Another front for fairness
AT A HEARING at the State House last week, supporters of a bill to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression outlined the myriad barriers that confront transgender people - those who are born male but live as females, or vice versa. Unlike those whose religions or sexual orientations expose them to discrimination, transgendered people might not be able to avoid the issue when applying for jobs, apartments, or loans. The truth may become evident from a check on a Social Security number or a search of credit reports.
Transgender advocates aren’t looking for sympathy. The goal of the legislation, introduced by Representative Carl Sciortino, is to give transgender residents of Massachusetts space to live without discrimination or violence. The bill responds sensibly to a real problem, and deserves to pass.
Transgender people don’t make the transition lightly; many, though not all, undergo gender-reassignment surgery. The case of Dana Zircher, profiled recently by the Globe’s Bella English, underscores the difficulty of the process, even when individuals have supportive families and employers. Zircher, a software designer and a parent, has undergone a divorce, surgery, and 350 hours of electrolysis.
Instead of addressing the complexities of actual people’s lives, though, opponents are trying to undermine Sciortino’s legislation by calling it a “Bathroom Bill.’’ The difference between a transgender woman and a man who wants to infiltrate a ladies’ room is perfectly obvious, at least to anyone who is not deliberately obfuscating the issue. The difference would surely be obvious to police officers and judges. Thirteen other states, including Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island, and dozens of cities, including Boston and Cambridge, already forbid discrimination against transgendered people - and public washrooms are as safe as ever.
See Another front for fairness
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Hindu guru claims homosexuality can be ‘cured’ by yoga
The world’s most popular Hindu guru, Swami “Baba” Ramdev, has claimed homosexuality can be “cured” by yoga in a petition to India’s Supreme Court.
The television guru whose yoga programmes are watched by an estimated 85 million people throughout the world, made the claim in an appeal to the overturn a ruling last week which legalised homosexuality.
He has warned he will launch nationwide protests if the ruling is not struck down and said all of India’s main religions regarded homosexual acts as sins.
In his petition, he argued that homosexuality was a curable disease and that sufferers could seek a cure.
“It can be treated like any other congenital defect. Such tendencies can be treated by yoga, pranayam and other meditation techniques,” he said.
Pranayam are a series of breathing exercises which include hyperventilation, a slow release of breath while chanting “Om”.
His followers have said there are particular yoga positions which also help prevent sexual urges.
The overturning of India’s law criminalising homosexuality was welcomed by India’s gay community and by campaigners, including several leading designers and Bollywood stars.
See Hindu guru claims homosexuality can be ‘cured’ by yoga
Telegraph.co.uk -
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We’re Not Alone: Anti-Gay Groups Also Target Jews
Anti-gay religious groups promote their intolerance of GLBT individuals and families, but a less prominent aspect of some such groups is antipathy toward certain religions, and even races and ethnicities.
Once example is the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas. Headed by the Rev. Fred Phelps, Westboro-which is made up mostly of Phelps’ extended family-has generated headlines for picketing the funerals of gay people as well as the funerals of fallen military servicemembers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Phelps clan claim that “God hates America” because this country does not, in their view, aggressively persecute its GLBT See
We’re Not Alone: Anti-Gay Groups Also Target Jews
EDGE Boston
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Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on
A colourful show of drag queens dressed in Chinese opera costumes was one of the festivities that marked Shanghai’s gay pride on Saturday, the first in China where homosexuality remains largely hidden.
A “Big Bash” barbecue Saturday — billed as the highlight of the week-long festival — went ahead as planned in a bar despite previous last-minute event cancellations by local authorities that marred the “Shanghai Pride.”
Drag and fashion shows and a ‘hot body’ competition took place at Cotton’s bar attended by at least 500 people, in a garden that was hidden from view by a rainbow banner covering the surrounding fence.
Later Saturday night, two fake gay marriages were to take place before people were ferried onto buses to go to an afterparty at a bar on Shanghai’s famous Bund promenade.
