The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) articles from December 2005

The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) archives from December 2005

Peter Tatchell.(Q&A)(Interview)
December 6, 2005... In London antigay hate crimes have risen 8.5% over the past year, while other hate crimes have decreased about 4%. In October, Jody Dobrowski, 24, was savagely beaten to death in Clapham Common--a gritty but popular cruising spot. His was the...

No sense of decency.(FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF)(Editorial)
December 6, 2005... As George Clooney makes clear in this issue's cover story, the famous "Have you no sense of decency?" retort fired at witch-hunting senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 had a very specific context: The red-baiter...

Time line: international marriage.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... 1989: Denmark passes the first national civil union law, providing limited partner rights to same-sex couples. 1994: Israel becomes the first Middle Eastern country to provide limited rights to same-sex couples. 1999: South Africa...

Prison rape.(05.05.76 ARCHIVES)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... The case of gay Texas convict Roderick Johnson marks the latest in a long line of prison rape stories that have appeared in The Advocate. In a cover story nearly three decades ago, the magazine investigated and editorialized on the issue....

Rent to own.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... Thank you so much for writing such an in-depth story about the movie version of Rent ["Rent Gets Real," November 8]. As I have read many other articles regarding the upcoming release, they all seemed like sound bites compared with the history...

No excuses.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... Jerry Davis states that gay Spokane mayor James West is being asked to "step down" because of his "hypocrisy" [First Person, November 8]. Wrong. He's being asked to step down because he attempted to sell City Hall jobs for sex. That's illegal;...

In the pink.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... The use of Baker-Miller pink as a calming influence is well-known in the criminal justice and psychology fields ["Locker Room Dustup," November 8]. It is not surprising that an athletic coach chose to use it in the opponents' locker room. It's...

Road rage.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... I was feeling proud and uplifted after reading "We're Here to Help" [November 8] about gay and lesbian relief workers in New Orleans. Then a few pages later I wasn't feeling so proud anymore and my heart sank after reading "Why I Love My Car."...

Church and state.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... Regarding your November 8 Cross Country item that reads, "Catholic leaders launched a petition drive in churches across [Massachusetts] on October 2 in an effort to gather the 65,000 signatures necessary to get a same-sex marriage ban proposal...

Baby steps.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... After reading Chris Rice's column titled "Friends Like These" [November 8] I felt overwhelmingly compelled, but perhaps not in the sense he'd like his readers to be. Perhaps many younger gay men and women feel as he does, that the gay...

Children will listen.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... The story in your October 25 issue "'Fag' in My Classroom" should be an inspiration to us all. First, that a teacher has the courage and maturity to allow such potentially explosive debates in her classroom is a testament to the commitment of...

Covering Katrina.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... On behalf of the board of directors of Fire & Ink Inc., I'd like to express how saddened and disappointed we were by your apparent lack of interest in GLBT people of color affected by Hurricane Katrina. Your cover story for the October 11...

Correction.(FROM THE READERS)(Correction Notice)
December 6, 2005... In our October 11 Report item titled "To Protect and Abuse," Sacramento police officers were alleged to have mistreated a transgender woman. The reported abuse was actually attributed to the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department. The Advocate...

Reader comments from www.advocate.com.(THE ADVOCATE Poll)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... In the November 8 issue, we asked: Is it demeaning to gays and women to paint a college football locker room pink to "pacify" opponents? * "There have been studies that show that the color pink can sooth aggressive behavior. That being...

A Rainbow in retirement.(COMMUNITY)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... All her life Hilda Rush has looked for places where she could be herself. Now she's sure she has found one. "At 93," she said, "I need to be sensible about my future." With New Mexico's lieutenant governor, Diane Denish, by her side, Rush...

Defrocked again.(RELIGION)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... United Methodist minister Beth Stroud has learned a lot about acceptance and rejection. After revealing in 2003 that she was in a same-sex relationship, she was defrocked by a church court, then reinstated by an appeals committee, and then...

