Quest News  Volume 12 No. 11      June 23, 2005
Compiled & written by Mike Fitzpatrick

British Researchers Claim 2-4% of Human
Population Are Genetically “Born Gay”
London - Being gay has nothing to do with your relationship with your mother, your father, or your best friend at school. It is all in the genes, according to the scientific authors of a new book on the subject.
  Born Gay: The Psychobiology of Sexual Orientation, by Qazi Rahman, a psychobiologist at the University of East London, and Glenn Wilson, a personality specialist from the University of London, reviews research from the last 15 years into why people are gay.
  The evidence, they conclude, is that people are born with their sexuality defined, and it is not the result of their relationships with other people in their early life, as had been previously thought.
  In 1990, the psychobiologist Simon LeVay published research that revealed differences in small parts of the brain between gay and straight men. Three years later, further research argued that there were chromosomal differences. Since then there has been an “absolute explosion” in research into the area, Dr. Rahman said, but his is the first attempt to analyze it together.
  “There’s the classical gay man with a smothering mother and distant father idea - which comes from Freud’s oedipal complex theories. For most of us scientific psychologists, Freud’s theory is like astrology to a physicist. In other words it’s rubbish,” Rahman told the British website Education Guardian.
  “Gay and straight men don’t differ in their relationships with their parents. Where they do it might be put down to the fact that if you’re a biologically gay boy, you are more likely to be feminine. You might well expect that fathers are not too happy. And mothers seek to protect.”
  Rahman said there was no evidence that people could “learn” to be gay, for example children of gay parents are no more likely to be gay than their peers. The researchers examined evidence from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, genetics, endocrinology and evolutionary biology, and concluded that sexual orientation is determined by a combination of genetics and hormonal activity in the womb - and that upbringing, childhood experience and personal choice have little or no influence.
  Rahman and Wilson argue that the 2% to 4% of people in the population who are gay are born that way, and this proportion does not seem to vary across societies. While men tend to be either heterosexual or homosexual, with little evidence for true bisexuality, women show more mixed preferences.
  The book, which has a pink cover with black lettering and an Andy Warhol-style design of people in a London street, one picked out to represent the one gay man in 25, was published June 8.

Efforts Intensify To End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
Washington, DC - Critics of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy are gaining new allies, including a few conservative congressmen and a West Point professor, as they press on multiple fronts to overturn the ban on out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians in the armed forces.
  As part of their strategy, opponents of the policy are now highlighting the ongoing struggles of Army and Marine recruiters. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network say in a new report that many highly trained specialists — including combat engineers and linguists — are being discharged involuntarily while the Pentagon “is facing extreme challenges in recruiting and retaining troops.”

The fight is being forwarded on several fronts. A federal court hearing is scheduled in Boston next month on a lawsuit by twelve former service members challenging the 12-year-old policy.
  In Congress, four Republicans - including stalwart conservatives Wayne Gilchrest (R-Maryland) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) -  have joined 81 Democrats co-sponsoring a bill to repeal the policy. Gilchrest, a former supporter of the ban, said he changed his view partly out of respect for gay Marines he served with in Vietnam and for his brother, who is gay.
  A U.S. Military Academy professor, Lt. Col. Allen Bishop, wrote a column this Spring in Army Times urging Congress to repeal the ban. “I thought I’d get lots of hate mail, and my colleagues would walk on the other side of the hall - but there’s been none of that,” he said June 14.
  Still, neither the White House nor the Pentagon has given any signal that they would drop their long-standing support for the policy, implemented in 1993 under the Clinton administration. It prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay.
  On July 6, the Bush administration plans to ask a federal court in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the policy. The suit cites a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that state laws criminalizing homosexual sex were unconstitutional; the government says that landmark decision has no bearing on “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
  More than 9,400 troops have been discharged since the policy was implemented. Discharges peaked at 1,227 in 2001, and declined to 653 last year, a drop which critics attribute to reluctance by war-zone commanders to deprive their units of experienced gay and lesbian personnel during difficult missions.
  “The services are far less likely to discharge gays and lesbians serving on the front lines,” Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in its report, released June 13. It said those discharged last year included 41 health care professionals, thirty sonar and radar specialists, twenty combat engineers, seventeen law enforcement agents, nine language specialists and seven biological/chemical warfare specialists.
  “The military continues to sacrifice national security and military readiness in favor of simple prejudice,”SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn said. “Americans do not care if the helicopter pilot rescuing a wounded soldier or the medic treating that soldier is gay.”
  A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, noted that dismissals under the policy are only a small fraction of overall military discharges. She also noted that the Defense Department could only change the policy if Congress acted first.
  Rep. Gilchrest said he was unsure how many of his fellow majority Republicans were ready to join in seeking repeal, but suggested the momentum was shifting in that direction. “When this issue comes up, members who believe that gays shouldn’t be in the military are now more hesitant to voice their opinion,” Gilchrest said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press on June 14. “Many of us who feel the other way have come out of the closet, so to speak. A year ago, I would have been uncomfortable expressing my feelings.”
  Bishop, who teaches philosophy at West Point, said he had been troubled for years by “don’t ask, don’t tell” before deciding to write about it. “They can be gay, but they can’t practice being gay. They can be here, but they can’t tell you who they are — it seemed pretty confusing to me,” he told The Associated Press.
  In his Army Times article, Bishop assailed the policy as contradictory to fundamental American principles. “Despite our government’s claim of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out,” he wrote. “If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all American, democracy fails.”

