GLBT News

[Mally B]

I don't know if any of you know about this, but New York is trying to make a Dignity for All Students act. I went to a youth speak out thing for it a while ago, and now on May 20th in Albany there is going to be a whole lobby day for it.

I know that I am going, and some other kids for my school.



I hope that all you New York kittens can go, or at least help the cause.



Sorry I don't know too much about it but go to http://www.prideagenda.org to find out more, and to register.



Registration deadline is May 10th.



Please, if anyone is going let me know, I would love to meet up with some kittens there.

[Kalita]

The justice declared the school's prohibition against Marc Hall taking his boyfriend to the prom to be a clear violation of his constitutional rights. Article



They may appeal this all the way to the supreme court, but Marc and his boyfriend got to attend the prom last night. I knew I had some good faith in Ontario's justice system...

"To be honest, some of the episodes depressed the hell out of me." - Joss on S6

[Tiauna]

Yeah it's great. Except when Jay Leno was being an ass about it. In his opening he talked about it and said what does the father say when he comes to pick him up? "Take care of my boy!" Ok that was fine, but then for the next ten minutes after every joke he kept saying Take care of my boy. What a dick.

Howdy!

10/19/01: I danced at the Bronze!

[tyche]

I very much doubt this will get through the House of Loards, who make Jerry Falwell look moderate, but anyway:

society.guardian.co.uk/adoption/story/0,8150,717144,00.html

You took my joy

I want it back - Lucinda Williams

Discussion group for spoiled W/T shippers

[imperfectly]

GAY PARTNERS OF 9/11 VICTIMS TO GET HELP FROM U.S. FUND

By JANE GROSS @

c.2002 New York Times News Service@

Some of the gay men and lesbians who were partners of Sept. 11 victims are poised to collect substantial awards from the federal fund set up to compensate bereaved families, according to Kenneth R. Feinberg, special master of the fund, and lawyers familiar with the process.

All but assured of awards, Feinberg said, are those who present claims to the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund in cooperation with the next of kin of the deceased. But even situations in which the victim’s family is not supportive will be reviewed case by case, Feinberg said, with state law as the guiding principle. New York state does not recognize same-sex unions. But an executive order by Gov. George Pataki in the wake of the terror attacks extending spousal benefits to gay partners under the state Crime Victims Board was intended to give Feinberg room to exercise discretion.

“If the next of kin is supportive and there’s no dispute, it’s a nonissue,” Feinberg said in an interview. “If the personal representative, say a parent, comes to me and says, ‘Cut a check for the same-sex partner,’ there will be no problem. Then it’s a ministerial function. What do I care?”

In less clear-cut situations, Feinberg added, he will take into account that New York’s leaders, in a variety of post-9/11 actions, “have tried to improve the likelihood that I can exercise my discretion and I will do my best.” He said cases involving heterosexual domestic partners — no one is sure how many there were — will be reviewed in the same way. The federal awards process unfolds in the context of decisions by the state and city government and by the Red Cross that are supportive of the claims of the 22 known gay surviving partners of the terror attacks.

These actions are not meant to be a wholesale push to expand the rights of same-sex couples. Rather they are a demonstration of how a national tragedy can result in policy that would not have occurred otherwise. It is too early to say whether any of the emergency benefits made available to survivors of Sept. 11 will be extended to others.

“Clearly the momentum is specific to this event and won’t necessarily be replicated,” said Lee. M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist College Poll, commenting on the significance of the poll results. “But it does change the political climate, and it’s hard to imagine totally turning back the clock.”

The legalizing of gay marriage remains unpopular, opposed by a majority of Americans. But polls show that most people support individual spousal benefits for gay partners, whose unions are recognized by law only in Vermont and Hawaii.

