'Hate Crime' At Danish Gay Games

A Dane has been charged with committing a hate crime for allegedly throwing fireworks at athletes during a gay sporting event in Copenhagen.
He is accused of throwing fireworks into the Oesterbro stadium where the World Outgames running competitions were being held.
One US athlete suffered a light injury to his hand.
The attack marks the second suspected hate crime at the Outgames after three men were assaulted in the street.
In the stadium incident, the alleged perpetrator was apprehended by runners from the Sparta Athletes club as he attempted to escape.
The 31-year-old suspect told a court he had thrown only one firework against a wall and had not intended to harm the athletes.
Copenhagen Police commissioner Poul B Hansen told the Danish newspaper Politiken it would be surprising if the accused had been unaware the event was for gay people.
"We are certain it was no coincidence that he threw the fireworks where he did - but it is, of course, up to the judge to decide if we are right," he added.
The suspect was remanded in custody for 13 days.
'Tolerant city'
On Sunday, three gay men from Sweden, Norway and the UK were treated in hospital following an attack by youths in the street.
The attackers have been charged with hate crimes.
Copenhagen's openly gay deputy mayor Klaus Bondam denounced the attacks.
"I am actually surprised that this has happened. I would have thought Copenhagen would have been more welcoming towards gays and lesbians from around the world," he told the BBC.
"World Outgames have invited people from countries where you can receive the death penalty for being gay. These attacks shows the importance of organising a gay sporting event, to further people's understanding of homosexuality" he added.
Some 5,500 participants from 98 countries are in Copenhagen for eight days of sport and culture to promote rights for homosexuals worldwide.
from BBC

Gay Pride Comes Back To Orange County

Orange County's first-ever gay and lesbian pride festival was held in Santa Ana's Centennial Park in 1988, when angry Christian conservatives showed up not because they'd finally come out of the closet (knew it!) but to fling urine-filled balloons, taunt attendees with chants of "Go back to your closet," and cheer on an airplane they'd hired to fly over the event with a banner reading, "Sodomites out of Santa Ana! No AIDS in OC!"
It's gone downhill ever since.
That is to say, OC pride fests eventually became less controversial, more mainstream and waaaaaay more taken for granted. (Wish we could say the same about angry Christian conservatives.) By 2002, and event that had once drawn 9,000 revelers was quietly canceled due to waning interest. Locals have had to be content with pride weekends in Long Beach, Palm Springs and West Hollywood ever since.
James S. Nowick aims to change that.
A member of the Orange County Equality Coalition and a UC Irvine professor who organized a Proposition 8 forum on campus last spring with UCI Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Norwick is also helping organize the Orange County Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Festival "revival" on Saturday, Aug. 15, in William R. Mason Regional Park in Irvine.
"OC's LGBT Pride festival started 20 years ago in a public park, but was driven to the refuge of the UCI campus in subsequent years because of a confrontation between participants and protesters," Norwick explained. "Eventually, the cost of renting the UCI campus made it prohibitive to continue. Catalyzed by Proposition 8, the pride festival has been revived in a family friendly form as a public picnic."
If that sounds modest in comparison to the past, that's by design.
"The idea is to start relatively small and to commit to a picnic and build upon it," says Norwick, who expects 500 to 1,000 attendees. "It is my hope that in future years the festival will be larger and have a formal parade component."
This year, an informal precession will pass along Harvard Avenue to Mason Park in association with the "Orange County Kiss In for Equal Rights," an anti-Prop 8 event that occurs during the festival at 2 p.m. (Smoochers start gathering at 11 a.m. in front of Steelhead Brewery, across from UCI at 4175 Campus Dr., and then proceed to the festival site.)
The festival itself is scheduled to run from noon to 4 p.m. and mostly be centered around Mason Park Shelter 6. Speakers include Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom and Jennifer C. Pizer, Lamda Legal's senior counsel and Marriage Project director. Other entertainment is planned.
Participants are encouraged to bring picnic lunches, but alcohol is discouraged as this is an event that encourages the attendance of families, even dogs. Those who must get their drink on should hang around for the after-party at Steelhead from 4-8 p.m.
Festival admission is free, which is exactly how Norwick hopes it will always be.
"I feel that a public, participatory LGBT Pride celebration is better suited to Orange County than an extravagant, expensive festival, such as those in LA, Long Beach, or San Diego," he said. "Orange County's response to Proposition 8 has convinced me that the OC LGBT community has a tremendous grass-roots energy, and I would like our LGBT Pride celebration to match the strengths and needs of our suburban LGBT community."
from OC Weekly

Sperm Bank Offers Celebrity Look-A-Like Donors

LOS ANGELES - Want to have a baby that looks like your favorite celebrity? It just a whole lot easier to design your future baby, thanks to a Los Angeles sperm bank.
" California Cryobank" announced Tuesday that it has started posting photos of celebrities who resemble their donors to give prospective clients a better idea of what their potential offspring might look like.
"The number one client question we get is: `Who does this donor look like?"' said Scott Brown of California Cryobank. "We decided this would be a great way to give thorough and consistent answers. Clients love it. Look-a-Likes has only been available for a week and our Web site traffic is up 50 percent."
Brown said the sperm bank is choosy, accepting fewer than 1 percent of people who apply to be donors. The screening process includes genetic testing, regular blood tests, a three-generation family medical history, and a sperm count/quality in the top 15 percent of the population, he said.
A group of employees spent six months putting together the photos and matching them to donors.
Clients can search for attributes such as height or eye and hair color, and the database will return a list of donors who each have two or three celebrity look-alikes. Users also can choose from an existing library of celebrities to generate a list of matching donors, according to California Cyrobank, which was started in 1977.
from KTLA

UN Allows Gay, Lesbian Group To Join Debates

GENEVA — The United Nations granted official status to a gay and lesbian organization from Brazil on Monday, allowing it to participate in U.N. meetings ranging from health to human rights.
The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social Council has overturned a decision by a 19-country committee blocking gay groups from participating in the global body's debates.
Swedish and Spanish groups were accredited as recognized non-governmental organizations in 2007 and 2008, breaking years of resistance from some governments. At one U.N. debate in 2003, Pakistan's ambassador even suggested use of the term "sexual disorientation."
One of the U.N. council's main powers is granting consultative status to organizations so that they can participate in formal U.N. meetings. More than 3,000 groups already have such rights.
"If the U.N. cannot be open and diverse, then we are really set for failure," said Guilherme Patriota, a senior Brazilian diplomat. "There are another 400 NGOs seeking the same status next year. We need to keep working on making the U.N. more open to plurality and diversity."
Patriota told The Associated Press that the organization was a valuable partner of Brazil's government in AIDS campaigns, condom promotion and other social causes, and questioned why the application was rejected in the first place.
The U.S. also criticized the U.N. committee mandated with recommending which campaign groups should be given a place. U.S. diplomat John Sammis said that body seems to spend more time coming up with ways to exclude qualified civil society groups rather than on work aimed at including them.
The U.N. council also backed a U.S.-based democracy group to participate in meetings, and suspended an Arab human rights group for a year after a complaint from Algeria.
The Democracy Coalition Project says it acts as a caucus of the world's democracies, but nonmembers China, Cuba and Russia argued that it was "engaged in politically motivated activities" against certain governments, according to the U.N. report recommending rejection of the application.
The Arab Commission for Human Rights had its status suspended until 2010 because it allowed a non-registered individual to speak at a U.N. review of Algeria's human rights record.
Algeria said the speaker, Rachid Mesli, is accused of belonging to a terrorist group. But the commission's Geneva representative, Abdel Wahab Hani, said Mesli is a human rights lawyer who was given political asylum in Switzerland after Amnesty International called him a prisoner of conscience in Algeria.
"We're not diplomats. We're not here to hide reality," Hani said. "We're here to say what is happening in the Arab world."
The ban followed the February recommendation by 18 U.N. countries as diverse as Britain, Cuba, Egypt and Israel. The U.S. was the only country to abstain, saying it needed more information about the charges against Mesli to take a position.
from The Associated Press

HBO Leads TV Networks In Annual GLAAD Inclusivity Grades

HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of gay characters last season, according to a report released Monday.
In its third annual Network Responsibility Index, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of HBO's 14 original prime-time series, 10 included content reflecting the lives of gay, bisexual and transgender people. That totaled 42 percent of the network's programming hours, in series such as "True Blood," "Entourage" and "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency."
By contrast, on NBC and CBS only 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of prime-time hours included them, the report said.
For the report, GLAAD reviewed all prime-time programming — totaling 4,901 hours — for inclusion of such characters or issues on the five major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW) from June 1, 2008, to May 31, 2009. The study also examined all original prime-time programming — 1,213 hours — on 10 prominent cable networks. The programming included dramas, comedies, unscripted fare and newsmagazines.
Cable's Showtime ranked second, with 26 percent of its programming hours featuring gay characters or themes. Series included "The L Word," "Weeds" and "The United States of Tara," a new comedy about a family whose teenage son is gay.
ABC got the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks, with 24 percent. It was the second year in a row that ABC led the broadcasters.
Among ABC series, the report cited newlyweds Kevin and Scotty on "Brothers & Sisters," the engagement of Andrew to Dr. Alex Cominis on "Desperate Housewives" and bisexual Dr. Callie Torres on "Grey's Anatomy."
The CW logged 20 percent, and the Fox network 11 percent, the report said.
Among the sampling of cable networks evaluated, TNT showed the largest growth, jumping to 19 percent last season from 1 percent the year before. This was largely thanks to its new drama series, "Raising the Bar," which features gay law clerk Charlie Sagansky as a regular character, GLAAD said.
"Television shows that weave our stories into the fabric of the series present richer, more diverse representations," said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD's senior director of media programs.
In September, GLAAD will release its annual report evaluating gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion, and other diversity, among scripted characters scheduled to appear during the 2009-10 season. Monday's report said TV characters in general are predominantly white, regardless of sexual orientation.
from The Associated Press

Just One Look...#112

Dr. Joel D. Weisman Dies At 66

Dr. Joel D. Weisman, who was one of the first physicians to detect the AIDS epidemic and who became a national advocate for AIDS research, treatment and prevention, died Saturday at his Westwood home. He was 66.
He had heart disease and had been ill for several months, said Bill Hutton, his domestic partner of 17 years.
Weisman was a general practitioner in Sherman Oaks in 1980 when he noticed a troubling pattern: He had three seriously ill patients with the same constellation of symptoms, including mysterious fevers, rashes, drastic weight loss and swollen lymph nodes. All were gay men whose problems seemed to stem from defects in their immune systems.
The physician wound up referring two of the patients to UCLA immunologist Martin S. Gottlieb, who had a gay male patient with a similarly strange array of afflictions. Recognizing that these were not isolated cases, Weisman and Gottlieb wrote a report that appeared in the June 5, 1981, issue of the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That report signaled the official start of the epidemic that the federal agency later named acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
"Joel was a very astute physician," Gottlieb said in an interview Wednesday. "In his practice he was alert to unusual symptoms in his patients. He had a sense that something out of the ordinary was happening."
Gottlieb, who later treated perhaps the world's most famous AIDS patient, Rock Hudson, received most of the credit for identifying the disease.
But Weisman "contributed his open eyes. He felt right away he was observing something that was never seen before," said Mathilde Krim, a research scientist who, with Gottlieb, founded the New York-based nonprofit amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.
Born on Feb. 20, 1943, in Newark, N.J., Weisman graduated in 1970 from the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and practiced in New Jersey for a few years.
In 1975, he acknowledged his homosexuality and ended a three-year marriage to start a new life in Los Angeles.
He joined a medical group in North Hollywood, where in 1978 he was presented with some puzzling cases: a gay Anglo man in his 30s who had Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer usually seen in old Mediterranean men, and several men with shingles, another affliction normally seen in much older patients. Weisman also had a number of patients with swollen lymph glands, often an indication of lymphoma, a type of cancer that originates in the immune system. But in these cases, no lymphoma was detected.
In 1980, he opened his own practice in Sherman Oaks with Dr. Eugene Rogolsky. Weisman's sense of foreboding deepened with the arrival of two patients who had a panoply of confounding problems: persistent diarrhea, eczema, fungal infections, low white blood cell counts.
"On top of these two cases," Randy Shilts wrote in his definitive AIDS chronicle, "And the Band Played On" (1987), "another 20 men had appeared at Weisman's office that year with strange abnormalities of their lymph nodes," the very condition that had triggered the spiral of ailments besetting Weisman and Rogolsky's other two, very sick patients.
"It was dreadful. We didn't know what we were dealing with," Rogolsky recalled Wednesday.
In early 1981, a colleague put Weisman in touch with Gottlieb. Two decades later, Weisman recalled that he "had a feeling going into the meeting that what this represented was the tip of the iceberg. My sense was that these people were sick," he told the Washington Post in 2001, "and we had a lot of people that were potentially right behind them."
He sent his patients to UCLA Medical Center, where Gottlieb found they had pneumocystis pneumonia. Gottlieb had earlier found the same pneumonia in his own patient. He later diagnosed it in two gay men referred by other doctors.
A few months after their initial meeting, Weisman and Gottlieb wrote in the CDC bulletin that "5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died." Eventually, the other three patients died too.
The report sounded an alarm heard around the world. AIDS deaths in the U.S. rose exponentially, from 618 in 1982 to almost 90,000 by the end of the decade. By 2002 the death toll surpassed 500,000 and was still climbing.
Weisman began to press for services for people with HIV and AIDS as founding chairman of AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1983. He also helped organize the first dedicated AIDS unit in Southern California at what is now Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center. He advocated for research dollars as an original board member of amfAR, which was formed in 1985, and served as chairman from 1988 to 1992.
Described by Shilts as "the dean of Southern California gay doctors," Weisman continued to see patients, building his partnership with Rogolsky into the Pacific Oaks Medical Group, which became one of the largest private practices focused on the treatment of AIDS and HIV.
As soon as he became convinced that AIDS was sexually transmitted, Weisman began to warn patients that they needed to change their sexual behavior. But during the early years of the crisis, his warnings too often were ignored. "I couldn't even make some of my friends listen, and they're dead now and that's disconcerting," he told The Times in 1988.
Among the casualties was his partner of 10 years, Timothy Bogue, who died of AIDS in 1991.
Battling the epidemic on the front lines "made me look at issues of death and dying in a very different way," Weisman said in 1988. "What makes somebody a good physician in this situation? Is it just winning? Keeping people alive? If I looked at every death as a defeat, I would not be able to continue."
In 1997, he stepped away from the battle, ironically just as new drug cocktails were extending the lives of AIDS patients. In 2000, he moved to New York, where he ran a bed-and-breakfast with Hutton, but he returned to Southern California about five years ago. He was an active ambassador for AIDS Project Los Angeles until illness overtook him this year.
In addition to Hutton, Weisman is survived by a brother, Mark; a daughter, Stacey Weisman-Bogue Foster; a granddaughter; and two nieces. Memorial donations may be sent to amfAR, AIDS Project Los Angeles or the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Plans for a memorial service will be announced later.
from The Los Angeles Times

Best-Selling Author Told Of Black Gay Life

E. Lynn Harris, 54, a best-selling novelist who opened a door on a hidden side of African American life, writing about outwardly heterosexual men leading secret gay lives, died July 23 after collapsing at a Beverly Hills hotel during a book tour. The cause of death was not immediately determined, and an autopsy is expected to be performed next week.
His taboo-breaking books about black gay life "on the down-low" made Mr. Harris a star literary figure after an inauspicious beginning to his career. In 1991, he had used the last of his savings to self-publish his first book, "Invisible Life," about a married lawyer's double life. He drove all over Atlanta, selling his novel from the trunk of his car to beauty parlors, bookstores and reading groups.
Essence magazine named "Invisible Life" one of the 10 best books of the year, and it drew comparisons with Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and James Baldwin's "Another Country." Mr. Harris sold 10,000 copies on his own before the book was picked up by a New York publisher in 1994.
Seven years later, he signed a three-book contract said to be worth as much as $8 million, and he eventually sold more than 4 million copies of his books. Ten of his 11 novels reached the New York Times bestseller list.
Most of Mr. Harris's central characters were gay or bisexual black men, and his novels were typically set in the upper echelons of black society, including sports, churches and the law. His most dedicated readers were black women, who flocked to his readings across the country by the hundreds, often bringing him flowers and food.
Mr. Harris, who began his career as a computer salesman, remained somewhat mystified by his success, since his provocative subject matter had long been ignored or driven underground in African American culture.
"If you were African American and you were gay, you kept your mouth shut and you went on and did what everybody else did," he said last year in an interview with the Associated Press. "You had girlfriends, you lived a life that your parents had dreamed for you."
Everette Lynn Harris was born June 20, 1955, in Flint, Mich., and grew up in Little Rock, Ark. In his 2003 autobiography, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," he described a childhood shaped by an abusive man he believed was father. He was 12 before he learned that his actual father was someone else.
At the University of Arkansas, Mr. Harris was the school's first black male cheerleader and first black yearbook editor. He dated women in college but had a secret relationship with a male athlete that became the inspiration for "Invisible Life" and subsequent novels, including "Just As I Am" (1994), "And This Too Shall Pass" (1996) and "Abide With Me" (1999).
After graduation, Mr. Harris became a successful computer salesman for IBM, Hewlett-Packard and AT&T and lived, at various times, in Dallas, New York, Washington and Atlanta. At a corporate conference in 1983, he met author Maya Angelou, who encouraged his interest in writing.
"She told me I should write something every day," Mr. Harris said, "even if it was just one word."
He revealed in his autobiography that in 1990, while living in Washington, he had descended into depression and alcoholism and attempted suicide. He quit his job, moved to Atlanta and devoted himself to writing his first novel.
Critics sometimes derided Mr. Harris's fiction as formulaic and simplistic, but his readers remained loyal. He believed part of the appeal of his books was their depiction of an underground world, the "down-low," that many African Americans were reluctant to accept.
"Although I am openly gay," he wrote in Essence magazine in 2004, "I was part of the down-low scene for years, drawn to men who considered themselves neither gay nor bisexual. When I wrote my first novel, 'Invisible Life,' in which a young man is torn between his married male lover and his girlfriend, I was stunned that so many African-American women didn't know that a handsome, masculine-looking Black man might become intimate with another man."
Mr. Harris, who seldom discussed the details of his private life, had lived in recent years in Atlanta, Houston and Fayetteville, Ark., where he taught writing at his alma mater. He also helped coach the cheerleading squad at Arkansas and occasionally judged beauty pageants. In 2001, he appeared on Broadway as narrator of the musical "Dreamgirls," and he established a foundation to benefit young writers.
Survivors include his mother and three sisters.
from The Washington Post

'Missing' Man Sought By Gay Friend

ARKANSAS -A 23-year-old pre-med student who "got caught up with friends who were pulling him" toward homosexuality is well and undergoing Christian counseling, his family says.
But a gay activist who created a Web site to locate the "missing" man says Bryce Faulkner's silence speaks volumes, claiming that the young man's religious parents are controlling his every move in an effort to "cure" him of his homosexuality.
Debra Faulkner, of El Dorado, Ark., denied the Web site's reports that her son was forced against his will to undergo reparative therapy for homosexuality at Exodus International, a nonprofit Christian organization that seeks "freedom from homosexuality" through Jesus Christ.
"He's fine," Debra Faulkner told FOXNews.com. "All the stories you've been told are not true."
She said Brett Harris, who created the "Help Save Bryce" Web site, had posted her phone number and home address, resulting in dozens of harassing calls and threatening letters to her home.
"Our family wants privacy," Faulkner said.
Harris has removed the personal information due to threats of a lawsuit. He told FOXNews.com he created the site to give others the ability to decide if they wanted to "associate with these people."
Faulkner said her son, a recent graduate from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, is free to do as he pleases following what she called a 2-month-long Internet-based relationship with a 24-year-old Wisconsin man named Travis Swanson.
"[Bryce] got caught up with friends who were pulling him that way," she said. "He just wants to take some time and figure out what he wants to do with his life."
Through a family representative, her son denied being coerced into attending counseling.
"Every decision that I've made has been based solely upon my beliefs and I have not been manipulated or coerced by anyone to do anything," Bryce Faulkner's statement read. He declined further comment.
Swanson, of Oshkosh, Wis., told FOXNews.com that he met Faulkner at a bar in Panama City, Fla., during spring break in March. The two quickly hit it off, he said.
Swanson left Florida just two days later, but he and Faulkner kept in touch via Skype "every single night" in the following months. Swanson said their chats were so frequent that he notched a whopping 9,700 minutes on his cell phone in May alone.
"Things started getting serious in the months of April and May," said Swanson. "He told me that he loved me."
In late May, Swanson said he and Faulkner met in Little Rock, Ark., for what turned out to be the last time.
"Bryce said he'd take me on the most amazing date of my life and definitely fulfilled," Swanson said. "Dinner, candles, flowers — he went all out."
He said the relationship flourished until mid-June, when Debra Faulkner gained access to her son's e-mail account and discovered Bryce's secret.
The next time they spoke, Swanson said, Bryce was inconsolable.
"He was crying really, really bad, I mean, like uncontrollably crying," he said. "He said [Bryce's parents] made him read quotes aloud from the Bible and said that he's going to hell."
The following day, Swanson said he received a text from Faulkner indicating that his parents wanted to take him to a "place in Pensacola" to address his sexuality. Swanson would later call the Union County Sheriff's Department to say that Faulkner was being taken against his will by his "fundamental Baptist" parents.
A spokeswoman for Union County Sheriff Ken Jones said the department had no information on Faulkner.
"He's being economically blackmailed, that's what it is," Swanson said, referring to perceived threats that Bryce's parents would take away his car and privileges if he declined to seek help. "They say they're going to cure somebody for something that's not treatable."
Frustrated, Swanson contacted Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) for help. An e-mail describing Faulkner's story soon reached Harris, a self-described "minister" and gay rights activist from Ohio.
Harris said he created the Web site both to locate Faulkner and to shed light on "conversion therapy" and the emotional damage he says it causes a person who is dealing with complex sexuality issues.
Harris says he won't take down the site — complete with a counter tracking the days and minutes Faulkner has been "missing" — until the Faulkner goes to Wisconsin to personally end his relationship with Swanson. He said he believes Faulkner's parents are controlling their son's every move.
"We're not hearing anything at all from Bryce," Harris told FOXNews.com. "If he wants to be straight ... that would be the finality of it."
Faulkner's mother is threatening legal action against Harris on slander accusations, but the gay advocate says he's in the clear because he acted without ill intent.
'I don't mean him any malice at all," Harris said. "I don't want to hurt anybody."
Meanwhile, Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, says roughly 250 local ministries affiliated with the Orlando-based organization continue to counsel people who are struggling with homosexuality. Chambers is aware of Faulkner's story, but as a matter of policy, he declined to confirm or deny whether Faulkner has attended Exodus' programs. (According to its Web site, Harvest Outreach Church in Pensacola, Fla., is an affiliate church to Exodus International.)
"We believe that [homosexuality] wasn't God's design," Chambers told FOXNews.com. "We have a decision to make when it comes to how we steward our sexuality."
Chambers, who is married with two children, says he continues to be "tempted" by homosexual urges, but said he's decided that it wasn't something that matched his faith.
"My life and my struggle is very common," he said. "But having lived both sides of this hotly contested debate, I don't want anything else."
Asked if he had any advice for the Faulkners, Chambers replied: "We meet with so many people who, as parents, are struggling with their children's decisions. Your number one goal is to stay in a relationship with your children, regardless if you agree with their decision or not. Tolerance is a two-way street."
from Fox News

Sailor Faces 16 Charges In Slaying Of Comrade

CAMP PENDLETON — A sailor has been charged with fatally shooting and burning a gay serviceman last month at Camp Pendleton, but Navy officials yesterday said it was part of a crime spree not related to the victim's sexual orientation.
Prosecutors accuse Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Campos of killing Seaman August Provost during an arson attack against the compound of Assault Craft Unit 5 on June 30, said Capt. Matt Brown, a spokesman for Navy Region Southwest.
Brown again stressed that there's no evidence of a hate crime or gang-related activity.
“It is essential to remember the Navy lost a well-respected sailor standing guard at his assigned post,” he said during a news conference at San Diego Naval Base at 32nd Street.
Campos, 32, of Lancaster, faces 16 charges, including murder, arson, unlawful entry, theft of military property and wrongful possession of a firearm. He's also charged with soliciting a civilian in San Diego to kill another sailor the day after Provost's slaying.
Brown said Campos and Provost served in the 500-member assault-craft unit, whose members are trained to pilot jet-powered hovercraft onto beaches for amphibious operations.
Brown added that the two probably had met before, but that there's no evidence to suggest they knew each other well. Campos had served with the unit for most of the past two years, while Provost joined the Navy in March 2008 after completing three years of college and had joined the unit in September.
Navy officials also accuse Campos of using hallucinogenic mushrooms several times between May 1 and June 2.
Officials said that on June 13, Campos allegedly broke into the off-base home of a fellow service member in San Diego and stole an Xbox computer-game system, jewelry and a .45-caliber Kimber pistol, adding the same pistol was used to kill Provost.
On June 20, Campos was picked up on suspicion of driving under the influence. About a week later, he faced administrative punishment from his Navy commanders.
At the time, the Navy hadn't linked Campos to the home burglary, Brown said.
About 11:30 p.m. June 30, Provost took his post at a guard shack along the driveway to the assault-craft unit's entrance.
Navy officials say that sometime before 3:30 a.m., Campos approached the guard shack, shot Provost several times and stole his 9?mm Beretta service pistol. Campos then allegedly set fire to the shack — with Provost's body still inside — using gasoline and a lighter.
“He apparently did it to destroy evidence,” Brown said.
Campos also is accused of planning to set fire to one of the unit's landing craft, but he never made it into the compound.
Brown didn't specify why Campos became a suspect, but said that Campos failed to show up for work before being arrested July 1. The defendant is being held at the Miramar Naval Consolidated Brig.
Provost's death has prompted concerns from gay-rights leaders and some of his relatives and friends who believe he might have been killed because of his sexual orientation. Gay activists held a candlelight vigil July 10 near Camp Pendleton's main gate.
Yesterday, Provost's aunt said she's still not sure what to think about the killer's motive.
“We just want justice to be done, and we hope to one day understand why the killer would target someone as good and responsible as my nephew,” said Rose Roy of Beaumont, Texas.
The Navy hasn't announced a date for Campos' pretrial hearing, called an Article 32 proceeding.
from The San Diego Union-Tribune

Gay Penguin Goes Straight

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - Everyone who works at the San Francisco Zoo knows about Harry and Pepper, two male Magellanic penguins who share a burrow on Penguin Island.
They have been cohabitating for six years, even hatching a surrogate chick together and raising it as two proud gay daddies. They show all the behaviors of a heterosexual penguin couple - building a nest together, preening each others' feathers and love-tapping beaks. They just happen to be the only two dude penguins with the same address on Penguin Island.
All was domestic bliss until their next-door neighbor Fig died, widowing his mate, Linda.
"Whenever there's a single bird on the island, there's always a mad dash to find another mate or lose their burrow," said Harrison Edell, curator of birds.
In this case, it was Harry who strayed. He walked next door and bunked down with Linda in March, just in time for breeding season. They built a nest together, and Linda laid two eggs.
Pepper ventured in their burrow a few times in the three weeks after the breakup, prompting a temporary monthlong trip to the Avian Conservation Center on zoo grounds to chill out. A few other bachelor penguins, which were also looking for love and causing trouble, were sent to the center to calm down. No sparks flew between Pepper and the exiled bachelors, but the vacation seemed to help get Harry out of his system.
Pepper is now back on the island, living next door to his ex and Linda. Everyone appears to be getting along. No one is throwing things, spreading gossip or threatening lawsuits, Edell said.
"We're all curious to see who Pepper turns his attention to next," Edell said. "We have more males than females on the island, so there's that possibility - and we also have some younger females who need to mature before he will find them interesting. We just don't know which way he's going to go."
But if he's truly a homosexual animal, he isn't the only one at the San Francisco Zoo. Edell said zookeepers have seen the apes and the chimpanzees same-sex canoodling, and there's a lesbian black swan couple who have been laying eggs together in the same nest for several years.
Edell is getting quite a lot of e-mail from people who are outraged that Harry and Pepper split up.
"People think we separated them on purpose," Edell said. "There's no explaining love."
from The San Francisco Chronicle

Gay Porn Actor Sentenced For Burglaries

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - Gay-porn star Taleon Goffney won't be making any new Internet videos with his twin brother anytime soon.
Instead, he'll be serving three to eight years in state prison for two February 2008 rooftop burglaries of businesses near 9th Street and Washington Avenue, in South Philadelphia.
"Thank you for your lenience in accepting my plea," Goffney, who was previously charged with similar burglaries and has been incarcerated since his February 2008 arrest, told Judge Lisa M. Rau in court yesterday. "These crimes won't be happening again."
Goffney yesterday pleaded guilty to two counts each of burglary and criminal conspiracy under a plea deal between his attorney, Michael F. Gushue, and Assistant District Attorney Caroline Keating.
As part of the agreement, Goffney, 27, identified his twin, Keyontyli, who is free on bail and attended the hearing, as a co-conspirator in the burglaries.
Keating alleged that Keyontyli Goffney, who is to appear in court Aug. 6 for his role in the burglaries, served as a driver and a lookout in the crimes.
During yesterday's proceeding, she and Gushue disagreed on the original terms of the plea agreement, which included a guilty plea with consecutive two-to-four-year sentences.
Attorneys later renegotiated the deal.
Afterward, Gushue said that he and Goffney, who, he said, plans to complete his college degree while incarcerated, were content with the outcome.
"I think he's had an epiphany," Gushue said. "He's a bright young man."
Other charges, including criminal trespass, receiving stolen property and possession of an instrument of crime, were dropped.
"[The sentence] was negotiated, so it's an appropriate sentence," Keating said, adding that because of his prior record, Goffney is sure to serve at least the minimum three years.
"I wish him luck. I hope he does turn his life around."
If Goffney's case had gone to trial, he could have faced a maximum of 40 years in prison.
from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Petition Urges CVS To Unlock Condoms In Stores Nationwide

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS - Physician Sharon Lee knows the embarrassment of buying condoms.
“I used to buy condoms myself, and it’s not an easy thing to do,” said Lee, director of Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care in Kansas City, Kan.
A drugstore can make that task more difficult if it places them in a locked case, forcing customers to ask for help. Extra embarrassment can lead to something worse than blushing cheeks or nervous sweat — it may discourage people from using condoms to protect themselves from HIV or other dangers, Lee said.
That thought worries the Rev. Eric Williams, too. That’s why his Calvary Community Outreach Network in Kansas City signed a national petition asking the CVS Caremark Corp. to unlock condoms in all CVS pharmacy stores.
Nationwide, more than 200 groups have signed on, including the Douglas County AIDS Project in Lawrence.
The petition, sponsored by the labor coalition Change to Win, said CVS stores tended to lock up condoms, especially in low-income neighborhoods with high numbers of minorities. This worries Williams, considering the higher rate of African-Americans with new HIV infections.
CVS said locking up condoms was a defense against shoplifters in stores where large numbers of condoms were stolen.
Williams said his group, a nonprofit arm of Calvary Temple Baptist Church, signed the petition because it wanted to do whatever was possible to stop the spread of HIV.
“When the house is on fire, you do everything you can to put the fire out,” Williams said.
The Kansas City Star visited 19 CVS stores across the Kansas City area and found that nine kept condoms locked away. Most packages of condoms in the locked cases were 12-packs costing $9 to $12.
In census tracts where CVS stores locked up condoms, an average of 25.9 percent of the population was below the poverty level, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. In tracts where the stores kept condoms unlocked, the poverty rate was 8 percent. (Across the country in 2000, the poverty rate was 9.2 percent.)
Nine of the stores were in census tracts with African-American populations higher than 12.3 percent, the U.S. average in 2000. All but one of them had locked-up condoms.
African-Americans account for about half of the people infected with HIV and AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Williams pointed to other CDC findings that showed black women made up an especially large percentage of women with HIV and AIDS — 64 percent in 2005. Trends like that, he said, are why the church supports access to condoms as a barrier to HIV infection, even while upholding the ideal of abstinence until marriage.
“Let’s try to do everything we can to make sure our children, our wives, our grandmothers are safe,” Williams said.
One way to do this, he said, is for retailers to keep condoms out of locked boxes.
Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, said stores provided smaller, unlocked displays of packs with three condoms each, compared with boxes of 12 or more in the locked cases.
The Star found the smaller displays in all but two of the area stores with locked cases.
DeAngelis also said the group behind the condom petition, Change to Win, was mounting a smear campaign against CVS because of a labor dispute. Change to Win, which represents about 8,000 CVS employees, also has accused the company of overcharging customers and stocking expired merchandise.
Walgreens, CVS’ chief competitor among drugstore chains, said its corporate policy prohibited locking up condoms.
The Star checked Walgreens stores and found that, for the most part, they were abiding by that policy. The one exception: Some Walgreens keep one line of condoms — Trojan Magnums — under lock and key.
Lee, the Kansas City, Kan., physician, said she thought locking up condoms was a poor decision for a company’s image, as well as for the nation’s health. Any barrier to the use of condoms could lead to an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, she said.
“We should, as a nation, be doing whatever we can to prevent further transmission, and this just sounds like a bad idea,” Lee said.
In her clinic, Lee sees about 600 patients infected with HIV.
Local agencies give away free condoms, including the Kansas City Health Department, the Kansas City Free Health Clinic and the Good Samaritan Project, a Kansas City organization that helps people infected with HIV and AIDS.
from The Kansas City Star

I Can See My Dick!

EAU CLAIRE, MINNESOTA - An Eau Claire man who garnered national acclaim for miraculously regaining his eyesight is now getting attention of another sort.
Renay Poirier, 49, has been charged with a count of lewd and lascivious behavior and two counts of disorderly conduct after being accused of exposing himself to a woman who was walking her dog.
A woman called Eau Claire police after noticing a man exposing himself while he drove a vehicle in town June 2, according to a criminal complaint filed in Eau Claire County Circuit Court. The woman told police she had noticed the vehicle travel slowly by her when the driver, wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt with the hood obstructing his face, exposed himself.
As the vehicle accelerated past her, the woman tried to read the rear license plate but could not do so because it was covered in duct tape, the complaint said.
Police then stopped a vehicle matching the description given by the woman. It was driven by Poirier and there was a gray sweatshirt in the trunk, the complaint said. Poirier told police he had been driving in the area to check volleyball courts at the intersection of Fourth and Water streets, where one of his daughters sometimes plays. He said he wanted to see if there were young people playing there.
During an interview with police six days later, Poirier said he had gone to the volleyball venue to check the condition of one of the courts needing repairs and said he planned to obtain a cost estimate for repairing it.
Poirier also changed his story about the exposure incident, saying he hadn't exposed himself to the woman but was instead holding a sex toy with a tan sheet around it, the complaint said. Poirier admitted to covering the rear license plate of his vehicle and did not offer police an explanation.
On Aug. 22, a city resident noticed a similar car, a maroon Saturn with its rear license plate covered, driven by a man wearing a ski mask parked at Manz School when children were present. Police were later able to trace the vehicle to Poirier.
Poirier gained fame in 2000 when he inexplicably regained his sight after losing it nearly a decade earlier during a high-voltage electrical explosion at his workplace.
Doctors could not explain how Poirier could see again, and everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Larry King wanted to hear his story.
Poirier credited regaining his sight to God and has given speeches about the subject at churches, schools and social clubs. He also has written a book about his self-described miracle.
from Pioneer Press

Critics Split On Wainwright's Move From Pop To Opera

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright says opera saved his life more than once, and he has begun to pay it back with his first full-length work "Prima Donna" which premiered in Manchester earlier this month.
With trademark flamboyance, a bearded Wainwright dressed up as 19th century composer Verdi, complete with long black coat and top hat, for the opening night on Friday.
The musician appeared to be placing himself on an operatic pedestal even before his first work was performed, but early reviews of his debut opera suggested Wainwright may struggle to convince critics he is worthy of a place among the greats.
The Globe and Mail of Canada was complimentary, giving "Prima Donna" three stars out of four and calling the premiere "a thoroughly entertaining, if slightly barmy, evening."
Reviewer Elizabeth Renzetti had particularly warm praise for the ending, where central character Regine sings as she watches Bastille Day fireworks from her Paris balcony.
"It's a contemplative moment that contains more ideas than the preceding two hours," she wrote.
In a more mixed review, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times agrees:
"The opera ends with a tender aria for Regine, a long-spun melody with a gentle accompaniment riff: in other words, a Wainwright song. Would that there had been more of them."
Lynne Walker of the Independent gave Prima Donna two stars out of five, and described it as a "flimsy plot ... spun out into a cheesy piece of full-length musical theater.
"Musically Prima Donna is at best banal, at worst boring," she added.
Critics compared passages from the opera to the likes of Ravel, Mascagni and Stephen Sondheim, and noted references to star soprano Maria Callas and the opera "Madame Butterfly."
FADING STAR
Prima Donna tells the story of Regine, a leading soprano who last performed in public six years earlier after something upset her during a performance of a work called "Alienor d'Aquitaine."
Journalist Andre arrives for an interview, and the plot explores the mystery of what happened on the fateful night.
Prima Donna was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, one of the world's leading opera houses, but media reports said the Met withdrew from the project partly because Wainwright insisted on writing the work in French.
The musician also objected to the long wait he would face to stage it in New York at a time when his mother, Canadian singer Kate McGarrigle, was suffering from cancer.
"I wanted her to see it and I'm sure she will be around for the next one and all of that but I couldn't take that gamble at the time," he told the Times newspaper earlier this month, adding that his mother was "doing really well right now."
The Manchester International Festival picked up Prima Donna, which will be performed there on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
Wainwright, 35, was born into a family of musicians.
His eclectic style has earned him critical acclaim and a cult following but limited commercial success. During a profile recently aired on the BBC, Wainwright spoke of being gay and his earlier struggle with drug addiction.
from Reuters

Court Tells Town To Pay For Viagra

MAJORNA,SWEDEN - Local authorities in Majorna, Sweden, must subsidize a 30-year-old impotent man's Viagra prescription, a court ruled.
The County Administrative Court ruled in favor of the man, who argued having sex is essential to a reasonable quality of life, The Local reported Saturday.
An assistance program in Majorna had denied the man's original request because Viagra, a drug used to treat erectile disfunction, was not included on a list of subsidized medicines.
The court left open the issue of how much Viagra the man should receive, said Henrietta Nyberg, a spokeswoman for the assistance program.
"This is clearly difficult to assess. How often should someone have Viagra? Is it once a week? Does that amount to a reasonable quality of life?" Nyberg asked.
from United Press International

Gay Porn Art Show Helps Us, Police Say

UNITED KINGDOM - Police have praised organisers of a taxpayer-funded gay art exhibition featuring pornographic images for helping to promote respect for homosexuals.
The exhibition, at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, has been criticised by church leaders and family campaigners.
But police diversity officers say the show is doing them a favour by raising awareness of gay issues.
When the event’s organisers told Strathclyde Police that pornographic gay artwork would be on display, they received warm and congratulatory feedback from the force’s diversity unit.
An email between two of the organisers has emerged, revealing that one police officer even expressed his eagerness to take his own children to view the controversial sh[OUT] exhibition.
According to the email, one of the organisers discussed the “most eyebrow-raising” works with the officer, who said “they all sounded fine”.
The email continued: “He also added that the show and outreach programme are doing a favour for the police as they are also in the business of raising awareness and respect for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) folk.”
Another email reveals that police officers admitted it would “only be if a member of the public complained that they would even bother to investigate” – but the organisers suggested they would be okay as long as sufficient warnings about the material were displayed.
According to the Daily Mail the Christian campaign group CARE for Scotland has written to George Hamilton, Assistant Chief Constable at Strathclyde Police, claiming it “may be considered lewd and libidinous behaviour” to allow children to view the material on display.
A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Glasgow said: “It seems incredible that the police would be so keen to promote an exhibition which clearly contains offensive, vulgar and disgraceful material.”
The exhibition, part of a £240,000 campaign to raise awareness of homosexuality, features explicit images of sex and sexuality, including one photo of two men engaged in an obscene act. The exhibition is open to all people of all ages – the only exception is that children under twelve must be accompanied by an adult.
Strathclyde Police Chief Inspector Jane Black said: “Strathclyde Police has not been involved in the promotion of this exhibition. However, the force is involved with partner agencies in providing access to police services and raising awareness of issues faced by the LGBT community.”
from The Christian Institute

Just One Look...#111

Arrested Made In Anti-Gay Robbery Attacks

NEW YORK - A 19-year-old Manhattan man has been arrested in connection with anti-gay robbery attacks on the Upper East Side in May and June, the police said on Friday.
The man, Driton Nicaj, was arrested on Thursday night near his home on East 84th Street, his father said. He faces charges including aggravated harassment and robbery as hate crimes. The police said they were searching for as many as three other men who participated in the early-morning attacks.
The police said the first robbery occurred on May 31, when two gay 19-year-old men sitting on a bench in Carl Schurz Park were approached by a group of men who demanded money and made off with $22. In the second attack, on June 27 on East 85th Street, Joseph Holladay, 36, was beaten and robbed by men yelling anti-gay slurs during Gay Pride weekend, he said. “They beat me hard and unconscious,” Mr. Holladay said.
In the latest attack, on June 28, a witness walking his dog on East 84th Street told the police that he saw two men kicking another man in the head. The victim, a 40-year-old gay man, was hospitalized with skull fractures and a broken nose, the police said. His iPod was stolen.
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said Mr. Nicaj had admitted taking part in at least one of the robberies. Mr. Nicaj said he was a witness but not a participant in the June 27 attack, the spokesman said.
Mr. Browne said the breakthrough that led to Mr. Nicaj’s arrest came on June 30, when officers pulled over a gold-colored Toyota minivan matching the description of a vehicle seen by a witness after one of the attacks. Three men in the van were not charged with a crime, but one of them — apparently Mr. Nicaj’s younger brother — was identified by a witness who looked at a photo array.
But the witness was unable to pick Driton Nicaj out in a lineup, Mr. Browne said. Only later, when someone whom Mr. Browne described as an individual “known to both Driton and his brother” viewed a video of one of the attacks, was the older brother identified.
His father, Zef Nicaj, said his son had gotten into trouble with the authorities in the past, but he characterized those run-ins as minor. He recalled an arrest for trespassing, and trouble after his son skipped school.
In February, his son left high school and started working full time with him renovating homes. The father said that his son said nothing about the attacks, and that he was surprised by the charges of anti-gay bias.
“My neighbor is gay and all my children have a friendly relationship with him,” the elder Mr. Nicaj said.
from The New York Times

Council Members Criticize Police Handling Of Gay Men Kicked Out Of Chico's Tacos

EL PASO, TX - Members of El Paso City Council on Thursday told Police Chief Greg Allen they were unhappy with the Police Department's handling of an incident were two gay men were kicked out after kissing each other at a Chico's Tacos restaurant.
A group of gay men said they were told to leave by restaurant security guards. After police were called, an officer apparently told the men it was illegal for them to kiss in public citing a Texas law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003.
Council members expressed their concerns to Police Chief Greg Allen during a budget hearing for the Police Department.
"I would hope we had better diversity training," West-Central City Rep. Susie Byrd told Allen.
Byrd and Eastridge Mid-Valley Rep. Steve Ortega said they were troubled not only by the incident itself but the response by a police spokesman that the restaurant had a right to refuse service though El Paso has an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"That highly incorrect," Ortega said at the budget hearing at City Hall.
Allen responded that the officer sent to the restaurant was not very experienced. The men said two police officers, who have not been identified, went to the restaurant.
"We will be looking at (diversity issues) in roll call training," Allen said. "... The department will not tolerate any discrimination based on sexual orientation, race or anything else."
Mayor John Cook put an end to the discussion because it was not on the meetings agenda.
from The El Paso Times

Teen Accused Of Killing Gay Classmate Offered Plea

VENTURA, CA - The district attorney will allow 15-year-old murder suspect Brandon McInerney to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a lighter sentence, officials announced publicly today.
“It would bring (the sentence) down, from a maximum of 53 years to life, to 25 years to life,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox, who is prosecuting this case.
Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten approved making the offer, she said.
“The reason Mr. Totten authorized that offer is because we are keenly aware of this young man’s age. We are keenly aware of his developmental level, being that he was 14 years old at the time of the crime,” Fox said. “And, we are also keenly aware that he is a very dangerous individual.”
McInerney is charged with murder and a hate crime in the shooting death of classmate Larry King, 15, in an Oxnard classroom in February 2008. King dressed in a feminine manner and told friends he was gay.
The plea-bargain offer was made public today after a hearing was held at Ventura County Superior Court where McInerney’s lawyer Robyn Bramson told Judge John Dobroth that she and the other defense lawyer, Scott Wippert, weren’t ready for a preliminary hearing. Bramson said Wippert is in trial in another county.
Judge Dobroth reset the date to July 20, warning Bramson that she must be ready on that date.
Outside the courtroom and before going public with the plea-bargain offer, Fox expressed her frustration about the defense attorneys’ delays in moving the case along, saying that it has taken too long to get it to a preliminary hearing.
A frustrated Fox also threatened to take the case to the grand jury instead of opting for a preliminary hearing because of what she described as the slow pace of the case.
Going to the grand jury could only occur if Fox tacked on a special circumstance — an allegation that the defendant had been lying in wait — which would then allow prosecutors to circumvent a preliminary hearing.
Fox said she will consider going to the grand jury on July 20 if the defense lawyers are still unprepared to go to a preliminary hearing
Defense attorneys Bramson and Wippert got the case from the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office last year, and they have argued in court about not getting all the records and documents from the Public Defender’s Office.
Attorneys from the Public Defender’s Office deny the allegation, saying that they have given the defense lawyers every piece of paper they have in this case.
Fox said the decision to prosecute McInerney in adult court, rather than as a juvenile, was made because he needlessly and callously took an innocent life — “in front of a classroom full of kids,” she added.
Fox said that the district attorney’s office recognized that a sentence of 53 years to life in this slaying, in light of McInerney’s age and his lack of a previous criminal record, is “probably extreme” in this case.
“In recognition of this, Mr. Totten gave him the opportunity to plead to what the crime really is, a first-degree murder,” said Fox. “It’s really not a kind of a case where he is going to be found guilty of anything other than murder.”
If he is found guilty of second-degree murder, Fox said McInerney is facing 43 years to life because of the allegation that he used a gun.
from The Ventura County Star

Councilman Wants City To Favor Companies Who Offer Domestic Partner Benefits

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA - First District City Councilman Robert Garcia wants the city of Long Beach to seek contracts with companies that offer equal spousal benefits packages for straight and gay employees.
Garcia has placed on next Tuesday's council meeting agenda a request that the city attorney draft an equal benefits ordinance.
It would require companies that offer spousal benefits to include domestic partnerships in order to get city contracts.
"Everyone deserves equal treatment in the workplace," Garcia, who is openly gay, said in a statement released Wednesday.
"This is an important step forward for equality and civil rights in Long Beach."
Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal is co-sponsoring the ordinance.
The Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce released a statement Wednesday saying that it is "neutral" on the ordinance.
While Chamber officials say they support Garcia taking action on his convictions and note that such ordinances are common in California, they also say that the ordinance may put extra burdens on businesses.
"Business is simply unable to sustain increased governmental expense requirements in the current recessionary environment," the Chamber statement says.
Randy Gordon, the Chamber's president and CEO, couldn't be reached for further comment Wednesday.
The state of California already has an equal benefits ordinance in place, as do other large cities
including Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Minneapolis, according to Garcia.
Garcia responded Wednesday that the ordinance won't hurt businesses and is "a natural progression" of Long Beach's support for equal rights.
Not all businesses will even be affected by the law, he said.
"This only applies to businesses that offer spousal benefits, which essentially excludes almost all small businesses and small contractors," Garcia said.
Long Beach's ordinance would include other exceptions as well, such as in the case of a public emergency or if there are too few companies that offer a particular service to allow selectivity based on benefits.
Erik Sund, the city's business relations manager, said he didn't know how many of Long Beach's contractors would be affected by the law.
"We haven't really done any hard data valuation of our existing vendor population," Sund said, noting that companies that already have contracts with the city won't be affected by the ordinance until the next time they bid.
In addition to some exemptions, the law also will include an "in lieu" option for businesses to provide money to employees for health care costs until an equal spousal benefits program is implemented.
Sund said this would allow them to continue with the city's bidding process and would help Long Beach keep contractors on the table.
"I feel confident that we have a number of tools in place that won't restrict competition or our selection," Sund said.
Paul Duncan, co-chairman of the Long Beach Community Business Network, which is a networking and support organization for gay and lesbian businesses, said that he can't speak for his organization but that he supports the equal benefits ordinance.
"I think we should be entitled to the same (rights) as married couples, so it wouldn't put more of a burden (on businesses) than if we were a straight couple," said Duncan.
Kim Woods, executive director of the LGBT non-profit The Center Long Beach, put her support behind the proposed ordinance.
"We are thrilled that Councilmember Garcia has proposed this historic ordinance," Woods said in a statement. "The LGBT community is united in supporting this important measure."
from The Press Telegram

India Gay Ruling Boosts AIDS Fight But Stigma Lingers

NEW DELHI, INDIA - An Indian court ruling to decriminalize gay sex will boost the fight against AIDS, but a powerful stigma against homosexuality and uneven quality of healthcare will still hamper efforts, a top AIDS worker said.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday overturned a British colonial era law on gay sex to the delight of gay activists and health workers, and the consternation of some religious leaders.
But the verdict can be challenged in the Supreme Court and an 1861 law banning "sex against the order of nature" -- widely interpreted to mean homosexual sex -- has not yet been repealed and carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
In India, which numbers at least 2.5 million HIV infected people among its 1.1 billion-plus population, prejudice against homosexuals as well as AIDS sufferers will still likely deter many afflicted with the disease from seeking treatment.
"It will make a difference, not overnight but definitely over a period of time," J.V.R. Prasada Rao, UNAIDS Asia Pacific Regional Director, said by phone.
"This is still a community which is underground...they don't come to the treatment centers because of the stigma attached to this," he added.
India's medical services remain uneven, Rao said.
More effective government in most southern states means infection rates have stabilized, but rates are rising in populous northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and the northeast, he said without providing figures.
"The southern states started their response much earlier," Rao said. "The health system and the governance is definitely better in the southern states."
An estimated 33 million people globally are infected with the AIDS virus, most of them in Africa or other developing countries.
Rao said Thursday's verdict could be a cue for other nations, including former British colonies such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which ban gay sex under the same section of their penal code as India does -- section 377.
"India being a large country and a path-breaker in democratic reforms. This particular judgment in India is definitely going to have its impact on other countries, and especially on the ... mobilization of the public opinion," he said.
from Reuters

Russian Gays Cancel Protest During Obama Visit

MOSCOW - Russian gay activists said on Monday they had called off, due to safety concerns, a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy planned for Tuesday during U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow.
Moscow city officials last week banned the protest in favor of same-sex marriages. Activists, though, said they would protest anyway, running the risk of clashes with police.
But Monday Nikolai Alexeyev, one of their leaders, said they had canceled the protest.
"In the context of another unlawful ban by the authorities on a public event as well as the special measures taken in the Russian capital during the visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, we have decided to cancel the event due to concerns over the safety of our members," he said in a statement.
Obama flew into Moscow for talks at the Kremlin Monday and will leave early Wednesday.
City authorities said last week they had refused a request by gay activists to protest because they said another group had already booked the area in front of the U.S. embassy and that most Muscovites were against the demonstration.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread and Moscow's authorities often ban pro-gay protests.
from Reuters

Just One Look...#110

Americans Not Explicit When Defining What Sex Is

We talk about sex. A lot.
But all too often we don't know exactly what we're talking about. What's considered getting to third base these days anyway?
And when it comes to philandering politicians, the line on what's considered sex is especially fuzzy.
President Bill Clinton said oral sex wasn't sex. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says in his latest revelation that he "crossed lines" with women other than his wife and Argentine mistress, but "didn't cross the sex line." He wouldn't say what that meant.
If those distinctions have you confused, you aren't alone. Neither are Clinton and Sanford.
Americans just aren't explicit when they talk about having "had sex."
"Sex is a word and nobody is really in charge of that term," said Kinsey Institute scientist Erick Janssen. "In a way, our thinking of sex and definitions of sex is more complex than they were in the past."
In 1998, just as Clinton was defining what "is" is, two other Kinsey researchers were publishing a paper in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association on how people see sex. The answer: We can't really agree.
The study, based on a 1991 survey of 599 college students, found that women in general were less likely than men to consider oral sex or mutual masturbation as having "had sex."
Of the women, 37 percent considered oral sex as, well, sex. Forty-four percent of men did.
A second survey in 1996 asked "Is oral sex 'real' sex?"
About 52 percent of the men said yes, but only 46 percent of women did.
"These data make it clear that general agreement regarding what constitutes having 'had sex' and how sexual partners are counted cannot be taken for granted," researchers Stephanie Sanders and June Reinisch concluded in their paper.
That's a problem, especially in a relationship if two people don't discuss those differences explicitly, Janssen said.
The classic Meat Loaf song, "Paradise By The Dashboard Light," uses a clip of radio broadcaster Phil Rizzuto describing baseball players advancing around the field to narrate a young couple negotiating intimacy in their car.
It helped cement the public on the 1960s euphemism of first, second, third and home base for increasingly intimate sexual activities.
But even that is changing. According to a book by Australian sex researchers Juliet Richters and Chris Rissel, in the 1960s third base was "touching below the waist."
"Nowadays it seems that for many people the pattern of accepted activities includes oral sex as third base," Richters and Rissel wrote in "Doing it Down Under."
Janssen said it's difficult and unfair to compare terms now to decades ago because society is so different.
"People tend to not always define just in terms of behavior anymore, also in terms of intentions," Janssen said.
And intentions — lusting in your heart just like former President Jimmy Carter — bring about a whole other issue for politicians, because cheating is so loosely defined, Janssen said.
Is it cheating to go out to dinner with someone other than your spouse and not tell, or what about dancing together? Sanford met his future mistress in Uruguay on the edge of a dance floor.
Sanford himself said, "If you're a married guy, at the end of the day you shouldn't be dancing with somebody else."
Americans tend to judge politicians more harshly over marital infidelity than Europeans, said Janssen, who is Dutch. It's a cultural thing.
But we do have something in common with those across the Atlantic, Janssen said.
Europeans don't really have explicit definitions of sex in their languages, either.
So, they can be just as vague when they talk about it as we are.
from The Associated Press

