Alleged Hate Crime Victim Talks About Incident

A college student who was allegedly “gay bashed” on the campus of Hope College last week was asked by Holland Police to take a lie detector test.
It is alleged that Jason Burns was grabbed, punched, and called slurs outside the library.
"Hey look! There's the faggot that speaks in classes," recalls Burns of the incident.
Burns says he was able to break free and run for his car after being punched a number of times.
"They didn't chase me, but said, 'Yeah. Go ahead and run fag...we'll get you anyways," Burns told 24 Hour News 8.
Burns, a Hope College senior, speaks about homophobia and hate crimes on campus. He decided to go to police after speaking with a Dean and a number of professors. Police have now asked him to take a lie detector test. He initially agreed, but was later advised not to do so.
"I was kinda offended," says Burns of being asked to take a polygraph.
"It suggests they (police) don't believe the persons story," says noted defense attorney Chris Yates of Willey Chamberlain and Yates LLP.
"If you analogize this to rape, for example; if you confront individuals on the front end of investigations, people may not come forward with such allegations," Yates told us.
24 Hour News 8 learned it is actually a crime - a misdemeanor - for a “law enforcement officer” to ask an alleged victim of a sex crime to take a polygraph. But there is no law or rule when it comes to alleged hate crimes.
"If they can discredit you, then they're gonna do so," says Burns.
Burns will graduate with a double major in a few days, and he plans to continue to lecture about hate crimes - something he now has firsthand knowledge of.
Holland Police would not talk to 24 Hour News 8 on camera, but said in a statement:
"It's not a common procedure to ask a victim for a polygraph. We are working on this case assuming the allegations made in this case are true."
Burns said his main focus right now is “graduating from school.”
from WOOD-TV

Thank God For Viagra

Is there any relation between Industrialization with Men’s Health? What we see around is rampant pollution all through, which, we consider as a direct consequence of advancement of rampant industrialization and unholy exploitation of natural resources which God has given to us abundantly. This is everyday affecting Men’s Health.
Take the example of Plastics. It is a product from Petroleum and non bio degradable. Of course, it has many many benefits, but, consider, the pollution it is causing to the environment! Of course, it is recyclable. But studies have proved recycled plastics are even worse!
Most harmful thing about plastics related to Men’s Health is that it reduces Male Sperm count which may inflict to a male person the curse of Impotence. However, studies are still on in this regard.
Also modern day industrialization has caused life of mankind more and more complicated which has a significant biological and psychological effect on Men’s health.
In my opinion, rampant pollution, complex social structure and relationship and all other complexities are the outcomes of unchecked industrial growth which ultimately affect Men’s health as well as his sexual capability.
Along with this, different bad habits, which any person can easily avoid, such as, smoking, alcoholic drinking etc. make Men’s health vulnerable to many disease and sexual dysfunctions. So my suggestion for a person will be to immediately get rid of these bad habits of smoking and drinking etc.
Now let us concentrate our attention on sexual dysfunction of a male person which has become an enormous problem in the society.
Most rampant among the problems of sexual dysfunction is the erectile dysfunction for male person leading him into impotence. Due to this problem a male person does not get enough and sustained erection causing him unable for sexual intercourse and thus unable to reproduce.
Studies have proved that to enable strong and continued erection during sexual intercourse, a male person need more blood flow through his penis and in the erectile dysfunction condition; the penis does not get sufficient blood flow through it.
Sildenafil Citrate, whose brand name is Viagra, brought to the market by Pfizer and approved by FDA, is the most suitable oral treatment of male erectile dysfunction condition.
Viagra is a kind of PDE-5 enzyme inhibitor medicine which, if taken one hour before sex, can increase blood flow through penis causing strong and continued erection.
Male person with erectile dysfunction, now, has got a solution in Viagra against his problem.
At this age of Internet on line Viagra information are abundant in the thousands of Web sites. We are providing here a few extracts from them.
.Viagra pills are prescription drugs with some side effects which some times may become fatal. So its use should be closely monitored by a doctor.
It is available in the market in 25mg, 50 mg and 100mg. The dose will be determined by the doctor prescribing it.
It is to be taken once a day and one hour before sex and to be taken in empty stomach.
It will only be used for erectile dysfunction if other conditions of body permit.
Most common side effects are headache facial flushing, and upset stomach. Temporary visionary effects e.g. blurred vision and some times sensitiveness to light.
Men’s health in this complicated world, particularly his sexual functions and activities are most important part of his esteem. Don’t ignore it if it is hampered by sexual dysfunction. Solutions are right there.
from Live Articles

82nd Airborne Paratrooper Pleads Guilty To Pornography

FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA - An Army paratrooper pleaded guilty Thursday to engaging in sex acts on a military-themed gay pornographic Web site and a judge sentenced him to prison for about 2 1/2 months and a bad conduct discharge when the time is served.
Judge Col. Grant S. Jaquith accepted the pleas to three charges, including a new one involving drug use, then recessed the court while he deliberated a sentencing recommendation for Pfc. Richard T. Ashley.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ashley, 21, was demoted to private and will lose two-thirds of his pay, the judge said. Ashley was one of seven members of the 82nd Airborne Division charged with appearing on the site.
"I've embarrassed the entire Army, my country and most of all, dishonored God," Ashley said during the sentencing hearing, at which he also apologized to his unit's former commander.
Jaquith accepted guilty pleas to charges of sodomy, conduct detrimental to the Army and the unit and drug use, which involved the use of a prescription drug during the weekend before Valentine's Day.
Ashley pleaded not guilty to pandering, and prosecutors withdrew the charge.
During the 90-minute questioning by the judge, Ashley calmly and politely described in graphic detail what he did in two videos. He said he received $500 for the first, which involved a woman and several soldiers from his unit, and $2,000 for the second, which included only him and another soldier.
Each video lasted about 120 minutes.
Jaquith asked him repeatedly why he was guilty of the charges.
"Because soldiers having sex on camera for money - homosexual, bisexual - made the unit look bad, sir, and the public saw it on the news," he said. "It lowered the esteem of the public toward the military."
His military lawyer and civilian lawyer sat with him, and his family sat behind him in the courtroom as the judge questioned him about his plea.
But Ashley's calm demeanor disintegrated when his grandmother testified.
"I don't condone anything, but I just can't believe anything we're hearing is my grandson because we've never seen anything like this out of him," said Barbara Sue Hale, whose hometown was not available.
His mother, Tamara Chambers, described how her son struggled in school, then eventually dropped out. He decided to join the Army after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she said.
"I wasn't good at much, but I wanted to fight for my country," Ashley said, describing his difficulty in high school.
Before the hearing began, Ashley's lawyers had asked Jaquith to dismiss the charges, saying his unit commander had been unduly influenced by his boss, Lt. Col. Thomas Hibert, to punish the soldiers.
Capt. James Barlow disputed that in his testimony.
"I had already pretty much made up my mind, based on what I had seen, what I wanted to do," he said.
Jaquith sentenced Ashley to 90 days in prison, but gave him 15 days credit after the defense criticized comments made about the case by military public affairs officers.
In some cases, "the words chosen were unclear and unfortunate, but they were chosen in the public interest," Jaquith said.
Ashley, Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen were charged with pandering, sodomy and conduct detrimental to the Army and the unit. Mitten and Mullen, who also faces adultery charges, have pleaded not guilty.
The 82nd Airborne said four other soldiers, whose names were not released, received nonjudicial punishment for appearing on the Web site. They were reduced in rank to private, forfeited half a month's pay for two months, performed extra work and were restricted to Fort Bragg for 45 days.
The Army has recommended that all seven be discharged.
The 15,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne are among the Army's most elite soldiers, having volunteered to serve in a unit that trains to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.
The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service." Service members who violate the policy are removed from the military.
from The Charlotte Observer

