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Canadian Faces Gay-Bashing Charge (Big Gay News)
Record Number of Gay Candidates Running for Office (Big Gay News)
The Bronx Has NY’s Highest % of Gay Couples With Kids (The Advocate)
Veteran actress claims coming out killed her mother (Pink News)
Accused gay-basher’s case moved up to provincial court (Vancouver Province)
In Hollywood, sexuality is less secret, still can be big deal (CNN)
Gay pride parade case may go to jury today (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Matthew Shepard monument dedicated in Wyo. (PlanetOut)
Curbing gay sex is not a solution for HIV problem: HC (Outlook India)
Gay refugee claim accepted (CNews)
The key to gay rights in India lies in legislation and education (Guardian Unlimited)
UI investigates anti-gay graffiti (The Gazette)
2 political leaders to talk on GLBT issues (New Haven Register)
GLBT titles donated to Wasilla Library (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)
Gays reluctant to report assaults, group says (The Globe and Mail)
Police investigating death of 22-year-old as suspicious (The Sacramento Bee)
‘De-gendered’ toilets spark row (BBC News)
British minister marries her lesbian partner (The Times of India)
Greeks protest government crackdown on gay marriage (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

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Washington, D.C.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund today announced it has endorsed 100 openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) political candidates in 2008, making this endorsement slate the group’s largest ever. LGBT candidates are running for offices at all levels of government, from school boards to the U.S. Congress, according to the group.

Chuck Wolfe, the Victory Fund’s president and CEO for the past six years, said the surge in openly LGBT candidates in 2008 reflects the community’s growing willingness to embrace political leadership as a path to change: “I think reaching this milestone is a testament to a new attitude in our community about how to achieve political change. We don’t have to accept sitting on the sidelines and hoping others will do the heavy lifting. We can roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.”

The Victory Fund expects to continue endorsing candidates for a few more weeks, according to Laura Esquivel, senior vice president for political affairs. “This is a really exciting political season for the LGBT community. We’re extremely proud of the out candidates who are stepping up to run for office all across America, and of the role that the Victory Fund plays in preparing and supporting these candidates. We’ll endorse in even more races in the next couple of weeks, putting us well past 100 candidates for the year,” Esquivel said.

For more information, visit www.victoryfund.org.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 29 (UPI)

A man accused in a weekend attack on a gay man in Vancouver, British Columbia, made an initial court appearance Monday.

Michael Kandola, 20, of Vancouver faces a charge of aggravated assault causing bodily harm, the Canadian Broadcast Corp. reported. However, authorities indicated they may seek to have Kandola prosecuted under Canada’s hate-crime law, the CBC said.

Kandola, whose first appearance was in the city’s community court, is to be back before a judge Tuesday in provincial court, prosecutors said.

Vancouver police Constable Tim Fanning said several witnesses reported hearing Kandola utter gay slurs before the Saturday morning assault in the city’s West End.

Jordan Smith, 27, told CBC News he was walking and holding hands with another man when a group of four young men approached them and called out gay slurs. One of the four allegedly hit Smith in the face with enough force to knock him to the sidewalk, causing him to lose consciousness.

Smith reportedly suffered multiple fractures to his jaw and was to have surgery to repair the injury.

Police said they were looking for at least three other suspects.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ahmadinejad: There Are Gays in Iran (Big Gay News)
Male Model Suing Over Gay Magazine Photo (Big Gay News)
Ignore Ramadoss’ view on gays: Govt tells HC (IBN live)
Greeks protest for same-sex marriage ahead of trial (Pink News)
Circumcision ‘can protect gays from HIV’ (AAP via Yahoo!7 News)
DeGeneres urges voters to save CA’s gay marriage laws (Yahoo! UK & Ireland News)
Google Opposes Anti-Gay Marriage Ban (CBS News)
Morocco may give gays some rights ‘within fifty years’ (Pink News)
Gay marriage debate to continue (The Nashua Telegraph)
Gay marriage on back burner among election issues (The Appleton Post-Crescent)
Gay Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
U.S. improving for gays, victim’s mother says (Seattle Times)
Son of N.C. televangelists takes on discrimination against gays (The Rock Hill Herald)
Taipei holds massive gay pride march (AAP via Yahoo!7 News)
SF Memorial Set For Lesbian Activist Del Martin (CBS 5 Bay Area)
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trangender groups gather at UMD (Pioneer Press)

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NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad conceded this week there are “a few” homosexuals in his country.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Ahmadinejad called homosexuality “an unlikable and foreign act” that “shakes the foundations of society.”

