Out In The Mountians : News - The Rest of Our World

Philadelphia, PA – According to a report in The Advocate the city of Philadelphia has dedicated a 7,500-square-foot mural Saturday that pays tribute to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Titled Pride and Progress, the mural (one of 2,353 in the city) occupies a wall alongside a downtown community center that serves the gay community.
At 150 feet wide and 50 feet tall, the mural depicts a composite of 1960s gay civil rights marches in Philadelphia and New York, a festival on cobblestone streets with a multicultural throng, and segments of Independence Mall, all under a moody sky with the hint of a rainbow. “I wanted to create something beautiful and atmospheric,” said artist Ann Northrup, 54, whose design was chosen for the mural.
Northrup has worked with 10 assistants and 10 volunteers since last August to create the panoramic scenes. According to the founder of the city’s mural arts program, no one had been able to locate another public mural in the country paying tribute to the gay community. “I think it’s the first ... and certainly the largest in the country about this theme,” she said.

Antidiscrimination Laws Spread

Washington, DC – According to a press release from the Human Rights Campaign, more cities and counties enacted laws in 2002 prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity than in any previous year, with 15 local jurisdictions outlawing job discrimination based on sexual orientation and 16 passing measures covering gender identity and/or expression.
At the same time, the number of all types of employers offering domestic partner health insurance benefits grew by 16 percent in 2002, while the number of employers instituting sexual orientation non-discrimination policies rose seven percent. These numbers represent a smaller growth rate than for the previous year.
Among other findings:

Fifteen Fortune 500 companies had non-discrimination policies covering gender identity at year’s end.

Sixty-one percent of the Fortune 500 included sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies.

tTwenty more Fortune 500 companies implemented domestic partner health insurance benefits in 2002, for a total of 169.

Proposals by opponents of civil rights for gay and lesbian workers failed in the four cities where they were able to get on the ballot, and they were unable to collect enough signatures in two other cities and the state of Maine.

Canadian Queer Moms Publish

Toronto, ON – In a forwarded email, we learned of the existence of a north-of-the-border publication titled Mommy Queerest. The email included a plea for part-time ad sales representatives because the publication had to cancel its Pride edition for lack of advertising. Three other issues are available on the website (www.alternativemoms.com).
Here’s what they say about themselves: “Mommy Queerest Magazine is an independent Canadian publication dedicated to giving voice to our nation’s queer moms and reflecting the realities of our experiences both as queer womyn and queer moms. It is Canada’s only publication geared specifically to queer moms. Mommy Queerest is currently published on a quarterly basis and is intended strictly for the female-identified, same-sex oriented adult audience.”
You can find out more at info@mommyqueerest.com or (416) 985-7340.

Former Olympian Co-Prez of Gay Games

Montréal, QC – The Board of Directors of the MontrŽal 2006 Gay Games VII Organizing Committee announced the election of former Olympian Mark Tewksbury as its new Co-President to work with Ms. Lucie Duguay.
Tewksbury’s 16-year athletic career culminated in a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games while setting a new world record. He has established seven world records; gold, silver and bronze medals in Olympic competition; four gold medals in Commonwealth Games competitions; seven medals in Pan Pacific competitions and 21 national championship titles.
Tewksbury came out publicly in 1998 while serving as national spokesperson for AIDS, the first Canadian national sports hero to do so. He currently has a career as a motivational speaker for civic groups and corporations, including Coca-Cola, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Revlon and Xerox.

NJ Lesbian Teen Mudered

Newark, NJ – Sakia Gunn and four friends rebuffed the sexual advances of two men while the five young women waited for the bus at 3:30 am by telling the men they were lesbians. Gunn was stabbed to death in the ensuing fight. Gunn was 15 years old and in the tenth grade. She played guard on her high school basketball team and dreamed of playing in the WNBA.
      According to a report on Advocate.com, Richard McCullough, 29, was arraigned Friday in New Jersey state superior court on murder, bias intimidation, and weapons charges in the crime. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail.
      “Crimes like this don’t just happen in Laramie, Wyoming,” said David Buckel, a senior staff attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. “They happen all the time, all across the country. Tragedies like this happen when lesbian or gay people’s lives are devalued – when our basic humanity is denied simply because of who we are.”
      The Reverend Jacquelyn Holland, pastor of the Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church in Newark, was quoted by Advocate.com saying she and other community leaders hope to establish a neighborhood drop-in center where gay teens can come for counseling, employment help, and reassurance. “We want to let them know it’s OK to be who they are,” she said. “She didn’t do anything wrong by being a lesbian.”

Americans Think AIDS Vaccine Exists

Washington, DC – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, a division of the National Institutes of Health) says many Americans wrongly believe that a preventive vaccine for HIV/AIDS has already been developed. Nearly half of African Americans surveyed (48 percent) and more than a quarter of Hispanics (28 percent) believe that an HIV vaccine already exists and is being kept secret. Twenty percent of adults in the general population share that belief.
      The research included a 2,000-person national survey of American adults and three smaller surveys of communities most affected by HIV and AIDS (African American, Hispanics, and men who have sex with men).
      Every day, an estimated 16,000 people worldwide become infected with HIV, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Approximately half of the 38.6 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women, while 3.2 million are children younger than 15.
      In the United States, an estimated 900,000 people are living with HIV. New infections occur at a rate of 40,000 a year; more than half of those new infections occur in people of color. Young people under the age of 25 account for half of all new HIV infections in the United States.
      According to the press release, “Discovering a safe, effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection is a research priority for the U.S. government.” And, “Funding from NIAID has enabled scientists to put more potential vaccines in the pipelines for testing in the next two years than were tested in the last five years combined.”

