Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, is the latest Democratic Presidential candidate to voice support for gay issues, reports AP. Edwards spoke to a group of Atlanta HRC supporters last weekend. Edwards said he supports gay adoptions and other civil rights. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., have all suggested they would support various gay-rights measures if elected president.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt's lesbian daughter is about to jump on the campaign trail for dad. Chrissy Gephardt, a social worker in D.C., will be featured in an upcoming edition of People Magazine.
Two hundred members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national group of gay Republicans, met with senior White House officials, reports The New York Times. Patrick Guerriero, the group's executive director, said no discussion of Sen. Rick Santorum was necessary and that the discussions focused on AIDS, education, and judicial nominees. The meeting was held during LCR's annual convention. Among the White House officials was openly gay Dr. Joe O'Neill, the administration's AIDS czar.
The House of Representatives approved a measure that will allow faith-based organizations to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion while they receive federal funds. The Washington Post reports the legislation gives few additional benefits, but is more of a symbolic gesture.
A transsexual woman dropped her pending lawsuit against a New Mexico hospital, according to The Advocate. Christine Anders sued the University of New Mexico Hospital for allegedly refusing to treat her in the hospital's emergency room. Anders said she cannot find a lawyer to represent her.
The Lutheran campus minister at Western Washington University said he did not receive any negative comments about his speech advocating gay equality, reports the Western Front. Pastor Chris Berry gave a speech citing incorrect biblical translations used to condemn homosexuality. The Catholic campus minister said a distinction should be made between homosexual orientation and activity.
The Russian self-proclaimed lesbian duo, Tatu, say they may get married but they will never be faithful to one another. According to Ananova, the group told a German newspaper that they will marry if they win a Eurovision songwriting contest. The two say they have always had sex with men and will unlikely be faithful to each other. Tatu is planning an American tour.
Rosie O'Donnell is back in the pages of a glossy magazine. Her column starts in this week's Advocate. Rosie was the magazine's 2002 Person of the Year.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America head bishop, Mark Hanson, told pastors at a conference that the group should not allow issues of sexuality to break up the organization, AP reports. The denomination authorized a study of how homosexuality should be viewed in the church. Currently, practicing homosexuals may not be ordained. The study is expected to be released in 2005 for the group's national assembly.
Provincetown is not a good place from which to hail—if you're a member of the town's high school sports teams. The Boston Globe reports that P-town High School sports teams take special precautions when traveling out of town. Andreia Ribas, a senior softball team member, said she does not wear her letterman jacket when she leaves town for fear of bashing. One student told the Globe that every away team assumes all members of the P-town team are gay.
The California Assembly passed AB196, a bill that would provide protections in employment and housing based on gender identity. The bill, authored by newcomer and openly gay Assemblyman Mark Leno, narrowly passed in the Assembly, along party lines. The bill is now in the predominately Democratic state senate.
A lesbian in California started the ball rolling on a case that could invalidate second-parent adoptions in California and have ramifications nationwide, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights. During the process of a second-parent adoption, 'Sharon' and 'Annette' broke up. Sharon asked the court to dismiss the adoption petition, but the court refused. An appeals court ruled that the adoption was invalid and questioned the validity of all second-parent adoptions. The case is now pending review by the California Supreme Court.
Todd Jones, the reliever for the Colorado Rockies who said he wouldn't want a gay teammate, said he's satisfied with what he said. In his Sporting News column, Jones wrote, 'A guy asked me if I had it to do over again would I say what I said. Yes, I would.'
New Times of Broward-Palm Beach, Fla., writer Bob Norman reported May 3 on the 'don't ask' aura surrounding Florida Congressman Mark Foley: 'Foley, the nine-year conservative Republican U.S. representative out of Lake Worth, is gay. ... Everyone knows it, though no newspaper outside the gay press has ever really touched the issue. ... Foley has never said it, and there is no photographic proof, but the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. It's been an open secret for the past decade. But what of it? Gays and lesbians in office represent nothing more than a healthy democracy at work. And, in some cases, it's OK for them to remain in the closet. But that's no longer the case for Foley. His voting record on gay rights has become a controversial issue. He's campaigning across Florida for the U.S. Senate. The people have a right to know. And dancing around the truth is just getting too weird to abide.'
New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof wrote May 3 about the new federal guidelines causing fear among AIDS service providers and researchers. 'Most AIDS scientists are terrified these days. They describe witch hunts by neo-Puritans in and out of the Bush administration, and many are so nervous that in e-mail and research abstracts they avoid using words like 'gays,' 'homosexuals,' 'anal sex' or 'sex workers.' So scientists at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere are devising their own secret code. I won't give it away, but one term stands for 'gay' or 'homosexual,' another for 'anal sex' and so on. ... Particularly in the case of AIDS, which kills more people in two hours than SARS has killed in total, vast numbers of human lives are at stake.'
Seventy-four percent of American adults surveyed favor the U.S. Supreme Court overturning state laws that criminalize private, consenting sexual relations between same-sex couples, yet allows that same private conduct to occur between opposite-sex couples. This was the latest finding of a national online poll released by Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund congratulated its endorsees that competed in elections last week. The winners: Paul Smedberg ran in a field of 13 candidates for six at-large seats on the Alexandria, Va., City Council. In Texas, two openly gay incumbents on the Dallas City Council won re-election: John Loza and Ed Oakley.
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