Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Half of 760 Polled Oppose Gay Marriage

BOSTON -- Half of Americans disapprove of same-sex marriages and do not want their states to recognize gay marriages from Massachusetts, a new survey by the Boston Globe shows.

The poll released Sunday found that 50 percent of Americans disapprove of gay and lesbian marriages, while 37 percent approve and 11 percent are neutral.

The poll also found that half of Americans believe gay marriages from Massachusetts, where same-sex marriages are legal, should not be recognized in their state. Forty-six percent said they should be recognized.

The poll of 760 randomly selected adults was conducted May 4-9 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.

That may seem grim, but remember that the disapprove's were over 60% just a year ago. These numbers are actually good, they show that people are getting the message about gay marriage not being a bad thing.

Gay Former Congressman Marries in Mass.

BOSTON May 15, 2005 — Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress, quietly married his longtime partner last year after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, according to a published report.

Studds, a liberal Democrat who spent more than 20 years in Congress, married Dean Hara in Boston on May 24, the Patriot Ledger of Quincy reported Sunday.

Mass. Democrats endorse gay marriage

LOWELL -- Moments after state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly urged his fellow Democrats to broaden their appeal beyond their liberal base, delegates to Massachusetts Democratic Party yesterday voted overwhelmingly to endorse gay marriage in their platform.

Reilly, one of three likely gubernatorial candidates to address the convention, told the crowd of more than 2,500 delegates that it was crucial to win back moderate suburban voters who have helped elect Republican governors over the last 15 years.

''We have to convince ordinary people that we understand what's going on in their lives," Reilly said, ''and that we can help make their lives better."

Reilly did not mention gay marriage in his speech and refused in an interview afterward to say whether he supported the platform change. He has said recently that he now supports gay marriage, after he indicated last year that he preferred permitting gay and lesbian couples to join in civil unions rather than full-fledged marriage.

Opponents launch campaign against civil union bill

Two Republican state senators who are sponsoring civil union legislation in Oregon are under fire from anti-gay rights groups and conservative activists.

Sen. Ben Westlund, R-Tumalo, and Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany, are co-sponsors of Senate Bill 1000, which would allow civil unions for same-sex couples and outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The bill also has two Democratic sponsors: Sen. Alan Bates of Ashland; and Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown of Portland.

The Oregon Family Council, which was instrumental in the successful Measure 36 campaign that outlawed gay marriage, has sent postcards critical of both senators to voters in their districts.

And the executive board of the Deschutes County Republican Central Committee wants Westlund to explain his support of a measure that board members unanimously oppose.

"We're very disappointed in him," said Richard Morehead, the local party chairman.

Westlund said he's disappointed about a flip-flop by leading supporters of Measure 36.

"In the campaign by the proponents of Measure 36, it was very clear that civil unions were OK," he said. "But now that 36 has passed, all of a sudden they're not."

As anyone who’s been reading my blog for a while will know, I’ve been predicting this. This is one time that I’m not happy about being proven right.

No, the religious elite, having won their battle over gay marriage (For the most part) isn’t even pretending to be tolerant anymore. The fact is, they hate us and want to destroy us.

Judge strikes down Nebraska gay marriage ban

And because I always like to end things on a high note...

WASHINGTON - In the first time that a federal judge has struck down a state constitutional provision limiting marriage to heterosexual couples, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon on Thursday declared void a provision of the Nebraska constitution that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman and that banned same-sex civil unions, domestic partnerships and other similar relationships.

Bataillon declared in his ruling that under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Nebraska cannot ban same-sex marriages and civil unions.

The ruling may call into question similar provisions in other states’ constitutions.

Nebraska voters enacted the provision five years ago, with 70 percent approving it.

Will rekindle debate in Congress

The ruling is sure to rekindle debate in Congress over judicial power and may re-energize the forces backing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit marriage to man-woman couples.

Frankly, I could care less about this rekindling the debate in congress. You just know that the Fundies are going to appeal this, and that means that this is essentially fast tracking this case to the Supreme Court. That is a very big deal indeed.

--Scott J Grunewald

God, Gays, And Those Wacky Fundamentalist Christians News Round-Up

Communion denied over support for gay Catholics

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people yesterday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics.

Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive bread and wine.

A group called the Rainbow Sash Alliance has encouraged supporters to wear the sashes since 2001 on each Pentecost Sunday, the day Catholics believe the Holy Spirit came to give power to Christians soon after Jesus ascended to heaven. But yesterday's service was the first time they had been denied communion.

Archbishop Harry Flynn told the group earlier this month that they would not be given communion because the sashes had become a protest against church teaching, adding that it has never been acceptable "to use the reception of communion as an act of protest."

Sister Gabriel Herbers said she wore a sash to show sympathy for the gay and lesbian community. Their sexual orientation "is a gift from God just as much as my gift of being a female is," she said.

Anti-Gay Religious Leader Ordered To Stop Attacks

(Regina, Saskatchewan) A Saskatchewan human rights tribunal has ordered a former Regina man to pay more than $17,000 to four people who accused him of inciting hatred against gays and lesbians.

The tribunal also ordered Bill Whatcott and his group, Christian Truth Activists not to distribute material that promotes hatred against people because of their sexual orientation.

The complaint had been filed by four people in 2002 after Bill Whatcott's group distributed pamphlets in Regina and Saskatoon that referred to gays as "sodomites" and called same-sex relationships "filthy".

One of the flyers said: "Sodomites are 430 times more likely to acquire AIDS and three times more likely to sexually abuse children!"

Southern Baptists Told To Probe Public Schools For Pro-Gay Positions

(Houston, Texas) A Houston lawyer who called on Southern Baptists to remove their children from public schools last year is now asking churches to investigate whether schools are teaching acceptance of homosexuality.

Bruce Shortt's resolution was rejected last year, but he is proposing another to be considered at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Nashville next month.

If churches find that public schools are teaching acceptance of homosexuality, the resolution calls on parents to remove their children and either home-school them or enroll them in Christian schools

--Scott J Grunewald

Get Out From Under The Gay Umbrella, Asshole

It's not because Spokane Mayor Jim West is gay

Meet the state's newest, most fired-up crusader for gay rights: Spokane Mayor Jim West.

In the week following the news that the conservative Republican may have molested boys in the '70s and is cruising for barely adult males now, West has transmogrified himself into a gay-pride activist. "I am being destroyed because I am a gay man," West told The Spokesman-Review.

Then he sent an e-mail to an anti-discrimination task force, in which he agonized over who in society is worth protecting.

"Does that include people who have an internal struggle with who they are sexually and are searching for a way to come out and are torn by a desire to be out and a fear of what happens if they are?" he wrote.

"Should we not stand up for justice — even for those we despise? Because if we don't, who will stand up for us?"

Next he'll be riding a float in the pride parade.

It's all a bit hard to take from a guy who once co-sponsored a bill to bar homosexuals from being teachers or day-care workers.

It also shows that Jim West still doesn't get it.

Neither, though, do some of his harshest political critics.

This scandal has not one thing to do with West's sexual orientation. He is not being destroyed for being gay.

Switch the gender and see what you think. If he'd allegedly abused 8-year-old girls, cruised the Web for 18-year-old girls, given a job to a 23-year-old woman he met online and then hounded her for dates and offered her $300 to swim with him naked, don't you bet he'd still be in trouble?

Mush more of this interesting editorial in link...

And while we're talking about this scummy child molester...

STATE DEFERS TO FBI IN SPOKANE MAYOR GAY SCANDAL

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The state of Washington will defer to the FBI in an initial investigation of Mayor James West, who has been accused of using his office to seek sexual favors from other men, the attorney general said Thursday.

Attorney General Rob McKenna said the state would prefer to wait for the outcome of a preliminary FBI investigation into whether any crimes had occurred.

After that, the State Patrol will decide if a full investigation into any violations of state law is warranted, while the FBI will decide whether to pursue any violations of federal law, McKenna said.

HAA HAA!

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald (With thanks to Ben Lyons)

What The Hell???

Paris Hilton to lead L.A. Gay Pride parade

What could the organizers of the 35th Annual Los Angeles Gay Pride celebrations possibly have been thinking about when they named Paris Hilton and her mother to be their grand marshals?

A Los Angeles Independent report offers the organizers' attempt to answer that question:

"They are a very public mother and daughter team, and they know what it is like to be different — or what it is like when people don’t understand who they are," said Rodney Scott, board president of the Christopher Street West, parade and festival organizer. "We are so thrilled and excited to have them as our grand marshals."

This quote reads like it is a spoof. Alas, it is not.
With so many unsung heroes working for equality going unrecognized, the organizers of L.A. Gay Pride should be embarrassed and ashamed by their ridiculous choice.

I guess the organizers of LAPride have not heard about, forgotten about or simply ignored Paris’ past history of intolerance. Like when she was captured on video calling a black man who asked her for her autograph a nigger as soon as he left earshot.

This shouldn’t be about Paris being useless and idiotic. This should be about the organizers of Pride knowing better than to chose a racist to lead the parade.

I was going to go to Pride this year but I think I’ll skip it.

If you’re in LA and would like to share your concerns over Paris being chosen to lead the Pride parade by all means e-mail the Honorees Committee at honorees@lapride.org.

The gay rights movement and the civil rights movement have been intertwined for decades. Choosing Paris to lead a celebration of gay pride is insulting to everyone who gave their lives, time and money to the cause of civil rights.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Lifespan Study Mix-Up: Gay Men Don’t Die In Their 40’s, They Just Become Invisible

Gay life span 'study' came from discredited research

On May 7, you published a letter in which the claim is made that the life expectancy of gay men in the United States is 43 years, compared to about 75 for heterosexual men.

This claim is based on a "study" by Paul Cameron, associated at the time with the Family Research Institute.

Cameron's method reportedly was to read obituaries and other articles in gay-oriented, urban newspapers, note the ages of death of the men and average them.
One cannot study life expectancy this way.

Gay men's obituaries are published in many places. Many men born at the same time as those studied are still alive and healthy.

Also, treatment for HIV has advanced substantially since the time this "study" was done.

Online research took me 45 minutes. I think you can devote about the same to significant fact-checking of letters to the editor.

Stephen Farrand

Okay, they don’t become invisible after 40; they just get Botox and blend in with the younger men in dark dance clubs. There’s a reason they call Botox “Gay Camouflage”.

I must admit, I'm still a little stunned that that old 'gay men live til 43' lie still gets spread around...

--Scott J Grunewald

Lesbians Still Have Sex After 9 Years? Really??

N.J. Judge Rules Gay Couple Can Sue For Loss Of Sex

(Trenton, New Jersey) A New Jersey judge has ruled that a lesbian couple can sue the employer of one of the women for creating a work so hostile it ruined the couple's sex lives.

The claim is part of a whistleblower suit against the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, Clara Maass Medical Center and five individuals.

Linda Henry was a paramedic at Clara Maass in Belleville, New Jersey. The suit says that when she complained to management that she was subjected to homophobia by her fellow workers the hospital embarked on its own campaign against her.

The suit claims she was forced to work in a hostile environment, given unfair shifts, and subjected to other forms of retaliation.

She says in the court papers that the situation became so bad it affected her home life and deprived her partner Judith Peterson of spousal attention.

Maybe the court just misunderstood what “spousal attention” means for lesbians. What they were really saying was that after so many crappy shifts and stressful days, Linda Henry was too tired to watch Xena: Warrior Princess and play with their cats with her partner.

I'm not saying she doesn't have a case, but lets be clear about what "spousal attention" is to a lesbian.

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--Scottt J Grunewald

How Can Someone Be So Right And So Wrong At The Same Time?

Providers await Legislature's decision on foster care laws

A few weeks back I mentioned the new law that the Texas House passed that would ban gays and lesbians from acting as foster parents. It even went so far as to require that Child Protective Services investigate all perspective foster parents and make sure that they’re not homosexual. Insane, right?

Well, thankfully, State Sen. Kevin Eltife is against the ban of gay foster parents.

"We don't have enough foster parents now," Eltife said. "We have children in need of foster homes. An estimated 2,500 children are being cared for by gay and lesbian foster parents. So to take them out of the mix just puts us out (by more). These children are being cared for in loving, good environment, and I feel certain they are in better hands than in abusive situations. I have not heard of any problems coming from those homes."

Wonderful. And the fact that Eltife is a Republican is even nicer. But this is where he loses me.

Eltife also said he favors privatizing the [Child Protective Services] system in stages.

Privatization? My God, that’s a frightening scenario. Why on earth would they willingly hand over something as important as protecting our children to a profit driven industry? HMO’s prove that corporations care more about profit margins than the people who they are supposed to be there to help. Do you really want to put the welfare of the most helpless of us in the hands of private industry? This, even more than before means that this bill has got to be killed.

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--Scott J Grunewald

The Legacy Of The Pink Triangle

Gay Holocaust Survivors Go To Court For Settlement Funds

(New York City) Oral arguments will begin today in a suit seeking to have gay and lesbian Holocaust survivors included in a settlement involving people who were persecuted by the Nazis.

Lambda Legal is representing the Pink Triangle Coalition, an international coalition of LGBT human rights organizations.

The case involves settlement proceedings resulting from a lawsuit against Switzerland's two largest banks and other Swiss defendants who profited unjustly as a result of Nazi atrocities.

A lower court denied the group's request for a small fraction of the $1.25 billion settlement monies. Today, the issue of recognizing LGBT victims will be heard in the Second Circuit Federal Appellate Court in Manhattan.

The Nazis required "sexual deviants" to wear the pink triangle.

As if a lower court refusing to allow gay Holocaust victims the right to have the crimes commited against them by the Nazi's recognized isn’t bad enough the article also mentions this little bit of homophobic nonsense.

In 2003, Minnesota state Rep. Arlon Lindner during debate on two bills he had brought forward to repeal gay rights laws in the state, said gays were lying when they cited thousands of homosexuals who were exterminated or sent to concentration camps by the Nazis.

"It never happened," Lindner told the House.

"I was a child during World War II, and I've read a lot about World War II," he said. "It's just been recently that anyone's come out with this idea that homosexuals were persecuted to this extent. There's been a lot of rewriting of history."

He may have a point though, after all, who knows more about re-writing history than a fundamentalist Christian?

To counter his claim, the National Holocaust Museum, in Washington, D.C., arranged for an exhibit on gays in Nazi concentration camps to make an unscheduled stop in Minneapolis. Lindner refused to go.

Of course he did. After all, like most fundies, all he has to do to prove his point is refuse to hear evidence contrary to his own uninformed opinion. Kind of like how when you were a kid you’d stick your fingers in your ears and yell “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA” when your mom would tell you to clean your room.

The maturity of these guys is astounding.

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--Scott J Grunewald

The Culture War: Mtv Style

An excerpt from Dan “Real World 5” Renzi’s blog...

DEAR DAN:

I WANT TO SEE A 'GAY VS STRAIGHT' CHALLENGE. DO YOU THINK IT WILL EVER HAPPEN?

We have all pleaded for this show to happen. Ruthie, Danny, Genesis, Shane, Aneesa, Rachel, myself...all the gay Real World/Road Rules have begged the producers to do this show. And many, many of our heterosexual counterparts from the shows have stepped up to volunteer their services for the game as well, and fight for the championship of straightkind. Although I honestly think our side would pull it together and win.

Some executives fear it would be considered offensive; no one would ever have a 'Black vs White' Challenge, for instance. But to those people, I say this: Lighten up! Put the political-correctness away! I think the show would be hysterical. And it would also be pretty compelling...a lot of the guys from these shows really struggle with the fact that they can sometimes be beat by females--never mind gay men. (Gasp!)

I hate myself for admitting that I’d watch it.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Does Moby Dick Count?

Okla. lawmakers vote to restrict gay books

Oklahoma City, OK, May. 10 (UPI) -- The Oklahoma House voted overwhelmingly to recommend creating adult-only sections in all public libraries to shield children from gay-themed books.

