**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.
==
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Monks Disrupt Media Tour in China
BEIJING - Buddhist monks interrupted a government-managed media tour inwestern China on Wednesday, waving a Tibetan flag and protesting that theauthorities were depriving them of their human rights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/world/asia/10tibet.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
-In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials
WASHINGTON - In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsantoconsultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with theapproval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed withhundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looserenvironmental regulations for Monsanto's cotton crops, according to a courtdocument. Monsanto was also caught concealing the bribe with fake invoices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/washington/09justice.html?hp
-Anxious San Francisco Braces for Torch Protests
SAN FRANCISCO - The Olympic torch arrived at the airport here from Paris inthe wee hours Tuesday morning, exited out a side door and was escorted bymotorcade to a downtown hotel. There it took a well-deserved break in a roomcomplete with cable TV, room service and views of the city's popular UnionSquare shopping district.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/us/09torch.html?hp
-Calling Al Gore
Looking back at a week in which the most widely covered news to emerge fromthe campaign trail is that former presidents tend to write books and givespeeches for large amounts of money, and that campaign consultants whoundermine their boss' key policy positions for personal profit tend to befired, it may be worthwhile to consider where a Democratic primary basedmore on personal than ideological differences may eventually conclude.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/calling-al-gore/index.html?ref=opinion
-The Food Chain: As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation
Out on the farm, the ducks and pheasants are losing ground.
Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government's biggestconservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurningguaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat,soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres asare in Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09conserve.html?hp
-Set to Return, Chief Justice Creates a Test for Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - After contradictory signals, and mounting pressurefrom the country's lawyers, the new democratic government appears poised toreinstate the Supreme Court chief justice who was dismissed by PresidentPervez Musharraf last year and recently freed from four months of housearrest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/world/asia/09pstan.html
=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Petraeus, Crocker Testify Before the House
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker returned toCongress this morning to urge House lawmakers to support a pause in troopwithdrawals from Iraq, a day after pleading with skeptical senators thatsuch a halt is necessary to consolidate security gains after five years ofwar.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/09/AR2008040901147.html?hpid=topnews
-The Iran Problem
The language that Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker usedyesterday to describe the Iranian role in Iraq was extreme -- and telling.
They spoke of Tehran's "nefarious activities," its "malign influence" andhow it posed "the greatest long-term threat to the viability" of the Baghdadgovernment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802901.html
-Iraq Report Redux
The facts there have changed; the debate here, less so.
WHEN GEN. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker last testifiedbefore Congress in September, the military results of the U.S. troop surgein Iraq, though significant, were still so preliminary that much of thedebate centered on whether they were real. When the two men appeared againyesterday, the reduction of violence had been so great as to be undeniable.
Sen. Barack Obama, who predicted that the surge would not slow thebloodshed, was among the Democrats who acknowledged yesterday that it had.
Similarly, seven months ago, Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker were hard-pressedto cite any movement by Iraqi leaders toward the political accords the surgewas supposed to facilitate; the best Mr. Crocker could do was to say he hadseen "seeds of reconciliation." Yesterday he was able to tick off a seriesof significant steps, including agreement on provincial elections that couldtransform Iraq's political landscape.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802914.html
-China Uses Heavy Hand Even With Its Gadflies
SHANGHAI -- Zheng Enchong is a self-taught lawyer and a dogged human rightsactivist. In many countries, he would be considered a gadfly. But in Chinaduring this Olympic year, he is treated like a threat to national security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040803274.html?hpid=topnews
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-IRAQ WAR: Arrogance, indiscipline come down from the top
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Return with me to Abu Ghraib. You remember it. You may not want to, but youdo. The Iraqi prison was the epicenter of an international scandal in 2004 when it was revealed that U.S. soldiers were mistreating detainees, forcing themto stand in stress positions, sexually humiliating them, menacing them withdogs, denying them clothes, dragging them on leashes, threatening them withelectrocution.
http://www.miamiherald.com/418/story/488280.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Candidates push policies at Petraeus hearings
Democrats, McCain clash on Iraq status
WASHINGTON - In a daylong grilling by senators demanding answers to theresolution of the US occupation in Iraq, the chief American commander therehad one absolute certainty even before he testified: One of his questionersis going to be the next president and will decide the fate of the Iraqmission.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/09/candidates_push_policies_at_petraeus_hearings/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
-Obama gaining on Clinton in Pennsylvania: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clintonleads Barack Obama by 6 points among likely Pennsylvania Democratic primaryvoters but he is chipping away at her lead, according to a QuinnipiacUniversity poll released on Tuesday.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/09/obama_gaining_on_clinton_in_pennsylvania_poll/
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
FLORIDA DIGEST April 9, 2008
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
FLORIDA SENATE PANEL APPROVES GAY RIGHTS BILL
(Tallahassee, Florida) With the support of both Democrats and Republicans, aFlorida Senate committee approved a bill this morning to prohibitdiscrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, housing, andpublic accommodations. "Today's vote is truly historic," said Rand Hoch,president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. "This demonstratesthat Florida lawmakers are finally beginning to understand the need for astatewide law prohibiting discrimination faced by the GLBT community."
=
JOURNALIST AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR KEVIN SESSUMS TO APPEAR AT STONEWALLLIBRARY & ARCHIVES ON SATURDAY, MAY 3
On Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 2:00 pm, at Stonewall Library & Archives,journalist and best-selling author Kevin Sessums will speak and sign copiesof his book "Mississippi Sissy."
Sessums was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair for fourteen years where hecreated probing not-to-be-missed profiles of Hollywood royalty. He was alsoa contributing editor at Allure magazine and was executive editor for AndyWarhol's Interview magazine.
In his first book, "Mississippi Sissy," a memoir of his early life in theDeep South, Sessums paints a vivid self-portrait of a solitary boy who wasorphaned at 8 into a world of racial division and complex familyrelationships.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Property Values: What You Get for ... $600,000
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/greathomesanddestinations/09gh-what.html
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Dania Beach: City commissioners vote to condemn hate crimes
Saying they want to protect people's civil rights, commissioners Tuesdaynight passed a resolution condemning hate crimes in the city.
According to the document, commissioners are "keenly aware" of specific hatecrimes, which are motivated by race, religion, disability, ethnic origin andsexual orientation.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flb3bdigest04092sbapr09,0,4117521.story
-Legislators trying to appease religious right again
ISSUE: Abortion bill passes Florida House.
If you ever wonder why the Florida Legislature often has had to go intocostly extra sessions because it can't get its work done during the regularsession, it's because of time wasted on needless legislation. This year'scrop includes HB 257.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-409editabortion,0,618875.story
-Bill requiring ultrasound before abortions clears Florida Senate panel
TALLAHASSEE - A Senate panel Tuesday approved a bill requiring that womenseeking an abortion first get an ultrasound exam, but the narrow 4-3 voteclouded the future of a measure already passed by the House.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/legislature/sfl-flfabortion0409sbapr09,0,3485286.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE
Democrats bid for state seats
National Democrats are looking at Florida as a prime spot for picking upsome Republican-held House seats.
Buoyed by Republican retirements and fat campaign coffers,U.S. House Democrats are optimistic about expanding their majority --perhaps by picking up a Republican-held seat in South Florida.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/488243.html
-Guns unsafe at work
OUR OPINION: WEAPONS BAN CAN PROTECT EMPLOYEES, SAVE LIVES
Who knew getting guns could be that easy? Recently Homestead policeconfiscated AK-47s, sniper rifles, semi-automatic pistols and more than5,000 rounds of ammunition. The cache came from a 22-year-old man who sayshe traded weapons over the Internet.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/488271.html
-For sexual predators, it's a camp of isolation
The bridge overhead is so close there isn't room for a man to stand.
All the neighbors are felons and everyone lives in Wal-Mart tents, exceptthe oldest man, who is 82. He lives in a shack.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/488270.html
-STRAIGHT TO THE POINT
Keep water limits
Generous skies have been kinder to South Florida -- including LakeOkeechobee -- than was expected during the dry season this year. The delugesof this weekend helped bring the lake's level to 10.35 feet above sea level,up from 10.27 a year ago. The increase is heartening for water managers, butit is still several feet below where it should be.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/488272.html
=
Steve Rothaus
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Celebrities, filmmakers and VIPs to attend Miami & Fort Lauderdale gay filmfestivals
The 10th Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the Fort LauderdaleGay & Lesbian Film Festival will welcome the largest contingent ofcelebrities, VIPS and filmmakers than ever before in the festival's history.
Whether it's a fashion designer diva, a political AIDS activist, a historymaking Pastor, a revolutionary filmmaker, a novelist turned director or evena funny leading lady, the Festival guests will inspire and surprise withtheir appearances throughout the ten days.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/04/celebrities-fil.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-2,400 Floridians die for want of insurance
Lack of health insurance killed six working-age Floridians a day in 2006,according to a national health advocacy organization.
"For this group of people, lack of health insurance is the third-leadingcause of death after heart disease and cancer," said Ron Pollack, executivedirector of Washington-based Families USA.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/business/epaper/2008/04/09/a9b_uninsured_0409.html
-Allstate Must Comply By Monday Or Stop Writing
TALLAHASSEE - Allstate's companies doing business in Florida will have tostop writing new policies after Monday if the insurance giant fails to applyfor a rehearing by then, state officials said Tuesday.
Allstate spokesman Adam Shores said the company would evaluate its legaloptions regarding a rehearing by the new deadline. Its 1,100 agents willcontinue writing business in Florida until the court rules on the pendingstay, granted in January.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/09/me-allstate-must-comply-by-monday-or-stop-writing/?news-metro
-Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Bill Advances
TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa was reluctant to changeher bill, which would compensate those wrongfully imprisoned for crimes theydidn't commit.
Joyner, a Democrat, initially objected to amendments that would prohibitanyone with a prior felony from receiving $50,000 for each year of wrongfulincarceration.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/09/me-unjust-imprisonment-bill-altered/?news-politics
=
From Gay S. Florida
Dear Online Friends & GSF Readers,
For the past eight months Geo & I, along with a group of very talentedcontributors, have worked extremely hard to put together an informativeonline media venue that provides news, entertainment & information importantto the LGBT community. We've strived to make a measurable difference in thesouth Florida community and have recently branched out to reach a nationaland international audience.
Our goal has been to destroy the stereotypes of our community andpresent a professional product that's not sullied by overt sexual contentand not littered with ads for adult websites. Our readers are just ascomfortable clicking on GaySoFla at work as they are at home.
We strongly feel there is a real need for this type of media outlet andare excited to experience a few successes along the way. According toseveral 3rd party Website Ranking companies, Gaysofla has consistentlyranked in the "top five" for similar south Florida LGBT websites for thepast three months. Our inbox is constantly filled with emails and inquiriesfrom readers as far away as Australia & Dubai!
Last week the Latino Press Award nominations were announced and GaySoFlareceived a nomination for Best LGBT Website. Two of our contributors,Waymon Hudson (The HomoPolitico) and George Maiko Coronado (Out & About)were nominated for Best Columnist for South Florida LGBT media.
Would you take five minutes to read more about the Latino Press Awardsand consider casting your vote for us? Your support and vote will begratefully appreciated. A link embedded within the following article willtake you to the Latino Press Award ballot where you can cast your vote.
Please CLICK HERE or copy and paste the following link within your browserto vote:
http://www.gaysofla.com/content/view/283/50/
Regards & Respect,
David L. Wylie, Senior Editor
Geo Bustamante, Associate Editor
www.gaysofla.com
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
FLORIDA SENATE PANEL APPROVES GAY RIGHTS BILL
(Tallahassee, Florida) With the support of both Democrats and Republicans, aFlorida Senate committee approved a bill this morning to prohibitdiscrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, housing, andpublic accommodations. "Today's vote is truly historic," said Rand Hoch,president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. "This demonstratesthat Florida lawmakers are finally beginning to understand the need for astatewide law prohibiting discrimination faced by the GLBT community."
=
JOURNALIST AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR KEVIN SESSUMS TO APPEAR AT STONEWALLLIBRARY & ARCHIVES ON SATURDAY, MAY 3
On Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 2:00 pm, at Stonewall Library & Archives,journalist and best-selling author Kevin Sessums will speak and sign copiesof his book "Mississippi Sissy."
Sessums was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair for fourteen years where hecreated probing not-to-be-missed profiles of Hollywood royalty. He was alsoa contributing editor at Allure magazine and was executive editor for AndyWarhol's Interview magazine.
In his first book, "Mississippi Sissy," a memoir of his early life in theDeep South, Sessums paints a vivid self-portrait of a solitary boy who wasorphaned at 8 into a world of racial division and complex familyrelationships.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Property Values: What You Get for ... $600,000
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/greathomesanddestinations/09gh-what.html
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Dania Beach: City commissioners vote to condemn hate crimes
Saying they want to protect people's civil rights, commissioners Tuesdaynight passed a resolution condemning hate crimes in the city.
According to the document, commissioners are "keenly aware" of specific hatecrimes, which are motivated by race, religion, disability, ethnic origin andsexual orientation.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flb3bdigest04092sbapr09,0,4117521.story
-Legislators trying to appease religious right again
ISSUE: Abortion bill passes Florida House.
If you ever wonder why the Florida Legislature often has had to go intocostly extra sessions because it can't get its work done during the regularsession, it's because of time wasted on needless legislation. This year'scrop includes HB 257.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-409editabortion,0,618875.story
-Bill requiring ultrasound before abortions clears Florida Senate panel
TALLAHASSEE - A Senate panel Tuesday approved a bill requiring that womenseeking an abortion first get an ultrasound exam, but the narrow 4-3 voteclouded the future of a measure already passed by the House.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/legislature/sfl-flfabortion0409sbapr09,0,3485286.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE
Democrats bid for state seats
National Democrats are looking at Florida as a prime spot for picking upsome Republican-held House seats.
Buoyed by Republican retirements and fat campaign coffers,U.S. House Democrats are optimistic about expanding their majority --perhaps by picking up a Republican-held seat in South Florida.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/488243.html
-Guns unsafe at work
OUR OPINION: WEAPONS BAN CAN PROTECT EMPLOYEES, SAVE LIVES
Who knew getting guns could be that easy? Recently Homestead policeconfiscated AK-47s, sniper rifles, semi-automatic pistols and more than5,000 rounds of ammunition. The cache came from a 22-year-old man who sayshe traded weapons over the Internet.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/488271.html
-For sexual predators, it's a camp of isolation
The bridge overhead is so close there isn't room for a man to stand.
All the neighbors are felons and everyone lives in Wal-Mart tents, exceptthe oldest man, who is 82. He lives in a shack.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/488270.html
-STRAIGHT TO THE POINT
Keep water limits
Generous skies have been kinder to South Florida -- including LakeOkeechobee -- than was expected during the dry season this year. The delugesof this weekend helped bring the lake's level to 10.35 feet above sea level,up from 10.27 a year ago. The increase is heartening for water managers, butit is still several feet below where it should be.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/488272.html
=
Steve Rothaus
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Celebrities, filmmakers and VIPs to attend Miami & Fort Lauderdale gay filmfestivals
The 10th Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the Fort LauderdaleGay & Lesbian Film Festival will welcome the largest contingent ofcelebrities, VIPS and filmmakers than ever before in the festival's history.
Whether it's a fashion designer diva, a political AIDS activist, a historymaking Pastor, a revolutionary filmmaker, a novelist turned director or evena funny leading lady, the Festival guests will inspire and surprise withtheir appearances throughout the ten days.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/04/celebrities-fil.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-2,400 Floridians die for want of insurance
Lack of health insurance killed six working-age Floridians a day in 2006,according to a national health advocacy organization.
"For this group of people, lack of health insurance is the third-leadingcause of death after heart disease and cancer," said Ron Pollack, executivedirector of Washington-based Families USA.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/business/epaper/2008/04/09/a9b_uninsured_0409.html
-Allstate Must Comply By Monday Or Stop Writing
TALLAHASSEE - Allstate's companies doing business in Florida will have tostop writing new policies after Monday if the insurance giant fails to applyfor a rehearing by then, state officials said Tuesday.
Allstate spokesman Adam Shores said the company would evaluate its legaloptions regarding a rehearing by the new deadline. Its 1,100 agents willcontinue writing business in Florida until the court rules on the pendingstay, granted in January.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/09/me-allstate-must-comply-by-monday-or-stop-writing/?news-metro
-Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Bill Advances
TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa was reluctant to changeher bill, which would compensate those wrongfully imprisoned for crimes theydidn't commit.
Joyner, a Democrat, initially objected to amendments that would prohibitanyone with a prior felony from receiving $50,000 for each year of wrongfulincarceration.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/09/me-unjust-imprisonment-bill-altered/?news-politics
=
From Gay S. Florida
Dear Online Friends & GSF Readers,
For the past eight months Geo & I, along with a group of very talentedcontributors, have worked extremely hard to put together an informativeonline media venue that provides news, entertainment & information importantto the LGBT community. We've strived to make a measurable difference in thesouth Florida community and have recently branched out to reach a nationaland international audience.
Our goal has been to destroy the stereotypes of our community andpresent a professional product that's not sullied by overt sexual contentand not littered with ads for adult websites. Our readers are just ascomfortable clicking on GaySoFla at work as they are at home.
