the gay news blog

The polyamory trap

2012-01-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

The right wants to use the "slippery slope" of polyamory to discredit gay marriage. Here's how to stop them Salon

Oral HPV More Common in Men Than Women

2012-01-26T12:36:00.000-08:00

About one in 15 Americans is infected with oral human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted virus that causes throat cancers, and the disease is especially common among men, new research shows.

The research is the first major study to document the nationwide prevalence of oral human papillomavirus, or HPV, a disease that has drawn growing attention from public health experts because it has fueled a rise in oropharyngeal cancers affecting the back of the tongue and the throat. NY Times

Christie Avoids All the Thorns in the Thicket of Gay Marriage

2012-01-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

Mr. Christie’s office sent word of another surprise on Tuesday: The governor announced that he believed same-sex marriage should be put before voters in November. Republicans whom Democrats had been counting on quickly backed him.NY Times

Google, Microsoft, Starbucks Say DOMA Hurts Business

2011-11-05T13:52:00.001-07:00

Top U.S. companies including Google, Microsoft, and Starbucks took the unusual step on Thursday of legally documenting their opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. @ The Advocate

Ricky Martin granted Spanish citizenship

2011-11-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Puerto Rican pop singer Ricky Martin was given Spanish citizenship today, the country’s government said. The star, who came out in 2009 reportedly wants to take advantage of Spain’s gay marriage laws. @ PinkNews

Poll: Support for gay marriage continues to rise

2011-11-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

Public acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown at an accelerating pace, with approval jumping by nine percentage points in the past two years and the nation now evenly divided on the issue, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.

The poll, conducted in late September and early October, showed 46% of Americans surveyed support legalizing same-sex marriage and 44% are opposed. The survey among 2,410 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. @ LA Times

Study: Older Gays Fear Coming Out

2011-11-05T00:05:00.001-07:00

New research from Ireland shows that one-third of older gay people avoid coming out to family and friends out of fear of rejection. @ The Advocate

Shocking Report on Queer Domestic Violence

2011-11-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) has released its report, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Intimate Partner Violence in the United States in 2010.” In 2010, NCAVP programs received 5,052 reports of IPV, an increase of 38.1% from the 3,658 reports in 2009. SF Bay Times

Melanie Phillips voted Stonewall’s ‘Bigot of the Year’

2011-11-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Daily Mail writer won the award for going out of her way to harm LGBT people, in the sixth annual ceremony celebrating gay achievements in public life @ PinkNews UK

'Ex-Gay' Movement: Weaker By the Minute

2011-11-04T23:58:00.001-07:00

Current and former "ex-gay" leaders are backing off previous assertions that gay people can be "converted" to heterosexuality, especially after a study of Exodus members showed many were not "cured" of same-sex attractions. @ The Advocate

Dangers Of Children Seeing Gay Doctors

2011-10-23T19:22:00.001-07:00

We could not make this one up: "Linda Harvey, founder of Mission America, a "Christian pro-family organization tracking current cultural issues," and radio host, has a warning for the parents of America: Don't let your children see gay health practitioners."

Openly gay actors working — on TV

2011-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

"There certainly is a growing indifference about seeing openly gay actors in this country, but only on the small screen. In the movies, Hollywood still operates under a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy, with rumors of closeted stars hiring PR agents to construct straight hookups for them in the tabloids. Television, on the other hand, has become a far more frank environment, a place where openly gay actors are finding lots of work - and not just playing gay characters." @ Boston Globe

When alienated by past providers, LGBT patients are often reluctant to seek medical care

2011-10-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Despite overall strides in the attitudes toward people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender many argue that the medical community has lagged behind. In 2009, fewer than a quarter of 1 percent - .21 percent - of publications related to human health included an LGBT-related keyword, as indexed in PubMed, an online library of research abstracts run by the National Institutes of Health.

Yet researchers say that LGBT people are more likely to experience a variety of health problems

- from mental illness to drug abuse to sexually transmitted and other diseases - than their straight counterparts. The reason is largely that they don’t seek health care for fear of being stigmatized in the doctor’s office. Boston Globe

SPLC Urges Public Figures to Boycott Values Voter Summit Because of Anti-LGBT Hate Speech by Summit Host and Co-Sponsor

2011-10-08T20:07:00.001-07:00

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today urged all public figures to boycott this weekend's Values Voter Summit, which is hosted and co-sponsored by two groups that demonize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community with false propaganda.

"The Family Research Council and the American Family Association are among the chief purveyors of lies about the LGBT community - lies that stoke hate and violence," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project. "LGBT people are now, by far, the group most victimized by violent hate crimes in America. Public figures should not lend their names to groups that vilify them."

Here are examples of what these groups say about LGBT people:

-- Both groups say gay men molest children at far higher rates than
heterosexual men - an assertion rejected by every relevant scientific
organization, including the American Psychological Association.
-- Both groups have enthusiastically promoted "reparative therapy," the
widely discredited idea that gay men and lesbians can be "cured" of
their sexual orientation.
-- The AFA has declared that "homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler ... the
Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews."

More about the FRC and the AFA and their misinformation can be found here: www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/just-whose-values-are-promoted-at-the-values-voter-summit.

