A TIME magazine cover story and a recent pro-homosexual school event should leave no doubt that homosexual activists are recruiting kids into homosexual sex and a “gay” identity, using “tolerance” as a ruse.

The TIME October 10 piece, “The Battle Over Gay Teens,” which includes not a single reference to the extremely dangerous medical consequences of homosexual behavior, especially for boys, includes these details:

• A cocktail party in Manhattan with billionaire liquor magnate Edgar Bronfman, Sr. and Clinton political strategist David Mixner was held in May to raise money for the Point Foundation, a scholarship program to turn “gay” kids into homosexual activists.

• From 100 gay/straight alliance (GSA) clubs in schools in 1997, the number has grown to “at least 3,000…nearly 1 in 10 high schools has one, according to the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN).”

• The average age of males “coming out” as homosexual has “dropped to 10 for gays and 12 for lesbians,” according to the chair of Cornell University’s human-development program.

• “Gay kids can now watch fictional and real teens who are out on shows like Desperate Housewives, the dating show Next on MTV and Degrassi (a high school drama on the N network whose wild popularity among adolescents is assured by the fact that few adults watch). Publishers like Arthur A. Levine Books (of Harry Potter fame) and the children’s division of Simon & Schuster have released something like a dozen novels about gay adolescents in the past two years….Gay kids can now subscribe to the 10-month-old glossy YGA Magazine (YGA stands for ‘young, gay America’) and meet thousands of other little gays via young gay america. com (sic) or outproud.org.”

• “‘We’re gonna win,’ says [GLSEN founder Kevin] Jennings, speaking expansively of the gay movement, ‘because of what’s happening in high schools right now.’ … Jennings recalls that when he first started raising money more than a decade ago, ‘the attitude was either “Isn’t it cute that you’re working with kids?” or “Why are you working with kids? What are you, f------ crazy?”‘“

Editor’s note: In other settings Jennings has used the “f-word” to dismiss faith-based opponents, and has said he envisions a day when the schools openly embrace homosexuality. At a GLSEN conference, a teacher said she thought it was important to acquaint pupils with homosexuality beginning in kindergarten because “that’s when the saturation process begins.”

• At a youth retreat, the Point Foundation gave out gift bags to students containing, among other things, “a DVD of the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in which a teenage boy is masturbated by an adult” and “the Aug. 16 issue of the gay magazine The Advocate, whose cover featured a shirtless man and blared, SUMMER SEX ISSUE.”

• “Because he routinely sees young gays on MTV or even at school, a 14-year-old may now feel comfortable telling friends that he likes other boys, but that doesn’t mean he is ready to enfold himself in a gay identity.”

The article, to its credit, includes passages about the growing ex-”gay” movement, particularly for youths, and quotes Exodus International Youth Director Scott Davis about his group’s ministry, and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) Executive Director Regina Griggs about the discrimination faced by groups that help people overcome homosexual desires.

But the overall impact of the article helps validate the idea of “gay kids,” and will undoubtedly induce some to act out their sexual curiosity since so many others appear to be doing so. The constant focus on homosexuality becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, much as TIME’s frequent articles during the 1960s and 1970s about the “growing phenomenon” of illicit drug use helped spur some kids to try marijuana and LSD.

A Week-Long Effort in the Schools

GLSEN, meanwhile, has been extremely active in the schools. Their most recent effort, “National Ally Week,” was held September 19-24.

According to GLSEN’s Web site, more than 300 gay/straight alliance groups registered to pass out buttons, organize gender education activities, and promote the homosexual lifestyle. Ally Week encourages the recruitment of “straight” students as allies in the fight against bullying of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) students. The “straight” allies are encouraged to speak out in defense of homosexuality.

GLSEN passed out “I am an ALLY” buttons through the GSAs, and the Web site encouraged students to arrange more specific activities to promote acceptance of “gay” students. The listed events included:

• “Organizing LGBT pizza parties, and after-school activities like LGBT Jeopardy or LGBT bingo.

• Informative tabling in school cafeterias.

• Student and/or teacher training workshops.

• Asking allies to attend regular GSA meetings.

• Constructing pro-LGBT bulletin boards.

• Bringing a local LGBT speaker to the school.”

Last April, GLSEN sponsored the annual “Day of Silence,” in which kids are supposed to remain silent all day in support of their “gay” classmates. April 26, 2006, is the next “Day of Silence.”

This past January, GLSEN headed the coalition sponsoring “No-Name Calling Week,” another platform for discouraging resistance to the promotion of homosexuality to school kids, with the next edition slated in January 2006. In effect, schoolchildren across the nation are being subjected to homosexual propaganda in schools via an event every few months.

GLSEN encourages teachers to organize and participate in GSA events. The group provides a web link that supplies educators with pro-LGBT resources. These include “gender liberation” coloring books; “gay” cartoon posters; and several posters challenging traditional views of gender. Teachers can download signs with inverted, rainbow-colored triangles proclaiming “Safe Zone” to put on their classroom door. They can also print off discussion kits on how to organize gender education sessions and start conversations about homosexuality with the children.

One poster, titled, “Things you can do to eradicate gender or multiply it exponentially,” features cross-dressing, and has these suggestions:

• “Think twice before you ask people if their child is a boy or a girl.

• Spend a day in drag.

• Refer to everyone by the incorrect pronoun.

• Challenge binary gender paradigms over Thanksgiving dinner.

• Hang out with children and teach them how to cross dress Barbie and G.I. Joe.

• Refuse to check off your sex when filling out forms.”

Clearly, the homosexual movement’s effort to recruit children has never been stronger than it is now.

Robert Knight is director of the Culture & Family Institute (CFI), an affiliate of Concerned Women for America. Benjamin Frichtl is a CFI intern and a student at Patrick Henry College.

==============================

>>Canada Timeline (CBC, 040100)

Canadian Broadcast Company News Online

1965

Everett Klippert acknowledges to police that he is gay, has had sex with men over a 24-year period, and is unlikely to change. In 1967, Klippert is sent to prison indefinitely as a “dangerous sex offender,” a sentence which was backed up by the Supreme Court of Canada that same year.

December 22, 1967

Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau proposes amendments to the Criminal Code which, among other things, would relax the laws against homosexuality. Discussing the amendments Trudeau says,

“It’s certainly the most extensive revision of the Criminal Code since the 1950s and, in terms of the subject matter it deals with, I feel that it has knocked down a lot of totems and over-ridden a lot of taboos and I feel that in that sense it is new. It’s bringing the laws of the land up to contemporary society I think. Take this thing on homosexuality. I think the view we take here is that there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. I think that what’s done in private between adults doesn’t concern the Criminal Code. When it becomes public this is a different matter, or when it relates to minors this is a different matter.”

1969

Trudeau’s amendments pass into the Criminal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality in Canada.

July 20, 1971

Everett Klippert is released.

December 16, 1977

Quebec includes sexual orientation in its Human Rights Code, making it the first province in Canada to pass a gay civil rights law. The law makes it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing, public accommodation and employment. By 2001, all provinces and territories take this step except Alberta, Prince Edward Island, and the Northwest Territories.

Jan. 5, 1978

The Pink Triangle Press (now publisher of Xtra magazine) is charged with “possession of obscene material for the purpose of distribution” and “the use of mails for the purpose of transmitting anything that is obscene, indecent or scurrilous” for publishing an article titled “Men Loving Boys Loving Men” in the Dec. 1977/Jan. 1978 issue of The Body Politic.

After almost six years in the courts, including two trials, the case is finally resolved when on Oct. 15, 1983 the deadline passes for the Crown to appeal the second court acquittal. (In the first trial, The Pink Triangle Press had also won an acquittal but upon appeal the Crown won a retrial.)

The case results in an important precedent. On June 15, 1982, Judge Thomas Mercer, the judge for the second trial, rules that the article “does, in fact, advocate pedophilia,” but says, “It is perfectly legal to advocate what in itself would be unacceptable to most Canadians.”

1978

Canada gets a new Immigration Act. Under the act, homosexuals are removed from the list of inadmissible classes.

1979

The Canadian Human Rights Commission recommends in its Annual Report that “sexual orientation” be added to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

May 2, 1980

Bill C-242, an act to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gets its first reading in the House of Commons by MP Pat Carney. The bill, which would have inserted “sexual orientation” into the Canadian Human Rights Act, doesn’t pass.

MP Svend Robinson introduces similar bills in 1983, 1985 1986, 1989, and 1991. In 1991, Robinson tries to get the definition of “spouse” in the Income Tax Act and Canada Pension Plan Act to include “or of the same sex.” In 1992 he tries to get the “opposite sex” definition of “spouse” removed from Bill C-55 which would add the definition to survivor benefits provisions of federal pension legislation. All the proposed bills are defeated.

Feb. 5, 1981

More than 300 men are arrested following police raids at four gay bath houses in Toronto, the largest mass arrest since the War Measures Act was invoked during the October Crisis. The next night, about 3,000 people march in downtown Toronto to protest the arrests. This is considered to be Canada’s ‘Stonewall.’ (See world timeline for the 1969 “Stonewall Riots” in the U.S.)

October 1985

The Parliamentary Committee on Equality Rights releases a report titled “Equality for All.” The committee writes that it is shocked by the high level of discriminatory treatment of homosexuals in Canada. The report discusses the harassment, violence, physical abuse, psychological oppression and hate propaganda that homosexuals live with. The committee recommends that the Canadian Human Rights Act be changed to make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

In March 1986, the government responds to the report in a paper titled “Toward Equality” in which it writes “the government will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that sexual orientation is a prohibited ground of discrimination in relation to all areas of federal jurisdiction.”

1988

Svend Robinson, of the New Democratic Party, goes public about being gay, becoming the first Member of Parliament to do so. Robinson was first elected to the House of Commons in 1979. In 2000, the B.C. riding of Burnaby-Douglas (though its borders have changed) elected Robinson for the eighth time.

1991

Delwin Vriend, a lab instructor at King’s University College in Edmonton, Alberta, is fired from his job because he is gay. The Alberta Human Rights Commission refuses to investigate the case because the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act does not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Delwin Vriend

Vriend takes the government of Alberta to court and, in 1994, the court rules that sexual orientation must be added to the act. The government wins on appeal in 1996 and the decision is overturned. In November 1997, the case goes to the Supreme Court of Canada and on April 2, 1998 the high court unanimously rules that the exclusion of homosexuals from Alberta’s Individual Rights Protection Act is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court says that the act would be interpreted to include homosexuals even if the province doesn’t change it. The Alberta government does not use the notwithstanding clause despite pressure from conservative and religious groups.

August 1992

In Haig and Birch v. Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal rules that the failure to include sexual orientation in the Canadian Human Rights Act is discriminatory. Federal Justice Minister Kim Campbell responds to the decision by announcing the government would take the necessary steps to include sexual orientation in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

November 1992

The federal court lifts the country’s ban on homosexuals in the military, allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the armed forces.

Dec. 9, 1992

As promised, Justice Minister Kim Campbell introduces Bill C-108 which would add “sexual orientation” to the Canadian Human Rights Act. But the act, which would also restrict the definition of “marital status” to opposite-sex couples, doesn’t pass first reading.

On June 3, 1993, the Senate passes Bill S-15, another attempt at adding “sexual orientation” to the Canadian Human Rights Act, but the bill doesn’t make it to the House of Commons because Parliament is dissolved for the 1993 federal election.

Feb. 23, 1993

In the Mossop case, the Supreme Court of Canada rules that the denial of bereavement leave to a gay partner is not discrimination based on family status defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act. The case isn’t a complete loss to homosexuals though. Two of the judges find the term “family status” was broad enough to include same-sex couples living together in a long-term relationship. The Supreme Court also notes that if Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been argued, the ruling might have been different.

Jim Egan

May 1995

The Supreme Court rules on the case involving Jim Egan and Jack Nesbit, two gay men who sued Ottawa for the right to claim a spousal pension under the Old Age Security Act. The Court rules against Egan and Nesbit. However, all nine judges agree that sexual orientation is a protected ground and that protection extends to partnerships of lesbians and gay men.

May 1995

An Ontario Court judge finds that the Child and Family Services Act of Ontario infringes Section 15 of the Charter by not allowing same-sex couples to bring a joint application for adoption. He rules that four lesbians have the right to adopt their partners’ children. Ontario becomes the first province to make it legal for same-sex couples to adopt.

British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia follow suit, also allowing adoption by same-sex couples. Other provinces are looking into the issue.

1996

The federal government passes Bill C-33 which adds “sexual orientation” to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

May 1999

The Supreme Court of Canada rules same-sex couples should have the same benefits and obligations as opposite-sex common-law couples and equal access to benefits from social programs to which they contribute.

The ruling centred on the “M v. H” case which involved two Toronto women who had lived together for more than a decade. When the couple broke up in 1992, “M” sued “H” for spousal support under Ontario’s Family Law Act. The problem was that the act defined “spouse” as either a married couple or “a man and woman” who are unmarried and have lived together for no less than three years.

