![[Comment]](images/cmnticon.gif)
Victory in 'Straight Pride' Case
(CNSNews.com) - A St. Paul, Minn., high school student who wanted to
wear a "Straight Pride" sweatshirt to school can go ahead and do it.
The United States District Court in St. Paul, Minn., has entered a
permanent injunction in favor of 16-year-old Elliott Chambers. The
American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, the conservative
legal group that represented Chambers, called the ruling a
"vindication" of his rights. The legal group called this a classic case
of "viewpoint discrimination." Chambers was told not to wear a shirt
advocating heterosexuality in a school where inverted pink triangles
are used to mark "safe rooms" for homosexual students. Inverted pink
triangles are the universal symbol for "gay pride." Michael DePrimo,
the litigation counsel for the AFA Center for Law & Policy, said, "If
schools spent more time on education and less time on indoctrination
the world would be a better place." Scroll News This Hour for Details
and See Earlier Story. (In culture, April 3, Student Sues School Over
Ban of 'Straight Pride' Sweatshirt)
The Netherlands;
"Statistics Netherlands" (from the Ministry of Economic Affairs) reports:
Two thousand gay and lesbian marriages in first six months
As of 1 April 2001 same sex couples are allowed to marry in the Netherlands. According to the latest figures by Statistics Netherlands there were almost two thousand gay and lesbian marriages in the first half year. In the first few months these marriages were mainly by couples changing the status of their existing partnership registration. One in five women now marrying a woman has previously been married to a man. The number of men who had been married to a woman before is half that figure, namely one in ten.
Most gay and lesbian marriages in April and May
In the first six months after marriage became an option for same sex couples, two thousand all male and all female couples married. In April and May the number of gay and lesbian marriages was relatively high with almost 400. Subsequently the monthly figure settled around less than 300. The share of gay and lesbian marriages in the total number of marriages was 3.6% in the first six months. In April, when marriage first became possible, the share was over 6%. In subsequent months this fell to about 3%.
More male than female couples marrying
Men more often marry another man than women marry another woman. About 55% of same sex marriages are marriages between men. This percentage has not changed much over the months. So far 2 100 men married another man and 1 700 women married another woman.
Almost 16% was married before
Almost 600 of the men and women now married to their same sex partner were married before to a partner of the opposite sex. This is about 16% of the total figure. Virtually all of them divorced their previous partner, and few are widowed. There are more women than men who were previously married with an opposite sex partner, namely one in five. The share of previously married men is in one in ten.
Marriage less often preceded by registered partnership
On 1 April 2001 it also became possible to change a registered partnership into full marital status. In April and May most marriages between same sex couples were changes of existing partnerships. In April their share was more than 75%. In the last few months this share is down to almost a quarter. So the number of same sex marriages without a previously registered partnership is increasing.
Partnership registration
Now that marriage is allowed for same sex couples, registered partnership for all male and all female couples is not needed in the same way as before. The number of all male couples who registered their partnership was about 25 a month since April, for female couples the number was about 20 a month. This is significantly less than before April.
Marriages, April – September 2001
Months Total Marriages
Total Marriages between same sex couples
Two men Two women
April 5942 386 229 157
May 10116 397 220 177
June 9384 324 171 153
July 7232 234 134 100
August 11007 283 151 132
September 9765 278 148 130
April –September
53446 1902 1053 849
Source: Statistics Netherlands
http://www.cbs.nl/en/
Red Cross details gay-inclusive relief plan
By Tom Musbach, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
The Red Cross has become the first relief agency to include gay and
lesbian families in its Sept. 11 relief guidelines.
After a meeting last month with representatives of leading gay
advocacy groups, the Red Cross has specified gay and lesbian family
criteria in its official relief guidelines for those who lost loved ones
in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The policy makes the Red Cross the first national organization to
spell out criteria for including gay and lesbian households in relief
efforts.
The guidelines specifically state that same-gender couples are
eligible for assistance, including those who have not formally registered
as domestic partners. Eligibility is determined by joint bank accounts,
home ownership, powers of attorney and roughly a dozen other measurements.
