Gays and lesbians more likely to smoke (by quite a bit), study shows

mong homosexuals: 37% of women smoke; 33% of men smoke.

Among heterosexuals: 18% of women smoke; 24% of men smoke

These figures come from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published in the August issue of Tobacco Control, they’re based on a review of 42 studies about tobacco use among sexual minorities. (The heterosexual numbers are from the National Health Interview Survey.)

It’s not that the finding that gays and lesbians are more likely to smoke is new. According to the summary of an earlier report from the CDC, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2001:

See Gays and lesbians more likely to smoke (by quite a bit), study shows Los Angeles Times

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Hungarian tourist killed gay man with banjo, court told

Wellington – A Hungarian tourist killed a 69-year-old gay man he met in a bar by beating him with a banjo and ramming the handle down his throat, police alleged when his murder trial opened in Auckland on Monday.

Ferdinand Ambach, 32, a dive master, pleaded not guilty in the Auckland High Court to murdering Ronald James Brown in December 2007.

Prosecutor Nick Williams told the court that Ambach had been in New Zealand a month when the pair met in a bar before going back to Brown’s flat in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga, the New Zealand Herald reported on its website.

See Hungarian tourist killed gay man with banjo, court told

Monsters and Critics.com –

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Good News for Gay Puerto Rico

Good News for Gay Puerto Rico – The infamous Resolución 99 didn’t get passed. The goals of it were to restrict all marriage to unions between a man and a woman… you know, the usual. Here is Gay.com’s article. See Good News for Gay Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico Lifestyle Magazine

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New survey shows possible crisis among area LGBT youth

Youth First Texas recently released the results of a first-ever comprehensive survey of LGBT youth in the Dallas metropolitan area, and it suggests there may be a widespread mental health crisis among that population.

YFT officials said the study was born out of a need to determine if the nonprofit organization was meeting the needs of the youth it has pledged to serve.

Judith Dumont, director of administration at YFT, led the youth study. She said, “Any youth service provider that authentically understands their population should have a comprehensive study [of their own youth].”

She said there are national studies available, but this one is the only one available “in Dallas, in Texas and even the Southwest.”

The raw data for the study was collected from 100 LGBT and questioning youth and allies, ages 14 to 22, from October through December 2008. The subsequent statistical processing was performed by Jason Mintor, a doctoral candidate at Southern Methodist University. See New survey shows possible crisis among area LGBT youth

Dallas Voice

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In Wake of Prop 8, Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend

RICHMOND — News this week of arrests in the Dec. 13 gang rape of a lesbian brought relief to many in the community, some of whom were so outraged that they led police to breaks in the case.

But even as the resolution is lauded, gay-rights advocates and local and national crime statistics portray a gloomy truth about hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation.

Until the root causes of bias toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are addressed, “we’ll continue to have hate perpetrated against us,” said Shawna Virago, a program director for the San Francisco-based advocacy group Community United Against Violence.

The group reported 304 crimes against Bay Area gays in 2007, the latest year for which complete statistics were available. That amounted to an approximate 6 percent increase from 2006.

Nationally, the FBI recorded 1,265 crimes deemed to have been motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation in 2007, a slight increase from the 1,195 tallied a year earlier but a 24 percent jump from 2005 figures.

Data compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs — which counts the San Francisco group among its members — show national numbers to be considerably higher, from 1,486 incidents in 2006 to 1,833 the following year.

See Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend
San Jose Mercury News,

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In New Jersey, a Blue-Ribbon State Government Commission Tells Governor Corzine and the Legislature: It’s Time to Enact Marriage Equality

To Read the Complete Report Online, visit http://www.nj.gov/oag/dcr/ curc.html

Making its final recommendation, the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission says the civil union law ‘invites and encourages’ harm to same-sex couples and their children

The commission cites ‘overwhelming evidence’ the civil union law will never provide equality with the passage of time

The 13 Commissioners include not only LGBT leaders, but also a right-to-life Republican, plus two clergy, plus six government officials representing an Administration that had opposed marriage equality in the courts

To watch video of same-sex couples testifying before the Commission, visit www.CivilUnionsDontWork.com

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey state government commission today unanimously recommended to Governor Corzine and the New Jersey legislature that they enact a law to allow same-sex couples to marry “expeditiously because any delay in marriage equality will harm all the people of New Jersey.”

The recommendation is part of the 79-page final report just released by the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, a 13-member body created by the civil union law enacted in December 2006. The 13 Commissioners include not only LGBT leaders, but also a right-to-life Republican, plus two clergy, plus six government officials representing an Administration that had opposed marriage equality in the courts. Their report, passed on a 13 to 0 vote with no abstentions, is based on testimony from more than 150 witnesses over 26 hours spanning 18 public meetings in 2007 and 2008.