The judge rules that the definition violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and declares that the words “a man and woman” should be replaced with “two persons.” “H” appeals the decision. The Court of Appeal upholds the decision but gives Ontario one year to amend its Family Law Act.

Although neither “M” nor “H” chooses to take the case any further, Ontario’s attorney general is granted leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal which brought the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court rules that the Ontario Family Law Act’s definition of “spouse” as a person of the opposite sex is unconstitutional as was any provincial law that denies equal benefits to same-sex couples. Ontario is given six months to amend the act.

June 8, 1999

Although many laws will have to be revised to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling in May, the federal government votes 216 to 55 in favour of preserving the definition of “marriage” as the union of a man and a woman. Justice Minister Anne McLellan says the definition of marriage is already clear in law and the federal government has “no intention of changing the definition of marriage or legislating same-sex marriage.”

Oct. 25, 1999

Attorney General Jim Flaherty introduces Bill 5 in the Ontario Legislature, an act to amend certain statutes because of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in the M. v. H. case. Instead of changing Ontario’s definition of spouse, which the Supreme Court essentially struck down, the government creates a new same-sex category, changing the province’s Family Law Act to read “spouse or same-sex partner” wherever it had read only “spouse” before. Bill 5 also amends more than 60 other provincial laws, making the rights and responsibilities of same-sex couples mirror those of common-law couples.

Feb. 11, 2000

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s Liberals introduce Bill C-23, the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in response to the Supreme Court’s May 1999 ruling. The act would give same-sex couples who have lived together for more than a year the same benefits and obligations as common-law couples.

In March, Justice Minister Anne McLellan announces the bill will include a definition of marriage as “the lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”

On April 11, 2000, Parliament passes Bill C-23, with a vote of 174 to 72. The legislation gives same-sex couples the same social and tax benefits as heterosexuals in common-law relationships.

In total, the bill affects 68 federal statutes relating to a wide range of issues such as pension benefits, old age security, income tax deductions, bankruptcy protection and the Criminal Code. The definitions of “marriage” and “spouse” are left untouched but the definition of “common-law relationship” is expanded to include same-sex couples.

March 16, 2000

Alberta passes Bill 202 which says that the province will use the notwithstanding clause if a court redefines marriage to include anything other than a man and a woman.

July 21, 2000

British Columbia’s Attorney General Andrew Petter announces he will ask the courts for guidance on whether Canada’s ban on same-sex marriages is constitutional, making his province the first to do so. Toronto was the first Canadian city to ask for clarification on the issue when it did so in May 2000.

Dec. 10, 2000

Rev. Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto reads the first “banns” – an old Christian tradition of publishing or giving public notice of people’s intent to marry – for two same-sex couples. Hawkes says that if the banns are read on three Sundays before the wedding, he can legally marry the couples.

The reading of banns is meant to be an opportunity for anyone who might oppose a wedding to come forward with objections before the ceremony. No one comes forward on the first Sunday but the next week two people stand up to object, including Rev. Ken Campbell who calls the procedure “lawless and Godless.” Hawkes dismisses the objections and reads the banns for the third time the following Sunday.

Consumer Minister Bob Runciman says Ontario will not recognize same-sex marriages. He says no matter what Hawkes’ church does, the federal law is clear. “It won’t qualify to be registered because of the federal legislation which clearly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.”

The two same-sex couples are married on Jan. 14, 2001. The following day, Runciman reiterates the government’s position, saying the marriages will not be legally recognized.

May 10, 2002

Marc Hall

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert McKinnon rules that a gay student has the right to take his boyfriend to the prom.

Earlier, the Durham Catholic District School Board said student Marc Hall couldn’t bring his 21-year-old boyfriend to the dance at Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic high school in Oshawa. Officials acknowledge that Hall has the right to be gay, but said permitting the date would send a message that the Church supports his “homosexual lifestyle.”

Hall went to the prom.

July 12, 2002

For the first time a Canadian court rules in favour of recognizing same-sex marriages under the law. The Ontario Superior Court rules that prohibiting gay couples from marrying is unconstitutional and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court gives Ontario two years to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.

As a result of the Ontario ruling, the Alberta government passes a bill banning same-sex marriages and defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. The province says it will use the notwithstanding clause to avoid recognizing same-sex marriages if Ottawa amends the Marriage Act.

Also, a ruling against gay marriages is expected to be heard in B.C. by the province’s Court of Appeal in early 2003, and a judge in Montreal is to rule on a similar case.

July 16, 2002

Ontario decides not to appeal the court ruling, saying only the federal government can decide who can marry.

July 29, 2002

On July 29, the federal government announces it will seek leave to appeal the Ontario court ruling “to seek further clarity on these issues.” Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says in a news release, “At present, there is no consensus, either from the courts or among Canadians, on whether or how the laws require change.”

Aug. 1, 2002

Toronto City Council passes a resolution calling the common-law definition restricting marriage to opposite sex couples discriminatory.

Nov. 10, 2002

An Ekos poll commissioned by CBC finds that 45 per cent of Canadians would vote Yes in a referendum to change the definition of marriage from a union of a man and a woman to one that could include a same-sex couple.

Feb. 13, 2003

New Democrat MP Svend Robinson unveils a private member’s bill that would allow same-sex marriages. The federal government has already changed several laws to give same-sex couples the same benefits and obligations as heterosexual common-law couples.

Michael Stark and Michael Leshner

June 10, 2003

The Ontario Court of Appeal upholds a lower court ruling to legally allow same-sex marriages. “The existing common law definition of marriage violates the couple’s equality rights on the basis of sexual orientation under (the charter),” read the decision. The judgment follows the Ontario Divisional Court ruling on July 12, 2002.

Hours after the ruling, Michael Leshner and Michael Stark are married in a ceremony in Toronto. Both men played a key role in the court case.

June 11, 2003

Ontario attorney general Norm Sterling announces that the province will obey the law and register same-sex marriages. Nearly two dozen homosexual couples applied for marriage licences in Ontario on June 10.

June 17, 2003

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien announces legislation to make same-sex marriages legal, while at the same time permitting churches and other religious groups to “sanctify marriage as they see it.” It means Ottawa will not appeal two provincial court rulings allowing same-sex unions. “There is an evolution in society,” Chrétien said.

July 8, 2003

British Columbia becomes the second province to legalize same-sex marriages. The British Columbia Court of Appeal lifts its ban on same-sex marriages, giving couples in the province the right to marry immediately. The decision alters a ruling that would have made same-sex marriages legal, but not until July 2004. The court had already agreed that the definition of marriage should be the union of “two persons” rather than of “one man and one woman.” Ontario was the first province to recognize same-sex marriages as legal.

July 17, 2003

Ottawa reveals the exact wording of historic legislation that would allow gay couples to marry. The Act Respecting Certain Aspects of Legal Capacity for Marriage was sent to the Supreme Court of Canada for review. According to the draft bill, “marriage for civil purposes is the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others. The Supreme Court is being asked: whether or not Parliament has the exclusive legal authority to define marriage; if the proposed act is compatible with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and whether or not the Constitution protects religious leaders who refuse to sanctify same-sex marriages.

If the country’s top justices decide that the draft legislation is constitutional, it will be put to a free vote in the House of Commons - meaning members of Parliament would not have to vote according to party lines.

Aug. 13, 2003

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien vows not to let religious objections alter his stand on same-sex marriage. He says members of Parliament will be allowed to vote freely on the bill when it’s introduced in the House of Commons after his retirement in 2004. A significant number of Liberal MPs say they do not support same-sex unions and will vote against the legislation.

Aug. 14, 2003

After extensive and emotional debate, the United Church of Canada votes overwhelmingly to endorse same-sex marriages. The majority of delegates at the church’s general council meeting in Wolfville, N.S., vote to ask Ottawa to recognize same-sex marriage in the same way as heterosexual ones.

Aug. 18, 2003

The Archbishop of St. John’s defends his censure of a local parish priest, saying Father Paul Lundrigan’s comments were unacceptable within the Catholic Church. In a sermon one week earlier, Lundrigan challenged the Catholic Church’s campaign against legalizing same-sex marriage. Lundrigan called the church hypocritical, criticizing it for fighting same-sex marriages while it remained silent about sexual abuse by clergy members.

Sept. 9, 2003

A gay and lesbian group goes to trial against the federal government in an attempt to force Ottawa to extend survivor benefits to excluded gays and lesbians. Gay and lesbian partners - pursuing Canadian Pension Plan benefits from their deceased partners - say the federal government is discriminating against them and have filed a $400-million class-action suit.

September 16, 2003 [Kwing Hung: two consecutive days of Canadian shame]

The Canadian Alliance moved a motion to affirm traditional marriage. It was narrowly defeated by the Liberal government.

September 17, 2003

Bill C-250 (against hate crime targetting sexual orientation) drafted by a homosexual NDP MP passed the House of Commons with the help of the Liberal government.

Nov. 27, 2003

Alliance Leader Stephen Harper Thursday fires MP Larry Spencer as family issues critic after Spencer said homosexuality should be outlawed. Spencer told the Vancouver Sun that homosexuality is part of a “well orchestrated” conspiracy that should be outlawed, a Canadian Alliance MP says.

Dec. 19, 2003

An Ontario court rules that Ottawa has discriminated against same-sex couples by denying benefits to those whose partners died before 1998. The court rules that benefits will be retroactive to April 17, 1985, when equality rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect.

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>>World Timeline (CBC, 040100)

August 6, 1885 – The United Kingdom

The British Parliament votes to make homosexual acts a criminal offense.

1930s – Europe

Adolf Hitler takes power and launches a campaign against Jews and other groups. Thousands of homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. Gay men are identified with pink triangles and lesbians are identified with black triangles.

1961 – The United States

Illinois repeals its sodomy laws making it the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize homosexuality between consenting adults in private. The law takes effect in 1962. Connecticut follows in 1969 with the law taking effect in 1971. In the 1970s a rush of other states decriminalize homosexuality including Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Hawaii, Delaware, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Washington, New Mexico, West Virginia, South Dakota, Indiana, Iowa, Wyoming, North Dakota, Vermont, Arizona, and New Jersey.

July 27, 1967 – The United Kingdom

Britain decriminalizes homosexuality between consenting adults in private, except for those in the military and police.

June 27, 1969 – The United States

At about midnight, New York City police raid the Stonewall Inn, a private gay club on St. Christopher St. in Greenwich Village. Raids on gay and lesbian bars were common but this time people fight back. The events of June 17, 1969 and the violent protests that occurred during the nights that followed are known as The Stonewall Riots, which is seen as the beginning of the gay civil rights movement in the United States.

February 25, 1982 – The United States

Wisconsin becomes the first state in the U.S. to pass a gay civil rights law. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota and Rhode Island follow, with Massachusetts passing a law forbidding the placement of children for adoption or foster care with gay people.

July 27, 1982 – The United States

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention replaces the acronym GRIDS (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome) with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

December 1, 1988 – Switzerland

The first World AIDS Day is held by the World Health Organization.

October 1, 1989 – Denmark

Denmark becomes the first country to legally recognize same-sex partnerships, essentially sanctioning gay marriages. The Danish Registered Partnership Act states “Two persons of the same sex may have their partnership registered” and “the registration of a partnership shall have the same legal effects as the contracting of marriage.”

By 2001, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands and France recognize registered partnerships and Italy, Spain and Israel are considering adopting similar legislation.

July 1, 2000 – The United States

Vermont’s civil union law comes into effect making it the first state in the U.S. to provide same-sex couples with rights, benefits and responsibilities similar to those of heterosexual couples, including medical decision-making, tax breaks and inheritance. However, the unions won’t be recognized in other states.

Hawaii allows adults who can’t legally marry to register as domestic partners.

April 1, 2001 – The Netherlands

The Netherlands jumps to the forefront when its lower house of parliament enacts the world’s most comprehensive legal recognition of gay rights. The Dutch law allows same-sex couples to marry and gives them the same rights as heterosexuals when it comes to adopting. The only restrictions to the new law are that same-sex couples can only adopt Dutch children, and foreign same-sex couples can’t come to the Netherlands to marry unless one of them lives there.

The law tops Denmark’s law, which allows gays and lesbians to adopt their partners’ children but not children outside the marriage.

Pope John Paul II criticizes the new law saying no adult relationship other than that of a man and a woman should be recognized as marriage.

June 7, 2003 – The United Kingdom

An openly gay Anglican priest announces he will not accept an appointment as bishop of Reading after bitter arguments within the Church of England. Canon Jeffrey John acknowledges that he’s in a long-term relationship with a man, but says he’s been celibate since the 1990s. Traditionalist groups within the Church insist the Bible forbids homosexuality.

July 31, 2003 – The Vatican

The Vatican issues a 12-page set of guidelines, approved by Pope John Paul, warning Catholic politicians that it is immoral to support same-sex unions. “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family,” it says. “Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law.”

