30Mar
MEXICO CITY — Ricky Martin defended the right of pop stars to come out of the closet, saying he felt solidarity with Christian Chavez of Mexican band RBD, who recently said publicly that he is gay.
“Life is too short to live closed up, guarding what you say,” said Martin _ whose sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation _ in an interview with The Associated Press. Christian “has to be free in many aspects. I wish him much strength.”
Martin, who was named person of the year in 2006 by the Latin Recording Academy, has hits including “Livin’ la Vida Loca” and “Shake Your Bon-Bon.”
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from GXR News
30Mar
ST. LOUIS — Olivia Nabulwala says her family in Uganda was so angry and ashamed to learn she was a lesbian that her relatives hurled insults at her, pummeled her and, finally, stripped her and held her down while a stranger raped her.
“I hated myself from that day,” she says in a sworn statement. “I disliked my family for subjecting me to such torture, and yet they felt this was a good punishment for me.”
Now, in a case that illuminates a relatively unexplored area of immigration law, the African immigrant is asking for asylum in the U.S. on the grounds she was persecuted over her sexual orientation. And a federal appeals court ruling last week in St. Louis has raised her hopes of success.
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29Mar
An elderly man in Detroit whose death became a cause for gay rights advocates died of natural causes, not from being beaten, authorities said Wednesday. Police also said they intended to close the investigation into 72-year-old Andrew Anthos’ death.
”There’s no evidence that an assault occurred,” police spokesman James Tate told The Detroit News.
According to family members, Anthos said he was riding a city bus home from the library on February 13 when a young man asked him if he was gay and uttered a slur. Anthos said the man followed him off the bus and confronted him again. Anthos said he told the man he was gay as he went to help a friend whose wheelchair was stuck in a snowbank, according to his cousin, Athena Fedenis.
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29Mar
Advocates of a defeated measure barring gays and unmarried couples from fostering or adopting children said today they may try to put the ban on the 2008 ballot. Arkansas Family Council director Jerry Cox says the group is considering trying to place the ban on the ballot as a constitutional amendment or an initiated act if the measure does not win approval in the session.
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28Mar
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(New York City) Staten Island voters have elected their first openly gay candidate for the state legislature – making Matthew Titone the fourth gay member to serve in Albany.
>Titone was elected in a special election to replace Assemblyman John W. Lavelle. The 57 year old Lavelle, who died of a stroke in January had been a strong supporter of LGBT rights.
>Both Titone and Lavelle were Democrats and Titone’s election was not altogether a surprise. The district has been solidly Democratic in modern history.
>Titone, 46, had the support of Empire Pride Agenda and the Victory Fund.
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28Mar
Iowa’s state Senate passed a bill Monday to extend civil rights protections to gay, lesbian and transgender people in the state, despite opposition from business interests.
The bill adds the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to a list of protected characteristics under Iowa’s Civil Rights Act. Democrats have long supported expanded protections, and they now control the Senate, the House and the governor’s office.
The chamber passed Senate File 427 on a bipartisan 32-17 vote. It moves now to the state House of Representatives, where Iowa Equality board president Sandy Vopalka expects it to have a tougher time.
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27Mar
Twelve members of a gay-rights group have been arrested after staging a sit-in at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.The Soulforce activists attempted to meet with the seminary’s president, the Reverend R. Albert Mohler Junior, to demand a public apology for a recent article he wrote on homosexuality.
Mohler had asserted that gay sex would be sinful even if homosexuality was biologically based, and said he would support a hypothetical prenatal treatment to make an unborn gay baby straight.
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27Mar
Bravo network’s hit show Project Runway and the independent film Quinceanera won honors at the gay media watchdog GLADD’s annual awards on Monday, but it was singer Patti LaBelle and Oscar-winning Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson who stole the show.
R&B diva LaBelle received a special achievement award, presented by Hudson, for championing gay and lesbian rights and participation in the fight against AIDS.
“I didn’t know you were this nice,” LaBelle told Hudson at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s 18th annual media awards. “I thought you were a bitch,” she joked, noting that she had never met Hudson before their joint appearance.
LaBelle spent most of her acceptance speech praising Hudson, a losing American Idol contestant won an Oscar last month for her debut portrayal of a pop singer in the musical Dreamgirls.
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27Mar
>Â WASHINGTON, March 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) today strongly condemned the anti-gay and racist emails sent by Army Recruiter Sergeant Marcia Ramode to Corey Andrew, a potential recruit. In her emails with Andrew, Ramode said, among other things, that Andrew, an openly gay African American man, should “go back to Africa and do your gay voodoo limbo tango and wango dance and jump around and prance and run all over the place half naked there and practice your gay morals over there…” SLDN demanded SGT Ramode’s dismissal.
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27Mar
>A prestigious Conservative Jewish seminary in New York has taken a step towards equality by opening its doors to gay students.
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) announced on Monday that it would begin to accept applications from LGBT students, but that the decision was not taken lightly.The change in policy comes three months after the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards voted to allow the ordination of gays and lesbians.
The committee also voted that seminaries should decide independently whether they will allow gay students.
That decision paved the way for the seminary to consult with staff and students, hold a meeting of the schools trustees and take a survey of opinions.
Founded in 1886, the JTS is one of the most well-regarded seminaries in America.
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