Chris Smith reveals he is HIV positive
Chris Smith, Britain's first openly gay member of parliment and the first openly gay member of the cabinet when he was appointed minister for arts and culture, revealed he's been HIV positive for the past 17 years. Smith says Nelson Mandela inspired him to go public when his son died of AIDS. "Over recent weeks and months I have thought perhaps this is something that needs to be spoken about," he said. Due to stand down at the next election, Smith said he wanted to "demystify" the condition in the public's perception and to challenge prejudices.
BBC
Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic is on the hunt for her father's old boyfriend. Her father, Robert Lynch, died of AIDS when she was 15. Ana's hoping that the boyfriend, identified only as Don, can help her piece together her father's life and understand him better. "My dad and Don had a special bond. ... He probably knew him better than anyone else."
Virginia Military Institute has asked a student governing body to investigate and recommend discipline against cadets who attended a Halloween party wearing Nazi costumes and others that parodied gays and Africans. As you'll see from the photos there's reason to be disturbed - men dressed as fairies, complete with tiaras, wands, wings, pink briefs and T-shirts reading "I [love] a man in uniform." In another, a youth dressed in a sailor's uniform is bent over to display a target taped to his ass, while a shirtless cadet sidles up behind him. Richmond Indymedia has 
Record crowds turned out in Australia for the 10th annual Pride March in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. With a record 99 contingents involving an estimated 60,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and allied Victorians marched while 50,000 more lined Fitzroy Street to watch. The Victoria Police Show Band was even on hand, and while their performance of "YMCA" by The Village People was cut short by an equipment failure, all was forgiven when Constable Julie Leder saved the day with a rousing rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." The march also marked the passing of 25 years since the socially progressive state Liberal government led by the late Sir Rupert Hamer decriminalized homosexuality.
OTEP is headlining at Ozzfest again this year, headed up by metal's only out lesbian, Otep Shamaya. With a sound described as "heavily influenced by the emotional rawness of Nirvana and the social messages of early East Coast rap and hip hop," Shamaya says in the interview, "It didn’t cross my mind that I’m a lesbian and there were no other lesbians around me. ... So far I’ve only had a few people who seem to have a problem with me being here. Mostly because I’m a woman, and I guess I’m the antithesis of what they embrace as what a woman is. Like, you know, tits and ass."
Are children worse off being raised by gay or lesbian couples than by straight parents? Responding to a question about gay adoption President Bush suggested that they were. "Studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman," he said in a New York Times interview. As is typically the case with Bush, he's wrong. Experts say there is no scientific evidence that children raised by gay and lesbian couples do any worse - socially, academically or emotionally - than their peers raised in more traditional households. Dr. Judith Stacey, a professor of sociology at New York University, stated "there is not a single legitimate scholar out there who argues that growing up with gay parents is somehow bad for children." Since 1980, researchers have published about 25 studies uniformly finding there are no significant developmental differences.
James A. Farley Middle School students in Stony Point, New York, sported SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas or pants in support of the cartoon character's right to be himself. We told you last week about SpongeBob being under fire by right-wing Christian wackos for being gay. SpongeBob Support Day was the idea of seventh-grade class president Jordan Uffer. "He's a cartoon," the 12-year-old Uffer says. "I felt there was no reason for them to say that he was homosexual, and there isn't a real difference between gay people and not-gay people. We're all human beings."
The Archdiocese of Detroit canceled a reception for a nun when it learned she was being honored for ministering to gay people. Sister Jeannine Gramick, 62, was to have been honored Sunday at St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak following a screening of a documentary film highlighting her work at a local gay film festival - "In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick's Journey of Faith." Says Gramick, "There's a real sadness and embarrassment for my church when leaders of my church exercise this kind of authority."
A prominent downtown Indianapolis gay bar was damaged in a fire Sunday afternoon that has arson investigators looking for a cause. A 911 call alerted firefighters who arrived three minutes later to find smoke pouring from second-floor windows in the three-story building that houses the 501 Tavern. Fred Suesz, co-owner of the bar for the last seven years, said the business has operated as a gay bar for nearly two decades. Suesz was not immediately able to get into the building to survey the damage, but said at the scene that he wanted to make repairs quickly and get back in business. The extent of the damage is unknown.
Sylvin Rubinstein, a 90-year-old transvestite flamenco dancer, is stamping and clapping his way across theatre stages in Germany to promote a film about his life as a Jewish resistance fighter who killed Nazis in occupied Poland as well as Berlin. The seemingly incredible story of Sylvin Rubinstein, whose hands were as adept at lobbing grenades as they were at clicking castanets, is the subject of an extraordinary documentary drawing a cult following in German art cinemas. Audiences erupt into cheers as Rubinstein dances with ageless grace onto the stage to take his bows.
