inreligious schools. He had me in tears when he spoke to our Santa RosaPFLAG group recently.
Adams is crackling with anger, the kind of anger that demands action. InMarc's case, he founded HeartStrong, the only organization of its kind inthe world. After 10 years HeartStrong has helped nearly 1000 students whowere abused, harassed, intimidated and/or isolated by their religiousschool experiences.
more....
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
####
Saturday, December 02, 2006
GLBT DIGEST - DECEMBER 2, 2006
**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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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901595_pf.html
In Conservative Chile, a Push for Change
Gays and Others Grow Bolder in Their Challenge to Nation's Cultural Arbiters
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 30, 2006; A14
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Emma de Ramón recently bought a condo here. But evenbefore she moved in, she said, everyone in the building knew one fact abouther: She's gay.
De Ramón and her partner, Karen Atala, a judge, have become unintentionalcelebrities since waging a battle against Chile's Supreme Court, whichforced Atala to surrender custody of her three daughters because of herrelationship with de Ramón.
Now the couple has become emblematic of a segment of the population growingnoticeably bolder recently: those eager to shed Chile's questionable labelas the most culturally conservative country in Latin America.
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The Express Gay News
http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_332003345.html
Nov 27, 2006 9:31 pm US/Pacific
Davis Student Fears More Harassment
Anny Hong
Reporting
(CBS13) DAVIS, Calif. It all happened at Harper Junior High. A student ofgay parents has been harassed and called names. His parents say their carwas torched and now they're threatening a lawsuit against the school if itdoesn't take the anti-gay harassment more seriously.
Harper Junior High School student, Zack, hasn't been to school in almost amonth. He says after years of being teased because his father is gay, oneday, it went too far.
Several students were disciplined, from detention to suspension. But Zack'sfather says it's not enough, especially when his son went back to school andwas teased again.
Almost two weeks ago, at a standing room only school board meeting, dozensof people from the community gave three hours of emotional testimony.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-aaidsday01dec01,0,7349540.story
In fight against HIV, strategists look again at ways of prevention
By Maria Cheng
The Associated Press
December 1, 2006
London · Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of themost promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS.
As World AIDS Day is marked today, some public health specialists are sayingthe focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has had anunintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventing HIVinfections is key to controlling the pandemic.
New strategies that attempt to change the environment of AIDS transmissionare being considered. A study published online Thursday in the Britishmedical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance project in SouthAfrica cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half.
There is a strong link between HIV transmission and abusive relationships,with abusive men more likely to have multiple partners or to become violentif asked to use condoms.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/16136842.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Dec. 01, 2006
WORLD AIDS DAY
AIDS focus returns to prevention
World AIDS Day saw renewed calls for strategies focusing less on a cure andmore on slowing the pandemic, which has continued to surge in unexpectedplaces.
BY MARIA CHENG
Associated Press
LONDON - Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of themost promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS.
As World AIDS Day is marked today, some public health experts are saying thecurrent focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has hadan unintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventingHIV is key to controlling the pandemic.
New strategies that attempt to change the very environment of AIDStransmission are now being considered. A study published online Thursday inthe British medical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance projectin South Africa cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16136633.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Dec. 01, 2006
For gay activists, it's still political season in N.J.
DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A dozen political operatives from around the country are in NewJersey running an intense campaign, but there's no candidate. Their goal isto convince state lawmakers - and residents - that gay couples should havethe right to marry.
Gay rights advocates are raising money, lobbying state lawmakers and goingdoor-to-door to drum up support for their cause: legislation that would givegay unions the same legal status as marriage.
"This is being run like the most intense political campaign you canimagine," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality. "This isa tooth-and-nail fight to the death, a 24-7, get-no-sleep politicalcampaign."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001930_pf.html
Cipel Says Ex-Gov. McGreevey Is Not Gay
The Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; 12:06 AM
TRENTON, N.J. -- The man former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreeveyidentified as his gay lover said Thursday he believes McGreevey is not gay.
Appearing on "Larry King Live," Golan Cipel, an Israeli citizen hired byMcGreevey first as a campaign aide and later as his homeland securityadviser, said that McGreevey's 2004 resignation speech admission that he is"a gay American" was "part of the spin."
Through lawyers, Cipel had threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassmentshortly before and after McGreevey's resignation. A lawsuit was never filed.
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The Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2006/12/post_13.html
Same-Sex Marriage:Good for Kids?
As Maryland's highest court prepares to hear a same-sex marriage case onMonday, a group of psychologists, social workers and child welfare advocatesspoke out yesterday in support of families headed by gays and lesbians.
At a news conference in Baltimore, the professionals highlighted anextensive body of scientific research supporting the idea that childrenraised by lesbian and gay couples develop as well as children raised byheterosexual couples.
They stressed their belief however, that the children of gay and lesbiancouples would enjoy additional benefits if their parents were allowed tomarry.
Laws that limit marriage to heterosexual couples, "provide astate-sanctioned stigma against children and families," said Ruth Fassinger,professor of psychology at the University of Maryland.
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Maryland Psychologists, Social Workers, and Child Welfare Advocates BackSame-sex Marriage
11.30.06
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=11771
Gay Wired
In advance of oral arguments before Maryland's high court, prominentMaryland psychologists, social workers, and child welfare advocates spokeout Thursday at a press conference in support of marriage for same-sexcouples.
At the Maryland chapter of the National Association of Social Workers,representatives of these groups stressed extensive, consistent scientificevidence showing that children raised by lesbian and gay couples develop aswell as children raised by heterosexual couples.
"The evidence is clear: No matter how you measure it, children raised bysame-sex couples are no different from their peers raised by opposite-sexcouples. In areas such as social development, psychological functioning,cognitive ability, and adjustment, there is no difference when comparingthese kids," said Dr. Paul Clavelle, president of the Maryland PsychologicalAssociation.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001370_pf.html
Same-Sex Marriage Law Takes Effect in S. Africa
By Clare Nullis
Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; A20
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 30 -- South Africa on Thursday became thefirst country in Africa, and the fifth in the world, to legalize same-sexmarriages.
The Civil Union Act went into effect a day ahead of a Dec. 1 deadline set bythe country's Constitutional Court, which required that the marriage law bechanged to ensure equality for gay men and lesbians.
Gay rights groups have welcomed the law, although they criticized provisionsallowing clergy and civil marriage officers to turn away gay couples forreasons of conscience.
Some couples began hurrying to make preparations for long-awaited nuptials.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001307_pf.html
Conservative Rabbis Reconsider Stance on Gay Sex
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 1, 2006; A11
After years of debate, the Conservative Jewish movement is on the verge ofredefining its approach to homosexuality, a pivotal decision for a movementthat occupies a shrinking middle ground between Orthodox and Reform Judaism.
A panel of 25 eminent Conservative rabbis will meet in New York next week toconsider five proposed teshuvot, or answers, to the question of whetherhomosexual sex is permitted under Jewish law.
Although the answers have not been made public, Conservative leaders saidthat two defend the traditional position that Leviticus 18:22 -- "Do not liewith a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination" -- prohibitshomosexuality between men and, by extension, between women.
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http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Study_Americans_ambivalent_about_HIVAIDS_crisis_1127.html
Study: Americans ambivalent about HIV/AIDS; Conservatives 'lesscompassionate' to victims
Ron Brynaert
Published: Monday November 27, 2006
A study conducted by an international Christian child developmentorganization finds that many Americans are ambivalent about the world'sHIV/AIDS crisis, with nearly two-fifths admitting to having difficultysympathizing with victims, RAW STORY has found.
