Gay teen shot dead while dressed as woman in Florida

Victim: Simmie Williams Jr., shot as he stood along Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, died at Broward General Medical Center.

FORT LAUDERDALE - The shooting death of a gay teenage boy who was dressed in women's clothing is being investigated as a possible hate crime, while detectives try to determine whether he was targeted because of his sexual orientation.

Simmie Williams Jr., 17, was attacked on the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard by two young men who wore dark clothing and might live in the neighborhood, police said. Williams, who was wearing a dress and was known in the area by his first name or as "Chris" or "Beyonce," was shot about 12:45 a.m. Friday and soon afterward died at Broward General Medical Center, police said.It's unclear what Williams was doing in the area, about four miles from his house, but police are investigating whether he was working as a prostitute, officials said.

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Lawrence King tragedy rings on (and that's a good thing)

As most know, 15-year-old Lawrence King was murdered at school on February 12, 2008 by a 14 year old fellow student.

Vigils in memory of Lawrence King, calling for an end to violence and harassment directed at LGBT people in schools, are being organized in communities across the country.

Click here to find a vigil in your area, or fill out the form to list a remembrance event in your community.

The more events we organize, the louder our collective voice.

Please help make sure that what happened to Lawrence never happens again.

Obama fact or Obama fiction?

The source of this information is WordNetDaily so, naturally, I have some doubts. But after reading the article I felt a need to publish it:

The accompanying YouTube video contains sexual language that some will consider offensive. The article itself contains material that is inappropriate for children.

WASHINGTON – The electrifying presidential campaign of Barack Obama faces a new challenge – a Minnesota man who claims he took cocaine in 1999 with the then-Illinois legislator and participated in homosexual acts with him.

When his story was ignored by the news media, Larry Sinclair made his case last month in a YouTube video, which has now been viewed more than a quarter-million times. And when it was still ignored by the media, Sinclair filed a suit in Minnesota District Court, alleging threats and intimidation by Obama's staff.

Sinclair, who says he is willing to submit to a polygraph test to validate his claims, will now get his chance – thanks to a website offering $10,000 for the right to record it and $100,000 to Sinclair if he passes.

"My motivation for making this public is my desire for a presidential candidate to be honest," Sinclair told WND by telephone. "I didn't want the sex thing to come out. But I think it is important for the candidate to be honest about his drug use as late as 1999."

Sinclair, who lives in Duluth and describes himself as "gay," claims he "personally engaged in sexual activity and personally used illegal drugs in November 1999" with the man who is now the leading Democratic presidential candidate. He claims the activity took place in the back of Sinclair's limousine and occurred again, later, in his hotel. Sinclair also says he personally no longer uses drugs.

In his lawsuit, filed last week, he charges his civil rights have been violated by Obama and the Democratic Party. Named as defendants in the case are the presidential candidate, David Axelrod of AKP Message and Media in Chicago and the Democratic National Committee.

Sinclair charges Obama smoked crack cocaine in the limo while Sinclair snorted powdered cocaine provided by the legislator. He says the two met in an upscale Chicago lounge before leaving in Sinclair's limousine where the drug use and sex took place for the first time.

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Hating parents begat hating children

I would hope we can all agree on the desire to see young people make it to adulthood.

It’s not a desire which should be affected by sexual orientation, skin color, country of origin or any other element of a persons existence.

In a perfect world a child’s death would never precede a parent’s death.

When a child murders another child we must look closely at the parents and our society.

There is something very wrong when children start killing children.

The parents of these children must be the ones who think having gay parents will cause a child to be gay. Even though there are straights who were raised by gays.

To extend this thought pattern I submit: Hating children must be raised by hating parents.

But I imagine the parents are proud. Because they see it as a cleansing of society, not murder. In other words, in their minds, it’s righteous. In some cases they feel the are doing “the lords work”!

One word comes to mind: D I S G U S T I N G

Is the foundation of our society so weak that we must fear people who are different?

Curtain rises on Gielgud's gay scandal

Play shows how the famous actor's arrest was part of the 1950s homosexual witch-hunts.

The scandal that almost ended the career of Sir John Gielgud is to be brought to the London stage this month in a new play about the actor.

In the autumn of 1953 the newly knighted actor was at the height of his fame and about to direct himself in a prestigious West End production when he was arrested in a public lavatory in Chelsea. Gielgud was charged with 'persistently importuning men for immoral purposes', a crime that transgressed the social taboos of the era and threatened to ruin him.