....................
the fact that i adore you is just one of my truths

[La]

The American Psychoanalytic Association

309 East 49th Street, New York, NY 10017 212-752-0450 http://www.apsa.org



For Immediate Release

For more information, contact Dottie Jeffries, 202-628-6544;

djeffries@djeffries.com or Gary Grossman, Ph.D., 415-928-4662;

garygr@itsa.ucsf.edu





The American Psychoanalytic Association Announces Position Statement on

Gay/Lesbian Parenting



During the 91st annual meeting of The American Psychoanalytic Association

(APsaA) held recently in Philadelphia, APsaA members announced their

support of the position that the primary consideration in decisions about

parenting, including conception, child rearing, adoption, visitation and

custody is the best interest of the child.



"It is disturbing to hear about cases in which gay or lesbian parents are

being denied custody or the right to adopt solely on the basis of their

sexual orientation- that's discrimination. The American Psychoanalytic

Association deplores such discrimination and is especially troubled when

psychological findings are distorted, misrepresented or blatantly ignored,

as is so often the case in these legal decisions," remarked APsaA President

Newell Fisher, MD.



Accumulated evidence suggests the best interest of the child requires

attachment to committed, nurturing and competent parents. Evaluation of an

individual or couple for these parental qualities should be determined

without prejudice regarding sexual orientation. APsaA believes that gay and

lesbian individuals and couples are capable of meeting the best interest of

the child and should be afforded the same rights and should accept the same

responsibilities as heterosexual parents.



With the adoption of this position statement, APsaA also supports research

studies that further the understanding of the impact of both traditional

and gay/lesbian parenting on a child's development.



"By issuing this statement, gay and lesbian parents or prospective parents

will now be able to include the position of the American Psychoanalytic

Association as part of their supporting documents in their legal

proceedings," commented Gary Grossman, Ph.D., Chair, APsaA's Committee on

Gay & Lesbian Issues.





Founded in 1911, APsaA is a professional organization of psychoanalysts

throughout the United States. The Association is composed of Affiliate

Societies and Training Institutes in many cities and has approximately

3,500 individual members. APsaA is a Regional Association of the

International Psychoanalytical Association.

~La

You know you've been in Korea too long when you see a random weed growing in the crack of the sidewalk, and consider pulling it out and bringing it home for your host mother to use in that night's dinner.

[diegosmumma]

Community - Planet Out

Michigan judge bans co-parent adoptions

Wed Jun 5, 8:37 PM ET



Ann Rostow, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network



SUMMARY: A chief county judge in Michigan banned judges throughout the state from awarding second-parent adoptions to the unmarried partners of biological parents.



A chief county judge in Michigan issued a memo on Tuesday banning judges throughout Washtenaw County from awarding second-parent adoptions to the unmarried partners of biological parents.



Effectively, Judge Archie Brown's June 4 memo prohibits gay and lesbian second-parent adoptions throughout the state, since Ann Arbor's Washtenaw County was the only one of Michigan's 83 counties where such adoptions were granted.



According to the Detroit Free Press, Judge Nancy Francis began the practice seven years ago, and it carried over with Judge Donald Shelton. Seventeen second-parent adoptions were granted last year in the county, and seven more were awarded through April of this year. Brown's memo means that these adoptions will come to a stop, and that pending adoptions will be canceled.



Presently, five states expressly ban second-parent adoptions (Florida, Mississippi, Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin), and Massachusetts expressly permits it. But such adoptions are routinely granted in courts throughout half the other states, under adoption codes that may not specifically define second-parent adoptions, but that instruct courts to make the best interests of children the determining factor.



"What appears to have happened in Michigan," said National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell, "is that a judge, under tremendous right-wing pressure, has issued an opinion that the (Michigan adoption) statute does not permit second-parent adoption, and he has appeared to instruct other judges in his county that they are no longer permitted to approve them."



The one-page memo, Kendell said, was based on the analysis of an individual who was not familiar to the family law professionals in the state, and gave no legal reasoning. Whether Judge Brown has the authority to pre-empt the legal judgment of the other members of the Washtenaw court, said Kendell, "is an open question."



Kendell added that she's consulting with others throughout the country to decide what the next best step should be in response.



"Certainly, we want to preserve the right of lesbian and gay couples and their children to have a mechanism, in Michigan and in other states, for protecting their families." Second-parent adoption "is really the only such mechanism," she said.