On Tuesday the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund and the New York City Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project (AVP) praised the Red Cross for responding to their
concerns, expressed during a recent meeting with Robert M. Bender, Jr.,
the chief executive officer of the American Red Cross.
"This action by the Red Cross brings real meaning to its stated
commitment to using a broad and inclusive definition of family when
distributing assistance to all those who suffered on Sept. 11, including
gays and lesbians who lost their partners," said Joe Grabarz, executive
director of ESPA.
In a letter to ESPA dated Nov. 30, Bender also announced the
appointment of Hayyim Obadyah to be his liaison to the GLBT community.
Obadyah will be responsible for overseeing the "quality and consistency of
service" to the GLBT applicants.
"I hope more public as well as private policies for assistance will
show respect for gay families, as the Red Cross has," said Lambda Staff
Attorney Jennifer Middleton. "Losing a life partner in one horrible
instant is devastating enough, but the grief is intensified for lesbians
and gay men by the fear that they will be treated as if their
relationships did not even exist."
------------------------------------------------
Ruling favors gay displays in schools
Plymouth-Canton violated freedoms, arbitrator rules
By Joel Kurth / The Detroit News
December 5, 2001
PLYMOUTH -- Displays about homosexuality may soon return to
Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, two years after administrators sparked a
firestorm by ordering their removal.
An arbitrator ruled this week that school officials violated academic and
First Amendment freedoms in 1999 when they dismantled two bulletin boards
that commemorated Gay and Lesbian History Month and gave facts about
homosexuality.
Arbitrator Paul E. Glendon's decision orders a written apology to two
teachers behind the displays. Gay history month ended Oct. 31, but
vindicated
teachers may soon put up new bulletin boards about homosexuality.
"The message that went to (gay) kids every day those displays weren't
there is that they're not worth anything," said Mike Chiumento, a West
Middle
School teacher who filled a display case in his school's main hall with gay
history information.
Believed to be the only case of its kind in Michigan, the case was
closely
watched by gay-rights backers and critics.
The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund volunteered lawyers to help
arbitrate the case, while the American Family Association of Michigan
offered
legal assistance to the district.
Administrators ignored the offer, which was renewed Tuesday by the
Midland-based group that has campaigned against human-rights ordinances in
Ferndale, Royal Oak and Traverse City.
The school system still could appeal the ruling. Spokeswoman Judy Evola
could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Former interim Supt. Kenneth Walcott sparked the fuss Oct. 7, 1999, when
he removed Chiumento's display at West Middle and another in the classroom
of
Plymouth-Salem High School teacher Tom Salbenblatt.
The district allowed similar displays since at least 1995 without
controversy, as well as ones about black history and women's rights.
Administrators argued that some parents may object to the gay displays.
Glendon disputed the argument, writing that administrators balked because
they thought the teachers were "promoting" their lifestyle.
"This is an important decision," said Jeff Montgomery, director of the
Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based gay-rights group. "The implications may
be far-reaching, not only to the teachers involved, but other districts
throughout Michigan."
You can reach Joel Kurth at (313) 561-8623 or jkurth@detnews.com.
------------------------------------------------
Alternative couples gain benefits but not vows
By CAMILLE SPENCER
Michigan State University's The State News
A vote by the Detroit City Council will benefit gay and lesbian couples who
are city employees - they are now able to register someone as their domestic
partner.
By a 7-2 vote, the city council approved a measure Friday which grants
partner rights to alternative couples who are city employees. The ordinance
is the first of at least three other bills designed to provide benefits to
lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered people.
The other ordinances will be reintroduced in January after a rewrite. These
bills will facilitate payment of medical benefits to someone legally
registered as a domestic partner, said Detroit City Councilman Ken Cockrel
Jr., who voted in favor of the ordinance.
Sean Kosofsky, director of policy at the Triangle Foundation in Detroit,
said he thinks the legislation will be beneficial for LBGT people.