In the study commissioned by Compassion International, a ministry to poorchildren in developing countries, 1,004 telephone interviews with adults 18and older were conducted by a Christian polling organization.
In a press release, Compassion noted that the results showed "conflictingbehavior and attitudes" by Americans regarding the disease which has killedmore than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, accordingto United Nations figures.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-christian-coalition,0,773127.story
Christian Coalition Pres.-Elect Leaves
By Associated Press
November 28, 2006, 12:17 PM EST
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of Americahas declined the job, saying the organization wouldn't let him expand itsagenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the sociallyconservative group in January from Roberta Combs, said he had hoped to focuson issues such as poverty and the environment.
"These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about," said Hunter, asenior pastor at Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.
Hunter announced his decision not to take the job during an organizationboard meeting Nov. 21. A statement issued by the group said Hunter leftbecause of "differences in philosophy and vision." Hunter said he was notasked to leave.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100425_pf.html
U.S. Blacks Seek Answers to AIDS Epidemic
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, December 1, 2006; 12:00 AM
FRIDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- By now, most Americans know the drill:Practice safer sex, and HIV should leave you and your community alone.
Except that it's not really working out that way for America's blacks. Studyafter study shows that HIV infections continue to escalate among thiscommunity -- especially among gay and bisexual black men -- even though theypractice safe sex at rates that equal or exceed those of whites.
For example, a study published in time for World AIDS Day on Friday intheAmerican Journal of Public Healthfound that young black adults who hadengaged in no sex over the past year, didn't drink, and didn't abuse drugswere still 25 times more likely to test positive for a sexually transmitteddisease or HIV than whites who practiced similar behaviors.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001715_pf.html
A Lifelong Crusade for AIDS Education
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 3, 2006; M02
Adam Tenner can't help but feel frustrated. "So much time has passed," saysthe 39-year-old, "and so much work is still left to be done."
It has been 25 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported, and Tennerhas been an AIDS activist for 20 of them. Starting off as a peer educatorwhile attending Sarah Lawrence College in 1986, he went on to run the HIVprevention program at YouthCare, a nonprofit organization for at-riskteenagers in Seattle, in the 1990s. In 2001, he became executive director ofMetro TeenAIDS ( http://www.metroteenaids.org), a Capitol Hill-basednonprofit group that offers a variety of HIV/AIDS services.
His is a gargantuan task. In a city with a high rate of new HIV cases -- anda school board that has yet to set a health education curriculum for thecity's public schools -- Metro TeenAIDS's work is vital.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-fire-chief-harassment,0,3599158.story
Panel Recommends Firing Gay Fire Chief
By Associated Press
November 28, 2006, 8:31 PM EST
MINNEAPOLIS -- A city panel recommended Tuesday that officials fire BonnieBleskachek, the nation's first openly lesbian big-city fire chief, in thewake of firefighter lawsuits accusing her of harassment and discrimination.
Bleskachek had earlier agreed to step down. But the city's executive councilunanimously rejected a negotiated deal after a closed-door meeting.
"She was pretty stunned because it was a complete surprise," saidBleskachek's attorney, Jerry Burg.
Mayor R.T. Rybak had announced the agreement in a letter to the city'sexecutive council in which he wrote that he no longer had confidence inBleskachek as chief. Neither Rybak nor City Council members wouldimmediately explain why the deal was blocked.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
CA: Opinion--Gay marriage remains an issue for Republicans
Pasadena Star-News, CA, November 28, 2006
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_4735316
Gay marriage remains an issue for Republicans By Kathryn Jean Lopez,klopez@nationalreview.com
THE 2006 midterm elections may be over, but they are worth taking anotherlook at before we become wedded to the wrong conclusions.
Marriage was an issue on the ballot in eight states and was a winning issuein all but one. Voters in Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin,Colorado, South Dakota and Idaho all voted to protect marriage.
Although some prominent voices have highlighted marriage as a distractionissue that hurt Republicans in the long run, the GOP would be wise not torush to divorce court.
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From Michael Emanuel Rajner
National Secretary - Campaign To End AIDS
merajner@gmail.com
The following link was sent to me by a dear friend at The NAMES ProjectFoundation/ AIDS Memorial Quilt. The video clip captures how a ruralcommunity reactions and responds to The Quilt. Perhaps the one thing thatstands out is when one speaker raises the fact that more must be done.
www.hattiesburgamerican.com/online/Aids/index.html
May everyone celebrate a World AIDS Day reflecting on the love ones thathave departed us, treasure HIV-infected among us and inspire the world toeducate & prevent others from infection.
Michael Emanuel Rajner
National Secretary - Campaign To End AIDS
Tel: (954) 272-8131 ? (305) 677-3506
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Gay Marriage Bill To Be Reintroduced In Calif. Assembly by 365Gay.comNewscenter Staff
Posted: December 1, 2006 5:00 pm ET
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/12/120106calif.htm
(Sacramento, California) Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) on Mondaywill reintroduce legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry inCalifornia.
Called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act is isidentical to a bill passed last year in both the Assembly and Senate butvetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill would amend the Family Code to define marriage as a civil contractbetween two persons instead of a civil contract between a man and a woman,and again reaffirms that no religious institution would be required tosolemnize marriages contrary to its fundamental beliefs.
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Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://wcbs880.com/pages/131693.php?contentType=4&contentId=246989
Posted: Saturday, 25 November 2006 1:52PM
NJ Schools Adjust to Transgender Teachers
TUCKERTON, N.J. (AP) -- From coast to coast, students, parents andeducators are grappling with a new classroom challenge: What to do whenMister McBeth comes to school as Miss McBeth.
As more transgender teachers undergo their transformations, school districtsand universities are facing issues many never dreamed of, including newpronouns, chats with students and staff-- even bathroom arrangements.
The sex-change operation William McBeth underwent in 2005 created acommotion in the conservative Pinelands area when she applied to be rehiredas a substitute in Eagleswood Township under the name Lily McBeth.
Parents jammed a school board meeting last winter, both to denounce andsupport her hiring.
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Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
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Detroit News, MI, November 27, 2006
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061127/OPINION03/611270325
GOP must stop digging hole with anti-gay shovel Deb Price
Sen. George Allen of Virginia was desperate. His re-election campaign was ina nosedive because of reports that he has a long history of using racialslurs. So Allen went on the attack.
In early October, an Allen radio ad ominously charged that challenger JimWebb "is one of those people" like "Hillary Clinton and their liberal alliesin Washington" who want to "weaken marriage." (Although Webb opposes gaymarriage, he objected to amending Virginia's constitution to block any sortof legal recognition for unmarried
couples.)
In the campaign's final days, Allen resorted more and more often to anti-gayscare tactics. But Webb, a former Navy secretary who wore his son's combatboots as a reminder that the young Marine is serving in Iraq, stuck to twothemes: Getting out of the "strategic blunder" of the war in Iraq andrescuing the American middle class.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
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kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Out Military Gays Serve With Distinction In Iraq
by 365Gay.com NewscenterStaff
Posted: September 15, 2004 11:27 am ET
(Santa Barbara, California) A study of gays in the military releasedWednesday concludes that gays and lesbians are serving openly in the MiddleEast without undermining unit cohesion or the missions in Iraq andAfghanistan.
When gays are out, they report says "greater success in bonding, morale,professional advancement, levels of commitment & retention and access toessential support services."
