08.29.07
Posted in D's Thoughts, Gay Rights at 4:58 pm by pikapp44
Sen. Larry Craig’s “I’m not gay” declaration met with disdain Wednesday from gay activists, many of whom knew for nearly a year — long before his recent arrest — of allegations that the conservative Idaho Republican solicited sex from men in public bathrooms.
They view his case as a prime example of hypocrisy — a man who furtively engaged in same-sex liaisons while consistently opposing gay-rights measures as a politician.
“He may very well not think of himself as being gay, and these are just urges that he has,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “It’s the tragedy of homophobia. People create these walls that separate themselves from who they really are.”
In Washington, some of Craig’s fellow Republican congressmen began calling for his resignation, as did the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest gay GOP group. The White House expressed disappointment in the case while avoiding a statement of support for Craig.
The cumulative weight of the allegations served to convince many conservatives — as well as gay activists — that Craig was being untruthful.
“For most people living in the closet, and particularly for people in power, they dig themselves in so deeply they can’t see a way out,” he said. “When they are found out, their life does come crashing down around them — not because they were gay, because of the way they covered it up.”
The Craig case also raised questions about the phenomenon of male sex in public restrooms — how prevalent is it, and who participates?
The issue has been a source of controversy this summer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Mayor Jim Naugle has drawn fire from gay-rights groups for suggesting that such bathroom sex is a significant problem and briefly proposing installation of automated, single-user toilets.
After reports of Craig’s arrest, police officials around the country gave widely varying accounts of whether public bathroom sex was a serious problem in their areas.
“My sense is that most of the people who engage in bathroom sex are living closeted lives,” Foreman said. “If you’re open, you can hook up on line, in a bar or even through your church.”
William Leap, an anthropology professor at American University, said his research indicated that up to half of those who engage in male bathroom sex would consider themselves heterosexual.
“You’ve got several groups of folks,” he said. “Happily married men with children who enjoy having sex with men every so often, and also self-identified gay men who enjoy the thrill of anonymous sex.”
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08.28.07
Posted in Gay Rights at 11:50 am by pikapp44
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig is a conservative Republican who has voted against gay marriage and opposes hate crimes legislation that would extend special protections to gay and lesbian crime victims.
In the wake of Craig’s guilty plea on misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport, his political future is in question.
The three-term senator, who has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century, is up for re-election next year. He has not said if he will run for a fourth term in 2008 and was expected to announce his plans this fall.
A spokesman, Sidney Smith, was uncertain late Monday if Craig’s guilty plea would affect his re-election plans.
“It’s too early to talk about anything about that,” Smith said.
The married Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he has engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. Craig has denied the assertions, which he calls ridiculous.
During a May 14 interview with the Idaho Statesman, Craig denied ever engaging in any homosexual conduct.
The newspaper played Craig an audiotape of a man who claimed that he and Craig had sex in the Union Station restroom in Washington.
Craig denied the charge, saying, “I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody.
“There’s a very clear bottom line here,” Craig said. “I don’t do that kind of thing. I am not gay, and I never have been.”
“With the pressure on the Republican Party, he could be pressured to resign.
Already Craig has stepped down from a prominent role with Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. He had been one of Romney’s top Senate supporters, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February.
Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport.
On Aug. 8, Craig pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, which includes “offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy conduct.”
According to a Hennepin County, Minnesota, court docket, the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.
The court docket said Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the airport.
Craig said in a statement issued by his office Monday that he was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.
“At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” he said. “I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.”
Last fall, Craig called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he’s had homosexual relationships “completely ridiculous.”
Mike Rogers, who bills himself as a gay activist blogger, published the allegations on his Web site, www.blogactive.com, in October 2006.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an advocacy group, on Monday called Craig a hypocrite.
“What’s up with elected officials like Senator Craig? They stand for so-called family values and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex,” Foreman said.
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08.27.07
Posted in Gay Portal at 2:55 pm by pikapp44
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.
Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.
“Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize,” Tulchin writes in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History. “And Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures.”
For example, he found legal contracts from late medieval France that referred to the term “affrèrement,” roughly translated as brotherment. Similar contracts existed elsewhere in Mediterranean Europe, Tulchin said.
