San Jose professor fired for answering student’s genetics question

from The Alliance Defense Fund

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom and Pacific Justice Institute filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of a former San Jose City College biology professor fired for answering a student’s in-class question about heredity and homosexual behavior.

On June 21, 2007, June Sheldon, an experienced adjunct professor teaching a human heredity course, answered a student’s question about how heredity affects homosexual behavior by citing the class textbook and a well-known German scientist. She noted that the scientist found a correlation between maternal stress and homosexual behavior in males but that the scientist’s views are only one set of theories in the nature-versus-nurture debate mentioned by the textbook. Sheldon explained that the class would learn in a later chapter of the textbook that homosexual behavior may be influenced by both genes and the environment.

The school launched an investigation after a different student in the class lodged an informal complaint that deemed Sheldon’s comments “offensive and unscientific.” Sheldon was later recommended for removal from the adjunct seniority rehire preference list and terminated by the district’s board of trustees on Feb. 13, 2008.

full article

Pawling Supervisor Beth Coursen accused of making homophobic slur

By Michael Woyton

The Poughkeepsie Journal

PAWLING - A homophobic slur allegedly directed at the town GOP chairman by the Republican supervisor has brought out cries of politics and intimidation.

Supervisor Beth Coursen denied making the remark to Glenn Carey, town Republican chairman.

During a break in proceedings during the July 2 Town Board meeting, Carey spoke with Coursen to follow up on an exchange they had earlier in the meeting.

Carey said he had offered help posting comprehensive plan committee meeting minutes on the town Web site, something Coursen publicly was amenable to.

He said he approached Coursen to ask if the following day would be good for him to help.

According to Carey, Coursen said he could come in and apply for a part-time position, and he asked if her public comments were made only to appease him. Coursen is a former aide to former state Assemblyman Willis Stephens.

Carey said, "She took a step forward and said, 'I'm not giving you access to the town Web site, and you're a [expletive] and everybody knows it.'"

While the meeting was still in open session, Carey told the public and the board what Coursen allegedly said to him.

Coursen said the accusation was "categorically false."

full article

Gay man sues Bible publishers for emotional pain

The Grand Rapids Press
Michigan

CASCADE TOWNSHIP -- A Canton man is suing Zondervan Publishing and a Tennessee-based publisher, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan, based in Cascade Township, and $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in the lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Fowler's suit claims Zondervan's text revisions from a 1980s version of the Bible include, and then delete the reference to homosexuality without informing the public of the changes.

full article

Grab it, add to it and post it and post it and post it!

Many of these tragic but true lists of GLBTQIA human tragedy are floating around the internet.

It's "in-your-face truth and fact".

Over at SamsGirl's Journal she states "Repost this if you believe homophobia is wrong" (THANK YOU). I think we should take it one step further.

Let's all add to the list and pass it around. Similar to the aids quilt it can grow and grow.

Grab it, add to it and post it and post it and post it!

---------------------------

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the man who was not able to hold the hand of my love or attend his funeral because the love we had was "wrong".

We the people DEMAND GLBTQIA EQUALITY

Wow, I was just visiting the Straight, Not Narrow site and read an article, which made my eyes well up. In my mind that means it’s really good.

The beginning of the article was the emotional part (for me), but as Jim and Brenda state the end is the important part.

One word struck a nerve for me, and that word was “vaccum”.

The article states marriage cannot be successful in a vacuum. (dictionary.com contains both spellings).

I disagree, but do feel it is MUCH, MUCH more difficult to achieve success.

But I want to expand on the concept and say, as GLBTQIA citizens, we all live our lives in a vacuum everyday.

Once again, it can be done, but is MUCH, MUCH more difficult.

Many folks like to point out the woes of the gay community. How we have more suicides, disease, etc.

Of course these are the same folks who help create the vacuum.

They create the vacuum we (GLBTQIA) endure and then blame us because we have problems. Weather it is based on their own sexual insecurities; religion or both they carry a bias against us (GLBTQIA lawful citizens).

Some people are not equipped to deal with such added stress. In other words, it isn’t an even playing field folks!

Let’s take a sporting event like running the 100-yard dash. If one lane had hurdles (and the others didn't) do you think they’d have a chance at finishing first? Do you think the person might fall occasionally? How about their self esteem since they will never finish first! Perhaps the person would drop out of sports!

Constitutionally we are equally empowered. I am glad to see GLBTQIA folks speaking up and out.

It's about time and is the only way we can release ourselves from the vacuum; from this unwarranted and unconstitutional oppression.

