Starks: Courts punished me for being different
By Sharon Roznik


In 1992, Jan Starks of Fond du Lac was convicted of second-degree sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a child. The case involved a 13-year-old girl.

Back then, he made bad decisions and poor choices, he says, and has paid the price.

He served two years in prison, followed by six years of probation with conditions that forbade him from wearing women’s clothing or continuing his gender counseling and living with his female fiancee.

Starks is a transgender person, perhaps the only one in the county, he believes.


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Police to wear uniforms at Pride


Officers from Sussex Police are to march in uniform at the Gay Pride parade in Brighton on Saturday - for the first time.

Deputy Chief Constable Joe Edwards said the rule had been relaxed for all events attended by the Gay Police Association (GPA).

Sussex officers have to seek permission but Hampshire police have been told they are not allowed to wear uniforms.

Officers were allowed to wear uniforms last year but wore GPA t-shirts.


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A society in denial
by Eric Beauchemin
In the Palestinian Occupied Territories, gays and lesbians face imprisonment, torture and even death. They cannot take refuge in Israel or seek asylum elsewhere. They are ignored or rejected by everyone, including their own families.

Homosexuality is illegal under Palestinian law. Gays and lesbians have been imprisoned because of their sexual orientation. Human rights groups report that the Palestinian Authority has also tortured homosexuals [link to Rami's case]. No one knows the exact number because most victims are too ashamed to come forward and tell their stories. Even if they did, they would have no one to turn to seek redress.

Shame
Families often reject even their own children, says Bassem Eid, the director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. If someone is convicted, says Eid, "the whole family will be in trouble, not only the gay himself. These families become very isolated. Society will punish the family even though they are completely innocent."


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Msipa quits board over gay spat
Ndamu Sandu

MIDLANDS provincial governor Cephas Msipa has quit as an honorary trustee of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) to escape a deepening row over the exhibition by gays at the fair.

Msipa resigned on Monday to protest ZIBF's decision to allow the gay rights organisation, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Galz), to exhibit at the annual show.

ZIBF executive director Samuel Matsangaise confirmed that Msipa had resigned, citing the gays' presence at the fair


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Atlanta DA Demands End To 'Gay Panic' Defenses
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff


(Atlanta, Georgia) For the second time in a year a Georgia jury has rejected the so-called gay panic defense as an excuse for murdering a gay man and Fulton County's District Attorney says he's tired of lawyers using it to shift blame from the accused to the victim.

Thursday a jury of five men and seven women convicted James Lee Shaw, 39, in the August 2002 slaying of a co-worker.

Rowland Hardwick, 53, was stabbed 40 times in a confrontation in the restroom of the restaurant where the two men worked.


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Dutch gays see rising homophobia
By Karl Emerick Hanuska


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Even as gays and lesbians prepare to take to Amsterdam's canals tomorrow for the city's annual Gay Pride parade, many homosexuals say intolerance is growing in one of the world's most liberal nations.

A new study by Out Now Consulting on behalf of the journal Gay Krant found nearly 20 percent of gays in the Netherlands experienced some form of harassment in the last two years.

The study did not specify the reasons for rising homophobia, but mounting tensions with some immigrant groups such as Turks and Moroccans and politicians preaching conservative values have been blamed in the past.

Gay groups have also criticised politicians for failing to tackle religious extremists who they accuse of inciting


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HGLPC endorses 17 candidates
When the caucus met on Wednesday, it wasn’t necessarily the usual suspects who showed up to seek endorsement
By JOSEF MOLNAR


Three months before an election, many are touting as a historical crossroads the endorsements of 17 candidates running for local, state and national offices by the Houston Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus (PAC).

The Houston Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus membership on Wednesday had a chance to hear from a number of candidates and their representatives.

In addition to those who represent districts where courting the gay vote is important, candidates seemed to come from areas not usually on the radar for gay and lesbian voters.

Among them was Charlotte Coffelt, who is running for the Texas Legislature from District 127 in Kingwood, northeast of Houston.


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$1 million message flags discrimination
Ad campaign starts emotional dialogue on gays' legal rights
By James Paton, Rocky Mountain News


New advertisements saying "you can be fired just for being gay" have stirred some strong emotions in Colorado and other states, just as the Gill Foundation had hoped.

The group's ad campaign, which came at a cost of more than $1 million and hit the airwaves in Denver; Tampa Bay, Fla.; and Lansing and Flint, Mich., has triggered a flurry of calls, letters and e-mails, said Andrea Hart, the manager of the project.

"It's been quite mixed," she said. "We've received a lot of positive comments, from both gay and straight, but there have been a lot of negative comments, too, from people who still hold some fear and ignorance."

One TV station in Tampa yanked the ads off the air after getting flooded with complaints, said Hart, declining to name the affiliate.