National Gay News.com

Gay Men Entrapped in Public Parks

2012-01-12T17:52:00.002-05:00

http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/local-news/5375-a-lust-to-bust.html

Well this story speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Norm Kent's World AIDS Day Address 12-1-2010

2010-12-02T00:08:00.002-05:00

By Norm Kent, Publisher

South Florida Gay News

The following is the full text of the address SFGN Publisher Norm Kent will delivered this evening to the World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil in Wilton Manors sponsored by Broward House.

We find ourselves tonight, again talking and walking, marching and speaking; lighting candles for those who are no longer with us, memorializing the lives of friends and lovers, children and brothers, mothers and fathers, who left us all too soon.

We come here solemnly to recommit our energy and our spirit, so those who have fallen are never forgotten; to shed a tear, and say a prayer for our departed. But we come with souls forged in iron to fight like hell for the living.

Some of us are old enough to remember when AIDS was called GRID- Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and there was no hope. But some of you are too young to understand there was a day with no protease inhibitors, steroid cocktails, or once a day pills.

Some of you are old enough to remember when a librarian with HIV was fired from his job at a Broward County library, but some of you are too young to know there was a day when the people were afraid to use a public toilet seat for fear of contracting HIV.

Some of us are old enough to remember Pedro Zamora, Ryan White and Freddy Mercury. But for most of us, AIDS is not about celebrities like Magic Johnson who we will never meet. It is about our family members, our friends, and sometimes, ourselves. There is no shame, however, in living with HIV.

Albert Einstein once wrote that the things we do for ourselves die with us; but the things we do for others is immortal and lives forever. There is only shame if in a time of AIDS we do not come to the aid of those living with it. There is only shame if we are in a position to help and do nothing; be in a position to educate and do not teach; be in a position to give and care and fail to care or give.

It falls upon us to those who fight people with AIDS instead of fighting the disease called AIDS. It falls upon us to respond to apathetic congressmen who look the other way as patients fall off ADAP lists. It falls upon us to respond to religious leaders who brand HIV patients as second class citizens. It falls upon us to remind America we must still care, we must still bother, we must still persevere, because our friends are still quietly dying, out of the limelight and far from the spotlight. We cannot let anyone go quietly into the night.

So we still light candles, and we light up the night with the love of those we have lost, saying there will come a day when these candles need to burn no more. Tonight, you can see again you do not stand alone. Tonight, you can be proud, because by your side is a tall and brave spirit who once stood beside you, standing where we now stand. That person, whose memory you this evening cherish, once also said yes to hope, and yes to life.

Tonight, we owe it to them to say a day will come when we gather to celebrate a cure and not commemorate a loss. That is why we stand. That is why gather. That is why we still bother.

If we cannot yet find a cure, we can still cure poor treatments and advance better care. We can find ways to partner with others, to embrace compassion, as so many of you have already.

Many organizations, from food banks to pet partners, have reached out to groups. But there is much we can do individually.

We can be the home health care aides for a patient alone in his home.

We can be the students delivering meals on wheels.

We can be the educators who teach children about HIV.

We can be the readers in hospital rooms for patients who are too ill to see.

We can be the companion who helps with pets.

We can be the parents reuniting with children.

We can be the therapists counseling against fear and the attorneys providing legal aid against discrimination.

We can be the nightclubs and bar owners sponsoring one more party, yes another fund raiser for HIV facilities.

We can be the caller to a talk show who won’t let an announcer disseminate hate, and we can be the doctors working on new protocols.

For all so many of you have done, there is still so much more we can all do. As we give, so do we receive.

The bottom line here is that if 30 years into the epidemic we have patients on waiting lines for treatment that is not justice- that is just us being abused. And we cannot let that stand. If we have to take to the streets to let our voices be heard, then so be it, to the streets we must go.

You do not have to make headlines to make a difference. You just have to make headway. You just have to bother, to care, to gather, and to be a voice for hope instead of an apologist for excuses.

Your presence here tonight is testimony again that we shall be visible, not invisible. We shall prevail, not fail, and we shall one day overcome. It may or may not be within our lifetime, but when you fight an illness you become a champion for life. It does not matter how many miles there are too go. Your cause is just, your goals are righteous, and your heart and soul is in the right place at the right time.

Midterm Elections Prove Fight for Our Rights is Still Real

2010-11-20T08:38:00.002-05:00

by Norm Kent, Publisher

The past elections reveal one glaring reality that should impact all LGBT thought, whether you voted Republican or Democrat. The simple truth emerging from the election is that we are still in a war for our rights, and many people are fighting against us.

It is very significant that one of the most ardent supporters of ending DADT, Patrick Murphy, was defeated. Himself a veteran, he stuck his neck out for human rights but it was chopped off on the electoral block.

Similarly, when three justices of the Iowa Supreme Court voted to ratify the constitutionality of gay marriage, they could not have expected that an organization entitled the National Organization for Marriage would emerge and launch a successful campaign to unseat them from judicial office.

Any chance that ENDA would be passed has end- ed with the Republican takeover of the House. Progressive legislation, especially in Florida, will suffer enormous setbacks with neanderthals populating offices in Congress and state legislatures. We will be tested by those seeking to push progress back. We must forge forward with an iron will. We have come too far to go back into closets for anyone.

Courts and corporations are protecting our rights, and we are standing up for ourselves without anyone’s help. In legislatures, we have passed hate crime laws. In neighborhoods, we have formed civic associations. In schools, we have created task forces against gay bullying. We have elected gay mayors and seen lesbian judges sworn into office. And if a right wing mayor takes a swing at us, we swing back. At SFGN, each week we profile gay businessmen and women; entrepreneurs making a difference.

Our travel issue this week shows how many places we have been and where we can still go. Today you wear your pride rings on your fingers and post your rainbows on your license plates. Today you vacation in Mykonos, and make summer plans with gay travel agents on Fire Island or in urban venues like Toronto.

We were once the love that dared not speak its name. Now in South Florida we are the home of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. Our community is an epicenter for international gay tourism and the host of the White Party in two weeks, as well as the Hurricane Softball Tourney run in greater Fort Lauderdale, for hundreds of gay players. We own restaurants and clubs, and we applaud our partnerships and our progress. That can never be taken away from us ever again.

We have won a place at the table by our professionalism and patience, our fortitude and forthrightness. We just have to keep on truckin’. Our day will come. Ask Martin Gill as Equality Florida applauds him in a gala this weekend, his tenacity awarded as he adopts a child our government sought to take away. Ask Nadine Smith, who can tell you how far Equality Florida has come in its decade of growth since finding roots.

Finally, let’s not forget there is still a war against AIDS patients, many of whom are facing escalating cutbacks, creating unconscionable waiting lists for those who need meds.

Let’s not forget the teen suicides which have come to light recently are a reminder to us that bullying in schools is still very real.

Let’s not forget homophobia is still rampant in certain professions and many sports.

Let’s not forget there are many causes still worth fighting for, and that you can never let up, let go, or look away.

Whatever you do, don’t remain neutral. In the middle of the road you will only find yellow lines and dead skunks.

Sometimes life calls upon you to make a difference. Somewhere, find the time and energy to make your community a better place.

Suicides Shock Gay America

2010-10-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

by Norm Kent

This is the South Florida Gay News.com. We are the real community newspaper in town. Forgive me if I do not run a ‘Best of Florida’ contest seeking out our community’s ‘Hottest Bartender.’ That is not what this newspaper or I am all about. We are about news, content, and reality, painful though it may be.

We report our wins and our wounds. This week those wounds are very large and cut very deep.

Late Friday, we learned that a young gay man, Raymond Chase, took his own life at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, where he was a culinary student.

In an astounding and remarkable month, it was the fifth documented LGBT teenage suicide in America in the last three weeks. The recent pattern has to generate alarm.

As we go to press, on Tuesday, October 5th, news reports from Toronto reveal that the bodies of two young lesbians have just been found in a mutual suicide pact.

Last week, Tyler Clementi’s death made the national news, and how could it not? The young and closeted violinist could not handle the humiliation and jumped off the George Washington Bridge when he discovered classmates had published a secret video on the Internet of a sexual encounter he had with another man.

On September 23rd, 13-year-old Asher Brown, from Houston, Texas, shot himself in the head. His grieving parents said he had been persistently harassed by other students who thought he was gay. Asher Brown’s uncle told a big gathering of mourners and family supporters on Saturday, Oct. 2 that school bullies “ripped him up and tore him down everyday.”

Bright balloons floated in the air as Reverend Truong, his uncle, a minister, eulogized his nephew- “The bullies picked on my nephew because of the way he dressed, how he talked, and the fact he was small. He was a David among Goliaths; but Asher’s heart was so big! His heart made him a giant.”

Fifteen-year-old Billy Lucas, of Indiana, hanged himself on September 9th. Classmates said he had been bullied and tormented for years over his sexual orientation. "People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. Students said on that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself.

Another 13-year-old, Seth Walsh from Minnesota, died in hospital on Wednesday, eight days after attempting to hang himself from a tree. He is said to have endured taunts and abuse for being gay from other students; “chronic, non-stop teasing,” his older brother said.

Close to 600 townspeople crammed into the small church in rural Tehachapi, California, to remember the teen who loved Pokemon, adored French fries above all other food, and had an obsession with disco music.

He was different. He knew he was different," Seth's mother, Judy Walsh said according to TehachapiNews.com. "He was a very loving boy, very kind. He had a beautiful smile. He liked fashion, his friends, talking on the phone. He was artistic and very bright."

Events are being planned across the country in the coming weeks to mourn the loss of these young people, and to take action to stop bullying crimes that lead to suicide, and a website http://makeitbetterproject.com . SFGN will support these events in every way we can.

To help stop the cycle that leads young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people to feel they are alone, connect them to The Trevor Project. There is a place that's free of bullying and judgment online, where young LGBTQ people, their friends and allies ages 13-24 can connect safely and be themselves.

More than 13,000 young people already belong to TrevorSpace.org, and more youth join every day. If you or someone you care about shows warning signs for suicide, please do not hesitate to call The Trevor Lifeline at: 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386). The call is free and confidential.

It is unclear whether suicides for young gay men are up, or if there has been better reporting of their deaths. LGBT students are known to be at a higher suicide risk than their heterosexual peers. One thing is clear. The rapper 50 cent is a moron. A public figure subject to criticism, there are few words that can’t be said derisively over his homophobic rant last week on Twitter:

“If you a man and your over 25 and you don’t eat pu**y just kill your self damn it. The world will be a better place. Lol”

No, the world will be a better place without bigotry, and if these national organizations like the Task Force want to do something more useful with their lives then throw cocktails parties in fancy hotels, let them lead a national drive to drive 50 cent’s albums offer store shelves where gay shoppers congregate, like Target, Borders, or Barnes and Noble. Let 50 cent know he ain’t worth a plumb nickel, and we won’t give a dime to support those who support him.

---

The deaths have shocked America and lesbian chat show host Ellen DeGeneres implored the country to take action and prevent further deaths.

Speaking on her daytime show yesterday, the presenter said: "Something must be done."

"This needs to be a wake up call to everyone that teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing."

"We have an obligation to change this."

In response to the suicides, Dan Savage has launched the It Gets Better project, where adult LGBTs create videos reassuring teenagers that however bad things are, they will get better. Savage created a YouTube channel to solicit more encouraging videos and posted the first one: he and his husband, describing their own high school horror stories, explaining how they survived and offering evidence that a healthy, joyful life exists past the teenage years. Since then, Savage has been flooded with videos from around the world, encouraging bullied, gay teenagers to hang in there. Sebastian Fortino has the full story on Page 2.

At SFGN, our staff is encouraged by the response to the It Gets Better Project, and inspired to contribute.

Not everyone has access to a webcam or the desire to post their images online. Like the Watermark in Orlando, we would like to invite SFGN readers to share written accounts that It Gets Better.

Here’s how:

• Write up your story

• Sign it with your name (or initials), plus your age and occupation

• Email it to ItGetsBetter@southfloridagaynews.com

Gay life is more open and honest than any other time in our country’s history. But these tragic suicides should remind all of us living in too much comfort that there is another world where people still live with pain. Let us all do what we can when we can to tame the aggressiveness of mankind and restore humanity to our lives.

2010-07-15T17:32:00.001-04:00

Judicial Rulings Empower Gay America

2010-07-15T17:25:00.003-04:00

by Norm Kent

This is an incredible moment in the history of gay rights for Americans.

The ‘Today’ show has allowed gay couples to enter its annual wedding contest. Okay, okay.

More seriously, a United States federal judge in Massachusetts ruled last Thursday that a law barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

The decision, outlined in SFGN this week by Lisa Keen on page ____, has incredible implications for gay Americans. Here is an attempt to briefly explain in simple terms what happened in court last week. Call it Law 101, and if you get through it, give yourself 3 academic credits.

First, Massachusetts has allowed same-sex couples to marry since 2004, and more than 15,000 have done so. The judge ruled Massachusetts had a right to do that. He ruled that since there is a part of the U.S. Constitution which declares that rights not explicitly granted to the federal government, or specifically denied to the states, belong to the states, Massachusetts had the power to do what it did; that it was a “right firmly entrenched to the province of the states.”

The judge found that there is nothing in the Constitution about marriage which gives the Congress the right to pre-empt what the states might do. Remember, that is what Congress did when they passed the ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ which limited marriage rights to heterosexual couples only.

Ironically, the Obama administration’s Justice Department, since it represents the federal government, was obligated to defend the law, but it admittedly did so half heartedly, since Obama himself had called for its repeal during his campaign for the presidency. But that was only part one of this complex judicial ruling by US District Court Judge Joseph Tauro, and not necessarily the best thing for gay rights activists.

You see, if the judge ruled only that states have the final decision on gay rights marriages, then what about the 45 states that refuse to allow it? If those decisions are left solely to the states, gays throughout the country are going to have a long wait to gain the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. There was a second part to this Massachusetts case though and it had nothing to do with Matt Lauer or the Today Show.

The other case was brought by a group called the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. They argued that the federal law passed by Congress, separate from any limitation it imposed on the states, denied individual citizens equal protection of the laws, because gay men and lesbians were being treated different than straight married couples.

These litigants noted that straight couples can receive federal tax benefits, social security survivors’ rights, and other financial rewards that LGBT partners can’t receive. This was a denial of fairness to one whole class of citizens, who should all be protected equally, they argued. Judge Tauro agreed, essentially concluding that there is no rational basis for treating same-sex couples differently than heterosexual couples.

Before we all get too excited, remember this was one district court judge at the first step of the judicial process. Above him are numerous appellate courts, and a few constitutional scholars with foreboding warnings. “What an amazing set of opinions,” said Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School. “No chance they’ll be held up on appeal.” And that’s from a guy who supports same sex marriage. Yet, he has a good point. Over the years, many courts have held that marriage issues are not solely the rights of state government’s but also involve federal issues. So this battle is not over. It’s just beginning.

Separate and apart from all this in Massachusetts, the LGBT community is awaiting a decision from a gay man, Judge Vaugh Walker in San Francisco, on the legality of Proposition 8 in California, which seeks to affirm gay marriage rights. Whatever Judge Walker decides, regardless of how he rules, can also be appealed to higher courts. Of course, it will be, too. As the New York Times said in its editorial last week, and as any of us who have ever served on jury duty know, the “process of justice can take years.”

As gay men and women, we should be encouraged that we are moving in the right direction and empowered that courts are even addressing these issues. When gay Congressional candidates, the Victory Fund, or Lambda Legal come knocking on your door for support, remember those individuals and organizations are pushing the envelope for you today so your rights are protected tomorrow.

Meanwhile, back at the ‘Today Show’ Facebook page, thousands of posters had their say: "The Bible clearly states what marriage is and it also states these kind of acts between men and men and women with women are an abomination. God is not pleased and neither am I. What about my rights!!!"

Ultimately, our struggle also has to be won in the hearts and minds of America as well as in its courtrooms.

Midge Costanza's Marvelous Memory

2010-04-14T17:29:00.004-04:00

by Norm Kent

Publisher, www.southfloridagaynews.com

Margaret “Midge” Costanza, 77, passed away last week, almost 33 years to the day she forged LGBT history in America. In lieu of a news story we commemorate her life in this editorial.

The White House. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Until Saturday, March 26, 1977, its doors had never been opened to lesbians and gay men and straight allies. But on that historic day, more than a dozen women and men entered the West Wing of the presidential residence to meet with Midge Costanza, the director of President Jimmy Carter’s Office of Public Liaison.

Heads high and carrying briefing papers on topics of concern and interest to lesbians and gay men around the country, National Gay Task Force co-directors Bruce Voeller and Jean O’Leary led a delegation into the Roosevelt Room where a three-hour briefing of presidential staff got under way. Later, one White House staffer noted that the group presented the most thoroughly prepared issue briefings he had ever heard.

A press conference on the White House lawn followed the meeting, at which O’Leary proudly proclaimed, “History was made today!” It surely was, and the victories we celebrate in city commissions and state legislatures today evolve out of historic moments such as days like this particular one- moments we must never forget and always salute.

Members of the delegation briefed their hosts on discriminatory treatment of lesbians and gay men at the Internal Revenue Service, the Departments of Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Health Education and Welfare, the Federal Communications Commission, the Bureau of Prisons and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

They pointed out that the U.S. Civil Rights Commission took no interest in discrimination and prejudice against our communities. The noble group of courageous activists pushed for support of federal nondiscrimination legislation that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring, education and public accommodations. They included religious and family issues in their presentations and spoke of the pain and suffering of lesbians and gay men at the hands of church leaders and family members.

Following the historic meeting, Costanza arranged meetings between Task Force representatives and all of the agencies specifically named by the delegation, except the IRS. But by June 1977, the IRS dropped its requirement that lesbian and gay groups applying for tax-exempt status agree not to assert that homosexuality is as morally upright as heterosexuality and not hold meetings at which homosexuals would gather and possibly violate state sodomy laws. You see, 33 years ago, a gay and lesbian community center could have been civilly outlawed.

The criticism of the Carter White House that followed the LGBT forum was intense. But Ms. Costanza, a petite, energetic woman who once described herself as “a loud-mouthed, pushy little broad,” was outspokenly committed to women’s issues, gay rights and social justice for minority groups. She stood by us and our right to be part of the political process.

The pressing needs of lesbians and gay men began to be responded to by our federal government—for the first time ever. Cancer claimed Costanza last week. Most recently, she had been a professor at San Diego State University, and was working in her last days to develop the Midge Costanza Institute, aimed at inspiring young people to become active in political and social causes.

NGLTF Executive Director Rea Carey eulogized Costanza last week, noting that “she took a risk in working to ensure our voices were heard at the highest echelons of government. In this regard, she was a pioneer.” She surely was.

Yes, it was a long time ago, but the battle activists engaged decades ago is still being fought by newer task forces and younger LGBT leaders. Our mission as a free community newspaper is to share those lives with you, and we can only do so with your continuing support and sponsorship. Thank you for helping make our first ten issues possible.

The message of ‘Midge’ is that we can never let up, and we can all be pioneers. She was there for us when it counted, when few else were, and now she will be cherished by us forevermore. May we all live our lives to be so remembered.

White House AIDS Office Expands Testing Programs

2010-04-14T17:25:00.001-04:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is announcing this month that we will be expanding our successful HIV testing initiative by $31.5 million, for another three years. The new total program funding will be approximately $142.5 million over the next three years. This will reach more people with life-saving information on whether or not they are infected with the virus.

Since the testing initiative began in 2007, more than 1.4 million Americans have been tested for HIV through this program and more than 10,000 people with HIV have been newly diagnosed. The vast majority of these people were linked to care.

We know that getting people tested and diagnosed is an important step in reducing new HIV infections. Testing is the first step in linking HIV-infected people to medical care, ongoing support, and prevention efforts to help them establish and maintain safer behaviors. In fact, studies show that once people learn they are infected with HIV, most take steps to protect their partners.

However, far too many people in the U.S. are infected with HIV but unaware of their status. More than 200,000 people—or one out of every five people living with HIV in this country—may be unknowingly transmitting the virus to their partners. Additionally, many people are diagnosed with HIV late in the course of infection, when treatment and prevention efforts cannot be maximized.

The first three years of the initiative primarily focused on increasing testing and knowledge of HIV status among African American men and women. These groups bear an extremely disproportionate impact of HIV. The new three-year effort will reach even more populations at-risk for HIV, including gay and bisexual men of all races, Latinos, and injection drug users. Thirty jurisdictions are eligible to apply for the new funding (an increase from 25 areas in the last cycle of funding), which represent the areas with the most severe HIV epidemics among these populations. The first year of the expanded program will begin in September 2010.

CDC is committed to ensuring that more Americans are tested for HIV, and where necessary, linked to appropriate care. This is critical among those vulnerable populations that need it the most—including those who don’t have regular contact with the health care system. CDC has long been the nation’s leader in supporting testing efforts as a part of HIV prevention.

In 2006, we issued new recommendations to make HIV testing routine for all Americans, regardless of one’s risk for the virus. Our goal is to make HIV testing as routine as a blood pressure check. The testing initiative has helped to make those recommendations a reality in many health care settings, where opportunities to screen patients for HIV are often missed. This program represents just one example of the ways that we can help state and local health care providers make testing routine and to identify more people who are infected but unaware of their status—and ultimately reduce the ongoing and unacceptable toll of HIV on this nation.

To learn more about HIV and AIDS and find out where you can receive a confidential HIV test, visit hivtest.org, call 800-CDC-INFO, or text your ZIP code to “Know It” (566948).

Kevin Fenton, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP)

Florida On Bottom of Nation's Equality List

2010-04-14T11:28:00.001-04:00

By Cliff Dunn

A new ranking by an LGBT advocacy group rates the Sunshine State Number 47 out of 51 when it comes to equality for its gay citizens.

The privately-funded organization eQualityGiving places Florida near dead last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia when it comes to promoting LGBT equality.

This number is especially notable since Florida ranks among the top 10 states for donations made to national, state and local LGBT organizations.

“We have the money, but we need a different strategy to change the dynamics,” says Jim Stork of Wilton Manors, who serves on the advisory board of eQualityGiving.

The group, founded in 2005, provides free services and advice to individuals and groups with an aim of achieving legal equality for LGBT Americans.

The organization lists seven Equality Goals: federal hate crimes protection; protection from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation and credit; a repeal to the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy; marriage equality; recognition of gender identity and expression under hate crimes legislation; protecting LGBT youth; and parental rights for same-sex couples.

Only the first of the goals has been realized, with the passage last October of the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Stork says there are some political realities in the Sunshine State that explain this.

“We are a deeply Red state in terms of our legislature,” says Stork, who was Mayor of Wilton Manors from 2002 to 2004.

“The Republican legislature is largely opposed to everything we stand for, which is equality for all Floridians,” Stork observed. “Pretty revolutionary stuff.”

Under the organization’s criteria, a state is awarded one point for each Equality Goal it meets. Half a point is given for the partial achievement of a goal. Since repeal of DADT is a federal goal, the maximum number of points a state can earn is six.

No state has earned a perfect score.

Florida received a score of 1.5 points, placing it near the bottom of the list of rankings; only Idaho, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee scored lower.

The Sunshine State ‘earned’ its abysmal ranking based on the following criteria:

There is no statewide law prohibiting discrimination based on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity or expression.”

There is a statewide law prohibiting gay men and lesbians from adopting children.

Both the Florida Constitution and state laws prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying their partners.

While the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act specifically prohibits “sexual, religious, or racial harassment,” the law makes no reference to either “sexual orientation” or “gender identity or expression.”

Ex-Mayor Stork says that one avenue of redress for these inequalities would be the passage in November of Amendments 5 and 6 to the Florida Constitution.

“We need to have sensible legislative districts based upon community boundaries,” he said. “A blue-ribbon panel of Independents, Democrats and Republicans. Floridians—gay and straight—deserve that.”

Dick Cheney - Portrait of a Gay Rights Activist

2010-04-14T11:23:00.003-04:00

By Cliff Dunn

An investigation into the history of the Pentagon’s anti-LGBT “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy reveals that long before his recent foray into the public debate, former Vice President Dick Cheney was instrumental in crippling the rule which today prevents gay and lesbian personnel from serving openly in their country’s armed forces.

Cheney—who was admitted to George Washington University Hospital on February 22 after suffering a mild heart attack, his fifth—has made no secret that he is the father of a lesbian daughter, Mary, born in 1969.

But it is an almost-forgotten footnote to the DADT debate that while he was Secretary of Defense to President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, Cheney virtually abolished the policy before it even officially existed.

And it appears that time and again, it was his relationship with his gay daughter that marked this departure from his otherwise hard-line conservative stands.

In its September 12, 2000 cover story, Sarah Wildman reports in The Advocate that “by the time [Cheney] was leaving Bush’s cabinet [in 1993], Mary was just coming out of the closet to her family.”

The same article quotes LGBT media expert Bob Witeck referring to Cheney’s relationship with Mary.

“It’s rare for any adult, let alone an openly lesbian daughter, and her father [to be so close],” Witeck said.

How did that closeness manifest itself in terms of public policy decisions on the part of the former White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford?

The late Randy Shilts points out in Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military: “Cheney delivered [an] order to the Joint Chiefs of Staff: He did not want the services to pursue massive purges of gay personnel. Word of witch-hunting tactics had reached him… and he would have no such goings-on on his watch at the Defense Department.”

Shilts—who had previously penned the seminal bestseller And the Band Played On—also wrote about Cheney’s personal intervention in 1990 that forced the Department of the Navy to drop demands it had made for “recoupment” of tuition after three gay Midshipmen were expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy.

After resistant Navy officers tried to force another expelled gay Midshipman to repay his tuition, Shilts reports that Cheney exploded: “Goddamn it, I’ve told the military departments not to hit people up for back tuition!”

According to Shilts, Cheney sent an Assistant Defense Secretary “to repeat his orders to both the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Personnel that purges and recoupment proceedings cease against gay military personnel.”

Perhaps most revealing was Cheney’s reaction to the outing of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Pete Williams by The Advocate in 1991.

The result was an unheard of acknowledgement by a sitting Defense Secretary that gays were currently serving their country in uniform.

In several interviews, Cheney said that gays had always served, often with honor. He called the argument that gay and lesbian service members were security risks “sort of an old chestnut.” (In response, an amused Congressman Barney Frank told an interviewer that “if Cheney defended the United States the way he defended this policy, we would have been captured by now—by Cuba.”)

Williams not only kept his job, but a senior Pentagon official reported that Cheney had brought the matter to the attention of President George H. W. Bush, who approved keeping Williams on.

Todd Krough, a former Fort Lauderdale resident and Air Force reservist, says that Cheney’s actions as Defense Secretary had far-reaching consequences.

“This is a lot like the ‘butterfly effect,’” said Krough. “As a civilian policymaker standing up to members of the top uniformed brass, Cheney set into motion the mere idea that this is the reality of the situation, whether you like it or not.”

“That was Darth Cheney’s one moment where he actually got to resist the Dark Side of the Force,” Krough laughed, invoking the former V.P.’s nickname when he served in the Bush-43 administration.

Bruce Shevlin, a Vietnam War era veteran, agrees there was probably an element of practicality to Cheney’s position.

“You have to believe his daughter’s sexuality played a part in his own attitudes towards gay and lesbians,” he says.

“And then again,” Shevlin adds, “whenever you have boots on the ground, some of them will be wearing white socks, some of them pink.”

Soldiers Die While Taliban Plays With Boy Sex Slaves

2010-04-14T10:54:00.002-04:00

By Cliff Dunn

An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan, released earlier this year, details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns—though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually—yet they completely reject the label of “homosexual.”

The research was conducted as part of a longstanding effort to better understand Afghan culture and improve Western interaction with the local people. The report reveals some stunning other information as well.

According to the study, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot “love” another man—but that doesn’t mean they can’t use men for “sexual gratification.”

The report also detailed a ‘traditional’ practice in which older “men of status” keep young boys on hand for sexual relationships. One of the country’s favorite sayings, the report said, is “women are for children, boys are for pleasure.”

The new report authenticates previous stories, dating back to 2002, which appeared in the Times of London. Those features noted that Kandahar, the capital city of the Taliban movement, is also the “homosexual capital of South Asia,” and that a boy-sex trade is rampant.

The Times report concluded that the “preferred pastime for wealthy and powerful Afghani men, including many former Taliban and mujahideen commanders, is the procurement of young boys as sex slaves.” Nothing in the new military study acquired by Fox News suggests anything has changed in the years since.

The boys, called ashna, beloveds, or halekon, young male lovers, have been specifically groomed for sex. Before the brutal and theocratic Taliban swept into power, the streets “were filled with teenagers and their sugar daddies, flaunting their relationships,” recorded the British daily. Few deny that the practice is widespread.

The Koran imposes the death penalty for consensual relations between members of the same sex, even for cross dressing. Not just any death penalty. By tradition, one of three punishments is mandated- either burning at the stake, being pushed over the edge of a cliff, or being crushed by a toppled wall.

Many locals accuse the Taliban of hypocrisy when it comes to keeping young boys for sex slaves.“The Taliban kept it secret,” one local southern Warlord told the Los Angeles Times. “They hid their halekon in their madrasas [religious schools].”

The Los Angeles Times report included an interview with Dr. Mohammed Nasem Zafar, a professor at Kandahar Medical College, who estimated that around 50% of the former Taliban stronghold’s men have sex with men or boys at some point in their lives. Zafar said the prime age at which boys are believed attractive is between 12 and 16, before their beards grow in.

He told the Los Angeles Times sometimes when the halekon grow up, “older men try to keep them in the family by marrying them to their daughters.” Zafar said he once caught a local religious leader having sex with a younger man on an examining room table in his medical office.

“If this is our mullah, what can you say for the rest?” he asked.

Outside of Kandahar

Even in Northern Afghanistan, homosexual issues have generated controversy. In 2007, Reuters reported that young Afghan boy dancers were being turned into sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, often former warlords, who dress the boys up as girls, shower them with gifts and keep them as “mistresses.”

“The practice, called ‘bacha bazi’—literally ‘boy play’—has a long history in northern Afghanistan,” Reuters reported, “but sometimes it does not stop with just dancing.” Reuters interviewed numerous mujahideen fighters that admitted to the practice. One interviewee stated “The boy’s smell and fragrance kills me. I dress him in women’s clothes and have him sleep beside me. I enjoy him and he is my everything.”

“I was only 14-years old when an Uzbek commander forced me to have sex with him,” a 24-year old named Shir Mohammad told Reuters. “I am used to it. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner.”

On his future plans, the sex-slave told Reuters: “Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys.”

“It is sad to state that this practice that includes making boys dance, sexual abuse and sometimes even selling boys, has been going on for years,” said Gen. Asadollah Amarkhil, who commands security forces in Kunduz province..

“We have taken strict measures to save the lives of the boys and punish the men,” Amarkhil insists. But there is skepticism about the likely results, since many of the owners of the boy-slaves are well-armed and powerful former mujahideen and their commanders.

Those who are found guilty of abuse could receive at least 15 years in prison. That may not be enough of a disincentive to a practice that dates back centuries.

“We know it is immoral and un-Islamic, but how can we quit?” mused a 35-year-old Afghani man to Reuters. “We do not like women, we just want boys.”

The war, meanwhile, goes on. And Americans are dying so Afghan warlords can have their boys to play with.

God Save the Queen

2010-04-14T10:51:00.001-04:00

You may know or remember Ray Fetcho as ‘Tiny Tina.’ He is a proud gay 61 year old man who has been a licensed practical nurse for the past forty years; four decades of service to people who are ill.

Unfortunately, in 1976, while hosting a ‘Wet Jockey Shorts Night’ at the Copa, he was busted for promoting a lewd act. Today, that incident has come back to haunt him. The state has told him he can no longer be a nurse because of the conviction.

For the past 15 years, Fetcho has been an acclaimed and honored employee at Victoria Villa, an assisted living facility in Davie, recognized for his “compassionate service to the elderly.”

On March 31, 1976, Fetcho, performing as ‘Tiny Tina’ at the Copa in Dania Beach, was charged and convicted of promoting ‘lewd and lascivious’ behavior by throwing small buckets of water on boys’ briefs while hosting the irreverent ‘Wet Jockey Shorts’ contest.

Last month, that dated conviction from his past became a nightmare. Last week, Ray Fetcho was summarily fired from the job he has loved and cherished. A state licensing agency, the Agency for Health Care Administration, doing a routine screening inspection of nursing home employees, told him he would be ineligible to remain on the job at his facility “because of the lewd act conviction” from thirty plus years ago.

During the 1970’s and 80’s, the Copa was the most renowned and preeminent gay bar in South Florida. It was an international destination for tourists and a ‘coming out’ venue for anyone local, gay, and seeking an all night dance club.

30 years ago, John Castelli, and his partner, the late Bill Bastiansen, were the owners of the Copa, which hosted renowned drag queens like Tiny Tina, Nikki Adams, and the late Dana Manchester.

Today, Castelli is a respected broker of Castelli and Associates in Wilton Manors. After being told of Fetcho’s plight Saturday morning, Castelli commented: “Oh my God! What century are we living in? It was such an innocent situation. The boys always wore briefs. No one was exposed. That was during the Anita Bryant era, a lifetime ago.” Castelli even remembered the incident, noting he and his partner had to bond Fetcho out of jail.

Unfortunately, those acts then have impacted Fetcho’s life today. Unless he petitions and receives an exemption for his past misconduct, the Department of Health can stop him from working anywhere in the state as an LPN, a job which has paid him close to $40,000 a year.

Lucie Eichler, his now former employer from the Villa thought the decision was equally incredible, “Fetcho has been a valuable addition to our company. He is so well-liked that he still maintains relationships with the families of residents who have since passed.”

Eichler attests to Fetcho’s, “reliability and strong ethical character,” and says that she is “sorry to see him leave.”

Ann Garfinkel, the daughter of a Victoria Villa resident, was in disbelief when informed of Fetcho’s firing. “His termination is a great loss to the residents of Victoria Villa and the nursing profession in general.” She continues, “I believe the State of Florida is making a big mistake.”

Added Linda Greenfield, “Ray took care of my mother while she was suffering from dementia at the Villa. He is the most caring and considerate nurse you can imagine; he brings patience and love and humor to his work.”

Ironically, Fetcho has a new job waiting for him in a new Coconut Creek assisted living facility. Kelley Madigan, the administrator at Dayscape, a senior activity center told SFGN, “I was Fetcho’s supervisor at the Villas for six years. He is dedicated and pleasant, dependable and compassionate. I am prepared to employ him the moment he clears this hurdle.”

Fetcho has retained long time Fort Lauderdale constitutional rights attorney, Norm Kent, who is the publisher of SFGN. Stated Kent, who is taking the case on a pro bono basis, “I promise you that this injustice will be cured and that Ray Fetcho will get an exemption- and be restored to his tenure as an LPN.” He addresses the issue in today’s SFGN editorial.

Kent has to petition the Department of Health and make a case to its administrators. He explained the legal process that Fetcho must initiate: “Employees seeking an exemption have the burden of setting forth sufficient evidence of rehabilitation, including the circumstances surrounding the criminal incident for which an exemption is sought, and the time period that has elapsed since the incident, and the history of the employee since the incident,” Kent said.

For his part, Fetcho is upset and concerned about his future. “I love being a nurse and I love my job and I can’t believe this is coming back to haunt me 30 years later. It was stupid then. It is ridiculous now.”

Added Fetcho, “I should be working up to my retirement in five years, not looking back at something from the past. I never mixed my two careers together. One was show business, one was real. I had the best of both possible worlds but if I have to fight today to help some other nurse tomorrow, they are going to have to fight ‘The Queen’ in her court.”

Catching My Breath

2010-04-14T10:47:00.001-04:00

By Joey Amato

Is there such a thing as becoming too gay? Let’s take my life for example. I am a young gay man, work in a gay town, spend much of my disposable income in gay-owned establishments and write about anything and everything gay.

This past weekend, I became concerned that my life is becoming too gay. Thinking I may have been over exaggerating, I addressed my concern with a few friends and surprisingly, they told me my thoughts were justified. My friend Mike told me that he thought it was healthy for me to feel this way and that he would be more concerned if I didn’t. My boyfriend agreed.

I don’t want to make it sound like I am not proud of being gay, but I am worried that I will morph into someone who forgets that there are other cultures outside our own.

Before accepting a position with SFGN, I lived in Delray Beach, a community that doesn’t contain any gay bars or clubs, although I was told one had closed in the past few years. Because of the minute gay population, we’re forced to blend in with the community.

Then I was invited on a life-changing date to Galanga in Wilton Manors.

I had never heard of Wilton Manors. Call me naïve, but I also have not travelled to gay tourist locales such as Key West, San Francisco or Fire Island, even though I used to live 30 minutes away on Long Island. When I arrived to this town, I was surprised to see the large number of rainbow flags lining the streets. It was quite astonishing actually. I didn’t know places like this existed.

Over the following months I spent more and more time in the Fort Lauderdale area and began to immerse myself in the gay community. I became involved with the GLCC Pride Center, GLBX and started attending numerous gay events. I strived to be photographed by Hotspots and 411, currently Mark’s List. The days of attending charity galas hosted by Donald Trump and Governor Charlie Crist at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach have faded.

I feel like a part of me died when I was introduced to Wilton Manors. I started neglecting a lot of things I used to love to do in favor of being gay. I started passing up the opportunity to network with professionals in Boca so I can share a drink or two with friends on the Drive. I favor partying at Living Room on Friday evening over a weekend getaway. Two years ago, I would have never even entertained the notion.

Over the past few months, I have met people who have mentioned to me that they refuse to do anything outside of the gay community. Most of these people were older, but does there come a point when we become so secure in our current surroundings that we develop a fear to venture away? That is what scares me and why I wonder if I am becoming too gay.

I don’t like segregation. I like unity. I want to be part of both worlds. How do I find the perfect balance of gay and straight? How do I find a way to combine both worlds and become whole again?

OUT in Africa

2010-04-14T10:42:00.003-04:00

By A. Sebastian Fortino

In light of the recent Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, SFGN spoke with Stefan M. of Zurich, Switzerland. As he travels often in Africa he would prefer to keep his last name confidential. Stefan has traveled to Africa several times alone and with partners. This is despite the climate in Africa being hostile towards gays.

“I’ve been to Tanzania and Morocco 4 times, and once to Malawi. Tanzanian law declares life imprisonment as punishment for homosexual sex. Malawi proscribes prison sentences for citizens, and can expel incriminated foreigners. Morocco—long known one of the most liberal Islamic countries—can proscribe anywhere from 6 months to 3 years in prison,” Stefan said. Yet, despite these strictures he has always felt comfortable in Africa.

“In all African countries you need to be discreet,” Stefan said from his home in Zurich. “The same way a hetero-couple does not kiss in the middle of the road and the girls do not wear short skirts. I am sure by the end of our last stay in Morocco, everyone in the hotel realized my boyfriend and I were a couple. But they never reacted to that. We felt very safe.”

“I make friends when I go there. One time in Africa we befriended a local Islamic guide. He even accepted a glass of wine despite that being verboten under Islam,” Stefan said laughing. “Yes, I have been so comfortable in Africa that I even one time had sex with a very hot African policeman.”

Morocco—despite limitations on paper—is romantic enough to have inspired Stefan, 29, and his boyfriend Julien, 26, to enter into a civil union.

“It was a beautiful night to agree to get married,” Stefan said fondly.

New York real estate professional William Brantley has also traveled extensively in Africa. He has been to Morocco 4 times, and visited Kenya, Tunisia, and Tanzania once.

“I have traveled with boyfriends in Africa twice. It really depends on which country you go to and how flamboyant you are. It’s a good idea for some to tone it down a bit,” Brantley knowingly advised. “I never thought about it when I went to Morocco, but when we went to Tunisia we did travel as cousins. Especially in Tunis, the capital, it was pretty dangerous there.”

Brantley said, of LGBT rights in Africa. “More global interest should be directed towards Africa. However, we still have a lot to do in our own country, but for now,” he encourages, “go and visit. Just be careful.”

Brantley has also been on safari in Kenya, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. His apartment on New York’s Upper East Side is covered in notions and knick-knacks from his African travels. The abundance of souvenirs alone will make you want to pack your bags.

SFGN Profile: Mark Corbett

2010-04-14T10:38:00.002-04:00

By Joey Amato

Born and raised in Montebello, California, Go Riverwalk Magazine publisher Mark Corbett has lived a not-so-traditional life. A father of three, Corbett began his publishing career in New York City serving as Associate Publisher of Lesbian & Gay New York (LGNY), a bi-monthly newspaper. “I then became National Advertising Sales Manager for Columbia FunMaps,” Corbett tells SFGN.

The Business Leader

Upon arriving in Florida, Corbett began publishing a local neighborhood newsletter which caught the attention of The Riverwalk Trust, an organization created to raise capital for ongoing Riverwalk promotions and improvements.

Go Riverwalk Magazine began as a newsletter in 2004 and was transformed to its current magazine format in 2005. “My vision from day-one was to serve the people that live, work, and play in our great city with current information and features on the arts, our urban lifestyle, city business, dining and a slice of everything and anything Fort Lauderdale.”

As with many other industries, publishing has been hurt tremendously by the recession, but Corbett remains optimistic for the coming year. “2010 looks to be a very promising year. My mantra for most of last year was “creative solutions for challenging times.” It worked and got us to where we are today. This year our mantra is a bit simpler but equally powerful: “creativity, prosperity, and happiness are all states of mind.”

