GLBT News

[wa star]

Thanks for the link, GG.





I'm currently living around several millitary bases, and have always had the belief that there are more gays in the milltary per capita then in the general public. Many folks who grow up in the South or Midwest US use the US milltary as a way to escape small town if for a number of reasons (race, sexual preferences, class issues, ect..)



The higher percentages of homosexuality in the millitary also lead to higher levels in some important public sector service professions like nursing, police work and fire fighting.



That's what really gripes me about the current Republican push to toss gays out of the millitary-- traditionally the millitary often has had an unoffical *don't ask, don't tell* policy. I wouldn't call it fair, but it's a damn sight better than what Camp Bush has planned.

[vix84]

This just happened a couple of hours ago. Smile, party, or just be proud of those that work for, and are finally achieving, the equality they deserve.



My gay son: Nats MP bucks the party line

By Paola Totaro, State Political Editor (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 22 2003



A National Party MP, Russell Turner, spoke in Parliament yesterday about his adult son's homosexuality, in a bid to explain his decision to defy his party and support changes to age of consent laws.



In a spirited and sometimes emotional day, the floor of the NSW lower house became an arena for a rare kind of political debate - one unfettered by pre-ordained party positions, and speakers guided principally by their consciences.



The reforms, which were designed to bring NSW into line with all other Australian states, will provide a uniform age of consent for men and women, fixing a legal anomaly that had led to a higher age of consent for homosexual men. The changes are coupled with tough new penalties for child sexual assault by adults in positions of trust.



Last night, the House voted 54 to 32 to support the changes. At least eight coalition MPs backed the bill, including Opposition Leader John Brogden. At least six Labor MPs voted against, including Gaming and Racing Minister Grant McBride, former corrective services minister Richard Amery and Fairfield MP Joe Tripodi.



The bill now moves to the upper house where the Labor Government does not have a majority.



More than 20 MPs chose to speak on the reforms, but it was Mr Turner, the MP for Orange, who seized his colleagues' attention and quiet admiration.



The National Party Leader, Andrew Stoner, a vehement opponent of the changes, had said his MPs would vote as a bloc, but Mr Turner was allowed to speak freely on the reform and he told Parliament he wanted to give some detail about how personal experience had shaped his understanding.



Last night his son, Scott, 38, told the Central Western Daily that he was proud of his father and his decision to set aside party politics to vote with his conscience. "I am proud of him as a man, a father and a politician.



"Dad is very much aware of how difficult it is for a young gay person growing up in a rural area with most young men not comfortable to acknowledge their sexuality until they are well into their 20s. Until then the intervening years can be very traumatic. This issue is not about sexuality; it's about equality."



Mr Turner told Parliament that it was the understanding and support of family that had allowed his son to return from Sydney, where he had trained as a teacher, and settle in Orange again, accepted by friends, family and the community.



Mr Turner said many young men he had spoken to in recent years had explained that they were forced to leave their families and live in Sydney because their small towns did not offer the support or acceptance they so desperately sought.



"My son has a partner, a business and a home in Orange. He is accepted by friends of my wife and I, and he is accepted by the vast majority of people in Orange who have a reasonable understanding of the issue," he said.



Visibly shaken during his speech, Mr Turner said that society may have come a long way, but it still needed to work through the issue of homosexuality and learn to stop discriminating and "treat homosexuals as normal human beings".



"People can live what appear to be normal lives, but a scratch of the surface reveals that they have not been able to acknowledge their true sexuality . . . importantly, [homosexuals] are the sons and daughters of parents who agonise about how to handle the situation."



His hope, he said, was that the legislation would help in this process.

~*@.......We are the weirdest person in the world.......@*~

[Gatito Grande]

. . . making daddy see the light?



I just heard this on NPR, that Dick Gephardt, former Dem minority leader in the House, and presidential candidate, has an out lesbian daughter who lives w/ her partner.



I've never been a big Gephardt fan. The Missouri rep has tended to be pretty conservative on social issues (even though he's a major backer of organized labor---yay). He was one of (all too) many Democrats who supported the heinous Defense of Marriage Act in '96.



But now, is he seeing the light? I checked his website and, sure enough, he is forthrightly claiming his daughter and partner (unlike a certain Vice-President we all know).

Quote:

---

Like her parents, Chrissy also attended Northwestern University for her undergraduate degree. She received her Master of Social Work degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She works with female survivors of trauma and abuse at a mental health agency in the District of Columbia. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her partner, Amy.

---

www.dickgephardt2004.com/...amily.html



Supposedly, if I heard the NPR story correctly, Gephardt is going to address same-sex issues, inc. marriage, in some exclusive magazine interview (I tuned in a little late here). If he has changed his stand (in a principled, and not an "I just want to get queer $ and win the Dem nomination" kind of way, I hope), I'll have to re-evaluate his standing in my own personal "Choose the best of the nine" Dem poll.



GG The link below is to the family portrait: I think that's Chrissy Gephardt and her partner Amy on the far left Out



www.dickgephardt2004.com/...lynow.html

[wa star]

GG,



My guess is that Howard Dean has really brought GLBT issues to the front of the Democratic Party. Now Gephart, Kerry and Edwards have to make a stand on the issue. And personally, I think that's a good idea. Yeah or Neah-- I'm not a big fan of fence sitters.



The bad news is that old *W* is running on the *I hate gays and why can't they just go back into the closet* platfrom and tons of people in this wonderful nation who agree with that.



But I'd still like to see Bush come right and say to the American people-- I hate gay marrage and think all homos are going to hell. I hate the sneaky back-stabbing hate of the GOP-- often wrapped in Evangelical Christianty and the good old American flag .



Anytime any Dem comes out 100% pro queer-- it's a good thing in my book. And Gephadt does have big-time union street cred....

[skittles]

This article is from the Detroit News on Saturday, May 24, 2003

link to article



Changing gender, keeping a job: How a company coped when Mark became Margaret



By Adam Geller / AP Business Writer



NEWARK, N.J. -- By June, people in the Quantitative Management department were trading whispers across the rows of cubicles.



What's wrong with Mark Stumpp? Why had he dropped so much weight so quickly? Was he sick? Nobody knew.



One day after lunch, Stumpp handed a small, framed snapshot to Jim Scott, his friend and co-manager in the department at Prudential Financial Inc. for 14 years.



"Do you know who that is?" Stumpp asked.



Scott glanced at the picture of a tall woman with blonde bangs and shook his head. He'd never seen her.



"That's the person you're going to be working with a year from now," Stumpp said.



Puzzled, Scott looked at the photo again, then back at Stumpp. The lady in the photograph, Stumpp said, is going to be me.



Prudential's QM department manages billions of dollars of other people's money. It's a business that relies on a nurtured image of solidity, on the value implicit in longtime relationships.



And so, as word of Stumpp's intensely private decision spread through Prudential's Newark headquarters, people realized this wasn't going to be about just him. It was going to be about them, too.



-- -- --



Stumpp was uncomfortable in Mark's body as far back as memories reach. Deep inside, at the nexus of body and mind, something felt terribly wrong.



"A malaise of the soul," Stumpp says.



It is called gender dysphoria, a condition characterized by intense feelings of being the wrong gender. No one knows for sure what causes it.



Since the 1960s, thousands of people have quietly undergone hormone treatment and surgery to change gender. Most dropped out of their previous lives, resurfacing somewhere else with new identities.