Silence = Death

Tabloid's front page gay kiss shows Heinz how it's done

from Pink News UK

Brighton-based One80news features the headline ‘Is This Really Offensive, Kids?’ to provoke debate and urge its readers to complain to Heinz.

“We were disgusted at Heinz for pulling their ‘gay kiss’ ad and for apologising so readily for their own ‘offensive’ imagery,” said Torsten Højer from One80news.

“We just couldn’t believe that in 2008, the sight of two men affectionately kissing really offends that many people - so we thought we’d put an image of a gay kiss out there.

full article

Right red over Heinz

Last Wednesday I posted an article about The Commercial Closet Association.

One of their “featured” videos was a Heinz ketchup commercial running in England.

Interestingly Heinz has produced 3 other gay related commercials dating back to 2000. [link]

All of a sudden there is uproar about Heinz supporting homosexuals and the ad is pulled. [link]

Irmo High School still in a quandry over GSA

Last month we heard the Irmo High School Principle Eddie Walker submit his resignation over the formation of a Gay Student Alliance.

In Irmo, an affluent suburb about 10 miles outside South Carolina's capital, the school board is scheduled to meet Monday to consider one of several options, including whether to ban all nonacademic and non-athletic clubs to prevent the creation of a Gay/Straight Alliance.

National gay rights advocates says gay and straight teens across the nation are gravitating toward gay-straight clubs. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network says there are about 4,000 gay-straight alliances at schools nationwide. There are 16 in South Carolina.

full article on the Washington Blade

Holocaust Museum exhibition on homosexual persecution planned at UVM

Burlington Free Press

BURLINGTON -- The Holocaust Museum's traveling exhibition, "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: 1933-1945," will be on public display at the University of Vermont's Living/Learning Center Gallery from Aug. 18 through Sept. 30.

The Living/Learning Gallery and Outright Vermont this week announced the exhibition that examines - through reproductions of some 250 photographs and documents - the rationale, means and impact of the Nazi regime's attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead.

The exhibition will be free and open to the public.

full article

Update: Alleged Homosexual Spaniards Leave The Gambia

By Abba A.S. Gibba
The Point Newspaper
Banjul, The Gambia

The two alleged Spanish homosexuals who were arrested last Friday and released on Tuesday left the country on the night of the same day.

Pere Joan and Juan Monpserratrusau left the country following their release on Tuesday, contrary to media reports that they are being charged with an attempt to commit “unnatural offence” and were to appear in court yesterday.

backstory

full article

Gambia, Africa: Two Alleged Homosexuals Arrested

The Point Newspaper
Banjul, The Gambia

The police last Friday arrested two men believed to be homosexuals, this paper has been reliably informed. The two are reported to be Spanish nationals.

Pere Joan, 56, and Juan Monpserratrusau, 54, held at Kotu police station, allegedly approached two taxi drivers (names withheld) and made proposals to them.

Our sources said the drivers acted quickly but secretly by immediately alerting the police, while putting up a show of interest in the advances of the culprits who were lured to a rendezvous in Manjai, where they were subsequently arrested.

Related Article

full article

The age of innocence in Asia

by William Sparrow
Asia Times Online

BANGKOK - Societies all over the world struggle - both legally and morally - to define the age that young people can legally consent to sex. It is an issue complicated by religion, politics and culture. In Asia, the laws defining ages of consent for both genders are varied and complex.

The average age for sexual consent across Asia is roughly 14.5 years (actually 14.7 for heterosexual relations and between 13.8 to 14.5 for homosexual sex of both genders). The West isn't so far off; for example, in the US the average legal age for sexual consent is 16, as determined by state.

In most Muslim countries, male homosexual relations are illegal, and in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the punishment can be death. In these countries the age of consent for heterosexual sex is not defined, but the partners must be married. Sadly, media reports indicate that girls are married off as young as six years old.

Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all have an interesting legal approach. These countries have made male homosexual sex illegal, but have defined the age of lesbian sex permissible at age 16.

full article

VIDEO: 2008 Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade

Clips, pieces, cuts and segments from Brazils' 2008 Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade.

New Jersey Gay couple gets day in court

By: E. Assata Wright
Reporter staff writer
Secaucus Reporter

Peter DeVries has waited four years to tell his story to a jury.

He and his romantic partner, Timothy Carter, have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the town of Secaucus, the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department, and the local police department for violating their civil rights based on sexual orientation.

"Tim said, 'You've got to come hear this.'

"DeVries went to the first floor of their rented home on Schopmann Drive, which was located next to the North End Firehouse.

