Ontario sex-change-surgery case to be heard
Canadian Press


Toronto — The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal will hear a complaint today about government delisting of sex reassignment surgery.

The procedure, which reconstructs the genitalia, was delisted for medicare coverage in 1998 by the former Conservative government.

Forty-seven-year-old Martine Stonehouse says the delisting of sex-reassignment procedures left her in the lurch partway through the gender transformation process.


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Parents want gay literature removed
By Deidre Bello
Iowa City Press-Citizen


SOLON -- Middle school teacher Sue Protheroe has come under fire by a group of parents demanding she cease using stories in her classroom that feature gay, lesbian or transgender characters.

As part of her fairy tale curriculum, students in Protheroe's eighth-grade language arts class read "Am I Blue?" a short, fictional story by Bruce Coville that explores a boy's confusion with his sexual identity and the gay fairy godfather who helps him overcome homophobia at school.

Another short story, "In the time I Get," by Chris Crutcher, is about a man who befriends a young man dying of AIDS. Both books are intended to promote tolerance, Protheroe said.

Seven people with children in the district have filed complaints; one of whom has a child in Protheroe's class. Criticisms for "Am I Blue" are that it has no instructional value for her class, it is about controversial areas that should be discussed within families, and it is not appropriate for middle school-aged students. In addition, parents argue the story promotes intolerance through use of slanderous and racist terms, perpetuates gay stereotypes and promotes homosexuality.


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Campus Christian Group Sues To Exclude Gays 
by The Associated Press


(San Francisco, California)  A Christian group sued the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in federal court here Friday for not recognizing it as an official campus organization.

The Christian Legal Society says it should get campus funding and other benefits, but does not have to open its membership to gays, lesbians and nonbelievers - all requirements from the San Francisco law school.


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Gay couple takes marriage vows under anti-gay billboard
By MARK ZARETSKY
Journal Register News Service


EAST HAVEN -- After a 25-year courtship, the bride wore a full-length leather coat, carried a colorful bouquet and had the groom’s name -- Joanie -- tattooed above her left breast.

The groom -- which is how she described herself -- wore a white sport shirt over a black T-shirt and, among her many tattoos, had her bride’s name -- Florrie -- on her upper right arm.

About a dozen people attended. Dozens more honked their horns as they whizzed by on Main Street and thousands more listened on KC101-FM as Joanie Miller and Florence Amore became the first lesbian couple to exchange vows on Main Street -- live on the radio -- during morning rush hour


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Gay couple ignites Sierra rally crowd



The Sierra High School rally for their football game tonight against Buhach Colony High School was exciting in its own right, but when Homecoming Prince candidate DeBrito, 15, and his escort Carnegie, 17, walked out on to Sierra's gym floor, the crowd erupted so much so that the roof shook.


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New Keyes Anti-Gay Assault
by The Associated Press


(Chicago, Illinois)  The fiery rhetoric that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes uses on the campaign trail returned during his first televised debate against Democrat Barack Obama after being noticeably absent from their radio matchup last week.

Keyes, a former ambassador who has focused his campaign around his stances against abortion and gay marriage, on Thursday called Obama naive and ignorant on constitutional issues.


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When Republicans attack!
Restaurant co-owner says he was verbally assaulted by GOP staffers
BY EMMILY BRISTOL


It's no secret that elections can bring out the worst in people. Apparently, this goes for political staffers as well.

Despite rolling out the welcome wagon for a flurry of Republican MVPs in recent weeks, it seems members of the state Republican Party just don't have enough on their hands. A neighbor of the party headquarters says he was bullied by two staffers last week.

Kirk Offerle, co-owner of Jazzed Café (with his wife), made a call to Metro Police at 6:22 p.m. on Oct. 15 after unidentified men verbally assaulted him. According to Offerle, the men stormed the café chasing a boy who had just run through the establishment. The men, who came out of the Nevada Republican Party headquarters, said that the boy had just thrown a pine cone at them.

Offerle said that the men, in their 20s, didn't take the attack lying down. Perhaps it was all that leftover adrenaline from seeing the commander in chief the day before.


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PayPal drops gay sites from payment service
Publisher says photo of bare-chested men prompted retaliation
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.


When PayPal, the giant Internet payment processing service, announced last year it would no longer do business with clients that sell pornographic products or services, gay-owned Internet businesses assumed the firm was aiming its new policy at the graphic sex trade.

But at least three gay-owned companies that conduct business over the Internet say PayPal appears to be using its anti-porn policy against them, even though they don’t consider their businesses to be sexually oriented.