Today, "more and more people are recognizing that this is not something that they have to be ashamed of," says Eli Coleman, director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota.



So perhaps it was just a matter of time before it happened at Prudential, a company with 61,000 people on its payroll. But in 22 years at Prudential, the last half working on personnel issues, Ron Andrews, a vice president of human resources, "had never encountered a more difficult issue."



"What was difficult about this," he said, "is I didn't know anything."



Stumpp, 51, had a reputation as one of the office's "class clowns." He dropped jokes into the middle of meetings, walked around the office without shoes, wore jeans when everyone else wore a suit.



But he was an acknowledged expert in the serious business of making money grow, and his department, a group of about 35 people, manages $32 billion on behalf of client pension funds and other institutional investors. Prudential's own $8 billion in pension funds is managed here.



"My business is about trust," Stumpp says, and he knew trust would not be enhanced if people saw him "turn into a girl."



So for years, Stumpp postponed gender reassignment surgery. But in 1999, after seeing a therapist, he started taking estrogen and undergoing electrolysis -- all part of a still reversible journey into what it might be like to be a woman.



It was two years before his co-workers began to notice he was changing -- and to worry. The hormones were reshaping his body. Enlarged breasts could be hidden in loose-fitting shirts, but there was no way to disguise the disappearance of muscle.



In the summer of 2001, the few executives at Prudential who knew what was going on realized that the problem wasn't that Stumpp was changing his gender. It was that he was coming back to work afterward.



It was one thing to figure out how the QM department would go on without Mark. It was quite another to figure out how to continue with someone named Maggie in his place.



Someone was going to have to explain this delicate situation in Prudential's executive offices, to the company's clients, to the marketing and sales representatives who vouched for Stumpp's research.



Bringing it all together was Andrews' job.



Throughout the summer and into the fall, Andrews worked his way down a list of people who needed to know, figuring out not just who they would tell in turn, but how they would do it.



In one monthslong thread of calls, meeting and memos, he, company lawyers and sales managers drew up a list of 30 clients that relied on Stumpp's research and investment strategies.



They decided that a Prudential customer relationship manager would contact each one to explain who would soon be handling their money. And then Andrews and his group wrote a script -- not word for word, but an extended outline with "key communication points."



"We wanted our clients and our customers not to hear this from some sort of grapevine," Andrews says. "We wanted to make sure they heard it from us."



In the QM department, though, Stumpp's story was still known only to Scott and another employee, Stacie Mintz. So, after Stumpp left on an unexplained medical leave in January, 2002, Scott called the homes of everyone in the department.



"I need to talk to you about Mark," began each conversation.



Next morning, in the parking garage, Mintz ran into a co-worker she thought most likely to have a problem with the new Stumpp.



"Isn't that amazing about Mark?" Mintz said, and then held her breath for the answer.



"Well, if it makes her happy, it makes her happy," the worker replied.



A few days later, on Jan. 8, a two-page memo arrived in the e-mail box of everyone in the department.



"From: M. Stumpp"



"Subject: Me."



The note poked fun at the situation, but also appealed for understanding. And it emphasized that returning to work was something Stumpp had a legal right to do.



"This will be new ground for all of us," Stumpp wrote. "However, if September 11 taught us anything, it was that life is far too precious and short. Each of us must strive to be at peace with ourselves."



She signed the note "Margaret."



The note leapfrogged around the company, and soon employees started e-mailing back. Many, including some top executives, expressed support. A few of the women offered to help Stumpp pick out clothes.



Some took more convincing. In the weeks before Stumpp's scheduled return date -- Monday, Feb. 4 -- Mintz says it felt like there was a line of co-workers at her door, mostly concerned about how to act when Mark walked in as Margaret.



Stumpp, recuperating at home, offered to return at first in men's clothes if it would make people more comfortable.



No, his fellow workers replied, if you're Maggie, then come back as Maggie. We're as ready as we'll ever be.



-- -- --



Maggie Stumpp made it to the fourth floor before nearly everyone else that first morning back. Her co-workers walked in and there she was, joking about the joy of being thin, of having to wear pantyhose, of how hard it had been to find shoes in her size.



"It was awkward, but ... it was kind of a relief to have it all out in the open, and to have all the questions about what she was going to look like answered," Mintz says.



It was a beginning.



One of the first trials came a few weeks after Stumpp's return, when they took a call from a longtime client, a labor union whose members' reputations did not gibe with her heels and pantyhose.



The union officials asked to meet Stumpp to reevaluate her suitability to continue managing their business. The department braced to lose the account.



They met over dinner at a steakhouse. The first few hours were spent discussing the stock market and the economy, smoothed over by a couple of drinks. Gradually, the men's doubts appeared to ease.



"You know, you really don't look so bad," one leaned over to tell Stumpp. She chalked it up as a compliment. Prudential kept the account.



Inside Prudential, however, there were still some tensions. To ease the uncertainties of some female colleagues, Andrews set aside a small bathroom for her for six months. After that she could use the women's room.



Six months and a day after Stumpp returned, a female employee protested Stumpp's presence in the adjoining stall of the women's room.



"Grow up!" Andrews told her, intentionally setting a tone. While the company did not expect all its employees to accept Stumpp personally, they would be expected to do so professionally.



There are still moments when Stumpp feels the stares, imagines that every woman at Prudential is rating her performance. There are inevitable stumbles and awkward moments.



"The hardest thing is the pronouns," Scott says. "It just drives me crazy.



Earlier this year, Mintz was digging around for an article that Jim Scott, Mark Stumpp and a colleague wrote in 1999 for an industry magazine. When she found it, she did a double-take. At Scott's discrete request, the article had been newly credited to Margaret Stumpp.



Stumpp isn't pretending such changes will erase the past. She's not denying a life as Mark, but she is eager to move on as Maggie.



There are times now when the phone in her office rings and the voice asks to speak to Mark. And depending on the nature of the call and her mood, she relishes a certain answer.



"Oh, him," Maggie Stumpp says. "We got rid of him a long time ago."

(end of article)

skittles



"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense." - Robert Frost, Mending Wall

[urnofosiris]

Thanks Skittles, that was good to read. Refreshingly undepressing, heh.

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


Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

[rduffy24]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread or not, but I've been surprised at how gay friendly south africa appears to be - in the city at least!

They are also planning to pass the Sexual Orientation Bill sometime this year. Tonight, on t.v. they have transexuals talking about the bill, gender issues and rights, and the discrimination they have suffered in the past. This is on prime time t.v. before a watershed hour!



Mind you, on the other channel, its Firefly, so if I'm watching t.v tonight, I know what I'll be choosing to watch!

[tommo]

That sounds great rhona; it's good to see a country taking responsibility for its citizens and ensuring that there are some kind of rights available for them.



On a similar note, I've been hearing in the news about developments in Europe, and how the notion of a "United States of Europe" might not be too far away in the future. I'm wondering, what with the more permissive societies that exist in a lot of countries in Europe, how that will affect laws on gay couples and civil rights for them in the less progressive countries. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.



There's a bunch of media releases covering the European Constitution on the ILGA homepage here .

"Let's be happy, let's be gay..." ~ Germany tells it like it is.

Edited by: tommo at: 5/27/03 8:26:25 am

[Kalita]

In an interesting coincidence, my cousin's dad is gay and now living in South Africa with his partner; I was talking to him a bit before they moved over there. It wasn't just the climate and the scenery they liked, it's also that, societally, there is basically zero tolerance for any form of discrimination or hate.