Ahmadinejad was in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. Last year, in the city for the same event, he claimed during a forum at Columbia University that his country has no gays — eliciting both laughter and boos.

Human rights groups say the country hanged two teenagers for homosexuality in 2005. Given a copy of a photo of the teens, Ahmadinejad said being gay is not a capital offense under Iranian law.

“Either they were drug traffickers or they killed someone else,” he said.

Ahmadinejad said U.S. politicians who support gay rights have little to be proud of.

“Just because some people want to get votes, they are willing to overlook every morality,” he said.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI)

A gay men’s lifestyle magazine, Genre, has damaged a straight model’s reputation by featuring a photograph of him in the U.S. publication, a lawsuit contends.

An attorney for Benjamin Massing alleges that by featuring a photo of the 20-year-old model next to advertisements for sex toys and gay chat lines, Genre tarnished his client’s reputation, the New York Daily News reported Friday.

“He’s not (gay),” lawyer Liah Catanese said of the aspiring actor.

“It’s definitely put him in a class where he’s going to have difficulty obtaining contracts for family-related shows.”

Massing’s Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against Genre and fashion photographer Rick Day accuses the co-defendants of violating his privacy by using a photograph he had taken for his personal portfolio.

The Daily News said Massing alleges in the suit, which is for unspecified damages, that the magazine photo has caused him to become the target of unwanted advances from strangers.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Sexual Cleansing’ Rampant in Iraq (UPI)
Isis Won’t be ‘Next Top Model’ (DCist)
Indian government argues to retain ban on gay sex (Pink News)
Iranian President attacks US acceptance of homosexuality (Pink News)
Bosnia’s first gay festival to close (TVNZ)
Homosexuality in Cameroon (Radio Netherlands)
Gay rights opponents unhappy with civil union commission (Asbury Park Press)
Without gender-neutral housing, Yale discriminates (Yale Daily News)
Transsexual singer faces jail over army slur (Pendle Today)
Gene variant more prevalent in transsexuals (New Scientist)
Gay-Rights Clash Over Rome Coliseum Kiss (Time Magazine)
Illegal Lesbian Adoption Stands (Gay City News)
Gays fear Islamist offensive (News 24 South Africa)

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 25 (UPI)

The improved freedom and security in Iraq do not extend to the homosexual population, who are subject to a sexual cleansing campaign, evidence shows.

Peter Tatchell, human rights activist and member of the gay rights group OutRage!, writes in The Guardian Thursday of the apparent sanctioned murder of the Iraqi homosexual population.

So-called death squads affiliated with the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the Badr Organization, as well as the Mehdi Army of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, have been coordinating a cleansing campaign at the behest of several leading religious figures in Iraq.

Revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Tatchell notes, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for the killing of homosexuals in the “most severe way possible.”

Tatchell in the short film “Queer Fear — Gay Life, Gay Death in Iraq” points to provisions in the Iraqi Constitution that permit “honor killings,” which he says tacitly sanction violence against gays.

A 2006 report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, meanwhile, reports homosexuals in Iraq are increasingly at risk of extrajudicial killings due to their sexual orientation.

Both the United Nations and Tatchell say the situation is under-reported, as many family members fear retribution if they publicize the occurrences.

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

 

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Gay Memoir Too Racy for Catholic Shrine (Big Gay News)
Men ‘On the Down Low’ Fear Disclosure (Big Gay News)
Serbian official praises police response to gay festival violencE (Pink News)
Transgender Man’s Death Has Gay Community On Alert (CBS 13 Sacramento)
Curbs on gay sex is violation of fundamental right, HC told (Outlook India)
Bosnian Mob Attacks Gay Festival (SkyNews via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News)
Fans react as Clay Aiken reveals that he’s gay (AP via Yahoo! News)
Body of transgender person recovered from American River (The Sacramento Bee)
Turkish pop singer faces 2 years’ jail (The Scotsman)
Calif. religious leaders push for gay marriage ban (AP via Yahoo! News)
British Army Apologizes for Harassed Lesbian (The Advocate)
Clovis principals to review gays in yearbook publication (Las Cruces Sun-News)

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INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 24 (UPI)

A study of 30 black New York City men who have sex with men and women found they feared the consequences of disclosing their bisexuality, researchers say.

Indiana University sexual health expert Brian Dodge says that some of the men feared that their bisexuality disclosure put them at risk for physical and emotional harm.