Slain Sailor Shot, Also May Have Had Burns

CAMP PENDLETON — The 29-year-old gay sailor found dead Tuesday at Camp Pendleton was shot and possibly burned, but Navy officials said yesterday that they have no sign of the killing being spurred by the victim's sexual orientation.
“There is no evidence or information that suggests this is a hate crime” against Seaman August Provost of Houston, said Capt. Matt Brown, director of public affairs for Navy Region Southwest.
He also said the military can't yet confirm whether Provost was harassed in the days leading up to his death. Brown spoke during a news conference yesterday afternoon at the Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego.
Gay activists — from the nation's largest gay-rights organization to Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of the San Diego Human Relations Commission — have urged the military to conduct a full and transparent investigation. So have two San Diego members of Congress, Reps. Bob Filner and Susan Davis.
Murray-Ramirez said he still has concerns about a possible hate crime.
“We all don't have the facts,” he said. “We're going to wait until the full investigation is done, and I'm sure that the members of Congress are wanting that, too.”
Murray-Ramirez said questions remain over the motive and whether Provost's body had been burned. But he added that the military “seems to be responding to our concerns.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has released the first person it held in connection with Provost's death, which is being investigated as a potential homicide.
The NCIS has taken another “person of interest” into custody. Authorities believe that individual is linked to the slaying based on physical evidence and statements he gave to investigators, Brown said.
The man also is a sailor, but it's unclear whether he served with Provost in the same unit. Brown said their relationship would have been peripheral at best.
The Navy still lacks a clear motive for the slaying, and no charges have been filed, Brown said.
He expects it to take four to five weeks to complete toxicology tests but said a cause of death could be announced sooner.
Sonja Hanson, spokeswoman for Naval Medical Center San Diego, confirmed that the sailor's remains are at the hospital.
Provost began his four-hour watch as a sentry at 11:30 p.m. Monday. The person relieving Provost found him at the guard post, which is the main entrance for vehicles in Assault Craft Unit 5 on the western edge of Camp Pendleton.
Brown wouldn't say how many times Provost was shot, or with what type of weapon. He confirmed that someone tried to light a fire at the post, but he wouldn't comment on whether Provost was bound, mutilated or injured in other ways.
Some gay-rights advocates have said sources close to the investigation have told them that Provost was disfigured and burned.
Capt. Ed Harrington, the commander of Provost's unit, spoke with the Provost family three times Thursday, Brown said.
“This is a very hard time,” Brown said. “We've lost a shipmate; we've lost a family member.”
Provost's relatives couldn't be reached yesterday. A day earlier, Akalia Provost of Houston had said her brother recently complained to family members about a person who was harassing him, so they advised him to tell his supervisor.
“He's the type that if someone comes at him, he walks away. He never stands and argues,” Akalia Houston said. “He didn't deserve anything but a good life.”
Provost was assigned to Assault Craft Unit 5. He had completed three years of college before joining the Navy in March 2008 to help finance his education, and was studying to become an architectural engineer.
from The San Diego Union-Tribune

New York Gay Newspaper Suspends Publication

NEW YORK CITY - The New York Blade, one of the two major gay and lesbian newspapers in New York City, has laid off its editor in chief and suspended publication, the chief executive of its publishing company said on Wednesday.
“Everyone was let go, but the people on The Blade know that they may come back if The Blade is coming back,” said the executive, Matthew Bank, of HX Media, which was formed in 2005 by the merger of The Blade and HX Magazine.
The moves came on Tuesday after HX was sold to undisclosed buyers. The Blade, a biweekly paper with a free circulation of 22,000, was left with an uncertain future.
“It doesn’t have an issue scheduled until a week from Friday.” Mr. Bank said. “There are a lot of things that can happen between now and then.”
The decision to suspend publication comes at a particularly active period for journalism concerned with gay issues: the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the gay pride parade on Sunday, the proposed same-sex marriage bill in the State Senate and discontent over the Obama administration’s performance on gay-rights issues.
“It is an incredibly exciting time for gay journalism,” said Kat Long, who had been editor in chief of The Blade since February. “It’s important that gay papers are around to document it.”
Paul Schindler, editor in chief of Gay City News, the rival New York City gay newspaper, said The Blade had “made good contributions over the years.”
While a minority owner in HX Media has gone into receivership, Mr. Bank said that had little to do with the decision to sell the magazine.
Instead, he pointed to the advertising climate: “The economy and the future of print media being more difficult was definitely weighing on us.”
The Blade’s recent gay pride issue had been a relatively slim 28 pages.
“Gay pride is to gay publications what Christmas is to retail,” Mr. Schindler said. “When I pick up The Blade and it’s in 28 pages, then this is a business that is in serious problems.”
from The New York Times

Gay Men Sexually Abused In Childhood More Likely To Have Risky Sex

An experience of sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence is associated with an increased risk of gay men becoming HIV-positive in adult life, American researchers report in the July 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The research also showed that men with a history of sexual abuse in early life had higher levels of depression and problematic drug and alcohol use, as well as being less receptive to HIV prevention interventions.
“This is the first study…to demonstrate a predictive relationship between a history of childhood sexual abuse among HIV-uninfected men who have sex with men,” comment the investigators.
Earlier research has shown that gay and other men who have sex with men are more likely to report a history of childhood sexual abuse than heterosexual men. Other studies have also shown that a history of childhood sexual abuse is associated with sexual risk-taking by adult gay men. There are also data demonstrating a relationship between the experience of sexual abuse as a child and depression and other mental health problems in adult life, as well as poor social skills and drug and alcohol use.
Studies have also demonstrated that that gay men with a history of abuse have higher rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. But this research has been limited in its generalisability by its cross-sectional design.
Investigators from the EXPLORE study, a prospective study into the effectiveness of behavioural intervention to reduce HIV risk amongst gay men, therefore examined the association between a history of childhood sexual abuse and the risk of becoming infected with HIV. The researchers also explored the relationship between childhood abuse and unprotected anal sex. The mediating role of mental health problems, poor social skills and drug and alcohol use between abuse and infection with HIV or risky sex were also explored.
The study lasted for four years and included a total of 4244 men. These men were recruited to the study in six US cities. All had recently had anal sex with another man, and all the men were HIV-negative at baseline. The men were randomised to receive a behavioural HIV prevention intervention or standard HIV prevention counselling. Every six months they were tested for HIV and provided details about their recent sexual behaviour.
To ascertain if an individual had a history of childhood sexual abuse they were asked on entry to the study to say if they had had a sexual experience before the age of 13 with an individual five years or more older than themselves; and/or if they had a sexual experience between the ages of 13 and 17 with an individual who was ten or more years older.
Of the 4244 individuals in the study, 1686 (40%) reported childhood sexual abuse. There were 258 HIV infections during the course of the study, a rate of 2.1 per 100 person years.
The HIV incidence rate differed according to abuse history. It was 1.8 per 100 person years for men with no such history, but 2.5 per 100 person years for men reporting childhood sexual abuse.
Individuals who reported having experienced childhood sexual abuse had an increased risk of HIV infection compared to those with no such history (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.02-1.69).
Results of the full study showed that the behavioural intervention modestly reduced the risk of HIV infection. This was not, however, the case for men reporting childhood sexual abuse. Men who received the intervention (AHR = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.74-1.52), as well as those who were provided with standard safer sex counselling information (AHR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.04-1.95) had an increased risk of acquiring HIV infection.
A significant relationship also existed between childhood sexual abuse and the reporting of unprotected anal sex, including unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man.
Evidence was also found showing that mental health problems, poor coping and communication skills, and the use of drugs and alcohol (all p < 0.001) were significant in the relationship between childhood sexual abuse, risky sex, and subsequent infection with HIV. “HIV-uninfected men who have sex with men with childhood sexual abuse histories are at a greater risk of HIV infection, report higher rates of HIV sexual risk behaviour, and derive less benefit from prevention programmes”, conclude the investigators. They suggest that the “efficacy of HIV prevention initiatives may be enhanced by incorporating treatment components designed to address the specific mental health concerns [of those] with a history of childhood sexual abuse.” Aware of the sensitive political nature of their research, the investigators emphasise, “despite the high rates of childhood sexual abuse in the sample, these data do not suggest anything casual regarding the association of abuse and later homosexuality…the majority of men in EXPLORE did not report any type of childhood sexual abuse, so there is little to suggest that childhood sexual abuse ‘causes’ homosexuality, but rather, childhood sexual abuse makes men who have sex with men more likely to engage in HIV risk behaviours.”
from Aidsmap