08.08.07
Posted in Gay Rights at 2:47 pm by pikapp44
The gay-rights movement reaches a milestone Thursday when its agenda is the subject of a televised Democratic presidential forum. Yet many activists — craving bolder support for same-sex couples — view the unprecedented event with mixed emotions.
Though pleased that all the candidates of a major party are courting their votes and endorsing the bulk of their political wish-list, they are frustrated that none of the front-runners is calling for legalization of gay marriage.
The forum, to be held in Los Angeles, is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group that has become increasingly influential in Democratic politics, and by Logo, the gay-oriented cable channel that will provide a live telecast and Internet simulcast. Every Democratic candidate except Joe Biden and Chris Dodd plans to participate.
Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese will serve as a panelist, along with singer Melissa Etheridge and Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart.
“I hope we can get genuinely heartfelt answers,” said Solmonese, who wants the leading candidates to explain why they remain wary of gay marriage.
Organizers say the forum marks the first time that major presidential candidates will appear on TV specifically to address gay issues.
“Simply seeing the candidates step on a stage to speak to a national gay television audience may be as moving as anything they say,” said Logo’s president, Brian Graden.
Logo, available in about 27 million homes, offered to hold a second forum for Republican candidates, but the GOP front-runners — less supportive of gay-rights initiatives than the Democrats — showed no interest, said Logo general manager Lisa Sherman.
The Democrats will appear sequentially at 15-minute intervals during the two-hour forum, never sharing the stage with one another.
All of them support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, favor repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays from serving openly in the military and support civil unions that would extend marriage-like rights to same-sex couples.
But thus far, only two longshots — Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel — have endorsed nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage, which a majority of Americans oppose.
“No viable mainstream contender for president is going to support gay marriage in this election cycle,” said Ethan Geto, an adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton on gay-rights issues. “I hope that’s going to change in the next couple of elections.”
Geto suggested that Clinton’s hesitancy on same-sex marriage stemmed from her religious upbringing. Yet he also described her as a passionate supporter of other gay-rights causes who is willing to raise those issues even before non-gay audiences.
One of Clinton’s chief rivals, John Edwards, has acknowledged wrestling with his stance on gay marriage.
“I feel enormous conflict about it,” he said in a televised debate in July. “This is a very, very difficult issue for me.”
He noted that his wife, Elizabeth, broke ranks with him in June and publicly endorsed same-sex marriage.
The third Democratic front-runner, Sen. Barack Obama, belongs to the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far.
Many gays and lesbians have submitted questions they would like posed at the forum; Charlene Strong of Seattle said she’d like to be there in person.
Her longtime partner, Kathryn Fleming, died in December after being trapped by floodwaters, and Strong was initially barred from the hospital room because she was not considered immediate family.
“I’d like the candidates to spell it out — what would you do to be sure that doesn’t happen,” Strong said. “How do you get to full equality?”
Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer and executive director of Freedom to Marry, said the good news — in his view — is that all the Democratic candidates support fairness for same-sex couples.
“The bad news is they haven’t yet grasped that equality in marriage is how you achieve that fairness,” Wolfson added. “There is no substitute. They wouldn’t trade their marriage for a civil union. Why should gay Americans?”
Wolfson said he was frustrated by the candidates’ sometimes awkward answers regarding same-sex marriage.
“Americans would respect someone who leads, rather than someone who ducks and evades,” he said.
Another activist, Kate Kendell of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said she was unsure to what extent the candidates’ hesitancy reflected deep-set beliefs as opposed to political calculations.
“Either way, it leaves lesbian and gay couples in the position of being publicly regarded as an inferior kind of relationship,” she said.
However, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of two openly gay members of Congress, said he understood the candidates’ caution.
“It’s not wrong for people trying to become president to take political considerations into account,” Frank said. “I don’t want a bunch of martyrs on my side.”
Among the Republicans, none of the candidates favor repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and only former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has supported limited legal recognition for same-sex couples.
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08.07.07
Posted in Advocate Articles at 2:49 pm by pikapp44
Homophobia and controversy will be served with our daily cup of coffee on Friday when Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mayor Jim Naugle fills in for Russ Morley on popular radio show Mitchell & Morley in the Morning.
A press release from local AM talk-radio station WFTL says it is opening its doors to Naugle, who recently stirred up controversy by proposing automatically self-cleaning restrooms for Fort Lauderdale for the express purpose of deterring men from using them for “homosexual activity.” When he announced a press conference to “apologize,” he directed his apology to his constituents for not providing a timelier response to the “problem of men having sex in public restrooms.”
According to the press release, Naugle refuses to refer to homosexuals as gay because they aren’t gay, they’re “unhappy.”
Naugle, a Democrat, was elected mayor in 1991.
