The ban drew its strongest support from both evangelical Christians and voters who didn't attend college, according to results released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Age and race, meanwhile, were not as strong factors as assumed. According to the poll, 56 percent of voters over age 55 and 57 percent of nonwhite voters cast a yes ballot for the gay marriage ban.
See Poll: Calif. gay marriage ban driven by religion
Those nicknames from the past — God's Rottweiler, the Panzercardinal — don't seem to stick anymore. After acquiring a reputation as an aggressive, doctrine-enforcing Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI has surprised many with his gentle manner and his writings on Christian love. But with the Christmas season upon us, there is growing proof that the 82-year-old Pope is also quite willing to play the part of Scrooge to defend his often rigid view of Church doctrine.
Benedict's envoy to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has announced that the Vatican will oppose a proposed U.N. declaration calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals. At first blush, no one should be surprised to find the Catholic Church hierarchy butting heads with gay rights activists. But this particular French-sponsored proposal, which has the backing of all 27 European Union countries, calls for an end to the practice of criminalizing and punishing people for their sexual orientation. Most dramatically, in some countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can be punished by death.
Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was forced to clarify that the Vatican continues to condemn the use of the death penalty for any crime, including those associated with homosexuality. Instead, Migliore said the Vatican's opposition to the U.N. proposal was driven by concern that countries that prohibit gay marriage would somehow be targeted. Said Migliore: "Countries that don't recognize the union between people of the same sex as marriage will be punished and pressured."
The U.N. declaration does not in fact mention gay marriage, and most of the nations that support it themselves don't allow people of the same sex to wed. Archbishop Migliore confirmed on Tuesday that the Vatican had also refused to sign a U.N. document last May in support of the rights of the disabled because it did not include condemnation of abortion, and the rights the fetus with birth defects. Vatican officials nevertheless voiced support for the central principles of the disabled rights document, which Migliore helped craft before the final decision to withhold the Holy See's signature.
The Italian gay rights association Arcigay says the Vatican's opposition to the anti-discriminatory measure is "unprecedented," and the citing of gay marriage is an "excuse" to distract people from the real intent of criminalizing gays. One Rome-based priest was disappointed that the Vatican decided to publicize its opposition to what appears a rather innocuous declaration. "When you're always trying to look for new ways to make your point, you lose credibility," says the priest. "Better sometimes to keep quiet."
Benedict has said repeatedly that the Church is forced to speak out against the tide of secularization, especially in Catholicism's home turf in Europe. His kindly manner notwithstanding, Benedict does not seem to hesitate doing or saying what he deems necessary to keep Catholicism from straying too far from its doctrinal tradition.
And that includes revisiting the Catholic liturgy if necessary. His top Vatican deputies are now studying a change to the mass that would affect the moment when members of the congregation are asked to greet each other with a "sign of peace." Worshippers then exchange handshakes, or sometimes a hug or kiss. In 2007, writing about the exchanging of the peace, Benedict called for "greater restraint in this gesture which can become exaggerated and cause a certain distraction in the assembly before the reception of Communion." It may now be moved earlier in the service. Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Vatican's liturgical office, said last month that the affectionate gesture is often misunderstood. "It is thought to be a chance to shake hands with friends. Instead it is a way to tell those nearby that the peace of Christ, really present on the altar, is also with all."
See The Pope's Christmas Gift: A Tough Line on Church Doctrine
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called homosexuality "satanic," said City Hall has banned, "and will continue to ban, the propaganda of the views of sexual minorities." Those views, he is quoted as saying, "could become one of the factors for the spread of HIV."
City Hall has rejected repeated requests by public organizations to draw attention to gay rights with parades. Attempts by activists to defy the ban have ended violently in some cases and petered out in others.
See Moscow mayor: Ban on gay parades to continue
That morning, at a press conference called to announce a legal challenge to the passage of Proposition 8, lesbian activist Robin Tyler, with her wife at her side, offered, "This is not a culture war — a lot of times the press refers to [gays] getting married as a culture war. This is a civil rights movement."
Jasmyne Cannick, a former congressional and Sacramento legislature press secretary who now works as a political consultant, says that's exactly why more black Californians didn't vote against Proposition 8. White activists' insistence on linking the two movements — marriage equality and racial equality — was automatically rejected by many black voters. That equation, says Cannick, "is dead on arrival when it gets to the black community."
Cannick, who is black and lesbian, grew up in Los Angeles. She says that just as black churches don't often address the homophobic strain that runs through the black community, gays and lesbians don't easily speak about the racism that is silently present in their community.
See Racial Divisions Cast Shadow On Gay Rights Movement
A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that the ballot measure banning gay marriage in California received its strongest support from Republicans and evangelical Christians.
The poll was taken after the Nov. 4 elections and found that despite the heated debate over Prop. 8, opinions in California about gay marriage have not changed very much.
"When voters are asked the separate question of whether they favor or oppose same-sex marriage, they are divided, with 47 percent in favor, 48 percent opposed, and 5 percent unsure," according to the PPIC poll results statement. "[It's] a result consistent with responses in the October PPIC preelection survey."
The PPIC survey, which received funding from the James Irvine Foundation, polled 2,003 California voters, who were contacted by phone November 5–16, 2008. The poll has a margin of error of 2%, perhaps more for subgroups surveyed.
Among the findings: See Prop. 8 poll: Evangelicals, Republicans were biggest backers of gay marriage ban
The Albert Kennedy Trust has unveiled its new corporate identity and logo.
The charity, founded in Manchester in 1989, works with young lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people whose families have rejected them or are unable to care for them.
Ahead of its 20th anniversary AKT has rebranded, incorporating a new 'urban' logo. Their website will also be extensively redesigned. The charity helped more than 1,400 young people in 2007.
AKT’s mission is to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people are able to live in accepting, supportive and caring homes, by providing a range of services to meet the individual needs of those who would otherwise be homeless or living in a hostile environment.
The Trust provides appropriate homes through supported lodgings, fostering and other specialist housing schemes and enables young people to manage independent living successfully.
See Charity for gay homeless teens rebrands to reach new generation of kids in need
International media watchdog groups called Wednesday for the release of a freelance journalist jailed in northern Iraq for violating a public decency law by writing a story about homosexuality.
Adel Hussein was sentenced Nov. 24 to six months in jail by a court in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish-ruled region of northern Iraq, according to the Committee To Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.
Hussein also was ordered to pay a fine of about $106, the organizations said. He is being held at Mahata prison in Irbil, about 220 miles north of Baghdad.
"We are astonished to learn that a press case has been tried under the criminal code. What was the point of adopting -- and then liberalizing -- a press code in the Kurdistan region if people who contribute to the news media are still be tried under more repressive laws," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
The case centers on an April 2007 article Hussein wrote for the independent weekly Hawlati that detailed the physical effects of homosexual sex, the organizations said.
The sentence handed down by the Kurdish court was based on an outdated 1969 Iraqi penal code, said Luqman Malazadah, Hussein's lawyer. Malazadah told CPJ he has appealed the court decision.
In a historic election year in California, many were surprised when voters in this deeply blue state voted narrowly to ban gay marriage. A search for reasons has focused on the role of religious groups, and age, race and ethnic voting patterns in the passage of Proposition 8, but has missed the obvious: Although public opinion has shifted since 2000, when an overwhelming majority approved the first gay marriage ban, public support for letting same-sex couples marry still falls short of a majority.
Since Proposition 22 was on the ballot in 2000, Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Surveys have periodically asked, "Do you favor or oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to be legally married?" In our pre-election surveys in 2000, 38 percent of California voters favored same-sex marriage. This result closely mirrored the actual result: 39 percent voted against a ban.
Public support for same-sex marriage rose to 46 percent in 2005 and has remained at about that level. In surveys before and after this election, 47 percent of California voters favored gay marriage - almost identical to the 48 percent who voted no on Prop. 8.
There was no shift in voter attitudes even after the state Supreme Court ruled that the ban enacted by Prop. 22 was unconstitutional, and despite millions of advertising dollars spent by both sides of the Prop. 8 campaign. However, there was a decisive shift in views in the final weeks before the election. Our pre-election surveys showed that a significant percentage of voters opposed to same-sex marriage were nevertheless planning to vote against Proposition 8.
Whether this contradictory intent indicated ambivalence about supporting a constitutional ban or confusion about the meaning of a no vote, enough of these voters were persuaded to switch sides to provide a narrow victory for the measure. In our October survey, of the 52 percent who said they would vote no on Proposition 8, 19 percent said they were opposed to same-sex marriage. But in our post-election survey, among the 48 percent who said they voted no, only 8 percent were opposed to same-sex marriage.
Why did a majority of California voters decide to throw their support to Prop. 8? By far the most commonly cited reason given in our post-election survey is the belief that a marriage between only a man and a woman should be recognized (63 percent), followed by religious objections to same-sex marriage (16 percent). The narrow victory of Prop. 8 was made possible by overwhelming support from Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians, combined with solid majorities of older, married, lower-income and less-educated voters.
While much has been made of the importance of race and ethnicity in passage of this initiative, the socioeconomic divide was the more powerful factor: Prop. 8 won among both white and nonwhite voters without a college degree and among lower-income households, while it lost among both white and non-white voters with college degrees and among upper-income households.
See Why the same-sex marriage ban passed
San Francisco Chronicle, USA
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Anne Shelley and Dr. Robin Ross are unwinding after a jampacked day of ferrying 4-year-old daughter Eva Mae from preschool to ice-skating lessons to speech therapy.
"It's pretty much your mundane American family," said Shelley, 46, over a dinner of barbecue at their home near the Ozarks
But not everyone sees their domestic situation as a hefty slice of apple pie. Arkansas residents recently voted to ban people who are "cohabitating outside of a valid marriage," as Shelley and Ross do, from being foster parents or adopting children as these women did.
The measure was written to prohibit straight and gay people who are living together from adopting or becoming foster parents, but its real objective, child welfare experts say, is to bar same-sex couples like Shelley and Ross, 52, from raising children—even if it means youngsters who desperately need families will wait longer. See Arkansas adoption ban hits gay couples
Chicago Tribune, United States
Many gay advocacy organizations are scaling back services and cutting staff, as the nation’s recession takes a toll on nonprofits.
At Lambda Legal, 10 positions were cut last month. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation laid off several staff members Nov. 21. The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has left open unfilled positions, and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association recently reduced its national staff from seven to two.
GLAAD President Neil Giuliano said the cuts at his organization “touched all departments,” but did not reach “double digits.” See Gay orgs cut staff to cope with recession
Washington Blade, DC
The gay dollar has never been stronger. The passage of the anti-same-sex-marriage initiative Proposition 8 brought protests across the country. Subsequently, gay activists have released the names of prominent businesspeople who donated to the ballot measure, and called for economic boycotts of their corporations.
Such initiatives, while part of gay history, also prompt new questions. What role do boycotts play when many corporations now woo well-off gay consumers, boast of “gay-friendly” policies and sometimes have gays and lesbians at the helm? What do boycotts say about the connection between gays and labor unions, traditionally among the organizations that call for such boycotts?
The city of Evanston saw the first of recent boycotts in Illinois Nov. 22 when picketers gathered outside the Century Theater. They urged theatergoers not to patronize the business because Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark, the corporation that owns Century, gave a personal contribution of $9,999 to support Proposition 8.
See Gay dollars, labor and boycotts
Windy City Times, IL
Brian Paddick, the former top cop and London mayoral candidate who has spent the last few weeks on the UK reality show I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here, was kicked out of the show Tuesday night and kissed his longtime partner Petter Belsvick on his departure.
It was a bad night for the gays on the show. Paddick and recently married Star Trek legend George Takei, 71, were both voted in the bottom two. Takei consoled Paddick and gave him a kiss after the result was announced.
Brian said: "I thought George might have more support. I thought I'd pick up a few more votes for sleeping in the jungle jail."
See Gay UK Cop Kisses Boyfriend on TV
Bgay.com, FL
Australian Idol runner-up Anthony Callea says that he thinks his decision to come out of the closet has had minimal impact on his career and that it was important for him to come clean.
Callea became a favorite of young girls and grannies across the country during the Idol competition but decided to come out when persistent rumors about his sexuality dogged his time on the show. Callea now performs with his partner, former Home and Away actor Tim Campbell.
"You really have to be comfortable with yourself before you make that step," Callea says, explaining why he waited with coming out. "Everybody has an opinion. People say, 'You should have been up front about it', but you need to be comfortable.
See Aussie Idol: Being Gay Is Part of Me
Bgay.com, FL
Prop 8: The Musical, created by award-winning Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman, features stars such as Jack Black and John C Reilly lampooning backers of the constitutional amendment, which limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman.
The ban was passed by voters during the November election, five months after gay weddings were legalised in the nation’s most populous state.
A number of legal challenges are seeking to overturn the amendment, which was opposed by Hollywood heavyweights including Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg as well as President-Elect Barack Obama and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Its passage sparked protests nationwide.
Prop 8: The Musical, directed and staged by Hairspray director Adam Shankman, features well-known stage and screen actors taking part in a Sacramento community college threatre group production.
It opens with the colourfully-dressed “California Gays and The People That Love Them” dancing and celebrating a “brand new bright Obama day” and “happy days for the gays”.
See Jack Black is Jesus in Hollywood’s 'Prop 8: The Musical' gay ...
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
Police say a 50-year-old man was critically injured in an attack with a bottle outside a Salt Lake City lounge and gym that reputedly caters to the gay community -- and that may make it a hate crime case.
The victim told police that he left the 14th Street Gym, near 1400 West and 200 South, after midnight early Wednesday.
As he was waiting for a cab ride, the man said someone walked up behind him, swore at him, used a derogatory sexual-orientation slur and hit him over the top of the head with a bottle, police said.
See Hate crime? Police say attack may have been a gay-bashing incident
Salt Lake Tribune, United States -
Part of President-elect Obama's ambitious pro-equality platform is that he supports the repeal of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act). But already, the anti-gay Right has launched a campaign to "protect DOMA."
At this moment of change, which we've fought so hard to reach, it's time for the federal government to stop punishing loving same-sex couples. It's time to repeal DOMA.
Please take action right now to make sure Congress sends President-elect the legislation to sign.
While states across the country have different laws regarding marriage equality and civil unions, and far too many states currently have bans on same-sex marriage, repealing DOMA would be a huge step in the direction of equality.
People For the American Way's campaign to Dump DOMA is a comprehensive effort to get repeal legislation on the President-elect Obama's desk for signature. This is a long-tem strategy that we know will be an uphill battle -- but, we must start now. Anti-equality groups are already pushing to keep DOMA in place, and we anticipate challenges with some red-state Democrats and the need to "flip" some representatives and senators who voted to pass DOMA in 1996. But we've seen just what effective national organizing can do in this last election cycle, and we're hopeful that this major step for LGBT equality can be part of the big change for our country in the next few years.
Sign the petition to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi now. We want to gather as many signatures as we can to deliver to congressional leadership to begin this battle when the 111th Congress convenes. We need to build up bi-partisan support to repeal DOMA and create an atmosphere of change on this issue in the halls of Congress.
Help get the ball rolling with your signature right now and then please ask your friends to sign it. Forward this e-mail or simply send them to DumpDOMA.com.
The Obama platform on LGBT rights is laid out on his Change.gov transition web site. While unfortunately falling short on full marriage equality, it shows a commitment to many of the values People For the American Way has been advocating for years and continues to fight for: protections against employment discrimination, the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal hate crimes laws and allowing gays and lesbians to serve equally and openly in the military by eliminating "don't ask, don't tell." But perhaps the most aggressive part of the platform is Obama's support for repealing DOMA and ending federal discrimination against same-sex couples.
Now we need to gin up the grassroots pressure on House and Senate leaders to let them know it's time for the U.S. government to stop punishing families.
Please be among the first to get on board. We need your support now if the campaign is going to be successful.
Officials with the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are hopeful that Barack Obama’s administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will help orchestrate the passage next year of two gay rights bills that enjoy widespread support.
The Matthew Shepard Act, which would authorize federal authorities to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered high priorities among gay-supportive lawmakers, officials with the two groups said.
“For the first time ever, we will have a president who has been a co-sponsor of both of these bills,” said David Stacy, HRC’s senior public policy advocate.See Hate crimes, ENDA seen as top legislative priorities
A senior government lawyer has said it "may not be proper" for the Delhi High Court to overturn a colonial-era law that bans "unnatural sex" in India.
Last month the High Court in Delhi finished hearing arguments in a suit brought by gay rights activists seeking to overturn Section 377.
Chief Justice AP Shah reserved judgement and asked both sides to submit transcripts of their arguments.
The government of India wants to retain Section 377. It was enacted in 1860 under the British Raj in line with the anti-sodomy laws in England at the time.
It punishes anyone who "voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" by imprisonment and criminalises a whole range of sexual acts from mutual masturbation, to fellatio and anal sex.
See Indian official questions right of High Court to decrminalise gay sex
A leading sexual health charity has said it is working with the National Blood Service on the current ban on men who have had sex with men donating blood.
Terrence Higgins Trust has been accused of colluding with "stereotyped and prejudiced assumptions" that bar gay men from giving blood by campaigner Peter Tatchell.
The NBS claims that it targets sexual behaviour and not sexual orientation, but there is a lifetime ban on donations from men who have had sex with men.
See THT rejects Tatchell criticism and reveals work with blood service
Same-sex couples in Victoria can now officially declare their partnership under a new relationship registry scheme which came into effect this week.
Couples listed in the register will have their relationship recognised by Victoria's courts.
“The scheme was never about undermining marriage,” Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, told reporters. “It’s simply about giving the dignity of formal recognition to those who seek it. Of saying yes, the community respects your relationships and your decision to commit to it.”
Unmarried heterosexual couples can also list their relationships.
See Register for VIC gay couples begins
SX, Australia
Floridians seem out of step with most Americans, three-quarters of whom favor marriage or civil unions for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, according to a new national survey by Harris Interactive.
The Pulse of Equality survey, commissioned by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and released today, shows a majority of Americans favors a broad range of policies and protections for gays, as well as supporting them as adoptive parents.
More than six in 10 would allow openly gay people to serve in the military. Another 63 percent favor expanding hate laws to include gays, lesbians and transgender people. Also, 69 percent support gays adopting.
Last month, Floridians approved a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Florida law also bans gay adoption, but two judges recently ruled the law unconstitutional and gave gay couples custody of children in Monroe and Miami-Dade counties. See Most Americans favor gay adoptions, survey says
Sun-Sentinel.com, FL
Attaching flowers to a ribbon headdress, pulling a lace slip under an embroidered skirt and draping a necklace of gold coins over his head, Pedro Martinez puts the finishing touches on the traditional costume of Zapotec women in southern Mexico.
"When I get all dressed up like this my father always says, 'Oh Pedro! You look just like your mother when she was young," beams Martinez, 28, gluing on fake eyelashes in front of a mirror.
Martinez spent two hours in the hair salon he owns getting ready for this weekend's festival of the "muxes," indigenous gays and transvestites in the town of Juchitan who have found a haven of acceptance in Mexico's macho society.
The muxes (pronounced moo-shes), mostly of ethnic Zapotec descent, are widely respected in the southern town where a dance and parade that crowns a transvestite queen and celebrates the harvest has been held annually for the last 33 years.
See Mexican transvestite fiesta rocks indigenous town
The Age, Australia
Suicide is the second-leading cause of preventable death for British Columbia children between 12 and 18, a new study of youth suicide said Tuesday.
The B.C. Coroners Service report said 81 children killed themselves between 2003 and 2007, and 70 per cent of them had shown signs of suicidal behaviour and reached out to someone for help.
"Parents and family members told us that in hindsight they noticed changes in behaviour — kids withdrawing, changing their patterns, neglecting their personal hygiene," said Kellie Kilpatrick, director of the Coroners Service's child death review unit.
"And they put it down to normal adolescent angst, which it may very well be, but I think these children and youth deaths have shown us we have to pay attention, we have to listen."
The groups most at risk are teenage boys, gay teens and aboriginal youth, the report said.
The report, prepared by a special panel including parents, mental health experts and researchers, makes 17 recommendations.
The provincial government needs to establish a suicide-prevention program and to better understand the signs of children at risk of suicide, the report said.
"We want to get the message out to kids and families to start talking about child safety and well-being, and encourage families to talk," Kilpatrick said.
Prevention education a key
See 81 children in BC killed themselves in last 4 years: report
CBC.ca, Canada
It was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went.
But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one of the Bay Area's foremost pro-Israel activists, stepped into an open elevator shaft by accident last week and died.
His body was found Monday by workers inspecting an elevator in the historic, nine-story Sharon Building at 55 New Montgomery St., where Kliman apparently plunged to his death Nov. 25. As news of the discovery filtered out Tuesday, his supporters and friends were in near disbelief that someone so dynamic could be gone.
"The first words that come to mind for me when I think of Daniel are 'vibrant' and 'alive,' " said Rabbi Judah Dardik of Beth Jacob Congregation, the orthodox synagogue in Oakland where Kliman was an active member. "That's why this is such a shock. Whenever he was in the room, he was such a huge presence."
Many causes
As a passionate vegetarian, Kliman dined regularly with the group Vegi-Jews in San Francisco. As an alternative transportation advocate, he participated in Critical Mass and similar bicycle protests in St. Louis and San Francisco - an issue that became even more personal to him after his father, Gerald Kliman of Schenectady, N.Y., was killed four years ago in a car wreck.
And as a single gay man, Kliman campaigned against Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment that voters approved Nov. 4 to ban same-sex marriage.
"It's hard for me to see how he found the time to do what he did," Meltzer said. "He was just a man who absolutely loved life."
Starling details on fatal elevator shaft plunge
San Francisco Chronicle, USA
Every Sunday morning about 20 men and women gather in an upper room on Madison. In some ways the gathering sounds and feels like church. There are confessions-many confessions-and testimonies. Prayers are prayed. But everyone there would deny that the meeting serves a religious purpose.
That's the way Alcoholic's Anonymous works. In what AA members refer to as "The Big Book," the preface to the 12 steps of recovery states that "Without help [recovery] is too much for us. But there is One who has all power-that one is God. May you find Him now!"
Bill Wilson, who co-founded AA in the 1930s, began to recover after he himself had a religious experience. He believed firmly that without God, sobriety for an alcoholic was impossible. Nevertheless, as the movement grew, he recognized that the AA fellowship included not only people from different denominations but also agnostics. … "I don't need black and white answers. Maybe it's maturing. I used to want to define God," Jack said. "I choose to call my higher power God, but my concept is probably a lot more nebulous than many years ago."
Jack other recovering alcoholics and addicts in the fellowship avoid debating doctrine and focus on what works. What works, they said, is honesty. About 95 percent of the men and women who meet on Madison every Sunday morning are gay.
"What happened to me was honesty," said John who taught in Catholic schools for 22 years. "I needed to start accepting myself as a gay man. That immediately lowered a wall, because I felt like my religion had never even admitted my existence or sanctioned it. I have a lot of axes to grind with officials in the church, because I had to live under cover.
"When I was a drunken crack head," John continued, "I looked down on other people thinking they never had the fullness of faith. In my new life as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous I have a much more inclusive sense. I believe that God loves each person as much as every other person."
See Recovery aided by spirituality
Forest Park Review, IL
Emboldened by the nationwide movement for gay rights, Park City gays plan three events this month to show solidarity with the opponents of Proposition 8, the California ballot measure against gay marriage.
They include a Dec. 10 job action and a Dec. 20 candlelight vigil. The job action, known as Day Without a Gay, and the candlelight vigil are part of a national effort. A food drive, meanwhile, is scheduled through Dec. 20.
The upcoming events provide more indications that gays and their supporters will be active in Park City as the dispute in California unfolds. There has been widespread talk of a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival based on the role members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played in the passage of Proposition 8.
"Our intention is to help people understand that we lack many civil rights other people enjoy and others take for granted," said Mark Worthen, a gay who lives in Park Meadows and is an organizer of the job action and the candlelight vigil.
He said gays in Utah do not enjoy employment and housing rights that are afforded others. Voters in Utah previously passed a ballot measure restricting marriage to between a man and a woman.
See Emboldened, gays plan job action, vigil
Park Record, UT
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) President Neil G. Giuliano today praised actress and comedian Wanda Sykes for her decision to come out publicly and share her story at a Las Vegas, Nev. rally on Saturday, Nov. 15.
“Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay - they know, you know? And that’s the way people should be able to live their lives, really…we shouldn’t have to be standing out here demanding something that we automatically should have as citizens of this country,” said Sykes.
“We congratulate Wanda for making this decision and for setting an example for others,” said Giuliano. “Like Wanda, we find ourselves disappointed by results in Arizona, Arkansas, California and Florida where laws passed that were designed to hurt loving, committed couples and families. People living openly and honestly increases the visibility of our community and has a tremendous impact in terms of creating awareness, understanding and acceptance as we continue our march to equality.”
Giuliano is available for interviews on what Sykes’ decision to come out means for the LGBT community. He has appeared on Showbiz Tonight, CNN’s The Situation Room, ABC’s World News Tonight, and Access Hollywood, and has been featured in The Associated Press and USA Today on entertainment news related to the LGBT community.
About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.
You’ve heard that a proposed EU declaration which would condemn “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” has been criticized by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who heads the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations.
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi agreed, saying it could lead to discrimination against Christians. Yup: youi heard that right. The same false argument te RC church used to help defeat Prop 8 in California.
Explaining that the Catechism of the Catholic Church forbids “unjust discrimination,” Archbishop Migliore argued that outlawing discrimination through a United Nations declaration would pressure states which do not recognize same-sex marriage to change their laws. The Director of Vatican Radio, Father Frederico Lombardi, defended the archbishop’s remarks, saying “no one wants the death penalty or jail or fines for homosexuals.”
So the Roman Catholic Church is willing to oppose anti-gay discrimination so long as the UN doesn’t do anything to nudge countries to stop jailing or executing gays.
You were expecting this latest bit of Roman Catholic theology to make sense? Too bad.
See Holy See not in favor of death penalty for gays, Vatican spokesman ...
Catholic News Agency, CO
Mark Simpson writes:
"It's better to marry than burn with passion," declared St Paul. But now marriage itself seems to have become a burning passion – or at least, gay marriage.
The re-banning of gay marriage in California earlier this month with the passage of Proposition 8 has been presented by gay marriage advocates as a body-blow for gay rights. Angry gay people and their allies have protested across the US, some even rioting. The timely release of the Gus Van Sant movie Milk, about the murder in 1977 of Harvey Milk, the US's first out elected official, has fuelled the sense of gay outrage and defiance.
Gay marriage is being presented by many gay people and liberals on both sides of the Atlantic as the touchstone of gay equality. Settling for anything less is a form of Jim Crow style gay segregation and second-class citizenship.
But not all gay people agree. This one sees gay marriage so much as a touchstone as a fetish. A largely symbolic and emotional issue that in the US threatens to undermine real, non-symbolic same-sex couple protection: civil unions bestow in effect the same legal status as marriage in several US states – including California. As a result of the religious right's mobilisation against gay marriage, civil unions have been rolled back in several US states.
See Gay people shouldn't worry too much about Proposition 8. Marriage ...
guardian.co.uk, UK
Gay rights groups in Canada are pressuring Ottawa to sign a United Nations "declaration" whose main theme calls on world governments to end discrimination against homosexuals.
The issue came into high relief Tuesday as gay rights activists and newspaper editorials in Europe condemned The Vatican for its decision to oppose the proposed document.
France, which will table the measure in the UN General Assembly before the end of the month, said the measure's goal is to highlight persecution of homosexuals in many countries around the world.
See Gay activists urge Ottawa to sign global declaration
Canada.com, Canada
The Wall Street Journal reports on Obama's possible pick for Labor Secretary, Mary Beth Maxwell:
For the rainbow cabinet of the nation's first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you've probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.
Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to turn over power to a new generation, and Maxwell, whose labor-backed organization pushes for expanded collective bargaining rights, is his pick.
As Marc Ambinder notes, "Maxwell, who'd be the first openly gay cabinet secretary, is being vetted for the job, along with Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas."
Read Maxwell's blog posts for HuffPost.
See Activist Vetted For Labor Secretary Would Be First Openly Gay Cabinet Member
Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalise homosexuality.
The row erupted after the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations told a French Catholic news agency the Holy See would oppose the resolution, which France is due to propose later this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.
"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore said. "For example, states which do not recognise same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure," Migliore said.
A strongly worded editorial in Italy's mainstream La Stampa newspaper said the Vatican's reasoning was "grotesque".
Pointing out that homosexuality was still punishable by death in some Islamic countries, the editorial said what the Vatican really feared was a "chain reaction in favour of legally recognised homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation".
Franco Grillini, founder and honorary president of Arcigay, Italy's leading gay rights group, said the Vatican's reasoning smacked of "total idiocy and madness".
"The French resolution, which is supported by all 27 members of the European Union, has nothing to do with gay marriage. It is about stopping jail and the death penalty for homosexuals," Grillini told Reuters.
FRANCE DEFENDS RESOLUTION
See 
A new study from researchers at the University of Toronto has found that gay men who who are not generally considered to be ‘sexually desirable’ or attractive are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. Not surprisingly, the study also found that undesirable gay men will often avoid safe sex discussion and even condom use when presented with the opportunity to have sex with a more attractive partner.
According to UPI.com , Adam Isaiah Green interviewed dozens of gay men in Toronto to determine what qualities made some men more sexually desirable than others, and what the consequences of being undesirable might be on mental and physical health.
"I found that young, white, middle-class men are considered much more sexually desirable than men who are racial minorities, over 40 and poor," Green said in a statement. "I also learned that for gay men, being considered sexually undesirable can have serious health consequences, ranging from psychological issues to risky sexual behavior."
See Less Attractive Gay Men Have Riskier Sex, Study Says
Gay Wired, CA -
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, today praised President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States. The former deputy attorney general in the Clinton Administration proved himself to be a strong advocate for fairness and basic rights and an unswerving proponent of fully-inclusive federal hate crimes legislation. “In Eric Holder, President-Elect Obama has chosen an attorney general who has demonstrated his dedication to civil rights, protecting communities from hate violence, and the fair and equal application of our laws,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
“Eric Holder has recognized the deleterious effect that hate and bias crimes have not just on victims, but on entire communities. President-Elect Obama’s appointment continues to prove his commitment to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.”
Holder’s appointment is the latest in a series of moves by President-elect Obama that illustrate his commitment to fairness and LGBT equality. Obama’s Transition Project instituted a fully inclusive nondiscrimination policy for those applying for positions within the new administration. In addition, a number of openly gay people have been selected to contribute their considerable expertise to the transition. Two weeks ago, the Obama Transition Project published an extensive agenda for the next four years, including a section on key policies for LGBT people and families, on its website. The Obama-Biden plan reiterates strong support for inclusive hate-crimes and employment discrimination protections, repeal of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act and “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and a stronger and more strategic response to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic.
After graduating from Columbia Law School, Mr. Holder joined the Department of Justice’s Attorney General's Honors Program. In 1988 he was nominated for and confirmed as Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. In 1993 President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder for United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and he was confirmed later that year. In this role he worked vigorously to reduce crime and increase neighborhood safety. Notably, he emphasized hate crimes enforcement to ensure that bias-motivated crimes would receive adequate resources, attention, and punishment. Hate crimes continued to be a priority for
Mr. Holder after his 1997 appointment by President Clinton to Deputy Attorney General. His dedication to the issue of addressing hate-based violence is exemp