Go Riverwalk Magazine currently works with a team of about 25 highly talented individuals to produce each issue. “Our publishing team at New River Design consists of a core group of six. Riverwalk Trust accounts for another three in editorial, and we work with numerous contributing writers, designers and photographers.”

In addition to serving the business community, Corbett also contributes heavily to many area non-profit organizations including Broward House, the Pride Center at Equality Park, Miami City Ballet and South Florida Symphony Orchestra.

The Father

Before becoming publisher of Go Riverwalk, Corbett was involved in a 13 year marriage and had three children. “Coming out late in life accomplished a couple of things for me. I knew, at the age of 40, there was no turning back, at least not for me.”

Ending his marriage was not exactly easy. “Conventional divorces can get ugly enough. My ex-wife decided to grant interviews with local and national media and appeared on a television show which featured women claiming their lives were in ruins because of marrying gay men.”

Within three months following the divorce, Corbett was marching in New York’s Gay Pride Parade with the Gay Fathers Forum. “After all, I was a dad, and I would not allow anyone to take that away from me. Today, my children are my biggest fans and an amazing support group.”

Some people may not understand Corbett’s life, but he is quick to explain, “It’s not that difficult to understand – I have an ex-wife, three grown children, a grandson, an ex-husband, and two ex-boyfriends.”

The Spiritualist

“I could not be happier with my life. I wake every morning with extreme gratitude for all the wonderful people and the impermanent material objects that make my life so much easier.” He continues, “I’m even grateful for all the difficult people, too. They have mostly become my greatest teachers and a few have earned the title of Buddha.”

Corbett has become somewhat of a role model for the younger gay community in Fort Lauderdale. “I’m openly gay and very active in our business community. That alone should offer some encouragement and incentive for others to follow.”

After struggling with his sexuality for years, Corbett is an advocate for equal rights. “Be yourself…responsibly and with passion. Coming out at any age can be productive and liberating to the spirit. Most will find the so called monsters created are within our minds.”

“Most people really don’t care if you’re gay or straight. We set up the roadblocks to our own successes. Let go and live your life to the fullest, each and every day.”

The Lover

Corbett describes his relationship with his former lover Carl, “We were together for a long time. We lived the “Ozzie & Harriet” life here in beautiful Fort Lauderdale before breaking up three years ago. Time moves on, people change and gravitate to opposing belief systems, then people move on. It’s a way of life, the way of the Universe.”

When asked what he was searching for out of life, Corbett answered with two simple words, “Eternal happiness”.

Many gay men struggle to find love but Corbett is convinced, “Love is everywhere.” And yes, he has found it. “Most people associate love with the quality of their bed partners and if they return text messages within a reasonable period of time. I find love in the most amazing places.” Corbett enjoys the more spiritual side of love.

“Sitting on top of a mountain under a starlit canopy, observing the journey of a falling raindrop, connecting with an opening flower or listening to a symphony of crickets… love is within us all, it’s up to us to connect. And connecting with that bed partner, is so much more intense when you start from within.”

To learn more about Mark Corbett and Go Riverwalk Magazine, please visit www.newriverdesigngroup.com.

Richard Cortez: Inside His Mind & Behind His Music

2010-04-14T10:33:00.002-04:00

By Joey Amato

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I sat in the living room of local singer-songwriter, Richard Cortez. I listened track by track to his new album, Sleeping with Strangers. Composed over the past two years, the album is a compilation of Richard’s trials and tribulations as a gay man. Written and arranged entirely by Richard, the album features heart-felt music about love, sex, relationships and sorrow.

While he attended the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York City, Richard frequently played local venues. Over time, he attracted a strong gay following. “I used to borrow $50 from my mom to purchase blank CDs.” He adds, “I’d hand out my music to fans who attended my shows in the East Village.” Richard attributes these free giveaways to his success.

Richard’s grass roots efforts paid off. He caught the attention of a production company who wanted to work on Richard’s album. The only negative is the company wanted to change Richard’s identity. “They wanted to send me to do speech therapy to teach me how to speak ‘less gay’ and they wanted me to get a girlfriend for public appearances and photos.” He ultimately decided to reject the offer.

Drawing from his musical influences, Joni Mitchell, Carol King and Ani DeFranco, Richard created a unique sound. The resulting style incorporates his love for theatre and folk music.

As we listened to “Be Alright”, the opening track of Sleeping with Strangers, Richard told me extreme fame and popularity is not his goal. “I just want to be able to make a living off of my music.” He says, “It’s not all about the glamorous life.” At the time he wrote “Be Alright”, Richard was going through a challenging time.

“My mom was selling her house and my brother was going into the military. I felt like a bird getting pushed out of the nest.” In his first full album since 2005, Richard conveys the daily rituals of Fort Lauderdale, a place he calls, “A big gay playground.” No stranger to temptation, Richard writes about his one-night stands, forays in dark allies and escapades in porn shops.

“Body of Water” began to play. “I wrote this song about a boat captain I was dating.” He explains, “It was completely sexual and developed into a passionate late-night romance.” Today, Richard barely speaks to the captain, but their time together makes for a memorable song.

The title track, “Sleeping with Strangers” is Richard’s most introspective song. “The lyrics say, ‘sleeping with strangers but dreaming of you.’ Everyone is always looking for something more…they think someone better is going to pass them by, but in the end, they have nothing.”

“Missing” is about Richard’s passionate six-month affair with a man who was in a 4 year relationship. “One night we shared a bottle of wine and were having crazy sex when his boyfriend knocked on the door.” Richard smiles, “The plan was for me to run out without him seeing me.” He continues, “I loved this guy, but he was lost, confused and overwhelmed. He was not strong enough to walk away.”

There was a time when Richard was more concerned about sexual experimentation and exploration than his well being.

“My hormones were raging. I had just gotten dumped in a bar and needed to let loose,” he recalls. Not always portraying himself as a victim, Richard wrote “The Mourning After”. “There was a side of me that just slept with people knowing full well that I would never call them again.”

Richard now craves more. “I’m 24 and want to share love with somebody, but people need to realize that they can’t just hop into bed with someone and call it marriage.” Missing the physical release and selfish pleasure of his past life, Richard promises that he has changed his lifestyle. “I’m still the same person but I’ve just changed my behavior and want different things out of life.”

“Crazy Fool” is a response to “The Mourning After”. Written through the voice of the victim in the previous track, Richard tells me how he was always trying to better himself visually. “I would work out five days per week, wear designer clothes, starve myself and stand at the bar waiting to meet someone.”

As we listened to the remainder of the album I began to hear Richard’s passion for storytelling. “Everybody scrutinizes me for writing about love, but this record is about more than love, it’s about truth.”

“We go out, party, meet someone, sleep with them and then someone’s heart breaks. It hits you like a wave.” The final track, “Trainwreck” is the realization that Richard was grasping for help. “The song is about hope and letting people know it’s going to be okay.”

Richard is okay now. He is happy with himself and his album. He even goes as far as to say that his next album should be lighter than Sleeping with Strangers.

The album will be released on Valentine’s Day and made available through the iTunes, Amazon.com, CDbaby.com and other online retailers. For more information, visit www.wollenbergrecords.com.

2010-04-14T10:30:00.001-04:00

FIRM PIONEERED GAY AND LESBIAN CONSUMER MARKETING

By Joey Amato

In 1990, a young entrepreneur named Andrew Isen had a vision. He was a successful young man who felt like corporate America was not speaking to him. “I was openly gay, had a large disposable income and I was not on anyone’s marketing list.” This may be seen as a positive for most people who get bombarded by junk-mail every day, but for Isen, this was an opportunity.

Working off his kitchen table with nothing but an IBM and a phone, Isen started WinMark Concepts, Inc., a company which became an award-winning, full-service marketing and communications firm targeting the gay and lesbian community. Note that I did not say LGBT community. Isen tells SFGN that his company “Doesn’t use LGBT in their marketing materials because in the business world, companies aren’t seeking to reach bisexual and transsexual consumers.”

The success of WinMark was helped by Isen’s extensive education, receiving both his BBA and MBA from George Washington University. Throughout his career, Isen garnered experience in strategic planning, program development, experiential and field marketing, on-line marketing and consumer research, services which are now offered by WinMark.

Long before the era of MySpace and Facebook, direct mail was the most cost effective way to reach a specific market. Isen began with his company with a cooperative advertising campaign called Direct Male, which targeted gay men, 90% of which were unreachable by any other means. The highly successful campaign caught the attention of tobacco-maker, Philip Morris, which Isen shares, “Was my first client and the first company I sent an invoice to.”

Philip Morris hired WinMark to conduct a survey regarding the smoking habits of gay men, which was printed as a feature story in the New York Times. Since then, Isen has worked with over 700 companies, both large and small, all trying to target the gay and lesbian community. The Washington D.C. based company is now celebrating its 20^th Anniversary.

“We discovered in our very first year the tremendous buying power of the GLBT market. Gay and lesbian consumers can be very loyal to specific brands that appeal to them, and they show their support in buying goods and services from these companies,” continues Isen. “And we have worked with many Fortune 500 companies that embrace these ideals, and offer for their own employees’ domestic partner benefits, non-discrimination policies, and financial support for organizations supporting equality. We’re thrilled that more and more companies are joining this roster and offering these benefits to all their employees, and we applaud their efforts.”

WinMark was the first company to work with the British Tourist Authority to launch a gay and lesbian marketing initiative. That campaign, generated over $450 million in revenue to the British economy. Furthermore, WinMark was the first company to work with Fannie Mae. “We were hired to provide an advertising campaign to show imagery of what middle class gay and lesbian households may look like.”

According to marketresearch.com, the buying power of U.S. gays and lesbians is expected to exceed $835 billion by 2011. Additional research shows these groups are more likely to seek out companies who advertise to them, and are willing to pay higher prices for premium products and services. They also show that twice as many gay and lesbian Americans are to have graduated from college, twice as likely to have an individual income exceeding $60,000, and twice as likely to have a household income of $250,000 or more.

“We’re proud to celebrate WinMark’s 20^th anniversary and are also proud to be the first full-service marketing and communications firm to truly recognize the immense power of gay & lesbian consumers,” Isen states.

A busy work schedule has not deterred Isen from devoting part of his life to philanthropy. He is a large supporter of the Point Foundation, an organization which provides financial support, mentoring and leadership training to meritorious students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Furthermore, Isen contributes heavily to both the Human Rights Campaign as well as the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Named one of OUT Magazine’s “OUT 100” and with nearly 30 years of integrated marketing experience, WinMark’s Isen has made an endurable mark on the gay and lesbian community.

For more information, please visit: www.WinMarkConcepts.com

Dirty Larry: 'Wilton Drive Magazine' Likely to Wilt

2010-04-14T10:24:00.003-04:00

By A. Sebastian Fortino

Readers’ Advisory: This story contains blatant profanities necessarily published within the context of presenting this story as accurately and truthfully as possible.

Former staff members of the new ‘Wilton Drive Magazine,’ originally set for a March 18 launch date, have accused Lawrence Patterson, the prospective publisher, of sexual harassment, financial misconduct, and failing to pay ANY of their salaries.

Patterson, 59, has set up shop by renting office space in Wilton Suites on Wilton Drive, where former employees now say he may actually be living. Patterson had been renting a hotel room at the Hurricane Hotel on Oakland Park Boulevard and A1A, but he was asked to leave by its management for not paying his board.

“Good riddance to him,” said Wally, the Hurricane’s manager, “he still owes us $350, his room was trashed, he left clothes and belongings on the floor, and there was pills, steel wool, and glass pipes throughout the room.” The latter two items have been associated with the use of illicit substances.

The hotel manager explained to SFGN that Patterson had lived there for over eight months, before landing a recent “settlement...then he paid us back due rents but a month later he was hitting me up for twenty bucks,” Wally said.

Jeffrey Jacobs, long time DJ at the Ramrod, confirms that he responded to an advertisement Patterson had placed in bar guides seeking an Executive Assistant, but that he left after five days. “I wrote him a polite e-mail stating ‘with all due respect,’ I did not think it was realistic for him to think he was going to publish a magazine by March 18 when he had no computers, no writers, no phones, no website designers or any staff. I thought he was going about it backwards. And I sent him a time sheet for $612.00.”

Jacobs said Patterson’s first reply to him was an email which read: “Fuck you amateur. If you ever want to painlessly commit suicide, just jump off the top of your ego.” Patterson refused to pay the bill and said a check would be mailed from ADP, his payroll service. But two subsequent employees confirmed that Patterson has never contracted with ADP.

The next day Patterson sent Jacobs a second email “threatening to have me arrested for taking some of the work that I created, which he refused to pay me for. I am not a charity,” Jacobs told SFGN.

Patterson’s email included the following text: “I am keeping what compensation you had coming for damages. Filing Felony Charges. You just destroyed your own reputation, dumbass. I am going to watch you crash and burn.”

This was in response to an employee who had earlier written “I would love nothing more than for your magazine to succeed, but I am not going to put my reputation on the line trying to sell full page ads for a magazine where the only page ready to print is the cover.”

“But I could see what was happening,” Jacobs said. “He had asked me to help sneak him back into the Hurricane Motel to get his belongings when he did not pay the rent there. Then he had me take him to the back door of the Wilton Suites so they would not see he was moving his stuff into the office he was renting.”

Less than five days before Patterson had sent this same employee an email reading “I jus think you are fukin amazing, an I want to go out with you an see where it might go. Can you handle it? LP”[sic]

When Jacobs left, Darren Watson, 38, was hired to be Patterson’s Chief Financial Officer and Business Manager. Relocating from Orlando to find new work here after leaving a 15 year position with MCI, Watson said he was immediately hired by Patterson after meeting with him for less than ten minutes.

“I interviewed in February, moved down on March 1, but then when I came in to say hello before the start date, I met the other staff. Every one of them advised me that they had not been getting paid. I began to get very nervous,” Watson told SFGN.

Watson sent an e mail to Patterson communicating his concern. “Then I started getting obscene and filthy sexually harassing emails from him,” Watson told SFGN.

Not for the light hearted, one of those emails from Patterson arrived on Friday, March 5, at 2:23 a.m., reading “I am going to have to beat your ass. You’re a top, aren’t you, butch boy. AND everyone including me noticed your big fuckin basket jus fore yo left yesterday. If your cock had been bulging any more, it would’ve busted right out your jeans. Then daddy would have haad to throat if for you an drain you dry. I know you just got out of a relationship, but I am WAY interested in YOU. But will deny sayin it on a stack of bibles.”[sic] Patterson was not done.

Watson received a second communication at 2:37 a.m. It not only promised an immediate salary increase, but when he came over, he was advised by Patterson: “don’t wear any underwear. I want to see that big dick.” Watson declined to report to work on Monday, and was never paid any monies for the time he was there.

Neither was Orlando Espinosa. He responded to the same ad Watson did and served as the Executive Personal Assistant for two weeks. “I too was hired in less than ten minutes. I too never got paid. I too saw other people get fired for no reason without also getting paid. And all the while Patterson was talking about creating this major magazine he never added a land line, a computer, or tech equipment.”

All he acquired, one staffer noted, was a beat up used computer from the school board for a hundred bucks.

When Espinosa discovered some of the emails sent to Jacobs, he too, left the company. “I believed Patterson to have no money and that we would probably never get paid for all the work we did for him in the last two weeks. We were actually trying to put together a magazine.”

Even a fourth employee, Michael B., responded to the ad for an assistant. But Michael B told SFGN that “I was hired to assist in the development of a cable TV channel, but then I was urgently called in to sell ads for a magazine, sent to meet with merchants, but I never even had a mockup of the magazine.” The employee said he joined with other staffers in not returning to work when they were not paid.

Michael Krauser, who runs Wilton Executive Suites, not a hotel, on Wilton Drive, could not comment on the purported new residency of Patterson. He said it was in the “hands of his lawyers.” Besides Jacobs, at least two other former employees told SFGN “the guy is actually living there.”

Lawrence Bruce Patterson’s Nevada based corporation is named Financial Pros, LLC. Its stock and trade is selling annuities and life and health insurance products. Applying to do business here in Florida originally in February, 2009, Patterson listed an address on the west coast of the state on Coral Way in Cape Coral.

Going now by the nickname of ‘Butch,’ Patterson has been a life settlement agent since 2001, and was licensed as a viatical broker in Florida in 2002. He is presently registered with the state as a Series 215 licensed life-health-annuities agent.

While Patterson declined to talk to SFGN about “his past,” his own words on an insurance blog he posted last year bragged that he has “participated in many conferences and symposia and invests hours in daily self-study to stay current with cutting-edge industry news and related strategic applications of Life Settlements, charitable giving, and inter-related life insurance/annuity scenarios.”

The image of Patterson as a shrewd financial executive paints a little different picture than his present portrait on ‘Facebook’, where he lists his website, financialpros.com, and his interests and hobbies, as “sex, beaching, shopping, working out, sex, Martial arts, sex, spending money, sex, and YOUNGER GUYS.”

Listing himself as single, he says his favorite quote is “You can’t be too thin, too hung, too rich, or too tan.”

This is not the same Patterson who was once, years ago, a respected insurance agent. Sources who knew him then, said he went by his middle name, Bruce, and that he was a “nice, timid, prim, proper, hard working older man who would research his job thoroughly and take it to the next level.”

However, those same sources indicated that Patterson, about ten years ago, suffered a life-changing medical incident after a near fatal bite by a rare, brown recluse spider. “He came back a changed man,” the source said, “as if some force had taken hold of him.”

This past week, Patterson revealed in what he called “a cover story” for his premiere issue that he was HIV Positive. In his announcement, Patterson admits to “being very sick during January and February” and not taking his meds all last year. He declined to discuss the matter further with SFGN, saying “God brought me here for a reason.”

Patterson entered the South Florida scene by taking out two full page ads in Hotspots last month, bragging about them on Facebook, and offering up ‘securities and annuities’ for Financial Pros, saying nothing about the proposed magazine. The ads employed the copyrighted and statutorily protected logos of Ian Fleming and James Bond, hustling customers to invest.

Patterson, however, was not given authorization to use the copyrighted James Bond images as his own. Stated Michael Tavares, Licensing Director for Danjaq, LLC., which owns the licenses for the James Bond films, “We did not grant any permission to Mr. Patterson or Financial Pros to use any of our trademark materials. I can definitely state that this is an actionable and unauthorized use.”

An online check of the name ‘Wilton Drive Magazine’ has also revealed that the use of that fictitious name was statutorily protected by Jim Bellin, an Oakland Park, Florida businessman on May 23, 2007. It is still valid. Thus, the name ‘Wilton Drive Magazine’ is owned by a registrant other than Patterson, even though he is attempting to sell thousand-dollar a page ads using that name.

Meanwhile, people meeting with him are leaving their encounters shell-shocked. The publishers of the Gay Community Yellow Pages, Marci Alt and Thomas Ryan met Patterson for a dinner, which politely concluded with Patterson agreeing to purchase an annual ad to promote his new magazine, along with a consulting contract.

When Ryan called the next day to pick up the agreed upon check of $3500, an irrational Patterson cursed him out abusively, berating him for ten minutes and calling him a ‘fraud.’ Ryan claimed he was “completely shocked and appalled...in the ten years I have been a business professional I have never been spoken to in such a disrespectful tone.” Ryan added “it was not a conversation, he just shouted at me.”

After respectfully replying in an e-mail, Ryan was taunted again. Patterson responded by telling Ryan “And your point is? Lose our contact info, butch up, and get over yourselves.”

Patterson was not done. He then sent another email to Ryan, reading “you and your dyke partner are grifters… our magazine is on the streets on 3/18, and I didn’t have to pay a ransom of $25k for fucking consulting.”[sic]

Mike Trottier at Hotspots claimed a similar experience. “From the moment this man came in, I got a very weird vibe that he was very strange. First he told me he was selling gold bullion, then annuities. Then he came in with this James Bond ad and a classified for an executive assistant.” Both have been removed from the publication.

Photographer Pompano Bill covered the launch party for the ‘Financial Pros’ endeavor at Wilton Suites, but Pompano says “there was no one there, and Patterson just launched into vicious comments about numerous people for no reason at all. There was no literature for the company or the magazine or anything explaining what he was doing.”

Jeffrey Jacobs, the DJ who worked one week with Patterson, confirms the stories. “He asked me to put my reputation on the line. When I tried to explain to him that his staff and production equipment was insufficient for a start up, I got an email from him telling me “Geez, go get sucked off again... No shit, I know what we need, quit bitchin and fukin get on it.”

Jacobs resigned the next day, asking for his pay, which he has still not received. No one who worked there has.

On Friday, Patterson announced in an email blast the hire of a new CFO, Scott Campbell, and a new launch date of April 1.

Patterson noted that Campbell held an MBA in Finance. He does. But meeting that deadline with Campbell’s aid might also be a problem. Campbell quit the same day.