“We would have liked the whole week to go without cancellations, but today everything has happened as we wanted it to, so we’re happy,” said Kenneth Tan, spokesman for organisers Shanghai LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender).
Events for “Shanghai Pride” have been organised at private venues without a public parade — in stark contrast to similar events elsewhere in the world — to avoid attracting unwanted official attention.
But still, city authorities forced the cancellation of a film screening and a play during the festival, and the two venues hosting the “Big Bash” events Saturday had received calls from officials, according to Tan.
He said police had come to Cotton’s Saturday where expatriates and Chinese people mingled but soon left.
Liu Yang, a 27-year-old Chinese homosexual who was enjoying the shows Saturday, said he was amazed by the festival.
“I’ve never been abroad, and I have really wondered how such an event could take place so smoothly — I’m really nicely surprised,” he said.
See Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on AFP - 4
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In NH Gay marriage accord reached
ouse and Senate negotiators reached yesterday agreement on a compromise gay-marriage bill amendment aimed at winning a signature by Gov. John Lynch.
Members of a conference committee took just over two hours to agree on language they say gives more emphasis to the Legislature’s intent to protect religious freedoms regarding same-sex marriage.
The bill will be voted on next week, as the third piece of a three-part gay-marriage proposal. Two bills have already passed — House Bill 436, the main bill, and HB 310, with technical changes — but a third became necessary when Lynch said he would veto the bills unless extra protections for religious groups were added. Language in the two bills that exempted clergy from performing marriages that their religions do not accept did not go far enough, Lynch said.
The Senate then passed HB 73, containing language Lynch demanded, but the House vote on May 20 fell short 186-188.
See Gay marriage accord reached The Union Leader
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Dallas pastor to join team lobbying Congress for gay rights
The Rev. Jo Hudson of Dallas’ Cathedral of Hope will be part of a high-profile team of pastors visiting Congress to lobby for gay rights. Details below:
This is a critical time for the LGBT movement. Today, the U.S. House is marking-up the federal hate crimes bill, an important step before the bill moves to a vote. Federal legislation is necessary to ensure all citizens are safe from hate violence. Only 11 states and the District of Columbia have hate crimes laws that cover both sexual orientation and gender identity. Twenty states have hate crimes laws that cover sexual orientation but not gender identity.
The Clergy Call for Justice and Equality is organized by the HRC Foundation’s Religion & Faith Program, lead by Harry Knox, who was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to the Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. To check out this year’s program visit: www.HRC.org/ClergyCall.
Confirmed speakers: Read their bios: http://www.hrc.org/issues/religion/12294.htm
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, NH
Bishop Yvette Flunder, San Francisco, CA
Rev. John H. Thomas , Cleveland, OH
Rev. Dr. Anthony Campolo, St. Davids, PA
Father Richard Estrada, Los Angeles, CA
Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, Dallas, TX
Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Los Angeles, CA
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Love, Abilene, TX
Rev. Manish Mishra, St. Petersburg, FL
Rev. Drew Phoenix, Anchorage, AK
Bishop Tonyia Rawls, Charlotte, NC
Joe Solmonese, Washington, DC
Rev. Dr. Traci C. West, Madison, NJ
Updates in the movement of faith and LGBT equality:
The unanimous ruling of the seven-member Iowa Supreme Court, written by Mark Cady, a Republican appointee, explained that a state’s legalization of same-sex marriage has no effect on marriage as practiced by religions. “The only difference,” the judge wrote, is that “civil marriage will now take on a new meaning that reflects a more complete understanding of equal protection of the law.
The McCain-Palin 2008 campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, urged his party last week to join him in endorsing same-sex marriage.
Jon Huntsman Jr., the governor of Utah, who in February endorsed civil unions for gay couples, a position seemingly indistinguishable from Obama’s. Huntsman is a Mormon presiding over what Gallup ranks as the reddest state in the country.
