"NewsWrap"
for the week ending March 31, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #992, distributed 4-2-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner
with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Don Lupo and Rick Watts
A crowd estimated at from five hundred to a thousand people marched in New
York City on March 29th, and 27 were arrested, as ACT UP the AIDS Coalition
to Unleash Power - celebrated its 20th birthday. Demonstrators demanded a
single-payer health care system and drug price controls.
The most vocal of ACT UP’s original founders, Larry Kramer, had called for
renewed street activism in a speech at the city’s LGBT center two weeks earlier.
"I couldn't believe so many people turned up," he told gay journalist Rex
Wockner. "This was an extraordinary start for the new ACT UP, with a turnout
bigger than any of us hoped [for] or imagined."
The demonstrators marched from the Federal Building to City Hall to Trinity
Church to the New York Stock Exchange to the Charging Bull sculpture at Bowling
Green park, where 27 people were arrested when they blocked traffic with a
"die in." Among those taken into custody was "POZ" magazine founder Sean Strub.
The marchers chanted: "Same old bullshit* 20 years later," and "Health care
for people, not for profit."
[*I’ll reverse this word in editing]
According to spokeswoman Cathy Renna, "This protest kicks off a campaign by
activists to ensure that universal access to health care becomes a major
campaign issue for candidates during the 2008 presidential race."
The marchers included activists from ACT UP/New York, ACT UP/Philadelphia,
the African Services Committee, Housing Works, the Metro New York Health Care
for All Campaign, Physicians for a National Health Plan, Healthcare NOW, and the
New York City AIDS Housing Network.
"It was a mixture of ACT UP old and new," Kramer said. "I saw old friends I
hadn't seen in years and didn't know were still alive."
He said an organizational meeting is planned for mid-April "to make important
decisions on how to govern ourselves and choose our missions... I hope... we
can go on from here and build it into something extraordinary once again."
A much smaller anniversary demonstration took place in San Francisco the same
day as the New York march. Co-organizer Michael Petrelis said about 50-to-75
people marched on the sidewalk from 18th Street and Castro to a site on
Market Street, where they staged a sidewalk die-in. There were no arrests.
The same cannot be said for a group of young activists traveling by bus to
several conservative Christian colleges around the U.S. those thatt make life
a living hell for LGBT students by demanding their silence, and expelling any
who come out.
It’s the second year that Soulfource, an ecumenical organization dedicated to
fighting what it calls "spiritual violence" against LGBT people, has
sponsored the bus-riding young activists. They’ve encountered much uglier resistance
this year than last. Their buses have been defaced more often, jeering crowds
have met them on their arrival at some locations, and there have been far
more arrests, generally for trespassing, than last year. This week alone, a
dozen Equality Riders were arrested for staging a sit-in at the office of Albert
Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,
Kentucky. They were protesting Mohler's highly publicized comments that while
a biological basis for homosexuality may be proven, prenatal treatment to
reverse a homosexual orientation would be biblically justified.
There were also three arrests this week at the University of Cumberlands, a
small Baptist institution in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Soulforce said in a
statement that the three were on a public sidewalk near the entrance to the
school when they were arrested. Twenty-two riders were taking part in the protest,
walking up and down in front of the college, singing songs and attempting to
engage students in conversations about homosexuality.
Equality Ride organizer Jake Reitan was the first to be arrested. He said he
was taken into custody without warning simply for standing still on the
sidewalk. Two students from the university who witnessed his arrest stood without
moving on the sidewalk nearby and were then also arrested.
Soulforce organizers said that some students expressed fear that the
university would retaliate against them if they spoke to the young LGBT activists.
The University of Cumberlands, like many of the campuses being targeted by the
Equality Riders, has a policy stating that "any student who engages in or
promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex
outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw from
the University." Jason Johnson was also among the Soulforce protestors. He
said University of Cumberlands administrators expelled him last year when they
found out he is gay.
Officials at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi had five more
Equality Riders arrested for walking onto university property this week, and local
authorities decided to bring their cases to trial. Some had prior
convictions for civil disobedience-style trespassing, which apparently angered the
judge. All five riders were fined 250 dollars and sentenced to 10 days in jail.
The judge said that the jail sentences would be suspended as long as the young
activists aren’t arrested on any other charges for the next two years. The
three riders with prior convictions were also sentenced to four days’ community
service, but they vowed after completing their service to rejoin the ride when
it reaches Alabama.
Two buses of Equality Riders, one heading east and the other west, are
crisscrossing the country attempting to engage in a dialogue with students at 32
conservative Christian colleges.
In addition to Mississippi College, officials at three of the four other
schools the eastbound bus has visited so far, Missouri’s Central Bible College,
Oklahoma Baptist University, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas have had
Riders arrested as soon as they set foot on school property. At Baylor, five
Equality Riders and one student were taken into custody on criminal trespassing
charges after they wrote messages affirming LGBT students in chalk on campus
sidewalks. Their bail was set at 2,000 dollars each, which is equivalent to the
maximum fine under Texas law.
There were also arrests in early March at Brigham Young University in Provo,
Utah. A mother and her son were charged with trespassing when they attempted
to deliver a letter to university officials outlining what they say is
homophobia at the school.
