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.

Gay Movement Charts Its Future: 17th Annual Creating Change Conference Day Two
First and largest post-election lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) gathering draws more than 2,500 participants


St. Louis, Missouri - November 13, 2004 - "Surrender? Never!" was the morning message from Matt Foreman in the keynote address yesterday at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force 17th annual Creating Change conference in St. Louis, MO.

"As we fight on, the first, overriding and most important goal of everything we do must be building our grassroots infrastructure over the long term," said Foreman. "Focusing on one election or one campaign after the next is short sighted, and it is never been the way rights have been won. The anti-amendment campaigns waged by many states over the last few months showed us the way to win long term gains even if we lose at the ballot box. So let me say it again, no campaign can be initiated or pursued unless it is specifically designed so that on other end, our community institutions will be stronger, not weaker and our statewide organizations energized, not demoralized."

Foreman stressed, "The number one priority of our movement must be to support, nurture, embrace and build our state and local grassroots infrastructure."

Foreman continued, "We need to be able to say that marriage equality a goal, but not the only goal of the LGBT community or our movement for liberation. We believe in and will fight for racial and economic justice. We believe in and will fight for a woman's right to choose and an end to a society that demands gender conformity. We believe in and will fight for new ways for people - gay and straight - to gain legal recognition and protections for their families.

Gay Battleground Topeka
by The Associated Press


(Topeka Kansas) In the first civic litmus test of where America's gays stand following this month's election Topeka city council is preparing to be the first municipality since Nov. 2 to consider a gay rights initiative.

Already there is a battle line drawn in the sand between religious leaders. Some clergy said it creates special rights for one group and "violates divine law."

But other clergy said they support 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.

The  Beautiful Sister: An interview with Yasmene Jabar


Most of us can't imagine what it is like to be born in the wrong body. All of us have experienced the confusion of childhood ... when you are not sure what your gender really is. You are a child. So, most of us go through it and we find our genders and our bodies go together. And then there are those who find themselves in a different world. Yasmene Jabar was part of the latter. Now, after what seems like a lifetime to her, she lives in the right world she always knew existed for her, as all of us. And, although she fought for that world so persistently, she is happy. So what does she do next? She turns around and makes every Transsexual feel they belong. A wonderful woman, indeed. I was honored to be able to talk to her about her life journey. I hope you get to see the woman Yasmene is from this interview.

INSURGENT ATTACK KILLS ONE SOLDIER, WOUNDS THREE OTHERS IN SOUTHERN BAGHDAD 11/12/2004

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.

Youth Gender Project is looking for volunteers to help make Genderblast Conference happen!

We need YOU! We’re looking for volunteers of all ages, genders and abilities.

Help support the trans, gender-variant and questioning youth community!

Many Ga. trans killings remain unsolved
By LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN


As Georgia transgender activists prepare to host their fifth annual Day of Remembrance vigil Nov. 20, several recent killings of transgendered people in the state remain unsolved.

“Education goes a long way in preventing hate crimes,” said Monica Helms, executive director of Trans=Action, organizer of the Atlanta observance. “We hope people will come away from the event feeling empowered.”

Trans=Action also plans a fund-raiser for Nov. 19 at LeBuzz, a gay club in Marietta.

More than 60 cities in six countries will hold Day of Remembrance services this year, according to organizers. The event was created to honor transgendered people who have died as the result of violence, prejudice or suicide.


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Transsexual escort backed out of call
By CARY CASTAGNA, POLICE REPORTER


She says it may just be a coincidence, but it has left her terrified. A 25-year-old transsexual prostitute who claims she works for a Winnipeg escort agency told The Sun a john called her out to a Portage la Prairie truck stop just days before the body of fellow transgender sex worker Divas B was found east of the city.

When the escort -- who didn't want her name published for safety reasons -- arrived at the truckstop, she spotted a red semi-trailer and immediately had a bad feeling, she recalled.

"The door was open, but nobody was there," she said, adding she decided to turn around and head back to Winnipeg. "I had an intuition. I don't know why. That's how I felt."


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WHO USING INTERNET TO HELP PROSTITUTES
by: Bradley S. Klapper
The Associated Press


GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. health agency Thursday said it plans to use the Internet to help prostitutes in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

Launching its computer-based information campaign, the World Health Organization said that prostitutes -- whether male, female or transsexual -- are at high risk of HIV infection but rarely have access to treatment. They often also miss out on general medical care, WHO added.

Once infected, prostitutes are likely to pass the HIV virus on to their clients, spurring the AIDS pandemic, the agency said.

However, many prostitutes -- and the organizations which help them -- lack the information they need to cut the risk.


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Gay killing 'filmed on mobile'
By Ross Lydall, Local Government Correspondent, Evening Standard


Mobile phone photographs were taken as a gang beat gay barman David Morley to death, Ken Livingstone claims.

Mr Morley, 37 , from Chiswick, was attacked last month as he sat chatting to a friend on the South Bank.

Police believe he was set upon because he was gay. He suffered a ruptured spleen, fractured ribs and 40 separate bruises from a hail of punches and kicks.


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Protest of marriage definition set
Gay couples plan mock wedding at Capitol
By Todd Wright
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


Members of Tallahassee's gay and lesbian community are outraged by a recent proposal that would further prohibit the recognition of same-sex unions, and they're ready to fight back.


"They are, in effect, forcing us to become second-class citizens by treating us differently than heterosexuals in this community," said the Rev. Paul Anway, pastor of the Gentle Shepherd Metropolitan Community Church. "It is very much an issue of separation of church and state. The government should not be saying who can and cannot be married."

Caught on film: Thug is snapped after gay attack
Matt Eley

POLICE hunting a crazed knifeman who stabbed a man in Highgate because he was gay have issued CCTV footage in a bid to trap his attacker.

Detectives have launched an attempted murder investigation following the attack on an N20 bus in Highgate, which resulted in a man being stabbed four times and left for dead.


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Five state union contracts protect same-sex benefits


LANSING (AP) — Benefits for gay state employees would be extended to their domestic partners in proposed contracts with five unions, but could be denied under a newly approved constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Nearly 38,000 state employees are holding ratification votes on tentative contracts reached a week before the Nov. 2 election. Voters that day approved Proposal 2, which adds language to the Michigan Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

If the contracts are approved, the state would provide same-sex domestic partner benefits as of Oct. 1, 2005. But David Fink, director of the Office of the State Employer, said, “We are concerned that this benefit negotiated in response to union demands could violate the new constitutional amendment.” Fink negotiated the new contracts on behalf of the state.


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Dueling gay boycotts
Two recent protests declare success, despite lack of measurable proof
By VAN GOWER


Recent controversies over gay issues prompted two boycotts from opposite sides of the ideological fence, and organizers of each protest deemed their efforts successful — despite lacking any concrete way to quantify their impact.

On Oct. 8, Boycott for Equality called for gays nationwide to make their voices heard in the U.S. economy by staying home from work, refusing to spend money, and refraining from using cell phones for the entire day. Gay businesses were also encouraged to close.

An Atlanta gay couple, Dale Duncan and Joe Henderson, organized the grassroots boycott in February and began promoting it following President Bush’s endorsement of a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.


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Group to seek gay marriage ban
Wayne Hoffman
The Idaho Statesman


A trio in the state's religious right have formed a new group and plan to raise "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to put gay marriage to a vote in Idaho's 2006 general election.