We strongly feel there is a real need for this type of media outlet andare excited to experience a few successes along the way. According toseveral 3rd party Website Ranking companies, Gaysofla has consistentlyranked in the "top five" for similar south Florida LGBT websites for thepast three months. Our inbox is constantly filled with emails and inquiriesfrom readers as far away as Australia & Dubai!
Last week the Latino Press Award nominations were announced and GaySoFlareceived a nomination for Best LGBT Website. Two of our contributors,Waymon Hudson (The HomoPolitico) and George Maiko Coronado (Out & About)were nominated for Best Columnist for South Florida LGBT media.
Would you take five minutes to read more about the Latino Press Awardsand consider casting your vote for us? Your support and vote will begratefully appreciated. A link embedded within the following article willtake you to the Latino Press Award ballot where you can cast your vote.
Please CLICK HERE or copy and paste the following link within your browserto vote:
http://www.gaysofla.com/content/view/283/50/
Regards & Respect,
David L. Wylie, Senior Editor
Geo Bustamante, Associate Editor
www.gaysofla.com
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
GLBT DIGEST April 8, 2008
**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.
=
Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Kathie Lee and 'Today': Fluff and Nonsense
Kathie Lee Gifford does seem to have a self-deprecating sense of humor --her gala return to network television yesterday morning proved that -- butshe'd probably get plenty of deprecating even if she didn't. Newly installedas host of an unnecessary fourth hour of NBC's "Today" show, Gifforddisplayed again that certain something that invites either derision orhorror.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040701299.html
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Wedding expo tailored to same-sex couples
The word for it is lucky. That's how 24-year-old Rosemary Tran felt,wandering around this brand-new wedding world, with event planners andtuxedo rentals and freeze-dried flowers on display.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004331986_weddingexpo07m.html?referrer=digg
-`DAY OF SILENCE'
McGarry wants absences OK'd
Move would let students stay home to avoid protest for gay tolerance
School board member Kaye McGarry says she'll ask her colleagues to approveexcused absences for Charlotte-Mecklenburg students who stay home on theApril 25 "National Day of Silence," held to protest harassment ofhomosexuals.
http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/569927.html
-Heigl's flirting shame with gay co-star Knight
Katherine Heigl was shocked to find out her co-star and friend T.R Knightwas gay - because she had spent the show's pilot flirting with him.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=251579570&p=z5y58xz76
-Homeless LGBT Youths Often Face Violent Life on the Streets Six months ago, 15-year-old Drew said he would have described himself as an "ordinary teenager." "I lived with my parents in a nice house in a good neighborhood in upstate New York," he said. "I got good grades at school, and my life was prettygreat."
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30281
=
365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Polls: Race Helps Clinton With Whites
(Washington) Add this to the divisive debate over race in the presidentialcampaign: Whites who said race was important in picking their candidate havebeen about twice as likely to back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton than Sen.Barack Obama.
-McCain Behind In Fundraising
(Washington) Sen. John McCain raised more than $15 million in March for hispresidential campaign, a top performance for the likely Republican nomineethat still falls far short of the cash gathered by rival Democratic Sens.Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
-T-Shirt Ruling May Impact Day Of Silence
(Chicago, Illinois) Attorneys for both sides in a case involving anti-gayT-shirts are pressing for a speedy ruling from a federal appeals court, inadvance of this year's National Day of Silence.
-School Costume Event Draws Church Ire
(Reedsburg, Wisconsin) An elementary-school event in which kids wereencouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of aChristian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to thedistrict office.
-Canadian PM Stands By MP Who Made Anti-Gay Remarks
(Ottawa) Prime Minister Stephen Harper is refusing to discipline aConservative MP over a vulgar anti-gay slur.
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-OUT's 50 Most Powerful Gays and Lesbians
OUT Magazine has published its list of the 50 most powerful gay and lesbiansin America. Note that Anderson Cooper is #4... though not officially out tothe American public. The rankings were determined by scoring each candidateon these criteria: (1) political clout; (2) pop-cultural resonance; (3)individual wealth; and (4) current personal profile.
-Gay HIV-Positive Veteran to Carry Olympic Torch
At least one of the 80 people who will carry the Olympic torch during itsstop in San Francisco next week will be a gay, HIV-positive Navy veteran.
John Caldera, 43, who serves on the city's Veterans Affairs Commission,revealed this week he has been tapped to carry the Olympic flame when itcomes to town Wednesday, April 9 as it makes its round-the-world trip aheadof the 2008 Summer Games, which take place August 8-24 in Beijing, China.
-Victim Calls Attack Hate Crime; Police Still Unsure
An assault that included anti-gay slurs is not being investigated as a hatecrime, Olympia, WA police said today. Carl Wittenbrink, 22, said he wasattacked outside the downtown Olympia YMCA last week.
The attacker swung a plastic grocery bag filled with something heavy atWittenbrink and called him an anti-gay slur while yelling and cursing athim, the victim said.
-Project Runway Switches Network, Sparks Lawsuit
Project Runway, cable's top-rated reality show, will make the move fromBravo to Lifetime effective this fall, Variety reported Monday. The show'sproducers, the Weinstein Company, signed a five-year deal with the women'snetwork. The move prompted Bravo to file a lawsuit in the New York supremecourt against the company.
=
Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Ecuador: President Correa falls into political trap, accedes to right-wingdemands, says gay couples deserve some rights
Last week, US-based conservative religious web portal LifeSite posted anarticle championing Ecuadorian Assemblymember Rosanna Queirolo and herefforts "to preserve family values in the nation's constitution" Queirolohad launched a well-publicized effort to remove anti-gay discriminationprotections from Ecuador's constitution and to eliminate any access toabortion in a country that already bans them except in cases of rape orincest (it was those "in case of" instances that she also wanted toeliminate in part by establishing that life should be recognized by theconstitution at conception instead of at birth).
-It's becoming predictable every election season. California's anti-gaygroups are attempting to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sexmarriage on the November ballot. They presume Californians will agree withthem and flock to the polls, erasing years of progress.
-Usually, it's just the inevitable question that comes up as one completesthe mundane tasks of life, like rolling over a 401(k) or - as happened to melast week - while making an appointment with a new doctor: are you married.
Usually it's not so much a matter of life or death as it it just filling outa form. Usually, I take a deep breath and answer that I'm "partnered" orthat I'm "as married as I can be," which is immediately understood. Then wemove on to the next question. But there are a thousand different ways inwhich the answer to that question can impact our lives and our families,because we can't legally marry, and the law can't figure out what to do dowith us, or how to define us, and hasn't caught up with us as we forge aheadwith our lives, making commitments to each other, and creating our familiesas we go. In those cases, we don't often gee the benefit of the doubt.
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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Lesbian mums fight for legal rights in Israel
A Israeli lesbian couple have filed a suit in a Tel Aviv district court forthe right to both be named the biological parents of their newborn baby boy.
The case is exceptional as it is the first time that both partners in ahomosexual relationship have had an active and biological role in the birthof the child. After the woman who bore the child experienced fertilityproblems the couple decided that the other partner would conceive.
click here for the full article
-'God Hates Fags' sect could lose their church
A federal judge has ordered that the Westboro Baptist Church building andthe Phelps-Chartered Law office be taken away from the owners in order topay a $5 million (£2.54m) fine.
The church runs numerous websites such as GodHatesFags.com,
GodHatesAmerica.com and others expressing condemnation of lesbian, gay,bisexual, and transgender people, Roman Catholics, Muslims and Jews.
The religious organisation was ordered to pay the damages after members ofits congregation picketed the funeral of two American servicemen.
click here for the full article
-Hillary/Degeneres 08? Candidate talks gay with with Ellen
Kick-starting her appearance on Ellen with a campaign t-shirt touting"Degeneres/Clinton '08," Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton setthe tone for her light but topical appearance on the openly gay talk showhost's daytime chat fest. Ellen Degeneres sat down with Clinton to discusseverything from being a woman in the race for president to gay marriage.
True to form, Degeneres' visit with Clinton included the kitsch factor,including a 2008 Presidential survival kit and an audible "What" fromClinton when Degeneres announced that she is gay.
click here for the full article
-Lesbian politician's office "hid" taxpayer's money
The New York City Council Speaker's office has been accused of allocatingmillions of dollars to non-existent organisations and hoarding the money forredistribution to other groups favoured by council members. Christine Quinn,the first woman to hold the post, is expected to run for Mayor of the citynext year. She insists all taxpayer's money was used for legitimatepurposes. However, investigations by the US Attorney's Office and thecity's Department of Investigation are already underway.
click here for the full article
-MEP's Home Office meetings about gay Iranian
The President of the European Parliament´s Intergroup on Gay and LesbianRights is today holding a series of high level meetings with senior membersof the Home Office. Michael Cashman, who is one of two openly gay MEPs, ismeeting the government officials following the return to the UK of MehdiKazemi. "I trust that the UK government will do the right thing in relationto Mehdi," he said.
click here for the full article
-A touch of drag raises funds for Aberdeen's Rainbowfest
A glamourous event held last Friday in the Scottish city of Aberdeen raisedmore than £1,000 for for ainbowfest, the new lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender event for Aberdeen "City and Shire." Rainbowfeast was hosted bydrag artistes Lexy and The Lushettes. Rainbowfest is to be held on thebeach front at Queen's Links Aberdeen on Saturday 5th July, and organiserssaid they want it to be Scotland's biggest LGBT event yet.
click here for the full article
-Gay Jesus and Apostles removed from cathedral exhibition
A work of art by one of Vienna's most celebrated artists has been taken downafter offending members of the Catholic community. The painting is part of alarge collection of works that depict Jesus and his disciples engaging inhomosexual acts. To celebrate the 80th birthday of artist Alfred Hrdlicka,the gallery attached to St. Stephen's Catholic Cathedral decided to put on aretrospective of the artists work.
click here for the full article
-Suicide prisoner was victim of trans bullying
A woman who hanged herself in her prison cell with shoelaces had complainedthat she was being victimised and picked on by other inmates because she hadtransitioned from being a man. Lisa Woodhall was serving a four and halfyear sentence after she slashed the throat of her boyfriend's ex-lover.
Woodhall, who had undergone gender reassignment surgery in 2004, pleadedguilty to wounding with intent at Plymouth Crown Court in September 2005.
click here for the full article
-Driver and paparazzi blamed for death of Diana
An inquest that heard lurid rumours that Diana, Princess of Wales waspregnant and murdered at the behest of the British Royal Family hasconcluded that she was unlawfully killed. However, the jury of five men andsix women said the driver of the car that crashed in Paris on 31st August1997, Henri Paul, and the paparazzi who chased the vehicle into a tunnel,were to blame for her death. Diana died shortly after the crash, herboyfriend Dodi Al Fayed and driver Paul also died in the collision.
click here for the full article
-Poland approves Lisbon Treaty with rights opt-out
Both Houses of the Polish parliament have approved the Lisbon Treaty with anopt-out from the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. The UK is theonly other nation in the 27-member EU to opt out of the charter, which islegally binding on EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice, aspart of the new Reform Treaty agreed by the EU heads of government inLisbon. The Lisbon treaty needed a two-thirds majority vote in the Polishparliament to become law.
click here for the full article
-Tatchell held during Olympic torch protests
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was one of scores of people detainedby police as yesterday's parading of the Olympic torch through the streetsof London descended into chaos. Despite hundreds of police officers deployedon the streets there were repeated attempts to stop the 31-mile procession,as campaigners vented their anger at China's actions in Tibet and its widerrecord on human rights. At one point a man almost succeeded in grabbing thelit torch.
click here for the full article
-Interview: The vibrant support network for LGB soldiers
The issue of gay people serving in the Armed Forces still dividespoliticians in the US. For the rest of the countries in the NATO alliance,the claims and counter-claims about unit cohesion and the "influence" ofgays on fighting men seem like echoes from another time. The Dutch liftedtheir ban on gays in 1974, Australia followed in 1992 and Canada soon after.In 2008, most of the member nations of NATO have removed their bans.
click here for the full article
-Hillary Clinton repeats desire to end gay military ban
The policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which bars openly lesbian, bisexual orgay people from serving in the United States Armed Forces, will most likelyhave to be repealed by Congress, according to Hillary Clinton. The Senatorfrom New York was First Lady of the United States when the policy became lawin 1993. She is now running for the White House in her own right, and is oneof two candidates for the Democratic nomination for President.
click here for the full article
-Magistrate investigated after linking gay men to paedophiles
Comments made in a regional TV documentary about gay people in Wales has ledto an investigation into a local magistrate. Byron Butler, a former DeputyLord Lieutenant for Mid Glamorgan who has been on the bench for 30 years,spoke out on an edition of BBC Wales' Week In Week Out hosted by formerSteps singer Ian H Watkins. Mr Butler has voluntarily agreed not to sit as amagistrate during the investigation by the Advisory Committee on Justices ofthe Peace in Mid Glamorgan.
click here for the full article
-Obama challenged over lack of contact with gay press
One of America's most respected gay publications has accused Presidentialcandidate Barack Obama of disrespecting the "entire local LGBT press." Lastweek Philadelphia Gay News published an wide-ranging interview with hisrival for the Democratic nomination Senator Hillary Clinton, ahead of thePennsylvania primary later this month. In an Editorial Letter to Obama lastweek, PGN said that he has only spoken with the gay press twice.
click here for the full article
-Gay Iranian faces uncertain future back in UK
Mehdi Kazemi, a teenage Iranian who is fighting deportation to his homelandwhere he claims he faces execution for being gay, has returned to the UK. Hewas previously in a detention centre in Holland but was released on Fridayfrom a Rotterdam detention centre and returned to England. He is stayingwith his uncle. Mr Kazemi, 19, had unsuccessfully applied for asylum in theUnited Kingdom following the execution of his partner by Iranian authoritiesafter being found guilty of sodomy.
click here for the full article
-Death of screen icon who opposed gay equality
Legendary actor Charlton Heston died on Saturday at the age of 83. Theiconic actor of such films as Ben Hur and Soylent Green died at his home inBeverly Hills with his wife, Lydia Clarke Heston, by his side. Heston issurvived by son Fraser Clarke Heston, daughter Holly Ann Heston, and threegrandchildren. Heston's family released a statement on Saturday confirmingthe actor's death.
click here for the full article
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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
-ILGA is proud to send you the 2008 version of its map on LGBTI rights inthe world on occasion of the federation's 30th anniversary. Founded in 1978,ILGA is now a federation of over 600 groups in over 90 countries campaigningfor lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights. To raiseawareness on the extent of State Sponsored Homophobia in the world, we'vecreated a few items (in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish) you maywant to use around you: - the map is accessible on www.ilga.org We encourageyou to publish it or have it published by your media contacts or forexhibition purposes. Thanks for mentioning ILGA's credits, should you useit.
-Taking On Polish Prez's Baiting
New Yorker Brendan Fay and his husband Tom Moulton, both gay activists, wereflown to Warsaw by Poland's private TVN television network this week for around of political meetings, press conferences, and interviews that havesubstantially advanced the discussion of LGBT rights there, according to aPolish gay activist. Fay and Moulton got sucked into Polish politics whenPresident Lech Kaczynski used footage of their 2003 wedding in Canada in aMarch 17 televised speech to the nation warning that adoption of theEuropean Union's Lisbon Treaty would compel Poland to recognize same-sexmarriages, which he linked to the end of "moral order." The Polishparliament voted overwhelmingly to adopt the treaty on April 2, an outcomethat New York-based Polish gay activist Daniel Domagala of the CampaignAgainst Homophobia, the leading LGBT rights group in Poland, said was goingto happen anyway. But the media frenzy that surrounded Fay and Moulton thisweek, from the moment they landed in Warsaw, certainly did not hurt thecause of gay visibility in Poland. "They gave a human face to the issue,"Domagala said.
-NGOs Slam HIV-Based Arrests and Trials
Doctors Helping Police Denounced for Breaching Medical Ethics, Human RightsAs five more men face trial in Cairo on April 9 in a widening and dangerouspolice crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS, 117 organizations worldwideworking in the fields of health and human rights condemned the crackdown andthe participation of medical personnel. In a letter to the Health Ministryand the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate
(http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/07/egypt18439.htm), the groups, led byAmnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said that doctors who helpedinterrogate men jailed on suspicion of being HIV-positive violated their ownmedical ethics, and their conduct led to a breach of trust in a privileged relationship. "Doctors must put patients first, not join a witch-hunt drivenby prejudice," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at HumanRights Watch. "Now more than 100 human rights groups are reminding Egyptiandoctors of the oath they took to respect patients' privacy, autonomy, andconsent. This is one of the oldest traditions of medical responsibility, aswell as an obligation under human rights law."
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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Apple's iTunes.ca Pulls Murder Music from its Online Store
TORONTO: In response to calls from Egale Canada and Stop Murder Music(Canada), iTunes has removed controversial murder music from its NorthAmerican markets. Anti-gay tracks by popular dancehall artists Buju Banton,Elephant Man and T.O.K are no longer available on the iTunes site. "Thisis an historic victory for the LGBT community here in Canada and in theCaribbean," says Akim Larcher founder of SMM (Canada), "iTunes isexercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music andraising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same."Thedecision comes as a result of calls from Egale Canadaand SMM requesting the removal of lyrical content which openly calls forthe violence and murder of gays and lesbians.