Students Sent Home For Refusing To Take Off T-Shirts

ITHACH, NEW YORK - John Swanhart didn't suspect his school day would be different from any other Wednesday. But that turned out to be anything but the case.
The 17-year-old senior at Charles O. Dickerson High School was one of a number of students asked to leave school Wednesday for wearing shirts with messages countering the National Day of Silence.
An estimated 500,000 students at 4,000 schools nationwide participated in the Day of Silence — sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network — to bring attention to the pervasive problem of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bullying and harassment in schools.
Cosimo Tangorra, superintendent of Trumansburg schools, said he supported the decision of high school officials to send the students home.
“It seems to me kids are being discriminating,” Tangorra said. “It makes people uncomfortable. It's like if someone was wearing a white supremacy T-shirt.”
Tangorra said he had been contacted by high school Principal Paula Hurley earlier in the school day about problems that could potentially arise from the shirts, but by 4 p.m. had not received any phone calls from parents or students.
“Living in a free society, people can't feel threatened to live any way they want to be,” Tangorra said. “School districts need to be one of the safest, if not the safest, place for students to expand their thinking.”
Swanhart and some friends decided to print “Straight is Great” and “Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve” on T-shirts and wear them to school in response to the National Day of Silence.
Swanhart said he and some friends made about 20 shirts to express their own views.
“I was sitting in first-period class,” Swanhart said. “The other teachers said something to me about (the shirt), and we left it alone. Then, 15 to 20 minutes later, while I was doing homework ... I was asked to go to the office.”
At 8:15 a.m., Hurley called Swanhart to her office and asked him to take off the T-shirt. Administrators then called Swanhart's mother, Judith Russell, a cafeteria worker at Trumansburg Elementary School.
“She said this is Mrs. Hurley, and I have John in my office,” Russell said. “She said take it off, or get suspended. I asked her where it says he gets suspended. She read from the student handbook, and then ... (he was) sent home for the day.”
Swanhart said administrators explained to him that if he wanted to have a day to express his views then he would have to follow guidelines.
“They said if I wanted to have a straight day, we'd have to get a group together and get an adviser in advance,” he said. “They told me about Matthew Shepard, and that's why there's a Day of Silence.”
Shepard was a college student who was killed Oct. 12, 1998 in Colorado after he was tied to a fence, beaten and pistol whipped.
Swanhart refused to remove the T-shirt and administrators asked him to leave school at 9:45 a.m.
According to parents and students in the school district, students participating in the Day of Silence had to sign up before the event and obey a ground rule of speaking when addressed by an adult.
“They said I was trying to cause friction between the two groups,” Swanhart said. He missed classes both at the high school and courses he was taking at the Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
Swanhart wasn't the only student told to leave school property Wednesday. Estimates from other students who opted to continue wearing the shirts range from 20 to 30 more students sent home. Phone calls to Hurley for comment were not returned.
“At 1:15 p.m., (Hurley) came up and said the shirt was inappropriate,” said Matt McConnell, a 16-year-old junior. “She said I could get it back at 2:45 p.m. They said (those participating in the Day of Silence) had only one day a year to do this, so we shouldn't be doing what we're doing.”
McConnell said that as students were asked to leave, the shirts changed hands and other students wore the shirts until they, too, were asked to leave.
“It was just basically, I wasn't doing anything by it,” he said. “I'm straight, and I don't care if anyone knows.”
from The Ithaca

Vatican Working On Document On Condom Use And AIDS

ROME - The Vatican is expected to permit the use of condoms for AIDS patients, according to an interview with a high-ranking cardinal published Sunday.
The Vatican is currently working on a document on the subject that would be published soon, Vatican 'Health Minister' Javier Lozano Baragan said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.
The Roman Catholic Church has up till now strictly prohibited the use of condoms even in marriage for AIDS patients and HIV-infected people.
Observers in Rome suggest that a Curial cardinal such as Baragan could only make a statement on a such a sensitive theme when it had been first agreed upon with Pope Benedict XVI.
'It is a very difficult and delicate topic,' said Baragan, considered a close confidant of the pope. 'It was Benedict who demanded an examination of this special question of the use of condoms by AIDS patients.'
However the cardinal did not provide details on the Vatican's new rules.
The interview appears just days after an influential Italian cardinal suggested that it was permissible for people to use condoms to protect themselves from the HIV virus.
In an interview published on Friday by the Italian weekly L'Espresso, 79-year-old Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said 'certainly the use of the prophylactic can constitute, in certain situations, the lesser evil.'
'As far as the special case in which one of the spouses is affected by AIDS, they are obliged to protect the other partner,' Martini said.
Asked what the Church should do about the thousands of unclaimed fertilized eggs that have been produced via artificial insemination and which are now being kept in refrigerators, Martini said he was not opposed to single women being implanted embryos 'that would otherwise be destined to perish.'
Martini also said he was open to the possibility of single parents adopting children - so long as they are able to guarantee his or her well-being and - and noted that Italy's law on abortion had at least succeeded in reducing the number of illegal terminations of pregnancies.
from The Amherst Times

Saturday Night Live Salutes Animated Genius

Each season, "Saturday Night Live'' throws together a couple of "best-of'' clip shows, paying tribute to some prominent cast member (John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Gilda Radner) or a regular guest host (Tom Hanks, Steve Martin).
This Saturday, though, "SNL'' will pay homage to someone you've probably never heard of: Robert Smigel, who has been a staff writer for the late night show off and on since 1985 and is the creator of "Saturday TV Funhouse,'' a staple of the series since 1996.
"I guess I'm getting this special because they've finally given up on me leaving,'' says Smigel, 46, with considerable bemusement. "Or maybe it's a cue like, `Well, if we give him a special, maybe he'll leave.' ''
In fact, Smigel's sly and sharply satirical 'toons have been the one consistently funny feature of "SNL'' in recent seasons.
This week's show will be a 90-minute sampler of his animated work: the parodies of Disney and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such recurring 'toons as "The X-Presidents,'' and ``Fun With Real Audio,'' in which actual recordings of politicians and celebrities are matched with outrageous visuals.
There also will be new material from Smigel's most famous cartoon creation, "Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo,'' voiced by Steve Carell ("The Office'') and Stephen Colbert ("The Colbert Report'').
Smigel started on "SNL'' as a sketch writer for real people, often working with Dana Carvey and Conan O'Brien. He still works with O'Brien on "Late Night,'' most notably as the man behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the cigar-chewing puppet who has offended everyone from the people of Quebec to Eminem (in a famously nasty confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards).
Smigel wrote some well-remembered skits for the "SNL'' cast and hosts over the years, including "Trekkies (Get a Life!),'' which gave William Shatner a chance to ridicule obsessive "Star Trek'' fans. Smigel moved on to be the first head writer for "Late Night'' and then became executive producer of the short-lived "Dana Carvey Show'' on ABC, which is where he began to work with animation.
The Ambiguously Gay Duo, a spoof of all the speculation about the real relationship between Batman and Robin, originated on the Carvey show. "Getting it through ABC prime time was, well, interesting,'' Smigel recalls. "The show was following `Home Improvement,' and they were very, very careful about what they were letting on.''
For one thing, he says, ABC executives "insisted on knowing all the colors'' being used in the cartoon, including the color of Ace and Gary's penis-shaped car.
"So I wrote down, `Peach.' And it got through,'' says Smigel. "So now, whenever I have problems with the censors, I write down, `Peach.' ''
"SNL'' executive producer Lorne Michaels and NBC have given Smigel a fair amount of leeway with his cartoons over the years.
"I have to decide myself pretty much'' what goes into one of the animated shorts, says Smigel. "It's very different from when I was purely a staff writer there. As a staff writer, you can write anything you want on Tuesday night, but it's completely up to Lorne and the head writers as to what gets on.
"In a way, it's great to have the freedom to put anything you want on the air. But on the flip side, I agonize over my ideas a lot more because I know chances are it's going to be on television and it's going to have my name on it, and I don't want it to suck. So now I drive myself crazy.''
The resulting satire is often outrageous, just a bit tamer in some cases than what Trey Parker and Matt Stone get away with on "South Park.''
In one holiday cartoon, Smigel did a sendup of the classic "Peanuts'' Christmas special in which Charlie Brown and the gang decorated a homeless person instead of a tree. In 2001's "Narrator That Ruined Christmas'' -- one of Smigel's favorites -- a cartoon snowman refused to tell the story of Rudolph because he was too distraught over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Earlier this month, Smigel took a devastating whack at the Disney empire, one of his favorite targets. The bit, which included a wicked parody of "Song of the South'' and Scar from "The Lion King'' as a nasty Disney attorney, was so popular that it quickly was downloaded onto numerous Web sites.
Smigel is still fine-tuning which of his pieces will be part of Saturday's show. "I'm going to try to avoid redundancy,'' he says. "Which is tough, because some of the recurring themes in my cartoons are Disney and genitals and superheroes. So we have to portion them out with restraint.''
But Smigel has his limits.
"I've worked feverishly to avoid connecting `Brokeback Mountain' to the Ambiguously Gay Duo,'' he says. "If I can do anything for the country with this special, it's spare viewers one more `Brokeback Mountain' parody.''
from The Mercury News