Former Idaho Family Forum Director Dennis Mansfield, defeated one-term state GOP Rep. Henry Kulczyk and Republican Sen. Gerry Sweet announced the plan Thursday in front of the Senate chambers, where the amendment stalled last winter.

The new group is called "Marriage Yes! One Man. One Woman." Organizers said they will introduce a bill next year to ban homosexuals from marrying and make Idaho the 12th state in the nation to say no to gay unions.


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Gay-marriage defeat puts legal arrangements in question 
By Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal


Like many other unmarried couples, Joan Callahan and Jennifer Crossen have signed documents giving each other some of the legal rights that married couples receive automatically.

Crossen has named Callahan as guardian of her son in the event of her death. They have put all of their property in both names, including their Lexington horse farm. And they have signed powers of attorney enabling each to make medical and health-care decisions for the other.

But after last week's passage of a Kentucky constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions, Callahan and Crossen made an appointment with their lawyer to make sure their documents are still valid.


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Petition filed to ban gay marriage in D.C.
Board of Elections to consider initiative next week
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. and KEN SAIN


A Northeast D.C. woman hopes to add the District to the list of U.S. jurisdictions that prohibit same-sex marriage. She has started a group called D.C. Citizens for Marriage that intends to place before District voters a referendum that would permanently ban gay marriage in the nation’s capital.

Ward 4 resident Lisa L. Greene filed the necessary paperwork with the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics on Oct. 4. That body has scheduled a Nov. 18 hearing to determine if Greene’s initiative meets the criteria required for a referendum.

“I don’t have a problem if someone is a lesbian or a homosexual,” Greene said. “But I feel their personal preferences should be kept private. If two people want to live together, that’s their choice. It’s my belief that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman only.”


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Coach butted lesbian ace
 FULL NEWS INDEX
By ROBIN PERRIE

A TOP women's soccer coach headbutted a star player for having a lesbian affair with a teammate.

The FA launched a probe after Lyn Stanley, 20, was left with a broken nose after the attack by Pauline Godward, 44.

Lyn and Emma Foster, 16, began a relationship while playing together in midfield for Co Durham's Chester-le-Street ladies side.

But they got the boot after word of the fling spread.


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Gay-marriage defeat puts legal arrangements in question


LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Gays and lesbians fear that last week's passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions may be the first step toward a gradual erosion of their legal rights.

Leaders on both sides of the amendment fight have said same-sex couples shouldn't be worried, because laws governing contracts and similar legal documents are separate from laws about marriage.

But legal observers and advocates on both sides also say the courts ultimately may decide what's affected by the amendment.

"People sort of make assumptions that once they have an arrangement in place, once they've signed papers, once they've talked a lawyer, that they're safe," said Sam Marcosson, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Louisville and an advocate for gay legal rights. "That's not a safe assumption now."


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Doctor Refuses To Treat HIV-Positives
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff


(Denver, Colorado) A complaint has been filed accusing the Lasik Vision Institute and its Glendale, Colo.-based doctor, Paul Cutarelli, of refusing to perform eye surgery on two HIV-positive patients.

The complaint, to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, was made by the Legal Center for People with Disabilities, a Colorado-based not-for-profit advocacy group on behalf of the two patients.

According to the complaint an employee at the Lasik Vision Institute office in 2003 told a man who was seeking vision correction surgery that Cutarelli would not operate on the man after he informed her that he was HIV-positive, Eric Maxfield, an attorney at the Legal Center tells the Denver Post.

The Legal Center also alleges that an HIV-positive woman was denied Lasik surgery without any examination to determine if her HIV status would affect her standing for the procedure.


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Manitoba gay marriage rules violate rights: MP
CTV.ca News Staff


Federal Conservative Justice Critic Vic Toews says it is illegal to force marriage commissioners in Manitoba to perform same-sex marriages.

"[Commissioners] should not be compelled to choose between his or her faith and the official functions that they're carrying out," the longtime Manitoba MP told CKY News in Winnipeg.

This comes less than two months after a Manitoba judge ruled that the current definition of marriage is discriminatory. After that, marriage commissioners began issuing licences to same-sex couples in the province.

There are about 600 commissioners in Manitoba; so far, 11 have resigned because they were required to perform same-sex marriages.


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LGBT: Couples' benefits will stay
By Drew Paul
Executive Staff Writer


Questions quickly flooded into the Office of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered Life last week after Georgia voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage by an overwhelming margin on Nov. 2.

Many faculty and students expressed concern that the amendment would roll back Emory’s policy of awarding same-sex and straight couples the same benefits, including health insurance, courtesy scholarships and access to University libraries and the Woodruff P.E. Cente


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Anti-Gay Vote Not As Influential As Thought Survey Shows
by Will Lester, Associated Press


(Washington) This presidential election has been described by many as one in which morality mattered most to voters. But that perception may be driven at least partially by how pollsters asked voters about their priority issues.

Whether voters named "moral values" their key issue partly depended on whether that subject was included in a list of choices provided by pollsters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Thursday.

When "moral values" was included in poll questions, it was named more often than any other issue. But when voters were just asked to name the issue most important in their vote for president -- without being given a list of answers -- moral values trailed the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the Pew survey.


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USNA Grads Renew Application For Gay Alumni Chapter


ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After a year of preparation, a group of former Naval Academy midshipmen announced on Veterans Day they will try again to establish the first official gay and lesbian alumni chapter of any U.S. service academy.


Leaders of the would-be chapter say they've resolved objections raised by the Naval Academy Alumni Association last December, when the panel rejected the chapter's application to be officially recognized. The group, now with 66 members, tweaked its bylaws to clarify they don't exclude straight graduates.

And they established a geographic base -- Castro, the predominantly gay section of San Francisco. The military college's alumni association emphasized that new chapters have to be "geographic in nature," the association's spokesman said last year. It's not the group's sexuality that the association objects to, officials said.

TASK FORCE OLYMPIA SOLDIER DIES FOLLOWING SMALL ARMS FIRE ATTACK 11/12/2004

FALLUJAH UPDATE
BAGHDAD, Iraq - As of 8 p.m., Baghdad time, Nov. 11, there have been 18 Multi-National Forces killed in Operation Al Fajr, as well as reports of five Iraqi Security Forces killed. One hundred and seventy eight Multi-National Forces and 34 Iraqi Security Forces have been wounded in action during the operation. All of those injured were evacuated to the appropriate medical facilities for treatment.

ACLU Sues School For Anti-Gay Harassment


LOS ANGELES, CA—According to a lawsuit filed Thursday by a prominent civil-liberties group, teachers and staff at a California high school not only tolerated, but perpetrated harassment against gay and lesbian students, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union alleged employees of Los Angeles’ Washington Preparatory High School referred to LGTB students in pejorative terms and derided homosexuality as “wrong” and “unholy.” Two 17-year-old plaintiffs in the case, who were not named, reported being openly mocked by school deans and suspended for kissing on another on campus.


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Activists to march for gay equality


Reaction to recently passed same-sex marriage bans in 11 states has spurred local gay-rights groups to start what they call their own "civil rights movement."

Activists for Gay Equality (AGE), a newly formed group on Florida State University's campus, has organized a march on the Capitol to petition officials to repeal a state law that bans gay marriages in Florida.

About 100 supporters are expected to march tomorrow from FSU's campus to the Capitol and then pair up and perform a mass same-sex marriage ceremony.

Local leaders of the movement argue that preventing couples from creating a legally binding bond infringes on the rights of homosexuals and heterosexuals alike.


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GOP Moderates Frozen Out
by Marc Humbert, Associated Press


(Albany, New York) A normally media-shy veteran Republican consultant has told an Israeli newspaper that President Bush's re-election victory demonstrates the power of evangelical Christians and spells trouble for GOP moderates.

"The political center has disappeared, and the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian right more so than in any other period in modern history," Arthur Finkelstein told the Hebrew-language Maariv, according to a report in Thursday editions of The New York Times.



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Activists consider whether to challenge N.D. marriage ban


A group of advocates for gay and lesbian rights says it is still weighing how to respond to a new North Dakota constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Supporters of the ban say they expect it to withstand any challenge.

Larry Peterson, a spokesman for Equality North Dakota, which opposed the measure approved by 73% of voters in this month's election, said a court challenge is an option but that the group has no immediate plans for a lawsuit. "There's been a lot of e-mail discussions about where we might go from here," he said. "At the moment there has not been any decision. It's definitely a long-term project."


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Peru gives green light for gays in military to have sex


LIMA (AFP)- Peru's constitutional court has granted gays in the military the freedom to have sex, declaring that a rule which had deemed such relations illegal was unconstitutional.

The army's rule had stipulated that military personnel could not engage in sexual relations with persons of the same sex either within or outside their barracks.

Trans Eastern On Line Conference
 Hosted by "TEA" Trans Eastern Association
 Conference Date:  March , 2005
 

Due to Safety Issues in the Middle East at this time, Our 2005 Conference has been redirected into a Web Based Conference. Our Speakers will provide  Programs that can be read, or down loaded in video or audio form from this site.  We will work in the direction of having a Live Trans Conference in the near future , we need your support to make this a reality.
Yasmene Jabar

Worcester (Mass, US) Global Action Network:Encuentro: "DECRIMINALIZING RESISTANCE"

From Buenos Aires to Belgrade to New York City and Worcester resistance movements are being repressed, jailed, and labeled as "security threats." But what is "security"? What are the real threats to the safety and well being of our communities? How is "security" used by the State to undermine resistance movements?



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Black, Muslim and Gay
With MPs this week pushing legislation through the Commons to create civil partnerships - gay marriages in all but name - homosexuality has never been more accepted by British society.


But what happens if you are gay and come from a cultural background where that acceptance is not available?

In a documentary for BBC Radio Four, Black, Muslim and Gay, three people describe their struggle with identity, faith and family. Islamic scholars say their faith forbids homosexuality, although approaches widely differ in how to address it.

Some regard it as a sin deserving punishment. Others regard gay men and lesbians as needing pity and spiritual guidance.

Jaheda is a 28-year-old British Asian whose family came from Bangladesh. Raised in Sheffield, she lives now in Manchester and struggled for years with how to explain to her mother that she was gay.


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Nontraditional homecoming queen stirs controversy about gender roles
By Susie Pakoua Vang


University student Kong Vang rarely skips classes, but he was fueled with enough frustration last Thursday to ditch two courses and hit the road.

The American studies senior, no relation to the writer, filled his car with students from surrounding colleges and made the hourlong trek to St. Cloud State University to attend a rally in support of a man recently crowned homecoming queen.

People opposed to the homecoming election were also in attendance.

Since his win three weeks ago, Fue Khang, 22, said he has been concerned about his safety after receiving harassing e-mails and phone calls. In response, the school has offered Khang security escorts, said St. Cloud State spokeswoman Lisa Foss

Shurtleff promises to defend Amendment 3
Senators keep option open to hire outside counsel
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret Morning News


      Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff tried once again Wednesday to convince lawmakers that he'd do a good job defending the recently passed anti-gay marriage amendment, even though he opposed it.

      About all Shurtleff left the closed-door meeting with, however, was in effect an agreement by Republican members of the Senate to postpone a decision on hiring outside legal counsel to defend the state in the event of a lawsuit over Amendment 3.



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Sexual orientation not included in anti-discrimination policy
By Cara Parell
Senior Reporter


Auburn senior Warren Davis wasn’t kicked out of his fraternity because his brothers disliked him. He was kicked out because of fear.

“People are so concerned about image,” Davis said. “I was kicked out of my fraternity not because they hate gay people, but because they were afraid to publicly accept me.”

At a recent Auburn Gay and Lesbian Association meeting, Davis sat in a room with nine other members and admitted he didn’t come to the meetings his first few years at Auburn because he was afraid.

This is the usual turnout for the weekly meetings, but current members are certain more students are interested.


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I am so so tired of reading these reactions.. all queers need to leave montgomery country ... or organize and stop this.. hey.. PA.. if your queer show up, call do something

Sex-ed critics intend to fight
By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Pastors and parents of Montgomery County said yesterday they are uniting in opposition to a new sex-education program in high schools that they think promotes homosexuality.

    School officials "have definitely stepped over the line in assuming the majority of parents in this county accept this," said Tim Simpson, pastor of 500-member Greenridge Baptist Church in Clarksburg and parent of a high school student.


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oh, how the media kowtows to the political winds.... I am sure this will play well during sweeps week, especially in jesus land


BULLY PULPIT
By DON KAPLAN


ABC is preparing a major investigation of the Matthew Shepard gay-bashing murder that contends it may not have been a hate crime — but a mugging gone wrong.

Friends and family of Shepard — who became a national symbol of the senseless violence against gays — as well as gay activists are upset about the report, scheduled to air on "20/20" later this month.


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Gay Activists Gather for St. Louis Meeting
CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press


ST. LOUIS -Organizers of the first national gay and lesbian conference since last week's presidential election say resounding voter passage of gay marriage bans in 11 states has been hard to bear, leaving members devastated and fearful.

Matt Foreman of New York, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, likened the blow to a death, with soul searching in order.

"Our movement needs to regroup and buckle down," said Sue Hyde of Cambridge, Mass., director of the "Creating Change" conference that runs Thursday through Sunday.

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Democrats search for scapegoats


IN THIS year’s episode of the Democratic Party’s “Post-Election Blame Game,” Ralph Nader isn’t the chief villain. He can’t be. After a campaign filled with frantic slanders against him, Nader got fewer than 500,000 votes. John Kerry lost the popular vote by seven times that much.

Instead, the favorite target for abuse this year is an actual Democrat, but one comfortably removed from the national party leadership--San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Newsom is being blamed for spurring a mass turnout by the religious right for George Bush--by announcing earlier this year that his city government would defy California law and grant marriage licenses to gays and lesbians.

“The thing that agitated people were the mass weddings,” said openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)--sounding not unlike the homophobes who hate him. “It was a mistake in San Francisco, compounded by people in Oregon, New Mexico and New York. What it did was provoke a lot of fears.”


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Same-sex benefits to increase with PSU health-care merger
By Kayur Patel
Collegian Staff Writer

Two of Penn State's traditional health care plans are merging to create a new plan with extended benefits and eligibility requirements for Penn State employees.


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Welcome to Brazil!
Terry Gilliam, standing on the shoulders of Orwell, showed us the America of 2004 almost 20 years ago.
by James Heflin


Terry Gilliam's 1985 black comedy Brazil is set at "8:49 p.m., somewhere in the 20th century." Brazil is full of the trappings of a culture that never exactly existed but is still familiar, a ravaged, blackened environment, packed with clunky typewriter/computer consoles, strange cars, and the neon-lit streets of a futuristic film noir. This is a decidedly British dystopia, its citizens the unassuming, go along to get along sorts Americans frequently think Brits to be. (Gilliam, though American himself, was a member of British comedy troupe Monty Python.)

Brazil opens with a televised conversation between a spokesman of the "Ministry of Information" and a journalist who pitches softball questions and receives answers which are either irrelevant or just plain ignorant. The world of Brazil is beset by horrific acts of terrorism, and the Ministry of Information spokesman understands why: "bad sportsmanship." The spokesman further claims that progress has been made against the terrorists, and delivers a stunner when it's pointed out that attacks have been going on for 13 years: "beginner's luck."


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New gay row erupts in Italy
John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian


Allegations of homophobia were yesterday again being levelled at Silvio Berlusconi's allies with the revelation that one of the Italian prime minister's leading supporters had fired the head of his private office, who was spotted at a gay party.

Dario Mattiello, secretary to Mr Berlusconi's former culture minister, Domenico Fisichella, was dismissed after a photograph was published of him at a gay nightspot in Rome in June. Mr Fisichella, a member of the hard-right National Alliance, is deputy speaker of the Italian senate.

Mr Mattiello was quoted by the daily La Repubblica as saying he had been sacked 11 days after his visit to the gay haunt but had only recently decided to take legal action.

Franco Grillini, an MP and honorary president of the gay rights group, Arcigay, said the incident was "in blatant violation of the most basic liberal values of contemporary Europe". Last month Mr Berlusconi's Europe minister, Rocco Buttiglione, was rejected as a candidate for the European commission after branding homosexuality a sin.


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Group says Democrats betrayed gays on marriage issue

 
"They used us like an ATM."

That was the judgment of the president, and other leaders, of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats toward the party they thought they could trust, the one that bills itself as inclusive and opposed to all discrimination.

The sentiment was served up, like a slab of stale wedding cake, in the wake of last week's election after it was learned that one Democratic candidate in Indiana had courted votes by coming out loudly in favor of marriage between a man and a woman. He promoted his message with a flier that gay Hoosiers say was deliberately insulting and hateful to them.

Candidate Vern Tincher, of Terre Haute, was among 29 or so Hoosier Democrats who received direct financial support from the Stonewall Democrats, the state organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Democrats and their friends.



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Alta's Klein reiterates stand against gay marriage may change if voters wish


RED DEER, Alta. (CP) - The premier who has long promised to fight gay marriage in Alberta brought confusion and a little derision to the issue Wednesday with suggestions a decision may now be up to voters.

Klein, meeting with constituents in central Alberta, reiterated that his caucus has ruled against gay marriages but added it doesn't necessarily have the last word. "If Albertans tell me - I've not asked them to tell me - but if they do, spontaneously, tell me they want to do something differently, I'll listen," he said Wednesday.

In the campaign's lone leaders debate Monday, Klein was adamant his Progressive Conservative government would use any legal means necessary to see that marriage "remains between a man and a woman."

Law academy supports marriage equality
PlanetOut Network


A group of the top U.S. marital law attorneys announced on Wednesday its support for marriage rights for same-sex couples, and it urged lawmakers to get on board.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, with 1,600 members, approved two resolutions -- one endorsing marriage equality and one encouraging similar support from Congress and state legislatures -- during its annual meeting this week in Chicago.

The academy's actions stem from an internal survey in which almost 93 percent of members agreed that children of same-sex couples deserve the same protections (such as parenting, custody, support, inheritance and Social Security) as children from married couples. In addition, 83 percent said same-sex couples should be able to obtain the same legal rights and obligations as married couples.

"We believe this is a fundamental issue of equality, that the U.S. Constitution protects one's legal right to marry as a fundamental right and that there is no reason to deny same-sex families the legal rights and obligations arising from marriage," said Richard F. Barry, the academy's outgoing president.



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Singapore "facing AIDS epidemic"
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


Singapore is facing a new AIDS epidemic, with the country's gay community being blamed by the conservative government.

According to the Reuters news agency, new cases of HIV could hit more than 1,000 a year in the very near future.

The country's Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan said that a rising level of casual sex is behind the increase. However, the country's government is known for its totalitarian stance on sexual diversity.

Speaking on the projected rise today, Sadasivan said the gay community needed to be checked so as to ensure future generations are aware of the risks of HIV and AIDS.


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Ministers says no more "I do's"


Louisville-- A local minister says if everyone is not able to take advantage of marriage then he will no longer marry anyone, gay or straight.

His decision comes at a time when Metro Louisville is getting ready to restart a very familiar debate in protecting gays and lesbians. The debate follows a national election where banning same sex marriage was a key in bringing out voters.


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Gay-N-C
Logan Circle voters elect a gay-majority ANC
By Will O'Bryan


With the city's heavily Democratic majority among registered voters, presidential races may not be much of a contest in the District of Columbia. Nonpartisan advisory neighborhood commission seats, however, are far less predictable. But with most of the votes counted, it's clear that Logan Circle residents have elected a gay-majority ANC.



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Solon board OKs gay material
By Deidre Bello
Iowa City Press-Citizen


SOLON -- After weeks of heated debate about use of gay-themed stories in an eighth-grade class, School Board members voted unanimously Wednesday to keep the material in the district's curriculum.

The Solon School Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendation from a materials reconsideration committee and keep the stories in eighth-grade teacher Sue Protheroe's curriculum. Board member Joel Miller was absent from the meeting. Present board members advised parents still opposed to the decision to appeal to the Iowa Board of Education.

"If your goal out there is to take your personal views and instill them in your children and also force them on all children, then the road to the state school board is open to you in Des Moines," School Board member Ben Pardini said, and suggested parents work with the district to best educate students.


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Fundamentalist Protests Greet 'Kinsey' Moviegoers  
by David Crary, Associated Press


(New York City) Indignant conservative groups are protesting the opening of the film Kinsey, denouncing it as ``propaganda'' seeking to glorify the bisexual researcher they blame for inspiring the sexual revolution.

``Alfred Kinsey is responsible in part for my generation being forced to deal face-to-face with the devastating consequences of sexually transmitted diseases, pornography and abortion,'' said Brandi Swindell, head of a college-oriented group called Generation Life that plans to picket theatres showing the film.


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Prop 2 may threaten state's plan to offer gay-partner benefits
Court may rule on deal 5 unions struck in Oct.
By Chris Andrews
Lansing State Journal


The state has agreed to offer domestic partner benefits to gay employees in new contracts with five unions, but the provision could be blocked by last week's approval of Proposal 2.

The state reached tentative pacts with the unions a week before the Nov. 2 election. The benefits would kick in Oct. 1, 2005. But on Election Day, voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and similar unions.

"We are concerned that this benefit negotiated in response to union demands could violate the new constitutional amendment," said David Fink, director of the Office of the State Employer.

Fink negotiated the new contracts with unions that represent nearly 38,000 state employees. The unions are holding ratification votes.

SOLDIER KILLED BY INSURGENT SMALL ARMS FIRE 11/10/2004

Is Ken Mehlman Gay? and if not, why wouldn't Steve Schmidt say so on the record?



