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Bait & Switch

Seattle — Check out Peacefire, the
Seattle-based anti-censorship web
site and mailing list (www.peace-
fire.org) maintained by Bennett
Haselton. The site says it is a “people
for young people’s freedom of
speech” organization.

One of its projects this
spring was to investigate blocking
software. In a test, Peacefire anony-
mously created “anti-gay” webpages
and put them on free sites such as
GeoCities. The “anti-gay” pages con-
sisted entirely of quotes taken from
the Web site of a prominent conser-
vative group such as Focus on the
Family, Family Research Council, the
Official Dr. Laura web page, and
Concerned Women for America.

Then, through anonymous
HotMail accounts, Peacefire submit-
ted each of these pages to the block-
ing companies for review, never stat-
ing that the hate speech came from
conservative websites. Not knowing
where they came from, all of the
blocking software companies agreed
to block each of these pages as hate
speech.

Until they were told the
sources for the anonymous web
pages, that is. According to Peacefire,
none of the companies — SurfWatch,
Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Bess,
WebSENSE and SmartFilter — has
agreed to block the web sites of the
organizations where the hate speech
originated. Peacefrre is not in favor
of censorship, but apparently thinks
hypocrisy and double standards are '
worse. Get the whole story at
www.peacefireorg/BaitAndSwitch/.

Post Prints Gay
Wedding‘ Notice

Washington DC — The Washington
Post’s first same-sex wedding
announcement featured the Canadian
marriage of nationally syndicated
columnist Deb Price and her partner
of IO years, .loyce Murdoch — both
former Post editors. . '

“We're delighted to be able
to share the joyful news of our mar-
riage with all the Washington Post's
readers,” Murdoch said. "We are law-
fully married, thanks to Canada. And
the Washington Post should be hearti-
ly applauded for recognizing that
simple reality and for showing us
exactly the same respect it has
always given married couples.“

Gay & Lesbian Advocates
And Defenders met with the
Washington Post last year to request
that the newspaper change its policy,

«

whereby gay ‘and lesbian couples’
announcements were} relegated to a
separate “Celebrations” section on a
separate day from straight couples’
announcements. Currently, 209
papers print these announcements.

Lesbian Elected’ to

Colorado Senate ‘
Denver — Jennifer Veiga won a
Colorado special election in July to
fill a-vacancy in the state senate. She
becomes just one of ten openly les-
bian, gay or bisexual state senators
currently serving in the country.

Veiga was the Democratic
leader in the Colorado House before
her move to the Senate, where she
now represents portions of Denver
and Adams counties as the Rocky
Mountain State's first openly lesbian
(or gay) senator.

“I'm thrilled to have this
opportunity to move to the Senate to
continue‘ working on behalf of
Colorado's‘ working families, children
and seniors,” Veiga told the
Associated Press.

As a state representative,
Veiga played a key role in defeating a
bill that would have prevented adop-
tions by same-sex couples and has
been a stalwart supporter of LGBT
civil rights and hate crimes measures.

Gay Snow Sports
London — It might be summer but
last month, the creation of the
International Gay & Lesbian
Snowsports Association (IGLSA)
was announced. The IGLSA, the only
international Snowsports association
of its kind, will represent the interests
of gay and lesbian skiers, snowboard-
ers, and snowmachine enthusiasts.

In its press release, the
group announced that members will
benefit from discounts on snow
sports related equipment, travel, and
accommodation, group holidays,
access to resort reps, comprehensive
online services, live weather and
snow forecasts, resort and travel
guides, and a lot more.

Founded by Matt Hobbs,
the IGLSA has an online presence at
www.gayskiers.org, and has been
recently approached to participate in
a taskforce established to pursue the
possibility of holding the first ever
Gay Winter Games.

“There are so many gay
and lesbian snowsports enthusiasts
out there, which is apparent from the
number of popular gay ski weeks and
associated travel companies around,”
says Matt Hobbs.

MCC church Goes Its

Own Way

Dallas, TX — The Cathedral of Hope,
a huge congregation formerly affiliat-
ed with the Metropolitan Community
Church, has voted to dissolve its
association with the predominantly
gay denomination. Of the 1100 mem-
ber present on the last Sunday in
July, 89 percent voted to disaffiliate.

_ _ According to a protocol
devised by the MCC for such situa-
tions, a proportional percentage of
the church’s assets would be awarded
to the minority group, which may
join another MCC congregation in
the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

None of the reasons for the
split were discussed in the MCC’s
press release.

Military Fails
Antiharassment
Washington, DC —Members of
Congress have asked the Department
of Defense to implement a July 2000
Anti-Harassment Action Plan
(AI_-IAP) which includes steps to curb
anti-gay harassment. In their letter to
Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, 22 congressional represen-
tatives conclude “that the Services
are not in full compliance” with the
plan.

The Anti-Harassment
Action Plan was adopted in 2000, in
the wake of PFC Barry Winchell’s
murder at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Created by a DoD Working Group,
the plan includes 13 steps to curb
harassment, including annual anti-
harassment education and training,
accountability for those who harass
or condone harassment and measure-
ment of each Service’s compliance
with the AHAP.

The Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network (SLDN) found that
“[t]he Departmentof Defense has
failed to issue a single directive on
harassment as required by the
AHAP.” The <I>Conduct
Unbecoming<I> report urged the
Pentagon to fully implement the plan
and critiqued each service’s progress
in complying with the AHAP.

“This letter sends an impor-
tant message to Pentagon leaders that
they must do more to implement the
Anti-Harassment Action Plan,” said
SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon
Osbum. “Past verbal commitments
by military leaders have proven to be
empty promises. The Pentagon must
take its responsibility to end harass-
ment and protect service members
more seriously.”

Gay Catholics Dispute
Vatican Stand , ,
Springfield, IL — Responding to the
Vatican’s call for Roman Catholic"
politicians to vote against any meas-
ure offering legal recognition to
same-sex marriage, the Rainbow
Sash Movement of the U.S. (glbt
Roman Catholics) issued a press
release disputing the Vatican’s rea-
soning.

Rainbow Sash character-
ized the Vatican’s approach as need-
ing “less hysteria and more reason”
and implied that the reason for
releasing the document now was to
distract attention from the growing
clergy sexual abuse scandal. The
Papacy, said the press release, “has '
lost its moral compass.”

The Vatican has called for
politicians not to follow their con-
sciences on the issue of gay marriage
in favor of deferring to Church doc-
trine. However, says Rainbow Sash,
“Does the Cardinal Ratzinger of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith really believe that God speaks
directly to the Vatican, and the
Vatican in turn will tell Catholic
politicians how to vote? Or that the
sense of the faithful can be overrid-
den by Vatican Clerics?”

The Vatican’s document “is
based on fear  [and] shows a cer-
tain negative bias towards western
cultures, and a clear disdain for the
democratic process, and it ignores the
separation of Church and state that is
one of the cornerstones of
Democratic societies.”

The Rainbow Sash
Movement has a website at
www.rainbowsashmovement.org.

CA Gov Signs Trans
Equality Bill
Sacramento, CA — Politically embat-
tled California Governor Gray Davis
presented the gift of freedom to thou-
sands of his fellow Californians last
month by signing Assembly Bill 196.
The measure clarifies the state’s. Fair
Employment and Housing Act by
including gender-identity and expres-
sion. California now becomes the
most populous jurisdiction to enact
equal rights for transgendered citi-
zens.

The bill was introduced by
Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San
Francisco), sponsored by Equality

, California (EqCA), and_formally sup-

ported by more than 50 other local,

state and national groups. It achieved

the status of law on its third attempt.
“I’m amazed — and pleased

— that Gov. Davis chose to sign this
bill, even in the midst of mounting
attacks from the religious right and
from the conservatives behind the
recall attempt,” said Gwen Smith,
founder of Remembering Our Dead,
a website devoted to transgender vic-
tims of murder.

' The amended California
law describes discrimination based
on ‘sex’ as including discrimination
based on ‘gender,’ which includes a
person’s “identity, appearance or
behavior whether or not that identity,
appearance or behavior is different
from that traditionally associated
with the person’s sex at birth.” Thus,
the law protects effeminate men and
masculine-appearing women as well
as the transgendered.

Library Backs Down
Topeka, KS — Responding to a letter
from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Topeka and Shawnee
County Public Library has conceded
that, under the law, it cannot forbid
one of its employees from talking at
work about the recent historic
Supreme Court ruling banning
sodomy laws.

Dick Kurtenbach,
Executive Director of the ACLU of
Kansas and Western Missouri, said,
“We’ve made certain that the public
library understands that it cannot
strip Bonnie Cuevas of her constitu-
tional right to free speech by pro-
hibiting her from ever talking about
this important development at work.”
' On the day after the ruling,
Bonnie Cuevas, a longtime Topeka
activist and member of Parents,
Families, and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays (PFLAG), had been
ordered by two library managers to
never again discuss at work the deci-
sion and its impact on her family.
Under the law, public employees —
such as people who work at public
libraries or for the government — may
discuss matters of public concern at
the workplace as long as that speech
doesn't interfere with the employees’
ability to do theirjobs, the ACLU
said.‘

“Everyone who supports
the rights of gay people needs to
speak out and work to make gay peo-
ple truly equal,” said Ken Choe, a
staff attorney with the ACLU's
Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. V