Archive for November, 2007

He is a gay icon but Cohen the Barbarian seeks wider appeal

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Cohen>England wing returns with no club but fresh ambition to Twickenham today, he tells Robert Kitson

At least Ben Cohen has not been forgotten. Apparently there were more than 46,000 hits on his website last month following the release of the exiled England wing’s new beefcake calendar and he has bowed further to popular demand by doing a photo-shoot for Gay Times. A large chunk of his fan-base clearly cares little what he does on Saturdays as long as he is bare-chested in glossy colour every month.

The positive attention makes a change. Cohen does not enjoy the uncritical adoration of everyone within the macho world of English rugby but admirers of his physique are unfazed by the summer fall-out at Northampton which caused him to leave the club he joined as a 16-year-old. Nor, on a recent promotional visit to Prowler, a specialist homosexual men outlet in Soho, did anyone query his decision to reject England’s call in the build-up to the World Cup. Or ask whether flogging topless calendars for his testimonial year is not a slight come-down for a 29-year-old World Cup winner who should still have plenty to give his chosen sport.

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Gay rights group, Sharpton organization back Scottsdale anti-discrimination plan

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

National homosexual men rights groups and the state chapter of a civil rights group headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton are backing efforts to enact an anti-discrimination ordinance in Scottsdale that would cover homosexual men and transgender individuals.

Scottsdale is considering a measure that would apply to businesses in the city, city government contractors and agencies.

The Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force have joined local homosexual men rights advocates, including Equality Arizona and the Arizona Transgender Alliance, in backing the measure. The state chapter of Sharpton’s National Action Network also is supporting the measure.

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Study Looks At Gay Hands

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

homosexual men hands The wonderful world of science continues to burrow into sexual difference. A study out of Ontario contradicts earlier evidence by saying homosexual men and bisexual men are more likely to write with their right hand.

A new study has provided a new twist on the connection between sexual orientation and right or left-handedness, claiming that homosexual men or bisexual men have an elevated incidence of extreme right-handedness.

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Christian bookshops refuse to stock gay study Bible

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

CHRISTIAN bookshops are refusing to stock copies of a new Bible study guide that challenges standard New Testament translations that describe homosexual men sex as sinful.

A US distributor, God’s Word to Women, has banned the Australian publication, and withdrawn another Bible translation published by the same NSW publishing house, Smith and Stirling, for promoting a lifestyle in contradiction of the scriptures.

Two American academics have asked that their endorsements be removed from other works by a classical Greek lexicographer, Ann Nyland, because of her authorship of the homosexual men study Bible.

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Policy on equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

We live in a society which attempts to dictate sexual preference and gender identity through promoting the gender stereotypes and homophobic attitudes which underpin the heterosexual nuclear family, and by promoting marriage and the nuclear family as the only legitimate model for relationships. Lesbians, homosexual men men, bisexuals and transgendered people suffer oppression because their lives are a challenge to the nuclear family which is an economic cornerstone of capitalism. The Socialist Alliance opposes all attempts to shoehorn people into sexual and gender conformity. We believe it is a basic democratic right that a persons’ self-definition of sexual preference and gender identity should be recognised. Heterosexism exists at almost every level in this society, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is entrenched in all of the key institutions of society – education, health, the law, the media, family, church and state.

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Fifteen gay couples get married in group ceremony

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

-FIFTEEN same-sex couples have declared their love and commitment to one another in a wedding ceremony organised by Adelaide’s Feast homosexual men and lesbian festival.

Hundreds of people gathered at Montefiore Hill, North Adelaide, for the public ceremony and a garden reception for invited guests at nearby Carclew youth arts centre.

Guests included family and friends, many of whom had travelled from interstate.

They celebrated under tents and trees on the Carlew lawns.

Wedding cakes were on display and later shared.

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Schoolboy jailed for role in gay murder

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

A TEENAGER who triggered a homophobic murder on a homosexual men council worker was locked up for 12 months today.

The 15-year-old knocked James Kerr to the ground before his two friends launched a savage assault, leaving him dying in a pool of blood.

The schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, contacted one of his friends after running into Mr Kerr, 51, in a park in Perth, Scotland, telling them he had been assaulted.

He had originally faced a murder charge but a guilty plea to a reduced charge of assault was accepted by the Crown in the early stages of the trial.

Sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Macphail told the youth his own attack had been homophobic and unprovoked, and that he had approved of his friends’ brutal killing.

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Entertainment Weekly salutes landmark moments in gay Hollywood

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

-In the tradition of our own “Twenty Most Groundbreaking Gay Films” Entertainment Weekly writer Mark S. Luckie takes a look back at some of the defining moments in the portrayal of the LGBT community (in both film and television) in his video essay, “Landmark Moments in Gay Hollywood”.

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Ferndale winner says being gay is not the issue

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

New mayor is proud of civic progress.

The newly elected and openly homosexual men mayor of Ferndale said being homosexual men is no longer an issue in city politics.

His sexual orientation had little to do with his campaign, said Craig Covey, 50, elected Tuesday with 54% of the vote.

Covey, a Ferndale councilman for eight years, said his campaign was able convince voters that the city had found inventive ways to succeed.

“Ferndale has demonstrated how to be successful in these new times, using smart-growth policies, diversity, inclusion and a walkable downtown,” Covey said Wednesday.

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On Protecting Gay Americans from Workplace Discrimination

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) vote tests our values. An incrementalist law is a blunder.

For the past few weeks, members of Congress and leaders within the lesbian, homosexual men, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have debated how best to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). This legislation was initially intended to protect LGBT Americans from arbitrary firing and other forms of employment discrimination.

While states as diverse as Iowa and California already protect LGBT Americans from employment discrimination, 31 states still do not. Thus, there is overwhelming public support for federal employment protections. Reflecting this, a 2006 Gallup Poll reveals that 89 percent of respondents favor equal employment opportunities for homosexual men people.

However, Republicans in Congress are pandering to their extreme right wing by refusing to support basic workplace equality for LGBT people. In the face of this opposition, some ENDA advocates led by openly homosexual men U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., have introduced a compromised version of the legislation that retains the anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation while it excludes the more contested protections for gender identity. This incrementalist version of ENDA pragmatically embraces more mainstream homosexual mens and lesbians while it continues to leave transgender Americans vulnerable to discrimination.

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