Queer Rights/Issues/Activism

A source for news articles relating to Queer/GLBT rights, issues, and activism.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community shows pride in ... - Salt Lake Tribune

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Posted: 3:48 PM- There were the gyrating work force in bantam bathing suits and plentifulness of other eye-popping spectacles that made Sunday's Beehive State Pride Parade a jubilation like none other in Utah. But there is far more than to the yearly jubilation of the gay, lesbian, bisexual person and transgender community than tattooed pile Walkers and work force in bright-colored wigs. Beehive State Pride have grown into an event billed as Utah's 2nd biggest parade and festival behind lone the Days of 47 jubilation in July. The parade itself have grown to 65 entries, including an impressive figure of corps not seen in many other parades, including banking giant H. G. Wells Fargo and fiscal services pudding stone American Express. The festival, set on by the Beehive State Pride Center, attracted about 150 exhibitors. "We've grown tremendously in just the last couple of years," said Yana Sir William Walton of the Beehive State Pride Center, which organized both the parade and festival. The crowds too, have got grown both in footing of size and diverseness compared with earlier years. In fact, many in the big crowds of people lining 200 East from South Temple to 4th South said while they aren't gay, lesbian, bisexual person or transgender, they decided to come up to the parade and festival to demo their enthusiasm for diverseness and to bask a very atypical Beehive State celebration. Many brought their children. Advertisement

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Cell phone seized, but student's privacy saved

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Inch schools across the country, cell telephones travel on and cell telephones acquire confiscated, often on a day-to-day basis. Students may lose their darling telephone for the remainder of the school day. But they don't anticipate to lose their privacy.

In a little town east of Stockton, Calif., that is what happened to Justin Tomek, a senior at Basswood High School, last October. Months later, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern Golden State weighed in.

"Schools demand to understand that just because a pupil utilizes a cell telephone when he or she is not supposed to doesn't intend the school have a licence to travel in and read their private messages," said Ann Brick, an ACLU staff lawyer in San Francisco. "It's wish rummaging through their private letters."


Senior broke ruleFor Tomek, a senior who maintains his classes high and is the captain of his baseball game team, Oct. Twenty-Five did not begin out well. He and his female parent had a little statement before school. During his P.E. class, he called her on his cell to apologize.

He knew it was against the regulations at Basswood High to utilize a cell telephone while social classes were running. Sure enough, he got caught. It wasn't until he went to pick up his telephone after school that the existent surprise hit: He couldn't have got his telephone back because a instructor had not finished going through his textual matter messages.

His reaction: "I was embarrassed. They were reading my personal information. They read through all of it."


Mom telephone calls the ACLUEventually he got his phone back. The state of affairs didn't sit down well with his mother: Barbara Tomek called the ACLU.

On March 3, Brick sent a missive to Basswood Incorporate stating that the board's policy permitting hunts of textual matter messages, telephone phone calls and photographs on pupil cell telephones was excessively wide and violated the Fourth Amendment and the Golden State Constitution's commissariat providing privateness for people of all ages.

On Wednesday, the Basswood school board tightened its policy to state pedagogues could read textual matter messages or expression at photographs on pupil cell telephones only if they believe the hunt would demo a school regulation or law was violated.

"We desire to be compliant with the law," Basswood Overseer Ronald Estes said.

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Olympics boil down to pride and politics

Say it ain't so, Becky. I and many others around Garrison Wilkie Collins were stunned to hear Becky Hammon - former All-American basketball game participant at Centennial State State University, WNBA all-star and standout with the late Centennial State Chill - programs to play for the Russian national squad at the Peking Olympics.

How could a talented adult female from the great state of South Dakota end up with the Russians?

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It boggles the mind. But it also states you something about Olympic competition.

The Olympic Games are supposed to be about edifice international family and cultural apprehension through friendly competition.

But the Olympic Games often boil down to national pridefulness and decoration counts. It's about winning.

It's also about politics. The planetary phase is a perfect topographic point to do a point. The fad surrounding China, Thibet and the Olympic torch relay is a premier illustration of that.

My uncomfortableness with Becky playing for the Russians is a atavist to the political relation of my young person and the Cold War. Back then, the Soviet Union was the world's bad cat - from the American point of view.

Political latent hostilities carried over to sports, especially the Olympics. Hence all the exhilaration about 1980 and the U.S. field hockey squad whipping the apprehension "Red Machine" on the manner to a gold medal.

Much have changed since then. The United States and Soviet Union are no longer enemies (although they're not all that affectionate of each other).

At some point states have got to allow travel of old struggles and move on. I say that transports over to their citizens as well.

Hammon is playing for a Russian professional squad and recently acquired citizenship. That cleared the manner for her to acquire on the Olympic squad.

Her state of affairs is not unusual with the globalisation of big-time sports. American citizens have got competed for other national squads many times.

Since she is "one of ours" because of her CSU connection, Hammon still have a batch fans around here. We've followed her calling and frozen for her every measure of the way.

We wish you success, Becky, in your up-to-the-minute basketball game adventure.

That could change, of course, if and when the Russians drama the Americans.

