Timbre of a TimeFree Mind

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. DARREN

[OIA Newswire]

A gay Muslim campaigner is supporting calls for the London Assembly to set up an inquiry into Mayor Ken Livongstone's red carpet treatment of the Muslim cleric Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

"I fled to Britain to escape murder by Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria," said gay Muslim and OutRage! activist, Ramzi Isalam.

"Now I find the mayor of my adopted city embracing a cleric who endorses the execution of gay people in Islamic states and who provides a theological justification for the people who wanted to kill me," he said.

"Why is the mayor prepared to have a dialogue with Islamic fundamentalists like Dr Qaradawi and the Muslim Association of Britain, but not with liberal and progressive Muslims? Why does he ignore the pleas of the victims of Islamist repression and dictatorship?

"Those of us who have suffered at the hands of the fundamentalists do not want our persecutors following us to London and being given the red carpet treatment by the mayor of London," Isalam said.

Ken Livingstone has refused to meet a coalition of liberal, progressive and religious community groups to discuss their concerns about his hosting of Dr Qaradawi at City Hall last July.

Now the coalition has written to members of the London Assembly, calling for an inquiry into the mayor's hosting of Dr Qaradawi and his refusal to meet them or to engage in any consultation with community groups concerned by the mayor's embrace of the fundamentalist cleric.

The unprecedented coalition of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, gays, feminists, students, humanists and refugees from Islamist repression includes gay rights group OutRage!. Its Muslim spokesperson, Ramzi Isalam said:

"Dr Qaradawi has condoned anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence, suicide bombing, the execution of homosexuals by Islamic states, and the destruction of the Jews."

The full list of the signatories - plus the Qaradawi dossier and all letters to and from the Mayor is available on the following website, http://www.londoncommunitycoalition.org.

[ERIC DEGGANS]

Buried in the press release about Newsweek's recent revealing series of stories on the inner workings of both presidential campaigns was a chilling anecdote.

In their special election issue, dubbed "How He Did It," the magazine offered this story: "Looking for a way to pick up swing voters in the red states, former President Bill Clinton, in a phone call with (Sen. John) Kerry, urged the senator to back local bans on gay marriage. Kerry respectfully listened, then told his aides, "I'm not going to ever do that.' "

With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight - and an election that passed state measures against gay marriage in 11 states - Clinton's advice seems prescient to say the least. More than revealing Clinton's laser-sharp appreciation of Kerry's electoral predicament, the story may also say something about the Democrats' eventual response to the nasty drubbing they took on Election Day.

If the one successful Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years - who often boosted himself by co-opting the GOP's tactics - would advocate such an aggressive support on limiting gay marriage, the writing may well be on the wall.

A politician astute as Clinton had to know backing strictures on gay marriage wouldn't just cost Democrats a negligible gay vote. It would also cast off a good deal of the Michael Moore-style lefties - the intense progressives who voted for Nader in 2000 and were backing Kerry by a thread, mostly because he wasn't Bush.

As the few Democratic notables left standing talk conciliation and bipartisanship, capital "L" liberals - those who nod in agreement every time Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman describes possible voting irregularities in Ohio, for instance - face the real possibility of being marginalized by a party scrambling for a political center suddenly shifted even further to the right.

"Most liberals find their values in the book of Matthew, Luke and John," said Donna Brazile, former manager for Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000, on CNN last week. "There are a lot of liberals who are . . . going to roll up their sleeves and they're going to get out there and they're going to do the hard work that will produce victories in the future."

This from a woman who once said the pillars of the Democratic party were African-Americans, organized labor, women and homosexuals.

Most certainly, fervent liberals spent much of last week in a daze, wondering how Republicans could have managed such a complete victory, uniting cultural conservatives across religions and race in a way liberals once did on civil rights issues. But their true anger should be reserved for chastened, centrist Democrats who already seem far too willing to hang their defeat on a persecuted minority seeking a civil right of tremendous value.

"I believe (gay marriage) did energize a very conservative vote," California Sen. Diane Feinstein told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It gave them a position to rally around. The whole issue has been too much, too fast, too soon."

As a black man married to a white woman, I couldn't help wondering what might have happened if Americans had voted on interracial marriage back in 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled that laws against such unions were unconstitutional. According to a Gallup poll from back then, 72 percent of respondents disapproved of the idea.

I couldn't imagine someone telling me my marriage was "too much, too fast, too soon," even then.

Expecting the Democratic Party to turn its back on a minority group fighting for equality feels too much like throwing out the baby with the bathwater - parroting a prejudice voters wouldn't believe coming from the party of Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy, anyway.

There was a time when black people were told their demands for equal housing, schools and voting rights were "too much, too soon," and they turned to the courts for victories they couldn't win at the ballot box. Can anyone blame today's gay activists - with 40 years of black-focused civil rights history behind them - for an unwillingness to wait now?