August 5, 2003 – The United States

Episcopalian Church leaders in the United States vote to accept the election of the American Anglican church’s first openly gay bishop. The vote was 62-to-45 to confirm Rev. Gene Robinson as the new bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson, 56, is a divorced father of two. He has been living with his partner for 13 years. Conservative church members warn that Robinson’s installation could trigger a split in the church.

Nov. 3, 2003 – The United States

Rev. Gene Robinson becomes the first openly gay Anglican bishop. Before the consecration, two Episcopal clerics read letters of protest denouncing Robinson’s appointment as Bishop of New Hampshire.

==============================

Parties and protests greet Ellen’s coming out (970416)

April 30 is L-Day across North America, and Ottawa is no exception

Depending on your politics, U.S. sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres is a role model, an abomination, the butt of jokes or a great excuse to party.

At Franky’s on Frank, a gay bar in downtown Ottawa, champagne cocktails will be poured, starting at 6 p.m., April 30. At 8 p.m., the music will be turned down and all eyes will be glued to a giant television screen to watch Ms. DeGeneres do her stuff.

Across North America, April 30 is L-Day, the day Ms. DeGeneres, in the role of Ellen Morgan on the ABC comedy Ellen, acknowledges what every TV-watching gay person figured out years ago: Ellen is a lesbian.

There will be parties and protests across the continent.

In an Outaouais home north of Hull, a graphic artist, who is not about to declare her homosexuality on television, is throwing a party for 30 to 40 of her closest lesbian friends on April 30.

“Nan,” as she asks to be identified, is not marking any rite of passage for lesbians, nor celebrating the new acceptance of lesbians on mainstream TV.

Instead, she is protesting the fact that some big companies like Chrysler pulled their commercials from Ellen to avoid being associated with North America’s newest and most famous lesbian.

Nan and her guests plan to send a joint letter of complaint to Chrysler, adding: “Some of us even drive Chryslers.”

Ms. DeGeneres’s coming out has pushed North America into one of the more controversial homosexual sagas since a gang of drag queens fought back against New York City police in 1969 in the Stonewall Riot and launched the gay liberation movement.

Some homosexual rights lobby groups, like the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, have entered the fray with everything from angry political statements to free “Ellen Coming Out Day” party kits.

Human Rights Campaign has so far received more than 2,000 requests for its special party kits (available by calling 202-628-4160). They include posters, party invitations, party planning tips, an Ellen trivia game and a video with a gay-positive message.

In Toronto, lesbian comic Maggie Cassella is practising her routines for a gay and lesbian comedy festival in that city next week. Ellen, it seems, will come in for both praise and damnation from Cassella and other comedians.

Ms. Cassella wants to treat the Ellen story with compassion in her stand-up routines. But she’s also skeptical.

“Why did it take her 19 years to come out of the closet?” she asks. “Couldn’t she find a therapist?”

Ms. Cassella also plans to poke fun at some of the gay activists playing politics with the Ellen controversy. The J.C. Penney department store chain, like Chrysler, has pulled commercials from Ellen. Some gay groups are asking people to cut up their Penney credit cards and to boycott the chain known for its conservative, middle American fashions.

“Really,” wonders Ms. Cassella, “what gay person would have a J.C. Penney card?”

Many members of the gay and lesbian community are uncertain just how to react to the Ellen phenomenon, wondering if the coming out has more to do with boosting the ratings of a mediocre TV show (in the ratings sweeps week no less), or with the liberation of Ms. DeGeneres or of prime-time TV.

And the huge fuss created by large advertisers boycotting the show demonstrates that society may not have advanced or become as liberated as many homosexuals hope.

Ms. DeGeneres has already made the cover of Time magazine by stepping out of the closet. She will step out again for TV viewers in an interview April 25 on 20/20.

Ms. DeGeneres’s coming out ordinarily would probably have been but a footnote in the annals of the entertainment industry and of gay pride. Look at Canadian singer k.d. lang. People made more of a fuss about her vegetarianism than her sex life. And no one batted an eye when Canadian actor Scott Thompson, of Kids in the Hall fame, came screaming out of the closet with a feather boa in one hand and a martini glass in the other.

This announcement has become a mega-event not because Ellen DeGeneres is exposing her sexual orientation. It’s because Ellen Morgan, the TV character, is also coming out.

Jerry Falwell of the U.S. Moral Majority has branded Ms. DeGeneres “Ellen DeGenerate” for exposing prime-time audiences to lesbianism.

Mr. Falwell and others likely wouldn’t have bothered commenting if only Ellen DeGeneres had talked about herself. That is because Ms. DeGeneres can be dismissed as just another eccentric Hollywood actor with no connection to the real world. But Ellen Morgan is the wholesome girl next door, the seemingly normal woman who enters peoples’ living rooms each week.

Now, Ellen Morgan has become a lesbian. Her life will never be the same. The show will never be the same. And, it seems, Mr. Falwell and his allies fear North America’s living rooms will never be the same.

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Vatican: homosexuals can achieve holiness by abstaining (970423)

VATICAN CITY (Reuter) --Homosexuals can achieve holiness in the Roman Catholic Church but only if they follow the Church’s rules of abstaining from sexual activity, the Vatican newspaper said Wednesday.

In an article concluding a 14-part series of reflections on homosexuality and Christianity, the semi-official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano also said some priests needed to overcome their “fears and repulsion” of homosexuals.

“God loves all of us as we are, with our limits, our peculiarities, which can become paths to holiness,” said the article, written by Jean-Louris Brugues, a member of the International Theological Commission.

The article, however, repeated the Church position that homosexuality or homosexual tendencies were not wrong or sinful but that homosexual acts were. It referred to homosexual acts as “genital practices.”

It also restated themes from a major 1986 Vatican document that deplored violence against homosexuals. It said Catholics, including priests, should not show “contempt” for homosexuals but treat them with the same charity as they would other Christians.

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American Airlines ‘Pro-Gay’, Say Conservative Christians (970428)

NEW YORK --In the first salvo of a campaign that may eventually target numerous U.S. corporations, a coalition of conservative Christian groups has accused American Airlines of promoting homosexuality and warned that the airline faces economic sanctions from conservative Christians.

In an open letter to American, the coalition --which comprises some of the most influential bodies in the conservative Christian movement --accuses the airline of offering gays and lesbians “special privileges,” both in the workplace and in the marketplace. The airline denies the allegation.

At issue are company policies forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation, targeting the homosexual market, allowing the formation of gay and lesbian employee groups, and sponsoring gay organizations and events.

The airline argues that what the coalition calls “special privileges” is really a policy of equal protection in the workplace and evenhandedness in the marketplace.

“We take real umbrage at this ‘special privileges’ claim,” American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Rader said. “No one here is getting special rights.”

The coalition’s letter contends that homosexuality “is immoral, unhealthy and destructive to individuals, families and societies.” Although it falls short of explicitly calling for a boycott of the airline, the letter warns that “millions of American’s customers who are pro-family ... vote with their pocketbooks.”

Rader responds that American is engaged in a balancing act: While the company allows a homosexual employee group, it also allows, among others, a Christian employee group; while the company forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it also forbids discrimination on the basis of race and religion; while the company provides special discounts to the homosexual community, it makes similar offers to other identifiable communities, among them Christians; and while the company sponsors homosexual groups and events, it makes comparable provisions for other organizations and their programs.

“It’s a policy of neutrality, not an endorsement of homosexuality,” Rader said.

John Aman, a spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries whose president, D. James Kennedy, is one of the letter’s signatories, disagreed.

“What they call ‘neutrality’ is a moral indifference to a behavior that until 30 years ago was illegal in every state in the union,” he said. “Would they adopt this approach to, for example, a group of white racists? They’re allowing their company logo to appear on material promoting homosexual events --if that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know how else to characterize it.”

The coalition is reported to have tentative plans to pursue similar strategies against other corporations with policies comparable to American, among them American Express and IBM. Earlier this year, Coral Ridge Ministries contacted the Disney Corporation to demand that it stop providing benefits to the domestic partners of homosexual employees. It also called on the company to produce more “family-friendly entertainment.”

Signatories to the original letter include Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., Beverly La Haye of the Concerned Women for America in Washington, D.C., and Donald Wildmon of American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. Subsequent editions were signed by, among others, James Dobson of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, CO.

With the exception of Aman, none of the groups responded to calls from FOX News.

In a related press release, the coalition claims American has sponsored “homosexual ‘circuit’ parties at which illicit drug-use and promiscuous sex occur,” accusations based on a Family Research Council representative’s alleged eyewitness account of an April 13, 1996 event in the nation’s capital.

Rader responded angrily that the event in question was a benefit for the Whitman Walker Clinic, which provides food to people with AIDS: “I can tell you without equivocation that none of our people at the fund raiser --gay or straight --saw any of the activities alleged.”

Undaunted, the coalition is threatening to ratchet up its attack on American with a full-page ad in USA Today, the content of which, Aman said, would not differ significantly from the letter. The ad has not yet run, he said, because the coalition and the newspaper have been unable to “reach agreement” --on what, Aman would not say.

USA Today’s director of media relations, Steve Anderson, was similarly reticent: “I’m not going to get into a pissing match with them through you,” he said. “We don’t talk about any ads that may or may not appear in the paper. It may be that we asked them to change some things or reword some things because we’re a family newspaper, but I don’t know, I can’t speak directly to it.”

The letter repeats the much-disputed notion that unlike, say, race or gender, homosexuality is a reversible behavioral choice. It accuses the airline of reinforcing rather than “healing” this choice, and that while people are entitled to protection from discrimination based on innate characteristics, they are not entitled to similar protection for their choices.

“You need to support positive policies that promote healthy families,” the letter states, “not policies that promote even more sexual ambiguity and less commitment to traditional family life.”

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Clinton backs measure outlawing job bias against homosexuals (970424)

WASHINGTON (AP) --President Clinton renewed his support Thursday for a bill that would outlaw employment discrimination against homosexuals, saying such bias must be eliminated “in our country and in our hearts.”

During a closed half-hour White House meeting with the bill’s sponsors, gay and civil rights advocates, Clinton said he intends to lobby hard for passage of the bill, which would bar firing or discriminating against an employee on the basis of sexual orientation.

“Individuals should not be denied a job on the basis of something that has no relationship to their ability to perform their work,” Clinton said in a statement. “This is wrong.”

Conservative groups say they will fight the legislation, arguing that it unfairly forces employers to have inappropriate, on-the-job discussions about sexuality and gives homosexuals an advantage in hiring.

“What this would do is to force sexual politics into every workplace in America,” said Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, a private family issues think tank. “It’s just a very dangerous step to take, and a very unnecessary one.”

The legislation bars employers from using a worker’s sexual orientation as a factor in decisions on hiring or firing, promotion or compensation. The Senate rejected the bill in September on a 50-49 vote. The House never voted on it, and its sponsors plan to reintroduce it soon.

The bill exempts small businesses, the military, religious organizations and schools or educational institutions run by religious groups. Clinton said the exemptions improve the bill’s chances of passage, because it “respects the deeply held religious beliefs of many Americans.”

“I support it and I urge all Americans to do so,” Clinton said. “It is about our ongoing fight against bigotry and intolerance, in our country and in our hearts.”

Currently, gay workers in 41 states could be fired or denied jobs or a promotion because of their sexuality, and most cannot seek relief in state or federal courts. Nine states have laws or other rules that extend to homosexuals job protections similar to those offered on the basis of age, race, religion or gender.

Three of the bill’s sponsors, Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said they are optimistic that Clinton, whose lobbying brought the bill close to Senate passage in the last Congress, would be able to help push it through this year.

“I am confident this bill will become law,” said Frank, who is gay. However, he added, “I wouldn’t want to bet the farm that it happens this year.”

A June 1996 poll by The Associated Press indicated that 85 percent of Americans favor equal rights for homosexuals in job opportunities, while 10 percent are oppose. The poll involved 1,019 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A poll released Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political organization, suggested that 68 percent of voters support the jobs legislation. The survey of 1,000 adults, conducted April 8-10, had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

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Just A Few Reasons To Boycott Disney (970600)

After much hype Disney owned ABC Television has Ellen Morgan, lead character of the TV show Ellen, “come out” as a homosexual. This marks the first time that the lead character of a television show is openly gay or lesbian. Shortly after the annoucement, Ellen DeGeneres the actress who plays Ellen Morgan, reveals to Time magazine and on ABC’s Primetime Live that she too is a lesbian.

Disney subsidiary Hollywood Records is distributing records by the group Danzig whose music is “laced with Satanic themes.” Los Angeles Times, 10/18/96

Company executives, including Chairman Michael Eisner, work with Hollywood Supports, a homosexual advocacy group whose focus is to promote the gay agenda in the workplace. Hollywood Supports online

Disney has extended company health benefits to live-in partners of homosexual employees. (The policy does not cover unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.) The Orlando Sentinel, 10/7/95; USA Today, 10/19/95; Daily Variety, 10/9/95

Eisner and The Walt Disney Company are both donors to People For the American Way (PAW), a group whose stated goal is to “monitor and counter the divisive agenda of the Religious Right.” PAW Annual Report

In June, 1996, the company hosted the 6th annual “Gay and Lesbian Day at Walt Disney World.” In a cartoon, homosexual organizers portrayed Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as homosexual lovers; and Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck as lesbians. Disney has not publicly objected. An Orlando Weekly writer says, “Take away the gay workers and Disney World becomes the planet’s largest self-service theme park.”