This is a nation that has learned its lesson, and seems poised to teach others. I'm keeping an eye on it, things look promising.

"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?"

- Marilyn Pittman

[BytrSuite]

Geez, there are like a bunch of places this could go. Here will do for now.



jam.canoe.ca/Television/m...te-ap.html

Quote:

---

Bravo to launch gay dating show



By DAVID BAUDER -- Associated Press





NEW YORK -- The Bravo cable network is going where no television dating show has gone before: matchmaking gay men.



Boy Meets Boy, a six-episode series that will premiere in July, also twists reality show conventions by secretly including straight men among the pool of dating prospects.



No dating show, from Blind Date to The Bachelor, has promoted same-sex unions, said Scott Seomin, entertainment media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. It appears Boy Meets Boy will handle it in a lighthearted, non-exploitive way, he said.



The show is being made by a gay producer, reality veteran Douglas Ross of Evolution Film & Tape, Inc. "I wanted to be involved with a series I could be proud of," Ross said.



Already, the Traditional Values Coalition plans to alert its 43,000 member churches to protest the series, said Andrea Lafferty, the Washington-based group's executive director.



"Clearly, they've hit a new low," Lafferty said. "What's next after Boy Meets Boy? Boy Meets Sheep'?



Bravo has scheduled gay-themed programming in the past, airing the Out of the Closet film festival for several years, Seomin said. Last summer, Bravo ran a documentary series on same-sex weddings, also produced by Ross.



That series triggered many protests to Bravo about taking a stance on a controversial social issue, Ross said. But it also did well enough in the ratings to be repeated several times, including in a marathon opposite the Super Bowl.



Bravo came back to Ross even though the network underwent an ownership change last summer. NBC bought Bravo this spring from Cablevision Systems Corp.



The series, with Dani Behr of Extra as host, will feature a gay leading man choosing from 15 potential suitors. Midway, he will be told that some of his potential dates are actually heterosexual. He won't be told which ones, of course, and Ross is still debating at which point viewers will be let in on the secret.



"We have created a gay world where the straight guys are in the closet," he said.



If one of the straight men is chosen at the end, he wins a cash prize. If the leading man chooses another gay man, the lead character wins the prize and an expense-paid vacation, he said.



"We really wanted to attract the straight population," Ross said. "By adding in this twist, we thought it would bring in a larger audience and would challenge the notions of all of our viewers -- both gay and straight."



Bravo President Jeff Gaspin said he wouldn't have been interested in the show without the straight element -- not because it was more palatable politically, but because it made the series more unique.



He knew the series would attract attention, something vital when competing with dozens of cable networks. "Honestly, that's the bottom line," Gaspin said.



The Traditional Values Coalition's Lafferty said she will point out to her group's members the connection between Bravo and NBC.



"Just when you think programming can't get any worse, it seems like it drops another 100 feet to an even darker place," she said.



Katie Wright, a spokeswoman for the conservative media watchdog Parents Television Council, noted the show is on a cable channel known for airing edgy material, making it less of a concern than if it were on a major broadcast network. She's interested in what time of day Bravo will air the program, though.



"We will be monitoring it," Wright said.



Gaspin said he realizes that any time a network schedules gay-themed programming, some people won't like it. Bravo is also scheduling a series this summer, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where five gay designers make over the wardrobe of a heterosexual man.



Gaspin noted that Will & Grace, the comedy with a gay man as a lead character, is one of NBC's most popular shows.



"It's certainly not something we're afraid of," he said. "If done right, it has every right to be on the air."

---

________
"Oh, good, my dog found the chainsaw."

[tommo]

Quote:

---

"Clearly, they've hit a new low," Lafferty said. "What's next after Boy Meets Boy? Boy Meets Sheep'?

---

Oh yes, because you know, homosexuality and bestiality are just so similar. Perhaps Ms. Lafferty is confusing the members of her own group with the game show participants here...



Sorry for the snippy, but this just pisses me off so much. It's difficult enough to get gay programming onto networks without this kind of reaction, and I find it not only offensive but bombastic and small-minded to boot.



However, another thing I noted...Dani Behr? Good god. I wondered what had happened to her...

"No cheese? Well, I brought you some. It's extra stinky." ~ New Cheese Rising

[Gatito Grande]

Yeah, I caught an interview (on Fresh Air) w/ Ellen Degeneres just last week, w/ clips of her comedy routine where she goes into this ('phobes equating homosexuality w/ bestiality): "These people *scare* me."



GG The bit continues "Imagine me, dating a goat: 'Mom, dad, we're in love! I want you to meet Billy.'" Out

[xita]

boy meets sheep, that is so the same thing, bastards.



Too bad they aren't setting up girls too.

[Gatito Grande]

Hey, Kittens, I was just notified of this story at gay.com. It's a long, but worthwhile read, because it show just how pernicious discrimination can be. I hope no LGBT Kittens in college (athlete or not) are facing this kind of sh*t.



GG Stay strong, and Fight the Power! Out



channels.gay.com/health/f...ernum=2012

Quote:

---

Was Andrea Zimbardi outed, then ousted?



by Jim Buzinski

Outsports.com



Andrea Zimbardi's University of Florida softball team was in the NCAA playoffs, and she had been hoping to play a key role as the team's catcher. Instead, she sat in the stands in Gainesville and watched, wondering what might have been -- and what went wrong.

An honor roll student and senior captain, Zimbardi was kicked off the Gators' team last March. Her coach said it was because Zimbardi had spread lies and misconceptions about an assistant coach and about the program. Zimbardi suspects the real reason is that she's a lesbian.



"I was kicked off because I wanted to take a stand against everything that happened to me," says Zimbardi, 23. "I believe I was discriminated against because of my sexual orientation."



According to current and former teammates (who spoke on condition of anonymity), Zimbardi was a popular and talented player who came into the program as a walk-on and overcame two knee surgeries to earn a starting role. How she went from being hailed as a role model by her coach to being kicked off the team is unclear.



Zimbardi alleges that head coach Karen Johns created an atmosphere of alienation for anyone not sharing her Christian beliefs, outed other coaches and players as lesbians and reneged on an agreement not to retaliate after Zimbardi took her concerns to the university's athletic administration.



She further alleges that assistant coach Heather Compton-Butler made inappropriate and leading comments about lesbianism and lesbian relationships. Zimbardi says Compton-Butler stopped informing her about team practices; she saw her playing time gradually shrink until she was finally released on March 6.



"[Johns'] discrimination is very subtle," says Karen Doering, an attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), which is investigating Zimbardi's allegations. "Based on her deep intrusion into [players'] personal lives, outing other coaches and players, and her [religious moralizing], she sends a clear message to the lesbian players that [homosexuality] is not acceptable. She's not doing the 'no gay people can play for me' thing. But she's creating an environment where lesbian athletes feel uncomfortable."



The University of Florida does not include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy.



Similar allegations

Zimbardi isn't the only player kicked off the team since Johns took over the program in June 2000. Two former players -- each of whom, like Zimbardi, had had relationships with women -- tell of Johns' delving into what they say was inappropriate personal territory, trying to discern which players might be lesbians. Their stories are similar to Zimbardi's: They saw their playing time suddenly and dramatically shrink, ending in their release for unspecified reasons. In addition, e-mails and team itineraries show that Johns was vocal about her religious beliefs, confirming players' allegations.