House Resolution 1039, by state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, passed Monday by a vote of 81-3, calling on all public libraries in the state to "confine homosexually themed books and other age-inappropriate material to areas exclusively for adult access and distribution," the Oklahoman reported.

"This isn't censorship, because I'm not asking that they be thrown away, be burned. I'm asking that they just be put in with adult collections and then if a parent wants their child to see a book like that they can check it out," Kern said.

I certainly hope that at the very least this means libraries will start carrying Inches and Mandate.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Calif. Panels Reject Gay Marriage Ban

SACRAMENTO, Calif. May 10, 2005 — Two legislative committees on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages and strip away a long list of rights granted to domestic partners in recent years.

The Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees both rejected an amendment offered by Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes, who claimed the proposal would strengthen the intent of voters who approved a ballot measure five years ago that prevents the state from recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere.

Other laws bar same-sex marriages from taking place in California.

Conservative groups immediately said they would try to gather the nearly 600,000 signatures required to put an initiative banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2006.

"This disturbing display of arrogance against marriage and the voters means average Californians must take matters into their own hands," said Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families.

Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the state's first openly gay legislator, predicted otherwise. "This is about America, the place where no civil rights movement has ever failed," she said.

Hundreds Rally For Constitutional Amendment On Gay Marriage

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Several hundred people rallied at the Legislative Building Tuesday in support of a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Margie Harvell and others believe most people want the chance to vote on the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

"God didn't ordain it that way," Harvell said. "He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."

Wow, haven't heard that old chestnut in a while.

ELCA group rejects opposition of gay unions, clergy

ROCHESTER, Minn. - A regional assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America rejected a resolution that would oppose same-sex unions and gay clergy.

The resolution opposing such issues will not be forwarded to the ELCA's national assembly in August.

--Scott J Grunewald

Uhmmmm

To: sjgrunewald@sbcglobal.net
From: "Austin"
Subject: Womens filled by group.
Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 10:46:23 +0300

Classmates offered me to use my mother in all our company and one day
when dad was at the office I invited my friends at home and we came into
mothers room and began use her in all enters on.

Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do
the work. Man can acquire accomplishments or he
can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man
makes himself. There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on
a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. There were many times my
pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or
tails.

Is this porn spam of some kind? Or is there a bomb shaped like a dime on my chair???

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

New Hampshire Gay Marriage Commission Finally Begins Work

Nearly a year after it was created, a state commission to study gay marriage and civil unions, is finally preparing to get down to work.

The commission was created last May as part of a law passed to forbid the recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages. In banning gay marriage, the legislature held open the possibility of creating civil unions, similar to those in neighboring Vermont.

The committee was asked to examine all state laws that would need to be rewritten -- including child custody and inheritance statutes -- should the state choose to allow civil unions.

But the panel has met only a couple of times. In February a group of lawmakers accused the panel of dragging its feet. Then when it looked as though the commission might begin work its Republican chairman locked horns with the Democratic governor.

Massachusetts Plans to Revisit Amendment on Gay Marriage

BOSTON, May 9 - Nearly a year after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, state legislators are again planning to consider a proposal to make such marriages illegal.

On Monday, Senator Robert E. Travaglini, a Democrat and the president of the Senate, took steps toward convening a constitutional convention in the fall; one issue that would come before it is a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage but legalize civil unions.

Senator Travaglini is a co-sponsor of the amendment, which received preliminary approval from the Legislature last year, too late to stop a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow gay marriages to begin on May 17, 2004.

But the amendment did not die. It has a chance to become law if the Legislature approves it in the 2005-2006 legislative session, and if it is then approved by voters in a referendum in November 2006. It is not clear how likely that is to happen.

GAY MARRIAGE EQUALITY MIXER FOR COUPLES

LOS ANGELES - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Out and About are looking for couples and families who wish to discuss domestic partnership and marriage equality relative to the African-American and Latino communities.

A complimentary buffet-style dinner/mixer will provide the opportunity to discuss, debate and strategize these issues with those directly affected by them.

The Lucy Florence Coffee House will host the mixer, which is set for Wednesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. For more information or to RSVP, contact Jason at jcooper@thetaskforce.org, call 310-909-9088, or visit www.TheTaskForce.org.

Gay Foes Seek Lawyer Fees For Fighting Same-Sex Marriage

(Portland, Oregon) Opponents of same-sex marriage are calling on Multnomah County to reimburse their legal fees.

To win its lawsuit last month, the Defense of Marriage Coalition spent a total of $399,023.25, according to official records.

In a petition filed with the Oregon Supreme Court, the anti-gay marriage coalition claims its four experienced attorneys billed 2,477.68 hours during a yearlong legal battle over Multnomah County's March 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"This is a reasonable amount given the difficulties on this case, the experience of the litigation team, and the successful outcome," Kelly Clark, the lead attorney in the case, wrote in the petition.

--Scott J Grunewald

So Much For The Liberal Actavist Judge Myth

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS GAY, CONDOM LESSONS FROM SEX ED CLASS

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - A federal judge has blocked a county school system from instituting a new health curriculum that includes discussions of homosexuality and religion and a demonstration on how to use condoms.

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that prevents the Montgomery County school system in suburban Washington, D.C., from using the pilot program in six schools.

The program had been scheduled to begin Monday. During the 10-day restraining order, another hearing will be held on whether to extend it, the judge said.

But school Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said in a statement after the ruling that he was suspending use of the curriculum for the rest of the school year and had ordered a review of its materials before deciding the future of the program.

Williams agreed with two groups that filed a lawsuit claiming the curriculum's discussion of homosexuality amounted to preferential treatment for religions that preach tolerance of homosexuality over those that reject it.

For example, the curriculum juxtaposes faiths such as Quakers and Unitarians that support full rights for homosexuals with groups such as Baptists, who are painted as "intolerant and biblically misguided," the judge wrote in his opinion.

This kind of faulty logic completely baffles me. The judge says that it’s wrong for schools to teach views contrary to what Baptists believe because it’s giving preferential treatment to one point of view over the other. But by blocking the new health curriculum the judge is giving preferential treatment to the point of view of Baptists over the point of view of secularists, Quakers and Unitarians!

"I don't think it is right that we have 13-year-olds learning to think whether they are gay or straight," said Laura Quigley, who has three children in the school system. "We just need to let them be kids."

Let me fill you in on a secret lady. When I was 13 I was thinking about sex ALL THE TIME. I was a walking erection!

And would you like to hear what happened to me? Since sex education for 8th graders at the time consisted of ‘The man puts the penis in the woman’s vagina and then the stork brings a baby. Wait until you’re married to have sex’ I did a lot of stupid and risky things that could have gotten me killed.

Do your children have to catch a STD or get pregnant before you wake up and make sure your kids know how to protect themselves? No, even that probably wouldn’t help; you’d just blame Mtv or something.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

This Kind Of Bullshit Does Not Help

Police: Student faked gay-bashing

MILL VALLEY (AP) - A 17-year-old top wrestler at an area high school faked a series of gay-bashing incidents that prompted a police investigation, authorities said.

The rash of incidents at Tamalpais High School was the work of a student gay leader who claimed she was the victim of hate crimes, according to Mill Valley Police Capt. James Wickham.

The teen, who heads the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, admitted to authorities that she was the perpetrator of the incidents, which included vandalizing her own car with derogatory graffiti, police said.

I’m not going to be too harsh on this girl, mainly because she’s a teenager. But this kind of crap doesn’t help anyone. I wonder how long until that schools Gay/Straight Alliance is disbanded or shut down over parental protest.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Jump Through This Hoop. Now This One. Now Jump Though This One While Juggling And Reciting The Alphabet Backwards.

Montana University System Gay Benefits Exclude Many Same-Sex Couples

(Helena, Montana) Despite a court ruling that the Montana University System must provide benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian workers many same-sex couples remain without the insurance plans because of restrictions set in place by the plan.

Last December the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the state must provide lesbian and gay employees of the University System with the option of purchasing health insurance and other employee benefits for their domestic partners.

...

The benefits program is to go into effect July 1.

But, Casey Charles, a University of Montana English Professor says the requirements for entering the benefits plan are "onerous" and "unreasonable".

To obtain health insurance benefits for a partner, the University System requires that couples prove, among other things, joint tenancy or joint home ownership for the last 12 months and that the partner is ineligible for other insurance. In addition couples must prove three of the following criteria: that they have joint ownership or lease of motor vehicle, have at least one joint liability, such as a loan or credit card, have mutually granted powers of attorney for finances or health care, designated each other as primary beneficiary in wills, life insurance policies, or retirement annuities, or meet the Internal Revenue Service definition of a dependent.

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--Scott J Grunewald

HAA HAA HAA! My Sides Ache With Irony!

Spokane Mayor: Not because he's gay

A newspaper editor says that Spokane Mayor Jim West complained to him Sunday morning, "I'm being destroyed because I am a gay man ... ."

This is, of course, the same mayor who destroyed gay friendly legislation time and again before he was outed as a fag and a child molester.

Yeah Jim, LIBERALS are going after you because you’re gay. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with you enjoying molesting boys, helping your friends molest boys, trading sought after jobs at your office for sex with young boys and getting caught trying to trade sexual favors from young boys for sports memorabilia could it? No, that doesn’t have anything to do with it.

And you know what Jim; if you spend your career doing everything in your power to fuck over gays and lesbians then you don’t get to hide behind us when you get in hot water. Kindly fuck off you pervert.

Much more in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

This Explains My Aversion To Stetson

Gay, Straight Men's Brain Reaction to Odor Differs

MELVILLE, N.Y. — There are odors that drive a person's sexual response, and scientists have found that homosexual men differ from heterosexual men in the way they respond to such smells. Their brain activity more closely resembles the responses observed in women, new research has shown.

"This is another piece of evidence that the brains of gay and straight people are organized differently," said Simon LeVay, a biologist who almost 15 years ago identified a structural difference in the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men. "It is a fascinating finding, but still doesn't explain the origins of sexual orientation."

The new work, by Ivanka Savic and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, grew out of an earlier finding that brain scans of men and women differed dramatically from each other in response to chemical smells that mimic male and female hormones.

In their latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers put gay men into a brain-scanning machine and saw that the region of the anterior hypothalamus became activated when the men were given male sex hormones to smell. Heterosexual men showed more brain activity in this region when smelling odors associated with female hormones.

The smells were made by reconstructing chemicals in male perspiration and female urine that mimic derivatives of testosterone and estrogen.

Okay, ew. Straight men get turned on by the smell of female urine??? If I wasn't gay before I read that...

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--Scott J Grunewald

New Jersey: Big Fans Of The Gays

55% of N.J. voters say gay marriages OK

Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/5/05

TRENTON: A poll commissioned by a gay rights group shows 55 percent of New Jersey voters favor allowing same-sex couples to marry, with 40 percent opposed.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if Jersey coming out in favor of gay marriage is a good thing or a bad thing.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Spokane Mayor: hates Gays, Is Not Gay, But That Doesn't Mean He Can't Suck A Mean Gay Cock

Antigay Spokane mayor has Gay.com alias

Spokane, Wash., mayor James E. West--a vocal opponent of gay equality, abortion rights, and teenage sex--has said he had had online relationships in the past year through Gay.com and considers them private, according to a copyrighted story published Thursday in The Spokesman-Review. The newspaper also reported accusations of sexual molestation from two men who said West abused them in the 1970s when the two were children.

"My private life is my private life and always has been," West, 54, told the paper about his Gay.com forays. Concerning his sexual orientation, "I wouldn't characterize me as gay," West said.

“I would however consider myself “gayish”.” Continued the mayor as he pinched my nipple and winked at me.

He made no similar assertion about bisexuality when asked about his online aliases, "Cobra82nd" and "RightBi-Guy." "The Gay.com thing has only been, I can't recall, but it hasn't been very long," he said. "I can't tell you why I go there, to tell you the truth...curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know."

God... he's just making it so easy... Should I go for the obvious jokes or dig a little deeper for something insightful AND funny?

West, who was majority leader of the Washington state senate before he was elected mayor of Spokane in 2003, confirmed that he offered gifts, favors, and a City Hall internship over the Web site Gay.com to someone he believed was 18 but who was actually a forensic computer expert working for the The Spokesman-Review, according to the report. West was in a meeting with city officials Thursday morning and not immediately available for comment, his office told the Associated Press.

He denied that his offers to the forensic expert posing as an 18-year-old constituted "enticements to teenagers" or abuse of his public office. "Any kid in this town who walked into my office and filled out an application and could come to work, dressed properly and clean, could be an intern in my office," the mayor said.

“It also would be a very good idea if they had no gag reflex and was willing to make copies and fetch coffee wearing a mesh thong and a ball-gagger” Continued the mayor, who has since taken off his shirt to show me his new sterling silver nipple ring and chain that he claims runs down to his stainless steal extra large cock ring.

Okay, so I went for easy. What can I say, I'm just not sure there is anyting insightful under all this.

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--Scott J Grunewald

It’s Not That We Hate Gay People, Gay Sperm Just Smells Funny

FDA set to ban gay men as sperm donors

Disclaimer: I am quoting from an article on MSNBC, a news network that is part owned by the newly evil anti-gay MicroSoft Corporation. Anyone who is boycotting MS should skip this excerpt of an informative news story and skip to my irreverent and humorous comments about said story below. Trust me, I’m very funny and well worth reading.

NEW YORK - To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.

The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.

“Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he’s been celibate for five years,” said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.

Can we take a quick break from our outrage at this transparently homophobic and bigoted political move and reflect on the fact that there is actually a clinic that seeks specifically seeks out gay sperm.

The conspiracy theorist within me thinks that their gay sperm seeking efforts are part of some kind of breeding experiment devoted to creating the worlds first super gay. A fag so powerful that he’s able to suck a mans cock while simultaneously lip synching the words to “It’s Raining Men” and redecorating his den.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Gay MicroSoft Employee: I'm Totally Out Of Here, Bitches

Prominent Gay Microsoft Employee Quits, as More Evidence Emerges That Microsoft Caved to Anti-Gay Minister

New evidence is emerging that appears to indicate that Microsoft is not being completely forthcoming about the timing of its decision to withdraw support for the Washington State anti-gay-discrimination bill.

Jeff Koertzen, an operations program manager and the secretary-treasurer of GLEAM, the gay and lesbian group at Microsoft that met on April 4 with Bradford L. Smith, the Microsoft senior vice-president and general counsel at the center of a furor over the company's decision, spoke to The Stranger after giving notice on Monday, May 2. The six-year Microsoft employee said he could no longer work at the company, given his belief that Smith and other company spokespeople are not being honest about what happened.

"I believe [Smith] is lying based on statements he made to us," Koertzen said. "My principles do not allow me to work for a company that does that."

Koertzen is the second employee that attended the meeting with Smith, where the executive discussed the company's decision to take a neutral stance on the bill, to speak out, and the first to do so on the record. He said that Smith's comments at the meeting made it evident to him that the company shifted its position on the bill after meeting with Ken Hutcherson, the lead pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond and a national figure in the Evangelical Christian battle against gay rights.

Koertzen, who took notes at the GLEAM meeting, said that Smith conceded to the group that they had a point in complaining that he had made his decision to take a neutral stance on the legislation after only speaking with "one side" on the issue. "The only logical conclusion you can get from that is that a decision was made after speaking with Hutch," Koertzen said. He added that he believes that company employees had been working unofficially, but with the full knowledge of Smith, to support the bill. That changed after Smith met with Hutcherson: "What ended up happening is that Hutch goes in and complains, and at that point there was no 'official' stance. Two weeks later, the official policy became that we are neutral."

Koertzen added that he had spoken to a company lobbyist sometime prior to the GLEAM meeting. "My perception is that she honestly believed that the company was going to be issuing the letter [of support]," he said.