[Gail Walker]

Neill McCafferty, 60, was born in the Bogside in Londonderry. After studying at Queen's University, Belfast, she became a teacher before switching to journalism. A leading Civil Rights figure during the Troubles, she went on to support the IRA terrorist campaign publicly - a stance that led to RTE banning her from its airwaves. She's gay and had a 15-year relationship with "the love of my life", writer Nuala O'Faolain. She now lives in Dublin and has just published her biography, "Nell". But is she as interesting, important and influential as, er, she thinks she is?.

As an outspoken Republican commentator, many people are going to be surprised that in your autobiography you've outed your Protestant granny on your mother's side.

Aye, that's right. I'm from the Shankill Road. We're fucking Prods, I have Orange blood. My mother's mother, Sarah McAleer, came from Agnes Street, where her family ran a pub. She converted to Catholicism when she married my grandfather, Sergeant Duffy, who was a member of the RIC, then latterly, the RUC.

And my mother always preferred going to stay with her Protestant grandparents than her Catholic ones. The Catholic granny seemed a bit better off and was always quiet and polite but the Protestant granny - well, they all knew how to party. My mother even enjoyed going to Protestant Sunday School, though I don't know how anyone could enjoy going to that. But then this is the bigotry in me coming out. Click here for entire article

[Kevin Schofield]

The Catholic Church last night voiced its concerns that same-sex and unmarried couples may be allowed to adopt or foster children following a review of current laws. Under existing Scots law, only one half of an unmarried couple - whether same-sex or heterosexual - can adopt a child.

An independent review group is considering how best to update and simplify the adoption laws, which date back to the 1970s. It was reported yesterday that the review group was going to recommend to ministers that Scotland should be brought into line with the position south of the Border, where unmarried couples have the same adoption rights as married people.

But the claims provoked an angry response from the Catholic Church, which insisted the status quo should remain. Peter Kearney, a Church spokesman, said unmarried couples were more likely to separate and that allowing them to adopt or foster children would be a threat to stable family life.

He said: "All the evidence shows that the most secure, stable and supportive environment for children is provided by married, heterosexual parents. "Allowing unmarried, heterosexual couples to adopt would not be the ideal, and we would have even more concern about homosexual couples because we know from a lot of evidence that homosexual relationships are inherently unstable."

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives also expressed concerns that the adoption laws might be changed. He said: "Our concern throughout this debate has been the desire to make sure there is no undermining of the stable family unit, which has been shown to be the most effective way for children to be raised."

The Executive launched the review of adoption laws a year ago. At the time, Euan Robson, the deputy education minister, hinted that the current legislation would be relaxed to allow more couples the opportunity to adopt. He said: "We must also ensure that we don’t discriminate against any couple who can offer a child the opportunity to grow up in a nurturing family environment."

[Guardian]

Ireland should give greater rights to homosexual couples but any moves to legalise gay marriage are "a long way off," Bertie Ahern has said.

The Irish prime minister was responding to a legal challenge by a lesbian couple seeking equal rights to married couples under Irish law. Mr Ahern told Irish state broadcaster RTE: "They say: 'We want more equality and we want to be treated fairer.' I agree with that.

"I totally agree with that. These people who are in relationships which are not illegal, they're not immoral, they're not improper.

"We should try to deal with some of the issues they have to surmount in their daily lives.

"And I think that's the fairest, caring and Christian way to deal with this."
Ann Louise Gilligan and Katherine Zappone wed in Canada last year.

When they got back home to Brittas in County Dublin they asked the tax authorities if they could file their returns as a married couple. But the Revenue Commissioners rejected their application, which would have meant they paid less tax. Last Tuesday, the High Court ruled that the couple will get a full hearing to seek a judicial review.

He said the case was not simply about tax bands or treatment of married or unmarried people, but had profound implications for same sex marriages and for society as a whole. An all-party parliamentary committee is currently considering substantial reform to Ireland's family law, including the question of whether to grant greater rights to unmarried couples, including gays. The 2001 census recorded 77,600 households of unmarried partners with 1,300 being gay couples. Unmarried couples pay higher income and inheritance tax.

[Matt Eley - UK]

POLICE hunting a crazed knifeman who stabbed a man in Highgate because he was gay have issued CCTV footage in a bid to trap his attacker. Detectives have launched an attempted murder investigation following the attack on an N20 bus in Highgate, which resulted in a man being stabbed four times and left for dead.

A 25-year-old man boarded the bus in Tottenham Court Road with his 38-year-old male partner at about 4am last Thursday. The suspect got on the bus at Camden Town and sat directly behind the two men on the top deck. As the bus approached Highgate Tube Station the suspect started an argument with the two men after he became annoyed at the apparent nature of their relationship.

