NEWARK, N.J., June 23 (UPI)

A gay-rights group wants a New Jersey school superintendent to apologize for ordering her staff to black out a photo of a gay high school couple kissing. Garden State Equality says Newark School Superintendent Marion Bolden was wrong to censor the photo from yearbooks at East Side High School, The (New Jersey) Star-Ledger reported Saturday. This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out, said Equality spokesman Steven Goldstein. It’s wrong and it’s ridiculous. The photo showed graduating senior Andre Jackson kissing his boyfriend David Escobales on the lips. Bolden deemed the photo illicit and had it blacked out by school staff before the yearbooks were distributed Thursday, The Star-Ledger reported. Several photos of heterosexual students kissing were left untouched in the yearbook.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

NEWARK, N.J., June 23 (UPI)

A gay-rights group wants a New Jersey school superintendent to apologize for ordering her staff to black out a photo of a gay high school couple kissing. Garden State Equality says Newark School Superintendent Marion Bolden was wrong to censor the photo from yearbooks at East Side High School, The (New Jersey) Star-Ledger reported Saturday. This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out, said Equality spokesman Steven Goldstein. It’s wrong and it’s ridiculous. The photo showed graduating senior Andre Jackson kissing his boyfriend David Escobales on the lips. Bolden deemed the photo illicit and had it blacked out by school staff before the yearbooks were distributed Thursday, The Star-Ledger reported. Several photos of heterosexual students kissing were left untouched in the yearbook.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Police Secure Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade
Activists Angered by Gay Blood Donor Ban

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 21 (UPI)

A U.S. policy barring gay men from donating blood is drawing criticism from gay activists, blood banks and some medical officials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in May it would uphold the 1983 ban, The Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News said Thursday. Critics of the ban say the policy is discriminatory and that all donors are screened for the AIDS virus and other infectious diseases. The newspaper said the American Red Cross and blood banks have urged the FDA to revise its rules, which require that male donors be asked if they have had sex with another man at any time since 1977. Gay activists say the policy discriminates against gay men, while small blood banks are frustrated by a chronic need for more donors. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said the policy is based on fear and prejudice. It just doesn’t square up with the science and it’s not asking the right question, he told the newspaper. He said he thinks the right question would ask about risky behavior, like unprotected male-to-male sex or drug use.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

JERUSALEM, June 21 (UPI)

Nearly 2,000 people marched in a controversial gay pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday as 7,000 police officers protected them. Ynetnews reported that the parade went on as planned thanks to the heightened police presence. Police arrested 20 rioters and one suspected bomber who had threatened to disrupt the parade. A resident of Jerusalem’s Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood had been arrested earlier in the day for allegedly planning to scare people away from the parade through the use of a homemade bomb. Police said the pipe bomb found on the suspect could potentially have caused injuries if it has been used. The parade was also opposed by local religious leaders, who led a mass service before the protest for thousands of followers, While the rally was allowed to commence without incident despite such opposition, Ynetnews said police did force the event’s organizers to cancel a party that was to follow the parade.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Colombia‘s Right Derails Gay Rights Bill
New York Assembly Approves Gay Marriage Bill

ALBANY, New York (AP)

New York’s state Assembly approved legislation to legalize same-sex marriage after an emotional three hour debate, but the bill is not expected to be acted on any time soon in the Republican-led state Senate.

The legislation, sponsored by Democrat Daniel O’Donnell, the gay brother of entertainer Rosie O’Donnell and backed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, was approved Tuesday 85-61 in the Democratic Assembly.

O’Donnell told his colleagues that civil unions were not an adequate substitute for full marriage.

“It will not provide equality for people like me,” he said. But Republican Assemblyman Brian Kolb, taking note of “the nuns who taught me in grammar school” and his marriage in the Catholic Church, said he could not support the move.

“I do feel threatened. I do feel harmed,” he said. “It’s a direct challenge to me and how I was brought up.”

Same-sex marriage is legal only in Massachusetts. The California Legislature approved a measure to allow gay marriage in 2005, but it was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A handful of U.S. states allow civil unions or similar arrangements. New York state does not currently allow civil unions.

“We not doing gay marriage by Thursday that’s for sure, or this year,” Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno declared Tuesday morning as lawmakers wound down their annual legislative session, which is due to wrap up on Thursday. The bill would also need to be approved by the Senate to become law.

New Yorkers are split over the gay marriage issues. A statewide poll out Tuesday from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found 35 percent of registered voters supported gay marriage while another 35 percent supported civil unions but not same-sex marriage. Twenty-two percent of voters said there should be no legal recognition of same-sex unions.

As the voting ended on Tuesday, openly gay Democrat Matthew Titone rose with his cell phone in his hand.

“I have my partner here on the phone and he just asked me to marry him,” Titone told the chamber.

“My answer, Madam Speaker, is yes,” said Titone to a round of applause.

O’Donnell said that he had high hopes the Senate, and Bruno, would eventually come around.

“I’m hopeful he can be educated,” the assemblyman said.

O’Donnell said he and his partner of 26 years, John Banta, director of special events for the American Ballet Theatre, were looking forward to the day when the measure might be signed into law.

“We would get married tomorrow, if we could,” O’Donnell said.

