More Sex May Help Damaged Sperm

LONDON - For men with fertility problems, some doctors are prescribing a very conventional way to have a baby: more sex.
In a study of 118 Australian men with damaged sperm, doctors found that having sex every day for a week significantly reduced the amount of DNA damage in their patients' sperm. Previous studies have linked better sperm quality to higher pregnancy rates.
The research was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
Dr. David Greening of Sydney IVF, a private fertility clinic in Australia, and colleagues looked at 118 men who had damaged sperm. Greening and colleagues told the men to have sex every day for a week. After seven days, the doctors found that in 81 percent of the men, there was a 12 percent decrease in the amount of damaged sperm.
Many fertility experts suggest men abstain from sex before their partners have in-vitro fertilization, to try to elevate their sperm counts.
Sperm quality can also be improved if men don't smoke, drink moderately, exercise, or get more antioxidants.
Since concluding the study, Greening says he now instructs all couples seeking fertility advice to start by having more sex. "Some of the older men look a little concerned," he said. "But the younger ones seem quite happy about it."
Experts think sex helps reduce the DNA damage in sperm by getting it out of the body quickly; if sperm is in the body for too long, it has a higher chance of getting damaged.
Some experts said that while Greening's research is promising, it doesn't prove that daily sex for men with fertility problems will actually produce more babies.
Greening said he and his colleagues are still analyzing the study data to determine how many women got pregnant.
"Looking at sperm DNA is just one part of the puzzle," said Bill Ledger, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Sheffield, who was not connected to the research. "Maybe this will improve pregnancy rates, but we still need to do more studies."
Ledger said instructing couples with infertility problems to have more sex could stress their relationship. "This may add even more anxiety and do more harm than good," he said. He said couples shouldn't feel pressured to adjust their sex lives just for the sake of having a baby.
Greening said the study's findings were ultimately very intuitive. "If you want to have a baby, our advice is to do it often."
from The Associated Press

Family Research Council On Kevin Jennings

WASHINGTON D.C. - Few Obama administration appointments have been as startling as Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s appointment of Kevin Jennings, the homosexual founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), to head the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
Jennings was undoubtedly chosen for this post (which does not require Senate confirmation) because the foundation of the homosexual education agenda is the concept of “safe schools.” However, “safe schools” as GLSEN defines them are like “hate crime laws” for kids. GLSEN’s model legislation would create protected categories like “sex, gender, . . . sexual orientation, [and] gender identity or expression.” (Ironically, they don’t include protection for the factor that GLSEN’s own research shows is the most common reason for harassment of students -- “the way they look or their body size.”) Everyone opposes violence, name-calling, and other forms of bullying. As with “hate crimes,” though, GLSEN’s “safe schools” do not protect everyone equally, but instead single out homosexuals for more protection than others.
Despite this inequity, some might be tempted to support the “safe schools” agenda as long as it is limited to ending bullying, and does not extend to actively affirming or promoting homosexuality. However, in a 1995 speech, Jennings admitted that the rhetoric about “safety” was a political device, saying that it “threw our opponents on the defensive, and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling.” In a 1997 speech he embraced the idea of actively “promoting” homosexuality, looking forward to a day when “people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say, ‘Yeah, who cares?’” And an unsigned article on the GLSEN website in 2000 declared, “The pursuit of safety and affirmation are one and the same goal.”
While Jennings promotes tolerance toward homosexuals, he is unwilling to reciprocate by extending tolerance to those who disagree with him. His memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, seethes with bitterness toward Southern Baptists, the country’s largest Protestant denomination (within which he was raised). Perhaps that’s why, in a speech in a New York church in 2000, Jennings is reported to have said, “We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. . . . I’m trying not to say, ‘[F---] ‘em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! Drop dead!”
He wants homosexuality to be taught in American schools -- in his book Always My Child, Jennings calls for a “diversity policy that mandates including LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] themes in the curriculum.” But he wants only one side of this controversial issue to be aired, and apparently believes in locking sexually confused kids into a “gay” identity. That’s the implication of his declaration, “Ex-gay messages have no place in our nation’s public schools. A line has been drawn. There is no ‘other side’ when you’re talking about lesbian, gay and bisexual students.”
Jennings does not limit his promotion of homosexuality in schools only to high schools or middle schools. He wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education, which includes an essay declaring that “‘queerly raised’ children are agents” using “strategies of adaptation, negotiation, resistance, and subversion.”
Perhaps the most dramatic illustration, however, of Jennings’ unfitness for a “safe schools” post involves an incident when he taught at Concord Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts. In his book One Teacher in Ten (the title is based on the discredited myth, now abandoned even by “gay” activist groups, that ten percent of the population is homosexual), he tells about a young male sophomore, “Brewster,” who confessed to Jennings “his involvement with an older man he met in Boston.” But at a GLSEN rally in 2000, Jennings told a more explicit version of “Brewster’s” story. Jennings here quotes the boy and then comments: “‘I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people.”
Did Jennings report this high-risk behavior to the authorities? To the school? To the boy’s parents? No -- he just told the boy, “I hope you knew to use a condom.” Sex between an adult and a young person below the “age of consent” (which varies from state to state) is a crime known as statutory rape, and some states mandate that people in certain professions report such abuse.
I do not know if “Brewster” was below the age of consent, nor whether Jennings was a mandatory reporter or violated mandatory reporting laws. When members of the National Education Association protested an NEA award to Jennings because of this incident, Jennings called the criticism “potentially libelous” and a GLSEN lawyer demanded a retraction. But when officials at Concord Academy -- the school where Jennings had taught -- were asked about the scenario described in one of Jennings’ accounts, a school spokesman said that such an incident should be reported.
In any case, public service requires adherence to a higher ethical standard than bare compliance with the law. Instead of veiled threats, Jennings now owes the public a thorough explanation of the “Brewster” incident. Regardless of the law, a 15-year-old who meets sexual partners in a bus station restroom requires more than a condom to be “safe.”
Kevin Jennings has neither the temperament nor the ethical standards needed for public service. His history suggests a commitment to serving only one narrow part of the student population, not all students. He is unfit for the post to which he’s been assigned, and Secretary Duncan should withdraw his appointment at once.
from Human Events

Fort Worth Gay Bar Raided On The 40th Anniversary Of Stonewall

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — A crowd of more than 100 protesters chanted "No more!" from the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday evening as they demanded an investigation of a police raid that happened hours earlier at a gay nightclub.
One patron was seriously injured during the raid at the Rainbow Lounge, which resulted in the arrests of seven people, protesters said.
Speaker after speaker decried what they called excessive force during the raid, an accusation that police dispute.
"I was scared," said Todd Camp, a former Star-Telegram writer who helped organize the protest. "I have never seen anything like this in my life."
The rally lasted about 20 minutes, and then some protesters marched down Main Street, holding signs and waving flags. A second protest is planned for 7 p.m. Sunday at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Fort Worth raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, when police raided the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 28, 1969. The protest by gays against police harassment helped trigger the U.S. gay-rights movement.
"It is unfortunate that this incident occurred in Fort Worth and even more so to have occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall protests," Fort Worth Councilman Joel Burns said Sunday in a statement. "We are working together with our mayor, police chief, the city of Fort Worth Human Relations Commission and our state legislative colleagues to get a complete and accurate account of what occurred."
Witnesses said police arrived at about 1 a.m. at the Rainbow Lounge on South Jennings Street. They said a man who was arrested suffered a fractured skull and is in a Fort Worth hospital. His condition could not be obtained Sunday night.
Fort Worth police released a statement Sunday saying that the Rainbow Lounge was one of three bars targeted by six Fort Worth police officers, a supervisor and two agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The group first went to the Rosedale Saloon and Cowboy Palace on Rosedale Street. Nine people were arrested, police reported.
The investigators then went to the Rainbow Lounge, the police statement said. While they were walking through the nightclub, an "extremely intoxicated patron made sexually explicit movements toward the police supervisor," the statement said. The person was arrested for public intoxication.
Another intoxicated person also made sexually explicit movements toward an officer and was arrested for public intoxication, the statement said. A third person assaulted a TABC agent by grabbing the agent’s groin, according to the statement. He was taken outside and arrested for public intoxication. He was released to paramedics as he was vomiting repeatedly, police said.
Another officer then asked for assistance from inside the club with an intoxicated patron who was resisting arrest. This person was put on the floor to control and apprehend him, police reported.
The department will conduct a thorough investigation of any allegations, the statement said.
The general manager of the Rainbow Lounge and several patrons dispute the police account, saying officers harassed patrons and used excessive force.
"He was just walking to the bathroom when an officer grabbed him and shoved him against a wall and pulled his head back," said Chris Hightower of Fort Worth, a friend of the injured patron. "He was then thrown to the ground, and three other officers were on him."
Several patrons said the officers were never assaulted.
"I have friends who are cops, and I know what to do when officers are working," Camp said. "No one was acting aggressive to officers."
General manager Randy Norman said the bar had been open just a week, and it had complied with all ordinances.
from The Star Telegram

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Why The Gay Rights Movement Has No National Leader

Every so often, the American social order is reshuffled. And that upheaval is typically accompanied by a prominent face.
Frederick Douglass became the face of the black abolitionist movement. A century later, Martin Luther King Jr. played that role in the civil rights movement. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem became the spokeswomen for the modern women’s movement.
Yet the gay rights movement, which is about to enter its fifth decade, has never had a such a leader despite making remarkable strides in a relatively short period of time.
Gay people have no national standard-bearer, no go-to sound-byte machine for the media. So when President Obama last week extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, there was no alpha gay leader to respond with the movement’s official voice, though some activists criticized the president for not going far enough.
Until 1973, homosexuality was classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. Today, same-sex couples can marry in six states. How did a group that has been so successful over the last generation in countering cultural prejudice and winning civil rights make it so far without an obvious leader?
One explanation is that gay and lesbian activists learned early on that they could get along just fine without one. Even in the movement’s earliest days following the violent uprising at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village 40 years ago this week, no singular leader emerged. Some historians believe this is in part because it was — and still is — difficult for the average American to empathize with the struggles of gay people.
“The gay movement has always had a problem of achieving a dignity or a moral imperative that the black civil rights movement had, or the women’s rights movement claimed,” said Dudley Clendinen, who co-wrote the book “Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America” and now teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University. “Because this movement is fundamentally about the right to be sexual, it’s hard for the larger public to see that as a moral issue,” he said.
By contrast, the moral authority that leaders like Dr. King, Ms. Friedan and Ms. Steinem could claim — and the fact that Americans did not look at them and imagine their sex lives — made it easier to build respectability with the public.
Another reason for the absence of a nationally prominent gay leader is the highly local nature of the movement. Unlike the civil rights and the feminist movements, the gay movement lacked a galvanizing national issue.
In the 1950s and 1960s, black activists pushed for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and asserted their rights in the courts in cases like Brown v. Board of Education. Feminists campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
“Betty and her group wanted to do it from a more top-down approach,” said Daniel Horowitz, a professor of American studies at Smith College who wrote a biography of Ms. Friedan. “You go to Washington and you lobby members of Congress. In fact, she talked explicitly about the N.A.A.C.P. as her model, and the N.A.A.C.P. had achieved its goals primarily through Supreme Court cases.”
Many gay activists pursued a different approach, focusing on issues pertinent to their local communities. Though he has achieved celebrity status of late, Harvey Milk was a mere San Francisco city supervisor, without much in the way of a national profile, when he was assassinated in 1978.
City councils and state legislatures are where domestic partnership laws and legislation extending anti-discrimination protections to gays and lesbians originated. In 1982, Wisconsin became the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And of the six states that now allow same-sex marriage, three — Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — legalized the practice through a vote by the state legislature, without prodding by a court.
“The issues of gay rights are mainly state issues, so the focus for activism is going to be on the local level,” said David Eisenbach, a lecturer in history at Columbia University and the author of “Gay Power: An American Revolution.”
The shifting legal and political environment that has confronted the movement over the years has also made it difficult for a singular leader to emerge.
After the Stonewall uprising 40 years ago, the goal was to persuade society to stop treating gays and lesbians like social deviants.
That movement for equality was later overshadowed by efforts to combat AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s. And AIDS itself is a reason leaders were hard to come by. “AIDS wiped out a whole generation,” Mr. Eisenbach said. “What you have is a vacuum. And that still has not been filled.”
As the AIDS crisis was contained, gay activists shifted their focus in the late 1990s and early 2000s to laws about discrimination, hate crimes and domestic partnerships. Successes on those issues were due in large part to gay rights groups that rose up at the local level and learned to work with local lawmakers.
Until 2003, few even contemplated that gay couples would be able to marry. Then Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that gay couples had that right under the state’s Constitution, ushering in a whole new phase of the movement. Activists on the state and local levels were already well in place and found themselves positioned to wage the campaigns for same-sex marriage — as the recent successes in the Northeast have shown.
“They see dispersal as a great thing, that it’s better not to have a concentration or too much attention overinvested in one individual,” said David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who has written about the civil rights and women’s rights movements.“The speed and breadth of change has been just breathtaking,” he added. “But it’s happened without a Martin Luther King.”
from The New York Time

Just One Look...#109

Indian Government Mulls Repeal Of Law Against Homosexuality

NEW DELHI, INDIA - Home ministry, which had been so far against change in section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which bans homosexuality, now
appears to be in favour of repealing of the law.
As against his predecessor Shivraj Patil's view, home minister P Chidambaram is learnt to have expressed his views on repealing of section 377.
Officials believe since law minister too has now a lenient view, the government stand before high court
will now change - provided the health ministry too expresses the need to change the law or repeal it altogether in favour of homosexual relationship.
Home minister Chidambaram, who is in favour of repealing of section 377, has called a meeting of health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, law minister V Moily and home ministers of all states for consultation.
With Chidambaram and Moily on board, it seems the gay right activists may now break their biggest hurdle.
Home ministry is now waiting for formal nod from health and law minister.
Earlier, it was the home ministry which opposed it in the high court, arguing that homosexuality is not accepted by Indian society and repealing of the law would open the floodgates of delinquent behaviour.
Home ministry had however argued that homosexuals are vulnerable to HIV-AIDS, hence the discrimination against them should end.
Home ministry is now waiting whether the new health minister G N Azad too favours his ministry's earlier stand. With Chidambaram and Moily being on board, the ball is now in Azad's court.
Final decision will be taken after taking consent of all in the proposed meeting.
from The Times of India

Gay Exorcism

BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT - The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They're trying to drive a "demon" out of him.
"You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!" they say. "You demon, loose yourself!" "You sex demon ... you snake!"
The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits -- they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.
Patricia McKinney, pastor of the nondenominational church who describes herself as a prophet, said she has even been receiving death threats as a result of the video, but doesn't understand the outrage.
"I believe in deliverance, I believe in anointing, I believe in the power of Jesus," she said in a phone interview with CNN. "I've been threatened already, I've been attacked, and it doesn't make any sense to us. Really, what they're doing, they're putting me out there on the mat."
McKinney says she doesn't refer to the events of the video as an exorcism, but rather a "casting out of unclean spirits." She said this isn't the first time that an event like this has taken place at her church, but it is the first one centered around homosexuality.
McKinney said the boy approached the church and told her he wanted to be a pastor, but was struggling with his sexuality. "We allow [gay people] to come into our church. We just don't allow them to come in and continue to live that lifestyle," she said.
"God made Adam and Eve," she said. "He made a woman to be with a man, and a man to be with a woman."
Robin McHaelen, who worked with the 16-year-old boy at the center of the video in her position as executive director of True Colors Inc., a gay youth advocacy and mentoring program in Connecticut, said the video was taped in March. She would not identify the teen.
McHaelen said she doesn't think the church acted maliciously -- but that's part of her problem with the video.
"None of the people in this video were intending to hurt this kid," she said. "They performed this ritual in an attempt to rid him of feelings that he didn't want to have."
The boy is the fifth teen True Colors is aware of that has undergone an event like the one documented in the video. But unlike the boy, not all the teens approached a church or religious organization.
The event, McHaelen said, reflects a culture and society that doesn't believe a person can be both Christian and gay.
"That's what makes me so sad and so mad," she said.
McHaelen said she talked to the boy since the incident and said he's feeling very conflicted and confused in trying to reconcile who he is with his religion.
"He's 16 and having the feelings that he's having, the relationships he's having, and then [he's] being tormented by 'What if I'm going to go to hell because of what I feel and who I am?'" she said.
McHaelen notified the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, as she's mandated to do in her position when she suspects abuse or neglect of a minor. However, she told CNN the department will be looking into whether or not abuse or neglect occurred by the parents and family of the boy, not the church. The department declined to comment Thursday.
Isaiah Webster, Director of Communications for the National Youth Advocacy Commission, said he was deeply saddened by the timing of the video and the accompanying uproar.
"It's very, very sad that this still takes place in society," he said. "It's also very sad that it comes about during this week, [as the] 40th anniversary of Stonewall is this weekend."
The so-called "Stonewall Riots" are believed by many to have kicked off the gay liberation movement.
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"That is really something to celebrate," Webster continued, "and it's unfortunate that young people still have to endure things like this."
McHaelen said that as an advocacy group, she doesn't think True Colors can take any legal action against the church, and said she would rather engage in an open dialogue with its members.
from CNN

HIV Testing Day

Raising awareness of the importance of HIV testing is among the goals of the U.S. National HIV Testing Day on June 27.
To mark the day, thousands of HIV testing sites, health departments and community-based HIV/AIDS service providers will hold fairs, provide community and media outreach, host special testing-related events or offer extended operating hours. Some of the events may also occur in the days and weeks around National HIV Testing Day.
Organizers also plan to reach out to communities at increased risk of HIV infection, including black and Hispanic populations, both of which are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States.
The campaign also promotes using the Web site www.HIVtest.org to locate HIV testing sites in specific areas.
More than 1 million Americans are living with HIV, and an estimated 250,000 of them don't know they're infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finding out HIV status means that people who test positive can take steps to protect their own health and their partners' health. People who test negative receive information to help them prevent becoming infected with HIV.
from U.S.News & World Report

Men Just Hate Condoms

WASHINGTON D.C. - The federal government has spent nearly half a million dollars to fund a study to find out why some men would prefer not to wear condoms during sex.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a $423,500 grant to researchers at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
The Bloomington, Ind., based research team will use the funding to study "barriers to correct condom use," according to a release from the institute.
"This project aims to advance our understanding of, among other factors, the role of cognitive and affective processes and condom application skills in explaining problems with condom use in young, heterosexual adult men," reads an excerpt of the study, which will be funded through May 2011.
But critics aren't so sure that this is the way the government should be spending taxpayer dollars.
One of those people is Jazz Shaw, the assistant editor for the news blog Themoderatevoice.com, who says that if the researchers really wanted to know why guys don't like wearing condoms, they should have just asked the average guy.
"Government at all levels leaves itself open to ridicule by not thinking these things through," Shaw said in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. "Men don't enjoy wearing condoms and we already know this."
"If what the NIH actually plans to study is condom failure rates or design deficiencies leading to difficulty in using the product, they should name the study appropriately and focus on those areas," Shaw said.
Repeated calls and messages to the NIH left by ABCNews.com were not immediately returned, but according to its Web site, it provides more than $30 billion for research every year, making the funding for this study a mere pittance in comparison to the larger picture.
The two leaders of the study, scientists Erick Janssen and Stephanie Sanders, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked to elaborate on why, exactly, men often put up a fight when they're asked to wear a condom, Shaw said the feeling experienced during intercourse is altered -- and not for the better -- by the condom.
"The physical sensation is simply not the same," Shaw said.
"Also, it's an interruption when a couple is in the 'heat of the moment' where you have to change focus to something decidedly unromantic," he said. "[It's] pretty much the same as if the woman, at the same juncture, needs to jump up, run to the bathroom and insert a diaphragm. It breaks the mood.
"Men wear them because they are slightly more desirable than a combination of embarrassing diseases, 20 years of child support payments and death," Shaw said. "And if you took the death part out of the equation, a frightening number of us would probably still roll the dice on it if the lady was willing."
The project will be split up into two phases, the first to be focused on asking men about "various issues of arousal and sensation, including physical experience and perceptions about condoms," according to the institutes release on the study.
The second phase will be more laboratory oriented and will focus on "penile erection and sensitivity during condom application."
One of the main goals of the study is to understand the link between condom application and the loss of erections and decreased sensation experienced by men.
David Williams, the vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit watchdog group that tracks mismanagement and wasteful spending by the government, said that he is "frustrated" by the grant.
"It's hard to see this kind of research going on when we have such bigger problems as a country that we need to face," Williams said. "The NIH is studying things that on the face of it sounds like it isn't really needed right now or that the answers are pretty obvious at times."
Williams concedes that while the amount of money given to this project is a "drop in the bucket" compared to the total amount of monetary support the NIH doles out each year, he says that cutting back on several projects like this one could go a long way.
"There needs to be more scrutiny over what is and is not funded," he said.
"People don't seem to think the government has priorities and this grant is really just another example of that," Williams said. "We're all trying to make ends meet here and the government is doing a study on condom use."
from ABC News

Obama Invites Gay Rights Advocates To White House

As advocates for gays and lesbians intensify their criticism of the White House, President Obama has invited some of their leaders to an East Room reception next Monday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, the 1969 Greenwich Village demonstrations that gave birth to the modern gay rights movement.
The White House has not publicized the reception, and officials did not respond to e-mail requests for comment. But gay leaders from here and around the country said they had received either telephone calls from the White House or written invitations to the event, and were told Mr. Obama is expected to speak.
Some said it would take more than a reception to change their view that Mr. Obama has not been aggressive enough in pursuing gay rights. As a candidate, Mr. Obama campaigned to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law barring gay marriage, and ‘’don’t ask don’t tell,’’ the military policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly. But advocates have accused him of dragging his feet.
“What’s going to change the way the community is feeling is seeing the introduction of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’’ said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, a Boston-based advocacy group, referring to two policies Mr. Obama pledged to overturn. She said gay rights advocates want to see “a president who is fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail.’’
Mr. Obama would not be the first Democratic president to mark the Stonewall uprising; Ten years ago, Bill Clinton declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. But the Obama reception comes amid growing complaints from gay leaders like Ms. Chrisler, who supported Mr. Obama’s election but are becoming increasingly upset with him as president.
Just last week when Mr. Obama announced a package of domestic partnership benefits for federal workers, several prominent gay and lesbian political leaders attacked the president for failing to extend full health benefits, saying that the initiative was a mere token effort that included benefits that had already existed.
Ms. Chrisler, who was in the Oval Office for the signing of the memorandum, said she was not satisfied by what she called the ‘’limited benefits’’ Mr. Obama offered. She said she hoped Monday’s reception would be “an opportunity for us as a community to highlight again to this president and this administration that real lives are impacted by his decisions.’’
Whether Mr. Obama will address the complaints at Monday’s reception is unclear. One person who received the invitation said the White House was billing the event as a celebration, akin to the festive affairs the administration holds on St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo. Another said the invitation included an offer to bring a guest. “They want people to understand that their partners are welcome,’’ said this person, speaking anonymously because the White House has not announced the event.
The White House event will be just one of many commemorations of the Stonewall uprising, named for the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street that was the site of a police raid that turned violent in the early hours of the morning of June 28, 1969. The raid led to a series of protests that spawned the creation of gay advocacy groups and, more broadly, empowered gay people to begin fighting for recognition and civil rights.

Update:
Shin Inouye, a White House spokesman, said, “Next Monday’s event is a chance for the White House to recognize the accomplishments of LGBT Americans. Invited guests include families, volunteers and activists, and community leaders. This event was long planned as a way to applaud these individuals during Pride month.”
from The New York Times

Gay Senior Lives Less Openly In Care Facility

ILLINOIS - The love of Victor Engandela's life was a Czech immigrant, an older, square-jawed man, olive-skinned and Hollywood handsome with a shock of white hair and an unfailingly gentlemanly manner.
Joseph was his name. There are pictures of him pressed in a yellowed photo album buried on a shelf in Engandela's room at an Evanston home for seniors.
"I was with him," Engandela said, "until he took his final breath."
He shares these photos, and stories of a rich life, with no one but the occasional visitor, spending most of his days isolated from his past, surrounded by contemporaries born in an age when homosexuality was taboo.
"I'm one of the few people here that's out, and I feel the weight of that," said Engandela, 85. "I don't advertise it, but I feel people know I'm homosexually oriented. They like me, but they don't like me as a homosexual. I feel shunned."
Engandela realized he was gay when he was about 13. His parents were Sicilian immigrants, and he was raised Catholic, one of four siblings.
Rather than play with other kids, Engandela preferred sitting on the porch in his Chicago neighborhood watching the older Italian men talk and smoke cigars.
As he got older he began going to Bughouse Square, listening to poets and Marxists atop soapboxes on hot summer nights. That spot in Washington Square Park was also a covert meeting place for gays, and it was nearby, under the elevated train tracks, that he had his first homosexual experience.
"It was, really, quite beautiful," he said. "But at that time it was a real no-no. I couldn't talk to anybody about it."
Figuring he could live more freely away from his family, Engandela graduated from high school early, went on the road as a professional pianist and eventually joined the Navy, serving in the Philippines during World War II.
After the war and after graduating from college, Engandela met Joseph in New York City and, in the 1950s, brought him home to Chicago. They set up together in an apartment on Cornelia Avenue.
"We had a nice, happy home there," Victor said. "My mother came to like Joseph and realized he was good for me, that he loved me. She'd invite us over for Sunday dinners, and he learned to like spaghetti."
Engandela worked for the state of Illinois as a social worker focusing on care for the elderly.
He didn't talk about being gay among his co-workers, and would even bring women as dates to social functions.
"I always said when I retired, when it was no longer dangerous, I was going to come out." And that's what he did, retiring in the 1970s and telling everyone he knew, including members of the YMCA men's club where he was president, that he was gay.
It felt good to finally be fully open, and he savored those years.
But now Engandela feels as closeted as he's ever been. He often sits alone in the dining room, and has little to do with the various groups and clubs at his long-term care facility. He has a friend who comes by twice a week. On Saturdays they sit in his room and listen to opera on the radio.
Engandela has been to the seniors program at the Center on Halsted a couple of times, but it's hard for him to arrange transportation. Once, another man from the nursing home took him, but when the man realized it was a gay organization he stormed off to the Center's lobby, refusing to dine with Engandela and the other seniors.
"At this point in my life, I can't believe I have to feel this way," Engandela said. "I have a lot of memories I'd like to share, a lot I'd like to talk about. But I feel like I can't, and I shudder when I think I have to spend the remaining years of my life in this place."
from The Chicago Tribune

Give Your Penis Some Air

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – Memphis police say a man was arrested for masturbating in a public park.
According to a court document, it happened at Court Square in Downtown Memphis. Police say, in the document, officers were waved down at the intersection of Court and Main Street by a man who told them a person was exposing himself. The witness told the officers the man was sitting on a park bench with his penis out and was masturbating.
Police say 41-year-old Augustus Hudgins was arrested for indecent exposure. Hudgins told the officers that there was a misunderstanding. He said he was just giving his penis some air, according to the court document.
from ABC 24

Are Schools For Gay Children Necessary?

MILWAUKEE - Forget about segregation and discrimination based on race, gender, religion or disability. Gay children are coming out to the real heat.
In January, Milwaukee strengthened its reputation as being one of the most segregated cities in the nation when MPS established Alliance, a high school and now middle school for LGBT students or any student who feels uncomfortable in a regular school.
Segregation Leads To Ignorance, Not Vice Versa
One advantage of schools for gay children is that they can provide a safe learning environment where children can be free to be themselves.
“Research consistently shows that LGBT youth face far greater risks of harassment and violence from their peers than non-LGBTQ youth,” according to the Cream City Foundation.
This is true, but there are negative consequences. When these kids are taken out of the real world, it’s a lose-lose situation for all children. We can’t expect gay kids to learn tolerance for a bully’s ignorance, or how to learn how to stick up for themselves like any other kids who are different. We also can’t expect the bullies to learn that being gay is not a disease, nor get young people to stop using the ignorant phrase, “that’s so gay.”
When the gay kids start picking on each other in new school, maybe the answer is to just to establish another school to separate them.
The Gay Agenda
A curriculum focused on gay issues and sex is undoubtedly beneficial to these students, but it’s not necessary. The gay agenda, which basically says gay people are brainwashing straight people, can’t exist in schools if kids are getting fair, accurate information from both sides. It’s good that schools bring in special guests to speak about homosexuality, as long as there are speakers on heterosexuality, too.
Or if a regular public school kindergarten teacher incorporates a story about love between two boys, for example, then gay students will see themselves reflected in what is being taught and no special school is needed.
In addition, MPS has the resources to meet the needs of any child, regardless of who they are. Psychologists, social workers and teachers are all trained to support LBGT students. HIV and AIDS among other topics of interest to gay students are something all kids should learn. If the support is provided and students take advantage of it, there would be no need for separate schools. Separate is not equal. It never has been and never will be.
Too young to be sexual?
One argument against gay children in general says that children aren’t sexual, so they can’t be homosexual.
But others disagree. Many gay and lesbian youth identify their sexual orientation at about age 16, according to Ryan Futterman, author of Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling.
This all comes down to perspective. In different countries such as China, sexuality in pre-teens is honorable and normal. And many Americans claim to have had feelings for the same sex at a very young age as well. While it isn’t accurate to assume that a boy will be homosexual because he enjoys playing with his sister’s doll, the lines get blurry when distinguishing at what age children become sexual beings.
That being said, the typical age of middle school kids is 11-13, and that seems a little young to draw conclusions about sexual orientation. But since MPS encourages abstinence, there’s no need to address sexuality at Alliance or at any other MPS school, except to provide information. MPS just needs to include abstinence education for gay teens so that gay children don’t need to transfer schools to learn about it.
The Future Of Gay Schools For some kids such as those into the punk scene, being gay is trendy, deviant, and therefore fun. As if young American Idol star Adam Lambert wasn’t popular enough for his talent, he expanded his fan base at the end of the season after announcing he was gay. (If I was a young gay guy, I’d have fun being him!)
The point is that educators need to consider that since the start of time, kids are drawn into radical ideas. This is not to say that kids can’t be gay, but we must be careful to make sure kids stay kids, whether they are gay or straight. Schools like this one in Boston had a prom for LGBT students that may have gone too far.
In general, kids seem to becoming more tolerant of the gay community though. For example, there was an anti-gay rally led by a church during school hours at Alexander Hamilton High school earlier this year. While most of the kids watched out of curiosity, none joined the rally, and a few even protested against it.
In a national survey of GLBTs, 64 percent said there is more acceptance of gays today, according to Tina Hoff, VP of Public Health Information for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Kids are inherently good, so let’s give them another chance to learn tolerance of people that are different before we decide that a separate learning facility is the answer.
Until there is a resolution, the idea of gay school is more of a slippery slope than a skiing hill during a Wisconsin winter.
What do you think, Milwaukee? What is the answer for our children?
from Examiner.com

T.R. Knight Leaving 'Grey's Anatomy'

Goodbye 'Grey's,' hello Great White Way.
T.R. Knight has been released from his contract with "Grey's Anatomy," Entertainment Weekly reports. And he may be headed for Broadway.
Knight, who trained for the stage, recently did a reading of "Lend Me A Tenor," with a cast of big-name acting luminaries including Alfred Molina, Tony Shalhoub and Marian Seldes.
Knight is in discussions to bring a revival of the period farce, which involves an opera company suddenly in need of a leading man just before curtain.
After premiering in London's West End in 1986, the show was last seen on Broadway in 1989, directed by Jerry Zaks, and it ran for 476 performances.
As for the fate of George O'Malley, there is some speculation that his character may live on to be replaced by a different actor, a possibility left open by the finale's major plot twist in which it's revealed that George is the faceless patient who's been hit by the bus.
Or, his character may have been killed off.
Knight had reportedly been miffed at his character's thin plotlines after a rift developed between him and the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes.
Rhimes says the absence of screen time for O'Malley was just part of the normal cyclical changes in an ensemble-cast drama.
Either way, "Grey's Anatomy" fans now seem to have one fewer cliffhanger to wonder about over the summer. And T.R. Knight fans can muse about what's in store for the actor post Seattle Grace Hospital.
from The New York Daily News

Just One Look...#108

Ex-Mayor Becomes Example Of Gay Partners' Immigration Dilemma

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS - The mayor of this West Texas sheep ranching town offered a stunning explanation when he suddenly resigned: He was in love with a man who was an illegal immigrant and had gone to Mexico.
They had to move, he said, because there was no legal way for them to remain together in the United States.
"It wasn't a decision that any U.S. citizen should have to make," former Mayor J.W. Lown said in an interview from Mexico. "I left a home. I left a ranch. I left a promising political career."
His local prominence and his run for the border on the day he was supposed to be sworn in for a fourth term caused jaws to drop, but it also became a high-profile example of the thousands of Americans who face a similar choice - separate or move abroad - because they can't secure green cards for their partners like heterosexual spouses can.
An estimated 36,000 Americans are in this situation, said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, citing information from the advocacy group Immigration Equality.
Bills have been introduced in Congress to treat same-sex partners like heterosexual spouses for the purposes of immigration but are likely to face a strong fight, both from gay marriage opponents and anti-immigration groups. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prevents immigration officials from recognizing gay marriages, even from states where they are now legal.
Proponents see the issue as a basic rights question, and Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, said he believes the best chance for the legislation is as part of a larger immigration bill.
But other immigration advocates want to keep the issues separate, fearful of bogging down an already tough fight. Kevin Appleby, migration policy director for U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the push for same-sex partners in immigration is about getting recognition in federal law for gay marriage - which he opposes.
"It's an unholy marriage of the immigration debate and the same-sex marriage debate," he said. "It's very combustible."
Lown's decision last month brought the issue to an unlikely place, a town of 90,000 where ranchers and roughnecks from the vast open lands come to do their banking and send their kids to the regional state college. The town's only other recent brush with national fame came last year when it housed the hundreds of children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch in nearby Eldorado.
Before his May 19 resignation, Lown (pronounced "lawn") was considered a political rising star. The 32-year-old Republican, first elected at age 26, won his fourth term with about 89 percent of the vote.
During his tenure, Lown transformed the $600-a-year, part-time job from a mostly ceremonial position to a hands-on office. He actively appeared at thousands of community functions and went to Washington to lobby for the West Texas town - spending his own money after a few residents complained about taxpayers footing the bill.
"That's devotion and dedication," Councilwoman Charlotte Farmer said. "He would have gone far in the political arena in the state of Texas and perhaps farther."
Lown's sexuality never really came up. Some people didn't know. Lown's godfather, Mario Castillo, said most who knew didn't care.
"San Angelo has a live-and-let-live attitude. As long as you don't go around waving your boxer shorts in Sunday school, people leave it alone," said Castillo, a longtime resident who is now a Washington lobbyist.
But Lown, who worked as a real estate agent, said his prominence meant his two-month-old relationship would be scrutinized and his 20-year-old partner might be subject to deportation.
"My heart was torn, and I had to make a decision," he said in a conference call with local reporters shortly after his resignation.
Lown has declined to identify his partner but said the man came across the Rio Grande as a teenager and attended high school and college in San Angelo. They went to Mexico - Lown won't say exactly where - so that his partner can apply for legal residency in the United States, generally a lengthy process for Mexicans without a U.S. citizen spouse, child or parent.
"I did not want to consciously violate the law," Lown said. "We want to make a life together and do it in the right way and follow the law."
Lown, whose mother was Mexican, holds dual citizenship allowing him to live legally in Mexico, he said.
San Angelo, meanwhile, will be without a mayor until the City Council decides whether to appoint someone or schedule a special election.
Lown hopes to eventually return here with his partner.
"I don't know how long this is going to take. It could take months. It could take years, but I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes," he said. "I hope I'll have some shred of my good name left when this is resolved."
from The Associated Press

Benefits Denied To Girl Conceived With Dead Father's Sperm

LOS ANGELES - A 10-year-old Los Angeles girl conceived with her dead father's frozen sperm is not entitled to his Social Security benefits, a federal appeals court panel has ruled.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower-court ruling that the child, Brandalynn Vernoff, was ineligible for the federal survivor payments under California law, which considers factors in addition to biology in determining inheritance rights.
Brandalynn's father, Bruce Vernoff, died accidentally in July 1995. Thirty hours after his death, his wife, Gabriela Vernoff, had a doctor extract his sperm and freeze it. She was impregnated with it in 1998 and gave birth to Brandalynn in 1999, said Wally Vernoff, Bruce Vernoff's father and an attorney representing the widow.
She sought survivor benefits for her daughter from the Social Security Administration, but was rejected. Her claim was also turned away in U.S. District Court.
California law grants inheritance rights only to children conceived within 300 days of the parent's death, the appeals court said. The panel also said there was no evidence that Vernoff had given written consent for his sperm to be used to impregnate his wife.
"Consent, in turn, demonstrates a willingness to support the child and an intent to create the child," the court said.
Wally Vernoff said an appeal by the family is being considered.
from The Los Angeles Times

Anti-Depressants Can Damage Men's Sperm

NEW YORK - Add anti-depressants to the list of substances that can damage men’s sperm and potentially impair their fertility.
In a new study, New York researchers report that as many as half of men taking the anti-depressant paroxetine (brand names, Seroxat and Paxil) have higher levels of sperm fragmentation.
The study was published online today by the journal Fertility & Sterility.
“It’s fairly well known that SSRI anti-depressants negatively impact erectile function and ejaculation. This study goes on step further, demonstrating that they can cause a major increase in genetic damage to sperm,” said Dr. Peter Schlegel, the study’s senior author and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
“Although this study doesn’t look directly at fertility, we can infer that as many as half of men taking SSRIs have a reduced ability to conceive. These men should talk with their physicians about their treatment options,” he added.
The study followed 35 healthy men who took paroxetine for five weeks. Tests were used to examine DNA fragmentation, which occurs when sperm DNA is missing pieces of the genetic code. The results showed that 50 percent of men had signs of abnormal DNA fragmentation while taking the drug, compared with less than 10 percent at the start of the trial.
The men’s sperm returned to normal after discontinuing the drug.
Dr. Cigdem Tanrikut speculated that the anti-depressant caused mens’ sperm to slow down as it makes its way through the male reproductive tract. Sperm gets “hung up,” she said in a statement, allowing it to age and become damaged.
The amount, concentration and motility of sperm were not significantly changed by the medication.
Though men may not know it, sperm can be damaged by various substances, including smoking, alcohol, heat, anabolic steroids, drug abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and some environmental exposures.
from The Chicago Tribune

Zac Efron's Ball Sack

Entourage star Jeremy Piven has revealed that he once apologised to teen hunk Zac Efron for something his character said about him - before it even aired.
Piven, who plays Ari Gold in the hit TV show, says he approached Efron at a basketball game after referring to the High School Musical star’s private parts in an episode of the show.
“What I do now is I apologise to people before they see the episode, so they know that I don’t write it,” said the 43-year-old actor.
“Because in this one episode [next season], I say to my gay assistant Lloyd, ‘I want you to focus on this as if it’s Zac Efron’s ball sack.’
“So I said that to Zac… to let him know I’m only saying what’s written and to please not be mad at me.”
Piven, who has appeared in the TV show since 2004, also reveals that he was shocked to find that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, are both big Entourage fans.
“I was lucky enough to be introduced to [them] and the President told me he and his wife both watched.
“To be honest with you, I thought he was kidding. But, apparently, he wasn’t. It’s pretty fantastic.”
from The DailyFill

Children Can Meet Dad’s Gay Friends

GEORGIA - The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge’s order that prohibited children in a divorce case from having any contact with their father’s gay and lesbian friends.
The ruling was hailed by gay rights groups who said the decision focuses on the needs of children instead of perpetuating a stigma on the basis of sexual orientation.
The state high court’s decision overturned Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards’ blanket prohibition against exposing the children to their father’s gay partners and friends.
“Such an arbitrary classification based on sexual orientation flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children,” Justice Robert Benham wrote.
The Fayette County judge’s prohibition “assumes, without evidentiary support, that the children will suffer harm from any such contact,” Benham wrote. But there is no evidence that any member of the gay and lesbian community has engaged in inappropriate conduct in the presence of the children or that the children would be adversely affected by being exposed to members of that community, he said.
The ruling stems from the 2007 divorce of Eric Duane Mongerson and Sandy Kay Ehlers Mongerson, who had been married 21 years and had four children.
The visitation order prohibited the three youngest children, whose ages ranged from 8 to 16 at the time, from being in contact with their father’s gay and lesbian friends. The oldest child was already an adult.
Hannibal Heredia, an Atlanta lawyer representing Eric Mongerson, called the court’s ruling “the proper decision.”
Sandy Mongerson’s attorney, Lance McMillian, said the mother does not plan to appeal. “My client is interested in putting it behind her,” he said. “Other than that, we don’t have anything to say about it.”
Beth Littrell, staff attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Atlanta, said the visitation order was the most sweeping of its kind she had seen in Georgia.
“Placing a blanket ban on children’s association with gay people not only hurts this father’s relationship with his children, it is blatant discrimination,” Littrell said. “The court has done the right thing today by focusing on the needs of the children instead of perpetuating stigma on the basis of sexual orientation.”
The ruling, she added, ensures that visitation decisions are “not based on the prejudices of individual judges.”
from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gay Activists Wary About Flamboyant "Bruno"

LOS ANGELES - U.S. gay activists are worried that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's new film, "Bruno," could reinforce negative stereotypes about homosexuals just as they are making gains in the fight for rights such as same-sex marriage.
Cohen, who scored a surprise hit in 2006 with "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," portrays a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion reporter in the new film that premieres on Wednesday in London and opens in the United States on July 10.
The studio releasing "Bruno" says the film's intent is to satirize homophobia, but some gay advocates are wary.
"We do feel the intentions of the filmmakers are in the right place -- satire of this form can unmask homophobia -- but at the same time it can heighten people's discomfort with our community," said Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
With that in mind, GLAAD asked in vain for Universal Pictures, the studio behind "Bruno," to add a message from Cohen addressing the importance of gay rights and tolerance.
Universal says in a statement it believes most moviegoers will understand the film's "positive intentions."
"'Bruno' uses provocative comedy to powerfully shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia," the studio said.
The movie comes out as U.S. same-sex couples have won the right to wed in six states amid a fierce debate on gay marriage that has seen California voters approve a ban on such marriages.
"Bruno" is expected to be a hit, although there remains a big question about whether the young men who make up a core Hollywood audience will turn out for a movie about a gay man.
"It's going to be interesting to see if a bunch of teenage boys actually care to go", said gay activist Cathy Renna.
But one thing is certain -- Cohen has a huge fan base. Men and women flocked to "Borat," a fake documentary about a Kazakh journalist traveling across the United States that used comedy to expose bigotry. It earned $128 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices and $133 million in other countries.
Like its predecessor, "Bruno" is a mock documentary that covers the fashion reporter after he loses his job in Austria and goes to America looking to become a celebrity. Bruno wears mesh shirts, talks with a lisp and has a penchant for dropping his pants.
His unscripted encounters with everyday Americans and prominent figures, who think he is real, often devolve into people's disgusted reaction to Bruno's in-your-face sexuality.
In one scene, for instance, a martial arts teacher shows Bruno how to guard against gays. GLAAD's Robinson said another scene worried him that shows Bruno appearing to have sex with a man in a tub, while his adopted baby sits nearby.
"That wasn't really unmasking homophobia, and especially in a country where same-sex couples can still be denied the ability to adopt children that they've raised since birth. Trivializing gay families isn't a joke," Robinson said.
But gay groups also see potential from the film. "Bigotry and homophobia still today get cloaked in many different nuanced ways, so a movie like this has the potential to let everyone in on the joke and to really change the way homophobia is viewed," said Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.
from Reuters

Gay City Employees Fight To Block Release Of Their Identities

SEATTLE - Several City of Seattle workers have sued to prevent the release of names and membership lists of a gay and lesbian employee organization.
At issue, according to a complaint filed in King County Superior Court, is a request by Seattle City Light employee affiliated with a conservative Christian organization who claims the city has opposed his efforts to launch a group for formerly homosexual workers.
The City Light employee -- Philip Irvin, 58 -- wants the city to release the names of organizers of city employee groups, specifically those of a Seattle Public Utilities "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Friends" group. According to court documents, Irvin has also requested the names and city departments of those who are members of the group, or who have attended the group's meetings, as well as copies of the group's sign-in sheets, minutes and agendas.
Speaking to seattlepi.com Thursday, Irvin said the city has previously opposed his efforts to start a group for employees who had identified as homosexuals but have since become heterosexual.
"They are the most vilified sexual minority, and I'm sorry to say that they're not really welcomed in the religious community either," Irvin said. "This is something where they are vilified on the right or the left."
After receiving Irvin's request in early May, city public-disclosure officers notified employees whose identities would be released. In response, an unspecified number of employees have sued the city asserting that state public-records law demand their identities be withheld.
Plaintiffs' attorney Cecilia Cordova said the issue, plainly, is the privacy of these city employees.
"The information that we're talking about is personal information," said Cordova, who is representing the employees with noted gay-rights attorney David Coffman. "The risk is privacy, and that's something that is taken very seriously by the court system."
Coffman and Cordova were able to secure a temporary restraining order blocking the city from releasing the documents until a more complete hearing is held later this month. At that time, the employees' attorneys will ask that the city delay release of the documents until a final ruling is made.
Defending the city position that the documents are releasable, City Attorney Tom Carr said that, despite his personal view to the contrary, he believes state law mandates that the information be released.
Carr argued that no relevant exemptions exist in the state open-records law to protect the identities of public employees participating in such groups. Earlier case law held that the courts could weigh the public good of release with the privacy concerns, but the Legislature has since revised the law to seriously limit such discretion.
"This is a group of people who have historically been discriminated against and in some cases physically attacked, and I would prefer to protect their names," Carr said. "But my preferences aren't relevant here, and the law is clear. … If the law's wrong, the people who can change it are in the Legislature."
Irvin said he has asked to become an intervenor in the complaint filed by the city employees, a position which would allow him to file pleadings in the case. He said he is preparing to file a brief demanding disclosure of the documents.
Rather than to harass group members, Irvin said he intends to use the documentation to show that the city has allowed the group to operate. He also said he intends to attend the group's meetings, and will use the identifying information in a civil rights complaint should he be barred from doing so.
Irvin said he believes the city is extending privileges to the employees' group that were denied him during an earlier effort to launch a group for formerly homosexual workers. The city did so, he contends, because organizations such as his are "politically inconvenient," and, in doing so, violated civil rights law.
"Some people would say that I'm a civil rights leader," Irvin said. "I'm asking for equal rights, and, to that end, I'm attacking the internal inconsistency of gay rights laws."
On the Web site of the Bellevue-based Faith and Freedom Network, group president Gary Randall republished a memo apparently sent to the organization by Irvin. In it, Irvin complains that LGBTQ&F group members have used the city e-mail system and meeting rooms for the organization's functions.
"Curious to find out who was using City resources, I, a City Light employee, filed a public disclosure request seeking the names and attendees of their meeting," Irvin wrote, according to the Faith and Freedom Network site. "Call me a homophobe if you want to," he added, "but I don't think the city should fund a secret gay employees group."
Irvin went on to accuse the employees of hypocrisy for fighting the release of their identifying information. Gay-rights groups have announced plans to publish the names of voters who sign Referendum 71, a Faith and Freedom Network-backed effort to repeal a state law expanding the rights of registered domestic partners.
That effort was announced earlier this month, weeks after Irvin filed his public-information request.
Irvin's request will face its first test Wednesday, when King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick will hear arguments on whether to block release of the documents.
from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