The study, prepared for the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in theMilitary at the University of California, Santa Barbara, also found that"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has a negative effect not just on gays, but on thosearound them, by creating an atmosphere of dishonesty and distrust as well asdisrespect for the law and the principles of integrity that are essential tomilitary service.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Poles apart: how gay people suffer under the new regime By Jerome Taylor inWarsaw
Published: 01 December 2006
The Independent Online
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2029283.ece
Twenty-five years ago, two identical twins, once childhood stars in Polandduring the Sixties, were on the run from the Communist regime's secretpolice. Today, they are the President and Prime Minister of their country,and fiercely proud of Poland's feisty role in Europe and its closefriendship with the United States.
One of the brothers, President Lech Kaczynski, flew to Britain this month tomeet the Queen and Tony Blair, part of an official visit during which thetwo countries celebrated their close alliance, built on a mild mutualEuroscepticism and a firm belief in pursuing the "war on terror". Lech'sbrother, Jaroslaw, remained in Warsaw running the country as Prime Minister.
But the journey they have made from being on the run to running the countryhas come at an unacceptably high price for many Poles. The country's gaycommunity today feels the cold blast of exclusion, just as the twins did 25years ago.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Gay marriage case goes to Md. high court Couples hope for '07 ruling
granting full rights
By LOU CHIBBARO JR
Dec. 01, 2006
http://www.washblade.com/print.cfm?content_id=9569
Washington Blade
Nine same-sex couples are expected to be present in an Annapolis courtroom
Monday, when Maryland's highest court hears arguments over whether the state
constitution allows the couples to cement their relationships through
marriage.
The couples, who filed a lawsuit in 2004 challenging a state law banningsame-sex marriage, say they are hopeful that the seven-member Maryland Courtof Appeals will issue a decision sometime next year allowing Maryland tojoin Massachusetts and New Jersey in providing full, equal marriage rightsto same-sex couples.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
World AIDS Day: Williams Institute Releases Study on HIVDiscrimination in Health Care
http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/home.html
UCLA Law Study Finds High Rates of HIV Discrimination in Health Care
One-fourth to one-half of skilled nursing facilities, obstetricians, andcosmetic surgeons in LA County deny treatment to HIV-positive patients
December 1, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Brad Sears, Research Director, Williams Institute, sears@law.ucla.edu,
310.794.5279
Darcy Pottle, Williams Institute, <mailto:pottle@law.ucla.edu>
pottle@law.ucla.edu, 310.267.4382
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law andPublic Policy released a study today showing surprisingly high rates of HIVdiscrimination by health care providers in Los Angeles County. The studyreports findings from three "testing" studies of skilled nursing facilities,obstetricians, and cosmetic surgeons conducted between 2003 and 2005.
Overall, 56% of skilled nursing facilities, 47% of obstetricians, and 26% ofplastic and cosmetic surgeons in Los Angeles County would not acceptHIV-positive patients for services commonly offered to HIV-negativepatients. For example, when asked if he accepted HIV-positive patients, onehealth care worker responded, "We try not to.I'm just trying to be honest."
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Fewer Czechs practicing safe sex
EU launches new awareness campaign
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2006/11/29/fewer-czechs-practicing-safe-sex.php
By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 29th, 2006
Fear is one of the greatest motivators, which is why health experts areworried by a burgeoning trend: Fewer Czechs are scared enough to practicesafe sex these days.
"People here are not afraid of AIDS," says Petr Weiss, a leading Czech sexresearcher. "Czechs do not protect themselves enough. The use of protectionagainst unwanted pregnancy has improved significantly. However, theprotection against AIDS is not sufficient."
Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day, and Czech healthcare workers are talking aboutthe rise of HIV infection here in recent years.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Ukrainian church council opposes legalization of same-sex marriages
30 November 2006, 18:11
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2324
Kiev, November 30, Interfax - The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches andReligious Organizations has urged the Verkhovnaya Rada to prevent thelegalization of homosexual marriages in on an open letter on behalf of themain Christian, Judaic and Moslem confessions it represents.
"We strongly oppose the legalization of homosexual marriages in ourcountry," the letter, read out by the head of the Ukrainian Greek CatholicChurch Father Andrey (Nagirnyak) at Interfax-Ukraine's offices on Thursday,says.
The law must clearly specify that only a man and a woman may create afamily, the letter says.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Sweden's gay blood ban to stay
Published: 1st December 2006 15:43 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/5666/
The Local
A proposal to allow gay men in Sweden to give blood is to be put on hold forat least another year after concerns were raised by health authorities.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) had been expectedin November to end Sweden's lifetime ban on blood donations from men whohave had sex with men.
The ban was put in place to prevent the spread of HIV, but in the summer theboard proposed changes which would have allowed blood donations from gay menwho had not had sex for six months.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Sweden's gay blood ban to stay
Published: 1st December 2006 15:43 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/5666/
The Local
A proposal to allow gay men in Sweden to give blood is to be put on hold forat least another year after concerns were raised by health authorities.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) had been expectedin November to end Sweden's lifetime ban on blood donations from men whohave had sex with men.
The ban was put in place to prevent the spread of HIV, but in the summer theboard proposed changes which would have allowed blood donations from gay menwho had not had sex for six months.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16145696.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Dec. 02, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Crist's words as puzzling as his views
By BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Here comes ``the people's governor.''
The phrase that Republican Charlie Crist used to describe himself onthe campaign trail says everything and nothing, rings hollow and true, likemany things he says.
Crist does have an uncanny way of connecting with people, of listeningto their concerns, of showing that he cares. Equally uncanny is his way ofhitting up fat cats and lobbyists, who pumped an estimated $56 million intohis record-setting, made-for-television campaign.
Can you be the populist candidate and the richest one, too?
Candidate Charlie, now Gov.-elect Crist, hasn't changed a bit. Askedduring an interview Friday whether he still felt like he was campaigning, hesaid: ``I'm in people mode. That's very important to me.''
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901595_pf.html
In Conservative Chile, a Push for Change
Gays and Others Grow Bolder in Their Challenge to Nation's Cultural Arbiters
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 30, 2006; A14
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Emma de Ramón recently bought a condo here. But evenbefore she moved in, she said, everyone in the building knew one fact abouther: She's gay.
De Ramón and her partner, Karen Atala, a judge, have become unintentionalcelebrities since waging a battle against Chile's Supreme Court, whichforced Atala to surrender custody of her three daughters because of herrelationship with de Ramón.
Now the couple has become emblematic of a segment of the population growingnoticeably bolder recently: those eager to shed Chile's questionable labelas the most culturally conservative country in Latin America.
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The Express Gay News
http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_332003345.html
Nov 27, 2006 9:31 pm US/Pacific
Davis Student Fears More Harassment
Anny Hong
Reporting
(CBS13) DAVIS, Calif. It all happened at Harper Junior High. A student ofgay parents has been harassed and called names. His parents say their carwas torched and now they're threatening a lawsuit against the school if itdoesn't take the anti-gay harassment more seriously.
Harper Junior High School student, Zack, hasn't been to school in almost amonth. He says after years of being teased because his father is gay, oneday, it went too far.
Several students were disciplined, from detention to suspension. But Zack'sfather says it's not enough, especially when his son went back to school andwas teased again.
Almost two weeks ago, at a standing room only school board meeting, dozensof people from the community gave three hours of emotional testimony.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-aaidsday01dec01,0,7349540.story
In fight against HIV, strategists look again at ways of prevention
By Maria Cheng
The Associated Press
December 1, 2006
London · Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of themost promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS.
As World AIDS Day is marked today, some public health specialists are sayingthe focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has had anunintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventing HIVinfections is key to controlling the pandemic.
New strategies that attempt to change the environment of AIDS transmissionare being considered. A study published online Thursday in the Britishmedical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance project in SouthAfrica cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half.
There is a strong link between HIV transmission and abusive relationships,with abusive men more likely to have multiple partners or to become violentif asked to use condoms.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/16136842.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Dec. 01, 2006
WORLD AIDS DAY
AIDS focus returns to prevention
World AIDS Day saw renewed calls for strategies focusing less on a cure andmore on slowing the pandemic, which has continued to surge in unexpectedplaces.
BY MARIA CHENG
Associated Press
LONDON - Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of themost promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS.
As World AIDS Day is marked today, some public health experts are saying thecurrent focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has hadan unintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventingHIV is key to controlling the pandemic.
New strategies that attempt to change the very environment of AIDStransmission are now being considered. A study published online Thursday inthe British medical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance projectin South Africa cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16136633.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Dec. 01, 2006
For gay activists, it's still political season in N.J.
DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A dozen political operatives from around the country are in NewJersey running an intense campaign, but there's no candidate. Their goal isto convince state lawmakers - and residents - that gay couples should havethe right to marry.
Gay rights advocates are raising money, lobbying state lawmakers and goingdoor-to-door to drum up support for their cause: legislation that would givegay unions the same legal status as marriage.
"This is being run like the most intense political campaign you canimagine," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality. "This isa tooth-and-nail fight to the death, a 24-7, get-no-sleep politicalcampaign."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001930_pf.html
Cipel Says Ex-Gov. McGreevey Is Not Gay
The Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; 12:06 AM
TRENTON, N.J. -- The man former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreeveyidentified as his gay lover said Thursday he believes McGreevey is not gay.
Appearing on "Larry King Live," Golan Cipel, an Israeli citizen hired byMcGreevey first as a campaign aide and later as his homeland securityadviser, said that McGreevey's 2004 resignation speech admission that he is"a gay American" was "part of the spin."
Through lawyers, Cipel had threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassmentshortly before and after McGreevey's resignation. A lawsuit was never filed.
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The Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2006/12/post_13.html
Same-Sex Marriage:Good for Kids?
As Maryland's highest court prepares to hear a same-sex marriage case onMonday, a group of psychologists, social workers and child welfare advocatesspoke out yesterday in support of families headed by gays and lesbians.
At a news conference in Baltimore, the professionals highlighted anextensive body of scientific research supporting the idea that childrenraised by lesbian and gay couples develop as well as children raised byheterosexual couples.
They stressed their belief however, that the children of gay and lesbiancouples would enjoy additional benefits if their parents were allowed tomarry.
Laws that limit marriage to heterosexual couples, "provide astate-sanctioned stigma against children and families," said Ruth Fassinger,professor of psychology at the University of Maryland.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Maryland Psychologists, Social Workers, and Child Welfare Advocates BackSame-sex Marriage
11.30.06
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=11771
Gay Wired
In advance of oral arguments before Maryland's high court, prominentMaryland psychologists, social workers, and child welfare advocates spokeout Thursday at a press conference in support of marriage for same-sexcouples.
At the Maryland chapter of the National Association of Social Workers,representatives of these groups stressed extensive, consistent scientificevidence showing that children raised by lesbian and gay couples develop aswell as children raised by heterosexual couples.
"The evidence is clear: No matter how you measure it, children raised bysame-sex couples are no different from their peers raised by opposite-sexcouples. In areas such as social development, psychological functioning,cognitive ability, and adjustment, there is no difference when comparingthese kids," said Dr. Paul Clavelle, president of the Maryland PsychologicalAssociation.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001370_pf.html
Same-Sex Marriage Law Takes Effect in S. Africa
By Clare Nullis
Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; A20
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 30 -- South Africa on Thursday became thefirst country in Africa, and the fifth in the world, to legalize same-sexmarriages.
The Civil Union Act went into effect a day ahead of a Dec. 1 deadline set bythe country's Constitutional Court, which required that the marriage law bechanged to ensure equality for gay men and lesbians.
Gay rights groups have welcomed the law, although they criticized provisionsallowing clergy and civil marriage officers to turn away gay couples forreasons of conscience.
Some couples began hurrying to make preparations for long-awaited nuptials.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001307_pf.html
Conservative Rabbis Reconsider Stance on Gay Sex
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 1, 2006; A11
After years of debate, the Conservative Jewish movement is on the verge ofredefining its approach to homosexuality, a pivotal decision for a movementthat occupies a shrinking middle ground between Orthodox and Reform Judaism.
A panel of 25 eminent Conservative rabbis will meet in New York next week toconsider five proposed teshuvot, or answers, to the question of whetherhomosexual sex is permitted under Jewish law.
Although the answers have not been made public, Conservative leaders saidthat two defend the traditional position that Leviticus 18:22 -- "Do not liewith a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination" -- prohibitshomosexuality between men and, by extension, between women.
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http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Study_Americans_ambivalent_about_HIVAIDS_crisis_1127.html
Study: Americans ambivalent about HIV/AIDS; Conservatives 'lesscompassionate' to victims
Ron Brynaert
Published: Monday November 27, 2006
A study conducted by an international Christian child developmentorganization finds that many Americans are ambivalent about the world'sHIV/AIDS crisis, with nearly two-fifths admitting to having difficultysympathizing with victims, RAW STORY has found.
In the study commissioned by Compassion International, a ministry to poorchildren in developing countries, 1,004 telephone interviews with adults 18and older were conducted by a Christian polling organization.
In a press release, Compassion noted that the results showed "conflictingbehavior and attitudes" by Americans regarding the disease which has killedmore than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, accordingto United Nations figures.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-christian-coalition,0,773127.story
Christian Coalition Pres.-Elect Leaves
By Associated Press
November 28, 2006, 12:17 PM EST
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of Americahas declined the job, saying the organization wouldn't let him expand itsagenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the sociallyconservative group in January from Roberta Combs, said he had hoped to focuson issues such as poverty and the environment.
"These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about," said Hunter, asenior pastor at Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.
Hunter announced his decision not to take the job during an organizationboard meeting Nov. 21. A statement issued by the group said Hunter leftbecause of "differences in philosophy and vision." Hunter said he was notasked to leave.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100425_pf.html
U.S. Blacks Seek Answers to AIDS Epidemic
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, December 1, 2006; 12:00 AM
FRIDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- By now, most Americans know the drill:Practice safer sex, and HIV should leave you and your community alone.
Except that it's not really working out that way for America's blacks. Studyafter study shows that HIV infections continue to escalate among thiscommunity -- especially among gay and bisexual black men -- even though theypractice safe sex at rates that equal or exceed those of whites.
For example, a study published in time for World AIDS Day on Friday intheAmerican Journal of Public Healthfound that young black adults who hadengaged in no sex over the past year, didn't drink, and didn't abuse drugswere still 25 times more likely to test positive for a sexually transmitteddisease or HIV than whites who practiced similar behaviors.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001715_pf.html
A Lifelong Crusade for AIDS Education
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 3, 2006; M02
Adam Tenner can't help but feel frustrated. "So much time has passed," saysthe 39-year-old, "and so much work is still left to be done."
It has been 25 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported, and Tennerhas been an AIDS activist for 20 of them. Starting off as a peer educatorwhile attending Sarah Lawrence College in 1986, he went on to run the HIVprevention program at YouthCare, a nonprofit organization for at-riskteenagers in Seattle, in the 1990s. In 2001, he became executive director ofMetro TeenAIDS ( http://www.metroteenaids.org), a Capitol Hill-basednonprofit group that offers a variety of HIV/AIDS services.
