TOP6NEWS - Date 7.14.05

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1-NEWS: Episcopal priest who opposed Robinson suspended in CT
2-NEWS: Guantanamo included telling prisoners they were gay
3-NEWS: Williams Project report looks at Latino ss couples 
4-NEWS: Ottawa will pay ss survivor benefits, while suit is in court
5-NEWS: DP bill introduced in U.S. House
6-OP-ED: EJ Graff goes around the world
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1-NEWS: Episcopal priest who opposed Robinson suspended in CT

Episcopal Priest Stripped Of Duties
July 14, 2005
By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, Courant Staff Writer
Episcopal Bishop Andrew D. Smith stripped the priest of St. John's Church in Bristol of his duties Wednesday morning, citing concerns about the church's financial condition and the priest's decision to take an unauthorized sabbatical for several months.
Under what is known as "inhibition," the Rev. Mark H. Hansen is barred from conducting services anywhere in Connecticut for six months. The sanction could lead to his permanent removal from the pulpit.
Hansen is one of six Connecticut priests who have been embroiled in an increasingly bitter dispute with Smith, stemming from Smith's vote in 2003 to approve the consecration of New Hampshire's openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson.
The "Connecticut Six," as they are called, sought to break away from Smith and to be placed under the authority of a bishop from another state. No agreement was reached, and the Connecticut diocese found the six priests to be "out of communion" with the bishop, which put their positions as Episcopal priests in jeopardy and prompted an outcry from conservative priests around the country.

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2-NEWS: Guantanamo included telling prisoners they were gay

Published: July 13, 2005
Filed at 4:31 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Guantanamo Bay interrogators degraded and abused a key prisoner but did not torture him when they told him he was gay, forced him to dance with another man and made him wear a bra and perform dog tricks, military investigators said on Wednesday.
The general who heads Southern Command, responsible for the jail for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, also said he rejected his investigators' recommendation to punish a former commander of the prison.
A military report presented before the Senate Armed Services Committee stated a Saudi man, described as the ``20th hijacker'' slated to have participated in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, was forced by interrogators in late 2002 to wear a bra and had women's thong underwear placed on his head.

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3-NEWS: Williams Project report looks at Latino ss couples 

CALIFORNIA
Latino same-sex couples as parents
UCLA study shows higher proportion than other ethnics Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 14, 2005
A third of all same-sex couples in California include at least one Latino or Latina, and a higher proportion of Latino same-sex couples are raising children than heterosexual couples of other ethnicities, according to a UCLA study released Wednesday.
The report, based on 2000 Census data, is the first to examine California Latinos in same-sex relationships and sheds new light on diversity within the gay and lesbian community, said Gary Gates, the lead author of the study.
"If you watch TV, most images of the gay community are white, mostly male and wealthy," said Gates, a senior research fellow at the Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy in the UCLA School of Law. "This is one in a series of studies that is beginning to break down those stereotypes."
In fact, the report shows the lifestyle of gay couples where both partners are Latino is more similar to straight Latino couples' lifestyle -- in terms of education, income and geography -- than to the lifestyle of interracial and non-Latino gay couples.

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Executive Summary of Report
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4-NEWS: Ottawa will pay ss survivor benefits, while suit is in court

Canadian Press, Canada, July 13, 2005
Ottawa to pay same-sex survivor benefits By JIM BROWN 
OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government will start paying widowed same-sex partners survivor benefits under the Canada Pension Plan, even though it's still fighting their claims in court.
The decision, which could affect nearly 500 people, won't give them all they were asking for. And they may have to pay back what money they do get, if they ultimately lose their case in the Supreme Court of Canada. But the move was welcomed all the same Wednesday by George Hislop, the elderly Toronto man who mounted the legal challenge.

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5-NEWS: DP bill introduced in U.S. House

by Doreen Brandt 365Gay.com Washington Bureau
Posted: July 13, 2005  5:00 pm ET
Washington) Legislation was introduced in the House on Wednesday that would allow non-married employees of the federal government to apply for benefits for their long-term partners - the same rights already given to married employees.
The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, introduced by Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) has more than 50 cosponsors.
It would allow non-married partners of federal employees to apply for benefits such as health insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance and compensation for work injuries. "The time has come for the federal government to recognize the changing workforce and value its employees," said Frank. "Corporate America is way out in front of the government because they know it is good business.  The federal government needs to understand this and allow unmarried employees the ability to take care of their families."

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6-NEWS: EJ Graff goes around the world

Letter from Toronto
Runaway lesbian brides, gay pride in Australia, and more tales from the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association meeting in Toronto.
By E. J. Graff
Web Exclusive: 07.13.05
American Prospect
It’s embarrassing, these days, to be an American among international human rights lawyers. Or at least it was for me at the third triennial meeting of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLAW). After the last such meeting, I reported here on the progress being made on same-sex partnerships around the world. Held this year in Toronto, June’s ILGLAW conference included lawyers and fellow travelers not only from Canada, but also from Austria, Australia, Colombia, England, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, and Spain. This intimate group of intellectual colleagues have dedicated themselves -- often at the risk of careers, family support, or even their lives -- to protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered folks’ rights to live, love, and form families in countries from .au to .za. Every session drove home more vividly what we Americans knew to be true: Among developed nations, the United States is seriously lagging on gay rights; among developing nations, the United States puts up severe barriers toward basic human rights.

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