Disney helped underwrite the 1993 Hollywood benefit for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The Press Enterprise, 12/28/93

Disney advertised in Out, a homosexual magazine. Out, 2/94

Tom Shumacher, Disney VP of feature animation, is an open homosexual who takes his “husband” to executive retreats. In an interview with the homosexual publication The Advocate, Shumacher said: “There are a lot of gay people (at Disney) at every level. It is a very supportive environment.” Human Events, 8/12/94; The Advocate 6/25/94

Disney hired avowed lesbian Lauren Lloyd to develop female and lesbian movies. Out, 11/94

The May, 1995, issue of Buzz magazine reported that a homosexual rights activist said that she was once told by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner that “as many as 40% of the company’s 63,000 employees might be gay.” The cover story, entitled “Disney Comes Out of the Closet,” also reported that Disney has the “largest lesbian and gay employees organization in the entertainment industry” and that the perception of Disney as having many homosexual employees is “well founded.” In addition to Schumacher, Buzz names prominent openly homosexual Disney executives: production vice president Lauren Lloyd of Disney’s Hollywood Pictures; studio producer Laurence Mark; supervising animator Andreas Deja, the man responsible for the character of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast; senior vice president at Disney’s interactive division Steven Fields; Rick Leed, who heads the production company that produces the television sitcom Home Improvement. Disney training coordinator Jimi Ziehr said that at Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, “gays outnumber the straights at Futureland operations, and there’s nothing in the closet at Guest Relations.” Buzz, 5/95

Hyperion Press, a Disney-owned subsidiary, published Lettin’ It All Hang Out, the autobiography of RuPaul, a well-known “drag queen” (transvestite) entertainer.

Hyperion Press published Growing Up Gay. Written by three homosexual comedians, the book is aimed at “gay youngsters who were bred by heterosexuals.”

Hyperion is planning to publish Daniel Harris’ book about “gay culture.” Harper’s magazine, 12/95

Actors Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane said that the characters they played (Timon, the meerkat, and Pumbaa, the wart hog) in The Lion King are “the first homosexual Disney characters ever to come to the screen.” NY Times, 6/12/94

Disney signed Martin Scorsese, the director of The Last Temptation of Christ, Casino, Taxi Driver and many other hard-edged films to a 4-year-contract. Daily Variety, 1/30/96

Disney hired Victor Salva, a convicted child molester, to direct its movie Powder. When Salva’s victim, Nathan Winters (now 20), publicized the hiring, some of the police officers who investigated the 1987 molestation were incredulous that Salva was working again as a movie director. “It just blows me away,” said Officer Gary Primavera. “He has serious signs of being a pedophile.” Responding to Winter’s demand that Disney fire Salva, Disney’s John Dreyer said, “What’s the point other than you want to make headlines?” Washington Times, 10/25/95

Disney hired Kevin Smith to produce two movies: Dogma, which asserted that Christian beliefs are little more than mythology, and Chasing Amy about a man’s pursuit of a lesbian. Daily Variety, 11/3/95

Mark Gill, the president of Disney-owned Miramax admitted that his company thrives on racy, often violent promotion for its movies. Daily Variety 9/13/95

In the 1994 Disney movie The Santa Clause, the number of an actual phone sex line appears in a scene. The movie is aimed at children and families. Associated Press, 5/1/96

Priest (Miramax) is a pro-homosexual movie which depicts five Catholic priests as dysfunctionals and blames their problems on Church teachings. One priest is a homosexual; a second an adulterer; a third an alcoholic; a fourth demented; and the fifth just plain mean and vicious. The film is blatantly anti-Christian. The Advocate, 4/4/95, 4/18/95; Family Issues Alert, 3/30/95

Pulp Fiction (Miramax) is a seedy, hyper-violent movie that was first rated NC-17 (formerly “X”). Further editing gave it an R rating. Entertainment Weekly, 6/10/94; Daily Variety, 6/15/94

Color of Night (Hollywood Pictures) featured full frontal nudity. Entertainment Weekly, 6/10/94; Daily Variety, 6/15/94

The Advocate (Miramax) is filled with nudity. The movie was rated NC-17 (formerly “X”), but on appeal (and after cutting out a 12-second sex scene) it was given an R. Daily Variety, 8/17/94

Clerks (Miramax), a black and white film about New Jersey convenience store clerks, was originally rated NC-17 because graphic and sexually explicit language is woven throughout the film. On appeal, it was given an R rating. Daily Variety, 10/12/94

Kids (Miramax) was described by Daily Variety magazine as “one of the most controversial American movies ever made.” According to Newsweek, “the film follows a number of barely pubescent looking boys and girls around New York City as they smoke pot, bait gays, beat a black man and engage in graphic sex.” Under pressure Miramax formed an independent company to market and distribute the pornographic movie. Daily Variety, 1/27/95; Newsweek, 2/20/95; Wall Street Journal, 3/30/95; AP, 6/29/95

Chicks in White Satin (Hollywood Pictures) is a film about a lesbian couple who decide on a semitraditional “commitment celebration.” Glamour, 8/9/94

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Disney execs in collusion with homosexual rights activists (American Family Association Journal, 970600)

Homosexuality. Violence. Anti-Christian themes. Incest. Graphic sex. Hard drug use. Profanity and obscenity. All these now share a strange legacy with Pinnochio, Snow White, Peter Pan and the Little Mermaid as hallmarks of the Walt Disney Company. This radical departure from traditional Disney values is nowhere more evident than in the company’s headlong rush to promote homosexuality as normal and to profit enormously from that promotion.

Disney and the homosexual agenda

When Disney extended company benefits to the same-sex partners of its homosexual employees, it was following a blueprint developed by Hollywood Supports, a powerful workplace advocacy group that wants to influence cultural attitudes concerning homosexuality. Hollywood Supports was founded in 1991 by two Hollywood moguls: Barry Diller, chairman of the Home Shopping Network, and Sid Sheinberg of MCA/Universal. The group managed to influence every major U.S. film studio to offer domestic partner benefits to its employees. The group’s written benefit policy has served as a model adopted by other businesses, municipalities and universities. By offering same-sex benefits, companies take the position that homosexual unions are morally equivalent to traditional marriage. The Hollywood Supports/Disney link is clear. Michael Eisner, current Disney chairman, and Joe Roth, chairman of Walt Disney Motion Pictures, serve on the Hollywood Supports Board of Trustees. Former Disney President Michael Ovitz is also a board member. Hollywood Supports works behind the scenes to shape homosexual-friendly workplace policies. That covert strategy was used to strike a deal with Eisner on the benefits issue. Diller said: “I remember discussing domestic partnership with Disney at a meeting where Michael Eisner said, ‘We can’t be out in front of an issue like this, but when it’s over 50% [referring to the percentage of companies that offer such policies], that would be the right frame for the Walt Disney Co. because of the connotation that Disney is in the majority.’ I said that was fair and reasonable. And when we passed that mark, there was his company saying yes.” Entertainment billionaire David Geffen confirms the Disney chairman’s sympathy for the gay rights movement, describing Eisner as “very homo-friendly….”

Mickey’s sympathetic ears

Perhaps another reason gay activists have found the Magic Kingdom eager to embrace their cause is the significant number of homosexuals in Disney management. One ex-Disney executive admitted in 1995 that five top creative executives, not to mention a host of underlings, are open homosexuals. These include Donald Deline, president of production, Tom Schumacher, vice president of feature animation, and then vice-president of production Lauren Lloyd. It also appears that a large number of Disney employees throughout the company are homosexual. Elizabeth Birch, homosexual activist and executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, told the Aspen Human Rights Summit II in Colorado that she “said to Michael Eisner, ‘30% of your employees are gay,’ and he said, ‘You’re wrong, Elizabeth. It’s 40%.’” John Dreyer of Disney’s Corporate Communications office has officially denied the veracity of Birch’s quote, but Robert L. Williams, president of Disney’s homosexual employee group, agreed with the estimate.

Disney uses ABC to promote agenda

In the last year the homosexual revolution at Disney has become more public. ABC – purchased by Disney in 1996 – leads the television networks in the number of prime-time gay characters. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a homosexual media watchdog group, stated in March, 1997, that of the 28 homosexual, bisexual and transgender regular characters on prime-time television – 13 were on ABC. NBC came in a distant second place with six. Likely the growing number of homosexuals on ABC programming is no coincidence. ABC insiders told the Wall Street Journal that since the buy-out, Disney’s handling of ABC is nothing less than “micromanagement” of the network. Eisner has assured company shareholders that Disney would “make substantial contributions to the success” of ABC. And according to Daily Variety, Eisner’s contributions would include his personal development of a successful prime-time line-up for ABC. Eisner’s plan for the network apparently includes a growing homosexual presence, a point made clear when he attempted to pressure the producer of a top prime-time show to add a gay couple as regulars. The producer and series star refused.

However, Eisner found a cohort in Ellen DeGeneres, star of the popular sitcom Ellen. Early in the 1996 fall TV season DeGeneres began to tease the audience that her character on the show might declare herself a lesbian, thus becoming the first TV series to have a homosexual lead character. The storyline, including the final script in which Ellen openly declares her homosexuality, was approved by Eisner.

Ellen producers admitted they wanted the show to encourage young people who were confused about their sexual orientation to have the courage to come out just as Ellen did. Executive Producer Dava Savel said, “If this episode helps some child in the Midwest with their sexual identification, we’ve done our job.”

Another part of Savel’s “job” was reaching middle America with the message that homosexuality is OK. For that task she chose Oprah Winfrey to play Ellen’s therapist. “I suggested Oprah.…” Savel said. “She’s so well liked by the American people, it was perfect to have someone like her who connects with middle America, where if Oprah said it was OK, then it was OK.”

The choice of using comedy to introduce prime-time’s first homosexual lead also suggests a calculated move on Disney’s part. Actor Michael Boatman, who plays homosexual activist Carter Heywood on Spin City, another Disney/ABC sitcom that stars Michael J. Fox, said comedies are perfect vehicles for controversial subjects like homosexuality. Boatman told TV Guide, “The best way to slide these controversial issues under America’s doorstep, into their living rooms, is to have them start laughing first. Suddenly they find themselves, if not accepting new ideas, certainly more willing to discuss them.”

Dollars and depravity

In normalizing the homosexual lifestyle, Disney has discovered a successful mix of mission and money. Homosexuals form a wealthy and identity-conscious consumer group – and Disney knows it. Offering movies, books and TV shows with gay themes guarantees the company a loyal homosexual following. For example, one study showed that gays and lesbians are avid film fans –more than three times as likely as the general population to see two movies a month.

Disney also exploits their gay connection by welcoming “Gay and Lesbian Day at the Magical Kingdom (that Walt Built).” Organizers of the annual celebration at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, estimate that the economic impact to the city is $20 million, much of that going into Disney’s bank account.

Hyperion Press is another Disney subsidiary which pushes homosexuality. It has published the autobiography of well-known transvestite entertainer RuPaul, as well as the book Growing Up Gay, aimed at the so-called homosexual children of heterosexual parents.

The company is also in the process of producing a series targeting the homosexual “jet-set.” According to the homosexual magazine New York Native, gays generally travel more and take more vacations than any other demographic group, to the tune of $17 billion a year. And Hyperion aims to make gay travel even easier, creating a series entitled Out & About Gay Travel Guides.

The authors of the guides, David Alport and Billy Kolber-Stuart, already produce an Out & About newsletter, which alerts readers to the “sexual temperature” of certain gay destinations. According to USA Today, for example, the description of one Palm Springs gay resort reads: “Casual, clean and small, with as frisky a daytime atmosphere as one could find in a legitimate establishment…nudity is encouraged and practiced by the management. Sexual temperature: very high.” With the winds of change blowing across America’s moral landscape, Disney’s marketing strategy has little downside, because middle America– even many Christians – appear to be sleeping while the homosexual revolution overthrows Judeo-Christian culture.

So, Disney enjoys the best of both marketing worlds. On one hand, the company reaps a bonanza from homosexuals. At the same time, Disney keeps American families feeding at their trough with traditional entertainment products, such as animated films and theme parks.

If middle America continues to support Disney’s good products, the company will continue to use that money to subsidize the normalization of homosexuality. While a day at Disney World may not seem like a visit to Sodom and Gomorrah, it might just take us there.

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Families shocked by homosexual celebration at Magic Kingdom (970600)

Includes eyewitness accounts from Disney World event

The first weekend in June is the unofficial beginning of summer vacation when kids bolt out of their school rooms, pile into the family minivan and head off for the annual respite from the day-to-day grind.

