Thursday, July 24, 2008

Morning Sweep



Hundreds of people are anticipated to attend Buffalo's first Black LGBT Pride festival this weekend.

A Health Department study found only 4 out of 10 gay men in New York City are out to their physicians, which means they're also less likely to get tested for HIV.

The Laguna Beach City Council, whose members are mostly Republicans, voted unanimously to oppose the ballot initiative (Proposition 8) intended to define marriage in California as between a man and a woman. An L.A. Times op-ed says Laguna Beach's gay history primed it to become one of the the first cities in California to support marriage equality.

In Greeley, Colorado, police investigate a homicide case in which the victim was a transgender woman.

Arizona State Senate Republicans used questionable tactics to block a Democratic filibuster intended to stall a vote on a marriage ban.

Yesterday's Congressional hearing on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was marked by vigorous debate and at times bigoted testimony. The hearing has sparked responses from many opponents of the military ban on openly gay service members; below are a few of those articles:

Retired Navy Admiral Jamie Barnett pens an op-ed in the Washington Post, calling on military commanders to do their duty and advise against the harmful policy.

TIME magazine's John Cloud says the hearing "offers the most significant indication yet that the U.S. is finally reconsidering its strange policy of enforced hypocrisy."

Former Marine and Purple Heart recipient Eric Alva, who is also gay, shares his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.

The Oklahoma Journal Record shares the story of a longtime committed lesbian couple and their fight to for legal protections.

Words can hurt, but semiautomatic weapons can kill. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Sally Kern, who gained notoriety for her anti-gay YouTube rant, was stopped from entering the state Capitol yesterday when she was found to have a .380 caliber handgun in her purse.

Sudan's Anglican archbishop Daniel Deng calls for openly gay archbishop Gene Robinson's resignation.

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