Latinos' added burden.(MARRIAGE)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... It's hard enough for same-sex couples who live in states with marriage bans that deny basic protections for them and their children. But when those couples are Hispanic (to use the U.S. Census classification) the lack of marriage creates an...

Hispanic same-sex parents.(BY THE NUMBERS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Hispanic same-sex parents Percentage of self-identified same-sex couples who are raising children: WHITE NON-HISPANIC MEN: 19% HISPANIC MEN: 58% WHITE NON-HISPANIC WOMEN: 32% HISPANIC WOMEN: 66%...

A solid reputation?(RECALL)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... What's in a reputation? For the embattled gay mayor of Spokane, Wash., it could be everything. James E. West says that even if he's recalled in a special election on December 6 over allegations that he offered City Hall jobs to young men...

Nurture before nature.(PARENTING)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Just because you didn't give birth doesn't mean you're not the legal parent. That's true for most unmarried straight parents, and it's increasingly true for gays and lesbians. Less then three months after the California supreme court ruled...

Friendlier football.(WORLD FOCUS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Football fans in England have a long tradition of hurling taunts at the players. But a new policy from the country's Football Association means that those who use words like "poofs" or "queers" could be ejected from the stadium and even...

Cross country.(REPORT)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... 1 SPOKANE, WASH. In anticipation of a Vatican purge of gay clergy, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, William Skylstad, wrote in his diocesan newspaper in October that "witch hunts and gay bashing have no place in...

Walgreens' "HIV agenda".(sponsorship for 2006 Gay Games)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Antigay activist Randy Sharp says he has Walgreens figured out. The Illinois-based drugstore chain's $100.000 sponsorship of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago has nothing to do with supporting the gay community: It's about profiting from their...

A weakening virus?(HIV/AIDS research)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... On World AIDS Day, December 1, advocates once again remember those lost. This year, however, researchers in Belgium are predicting an end to the losing. Writing in the October 15 edition of the journal AIDS, a team of Belgian scientists said...

Marriage, no; health care, OK.(Alaska supreme court clears health benefits for public employees)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... The state of Alaska passed one of the nation's first constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in 1998. Now it may be helping to undo some of the sweeping restrictions such bans have imposed on state governments across the country. The...

Halloween in December.(HURRICANE WILMA)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Rebuilding took precedence over Halloween festivities in Key West after Hurricane Wilma slammed the city on October 24. But the party will go on: To tighten the mood of Key West's recovery efforts, its costume-themed Fantasy Fest--with masked...

George Takei.(Brief Article)(Interview)
December 6, 2005... In 1966 George Takei, then 29, made TV history as an Asian-American actor in a leading role on a TV series, playing It. Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek. In October Takei made history again by telling Los Angeles LGBT magazine Frontiers that he's gay,...

Rants raves.(REPORT)
December 6, 2005... "I have a lot of gay friends, and I've seen them screwed up from unloving family situations, which are just completely anti-Christian. If we know anything about God, it's that God is love. That's part of the song." --BONO, on how...

Rolling forward: first person: Andrea Meyerson.(REPORT)
December 6, 2005... The first Women on a Roll bike ride began with about 40 women on August 5, 1995. I never imagined that ride would change my life so drastically. After ending a marriage, I was for the first time in my life ready in fully accept and embrace...

Rosa Parks.(IN MEMORIAM)(Letter to the Editor)
December 6, 2005... I was absolutely stunned when heard that the civil rights movement's leading lady, Rosa Parks, had died at age 92 on October 24. The life of Rosa Parks cannot be summed up in one or two paragraphs. Her contributions in the fight for...

Poland's antigay twins.(POLITICS)(Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Gays in Poland have managed to win small civil rights gains in recent years, but that could come to an end now that a pair of identical twins known as "the ducks" are in charge. On October 23 the antigay Catholic mayor of Warsaw, Lech...

