07.30.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:11 pm by pikapp44
Italian gays will hold public ”kiss-ins” near the Colosseum next week to protest the detention of two men by police for kissing in front of the famous Rome monument, gay rights groups said.
Some lawmakers said they would discuss the incident in parliament, while gay rights groups accused the police of discrimination Saturday.
There were contradictory versions of the events that led to the detention.
Police confirmed the two men were held for about 40 minutes early Friday and released after being reported for committing lewd acts in public — a crime that can carry a sentence of up to 2 years in jail.
The two were ”not just kissing” and the officers would have detained the couple also if it had been a heterosexual one, police official Col. Alessandro Casarsa said.
”They acted because there was a couple that was committing a lewd act in front of one of the most viewed monuments in Italy,” Casarsa said without elaborating. ”We apply the law to all in the same way, men and women.”
Arcigay, the main Italian gay rights group, hired a lawyer for the couple and identified the men as Roberto L. and Michele M., saying that the two, aged 27 and 28, had only shared a gesture of affection after a night out in the gay bars that line one of the streets near the Colosseum.
”Roberto and Michele were only kissing, all other statements are false,” the group said in a statement.
Arcigay said it would hold its protest near the Colosseum on Thursday, while another group, the Mario Mieli Club, scheduled a rally of public kissing in front of the 2,000-year-old arena for Sunday night.
Vladimir Luxuria, a Communist politician and Italy’s first transvestite lawmaker, was one of the representatives saying she would call on the government to explain the incident in parliament.
”It’s worrying that a gesture of affection is considered a crime,” she told La Repubblica daily. ”It’s absurd that two young people who love each other should spend the night in a police station without having done anything obscene.”
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07.25.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 5:17 pm by pikapp44
Nearly 1,000 people gathered at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.’s City Hall Tuesday to protest the inflammatory comments of the city’s mayor, Jim Naugle, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Naugle ran into trouble earlier this month when he backed the idea of the city buying smaller, free-standing toilets for the beach because they would cut down on “homosexual sex” between gay men. He went on to say that he used the term “homosexual” rather than “gay” because, in his estimation, homosexuals are “unhappy.”
According to the Sun-Sentinel, Broward County commissioner Stacy Ritter, one of three county commissioners who spoke at the protest, told the crowd, “Mayor Naugle speaks for one very small person: himself.”
Naugle had lured reporters to a press conference earlier that day by saying he would make a brief speech “including an apology.” At the event he noted that Broward leads the nation in new AIDS cases resulting from men having sex with men and suggested that the county reconsider whether to continue welcoming gay tourists.
Then he made good on his promise to reporters: “I want to apologize to the children and parents of our community for not being aware of the problem…. I apologize for not bringing this forward earlier. Maybe some lives could have been saved.”
People at the rally said Naugle’s outrageous comments have united the community.
Lifelong resident Lori Parrish, the county property appraiser, said, “On behalf of the public officials in Broward County, we apologize for him not being man enough to do so.”
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07.24.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:56 pm by pikapp44
Dozens of Washington State gay and lesbian couples lined up to register as domestic partners Monday as a new law went into effect.
The secretary of state’s office registered the first couple shortly after opening its doors at 8 a.m.
Couples that register as domestic partners get enhanced rights, including hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and the ability to inherit in the absence of a will. They won’t get all the rights that traditionally married couples have, though, and the state’s registry does not confer as many rights as civil unions offer to gay couples in other states.
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07.20.07
Posted in Gay Portal at 12:23 pm by pikapp44
Artist Cheryl Turner got her start working at Disney World. When she was 18 years old, she packed up her Volks Wagon Bug, left her home in Oklahoma City, and headed straight to Orlando. The siren call of Mickey Mouse attracted her to take a chance and follow her dreams.
“The park had just opened,” she explains.
Now, over 20 years later, Turner has gone from creating Disney scenes to painting sexy 1930s lesbian bar scenes.
“Femme Femme Femme,” Turner’s solo show, sponsored by ArtsUnited, is on display at Stork’s in Wilton Manors all this month.
Turner, 53, started off as a portrait painter at Disney World. While working there, she attended community college. Turner then went on to become a sculptor at the park. It was there that not only her career blossomed but also her love life. She met her partner, Dawn Rosendahl, at Disney World, and the couple have been together 20 years now.
Turner continued working for Disney for many years. She went on to become a set designer and prop master. She was also part of the art direction team. Her prop work can be seen at the Swiss Family Tree House in the Magic Kingdom, GM test track and Norway Pavilion at Epcot as well as throughout Animal Kingdom.
“I spent most of my life working at Disney,” she says.
Turner and her partner left Disney in the mid-1990s to start their own scenic design and production business. They did work for Disney and other local businesses.
“We did everything from backdrops, fiberglass trees and scale models,” she explains. “I still did consulting for Disney in a creative capacity.”
At that point, Turner was doing mostly three-dimensional sculptures. She didn’t try her hand at painting until 2000. First, she created her “Deco Moon” series, which featured male figures in slightly open robes against the background of a full moon.
The series will be part of an exhibit of her work that will be at Stonewall Library & Archives in October.
Her “Femme Femme Femme” series, currently on display at Stork’s, shows her love of the 1930s.
“I was always into the 1930s and being able to depict swanky characters,” she says. “And the nostalgic theme just reinforces the fact that gays and lesbians have always been around.”
She says that she is inspired by the time of speakeasys and underground bars. In fact, most of the “Femme Femme Femme” pieces feature bar scenes.