"Our ongoing investigation is a result of some corroborated statements from players and coaches that could suggest a pattern of anti-lesbian comments toward team members and even other outstanding NCAA fast-pitch softball coaches around the country," says Helen Carroll, coordinator of the Homophobia in Sports program for NCLR.



In a statement released by the school, Johns would only say, "We acknowledge that Andrea Zimbardi is no longer on the team, and we wish her the best of luck in the future." Compton-Butler was not available for an interview. Athletic Director Jeremy N. Foley commented only via a statement issued through the school's Sports Information office.



"I've reviewed this matter, and I'm very comfortable with how it was handled," Foley's statement said. "I have the utmost confidence in our coaches. The [federal] Buckley Amendment prevents us from talking about the particulars of this matter. I do understand, though, how disappointed a student athlete can get when things do not work out how they planned.



"Our coaches are totally committed to the development of all of our student athletes. Andrea finished her degree at UF in May. We supported Andrea's applications this spring for postgraduate scholarship awards. We are proud of Andrea, as well as our other graduates. The education of our student athletes is our most important mission."



Problems with a coach

Zimbardi has been out to her mother and stepfather since her senior year in high school, and says they have been very supportive. Her teammates knew she had a girlfriend, she says, but it was simply accepted. "I know my teammates won't judge me. I love them to death. They looked at me not as gay Andrea, but as a great catcher," she says.



With her name in the university record books with one of the best fielding percentages by a catcher, Zimbardi figured her place on the team was secure. In 2002, she tagged the third most runners stealing (15) in Gator history -- only two below the school record, the Gators Web site says. She once had a good relationship with Johns, who wrote her a letter of recommendation for a scholarship. But things began to change, Zimbardi says, with the fall 2002 hiring of pitching coach Heather Compton-Butler.



According to Zimbardi, when the two went for a run together last fall, Compton-Butler began asking leading personal questions about Zimbardi's relationships.



She says Compton-Butler "volunteered" information on which Olympic and pro softball players were lesbians, telling Zimbardi she knew "how bad the lesbian relationships were with these players." She allegedly told Zimbardi about how poorly one player had treated her female partner.



"I kind of spoke up for female relationships," says Zimbardi -- who adds that the conversation made her uneasy. She believes it was not appropriate between a coach and a player. "I don't want to be defined by that, especially by someone who doesn't know my personal life."



From then on, Zimbardi says, she tried to limit her contact with Compton-Butler as much as possible. But an incident in November further bothered her.



Zimbardi says she was discussing hair stylists with a worker in the softball athletic office when Compton-Butler walked by. Overhearing the conversation, Compton-Butler allegedly said: "I hope you don't get one of those 'butch' haircuts."



"I just stood there, shocked," Zimbardi (who interpreted "butch" to mean "lesbian" ) says. "I don't believe [the office worker] knew about me. Basically, [Compton-Butler] outed me in front of another employee of the university. I was embarrassed about it. I don't want to be defined by [being a lesbian], especially by someone who doesn't know my personal life. I felt that was an intrusion."



As the spring season began, Zimbardi says, she began to be frozen out of team activities. She stopped receiving calls from Compton-Butler about the team's twice-a-day practices, and says that Compton-Butler got defensive when queried about the omission.



She also was the only player not invited to a pitchers-catchers dinner at Compton-Butler's house -- something the coach attributed to an oversight, as she did issue a belated invitation hours prior to the get-together, according to Zimbardi.



Christian beliefs prominent

Zimbardi says she had no choice but to turn to Johns to discuss her concerns about her treatment by Compton-Butler. Based on past comments by the head coach, the player was unsure how she would be received.



From the moment Johns arrived, she touted her strong Christian beliefs, Zimbardi and other players say. They recall Johns leading the team in the Lord's Prayer on the field and occasionally inserting Biblical and religious passages in the team's printed itinerary. She would also tell the team about recruits who were "good Christians." An assistant coach under Johns -- who has since left the program -- held Bible study classes. She would ask the players if they planned to attend. "You felt guilty if you said no," Zimbardi says.



The University of Florida does not have a policy regarding the promotion of religion. However, any student who felt undue pressure could file a complaint with the student grievance committee, according to Paula Rausch of the university's office of News and Public Affairs.



Foley issued a statement saying, "In my 12 years as athletic director, I've not heard one complaint from anyone about the expression of faith." He added that it's up to each team to decide how and if they want to express their faith.



"It made me uncomfortable"

What especially troubled Zimbardi, she says, was Johns' frequent discussions of gay softball players and coaches. "She outed a lot of people," Zimbardi says. She recalls a trip to California, where Florida was playing against a school coached by Johns' former teammate. Zimbardi claims Johns told her the only difference between herself and the other coach was "that she's gay and I'm not." "These types of comments made me uncomfortable," Zimbardi says.



The two other players who were released (both in previous seasons) say their troubles began when Johns started getting more personal than they were comfortable with. One remembers a team flight during which Johns asked her which players were dating other girls, then told her that another team's coach was sleeping with one of her players.



"This was not a position a head coach should be taking," the player says. "She overstepped her boundaries. I was very upset." She says that Johns also asked her about other players' relationships on other occasions: "She was trying to be my friend and get information about the other girls, but I was very guarded around her." The player, who says she started the season as one of Johns' favorites, saw her playing time decrease. She was released soon thereafter. "I was shocked," the player says, adding that she was never given a reason for her dismissal.



The second player says Johns constantly intruded into her personal life. When she was dating a baseball player, she says, Johns regularly "called his apartment and asked if I stayed there with him. I confronted her and asked her to stop." But Johns allegedly continued to question him, even after the two broke up. She then began dating a woman, which she claims also upset Johns. "If you're dating her, that's not right. It's a wrong lifestyle to choose," she recalls Johns saying. She adds that the coach regularly made negative references to homosexual "lifestyles" and said she knew of lesbians who had committed suicide.



This second player says that, by midseason, her playing time was greatly reduced, though her statistics were still good. Johns put her on a leave of absence, the player says, "because she perceived a conflict between me and the other girl [she had been dating]. I was dumbfounded."



The player says she then agreed to see a school counselor as a condition of keeping her place on the team; still, she was eventually released. Johns gave no reason for the decision, except to say, "It was for the best." The player contacted an attorney, who said Johns could dismiss her only for insubordination, bad grades or committing a felony. The player insists none of these criteria applied to her. "The only reason I can give [for my dismissal] was what she had gathered about my personal life."



A pivotal meeting

It was against this backdrop that Zimbardi approached Johns to discuss her treatment by Compton-Butler. She says the head coach told her that Zimbardi "was doing nothing wrong" and that Compton-Butler had no issues with her.



The issue came to a head when Zimbardi attended a February meeting with her mother and stepfather, both coaches and the head and assistant athletic directors. "My parents felt it would be safe if the higher-ups were there," Zimbardi says.



The meeting seemed to go well. Zimbardi says that after hearing her side, Foley told her, "Your perception is your reality." [Foley confirmed that he did say this.] He promised to work to resolve any problems, according to Zimbardi.



But Johns denied that any of the incidents Zimbardi described had happened, the player claims, saying the meeting "was just my way to complain about my lack of playing time. I told [Johns] this was not about playing time and said, 'I feel I've been discriminated against by you and Heather and this whole program.'"