Anti-Gay Issue Could Shake Up The Fall Election

CHICAGO,ILLINOIS - Buoyed by signs of deep trouble among its foes, Chicago's Gay Liberation Network held a little party in a North Side bar last week.
"Join us as we celebrate the failure of far-right forces in Illinois to get an anti-gay referendum on the November ballot," their invitation said.
For several months, the Illinois Family Institute has been circulating petitions calling for an advisory referendum item opposing gay marriage that reads: "Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to say, `To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State'?"
Voters have said yes to this idea in 19 out of 19 states in the last eight years. The biggest margin of electoral victory was 72 points (86 percent to 14 percent) in Alabama; the narrowest, 14 points (57 to 43) in Oregon.
But the Illinois Family Institute appeared to be having difficulty getting the 283,000 voter signatures it will need to put it on the ballot in November. The Glen Ellyn-based organization originally set an April 20 deadline for volunteers to send in petitions (they must be filed with the State Board of Elections by May 8), but recently pushed that deadline back 10 days; it also canceled a large rally against gay marriage in Broadview.
"Their campaign of hate didn't take off," said Liberation Network spokesman Bob Schwartz.
Not so fast, said the institute's project director, Dave Smith. Calling the gays' celebration "premature, at best," Smith said the petition drive was extended simply to accommodate thousands of people who want to participate, and his group canceled the Broadview rally simply because "it wasn't the best use of our time."
Smith declined to say how many signatures have been collected but said he has "no doubt" they will get enough.
If so, the referendum question could be a significant electoral wild-card and provide a big boost to independent state Rep. James Meeks, a prospective gubernatorial candidate and Baptist minister who would be the only candidate supporting the referendum item.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka and Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich are opposed to gay marriage, but both also are against amending the state constitution, campaign officials said. An amendment is unnecessary, officials said, because a 10-year-old state law already declares that "a marriage between two individuals of the same sex is contrary to the policy of this state."
But social conservatives are eager to create a constitutional bulwark against "what happened in Massachusetts," Smith said, alluding to the approval of gay marriage by the commonwealth's high court. And they are alarmed by the enactment in January of sweeping laws in Illinois prohibiting discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgendered people.
They are also no doubt alarmed by a recent poll showing a sharp drop in opposition to gay marriage--from 63 percent in 2004 to 51 percent today.
And many polls show public approval for "civil unions," marriagelike legal contracts between homosexual partners--contracts endorsed by both Topinka and Blagojevich that would be forbidden if the Illinois Family Institute's amendment were ever enacted.
In short, the vote on this issue could be very close, and therefore very hard-fought. If it's on the ballot, core voters in both parties are likely to turn out in big numbers.
Social conservatives will be desperate to drop a constitutional anchor against the tide of history, while social liberals will be eager to drill a big hole into the anti-gay-marriage boat.
"I'm anticipating three to four months of outrageous, disgusting anti-gay rhetoric and harassment," said Rick Garcia, head of the gay rights group Equality Illinois that is planning to challenge the institute's petitions and the state's leading gay activist. "As we've seen in other states, these campaigns can be brutal."
Smith said: "The people are simply going to tell the legislature that marriage is for one man and one woman only. This amendment is necessary. They want it."
On one thing, Smith and Garcia agree: The real celebrations will come later.
from The Chicago Tribune / Eric Zorn

Study Assesses How Many Gays Would Marry If Legal

A new study attempts to gauge the percentage of gays and lesbians who have chosen to marry in places where that option is legal, with estimates ranging from as little as 2 percent to more than 16 percent, depending on the location.
A co-author of the report, released Wednesday, said both sides in the gay marriage debate may take heart from the findings.
The Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, which opposes gay marriage, reviewed data from the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Massachusetts, all of which allow same-sex partners to wed.
In each case, the study offered a range of estimates of the percentage of gays who had married, based on varying approximations - from 1 percent to 5 percent - of how many gays were in the general population.
In the Netherlands, where 8,127 same-sex couples married from April 1, 2001, through last December, the study said this represented between 2.6 percent and 6.3 percent of the country's gays and lesbians.
The study estimated that between 2 percent and 5 percent of Belgium's gays and lesbians, and 5.9 percent to 16.7 percent of those in Massachusetts had married. Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts in May 2004, and 7,341 gay and lesbians couples had wed there through last December.
The institute study said calculations for Canada were difficult because the country allowed nonresidents to marry, but it estimated that as many as 14.3 percent of the gays and lesbians in the western province of British Columbia had married.
The report does not draw any major conclusions, saying it is too early to assess long-term trends.
"Whether same-sex marriage will emerge as commonplace or normative among gays and lesbians, or fade as time and novelty passes, cannot yet be determined," it said.
However, Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and co-author of the study, said interpretations of the findings might vary according to one's views on gay marriage.
One faction, she said, might conclude that opposition to gay marriage was an overreaction given that seemingly modest numbers of people were choosing it. Another faction, she said, might look at the same numbers and contend that they did not justify overturning the long-standing concept of marriage as exclusively heterosexual.
"That's why the debate is so contentious," Gallagher said. "In one view, if you treat gay couples any differently, that's akin to racism. There's another view that there's something special about the unions of husbands and wives."
Gary Gates, a specialist in gay demography at the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, was given an advance look at the study. He disagreed with Gallagher's suggestion that relatively few gays and lesbians were opting for marriage.
Looking specifically at the Massachusetts data, and noting the limited time period of 20 months, he contended that a sharply higher percentage of gays and lesbians were deciding marry than heterosexuals of marrying age.
"Numerically, same-sex couples will never comprise a major portion of the married population," Gates said in a telephone interview. "But gay people do seem to be really interested in getting married - it's kind of a compliment to the institution of marriage."
from The Examiner

Kraft Rejects Opposition, Will Still Support Gay Games

NEW YORK - A shareholder proposal to end Kraft Foods' support of the 2006 Gay Games VII was overwhelmingly rejected by the food company and its investors at its annual stockholders' meeting yesterday.
It's a rare occasion when a marketing sponsorship can take the stage at a shareholder meeting. But Kraft's decision to support the eight-day event in Chicago this July with a $25,000 donation rankled Kraft stockholder Dr. Marcella Meyer of Chicago, who proposed in a proxy statement that Kraft "disassociate itself" from the Gay Games themselves and any other future activities supporting homosexual activities and lifestyle.
AIDS cited
Dr. Meyer's proposal, rejected by 99% of stockholders, rested largely on the supposition that numerous studies have linked homosexual activity to sexually transmitted diseases that cause sickness and premature death, especially from AIDS, and that Kraft's support of the games could make it legally liable in the event that a young attendee decides to "experiment with homosexual encounters and later develops a serious, even fatal, illness."
In May of last year, Marc Firestone, Kraft's exec VP-corporate counsel and corporate secretary, sent a memo to Kraft employees reiterating the company's commitment to the event despite protests, voiced most loudly by the American Family Association. In the memo he stated, "Diversity makes us a stronger company and connects us with the diversity that exists among the consumers who buy our products." The company's board and stockholders agreed.
'Well within the scope'
A board recommendation against Dr. Meyer's proposal was based on the idea that the contribution was "well within the scope" of Kraft's overall charitable-giving program, which totaled $85 million in food and financial support last year.
from Advertising Age

Gay Rights are Good Business, No Matter The Politics.

This spring, shareholders at such big companies as ExxonMobil, Ford and American Express are voting on whether gay and lesbian people deserve protection against discrimination in the workplace.
But even as battles over gay rights flare up in the corporate world, there's no doubt about who's winning the war.
More than 80 percent of companies in the Fortune 500 now ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Some 249 of the Fortune 500 offer health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees. That's up from just 28 a decade ago.
Last year, Wal-Mart , America's biggest employer, agreed to support a network for its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) workers, joining such firms as Citigroup, DuPont and IBM. All these trends are moving in one direction - towards more rights for gay and lesbian people.
This is remarkable, given the setbacks that gay rights have taken in the political arena, especially around the issue of gay marriage.
"Corporate America is ahead of government in providing equal treatment for GLBT people because it knows that fairness is good for business," declares Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian civil rights group.
For the past four years, the Human Rights Campaign has ranked big companies on gay rights issues. It looks at non-discrimination policies, domestic partner benefits, advertising in gay media, philanthropy and support for gay employee groups. This year, 101 companies received the highest possible 100 percent rating - up from 56 last year and 13 when the survey was first done in 2002.
These firms aren't just on Wall Street or in Hollywood. For the first time, this year's top performers includes oil and gas companies and Chevron, a chemical company and a defense firm.
That's not to say that the debate over gay issues in business is settled. Shareholder groups that favor gay rights, led by New York City's pension funds and socially responsible investors, filed resolutions this year at more than 20 companies, asking them to expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Most agreed, but some - notably ExxonMobil, the biggest company in America by revenues - oppose the idea.
ExxonMobil says the resolution is unnecessary because it has existing "zero-tolerance" policies that ban "discrimination or harassment for any reason, including sexual orientation."
Gay rights advocates say the policy should be made explicit. Zack Wright, a lawyer with the Pride Foundation, a Seattle nonprofit that supports GLBT causes, says, "What is a gay employee supposed to do if he or she is discriminated against? If it's not written down, there's nothing they can do."
Other companies opposing resolutions that ask them to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation include Leggett & Platt, a diversified manufacturer based in Carthage, Missouri, and Amsouth, a regional bank based in Birmingham, Alabama.
Meredith Benton of Walden Asset Management, which filed with Leggett & Platt, says, "You want to be sure you have access to the best and brightest employees. That is most sucessfully done when you have an inclusive workplace."
Meanwhile, shareholders filed resolutions asking American Express, Bank of America and Ford to consider taking sexual orientation out of their anti-discrimination policies.
Yes, there's a backlash underway. The Amex resolution, which was defeated Monday, says, among other things, that "domestic partner benefit policies pay people who engage in homosexual sex acts, which were illegal in this country for hundreds of years, and have been proscribed by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedism for a thousand years or more."
Interestingly, at Amex, the supporters of the anti-gay resolution could muster only 2 percent of the vote. Backers of gay rights at Exxon last year got 29 percent. This year, Exxon shareholders vote May 31.
Why are more companies embracing gay rights? Among other things, they want to attract gay consumers. Gay purchasing power in the U.S. has been estimated at $641 billion a year by one gay-friendly research firm.
To encourage its 600,000 members to support gay-friendly companies, the Human Rights Campaign has created a "Buying for Equality" guide that puts companies and brands in green, yellow and red categories. So, for example, PepsiCo's Aquafina bottled water gets a green light, while Nestle's Poland Spring gets a stop sign. Best Buy is favored over Circuit City, Banana Republic over L.L. Bean. Even dog foods get rated. (Iams yes, Alpo no.) You can check out the guide at www.hrc.org/buyersguide.
But consumer power cannot explain why defense contractor Raytheon gets a perfect score from the HRC. (Gays are not a big market for cruise missiles.) There, the issue comes down to attracting and engaging workers. No company wants to make any of its people feel uncomfortable or unwanted.
Daryl Herrschaft, director of the HRC's workplace project, says, "To any reasonable business person, the evidence is almost undeniable that this is the right thing to do."
One interesting thing about this quiet revolution is that it's gaining momentum even as as opponents of gay rights push back. Recall that last year both Microsoft and Ford got caught up in gay-rights controversies - a local minister urged Microsoft not to support a non-discrimination law in the Washington state legislature and religious conservatives lobbied Ford to remove its ads from gay publications. In the end, both firms came down on the side of gay rights.
It's not clear whether the Microsoft and Ford executives made cold business calculations or whether they followed their hearts. In the end, it probably doesn't make much difference.
from CNN Money

Christian Rally To Replace Gay Pride Event

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - The first-ever "Not Ashamed Charlotte" rally will unite Christians from different churches to proclaim their faith in the public square, replacing the annual gay pride event usually scheduled for early May in Marshall Park. The Christian rally will be held from 3-4 p.m. May 6 in the park. According to Dr. Michael L. Brown, Director of the Coalition of Conscience and organizer of Not Ashamed Charlotte, the timing of this event is highly significant.
"For the last four years," Brown explains, "on the first Saturday of May, Marshall Park has been will filled with as many as 3,000 gays and lesbians celebrating Charlotte Pride." This gay pride event, marked by public lewdness and obscenity, has drawn protest from various Christian groups. Mayor Pat McCrory has also voiced his displeasure with the Charlotte Pride event being held in a public park. In other cities, similar gay pride events have drawn upwards of 100,000 participants.
"This year," Brown states, "the Charlotte Pride organizers had to delay their event, and we were able to get the park for our rally. So, instead of transvestite dancers simulating sex in the presence of toddlers and little children, we will be proclaiming the goodness of God and the love of Jesus. And instead of vendors advertising hot nudist camps, we will be standing together with our families proclaiming that we are not ashamed of purity and morality and wholesome living."
Brown is careful, however, to add that his organization does not condone hatred or mistreatment of gays and lesbians, explaining, "We are absolutely not intolerant bigots, and we believe that strong moral convictions must go hand in hand with respectful and gracious treatment of all people. So we reach out to homosexual men and women with compassion, but we resist with courage their agenda to reshape America."
from Christian News Wire

Gay Former Cop Suing NYPD

A retired Rossville police officer who says he was told by a former NYPD supervisor that he received an evaluation of less than competent because he is gay is suing the city for discrimination.
In his suit, filed April 17 in Manhattan supreme court, Jay Epstein, 46, accuses the Police Department of consistently denying his requests for overtime, forcing him to work menial jobs usually given to rookies and assigning him to a unit headed by an outcast sergeant who had a discrimination suit of her own pending against the department.
That woman, identified in court papers only as Sgt. Butler, was forced by her NYPD superiors to give Epstein a poor review in 2004 which she felt he did not deserve, the suit alleges.
The main thing about the case is that a supervisor was told that she should come down on him because he was gay, said Steven Morelli, Epstein's attorney.
That's the thing he was really upset about.
Epstein doesn't want to discuss the suit, Morelli said.
Epstein began his career with the NYPD in 1985 and spent most of his years in Brooklyn. He retired from the 68th Precinct last year.
One cop on NYPD Rant -- an Internet message board geared toward the city's police officers -- described Epstein as a very nice, good-natured person who never discussed or displayed his sexual orientation at work.
Epstein was not a member of the Gay Officers Action League.
The suit cites Epstein's job-performance ratings in which he was evaluated by supervisors as competent or better ... often stating he was courteous and follows rules and procedures.
Epstein also received numerous commendations, awards, and letters praising his job performance, court papers noted.
But in January 2004, Sgt. Butler gave Epstein an evaluation of less than competent for the period between December 2002 and December 2003.
Morelli said the sergeant told Epstein that the review had been dictated to her by squad leader Lt. Francis Cole.
When Sgt. Butler voiced her objections, she was told that she would no longer be allowed to evaluate Epstein, court papers stated.
The lawsuit names Lt. Cole and two others, identified only as Administrative Lt. Jimenez and Sgt. Rinaldo, the City of New York and the NYPD as defendants.
Neither the city nor the Police Department would comment on the suit.
According to Morelli, Epstein waited a year after his retirement to file the discrimination suit because the ex-cop wanted all of his pension rights to kick in before he started doing anything.
With the lawsuit filed, the city has a chance to answer the charges, after which a state Supreme Court judge will call in both parties for discovery motions.
When pretrial motions are done, a trial date will be set. Epstein wants a trial by jury.
from Staten Island Advance

Gay Activist Puts $1.5 Million On Colorado TV Ads

DENVER, COLORADO - Colorado software millionaire and homosexual activist Tim Gill yesterday started an unprecedented advertising campaign aimed at promoting his domestic-partnership referendum, even though the initiative has yet to win a slot on November's ballot.
The $1.5 million television buy, easily the most expensive in state history for a ballot initiative this early in the race, stunned political pros and worried the state's traditional-marriage advocates, who have their own ballot measure in the works but a significantly smaller war chest.
The two ads, released yesterday by Coloradans for Fairness and Equality (CFE) -- the action fund backed primarily by Mr. Gill -- began running yesterday and are scheduled to air for the next seven weeks on broadcast and cable stations in every Colorado market.
"They have the money. That's the key. They would only do this if they feel they can draw on nearly unlimited resources," Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said. "In this state's political history, this is entirely new territory."
Rick Ridder, a CFE consultant, confirmed the campaign planned to spend $4 million to $5 million, although some estimates run much higher. He said the ads were aimed at introducing the public to the civil rights issues behind the domestic-partnership initiative.
"It's beginning to set the stage for what domestic partnerships are and what benefits would accrue to same-sex couples," Mr. Ridder said.
Mr. Ciruli said it's a smart strategy.
"Why this is such a good idea is that there's no clutter. There's virtually no political advertising on the air now," he said. "The single most important thing you can do in a campaign is to frame the issue early -- that sets the stage for news reporting to a certain extent, but also for how the voters think about it."
The first ad shows a young professional white man pacing outside a hospital door as a voice says, "You have a responsibility to take care of those you love, but what if you were denied that right?"
In the second spot, a baby wiggles as a voice explains that not all people are created equal. "Because some of us will come into this world without the legal rights to protect and support our future partner and children. ... Why? Because some of us were born gay."
Neither ad mentions the domestic-partnership referendum, which is awaiting final approval in the state legislature. The measure would allow same-sex couples to register with the state as domestic partners and receive many of the same benefits as married couples, including hospital and nursing-home visitation, shared health insurance coverage, and property and inheritance rights.
Carrie Gordon Earll, spokeswoman for Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, called the ads "misleading," saying that anyone can now take legal steps to give their partners the same rights as a husband or wife, such as naming them as medical agents.
"They're trying to pass a law that's much broader than hospital visitation," Ms. Earll said. "They're saying Coloradans are discriminating, and that's not true."
from The Washington Times

GLSEN’s 10th Annual Day Of Silence

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - GLSEN, or the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, today kicks-off the 10th National Day of Silence®, among the largest student-led actions in American history. An estimated 500,000 students at 4,000 schools nationwide are participating in GLSEN’s Day of Silence to peacefully bring attention to the pervasive problem of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) bullying and harassment in schools.
"Today hundreds of thousands of students are taking action and responding to the problem of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment—a problem they see in their hallways and classrooms every day," said GLSEN’s Founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings. "I commend each and every young person today as they tell their truths to their classmates and communities."
GLSEN also today released the findings of its 2005 National School Climate Survey, the only national survey documenting the experiences of LGBT youth in America’s schools, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Results from this fourth biennial report show the truth: that anti-LGBT bullying and harassment continue to be commonplace in our nation’s schools. The results also indicate that student clubs like Gay-Straight Alliances, supportive teachers and faculty and comprehensive anti-bullying policies directly relate to safer schools. For more information about the GLSEN’s 2005 National School Climate Survey, visit www.glsen.org.
"I am taking part in GLSEN’s national Day of Silence because I have seen and experienced the impact of anti-LGBT harassment on my friends and me," said Jessie Liberatore, GLSEN Jump-Start leader and student organizer. "Today, in coordination with hundreds of thousands of students around the country, I am letting my school community know that anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and violence must end."
In addition to observances throughout the day on school campuses across the country, dozens of "Breaking the Silence" community rallies and events are planned to take place at the end of the school day and during the week. Students, parents, teachers and community members come together at the day’s end to share their experiences with guest speakers and members of their local communities. To find out if there is a "Breaking the Silence" event near you, please visit www.dayofsilence.org.
In celebration of GLSEN’s 10th national Day of Silence, a full-page ad featuring a GLSEN student leader appears today in the Washington Post asking parents, community members and policymakers to "lend their voice to the silence".
About the Day of Silence
The Day of Silence, a project of GLSEN in collaboration with the United States Student Association (USSA), is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bias unacceptable in schools by participating in activities to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment – in effect the silencing – experienced by LGBT students and their allies. Across the country last year an estimated 450,000 students in over 3,000 K-12 schools and over 600 colleges took part in the Day of Silence.
About GLSEN
GLSEN, or the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for ALL students. GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. For more information on GLSEN’s educational resources, public policy agenda, research, student organizing programs or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.
from GLSEN

Clinton Stirs Debate With Backing For Mandatory HIV Testing

Bill Clinton may no longer be an elected politician, but the outspoken former US president has stepped into an ethical quagmire by expressing support for the controversial idea of mandatory HIV testing in countries with a high prevalence of infection.
Speaking to a group of journalists in London recently, he endorsed Lesotho's pioneering programme launched last November to offer universal testing, and suggested other countries and companies should launch extensive efforts to diagnose HIV.
His comments come at a time when several countries have raised concerns that although they are scaling up Aids treatment, they are still losing the battle to reduce rates of HIV infection, which are causing widespread economic damage.
For a long time, the idea of widespread diagnosis made little sense in the developing world, where confirmation of HIV was simply a death sentence, with no prospect of treatment. But that has changed significantly since the turn of the millennium.
Malawi, which has significantly increased its HIV treatment in recent months, has toyed with an "opt-out" system to identify infection during patient check-ups unless they specifically refuse.
Kevin de Cock, head of the World Health Organisation's HIV/Aids programme, said he supported such an "opt-out" system, but only on condition that it was voluntary and linked to patients being able to get treatment if found to be HIV positive. "That is a valid type of informed consent," he said. Lesotho's programme does just that in principle, with the aim of providing universal treatment by 2007, although some observers suggest that social pressure may mean voluntary agreement is in practice partly coerced.
Mr Clinton suggested he might support programmes that went still further, explicitly requiring mandatory testing and even compulsory disclosure of positive HIV results to the partners of those found to be infected.
Asked about the ethics of such compulsion, he argued that it could be justified in countries with high infection rates, on condition there was guaranteed diagnosis, treatment and anti-discrimination measures put in place. "In a population with extremely high rates of infection, [mandatory testing] overcomes other reservations," he said, warning of the "social wreckage" devastating poorer countries with widespread HIV incidence.
Cuba launched mandatory programmes for Aids testing and treatment in the 1980s, triggering substantial international criticism at the time, although it appears to have been able to successfully maintain very low rates of HIV infection since.
Its model may attract new interest at a time when the battle against Aids elsewhere remains tough. The latest United Nations figures suggest that despite a sharp rise in international funding, just 1.3m people are currently receiving anti-retroviral treatment for HIV in the developing world, compared with 6.5m estimated to need it.
The Clinton Foundation itself has contributed to an acceleration in treatment by negotiating sharp reductions in the cost of HIV medicines and diagnostic tests in developing countries, as well as launching efforts to strengthen healthcare structures.
However, about 40m people around the world are now living with HIV - the highest number ever, and those newly infected rose last year by another 5m, suggesting that prevention efforts continue to lag behind treatment.
In that context, politicians continue to float more extreme measures. Public officials in the Indian state of Goa became the latest to propose one such initiative - compulsory HIV testing ahead of marriage, for example - although it is unlikely to be implemented.
Richard Coker, a reader at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argues that it is ethically justified for doctors to protect the partner of someone found to be HIV positive by informing them of the diagnosis if their patient refuses.
But he criticises the idea of mandatory testing. "Coercive measures don't work. If you have to launch mandatory programmes, that suggests the person is not persuaded of the benefits and you would have to isolate them or force them into treatment."
He argues that such an approach would be both unethical and counterproductive, since it would probably lead to poor compliance with treatment and discourage people from coming forward for testing.
Many countries in the developing world are still far from achieving any significant coverage of HIV patients with treatment, suggesting it will be a long time before they can justify more aggressive testing programmes backed up with the incentive of drugs.
But as the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations consider how to meet their pledge at last year's Gleneagles summit to try to give HIV treatment to all who need it by 2010, the continuing growth in infection means they will face the still more difficult political and ethical challenges in tackling prevention.
from Financial Times

Gay Rights Group Sues Govenor Over University Funding

FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY - The head of a Kentucky gay-rights group has sued Gov. Ernie Fletcher over his decision to keep $11 million in the state budget for a pharmacy school and scholarships at a private, religiously affiliated college.
Christina Gilgor, executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, asked a Franklin Circuit Court judge Tuesday to prevent the state from giving money to University of the Cumberlands.
The funding of a $10 million building and $1 million in scholarships became an issue after the Baptist college in Williamsburg expelled a student for being gay.
The lawsuit said the state constitution prohibits the use of tax money to support religious institutions or entities that discriminate against citizens.
“Gov. Fletcher has failed to uphold his duty to protect Kentucky citizens and enforce the Kentucky constitution,” Gilgor said.
In opting not to veto the money, Fletcher said Monday that he would seek a court opinion on the constitutionality of the funds before releasing any money.
Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall said Tuesday the governor’s aides were studying the lawsuit to determine whether they could use it as a “vehicle” for their own request, which has not been filed.
“It was always our intent for the courts to decide,” said Hall, adding that a decision is expected later Tuesday.
from The Courier-Journal

Senator Says He Got Death Threat Over Gay Marriage Vote

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA - Law enforcement investigators are looking into a letter received by state Sen. Satveer Chaudhary that criticized his vote against a gay marriage ballot measure and had a bullet hole drawn on a picture of him.
Tim Leslie, assistant commissioner for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday that a State Patrol officer is working with a Fridley police officer to determine the origins of the mailing.
The hostile note was attached to a newspaper ad run by a group promoting the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. Leslie said the return address on the mailing doesn't exist.
Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, issued a news release Monday disparaging the letter as political hate speech.
"One anonymous coward does not change my mission as a legislator," Chaudhary said. "It is my hope that Minnesotans will reject these blatant attempts to drive a wedge between the people of our state and not sink to their level of discourse."
The group that ran the ad, Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage, condemned the letter and said it doesn't condone threats of violence.
from Pioneer Press

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Suit Dismissed

A federal judge in Boston yesterday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the military's ''don't ask, don't tell" policy, ruling that Congress has the authority to exclude gays from the armed services.
US District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. found that Congress made a rational decision to adopt the policy in 1993 after holding lengthy hearings and concluding that openly homosexual service members would have a negative impact on the military. The policy prohibits the military from asking about sexual orientation, but orders the dismissal of personnel who disclose that they are gay, engage in homosexual activity, or are outed by someone else.
''The legitimacy of the end Congress sought to serve -- maintaining effective military capability by maintaining high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion -- cannot be doubted," O'Toole wrote.
But, in his 41-page decision, O'Toole added that ''deciding that Congress has made a rational choice is not the same as deciding it has made a wise choice."
O'Toole wrote that ''the remedy for bad decision-making by the Political Branches is to be found in the working of the political process."
The judge concluded that the 12 former service members who filed the suit had failed to prove that their constitutional rights were violated because they were forced to leave the service after their sexual orientation was known.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which filed the suit on behalf of the 12 people, won't make a decision on whether to appeal the decision until its lawyers have a chance to review the ruling and talk with the plaintiffs, a spokesman for the group said yesterday.
''We continue to believe that ''don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional and that there is no good reason to exclude lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans from the armed services," said Steve Ralls, the spokesman for the group. ''The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are among the best and brightest that America has to offer. They're fighting to be included in the services as other Americans are fighting to leave the services and so we should welcome their commitment to our country and not turn away their offer to serve."
Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, would not comment on the specifics of the case, but said, ''We're pleased with the court's decision."
The suit, filed in December 2002, marks the ninth time that the policy has been challenged unsuccessfully in courts throughout the country. The plaintiffs had hoped that a 2003 US Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas law that made gay sex criminal had opened the door to new challenges.
The ''don't ask, don't tell" policy replaced a ban on gays in the military.
The suit estimates that there are 65,000 gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the military. Each of the 12 plaintiffs served in the war on terrorism, some in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the suit.
Laura Galaburda of Jamaica Plain, who was the only one of the 12 plaintiffs from Massachusetts, resigned from the Air Force in 2002 after telling her commander she is a lesbian.
In an interview with the Globe after the suit was filed, Galaburda said she was in her fourth year of medical school and working at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland when she felt she could no longer stay silent about her sexual orientation.
Messages left at telephone numbers listed for two of the plaintiffs were not returned yesterday.
from The Boston Globe

Homophobic Coach Would Be Right At Home In Harrisburg

You've got to feel sorry for Rene Portland. The Penn State University women's basketball coach truly missed her calling in life. She would have made one hell of a politician.
Why? Well, after frequent accusations that Portland ran a basketball program that was openly hostile toward lesbian players and those she suspected of being gay, the school launched a six-month investigation that found that, Portland did, indeed, discriminate against some players.
But instead of offering any apologies or explanations for her bigotry and paranoia, Portland held a news conference last week where she refused to answer any questions. In fact, she pretty much denied the whole ugly affair. Fined $10,000 by the school, the foul-line homophobe will get to keep her job, which is the kind of hall pass previously reserved for crooked politicians.
The message this soft-pedalled "resolution" sends is fairly clear: From now on, college coaches can hate and hate openly.
If you hate gay men, but for some calamity of reason decide to lead, say, a men's interpretive ice-dancing troupe, hey, no problem. Have a beef against short people but harbor an unnatural attraction to training thoroughbred jockeys? Penn State might have the right job for you.
Worst of all, the sheer gumption and arrogance that Portland displayed in reaction to the study -- an in-depth internal inquiry that found the coach guilty of encouraging players to change their manner of dress and repeatedly questioning them about their sexual orientations -- was worthy of one of Pennsylvania's famously crooked state legislators.
She would fit in nicely with bums like former Rep. Tom Druce, R-Bucks County, who hit and killed a Harrisburg man with his car in 1999, lied to police about the accident and then tried to avoid jail.
Or maybe she could work alongside former Rep. Jeff Habay, the Shaler Republican who saw only conspiracy where investigators saw open corruption.
If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Portland already knows this. She knows that a winning record makes beloved sports figures almost bullet-proof when it comes to criticism. It also means the rules, whatever they are, don't apply to the powerful and successful.
And by now, I'm sure Portland realizes that Penn State may never place the same importance on its students as it does its athletic programs.
And even if it did, she's a shoo-in for elected office.
from The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Ashley Cole Offered Amends From Newspapers

The Sun and The News of the World have made an “offer of amends” in the Ashley Cole gay libel affair – a move which suggests they may admit that the story was at least party wrong.
The offer has been made to DJ Masterstepz, real name Ian Thompson, the person apparently pictured with his arm around Cole in a heavily obscured image which appeared in The News of the World on February 19.
Cole and Masterstepz are both suing The Sun and The News of the World over stories which made reference to un-named footballers and a music industry figure taking part in a “homosexual orgy”.
Although they were not identified, it is believed that the pair are suing because various websites named them as two of the men involved.
The offer of amends libel procedure is normally used in a case of “unintentional defamation”.
To make use of the defence a newspaper must make a written offer to publish a correction and provide suitable damages and prove that it had no reason to believe the story complained of refereed to the complainant.
Thompson’s lawyer Korieh Duodo, of David Price solicitors, said: “Now that News Group Newspapers appear to have accepted that these allegations are false, Masterstepz wants them to make prominent public apologies as quickly as possible. In the meantime we will investigate whether they have any explanation for publishing this story which entitles them to rely on an Offer of Amends.”
from Press Gazette

Amsterdam Mayor's Gay Rights Plea

The mayor of Amsterdam has written to his counterparts in eight other European capitals, calling on them to uphold gay rights.
In his letter, Job Cohen warns that intolerance against homosexuals is on the increase.
The Netherlands introduced gay marriage five years ago, and Mr Cohen is urging other countries to do the same.
Mayors in Warsaw, Prague, Lisbon, Dublin and Vienna are among those who have been sent copies of the letter.
Mr Cohen has also written to leaders in the Baltic capitals of Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, and EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini.
'Concerned'
The move is a result of a motion by city councillors who are concerned over recent attacks on homosexuals in Amsterdam.
In the letter, Mr Cohen says he is "concerned" by measures in some cities to ban gay demonstrations.
He calls on mayors to "adhere to the universal declaration of human rights, and to do everything in your political power to open up marriage for same-sex couples and safeguard the right of public demonstrations in your city," Agence France-Presse news agency reports.
In February, Portuguese officials turned down an application by a lesbian couple to get married.
Official statistics show that 8,000 same-sex marriages have taken place in the Netherlands since they became legal, AFP said.
from BBC

Lesbian.com Up For Sale

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI - Technologically savvy, wary of the anti-gay set and eager to be of help to fellow lesbians, Sue Beckwith registered the Internet domain name Lesbian.com as soon as she knew how.
More than a decade later, Beckwith, of St. Louis, and the Web site's two other producers have decided to sell the name - and are asking for $2 million.
When Beckwith registered the name in 1995 - a move that cost a mere $35 or so - she wasn't quite sure what she'd do with Lesbian.com. But after several conversations with activism-minded friends, they decided the site would be used to promote resources and services for lesbians nationwide and beyond.
In 1999, a site geared toward just that was introduced. There, visitors can link to information on health issues, sexuality, the arts, where to vacation and countless other matters of interest to lesbians. It is owned by Beckwith Technology Services, a privately held corporation in Austin, Texas, that was started by Beckwith.
"It's been a big part of who I am," said St. Louisan Mel Braman, 46, one of the site's co-producers. "It's a big part of my identity."
But now, Braman and Beckwith said, the time has come to let someone else take it to another level.
The perfect buyer, both women said, would be someone keen on making Lesbian.com an even better resource. "It would be someone who is in touch with the online lesbian space," Beckwith said.
However, she and her co-producers realize the domain name may attract not only those of a like mind and purpose, but potential buyers interested mainly in investment possibilities, or in promoting pornography.
The site has had suitors before. Not long after Beckwith registered the name, a porn business offered to buy it for $250,000, but she turned it down, she said.
This time, the decision isn't entirely up to her, and she's not sure how she'd feel if a porn business ended up first in line.
"I'm just going to cross that bridge when I come to it," said Beckwith, 51. "It would have to be a very lucrative offer."
As for the $2 million price tag, industry experts don't think it's out of line. Internet domain names have produced huge payoffs. Sex.com, for example, went this year for an estimated $14 million, according to Zetetic, a company that appraises domain names and tracks their sales.
Jeremiah Johnston, general counsel with Sedo.com, a company in Cambridge, Mass., that buys and sells domain names and Web sites, said $2 million might be a bit inflated for Lesbian.com's final price. "But as far as an asking price, it's definitely in the ballpark," he said.
Boosting its value, he said, is that the domain name uses a single, simple, recognizable word that has a target audience. Also of help is that it ends with ".com," as opposed to a more obscure address ending.
Jim Thornburn, a manager with GoDaddy.com, a company in Scottsdale, Ariz., that specializes in selling domain names via auctions, said in an e-mail that $2 million is a good price for Lesbian.com, especially in light of sex.com's sale price.
"If there are several interested parties from the pornography industry bidding, which is fairly likely with this domain, the price could go for a substantially larger sum," Thornburn added. "Million-dollar domain names are rare, but when it happens, it's usually because the name has either an established business behind it or because its potential as a key word or for type-in traffic is extremely high. . . . This name does not have a lot of traffic compared to other sites such as gay.com but has great type-in potential."
Lesbian.com logs about 600,000 page views per month, according to Beckwith. And when Google users type in "lesbian" when searching for information, Lesbian.com is the first site listed.
But because the site was never intended to become a major moneymaker, it lacks certain components valuable to advertisers. For one, the site does not use "Internet cookies," which leave trails that show what sites have been visited. The lack of cookies prevents the site from passing on information about its visitors to advertisers.
But keeping visitors from being traced is important to the site's producers, Beckwith said.
"There are a lot of places in the world where being a lesbian is against the law and even just saying you're a lesbian out loud can put your well-being in jeopardy," she explained. "We not only want them to feel safe, we want them to be safe."
If the domain name's new owner wants to make money, there is clearly an audience to be tapped. The total buying power of the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adult population this year is projected to be $641 billion, according to a study by Witeck-Combs Communications and Packaged Facts.
Lesbian.com now sells advertisements ranging from $200 to $700 a month. It does not accept ads from anyone promoting hate or discrimination, and it doesn't accept banner ads from pornographic sites. It also prefers to accept ads from those with personnel policies that support domestic-partner relationships.
"We make just enough to get by as part-time work," Beckwith said. "We've never really tried to make it more than that."
As for how the site's producers are going about selling the name, they've sent a news release to wire services that serve gay and lesbian publications but haven't gone far beyond that, Beckwith said. They already have received inquiries, though, she said.
Given the uniqueness of the domain name, that's to be expected.
"There's only one in the whole world," Beckwith said.
from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Ex-Gays Draw Criticism

For years, gay rights groups have struggled for social and political equality. Now, a campaign is underway to raise awareness and support the rights of those who have chosen to abstain from homosexual lifestyles, and they are being met with criticism from the gay community.
“I don’t put any credit in the ex-gay movement,” Harmony president, sophomore Matt Winer, said. Winer, who is gay, said the ex-gay movement is an attempt by a homophobic society to change homosexuals for its comfort.
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is a national secular nonprofit organization providing outreach, education and public awareness in support of the ex-gay community and families touched by homosexuality. The organization upholds that people have a right to self-determination and that with information and support, individuals can overcome “unwanted homosexual attractions” said Regina Griggs, the executive director of PFOX.
PFOX has joined forces with Liberty Counsel — a Florida-based litigation organization — to launch the “Change is Possible” campaign. The coalition recognizes tolerance and diversity are popular ideals in today’s society, but that “there has been a corresponding increase in discrimination and intolerance toward those who have made the decision to leave homosexuality,” according to an April 12 press release from PFOX.
In response to the commonplace institution of “Safe-Zone” stickers and diversity days that promote the message that homosexuals are born gay, the “Change is Possible” campaign encourages high school and college students to hang fliers and make announcements on their campuses about the existence of ex-gays. The campaign also encourages students to start gay to straight clubs, insist on the ex-gay viewpoint, and to contact Liberty Counsel if they are prevented from doing so.
“Schools adopt nondiscriminatory policies and curriculum and give teachers diversity training, but the ex-gay perspective is left-out,” said Rena Lindevaldsen, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel.
Lindevaldsen claims that hundreds of thousands of people have successfully left homosexuality.
“If you want to change, you can,” she said.
According to Griggs, PFOX does not encourage change among homosexuals who are comfortable with their identity, but rather people who do not want to experience homosexual attractions. Griggs said major opposition to this idea comes from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Questioning community, which denies the existence of ex-gays.
Kristen Brady, sophomore vice president of Harmony said, “Harmony feels sexual orientation is something you can’t change. Fundamentalist Christian groups want [homosexuals] to suppress it. We want people to be who they are.”
According to its Web site, Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization “dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.” A self-proclaimed Christian legal organization, supporters include conservative activist Jerry Falwell, the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg.
Both PFOX and Harmony offer support free from religious influence to people who question their sexual orientation. Neither group assumes individuals choose homosexual attraction. The groups differ, however, in their understanding of the inherency and permanence of sexual attraction.
“It would be very discouraging to tell you that you couldn’t overcome [homosexual attraction],” Griggs said.
Winer said, “For them to say we never explored the idea that we could be straight is laughable.”
Supporters of former gays believe that unwanted homosexual attractions can be overcome. GLBTQ claims sexual orientation is inherent, and although it can be ignored, it cannot be changed. Neither group recognizes the position of the other and Winer, Brady and Lindevaldsen agree that this discrepancy is key in each group’s explanation for why they simply cannot work together.
from The Breeze

Pump Fails To Increase Penis Size

NEW YORK - Men desiring a longer penis probably should overlook pumps, new research suggests: Long-term suction to the penis does not seem to increase its size and may raise the risk of complications, such as numbness and hematoma.
Vacuum devices have been shown to temporarily increase penis size by causing increased blood flow into the corpus cavernosa and surrounding tissue. However, it was unclear if such devices actually cause a permanent increase in penis size.
"To our knowledge, the present study is the first to assess the long-term effects of vacuum treatment for penile elongation," Dr. Reza Hosseini and colleagues, from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, note in the April issue of BJU International.
The study involved 37 sexually active men, between 18 and 35 years of age, with a stretched penis length of < 10 cm (3.9 inches). The men were free from any medical diseases that may have affected penis length or erectile function and all were non-smokers and non-drinkers.
The men were instructed to use the Osbon ErecAid Vacuum Therapy System three times a week for 6 months. With the device, the penis is placed into a clear cylinder with silicon cream or lubricating gel applied to the base to maintain an airtight seal. Air is then removed from the cylinder with a hand pump.
The men were told to use the device for about 20 minutes after an erection was achieved. They were instructed not to exceed 30 minutes to reduce the risk of tissue damage.
When the study began the average penile length was 7.6 cm (2.9 inches). With use of the pump, the penis grew only slightly to a mean length of 7.9 cm (3.1 inches).
The pump was considered 11.1% effective, defined as an increase in penis length of at least 1 cm. Thirty percent of the men were satisfied with their results when surveyed.
One case each of penile hematoma and glans numbness were noted, but both resolved spontaneously.
"The vacuum device does not seem to be a useful method for penile elongation," Dr. Hosseini's team concludes, "but it provides psychological satisfaction for some men."
In an interview with Reuters Health, David Talen, president of Timm Medical, maker of the ErecAid device, said that he wasn't surprised by the findings, as their device was never intended to be used for penile elongation, but rather for erectile dysfunction.
"We make no claims either for increasing the length or the girth of the penis. It is not in our FDA labeling and the FDA takes a very hard stance on making such claims," Talen emphasized. Our product "helps men with erectile dysfunction achieve an erection suitable for sexual intercourse."
from URO Today

Gay Adoptions, Defy Nature?