Kendell also noted that Michigan's adoption law is one of the more expansive in the country. Second-parent adoptions, she said, may not be spelled out in Michigan's statute, but that does not make them illegal. Adoption law, she said, "has always been liberally construed to promote the best interest of a child."







...sad day in Michigan. Judge Shelton granted 17 "second-parent" type adoptions last year. One of those was ours.

Lisa

[Rally]

Sweden's parliament approves proposal letting same-sex couples adopt children



KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer



(06-05) 16:48 PDT STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) --



Swedish legislators voted Wednesday to let same-sex couples adopt children -- a decision that gay activists hailed as a step toward gaining the full benefits of marriage.



Under the bill, gays registered in a legal partnership, allowed in Sweden since 1995, can be considered joint adoptive parents of children adopted in the country or abroad. One of the partners also will be able to adopt the child of another.



The measures, approved after several hours of heated debate in parliament, make the nation of about 9 million people one of the few countries to give homosexuals the right to enter legal partnerships and adopt children.



Even rarer was the inclusion of adoptions of children abroad, although it could have little practical effect since most countries forbid adoption by homosexuals.



The law will probably take effect early next year.



The Social Democratic-led Swedish government proposed the law after a parliamentary research committee found that gay couples would have the same ability to care for the children.



Alf Svensson, the leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, had appealed to lawmakers to "make sure that adopted children will be spared experiencing something that every child should be guaranteed not having to experience, that of having only two fathers or only two mothers."



Gay activists applauded the biil, saying it will bring them closer to gaining the full benefits of marriage.



Sweden and fellow Nordic nations Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland already recognize legal partnerships between gays, but only Denmark and Iceland allow adoption.



"We are now going to fight for the possibility to marry under the same laws as straight couples," said Robert Karlsson Svaerd, a spokesman for the Swedish Federation for Gay and Lesbian Rights.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[BBOvenGuy]

Tonight at 8:00, LA's PBS affiliate KCET (Channel 28), is running a Frontline episode titled "Assault on Gay America." TV Guide describes it this way - "Correspondent Forrest Sawyer explores the 'cultuiral war' being waged over homosexuality. The hour's springboard: the 1999 murder of a gay man in Alabama."



PBS stations don't always run the same thing at the same time, so I don't know if anyone outside LA will be able to catch this tonight. The TV Guide says it's a rerun, too - has anyone seen it before?

------------------------------------------------
"We don't want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us. We don't want to close a book with a sense that life is totally unfair and that there is no light in the darkness; we want to feel that we have been given illumination." - Madeleine L'Engle

[maudmac]

Here's a link to the PBS thing.



I'll be watching this in a little while. Billy Jack Gaither's story is very similar to Matthew Shepherd's. Gaither's killers were both sentenced to life without parole. Yay.

---------------------------
I think I'm going berserk. Would you like to come too?-- Buckner & Garcia

[Rally]

'Queer as Folk' gets two-season renewal



Tom Musbach, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network

Wednesday, June 5, 2002 / 05:05 PM



Cable network Showtime said on Tuesday that it has renewed "Queer as Folk," its highest-rated and most controversial series, for two more years.



The renewal calls for 32 hour-long episodes of the drama series, which centers on a small group of young, urban gay people and often features graphic depictions of gay and lesbian sex.



A Showtime spokesman told Reuters that the network will air 16 episodes each year, which is down from 21 for each of the first two seasons and allows cast members "extra time off" to do films and guest appearances.



With its frank presentation of gay sexuality, drug use and promiscuity, "Queer as Folk" has become Showtime's most-watched show (averaging a 4.1 rating in April) and perhaps the gay community's most-debated one.



"Both gay and straight viewers have watched 'Queer as Folk' and now perhaps better understand a fuller spectrum in the lives of the gay and lesbian community," said Scott Seomin, entertainment media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).



"At the same time, viewers are questioning their beliefs about our community and discussing them -- thanks to the visibility that the show gives us," Seomin told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network. "GLAAD is ... well, glad that the series has been renewed for two more seasons."



