Nominee confirmed for Civil Rights job
The New Jersey Commission on Civil Rights yesterday approved the nomination of a new state civil rights chief who is not admitted to practice law in New Jersey despite two lawmakers’ questions about his residency and commitment to gay and lesbian issues.
Chinh Le, Attorney General Anne Milgram’s nominee, was approved as head of the state Division on Civil Rights by a 6-0 vote of the commission at its monthly meeting in Newark. One commissioner abstained after her proposal for a private executive session between commissioners and the nominee was rejected.
See Nominee confirmed for Civil Rights job
The Star-Ledger
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San Jose gay center warns it may have to close
The interim executive director of a gay community center that serves Silicon Valley says the 28-year-old gathering place will have to close its doors unless he can raise $50,000 by September.
Paul Wysocki sent a newsletter to supporters of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center on Tuesday warning that dried up government funding and declining corporate support had created a hole in the center’s $310,000 budget. The center provides HIV testing, support services for youth and seniors, and career and recreational programs.
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Church and Straight in CT
The Family Institute of Connecticut apparently blew too much money on Question 1 ads to afford a real lawyer.
We bet that’s why Pat Robertson’s non-profit firm, the American Center for Law and Justice, helped them bully the Connecticut Department of Children and Families into removing “open and affirming” churches from a list of gay-friendly resources on the department’s Web site on seperation of church and state grounds.
(No, really, the Family Institute of Connecticut accused someone else of misunderstanding the separation of church and state.)
“A handful of the links related to religious organizations considered to be — what are the words I want to use? — progressive on gay and lesbian issues,” explains Gary Kleeblatt, communications director for the DCF, who says the agency got a letter from the Family Institute inferring a lawsuit from Robertson’s team of cranks could be forthcoming.
Kleeblatt assures us the DCF is still “extremely enlightened to gay and lesbian issues. We welcome gays and lesbians to adopt. We also recognize there are gays and lesbians in our care. But we can’t be seen as endorsing any religious groups.”
Shirley Gadson, pastor of Bridgeport’s open and affirming Open Door Ministries, says, “I think that people have to realize Christ loves everybody and is open and affirming to everyone.”
Family Institute executive director Peter Wolfgang told our parent paper, the Hartford Courant, “We said all along that if same-sex marriage was imposed in Connecticut, the next thing that would happen would be an effort to reeducate Connecticut children.”
Yes, that’s right! First comes gay marriage and then comes … some constitutionally questionable links on the DCF’s Web site. Feel that? It’s the foundations of our society shaking!
fairfieldweekly.com
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IML’s (International Mr. Leather) executive…
IML’s (International Mr. Leather) executive committee has banned vendors at the group’s annual convention from displaying or selling any pornographic photos and videos which portray or promote unprotected sex, also known as barebacking.
A statement released on International Mr. Leather, Inc. letterhead and signed by Chuck Renslow, President of IML, reads as follows: @ IML bans material promoting unsafe sex
ChicagoPride.com
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San Jose’s Billy DeFrank Center embarks on ambitious fundraising campaign
For 28 years, the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center has been the go-to place for Silicon Valley’s diverse gay community. But on Tuesday, interim executive director Paul Wysocki sent out a desperate plea: the DeFrank Center will close its doors unless it raises $50,000 by Sept. 1. “Our government funding has ended, and in today’s economy, we can’t count on corporate support,” read a weekly newsletter that is e-mailed to supporters. “Our current income from memberships and events no longer meets even the most basic level of Center operations.” The DeFrank Center has three main programs: support services for youth, another for seniors, and an HIV/AIDS testing program. But funding for the HIV testing from Santa Clara County and for the senior program from the city of San Jose have dried up as both the county and the city struggle with their own budget deficits. The Center has cut expenses and now has an annual budget of $310,000, down from $800,000 a few years ago. Wysocki became interim executive director four months ago after former executive director Aejaie Sellers and former board President PJ Matarese were ousted amid internal power struggles over the center’s long-term vision and escalating financial problems. “I have a lot of empathy for Barack Obama,” said Wysocki. “You inherit a situation where a lot of things were done poorly.”
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UK Roman Catholic church-funded marriage agency backs gay and unmaried parents
Terry Prendergast, the chief executive of Marriage Care, claimed there is “no evidence” that children do better if they are brought up in a traditional two-parent family.
He claimed that those who live together out of wedlock are trying to lead good lives but find themselves “consigned to the dustbin” by the church.
His comments – to be made this weekend to Quest, a group of homosexual Catholics – go directly against the church’s teaching, which holds that homosexuality is sinful and that families should be based on the marriage of a man and a woman.
Mr Prendergast said: “We see, for example, that statistically children do best in a family where the adult relationship is steady, stable and loving – you should note here perhaps that I stress adult, not married, since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with heterosexual couples.”
He claimed that God was present in the relationships of married, homosexual and cohabiting heterosexual relationships where there was “commitment, consent and covenant”.
He went on: “They want to live good lives according to the precepts of the Gospels. They are an advert for the Church, an advert that the Church often ignores or consigns to the wastebin.”
See Catholic church-funded marriage agency backs gay and unmaried parents Telegraph.co.uk
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Yes on 8 people going door to door
We just learned that Ron Prentice and his group, Protect Marriage, will be focusing their efforts in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and the Central Valley.
They’ll be going door to door in the same areas where EQCA is already working with volunteers, only they will be spreading lies about how marriage needs to be protected from same-sex couples.
They know our strategy of going door to door is effective, so they are ramping up their fundraising efforts and targeting the same areas.
Make a donation before midnight Saturday so we can match them dollar for dollar.
Don’t be fooled—the other side won’t stop with stripping us of the freedom to marry. Their aim is to reverse every law that protects the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. They’re already flooding the governor’s office with calls opposing our Harvey Milk Day bill and our Marriage Recognition and Family Protection Act, a bill that would ensure that California recognizes couples who were married out of state.
We are close to the halfway mark of our $500,000 goal. Help us raise $25,000 by midnight Saturday. Your donation will fund our efforts on the ground in a range of communities, talking with people about their stance on marriage.
As I said before, I know we can restore the freedom to marry if we can reach enough people with the stories of how our families are affected and the hurt of being denied a simple right. We need your support today to make it happen.
In solidarity,
Geoff Kors
Executive Director
Equality California
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Wisconsin budget extends rights to gay couples
With the budget signed Monday by Gov. Jim Doyle, Wisconsin has become the first state with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions to put in place domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
Wisconsin also is the first Midwestern state to legislatively put in place legal protections for same-sex couples, according to advocates.
But supporters of the ban still contend the creation of domestic partner benefits violates the constitutional amendment on marriage because it creates a legal status that approximates marriage — and they could file a legal challenge soon.
Starting Aug. 3, couples will be able to apply for a declaration of domestic partnership in their home counties. Partnerships would be dissolved through a termination process at the county clerk’s office.
Some counties and municipalities already
*ecognize domestic partnerships, including Dane County and the city of Milwaukee. But Maria Cadenas, executive director of the Cream City Foundation, an advocacy group on gay and transgender issues, said that for her and her partner, registering in Milwaukee only affected their gym membership.
See Wisconsin budget extends rights to gay couples
Duluth News Tribune
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Most gay pupils bullied in school – youth service
See
EDUCATION COMMITTEE: MOST LESBIAN, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) second-level students have suffered homophobic bullying, the Belong To youth service has told an Oireachtas Education Committee.
More than 20,000 post-primary students are lesbian, gay or bisexual, representing an average of two students in every classroom. A smaller number of students identify as transgender, according to Belong To.
Research involving over 1,100 LGBT participants, funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE), found that half were subject to verbal abuse in school because of their orientation, 40 per cent were verbally threatened by their peers, 34 per cent heard homophobic comments by staff and one-quarter were physically threatened by their peers. Sandra Gowran, director of education policy with the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), said homophobic bullying was pervasive in schools, regardless of whether they had a particular religious ethos or whether they were co-educational or single sex.
“The bottom line is that these young people are not safe in our schools because of the extent of homophobic bullying,” she said.
Most young people became aware of their LGBT identity at around 12, but did not disclose it to another person until around 17.
“LGBT young people are part of every school . . . in Ireland yet they are largely invisible in any meaningful or positive way,” she said.
See Most gay pupils bullied in school – youth service Irish Times -
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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.
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