Minnesota parish defies Vatican on gay activism


Minneapolis - A Minneapolis parish is continuing to provide a forum for homosexual activists despite orders from the Vatican, the Wanderer newspaper is reporting.

St. Joan of Arc parish is offering a series of lectures by homosexual and lesbian couples, under the auspices of a group known as the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM). The group is advertising a November 13 event that will feature "a Catholic gay male couple and a Catholic lesbian couple discussing their respective relationships and their sense of connection to the Church."


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Transsexual jailed for lying about gender, fights for right to marry as woman
By Jessica Su
Court TV


She was born a man, became a woman, was betrothed to a man, and then was thrown in jail for it.

Now, instead of paying a $500 fine on charges she lied about her gender, Sandy Gast is waging a legal battle for transsexual rights in Kansas.

Gast, 48, applied for a marriage license in February to wed her partner, George "Georgi" Somers. On March 18, however, just two days before the wedding date, Gast was jailed for lying about her sex.

Beginning Monday, a judge in the Leavenworth County Circuit courthouse will try Gast for falsely swearing on a marriage license, which carries a $500 fine.


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New CD Marry Me Supports the ACLU’s Efforts to Win Marriage for Same-Sex Couples


NEW YORK - Marry Me, a new album from Figjam Records, brings together a diverse group of musicians to celebrate love and support the American Civil Liberties Union’s efforts to secure the rights of same-sex couples to marry.

The songs on Marry Me represent an array of musical genres, such as RuPaul’s dance floor anthem "Love Is Love," Marcella Detroit’s gospel-like "I Wish You Love," the serenade "You and I" by Yolanda, the folksy "Jill and Jill" by Jenn Lindsay, the cover of Motown classic "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" by Sade Pendarvis and Nicolas Ferrer, and the R&B track "Bashert" by Ari Gold. This is music for anyone celebrating the union of love between two people.


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La Michel: Drag Queen During the War, the Reconstruction and the Sexual Revolut
by Vincent van der Kraan, in General


You reporter was fifteen years old when he was washing the car of his father together with a friend. Suddenly he was nudged and his friend said: “Look, that’s a fellow!” A comely lady walked by, in which your reporter as greenhorn, in no way recognised a man. So, a heavy “it is, it isn’t” conflict was held with the friend, though the seed was planted.

Every time this extravagant lady past the parental home on the Amstel in Amsterdam, she was followed by my eyes in a conspicuous way, which she was well aware of. One time she asked me if I wouldn’t like to come over for a cup of tea. As a starting homosexual this was of course extremely exciting for me, and breathless I listened to her story how she would have herself fucked by heterosexual man on a daily base; without them having any clue. Since that meeting I saw La Michel, as she called herself, regularly around Rembrandtsplein in an enormous sports Jaguar, sometimes in the company of her friend Thea, who had a same kind of Jaguar.


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Russia AIDS Cases Up 10% Since January 
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff


(Moscow) Warnings that Russia must act swiftly to combat AIDS are going unheeded as the number of new cases rose 10% between January and October.  

The new figures, released Friday by the Russian Health Ministry show that 30,000 new cases have been recorded since the beginning of the year, bringing to more 300,000 the number of people with HIV.

But, the man who heads up the Ministry's HIV program said the figures are only the tip of the iceberg. Vadim Pokrovsky said that the real number could be three times the official figures because many people with the disease have never been been tested and do not though they are HIV-positive.

At a Moscow news conference Friday Pokrovsky said that even a conservative estimate would point to between 1 million to 1.5 million people.


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Can. Province Accused Of Human Rights Violation For Supporting Gay Marriage 
by Rich Peters 365Gay.com Western Canada Bureau Chief


(Winnipeg, Manitoba) A man employed by the Manitoba government to perform civil marriages has filed a human rights complaint saying he was threatened with dismissal if he refused to marry same-sex couples.

Kevin Kisilowsky alleges that by forcing him to perform gay marriages the Manitoba government is violating the Canadian Constitution's religious freedom provisions.