Southern African Leaders Scapregoat GLBTs

Cape Town, South Africa – Many leaders in southern Africa have singled out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as scapegoats for their countries’ problems, according to a press release from Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
      Their report, More Than a Name: State-Sponsored Homophobia and its Consequences in Southern Africa, documents pervasive harassment and violence against sexual minorities in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
      “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have been vilified by presidents and political leaders, which has led to a culture of intolerance,” said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of IGLHRC.
      The report documents the experiences of victims who have been assaulted, imprisoned, expelled from schools, fired from jobs, denied access to medical care, evicted from their homes, and driven into exile or, in some cases, to suicide.
      “When Southern African political leaders like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe make speeches saying that gays and lesbians are ‘worse than dogs and pigs,’ it should be no surprise that violent attacks follow,” said Scott Long, the outgoing program director of Human Rights Watch and a co-author of the report.
      The report also examines South Africa, which in 1996, newly freed from apartheid, became the first country in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution. Based on interviews with numerous individuals and activists, the report concludes that the equality guaranteed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is fragile, and even endangered by the silence and foot-dragging of South African political leaders.

Ten Years of Dyke TV

Brooklyn, NY – Dyke TV, the only weekly television show produced by and for lesbians, turns 10 years old this month. Dyke TV made its debut on public access network Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) on June 8, 1993. Founded by playwright Ana Simo, filmmaker Mary Patierno, and theatre producer Linda Chapman, Dyke TV was seen as a chance to create “television to incite, subvert, provoke and organize.”
      The web site (www.dyketv.org) features an expanded digital archive of over 200 segments, along with new featured segments which will be newly available in both high and low resolutions. As of June 6, visitors will have access to hundreds of exclusive segments.
      Winner of three public access awards for best individual show, Dyke TV currently broadcasts on 50 public access networks across the United States and on Canada’s Pridevision channel, according to a press release. The organization behind the show also teaches courses in video production and editing workshops, and offers videotape dubbing and equipment rental services.
      Dyke TV is the only international television program that features exclusively lesbian-oriented content from news and politics, to health and arts, to sports and family life, with many shows now containing creative segments shot by individual artists.

Episcopals Honor Gay Cleric

West Hollywood, CA – Rev. Troy D. Perry, human rights activist and founder of the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, during graduation ceremonies on May 22, 2003. Metropolitan Community Church is a Christian denomination with a positive outreach to the gay and lesbian community.
      “Episcopal Divinity School is proud to recognize the Rev. Elder Troy Perry as one of the landmark leaders of the contemporary church,” The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, EDS president, was quoted in a press release. “We are a community that stands for justice, compassion and reconciliation for all God’s people. Troy Perry stands with us.”
      Episcopal Divinity School educates lay and ordained leaders of the Episcopalian Church.
      Last year’s recipient of the EDS award was Nobel Peace Prize honoree Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
      “I am deeply humbled by this recognition by Episcopal Divinity School. This award not only honors me, but honors the entire Metropolitan Community Churches movement and MCC’s contributions to Christendom,” Rev. Perry said.
      MCC and the Episcopal Church share a long history. MCC member and open lesbian Ellen Barrett’s ordination to the ministry of the Episcopal Church sparked an ongoing debate about the role of gay people there. Episcopal Bishop John Spong is a frequent speaker at MCC churches and meetings, and many MCC congregations meet in worship space provided by Episcopal churches. The writings of openly lesbian Episcopal Divinity School faculty member Carter Heyward have been used in the training of MCC clergy. During 2004 the EDS campus will be the site of several MCC educational programs.

BFLAG to Hold National Meeting

Pittsburgh, PA – An organization for blind gays and lesbians and their family and friends – BFLAG – will be holding its 2003 annual convention in Pittsburgh, PA July 5 - 12. The group is affiliated with the American Council of the Blind (ACB). Founded in 1996, the group was formally recognized as an ACB affiliate four years later.
“We have come to the understanding that most of the visually impaired GLBT individuals simply don’t know that others exist or how to make contact with them. Many closet doors are shut, not by choice but by the lack of knowledge,” wrote BFLAG member “Butch” Arnold in an emailed press release. “Although BFLAG will never ‘out’ anyone, we do want to make it easier for all to live an open life with access to educational information as well as other individuals of the general GLBT community.”
For more information, check out www.bflag.org.

Gay Chamber of Commerce at Equality Forum

Washington, DC – The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), dedicated to expanding access and opportunity for the GLBT business community, co-hosted the
      International Business Colloquium Panel at the 2003 Equality Forum in Philadelphia, PA last month.
      The panel was a joint collaboration between the NGLCC, the Equality Forum, the German-American Chamber of Commerce, and Voelklinger Kreis, the German Gay Managers Association. Panelists discussed similarities in the ways GLBT issues are handled at the corporate level in both Germany and America and what “out” executives can do to constructively engage the non-gay senior level managers and executives to be allies on GLBT issues in corporations.
      At a Saturday evening dinner co-chaired by Vermonter Scottie Ginn, a vice president at IBM, the group presented an award to Allan Gilmour, the openly gay Vice Chair and CFO of Ford Motor Company.

advertisers | the source | archives | links | contact us