Michael Buchanan, who founded of Queers Against "Queer as Folk" last February, expressed disappointment at the series' renewal. He believes the show's "shallow" treatment of complex issues like gay-bashing and HIV infection do a disservice to the GLBT community.



"The show desensitizes viewers to what it means to be gay in America," Buchanan said. "The series ignores the reality of what it's like that we are legally discriminated against, and that's dangerous."



Showtime owns all the domestic rights to "Queer as Folk," Reuters reports, and the network plans to rerun it on the gay cable television channel currently in development with MTV.



The current season of Showtime's "Queer as Folk" concludes on June 16.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[DaffyQDuck]

Conservatives to Nickelodeon: Not in Front of the Children!

                       

By Lisa de Moraes

Friday, June 7, 2002; Page C07

The Washington Post



The Traditional Values Coalition, a Washington-based lobbying group, is outraged over a "Nick News" special about intolerance toward kids with same-sex parents. The show is scheduled to run on cable channel Nickelodeon on June 18.



But no one's as affronted as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and he's on the show. He agreed to appear on the program even while blasting it, saying its purpose is to "invade the minds and hearts of children who enjoy Nickelodeon" and teach them that gay is okay.



The special, "My Family Is Different," produced by Linda Ellerbee's Lucky Duck Productions, features a segment in which Ellerbee talks to a panel of young teenagers, some of whose parents are same-sex partners; others whose parents are heterosexuals openly opposed to homosexuality; and still others who are the children of heterosexual parents who are not outspoken on the subject. (All appeared with the consent of their parents, who chaperoned them.)



Also appearing with the kids is Rosie O'Donnell -- the gay parent of three adopted children -- as well as a gay New York City firefighter with kids of his own and a gay Minnesota school principal.



No member of the anti-gay persuasion appears with the kids, according to a network spokesman. Falwell appears in a separate, taped segment, as does a representative of a conservative Christian group.



The network rep says that's because they agreed to participate in the program at such a late date. Falwell says Ellerbee only asked him to participate at the end of last week.



But the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) has been criticizing the show since at least May 8, when it sent out a news release saying the program "proves that this network has been co-opted by homosexual activists who are targeting children. Sodomy is not a family value. Nickelodeon has now lost the trust of parents."



TVC has urged people to sign a petition, posted on its Web site, demanding that Nickelodeon cancel the program. So far, the group claims, more than 100,000 have signed. Nickelodeon says the number of e-mails it has received is a fraction of that but acknowledges it had to set up a separate e-mail address to handle them.



Ellerbee says that the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and other groups were invited to have input on the show and to help locate children whose parents are gay, just as TVC was invited early on to be part of the show and help locate children whose parents are openly opposed to same-sex relationships. TVC declined, Ellerbee said, and then having found out about the program began organizing its campaign against it.



TVC, in its petition, also attacks the choice of Ellerbee to produce the special, calling her a "longtime supporter of homosexual causes" and noting that in June 2000 "Ellerbee performed in the vulgar obscenity-filled play 'The Vagina Monologues.' "



Ellerbee says the program "is about families, diversity, respect and tolerance.



"If we're saying gay people deserve tolerance and respect, we're also saying that people are entitled to their own opinions. This is not a show about how one knows he or she is gay; it's not about sex and it does not tell you what to think."



In an interview with The TV Column, she said: "There is no controversy here. My only hope is that people watch the show before making up their minds."



Falwell, who has not yet seen the show, thinks it's propaganda.



"I'm not naive. Having Rosie on tells me that the idea is to sell to the children something they shouldn't be selling," Falwell told The TV Column.



"I personally think that since Rosie O'Donnell is participating that . . . the subtle purpose of the program is to invade the minds and hearts of children who enjoy Nickelodeon and teach them that what their parents believe and their faith dictates regarding the wrongness of the lifestyle is not correct," he said.



"It is unthinkable that Nick would open its airwaves for the promotion of a lifestyle that most people of faith do not approve of and certainly to take advantage of the minds of little children who trust Nickelodeon."



Nonetheless, Falwell agreed to appear in the special. He said he was aware of O'Donnell's participation at the time and had read about objections to the program.



