AIDS Day will place its focus on women
By Genevieve Giambanco


Educating the world on how vulnerable women are to the AIDS epidemic is the aim of this year’s World AIDS Day campaign, called "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS."

According to information posted on the Web site for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, an advocate for global action against the epidemic, studies have shown that, globally, women and girls are more likely than men and boys to become infected with HIV.

In the early days of the epidemic, it was men who were primarily infected with AIDS, the Web site acknowledges, adding, however, that "today, nearly 50 percent of women are infected globally - close to 60 percent in sub-Saharan Africa." Among young people in that part of the world who are infected, 75 percent are girls and women ages 15 to 25.


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Clergy split over gay-rights proposal
The Associated Press


TOPEKA —With the City Council preparing to consider a gay-rights ordinance, some clergy said it created special rights for one group and "violates divine law."

But other clergy said they supported the proposal because it would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in employment, housing, lending and access to public facilities.

The nine-member council plans to vote Tuesday. The proposal would amend existing ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion or disability to include sexual orientation "or gender identity or expression." Existing ordinances allow people who believe they are the victims of discrimination to file complaints with the city.


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Thorn: Transsexual tale launches author to limelight


Julie Anne Peters has been writing for young adults for nearly 15 years, and if anyone knows that's no path to fame and fortune, she does. So when the phone rang a few weeks ago, bringing career-boosting news, she was skeptical, at best.

"This is Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation," the man on the other end of the line said.


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Domestic partner law under fire
Activists vow to recall judge, appeal trial court ruling
By Jake Henshaw
Desert Sun Sacramento Bureau


CALIFORNIA -- Activists trying to overturn state laws granting major legal rights and obligations to domestic partners Friday announced a new two-track legal and political strategy.

The challengers said they will appeal a trial court decision that upheld the law, which primarily takes effect Jan. 1, and will try to recall the judge who rendered the trial court decision.

"This (trial court) judge has not jealously guarded the vote of the people to protect marriage," said Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, an advocacy group.

"This is gay marriage by another name," he said of the targeted laws.


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SAN FRANCISCO
Supporters testify on assessor's behalf
Teng accused of favoritism, nepotism in office
Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer


More than two dozen supporters of Assessor-Recorder Mabel Teng lined up Friday for a chance to testify on her behalf in front of the Civil Service Commission, which is investigating whether Teng violated employment rules against patronage and nepotism.

It was the first public hearing on the matter since the commission voted in September to investigate the assessor-recorder at the urging of union officials and after a Chronicle report that Teng had hired and promoted 16 of her campaign workers and contributors, including a nephew.

"When I became the San Francisco assessor-recorder, the office was divided, mismanaged and dysfunctional," Teng said at the start of a hearing during which she read from a five-page statement, drawing applause from the packed City Hall meeting room when she finished.

"In the process of professionalizing the office," she said, "my administration has rattled some cages and stepped on some toes."


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Gay-marriage allies reworking strategy
POLITICS: Log Cabin Republicans plan to spread message across America, they say.
By CLAIRE VITUCCI / Washington Bureau


Stung by a resounding defeat when 11 states passed same-sex marriage bans last week, Inland gay activists now say the way to win the hearts and minds of Americans means going beyond Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Francisco to court voters.

They say they need to change the minds of those in the conservative "red states" and spend more time in churches and at backyard barbecues in the Midwest.
"I think we have to infiltrate all of those places, and they have to know who we are and why we stand for what we do," said Don Genhart of Palm Desert, a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national group of gays and lesbians. "And in time, the pendulum will change."



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Too much, too soon': Why should they have to wait?
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Op/Ed Columnist
Published November 13, 2004

Buried in the press release about Newsweek's recent revealing series of stories on the inner workings of both presidential campaigns was a chilling anecdote.

In their special election issue, dubbed "How He Did It," the magazine offered this story: "Looking for a way to pick up swing voters in the red states, former President Bill Clinton, in a phone call with (Sen. John) Kerry, urged the senator to back local bans on gay marriage. Kerry respectfully listened, then told his aides, "I'm not going to ever do that.' "

With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight - and an election that passed state measures against gay marriage in 11 states - Clinton's advice seems prescient to say the least. More than revealing Clinton's laser-sharp appreciation of Kerry's electoral predicament, the story may also say something about the Democrats' eventual response to the nasty drubbing they took on Election Day.

If the one successful Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years - who often boosted himself by co-opting the GOP's tactics - would advocate such an aggressive support on limiting gay marriage, the writing may well be on the wall.


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Gay Ohio couple in California exile
Pair left home, family for state's broad domestic partner laws
By Monica Mehta - CORRESPONDENT


BERKELEY -- Beverly Senkowski can't go back to Ohio.

A year and a half ago, she and her partner, Jacqueline Frank, decided to move from Ohio to San Francisco for a work contract for their health care business. They had intended to return in a couple of years to live near their families, which include 23 nieces and nephews.


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For Gays in Rural Ohio, Dismay in Wake of Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By GINIA BELLAFANTE


RANVILLE, Ohio, Nov. 8 - A couple of nights after Election Day, the Rev. Dr. Rick Mixon, the interim pastor of the First Baptist Church here, had dinner with the Rev. Karen Chakoian, his friend and counterpart at the town's Presbyterian church. The conversation turned to how they planned to approach their congregations now that the election was over.

Dr. Mixon, who is openly gay, ministers to an energetically liberal congregation, one he expected to find somewhat disconsolate on Sunday morning, after Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. He asked Ms. Chakoian how she intended to deal with the election. By avoiding it and talking about Communion, she said. Nearly two-thirds of the men and women in her congregation in this rural community had voted for President Bush, she figured, so what was there to say?

Granville, which occupies a four-square-mile patch of central Ohio about 30 miles east of Columbus, is home to markedly divergent social ideologies that have, until recently, lived in parallel seclusion. For years, the rural town of 3,100 has embraced both a conservative evangelical community and an impassioned liberal one that includes a subculture of left-leaning gay Christians. Until last week, they quietly coexisted.