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about this. Stop using anything that runs off a MicroSoft OS? How could I possibly do that? My computer, Palm, cell phone and X-Box all are run by MS OS’s. And frankly, I love those things more than I love my family.

Okay, maybe not all four of them, but I do love one of them more than my family and too keep it from getting a big head I won’t tell you which device that is.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Gays And God News Round-Up

Pastor holds the line on gay unions

KIRKLAND -- The man who claims to have changed Microsoft Corp.'s position on gay rights saw new faces at his church yesterday -- visitors who charged him with promoting hate.

Such confrontations are becoming routine for the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who rocketed into the national spotlight last year as an organizer of mass rallies supporting traditional marriage and opposing same-sex unions.

Felicia Mueller, who organized a visit by gay rights activists to Antioch Bible Church yesterday, said, "We hope we will plant the seed, and maybe they'll start to question their pastor's message of hatred toward us."

Hutcherson was not intimidated.

"There's a thin line between being confident in God and being extremely egotistical," he said. "People who know me know that I love God and am not afraid of any man who walks on Earth."

Gay minister wins back her credentials

BALTIMORE — A United Methodist appeals court has restored Irene Elizabeth Stroud's ministry credentials, although she isn't putting her robes back on just yet.

By an 8-1 vote, the appeals panel yesterday overturned the defrocking of Stroud, the Philadelphia minister punished in a December church trial because she is a "self-avowed, practicing lesbian."

Although the evidence of her same-sex relationship was "uncontradicted and overwhelming," the panel ruled, the defrocking must be nullified because several key terms under which Stroud was disciplined never have been defined adequately by the proper church bodies.

"The verdict and the penalty are reversed and set aside," declared the Rev. William Campbell, who headed the appellate panel of four Methodist clergy and five lay leaders.

Stroud — whose challenge to church restrictions on noncelibate homosexual clergy has made her a cause célèbre among gay-rights activists — expressed quiet relief at the decision.

"This is just one step," she said. "But the ruling today gives me hope that the United Methodist Church does have within itself the resources to do justice."

Gay, Lesbian Activists Take Aim At [Washington] Church

KING COUNTY - A Sunday church service started off with very tight security in Kirkland. Police officers were called in to stand guard at Antioch Bible Church for fear of a confrontation with gay and lesbian activists.

Some people are taking issue with something the church's pastor claims to have done.

Pastor Ken Hutcherson says he played a vital role in influencing Microsoft to drop its support of House Bill 1515, which would have made discrimination against gays and lesbians illegal in Washington State.

"My son is gay and I don't want him to be discriminated against," explained Catherine Swadley.

Swadley came to voice her concerns to the pastor. It took a lot of negotiating before the church security guard allowed the couple dozen visitors to go inside the church.

In the end, the protestors all had to agree to lose their rainbow colored armbands in order to be part of the Antioch Church service.

Felicia Mueller described the deal as a small sacrifice. "What we're doing is hoping that by having some human contact with members of this church, it may cause some of them to question their pastor's message of hatred and discrimination."

De-homosexualization of the Catholic Church

The reason Catholic Church leadership includes homosexuals is because John Paul II refused to believe reports that potential clergy held that orientation – a mistake that will not be repeated by Pope Benedict XVI, says geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler.

In a column on his intelligence website, To the Point, Wheeler explains that a Vatican source disclosed to him why John Paul discounted the charge of homosexuality.

"Whenever Vatican investigators brought the results of their vetting process regarding an individual's candidacy for bishop, cardinal or other office, and they revealed he was a homosexual, John Paul II would refuse to believe it," he writes.

"He did so because accusing someone of homosexuality was a standard practice of the Communist government in his native Poland regarding anyone it regarded as an enemy of the state. From his ordination as a Catholic priest in 1946 to elevation to Archbishop of Krakow in 1963 and Cardinal in 1967, the then Karol Wojtyla witnessed this personal destruction repeatedly. So traumatized, he summarily dismissed such accusations as pope, and would approve the elevation of anyone so accused. "

Well, you know what they say; when you want to “purge” an unwanted minority it’s always best to get an ex-Nazi to do it.

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Justices Grill Gay-Marriage Foes

(Boston, Massachusetts) What could be the last gasp of gay marriage foes in Massachusetts was heard by the Supreme Judicial Court on Monday.

The Catholic Action League and its leader, C. Joseph Doyle, want the court to set aside its ruling that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry.

...

The justices peppered Darling with questions, asking him to justify his position that the rights of Doyle and other opponents of gay marriage were being violated because they had not had their chance to vote.

Justice Robert Cordy disputed Darling's assertion that allowing the marriages to go ahead had stifled debate.

"It seems to me, if anything, it's been enlivened on this subject," Cordy said.

Gay marriage returns to front of debate

Coming up on five years ago, Joyce and I drove our tiny sports car to the green hills of Vermont to be among the first gay couples joined in a civil union.

To our surprise, strangers who happened to be having their annual reunion that weekend offered their party canopy, cake and dozens of friendly faces to turn our ceremony into a community celebration.

Vermont's neighborly gift of hospitality is something Joyce and I will always treasure. And Connecticut's recent decision to become the second state to offer civil unions is a reminder of what an important example Vermont set by embracing those of us who're gay.

For Chicken Littles fearful that respecting gay families endangers others, Vermont proved the sky really doesn't fall when gay couples are given state-level rights and responsibilities of marriage. Plus, it showed states how to take a giant stride forward even if they're not ready to end marriage discrimination.

Battle brewing over civil unions

SALEM - During last year's heated campaign over an initiative banning gay marriage, there seemed to be a fall-back position that both sides agreed on: civil unions.
The legal arrangements, pioneered five years ago in Vermont, allow same-sex couples to claim the benefits and privileges of marriage without a marriage license. Gay-marriage opponents regarded civil unions as a viable alternative to marriage, while supporters grudgingly acknowledged them as a better-than-nothing Plan B should the Measure 36 same-sex marriage ban pass - which it did.

Politicians - averse to alienating any constituent group - saw civil unions as a way to extend certain rights to gays and lesbians without offending the cultural and religious sensibilities of others.

But this week promises to expose just how polarized activist groups and some politicians remain regarding gay rights and same-sex couples. The Senate Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday evening on Senate Bill 1000, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's bill that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and extends the rights and benefits of marriage - but not the institution itself - to same-sex couples through the creation of civil unions. The bill was sponsored by two Republican and two Democratic senators.

Kansas Gay Marriage Ban Takes Effect

(Topeka, Kansas) An amendment to the Kansas Constitution banning same-sex marriage and civil unions went into effect Friday.

The measure was approved by voters April 5, and today the State Board of Canvassers approved the results.

The amendment was accepted by 70 percent of the electorate.

Kansas was the first state to vote on the issue following last November's election when 11 states amended their constitutions to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying.'

Gay marriage ban likely won't affect benefits

TOPEKA - The state constitution's ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions doesn't prevent local or state government agencies from extending benefits to gay employees' partners, Attorney General Phill Kline said Friday.

"It's my belief that they could, and we would defend them in that choice," Kline said.

Kline's statements contrast with a legal opinion issued in March by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who said a similar amendment to that state's constitution prevents governmental entities from offering domestic partner benefits.

Critics of the Kansas amendment had argued it is broad enough to prevent government agencies from offering benefits to employees' unmarried partners, gay or straight, and perhaps could prevent even private companies from doing so. Supporters said such fears were unfounded.

--Scott J Grunewald

If He Thought New York Was Bad, Wait Until He Gets A Load Of Long Island

Anti-Gay Rocker Returns To Baseball

(New York City) John Rocker, the one time Atlanta Braves pitcher who angered gays with a homophobic diatribe six years ago, has returned to baseball.

No longer in the majors, and no longer slamming gays and New Yorkers, Rocker is playing for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.

In 1999, in a Sports Illustrated interview Rocker attacked gays, immigrants, people with AIDS, and New Yorkers.

In the interview he said that he would prefer retirement to playing for a New York team.

Following the interview gays joined other New Yorkers in booing him off the field when the Braves played the Mets.

As a result of the uproar over his remarks Rocker was hauled into the Commissioners office, fined and suspended for five months from major league baseball. Since that time his career has gone into a tailspin.

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel sorry for him. I wouldn’t wish Long Island on anyone.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Fuck Iowa

Iowa Radio Stations Refuse School Gay Bashing Ads

(Des Moines, Iowa) Radio Iowa, a network of 60 stations has rejected ads aimed at educating people about the problems LGBT students have at the hands of bullies.

The ads were produced for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and are running in six other states.

Learfield Communications, which owns Radio Iowa, rejected the ads calling them controversial.

At the very least we can take solace in the fact that the people who do this shit will be spared the company of gay folks when THEY GET SENT TO HELL FOR BEING EVIL.

Oh, I’m sorry, was that too controversial?

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--Scott J Grunewald

Can I Move To The Navajo Reservation? I'll Bring Cookies!

Navajo President Vetoes Gay Marriage Ban

(Window Rock, Arizona) A ban on same-sex marriage approved by the Navajo Tribal Council last month banning same-sex marriage has been vetoed by Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr..

The national reservation extends into three states: New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

The Tribal Council voted unanimously April 23 in favor of restricting a recognized union to that between a man and a woman, and prohibit plural marriages as well as marriages between close relatives. (story)

Critics have said the measure was attempting to rewrite cultural history to parallel the clash across the United States between conservative Christians and gay rights activists.

"Same-sex marriage is a non-issue on Navajo land," Shirley said as he vetoed the legislation. "So why waste time and resources on it? We have more important issues to address."

Can the Navajo Reservation and the US swap presidents?

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--Scott J Grunewald

The Return Of Soulforce!

500 gay rights supporters protest outside Focus on the Family

COLORADO SPRINGS — At least 500 people braved spitting snow showers and cutting wind Sunday outside Focus on the Family’s headquarters to protest the group’s campaign against homosexual rights and same-sex marriage.

“We are here to say, Jim, we love you enough to stop you from doing the damage you are doing to families across the nation,” said Mel White, executive director of Soulforce, a national interfaith organization that supports gay rights and is supported by roughly 100 churches and groups.

SOULFORCE is the greatest name for a gay organization EVER! Its equal parts cheese, over the top theatrics, and cute self-delusion and it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Fuck Missouri

State says gay Kansas City women not fit to be foster parents

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The state says Lisa Johnston and Dawn Roginski are exceptionally qualified to be foster parents, but an unwritten state policy prevents them from taking children into their home because they are openly gay.

Johnston has a bachelor's degree in human development and family, with special emphasis on child development. She's an educational consultant who also has worked for an organization that trains foster parents.

Roginski, who has a master's degree in counseling and another in divinity, works as a therapist and chaplain at a treatment center for young people with emotional and behavioral disorders.

The Missouri Department of Social Services cited the unwritten state policy in denying Johnston's application to become a foster parent. Johnston, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing the state.

"I've prayed a lot about this," Johnston said. "We just feel like, `Who is more qualified to be foster parents than us?'"

The two passed a home site visit and completed seven of nine training sessions before being told they were not qualified.

"I know there are lots of kids out there who need foster placement," Roginski said. "It's not fair to them either."

Chris Whitley, a spokesman for the DSS, said there are about 11,000 children across Missouri in foster care, and more foster parents are needed.

"There's always a need for good people who want to open their homes and hearts to kids who need help," he said Monday.

He said it's a long-standing practice of DSS to not "knowingly license as a foster parent any person who declares themself to be a homosexual." He declined to discuss details of the Kansas City women's case because of the lawsuit.

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--Scott J Grunewald

R.I.P. Jack Nichols

Gay Rights Pioneer Jack Nichols, 67, Dies

COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- Jack Nichols, a writer and editor who was a pioneering member of the gay rights movement in the United States, died Monday. He was 67.

Nichols died at Cape Canaveral Hospital of complications from cancer, according to his friend, Steve Yates, who said Nichols had the disease for 20 years.
"Jack was among the gay pioneers who stepped out of a debilitating closet and helped crack the cocoon of invisibility," said Malcolm Lazin, executive director of Equality Forum, a Philadelphia-based gay rights group.

Nichols helped found chapters of the Mattachine Society, an early support group for gays, in Florida and Washington, D.C., in the early and mid-1960s. He also helped plan some of the nation's first gay and lesbian civil rights demonstrations, including a protest outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall on July 4, 1965.

In addition, Nichols was among the first gay activists to challenge the American Psychiatric Association's position that homosexuality was a mental illness.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Bottom In Chief?

New Revelations About White House's Gay Hustler

(Washington) Despite assurances by the Bush Administration that the gay hustler who posed as a journalist was given only limited access to the White House new evidence shows that over a two year period he visited 196 times.

...

During news conferences he was regularly called on for questions by President Bush. But, invariably "Gannon's" questions would show an extreme right-wing and often anti-gay agenda. On one occasion he asked Bush how he could work with Senate Democratic leaders “who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.”

White House press secretary Scott McClellan also would regularly call on "Gannon" whenever he would be under more aggressive, hostile questions from the press.

...

McClellan, responding to media questions earlier this year said "Gannon" received only infrequent day passes, and denied that he had been a GOP "plant".

But, Democrats in Congress took up the issue. Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and John Conyers of Michigan filed a freedom of information request and were given Secret Service records of Guckert's visits.

Today's revelation that "Gannon" had visited the White House nearly twice weekly raises even more questions.

Twice a week? Well, clearly Gannon was fucking someone in the White House. The question now is, who? The two names that are getting tossed around the Blogworld are Karl Rove, Bush’s evil master manipulator and press secretary Scott McClellan because rumors that they were gay have been pretty common for a few years now.

But what if he was Bush’s whore? After all, Rove and McClellan could easily see Guckert any time they wanted outside of work without anyone ever knowing… But the President? He’s watched all the time. People would notice if he slipped out of the White House twice a week to get his pipes cleaned. But what if you found a way to bring the whore to him...?

And if you read Guckerts on-line profiles you’ll remember that he’s a strict top. And that means that George is a big Texan sized bottom!

I wonder if the Secret Service considers fucking the President up the ass a threat against him. Well, maybe not with this cock.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Gays And Schools News Round-Up

Lexington school calls cops on dad irate over gay book

Police arrested a Lexington father who refused to leave the Joseph Estabrook School yesterday after school officials rejected his demands that his 6-year-old son be shielded from any discussions about gay households.

David Parker, 42, confronted officials after his son brought home ``Who's in a Family,'' a storybook that includes characters who are gay parents.

Yesterday, Parker refused to leave a meeting after Lexington Superintendent Bill Hurley rejected his demand that he be notified when his son is exposed to any discussion about same-sex households as part of classroom instruction.

Anti-gay bias said ignored at Poway High

A former student at Poway High School testified yesterday that some of his classmates repeatedly harassed him because he is gay by calling him derogatory names, shoving him in hallways and spitting on him.

Joseph Ramelli told a San Diego Superior Court jury the taunts started during his freshman year and increased in the upper grades. He said students made disparaging remarks in his presence daily about gays and lesbians.

"It makes you feel insecure," Ramelli said. "It breaks you down.

"You start seeing that it isn't just words. It starts meaning more and more to you, especially as you start figuring out who you are."

Ramelli and his friend, Megan Donovan, are suing Poway Unified School District and administrators at Poway High.

They claim the school failed to provide a safe environment for them. And they claim teachers and administrators did little, if anything, to address the problem, according to court documents.

Threats May Be Connected To Anti-Gay Incidents

Apr. 27 (ABC7) — Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley is dealing with its third case of anti-gay incidents in recent months.

The current case involves five teachers who received voicemail messages on their classroom phones. The teachers found them when they returned from spring break.

The school principal says the messages do not contain threats, but students and staff find them unsettling.

New student group rallies for LBGT rights at Capitol

A new organization aimed at working toward legalizing same-sex marriage kicked off its work by holding a rally at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Students for Gay Marriage is a group dedicated to overturning the amendment in the Michigan Constitution that bans same-sex marriage. It is made up of Lansing Community College, MSU and several other college students.