We'll root for the place team. We can't allow travel of that.

Kevin Duggan is a Coloradoan senior reporter. He can be reached by telephone at 224-7744. Send e-mail to .

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Sexism, Statistics And Changing The World

Six billion people on this planet. A higher ratio of males in China, and a higher ratio of females born human race wide. A higher ratio of male directors in business. A higher ratio of females in wellness care. Every field have a ratio of females to males where there is no equal playing field of 50/50. We dwell in a human race with mostly work force doing mostly male things and mostly women doing mostly female things no substance what the laws are.

When the ratios are greatly unequal, state a infirmary with mostly female employees, or any military subdivision with mostly male employees, or any topographic point you personally cognize or have got experienced as being greatly over a 50/50 ratio, then the methods of keeping the position quo demand to be challenged.

Before ambitious the position quo, imagining the reversal of the statistics and envisioning what the consequences would be is an oculus opener. If most curates were female, if most fulls general were female, if all United States Presidents were female, if most nurses were male, if most instructors were male, if most secretaries were male, if most counsellors were male, if most professors were female, if most men of science were female, and if most husbandmen were female, the human race would look, sound, and experience differently.

The human race is changing and more than than women are working in primarily male dominated fields, and more males are working in primarily female dominated fields, but the alterations are not extremist and the disparity in ratio is still quite high in many fields. The grounds are not always with the applicants. The barriers and inducements are still in topographic point for many countries to keep ratios of disparity.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Former US civil rights activist, now lawmaker, urges passage after House advances coin bill

: United States Congress is advancing statute law to tag the 50th day of remembrance of the U.S. Civil Rights Act with a commemorative Ag dollar.

The House passed the measurement without resistance on Tuesday, and a similar measurement is pending in the Senate, sponsored by Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Barack Obama, who also is a campaigner for president.

House patron Toilet Lewis, an Capital Of Georgia Democrat, former civil rights leader and associate of slain St Martin Martin Luther King Jr., said the statute law is not just symbolic. Gross Sales of the limited-edition coin would bring forth some $2.5 million (€1.6 million) to be donated to the United Black College Fund for scholarships and other expenses.

The bill, also backed by Rep. Deborah Pryce, a Republican, and Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder, had stalled for two years, partly because United States Congress bounds itself to just two commemorative coins per year.

It directs the U.S. Batch to bring forth 350,000 $1 coins to be sold beginning in 2014, marking the aureate day of remembrance of the landmark law's sign language in 1964. Among other things, the law barred restaurants, hotels and other populace topographic points from denying service to blacknesses and outlawed employment favoritism against women and minorities. Today in Americas

Citing research screening that roughly half of achromatic high school pupils will drop out before graduation, UNCF President Michael Lomax said the coin's return are badly needed, and the money would go on the missionary post of the civil rights movement.

"Dr. King gave his life so that all children could have got the chance to recognize their full potential," he said.

Past coins have got famed Civil War battlefields, assorted Olympic games, the 1994 World Cup association football tourney and the Statue of Liberty. Last year, the Batch began selling a coin marking the 50th day of remembrance of the 1957 integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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On The Net:

U.S. Batch commemorative coins:

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Monday, March 31, 2008

Colombia - Critical Social Problems Part 2

Living and Working in Colombia

Living and working in Republic Of Republic Of Colombia can have got some advantages despite its well-deserved repute for violence, kidnapping, human rights violations, corruptness and drug trafficking. Here we'll go on to notice briefly on five more than of what I experience are the 20 most critical jobs that maintain Republic Of Colombia in the "Third World".

6. Travel, especially between metropolises at night, can be hazardous.

There's an look in common usage here in Spanish that goes, "No dar papaya". It's not referring to Papaya, the fruit, but rather to not giving chance to law-breakings of chance (or opportunity). That is to say, that many law-breakings aren't planned, they go on because the incorrect people see - and prehend - the chance to "benefit" word form a misadventure. Such tin be the lawsuit when traveling long distances at night. Roads and main roads are poorly policed, if at all, with highwaymen, guerrilla and "Para-Militares", delinquent packs of robbers, thieves, muggers and abductors plying their trade among the unsuspicious travellers unfortunate adequate to acquire caught on board.

7. There is small or no enforcement of laws.

Laws? Oh yes, there are plenty of laws presumably for the protection of all. The job is though, they are typically NOT enforced. From running through reddish traffic lights, driving the incorrect manner on a one-way street to hit-and-run-drivers, people make essentially anything knowing they won't be pursued, investigated, caught or punished for anything. Jails and prison houses are often horrendously over-crowded or controlled by the inmates themselves. Even homicide often acquires a quickie, one-over passing by over-worked, under-staffed police force stations. This consequences in portion to a vigilante-style type of "justice" where common people may take the law into their ain hands. Solutions to unpaid debts, major larcenies or robbery, "deals" gone bad and other consumer-oriented complaints can be to homicide the "offender".

