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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com September 26, 2008

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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5

TV has a record number of gay or bi characters this year

New York City-Broadcast television will have 16 gay and bisexual regular characters in prime-time series this fall, more than double the seven of a year ago, a new study found.

GLAAD said it was a positive sign of networks making their shows more representative, although more work needed to be done. These characters accounted for 2.6 percent of all the regular characters in TV series, up from 1.1 percent last year and 1.3 percent in 2006, according to the study, released September 22.

GLAAD president Neil Giuliano singled out Fox for having five such regular characters this fall, considering there were none a year earlier. The character Thirteen on House is bisexual, while the new Do Not Disturb has a gay man.

None of the 126 regular characters on CBS shows are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, GLAAD said, and only one recurring character-Brad on Rules of Engagement is gay. ABC will have seven characters that are either gay men or bisexual women this fall, NBC will have three and CW will have one.

A total of 19 recurring characters, those who appear only time to time, fit the category, GLAAD said. That's up from 13 a year ago.

Between regular and recurring characters, that's the most GLAAD has counted during its 13 years of monitoring networks for LGBT representation. The number of regular characters fitting the definition fell from 40 to 32 on mainstream cable networks, a count that doesn't include the gayoriented networks Logo and Here. There were no lesbians among the regular characters, according to GLAAD. But there are five bisexual women, including the characters of Callie Torres and Erica Hahn on ABC's Grey's Anatomy.

Watching the stars come out

New York City-Apparently unclear on the concept behind the October 11 National Coming Out Day, two celebrity singers have come out early.

Actress and singer Lindsay Lohan, who has dodged questions about her relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson, called in to sex help talk show Loveline on September 22, and DJ Stryker asked her how long she and Ronson have been going out.

Lohan said that it has been "a very long time," and thanked Stryker when he said that they make a cute couple.

Assaults

Continued from page 1

Brittain's attack occurred in the Second District.

Lt. Thomas Stacho, public information officer for the Cleveland Police, said these statistics don't indicate there is necessarily an anti-gay trend. He said that despite the sexual orientation of a few of the victims, he believes the crimes indicate more opportunistic motives than strictly homophobic

ones.

"We can't say for sure there's any targeting going on," Stacho said.

He believes the victims of these violent robberies fit a certain profile based less on their sexuality and more on circumstance.

"These monsters get isolated victims that they see as easy pickins. They look for victims who are alone, possibly intoxicated, late at night in darkly lit areas."

Descriptions of assailants, levels and types of violence, and even the neighborhoods where the attacks occurred are all varied.

Stacho advised against walking alone at night or becoming too inebriated when going out. He also suggests that if you do encounter any trouble, try to be as compliant as possible.

"Often the assailants just want whatever they can get, and then they want to disappear," he noted.

In even less shocking celebrity news, Clay Aiken, who came in second in the second season of American Idol, came out in an interview with People magazine in the September 26 issue.

Aiken, who is returning to the Broadway show Spamalot, has long avoided answering the question directly.

However, having just had a son via artificial insemination with a female friend who is also his music producer, he decided to be honest to set an example for his infant boy.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," he told the magazine. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that.”

Ironically, in Spamalot he plays Sir Robin, a role originated by David Hyde-Pierce, who also came out while playing the Monty Python knight.

Ellen is the latest Cover Girl

Cincinnati-The latest spokesmodel for Cover Girl cosmetics is not even the girliest woman in her marriage.

Ellen DeGeneres, who recently married girlfriend Portia DiRossi, announced on September 16 that she is the latest face of Cover Girl cosmetics.

She joked about the matter on her daytime talk show, at first insinuating that there were rumors she was pregnant before admitting that she will be in commercials for the cosmetics company, a division of Procter & Gamble.

Singer Rihanna, actor Drew Barrymore and rapper-actor (and rumored lesbian herself) Queen Latifah have all sold their faces to recent Cover Girl advertising campaigns.

Serbian Queer Festival attacked

Belgrade, Serbia-Serbian police say nationalists attacked a gay gathering, injuring three people, including a U.S. citizen. Police official Slobodan Vukelic said September 21 that two attackers have been detained.

Human rights groups say masked assailants targeted the so-called Queer Festival held September 19 in a cultural center in downtown Belgrade.

The groups report that an unidentified American citizen suffered a concussion and a broken arm. The statement adds that two female activists were also injured.

The groups are demanding that Serbia's pro-Western government curb extremism to "show they are for democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights."

Organizations within the community have mobilized to discuss the problem of violence against gays. The Cleveland LGBT Center and the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization are having a town hall meeting at Gordon Square Arcade Atrium at 6516 Detroit Avenue on Tuesday, October 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.

In the most recent robbery near one of Cleveland's gay bars, the two arrested suspects robbed two young men around 3 a.m. September 16 near West 112th Street and Detroit Avenue, the corner where the Hawk bar sits. The victims were robbed of their wallets and then made to strip. When one victim took off running, the suspects fled.

Police later found both suspects near West 110th and Detroit. Most of the stolen property was recovered from sidewalks and bushes on West 112th Street. There was no indication that either of the two victims were gay.

Marie Bielefeld, Ph.D.

Psychologist

440-734-8164

20325 Center Ridge Rd. Rocky River, OH

McCain's chief wins Roy Cohn award

Washington, D.C.-Sen. John McCain's Senate chief of staff is gay, several bloggers have revealed, earning him the Roy Cohn award, a dubious honor presented by BlogActive founder Mike Rogers to gay men living gay lives while working against LGBT equality.

Mark Buse started in the mailroom and worked his way to the top of McCain's office.

Rogers' sources talked about parties at Buse's house, which often took on a sexual slant as the evening wore on.

More ironic is the placement of the sex sling Buse and his partner are said to have in their home: in the closet.

Michelangelo Signorile, another prominent gay journalist, interviewed Buse's exboyfriend on the record. Rogers, however, had more amusing information: Buse's AOL instant message screen names, dupontpig2008 and dccouple2play.

McCain supports the military "don't ask, don't tell" policy and state marriage ban amendments, although he has voted against a federal one.

The Cohn award is named after the closeted gay power broker immortalized in Angels in America, who began his career with Sen. Joe McCarthy's 1950s witchhunts.

Ky. judge denies stepparent adoptions

Louisville, Ky.-Lesbians and others barred from marrying in Kentucky cannot legally adopt their partners' children as if they were stepparents, an appeals court ruled.

A three-judge Kentucky Court of Appeals panel ruled September 12 that stepparent adoptions are allowed only when the stepmother or stepfather is married to the biological parent. The ruling did not bar gay couples from adopting through traditional channels, but stepparents have special status that makes it less complicated for them to adopt their spouses' children.

The case involved a Jefferson County lesbian couple. One gave birth through artificial insemination and, after the couple split up, allowed the other woman to adopt the child. Louisville attorney Trisha Zeller claimed the child was the second woman's stepson and Family Court Judge Eleanore Garber approved the adoption.

Under Kentucky law, a steppparent does not need approval from the state Cabinet for Families and Children to adopt.

Later, after a dispute over visitation, the biological mother challenged the adoption. Garber agreed she had erred but said the mother waited too long to go to court.

The appeals court also allowed the adoption, agreeing that the mother waited more than a year to challenge it, but said other such adoptions will not be legal. In a similar future situation, the woman could not be considered a stepparent because lesbians cannot legally wed in Kentucky.

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Brazil's president favors civil unions

Brasilia, Brazil Brazil's president has come out in favor of same-sex unions.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says that in Brazil, "there are men living with men, and women living with women" who "build a good life together." But a proposed law that would give all same-sex couples rights equal to those enjoyed by married heterosexuals has been stalled in Brazil's Congress for more than a decade.

Silva said in an interview aired by the government-run TV Brasil that politicians who oppose same-sex unions and yet seek the votes of gay men and women during elections are "hypocrites."

Maurice Sendak comes out

New York City-A beloved children's book author and illustrator came out in a newspaper interview on September 10.

Maurice Sendak, creator of Where the Wild Things Are, was asked by Patricia Cohen of the New York Times if there was anything he hadn't been asked by interviewers in his 60-year career.

"Well, that I'm gay,” he said. “I just didn't think it was anybody's business."

Sendak lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn, for 50 years before Glynn passed away in 2007.

Had Sendak, who turned 80 in June, come out early in his career, it would likely have torpedoed any chance he had of being successful in the world of children's books.

Now, however, museums have exhibitions of his work, and director Spike Jonze is currently editing a film version of Wild Things that combines live-action performances with computer-generated monsters.

Charges stay in TG woman's murder

Greeley, Colo.-The judge hearing an antitrans murder case refused to lower the charges against the alleged killer, and kept a hate crime enhancement while denying him bail.

Allen Andrade is accused of killing Angie Zapata in July, after discovering that the woman who performed oral sex on him the night before

was born a man.

When Andrade grabbed Zapata's crotch, discovering male genitalia, Zapata smile and said, "I'm all woman," according to the Denver Post. Andrade's attorney claimed that smile was an act of provocation.

Weld County District Judge Marcelo Kopcow ruled on September 18, however, that Andrade's actions showed deliberation, and that his later statements illustrated anger towards Zapata and gays in general.

At one point, Kopcow noted, Andrade's girlfriend said her cell phone was dying, and he told her that was "gay" and "all gay things need to die."

Kopcow also refused to grant Andrade bail, noting that it was a capital murder case. The next hearing is set for November 6.

Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.

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