The meeting then took a conciliatory turn, according to Zimbardi and her mother, Candace Carlson-Bolin. "Coach Johns stood up, hugged me and my husband and turned to Andrea ... and said, 'I'm so sorry,' " Carlson-Bolin wrote in a letter to Foley dated April 9. Though Foley had left the meeting early, Zimbardi and her parents say Rogers, Johns and Compton-Butler assured them that Zimbardi would not face retaliation for speaking up.



Zimbardi was stunned two days later, when she was told she had been suspended for a week. The head coach accused her of having told Foley "lies and misconceptions," and said, "Whenever you attack one of my assistants, you attack me," Zimbardi recalls. "She then suggested I see a psychologist and gave me the number of one," she continues. Zimbardi left the meeting, telling her coach she would be ready to return behind the plate when needed.



While Zimbardi was serving her suspension, she alleges, Compton-Butler told members of the team that Zimbardi had filed a complaint against her with a gay rights group on campus. Zimbardi claims she did not do this. Upset that Compton-Butler had allegedly violated an agreement to keep the meeting details confidential, Zimbardi reported the assistant coach to Rogers, who told her Compton-Butler denied making the allegation. A current player quotes a teammate as claiming Compton-Butler had made the statement; the NCLR attorney spoke with another player, who said a rumor was rife among the team that Zimbardi had "filed a lawsuit" with a gay rights group.



Off the team

Zimbardi never made it back to the field. In a follow-up meeting with Johns on March 6, she was permanently released from the team because she "did nothing to clear up the misconceptions." She was allowed to keep her scholarship, but her collegiate sports career was over.



Doering and NCLR Homophobia in Sports coordinator Carroll tried unsuccessfully to have Zimbardi reinstated. Doering is especially dismayed by the university's insistence that nothing wrong occurred -- and by the fact that Zimbardi was retaliated against for raising her concerns.



"This is the poster child for how not to respond to allegations," Doering says. "They eliminated the problem by eliminating the victim."



Zimbardi continued to attend games and root for her teammates, who made it as far as the NCAA regional finals before bowing out. Now that her career is over, she hopes going public will "prevent other athletes from going through this."



"The University of Florida always wants the best," she says. "I hope that me doing this will make them better than they already are. ... All I care about is the program."

---

[Gatito Grande]

[Mods, please forgive a consecutive post, but this is a really important issue and I'm afraid my previous post is already long as it is. I won't make a habit of this, promise! GG]





This is it, Kittens: the Right Wing yahoos are trying to ban same-sex marriage nation-wide and for all time.



Are we gonna let this happen? Hell, No!



GG All it takes for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing Out

Quote:

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 28, 2003





HRC CONDEMNS INTRODUCTION OF ANTI-GAY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT



Amendment Flies in the Face of Public Opinion and Equal Rights



WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign today denounced the introduction of the Federal Marriage Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure seeks to permanently deny marriage to same-sex couples. It further seeks to circumvent state and federal courts from hearing cases on marital benefit issues. Two states, Massachusetts and New Jersey, are currently reviewing landmark same-sex marriage cases.



"The U.S. Constitution is a document designed to protect the basic equality and civil rights of all Americans. Using the Constitution to deny rights to same-sex couples flies in the face of everything that makes this country great," said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. "The bottom line on the issue of marriage is that gay and lesbian couples deserve the same rights and protections that most other American families take for granted."



A 1997 study by the General Accounting Office showed that there are more than 1,000 federal rights, benefits, obligations and protections associated with marriage that gay and lesbian couples currently have no access to, including tax benefits, inheritance rights and even privileges as basic as being able to make decisions for a partner in the hospital.



A recently released Gallup Poll showed that six in 10 Americans support giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexual couples regarding health care benefits and Social Security survivor benefits. The poll also showed that the country is evenly split, 49 percent in favor and 49 percent against, on allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally form civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of marriage.



A recent study of the 2000 Census by the Urban Institute showed that the average same-sex couple is, statistically speaking, a mirror image of the average married couple. For example, the average same-sex couple with children in Ohio is raising 1.79 children, while the average heterosexual couple is raising 1.93 children. Also in Ohio, 75.1 percent of same-sex couples own their homes, and 82.2 percent of other couples own their homes, which have the same median value of $112,500.



"Clearly, the similarities between same-sex couples and married couples far outweigh the differences," said Birch. "This amendment is divisive and discriminatory, and seeks to treat one group of citizens differently than everyone else. That's just wrong."



The amendment states: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this [C]onstitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried coupled or groups."



Passing a constitutional amendment is, by design, a complicated and complex process. First the amendment has to be introduced as a joint resolution in the House and Senate. The amendment must pass both houses by a two-thirds majority vote. The amendment must then be ratified by three-quarters of states. Last year, during the 107th Congress, a similar resolution was introduced in the House, but never in the Senate. That resolution did not receive any legislative action, and subsequently died.



The Federal Marriage Amendment, introduced May 21, is sponsored by Republican Reps. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, Jo Ann Davis of Virginia and David Vitter of Louisiana, and Democratic Reps. Ralph M. Hall of Texas, Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina. Several of these members co-sponsored the bill last year. There is no Senate companion measure.



"This amendment, and the small handful of people supporting it, not only face strong opposition in the hearts and minds of most Americans, but also have to overcome significant built-in constitutional hurdles. Ultimately, this amendment will most likely equate to little more than a mean-spirited sideshow," said Birch.



The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay political organization with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

---

www.hrc.org/newsreleases/...rriage.asp



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



Contact your U.S. Congressperson and both U.S. Senators urging them to oppose any constitutional restrictions on same-sex marriage.

Contact information follows. To determine your congressperson go to www.vote-smart.org

[Aradia785]

Marvelous news today. At about 4:30 this morning, eastern time, North Carolina police caught Eric Randall Rudolph. He's in custody. *Toasts*



Rudolph bombed two womens clinics, a gay nightclub, and the centenial olympics. He's been on the most wanted list for between 5-7 years and it was speculated that he never left North Carolina. And now the only way he'll ever leave Carolina will be cuffed and escorted.



For more info, check out the major networks websites.



Ann

If I hear that Gong of Doom I will send stoned squirrels to raid your kitchen
- Lisa of Nine

Operation Free MyRack! Who wants to join the coalition of the willing?

[Gatito Grande]

This is *great* news. Kick ass!



GG Now *please* don't go and make this b*stard a martyr via capital punishment. Give him the life-in-prison obscurity he deserves. Out



ETA: The fact that Rudolph was caught by a local rookie cop, and not anyone connected w/ the Federal "War on Terrorism," says a lot about Ashcroft & Co.'s priorities: too busy locking up Arab-Americans for no reason, to spend any further effort to catch a white supremacist, women-hating, homo-hating known killer.* Better to be "Christian Identity" than have a Muslim identity!



*Subject to the presumption of innocence in a fair trial, of course.

Edited by: Gatito Grande at: 6/1/03 10:48:06 am

[maudmac]

I was watching the local news this morning when they interrupted with that breaking news. My jaw dropped. I really had figured he was long dead after all this time up there in the mountains.



The women's clinic he bombed here in Birmingham, maiming a nurse and killing a police officer, is about two blocks from where I work. We're all certainly glad to see that he's been caught.



These Christian Identity people his mother fell in with when he was younger, they're a scary bunch. They particularly hate LGBT folks, Jews, and anyone who's not white.

