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Today’s Top Headlines

House Votes to Lift Military Ban, Senate Vote Likely Next Month
Outed California Republican Lawmaker Speaks Out on Gay Rights
Dutch Study Suggests ‘Gaydar’ Actually Exists
Gay Father Stranded in India Finally Home in Israel with Twins

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Dan Goldberg, the homosexual father who has been stranded in India with his twins born of a surrogate mother for two-and-a-half-months, landed in Israel Friday morning with his partner Arnon Angel and his children, Itai and Liron. The family was kept from returning to Israel due to a court ruling that delayed the execution of a paternity test. Family, friends and representatives of the gay community armed with signs, balloons and bottles of Champaign welcomed the family at the airport. Goldberg has been living in Mumbai with his children since their birth to an Indian surrogate mother and has been waiting for them to receive Israeli citizenship. The process was dependant on a tissue analysis to confirm Goldberg’s paternity. Such a procedure has been approved by Israeli courts many dozens of times in the past.

Read the full story from YNet News.

“Gaydar,” that innate ability gay people supposedly have to zero in on other gays even in a crowd, may really exist. When Dutch scientists examined how heterosexual and homosexual people focus their attention, they discovered gays are much more detail-oriented. For the research, 42 gay and straight volunteers were presented with photos of outlines of large squares and rectangles. Each shape was packed with smaller shapes. Generally, the human brain is programmed to take in the larger picture, so when people see a rectangle-filled square, they’re likely to say it is filled with squares.

Read the full story from the New York Daily News.

A Republican state lawmaker who was forced to reveal he is gay after a recent arrest for drunken driving spoke out passionately in favor of gay rights during a legislative session Thursday, urging his fellow senators to “rise above discrimination” and support letting gays serve openly in the military. Sen. Roy Ashburn also weighed in on a bill designed to protect clergy who refuse to perform gay marriages. “I am no longer willing or able to remain silent on issues that affect sexual orientation, the rights of individuals, and so I, um, I’m doing something that is quite different and foreign to me. And it’s highly emotional,” Ashburn told fellow senators.

Read the full story from the San Jose Mercury News.

The House of Representatives voted by a 234-194 margin late Thursday to repeal the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the military. President Obama said in a statement that he was “pleased” by the House vote. “This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity,” the president said. The amendment to repeal the controversial policy was offered by Iraq war veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pennsylvania, in the House’s version of the defense authorization bill.

Read the full story from ABC News.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Zimbabwe Court Frees Gay Group Employees
South African President Zuma Condemns Arrest of Gays in Malawi
Mass. AG Argues Against Federal Gay Marriage Ban
Federal Ban on Gay Blood Donation to be Reconsidered

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When Mark Shields started his job at the American Red Cross in Madison, Wisconsin, he rolled up his sleeve to give blood. It made sense. Part of his job was encouraging the public to donate and supporting the organization’s lifesaving mission. Before he could give, he was told that his blood could never be accepted. Because he’s gay. “I was 23 at the time. I was just coming out,” he said. “I was trying to be part of our organization’s mission and feeling like I can’t do this. … I certainly felt put on the spot. It was a bad feeling for a lot of reasons.”

Read the full story from CNN.

The Massachusetts attorney general asked a judge Wednesday to strike down a federal gay marriage ban, arguing it interferes with the right of states to define marriage and have those marriages acknowledged by the federal government. The challenge to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office was heard in federal court in Boston. Assistant Attorney General Maura Healey argued states have historically had the right to define marriage. She said the 1996 law could result in the denial of Medicaid and other benefits to married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

South Africa’s leader, in a rare rebuke of a fellow African nation, Thursday condemned Malawi’s sentencing of a gay couple to 14 years in jail but said he would not press the country to change its laws. The statement from South African President Jacob Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist, was believed to be the strongest from an African head of state against the anti-gay clampdown in Malawi. A Malawi court last week sentenced a gay couple to 14 years each in jail for sodomy and indecency charges, a decision that human rights groups condemned and the United States called “unconscionable.” The case has highlighted discrimination against homosexuals in Africa, the world’s poorest continent. Kenyan police in February halted a gay wedding and arrested several suspected homosexuals.

Read the full story from Reuters.

Lawmakers and gay-rights activists predicted Wednesday that both the Senate and House will have enough votes to repeal the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law. Legislation to scrap the ban on openly gay service members in the military is expected to clear a major hurdle Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee. The chief backers of repeal, Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), another senior member of the panel, would need 15 votes, or a simple majority, to include the legislation in the 2011 defense authorization bill. According to the latest count by gay-rights activists, who are pressuring panel members to vote for repeal, all Democrats on the committee — except Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) — are expected to support scrapping the ban.

Read the full story from The Hill.

A Zimbabwe court frees two employees of a gay organization after six days in jail on allegations of possessing indecent material and displaying a letter seen as insulting to President Robert Mugabe, an outspoken critic of homosexuality. Ellen Chadehama, 34, and Ingatius Mhambi, 38, are employees of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organization. The groups says the two were assaulted by police while in custody. Magistrate Munamate Mutevedzi on Thursday released the two on bail of $200 each until a trial set for June 10, where they will face penalties of imprisonment or a fine. They were arrested Friday on allegations under Zimbabwe’s censorship laws.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Judge Declines Urgent Ruling on Charges Against Zimbabwe Gay Activists
Ben Nelson Switches From ‘No’ To ‘Yes’ On Military Gay Ban Repeal
Gay Malawi Couple Separated in Prison
Obama Heckles GetEQUAL Heckler on Military Gay Ban
Elton John to Perform in Morocco Despite Anti-Gay Outcry

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Supporters said Wednesday the Senate Armed Services Committee has enough votes to approve a bill overturning the ban on gays serving openly in the military. The prediction came after several lawmakers on the panel signaled their support, including Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska who had been considered a holdout. “In a military which values honesty and integrity, this policy encourages deceit,” Nelson said of the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.

Making a second fundraising appearance for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cali) on Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama got heckled by a protester demanding quicker action on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. And then he heckled the heckler. From the pool report: Speaking to a larger crowd and this time from teleprompters, Obama was in the middle of, as he called it, a trip down memory lane about the economy, when a man yelled out: “Move faster on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.

One of two gay men jailed in Malawi after they got engaged has been transferred to another prison, a human rights campaigner and gay rights activist said Wednesday. It was not clear why Steven Mojenza was moved from Chichiri prison, where he had been serving time with his partner, Tiwonge Chimbalanga. The pair was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of gross indecency and unnatural acts. Though in separate cells at Chichiri, the men were able to see each other briefly “from time to time,” said Peter Tatchell, a London-based gay rights activist who has been advocating for the men.

Read the full story from CNN.