NY Gov, Intervenes for Unemployment Albany — According to reports in The New York Times and from gay organi- zations. Governor Pataki has inter- vened in an unemployment benefits case on behalf ofa lesbian who quit herjob to follow her partner to a bet- ter job in another state. Pataki asked state Labor Department officials to reconsider their denial of benefits to Jeanne Newland because she and her partner, Natasha Doty, are not married. New York law provides unemployment benefits to spouses who quit their jobs to follow their marriage partners to another state. The Labor Department has agreed to reconsider. Newland’s appeals were denied. At the request of several New York glbtq advocacy groups, Governor George Pataki, a Republican who signed the state’s first gay and lesbian nondiscrimina- tion measure into law last December,‘ stepped in to urge reconsideration. The two women have been together for 6 years, and own proper- ty together. People who quitjobs vol- untarily can qualify forjobless bene- fits only if they quit/for “good cause," and quitting ajob and follow- ing a partner out of state was good cause so long as the claimant was married. ;_ W _ _ 5 Newland hasnfiled suit ' against the state to overturn the deci- sion. but the lawsuit has, been sus- pended pending the board’s reconsid- eration. Even Newland’s former employer is on her side — despite fac- ing an increase for unemployment insurance taxes if she wins. Newland has in fact found }ajob, but won’t drop the lawsuit in hopes of setting a precedent that will benefit other same-sex couples in a similar situation. Associated Press Offers DP Benefits _ Washington — In part because of organizing and pressure by the b National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), the Associated Press has agreed to offer domestic partner benefits to its gay and lesbian employees effective June 1, 2003. The decision came as part of contract negotiations-with the News Media Guild, the union which represents nonmanagement employ- ees at AP The far-reaching decision will cover the same-sex unmarried partners of the Associated Press’ 3,700 employees working in 242 bureaus in the U.S. and around the world. “For years, the gay and les- bian employees of The Associated 3 Press have been pressing for equal -I benefits,” said Ross Sneyd, an AP reporter in Montpelier, VT, and chair- man of the NLGJA’s domestic part- nership task force. .“I’m thrilled the AP has recognized that equal treat- ment of all its employees is the right thing to do.” Sneyd made a presenta- tion to the company about domestic partner benefits in October 2002 ' along with representatives of the NLGJA and the News Media Guild. With the AP decision, NLGJA now reports that at least 75 U.S. major media companies and unions offer domestic partner benefits to employees at more than 1,400 newspapers, broadcast stations, online news outlets and other operat- ing divisions. ‘ Brit. Gay Bishop Appointed, NH Gay Bishop Elected London — The conservative wing of the Church in England is demanding that the appointment of a gay man as Bishop of Reading be rescinded, reports 365Gay.com. Canon Jeffrey John was appointed last week although his appointment does not become effec- tive until he is consecrated in the fall. Although he is no longer sexually active, John had an ongoing relation- ship with another man for more than 20 years. The Anglican Church, called Episcopalian in the US is like- ly to face years of controversy of the issue of gay clergy, as New Hampshire Episcopalians elected a gay man as their bishop last month. After the election, Rev, V. Gene Robinson said: “It’s just gratify- ‘ ing to get this kind of affimration from people who have known me for . the past 28 years.” Robinson, 56, of Weare, is a divorced father of two adult daughters. He’s been with his partner, Mark Andrew, for about 15 years. He was elected on the second ballot in a vote by clergy and laypeo- ple from churches around the state. The Episcopalian national leadership must ratify the election" by a two-thirds vote at its convention next month. . Meanwhile, Michael Ingham, the bishop of New Westminster, Canada, has been declared “out of communion” with some other Anglicanchurches across , the globe, His sin was in recognizing a same-sex marriage. Violence Delays Jerusalem Pride . Jerusalem —- When a member of , Israel’s lgbtq community’was.killed in a bus bombing in mid-June, com- munity leadeis decided 'that'the Pride march should be postponed fora week. The shared experience of vio- lence did not stop members of an out- lawed Jewish extremist group.from torching and pulling down rainbow flags in the center of "Jerusalem where Pride was to be celebrated.