World & National News:

Maryland: Appeals Court Sides With Gay Dad - An appeals court has ruled that a gay father should have a chance to try and prove that his 12-year-old child was harmed by a judge’s order that he either give up the boy or his partner. The Maryland Court of Appeals on June 13 sent Ulf Hedberg’s case back to circuit court for a full evidentiary hearing.
“The father is now given his day in court to show why the restriction has been hurting the child and should be modified,” Susan Sommer, an attorney who helped represent Hedberg in the appeals court told the Associated Press. Sommer is also a lawyer for Lambda Legal, a national organization that advocates for equal rights for the LGBT  community.
  According to court papers, Hedberg and the boy’s mother, Annica Detthow, separated in 1996. Hedberg’s partner, Blaise Delahoussaye, moved in with the father and son. In 2000, the mother moved to Florida and sought custody of the child. A Virginia judge awarded joint legal custody to the parents, but gave Hedberg primary custody with the condition that Delahoussaye move out.
  The two men moved to Maryland and rented separate apartments. Hedberg filed a complaint about the order, but it was dismissed in circuit court in Maryland without giving Hedberg’s attorneys a chance to present evidence.
  Hedberg, who is deaf and whose native language is Swedish, believes he is facing “an obvious case of discrimination.” “For almost six years our lives were proceeding very normally - and very successfully - until we were forced to separate,” he said through an interpreter earlier this year.
  Detthow could appeal the court’s ruling within thirty days, but the case will probably go directly back to circuit court, said Matthew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a Christian law firm. Liberty Counsel also represented the mother in the appeals court.
  “We fully expect that we will prevail,” Staver said. “The facts will show that the best interests of the child dictate that the child not be exposed to homosexual parents or homosexual activity.” Lambda Legal is expected to counter with numerous scientific studies and recommendations from professional groups that show same-sex couples can be not only competent but excellent parents.

Massachusetts: GOP Governor Backs New Effort To Ban Gay Marriage - Governor Mitt Romney has endorsed a grass-roots effort to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2008, abandoning his support for what he called a ‘’muddied” compromise measure that would also ban gay marriages but allow gays to enter into civil unions.
  Romney, who is courting conservative voters for a possible presidential run in 2008, said on June 17 the newly proposed ban would give voters a chance to consider a ‘’clean, straightforward, unambiguous amendment” that does not include civil unions.
  ‘’I’m concerned that the amendment currently under consideration by the Legislature is somewhat confused or muddied by the combination of two things: One is the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, which I support, and the other is the requirement that there be civil unions in the Commonwealth, which is a provision I do not support,” Romney told reporters after a group of same-sex marriage opponents unveiled the new proposed amendment in a separate press conference.
  In announcing their plans to back a new proposed amendment, opponents of same-sex marriage said they believe that the compromise amendment before the Legislature would be defeated because conservative lawmakers who had backed it last year would join them to support the new alternative that simply bans gay marriage.
  The Massachusetts Legislature is expected to meet in Constitutional Convention this fall to take up the compromise amendment, which was sponsored by Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and Senate Republican leader Brian P. Lees.
  ‘’The convention has defeated the Travaglini-Lees amendment today,” said Democrat state Representative Philip Travis,  addressing about a hundred backers of the proposed amendment at a State House press conference. Travis was the only lawmaker to speak at the unveiling of the amendment. Joining him were representatives of the Massachusetts Family Institute, and a host of Christian leaders, including a representative of the four dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts. The ballot committee calls itself Voteonmarriage.org.
  To amend the state constitution via a citizens’ ballot initiative, organizers will need to gather the signatures of roughly 66,000 Massachusetts voters this fall, then win the backing of one quarter of the Legislature’s 200 members in two successive sessions, and then win at the ballot box in the November 2008 election. By contrast, the compromise amendment, which was generated by the Legislature, requires a majority vote of lawmakers in two successive sessions to be sent to voters.
  The June 16 developments were a dramatic new turn in the state’s political debate around gay marriage, which was legalized by the Supreme Judicial Court in a November 18, 2003 decision. In March, a Boston Globe poll indicated that 56% of those surveyed supported same-sex marriage.
  Gay-marriage advocates and several lawmakers said they were not convinced that the Travaglini-Lees amendment would be defeated. Lees agreed that the landscape had changed with the announcement of the proposed gay-marriage ban, but said the course ahead was not certain.
  ‘’It will change the number of votes -- there’s no doubt about that -- and the Senate president and I are going to have to look and see what the options are out there,” Lees told the Boston Globe, referring to the alternative ballot question. ‘’We’ll have to sit down after the budget’s done and figure out what course of action, if any, we want to take.”
  Arline Isaacson, cochairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said she was skeptical of Travis’s prediction that some conservatives would abandon the Travaglini-Lees measure. ‘’It’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet my mortgage on it,” said Isaacson, who has been urging the Legislature to defeat the compromise this year.
  The new amendment and Romney’s endorsement were criticized by gay activists and by Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006. ‘’I’m opposed to any effort to take away the rights of gay and lesbian couples to marry,” Reilly said in a statement. ‘’It is unfortunate that the Governor’s preoccupation with matters outside of Massachusetts dictate that he play politics with an issue that has been resolved and is working well.”
  A number of out-of-state groups are backing the new amendment,  including the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, and the Colorado-based Focus on the Family.
  Romney, who recently opposed a Democrat-sponsored stem cell research bill, has again found himself aligned with the four Massachusetts bishops of the Roman Catholic church. The bishops issued a statement saying they were giving their permission for the ballot committee to gather signatures outside Catholic churches. ‘’This proposed amendment restores to our laws the traditional definition of marriage,” the bishops’ statement said. ‘’To remain effective as society’s primary institution for ensuring the well-being of children, marriage must be understood by government as a commitment involving one man and one woman.”
  But a religious leader who listened in on the ballot committee’s press conference criticized the tone of the organizers. ‘’I lived outside Montgomery, Ala., in 1963, and the people there were convinced that government was forcing its agenda on them to enfranchise blacks,” said the Rev. Jep Streit, dean of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Boston. ‘’They said it was outrageous that the will of the people was opposed. The rhetoric sounds the same to me.”

