02.26.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 5:58 pm by pikapp44
The estate of Ric Weiland, a high school classmate of Microsoft Corp. founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen and one of the first five people to work at the software giant, has left $65 million to gay rights and HIV/AIDS organizations.
The bequests were announced Sunday by the Pride Foundation of Seattle, where Weiland was a board member for several years. The foundation called it the largest single bequest ever given to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender causes.
Gates and Allen hired Weiland in 1975, the year they founded Microsoft. He worked as a project leader for the Microsoft Works word processing and spreadsheet software, and was a lead programmer and developer for the company’s BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces. He left Microsoft in 1988.
Weiland donated tens of millions to various organizations — from gay rights groups to environmental and education organizations — before he died in 2006. He committed suicide at age 53 after a long battle with depression, and survivors include his partner, Mike Schaefer.
The $65 million is among bequests totaling about $160 million — the bulk of Weiland’s estate — to various charities and Stanford University, his undergraduate alma mater, according to an estimate provided by the Pride Foundation.
In the latest bequest, the Pride Foundation said Weiland’s estate had established a fund at the foundation that would give $46 million over the next eight years to 10 national gay rights and HIV/AIDS groups, including Lambda Legal; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
His estate also bequeathed $19 million directly to the Pride Foundation for scholarships and grants supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the Pacific Northwest.
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02.25.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 7:13 pm by pikapp44
Cynthia Wade won an Oscar last night for her short documentary, Freeheld, about the 2006 struggle of New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester’s struggle to transfer her pension to her domestic partner during the final months of her life.
Hester, who worked as a detective on the force for 25 years, took on the locally elected Ocean County Freeholders as she battled cancer to give the financial security of her pension to her partner, Stacie Andree, a right automatically afforded to heterosexual married couples. The film is a look at the LGBT community’s effort to face down bigotry interwoven with the touching journey of a couple coming to terms with the end of their time together.
“It was Lt. Laurel Hester’s dying wish that her fight against discrimination would make a difference for all the same-sex couples across the country that face discrimination every single day — discrimination that I don’t face as a married a woman,” Wade, who directed the film, said during her emotional acceptance speech. Wade also thanked her husband for taking care of their children and holding down a full-time job while she worked on the film.
Producer Vanessa Roth added, “And to all our supporters and our families who believed that even a 38-minute movie could change minds and lives, and to our children who remind us what’s really important. And to Stacie, who is here tonight, who’s really an auto mechanic by day but a hero in life and always did what was right.”
Freeheld has been awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Awards at Outfest, Newfest, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
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02.21.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 12:25 pm by pikapp44
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, the shamelessly self-promoting “ex-gay” therapist, has stepped up his holy war against gay people.
This week, he organized a pack of fundamentalist quacks to file a formal written complaint with the American Counseling Association. Throckmorton’s crew is upset because they believe the ACA is inhibiting their ability to destroy the mental health of gay and lesbian people in the name of religion. They also believe that they have the special right as fundamentalists to use bizarre techniques and ignore normal therapy guidelines.
What is so morally distasteful and ethically disgraceful about Throckmorton is that he is taking this measure without offering a shred of evidence that his shame-based therapy model works. What chutzpah! How can he credibly complain to the ACA without offering multiple “success” stories by people other than those who get paid to say they have gone from gay to straight?
Indeed, the ACA should launch a full-scale investigation against the good doctor. He works at little Grove City College, a fundamentalist school in a rural Western Pennsylvania town of merely 8,000 people. The truth is, you probably could not find 250 farmers, no less gay people in need of ex-gay therapy in this neck of the woods. To no ones surprise, this brain-twisting blowhard has yet to produce on-record accounts out of his large pool of supposed clients. Clearly, he is either exaggerating the number of clients or his therapy is a monumental failure.
With such a paltry and embarrassing record, why is Throckmorton attacking the ACA? The reason is simple: Throckmorton and his cohorts act more like ministers than mental health professionals. Instead of ethical counselors who just happen to be Christian, they are politically motivated fundamentalists who can’t separate church and couch. This is the same type of backwards, “intelligent” design-promoting crowd that wears lab coats, yet disdains science and stealthily tries to slip their oddball theories into the mainstream.