The name on the charge sheet was 'John Smith', but a journalist recognised the star of stage and screen, who pleaded guilty and was fined £10. His conviction caused a sensation. The new play, Plague Over England, will suggest that the high-profile case helped to bring the country nearer to making homosexuality legal. It was decriminalised in 1967, freeing millions from the fear of conviction and public disgrace.

Plague Over England, which opens at the Finborough Theatre in west London on 27 February, is the first full-length play by veteran theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh. 'This play is not just about the offence,' he said this weekend. 'That would have been prurient. I wanted to use it as a microcosm of this witch-hunt in the Fifties. I knew Sir John a little bit and he was a most amazing man.'

The critic and author said he had not planned to write a play: 'I don't know how it happened. I found myself writing the scene with the judge. Gielgud's stoicism was incredible and I wanted to get that across. He knew he should not have winked at that policeman in the lavatory and he felt his career was over.'

The work is intended to remind audiences of the strength of anti-gay sentiment in the Fifties. Homosexuality was frequently likened to drug addiction or an epidemic of cancer. The Churchill government is thought by some to have promoted a witch-hunt after spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who were both gay, defected to the Soviet Union. De Jongh's play includes a scene in which young policemen are taught how to seduce men in lavatories in order to entrap them.

De Jongh has admitted to being terrified, though exhilarated, by the experience. He can only hope that audiences buoy him in the way they did Gielgud himself when he returned to perform in the theatre after his conviction. He was greeted with a standing ovation.

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Florida GSA important to students

By EILEEN ZAFFIRO
The Daytona Beach News-Journal

DELAND, Fla. -- One boy whose hair reaches halfway down his back wore a camouflage tank top, light blue nail polish, blue eye shadow and a thick silver chain around his neck.

A girl sported blue and purple hair, striped leggings, a red plaid skirt and a T-shirt with pastel-colored hearts.

It was the weekly gathering of DeLand High School's Gay Straight Alliance, and a girl that probably would have blended in better playing flute in the band or running laps at track practice was so overcome with emotion she burst into tears.

"This is like the first time I ever felt welcome at anything," she sobbed as she blotted her eyes with a tissue. "I know I look like the redneck or preppie girl. That's just classification. My whole life I've been dealing with this. I always feel like the black sheep, even in my family. You guys just accepted me. You make me feel so welcome."

Another girl in the room sighed, "Oh, group hug," and within seconds teenage arms hugged away the tears and the kids offered a compassionate ear and advice only they knew how to give.

It was one of the main reasons science teacher Victor Arguelles started the Gay Straight Alliance - the first of its kind in local schools - a few months ago. Arguelles, who is gay, wanted the kids to have a safe place to figure out who they are, share their fears and educate others at the school about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people around them.

There are 3,000 Gay Straight Alliances at schools nationwide and 80 in Florida schools. Most of the groups have formed over the past 20 years.

The 23-member Gay Straight Alliance at DeLand High, where there are nearly 3,300 students, is the only one in Volusia and Flagler counties.

Arguelles has taken plenty of heat for the group's formation. He said "some staff members have grumbled about it," several parents have called the school, a few tried to pull their kids out of his class, and one tried to get him fired.

One parent sent him and an administrator an e-mail insisting the kids not be given "any gay newspapers, and that they don't talk about safe sex," he said.

"There's a nobility to the idea of social equality, but this is really a group for the members," said 18-year-old senior Michael Hristakopoulos. "I've been in the closet until a few months ago, and I feel like I need to develop who I am. This club is helping with that.

"I'm involved in a lot of other clubs, but this is a club I'm lucky to have found a place in. This one is singularly important. "

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Just Because You’re Gay?

Commentary By: Daniel DiRito
Recent news events highlight some of the issues that routinely concern gays. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that we see a confluence of events. However, as one reviews the content of these stories, one begins to see the connections and the consequences that result from the ongoing onslaught to demonize and deny gays the rights afforded to their straight counterparts.

It’s one thing to not understand the behaviors of others…or to reject them…but it’s entirely inappropriate to decide that one has the right to inflict hatred and scorn upon them simply because they are different. Our capitalist culture of conformity only exacerbates the problem. It’s the peer pressure to have the right kind of SUV, the nice house in the suburbs, the right brands of clothing, the cell phone and the iPod…all the trappings that have come to be associated with meeting the norms of acceptability.

Further, there is little doubt that this particular brand of hatred (and many others) is taught to children by their parents. There seems to be a belief that simply being near a fellow student who is gay is an implicit threat that warrants and justifies a negative response. As such, the degree to which differentness creates dissonance…and the grounds for violence…has become a palpable pathology.