New Jersey: Appeals Court Rules NJ Constitution Does Not Recognize Gay Marriage - A state appeals panel ruled June 14 that New Jersey’s Constitution does not require the recognition of gay marriage. The 2-1 decision rejected the efforts of seven same-sex couples to marry, although the case is expected to go to the state Supreme Court. The ruling said legislators will have to change marriage laws before same-sex couples can marry in New Jersey.
  “However, absent legislative action, there is no basis for construing the New Jersey Constitution to compel the State to authorize marriages between members of the same sex,” Appellate Judge Stephen Skillman wrote for the majority.
  In dissent, Appellate Judge Donald G. Collester said that if marriage is defined strictly as a heterosexual union, then couples are denied the right to marry the person of their choice, and so have no real right to marry.
  The third panel member, Appellate Judge Anthony J. Parrillo, wrote a concurring opinion, underscoring his belief that elected officials, not judges, should make the call on gay marriage. “It is, therefore, a proper role for the Legislature to weigh the societal costs against the societal benefits flowing from a profound change in the public meaning of marriage,” Parrillo said. “The choice must come from democratic persuasion, not judicial fiat.”
  Steven Goldstein, head of Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, claimed the Appeals Court ruling as a victory, even though it affirmed a lower court’s ruling. “The dissent was strong, cogent and even a little blistering,” he said. “We believe we’re going up to the Supreme Court in very good shape, particularly with public opinion on our side.”
  The seven same-sex couples sued the state in an effort to allow them to marry, but their case was rejected by a judge in 2003. Massachusetts is the only state that currently allows gay marriages, which the New Jersey attorney general’s office referenced in arguing the case by saying that shows it is typical to limit marriage to one man and one woman.
  New Jersey also contended that it had addressed the concerns of gay couples through a domestic partnership law that went into effect in 2004. That law offers same-sex couples various rights, including making medical decisions for each other, and tax benefits.

Tennessee: Teen’s Blog Claims He WAs Force To Attend Ex-Gay Camp - A Tennessee teen apparently admitted into an ex-gay camp by his parents after coming out as gay chronicled his anxieties about attending the ex-gay ministry through a blog, gaining attention from media outlets and gay activists.
  Zach, a 16-year-old from Bartlett, Tennessee, was sent to the ex-gay camp Refuge, associated with Love In Action near Memphis on June 6 and is to remain there at least until June 20, according to his June 3 blog entry.
  Love In Action, an ex-gay ministry, is accredited by the ex-gay group Exodus International and supported by numerous area churches in Memphis. Officials with the ministry on June 15 would not confirm whether the teen was enrolled. A friend contacted by the New York Blade would not confirm Zach’s full name. His parents could also not be identified.
  The blog detailed the days leading up to his admittance to an ex-gay camp earlier this month. The blog led to protests outside the facility near Memphis. Gay activists tracking the teen’s plight have organized daily protests since June 6 outside Love In Action’s facility in Memphis.
  “Love In Action is calling upon the community to extend open-minded consideration and tolerance towards young people with same-sex attraction who are currently undergoing the organization’s youth program called Refuge,” according to a press statement issued in response to the protests.
  Wayne Besen, a gay author who tracks the ex-gay movement, said the teen’s blog is the “modern age of a message in a bottle.”
  “This is significant child abuse,” said Besen, author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. “He is very innovative, and it shows the power of the Internet for our community.”
  On May 29, the teen blogged that his parents sat him down and told him he was going to a “fundamentalist Christian program for gays.”
  “They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they ‘raised me wrong.’ I’m a big screw up to them, who isn’t on the path God wants me to be on. So I’m sitting here in tears, joing [sic] the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs — and I can’t help it,” Zach wrote.
  “I’ve been through hell. I’ve been emotionally torn apart for three days... I can’t remember which days they were … time’s not what it used to be,” the teen wrote in his last blog entry on June 3.
  The teen also posted what he said were the rules for Refuge that were e-mailed to his parents: “No hugging or physical touch between clients. Brief handshakes or a brief affirmative hand on a shoulder is allowed,” the rules stated.
  “LIA wants to encourage each client, male and female, by affirming his/her gender identity,” the rules continued. “LIA also wants each client to pursue integrity in all of his/her actions and appearances. Therefore, any belongings, appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect a client to an inappropriate past are excluded from the program. These hindrances are called False Images. FI behavior may include hyper-masculinity, seductive clothing, mannish/boyish attire (on women), excessive jewelry (on men), mascoting, and ‘campy’ or gay/lesbian behavior and talk.”
  According to its website, Refuge offers a two-week program for $1,500 and also a six-week program for