-Third Moscow Pride which will celebrate 15th Anniversary since
decriminalization of homosexual relations in Russia is getting close. As wasannounced before, this year Moscow Pride will take place on 30-31 May withthe public march planned for Saturday 31 May. Any of you who want to takepart is very welcome in Moscow. There is still plenty of time to plan yourtrip to Russia. Our friends from "Gay Liberation Network" in Chicagosuggested to organise public actions in support of third Moscow Pride onSaturday 17 May which will be the International Day Against Homophobia.
-Olympic torch ambushed in London
Bus halted, gay activist Tatchell arrested
"Gordon Brown colludes with China's tyrannical leaders" The bus bearing theOlympic torch was today ambushed outside Selfridges department store inOxford Street, London, by gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell ofOutRage! Mr Tatchell ran in front of the bus carrying the Olympic flame. Heheld up a placard which read: "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia." He shouted the samewords as he ran along in front of the bus. The police wrestled Mr Tatchellto the ground, which delayed the bus briefly while he was removed topavement. After questioning, he was later released without charge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hu-jia-chinas-enemy-within-804589.html
-In Mexico, we have scheduled August 11 as the International Day of GlobalSolidarity 2008 and we have programed activities both in Mexico City andin the City of Cuernavaca on this day. More than 20 local organisationswill be participating this year, and we have the institutional support ofthe National Human Rights Comission of the Mexican Government.
We are already annoncing it locally under the name "DÃa de SolidaridadGlobal de las Diversidades". We wanted to ask you all today if anyone elsehas programed anything for this year, and if anyone has suggestions for ashared focus for global coordinated activities on the International Day ofGlobal Solidarity 2008.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if can't access the article
-From H. Alexander Robinson of the National Black
Justice Coalition and NBJC Action Fund.
Although assassinated 40 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreamcontinues to live throughout America and throughout the world. As an heirand a product of Dr. King's legacy and vision, the National Black JusticeCoalition strives to ensure that Kingian principles are applied in ourefforts to end racism and heterosexism and gender bias. Dr. King's focusupon non-violence in order to enact change is a focus of NBJC. Sadly, westill live in a world where we are inundated with reports of anti-gayviolence against the LGBT community. For this reason NBJC's mission is tocreate a world where all people can live openly, honestly in all aspects oflife. Instead of fighting community violence with violence or with fieryrhetoric, NBJC's Kingian response has led us back to the source; a belovedcommunity needing knowledge, conversation and theological understanding ontopics dealing with sexuality and masculinity within a culturally relevantcontext.
- VIENNA (Reuters) - They knew it would be risky to exhibit a homoeroticversion of Christ's Last Supper, but curators at museum of Vienna's RomanCatholic Cathedral weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and callsto be shut down.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080407/lf_nm_life/austria_religion_art_dc
-A Conference at Yale University, February 20-21, 2009
Organized by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of SexualitiesKenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963), Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures(1963), and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966) are widely regarded as someof the most important and influential films of postwar underground cinema.
But cinema studies has only recently begun to take seriously the fact thatAnger, Smith, and Warhol were gay filmmakers whose films developed a queeraesthetic to explore questions of queer subjectivity and world-making.
Moreover, the field has still barely registered the fact that they were notjust brilliant auteurs working in isolation but were enmeshed in andinfluenced by a larger circle of mostly New York-based queer filmmakers,performers, writers, and artists.
http://www.yale.edu/yrihs/
-NEARLY FIFTY COLLEGES COME OUT TO RECRUIT GAY YOUTH
AT NATIONAL GAY-FRIENDLY COLLEGE FAIR THIS WEEK
Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn among the diversified list of collegesWHAT: Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Penn among the nearly fifty colleges whowill be in attendance at the gay-friendly college fair hosted by Camps Pridethis Friday, April 11 on the campus of University of California San Diego.
The fair is designed specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender(LGBT) and straight ally youth and their families who want to find campusescommitted to LGBT people. The event is in coordination with theLGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index (www.campusclimateindex.org), the onlyonline resource of its kind, which rates LGBT-friendliness at colleges anduniversities. More information online at www.campusclimateindex.org/events.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Oklahoma policy debates help mold state's global image
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma lawmakers are no strangers to makingheadlines.Recently, it's been legislation targeting illegal immigrants,making English the state's official language and allowing some collegestudents to carry guns in classrooms.
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8126549
-Panama: National Police Chief says gays can serve as law enforcementofficers
Although we have no access to the original radio interview that wasbroadcast yesterday at Panama's La Exitosa radio station, Critica says thatRolando Mirones (right), the chief of the National Police, told listenersthat gays could join the police department as long as they followed theConstitution, the law and the regulations as part of their service.
http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/2008/04/panama-national-police-chief-says-gays.html
-Conservative: Romney 'unacceptable' as VP
WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A group of conservatives has taken out an adurging presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain not totap Mitt Romney as his running mate.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/140832
-Adoption bill to be heard by Senate Judiciary Committee this week
TEP urges community to contact state legislators
A bill that would ban unmarried, cohabiting couples from adopting childrenwill be heard by Tennessee's Senate Judiciary Committee on either Tuesday at3:30 p.m. and/or Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.
http://outandaboutnewspaper.com/article.php?id=2521
-Closing the door on a hero
Military gay ban isolates and silences some of our nation's bravest
When Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers died in combat last January, editors at hislocal newspaper, The Washington Post, were unsure how much of his biographyto tell.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5676499.html
-Lavin Speaks Of God's Love and Acceptance of GLBT Persons
Victoria Lavin, of Beatrice, spoke April 2nd at French Memorial Chapel onthe Campus of Hastings College, about her experiences as a ChristianLesbian. Her message was strong and clear that being Christian is in no wayincompatible with being gay; she was made gay by God for a purpose, and "Goddoesn't make junk."
http://community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=227&srcid=224&chid=223
-Straight Man's Liberation
Whenever I walk into a room-whether for class, a club, a meeting, oranything, really-I can usually count on feeling a certain level of anxiety.
I'm usually worried, consciously and unconsciously, about having to interactwith straight men. Suddenly, my demeanor changes, my tone deepens, mymannerisms become more "masculine," and I generally feel vulnerable. When Iam dealing with a straight male authority figure-from an academic adviser toa rabbi-something about me feels more self-conscious, more careful, and lesssure of myself. Where I might engage a woman or a gay person, I hold backand distance myself from a straight man. Out of all my friends from highschool and college, I can count almost no straight men, and though this iscertainly not the case for everyone, I know many people who express similarfeelings.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30264
-The Sins of Sodom
Though it may sound perverse, I get excited whenever religious
fundamentalists speak up during the Q&A portion of my public events. Whilefundamentalists are hardly a dying breed, they seldom participate in suchfunctions. And though I find their silence generally pleasing, it does robme of what we college professors like to call "teaching moments."
http://feeds.feedburner.com/igf
-Gay Catholics to Demonstrate During Pope's U.S. Visit
DignityUSA will sponsor a series of public events and witnesses during PopeBenedict XVI's pastoral visit to the United States April 15-20. Events willbe held in both Washington, D.C. and New York City. The oldest and mostprogressive organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenderCatholics, DignityUSA has fifty chapters and local contacts in every state.
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=119&id=18667
-Mormon Church Agrees To Meet With Gay Members' Group
SALT LAKE CITY - After decades of silence, Mormon church officials haveagreed to meet with a gay Mormon support group that has sought to forgeunderstanding between the faith's leaders and its gay members.
http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5a2caea3-7b5c-4562-b478-76bcf30c9068
-Walls close in on Phelpses
Judge orders liens on church building, law office
A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday ordered liens on the WestboroBaptist Church building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office.
http://cjonline.com/stories/040408/loc_264906171.shtml
-Judges to decide students' appeal over anti-gay T-shirt
CHICAGO -- A three-judge panel heard testimony Friday in a Naperville highschool student's appeal to wear a T-shirt expressing opposition tohomosexuality.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/879944,6_1_NA06_LAWSUIT_S1.article
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Kathie Lee and 'Today': Fluff and Nonsense
Kathie Lee Gifford does seem to have a self-deprecating sense of humor --her gala return to network television yesterday morning proved that -- butshe'd probably get plenty of deprecating even if she didn't. Newly installedas host of an unnecessary fourth hour of NBC's "Today" show, Gifforddisplayed again that certain something that invites either derision orhorror.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040701299.html
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Wedding expo tailored to same-sex couples
The word for it is lucky. That's how 24-year-old Rosemary Tran felt,wandering around this brand-new wedding world, with event planners andtuxedo rentals and freeze-dried flowers on display.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004331986_weddingexpo07m.html?referrer=digg
-`DAY OF SILENCE'
McGarry wants absences OK'd
Move would let students stay home to avoid protest for gay tolerance
School board member Kaye McGarry says she'll ask her colleagues to approveexcused absences for Charlotte-Mecklenburg students who stay home on theApril 25 "National Day of Silence," held to protest harassment ofhomosexuals.
http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/569927.html
-Heigl's flirting shame with gay co-star Knight
Katherine Heigl was shocked to find out her co-star and friend T.R Knightwas gay - because she had spent the show's pilot flirting with him.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=251579570&p=z5y58xz76
-Homeless LGBT Youths Often Face Violent Life on the Streets Six months ago, 15-year-old Drew said he would have described himself as an "ordinary teenager." "I lived with my parents in a nice house in a good neighborhood in upstate New York," he said. "I got good grades at school, and my life was prettygreat."
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30281
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Polls: Race Helps Clinton With Whites
(Washington) Add this to the divisive debate over race in the presidentialcampaign: Whites who said race was important in picking their candidate havebeen about twice as likely to back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton than Sen.Barack Obama.
-McCain Behind In Fundraising
(Washington) Sen. John McCain raised more than $15 million in March for hispresidential campaign, a top performance for the likely Republican nomineethat still falls far short of the cash gathered by rival Democratic Sens.Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
-T-Shirt Ruling May Impact Day Of Silence
(Chicago, Illinois) Attorneys for both sides in a case involving anti-gayT-shirts are pressing for a speedy ruling from a federal appeals court, inadvance of this year's National Day of Silence.
-School Costume Event Draws Church Ire
(Reedsburg, Wisconsin) An elementary-school event in which kids wereencouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of aChristian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to thedistrict office.
-Canadian PM Stands By MP Who Made Anti-Gay Remarks
(Ottawa) Prime Minister Stephen Harper is refusing to discipline aConservative MP over a vulgar anti-gay slur.
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National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-OUT's 50 Most Powerful Gays and Lesbians
OUT Magazine has published its list of the 50 most powerful gay and lesbiansin America. Note that Anderson Cooper is #4... though not officially out tothe American public. The rankings were determined by scoring each candidateon these criteria: (1) political clout; (2) pop-cultural resonance; (3)individual wealth; and (4) current personal profile.
-Gay HIV-Positive Veteran to Carry Olympic Torch
At least one of the 80 people who will carry the Olympic torch during itsstop in San Francisco next week will be a gay, HIV-positive Navy veteran.
John Caldera, 43, who serves on the city's Veterans Affairs Commission,revealed this week he has been tapped to carry the Olympic flame when itcomes to town Wednesday, April 9 as it makes its round-the-world trip aheadof the 2008 Summer Games, which take place August 8-24 in Beijing, China.
-Victim Calls Attack Hate Crime; Police Still Unsure
An assault that included anti-gay slurs is not being investigated as a hatecrime, Olympia, WA police said today. Carl Wittenbrink, 22, said he wasattacked outside the downtown Olympia YMCA last week.
The attacker swung a plastic grocery bag filled with something heavy atWittenbrink and called him an anti-gay slur while yelling and cursing athim, the victim said.
-Project Runway Switches Network, Sparks Lawsuit
Project Runway, cable's top-rated reality show, will make the move fromBravo to Lifetime effective this fall, Variety reported Monday. The show'sproducers, the Weinstein Company, signed a five-year deal with the women'snetwork. The move prompted Bravo to file a lawsuit in the New York supremecourt against the company.
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Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Ecuador: President Correa falls into political trap, accedes to right-wingdemands, says gay couples deserve some rights
Last week, US-based conservative religious web portal LifeSite posted anarticle championing Ecuadorian Assemblymember Rosanna Queirolo and herefforts "to preserve family values in the nation's constitution" Queirolohad launched a well-publicized effort to remove anti-gay discriminationprotections from Ecuador's constitution and to eliminate any access toabortion in a country that already bans them except in cases of rape orincest (it was those "in case of" instances that she also wanted toeliminate in part by establishing that life should be recognized by theconstitution at conception instead of at birth).
-It's becoming predictable every election season. California's anti-gaygroups are attempting to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sexmarriage on the November ballot. They presume Californians will agree withthem and flock to the polls, erasing years of progress.
-Usually, it's just the inevitable question that comes up as one completesthe mundane tasks of life, like rolling over a 401(k) or - as happened to melast week - while making an appointment with a new doctor: are you married.
Usually it's not so much a matter of life or death as it it just filling outa form. Usually, I take a deep breath and answer that I'm "partnered" orthat I'm "as married as I can be," which is immediately understood. Then wemove on to the next question. But there are a thousand different ways inwhich the answer to that question can impact our lives and our families,because we can't legally marry, and the law can't figure out what to do dowith us, or how to define us, and hasn't caught up with us as we forge aheadwith our lives, making commitments to each other, and creating our familiesas we go. In those cases, we don't often gee the benefit of the doubt.
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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Lesbian mums fight for legal rights in Israel
A Israeli lesbian couple have filed a suit in a Tel Aviv district court forthe right to both be named the biological parents of their newborn baby boy.
The case is exceptional as it is the first time that both partners in ahomosexual relationship have had an active and biological role in the birthof the child. After the woman who bore the child experienced fertilityproblems the couple decided that the other partner would conceive.
click here for the full article
-'God Hates Fags' sect could lose their church
A federal judge has ordered that the Westboro Baptist Church building andthe Phelps-Chartered Law office be taken away from the owners in order topay a $5 million (£2.54m) fine.
The church runs numerous websites such as GodHatesFags.com,
GodHatesAmerica.com and others expressing condemnation of lesbian, gay,bisexual, and transgender people, Roman Catholics, Muslims and Jews.
The religious organisation was ordered to pay the damages after members ofits congregation picketed the funeral of two American servicemen.
click here for the full article
-Hillary/Degeneres 08? Candidate talks gay with with Ellen
Kick-starting her appearance on Ellen with a campaign t-shirt touting"Degeneres/Clinton '08," Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton setthe tone for her light but topical appearance on the openly gay talk showhost's daytime chat fest. Ellen Degeneres sat down with Clinton to discusseverything from being a woman in the race for president to gay marriage.
True to form, Degeneres' visit with Clinton included the kitsch factor,including a 2008 Presidential survival kit and an audible "What" fromClinton when Degeneres announced that she is gay.
click here for the full article
-Lesbian politician's office "hid" taxpayer's money
The New York City Council Speaker's office has been accused of allocatingmillions of dollars to non-existent organisations and hoarding the money forredistribution to other groups favoured by council members. Christine Quinn,the first woman to hold the post, is expected to run for Mayor of the citynext year. She insists all taxpayer's money was used for legitimatepurposes. However, investigations by the US Attorney's Office and thecity's Department of Investigation are already underway.
click here for the full article
-MEP's Home Office meetings about gay Iranian
The President of the European Parliament´s Intergroup on Gay and LesbianRights is today holding a series of high level meetings with senior membersof the Home Office. Michael Cashman, who is one of two openly gay MEPs, ismeeting the government officials following the return to the UK of MehdiKazemi. "I trust that the UK government will do the right thing in relationto Mehdi," he said.
click here for the full article
-A touch of drag raises funds for Aberdeen's Rainbowfest
A glamourous event held last Friday in the Scottish city of Aberdeen raisedmore than £1,000 for for ainbowfest, the new lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender event for Aberdeen "City and Shire." Rainbowfeast was hosted bydrag artistes Lexy and The Lushettes. Rainbowfest is to be held on thebeach front at Queen's Links Aberdeen on Saturday 5th July, and organiserssaid they want it to be Scotland's biggest LGBT event yet.
click here for the full article
-Gay Jesus and Apostles removed from cathedral exhibition
A work of art by one of Vienna's most celebrated artists has been taken downafter offending members of the Catholic community. The painting is part of alarge collection of works that depict Jesus and his disciples engaging inhomosexual acts. To celebrate the 80th birthday of artist Alfred Hrdlicka,the gallery attached to St. Stephen's Catholic Cathedral decided to put on aretrospective of the artists work.
click here for the full article
-Suicide prisoner was victim of trans bullying
A woman who hanged herself in her prison cell with shoelaces had complainedthat she was being victimised and picked on by other inmates because she hadtransitioned from being a man. Lisa Woodhall was serving a four and halfyear sentence after she slashed the throat of her boyfriend's ex-lover.
