04.29.09

U.S. House passes “hate crime” bill that Bush opposed

Posted in D's Thoughts at 4:55 pm by pikapp44

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved an expansion of federal “hate crime” laws — an effort that former Republican President George W. Bush had opposed.

On a vote of 249-175, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill backed by the new Democratic White House to broaden such laws by classifying as “hate crimes” those attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability.

The current law, enacted four decades ago, limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to assaults based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The bill would lift a requirement that a victim had to be attacked while engaged in a federally protected activity, like attending school, for it to be a federal hate crime.

“Hate crimes motivated by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and identity or disability not only injure individual victims, but also terrorize entire segments of our population and tear at our nation’s social fabric,” Hoyer said.

Bush had helped stop such a bill in the last Congress, arguing existing state and federal laws were adequate. But President Barack Obama asked Congress to send it to him to sign into law.

04.28.09

Influencing the LGBT Angle of President Obama’s Inauguration Coverage

Posted in D's Thoughts at 4:15 pm by pikapp44

GLAAD views President Obama as an opportunity to transform the national dialogue on LGBT lives and issues and is working to continue elevating LGBT voices in the media and increase visibility.

04.13.09

Hacker Claims Credit For Amazon’s Gay-Themed Book ‘Glitch’

Posted in D's Thoughts at 4:46 pm by pikapp44

A hacker now claims he was behind the Amazon.com “glitch” that caused hundreds of gay- and lesbian-themed books to lose their sales ranks over the weekend. The hacker, who identifies himself only as “Weev,” posted a confession of sorts within a LiveJournal discussion group Monday morning

The Amazon incident resulted in books ranging from Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain to James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room being labeled as “adult” titles and thereby having their sales ranks removed. Amazon’s sales ranks indicate how well a product is selling on the site. A stronger score can lead to better placement within in-site searches and best-seller lists.

The issue was first observed by author Mark R. Probst, who discovered that his own work — a gay romance novel called The Filly — was among the items affected. A Twitter campaign soon followed under the heading “#amazonfail,” and petitions and even calls for a boycott arrived shortly thereafter.

A Hacker’s Story

“Weev” says he was able to spark the sales rank strippings by exploiting an Amazon.com feature for reporting inappropriate content. A small number of reports on any given title would cause it to lose its ranking, he says — so he created a script to find all gay- and lesbian-themed books, then worked with owners of some (unnamed) popular Web sites to send in scores of complaints.

“They put … invisible iFrame(s) in their Web sites to refer people to the complaint URLs, which caused huge numbers of visitors to report gay and lesbian items as inappropriate without their knowledge,” he writes.

The inappropriate content reporting feature no longer appears to be present on Amazon.com book pages. “Weev” claims the option was removed from the site on Sunday, following his attack.

“Weev,” incidentally, was profiled in a 2008 story about online “trolling” in The New York Times . The story discusses his reported connections to various attacks on LiveJournal as well as on cell phones and credit ratings.

Amazon’s Stance

Amazon has yet to discuss exactly what led to the gay- and lesbian-themed book sales rank removals. Spokespeople from the company have gone on the record calling the issue a “glitch” and promising it would be repaired. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has also indicated that it “reached out” to Amazon and received the same message.

“They indicate this was an error, so we expect to start seeing evidence of its correction immediately, and any loss of visibility of gay-themed books as a result of this error will be made right,” GLAAD president Neil Giuliano told The Wall Street Journal .

An Amazon representative was not immediately available to comment or provide any further detail for this story.

Update: Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener responded via e-mail shortly after this story’s publication. He initially described the issue as “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error.” When asked specifically whether Amazon had any stance on the hacker’s claims of involvement, he responded only by stating that it was “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error by *Amazon*” (his emphasis). Herdener did point out that the effects were not limited to gay- and lesbian-themed titles: Nearly 60,000 products were impacted, he says, including titles within the site’s health and mind & body sections. The errors, Herdener indicates, are being corrected as quickly as possible.

04.10.09

Rhode Island Gov. Joins Antigay Group

Posted in D's Thoughts at 12:50 pm by pikapp44

The Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage has two new members: the governor of Rhode Island and his wife.

As debate over granting same-sex marriage rights ramps up in Rhode Island — making it potentially the fourth New England state to recognize marriage equality — Gov. Donald Carcieri and his wife, Sue, announced on Wednesday that they are joining the antigay organization.

“In Massachusetts it was the court. In Vermont it was the legislature. I believe it should be done with citizens. Let them decide,” Carcieri said in a news conference.

Rhode Island lawmakers were eyeing a bill in February that would grant marriages to gay and lesbian couples.