I was rather amazed to hear that Ken Mehlman might be running for Chair of the RNC. As we now know, Kenny ran one of the most homophobic campaigns in US History . . .


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The unlikely sheriff in Bush's backyard: a Hispanic lesbian Democrat
Gary Younge in New York
The Guardian

In a week that saw the Democrats trounced, anti-gay amendments passed across the country and the return of Texas's adopted son to the White House, there was one striking anomaly. An openly lesbian, Hispanic Democrat, has been elected sheriff in Dallas - the president's backyard.

In an upset brought about by local scandal, demographic evolution and personal chutzpah, Lupe Valdez, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant farm worker, became the first ever Democrat and woman to head the county's sole law enforcement office, which includes Texas' second largest city.

"Since I won, every time I go to a Democratic meeting, they go crazy," Ms Valdez, 57, told the New York Times.

Despite the fact that she had little in the way of money and a campaign led by novices, Ms Valdez won comfortably.


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Sudanese forces raid refugee camp
Sudan's security forces have again stormed a refugee camp in the troubled region of Darfur and attacked crowds.


Police fired tear gas and assaulted residents at El-Geer camp near Nyala, hours before the UN's Sudan envoy was due to arrive, witnesses said.

The UN and African Union are seeing the assault as a calculated affront, says a BBC correspondent from the scene.

Sudan's ambassador in London played down the incident and said troops were trying to move people to a better camp.

Hassan Abedin said force was used only on a small number who were trying to incite resistance to being moved from the camp.


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The Misguided Others
By Yasmene Jabar


Just when you felt safe to go back in the water up comes groups like the one mentioned below to try to eat away at our self esteem. Like we don't already have that coming in every direction any way.  We get that from family, old friends, the old busy body down the street, and sometimes even the government taking away what rights we thought we had.  But still we hold our heads up and say Hey!  I'm Here! and I'm OK,  I will never more feel guilt for being what I was born to be. Those who have the problems try to cause more problems and confuse the issues to those who have not yet made a decision which way to believe.  One day the world will be educated to the realities of the Transsexual Mind, and accept it for what it is.  But until then we must go forward with our heads held high, knowing we are the best we can be, we are doing what is right for us and that we are going to be counted  in the scheme of life. Always be Transsexual and Proud, never more ashamed of something we can not change.  

Newfoundland won't oppose court challenge to same-sex marriage ban
DENE MOORE


ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - The Newfoundland government will not oppose efforts by two lesbian couples to overturn the province's ban on same-sex marriage.

Attorney General Tom Marshall said Wednesday that the province will take no position on a constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.


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AIDS Drugs Pulled From Market
by The Associated Press


Geneva) India's Ranbaxy Laboratories is withdrawing all of its generic versions of antiretroviral drugs from the U.N. health agency's list of approved HIV medicines, saying it is uncertain they are biologically the same as the patented drugs, the World Health Organization has announced.

Ranbaxy found "discrepancies in the documentation," which meant that it was unable to prove in studies that its generic HIV treatments are equivalent to the original medicines, WHO said in a statement.

In India, a Ranbaxy spokesman said he had no immediate comment.

The company has already proposed dates to submit reports on new studies of the drugs, WHO said. The first study is expected to be completed by December.


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LESBIAN'S LEGAL FIGHT BLOCKED


A WOMAN has lost her battle to sue a driver over the death of her partner because they were in a same-sex relationship.

Catriona Robertson had launched a £200,000 damages claim after scientist Jill Telfer, 27, was knocked off her motorbike.

Drink-driver Alan Kellock, 40, was jailed for four years over the May 1999 tragedy.

Dispirited U.S. gays choosing Canada
By MARINA JIMÉNEZ
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail


They're calling it the gay drain. Hundreds of well-heeled gay and lesbian lawyers, professors, educators and film directors from the U.S. are immigrating to Canada, drawn by the country's recognition of same-sex rights, unions and benefits.

I have to wonder if this would have been preventable, if there had been total acceptance of trans folkz..

what if there was no shame, no hate..

would this person been driven to react in such a manner?

without fear just maybe they could have lived a loving relationship...?.. its to bad in this environment of gender centrism and trans/ homo - phobia we will never know, they will never know.


Man(sic) gets life for campsite murder
By Janet Kelley, New Era Staff Writer
Lancaster New Era


LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - A transsexual convicted of murdering another man had only one thing to say at his sentencing Monday.


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Beaverton favors law banning discrimination
The council supports an ordinance to make it illegal to discriminate against gay or transgender people
DAVID R. ANDERSON


BEAVERTON -- Members of the city's sexual minority community became a majority for a night as the City Council voiced unanimous support for an ordinance to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Of 20 people who testified during an hourlong public hearing Monday night, 10 were gays, lesbians or transgender people from the Beaverton area. One person testified against the ordinance.

Most backers of the ordinance told the council it is largely symbolic, but it will help create a safer community at a time when discrimination persists.

"I want to be considered equal, just as equal as my neighbors, the people I attend church with," said Lisa Lane, who lives in Beaverton with her lesbian partner and two children. "I want that for my children more than I can say."


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Lesotho has 90 000 Aids orphans, says report
Maseru, Lesotho


An estimated 15% of babies born in Lesotho become infected with HIV each year, the Lesotho government and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday.

Unicef and the government released a mid-term review on Wednesday of their programme of cooperation for 2002 to 2007. The review notes that a baby born to an HIV-positive mother has a 25% to 35% chance of becoming infected during birth or through breast-feeding.

"Between 5 000 and 7 000 children born every year ... are infected with HIV, the majority through mother-to-child-transmission," reads the report.

The report notes an increasing number of abandoned and institutionalised children in Lesotho


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World ; UNICEF calls on nations to overcome hurdles to gender equality in education


World News, Acknowledging that HIV/AIDS, conflict and deepening poverty have eroded gains in enrolling more girls in school in many countries, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called on nations to respect promises made to ensure that girls and boys receive the same educational opportunities.

"We must not allow the promise of education for all to become another broken promise," Executive Director Carol Bellamy told the high-level meeting on Education for All, convened annually by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its partners, yesterday in Brasilia, Brazil.


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Gay Marriage: Next Steps in National Fight
by Andrew Davis


Six months after gay and lesbian couples won the right to marry in Massachusetts, opponents of same-sex marriage struck back, with voters in 11 states approving constitutional amendments making marriage an exclusively heterosexual institution.

Voters in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah all approved the amendments by double-digit margins. The closest race came in Oregon, where gay-rights groups concentrated much of their effort and money and thought they had the best chance of winning. Opponents of the amendment raised about $2.8 million, enough to run TV and radio ads in the Beaver State and outspend pro-amendment forces, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task


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Propping up the patriarchy
Neo-liberalism is a soulless ideology that preaches greed and power über alles.
by Judy Rebick


Pity the poor world. George W. Bush is once again President of the United States. For those of us who try to analyze such things rationally, it is tough to understand. The economy is in the tank, the war in Iraq is a disaster and master villain Osama bin Laden remains at large. What exactly has Bush done to deserve re-election?

But this election was not about reason; it was about fear and hatred.

About a month ago, an American cousin came north to visit my elderly mother. He's about ten years older than I and grew up in Florida. Today he is a religious Jew, working with an engineering firm in New York City. He supported Bush. His explanation included the most overt racism I've heard in a long time. “We should round up all the Muslims and put them in internment camps like we did with the Japanese during World War II,” he told us. A Jew supporting internment camps. That's when I had an idea of what was coming in this election.

