GaysForJesus Homosexuality, Gay, Lesbian, Marriage » Gay Rights

Gay Rights Play places in Greenlight’s Top 10, wins grant

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:23:49 +0000

"font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:1.4;"> "font-family:arial,sans-serif;"> "color:#000000;"> A screenplay
by globally-acclaimed playwright, gay rights advocate, and Chicago politician
and attorney Jay Paul Deratany, has won a place in the top ten of Green Light’s
screenplay competition.
"http://grou.ps/includes/file.php?group_name=gaymediacenter&function=editor&id=262153"
alt="Haram Iran" align="none" />
“Haram Iran” , which depicts the plight of two young men sentenced to death for
homosexual acts in 2005 Tehran, debuted in the Chicago Theater district in
2008, and moved to the west coast in March 2010, with production and live
performances at Los Angeles’ Celebration Theater on Santa Monica
Boulevard.

Lauded by the Human Rights Campaign and GayAsylum UK’s Omar Kuddus, the play is
a timely exploration of the homophobia and bigotry which exist in modern Iran,
and which still reside within the global heart.

The Greenlight.com has worked in tandem with Mirimax Films and Live Planet. It
is a free resource for filmmak

…… [ Read the rest of this story ]
Gay Media and Press Network ™ Blogs

Same Sex, Different Politics: Success and Failure in the Struggles over Gay Rights (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:23:34 +0000

Same Sex, Different Politics: Success and Failure in the Struggles over Gay Rights (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

Why is it so much harder for American same-sex couples to get married than it is for them to adopt children? And why does our military prevent gays from serving openly even though jurisdictions nationwide continue to render such discrimination illegal? Illuminating the conditions that engender these contradictory policies, Same Sex, Different Politics explains why gay rights advocates have achieved dramatically different levels of success from one policy area to another.
The first book to compare results across a wide range of gay rights struggles, this volume explores debates over laws governing military service, homosexual conduct, adoption, marriage and partner recognition, hate crimes, and civil rights. It reveals that in each area, the gay rights movement’s achievements depend both on Americans’ perceptions of its demands and on the political venue in which the conflict plays out. Adoption policy, for example, generally takes shape in a decentralized system of courts that enables couples to target sympathetic judges, while fights for gay marriage generally culminate in legislation or ballot referenda against which it is easier to mount opposition. Brilliantly synthesizing all the factors that contribute to each kind of outcome, Same Sex, Different Politics establishes a new framework for understanding the trajectory of a movement.

List Price: $ 24.00

Price: $ 22.56

Cyclists with an attitude to ride three days to raise funds for the HIV/AIDS services of the Center and Closing Ceremony

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:23:18 +0000

NEW YORK, NY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010–Braking the Cycle is a three-day cycling ride that raises much-needed funds for the HIV/AIDS services of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.

Press Releases from The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center

Great Speeches on Gay Rights (Thrift Edition)

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:22:59 +0000

Great Speeches on Gay Rights (Thrift Edition)

ISBN13: 9780486475127
Condition: New
Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

This anthology traces the rhetoric of the gay rights movement from its deeply clandestine beginnings in the late 1800s through the current fight for marriage equality. Speeches include Robert G. Ingersoll’s “Address at the Funeral of Walt Whitman,” Harvey Milk’s “Hope Speech,” and Franklin Kameny’s “Civil Liberties: A Progress Report.”

List Price: $ 3.50

Price: $ 1.73

Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America’s Debate on Homosexuality

Using the 1977 campaign against the Dade County Florida gay rights ordinance as a focal point, this book provides an examination of the emergence of the modern lesbian and gay American movement, the challenges it posed to the accepted American notions of sexuality, and how American society reacted in turn.

List Price: $ 28.00

Price: $ 25.76

[wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="4" ebcat="-1"] [wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="5" ebcat="-1"]

More Gay Rights Products

Broadway Backwards 6 Announces Celebrity Performers

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:22:42 +0000

Press Releases from The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center

Identity and the Case for Gay Rights: Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:22:28 +0000

Identity and the Case for Gay Rights: Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies

How should we chart a course toward legal recognition of gay rights as basic human rights? In this enlightening study, legal scholar David Richards explores the connections between gay rights and three successful civil rights movements—black civil rights, feminism, and religious toleration—to determine how these might serve as analogies for the gay rights movement.

Richards argues that racial and gender struggles are informative but partial models. As in these movements, achieving gay rights requires eliminating unjust stereotypes and allowing one’s identity to develop free from intolerant views. Richards stresses, however, that gay identity is an ethical choice based on gender equality. Thus the right to religious freedom offers the most compelling analogy for a gay rights movement because gay identity should be protected legally as an ethical decision of conscience.

A thoughtful and highly original voice in the struggle for gay rights, David Richards is the first to argue that discrimination is like religious intolerance-denial of full humanity to individuals because of their identity and moral commitments to gender equality.

Central to David Richards’s elegant and provocative Identity and the Case for Gay Rights is the injustice of what he calls “moral slavery.” This concept describes the cultural construction of stereotypes that dehumanize the affected group and are rationalized in the context of historical structural injustices. The burdens moral slavery places on individual’s identity formation are similar to those associated with discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and religion, and are similarly unconstitutional and inhumane. Richards finds the analogy to religious toleration most apt and useful as a model for those struggling for recognition of gay rights. One of the strongest points here is that such an approach neatly sidesteps the biological reductionism that shadows women’s rights and race-based rights, and that could attach to gay rights if the “gay gene” theory becomes the dominant theme in mobilization around the issue. By aligning gay rights most closely with religious liberty and other First Amendment values such as free speech and association, Richards is able to preserve both the ideas of identity and choice: like spirituality, sexual orientation is part of who you are and a matter of individual conscience.

This is a beautifully written and powerfully argued piece of scholarship from a highly regarded and prolific constitutional philosopher. Though a slim volume, the book contains historical analysis of case studies that is sophisticated and challenging, as well as a prescription for a model that finds “homosexual” to be a suspect classification. It’s intelligent reading not only for those interested in gay rights but also those who follow the civil rights fortunes of African Americans, women, and religious minorities. –Julia Riches

List Price: $ 25.00

Price: $ 16.90

[wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="2" ebcat="-1"] [wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="3" ebcat="-1"]

Related Gay Rights Products

Are the Leading Search Engines Discriminating against “Samesex Marriage”?

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:38:24 +0000

Living in the progressive state of California, walking distance from the headquarters of Google and Yahoo as well as Microsoft’s Silicon Valley office, I would never have thought my recent discovery to be possible.

The word “samesex” is considered to be a misspelling by the dictionaries of both Google and Microsoft.

This is quite stunning if you consider that the Google Adsense External Keyword Tool indicates that globally while 550,000 people each month search for the two word phrase “samesex marriage,” but, only 135,000 people search for the three word phrase “same sex marriage.”

If you do a search on Google, Yahoo or Bing News, you will see that most journalists, editors and publishers favor using the single word samesex as opposed to the two word phrase same sex.

I believe that Google and Microsoft should update their dictionaries to consider both “same sex” and “samesex” as correct spellings. Every webmaster and SEO expert knows that Google demotes websites with misspelled words. Without this change, any site promoting same sex marriage as “samesex marriage” will be demoted. With federal marriage laws up for grabs, it seems that this oversight results in an unfair advantage for homophobic groups. With more than half a million global searches every month for the two word phrase “samesex marriage,” changing these dictionaries seems reasonable. Not recognizing both forms penalizes users seeking marriage equality for LGBT people.

This situation also translates to support of Prop 8 by companies that have samesex domestic partnership benefits. I would be very surprised if this is purposeful support of Prop 8 by these companies. Hopefully, they simply overlooked the wording trend and its potentially serious consequences.

Regardless of how this came to be, I believe in equality and hope that this article is seen by people who have the authority to have these dictionaries and algorithms updated to support equality.

If you feel the same way, please Tweet, Digg, Delicious,Buzz bookmark this article, post a link on leading social sites like Facebook, Linkedin in the hope that it will reach the executives who can make this change happen. I hope that, as a community straight or gay, we can all help in bringing this problem to light with positive change as the result.