Not only is that wrong; it is a demonstration of the degree to which children are being encouraged to conclude that the world revolves around their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Religious zealots have sought to assert that the vilification of gays is biblically justified and supersedes the rule of law.

Let me be clear…these men and their organizations don’t directly encourage murder or violence…but they frequently allude to events as God’s wrath upon gays. At the same time, the mantra that activist judges are forcing Americans to accept the unacceptable further fosters a disregard of our judicial system and enhances a vigilante mindset. When this is done on a regular basis, they signal tacit approval to those who act inappropriately and lack the maturity and the ability to exhibit proper restraint.

I’m of the opinion that enrolling children directly in these battles is harmful to their psyches and is likely a form of brainwashing. Hence, these children are led to believe that a war exists…a war that pits them and their families against a widespread assault from gays. Is it any wonder that some of these children take the next step and engage in the activities they associate with war?

If one listens to the constant references to the rapture and the end of days, one becomes aware of the simmering animosities that exist as well as the unspoken calls to engage the forces they deem will be responsible for facilitating them. Again, this constant vilification is apt to trigger actions that dehumanize and demonize others. The fact that young people frequently act out these prejudices simply affirms the pervasive and persuasive nature of the propaganda.

In the end, the rhetoric of intolerance has many victims. While it is impossible to condone the actions of the 14-year-old boy who killed his classmate, it is possible to see that he may also be a victim of a culture that promotes the initiation of bigotry and hatred in innocent children at an early age.

The fact that the parents of these children are not held accountable is a stain on humanity. We’re left to hope it will someday be removed. In the meantime, the bad news will persist.

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1,000 march in Oxnard in tribute to slain teen

A march organized by students focuses on tolerance in the wake of the fatal shooting of an openly gay boy.

The Goths in their black T-shirts were there. So were the punks with fluorescent hair and multiple piercings.

There were even a few adolescent boys carrying skateboards among the nearly 1,000 Oxnard youth and other supporters who turned out Saturday for a hastily organized peace march to pay tribute to Lawrence King, 15, the Oxnard student shot to death in a classroom last week.

There were no bullhorns, no speeches and no politicians. Just a mass of mostly adolescents wearing bright clothing, carrying signs and singing John Lennon's "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance."

King, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School in south Oxnard, had revealed he was gay this school year. In recent weeks, he had begun accessorizing his school uniform with feminine items and was often teased by other students, several of his classmates said.

Jeremiah, another student and friend of the victim, said King had recently told the 14-year-old boy who is alleged to have shot him that he had a crush on him.

"I see no point in shooting someone for telling them that you like them," said Jeremiah, who didn't want to give his last name.

Connor Sipes, 13, showed up with two of his buddies. They attend a different middle school, Connor said, but learned about the march through a posting on MySpace.

Connor wore a headband and a gold peace sign around his neck as the three boys walked the two miles from the school to the city park. He participated because what happened to King "wasn't right," he said. "It will be a better future if we are more tolerant."

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More unrealistic abstinence promotions

From Ellen Friedrichs,

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. In my world, it was also the start to National Condom Week. But in some schools an event called "The Day of Purity" was being observed.

For the last five years, the Day of Purity has been turning up at schools across the states. Its mission? Getting kids to pledge virginity until they are in a heterosexual marriage.

The Day of Purity occurs in public schools, yet it has a distinctly Christian agenda--and one that is not open to the GLBT community.

The group's website says, "The push to experiment at a young age has led to a nationwide phenomena among teen girls known as "bisexual chic" - declaring themselves bisexual for attention and because it's cool. Experimenting with sexuality may be seen as "cool" but what's not cool, and in fact, not even discussed, are the devastating consequences of sex outside of marriage."

The group's website also criticizes the organizations Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network for what they claim are the corrupting messages of tolerance.

Whether you are gay or straight, virginity pledges have been proven to be ineffective and even dangerous! Studies have found that kids who take virginity pledges often break them by having sex before marriage. Often they don't practice safer sex and actually have a higher rate of STDs than kids who don't pledge!

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HRC encourages GLBT young adults to 'Film Your Issue'

HRC has joined forces with a number of prominent non-profit and media organizations to encourage young adults (age 14 to 24) around the world to present their perspectives on pressing social issues through the online "Film Your Issue" short film competition.

Now in its fourth year, FYI - Film Your Issue is inviting more than 25 million high school and college students in the U.S. to create and upload two-minute short films on issues that impact their generation.