Following a brief exchange the suspect got off the bus but changed his mind, got back on and stabbed the 25-year-old victim in the neck, stomach, arm and leg. The suspect, also aged about 25, fled but his image was captured by the bus CCTV system. The victim was left in a pool of blood on the bus before being taken to hospital. He has since been discharged after making what police described as a "miraculous recovery".

Detective Sergeant Ralph Coates works for the Haringey Police Community Safety Unit, which deals with hate crimes such as homophobic attacks. LINK

[Lansing-AP]

Michigan's new constitutional amendment banning gay marriage could block benefits in pending contracts with five unions. Nearly 38,000 state employees are holding ratification votes on labor contracts that include benefits for same-sex partners.

But last week's approval of Proposal 2, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, means the benefits issue may land in the courts. The amendment won't abolish existing domestic partner benefits, but will deny new ones once it takes effect.

Gay candidates won in unlikely places
Lupe Valdez (red name tag) is the first lesbian,
Hispanic to be elected sheriff in Dallas.
(Photo by Dalton DeHart) LINK

[Matthew A. Hennie]

A man authorities call a serial killer was indicted Tuesday in the two-year-old slaying of a gay Atlanta man in his Midtown home and faces charges in another similar homicide.

Howard Milton Belcher, 26, was formally charged with the Oct. 5, 2002, death of Mark Schaller, a 40-year-old gay man who lived in an upscale condo on Dutch Valley Road off Monroe Drive. In June, Belcher was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for the murder of a gay Paulding County man on Oct. 10, 2002. LINK

[Philip Bradfield - Northern Ireland]

A gay Irish senator and Church of Ireland member will give his reaction to Archbishop Eames' report on homosexuality in Castlewellan today. David Norris is the keynote speaker at an international conference, where he aims to explain why homosexuality "is neither a sin nor an illness" as has traditionally been held by theologians and psychologists.

One of the conference organisers is Castlewellan Church of Ireland cleric the Rev Gordon Graham, an executive board member of the Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations, under whose banner the conference is running. Bridging his active interests in theology and psychotherapy, the conference is entitled Spirituality and Psychotherapy, complementary modes of healing?

Mr Norris, a leading expert on James Joyce at Trinity College Dublin for 30 years, said he would also explore Archbishop Eames' recent report on homosexuality, speaking as a lay member of the Church. He said: "I think his report was a little bit mealymouthed and doesn't successfully take on all elements of prejudice but, on the other hand, he seems to be trying to provide a bridge to prevent extremes in the Church from moving away from each other.

"He did ask the people responsible for the ordination of gay American bishop Gene Robinson to apologise for the hurt they had caused but, for me, that would be a step too far - especially in the light of the fact that the Church has generated hatred of gay people in a most unChrist-like fashion."

Regarding Archbishop Eames' traditional view of marriage, he said: "There does seem to me something of a moral vanity about people who think that their personal sexual practices are especially endorsed by God." Mr Graham looked forward to Mr Noriss's address, saying: "I would describe Senator Norris as a prominent cultural critic and a keen observer of both the theological and psychological worlds."

[Lou Chibbaro, Jr.]

Michael Winn, 62, a health care industry professional who lives in Deerfield, Beach, Fla., said he voted for George W. Bush for president this year after having voted for Al Gore four years ago. Winn is a gay man and a lifelong Democrat, although he admits he “strayed” from his party in the 1980s when he voted for Ronald Reagan.

“When 9-11 happened, I thought President Bush was so wonderful because he brought the country together,” he said. “He began the war on terrorism, which I strongly support.”

Winn makes clear that he disagrees with the president on some issues, such as a constitutional ban gay marriage and stem cell research. “But I feel the issue of national security is more important than the issue of gay marriage and the other issues I don’t agree with him on,” he said.

Winn is among those who put a face on the 23 percent of the gay electorate that a national exit poll claimed voted for Bush, breaking from the 77 percent of their gay brothers and sisters who reported voting for Democrat John Kerry.

The 23 percent of gay voters who backed the president translate into more than one million gay male, lesbian, or bisexual voters, according to the exit poll, a figure that stunned and baffled many gay activists. LINK

[UPI]

Gay-rights groups plan to proceed with caution in their challenges to same-sex marriage bans passed by voters in 11 states Nov. 2.

Fearful of public hostility after many of the state constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman were overwhelmingly approved by voters, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union's lesbian and gay rights project and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force intend to scale back their push for marriage rights, instead focusing on legal measures supporting same-sex civil unions, the New York Times reported.

"The consequences - the risks - of losing are great. And we're unprepared for the consequences of winning," said the ACLU's Matthew Coles of gay activists' fears of stoking a debate that could potentially result in a ban on same-sex marriage being written into the U.S. Constitution.