As the Assembly prepared to debate the measure, New York’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a statement in opposition.

“The Catholic Church teaches that we treat our homosexual sisters and brothers with dignity and love … However, marriage is not some political term of art that can be re-imagined or redefined according to the whims of popular culture,” said a statement issued by the New York State Catholic Conference, the church’s lobbying arm.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)

A landmark gay rights bill was derailed at the last minute by a bloc of conservative senators, but supporters vowed Wednesday to revive the legislation.

Slightly different versions of the bill had been approved by Colombia‘s Senate and house of representatives and Tuesday‘s vote on the final, reconciled version was expected to be routine.

Other conservative lawmakers then broke ranks with the pro-Uribe faction backing the bill and it was defeated, 34-29, in the 102-member Senate. Many of the bill‘s supporters were absent.

Sen. Armando Benedetti, a sponsor of the bill, vowed to restart the legislative process when Congress reconvenes on July 20, and he criticized Uribe for not defending the initiative more forcefully.

Although states and cities have passed laws allowing gay couples to share assets, no other country in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic region has done so at a national level.

While homosexuality is still taboo in much of Latin America, there has been increasing acceptance in many areas. Mexico City and the Mexican state of Coahuila recently joined the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in legalizing same-sex civil unions.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

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Today’s Headlines
Same-Sex Couples Losing Benefits
More Resistant Forms of HIV Detected

NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 20 (UPI)

The fraction of HIV patients with undetectable drug-resistant forms of HIV is higher than previously thought, according to U.S. researchers. Yale School of Medicine researcher Dr. Michael Kozal used an innovative genome sequencing technology that quickly detects rare viral mutations and found the fraction of HIV patients that harbored resistance mutations is at least twice as high as previously thought. These low frequency resistant viral strains are not detectable by current resistance testing methods used in the clinic, Kozal said in a statement. Kozal and his team examined samples from 258 subjects of a large multi-center five-year U.S. trial comparing three different approaches to antiretroviral therapy. Current technology used in the clinic may miss many low-level resistant HIV strains that can grow rapidly under drug selection pressure and lead to therapy failure, according to the findings presented at the 16th International HIV Drug Resistance Workshop in Barbados.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI)

U.S. gay rights activists said they worry that states that banned same-sex marriage are rolling back benefits for domestic partners of public employees. Camilla Taylor, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said states have been trying for a long time to attack existing protections for gays and lesbians, making life difficult for non-traditional families, USA Today reported Wednesday. According to the newspaper, the state of Michigan has gone the furthest by prohibiting cities, universities and other public employers from offering benefits to same-sex partners. In Kentucky, that state’s attorney general ruled this month that the universities of Kentucky and Louisville cannot offer benefits to gay or straight domestic partners. A lawsuit in Ohio filed by state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, asks the courts to bar Miami University in Ohio from offering benefits to same-sex partners of employees. When the dust settles, we’ll have a national standard for marriage, Matt Daniels, president of Alliance for Marriage, a group that lobbies for a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution, told USA Today. What is going on in the states is a dress rehearsal.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Attitudes Changing About Homosexuality
Couple Appeals Lesbian Marriage Sentence
Elton John Plays HIV Awareness Concert

KIEV, Ukraine, June 18 (UPI)

Around 200,000 patrons stopped by Elton John’s free HIV/AIDS awareness concert in Kiev, Ukraine, which raised money for AIDS awareness programs in the country. The free June 16 concert was attended by Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yushenko, as well as numerous other politicians, Ukraine’s The Forum reported Monday. The concert was televised live and informative pamphlets on HIV/AIDS were given to those who wanted them. It was announced at the event that every 10 minutes one person in Ukraine becomes infected with HIV. John told the audience that he would do everything in his power to help Ukraine fight the disease. John has helped to finance 23 anti-HIV projects in Ukraine and the VIP concert tickets sold for the event also contributed to the fund.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 18 (UPI)

A Pakistani couple sentenced to prison on the grounds that they were married as lesbians appealed Monday, calling for a gender test. The Lahore High Court ordered the sentence for Shumail Raj and Shahzina Tariq last month. Babar Awan, a lawyer representing the couple, said no gender determination was performed on Raj, the husband of the couple, The Press Trust of India reported. The determination of gender in this case was not conclusive … according to the medical report, Awan said. Basically gender determination is a standard operating medical procedure. Unless that is done nobody can determine what is the gender of a particular person. The high court dropped an unnatural offense charge and offered the couple an unusual apology before sentencing them, Awan said. The couple are being held in separate jails.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

LOS ANGELES, June 18 (UPI)

Conservative Christian ministries in the United States that view homosexuality as a treatable disorder may be undergoing a change in attitude. The leader of Exodus International, believed to be the nation’s largest ministry for former gays, no longer believes the term ex-gay is appropriate to describe members, The Los Angeles Times reports. Alan Chambers views the term as too neat, adding, By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete. Chambers and other Exodus leaders who will attend the group’s Freedom Conference in California later this month, are now discussing the possibility of a biological basis for homosexuality. In addition, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary recently shocked constituents by writing that there may be a genetic basis for sexual orientation. Last month a Gallup Poll found 42 percent of adults in the United States believe sexual orientation is present at birth.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International