Rev. Rick Warren, the hugely popular megachurch leader who endorsed Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban, dropped in on Larry King to declare that he had “never” been and “never will be” an “anti-gay-marriage activist.” But, it apparently didn’t thrill his base and he cancelled on ABC’s George Stephanolopous, minutes before taking to the air on the nationally televised “This Week.” Warren’s sudden reverse remains controversial in the LGBT community: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/10284/rick-warren-lies-about-his-homobigotry-on-larry-king-live
Faith leaders are building momentum and making clear that they support full equality for LGBT people under the law. America’s clergy are transforming our nation one congregation at a time and making it easier for Members of Congress to stand for equality. The theme for Clergy Call 2009, “Moving from Acceptance to Advocacy,” reflects the vision of a faith-based movement for LGBT equality built from the ground up: in local churches, synagogues, mosques.
See Dallas pastor to join team lobbying Congress for gay rights
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Miss California sparks outrage over gay marriage remarks
Mixing a beauty pageant with politics is a recipe for disaster. You could make a strong case for it, anyway.
The two merged last night at the site of the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas. The result was similar to the fallout after the Miss Teen USA pageant in 2007 when Miss South Carolina gave the greatest non-answer answer perhaps in American history. Both times the non-winner of a pageant got all the attention the next day.
But unlike the pageant two years ago, the contestant in the crossfire didn’t give a nonsensical (and wildly entertaining) answer. The contestant last night, California’s Carrie Prejean, was too articulate in the minds of many and led to some flaring tempers (similar to Janeane Garofalo’s flare-up on Keith Olbermann’s show the other night).
The question posed to the contestant couldn’t be any more incendiary: gay marriage.
Asked judge Perez Hilton to Prejean, “Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?”
Observers quickly learned that in Hilton’s mind there was only one correct answer. And Prejean picked the wrong one.
“Well I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other,” she said. “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.”
Prejean was greeted with a mixed reaction from the audience. Boos followed by applause. And the reactions didn’t stop at the pageant. It went into overtime.
Worst answer
Perez then blasted her on his video blog calling it the “worst answer in pageant history.” He also made comments that he has since apologized for. Now he’s asked her out for coffee to “talk.”
The directors of the Miss California pageant condemned her answer on Monday morning.
“As co-executive director of Miss CA USA and one of the leaders of the Miss CA family, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss CA USA 2009 believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman,” wrote Keith Lewis on Hilton’s blog. “Although I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit, I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone. Religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”
Sticking by it
Does she regret the answer? Not at all.
“I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything,” she told AccessHollywood.
Further, she informed the entertainment site that her sister is a gay rights activist in the Air Force. By the way, her sister was more sympathetic than Hilton.
“She was just in my hotel room and she said, ‘Sis, I’m not offended by anything that you said. We have two different opinions and I love you because of it. I love you because you stood up for what was right, and it’s not a matter of being gay or not gay, it’s a matter of you competing for Miss USA and getting a question and answering it to the best of your ability.”
On one area both Hilton and Prejean agree: her answer killed her chances of winning the competition.
“She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that,” Hilton told ABCNews.com
“It did cost me my crown,” she concurred. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that’s all I can do.”
See Miss California sparks outrage over gay marriage remarks @ Christian Science Monitor - Also:
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Miss USA Scores Controversy, Not Ratings E! Online -
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Pastor Warren: I love gays
(Long Beach, California) Under fire for opposing gay marriage, influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren says that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves “gays and straights.”
The 54-year-old pastor and founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California told the crowd of 500 on the …
Tags: Crowd, Gays, Long Beach California, love, marriage, Muslims, Opposing Gay Marriage, Pastor Rick Warren, Religions, Republicans And Democrats, Rick Warren, Southern CaliforniaPastor Warren: I love gays
(Long Beach, California) Under fire for opposing gay marriage, influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren says that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves “gays and straights.”
The 54-year-old pastor and founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California told the crowd of 500 on the …
Tags: Crowd, Gays, Long Beach California, love, marriage, Muslims, Opposing Gay Marriage, Pastor Rick Warren, Religions, Republicans And Democrats, Rick Warren, Southern California