Beginning Friday, February 15, film submissions can be uploaded on multiple participating platforms including MTV, YouTube and AFI Screen Nation, as well as promoted on MySpace TV, after registering on www.filmyourissue.com. Select entries will be highlighted on MySpace TV and distributed by The Associated Press to its 1800 U.S. media outlets. The submission deadline is April 14, 2008.

Prizes include internship opportunities and a $5,000 cash prize from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Strong American Schools. Winning films will be broadcast on Starz, and a finalist profiled on MTV News.

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Obama who? Hillary is our longtime friend.

Hillary was a senator 5 years prior to Barack becoming one.

Hillary has been a friend to the gay community LONG before Barack ever showed up on the radar!

Politicians are known for being liars. Let us not be deceived!

Many say she is for civil unions instead of marriage, and they are right. But they seem to forget the other part she said: “FULLY EQUAL TO MARRIAGE”. Of course those of you who watched the Logo “debate” heard this many months ago.

Those of you who wish to quibble over words are not helping our community. Federally mandated equality is what we want folks!

March 2007: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) casts herself as a moderate on gay marriage before mainstream audiences, but in a Saturday address to a pro-gay lobby group she promised that if elected President in 2008 she would secure a range of gay rights victories, including adoption for same-sex couples.

March 2000: Woodside St. Patrick's Day Parade, and its first marcher, First Lady and New York Senate candidate Hillary Clinton.


"I've seen how Hillary Clinton's experience, commitment, and leadership have made a difference for the LGBT community," said New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.


Hillary Clinton supports the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and supports the rights of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

Clinton said she would work to pass a federal law outlawing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation

Hillary Clinton, in line with HRC, co-sponsored legislation to bring Medicaid coverage to low-income, HIV-positive Americans and the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act which would expand federal jurisdiction to reach serious, violent hate crimes perpetrated because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability of the victim.

Hillary’s words:

I am fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of LGBT Americans.

· I am proud that as Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee in 2006, I worked closely with LBGT community to develop a smart strategy that defeated the Federal Marriage Amendment. I am proud of fighting the FMA as divisive wedge politics at its worst.
· I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligation Act which would grant the same benefits (including health insurance) to domestic partners of federal employees that are currently offered to employees’ legal spouses.
· I am proud to have authored the Early Treatment for HIV Act, which expands access to vital treatment options for low-income individuals living with HIV, and fought to fully fund the Ryan White CARE Act.
· I am proud that I hired a National Director of LGBT Outreach within a month of announcing my candidacy for President and to have openly gay and lesbian staffers serving at all levels of my campaign.
· I am proud to have a National LGBT Steering Committee of over 130 that includes openly LGBT elected officials, Board members and opinion leaders on issues ranging from transgender rights, to HIV/AIDS, to “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”.
· I am proud to have marched in Gay Pride parades as both First Lady and as Senator and to have spoken in front of so many LGBT audiences ranging from the Human Rights Campaign, Empire State Pride Agenda, the Hetrick Martin Institute, PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
· I am proud to have fought Republican efforts to demonize and marginalize the LGBT community, and I will continue to do that as President.

My father was a conservative Republican, who held very traditional views for much of his life. Yet in his last years, it was a gay couple who lived next door who provided much of the compassion and comfort he and my mother needed as he grew ill. And it was that same neighbor who held his hand as he died. If my father can move, America can move.

‘Undetectable’ viral load not a safe-sex strategy

While having an undetectable viral load may reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, it should not be used as an alternative to using condoms and lube, GLBT health agencies warn.

The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), responding to claims made by Swiss AIDS experts, said: “People need to be aware that relying on ‘undetectable’ viral load is not a ‘safe sex’ strategy – it’s one that reduces the risk of transmission and it isn’t foolproof. The best way to protect yourself and your partner from HIV is through regular and consistent condom use.”

Switzerland’s Federal AIDS Commission released a report last week claiming that people with HIV do not risk transmitting the virus sexually provided they have had an undetectable viral load for at least six months, are adhering to a strict antiretroviral treatment and do not have a sexually transmitted disease (STI).

Nick Corrigan, Director of Community Health at ACON, told SX that while a person with an undetectable viral load is unlikely to pass on HIV, “it is difficult to know your viral load at a particular point in time and to ensure it remains undetectable”.

Corrigan also point out that the Swiss research is based on heterosexual couples and are not directly comparable to gay men. “It is estimated that HIV is between 10 to 30 times easier to transmit during anal sex than vaginal sex. We therefore need to be more cautious than the Swiss experts have been,” he said.