Data pulled from Google Adsense External Keyword Tool – October 11^th,2010

Global Searches
550,000 Samesex Marriage (Two Words)
135,000 Same Sex Marriage (Three Words)

Local Searches
368,000 Samesex Marriage(Two Words)
90,500 Same Sex Marriage (Three Words)

Federal judge strikes down DOMA

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:43:25 +0000

Massachusetts judge finds key section based on ‘irrational prejudice’ by Mike Andrew – SGN Staff Writer

In two stunning decisions on July 8, Federal Judge Joseph Tauro of the District of Massachusetts ruled that a key section of the federal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is unconstitutional.

In Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Tauro ruled tha
Seattle Gay News

The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:42:38 +0000

The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

Few issues in American politics inspire such passion as that of civil rights for gays and lesbians. In this group of original essays, scholars and activists writing from a number of different perspectives provide a comprehensive overview of this heated debate. Contributors thoroughly investigate the politics of the gay and lesbian movement, beginning with its political organizations and tactics. The essays also address the strategies and ideology of conservative opposition groups, such as the Christian Right. They focus on key issues for public policy, including gays and lesbians openly serving in the military, anti-discrimination laws, and the ongoing crisis of AIDS. The book ends with chapters that discuss the ways in which the political struggle for gay rights has played out in various arenas—in Congress, in the courts, in state and local governments, and in electoral politics.

Forcefully argued and accessibly written, this collection is an important contribution to the current discussion about civil rights for gays and lesbians.

Rating: (out of 1 reviews)

List Price: $ 25.00

Price: $ 19.86

[wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="0" ebcat="all"] [wprebay kw="gay+rights" num="1" ebcat="all"]

More Gay Rights Products

We love you all, equally

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:16:10 +0000

How many of us have been asked the questions, “Mommy, which of us is your favorite? Who do you love more?” As parents, we know there is only one answer to questions like these…”We love you all, equally.”

The truth is we may love each child equally, but they are not all the same. And, at times, we may like one child’s behavior more than the other’s…the good student, the good athlete, the good manners…sometimes we can’t help ourselves, they are a reflection of the best in us, or so we hope. Other times, they are insecure, selfish, withdrawn…and they seemingly reflect the worst in us, or so we fear. Our constant challenge is to recognize the good and the bad in our kids and parent accordingly. If we expect our kids to be exactly the same, we’re just setting ourselves up for disappointment. If we expect our kids to be “perfect” in our eyes, we’re setting them up for a lifetime of therapy. We must accept that they are going to be different and love them unconditionally…and equally.

Although we’ll certainly have different opinions about the paths our kids travel in pursuit of their own life, liberty and definition of happiness, our responsibility as parents is to help shine a light for them…to help them find their own path and send them post cards of encouragement on their way. The American ideal of “liberty and justice for all” applies to all our kids, not just our favorites.

In California, we had a ballot initiative that allowed the public to vote on the civil liberties of a minority group. The majority voted for Prop 8, which banned gay marriage and restricted gay rights, thereby requiring the state to amend its constitution to prevent that minority group the same liberties as the majority under law. In essence, Californians said “why can’t you be more like your brother?” Oops, we picked favorites.

This weekend, gay rights activists were in Washington, D.C. to make sure lawmakers are still paying attention. The reality is we should all be paying attention. This is a civil liberties issue. Whether or not you personally agree with the gay rights movement is really not the point…rather, do you believe you are entitled to certain rights that others should be denied? Do you support freedom of speech even if you disagree with what someone else is saying? Do you support freedom of religion even if you don’t agree with the way someone else worships? Do you support someone’s right to bear arms even if you don’t like guns? Do you believe your child’s gender, race or sexual orientation should preclude them from the same privileges under the law as someone else’s child?

Our nation has been here before…with civil rights, the women’s movement and now gay rights. So who better than America’s moms to let our kids know that black or white, girl or boy, gay or straight we are there, supporting them and loving them…no matter what anyone else says or does. We might not like our kids’ behavior all the time, but it is a mother’s responsibility to love them all, equally.

visit www.O-MAMA.com to comment on this article