---

Pussy - strong enough for a man, but made for a woman  -- Margaret Cho

[GiftofAmber]

Regarding the so called Constitutional Amendment on Marriage, the ACLU page has faxes in two easy steps, and it figures out your congresspeople for you.



ACLU Federal Marriage Amendment--Oppose Intolerance in the Constitution

[skittles]

From the NYTimes article, Saturday, May 31, 2003. (registration required)



Board Asked to Reconsider Jobless Benefits for a Same-Sex Partner



By Steven Greenhouse, May 31, 2003



When Jeanne Newland's companion landed a prestigious computer job in Virginia, Ms. Newland did not hesitate to quit her own job in Rochester and make the move south.



After applying for 150 jobs in Virginia with no success, Ms. Newland applied for unemployment insurance back in New York, hoping to benefit from an unusual wrinkle in New York State law. While workers usually receive jobless benefits only when they are laid off, workers who voluntarily quit their jobs to follow a spouse who has obtained a job out of state can still qualify for benefits.



But when Ms. Newland applied for unemployment insurance, her application was rejected. State Labor Department officials informed her that she did not qualify because she and her domestic partner, Natasha Doty, were not married.



"This isn't fair," Ms. Newland said this week, "because I'm not even legally allowed to be married to my partner, so I'm excluded right at the outset. As far as we're concerned, we're as married as we could be."



Ms. Newland's appeal of the decision was rejected, first by an administrative law judge and then by the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board. But in an unusual move, Gov. George E. Pataki has asked the board to reconsider its decision.



Mr. Pataki's intervention, announced yesterday by a Labor Department spokesman, came after several gay advocacy groups, led by Empire State Pride Agenda, urged him to step in. But lawyers involved in the case acknowledged that the appeals board might face some difficulties in reversing itself and ruling for Ms. Newland, because that might open the door for any person, even one in a relatively brief relationship, to qualify for jobless benefits after quitting a job and following a partner out of state.



State law says that people who quit jobs voluntarily can qualify for jobless benefits only if they quit for "good cause." In the past, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board ruled that quitting a job and following a partner out of state was good cause so long as the claimant was married.



Ms. Newland and Ms. Doty have been together for six years. They met in Los Angeles, where Ms. Newland was a police officer, and they moved together to Rochester. There, Ms. Newland worked in technical support for Element K, an educational software company, while Ms. Doty was a printing test manager for Xerox.



Ms. Doty landed a higher-paying job in Richmond, Va., as an information technology manager at Capital One, a financial services company, and Ms. Newland moved there with her in December 2000. They own a house together, share living expenses and have joint bank and investment accounts.



Romana Mancini, Ms. Newland's lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said yesterday: "Jeanne and Natasha have done everything they can to demonstrate their commitment to one another and to solidify their relationship. Their relationship deserves just as much protection and recognition as that of a married couple."



Ms. Newland has filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to overturn the appeal court's decision. But lawyers involved in the case said they expected it to be suspended pending the appeal board's reconsideration of the case.



Ms. Newland and Ms. Mancini applauded the governor's intervention. "It's a good sign, but it doesn't mean we won yet," Ms. Mancini said.



In another unusual twist, Ms. Newland's former employer, Element K, filed a legal brief on her behalf. Employers often oppose applications for unemployment insurance because their unemployment insurance taxes increase with the number of former workers receiving jobless benefits.



"The Rochester community is pretty open about this kind of thing," said Lance D'Amico, Element K's general counsel. "We have some senior-level people here who are openly gay. We thought it was important to support employees and people who have left."



Even though Ms. Newland landed a job as a fraud investigator with a bank last year, she decided against dropping her unemployment insurance case.



"It's not about the money now," she said. "I'm not the first person this has happened to and I know I won't be the last. It would be nice if the decision against me was overturned so these benefits could be available to other people in my situation."

(end of article)

skittles



"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense." - Robert Frost, Mending Wall

[Jennpurr]

Well, I'm guessing this is the right place for this.



I'm still kind of excited, so bear with me.



I went to my first ever PFLAG meeting today and I have to say that I really LOVED it. I felt so comfortable... more comfortable then I've felt in a long time. I'd have to say the last time I felt that way, was at the last Melissa Etheridge concert I went to last August.



I'm really looking forward to going again next month. For those of you who have been maybe thinking about going or checking out your local chapter, I would highly recommend it. If nothing else, it's feels wonderful just to get a hug from someone you don't know.



PFLAG moms and dads... you guys are the best! Thank you for all you do!



OH.. and one more thing. The Pride Parade, for those of you Houston kittens or near Houston, will be this month. I so can't wait to go. This will be my first parade also.



Jen

||My Fan Fiction and More!|| ||My Yahoo Group||
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Tell me the truth and I'll give you your pants back." Bianca to Maggie: All My Children

[Gatito Grande]

This might be more appropriate on the Coming Out Thread, but lemme say "Good on ya!" Jen.



We've got Pride events coming up everywhere this month. (Didn't we have a special Pride thread last year? Just thinking out loud, Mods.) I know a lot of queers consider Pride passe' but I'm gonna try and make it to one near me this year---I think they're still important. As this thread makes clear, much of the news of our community is news of our oppression, and Pride is the place where we can come together and feel our power to fight that oppression (Oh yeah, it's also a pretty good excuse to party )



GG Jen hon, you really made my Friday Night: Old GG thanks your young self! Out

[Jennpurr]

Well, I came out years ago so I didn't think I should post that in the coming out thread. Hee... But thanks, GG. And you're very welcome.



All I know is, it felt really good to say, "Hi, my name is Jennifer and I'm a lesbian," today. Talk about pride!



Jen

||My Fan Fiction and More!|| ||My Yahoo Group||
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Tell me the truth and I'll give you your pants back." Bianca to Maggie: All My Children

[WillowMcclay6]

"Frankly, the courts of Louisiana should be embarrassed that after 10 years, the longest-running sodomy challenge in U.S. history is nowhere near its end."

-----



Damn right they should be embarrassed!



----

"You just have to stand there and take it."

----



Grr...reading articles like this gets me all flustered. I can't wait until my state (Florida) catches up with this "ever changing world". These republicans (no offense to anyone!!!!!! Don't hate me!!) are in a whirl wind of confusion and stupidity with Gay/Lesbian/Transgendered rights.



No matter what though, I'm not ashamed of who I am, and nobody can make me feel that way. They would need my approval for that and damnit!! ::stomps foot:: I'm not going to give it to them!

[maudmac]

Lesbian monkeys (From the Radio Netherlands website.)



by Liesbeth de Bakker of our Science Unit, 19 May 2003



The sexual behaviour of some Japanese macaques is challenging one of Darwin's central assumptions: that of choosing the best mate to ensure the best offspring. Some apparently lesbian macaques appear to get together for pleasure - not reproductive or social gain.



According to Charles Darwin, females should be choosy, sit back and let the males compete for them. This way the females are able to select the most attractive - i.e. the most successful - male as their preferred mate. But the behaviour of some Japanese macaques is challenging this idea.



Lesbian liaisons



Dr Paul Vasey of the University of Lethbridge, Canada, has observed a lot of homosexual behaviour in Japanese macaques in the wild. "Some females solicit each other for sex using a whole variety of vocalizations, gestures and postures, such as hitting the ground or lip quivering. Between bouts of sexual activity they stay together in a temporary but exclusive sexual relationship called a ‘consortship'. They'll follow each other, groom each other and sleep together as a unit."