It's not that Bush has hoodwinked Americans; it is that he has mobilized them using fear and hatred, racism and homophobia. In a strange way, Bush's support comes from the same place as Osama bin Laden's. Neo-liberalism is a soulless ideology that preaches greed and power über alles. The appeal of religious fundamentalism whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish is to speak to those who have not benefited from the drive to greed and profit with a simple message of right and wrong, good and evil. In the case of Bush, the moralism is a cover for the same neo-liberal policies. In both cases, propping up patriarchy through violence and the oppression of women is the central operating dictum. Tariq Ali calls it the Clash of Fundamentalisms in his 2002 book of that name. In a complicated world, we are right and they are evil is a simple and powerful message.


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Anwar seeks privacy provision in Malaysia gay laws
Agence France-Presse


KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia's laws on homosexuality need to be amended, says the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose conviction and nine-year jail sentence for sodomy were recently overturned on appeal.

Anwar, who spent six years in prison on a separate charge of abusing his position to cover up homosexual offenses, spoke out on what he called a "sensitive" issue in an interview.

Anwar, a popular politician who was widely expected to be Malaysia's prime minister by now, maintained, as he has done since his arrest in 1998, that the charges against him were trumped up to destroy his political career.

But while insisting on his innocence and acknowledging that most people in mainly Muslim Malaysia objected to homosexuality, he said people's privacy needed to be protected.


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American Resistance
by Manuel Valenzuela
www.dissidentvoice.org
Valid Outrage


If you are still upset at the resounding defeat of humanity that occurred on November 2, 2004 you have every right to be.  On that day billions of us lost a most important battle through both the vote of the ignorant, unenlightened among us and the systemic fraudulent manipulation of electronic-voting machines which, it is becoming more and more apparent, helped steal victory, for the second time in four years, for George W. Bush and the Republican/corporatist party.  The consequences on America and the world of such tragedy may inevitably set us back to the dark ages and to a meeting with a most ominous destiny. 

You should be outraged that so many fellow Americans were methodically conditioned to vote against their own interests and for the benefit of the corporate world, sending the world a message of backwardness, of warmongering, of ignorance and thirst for violence.  Americans of all varieties should be incensed that so many gave George Bush a thumbs-up mandate for the feeble leadership, incompetence, violence and killing of the past and the ineptitude, violence, war, division, terror, criminality that is sure to come.  By voting Bush back into office we have lost all respect in the world, we have become the terrorists we fear, the war criminals we loathe and have allowed for the continued slaughter of untold thousands through the weapons of mass destruction we are so proud to manufacture. 

Protesters meet counter-protest on campus
IU law school serves as venue for religious debate
By Mike McElroy


Anti-gay and anti-abortion protesters clashed with Bloomington United and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender representatives in front of the IU School of Law Tuesday afternoon.

Members of the Old Paths Baptist Church of Indiana came to IU with posters featuring aborted fetuses and anti-gay slogans.

"We're not protesting so much as we're exercising our religion," said John Lewis, the church's pastor. "Christ tells us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

When GLBT supporter and junior Phillip Bergmann noticed the Old Paths protesters, he quickly organized a counter-protest.


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News briefs from California's Central Coast
By The Associated Press


SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Students apologized for a university art project after classmates said it appeared to liken gay marriage to bestiality.

The display at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, features wooden cutout figures that form a wedding party. A minister faces a bride and groom standing below an arch with the words "What is marriage anyway."

Behind the couple are two men in tuxedos, followed by a tuxedoed man flanked by two women in wedding gowns. Finally, there is another man in a tuxedo standing next to a Dalmatian.

Other messages read: "Legalization of gay marriage leads to social disintegration," Where would u draw the line? and "It's a slippery slope."


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FALWELL PLANS FOR 'EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION'
by: Hank Kurz Jr., The Associated Press


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Seeking to take advantage of the momentum from an election where moral values proved important to voters, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced Tuesday he has formed a new coalition to guide an "evangelical revolution."

Falwell, a religious broadcaster based in Lynchburg, Va., said the Faith and Values Coalition will be a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority," the organization he founded in 1979.

Falwell said he would serve as the coalition's national chairman for four years.




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Who bred the hate?
The death of David Morley has highlighted the rise in homophobic attacks. Noel Halifax asks what is responsible


THE DREADFUL killing of David Morley in London has brought to attention the continuing prevalence of homophobia.

Figures show an increase in the number of reported anti-gay attacks, which parallels a similar rise in racist assaults over the last two years. What’s behind homophobia in society?

There were strenuous efforts by sections of the media to link the killing of David Morley to the lyrics of some Jamaican reggae singers.

Some on the left also seem to believe that homophobic reggae songs are one of the main reasons for such hate attacks, and have called for the banning and prosecution of some reggae singers for incitement to murder.


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Gay leaders try to reframe struggle for marriage rights
They'll reach out to Middle America
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau


Washington -- From adopting a NASCAR dad to embracing the moral rhetoric of the 1960s civil rights movement, gay and lesbian leaders are rethinking their message and market after last week's sweeping election losses, but they are refusing to retreat on same-sex marriage.

The Nov. 2 election was "a wake-up call for gay and lesbian Americans and organizations," Patrick Guerriero, president of the gay Log Cabin Republicans, declared in a new mission statement.

"We lost," Guerriero said. "If we listen to those attempting to sanitize or sugarcoat the post-election analysis, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes and destined for setbacks ahead."

Jeff Trammel, co-chair of gay and lesbian outreach for Sen. John Kerry, the defeated Democratic nominee, said he finds himself "in the very odd position of actually giving some credibility to something Tony Perkins (head of the Family Research Council) said, that gay marriage was the 'hood ornament on the car of family values.' "


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Baptists: Ban gay marriages


JACKSONVILLE - Florida Baptists unanimously gave their blessing Tuesday to a resolution calling for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.



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Anger grows over Christian Institute anti-gay advert
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


Anger over the Christian Institute's advert in yesterday's Times newspaper is growing today, with MPs calling for an investigation into the charity.

The advert, a full page focus on the Conservative's amendment to the Civil Partnership bill that was defeated in parliament yesterday, claims that the majority of people support extending the Civil Partnership bill to siblings and carers.

However, the amendment is widely seen by gay rights groups as a "wrecking" tactic, while legal groups have claimed it would make the bill unworkable.

The advert also claimed that 84% of people backed the amendment for "ordinary families", despite figures in The Times suggesting that the overwhelming majority of the general public backed the bill in its original form.




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Anti-Gay Council Faces Youth Protest


It’s now been a year since the government repealed Section 28 in national law. However, immediately after this landmark decision, Kent County Council chose to implement similar policies that prohibit the "promotion of homosexuality" causing widespread outrage and disappointment.

In protest at the council’s anti-gay attitude, outraged young people have organised led a day of action on Saturday 13 November 2004.

The out, proud rally will take place outside County Hall in Maidstone from 1pm and will include a variety of speakers, colourful banners, placards, costumed street theatre and petitioning demanding for the policy to be scrapped once and for all.

The Queer Youth Alliance has accused the council of contravening Article 17 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which clearly states that "children and young people have the right to information especially those aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health”.


