June 2008

Source: Times of India, Deccan Herald
SILIGURI, India -- It's a bizarre story that will probably become the stuff of jokes, but more significantly becomes yet another in an unfortunate series showing the sometimes tragic effect of societal repression of LGBT expression.

A resident of Rangapani, India near Siliguri filed a police complaint against another local man with whom he said he'd had a gay relationship.

Dipu Ghosh told police that he was encouraged by his partner, Ajit Mondal, to undergo for a sex change.

Ghosh said in his complaint that Mondal had promised to marry him after the sex change operation.

But three months after starting the sex-change process -- too late, according to Times of India, to return to his male form -- Ghosh told police that he found to his dismay that his partner showed no interest in him any more.

Police who are now looking for Mondal, officer-in-charge of New Jalpaiguri Police outpost, Pankaj Thapa said on Thursday.

Mondal was nowhere to be found, according to Times of India, but parents claimed to have no knowledge of their son's homosexuality according to the police spokesman. They say, it is a plot against their innocent 23-year-old son.

Dipu came in contact with Ajit two years ago and they developed a homosexual relation. Later, with the help of local eunuch community, Dipu went to Mumbai and started working as a bar-girl. He now earns a modest amount.

"Money is not a problem for me. I am ready to give Ajit everything, a beautiful life.... (I'll) fulfill all his dreams. But he has no right to insult my love," he told a local television channel.

Full article: After sex change, man ditched in love | Times of India
Gay man changes sex to marry partner but ditched | Deccan Herald

country_india

Source:  Arizona Republic, Arizona Capitol Times, KTAR-TV
The long, strange legislative odyssey of an anti-gay amendment in the Arizona statehouse took another unexpected turn Wednesday when a Republican lawmaker who was key to the bill's passage in the Senate took off for a few vacation days.

The measure would have placed a constitutional ban on marriage equality on the fall ballot.

With the measure failing by two votes, the lawmaker who proposed putting the proposal on the November ballot said he will try Friday to resurrect it.

With the clock running out on this year's session, conservative lawmakers in the Arizona Senate employed a rare procedural maneuver Wednesday to force a vote on the proposal.

But the ballot measure went down by a vote of 14-to-11. Although a majority voted in approval, it needed 16 votes to pass, Arizona Capitol Times reports.

The vote was a temporary victory for Equality Arizona, a group representing the interests of the gay, lesbian and transgender community in the state.

"Today's actions (bringing the measure to a vote) were an inappropriate use of power," said Barbara McCullough-Jones, the group's executive director.  "Rather than taking care of the business of the people, political opportunists are using wedge politics to divide this state."

The failure of the measure was largely blamed on the absence of Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, who has indicated support for the amendment, but missed a planned vote a week ago and is on vacation this week, Arizona Republic reports.

Johnson said in a memo to her Republican colleagues that she would try to return Friday to vote on the measure. Republican lawmakers and conservative groups were already launching efforts to pressure her to make sure she returns, but it's not certain whether the measure will be reconsidered on Friday.

"She is the 16th vote," said Sen. Ron Gould of Lake Havasu, the amendment's prime Senate sponsor, referring to Johnson. "She needs to come back to the Legislature and vote."

Gould added: "I doubt that Sen. Johnson wants the swan song of her legislative career to be the fact that she has taken a walk on one-man, one-woman marriage."

Johnson is retiring at the end of this session.

The bill's progress through both the House and the Senate has been a lesson in odd political maneuvering and Wednesday's vote was part of that pattern.

The bill had languished in the Senate since the House approved it May 12. Senate President Tim Bee has refused to schedule the measure for a vote while budget negotiations take place, Capitol Times reports.

Gould used a rare parliamentary rule to force a vote.

Opponents argued the measure is unnecessary and called it a waste of time as the Legislature struggles to finalize a budget for the fiscal year that begins next week. Gay marriage is illegal under state law, and state courts have upheld that law.

The key for supporters of the bill is to get all of the lawmakers who support it on the floor at the same time for a vote, Capitol Times reports.

But that is proving to be extremely difficult these past few weeks. In the past month, one GOP senator died and had to be replaced, and then Johnson chose to go on vacation with the measure still pending.

The floor debate was relatively short, Capitol Times reports.

"The reason that Arizona does need a constitutional amendment is because of activist judges," said Sen. Linda Gray of Glendale.

Gray pointed to California, whose Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage. Critics countered that the state has many more-serious matters to resolve, chief among them the budget deficit. They also said Arizona already has a law prohibiting same-sex marriage. Allen said she already voted for that law in 1996.

