Ugandan President Museveni Pens Editorial in New Stance on Anti-Gay Legislation

Melanie Nathan | Oblogdeeoblogda | October 03, 2014.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote a piece published in two Ugandan News Magazines, indicating that he has new thoughts about the onerous anti-homosexuality legislation, which he once signed into law, which was invalidated by the Courts on a technicality, and which Ugandan Parliamentarians now seek to re-table.  Museveni is now arguing that the impoverished East African country needs to reconsider the impact of such laws on trade and economic growth.

In his editorial carried by 2 leading national daily publications, the 30 year dictator, President Yoweri Museveni, said he only signed off on a controversial anti-gay law earlier this year because he wanted to protect children and stop people being “recruited” into homosexuality, indicating he nonetheless sustains the mythological context within which the purported need for the legislation is rooted.

It is heartening to see that the President is acknowledging that there are more important issues for Uganda to deal with and so indeed ” the man who chases two animals while hunting, ends up with failing to kill any.”

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LGBT Group Plays Leading Role in Organizing Tour of Purged Palestinian-American Professor

For Immediate Release – October 3, 2014

For information:

Andy Thayer, co-founder, Gay Liberation Network, 773.209.1187, LGBTliberation@aol.com

Ruba Assaf, Students for Justice in Palestine-Northwestern chapter, 815.670.0452, rubaassaf2017@u.northwestern.edu

LGBT Group Plays Leading Role in Organizing Tour of Purged Palestinian-American Professor

 

CHICAGO – Palestinian-American professor Steven Salaita, who was fired from his tenured job at the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana over his pro-Palestinian tweets on his personal twitter account during the recent Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, will speak at five Chicago area campuses October 6 – 9.

Professor Salaita will address issues of academic censorship and failed U.S. policy towards the Middle East in a tour organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), Loyola University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and DePaul University, and the multi-issue LGBT group Gay Liberation Network (GLN).  In addition, the tour is co-sponsored by 37 other organizations, including 11 departments, units and other organizations at UIC.

“This is about much more than just one man losing his job,” said Andy Thayer of GLN, one of the tour organizers. “Dr. Salaita spoke out against a disastrous, decades-long U.S. foreign policy of supporting proxy wars by Israel. The U.S., by supporting dictators and coups, periodic bombings and invasions, has left the Middle East aflame in violence from one end to another.  The U.S. keeps on this reckless course, in part, because it victimizes courageous voices like Dr. Salaita who pose better alternatives. Academic freedom is crucial to having a real democracy that avoids these tragic mistakes.”

“As an LGBT group, the Gay Liberation Network is proud to be an organizer of Dr. Salaita’s tour. Too many American LGBTs have been conscious or unwitting tools of ‘pink-washing,’ the excusing of Israel’s violent suppression and dispossession of Palestinians by highlighting its somewhat greater tolerance of LGBTs. This is akin to excusing 19^th America’s chattel slavery and slaughter of Native Americans by highlighting this country’s relatively expansive electoral franchise compared to its contemporaries.”

Professor Salaita will be speaking at the following events:

** Monday, October 6 – Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, 5 PM, Harris Hall, Room 107 (Harris Hall is the building nearest to the northeast corner of Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue).

** Tuesday, October 7 – University of Chicago, 5:30 PM at the International House, Assembly Hall, 1414 E. 59th Street. With remarks by grassroots West Bank activist Basem Tamimi and the Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah.

** Wednesday, October 8 – Columbia College, 7 PM, 600 S. Michigan Ave, Room 101, Ferguson Lecture Hall. Joining Prof. Salaita will be Professors Iymen Chehade, and Dr. Peter Kirstein.

** Thursday, October 9 – DePaul University, 4 PM, O’Connell Hall, Room 360 (1036 W. Belden Ave).

 

Co-sponsoring organizations of the tour and/or individual events include the 8th Day Center for Justice, American Muslims for Palestine, Anti-War Committee, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice, Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Chicago Area CodePINK, Chicago Area Peace Action, Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Department of English at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Evanston Neighbors for Peace, Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice, Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Haymarket Books, History Department at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois – Chicago, International Socialist Organization, International Studies at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago, La Voz de los de Abajo, Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois – Chicago, March 19th Anti-War Coalition, Moratorium on Deportations Campaign, Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice, Northwest Indiana Veterans For Peace, Occupy Naperville, Palestine Solidarity Group – Chicago, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois – Chicago, Students For the Advancement of Freedom, Equality, and Human Rights at the University of Illinois – Chicago, The Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Illinois – Chicago, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, UIC Social Justice Initiative, and World Can’t Wait Chicago (list in formation).