This year many pointed their compasses toward Disney World in Orlando, Florida, unaware of an impending cultural collision with a two-faced “family entertainment” company that welcomed hordes of homosexuals to celebrate their sexual perversions at “The Sixth Annual Gay and Lesbian Day at the Magical Kingdom that Walt Built.”

The 1996 “Gay Day at Disney” celebration provided few surprises for those who have watched the infamous gathering over the years. But for the unsuspecting families who happened into the lair of depravity, shock would be an understatement, according to Rusty Pugh, an AFA reporter who witnessed this year’s event. Pugh said he saw several families crestfallen as they entered the Magic Kingdom and found themselves surrounded by male and female homosexuals displaying their affections and stereotypical “gay” attitudes. “Families [were] forced to be subjected to this. They [didn’t] have any choice,” said Pugh in regard to the lack of prior warning families received.

Although Disney does not officially sponsor the celebration, the company seems to accommodate and even welcome it. An internal correspondence from Clyde Min at Disney says: “Each Resort has been asked to supply one Management Team Member to assist with the Gay Pride Day in the Magic Kingdom on June 1, 1996. I am looking for any volunteers who may be interested in helping with this event.” Two years ago Disney employees who claimed to be volunteers served as greeters wearing “Gay Day at Disney” T-shirts and handing out a pamphlet promoting the event and asking homosexual patrons to write a letter to Disney to encourage them to allow the event to continue. A report in a New York homosexual newspaper concerning the 1994 celebration said, “Even Disney has been exceptionally helpful this year.”

Since its beginning six years ago, the homosexual celebration has been organized by Doug Swallow, a homosexual activist in Orlando. In earlier years a group of homosexuals who call themselves “Digital Queers” was involved.

Another revealing first hand account of this year’s celebration came from “Disney Diary,” a column in the Orlando Weekly newspaper. In it writer Jeff Truesdell recounts the day and the invasion of red shirts --the traditional color of choice for the homosexuals during their day at Disney. The column implies that many Disney World workers are homosexual. Truesdell writes: “Take away the gay workers...and Disney World becomes the planet’s largest self-service theme park.” The newspaper also describes an occasion when a parking attendant, upon seeing the crimson-attired passengers in one vehicle, waved them through without collecting the $5 parking fee. Even the afternoon Disney parade down the theme park’s Main Street --a favorite family event --portrayed strong homosexual overtones, according to Truesdell. The performers in the parade, paid by the company that claims to have no connection to the homosexual celebration, were decked out in --you guessed it --red costumes.

Disney’s claim not to sanction the event could more easily be believed if the company were consistent in applying policies concerning groups that come en masse to their theme parks. Disney claims it can’t deny admission to someone only because he belongs to a group which might upset other patrons.

However, dozens of gang members visiting Disneyland in California were evicted recently after they entered the park wearing gang colors. Kenneth Green, Director of Corporate Communications, said the company was concerned the group might intimidate or invoke fear in the hearts of mainstream patrons.

Even families who knew about the homosexual event before making the trip to Orlando were met with problems. David Caton of AFA of Florida reports instances where families who tried to change their reservations were told they would not be given a refund on their deposits.

BOYCOTT CARDS AVAILABLE

AFA is making it easier for churches and individuals to participate in the Disney boycott by supplying a special two-part boycott card. The cards are available in lots of 100 for only $1.50.

One part of the tear-off card is to be mailed to Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. It contains a simple message expressing concern over the direction Disney is heading. The other part of the card provides a quick reference list of key businesses and holdings of the Walt Disney Company.

To place your order, send $1.50 per 100 cards to Disney Boycott Cards, American Family Association, P.O. Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803.

Insiders say Hunchback is “testing the limits”

A priority in Disney’s current philosophy of movie-making seems to be “pushing the envelope.” Roughly translated, that means including as much sexual content as possible and defending it with high sounding arguments about artistic integrity, but still having the public buy it in huge numbers.

Case in point --the new animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Composer Alan Menken is part of the team that scored the movie and he describes one song in the movie, Hellfire, like this, “With Hellfire, we weren’t just expanding the envelope, we were taking it into another room. It really tests the limits of what we can get away with. In one song, we have Frollo sing the church liturgy, but also sing of twisted sexual fantasies: Hellfire, Hellfire, there’s a fire in my skin / This burning desire is turning me to sin.

The drifting of Disney from its family friendly heritage does not come without the knowledge of the people in charge. In fact, it seems to be encouraged from the pinnacle of Disney’s corporate ladder, Chairman Michael Eisner. Actor Tony Jay, who supplies the voice for the character Frollo talks about the way his character was scripted. “It’s quite graphic. I told Michael Eisner, I’m surprised how far they’re going with Frollo.’ He said to me, We can’t keep making Dumbo forever.’” Composer Menken also remembers a conversation with Eisner: “He said even if it goes to PG, he would not compromise the material.”

Esmeralda, the female lead in Hunchback, is described by USA Today as a voluptuous, raven-tressed Gypsy dancer who draws a reaction of “...pure unadulterated lust” from Frollo. Not surprising, considering Demi Moore (Striptease) is providing the voice for Esmeralda.

Perhaps one of the most telling indictments of the film comes from another of the actors involved in the project. Jason Alexander, who provides the sounds for a gargoyle character, has this to say about the film: “Disney would have us to believe this movie’s like the Ringling Brothers, for children of all ages. But I won’t be taking my four-year-old.”

It’s wholesome family entertainment, as Disney sees it. USA Today, 6/14/96, Entertainment Weeks, 6/21/96

Disney takes high profile on ABC

Disney’s control of the ABC Television network is an ominous prospect that bears watching. Will Disney use ABC to push its agenda like it uses Miramax and Hyperion Press (published two pro-homosexual books)? One thing is for certain, Disney will have a say in the content that airs on ABC.

Many shows on the network have managed to work references to vacationing at Disney world into the script. ABC even went as far as building an entire evening’s programming around the Disney vacation theme.

In June, ABC created a show called Disney’s Most Unlikely Heroes, which analyzed several of Disney’s characters and served as a promotional tool for the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie. It’s obvious Disney intends to cross promote between its various properties, and with control of ABC, ESPN, and a hand in Lifetime and A&E, Disney has unequaled access to deliver whatever message it wants to.

First quarter loss of $25 million may mean changes at Disney

Is Disney in trouble? Not yet, but the red ink is starting to trickle at the company. Struck by a $25 million loss in the first quarter of 1996, Disney is starting to downsize in its live action film division following financial reports that saw movie profits drop 35% in 1995.

Joe Roth, chairman of Disney Studios, says the company will cut its output of live action films in half over the next year and may drop releases further in subsequent years. Disney is also expected to shut the door on its Hollywood Pictures division and make some changes at the controversial Miramax Film unit.

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Pro-Gay Actions at Disney (970623)

Southern Baptists say they won’t be visiting Disney theme parks this summer if the company doesn’t change some of its policies that they say promote homosexuality.

In an overwhelming show of hands at the church’s national convention in New Orleans, the Baptists also agreed to swear off Walt Disney Co. movies and products.

Here are some of the reasons:

In June, 1996, the company hosted the 6th annual “Gay and Lesbian Day at Walt Disney World.” In a cartoon, homosexual organizers portrayed Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as homosexual lovers; and Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck as lesbians. Disney has not publicly objected. An Orlando Weekly writer says, “Take away the gay workers and Disney World becomes the planet’s largest self-service theme park.”

Disney has extended company health benefits to live-in partners of homosexual employees. (The policy does not cover unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.)

After much hype Disney owned ABC Television has Ellen Morgan, lead character of the TV show Ellen, “come out” as a homosexual. This marks the first time that the lead character of a television show is openly gay or lesbian. Shortly after the annoucement, Ellen DeGeneres the actress who plays Ellen Morgan, reveals to Time magazine and on ABC’s Primetime Live that she too is a lesbian. And Eisner was heavily involved in the decision of Disney/ABC to allow sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres to promote lesbianism on her show.

The May, 1995, issue of Buzz magazine reported that a homosexual rights activist said that she was once told by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner that “as many as 40% of the company’s 63,000 employees might be gay.” The cover story, entitled “Disney Comes Out of the Closet,” also reported that Disney has the “largest lesbian and gay employees organization in the entertainment industry” and that the perception of Disney as having many homosexual employees is “well founded.”

Disney Company executives, including Chairman Michael Eisner who sits on their board of trustees, work for Hollywood Supports, a homosexual advocacy group whose focus is to promote the gay agenda in the workplace.

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Conservative Group Pressures Texas to Dump Disney Stock (970703)

AUSTIN, Texas — A conservative group is pressing Texas officials to dump $27 million in Walt Disney Co. stock held by a school trust fund because of “violent, obscene music” produced by a Disney subsidiary.

Citing a controversial new Texas law banning investments by state agencies in companies producing obscene or violent materials, the American Family Association of Texas Wednesday called on the state Board of Education to dump its Disney holdings.

“They must conform with state law and dump Disney,” said Wyatt Roberts, executive director of the group, which two years ago called for a boycott of Disney.

Disney last week pulled rap group Insane Clown Posse’s album “Great Malenko” from distribution because of “inappropriate” lyrics, and in a statement said it is “committed to maintaining standards compatible with Texas law in lyrics for records released by our labels ...

“In fact, we think it is odd that the AFA is taking this direction in light of our recent action,” Disney said.

Disney’s Los Angeles-based Hollywood Records produces gangsta rap and heavy metal records by artists including Humble Gods and Ny Loose. Hollywood Records also produces Danzig, a heavy metal rocker whose songs, according to Roberts, are laced with satanism and violence.

“Absent the legislation, we would still call the state on it, but we have the law on our side,” Roberts said. “Disney is the corporate equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yes, they do some good things, but they also do some bad.”

The law, passed in April, prohibits state agencies from investing in companies producing music advocating violence, obscenity or gang activity. Initially voted down, the proposal snuck through the legislature as a rider on a state budget bill and is expected to be challenged in court.

The call for divestiture of the Disney stock comes a month after the Southern Baptist convention meeting in Dallas voted to boycott the entertainment giant, accusing it of “promoting immoral ideologies such as homosexuality, infidelity and adultery.”

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Hawaii to Extend Benefits to Gay Couples (970710)

HONOLULU (AP) Starting Wednesday, many of the benefits available to married people in Hawaii will also be offered to gay couples, siblings and roommates, under a first-in-the-nation law that was enacted to head off homosexual marriages.

Gov. Ben Cayetano allowed the bill to take effect at midnight without his signature.

The law would give any two adults who can’t legally marry the right to share medical insurance and state pensions. They would also get inheritance rights, the right to joint property ownership and the right to sue for wrongful death.

“This is an unprecedented move. It’s the broadest recognition of untraditional marriage ever. But this is not exactly what the gay and lesbian community asked for,” said civil rights attorney Dan Foley, who represents three homosexual couples who are suing the state for the right to marry.

That lawsuit led to a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in 1993 that it is unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In response to the ruling, the Legislature passed the same-sex benefits bill along with a proposal that would negate the Supreme Court ruling by amending the state constitution to ban gay marriages.

Under the same-sex benefits law, couples don’t even have to know each other, live together, or be state residents to apply. They only have to be 18 and legally barred from marrying each other.

That makes a vast number of people eligible for the benefits, and that’s creating confusion.

“The issues are coming fast and furious on this one,” said Patrick Johnston, spokesman for the state Health Department, which has begun processing applications. “The latest wrinkle is how it affects some federal laws.”

The state expects thousands of couples to apply over the next few months.

Businesses are panicking over how much money they will have to pay for extra medical insurance costs.

The first 25 couples who have applied will receive their benefits certificates this week. A large majority of the couples so far are same-sex.

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Canada is safe haven for sexual refugees (Ottawa Citizen, 970714)

Canada is a world leader in offering asylum to persecuted gays

When his family found out he was gay, they tied him to a hitching post and crushed a lit cigarette into his hand. His father also burned his son’s scalp in an attempt to cauterize the evil.

A few years later, the man’s boss found out about his sexual preference, and fired him. Then police raided the man’s home, found a few gay magazines, and threw him in jail. He was beaten and tortured.

Released from jail after two weeks, the man staggered on to a Moroccan beach, shaking and chain smoking, and “cried his eyes out.”

Moroccan beaches are known as a mecca for gay tourists. But for residents of the Muslim country, homosexuality is a family shame and potentially life-threatening.

The man finally fled to Canada after his family tried to force him into an arranged marriage. Four months ago, the 31-year-old Moroccan joined a small but growing number of gays and lesbians who have been granted asylum. Canada is a world leader in offering haven to sexual minorities who are in danger in their home countries.

The first reported case in Canada was in 1992, when a gay man from Argentina who had been beaten and raped by police was given refugee status. Since then, Canada probably has accepted more gay refugees than any other country.

It’s difficult to compare, because Canada, the U.S and many European countries don’t track the numbers. But at least 160 people have been granted refugee status in Canada based on their sexual orientation, interviews with immigration lawyers across the country indicate.