The U.S. media have focused too much on moral issues surrounding black bisexual men who do not disclose their same-sex behaviors to female lovers, otherwise known as men “on the down low,” with this focus creating a stigma that interferes with effective public health strategies, Dodge said.

“The media and general public are obsessed with disclosure, but there is no evidence that disclosing leads to safer behaviors — or, indeed, that not disclosing leads to riskier sexual behaviors,” Dodge said in a statement. “What benefit do men have for disclosing their bisexuality in a society where positive support and affirming resources for bisexual men are all but non-existent, and negative stereotypes prevail?”

The researchers suggest that broader social awareness and acceptance of male bisexuality is a necessary component of HIV prevention efforts targeted at men who have sex with both men and women.

The findings are published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

BOSTON, Sept. 24 (UPI)

A Roman Catholic shrine in Boston has stripped an openly gay man of leadership positions following the publication of a memoir.

Scott Pomfret, a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, was a lector at St. Anthony Shrine, a Eucharistic minister and a trainer of other lay ministers. He continued to carry out those responsibilities even though the Franciscan friars at the shrine knew he was in a long-term same-sex relationship, The Boston Globe reported.

But the publication of “Since My Last Confession” moved the friars to take action.

Pomfret, who called himself “a happy porn-writing Sodomite,” suggested that some local priests are active homosexuals and made fun of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston.

“There were people who felt it was incompatible for someone to stand up publicly and say, ‘I’m a pornographer, and I’m a lector at St. Anthony Shrine,’” said the Rev. David Convertino, the shrine’s executive director. “There’s a public stance that he’s taking, and it seems that most of this is to sell the book.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

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Proposed Same-Sex Ban Raises $30 Million (Big Gay News)
Aiken Confirms He’s Gay (Big Gay News)
Aiken Told Mom Four Years Ago He Was Gay (Big Gay News)
Lector removed after gay memoir (Boston Globe)
Number of Gay, Lesbian Households in Utah Rising (FOX 13 Utah)
Trans “Top Model” raises U.S. awareness (Planet Out via Yahoo! News)
More gays, lesbians in prime time (Jam! Showbiz)
TV supporting gay characters, study shows (CNN.com)
Valley Presbyterian churches divided over gays (The Fresno Bee)

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NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) — U.S. pop star Clay Aiken says he told his mother four years ago that he is gay.

Aiken publicly confirmed his sexual orientation for the first time in this week’s issue of People magazine, which features the quote, “Yes, I’m gay,” on its cover, along with a photo of Aiken holding his son, Parker, who was born last month. Although the issue doesn’t hit newsstands until Friday, People ran an excerpt on its Web site Wednesday.

The 29-year-old former “American Idol” star also confirmed speculation that his child was conceived via in vitro fertilization with his best friend, music producer Jaymes Foster.

“It was the first decision I made as a father,” Aiken told People about coming out as a homosexual. “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn’t raised that way and I’m not going to raise a child to do that.”

Aiken said his son would be brought up in an environment that is “accepting and allowing him to be happy.”

He also revealed he told his mother Faye he is gay about four years ago when they were dropping his younger brother, Brett, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to be deployed to Iraq.

“I just started bawling. She made me pull over the car and it just came out,” he recalled. “She started crying. She was obviously somewhat stunned. But she was very supportive and very comforting. … She still struggles with things quite a bit but she’s come a long way.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23 (UPI)

California officials say supporters and opponents of a proposed state ban on gay marriage have raised a combined $30 million.

The main group promoting Proposition 8, which would overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, has raised $17.8 million while the main No-on-8 campaign has raised $12.4 million, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Movie director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, announced Monday they would match actor Brad Pitt’s donation of $100,000 given last week to the No-on-8 campaign, the Times reported.

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (UPI)

U.S. pop singer Clay Aiken confirms he is gay in this week’s issue of People magazine, E! Online reported Tuesday.

People’s Web site Tuesday encouraged visitors to “come back Wednesday for the full scoop on Clay Aiken at 7 a.m. EDT.”

But E! said a leaked copy of the magazine’s upcoming cover features a quote from the Aiken story: “Yes, I’m gay. … I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things.”

The 29-year-old former “American Idol” contestant, who is starring in the Broadway musical “Spamalot,” became a first-time dad last month when Jaymes Foster gave birth to their child Parker Foster Aiken.

The People interview would mark the first time Aiken has publicly discussed his sexual orientation.

“We can confirm that Clay Aiken and his son are featured in the next issue of People” was all the magazine told E! when asked about the leaked cover.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.