The group emphasized the importance of more college students getting involved in the issue.

"It's becoming easier and easier for our generation to come out in favor of gay marriage," women's studies and social relations junior Jon Hoadley said. "We are the generation that will achieve marriage equality."

School district plans to lift ban on gay-pride T-shirts

WEBB CITY, Mo. - A southwest Missouri school district that banned T-shirts with gay-friendly messages says it is prepared to change its policy.

The Webb City R-7 School District explained its intentions in a motion its lawyers filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. In the motion, filed Thursday, the district asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by high school student Lastaysha Myers against the school's principal and assistant principal and the district's superintendent.

"Barring any further disruptions, the district intends to allow the tempers to calm, and the controversy to self-dissolve, thereby ending the restrictions on T-shirts such as plaintiff's with the close of the 2004-2005 school year," the motion said.

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Oregon GOP Seeks To Gut Gay Unions Bill

(Salem, Oregon) If the Oregon's Senate Democrats get their way, the state will follow Vermont's lead and enact civil unions, giving gay couples the rights and privileges of marriage without the title.

But if House Republicans prevail, Oregon will follow Hawaii's example and pass a "reciprocal benefits" law, offering a limited range of rights to couples who have lived together for a long time, gay or straight.

Gay Marriage Simmers in DC

A Washington, D.C., gay couple who married in Massachusetts has asked if they might file their city taxes as a married couple. The city attorney tentatively has said yes, in a story that first broke April 20 in the Washington Post. A conservative U.S. Senator, who controls the city’s budget, wasted no time in threatening the city if it does.
Edward G. Horvath, 54, and Richard G. Neidich, 64, are both federal employees who have been together for 25 years. They married in Somerville, Mass., June 25.

This spring they sought advice from the city tax office as to whether they could file a joint return as a marriage couple. They believe that they are married and that filing as individuals would be committing perjury, lying, on their signed tax form. The matter was passed on to the city’s attorney.

Amendment 3: Now that it matters, officials duck the meaning

We told you so.

The Republican attorney general of Utah told you. The Democratic candidate for governor, who also happens to be the dean of the University of Utah School of Law, told you. The Don't Amend organization told you.

We told you that the second section of Amendment 3 said what it said. Those proposing the anti-gay marriage amendment, overwhelmingly approved at the polls last November, said it didn't really say what it said.

Now that it matters what the law says, nobody in authority wants a say.

Before the election, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the second part of the amendment - "No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect" - would cause problems for people in, born of, or leaving gay or straight relationships other than legal marriage. It would cause problems involving everything from insurance and inheritance to protective orders and medical decision-making.

Instead of taking Shurtleff's learned objections seriously, many amendment supporters, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., said Utah could have it both ways.

We could, they said, pass the amendment and still allow, perhaps even legislate, other sorts of domestic partnership privileges that are increasingly accepted in the marketplace.

Yet when a bill to do exactly that was proposed in this year's general session of the Legislature, it got nowhere. Huntsman was AWOL. Amendment 3 was blamed.

And when Utah State University considered extending employee benefits to same-sex couples, the school's own lawyer told them doing so was likely to run afoul of Amendment 3.

Cardinal compares gay marriage to Nazism

Gay rights groups in Spain reacted with anger on Wednesday after a Roman Catholic cardinal compared obedience to the legalization of same-sex marriage to the process that led to the creation of Nazi death camps, Agence France-Presse reports. "If you give obedience to the law priority over obedience to your conscience, that leads to Auschwitz," Cardinal Ricard Maria Carles, former archbishop of Barcelona, told a Spanish television station.

Spanish deputies last week approved a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry and adopt children. The bill is expected to become law and would make Spain the third European country after the Netherlands and Belgium to do so. "The people who made Auschwitz were not criminals, but people who had been forced to, or thought they had a duty to, obey the laws of the Nazi government rather than their own conscience."

Hey, we should listen to him. After all, who knows more about Nazi’s than a member of the church that elected a former Nazi to be the Pope?

--Scott J Grunewald

Fuck Texas

[Texas] Legislature's verdict is in: Gays guilty

The American court system operates on the basic principle that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, the Texas Legislature faces no such restraint.

Considering the overall contempt many conservatives hold for the judicial system, this should surprise no one. Last week, the Texas House held an impromptu trial of social conservatives' favorite defendants: homosexuals.

Rep. Robert Talton, R- Pasadena, amended the omnibus Child Protective Services bill to ban homosexuals and bisexuals from serving as foster parents. It was a move that would cost the state around $8 million dollars per year and, according to the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby, could remove as many as 3,000 children from their current homes.

Supporters of the prohibition cited fears of homosexual indoctrination and recruitment. Just for good measure, Cathie Adams of the Texas Eagle Forum added her concern that children in gay homes are more likely to be sexually abused.

Seriously. Fuck Texas. In protest of this, I've removed Sheer Dallas from my Tivo Season Pass list.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Shocking news! Anti-Gay Hate Speech Increases Anti-Gay Violence! Who Would Have Guessed???

Report: Same-sex debate hiked anti-gay violence

The same-sex marriage debate prompted a spike in violence against gays early last year, an advocacy group for gays in Boston claims.

Attacks on gays were up in February and March of 2004, the same months two Constitutional Conventions to debate same-sex marriage were held at the State House.

``The fact that hate incidents increased during these two months is not coincidental,'' said Emily Pitt, of the Fenway Community Health Center, at a press conference announcing the release of a new national report, ``Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Violence in 2004.''

Approximately a third of the 105 incidents of violence and harassment reported in 2004 to the center's Violence Recovery Program occurred in February and March, Pitt said. And the 105 incidents is a 30 percent increase from 2003.

``These numbers bear out what the L.G.B.T. community has known for some time, that hate speech leads to hate violence,'' Pitt said.

This is really quite shocking. The next thing you’re going to tell us is that when you throw something up in the air, it falls back down to the ground.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Rights News Round-Up

Hopes dim for measure on gay bias

A proposal to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was expected to be shelved Monday by the City-County Council.

Support for the proposal collapsed over the weekend despite phone calls made by Mayor Bart Peterson to council members. As of late Monday, it was unclear whether the measure would be sent back to a committee for more study or killed altogether.

The anti-discrimination ordinance would have prohibited gays and transgender individuals from being fired or treated poorly solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

City code already protects workers from discrimination based on race, religion, age and several other aspects.

In Indiana, similar ordinances have been approved in Bloomington and Lafayette. Nationwide, more than 100 communities and at least 17 states have some form of anti-discrimination statute in place for private employment, according to a gay-rights group.

Microsoft may rethink position on gay-rights bill

Microsoft may re-evaluate whether to support state legislation that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, Chairman Bill Gates said yesterday.

Gates said Microsoft was surprised by the sharp reaction after it became known that the company took a neutral position on the perennial measure this year, after actively supporting it in previous years.

"Next time this one comes around, we'll see," he said. "We certainly have a lot of employees who sent us mail. Next time it comes around that'll be a major factor for us to take into consideration."

[Colorado] Senate OKs workplace gay-discrimination ban

The state Senate on Monday gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit employers from discriminating against gays and lesbians.

Senate Bill 28 passed on a party-line vote, 18-17, as the one-vote majority Democrats defeated several Republican attempts to amend the bill.

"It is wrong that I should be discriminated against or have a fear of losing my job because I put my partner's picture up on my desk," said Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver. "That is wrong."

VA. HIGH COURT BACKS GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state must provide new birth certificates for children born in Virginia who are adopted by out-of-state gay couples.

A lower court had ruled otherwise because of a state policy that bans joint adoptions by unmarried couples.

"This case is about issuing birth certificates under the provisions of Virginia law," the high court wrote in its 5-2 decision. "It is not about homosexual marriage, nor is it about 'same-sex' relationships, nor is it about adoption policy in Virginia."

Three couples sued in 2002 after they were unable to get birth certificates from the state of Virginia that substituted their names for the names of their children's birth parents. The lower court ruled last year that Virginia adoption law did not obligate the Department of Vital Records to issue the new documents.

Adoptions by same-sex couples are prohibited within Virginia.

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Texas House Approves Gay Marriage Amendment

(Austin, Texas) Same-sex couples in Texas would be banned from marriage under a constitutional amendment House lawmakers approved Monday.

The measure, sponsored by Republican Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa, aims to stem possible court challenges to an existing Texas law making same-sex marriages illegal. It passed with a vote of 101-29, more than the 100 needed for approval of a constitutional amendment in the House.

"I think marriage is important enough to the people of this state that it deserves the highest level of protection," Chisum said.

The measure still must win approval in the Senate and from Texas voters to become part of the state constitution.

Author says gay marriage bill can reach governor this year

SACRAMENTO - The California Legislature resumes its battle over gay marriage legislation this week, a fight that could lead, at least temporarily, to what the bill's author calls an awkward discrepancy in the law.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up a bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, that would authorize same-sex marriages.

The Judiciary Committee voted to remove the ban on gay marriages last year, but that bill, also by Leno, never reached the Assembly floor. Leno's more optimistic this time around.

"Support has grown steadily over the past year," he said. "We're breaking new ground, but I'm very confident. We have a very good opportunity to move this off the floor of the Assembly, to the Senate and then to the governor's desk."

It’ll be a long, hard struggle, but unless the state is forced to do so by the courts (As is a distinct possibility) California will be the first US state to willingly create same sex marriage. In a time when the country is going hard right, California continues to go left. Hell, it even looks like Arnold could be voted out next year and just six months ago that was considered a liberal pipe-dream.

Poor Texas though. I guess the stars of Sheer Dallas are going to be a grumpy bunch next year.

--Scott J Grunewald

Educating People About STD’s Is Important, But, You Know, Can We Skip Over The “Sex” Stuff?

AIDS Ed Funds In Jeopardy Because Of Gay Sex Talk

(St. Paul, Minnesota) The Minnesota legislature is considering a bill to eliminate all Health Department funding for the state's largest AIDS-prevention program after a lawmaker said the organization's website contains graphic references to gay sex.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the site, operated by the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP).

Emmer's bill has has won approval in a House committee. If it passes the House and Senate the group would lose $425,000 in funding.

The legislation would bar the state from providing state funding for "websites, pamphlets, or other communications that contain sexually explicit images or language."

Seriously, can someone wake me up from the very, very bad dream that I'm having.

How exactly do you teach people how to avoid catching a STD’s and have safe sex if you can't talk about sex when you do it? Maybe if we play with terminology. From now on, we’ll use the words that my 6 year-old nephew uses when talking about body parts. Here is a handy guide.


OLD TERM-------------------- NEW TERM
Penis-------------------- Wenus or Hoo-Hah
Testicles or testes-------------------- Marbles
Vagina-------------------- Cooter or Innie
Anus-------------------- Booty
Semen-------------------- No word available
Sex-------------------- No word available
Anal Sex-------------------- No word available
Oral Sex-------------------- No word available
Condom -------------------- No word available
Mutual masturbation -------------------- No word available
Rhythm method -------------------- No word available
Birth control pill -------------------- No word available
Orgasm -------------------- No word available
Sperm -------------------- No word available
Egg -------------------- No word available



There, that should do the trick.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

In A State Ruled By Intolerance, Fear, And No Fashion Sense, One Group Will Stand Up And Fight Back Against The Forces Of Heteronormism!

Gay Religious Group Campaigns On Falwell's Turf

(Lynchburg, Virginia) About 55 members of Soulforce - a gay nondenominational group - conducted what it called an educational outreach today at Liberty University, the Lynchburg school created by Jerry Falwell.

A declaration by Falwell that "This is not Gay Day," went virtually unheeded as the Soulforce members, who call themselves "Equality Riders" talked about sexuality, the Bible, and gay rights with students of the university.

The riders represented several Virginia colleges, including Virginia Tech, James Madison University and the University of Virginia.

Soulforce founder Mel White said he estimates that there are at least 300-to-400 gay and lesbian students among Liberty's student population of eight thousand, but a university officials declined comment.

I swear to God, "Soulforce" was a comicbook put out by Marvel in the 80's.

More fashion forward action-packed activism in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Quote Of The Day

“As everyone knows, a fag is a homosexual gentleman who has just left the room.” –Truman Capote

Massive Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Sorry about the long time between updates but I’ve been having some back issues that kept me from spending any real time on the computer. But I’m back, doped up (Legally of course) and raring to go.

Navajos block gay marriages

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The Navajo Nation has outlawed same-sex marriages on its sprawling Indian reservation.

The Tribal Council voted unanimously Friday in favor of the Dine Marriage Act of 2005. Dine is the Navajos' name for themselves.

The act restricts a recognized union to a relationship between a man and a woman and prohibits plural marriages as well as any marriage between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, brothers and sisters and other close relatives.

Supporters say the goal is to promote Navajo family values.

So much for the cultural reverence held for the Two-Spirit

Dueling Rallies Over Gay Marriage

Republican Assemblyman Mike Villines headlined a rally in support of an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

But, gay activists were also on hand, hoping to get a word in edgewise.

High court to hear bid to halt same-sex marriages

BOSTON -- The state's highest court will consider a bid by an official from a Catholic advocacy group who wants to halt same-sex marriages until residents vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban the marriages.

The Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear the case brought by C. Joseph Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, on May 2, The Republican of Springfield reported.

In court papers, Doyle said gay marriages are stifling the full debate required by the amendment process.

"His ability to vote is being inhibited and interfered with," said Doyle's lawyer, Chester Darling of Andover. "The court declared an outcome before a vote was taken on the amendment."

Church to Weigh Gay Marriage Resolutions

CLEVELAND Apr 22, 2005 — The United Church of Christ, a denomination known for its progressive stand on social issues, will consider opposing resolutions on same-sex marriage at its biennial meeting in July, a church official said Friday.

"We take our democratic form of church governance seriously," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, spokesman for the Cleveland-based UCC. "This will ensure some heated conversation for our church when we meet in Atlanta."

This is the first time the same-sex marriage issue will be debated at the church's General Synod meeting. The United Church of Christ has a membership of 1.3 million.

Senator threatens backlash for D.C.'s support of gay couples

A powerful antigay Republican senator threatened Washington, D.C.'s mayor on Thursday due to the District of Columbia's support for same-sex marriages, according to The Washington Post.

Kansas senator Sam Brownback--the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the District--told Democratic mayor Anthony Williams that there would be a congressional backlash because the D.C. city attorney has issued a ruling that local gay and lesbian couples who were married in Massachusetts may file joint D.C. tax returns, the newspaper reported.

Pastors rally against gay marriage

Listening to the candidates for mayor and reading the polls, it seems as if there is no argument over same sex marriage However, some clergy are against it and plan to make their opposition vocal.

Last Wednesday, April 13, local and national church leaders held a conference at the Kings College, located in the Empire State Building. Sponsored by City Action Coalition, a local group of faith-based organizations, and High Impact Leadership Coalition, based in College Park, Md., the one day gathering dealt with a spectrum of issues ranging from prison reform to health care. They specifically put elected officials on notice that support of gay marriage would lead to political consequences.

“We wanted to send a strong message to local and national officials: vote against gay marriage and for other moral values or the Christian Coalition will vote you out of office,” said Mike Paul, spokesperson for Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman and founder of HILC and the senior pastor of Hope Christian Church, in Washington, of the Fellowship of International Churches.

Connecticut approves civil unions for gays

HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut on Wednesday became the second state to offer civil unions to gay couples - and the first to do so without being forced by the courts.

About an hour after the state Senate sent her the legislation, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law a bill that will afford same-sex couples in Connecticut many of the rights and privileges of married couples.

"The vote we cast today will reverberate around the country and it will send a wave of hope to many people, to thousands of people across the country," said Sen. Andrew McDonald, who is gay.

