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

Fraudulent Signatures Cancel Anti-Gay Measure

OHIO - Ultra-conservative Cincinnati activists withdrew a petition to place an anti-gay initiative on the ballot in November after acknowledging that some of the signatures they submitted were fraudulent and they did not have the required number of valid signatures, Rev. Steven Baines of People For the American Way reported last month.
The initiative, if adopted by the voters, would have nullified an addition to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance passed by the City Council prohibiting discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sexual orientation and gender expression.
Just two years ago, Cincinnati voters went to the ballot box to remove an anti-gay provision from the city charter. People For the American Way worked hard to support the successful fairness campaign in 2004, and PFAW Foundation produced an award winning documentary, A Blinding Flash of the Obvious, about the effort.

Gay Charity Donates to Hurricane Victims

CHICAGO - America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s Food Bank network, has received $360,000 in donations from the Rainbow World Fund, U.S. Newswire reported in August. The funds were donated to the America’s Second Harvest hurricane relief fund to help provide emergency food and grocery products to the thousands of Americans still impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
     “Rainbow World Fund may be based in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community,” said Jeff Cotter, founder and executive director of Rainbow World Fund, “but our work involves helping everyone, everywhere we can. By partnering with America’s Second Harvest, we know we’ve helped make a difference.”

Pension Law Includes Protections for Same-Sex Couples

WASHINGTON, DC - The Federal Pension Protection Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush contains two key provisions that will extend important financial protections to same sex couples and other Americans who leave their retirement savings to non-spouse beneficiaries, the Human Rights Campaign announced last month.
     The bipartisan provisions in the bill are a step forward in equality and stem from a continuous effort led by the HRC.
     “There is a large group of Americans that are left behind in traditional pension benefit models. We need to do better to keep these groups from falling through the cracks,” said Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). “I am pleased that the pension reform legislation takes an important step to fill this gap by equalizing treatment in retirement savings vehicles for non-spouse beneficiaries.”

Police Abuse Gay Bar Patrons

LIMA, PERU - The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about recent arrests of LGBT community by the Peruvian law enforcement agents, the IGLHRC website reported in August.
     The organization has already worked with Peruvian activists to denounce abuses against gay bars and trans sex workers perpetrated by Serenazgo officers in December 2005 and march 2006.
     The Serenazgo is a security body active in Lima city, whose legal attributions are not yet clearly specified by law.
      On July 14, Serenazgo officers broke into three discos patronized by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people, the report said. The intervention began like a routine inspection, but intrusion by Serenazgo troops resulted in violence. Officers blocked the exit and beat and insulted the disco owners, workers, and patrons, while also videotaping the violence. The intervention didn’t have the obligatorily presence of Peru national Police or Prosecutor Office representatives, the IGLHRC said.
      Lima City officers explained that the operative was carried out because “the establishments did not have a license to operate, nor a security certificate.” Mario Vargas, director of Lima City auditing and Control Department, stated that “the fight against illegal (activities) and clandestine prostitution will continue, without stop.”

Victory Fund Fights to Preserve Historic Win

ALABAMA - The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund in August urged the Alabama Democratic Party to certify Patricia Todd’s victory in the primary election for the state’s 54th legislative district, according to a U.S. Newswire report. Todd was the top vote-getter in a 5-way primary on June 6, and beat opponent Gaynell Hendricks by 59 votes in a July 18 runoff. Local election officials reported no irregularities and declared Todd the winner after a recount.
Despite Todd’s ability to win the most votes twice, a formal challenge to the election was filed by Hendricks’ mother-in-law, the report said. That challenge has now been tainted by powerful party officials, disappointed by the election results, seeking to improperly influence the decision of a panel that will hear evidence in the matter, according to reports. There is no Republican opponent vying for the seat in November, so Todd’s primary win would make her the state’s first-ever openly gay elected official.

Still Too Few of Us on the Tube

LOS ANGELES - After a landmark year of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender representation in films such as Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Transamerica, the broadcast television networks continue to underrepresent their LGBT audience, according to an analysis conducted by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation’s LGBT media advocacy group. The number of LGBT scripted representations on the six major broadcast networks will comprise only 1.3% of all series regular characters on the networks’ 2006-07 schedule.
“In the last year, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of visibility on the big screen, reaching a large audience anxious to see our stories,” says GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. “The networks, though, are not tapping into this audience and are failing to represent the reality and diversity of their viewers and the world around them.”

Group Boycotted WorldPride Jerusalem

SAN FRANCISCO - QUIT! (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) condemned the decision by Jerusalem open House and other promoters of World Pride Jerusalem to go ahead with the planned week of international pride events scheduled for August 2006, despite Israel’s ongoing assault on civilian communities in Lebanon and Gaza. Israel, which killed 4 UN workers in lebanon on July 26, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of using cluster bombs in civilian areas, in violation of international law, the group’s website at boycottworldpride.org said.

International AIDS Conferees Hopeful, Impatient

TORONTO - A sense of hopefulness tempered with growing impatience marked the end of the XVI International AIDS conference (AIDS 2006) last month, with scientists, clinicians, policymakers, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and other community leaders and caregivers calling for an accelerated pace to scale up HIV prevention, care and treatment programs in resource-limited settings.
     According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDs), at the end of 2005 an estimated 39 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS, the vast majority in developing countries.

New Initiative to Help LGBT Youth

WASHINGTON, DC - Two advocacy groups announced a new initiative this August to help protect LGBT young people in child welfare systems across the country, according to a 365Gay.com report.
     Lambda Legal and the Child Welfare League of America hope a new publication will serve as a guide for helping the foster care systems to better meet the needs of gay youth in their care. called “out of the margins,” it is a compilation of the experiences of LGBTQ youth in care along with concrete solutions to end the problems they face in the foster care, juvenile justice, and homeless/transitional living systems.
      “LGBTQ youth are far more likely to experience abuse and neglect, including being thrown out,within their homes than their non-LGBTQ peers, leading to a disproportionate over-representation in the child welfare system,” 365Gay.com quoted Jackie Yodashkin, a spokesperson for Lambda Legal.

Compiled this month by Editor Lynn McNicol

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