This is Bush's amika...

Teens accused of threatening man
By TERRI SANGINITI
Staff reporter


Three New Castle-area teens were arrested Thursday after they allegedly threatened to assault a father and his 20-year-old son with pipes and shovels because the son is gay.

New Castle County police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said officers arrived in the first block of N. Kingston Road before violence erupted and arrested the teens.

Police charged the boys, one from the first block of Ryan Ave., one from the first block of Oakmont Drive and one from the 200 block of Parma Ave., with hate crimes, possessing a deadly weapon during a felony, aggravated menacing, conspiracy and two counts each of terroristic threatening.

The teens were committed to New Castle County Detention Center after failing to post $10,000 bail.


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Gay workers share stories in TV ads
Four out of six say they're happier after revealing their homosexuality to boss
By Kelly Pate Dwyer
Denver Post


A widely broadcast series of TV commercials show gay people ready -- but apprehensive -- to come out to the boss. The ads intone: Where they live, they legally ``can be fired just for being gay.''

What the ads don't tell you is how things turn out.

Four of six men and women chronicled in the ads -- financed by Denver software entrepreneur Tim Gill's private foundation -- tell the Denver Post that they're happier for revealing their homosexuality at work. In the closet, they felt isolated, avoiding casual chat about family or dating.

However, their bosses' reactions to the news varied.


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12 months' probation ordered in 2002 assault on homosexual
By Eric Weslander, Journal-World
Saturday, August 14, 2004


A judge Friday ordered a year's probation for the man convicted of punching Lawrence resident Jeffrey Medis in 2002 during a scuffle outside the Replay Lounge.

But the sentencing of Luke E. Wells, 24, Manhattan, won't get Medis one of his main objective: help paying his medical bills and other damages. Medis, who is openly gay and characterized the punch as a hate crime, suffered broken upper and lower jaws, a broken nose, a fractured eye socket and a gash on his chin after falling onto a concrete planter.

So far, he's rung up about $19,000 in medical and dental bills. He is seeking more than $75,000 from Wells in a civil lawsuit that's yet to be settled.

"I would just like to see something done about all his medical bills," Medis' mother, Linda, of Shawnee, said outside the courtroom after the sentencing.


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Same-sex issue going to high court
By JOE GYAN JR.
jgyan@theadvocate.com
New Orleans bureau


NEW ORLEANS -- A judge on Friday blocked a Sept. 18 vote on a Louisiana constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages, but he suspended his order so the state can appeal his ruling directly to Louisiana's highest court.

Assistant Attorney General Roy Mongrue said the judge's decision to suspend his order allows state officials to finalize the Sept. 18 ballot as planned Monday and send it to the printers.


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Marriage Debate in a New Arena
Democrats might try to pass a bill in the Legislature legalizing same-sex unions, but would still face a possible veto.
By William Wan and Lee Romney
Times Staff Writers


With supporters of same-sex marriage losing a major round in the California Supreme Court, the debate seems likely to move to the Legislature, a shift that will pose risks for leaders of both major parties.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez said Friday that the Legislature would take up a bill next year to legalize gay marriage, and that he believed it would pass.

"I see this as a modern-day civil rights issue," Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said in a meeting Friday with Times editors and reporters. "Sure it's controversial … [but] I suspect it will go to the governor's desk."

Both Democrats and Republicans say that whether the bill becomes law will hinge on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Democrats might be able to win passage of a same-sex marriage bill but they don't claim to have the votes to override a veto if Schwarzenegger doesn't sign it.


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Ruling leaves gays unsure of benefits
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO -- With their same-sex marriages yanked away by the California Supreme Court, many gay and lesbian couples were left wondering Friday what will happen to the benefits they briefly received, such as family insurance discounts and medical coverage.

The court ruling came as many gay newlyweds were in the process of asserting legal rights to benefits only married couples enjoy. It means that the 3,995 same-sex marriages sanctioned by the city of San Francisco were never valid under the law.

"I was planning on going to court and saying 'I am married' and now I can't say 'I'm married,'" Margot McShane said. "The court's decision, it gave me a feeling like you were kicked in the stomach."

McShane worries that the court's decision will make it difficult, if not impossible, to be recognized as a legal parent of the twins that her partner gave birth to last month.


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Latham 'reneged on gay marriage'


BOTH major political parties had made a mockery out of gay and lesbian people's lives by banning same-sex marriage, activists said today.
Almost 400 protesters turned out in inner Sydney today, criticising yesterday's Senate vote in which Labor sided with the coalition to pass the marriage amendment bill.

Transgender activist Grace Abrams said Labor leader Mark Latham had reneged on his promise to end gay discrimination when Labor took the vote.

"This government and opposition treats us like second class citizens," Ms Abrams told protesters.


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SF Officials Working On Marriage License Fee Refund


SAN FRANCISCO -- Couples who had their marriages nullified Thursday by a state Supreme Court ruling will be getting a call from San Francisco city officials soon, according to City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office.

The city is trying to determine, with the state, the process in which to offer refunds to the 4,037 couples that got married earlier this year, said Matt Dorsey, spokesman for the City Attorney's office.

Mayor Gavin Newsom has suggested the possibility of opening a legal defense fund and allowing couples to donate the fees to the fund, said Dorsey.

Thom Lynch, executive director of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, thinks the legal defense fund is a terrific idea. He believes that many of the couples entitled to refunds would support such a fund.