Friend or foe?(REPORT)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... FRIEND Los Angeles mayor ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, for pledging to fight a proposed antigay marriage amendment expected to be placed on the California ballot. Banderas is not the only hot Antonio! FOE Hamas leader MAHMOUD ZAHAR, who...

Hired.(TRANSITIONS)(Torie Osborn hired by mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... TORIE OSBORN, 54, a longtime gay rights activist and author, as a special assistant to Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, making her the city's highest-ranking gay or lesbian official, in October.

Died.(TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
December 6, 2005... BARRY NIELSEN, 48, a gay San Francisco artist and architect who was found unconscious on the street, of a mysterious head injury after being taken off life support, October 25. SIMON HOBART, 41, a popular London club promoter and creator of...

Honored.(Tim Bennett wins the Visionary Executive award for gay and lesbian marketing campaigns)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... TIM BENNETT, an advertising director at Subaru of America, who helped create the company's groundbreaking gay and lesbian marketing campaigns, with the Commercial Closet Association's first Visionary Executive award, at a ceremony in New York...

Proclaimed.(TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... October 10 as RONN RUCKER DAY, in honor of the openly gay AIDS activist who established the world's first anonymous HIV test site in Cincinnati in 1985 along with several early AIDS programs, by Cincinnati mayor Charlie Luken, October 5.

Sentenced.(James Donald Moore for rape and murder case)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... JAMES DONALD MOORE, 68, to life in prison for the rape of D.J. Dempsey, then 19, and the rape and murder of Justin Bogdanik, 18, both in 2003, in Grand Rapids, Mich., October 27.

Hong Kong's young crusader.(GENQ)
December 6, 2005... In a society that doesn't talk about any sexuality, Billy Leung, 21, has brought up the topic of gay sex. "I was never an activist," he says, sitting in his attorney's downtown Hong Kong office on a recent October afternoon. "I'm just a normal...

Meanwhile, in Nigeria ...(SODOMY LAWS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... In some countries being a young lesbian might get you ostracized. But in Nigeria it can get you caned. According to several news reports, a disciplinary committee in the Niger Delta on October 13 ordered six teenage girls ranging in age...

Every year at Buffalo Grove High School in suburban Chicago, about 50 guys and 50 girls from the senior class are nominated to be homecoming king and queen during Homecoming Week in October.(CAMPUS WATCH)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Every year at Buffalo Grove High School in suburban Chicago, about 50 guys and 50 girls from the senior class are nominated to be homecoming king and queen during Homecoming Week in October. Usually it's a cheerleader and a jock who win, and...

Justin Shubert.(FUTURE GAY HERO)(Brief Article)(Biography)
December 6, 2005... "We're living in such an exciting time for the LGBT movement; it's hopeful but sometimes discouraging. Helping bring together my community makes me feel like I'm promoting progress." Age: 25 Home: Los Angeles Relationship status:...

Outspoken: Bryan Kopel.(GENQ)
December 6, 2005... At 15 years old I've already had a surreal experience when it comes to being gay. I was born into a family of eight. My parents divorced when I was 9, and my mother began living with her long-lost childhood sweetheart--a woman. I enjoyed having...

Reba McEntire.(BIG GAY FOLLOWING)(Interview)
December 6, 2005... Before starting to put together her new double CD, Reba #1's recording-artist turned toast-of-Broadway turned sitcom-star Reba McEntire had no idea how many number-1 country singles she actually had. Turns out it's 33! Her new release includes...

Can gay inmates be protected? Roderick Johnson says he was sold as a sex slave in a Texas prison, but a jury found prison officials had done nothing wrong. Can anyone protect gay inmates from rape and abuse?(SOCIETY)
December 6, 2005... When Roderick Keith Johnson was sent to a state prison in Texas for burglary and drug possession in 2000, it was the beginning of an 18-month nightmare that he says included being repeatedly raped and falling under the control of a powerful...