His is a gargantuan task. In a city with a high rate of new HIV cases -- anda school board that has yet to set a health education curriculum for thecity's public schools -- Metro TeenAIDS's work is vital.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-fire-chief-harassment,0,3599158.story
Panel Recommends Firing Gay Fire Chief
By Associated Press
November 28, 2006, 8:31 PM EST
MINNEAPOLIS -- A city panel recommended Tuesday that officials fire BonnieBleskachek, the nation's first openly lesbian big-city fire chief, in thewake of firefighter lawsuits accusing her of harassment and discrimination.
Bleskachek had earlier agreed to step down. But the city's executive councilunanimously rejected a negotiated deal after a closed-door meeting.
"She was pretty stunned because it was a complete surprise," saidBleskachek's attorney, Jerry Burg.
Mayor R.T. Rybak had announced the agreement in a letter to the city'sexecutive council in which he wrote that he no longer had confidence inBleskachek as chief. Neither Rybak nor City Council members wouldimmediately explain why the deal was blocked.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
CA: Opinion--Gay marriage remains an issue for Republicans
Pasadena Star-News, CA, November 28, 2006
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_4735316
Gay marriage remains an issue for Republicans By Kathryn Jean Lopez,klopez@nationalreview.com
THE 2006 midterm elections may be over, but they are worth taking anotherlook at before we become wedded to the wrong conclusions.
Marriage was an issue on the ballot in eight states and was a winning issuein all but one. Voters in Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin,Colorado, South Dakota and Idaho all voted to protect marriage.
Although some prominent voices have highlighted marriage as a distractionissue that hurt Republicans in the long run, the GOP would be wise not torush to divorce court.
=
From Michael Emanuel Rajner
National Secretary - Campaign To End AIDS
merajner@gmail.com
The following link was sent to me by a dear friend at The NAMES ProjectFoundation/ AIDS Memorial Quilt. The video clip captures how a ruralcommunity reactions and responds to The Quilt. Perhaps the one thing thatstands out is when one speaker raises the fact that more must be done.
www.hattiesburgamerican.com/online/Aids/index.html
May everyone celebrate a World AIDS Day reflecting on the love ones thathave departed us, treasure HIV-infected among us and inspire the world toeducate & prevent others from infection.
Michael Emanuel Rajner
National Secretary - Campaign To End AIDS
Tel: (954) 272-8131 ? (305) 677-3506
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Gay Marriage Bill To Be Reintroduced In Calif. Assembly by 365Gay.comNewscenter Staff
Posted: December 1, 2006 5:00 pm ET
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/12/120106calif.htm
(Sacramento, California) Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) on Mondaywill reintroduce legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry inCalifornia.
Called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act is isidentical to a bill passed last year in both the Assembly and Senate butvetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill would amend the Family Code to define marriage as a civil contractbetween two persons instead of a civil contract between a man and a woman,and again reaffirms that no religious institution would be required tosolemnize marriages contrary to its fundamental beliefs.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://wcbs880.com/pages/131693.php?contentType=4&contentId=246989
Posted: Saturday, 25 November 2006 1:52PM
NJ Schools Adjust to Transgender Teachers
TUCKERTON, N.J. (AP) -- From coast to coast, students, parents andeducators are grappling with a new classroom challenge: What to do whenMister McBeth comes to school as Miss McBeth.
As more transgender teachers undergo their transformations, school districtsand universities are facing issues many never dreamed of, including newpronouns, chats with students and staff-- even bathroom arrangements.
The sex-change operation William McBeth underwent in 2005 created acommotion in the conservative Pinelands area when she applied to be rehiredas a substitute in Eagleswood Township under the name Lily McBeth.
Parents jammed a school board meeting last winter, both to denounce andsupport her hiring.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Detroit News, MI, November 27, 2006
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061127/OPINION03/611270325
GOP must stop digging hole with anti-gay shovel Deb Price
Sen. George Allen of Virginia was desperate. His re-election campaign was ina nosedive because of reports that he has a long history of using racialslurs. So Allen went on the attack.
In early October, an Allen radio ad ominously charged that challenger JimWebb "is one of those people" like "Hillary Clinton and their liberal alliesin Washington" who want to "weaken marriage." (Although Webb opposes gaymarriage, he objected to amending Virginia's constitution to block any sortof legal recognition for unmarried
couples.)
In the campaign's final days, Allen resorted more and more often to anti-gayscare tactics. But Webb, a former Navy secretary who wore his son's combatboots as a reminder that the young Marine is serving in Iraq, stuck to twothemes: Getting out of the "strategic blunder" of the war in Iraq andrescuing the American middle class.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Out Military Gays Serve With Distinction In Iraq
by 365Gay.com NewscenterStaff
Posted: September 15, 2004 11:27 am ET
(Santa Barbara, California) A study of gays in the military releasedWednesday concludes that gays and lesbians are serving openly in the MiddleEast without undermining unit cohesion or the missions in Iraq andAfghanistan.
When gays are out, they report says "greater success in bonding, morale,professional advancement, levels of commitment & retention and access toessential support services."
The study, prepared for the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in theMilitary at the University of California, Santa Barbara, also found that"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has a negative effect not just on gays, but on thosearound them, by creating an atmosphere of dishonesty and distrust as well asdisrespect for the law and the principles of integrity that are essential tomilitary service.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Poles apart: how gay people suffer under the new regime By Jerome Taylor inWarsaw
Published: 01 December 2006
The Independent Online
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2029283.ece
Twenty-five years ago, two identical twins, once childhood stars in Polandduring the Sixties, were on the run from the Communist regime's secretpolice. Today, they are the President and Prime Minister of their country,and fiercely proud of Poland's feisty role in Europe and its closefriendship with the United States.
One of the brothers, President Lech Kaczynski, flew to Britain this month tomeet the Queen and Tony Blair, part of an official visit during which thetwo countries celebrated their close alliance, built on a mild mutualEuroscepticism and a firm belief in pursuing the "war on terror". Lech'sbrother, Jaroslaw, remained in Warsaw running the country as Prime Minister.
But the journey they have made from being on the run to running the countryhas come at an unacceptably high price for many Poles. The country's gaycommunity today feels the cold blast of exclusion, just as the twins did 25years ago.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Gay marriage case goes to Md. high court Couples hope for '07 ruling
granting full rights
By LOU CHIBBARO JR
Dec. 01, 2006
http://www.washblade.com/print.cfm?content_id=9569
Washington Blade
Nine same-sex couples are expected to be present in an Annapolis courtroom
Monday, when Maryland's highest court hears arguments over whether the state
constitution allows the couples to cement their relationships through
marriage.
The couples, who filed a lawsuit in 2004 challenging a state law banningsame-sex marriage, say they are hopeful that the seven-member Maryland Courtof Appeals will issue a decision sometime next year allowing Maryland tojoin Massachusetts and New Jersey in providing full, equal marriage rightsto same-sex couples.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
World AIDS Day: Williams Institute Releases Study on HIVDiscrimination in Health Care
http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/home.html
UCLA Law Study Finds High Rates of HIV Discrimination in Health Care
One-fourth to one-half of skilled nursing facilities, obstetricians, andcosmetic surgeons in LA County deny treatment to HIV-positive patients
December 1, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Brad Sears, Research Director, Williams Institute, sears@law.ucla.edu,
310.794.5279
Darcy Pottle, Williams Institute, <mailto:pottle@law.ucla.edu>
pottle@law.ucla.edu, 310.267.4382
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law andPublic Policy released a study today showing surprisingly high rates of HIVdiscrimination by health care providers in Los Angeles County. The studyreports findings from three "testing" studies of skilled nursing facilities,obstetricians, and cosmetic surgeons conducted between 2003 and 2005.
