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The Beatles' first album Please Please Me is a shock entry in a new poll of the top 50 gay albums of all time. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr's 1963 album, which included the hits Twist And Shout and I Saw Her Standing There, featured in the chart compiled by British gay magazine Attitude, alongside records by Abba, Sir Elton John and Boy George. Simon Napier-Bell former manager of George Michael's ex-band Wham! says, "That summer it was the gay album. Every party, every club, everywhere you went, Please Please Me blasted out. George and Paul singing into one microphone, their cheeks touching, was the gayest thing we'd ever seen."
The top ten gay albums of all time are as follows: 1. SCISSOR SISTERS - SCISSOR SISTERS (2004) 2. ABBA - ARRIVAL (1976) 3. MORRISSEY - VAUXHALL AND I (1994) 4. KYLIE MINOGUE - LIGHT YEARS (2000) 5. GEORGE MICHAEL - OLDER (1996) 6. FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME (1984) 7. MADONNA - EROTICA (1992) 8. ANTHONY AND THE JOHNSONS - I AM A BIRD NOW (2005) 9. DONNA SUMMER - BAD GIRLS (1979) 10. DAVID BOWIE - THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (1970).
from Contact Music
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA - Three men police suspect of being gang members are facing hate-crime charges in the beating of patrons of The Menagerie -- a downtown gay bar -- and throwing bricks through the door, police said.
Juan Anthony Mauricio, 20, Sergio Roberto Rodriguez, 18, and Gerald Abraham Gallo, 18, all of Riverside, pleaded not guilty Thursday to three counts each of assault and committing a hate crime, court records show.
Witnesses reported three men walked up to the bar at 3581 University Ave. around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and began making anti-gay comments about people standing outside, said Riverside police Lt. Chuck Griffitts.
"It appears they went downtown looking for trouble," Griffitts said.
The people took cover inside the bar and the men threw two bricks and a rock, shattering a window in the front door, Griffitts said. At that point, some bar patrons went outside to confront the men, who continued to make derogatory remarks about the bar patrons' sexual orientation, Griffitts said.
Then -- witness accounts vary -- either the patrons tried to grab the men in order to hold them until police arrived or patrons yelled back at them and the men attacked, Griffitts said. Either way, the men began throwing punches and three bar patrons were injured, Griffitts said.
Gallo surrendered to police at the scene, Griffitts said, and officers chased down Mauricio and Rodriguez.
"This is not a common event and it's something that is not tolerated in the least bit," Griffitts said.
Although police respond to the occasional bar fight on that stretch of University Avenue, where there are several bars, Griffitts said, "Anything of this caliber we haven't had for quite a while."
He added, "The Menagerie, of all the bars, is usually one of the quietest."
A report released this month by the state attorney general's office showed that while reported hate crimes have been on a decade-long downward trend in California, they have increased in Riverside County.
Sexual orientation has consistently been the second-most common motivation for hate crime, behind race and ethnicity, the report said. Statewide, there were 255 hate crimes in 2005 based on bias against sexual orientation.
Jeffery Owens, 40, a gay man from Moreno Valley, died in June 2002 after being stabbed and beaten outside The Menagerie.
Owens' death prompted an outcry from community activists who believed the attack was a hate crime.
Three gang members were convicted on several charges related to the attack, but a judge dismissed the hate-crime charge saying there was insufficient evidence.
from The Press-Enterprise
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - After years of working to tame the Castro's famed Halloween festivities, Supervisor Bevan Dufty is thinking about pulling the plug over safety concerns.
What once was a neighborhood party has gotten too large for its locale -- and too violent, said Dufty, adding that his worries increased after he saw a fistfight that ended with several young girls kicking a drag queen at the close of June's gay pride festivities in the Castro.
"I could tolerate (Halloween) if it weren't so big, but it keeps growing," said Dufty, whose supervisorial District 8 includes the Castro. "I don't know if I can guarantee people's safety."
After a number of late-night stabbings at the 2002 Halloween event, several city agencies stepped in to help control what historically had been a spontaneous event.
The San Francisco Police Department set up barricades to close streets, added a fire lane and enforced a no-alcohol rule inside the cordoned-off area, said Capt. John Goldberg of the Mission Station.
Those efforts have helped, residents said Thursday. But they haven't completely solved the problem of what happens when up to 300,000 people pour into the small community, clogging streets, parking and sidewalks, and leaving behind trash, vomit and graffiti when they depart.
Locals who once frequented the party now stay inside while visitors from around the Bay Area take over the neighborhood, some residents said Thursday.
"I usually go early, take a look at what's going on, and leave, because it's simply too crowded," said Gustavo Serina, 58, who has lived in the Castro for 28 years and seen the event evolve.
Dufty said he'd like to see the event moved to a larger, nonresidential venue, such as the Embarcadero. At public meetings, including one in the Castro Wednesday, residents have told him they're OK with having what has become an annual headache moved off their streets.
No one agency has been responsible for Halloween in recent years, Dufty said. His office has worked with the Entertainment Commission and police and fire departments. Now, he's asking for a meeting with Mayor Gavin Newsom to discuss the problems.
Closing down Halloween in the Castro, however, is likely to be a difficult task. The party grew to its current size and fame mostly by word of mouth, and that kind of publicity is hard to control, Goldberg said.
"I don't know that there's actually been an open invitation to 'come on down,' " Goldberg said. "I think it just kind of happened."
Some neighborhood residents -- even those who agree the event is out of hand -- laugh at the idea that the city could halt the fete just by saying it's not happening.
"I think people are going to come and gather anyway," said Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a local political advocate from the gay community. "The whole idea of canceling Halloween in the Castro is ludicrous."
Goldberg agrees it could be uphill work. Even if the event is publicly canceled, the Police Department almost certainly will have to staff it, the captain said.
"It really depends on what, if anything, is done as an alternative," he said. "If nothing's done, certainly people are going to show -- and no matter what happens, there's going to have to be a police presence."
Halloween in the Castro started in the 1960s as a chance for children to show off their costumes in front of Cliff's Variety store, according to several residents. As the neighborhood became known as a gay community in the 1970s, the event changed, said Mecca, a local advocate and performer.
"People go to the Castro for Halloween because Halloween is in many senses a gay holiday," Mecca said. "It's been known as a time for people to feel free and express gay identity and have fun."
In recent years, however, many Castro residents have shut their doors on Halloween to what they say the once-great event has become: a voyeuristic chance for out-of-town partiers to look at a world-famous gay community, and not always in a nice way. Gay residents have been threatened both verbally and physically, they said.
"The people that come have no respect for this neighborhood," said Paul Moffett, president of the Merchants of Upper Market & Castro. "They come because they think it's an opportunity to party."
And that's an affront to the tight-knit, welcoming community, he said.
Not everyone is ready to say goodbye to the Halloween activities. Viko Gracian, a cashier at A Different Light Bookstore on Castro Street, said the annual event is a great way to bring people together.
"I think it's awesome," said Gracian, who's had four of his six sisters visit from Brazil for the past two Halloweens. "I think it would be really disappointing if we didn't have Halloween here in the Castro."
from The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - Spewing anti-gay comments, a trio of baseball-bat wielding attackers smacked two men in the head and stabbed another in the back as the three victims left Balboa Park's gay pride festival late Saturday night.
The attack – being called a hate crime by the San Diego Police Department – is the first violent attack at the annual festival in more than a decade. The weekend-long event drew more than 150,000 people.
“It's very alarming and very discouraging to hear this much hatred going on right in the core of Pride weekend,” said Frank Sabatini Jr., spokesman for the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Festival.
There have been no arrests and while all three victims were hospitalized, their wounds were not considered life-threatening, police said.
“It's being investigated as a hate crime,” said police Lt. Margaret Schaufelberger. “That adds an extra layer of investigation for the detectives to prove in court and it adds an extra level of punishment to those convicted of the crime.”
Police say the attack occurred at 10:45 p.m., about 45 minutes after pop singer Deborah Gibson finished her concert and the festival closed for the night.
Three men, whose identities were not released, left the festival and were walking along a path behind the lawn bowling area on Balboa Park Drive when three men with a baseball bat confronted them. The attackers taunted the victims with what police said were a litany of anti-gay remarks and a fight broke out. Two of the men were beaten with the bat, and a third told police he felt some type of hard object stab him in the back, police said.
The attackers were last seen running down the Bridle Path into the park.
A spokesman for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders' office said he was alarmed by the news and would be following the investigation closely.
“It's unfortunate that it occurred,” said Sanders' spokesman Fred Sainz. San Diego Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who represents the district where the attack occurred, said she's been hearing about an undercurrent of hostility toward gays in the Hillcrest area. She said she sent out an e-mail last week to remind the gay community to report anti-gay attacks, comments or slurs.
When she heard about Saturday night's attack, Atkins called the police chief at home.
“It's been some time since we've experienced something so blatant,” Atkins said.
Festival-goers were caught off-guard by news of the attacks but said they wouldn't let it affect their lives.
“I'm not going to stop being who I am,” said Kade Brittain, a student at the University of California San Diego. “It's horrifying. But I'm not going to let them use fear as a weapon.”
In the past 32 years, the annual gay pride festival has often been the focus of protesters, but rarely has violence occurred.
In 1999, someone threw a tear gas grenade into a crowd during the parade. In 1985, a man had his pilot's license revoked for flying too close to the parade with a banner reading, “Repent Fag.”
In the early days of the event, there were reports of clashes between police, protesters and festival-goers. But nothing like Saturday's attack.
“This is unprecedented,” Sabatini said. “In the 12 years I've been doing this, I've never heard of an attack inside or this close to one of our events.”
Reported hate crimes were down in the first quarter of 2006, from 17 last year to 10 this year, according to police.
from The San Diego Union-Tribune
LONDON - Two university professors failed on Monday in a court bid seeking British recognition their same-sex marriage, arguing their human rights had been violated by laws that recognized the union only as a civil partnership.
Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger wed in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003, and had asked London's High Court for legal recognition of the marriage in Britain.
In a ruling, Mark Potter, president of the High Court's Family Division, said there was a "long-standing definition and acceptance" that the term marriage referred to a relationship between a man and a woman, primarily designed for producing and rearing children.
"To accord a same-sex relationship the title and status of marriage would be to fly in the face of the (European) Convention (on Human Rights) as well as to fail to recognize physical reality," Potter said.
However, Potter said lasting single-sex relationships were "in no way inferior" to mixed-sex relationships.
Wilkinson and Kitzinger had argued that their relationship was like that of any other married couple and that by calling it a civil partnership, Britain had violated their human rights.
Potter said he believed people across England and Europe respected the concept of marriage and believed it is an important means of protecting the traditional family unit.
"The belief that this form of relationship is the one which best encourages stability in a well-regulated society is not a disreputable or outmoded notion based upon ideas of exclusivity, marginalization, disapproval or discrimination against homosexuals," Potter said.
from The Toronto Star
MONTREAL, CANADA - Mariela Castro preaches revolution, though not the kind her uncle Fidel has ever embraced.
As the head of Cuba's National Center for Sexual Education, Castro is a vocal supporter of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered rights.
That support brought her to Montreal Friday, to speak at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, being held in conjunction with the athletic competitions of the 1st World Outgames.
Castro, 43, is the daughter of Raúl Castro, Cuba's defense minister and first in line to succeed 79-year-old Fidel Castro, who has ruled the country for nearly a half-century.
Her participation was a matter of controversy, with some applauding her for supporting Cuba's sexual minorities. Others, however, were skeptical.
''When he wants to vilify an opponent, the first thing Fidel Castro will call him is [an offensive term for gay],'' said Toronto film editor Ricardo Acosta, a gay man who left Cuba during the 1980 Mariel boatlift.
''Perhaps her intentions are good, but until people can express themselves freely in Cuba and have freedom to associate, I won't believe that things have changed for gays and lesbians,'' he added.
Acosta visited Cuba with his partner last winter and said that the police turned a blind eye to gay prostitution involving Cuban men and foreigners.
''They were willing to tolerate sex tourism as long as it doesn't cross a line,'' he said.
Speaking to reporters after her presentation, Castro acknowledged Cuba's suppression of LGBT rights in the past, but insisted that the mass arrests, imprisonments in work camps, job discrimination and deportations of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are a thing of the past.
''There is no official repression of lesbians and gays in Cuba,'' she said flatly through a translator. ``What remains are social and cultural reactions that must be transformed, the same as in many other countries.''
She acknowledged that gays, lesbians and transgendered people still face arrest, but that this reflects problems with bigoted police. Cuba decriminalized sodomy in 1979. The Cuban Constitution does not specifically prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.
While athletes from more than 100 countries are participating in the Outgames, no Cuban has registered for the event. Mariela Castro was asked whether this reflected an unwillingness by athletes in her country to come out, or an unwillingness by the Cuban government to allow participants to attend.
''As a matter of fact, there are many homosexual athletes in Cuba. Unfortunately they are not good athletes,'' she said with a smile. ``The government could not afford to send a team here and risk that they would come home without any medals.''
During her presentation, Castro explained the push she is leading to have the rights of transgendered Cubans recognized. Last December she proposed a bill that would give transgendered people access to free sex-change operations. The bill is expected to be voted on later this year.
from The Miami Herald
MONTREAL, CANADA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has chosen to "support intolerance" by refusing to attend the first World Outgames for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered athletes, singer k.d. lang said Friday.
Lang will be the headline performer when the games open Saturday, with the participation of more than 13,000 athletes from around the world.
"It's a sad statement that the national leader of one of the most progressive countries in the world chooses to support intolerance rather than all-inclusiveness," she told a news conference at the Olympic Stadium.
"It's a very, very important moment in the GBLT [gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered] community's history, as well as Canadian history," she said.
"It's momentous for Canada."
Other leaders to appear
Lang said the GBLT (usually referred to as LGBT) community shouldn't take Harper's absence personally.
"It's our job to see that as an unfortunate ignorance, rather than as a statement against us," she said. "It's just that he hasn't got there in his heart."
Quebec Premier Jean Charest, interim Liberal leader Bill Graham and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe will all make appearances at the games, so Harper's absence is likely to be noticed.
But a spokesman for the prime minister said there is nothing political in Harper's decision to skip the Outgames. "The prime minister receives hundred of invitations to attend several events at the same time," Dimitri Soudas told the Canadian Press in a telephone interview. "He simply can't be everywhere at the same time."
Soudas said Public Works Minister Michael Fortier will represent the government at the games along with several Conservative MPs, although he didn't specify which ones.
UN human rights official to speak
Soudas wouldn't respond to Lang's criticisms. "She's not the first celebrity to comment on the activities of the prime minister," he said.
According to Louise Roy, CEO of the organizing committee, "The first World Outgames will be the largest LGBT event ever held, encompassing sports, culture and human rights."
The guest speaker at the opening dinner will be Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights.
"Because of the stigma attached to issues surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity, violence against LGBT persons is frequently unreported, undocumented and goes ultimately unpunished. This shameful silence is the definitive rejection of the fundamental principle of universality of rights. For this reason I am honoured to participate in this vital event," Arbour is quoted as saying on the Outgames website.
from CBC News
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND - In Superior Court yesterday, lawyer Christopher Millea described the repeated threats and homosexual slurs his client hurled toward her AIDS-afflicted neighbor as "trivial."
They were part of a "kindergarten name-calling contest," Millea said, which while offensive to most people, remained examples of constitutionally protected free speech.
Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel had another name for it: "hateful conduct," spurred by prejudice, that unlawfully deprived Kenneth W. Potts, of Warren, of his right to live peacefully under the state's Fair Housing Practices Act.
Yesterday, in a decision that gave the attorney general's newly formed Office of Civil Rights Advocate its first victory, Vogel issued an injunction against 33-year-old Theresa R. Deschenes, preventing her from having any intentional contact with Potts, her downstairs neighbor.
"She has intimidated him," the judge said. "She has threatened him with physical violence . . . all connected to his sexual orientation."
Vogel said the civil suit -- the first brought by the advocate's office since the General Assembly established it last year -- reminded her of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s response to critics of the Civil Rights Act who said it was impossible to legislate human behavior.
Quoting King, Vogel said: "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can stop him from lynching me." In this case, said Vogel, the new advocate's office and its reliance on the protections afforded in the state's Fair Housing Practices Act, "may stop Miss Deschenes from injuring Mr. Potts and that's pretty important, too."
During yesterday's injunction hearing Potts, 48, testified how his relationship with Deschenes got off poorly in March as he was preparing to move into the apartment house at 234 Child St.
Soon after telling Deschenes that he was gay and ill, Potts said he received a phone call from Deschenes after she had left her young daughter alone in the apartment upstairs.
"She said, 'If you do anything to my daughter I'll [expletive] kill you.' I said, 'I'm gay, not a pedophile.' "
Since then, Potts said he had called the Warren police at least 15 times complaining that Deschenes was harassing him by playing loud music, stomping on her floor and using slurs directed at him because he is gay.
According to his court complaint, Deschenes on several occasions physically threatened Potts, apparently because he was calling the police on her. On June 12, responding police officers arrested Deschenes for disorderly conduct for refusing to turn down her music. During the arrest, the police said, Deschenes threatened to assault Potts once she was released.
On the stand, Deschenes admitted to casting homosexual slurs at Potts.
Under questioning from her lawyer, she said she did so in anger, particularly after she had been arrested and after Potts had called child-welfare officials in to investigate her. His accusation was ruled unfounded, she said. She denied she was homophobic.
"I shouldn't have said what I said. I'll apologize right now. I'm sorry."
In closing remarks, Millea said while Deschenes' statements were offensive to most people, they were protected free speech under the First Amendment.
Further, he argued the attorney general's office had no right to bring the complaint under the Fair Housing Practices Act because the act pertains to protections against discrimination (including sexual orientation) from property owners or landlords. Potts and Deschenes are tenants and have no authority as to who lives at the apartment house.
But Assistant Attorney General Thomas A. Palombo, the state's new civil-rights advocate, said the housing act also makes it unlawful to "coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment" of any rights secured by the state or federal constitutions and laws.
Living peacefully without fear of intimidation or harassment because of your sexual orientation is one of them, Palombo said.
Judge Vogel agreed.
"The evidence is clear," Vogel said that Deschenes acted as she did "with intent to harass and intimidate Mr. Potts because he is gay."
She said she rejected Deschenes' testimony that she was not prejudiced against Potts because of his sexual orientation.
While the First Amendment allows people to sling epithets, Vogel said, that freedom becomes limiting when those words provoke or may provoke violence. And Deschenes' remarks that she would "[expletive] him up" upon her release from police custody, "clearly rises to a level of force."
Vogel said Potts' right to "live peacefully . . . will be irreparably harmed" if she didn't issue an injunction to stop Deschenes' continued behavior.
Deschenes refused to comment after the decision. Millea said they would discuss whether to seek an appeal.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who was in the courtroom, said he was pleased with the judge's decision and grateful that the General Assembly created a means for his office to pursue cases like this -- "to fight for dignity that should be humanely automatic. Unfortunately with people like this defendant, it's important."
Said Potts: "I hope this teaches a lesson not to hate anybody for any reason."
from The Providence Journal
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - Nicolas Cage is not leaving Las Vegas; indeed, he's coming back to it, starring in a new biopic about the life of that gold lame luminary, Liberace. What's more, Cage is producing the project as well, via his Saturn Films production company, based on a script by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg.
Friedberg and Seltzer are best known for the campy pop culture-derived hits "Scary Movie" and more recently, "Date Movie," but their look at Liberace's life is understood to be far more serious. And while the duo might seem to be the last choice for a serious biography, the deal kind of makes sense to us: Who, after all, was better at distilling highbrow classics into pop culture than Liberace himself?
Born Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the pianist's rise to fame began in the 1950s, when his musical TV show (featuring his brother George leading the band) competed with and often bested "I Love Lucy" for ratings. He'd go on to sell millions of records -- over 2 million in 1953 alone.
But was as a live performer that Liberace truly made his mark: As a headliner in Vegas, he had no equal, making $55,000 a week playing at the Riviera nightclub. By 1972, he was earning $300,000 a week, and was only finally dethroned by Elvis. (He reclaimed his mantle as Vegas' highest paid performer after the King's death.)
Liberace's own death, from AIDS, remains perhaps the most tragic and defining aspect of his life as an artist. Despite his status as a gay icon, Liberace always flatly denied that he was homosexual (Most poignantly, his publicist attributed his weight loss in his final months as being caused by a "watermelon diet.") and it's Liberace's worst-kept-secret of a double-life that the project is expected to focus on.
In the early 80s, Liberace's live-in lover Scott Thorson sued him for $113 million in "palimony" after they parted ways, and it is that suit - ultimately dismissed - that insiders say will be used as the starting point to introduce audiences to the secret that vexed Liberace for his entire adult life.
No studio is as yet attached, though Cage is said to be meeting with directors in the weeks to come, and is said to want to go before cameras as early as October of this year.
from TMZ
Actress Anne Heche's mother has penned a tell-all about the day her daughter told her she was a lesbian. In The Truth Comes Out, Nancy Heche reveals she "plummeted into disbelief" when her daughter 'came out' to her in 1997 after striking up a romance with comedienne Ellen Degeneres. The Ally McBeal star then went public about her sexuality and lesbian romance, which lasted until Heche fell for cameraman Coley Laffoon in 2000. Nancy Heche admits in her new book that she was most upset by her daughter's gay life because her husband - the actress' father Don - revealed his secret homosexual life before he died of AIDS in 1983. In an extract from the book obtained by US tabloid the National Enquirer, Nancy writes, "I couldn't imagine anything worse. Anne's newfound lesbian love affair is like a betrayal of an unspoken vow: We will never have anything to do with homosexuals. "Don's death took us to the depths of despair... I secretly hoped Anne's affair would last a week or two, maybe a couple of months."
from Contact Music
UNITED KINGDOM - Gay men face considerably lower wages than their heterosexual colleagues and are less likely to be in work, research reveals.
Men in same-sex relationships were paid 6% less than their heterosexual counterparts and were 3% less likely to be employed, according to an article in the Centre for Economic Performance's CentrePiece magazine.
The shortfall exists despite the introduction of a law to prevent discrimination against sexual orientation in the workplace more than two-and-a-half years ago.
However, lesbian women in couples were paid about 11% more than heterosexual equivalents and were 12% more likely to be in work, partly down to childcare commitments heterosexual women might have, the report said.
Workplace inequality worsened for gay men and lesbians if they were aged under 40 or employed in the private sector. The pay gap for gay male couples widened to 7% if they worked in the private sector and to 8% if they were aged 40 or younger.
"There are all sorts of reasons why these pay gaps still exist," said Alan Marin, report author. "All discrimination is difficult to change simply by a law. It takes a long time."
from Personnel Today
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Using his penis as a brush, artist Tim 'Pricasso' Patch performed a number of live paintings to mark the start of Sexpo in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday.
Patch, 56, says he first painted with his organ during New Year's celebrations last year.
He only uses water-based paints and sells his paintings for around A$300 (US$250).
Patch says the road to becoming a prolific artist is a rough one.
"There is a limit to how long one can paint for, especially on canvas," he said on his Web site.
He adds that taking his work seriously helps him from getting too excited.
"I take the performance very seriously. It is entertainment," he said on his website. "Erotic, yes, but non-sexual. It's a gift, it's art."
Sexpo, which is in its tenth year, claims to be the largest adult sex exhibition in the world.
from Mainichi Daily News
JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 -- less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, established in 1993, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.
The policy is becoming "a very effective weapon of vengeance in the armed forces" said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based watchdog organization that counseled Copas and is working to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Copas said he was never open about his sexuality in the military and suspects his accuser was someone he mistakenly befriended and apparently slighted.
More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year -- an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.
That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lt. Col. James Zellmer, Copas' commanding officer in the 313th military intelligence battalion, told the AP that "the evidence clearly indicated that Sgt. Copas had engaged in homosexual acts."
While investigators were never able to determine who the accuser was, "in the end, the nature and the volume of the evidence and Sgt. Copas's own sworn statement led me to discharge him," Zellmer said.
Military investigators wrote that Copas "engaged in at least three homosexual relationships, and is dealing with at least two jealous lovers, either of whom could be the anonymous source providing this information."
Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May, the first e-mail came to the chorus director.
"The director brought everyone into the hallway and told us about this e-mail they had just received and blatantly asked, 'Which one of you are gay?'" Copas said.
Copas later complained to the director and his platoon sergeant, saying the questions violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"They said they would watch it in the future," Copas said. "And they said, even specifically then, 'Well, you are not gay are you?' And I said, 'no.'"
The accuser, who signed his e-mails "John Smith" or "ftbraggman," pressed Copas' superiors to take action against him or "I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you."
On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.
But Copas declined to answer when they asked, "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?" He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.
Copas said he accepted the honorable discharge to end the ordeal, to avoid lying about his sexuality and risking a perjury charge, and to keep friends from being targeted.
"It is unfair. It is unjust," he said. "Even with the policy we have, it should never have happened."
from The Los Angeles Times
UNITED KINGDOM - Only one in seven Brits stop and turn off their cell phones before having sex, according to a report touted as the largest ever to examine how mobile phones have changed British life.
More than 16,500 people participated in a survey by The Carphone Warehouse, an independent European cell phone equipment and services retailer, and The London School of Economics and a Labour Party leader. Mobile Life, a forum established by The Carphone Warehouse, released the results Monday. Researchers looked at several aspects of life, but they pointed to sex findings as the most surprising.
The study found that while only 14 percent of those surveyed said that they switch their cell phones off, another 11 percent switch them to silent, meaning one in four people disable their device " one way or another " before having sex. When asked to describe the circumstances under which they would turn their phones off or silence them, more people listed movies, restaurants, meetings or nighttime than sex.
The survey also found that more than half (54 percent) of the people between the ages of 18 and 24 sent or received sexually explicit text messages, and a quarter sent or received a sexually explicit picture or video.
More than half (57 percent) of all mobile phone users in that age group sent or received invitations to a date by text, and more than one-fifth reported receiving a "Dear John" text message, according to the Mobile Life report.
Many people said they believe it is reasonable to use a text message to avoid a conversation, with 33 percent reporting it is reasonable and another 42 percent reporting that it can be reasonable if done considerately.
One in four mobile phone users said they did not think that sending a flirty text message was a form of cheating.
Twenty-one percent of respondents said they use their cell phones to deter people from approaching them. Among women under 25, the tactic was more popular, with 55 percent saying they used their mobile phones to deter unwanted advances from men.
The study also found that young adults place more importance on their mobile phones than television, and sending text messages has surpassed talking as the most popular cell phone activity.
from Tech Web
MONTREAL, CANADA - As Montreal plays host to one of the largest gay sporting events of its kind, health-care officials in the city are promoting the morning-after pill, a combination of drugs said to reduce the risk of HIV infection.
Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is similar to the conventional morning-after pill used to prevent pregnancy in that it's best taken within 72 hours of risky sexual relations. However, unlike the pregnancy prevention pill, it is a month-long course of treatment.
Montreal health officials have orchestrated an extensive media campaign to promote the pill because of the unprecedented large gathering of gays in the city.
The 1st World Outgames — which began Wednesday — is an athletic event geared to gays, lesbians and transgendered athletes. It's been touted as the largest sports gathering to hit Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.
Thousands of gay athletes from around the world are expected to attend.
Dr. Rejean Thomas, president of the Clinique Medicale l'Actuel, said the pill is not intended to be used in place of a condom but as a backup.
"Accidents can happen. We still know that on drugs or alcohol sometimes the safe behaviour diminishes, so it's like another alternative," said Thomas.
The clinic has launched a poster campaign to promote the pill in addition to sponsoring TV advertisements. It's also added extra staff for the course of the games.
The ads for the pill feature images of handsome, athletic men on a rainbow background and read: "Have you had a risky sexual relation? Did the condom break?... Do you know about PEP?"
Drugs don't encourage unsafe sex: doctor
Thomas said there is typically a surge in infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases following large events of this kind.
The HIV infection rate among gay men living in Montreal is estimated to be about 15 per cent and health-care officials in the city say preventing further spread of the virus is paramount.
Thomas does not believe the drugs encourage unsafe sex, noting that 85 per cent of the people who've taken them, have only done so once.
Ken Monteith, the executive director of AIDS community care in Montreal, says he's entirely in favour of the campaign.
"The whole question of PEP might be saving someone from a lifetime of expensive and difficult-to-take medication," he said.
The pill is well known among medical professionals and has long been used in the event of accidental exposure to the virus on the job.
Monteith says it would be helpful if the general public knew more about the drug and its ability to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV.
from CBC News
Lance Bass, the former 'N Sync heartthrob, reveals that he is gay, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.
"I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything," says Bass, referring to bandmates Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake.
"I didn’t know: Could that be the end of ’N Sync? So I had that weight on me of like, ‘Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did," he says speaking about his sexual orientation for the first time with PEOPLE.
Now, after years of keeping his personal life private, the Mississippi-bred, Southern Baptist-reared Bass, 27, is publicly revealing what he first shared with his friends, then his shocked family.
"He took years to really think about how he was going to tell everyone," says his close buddy Fatone, 29, who was the first 'N Sync bandmate to find out Bass is gay. "I back him up 100 percent." Adds Bass’s longtime pal, actress Christina Applegate: "I've always accepted him as who he is. It's about his own serenity at this point."
Having pursued acting, producing and – most memorably – space flight after ’N Sync went on hiatus in 2002, Bass now is looking ahead to new beginnings. He is in a "very stable" relationship with model-actor-Amazing Race winner Reichen Lehmkuhl, 32, and is developing an Odd Couple-inspired sitcom pilot with Fatone in which his character will be gay.
Mostly, though, he’s just enjoying the relief that comes with the culmination of a long, at times emotionally fraught journey.
"The thing is, I’m not ashamed – that’s the one thing I want to say," he explains of his decision to come out. "I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I’ve been my whole life. I'm just happy."
As for why he's talking about this now Bass says, "The main reason I wanted to speak my mind was that (the rumors) really were starting to affect my daily life. Now it feels like it's on my terms. I'm at peace with my family, my friends, myself and God so there's really nothing else that I worry about."
from People Magazine
LONDON - A press ad offering gay men explicit tips on sex and bondage has been banned by the advertising watchdog after objections that it was 'obscene'.
One of two ads for gay men's health charity GMFA, created in-house and appearing in gay and lesbian newspaper Pink Paper, featured two men embracing holding a sign saying "we'd rather fuck than watch TV".
The second, for relationship counselling and courses for gay men, said: "Sex & your cock... learn all about your cock and pick up tips about wanking and blow job techniques..."
A complainant, who saw the ads in the newspaper at her local library, objected that the text was offensive and obscene and not suitable in a publication that was available in public libraries.
GMFA said its mission was to improve gay men's health by giving them the "knowledge, skills and confidence" to negotiate in sexual situations.
According to the charity, 80% of new HIV infections acquired in the UK were as a result of sex between men, and the best way to communicate effectively with gay men, particularly in sex-related matters, was to use the same frank language used by gay men.
The ASA said the ads contained words that could be considered offensive and could cause serious and widespread offence to some readers of Pink Paper, particularly when it was made available in public places such as libraries.
from Brand Republic
Like Viagra before it, a drug once studied to treat heart problems may help treat sexual dysfunction. But this time it's being tested exclusively for women.
A new study shows that a modified version of the experimental heart drug Candoxatril was effective at increasing blood flow to the vagina in animal tests.
If further research confirms these results in humans, the drug may be used to treat female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD).
Researchers say an estimated 40% of women suffer from FSAD or other forms of sexual dysfunction, such as low libido or pain during intercourse.
Candoxatril went into clinical trials in the 1990s as a heart failure medication, but has since become the focus of efforts to develop a medication to treat female sexual arousal disorder.
How The Drug Works
Candoxatril is one of several compounds that targets levels of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), which controls blood flow to the vagina. Researchers say decreased blood flow to the vagina is thought to be a key factor in female sexual arousal disorder.
An enzyme called NEP degrades VIP in the body. Candoxatril works by blocking NEP.
In a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry researchers altered the molecular structure of Candoxatril in order to focus the drug to treat female sexual arousal dysfunction.
In animal tests, researchers at Pfizer Global Research and Development in the U.K., found the new compound effectively blocked NEP, took effect quickly, and the effect lasted for a relatively short time.
They say the results suggest that the drug might have similar effects in humans, but further research is needed.
from CBS News
NEW YORK - Three major gay-rights groups are taking out full-page advertisements starting Tuesday in 50 newspapers nationwide declaring their determination to keep fighting for same-sex marriage rights despite recent court setbacks.
The media campaign will cost $250,000; its organizers said it was the largest-ever purchase of print advertising space by gay rights supporters.
Roberta Sklar of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said the ads would run in papers around the country, from The New York Times to The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to gay weeklies in Houston, Atlanta and San Diego.
The ads feature photographs of five same-sex couples who have been together as long as 53 years and are endorsed by an array of organizations and individuals, including 11 religious leaders and nine mayors.
"From coast to coast, millions of people and hundreds of organizations are working to protect gay and lesbian families by ending their exclusion from marriage," the ads say. "Along the way, there will be advances and setbacks, but we will not stop until every American family is treated fairly, with dignity and equality under the law."
The ad placement comes at an eventful time for the gay marriage debate.
Opponents of gay marriage have recently won important court rulings in several states _ most notably New York. However, a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage failed to win the needed two-thirds support in both the Senate and House.
"There's no question the landscape is mixed," said Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, one of the three organizers of the ad campaign along with the task force and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD).
"This is a long-term conversation," Wolfson said. "Our job is to make sure people hear about gay families and why marriage matters, and not be drowned out by the horse race of the moment."
Signatories of the ads included the mayors of Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Providence, R.I., Portland, Ore., West Sacramento, Calif., and Palm Springs, Calif.
GLAAD's executive director, Neil Giuliano, said the ad campaign was a milestone because of the strong support from straight political and religious leaders
"This clearly shows a maturing of the movement, broadening the base in our quest for equality," he said. "It shows we have the capacity to speak loudly and strongly nationwide."
Among other publications, the ads were scheduled to appear in The Fresno (Calif.) Bee, The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., The Times of Trenton, N.J., and The Olympian of Olympia, Wash.
from The Washington Post
Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen has side-stepped the American armed forces "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals recruits, after being made an honorary lieutenant colonel in the national guard during a recent trip to Atlanta, Georgia. The Lord Of The Rings actor who has always been very vocal about his sexuality since coming out in the 1980s, was given the title whilst promoting recent movie The Da Vince Code. The 67-year-old hopes the recognition bestowed upon him by the governor of Georgia will encourage more gay men in the military to be open about their sexuality. He tells the New York Daily News, "I was in Atlanta doing press for The Da Vinci Code - and they wanted to honour me. The governor made me a lieutenant colonel. "So the 'Don't ask, don't tell' rule obviously doesn't apply to me. I have a lovely certificate hanging in my office. So inadvertently, they made me the poster child for having openly gay people in the military."
from Contact Music
LONDON - To mark their ten years together, George Michael and his American lover Kenny Goss had been looking forward to an Elton John-style gay 'wedding' ceremony followed by a lavish party.
But plans for the nuptials are off - after the singer was seen emerging from bushes following a sexual encounter with a pot-bellied, jobless van driver.
"They are reassessing their relationship at the moment so there are no immediate plans," said a source close to 43-year-old Michael. "Things are very much up in the air."
Michael was forced to admit to the world that he was gay in 1998 after Californian police arrested him for lewd conduct in a public lavatory.
Recently he was charged with cannabis possession after being found slumped at the wheel of his car in Hyde Park. In a separate incident he was questioned by officers after colliding with three parked cars and driving off without informing their owners.
His latest late-night escapade happened on Hampstead Heath, a mile from his £5million home in Highgate, North London. The News of the World caught him returning to his car after an encounter with 58-year-old Norman Kirtland, from Brighton.
Sex in public places is illegal if it is likely that it can be witnessed by a third party. But a police spokesman said they were not planning to investigate as Michael had not been caught by an officer and no complaint had been made.
The singer has insisted in the past that he and Goss, 48, have an open relationship, saying: "Gay relationships are a bit different. I'm sure we'll be allowed to roam if we want to. But we love each other dearly."
Only three months ago Michael, who is believed to be worth £50 million, told Michael Parkinson that he was to seal his relationship, saying: "We'll do it on our tenth anniversary, we'll probably do the formal legal thing then the party."
But the source close to Michael yesterday admitted: "They do not feel that it is relevant now."
from The Daily Mail
Men and people over 40 are much more likely to report positive experiences when they tell healthcare providers they are not heterosexual, according research in the latest Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Women patients reported that healthcare providers were more likely to assume they were heterosexual, adding that more than one in ten were uncomfortable when they disclosed they were lesbian or bisexual.
They were also twice as likely as men to report that their care was negatively affected by their disclosure.
Researchers from Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, surveyed 2,269 lesbian, gay and bisexual people to discover how they felt about revealing their sexuality and the reaction of primary healthcare providers, such as family doctors and practice nurses, when they did.
"It's important that healthcare providers are aware of people's sexuality as non disclosure has been shown to have a negative impact on their health" says nurse researcher and lecturer Dr Stephen Neville.
"For example, people who are lesbian, gay and bisexual are more likely to face an increased risk of suicide, depression and other mental health problems."
Key findings included:
* Both sexes said that their healthcare professional's attitude to sexual identity was important to them when they chose a provider. This was particularly important for women and people under 40.
* 83 per cent of women and 66 per cent of men said that their healthcare provider assumed they were heterosexual. They were more likely to make that assumption if the patient was under 40 (76 per cent) than over 40 (71 per cent).
* Women were more likely to disclose their sexuality in a primary healthcare setting than men (72 per cent compared with 65 per cent) and there was a similar gap between people over 40 (76 per cent) and under 40 (61 per cent).
* 78 per cent of women and 86 per cent of men said their healthcare provider was "completely comfortable" with their disclosure, but 11 per cent of women and six per cent of men said they were "somewhat uncomfortable". 11 per cent of women and eight per cent of men said their provider ignored the disclosure.
* Healthcare professionals seemed to respond better to disclosures by older patients, with 85 per cent of people over 40 and 78 per cent of people under 40 saying that their healthcare provider was "completely comfortable" with their disclosure.
* 43 per cent of men said that they felt their healthcare provider's attitude to their disclosure influenced the care they received in a positive way, compared with 28 per cent of women. Five per cent of women - twice as many as men - felt it had a negative effect.
* Older people were also more positive. 38 per cent of those over 40 and 33 per cent of those under 40 reported a positive effect. Five per cent of people under 40 – twice as many as in the over 40 age bracket – reported a negative effect.
* 33 per cent of women and 61 per cent of men under 40 reported having more than one partner in the 12 months before the survey, compared with 10 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men over 40.
* 24 per cent of men over 40 reported having more than 10 partners during that period, but none of the women said that they did.
The study forms part of the "Lavender Island" project - the first major study to be undertaken in New Zealand about access to health care by lesbian, gay and bisexual people and the attitudes of the people who care for them.
Participants were surveyed in 2004 having been recruited through mainstream and lesbian, gay and bisexual media and venues. 84 per cent responded via a website and 16 per cent completed a freepost copy of the questionnaire, which was developed with input from a community advisory group of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
55 per cent of the respondents were male and the sample was highly educated, with just over half having a degree, compared to 15 per cent of the general New Zealand population.
45 per cent were in a relationship with a same-sex partner they lived with and 14 per cent with a same-sex partner who lived elsewhere.
Four per cent said their main relationship was with a member of the opposite sex.
23 per cent of the 1,846 people who responded to the question about children said they had some kind of parenting relationship. This equated to 18 per cent of the total sample.
"It is clear from our study that providing lesbian, gay and bisexual people with the chance to disclose their sexual identity is an integral part of providing high quality, appropriate healthcare" says Dr Neville.
"Previous studies have shown that people are more likely to seek healthcare and adhere to treatment regimes if they know that healthcare providers will be comfortable with their sexuality and not automatically assume they are heterosexual.
"A number of health problems do tend to be more prevalent in lesbian, gay and bisexual people, such as depression. And in the era of HIV and hepatitis B and C, appropriate sex and lifestyle healthcare education must be a core part of any health assessment.
"Being aware of a patient's sexual orientation enables healthcare providers to tailor care to their individual needs and tackle any risk areas, in the same way that they would do by taking any other personal characteristics, such as a person's age, race or family health history, into account."
from eMax Health
Eighty countries still criminalise homosexuality. Beheading, torture, jai or rape await many queers fighting for their rights across the world.
In one of the worst reported cases, Iran beheaded two young gay men in July 2005. Last month, the US-backed Iraqi security forces executed a young gay man. Defying threats of violence, Russian queers took to the streets a month ago to mark the 13th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality and to highlight ongoing state-sanctioned human rights abuses.
The AIDS virus has killed around 26 million people, half of them women, in the last 23 years. Half of the 126 countries reporting to UNAIDS have policies that interfere with prevention, such as criminalising homosexuality. At the June UN general assembly meeting, which discussed the AIDS pandemic, conservative delegates insisted on expunging the words “sex workers” and “homosexuals” from the declarations.
The Australian government has set a homophobic agenda. PM John Howard was the first leader worldwide to introduce a ban on same-sex marriage. He has described queers as physiologically disturbed and unfit to raise children, echoing the racist paternalism of those bigots who opposed blacks and whites marrying.
Queers are in the neo-conservatives’ sights. But this year we have campaigned for queer spaces to organise the fight-back. We have supported refugee protests and anti-war marches, and marched against the anti-union laws. We’ve defended our student unions and fought for their activist, grassroots integrity.
Wollongong queers organised successfully against local Christian fundamentalists who were offering a $200 “cure” for homosexuality. Perth activists led and won a queer space at Edith Cowan University.
Melbourne queers were the backbone of the campaign against “voluntary student unionism” (VSU) and the privatisation of public spaces on campus, and Melbourne University queers fought a policy of “no political posters or banners” in their union building. Canberra students have fought and won the right to organise in a queer space and have been the activist backbone of the struggle against the ban on civil unions in the ACT.
Queers have campaigned against poverty and we took action to fight Work Choices and VSU on June 1 in a youth and student strike. At the recent education conference in Melbourne, queers won support for a national day of action in second semester against VSU.
When Hillsong and the Christian right are getting 20,000 to weekend mobilisations in Adelaide, we have to get better organised to fight back. In this climate of fear-mongering, we all need to be the Rosa Parkes, Malcolm Xs, Peter Tatchells and Angela Davis’s of today.
If we dare to struggle, we will win a world based on love, health, education and dignity for all.
from The Green Left Weekly / Rachel Evans
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.
The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.
Missouri lawmakers were spurred to action after members of the church protested in St. Joseph, Mo., last August at the funeral of Army Spec. Edward L. Myers.
The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.
A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.
"I told the nation, as each state went after these laws, that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them," said Phelps's daughter Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the church in Topeka, Kan. "At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country."
Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, said, "We're not going to acquiesce to anything that they're asking for in this lawsuit."
The suit names Nixon, Gov. Matt Blunt (R) and others as defendants.
from The Washington Post
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - With some of the world's most beautiful women on display at tonight's Miss Universe Pageant in Los Angeles, viewers of the NBC broadcast were exposed to a celebration of homosexuality with continuous "gay" jokes and innuendo.
Providing commentary for the program were Carson Kressley, a homosexual who stars on the Bravo network's "Queer Eye," and 2004 Miss USA Shandi Finnessey.
At one point in the program, when Finnessey was promoting a beauty guide viewers could order, Kressley said, "It'll tell you how to be a true queen. A beauty queen."
During analysis of the finalists, Kressley noted, "I also loved Miss Puerto Rico. Again I have to confess I was looking at her dress, I was kind of mesmerized."
"You want to borrow it, is what you want to do," Finnessey responded.
Regarding some of the contestants' ability to speak more than one language, Kressley also clowned he was ready to become "bi-," but then jokingly clarified he meant "bi-lingual."
In the end, Miss Puerto Rico, 18-year-old Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza, won the competition and was crowned Miss Universe 2006, while Miss USA Tara Conner was fourth runner-up.
"I'm ready to switch teams for [Miss] Puerto Rico," Kressley swooned.
from World Net Daily
Mayor Street will evict the Boy Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council from its city-owned Center City headquarters, or make the organization pay fair-market rent, unless it stops discriminating against gays.
The mayor's intention - which would apparently bring to an end a dispute that has been roiling for more than three years over scouting's policies toward gays - was made clear in a letter written by City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. to William T. Dwyer III, president and chief executive officer of the Cradle of Liberty Council.
"For several years, we have attempted to convince the Cradle of Liberty Council that its discriminatory policies are untenable and violate express City policy and law," the letter reads. "Regrettably, we have been unable to obtain adequate assurances that the Boy Scouts will not, while headquartered on City property, discriminate."
The letter goes on to say: "We believe that ejectment, subject to a fair-market rent agreement, is an appropriate measure that recognizes the many contributions made by your organization."
The council serves 87,000 members in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware Counties and is the third-largest in the country.
"Until we've had time to put this in front of our attorneys and decision makers, it really isn't appropriate for me to comment," Dwyer said Friday.
Dwyer said, however, that the letter had surprised him because he believed the two sides "were still working."
Cradle of Liberty Council spokesman Jeff Jubelirer had more pointed views.
"With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of Philadelphia's children every day," Jubelirer said, "it is ironic the administration chose this time to destroy programming that services 40,000 children in the city."
Stacey L. Sobel, executive director of Philadelphia's Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, said members of her organization had worked with the city and the local Boy Scout Council during negotiations.
"This is a long-standing issue with the Boy Scouts," she said. "We're pleased that the city is taking action."
She said her group would prefer that the Boy Scouts not discriminate at all. But "if they are going to discriminate, the taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing it," Sobel said.
The Boy Scouts have been headquartered on nearly a half acre near Logan Circle at 22d and Winter Streets since 1928, when City Council voted in favor of letting the Philadelphia Boy Scouts use the property rent-free "in perpetuity."
Although the scouts pay no rent, they foot the bill for the upkeep of the stately stone building.
Officials at the organization's national headquarters could not be reached Friday for comment on the letter. The national organization, Boy Scouts of America, has a strict policy that forbids homosexuals from being scouts or scout leaders. That policy was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and affirmed by the national council in 2002.
Scouting's position on gays has been debated in Philadelphia since 2003, when the local council voted to adopt a nondiscrimination policy regarding homosexuals - but then weeks later ousted an 18-year-old South Philadelphia scout who publicly acknowledged he was gay.
The action was greeted with protests by gay and lesbian groups and others offended by the apparent discrimination based on sexual orientation. The group also lost some of its funding, including from the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Afterward, then-City Solicitor Nelson Diaz offered the opinion that the scouts' policy of banning gays violated the city's fair-practices ordinance. That law forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, religion, race, color and other classifications and would preclude the city from aiding the organization.
The city and the local council had been talking since.
In September 2003, the council vowed to bring its policies into line with Philadelphia's antidiscrimination laws, but that apparently did not happen.
On Friday, Diaz said his letter represented a "measured approach to an issue that has been certainly one of concern since the issue was raised some years back."
"We believe that the free-rent approach at the Boy Scout headquarters has subsidized discrimination by the local scout organization," Diaz said. "We believe we have a responsibility, both legally and morally, to address that."
Real estate prices have boomed in the burgeoning neighborhoods along the Parkway in Center City.
Across the wide avenue from the Boy Scouts, a 47-story condo tower is planned at the site of the Best Western Center City Motel at 22d and Spring Garden Streets.
from The Philadelphia Inquirer
UNITED KINGDOM -
George Michael has been caught in a new sex sting, after reporters found him romping with a pot-bellied van driver in park bushes.
The singer – who was famously caught indecently proposing an undercover police officer in a Californian public toilet in 1998 – was discovered emerging from a gay pick up spot in London's Hampstead Heath after a liason with the unemployed 58-year-old.
In true Victor Meldrew fashion he exclaimed, “I don’t believe it!” before telling the reporters from the News Of The World, “Fuck off! If you put those pictures in the paper I’ll sue.” They put the pictures in the paper.
Before racing off in his Mercedes, George – who has a long-term partner Kenny Goss – reasoned with the journalists, “Are you gay? No? Then fuck off! This is my culture! I'm not doing anything illegal. The police don't even come up here any more. I'm a free man, I can do whatever I want. I'm not harming anyone."
A ‘friend’ told the paper, “We're really concerned. It's long been known he's a heavy cannabis user but we're beginning to fear the pot may have affected his mind. He's lost his judgment. He must seek professional help or things could end very badly for him.
"He's just asking for serious trouble. One day he'll be attacked in one of these dodgy late-night encounters. It's so sad to see a talented guy wasting himself like this."
from Entertainmentwise
JAMAICA - For years, some female sex workers have been plying their trade and speaking openly about their activities, but male sex workers are gradually coming out of the closet in Jamaica and talking about their experience.
The Sunday Gleaner recently met two male commercial sex workers who candidly spoke about their profession at an HIV/AIDS workshop organised by Panos Caribbean in Ocho Rios, St. Ann.
Meet 24-year-old commercial sex worker, Kevinwho hails from an inner-city community in Kingston. He told The Sunday Gleaner that poverty and unemployment forced him into the commercial sex world.
His first encounter occurred three years ago when he wanted a pair of shoes and his friends introduced him to the streets, where he remains today.
He disclosed that he could make up to $7,000 per night. One encounter, he said, costs about $2,500 in addition to a condom charge.
The lanky youth is well aware of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and has received counselling from the Ministry of Health.
"Mi buy de condom an dem haffi pay for it." He noted that the condoms vary in cost. "Him affi pay $50 extra fi di condom. If it's a long love, him pay $200 and $250 fi di flavoured condom."
According to Kevin, being on the streets of New Kingston at nights can be very risky and to protect himself, he has the license plates and contact numbers for his clients logged in a book.
"Yuh caan stay one place because dem wi rob yuh," he said.
The commercial sex worker told The Sunday Gleaner that he and his colleagues are also harassed by members of the security force but sometimes pay them money to lessen the harassment. He related one incident where he was "juggled like a football" by a group of police officers.
Kevin is a graduate of a prominent all-boys school in St. Andrew. He has five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects. He said if there were opportunities for a better and legitimate job, he would stop doing commercial sex work.
Twenty-one year-old Junior,another commercial sex worker says he sells sex during his spare time.
At age 16, he told his father that he was a homosexual and his father said he could no longer stay in his house. He went to live with his mother, where he became involved in sex work.
Junior, who also grew up in an inner-city community-related that he did not have a good relationship with his mother during his early years. He said that she now knows of his sexual preference and added that he is taking care of her financially.
His first commercial sex encounter on the street five years ago, was a traumatic one. He related that three men with weapons approached him at his hang-out spot, demanding that he have sex with them. One of the men, he said, forced him to have unprotected sex.
His mother later accompanied him to the doctor where he did an HIV test, which was negative. Now Junior insists that all his clients use a condom.
Like Kevin, Junior has had several violent encounters.
Boris Bloomfield, prevention coordinator for vulnerable populations in the Ministry of Health, said Jamaica has a sex industry worth millions of dollars.
The Ministry of Health has no estimate on the number, of male commercial sex workers, but it is estimated that 10-12 per cent of sex workers are infected with HIV/AIDS.
The Ministry of Health and the Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) have been involved in counselling commercial sex workers.
But Andrea McLean, executive director of JASL, said many of these persons do not come forward for voluntary counselling and testing because of the stigmatisation attached to the profession.
Ms. McLean told The Sunday Gleaner that her organisation has had several complaints of violent acts being perpetrated against male commercial workers.
She is appealing to citizens to stop the violent acts towards commercial sex workers, noting that it affects the human rights of these persons.
The executive director said while JASL does not have a problem reaching female commercial sex workers for intervention programmes, it is difficult to get in touch with the male sex workers because homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica.
from The Sunday Gleaner
OTTAWA, CANADA - Despite the Canadian military's progressive gay-friendly policies, gay and lesbian soldiers often live a life of secrecy and isolation in the Canadian Forces.
According to a letter from one gay soldier, obtained by Sun Media through an access to information request with the individual's name protected, homosexual troops often face "negative" reactions to their sexual orientation within the ranks.
"I am part of a same-sex common-law couple within the Canadian Forces, and after declaring common-law status, I found that my situation is very common across the Canadian Forces, although many couples prefer to remain in silence about their relationship and lifestyle," the author writes.
The soldier said the Family Resource Centre provides "exceptional service" to the military community as a whole, but doesn't specifically help non-traditional families.
"From personal experience, I know there are young soldiers who feel they don't belong, and there are no resources within the military community or the Family Resource Centre to reach out to them," the author writes.
Calling it an "ever-present and growing issue," the soldier pleaded for the Defence Department to establish a service that would help gay and lesbian colleagues connect with one another to lift the sense of alienation.
Gilles Marchildon, executive director of Egale Canada, said the large size of the military makes it inevitable there would be "unevenness" in how policies are applied.
"There certainly has been huge change since 1992 when the ban against homosexuals serving in the army was lifted. It's not that long," he said.
The Defence Department has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment based on sexual orientation, has funded gender reassignment surgery and drafted a policy to marry same-sex couples on army bases before it was the law.
from The Calgary Sun
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - Claiming that he found a video camera hidden in the ceiling of a sperm bank's "donation room," a Los Angeles man is suing the firm for negligence and emotional distress. Ken Rigberg, 27, charges that he discovered the pinhole camera during a June 2005 visit to Pasadena's Pacific Reproductive Services. According to Rigberg's Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, he "noticed an unusual hole in the ceiling tile" of a private donation room, where he had just finished masturbating into a cup. Upon inspection, Rigberg realized that "there was a hidden surveillance camera on top of the ceiling tile, with the lens of the camera positioned to...capture the activity within the private donor room." Rigberg is described in the lawsuit as a "regular sperm donor" who went to Pacific "to provide an honorable and essential benefit to his community." According to Pacific's web site, it pays men $100 per donation, and that most donors contribute "once or twice weekly over a minimum one-year period or 65 donations." Rigberg's attorney, S. Edmond El Dabe, provided TSG with a police photograph of the seized ceiling cam equipment, an image he received from Pacific's insurance carrier. El Dabe said Pasadena cops have been unable to determine who placed the video camera in the donation room ceiling. The lawsuit, which was filed in late-May and does not specify monetary damages, asserts that Rigberg has, among other things, suffered fear, shame, humiliation, and chagrin as a result of discovering the surveillance gadget. An "emotionally traumatized" Rigberg, who had been visiting Pacific for more than a year, "no longer donates sperm, as he fears future illegal surveillance of his private acts," the complaint notes.
from The Smoking Gun
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - As a 340-pound (154-kg) nose tackle in the National Football League, Esera Tuaolo was a pretty tough guy. But as a closeted gay athlete he recalls living in constant fear.
"I felt like if I had come out while still in the NFL I would have been in physical danger," Tuaolo told Reuters this week. "They would have taken me out -- gone after my knees, or tried to paralyze me."
Hawaiian-born Tuaolo, who played for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1999 Super Bowl game, was in Chicago to participate in the weeklong Gay Games VII sports festival, and appeared on a panel called "Brokeback Locker Room," about the challenges facing gay and lesbian athletes.
Panelists agreed that although homosexuals now enjoy increased acceptance in public life, the sports arena has been a tough nut to crack.
"Sports is the last frontier in terms of homophobia," said Helen Carroll, sports project coordinator with the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.
For that reason many athletes, including women's basketball standout Sheryl Swoopes and golfer Rosie Jones, have waited until the twilight of their careers before coming out.
In baseball, "there's a lot of pressure to fit in with what everyone else is doing -- you need to have a really hot-looking wife and start having kids right away," said Billy Bean, who played for three major-league teams from 1987 to 1995.
Bean "came out" as a homosexual in 1999. In the intervening years little has changed for gay athletes in the sport, he said.
'FRONT OFFICE WORRIES'
"There is one kid in the minor leagues who e-mails me two or three times a day. But big leaguers won't risk anything -- even an e-mail could become public information," he said.
Even as public acceptance of gays develops, "Owners and managers are afraid of two or three players poisoning the team atmosphere ... it's that mixture that the front office worries about," Bean said.
Leigh-Ann Naidoo, a South African beach volleyballer, said she could hardly believe that at the 2004 Olympics in Athens she was one of just a dozen or so "out" athletes.
"My coming out was so I could share my Olympic experience fully with my partner," she said. "But it doesn't threaten my life to say that I'm gay, whereas for others it may."
Tuaolo said he is working with about 30 high school and college athletes on "coming out" issues. He has also spoken to NFL employees and, last season, to the NFL's rookie symposium about homophobia and on being a gay man in sports.
Carroll said more and more standout high-school athletes are out, and that one of her missions has been to counsel coaches about how to deal with such situations.
"I tell coaches: 'You have a gay or lesbian athlete and you'll have a better team if you get the team to gel together,'" she told Reuters.
Still, Carroll said, talking only goes so far, adding, "My new mantra is educate -- and litigate. It seems to take us a bit further toward our goals."
from Reuters
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - A joke about CNN journalist Anderson Cooper`s purported sexual orientation likely will be dropped from an upcoming U.S. sitcom episode, a report says.
Producers of the ABC sitcom 'Help Me Help You' probably will remove a gay joke in which actor Jim Rash`s character refers to the famed TV host, the New York Post said.
'I`m gay. I`m super gay. And I guess that makes Anderson Cooper gay, too.' Rash`s character says in the original of the episode, the newspaper said.
Cooper`s sexual orientation has long been the subject of rumors and the famed journalist has refused to respond to such allegations.
'I just don`t talk about my personal life,' the 39-year-old CNN star recently told New York Magazine.
Executives from the new sitcom have said the joke likely will be cut before the episode airs, despite the fact that CNN has not filed any formal complaints regarding it, the Post said.
from Monsters and Critics
Advocates of parental rights for gays and lesbians finished a 65-mile relay march Friday to protest what they said was Focus on the Family's manipulation of research data on the issue.
More than 100 people walked about 4-mile sections of the route from Denver to the Focus headquarters in Colorado Springs, said Richard Lindsay, spokesman for the Virginia-based group called Soulforce.
Organizers of the march said they hoped to put a public face on the issue and open a dialogue with Focus about its portrayal of gay families.
Soulforce has accused Focus founder James Dobson of misusing research data to say gays and lesbians are not good parents - a charge the Christian group has denied.
To end its protest, Soulforce planned a concert and vigil Saturday night at Focus' headquarters. Focus on the Family also planned a news conference Saturday night to address the group's charges.
"This is not simply that we're gay and they're conservative Christians and we disagree with each other," Lindsay said. "They're making really inflammatory statements about the gay community."
Mike Haley, director of gender issues at Focus on the Family, said his group offered last year to hold a public dialogue with Soulforce, which they declined because they wanted a private meeting with Dobson.
"They want a monologue, they don't want a true dialogue," said Haley, who lived as a gay man for 12 years before he "walked away from homosexuality."
from Forbes
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - Governor Mitt Romney issued an executive order yesterday abolishing the state's 14-year-old governor's commission on gay and lesbian youth after lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill creating a new commission out of the reach of the governor's office.
A spokesman for Romney said he issued the executive order because there was no need for two commissions both focused on the needs of gay and lesbian youth.
Romney angered many gay rights activists and lawmakers when he flirted with the idea earlier this year of abolishing the commission, the first of its kind in the nation, after a press release announcing a youth gay pride march was issued without the administration's blessing.
Instead of killing the commission Romney ordered it to refocus on its core mission of suicide prevention.
The bill approved by lawmakers over Romney's veto would create a new commission, none of whose members would be directly appointed by the governor.
One of the main goals of the commission would be to create "school-based and community-based programs focusing on suicide prevention, violence intervention, and the promotion of zero-tolerance policies regarding harassment and discrimination against gay and lesbian youth."
The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth was first created by former Republican Gov. William Weld through an executive order. That allowed Romney to dismantle it, also by executive order.
from The Standard Times
Hizbullah's ongoing attacks on Israel and the war in northern Israel are the result of the planned international gay pride parade in Jerusalem next month and Israel's inadequate response against the controversial event, a senior Israeli Rabbi said Wednesday.
"We have not protested enough against this parade of abomination and therefore we have received this warning," warned Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the head of the extremist Eda Haredit rabbinic court, in a hand-written message to his followers. "Who knows where things will get to if we do not act further and more stringently against it."
Sternbuch has previously called for massive non-violent protests against the week-long international gay festival, the highlight of which is a parade through the streets of downtown Jerusalem.
Organizers of the event, who have voiced their determination to hold the parade in the city, were not immediately available for comment on the Rabbi's remarks on Wednesday.
The festival, which was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to last summer's Gaza pullout, has been widely criticized by a coterie of Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Jerusalem and around the world.
A public opinion poll released last year found that three-quarters of Jerusalem residents were opposed to holding the international gay event in the city, while only a quarter supported it.
Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York, who is spearheading an international campaign against the event on behalf of the Orthodox Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the US and Canada, said Wednesday that more than half of the Knesset - including five government ministers - have now signed a petition against the parade.
"They cannot ignore the overwhelming will of the people," Levin said, concurring that there was a "spiritual cause and effect," between the planned parade and the current violence in the North.
The last international gay parade, which took place in Rome in 2000 despite the wrath of the Vatican, attracted about half a million participants, while local organizers expect tens of thousands of revelers for the Jerusalem event this summer.
The six-day event, which is scheduled to begin August 6, will include street parties, workshops and a gay film festival.
from The Jerusalem Post