For more information and interview opportunities, please email LGBTliberation@aol.com or call 773.209.1187

Mother Asks Judge No To Recognize Her Son’s Marriage to Another Man

Carlos Santoscoy | On Top Magazine | October 3, 2014

An Alabama mother has asked a federal judge not to recognize her late son’s marriage to another man.

Paul Hard and Charles David Fancher married in 2011 in Massachusetts.

Roughly 3 months after the wedding, Fancher was killed in a car crash north of Montgomery, which led to a wrongful death case.

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Census Bureau Appoints Task Force’s Policy Counsel to the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations

 

MEDIA CONTACTS: Mark Daley Chief Communications and Marketing Officer (Office) 202.639.6325 (Cell) 202.379.8318 mdaley@theTaskForce.org Jorge Amaro Media and Public Relations Director (Office) 202.639.6306 (Cell) 213.842.7564 jamaro@theTaskForce.org Census Bureau Appoints Task Force’s Policy Counsel to the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 3, 2014 — The U.S. Census Bureau announced yesterday the appointment of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Counsel Meghan Maury to the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations. “We are delighted to learn about Meghan’s appointment to the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee, which advises the federal agency on how to improve data collection methods to ensure that demographic information accurately depicts the nation’s diverse populations,” said Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The Task Force’s ground-breaking 2012 campaign QueerTheCensus urged the US Census and other federal surveys to count LGBT people and to include questions that would allow LGBT people to show the true diversity of our communities. “Without accurate data about LGBT populations, it’s difficult to advocate effectively for changes in law. And while the committee has been successful in including same-sex couples in the decennial Census, accurate data on the majority of LGBT people is still not being collected. We look forward to working with the Census Bureau to integrate sexual orientation and gender identity demographic questions into Census surveys and to push the agency to spearhead an interagency task force that will integrate these questions into all data collection instruments put forward by the government,” Meghan Maury said. –30– To learn more about the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, visit and follow us on Twitter: @TheTaskForce.

Lawsuit Claims Nicholas Sparks Is Homophobic, Racist

Associated Press | South Florida Gay News | October 3, 2014

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The former headmaster of a private school founded by romance writer Nicholas Sparks is suing the novelist and other school leaders, saying he was forced out after trying to recruit black students and faculty and supporting a bullied group of gay students.

Saul Hillel Benjamin says in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that Sparks made racially and religiously dismissive remarks while Benjamin headed the K-12 school in New Bern, Sparks’ hometown of 30,000 people about 100 miles east of Raleigh.

Benjamin seeks punitive damages against Sparks, three other members of the board of The Epiphany School of Global Studies and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation.

Sparks’ defense attorney denies the allegations. Another says he’s known the writer for almost 20 years and calls the descriptions ludicrous and offensive.

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NYPD Arrest 3 Men Connected in Anti-Gay Attack

Jason St. Amand | EDGE Boston | September 29, 2014

Officers from the New York Police Department arrested and charged two men and one teen suspected of chasing and shooting a man dressed as a woman in Brooklyn Saturday morning, the New York Daily News reports.

The 22-year-old victim was walking with a friend around 7 a.m. when Cody Sigue, 22, Matthew Smith, 21, and Tavon Johnson, 17, allegedly screamed profanities and anti-gay slurs at him, according to police.

The man and his friend tried to escape but the group ran after them and started to shoot them. The man was shot in the buttocks, police said.

The victim was taken to Brookdale University, where he was treated for his injuries. He has since been released.

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Oak Lawn Library to house 2nd largest LGBT collection in U.S.