Overall, 56% of skilled nursing facilities, 47% of obstetricians, and 26% ofplastic and cosmetic surgeons in Los Angeles County would not acceptHIV-positive patients for services commonly offered to HIV-negativepatients. For example, when asked if he accepted HIV-positive patients, onehealth care worker responded, "We try not to.I'm just trying to be honest."
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Fewer Czechs practicing safe sex
EU launches new awareness campaign
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2006/11/29/fewer-czechs-practicing-safe-sex.php
By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 29th, 2006
Fear is one of the greatest motivators, which is why health experts areworried by a burgeoning trend: Fewer Czechs are scared enough to practicesafe sex these days.
"People here are not afraid of AIDS," says Petr Weiss, a leading Czech sexresearcher. "Czechs do not protect themselves enough. The use of protectionagainst unwanted pregnancy has improved significantly. However, theprotection against AIDS is not sufficient."
Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day, and Czech healthcare workers are talking aboutthe rise of HIV infection here in recent years.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Ukrainian church council opposes legalization of same-sex marriages
30 November 2006, 18:11
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2324
Kiev, November 30, Interfax - The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches andReligious Organizations has urged the Verkhovnaya Rada to prevent thelegalization of homosexual marriages in on an open letter on behalf of themain Christian, Judaic and Moslem confessions it represents.
"We strongly oppose the legalization of homosexual marriages in ourcountry," the letter, read out by the head of the Ukrainian Greek CatholicChurch Father Andrey (Nagirnyak) at Interfax-Ukraine's offices on Thursday,says.
The law must clearly specify that only a man and a woman may create afamily, the letter says.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Sweden's gay blood ban to stay
Published: 1st December 2006 15:43 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/5666/
The Local
A proposal to allow gay men in Sweden to give blood is to be put on hold forat least another year after concerns were raised by health authorities.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) had been expectedin November to end Sweden's lifetime ban on blood donations from men whohave had sex with men.
The ban was put in place to prevent the spread of HIV, but in the summer theboard proposed changes which would have allowed blood donations from gay menwho had not had sex for six months.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Sweden's gay blood ban to stay
Published: 1st December 2006 15:43 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/5666/
The Local
A proposal to allow gay men in Sweden to give blood is to be put on hold forat least another year after concerns were raised by health authorities.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) had been expectedin November to end Sweden's lifetime ban on blood donations from men whohave had sex with men.
The ban was put in place to prevent the spread of HIV, but in the summer theboard proposed changes which would have allowed blood donations from gay menwho had not had sex for six months.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16145696.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Dec. 02, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Crist's words as puzzling as his views
By BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Here comes ``the people's governor.''
The phrase that Republican Charlie Crist used to describe himself onthe campaign trail says everything and nothing, rings hollow and true, likemany things he says.
Crist does have an uncanny way of connecting with people, of listeningto their concerns, of showing that he cares. Equally uncanny is his way ofhitting up fat cats and lobbyists, who pumped an estimated $56 million intohis record-setting, made-for-television campaign.
Can you be the populist candidate and the richest one, too?
Candidate Charlie, now Gov.-elect Crist, hasn't changed a bit. Askedduring an interview Friday whether he still felt like he was campaigning, hesaid: ``I'm in people mode. That's very important to me.''
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST DECEMBER 02, 2006
**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.
=
The Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3248
'Happy holidays' suits me fine
The ridiculous 'War on Christmas' campaign illustrates the unwelcomeinfluence of the religious right.
By WAYNE BESEN
Nov. 24, 2006
LEAVE IT TO the religious right to turn Santa Claus into a wedge issue andexchange the gift of seasonal cheer for a box of holiday fear. Thanks totheir histrionic "War on Christmas" campaign, major retailers, includingWal-Mart and Walgreen Co., are now dumping "Happy Holidays" for "MerryChristmas" and piping in religious Christmas carols."They're all trying toget the spirit back," industry analyst Marshal Cohentold the Los Angeles Times.
Is he talking about the universal Christmas spirit or the sectarian HolySpirit? This sudden change of heart was due to an intensive lobbyingcampaign last year by right wing organizations, such as the American FamilyAssociation and Liberty Counsel, and conservative pundits like Sean Hannityand Ann Coulter. While mainstream Americans went to the store with ashopping list, conservatives showed up with a political agenda, checkingstores once and twice to see if they were naughty or nice.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100518_pf.html
Warnings, Worship Mark World AIDS Day
By DAVID McHUGH
The Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; 10:53 AM
BERLIN -- World AIDS Day was marked around the globe Friday by somberreligious services, boisterous demonstrations and warnings that far moreneeds to be done to treat and prevent the disease in order to avert millionsof additional deaths.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko conceded his country was losing groundin the race to curb one of Europe's fastest growing epidemics, saying100,000 people have been officially registered as HIV-positive. Every day,40 citizens of the former Soviet nation are diagnosed with HIV, and eightdie from AIDS, Yushchenko said.
"Such figures are shocking," Yushchenko said in a published address timed tocoincide with World AIDS Day. "We can't be indifferent to them."
UNICEF officials are warning of a public health catastrophe in EasternEurope and Central Asia, where 270,000 people are infected, some 90 percentof them through intravenous drug use.
=
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-12-01-mormons_x.htm
Mormon political clout grows
Posted 12/1/2006 5:43 PM ET
By Diana Marrero, Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON - When Sen. Harry Reid becomes Senate majority leader next year,he will be the most powerful Mormon in Washington.
But that reign could be short-lived if Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney makesa bid for the presidency in 2008 and wins. Romney is considering a run inwhat is expected to be a wide-open field.
Reid is a Democrat from Nevada and Romney is a Republican. Though they havechosen different political stripes, they are bonded in a faith whose leadersencourage members to become active in public life.
Mormons are heeding the call. Typically conservative, they are morepolitically active than average Americans, according to a recent study. Andthe 15 Mormons in Congress is a slightly greater representation than thereligious group's percentage of the general population.
=
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/01/politics/printable2223338.shtml
Obama Shares AIDS Views With Evangelicals
LAKE FOREST, California, Dec. 1, 2006
(AP) Potential presidential candidate Barack Obama stood before one of theUnited States' largest evangelical churches Friday for a frank discussion ofsexuality and spirituality that included the declaration that condoms shouldbe made more widely available to fight AIDS.
The Democratic senator's appearance at the Saddleback megachurch was asource of dispute among evangelical leaders, with some of the mostconservative saying that a politician who supports abortion rights shouldnot have been allowed to speak at such a prominent church.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Spain-Right-to-Die.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
November 29, 2006
Spanish Woman Prompts Euthanasia Debate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:12 a.m. ET
GRANADA, Spain (AP) -- Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her lifewatching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She's been in a hospital bed for20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes andshe wants to die.
''For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to helpme die because I have spent my whole life suffering,'' said 51-year-oldEchevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of peoplewith incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can bepunished with at least six months in prison. But Spain's Socialistgovernment wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms thathave largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
The Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3248
'Happy holidays' suits me fine
The ridiculous 'War on Christmas' campaign illustrates the unwelcomeinfluence of the religious right.