“The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of gay adoption, two judges in the majority and one dissenting. One thing is clear: Two judges have defied nature and God…,” writes Bloomington’s Church of the Good Shepherd pastor to the editor of IndyStar.com.
Have these judges really defied nature and God?
In Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity — based off a ten year study by biologist Bruce Bagemihl — there is evidence that hundreds of species have homosexuals among them. In some species the percentage of those gay is around 10%; however, in some cases the number is as much as 30-60%. If homosexuality was against nature then why did God create hundreds of species containing tens of thousands of homosexuals?
But what I found interesting about Bagemihl’s book is that evidence shows that homosexual behavior in the animal world wasn’t just about sex. For example, when a particular species was known to mate for life, there existed homosexual couplings within that species who mated for life as well.
What’s also interesting is that oftentimes when a young fledgling was abandoned or otherwise orphaned, homosexual couplings would take it in and raise it as its own — protecting it, feeding it, teaching it how to survive. Thus, homosexual couplings often became adoptive parents to offspring that would otherwise have no parents at all.
Interesting. Maybe God is trying to tell us something here.
from The Purple Pew

Anti-Gay Group Seeks Recognition

Anti-gay Christians are fighting back in a case involving Every Nation Campus Ministries at California State University.
Student members of the ministry on the CSU Long Beach and San Diego campuses say their mission is to model a virtuous lifestyle for their peers. They will not accept as members gays, lesbians or anyone who considers homosexuality "a natural part of God's created order."
Legal analysts agree that the ministry, as a private organization, has every right to exclude gays; the Supreme Court affirmed that principle in a case involving the Boy Scouts of America in 2000. At issue is whether the university must grant official recognition to a student group that discriminates against others.
The students say denying them recognition -- and its attendant benefits, such as funding -- violates their free-speech rights and discriminates against their conservative theology. Christian groups at public colleges in other states have sued using similar arguments. Several of those lawsuits were settled out of court, with the groups prevailing.
In California, however, the university may have a strong defense in court. The California Supreme Court recently ruled that the city of Berkeley was justified in denying subsidies to the Boy Scouts because of that group's exclusionary policies. Eddie L. Washington, the lawyer representing Cal State, argues the same standard should apply to the university.
"We're certainly not going to fund discrimination," Washington said.
As they step up their legal campaign, conservative Christians face uncertain prospects. The First Amendment guarantees Americans "free exercise" of religion. In practice, though, the ground rules shift depending on the situation.
In the public schools, an Ohio middle-school student last year won the right to wear a T-shirt that proclaimed: "Homosexuality is a sin! Islam is a lie! Abortion is murder!"
But a teenager in Kentucky lost in federal court when he tried to exempt himself from a school program on gay tolerance on the grounds that it violated his religious beliefs.
from The Detroit News

Mental Health Crisis Among Australia’s Gays

AUSTRALIA - The largest-ever survey of mental health among Australia’s gays, bisexuals and lesbians, conducted by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University, found that nearly half of the 5500 people surveyed reported at least one sign of serious depression. Suicidal thoughts ran at 16% for gay men, compared to 10% for straight men.
Professor Anne Mitchell, a report author, told the March 31 Melbourne Age, “There is an enormous amount of anxiety for young people especially, but it was reassuring that older people grow out of these problems by finding safe and stable environments and good supportive groups around them”.
Gay men and lesbians are regularly victims of verbal abuse. Sixty per cent of male and 56% of female respondents said they had experienced personal insults because of their sexuality. Nearly 70% of participants said they changed their behaviour to avoid such discrimination, and about 90% said they refrained from showing public affection to a same-sex partner. “This simple everyday pleasure, which is commonplace among heterosexuals, is clearly seldom safely experienced by same-sex couples”, the study said.
Speaking to the March 31 Sydney Star Observer, Mitchell said governments and educators need to do more to stamp out anti-gay discrimination, which was undermining young gay and lesbian people’s health. She said many of the health problems identified in the report were “things that appear to be the response to living in a hostile environment”.
from Green Left

Anti-Gay Actions Could Hurt State's Business Prospects

KENTUCKY - Gov. Ernie Fletcher and other politicians talk a lot about luring businesses to Kentucky, but critics cite extensive research that suggests anti-gay actions by Fletcher and state lawmakers may drive companies elsewhere.
Detractors contend that Fletcher's April 11 move to strip discrimination protections from homosexual employees and the General Assembly's decision to provide $11 million to a private university that expelled a gay student will make Kentucky seem unsavory to many companies that officials hope to attract and retain.
"Bigotry is bad for business and having a governor who is obviously bigoted is fundamentally incompatible with business," said Alan Hawse of Lexington, vice president of information technology for California-based Cypress Semiconductor.
Hawse, who oversees about 40 highly paid employees in downtown Lexington and another 175 in California, Minnesota, the Philippines and elsewhere, said the state's already lackluster image has been further tarnished by recent events.
"We go from a backwater state trying to attract business to a backwater, bigoted state trying to attract business," Hawse said Friday.
Brett Hall, a spokesman for Fletcher, called Hawse's assertions "absurd." He said the Fletcher administration has no intention of discriminating against gay or lesbian job candidates and employees.
"We don't ask people if they're gay and how would we know?" Hall said. "I can't imagine it would be an issue at all."
He disagreed with the notion that the state's hiring policies and the legislature's decision to fund a pharmacy college at the University of the Cumberlands will spook businesses looking to relocate to Kentucky. (Fletcher is expected to decide Monday if he will veto an $11 million appropriation for the school.)
But a recent survey of corporate America suggests that Fletcher's critics have a point.
In a poll of nearly 1,000 businesses conducted in late 2004 by Louisiana State University, about half of respondents said the tolerance level of a community was an important factor when seeking to relocate.
On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being very important, 48.1 percent of respondents ranked "perception that the local community is tolerant and progressive" with a seven or higher.
In contrast, only 35.3 percent gave a similar rating to "right to work," a measure unsuccessfully pushed by Fletcher this year that would allow people to work in labor-represented jobs without joining a union or paying union fees.
Fletcher has repeatedly said that not having a right-to-work provision puts Kentucky on the corporate "no-call list."
'It's about setting a tone'
Locating in a tolerant community is perhaps even more important for knowledge-based businesses, which thrive on the ability to attract creative workers, said Gary Gates, senior research fellow for the Williams Institute, a sexual-orientation policy group at the UCLA School of Law.
Gates, along with economist and author Richard Florida, has done extensive research documenting the correlation between a community's economic prosperity and the tolerance of its citizens.
After analyzing dozens of variables, they found that the concentration of same-sex households within a region was the strongest predictor of a vibrant high-tech economy.
Not because gays and lesbians are smarter or earn more money, but because creativity thrives in places that are tolerant, open and diverse. "It's about setting a tone," Gates said.
If a gay person is welcome, then just about anyone who is somehow "different" feels at ease, goes the theory.
Kentucky's leaders are "sending out an unwelcome signal to a lot of creative and innovative people, whether they're gay or not," Gates said.
Companies lead the way
At the same time, businesses such as printer maker Lexmark International, based in Lexington, are striving to recruit all types of workers, Lexmark spokesman Tim FitzPatrick said in a written statement.
The company even offers employees the opportunity to join a variety of networking groups, including the Gay/Straight Alliance of Lexmark Employees.
"Diversity in all of its definitions continues to be a key focus in our recruitment efforts and also a consideration in succession planning because we recognize diversity as a strength that will help us compete more effectively in a global marketplace," FitzPatrick said.
Lexmark is among the 7,400 companies, including 211 of Fortune 500 companies, now offering spousal-equivalent benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees.
A number of other companies in metro Lexington offer same-sex partner benefits, including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Gray Construction and the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Many more companies have policies that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
"If you believe that the market is what rules in this world, all the trends in corporate America say that increasing amounts of policies that promote diversity are good for the bottom line," Gates said. "Companies aren't doing this because it's nice; they do it because it's good for business."
Tourism can be hurt
Places labeled as intolerant also suffer tourism troubles.
In Cincinnati, the convention center lost at least $25 million of business in the decade after passing a law that banned any provision protecting gays and lesbians, according to the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. The anti-gay law was repealed in 2004.
Lexington, like Louisville and Covington, has a fairness ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. A proposed constitutional amendment that would have overturned those ordinances was defeated in the state Senate earlier this year.
Fletcher's April 11 decision to undo a 2003 order by former Gov. Paul Patton and remove sexual orientation and gender identity from the state's anti-discrimination list puts Kentucky in the company of Ohio and 21 other states that have no statewide laws and policies protecting gay workers.
"It has an overarching impact on the state in terms of attracting tourism, attracting conventions and attracting businesses that want to make their home here," said Christina Gilgor, executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. "It is very unfortunate that the governor has chosen to scapegoat a minority group in this way."
from The Herald-Leader