It was then that DeVries heard three men allegedly yelling, "Homo! Homo! Homo! We don't want you in this town. Come on out, you chicken[expletive]."

He said he then heard something he'll never forget: "We will kill you, you [expletive] faggots."

The threat, he testified, was repeated three times.

The three volunteer firefighters whom the plaintiffs allege were the ringleaders in the attack - Charles Snyder Sr., Charles Snyder Jr., and Charles Mutschler - testified on May 8 and 15.

On the stand, the firefighters invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

full article

California marriage opponents seek 5-month delay

By LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer
Herald Zeitung

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A conservative legal group asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday to put off finalization of its decision legalizing same-sex marriage until voters got a chance to weigh in.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund wants the ruling stayed until November, when voters will probably encounter a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. That amendment would overturn the justices' ruling.

In court papers submitted late Thursday, the group warned that the state would suffer "great public harm and mischief" if it began allowing same-sex marriages on June 16, when the court's decision would ordinarily become final.

full article

EDITORIAL - Homophobic silliness and a failure of leadership

Jamaica Gleaner News

Leadership often demands of the person who assumes that role a willingness to adopt what initially may be unpopular positions and, the ability to persuade and cajole those whom they lead to the embrace of new ideas.

Then Mr Golding was asked about past remarks that no homosexual could be a member of his Cabinet. Here, there was a bit of a waffling inconsistency: while he broadly viewed people on the basis of their abilities, he was under no compulsion to consider gays, in exercising his choice in forming a Cabinet.

When he was pressed on the issue, Mr Golding resorted to the tactics of the cornered - neither he nor Jamaica would be dictated to. And, on whether gays can ever sit in a Jamaican Cabinet: "Sure ... but not in mine."

Jamaica and Mr Golding can expect further pressure from the international community, which is the lesser of the outcomes from the PM's performance. His greater failure is that of leadership.

A potentially unintended consequence of Mr Golding's trenchant statement is that people interpret it as vindication of homophobic and anti-gay violence and for the liberation of the voyeurs.

full article

Morehouse College faces its own bias -- against gays

By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

ATLANTA -- Michael Brewer, a senior at Morehouse College, was strolling purposefully around this storied campus on a hot spring day, his heavy frame dripping sweat, his hands clutching a small stack of fliers.

"No more hate," the fliers read, in a stylish typeface. "No more discrimination. No more."

"What's up, brother?" Brewer said in a lilting, cheerful voice as he approached a fellow student in a dark business suit. "Take one of these, if you will."

The young man gave the flier a glance. It was promoting what was perhaps the most ambitious week of gay rights events in the history of Morehouse, the only historically black all-male school in America.

"What the hell is this?" he said under his breath. He laughed and threw it in the trash.

full article

Gay Iranian wins deportation battle

news.com.au

A GAY Iranian who says he faces death if forced to return home has won a

deportation battle and been granted asylum in Britain, officials said.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but later said he had discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

full article

Schwules Museum [Gay Museum]

glbtq.com

Berlin's Schwules Museum, established in the late 1980s, is a private institution dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and discovering homosexual history, art, and culture. Located in the Kreuzberg district of former West Berlin, long the center of gay life in the city, the museum is composed of three main divisions: archives, library, and exhibitions.

The Schwules Museum was founded as a "living collection" to present to the public exhibitions, catalogues, essays, lectures, and film screenings. Its targeted audience includes everyone--gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, and heterosexuals--who would like to inform and be informed, in a professional and scientific manner, on all topics relating to homosexuality, both historically and contemporarily.

Although the museum is interested in all aspects of homosexual history and culture, it has a particular concern with the persecution of gay men and lesbians under fascism. The treatment of gay men and lesbians by the Third Reich is a topic of specialization and continuing research.

full article

HARDtalk interviews Bruce Golding, Jamaican Prime Minister

In a HARDtalk interview shown on 20th May 2008, Stephen Sackur

talks to Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding

With an average of three murders a day and the police themselves accused of murder and corruption, Jamaica is one of the worlds most murderous countries.

He made it clear that while each Jamaican should have the right to privacy and equality before the law, the Government would not bow to international pressure for the recognition of gay rights.

"Jamaica is not going allow values to be imposed on it from outside. We're going to have to determine that ourselves and we're going to have to determine to what extent those values will adapt over time to change, change in perception, change in understanding as to how people live."

Questioned about statements he made in the past that homosexuals would not be allowed to serve in his Cabinet, Mr. Golding insisted that he would not change that view.

View Full Video (23 minutes - RealPlayer required)

Followup Story

sources: BBC News, Radio Jamaica