8. Criminals regularly have impunity from prosecution or punishment.

When law-breakers are apprehended for some violation, punishments can take old age to be administered, if at all. Car larceny is "punishable by as small as a few hours or one twenty-four hours in jail. Non-violent crimes frequently transport no jailhouse clip at all with the country's horrendously over-crowded jailhouses and prisons. Some popular penal codification theories non-withstanding, this offerings small inducement to prospective or calling law-breakers.

9. Person rights misdemeanors are rampant.

Crimes and human rights misdemeanors against women, children and minorities are rampant. These most vulnerable groups, when portion of the bottom elements of society, are virtually defenceless before government or any who might wish to work them. There are billions of refugees throughout Colombia, displaced from their places and lands by warfares and violent conflicts, land guess or simply by those whose end is to obtain extended Fields and land from which to operate.

10. The legal system is loop-hole-riddled and corrupt.

Colombia certainly isn't the lone state where those with adequate money can "buy" justness - or deficiency thereof. Legal legal proceeding can take old age to acquire on the docket, then drag on for old age more when they make - all for the right price, of course. Almost everyone desires to be a lawyer. There are so many in fact, that there are more than "lawyers" drive taxis and working other places than there are actually practicing law. Determination a lawyer is easy. Determination a competent 1 though, can be another substance entirely.

In the next, portion 3 of this series, we'll go on with five more than of what I experience are the 20 most critical jobs with Republic Of Colombia that maintain it a "third world" country. Your constructive comments, sentiments and feedback are welcomed. See you then.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Wife buyers turn to Cambodia after crack down on marriage brokers in Vietnam

: The brides-to-be are brought down from mediocre Kampuchean small towns and herded into metropolis hotels, where they are lined up and set on show for prospective bridegrooms flown in from South Korea.

Over the past four years, some 2,500 women have got wedded South Korean men, passing through an belowground matchmaking concern that few in Kingdom Of Cambodia knew existed until recently.

A study to be released next calendar month by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration sheds visible light on the growth phenomenon. A crackdown on matrimony agents in neighbour Socialist Republic Of Vietnam is pushing the activity into Cambodia, according to the report, an progress transcript of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

"It's go a large business," said Toilet McGeoghan, an IOM undertaking coordinator in Cambodia. "We now see that these matrimony agents are popping up in Cambodia. This is a new marketplace for them, and there's a batch of money to be made."

Potential bridegrooms reportedly pay agents up to US$20,000 (euro13,000), the IOM study says. The bride's household have at most US$1,000 (euro650), with the remainder pocketed by brokers. It is ill-defined how many are now operating in Cambodia. Today in Asia - Pacific

The grooms, mostly mill workers and farmers, have got problem determination wives in South Korean Peninsula because they are low-income earners, IOM says. Although some of the matrimonies turn out successful, others announce loneliness, broken promises, divorcement and sometimes violence, the study says.

Kim In-Kook, A South Korean embassy official, confirmed that the figure of matrimony visas issued to Kampuchean brides soared from 72 in 2004 to 1,759 last year. He declined additional comment.

Growing South Korean investing and touristry in Kingdom Of Cambodia is also playing "a important function in the enlargement of multinational marriages" between the two countries, the IOM study says.

Cambodia's authorities publicly acknowledged the issue for the first clip this month, apparently alarmed that it could skid into human trafficking, in which women are tricked or forced into marriage.

Earlier this month, the Inside Ministry announced it was canceling licences of two South Korean companies for piquant in the matchmaking business. The houses had registered as export-import houses to procure legal entry into the country, a ministry functionary said on status of namelessness because he is not authorized to let go of information.

Interior Curate Sar Kheng denounced the firms' activities as "human trafficking."

Prime Curate Hun Sen spoke out on the job shortly after, telling law enforcement federal agencies to be stricter in issuing matrimony certifications "to forestall delusory activities." He also urged parents "not to be so easygoing" about sending their girls into brokered matrimonies with foreigners.

Traditionally, matrimonies in Kingdom Of Cambodia are arranged by parents. Now, agents are approaching Kampuchean families. If interested, the households supply photographs of their daughters, which are sent to South Korean Peninsula or posted on Web sites, the IOM study says.

Brokers set up 4-to-6 twenty-four hours matrimony circuits to Kingdom Of Cambodia for prospective grooms, most of whom have got expressed involvement in more than than one woman, the study says. The work force are ushered through something kindred to belowground speed-dating, followed by a matrimony ceremony.

"Most of the matchmaking happens in eating houses or little hotels located in or near Phnom Penh," the study says, referring to Cambodia's working capital city. "There the work force typically choose a bride from as many as 100 who are made available."

The women are mostly in their late teens and early 20s, attracted by promises of high life criteria and money, the study says.

It mentions one matrimony in which a South Korean adult male promised to do monthly remittals to his bride's family, but was too mediocre to maintain the promise. "This caused latent hostility and statements that resulted in domestic violence," the study says.

The adult female is seeking divorce, but have got received menaces from the Kampuchean matrimony brokers, who have told her she would be charged US$1,000 if she go backs and her parents would be harmed, the study says.

"It's not as romanticist and fantastic as (the women) thought it would be," McGeoghan said.

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