Prison radio's gay advocate.(SOCIETY)(Brief Article)(Interview)
December 6, 2005... Ray Hill is the gay host of The Prison Show on the Pacifica Radio affiliate KPFT FM in Houston. Hill's show reaches about a quarter of the more than 100 prisons in Texas. Since inmates in the state do not have access to telephones, Hill talks...

Mary Cheney surfaces: the veep's notoriously silent gay daughter takes a job at AOL.(America Online)
December 6, 2005... She's helped a beer behemoth repair its image, directed operations in her Republican father's reelection campaign office, inked a million-dollar book deal, and remained steadfastly invisible during a national tempest over same-sex marriage. Now...

Online errors.(BUSINESS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... As part of Time Warner, AOL now provides benefits for gay domestic partners and workplace protections for gay and lesbian employees. But its pre-Time Warner missteps on gay issues were several: * In 1997, a company employee, defying AOL...

Growing a gay old party.(MOVEMENT IN CRISIS)
December 6, 2005... Patrick Guerriero has increased the Log Cabin Republicans' membership and budget--as well as its standing among liberal national gay rights groups. Of course, that means fewer invites to White House parties. With the fight for gay and...

Little Catholic gifts: the Vatican says allowing gays and lesbians to adopt is doing "violence" against children. So why are some Catholic agencies placing foster kids with same-sex couples?(ADOPTION)
December 6, 2005... After coming out in 1986, Johnny Symons became an AIDS activist taking to the streets with San Francisco's ACT UP chapter. Then he settled down in Oakland, Calif., with his partner, William Rogers. No one thought twice about their interracial...

Not in Missouri.(ADOPTION)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... When Missouri resident Lisa Johnston applied to be a foster parent in 2003, an administrative judge found her to be "exceptionally" qualified. After all, the 40-year-old graduate of the University of Kansas holds a degree in human development...

Clooney vs. the far right: what's gay about George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck? In a gay-press exclusive, the superstar director fills us in--and tells us why he's hopeful for America's future on gay rights and civil liberties.(Cover Story)
December 6, 2005... At another point in our national history, George Clooney wouldn't be a hero. We'd know him simply as a gifted filmmaker with a nose for ideas and a knack for exploring them on-screen--an A-list actor who's fast moving beyond his...

Conservatives on the edge: hurricanes. Criminal indictments. 2,000 dead soldiers. A supreme fight over the top court. Are D.C.'s antigay leaders too busy at the moment to fight creeping equality?
December 6, 2005... In late October the Kansas supreme court issued a remarkably sensible pro-gay ruling: It struck down the portion of a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts. The case involved Matthew Limon, who in...

Allee up! Long before she cowrote the stage musical of The Color Purple, Allee Willis was writing hit songs and making outrageous art. Meet the wildest artist of them all.(ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT)
December 6, 2005... In a trippy house on a side street in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley lives the most wildly creative woman in America: songwriter, painter, kinetic sculptor, and larger-than-life personality Allee Willis. Don't bother knocking, though,...

Seven for the season: what's to see after you catch Brokeback Mountain this holiday season? Plenty.(Movie Review)
December 6, 2005... 1 The Family Stone * December 16 a.k.a.: Attack of the Perfect Liberal Family The Stone family--led by Craig T. Nelson and Diane Keaton--is such a model of New England liberal acceptance, they evidently think nothing of inviting their gay...

Cowboy wrangler: a dozen years after his queer hit The Wedding Banquet, director Ang Lee finds comfort in taking on another pioneering gay love story, the long-awaited Brokeback Mountain.(FILM)
December 6, 2005... "A cowboy is always homoerotic for the gay community, right?" asks director Ang Lee asks rhetorically, with his characteristically naive inflection. "Like the Chinese martial arts heroes in the East. The thing about Westerns is that there's a...

