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"Hamburger Mary's", a new chain of flamobyantly gay- themed restaurants has hit Orlando. The make no secret of their orientation, lifestyle or desires. This is from their website: "Hamburger Mary's franchises are "open-air bar and grilles for open-minded people," where guests enjoy a flamboyant dining experience. Everyone is welcome at Hamburger Mary's, but our concept is unique in that we are the ONLY national franchise actively marketing to the gay community." Everything there is WAY over the top from cross-dressing waiter/waitresses to your check being presented in a red high-heeled shoe. It's very open, with rainbow umbrellas set into sidewalk...

Transgender is quietly becoming a protected class in South Florida as cities vote to prohibit discrimination against a group that faces tremendous challenges fitting in. Palm Beach and Broward counties may extend the protection next, which could leave the broadest imprint by affording civil rights to people for their gender identity or expression. The movement accelerated with the March firing of Largo City Manager Susan Stanton, who transitioned from male to female this year. "It shined a light on what this discrimination is," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Stanton's attorney. "It really...

How many homeless shelters does your town have that are "intended specifically for transgender youth"? If you live outside New York, the answer almost certainly is a big goose egg. Here in the Big Apple, on the other hand, one of the city's leading newspapers regards it as newsworthy that there is only one. In case you're wondering what "transgender" means, here is what we took away from the story: The residents of this shelter are young men who go to extraordinary lengths to appear as if they were women. They wear dresses, high heels and feminine makeup; they carry...

Focus On: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered Persons ( 825 KB, 2pp) Teaching Tolerance or Attacking Religion: How far can schools go in teaching tolerance for gays and lesbians? Safe Schools for Everyone: An interview with Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) School Employee's Guide to GLBT Issues The Safe Zone: Links to bullying resources, a brief glossary of bias terms, and a downloadable poster NEA believes that a great public school is a fundamental right of every child—free from intimidation and harassment, and safe for all students, including those who identify as...

TORONTO, Ontario, October 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, who was accused earlier this year of pro-homosexual bias on his same-sex marriage cases, has stepped forward to hear another potentially major precedent setting case brought forward by homosexual activists.Three justices were originally assigned to take the case involving a lesbian woman’s claim for full parenting rights as a third legal parent for her partner’s child, the first of its kind in Canada. Chief Justice Roy McMurtry showed up as a replacement for one of the assigned justices on the day of the case hearing.REAL...

WASHINGTON — Gerry Studds, the nation's first openly gay congressman, pushed the country to another landmark development when he died Saturday — the federal government, for perhaps the first time, will deny death benefits to a congressman's gay spouse. The federal government does not recognize the 2004 marriage between Studds and Dean Hara, providing a high-profile demonstration of the limitations of Massachusetts' gay marriage law — while highlighting maneuvering in Washington that has neutralized it and similar state laws. "A gay spouse will not receive any sort of pension or annuity or anything like that," said Chad Cowan, a spokesman...

Attleboro, Mass -- A lesbian couple from Rhode Island who won the right to marry in Massachusetts held their ceremony Sunday. After being denied a marriage license in Massachusetts, Wendy Becker and Mary Norton challenged a 1913 state law that prohibits out-of-state residents from marrying if the union would not be permitted in their home state. They argued that same-sex marriage was not specifically banned in Rhode Island. Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly agreed last month, saying he saw no evidence of a "constitutional amendment, statute, or controlling appellate decision" making same-sex marriage illegal in Rhode Island. Rhode Island Gov....

A former congressional page said he had sex with disgraced former US lawmaker Mark Foley, according to a newspaper report, as an explosive Washington political scandal continued to unfold. The unidentified former page told the Los Angeles Times Sunday that he was 21 when he and the Florida Republican congressman had sex... [emphasis mine -VA] Rest of article

In London, sex scandals come along every other week. You name it, British parliamentarians do it: three-in-a-bed, auto-erotic asphyxiation, gay teen flagellation, getting your toes sucked while wearing the soccer kit of Chelsea Football Club. But at least at Westminster, sex scandals require actual sex. That the governing party of the world's only superpower could be felled by one creepy pervert's masturbatory e-mails and IMs is an event historians will marvel at. Granted that the Roman Empire in its death throes got hung up on gay sex, the American hyperpower seems set to be the first to collapse over gay...

LAGUNA NIGUEL - Dismiss them if you like, but these people baring their behinds to passing trains are your neighbors, your children's teachers, your attorneys, your policemen, your World War II veterans and yes, even your mothers! Once they were a bunch – a small bunch – of crazies. Now they are a nation. You had ladies from the Red Hat Society standing next to members of the Hessians motorcycle gang, standing next to a group of nudists, standing next to a 70-year-old (normally sedate) mom standing next to an avowed libertarian. All laughing, chatting and waving. With their pants...

NEW YORK -- New York City police said a 28-year-old Queens man was stabbed in the stomach Friday after he came on to a lesbian in the West Village. Police said Dwayne Buckle was in critical condition Saturday at Saint Vincent's Hospital, where he underwent surgery on his liver. Investigators said Buckle was stabbed after he stopped a 19-year-old woman and told her she was pretty. The Daily News reported in its Saturday editions that Buckle, who the paper described as a “DVD bootlegger in the West Village,” spat on the 4-foot-11 woman after she rebuffed him. According to police,...

In Swaziland they are called "lishendes" -- multiple concurrent sexual partners -- and they are the driving factor behind the HIV epidemic in southern Africa, said researchers on Monday at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Instead of casual sexual encounters with multiple partners, established partnerships outside of marriage are fueling a generalized epidemic in southern African countries. These partnerships often involve inconsistent condom use and occur in the context of low rates of male circumcision. At the conference in a presentation titled "Prevention Works: What's The Evidence," researchers put forward evidence for various HIV prevention programs aimed at...

Lorna Edwards August 14, 2006 SHARON Clements and Fiona Sproles held hands as they exchanged vows on the crowded steps of Parliament. They were one of 55 gay and lesbian couples to take part in a mass commitment ceremony yesterday calling for gay civil unions to be recognised. The Armadale couple made another commitment. They said they would keep renewing their vows until they carried some legal weight, after first unofficially tying the knot in 2004. "Every year we are going to keep doing this until we can do it legally," Ms Sproles said. "We have lived together for three...

He had planned trip to Mexico to molest boys The last of seven members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association caught in an FBI sting last year was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison yesterday for planning to travel to Ensenada to molest boys. David Mayer, 50, a Chicago flight attendant and psychologist, said he can only claim “temporary insanity” for his decision to join NAMBLA, which seeks to legalize sex between men and boys. “I am mortified and ashamed by my actions,” Mayer told the judge. He said that, like Hester Prynne in the Nathaniel...

THERE were community meetings in Seattle on Wednesday. Some of the couples who had sued to overturn Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage, a case they lost before the state’s Supreme Court earlier that day, were going to appear. Gay and straight elected officials who support “marriage equality” were going to make speeches. I probably should have been there too. But I had a previous engagement. The Seattle Mariners were playing the Toronto Blue Jays at Safeco Field. My 8-year-old son — adopted at birth by my boyfriend and me — loves the M’s almost as much as he hates the...

Athletically speaking, Gay Games VII was a joke. Everybody knows true competition shouldn't include hefty figure skaters, any kind of line dancing or games best played with a beer in your hand. More than winning medals and breaking records, Gay Games participants talked of the importance of participating, having fun, being "out and proud," making strides toward a more accepting America and all that jazz. All around Chicagoland, guys kissed guys in the on-deck circle. Girls kissed girls between billiard matches. They didn't feel afraid or scared or judged. And in those eight days of reprieve -- something special happened...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposed law to curb prostitution in the U.S. capital has some homosexual activists worried that the profiling would unfairly target transgendered people. A coalition of 22 homosexual rights groups has signed a letter of protest against the proposed Omnibus Public Safety Act of 2005, which would allow police to establish “Prostitution Free Zones” in public areas. The group warns it “will increase harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.” Program coordinator Darby Hickey, from the homosexual rights group Different Avenues, complained that the program would unfairly target transgendered people. “There’s widespread profiling...