Garibaldi Gay

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – With everything from art classes, summer school and jobs on the chopping block this year, the San Francisco school board will decide this week whether to greatly expand school services, support and instruction on issues of sexual orientation.
The decision could cost the school district, which is facing a $113 million budget shortfall over the next two years, at least $120,000 a year – enough cash to cover the salaries of two classroom teachers.
The school board is expected to vote Tuesday on the fiscally controversial resolution calling for San Francisco Unified to add a new full-time staffer to manage “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning” youth issues in the district’s Student Support Services Department.
It also would require the district to track harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and distribute an educational packet to parents, encouraging them to discuss “the issues of sexuality, gender identity and safety” with their children.
That commitment probably would cost about $90,000 a year for the staffer and maybe another $30,000 for the rest.
San Francisco school officials have long backed education and support of gay and lesbian support services and recently created the nation’s first school district Web site for gay youth.
That’s in contrast to some other school districts. Last year in Alameda, for example, a torrent of controversy was unleashed over plans to introduce a 45-minute lesson on gay and lesbian issues. The lesson was eventually adopted by that school board over the objections of some parents who said it violated their rights to teach their children their opinion of such issues.
That’s not the issue in San Francisco. Money is.
Current lesbian and gay services, including the Web site and sexual orientation curriculum, are funded by outside grants that aren’t guaranteed year to year.
But it’s not enough, said school board member Sandra Fewer, who wrote the resolution with help from the Student Advisory Council and the city’s Human Rights Commission.
“It’s not like we don’t have any money,” she said. “It means we have to prioritize our monies.”
With the district’s looming $113 million shortfall, few district programs or services will survive unscathed.
“There’s not enough money in the general fund for the general purposes,” board member Jill Wynns said. “Just add (this) to the $113 million deficit.”
Having said that, Wynns said she doesn’t know how she’ll vote Tuesday.
“I don’t want to vote against it,” she said.
While San Francisco is considered generally a safe haven for gay and lesbians, harassment and bullying are still common in schools, according a district survey.
In 2007, 77 percent of the district’s students said they heard other students making harassing remarks based on sexual orientations, and nearly half said they never heard staff respond to such remarks. Nearly 80 percent of fifth-graders said their peers use the phrases “fag,” “dyke” or “that’s so gay.”
The resolution would commit funding to maintain the expanded programs no matter what but also require district officials to seek outside funding whenever possible.
“We should set aside and commit money,” Fewer said. “If we can say that this is a budget priority during one of the biggest budget cuts of our time, we’re really saying this is” important.
from The San Francisco Chronicle

Adam Bouska photo

The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay.
Many gay politicians in San Francisco and lawyers who have had dealings with Walker say the 65-year-old jurist, appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, has never taken pains to disguise – or advertise – his orientation.
They also don’t believe it will influence how he rules on the case he’s now hearing – whether Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure approved by state voters to ban same-sex marriage, unconstitutionally discriminates against gays and lesbians.
“There is nothing about Walker as a judge to indicate that his sexual orientation, other than being an interesting factor, will in any way bias his view,” said Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is supporting the lawsuit to overturn Prop. 8.
As evidence, she cites the judge’s conservative – albeit libertarian – reputation, and says, “There wasn’t anyone who thought (overturning Prop. was a cakewalk given his sexual orientation.”
State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who has sponsored two bills to authorize same-sex marriage that were vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that as far as he’s concerned, Walker’s background is a nonissue. “It seems curious to me,” he said, that when the state Supreme Court heard a challenge to Prop. 8, the justices’ sexual orientation “was never discussed.”
Leno added, “I have great respect for Judge Walker, professionally and personally.”
Walker has declined to talk about anything involving the Prop. 8 case outside court, and he wouldn’t comment to us when we asked about his orientation and whether it was relevant to the lawsuit.
Many San Francisco gays still hold Walker in contempt for a case he took when he was a private attorney, when he represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in a successful bid to keep San Francisco’s Gay Olympics from infringing on its name.
“Life is full of irony,” the judge replied when we reminded him about that episode.
And did he have any concerns about being characterized as gay?
“No comment.”
Shortly after our conversation, we heard from a federal judge who counts himself as a friend and confidant of Walker’s. He said he had spoken with Walker and was concerned that “people will come to the conclusion that (Walker) wants to conceal his sexuality.”
“He has a private life and he doesn’t conceal it, but doesn’t think it is relevant to his decisions in any case, and he doesn’t bring it to bear in any decisions,” said the judge, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the Prop. 8 trial.
“Is it newsworthy?” he said of Walker’s orientation, and laughed. “Yes.”
He said it was hard to ignore the irony that “in the beginning, when (Walker) sought to be a judge, a major obstacle he had to overcome was the perception that he was anti-gay.”
In short, the friend said, Walker’s background is relevant in the same way people would want to know that a judge hearing a discrimination case involving Latinos was Latino or a Jewish judge was ruling in a case involving the Anti-Defamation League.
Walker, by the way, didn’t seek out the Prop. 8 case – it was assigned to him at random.
If the judge decides that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional, supporters of the measure are sure to take it to the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Kendell expects that if that happens, the measure’s proponents will make an issue of the judge’s sexual orientation – at least in the public arena.
Not so, said Andy Pugno, general counsel for the group that sponsored the Prop. 8 campaign.
“We are not going to say anything about that,” Pugno said.
He was quick to assert, however, that Prop. 8 backers haven’t gotten a fair shake from Walker in court. He cited both the judge’s order for the campaign to turn over thousands of pages of internal memos to the other side and Walker’s decision to allow the trial to be broadcast – both of which were overturned by higher courts.
“In many ways, the sponsors of Prop. 8 have been put at significant disadvantage throughout the case,” Pugno said. “Regardless of the reason for it.”
from The San Francisco Chronicle
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Brendan Burke With Father Brian Burke

TORONTO, CANADA – A moment of silence will be held for Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto general manager Brian Burke who died in car accident, before the Maple Leafs play Ottawa on Saturday night.
The 21-year-old Burke died after his car slid sideways into the path of another car on a snowy Indiana road on Friday. Burke’s friend, 18-year-old Mark Reedy, also died in the accident.
Maple Leafs players found out about the accident after a loss in New Jersey on Friday night.
Toronto’s Francois Beauchemin played for Burke when he was general manager for the Anaheim Ducks and recalled celebrating their 2007 Stanley Cup win at a gathering with Brendan.
“You never think, ‘that’s going to happen to me,’” Beauchemin said after Saturday’s pregame skate. “But when it happens to somebody really close, like Brian, you kind of do think about it. It can happen any time, and it’s really tough.”
Brian Burke is also the general manager of the U.S. Olympic team that will begin play in Vancouver on Feb. 16.
“It’s the worst news you could ever receive,” Leafs forward Christian Hanson said. “I don’t think there’s anything that can be worse than losing a family member.”
The driver of the truck was reportedly uninjured.
Brendan Burke attended Miami of Ohio and was a manager for the school’s top-ranked hockey team. He made news last year after ESPN.com ran a story about his decision to tell his father he was gay.
“I had a million good reasons to love and admire Brendan,” Brian Burke said in the story. “This news didn’t alter any of them.”
Father and son discussed the news during a joint appearance on Canadian television TSN last year. Brendan Burke said while he was initially nervous about coming out to his father, he knew he would find support.
“I was surprised, but Brendan’s a wonderful kid,” Brian Burke said in the interview. “He’s been a joy since the day he came home from the hospital, and I support him. I’m very proud of him.”
Burke said he told his son he loved him.
“He’s supported me with everything I’ve done in the past,” Brendan Burke said during the interview. “I knew he would support me on this, too, and it really meant a lot. My whole family has been there for me, and been behind me 100 percent.”
Both men said the positive feedback overwhelmed any of the negative they might have received.
“Pioneers are often misunderstood,” Brian Burke told TSN. “You don’t wish this on your son, you wish that someone else carries that burden first, and then he can grab it and help. But this is what he wanted to do, and we support him.”
Leafs goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere also played for Burke in Anaheim and knew his son.
“It’s really sad,” Giguere said. “I don’t think we can even comprehend what Burkie is going through at this point. I think, right now, it’s best to just let him grieve and make sure that we do our job here at the rink to make sure he doesn’t have to worry about that.”
from The Associated Press

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CANADA – It’s a question which has troubled science since Darwin: if homosexuality is, at least in part, inherited, how are those genes being passed down to new generations?
Canadian researchers say they have found the first evidence to back up the theory that gay men have the evolutionary advantage of being “super uncles”, a way of enhancing the survival prospects of close relatives and — indirectly, at least — making it more likely their genes are passed on.
Paul Vasey, associate professor in the University of Lethbridge’s department of psychology, said his research found evidence that gay men may be more willing to support their nieces and nephews financially and emotionally.
The idea is that homosexuals are helping their close relatives reproduce more successfully and at a higher rate by being helpful: babysitting more, tutoring their nieces and nephews in art and music, and helping out financially with things like medical care and education.
The question of whether homosexuality clashes with evolution has puzzled scientists for decades. The trait appears to be inheritable — but because homosexual men are much less likely to produce offspring than heterosexual men, researchers have struggled to explain why the genes for the trait weren’t extinguished long ago.
“Maybe it’s in this way that they’re indirectly passing on at least some of the genes that they’re sharing with their kin,” he said.
Researchers conducting similar studies in the U.S. and England did not find any supporting evidence for the theory, said Vasey. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll do it in a non-Western culture and chances are I’m going to find exactly the same results and it’ll be the nail in the coffin for this hypothesis,’” he said.
Vasey and University of Lethbridge evolutionary psychologist Doug VanderLaan spent time on the Pacific island of Samoa surveying women, straight men and the fa’afafine — men who prefer other men as sexual partners and are accepted within the culture as a distinct third gender category. “Some are so feminine that they pass as women to the naive observer,” he said.
Vasey found that the fa’afafine said they were significantly more willing to help kin, yet much less interested in helping children who aren’t family — providing the first evidence to support the “kin selection hypothesis.”
“We argue that this would allow the fa’afafine to distribute altruism toward their nieces and nephews in a more efficient and adaptive manner compared to men and women,” he said.
The findings are published online this week in the journal Psychological Science.
Researchers are now trying to establish whether the fa’afafine’s professed willingness to help their kin is reflected in their actions by studying whether they give more money to their relatives. “It’s a crude measure, but it’s a start,” he admitted.
“There is this distinction between willingness to do something and then do they actually do it in the real world,” he added. “Research takes time, so we don’t have all the answers right away.”
Vasey said he was initially shocked by the results, and conducted the questionnaire three times to be certain of the results. “I think I’ve convinced myself it’s real,” he said.
Vasey has a few theories about why researchers conducting similar studies in the U.S. and in England found no difference between the way gay men and straight men treat their nieces and nephews. In Samoa, communities are closer geographically and families are more tightly-knit, while North American families are more dispersed, he said. Homosexuality is expressed differently in Western culture — where it’s also less accepted, he said.
from The Montreal Gazette
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Nick Snider

Just in time for Fashion Week, a top male model is facing criminal charges after allegedly offering sexual favors to Arkansas cops in return for his release following an arrest for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Nick Snider, 21, was busted early Monday morning after causing a disturbance at a female friend’s home in Batesville, a city 90 miles north of Little Rock. According to an Independence County Sheriff’s Department report, when deputies approached the intoxicated Snider, he stated, “I am a very famous model.” As Snider was being transported in a patrol car to the county jail, he “kept trying to get me to stop the car and let him go,” reported Deputy Brian Luetschwager. “Mr. Snider stated to me, ‘If you stop I’ll suck your dick and balls if you let me go.’” Snider, pictured in the below mug shot, allegedly repeated the oral sex offer after arriving at the local lockup, where the model “also harassed the booking Jailer with similar sexual comments.” After declining the barter deal, deputies lodged an additional charge against Snider, this one for illegally attempting to influence a public servant. He pleaded not guilty yesterday to the three misdemeanor counts during an appearance in Independence County District Court. Snider is free on $780 bond and is scheduled for a February 17 trial. Snider has appeared as the face of Prada and was named by Forbes in 2008 as the world’s fifth most successful male model. Last month, he was in Paris for the Yves Saint Laurent fashion show and will appear on various runways when New York City’s Fashion Week begins February 11. Snider, a Manhattan resident, did not respond to TSG messages sent to his Facebook and MySpace accounts.
from The Smoking Gun