"There is no putting lipstick on this pig. Our legal strategy is at least 10 years ahead of our political and legislative strategy," said NGLTF Executive Director Matt Foreman.

I haven't talked a lot about the election of this past week. I guess you could say that I have been speechless. But to be honest, I have talked with Darren and a few folks here at work, but not a whole lot. I see many folks happy with the outcome of particular measures that passed in 11 states , but I cannot share in this experience because this has affected me personally in a way that feels somewhat hurtful. This is not a case of sour grapes...I lived through the entire Reagan Administration unscathed and somewhat silent. Not too many of my gay brothers did.

I hear a lot of people saying that gay marriage is too much to ask for too soon. I have given this consideration and I wonder why this is so prevalent in their afterthoughts of the election? Too much too soon? Many of the Democrats didn't want to jump on this bandwagon as it hurt their chances for being elected. Well I guess this issue hurt a lot of folks. Perhaps gay marriage is something to be decided in the far off future but I don't believe that writing additional comments in the Constitution is necessarily the way to go. To my mind that piece of paper "adds" to our lives, it not supposed to "take away".

This country is divided almost equally about gay folks being together if I can believe what I am told. My opinion is this: either you are comfortable and okay with gay people sharing and expressing their lives together or you are not. There is no middle ground. I do not believe that I can be in a partial relationship with my partner, Darren. (Is it ok to be in the same house together as long as you don't make anyone "think" of two men having sex?) I am in a relationship with him and we just happen to both be men and our lives combine- sexuality (which is something we choose to share privately and together), spirituality, our work, our pets, our family/friends, our finances. We share our chores, our laughter, and each others' shoulders when need be.

I guess a line has been drawn in the sand and the question(s) are: Do YOU believe that two consenting adult (non-blood) related human beings can legally be connected for purposes of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Is my relationship any different than my parents, siblings or my neighbors, YOURS? Darren and I pay our taxes much the same way that straight couples do and we are citizens just the same. We don't necessarily worship the Big Guy in the Sky like many others do. Is that the disqualifier for marriage/civil union? Additionally I respect and applaud the rights of couples to NOT participate in matrimony the way that it is practiced here in the USA. If it helps you keep more money in your household or is because of something else that matters to YOU, then by all means you have my blessings even when my blessings aren't part of the deal.

I am never going to deny my relationship and I am never going to hide. I am never going to act as if I am something different than God made me. I did that- 25 years ago and I will never allow myself to be that miserable again. Darren tells me that God doesn't waste anything. And I will add this, She doesn't make any mistakes either.

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

John Kenneth Galbraith

[Peter Moore, London]

Three teens charged with the murder of a gay London man appeared in court Monday. Four other suspects remain under police investigation.

The three, a 19 year old and two 16 year olds, are charged in the killing of David Morley on October 30 in a London park. They are also charged with attempted grievous bodily harm on two other people, two counts of violent disorder and conspiracy to commit robbery.

All of the victims were gay.

David Morley, 37, suffered serious head injuries in the attack. He died in hospital several hours later. (story)

On Friday night hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil for Morley.

During their court appearance the three teens spoke only to give their names, ages and addresses.

All three were remanded in custody to await trial.

Morley had been one of the survivors of a 1999 terrorist attack on the Admiral Duncan gay pub in London. He escaped with minor burns. Three people were killed and 73 injured in the nail bomb attack. A skinhead and self proclaimed fascist was later arrested and convicted in the attack.

Morley's killing prompted a renewed uproar over homophobic lyrics in the music of some reggae singers.

Police last week began a criminal investigation into the music of Sizzla, and Elephant Man to see if they have violated Britain's anti-hate laws. (story) Concerts last week by Sizzla were cancelled after the British government refused to grant the Jamaican performer a visa.

Crimes against gays are up dramatically in Britain. Over the past year gay-hate crimes have risen by 23 percent. During Friday's vigil for Morley, another man was stabbed while riding on a London bus. (story)

[Helen Nyambura]

It's the eve of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, but Hamedi says he will not set foot in a mosque for the whole fasting period, or at any other time for that matter. As a homosexual in the devoutly Islamic Indian Ocean island, Hamedi is afraid other worshippers will attack him if he dares enter a mosque.

"They know I am gay, they throw stones at me on the streets, they insult me. I don't have time for them, I keep to my business," Hamedi said, asking that his name and profession be kept secret. To the outside world, Zanzibar is a laid-back tourist's paradise but in recent months, Islamic groups have spearheaded a campaign to cleanse the island of "corrupting" practices such as homosexuality and alcohol. Entire story

[New York Times News Service]

PARIS -- Along the boulevards, images of two cuddling men can still bring some pedestrians to a halt below a slogan promoting Liberte, Egalite and Tele.

But the advertisements for Pink TV, France's new gay television channel, delivered their most provocative message with a 1984 photograph of two politicians, Francois Mitterrand of France and Helmut Kohl of Germany, in suits and sober expressions, hands linked. With it was a caption: "There's more to life than sex."

The ad ignited exactly the outrage that Pink TV's founder and president, Pascal Houzelot, savors. "It's a joke, and everyone knows they're not gay," he said. "But there is some truth that men can have a deep relationship and sex is not part of it."

Such is the approach of the pay channel, based in Paris, which bills itself as a "giant leap for television, a small step in high heels." Pink TV's founder is gay, its sportscaster is a transsexual, and its investors are among the titans of French media: TF1, Canal Plus and M6 along with Francois Henry Pinault, of the retailer Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, and Pierre Berge, the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent.

The station's debut comes a few months ahead of that of Logo in the United States, a cable channel backed by MTV that also intends to devote its programming to gay issues.

Pink TV, which went on air Oct. 25, glorifies the gay lifestyle without the politics, and it offers some X-rated fare, shown four times a week after midnight.

The programming is a mix of camp and culture, reviving the career of the '70s U.S. action heroine Wonder Woman. The channel offers Japanese manga cartoons and profiles of Princess Diana and Freddy Mercury of the rock group Queen.

The fiercest criticism has come from people outraged at the exploitation of the Mitterrand photograph. But within the gay community, the reviews have also been mixed. Alain Piriou, a spokesman for Inter-LGBT, a gay and lesbian rights group, said Pink TV's programming emphasized consumerism and created caricatures.

"We don't all live in beautifully decorated apartments with lots of money to spend," Piriou said.

Houzelot estimates that he needs 180,000 subscribers to pay 9 euros (about $11.60) a month to produce 80 percent of Pink TV's revenue. The remainder is expected to come from advertisers. Ads for Nissan, BMW and L'Oreal have already been commissioned. Another sponsor is Gaz de France, the energy company.

[Rukmini Callimachi]

Kelly Burke was happy to be at home after the election, watching her 3-year-old son convert a box into a spaceship. But she was dreading the arrival of a letter that could change their lives.

"The mailman came this morning and I panicked," said the stay-at-home mom on Nov. 3, one day after Oregon voters decisively approved a ban on gay marriage.

Like many housewives, Burke, 35, relies on her spouse's employer for her own health insurance. But because Burke is a lesbian, it was only this spring — after Multnomah County momentarily flung open the door to gay marriage — that she became a legal "spouse" by marrying her partner of 15 years, Dolores Doyle.

The change in legal status meant she became one of a number of married gay and lesbian spouses in Multnomah County who began receiving comprehensive medical insurance through their partner's employer.

While 11 states passed constitutional amendments Tuesday banning gay marriage, Oregon is the only state among them with legally married gay couples.

Those amendments deal with the right to marry rather than the legal and employment benefits that come with marriage.

Supporters of gay marriage argue those benefits should be available to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. But opponents say the issues are separate, and while they reject gay marriage, some of them agree benefits should apply to gay and heterosexuals alike.

A total of 2,961 gay couples got married in Oregon from March 3 until a judge stopped the practice six weeks later. Now, a cloud of uncertainty surrounds their legal status.

"When the mailman comes, my first thought is: 'Oh my God, here comes the letter. They're cutting me off,' " said Burke, who previously paid $200 a month out of pocket for her own, bare-bones insurance.
click here to read entire article

Well I've made the purchase and received my iPod (Apple has done a great job). I absolutely love it and I can't remember digging music this much. It is a breeze to use and I have downloaded quite a bit of music on it already. I have the 20GB version and it will be more than I'll evar need. I upgraded the earphones and I am awaiting the delivery of those....

My friend Will writes from Canada with thoughts of the US Election...as they were occuring on Election night.
click here for Will Engle's (worldly) Blog

Today is the greatest
Day I've ever known
Can't live for tomorrow,
Tomorrow's much too long
I'll burn my eyes out

Before I get out
I wanted more
Than life could ever grant me
Bored by the chore
Of saving face

Today is the greatest
Day I've ever known
Can't wait for tomorrow
I might not have that long
I'll tear my heart out
Before I get out

Pink ribbon scars
That never forget
I tried so hard
To cleanse these regrets
My angel wings
Were bruised and restrained
My belly stings

Today is the greatest day
That I have ever really known

[smashing pumpkins]

[Garry Wills]

This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution.

This might be called Bryan's revenge for the Scopes trial of 1925, in which William Jennings Bryan's fundamentalist assault on the concept of evolution was discredited. Disillusionment with that decision led many evangelicals to withdraw from direct engagement in politics. But they came roaring back into the arena out of anger at other court decisions - on prayer in school, abortion, protection of the flag and, now, gay marriage. Mr. Rove felt that the appeal to this large bloc was worth getting President Bush to endorse a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (though he had opposed it earlier).

The results bring to mind a visit the Dalai Lama made to Chicago not long ago. I was one of the people deputized to ask him questions on the stage at the Field Museum. He met with the interrogators beforehand and asked us to give him challenging questions, since he is too often greeted with deference or flattery.

The only one I could think of was: "If you could return to your country, what would you do to change it?" He said that he would disestablish his religion, since "America is the proper model." I later asked him if a pluralist society were possible without the Enlightenment. "Ah," he said. "That's the problem." He seemed to envy America its Enlightenment heritage.

Which raises the question: Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?

America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.

The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.

Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity? Not in France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain. We find it in the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists. Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous, so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals. They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed.

It is often observed that enemies come to resemble each other. We torture the torturers, we call our God better than theirs - as one American general put it, in words that the president has not repudiated.

President Bush promised in 2000 that he would lead a humble country, be a uniter not a divider, that he would make conservatism compassionate. He did not need to make such false promises this time. He was re-elected precisely by being a divider, pitting the reddest aspects of the red states against the blue nearly half of the nation. In this, he is very far from Ronald Reagan, who was amiably and ecumenically pious. He could address more secular audiences, here and abroad, with real respect.

In his victory speech yesterday, President Bush indicated that he would "reach out to the whole nation," including those who voted for John Kerry. But even if he wanted to be more conciliatory now, the constituency to which he owes his victory is not a yielding one. He must give them what they want on things like judicial appointments. His helpers are also his keepers.

The moral zealots will, I predict, give some cause for dismay even to nonfundamentalist Republicans. Jihads are scary things. It is not too early to start yearning back toward the Enlightenment.

Bobby Ross, Jr.


One-time migrant farm worker Lupe Valdez made history this week when she became the first woman and the first Hispanic elected Dallas County sheriff, not to mention the first Democrat to win the post since the mid-1970s.

She also is openly gay.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee that endorsed Valdez and trained her on answering questions related to her sexual orientation, hailed her as the "first-ever Latina lesbian sheriff."

"I can imagine my mom crying for joy last night as this happened," Valdez said Wednesday, a day after defeating Republican Danny Chandler. In Valdez's vision, her deceased mother looked down from heaven and watched her girl go from picking beans in a field to leading a 1,900-employee law enforcement agency with a $90 million budget.

The road to the sheriff's office started years ago when Valdez's mother encouraged her to better herself through education. After working two or three jobs at a time to pay for college, Valdez became a federal agent. She worked undercover on drug, organized crime and fraud cases for U.S. Customs.

Now, she'll take over a department tainted by scandal.

Questionable business dealings by 21-year incumbent Sheriff Jim Bowles resulted in a grand-jury investigation and an indictment that was eventually thrown out. Chandler, a 29-year sheriff's department veteran, ousted Bowles in the Republican primary.

Chandler, 53, attacked his former boss during the campaign, hoping to distance himself from Bowles. But that strategy failed.

The election campaign was generally cordial until the end, when Chandler made an issue of Valdez's endorsement by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, based in Washington. Chandler issued a statement Wednesday expressing his confidence in Valdez's ability to restore trust to the office and saying she "will have the privilege of leading the finest crime fighters in the country."

Margo Frasier, who heads the 1,350-employee Travis County Sheriff's Department in Austin, expressed her delight with Valdez's election but said a woman serving as sheriff faces hurdles.

"The reality of it is, when you make mistakes that anybody makes, they decide you made that mistake because you're a woman," Frasier said.

But once the "good ol' boys in Dallas County" realize Valdez is competent, Frasier said, she will earn their respect and her gender, race and sexual orientation won't matter.

[AP]
Two lesbian couples filed a federal lawsuit that challenges a new state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage as well as a related federal law. Oklahoma was one of 11 states that approved constitutional bans on gay marriage Tuesday. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday says the state ban violates the equal protection and due process rights of the plaintiffs by not allowing them to marry and by not recognizing civil unions performed elsewhere.

The lawsuit also challenges the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which permits states to ignore gay weddings performed in other states. The plaintiffs are Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin of Broken Arrow, who have lived together for eight years, and Susan G. Barton and Gay E. Phillips of Tulsa, who were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2001.

The other states that approved such amendments Tuesday were Oregon, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah.

[AP]

The priest at a Roman Catholic parish known for supporting homosexual issues says he will comply with a Vatican order to remove homosexual pride material from the church website. Rev. George Wertin of St. Joan of Arc parish in Minneapolis says he will also comply with a bishops' request that he stop allowing non-ordained guests to preach at Mass.

