01.29.09
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 1:18 pm by pikapp44
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced Wednesday that its president, Neil Giuliano, will step down later this year to pursue “personal interests” and complete a book about his personal and professional life.
Giuliano has been president of GLAAD for 3-1/2 years. Prior to his work with GLAAD, Giuliano was mayor of Tempe, Ariz., and was a university administrator and faculty associate at Arizona State University.
“I have informed the national board of directors of my decision to step down as president later this year and look forward to a successful and smooth transition of leadership for GLAAD,” Giuliano said in a statement released by the organization. “It’s been an honor and privilege to work professionally in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality for the last 3-1/2years. The views of the American people on LGBT issues are clearly moving in the right direction, toward supporting full equality, and it has been a great experience to serve on the front lines, leading an amazing organization at such a historical time in the movement.”
GLAAD reported in a press release that under Giuliano’s watch, the nonprofit’s annual budget increased from $7.5 million to $11 million. Giuliano has been influential in orchestrating projects including outreach to gay youths and faith communities and 2007’s acquisition of the Sundance Film Festival’s Queer Lounge.
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01.21.09
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 3:11 pm by pikapp44
On Tuesday nonprofit organization GetToKnowUsFirst.org rolled out a series of commercials featuring gay and lesbian families, with the message “Marriage promotes families. Support marriage equality.”
The commercials, which were filmed after California’s passage of Proposition 8, were scheduled to air in 42 of the state’s 58 counties during coverage of the Presidential Inauguration. A Los Angeles ABC affiliate declined to air the ads, saying they were “too controversial.”
KABC TV was the only station that refused to sell the ad space, rejecting the group’s money and claiming that the ad is “too controversial to air during the inauguration, since many families will be watching.”
But GettoKnowUsFirst.org managed to get the ad on the air in every other market, during highly watched morning shows including Good Morning America, Today, and Despierta America.
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01.12.09
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 7:14 pm by pikapp44
Openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson has been asked by Obama’s Inaugural Committee to deliver the invocation at the inauguration’s opening ceremony, which is being held Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial.
Robinson, whose endorsement of Obama before the New Hampshire primary was considered a big coup for the campaign, has been critical of the controversial selection of Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on the National Mall on January 20. When Robinson heard the news about Warren, who has likened being gay to incest and statutory rape, he said “it was like a slap in the face.”
But after the invitation was extended to him, Robinson told New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor that his inclusion in the opening event would be incredibly affirming to gay people.
“It’s important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way,” Robinson said. “Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority, or, in our case, a sexual minority — just seeing someone like you up front matters.”
A spokesman for the inaugural committee told the Monitor that Robinson was given the opportunity to participate in the opening ceremony because of his contribution to the religious community and his efforts on behalf of Obama during the campaign. Robinson also revealed recently that President-elect Obama sought out his counsel and reflections on what it was like to be “a first.”
LGBT leaders were quick to trumpet the addition to the ceremony. “Bishop Robinson models what prayer should be — spiritual reflection put into action for justice,” said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese. “It is encouraging that the president-elect has chosen this spiritual hero for all Americans to lead the nation in prayer at the Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert.”
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12.23.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 4:48 pm by pikapp44
Rudolf Brazda, a 95-year-old German citizen and the last known gay survivor of the Holocaust, has definitively broken his silence on his experience at the Buchenwald camp. In a new interview in the French gay magazine Têtu, Brazda speaks in detail for the first time since he made provisional remarks at the June inauguration of a Berlin memorial to gay victims of the Nazis.
“The way Nazis treated the ‘pink triangles’ is unspeakable,” Brazda told Têtu, referring to the emblem gays were forced to wear to signify their homosexuality. “They had absolutely no mercy.”
The “pink triangles” not only had to suffer the ill treatment of the Nazis but also had to endure the homophobia of other prisoners. In the documentary Paragraph 175, which takes its name from the German criminal code provision regarding homosexuality, Pierre Seel, the only Frenchman to have publicly testified about his imprisonment for being gay, explains that “the weakest people in the camps were the homosexuals; they were at the very bottom.” Seel died in 2005.
Before Brazda first spoke in June, the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) did extensive research to authenticate and certify his testimony. He may not be the only survivor still alive, though, according to LVSD spokesman, Alexander Zinn. “No one ever invested the time and the money to try and find all those who survived,” Zinn told Têtu. It’s estimated that 75,000 gays were deported by the Nazis.
While other survivors of the camps were celebrated at the end of the war, gay survivors usually had to remain silent about their experiences because homosexuality was still illegal in many European countries (such as France, where it was not decriminalized until 1982). “Before, no one cared about this tragedy,” Brazda told Têtu when asked why he didn’t speak out earlier.
