GAY REV.'S 'FOE' GLAD TO LOSE
March 22, 2004 -- BOTHELL, Wash. - The Methodist pastor who prosecuted a lesbian cleric in a church trial is pleased that he lost the case.


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Talk calls for fair treatment of intersex children
The intersex lobby does not support a third-gender designation, but it does recommend that a gender be assigned to that child without surgical designation. The parents would raise the child as either a boy or a girl but with the understanding that the designation may change in time.


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Ecuador: Gay rights activist survives attempt on his life, as UN meets to consider protection for LGBT people
Amnesty International is very concerned for the safety of a gay rights activist in Ecuador who survived an attempt on his life on 12 March. The human rights organisation is calling on people all over the world to write to the Ecuadorian authorities asking them to ensure his protection. Patricio Ordóñez Maico, a member of the Friends for Life Foundation (Fundación Amigos por la Vida), an organisation which campaigns for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, was assaulted at FLF's offices. His assailant broke in and attacked him with a knife and then a pistol shouting, "I am going to kill you queer son of a bitch." Patricio suffered knife wounds to his chest and back.
The attack happened a week after Patricio spoke at an international human rights meeting about a complaint he has filed against police officers who previously assaulted him. He had been arbitrarily detained and suffered ill treatment including sexual abuse on two occasions by National Police officers in the capital, Quito, in May and June 2001. He filed a complaint against the officer and a further complaint after receiving death threats from the officer involved.


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Fukuoka ordinance excludes bias against same-sex relationships
Monday, March 22, 2004 at 17:00 JST
FUKUOKA — The city assembly of Yame in Fukuoka Prefecture on Monday passed by a majority a draft ordinance aimed at a gender-free society, but the city's proposed provision on banning discrimination against same-sex relationships was shot down. The ordinance bans gender discrimination and sexual harassment at schools, workplaces and other locations, domestic violence, and discrimination on account of sexual identity disorder. But the assembly did not give the go-ahead on a provision — initially included in the draft — that applies to same-sex relationships


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Gay marriage debate in Legislature likely to be revived
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)
- The decision last Monday by House Republican lawmakers to drop plans to attach a set of anti-gay measures to a popular adoption bill may have been a retreat in the state's political culture wars, but it hardly was a surrender.


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Gay GOP Group Wants Web Site Data Restored
By Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 22, 2004
The Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization that backed the president's election in 2000, is urging a Bush administration appointee to restore information about sexual-orientation discrimination to an Internet site where federal employees can learn about their rights in the workplace. Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel, pulled references to sexual-orientation discrimination from the agency's Web site in January to review whether a provision in civil service law applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation. The provision bans discrimination against federal employees if their off-duty conduct does not affect job performance. It has been interpreted in the past to cover cases in which they suffer discrimination simply because they are gay. The Log Cabin Republicans, in a letter last week, said Bloch is wrongly ignoring precedents set by the Office of Personnel Management and Justice Department over the past 30 years and accepted by previous Republican and Democratic administrations.


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Gay candidate faces new election foe

The Oregon Christian Coalition said it will make Justice Rives Kistler's sexual orientation an issue
Justice Rives Kistler is being challenged in the May 18 primary election by Lake Oswego lawyer James Leuenberger, who has represented anti-gay rights activist Lon Mabon.


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Survey: Gay households hew close to mainstream


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The Zananis of Lahore cry for respect
By Zainab Khar
LAHORE: “We have been shunned by our families, our parents used to beat us because they couldn’t accept or understand our feelings, and today we live under the constant threat of abuse and exploitation,” said one of the group. Once they accept they are transgender, they change their names for the more feminine ones, like Chanda, Meera, Mastani, etc. and they live together, a clan of sisters. “We want to be treated like normal human beings, we want to have a voice, be heard,” said one, sitting in her small rented room. “We have emotions too you know, and we get hurt when people ridicule us,” she continued, saying that even the upholders of law joined in to mock them.


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Gay marriage: real people in real relationships
By Greg Nickels (Seattle Mayor)
The day I announced my executive order recognizing same-sex marriages among city of Seattle employees, I stopped by a local Starbucks to pick up a latte. A woman came up to say thank you for recognizing the validity of same-sex marriages of city employees. We talked a bit and when she left, she was crying. They were tears of joy, not sorrow.


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Deal sets up marriage ruling
Both sides in the gay marriage debate agree to use an ACLU lawsuit to try to speed the case to the Oregon Supreme Court


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Delegates to next month Methodist conference anticipate issue of gay rights to emerge