I feel so tired tonight – don’t know why, but we had our first snow/slush pre-winter downpour and things are messy. Here’s some interesting lgbt highlights I found in the newsworld:
Hollywood director Paul Haggis quits Church of Scientology over ‘anti-gay’ stance – The Hollywood director and screenwriter Paul Haggis has severed his ties with the Church of Scientology in protest against its position on gays and treatment of members who wish to leave.
Haggis, 56, who won an Oscar in 2005 for co-writing Crash, said that he was quitting the church after 35 years. “I could not, in good conscience, be a member of an organisation where gay-bashing was tolerated,” he wrote in a letter to it.
He also criticised the church for its alleged policy of “disconnection” in which members must cut ties with anyone deemed critical of the organisation, which counts Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its followers.
Haggis said that his wife, Deborah Rennard, had been forced to “disconnect” from her parents after they resigned from the church and did not speak to them for a year and a half.
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Large employers back retaining domestic partnership benefits (Starbucks recently joined the group)
Some of the Northwest’s largest employers today announced support for the Approve Referendum 71 campaign, which seeks to uphold state law extending marriage-like benefits to gay, lesbian and some senior couples.
Referendum 71 would ask voters to approve or reject the law. A consortium of religious conservatives collected signatures to get the issue on the November ballot with the hopes of repealing it.
In a joint statement, The Boeing Company, Nike, Microsoft Corp., Puget Sound Energy, RealNetworks and Vulcan Development Inc. said the law does not “sanction or encourage same-sex marriage … but recognizes that, regardless of their sexual orientation, people may enter into partnerships and create family units that deserve respect and equal treatment.
“We embrace everyone’s fundamental right to be judged on their merits and contributions rather than factors such as their sexual orientation,” the statement said.
Referendum 71 is a ballot referendum that asks Washington state voters to re-confirm the expansion of domestic partnership rights and obligations in Washington’s originally limited domestic partnership legislation. The expansion (SB 5688) was signed by Governor Christine Gregoire on May 18, 2009.
Supporters of the domestic partnership law[2] are asking voters to approve referendum 71 to keep the domestic partnership law. Over 200 organizations endorsed the approve 71 campaign including over 100 faith based communities.
IDAHO – INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA & TRANSPHOBIA (see annual report 2009)
Lesbian and gay podcasts aggressively promote LGBT visibility
October 26, 3:42 – PMGLBT Online Media Examiner – Genia Stevens
Many members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community criticize mainstream gay publications for what they consider a lack of content that promotes the true diversity present in the LGBT community. Some of these critics decided to launch their own visibility projects to ensure that all segments of the LGBT community receive the recognition they deserve.
Podcasting has become one of the most popular online visibility projects in the LGBT community. A quick Google search will result in hundreds of podcasts produced for the LGBT community. Here’s a list of podcasts Twitter users believe have earned space on everyone’s PDA: click for a list of podcasts
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