After he was freed from Buchenwald, Brazda moved to France and built a house, where he lived for 35 years with his partner, who died in 2002.
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12.01.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 7:22 pm by pikapp44
Monday, December 1, marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, AIDS educators and health professionals the world over are looking forward to a new direction and renewed dedication in fighting the world epidemic
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10.28.08
Posted in Gay Portal, Gay Rights at 2:38 pm by pikapp44
More than 429 Florida Leaders Have Already Endorsed Amendment 2
See Names and Pictures including Governor Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Site “Yes2Marriage.org: http://www.yes2marriage.org/about-us/endorsements/
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Posted in 365 Gay, Gay Portal at 12:31 pm by pikapp44
Aetna has become the first health benefits company in the U.S. to link its online provider directory - DocFind- to the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association’s online database of more than 1,200 health care providers. The database includes primary care providers, specialists, therapists, and dentists who welcome LGBT patients.
In addition, Aetna has awarded GLMA a $50,000 grant as the diamond sponsor of GLMA’s 26th Annual Conference scheduled for Oct. 22-25 in Seattle. The conference will feature presentations and workshops on HIV/AIDS; lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual health; substance abuse; aging; families and relationships; and legal issues.
Joel Ginsberg, GLMA’s executive director, said he hopes to see other insurance companies follow Aetna’s lead by linking to the database.
“This is a valuable tool that allows LGBT individuals to find LGBT-friendly health care providers whom they can trust,” said Ginsberg.
“All patients must feel comfortable speaking candidly with their health care providers so that the care delivered is appropriate and effective, and patients can take greater control of their health and well-being,” said Troyen Brennan, M.D., Aetna’s chief medical officer.
“Aetna and the GLMA share a similar goal of eliminating disparities in health care, including unequal health care access and outcomes that critically challenge the American health care system today.”
Openness between patients and their health care providers can be an issue for the LGBT community and can impact their quality of care. A study released in July by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed that men who disclose having sex with men to their physicians were twice as likely as those who did not to have been tested for HIV (63 percent vs. 36 percent).
The study also revealed in a survey of 452 New York City men who have sex with other men that 39 percent had not disclosed their sexual orientation to their doctors.
Any provider who is willing to affirm their commitment to providing a welcoming environment for LGBT patients and clients is invited to join the GLMA Provider Directory, the association said. GLMA also has resources available for providers on how to meet the unique health care needs of LGBT individuals, which includes creating an environment where patients can feel comfortable talking openly.
Aetna said it will alert its participating health care providers of the link between the DocFind tool and GLMA’s database to raise additional awareness of GLMA among providers.
Aetna has earned the top rating of 100 percent in the 2009 Corporate Equality Index by the Human Rights Campaign. This is the seventh consecutive year that Aetna has received a perfect score for its service to LGBT employees and consumers.
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10.20.08
Posted in E's Thoughts, Gay Portal, WIOD 610 Radio at 8:55 am by pikapp44
I heard this discussed on the radio last night. I know it’s not a story about gays, but it’s so important to everyone and gays could do a lot to save the horses by calling their Senators and Reps in Congress telling them to put an end to the rounding up and euthanasia. The BLM is using our tax dollars to kill the horses.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is rounding up healthy wild horses planning to euthanize them. The BLM wants the horses off grazing land used for cows.
Wild horse advocates fear the free-roaming legends of the West might vanish from the ranges within five years if the federal government continues to round them up, as they’ve done in Red Rock Canyon.
At a news conference Monday, they said they will petition Congress to force several federal agencies to stop most roundups and return horses now in some holding facilities to historic ranges.
They also don’t want “excess” horses euthanized, as Bureau of Land Management officials have suggested might be necessary.
“How can we let our government destroy the last of what we have?” said Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, wrapping up the weekend’s Wild Horse and Burro Summit in Las Vegas.
Any hope for keeping viable herds in Clark County have already been quashed by emergency roundups by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service in recent years. No viable herds now exist near the Las Vegas Valley.
About 35 horses roam the south end of Red Rock Canyon, about a dozen are left on Mount Charleston, and no horses or burros are in the Muddy Mountains or Gold Butte, based on estimates by the National Wild Horse Association.
Sussman, speaking to reporters at a corral near the Western Trails Equestrian Park, said it takes about 150 horses to maintain a genetically viable herd and 75 percent of the nation’s herds have fewer than that.
She said the herds are rapidly declining and many will be zeroed out in five years, even though BLM officials disagree.
“I think that’s an erroneous statement,” said Doran Sanchez, communications chief for the BLM in Nevada.