And because I like to try and end these round ups on a high note...

Gay Marriage Foe Laughed Down During Debate

(Stanford, California) Gay rights leader Evan Wolfson criticized conservative groups for their intolerance toward same-sex marriage in a rare, face-to-face debate between leaders on opposite sides of the issue.

Wolfson, the executive director of Freedom to Marry, debated the Rev. Lou Sheldon, the chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, in an event Wednesday night at Stanford Law School.
Wolfson said people pushing for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage are "using government as a weapon to impose their religious view on others."

Sheldon countered by appealing to common sense and the will of the majority in defending his position that marriage should be reserved for relationships between a man and a woman.

"Normal people who are in a good relationship in their marriage, who have children, and who are experiencing the union of that marriage in a number of ways, just shake their heads and say, 'How is this possible?"' Sheldon said of the push for gay marriage. "Those of us who are heterosexual realize that there is not a prejudice, it's just something that doesn't set right."

Sheldon faced laughter and jeers from an audience composed mainly of students who tended to agree with Wolfson that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. Sheldon said afterward that Wolfson "was constantly trying to demonize me, and he used all the right buzzwords to play to the audience."

As always, I encourage you to visit the respective news sites that I pulled this content from and read the whole story. Or at least skim it. :)

--Scott J Grunewald

Meet The New Pope, Same As The Old Pope. Only Creepier

Pope Benedict XVI: Anti-War, Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Reform

Conservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Tuesday to succeed Pope John Paul the Second to lead the Catholic Church. He took the name Pope Benedict XVI and became the 265th leader of the world's most powerful Christian institution with 1.1 billion members.

Shortly before 6pm Rome time yesterday, white smoke indicating the Pope's election puffed from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel. Onlookers started to cheer and five minutes later, the great bell of St. Peter's began to toll.

He is widely viewed as a conservative theologian and a hard-line enforcer of Catholic Church doctrine. In the 1980s, Ratzinger was a fierce opponent of liberation theology.

He strongly opposes abortion, an increased role of women in the church, artificial birth control and homosexuality.

In 2003, Ratzinger's office issued instructions to Catholic politicians to vote against gay marriage. During last year's presidential election campaign, he advised US bishops to deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights - who many saw as directly targeting Catholic presidential candidate, John Kerry. Ratzinger also publicly cautioned Europe against admitting Turkey to the European Union stating that the continent is essentially Christian.

An acquaintance of mine who is a gay Catholic was very upset the other day when Ratzinger was chosen to ascend to the Papacy citing his fierce and highly mobilized stance against gay rights. I have to wonder though, id he really expect anything different? Seriously? Like there was even the slightest chance that Pope Capote the First would emerge wearing gold spandex to a soundtrack of I Will Survive?

The conservative arm of the Catholic Church is a wounded animal. People are fleeing the church in favor of less overbearing churches in increasing numbers and the push to reform and liberalize the church is getting stronger every day. The Catholic leadership did what all political organizations do when faced with losing favor and power. They veer to the right, hard. It was inevitable.

Anyone seriously seeking Catholic reform should at least take comfort in the fact that Ratzinger is really old and isn’t as likely to last nearly as long as the Papal equivalent to the Energizer Bunny that was John Paul.

Much more in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

For Damage Control, Click ‘CTRL’ ‘ALT’ ‘DEL’ ‘INSERT’ ‘HEAD’ ‘OWN ASS’ And Then Reboot

Microsoft CEO explains gay-rights reversal

SEATTLE - The chief executive of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, sent what the company described as an unusual e-mail message on Friday evening to its roughly 35,000 employees in the United States, defending the company's widely criticized decision not to support an anti-discrimination bill for gay people in Washington state this year.

The e-mail message came as company officials, inundated by internal messages from angry employees, withering attacks on the Web and strong criticism from gay rights groups, sought to quell rancor after the disclosure this week that the company, which had supported the bill in past years, did not do so this year. Critics argue that the decision resulted from pressure from a prominent local evangelical Christian church.

In his message, confirmed by company officials, Ballmer wrote that he had done ''a lot of soul-searching over the past 24 hours.'' He said that he and Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, both personally supported the bill but that the company had decided not to take an official stand on the legislation this year. He said they were pondering the role major corporations should play in larger social debates.

Jesus Bill, what are you afraid of, that the fundies would stop buying MS products? I’m pretty sure they throw holy water and yell ‘Back Devil, back to Dell!” whenever they even see a computer, much less actually own any Micro Soft products.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

"GOP" stands for "Gays, Out Please", Apparently

Gay Foes, GOP Take To Pulpit Sunday

(Louisville, Kentucky) When regular services are over Sunday night, the Rev. Kevin Ezell will turn his pulpit over to preachers with a political message, a move that has prompted an outcry from other religious leaders.

Ezell's Highview Baptist Church is hosting "Justice Sunday," featuring a videotaped speech from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that rallies churchgoers to protest a filibuster of nominees for the federal judiciary. Highview was arranging to have the videotape played at the same time around the country for churches that had requested it.

Sunday's event, organized by the Family Research Council of Washington, D.C., is a way for Christians to speak their minds about a hot political issue, Ezell said.

"We shouldn't have to check our citizenship at the door," the pastor said. "What we believe affects every area of our lives."

Not everyone agrees. At least three churches and other organizations are planning to protest Justice Sunday.

...

The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, said Justice Sunday splits people of faith into those who agree with Perkins' group and those who don't, resulting in a polarization of Christian voters.

"This ad campaign should be called 'Just Us Sunday' instead of 'Justice Sunday,'" Edgar said during a conference call with reporters Friday. "It makes one political point of view a litmus test for Christian faith, and in so doing, attempts to disenfranchise, if not excommunicate, the millions of American Christians who hold a different view."

It’s dangerous to see stories like this as just one instance of the far right doing something nutty when this is truly one of many instances of a concerted and organized effort to subvert the Constitution. Frankly, this has ceased to be funny or ‘nutty’ and started to become a little chilling and frightening.

I’ve heard the Republicans assaults on the judiciary called a war in and of its self but I have to disagree. It’s yet another mere battle in the far rights desire to turn America into the exact opposite of what our founding fathers intended. They are waging a war on the Constitution so they can freely and without the fear of legal challenges turn the country into a theocracy. A theocracy that has no use for Jews or Muslims, Buddhists or Atheists, Democrats, people who’ve had abortions, foreigners, and least of all, gays or lesbians.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

And You Thought Howard Stern’s On-Air Antics Were Classy...

Hispanic radio raising the ire of gay groups

Rona Marech
San Francisco Chronicle
Apr. 24, 2005 12:00 AM

SAN FRANCISCO - When the call came on his cellphone, Roberto Hernandez was driving to work in San Francisco. The caller, who identified himself as Juan, said in Spanish that he had met Hernandez at a gay bar and wanted to see him again.

"Refresh my memory, there are so many Juans," said a puzzled Hernandez. The man described himself as slim with "a very nice butt." Eventually, the caller offered to give Hernandez his phone number - then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live nationwide on the Raul Brindis and Pepito Show, a Spanish-language morning radio program.

"Why did these people have to treat me this way?" Hernandez said of his public outing, which led the Federal Communications Commission to fine the station owner $28,000 this year. "Why the hell do they think I deserved something so brutal and humiliating?"

Such on-air mockery of gay men, lesbians and transgender people is common on Spanish-language radio and television, media watchers say, and it has raised the ire of gay rights groups.

More in link...

I have to admit, I’m less troubled by the outing than the fact that the outing wasn’t funny. I mean hell; if you’re going to do something that horrible at least go all the way with it. Why didn’t you have his mom listening on the other line? Or maybe his wife? The only thing worse than cruelty is cruelty with no imagination.

--Scott J Grunewald

Stupid, Stupid Gay Creatures: Naughty Gays News Round-Up

GAY MAN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT AFTER IN-FLIGHT FIGHT

DENVER (AP) - A traveler was charged with assault and interfering with an airplane crew after allegedly hitting his traveling companion and then shoving a pregnant flight attendant who intervened, prompting the plane to make an unscheduled landing.

Montgomery Joe Carter, 37, was on a United Airlines flight on Tuesday from Washington to Las Vegas, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday. He and another man were going to Las Vegas to celebrate their six-month relationship.

Carter, who had allegedly been drinking, became irate during the flight and began hitting his partner, so the flight crew separated the men, the affidavit said.

Carter then allegedly shoved a pregnant flight attendant and pushed another attendant, the affidavit said. A third flight attendant blocked the path to the cockpit with a drink cart, enlisting the help of two passengers, it said.

Study: N.M. Gay Men Shunning HIV Tests

A state Health Department study has found gay men in New Mexico are not getting regular tests for HIV, meaning many are finding out they have the virus when they become very ill.

Sixty-three percent of New Mexicans diagnosed with AIDS last year were unaware they had HIV, the virus that destroys cells in the immune system and leads to AIDS, according to the department's February study.

Two men with AIDS were already so sick that they died in emergency rooms.

Crystal meth may enhance spread of HIV among gay men

Although small, the first study of crystal methamphetamine use among gay men in South Florida showed that the drug can spark high-risk sex and may have contributed to a jump in HIV/AIDS in recent years.

Researchers interviewed 15 unidentified crystal meth users, who said the drug lowers inhibitions and fosters artificial feelings of intimacy. The men described going to weekend-long parties that included unprotected sex among multiple partners, sometimes with anonymous mates found on the Internet. The findings reflect meth studies done in other parts of the country.

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Calif. Democrats Endorse Gay Marriage

(Los Angeles, California) California Democrats have wrapped up their annual convention with a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.

"The California Democratic Party is now a leading partner in statewide efforts to ensure that all California families enjoy the legal protections that they deserve," said Eric Stern, National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director who addressed the convention.

The resolution calls for civil marriage to be extended to same-sex couples. It passed unanimously and as the vote was being taken many delegates displayed signs that read "AB 19" in support of an assembly bill that would extend civil marriage to same-sex couples. The legislation was recently introduced by Assemblyman Mark Leno, an openly-gay Democrat from San Francisco.

Grassroots efforts grow to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage in Idaho

A conservative group from eastern Idaho is spreading northward, trying to gain support for the next proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state. United Families Idaho was formed in November in Idaho Falls as part of the United Families International, a nonprofit organization formed in 1978.

The Reverend Ron Vieselmeyer, a former state representative from the Coeur d'Alene area, said about 27 people showed up for a meeting Thursday night and were "gung ho" about getting signatures on a pro-amendment petition the organization plans to deliver to legislators. "We want people to know we're pro-family, not an antihomosexual group," he said.

New York State mayor who married gay couples tells Ohio University students his story

The mayor of a small New York city who married 25 same-sex couples last year disparaged "neo-conservative, neo-fascist" gay-marriage opponents last Thursday at Ohio University.

Not holding anything back, he speculated that these opponents utilize "stupidity, bigotry and selective reading" of the Bible to back up their claims.

Several people walked out in the middle of the speech by Jason West, 27, the mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., apparently in response to his criticism of conservatives and opponents of gay marriage. Many supporters, however, participated in a question-and-answer session that lasted nearly an hour after the speech, which was held in Glidden Hall.

After becoming mayor of New Paltz, which has 6,000 residents, West said he researched New York's marriage laws to see if he could legally marry same-sex couples. He said the state constitution was gender-neutral in its wording, which he interpreted as a sanction for gay marriage.

"Our constitution says you can't discriminate," he said. "If I tell them, 'I can't marry you simply because of your gender,' it's a clear violation of the constitution. I wasn't going to be complicit in that violation."

S.F. mayor: Gay marriage gives Dems an edge

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor Gavin Newsom simply wanted to put a human face on the gay push for the right to marry. Outraged by President George W. Bush's call for writing anti-gay discrimination into the Constitution, the mayor decided to introduce the world to Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, a couple for 51 years, by allowing them to lawfully wed.

But, in February 2004, by throwing open the doors of his gorgeously ornate City Hall to them and thousands of other gay couples eager to exchange wedding vows, the exuberant young mayor had his own eyes opened -- and his life transformed.

Before a judge halted the weddings, a little girl gave Newsom a big hug outside his office and said, "Thank you for giving me two mommies." He recalls, "I didn't get it until that moment. I looked around and saw all the families. And I thought, 'This is so bigger much than I ever imagined. It is so much more important and profound.'"

--Scott J Grunewald

Would You Look At That Tight End

Gay football player talks about his life

Esera Tuaolo isn't the man you might expect.

He weighs 310 pounds, and says he feels light as a feather.

He spent nine years as a defensive lineman in the manly-man world of the National Football League. And he's gay.

Tuaolo spent most of his life trying to be the man everyone expected: The man who laughed at fag jokes in the locker room and bedded women he met at bars.

"I made sure my teammates saw me kissing women and going home with them," Tuaolo told an audience of about 40 people who gathered to hear him speak Monday night at the University of Northern Colorado.

Tuaolo was apparently as good at acting as he was on the field.

None of his teammates with the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers or Atlanta Falcons knew Tuaolo was gay until he came out of the closet in 2002 after retirement.

The revelation cost him friendships with many of his former teammates, but being honest about his sexuality lifted a huge burden from Tuaolo's broad shoulders.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Does Scalia Like To Do His Wife Up The Butt?

I may get into some trouble for printing this in it's entirety, but I think it's important enough to risk it.

Debriefing Scalia

Editors' Note: Justice Antonin Scalia got more than he bargained for when he accepted the NYU Annual Survey of American Law's invitation to engage students in a Q&A session. Randomly selected to attend the limited-seating and closed-to-the-press event, NYU law school student Eric Berndt asked Scalia to explain his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case that overturned Bowers v. Hardwick and struck down the nation's sodomy laws. Not satisfied with Scalia's answer, Berndt asked the Justice, "Do you sodomize your wife?" Scalia demurred and law school administrators promptly turned off Berndt's microphone. As Berndt explains in his post to fellow law school students, it was an entirely fair question to pose to a Justice whose opinion--had it been in the majority--would have allowed the state to ask that same question to thousands of gays and lesbians, and to punish them if the answer is yes. We reprint Berndt's open letter below.



Fellow Classmates,


As the student who asked Justice Scalia about his sexual conduct, I am responding to your posts to explain why I believe I had a right to confront Justice Scalia in the manner I did Tuesday, why any gay or sympathetic person has that same right. It should be clear that I intended to be offensive, obnoxious, and inflammatory. There is a time to discuss and there are times when acts and opposition are necessary. Debate is useless when one participant denies the full dignity of the other. How am I to docilely engage a man who sarcastically rants about the "beauty of homosexual relationships" [at the Q&A] and believes that gay school teachers will try to convert children to a homosexual lifestyle [in oral argument for Lawrence]?


Although my question was legally relevant, as I explain below, an independent motivation for my speech-act was to simply subject a homophobic government official to the same indignity to which he would subject millions of gay Americans. It was partially a naked act of resistance and a refusal to be silenced. I wanted to make him and everyone in the room aware of the dehumanizing effect of trivializing such an important relationship. Justice Scalia has no pity for the millions of gay Americans on whom sodomy laws and official homophobia have such an effect, so it is difficult to sympathize with his brief moment of "humiliation," as some have called it. The fact that I am a law student and Scalia is a Supreme Court Justice does not require me to circumscribe my justified opposition and outrage within the bounds of jurisprudential discourse.