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California Supreme Court sets March date to hear gay marriage debate

The California Supreme Court has set arguments in the legal fight over gay marriage for March 4, assuring that a ruling will be issued by June.

The state's high court will hear the legal challenge in San Francisco, where the battle over same-sex marriage first unfolded four years ago when Mayor Gavin Newsom temporarily issued marriage licenses to gay couples.

San Francisco city officials and civil rights groups have challenged California's ban on gay marriage, arguing that it deprives same-sex couples of the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

A divided state appeals court in 2006 upheld the state ban on same-sex marriage, overturning a San Francisco judge who previously declared it unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court will be reviewing that appeals court ruling.

Hate, Jamaican style

A homophobic mob attack in Jamaica that left one man severely injured and another missing and feared dead shows yet again that authorities must take urgent action against violence and hatred, Human Rights Watch said Feb. 1. This incident is the latest in a string of homophobic mob violence over the last year, including an attack on mourners in a church.

“Roving mobs attacking innocent people and staining the streets with blood should shame the nation’s leaders,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Gays and lesbians in Jamaica face violence at home, in public, even in a house of worship, and official silence encourages the spread of hate.”

On the evening of January 29, a group of men approached a house where four males lived in the central Jamaican town of Mandeville, and demanded that they leave the community because they were gay, according to human rights defenders who spoke with the victims. Approximately half an hour later, 15-20 men broke down the door and began beating and slashing the inhabitants.

April 8, 2007. Approximately 100 men gathered outside a church where 150 people were attending the funeral of a gay man. According to mourners, the crowd broke the windows with bottles and shouted, “We want no battyman [gay] funeral here. Leave or else we’re going to kill you. We don’t want no battyman buried here in Mandeville.”

After half an hour, three police officers arrived. But instead of protecting the mourners, police socialized with the mob, laughing along at the situation.

Two other mob attacks last year reinforced the fears of gay and lesbian Jamaicans. On April 2, 2007, a crowd in Montego Bay attacked three men alleged to be gay who were attending a carnival. February 14, 2007, a mob in Kingston attacked four men, including the co-chair of t the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (JFLAG).

In 2007, Human Rights Watch wrote to then-Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller and Peter Phillips, minister of national security, calling for an investigation into all the reported violence, as well as protection of witnesses from threats or reprisals. Human Rights Watch has received no response from the government to any of this correspondence.

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Kentucky Bill Would Ban Domestic Partner Benefits

(Frankfort, Kentucky) Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) says he will veto a bill that would bar state funded agencies or colleges from offering domestic partner benefits if the measure arrives on his desk.

The bill passed the state Senate 30 - 5 on Wednesday with five Democrats voting against it. Among them was Sen. Ernesto Scorsone of Lexington, the only openly gay man in the Senate.

"The only thing that drives this measure is a gay-bashing effort," said Scorsone.

The bill was prepared after the University of Louisville decided in July to offer the benefits - making it the first publicly funded college in the state to do so. (story) The University of Kentucky later followed also offering health benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

Attorney General Greg Stumbo issued a legal opinion that the university plans would violate the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The attorney general in releasing the opinion said that if the university did not expand the program, and stuck to providing benefits to unmarried couples, he would take the university to court.

Following that the University of Kentucky expanded its benefits plan to include all dependants who reside with university workers. (story)

Throughout the country about 300 universities and colleges provide health and insurance benefits to the domestic partners of their workers. In addition more than half of the Fortune 500 companies, provide benefits.

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German Memorial for gay holocaust victims

UPDATE: Click here to view an update to this story.

BERLIN (AP) — A new Berlin memorial to the Nazis' murdered gay victims — including a video presentation showing same-sex couples kissing — should be ready within months, officials said Thursday.

"The $890,000 memorial to gay victims will be located in Berlin's Tiergarten Park, across from the memorial to the murdered jews of Europe", said Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.

Homosexuality was banned and illegal under the Nazis. Tens of thousands of people — primarily men — were arrested and many were sent to concentration camps.

With emancipation all holocaust victims were set free, except for homosexuals who were placed in prisons. After all homosexuality was still illegal!

SJSU suspends blood drives

San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because of a longstanding government policy that bars gay men from donating blood.

The policy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy," Kassing said in a lengthy e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students earlier this week.

The issue has cropped up on college campuses across the country, primarily as gay student groups protest blood drives. The American Red Cross and other national organizations that regularly run blood drives have also been pushing the FDA to revise the policy, which has been in place since AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s. State-of-the-art blood-screening techniques make the lifetime ban unnecessary, the groups say.