Washington: Closet Case Mayor’s Fate May Not Be Known For Months -  It may be months before recall petitions can be circulated by Spokane Mayor Jim West’s opponents who contend he abused his office by offering internships to men he met in a gay Internet chat room. Should West appeal the move, state election law could delay signature-gathering until at least the fall and an election until next year, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Even said.
  Spokane resident Shannon Sullivan filed recall paperwork after a series of articles in The Spokesman-Review last month alleged that West used his city-owned computer to enter a gay chat room and offer City Hall jobs and perks to men he met there.
  The Spokesman-Review also implicated the mayor in sexual abuse of boys in the late 1970s and early ‘80s — allegations he denied. West subsequently acknowledged having relationships with adult men, but he said his dealings with government interns were aboveboard.
  Benton County Superior Court Judge Craig Matheson June 13 ruled that one charge against West — that he “solicited internships for young men for his own personal uses” — was legally sufficient to begin circulating recall petitions.
  But West’s attorneys say he’s considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court, which he has 30 days to file. Based on the wording of the state recall law, petition organizers thought he had just 15 days to file, but Even said state Supreme Court procedure trumps the statute.
  An appeal of a recall petition goes directly to the Supreme Court, without the usual stop in appeals court, but it wouldn’t necessarily be on a fast track, Even said. He studied the law earlier this year when a recall of Secretary of State Sam Reed was proposed.
  Hopes for a speedy signature collection on recall petitions could also be complicated by the Supreme Court’s schedule. The court’s spring session ends June 30, well before that 30-day deadline lapses, and the court is not scheduled to be in session until September 13. A number of factors and filing deadlines may delay any recall vote as far back as 2006.
  In related news, People wrote vicious messages to Mayor Jim West after The Spokesman Review outed him as a closeted gay man with a fondness for young men, according to a first batch of e-mails released by the mayor’s office June 14. More than 2,000 pages of e-mails to and from West’s office were released after news organizations made public-records requests. Many more pages will be released in coming weeks after they are cleared by the city attorney.
  A scan of the e-mails released showed that most were relatively routine, until May 5 began a series of articles broke about West’s life as a conservative Republican politician who often voted against gay rights while secretly a homosexual. “I hope you burn in hell for the things you have done to gay and lesbians within your community,” a writer who identified himself as Jim McCoy wrote to West.
  Many writers blasted him as a hypocrite. “Ain’t karma grand?” one writer asked. “How dare you impugn the brave men and women of the 82nd Airborne with your online pedophilia name,” a writer named Marta asked. West used the name “Cobra82nd” in some messages, an apparent reference to his past service as a paratrooper in the unit.
  “Aside from Michael Jackson, perhaps you are the only person that believes you are not a gay pedophile,” wrote a person identified as dwatts.
  West also got messages from people sympathetic to his plight. “We can see what a good job you are doing for the city and will continue to help you succeed in that job,” wrote Charlotte Thacker.
  In its series, the newspaper reported claims by two men that West molested them when they were children and he was a sheriff’s deputy two decades ago. West has vehemently denied those allegations.
  The newspaper also reported that West more recently visited an Internet gay chat room and tried to entice young men he met there with offers of perks and City Hall jobs. The mayor also is accused of sexually harassing an openly gay man he recommended for appointment to the city’s Human Rights Commission.
  Last week, The Spokesman-Review reported that the paper had obtained another e-mail in which West said he had discovered a new relationship with God in the wake of the scandal. “I appreciate your comments but like King David in the Bible I will be a better mayor now,” West wrote. “My faith in Jesus Christ and the Lord tell me this will be done.”