Law school and the law profession do not negate my identity as a member of an oppressed minority confronting injustice. Even so, I did have a legal point: Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Lawrence asked whether criminalizing homosexual conduct advanced a state interest "which could justify the intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual." Scalia did not answer this question in his dissent because he believed the state need only assert a legitimate interest to defeat non-fundamental liberties. I basically asked him this question again--it is now the law of the land. He said he did not know whether the interest was significant enough. I then asked him if he sodomizes his wife to subject his intimate relations to the scrutiny he cavalierly would allow others--by force, if necessary. Everyone knew at that moment how significant the interest is. Beyond exerting official power against homosexuals, Scalia is an outspoken and high-profile homophobe. After the aforementioned sarcastic remarks about gay people's relationships, can anyone doubt how little respect he has for LGBT Americans? Even if no case touching gay rights ever came before him, his comments from the bench (that employment non-discrimination is some kind of "homosexual agenda," etc.) and within our very walls are unacceptable to any self-respecting gay person or principled opponent of discrimination. The idea that I should have treated a man with such repugnant views with deference because he is a high government official evinces either a dangerously un-American acceptance of authority or insensitivity to the gay community's grievances. Friends have forwarded me emails complaining of the "liberal" student who asked "the question." That some of my classmates are shallow and insensitive enough to conceptualize my complaint as mere partisan politics is disheartening. Though I should not have to, I will share with everyone that I am neither a Democrat nor Republican and do not consider myself a "liberal" except in the classical sense. I hope that we can separate a simple demand for equality under the law and outrage over being denied it from so much dogmatic ideological baggage. LGBT Americans are still a persecuted minority and our struggle for equal rights is still vital. Four out of five LGBT kids are harassed in school--tell them to debate their harassers. Suicide rates for them are much higher than for others. We still cannot serve in the military, have little protection from employment and other forms of discrimination, and are denied the 1,000+ benefits that accrue from official recognition of marriage. I know some who support gay rights oppose my question and our protest. Do not presume to tell me when and with how much urgency to stand up for our rights.


I am seventeen months out of a lifelong closet and have lost too much time to heterosexist hegemony to tolerate those who say, as Dr. King put it, "Just wait." If you cannot stomach a breach of decorum when justified outrage erupts then your support is nearly worthless anyway. At least do not allow yourselves to become complicit in discrimination by demanding obedience from its victims. Many of our classmates chose NYU over higher-ranked schools because of our reputation as a "private university in the public service" and our commitment to certain values. We were the first law school to require that employers pledge not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Of Scalia's law schools that have "signed on to the homosexual agenda," our signature stands out like John Hancock's. We won a federal injunction in the FAIR litigation as an "expressive association" that counts acceptance of sexual orientation as a core value. Those who worry about our school's prestige should remember how we got here and consider whether flattering those who mock what we believe and are otherwise willing to fight for appears prestigious or pathetic. We protestors did not embarrass NYU, Scalia embarrassed NYU. We stood up to a bigot for the values that make NYU more than a great place to learn the law. I repeat my willingess to discuss this issue calmly with anyone who respects my identity as a gay man. I have had many productive talks with classmates since Tuesday and I hope that will continue.


Respectfully,
ERIC BERNDT

Bravo Eric, Bra-fucking-vo.

Link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Honoring Our Fore-Mothers

40 years later, honors for gay-rights pioneers

By Joseph A. Slobodzian

Inquirer Staff Writer


In a different time, Franklin E. Kameny might have made his name helping send the first U.S. astronauts into space.

Instead, an anonymous tipster ended Kameny's career as a government astronomer in 1957 and forced him into another frontier: gay civil rights.

That was how Kameny, of Washington, came to march outside Independence Hall on July 4, 1965, among 20 conservatively dressed men and women holding picket signs and urging a puzzled crowd to "Support Homosexual Civil Rights."

Now 79, Kameny will return on May 1 to be honored with other gay pioneers by Philadelphia-based Equality Forum, the finale of a week's activities commemorating the 40th anniversary of the gay-rights protest in Philadelphia.

"From a purely substantive viewpoint, this is the gay Olympics," said Equality Forum head Malcolm Lazin, who spares no superlatives describing the events that will begin April 25 and could bring an estimated 50,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to Center City from across North America.

Among notables expected to participate in the May 1 Independence Mall event honoring "40 Heroes" are journalist Andrew Sullivan; Bishop V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire; U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.); and civil-rights lawyers Kate Kendell and Evan Wolfson. A concert later at Penn's Landing will feature singer Cyndi Lauper.

It's a long way from July 4, 1965, when Kameny and company made their first ripple in the public consciousness.

"We were the fringe of the fringe of the fringe," joked Kameny. "A not terribly well-recognized group of crackpots."

Back then, homosexuality was classed as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. There was no visible gay-rights movement, and most people did not know gay as another word for homosexual.

"It was both scary and exhilarating," said Barbara Gittings, 72, of Wilmington, who lived in Center City in the 1960s and picketed that July 4 with partner Kay Tobin Lahusen. "We knew we were doing something that hadn't been done before. It was our first in-your-face street picketing."

There were a few catcalls, Kameny recalled, but mostly nothing: no crush of news photographers and no press except one paragraph in an Inquirer article about the July 4 festivities.

But it was a start. The gay movement rode the rising tide loosed by African American civil-rights protests. In 1965, Kameny said, when he organized picketing in Washington in April and in Philadelphia in July, there were only a half-dozen well-known U.S. homosexual groups. By 1970, a year after gays fought back against police raiding the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, Kameny said, there were 1,500 groups.

Much more in link, including a schedule of Equality Forum Events...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-up

Civil unions ‘not enough’

For 18 years, Kelly McWilliams and LyneLandry have wanted to call each other "wife."

The gay couple lives in a pleasant suburban house and they’re raising children -- much like their neighbors’ lifestyle, with one exception.

They would like to marry, but are prevented by law.

The state’s landmark civil union bill, which appears headed for passage, just doesn’t cut it for McWilliams and Landry and many other gay couples.

Michigan Court Dismisses Gay Benefits Case

(Lansing Michigan) Michigan's appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a school board's same-sex partner benefits plan. But, the issue is not likely to end there. The court threw out the case on a technicality without ruling on the issue of the benefits themselves.

Earlier this month a conservative Christian law firm told the court that the Ann Arbor Public School system is in violation of both Michigan's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and the state's so-called defense of marriage law enacted in 1994.

The Thomas More Law Center, representing 17 taxpayers, asked the court to bar the school district from offering health insurance and retirement benefits to gay couples in future contracts.

Gay Families Harder Hit On Tax Day

(Washington) Like millions of other Americans gay and lesbian couples are filing their income taxes today, but unlike other taxpayers gay families are harder hit and receive fewer benefits.

LGBT rights groups are protesting the inequity in a number of cities.

“We are protesting to raise awareness about the discrimination same-sex couples face by our federal tax laws,” says Kathy Kelly, Equality Georgia who is demonstrating at the Post Office on Pharr Road.

“On tax day, it is particularly difficult for same-sex couples because it is a time when the federal government forces us to enter into a legal fiction of being single - when we are actually longtime together couples. In reality, our lives are completely intertwined—just like any other married couple. We own our homes, bank accounts, and investments together, yet we are forced to divvy all that up as if we are single persons when it comes to income taxes.”

Prosecutor Appeals Gay Marriage Ban Ruling

(Lebanon, Ohio) A county prosecutor is appealing a judge's ruling that unmarried people cannot be prosecuted for domestic violence because of a new law banning gay marriage.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson ruled this week that a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November prohibits the extension of domestic violence laws to unmarried couples.

Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel has appealed the ruling, which was issued in a case against a man charged with beating someone to whom he was not married.

The amendment passed by Ohio voters defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. It bans legal status such as civil unions to unmarried people. But judges have differed in their interpretation of how that applies to domestic violence charges.

--Scott J Grunewald

Student/Teacher Relations: Gay's At School News Round-Up

Iowa GOP Moves To Block Gay Bully Law

(Des Moines, Iowa) Republicans in the Iowa Senate say they will use "every method that's legal" to block legislation adding sexuality to a law aimed at curbing bullying in schools.

...

State law requires school boards to have a policy on bullying, but the GOP said including sexuality in the policy would "create special rights".

The bill would require public and private schools to add harassment prevention goals to their school improvement plans by Jan. 1, 2006. It specifically identifies intimidation based on age, race, religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation.

Why isn’t anyone pointing out that by trying to block this bill Iowa Republicans are essentially saying that it’s okay to kick the snot out of gay teenagers?

Boston College Strikes For Gay Rights

(Boston) Students and faculty at Boston College staged a one-day strike Friday to support gay and lesbians on the campus of the Catholic University.

Nearly a thousand people gathered in the center of campus for a rally, many of the students wearing T-shirts that read, "Gay? Fine By Me.''

The college's human rights code does not include sexuality and students have been engaged in a protracted battle with the administration to be more inclusive.

"We are hoping to get sexual orientation to be on equal footing with other forms of discrimination included in the university's non-discrimination clause,'' BC senior Brenna Casey told the Boston Herald.

Four South Windsor students sent home for anti-gay T-shirts

April 16, 2005, 3:58 PM EDT

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. -- Four South Windsor high school students were sent home Friday after T-shirts they wore bearing anti-gay slogans caused disturbances, students and school officials said.

The boys, who wore white T-shirts with the statement, "Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve," say their constitutional right to free speech was violated.

"We were just voicing our opinions," said Steven Vendetta, who made the T-shirts with his friends, Kyle Shinfield, David Grimaldi and another student who was not identified by the Journal Inquirer of Manchester. "We didn't tell other people to think what we're thinking. We just told them what we think."

Falwell's Boy Talks Moderation

(Lynchburg, Virginia) The new dean of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University theological seminary is a former Sunni Muslim who plans to turn out a hipper generation of graduates by relating to them with lyrics from rapper 50 Cent, TV's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and the latest movies and film stars.

Ergun Mehmet Caner cracks one-liners as easily as he quotes a Bible verse.

Lecturing to a packed auditorium of 450 students, Caner mixed religion with jokes to keep his students on their toes in a late afternoon theology class.

He asked his students which popular actors they would marry "if she or he was a Christian." Their answers brought howls of laughter from the classroom.

"In a given lecture, I'll talk about 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' C.S. Lewis, 'Plato's Cave' and some lyrics by 50 Cent," Caner said of some subjects one normally wouldn't associate with Falwell's university. Caner sees it as a way to connect with his young audiences.

That has got to be the most inexplicably idiotic headline I’ve ever read. I know 365gay.com has a pretty straight forward agenda, but do they have to be so obvious about it? Why couldn’t they have said “New Falwell Professor Talks Moderation”?

--Scott J Grunewald

Top Military Officer: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Works Great. Almost As Great As Our Iraq Exit Strategy”

Gen. Myers Backs Military's Gay Policy

By Associated Press

April 15, 2005, 1:40 PM EDT


WASHINGTON -- The nation's top military officer on Friday defended a "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has led to the discharge of 9,500 gay members of the armed forces since 1993.

"We try to implement the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy as best we can," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a conference of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He also mentioned "continuing education" in regards to the policy but did not explain what that meant.

The policy permits gay men and women to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves. Critics say the policy discriminates against people who want to serve their country.

Other Pentagon officials, including Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey, have also said they see no need to change the policy, despite declining recruitment figures.

A February report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said 9,488 members of the services had been discharged under the policy through 2003.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Republicans Exposed! No, These Aren’t More Pictures Of Jeff Gannon’s Cock

Gay Republicans Soldier On, One Skirmish at a Time

By PATRICK D. HEALY

Published: April 17, 2005

Being a gay Republican has never been easy. But it seems to grow more complicated with every passing marriage.

Just over a week ago, a well-connected Republican strategist, Arthur J. Finkelstein, acknowledged that he had wed his partner of 40 years. Mr. Finkelstein guards his private life carefully (the wedding was in December), but the disclosure immediately found its way into the public debate about same-sex marriage and about the isolation of married gays in a party whose leaders want to outlaw their unions.

The vulnerability of gay Republicans to scorn - by those in their own party, as well as by Democrats, gay or not - was further exposed when Bill Clinton suggested last week that Mr. Finkelstein might suffer from "self-loathing" because he spent so many years advising Republicans who have been hostile to gay rights. Some aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were irked by Mr. Clinton's remark, seeing the self-loathing label as old stereotyping that surely did not help Mrs. Clinton, whose re-election Mr. Finkelstein is working to prevent.

Yet the former president was also missing the point: self-loathing is nothing new for gay people of any stripe (see McGreevey, James E.). What is new is that the movement for equality has shifted to a different level, as gay Republicans, one by one and town by town, are now asserting a public role for themselves - and their spouses.

For gay Republicans today, identity politics may be a challenge in the conservative wing of the party, but they are making friends elsewhere. They may break with President Bush on same-sex marriage, but they are building relationships with grass-roots Republicans on city councils and boards who have real power over nondiscrimination laws. Curiously, as the party moves to the right on many social issues, the number of gays who identify themselves as Republican is growing, advocacy groups say, with gays saying that they want to influence a party that is (a) theirs and (b) politically ascendant.

This is actually a pretty interesting article about the roles of gays and lesbians in the Republican Party. I got an e-mail the other day by a gay republican who proceeded to run off a list of the reasons that he was a Republican and why I needed to respect that. He also told me that the current anti-gay stance of the Republican Party is a relatively new one, and that traditional Republican values don’t include hate.

Does he not see that that doesn’t matter? I don’t care what the Republican values of yesterday are, what matters is the Republican values of today, and those are decisively anti-gay. I don’t want gay Republicans to quit the Republican Party. They shouldn’t be chased away by the bible thumpers and bullies. What I do want gay Republicans to do is stop voting for and endorsing fervently anti-gay candidates. It’s that simple.

If that hurts the Republican Party, then hey, maybe that will get them to stop pandering to the hate of the fringe right.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Okay, You’re Not “Intolerant”, You’re Just A “Douche Bag”

Gay-rights editorial made 2 errors

In the March 29 editorial "Gay-rights bill headed in right direction," the editor made two errors I would like to point out.

First, he lumped all of Michael Heath's supporters together and branded them "intolerant." Am I to presume, then, that the editor has met each of these people, and therefore has the ability to accurately judge each of them? I didn't think so. I'm not a fan of Heath's style of leadership, but I also know that being prematurely judgmental is wrong.

Second, he misused the word "intolerant." For a long time now, the commonly accepted definition of "tolerate" has been "to allow," so to be "intolerant" would mean "to not allow." How can I "not allow" homosexuality? The answer is I have to allow it. Though I disagree with the practice 100 percent, I respect people's God-given freedom of choice; so if someone chooses to practice homosexuality, I'm not going to forcibly prevent them from doing so. Therefore, I'm tolerant.

The pro-homosexuality movement, however, has changed the meaning of "tolerate" to "agree with," so that if you don't agree with homosexuality, you're "intolerant," and of course "intolerant" has a such a negative connotation that anyone branded with it looks like a walking scarlet letter.

Shut up.

More douche baggery in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

I Now Pronounce You Man And Bitch

State Says 'No' To Gay Prison Marriage

Officials Cite Security Concerns

BOSTON -- State correction officials have rejected the request of two male inmates at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater, Mass., to marry, citing a significant security risk.

Sex offenders Essie Billingslea and Bruce Hatt requested permission to marry in early February. But the request was turned down by prison Supt. Robert Murphy in a letter to Billingslea that was made public Tuesday.

Personally, I don’t think any person in prison should be allowed to marry. The point of being in prison is to take away the rights afforded you out in the real world. Marriage should be one of those rights. However, if hets are allowed to get married than moes should also be allowed to get married.

That being said, I’m not going to bend over backwards to fight for two sex offenders right to get hitched in jail. Sorry, I can’t be bothered.

I don’t even know why two guys would want to get married in jail. Where are they going to register, the prison store? How many rolls of toilet paper and Snickers bars can you get before opening your wedding presents just gets boring?

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

The new buzzword is Civil Unions. Because nothing takes the sting out of state sanctioned homophobia like being officially classified as a second class citizen.

Connecticut House Backs Gay Civil Unions

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: April 14, 2005

ARTFORD, April 13 - The Connecticut House on Wednesday approved a measure to allow civil unions between same-sex couples, but added an amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The move sent the bill back to the Senate, delaying final passage in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly until next week at the earliest. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, said after the vote that she would sign the bill if the Senate approves the House version.