The civil union law “invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children,” concludes the final report, titled The Economic, Legal, Medical and Social Consequences of New Jersey’s Civil Union Act. “In a number of cases, the negative effect of the Civil Union Act on the physical and mental health of same-sex couples and their children is striking, largely because a number of employers and hospitals do not recognize the rights and benefits of marriage for civil union couples.”

“The Commission is compelled to issue its final report now because of the overwhelming evidence that civil unions will not be recognized by the general public as the equivalent of marriage in New Jersey with the passage of time. Nearly a decade later, civil union couples in Vermont report the same obstacles to equality that New Jersey civil union couples face today,” the report states, citing the recent study of a panel in Vermont.

Besides assessing the civil union law’s impact on same-sex couples, today’s final report describes how the absence of a marriage equality statute deprives New Jersey’s entire economy of considerable revenue. “Spending on weddings and tourism could boost the New Jersey economy by approximately $248 million over three years,” the report states. One expert testifying before the Commission estimates the figure could be $500 million or more.

But the heart of today’s report is its delineation of the harm that New Jersey’s civil union law has pro-actively inflicted upon same-sex couples.

“I’m a pro-life Republican and past Director of Gloucester County Right-to-Life,” said Commission member AnnLynne Benson on the release of today’s report, “so I know the diversity of this Commission. Our report demonstrates in exquisite detail why amending New Jersey’s law to extend marriage to same-sex couples is a necessity. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that ‘denying rights and benefits to committed same-sex couples violates the equal protection guarantee and can no longer be tolerated under our State constitution.’ Implementation of that ruling by the invention of a parallel status failed to deliver equality. It was like planting a toothpick and hoping a tree would grow.”

According to the final report, the civil union law’s harm to same-sex couples includes:

– The inability of a number of same-sex partners to visit one another in
the hospital, and to make medical decisions for one another, because
hospitals don’t accept civil unions as equal to marriage. The
Commission’s final report begins with the story of Naomi and Gina, a
couple in Montclair, New Jersey who had a humiliating and
life-threatening experience at a hospital. Gina was admitted to the
emergency room with cardiac arrhythmia, unable to give consent for
treatment. When Naomi arrived and said she was Gina’s partner, the
doctor interrogated Naomi about the nature of the relationship and
initially kept Naomi away from Gina and refused to let her give
consent for Gina. The report has other stories like this.

– “Significant psychological damage” to the children raised same-sex
couples because their families are given the stigmatizing label of
civil union; and to LGBT youth who view themselves as inferior because
they cannot marry. “Their heartbreaking testimony,” the report
states, “brings to life their struggle in a way that no numbers –
whether complaints filed with government agencies or advocacy
organizations — can encapsulate on their own.” As Dr. Marshall
Forstein, a Harvard Medical School professor, testified:
“Second-class citizenship, now institutionalized in some states in the
form of civil unions, contributes to increased rates of anxiety,
depression and substance use disorders in marginalized populations.”

– The denial of health insurance by employers to same-sex partners,
especially harmful during the current economic crisis. Today’s final
report underscores what the Commission’s interim report of February
2008 found, that the federal Employment Retirement Insurance Security
Act (ERISA) preempts the New Jersey Civil Union law for approximately
50 percent of all employers in the state. For that 50 percent,
providing equal rights and benefits for same-sex couples under the
civil union law is an option rather than a requirement.

The Commission’s final report refutes the notion — as the interim
report did — that a change in state law from civil unions to
marriage equality would have minimal impact because Federal law does
not recognize same-sex relationships. The final report provides
ample evidence to the contrary, based on the dramatically lower
invocation of ERISA by companies in Massachusetts, which has a
marriage equality law. “The term ‘marriage,’ the report concludes,
“would make a significant difference in providing equality even with
no change in federal law.”

– Compounded harm to women, African-Americans and Latino-Americans, all
of whom face discrimination because of their gender, race or
ethnicity, and who now suffer double discrimination when denied equal
rights and benefits under the civil union law. The state Public
Advocate told the Commission about “the particular difficulty for
lower-income same-sex couples who encounter discrimination because
they have fewer resources with which to seek legal counsel and
redress, and who have difficulty meeting expenses if faced with
reduced healthcare benefits.”

– Harm to the marriages of couples where one partner is transgender.
The final report reaffirms the finding in the Commission’s interim
report that the classification of civil union places marital status in
question for these couples, who had gotten married legally when they
were opposite-sex couples. * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual