Schools in Q-C add protection to policies
By Ann McGlynn


A handful of school districts in Iowa and Illinois are adding sexual orientation to their list of students and staff specifically protected from discrimination and harassment, reflecting a national trend in small and large school districts.

Davenport and North Scott schools joined a list of about 15 school districts in Iowa earlier this year that added sexual orientation to their policies. The measures passed the two boards unanimously.

While no such list could be found for Illinois, the state’s largest school district, the Chicago Public Schools, includes sexual orientation on its list of protections along with race, color, national origin, sex, gender, age, religion and disability.

Some argue that all students are protected under discrimination and harassment policies, including sexual harassment policies


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first thing.. why was it necessary to reveal this persons "male" name?... and second.. I do wonder what would of happened if this was a genetic female.. would folks have been more willing to come forward"


Transsexual's claims of sexual battery don't prevail in court
Oscar Stephen Jarrell was accused of grabbing his manager's buttocks and making improper comments.

By Lindsey Nair


    A transsexual ex-convict was about the only prosecution witness who stuck to her original story Friday during a sexual battery case in Salem General District Court.

    Everyone else who was called to the stand by the prosecution ended up helping the defense instead, which frustrated Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Aaron Lavinder and led Judge George Harris to dismiss the charge against Oscar Stephen Jarrell.

    Jarrell, 61, was accused of grabbing his manager's buttocks and making inappropriate comments while on the job at the Goodwill store near Lakeside Plaza in Salem.

    His manager, Jasmyn McCulley, formerly James McCulley, swore out a citizen complaint this spring after the alleged April 29 incident. On Friday, she testified that she was in the store office with another employee, Kristin Bevil, when Jarrell told her he "needed a kiss" and grabbed her buttocks.


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Love on the Quiet
The New York Times
By SETH KUGEL


While New York is legendary as a place where gays and lesbians can live openly and free from prejudice, Mr. Briggs's story reveals a great deal about what might be called the other gay New York. Life in this New York unfolds far from the chiseled Chelsea boys, funky Village bars and relatively gay-friendly neighborhoods like the Upper West Side and Park Slope, Brooklyn, that represent the public image of gay life in the city.

In the farther reaches of the boroughs outside Manhattan, gay life is often harder and nearly always more complicated. In these neighborhoods, the national debate over gay marriage can be much less important than the search for a doctor who does not squirm when talking about homosexual sex.

Cohabitating gay couples are more common in Manhattan than in the other boroughs, according to the Gay and Lesbian Atlas, which was published this year by the Urban Institute Press in Washington and used 2000 Census data to determine where same-sex American couples live. But while burgeoning gay enclaves exist in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and in Queens neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, Astoria and Long Island City - all of which have above-average concentrations of same-sex couples living together, according to the atlas - they are more the exception than the rule.

For every neighborhood like Williamsburg, there are many more, like Howard Beach in Queens, Pelham Parkway in the Bronx and Flatbush in Brooklyn, that have relatively few gay couples living together, according to the atlas. (The data do not account for single gays.) A map that shows concentrations of gay couples in the city can be found at www.urban.org/pubs/gayatlas.


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Schwarzenegger deems opponents 'girlie-men' -- twice
Governor's rhetoric incites mall crowd, infuriates others
Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times


Ontario, San Bernardino County -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mocked his opponents in the California Legislature on Saturday as "girlie-men" and called upon voters to "terminate" them at the polls in November if they don't pass his $103 billion budget.

Using tough rhetoric that he borrowed from his days as a body-builder and movie actor, the governor said lawmakers are telling lies and are "back to their old habits" after a post-recall burst of bipartisan collaboration.

Legislators, he said at a rally in the food court of the Ontario Mills Mall, are "part of a bureaucracy that is out of shape, that is out of date, that is out of touch and that is definitely out of control in Sacramento."

He also said: "They cannot have the guts to come out there in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you. I want to represent those special interests: the unions, the trial lawyers.' ... I call them girlie-men. T


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Study: More Gay Seniors In Polk
Research found large concentration of older couples here.
By Rebecca Mahoney
The Ledger
rebecca.mahoney@theledger.com

LAKELAND -- When Clark Dobson retired five years ago, he originally planned to move from Virginia to Sarasota County. The 65-year-old gay man wanted to live by the ocean and liked what Sarasota had to offer.

But his ailing mother lived here in Polk County, more than an hour's drive from Sarasota.
Fortunately, Dobson quickly discovered Polk has attractive attributes of its own, including affordability and proximity to Tampa and Orlando.

"I like Polk County," Dobson said. "I've met lots of wonderful people. I'm not sorry."


Dobson isn't the only gay senior citizen to choose Polk over more urban areas. A recent study reports that Polk County has one of the highest concentrations of same-sex senior citizen couples in the United States. According to the report, released earlier this year by the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Polk County ranks seventh among the top 10 counties in the United States with the highest percentage of gay and lesbian couples over the age of 65.