DAVID TAFFET   | Dallas Voice | October 3, 2014

BOOK WORM | Oak Lawn Library branch manager Angie Bartula peeks out form behind a pile of books that will give her branch the second largest LGBT collection in the U.S. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

When ilume donates 6,000 volumes to the Oak Lawn Library on Sept. 20, Dallas will have the second-largest collection of LGBT reading material in the world, after the Stonewall National Museum and Archives located in Fort Lauderdale.

Luke Crosland, developer of ilume and ilume Park on Cedar Springs Road, acquired 6,000 books from the Fort Lauderdale museum. He then worked with Cynthia Smoot of Gangway Advertising to bring those books to Dallas.

“The Stonewall Museum is well known in the LGBT community for its archives, so it receives many donations throughout the year from people all across the country,” Smoot said.

She said over the years, Stonewall Museum has received duplicates of 6,000 books, giving the Fort Lauderdale library a surplus. That’s where Crosland came in.

Crosland said he made a donation two years ago to the Oak Lawn Branch of The Dallas Public Library to help build an LGBT literature collection there. Recently, “Through a resident of ilume, we learned of the Stonewall Museum collection availability and we believed the community and library would benefit from being able to expand its collection in one fell swoop,” Crosland added.

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Millennials: Don’t Get Shafted at the Polls!

Anita Little | MS Magazine | September 30, 2014

Often characterized as apathetic and irrelevant, young people, especially college students, have usually been ignored come election season. However, this mythology was blown away in the 2008 and 2012 elections when young people proved to be a formidable force at the polls. Galvanized by a charismatic candidate who engaged with them, a sleeping giant had been awakened.

Young voters overwhelming supported the president, with Barack Obama capturing 60 percent of young people’s votes (ages 18-29) in 2012 and 66 percent of it in 2008. Younger voters were also key in equal marriage ballot initiatives in 2012, largely supporting measures to legalize gay marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington state. Two-thirds of young voters supported marriage equality in those states compared to one-third of voters over 65.

On the night of Nov. 6, 2012, after young voters boosted the president’s reelection, Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote, warned in a statement:

Tonight’s results hopefully put an end to the accusation of a so called ‘enthusiasm gap. This proves that any campaign that ignores young voters does so at its own peril.

Well, Republicans are no longer ignoring millennials. After failing to win the hearts and minds of young people, they’re simply resorting to disenfranchising them with voting roadblocks. Underhanded laws and restrictions that brazenly target college students are becoming more and more common in states with Republican-controlled legislatures.

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Philly Gay Bashing Victims Release Statement At ‘Love Over Hate’ Rally

James Nichols | Huffinton Post | October 3, 2014

The victims of an alleged horrific anti-gay attack in Philadelphia have spoken out for the first time since the attack through a statement read by organizers of a rally called “Love Over Hate.”

The rally, which drew an estimated 200 people, was reportedly an opportunity for individuals to lend support to the victims, as well as offer lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender high school and middle school students an opportunity to talk about the bullying they face in school.

On September 11, two gay men were allegedly the victims of an anti-gay attack by a large group of “well-dressed” individuals. Online activists later successfully identified the alleged attackers through the use of multiple social media platforms and a photo the group had taken at a restaurant shortly before the attack. Three suspects, Kathryn Knott, whose father is a police chief, James Kerrigan and Philip Williams, are now slated to stand in a preliminary hearing for the attack on Dec. 16.

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How Being Gay ‘Decimated’ This Man’s Life Savings

Lila Shapiro | Huffington Post | October 3, 2014

“Paul,” a retail product developer whose story is included in a new report on the “financial penalty for being LGBT in America,” says that being gay “decimated” his life savings.

In February 2012, Paul, who is 59 years old and asked that his real name be withheld out of fear that using it would further damage his career, got an attractive and lucrative offer from an outdoor sporting-goods company for a job in product development and sourcing, a field he has been in for about 30 years. Paul is an avid hiker and kayaker, and the move would allow him to focus on a part of the retail industry that he enjoyed and excelled at.

There was just one hitch. The job meant that he, his husband Peter and their teenage son James, who also asked that their real names be withheld, would have to leave Massachusetts and move to a small town in Nebraska, a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage and has no laws that restrict employers from firing an employee just because he is gay.

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