-‘ , More than 100 flags were destroyed. The militant Kach move- ment claimed responsibility, accord- ing to a report on 365Gay.com.. Baruch Marzel,'an ex- leader of the Kach movement, '0 ‘ defended the flag-buming and said the Pride ‘celebrations would “violate the holiness of Jerusalem.” Other. ultra-Orthodox politicians refused comment on the flag burnings‘ but agreed that the Pride parade should be banned. - NEA to Honor Service to GLBTO8 W , Washington — The National Education Association (NBA) is rec- ognizing several individuals’ commit- ment to promoting ‘tolerance’ of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons as part of its 37th annual Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner. The awards are being presented on July 2 in New Orleans. Barbara Williams and the student cast and crew of The Laramie Project will receive an award for put- ting on the play about Matthew Shepard’s hate-crime murder, despite controversy. Newark is a small subur- ban town 35 miles south of San Francisco that had seen several hate crimes committed against gays. Despite a backlash from some members of the community, Williams and her student cast and crew went ahead with the production — and then a seventeen-year old trans- gender student from a nearby high school was beaten and strangled to death by three local men. Williams and her students courageously pushed forward with the play. As the cast president says, “The play was about living tolerantly with each other, and . accepting everyone.” Gary and Millie Watts are i being honored for overcoming their own religious upbringing in the con- servative Mormon church to educate to educate religious, political and ‘ family leaders about tolerating and accepting homosexuality. They took on the task when two of their six chil- dren “came out” as homosexuals. IBM Supports Ending Homophobia In Sports East Meadow, NY — IBM has agreed to sponsor an educational publication, called It Takes A Team, aimed at mak- ing sports safe for lesbian, gay, bisex- ual and transgender athletes and coaches. The publication is an out- reach effort of the Project to . Eliminate Homophobia in Sport. This educational “kit” was developed for athletes, their parents, guardians, coaches, administrators and the gen- eral public as a turnkey 40-minute program that includes a curriculum guide, posters, stickers and a video hosted by tennis champion Zina Garrison and former professional football player Don McPherson. IBM will help fund project _ outreach, provide all videos for inclu- sionin each educational kit and offer its employees the opportunity to vol- unteer for the project. IBM wants “to help ensure that our future customers and employees, including today’s high school and college athletes, are edu- cated on the value of inclusion while still in school — because that will cer- tainly be their experience in doing business with IBM, where we respect our customers and colleagues in all their humanity,” said Sarah Siegel, IBM’s Program Director, GLBT Sales and Talent. Ex-Student Convicted in Anti- Gay Hate crime A Atlanta —A former college student was convicted in the beatingipf a dorm mate he thought was making - sexual advances towards himl Aaron ‘ Price, 19, was found guilty of assault and battery charges that carry up to 40 years prison. The hate crimes charge could bring an additional five years. Gregory Love sufiered a frac- tured skull in the attack in a Morehouse College dormitory bath- room in November after Price beat him with a baseball bat. Price claimed he was acting in self-defense when he left the bath- room and returned to assault Love with the bat. The beating evoked strong emotions at Morehouse and charges of persistent and widespread campus homophobia were leveled by students, alumni and community members. “This case was emblematic notjust of anti-gay hate at Morehouse, or other historically black colleges and universities, but of anti-gay hate on campuses in general across the country,” said Clarence Patton, Acting Executive Director of the National Coalition of Anti- Violence Programs (NCAVP). “In 2002 alone, there was a ll8% increase in the number of reports we received of incidents occurring in an academic setting.” NCAVP’s 2002 Report on Hate Violence can be read and down- loaded at: www.avp.org Rainbow Flag Turns 25 New York — The world’s longest rain- bow flag was unfurled last month in Key West, Florida. The