“In 1930s, [bars were] where everything from gay and lesbian life was happening,” Turner explains. “It was where we met when coming out, socialized, got our hearts broken — everything. The same can be said for 2007.”
Turner says that she identifies with the characters she paints.
“I am fascinated by bartenders and the roles they play and how they interact with patrons,” she says. “I know what it’s like to go into a bar alone, terrified, running into an ex-girlfriend for the first time or meeting someone. I try to express some of those emotions.”
Turner says that her work features faces that she is familiar with and a lot of things she has experienced.
“They create themselves,” she says.
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Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 12:20 pm by pikapp44
Gov. Jon S. Corzine sent a letter Friday to United Parcel Service of America urging the shipping giant to respect New Jersey’s civil unions law and offer gay employees the same benefits for their partners that married workers get.
The company is one of many that gay rights advocates say is not treating gay employees and their partners the same as married employees and their spouses despite a state law requiring employers to do so.
UPS has said the New Jersey law does not apply to its union employees because the company’s employee benefits are governed by federal law.
Corzine said the company should change its policies anyway.
“Surely, as a company with a long-standing commitment to its employees and the community, UPS would not want to make its employees and their families face these difficult choices based on the subtleties of the interaction of federal and state law,” the governor wrote.
UPS does provide full benefits for partners of gay administrative employees who are not covered by union contracts. It also provides the full benefits in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriages are legally recognized.
Lambda Legal, a gay advocacy law organization, initiated a legal process to try to force UPS to offer the benefits to couples in New Jersey on behalf of two couples.
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07.12.07
Posted in Advocate Articles at 3:02 pm by pikapp44
President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general faces a contentious confirmation hearing because of his writings about homosexuality and health. In advance of the Senate hearing on Thursday, gay rights groups, the American Public Health Association, and 35 members of the House were lining up in opposition to Dr. James W. Holsinger’s nomination.
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07.10.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 7:16 am by pikapp44
United Parcel Service has denied health care coverage to civil union partners in New Jersey, according to Newark’s local newspaper The Star-Ledger. Although the company offers equal benefits to married couples in Massachusetts, whether straight or gay, it denies coverage to partners in New Jersey civil unions because state law does not call them “spouses.”
“This is a problem the legislature created,” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the New Jersey gay rights group Garden State Equality, told The Star-Ledger. “Civil unions are never in our lifetime going to be respected by employers like marriage.”
But many companies, including UPS, offer benefit plans governed by federal law, which recognizes marriage only as a union between a man and a woman. These companies have the option to deny benefits to partners in other relationships.
Many state activists are calling for a resolution. “We’ve heard from many legislators that this is something they want to deal with in 2008,” Goldstein told The Star-Ledger. “They know it’s a disaster. In the real world, civil unions are to marriage what artificial sweetener is to sugar. It’s not the same thing, and it leaves a bad aftertaste.”
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07.05.07
Posted in Advocate Articles at 2:26 pm by pikapp44
The case involves a former worker who claims he was fired by Ted Doudak, president of Riva Jewelry Manufacturing, after coming out.
John Fairchild, 58, claims in a civil rights lawsuit that he was fired the day after he said at work that he is gay and his daughter is a lesbian.
The lawsuit alleges that Doudak called gays and lesbians “repulsive” and that he regularly quoted biblical passages at work.
During a pretrial hearing before a master rather than a judge, called discovery, Doudak refused to answer questions by Fairchild’s lawyer about the allegations claiming his views are constitutionally protected religious beliefs.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead A Queens jewelry manufacturer may appeal to the state’s highest court after a judge ordered him to testify whether he thinks gays are repulsive and doomed to eternal damnation.
The case involves a former worker who claims he was fired by Ted Doudak, president of Riva Jewelry Manufacturing, after coming out.
John Fairchild, 58, claims in a civil rights lawsuit that he was fired the day after he said at work that he is gay and his daughter is a lesbian.
The lawsuit alleges that Doudak called gays and lesbians “repulsive” and that he regularly quoted biblical passages at work.
During a pretrial hearing before a master rather than a judge, called discovery, Doudak refused to answer questions by Fairchild’s lawyer about the allegations claiming his views are constitutionally protected religious beliefs.
William Kaiser, Fairchild’s attorney, objected and went to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead.
Edmead ordered Doudak to answer Kaiser’s questions.
She ruled that no one can use their right to religious freedom “as a cloak for acts of discrimination.
In an interview with the New York Daily News Kaiser said that “a lot of discrimination against homosexuals has a religious motivation.”
Kaiser said that the ruling means: “People who hold those views have to know they can’t act on them with regard to employment.”
Doudak’s attorney, Todd Krakower, said the ruling may be appealed, saying that it could set a dangerous precedent.
“You’re attacking perceived religious affiliation in an attempt to make a claim,” Krakower told the Daily News. “He’s trying to prove a case through religious affiliation, and that’s improper.”
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07.02.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 12:20 pm by pikapp44
By a surprisingly bipartisan vote of 224–200, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed an amendment banning the use of federal funds to support Washington, D.C.’s local domestic-partner registry.
The White House warned Wednesday that President Bush would veto this year’s routine appropriations bill for the District of Columbia if it did not include such an amendment, a response to the district’s strengthening of its same-sex partner benefits last year.
Officials said the vote will have little practical effect because the city uses local funds for the partner registry, The Washington Post reported.
But gay activists deplored the move, with Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese calling the veto threat “a new low” in “antigay zeal.”
The district, though it gets most of its revenue from local taxes, also receives federal funding through Congress, making it more vulnerable than other cities to shifts in the national political winds.
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