Woodhall, who had undergone gender reassignment surgery in 2004, pleadedguilty to wounding with intent at Plymouth Crown Court in September 2005.
click here for the full article
-Driver and paparazzi blamed for death of Diana
An inquest that heard lurid rumours that Diana, Princess of Wales waspregnant and murdered at the behest of the British Royal Family hasconcluded that she was unlawfully killed. However, the jury of five men andsix women said the driver of the car that crashed in Paris on 31st August1997, Henri Paul, and the paparazzi who chased the vehicle into a tunnel,were to blame for her death. Diana died shortly after the crash, herboyfriend Dodi Al Fayed and driver Paul also died in the collision.
click here for the full article
-Poland approves Lisbon Treaty with rights opt-out
Both Houses of the Polish parliament have approved the Lisbon Treaty with anopt-out from the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. The UK is theonly other nation in the 27-member EU to opt out of the charter, which islegally binding on EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice, aspart of the new Reform Treaty agreed by the EU heads of government inLisbon. The Lisbon treaty needed a two-thirds majority vote in the Polishparliament to become law.
click here for the full article
-Tatchell held during Olympic torch protests
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was one of scores of people detainedby police as yesterday's parading of the Olympic torch through the streetsof London descended into chaos. Despite hundreds of police officers deployedon the streets there were repeated attempts to stop the 31-mile procession,as campaigners vented their anger at China's actions in Tibet and its widerrecord on human rights. At one point a man almost succeeded in grabbing thelit torch.
click here for the full article
-Interview: The vibrant support network for LGB soldiers
The issue of gay people serving in the Armed Forces still dividespoliticians in the US. For the rest of the countries in the NATO alliance,the claims and counter-claims about unit cohesion and the "influence" ofgays on fighting men seem like echoes from another time. The Dutch liftedtheir ban on gays in 1974, Australia followed in 1992 and Canada soon after.In 2008, most of the member nations of NATO have removed their bans.
click here for the full article
-Hillary Clinton repeats desire to end gay military ban
The policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which bars openly lesbian, bisexual orgay people from serving in the United States Armed Forces, will most likelyhave to be repealed by Congress, according to Hillary Clinton. The Senatorfrom New York was First Lady of the United States when the policy became lawin 1993. She is now running for the White House in her own right, and is oneof two candidates for the Democratic nomination for President.
click here for the full article
-Magistrate investigated after linking gay men to paedophiles
Comments made in a regional TV documentary about gay people in Wales has ledto an investigation into a local magistrate. Byron Butler, a former DeputyLord Lieutenant for Mid Glamorgan who has been on the bench for 30 years,spoke out on an edition of BBC Wales' Week In Week Out hosted by formerSteps singer Ian H Watkins. Mr Butler has voluntarily agreed not to sit as amagistrate during the investigation by the Advisory Committee on Justices ofthe Peace in Mid Glamorgan.
click here for the full article
-Obama challenged over lack of contact with gay press
One of America's most respected gay publications has accused Presidentialcandidate Barack Obama of disrespecting the "entire local LGBT press." Lastweek Philadelphia Gay News published an wide-ranging interview with hisrival for the Democratic nomination Senator Hillary Clinton, ahead of thePennsylvania primary later this month. In an Editorial Letter to Obama lastweek, PGN said that he has only spoken with the gay press twice.
click here for the full article
-Gay Iranian faces uncertain future back in UK
Mehdi Kazemi, a teenage Iranian who is fighting deportation to his homelandwhere he claims he faces execution for being gay, has returned to the UK. Hewas previously in a detention centre in Holland but was released on Fridayfrom a Rotterdam detention centre and returned to England. He is stayingwith his uncle. Mr Kazemi, 19, had unsuccessfully applied for asylum in theUnited Kingdom following the execution of his partner by Iranian authoritiesafter being found guilty of sodomy.
click here for the full article
-Death of screen icon who opposed gay equality
Legendary actor Charlton Heston died on Saturday at the age of 83. Theiconic actor of such films as Ben Hur and Soylent Green died at his home inBeverly Hills with his wife, Lydia Clarke Heston, by his side. Heston issurvived by son Fraser Clarke Heston, daughter Holly Ann Heston, and threegrandchildren. Heston's family released a statement on Saturday confirmingthe actor's death.
click here for the full article
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Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
-ILGA is proud to send you the 2008 version of its map on LGBTI rights inthe world on occasion of the federation's 30th anniversary. Founded in 1978,ILGA is now a federation of over 600 groups in over 90 countries campaigningfor lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights. To raiseawareness on the extent of State Sponsored Homophobia in the world, we'vecreated a few items (in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish) you maywant to use around you: - the map is accessible on www.ilga.org We encourageyou to publish it or have it published by your media contacts or forexhibition purposes. Thanks for mentioning ILGA's credits, should you useit.
-Taking On Polish Prez's Baiting
New Yorker Brendan Fay and his husband Tom Moulton, both gay activists, wereflown to Warsaw by Poland's private TVN television network this week for around of political meetings, press conferences, and interviews that havesubstantially advanced the discussion of LGBT rights there, according to aPolish gay activist. Fay and Moulton got sucked into Polish politics whenPresident Lech Kaczynski used footage of their 2003 wedding in Canada in aMarch 17 televised speech to the nation warning that adoption of theEuropean Union's Lisbon Treaty would compel Poland to recognize same-sexmarriages, which he linked to the end of "moral order." The Polishparliament voted overwhelmingly to adopt the treaty on April 2, an outcomethat New York-based Polish gay activist Daniel Domagala of the CampaignAgainst Homophobia, the leading LGBT rights group in Poland, said was goingto happen anyway. But the media frenzy that surrounded Fay and Moulton thisweek, from the moment they landed in Warsaw, certainly did not hurt thecause of gay visibility in Poland. "They gave a human face to the issue,"Domagala said.
-NGOs Slam HIV-Based Arrests and Trials
Doctors Helping Police Denounced for Breaching Medical Ethics, Human RightsAs five more men face trial in Cairo on April 9 in a widening and dangerouspolice crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS, 117 organizations worldwideworking in the fields of health and human rights condemned the crackdown andthe participation of medical personnel. In a letter to the Health Ministryand the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate
(http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/07/egypt18439.htm), the groups, led byAmnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said that doctors who helpedinterrogate men jailed on suspicion of being HIV-positive violated their ownmedical ethics, and their conduct led to a breach of trust in a privileged relationship. "Doctors must put patients first, not join a witch-hunt drivenby prejudice," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at HumanRights Watch. "Now more than 100 human rights groups are reminding Egyptiandoctors of the oath they took to respect patients' privacy, autonomy, andconsent. This is one of the oldest traditions of medical responsibility, aswell as an obligation under human rights law."
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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-Apple's iTunes.ca Pulls Murder Music from its Online Store
TORONTO: In response to calls from Egale Canada and Stop Murder Music(Canada), iTunes has removed controversial murder music from its NorthAmerican markets. Anti-gay tracks by popular dancehall artists Buju Banton,Elephant Man and T.O.K are no longer available on the iTunes site. "Thisis an historic victory for the LGBT community here in Canada and in theCaribbean," says Akim Larcher founder of SMM (Canada), "iTunes isexercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music andraising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same."Thedecision comes as a result of calls from Egale Canadaand SMM requesting the removal of lyrical content which openly calls forthe violence and murder of gays and lesbians.
-Third Moscow Pride which will celebrate 15th Anniversary since
decriminalization of homosexual relations in Russia is getting close. As wasannounced before, this year Moscow Pride will take place on 30-31 May withthe public march planned for Saturday 31 May. Any of you who want to takepart is very welcome in Moscow. There is still plenty of time to plan yourtrip to Russia. Our friends from "Gay Liberation Network" in Chicagosuggested to organise public actions in support of third Moscow Pride onSaturday 17 May which will be the International Day Against Homophobia.
-Olympic torch ambushed in London
Bus halted, gay activist Tatchell arrested
"Gordon Brown colludes with China's tyrannical leaders" The bus bearing theOlympic torch was today ambushed outside Selfridges department store inOxford Street, London, by gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell ofOutRage! Mr Tatchell ran in front of the bus carrying the Olympic flame. Heheld up a placard which read: "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia." He shouted the samewords as he ran along in front of the bus. The police wrestled Mr Tatchellto the ground, which delayed the bus briefly while he was removed topavement. After questioning, he was later released without charge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hu-jia-chinas-enemy-within-804589.html
-In Mexico, we have scheduled August 11 as the International Day of GlobalSolidarity 2008 and we have programed activities both in Mexico City andin the City of Cuernavaca on this day. More than 20 local organisationswill be participating this year, and we have the institutional support ofthe National Human Rights Comission of the Mexican Government.
We are already annoncing it locally under the name "DÃa de SolidaridadGlobal de las Diversidades". We wanted to ask you all today if anyone elsehas programed anything for this year, and if anyone has suggestions for ashared focus for global coordinated activities on the International Day ofGlobal Solidarity 2008.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if can't access the article
-From H. Alexander Robinson of the National Black
Justice Coalition and NBJC Action Fund.
Although assassinated 40 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreamcontinues to live throughout America and throughout the world. As an heirand a product of Dr. King's legacy and vision, the National Black JusticeCoalition strives to ensure that Kingian principles are applied in ourefforts to end racism and heterosexism and gender bias. Dr. King's focusupon non-violence in order to enact change is a focus of NBJC. Sadly, westill live in a world where we are inundated with reports of anti-gayviolence against the LGBT community. For this reason NBJC's mission is tocreate a world where all people can live openly, honestly in all aspects oflife. Instead of fighting community violence with violence or with fieryrhetoric, NBJC's Kingian response has led us back to the source; a belovedcommunity needing knowledge, conversation and theological understanding ontopics dealing with sexuality and masculinity within a culturally relevantcontext.
- VIENNA (Reuters) - They knew it would be risky to exhibit a homoeroticversion of Christ's Last Supper, but curators at museum of Vienna's RomanCatholic Cathedral weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and callsto be shut down.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080407/lf_nm_life/austria_religion_art_dc
-A Conference at Yale University, February 20-21, 2009
Organized by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of SexualitiesKenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963), Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures(1963), and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966) are widely regarded as someof the most important and influential films of postwar underground cinema.
But cinema studies has only recently begun to take seriously the fact thatAnger, Smith, and Warhol were gay filmmakers whose films developed a queeraesthetic to explore questions of queer subjectivity and world-making.
Moreover, the field has still barely registered the fact that they were notjust brilliant auteurs working in isolation but were enmeshed in andinfluenced by a larger circle of mostly New York-based queer filmmakers,performers, writers, and artists.
http://www.yale.edu/yrihs/
-NEARLY FIFTY COLLEGES COME OUT TO RECRUIT GAY YOUTH
AT NATIONAL GAY-FRIENDLY COLLEGE FAIR THIS WEEK
Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn among the diversified list of collegesWHAT: Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Penn among the nearly fifty colleges whowill be in attendance at the gay-friendly college fair hosted by Camps Pridethis Friday, April 11 on the campus of University of California San Diego.
The fair is designed specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender(LGBT) and straight ally youth and their families who want to find campusescommitted to LGBT people. The event is in coordination with theLGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index (www.campusclimateindex.org), the onlyonline resource of its kind, which rates LGBT-friendliness at colleges anduniversities. More information online at www.campusclimateindex.org/events.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Oklahoma policy debates help mold state's global image
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma lawmakers are no strangers to makingheadlines.Recently, it's been legislation targeting illegal immigrants,making English the state's official language and allowing some collegestudents to carry guns in classrooms.
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8126549
-Panama: National Police Chief says gays can serve as law enforcementofficers
Although we have no access to the original radio interview that wasbroadcast yesterday at Panama's La Exitosa radio station, Critica says thatRolando Mirones (right), the chief of the National Police, told listenersthat gays could join the police department as long as they followed theConstitution, the law and the regulations as part of their service.
http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/2008/04/panama-national-police-chief-says-gays.html
-Conservative: Romney 'unacceptable' as VP
WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A group of conservatives has taken out an adurging presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain not totap Mitt Romney as his running mate.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/140832
-Adoption bill to be heard by Senate Judiciary Committee this week
TEP urges community to contact state legislators
A bill that would ban unmarried, cohabiting couples from adopting childrenwill be heard by Tennessee's Senate Judiciary Committee on either Tuesday at3:30 p.m. and/or Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.
http://outandaboutnewspaper.com/article.php?id=2521
-Closing the door on a hero
Military gay ban isolates and silences some of our nation's bravest
When Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers died in combat last January, editors at hislocal newspaper, The Washington Post, were unsure how much of his biographyto tell.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5676499.html
-Lavin Speaks Of God's Love and Acceptance of GLBT Persons
Victoria Lavin, of Beatrice, spoke April 2nd at French Memorial Chapel onthe Campus of Hastings College, about her experiences as a ChristianLesbian. Her message was strong and clear that being Christian is in no wayincompatible with being gay; she was made gay by God for a purpose, and "Goddoesn't make junk."
http://community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=227&srcid=224&chid=223
-Straight Man's Liberation
Whenever I walk into a room-whether for class, a club, a meeting, oranything, really-I can usually count on feeling a certain level of anxiety.
I'm usually worried, consciously and unconsciously, about having to interactwith straight men. Suddenly, my demeanor changes, my tone deepens, mymannerisms become more "masculine," and I generally feel vulnerable. When Iam dealing with a straight male authority figure-from an academic adviser toa rabbi-something about me feels more self-conscious, more careful, and lesssure of myself. Where I might engage a woman or a gay person, I hold backand distance myself from a straight man. Out of all my friends from highschool and college, I can count almost no straight men, and though this iscertainly not the case for everyone, I know many people who express similarfeelings.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30264
-The Sins of Sodom
Though it may sound perverse, I get excited whenever religious
fundamentalists speak up during the Q&A portion of my public events. Whilefundamentalists are hardly a dying breed, they seldom participate in suchfunctions. And though I find their silence generally pleasing, it does robme of what we college professors like to call "teaching moments."
http://feeds.feedburner.com/igf
-Gay Catholics to Demonstrate During Pope's U.S. Visit
DignityUSA will sponsor a series of public events and witnesses during PopeBenedict XVI's pastoral visit to the United States April 15-20. Events willbe held in both Washington, D.C. and New York City. The oldest and mostprogressive organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenderCatholics, DignityUSA has fifty chapters and local contacts in every state.
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=119&id=18667
-Mormon Church Agrees To Meet With Gay Members' Group
SALT LAKE CITY - After decades of silence, Mormon church officials haveagreed to meet with a gay Mormon support group that has sought to forgeunderstanding between the faith's leaders and its gay members.
http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5a2caea3-7b5c-4562-b478-76bcf30c9068
-Walls close in on Phelpses
Judge orders liens on church building, law office
A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday ordered liens on the WestboroBaptist Church building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office.
http://cjonline.com/stories/040408/loc_264906171.shtml
-Judges to decide students' appeal over anti-gay T-shirt
CHICAGO -- A three-judge panel heard testimony Friday in a Naperville highschool student's appeal to wear a T-shirt expressing opposition tohomosexuality.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/879944,6_1_NA06_LAWSUIT_S1.article
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST April 8, 2008
**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.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Testimony by General Will Test Candidates for President
WASHINGTON - Three presidential candidates and two very different views ofIraq will be on full display on Tuesday as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the topAmerican commander in Baghdad, testifies before the Senate in a marathonsession of war and White House ambitions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08campaign.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
-Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers
BAT TRANG, Vietnam - The free ride for American consumers is ending. For twogenerations, Americans have imported goods produced ever more cheaply from asuccession of low-wage countries - first Japan and Korea, then China, andnow increasingly places like Vietnam and India.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/business/worldbusiness/08inflate.html?hp
-More Time for More of the Same?
Americans this week get another chance to take stock of President Bush'swar-without-end in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus, the military commander inBaghdad, has already signaled his bottom line: there should be a pause inthe withdrawal of American troops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue1.html?ref=opinion
-A Different Kind of Election
The teenage girl came running out of Behm's Family Restaurant, calling afterme. "Hey!" she said. "Don't just talk to the older people. You should talkto some young people, too."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08herbert.html?ref=opinion
-A Network of Truces
The U.S. brought no shortage of misconceptions into Iraq, but surely thelongest lasting has been what you might call: Founding Fatherism. This isthe belief that peace will come to the country when the nation's politicalelites gather at a convention hall and make a series of grand compromisesinvolving power-sharing and a new constitution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08brooks.html?ref=opinion
-California Feuding
No state has done as much as California to sponsor, legitimize and rewardenvironmental virtue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue3.html?ref=opinion
-Corporate Croesus
It's hard to square the conceit that chiefs at 10 financial- services firmsmade $320 million last year as their banks reported mortgage- related lossesof $55 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue4.html?ref=opinion
-Obama's Young Backers Twist Parents' Arms
The daily phone calls. The midnight e-mail. And, when college lets out,those dinner table declamations? Oh, please.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08kids.html?hp
-Olympic Group Debating Torch Route
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Olympic torch arrived for its only North Americanstop amid heavy security Tuesday, a day after its visit to Paris descendedinto chaos and activists here scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protestChina's human rights record.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Olympic-Torch.html?hp
-Shift at Top May Mean Shift in Tone for Clinton
WASHINGTON - "This isn't exactly what I was planning on when I woke up thismorning," Geoff Garin e-mailed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after a hastyweekend shake-up left him atop her campaign's strategy team.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08clinton.html
-Ouster Opens Opportunity for Obama
The resignation of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist, whocame under fire for advising Colombia on a free trade pact, gives SenatorBarack Obama an opportunity he has awaited since Mrs. Clinton walloped himon trade issues in Ohio.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08trade.html
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Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Congress To Hear Of Gains In Iraq
Petraeus, Crocker To Face Impatient Lawmakers
In a reprise of their testimony last September, Army Gen. David H. Petraeusand Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker plan to tell Congress today and tomorrow thatsecurity has improved in Iraq and that the government of Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki has taken steps toward political reconciliation and economicstability.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702806.html?hpid=topnews
-Run, Condi, Run!
