TS/TV/CD/LGBT News and opinion from around the world for Saturday June 12th 2010

Teresa Nolan, who runs the foster home for LGBTQ Youth, says that more often than not, people in the program are usually kicked out or abused by families not accepting their identities.

"This all started in 1992 after (then) Gov. James Florio signed a bill making New Jersey the fifth state in the country to protect citizens from discrimination based on sexual orientation," Pople said. "It (the event) has grown but has not changed. We are here to provide resources, a safe place where people can network and become connected with the community."

She marched with her 37-year-old partner Limor Sorek, whom she married in a civil ceremony in Cyprus, because Israeli law currently recognizes only traditional religious weddings conducted by authorized rabbis if held inside Israel itself - although the country does recognize the validity of civil cervices held abroad, including same-sex ones.

She's happy that Saturday's PrideFest, supporting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, will take place at HemisFair Park, just west of the Folklife grounds. "We're able to reach out to more people this way," Browning said. "I'm able to show more people that we're just as normal as they are."

For only the second time in the Muslim country’s history, a court last month sanctioned a sex-change operation as treatment for gender-identity disorder

Clear Channel Outdoor, when contacted this afternoon, said it needed more time to make a statement on the issue.

Inselman, who grew up in Eugene, Ore., was not allowed to express his gender identity at home. And his Catholic high school didn't allow any gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student support groups.

As far as that court is concerned you need breasts to be a woman: and they need to be of a size and permanence that satisfies the French legal establishment to qualify.

"This is not just an 'issue¹ but is about people's daily lives and deeply held faith commitments. For some, even this statement represents a risk. For some the statement does not go nearly far enough." There are two Anglican dioceses and one parish in Canada where the bishop has approved the blessing of same-sex marriages.

"I am infuriated that someone would target our kids in this cowardly way," says Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center. The shelter is in a church building owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.

"I’ve always encouraged people to come out, but it’s tricky for public people, you know? Nobody wants to go back in the closet, but it does change your life and are you ready for that? Well now it’s less so, but it was in every article – lesbian tennis player – that was part of my description. They don’t say that about straight people. That’s one of the big things they think about when they see you, and who wants that? It is changing, slowly. Nothing needs to change; it just needs to keep going in the same direction"

To air their concerns, Garmon and fellow volunteers co-wrote a letter and sent it by email on May 6 to Tracey Sandilands and the Pride Toronto board members.

"We basically asked what’s going on. In particular, we brought up the idea that there should be some sort of community consultation event between Pride and the trans community." Sandilands' May 14 email reply indicated that one would be held - on Aug 12.

"So it’s going to be after Pride. I guess their thinking is to try and sort of fix it for next year. Nothing’s going to happen before Pride 2010, I think that’s clear."

Founded in 2003 by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry is a non-partisan, not-for-profit 501c(3) organization. Read Evan Wolfson's Biography

Fifty-one percent of Americans believe people are born homosexual - an increase of eight points from 1993. Thirty-six percent say homosexuality is something people choose. Those who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to believe sexuality is something people are born with.

In an earlier application to have the complaint dismissed, Lee Molnar stated "to allow a gay couple to share a bed in my Christian home would violate my Christian beliefs and would cause me and my wife great distress."

The court system has adopted a system of general indifference to claims about prisoner medical care, and the law generally permits them to ignore such claims. Even after the US Supreme Court admitted somewhat grudgingly in 1994, after years of scoffing by prison officials, that putting transwomen in with male prisoners just might result in an Eighth Amendment violation when they got raped and sexually assaulted, the prison system has treated trans prisoners in an especially brutal and uncaring fashion. Prison-industrial complex, anyone?

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, has been at odds for decades over everything from the ordination of women to the concept of salvation to more recent disputes about the rights of gays and lesbians to become clergy and marry. Conservatives' push to separate revved up after church leaders voted in 2003 to ordain Gene Robinson, an openly gay New Hampshire priest, as bishop.