Some supporters of civil unions dismissed the amendment as "political cover" for lawmakers wary of public backlash if they voted for civil unions. They said the amendment would not diminish what they called historic legislation. The full bill passed 85 to 63.

"There are 588 rights and opportunities that are going to be made available to same-sex couples," said Senator Andrew J. McDonald, a Democrat who is the chief sponsor of the bill in the Senate. "That's an undeniable victory of unprecedented proportions."

Oregon legislators, governor back gay civil unions

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Gay and lesbian couples in Oregon would have marriage-like rights in the form of civil unions under a bipartisan bill introduced in the Legislature on Wednesday.
The move, backed by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, came one day before the Oregon Supreme Court was expected to rule on the legality of gay marriage.

The measure would grant same-sex couples legal protections, rights and responsibilities generally afforded to opposite-sex couples through marriage.

"Forming a family is a fundamental right. Oregon should provide a framework that offers legal protections to any loving, committed couple that wants to become a family," Republican Sen. Ben Westlund said.

In March 2004, more than 3,000 same-sex couples married after Portland's Multnomah County began issuing marriage licenses. A judge temporarily halted the marriages, and the case eventually moved to the Oregon Supreme Court.

In November, Oregon voters joined 10 other states in rejecting a change to the state constitution that would have permitted gay marriage.

BYU professor to senators: Courts will OK gay marriage

By Robert Gehrke

The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - If Congress wants to ban same-sex marriage, it should do its part in approving a constitutional amendment prohibiting the practice before the courts force states to honor such unions, a Brigham Young University law professor told senators Wednesday.

Professor Lynn Wardle said the courts are on a path toward finding a constitutional basis for requiring states to honor gay marriages, and the existing Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law allowing states to define which marriages they honor, would not stand up if that happens.

“Today, we feel the institution of marriage is severely threatened,” Wardle said. “The bedrock of our society, the basic, fundamental unit, is under attack.”

Debate reopens on gay unions

Sen. Sam Brownback's subcommittee hears testimony about amending the U.S. Constitution.

BY ALAN BJERGA

Eagle Washington bureau


WASHINGTON - Fresh off Kansas' adoption of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Sen. Sam Brownback started a series of hearings Wednesday on whether a federal constitutional ban is necessary.

He received a rocky reception.

Civil liberty groups and groups supporting same-sex marriage plastered the Senate hearing room with literature questioning the need for additional federal laws on such partnerships.

Meanwhile, Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that Brownback chairs, criticized Brownback for holding a hearing on what he considered a second-tier topic.

But Brownback continued with what he said will be the first of several hearings examining how marriage can remain legally limited to a union of one man and one woman, free from court rulings that he says undermine the institution.

Current federal law banning same-sex marriage, he said, is "increasingly at risk from an activist judiciary determined to run roughshod over... the will of the people."

--Scott J Grunewald

Innocent Homophobe Victim Of Angry, Well Meaning If Not Especially Witty, Pro-Gay Students

Students retaliate anti-gay message

One student steals picketer's anti-homosexuality sign. Another student designs a poster mocking the man.

By Anna Jewett

Students reacted with intensity to the protest of an anonymous picketer who cited Bible passages in expressing anti-gay sentiments Tuesday afternoon in Hahn Plaza near Student Union.

His presence incited some students to actively respond. The man was on campus holding a sign denouncing homosexuality for about three hours.

Throughout the day, students would argue with the man, at times attracting a crowd of about 30 students.

Holly Painter, a sophomore majoring in English, decided to more actively protest the picketer.

She purchased yellow posterboard from the bookstore and wrote, "This man has nothing better to do with his life than spread hate, pathetic, huh?" Painter then drew an arrow that pointed to the man and stood next to him.

Your sign was cute Holly, but it really could have been cuter. For instance, you could have made a sign that mimicked his bible passages with quotes from Cosmo. Or, you could have gone with a “God may have created Adam and Eve, but he thinks Adam and Steve are really cute together”.

So you see, Holly? While the thought is really appreciated I must insist that you leave the snarky sarcasm to us queers.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Taking The Hint

Atwood Kansas' Web site changed briefly to attack anti-gay marriage vote

Associated Press

ATWOOD, Kan. - For a short time after Kansas passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, the official Web site for this tiny community in the northwest corner of the state was devoted to a denunciation of the vote.

That's because it angered Daniel Lippold, a former Atwood resident now living in California. Lippold, who is gay, created and owns the city Web site, www.atwoodkansas.com. It had promoted free land the community was offering to developers interested in locating there. But in response to the April 5 statewide vote, Lippold redesigned the site and posted a strongly critical open letter.

...

While Lippold said he knew Kansas would approve the amendment, he didn't expect Atwood to go along with it and was "disappointed and heartbroken" by the result.

"I thought since everybody in my hometown knew who I was ... they wouldn't vote for it," he said in a telephone interview with the Lawrence Journal-World.

"I am sad to say that I will no longer consider Atwood my hometown," he wrote. "The next time someone makes a joke about Kansans being rednecks, hypocrites, etc., I will not defend it."

This, sadly, proves a point that I’ve been making for years. Homophobes are awful brave about their bigotry in the privacy of a voting booth when they’re not so brave with it to your face.

That’s why I love the craziness of Fred Phelps so much. He may be a dried up piece of crusty human excrement, but at least he’s honest about what he believes. There’s nothing worse than a frightened bigot who goes out of his way to assure you that he’s not a frightened bigot.

More in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Politicians Coming Out

Former [Kansas] mayor says he is gay

LAWRENCE — Before leaving office, the outgoing mayor, Mike Rundle, announced he was gay. He said he made the announcement partly because of a statewide vote in favor of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution banning gay marriage.

“It is with dignity and pride that I acknowledge that I have been Lawrence mayor and in all likelihood, Lawrence's first gay mayor,” Rundle said Tuesday night after finishing his one-year term. His announcement was greeted with applause from the audience and fellow commissioners.

Lawrence has a city manager form of government. The mayor, who is picked by the City Commission, has the power to make some appointments to advisory boards and commissions, but the position is otherwise largely ceremonial.

Republican state senator acknowledges he's gay

BY PATRICK SWEENEY

Pioneer Press


State Sen. Paul Koering, a Republican from Fort Ripley who has been caught up in the debate over a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, said Wednesday that he is gay and that many of his legislative colleagues have known about his sexuality for some time.

In interviews published by the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune, the Brainerd Dispatch and a Web log, therawstory.com, Koering said he had faced questions about his sexuality since he joined Senate Democrats a week ago in defeating an attempt to force a floor vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"I've always felt like my personal life was just that — personal," Koering told the Brainerd Dispatch.

He decided to publicly acknowledge he is gay because the questions were taking up time that he preferred to spend on his legislative activities, said Koering, 40, a liquor store owner.

--Scott J Grunewald

Hot Collegiate Jocks Crammed In The Closet. Hot Or Sad?

Locked in silence
Some gay athletes at UCLA feel isolated from teammates and coaches on and off the field

By Adam de Jong
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR

Each day, gay and lesbian students on campus contemplate coming out. It shouldn't be a surprise that some are varsity athletes. Yet this group of individuals faces a unique set of pressures.

Even at UCLA, which prides itself on being one of the most diverse and tolerant institutions in the country, there are gay and lesbian student-athletes who are scared of the consequences of revealing their sexual orientation.

Several said they are fearful they would be the victims of verbal and physical abuse if they came out to their teammates and coaches, and one alleged that his coach has threatened to dismiss any openly gay athlete from his team.

"My coach has made homophobic remarks," said a gay varsity male athlete at UCLA, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He said that if there were any faggots on the team he would kick them off. I know he can't really kick anyone off the team for their sexual orientation, but I definitely feel like I would be pressured to leave."

...

The examples of homophobic incidents at other institutions are numerous.

The University of Hawai'i changed the name and logo of its football team from the Rainbow Warriors to the Warriors in 2000 because of the association with the gay rainbow flag.

The USC marching band reportedly taunted UCLA by playing the notes F, A and G in successive order at football games as recently as 2000.

And North Carolina State had to apologize in February 2004 after men's basketball player Scooter Sherrill noted that Duke's JJ Redick holds his hand up on the follow-through of his shot "like he's gay or something."

Perhaps the most egregious recent homophobic incident in college sports occurred at the University of Florida in 2003, where former softball player Andrea Zimbardi was allegedly dropped from the team in her senior season because she is a lesbian.

The school settled the case in court with Zimbardi, agreeing to include a sexual-orientation component in its non-discrimination policy and provide diversity training dealing with homophobia to all its coaches and administrators.

I understand the desire to keep yourself closeted in the face of intolerance and prejudice but when the marching band and a guy named ‘Scooter’ start fucking with you it’s time to buck up and take a stand.

Much, much more in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Senate Schedules Gay Marriage Amendment Hearing

by Doreen Brandt 365Gay.com Washington Bureau

Posted: April 12, 2005 5:01 pm ET

(Washington) The US Senate will begin hearings Wednesday on a new attempt to pass a Federal Marriage Amendment to bar same-sex couples from tying the knot.

The issue will be taken up by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. The subcommittee has title the hearing "Less Faith in Judicial Credit: Are Federal and State Marriage Protection Initiatives Vulnerable to Judicial Activism".

The amendment was introduced in the Senate in January by Colorado Republican Sen. Wayne Allard. It would deny marriage to same-sex couples and deny the ability to provide any protections to same-sex couples, such as domestic partnerships and civil unions.

Maryland Gov. Silent On Signing Gay Partner Bills

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: April 12, 2005 5:01 pm ET

(Annapolis, Maryland) Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has not indicated if he will sign or veto three gay rights bills including one that would create a limited domestic partnership registry.

Ehrlich, a Republican, has 30 days to act. He has three options - signs the bills in into law, veto them or do nothing, in which case the measures become law.

The partner registry is one of key components of the the Medical Decision-Making Act of 2005. The measure, passed last night, creates a statewide life partnership registry for unmarried couples and extends 11 rights to registered couples, including the right to hospital visitation, to make medical decisions on behalf of a partner, to make funeral arrangements and to share a room in a nursing home.

Mass. Lawmakers Consider Repeal Of Out Of State Gay Marriage Ban

by Michael J. Meade 365Gay.com Boston Bureau

Posted: April 12, 2005 2:04 pm ET

(Boston) The Massachusetts legislature is considering the repeal of a 1913 law that bars issuing wedding licenses to people whose marriages would be illegal in the states where they reside.

But, it also will look at three other bills to block all same-sex marriages in the state.

Shortly after Massachusetts's highest court ruled in 2003 that the state could not bar gays and lesbians from marrying Gov. Mitt Romney declared that the 1913 law prevented town clerks from issuing licenses to couples who do not reside in Massachusetts.

The law had been created when Massachusetts legalized interracial marriage and faced an outcry from other states which still banned the unions. Even then, the law was seldom enforced. After the US Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that preventing interracial marriage was illegal and struck down bans in those states which still prevented them the Massachusetts law collected dust.

Texas Anti-Gay Amendment Goes To House Vote

by The Associated Press

Posted: April 11, 2005 9:01 pm ET

(Austin, Texas) A proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage won approval Monday in a House committee.

The resolution filed by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, would allow Texas voters to decide whether to amend the constitution to define marriage as a union only between one man and one woman. The measure now moves to the full House.

Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, said the resolution discriminates against gay Texans. Marriage affords hundreds of legal rights, including the ability to visit a spouse in the hospital, he said.

Legislature approves measure opposing gay marriage

PHOENIX The Arizona Legislature approved a measure today urging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The nonbinding measure's passage came nearly a year after a similar proposal failed at the Legislature.

Its chances were improved when elections in November increased the Republican majority in the Senate, where last year's measure was defeated.

Even though state law already outlaws same-sex marriages, supporters say the measure would further protect the sanctity of families by helping prevent judges from overturning the prohibition.

--Scott J Grunewald

DUUUHHHHH

Next Pope Unlikely To Change Church's Gay Stance

by Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press

Posted: April 11, 2005 9:01 pm ET

(New York City) The majority of America's Roman Catholics tell pollsters they want a greater voice for the laity in the church, that priests should be allowed to marry and that there should be women in the clergy.

As the world's focus turns to the secretive election of the pope April 18, those U.S. Catholics might want to prepare themselves for some disappointment.

The winner seems certain to continue John Paul II's progressive policies on social issues such as war and peace, human rights and concern for the poor. But on hot-button concerns that so captivate U.S. Catholics, and often the media, expect no changes. That includes the late pope's firm policies against gay sex, same-sex marriage, women priests, divorce and remarriage, birth control, abortion, mercy-killing and stem cell research using human embryos.

Wow, I’m shocked. Truly, truly shocked.

More of the obvious in link...

--Scott J Grunewald

Clinton Vs. The Gay

Clinton Decries Anti-Hillary Fund-Raiser

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Former President Clinton says it's "sad" that a Republican political consultant who married his male partner is raising funds to defeat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. But an associate says there's nothing wrong with being gay and Republican.

Clinton said Monday there might be "some sort of self-loathing" for Arthur Finkelstein, the longtime GOP operative who helped Gov. George Pataki unseat Democrat Mario Cuomo in 1994.

Finkelstein told The New York Times last week that he had married his partner of 40 years in Massachusetts, saying he believes "visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners." The marriage took place in December.

Finkelstein is lining up donors to help raise $10 million for a "Stop Her Now" committee to defeat the senator's 2006 re-election effort. New York magazine first reported Finkelstein's "Stop Her Now" plan in February, and a GOP operative speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the account to The Associated Press at the time.

At a news conference Monday about his foundation's AIDS initiatives, the former president was asked whether the anti-Hillary efforts made him angry.

"Actually, I was sort of sad when I read it," he said.

"I thought, one of two things. Either this guy believes his party is not serious and is totally Machiavellian in its position, or you know, as David Brock said in his great book 'Blinded by the Right,' there's some sort of self-loathing or something. I was more sad for him."

I have to agree with Clinton here. Any gay person who would willingly work with the Republican Party as it is today has a serious problem with their own sexuality.

That doesn’t mean that a gay person can’t be a Republican. It just means that the Republican leadership is waging open war on gays and lesbians and any gay person who supports that war, even indirectly, isn’t interested in self preservation.

Gay Republicans shouldn’t have to sell themselves out for party loyalty, especially considering the party clearly isn’t loyal to them. I’m not suggesting that gay Republicans join the Democratic Party or stop believing in what they believe in. I’m just saying, speak up, stop giving money and stop giving votes to Republicans that hate us.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Christians Just Can't Shut The Fuck Up

Groups Hold Dueling Pro- and Anti-Gay Days

Conservatives Try to Counter Gay-Supportive 'Day of Silence' With a 'Day of Truth'

By DAVID CRARY
The Associated Press

NEW YORK Apr 12, 2005 — Irked by the success of the nationwide Day of Silence, which seeks to combat anti-gay bias in schools, conservative activists are launching a counter-event this week called the Day of Truth aimed at mobilizing students who believe homosexuality is sinful.

Participating students are being offered T-shirts with the slogan "The Truth Cannot be Silenced" and cards to pass out to classmates Thursday the day following the Day of Silence declaring their unwillingness to condone "detrimental personal and social behavior."

The driving force behind the Day of Truth is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that has opposed same-sex marriage and challenged restrictions on religious expression in public schools. The event is endorsed by several influential conservative organizations, including the Christian ministry Focus on the Family and the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Mike Johnson, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney from Shreveport, La., said organizers were unsure how many students would participate in the Day of Truth, but expressed hope it would grow in coming years as more people learned about it.

Johnson said the event is meant to be "peaceful and respectful," but made clear it is motivated by belief that homosexuality is wrong. "You can call it sinful or destructive ultimately it's both," he said.