"This is not a political issue. We're not bowing to political pressure from some advocacy group," said Larry Carr, SJSU's associate vice president for public affairs. "It's a position based entirely on principle. President Kassing stood up for our non-discrimination policy."

Kassing's order, which takes effect immediately, applies to blood drives arranged by university employees as well as those organized by various student groups. At least two blood drives that were planned for this spring have now been canceled.

Both the spread of the disease and the process by which blood is screened have dramatically evolved in the past 25 years.

In 2005, the largest estimated proportion of HIV/AIDS diagnoses were for men who have had sex with men, followed by adults and youth infected through heterosexual contact, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

But HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is increasingly transmitted between heterosexuals, and women account for more than one-quarter of all new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in the United States.

For his part, Kassing said he recognized the importance of giving blood. "However," he said in his e-mail, "lacking further action by the FDA, we are guided by the clear mandates of our non-discrimination policy. Our hope is that the FDA will revisit its . . . policy in a timely manner and we may soon be able to hold blood drives on this campus again."

Afghanistan man sentenced to death for debating women’s rights

Much has been sacrificed by the armed forces of America, the United Kingdom and others to give the people of Afghanistan a better future than the one the Taliban offered. However, six years after the Taliban were over thrown, it seems that hopes of freedom of expression, and the right to debate religion without threat or intimidation, has not been won out right.

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has been sentenced by a religious court to death for downloading and circulating a tract that criticised interpretions stating the Koran supported suppression of women. He did this at his university where he is studying journalism. Despite the widespread international condemnation, the Afghan Senate has rejected non Islamic views on the matter, - and expressed that the secular supreme court should not intervene in the matter, though constitutionally he has the right of appeal.

May the international community send a clear signal that in this case human rights matter - and the Afghan government can expect no favours should it allow this student’s execution.


How you can help save Pervez

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh’s imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai’s government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign our e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

Oregon Followup: Civil Unions; for real this time?

As we remember back in August "Oregon conservatives" were gathering signatures to force a vote on Oregon civil unions. They didn't have enough signatures.

Then an out of state "conservative group" contacted a federal judge, who, in turn, placed the civil unions on hold.

Now that judge suddenly lifts the hold!

A federal judge this afternoon threw out a lawsuit against Oregon's domestic partnership law, allowing the legislation to go into effect about 4:20 p.m.

The verdict was greeted with honking horns and shouts of joy outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.

Grinning amid a scrum of reporters, Jeana Frazzini, executive director of Basic Right Oregon, a gay rights group, called the decision "thrilling."

"Not only did we win on the merits of the case, we really won new rights," she told a gaggle of reporters outside the federal courthouse in Portland.

Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman came a little more than a month after he had blocked Oregon's domestic partnership law for gays and lesbians from taking effect, as scheduled, in early January.

Mosman set a Feb. 1 hearing to hear a lawsuit by gay-rights opponents challenging the state's methods for verifying voter signatures.

The judge ruled that ultimately there was no constitutional right when you sign a petition to have the signature counted.

full story

Rainbow Tours

West Hollywood, CA, January 25, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Touring the gayer side of the West Coast just got a little easier thanks to the launch of the first and only inbound tour operator company in California serving the gay and lesbian community exclusively. Based in West Hollywood CA, Rainbow Tours has begun offering gay specific escorted tours of Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and the National parks.

Celebrating all that California has to offer the gay and lesbian traveler, gay owned and operated Rainbow tours, promises to take guests everywhere from gay meccas such as San Francisco, West Hollywood, San Diego, and Palm Springs, to mountains, rivers, wineries, deserts, parks, beaches and neighboring Las Vegas.

All Rainbow Tours include transportation by vans or by private car, accommodations at 3 and 4 stars gay friendly hotels, daily breakfast, attractions and the services of a professional gay or lesbian tour guide.

In celebration of the burgeoning number of gay familial units, Rainbow Tours is also offering special tours and departures for gay families. Designed to meet the unique needs of gay and lesbian families with children or grandchildren under the age of 18, Rainbow Family Tours has devised 30 itineraries ranging from day tours of cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas to 8 and 9 days tours of California’s Coasts and America’s National parks.

Future plans for the company include expanding its focus on operating other gay-only tours in other parts of the U.S.For more information visit: Rainbow-Tours.net or contact Oren Gordon oren@rainbow-tours.net or 323-656-6111.