Portia de Rossi gave her new love Ellen DeGeneres a Tiffany wedding band as a sign of her everlasting devotion. Yes, that was fast and apparently even Hollywood lesbians can follow a stereotype. As a surprise for DeGeneres' 47th birthday yesterday, de Rossi, 31, gave Ellen a beautiful platinum band from the famed Fifth Avenue jeweler. She also bought a matching band for herself. "It signifies their commitment to each other," a source close to the couple told Page Six. Since same-sex marriages aren't legal in California, insiders say it's doubtful the pair will hold a wedding ceremony that wouldn't be officially recognized. For the curious, de Rossi did have laser treatments to remove the "F.G." tattoo from her ring finger. It will take several sessions for the ink to be erased completely. DeGeneres and de Rossi appeared in public together recently when they made the rounds of the Golden Globes after-parties.
Officer John Weeks, the bisexual Suffolk police officer who sued the county for discrimination won his lawsuit against today and was awarded $270,000 for the abuse he suffered. Weeks, 38, testified that he was a respected and decorated member of the Suffolk County Police Department for 10 years until Internal Affairs officers searched his home computer and found he had visited various gay Web sites. Weeks had filed a $10 million civil lawsuit claiming he was discriminated against and placed in a hostile work environment because he is bisexual.
It took filmmaker Rodney Evans six years and $500,000 to make "Brother to Brother," an award-winning feature film about black gay life in New York City opening nationwide. Evans, a native of New York City, touches on everything in the film from black gay life during the Harlem Renaissance to interracial dating, which today can still be thorny terrain to traverse. At the film’s core is the universal quest to be understood and, perhaps, accepted. The Washington Blade interviews Evans.
Peter Tatchell denies his protest at the commemoration was inappropriate. Nevertheless, he was ejected from a Holocaust service at Westminster marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz where over 1 million people were killed under the Nazis. Tatchell was apparently protesting against Conservative asylum proposals and shouted "never again, today means not closing our doors to refugees fleeing persecution." Anyway, Scotland Yard said he was detained and escorted from Westminster Hall but he was not arrested. The event at Westminster Hall was attended by hundreds of holocaust survivors and veterans of World War II.
Police arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a gay physician Harry Grossman (shown) in the upscale Citrus Isles neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale. Grossman was found beaten to death in his home and his car and wallet were stolen. The suspects, Joseph Fleischer, 18, and Scott Whisenant, 17, have been charged with first-degree murder and home invasion robbery. Both teenagers have confessed to the crime. Grossman once hired Whisenant to do yard work and maintenance at his home.
We told you that "The O.C." is the latest show to climb aboard the lesbian love train. Now star Mischa Barton who plays Marissa talks about her upcoming kiss with co-star Olivia Wilde (Alex) - and she's found that making out with Wilde was much easier than the succession of hunks they've previously paired her with. "Olivia's a cool girl and we had fun doing it. It's probably easier than it is most times with the boys that they bring on the show to be my love interest."
Scott J. Bloch (shown), the controversial head the U.S. government office charged with protecting federal employees from discrimination, has threatened to fire 12 high-level employees — two of whom are gay — unless they agree to be reassigned to positions in other cities. Three government watchdog groups called Bloch’s action another in a series of moves aimed at packing the Office of Special Counsel with religious, right wing cronies and threatening its longstanding mission of protecting federal employees from harassment or intimidation for exposing corruption or incompetence.
Guilty of first degree murder and armed robbery -- that's the verdict in Tucson, Arizona, against David Higdon (shown), the man accused of beating Phillip Walstead to death with a baseball bat in 2002. The victim's mother, Judy Boyer, told reporters the jury couldn't have come to any other conclusion. "It's too much evidence. Too much there," Boyer says. Like us, many considered the case a hate crime because Walstead was gay, but it wasn't classified that way. Phillip Walstead would have been 27 years old next month. Higdon's sentencing is scheduled for March 28th.
Lesbian tennis player Amelie Mauresmo seems to be a little upset by the return of her former rival Martina Hingis. Hingis, who retired in 2002 after surgery on both ankles, recently entered a tennis tournament in Thailand and seems poised for a comeback. Mauresmo, who was briefly ranked the No. 1 female tennis player in the world last year, was defeated by Hingis in the Australian Open and, to add insult to injury, Hingis called Mauresmo "half a man." At a recent press conference Mauresmo, asked about Hingis' return, said, "I have nothing to say, absolutely nothing at all." When the questioner persisted, she reiterated "Nothing!" while walking out of the pressroom.