These lesbian relationships appear to be very strong. In 92.5% of the cases males are unable to break them up, says Dr Vasey: "The female, who is the object of both male and female attention, chooses to remain with her female partner rather than begin a new courtship with the intruding male."



No social gain



As gay relationships do not result in reproductive success, Vasey spent many years figuring out what other benefit there might be for the individuals involved. After testing several hypotheses, it became clear that the lesbian monkeys didn't do it for any social benefit, such as alliance formation, conflict resolution or dominance demonstration. "There's no evidence for that at all," says Vasey. "In order to understand this behaviour you need to look at the history of the species, and think more in terms of evolutionary history."



Evolutionary history



As part of their play behaviour juvenile male macaques mount each other. If that happens, the male who's being mounted will try and swivel around and do the same thing to the male who mounted him in the first place. At some point in history females started copying this behaviour. They used female-male mounting to get disinterested or sluggish males to swivel around and mount them so they could mate.



But what is the driving force in the female-female mounting? "In order to understand that, you have to go back to the female mounting and if you do that, you see that the females masturbate while they are mounting," explains Dr Vasey.



"Doing it for fun"



So, says Vasey, there is an immediate sexual reward associated with mounting and clearly some females are preferred over some males because in general females are more co-operative and less aggressive. "At that point in the evolutionary history of the species, a female might be prepared to compete with males for access to a specific partner. He might be competing for a reproductive opportunity, but from the female's perspective she's competing for fun."

---

Pussy - strong enough for a man, but made for a woman  -- Margaret Cho

[xita]

Lesbian Monkeys I love it, animal's sexual lives are very complicated. I still haven't finished it but Biological Exuberance is a great book that deals with animals' sexuality. It's fascinating stuff!

[Ben Varkentine]

By The American Civil Liberties Union

June 3, 2003



After a high school principal forcibly removed stickers from students' clothing during a silent protest to raise awareness of anti-gay violence, the American Civil Liberties Union demanded today that Luther Burbank High School stop censoring teens who took part in the protest and insisted that the school promise not to punish students who take part in such actions in the future.





"We're appalled at this school's actions against a group of peaceful, law-abiding students," said Ken Choe, a staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "The school violated the Amnesty International Club's right to free expression by telling it that it could not sponsor Day of Silence. It then did the same thing to individual students who were peacefully taking part in it. Then the school violated the federal Equal Access Act when it abolished the club just because some of its members had acted independently to organize the protest," he said.





"The principal told these students that they were being disruptive, but it's obvious who was really causing problems at school that day," Choe added.





The school shut down the school's Amnesty International Club because some of its members had led the protest. The students were participating in National Day of Silence, an annual nationwide student action in which students take a day-long vow of silence to illustrate the silence in which lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered people often suffer discrimination and violence.





"We were really careful to make sure that what we were doing was legal and didn't interfere with school," said Andrea Adame, a senior at the high school who helped organize Day of Silence Activities. She added, "All we were doing was being quiet and wearing stickers that explained what the day was all about, and we made sure students knew they should speak in classes where they have to, like Spanish class."





Andrew Rodriguez, principal of the downtown San Antonio school, had previously warned the school's Amnesty International Club that he would not allow it to sponsor Day of Silence activities, so a group of students went forward with their plans while acting independently of the club. On April 9, Rodriguez spent much of the day confronting students in the hallways and cafeteria, demanding that they remove "I support Day of Silence" stickers from their clothing, and removing them himself if they didn't comply immediately, at one point even tearing a female student's shirt. By lunchtime, according to students, Rodriguez was entering classrooms and interrupting instructional time to demand that students take the stickers off their clothing.





Michael Heflin, director of Amnesty International's OUTfront Program, applauded the ACLU's action, saying, "Lesbian and gay youth in this country continue to face harassment, discrimination and violence in their schools and communities. It is unacceptable that a group of students trying to convey a positive message of human rights for all would face this type of reaction from their school administration."





In a letter sent today to Rodriguez and copied to San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Ruben D. Olivarez as well as Amnesty International USA and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, which spearheads National Day of Silence, the ACLU is demanding that the Amnesty International Club be reinstated immediately and seeking a guarantee that the school won't violate students' rights in this fashion in the future.



www.alternet.org/story.ht...ryID=16078



ETA: This is an excerpt from the recent Pew Research Center report about global attitudes. You may have heard of this report, its more confirmation that the rest of the world hates the US. But the fuller version also contains disheartening news about American's acceptance of homosexuality:



"Homosexuality and the centrality of religion to personal morality divide the peoples of the world...People in Africa and the Middle East strongly object to societal acceptance of homosexuality. But there is far greater tolerance for homosexuality in major Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. Opinion in Europe is split between West and East. Majorities in every Western European nation surveyed say homosexuality should be accepted by society, while most Russians, Poles and Ukrainians disagree. Americans are divided – a thin majority (51%) believes homosexuality should be accepted, while 42% disagree."



Something to keep in mind, perhaps, the next time someone argues that the homos have equality, so what were the kittens bitching about?



Here's a link to the full report, which is full of interesting and sobering information, including the fact that too many middle eastern nations have more faith in Bin Laden than in Bush.



people-press.org/reports/...portID=185

Ben



"Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always

ready to defend their most precious possession."

Edited by: Ben Varkentine at: 6/5/03 11:11 am

[Warduke]

Read this at Yahoo...

Quote:

---

US Justice Department forbids Gay Pride event at headquarters



Fri Jun 6, 1:32 PM ET



WASHINGTON - Homosexual employees of the US Department of Justice have been forbidden to hold an annual "Gay Pride" event at the department's headquarters, a gay DoJ employee said Friday.



Attorney General John Ashcroft "will not allow us to hold our annual pride ceremony in the building," said Melissa Schraibman, who works in Justice Department's tax division.



The Justice Department has held gay pride events at the Department headquarters annually since the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton -- a gay rights supporter -- was president and Janet Reno the US attorney general.



In 2002 Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the most important DoJ official after Ashcroft, was at the event. Thompson's presence however resulted in sharp criticism from influential conservative groups.



The event, organized by a group of gay employees known as the "DoJ Pride" -- using the acronym for the Department of Justice -- had been scheduled for June 18.



The group includes several hundred homosexual DoJ employees.



The cancellation "is definitely a surprise," Schraibman told AFP. All the preparations for the event, to be held in the Department's main hall, had already been finalized.



According to Schraibman, the prohibition is "in accord with a new department policy that prohibits commemoration unless it is supported by a presidential proclamation."



"This is something we have never heard of before," she said. "It doesn't exist in writing yet."



Schraibman said that other groups of DoJ employees -- including those belonging to ethnic or special interest groups -- continue to use the Department building as a meeting place.



"It's certainly a discriminatory position," Schraibman added.



A Department of Justice spokesman, contacted by AFP, refused Friday to comment on the issue.



The son of a Pentecostal preacher, Ashcroft has long been an outspoken social conservative, opposed to abortion and gay rights, and supporting the death penalty and few restrictions on gun ownership.

---

---

Lil' Trevor : Always the life of the party.

Edited by: Warduke at: 6/6/03 2:30 pm

[Gatito Grande]

Hey all:



Just a heads-up, that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of laws banning sodomy is expected this month: possibly as soon as this Monday, June 9.



