Politics
Former Spokane mayor dies
SPOKANE, Wash. – Former Mayor James E. West, recalled from office over an Internet sex scandal, died July 22 at a Seattle hospital after suffering complications from recent cancer surgery. He was 55.
The former Republican state senate majority leader was diagnosed with colon cancer in early 2003. The disease spread to his liver.
Seven months after The Spokesman-Review began publishing results of a computer "sting" it conducted to track the mayor's online activities in a gay chat room, West was ousted on a single charge that he used his office for personal benefit.
A former Spokane city councilman, Boy Scout leader and sheriff's deputy, West was a conservative Republican who frequently opposed gay-rights bills during a 20-year career in the state House and Senate.
Romney abolishes governor's gay youth commission
BOSTON – Gov. Mitt Romney issued an executive order July 21 abolishing the state's 14 year old governor's commission on gay and lesbian youth after lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill creating a new commission out of the reach of the governor's office.
A spokesman for Romney said he issued the executive order because there was no need for two commissions both focused on the needs of gay and lesbian youth.
Romney angered many gay rights activists and lawmakers when he flirted with the idea earlier this year of abolishing the commission, the first of its kind in the nation, after a press release announcing a youth gay pride march was issued without the administration's blessing.
Marriage Rights
National marriage equality ad campaign launched
NEW YORK – Three major gay human rights groups are taking out full-page advertisements starting in 50 newspapers nationwide declaring their determination to keep fighting for equal marriage rights despite recent court setbacks.
The media campaign will cost $250,000; its organizers said it was the largest-ever purchase of print advertising space by gay rights supporters.
The ads will run in papers around the country, from The New York Times to The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to gay weeklies in Houston, Atlanta and San Diego.
The ads feature photographs of five same-sex couples who have been together as long as 53 years and are endorsed by an array of organizations and individuals, including 11 religious leaders and nine mayors.
Lesbian couple in Mass. marriage case separated
BOSTON – The lesbian couple whose lawsuit led to equal marriage in Massachusetts have announced they have separated.
Julie and Hillary Goodridges were among seven gay couples whose lawsuit brought equal marriage to the state.
The Goodridges were married May 17, 2004, the first day same-sex couples were allowed to wed under the new law.
Family Rights
Missouri lifts gay foster parent restrictions
KANSAS CITY – Following a court mandate, Missouri officials said July 18 that they have lifted regulations that automatically prevented gays and lesbians from becoming foster parents.
But while the decision clears the way for gays to get licensed to care for foster children, officials with the Department of Social Services said it might still be difficult for a gay person to become a foster parent.
A Jackson County Circuit judge ruled in February that the state could not reject a foster parent license application by Kansas City lesbian Lisa Johnston. Johnson, who wanted to foster children with her partner, Dawn Roginski, was turned down three years ago after officials said she lacked "reputable character" because homosexuality was illegal in Missouri.
Lesbian couple files medical malpractice suit
STAMFORD, Conn. – A lesbian couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit July 18 claiming botched cancer treatments damaged their love life. Their attorneys say it is the first of its kind under Connecticut's civil unions law.
Margaret Mueller and Charlotte Stacey are suing two doctors, accusing them of treating Mueller for ovarian cancer when she actually had cancer of the appendix. They contend Mueller underwent years of devastating chemotherapy treatments while the real cancer spread.
Connecticut's civil union law, passed last year, allowed Stacey also to sue for the harm to her relationship, known as a loss of consortium claim, Koskoff said. Before the law gave gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples in Connecticut, only a married partner could seek that compensation.
Law
Prosecutors battle 'gay panic' defense
SAN FRANCISCO – Prosecutors at a recent conference said they want to limit the use of "gay panic" defenses – where defendants claim their crimes were justified because of fear or anger over their victims' sexual orientation.
Lawmakers in California and New York are considering bills to deter the common courtroom strategy of making a victim's sexual orientation central to a criminal defense.
Both measures would require judges to remind jurors that bias toward the victim cannot influence their deliberations.
California's bill also would instruct juries that gay panic defenses are inconsistent with state laws protecting gays, lesbians and transgenders from discrimination.
Phelps' church challenges funeral protest law
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Westboro Baptist Church has filed suit in federal court claiming a Missouri law banning picketing on soldiers' funerals impinges on religious freedom and free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit July 21 in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City.
Activism
Gay groups give to hurricane victims
SAN FRANCISCO — Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere has extended its support of LGBT-headed families affected by Hurricane Katrina beyond New Orleans. The organization, which dispersed more than $15,000 in grants to Louisiana residents, is offering another $15,000 to those affected in Mississippi and Alabama as well.
In the wake of Katrina, COLAGE connected New Orleans families with other LGBT families across the country for temporary housing and other support. The New Orleans chapter also received a grant and has been providing free programming and activities for gay families since October 2005.
A new grant application is available to individual families at www.colage.org or by calling (415) 861-5437. A COLAGE committee will review all of the applications after the Wednesday, Augu. 9 deadline.
Meanwhile, according to a July 7 Newswire report, the Rainbow World Fund presented a check for $360,000 to America's Second Harvest for hurricane relief on July 21.
The funds were donated to help provide emergency food and grocery products to the thousands of Americans affected by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
The Rainbow World Fund is an LGBT-supportive heterosexual humanitarian service agency.
Soulforce protests outside Focus headquarters
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – In separate tents 100 yards apart, leaders of Focus on the Family and of Soulforce gave opposing messages on homosexuality July 22, but they didn't speak to each other.
Soulforce, which advocates parental rights for gays and lesbians, held a concert July 22 outside Focus on the Family headquarters, one day after the end of a five-day march from Denver to Focus headquarters in Colorado Springs. Soulforce said the rally was to protest the Christian Nationalist group's stand on homosexuality.
Actor Chad Allen and the mother of slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, spoke at the Soulforce concert. Meanwhile Focus on the Family brought out people who said they have abandoned homosexuality with the help of Christian influences.
Ummah Endowment Fund recognizes HRC
WASHINGTON – On Saturday, July 16, the Human Rights Campaign was honored by the Ummah Endowment Fund, a Washington-based HIV/AIDS organization, at its annual White Attire Affair, a social marketing event that also raises important funds to help curb the disproportionate effect of the disease on the African-American community. The organization presented HRC President Joe Solmonese with the Ummah LIVE! Award.
The event was attended by over 1,300 members of DC's African-American LGBT community.
Religion
Bishop approves blessings for gay couples
LITTLE ROCK – Episcopal churches in Arkansas can offer blessing ceremonies for gay couples, the state's bishop said in a letter to clergy.
In his letter to clergy, the bishop noted that no national or state Episcopal leaders have produced or approved official rites for the blessings of same-sex unions. Arkansas has banned equal marriage, so same-sex couples will have no legal standing in the state.
International Briefs
AIDS rates stabilizing in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The AIDS infection rate among pregnant women in South Africa stayed at about 30 percent last year, according to a government report Friday that said the infection rate was stabilizing.
The survey, conducted in October 2005, estimated that 5.5 million South Africans are living with HIV. The country has the highest number of people infected with the virus worldwide, accounting for more than one eighth of estimated cases.
Botswana has the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rate, and a child born today can expect to live less than 30 years.
Overall, an estimated 18.8 percent of people aged 15 to 49 were infected – or 4.9 million people. An estimated 235,000 children under 14 carried the virus, usually as a result of being infected by their mothers, the report said.