"We had not passed a budget yet," said Sen. Ken Cheuvront of Phoenix, an openly gay lawmaker. "Again, it tells us what you think of us."

The GOP had planned to bring the gay-marriage ban to the floor on June 18 for a vote. But Johnson was absent. Her office said she was ill that day.

Full article: Ban on same-sex marriage fails vote | Arizona Republic
Senators vote down measure to ban gay marriage | Arizona Capitol Times

state_az, discrimination, proposition 102

Source:  Colorado Springs Gazette
Ted Haggard, the disgraced founder of New Life Church, is back at his $715,000 home in Colorado Springs, but he's not saying why -- at least not to a reporter from the Colorado Springs Gazette.

See Qnews update: Ex-pastor Ted Haggard launches self-deception tour, while other gay-sex charges emerge 30-Jan-2009

"I can't talk to you. I am forbidden from talking to the media," Haggard said Saturday evening after answering the doorbell at his home on Old Ranch Road in north Colorado Springs.

He declined to elaborate.

Haggard was named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the nation by Time magazine in 2005.

But, in late 2006, he was asked to leave the Colorado Springs megachurch that he founded

His expulsion came after admitting to unspecified "sexual immorality."

That confession came after he first denied knowing a former male prostitute from Denver who claimed Haggard paid him for sex nearly every month for three years.

After his ouster, Haggard was given a severance package that paid his salary through the end of 2007, the Gazette reports. He was barred from making public statements under the agreement, though he appeared to ignore that condition on several occasions, including a public plea for financial help last August.

At last report, he was living in Phoenix, Ariz., with his family with plans to study psychology in graduate school. It was unclear whether those plans have changed.

In February, New Life Church announced that it was breaking all ties with its former pastor and said it remained convinced that he should not return to any church ministry.

Full article: Haggard's back in Springs | Colorado Springs Gazette

state_co, ted haggard

Source:  WPLG-TV, South Florida Sun Sentinel, NBC6 Miami, Lambda Legal press release
MIAMI -- The family vacation cruise that Janice Langbehn, of Olympia, Washington, her partner Lisa Marie Pond, and three of their four children set out to take in February 2007 was designed to be a celebration of the lesbian couple's 18 years together.

But when Pond, a healthy 39-year-old, suffered a massive stroke before the ship left port and was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital (JMH), the trip became a nightmare.

Hospital administrators refused to let Langbehn into the Pond's hospital room, and refused to accept information from Langbehn about her partner's medical history. A social worker told them they were in an "anti-gay city and state."

Langbehn filed suit Wednesday against the hospital seeking at least $75,000 in damages.

"I'm finding the strength to speak out so this doesn't have to happen to any other family because what happened to us was very wrong," Langbehn told reporters.

Once Langbehn and her family arrived at the hospital, they weren't allowed past the waiting room because a social worker told them they weren't recognized as being family.

"He provided a warning: 'You're in an anti-gay city and in an anti-gay state and you can expect to get no information about your partner and no access to your partner unless you get before a judge,'" said Beth Litrell, Langebehn's attorney, South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

The lawsuit claims that Jackson Memorial Hospital "prevented Janice and the Langbehn-Pond children from being with Lisa Marie for nearly eight hours as Lisa Marie lay dying alone. There was no medical justification for the hospital's refusal to allow Janice and the Langbehn-Pond children access to Lisa Marie."

A doctor finally spoke with Janice telling her that there was no chance of recovery. Other than one five minute visit, which was orchestrated by a Catholic priest at Janice's request to perform last rites, and despite the doctor's acknowledgement that no medical reason existed to prevent visitation, neither Janice nor her children were allowed to see Lisa until nearly eight hours after their arrival, according to a summary of the case by Lambda Legal.

Langbehn is represented by Lambda Legal in the suit. Litrell, a Lamba Legal attorney, said there was no excuse for the behavior.

Langebehn recalled for reporters that her family's nightmare intensified when she was directed by JMH to a social worker. "He looked at me and said, 'I'm Garnett Frederick, I'm a social worker and this is an anti-gay city and state and you won't get to see your partner without a health care proxy,'" Langbehn said. "So I said, give me your fax."

The Washington women had been together for nearly two decades and legally adopted the children. They also had planned for a situation like this. Langbehn said friends faxed a health care directive form and a power of attorney document giving her the right to make medical decisions for Pond.

Despite faxing the legal paperwork, Langbehn was still denied access to Pond, Littrell said.

The case raises questions about the way hospitals deal with same-sex or unmarried partners of patients, which has led to controversy in the past. Hospital industry officials say they are constrained by patient privacy laws that can restrict giving visiting access and medical information to non-relatives, a stance that some patient advocates have branded as discriminatory, the Sun Sentinel reports.

