October 29, 2008
Calif. gay marriage ban backers target businesses
SAN FRANCISCO—Leaders of the campaign to outlaw same-sex marriage in California made an offer to businesses that have given money to the state’s largest gay-rights group: Give us money or we’ll publicly identify you as opponents of traditional unions... Full Story / Comment
Editorial
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has made a $50,000 contribution to NO on Prop 8 and urged its members to support NO on Prop 8—the campaign to defeat Proposition 8, which if passed would eliminate marriage for gay and lesbian couples in California. The contribution, authorized by GLAAD’s National Board of Directors, is in addition to a $100,000 contribution made in August and continuous in-kind service... Full Story / Comment
Although the Chicago Free Press does not make formal endorsements in all races, we do suggest that persons interested in advancing the causes of equality, civil rights and other issues important to the GLBT community consider voting for the following candidates in selected key races in 2008... Full Story / Comment
Opinion
My little sister is getting married, and so last weekend we were driving through the beautiful small towns north of Manhattan, looking for a pastoral spot for the ceremony overlooking the Hudson... Full Story / Comment
Trick or Treat… Is It Hallowe’en Yet?
s it Hallowe’en yet? With one exception, here are some news stories that somehow failed to make it into The New York Times or other papers. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley held a meeting with Protestant ministers who voiced objection to a proposed... Full Story / Comment
Theater
Few small companies housed in storefront theaters have the combination of guts and artistry displayed by Bohemian Theatre Company. Combine those factors with the zeitgeist of nationwide anxiety, simmered together in the crucible of their claustrophobic studio space in Rogers Park, and BoHo’s daring programming choices start to make sense. What... Full Story / Comment
Forbidden Broadway: Dances with the Stars
This is perhaps the last fulmination from Broadway scourge Gerard Alessandrini (who says the pressure of blasting Broadway is just too much). His new mockery of the “Great Gray Way” mixes old hits and new harm to do more than butcher the sacred cows of Herald Square. By what he skewers... Full Story / Comment
Drag diva David Cerda never met a closeup he wasn’t ready for. “Haywire!,” his latest eye-popping, scenery-chewing, chin-thrusting, lung-bursting tour d’attitude is a Chicago premiere by L.A. writers Tim Wilkins and Kevin Remington that sucks its source from Joan Crawford’s “Strait-Jacket,” “Mildred Pierce... Full Story / Comment
News
When Johnny Cash sang the Folsom Prison Blues I bet he never anticipated this. Glenn Fait, the former Republican mayor and city councilman of Folsom, took out an ad in his local paper to announce that he is gay. Fait said he felt so strongly about his opposition to Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that seeks to ban same-sex marriage, that he decided to out himself to the community where he has lived for more than 40 years... Full Story / Comment
Daley has reservations about Pride Campus
Supporters of the Pride Campus annex of Social Justice High school were handed a setback last week when Mayor Richard M. Daley publically expressed misgivings about the GLBT-friendly school. A day after Chicago Public Schools delayed a Board of Education vote, Daley told Chicago Sun-Times Thursday that he had reservations about the school... Full Story / Comment
FBI: Hate crime down in 2007 but anti-gay crime up
Hate crime incidents decreased slightly last year, despite a surge in crimes targeting gays and lesbians. The FBI this week reported more than 7,600 hate crime incidents in 2007, down about 1 percent from last year. The decline was driven by decreases in the two largest categories of hate crimes—crimes against race and religion... Full Story / Comment
Public schools become focus of Calif. ban
SAN FRANCISCO—A girl in pigtails bounds into the kitchen after school and asks her mother to guess what she learned that day. “I learned how a prince married a prince, and I can marry a princess,” she exclaims to her mortified mom... Full Story / Comment
Fla. marriage amendment will be decided Nov. 4
MIAMI—Supporters and opponents know Amendment 2 will be called the “gay marriage amendment,” but neither see it that way. They also agree that the vote will be close, but that’s about it... Full Story / Comment
E-mail targets gay state House hopeful in Mich.
LANSING, Mich.—An activist who opposes gay marriage and same-sex benefits for public employees is trying to raise sexual orientation as an issue in a state House race. Gary Glenn sent an e-mail Friday to supporters and the media targeting openly gay Democrat... Full Story / Comment
Christian right intensifies attacks on Obama
NEW YORK—Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts. All are plausible scenarios if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the... Full Story / Comment
Jerry Lewis makes another anti-gay slur
CANBERRA, Australia—Jerry Lewis made an anti-gay slur on Australian television similar to one he apologized for using on his annual telethon a year ago. Following a news conference in Sydney Friday, Lewis, 82, was asked by a Network Ten national TV reporter for his opinion on the Australian nation sport of cricket... Full Story / Comment
AIDS treatment should start sooner, study finds
WASHINGTON—People who have the AIDS virus should start drug treatments sooner than current guidelines recommend, suggests a large new study that could change the care of hundreds of thousands of Americans... Full Story / Comment
Studies: Newer HIV drugs more tolerable for many
TRENTON, New Jersey—Two HIV drugs approved last year for patients who have developed resistance to older drugs also work well in new patients, and with fewer troubling side effects than a widely used regimen, according to the drugs’ makers... Full Story / Comment
Swedish health agency blasted for HIV stance
STOCKHOLM, Sweden—A Swedish health agency revealed in an article published Wednesday that it had refused to help police track down people who knowingly infect others with HIV. The revelation triggered harsh criticism and the government agency, the Swedish... Full Story / Comment
VENTURA, Calif.—A 14-year-old boy charged with killing a gay classmate will have a mental exam to determine whether he is competent to stand trial. Ventura County judge Oct. 21 appointed a psychiatrist and a psychologist to evaluate Brandon McInerney of Oxnard and report back in three weeks. The boy’s lawyers requested the evaluation... Full Story / Comment
