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Black Gay, Bisexual Men Get Less PSA Tests (Big Gay News)
Warren Invited to Speak at King Service (Big Gay News)
Caroline Kennedy Backs Same-Sex Marriage (Big Gay News)
Pope’s Speech Draws Criticism from Gays (Big Gay News)
Wrath of former lesbian lover (The New Straits Times)
Suppressing more than free speech (The Japan Times)
NYT Columnist Frank Rick Calls Out Obama over Rick Warren (Gay Wired)
Clerics In Ethiopia Want Constitutional Ban on Being Gay (Gayapolis)
Care home for elderly Christians in gay row (Daily Telegraph)
You?re Likable Enough, Gay People (New York Times)
La. must list gay dads on birth record (The Washington Times)
Procreation not a good reason (The Desert Sun)
Bangladesh eunuchs to vote in first elections (AFP via Yahoo! News)
From ‘Milk’ to marriage, the year in gay (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
Faith said to change sexual orientation (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
Mother admits abusing 16-year-old son for being gay (Pink News)
Transsexual Quebec inmate to serve time in male prison (The Globe and Mail)
Transgender Woman Shot in Face (Eyewitness News Memphis)

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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26 (UPI)

Gay and bisexual black men are less likely to be tested for prostate cancer than men of any other racial and ethnic backgrounds, U.S. researchers said.

Kevin C. Heslin of Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles examined prostate and colorectal testing rates based on sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.

Using data from telephone interviews with 19,410 men who participated in the California Health Interview Survey, Heslin found no overall difference in the use of the prostate-specific antigen test among gay, bisexual and heterosexual men.

However, the percentage of gay and bisexual black men who received the PSA test was 12 percent to 14 percent lower than heterosexual blacks and 15 percent to 28 percent lower than gay and bisexual whites.

“Gay and bisexual black men had the lowest use of the PSA test, compared with every other group of men in the study,” Heslin said in a statement. “For blacks, being a member of both racial and sexual minority groups represents a kind of double jeopardy when it comes to getting PSA testing.”

The findings, published in Medical Care, are significant because African-American men are more likely to be diagnosed late with prostate cancer and, as a result, are more likely to die from the disease than any other racial or ethnic group, Heslin said.

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

ATLANTA, Dec 23, 2008 (UPI)

Evangelical Rev. Rick Warren has been invited to speak at the Martin Luther King Commemorative Service in Atlanta the day before Barack Obama’s inaugural.

Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California and author of the best-selling “The Purpose Driven Life,” will be the main speaker for the Jan. 19 service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. The service is one of the major events of a week of activities in Atlanta in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in April 2008.

A Southern Baptist, Warren opposes abortion and gay marriage. His agreement to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20 has angered both liberal supporters of Obama and religious conservatives, who disagree with Obama’s support of abortion rights and civil unions for gays, although not gay marriage.

During the campaign, Warren sponsored a joint appearance by Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, at his church, where they both had the opportunity to talk about their values.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International End of Story

NEW YORK, Dec. 20 (UPI)

Caroline Kennedy, now seeking Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat, said through a spokesman Saturday she supports gay marriage.

Kennedy’s staff responded to eight questions on her views submitted by Politico. She refused to answer one, whether she would support the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York in 2009 over the independent incumbent, Michael Bloomberg.

The 51-year-old daughter of assassinated President John F. Kennedy has generally stayed out of the limelight for most of her adult life and only recently reverted to using her family name instead of her husband’s, Schlossberg. She became involved in the presidential campaign, joining her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, to back Barack Obama.

Kennedy gave vague or non-committal answers to some of Politico’s questions. Asked about how to deal with the financial crisis, she said only that she looks forward to developing legislation to protect investors.

But she was unequivocal on her support of “full equality and marriage rights” for homosexuals. On marriage, she broke with Obama, who opposes amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage but also opposes legalizing those marriages.

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

VATICAN CITY, Italy, Dec. 23 (UPI)

Gay and lesbian activists say a speech by Pope Benedict XVI comparing homosexuality to global warming was irresponsible and encouraged homophobia.

Pope Benedict, addressing the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, Monday in an end-of-year address, said humanity needs to listen to the “language of creation” to understand God’s intent in the roles of man and woman, adding that homosexual relations are a “destruction of God’s work,” The Times of London reported.

“The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less,” Benedict said.

“It is more the case that we need to be saved from (Benedict’s) comments,” Rev. Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, told The Times, describing the Pontiff’s comments as “totally irresponsible and unacceptable in any shape or form. It is comments like that that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like that that justify gay-bashing.”

Benedict’s speech has been interpreted as a denunciation of “gender theory” — the study of how sexual gender affects behavior. The church dismisses gender theory, which gay and lesbian groups hail as a key to understanding and tolerance, The Times said.