"The domestic partner registry is a symbolic way for the government to prove
gays and lesbians are a couple," he said. "It's long overdue. We are looking
forward to equal pay for equal work."
Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the foundation, said he thinks the
decision to pass the measure is crucial.
"It's an important development in the city," he said. "Detroit (was) the
first major city to make it legal to discriminate based on sexual
orientation. It's ironic that almost 30 years later, they are getting to the
benefits."
But Montgomery said is has been difficult to gain recognition for gay and
lesbian couples.
"It's very good news, but it's long overdue," he said. "It's obviously
significant and important that domestic partner arrangements be recognized.
We're all hoping for the time when it wouldn't be extraordinary."
But Gary Glenn, state director of the Michigan chapter of the American
Family Association, said his organization does not support such bills.
"We do not believe Detroit taxpayers should be forced to subsidize
homosexual behavior that so dramatically increases the risk of domestic
violence, mental illness, life-threatening disease and premature death," he
said.
Glenn said he thinks taxpayers will be at a disadvantage because of such
legislation.
"Anytime you introduce this into an insurance pool, individuals who engage
in high-risk behavior that threatens fatal and extensive diseases, that
inevitably increase premiums on all members of the insurance pool," he said.
"All of this would be done at taxpayers' expense. We would call on Mayor
(Kwame) Kilpatrick to review this and oppose this abuse of taxpayer
dollars."
Matt Weingarden, co-director of the Alliance of Lesbian-Bi-Gay-Transgendered
and Straight Ally Students, said he thinks the measure demonstrates the
determination of the Triangle Foundation.
"I know this is a project they have been working on for a long time," the
biology junior said. "It's really exciting to see it come to fruition."
Despite their inability to get married, Weingarden said LBGT couples can now
gain a higher level of acceptance because of the measure.
"What this does, is allow for inclusion of the diverse array of families
that now exist and of employees that now exist in the city, and it's really
the only response you can have to the change because marriage licenses are
unavailable," he said.
Huntsville Alabama's premier party event, Saturday, July 21, 2001.
DJ Blaine Soileau of Dallas spins while the Go-Go boys dance on the monoliths. TLS' incredible light show and MOONSHOT'S creative moonservants transform the historical railroad museum's roundhouse into a cosmic universe of light and sound for the circuit boi in all of us.
New for this year will be a VIP section for Hosts at the "Ascent" or higher level. Along with the main event, which is Saturday night from 8PM till 1AM, will be other festivities; Host party Friday July 20th, Pre-event party at the Roundhouse and Club Upscale will host the after-event party. For more details about this year's event, please visit our website, www.moonshot.org . Tickets go on sale in June, $30 in advance / $35 at the door. Remember, cocktails/beer are FREE!
Sponsors for this year's event are: ATSA, inc., Dance1.net,
Theatrical Lighting Systems, Inc., Lighthall Audio & Effect, Club Upscale & Karen Robertshaw, WET Lubes, Genre Magazine, Huntsville Hilton, Rites of Spring, and Hill House.
MOONSHOT'S fifth year presenting the premier HI-NRG dance benefit in Huntsville, Alabama "The Silicon Valley of the South". Proceeds from the event go to local HIV/AIDS organizations that provide direct services or education. The name of the event, MOONSHOT, was chosen and a date of mid-July, to correspond with man's first dance on the lunar surface. MOONSHOT, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Sincerely,
Alex Godwin
Exec. Board Secretary
MOONSHOT, Inc.
P.O. Box 757
Huntsville, AL 35804
(Voice Mail) 256/536-0060
http://www.moonshot.org
info@moonshot.org
First State Porn Czar, in Utah, Is Set to Draw a Fine Line
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
SALT LAKE CITY -- Her official title is "obscenity and pornography
complaints ombudsman," which is quite a mouthful, she acknowledged.
So Paula J. Houston has grown accustomed to the less formal "porn
czar," and she wears it proudly, even if with a laugh.
