GenderPac condemns Immigration Treatment of Transgenders


The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) condemned a memorandum issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) announcing that the Department would not recognize any marriage in which either party has changed or plans to change their sex.

The policy would prevent foreign spouses from obtaining immigration rights in marriages — or engagements to be married — where one spouse is transgender and either one is an American citizen.

Said GenderPAC Executive Director Riki Wilchins, “This policy not only singles out one group of Americans for discrimination, but it carves out a special exception to the states’ prerogatives to do so. The CIS should join the almost one-half of U.S. states that already recognize such marriages, and reverse a bad decision apparently taken simply to avoid political controversy.”


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SF appeals court: Transgender man can apply again for asylum
Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court says a transgender man who fled El Salvador at age 17 after being kidnapped and raped should have another chance to avoid deportation.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Luis Reyes-Reyes, now 42, can remain in the Los Angeles area if he can prove to immigration officials he would be subjected to anti-gay bullying if deported.

A unanimous three-judge panel said a deportation panel erroneously demanded Reyes to show he would be tortured by the Salvadoran government. The San Francisco-based appeals court said federal laws prohibit deportation if a foreign government tacitly approves of privately inflicted torture.

The appeals court said El Salvador's national police had been involved in hitting, threatening and insulting gay men with female sexual identities. Reyes, of San Salvador, is a cross dresser and has not had a sex-change operation.


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After approval of gay marriage, benefits change
By REBECCA LIPCHITZ, Sun Staff


Since gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, some companies that had offered health benefits for domestic partners are now offering them only to married couples.

The move marks a reversal of sorts, at least on the part of larger employers.

Over the past five years, a large number of major employers in Massachusetts those with 1,000 workers or more began offering health coverage to employees' domestic partners, said Cameron Congdon, principal at Towers Perrin, a Boston human resources consulting firm.

Studies show that giving domestic partners benefits usually costs employers up to an additional 3 percent. Once many companies discovered the relative low cost, they offered benefits for philosophical reasons, Congdon said.


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Turkish government abandons plans to criminalise adultery


Before the back down, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the parliament to denounce the proposal.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was withdrawn a proposal to make adultery a criminal offence, according to the leader of the country’s main opposition party.


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McKeithen: Saturday's Election Will Go On As Planned

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Secretary of State Fox McKeithen said Tuesday that Saturday's primary vote would go ahead as scheduled, hurricane or not, barring a "catastrophic turn" by the storm.

McKeithen said voters going to the polls to decide the gay marriage ban amendment and Public Service Commissioner races may, if their precincts are in flooded areas, find themselves voting elsewhere -- in particular, those who normally vote in the vulnerable Grand Isle precinct.

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Are Heterosexuals Worthy of Marriage?
by Michael Parenti


Over the past year, a furious opposition to gay marriage has been voiced by many who claim to know how God feels about this issue. President Bush even went so far as to propose an amendment to the Constitution to make same-sex marriage a federal offense. According to recent polls, a majority of Americans believe that marriage should remain a union that is strictly between a man and a woman. We hear that same-sex unions would threaten and undermine holy matrimony, although not a single concrete example of how that would happen has been offered. Gay marriage is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Ontario, Canada, and thus far it has neither impaired traditional marriage nor subverted civil society in those places.

Putting gay marriage aside, what do we have to say about heterosexual marriage. In all the recent controversy, no one seems to have noticed how heterosexuals have devalued and defiled the sanctity of this purportedly God-given institution. Consider the following:

For millennia, straight-sex marriage consisted of a bond not between a man and a woman but between a man and any number of women. Polygamy is a recognized practice in the Holy Bible itself. King Solomon had 700 wives (not to mention 300 concubines) yet suffered not the mildest rebuke from either God or man. Other estimable figures in Scripture and throughout history have had large retinues of wives. Women in these kinds of overpopulated unions have been treated as little better than concubines, usually facing a dismal existence of enforced confinement.


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Enough is Enough, We Will Stand Tough


Destiny Church lead by there Hog-riding leader, Brian Tamaki got a shock today when they found that not all of those who live in aotearoa are oppsed to gay rights. A good 1500 civil rights marchers turned up and screamed, hollered and chanted there way through a very tiresome meeting lead by the Destiny Church. The content of the Destiny Church meeting was full of the usual bile and bigotry with claims of increased child abuse, suicide rates etc all to be blamed on decriminlising prostitution, the civil rights bill and of course, that evil above all evil, abortion.

This was a very empowering march with people joining from off the streets and surrounding buildings and the colorful nature too made a nice contrast to the grim black of destiny and there minions. In a nice moment at the end of the march an NF turned up waving a banner that tried to claim Gays undermine NZ society but the cops soon made him dissappear as the protestors started to surround him; destiny's true face was revealed. The police presence was low though they ensured the opposing camps were kept seperate, especially when the protestors, upon forming a human chain starting edging across the grounds in an attempt to clean the landscape of homophobes and bigots all the sooner. On another note the number of children on the destiny side was sad. All these children being bred to hate is scary, especially considering it is a school day!!