At least 60 homosexuals have won asylum in the U.S., according to the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Human-rights and refugee groups are aware of only a handful of gays winning asylum in other countries, primarily western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

“We’re pretty well in the forefront,” said Mike Bell, an immigration lawyer who splits his time between Ottawa and St. John’s, Nfld. He’s represented 40 gay men, all of whom won refugee status.

The stories they bring before Canada’s Refugee Board are a catalogue of abuse suffered by sexual minorities around the world. They’ve been jailed, beaten, tortured, raped, fired from their jobs, and thrown into mental institutions to be “cured.”

The Moroccan man, whose case is documented in a Canadian legal data base, now he lives in Vancouver. His emotional health is fragile, and he suffers from depression. He declined a request for an interview.

It’s been easier to argue gay claims in Canada since the Supreme Court in 1993 clarified that sexual orientation could be grounds for refugee status. But it’s only recently that many homosexuals realized they could seek asylum. “The word is getting out that there is a safe haven here,” said Mr. Bell.

Juan and his partner, for instance, had visited Canada from their home in Mexico several times, but it wasn’t until 1994 that a friend told them about the possibility of gaining refugee status.

Juan, 26, asked that his real name not be used because it might cause problems for his family back home.

It’s impossible to live as an openly gay man in Mexico, Juan said in a telephone interview from his home in Vancouver. There is widespread violence and discrimination against homosexuals in Mexico, much of it by the police, according to human rights groups.

“You have to watch what you say, how you talk, all the time,” said Juan. But hiding his sexuality became more difficult after he met his partner, “on the 19th of May, 1990, that’s our anniversary,” he said. When the two men moved in together, neighbours suspected. “Everyone was watching. Did we bring girls or not bring girls to the house? It was a lot of pressure. We were scared all the time.”

Anti-gay slurs were painted on their door, and once the pair had to bribe police to avoid trouble when officers found a gay magazine in the trunk of their car.

And before that, his partner was almost killed by a man who attacked him with an ice pick after a sexual encounter. “The most dangerous people in Mexico are gay people who don’t accept themselves,” said Juan. Police refused to investigate the attempted murder because the victim was gay, he said.

Juan and his partner won refugee status last year. Juan now works in an office on Davie Street, in the heart of Vancouver’s gay district. He says living in Canada is a “dream come true.

“There is a lot of freedom, you can use your mind on other things, you don’t have to worry so much.”

Like other refugee claimants, gays must prove they face “persecution” in their home country. It’s a vague term that is open to interpretation by the Refugee Board members who judge the claims. Usually, claimants must prove they face more than just harassment --for example, being beaten, imprisoned, raped, or having their lives threatened.

Claimants must also prove their state won’t protect them. After all, gay bashing happens in Canada as well, but police investigate and courts prosecute those responsible.

That’s not the case elsewhere. In about 50 countries, homosexual sex acts are against the law. In other countries, discrimination and violence against homosexuals is tolerated, or condoned by authorities.

Mario Gonsalves says he couldn’t turn to the police for help in his native Antigua.

Mr. Gonsalves said he told no one, not even his family, that he was gay, but it was difficult to hide because of his mannerisms and the way he carried himself. “I would walk down the street, keep looking over my shoulder, and pretend to be someone else.”

Once, a crowd of men followed him home, threw stones at his house and spray-painted “kill batty-man” (a derogatory term for gays) on his door.

A local police officer often called him “faggot” and threatened him. One night, that police officer trailed him down the street. The officer pushed Mr. Gonsalves into an alley, beat him with a baton, and raped him. “He told me if I told anybody he would kill me.”

Mr. Gonsalves came to Canada in the spring of 1995 to visit and ended up on the street, where a counsellor for the homeless suggested he apply for refugee status.

His claim was accepted, but his life in Toronto has been difficult. Shortly after he arrived in Canada, friends back home told him the police officer who raped him had died of AIDS. Mr. Gonsalves got tested. He was HIV-positive, and now has AIDS.

Mr. Gonsalves, 23, spends his days doing volunteer work and trying not to think about the future. “I miss home, actually,” he said. “But I can be myself here, I don’t have to hide any more. People accept me for who I am.”

Many of the refugees accepted by Canada are from Muslim countries and South American states like Venezuela, Chile, and Brazil, where societies are intolerant of homosexuals. But gays have won refugee status in Canada from at least 30 countries around the world, from eastern Europe to the Caribbean.

Canada’s Refugee Board doesn’t keep track of the acceptance rate, but lawyers who represent the claimants say most are successful.

However, a lot depends on the board members hearing the case, says Toronto lawyer El-Farouk Khaki. He’s represented about 60 gay and lesbian clients, and estimates 70 per cent were accepted.

“Some members of the board are open to understanding what gay-lesbian persecution is all about, and there are others who just don’t get it,” said Mr. Khaki.

Indeed, a review of 30 Refugee Board decisions shows wide variations, depending on which members decide the case. For example, one gay man from Mexico had difficulty holding a job and had been harassed by police. The refugee panel turned him down, saying the treatment he received didn’t amount to persecution, and that police harassment was a problem for everyone in Mexico, not just homosexuals.

But another panel granted refugee status to a gay man from Mexico who had been detained by police once but not physically harmed.

Board members also disagree on whether homosexuals should be expected to try to avoid persecution at home by hiding their sexuality. For example, one refugee panel rejected a man from Morocco who said he was unable to live openly as a homosexual. The panel said the man faced a “general social constraint” on his sexual life, not persecution.

Mr. Khaki says some panel members have asked his clients why they can’t simply be discreet about their sexuality. He argues that’s a different standard than applied to people fleeing persecution because of their politics or religion. Would a refugee panel ask a Jew facing persecution to be discreet by changing his name and denying his religion, he wonders?

Another complication is the difficulty in obtaining documentary evidence about the status of homosexuals in other countries. Established human rights groups have only recently begun collecting information on persecution suffered by gays. And because of the stigma and secrecy surrounding homosexuality, especially in conservative cultures, it’s often hard to collect evidence of abuse. People are reluctant to talk about it.

That’s not surprising given conditions in some countries. In Iran, for instance, the penalty for gay sexual activity is death. In Colombia, death squads target sexual minorities as part of their “social cleansing.”

In Russia and Ukraine, laws criminalizing homosexual sex have been lifted, and gays are no longer sent to the gulags. But entrenched hatred of homosexuals endures, and police do little to protect them from violence or extortion by criminals.

“These people are coming from cultures where you’d be as likely to fly to the moon as come out of the closet,” said Toronto lawyer Mary Tatham. Sometimes refugee claimants are even reluctant to tell their Canadian lawyers the real reason they are in danger back home.

Ms. Tatham said she was puzzled by a client from the Middle East who explained he had been threatened by paramilitary groups who believed he had access to sensitive information from a high-ranking politician. The story didn’t make sense. The man had a low-level job, and would be unlikely to have contact with such a high-level official.

Finally the man admitted that the high-ranking official was, in fact, his lover. “I knew he was gay,” said Ms. Tatham. “But he was so ashamed. He didn’t want to talk about it.” The man won refugee status in Canada.

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B.C. leads way with gay-rights bill (970716)

With the expected passage of legislation this week, British Columbia will become the first province to ensure that homosexual couples have the same privileges and responsibilities for child support, access and custody as heterosexual couples. The Anglican church in the province supports the bill. Roman Catholic, Jewish, Sikh and other groups have issued statements denouncing it.

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Conservatives Step Up Criticism of Disney (970723)

WASHINGTON — Conservative Christian groups and advocates of traditional family values stepped up their criticism of the Walt Disney Co. Wednesday after saying a Disney executive skipped a meeting with them.

But most from the more than half-dozen groups stopped short of saying they would join a boycott of the entertainment giant launched last month by Southern Baptists, who argue that Disney’s corporate policies are too tolerant of homosexuals.

“By declining to meet with leaders of several large Christian and pro-family groups, Walt Disney Co. Vice President John Cook has shown that the company still doesn’t understand the concerns of American families,” said Robert Knight of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

“Despite an enormous outpouring of support for the effort to persuade the Disney Co. to stop promoting homosexuality, anti-Christian movies and television shows, and patently offensive rap and rock music, they still don’t get it.”

The groups said they were asked by Disney to meet with company executives in Washington, but that Cook pulled out of the meeting and instead sent a subordinate.

Disney spokesman John Dreyer said Cook had to cancel because “something had come up” in Los Angeles. “It was something unavoidable and he offered to meet with them on Friday,” said Dreyer, adding that the groups declined.

The groups had hoped Disney would offer a proposal to meet their concerns. Dreyer said Disney wanted to have a dialogue.

“We want Walt Disney’s Disney back,” said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, referring to the founder of the company and creator of Mickey Mouse.

“We want a Disney that we can trust,” he added at a news conference.

Last month, 12,000 delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting voted for a non-binding boycott against Disney and its subsidiaries by their 15.7 million members. The boycott so far has had little impact on Disney.

The Baptists singled out Disney’s policy of extending health benefits to partners of homosexuals and allowing “gay days” organized by gay rights groups at its theme parks.

Concerned Women for America, a traditional family rights group with more than half a million members nationwide, told the news conference it would join the boycott.

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AMA: Homosexuality No Reason for Therapy (970818)

CHICAGO (AP) — Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and doesn’t need treatment, and there’s no good evidence that so-called reparative therapy works anyway, the nation’s biggest group of psychologists says.

The American Psychological Association also urged mental health professionals to “take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness from homosexuality.”

The association’s policy-setting body made the statements in a resolution passed Thursday. The resolution affirms APA’s position that homosexuality isn’t a mental disorder and doesn’t need treatment, the association said.

The resolution says some believe the controversial practice of reparative or conversion therapy —— aimed at changing a person’s homosexuality —— is ineffective and harmful, while others say it’s effective and helpful. “Well-designed scientific studies to test either belief have not been done,” the resolution said, “therefore, claims of effectiveness need to be very carefully considered.”

Kim Mills, a representative of the Human Rights Campaign, a lesbian and gay political group, said in a statement that the resolution “reaffirms the fact that since there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, there is no reason that gay, lesbian or bisexual people should try to change their orientations.”

Robert H. Knight, director of cultural studies for the conservative Family Research Council, said there is evidence that therapy can change homosexuality.

People “have been successfully treated for decades,” he said in a statement, and “a growing population of ex-gays is becoming more visible in America today.”

Knight said the psychological association “is trying to snuff out genuine hope for those struggling with gender identity problems.”

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IRS Grants Tax-Exempt Status to Gay Group (970826)

WASHINGTON — A gay rights group says the Internal Revenue Service has reversed its position and granted tax-exempt status to a support group for young gays.

The IRS last month admitted it was wrong to demand that the Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Support System (GLASS), of Greensboro, N.C., show it discouraged “homosexual attitudes and propensities” after the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York stepped in and wrote the IRS.

On Aug. 20, the IRS followed up and notified the group that it would receive tax-exempt status as an education and social welfare group, Lambda lawyer David Buckel said Monday.

“The bottom line is they granted the group tax-exempt status,” Buckel told Reuters.

“Evidently they happened to have a renegade agent” who was responsible for the controversial letter the IRS sent GLASS last autumn.

In its letter, the IRS asked the group to “detail the procedures and safeguards in place to assure that counselors and participants do not encourage or facilitate homosexual practices or encourage the development of homosexual attitudes and propensities by minor individuals attending your program.”

Lambda argued that the IRS had no business inquiring about homosexual attitudes since it never inquired about “heterosexual attitudes.”

Tax-exempt status would make a big difference to GLASS since it would allow donors to the group to claim tax deductions for their donations, a fact that would likely encourage greater donations, Buckel said.

He said the expected rise in funding would allow creation of more GLASS chapters around the country.

Lambda provides civil rights representation for gay and lesbian causes.

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New insurance company helps gay couples get marriage benefits (970902)

HONOLULU (AP) — If Dr. Robert Jenkins just mentioned the words gay and lesbian, insurance company doors slammed shut.

Few would take his pink business card. Few would return his phone calls.

As head of an agency trying to help same-sex couples obtain insurance benefits under Hawaii’s new reciprocal benefits law, he’s seen discrimination firsthand.

With a colorful rainbow as its logo, Hawaii-based Pride Insurance & Financial Services Inc. opened for business this summer, just as the new law — the nation’s first — came into effect, giving couples who can’t legally marry a taste of the married life.

A major provision of the law grants insurance benefits to same-gender couples.

So all summer, Jenkins and his nine employees have been on the hunt for companies that will help gays and lesbians who want to sign up for joint life, health and homeowners’ insurance.

So far, they’ve found 16 in the entire nation. The number is small, but it’s enough of a start, Jenkins said.

“A lot of insurance companies won’t even touch gays and lesbians. Let’s just be honest about this. It’s a capitalist society. They don’t have to do anything they don’t want to do,” Jenkins said. “But, we’ve found some insurance agencies that are sympathetic and willing to truly not discriminate.”