In the contract, the “brothers” pledged to live together sharing “un pain, un vin, et une bourse,” (that’s French for one bread, one wine and one purse). The “one purse” referred to the idea that all of the couple’s goods became joint property. Like marriage contracts, the “brotherments” had to be sworn before a notary and witnesses, Tulchin explained.
The same type of legal contract of the time also could provide the foundation for a variety of non-nuclear households, including arrangements in which two or more biological brothers inherited the family home from their parents and would continue to live together, Tulchin said.
But non-relatives also used the contracts. In cases that involved single, unrelated men, Tulchin argues, these contracts provide “considerable evidence that the affrèrés were using affrèrements to formalize same-sex loving relationships.”
The ins-and-outs of the medieval relationships are tricky at best to figure out.
“I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been,” Tulchin said. “It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that.”
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08.23.07
Posted in Gay Rights at 10:41 am by pikapp44
The leaders of Broward County’s tourism industry demanded Thursday that Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle stop his attacks on homosexuality even as he pressed them to change marketing designed to lure gay tourists.
Executives of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau and members of the Tourism Development Council accused Naugle of damaging the reputation they sought to craft in the two decades since the demise of Spring Break. They said while some gay tourists and gay-oriented conventions are reconsidering visiting, Naugle’s comments have others fearful of coming if there is rampant public sex.
“The damage has been done to the destination and we have to get to the business of fixing it,” said Nicki Grossman, executive director of the visitors bureau. “The rhetoric has to stop.”
Naugle, though, disagreed, saying the county faces a health crisis because HIV infections from men having sex with men.
“It’s not always about the money,” he said. “It’s about doing what’s right.”
Naugle asked the visitors bureau to stop listing Club Fort Lauderdale in its gay vacation guide. He characterized the business off Broward Boulevard as a gay bathhouse even though it promotes itself as a gym and spa.
But Grossman said the listing had already been dropped, along with all other business listings, when next year’s publication was designed in March. She said the business had been listed because of gay tourists’ interest in fitness, but said the publication was redesigned to focus on events rather than businesses.
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08.22.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:25 pm by pikapp44
People who sign petitions seeking to put measures repealing two LGBT civil rights laws on next November’s ballot are about to be outed.
A newly formed group is planning to put the names and addresses on a national Web site. The names, once submitted to the state, are public property.
Conservative groups are trying to collect enough names to have the two laws put to voters. They need to collect the signatures of 55,179 registered voters within 90 days of the adjournment of the Legislature. The deadline is in about a month.
One of the laws the groups seek to overturn is a partnership law that grants rights, responsibilities and protections afforded to other Oregon couples and their families currently only available through a marriage contract in Oregon. It would be open to both same and opposite-sex couples.
The other law would amend the state’s non-discrimination laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, public accommodation, education and public services statewide.
The two pieces of legislation were signed into law May 9 by Gov. Ted Kulongoski and are to take effect January 1. If the repeal groups should gather enough signatures to force a vote the laws would be put on hold until after next November’s election.
The groups opposing the laws say that the partnership law violates a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004 that declares marriage as legally valid only between a man and a woman.
They also say the non-discrimination law violates the rights of churches to practice their religion.
Know Thy Neighbor Web sites have previously been used in two states where conservative groups planned constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage.
The first began in 2005 in Massachusetts. As a result a number of names collected were discovered to be fraudulent. The groups calling for an amendment, however, gathered more than enough names to send the issue to the legislature where the issue died earlier this year.
The second was in Florida where conservatives continue to push for a marriage amendment.
The importance of Know Thy Neighbor is it creates a dialogue, KnowThyNeighbor.org director Tom Lang told 365Gay.com from Massachusetts.
“It shows this is us, we’re here. we’re your neighbors,” said Lang. “it’s an opportunity to discuss the issues with our neighbors.
Of the Oregon effort, Lang said final details are being worked out with Gay Rights Watch in Portland.
Oregon’s largest LGBT group, Basic Rights Oregon is not involved, but spokesperson Bryan Boyd said it does not oppose the effort.
