Articles by Ross von Metzke

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14 December 2005
Brokeback Mountain leads gay charge on Golden Globe Awards + The nominees for the 2006 Golden Globe Awards were announced from Hollywood yesterday and, as predicted, it was the year to be gay in Hollywood as gay films, performances and actors dominated the nominations.The critically championed Brokeback Mountain scored seven nominations, the most of any film, including Best Picture - Drama, Best Screenplay and a Best Director nod for Ang Lee.
13 December 2005
Ford meets with Gay leaders + Ford Motor Company executives have agreed to meet with leaders of gay rights organizations next week to discuss allegations that the automaker's decision to pull advertisements for its Land Rover and Jaguar lines from gay publications was prompted by pressure from the anti-gay American Family Association."We look forward to the dialogue with the leadership of the gay community," said Ford spokesman Mike Moran.
9 December 2005
Appeals court continues ban on gay marriage in New York + An appeals court has thrown out a ruling that would have allowed gay couples to marry in New York City, saying it is not the role of judges to redefine the terms 'husband' and 'wife'.The state Supreme Court's Appeals Division ruled 4-1 that Justice Doris Ling-Cohan was wrong to find that denying gay marriage was unconstitutional.
7 December 2005
Gay HIV positive man takes Condoleezza Rice to court 1 A gay rights organisation this week initiated a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of a man who was allegedly denied employment as a Foreign Service Officer by the U.S. State Department because he is HIV positive.The case names Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The State Department is under her jurisdiction.
5 December 2005
Schools can’t out students as gay, US court rules + A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Thursday that a high school does not have the right to "out" a student without his or her permission.The American Civil Liberties Union brought the lawsuit on behalf of Charlene Nguon, a senior in Orange County's Garden Grove Unified School District, who claimed the principal violated her right to privacy by telling her parents she was a lesbian after he disciplined her for being affectionate with her girlfriend.
3 December 2005
South African High Court Says Yes to Gay Marriage 1 The high court of South Africa ruled on Thursday that same-sex marriages will enjoy the same legal status as those between men and women, making the nation one of just five worldwide that have removed legal barriers to gay and lesbian unions.But the Constitutional Court effectively stayed its ruling for one year to give Parliament time to amend a 1961 marriage law. Should legislature balk, the court said the law will be automatically changed to make its provisions gender-neutral.
23 November 2005
Rabbi compares Christian right in USA to Nazis over their stance on gay rights + The attitude of American 'religious right' leaders toward gays and lesbians is akin to the anti-gay policies promoted by Adolf Hitler, according to the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie.Yoffie made the controversial comments Saturday during the movement's national biennial conference in Houston."We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations," Yoffie said. "Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage but there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry." The audience of 5,000 responded to the speech with enthusiastic applause.
22 November 2005
Man sues over USA gay ‘Wife Swap’ + An Oklahoma man is suing the American version of Wife Swap over the show's producers sending a gay man to live with him and his family as his half of the swap.Jeffrey Bedford, who lives with his wife and kids outside Muskogee, is seeking $10 million in damages from Walt Disney - the parent company of ABC - the network, and the show's production company RDF Media.
21 November 2005
Vancouver Gay Bookstore Takes Case to Supreme Court + One of Vancouver's largest gay bookstores has been given the go-ahead to argue in front of Canada's Supreme Court that the government should fund its legal dispute with Canada Customs.Yesterday, the top court granted Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium the right to appeal a lower-court decision that cut its funding lifeline for the legal fight.Jim Deva, one of the bookstore's co-owners, said fighting Canada Customs in court could cost the store $500,000 to $1-million, which he characterized as an impossibly high figure for a bookstore, or almost anyone else, to come up with.
17 November 2005
Mayor Claims Gay Photos ‘Placed’ On Computer + As a Washington judge prepares to decide whether the contents of Spokane Mayor James West's city-owned computer are part of the public record, the mayor is arguing that numerous gay-oriented photos on the laptop were placed there automatically.This is the latest development in the ongoing saga of West, who was outed earlier this year after chatting with an undercover reporter in a gay chat room. West was subsequently accused by two men of using his position as mayor to offer career advancements in exchange for sex.
14 November 2005
STD rates rise sharply in amongst American gay men 1 Gay men practicing risky sexual activity are fueling a sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis and a smaller, albeit concerning rise in gonorrhea resistant to commonly used antibiotics, federal researchers said this week.The latest report of increases comes at a time when STD rates among historically important risk groups (including women and minorities) have been declining, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
11 November 2005
Texas bans gay marriages but Maine rejects ban 2 Texas voters this week overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making their state the 19th to take that step.The same-sex marriage contest in Texas was a landslide victory; near-complete returns showed the gay-marriage ban supported by about 76 percent of voters. Like every other state except Massachusetts, Texas didn't permit same-sex marriages previously, but the constitutional amendment was touted as an extra guard against future court rulings.
8 November 2005
Gay no longer used to describe women 1 According to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune, the word 'gay' no longer pertains to both men and women, as evidenced by a series of articles the paper referenced in the investigative feature.Take, for example, a recent article about a referendum coming to a vote in Maine. The Associated Press reports that opponents of broadened civil rights protections for homosexual men and women claim that such legislation, already signed into law by the governor, would "grant a new status to gay men and lesbians that could open the door to same-sex marriage."
28 October 2005
Star Trek actor comes out as gay 1 George Takei, better known as Mr. Sulu from the hit TV series (and subsequent six movies) Star Trek, has made it official in a new interview with Los Angeles based Frontiers magazine."Brad's my partner, we've been together for 18 years," Takei tells Frontiers. "I've been 'open,' but I have not talked to the press."The 68-year-old actor was born in Los Angeles but spent much of his childhood in Japanese internment camps in Arkansas and Northern California.
27 October 2005
“God made me gay” vicar faces trial today 30 A Methodist minister who was defrocked after telling her Pennsylvania congregation she is gay has her credentials back, but her ordination could again be revoked this week after she goes before the church's highest judicial panel.The Judicial Council of The United Methodist Church will hear Irene Stroud's case in Houston today. Decisions by the council are final.
25 October 2005
USA gay groups mourn death of Rosa Parks 1 Rosa Parks, the Alabama seamstress whose soft-spoken refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man triggered the Montgomery bus boycott, the first great mass action in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, died yesterday at 92.USA gay civil rights groups are remembering the role Parks played in beginning of the fight for equal rights in America.
18 October 2005
US City Mayor visited gay sex sites during official business hours 27 City investigations have revealed that Spokane mayor James E. West used his city computer to check out online profiles of gay men while traveling on official business, The Spokesman-Review reported Saturday.
18 October 2005
Ex-wife to be “best woman” at husband’s gay wedding 4 A Belgian woman offered up her services as "best woman" when her ex-husband married her hairdresser in a gay wedding. Tania Van Rysselberghe, 41, from Ghent, said her ex-husband, Guy Van Autreve, 40, and Danny Van der Heyden, 44, were like 'Ying and Yang.'
10 October 2005
Italian Health Minister Condemns Ban on Gay Men Donating Blood + Italy's health minister has condemned a decision by one of the country's biggest hospitals to stop a gay man from giving blood.
10 October 2005
Christian Group Blames Katrina on Gays 2 An organization of Christian fundamentalists has stepped forward with claims the destruction brought on by Hurricane Katrina is God's judgment against New Orleans for holding festivals like the gay Southern Decadence party, which was scheduled for the state's Labour Day weekend and has since been cancelled.

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