Oh, please; oh, please; oh, please. I know it's undignified to beg, butplease let John McCain pick Condoleezza Rice as his running mate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702195.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Obama at the Helm
Deep into a primary campaign that was supposed be over by now, Barack Obamamust still answer one fundamental question. Jeremiah Wright notwithstanding,it's not whether he's too black. It's whether he's too green. HillaryClinton has made Obama's inexperience her chief line of attack, and if shegoes down, John McCain will pick up where she left off. Luckily, Obamadoesn't have to rely on his legislative résumé to prove he's capable ofrunning the government. He can point to something more germane: the way he'srun his campaign.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702196.html
-Mr. Mugabe Resists
Zimbabwe's ruler may use force to remain in power -- unless his neighborsstop him.
FOR A DAY or two last week it looked as though Robert Mugabe might finallyaccept the end of his disastrous misrule of Zimbabwe. Authoritiesacknowledged that the opposition won a March 29 election for parliament, andthere were reports that Mr. Mugabe was being urged to concede defeat in thepresidential vote. Yet now, bolstered by the corrupt cadres of his rulingparty and the security forces that still support him, the 84-year-oldautocrat seems to be preparing to stay in power by force. While the resultsof the presidential vote are being withheld by the electoral commission, Mr.Mugabe's regime is suggesting it will contest a runoff election withopposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- one in which it would probably resortto the violence it used to win previous elections. On Sunday, Mr. Mugabe'sthugs began invading white-owned farms, repeating a tactic the presidentadopted the last time he lost an election, in 2000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702432.html
-Cheney Could Keep Security Detail
Secret Service Calls 6-Month Extension Prudent, Probable
The man code-named "Angler" by the Secret Service will probably continue toreceive the agency's protection long after he leaves office next year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702389.html?hpid=moreheadlines
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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Exit the Clinton Strategist
Mark Penn, the strategist with near-total control over Hillary Clinton'scampaign message and strategy since its inception, left the campaign underpressure, her campaign announced on Sunday night. The stunning announcementcame after it was revealed Friday that Penn, in his capacity as worldwideCEO of the lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller, had held discussions withofficials from Colombia on a bilateral free-trade agreement. Clinton hassaid she is against such a pact. While campaigning for the Ohio primary,Clinton had assailed Barack Obama's campaign for what she said was its tacitcollusion with Canada over NAFTA, another controversial free-trade pact thatshe has said needs to be renegotiated.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1728307,00.html
-Come, O Come, Emanuel
It ain't over till it's over. But at some point soon, someone may have tonot-so-gently tell Hillary time is up. Enter 'Rahmbo.'
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130605
-The Republican War on Voting
The Republican Party is trying to suppress low-income minority votes bypropagating the myth of voter fraud.
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/81016/
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Testimony by General Will Test Candidates for President
WASHINGTON - Three presidential candidates and two very different views ofIraq will be on full display on Tuesday as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the topAmerican commander in Baghdad, testifies before the Senate in a marathonsession of war and White House ambitions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08campaign.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
-Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers
BAT TRANG, Vietnam - The free ride for American consumers is ending. For twogenerations, Americans have imported goods produced ever more cheaply from asuccession of low-wage countries - first Japan and Korea, then China, andnow increasingly places like Vietnam and India.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/business/worldbusiness/08inflate.html?hp
-More Time for More of the Same?
Americans this week get another chance to take stock of President Bush'swar-without-end in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus, the military commander inBaghdad, has already signaled his bottom line: there should be a pause inthe withdrawal of American troops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue1.html?ref=opinion
-A Different Kind of Election
The teenage girl came running out of Behm's Family Restaurant, calling afterme. "Hey!" she said. "Don't just talk to the older people. You should talkto some young people, too."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08herbert.html?ref=opinion
-A Network of Truces
The U.S. brought no shortage of misconceptions into Iraq, but surely thelongest lasting has been what you might call: Founding Fatherism. This isthe belief that peace will come to the country when the nation's politicalelites gather at a convention hall and make a series of grand compromisesinvolving power-sharing and a new constitution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08brooks.html?ref=opinion
-California Feuding
No state has done as much as California to sponsor, legitimize and rewardenvironmental virtue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue3.html?ref=opinion
-Corporate Croesus
It's hard to square the conceit that chiefs at 10 financial- services firmsmade $320 million last year as their banks reported mortgage- related lossesof $55 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/opinion/08tue4.html?ref=opinion
-Obama's Young Backers Twist Parents' Arms
The daily phone calls. The midnight e-mail. And, when college lets out,those dinner table declamations? Oh, please.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08kids.html?hp
-Olympic Group Debating Torch Route
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Olympic torch arrived for its only North Americanstop amid heavy security Tuesday, a day after its visit to Paris descendedinto chaos and activists here scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protestChina's human rights record.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Olympic-Torch.html?hp
-Shift at Top May Mean Shift in Tone for Clinton
WASHINGTON - "This isn't exactly what I was planning on when I woke up thismorning," Geoff Garin e-mailed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after a hastyweekend shake-up left him atop her campaign's strategy team.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08clinton.html
-Ouster Opens Opportunity for Obama
The resignation of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist, whocame under fire for advising Colombia on a free trade pact, gives SenatorBarack Obama an opportunity he has awaited since Mrs. Clinton walloped himon trade issues in Ohio.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08trade.html
=
Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Congress To Hear Of Gains In Iraq
Petraeus, Crocker To Face Impatient Lawmakers
In a reprise of their testimony last September, Army Gen. David H. Petraeusand Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker plan to tell Congress today and tomorrow thatsecurity has improved in Iraq and that the government of Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki has taken steps toward political reconciliation and economicstability.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702806.html?hpid=topnews
-Run, Condi, Run!
Oh, please; oh, please; oh, please. I know it's undignified to beg, butplease let John McCain pick Condoleezza Rice as his running mate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702195.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Obama at the Helm
Deep into a primary campaign that was supposed be over by now, Barack Obamamust still answer one fundamental question. Jeremiah Wright notwithstanding,it's not whether he's too black. It's whether he's too green. HillaryClinton has made Obama's inexperience her chief line of attack, and if shegoes down, John McCain will pick up where she left off. Luckily, Obamadoesn't have to rely on his legislative résumé to prove he's capable ofrunning the government. He can point to something more germane: the way he'srun his campaign.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702196.html
-Mr. Mugabe Resists
Zimbabwe's ruler may use force to remain in power -- unless his neighborsstop him.
FOR A DAY or two last week it looked as though Robert Mugabe might finallyaccept the end of his disastrous misrule of Zimbabwe. Authoritiesacknowledged that the opposition won a March 29 election for parliament, andthere were reports that Mr. Mugabe was being urged to concede defeat in thepresidential vote. Yet now, bolstered by the corrupt cadres of his rulingparty and the security forces that still support him, the 84-year-oldautocrat seems to be preparing to stay in power by force. While the resultsof the presidential vote are being withheld by the electoral commission, Mr.Mugabe's regime is suggesting it will contest a runoff election withopposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- one in which it would probably resortto the violence it used to win previous elections. On Sunday, Mr. Mugabe'sthugs began invading white-owned farms, repeating a tactic the presidentadopted the last time he lost an election, in 2000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702432.html
-Cheney Could Keep Security Detail
Secret Service Calls 6-Month Extension Prudent, Probable
The man code-named "Angler" by the Secret Service will probably continue toreceive the agency's protection long after he leaves office next year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702389.html?hpid=moreheadlines
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Exit the Clinton Strategist
Mark Penn, the strategist with near-total control over Hillary Clinton'scampaign message and strategy since its inception, left the campaign underpressure, her campaign announced on Sunday night. The stunning announcementcame after it was revealed Friday that Penn, in his capacity as worldwideCEO of the lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller, had held discussions withofficials from Colombia on a bilateral free-trade agreement. Clinton hassaid she is against such a pact. While campaigning for the Ohio primary,Clinton had assailed Barack Obama's campaign for what she said was its tacitcollusion with Canada over NAFTA, another controversial free-trade pact thatshe has said needs to be renegotiated.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1728307,00.html
-Come, O Come, Emanuel
It ain't over till it's over. But at some point soon, someone may have tonot-so-gently tell Hillary time is up. Enter 'Rahmbo.'
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130605
-The Republican War on Voting
The Republican Party is trying to suppress low-income minority votes bypropagating the myth of voter fraud.
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/81016/
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST April 8, 2008
**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.
=
Ft. Lauderdale: VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED!!
To work the Dolphin Democrats booth this weekend at PrideFest.
We will be there on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 6pm
at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale.
If you can drop by for a couple of hours on either or both daysto meet people, extol the virtues of Dolphin membership,sign up voters for vote by mail or just otherwise be a charmingrepresentative of the Dolphins, please drop a note to:
treasurer@dolphindems.org
=
Anthony Niedwiecki for Oakland Park City Commission
Volunteers Needed for Youth Day Parade!
Oakland Park is having its 51st Annual Youth Day parade and Festival thisSaturday April 12. Anthony needs some volunteers to walk in the parade withhim to pass out candy and information about his candidacy. The paradestarts at 10 a.m. at 1701 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Youth day is one of thebiggest events of the year in Oakland Park and the parade is the longestrunning one in South Florida. If you are able to help, email him atAnthony@anthony09.com or call him at (954)319-5249.
=
OAKLAND PARK CITY COMMISSIONER SUZANNE BOISVENUE ANNOUNCES RUN FOR RE ELECTION
"It has always been my goal to go where I can make a serious difference in the lives of real people."
On April 7, 2008, Oakland Park City Commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue, filed papers with the City Clerk, which signified her intention to run for a second term for Oakland Park Commission - Seat 5 which she currently holds.
She is eager to pursue the issues she cares deeply about: preserving open space; smart growth that's responsible and compatible with the community; provide sewer systems for Rock Island , Garden Acres and Twin Lakes South, eighborhood safety, protection and preservation; and citizen involvement.
If you'd like to help with Suzanne's campaign or simply make a donation, just call 954-298-8899 or e-mail her at suzanneboisvenue@yahoo.com
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Gun bill would allow one constitutional right to erode another
ISSUE: Gun bill gains steam.
You don't uphold one constitutional right by eroding another. Yet, that'swhat the Legislature is intent on doing.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-408editguns,0,2789451.story
-Financial stress, child abuse often go hand in hand
Recent newspaper articles and TV reports around the state have beencheckered with stories of horrific child abuse and neglect: In BrevardCounty, 3- and 7-year-old children suffered severe ongoing beatings with abelt. In Palm Beach County, a 3-month-old boy who suffered numerous earlierinjuries died of blunt force trauma to the head. In Orange County, a2-year-old girl was punished by her mother with blasts from a pressurewasher. In Hillsborough County, a 2-year-old boy was beaten with a t-ballbat. In Lake County, 5- and 10-year-old boys were beaten almost daily with abelt, leaving bruises and welts all over their bodies. And in SeminoleCounty, a 13-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy endured horrible physical andsexual abuse for more than six years. All of this was reported just withinthe last few weeks.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-children08forumsbapr08,0,3806144.story
-Hillsboro Beach residents: Don't let public use our beaches
HILLSBORO BEACH - When residents learned that commissioners consideredopening the town's beach to the public to gain tax dollars forbeach-widening projects, they let them know that the status quo was the wayto go.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbhillsboro0408sbapr08,0,2396436.story
-BrandsMart launches recycling service for cell phones, electronics
Consumers looking to make some money from discarded electronics now haveBrandsMart USA for help.
The South Florida retailer on Monday launched a recycling service thatallows consumers to exchange unwanted cell phones, MP3 players, cameras,gaming devices, global positioning systems and car audio players for storegift cards. Other products, including analog televisions, are expected to beadded later this year.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-48brandsmart,0,4506061.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-CAMPAIGN 2008 | DELEGATES
DNC: Deal to seat Florida, Michigan delegates unlikely before June
WASHINGTON -- A deal to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan toparticipate at the Democratic National Convention is unlikely before summer,party chief Howard Dean said Sunday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/485580.html
-STATE BUDGET
Rubio defends added budget wording
House Speaker Marco Rubio and state transportation officials are at oddsover budget language he has pushed for a friend that blocks a turnpike deal.
TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Marco Rubio said Monday he used obscure budgetlanguage that helped a friend and blocked a $265 million turnpike deal dueto concerns over the Department of Transportation's potentially ''cozy''ties to ''monopolistic'' contractors.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/486950.html
-Expand Broward mayor's reach
OUR OPINION: CHARTER CHANGES COULD INCREASE REPRESENTATION
A business group in Broward County wants the county's Charter ReviewCommission to approve a measure that would put the question of acountywide-elected mayor and one countywide-elected commissioner to votersin November. The panel should heed this call at its meeting Wednesday. It isa cry from the Broward Workshop for strong countywide leadership. Thenonpartisan group of Broward businesses and professionals is one of thecounty's most cohesive civic forces.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/487013.html
-Revolving door of mentally ill inmates
OUR OPINION: MIAMI-DADE TAKING STEPS TO IMPROVE ITS JAILS
The U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Miami-Dade County Jails putsa spotlight on problems that have been documented for years. The county hasbeen addressing corrections' problems, among them jail overcrowding, poormedical care and how mentally ill inmates are treated. New facilities andprograms require funding and take time to build. The challenge is to pressfor the needed resources and keep improving jail conditions, which isdifficult because of revenue shortfalls.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/487011.html
-STIMULUS PAYMENT
How to get your tax rebate
With costs going up on everything from gasoline to bread, an overwhelmingbipartisan majority in the House recently approved the Recovery Rebates andEconomic Stimulus for the American People Act. We were determined to actquickly, so that families could receive tax rebates of up to $1,200 percouple, plus $300 per child, as early as mid-May.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/485773.html
-Poll shows Pa. race tightening in Obama's favor
The Democratic presidential race in Pennsylvania: Hillary Clinton, 50percent; Barack Obama, 44 percent.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/487342.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Soft landing possible for Florida economy despite housing's thud
Sean Snaith, 40, director of the Institute of Economic Competitiveness inthe University of Central Florida's College of Business Administration. Hewas interviewed by Sentinel staff writer Christopher Boyd.
Question: The U.S. economy has shed jobs for three months in a row. Is thisa clear sign that the economy is in a serious downturn?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-talking0808apr08,0,5717709.story?track=rss
-Party bosses worry as split Dems smolder
The bitterness of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton Democratic presidentialnomination fight is starting to make some local Democratic activistsnervous.
"I hear people telling me if Hillary gets the nomination, I won't vote forher. If Obama gets the nomination, I won't vote for him. Or I'll vote for(Republican John) McCain. I'm hearing this from Democrats. This is soterrible," Mid-County Democratic Club Prez Allen Mergaman publicly lamentedat last week's county Democratic Executive Committee confab.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/07/s1b_geo_0407.html
-Anti-abortion tactic reflects politics at its most cynical
Since this is an election year, it's not surprising Florida legislators arepushing abortion restrictions.
This is politics at its most cynical.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-miket0808apr08,0,3026840.column?track=rss
-Number of mentally-ill felons has doubled in Florida according to DCF
The number of accused felons ruled mentally incompetent for trial hasdoubled over five years, crowding Florida institutions with the mostexpensive type of offenders at a time of severe budget restraints, accordingto a new legislative study.
http://floridacapitalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/CAPITOLNEWS/804080328
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
Ft. Lauderdale: VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED!!
To work the Dolphin Democrats booth this weekend at PrideFest.
We will be there on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 6pm
at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale.
If you can drop by for a couple of hours on either or both daysto meet people, extol the virtues of Dolphin membership,sign up voters for vote by mail or just otherwise be a charmingrepresentative of the Dolphins, please drop a note to:
treasurer@dolphindems.org
=
Anthony Niedwiecki for Oakland Park City Commission
Volunteers Needed for Youth Day Parade!
Oakland Park is having its 51st Annual Youth Day parade and Festival thisSaturday April 12. Anthony needs some volunteers to walk in the parade withhim to pass out candy and information about his candidacy. The paradestarts at 10 a.m. at 1701 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Youth day is one of thebiggest events of the year in Oakland Park and the parade is the longestrunning one in South Florida. If you are able to help, email him atAnthony@anthony09.com or call him at (954)319-5249.
=
OAKLAND PARK CITY COMMISSIONER SUZANNE BOISVENUE ANNOUNCES RUN FOR RE ELECTION
"It has always been my goal to go where I can make a serious difference in the lives of real people."
On April 7, 2008, Oakland Park City Commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue, filed papers with the City Clerk, which signified her intention to run for a second term for Oakland Park Commission - Seat 5 which she currently holds.
She is eager to pursue the issues she cares deeply about: preserving open space; smart growth that's responsible and compatible with the community; provide sewer systems for Rock Island , Garden Acres and Twin Lakes South, eighborhood safety, protection and preservation; and citizen involvement.
If you'd like to help with Suzanne's campaign or simply make a donation, just call 954-298-8899 or e-mail her at suzanneboisvenue@yahoo.com
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Gun bill would allow one constitutional right to erode another
ISSUE: Gun bill gains steam.
You don't uphold one constitutional right by eroding another. Yet, that'swhat the Legislature is intent on doing.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-408editguns,0,2789451.story
-Financial stress, child abuse often go hand in hand
Recent newspaper articles and TV reports around the state have beencheckered with stories of horrific child abuse and neglect: In BrevardCounty, 3- and 7-year-old children suffered severe ongoing beatings with abelt. In Palm Beach County, a 3-month-old boy who suffered numerous earlierinjuries died of blunt force trauma to the head. In Orange County, a2-year-old girl was punished by her mother with blasts from a pressurewasher. In Hillsborough County, a 2-year-old boy was beaten with a t-ballbat. In Lake County, 5- and 10-year-old boys were beaten almost daily with abelt, leaving bruises and welts all over their bodies. And in SeminoleCounty, a 13-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy endured horrible physical andsexual abuse for more than six years. All of this was reported just withinthe last few weeks.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-children08forumsbapr08,0,3806144.story
-Hillsboro Beach residents: Don't let public use our beaches
HILLSBORO BEACH - When residents learned that commissioners consideredopening the town's beach to the public to gain tax dollars forbeach-widening projects, they let them know that the status quo was the wayto go.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbhillsboro0408sbapr08,0,2396436.story
-BrandsMart launches recycling service for cell phones, electronics
Consumers looking to make some money from discarded electronics now haveBrandsMart USA for help.
The South Florida retailer on Monday launched a recycling service thatallows consumers to exchange unwanted cell phones, MP3 players, cameras,gaming devices, global positioning systems and car audio players for storegift cards. Other products, including analog televisions, are expected to beadded later this year.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-48brandsmart,0,4506061.story
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-CAMPAIGN 2008 | DELEGATES
DNC: Deal to seat Florida, Michigan delegates unlikely before June
WASHINGTON -- A deal to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan toparticipate at the Democratic National Convention is unlikely before summer,party chief Howard Dean said Sunday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/485580.html
-STATE BUDGET
Rubio defends added budget wording
House Speaker Marco Rubio and state transportation officials are at oddsover budget language he has pushed for a friend that blocks a turnpike deal.
TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Marco Rubio said Monday he used obscure budgetlanguage that helped a friend and blocked a $265 million turnpike deal dueto concerns over the Department of Transportation's potentially ''cozy''ties to ''monopolistic'' contractors.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/486950.html
-Expand Broward mayor's reach
OUR OPINION: CHARTER CHANGES COULD INCREASE REPRESENTATION
A business group in Broward County wants the county's Charter ReviewCommission to approve a measure that would put the question of acountywide-elected mayor and one countywide-elected commissioner to votersin November. The panel should heed this call at its meeting Wednesday. It isa cry from the Broward Workshop for strong countywide leadership. Thenonpartisan group of Broward businesses and professionals is one of thecounty's most cohesive civic forces.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/487013.html
-Revolving door of mentally ill inmates
OUR OPINION: MIAMI-DADE TAKING STEPS TO IMPROVE ITS JAILS
The U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Miami-Dade County Jails putsa spotlight on problems that have been documented for years. The county hasbeen addressing corrections' problems, among them jail overcrowding, poormedical care and how mentally ill inmates are treated. New facilities andprograms require funding and take time to build. The challenge is to pressfor the needed resources and keep improving jail conditions, which isdifficult because of revenue shortfalls.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/487011.html
-STIMULUS PAYMENT
How to get your tax rebate
With costs going up on everything from gasoline to bread, an overwhelmingbipartisan majority in the House recently approved the Recovery Rebates andEconomic Stimulus for the American People Act. We were determined to actquickly, so that families could receive tax rebates of up to $1,200 percouple, plus $300 per child, as early as mid-May.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/485773.html
-Poll shows Pa. race tightening in Obama's favor
The Democratic presidential race in Pennsylvania: Hillary Clinton, 50percent; Barack Obama, 44 percent.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/487342.html
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Soft landing possible for Florida economy despite housing's thud
Sean Snaith, 40, director of the Institute of Economic Competitiveness inthe University of Central Florida's College of Business Administration. Hewas interviewed by Sentinel staff writer Christopher Boyd.
Question: The U.S. economy has shed jobs for three months in a row. Is thisa clear sign that the economy is in a serious downturn?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-talking0808apr08,0,5717709.story?track=rss
-Party bosses worry as split Dems smolder
The bitterness of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton Democratic presidentialnomination fight is starting to make some local Democratic activistsnervous.
"I hear people telling me if Hillary gets the nomination, I won't vote forher. If Obama gets the nomination, I won't vote for him. Or I'll vote for(Republican John) McCain. I'm hearing this from Democrats. This is soterrible," Mid-County Democratic Club Prez Allen Mergaman publicly lamentedat last week's county Democratic Executive Committee confab.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/07/s1b_geo_0407.html
-Anti-abortion tactic reflects politics at its most cynical
Since this is an election year, it's not surprising Florida legislators arepushing abortion restrictions.
This is politics at its most cynical.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-miket0808apr08,0,3026840.column?track=rss
-Number of mentally-ill felons has doubled in Florida according to DCF
The number of accused felons ruled mentally incompetent for trial hasdoubled over five years, crowding Florida institutions with the mostexpensive type of offenders at a time of severe budget restraints, accordingto a new legislative study.
http://floridacapitalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/CAPITOLNEWS/804080328
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Monday, April 07, 2008
GLBT NEWS April 7, 2008
**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.
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-A Gay-Friendly Message to Mega-Churches
by Deb Price
When Michelle Freeman fell in love with a woman 12 years ago, she feltcompelled to leave her predominantly African American church.
"The last sermon I heard as a practicing Baptist was very anti-gay," recallsFreeman, 42. "I had internalized homophobia. But when I met Georgia, Iwanted us to worship in a place where we could be ourselves."
-Local Parish Opposes Episcopal Church's Stance on Gays
Though small in number, the officers and most of the 44 active baptizedmembers of Dickinson's St. John's Episcopal Church are speaking loudly inopposition to their bishop's decision to not license a partnered gay priestin Grand Forks.
The Rev. Bruce MacDuffie said their position is not to champion the cause ofthe Rev. Gayle Baldwin, 62, an associate professor of religion at theUniversity of North Dakota. Instead, the Dickinson parish opposes BishopMichael Smith's general position on not licensing partnered gay and lesbianpeople.
Read More...
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Lesbian FBI agent coming out at gay network
Reuters
-Gay Mormon, church officials to meet
azcentral.com
-Sir Ian McKellen to battle for openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson
Towleroad
-Anderson Cooper 'passes' on outing
Gawker.com
-LGBT to Catholics to protest anti-gay Pope
Queers United
-Charlton Heston's turbulent gay history
PageOneQ
-Homosexual leader calls AIDS: "A gay disease"
AFA Journal
-Queery: Justin Flippen
President of the Dolphin Democrats and candidate for Wilton Manors CityCouncil
=
365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Mormon Leaders Agree To Meet Gay LDS Group
(Salt Lake City Utah) After decades of silence, Mormon church officials haveagreed to meet with a gay Mormon support group that has sought to forgeunderstanding between the faith's leaders and its gay members.
-Gay Activist Among Arrested At London Olympic Torch Protest
(London) British LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell was detained by policeon Sunday, one of dozens of protestors who were arrested during ademonstration as Olympians and dignitaries carried the Olympic torch duringthrough London.
-Crafter Of Federal DOMA Mulls Libertarian Presidential Bid
(Washington) Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr said Saturday he has formed apresidential exploratory committee and may seek the Libertarian partynomination.
-Pitched Contest For Pa. Youth Vote
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) -- Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton arehustling for the youth vote in Pennsylvania as if they've never heard thisis a state where the old hold sway.
-Key Aide Leaves Clinton Campaign In Free Trade Dispute
(Albuquerque, New Mexico) Mark Penn, the pollster and senior strategist forHillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, left the campaign Sunday after itwas disclosed he met with representatives of the Colombian government tohelp promote a free trade agreement Clinton opposes.
-Trial to Proceed In Transwoman Discrimination Suit
(Houston, Texas) The District Court for the Southern District of Texas onFriday denied motions for summary judgment from both sides in the case of atransgender woman who found her job offer from a Houston medical clinicwithdrawn after a background check disclosed her sex as male.
-Man Convicted Of Spreading HIV Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison
(Windsor, Ontario) A man convicted of knowingly spreading the virus thatcauses AIDS was handed an 18-year prison sentence Friday after a judgedeclined to declare him a dangerous offender.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-A Gay-Friendly Message to Mega-Churches
by Deb Price
When Michelle Freeman fell in love with a woman 12 years ago, she feltcompelled to leave her predominantly African American church.
"The last sermon I heard as a practicing Baptist was very anti-gay," recallsFreeman, 42. "I had internalized homophobia. But when I met Georgia, Iwanted us to worship in a place where we could be ourselves."
-Local Parish Opposes Episcopal Church's Stance on Gays
Though small in number, the officers and most of the 44 active baptizedmembers of Dickinson's St. John's Episcopal Church are speaking loudly inopposition to their bishop's decision to not license a partnered gay priestin Grand Forks.
The Rev. Bruce MacDuffie said their position is not to champion the cause ofthe Rev. Gayle Baldwin, 62, an associate professor of religion at theUniversity of North Dakota. Instead, the Dickinson parish opposes BishopMichael Smith's general position on not licensing partnered gay and lesbianpeople.
Read More...
=
Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Lesbian FBI agent coming out at gay network
Reuters
-Gay Mormon, church officials to meet
azcentral.com
-Sir Ian McKellen to battle for openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson
Towleroad
-Anderson Cooper 'passes' on outing
Gawker.com
-LGBT to Catholics to protest anti-gay Pope
Queers United
-Charlton Heston's turbulent gay history
PageOneQ
-Homosexual leader calls AIDS: "A gay disease"
AFA Journal
-Queery: Justin Flippen
President of the Dolphin Democrats and candidate for Wilton Manors CityCouncil
=
365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Mormon Leaders Agree To Meet Gay LDS Group
(Salt Lake City Utah) After decades of silence, Mormon church officials haveagreed to meet with a gay Mormon support group that has sought to forgeunderstanding between the faith's leaders and its gay members.
-Gay Activist Among Arrested At London Olympic Torch Protest
(London) British LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell was detained by policeon Sunday, one of dozens of protestors who were arrested during ademonstration as Olympians and dignitaries carried the Olympic torch duringthrough London.
-Crafter Of Federal DOMA Mulls Libertarian Presidential Bid
(Washington) Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr said Saturday he has formed apresidential exploratory committee and may seek the Libertarian partynomination.
-Pitched Contest For Pa. Youth Vote
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) -- Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton arehustling for the youth vote in Pennsylvania as if they've never heard thisis a state where the old hold sway.
-Key Aide Leaves Clinton Campaign In Free Trade Dispute
(Albuquerque, New Mexico) Mark Penn, the pollster and senior strategist forHillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, left the campaign Sunday after itwas disclosed he met with representatives of the Colombian government tohelp promote a free trade agreement Clinton opposes.
-Trial to Proceed In Transwoman Discrimination Suit
(Houston, Texas) The District Court for the Southern District of Texas onFriday denied motions for summary judgment from both sides in the case of atransgender woman who found her job offer from a Houston medical clinicwithdrawn after a background check disclosed her sex as male.
-Man Convicted Of Spreading HIV Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison
(Windsor, Ontario) A man convicted of knowingly spreading the virus thatcauses AIDS was handed an 18-year prison sentence Friday after a judgedeclined to declare him a dangerous offender.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Sunday, April 06, 2008
GLBT DIGEST April 6, 2008
**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.
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-NYC Public Library Catalogues, Preserves, and Celebrates Gay Archives
The New York City Public Library has collected a vast resource of GLBTliterature. Now the time has come to curate, and celebrate, the trove. Themost public face of the collection may be the library's exhibition, BecomingVisible: The Legacy of Stonewall, reported The New York Times in an Apr. 4article.
-Italy's Bisexual Green Minister and Claims of 'Jobs for the Boys'
One week before the general election, Italy's most colourful cabinetminister is fighting off claims that he accepted hospitality and free travelfrom businessmen in return for plum public contracts. Alfonso PecoraroScanio, leader of Italy's Verdi (Green) party, was the first Italianpolitician to come out as bisexual. As the nation's leading green, the48-year-old has fought off GM crops, promoted green energy and rehabilitatedindustrial sites.
-Presidential Candidates Called to Stop Gay Iranians' Deportations
Equality Forum, a US headquartered national and international GLBT civilrights organization, called on Presidential candidates Clinton, McCain andObama to send letters to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to revoke thedeportation orders for the return of gays and lesbians in the UK to Iran.
-The Gay Evangelical
Rev. Mel White penned the life stories and speeches of conservativeChristian superstars like Pat Robertson. His religious leaders publicly andvehemently condemned gays and lesbians, and White tried to overcome hishomosexuality with exorcisms and electric shock therapy. In 1993, White cameout as a gay man and denounced the politics of hate in the evangelicalchurch. Now, 15 years and two books later, White spearheads Soulforce , anorganization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance inreligious communities.
-Local Parish Opposes Episcopal Church's Stance on Gays
Though small in number, the officers and most of the 44 active baptizedmembers of Dickinson's St. John's Episcopal Church are speaking loudly inopposition to their bishop's decision to not license a partnered gay priestin Grand Forks. The Rev. Bruce MacDuffie said their position is not tochampion the cause of the Rev. Gayle Baldwin, 62, an associate professor ofreligion at the University of North Dakota. Instead, the Dickinson parishopposes Bishop Michael Smith's general position on not licensing partneredgay and lesbian people.
-Modest Global AIDS Funding Increase Approved by House
A modest, 27% increase in global HIV/AIDS spending was authorized this weekin an important vote in the House of Representatives. "We welcome thisreauthorization of the AIDS program and congratulate members for avoiding apartisan logjam on this crucial issue," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, ExecutiveDirector of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We can only hope that the Senatequickly follows suit, since the President hopes to use the bill at theupcoming G8 Summit to leverage other countries to do more."
-Ft. Lauderdale: It's Rodeo Weekend!
Come out to the Bergeron Arena in Davie, Florida this weekend to watch allthe action as cowgirls and cowboys from around the United States and Canadacompete in one of the largest gay rodeos east of the Mississippi! Visit ourSunshine Stampede 2008 pages for more information about all the weekendactivities!
=
The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Website Can Be Sued for Gay Housing Discrimination
The apartment search website Roommates.com is susceptible to discriminationlawsuits because the site allows users to specify their gender, maritalstatus, and sexual orientation, the ninth U.S. circuit court of appealsruled Thursday in San Francisco.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid53197.asp
-Cheyenne Stands Tall
Most leading men are afraid to be out and proud. Cheyenne Jackson is biggerthan that.
http://advocate.com/issue_story_ektid52945.asp
-Obama Found a Home in His Church
A young Barack Obama was searching for answers, and perhaps a place tobelong, when he decided to visit a fast-growing church recommended byfriends. What he heard left him in tears.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid53183.asp
-She's a Riot
Suzanne Westenhoefer gives her Dinah predictions before her performancetonight at the year's biggest lesbian party.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid53150.asp
=
Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-They came in masses -- as though they expected a fight.
One week after the Larimer County [Colorado] Commissioners voted 2-1 toextend medical benefits to county employees' domestic partners, includingsame-sex couples, the gay lesbian bi-sexual and transgender community andtheir "straight allies" packed themselves into the commissioners'second-story conference room to defend the vote against naysayers. Theyexpected at least one or two people, if not more, to show up to voice theiropposition. In fact, rumors had spread through e-mail and listserv thatSheriff Jim Alderden was making an appearance at meeting this week to opposethe commissioners' decision.
-One of the great blessings of my life is the consistent, long-term presenceof many friends. There are three very important people who have been in mylife since first or second grade. More than a dearth of blood relativesmakes those people my family; we have shared 30 years of ups and downs onthe dizzying carousel ride of life. Two of those people, and my closestblood relative, are gay. I have been tangentially immersed in the gayculture for so long, it's a natural and common aspect of life. Three decadesof loving these friends and family and sharing their successes in managingcareers and raising families has jaded me to the hatred and prejudice manypeople harbor against the gay community. It's easy for me to let my guarddown and take gay culture for granted. As a middle-aged, overweight whiteguy with graying facial hair, I am America's ruling demographic, so the gayrights struggle is something I experience secondhand, like my black friends'struggles and my wheelchair-bound friend's struggles.
-This week, an Arizona regulatory review panel approved new rules to givehealth insurance coverage to domestic partners of Arizona state employees -including those here at the UA [Univ. of Arizona]. Although the rulechange - which technically modified an executive policy rather than a law -could be challenged in court, it's likely to take effect Oct. 1 of thisyear. Data suggest that anywhere between 317 and 853 partners will need tobe covered by the law, at a maximum cost of about $4.25 million. But thebenefits of the new rule far outweigh those costs, especially here at theUA. As UA President Robert Shelton said in a Daily Wildcat article earlierthis week, the university's inability to give health insurance to same-sexcouples has been a "significant issue" when it comes to hiring. Moreimportant, the rule is a victory for equality under the law (or at least,the rules). For respecting the rights of same-sex couples and making hiringmuch easier for the UA, the new rules get a Pass.