Stating that he was leaving ‘Wilton Drive Magazine,’ since “nothing Patterson has said has been credible,” Campbell told SFGN “Here it is March 19 and we do not have a staff or anything to go forward with.”

Campbell respectfully wished Patterson well with his project, but instructed him to not use his name in any way as being part of his organization.

After five separate sources were verified with similar complaints of sexual harassment and non-payment, SFGN asked Patterson to respond to the allegations. He replied by stating it was “none of our business,” culminating with a notice threatening the newspaper with a libel lawsuit if this story was published.

In a rage, Patterson also called the SFGN office, reaching Marketing Director Cliff Dunn. Placed on a speakerphone, he proceeded to shout out a string of obscenities saying he “loves lawsuits” and he “loves to go to fucking war,” and he would destroy ‘Kent’ for trying to “stop him from publishing his fucking magazine.”

Over the weekend, Patterson followed up those obscenities with a series of email blasts to hundreds of people within the local LGBT community, repeating newer threats, warning SFGN that “this can only end badly... and not for me.”

Meanwhile, Campbell, like Watson, Jacobs, Espinosa, Ryan, and others including a hotel on the beach, provided services or worked for money and a magazine they may never see.

Campbell was philosophical, “Times are hard,” he said, “I wanted to take a shot but there is nothing here.”

As for the news story, whoops, it ran.

Howard Zucker Self Image Photography

2010-04-14T10:20:00.003-04:00

By A. Sebastian Fortino

To some the phrase “everyone loves to have their picture taken” is the exact antithesis of their feelings. Photographer Howard Zucker hopes that he will be able to change the fear of being photographed into joy, and cause people to have greater self-confidence in the process.

Zucker works with therapists to improve the self-image of their patients, therefore his work is an extension of the healing process. His business is called—quite simply —Self-Image Photography and his goal is to move clients forward to “increase self-esteem and boost self-confidence.”

“In conjunction with therapy, the photos become more powerful. As massage relieves certain tensions and stress so do the photos,” says Zucker. “It’s exercising another modality.”

The people that come to Zucker may suffer from physical ailments or fear the camera due to misgivings about themselves. In either case, these are not “glamour shots” intended as a novelty. This is a serious exploration into identity and image.

“People come to me with scars from major accidents, or other physical damage. It’s a very difficult thing for them to do, initially,” Zucker’s clients frequently wait nervously in their cars before entering the studio. “But after the process, it is very much a healing experience for them.”

In addition to people struggling with their appearance because of physical damage Zucker knows gay men often grow up learning a lot of negative things about themselves as children. Bullies, religion and parents often condition people to see their reflections in a negative way.

Men might even feel negatively about themselves after past relationships go sour and end in angry remarks related to physical appearance. Coming out can also be a traumatic experience, as friends, peers, and loved ones could abandon you. Conversely, if you do not “fit in” with other gays you might feel alone and rejected, hating the “man in the mirror.”

“Self-Image Photography offers an opportunity to not look in the mirror. This allows you to see yourself objectively, to recognize the beauty inside,” adds Zucker, as the mirror’s reflection can carry extra baggage.

Dr. Arlen Leight, PhD, LLC, is one of the therapists who sends patients to Howard to further a better self-image.

“We are offering a group for gay men who wish to take the work of self-discovery and growth to a new level using photography as a fresh approach to personal empowerment. Howard is an amazing photographer with years of experience helping men see themselves with fresh eyes through his lens.”

Leight’s workshop helps participants change self-perception and body image. Many of the people photographed by Zucker change their minds about plastic surgery. He photographed men at the Gay Men’s Health Summit last year and plans to do so again for their 2010 conference.

For local Larry Whitt, Zucker’s portraits of him saved him from becoming a recluse in his home. Whitt suffers from facial wasting, a symptom of HIV.

“I had been hiding in my apartment, leaving only to go to work or to the store. Once I got on disability I rarely left the sofa,” said Whitt. “Then my partner talked me into letting Howard take some photos.”

Even though Whitt had undergone treatments for the facial wasting he was still nervous about entering the studio. “I was not sure the camera would be kind to me at all, much less Howard. He was very easy to talk to and handled me with kid gloves.”

After the photos were taken Whitt’s self-image and self-confidence were restored. He soon after joined the Gold Coast Chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) and – to his surprise – was appointed color guard coordinator. Whitt and his partner manned the AVER booth at South Florida Pride this past March, and their picture ended up on the front cover of our Pride Issue. Clearly he no longer hides from the camera and is an active member of the community as well.

Clinical Social Worker Ted Williams, LCSW, has sent 8 clients to Zucker’s studio. He reports nothing but positive results from those he recommended.

“Before sending the first client for Howard’s services I experienced the amazing process of Self-Image Photography myself and therefore have first-hand knowledge of what my clients reported. [Howard] is patient and supportive.”

Williams also believes that Howard’s services are an invaluable tool, and should be further explored. He cites the photographic therapy potential as “very beneficial for other mental healthcare professionals and their clients to experience this process in order to understand and appreciate the positive potential of Self-Image Photography.”

Another client of Zucker’s, Barry Reinitz, who is in his 50s, had not had a photo taken since high school.

“I restarted my therapy after relocating to South Florida, and wanted to achieve immediate results so I agreed to the new type of photographic therapy suggested by my therapist. It allowed me to address 2 of my larger issues—low self-image and having my picture taken. Plus it allowed me a new avenue to discuss my issues with my new therapist.”

Reinitz went on to say he was amazed at how at ease he felt, and how comfortable the process of getting his picture taken was with Zucker behind the lens.

“I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a novel approach to their therapy.”

Zucker hopes—as do Williams and Leight —that this article will draw more therapists and clients to seek out his services.

“Ideally what I would like to see are more therapists giving real, psychological input about the effects the photos have on people. The 5 guys in the workshop had amazing transformations about how they view themselves in the world. If it can do just that it’s a wonderful thing.”

Howard’s website also highlights 3 videos via YouTube.com with testimonials by Gary, Marc and Al, which further emphasizes the importance of Zucker’s work.

For more information on Self-Image Photography please visit momentumz.com.

Getting Wired With Thomas Barker: Executive Editor & Publisher of Wire Magazine

2010-04-14T09:58:00.002-04:00

Thomas Barker has changed the landscape of gay publishing as we know it in South Florida. He is one of Miami’s most influential young professionals and is serving on the executive committee of this year’s Miami Beach Gay Pride. This is in addition to being the executive editor and co-publisher of Wire Magazine, a company he owns with Rafa Carvajal.

A Florida native, Barker grew up in Pace, Florida, a small town near Pensacola. A child of divorced parents, Barker spent a lot of time living between both of their homes. If that wasn’t difficult enough, he grew up in a town which wasn’t and still isn’t exactly gay friendly. “Like most other gay teenagers, I was so eager to get out of that small town and move to a place where I could be open about my sexuality without the worry of being beaten or, even worse, murdered.”

Approximately 8 years ago, Barker packed up his belongings and made the journey to Miami to attend Florida International University, where he majored in public relations and international business. “I wanted to stay in Florida for school, and between the sun, sand, and beautiful boys, I just couldn’t think of a better place to live.”

A true workaholic, Barker began his first job at 16 as a national youth spokesperson and paid public speaker on youth empowerment programs. Shortly after, he took a position with the New York Times as a corporate trainer. “I really loved to interact with people, and, of course, I love to talk, so both jobs were amazing for me.” After graduating FIU, Barker began a career in public relations, working for GolinHarris International, one of Miami’s most respected firms.

Five years ago, Barker accepted a position at Wire Magazine, the publication he now owns, as a features writer, editor and nightlife columnist. “Eventually my current business partner, Rafa and I decided to purchase the publication and utilize our past business experience to really focus on creating a gay lifestyle publication.”

Wire Magazine offers readers a great mix of editorial content focusing on the arts, culture, local personalities, food, and fashion. “We really like to focus on the lifestyle features, as opposed to hard news subjects. Publications like South Florida Gay News are already doing a really great job of covering hard news.”

Because the publication refuses to accept personal, massage and escort advertisements, it is able to distribute in more family friendly establishments than bar guides. As far as future plans, Barker is currently in the process of updating the publication’s website. “It should be up and running by the end of this month. It is going to be fabulous!”

Barker, a member of the Miami Beach Gay Business Enhancement Committee, was a founding member of the Miami Beach Gay Pride Board of Directors. “I guess because I am a writer, everyone felt I should serve as the secretary. They didn’t realize I write everything in shorthand.” In addition, he serves as the chair of the marketing committee.

The inaugural celebration was a huge success and Barker anticipates the same this year. “Pride is really important to me. This is not just a community celebration; it is a personal celebration of me as a gay man and the difficulties I endured in order to be proud of who I am.”

When Barker isn’t spending time coordinating events or publishing a magazine, he devotes a lot of time to philanthropy. “There are so many charities that are important to me. I am a big supporter of Equality Florida, Care Resource and Pridelines Youth Services because they do great work with young gay people who have little or no support.” In the past few years, Barker has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organizations.

After a hectic day of networking with Miami’s social elite, Barker enjoys hosting groups of friends at his home. “I love to cook and host dinner parties for my friends. I am not the best cook in the world, but after a few bottles of wine, my friends get through the meal!”

2010-04-14T09:55:00.002-04:00

By A. Sebatian Fortino

"I'm from Driftwood.com' Evokes Activism of Harvey Milk.

Nathan Manske sat in a theater last winter, watching the biopic “Milk,” starring Sean Penn. Moved by Harvey Milk’s battle cry of “I’m from Woodmere, NY, and I am here to recruit you”, Manske came up with a unique idea.

Manske would chronicle the experiences of gays and lesbians in a website. All he would do is have them post where they are from. Manske’s premise was simple.

On his website, anyone can upload a story about their own personal experiences as a GLBT person. The stories are not limited to coming out stories. Instead, there are a host of varied experiences. A website of stories containing “Mom, pass me the cranberry sauce. I’m gay,” would tire out quickly.

The stories he collects are about our experiences as gay people. They range from witty to sad. The website boasts writers as young as fifteen, to people in their sixties and seventies.

“My main mission is to help and mentor gay kids so they don’t feel so alone,” Manske says. It is a sad fact that many GLBT teens often consider suicide. “I connected with Harvey Milk’s sign because I’m from Driftwood, another small town. I feel that saying where we’re from gets the message out, that we’re everywhere,” Nathan said from his home in Brooklyn.

Submitting writers simply insert the name of their town after “I’m From…”

This is a decidedly modern take on “Out of the closet and into the streets” of which Harvey Milk would doubtlessly approve.

“One of my latest favorite stories is about self-realization. Not just the author realizing he’s gay, but realizing it’s okay. He’s now looking forward to living an open, honest life. It’s an optimistic story that relays the message to gay people that it’s not only okay to be gay, but accepting yourself for who you are, is something to look forward to,” he said when asked about a favorite entry.

With over 350 stories from 25 countries, his website has become an international resource for coming out stories and personal anecdotes.

“It was crazy,” he says, “how quickly things came into place.” He saw Milk on a Wednesday, thought of the idea on Thursday, and lost his job on Friday. He decided to use his unemployment proactively and launched the site. It has taken off worldwide, beyond his wildest dreams.

He now gets thank you emails from younger readers all the time. Older readers are glad the site helps people struggling with their sexuality, and wish they had a source like this when they were younger.

“This is a sign,” says Manske, “that I am on the right path.”

Launching the website out-of-pocket, Manske decided word of mouth – via emailing every GLBT blog that he could find—would be the most effective method of promotion.

“It worked, people were willing to help me promote it just because they were intrigued with the concept,” he said.

Last summer, when I met him at the First Person Arts Festival in Philadelphia he spoke about the possibility of a film. Now he talks of a book, putting together all the stories on his site.

“Making the book something other than a hard copy form of the website,” he feels, “will be the harder challenge.”

Manske does plan to do a tour throughout the US, visiting some of the small towns, and recording video of stories firsthand. He dreams of speaking at gay youth centers and high schools, where he hopes to gather more stories for the site.

To read, or better yet, share stories to to ImFromDriftwood.com and give hope to the hopeless by letting them know that we are everywhere.

Coming Out Today Liberates You Tomorrow

2010-04-13T17:35:00.001-04:00

It is Opening Day in Baseball. Baseball is the passion of my life, the center of most of my existence. Coming out as an athlete and baseball player was not in harmony with that universe of homophobic athletes I grew up around. Constantly, in the locker rooms and on the field, the most denigrating remark you would hear is that “you play like a faggot.” That’s the way it was. In some places, that is the way it still is.

The world evolves though, and now everyone is rushing to come out of the closet, from Hollywood to baseball fields, so much so that our tongue in cheek cover and piece this week- in an otherwise serious issue- is that coming out of the closet has become the fashionable and trendy thing to do. In fact, we have created a waiting list for those seeking sunlight and affirmation as friends of Dorothy. Dame Edna would be proud.

The truth is that it is manifestly important for you to come out of the closet personally and professionally. Even as society moves towards a more tolerant attitude about homosexuality, there are still broad pockets and deep ponds of prejudice against homosexuals. We see it in the Armed Forces. We witness in the media reading about more and more hate crimes. We are reminded of it painfully with each new Matthew Shepherd.

It is necessary for gay people to let mainstream society know the individual facts and many faces of discrimination. It is imperative that the comfortable majority is aware that there is a minority who cannot yet fully access all their freedoms.

You don’t have to broadcast your sexuality on a billboard, announce it on the radio, or publish a letter to your family. You just have to carry and comport yourself truthfully, so when a colleague publishes a demeaning gay comment in the workplace, you can assert how that is inappropriate. Read, for example, Brian McNaught’s thoughtful piece in today’s issue about coming out in the workplace. Be real, be yourself, and be proud. Being open means you never have to say you are sorry for who you are. Stop living your life to please others.

I was recently solicited by a community political leader to use my column to endorse a “gay friendly politician.”

“He is actually part of the family,” my friend remarked.

“So let me get this right,” I responded angrily, “I should use my column to endorse a leader who is in the closet to be a spokesperson for everyone else who has the courage to be out?”

Frankly, if that candidate wants to remain in the political closet, he can also stay the hell out of the state house. We need statesmen who are more concerned about exposing injustice than they are worried about themselves being exposed. That does not mean every gay candidate gets endorsed because of who they sleep with in the evening. What they bring to the table and have achieved in the daytime matters more. Frankly, candidates who think they earn the endorsement of the gay community just because they happen to be gay are deluding themselves. It is what they stand for, and have stood for, that matters more.

One of the most inspiring letters we ever got at the Express was written by a Melanie Blair, from West Melbourne, Florida. It read: “I feel it necessary to also remember those of us who are silent activists every day. I wish to commend the countless numbers of us who refuse to be closeted in our daily lives. By standing up and being named as gay or lesbian, we slowly break the myth that we are deviant or abnormal. By being open about our sexuality, Edwe silently prove that the only difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’ is whom we choose to love.”

Those words speak the truth.

Get Equal and a Gutsy Kid

2010-03-28T20:08:00.001-04:00

How many words has to be added to what this young man says?

How about equal rights now?

Not later, not tomorrow, not promises of waiting.

Now.

'Ex-Gay' Icon is Also Ex-Con

2010-02-15T22:57:00.003-05:00

BY NORM KENT'

PUBLISHER, SOUTH FLORIDA GAY NEWS.COM

A joint investigation by the organization Truth Wins Out and the SouthFloridaGayNews.com has revealed that the spokesperson for a New Jersey based national religious group seeking to ‘cure’ homosexuals is a convicted felon who has been hiding his past.

The leader of JONAH, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, Arthur Abba Goldberg, is now also serving as President of his Jersey City temple. He was sent to federal prison 20 years ago for a conspiracy to defraud the United States of America.

Additionally, Goldberg is presently the Executive Secretary of NARTH- the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The group hopes to heal “unwanted homosexuality” through “therapeutic care.”

One more group he supervises is PATH- Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality- a coalition of religious, ministerial, and ex-gay groups promoting “non-gay alternatives to homosexual lifestyles.” He is their President.

Goldberg, who reinvented himself in 2000 as the founder of JONAH, was found guilty in 1989 of numerous felonies in multiple jurisdictions. The charges ranged from federal mail and wire fraud to conspiracy counts as a result of a bogus bond writing scheme.

Goldberg was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in the Central District of California, which he served concurrently with a an Illinois sentence imposed at the same time. It was followed by five years of supervised probation and a $100,000 fine, eventually paid on November 24, 1999.

K. William O’Connor, the U.S. attorney who put him away, said at his sentencing that Goldberg was “a man who habitually took advantage of people who were economically dependent upon him; that he did not hesitate to lie or cheat or cover up to achieve his criminal aim. His greed has cause incalculable harm...”

Goldberg’s arrest and conviction rocked Wall Street when it went down two decades ago. A purported whiz kid and investment guru, he had been often referred to on the Street as “Abba Dabba Do” and “Abba Cadabra.”

Those names and that past were all secreted when Goldberg founded JONAH after getting out of prison. Abandoning the conspicuously identifiable middle name of ‘Abba’, Goldberg authored a book for Red Heifer Press under the name of ‘Arthur Goldberg.’

Titled “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change,” Goldberg re-created himself as an author and spiritual leader, purporting to help individuals struggling with their sexual identity, telling gays “you can change.” He certainly did.

“We have long considered Arthur Goldberg a con-artist, but our investigation shows he is also an ex-con,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.

“His diabolical past mirrors his dishonest present-day work with JONAH. Whether it was shady deals on Wall Street or shading the truth on gay issues, Goldberg is someone who lacks credibility and can’t be trusted,” said Besen.

“The Torah is the Book of Truth,” Besen concluded, “and Goldberg has now delivered us a book of lies.”

Born in 1940, Arthur Abba Goldberg identified himself his entire life by using all three of his names, at least until he got out of prison and started JONAH.

The TWO and SFGN investigation into his past revealed that when he authored articles for the American University Eagle in 1961 as an undergraduate, his byline was ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

When he received his bachelor’s degree from American University in 1962 and his law degree in 1965 from Cornell University, the diplomas were given to ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

When he authored land use articles for the Urban Law Journal in the early 1970’s as a young lawyer it was under the name of ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

It was also under the name ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ that he was admitted to the New Jersey and Connecticut Bar Associations, and it was under that name he served as the executive vice president directing Matthews & Wright, Inc., a New York underwriting firm, in which he was a major stockholder.

It was in the capacity as shareholder and vice president that Goldberg orchestrated a scheme of selling $2 billion in fraudulent municipal bonds for communities ranging from the impoverished city of East St. Louis to Chester, Pennsylvania, to the West Pacific U.S. territory of Guam.

The stories of his criminal acts were methodically detailed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a paper based near the Chester community scammed severely by the fraud.

It was under the name of ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ that a United States grand jury on Guam indicted him in late 1987 on 52 counts of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.

On September 26, 1989, ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to three counts of mail fraud. He was sentenced to 18 months as part of a plea bargain.

The trial had actually been moved to California because so many residents of Guam had been financially harmed by the bogus investment scheme it was thought a fair trial in that venue was impossible.

Goldberg and others also indicted at Matthews & Wright had knowingly conspired together to enter into a fraudulent scheme to sell fake bond issues but take commissions on them anyway. They arranged to bribe officials, deceive investors, and issue bogus checks to non existent parties.

In exchange for underwriting $300 million in bogus deals, Goldberg and his investment firm, Matthews & Wright, received a fee of $10.5 million. They created the impression these bonds would be used to help construct desperately needed single family housing in Guam and elsewhere.

Separately, Goldberg also pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in another falsified bond-writing scheme. In that matter, Goldberg participated in a conspiracy to ensure that the bonds were deemed prematurely to take advantage of a favorable tax law relating to transactions.

The 900 page presentence report prepared by prosecutors prior to his sentencing was scathing. It indicated that Goldberg’s conduct was “knowingly and willfully dishonest and fraudulent.”

K. William O’Connor described Goldberg as having engineered “a conspiratorial fraud of spectacular scope,” which purposefully duped “unsophisticated Pacific Islanders.” One witness against Goldberg said he treated the citizens of Guam as if “they were cannibals.”

O’Connor said that Goldberg’s deceitfulness crippled Guam’s economy, crushed investors, undermined public confidence in the bond industry, and cost the U.S. Treasury millions in lost taxes.

U.S. District Judge Jesse W. Curtis, Jr. then sentenced ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ to 18 months in prison, allowing both the Illinois and California sentences to run together. He imposed fines and restitution totaling $400,000, an amount later reduced by an appellate court.

In a separate civil proceeding, the Disciplinary Review Board of the New Jersey State Bar Association recommended taking away his law license. They found “Goldberg’s criminal convictions clearly and convincingly demonstrated his participation in activities that reflected adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness as a lawyer.”

The New Jersey Supreme Court then disbarred Goldberg on November 9, 1995, citing his criminal convictions and his “reckless indifference to a conspiracy of considerable magnitude.”