Uganda’s controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill is likely to be changed, a minister has told the BBC.
However, Deputy Foreign Minister Henry Okello Oryem did not give details of how he thought the final bill would be different to the current proposals.
Uganda has come under intense international pressure over the bill, which provides for the death penalty for some homosexual acts.
Mr Oryem was speaking after US leader Barack Obama called the bill “odious”.
It has also been condemned by various European countries.
“I am sure the bill will take a different form when it is tabled on the floor in parliament,” Mr Oryem told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
However, he also pointed out that it was a Private Member’s Bill and so the government did not have the powers to alter it at this stage.
“Homosexuality is not a top priority for the people of Uganda,” he deputy minister said.
“Our priority is to make sure there is food on the table of our people – that we deal with the issue of disease.”
Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The bill would raise that penalty to life in prison.
It also proposes the death penalty for a new offence of “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a “serial offender”.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has already distanced himself from the bill, saying it did not represent the views of his government.
Two weeks ago its sponsor, David Bahati, told a Ugandan newspaper he was willing to “amend some clauses”.
The cabinet has set up a committee to look at his proposals.
from The BBC

Rosie O'Donnell

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Comedian, actress, talk show host, philanthropist, gay rights activist and mother to four kids, Rosie O’Donnell is no stranger to controversy.
Her strong personality and liberal views often tend to polarize Americans. But O’Donnell is showing off her softer side in a TV documentary playing throughout February on HBO about the many different types of families in modern America — including her own.
O’Donnell, 47, talked to Reuters about the making of “A Family Is a Family Is a Family”, her affection for children, dislike of bras and make-up, and the recent break-up of her long relationship with partner Kelli Carpenter.
Q: What did you learn from making this film?
A: “I learned that I love kids. To be around kids, for me there is nothing better. My youngest is 7 years-old now. It is heartbreaking. I miss that age. I really do. I’m thinking, ‘Dear Lord, is 47 too old to adopt another baby?’”
Q: Is that something that is on the horizon?
A: “It is always on the horizon. There is a lot of room on the raft, and if we could pull some kids out and put them on board, I am all for that.”
Q: The TV documentary includes home video of you and Kelli and your kids. Why did you decide to keep that section in after splitting up with Kelli some time ago?
A: “Kelli and I had been working on what kind of arrangement our family was going to proceed in for the last two and a half years. I never once thought to stop doing the documentary.
“It is different when gay people with children separate. It is not as dramatic as what you stereotypically think with heterosexuals, where one person walks out … It was more of a collaborative effort of how are we going to proceed and make sure of the most important thing, — which is that the emotional health, the heart and soul of these kids, remains intact. I think the greatest thing you can teach your child is how to deal with adversity because that’s what life is full of. Even though change is scary, sometimes it is necessary.”
Q: What do you think the reaction will be to the documentary?
A: “I haven’t had anyone tell me anything other than they love it. This is so kid positive. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been moved by it.”
Q: Are you bothered by some of the negative comments made about you?
A: “I don’t really remember my life without entertainment and showbusiness and public opinion being part of it. To say it doesn’t hurt my feelings when someone says something horrible is a lie. But to say that it devastates me is an untruth. When you are a young kid and you dream of fame and fortune, you never think of that part of it.”
Q: What’s the biggest wrong impression other people have about you?
A: “I don’t know. I kind of speak about things before people are ready to talk about them.”
Q: You started a satellite radio show in November. How are you enjoying that?
A: “I love it. I get to do it at home. I get to have my friends around. I get to invite people I really want to talk to. And most important, there is no hair, no make-up and no bra! Those are the three best things you can offer me in a job.”
Q: What is the first thing you think about in the morning?
A: “Where the kids are. Who is up.”
from Reuters
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Jacob

MOHAWK, NEW YORK – The bullying by classmates and taunts of “homo” only got worse after Jacob began dyeing his hair and wearing eyeliner in eighth grade. One student scrawled “I hope you die” on his shoe, he said; another drew a pocket knife on him.
Jacob’s grades dropped, and he missed school from fear. His father tried repeatedly to get school officials in their working-class village in upstate New York to help protect his son from harassment. The response by the Mohawk Central School District, according to a federal lawsuit, was to do “virtually nothing.”
“Everything was bad,” Jacob – who is identified as “J.L.” in the lawsuit and didn’t want to draw attention to his new school by having his last name used in this story – said this week. “I hyperventilated when I left the school … and I didn’t want to come back the next day, or ever.”
The 15-year-old might soon get a measure of satisfaction. The lawsuit filed by Jacob and his father against the school district with the New York Civil Liberties Union could be close to settlement, according to both sides.
The negotiations come as the U.S. Department of Justice seeks to intervene in the case, citing the “important issues” it raises in enforcing federal civil rights laws.
“There is a growing recognition across the country that schools need to take harassment based on gender expression and homosexuality seriously,” said NYCLU attorney Corey Stoughton. “If there is a settlement in this case, that’s an affirmation of that principle.”
Justice officials say it’s the first time since 2000 that they have argued that Title IX, the antidiscrimination law affecting schools that receive federal funding, covers sex discrimination based on gender stereotypes – such as when a boy does not act or look stereotypically male. Stoughton said that while harassment based on gender nonconformity is widespread, there have been only a handful of legal cases like this nationwide.
Mohawk School Superintendent Joyce Caputo said the district denies allegations in the lawsuit, but she stressed they are working with the NYCLU and the Justice Department to settle the suit in a way that benefits everyone.
“We are committed to doing everything in our power to prevent bullying and to promote tolerance,” she said.
Mohawk is a village of modest clapboard homes set near the river of the same name and just east of Utica. Jacob said he did not face serious problems until he went to Gregory B. Jarvis Junior/Senior High School as a seventh-grader in fall 2007.
That was about the time it became clearer that Jacob was different. By eighth grade, he wore eyeliner to school sometimes and would dye his hair bright blue or pink. He was out of the closet that school year.
“People would ask and I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’m gay, whatever. Peace out,’” he said.
In an interview this week with his father at their home, Jacob said he was just being himself. That is, a teenager who loves to write songs, short stories and poems and who dreams about a career in the movies, maybe as a director or a writer.
Dressed in a blue fleece and jeans, Jacob talked effusively about pop culture – Pink is his favorite singer, “Orphan” a favorite movie. But his voice got softer when he talked about his experiences at Jarvis.
The lawsuit claims the principal and other district officials did not follow their own anti-harassment policies. Teachers blocked him from going to a “safe room” set up for him. One teacher told him he should be ashamed of himself for being gay, according to court papers.
Jacob’s father, Robert Sullivan (he has a different last name), devoted himself to making sure his son was safe in school despite fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“I put the cancer stuff aside,” Sullivan said, “because he doesn’t have anyone to defend himself beside me.”
But Sullivan said he failed to make much progress.
“You listen to your child cry at night and wish he was dead, and wish he wasn’t here. It’s a hard thing to go through,” Sullivan said. “And you know you’ve got to send him back there the next day.”
The idea of a lawsuit came from someone at a support group Jacob attended, and the NYCLU sued in August. The Department of Justice asked to intervene last month, noting the suit’s claims that Jacob was denied equal protections guaranteed in the Constitution and under Title IX, the antidiscrimination law affecting schools that receive federal funding.
The department would not comment on the litigation, but gay rights supporters saw its involvement as evidence of a strengthened commitment under the Obama administration to the rights of people who are gay or who do not conform to gender stereotypes.
However, it’s now possible that a settlement will be reached before a judge decides whether the federal agency can intervene. The Justice Department would not comment in detail on the lawsuit.
Jacob this week seemed happy just to put the trauma behind him.
The family recently moved to the next town. Jacob started a new school and the experience has been like night and day, he said: “It’s amazing. I have a lot of friends there.”
Sullivan’s cancer is in remission. He said it’s nice to see his son smile again, and he has hopes for their future.
“As long as I can get to see him graduate high school,” Sullivan said. “I think I can die happy.”
from The Associated Press