Scary as hell: horror superstar Clive Barker's first published collection of paintings is a perverse stained-glass window into his fractured soul.(BOOKS)
December 6, 2005... "I started out wanting to be a painter," says Clive Barker, "but my parents dissuaded me, saying, 'No one makes money as a painter.'" They urged him to go to university instead. "I studied philosophy out of sheer perversity, because no one...

Ice queen: out author Gretchen Legler talks about her warm memoir of the coldest place in the world.
December 6, 2005... Some jump from the frying pan to the fire, others from the cooler to the deep freeze. In 1997 writer Gretchen Legler abandoned her lackluster romance and her teaching job at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, for five months in Antarctica...

Meeting Judy.(MINORITY RETORT: Alec Mapa)(Judy Shepard)
December 6, 2005... "Hello, Alec. I just thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Judy Shepard." She walked right up to me at the 25th anniversary banquet for the Human Rights Campaign in D.C., took my hands in hers, and I was completely mortified. I should have...

Return to Philadelphia.(BUZZ)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Can it really have been 12 years since Philadelphia opened in theaters across the country, paving the way for movie stars to play gay roles and for the entertainment business to occasion ally notice the continuing AIDS pandemic? The AMC series...

Shankman nabs the Hairspray.(BUZZ)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... The screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Hairspray is changing hands--out producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced that equally out filmmaker Adam Shankman (The Pacifier) would direct the project after the departure of stage vets...

We love gadgets: freshen it up, clean it up, or just pick it up with a hot selection of new electronics.(TOYS)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 6, 2005... Someone's done a massive makeover on the Mr. Coffee FTX26 ($60), and it's about time. A stylish thermosstyle carafe, auto-cleaning capability, and a brew strength selector are just some of the new features added to our favorite brewmaster. ...

SUV makeover.(TOYS)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... The 9-7X, Saab's first SUV, fills an important hole in the company lineup. Until now even Saab loyalists have had to leave the brand when their cargo and passenger needs required an SUV. Onto GM's TrailBlazer architecture, engineers...

Brokeback Mountain.(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... * Directed by Ang Lee * Written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, based on the story by Annie Proulx * Starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal * Focus Features Breathe a sigh of relief that this exquisite gay love story has finally made...

Interplanetary angst.(Far Side of the Moon)(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Far Side of the Moon * Written and directed by Robert Lepage * TLA Releasing Skewed, oddly funny, absurdist, and visually inventive, Far Side of the Moon, the latest from prodigiously talented Canadian playwright-director-actor Robert...

Beautiful blackmail.(Blackmail Boy)(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2005... Blackmail Boy * Written and directed by Michalis Reppas and Thanassis Papathanasiou * Picture This! Christes (Yannis Tsimitselis) is a 20-year-old stud who puts his olive skin, thick black hair, bedroom eyes, pillow-cushion lips, and...

Gender studies.(Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She)(Brief Article)(Television Program Review)
December 6, 2005... Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She * HBO * Premieres December 6 If you're finding it hard to sort out current thinking about gender, Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She should prove enlightening. Directed by Antony Thomas and narrated by...

Hustler apocalypse.(The Sluts )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 6, 2005... The Sluts * Dennis Cooper * Carroll & Graf * $14.95 Skinny young hustlers, sleazy gay men seeking teen lovers, heavy S/M sex, murder, dismemberment--must be a Dennis Cooper novel. But The Sluts has a compelling new twist: It's told via...

Hotpicks.
December 6, 2005... FASHION Bob Mackie Auction November 22 at Christie's New York "Costume & Couture From the Private Archives" of the legendary gay designer includes Carol Burnett dresses and an Elton John robe-fez-and-slippers combo. MUSIC ...

You asked. I'm tellin'.(FINAL CUT)
December 6, 2005... Every once in a while those boneheads in the White House run into so much trouble that they have no other choice but to turn to me for advice. And so I wasn't surprised when I received a call at 3 A.M. the other night from an anonymous...

