Gay Gov. McGreevey To Be Hung

From 365Gay.com:

Trenton, N.J. -- Former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey will soon be back permanently in the Statehouse, but not in person.

The finishing touches are being made to the governor's official portrait.  It will hang in the Governor's Office at the Statehouse.

McGreevey, 49, became the first US governor to publicly come out.

To read more, click here.

Task Force's Foreman on New Jersey civil union law: "Disappointing and great day''

From Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force:

“It’s both a disappointing day and a great day. On the one hand, purely for political expediency, New Jersey’s political leaders crammed through the Legislature an inherently unequal civil union bill without even the semblance of thoughtful deliberation. On the other hand, gay and lesbian families in New Jersey will now have hundreds more rights and responsibilities than before and enjoy protections denied our families in 46 other states. This is an important step on the road to complete equality.

“This underscores that the progress we’ve made in the area of family recognition is nothing short of breathtaking. Just six years ago, the civil union debate in Vermont lasted months and nearly tore the state apart. Today, New Jersey can adopt a civil union law in less than two weeks, with minimal public rancor.

“We applaud the incredible work of Garden State Equality and its chairman, Steven Goldstein, for their incredible work, for ensuring the law requires the creation of a commission to monitor the law’s compliance of the court directive, and for keeping an insulting ‘marriage is only between a man and a woman’ provision out of the law.

“We look forward to working with Garden State Equality and our other allies to win marriage equality in the very near future.”

Evangelist's gay escort signs for explicit tell-all

Mike Jones, in Miami Beach on Nov. 21.

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Gay ex-escort Mike Jones has signed to write a sexually explicit memoir about his relationship with fallen evangelist Ted Haggard.

''It's going to review my encounters with Ted and other people who are similar,'' Jones told The Miami Herald today from New York.

''It's not a book about bashing Ted at all. It's humanizing him as a person with feelings and emotions and desires,'' Jones said. ``I'm going to be explicit as far as what happened in our encounters, but not to rip him apart or be mean to him. He's a man who has faults like all of us.''

To read more, click here.

Lambda Legal "fights for fair courts in Florida"

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Murders of Gender Non-Conforming Youth Documented in New Report

News release:

Fort Lauderdale victim Cinnamon Broadus, slain in 2003. Case still unsolved.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Over the past 10 years, more than 50 young people aged 30 and under
were violently murdered by assailants who targeted them because they did not fit
stereotypes for masculinity or femininity. The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition
(GenderPAC) today released the groundbreaking human rights report "50 Under 30:
Masculinity and the War on America's Youth'' documenting this tide of murderous violence
and the key demographics of its victims and their assailants.

The report reveals a unique vulnerability at the intersection of age, race, and gender
nonconformity that makes a fatal assault exponentially more likely. "While many youth who
don’t fit gender stereotypes for masculinity or femininity face harassment or bullying,
when it comes to gender-based murder the victims are specific and consistent," said Riki
Wilchins, GenderPAC Executive Director.

‘‘These victims tended to share the same characteristics: they were mostly Black or
Latina, were biologically male and presenting with some degree of femininity, and were
killed by other young males in attacks of extraordinary and often multiple acts of
violence," added Wilchins.

The report has spurred a new coalition of civil and human rights organizations including
Amnesty International (USA), Global Rights, Human Rights Campaign, Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights, National Organization for Women, International Lesbian and Gay Human
Rights Commission, Safe Schools Coalition, National Education Association's Health
Information Network and the US Human Rights Network. These organizations are joining
together in educating the public and calling upon policy-makers and law enforcement
officials to address the underlying cause of gender-based violence.

‘‘Aggression and violence have become acceptable ways of policing gender performance and
punishing the transgression of gender boundaries in American culture.  These deaths were
often the result of young men using lethal violence to enforce standards of masculinity on
other young males who didn't meet cultural expectations of masculinity - especially when
they were transgender or gay," said Dr. Michael Kimmel, professor of sociology at Stony
Brook University and author who has received international recognition for his work on men
and masculinity.

In recognition of December 10 International Human Rights Day, the report will be
distributed to more than 100 governmental and non-governmental agencies focused on human
and civil rights, and a copy is being formally presented to the Organization for American
State’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of which the United States is a
member. The IACHR investigates human rights abuses in the North and South America.

Murders that were classified as hate crimes were solved nearly one-and-a-half times more
often than those that were not; yet 72% of the cases in the report were not so classified,
although most suffered extremely violent deaths combining stabbing, beating, strangling
and shooting. 54% of the deaths remain unsolved, as compared with 31% for all homicides
nationally.

The annual FBI’s Hate Crimes Statistics report documents assaults motivated by race,
religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability. While it does not track murders
based on victim’s gender identity or expression, if it did, the murders in this report
would outweigh every other category except race.

‘‘We must stand together and do whatever it takes to stop this kind of hate on our
children.  There is no word for the grief a mother has to endure.  As Solomon said,
‘Justice will only be achieved when those who are not injured by crime feel as indignant
as those who are,"' shared Queen Washington, mother of Stephanie Thomas (19), of
Washington D.C. who was murdered in 2002.

The report is available online at www.gpac.org to assist reporters and policy-makers in
identifying victims from their regions. A press conference will be held at 10am today at
the National Press Club and will feature, Riki Wilchins; Queen Washington; Brett A.
Parson, Sergeant, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Gay and Lesbian Liaison
Unit (GLLU); and Mark K. Bromley, Director of External Relations and Policy for Global
Rights.

