Church agrees to bless gay partnerships


A Swiss offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church is to become the country's first officially recognised church to bless same-sex couples on a nationwide basis.

The move has been welcomed by the gay rights group, Pink Cross, but the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference is questioning whether it is merely a publicity stunt to attract new members.
 
The Old Catholic Church, which parted ways with Rome in 1870, voted at its national synod to offer gay congregation members the possibility of a church blessing. In June last year Swiss voters approved a new law allowing gay couples to register their partnerships.
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Who gets to decide a child’s gender?


NICOLE, 5, WAS BORN Nicholas. She wears ponytails and pink flip-flops, she loves dresses and dolls.

A story, written by Julia Reischel for the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, quotes Nicole’s mother, Lauren Anderson: “As a young toddler, he wouldn’t let me snap her onesies together because she wanted to wear a ‘dwess’ like his sister,” she said.

The Andersons love their child and want Nicole to express herself. At first, they tried telling Nicole she could be a girl at home but needed to be “neutral” in public. After a while, they gave up and friends note Nicholas has become the shining personality of Nicole.

But now the Andersons are faced with bringing Nicole into a bigger, harsher world: She starts public school in the fall. Maybe as a girl. Maybe as a boy.

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Latvia, Poland Snub EU Gay Declaration


(London) While the European Parliament was passing a motion calling on all EU countries to toughen their laws to deal with hate crimes the Latvian Parliament was stripped sexuality from its non-discrimination law.
The law was originally passed in 2004 as a condition of European Union membership.


Despite the requirement the law was never implemented and on Thursday, Parliament voted to remove the LGBT protections.
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Deadlock looms over response to gay cleric

 
The American Episcopal Church appeared to be heading for deadlock at its general convention in Ohio tonight as it discussed how to appease the rest of the Anglican world over its election of a gay bishop.

This weekend will see a vital moment in the life of 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion as members of the US church, sister to the Church of England, effectively debate whether they wish to remain within the communion or not.

Hawaii To Pay $625,000 To Mistreated Gay Teens In Prison System 

(Honolulu, Hawaii) In the first case in the country to specifically address the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in juvenile facilities, the state of Hawaii will by pay $625,000 to end a federal lawsuit by the ACLU on behalf of three LGBT young people.

The agreement was announced Thursday by the ACLU.

In March a federal judge found that conditions at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility are dangerous, that harassment is pervasive, and that the facility is "in a state of chaos."

Judge Seabright said the case was "replete with documents and testimonial evidence demonstrating verbal harassment and abuse'' of inmates by prison officials.


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HPD officer recounts long battle with gender identity


Sgt. Jack Oliver, the Houston police officer preparing to undergo gender reassignment surgery, says the reaction from colleagues has been mostly positive since coming out to the department last week.

Oliver, 49, a deputy day sergeant at the Fondren substation, greeted the media Wednesday wearing a woman's pinstripe suit, lipstick, blush and pumps.HPD officer recounts long battle with gender identity

Sgt. Jack Oliver, the Houston police officer preparing to undergo gender reassignment surgery, says the reaction from colleagues has been mostly positive since coming out to the department last week.

Oliver, 49, a deputy day sergeant at the Fondren substation, greeted the media Wednesday wearing a woman's pinstripe suit, lipstick, blush and pumps.

It's a look fellow officers won't see at work until the sergeant officially becomes "Julia Christine" Oliver after a legal name change, Oliver's attorney said.

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Hate forces gay Dutch envoy from Estonia


In a move that highlights the intolerance found in some Baltic states, the Dutch ambassador to Estonia has demanded a transfer, citing consistent racist and homophobic abuse.

Hans Glaubitz was reportedly harassed and insulted often while in public with his boyfriend, Raul Garcia Lao, who is black and Cuban.

"It is not very nice to be regularly abused by drunken skinheads as a 'nigger' and to be continuously gawped at as if you have just stepped out of a UFO," Glaubitz told Dutch newspapers. "Estonian society is far from ready to accept two men, especially if one is black."

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Library fire destroys gay books

Chicago police are investigating a fire in a Chicago Public Library branch on the North Side that damaged about 100 books, most of them in the gay and lesbian collection.

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Judges demand gay rights


THE nation's judges have intervened in the debate over the legal recognition of gay marriage, calling for new pension rights for the partners of homosexual federal judges.

The Judicial Conference of Australia, which represents all judges, wants gay partners to inherit judicial pensions after the death of federal judges.
This would give the surviving gay partners the same pension rights as widows and widowers.
They would receive a lifetime pension worth 62.5 per cent of the pension that is payable to retired judges.

(It seems as if reporters are endlessly stupid when it comes to gender)

Guard moved after fondling charge


A correction officer at the prison hospital housing convicted killer Robert Kosilek was reassigned yesterday after the transvestite inmate accused the guard of fondling his (sic) breasts, the Herald has learned.

    The correction officer, Mike Politano, was moved from the prison hospital to the tower at MCI-Norfolk, infuriating union officials. Another guard is under investigation, said Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officer Federated Union.

    Kosilek, 57, serving life in prison for strangling his (sic) wife in 1990, complained that before receiving his state-funded hormone treatments at the prison hospital yesterday, Politano patted him down, a move that the killer called sexual abuse.

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Four charged in hate crime attack on gay singer


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four youths were charged with a hate crime assault on a gay singer who was attacked as he left a Manhattan gay bar, police said on Sunday.
Kevin Aviance, 38, who scored No. 1 dance hits on the Billboard charts with "Da Da Din" and more recently "Alive" in 2003, was attacked late Saturday and kicked by four youths who called him "faggot."
He suffered head trauma and was in stable condition in a Manhattan hospital, where he was being treated for his injuries.

Police charged four young people aged 16 to 20 with hate crime assault and hate crime harassment. They were being held pending arraignment, police said in a statement.