Conspicuously absent in the letter to the ACA are examples of how these “therapists” supposedly help their clients. They are coy about their reliance on controversial and unconventional methods. Ex-gay therapists or ministers routinely endorse exorcisms and tell clients that they may have demons in their bodies. They sometimes instruct clients to wear rubber bands on their wrists and snap them whenever they find a person physically attractive. Other times, “touch therapy” is employed, where the counselor caresses (sometimes abusively) a client sitting on his or her lap.
Finally, those who wrote the letter arrogantly suggested that they represent Christianity. They are but a few misguided sects of the religion - and ones that give the faith a bad name. These therapists would be infinitely more helpful if they would explain to suffering clients that many theologians disagree with their rigid worldview.
Attorneys from the right wing Alliance Defense Fund also sent a letter to the ACA, in an attempt to bully the organization. But, all the high-priced lobbying and lawyering in the world can’t hide the growing army of ex-gay counseling victims. The ACA would do well to listen to these survivors and then throw the right wing letter in the trash - where it can be reunited with the outlandish theories and screwy techniques that constitute so-called “ex-gay” therapy.
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02.20.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 7:52 pm by pikapp44
The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute on Tuesday announced the formation of the Presidential Appointments Project, a nonpartisan effort intended to increase the number of LGBT professionals qualified to accept appointed positions in the next presidential administration.
“Our goal is to make sure all Americans have an equal voice in their government,” Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the institute, said in a press release. “Through public service, our community demonstrates a commitment to making our country a better place for all its citizens and for every kind of family.”
The project will make it easier for the next president to consider talented LGBT people, according to Ambassador James Hormel, who became the first openly gay ambassador when he was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999.
“We also need to say to the next president, ‘We’re ready to serve and we’re ready to lead,’” Hormel said. “The next administration must know that we are concerned about being included, determined to contribute our talents, skills, and insights, and eager to participate in the hard work of governing our country.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the National Stonewall Democrats will work with the institute on the project. Potential appointees can submit an application at www.glli.org/presidential.
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02.19.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:01 pm by pikapp44
A commission established to study same-sex civil unions in New Jersey has found in its first report that civil unions create a ‘’second-class status” for gay couples, rather than giving them equality.
The report stops short of recommending that the state allow same-sex marriage. But it does find that gay couples in Massachusetts, the only state that now allows same-sex marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that those in New Jersey do.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the initial report, which was scheduled to be made public Tuesday, the first anniversary of the state’s first civil unions.
State lawmakers made New Jersey the third state to offer civil unions with a law adopted in 2006 in reaction to a state supreme court ruling that year that found gay couples were entitled to the same legal protections as married couples.
The civil union law sought to give gay couples those benefits, but not the title of marriage. As a part of the same law, the review commission was created to look into whether it was working.
Roman Catholic churches around the state have been planning special prayers on marriage for Sunday. A major aim is to promote marriage as being between only a man and a woman.
A conservative Princeton group, the National Organization for Marriage, has aired radio commercials that say allowing gay marriage would undermine some religious teachings that homosexuality is wrong.
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02.17.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:33 pm by pikapp44
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama begin making their case to win over the 800 superdelegates — 21 of them LGBT — who may decide the Democratic presidential nominee.
Of the nearly 800 superdelegates, 21 are LGBT, 12 of whom have declared their support for Clinton, two for Obama, and seven uncommitted.
LGBT Superdelegates
(Source: National Stonewall Democrats)
Members of the U.S. Congress:
–Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Declared for Clinton
–Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA)
Declared for Clinton
Members of the Democratic National Committee:
–Jeremy Bernard (CA – At Large Member)
Declared for Obama
–Hon. Raymond Buckley (NH – Chair of the NH Democratic Party)
Undeclared
–Tonio Burgos (NJ)
Declared for Clinton
–Hon. David Cicilline* (RI – Vice Chair of Democratic Mayors Conference)
Undeclared
–Frank Dixon (OR)
Undeclared
–Emily Giske (NY)
Declared for Clinton
–Eric Kleinfeld (DC – At Large Member)
Declared for Clinton
–Hon. Sue Lovell (TX)
Declared for Clinton
–Hon. Carol Migden (CA)
Undeclared
–Hon. Heather Mizeur (MD)
Declared for Clinton
–Maria Chapel Nadal* (MO – At Large Member)
Undeclared
–John Perez (CA)
Declared for Clinton
–Jason Rae (WI)
Undeclared
–Jeffrey Richardson (DC – Vice Chair of DC Democratic State Committee)
Declared for Obama
–Mirian Saez (CA – At Large Member)
Declared for Clinton
–Garry Shay (CA)
Declared for Clinton
–Rick Stafford (MN)
Declared for Clinton
–Andrew Tobias (Treasurer of the DNC)
Undeclared – Will Remain Undeclared
–Randi Weingarten* (NY – At Large Member)
Declared for Clinton
*Not a member of the DNC LGBT Americans Caucus
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02.16.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 10:59 am by pikapp44
The Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages agreed to accept a marriage application from a lesbian couple in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday. Sharon Dane and Elaine Crump, who both hold dual citizenship in Australia and the United Kingdom, went to the registry office on Valentine’s Day and refused to leave unless their application was accepted, according to Australian Marriage Equality.
Administrators initially said that Australia’s Marriage Act prevented them from accepting the document, but they eventually accepted the application.
A Notice of Intended Marriage must be lodged with the Registry at least one month and one day prior to the date you wish to marry. The document is then valid for 18 months from the date of registry.
”We were prepared for a stony reception but were quite pleasantly surprised,” Crump said in a statement. “The staff appeared extremely empathetic that they couldn’t treat us like other couples who had turned up to the Registry on Valentine’s Day.”
Registry development officer Colin Wood said that if the Marriage Act were overturned the form would be valid. The couple would not be required to file a new form.
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02.14.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 7:19 pm by pikapp44
Republican lawmakers on Monday proposed asking voters in November to amend the Arizona Constitution to ban same-sex marriage in the state, which was the first to turn down such a measure.
The proposal was backed by 16 of 30 state senators, and an identical proposal was introduced in the House. Both chambers would have to approve the measure in a vote for it to be included on the ballot.
Under the amendment, “only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” The proposal comes after Arizona voters narrowly rejected a similar measure in November 2006.
The previous measure included the same definition but also contained wording that was interpreted as prohibiting government recognition of civil unions or domestic partnerships. Seven other states approved amendments that day.
Opponents of the 2006 measure in Arizona focused much of their campaign on the additional wording’s reach. A leading backer of both measures said the new one should be considered a “consensus measure” because it is intended solely to bar recognition of same-sex marriage.
Arizona already has a state law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. That law withstood a 2003 court challenge, but supporters of an amendment said changing the Constitution would provide a strong legal shield.
The ballot measure proposal comes as a state commission prepares to review rule changes proposed by the administration of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano that would provide health care and other employee benefits to the domestic partners of state government employees and retirees, no matter their gender.
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02.12.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:03 pm by pikapp44
A kennel owner in Stockholm who refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian was found guilty of discrimination by the capital’s court of appeals on Monday. The kennel owner, Annette Sjoeholm, was fined for $3,100 for “discrimination in the form of harassment,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The ruling upheld a lower court’s decision from 2006. Smila Bergstroem contacted Sjoeholm to purchase a puppy she had advertised, but when she mentioned that she lived with another woman, the kennel owner refused to sell the dog. According to the report, Sjoeholm, 51, told Bergstroem that she did not trust gays and that she had read that transvestites sexually abused animals.
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02.11.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:48 pm by pikapp44
James Dobson, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical Christian leaders, backed Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid Thursday night, giving the former Arkansas governor a long-sought endorsement as the Republican field narrowed to a two-man race.
“The remaining candidate for whom I could vote is Governor Huckabee,” Dobson said. “His unwavering positions on the social issues, notably the institution of marriage, the importance of faith and the sanctity of human life, resonate deeply with me and with many others.
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