Deanna, 11, founds COLAGE chapter
By Rachel Grace Toussaint


EXETER - Eleven-year-old Deanna Makinen knows what some people would say about her family. But instead of hiding the fact that she has lesbian parents, the Exeter resident has decided to find more ways to talk about it.

With the help of her mother, Debora Masterson, Deanna has founded a local chapter of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE).

N.H. COLAGE Seacoast joins countless chapters around the nation and the world working to support young people with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) parents.

According to Masterson, one reason why Deanna formed the group was to help others like herself.


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Furniture maker's ad taunts president


The open letter was hard to miss, taking up two pages of Sunday's New York Times magazine.

On one page was a photo of Mitchell Gold, chairman of a furniture company that bears his name, along with his partner Bob Williams. On the other was a letter to President Bush.

"We hope you enjoy your stay in a metropolis defined by diversity, culture and courage," Gold wrote. "Bob and I would also like to extend an invitation to you to visit our furniture factory in Taylorsville, North Carolina.

"A place where REAL family values are infused into our culture and the spirit of our brand. A culture that welcomes all employees regardless of race, gender, religion, age, national origin, disability or sexual orientation."



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yes.. vote green.. this is what makes sense not war, segragation and cheap labor... that's what is wacky..Australia vote green.. USA vote green.. we need more green.. not more blood


Want a Sex Change? Vote Green


CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's election campaign took a wacky turn on Tuesday with claims the Greens party wanted to allow the sale of "party" drugs, state funding for sex changes and laws to make people ride bicycles and eat less meat.

The small but influential Greens party rejected a media report which claimed it would campaign for all that and more during the run-up to the Oct. 9 election.

"Greens back illegal drugs," Melbourne's Herald Sun tabloid declared in a headline above some of the most bizarre policy claims in Australian political history.


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Protesters from poor people's group arrested near Republican convention
Canadian Press


NEW YORK (AP) - A day after massive street demonstrations, smaller groups of protesters turned Monday to health care, civil rights and economics - areas where they said President George W. Bush and the Republicans convening in New York's Madison Square Garden have failed the country.

A group called the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign massed a crowd of several thousand outside United Nations headquarters and negotiated with police to march to the convention site, despite lacking a permit. Police proposed a route to a permitted protest area and demonstration leaders eventually accepted.

A few arrests were made when protesters tried to break through barricades set up within two blocks of the Garden along the march route.

Up to then, marchers trooped down city streets with no barricades, passing parked cars and inadvertently setting off some alarms as police - some on scooters - steered the restless, unwieldy crowd through midtown Manhattan rush-hour traffic. Cars were backed up 10 blocks in places.


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Gay Marriage Group Calls National Boycott


(New York City) An advocacy group for same-sex marriage is calling on gays and lesbians to stage a one-day boycott show the clout of the pink buck.

Estimates indicate that America's lesbian and gay population spends an average of $1.4 billion each day, totaling $500 billion a year.

Boycott For Equality is calling for a one-day nation-wide economic 'walkout' on October 8, 2004 to make that point clear.


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Marriage amendment petitions
falling short
By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau


COLUMBUS - The group pushing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Ohio likely will be forced to submit additional signatures if it hopes to qualify for the November ballot.

The Secretary of State's Office on Monday reported that 24 percent of the nearly 156,000 signatures certified so far by county boards of elections are invalid.

If the trend continues for the remaining 225,000 signatures, the issue will fall roughly 33,000 votes short of the requirement to make it on the ballot. State officials are still waiting for 31 counties, including Hamilton and Butler, to submit their petitions, which were due Friday.

Phil Burress, chairman of the Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, said his group has collected more than 100,000 extra signatures, which he expects is more than enough to satisfy the requirement of 323,000.