Washington, DC: CDC Disputes New Version Of Anti-Gay Age Study - A spokesman from the Centers For Disease Control has categorized a soon-to-be published study by the conservative Family Research Institute as “bad science.” The study, an update of an earlier 1980’s report, reportedly claims being gay is as dangerous as smoking or using illegal drugs.
  Paul Cameron, known for anti-gay research regularly quoted by conservatives to denounce gay rights, asserts in an updated study that gay men die younger than heterosexual men. Cameron based his conclusions on what he said was a review of 10,000 obituaries published in the Washington Blade, and data from the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on the ages of people who die from AIDS.
  “[The data] suggests there are all kinds of choices people can make. You can choose to smoke, or to have fun with illegal intravenous drugs or engage in homosexual activity,” Cameron claimed in a recent interview. “Certainly the data shows that homosexuality and shooting drugs seem to be among the most dangerous choices people can make. Homosexuality is a tremendous public health risk.”
  Cameron said the study of the obituaries, which he compared to the CDC report “AIDS Cases in Adolescents and Adults, by Age — United States, 1994-2000,” supports his research and shows that gays die 20 years earlier than heterosexuals. Numerous critics of his earlier study, which claimed gay men only live until their late 40’s, used convenience sampling, a highly unscientific method of gathering data.
  According to Cameron’s earlier study, newspaper obituaries culled from gay periodicals showed the median age of death for people with AIDS was 42 while CDC data concludes the average age of deaths of gay men with AIDS was 43. In his updated study, Cameron then took the AIDS deaths reported in one newspaper, the Washington Blade, and averaged them in with other deaths of gay men reported in the paper to come up with, what he claimed, is an average age of death for all gay men at 60 while the average age of death for adults is 80.
  “Cameron’s methodology is simply bad science,” said Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. “The CDC does not collect statistics on the lifespan of gay men. While gay men continue to be severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related death data cannot be used to indicate that homosexual men live shorter lives than heterosexual men overall.”
  Because there is no national database that gives a count of all gay men in the U.S., “making assumptions about the group as a whole is difficult,” Valdiserri added.
  Titled “Gay Obituaries Closely Track Officially Reported Deaths From AIDS,” Cameron’s report appears this month in the vanity scientific journal Psychological Reports. The publication requires authors to pay $27.50 per page for their work to appear. Unlike other scientific journals, submissions are not peer-reviewed for quality of methodology and conclusions.
  Anti-gay groups regularly cite Cameron’s work to oppose gay rights. On June 14, the New York Christian Coalition used the most recent Cameron report to suggest gays should wear warning labels. “We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we ‘celebrate’ a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average lifespan according to the 2005 issue of the refereed scientific journal Psychological Reports,” said Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition.
  Banuchi issued the press release as part of a denouncement of the first Gay Pride Day in the town of New Paltz, NY.
  In the recent issue of Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the Family Research Institute as “extremist.” The SPLC said Cameron was the “longtime house psychologist” of the anti-gay movement and noted that Cameron said in 1985 that “extermination of homosexuals” might be needed in the next three to four years.


State News:
Madison: Joint Finance Committee Approves Million Dollar AIDS Funding Increase - The Joint Finance Committee has approved a $1 million increase in funding over two years for Wisconsin’s Life Care Services grant.  The increase was included in Governor Doyle’s budget proposal and was supported by the committee June 6 on a 15 to 0 vote - the first ever unanimous AIDS vote by the Joint Finance Committee.
  This increase in the Life Care grant will assure that people with HIV/AIDS throughout Wisconsin have access to life saving health services and social services that are vitally important in meeting their day to day needs. Milwaukee-based AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin and Madison-based AIDS Network  are primary recipients of the funding increase which will be instrumental in assuring that  medical and dental clinics remain accessible to everyone with HIV regardless of their ability to pay.
  The Committee also chose to honor veteran AIDS activist Mike Johnson by renaming the grant after him.  Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and immediately committed his life to educating young people about HIV and how to protect themselves.  Over the years Johnson and his wife have spoken to  more than one million youth with his life saving message.  More recently, Johnson served as ARCW’s client advocate.  Today, Johnson is immersed in his personal struggle against AIDS which is more challenging for him now that ever before.
  The proposed budget is expected to be reported out of the Joint Finance Committee by June 10.  The budget will next move through the State Assembly and the State Senate prior to being presented to the Governor for his signature.

Milwaukee: Barrett Taps Albrecht As Deputy Elections Chief - Mayor Tom Barrett has appointed longtime gay and AIDS activist Neil Albrecht as the Deputy Director of the Milwaukee Elections Commission. Pending common council approval, Albrecht will serve under current Police Captain Sue Edman who was named to the top post on the commission by Barrett on June 2.
  Barrett’s choice of Albrecht appears to continue to favor management experience over elections expertise. Edman, who currently manages the city police department’s property crimes division and has seven years of management experience, was picked by the mayor’s aides from about sixty applicants. She also has no elections experience, although she was an unsuccessful candidate for city council in 2002.
  The mayor’s last choice for elections commission head, former Barrett campaign volunteer Lisa Artison, resigned at the end of March after receiving criticism for her handling of last November’s Presidential election. A Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel investigation revealed that 20,000 voter registration cards were not processed, hundreds of absentee ballots were not delivered to the polls for tallying, and more than a thousand ballots were cast by voters with invalid addresses. The paper also found instances of felons illegally voting and about a hundred fraudulent votes cast in the names of dead people or by individuals using fictitious names. Most damaging appeared to be the papers claim that more ballots were counted than were cast. Following federal and state investigations
  If approved, Albrecht and Edman will oversee the Spring 2006 election, typically a ballot marked by low turnout. Many of Artison’s problems were blamed on having less than four months to prepare for a closely contested Presidential election in a state that saw almost 4 out of 5 registered voters turn out to the polls.
  According to his biography from the Milwaukee History Project, “Albrecht came out in 1983, and has been a driving force in Milwaukee LGBT life for most of the time since.”  Albrecht is the former Southeast Regional Director at the AIDS Resource Center and served as the first-ever Executive Director of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center; remaining in that position for five years until his resignation in 2004. Albrecht also was named Wisconsin INStep’s 2000 Man of the Year in 2000, and received the PrideFest Special Recognition Award in 2004. Albrecht’s partner, Paul Williams, is President of the Milwaukee-based Human Rights League Political Action Committee.
  This is Barrett’s second appointment of an openly gay man to a high level post. Former Wisconsin Attorney General Chief of Staff Paul Vornholt also serves as a top mayoral aide.