Full article: Lawsuit Claims JMH Wouldn't Let Woman See Dying Partner | CBS4 Miami
Lawsuit Claims JMH Denied Woman Access To Dying Partner | NBC6 Miami
Jackson Memorial faces negligence suit from woman's partner | South Florida Sun Sentinel
Lambda Legal Sues Florida Hospital for Mistreatment of Deceased Lesbian's Family | Lambda Legal press release

state_wa, state_fl, discrimination, org_lambdalegal, langbehn-pond

Source: Bangkok Post
'Being a lesbian is tiring," Chantalak Raksayoo said in an inteview with Bangkok Post's Outlook section, "but one should take pride in one's self. And I'm proud of who I am."

Chantalak, 36, is a lesbian activist who believes in the power of media to create public awareness on gay and lesbian rights and, more importantly, to help gays and lesbians feel confident about themselves and to realise their rights to live their lives as equals in society.

Chantalak is the founder of Sapaan, an alternative media source for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). When her organization joined the National Book Fair in Thailand recently, their booth was searched and three books were banned for portraying "sexually explicit" love scenes between lesbian lovers, Bangkok Post reports in a feature on Chatalak.

The books are romantic short stories about same-sex relationships, and the passages they contain involving sexual acts are only a small part of the narratives. This is the case in seized novel She 3. When the books were confiscated, Chantalak could do nothing but watch. "But I wouldn't let that happen again," she said firmly.

Never, she stressed, would she accept the authority's judgement and stop publishing gay and lesbian novels.

"Our books are not underground works of pornography but romantic novels. Lesbian or gay books are not only just about sex, but about love, relationships and lifestyle. The authorities should be more open-minded," she said.

Chankalak is an only child brought up by her mother and grandmother in a small town in Phetchabun Province. She spent most of her time as a child reading, she recalled for the Post, but when it came to sexual orientation and gender identity issues, young Chantalak felt like she was a big fish in a small pond, not knowing what was happening outside her little world.

" I never knew that a girl can fall in love with another girl," she recalled. "I used to see that one woman in my village lived with another woman but I didn't understand why they both were female but they stayed together as a family and took good care of each other. I didn't understand that they were in a relationship. I didn't realize that same-sex relationships existed."

Her life took an unexpected turn when she finished high school, began working as a writer and entered into an unexpected relationship with a female friend. In 1996, when Thailand's first lesbian organization Anjaree launched its debut newsletter called Anjareesan, Chantalak decided to come out and joined the Anjaree group.

Although gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have become more visible in Thailand today, they are still labeled as confused and maladjusted in society, she said.

"Many LGBT people still feel alienated. They have to have great confidence in their ability and efforts to be accepted by other people. There are still many people who view homosexuals as sex-obsessed freaks and queers. Many also think that same-sex relationships are unstable. But perhaps it's the society itself that creates relationship instability," she said.

Chantawak explained that the group she works with, Sapaan also serves as an LGBT consultancy and advocacy group. It recently organized a symposium to discuss a set of principles that denounce discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as promote the need to recognize the rights of transgendered individuals. 

"I believe that committed same-sex relationships deserve the same protection and benefits as those which opposite-sex couples receive," she told the Post. But she added, "Though there seems to be a long way to go, I still hope for the best."

For Chantalak, family is not limited to "dual" parenthood in the conventional sense, but it can extend to single parenthood or same-sex parenthood. "Family is not just about a father, mother and children relationship. Parents can be mother and mother, father and father, or friend and friend. It's better to emphasize the quality of the parent rather than their sexual identity," she said.

Chantawak's works have not gone unnoticed. She was honoured with the "Female Human Rights Defender Award" in 2007 by Thailand's National Human Rights Commission.

Full article: Rainbow warrior | Bangkok Post

area_asia

Source:  KSAX, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St Paul Pioneer Press, Star Tribune

Over 100 people gathered to protest at a Minneapolis Catholic church after its archdiocese barred an annual gay pride prayer service from taking place inside.

Saying they don't want to go back in the closet, gay and lesbian Catholics and their supporters took their annual prayer service celebrating gay pride outdoors Wednesday night.

Protestors marched around St. Joan of Arc in objection to the ban.

Gay and lesbian groups said the service is a tradition that's several years old.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, City Council Member Gary Schiff and state Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, attended.

Rybak said that anytime there are people in need, Joan of Arc members are the first to respond. "We want them to know the community stands with them," he said.