The Minneapolis archdiocese says it "welcomes gay and lesbian worshipers who are in full communion with the moral teachings of the church as they apply to all Catholics. It does not, however, endorse the promotion of sexual relations among unmarried persons." In April, Archbishop Harry Flynn canceled a preaching appearance by Mel White, a homosexual activist from the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.

A Saskatchewan judge will rule Friday on whether the province will become the seventh jurisdiction in Canada to allow same-sex marriages. Justice Donna Wilson reserved her decision Wednesday after hearing from lawyers representing five gay and lesbian couples who were denied marriage licences. The judge is expected to rule in favour of same-sex marriage, since neither the provincial nor the federal government plans to contest the application. Same-sex couples can marry in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, the Yukon and Nova Scotia.

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november 2 - DIRTY DAY -
I don't know you...and you don't know the half of it
I had a starring role...I was the bad guy who walked out
They say be careful where you aim
Because where you aim you just might hit
You can hold onto something so tight
you've already lost it

Dragging me down
That's not the way it used to be
You can't even remember
What I'm trying to forget

You want explanations...
I don't even understand
If you need someone to blame...
Throw a rock in the air
You're bound to hit someone guilty

[From Father to son
In one life has begun
A work that's never done
Father to son]

(And love...it won't last kissin' time)

Get it right
There's no blood thicker than ink
Hear what I say
Nothing's as simple as you think

Wake up
Somethings you can't get around
I'm in you
More so when they put me in the ground

It was a dirty day
A dirty day
Hanks says
THE DAYS RUN AWAY LIKE HORSES OVER THE HILL

U2 ZOOROPA
BRIAN ENO

All Souls Day

On the Sunday that a minister preached that God did not love people like her, Jacquelyn Holland wanted to storm out of the church. But she sat and listened to the sermon, even as her homosexual orientation was called "an abomination" and equated with "murder, a heinous crime," Holland said.

"This person just eliminated me," Holland, 46, said of the preacher she heard two years ago. Holland is now a minister in Unity Fellowship Church of Christ in Newark, which accepts people of all sexual orientations. She was one of many people at a Unity-sponsored conference of black gay and transgender Christians here who said such sermons are common in mainstream black places of worship.

Now, as the debate has intensified over whether same-sex marriage should be legalized or constitutionally banned, what some black gay Christians characterize as a long-standing "don't ask, don't tell" relationship between them and their churches is coming under greater strain.

A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that since 2000, black Protestants have become far less likely than other Protestant groups to believe that gays should have equal rights. Black Protestant support for gay rights dipped to a low of 40 percent this year, down from 65 percent in 1996 and 59 percent in 1992.

Among all the other groups surveyed - including not only other Protestants, but also Catholics, Latino Catholics, Jews and members of unaffiliated churches -- support for gay rights increased over the same period.

Black Christians' attitudes toward homosexuality reflect the traditional church teachings - and other factors specific to the black experience in America. Ram A. Cnaan, director of the study of organized religion and social work at the University of Pennsylvania, attributed the feeling among black Protestants to their historical experience of discrimination.
Read entire article here

[KRISTEN WYATT]

Georgia voters decided Tuesday whether to amend the state constitution to include a gay marriage ban, but even if overwhelmingly approved, court challenges could prevent the matter from being settled.

Same-sex marriages are already prohibited under state law, but after a court ruling in Massachusetts led to the legalization of gay marriages there, many states were considering constitutional amendments to shield their bans from court interference.

Polls have shown the gay marriage amendment would easily pass in Georgia, as it has in other states. The Christian Coalition in Georgia, an influential activist group and one of the loudest supporters of the amendment, expected an overwhelming win.

The amendment received bipartisan support, introduced by Republicans in the Legislature and backed by many Democrats, especially those from rural areas.

President Bush has called for a similar amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution. Bush's popularity in Georgia was sure to help the state amendment, said William Boone, a political scientist at Clark Atlanta University.

Opponents gave a last-ditch plea Monday for Georgians to reject the amendment, calling it unnecessary and hurtful to gay people.

"Please let common sense prevail. Do not vote for hate. Do not vote for discrimination," said Rep. Nan Grogan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat.

Gay-rights advocates were planning a legal challenge if the amendment passed. The basis of their complaint is that the amendment contains more than one subject.

Voters were asked if marriage should be defined as only between a man and a woman. But the full amendment, which voters did not see on the ballot, would also bar judges from ruling on disputes between same-sex couples.

So if two men had a long-term relationship and owned a house together, say, but then broke up, a judge would not be allowed "to consider or rule on any of the parties' respective rights arising as a result of or in connection with such relationship."

One opponent to the amendment, Democratic Sen. David Adelman of Atlanta, said the ballot language wouldn't withstand court scrutiny.