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Fears Chicago Gay Serial Killer Has Stuck Again


(Chicago, Illinois) Police probing the murder of a gay Chicago man say there are a number of similarities between the killing and those of at least two other gay men.

But, they are not ready to say the killings were done by the same person.

The body of Charles Gibson, 54, was found in his North Side condominium on October 31 after a friend became concerned when he was unable to reach him.

Gibson was found lying naked in a back hallway. The apartment was covered in blood and there were signs of a struggle. A seven-inch knife recovered at the scene.

FALLUJAH CASUALTY UPDATE

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As of 6:30 pm, Baghdad time, Nov. 9, there have been 10 US Servicemembers killed in Operation Al Fajr, as well as reports of two Iraqi Security forces killed. Due to operational security in order to prevent the anti-Iraqi forces and other terrorist elements from gaining useful battlefield intelligence, there could be delays in announcements of battlefield casualties.

Anti-Gay AG Quits Bush Administration
by Paul Johnson 365Gay.com Washington Bureau Chief


(Washington) Attorney General John Ashcroft informed President Bush Tuesday that he will not serve in the second Bush cabinet. 

In a handwritten letter to the President Ashcroft said he felt the administration would be best served with new blood.  

Ashcroft has, for months, signaled his desire to leave the Justice Department. He has struggled with health issues. In March, he was hospitalized for gallstone pancreatitis.

Gay-Rights Supporters Sue Over Amendment
Associated Press


ATLANTA - Gay-rights supporters sued over Georgia's newly approved constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying Tuesday the wording did not make it clear that voters were also being asked to ban civil unions.

The plaintiffs - including two Democratic state legislators and a University of Georgia law professor - argued that the amendment, passed overwhelmingly on Nov. 2, should be thrown out.

On Monday, Republican members of the state House vowed to fight the expected lawsuit.
"We will take all actions necessary to defend the decision of the people and will not look kindly upon any tampering with our state constitution," said Rep. Glenn Richardson

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Gay Christian group holds vigils outside offices of bishops
KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press


ATLANTA - Small groups of gay Christians held vigils Tuesday outside the offices of Catholic bishops they say have ignored pleas to talk about the church's anti-gay stance.

Holding posters with Bible verses calling for tolerance, the protesters went to diocese offices in 11 cities where bishops or archbishops refused to meet with members of Soulforce, a Christian group that advocates for recognition of gay rights.
"They talk about us being objectively disordered. Later they say you're supposed to love everybody," said Soulforce member Chris Merritt, who protested Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue.

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Jones Pushes Gay Rights Bill in the State Senate; Vote Could Happen Today
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
By The Leader-Chicago Bureau

SPRINGFIELD -- If homosexual rights activists are successful today in pushing through a bill that would add the term “sexual orientation” to the state’s Human Rights Act, Illinois would become the fifteenth state to protect persons from discrimination based on their sexual behavior.

Pro-family leaders say the legislation may be called for a vote as soon as Tuesday or as late as next January. Homosexual activist leaders say nothing will happen during the fall veto session

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Gard hit for remark on partner benefits
By Matt


Assembly Speaker John Gard's quick criticism of a University of Wisconsin budget request drew return fire today.

Last week, the UW Board of Regents endorsed seeking domestic partner health insurance for lesbian and gay employees, and Gard quickly denounced the idea by calling it a "raw deal for students." Gard also criticized the regents for acting on the idea in a week when public attention was focused on national elections.

"Those rascals were just hoping nobody would pay attention," Gard told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The change would require legislative approval.

Maps and cartograms of the 2004 US presidential election results

Gay ISP goes gunning for AOL
By Tim Richardson


A pro gay and lesbian ISP in the US is calling on AOL to come clean about double standards and how it censors minority interest groups. Charles Honeycutt, founder of the national gay and lesbian ISP, rainbowvoice.com, wants AOL to practise greater consistency with the enforcement of its anti-hate policy. His call for fair play comes after an AOL subscriber in Texas had his online member profile (a personal resume that expresses an AOL member's personality or character) rubbed out because he referred to himself as a "submissive bottom". The Texan's personal profile was erased because it contained language held on AOL's "block list", which prevents users from using certain hate speech and sexually explicit language. What has enraged many users is the apparent double standards practised by AOL, for the lesbian and gay community claims to have identified several anti-gay and racist elements in member profiles that were not deleted.


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Gay Feud Forces Russia To Postpone Summit With European Union


(Brussels)  A summit that had been scheduled to take place this week between Russia and the European Union has been put off in the aftermath of a battle over Europe's new cabinet.

The European Union was thrown into a crisis last month when Parliament threatened to reject EU President Jose Manuel Barroso's new cabinet over the appointment of a homophobic commissioner.

Barroso's choice of Rocco Buttiglione as European Justice Commissioner was given a thumbs down by the civil liberties committee after he said that homosexuality is a sin and that he did not support same-sex marriage.


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Company Must Be Made To Pay For Supporting Gays


(Cincinnati, Ohio) Proctor & Gamble must be made to pay for supporting gays in last week's election two conservative Christian groups say.

The giant consumer products company, based in Cincinnati, supported the repeal of a Charter amendment that prevented the city council from enacting any laws that would recognize gays and lesbians.

The amendment, which was approved by voters in 1993, was overturned at the polls last Tuesday.

Proctor & Gamble was one of a number of area companies calling for the repeal of the amendment, saying that the lack of civil rights for gays and lesbians in Cincinnati prevented them from attracting the best workers. Proctor & Gamble was the only one singled out for a national boycott.


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Homophobia at Tufts
By Sarah Sahn and Alex Weissman


Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a series of homophobic incidents on and around the Tufts campus. There have been reports of abrasive comments and the alleged assault of a gay student. To add insult to injury, the Tufts Republicans put on a program that, while it purported to offer an alternative view on same-sex marriage, in fact was nothing more than a presentation of homophobic opinions supported by either manipulated information or none at all.

The Tufts campus is, in general, a safe place for LGBT students, but these incidents undermine that security. The fact that the majority of reported bias incidents both nationwide and on Tufts' campus are homophobic in nature, and that so many significant incidents occurred within a week, should worry more than the targeted students and their fellow LGBT members. This is an issue that is relevant to the entire Tufts community


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Civil Partnership bill faces last minute "wrecking" attempt
Ben Townley,  Gay.com UK


Opponents of the Civil Partnership bill, which will give legal recognition to same-sex couples, are mobilising to "wreck" the legislation as itl faces a House of Commons vote today, gay rights groups are warning.

Conservative backbenchers Gerald Howarth, Christopher Chope and Edward Leigh have unveiled a similar amendment to that first introduced in the House of Lords, which they say will extend the rights on offer to siblings, carers, and other people in non-sexual relationships.

However, such amendments have been widely attacked by the government and the bill's supporters, who claim that this will in fact make the bill unworkable and are less than subtle "wrecking tactics".


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The Democrats vs. the Decepticons
By CHRIS HOLT


I think a microcosm for this entire election is what happened in Franklin County, Ohio. In Franklin County, due to a computer glitch, Bush received 3,893 more votes than he should have.

Rather than saying this undermines democracy and calls into question whether or not Bush actually won the election, I think Franklin County speaks volumes about the coalition Bush has formed.

He has tapped into the previously silenced computer / robot / cyborg / droid community. Johnny-5, Sonny the Robot and, of course, the Terminator himself have been staunch conservatives all along who really brought out the vote this year.