Michael Bayly is the executive director of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM), a grass-roots coalition promoting acceptance of gays in the Catholic Church. He helped organize Wednesday's protest and short prayer service that followed on the front steps of the church.

"This word lifestyle is a propaganda word. They never explain what they mean by it. They limit a person's life to their sexual activity, but there's so much more," Bayly told KSAX-TV.

Lucia Engelhardt, 2, was helping her sister Anna, 9, carry a sign reading "Gay love is not a mortal sin."

Their 7-year-old sister, Ingrid, also carried a sign supporting gays in the Catholic Church, Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

"We're here to support our gay friends," said their mother, Stephanie Vagle. "And to show our displeasure with the Catholic Church over this issue," their father, Bill Englehardt, quickly added.

The service, which was led by lay people, included readings, songs and prayer.

Instead of the annual "LGBT Pride" service, the archdiocese suggested a "peace" service with no mention of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"That descriptor (LGBT) was not possible on church property. We suggested they shift it, change the nature of it a little bit, and they did," said archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath.

"The reason is quite simply because it was a LGBT pride prayer service, and that is really inimical to the teachings of the Catholic Church," he told Minneapolis Star Tribune. 

He's quoted in St. Paul Pioneer Press with this explanation: "Celebrating the GLBT lifestyle is contrary to the teachings of our church -- plain and simple."

The ban has caused an uproar inside and outside the church, which for years has been known as a liberal bastion supporting GLBT people.

Officials with CPCSM see the action as an attack by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who took the helm of the archdiocese in May, Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

This is "yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed at GLBT persons and their families under Archbishop Nienstedt's reign of homophobic hatred," David McCaffrey, a CPSM board member, said in an e-mail Monday to members, reports St Paul Pioneer Press.

But church officials insisted that it wasn't a decision made because of the new leader.

"It was not something that happened because there's a new regime," McGrath said. "If (previous Archbishop Harry Flynn) had known of it, the same thing would have happened."

This year, he told the Star Tribune, "several people" came to the archdiocese to inform church officials of the event at St. Joan of Arc.

The Rev. Jim Cassidy, acting pastor of St. Joan's, told the Star Tribune Wednesday that the ruckus over the service erupted when the diocese received e-mails depicting the service as an official gay pride event.

"That's never been the case,'' Cassidy said. "It's an in-house prayer service that celebrates the GLBT members of our community."

Bayly said he saw signs of an ongoing "chilling effect." Usually, gay-friendly parishes advertise in the "pride guide" in advance of the Twin Cities Pride festival; this year, none did. The 2008 festival is this weekend.

"I think most of the parishes are in a terrible bind," Bayly said.

McGrath said Nienstedt is simply following Catholic doctrine, like previous archbishops.

McGrath declined a request for an on-camera interview with KSAX-TV but said in a statement, "We welcome and embrace people from the gay and lesbian community in our churches. However, it does not extend to a full gay and lesbian lifestyle."

"We can pray with gay and lesbians members," Cassidy told the Star Tribune.

But under the guidelines set by the archdiocese, St. Joan of Arc won't celebrate their identity, Cassidy said.

Full article: ksax.com - Hundreds protest ban on gay prayer service in Mpls.
Uproar over prayer service for gays grows | Minneapolis Star Tribune
Archdiocese halts church's annual gay pride prayers | St Paul Pioneer Press
Church takes gay pride service outside | Minneapolis Star Tribune

gay pride, state_mn

Source: Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News
On the 39th anniversary of New York City's Stonewall Riots, which arguably launched the gay rights movement, their church is asking California Mormons to support a proposed constitutional amendment that would recognize only marriages between a man and a woman.

The statement signed by from the top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) urges California church members to "do all you can" to support a constitutional amendment to recognize only marriages between a man and a woman.

"Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the formation of families is central to the Creator's plan for his children," the statement says.

Related in Qnews: Some Mormon faithful dismayed by church's all-out anti-gay campaign for Prop. 8 26-Oct-08

The church leaders -- LDS President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors -- call their church's teachings on the subject "unequivocal."

"We are disappointed," said Dave Melson, assistant executive director of Affirmation, a support and advocacy group for Mormon gays, lesbians and their families that has about 2,000 members.

"We had hoped the church would back off and stay on the sidelines of this one."

California law deals only with civil marriage. It does not affect religious rites or institutions.

The statement says the LDS church will participate with a "broad-based coalition of churches and other organizations" to promote the amendment, which will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Church spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed the authenticity of the statement for Salt Lake Tribune, but declined to comment further. It was published Saturday on the Internet.

According to Salt Lake City's Deseret News, a newspaper owned by the Mormon church, the statement from the First Presidency of the LDS church is scheduled to be read to local California congregations.

