09.28.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 11:32 am by pikapp44
Legislation introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate by Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon and Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut would extend health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal workers.
“This bill is very affordable, but more important, it is the right thing to do,” Lieberman said in a statement. The centrist Democrat, having lost his primary to farther-left Ned Lamont, faces an uphill independent battle for reelection.
“Federal workers should be able to extend their benefits to loved ones,” Smith said on his Web site. “It’s a matter of fairness, and I think the government should be leading the way rather than following.”
Benefits at stake include federal retirement funds; life insurance; medical, dental, and vision benefits; workers’ compensation; long-term care insurance; and family and medical leave.
Same-sex partners covered under the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act would assume some of the same obligations as married federal employees and their spouses, such as antinepotism rules and financial disclosure requirements.
More than 13 states, 39 cities and towns, and 8,000 companies offer partner benefits to their employees, as do the majority of Fortune 500 firms. Federal measures to exempt partners from being taxed on these benefits, to bring the law in line with that for married couples, have so far been stalled by Smith’s fellow Republicans.
The Human Rights Campaign hailed Wednesday’s bill. “We urge Congress to provide its gay and lesbian employees equal pay for equal work, which is not only the right thing to do but good business,” said HRC president Joe Solmonese in a written statement.
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09.21.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 2:10 pm by pikapp44
The Hong Kong government lost an appeal Wednesday of a High Court ruling against a law that says men younger than 21 who engage in sodomy should be jailed for life.
A panel of three Court of Appeal judges upheld the original decision issued by the lower court in August 2005, the court’s ruling said.
The laws were first challenged by William Roy Leung, a then 20-year-old gay man who argued he should be able to have a loving relationship without the fear of imprisonment.
In last August’s ruling, High Court Judge Michael Hartmann sided with Leung, saying the laws against sodomy infringed on the rights of privacy and equality for gay men.
while gay men caught engaging in sodomy when either is under 21 face life imprisonment, heterosexual couples can legally have sex at age 16.
The government appealed the August ruling after it stirred an uproar among Christian groups, who have vigorously campaigned against gay sexual rights.
On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal dismissed the government’s appeal.
“At one stage, societal values dictated that buggery was some form of unnatural act, somehow to be condemned and certainly not condoned. These values have changed in Hong Kong,” Chief Judge Geoffrey Ma said in the judgment.
“I cannot see any justification for either the age limit of 21, or, in particular, for the different treatment of male homosexuals compared with heterosexuals,” Ma said.
Leung did not appear in court Wednesday, but said in a statement issued by his lawyer: “This is a victory not only for me and the gay community in Hong Kong.
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09.19.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 1:06 pm by pikapp44
Gay rights activists in Jerusalem, after a long series of setbacks, received permission Monday to hold their annual pride parade November 10 in the holy city, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported, while a right-wing leader vowed a “holy war” to “thwart” the event.
Police, civic authorities, and Jerusalem Open House reached an agreement after three hours of talks at the High Court compound in Jerusalem.
“We’re very proud of our legal achievement,” Open House executive director Hagai El-Ad told Advocate.com on Monday. “The highest court of the land came back with the opinion that freedom of speech should not come to potential violence, and that it is the duty of the police to protect free-speech rights. That’s important not just for gays but for all minorities.”
The group had sought to hold the pride parade in conjunction with WorldPride festivities last month. It was denied a police permit, as has happened in past years, but did not contest the decision immediately because of the fast-developing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
“We postponed but did not give up,” wrote journalist Noa Raz on Ynetnews.com. “Deep in our hearts we knew the right day will come and that we’ll again be able to take the bus to Jerusalem, walk the streets, feeling the sun and surrounded by light.”
The rest of WorldPride went on as scheduled, despite ultra-Orthodox threats and protests heightened by the larger scale and influx of world visitors to Jerusalem’s usual gay celebrations.
Open House then sought to hold the parade September 21 but was told that the day before Rosh Hashanah was inappropriate for the event.
“There will be a holy war against this event. The outcome was predictable. We will do everything we can to thwart the parade,” extreme rightist Baruch Marzel told Yedioth Ahronoth as he left the courtroom Monday.
Even before entering the courthouse, an argument broke out between the two sides, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. Mina Panton, a city councilwoman from the National Religious Party, showed reporters a snapshot of graffiti that said “Jerusalem is proud and liberated” above a sketch of two lions riding one another.
“This is a disgrace to the symbol of Jerusalem, which is holier than the Israeli flag,” Panton said.
Countered Open House members: “This is a symbol of freedom of expression and our right to live in this city.”
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09.13.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 10:29 am by pikapp44
CNN anchor Thomas Roberts acknowledged that he is gay while speaking at the annual convention for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in Miami last weekend. According to Boston-based journalist Johnny Diaz, Roberts was speaking on a panel when he made the announcement, saying it was the “biggest step” he had taken to really being out in public and that he had slowly been coming out at CNN over the past several years.
Unfortunately, those tuning in to see Roberts will no longer find him on CNN Headline News. Reuters reported Tuesday that a shuffling of desk chairs at CNN for budgetary reasons will mean the cancellation of the 4–6 p.m. newscast coanchored by Roberts. He and his coanchor, Kathleen Kennedy, are reportedly being reassigned.
