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Ugandan Leader:
No Homosexuals Here

COOLUM, Australia — According to
a report from the Associated Press,
Uganda's president declared Sunday
that his country has no homosexuals.
President Yoweri Museveni was in
Australia to accept an award for his
government's successful campaign’
against AIDS. The comment follows
a report by a human rights group that
accused Uganda, among other coun-
tries, of-torturing and mistreating its
homosexual population.

Museveni has led an
aggressive AIDS prevention carn-
paign since 1986 that has been credit-
ed with slashing the infection rate
among adults in the African nation
from 28 percent to less than 10 per-
cent

The claim that Uganda has
no homosexuals was made as the
President listed the ways that AIDS is
spread: “First, it goes through unpro-
tected sex. We don't have homosexu-
als in Uganda so this is mainly het-
erosexual transmission."

Human rights watchdog
Amnesty International said in a
report last June that it had document-
ed cases of homosexuals being tor-
tured in Uganda. The report compiled
alleged cases of torture and mistreat-
ment in 30 countries including
Uganda. Pakistan, Argentina, Russia
and the United States.

Survey Says:
Unprotected Oral Sex Tops

NEW YORK — The yearlong
GayHealth.com oral sex survey
results have been tabulated — and
what have they found? We love oral
sex — love it, love it, love it.

More than 1,600 people
completed the survey conducted
between January of 2001 and January
2002. Compared to other types of
sex, 42.2 percent of respondents said
oral sex is their favorite type of sex,
and 20 percent said they liked it
equally as much as anal sex.

The survey also revealed
that most people forgo condoms and
dental dams while giving — and get-
ting — oral sex, even with casual sex-
ual partners.

Using a condom during
oral sex was rare, and all participants
reported participating in unprotected
oral sex during the previous year.
According to the survey," 25 percent
of participants reported having only
unprotected oral sex with their pri-
mary partner.

Almost 60 percent of
respondents said it is not worth it to
use condoms or dental dams during
oral sex. More than 19 percent said it
is better than transmitting diseases.

When asked how often they
use a condom or dental dam when
receiving oral sex from a partner
whose HIV status is unknown to
them, 55 percent said they never use

condoms. 14 percent said they rarely
do.

$300 Million for Welfare
Marriage — What Do Lesbians
& Gays Do?

WASHINGTON, DC- The National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF) attacked elements ofthe

Bush Administration welfare propos-
al that call for significant federal and
state funding of programs to promote
and foster heterosexual marriage.
Bush’s plan calls for

“encouraging healthy marriages and
two-parent married families as a
goal.” This includes the expenditure

of $300 million for projects devoted I

to promoting heterosexual marriage.
Already several states offer cash
bonuses to welfare recipients who
marry.

“Lesbian mothers on wel-
fare cannot marry,” said Sean Cahill,
Ph.D., Director of NGLTF's Policy
Institute.

Women's Football Tackles the
Media

According to a press release from the
Bay State Warriors, try-outs were
held in early March. The organization
was voted into the Independent
Women’s Football League in
December, 2001. The chosen athletes
"should possess solid athletic ability,
preferably collegiate experience, as
well as the drive to learn and execute
the game of tackle football.”

The IWFL has member
organizations in New York, New
Hampshire, Texas, Massachusetts,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida,
Montreal and more. The league's sec-
ond season opens in April 2002. The
Bay State Warriors will play a spring
season as part of the East Coast divi-
sion, opening its season against The
New Hampshire Freedom April 20th,
2002.

And guess how they’re
funding the team? A raffle! The
prize is a Sony 53-inch high defini-
tion projection TV.