By WAYNE BESEN
Nov. 24, 2006
LEAVE IT TO the religious right to turn Santa Claus into a wedge issue andexchange the gift of seasonal cheer for a box of holiday fear. Thanks totheir histrionic "War on Christmas" campaign, major retailers, includingWal-Mart and Walgreen Co., are now dumping "Happy Holidays" for "MerryChristmas" and piping in religious Christmas carols."They're all trying toget the spirit back," industry analyst Marshal Cohentold the Los Angeles Times.
Is he talking about the universal Christmas spirit or the sectarian HolySpirit? This sudden change of heart was due to an intensive lobbyingcampaign last year by right wing organizations, such as the American FamilyAssociation and Liberty Counsel, and conservative pundits like Sean Hannityand Ann Coulter. While mainstream Americans went to the store with ashopping list, conservatives showed up with a political agenda, checkingstores once and twice to see if they were naughty or nice.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100518_pf.html
Warnings, Worship Mark World AIDS Day
By DAVID McHUGH
The Associated Press
Friday, December 1, 2006; 10:53 AM
BERLIN -- World AIDS Day was marked around the globe Friday by somberreligious services, boisterous demonstrations and warnings that far moreneeds to be done to treat and prevent the disease in order to avert millionsof additional deaths.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko conceded his country was losing groundin the race to curb one of Europe's fastest growing epidemics, saying100,000 people have been officially registered as HIV-positive. Every day,40 citizens of the former Soviet nation are diagnosed with HIV, and eightdie from AIDS, Yushchenko said.
"Such figures are shocking," Yushchenko said in a published address timed tocoincide with World AIDS Day. "We can't be indifferent to them."
UNICEF officials are warning of a public health catastrophe in EasternEurope and Central Asia, where 270,000 people are infected, some 90 percentof them through intravenous drug use.
=
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-12-01-mormons_x.htm
Mormon political clout grows
Posted 12/1/2006 5:43 PM ET
By Diana Marrero, Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON - When Sen. Harry Reid becomes Senate majority leader next year,he will be the most powerful Mormon in Washington.
But that reign could be short-lived if Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney makesa bid for the presidency in 2008 and wins. Romney is considering a run inwhat is expected to be a wide-open field.
Reid is a Democrat from Nevada and Romney is a Republican. Though they havechosen different political stripes, they are bonded in a faith whose leadersencourage members to become active in public life.
Mormons are heeding the call. Typically conservative, they are morepolitically active than average Americans, according to a recent study. Andthe 15 Mormons in Congress is a slightly greater representation than thereligious group's percentage of the general population.
=
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/01/politics/printable2223338.shtml
Obama Shares AIDS Views With Evangelicals
LAKE FOREST, California, Dec. 1, 2006
(AP) Potential presidential candidate Barack Obama stood before one of theUnited States' largest evangelical churches Friday for a frank discussion ofsexuality and spirituality that included the declaration that condoms shouldbe made more widely available to fight AIDS.
The Democratic senator's appearance at the Saddleback megachurch was asource of dispute among evangelical leaders, with some of the mostconservative saying that a politician who supports abortion rights shouldnot have been allowed to speak at such a prominent church.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Spain-Right-to-Die.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
November 29, 2006
Spanish Woman Prompts Euthanasia Debate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:12 a.m. ET
GRANADA, Spain (AP) -- Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her lifewatching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She's been in a hospital bed for20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes andshe wants to die.
''For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to helpme die because I have spent my whole life suffering,'' said 51-year-oldEchevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of peoplewith incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can bepunished with at least six months in prison. But Spain's Socialistgovernment wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms thathave largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST DECEMBER 02, 2006
**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.
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3247
ACLU sues school over rejection of gay club
Court has ruled in favor of GSAs in other states, but not in Fla.
By PHIL LAPADULA
Nov. 24, 2006
After witnessing a gay male friend of hers get beat up on campus, YasminGonzalez, 17, decided to start a Gay-Straight Alliance at Okeechobee HighSchool in Central Florida.
She and other student organizers found a teacher to serve as faculty advisorfor the club and then sought the approval of the school's principal, ToniWiersma. But Wiersma balked at the idea, citing various reasons for notallowing the club, Gonzalez said.
"At first, she didn't give us a reason; she just brushed us off," Gonzalezsaid. "After they got the letter from the attorney, she said there were toomany clubs and she wouldn't allow it at the school. She said they were onlygoing to allow academic ones."
=
http://www.local10.com/news/10429531/detail.html
Commissioner Calls For Investigation Of Police
Police Fatally Shot Person For Fourth Time This Year
POSTED: 8:01 am EST November 30, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A city official in Fort Lauderdale is calling foran independent investigation of police after officers fatally shot a personfor the fourth time this year.
City Commissioner Carlton Moore called the incidents "questionable" and saidthe most recent shooting has "the biggest question mark of all."
"We did not see, from the community's comments, no exchange of fire, that itonly came from our officers," Moore said.
At least one officer opened fire Tuesday on two men driving a stolen sportutility vehicle. The driver, 21-year-old Troy Eddines, was pronounced deadat the scene. The passenger, 21-year-old Travis Jackson, was wounded.
=
The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ccontract02dec02,0,1365133.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Broward school contracts threatening student expulsion under investigationLeaders say they didn't know of deals threatening expulsion based onperformance
By Jean-Paul Renaud
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 2, 2006
An investigation has been launched into how many public schools in BrowardCounty have made low-performing students and their parents sign contractsthat threaten to expel the children if they do not improve their grades andattendance.
District leaders say they were not aware of -- and never authorized -- suchcontracts.
"I understand that failure to comply with the above listed item willconstitute reason to withdraw me from [J.P. Taravella High] and I shouldexplore other educational avenues," one contract reads.
=
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/CAPITOLNEWS/612020345&template=printart
Article published Dec 2, 2006
Gov.-elect Crist loses first battle
Legislature won't fit Crist's bill in special session Jan. 16
By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU
Gov.-elect Charlie Crist hasn't even been sworn in and the scoreboardalready reads: Legislature 1, Crist 0.
Crist stuck out earlier this week when he tried to convince House and Senateleaders to put his ''anti-murder'' bill on the agenda of a Jan. 16 speciallegislative session called to deal with a property insurance crisis.
''If it's the governor's issue, it's certainly important, but we can onlyhandle one issue,'' said Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R-WinterPark. ''There are so many divergent opinions on the insurance question, it'sgoing to be difficult just dealing with that.''
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/12/02/s3f_shackle_1202.html
Appeals court won't rule on shackling juveniles
By Kathleen Chapman
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Appellate court judges said Friday they would not rule on whether childrenarrested as juveniles should be forced to wear shackles in the courtroom.
Travis Dunnington, who heads the juvenile division of the Palm Beach CountyPublic Defender's Office, filed motions on the issue this fall, asking PalmBeach County's four juvenile court judges to remove juvenile offenders'shackles and leg irons during court hearings.
Public defenders across the state have pushed the issue, pointing out thatadults accused of murder - and at least one alleged Al-Qaeda operative, JosePadilla - are allowed to appear in court without shackles.
Gov.-elect Charlie Crist told The Associated Press Friday that he feels itis wrong for teens to be shackled indiscriminately, regardless of offense.
=
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/02/news_pf/State/Crist_is_light_on_det.shtml
Crist is light on details, but vows to focus on insurance
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 2, 2006
MIAMI - Gov.-elect Charlie Crist said he doesn't know all the specifics onhow to solve the state's homeowners insurance problem, but he expressedconfidence Friday that lawmakers will be productive in a special session toaddress the crisis.