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09.11.06
Posted in Advocate Articles at 2:26 pm by pikapp44
Even in her final pro match, Martina Navratilova was eager to get going. “Anytime, darling,” she told the chair umpire before he signaled for play to start.
A month shy of her 50th birthday, Navratilova closed out her competitive career Saturday night in fitting fashion: a mixed doubles championship at the U.S. Open for her 59th Grand Slam title. Martina played before an appreciative crowd that stood and cheered throughout the final game.
“See, if you play long enough, good things happen,” she told the fans. “I should know.”
“It’s been quite a run,” she said.
The mixed doubles final was played at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York right after Maria Sharapova beat Justine Henin-Hardenne for the women’s singles title. The lower bowl was mostly filled as the match went past 11 p.m., with fans eager to see one of tennis’ greats. She made it worth their wait.
“It’s just nice to go with a win,” she said. “I knew I was going to play great tonight.”
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09.07.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:43 pm by pikapp44
A bill passed by California lawmakers would have prohibited the use of language in school textbooks that is discriminatory toward gays, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to sign it. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that the state’s education laws already prevent discrimination and that the bill “would not strengthen this important area of legal protection from bias based on sexual orientation.”
The bill, which won final passage last week, would have expanded current antidiscrimination laws by prohibiting any negative portrayals of gay people in textbooks and other instructional material. An original version would have required social science textbooks to include the historical contributions of gay people, but the California assembly amended it in an effort to avoid a veto from the Republican governor.
The bill’s author, openly lesbian state senator Sheila Kuehl, called the veto “inexplicable…. I am extremely disappointed that the governor chose to respond to a small, shrill group of right-wing extremists rather than a fair-minded majority of Californians who support this reasonable measure.”
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09.06.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:02 pm by pikapp44
A new book from the authors of a previous tome about the life and work of President Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove claims Rove’s stepfather was gay, The [Austin] American-Statesman reports. In The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power, James Moore and Wayne Slater dedicate two chapters to the touchier side of the Republican Party’s exploitation of antigay sentiment.
In chapter 9, “A Few Simple Questions: What’s in Karl’s Closet?” the authors draw on interviews with gay acquaintances of Rove’s stepfather, Louis Rove, as well as an interview with a circumspect Karl Rove, to reveal that Louis came out as gay after divorcing Rove’s mother, according to the American-Statesman. The chapter jabs hard at Rove, pointing out that Louis Rove, who was clearly Rove’s primary father figure, died in Palm Springs, Calif., just as “his son was in the midst of launching the antigay issues campaign that was to lead to the reelection of George W. Bush.”
The authors quote Rove and friends of Rove’s stepfather to illustrate that Rove was close to him throughout his life and seemed not to judge his sexuality. This and Rove’s self-professed agnosticism are major exhibits in Moore and Slater’s claim of hypocrisy.
Moore, an Austin-based journalist, and Slater, senior political writer for The Dallas Morning News, paint a sharp portrait of an intelligent, ruthless, and deeply cynical Karl Rove.
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09.05.06
Posted in E's Thoughts at 12:39 pm by pikapp44
By now, most have heard of the passing of Steve Irwin at the age of 44. Best known by the moniker ‘The Crocodile Hunter’; Irwin was not just a lover of snakes and reptiles. He was a lover of nature and all of wildlife’s inhabitants. From the jungle birds to the desert snakes and, alas, into the seas; Irwin got up close and personal with all that he saw and took all willing pasengers on the ride known, simply, as his life.
What Irwin did was bring the animal world to us all in vivid detail. Irwin gave us the outdoors in all of its glory, in all of its beauty, and all of its danger. He lived his work. He was a walking testimony to the idea that one could love their job, and more than that, get others excited about it as well. He was more than a lover of his craft; he was a missionary of it. He taught, he learned, and he breathed, until his last breath, the natural world around him. All, who were willing to watch, stood witness to a man in love with his calling. A man living his ‘dream’.
In the end, Steve Irwin was more than just a guy wrestling crocodiles and snakes for television audiences. He was a zoologist, conservationist, husband, and father. He bought tracks of land in several countries in order to help preserve wildlife habitats from destruction by man. His Australian Zoo was an oasis for endangered crocodiles, reptiles, and other non-endangerd animals. The money from his popular show served to aid him in his quest to bring more funds to his conservation and educational efforts, not just for animals and their habitats; but for aboriginal peoples and their historic lands as well. In all, Steve Irwin was a man that lived his life to the fullest and his honest and uncompromising spirit will be missed.
As his wife and children remain with us, continuing his legacy, I will remember him as a man of life. A liver of moments and pioneer in a field that, until his arrival, was suffering from the lack of someone with his passion. And I hope there will come a day when his children will carry the torch. Until then, I will show my children the Crocodile Hunter and let them know…….. as sure as the leaves will fall in autumn, death will come. But it is not our deaths that define us; it is how we live our lives. Don’t waste your leaves.
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09.01.06
Posted in D's Thoughts, Gay Rights at 5:53 pm by pikapp44
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger added to his mixed record on gay rights by signing a bill Tuesday protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination in state programs.
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