mile-and-a- quarter-long Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag spanned the entire length of Key West’s Duval Street — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow flag and long considered the “gay Betsy Ross,” hand-sewed the Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag. Following Sunday’s event, more than 100 sections of the flag were given to Pride organizations in cities world- wide, including: Atlanta, Berlin, Boston, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and, Toronto. Lambda Lit Award for Judy Shepard Los Angeles —At the 15th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in Los Angeles, emotion ran high when actress Judith Light presented the Bridge Builder Award to Betty DeGeneres, mother of actress Ellen DeGeneres, and to Judy Shepard, mother of the late Matthew Shepard. Awards were presented in twenty categories. Honors in Gay and Lesbian Fiction went to two historical novels, Irish author Jamie O’Neill’s At Swim Two Boys and English author Sarah Waters’ F ingersmith. Among the presenters were mystery writer Katherine V. Forrest, poet Rod McKuen, and perfonnance artist Tim Miller. Among the winners was Plattsburgh, NY author Bonnie Shimko with Letters from the Attic, competing in the same category as Harvey Fierstein. Shimko, who was “stunned” when she won, described her book as “a mother/daughter-com- ing-of-age/coming-out story I wrote for my daughter who ‘came out’ to our family five years ago. It’s a labor of love and also an apology for acting less than kind when I heard the news. Since then,” she added, “I’ve come to my senses (the wonderful members of the Burlington, Vemront PFLAG chapter worked their magic) and we’re closer than ever.” In addition‘ to the twenty juried categories, the Editor’s Choice Award was presented to historian/activist John D’Emilio for The World Turned; and the Pioneer Award went to Naiad Press founder Barbara Grier. the rest wld Gay Activists Murdered in Nogales, Mexico Nogales, Mexico —The president of the Lesbian & Gay Collective in Nogales, Sonora, and his partner were brutally murdered with a hammer in their own home the first week of June. The bodies of.|orge Luis Armenta Penuelas, 27, and Ramon Arming Gutierrez Enriquez, 33, were found at the couple’s residence in Nogales by the brother of one of the victims. A bloody hammer was near- by. Neighbors said they had not seen or heard anything unusual the night before. Police investigators have no suspects. Nogales, Sonora is located about one hour south of Tucson. Deaf Leather & Deaf Bear Contests Orlando — According to a press release, the lntemational Deaf Leather and Deaf Bear & Cub Organization held its contest in downtown Orlando early last month. The winners of IDL are Juan Zazueta, lntemational Mr. Deaf Leather 2003) and Reneta Millet, International Ms. Deaf Leather 2003, both from San Diego, CA. David Pikington, from London, England. is Mr. Deaf Bear 2003, George Shishmanian of New Jersey is Mr. Deaf Grizzly 2003 and John Maxwell, .lr., is Mr. DeafCub 2003 from Newark, NJ. I The next IDL 2004 contest will be held in conjunction with Ms. World Leather in Dallas, TX during the 2nd weekend of August 2004. Books to Watch Out For Online San Francisco — Carol Seajay, the publisher of the sorely missed Feminist Bookstore News from 1976 until its closing in 2000, has intro- duced two e-mail newsletters and will launch a third in the fall, according to Publishers Weekly. The first two versions of Books to Watch Out For are BTWOF: The Lesbian Edition and BTWOF: The Gay Men is Edition. BTWOF: More Books for Women to Watch Out For is the third. Sent once or twice a month, the newsletters feature short reviews and announcements about the best new lesbian and gay books as well as news and what Seajay calls “good gossip” from the book world. Subscriptions are $2.50 a month per newsletter or $4 a month L for both newsletters and will be billed annually. (The pricing is “less than the cost of a bag of movie popcorn,” she noted, and 15 percent of subscrip- tion income will go to supporting gay and lesbian communities.) The idea for BTWOF came because Seajay herself had a “hard time finding the books I wanted to read,” she said. The newsletters are geared to people who “don’t have a feminist or gay bookstore in their town and are too busy to wade through superstores or search through a zillion Web pages to find their leisure reading.” Richard Labonte, who man- aged A Different Light bookstores and was the “Gay Men’s Lit” colum- nist for Feminist Bookstore News, will edit BTWOF: The Gay Men 3' Edition. V