www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com. October 21, 2011 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 3
newsbriefs
Move to repeal California LGBT history law fails
Sacramento, Calif.—Efforts to repeal a law mandating age-appropriate teaching of the contributions of LGBT Americans have failed.
The Pacific Justice Institute, one of the leading groups behind the attempt to repeal the law, announced on October 12 that the coalition only collected two-thirds of the 505,000 signatures needed to put the matter on the ballot.
The law is set to take effect in January. A spokesman for the institute said that opponents might push a broader ballot initiative targeting laws that they believe impinge on parental control over what their children learn in school. They might also target Democratic lawmakers that voted in favor of the law and are up for reelection next year.
Actor who played Spock comes out
New York City-Zachary Quinto, known for his roles as the villainous Sylar on the television show Heroes and as the heroic Spock in J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek, came out in an October 16 interview with New York magazine.
He has played gay roles on television and on the stage, but after the suicide of gay teenager Jamey Rodemeyer earlier this fall, he felt he could no longer dismiss questions about his personal life. Previously, he had neither denied nor confirmed that he was gay.
"As a gay man I look at that and say there's a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say, Why?" Quinto told Benjamin Wallace.
"When I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself I felt deeply troubled," Quinto wrote on his blog. "But when I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer had made an 'It Gets Better' video only months before taking his own life I felt an incredible despair. I also made an 'It Gets Better' video last year in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time."
"But in light of Jamey's death, it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality," he concludes.
His coming out engendered that of ABC News anchor Dan Kloeffler, who noted on air, while doing a fill-in stint on World News Now, that Quinto's coming out might make him violate his rule against dating actors. He wrote on a blog on ABC.com, “I've never shared that I'm gay on-air, even though I've been out to my family, friends and co-workers for years. . : But for the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life.”
Lyricist alters song for same-sex vows
New York City-Lyricist Sheldon Harnick has altered the words of his classic wedding standard, "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, for use at same-sex nuptials.
The song has been around since 1964, and has probably been sung at weddings nearly as long. Now, however, the lyrics of the "little boy at play" and the "little girl I carried" have been altered to be about two boys or two girls.
Rev. Joshua Ellis, who worked as a press agent in New York before becoming a clergyman, wrote to Harnick asking about the song, and Harnick wrote back with a malemale version, followed a few days later by a female-female version. The male version was first performed at the October 1 wedding of Richard Skipper and Daniel Sherman in Tappan, N.Y.
Teen blogs of his own suicide
Ottawa, Ontario-The 15-year-old son of a city council member killed himself over the October 14 weekend, detailing his mindset in a series of heartbreaking blog posts before ending his own life.
"I'm a casualty of love. Well, I'm tired of life really. It's so hard, I'm sorry, I can't take it anymore," wrote Jamie Hubley of his life as a gay teenager.
"First I'd like to mention my friends Nancy, Abby, Colleen, Jemma, and Kasia.
"Being sad is sad. I've been like this for way too long. I can't stand school, I can't stand earth, I can't stand society, I can't stand the scars on my arms, I can't fucking stand any fucking thing.
"I don't want my parents to think this is their fault either . . . I love my mom and dad. It's just too hard. I don't want to wait 3 more years, this hurts too much. How do you even know It will get better? It's not.
"I hit rock fucking bottom, fell through a crack, now im stuck," he wrote, then called himself a unicorn, a reference to the television show Glee, saying, "Remember me as a Unicorn. Maybe in my next life I'll be a flying squirrel. I'll fly away."
Blogs allow you to "tag" posts with different subject names. Among those he used for that post were "suicide note," "suicide" and "bye."
Former leader rejects 'ex-gay' idea
Germantown, Tenn.-John Smid, a former director of the Love in Action "exgay" ministry, noted on his blog over the last few weeks that he does not believe gay people can become straight, the latest defector from the "ex-gay" industry.
He said that, while he has been married for years, he is homosexual and his wife is heterosexual.
In a more recent post, answering a reader question about his orientation, he writes, "I used to define homosexuality or heterosexuality in terms describing one's behavior. I thought it made sense and through the years often wrote articles and talked from that perspective. Today, I understand why the gay community had such an issue with my writings. My perspective denied so many facets of the homosexual experience. I minimized a person's life to just their sexuality but homosexuality is much more than sex.”
"There is no question, I love my wife. God has worked powerfully in and through our relationship. The fact that she married me in the first place knowing of my past homosexual promiscuity said something quite profound about her love for me. Which, by the way, was not an enabling, 'I can fix him' kind of relationship. My wife has never tried to fix me or change me in that area of our relationship. She truly unconditionally loves me. But this doesn't change the fact that I am who I am and she is who she is," Smid continues. "This is why I say things like 'you can't repent of homosexuality.' In traditional homosexuality, it appears that it is intrinsic to a person's fabric of life. Nature or nurture, it is far too complicated to have a definitive answer for the origin of homosexuality.
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However, I hear story after story of men and women who accept themselves as being gay, in Christ, and finally find that life makes sense to them. Many are able to then nurture an authentic relationship with Christ because they are being honest and authentic with themselves and finally are able to accept his love unconditionally which changes the dynamic of their understanding of him. far too many homosexuals who are seeking Christ perceive that they cannot come close to him if they remain a homosexual. In this mindset they search feverishly for change that will not come to them."
Death penalty upheld in 1985 murder
Cincinnati-A three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of murdering someone he met in a gay bar in 1985.
The court originally found that Robert Van Hook, now 51, had inadequate counsel, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, and the appellate court said October 5 that it was bound by the highest court's ruling.
Van Hook's appeal argues that a "gay panic" defense would have backed up his claim of mental illness, but his attorneys did not use it.
Van Hook was convicted of strangling and stabbing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985.
Top court won't change birth certificate
Washington, D.C.-The Supreme Court has turned away a case in which a same-sex couple sought to both be listed as parents on their adopted son's birth certificate.
The couple's attorneys argued that Louisiana's policy against putting both Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith's names on their son's birth certificate is unconstitutional. A federal appeals court earlier this year ruled against them, and the Supreme Court refused on October 11 to hear the case, leaving that decision to stand.
The men pointed to the tax, Social Security, insurance, school, and other purposes behind putting both men's names on the birth certificate. However, in Louisiana, only married couples are allowed to jointly adopt children, so while the adoption was performed in New York, the southern state refused to amend the birth certificate with both names, although state officials insist that they do not deny the validity of the adoption itself.
200 attend first out military conference
Las Vegas-OutServe, the active-duty LGBT military organization, held its first conference the weekend of October 13, celebrating the repeal of the military's “don't ask, don't tell" policy.
The OutServe Leadership Summit was co-sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, and had speakers from President Barack Obama's administration. It was expected to bring over 200 servicemembers to Las Vegas.
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Douglas Wilson, an openly gay Department of Defense official, provided the keynote speech at the summit's Saturday night banquet. ✓
Compiled by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.
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