Whenever---and however---the decision goes, there are expected to be "comemorations" across the U.S. (to celebrate if they overturn the bans, to protest if they uphold them).



While laws banning sodomy have progressively decreased across the U.S. the last 30 years, their persistence (and especially the Supreme Court's 1986 Hardwick v. Bowers decision which upheld them) has been a major legal under-pinning for homophobia in all its heinous forms.



If sodomy bans are overturned in one fell swoop by the Supreme Court, to paraphrase Winston Churchill: it won't be the end of homophobia, or even the beginning of the end. But it will be the end of the beginning---of the long, twilight struggle for justice and equality.



GG Below: T-shirt seen at the 1993 LGBT March on Washington Out



SODOMY:

So do my lovers.

So do my friends.

So do my heroes.



ETA: it occurs to me that some people might not know the meaning of this freaky (misinterpreting the) Bible word? While it varies from state to state (many laws only ban *homosexual sodomy*), "sodomy" is usually defined as oral/genital or anal/genital contact. "Cunning linguists" beware!

Edited by: Gatito Grande at: 6/6/03 10:56 pm

[skittles]

Finally, people are choosing the right person for the right reasons.



My favorite quote from the article & also the last line: "Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."



From the NYTimes, Sunday, June 8, 2003 NYTimes Article



New Hampshire Episcopalians Choose Gay Bishop, and Conflict



By LAURIE GOODSTEIN



CONCORD, N.H., June 7 — Episcopalians in the Diocese of New Hampshire today elected as their leader the first openly gay bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican communion, a step likely to roil the church in the United States and England, and deepen the disaffection of the more conservative Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America.



The bishop-elect, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, who had developed a loyal following here in 16 years as assistant to the current bishop, was elected from among four candidates on the second round of balloting at St. Paul's Church.



He received 58 of 77 votes from members of the clergy and 96 of 165 votes from laypeople. A majority in each group is needed for election.



When the tally was announced, the clergy and lay delegates leaped to their feet and applauded as Bishop-elect Robinson came to the front, stood before the altar rail and embraced his two grown daughters, his son-in-law and his partner.



He acknowledged that his election could precipitate outrage and division in his denomination. The Episcopal Church has 2.3 million members in the United States, while the Anglican Communion, a global association of churches that trace their heritage to the Church of England, has about 79 million members internationally.



But he urged the delegates who elected him to be "kind and sensitive and gentle" to believers who "will not understand what you've done here today."



"The world is hurting out there, and the Episcopal Church and the Anglican communion worldwide are divided by lots of things," he said to the delegates.



He said the rift could be healed if believers focused on God and the sacraments. "We can get through this if we keep coming to the altar rail," he said.



His election now forces a showdown in the Episcopal Church in the United States, which like most mainline Protestant denominations has been torn over the issue of homosexuality over the past two decades.



Bishop-elect Robinson cannot be ordained as bishop until he wins the consent of bishops and diocesan representatives at the General Convention, which begins on July 28 in Minneapolis.



The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank T. Griswold III, declined, through a spokesman, to comment on today's development. But church members say they anticipate that the decision here could pose doctrinal problems for some Episcopalians who believe that the Bible prohibits homosexuality.



"The bishops and the delegates at General Convention are snarled up on the whole issue of whether to ordain gays and lesbians, and there is considerable opinion in the church, particularly emanating from the South and Southwest, that this should not happen," said the Rev. Dr. John E. Booty, a former historiographer of the Episcopal Church and an emeritus professor of Anglican studies at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.



"My hunch is that Gene will get enough votes, but there will be people working furiously on either side of this to gather the votes for or against," Dr. Booty said in a telephone interview.



James Solheim, the church's press officer, said in a telephone interview tonight: "Reaction is already coming in by e-mail, and it is mixed. Some people are already announcing that this is the last straw, they're leaving the Episcopal Church."



The election is likely to be contentious in the Anglican Communion, which covers 38 regional churches in 164 countries, said the Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas, professor of mission and world christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.



The growth in the church in the developing world is tipping it toward theological conservatism on some issues, including homosexuality, but it is a mixed picture, Dr. Douglas said. At the last Lambeth Conference, a gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world, in 1998, conservatives passed a resolution saying the church recognized only heterosexual, married relationships, Dr. Douglas said. But he also noted that at the same conference, a committee issued a report urging dialogue on the issue.



Bishop Douglas E. Theuner, the current bishop of New Hampshire, has championed gay causes in the church and approves of commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples.



Bishop Theuner said in an interview that there was no organized opposition in his diocese to Mr. Robinson's election. He said he believed Mr. Robinson was elected as bishop because the the delegates trusted him and were familiar with him, not that they wanted to make him a cause célèbre.



"His election pushes the envelope, but certainly that was not our intention in New Hampshire," Bishop Theuner said. "The people of the diocese are aware that they're part of the larger church, and value that, but we're selecting a bishop to be our bishop."



The Rev. David P. Jones, rector of St. Paul's Church and co-chairman of the search committee for the next bishop, said, "Ten years ago I would not have been happy about this because I would have felt it's clearly contrary to the Bible, contrary to the traditions of the church.



"It's all because I've experienced the ministry of this man and a couple of others that I think I was mistaken," Mr. Jones said.



Church experts say that the Episcopal Church has had gay bishops before and does now, but none who have made their sexual orientation known before they were elected.



The only gay bishop to disclose his sexuality before now is retired Bishop Otis Charles of Utah, who sent a letter to the church's House of Bishops in 1993 sharing his experience as a closeted gay churchman watching the bishops wrestle with the issue.



On Friday, the Daily Telegraph in London reported that leaders of the Church of England have known for years that Bishop Jeffrey John, a newly ordained suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Oxford, had been living with his gay partner of 25 years.



Bishop-elect Robinson, who is 56, is originally from Kentucky. He worked previously at a church in Ridgewood, N.J., and has run ministries for teenagers, AIDS patients and congregations going through conflicts.



He said in an interview after the vote that he came out as a gay man in 1986 and soon after divorced his wife, with whom he had two daughters.



He said he believed the Anglican church should be able to accommodate people who have opinions other than his on issues like homosexuality.



"I'm certain that I want to be in a church with them," he said. "I'm just not certain they want to be in a church with me."



In the history of the church in the United States, only one bishop-elect did not win affirmation by the General Convention, and that was in 1875, he said. He likened his election to that of Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, elected in 1988 in Massachusetts.



"There were dire predictions of schism then, and today the gifts of women in ministry are almost universally accepted," he said. Only 3 of the 100 Episcopal dioceses in the United States now do not ordain women.



The other candidates, who were not present for the election today, were the Rev. Pamela Jane Mott of Portland, Ore., and two supervisors of groups of parishes in Pennsylvania, the Very Revs. Robert L. Tate and Ruth Lawson Kirk. Another candidate withdrew after being selected as bishop of Nebraska.



As the clergy and laypeople here today left the service that followed the election, some said they had favored Bishop-elect Robinson because of his pastoral skills, his preaching and his devotion to the church. If confirmed by church officials, he would be only the ninth bishop in the history of the diocese, which dates to 1802.



"We made history," said Bayard Coolidge, a retired software engineer and a delegate from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Pittsfield.



"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."

(end of article)

skittles



"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.

To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns" - C.Bronte, Preface to Jane Eyre