Last summer, one of the producers of The Simpsons, Al Jean, announced that the series would feature an episode where Homer will become a minister so that he can cash in on same-sex weddings. And as we've been telling you, Homer is also to perform a big gay wedding for someone close to him, someone who will come out on the show. Next month the big moment will finally arrive and the rumor is that he's marrying off sister-in-law Patty Bouvier, but that could just be a rumor. Fox hasn't commented, but they've finally told us when the episode will air. "There’s Something about Marrying" can be seen on Sunday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. Mark your calendars.
At a Murray, Utah, high school, there was a controversy over the voting for cutest couple this year. Two couples were told they'd won. The first couple was lesbians Kortni Coats, left, and Taunica Crump, who are darned cute. The other included a junior, whereas only seniors were supposedly eligible. High school officials said the lesbians came in second place, but students believed otherwise. Naturally, the ballots had disappeared. So all the seniors voted again, and Kortni and Taunica are now officially the cutest couple at Murray High.
Warren "Rusty" Asher, a 57-year-old federal worker, was found dead in his sixth-floor apartment -- strangled, according to the D.C. medical examiner's office and he may have been murdered by a male prostitute. Asher was gay and was apparently known to seek out hustlers in an area just a few blocks from his luxury high-rise apartment. It wasn't until Asher missed several days at work and didn't call that someone went to his apartment and found the door ajar. The medical examiner determined Asher died of asphyxiation by compresion of the neck and labeled his death a homicide. Police quickly located Asher's wallet, credit cards, cash and cellular phone, and they do not think robbery was the primary motive in the killing.
U.S.: Boston public television station WGBH 
Good news from the epitome of corporate evil. Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's largest private employer, has a new definition of family that includes same-sex partners when recognized by state or local law. Wal-Mart's definition of "immediate family" was included in a conflict-of-interest policy the company filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Immediate family members include (whether by birth, adoption, marriage or Domestic Partnership or Civil Union, if recognized by your state or other local law) your spouse, children, parents, siblings, mothers and fathers-in-law, sons and daughters-in-law and brothers and sisters-in-law...
A South Africa court ruled that a Cape Town man's $260,000 discrimination against British Airways cannot proceed because it occurred in the air. Neal Potgieter says the incident, which took place in September 2000, while he and his partner were on an overnight flight to London, led to a series of events that ended with Potgieter being jailed for three days in London. Potgieter said that he and his partner "kissed each other good morning and hugged each other as any couple would do when they wake up." Two flight attendants approached the pair and said they were "not to kiss each other as doing so was offensive to the other passengers on the flight." The men became upset and the crew alerted authorities of unruly passengers on board.
Gay groups have accused the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, of ignoring gay issues and of gagging the gay press. The alliance of gay groups accused Livingstone's advisors of repeatedly postponing the LGBT Forum, a monthly meeting intended to ensure gay issues remained a priority (it hasn't met since September). "We also call on the Mayor to attend the Forum every quarter to relate his views and hear our concerns. Having long valued Ken Livingstone's support for LGBT human rights, we view with alarm his recent refusal to address our concerns and his attempt to gag even mild criticisms of his administration. We feel rejected and betrayed."
Oh, it's complicated. Cherrylle Dell, pictured, left her husband, Scott, for a woman. He drank some anti-freeze and died. Was it suicide? Was it murder? Prosecutors say Cherrylle, of Killaloe, Ontario, wanted Scott's money to pay her mortgage and killed him. She's appealing her conviction, which came after her girlfriend told police Cherrylle had committed murder. And although some who knew Scott say he was so upbeat that he'd never kill himself, others recall that he did mention drinking antifreeze if his cancer treatment failed.
As jurors in El Paso, Texas, decide on the verdict of 55-year old Dolores Agripino, police are searching for Penelope (shown), her alleged accomplice in a fake collagen injection scam that resulted in 16 complaints to police. Several women say the injections left them with disfigurement and serious pain. Penelope, legally known as Meliton Serafin-Reye, and Agripino both stand accused of injecting mineral oil into their customers. Agripino's attorney argued that Agripino did not inject the women, it was Penelope who did it. Prosecutors said Agripino knew the injections were not collagen and she was making money off the con. She's facing up to 20 years in prison.