New Jersey’s highest court even noted that “We are aware of respondent’s active involvement in community service and his efforts to resettle numerous immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.” But, they concluded, “Goldberg’s conscious participation in the illegal activities leading to his criminal convictions outweighs these mitigating factors.”

In his capacity as the Director of JONAH, Goldberg formed and serves as a director of a tax exempt 501(c)(3) charitable corporation, whose website promises that it is “offering hope, compassion, direction and vitally needed information to gay strugglers, their families, friends, and surrounding community.” He formed the group using the name Arthur Goldberg, sans Abba, one month after getting his federal supervision of five years’ probation concluded.

In a 2001 interview not long after he began his religious crusade, Goldberg told the Herald News in Paterson, New Jersey, that homosexuality is the result of “psychological trauma.’ And that “six months to three years of weekly therapy and prayer can cure it.” He did not say anything about whether 18 months in a federal prison might also help.

Today, on the NARTH website, despite his conviction and disbarment, Goldberg proudly holds himself out as a ‘doctor of jurisprudence,’ displaying the title of ‘J.D.’ adjacent to his listing.

NARTH is one of the country’s most vocal critics of the American Psychological Association’s position paper concluding that homosexuality is normal, not aberrational. NARTH advocates the doctrine that homosexuality is a ‘developmental disorder’ and a ‘treatable condition.’

The ‘Jewish State’ is a central New Jersey newsweekly that Goldberg gave an interview to in 2007. He identified himself as a former deputy attorney general and Connecticut law professor, telling the reporter that “gays have been led astray in terms of your authenticity to yourself.” Meanwhile, he failed to disclose his criminal past.

“People are not born gay; there’s no such thing as a gay gene,” he added, complimenting that remark with the statement all gays “can readapt” from “their gender deficiency.” He then said homosexual children should be treated the same way as “if a child was addicted to drugs or alcohol.”

Goldberg is presently living conspicuously as the President of Congregation Mount Sinai in Jersey City. The temple offers itself out as a “welcoming environment for all people to express, deepen and rediscover their Jewish heritage.”

Last year, as a guest in the audience at the end of a Montel Williams show discussing ex-gays, he shouted from the audience at the host, interrupting the show, to say gays needed help. You can see it on You Tube.

“I’ve always been one to try to help the underdog,” he said.

But that is not what Judge Curtis concluded at Goldberg’s sentencing on September 26, 1989.

“I find,” the court stated, “that, Arthur Abba Goldberg, you have openly conspired against the United States by knowingly and recklessly engaging indifferently in a series of dishonest acts of considerable magnitude.”

JONAH’s website brags that it teaches that ‘homosexual strugglers can journey away from homosexuality with psychological and spiritual help, peer support, and personal empowerment.’

In 2007, JONAH established a separate division, The Jonah Institute for Gender Affirmation, to provide research and clinical strategies for “growth out of homosexuality.”

Maybe Arthur Abba Goldberg should have started a peer group for “growth out of felonies.” His days of failing to own up to his are over.

Senate OK's Gay Female as United States Marshal

2009-12-28T22:53:00.002-05:00

Mark it down as one small step for women, one great step for America, and yet another proud leap for gay and lesbian rights under the Obama Administration.

Minneapolis assistant police Chief Sharon Lubinski has become the first openly gay U.S. marshal.

The U.S. Senate confirmed the Green Bay, Wis. native to be the U.S. marshal for the Minnesota district. Last week's confirmation also makes her the first female marshal in the state.

Lubinski has served a number of roles with the Minneapolis Police. She was also a sheriff's deputy in Wisconsin.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar recommended Lubinski to President Barack Obama, who formally nominated her to the marshal post in October.

The Democratic senator said Monday that Lubinski's breadth of experience makes her a highly qualified candidate.U.S. marshals oversee federal courthouse security, witness protection and the apprehension of federal fugitives.

SFGN: South Florida Gay News Will Debut in January

2009-12-25T11:19:00.003-05:00

Marketwire Issued the Following Press Release for me this week. So I may be blogging less and newswriting a little more real soon.

Norm Kent Announces Debut of New GLBT Weekly, ‘South Florida Gay News.com’

Gay News, Straight Facts

Fort Lauderdale attorney Norm Kent announced today the inauguration of a new GLBT newsweekly, published under the banner of “South Florida Gay News.com”

Nicknamed ‘SFGN,’ Kent said he purposely chose a hard copy newspaper name with a “dot com” in the masthead “in order to accommodate and acknowledge; promote and link the diverse media platforms a 21st century newspaper has to deliver. Our website will be up and running before the paper is actually published and distributed.”

A South Florida attorney for 30 years, in 1999 Kent founded and published the very first credible GLBT weekly newspaper in Broward County, The Express Gay News. Mr. Kent sold The Express to Unite Media in December of 2003, which then published the paper under the banner of first The Express and then the South Florida Blade, until last month, when the corporation filed for bankruptcy protection in federal district court in Atlanta. Kent explained the name of his former paper, The Express, is tied up in the bankruptcy courts, and may be unavailable for months, as trustees sort out creditor issues.

Kent indicated that SFGN will be published and distributed on Mondays, tabloid size, commencing in January of 2010, and over 12,000 copies will be distributed to 300 plus locations in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. The paper will be published on high quality, heavy weight stock by Miami Offset. “We are going to deliver a handsome, local, hometown product, and our service providers will benefit our neighborhood businesses,” Kent stated, faulting the publishers of Unite Media for “losing touch with the community I intended the paper to serve.”

Kent stated that he had signed a long term lease for the primary newspaper office in the heart of Wilton Manors, at 2520 North Dixie Highway, adjacent to the CVS pharmacy at Five Points. The Manors is one of the fastest growing gay communities in the United States. Kent also indicated that “later in the year” there would be a satellite office in Dade County as well. “We have contracted for digital phones, modern computers, upgraded printers, and independent distributors. It’s a project, but we are getting there.”

Kent said the first issue of The Express was published January 24, 2000, and that he expects the first issue of SFGN is expected to be on the streets January 25, 2010, if not sooner. “It’s a kharma thing.”

Kent indicated that he will bring back some of his best feature columnists, who formerly wrote with the Express, along with the popular cartoonists and writers. Correspondents, such as Jesse Monteagudo, formerly with The Weekly News, are already working on features for the debut issue. The paper will include local writers such as Pier Guidugli, established columnists such as Jennifer Vanasco, and nationally known authors such as Wayne Besen. “We are a work still in progress. There are openings for creative talent.”

The web design for www.southfloridagaynews.com will be handled by Tom Forcella and the newspaper graphics by George Dauphin. News on the website will be updated daily with videos and interactive commentary.

Kent promised that “The bottom line is that we are going to publish a fiercely independent publication, a credible and legitimate weekly newspaper, which will feature topical news, cutting-edge issues, outspoken columnists, and articles capturing the breadth and diversity of gay life.” Kent added that “as The Express once was a hard-hitting meaningful paper people sought to read, so too will the SFGN soon be.”

Although an editor has not been hired yet, Kent said he is conducting exhaustive interviews after receiving over 150 replies from a Craigslist advertisement he posted last Friday. “Interested writers and salespersons, full time or part time, should send their resumes and credentials to my email, Publishernormkent@gmail.com for now. I do not have six figure salaries to pay out, but like The Express was once before, this is an opportunity for young people to come forward and create career opportunities for themselves.”

Kent noted that former staffers at his old paper have reached significant stature: “Ian Drew is an editor at US Weekly, Andy Zeffer has published a book, Kevin Hopper went on to become a publisher, and Jeff Palmer and Drew Middleton have started their own design and IT companies. Mike James, though he sadly passed away just a few weeks ago, became a film producer. Mary Damiano is an established critic. In fact, one of our very first issues at SFGN will feature the achievements of those past contributors.”

A constitutional rights and criminal defense attorney in Broward County, Kent has been a legal advocate of gay rights in South Florida for three decades. Recently, his law firm, Kent & Cormican, P.A., won a $45,000 judgment against the State of Florida for domestic partners who were falsely arrested in a state park. In 2007, he won an acquittal for numerous gay men who were unlawfully entrapped by law enforcement agencies by illegal undercover activities. In 1991, when 200 gay men were improperly detained by the Broward Sheriff’s Office in a bar raid at the Copa, he successfully brought a class action on behalf of those patrons, securing a consent judgment which led to BSO donating money to an AIDS agency.

The law offices of Norm Kent and Russell Cormican (Kent & Cormican, P.A.) are located in the 110 Tower in Fort Lauderdale, directly opposite the courthouse at 110 S.E. 6th Street, Suite 1970. Their telephone number is 954 763 1900, and they provide legal services in the field of criminal defense and constitutional rights.

Kent stated that “The Express was the culmination of my life as a gay rights advocate. I let it go in order to preserve it for posterity, and the big-shot corporation with its fancy budgets blew it and went broke. I learned a life lesson again- that if you love something, keep it close to your heart, invest in it with sweat and tears, and don’t let it go.”

Acknowledging the downturn of the economy and the decreasing market for newspapers, Kent added that the newspaper, which will be free, needs the support of the GLBT business community. “The gay community is more than bars and bathhouses. We are businesspersons and professionals. If I deliver a quality product, the community will make it work.”

Kent is also well known for his long time experience as the highly rated morning drive talk show host for WFTL-850 AM. He later hosted a weekly radio show titled 'Weekend Legal' on WWNN-1470 AM. Today, he publishes his comments about South Florida justice on The Broward Law Blog at www.browardlawblog.com and writes weekly commentaries for the popular online liberal newsletter, Counterpunch, at www.counterpunch.org

Headquartered in Wilton Manors, at 2520 North Dixie Highway, the phone number for SFGN is 954-530-4970.

Houston Elects Gay Comptroller to City Mayor

2009-12-13T14:38:00.004-05:00

Annise Parker's comfortable rise to mayor is drawing attention from national news outlets who are noting the significance of the nation's fourth largest city making history by electing an openly gay leader.

The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and MSNBC, for instance, emphasized that Parker won the race in a state that outlawed gay marriage and in a city that defeated a referendum granting benefits to same-sex partners of city workers.

With Parker winning nearly 53 percent of the vote late Saturday, Houston became the largest city to elect an openly gay mayor. Others include Cambridge, Mass., Portland, Ore., and Providence R.I.

From The Christian Science Monitor: “The distinction neatly sums up the American mood. As gays and lesbians become broadly accepted in society and politics, that acceptance is marked by a firm boundary beyond which voters do not yet appear willing to cross: same-sex marriage.”

Parker's sexual orientation became an issue in the final stretch of the race, after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed Parker's opponent, 61-year-old Gene Locke, and sent out mailers condemning Parker's sexual orientation.

The New York Times, which started following how Parker's sexuality was playing out politically in October, described her win a “milestone for gay men and lesbians around the country.”

In a post-election piece, the Times presented Parker as a charming victor who throughout the campaign tried unsuccessfully to stay away from discussing her sexuality, instead focusing on her accomplishments.

Bloomberg.com pointed out that Parker highlighted her sexual orientation in her victory speech and opened the door to her personal life, quoting Parker: “This election has changed the world for the lesbian, gay and transgendered community, just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better,” Parker told supporters last night before introducing “the person who has shared my life for more than 19 years.”

Earlier this year, the second most populous county in Florida, Broward, where Fort Lauderdale is based, selected as its Mayor, Kenneth Keechl.

Rock Hudson's Lover Dies: A Quarter Century Later

2009-12-05T14:45:00.005-05:00

The Rock:

Rock Hudson has been dead for years but the man who made his death more famous was alive until yesterday. Hudson, for our younger readers, was a classic Hollywood film star. Male, stunning, well-built. Always playing the role of happily married straight man, on film and in real life. But those who knew him knew better. Rock Hudson was gay. And he died of AIDS in the height of the epidemic, 1985.

Marc Christian MacGinnis was Rock Hudson’s secret lover. McGinnis made legal history by suing Hudson’s estate in 1991, winning a multimillion-dollar settlement, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS. He too, has now died, at the age of 56. Christian, who went by his mother's maiden name, made headlines in 1985 when he sued Hudson's estate for $10 million, alleging that he had suffered severe emotional distress after learning about his condition the way the rest of the world did- on a news broadcast that the former matinee idol and television star had AIDS, which was claiming lives throughout the gay community.

Hudson was diagnosed in 1984 but did not publicly acknowledge his illness until July 1985; he died three months later at age 59. Christian tested negative for acquired immune deficiency syndrome several times after learning of Hudson's diagnosis but legally he contended that the star put him at risk of contracting the disease by concealing his illness and continuing to have sexual relations with him.

In 1989, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury said Hudson had displayed "outrageous conduct" and awarded Christian $21.75 million in damages, later reduced to $5.5 million. The $5.5-million award was upheld by a state Court of Appeal, which called it just compensation for the "ultimate in personal horror, the fear of slow, agonizing death." A private settlement was then reached. That is the way America thought of HIV a quarter century ago.

McGinnis never came across as a hero or whistle blower. Instead, twenty-seven years younger than Hudson, he was portrayed by many as a gold digger. It was a time though, when few had a full grasp of understanding of the need for sexual responsibility. There were no laws on the books making failing to disclose your HIV status a crime. That would come later. But this case opened the door to groundbreaking laws and higher standards.

Several years after the sensational case ended, Christian told People magazine that his purpose was "not to sleaze Rock;" that he even wanted to privately settle. Christian argued that his suit "was to say that if you have AIDS, you ought to tell your partner, whether you're a movie star or a postman." Duh! The significant thing, years later, a few days after World AIDS Day, is that we are still fighting the disease. And no one should be 'sleazed' by getting sick.

Larry King interview in 2001 with McGinnis

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0103/29/lkl.00.html

Meredith Ties Her Family to Another Woman

2009-12-03T01:02:00.003-05:00

"Family Ties" actress Meredith Baxter made the media rounds Wednesday confirming the rumors that she is a lesbian. For me, the real news story will arrive the day that the 'coming out' of a TV star is inconsequential and barely newsworthy.

Baxter, who had been married three times to different men, went on the Today show and explained to Matt Lauer homosexuality 'was a later in life recognition.'

The National Enquirer recently ran a story about Baxter being spotted on a lesbian cruise through the Caribbean with a "female friend," which was then picked up by celebrity blogs. As a result, the 62-year-old decided to tell her fans herself.

"I didn't want some tabloid to take the story and make it up," Baxter said in the interview. "I wanted it to be in my own words." Good for her. Almost. She complained that "to come out and disclose stuff is very antithetical" to who she is. Well, sometimes, for the greater good, you stand naked before the cannon. Or in her case, semi naked in a bathing suit on a cruise ship in the Caribbean with her partner.

"We live a very open life at home," Baxter said of her life with Nancy Locke. "Anyone who's a friend of mine, anyone who knows and cares about me knows. It's no secret that I'm gay, but it has been to the greater world." Now we know, and the Earth will still turn on its axis, and Ms. Baxter will find the rotation more stable, her life more honest, the secrecy less necessary.

Her 25-year-old son Peter summed it up best for everyone.

He told the National Enquirer that he "just couldn't stop smiling, because she finally figured it out." Meaning, of course, how nice it is that Mom caught on, sailing on a ship called Honesty. It was probably the best cruise she ever had.

Did Transgender Torture Lead to Sportswriter's Suicide?

2009-11-29T15:14:00.004-05:00

Not Just Dorothy Anymore:
Transgendered Persons Deserve Equal Rights Too
By Norm Kent

The suicide this past weekend of LA Times sportswriter Mike Kenner, who for the last few years wrote under the byline of Christine Daniels, leaves me today with a desire to rant and rave over an insane anomaly in American human rights protections.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects all individuals against employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as age, race, color, national origin, and religion. Many states go further and offer protection against discrimination because of physical or emotional disabilities, marital status, and even pregnancy discrimination.

More and more communities we know have added sexual orientation to the fold, but it seems the new Scarlett letter tearing apart American communities is a debate over whether to protect “gender identity” under civil rights statutes.

Why would anyone fight this? Discrimination is morally wrong and ought to be demonstratively illegal in any form. The very purpose of passing laws against discrimination is to prevent wrongful acts which deny equal opportunities to individuals similarly situated. If we are all presumptively equal under the law, it is correspondingly presumptively illegal if we are treated differently for no rhyme or reason.

Last year, for example, in the city of Largo, a small West Coast community in Florida, its City Manager, Steve Stanton, announced he was going for a sex change operation. The City Commission promptly held a standing room only meeting and fired him. Why? For 15 years, when he did his job as Steven he was fine. But when he chose to come into work as Susan his job was gone; her career in shambles.

What sense does this make? The role Mr. Stanton filled was managing numbers for a city budget. That task requires accounting skills, not a jockstrap or bra. His brain was not operated upon, but the community’s conscience was shocked, and it sent a ripple of disbelief through our national psyche.

Last month, President Obama selected Jenny Durkan, a Lesbian, to be the U.S. Attorney for Seattle, Washington. She was appointed because of the talents she brought to the table as a prosecutor, not her skill set in bed with her partner. What business is it of ours whether the City Manager of Largo performs the duties of the job as Steven or Susan as long as the tasks are filled with impeccable integrity?

If you were a sports fan in Los Angeles, you would have known Mike Penner as a first-rate journalist who had covered a variety of assignments including the Olympics, the Angels, tennis, and the sports media. But he made stunning news in 2007 when he announced he was a transsexual and would be writing his new columns under the name of Christine Daniels. And this affects us how?

If it is wrong to discriminate against an individual, that discrimination is inappropriate whether the person you are interacting with is male or female, straight or gay, black or white. Or Transsexual, metrosexual, bisexual, homosexual, or asexual. As long as they are not telling you to drop your pants, get over it.

Even the gay and lesbian community has moved too slowly in accepting the rights of transgendered persons. Within the gay rights movement, there was for too long silent resistance that we were pushing the envelope too far. Timid activists suggested we were ‘rocking the boat.’ Hell, why not? It needed new pilots.

Thus, as activists so too did we ultimately push the envelope on gay marriage, domestic partnerships, civil unions, equal rights in employment, and spousal benefits. If you are an activist anywhere, you have to learn to push the envelope somewhere. If you do not, someone will lick the seal and glue you in it. A civil right, like a sealed envelope, sometimes only comes about when you rip and tear that envelope. And it is not always a pretty and smooth cut.

Ultimately, then, transgender protections should not even be seen as a gay rights issue. We are simply supporting fundamental human rights protections. And while it is encouraging that such ordinances are being adopted in various communities, from Salt Lake City to Kalamazoo, we should no more have votes on inalienable human rights than we should have had majority opinions to determine whether southern states in the 1960’s should have had separate water fountains which read ‘Whites Only.’ It was simply a wrong which Time and decades needed to right. So too is it with those transsexuals who must endure wrongful ostracism today.

Legislators, not voters, need to codify equal rights protections, and they do not need popular approval to do so. What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular. The same way a legislator would vote to strike down a law stating only Caucasians can sit on the front of a bus so too must they strike down a policy that allows a government agency to fire an employee because they do not approve of a transsexual. That person’s status is beyond the scope of their approval.

I do not know what killed Mike Penner this past weekend. If we learn it was a tortured conscience because of confusion over his identity, then our society lost a life uselessly.

I do know when he ‘came out’ three years ago, as a married man with a wife and child, he called writing the story about his sexuality the “most frightening of all the towering mountains of fear” he ever had to conquer. He wrote: “I am a transsexual sportswriter…and it has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words."

If we can begin normalizing our laws today so as to promote social acceptance tomorrow, we can make a difference for those so impacted. We may even be saving a life.

A Friend Dies of AIDS

2009-11-28T17:07:00.006-05:00

by Norm Kent

The President's AIDS Day address is online, and in city after city, communities will gather this Tuesday to pay tribute.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23172777/2009aidsday-prc

Having a President that cares matters, because AIDS is still with us and is very real.

More often than not, like last week in Fort Lauderdale, when the Office of National AIDS Policy solicited public opinion, we hear stories of survival. More and more people are living longer and longer with HIV. It is so encouraging. Too encouraging.

As a result of better treatments, higher standards of care, and more attention to the disease, we have become too complacent. Apathy has set in. People are still dying. Too many of us are looking at living with the disease comfortably instead of ending the pandemic urgently.

On this day, where we celebrate the lives of so many who died too young, one particular person jumps out at me. His name is Jerry Michael James, and he died of HIV last Friday, at the age of 38. He was a friend too be sure, and his loss hurts very much. As I go about the process of starting a new South Florida gay newspaper, he was the first one I considered as an editor and writer. However, I knew he was in hospice, working on a horror film, a project he loved.

Mike was a 50's character, like Jack Kerouac, one of those geniuses who lived on the edge, and often ran it to excess He was a filmmaker, an artist, a writer, an editor, a colleague. We spent too little time together these past few years. We went in different directions, but the bond remains, and I will remember his recklessness and his passion; his willingness to buck the tide and assert his independence; to be the master of his fate, the captain of his soul. I salute him as a champion.