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08.03.07
Posted in Advocate Articles at 3:54 pm by pikapp44
Out lesbian Miranda Greer says a man beat her with a beer bottle at a Jackson, Tenn., nightclub after questioning her about her sexuality, according to local newspaper The Jackson Sun. The attack left her partially blind in one eye and may have caused minor brain damage, she has told police.
Although the attack happened early July 15 at the popular nightclub Tequila Joe’s, 24-year-old Greer did not report the incident until last week.
According to the Sun, Greer says the man approached her after he saw her dancing with a male friend. The man assumed she was a gay male from her appearance. Using a homophobic slur, he told her to leave the nightclub. Greer told him she was a woman and a lesbian, upon which the man punched her in the face.
The man then used the bottom of a beer bottle to repeatedly jab her in the left eye before breaking the bottle over the back of her head, she told the police.
Greer says she was not concerned about the attack until she lost sight in her left eye for a few days. She now says she has a blind spot on the left side of that eye, reports the Sun. Greer is scheduled to undergo an magnetic resonance imaging to assess possible brain damage.
The man who assaulted Greer has not been located
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08.02.07
Posted in Gay Portal, Gay Rights at 4:16 pm by pikapp44
Sixteen of the nation’s most powerful gay leaders on Thursday called for the Broward and Fort Lauderdale commissions to condemn ”recent anti-gay comments” of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle.
”We are writing to support UNITE Fort Lauderdale’s request that you promptly pass a resolution condemning Mayor Naugle’s insulting, hurtful and untrue comments and reaffirming Fort Lauderdale’s welcome of and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people,” wrote the activists, including the heads of GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans.
”While we know that some of you have made individual statements rejecting the mayor’s comments and said that he does not speak for you, the reality is that because the mayor made his defamatory comments in his official capacity, it is up to you to officially and formally respond on behalf of the people of Fort Lauderdale,” the wrote. “Otherwise, your collective silence may be taken by others to mean that his comments actually do reflect the views of your city, not just the mayor’s own personal and deplorable prejudices.”
Thursday afternoon, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida joined the other groups.”The mayor has a right to engage in free speech and express his prejudices, but others also have that same free speech right to condemn his narrow-mindedness,” said Howard Simon, the ACLU’s executive director.
A message requesting comment was left for Naugle Thursday afternoon at City Hall. He didn’t call back. The mayor recently told The Miami Herald that he never cared about making people angry: “I speak and don’t worry about the political consequences.”
Broward County Mayor Josephus Eggelletion Jr. said he would not support a resolution condemning Naugle. Eggelletion said that although he might not agree with Naugle’s comments, he doesn’t want to interfere his with ability to express them.
”That comment may not be the most appropriate thing to say, but he has the right to say it,” Eggelletion said.
Last month, Naugle proposed that Fort Lauderdale spend $250,000 on a single-occupancy toilet for the beach to cut down on men having sex with each other in public bathrooms. Naugle says the problem is rampant; the city reports that since 2005, there have been two arrests for sexual activity in a public restroom.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and one of the 16 letter signers, sent a follow-up e-mail Wednesday night to The Herald:
”One issue that hasn’t received much play — and is, frankly, more egregious than everything else — is [Naugle's] misrepresentation that Broward had the highest number of new [male-to-male] HIV cases last year in the nation — which led him questioning the convention and visitors bureau marketing to gay tourists,” wrote Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “This is — to me — even more egregious than the toilet idiocy.”
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08.01.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 5:13 pm by pikapp44
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) is reporting that Admiral Michael Mullen, President Bush’s nominee to succeed General Peter Pace as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was questioned about the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel during a Senate hearing Tuesday.
Mullen said that while he would continue to implement the policy and dismiss gay soldiers, he added, “I really think it is for the American people to come forward, really through this body, to both debate that policy and make changes, if that’s appropriate.” Mullen indicated that he would like Congress “to make its own decisions” with respect to considering a repeal of the ban. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, ignited controversy in March when he referred to gay sex as “immoral.”
Just prior to his nomination as Chairman, SLDN says Mullen told The Brookings Institution in Washington, “If it’s time to revisit that policy… the American people ought to raise that issue and we’ll have the debate. As a member of the Joint Chiefs and obviously the head of one of the services, I will contribute to that and give my best military advice.
“Admiral Mullen’s remarks are a welcome change of pace among military leadership, where there has long been an adversity to encouraging debate on opening the services to lesbian and gay patriots,” said Sharra E. Greer, director of law and policy for SLDN. “As Senator Collins rightly pointed out, there is growing concern among the national security establishment that the loss of talented gay troops is having a detrimental impact on our armed forces. Admiral Mullen should be applauded for his willingness to take part in a national conversation about that issue, and for his open-minded approach to working with Congress as they consider the future of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
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