"The rush to divide us by the Christian Coalition and the right wing has resulted in shoddy legal work," he said.

The Georgia Supreme Court refused to block the amendment from the ballot, saying it cannot intervene in contests over proposed legislation or constitutional amendments until the legislation has been passed or the amendments approved by the voters.

Sadie Fields, chairwoman of the state Christian Coalition, said she wasn't worried about court challenges.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," she said. "I think the courts will have to respect the people's voice."

The amendment's author, Republican state Sen. Mike Crotts, was less optimistic.

"I'm sure someone's gonna take it to court, either way," he said.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

--WB Yeats

[Liverpool Echo]

LIVERPOOL'S first ever gay arts festival will get under way tonight.

The 10-day Homotopia festival will be launched with a 50ft pink light display at the city's Wellington Column and is aimed at promoting artist talent from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gender communities.

Artists from across the UK will take part in the unique programme which covers film, theatre, photography, art, comedy, storytelling and heritage.

They will be joined by homegrown performance artists and comedians, including Chloe Poems, Terry Titter and Lady Shaun.

Co-ordinator Gary Everett said: "Homotopia is going to be a fantastic ten days which will really show off the artistic talents of this city's gay and lesbian community.

"Homotopia is a great example of this city embracing different aspects of community, especially in the run-up to European Capital of Culture 2008."

David Morley "Killed for being gay"

[Flora Stubbs And Patrick Mcgowan, Evening Standard]

Police are hunting a gang of teenagers - including two girls - after a man was beaten to death apparently for being gay.

It happened near Hungerford Bridge early on Saturday. Mr Morley was walking home from the Heaven nightclub with a 29-year-old friend when they were confronted by the gang of at least four. It also included two teenage boys - one white and one black.

Today it emerged that Mr Morley was a survivor of the 1999 nail bombing at the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho.

In the weekend attack, Mr Morley was subjected to a "savage beating" suffering at least 40 bruises. He was taken to St Thomas' Hospital, where he died as a result of multiple injuries to his head and torso. His friend suffered minor injuries.

Police today said the youths may have been targeting homosexual clubbers, seeking people leaving Heaven, a leading gay club at Charing Cross.
Read story here

[Agence France-Presse]

Voters in 11 US states will cast their ballots for president on Tuesday but will also decide on whether they would ban gay marriage by amending their states' constitutions.

The wave of state constitutional amendments, which could deny social benefits to all unmarried couples, is the work of religious activists who disagree with a November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision which recognised same-sex marriages.

The state constitutional amendments defining marriage as strictly between a man and a woman have a good chance of being adopted in nearly all of the 11 states where they are on the ballot. They create as much of a problem for backers of President George W. Bush as they do for his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, given their scope, which could deny health care or other protections to domestic partners or unmarried couples.

Bush has come out in favour of an amendment to the US Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman and has said that legal arrangements other than marriage should be set by the states. Kerry is opposed to the US constitutional amendment, which failed to garner enough votes for passage in the Senate and House of Represenatives earlier this year.

In Ohio, the latest polls say 57 per cent of voters favour the amendment, the text of which not only defines marriage as between a man and a woman, but would ban any "legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."

The breadth of this ban worries Republican Governor Bob Taft, Republican and Democratic members of Congress and labor unions. Nationwide Insurance and the corporation owning The Limited, Chloe and Victoria's Secret, pillars of Ohio's economy, have mobilised against the amendment.

They said in a letter to Ohio state business leaders, "The ability to offer domestic partnership benefits is an important recruiting tool as Ohio companies seek to grow." In Michigan, an even larger majority, 65 to 70 per cent, polls say, favours the constitutional ban.

"The union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognised as a marriage or similar union for any purpose," the text says. The Catholic Church has taken the lead in distributing to each of its 802 parishes in Michigan video cassettes and thousands of brochures spelling out the Vatican's strict position on marriage. However, the amendment has not been welcomed by all churches or groups. The Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit and the bishops of Michigan's four Episcopal dioceses have called on voters to reject the ban, along with Michigan's AFL-CIO, the state union umbrella group.

Although Michigan is leaning toward Kerry, Republicans hope voters going to the polls specifically to approve the ban will, once in the voting booths, also cast their ballots for Bush. In Georgia, where a similar amendment looks as though it will be approved by a large margin, the Georgia Baptist Convention sponsored a series of television spots on traditional views of marriage.

The Reverend Aaron McCollough, of the Troup Baptist Association, has campaigned for the constitutional amendment. "I'm hoping the amendment passes big in Georgia and sends a message to federal legislators that the American people want this," he said.

Similar amendments are on the ballots in Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, North Dakota, Montana and Oregon, the only state where voters are expected to reject the constitutional ban.