But then, I ran an AIDS clinic for two years. I met many champions. I saw many young men living with HIV. They refused to let it hinder their goals or drive. But I also saw single moms, and teenage children born into HIV who have known no other life. I saw doctors working daily on infections, colds, swellings, diarheea cutting through people's bodies like knives. Behind the shadow of the clinics who hold car washes and art sales to raise money, there is a silent pain you cannot imagine. The fear of an unknown that tomorrow might bring.

There are clients who need acupuncture and transportation. Case managers who need to find housing. Patients who need medicine. Recovering soldiers who need employment and hope. Warriors who need counselng. Scientists and scholars who need funding for new protocols. Pharmacists frustrated their medications were so expensive they could not reach all in need. There is a hidden world of HIV the public never sees.

I remember Mike James more for his infectious smile than his infection. But that is for those of us who knew him. Most of all, to remember him properly, and all those living still with HIV, as well as those lost too soon, we must remember our battle is not won, the fight goes on, the disease must still be conquered. It is the only way to honor so many so long gone who gave so much and were denied by Fate, destiny and T cells the opportunity to give so much more...

For those of us who remember stories of Patient Zero, the day AIDS was called GRID, we have all had a Michael James in our life.

Remember those friends, past and present, this Tuesday nite.

'Coming Out' on the Ice: A Jock's Thanksgiving Story

2009-11-27T08:42:00.003-05:00

John Buccigross of ESPN.com has written a compelling piece on a young man named Brendan Burke, coming out to his dad Brian Burke, a National Hockey League GM with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s a story of a kid dealing with the jock mentality; that often narrow and homophobic mindset. In truth, his coming out to his family is no more difficult than most experiences similarly dealt with by gay men and women everywhere. But this story is really done too well for me to ruin it with a long blog. So here it is for your reading enjoyment- I command you to go to it at once:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=4685761

I guess the most important part of the piece is when he Brendan tells his Dad, and the ho hum response is "Of course, we still love you. This won't change a thing."

We know, though, do we not, that there are still homes where similar pronouncements are unfortunately met with emotional and material ramifications that destroy families. That's the reality of life.

Here is one gay blogger’s analysis, pointedly talking about various issues we all face in our lives, regardless of sexuality:

http://blog.canoe.ca/canoedossier/2009/11/25/gay_guys_in_hockey?p=58771&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

A very good piece...

The bottom line is that at any time, any where, we are all, if you will, naked before a cannon. There are moments in our lives where we are called upon to stand our ground, and make moral decisions which influence what and who we become. For Brendan Burke, it was homosexuality. For an addict, it might be drugs. For an abused child, it may have been a violent parent.

Once you confront the ‘bully’ within yourself, the one secretly and quietly beating you up daily, you will find a new found freedom. You will relieve the torture your existence has cornered you into. After 60 years on this Earth, that is my experience. Free yourself from the psychological repression you impose upon yourself, and your spirit will soar, your life will grow, and you will achieve the very things you long and yearn for.

Kudos to John Buccigross of ESPN for framing a ‘coming out’ column as astutely as he has done so for the Burke family. We have all been so tested.

Fly, Fly Away with Gay Aviation Scholarships

2009-11-26T10:11:00.006-05:00

Ever wanted to be part of that mile high club?

Here is just a short feel good piece for Thanksgiving.

As a news blogger, I try to celebrate the gay community for its charitable endeavors and professional achievements, recognizing how much we achieve with our clothes on.

In founding the Express, a gay newspaper in South Florida a decade ago, I made a point of doing features on the wealth of professional and community alliances the gay community had fostered, from bowling leagues to choruses. This weekend, for example in South Florida, they celebrate their 15th Annual Hurricane Showdown Softball Tournament, with hundreds of gay and lesbian softball players coming to our sunny state to compete for a grand prize in four different division.

It is amazing how large, diverse, and strong our groups have become. And we should give thanks for that today. We should give more thanks that they are not all political, too, but instead capture the breadth and diversity of our community. I give thanks today that the Washington Blade has reemerged as a newsweekly under the name of the DC Agenda, and pray for their success in difficult economic times. So too are former staffers of the Southern Voice promising Atlanta a new GLBT paper. And I continue my promise to South Florida that the South Florida Gay News is on its way to an early 2010 debut.

So here is a brief note that the National Gay Pilots Association Education Fund will award $15,000 in scholarships in 2010 to aviators pursuing careers as professional pilots. Applications must be received by March 1, 2010. Awards will range from $3,000 to $4,000.

NGPA has granted more than $100,000 in scholarships since 1998. Applicants must be enrolled in an accredited flight school or in a university course of study with a flight program. Payments are made directly to the school and must be applied toward an advanced rating or tuition. Academic ability, financial need and active participation in matters of social justice toward the betterment of the LGBT community will be considered. The application is on the NGPA Web site at ngpa.org.

Adam Lambert's Gutsy AMA Performance Wins Acclaim and Critics

2009-11-24T18:29:00.004-05:00

by Norm Kent

I come to praise Adam Lambert, not to bury him.

This is an artist I really want to meet.

Just two days ago, I did a piece asking us to allow Adam Lambert to be accepted as a performer, and not to worry about his role as a political activist. The gay community has somehow demanded of him to be something he is not.

http://nationalgaynews.blogspot.com/2009/11/adam-lambert-defends-his-craft-and.html

Sunday, America got a taste of this emerging male Madonna. Sending shockwaves throughout the audiences at the American Music Awards, he performed a number while allowing a male to simulate fellatio upon him, only moments after sharing a deep erotic kiss with his male drummer. For good measure, shades of Elvis Presley, he grabbed his crotch.

His cutting edge and groundbreaking performance should probably be commended by Gay America for its brash and open display of male upon male sexuality. Not at ABC. They promptly canceled Lambert’s scheduled performance on Good Morning America set for Tuesday morning. Too bad for them.

Here is the deal, America. Gay men kiss. Gay men grab crotches. That is what we do, preferably in private, but if it is on stage, during a performance, at nite, under the lights, designed to elicit sensuality and excitement, don’t be shocked, don’t be surprised. It is us. It is real.

Throughout the American Idol series, Adam Lambert demonstrated his ability to remain within the rules and comply with prime time TV guidelines and standards. But here he was at the American Music Awards, a show for stars and theatrics, and he brashly displays his sexuality in a way no gay male performer ever had before. That is gutsy. That is courage. No apologies from me, and good for him.

Complaints poured in to ABC , which aired the AMAs and GMA, about the sexually charged performance. Supposedly, more than 1,500 people complained. Not surprising. Might even lead to a fine with the FCC. Not surprising either. As an entertainer, it may be a small price for the international exposure stars yearn for. Now who did he lose American Idol to? Can't even remember the dude's name. I mean it is not like he declared lives expendable to put an unsafe car on the road. Or if you saw this evening's news, he did not become a crib retailer knowingly marketing unsafe dropside baby cribs. Corporate America did that for decades. All Lambert did was show who Lambert was.

Lambert summed it up best: "You know honestly, if I offended some people... it's apples and oranges. I'm not an artist that does things for every single person," he told Access Hollywood, "I believe in artistic freedom and expression, I believe in honoring the lyrics of a song, and those lyrics aren't really for everybody either."

Without trying to be an exponent for free speech, artistic expression, or gay rights, in one small way Lambert is becoming one anyway. I think it is great that he kissed a male drummer on stage, and was the first performer in America to openly do so. That it took until December of 2009 to get there, to openly do what other artists have routinely done with members of the opposite sex, and their audiences, that's the sad thing.

If he needs a lawyer to defend him, he has got one in this publisher.

Lambda Legal Sues Atlanta Police After Bar Raid

2009-11-24T10:49:00.005-05:00

BREAKING NEWS OUT OF ATLANTA

Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit against the Atlanta Police Department on behalf of 19 people who say they were forcibly searched and detained during a raid on an Atlanta gay bar. The suit says the raid was flat out illegal, and as a constitutional rights lawyer who publishes a gay rights blog, I flat out agree.

I have been in touch with attorney Dan Grossman, and agree with his assertion that Police Chief Richard Pennington and the 48 officers named are not above the law. There are three co-counsel who have filed the case jointly, so technically it is The Southern Center for Human Rights (http://www.schr.org/), Daniel Grossman, Esq, and Lambda Legal (http://www.lambdalegal.org/) which filed the lawsuit jointly.

The suit notes that the police unlawfully searched and detained people who are were suspected of a crime. Police said at the time they had received several complaints about criminal conduct at the club before the raid, but as I note in my column below, there were other ways to go to deal with it, short of an illegal police action.

Having just read the suit, it is formidable, credibly proving that patrons were battered, brutalized, and beaten, humiliated and detained without rhyme or reason, cause or justification. No gay community can let this stand.

Here is my blog about it from last month and here is a link to their site--
http://nationalgaynews.blogspot.com/2009/09/atlanta-gay-bar-raids-were.html

http://atlantaeagleraid.com/

Uganda Proposes Death Penalty for Homosexuals

2009-11-22T21:13:00.006-05:00

I am going to make this blog real simple, okay?

For the full news story, I give you a link to Gay City News at the end of this rant.

The leadership of the country of Uganda, home once of the infamous Idi Amin, has proposed the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality." It's just life for touching someone with " the intention of committing the act of homosexuality”.

In prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality,” the bill would not only bar political activity on behalf of gay rights, but would also require anyone learning the identity of a sexually active gay person to report that information within 24 hours, or face a stiff fine or jail time. Sounds like the Briggs Amendment from 1978 in California. It is what gave life to Harvey Milk.

What are we supposed to say? 48 protestors gathered outside their mission in Manhattan, not far from the U.N. 30 in D.C. Maybe these myopic Neanderthals do us a favor. Maybe it forces the U.N. to engage in the unprecedented act of censuring a country for it practices and policies as it relates to sexual orientation. Maybe this goes from a terribly unjust law in an inconsequential African country to give life to a global gay rights protest.

Take the bad and make it better. But there are no maybes for the gay men of Uganda. There is only the prospect of brutal punishment. As long as those sanctions exist, as long as our brothers suffer, we are all Ugandans.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/20/gay_city_news/news/doc4b05f074ae43c804639319.txt

Washington Blade Staff Publishes New GLBT Weekly

2009-11-22T10:30:00.003-05:00

The former staff of the Washington Blade has managed to knock out a new gay paper in less than a week, and everyone is holding their breath.

The DC Agenda appeared on newstands Friday, less than a week after gay publisher Window Media shuttered the most established GLBT publication in America, after four decades of life.

Window's Chapter 7 bankruptcy also sealed the fate of six LGBT newspapers, including the Atlanta-based gay weekly Southern Voice, as well as the Houston Voice, David Atlanta, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine. The company closed down three additional properties over the summer: HX Magazine, the New York Blade and monthly glossy Genre.

No word yet on the others, but South Florida is promising a new life with a biweekly Blade. 411, a gay bar guide, will republish as Mark's List Magazine. The staff from one mag joined a new corporate entity and is back to work.

Kevin Naff, as DC Agenda's new editor, says he is buoyed by an outporing of community support. He will need it. Publishing a paper costs a small fortune. I know, because like Kevin, I am trying to do the impossible and bring South Florida's 'Express Gay News' back to life. I am not encouraged by a prospect of a small non-news based biweekly for Florida's large and diverse gay community. I think our community deserves better.

Window Media's troubles began soon after they received a $39 million Small Business Administration loan which was squandered on a series of misguided acquisitions. But why did the company choose to liquidate the DC and South Florida Blade when several suitors had put money on the table and placed it in escrow? Were taxpayers not screwed? Did the SBA fall down on their job.

Nicholas F. Benton, owner the Virginia-based weekly the Falls Church News-Press, told New York-based Gay City News that he had won a September bid to buy the Blade. So too did a new corporate entity win that right in Florida. The SBA said the decision to liquidate did not come from them. Maybe so, but they dropped the ball. Had they executed more expeditiously on the sales, maybe all these papers find continuity. Now it's a roll of the dice with startups.

“SBA has not been a part of any decision not to sell these newspapers. SBA supported the sale of the newspaper assets owned by Window. It was SBA, acting as receiver, that solicited offers to purchase the newspapers, and passed the offers it received to Window/Unite Media,” Michael Stamler, an SBA spokesman, said in an email to Gay City News. They have a great piece on the foreclosure here:

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/20/gay_city_news/news/doc4b042bd98fdb6012043258.txt

And some complaints with what went down:

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/20/gay_city_news/news/doc4b033eee8d57a664091823.txt

The first edition of the DC Agenda is modest. Publisher Lynne Brown, and its 18-person staff, presumably working for free at the moment, have their work cut out for them. It is a struggle not for news, which there is a wealth of, but for revenues, which newspapers are finding there is a dirth of. So good luck to all the staffers, who wrote this week "their mission continues." May it indeed do so.

Meanwhile, it sure looks like the SBA dropped the ball.

Adam Lambert Defends His Craft and Conscience

2009-11-22T02:49:00.005-05:00

Gotta hand it to Wayne Parry in the Associated Press.

His piece on American Idol star Adam Lambert sums the kid up best this way:

'This vocal chameleon can be all things to all listeners, and he kills at whatever he sings. Lambert is equally adept at hard rock, pop, disco, and power ballads, often blending ingredients of several in a single track to produce unforgettable results.'

Hey, you know, I do not expect him to be anything else to anyone. His range and command of music and voice, as exhibited on the Idol show, was nothing short of spectacular.

But I have to do a real shout out to Lambert as well. Accosted for his opinion on everything from politics to world peace since he became a household name, he continues to just, well, sing. He even told an interviewer at Out Magazine that he does not want to comment on global issues, he just wants to make good songs: 'That is what I do,' he said. 'I am not a politician. I am an entertainer. Why do people expect me to talk about civil rights? Not every gay man is the same gay man.'

Amazingly, activists are chiding him for not parading a flag at the march on Washington. Please. Cut the kid a break. An entertainer who does what he is good at, and is not the least bit embarrassed that he does not have to save the world by his 21st birthday. Why is he being chastized and criticized for his candor and honesty in stating his goal is simply to make good music? The people who voted for him on American Idol did not do so because of his ability to change the world. It was because of his ability to sing, so how about letting him follow his own path and just do what he does best?

Florida's Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Speaks Out in Support of Gay Adoption Law

2009-11-22T02:38:00.007-05:00

Alex Sink, Herald photo by Charles Trainor

Normally, American candidates for public office do not have to support a law which endorses the rights of gay men and women to adopt children. That is because all American communities and commonwealths allow gay men and women to adopt children. With one exception. Orange Juice Land. Home of Anita Bryant. Home of a handsome governor who apparently once partnered with some younger gay men before marrying an older women.

This brings us to Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and the leading Democratic candidate for governor. Last week at Fort Lauderdale’s Museum of Art, she told a crowd of over 300 equal rights activists that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt if it's in the children's ``best interest.''

Alex Sink is a charming woman, who overpowered me with her energy when she first appeared on my radio talk show one morning at the Floridian. She has a commanding presence, and I think her warmth and personality will sweep her to the governorship over a rather staid Bill McCollum, the state’s Attorney General.

The thing is Alex will need all the charm she can muster to change the law if she wins. Our legislature is still regressive and right wing, dominated by Neanderthal Republicans who have steadfastly refused to amend the law in the face of all common sense evidence to the contrary.

Gays and Lesbians can be buoyed by some judicial decisions striking the statute, such as the one authored by Judge Cindy Lederman in Miami. Those rulings are working their way through appellate courts. So time will give us an ultimate outcome.

Nevertheless, no legitimate GLBT forum can ignore the courage and conscience of Alex Sink today in speaking out. Even though gays are allowed to serve in an interim capacity as foster parents, Florida is the only state with an outright ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men.

As the Attorney General charged with the responsibility of defending state statutes, Bill McCollum, Ms. Sink’s opponent for Governor, is charged with defending the law. It would be ironic if Mr. McCollum supported overturning it as well, but he does not, though to his credit, both as a candidate and AG, he has been supportive of hate crimes legislation.

Still, how can anyone reasonably say that the same gay couples who foster children for years should not be allowed to adopt them for life? No one with a modicum of intelligence can argue such a ludicrous position. No one in 49 other states in our union attempts to.

Gay Mayoral Candidate in Houston Slandered By Morons

2009-11-20T00:26:00.005-05:00

The homophobic attacks against Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker have begun, and the one below is alarming.

It's a postcard mailing to 35,000 people from your average local hateful moron, featuring a picture of Parker and her longtime partner, which asks, "Is this the image Houston wants to portray?" and reads:

“I have nothing but compassion, respect and sensitivity towards those trapped in homosexual behavior. I have family members and friends who have been ensnared in this behavior, and I know something of the incredible pain and sorrow it has brought to them and their families. With God’s grace, I carefully balance this love and respect for these individuals with warnings about the promotion and demand for legal and political approval for homosexual behavior that will stifle religious freedom and trap millions of more people in its deadly grip. Therefore, I would ask you to vote against Annise Parker for Mayor.”

So Fort Lauderdale's ex Mayor, Jim Naugle, should be pleased to know he has some Neanderthal company in Texas. In Lauderdale, gay mayoral candidate Dean Trantalis was defeated in an election last March. But in the same county, Ken Keechl, a gay county commissioner, was appointed this week by his colleagues, as the Broward County mayor. This is the second most populous county in the state, with over a million residents.

Whether it is US Attorneys in Seattle, or US Marshals in Wisconsin, or gay mayors in South Florida, our community is establishing itself as professionals across the country. This normalizes us and popularizes us for what we achieve with our clothes on. We have reason to be proud, and the hateful feudal populations who opt for denigrating our identity instead of applauding our achievements are destined to become relics of history. But women such as Annise Parker are destined to become America's leaders of tomorrow.

Gay Teenager Murdered in Puerto Rico; Arrests Made

2009-11-19T02:03:00.003-05:00

Jorge Lopez Mercado, left

Another gay teenager has been butchered in the streets, this time in Puerto Rico. Another bloody and unnecessary death. And probably a hate crime.

Murder charges were filed Wednesday in the slaying of a gay teenager whose decapitated, partially burned body was found last week, while U.S. authorities said they were still considering whether to make it a hate crime case.

I just blogged about hate crimes, and here is the link. http://browardlawblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/understanding-floridas-hate-crime-law.html

Understand this, murder is a hate crime. The effect of a hate crime charge is to raise the level of the penalties and make the criminal face more severe sanctions. But murder carries the ultimate penalty. Can’t do much more then sentence a guy to life in jail or death.

What is clear about the killing of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado is that it was shockingly violent and brutal, with his body dismembered. All the preliminary evidence suggests he may have been targeted because of his sexuality.

Lopez was widely known as a volunteer for organizations advocating HIV prevention and gay rights, and activists are planning remembrance vigils for him in cities including San Juan, New York and Chicago. We should be. Violence targeting gays is still occurring across the country.

The Lopez situation is not unlike Simmie Williams in Fort Lauderdale, a male victim dressed as a woman in an area known for prostitution. We are hearing about a ‘gay panic’ defense that the assailant went into a murderous rage after discovering his trick was a man, not a woman. That is no excuse for murder. It is an excuse to excuse yourself from the proposed liaison, not a justification for taking the life of another.

Puerto Rico is a US territory and the new hate crime laws apply, but very few prosecutions have emerged out of San Juan over the past few years. Activists say though these laws should be used more vigorously. The FBI is investigating and federal prosecutors will have the final say on how to proceed.

We should turn our attention southward so that an end comes to this inexcusable violence. And we should make this our test case. This was a hate crime to be sure.

Newsworthy Gay Media Dies in America

2009-11-16T12:39:00.007-05:00

I have known this is coming for days, but due to my dual role as a lawyer have had to shut my mouth as a journalist.

As published on the Steve Rothaus Gay News Blog of the Miami Herald, http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/ and as featured in Qweerty, a favorite online gay news site of mine, today spells perhaps, the death knell of credible gay media in America.

The very people that bought up my newspaper, Express Gay News, and acquired other national gay publications with government backed funds, has gone broke.

The publisher of Window Media — which publishes the Southern Voice, Washington Blade, South Florida Blade, 411 Magazine, Houston Voice, David Magazine, and the already deceased Genre Magazine, unsurprisingly closed up shop over the weekend. Their lawyers apparently are filing for bankruptcy protection this week, and may have already. They were already in receivership for defaulting on SBA loans.

I do not know whether it will be reorganization, or the fatal ‘stick a fork in us, we are done’ filing. I am told the latter.

I do know that both in South Florida and Atlanta its employees found out by reading a pictured sign stating that Window Media has shut down. And though while the websites of its publications remain online, there will be no South Florida Blade this week. 411 is at press and will publish, but beginning today, staffers cannot access their office. They can only retrieve personal possessions later in the week.