Falwell says he decided to appear on the show because he "felt there needed to be a kind and gracious voice from the other side.



"I'll go just about anywhere to deliver my message," he said. While not appearing with the panel of teenagers, he addressed his taped remarks to them.



His message?



"I said to the children, 'If this program is designed to help you accept the gay lifestyle as normal, or to accept gay marriages as a viable and correct union, then that is wrong and I hope you will understand that while God loves us all alike, God does not ordain same-sex marriages,' " Falwell said.



But he also told them that "violence and hostility toward children who may be a member of a same-sex family is wrong.



"Little children are not responsible where they live and that they have two fathers or two mothers," he said, and these children "should be treated with respect and love like any other child."

I'm Cletus the slack-jawed yokel - Willow

[La]

Here's another article about the Nick News show. I won't paste the entire article since it's really long, but I've included the link. Maybe we could email them telling them how we think it's a good idea, just to counter all the e-mails telling them how horrible it is that they're doing this.





FOX NEWS Nickelodeon plans a news special that engages children in a

discussion over gay parenting and discrimination against homosexuals;

Anti-gay brigade swoons at the very thought



Fox News, June 5, 2002

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,54521,00.html

~La

You know you've been in Korea too long when you get a shock every once in awhile when you realize that everyone around you is Asian, and you're not.

Edited by: La at: 6/7/02 8:46:36 pm

[Rally]

Senators try again to get hate crimes bill



JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer



06-07) 14:37 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --



Just as it fights terrorism from overseas, the government must also protect gays and the disabled from terror attacks at home, senators said Friday as they tried to push a hate crimes bill toward passage.



The legislation, championed by Sen. Edward JFK, D-Mass., would define violent crimes against homosexuals and the disabled in much the same way as racially motivated crime.



"These crimes mar our history, from the lynchings that haunted our race relations for more than a century to the recent well-publicized slayings of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.



Added Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore, "Whether the terrorism comes from Osama bin Laden or from a couple of murderers in Wyoming, it is terror nonetheless."



Shepard was a University of Wyoming student who prosecutors say was beaten to death in 1998 because he was a homosexual. Byrd was a black man dragged to death on a rural Texas road by three white men that same year.



The bill, which senators expect to vote on next week, would add crimes motivated by sexual orientation, sex or disability to the list of offenses already covered under a 1968 federal law and allow federal prosecutors to pursue a hate-crime case if local authorities refuse to press charges.



The legislation also provides assistance to local law enforcement agencies in investigating hate crimes.



"This is a bill that law enforcement is asking for because it will give them the tools they need to investigate and prosecute hate-motivated crimes that have no place in this nation," said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights advocacy group.



Current federal law allows only race, color, religion or national origin to be the basis of a federal hate-crime case, and the covered offenses are limited to crimes committed against a person while doing one of six federally protected activities, such as voting or going to school.



JFK called the new proposals "long overdue."



"If every senator who has sponsored this bill and voted for it in the past again supports it on Tuesday, the Senate will take an important step forward in allowing the federal government to live up to its promise to protect all Americans from hate-motivated violence," JFK said in a statement.



The Democratic-controlled Senate already has passed the bill at least twice before. In 2000, House Republicans refused to allow the bill to pass as part of the Department of Defense authorization bill after the Senate placed it there; and in 1999, the House blocked the measure from being submitted as part of the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill.



"I would say to folks on my side, this should not be a Republican-Democrat issue," Oregon's Smith said. "This is an issue of the heart."



The bill number is S.625.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Kalita]

Quebec gays now have adoption rights and civil unions!



The best part is, every member of the provincial legislature who was present for the vote passed it. Wow. Article

"Why, you’re just new all over, aren’t you?" - Lilah on Wes, "Tomorrow"

[BBOvenGuy]

Hey, folks... I hope you can help me out here.



My new book is set in Ohio, and one of my main characters is a girl who's the adopted daughter of a gay couple. Does anyone know what the Ohio adoption laws are like? Could my character have been adopted by both men together, or would the adoption have been in the name of only one man?



I'd appreciate any help you have to offer. Thanks!

------------------------------------------------
"We don't want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us. We don't want to close a book with a sense that life is totally unfair and that there is no light in the darkness; we want to feel that we have been given illumination." - Madeleine L'Engle

[Kalita]

Well, from this, it would seem that it's the 'just one parent' answer.



Then again, I don't live there and I'm no legal expert, just a chick using Google...

"Why, you’re just new all over, aren’t you?" - Lilah on Wes, "Tomorrow"

[BBOvenGuy]

Yeah, that's what I found, too. It'll work for me, too, so I'm going with it.



Thanks for checking!

------------------------------------------------
"We don't want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us. We don't want to close a book with a sense that life is totally unfair and that there is no light in the darkness; we want to feel that we have been given illumination." - Madeleine L'Engle

[Rally]

Expanded hate-crime bill faces key Senate hurdle



Legislation would cover gays, disabled

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau



Washington -- Calling hate crimes against gays a form of

"domestic terrorism," gay rights supporters hope to clear a major

hurdle in the Senate today in their effort to strengthen federal

prosecution of violent crimes against gays and lesbians and the

disabled.



Gay rights lobbyists have fought for passage of so-called

hate-crimes legislation for years, and their campaign gained

momentum after the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a college

student who prosecutors said was beaten to death in Laramie,

Wyo., because he was gay.



"Hate crime is a form of domestic terrorism," said Elizabeth Birch,

executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the chief

lobbying force behind the bill. "It is designed to control an entire

group."



A 1968 federal law allows federal prosecution of violent crimes

motivated by race, religion or national origin. Supporters of the

current bill want to expand those protected classes to include

crimes motivated by hatred based on sexual orientation, gender

and disability.



Current law also is limited to crimes committed against persons

engaged in any of six protected activities, such as voting or going

to school. The new measure would expand that jurisdiction by

including a hate crime connected in any way to interstate

commerce, providing the constitutional rationale necessary for

federal intervention.



The bill's supporters, led by Sen. Edward JFK, D-Mass., and

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., believe that they now have solid

majorities of the Senate and House, including substantial

numbers of moderate Republicans, backing the measure. But the

legislation faces a host of amendments in the Senate and fierce

opposition from the House Republican leaders, who have refused

to bring up the measure in that chamber.



Supporters hope to win 60 votes today in the Senate to prevent

anyone from blocking the legislation with a filibuster or attaching

amendments. The vote is considered a key test of whether the

measure can survive.



Several Republicans voiced their opposition to the measure

Monday, saying it would not pass constitutional muster because it

would criminalize a defendant's thought process. They also said

all violent crimes should be considered equal and argued against

federal intrusion into criminal law, traditionally left to state and

local law enforcement.



Smith argued that the Supreme Court already has upheld the

current federal hate-crimes law and that it has not been abused.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Rally]

Senate deals setback to hate crimes bill by refusing to limit debate



JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer



(06-11) 09:46 PDT WASHINGTON. (AP) --



The Senate on Tuesday dealt a major setback to a bill that would

make violent attacks based on victims' sexual orientation or

disabilities a federal hate crime, refusing to limit debate on the

measure.



Opponents said the legislation stands no chance of passing the

House as now written. The measure would add crimes motivated

by gender, sexual orientation and disability to the list of offenses

already covered under a 1968 hate-crimes law that prohibits

attacks based on race, religion or national origin.



The 54-43 vote derailed efforts to win a speedy vote on the

legislation and send it to the House, which has rejected it twice in

recent years. While it takes only a simple majority to pass a bill,

motions to end debate require 60 votes. Backers of the bill fell six

votes short.



Only four Republicans voted to limit debate. Other Republicans

said they refused to close off debate because Democrats hadn't

given them enough time to attempt to amend the bill.



The legislation would allow federal prosecutors to pursue as a

hate-crimes case an assault upon a person or group because of

sexual preferences or disabilities if state officials reject filing

charges.



The Republican-controlled House will not take the bill as written

by its supporters, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.