Harold Strickland said he was on his cellphone to 911 reporting a police beating of a man when the officers turned on him.
The ACLU of Florida says two Miami Beach police officers yelled epithets at a gay tourist and falsely accused him of trying to break into cars after he witnessed them kicking and punching a handcuffed man at Flamingo Park.
As Officers Frankly Forte and Elliot Hazzi approached witness Harold Strickland, they didn’t know he was on his cellphone reporting the beating to a Miami Beach 911 dispatcher, said Robert F. Rosenwald Jr., director of the ACLU Florida’s Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Advocacy Project.
“This is an issue that we have hoped to address for a long time. Miami Beach Police have for a long time harassed gay men around Flamingo Park without probable cause,” Rosenwald said Wednesday.
Miami Beach police first learned of the alleged incident — which occurred last March — on Wednesday afternoon and immediately began an internal affairs investigation, spokesman Detective Juan Sanchez said.
“At this time, the department cannot comment nor is it a practice to comment on an intended issue that is going to be [the] subject of litigation by the city,” Sanchez wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.
Detective Gus Sanchez, vice president of the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police, also said he couldn’t discuss an open investigation.
Forte and Hazzi both were hired by Beach police as new officers in February 2007. They were still on duty Wednesday, Juan Sanchez said.
The incident began about 1 a.m. March 13 as Strickland, a former Beach resident now living in Los Angeles, walked past Flamingo Park near 14th Street and Michigan Avenue.
Strickland called 911 when he saw a man being beaten by two men just outside the park.
“I saw a guy running and then I saw two, what looked like undercover cops running. And they pushed this guy down on the ground, the one cop did, and the other cop came up as if he was kicking a football — and kicked the guy in the head,” Strickland, 45, told a dispatcher during a recorded phone call to 911.
For nearly five minutes, he talked to the dispatcher, who encouraged him to get closer for more detail “if it doesn’t put you in any danger.”
A few seconds later, Strickland told the dispatcher: “Now they’re coming after me!”
The two men, later identified as officers Forte and Hazzi, approached Strickland and could be heard saying, “What are you doing here? Where do you live? Let’s see some ID.” A few seconds later the line went dead.
Strickland later told the ACLU that Forte and Hazzi grabbed his cellphone and disconnected the call.
“The officers then told Strickland: `We know what you’re doing here. We’re sick of all the f—ing fags in the neighborhood.’ The officers pushed Strickland to the ground and tied his hands behind his back,” Rosenwald wrote in an ACLU letter delivered Wednesday to Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower.
“While Strickland was on the ground, the officers continued to spew anti-gay epithets. They called him a `f—ing fag’ and told him he was going to `get it good in jail.’ ”
Bower and City Manager Jorge Gonzalez also declined to comment.
Strickland called 911 at 1:06 a.m., according to dispatch records.
Forte wrote in an arrest report that 30 minutes later — at 1:36 a.m. — he saw Strickland trying to break into six cars at 14th Street and Michigan Avenue near Flamingo Park.
Strickland said he tried to tell the officers about his call to 911, but that they wouldn’t listen to him. They took him to jail on a loitering-or-prowling charge. At a hearing the next day, a judge told him that he would get out of jail faster if he pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor, Rosenwald said.
Strickland agreed, left jail and called the ACLU. He later changed his plea to not guilty. The State Attorney’s Office later dropped the charge. Loitering and resisting-arrest-without-violence charges also were dropped against Oscar Mendoza, the man Strickland reported being beaten near Flamingo Park.
from The Miami Herald