While Window Media may not survive federal receivership, a group of very motivated businessmen had tendered a very fair offer to purchase 411 and the Blade. They are lucky they did not have to pay for something they now essentially get for free. They are meeting at this moment with 411 and Blade staffers in an attempt to move them to a new publication, Mark’s List Magazine, and keep the bar guide running under a new name with new stewardship as a new startup with no debt. I wish them luck. They will not be burdened by an unnecesary payoff to the federal government and can start their own business under their own name with a clean blank slate. Good for them, but it is a tough market.

For me, I will not sit by and let the credible gay news media collapse in South Florida. I hope other businessmen feel the same way in Atlanta. There is a need for a Washington Blade, Southern Voice, or Express Gay News. There is a place for Hot Spots and 411. There is a need for the Blades. That is the way I feel. That is the way I will act.

This is not a good time for publications anywhere. The Internet rules. Still, the gay community deserves better and can afford newsworthy publications that have stature and credibility. I am going to use my influence any way I can to make it happen.

Conspicuously absent from the press release at http://frontpage.jumponmarkslist.com/MSFL/2009/111609.htm

is any mention of the Blade, the news entity I care most about.

Here is what http://www.qweerty.com/

wrote today, very accurately: “So many LGBT Americans turned to Window's publications — often before they were absorbed into the publisher's umbrella — for the latest digest on local gay news, events, and attacks on the community. These papers were, unarguably, invaluable and this website and its readers have benefited directly from them. When it comes to hyper-local reporting, the various Blade titles were the biggest game in town.”
'While the executives running the company may not be, the titles will surely be missed'.

The burden to keep gay media alive now falls upon someone somewhere.

I will simply not allow South Florida to go without a credible and newsworthy GLBT publication and I am actively soliciting and recruiting partners with me to insure that it happens.

I am privileged that some have already called me and asked me to step into a huge void. I am responsive to the inquiries but business realities have to be explored, evaluated and analyzed before precipitously undertaking such an enormous venture. I will give it my immediate consideration.

Our community cannot allow itself to be measured by bar guides picturing shirtless men holding up drinks in niteclubs. We are too much more to do less.

Ten years ago, starting the Express with a little money and then selling it to Window Media for a lot more, I proved that a credible gay newspaper can prosper in a local community. The road is tougher, and the Net makes it more difficult, but if there is a way to go down that road again, I am prepared to start.

There is no doubt in my mind that a strong and vibrant South Florida community is capable of starting a new Express. In the interim, there is no better place to get your daily fix of gay life than to read Steve Rothaus online. He is our CNN.

News at 11. No, maybe right away. We are on the board nationally, and not in a good way:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575310,00.html

http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/11/16/daily20.html

Don't Ask: A Discharged Vet Tells CNN His Story

2009-11-10T22:59:00.004-05:00

(CNN) -- Darren Manzella saw two tours of duty in Iraq, first as a combat medic and later as a liaison officer. He earned three promotions in his six years as a U.S. Army sergeant.

Despite his professional success, Manzella says he began to question his personal life.

"After returning from my first deployment in Iraq, after seeing death and violence, losing friends and comrades, it really made me look over my life," he said. "I looked at some issues I had always had trouble with. I had debated, 'Am I gay?' "

As he struggled with his sexual identity, Manzella began a relationship with a man. Soon after, while in Texas between tours, Manzella said he began receiving anonymous, harassing e-mails and telephone calls.

"They told me, 'You are stupid, the Army is going to kick you out, but before they do, they are going to take your rank away and all your money away.' "
Manzella describes this time as one of fear and deep insecurity.

"I didn't know if the military police would be coming through the door to take me away because someone had reported me," he said. "This was some of the paranoia I was living with every day."

Manzella says that the e-mails and calls went on for months and that after many sleepless nights, he decided to ask his supervisor for help.

"He listened and was somewhat sympathetic," Manzella said. "He told me not to worry, to try and get some rest, to go home early and see him in the morning."

By the next morning, Manzella's supervisor had reported him as having broken the law under "don't ask, don't tell," the 1993 policy that prohibits anyone who "demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the U.S. military.

Manzella said he was read his rights and told that he would be investigated, but that he could continue working. As the investigation proceeded, word spread that Manzella was gay.

"Ironically, it pulled the unit together. A lot of them started to invite me out," Manzella said. "My co-worker was getting married; she told me that my boyfriend and I were invited to the wedding. It made me feel like I was more a part of the family."

After a month, Manzella said he was told that no proof of homosexuality had been found and that the investigation was being closed, even though he told his supervisor about his lifestyle. Manzella was hopeful.

"I thought it was a big step when they told me that they were going to retain me," he said.
In 2006, Manzella's unit was sent back to Iraq, and he served his 15-month deployment with his unit knowing he was gay.

"I could have pictures of my boyfriend out, I could talk freely on the phone without having to worry about someone overhearing me and reporting me," he said.

During his tour, Manzella was contacted by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national nonprofit offering legal assistance to those affected by don't ask, don't tell. SLDN told him that a television network was looking for a gay serviceman in a combat zone to tell his story.
After weighing the risk of being discharged for speaking out publicly, Manzella agreed to the interview. He said he was motivated by the knowledge that he could give a voice to the gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in the military -- a number estimated at 65,000 by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which researches sexual minorities in the military.

The network television segment aired a few days before Manzella returned from Iraq, and it seemed at first that his interview would not have consequences. He returned to the States, spent time with his family and even went to Capitol Hill to lobby against don't ask, don't tell.
Manzella returned to duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in December 2007 and continued to serve for almost seven months. In the first week of March 2008, he was given orders to report to Fort Drum, New York, to work at the military hospital there.

A week later, he said, his company commander called him in.

"I was told I was going to be discharged under don't ask, don't tell," he said. "Up until that point, I hadn't heard anything. I had lived openly for nearly two years. I thought that was a huge step forward, that finally people were being recognized on their performance and how well they served their country and their comrades and peers."

In June 2008, Manzella received an honorable discharge. His discharge papers read "homosexual conduct admission."

CNN contacted the Army for more details on the nature of Manzella's discharge. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver of the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs said that under law, the military could not comment on or release details about Manzella's discharge.

Since don't ask, don't tell was introduced, the military has discharged more than 13,000 lesbians, gays and bisexuals, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. A 2005 government report found that about 800 of them had skills deemed "critical," such as engineering and linguistics, and that it cost the military about $200 million to recruit and train their replacements.

Garver said the continued enforcement of don't ask, don't tell is simply a case of the Army enforcing the law.

"The Army enforces the homosexual conduct policy because it is the law," he said. "The policy is not a military policy, and the Army has a policy because it is bound by current statute. If the law were potentially to change, the Army would change to enforce whatever the law may be."

Open Lesbian Now a Partner in Chicago Cubs Ownership Team

2009-11-01T17:25:00.005-05:00

Pete Ricketts, Todd Ricketts, Laura Ricketts, Tom Ricketts

Everyone wondered who the Chicago Cubs would be sold to. Now we know. Someone with a league of her own.

A milestone of professional sports has been reached with the new owners, though it's not one our homophobic sports world will play up too willingly. So let's do it for them.

Among the members of the Ricketts family who acquired the team is Laura Ricketts, an out lesbian -- making the Cubs the first professional sports team to have a gay owner, at least one that is known to the public. I would suspect Marge Schott, but I think her thing was dogs. How open is Laura? She even attended a White House GLBT luncheon in June for Gay Pride month, and has apparently been an active political contributor to Dems in Chi-town.

Ricketts says she came out of the closet to her family in her early 30's, shortly after she came to terms with her sexuality herself. She's quoted as saying her family was "immediately supportive."

Not only has there never been an openly gay sports team owner before, but there have been no openly gay players -- at least none who were willing to admit it before their retirement. A lot have come out after they finished playing, like Billy Beane and Glenn Burke. And we just blogged about a closeted gay professional athlete whose blog has purportedly described his life in the bigs. http://clubhousecloset.blogspot.com/

There has been an openly gay umpire, Dave Pallone. But that didn't work out well for him. After he came out to the National League president at the time, he was fired on rumors of an alleged sex ring. A subsequent investigationb proved the allegations were groundless. Pallone claimed he was fired for being gay. Then there was Paul Priore, a clubhouse assistant for the Yankees who said he was taunted and ultimately fired because he was HIV positive.

Let's put it this way. Gayness in MLB is infrequently discussed. No manager or player wants a distraction. I have always felt that outside of the locker room jokes, most people could care less what the guy does in bed if the guy can play the game. Some day we will find out. Baseball survived the wife swapping of Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich in the midst of a New York Yankees pennant run in the 1970's. It will survive a gay player if he has a good curve or can hit in the clutch.

While Laura Ricketts' ownership in the Cubs is unique, she is not the partner expected to run the team.Tom Ricketts, chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a Chicago investment bank will handle that chore. Should be an interesting family. From Omaha, Nebraska, one of the brothers is very conservative, opposes gay marriage and involved with Republican politics as much as Laura is with the Dems. Great Thanksgiving dinners, don't you think?

One of the first teams to ever hold a 'Gay Days' at the ballpark was the Cubs at Wrigley Field, usually in the summer during the Market Days Festival on Halstead Street. Now they really have someone to throw out the first pitch.

Gay America Wins a Place at the Table

2009-11-01T13:30:00.006-05:00

A Place at the Table:

7 Reasons 2009 Has Been a Good Year for Gay Americans

By Norm Kent

Gay Americans have much to be proud of these past few weeks. We helped elect the right man President of the United States. So yes, Mabel, there has been a difference.

First of all, at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in Washington, D.C. last month, President Obama announced that he will ask Congress to overturn the ban on gays in the military, effectively disarming the misguided policies of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ era. Though not posturing a date, the President was very specific in stating that he would honor his campaign pledge; that “we should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country."

Yes, activists like myself and Cleve Jones I see too, are perturbed this has not happened more quickly. But I know I can find a little bad in the best of things. The bottom line is that the President has raised the issue and not run from it. The days of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ are coming to a halt.

Second, that same man, Barack Obama, influenced a Democratic congress to end its stalemate and stalling on the Hate Crimes Act. The bill, honoring the lives of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., both victims of hate, each murdered, was passed and signed into law this year. This bill expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is thus the first federal law to extend legal protection to transgendered persons.

Like the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the law empowers federal authorities with a greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue. It was a bill that Republicans and President Bush had killed for years.

Third, as prior Presidents before him have done, President Obama also signed into law that bill releasing funds for HIV prevention and treatment, including a reauthorization of the Ryan White Act. Every year, this legislation guarantees access to lifesaving medical services, primary care, and medications for more than 500,000 patients, nearly half of all those living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

Under Team Obama, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act does at least authorize a 5 percent annual increase in federal support over the next four years. Not all is gravy, though. The Bush Administration had imposed some regressive administrative measures that hampered direct assistance to many communities, and those negative changes were not corrected in the recent reauthorization.

Fourth, ENDA is a renewed federal bill in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and disability, for civilian nonreligious employers with over 15 employees. Religious organizations and non profit membership only clubs are provided exemptions, similar to the principles of the Civil Rights Act. This year, for the first time, with Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, this bill has a realistic chance of becoming law.

Fifth, President Obama has called upon Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. He also called for a law to extend benefits to domestic partners. These were not causes supported by the prior administration. As a matter of fact, President Bush was a leader for DOMA from the outset of his administration. Here too, then, the White House has turned a corner.

Sixth, on Friday President Obama announced that he will lift a 22-year-old ban on entry into the United States for people infected with HIV/AIDS. The administration intends to publish a new federal rule next week eliminating the ban by the start of 2010, carrying through on a proposal President Bush had finally endorsed in 2008. It was long past due.

"We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat," President Obama said. "If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it."

The HIV Travel Ban made the United States a pariah in human rights circles. In fact, some of the most significant international conventions studying the AIDS pandemic were not held in the United States because we ostracized ourselves with a Neanderthal policy that so clearly violated both public health needs and human rights.

Seventh, the last and most fundamental change in the Obama Administration is its willingness to select openly gay men and women to positions of influence and trust in the government. The litmus test for a Presidential appointment has become your competence in the daytime, not who you sleep with at night. In Washington, a successful prosecutor who is an out lesbian has just been named a chief US Attorney. In Minnesota, another lesbian has been appointed a US Marshall. In fact, the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute lists over two dozen Presidential GLBT appointments, from Special Counsel to the President to the Deputy Director for Safe Schools.

The gay community has become an operative political force to be reckoned with locally and nationally. There are still heated emotional debates surrounding ‘same-sex marriage’. Politicians are still reticent to join that bandwagon. No matter. Regardless of popular opinion, eventually it is our courts which will decide the legal rights and protections of same-sex couples. As marriage is fundamentally a civil contract which can be voided at will, it is inevitable that same sex marriages will be upheld by the courts.

Some of us in the gay community were initially disturbed with President Obama's first forays into equal justice, but we were foolish. I just don't think that six months into their first term John McCain and Sarah Palin would have been hosting an LGBT Gay Pride Month luncheon in the White House.

In 1993, Bruce Bawer wrote a landmark book entitled “A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society.” Bruce’s vision has come true. We no longer have to window shop our lives from the outside. We are welcome in. We have earned it, and now if we want it, there is a place at the table for us too.

.

'Just Beautiful Men' an Aesthetically Pleasing Site

2009-10-31T23:55:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you get so caught up in politics that you forget a blog can be individually expressive as well as politically explosive. And occasionally you come across sites which are deserving of recognition because they make a statement on their own.

‘Just Beautiful Men’ is one such vehicle. A collage of aesthetic portraits of well built men, who have taken the time to take care of themselves, and nurture what they got, the website is compelling.

It contains nudity, warnings, and disclosures, as well as a cross section of blogmates who similarly trespass openly and brazenly on the male physique. Not bad at all. If we are going to be open about our sexuality, why not own up to our sensuality? It is not always about politics and law. Sometimes, as my partner reminds me, it is about our own needs, the kinds politicians cover up.

So ‘Just Beautiful Men’ is to be applauded, linking also to agency and modeling sites, photographic studios, forums and discussion groups. Jump into their links and you can spend hours cruising the net into homoerotic sexuality, nothing to be ashamed of for sure, and something to appreciate even more. Gratuitous shirtless hunks everywhere. Politics no where. So what?

In fact, I am going to create a link which opens to adult homoerotic sites, which like this one, or Hunk du Jour, show professional men in personal ways, accentuating their talents with and without their clothes on. You know we have spent so much time trying to assimilate into society it is good to remember we are different and not the same. We are all unique. And that is what we have in common.

Elton AIDS Event in NYC Features Prez Clinton

2009-10-31T16:03:00.006-04:00

Former President Bill Clinton will be among the honorees at the annual Elton John [ tickets ] AIDS Foundation benefit event, entitled "An Enduring Vision," .

The Nov. 16 benefit--which will be held at New York City's Cipriani Wall Street--will feature special musical guest Donna Summer [ tickets ].

In a statement, John said, "Donna Summer's energy, voice and spirit are going to electrify our guests and I can't wait to share the stage with her. Donna has been a tremendous supporter of the Elton John AIDS Foundation for many years, and I am so excited that she has agreed to perform for our 'An Enduring Vision' event."

As part of the eighth annual EJAF event, the foundation will present Enduring Vision awards to four honorees that have supported its mission to fund innovative HIV prevention programs, its efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, and the direct care and support services it provides to individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Sometimes, in the midst of so many other things, AIDS is still real for so many. We should particularly not forget during the week the Ryan White Bill was extended by President Obama, and here are is remarks as reported in Steve Rothaus' preeminent Miami Herald blog:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2009/10/remarks-by-the-president-at-signing-of-the-ryan-white-hivaids-treatment-extension-act-of-2009.html

Open Gay US Attorney Takes Helm in Washington

2009-10-28T20:39:00.004-04:00

Great AP story by Gene Johnson might not get as much coverage as one would like on the day President Obama signed the Hate Crimes Bill into law, but the new top federal prosecutor in Seattle is the nation's first openly gay U.S. attorney. Here you go-

'But as a daughter of privilege — her dad was a powerful Democratic state senator, and she had all the benefits of a comfortable upbringing and a good education — Jenny Durkan also recalls what someone once told her: "You're the most non-diverse diverse person I know." '

"I don't think I can fully appreciate how important it is to many people to have someone in a role like this who is gay," Durkan said this week in an interview with The Associated Press. "The more people are able to see people in situations where pretty soon that's an invisible characteristic, the better it is for the entire community."

Gay rights activists say her appointment reflects a growing acceptance in the U.S. as well as the attitude of President Barack Obama's administration. Earlier this month, Obama nominated an openly gay police sergeant to be the U.S. marshal in Minneaopolis; she would be the first openly gay U.S. marshal. We cannot underestimate the significance of Obama embracing diversity at every level. Fox News calls it radical. It is not. It is America.

Durkan, 51, has been named to the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, where she will head a subcommittee on cybercrimes and intellectual property. The FBI is building a new cybercrime center in the old federal courthouse in Seattle, and the U.S. attorney's office here has done novel work in prosecuting such cases.

Before being confirmed by the Senate a month ago, Durkan performed a wide variety of civil litigation and criminal defense work, and was active in bar associations. In 2002 she traveled to Morocco to train female candidates for parliament. She has been Gov. Chris Gregoire's personal attorney and confidante, and represented the Democratic Party when Gregoire's 133-vote re-election win was confirmed in court.

Durkan has said she did some of her most satisfying work using lawsuits to force institutional reform — such as changes in how the King County Jail handles mentally ill prisoners after one who had been recently released stabbed a firefighter to death.

To that end, she's spoken with local prosecutors, state and federal agencies and the governor's office about bringing those groups together to coordinate better responses to environmental crimes, for example.

Ultimately, she said, she hopes to be judged on how the U.S. attorney's office handles those threats — not on her sexual orientation.

"In this region I don't think it's very remarkable that you have someone who is gay in a position of authority, because it's woven throughout our culture and has been," Durkan said. "In other parts of the country it might be, but I think a generation from now it will be a footnote."

President Obama Will Sign Hate Crimes Bill into Law on Wednesday

2009-10-26T23:02:00.007-04:00

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s death, President Obama will sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill into law during a White House signing ceremony Wednesday afternoon, White House officials confirm.

The long-sought hate crimes provision is part of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill and will extend federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The passage of hate crimes legislation would allow the U.S. Justice Department to assist in the prosecution of hate crimes committed against LGBT people that result in death or serious injury. The federal government could lend its assistance to local authorities or take the lead if local officials are unwilling or unable to prosecute cases. Further, the legislation would make grants available to state and local communities to train law enforcement officials, combat hate crimes committed by juveniles and investigate bias-motivated violence.

Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty-one year old college student was brutally killed in 1998. Some of the Shepard family will be in attendance at the White House signing on Wednesday. Afterward there will be a reception with gay rights groups as well as civil rights leaders to commemorate the occasion. I guess they forgot to invite me.

The main thrust of the bill is defense policy, including authorizing $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The DOD Authorization bill also strips money from the Pentagon budget for the controversial F-22 Raptor. This is a classic example of how one issue gets thrown upon another upon another. It should have been a stand alone bill, honoring James Byrd, Jr. a slain African American killed by hate, and Matthew Shepard, murdered because he was gay.

But it is a law now, and just like you do not know if your doctor was first or last in his class when he graduated Med School, 20 years after we are all gone no one will know this bill to tame hate was an appendage to a military appropriations bill for the Pentagon. Ironic in a way, because gays still can't join the military, and African Americans too, were once excluded from fighting with Caucasians. Just relics of the past. Like hate may one day be.

Thank you Judy Shepard for never forgetting your son.

Thank you Mr. Obama for pushing this issue to passage.

Thank you Congress for doing something Progress-ive.

Has 'Gay Athlete's Blog' Taken its Last at Bat?

2009-10-25T23:36:00.008-04:00

Remember that commercial about a sound system which went 'is it real or is it memorex?'

I want to direct you to a blogger's site:
http://www.clubhousecloset.blogspot.com

The guy has been posting infrequently for four years, and he has claimed to be a professional baseball player living life in the closet. He has developed a small cult of followers appreciating his occasional posts, relating his life on the road and in the dark. Some think it's a scam. Authenticity has a price. Verification. This blog yearns for it, but it just isn't there.

Is it authentic? Is it Memorex? There is no reason not to believe the candor expressed on these pages but we live in the world of 'The Balloon Boy.' We are exposed to hoaxes and frauds in every financial market. We can't believe anything we see because it may be compromised by digitalizing, morphing, spindling, and mutilating.

When I do television interviews, the makeup covers up the sun spots on my forehead, the wrinkles below my eyes. My body pleads for Botox, the reality is I am aging. No, check that. I have aged.