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

 

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Inauguration Invocation Choice Criticized (Big Gay News)
Male Bisexuality Research Evolving (Big Gay News)
Bare Majority Backs Conn. Same-Sex Ruling (Big Gay News)
Parks Ranger Claims Sexist Harassment (Big Gay News)
Salvation Army Abandons Post Office Post (Big Gay News)
Obama Says Inauguration Honors All Views (Big Gay News)
Haggard to Promote Documentary on Scandal (Big Gay News)
Homosexual Rights Pressed for First Time in UN (The West Australian)
Gay rights group calls for Mormon Church support (2News Salt Lake City)
John Leo: Rick Warren and Gays (HuffingtonPost)
Turkish transsexual star acquitted of insulting army (Daily Telegraph)
Gay dad in appeal to find son (Daily Telegraph)
Arosa Gay Ski Week (RainbowNetwork.com)
Milwaukee to Form Gay-Friendly Middle School (US News & World Report)
Man cleared in gay festival assault case (The Arizona Republic)

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CHICAGO, Dec. 18 (UPI)

Liberal groups voiced criticism that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama selected an evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at the inauguration.

The minister, Rick Warren, founder and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, has championed the poor, the disadvantaged and people suffering from HIV/AIDS, but he is in the conservative camp regarding abortion and gay marriage, CNN reported Thursday. “(It’s) shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now,” Andrew Sullivan wrote on the Atlantic Web site Wednesday.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights campaign, said he felt a “deep level of disrespect” over Warren’s selection and called upon Obama to reconsider.

“By inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table,” Solmonese said in a letter to Obama that was made public by his organization.

Warren’s support of California’s Proposition 8, a measure that bans same sex marriage in the state, drew the ire of many gay rights proponents during the election.

But Kathryn Kolbert, president of the the conservative People for the American Way, told CNN she, too, was “deeply disappointed” with the choice of Warren, adding that the highly visible invocation at inauguration should instead have been given to someone with “consistent mainstream American values.”

Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass defended the choice, saying the inauguration would be “the most inclusive, open (and) accessible” inauguration in U.S. history.

“The president-elect certainly disagrees with him on (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues,” Douglass said. “But it has always been his goal to find common ground with people with whom you may disagree on some issues.”

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Dec. 17 (UPI)

Bisexual research is vague, with research generally categorizing people as either “homosexual” or “heterosexual,” U.S. researchers said.

Sex researchers from the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University collaborated with Paul H. Gebhard, an original member of pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey’s research team and later a long-time director of The Kinsey Institute to reflect on research involving male bisexuality.

“Overall, Kinsey would be disappointed,” Gebhard told the researchers, Michael Reece and Brian Dodge, director and associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University.

Kinsey believed that culture plays a key role in a person’s sexual behavior. Gebhard said Kinsey and his research team avoided looking for causes for sexual orientation out of concern that the findings could be used against people. Through sexual history interviews, they instead sought to capture snapshots of human sexual experience, which proved to be fluid.

Since Kinsey’s day, Gebhard noted that many researchers have moved to a medical model of sex research — looking for genetic causes of homosexuality.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing that research is evolving,” Dodge wrote in the Journal of Bisexuality. “Biology and genetics, of course, are part of the picture. But we seem to be swinging in the direction where some scientists are using these as universal explanatory constructs and trying to minimize, or even negate, the role of an individual’s culture and environment, aspects that Kinsey thought were most important.”

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

SACRAMENTO, Dec. 18 (UPI)

A California state parks ranger has sued the Parks Department, claiming that her colleagues used sex toys and women’s lingerie to harass her.

Jennifer Donovan says she was harassed because she is a woman and because she is a lesbian, The Orange County Register reported. She also claims she was denied promotions.

Donovan worked as a police officer at the state beaches at San Onofre and San Clemente.

“We think it’s unfortunate that peace officers who are the ones who are supposed to enforce the laws are the ones who are obviously violating them,” her lawyer, Wendy Musell, reported.

The lawsuit also claims that Donovan’s co-workers used state computers to store obscene and sometimes racist material.

Donovan says that she found sex toys in investigation material and women’s lingerie draped over lockers.

A parks spokesman said officials were reviewing the suit and would have no comment now.

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

HARTFORD, Conn., Dec. 17 (UPI)

Most Connecticut voters support a State Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state, a Quinnipiac University poll indicated Wednesday.

By a margin of 52 percent to 39 percent, with 9 percent undecided, poll respondents said they agreed with the October state high court ruling, in which judges by a 4-3 margin ruled that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions.

Pollsters said that when given three choices, 43 percent of Connecticut voters said same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, while 39 percent said they should be allowed to form civil unions but not marry and 12 percent said there should be no legal recognition of same-sex unions.

“Connecticut voters are not in love with same-sex marriage as a bare majority backs the state Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex couples to wed,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz. “But four out of five voters support some legal recognition for same-sex unions.”

The poll was conducted Dec. 11-15 among 1,445 Connecticut registered voters and carried a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.

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

BREA, Calif., Dec. 17 (UPI)

A Southern California man says he took on city hall and the federal government to exile Salvation Army bell ringers from his local post office.

Sean Thomas, 65, of Brea told The Orange County (Calif.) Register it just wasn’t right to have a religious organization raising money at a government building.