-MERI will be hosting a lobby day next Wednesday, April 9th, at the RhodeIsland State House. "Lobbying" sounds scary, but it's not. The mostimportant thing to know about lobbying is that legislators want to hear fromtheir constituents. Actually, they hardly ever do, so calls, letters,e-mails or postcards can have tremendous impact. You can change their minds.
=
Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
GENITAL CUTTING IN A GLOBALIZED AGE: A FORUM FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY DEBATE
A major international conference in London - Friday 4 July 2008
The Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE
"Why a focus on surgery can't improve healthcare services for Disorders ofSex Development"
A groundbreaking event bringing together medical doctors and researchers,
social and behavioural scientists, scholars in literary and culturalstudies, lawyers, artists, philosophers and historians who share a criticalinterest in genital modification in the clinical, political and culturalspheres. The remit will be to examine practices and discourses of health,harm and sexuality in their historical and contemporary contexts. Theconference will explicitly address the discursive and legislativeinconsistencies relating to genital cutting, and tackle the ideological,political and ethical implications of current practices.
Topics:
.Childhood surgery for ambiguous genitalia
.Sex reassignment surgery for transsexual people
..Female genital mutilation
.Male circumcision
.Genital cosmetic surgery
=
Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-SUBALTERN VOICES SEMINAR SERIES
CREA invites you to a panel event April 15, 2008
Queer Bodies and Desires: Impacts of State and Society on Transgender,Intersex, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People in Latin America and
South/Southeast Asia
http://lists.creaworld.org/listinfo.cgi
-Human Rights First is currently accepting nominations for the 2008 Roger N.Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award. Those involved in human rights throughoutthe world are encouraged to nominate individuals or organizations who havedemonstrated an exceptional commitment to international human rightsadvocacy. The award will be presented during a ceremony in New York City inMay of 2008 and the winner will receive a $25,000 prize.
-Yesterday. Mehdi, the 19 years old gay Iranian being detained by theauthorities in the Netherlands, was returned to UK earlier today. He wasinterviewed at London Heathrow airport by immigration officials, was"released" and will be staying with one of his uncles until his situation isresolved. No further details are expected until after the weekend.
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/latest.htm
-Olympics Runner: I will be in touch with John about your suggestions, andI will offer my help to him, if he wants to help draw attention to Hu Jia.
The torch relay is on Thursday, so there's some time to reach out to John.
There is also an event on Tuesday that I think would be perfect for asolidarity action with Hu Jia. Movie star and AIDS activist Richard Gere,along with Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu are holding a number of pro-Tibet actions, and I hope to round a few SF activists to be attheir press conference, so we can hold signs about Hu Jia, gays and peoplewith AIDS.
http://www.sfteamtibet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=66/
=
Philadelphia Gay News
-Clinton talks; Obama balks
The Democratic race for president has been heating up for months. And whereonce eight contenders graced the national stage, only two have made it toPennsylvania's primary: Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In thesemonths, an alliance of LGBT papers sought to speak with the top threecontenders - Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards - to no avail. Now,with the delegate spread hovering around 150, smaller constituencies,including the LGBT community and their superdelegates, are playing a largerrole. PGN invited both Clinton and Obama, as well as presumptive Republicancandidate John McCain, to speak with us. Only Clinton granted an interview.
... PGN: I assume that you and President Clinton have gay friends. Can yougive me your impression of one of those couples that you socialize with,without giving any names?
http://www.epgn.com/
=
From MoveOn.Org
-10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor ofDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he'scontinued to oppose key civil rights laws.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush onIraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain"will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCainvoted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bushfor vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support
Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator inCongress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill lastyear, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires.The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! YetMcCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facingforeclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless tobe commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of hisbeing president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He'shotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but hiscampaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The governmentwatchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money forhis campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right inrecent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley,believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a"false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacherJohn Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gayrights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0-yes,zero-from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be.Please help get the word out-forward this email to your personal network.
And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth outabout John McCain, sign up here:
http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/?id=12407-5533006-NbEfV8&t=232
=
BBC
http://www.bbc.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-HIV 'raises heart disease risk'
HIV infection may increase the risk of heart disease, research suggests.
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco found HIVpatients had higher rates of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries.
The condition also progressed more quickly in HIV positive people.
Writing in Circulation: the Journal of the American Heart Association, theysaid HIV patients should be treated for high blood pressure and cholesterol.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3516134.stm
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-NYC Public Library Catalogues, Preserves, and Celebrates Gay Archives
The New York City Public Library has collected a vast resource of GLBTliterature. Now the time has come to curate, and celebrate, the trove. Themost public face of the collection may be the library's exhibition, BecomingVisible: The Legacy of Stonewall, reported The New York Times in an Apr. 4article.
-Italy's Bisexual Green Minister and Claims of 'Jobs for the Boys'
One week before the general election, Italy's most colourful cabinetminister is fighting off claims that he accepted hospitality and free travelfrom businessmen in return for plum public contracts. Alfonso PecoraroScanio, leader of Italy's Verdi (Green) party, was the first Italianpolitician to come out as bisexual. As the nation's leading green, the48-year-old has fought off GM crops, promoted green energy and rehabilitatedindustrial sites.
-Presidential Candidates Called to Stop Gay Iranians' Deportations
Equality Forum, a US headquartered national and international GLBT civilrights organization, called on Presidential candidates Clinton, McCain andObama to send letters to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to revoke thedeportation orders for the return of gays and lesbians in the UK to Iran.
-The Gay Evangelical
Rev. Mel White penned the life stories and speeches of conservativeChristian superstars like Pat Robertson. His religious leaders publicly andvehemently condemned gays and lesbians, and White tried to overcome hishomosexuality with exorcisms and electric shock therapy. In 1993, White cameout as a gay man and denounced the politics of hate in the evangelicalchurch. Now, 15 years and two books later, White spearheads Soulforce , anorganization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance inreligious communities.
-Local Parish Opposes Episcopal Church's Stance on Gays
Though small in number, the officers and most of the 44 active baptizedmembers of Dickinson's St. John's Episcopal Church are speaking loudly inopposition to their bishop's decision to not license a partnered gay priestin Grand Forks. The Rev. Bruce MacDuffie said their position is not tochampion the cause of the Rev. Gayle Baldwin, 62, an associate professor ofreligion at the University of North Dakota. Instead, the Dickinson parishopposes Bishop Michael Smith's general position on not licensing partneredgay and lesbian people.
-Modest Global AIDS Funding Increase Approved by House
A modest, 27% increase in global HIV/AIDS spending was authorized this weekin an important vote in the House of Representatives. "We welcome thisreauthorization of the AIDS program and congratulate members for avoiding apartisan logjam on this crucial issue," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, ExecutiveDirector of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We can only hope that the Senatequickly follows suit, since the President hopes to use the bill at theupcoming G8 Summit to leverage other countries to do more."
-Ft. Lauderdale: It's Rodeo Weekend!
Come out to the Bergeron Arena in Davie, Florida this weekend to watch allthe action as cowgirls and cowboys from around the United States and Canadacompete in one of the largest gay rodeos east of the Mississippi! Visit ourSunshine Stampede 2008 pages for more information about all the weekendactivities!
=
The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-Website Can Be Sued for Gay Housing Discrimination
The apartment search website Roommates.com is susceptible to discriminationlawsuits because the site allows users to specify their gender, maritalstatus, and sexual orientation, the ninth U.S. circuit court of appealsruled Thursday in San Francisco.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid53197.asp
-Cheyenne Stands Tall
Most leading men are afraid to be out and proud. Cheyenne Jackson is biggerthan that.
http://advocate.com/issue_story_ektid52945.asp
-Obama Found a Home in His Church
A young Barack Obama was searching for answers, and perhaps a place tobelong, when he decided to visit a fast-growing church recommended byfriends. What he heard left him in tears.
http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid53183.asp
-She's a Riot
Suzanne Westenhoefer gives her Dinah predictions before her performancetonight at the year's biggest lesbian party.
http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid53150.asp
=
Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-They came in masses -- as though they expected a fight.
One week after the Larimer County [Colorado] Commissioners voted 2-1 toextend medical benefits to county employees' domestic partners, includingsame-sex couples, the gay lesbian bi-sexual and transgender community andtheir "straight allies" packed themselves into the commissioners'second-story conference room to defend the vote against naysayers. Theyexpected at least one or two people, if not more, to show up to voice theiropposition. In fact, rumors had spread through e-mail and listserv thatSheriff Jim Alderden was making an appearance at meeting this week to opposethe commissioners' decision.
-One of the great blessings of my life is the consistent, long-term presenceof many friends. There are three very important people who have been in mylife since first or second grade. More than a dearth of blood relativesmakes those people my family; we have shared 30 years of ups and downs onthe dizzying carousel ride of life. Two of those people, and my closestblood relative, are gay. I have been tangentially immersed in the gayculture for so long, it's a natural and common aspect of life. Three decadesof loving these friends and family and sharing their successes in managingcareers and raising families has jaded me to the hatred and prejudice manypeople harbor against the gay community. It's easy for me to let my guarddown and take gay culture for granted. As a middle-aged, overweight whiteguy with graying facial hair, I am America's ruling demographic, so the gayrights struggle is something I experience secondhand, like my black friends'struggles and my wheelchair-bound friend's struggles.
-This week, an Arizona regulatory review panel approved new rules to givehealth insurance coverage to domestic partners of Arizona state employees -including those here at the UA [Univ. of Arizona]. Although the rulechange - which technically modified an executive policy rather than a law -could be challenged in court, it's likely to take effect Oct. 1 of thisyear. Data suggest that anywhere between 317 and 853 partners will need tobe covered by the law, at a maximum cost of about $4.25 million. But thebenefits of the new rule far outweigh those costs, especially here at theUA. As UA President Robert Shelton said in a Daily Wildcat article earlierthis week, the university's inability to give health insurance to same-sexcouples has been a "significant issue" when it comes to hiring. Moreimportant, the rule is a victory for equality under the law (or at least,the rules). For respecting the rights of same-sex couples and making hiringmuch easier for the UA, the new rules get a Pass.
-MERI will be hosting a lobby day next Wednesday, April 9th, at the RhodeIsland State House. "Lobbying" sounds scary, but it's not. The mostimportant thing to know about lobbying is that legislators want to hear fromtheir constituents. Actually, they hardly ever do, so calls, letters,e-mails or postcards can have tremendous impact. You can change their minds.
=
Forwarded from Euro-Queer
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article:
GENITAL CUTTING IN A GLOBALIZED AGE: A FORUM FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY DEBATE
A major international conference in London - Friday 4 July 2008
The Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE
"Why a focus on surgery can't improve healthcare services for Disorders ofSex Development"
A groundbreaking event bringing together medical doctors and researchers,
social and behavioural scientists, scholars in literary and culturalstudies, lawyers, artists, philosophers and historians who share a criticalinterest in genital modification in the clinical, political and culturalspheres. The remit will be to examine practices and discourses of health,harm and sexuality in their historical and contemporary contexts. Theconference will explicitly address the discursive and legislativeinconsistencies relating to genital cutting, and tackle the ideological,political and ethical implications of current practices.
Topics:
.Childhood surgery for ambiguous genitalia
.Sex reassignment surgery for transsexual people
..Female genital mutilation
.Male circumcision
.Genital cosmetic surgery
=
Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article
-SUBALTERN VOICES SEMINAR SERIES
CREA invites you to a panel event April 15, 2008
Queer Bodies and Desires: Impacts of State and Society on Transgender,Intersex, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People in Latin America and
South/Southeast Asia
http://lists.creaworld.org/listinfo.cgi
-Human Rights First is currently accepting nominations for the 2008 Roger N.Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award. Those involved in human rights throughoutthe world are encouraged to nominate individuals or organizations who havedemonstrated an exceptional commitment to international human rightsadvocacy. The award will be presented during a ceremony in New York City inMay of 2008 and the winner will receive a $25,000 prize.
-Yesterday. Mehdi, the 19 years old gay Iranian being detained by theauthorities in the Netherlands, was returned to UK earlier today. He wasinterviewed at London Heathrow airport by immigration officials, was"released" and will be staying with one of his uncles until his situation isresolved. No further details are expected until after the weekend.
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/latest.htm
-Olympics Runner: I will be in touch with John about your suggestions, andI will offer my help to him, if he wants to help draw attention to Hu Jia.
The torch relay is on Thursday, so there's some time to reach out to John.
There is also an event on Tuesday that I think would be perfect for asolidarity action with Hu Jia. Movie star and AIDS activist Richard Gere,along with Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu are holding a number of pro-Tibet actions, and I hope to round a few SF activists to be attheir press conference, so we can hold signs about Hu Jia, gays and peoplewith AIDS.
http://www.sfteamtibet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=66/
=
Philadelphia Gay News
-Clinton talks; Obama balks
The Democratic race for president has been heating up for months. And whereonce eight contenders graced the national stage, only two have made it toPennsylvania's primary: Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In thesemonths, an alliance of LGBT papers sought to speak with the top threecontenders - Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards - to no avail. Now,with the delegate spread hovering around 150, smaller constituencies,including the LGBT community and their superdelegates, are playing a largerrole. PGN invited both Clinton and Obama, as well as presumptive Republicancandidate John McCain, to speak with us. Only Clinton granted an interview.
... PGN: I assume that you and President Clinton have gay friends. Can yougive me your impression of one of those couples that you socialize with,without giving any names?
http://www.epgn.com/
=
From MoveOn.Org
-10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor ofDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he'scontinued to oppose key civil rights laws.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush onIraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain"will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCainvoted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bushfor vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support
Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator inCongress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill lastyear, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires.The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! YetMcCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facingforeclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless tobe commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of hisbeing president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He'shotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but hiscampaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The governmentwatchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money forhis campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right inrecent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley,believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a"false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacherJohn Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gayrights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0-yes,zero-from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be.Please help get the word out-forward this email to your personal network.
And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth outabout John McCain, sign up here:
http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/?id=12407-5533006-NbEfV8&t=232
=
BBC
http://www.bbc.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:
-HIV 'raises heart disease risk'
HIV infection may increase the risk of heart disease, research suggests.
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco found HIVpatients had higher rates of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries.
The condition also progressed more quickly in HIV positive people.
Writing in Circulation: the Journal of the American Heart Association, theysaid HIV patients should be treated for high blood pressure and cholesterol.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3516134.stm
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST April 6, 2008
**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.
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Executive Pay: A Special Report
A Brighter Spotlight, Yet the Pay Rises
WASN'T 2008 supposed to be the year of shareholder victory on the executive compensation front?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/business/06comp.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
-Editorial: Some Truth About Trade
There's nothing like international trade to help bridge the nation'sideological divide. As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton travel the RustBelt, the Democratic candidates seem to be eschewing the advice of theireconomic advisers and turning to Karl Rove's playbook.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06sun1.html?ref=opinion
-Tet Happened, and No One Cared
REALLY, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of themselves forlibeling John McCain. As a growing chorus reiterates, their refrains thatMr. McCain is "willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war inIraq" (as Mr. Obama said) or "willing to keep this war going for 100 years"(per Mrs. Clinton) are flat-out wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06rich.html?ref=opinion
-Our Racist, Sexist Selves
To my horror, I turn out to be a racist.
The University of Chicago offers an on-line psychological test in which youencounter a series of 100 black or white men, holding either guns orcellphones. You're supposed to shoot the gunmen and holster your gun for theothers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06kristof.html?ref=opinion
-It's About Laws, Not Light Bulbs
The issue of climate change is now in a sad state of political andlegislative suspension, awaiting an election, a new president and a newCongress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06sun2.html?ref=opinion
-Choir School Celebrates Its 70th Season
To close out their school's 70th season, the boys of the American BoychoirSchool gave a concert last week at the Richardson Auditorium at PrincetonUniversity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/06choirnj.html
=
Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Vietnam vets admire McCain, may not vote for him
DALLAS/PHOENIX (Reuters) - Bob Schultz is a self-described conservativeRepublican who saw combat when he served as a helicopter pilot during theVietnam War, but that doesn't mean he will vote for former Vietnamprisoner-of-war John McCain in November's U.S. presidential election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600433.html
-Genocide by Attrition in Sudan
Sudan's National Islamic Front regime has begun its sixth year of genocidal counterinsurgency warfare in the vast western region of Darfur, targetingAfrican civilian populations perceived as the primary support for fractiousrebe groups. Given the length of the conflict, news reports have inevitablytaken on a grimly familiar and repetitive character that obscures theimpending cataclysm of human destruction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403087.html
-McCain's Housing Restraint
Hurling a compliment at Barack Obama in the hope of wounding him, HillaryClinton's campaign has said that his proposals for responding to theeconomy's housing-related credit woes put him "to the right of the Bushadministration." Her complaint is that the government spending and othermarket interventions that he proposes are a bit less flamboyant than hers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403088.html
-Repairing America's Spy Shop
Listening to members of Congress, you might think the biggest problem at theCentral Intelligence Agency is that one of its officers destroyed videotapesthat showed waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. I wish theproblems out at Langley were that simple and that easy to fix.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403090.html
-The Future of Entitlements
A novel idea for an old problem: Force politicians to stop ducking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502025.html
-Aiming to Ease Tensions, Without U.S.-Russia Pact
SOCHI, Russia, April 6 -- President Bush and Russian President VladimirPutin wrapped up their final meeting in office Sunday with plenty of warmwords and mutual praise but no concrete agreement on missile defense or theother issues that divide them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600282.html?hpid=topnews
-Arrests Mar London's Olympic Torch Relay
LONDON -- Police repeatedly scuffled with protesters as Olympians anddignitaries carried the Olympic torch during a chaotic relay through snowyLondon on Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600398.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-2003 MEMO ON INTERROGATION
Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail
Drugging Detainees Is Among Techniques
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502099.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-Taiwan VP-Elect to Meet Chinese Leader
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's vice president-elect may hold informaldiscussions with China's leader at a trade forum on the mainland, what wouldbe the highest-level meeting ever held between the two historic rivals, anofficial said Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600367.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-New Focus on Coal's Part in Warming
Greater Advances In Technology Are Seen as Critical
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040501136.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-Obama Steers Clear of 'Warmonger' Talk
BUTTE, Mont. -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declined twice Saturday topersonally repudiate a liberal radio host's declaration that Sen. JohnMcCain (R-Ariz.) is a "warmonger."
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/05/obama_steers_clear_of_warmonge.html?hpid=sec-politics
-Benedict and Public Perception
A poll probing public perceptions of Pope Benedict has arrived, this onefrom the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center forthe People & the Press. It finds that one-half of Americans have a favorableopinion of the pope. But 30 percent don't know much about, and close to onein five have an unfavorable view of him.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/pope-watch/2008/04/benedict_and_public_perception.html?hpid=sec-religion
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-'Soft money' battle brewing
Millions raised; attack ads set
Four years ago, wealthy Republicans bankrolled two influential, looselyregulated political organizations that helped President Bush win reelectionwith TV ads invoking the 2001 terrorist attacks and maligning the VietnamWar record of Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/06/soft_money_battle_brewing/
-Clinton Donors Press Dean at Fifth Avenue Bundler Summit
Leading donors to the Clinton and Obama campaigns sat down together lastnight with DNC chairman Howard Dean at a meeting at the Fifth Avenueapartment of super-bundlers Maureen White and Steven Rattner.
http://www.observer.com/2008/clinton-donors-press-dean-fifth-avenue-bundler-summit
-The Loneliest Call
In the end, only the candidate can know when it's time to fold 'em. At somepoint in the next weeks or months,either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen.Barack Obama is going to face a lonely moment. Standing at the bathroom sinkwith a toothbrush, or huddling with aides at campaign headquarters orcollapsed on a couch at home with his or her spouse, one of them will decidethat it's over.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403214.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Clinton in uphill battle with truth
Sen. Hillary Clinton is often perceived as dishonest, sometimesunjustifiably so.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/484555.html
-Biden calls buildup in Iraq a failure
In the weekly Democratic radio address, the senator asserts that Bush'syear-old endeavor hasn't led Iraqi groups to settle their differences.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-biden6apr06,1,2606864.story?track=rss
-Fired up and ready for a nomination battle
IN MASSACHUSETTS, prominent Hillary Clinton supporters are fired up andready to go after prominent Barack Obama supporters.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/04/06/fired_up_and_ready_for_a_nomination_battle/
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Executive Pay: A Special Report
A Brighter Spotlight, Yet the Pay Rises
WASN'T 2008 supposed to be the year of shareholder victory on the executive compensation front?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/business/06comp.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
-Editorial: Some Truth About Trade
There's nothing like international trade to help bridge the nation'sideological divide. As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton travel the RustBelt, the Democratic candidates seem to be eschewing the advice of theireconomic advisers and turning to Karl Rove's playbook.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06sun1.html?ref=opinion
-Tet Happened, and No One Cared
REALLY, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of themselves forlibeling John McCain. As a growing chorus reiterates, their refrains thatMr. McCain is "willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war inIraq" (as Mr. Obama said) or "willing to keep this war going for 100 years"(per Mrs. Clinton) are flat-out wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06rich.html?ref=opinion
-Our Racist, Sexist Selves
To my horror, I turn out to be a racist.
The University of Chicago offers an on-line psychological test in which youencounter a series of 100 black or white men, holding either guns orcellphones. You're supposed to shoot the gunmen and holster your gun for theothers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06kristof.html?ref=opinion
-It's About Laws, Not Light Bulbs
The issue of climate change is now in a sad state of political andlegislative suspension, awaiting an election, a new president and a newCongress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06sun2.html?ref=opinion
-Choir School Celebrates Its 70th Season
To close out their school's 70th season, the boys of the American BoychoirSchool gave a concert last week at the Richardson Auditorium at PrincetonUniversity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/06choirnj.html
=
Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Vietnam vets admire McCain, may not vote for him
DALLAS/PHOENIX (Reuters) - Bob Schultz is a self-described conservativeRepublican who saw combat when he served as a helicopter pilot during theVietnam War, but that doesn't mean he will vote for former Vietnamprisoner-of-war John McCain in November's U.S. presidential election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600433.html
-Genocide by Attrition in Sudan
Sudan's National Islamic Front regime has begun its sixth year of genocidal counterinsurgency warfare in the vast western region of Darfur, targetingAfrican civilian populations perceived as the primary support for fractiousrebe groups. Given the length of the conflict, news reports have inevitablytaken on a grimly familiar and repetitive character that obscures theimpending cataclysm of human destruction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403087.html
-McCain's Housing Restraint
Hurling a compliment at Barack Obama in the hope of wounding him, HillaryClinton's campaign has said that his proposals for responding to theeconomy's housing-related credit woes put him "to the right of the Bushadministration." Her complaint is that the government spending and othermarket interventions that he proposes are a bit less flamboyant than hers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403088.html
-Repairing America's Spy Shop
Listening to members of Congress, you might think the biggest problem at theCentral Intelligence Agency is that one of its officers destroyed videotapesthat showed waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. I wish theproblems out at Langley were that simple and that easy to fix.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403090.html
-The Future of Entitlements
A novel idea for an old problem: Force politicians to stop ducking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502025.html
-Aiming to Ease Tensions, Without U.S.-Russia Pact
SOCHI, Russia, April 6 -- President Bush and Russian President VladimirPutin wrapped up their final meeting in office Sunday with plenty of warmwords and mutual praise but no concrete agreement on missile defense or theother issues that divide them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600282.html?hpid=topnews
-Arrests Mar London's Olympic Torch Relay
LONDON -- Police repeatedly scuffled with protesters as Olympians anddignitaries carried the Olympic torch during a chaotic relay through snowyLondon on Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600398.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-2003 MEMO ON INTERROGATION
Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail
Drugging Detainees Is Among Techniques
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502099.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-Taiwan VP-Elect to Meet Chinese Leader
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's vice president-elect may hold informaldiscussions with China's leader at a trade forum on the mainland, what wouldbe the highest-level meeting ever held between the two historic rivals, anofficial said Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040600367.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-New Focus on Coal's Part in Warming
Greater Advances In Technology Are Seen as Critical
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040501136.html?hpid=moreheadlines
-Obama Steers Clear of 'Warmonger' Talk
BUTTE, Mont. -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declined twice Saturday topersonally repudiate a liberal radio host's declaration that Sen. JohnMcCain (R-Ariz.) is a "warmonger."
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/05/obama_steers_clear_of_warmonge.html?hpid=sec-politics
-Benedict and Public Perception
A poll probing public perceptions of Pope Benedict has arrived, this onefrom the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center forthe People & the Press. It finds that one-half of Americans have a favorableopinion of the pope. But 30 percent don't know much about, and close to onein five have an unfavorable view of him.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/pope-watch/2008/04/benedict_and_public_perception.html?hpid=sec-religion
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-'Soft money' battle brewing
Millions raised; attack ads set
Four years ago, wealthy Republicans bankrolled two influential, looselyregulated political organizations that helped President Bush win reelectionwith TV ads invoking the 2001 terrorist attacks and maligning the VietnamWar record of Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/06/soft_money_battle_brewing/
-Clinton Donors Press Dean at Fifth Avenue Bundler Summit
Leading donors to the Clinton and Obama campaigns sat down together lastnight with DNC chairman Howard Dean at a meeting at the Fifth Avenueapartment of super-bundlers Maureen White and Steven Rattner.
http://www.observer.com/2008/clinton-donors-press-dean-fifth-avenue-bundler-summit
-The Loneliest Call
In the end, only the candidate can know when it's time to fold 'em. At somepoint in the next weeks or months,either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen.Barack Obama is going to face a lonely moment. Standing at the bathroom sinkwith a toothbrush, or huddling with aides at campaign headquarters orcollapsed on a couch at home with his or her spouse, one of them will decidethat it's over.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403214.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-Clinton in uphill battle with truth
Sen. Hillary Clinton is often perceived as dishonest, sometimesunjustifiably so.
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/484555.html
-Biden calls buildup in Iraq a failure
In the weekly Democratic radio address, the senator asserts that Bush'syear-old endeavor hasn't led Iraqi groups to settle their differences.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-biden6apr06,1,2606864.story?track=rss
-Fired up and ready for a nomination battle
IN MASSACHUSETTS, prominent Hillary Clinton supporters are fired up andready to go after prominent Barack Obama supporters.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/04/06/fired_up_and_ready_for_a_nomination_battle/
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST April 6, 2008
**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.
=
Help Florida Red and Blue earn a $1,000 donation by clicking here and voting in an on-line poll!
http://www.equalitygiving.org/
-Dear Florida Red and Blue and SayNo2 Supporters:
We're at it again. March was a very busy month and we've got a ton of greatnews to report!
SayNo2 - Finally armed with an amendment number for the "MarriageProtection Amendment," Florida Red and Blue successfully launched the SayNo2campaign. The SayNo2 campaign has a new web address (www.SayNo2.com) andeasy to remember messages - SayNo2 taking away legal protections, SayNo2hurting seniors, SayNo2 ending benefits and so on. If you haven't seen thenew site, drop by and check it out.
'Marriage Protection' an unnecessary burden - Those were the words of former
Congressman and Red and Blue state-wide Co-Chair Jim Davis in the MiamiHerald on March 11th. The 2006 gubernatorial Democratic nominee wrote agreat opinion piece for the Herald on Amendment 2.
Remember, we run this campaign on your support and you can help us haveeven more to report in April by making a financial contribution right now byclicking here. And don't hesitate to use the 'forward to a friend' link atthe bottom of the page to spread the word about SayNo2 and Florida Red andBlue. For more frequent updates visit www.SayNo2.com
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Democrats' ballyhooed rules offer fix
Finger-wagging at Florida Democrats has been in vogue among some political commentators and Washington insiders these past few months.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/06/a1e_deutch_commentary_0406.html
-Allstate frozen out of Florida
Insurance regulators have the power to shut down Allstate in Florida toforce the company to cooperate with rate investigations, a court ruledFriday.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/NEWS01/804050314/1006
-Sour smell of secrecy
Another misguided bill in Tallahassee seeks a major exemption from Florida's exemplary open-government laws.
Current law correctly lets elected officials meet privately to discuss tort litigation, such as a personal-injury claim, filed against a government. Theproposed change would let local politicians and their attorneys meet inprivate to discuss lawsuits that haven't even been filed, an idea that wouldinvite abuse.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/06/a2e_privatemeet_edit_0406.html
-In Florida, feel free to bear arms at work, get busy with a bearHere are two proposals under consideration during the ongoing session of theFlorida Legislature.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/06/s1c_bino_0406.html
-27 Florida delegates chosen for Democratic National Convention
ORLANDO - Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, seven state legislators andOrlando Mayor Buddy Dyer were among 27 party leaders chosen Saturday to bedelegates to the Democratic National Convention.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/CD/20080406/CAPITOLNEWS/80405025/-1/capitolnews
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Lake levels rising in dry seasonThe water shortage is far from over butLake Okeechobee is managing to rise in the dry season, which has eased someconcerns.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/484971.html
-Water no longer cheap and unlimited
OUR OPINION: SOUTH FLORIDA MUST STOP WASTEFUL OCEAN DUMPING
It makes no sense for South Florida counties to dump 300 million of gallonsof lightly treated sewage into the ocean every day. Yet Broward, Miami-Dadeand Palm Beach counties have been dumping sewage in the ocean for decades,refusing to stop, they say, because it is too expensive to reclaim or cleanup the dirty water. Well, now they may have to. A bill that requires thecounties to stop ocean dumping is moving quickly through the Legislaturetoward passage. It is time for South Florida counties to embrace the ideaand find ways to redirect and reuse the water.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/483602.html
-Iraq's refugees becoming desperate
In several recent speeches on Iraq, there was one issue President Bush nevermentioned: Iraqi refugees.
More than two million Iraqi refugees are struggling to survive outside Iraq,
the bulk of them in neighboring Jordan and Syria. Only a small percentageare rich former Baathist supporters of Saddam Hussein. Most are middle-classIraqis, including thousands of Christians, who were ''ethnically cleansed''from urban neighborhoods and forced to flee for their lives.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/483599.html
-SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
Make the apology meaningful
At last, Florida apologized for the enslavement of African Americans withinits borders. My grandmother's father was a slave in Gadsden County; so, whydon't I feel better?
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/483609.html
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
Help Florida Red and Blue earn a $1,000 donation by clicking here and voting in an on-line poll!
http://www.equalitygiving.org/
-Dear Florida Red and Blue and SayNo2 Supporters:
We're at it again. March was a very busy month and we've got a ton of greatnews to report!
SayNo2 - Finally armed with an amendment number for the "MarriageProtection Amendment," Florida Red and Blue successfully launched the SayNo2campaign. The SayNo2 campaign has a new web address (www.SayNo2.com) andeasy to remember messages - SayNo2 taking away legal protections, SayNo2hurting seniors, SayNo2 ending benefits and so on. If you haven't seen thenew site, drop by and check it out.
'Marriage Protection' an unnecessary burden - Those were the words of former
Congressman and Red and Blue state-wide Co-Chair Jim Davis in the MiamiHerald on March 11th. The 2006 gubernatorial Democratic nominee wrote agreat opinion piece for the Herald on Amendment 2.
Remember, we run this campaign on your support and you can help us haveeven more to report in April by making a financial contribution right now byclicking here. And don't hesitate to use the 'forward to a friend' link atthe bottom of the page to spread the word about SayNo2 and Florida Red andBlue. For more frequent updates visit www.SayNo2.com
=
Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Democrats' ballyhooed rules offer fix
Finger-wagging at Florida Democrats has been in vogue among some political commentators and Washington insiders these past few months.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/06/a1e_deutch_commentary_0406.html
-Allstate frozen out of Florida
Insurance regulators have the power to shut down Allstate in Florida toforce the company to cooperate with rate investigations, a court ruledFriday.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/NEWS01/804050314/1006
-Sour smell of secrecy
Another misguided bill in Tallahassee seeks a major exemption from Florida's exemplary open-government laws.
Current law correctly lets elected officials meet privately to discuss tort litigation, such as a personal-injury claim, filed against a government. Theproposed change would let local politicians and their attorneys meet inprivate to discuss lawsuits that haven't even been filed, an idea that wouldinvite abuse.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/06/a2e_privatemeet_edit_0406.html
-In Florida, feel free to bear arms at work, get busy with a bearHere are two proposals under consideration during the ongoing session of theFlorida Legislature.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/06/s1c_bino_0406.html
-27 Florida delegates chosen for Democratic National Convention
ORLANDO - Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, seven state legislators andOrlando Mayor Buddy Dyer were among 27 party leaders chosen Saturday to bedelegates to the Democratic National Convention.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/CD/20080406/CAPITOLNEWS/80405025/-1/capitolnews
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Lake levels rising in dry seasonThe water shortage is far from over butLake Okeechobee is managing to rise in the dry season, which has eased someconcerns.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/484971.html
-Water no longer cheap and unlimited
OUR OPINION: SOUTH FLORIDA MUST STOP WASTEFUL OCEAN DUMPING
It makes no sense for South Florida counties to dump 300 million of gallonsof lightly treated sewage into the ocean every day. Yet Broward, Miami-Dadeand Palm Beach counties have been dumping sewage in the ocean for decades,refusing to stop, they say, because it is too expensive to reclaim or cleanup the dirty water. Well, now they may have to. A bill that requires thecounties to stop ocean dumping is moving quickly through the Legislaturetoward passage. It is time for South Florida counties to embrace the ideaand find ways to redirect and reuse the water.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/483602.html
-Iraq's refugees becoming desperate
In several recent speeches on Iraq, there was one issue President Bush nevermentioned: Iraqi refugees.
More than two million Iraqi refugees are struggling to survive outside Iraq,
the bulk of them in neighboring Jordan and Syria. Only a small percentageare rich former Baathist supporters of Saddam Hussein. Most are middle-classIraqis, including thousands of Christians, who were ''ethnically cleansed''from urban neighborhoods and forced to flee for their lives.
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/483599.html
-SLAVERY IN FLORIDA
Make the apology meaningful
At last, Florida apologized for the enslavement of African Americans withinits borders. My grandmother's father was a slave in Gadsden County; so, whydon't I feel better?
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/483609.html
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
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