"That's what the headlines call me," Ms. Houston said this week in
her spare quarters at the Utah attorney general's offices here. "I
don't really mind."
Whatever they call her, Ms. Houston, 41, is the first person in
the country to hold such a position, a $75,000-a-year job created
last year by the Utah Legislature to help communities determine
their own standards for controlling sexually explicit material and
activities without violating the First Amendment.
Other states assign deputy prosecutors to monitor pornography
issues along with their other responsibilities. But Utah is the
only state to create an office dedicated to sexually explicit
issues.
While the notion of such a position might draw snickers elsewhere
— imagine the same job in New York or Los Angeles — Ms. Houston
said she had encountered widespread support throughout Utah during
her first month on the job. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a
Republican, who hired her, has even fielded calls from several
other states, expressing interest in creating their own, uh, czars.
"Every state needs it," Ms. Houston said of the role, citing as
one example the prodigious efforts that were needed in New York to
clean up Times Square. "Pornography is an issue that tends to take
a back seat to other issues because it's more complicated. As a
prosecutor for a city or county, you deal with 100 other things and
don't have time to concentrate on one issue like this."
For Utah, anyway, the job seems vital. This is a state that takes
moral turpitude seriously, largely driven by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, which preaches that sexual images are
"foul sleaze" that destroy lives and marriages, as Gordon B.
Hinckley, the church president, told a group of priests last year.
Nearly 70 percent of Utah's residents are members of the church,
or Mormons, which helps explain why several Utah video shop owners
have become statewide heroes for splicing out sex and violence from
films they rent. It also explains why officials at Brigham Young
University in Provo felt comfortable four years ago in ruling that
several nude sculptures by Rodin were unfit for public viewing.
Ms. Houston, too, is a Mormon and served as a Mormon missionary in
New Zealand for 18 months before receiving her law degree from
Brigham Young in 1986. For the next 15 years, she worked as a
prosecutor in West Valley City, the state's second-most-populous
city. Over the years, she said, she prosecuted five pornography
cases, winning them all.
Ms. Houston, who is single, conceded that she could not ignore her
Mormon roots while performing her new duties, but said that she
would not be slavish to them, either. The delicate balance, she
said, is making sure that local officials understand that not all
sexually explicit material is pornographic and that marketers, like
book dealers and cable system operators, have certain
constitutional rights.
"I feel sexually oriented businesses are damaging and degrading to
women," she said, offering a contrast of her personal beliefs and
sworn duties. "But the Supreme Court allows them as legitimate
businesses as long as they operate within the confines of the law
and ordinances written to allow them."
"Plus," she said, "there are all the secondary effects, like
crime, prostitution, drugs, dropping property values."
She is less certain about how the state might control Internet
pornography.
"It's a tough issue," she said. "The only things the Legislature
requires me to do is educate parents that there are tools out there
for Internet safety. I don't know how to regulate it yet, but maybe
we can. We regulate what comes in over satellites and the
airwaves."
Not all Utah residents believe the Legislature acted wisely in
creating a porn czar, especially in a state where a large majority,
including the ombudsman, holds one religious view. Even Ms. Houston
conceded that Utah's problems with pornography were probably no
worse than any other state's.
Stephen C. Clark, legal director of the Utah office of the
American Civil Liberties Union. said: "To throw the weight of the
state behind a particular moral view is unnecessary at best and
potentially dangerous. What we need is more education."
SNAPPING back at her A.C.L.U. critics, Ms. Houston said: "They
could have applied for the job. They might have been more
qualified. They deal with these issues all the time."
Despite a popular but erroneous perception that she spends hours
scanning X-rated films and erotic Web sites, much of Ms. Houston's
workday involves fielding questions from local officials and
citizens about community standards. By October, she is required to
submit to the Legislature a model ordinance that communities could
use to devise their own laws to control sexually explicit material.
A short time ago, Ms. Houston said, she never could have imagined
being so steeped in pornography issues. But after the job was
created, "I was curious about it," she said. A week after she
dropped off her résumé, she was hired.