"If you really want to do something about hate crimes, let's do it

the right way and amend this bill so the House will be forced to

take it," said Hatch, who wanted to scale the bill back to ensure

the federal government doesn't interfere with state prosecutions.



The bill's supporters took it off the schedule before GOP senators

could tack their amendments onto it.



"This is just the beginning and we're going to continue this battle

throughout the session," said Sen. Edward JFK, D-Mass.



Added Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.: "We will be back. We'll find

another bill, another vehicle."



The bill could resurface later this year as an amendment to the

Defense Department authorization bill.



The Senate has 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one

independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont.



Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle swiftly pledged to bring the

bill back to the Senate floor by year's end. "There is no argument

that can be made that hate crimes can be left unattended," he

said.



Republican vote-counters had expressed confidence before the

vote that they could hold the bill's supporters short of 60 votes.

But they said they were concerned about defections on later

votes.



Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested the

Senate should be working on terrorism prevention instead of hate

crimes.



"The greatest hate crime of all, which we should be dealing with

right now, is the hate crime of terrorism against America," Lott

said.



But Democrats say hate crimes are nothing but domestic

terrorism.



"We ought to be fighting terror here at home," said JFK, a

longtime champion of the bill. "That's what this is all about."



Current federal law allows only race, color, religion or national

origin to be the basis of a federal hate-crime case, and the

covered offenses are limited to crimes committed against a

person engaged in one of six federally protected activities, such

as voting or going to school.



Gays and lesbians, as well as the disabled, deserve the same

protection, Smith said.



"It does seem to me that government's business is not to pick

between who among its citizens it will defend, but that under the

banner of equal protection and due process, we defend all

citizens because as our founding document make clear, we are

created equally," Smith said.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[emma peel]

Ah, shit! Thanks for the info, Rally.Why is it I am not surprised?

Janice

[Rally]

Federal workers' gay pride events get mixed reviews Bush won't issue proclamation for annual celebration



Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post

Friday, June 14, 2002



Washington -- "We're Here! We're Career!" That's the slogan of

this year's annual gay pride celebration at . . . the Justice

Department.



That would be the same Justice Department led by Attorney

General John Ashcroft, a social conservative. Ashcroft has

publicly equated homosexuality with sin and, as a senator,

opposed a nominee as ambassador to Luxembourg because of

the candidate's sexual orientation.



Ashcroft's No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, will

speak at the gay pride celebration June 19 in Justice's Great Hall

on Pennsylvania Avenue.



Meanwhile, at the Commerce Department, management is

allowing gay employees to proceed with events but has withheld

official sponsorship.



And President Bush this week turned down a government

employee group's request for a second straight year to issue a

proclamation recognizing June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.



"The president believes every person should be treated with

dignity and respect, but he does not believe in politicizing

people's sexual orientation," White House spokeswoman Anne

Womack said.



BALANCING ACT



Justice's endorsement of a gay and lesbian celebration,

Commerce's withholding of official support and Bush's denial of a

proclamation capture the administration's delicate balancing act

when it comes to the gay community:



aware of its conservative base, while trying not to alienate

moderates and gay Republicans.



The mosaic of policies at various agencies is thrown into greater

relief coming after a Democratic administration in which

President Bill Clinton, in each of his final three years, issued a

proclamation supporting Gay Pride Month.



Kitti Durham, the president of Federal Globe, the

government-wide group supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and

transgender federal workers, expressed disappointment. She

noted that in the last six months, Bush has issued proclamations

designating February as National African-American History

Month; March as Irish-American Heritage Month and Women's

History Month; and May as both Older Americans Month and

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.



She pointed out that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks killed a lesbian

federal worker at the Pentagon, the gay co-pilot of American

Airlines Flight 77 and a gay employee at the National

Geographic Society.



"At a time when we should be unified and the contributions of all

Americans should be recognized, for the president to basically

remove the gay and lesbian community from other kinds of

Americans, to separate us from other American communities, just

sends a wrong signal," she said.



CONSERVATIVES LIKE IT



But conservative groups praised Bush's move. Family Research

Council President Ken Connor said Bush's decision not to issue

the gay pride proclamation was "appropriate."



