The Dangers of Pumping
by Andrew Davis


It’s certainly a different type of get-together.

Across the United States—but primarily in the South—people are hosting “pumping parties,” which offer silicone injections. Although people may think that a party to erase wrinkles or inflate lips may be perfectly harmless, there are several hidden dangers. Additionally, these festivities ensnare members of the GLBT community as male-to-female transsexuals try to add curves and people suffering from AIDS attempt to combat gaunt looks.

These parties have, unfortunately, even resulted in death:

— In Georgia, 23-year-old Andre D. Jeter, a transsexual, suffered convulsions and fell unconscious last December after receiving injections in the hips and buttocks during a pumping party. She died this past January.

— In 2003, transgendered pumper Donnie Hendrix and an accomplice received prison terms after a woman they were injecting with silicone intended for furniture use died of silicone in her lungs.

— In 2003, Guadalupe Camarena was charged with aggravated assault and serious bodily injury after Delfino Gonzales died what was described as an “agonizing” death


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Alert

Write Congress: Stop the "Marriage Protection Act"


Right-wing House members are trying to whip up a backlash against last week's Senate defeat for the Federal Marriage Amendment. So they're promising a vote this week on the so-called "Marriage Protection Act," which attacks the right of gay men, lesbians, and every other American to challenge the discriminatory 1996 "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) in federal court.

This bill should be called the Discrimination Protection Act, since its malicious and unconstitutional intent is to defend Congress' past discrimination by discriminating yet again.

In technical terms, the Marriage Protection Act would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to consider citizens' legal challenges to DOMA's "full faith and credit" provision. That provision tries to "protect" each state from having to recognize the marriage of same-sex couples lawfully performed in other states despite the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In practical terms, this legislation would, for the first time in U.S. history, bar an entire class of citizens from the federal courts, which would violate the 14th Amendment equal protection rights of gay and lesbian Americans. It would also severely undermine the constitutional separation of powers that is fundamental to our democracy.


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O'Reilly scolds guest who outed gays, then calls judge a lesbian
By John Cook
Tribune staff reporter


Fox News Channel's star talk-show personality, Bill O'Reilly, says he is uncomfortable with the practice of outing gay political figures--except, it seems, when he is doing the outing.

On his show Monday night, O'Reilly chastised guest Michael Rogers for maintaining a Web site publicizing the names of gay staffers working for politicians who oppose gay marriage.

"We're uneasy with this kind of exposition," O'Reilly said. "Somebody's personal sex life should have nothing to do with any kind of a policy."

But on the same show--and for at least the third time in the last year--O'Reilly described one of the justices on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as a lesbian, a claim that the justice herself, through a spokeswoman, denies.

On shows in November, last week, and again on Monday, O'Reilly has referred to "the lesbian judge on the Supreme Court who dissented" in the court's landmark ruling in favor of gay marriage


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OMBUDSMAN FOR CHILDREN IN NORWAY:
Ombudsman warns against gay adoption
Carin Pettersson

There may be a majority at the Norwegian parliament this fall for giving homosexual couples the same rights as other couples to adopt children, however, the ombudsman for children strong warn against it.


«The homosexuals are fighting a rather legitimate battle for liberation, but it is important that children do not become weapons in that battle,» said Reidar Hjermann, ombudsman, to TV 2 Nyhetene. «The time is not right for adoption, maybe in 10 or 20 years, or 100 years, but not now.»

Not a human right
Hjermann stated that it is not a human right to have children. Hjermann is positive to homosexuals’ right to adopt stepchildren which is allowed today. He states that only when homosexual couples are equal to heterosexual couples in all areas of society, can general adoption for all become an option.


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Wisconsin priest forms splinter group in protest of gay bishop


A Milwaukee priest has formed a splinter congregation of the Episcopal Church to oppose the church's ordination of an openly gay bishop. The Reverend Tere Wilson is renting a meeting room at the Pettit National Ice Center to hold services for "Light of Christ Church, an emerging Anglican mission." Wilson, who had been filling in for Milwaukee-area parish priests, said he wanted to offer an alternative until opponents of the church's positions on homosexuality have a permanent alternative. "There was a group of people who have felt abandoned by the Episcopal Church, as I do," said Wilson. "The Episcopal Church seems to have kept the trappings, the package, but they've thrown out Jesus and the Bible, as far as what I can see."

About 30 people are in the breakaway congregation, and average Sunday attendance is about 18 adults and children, mostly from Trinity Episcopal Church in Wauwatosa. That church was the scene of heated disputes last year over the national church's actions. About 30 parishioners left. Episcopal diocese bishop Steven A. Miller called the splinter congregation "a very small group of people who have chosen to worship together." Miller has appointed a task force on human sexuality to find common ground in the diocese, which covers the southern third of the state. But the splinter congregation--believed to be the first in Wisconsin--highlights the continuing challenges for the Episcopal Church, which represents the worldwide Anglican Communion in the United States. Some wonder whether more of the church's 2.3 million members might leave or be ejected.


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Rights panel seeks advice
Commission wants city attorney's aid to determine which ordinance to propose.
By JAMES QUIRK Jr.


Before it begins writing a revised version of a proposed gay rights ordinance, the Burlington Human Rights Commission wants City Attorney Scott Power to determine which of the five ordinances already enacted in five other state cities would be the best one to mimic.

After listening to residents in opposition to and in favor of a proposed ordinance that would make sexual orientation a protected class in the city, commission members Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of asking the City Council for Power's assistance in determining which of the five existing ordinances would work the best for Burlington.

The cities of Davenport, Iowa City, Ames, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids have ordinances in place that include sexual orientation as a protected class.

Commission member John Carroll said he was "frustrated" by the council's decision to turn the ordinance back over to the commission for revisions.


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Twenty-four Groups Launch Ad Campaign Exposing Extremist Judicial Nominees
By civilrights.org staff 
civilrights.org


Civil rights, environmental, women's, health, religious, gay and lesbian, and other organizations with more than 5 million members and supporters simultaneously launched an Internet and TV ad campaign today to expose the extremist views and records of the Bush administration's judicial nominees.

The groups will concurrently feature on their websites and air on television a new ad that explains, in the nominees' own words, why they are unqualified to be federal judges.

The ad, which more than 20 groups will be airing on their websites, focuses on nine judicial nominees selected for lifetime seats on the federal courts, including several now pending in the Senate. In an effort to send a message to Congress, the ad encourages Americans to call on the Senate to reject nominees who are out of step with the values and views of most Americans.

"The White House and some senators are grandstanding about 'obstructionism' of the Administration's judicial nominees," said Nancy Zirkin, deputy director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "But, the record is unmistakable -- the vast majority of this administration's judicial nominees have been approved by the Senate. As this ad makes clear, American democracy requires fair and independent jurists, not ideologues who ride roughshod over our freedoms and rights." 


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CHURCH MURDER IS REVIEWED


POLICE detectives are to examine the killing of a homeless man in a Limehouse churchyard as part of a review of gay killings.

David Ridlagh, 35, died in hospital after being beaten in the grounds of St Anne's church, in Three Colt Street, in February 2002.

Teenager Fergus Tracey was jailed for life for the murder in October last year after he told his brother in a phone call: "I battered him silly mate".

The case is one of six being examined for anti-gay prejudice. Review leader, Det Ch Supt Adrian Maybanks, said he hoped the move would improve the confidence London's gay community had in the Met