First openly gay US attorney begins job in Wash.
(Seattle) The new top federal prosecutor in Seattle knows the significance her role carries for many people: She’s apparently the nation’s first openly gay U.S. attorney.
But as a daughter of privilege - her dad was a powerful Democratic state senator, and she had all the benefits of a comfortable upbringing …
Tags: Attorney Job, Dad, Democratic State, Federal Prosecutor, gay, Privilege, Seattle, State Senator, UpbringingMilitias target some Iraqis for being gay
“I’m not a terrorist,” he tells the Iraqi police who surround him. “I want you to know I am different. But I am not a terrorist.”
To some fundamentalist Iraqi Muslims, Ahmed Sadoun Saleh was worse than a terrorist.
He was gay. He wore his hair long and took female hormones to grow breasts. Amused by his appearance, Iraqi police officers stopped him in December at a checkpoint in a southern Baghdad neighborhood dominated by radical Shiite militias. They groped Saleh and ridiculed him.
The assault was captured on video and circulated on cellphones throughout Baghdad, says Ali Hili, founder of London-based Iraqi LGBT, a group dedicated to protecting Iraq’s gays and lesbians. Shortly after the video was made public, Hili says Saleh contacted him, fearing for his life, and asked for his help to flee Iraq.
“Unfortunately, it was too late,” Hili says. Saleh turned up dead two months later, he says.
At least 82 gay men have been killed in Iraq since December, according to Iraqi LGBT. The violence has raised questions about the Iraqi government’s ability to protect a diverse range of vulnerable minority groups that also includes Christians and Kurds, especially following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities last month.
Mithal al-Alusi, a secular, liberal Sunni legislator, is among those who blame the killings on armed militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army militia.
See Militias target some Iraqis for being gay
USA Today
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/militias-targ…
NYC Prep: PC Bares It All as Gay Rumors Spread
Among all the cast members of NYC Prep , I’ve always been puzzled about PC. Aside from being the most notorious and flashy, he seems to be struggling with something —something that I’ve been trying to hold back until various other websites have reported it as well. Word on the street is that PC is gay!
I guess it all started in the first episode, where viewers were introduced to PC as someone obsessed with fashion and shopping. On top of that, viewers also learned that he has several effeminate mannerisms. While these things make PC potentially gay, that might not be enough to prove that he is. However, as NYC Prep heads further into the season, it seems that more and more viewers are getting convinced. See NYC Prep: PC Bares It All as Gay Rumors Spread
BuddyTV
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/nyc-prep-pc-b…
Boy accused of killing gay classmate bragged he had guns at home, police say
Oxnard junior high school student Brandon McInerney bragged that he had guns at home if he ever wanted to kill someone, a police investigator testified at the youth’s pretrial hearing today in Ventura County Superior Court.
McInerney made the comment to another student at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard sometime before walking into the classroom and allegedly gunning down gay classmate Larry King on the morning of Feb. 12, 2008, said Oxnard police Sgt. Kevin Baysinger.
“Brandon said if he ever wanted to kill anybody, his dad had a bunch of guns and he had the capability,” Baysinger told the court. Other witness testified that McInerney, then 14, and King had been feuding over King’s alleged romantic overtures toward McInerney.
McInerney was clearly irritated after King, 15, reportedly said, “Baby, I love you,” the day before the shooting occurred, based on interviews with students. Other students reported similar threats, he said.
McInerney reportedly told one of King’s friends the day before the shooting, “Tell Larry goodbye because you’re not going to see him again,” Baysinger said. Other students reported similar threats, he said.
The testimony came during the first day of a pretrial hearing to determine whether the case should go to trial.
See Boy accused of killing gay classmate bragged he had guns at home …
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/boy-accused-o…
National ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Repeal Tour Launch Set For Wednesday
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers United Participate on July 8
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), a veteran of the Iraq war, the Human Rights Campaign and Servicemembers United, will announce the launch of a national tour urging the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy banning gay and lesbian servicemembers from serving openly, at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 8, in the Zenger Room, 13th floor, National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.