"It's not what I thought I'd end up being, a pornography
attorney," she said. "It's daunting. Everyone is watching to see
how the program develops. Good or bad, they're going to be all over
it."
Clinton's 7 1/2 minute farewell speech included this:
" . . .we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless
here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into the
fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work
harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity. We
must work harder to overcome our differences, in our hearts and in
our laws. We must treat all our people with fairness and dignity,
regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, and
regardless of when they arrived in our country; always moving toward
the more perfect union of our founders' dreams."
--
The Oregonian, October 17, 2000
( http://www.oregonlive.com/ )
Gay-rights advocate sues OCA
Catherine Stauffer wants the Oregon Citizens Alliance to pay an old debt
By Tomoko Hosaka of The Oregonian staff
A Portland gay-rights activist seeking to collect an 8-year-old debt from
the Oregon Citizens Alliance filed a lawsuit Monday against nine OCA
affiliates and its officers, accusing the group of illegally transferring
money among the entities to avoid payment.
In 1992, a jury awarded Catherine Stauffer nearly $32,000 in civil
damages after she was forcibly removed from an OCA campaign meeting. Scott
Lively, then the group's communications director, and two OCA organizations
-- its nonprofit educational foundation and a political action committee
created to support the Measure 9 campaign in 1992 -- were held responsible.
Lively has settled his portion of the judgment and recently paid Stauffer
$10,000. She has not received any money from the OCA.
During the past eight years, courts have determined that the OCA's
educational foundation and the old political committee did not have the money
to pay her.
The OCA is raising money this year for a new Measure 9, which would
prohibit schools from sanctioning homosexuality. Stauffer's attorneys say
the group now has more than enough money to pay off its debt and is
deliberately keeping its educational foundation broke to prevent her from
receiving money.
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, names as defendants
OCA Chairman Lon Mabon and his wife, Bonnie, OCA officer Don Rogers and six
affiliates, including the Yes on 9 Committee, a new political action
committee for this year's campaign. Stauffer is asking for $36,000 and
intends to push for punitive damages, the lawsuit says.
"The walls between these entities are only on paper, and they should be
held jointly liable," said Brent Foster, Stauffer's lawyer. "What they're
trying to do is create separate entities in order to insulate the OCA
Educational Foundation from having to pay their debts."
Lon Mabon, OCA chairman, says Stauffer's accusations that the entities
are acting improperly were answered years ago, when Internal Revenue Service
investigations determined that the OCA's entities had done nothing wrong.
Bonnie Mabon, OCA treasurer, said Monday the educational foundation would
pay Stauffer but does not have the money to do so.
Lon Mabon has called Stauffer's recent attempts to collect her debt
politically motivated, an attempt to derail fund raising for the Yes on 9
Committee.
Mabon and his wife were in court Monday to answer a complaint that he
violated a restraining order placed last month on the educational
foundation's bank account. Judge Marshall Amiton said the OCA did not act
improperly by writing a $200 check from the account the same day the group
received the order. He will decide later this week whether the OCA is in
contempt for recently returning donations made to the educational foundation.
One day, a priest has been in the confessional too long and needs to
take a bathroom break. The problem is that the confessional line is
too long. In a flash of brilliance, he motions the janitor over and
asks the janitor to take over for a few minutes.
"But I won't know what to say." exclaims the janitor.
"You've been to confession, so you know how it works. Besides there
is a list of sins and penances taped inside the booth."
Priest leave to relieve himself and janitor hears the first sinner.
"Father forgive me, for I have sinned. I gave a man a blow job."
The flustered janitor cannot find blow jobs, fellatio, or oral sex on
the penance sheet. Janitor motions over alter boy and asks, "What
does Father generally give for a blow job?"
Alter boy responds, "Usually two Snickers and a Pepsi."
![[Home]](images/homeicon.gif)
![[Up]](images/upicon.gif)
![[Previous]](images/previcon.gif)
![[Next]](images/nexticon.gif)
www.glinn.com Copyright © 2008 by GLINN Media Corporation