And it wasn’t so much a constitutional issue that riled Thomas as it was his perception that the Salvation Army is anti-gay and has an unfair monopoly on the choice fundraising location, the Register reported Wednesday.

“Would it be right for my church to solicit funds in front of the post office?” Thomas asked.

Brea’s mayor said the Salvation Army raised money for worthwhile charities in the community while the local commander of the army denied being anti-homosexual.

“We serve gays on a regular basis in our treatment centers,” said Maj. Lee Lescano, the Salvation Army’s Orange County coordinator.

Nevetheless, the bell ringers and their kettles have retreated to a Penny’s at the Brea Mall where Lescano expects the Christmas donations to come in well under what they would take in at the busy post office.

CHICAGO, Dec. 18 (UPI)

An inauguration should honor all viewpoints, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said in explaining his choice of an evangelical pastor to give the invocation.

Obama said Thursday his choice of Saddleback Church founder and pastor Rick Warren represents what his presidential campaign stressed: “(That) it is important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues.”

Warren has championed the poor, the disadvantaged and people suffering from HIV/AIDS, but he is in the conservative camp regarding abortion and gay marriage, which is why his delivering the invocation drew criticism from liberal and gay rights groups.

Obama said “it is no secret” that he advocates equality for gay and lesbian Americans “and I intend to continue to be consistent on (this advocacy) during my presidency.”

He said the inauguration festivities would present a wide range of viewpoints.

“And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America is about,” Obama said. “Part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.”

Obama discussed his selection of Warren during a news conference in Chicago, Obama presented regulatory veteran Mary Schapiro as his nominee for Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Gary Gensler as his choice to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Dan Tarullo as his designated Federal Reserve Board governor.

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

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (UPI)

Ted Haggard, who lost his job as pastor of a Colorado mega-church in a 2006 sex and drugs scandal, has agreed to promote an HBO documentary about his life.

“The Trials of Ted Haggard” is to be shown Jan. 29. The director is Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

An HBO spokeswoman said that Haggard would be involved in a press tour for the documentary next month.

Haggard was president of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs when a former male prostitute claimed he had had sex with Haggard and that Haggard had used methamphetamine. Haggard admitted unspecified sexual wrongdoing and buying drugs, although he denied using them.

Brady Boyd, the current pastor at New Life, said the church has decided to release Haggard from an agreement barring him from talking to the media.

“We want them to be free to move forward with their lives the way New Life has really moved forward,” Boyd said.

Haggard and his family now live in Arizona where he sells insurance. He preached at a church in Illinois last month where he was described as a “Christian businessman.”

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

 

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Prop 8 Repeal Ads with Gay Families to Air Inauguration Week (Big Gay News)
Police Investigate Death of Woman in Hotel (Big Gay News)
Elton John Loses High Court Libel Case (Big Gay News)
Season’s greetings from Barack, Michelle and RuPaul (Salon.com)
Sarah Palin’s “ex-gay” church targeted in arson attack (Pink News)
Council To Protect Transgender Workers (WCMH Columbus)
Holland America, NCL to host more gay and lesbian cruises in 2009 (USA Today)
Gay Marriage Ban Activates Young Queers of Color (New America Media)
Guilty: alcoholic convicted of killing gay lover (The Kent Messenger)
Driver’s anger at ‘gay’ attack (The Kent Messenger)
Gay USA Bomb Proposal Confirmed (RainbowNetwork.com)
Spear chucker gibe costs job (The Courier Mail)
Lesbian youth at high risk for pregnancy (Vancouver Sun)
O’Shea speaks out over gay rumours (RTÉ News)
Penn’s Two-Faced with Gays (New York Post)
Gay rights group creates project for cause (Orion)
Obama stands firm on ‘gay rights’ support (Florida Baptist Witness)
LGBT center OK’d (The Journal Times)
Chilean Catholic Group Opposes Legal Protections for Gays (The Advocate)
Assaults against gays appear to be increasing (San Francisco Chronicle)

Get even MORE breaking news from any of our live, constantly updated news feeds, now available in 12 languages:

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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

A group of gay and lesbian Californians announced today they will be taking to the airwaves to demonstrate why the right to marry is so important for their families.

The group, GetToKnowMeFirst.org, is planning a campaign of five 30-second commercials to run throughout Inauguration Week in January. The spots will run in both urban and rural markets.

Its important that our fellow Californians see the faces of the real families that are directly affected by the passage of Proposition 8, said John Ireland, the groups organizer.

One of the spots in the GetToKnowMeFirst.org campaign will feature Sonia and Gina, a couple who are raising a son and daughter, ages 6 and 3. Don’t take my family’s rights away. Get to know me first, Sonia says in the ad. Our families may look different from yours, but were not. We need the same things… like marriage… so we can protect and provide for our kids.

Another spot will feature Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, the original plaintiffs in the marriage lawsuit that eventually led the California Supreme Court to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in May 2008. That ruling was overturned by the passage of Proposition 8 in November.

Two of the ads will also be in Spanish. One profiles a Latina couple and the other profiles a family with triplets, headed by two men.

All of the spots are available online at GetToKnowMeFirst.org