Barbara Wolin, a Las Vegas wild horse enthusiast who was one of about 75 summit participants, said the BLM should put horses back in herd areas that are being used for ranching and other interests (cow grazing).
“I just want to see the horses handled properly and given their just due. They need their place on the range,” she said.
“I don’t think they’ve made the effort to do what they need to bring some relief for these horses,” Wolin said about the BLM.
Laurie Howard, who has served on the boards of a number of wild horse advocacy groups, brought her pinto mustang, Coco, to Monday’s news event. She wants Congress to intervene so that wild horses won’t be euthanized.
“We’re only hoping that the BLM will listen to our suggestions,” she said.
Howard said BLM Deputy Director Henri Bisson seemed to be leaning the way of advocates who called for a halt to the roundups and understood their concerns for wanting to return gelded horses to historic herd areas and pursue better birth-control methods for mares.
“He was very receptive to everything, but he’s on his way out,” Howard said, noting that Bisson plans to retire early next year.
“One of the things we’re concerned about is that (BLM) wild horse specialists are trained properly and that the management is trained properly” and that they understand that family bonds among horses shouldn’t be broken, Howard said.
Sanchez said even if there are gathers next year, the horses that are left have a 20 percent reproduction rate. In a few years there would be too many horses for the ranges to support, especially in Nevada, where wild fires have taken a toll on forage and water is scarce.
“It’s imperative to maintain the overall health of the range and not only for wild horses and burros but also for permitted livestock and wildlife,” he said in a telephone interview.
Sussman said the BLM’s estimates of 29,500 wild horses in 10 Western states is off by as many as 15,000.
Sanchez said, however, the BLM’s count is accurate.
In Nevada, the BLM estimates about 16,000 are in the state, mostly in central and Northern Nevada. Those in Southern Nevada represent 2.5 percent of the nation’s wild horses.
Meanwhile, federal holding facilities are at capacity, adoption outlets are saturated and the BLM is considering exterminating those that are declared excess. The BLM’s budget for wild horses is not expected to increase and bureau officials say they are left with no choice but euthanasia to curb holding costs.
Nearly 74,000 horses were taken off the nation’s ranges between 2001 and 2007. Some 44,000 have been adopted, leaving about 30,000 in holding facilities.
“This is a force that has to be reckoned with,” Sussman said about the BLM’s roundup practices. “They have not been an agency we can rely on.”
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10.14.08
Posted in 365 Gay, Gay Portal at 2:47 pm by pikapp44
Openly gay former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell will host a live, hour-long special on NBC on Nov. 26 called Rosie’s Variety Show, it was announced in The Hollywood Reporter today.
The show — a 2009 version of classic variety shows like The Carol Burnett Show or The Ed Sullivan Show — will feature celebrity guests, musical acts, comedy skits and prizes for the audience and TV viewers.
O’Donnell became famous with the success of her long-running NBC talk show The Rosie O’Donnell Show (1996-2002), which ended its run the same year she came out as a lesbian.
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09.24.08
Posted in 365 Gay, Gay Portal at 7:56 am by pikapp44
A woman whose dogs viciously attacked and killed her neighbor in the hallway of their apartment building seven years ago was sentenced Monday to 15 years to life in prison.
Marjorie Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2001 mauling death of Dianne Whipple, but a judge later reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her in 2002 to a four-year prison term.
But the California Supreme Court last year said the trial judge was wrong and sent the case back. Last month, Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard reinstated the murder conviction, for which Knoller was sentenced Monday.
The case is the California’s first murder conviction connected to a dog mauling, prosecutors say.
The case turned into a tabloid sensation because of the viciousness of the attack - the dogs tore all of Whipple’s clothing from her body and left her with more than 70 bites - and the seemingly cavalier attitudes of Knoller and her law partner and husband, Robert Noel, who blamed Whipple for the attack.
The couple also said they were keeping the canines on behalf of a white supremacist accused of running an attack dog ring from his state prison cell. The couple eventually adopted the prisoner, Paul “Cornfed” Schneider, as their son.
Knoller, who has served three years in prison, will have to serve 12 more years before she can apply for parole.
In denying Knoller’s plea for probation, Woolard noted that Knoller didn’t call 911 or otherwise try to help Whipple during the 10-minute attack. The judge said Knoller knew the dogs were dangerous, ignored numerous warnings to train them and hasn’t expressed remorse for the attack.
“She has blamed the victim and has held her dogs in higher regard than humans,” Woolard said.
Whipple’s partner, Sharon Smith, addressed Knoller before she was led off to jail. Smith called Knoller’s relationship with the two dogs and the prisoner “perverted” and expressed satisfaction with the lengthy prison sentence.
“It is very hard to find forgiveness for someone who doesn’t accept responsibility,” Smith said.
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