Murphy will be joined by gay, lesbian and straight veterans, including Eric Alva, the first wounded veteran in the Iraq War; Jarrod Chlapowski, a former U.S. Army Korean linguist who opted to not re-enlist because of DADT and is currently a public policy advocate at the Human Rights Campaign; and Alex Nicholson, a U.S. Army veteran fluent in Arabic discharged under DADT and current executive director of Servicemembers United.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — the current U.S. policy on gays in the military — is the only law in the country that forces people to be dishonest about their personal lives or be fired or possibly imprisoned, according to advocates. They call it a discriminatory policy that hurts military readiness and national security while putting American soldiers fighting overseas at risk.
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/national-dont…
Thomas Beatie has second child
America’s most famous trans dad gave birth to his second child, a healthy baby boy.
Tags: Baby Boy, Beatie, Child America, DadUS condemns anti-gay violence in Iraq
WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday condemned alleged violence and abuse against homosexuals in Iraq, adding the US embassy in Baghdad has raised the issue with Iraqi government officials.
“In general, we absolutely condemn acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals in Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
“This is an issue that we’ve been following very closely since we have been made aware of these allegations, and we are aware of the allegations,” Kelly told reporters when asked about anti-gay violence in Iraq.
“Our training for Iraqi security forces includes instruction on the proper observance of human rights,” Kelly said.
See US condemns anti-gay violence in Iraq
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-condemns-a…
WATCH: Maddow Calls Out Obama On “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
Reacting to yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court to not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the military’s longstanding “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, Rachel Maddow featured a segment that broadly called the Obama administration’s oft-stated commitments to ending the practice into question.
Maddow points out that the case itself doesn’t hurt the cause of ending DADT. Advocates for a change in policy were of the mind that the Supreme Court challenge would not be a game-changer. Nevertheless, Maddow opined that the case was “a big deal” because for all of President Barack Obama’s past advocacy in support of ending DADT, he now has a lawyer of his very own arguing that the policy is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.”
Which is, of course, ridiculous. All “don’t ask don’t tell” is, is a policy by which everyone pretends that the gay and lesbian soldiers that are already serving in the military aren’t really there, and that everything is okay provided that those gay and lesbian soldiers agree to participate in the Grand Shenanigan of Pollyanna Pretense. So, no, Mr, President. No, Mr. President’s lawyer. No. No. And, no. It simply cannot be said that “don’t ask don’t tell” is rationally related to a single blessed thing.
WATCH: Maddow Calls Out Obama On “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/watch-maddow-…
Poll: Conservatives, churchgoers do about face on DADT
Solid majorities of self-identified conservatives and weekly churchgoers now favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military, a striking turnaround in just the last four years, according to a new Gallup poll. Overall, 69% of U.S. adults surveyed support a change in the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, an increase of six percentage points since late 2004.
According to Gallup:
The finding that majorities of weekly churchgoers (60%), conservatives (58%), and Republicans (58%) now favor what essentially equates to repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy implemented under President Clinton in 1993 is noteworthy for several reasons. First, the data show that these traditionally conservative groups are shifting on this issue, supporting it to a far greater extent than they support legalized gay marriage. Second, it suggests the political playing field may be softer on this issue, and President Barack Obama will be well-positioned to forge ahead with his campaign promise to end the military ban on openly gay service members with some support from more conservative segments of the population. To date, it is estimated that more than 12,500 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged under the policy, including more than 200 since Obama took office.
See Poll: Conservatives, churchgoers do about face on DADT
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/poll-conserva…
Gay penguin dads in German zoo hatch their first chick
Z and Vielpunkt, two male Humboldt penguins at Germany’s Bremerhaven Zoo, are the proud new parents of a healthy penguin chick.
“Another couple threw the egg out of their batch. We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins,” veterinarian Joachim Schöne told the German newspaper Bild of the pair’s entry into parenthood. Z and Vielpunkt faithfully cared for their adopted egg for more than a month; in late April it hatched. Since then, they’ve been taking care of their chick around the clock; it’s still too young to feed itself, so the dads feed him fish mash, Schöne explained.
“Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do,” the zoo said in a statement.
The Bremerhaven Zoo’s same-sex penguin couples (there are three such pairs in residence there, all males) first made news back in 2005, according to the BBC. At the time, the zoo announced plans to “test” the sexual orientations of the six penguins, who’d been seen engaging in mating rituals and trying to incubate rocks as if they were eggs. Gay rights advocates were outraged when the zoo brought four new female penguins into the colony in a bid to encourage the penguins to reproduce, and the zoo later nixed the idea. (In the zoo’s defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing. And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)
See Gay penguin dads in German zoo hatch their first chick
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-d…