About GenderPAC

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) works to ensure that classrooms,
communities, and workplaces are safe places for every person regardless of whether they
fit stereotypes for masculinity and femininity. For more information visit www.gpac.org.

Happy Holidays from Unity Coalition

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GLAAD seeks correction from Time magazine for Dobson column about Cheney pregnancy

This GLAAD Alert can also be accessed online at:
http://www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=3942

GLAAD ALERT
Dec. 13, 2006

ASK 'TIME' TO CORRECT DOBSON'S MISLEADING CLAIMS ABOUT GAY & LESBIAN FAMILIES

Following widespread media coverage of the announcement that Mary Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, is pregnant, Time magazine made the unusual mis-step of inviting anti-gay fundamentalist James Dobson (Focus on the Family) to contribute a column that, unsurprisingly, contained significant misrepresentations.

Dobson's column - "Two Mommies Is One Too Many" - can be read at Time.com (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568485,00.html). In it, Dobson denigrates the families of gay and lesbian Americans while distorting and misrepresenting the social science on gay and lesbian parenting:

"With all due respect to Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father."

Dobson and other anti-gay activists who attack gay and lesbian families frequently employ this soundbite in an attempt to mislead audiences. When he cites "30 years of social-science evidence," Dobson is not referring to credible, peer-reviewed studies comparing developmental outcomes of children being raised by gay and lesbian couples with those being raised by opposite-sex married couples. Dobson's claim about "30 years of social-science evidence" is simply not related to discussions about children being raised by two loving gay or lesbian parents.

Dobson's misleading distortion of social science is easily debunked with one look at the "Research Summary on Lesbian and Gay Parenting" (http://www.apa.org/pi/parent.html) by the American Psychological Association and the "Technical Report on Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents" (http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;109/2/341) by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which, after reviewing the social science data, concludes that children with gay parents can have the same advantages and outcomes in terms of health, adjustment and development as those with heterosexual parents.

Dobson's willful misrepresentation of social science research is both disturbing and predictable. And Time magazine's decision to extend Dobson a platform without holding him to basic standards of accuracy is deeply troubling and must be addressed. Over the past three days, GLAAD has been discussing this issue with Time's editors -- and we need you to share your concerns as well.

WRITE NOW!

Please review Dobson's op-ed and write to Time magazine today. Express your concern about Time's decision to grant Dobson a platform to spread misinformation about gay and lesbian families. And ask that Time correct the record by publishing a counterpoint column or article of similar length in the magazine's print edition.

NBC denies "Heroes" character is gay

From The Advocate:

An article on AfterElton.com by Brian Juergens prompted an NBC publicist to notify readers that Zach, Thomas Dekker's character on the NBC show Heroes, is not gay. The article theorizes that either Dekker's management or NBC itself pulled the plug on any story lines that would involve addressing Zach's sexual orientation.

The network has come under fire for portraying the character as a gay teen in a small town, specifically on his MySpace Web page where he declares his sexual orientation as "not sure."

Zach is the sidekick to Texas high school cheerleader Claire Bennet, played by Hayden Panettiere. He seems relatively unphased by his peers' gay-baiting but never admits to being gay or straight.

The show's creator, Tom Kring, responded in an e-mail to the claims, saying that he regrets that the character seemed to be gay because he is not.

"We apologize for misleading the audience and wish that we could have handled things better on our end," Kring wrote. "But making a TV show is often a very imprecise business. As you stated, Heroes is a big sprawling drama, and there is no reason to believe that a gay character will not be represented on our show in the future. It is my hope that if we do, we do it with honesty and dignity. That will certainly be our attempt."

Tammy Faye Bakker's son advocates for GLBT community

From Temenos online:

“One Punk Under God,” an original documentary series on the alternative Christian minister Jay Bakker, will premiere on Sundance Channel on Wednesday, December 13 at 9:00 pm e/p. Produced by World of Wonder, the series takes a behind-the-scenes look at the life of Bakker as he faces the professional, emotional and financial struggles of running his Revolution church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jay Bakker, who was recently interviewed by The Advocate, supports full inclusion of LGBT people in his church. His decision`and the impact it has on his church are shown in this six part series.

Jay Bakker, the only son of former Praise The Lord leaders, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, a tattooed and pierced preacher, is not necessarily the image of an American evangelist. His resolutely maverick stance and open tolerance for alternative lifestyle choices irritate traditional religious leaders and make keeping his Church afloat challenging. But by fusing together punk and Christian values to create a non-denominational and inclusive parish, he is working to show the world just how hip and welcoming today’s churches can be.

World of Wonder principals Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey said "since we first met Jay eight years ago while filming The Eyes of Tammy Faye we have wanted to make a film about him. Thanks to the Sundance Channel's bold vision and commitment to documentary filmmaking, and thanks also to the talents of Jeremy Simmons and Thairin Smothers we now have that opportunity."

Curious? You can watch a video of Jay talking about himself and his life: just click here. A preview of the show is also available on iklipz.com.

Pastors’ Disclosures May Stir Empathy, Some Evangelicals Say

By NEELA BANERJEE, The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Confessions by two evangelical Christian ministers to having same-sex relationships could lead evangelicals to feel greater compassion toward gay men and lesbians, especially those in their congregations, some evangelical leaders said Tuesday.

But none expected a broader re-examination of the belief, widely held by evangelicals, that homosexuality is sinful.

To read more, click here.