Eau Claire: Wolfe’s Den Owner Passes Away - John P. Wolfe, owner of the Wolfe’s Den passed away June 9 at his home here. Wolfe was born in Marshfield, on October 13, 1946, to Jack and Margaret (Paulson) Wolfe. He graduated from Eau Claire North High School in 1964. John attended UW-Eau Claire and studied physics for four years. He owned and operated the popular gay night spot on Madison St. in Eau Claire for many years. John was active in the Eau Claire Tavern League and in the LGBT community.
  Wolfe is survived by his cousins, Terry (Karen) Thomas of Menomonee Falls; Wayne (Diane) Thomas of Ocala, FL.; and James (Sheila) Wolfe of Crystal Lake, IL. He was preceded in death by his father, Jack, and mother, Margaret.
  A memorial service was held Monday, June 13 at Smith Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Duane Pederson officiating. Family and friends paid respects one hour prior to the service. Smith Funeral Chapel and Crematory assisted the family with the arrangements. Wolfe’s family wishes to send a special thank you to Connie Christopherson for giving care to the family.

Antigo: “God Hates Fags” Church Members Protests Soldier’s Funeral - Members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church have announced plans to stage a protest outside the church conducting a funeral for a straight soldier who was recently killed in Iraq.
  At Quest’s deadline, funeral services for Lance Cpl. John J. Mattek Jr. are scheduled to be held at 10:30 AM. June 20 at St. John Catholic Church here, with the Rev. Jeremiah Worman officiating. Mattek, a former University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student-athlete and 1999 graduate of Antigo High School, died early June 13 of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb exploded during combat operations in Al Anbar Province on June 8. He’d been in Iraq about three months.
  According to church members, they are not protesting at the funeral because Mattek was believed to be gay but to promote their pastor Fred Phelps’ world view that the United States is feeling the “wrath of God” in Iraq because of the nation’s pro-gay policies. Phelps also claims the Christmas Day Asian tsunami, the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, and recent California mudslides are further proof of the Almighty’s displeasure with the U.S.
  The group has announced it will hold US flags upside down, an internationally recognized distress call, in addition to its graphic “God Hates Fags” placards. The church is best known for its picketing of the funeral of Matthew Shepard and protesting its subsequent negative depiction in the drama “The Laramie Project.” 
  The group has visited the central Wisconsin area before, protesting a local production of the play at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County in Wausau two years ago. Church members at that time stood behind a barricade at the request of local police, bearing signs and changing the words of “God Bless America”to  “God Hates America.” Counter protesters there outnumbered Westboro members by 20-1.
  Family members have indicated that the funeral will proceed as planned and have asked for calm in respect for the slain soldier. Rev. Worman also trusts in the his own faith to deal with the Westboro protesters. “God knows what he wants us to do and he sees to it that we kind of respond to him,” Worman said. “I’m not worried about idiots trying to come in and sabotage a religious service. (God will) take care of it for us.”
  For better or worse, the family said, it’s some of Mattek’s qualities they’ll miss most that also are helping them to cope with his death. “We’re going to get through this because of what he taught us,” Marsha Mattek told the Marshfield News-Herald. “Because of how we watched everything he did. He never complained - he was not a ‘self’ person. He was a selfless person. His toughness is not just the ‘tough man’ part. It’s the way he handled himself in life. He had a combination of great toughness and great softness.”
  The family also noted that when Mattek left for Iraq, he left a letter sealed with black tape, telling his family they’d know when the time was right to open it. If he returned, he said, he expected to have the letter back unopened. On June 13, Mattek’s parents opened their son’s letter. It detailed his love for service, then ended with a quotation that perhaps best summed up his approach to life.
  “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives,” he wrote. “I have lived.”

Madison:”SpongeBob” Legal Team Files Legislature’s Lawsuit In Domestic Partner Case - An Arizona-based Christian group that provides legal help to fight same-sex marriage and similar causes asked that the Wisconsin Legislature be made a co-defendant in a lawsuit seeking benefits for gay partners of state workers. Six lesbian workers in the University of Wisconsin System and the Corrections and Transportation departments filed the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court in April. The American Civil Liberties Union is backing them.
  The lawsuit filed June 8 alleges a state law preventing state employees’ gay partners from getting health benefits violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s equal-rights protection clause. It asks a judge to force state agencies to provide the benefits. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager is defending the state.
  The Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Legislative Organization voted in May to ask the Alliance Defense Fund in Scottsdale, Ariz., represent the Wisconsin Legislature in the lawsuit.
  The ADF promotes itself as a defender of family values and offers legal aid to fight against such things as allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. The ADF also made national headlines for its claims that cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants was gay. Lawmakers aren’t a party in the Dane County lawsuit, but ADF wants to insert them as co-defendants along with the state.
  ADF attorneys argue in a court motion that Lautenschlager, a Democrat, can’t adequately defend the Legislature’s interests because she supports benefits for workers’ gay partners.

