Arkansas Marriage Amendment Headed To Ballot
Secretary Of State Certifies Petition Signatures


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages is headed to the Nov. 2 general election ballot in Arkansas.

The secretary of state's office certified Thursday that the measure secured the necessary number of voter signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Deputy Secretary of State Janet Miller said the office counted 95,736 valid signatures of registered voters. The measure needed 80,570 to be put before voters.


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Namibia's Human Rights Record Under Scrutiny
The Namibian (Windhoek)
July 22, 2004
Christof Maletsky
Windhoek


THE United Nations Human Rights Committee has expressed concern about women and children's rights, domestic violence, pre-trial detention andlegal aid, cases of disappearances, anti-discrimination measures, homosexuality and HIV-AIDS in Namibia.

The Human Rights Committee is currently meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to consider a report on how Namibia implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Uutoni Nujoma, Namibia's Co-ordinator of Human Rights, accompanied by a representative of the Ministry of Justice and the Permanent Representative of Namibia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, presented the report.

He said the report gave the country the opportunity to contribute to the international community's efforts to institutionalise a culture of respect for human rights internationally while also providing a "yardstick" against which Namibia could measure its own efforts to promote such a culture.



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Outing of icons stirs up gay row
By GAVIN LOWER


TASMANIA'S trailblazing gay activist, Rodney Croome, has come under fire for publicly naming four of Tasmania's leading cultural exports as being gay.

But his decision to name the four has not only attracted criticism - he even included one who is not homosexual.

Mr Croome wrote that Peter Conrad, Peter Sculthorpe, Nigel Triffitt and Graeme Murphy were gay.

But the publicist for choreographer Graeme Murphy says Murphy is not gay and has been with his partner, Janet Vernon, for 30 years.


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Tyler Rothmeyer appeared to have had a miserable high school experience.
By: Laura Pieper


He claimed he was harassed by students who thought he was gay. He said he was called "queer," "faggot," "homo" and other anti-gay epithets. He confided in Perry's School Resource Officer Pat Jans and was told to stand up to his bullies. He ended up getting into a physical confrontation and was suspended and charged for his courage.

He kept a written record of all of this and sued Superintendent Randy McCaulley, High School Principal Dan Marburger, Associate High School Principal Bob Gittins, Officer Jans and the City of Perry in March, submitting a 52-page lawsuit.

Despite the District's insistence that its administrators acted appropriately and did not ignore Rothmeyer's pleas for help, its insurance company settled last week.

A federal court awarded Rothmeyer $27,500; $20,000 of that will come from the Perry Community School District and $7,500 from the City of Perry. The School District insisted that the settlement was requested by its insurance company.


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Religion Today
JOHN HANNA
Associated Press


OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - A recent Sunday found Tina Kolm changing her morning routine. Instead of attending a Unitarian Universalist service, she was at the Lenexa Christian Center, paying close attention to a conservative minister's sermon about the importance of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage.

Kolm is one of about 100 volunteers for the Mainstream Coalition, a group monitoring the political activities of local pastors and churches. The coalition, based in suburban Kansas City, says it wants to make sure clergy adhere to federal tax guidelines restricting political activity by nonprofit groups, and it's taking such efforts to a new level.

The 47-year-old Kolm, from Prairie Village, said keeping church and state separate is important to her. She doesn't want a few religious denominations defining marriage - or setting other social policy - for everyone.

"What it's all about to me is denying some people's rights," she said