Vermont Human Rights Commission Intervenes in Support of Lesbian Couple

2011-10-08T20:04:00.001-07:00

Vermont Human Rights Commission Intervenes in Support of Lesbian Couple Discriminated Against by Resort
The Vermont Human Rights Commission (HRC) has asked to intervene in an American Civil Liberties Union case in support of a lesbian couple who were told by a resort that they would not be able to hold their wedding reception because the resort has a “no gay receptions” policy. If the court were to allow the Wildflower Inn to discriminate against Kate Baker and Ming Lesley, the HRC states that it would be unable to enforce the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act, which prohibits denying access to public accommodations based on sexual orientation.
“The state’s action underscores the fact that this is a straightforward case of discrimination,” said Dan Barrett, staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont. “We’re glad to see that the Human Rights Commission is as concerned as we are about the threat that the Wildflower Inn is posing to Vermont’s non-discrimination guarantees."
In its answer to the legal complaint, the Wildflower Inn argued that owners of the resort had a First Amendment right to turn away Kate and Ming and asked the court to declare the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act unconstitutional.
“The First Amendment does not give public commercial businesses a license to discriminate,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney for the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. “When a business chooses to opens its doors to the public, it must follow the state’s public accommodations laws and can’t pick and choose which customers it wants to serve.”
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/baker-and-linsley-v-wildflower-inn.

Remember this:

2011-10-02T21:34:00.001-07:00

ACLU Appears in Federal Court to Challenge Military Separation Pay Policy that Discriminates Against Lesbian and Gay Veterans

2011-09-23T09:41:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union argued before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims today that a Defense Department policy that cuts in half the separation pay of service members who have been honorably discharged for being gay is discriminatory and unconstitutional. The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the policy, which is not part of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" statute and so was not changed when that law was repealed. The Defense Department can change the policy on its own, without congressional approval.

The government has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but has not defended the separation pay policy as constitutional. Instead, the government argues that even if the policy were unconstitutional, the court cannot award gay and lesbian service members any judicial relief.

“The government is too embarrassed to defend the constitutionality of its policy in open court, so it is inventing new reasons to deny these service members justice,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney for the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, who argued the case. “These veterans served their country honorably and deserve the full recognition and benefits that are afforded to other service members. The sums they seek are small to the military, but make a huge difference when readjusting to civilian life.”

“These veterans lost their livelihoods when they were forcibly discharged from the armed forces because of a policy that was so outrageous it has since been sent to the dustbin of history,” said Laura Schauer Ives, staff attorney for the ACLU of New Mexico. “There is no reason to add insult to injury and discriminate against these service members yet again by subjecting them to the indignity of denying them their full separation pay.”

More information on the case is available at: www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/collins-v-united-states-class-action-military-separation-pay

Dan Choi Re-Enlisting: Officer Who Fought To Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Aims To Rejoin Army

2011-09-20T11:46:00.001-07:00

Dan Choi, the outspoken gay activist who was discharged from the army for revealing his sexuality,told Politico on Tuesday that he plans to re-enlist in the armed forces now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is no longer law. HuffPost

Did NY Times Hide Sexuality of Gadhafi's Son?

2011-09-20T10:56:00.001-07:00

Media outlets like Gawkerare accusing The New York Times of unnecessarily redacting information from a leaked diplomatic cable that had said Libyan dictator Mu'ammar Gadhafi's son is bisexual. Advocate

200,000 Against Sally Kern

2011-09-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Human Rights Campaign helped spark a campaign that has sent 200,000 emails to Oklahoma state legislators and the governor calling on them to condemn hateful remarks by antigay state representative Sally Kern. Advocate

Baldwin Announces Candidacy to be 1st Openly LGBTQ Senator

2011-09-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

ongresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) announced Tuesday that she will run for the U.S. Senate in the seat being vacated by Senator Herb Kohl. Kohl has held the seat for thirteen years. Baldwin has also served the state of Wisconsin for thirteen years, representing the 2nd District. Bay Times

Will gay marriage be repealed in NH?

2011-09-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

The New Hampshire House Judiciary voted this week to endorse a bill repealing the state’s gay marriage law and replacing marriages with civil unions. 365 Gay

Woman ‘too disgusted by gays to leave the house’

2011-09-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

Stacy Trasancos, a stay-at-home mother of seven children, detailed her extreme homophobia on her blog, acceptingabundance.com.
Pink NEws

Georgia Mayor Shuts Down Rocky Horror As Too Risqué

2011-09-17T22:19:00.001-07:00

In a case of life imitating art (or at least a Glee storyline from last year), political officials in Georgia have shut down a community theater's production of The Rocky Horror Show after deeming it "too risqué." Advocate

American Anti-Gay Campaign in Africa Opposes "Fictitious Sexual Rights"

2011-08-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Sharon Slater, American anti-gay activist and president of Family Watch International, recently encouraged delegates attending a law conference in Lagos, Nigeria to resist the United Nations’ calls to decriminalize homosexuality. Keynoting the Nigerian Bar Association Conference, Slater told delegates that they would lose their religious and parental rights if they supported “fictitious sexual rights.” One such “fictitious right” is the right to engage in same-sex sexual relationships without going to jail. MORE