Missoula Madness

MISSOULA, MT — As reported last
month, Adrianne Neff and Carla
Grayson and their infant son barely
escaped with their lives from a fire
that was termed “suspicious.” Four
days earlier, the two women and
another lesbian couple had filed a
lawsuit with the ACLU against the
Montana University System’s denial
of benefits to same-sex partners of its
employees. Two days after that, both
couples had received envelopes con-
taining white powder and death
threats.
But now, apparently due to
a whisper campaign by right wingers
and reported by LGN Y, the two
women themselves have come "under
suspicion, even though the initial
investigation led Missoula Police
Captain Bob Reid to announce that
the police were treating the fire as
arson and “an attempted triple homi-
cide.”
The local response was

positive until the local paper reported .

that the police were investigating two
possibilities: that somebody who
lived in Grayson and Nefi"s house set
it on fire, or that someone who did
not live in Grayson and Neff’s house
set it on fire. _

The rainbow signs started
disappearing. People who had
pledged to the relief fund “changed
their minds.” But there was no evi-
dence against the two women, just a
smear campaign begun by a Ku Klux
Klan leader identifying the fire as

“fishy.” The characterization was
repeated by a right-wing radio host.
And then Captain Reid announced
that it was “possible” the women
started the fire.

There are several other sus-
pects, including one who has made
comments to informants about homo-
sexuals and about the fire. The police
will talk to him just as soon as they
have the time.

Survey Says We Have Kids

...SYRACUSE, NY - Almost 13% of
respondents to a survey of gay, les-
bian, bisexual and transgendered
households have children under the
age of 18 living at home, according
to a new survey by the GLCensus
Partners. The study reveals that more
than three-quarters of those house-
holds with children were lesbian
households (78.4%). U.S. Census
data indicates 29% of all U.S. house-
holds have a child under l8 living at
home.

The 2001 Gay/Lesbian
Consumer Online Census was con-
ducted from July 9 to August 20,
2001. Survey respondents were
recruited through publicity on the
Internet and in print media, and word
of mouth referrals were encouraged.

Florida Legislators: “We Were
Wrong”

MIAMI —As reported in an ACLU
press release, Nine former members
of the state House and Senate have
signed written statements saying, “In
1977, we were among the state legis-
lators who helped pass Florida's law
prohibiting gay people from adopting
children. We now realize that we
were wrong. This discriminatory law
prevents children from being adopted
into loving, supportive homes — and
we hope it will be overturned.”

A former Speaker of the .
State House of Representatives and a
former President of the State Senate,
both of whom voted in’ favor of the

law banning gay adoption, are among

those who signed statements.

The lone member of the
state senate who spoke against the
bill when it was being debated said
today that he was encouraged by the
former legislators’ change of heart.
“This law was always wrong, and it’s
good to see that it’s now being seri-
ously reconsidered,” forrner Sen. Don
Chamberlin of Clearwater said.

“Zero Tolerance” for Gays in
Honduras

SAN PEDRO SULA - Gays and
transgendered people have been tar-
geted for harassment in San Pedro
Sula, Honduras, the country’s indus-
trial center and second largest city,
according to a report from Richard
Stem, director of a human rights
group based in Costs Rica. The
harassment has taken the form of bar
raids and arrests.
San Pedro Sula Mayor

Oscar Kilgore reportedly ordered a
raid on the city’s only gay bar,
“Boys.” Twelve people including
several staff members from
“Comunidad Gay” were _
arrested and held for 24 hours and
then released. The bar never
reopened. The raid was part of the

new “zero tolerance for crime and
delinquency” program announced in
January by President Maduro and
implemented by Mayor Kilgore.
“We are picked up in
police cars and taken away from the
center of the city and told that we
cannot return,” said Marlene, a 24-
year-old transvestite sex worker.
Prostitution is legal in Honduras.
Municipal Judge Alvaro
Aguilar Frenzel denied the group's
allegations regarding the bar raid.

Vatican Says Ban Gays to
Prevent Priestly Child Abuse

CHICAGO — The Vatican, in its first
comments on the clergy sexual abuse
crisis, declared that gay men should
not be ordained as priests, says a
press release from The Rainbow Sash
Movement (GLBT/S Catholics). The
organization condemns this recent
Vatican response.