Johny Weir

This was only a matter of time. Johnny Weir has been forced to switch from real to fake fur.
Weir wore a costume for his free program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships two weeks ago that included a small amount of — gasp! — white fox fur on his left shoulder. Not surprisingly, he received enough protests and hate mail from animal rights advocates that he has decided to replace the fox with faux fur.
The death toll in Haiti is more than 150,000. Soldiers are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. One in 10 Americans are unemployed and homeless shelters are swelling. But hey, Johnny Weir wore a piece of fur on his costume! We can’t have that!
“I would like to announce that due to pressures and threats from a certain animal rights group, I will be changing the genuine fox fur on my free program costume that I will use in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C., to white faux fur,” Weir said in a statement first posted on icenetwork.com. “I made this decision after several threats were sent to me about disrupting my performance in the Olympic Games and my costume designer, Stephanie Handler, was repeatedly sent messages of hate and disgust. I do not want something as silly as my costume disrupting my second Olympic experience and my chance at a medal, a dream I have had since I was a kid.
“I hope these activists can understand that my decision to change my costume is in no way a victory for them, but a draw,” Weir continued. “I am not changing in order to appease them, but to protect my integrity and the integrity of the Olympic Games as well as my fellow competitors.
“Just weeks away from hitting my starting position on the ice in Vancouver, I have technique and training to worry about and that trumps any costume and any threat I may receive.”
Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, told The Associated Press that no one from the group had threatened Weir.
“If he’s made the smart decision I hoped he’d make, to shun the skins of animals and not decorate his costumes with them, that’s a very good thing and I’m happy to hear it,” Feral told The AP.
Weir has strong opinions and is not shy about expressing them or defending them. When asked about the fur during the U.S. championships two weeks ago, Weir said he thought “it was lovely.”
He also said “PETA has been up my butt since the 2006 Olympic Games. I get postcards and nasty hate mail and videotapes of animals being skinned. And while I feel bad and understand their side of things, I take my little autograph card and I sign my name and I draw a chipmunk with X’s over its eyes and I mail it back. Don’t attack me for a personal choice. You’re protecting animals. We have soldiers dying all over the world. Choose your battles. Don’t pick on me.”
That was then. Apparently, even Johnny can take only so much. “When ‘Friends of Animals’ starts sending my costume designer hate faxes, it’s gone too far,” Weir tweeted recently.
So now it will be fake fur. Whew. Thank God. The Olympics can go on and we can focus on weightier, more important matters, like whether the cheese fondue to be served at the Swiss Olympic House represents an abuse of cows.
from ESPN
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The U.S. Tax Court ruled Tuesday that a Massachusetts woman should be allowed to deduct the costs of her sex-change operation, a decision that could have broad implications for transgender people.
Rhiannon O’Donnabhain (oh-DON’-oh-vin), who was born a man, sued the Internal Revenue Service after the agency rejected a $5,000 deduction for approximately $25,000 in medical expenses associated with the sex-change surgery.
The IRS said the surgery was cosmetic and not medically necessary.
In its decision Tuesday, the tax court said the IRS position was “at best a superficial characterization of the circumstances” that is “thoroughly rebutted by the medical evidence.”
The legal group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which represented O’Donnabhain, said the ruling could potentially affect thousands of people a year in the U.S. who undergo similar operations.
“I think what the court is saying is that surgery and hormone therapy for transgender people to alleviate the stress associated with gender identity disorder is legitimate medical care,” said Jennifer Levi, a GLAD attorney.
IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge declined to comment on the ruling.
In a 2007 interview with The Associated Press, O’Donnabhain said she underwent sex-reassignment surgery at age 57, after a tormented existence as a father, husband, Coast Guardsman and construction worker.
She wrote off the $25,000 in medical expenses on her taxes, but the IRS disallowed the deduction, ruling that the procedure was not a medical necessity.
O’Donnabhain, now 65, said she brought the lawsuit in an attempt to force the IRS to treat sex-change surgeries the same as appendectomies, heart surgeries and other deductible medical procedures.
“It is not OK for them to do this to me or anyone like me,” she said.
O’Donnabhain’s lawyers argued that because gender-identity disorder is a recognized mental disorder that is generally treated with hormones and surgery, the costs are legitimate medical deductions.
The tax court agreed.
“The evidence amply supports the conclusions that petitioner suffered from severe GID, that GID is a well-recognized and serious mental disorder, and that hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery are considered appropriate and effective treatments for GID by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who are knowledgeable concerning the condition,” the court said in its ruling.
An estimated 1,600 to 2,000 people a year undergo sex-change surgery in the United States, according to the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.
The tax court said O’Donnabhain could deduct as a medical care expense the costs associated with treating her gender-identity disorder, including sex-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. But the court said she could not deduct the costs of breast augmentation surgery because it found that she had achieved breast enhancement through hormone treatments.
from The Associated Press

