Gay cops sought
SFPD estimates 25 gay male officers on force.
By Alison Soltau | Staff Writer


Alarmed that The City, often viewed as the nation's gay capital, has only about 25 gay male officers in its 2,100-strong police department, cops have undertaken their first recruitment drive specifically targeting this community.

For the past month, ending today, cops have targeted Castro District bars and gyms, and established a recruitment table at Castro and 18th streets, in hope of communicating that the SFPD welcomes gays and lesbians. Some 350 men and 150 women have taken applications from the Castro site, which is part of a broader SFPD recruitment drive.

According to the gay police officers' advocacy group San Francisco Pride Alliance -- which came up with the estimate of 25 gay officers -- a combination of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, which claimed 50 gay cops, and a perception that the Police Department is a "macho" culture, could explain the low number of gay cops.

Lesbians, not as affected by AIDS, are far better represented, with about 210 officers -- much closer to the 10.5 percent gays and lesbian each represent of The City's overall population.


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Muslims protest gay education

UNI Toronto Nov 21: Gay education in Toronto’s public schools has brought the Muslims of the city on a collision course with the administration and its policy of tolerance towards different groups, including homosexuals.Muslim parents, riled at the gay education classes being held in schools, are protesting against the Toronto district school board’s ‘anti-homophobia’ education which seeks to make children accept gay relationships.

The parents want their children excluded from these classes but neither the school authorities nor the Ontario government are succumbing to their demand.

The protest centered around the anti-homophobia education classes held at the Market Lane Public School earlier this week. One of the films shown during these classes featured a number of interviews with children of same-sex parents who talked about their feelings at being taunted for belonging to gay parents.


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Leno takes aim, The Ex holds a 'do
By P.J. Corkery | Staff Writer


WHETHER YOU'RE GAY or straight, activist or apolitical, hear and heed the words of Mark Leno the other night at an awards dinner held by amfAR, the respected organization that funds research and education into AIDS. The times they are a-changin', as the man said, so here's the heads-up.

"To those who say the struggle for marriage equality has been 'Too much, too fast, too soon,'" the assemblyman said, "we say 'Enough!'

"Enough of Democratic leaders buying into Karl Rove's cynical, handcrafted game plan. By doing so they are increasing the store and stock of homophobia in this country. Homophobia is on the rise; even in California, 91 percent of college students report hearing slurs about sexual identity on campus. ... Don't think that homophobia isn't impactful. Each of us is responsible for our own actions, but homophobia is connected to the rise in HIV. When you have a community disparaged and labeled by the nation as inferior, not worthy of equality, self-destructive behavior in the young of that community results. And half the new HIV infections are among those 25 years of age and younger.

"I will not let the gay, lesbian, bi, transgender community become the whipping child for America.


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Gays Targeted In 1 Of Six Hate Crimes
by The Associated Press


(Washington) Over 7,400 hate crime incidents occurred nationwide last year, more than half of them motivated by racial prejudice most often against black people, the FBI reported Monday.

Hate crimes motivated by anti-black racial bias totaled 2,548 in 2003, more than double such crimes against all other racial groups combined. There were 3,150 black victims in these cases, including four who were murdered, according to the annual FBI report.

The overall total of 7,489 hate crime incidents reported in 2003 was slightly above the number reported in 2002. Nearly two-thirds of the crimes involved in such cases are intimidation, vandalism or property destruction.

But there are also hundreds of violent crimes, including 14 murders. There were more than 2,700 assaults, 444 bias-related robberies, burglaries and thefts, and 34 arson incidents.


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House moves to defeat constitutional amendment banning gay marriage
By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House moved toward certain defeat of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Thursday, the latest in a string of conservative pet causes pushed to a vote in the run-up to Election Day


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Gay Adoption Inching Toward Supreme Court
By Paul Johnson


(Washington) A nasty co-parenting battle being fought out in two states between an estranged lesbian couple is expected to wind up in the US Supreme Court and could include the issue of whether states which do not recognize same-sex relationships must honor civil unions from those which do.

The case revolves around a two year old girl born through artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins. At the time she was in a relationship with Janet Miller-Jenkins, which had been formalized by a civil union in Vermont where they resided