The comments were made
by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the chief
spokesman for Pope John Paul II. “If
they were to eliminate all those who
were homosexually oriented, the
number would be so staggering that it
would be like an atomic bomb; it
would do the same damage to the
church's operation,” said A. W.
Richard Sipe, a former priest and
psychotherapist. Sipe has been study-
ing the sexuality of priests for 25
years and has written three books on
the subject.

“It would mean the resigna-
tion of at least a third of the bishops
of the world. Many saints had a gay
orientation, and many popes had gay
orientations,” Sipe said.
“Discriminating against orientation is
not goirig to solve the problem.”

Although scholars have
established no connection between

' homosexuality and pedophilia, the

Vatican’s comments were apparently
provoked by the fact that many of the
victims of clergy abuse in Boston, as
elsewhere, have been adolescent
boys.

Rosie Backs Off from Oscar-
nominated Film

NEW YORK — Rosie O’Donnell has
asked to have her name and voice
removed from an Oscar-nominated
documentary on adoption after leam-
ing that the filmmakers are involved
in a group that has been described as
a homophobic cult, according to the
Associated Press.

The lesbian actress, adop-
tion activist and talk show host had
volunteered to narrate Artists and
Orphans: A True Drama, about a
New York theater group that travels
to the former Soviet republic of
Georgia to help orphaned and aban-
doned children.

O’Donnell found out this
week that the filmmakers are
involved with the Fourth Way
School. According to various news-
paper reports, the group bans homo-
sexuals and believes gays shouldn’t
be parents.

David Goldstein, a lawyer
representing the film, told New
York's Daily News that suggesting
that Artists and Orphans is “the work
of some kind of nefarious cult is
completely baseless.”

“Furthermore, the inflam-

matory accusation that certain people
affiliated with the film are involved
in an organization that endangers the
welfare of children or discriminates
against  gays and lesbians or fami-
lies is without foundation,” Goldstein
was quoted as saying.

However, according to a
New Jersey-based cult expert and
lecturer who helped deprogram
Branch Davidians in the mid-’90s,
the Fourth Way is a cult and excludes
gays. News articles from the mid-
’90s about a branch of the school
also said the group bans gays.

Maine Pastor Pushes Gay
Rights Ordinance

WESTBROOK, ME — A drive to
become the 12th community in,
Maine to adopt a gay rights ordi-
nance is being led by the Rev. Susan
Gilpin, pastor of the Prides’ Corner
Congregational Church. The Portland
Press Herald quoted Gilpin as saying
she felt compelled to take action after
the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
The ordinance would mirror the
state’s gay rights law that was
rescinded by voters in November
2000 elections. A committee ofthe
City Council will consider the bill
this month.

California Teacher Loses
Harassment Case

REDWOOD CITY —-A high school
teacher in San Mateo County failed
to convince jurors that she brought a
gun to school because she was being
sexually harassed by two other teach-
ers. Theresa “Tere” Curl was fired
when the .22 caliber pistol was found
by a male teacher in her classroom.
She sued the teacher and another
male teacher along with the school
district for harassment. Curl said the
two teachers had called her derogato-
ry names and taunted her with sexu-
ally explicit gestures and charged the
district with ignoring the harassment.
School district officials said they had
not been aware of any complaints
until after the pistol was found.
Curl’s lawyer reported that Curl
would appeal the decision.

California School Board
Approves Gay-Straight Club

CLOVIS — Despite reported threats
that parents would withdraw their
students from the school, the Clovis
Unified School Board has approved a
Gay-Straight Alliance club. The
school district’s lawyer had said that
lawsuits might have been filed if the
club had not been approved. State
laws prohibit any district from dis-
criminating against a student or stu-
dent organization on the basis of gen-
der, ethnicity, religious belief or sex-
ual identity.

Minnesota Republicans
Demand Repeal of Partner
Benefits '

ST. PAUL — A contract clause
extending employee benefits to
domestic partners of unionized state
employees prompted Republican
leaders of the Minnesota House of
Representatives to threaten to reject
the entire contract. Governor Jesse

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