"This initiative will hurt so many people," said Olin Thomas, Affirmation's executive director. "Without [gay] marriage, a couple who have been together 30 years could be torn apart at the doorway to the emergency room."

Affirmation's Melson and Thomas will meet with Fred Riley of LDS Family Services and Harold Brown of LDS Social Services on Aug. 11 to discuss the church's political and religious approach to homosexuality.

The LDS Church has been involved in several campaigns to support what it calls "traditional marriage."

In 1998 the church spent $1.1 million to defeat proposals in Hawaii and Alaska, Salt Lake Tribune reports. At the same time, LDS leaders in California urged members to support Proposition 22, a law that defining marriage as between a man and a woman that was struck down as unconstitutional by the May 15 California Supreme Court decision.

In 2006, the LDS church joined a national religious coalition to push an amendment to the US Constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

The church has issued two previous statements in support of a constitutional amendment on marriage, reports Salt Lake Tribune. Its position is laid out in a 1994 document, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World."

Full article: LDS Church backs proposed California 'one man-one woman' marriage amendment | Salt Lake Tribune
LDS Church officials urge California members to support marriage amendment | Deseret News

state_ca, org_affirmation

Forgive me for an unaccustomed personal note here:

Due to a family emergency, I'll be traveling to the family home in Montana and will be slowed from the usual pace of updates to Qnews for the next several days.

I hope to be able to resume regular updates even while I'm in Montana, but please don't take the slower pace of updates as anything more than a temporary change.

And thanks for visiting Qnews and seaQwa.

Pastor Ken Hutcherson believes that a challenge to his authority, as happened in January at Mount Si High School, constitutes discrimination, but he just can't get anyone to listen.

He sent this message to his "Prayer Warriors" today:

This past Sunday I was preaching on Romans 2:11 which says God is no respecter of persons. I was informed last week that this is not true of Governor Christine Gregoire and the State of Washington. There is extreme favoritism in this state.

I was informed by Rosalund Jenkins, head of the Commission on African American Affairs for the State of Washington, that if I was the black pastor of a black church instead of a black pastor of a white church, I would have more clout to say I was discriminated against at Mt. Si High School at the Martin Luther King Day Assembly.

I was informed that a homosexual is part of the Commission on African American Affairs so I can forget about fighting the issues of racism and homosexuality.

I was informed that even though she is head of the Commission on African American Affairs for the state of Washington she does not work for black people. She works for Governor Chris Gregoire because hers is not an elected position, she is a gubernatorial appointee.

I was informed that if I continue to go down the road of racism and homosexuality, I'm fighting against the white power structure of the State of Washington and I don't have a chance of winning.

As I was talking to her, it dawned on me that the NAACP must be controlled and owned by the white power structure of the State of Washington as well.

I filed a grievance with the NAACP and now I know why James Bible, President of the local chapter doesn't return my phone calls. The only member of the NAACP who has any intestinal fortitude is Rev. Phyllis Beaumonte. She has constantly said that they are supposed to investigate any complaint brought by a member, yet the President has put this off week after week after week.

Pray for Rev. Beaumonte. She is trying to get the NAACP to do the right thing.

Continue to pray for me as I stand on Biblical Truth and the Word. I was informed by the head of the Commission on African American Affairs for the State of Washington that Gov. Gregoire has established a special place for homosexuals in her administration and the State of Washington.

This will be an uphill battle but I am willing to fight trusting in God until we attain victory.
Pastor Hutch

ken hutcherson, mount si

Source: BBC News, Telegraph (London), Ekklesia
Conservative Anglican leaders have opened talks in Jerusalem on the future of the Church by criticizing its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, BBC News reports.

The Archbishops of Nigeria and Uganda attacked his failure to discipline the US Episcopal Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop in 2003.

At a press conference Sunday, the two archbishops also attempted to downplay or even justify anti-gay violence in their countries.

About 300 bishops are meeting to discuss the future of the worldwide Anglican Communion, amid fears of a split.

Many attending the Jerusalem talks have threatened to boycott a major July meeting of Anglican bishops in England.

According to The Telegraph, a London newspaper that is an unabashed cheerleader for the church's conservative critics, several of the conservatives have told the breakaway Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) in Jerusalem that the worldwide Communion has been "broken." The conservatives blame the rift on liberals in America who consecrated the first openly gay bishop in 2003.

Many of them say liberals are rewriting the Bible to fit modern trends.

Archbishop Henri Orombi of Uganda was among those who called on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to take a stronger stance.

More...

anglican, area_africa, country_uganda, country_nigeria