But the quest for business has been tough. The first company that Pride Insurance asked to cover homosexual couples, located in Montgomery, Ala., gave it a cold, hard slap in the face, agent Steven Tseu said.

“Their response was we’re Southern rednecks and we frown on that kind of behavior. The next day they called and canceled their contract with us,” Tseu said. “When they turned us down like that it was very discouraging.”

For the last 10 years, Jenkins, who is a gay, was the primary physician for AIDS patients in Los Angeles and saw for the first time how insurance companies discriminate.

His days were filled with finding ways to sneak AIDS patients on some kind of health insurance.

“We can still do that (for gays and lesbians), but let’s not go that way. Let’s just be up front and give the business to companies that truly don’t discriminate,” said Jenkins.

About two clients a day come in to inquire about insurance or how to sign up as beneficiaries under the new law, he said.

The law grants any adult couple who can’t legally marry — gays and lesbians, parent and adult child, siblings and roommates — about 45 of the 400 legal benefits of marriage.

One Pride Insurance client, Daniel Peralta, a 35-year-old contractor employed part-time with the state, said he couldn’t wait to sign up after the law passed. He had no medical insurance and was desperate to be covered under a policy with his partner, Michael Graves.

However, he hit a wall because he had no idea how to go about doing it.

“I tried to look into it on my own. But I thought where do you go? Who do you call?,” Peralta said. Once he was referred to Pride Insurance, everything went smoothly.

“They outlined everything in simple terms, thank God,” he said.

Pride Insurance, which is opening offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, also helps same-sex couples in other states and countries apply to become reciprocal beneficiaries under the Hawaii law, which has no residency requirement.

Having that document can help couples get domestic partnership benefits at work, get hospital visitation rights when a partner is sick, and other benefits, Jenkins said.

The company has begun advertising its services in several gay and lesbian publications across the country.

“It’s sad to need a separate agency for gays and lesbians, but some people are uncomfortable going into an agency where someone says, ‘What about your wife and kids?,’ and you have to say, ‘Well, it’s my boyfriend and my dog.’ Who knows how an agent is going to respond,” Jenkins said.

“Here they know they’re going to be totally accepted,” said Jenkins, who moved from California back to his hometown in Hawaii in April. “It feels good to come home and be out. And to make no apologies.”

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Gay Youths More Likely to Attempt Suicide (970902)

WASHINGTON — Young gay men are seven times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, researchers reported Thursday.

They said society’s attitude toward gay men was almost certainly to blame, because the effects were not seen in gay women.

Gary Remafedi and colleagues at the University of Minnesota used a study of 36,000 junior and senior high school students aged 13 to 18.

They homed in on 131 young men and 144 young women who identified themselves in a confidential survey as homosexual or bisexual, and compared them to “straight” peers.

Reporting in the American Journal of Public Health, they said 28 percent of the males said they had tried to kill themselves — seven times the rate among heterosexual males.

They did not see the effects in the young women.

“We saw the association for boys but not for girls,” Remafedi said in a telephone interview. “It appears the suicide attempts are not related to homosexuality but to other factors.”

Special risk factors were “coming out” — publicly defining oneself as homosexual — at an early age, having conflicts with families and peers over sexual orientation and having different manners of appearance, Remafedi said.

“There has been a controversy among experts over this,” he added. “This study, I think, goes along way towards providing evidence of a connection.”

Remafedi said the findings probably had importance across the world. “I think that it does translate to other countries, probably because homophobia is universal,” he said.

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Same-sex couples win court victory (Globe & Mail, 971003)

Judge says insurer must pay life benefit

TORONTO --Gay and lesbian couples scored an important victory yesterday when an Ontario judge declared it is unconstitutional for the survivor of a same-sex couple to be denied life-insurance benefits.

After her companion was killed in a 1993 accident, Kelly Kane challenged an Ontario law that denied her life-insurance benefits.

The law, which mandates a $25,000 benefit be paid to the spouse of someone killed in a motor vehicle accident, excludes couples of the same sex.

A lawyer representing the Attorney General of Ontario defended the law in court last week, arguing that the prohibition was justified because gay couples are less likely to be parents. Therefore the surviving partner would have less need of financial support if one partner is killed.

He also cited recent Supreme Court rulings that limited the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.

But Mr. Justice Douglas Coo, of the Ontario Court, General Division, accepted the argument of Ms. Kane’s counsel that discrimination against same-sex couples could not be justified as reasonable and necessary under the Constitution.

“The denial of equal benefit contained in the legislative provisions is deliberately based only on sexual orientation and runs against the preservation of human dignity and self worth for part of our society,” Judge Coo wrote in his six-page decision.

The legislation “simply carries forward and nurtures now-abandoned stereotypical concepts that have no place in the fabric of our community.”

He also dismissed arguments that some homosexuals would not welcome being granted the same rights and obligations as heterosexual couples. “The fact that some might not want or support the provision of a benefit is neither here nor there,” he declared.

Judge Coo’s decision represents the latest in a confusing series of judicial decisions related to same-sex rights. The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that an opposite-sex-only definition of spouse was valid for old-age security. The Ontario Court General Division has upheld the same definition for private pension benefits. But the Ontario Court of Appeal recently ruled a same-sex spouse could be obliged to pay family support.

Judge Coo ordered that Axa Insurance pay the $25,000 benefit, and that the attorney general pay a portion, probably in the range of 40 to 50 per cent, of Ms. Kane’s legal costs. The decision also opens the door for similar couples who have lost a spouse in a motor vehicle accident to receive the benefit.

The decision, if upheld, could have important implications for provincial and federal governments. There are at least 90 statutes in Ontario alone --regulating pensions, employment benefits and government programs --that define a spouse as a member of a heterosexual couple.

If Judge Coo’s reasoning survives appeal, Ontario and other governments across Canada might have to rewrite their laws to include same-sex couples in the definition of spouse.

Barry Wilson, an assistant to Attorney General Charles Harnick, acknowledged yesterday that that “all jurisdictions are struggling with this particular issue in an attempt to find a workable solution for everyone.”

He would not comment on what action the government might take, except to say government lawyers were reviewing the decision and would determine whether to appeal.

The Ontario law was created to cut down on litigation and insurance costs. It specified that all car-insurance policies must contain a $25,000 benefit to be paid to the spouse if the insured was killed in an accident.

Ms. Kane and Ms. Black had lived together for six years and considered themselves spouses. But when Ms. Black was struck and killed by a truck while riding her bicycle, Ms. Kane discovered she was ineligible for the benefit because the law specified only heterosexual couples were entitled.

For Ms. Kane, the decision represented “one step towards the end of a really long fight to gain recognition for my partner and me in our relationship.” Her lawyer, Cynthia Petersen, hoped that, rather than fighting on a case-by-case basis, “the Ontario government will look at this, see that they’re not going to win these battles, and maybe change those 90 other statutes.”

The government argued that expanding insurance benefits to same-sex couples could raise insurance premiums and cost billions of dollars if the new definition is applied to scores of other programs throughout the government.

“If the applicant’s legal position were broadly accepted, it would result in massive new costs for government, private business, and Ontario taxpayers,” government lawyer Peter Landmann maintained during the hearing.

But Judge Coo said his judgment applies only the the auto-insurance law, and maintained the increase in premiums needed to cover same-sex couples would be “minimal.”

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Mayor discriminated against gay activist, inquiry finds (971009)

LONDON, Ont. (CP) -A board of inquiry ruled Wednesday that London Mayor Dianne Haskett discriminated against a gay activist.

*Haskett has been ordered to pay $10,000 in damages for violating the Ontario Human Rights Code.

*Richard Hudler, former president of London’s Homophile Association of London Ontario, complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission after being denied a municipal proclamation for a gay pride weekend in London in 1995.

*Haskett was also ordered to declare a gay pride day or week in London this year if such as request is made.

*Haskett said she never intended to hurt the gay community.

*She’s also upset about the timing of this decision because she intends to launch her re-election campaign Thursday.

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ABC’s own poll indicts Ellen’s lesbian kiss (971101)

TUPELO, MS -ABC News has quietly buried the results of its own Internet poll which showed that Americans don’t want their children watching same-sex kissing on television, according to American Family Association (AFA). The poll was in response to a lesbian kiss between actress Ellen DeGeneres and another woman on the Disney/ABC sitcom ELLEN.

Homosexual activists cheered the initial poll results, which were in their favor. However, after the final results were tallied, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) spokesperson Liz Tracey called the poll results “skewed” and “not necessarily valid.”

“Disney decided to allow Ellen’s out-of-the-closet experimentation with her homosexuality to play in primetime, and I think ABC News hoped this poll would vindicate that decision,” said Tim Wildmon, vice president of AFA. “Now that the poll proved America’s distaste for same-sex French-kissing, ABC wants to bury the results.”

The poll asked the question, “Would you allow your child to watch a lesbian kiss on television?” Initially GLAAD e-mailed its subscribers, encouraging them to vote, and early poll results reflected that push: almost 64% of respondents voted in favor of allowing children to watch a lesbian kiss; 36% against.

Thinking that the poll had ended, GLAAD declared a victory over AFA in a press release, calling the organization an “anti-gay hate group” and “a marginal radical religious group.” GLAAD Entertainment Media Director Chastity Bono claimed the results of the poll demonstrated “America’s willingness to see lesbian and gay characters represented with fairness and with the same standards as heterosexuals receive.”

AFA and other pro-family groups responded by alerting its own Internet subscribers to vote, and by the time the poll closed on October 20, the results had changed dramatically: only 46% favored the lesbian kiss; 54% were opposed.

The kiss had earned the October 8 ELLEN episode a parental advisory warning of “adult content.” DeGeneres said the advisory was discrimination against same-sex affection and threatened to quit. “This advisory is telling kids something’s wrong with being gay,” DeGeneres complained to The New York Times. The point to the show is to let kids know there’s nothing wrong with being gay, she said. “And now they’re saying children shouldn’t watch it,” she told TV Guide. ABC backed away from the confrontation and removed the parental advisory the following week.

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Pope says church must speak out against pedophilia (971107)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a forceful call to his clergy, Pope John Paul II said today that the church must lead the way in protecting youngsters from adult sex predators.

“The Church must repeatedly recall the need to protect all people, especially the young, being weak and defenseless,” the pope told bishops from Belgium.

He said children were often the “targets of perverted adults.”

Belgium has been battered by a series of pedophile scandals, the worst being the bungled investigation into a child sex ring blamed for the deaths of at least four girls.

John Paul asked the bishops to give the families of child sex victims assurances that “the pope remembers them in his prayers.”

Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels had raised the issue with the pope, decrying that “our country has had a tormented year: the violence practiced on children has created a true trauma.”

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Maine becomes first state to repeal gay rights law (Washington Times, 980216)

The people of Maine voted Feb. 10 to make their state the first in the nation to repeal a homosexual rights law. Organizers of the movement to repeal the law, enacted only last June, said they had detected declining support for granting what they call special privileges for homosexuals.

“Until now, it has been looking as if homosexual rights were sweeping the nation,” said Mike Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, which helped gather the required signatures to get the referendum on the ballot.

“My sense is we are at a turning point, based on what happened in Washington state and here in Maine,” Mr. Heath said. He noted that Washington voters defeated that state’s proposed homosexual rights law 60 percent to 40 percent.

In the final tally, 52 percent of the voters chose to repeal the law and 48 percent voted to keep it. Voter turnout for the special election was 31 percent, well over the 20 percent that had been the most optimistic prediction.

Mr. Heath said the voters’ decision to repeal the law was all the more noteworthy because there was “a very intimidating atmosphere up here, with Gov. [Angus] King running hundreds of TV advertisements saying that if you cast a yes vote, you are a bigot.”

“A number of businessmen volunteered to me that they would like to help out more,” he said, “but fear reprisals from powerful interests in this state.”

Paul Volle, executive director of the Maine chapter of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, said his group’s poll of likely voters found 67 percent favored repeal. But a recent independent survey found almost 65 percent of registered voters opposed the referendum.

Homosexual rights advocates say the law is necessary to help them fight what they call a pattern of discrimination.

“You can be fired in 40 states simply for being gay,” said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a national homosexual rights organization. “Our opponents say we want special rights, but all we’re seeking is equal rights.”

Mr. Smith said there “is anecdotal evidence that gays are being fired all over the country, but it is hard to quantify because there is no protection on the books.”

Outside organizations plowed money and effort into the campaign on both sides of the issue. Repeal supporters said they spent about $150,000 and the pro-homosexual-rights groups said they spent nearly $500,000.

The national Christian Coalition and Gary Bauer’s pro-family group American Renewal invested time and money in the repeal campaign.

Mr. Bauer’s lobbying organization invested $30,000 in advertising for the repeal campaign and sent five formerly homosexual men, all now married and with children of their own, to tell voters that homosexuality is not a genetic or immutable condition that requires civil rights protections.

Mr. Heath said a vote for repeal is not a vote for discrimination. “We don’t feel we are denying anybody access to credit or jobs,” he said. “Folks who are discreet about their sexual practices are not and never have been denied credit, public accommodations or employment in Maine, although there are isolated cases to the contrary.”

Homosexual-protection laws are on the books in Washington, D.C. and in 11 states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Maine. Maine’s law has not been enforced because of the challenge mounted by the referendum supporters.

Eight other states are under executive order not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in state employment: Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Homosexuals also enjoy legal protection in Baltimore; Phoenix; Chicago; Boston; Cleveland; Portland, Ore.; Portland, Maine; Detroit; Atlanta; Bloomington, Ind.; and Miami Beach.

Jurisdictions that have overturned homosexual-protection laws include Tampa, Fla.; Cincinnati; Salt Lake City; Lewiston, Maine; Springfield, Mo.; and Ferndale, Mich.

In 1992, Oregon voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to label homosexuality as “abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse.” But in the same year, Colorado voters approved a law forbidding the courts, the state Legislature and local governments to approve homosexual rights measures. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the Colorado law as unconstitutional.

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Gay workers have no right to equal benefits (London Times, 980217)

A lesbian couple’s fight for the same perks as others received a setback in the European Court yesterday.

A LESBIAN couple have lost their attempt to have the European Court of Justice extend equal employment rights to homosexuals. The judges said no EU law guaranteed equal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation.

The ruling was a surprise to Lisa Grant and Jill Percey because an initial finding from the Luxembourg court in September had upheld the couple’s complaint that South West Trains, Ms Grant’s employer, had wrongfully refused spouse’s travel perks to her partner.

However, the effect of the yesterday’s decision could be temporary, the judges noted, because the Treaty of Amsterdam, not yet ratified, sets the stage for new laws against a much wider range of discrimination, including sexual orientation. The European Commission said yesterday that it was reviewing options for new laws, but realism was needed since all 15 member states had to approve legislation and there were wide differences in attitudes to homosexual partnerships.

Ms Grant, 30, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, said: “It is now up to national governments to change legislation. We believe this was a straightforward case of sex discrimination.” Stonewall, the homosexual rights group that backed the couple, said it was bitterly disappointed. “We think it is wrong, but there is no appeal open to us,” a spokeswoman said. The group would now campaign for a British law outlawing discrimination over sexual orientation, as promised by the Labour Party in its election manifesto, she said.

The Luxembourg judges rejected the argument put by Cherie Booth, QC, acting for the women, that Ms Grant had suffered sexual discrimination when the railway company refused to give travel rights worth about £1,000 to her partner of two years. Unmarried partners of the opposite sex received the benefit. In a speech to the court last July, Ms Booth appealed to the judges to extend to homosexuals the force of Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, which covers equal pay for men and women. “The right to human intimacy is a basic human right,” she said.

The court endorsed the argument put by Patrick Elias, QC, the Government’s barrister, that it did not have the power to stretch EU law into a controversial area. “Community law as it stands does not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation,” the judgment said.

The court made clear that it was up to governments, not judges, to push the frontiers of EU law into such a delicate area. Only a handful of states gave any form of legal recognition to homosexual partnerships, the judges noted. “In the present state of the law, stable relationships between two persons of the same sex are not regarded as equivalent to marriages or stable relationships outside marriage between persons of opposite sex.”

Nicholas Underhill, QC, for South West Trains, said the court had clearly been conscious of the risk of overstepping its powers under the treaty. “It was a bridge too far and they weren’t going to cross it,” he said.

In Ms Grant’s case, no sexual discrimination in the legal sense applied because the railway company also refused travel perks to partners of gay men, the judges said. The case now returns to an industrial tribunal in Southampton which had sought the court’s ruling on the point of European law.

South West Trains said it would discuss the decision with the Association of Train Operation Companies, which represents all the privatised rail firms and is responsible for issuing guidelines on staff travel. “We were seeking the law’s guidance for the whole industry,” a spokeswoman said.

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New Jersey Gives Gays Right to Adopt (971217)

NEWARK, N.J. — Adam is like most 2-year-olds — quick, curious, scurrying here and there. Unlike most, his adoptive parents are both men — whose successful fight to keep their boy won the gay movement a step toward equality with heterosexuals, activists said after a landmark court settlement.

The struggle began soon after Jon Holden and Michael Galluccio began caring for Adam, then 3 months old. On Wednesday, they won a settlement that gives gay and unmarried couples in New Jersey the right to jointly adopt children, like married couples. It only affects children in state custody.

Adam Holden Galluccio, blond-haired with rosy cheeks, scurried before the news cameras.

“This is a victory about goodness and equality,” Holden said.

Conservatives, already fighting efforts to legalize same-sex marriages, were diametrically opposed.

The settlement is “a victory for homosexual activism and a defeat for children already bruised in life and in need of an intact, committed husband-and-wife family,” said Robert Knight, director of cultural studies for the Family Research Council in Washington.

“I think it’s a sad commentary,” said state Assemblywoman Marion Crecco, Republican sponsor of a bill banning same-sex marriage that has not yet made it to the Assembly floor.

“I think every child deserves to grow up with a mother and father. It’s a very natural thing,” she said.

The agreement by New Jersey authorities came in a class-action lawsuit brought in June by gay and lesbian families with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union. Holden and Galluccio won the right to adopt Adam on Oct. 22.

In about half the states, including New Jersey, each individual in a gay or unmarried relationship could adopt a child, but the “second-parent” adoption required an additional petition, taking more time and money.

Florida and New Hampshire bar adoptions by gay and lesbians. The rest allow individual adoption by gays and have not been tested for second-parent adoptions by a gay partner, said Michael Adams, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

Under the settlement, New Jersey must scrap its policy barring joint adoption of its wards by gay or unmarried couples.

“The settlement guarantees that all couples seeking adoptions will be judged only by their ability to love and support a child,” said Lenora M. Lapidus, legal director of the state ACLU.

The state may deny consent only by applying the same standards it applies to married couples, including “considerations such as the stability of the prospective adoptive couple’s relationship,” the settlement said.

In addition, it allows any gay or unmarried couple who believe they are denied joint adoption based on marital status or sexual orientation to ask a state judge to enforce the decree and award them legal fees.

Activists said the settlement will put more foster children in permanent homes.

Wendi Patella, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Youth and Family Services, said the agency now has custody of about 100 children who are eligible for adoption. In 1996, 687 children in the agency’s care were adopted, she said.

The agency said there are currently 15 unmarried couples seeking to adopt children in state custody.

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, estimated there are 8 million to 13 million children being raised by gay or lesbian parents in the United States.

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Bishop says the Bible is root of homophobia (980418)

THE leader of the Anglican Church in Scotland today accuses the churches of homophobia and links this to “ignorant” Bible texts.

The Right Rev Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh, will tell the conference of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in London: “Violent homophobia is still alive and kicking, and much of it is motivated by religious zeal.” He says: “The Bible, though it is one of our greatest treasures, is also our greatest danger.”

His comments will cause further anguish in a Church struggling to control the conflict over homosexuality. On Easter Day Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, pictured, was charged with “riotous or violent behaviour in a church” after disrupting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon.

In his address, released yesterday to The Times, Bishop Holloway says that traditional religions are being abandoned as “primitive superstitions” because they cannot change. “This is why many feminists have abandoned Christianity,” he says. “They see it as incurably patriarchal and oppressive.”

He says the Bible can no longer be read as a fixed and unchanging law, and must be seen as “flawed and fallible”. Declaring that eventually the churches will accept homosexuality, he says: “We have recently abandoned the text’s tyranny over women, as we abandoned its justification of slavery, and soon we’ll abandon its ignorant misunderstanding of homosexuality.

“It must be acknowledged that there is a dynamic connection between the theological rejection of gay and lesbian people, based on the texts in question, and the persecution and abuse they have endured over the centuries, just as there is an obvious connection between anti‑Jewish rhetoric in the New Testament and the Holocaust.”

Bishop Holloway, 64, recently announced plans to leave the Church and stand for the Scottish parliament.

In a new book, Dr John Stott, Rector Emeritus of All Souls, Langham Place, Central London, says homosexual relationships are “incompatible with true love because they are incompatible with God’s law”.

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Gay Teens Bear Psychological Burden of Intolerance (980528)

NEW YORK — Intolerance of homosexuality can have serious psychiatric effects for adolescents, both heterosexual and homosexual, according to psychiatrists.

Gay and lesbian teenagers have increased rates of assault, suicide, substance abuse, and homelessness. These can reflect homophobic attitudes expressed by others as well as internalized feelings of self-hatred, write Drs. James Lock and Brian N. Kleis.

Lock, of Stanford University School of Medicine, and Kleis, of Children’s Health Council, Palo Alto, California, discuss teens and homophobia in an article in the June issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Gay and lesbian youth experience frequent verbal and sometimes physical assault because of their sexual orientation: In one study, 80 percent reported verbal insults, 44 percent were threatened with violence, 31 percent were chased or followed, and 17 percent said they were physically assaulted.

The term “homophobia,” when used by psychiatrists, refers to irrationally negative attitudes toward homosexual people. Homophobia can be internalized in a gay person as part of an identity struggle caused by the emotional stress of self-acceptance and the social process of “coming out,” Lock and Kleis explain.

Young adolescents, especially boys, are concerned about the physical changes of puberty and may develop homophobia in association with anxiety about their masculinity. At this age, teenagers may need nothing more than information about sexual development, anatomy, and behavior.

If adolescents express homophobia with physical or verbal assaults, “it will be necessary to work with families, schools, and police to contain the behavior while its origins are explored in therapy,” Lock and Kleis write.

Adolescents who have already determined that they are gay or lesbian can become depressed or act out; they may be truant or run away from home, or they may project hostile feelings onto family members.

Older adolescents are more independent of their families and more interested in peer support groups. Those who are uncomfortable with openly gay peers may do better with individual therapy, as well as literature and films that “provide structure, privacy, and some psychological distance,” Lock and Kleis comment.

Gay teens with homophobic attitudes “need assistance managing the effects of persistent attacks by social institutions on their self-esteem and hopes for a successful career,” they write.

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Cardinal condemns Bill for New York gay rights (980528)

AMERICA’S leading Roman Catholic cleric has criticised Rudolph Giuliani, New York’s Mayor, over an impending city law that would extend full legal rights to homosexual couples, putting them on a par with married couples.

Speaking from the pulpit at St Patrick’s Cathedral here, Cardinal John O’Connor, the Archbishop of New York, described the new law as “contrary to natural law and Western tradition”.

The archbishop’s ire was directed at the mayor’s Domestic Partnership Bill, now before the City Council, which would force municipal agencies to treat all unmarried couples -whether gay or heterosexual -as they would married couples, giving them the same rights in such areas as housing and death benefits.

Unmarried couples, regardless of sexual orientation, would also be eligible for “family” health insurance. The Bill is expected to sail through, since it is backed not only by Mr Giuliani, but also by Peter Vallone, the Speaker, who is a powerful voice in the Catholic community.

But Cardinal O’Connor, who has a history of intervention in the city’s political debates, has said that the legislation could provoke “moral and cultural changes in our society neither anticipated nor traditionally desired from our earliest days as a people”.

In a homily packed with references to such authorities -both spiritual and temporal -as Pope John Paul II, Cicero and the United States Supreme Court, the archbishop said: “Marriage matters supremely to every person and every institution in our society. It is imperative, in my judgment, that no law be passed contrary to natural moral law and Western tradition by virtually legislating that marriage does not matter.”

The mayor is determined to stand by his Bill. Although a conservative, his politics are more pragmatic than doctrinaire: a tenacious fighter of crime and labour unrest, he is nonetheless sympathetic to various gay causes, in part in response to New York’s powerful gay rights lobby.

Last night Mr Giuliani said: “The cardinal is a religious leader. He has every right to preach and to argue for his moral point of view. My analysis of it is that this is a human rights issue. What it really is doing is preventing discrimination against people who have different sexual orientations.”

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Clinton Bars Job Bias Against Gays (980529)

WASHINGTON (AP) --President Clinton signed an executive order Thursday to protect homosexual federal workers from job discrimination.

“Individuals should not be denied a job on the basis of something that has no relationship to their ability to perform their work,” Clinton said in a statement accompanying the order.

Gay and lesbian political activists heralded the move, which adds sexual orientation to the list of categories for which discrimination is illegal. The others are race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicaps and age.

Previously, the Clinton administration had instituted the policy agency-by-agency. Thursday’s action ensures a uniform policy for civilian workers throughout the federal government.

“Since early in President Clinton’s first term, most Cabinet-level departments and agencies have added sexual orientation to their equal employment policies, but these policies were not uniformly administered,” said Kim I. Mills, education director for the Human Rights Campaign. “This executive order will remedy that situation.”

Clinton, in his statement, added a pitch to Congress to pass a long-pending bill to extend protection from job discrimination to all American workers in both the public and private sectors.

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Safe haven for sexual refugees (970714)

Canada is a world leader in offering asylum to persecuted gays, writes Jacquie Miller.