So these candid admissions from the anonymous athlete are open and revealing, but his identity remains secret. Larry King has had Billy Beane on and there are others who played 20 years ago still in the closet. One ex-pitcher, who plays in our local gay softball league, and has had his retired major league uniform framed in a local gay bar, still lives a quiet and secret gay life he would rather his teammates not know about. But an ex jock like me picked up on his World Series ring the very first day I saw him play.

Can't presuppose what to tell the 'gay athlete' on this blog site to do. Would love to meet him though. Would love to share with all the stories I have heard for the past ten years, first as the Publisher of the Express, then as an open radio host, then out as a lawyer, of life in the sunshine.

Maybe his time has come. Or maybe its time to just go back to the shadows. There is only one way he will ever know.

Harvey Milk Honored Posthumously in California

2009-10-23T18:17:00.004-04:00

He was from Woodmere, New York, but made his case for gay civil rights in San Francisco, California. And now, some 30 years after his assassination, California will forever commemorate his passing, his life, his memory.

Harvey Milk will get a special day of recognition.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signing of the bill establishing “Harvey Milk Day” each May 22, Milk’s birthday, was announced Monday. The Republican governor vetoed similar legislation a year ago.

In the interim, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August and was the subject of a movie for which Sean Penn won the Academy Award for best actor. Penn spoke out in favor of the bill last spring, saying he didn’t want to insult Schwarzenegger’s intelligence by assuming the governor would again oppose creating Harvey Milk Day.

“He has become much more of a symbol of the gay community than he was a year ago because of those things,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. “That made the difference from last year: he’s really come to symbolize the gay community in California”

"Harvey Milk Day” will not be a formal state holiday, so government employees will not be given the day off. The bill instead calls for the day to be observed by public schools as a day of special significance. Teachers will be encouraged to conduct exercises recalling Milk’s life and contributions to the state.

That message should be a simple one at that. Harvey Milk stood for the principle that gay people are decent Americans and should be recognized for such. We have never asked for special rights. We have always asked for the same rights others have had.

If we ask to marry, it is because others similarly situated have had that sacred right. If we ask to serve as soldiers, it is because our country is our country. We have never asked to be picked up, just requested not to be put down. We have never asked for anything other than a doctrinal truth articulated in the Declaration of Independence: "That all men are created equal..."

Hate Crimes Bill on its Way to White House

2009-10-23T12:12:00.002-04:00

The US Senate has passed groundbreaking legislation making an assault on an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity a federal crime.

The measure expanding federal hate crimes law was added to a $680 billion defence authorization bill. It now goes to the desk of President Barack Obama who has pledged to sign the measure. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure. Glad he is gone.

The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate-crime law could be used to criminalise conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality.

Attorney General Eric Holder has asserted that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs. Holder called Thursday’s 68-29 Senate vote to approve the defence spending bill that included the hate crimes measure “a milestone in helping protect Americans from the most heinous bias-motivated violence.”

This month Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.“Despite the progress we’ve made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open,” he said during his address at the dinner for the Human Rights Campaign. “This fight continues now, and I’m here with the simple message:“I’m here with you in that fight.”

Among other things, Obama has called for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He also has urged Congress to pass laws to recognize same-sex marriages and extend family benefits now available to heterosexual federal employees to gay and lesbian federal workers. Gays and Lesbians are going to win significant legal rights and victories under this administration. We worked hard for a president who embraces diversity. He has.

Keep in mind though enacting a law does not change automatically or overnite a social attitude as invidious as hate. The battle will still need to be fought. Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years before Lyndon Baines Johnson had to sign a federal Civil Rights Bill. Equality and Justice do not come easily.

More than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or “nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade,” Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June.The FBI, Holder added, reported 7,624 hate-crime incidents in 2007, the most current year with complete data.

All crime is hateful, but some more hate-specific than others. The law is welcome and overdue.

Time for Obama to End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

2009-10-10T10:35:00.003-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Last week, Rachel Maddow started her show with the story of Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, whose 18-year career as an Air Force fighter pilot is about to end due to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Maddow has been giving "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" a good amount of coverage recently. Instead of following this issue as a political story -- e.g. talking about which politicians made the most dramatic argument on the issue or discussing how the issue will affect the next election -- she's been focusing on people facing a discharge under DADT, people like Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and an Arabic-translator, or 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, who received a personal letter from President Obama after Tsao wrote to Obama about repealing DADT.

As President Obama addresses the Human Rights Campaign tonite, an event I wish I could have attended, one can only hope he denounces again the discriminatory policies of our armed forces; that he uses his bully pulpit to launch a campaign that will bring the practice to an end, soon.

Atlanta Gay Bar Raids Were Unconscionable

2009-09-16T18:57:00.002-04:00

Atlanta Gay Bar Raids are a Gross Injustice

By Norm Kent

It was in 1991 that the Broward Sheriff’s Office, under the supervision of then Sheriff, Nick Navarro, raided the most popular gay bar in South Florida, the Copa, on a busy Friday night.

It was a remarkable incident. Scores of cops in swat teams enter a huge dance bar with hundreds of patrons targeting a half-dozen persons who they had previously done undercover drug deals with. There was no guarantee the named suspects were even going to be there.

Notorious for publicity, the Sheriff personally arrived along with a helicopter, his wife, and television crews. As SWAT type deputies swarmed through the bar, they ordered all the patrons, at gunpoint, up against the wall, lied them on the floor, and randomly searched them for drugs while publishing denigrating epithets.

The cops became thugs and the patrons became victims. Innocent men and women were unlawfully detained, unjustifiably restrained, and purposely humiliated. Twenty years ago, scores of those customers were still in the closet. They were also marched out of the bar with their hands held over their head to waiting TV cameras which filmed and aired their faces.

The cruel and unconstitutional conduct of law enforcement would not stand. The courageous operator of the bar, John Castelli, now a renowned realtor, directed me to file suit immediately. The entire gay community was justifiably outraged. The suit would not have been settled and the case would have gone on for years but for the public denying Sheriff Navarro re-election in the next year’s primary.

A new sheriff was elected, Democrat Ron Cochran. He was troubled by the conduct of his department that evening, and instructed his attorneys to settle the case with me. In public ceremonies which were covered by the media, we negotiated a fair and honorable agreement which served not the pecuniary needs of any one party but the interests of the community. BSO presented Center 1, then our county’s largest and oldest AIDS agency, with a check for $25,000.

The memory of days past in South Florida is a calling to today’s gay leadership in Atlanta. The legal issues raised by their gay bar raids are identical. The conduct of law enforcement at The Eagle was reprehensible; overkill. Instead of quietly coming into the bar at the end of the night and arresting targeted dancers who had committed second degree misdemeanor lewd act violations, they busted inside in the middle of the evening.

Police shoved innocent patrons into the ground, on the floor, restraining and detaining them illegally and unconscionably. They employed SWAT teams and undercover drug officers who of course are going to say their conduct was essential for their own safety. Bullshit. If their conduct had been sensible and coordinated, the arrests would have been timed and responsible. Atlanta cops chose to use a display of physical force, armed with guns and verbal epithets. But they should pay through the nose for their illegal methods and inappropriate messages.

Not only could have cops cited the bar under ABT laws, they could have more prudently gone into the dressing rooms and segregated out dancers who violated laws without humiliating patrons who did not. Think about it, if the only eight persons arrested were bar employees for permit violations, it also could have been done at the end of the evening after patrons left and the club was closing.,

Twenty years ago in South Florida, the sheriff said he had to raid the Copa because it was ‘awash with drugs.’ But the raid found less than five persons in the bar with narcotics. In Atlanta, NO patrons were found to have any contraband. So the cops were just plain wrong, and their police chief, Mr. Pennington, should be more than apologetic. They were so reckless as not to even utilize their designated police officer who operates as the liaison to the gay community. Simply shameful.

The time to sue the Atlanta police is now. The time to rally the community is immediately. Similar carelessness by the Texas Liquor Board in a gay bar raid a few months ago left a patron needlessly injured. The authorities just fired three of the agents involved in the fiasco. That is what could have happened in Atlanta. That it did not was more luck than planning. There was never an excuse to put innocent patrons at risk. It was the height of recklessness to do so. Atlanta cops must now pay the price for their misconduct.

Guest Blog by TV Anchor Charles Perez

2009-09-14T10:26:00.003-04:00

As reported by Steve Rothaus in his daily blog on gay South Florida in the Miami Herald, here is an awesome op ed by former WPLG anchor Charles Perez, above with fiancé Keith Rinehard.

BY CHARLES PEREZ

I've decided to move out of the Sunshine State. It's a bit more chilly here than I had expected. Some may say good riddance, but I'm no longer willing to live in a place where I can't get married, can't adopt children and where there are no state laws to protect me from being fired because I'm gay.

And so my partner Keith and I have decided to sell the house, load up the dogs and head north, toward a decidedly warmer climate.

To those who visit here, Florida must seem somewhat schizophrenic. We sell ourselves as a great place to come and play, a multicultural paradise where you can be who you are, as long as you respect the rights and privileges or everyone else. Not so if you're gay and you decide to stay. You'll be greeted by a regressive system of laws more emblematic of a backwater state than one that now, because of its population, draws comparisons to California and New York.

Last year, as gay rights took front and center on the Florida ballot, through the Florida Marriage Amendment, or Proposition 2, religious groups, like the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, were able to collect more than 600,000 signatures and raise millions of dollars to defeat not only gay marriage, but its equivalent. In essence they pulled the rug out from under civil unions as well, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual.

Many of these voters took to the polls hoping to save kids and marriage. Yet states such as Connecticut that have gay marriage, allow gay adoption and have laws protecting gay men and women, seem to be doing just fine. In fact, according to the most recent figures for the National Center for Health Statistics, Connecticut has a divorce rate approximately 36 percent lower than does Florida. Connecticut also was able to place more than double the percentage of kids available for adoption into permanent homes.

Maybe that gay-tolerant state is, actually, more pro-marriage and pro-family than we are. I grew up as a Catholic. I was an altar boy. I went to a Catholic high school in Fort Lauderdale. I still consider myself a Christian, at least in philosophy: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is an ethic shared in Judeo-Christianity that has at its core a call for tolerance and love. However, I am also cognizant that for most of the history of Christianity, the church and its many offspring often sided against the forces of compassion and used fear, threats and ignorance as their most powerful tools.

Organized religion can be uplifting, community building, powerful and spiritual. But, as with government, if left unchecked by its adherents, can also become misguided.

As long as my homosexuality is confined to the ``immoral'' by some, questions about my right to marry, adopt kids and be protected in the workplace will persist. I also have green eyes, by the way. They are as much a part of me as is my sexual orientation. My green eyes have as much to do with my morality as does my sexual orientation. I can cover them with contacts, but I cannot change them. They are inseparable from who I am, as homosexuality is inseparable from human history.

Keith and I are tired of visiting attorneys who tell us, right off the bat, ``There is no privileged communication between the two of you.'' In other words, if we were married, we could not be forced to testify against each other in a court of law. What we'd say in the privacy of our relationship would stay in the privacy of our relationship. We don't have that right in the state of Florida. In Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont we would. We could also be raising the family we want, all respected by the laws of our state, giving our children nothing less than the dignity that comes with having a seat at the table.

We have a right to sit at that table, along with everyone else, and we should have that right in Florida. To fight for that right is certainly the good fight. However, as the clock ticks, and my partner and I push through our 40s, we're no longer willing to wait to have the family we want.

And so, though I hate the cold, to warmer pastures we will go, certain to receive a warmer welcome, convinced that too much love and too much commitment are never a bad thing.

Barney Frank wants Cabinet post

2009-09-09T00:00:00.004-04:00

Barney Frank wants a Cabinet post, Bob Cusack of The Hill is reporting tonite.

Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent.

He first wants to pass more legislation on affordable housing, saying, “I want at least two years with President Obama and a solidly Democratic Senate so that we can get the federal government back in the housing business.”

No president has ever appointed an openly gay man or woman to the Cabinet. A couple of ambassadors here and there, and some people quietly in the closet, as far back as the Eisenhower administration, but never an openly gay man.

Weisberg, who used to work for Frank on Capitol Hill, spent five years on his authoritative book, titled "Barney Frank, The Story of America’s Only Left-handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman".

Frank talks about how he struggled as a gay man growing up in blue-collar Bayonne, N.J. He dated women throughout high school and college, but knew he was gay at 13. Still, he delayed revealing his sexuality until he had established a foothold in the House.

In the 501-page tome — to be released later this month — Frank is described by people who know him well as a masterful legislator, an impatient boss, and “socially handicapped.”

Frank has been the subject of many profiles, but Weisberg provides news that political junkies crave.

In his first race for the House, Frank almost went head to head with now-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 1980 primary. After a meeting with Frank, Kerry opted not to run. Ten years later, Republicans tried to persuade Bill O’Reilly to run against Frank. O’Reilly also passed on the seat, but the Fox News commentator would clash with Frank 18 years later in a 2008 interview that has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube.

There are other rich details in Weisberg’s book, including Frank’s political battles with then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (D) and Clarence Thomas, when the Supreme Court justice served as director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Weisberg also states that Frank was friends with the late Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif.) and admires Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.).

One of the most riveting parts of the book is Frank’s recollection of his ethics scandal, when he paid a male prostitute for sex. Various media outlets called for Frank to resign, but he persevered by admitting his mistakes and asking the ethics committee to investigate him in 1989. Many Republicans, including then-Rep. Larry Craig (Idaho), called for serious sanctions against Frank, who was ultimately reprimanded by the House, 408-18.

The following year, a Republican challenger to Frank’s seat — described as “not the smartest person in the district” — called on Frank to take an AIDS test and reveal the results publicly. Frank replied that he would do so if his GOP challenger would take an IQ test and release it to the public.

Throughout his life, Frank has battled bouts with depression and his voracious appetite. When Frank was advised by a political operative to improve his appearance, Frank responded that “when you are 5 feet 10 inches and you have a 46 waist and your thighs rub together, your clothes have a way of not looking good.”

At other points in his life, he was able to lose weight — a lot of it. He once lost 100 pounds in eight months. Knowing that avoiding obesity would be a lifelong struggle, Frank said, “The day I die, I will either be fat or hungry.”

Sometimes to his detriment, Frank was not shy in criticizing Democrats publicly, most notably President Bill Clinton during the “don’t ask, don’t tell” debate. He also irritated Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) by suggesting Kennedy had no chance of becoming president after his 1980 bid fell short.

The personal details about Frank show a side of the Financial Services panel chairman that Washington insiders have not seen. He pumped gas as a teenager at his father’s truck stop in New Jersey, formally changed his name from “Barnett” to Barney and was an avid baseball and tennis player. Weisberg writes that only Frank’s mother Elsie, and his sister, Democratic strategist Ann Lewis, consistently won arguments against him. Elsie Frank died in 2005.

Amid the GOP-led Congress’s actions to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case, Frank challenged Republicans who offered their medical analysis during the debate: “The caption tonight ought to be: ‘We’re not doctors — we just play them on C-SPAN.’ ”

Weisberg writes that “the best of times is now” for Frank, noting the 15-term member is “at the top of his game as a lawmaker and as a deal-maker … He feels comfortable with who he is and he is no longer emotionally isolated.

“I am what I am," Frank said, adding, "sort of like Popeye.”

It would be a great finish to a marvelous career with ups and downs. The important thing to remember about Barney Frank is that he overcame adversity, dealt with embarrassments, and stayed the course to leave a legacy of achievement. None of us make it through life without the waves that drive us under. We just have to rise to the top again, deal with the pain, and push on. Barney Frank is very human. Barney Frank is a symbol for gay men and women though, to be known not for his lovers, but for his legislating. He reminds us all that our achievements are won in boardrooms,not bedrooms.

Matthew Shephard Remembered

2009-09-06T01:24:00.001-04:00

Trivium-And Sadness Will Sear(With Lyrics)

Trivium-And Sadness Will Sear(With Lyrics)

Matt Heafy is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Trivium, a heavy metal band where you would ordinarily not expect to find a tribute to Matthew Shephard.

Matt's influences include bands such as Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Iron Maiden, Queen, The Beatles, Muse, Coldplay and Radiohead.

In this vein, the 23 year old artist, born in Japan, and now living outside of Orlando, spun together this moving piece to honor a slain American teenager, killed solely for being gay. It was about eleven years ago next month. I just came upon it, and it is certainly worth sharing.

Especially now that Congress is trying to pass new laws insuring that hate crimes pay a serious price. Here is a link to what the Foundation, still given life by Matthew Shepard's courageous mom, Judy, is doing.

Matthew Shepard Foundation webpage

Ben and Jerry's Goes All the Way

2009-09-02T20:53:00.002-04:00

Hubby Hubby Ice CreamMarks Gay Marriage

- Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is renaming their famous "Chubby Hubby" flavor to "Hubby Hubby" for the month of September to mark Vermont's legalization of same-sex marriages.

"At the core of Ben & Jerry's values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to," said CEO Walt Freese in a statement. The action was taken in partnership with Freedom to Marry, a marriage equality group. Partnering with corporations who demonstrate a social conscience is meaningful in its own right.

The Boston Herald reports that the move is mostly symbolic, though, as the Burlington, Vt.-based company is not changing labels on "Chubby Hubby" pints sold in stores across the country. Symbolism in society is still significant. Years after the Hula Hoop has stopped selling in toy stores, it still symbolizes the generation of the fifties.

The Herald also reported that gay-marriage opponents are not fond of the gimmick. "It's a bad idea, especially because I think they're just doing it to rub it in that Vermont has legalized gay marriage," said Brian Camenker of MassResistance.org.

"Chubby Hubby" ice cream contains pretzel nuggets, which are chocolate-covered and filled with peanut butter, in vanilla ice cream with fudge and peanut butter swirls.

Ben & Jerry’s has been part of food giant Unilever since 2000, but has maintained its activist thinking. Free Cone Day , held in April, is one of the company's biggest promotions and in January the company renamed its Butter Pecan flavor to "Yes, Pecan" to mark President Obama's inauguration.

Gay Man Settles False Arrest Case for Nearly $50,000

2009-09-01T00:19:00.001-04:00

SOUTH FLORIDA BLADE

Gay man wins $45,000 after false arrest

Plaintiff claimed police targeted him for being gay

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

AUG. 27, 2009

Claude Lessard, the plaintiff in a 2003 case of false arrest at John U. Lloyd State Park in Dania Beach, is taking home $45,000 from the state of Florida. Lessard, an openly gay local junior high school teacher, filed suit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and park officer David Pius in March 2005, after being arrested at the park for what he said was a case of anti-gay bias. His suit included charges of false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution stemming from an incident that took place in the park in July 2003.

The state, without admitting fault, decided to pay Lessard the $45,000 for damages rather than continue to fight the case. Lessard’s attorney views this as not only a victory for gay men who are harassed at public beaches and parks, but also a legal step that gives gays another right in the fight for marriage equality.

"Our office is grateful we could help remind law enforcement authorities that gay men will no longer tolerate abuses of their civil rights, and when those rights are violated unjustly, the State will be held financially accountable,” said Norm Kent, Lessard’s attorney. "The settlement is ample proof that the government tried to whitewash and cover up the case from the start, but through the tenacity of our office, and courage of our client, we saw it to a just end. The amount they paid showed it was not just nuisance value. "

The arrest occurred during the afternoon of July 23, 2003. Lessard said he was walking along a trail in the park when he saw a man being arrested. At the time, Lessard said he was mindful of newspaper articles in which numerous gay men had alleged that they were harassed, cited for dubious trespassing violations and falsely arrested in the park.According to Lessard, when he encountered a man along the trail whom he thought was just a park visitor, he commented to him, “Watch out. They’re arresting someone over there.”

The man Lessard encountered turned out to be a police officer. He accused Lessard of obstructing an undercover operation in the park. Park officers had been conducting undercover patrols because of reports of sexual activity in the park. But Lessard said he was there only to enjoy the beach and park on a sunny day.

Lessard thinks he was targeted for arrest simply because he was a gay man in the park, according to the lawsuit.Lessard was charged with “obstruction of justice” and jailed for 15 hours. His car was towed, and he had to pay $136 to retrieve it. Later the state dropped the charge but Lessard was so outraged about how he was treated that he sued the state for false arrest, which was reported by the Blade in 2004 (then called Express Gay News).

An internal investigation by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in 2004 concluded that there was no evidence that park officers acted inappropriately, violated any statute or policy, or targeted anyone in the park based on sexual orientation.

Along with the monetary award, the case also establishes significant victory for gay couples seeking legal rights for their partnerships. Lessard’s domestic partner of 27 years, Jocelyn Goulet, is also named as a co-plaintiff in this case; as a result, the judge also set case-law for Broward County establishing gay couples, who are registered as domestic partners, the right to sue together under “loss of consortium” just as straight couples would. Loss of consortium laws state that if one spouse is injured and is suing for damages, their spouse can also sue because they cannot complete their marital duties.

Lessard is currently out of the country and is unavailable for comment.