Meanwhile, two U.S. seminaries for Conservative Judaism will soon be
accepting their first openly gay and lesbian applicants. The Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies, based at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, announced in
mid-March that they had admitted a gay man and a lesbian for the fall
semester. And this week, the New York City-based Jewish Theological Seminary,
considered to be the movement's flagship religious school, announced that LGBT
students will now be considered for its rabbinical and cantorial schools.
They were the first such actions since the Conservative branch decided to
ease its ban on the ordination of queer clergy. In December a panel of scholars
who interpret Jewish law for Conservative Jewish congregations voted to allow
each seminary to decide independently whether to admit openly gay or lesbian
students. But the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards also said that
synagogues that consider same-gender relations contrary to Jewish law should be
allowed to bar lesbigay clergy from their pulpits.
Conservative Judaism holds the middle ground in American Judaism, adhering to
tradition while allowing some change for modern circumstances. Reform and
Reconstructionist branches have admitted LGBT religious students for some time,
while Orthodox Judaism bars women, as well as gays and lesbians, from
ordination. And the Conservative movement's Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in
Jerusalem announced this week, in response to the actions of its U.S. counterparts,
that there will be no change in its refusal to ordain non-celibate lesbian and
gay rabbis.
Arab lesbians defied Islamic protesters and societal prejudice to gather at
a rare conference this week in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
Many of the attendees said they were sad that the only place safe enough to
hold a conference for Arab lesbians was in a Jewish area of the city, which has
a mixed Arab-Jewish population. Poetry readings, music and Arab women
rappers entertained the conference, called "Home and Exile in Queer Experience,"
organized by Aswat, a group for Arab lesbians that has members in Israel, the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Homosexuality, which is strictly forbidden by Islam, is considered taboo
among most of Israel's Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of the
country's population. Outside the conference hall, women protesters in headscarves
and long, loose robes held up signs reading, "God, we ask you to guide these
lesbians to the true path."
Security was tight. Attendance was by invitation only, and perhaps 20 women
attended the conference. Reporters were not allowed to take photographs, use
tape recorders, or identify any of the attendees by name.
But finally, an openly gay man known and admired around the world, Sir
Elton John, celebrated his 60th birthday on March 24th by throwing a lavish party
at a New York cathedral, followed by an emotional concert at Madison Square
Garden the next evening.
Ozzy and Sharon Osborne, Donatella Versace, Pierce Brosnan, and Elizabeth
Hurley were among 400 guests who attended the star-studded birthday bash at
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. The party included a video tribute to Sir
Elton, who’s sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, produced by his
civilly united spouse David Furnish. It featured messages from Sir Paul
McCartney, Rod Stewart, Celine Dion and Jim Carrey.
The Madison Square Garden concert also marked John’s record-setting 60th
performance there. Michael Caine, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara Walters, k.d. lang,
and Keifer Sutherland were among several celebrities in the audience.
Introduced by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, the pop star kicked off his
thirty-song concert, appropriately enough, with "Sixty Years On." He was
also joined on stage by Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, and song writing partner
Bernie Taupin, who led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday".
"Thank you for making my birthday special," he told a cheering crowd,
concluding the concert with his first hit, "Your Song."
===================================================
John McCain’s Blundering "Straight Talk Express"
Reported by LUCIA CHAPPELLE
Arizona Senator John McCain punctured a political tire on the second day of
his Republican presidential campaign bus tour in mid-March. According to a
"New York Times" report by Adam Nagourney, the flat on McCain's "Straight Talk
Express" occurred when an unnamed reporter asked the prospective candidate's
position on the distribution of taxpayer-subsidized condoms to fight the spread
of AIDS in Africa. In a shaky response punctuated by long pauses and nervous
laughter, McCain deferred to the wisdom of conservative Republican Senator (and
Dr.) Tom Coburn, as he desperately sought assistance from press secretary
Brian Jones and senior advisor John Weaver. Reading from Nagourney's transcript
of the encounter are our RICK WATTS as "The Reporter" and DON LUPO as "Senator
McCain."
[Reporter:] "Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund
contraception to prevent AIDS?"
[Senator McCain:] "Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really
respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes and I was just readingg the thing he
wrote that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence wheree there is
going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, then he thinks that we
should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first
priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise
on it."
(Here McCain started to take another question, but then turned back to the
AIDS issue.)
[McCain:] "I haven’t thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me
think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a
question about it before. I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money for it."
[Reporter:] "What about grants for sex education in the United States?
Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be
Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?"
(Long pause...)
[McCain:] "Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy."
[Reporter:] "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just
abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"
(Long pause...)
[McCain:] "You’ve stumped me."
[Reporter:] "I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help
stop it?"
[McCain, laughing:] "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed
enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on
it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you
find out what my position is on contraception I’m sure II’m opposed to
government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it."
[Reporter:] "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute
them,’ knowing that?"
(Twelve-second pause...)
[McCain:] "Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that
he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these
issues before."
McCain's campaign confirmed later that indeed the senator had a record of
voting against government money for condom distribution. This should not be
surprising if he relies on advice from Senator Coburn -- famous for alleging that
Southeast Oklahoma schools were rampant with lesbianism, calling the so-called
"gay agenda" "the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today," and
favoring the death penalty for abortion providers. For This Way Out, I'm Lucia
Chappelle.
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