Nuggets & bites.
December 6, 2005... "People need to be allowed to be themselves, even if it's not unanimously approved.... We can pick our favorite teams and athletes, but we can't pick what they do after the game. "Perhaps [Sheryl] Swoopes herself made the most sensible...

Gene Robinson.(Q & A)(Interview)
December 20, 2005... Our Person of the Year for 2003, V. Gene Robinson, the out Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, finally got the one meeting he's been eager to schedule: face time in England with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican...

Learning the truth at 17.(FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF)(The Advocate's Person of the Year for 2005)(Editorial)
December 20, 2005... I debated what song from my younger days might best express the earthshaking importance of what was accomplished by Kerry Pacer, The Advocate's Person of the Year for 2005, and her allies at White County High School in rural Georgia. First to...

School court victories.(TIME LINE)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... 1969 The California supreme court rules that the state cannot revoke a gay teacher's credentials on the basis of sexual orientation. 1974 The first U.S. circuit court of appeals establishes the rights of gay college student groups to...

People of the year.((12.18.90) ARCHIVES)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... Using much the same criteria it uses today, The Advocate started a long-standing tradition 15 years ago when it picked its first woman and man of the year: activist Urvashi Vaid and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In 1990, Vaid, as...

Hoopla over Swoopes.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 20, 2005... For me, as an African-American woman, the Sheryl Swoopes coming-out party has been magnificent ["She Is Our Champion," November 22]. My partner and I have been truly excited over this entire coming-out story. In the article she touched on the...

McMillan and wife.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 20, 2005... I really believe that Terry McMillan is homophobic ["She's No Homophobe," November 22]. Most of us who are heterosexuals are either homophobic or trying to recover from homophobia. Terry's true feelings surfaced when she discovered that her...

Bi vocal.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 20, 2005... I was pleased to read the words of bisexuals Kathryn Grannis [First Person: "Bi and Invisible"] and Pete Chvany ["Dispelling Myths About Bisexuality"] in the November 22 issue. This is an important stand for the editors of The Advocate to take,...

Catholic guilt.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 20, 2005... I was appalled when I read "Survivor: Vatican" in the November 22 issue. This new pope's order to rid the Roman Catholic Church of any and all gays is going to set the world back about 50 years in terms of acceptance of the LGBT community....

Coco goes home.(FROM THE READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 20, 2005... In the November 8 issue, The Advocate ran an amazing article titled "We're Here to Help." I am one of the women you focused on, and I supplied the photos for the article. On my second trip to Katrina-ravaged Louisiana, I brought back a...

Reader comments from www.advocate.com.(THE ADVOCATE Poll)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... In the November 22 issued, we asked: Is the Vatican's crackdown on gay priests in the United States a direct result of recent advances in LGBT equality? Reader comments from www.advocate.com * "It has always been in the works. That...

Maine's big win.(ELECTION)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... It took seven years and three statewide votes, but a majority of Maine voters are now ready to extend at least some degree of equality to the state's gay and lesbian citizens. In a strong rebuke of a "people's veto," 55% of voters on November 8...

Gay media merger.(BUSINESS)(PlanetOut Inc. and LPI Media Inc. merge)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... It took a six-year courtship, but PlanetOut Inc. and LPI Media Inc., owner of The Advocate, Out, and other LGBT publications, finally got married. Talk of the union first took place in 1999, but it didn't become reality until November 9,...

Fighting back.(HATE CRIMES)(Lucas Dawson kills Gerald Knight as act of defense )(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... After Lucas Dawson was arrested for fatally stabbing a teenager who attacked him because he is gay, a judge declared it self-defense and set him free on November 9. But Dawson hardly feels like a free man. Dawson, 21, had been in a...

Gay replaces antigay.(ELECTION)(Mark Tumeo elected)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2005... What do you do when you're sick of listening to your city councilman rail against gays and lesbians? Replace him with an openly gay man. That's what happened in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on November 8 when voters replaced city councilman...