Gay/Lesbian News

Twice within the past week, Robert Stotler and his partner have been targets of anti-gay messages at their Tulsa home.

Stotler and his partner say they are victims of hate crimes, but police say they are not. Their reports call the crimes acts of vandalism or malicious mischief.

A coalition of groups – including atheist and gay groups – rallied in Sydney, Australia against Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday. The NoToPope Coalition says Pope Benedict XVI's stand against homosexuality makes him “chief homophobe.” The group also believes the Pope's views on abortion and contraception are unacceptable.

Wilton Manors, Florida - Residents awoke to anti-gay graffiti on their homes and automobiles.

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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.

ABC, with shows like “Brothers & Sisters,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty,” again received the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks; NBC and Fox remained the two lowest-scoring networks, with their GLBT-inclusive hours dropping slightly from the previous season.

On July 15th the Massachusetts State Senate voted unanimously to overturn a ninety five year old law banning marriage by out of state couples whose union would not be recognized as legal in their home states.

It’s time to give Oklahoma a bit of a rest. Today’s LaBarbera Award winner comes from my own back yard, right here in Tucson, Arizona. And there is no better recipient than our very own 13-time candidate and zero-time winner for Congress, Republican Joe Sweeney.

Even if California voters pass the anti-gay marriage amendment in November, marriage equality could still prevail.

Public attitudes about gays in the military have shifted dramatically since President Bill Clinton unveiled what became his administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy 15 years ago today.

Frankfort, Kentucky) A federal appeals court was asked Thursday to deny tax funding to a Baptist childcare agency that Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union say proselytizes youngsters in its care and fires gay employees.

The lawsuit asserts that Kentucky Baptist Homes has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alicia Pedreira, a former employee at the Louisville home who worked with troubled young people. Despite her excellent performance reviews, Pedreira was terminated in 1998 after officials at the facility learned she is a lesbian.

“Kentucky Baptist Homes is on a mission to evangelize on the taxpayer’s dime,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The Constitution simply does not allow this. Faith-based charities that want to indoctrinate youths should not get public funds.”

Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser said in a statement that “the trial judge was way off base in dismissing this case on legal technicalities. If this wrong-headed ruling is allowed to stand, it will eviscerate the rights of taxpayers to challenge public funding of religion.”

In the appellate brief filed with the 6th Circuit Thursday, Americans United and the ACLU note numerous examples of the religious nature of the childcare agency. Its president has touted the Homes’ success in converting children, and the agency calls itself “Christ centered.”

The document also cites a report by the Children’s Review Program, a private contractor hired by Kentucky officials to monitor programs for children. The report noted numerous instances where young people complained about being forced to attend Baptist services or said they were not permitted to attend services of other faiths.

El Paso, Texas - Thursday night marked the opening of a new GLBTQ community center in downtown El Paso.

Last Monday night the director of the Center, Charles Sloane, was assaulted (kicked and hit in the head) in the lobby of the Center. He said "That's one of the things we're here to combat. We're going to continue to go to the community and bring this up."

So I know it's a *real* big step for queers everywhere, now that we have our very own cable network. But with it's newest episodic gem, "Gimme Sugar", I think Logo has proven that just because it's "LGBT" content doesn't mean it's progressive for our communities...let alone palatable in any respect.

As far as I can tell, no reputable pollster has taken our state's temperature on gay marriage since 2004, when Michigan voters overwhelmingly opted to outlaw it.

The issue of same-sex marriage, which has long been in the forefront of social and political discussions in California, has become very salient this year.

An 18-year-old returning from a Pride festival in South Carolina was assaulted by his father with a baseball bat. During the assault, the teen's 49-year-old father yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to 'cast the demon of homosexuality out of him'.

That night's concert was the Seattle stop on the True Colors tour. It starred Rosie O'Donnell and Cyndi Lauper, the stage was decorated with a rainbow and a pink triangle, and the event was billed as a fundraiser for organizations to "raise awareness about the discrimination the GLBT community still faces." But while the B-52s played a slow song, two lesbians who were sitting in the third row say a security guard approached them, shined his flashlight in their faces, and then lowered the beam onto their joined hands. He then gestured with his finger across his throat to "cut it out" and told them to "stop it," the women say.

One working hypothesis behind transsexuality is that the normal sex differentiation of certain hypothalamic networks is altered.

We tested this hypothesis by investigating the pattern of cerebral activation in 12 nonhomosexual male-to-female transsexuals (MFTRs) when smelling 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST).

These steroids are reported to activate the hypothalamic networks in a sex-differentiated way.

Like in female controls the hypothalamus in MFTRs activated with AND, whereas smelling of EST engaged the amygdala and piriform cortex.

Male controls, on the other hand, activated the hypothalamus with EST. However, when restricting the volume of interest to the hypothalamus activation was detected in MFTR also with EST, and explorative conjunctional analysis revealed that MFTR shared a hypothalamic cluster with women when smelling AND, and with men when smelling EST.

Because the EST effect was limited, MFTR differed significantly only from male controls, and only for EST-AIR and EST-AND.

These data suggest a pattern of activation away from the biological sex, occupying an intermediate position with predominantly female-like features.

Because our MFTRs were nonhomosexual, the results are unlikely to be an effect of sexual practice.

Instead, the data implicate that transsexuality may be associated with sex-atypical physiological responses in specific hypothalamic circuits, possibly as a consequence of a variant neuronal differentiation.

One of the top goals of the early gay rights movement was to get the American Psychological Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. As long as homosexuality remained listed, governmental agencies and private companies had all the excuse they needed to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Yesterday, Star Jones' ex, Al Reynolds took to the YouTube to confront rumors that he's gay. While he might seem homo because he's a "spiffy" dresser (and more so because he was involved with Jones), Reynolds insists, "I am not a homosexual.... I look good, so people call that kind of soft." We didn't ask, but good to know? Inspired by Big-Not-Gay-Al and his insistent heterosexuality, we got to thinking about other heteros persisting in their hetero-ness in the face of similarly vicious rumors. A list of of our Top 10 Greatest Moments In Heterosexuality follows!

Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing a tough reelection campaign. He's been accused of abusing his office for personal gain, and will go on trial in the fall on felony campaign finance charges. But apparently, this is all a conspiracy of homosexuals, liberal do gooders, and good ol' boys to force Rinehart out of office. Rinehart lays out his case in a comic book he's sending out to voters, which—you may be surprised to learn—he wrote himself.