Same-sex couples could see more protections in upcoming Legislature

Gay rights advocates and leading lawmakers expect to expand the list of civil rights for gays and lesbians with new protections for same-sex couples who register as domestic partners.

However, the ultimate goal — full marriage rights for gay people — will most likely have to wait as election year politics make such a push very unlikely during the 2008 Legislature.

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Abrigade of 28 retired generals and admirals, following the lead of a former chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, has joined the campaign to repeal the insult that forces gay military personnel to stay in the closet.

Congress should take its cue to quickly dispatch the infamous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that denies the most fundamental personal freedom to the men and women who are fighting to protect such freedoms for all other Americans.

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How come people are so obsessed with gay Hollywood? Doesn’t anyone care about lesbian Hollywood?

The B!tch Replies:  In show business “being gay is the last great taboo,” explains top entertainment publicist and gay activist Howard Bragman.

And here I was thinking the last taboo was fat. I suppose there’s some other reason why Hollywood boutiques carry only smalls and extra smalls.

“No, Leslie,” Bragman says. “We do have a couple of fat people in Hollywood.”

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ATTORNEY-GENERAL Robert McClelland hopes to reach a consensus with the Liberal Opposition on removing discrimination against gays and lesbians from all commonwealth legislation.

And he will meet his ACT counterpart, Simon Corbell, tomorrow to discuss the gay civil union laws being promised by the ACT Government, and will ask the territory for co-operation in developing a national standard on civil partnerships.

Mr McClelland said he wanted to reach a bipartisan position on removing all discrimination against gays, after Liberal leader Brendan Nelson indicated he wished to change his party’s position on the issue.

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PREMIER John Brumby has refused to say whether he supports same-sex marriages.

Gay and de facto couples will be able to register their relationships with a government registry under a bill introduced into State Parliament this week.

But yesterday the Premier repeatedly refused to answer questions about his own stance on gay marriage.

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A Fort Worth church continues to struggle with how to handle photographs of gay members in a pictorial directory that’s to be part of its 125th anniversary celebrations.

Broadway Baptist Church has debated whether the directory should include gay couples, or gay people individually but not as couples, or whether to omit all individual and family photos.

Members were to vote Sunday after morning worship. But in a clear indication that they are divided over how accepting to be of homosexuality, they met for an hour and then postponed any decision until deacons make a recommendation on Feb. 24.

“We will continue to discuss this issue together as a church family,” Kathy Madeja, chair of the deacons, said in a prepared statement. “We do not want to rush to make a decision, but rather to continue to listen to each other and for God’s leading for our church.”

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>England wing returns with no club but fresh ambition to Twickenham today, he tells Robert Kitson

At least Ben Cohen has not been forgotten. Apparently there were more than 46,000 hits on his website last month following the release of the exiled England wing’s new beefcake calendar and he has bowed further to popular demand by doing a photo-shoot for Gay Times. A large chunk of his fan-base clearly cares little what he does on Saturdays as long as he is bare-chested in glossy colour every month.

The positive attention makes a change. Cohen does not enjoy the uncritical adoration of everyone within the macho world of English rugby but admirers of his physique are unfazed by the summer fall-out at Northampton which caused him to leave the club he joined as a 16-year-old. Nor, on a recent promotional visit to Prowler, a specialist gay outlet in Soho, did anyone query his decision to reject England’s call in the build-up to the World Cup. Or ask whether flogging topless calendars for his testimonial year is not a slight come-down for a 29-year-old World Cup winner who should still have plenty to give his chosen sport.

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National gay rights groups and the state chapter of a civil rights group headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton are backing efforts to enact an anti-discrimination ordinance in Scottsdale that would cover gay and transgender individuals.

Scottsdale is considering a measure that would apply to businesses in the city, city government contractors and agencies.

The Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force have joined local gay rights advocates, including Equality Arizona and the Arizona Transgender Alliance, in backing the measure. The state chapter of Sharpton’s National Action Network also is supporting the measure.

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The wonderful world of science continues to burrow into sexual difference. A study out of Ontario contradicts earlier evidence by saying gay and bisexual men are more likely to write with their right hand.

A new study has provided a new twist on the connection between sexual orientation and right or left-handedness, claiming that gay or bisexual men have an elevated incidence of extreme right-handedness.

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CHRISTIAN bookshops are refusing to stock copies of a new Bible study guide that challenges standard New Testament translations that describe gay sex as sinful.

A US distributor, God’s Word to Women, has banned the Australian publication, and withdrawn another Bible translation published by the same NSW publishing house, Smith and Stirling, for promoting a lifestyle in contradiction of the scriptures.

Two American academics have asked that their endorsements be removed from other works by a classical Greek lexicographer, Ann Nyland, because of her authorship of the gay study Bible.

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