“Basic Rights Oregon will remain focused on preparing for the possibility the two ballot measures will go to voters in 2008.”
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08.21.07
Posted in Gay Rights at 4:14 pm by pikapp44
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle stepped up his war of words Tuesday over what he sees as rampant gay sex at public washrooms at the beach.
The outspoken mayor staged a news conference outside Fort Lauderdale City Hall where he was flanked by conservative Christian leaders and declared gay sex had become a major public health crisis in the city.
The mayor began his campaign last month when Naugle claimed that gay sex is rampant in public washrooms on the beach and called for the city to spend a quarter-million dollars on a replacement toilet that he said would end the problem.
The remarks angered the city’s gay community which launched a “flush Naugle” campaign to flood his office email with “virtual toilet paper” and the police department said there had been only one arrest at the toilet on the stretch of beach known for its gay sunbathers.
While Naugle sees a problem, police do not. A police department spokesperson said there have been only two arrests in three years for sex in public washrooms throughout the city.
Earlier this month Naugle announced he would issue an apology, but instead turned it into another broadside against the gay community.
The conservative Democrat said he was apologizing for what he claimed was underestimating the problem and that the county had the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS cases involving men having sex with men in the country.
Naugle then suggested the county tourism office should rethink its ad campaigns that welcome gays to the area.
Tuesday he reiterated his claim the county had become the area with the highest AIDS rate in the country and accused the county health department of suppressing the facts
“I think that the Broward County health people because of their constraints with the Broward County government are interested in being politically correct,” Naugle told reporters. “I think the people who are here are more interested in saving lives.”
Gay and AIDS outreach workers who watched the press conference reacted angrily to the Mayor’s latest pronouncements.
“I am a person living with AIDS and what you are saying is wrong,” Michael Rajnor of the Campaign to End AIDS yelled back at the mayor.
“He should be serving the people. He should be standing up for people. He should be fighting for funds for housing, for substance abuse, for vocational training. Who the hell do you people think you are?”
Members of the group supporting him handed out bumper stickers saying “Mayor Naugle is right.”
“We want the homosexual community to know that we love them and that God loves them also,” the Rev. O’Neal Dozier told the news conference. “But God hates the act of homosexuality.”
Two weeks ago Broward County commissioners passed a statement attacking Naugle but stopped just short of passing a motion to censure him.
Commissioners called the mayor bigoted and said his remarks were despicable, but even had they officially censured him it would have no effect. Although Fort Lauderdale is within the county, as a separate city with its own council the county can exercise no control over the resort town or its politicians.
Fort Lauderdale’s City Commission is on summer recess. When it returns next month it is expected to vote on a censure motion.
The mayor’s anti-gay campaign has raised concerns in Fort Lauderdale’s tourism industry.
Fort Lauderdale ranked No. 6 among gay travelers last year, and accounted for about 11 percent of Broward’s $8.5 billion tourism industry.
So concerned is the tourism industry over the potential fallout the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau is using paid media watchers in New York and Europe to see how far the story is spreading.
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08.17.07
Posted in Gay Portal, Reuters at 7:43 pm by pikapp44
Why should that be so uncomfortable to read? Why is it so difficult to write? Even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood, in 2007?
Griffin, who died of prostate cancer Sunday at 82, stayed in the closet throughout his life. Perhaps he figured it was preferable to remain the object of gossip rather than live openly as “one of them.”
But how tremendously sad it is that a man of Merv’s renown, of his gregarious nature and social dexterity, would feel compelled to endure such a stealthy double life even as the gay community’s clout, and its levels of acceptance and equality, rose steadily from the ashes of ignorance.
What a powerful message Griffin might have sent had he squired his male companions around town rather than Eva Gabor, his longtime good friend and platonic public pal. Imagine the amount of good Merv could have done as a well-respected, hugely successful, beloved and uncloseted gay man in embodying a positive image.
I had more than a passing acquaintance with him, having worked on “The Merv Griffin Show” as a talent coordinator/segment producer in 1985-86 as the show was winding down. Around the office, Merv’s being gay was understood but rarely discussed (and certainly never with him). We knew nothing of his relationships because he guarded his privacy fiercely, and we didn’t pry.