"Having said that," he said, "when you look at the other agencies

and the activities going on there, you have to ask yourself, 'Don't

we have better things to do with taxpayers' money and federal

workers' time, especially after the events of Sept. 11, than

celebrating one's sexual behavior?' "



Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values

Coalition, criticized the concept of Gay Pride Month and said that

for years she has received e-mails from federal employees

disturbed by the event. She read from one Tuesday: "Your

federal tax dollars at work. What would our forefathers think of

this?"



Yet gay employees such as Durham feel that progress is taking

place.



Just Tuesday, Rep. Jim Kolbe, Ariz., the only openly gay

Republican in Congress, addressed employees in foreign affairs

agencies on the global challenge of HIV. Kolbe's talk was

sponsored by Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies and

the State Department's Office of Civil Rights.



"I thought it was wonderful that the State Department gave such

support to this organization," Kolbe said. He said the group has

come a long way since it was founded in 1992 with fewer than a

dozen members.



Later this month, Betty DeGeneres will speak at the Office of

Personnel Management's gay pride celebration, with OPM

support. Her daughter, actress Ellen DeGeneres, came out as a

lesbian in 1997.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

Edited by: Rally at: 6/14/02 9:01:56 am

[relativegirl]

Today the judge presiding over the criminal trial against the owners of the dogs who mauled Diane Whipple to death overturned the jury's verdict finding the owners guilty of murder. www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/national/18MAUL.html



This is obviously a setback in the criminal trial, but it is a huge setback to Sharon Smith, the victim's partner, in her civil suit against the defendants. Whipple's death led the California Assembly to pass a law that allows "domestic partners" to sue for the wrongful death of their partners. Before the passage of this law it wasn't impossible, but it was very very difficult, for the surviving partner of a same sex couple to successfully sue for damages after the death of their partner, unlike heterosexual couples whose right to sue for such damages has been recognized for hundreds of years in California, under American, Mexican and Spanish law.



If the judge had allowed the murder verdict to stand, Smith's ability to obtain a judgment, with punitive damages, in a civil trial would have been much easier than it will be now.

[xita]

fuck

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Willow: (to Tara) I could heal.

Tara: (to Willow)And we’re gone.

[Rally]

Sharon Smith was among many people in a San Francisco courtroom shocked to hear a judge throw out the second-degree murder conviction of Marjorie Knoller in the fatal dog-mauling trial Monday. Superior Court Judge James Warren had harsh words for Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, but ruled that she was only guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Noel was sentenced to the maximum four years in prison for his crime; Knoller will be sentenced in July. Meanwhile, legal pros are split on trying Knoller again for murder.

------------




Officially, of course, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[AutumnT]

Fucking typical. Someone is convicted by a jury and still it gets tossed. Why does this not surprise me.

Autumn

-----------

Well, the reindeer part was nice...

[Dave V]

CNN.com has a piece on this issue. It seems that there is a lot of backlash against Nickeloden, headed by the "Traditional Values Coalition."



CNN tv had a poll this morning on whether tv should show same-sex parents, [edited to add:] I voted in the poll currently on their website.



The broadcast of the show has been put back 1/2 hour because of the sensitivity of the issue, but they will still air it.

Edited by: Dave V at: 6/18/02 8:38:58 am

[tyche]

BBC news story on this issue:

news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid_2051000/2051766.stm

Good on Nickelodeon for standing up to the fundies, I say.

Alyson Hannigan is a frickin' amazing kisser. - Amber Benson

Bitterness Central

[drlloyd11]

Any chance Nickeloden will send spounge bob squarepants to debate the issues with the TVC, I mean, that the level of debate they seem to want..

Quote:

---

CNN.com has a piece on this issue. It seems that there is a lot of backlash against Nickeloden, headed by the "Traditional Values Coalition."

---

[Wiccagrrl313]

Just voted in the CNN poll. Sad thing is, 70% voted that Nickelodeon shouldn't air the special.

Tracy

******************


VILLOV

I troost yuu. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp!