Travelers can donate to AIDS fight with just a click
(UNITED NATIONS) With a simple click, U.S. travelers buying airline tickets via some travel agencies and Internet sites can now donate $2 or more to fight AIDS in developing countries.
The United Nations and former President Bill Clinton launched the donation effort Thursday called MassiveGood. It aims to supply low-cost drugs …
Withers: Ten random thoughts
1. Never thought I would see director Roman Polanski in handcuffs.
2. What does it mean that Bill Clinton now supports gay marriage?
3. If any old head goes on some “the young these days” rant, tell her to put a sock in it. The kids are going to be all right.
4. …
North Korea: 2 US journalists pardoned
(Seoul, South Korea) North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a “special pardon” for two American journalists and ordered their release at former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s request, North Korean media reported Wednesday.
The move to release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced in June to 12 years of hard …
Bill Clinton supports marriage
Answering a press question, Clinton said he “basically” supports same-sex marriage.
President hails gay pride month
President Obama has issued a proclamation honoring “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Month 2009.”
Gay pride month is observed every June to commemorate the “Stonewall riots,” an uprising that took place in 1969 when police tried to arrest gay patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The bar is shown here on the 25th anniversary of those events — widely viewed at the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
Brad Luna of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights organization, says Obama’s proclamation is not a first: Former president Bill Clinton regularly recognized gay pride month during his second term in office. But Luna says Obama is right in claiming that he has tapped more openly gay nominees for high profile posts early in his administration than any previous president.
See a few excerpts from the president’s proclamation @ President hails gay pride month USA Today –
- It’s out: White House resolution honors 40th anniversary of … San Francisco Chronicle
Clinton vows to fight for gay rights abroad AFP - Clinton pledges to fight for gay rights worldwide CNN Political Ticker
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Clinton Says His View On Gay Marriage Is “Evolving”
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: This afternoon in Toronto, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush shared a stage for a “conversation with presidents” at Toronto’s Convention Centre, in a ticketed event (with a hefty payday for both ex-presidents) that was open to the general public.
It was a fascinating discussion — these two 62-year-old men with a combined 16 years in the presidency, talking about current and past events as probably no one else alive can, for the first time in a public forum.
While President Bush mostly kept to his promise not to criticize his successor, he bristled at the suggestion — advanced by President Obama, among others — that Iraq distracted the nation from the war in Afghanistan.
“I don’t buy the premise that our attention was diverted” by Iraq, Bush said. “I think it’s false. Matter of fact, I know it’s false. I was there.”
And while President Clinton mostly kept to his promise to “thwart” efforts to get 42 and 43 to tangle with each other, he offered an interesting insight into his thinking on gay rights.
On the issue of gay marriage — which Clinton, like President Obama, personally opposes — Clinton said of his position: “Frankly, it’s evolving” as he sees more committed gay couples raising kids.
As ABC political director David Chalian has pointed out, Clinton isn’t the only Democrat whose position on gay marriage is moving.
Clinton also expressed optimism that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — which he helped enact — will eventually come off the books, allowing gay members of the armed services to serve openly.
“I think that time will lead to a repeal of this ban,” Clinton said.
That’s one of many areas where the former presidents disagree. But mostly, this event was a lovefest.
Clinton heaped praise on Bush for his AIDS initiative and the diversity of his Cabinet. Bush urged Clinton not to be so hard on himself over Rwanda.
Bush welcomed the audience to “the Bill and George show.” Clinton teased that while the pair was facing expectations that they would “devour each other,” “we’ll do our best to thwart them.”
See Clinton Says His View On Gay Marriage Is “Evolving”
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Gays being kicked out of military at steady rate
WASHINGTON — A steady number of troops are being discharged from the US military for being gay, according to the latest Pentagon statistics, which show that 619 troops were kicked out last year under the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the ranks.
The figures, which are on par with the previous four years, are bound to spark a new outcry from gay rights advocates who have grown frustrated with President Obama’s unwillingness so far to take steps to lift the ban, despite a campaign pledge to do so.
Of the discharges for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 410 were male and 209 were female, according to the figures obtained by the Globe from Pentagon personnel officials. That compares with a total of 627 discharges in fiscal year 2007; 612 in 2006; 726 in 2005; and 653 in 2004.
The new statistics come to light as the Obama administration comes under growing pressure to use his executive powers to place a moratorium on the discharges while he lobbies Congress to overturn the controversial 1993 law — which was enacted as a compromise after then-President Bill Clinton set off a mutiny when he tried to allow gays to serve openly in uniform.
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Gays being kicked out of military at steady rate
WASHINGTON — A steady number of troops are being discharged from the US military for being gay, according to the latest Pentagon statistics, which show that 619 troops were kicked out last year under the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the ranks.
The figures, which are on par with the previous four years, are bound to spark a new outcry from gay rights advocates who have grown frustrated with President Obama’s unwillingness so far to take steps to lift the ban, despite a campaign pledge to do so.
Of the discharges for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 410 were male and 209 were female, according to the figures obtained by the Globe from Pentagon personnel officials. That compares with a total of 627 discharges in fiscal year 2007; 612 in 2006; 726 in 2005; and 653 in 2004.
The new statistics come to light as the Obama administration comes under growing pressure to use his executive powers to place a moratorium on the discharges while he lobbies Congress to overturn the controversial 1993 law — which was enacted as a compromise after then-President Bill Clinton set off a mutiny when he tried to allow gays to serve openly in uniform.
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Celebs attend Austrian AIDS gala
(Vienna) “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria Parker, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and singer Katy Perry attended a flamboyant Austrian charity gala on the weekend dedicated to raising money for people with HIV and AIDS.
Other celebrities spotted at the Life Ball were actress Fran Drescher, former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson …
A Gay Justice?
Former Stanford Law School dean Kathleen Sullivan is, according to the National Law Journal, one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. She’s a nationally prominent scholar and teacher of constitutional law, and author of the nation’s leading casebook in constitutional law.
Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, is founding director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, and is a leading expert on voting and the political process.
Sullivan and Karlan are both frequently mentioned as possible Supreme Court nominees for President Obama.
Both women also happen to be openly lesbian. … Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the conservative Family Research Council, says that “the real issue would not be the person’s private life but the issue would be would they be imposing their personal ideology upon the court. In this case would they be imposing a pro homosexual ideology, a pro-same sex marriage ideology.”
Sullivan, for instance, joined a friend of the court brief arguing that same sex marriage should be legal even if the “equal protection” clause “would not always have been interpreted by the courts to forbid discrimination against gay people.” Not allowing same sex marriage is a violation of “both due process and equal protection; the former because the right to marry is a form of liberty and the latter because the restriction treats lesbians and gay men differently from straight individuals.”
That she believes that because she’s lesbian, and not because she believes the refusal to allow same sex marriage constitutes unconstitutional discrimination, is another matter.
Either way, discussion about a Justice Sullivan or a Justice Karlan comes at a time when the Obama administration is hearing some impatience voiced by gay and lesbian activists on other issues.
“I think there is some disappointment in the gay community that (President Obama) hasn’t in this initial period spoken more directly and more forcefully about some of the issues he spoke about on the campaign,” Richard Socarides, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton on gay and lesbian issues, told us for Good Morning America today. “Specifically the ‘Don’t ask/Don’t tell’ policy in the military.” See Gay Justice?
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