Madison: Madison Cable Gets Gay LOGO - Gay TV for a fee is coming to Wisconsin’s second-largest LGBT market.  The Viacom-MTV owned gay channel LOGO will debut on Charter Cable here June 30. In an official announcement dated May 31, but arriving  in subscriber mailboxes this weekend, Charter advised that LOGO will occupy Channel 662 at the end of the month. Although there is no increase in cable fees associated with the gay channel’s addition, it is offered as a premium option as part of the cable provider’s “Big Movie Tier.”
  The announcement was one of several channel line-up changes announced by the company. Earlier this year, Charter Cable came under fire from the city’s human rights commission for the creation of a premium-price optional tier for the Spanish-language channels carried by the service. Charter later adjusted its line-up, retaining some Spanish channels in its basic cable tier.
  LOGO is scheduled to carry a variety of original and previously broadcast series, documentaries and specials. Two programs generating interest are former Kids In The Hall comedian Scott Thompson’s My Fabulous Gay Wedding and Noah’s Arc, a comedy about a group of African-American gay men living in Santa Monica.
  LOGO will also carry the documentary series Momentum featuring stories of gay rugby players, transgender actresses, and teens with same-sex parents. LOGO will also offer the first-ever telecast of The 16th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
  LOGO will also be teaming up with CBS News to cover LGBT stories and headlines in what the channel claims is “a professional and authentic voice.” The channel has also acquired the broadcast rights to more than 200 titles of lesbian and gay films.

Green Bay: Top Trucker Seeks Same-Sex Couples To Drive Big Rigs -  Schneider National, the largest trucking firm in the United States, has rolled out a marketing campaign to recruit same-sex couples as big rig driving teams. The effort aims to highlight the company’s gay-friendly environment, according to Tom Nightingale, vice president of corporate marketing for Schneider National.
  “We’ve always embraced diversity of gender preference and everything that goes with it,” Nightingale told Washington Blade reporter Van Gower. “This campaign really is something that just puts a formal stamp on principles we’ve held for a long time.”
  Schneider National officials recognized that they already employed a number of “very happy, very successful” gay men and lesbians among 1,050 full-time team drivers and wanted to bolster those ranks by “aggressively” targeting the gay market to help address an industry-wide shortage of drivers, Nightingale said.
  Schneider National already includes sexual orientation in an employment diversity statement. Nightingale said long-haul routes are ideal for team driving couples, whether gay or straight, who have a good comfort level with one another, who would like a unique way to see the country and want to double family incomes.
  “But if someone wants to go out just as a solo driver, we have thousands of career opportunities for them as well,” he added.
  The company plans to gradually expand the marketing campaign to include advertisements primarily in print media outlets, with some efforts on the Web, Nightingale said.
  Nightingale said that although applicants aren’t asked their sexual orientation, a recent up tick in new hires is an encouraging sign that the company’s gay outreach is working, he said. Nightingale did not specify the number of same-sex couples the company hopes to attract.
  “The numbers we recruit are so large, it’s really hard to draw a trend line out of a few months,” he said. “But I’d expect over the next couple of months that we’ll have much more trackable results.”
  Founded in 1935, Schneider National operates 36 facilities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and employs some 15,000 drivers and independent contractors. The marketing effort by Schneider drew positive reactions from some trucking industry veterans.
  “In one sense, you can be really excited about this because it shows gay and lesbian relationships are getting to be more accepted and Schneider National is actively seeking those employees to work for them,” said Timothy Anderson, president of the Gay Truckers Association and a former long-haul truck driver.
  But some companies have a high turnover rate, and relationships can be tested on the road due to the grueling nature of the work and the stress of constant togetherness in the confines of a truck cab, Anderson said.
  Deena Sanders, sales manager of TruckNet, a Lebanon, Mo.-based online information and advertising portal for the trucking industry, lauded the hiring program.  “Who’s to say that a LGBT person cannot be in the transportation industry and be a driver?” said Sanders, who is a lesbian. “What a majority of truck drivers don’t know is that somebody they could be riding next to and talking to on CB could be a gay man or a lesbian.”
  A sampling of other freight companies shows that most include sexual orientation in employee anti-bias policies, but none use recruiting efforts aimed at gay couples, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The companies sampled include Fed-Ex Freight, Pacer Global Logistics and Ryder.  J.B. Hunt Transport, another long-haul transport company based in Arkansas, declined to comment to reporter Gower.

Milwaukee: RuPaul, PrideFest Snare Record-Breaking Crowd - Billed this year as Wisconsin’s “pride and joy,” the ninth annual PrideFest at the Henry B. Maier “Summerfest” grounds saw record-breaking attendance June 11-12. As of 9 PM Sunday, one hour before closing, evening festival organizers reported 19,700 had passed through the gates, beating 2002’s previous record of 18,604, wen the festival was three days long. PrideFest officials claimed on June 13 that the official attendance figure was 21,368, a number that also included volunteers, free passes and other non-paid admissions.
   12,984 visitors attended PrideFest’s opening day. This year’s festival scored a mix of gay and straight attendees. According to the Quest news team covering the event, most of those asked for the prime reason they were in attendance named the appearance of dance artist RuPaul as their reason for passing through the gates.
  “We had a very strong entertainment and activity lineup, incredible support from the community and, of course, near-perfect festival weather,” PrideFest co-producer Michael Hall said.
   Saturday’s lineup featured Taylor Dayne, RuPaul and comedian Jason Stuart.  Sunday’s entertainment headliners included Sophie B. Hawkins, Jade Esteban Estrada and Pamela Means.
  Saturday evening saw half-hour waiting lines at admission booths outside the festival and similarly long lines at the beer ticket and ID bracelet stands. Festival-goers appeared forgiving of the volunteer workers who were at times overwhelmed by the demand. “Our amazing team of volunteers successfully created a festival that welcomed the entire community,” co-producer Cindy Taylor said.
  Warm, muggy weather with scattered showers had been forecast throughout the weekend, but the rain never materialized over the festival grounds.  However, just before Sophie B. Hawkins took to the main stage Sunday night, a rainbow appeared over the lakefront.  The rainbow and rainbow colors are powerful symbols for the LGBT community.
  Sunday also saw the first-ever separately-produced Milwaukee Pride Parade. The 30-unit parade ran through the Second St. gay bar district, from Greenfield Ave. to See St. The parade stepped off shortly after 2 PM and lasted about a quarter hour. Although parade organizers reported about a thousand watched the pride march, the Quest news team covering the event estimated only several hundred bystanders attended the event.

Madison: State Senate Passes Cremation Bill, Removes “Pecking Order” -  The state Senate on June 15 unanimously approved a wide-ranging bill to regulate crematoriums, impose a $53 licensing fee, create a Crematory Authority Council and give consumers a way to complain about bad cremation experiences.
  Wisconsin’s cremation bill, which needs agreement from the state Assembly, could be on Governor Jim Doyle’s desk for approval by June 24. The Senate removed a provision in the bill that would have created a pecking order for next of kin and others entitled to authorize a cremation. Action Wisconsin had said that the provision could deny gay and lesbian people “their rightful role in the decision of how to deal with the remains of a dearly loved partner” because relatives would be given priority to make the decision to cremate.
  Quest has learned a “final wishes” bill addressing the decision-making issue was submitted for drafting on June 14. The bill is expected to create a standardized advanced directive document similar to the current Wisconsin Durable Powers of Attorney documents for Health Care and Finances.
  Lead sponsor Rep. Samantha Kerkman (R-Burlington) said the growing popularity of cremation in the state necessitates scrutiny. “Right now, crematoriums are not regulated by the state at all,” Kerkman said. “We don’t even know how many crematoriums there are in Wisconsin.”
  Introduction of the bill in Wisconsin was sparked by horrific cases of badly handled corpses in Georgia and, most recently, in New Hampshire, where a crematorium was shut down in February by the state for co-mingling bodies during cremation and mishandling the remains.
  “There have not been any issues with this in Wisconsin that we are aware of,” Kerkman told the Wisconsin State Journal, “but we want to be proactive in Wisconsin and make sure consumers have accountability for the services being provided.”
  The bill, the product of collaboration between the state Department of Regulation and Licensing and funeral industry trade associations, has been in the works for more than a decade, Kerkman said.
  For consumers, the crematory council is a place to have their complaints investigated, Kerkman said. But Longmire acknowledged it also benefits the funeral industry by deterring firms looking to make quick cash in a fast-growing but currently unregulated arena. 

LaCrosse: Third ELCA Synod Votes To Oppose Proposed Constitutional Civil Union Ban - On June 12, the La Crosse Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) became the third Wisconsin ELCA body to pass a resolution against the proposed constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage for gay couples. They join the South Central Wisconsin and Greater Milwaukee Synods --together, the three synods represent 370 congregations and nearly 250,000 individual congregants.
  “This makes me very proud to be a Lutheran,” said Connie Scharlau, who helped draft and pass the resolution at the La Crosse Assembly. She and her husband are retired and live on their family farm in rural Arcadia. “For me, it’s a matter of justice and fairness. Wisconsin has been known as a progressive state, and we don’t want to move backwards and take rights away from people. That’s not what good people do, and we’re good people in Wisconsin.”
  The vote was music to the ears of the state’s LGBT activists who have been working hard to defeat the ban. “Action Wisconsin welcomes the support of the Lutheran synods across the state who have courageously voiced their opposition to extreme discrimination against Wisconsin families,” said Action Wisconsin executive director Christopher Ott. “The support of faith communities will be essential to defeating this amendment, whether in the Legislature or at the ballot box, and over the next seventeen months, we expect to see more and more people of faith stand with us.”
  The three ELCA synods voted for the resolutions largely out of concern that the second sentence of the amendment goes too far by banning any legal recognition for unmarried couples, regardless of sexual orientation, language that likely would jeopardize already extant benefits - even those offered by private firms. The proposed amendment, introduced as AJR 66 in the 2003-2004 session, reads, “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”
  A constitutional amendment must pass the Legislature twice, in two consecutive sessions with the same language. It must then be approved by a popular vote. Lawmakers approved the constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage the first time in March 2004. Backers of the amendment intend to pass the amendment again in time to place it on the November 2006 ballot.

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