The organization used the governor’s announcement as the launching point for a new media campaign. The group angered many with a new ad campaign that launched this week, featuring fake doctors and church attendants discuss how new advances in gay rights will take away their “freedom” and make it impossible for them to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

04.09.09

Gay Men Injured in So. Florida Robbery

Posted in D's Thoughts at 3:46 pm by pikapp44

Two gay men were seriously injured in separate attacks by the same group of assailants on Monday in South Florida, police say. One man was left in a coma and the other sustained a serious head injury. Police continue to hunt for suspects in the assaults.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office says that Craig Cohen, 47, and David Villanova Jr., 27, were robbed and beaten by the same group of attackers just hours apart early Monday morning. Cohen remains in a coma at the local hospital where Villanova was also treated for his head wound; Villanova was discharged on Wednesday.

Authorities say that Cohen was attacked in the Oakland Park area. It is unclear whether Villanova was attacked in Oakland Park or Fort Lauderdale because his story has changed, perhaps due to the head injury.

Despite the sexual orientation of the victims, investigators have not labeled the attacks hate crimes, as the only known motive at this time is robbery.

04.07.09

Same-sex Marriage Legalized in Vermont

Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:39 pm by pikapp44

Following tense and emotional proceedings on the legislative floor, the Vermont house voted, 100-49, at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, to override Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of same-sex marriage legislation.

04.03.09

John Berry’s Unanimously Confirmed as director of the Office of Personnel Management

Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:40 pm by pikapp44

Berry is the first openly gay person to take the helm of the very federal agency that was once responsible for firing people because of their homosexuality in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. OPM, as it is known in Beltway-speak, essentially serves as the human resources department for the government’s 1.9 million employees.

Berry was looking forward to transitioning into his new job and said he was honored by the Senate’s show of support for his nomination.

“It’s something one always hopes for,” he said of the unanimous vote, “and I hope I can live up to their faith and confidence in me in this position. I’m very excited — it’s the end of one long process and the beginning of another.”

Asked about his priorities in his new role, Berry said, “My focus for the long term is going to be re-energizing our civil service practices so that we can become the best in the world. My hope is that we can become a model in each and every one of the categories in human resources management.”

Berry noted that one of the pieces to that puzzle was equal treatment for all federal employees. Among other benefits afforded to heterosexual workers, LGBT people employed by the government currently cannot enroll same-sex partners on their health insurance plans.

“I will do my best to ensure that our policies are inclusive and fair for all,” Berry said. “That is something that I believe will produce benefit not only for LGBT people, but essentially for every community of interest, whether it be disability, African-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos — all the communities that need to be represented at fairer levels in our government.

“We need to draw upon the strength and diversity of our nation,” he continued, “and we need to treat and accord fairly each and every one of them with benefits, and training, and with promotional opportunities that are second to none. I will strive to accomplish that for all Americans.”

Berry will take his oath and step into his new role on Monday, April 13. He said he plans to invite Frank Kameny — a gay rights icon who was fired by the federal government for his sexual orientation in 1957 — to his formal swearing-in ceremony, which has yet to be scheduled.

Iowa Court Says Yes to Marriage Equality

Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:37 pm by pikapp44

The Iowa supreme court ruled unanimously this morning that gays and lesbians have the right to marry, making it the first Midwestern state to rule in favor of marriage equality.

04.02.09

Wanda Sykes Gets Fox Talk Show

Posted in D's Thoughts at 2:28 pm by pikapp44

Wanda Sykes is slated to host a new Saturday night show on Fox.

“I’m married, so this was a great excuse to get out of the house on a Saturday night,” Sykes said in a press release.

The hour-long show will be closer in format to HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, which assembles a panel of media figures to discuss current events, than the typical late-night talker, according to Broadcasting & Cable. It will premiere either this fall or January 2010.

Sykes’s show would replace the longtime sketch show Mad TV, which was recently canceled. Currently the network does not run late-night talk shows during the week like its rivals NBC, ABC, and CBS.

04.01.09

Sweden Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Posted in D's Thoughts at 12:08 pm by pikapp44

Sweden became the seventh country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide after a six-hour debate on Wednesday among parliament members.

All but one of the seven parties in the parliament, ruled by a center-right coalition, backed the legislation, which garnered a 261 to 22 vote, and 16 abstentions, according to the Associated Press.

Gender-neutral marriage licenses will begin to be issued starting May 1, replacing a civil union option that has been offered since 1995. Religious institutions will not be compelled to perform ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. A majority of bishops in the Church of Sweden said that churches should not be allowed the task of handling legal registrations of marriages.

The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Canada, and South Africa already allow same-sex marriage.

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