L.A. Gay Pride Parade Darkened By U.S. Stance On Marriage

LOS ANGELES - The mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco joined gay rights groups Sunday in raising concerns about the Obama administration's defense of a federal law restricting same-sex marriage.
"I think it's a big mistake," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said shortly before he and his Los Angeles counterpart, Antonio Villaraigosa, kicked off the annual L.A. Pride parade in West Hollywood.
The mayors, potential rivals in next year's Democratic primary for governor, were each careful to avoid direct criticism of President Obama.
But their mutual disapproval of a Justice Department brief filed Thursday in support of the Defense of Marriage Act comes amid growing discontent with Obama among gay rights groups.
The battle over same-sex marriage added a serious note to the West Hollywood celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village that launched the modern gay rights movement.
"I'm concerned about some of the arguments being made by the Justice Department," Villaraigosa told a cluster of news crews on Santa Monica Boulevard as motorcyclists in the "Dykes on Bikes" group revved their engines for the parade's start.
In his campaign for the White House, Obama pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed into law during his 1996 reelection campaign. The law bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and enables states to refuse to recognize such marriages performed in other states.
The Justice Department brief, filed in opposition to a federal lawsuit arguing that the law is unconstitutional, says the act "reflects a cautiously limited response to society's still-evolving understanding of the institution of marriage."
It was filed by Assistant Atty. Gen. Tony West, who was a San Francisco fundraiser for Obama, and two other Justice Department lawyers.
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, called the administration's defense of the law unacceptable.
The Defense of Marriage Act "is and has always been an immoral attack on same-sex couples, our families and our fundamental humanity," Carey said.
Other groups denouncing the brief included the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union.
White House spokesman Shin Inouye said the Justice Department, in submitting the brief, was following its normal practice of defending a law on the books in court.
"The president has said he wants to see a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act because it prevents [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] couples from being granted equal rights and benefits," Inouye said.
"However, until Congress passes legislation repealing the law, the administration will continue to defend the statute when it is challenged in the justice system."
Obama, he said, "remains fully committed" to his proposals on gay rights.
Gay rights groups have called on Obama to act more quickly on the major ones, including abandonment of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars gays in the armed forces from disclosing their sexual orientation.
Rodney Scott, president of Christopher Street West, the parade's chief sponsor, said he was "deeply saddened" that Obama's administration was defending the marriage law.
"That's not the president I voted for," he said as thousands of people lining Santa Monica Boulevard cheered the procession of marchers and floats.
Bill Rosendahl, a gay member of the Los Angeles City Council and early Obama supporter, was equally blunt.
"I'm very upset with him on everything he's done regarding us so far," he said.
Among those vowing to fight for the repeal of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that barred same-sex marriage in California, were Villaraigosa and Newsom.
"We're going to do everything we can," Villaraigosa said, "to put this issue back on the ballot."
from The Los Angeles Times

New York City's First Gay Marriage

NEW YORK CITY - I dupe, I dupe!
While political arguments rage, New York City has certified its first gay marriage -- of two men who fooled the City Clerk's Office into letting them tie the knot.
Hakim Nelson and Jason Stenson married on May 26 with nary a raised eyebrow among the oblivious city bureaucrats who not only OK'd the marriage license, but conducted the ceremony, despite gay marriage being illegal in the state.
The plucky couple filled out their marriage application online at the Apple Store on 14th Street in May. A few days later, they went to the City Clerk's Office on Worth Street to complete the form and get their marriage license.
Nelson -- who goes by the name "Kimah" and hopes to one day have surgery to become a "full female" -- wore an orange dress and white leggings, his straight, brown hair falling to his shoulders.
The gullible clerk didn't seem to notice that both Nelson, 18, and Stenson, 21, have male first names.
They both had to present identification to obtain the license. Stenson used his state ID card, and Nelson gave a state Benefit Card, which he uses to collect food stamps.
By a fluke, Nelson's ID card has an "F" for female on it, because the official who issued it in April assumed from his appearance that he was a woman.
But Nelson couldn't believe the license clerk didn't ask for better identification.
"I was scared. I thought they would ask for more paperwork from me because I have a male name," Nelson said.
The clerk didn't. Instead she asked questions about the couple's jobs and addresses -- which they listed as Sylvia's Place, a city shelter for gay, lesbian and transgender youth -- but nothing about their gender.
Ten days after obtaining their license, the wedding crashers returned to the office for the ceremony. They were clutching their license and a pair of $10 silver wedding rings they had bought in the West Village. Nelson was in the same orange dress.
They showed another clerk at the marriage bureau their license, and he gave them a number and told them to wait.
Then a third city official, Blanca Martinez, took their IDs and the license. She printed out the marriage certificate and performed the quick ceremony, pausing to ask Nelson whether she was pronouncing "Hakim" properly. A friend served as a witness.
As they walked out of the building hand in hand, Jason said to his new spouse, "I think we just made history."
A source with the clerk's office said the employees were simply snookered.
"Is our system 100 percent foolproof? What system is? We do the best job we can," he said.
"If someone is trying to willfully sneak through, we try to stop it. But you have instances of females [who] have male names and vice versa.
"You've heard of a boy named Sue, right?"
The bureau is currently deciding what steps to take regarding the license or any others that may have been issued improperly, adding that Stenson's and Nelson's is not valid.
When they told another male couple about duping the city, that pair made a bee-line for the clerk's office and were also wed, Nelson said.
After The Post's inquiries, the city's marriage bureau stopped two more people with male names from marrying Friday, requesting birth certificates.
Stenson, who has two children by his former domestic partner, does not consider himself gay. He sees his new spouse as a woman.
Experts say the marriage is not legal.
"Gay marriage is not lawful here in New York, so they're technically not married," said matrimonial attorney Raoul Felder.
Evan Wolfson, head of Freedom to Marry, a local advocacy group devoted to legalizing gay marriage, saw the Stenson/Nelson example as "one more illustration of why the New York Senate needs to move quickly to pass the marriage bill and end this discrimination in New York."
The "newlyweds," meanwhile, have already run into trouble. They took their new license to the Adult Family Intake Center in Manhattan hoping to qualify for couples' housing. But Nelson's name immediately drew suspicion.
"Are you a man or a woman?" the intake officer demanded.
"I'm a transsexual," he lied.
For now, the pair is living as a married couple in a Brooklyn shelter.
"People in Albany can say, 'Look, it's already happened, so let's just make it legal,' " Stenson said. "We're all human beings. What makes me and my wife different?"
from The New York Post

Just One Look...#107

Adds June 2009

New Miss California Also Against Gay Marriage

Miss California USA's executive director says the pageant would never try to silence new titleholder Tami Farrell's stance against gay marriage.
Keith Lewis told The Associated Press on Friday that he wants all of the beauty contestants he deals with to be able to voice their opinions as long as they don't violate their contracts.
Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, who was given a second chance earlier, lost her title Wednesday after Lewis said she skipped pageant events while speaking out against gay marriage during unsanctioned appearances.
In a television interview Thursday, Farrell said she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. But she added: "I don't think I have the right or anybody has the right to tell somebody who they can or can't love."
Prejean says she was dethroned because during the Miss USA pageant she said gays shouldn't be allowed to marry.
from Mercury News

Gay Comment Cost Me My Crown

Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she lost her crown because of a comment she made about gay marriage and not because she had been skipping appearances.
Prejean told Matt Lauer on NBC'S "Today" show Friday that she "absolutely" had been dethroned because of the comment, when she said marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Prejean lost her title Wednesday after California pageant executive director Keith Lewis said Prejean was skipping Miss California USA events while speaking out against gay marriage at unsanctioned appearances.
Lewis said Friday that the pageant would never try to silence its contestants. He says they should be able to voice their opinions as long as they don't violate their contracts.
Prejean was replaced by the Miss California pageant's first runner-up, Miss Malibu Tami Farrell. Farrell has also said she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.
from The Associated Press