Xtra newspaper boxes targeted

Fourteen gay newspaper boxes in Vancouver were found vandalized over the holiday.

Videos urge LGBT participation in Census

Ten new videos released by the U.S. Census Bureau urge the LGBT community to fill out and return Census forms [1].

“What I tell folks in the bureau is that this is a powerful, important part of American society,” Tim Olson, a Census Bureau assistant division chief helping to oversee the campaign, told the Associated Press [2].

[3]

“We have to reach out and engage this part of the population. Anything less than that is a failure.”

Five states and Washington, D.C., have legalized same-sex marriage, but the Census Bureau encourages any same sex couples who consider themselves to be married to check the “husband” or “wife” boxes. And “unmarried partner” box is also available.

Conservatives are angry about the move because they feel it legitimizes and redefines marriage.

Watch all of the videos at Logo Online [4].

[1] http://www.365gay.com/news/get-counted-why-the-census-is-crucial-to-gays/
[2] http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAYS_CENSUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
[3] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-census-pie-top.jpg
[4] http://www.logotv.com/video/misc/499724/ben-de-guzman.jhtml?id=1635376

Gay senior lives less openly in care facility

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.”
See Gay senior lives less openly in care facility

Chicago Tribune

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-senior-li…

Cathedral city ‘not gay-friendly’

The cathedral city of Canterbury is being investigated over claims it is not welcoming to gay people.

Andrew Brettell of Canterbury Pride has complained the Kent city is a “cultural wilderness” and one of few in England without any gay bars.

He said the city fails to welcome its “closeted” lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The Local Government Ombudsman is investigating the claims, which have been denied by the council.

Mr Brettell criticised Canterbury City Council for “ticking the boxes” but failing to do anything to attract gay people to the area.

“What we need is for the council to send signals that it’s OK to be gay and that they are welcoming gays to the city,” he said.

See Cathedral city ‘not gay-friendly’ BBC News * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/cathedral-cit…

Ted Haggard says his sexual identity is … “complex”

Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard says his sexual identity is complex and can’t be put into “stereotypical boxes.” But he says his relationship with his wife is stronger than ever.

A new HBO documentary follows Haggard after a gay sex scandal forced him to resign as president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals. He was also fired from the 14,000-member New Life Church

Haggard says he still believes it’s “God’s perfect plan” for marriage to be between a man and woman, but he says “sexuality is confusing and complex.”
See Pastor in gay scandal says his sexual identity is complex WLOS