Berkshire police to focus on homophobic crime
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


Police forces in Berkshire are to focus on homophobic crime, after the number of incidents in the region sharply rose last year.

The new initiative will see officers clamp down on violent attacks on the county's LGBT community.

Figures for the months between April 2003 and March 2004 show that the number of racial and homophobic incidents had increased to 270, the BBC reported today.


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Northern Ireland city "worse than during troubles" for gay community
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


The Northern Ireland city of Derry is a worse environment for gay people than during the violence of the troubles, according to one victim of homophobic attacks.

The man, known only as Brian, told the Belfast Telegraph that additionally recent attacks against him and his home are forcing him out of the area.

Most recently, he said, a firework was forced through his letterbox setting fire to the hallway of his home. Previously, he has been beaten and had eggs thrown at his home.

"I felt much safer during the height of the Troubles that I have in the last few years," he told the newspaper.


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Lawmakers lose bids in suit over gay marriage
by ANDREW SCHOTZ


WASHINGTON COUNTY - A Baltimore judge has refused to let eight state legislators voluntarily become defendants in a lawsuit aimed at overturning Maryland's gay marriage ban.

"They're trying to go through the courts. ... We feel that's a legislative issue," said Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick/Washington.

Mooney and Del. Christopher B. Shank - members of Washington County's delegation to the Maryland General Assembly - were among the eight.


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Gay-rights advocates fight to avoid shutout
Associated Press


PORTLAND, Ore. -- Camille Reyes used to be apolitical and irked by almost anyone ringing her doorbell to make a pitch. But these days, she's knocking on strangers' doors with missionary zeal to talk about one of the touchiest topics on the election agenda.

One of hundreds of volunteers canvassing house-to-house across Oregon, she is trying to persuade voters to defeat Measure 36, a proposed state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.

Eleven states have such amendments on their Nov. 2 ballots, but only in Oregon and Michigan do gay-rights groups and their allies feel they have any realistic chance of defeating them. Were all 11 amendments to pass -- a plausible outcome -- it would be a sobering setback for activists nationwide who a year ago were celebrating a court order legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

"So many hopes are pinned on Oregon," said Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. "Winning in even one place is so different from losing everywhere."


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DeMint: Gays should not teach
Candidate says he would not require educators to admit sexual preference
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
Staff Writer


CHARLESTON — Gays and lesbians should not be allowed to teach in public schools, Republican Jim DeMint said Sunday in a U.S. Senate debate.

The remark came late in the first debate between DeMint and Democrat Inez Tenenbaum — a testy and acrimonious hour that broke little new ground on their positions on most issues.

DeMint, a Greenville congressman, said the government should not endorse homosexuality and “folks teaching in school need to represent our values.”

Tenenbaum, the state education superintendent, called DeMint’s position “un-American.


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Hundreds gather for showing of same-sex marriage documentary
 

LAKEVILLE, Conn. (AP) - A showing of a documentary discussing the controversy surrounding same-sex marriage drew hundreds to a Lakeville school.

Lawmakers, activists, families and same-sex couples gathered at Hotchkiss School last night to see the documentary "Tying the Knot."

The film features interviews with people for and against same-sex marriage.

The event comes as a group of same-sex couples are pursuing a lawsuit against the state, claiming excluding same-sex couples in marriage laws is unconstitutional. A similar lawsuit in Massachusetts led to the legalization of same-sex marriage there.


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Brutal Murder of Fanny Ann Eddy, Lesbian and Gay Activist from Sierra Leone
From: lgbt-india


Fanny Ann Viola Eddy, the courageous lesbian and gay activist from Sierra Leone, and founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association (SLLAGA), has been brutally murdered last Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Assailants entered the office of SLLAGA at night when nobody was in the entire building, and after apparently raping and stabbing her head with a sharp object, finally broke her neck. The lesbian and gay community of Sierra Leone is in deep shock and totally frightened by this event.


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Fine for Ugandan radio gay show
A radio station in Uganda has been forced to pay a fine for hosting homosexuals in a live talk show.



The Ugandan Broadcasting Council fined Radio Simba over $1,000 and ordered it to make a public apology.

The programme is "contrary to public morality and is not in compliance with the existing law," the council's chairman, Godfrey Mutabazi, said.

Information Minister Nsaba Buturo defended the measure saying Ugandans wanted to uphold "God's moral values".

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda.


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ASU support group growing
Workshops teach students about LGBTQ community
by Shaina Levee


Through an ASU support group, more than 25 facilitators are now trained to advocate for gay rights and social equality.

Last spring, SafeZONE began educating both students and faculty participants. More than six workshops now are offered each semester.

The program offers workshops on becoming allies with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) community.


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Homophobia and the Republican Party
By DOUG THOMPSON


The House and Senate, in a rare moment of common sense, sacked President George W. Bush’s homophobic constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as a union only between men and women. That kills the issue for this year but we will be forced to visit it again as long as right-wing whack jobs dominate the Republican Party.

Of all the extreme positions that emanate from the rabid conservatives that control the GOP (and there are many), none are more despicable than their outright hatred of homosexuals.

They may scream loudly that gay-bashing actions like the proposed constitutional amendments are not homophobic but they are. Such hatred emerges easily from the same intolerance, bigotry and racism that still infect the roots of the Grand Old Party