Gays and lesbians finally give the far right what they want, they keep their mouth shut for a whole day, and STILL they’re not happy!

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--Scott J Grunewald

I Think We Found Our Replacement For Feinstein

S.F. Mayor To Speak About Gay Marriage At UCSD

Last Updated:
04-11-05 at 2:05PM

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is speaking on the status of same-sex marriage Monday. Newsom triggered a political firestorm last year when he ordered the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

More than four thousand couples married in San Francisco before the California Supreme Court voided the marriages, ruling that the mayor had overstepped his authority. Newsom is speaking this evening at UCSD's RIMAC Arena.

I know, I know, Feinstein is generally a friend of the queer, but her remarks about gay marriage being “Too much, too soon” and being the reason Kerry lost the election are a pretty brazen slap in the face to the community that’s gotten her elected time and time again. Maybe Miz ‘Stein would reconsider fucking over her friends for a few cheap prime time sound bites if we toss our pink money behind someone else.

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--Scott J Grunewald

It's Not That Teachers Don't Want To Protect Gay Kids, It's That Gay Slurs Are Often Confused With Hip Hop Slang

Onus is on educators to protect students from anti-gay bullying

McGill doctoral student presents findings at American Educational Research Association
Labels such as "fag" and "lesbian" remain popular weapons against students in Canadian and U.S. schools, according to McGill University researcher Elizabeth Meyer. "Students are being violently and repeatedly harassed in schools with anti-gay comments, jokes and behaviors," cautions Meyer, a doctoral student in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, who is among 80 McGill researchers presenting at the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) annual meeting in Montreal until April 15.

When students are victims of verbal or physical abuse, says Meyer, the onus for their protection falls on educators. "There needs to be a concerted effort by educators to create and offer teachers training that addresses the concerns of students who are targeted for this sort of harassment," says Meyer. "Educators need to set aside their personal prejudices and fears to effectively support and teach all students."

Yet educators still turn blind eyes and deaf ears to harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and gender non-conforming students. "In many cases teachers are not intervening and that lack of intervention allows these behaviors to continue," says Meyer. "All students suffer when prejudices go unchecked. By accepting such antisocial behaviors, educators send the message prejudices are appropriate to our culture."

I don’t think anyone who wasn’t one of the popular kids in school is all that shocked that many teachers aren’t doing their jobs and protecting the less popular students. Let’s face it, teachers can be dicks to.

We don’t need to educate teachers on why they need to protect at risk kids like gay and lesbian teens, we need to make it fucking mandatory. It won’t solve the problem, but it’s a good start.

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--Scott J Grunewald

"Burn In Hell Fags! And Don't Forget To Wear Your Jacket, It's Cold Today!"

Folksy grandma battles gay marriage
As religious right musters in Central Valley, Jody Hutchens emerges as an unlikely leader

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, April 11, 2005

Jody Hutchens acknowledges she is an unlikely lobbyist against same-sex marriage. The 62-year-old grandmother is a former beauty salon owner who never went to college, wears her hair in a bouffant and is prone to malaprops -- like when she referred to Assemblyman Mark Leno, the sponsor of California's same-sex marriage bill, as "Jay Leno."

Yet her real-folk charm plays well in the Central Valley, where Hutchens is the face of the Traditional Values Coalition, the Anaheim-based Christian lobbying organization that has long been at the forefront of anti-gay rights and anti-abortion rights measures nationally.

The face of the enemy is wrinkled, wears too much rouge, and likes to spit on Kleenex and wipe smudges of dirt off your faces.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Drink New Coke With Lime And Ejaculate!

The new slogan for Coke with Lime is as follows:

"You put the lime with the Coke, you nut, you drink them both up"

DIRTY!

--Scott J Grunewald

Gay Marriage News Round-Up

Adviser to GOP had gay wedding

Political strategist in far-right races is called 'hypocrite'
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | April 10, 2005

(Clarification: A story in yesterday's City & Region section about the reported marriage of Republican political consultant Arthur J. Finkelstein described him as an adviser to Governor Mitt Romney. Finkelstein conducted one poll for Romney in 2002 before he entered the race for governor.)

A Republican consultant known for his sharp attacks on liberal causes -- and for boosting conservative careers like that of former US senator Jesse Helms -- married his longtime male partner late last year at their home in Ipswich.

Arthur J. Finkelstein, 59, has advised Governor Mitt Romney, who opposes gay marriage, and Governor George S. Pataki of New York, who said gay marriages performed in Massachusetts would not be recognized in his state. Finkelstein played a key role in Helms's come-from-behind victory in 1990, a campaign denounced for using homophobia to win votes.

Helms, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for 30 years, has rejected gay rights and has called homosexual behavior "disgusting."

New England holds out on gay marriage ban

By ROBERT TANNER
AP NATIONAL WRITER

It seems a can't-lose proposition: Ask voters to ban same-sex marriages and they consistently endorse the idea, from the South to the West.

Kansas on Tuesday became the latest and 18th state to pass a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. With conservatives pushing to define marriage as between a man and woman throughout the country, similar proposals are on the ballot in three other states next year and more than a dozen are considering them.

New England has been the major holdout; there, legislators and judges have strengthened rights for gays and lesbians. The Connecticut Senate on Wednesday voted to legalize civil unions. If the bill becomes law, Connecticut would be the only state to do so without a court order demanding lawmakers act.

Rally supports gay unions

Opposed to a same-sex marriage ban, thousands rally at Capitol

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER

Pioneer Press


With love, hope and anger, thousands of gay and straight Minnesotans rallied Thursday on the Capitol lawn, resisting a push to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, senators inside the Capitol dealt them a slight victory by refusing to immediately vote on a measure that would put the constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot.

"Congratulations to all of us on a successful day so far," said Ann DeGroot, executive director of the state's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights organization, in kicking off the rally and lobbying day. Estimates of the rally's size ranged from 2,500 to 5,000.

DeGroot and others noted the Senate vote against the amendment was tri-partisan. All 35 Democratic senators, plus one Republican (Paul Koering of Fort Ripley) and the Senate's one Independence Party member (Sheila Kiscaden of Rochester) opposed pulling the measure from committee for a vote Thursday. The rest of the Senate's 30 members supported a move to force the issue to an immediate vote.

Poll: civil unions backed, gay marriage opposed

April 7, 2005, 8:11 AM EDT

HAMDEN, Conn. -- When it comes to same-sex relationships, Connecticut residents back civil unions, but not gay marriage, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

The poll was released the day after the state Senate voted 27-9 in favor of a bill to allow civil unions, which would give gay and lesbian couples many of the same rights as married couples.

The poll found 56 percent of registered voters support civil unions, however, when it comes to actual marriage, 53 percent of those polled oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry.

In a breakdown of poll results according to political party affiliation, Democrats back both civil unions and gay marriage, 66 percent and 53 percent respectively. Republicans are narrowly divided on civil unions, 45 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed, but 70 percent oppose gay marriage.

--Scott J Grunewald

Kansas Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Fallout

Antipathy toward gay marriage overwhelmed doubts on amendment

JOHN HANNA

Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. - Opponents argued that amending the Kansas Constitution to ban gay marriage wasn't just about preserving a sacred institution.

They said the change would block or limit health coverage and other benefits for unmarried Kansans, including heterosexuals.

Many Kansans apparently didn't hear the message, didn't agree or worried more about potential legal challenges to the state's long-standing policy of recognizing only marriages between one man and one woman.

They also may have made a larger statement about how they view gays' and lesbians' desire for acceptance of their relationships.

"I think they're seeking approval, endorsement and even promotion of their lifestyle," said the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor at Wichita's Central Christian Church, a leader of the effort for the amendment. "I think that rubs people as raw as them wanting to get married does. I think most Americans do view it as a perversion."

The amendment, approved with 70 percent of the vote last week, reaffirms the state's traditional definition of marriage. It also declares that only those unions are entitled to "the rights and incidents" of marriage.

After Kansas Gay Marriage Ban Fears Of Adoption Future

by The Associated Press

Posted: April 11, 2005 12:01 am ET

(Topeka, Kansas) With new language in the Kansas Constitution banning marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples, some activists fear they will soon face legislative efforts to ban adoptions by gays and lesbians.

While no such proposal has been introduced, one could find some legislative support.

Voters' approval last week of a constitutional amendment on marriage did have supporters considering other issues, such trying to reduce divorce.

But gay rights activists have worried for weeks that a bill to prohibit gays and lesbians from adopting children would surface. Tom Witt, a field organizer for Equality Kansas, a Wichita gay rights group, said that he expects such a proposal next year.

"They're going to start talking about the rest of their agenda in more detail," Witt said. "They're going to start stripping us of our right to form families."

Kansas Corporations To Maintain Gay Partner Benefits Despite Amendment

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: April 7, 2005 9:01 pm ET

(Topeka, Kansas) Two major corporations based in Kansas say that despite a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage they will not end benefits for the partners of the gay and lesbian employees.

In separate announcements Thursday Sprint and SBC Communications said they have no intention of canceling benefits.

Sprint spokesperson Jennifer Bosshardt says the company believes domestic-partner benefits are important for attracting and keeping good employees.

Conservative Christians say they may take the two companies to court. But, Attorney General. Phill Kline, a supporter of the amendment, said Thursday that the amendment does not affect private companies.

He added, however, that he intended to defend the amendment if it were challenged on constitutional grounds.

Meanwhile, one of the main supporters of the amendment said the overwhelming support the measure received - it was approved by 70% of voters - is a warning to state officials to support other conservative issues.

"This has awakened the body of Christ," said the Rev. Terry Fox of Wichita.

Fox said that his supporters are now focusing on "evolution and abortion clinics."

--Scott J Grunewald

I'm Gonna Have To Start Doing "Fred Phelps Crazy News" Bulk Posts If This Keeps Up

Anti-gay group plans protest of DSA play

By Mindy B. Hagen : The Herald-Sun
mhagen@heraldsun.com
Apr 9, 2005 : 7:31 pm ET

DURHAM -- A group of anti-gay activists from a Kansas church plans to descend on Durham on May 6 and 7 for protests and picketing.

The group's target? A play put on by high school students at the Durham School of the Arts.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, travels across the country to protest performances of "The Laramie Project." The play focuses on a Wyoming town's reaction to the death of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man beaten to death there.

Phelps and his supporters picketed at Shepard's 1998 funeral, declaring their disgust of his homosexual lifestyle.

In an interview with The Herald-Sun, Phelps said his group has protested "The Laramie Project" play at nearly 100 locations across the nation.

"It is a tacky, substandard, cheap and banal effort to glamorize what is essentially a sinful boy's life," Phelps said. "That boy lived in sin and died in sin and is in Hell now. Fags use the play as a propaganda tool to recruit young Americans to emulate Matt Shepard."

Phelps said he planned to attend the Durham demonstration, along with 12 to 15 family members and supporters. In a notice on his Web site, www.godhatesfags.com, Phelps urged supporters to join him.

"WBC will picket the fag-infested Durham School of the Arts and The Laramie Project fag propaganda play," the notice reads, before giving out the school's address and picketing dates.

Oh Fred, I just cannot wait until you die, go to Heaven, find out that God is a black lesbian who promptly kicks you in your small, shriveled testicles.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Why Hasn't Hollywood Made A Fred Phelps Reality Show Yet?

Community fights back at Gage protesters

By JIM STANTON, Courier Staff Writer

WATERLOO --- Members of an ultra-conservative congregation from Topeka, Kan., came to Waterloo to disrupt today's benefit concert for Jason Gage, 29, an openly gay man beaten to death March 12.

The roughly 20 members of Westboro Baptist Church got an early start at making enemies Saturday afternoon by picketing Blessed Sacrament Church and First United Methodist Church.

As Blessed Sacrament parishioners came to 4:30 p.m. Mass, protesters held up signs saying "AIDS is God's Curse" and "Thank God for Tsunami." Another claimed Pope John Paul II was in hell.

A handful of local residents came out to jeer the group, exchanging angry words and shouting Bible versus about forgiveness.

Julie Wessels of Waterloo, who is Roman Catholic but not a member of Blessed Sacrament, rolled into the Blessed Sacrament parking lot on a motorcycle.

"That ain't Christian!" she shouted. "Jesus said, 'Love thy neighbor!' They don't want to hear that."

Now, as much as I love posting articles about Fred Phelps, the real reason I posted it was because this caught my eye...

Today's concert will raise money for a scholarship fund for other students at the College of Hair Design, where Gage attended.

...

With the benefit concert, organizers hope to raise money for students who share Gage's dream of styling hair in large metropolitan salons.

"Their picketing in no way, shape or form changes the focus of anything we're trying to do," said Chris Thompson, vice president of the nonprofit group administering the funds. "We have the same goals today knowing they're coming as we had before --- to celebrate the life of our friend, Jason Gage, and to continue the work of the Jason Gage Scholarship Fund."

I know this is mean, but my god, why didn’t they just have a celebrity auction and raffle off Hayden Christensen’s butt plugs to open up the Jason Gage Museum of Modern Hair Extensions?

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--Scott J Grunewald

Never Forget. Seriously, Are You Right Wing Nut Jobs Listening?

Nazi war against gays recalled in Broward library exhibit

Show examines the Third Reich's crusade against homosexuals.

By Lisa J. Huriash
Staff Writer
Posted April 11 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The photos are chilling: An operating room at a concentration camp where gay men were forced to endure mutilating castrations, police mugs of gay men who had been rounded up, their expressions grim. Documents give troubling details of how some gay men, considered "antisocial parasites," escaped persecution by marrying women or committing suicide.

The national exhibit "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945" begins today and continues through June 3 at the Main Library, 100 S. Andrews Ave., in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Using materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the program has been organized by the Stonewall Library & Archives in Fort Lauderdale. It has made its way through the University of Minnesota, St. Louis and Houston. Future locations include San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Palm Beach County.

The exhibit presents 250 historical items documenting the Nazi campaign to eradicate homosexuality. During the 12 years the Nazis were in power, German police arrested more than 100,000 German men under a broadly interpreted law against homosexuality. Half of them were sent to prison or mental hospitals. Another 5,000 to 15,000 were killed in concentration camps.

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--Scott J Grunewald

Darth Vader Gay? Well, He Does Have A Black PVC Fetish…

CHRISTENSEN LAUGHS OFF GAY JIBES

STAR WARS heart-throb HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN laughs off gay rumours - but remains coy about his true sexuality.

The Canadian actor, 23, is constantly plagued with homosexual jibes, but deliberately remains silent about his lovelife to keep people guessing.

He says, "I don't say anything.

"My perspective is that if it's not true, then I'm OK with it, and I get a laugh out of it."

Oh Hayden, it’s so cute how you play with the press. I thought you looked a little too familiar with waving around long hard things in the last Star Wars movie.

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--Scott J Grunewald

So The Tiger Caught Roy Checking Out Other Cats? What A Jealous Bitch

Ex-NFL Player Saw Siegfried, Roy As Threat

Sun Apr 10, 8:47 AM ET

LAS VEGAS - A former pro football player accused of shooting at the compound of Siegfried & Roy wanted to "warn the world" of the threat posed by the illusionists, according to a psychiatric report.

The evaluation was performed by psychiatrist Norton Roitman after Cole Ford was charged with firing several shotgun blasts at the Las Vegas home of entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn.

Ford, 32, a former kicker for the Oakland Raiders, has been ruled incompetent to stand trial and sent to a mental health facility for treatment.

Ford maintained he never intended to harm anyone and his actions were intended to "warn the world of the illusionists' unhealthy danger to them and to animals," according to the report published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"While watching Siegfried and Roy, he had a sudden realization that what was wrong with the world was linked to the illusionists' treatment, dominance and unhealthy intimacy he saw them having with their animals," Roitman wrote.

Ford told Roitman that he thought the entertainers' contact with their animals was sexual and related to the development of viruses such as AIDS.

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--Scott J Grunewald