"I campaigned all over the state, and the issue that I heard about most wasthe insurance issue - bar none," he said.
It was one of several subjects the state attorney general addressed duringan interview with the Associated Press.
Crist said insurance will be the top issue facing him after he becomesgovernor Jan. 2 and that he may have to back off his promise to sign noother bill before his proposed "antimurder act" because of the Jan. 16special session on insurance.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16120417.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Wed, Nov. 29, 2006
Hastings won't chair House intelligence committee
By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Still haunted by his impeachment as a federal judge 17 yearsago, Rep. Alcee Hastings was denied the chairmanship of the Houseintelligence committee on Tuesday, an influential role that would have madehim a chief guardian of the nation's secrets.
Clearly disappointed but unbowed, Hastings, D-Fla., pledged to enhance hisservice to South Florida and promote national security in other ways.
To critics, he said, "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."
=
Tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/02/news_pf/State/Red_flags_raised_on_v.shtml
Red flags raised on voting machines
Sarasota's ballot troubles coincide with a report critical of its system.
Alisa Ulferts and Wes Allison
Published December 2, 2006
This much state elections officials know: The 10 voting machines they usedin a mock Sarasota County election this week worked as they were supposed towork. Votes were cast, and the same number of votes were counted.
Here's what they still don't know: why there were 18,000 fewer votes castNov. 7 in a bitter congressional race than in the other races on the ballotthat day. The election re-enactment failed to produce the high percentage of"undervotes" that occurred in Sarasota County on Election Day.
And that lack of certainty fed calls on Friday for another overhaul of thenation's voting systems, even as a federal agency issued a draft reportcritical of electronic voting machines.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3247
ACLU sues school over rejection of gay club
Court has ruled in favor of GSAs in other states, but not in Fla.
By PHIL LAPADULA
Nov. 24, 2006
After witnessing a gay male friend of hers get beat up on campus, YasminGonzalez, 17, decided to start a Gay-Straight Alliance at Okeechobee HighSchool in Central Florida.
She and other student organizers found a teacher to serve as faculty advisorfor the club and then sought the approval of the school's principal, ToniWiersma. But Wiersma balked at the idea, citing various reasons for notallowing the club, Gonzalez said.
"At first, she didn't give us a reason; she just brushed us off," Gonzalezsaid. "After they got the letter from the attorney, she said there were toomany clubs and she wouldn't allow it at the school. She said they were onlygoing to allow academic ones."
=
http://www.local10.com/news/10429531/detail.html
Commissioner Calls For Investigation Of Police
Police Fatally Shot Person For Fourth Time This Year
POSTED: 8:01 am EST November 30, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A city official in Fort Lauderdale is calling foran independent investigation of police after officers fatally shot a personfor the fourth time this year.
City Commissioner Carlton Moore called the incidents "questionable" and saidthe most recent shooting has "the biggest question mark of all."
"We did not see, from the community's comments, no exchange of fire, that itonly came from our officers," Moore said.
At least one officer opened fire Tuesday on two men driving a stolen sportutility vehicle. The driver, 21-year-old Troy Eddines, was pronounced deadat the scene. The passenger, 21-year-old Travis Jackson, was wounded.
=
The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ccontract02dec02,0,1365133.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Broward school contracts threatening student expulsion under investigationLeaders say they didn't know of deals threatening expulsion based onperformance
By Jean-Paul Renaud
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 2, 2006
An investigation has been launched into how many public schools in BrowardCounty have made low-performing students and their parents sign contractsthat threaten to expel the children if they do not improve their grades andattendance.
District leaders say they were not aware of -- and never authorized -- suchcontracts.
"I understand that failure to comply with the above listed item willconstitute reason to withdraw me from [J.P. Taravella High] and I shouldexplore other educational avenues," one contract reads.
=
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/CAPITOLNEWS/612020345&template=printart
Article published Dec 2, 2006
Gov.-elect Crist loses first battle
Legislature won't fit Crist's bill in special session Jan. 16
By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU
Gov.-elect Charlie Crist hasn't even been sworn in and the scoreboardalready reads: Legislature 1, Crist 0.
Crist stuck out earlier this week when he tried to convince House and Senateleaders to put his ''anti-murder'' bill on the agenda of a Jan. 16 speciallegislative session called to deal with a property insurance crisis.
''If it's the governor's issue, it's certainly important, but we can onlyhandle one issue,'' said Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R-WinterPark. ''There are so many divergent opinions on the insurance question, it'sgoing to be difficult just dealing with that.''
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/12/02/s3f_shackle_1202.html
Appeals court won't rule on shackling juveniles
By Kathleen Chapman
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Appellate court judges said Friday they would not rule on whether childrenarrested as juveniles should be forced to wear shackles in the courtroom.
Travis Dunnington, who heads the juvenile division of the Palm Beach CountyPublic Defender's Office, filed motions on the issue this fall, asking PalmBeach County's four juvenile court judges to remove juvenile offenders'shackles and leg irons during court hearings.
Public defenders across the state have pushed the issue, pointing out thatadults accused of murder - and at least one alleged Al-Qaeda operative, JosePadilla - are allowed to appear in court without shackles.
Gov.-elect Charlie Crist told The Associated Press Friday that he feels itis wrong for teens to be shackled indiscriminately, regardless of offense.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/02/news_pf/State/Crist_is_light_on_det.shtml
Crist is light on details, but vows to focus on insurance
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 2, 2006
MIAMI - Gov.-elect Charlie Crist said he doesn't know all the specifics onhow to solve the state's homeowners insurance problem, but he expressedconfidence Friday that lawmakers will be productive in a special session toaddress the crisis.
"I campaigned all over the state, and the issue that I heard about most wasthe insurance issue - bar none," he said.
It was one of several subjects the state attorney general addressed duringan interview with the Associated Press.
Crist said insurance will be the top issue facing him after he becomesgovernor Jan. 2 and that he may have to back off his promise to sign noother bill before his proposed "antimurder act" because of the Jan. 16special session on insurance.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16120417.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Wed, Nov. 29, 2006
Hastings won't chair House intelligence committee
By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Still haunted by his impeachment as a federal judge 17 yearsago, Rep. Alcee Hastings was denied the chairmanship of the Houseintelligence committee on Tuesday, an influential role that would have madehim a chief guardian of the nation's secrets.
Clearly disappointed but unbowed, Hastings, D-Fla., pledged to enhance hisservice to South Florida and promote national security in other ways.
To critics, he said, "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."
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Tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/02/news_pf/State/Red_flags_raised_on_v.shtml
Red flags raised on voting machines
Sarasota's ballot troubles coincide with a report critical of its system.
Alisa Ulferts and Wes Allison
Published December 2, 2006
This much state elections officials know: The 10 voting machines they usedin a mock Sarasota County election this week worked as they were supposed towork. Votes were cast, and the same number of votes were counted.
Here's what they still don't know: why there were 18,000 fewer votes castNov. 7 in a bitter congressional race than in the other races on the ballotthat day. The election re-enactment failed to produce the high percentage of"undervotes" that occurred in Sarasota County on Election Day.
And that lack of certainty fed calls on Friday for another overhaul of thenation's voting systems, even as a federal agency issued a draft reportcritical of electronic voting machines.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
OFF LINE UNTIL END OF NOVEMBER
Ray's List Blog will be off line until the end of November.
See you soon!
Ray and Michael
See you soon!
Ray and Michael
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