Merv’s secret gay life was widely known throughout showbiz culture, if not the wider America. It gained traction in 1991 when he was targeted in a pair of lawsuits: by “Dance Fever” host Denny Terrio, alleging sexual harassment; and by assistant Brent Plott seeking $200 million in palimony. Both ultimately were dismissed.
Over the past 16 years of his life, however, Griffin deflected the sexuality questions with a quip, determining that his private life remained nobody’s business. He certainly didn’t owe us an explanation, but maybe he owed it to himself to remove the suffocating veil he’d been forced to hide behind throughout his adult life. Then again, Merv carved his niche in the entertainment world at a time when being gay wasn’t OK, when disclosure was unthinkable and the allegation alone could deep-six one’s career.
If you’re Griffin, why would you think a judgmental culture would be any more tolerant as you grew into middle and old age? Even in the capital of entertainment — in a business where homosexuality isn’t exactly a rare phenomenon — it’s still spoken of in hushed tones or, more often, not at all. And Merv’s brush with tabloid scandal no doubt only drove him further into the closet.
While it would seem everything has changed today, little actually has. You can count on the fingers of one hand, or at most two, the number of high-powered stars, executives and public figures who have come out. Those who don’t can’t really be faulted, as rarely do honesty and full disclosure prove a boon to one’s showbiz livelihood.
Nonetheless, the elephant that was his sexual orientation never really stopped following Griffin from room to room. He could duck it for a while, but it would always find him. It’s disheartening that Merv had to die to shake it for good.
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Posted in Advocate Articles at 2:39 pm by pikapp44
Following a wave of bad publicity involving hostility toward gays, Scottsdale, Ariz., leaders met with LGBT leaders on Wednesday.
Scottsdale mayor Mary Manross, Scottsdale police chief Alan Rodbell, and representatives from Equality Arizona, a local gay rights group, announced at a press conference that they will work together to make the city more gay-friendly for residents and tourists.
“Even one crime, especially a hate crime, is one too many for Scottsdale,” Manross said, according to The Arizona Republic. “Our city had the first diversity office in the state, maybe the nation, and we have domestic-partnership benefits for employees. I’m proud of what we’ve done.”
Scottsdale, a posh Phoenix suburb, has recently been witness to two hate crimes against gays, a lawsuit alleging transgender discrimination at a nightclub, and a scuffle over the city declining to proclaim June as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Awareness Month. Manross decided to proclaim June as Human Relations Diversity Observance Month, saying the previous title was “too narrow.”
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08.13.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:05 pm by pikapp44
Halfway through a newly revised manual promoting inclusion for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Judaism’s Reform movement are two short blessings written by a rabbi who was raised Eliza and now goes by Elliot.
The prayers for Jews undergoing sex changes are included in the 500-page second edition of a guide called Kulanu, Hebrew for ”all of us,” published this week by the New York-based Union for Reform Judaism.
The union represents 900 Reform synagogues in North America.
The inclusion of the transgender blessings alongside a liturgy for same-sex union ceremonies and a divorce document for same-sex couples is in keeping with the Reform movement’s tradition of liberal positions on human sexuality.
The largest branch of Judaism in North America, Reform Judaism allows gay and lesbian rabbis and cantors.
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08.09.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 12:25 pm by pikapp44
Gays and lesbians turned out to vote in the 2004 national election at a rate nearly double that of the national electorate in certain cases, according to a study released by San Francisco–based Community Marketing.
Ninety-two percent of eligible gay men and 91% of lesbians cast their ballot in the last presidential election. The number dropped off a bit for the last midterm election: 84% of gays and 78%of lesbians voted in 2006. The study did not mention partisanship voting patterns.
Conversely, the Study of the American Electorate stated that 61% of all eligible Americans turned out for the 2004 election, while 40% voted in 2006.
The figures “demonstrate…that the political parties would be smart to pay attention to the issues that mean the most to gay and lesbian voters,” Tom Roth, president of Community Marketing, said in an article on the Los Angeles Times blog Top of the Ticket. “We have far more at stake than the average voter, and we’re therefore far more engaged in the political process.”
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