Malawian police have arrested a man for putting up gay-rights posters, amid a national debate over homosexuality – which is banned in Malawi.
Peter Sawali had put up posters saying: “Gay rights are human rights”, on a main road in Blantyre, police said.
He was charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.
A controversy has erupted in the country after a gay couple were prosecuted for public indecency because they got engaged.
Police spokesman Dave Chingwalu told the Associated Press news agency Mr Sawali’s poster campaign had backing from foreign organisations.
“We are still investigating because we believe there is a chain of people who were working with Mr Sawali,” he said.
“We cannot rule out international sponsors because of the quality and the quantity of the posters.”
Mr Sawali faces a fine or a short jail term if found guilty.
The prosecution of the engaged couple has provoked a rare public debate on homosexuality.
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, believed to be the first gay couple in Malawi to start the marriage process, pleaded not guilty and their trial is due to start soon.
They say they have been tortured while in jail, and rights groups have criticised Malawi over the case.
Homosexual acts carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
Correspondents say some voices in government have started to call for more openness about homosexuality as the authorities try to tackle high rates of HIV/Aids.
from BBC

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Anita Bryant

HBO is developing a biopic of former beauty queen, singer and celebrity pitch woman Anita Bryant, who is known mostly for her work as an anti-gay activist.
“Sex and the City” creator Darren Star is on board to direct the film, which is being written by “Runaway” creator Chad Hodge. Star also is executive producing with Dennis Erdman.
“She is a fascinating person on every single level,” said Hodge, who has a connection to Bryant — they both attended Northwestern. “The twists and turns of her life are incredible.”
By age 18, Bryant, who was born to a religious Oklahoma family in 1940, had won Arthur Godfrey’s talent show and a Miss Oklahoma pageant and finished as second runner-up for Miss America.
In 1959 and ‘60, she was a major pop star with three million-selling records. After marrying and settling in Florida, she reverted to Christian music and, projecting a wholesome image, began plugging such blue-chip companies as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and Holiday Inn.
Her most famous celebrity endorsement gig was for the Florida Citrus Commission, for which she sang in a series of TV commercials, closing each ad with the tag line, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
By the mid-’70s, Bryant was a Christian celebrity. She published several best-selling books and won Good Housekeeping’s “Most Admired Woman in America” poll for three consecutive years.
In 1977, she switched to political activism, launching a crusade to repeal a new Miami-Dade County ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children,” she said. Her Save the Children coalition got the new law overturned within a year, and it took 20 years for it to be reinstated.
Celebrating her victory, Bryant promised she would “seek help and change for homosexuals, whose sick and sad values belie the word ‘gay,’ which they pathetically use to cover their unhappy lives.”
She stayed on the anti-gay rights cause with speaking tours and went to California to support the Briggs Initiative in 1978, looking to mandate the firing of gay teachers, which failed. Archive footage with Bryant was featured in the 2008 film “Milk,” which chronicled Harvey Milk’s campaign against the initiative.
Bryant’s outspoken activism led to a nationwide boycott by the gay rights movement.
She eventually lost her Citrus Commission contract, her record and book sales fell sharply, she remarried, tried unsuccessfully to revive her singing career and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Hodge, who is looking to talk to Bryant about the project, said he is going for a nuanced portrayal of her and “what drove her to do the things that she did.”
Although the events in the movie take place decades ago, the social, political and religious divisions in the country nowadays make it feel current, he added.
from The Hollywood Reporter