This is no more apparent than in the Deep South. There, conservatives like Megatron rally the evangelical-transforming robot population (called the “Decepticons”) — a major group in Bush’s camp.


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Gay couple granted leave to take tax case


A gay couple who are taking court proceedings to have their marriage recognised in this country have been granted leave by the High Court to pursue their claim through the courts.

Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan from Brittas, Co Dublin, are challenging the Revenue's refusal to recognise them as a married couple for tax purposes.  

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie held today that they had reached the threshold for pursuing a judicial review.


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Bloomberg Ordered To Honor Gay Partner Law
by Doug Windsor 365Gay.com New York Bureau 


(New York City) A state Supreme Court judge has ordered New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to put the city's Equal Benefits Law into effect immediately.

The legislation was passed by city council in May. The following month Bloomberg vetoed it saying the law would hurt the city.  Two weeks later council overrode the veto by a 41 - 4 vote.

The law would require contractors that do more than $100,000 of business each year with NYC to offer benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian workers equal to those the companies give heterosexually married couples.

The legislation would make health coverage available to tens of thousands of additional people in the New York City region and because many companies which do business with New York are national corporations it could also provide same-sex benefits to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.


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Sorry Everybody


Some of us — hopefully most of us — are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us — hopefully most of us — are truly, truly sorry. And we'll say we're sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren't.



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State vote urged on same-sex marriage
Elvia Díaz
The Arizona Republic


Conservative social activists and key state lawmakers said Monday that they will pursue a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in Arizona.

The proposition would go on the November 2006 ballot and would be similar in part to those approved last Tuesday by voters in 11 other states.

The purpose would be to ensure that no judge in Arizona ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

"This is something that has widespread appeal here," said Ron Johnson, executive director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, which he said backs the proposed constitutional amendment.


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Tucson to Light Up Streets Surrounding Fourth Avenue
By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter

 
A simple narrow downtown avenue during the day can change into an unfamiliar hazard at night.
For decades, lack of lighting has been a main reason.

"You know, evil spirits like to hide in the dark.  So, if you make it lighter, it's a lot better.  It's a lot safer,” said Casbah Tea House owner Carol Ann Krueger.

The Casbah Tea House facesFourth Avenue, but has a back entrance on dark little Hoff Avenue, just like the gay-lesbian bar, IBT's, next door.  Hoff has had at least two violent beatings of gay men in the past two years, with the attack of Mark Fontes in February, and the beating death of Philip Walstead in 2002.  Now, the city plans to light the area, using $54,000 dollars of its Back to Basics block grants.


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In Peru, free contraceptives stir debate
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Knight Ridder Newspapers


LIMA, Peru - (KRT) - Peru's health minister has stirred a hornet's nest with a plan to make the morning-after pill available free at public health clinics in this predominantly Catholic country beginning next year.

Three conservative members of Congress want the legislature to vote to dismiss the minister, Pilar Mazzetti, and perhaps have her jailed on grounds that she is promoting abortion, which is illegal here.


Mazzetti has vowed to press forward with her plan, saying that making the morning-after pill available to poor women will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in Peru and thus the number of illegal abortions.


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SOLDIER KILLED IN SMALL ARMS ATTACK IN EASTERN BAGHDAD 11/8/2004

NTAC: The fight for equality continues


Despite a palpable sense of loss, transgender people and their gay, lesbian, intersex and straight allies cannot afford to give up the fight. The 2004 elections offered few bright spots, offering mostly a beating suffered by those striving for equality.

The election results foretell a period of increasing neo-conservative and neo-fundamentalist power that urges government to enshrine discrimination and intolerance in the laws and policies of the land. Much will be written about the losses, humiliations and hatred heaped on those who do not fit the outmoded, unscientific and unchristian views of the powerbrokers in politics and religion. This brief article will spare the reader much of that rehash and focus instead on the way forward.

The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Board of Directors has begun shaping an updated strategy for winning transgender human rights in a nation whose leadership does not believe in equal protection under the law. This plan will take shape over the coming weeks and will include a continuing call to action at the national, state, local and individual levels. It will call for cooperation and sharing of talents and intellectual resources among those organizations whose fundamental objectives are fairness, tolerance, and respect for all Americans, not solely for the rich, the arch-conservative, and the aggressively strident.

“This Congress will be the most challenging we’ve ever faced,” stated Vanessa Edwards Foster, Chair of NTAC. “We’ve been living with this environment in Texas for the past few years. From most of our friends in Congress, we will see a large measure of fear as well as some aversion. For the few brave souls who stand by us, they will need our support like never before — a protective circling of the wagons.”


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PFLAG Families in Texas Against Proposed Amendment to Force Unequal Treatment


AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) urges Texans who value family and freedom to reject the proposed amendment to put unequal treatment into the Texas constitution. Flying in the face of basic fairness, some legislators have announced plans to forbid any legal standing of any kind to same-sex relationships and their families. They seek to expand this discrimination to apply to all Texans who, for whatever reasons of their own, opt not to marry, but find domestic partner style arrangements better serve their legal and economic security. This will, for example, have a particular impact on senior citizens for whom re-marriage undercuts their fiscal security.

"As the proud mother of a gay son, I am at a loss to understand the 'moral value' concern that has been attached to being gay," said Kathy Massey, a PFLAG mom and former National Board member from Texas. "It is with a heavy heart and deep fear that I face what the future might bring. How absurd to believe that two people who love each other and want to commit to each other in a loving relationship is a threat to marriage 'as we know it.'"

Massey continued, "The United States of America was founded on the basis of equality for all citizens and this includes those who are gay. The amendments to deny gay persons their civil rights may be passed, but history shows us they ultimately cannot last. Justice will prevail –- I just want it to be in time for my son."


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Lawmaker files amendment proposal to ban gay marriage
By APRIL CASTRO  / Associated Press

Calling it a biblical issue, a state lawmaker on Monday proposed an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would ban the state from recognizing gay marriage.

Rep. Warren Chisum said he hoped the amendment would send a message to Congress that Texans support a similar amendment on the federal level.

"We really feel very strong about the fact that we don't want the deterioration of the institution of marriage and that's what we see happening across this country," he said.


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United by hate
Black and white Christians rally behind shared contempt for gays
Cynthia Tucker
Universal Press Syndicate

"The Old Testament did sanction slavery. God said, 'Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you. ... And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children. ...'" -- "Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution," Rev. Richard Fuller, 1847


Last Tuesday, there was at least one thing about which blue states and red states, black Americans and white Americans, Northerners and Southerners could agree: Gays and lesbians should be denied the right to full citizenship. Constitutional amendments to ban same-sex unions appeared on the ballot in 11 states and passed easily -- from Michigan, Ohio and Oregon, to Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas.

It was a triumph for bigotry based on the Bible. From conservative pulpits around the country, pastors had implored their flocks to go to the polls and vote against the "abomination" of homosexuality. They claimed that preventing gays from getting married would shore up the institution among heterosexuals -- though it is not clear how.


It was also a triumph for the Machiavellian madness of Karl Rove. He understood only too well that many Americans were willing to ignore a sputtering economy, a profoundly flawed war and soaring health-care costs for the opportunity to enforce discrimination against a despised minority. Rove also knew that calling out the legions of ultraconservative Christians who abhor equal rights for gays would ensure that President Bush won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote.