The Equality Alliance Mission (T.E.A.M). Setting The Tone.

Right and Wrong

This page will grow as I add new items when I find them. There are a few opportunities for some TEAM members to take some action. I've highlighted them in red. If you have something to add to this page please place it in the TEAM Yahoo Group.

TARGET will not allow the Salvation Army to collect funds at their stores, meaning that the Army will lost about $9 million this year;
Macys and Bloomingdales have prohibited the phrase “Merry Christmas”;
Denver’s “Parade of Lights,” which has outlawed religious expression is now considering allowing a Christian group to participate in the event;
New York Mayor David Bloomberg now refers to the giant Christmas tree in the city as a holiday tree. We need to watch this one on two fronts. Call or write you elected official and tell them you do not want this to pass. Also, there is some clear indication that Falwell is going to continue to pursue political activism , irregardless of laws against it.
Passing "Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act", H.R. 235, (to liberate clergy from the muzzle imposed by the absolute ban on all speech regarded as "political" without threat by the IRS). Christian Coalition will devote whatever resources are necessary to confirm President Bush's Supreme Court nominees and his other nominees to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Leaders of what openly gay California assemblyman Mark Leno affectionately described as San Francisco's "religious left" lined up on Tuesday to declare support for a bill he authored that would allow same-sex couples to get married in California, arguing that the measure was a logical extension of the principle mandating separation of church and state. Flanking Leno in the sanctuary of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, clergy representing Baptist, United Church of Christ, Metropolitan Community Church, and Unitarian congregations said the bill is consistent with Christian teachings because it promotes equality for gays and lesbians.
"I enjoy the idea that human beings have evolved to a place where we don't have to have relationships defined by what goes on 'in the barnyard,"' said the Reverend Yvette Flunder of City of Refuge United Church of Christ, poking fun at a recent statement by antigay Christian leader Jerry Falwell on why marriage should be limited to a man and a woman. "We live in a democracy, not a theocracy."
Leno's bill, which he renamed the Religious Freedom and California Civil Marriage Protection Act for the legislative session that began on Monday, would amend a section of California's family code that defines marriage as "a personal relationship arising out of a civil contract between a man and woman" to read "between two persons."
The new version of the bill, which cleared an assembly committee earlier this year but was withdrawn by Leno because he did not have enough votes to get it through the full assembly, also contains a section that specifically says clergy members are not required to participate in a marriage ceremony against their beliefs. The additional language should "help Californians understand there is a definite difference between religious marriage and civil marriage," Leno said. The Reverend Amos Brown of San Francisco's Third Baptist Church agreed. "As a Baptist, I will not be a bigot," said Brown. "I will not impose my religious convictions on anyone else, especially not law-abiding adults."
Tuesday's show of support from the "religious left" came the day after an evangelical Christian group, the Orange County-based Traditional Values Coalition, announced a campaign to strip same-sex couples of domestic-partner benefits. The coalition also wants to insert the existing definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman into the California constitution. The Reverend Cecil Williams, Glide Memorial's longtime leader, said such efforts to undermine the rights of gays and lesbians were not consistent with the nation's values. "If I went against freedom at the pulpit, I would then push out a segment of the community," he said. A church in Virginia recently released a paid magazine insert into The Washington Times and The Washington Post to tell people the truth about homosexuality.
BothSides Magazine is an outreach effort of Grace Christian Church of Woodbridge, Virginia. When the BothSides insert was placed in the November 19 issue of The Post, homosexual groups protested, saying the insertion amounted to the newspaper's endorsement. The newspaper disagrees, saying BothSides was a paid advertisement.
As to the controversy surrounding the content of BothSides, Grier says many of those who protested do not understand the difference between race and sexuality. "As an African-American, my color -- or the melanin in my DNA that causes me to be brown -- is a result of simple chemistry," he says. "However, sexuality is not a physical trait; it's a behavior. WRONG
"To interchange the color of my skin, which is not considered immoral in the Bible or anywhere else for that matter, [and] to equate sexual behavior with the color of my children's skin, is quite offensive," Grier adds.

America's founders didn't want to create a Christian nation
BILL PRESS
TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
For many religious conservatives, re-electing President Bush wasn't enough. They have a much bigger goal in mind. They won't be happy until they tear down the wall of separation between church and state, get rid of any nonbelievers, make Christianity the official state religion and declare the United States a Christian nation.
And they've already started. ''We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation,'' the Rev. Jerry Falwell recently boomed from the pulpit. ''We must take back what is rightfully ours.''
That sound you hear is Thomas Jefferson groaning from the grave. The United States is a great country - best, in my opinion, on the face of the Earth - but we are not a Christian nation. Never have been, and never will be. Those who make such a claim should begin by learning their American history. There is zero evidence that the founding fathers intended to create a Christian nation - and tons of evidence that they very carefully went out of their way not to. For starters, the founding fathers were not Christians. Most were Deists, who believed in a remote Providence, or ''Watchmaker God,'' who created us, wound us up and left us on our own. From their writings, we know that few of them believed in Christ's divinity and none of them accepted Jesus as their personal savior.
That hands-off approach to God is reflected in the Constitution, which was ratified in 1789. The words God, Providence, Jesus or Christianity are found nowhere in the document. It establishes no national religion. It sets no religious test for holding public office. The presidential oath - the only one spelled out in the Constitution - does not end with the traditional ''so help me God.'' And there is no requirement that it be taken with one hand on the Bible.
Nor did members of the Constitutional Convention, unlike today's Congress, start each session with a prayer. One month into their meeting, Benjamin Franklin made such a proposal, but only three or four delegates thought it was a good idea. The rest thought invoking God's help would make them look ''desperate.''
Under George Washington, the new nation soon got the first chance to prove its religious neutrality. In peace negotiations with the Muslim region of North Africa, which had been attacking American vessels, the question was asked: ''Is the United States a Christian nation?'' The response, contained in Article 11 of the ensuing Treaty of Tripoli, endorsed by President John Adams and unanimously ratified by the U.S. Senate, begins: ''As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion...'' How much clearer could it be?
Why did the founding fathers strive so hard to keep government from meddling with religion and, just as important, keep religion from meddling with politics? Because they knew their history. They saw what happened in Europe, where princes became little more than pawns of the pope; and, sometimes, popes but puppets of the prince. They saw similar abuses among the first settlers, who came to the New World seeking religious tolerance - but only, in practice, for themselves. Madison, Jefferson and others realized that a wall separating church and state was necessary for both institutions to survive. And history has proven them correct a hundred times over. We are at once a secular nation and a religious people. Our great republic has survived over 215 years. And religious faith flourishes in America like almost nowhere else. According the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of Americans say that prayer is an important part of their daily life; and 87 percent say they never doubt the existence of God. Among Western nations, only the Vatican could beat those numbers.
So, Falwell and company are not only wrong on their facts, they're wrong on what's best for religion. The fact that we are at once the strongest and the most religious nation on Earth didn't just happen by accident. Nor is it because we are God's Chosen People, because He loves us more than any other people on Earth. It happened only because our founding fathers had the wisdom, the vision and the courage to make American different. We became the first county where priests did not have to answer to politicians; nor politicians, to priests. God bless America. The wall of separation between church and state is what makes this country great. Only a fool would try to tear it down.
Hoky Poky? Don't these folks read the medical journals? Check it out for yourself...
The American Psychological Association
The American Medical Association
The American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychoanalytic Association
The American Academy of Pediatrics
Documentary fans may know L. Michael White as co-writer of the 1998 Frontlineprogram From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians. As a scholar of the Bible and early Christianity, White has been asked to decipher what the Bible says about homosexuality, a divisive issue in some churches today.
The modern category of homosexuality is not something that maps so neatly onto the ancient world. Although there are various concerns or discussions within the Bible — both the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament — about all kinds of sexuality issues, what we think of as homosexuality isn't really something they talk about directly. Now there are certainly sex practices that are condoned or condemned in the Bible. So, in a sense, what I'm going to try to talk about is, in a more precise way, from a historical perspective, what those few passages in the Bible are really talking about in each case. WRONG TO DO
Click here for an eye opening education.
Religious Right

Gay detective finds support instead of bias
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
December 12, 2004, 3:21 PM EST
WAYNE, N.J. -- A few months ago, during a debate over whether government workers should get benefits for same-sex partners, Passaic County Sheriff's Department Detective Cpl. Douglas Laverty revealed that he is gay _ something he had kept secret from even close friends.
In the ultra-macho culture of law enforcement, he feared the worst: harassment, discrimination or worse. Instead, what he found was acceptance and support. And he wants people to know he's grateful.
"People knew me as Doug; now they know me as 'Gay Doug,"' said Laverty, an 18-year veteran. "The guys were all great. I know how lucky I am; I am blessed that I work with good people."
In July, when New Jersey's domestic partnership law went into effect, Laverty began wondering whether the policy extending benefits to same-sex couples would extend to the county level. He has been in a committed gay relationship for three years, and refers to his partner of three years, James Roche, as his spouse and husband.
Laverty asked for a meeting with Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale, telling the sheriff's aide only that he wanted to discuss a personal matter. The sheriff didn't flinch when Laverty said he was gay, and immediately put him in contact with county freeholders to discuss the possibility of granting same-sex benefits. (That hasn't happened yet.)
Soon, a local newspaper got wind of his inquiries and profiled him in a front-page article. The night before it was to be published, Laverty couldn't sleep, fearing what he might have gotten himself into.
"It's a macho, very masculine-type job," he said. "For all these years, I had been totally afraid to reveal it to anybody. I know other gay cops that are out that have been received in a very negative manner, having bras and panties hung in their lockers, people refusing to work with them."
When he got to work the next day, his desk was filled with cards and notes _ all offering support.
"Basically everyone said that `Nothing had changed, you're still our friend, we still care about you,' " he said. "I had a few guys pull me aside and say, 'Doug, why didn't you ever say anything?' Honest to God, there was not one negative thing said or done."
It's a story that is slowly becoming more common in America as gays are more visible and accepted, said Michael Adams, a spokesman for Lambda Legal, a gay civil rights group.
"It reflects the progress being made in law enforcement and in New Jersey," he said. "New Jersey is becoming an increasingly supportive state for gay people. And we're definitely seeing progress being made with gays in law enforcement, which is encouraging."
There are several gay police groups, including GOAL, the Gay Officers Action League, which has chapters across the country, including New York, Boston and San Francisco.
His coming-out this year was the end of a journey the 37-year-old Laverty began as a child; he began to suspect as far back as junior high school that he was gay, but he says he didn't want to deal with it.
"I started realizing I was attracted to boys; it was very confusing," he said. "I was brought up in a very straight household."
Laverty did things he thought would help steer him in the opposite direction. He joined the military, got married and had two daughters. When the feelings persisted, he went to a psychiatrist, hoping for "a cure."
It was not to be; although he loved his wife and kids, his true sexual orientation was becoming clearer, and he would have flings with men behind his wife's back.
"I wasn't being the best husband or father, living all these lies," he said. "I was leading an ugly life."
Finally, after six years of marriage, he decided to tell his wife and daughters the truth, despite his fear he would lose them forever. His wife was upset at first, but has now accepted the situation to the point where Roche, a hair stylist, does her hair. She and her boyfriend are friendly with Laverty and Roche.
"It's so much easier that I can be who I am now instead of pretending to be just one of his buddies," said Roche, who recently bought a house with Laverty in Little Falls. "Now when the guys at his work have a Christmas party or have their wives over to dinner, I go with him."
Detective Kevin Niethe, Laverty's on-the-job partner, trusts him with his life.
"I feel confident in any situation that he would back me up," Niethe said. "He's a great guy and a good cop. If my life was on the line, I'm not thinking of who he's kissing behind closed doors."
Laverty says he and Niethe get along great, engaging in the usual squad car banter and teasing that partners do.
"He talks to me about his wife; I talk to him about my husband," he said with a smile. A conservative columnist has been dropped by a major syndication service because he accepted a payment from the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind law to fellow blacks and to give the education secretary media time.
Armstrong Williams, one of the nation's leading black conservative voices, has acknowledged that a company he runs was paid $240,000 by the Education Department, and he called criticism of his relationship with the department "legitimate."WRONG
"I thought we in the media were supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs," said NABJ Vice President-Print Bryan Monroe, assistant vice president-news at Knight Ridder. "I thought we had an administration headed by a president who took an oath to uphold the First Amendment, not try to rent it."
The radio show The Right Side, which Williams hosts and owns, is carried by the Lynchburg, Va.-based Liberty Channel, which is affiliated with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, by Sky Angel satellite network, a Christian organization.

Homosexual Advocacy Group See Opportunity in Social Security Debate
By Susan Jones
(CNSNews.com) - A homosexual activist group says contrary to a report in the New York Times, its goals are "unchanged and rock solid."
"There will be no retreat or compromise in the pursuit of full equality for GLBT Americans, in the laws of our nation and in the hearts of our fellow citizens," the Human Rights Campaign said on Thursday.
The statement follows a Dec. 9 New York Times report that the Human Rights Campaign had concluded it must "bow to political reality and moderate its message and its goals."
"Tactics adapt, goals do not," the group said in response to the newspaper article.
"The marriage debate has focused attention on GLBT families and our struggles like never before, and HRC will sharpen that focus in coming weeks and months as Americans come to understand our lives and the challenges we face."
HRC said it hopes to "reshape the national dialogue" so people will "better understand the issues affecting the gay and lesbian lives."
The goal is to get heterosexual Americans thinking in terms of "we" rather than "us and them," the statement said.
The HRC said it will use the upcoming Social Security debate to "promote to the country the fact that GLBT people do not have a majority of the Social Security benefits enjoyed by most Americans."
The group says it has not taken a position regarding Social Security privatization -- something the Bush administration advocates -- but instead will focus on the "need for equality" when the debate begins.
HRC said it aims to "invigorate how Americans think about our issues, our lives, and our vision of equality. We will reach out to straight allies, communities of faith and provide new avenues of hope for the LGBT community."
Frey and Kerr joined hundreds of other gay and lesbian couples around the country to make symbolic gestures on Valentine's Day. They tried to apply for marriage licenses to highlight the fact that in Pennsylvania, as in most states, they can't legally marry.
Nasty Comment
"It's inappropriate on whatever day they would choose to do this," said Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute. "No. 1, it's against the law. It also violates millennia of human law and human experience."
If some gays and lesbians don't agree with Pennsylvania's Defense of Marriage Law -- which states that marriage is between one man and one woman -- they should try to change the minds of other citizens and try to change the law, Geer said.
Tree local clergy blessed Frey and Kerr's union in the rain near the courthouse. They were joined by about 40 supporters from the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg and a few from the women's church, the Metropolitan Community Church of the Spirit in Harrisburg.

Louisville passes contentious pro-gay ordinance
Louisville, Ky.'s metro council on Thursday night renewed a civil rights ordinance that includes a ban on discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The ordinance passed by a 19-6 vote, surviving two hours of debate. Four proposed amendments were also defeated, including one that would have sent the proposed ordinance to the voters. "I think we're moving too fast on this," said councilman Doug Hawkins, who pushed for the referendum. The ordinance prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, family status, age, disability, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation in hiring, housing, and accommodations.
The issue elicited strong reactions from council members on both sides. "My eyes have been opened that bigotry, discrimination, anger, and hatred run rampant in this city," said metro council member Madonna Flood. "It should not be tolerated by any of us." All six council members who opposed the ordinance were Republicans, including Robin Engel. "I don't know how many CEOs are gay," Engel said. "My point is, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get to the top and become a CEO. If you aim high, set goals, and work as hard as you know how, you can achieve your dreams."
The measure mirrors the old Jefferson County civil rights ordinance, which has been in place since 1999. Under the city-county merger, all laws carried forward from Jefferson County and the old city of Louisville must be reenacted by the end of 2007 or they will be stricken from the books. Mayor Jerry Abramson will sign the renewed ordinance, spokesman Chad Carlton said.
The evening vote ended a contentious week of news conferences, lobbying, and rallies by opponents and supporters. Proponents of the ordinance said that gay, lesbian, and transgender people have the same rights to live and work in the community as others. Opponents said the ordinance amounts to special rights for people who they say choose to be different. Recently, Falwell launched a new group, the Faith and Values Coalition, which he is describing as a "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority."
Falwell, 71, plans to serve as national chairman for four years. In a statement, Falwell said the group's initial three main priorities are to help put judges opposed to abortion rights on the federal bench, including the Supreme Court; to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage; and to help elect another conservative president in 2008.

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s surprise announcement on Nov. 17 that he would seek to have the city’s five pension systems recognize same-sex marriages of city employees performed in Massachusetts and Canada — as well as Vermont civil unions — has some gay rights advocates scratching their heads.
The mayor has been actively fighting a bill to force any private companies doing substantial business with the city to offer the same benefits to same-sex partners of employees as to married ones. Bloomberg has also opposed other measures pushed by gay activists, including one to protect students from anti-gay bullying.
Bloomberg’s announcement comes on the heels of New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s decision last month to extend state pension and retirement benefits to state employees whose same-sex marriages were sanctioned in Canada.
Following Hevesi’s ruling, Bloomberg sought legal advice from Corporate Counsel Michael Cardozo. The mayor asked Cardozo whether the city’s pension system, one of the largest in the United States, could follow suit.
“The corporation counsel has advised me that such recognition is legal and just,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
In his announcement, Bloomberg also indicated that he would seek an amendment to New York state law that would extend pension benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
“All of our city employees deserve to be treated equally, regardless of their sexual orientation,” he said. “And I hope these measures will ensure that they are.” Gay issue 'threatens to break us apart'
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. -- The 25 regional executives of the 1.5 million-member American Baptist Churches in the USA jointly announced that the denomination's ongoing controversy over homosexuality "threatens to break us apart."
A pastoral statement to "preserve unity," released this month after a meeting of denomination leaders, said they had personally agreed to "voluntarily refrain from" naming sexually active gays and lesbians to national and regional positions. The church leaders also said they would not participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies, but pledged to shun "homophobic behavior."
================== Recent remarks from a Catholic bishop in Colorado suggest that the threat of withholding Holy Communion from politicians who disagree with church teaching on moral issues may spread to dissidents in the pews.
Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs said in a pastoral letter to his diocese that Catholics who vote for politicians who support same-sex marriage and abortion may not receive communion unless they repent, the Associated Press reports. The letter was sent May 1 to 125,000 Catholics.
Supporters of stem-cell research and euthanasia were also mentioned, as the church considers them "intrinsically evil," Sheridan said.
"The policy of denying communion to politicians reflects an ugly return to a medieval view of politics where the church controlled the state," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which serves GLBT Catholics.

Atlanta-based Home Depot, which earlier this year agreed to offer DP benefits to employees beginning next September, will not change its decision based on the amendment approved by Georgia voters, according to Ron DeFeo, public relations manager for the home improvement chain.
Emory University in Atlanta also plans to continue to offer the benefits, and University President James W. Wagner has said he will defend the policy in court if necessary.
Domestic partner benefits will also continue at the University of Michigan.
“We don’t believe any constitutional amendments affect this policy and, if challenged, we will defend ourselves aggressively in court,” spokesperson Julie Peterson said. Coors himself was just a garden-variety conservative until 1953, when he happened across the book that converted so many merely disgruntled right-wingers into active members of a movement: Russell Kirk's 'Conservative Mind.' He came to the attention of Paul Weyrich, another movement figure who dreamed of establishing a policy institute that could germinate conservative thought as groups like Brookings had long done for liberals. In 1973, Coors gave the organization $250,000, plus another $300,000 for a building. And so the Heritage Foundation was born. "Without Joe Coors, the Heritage Foundation wouldn't exist — and the conservative movement it nurtures would be immeasurably poorer," the foundation's president, Edwin Feulner, said in a statement.
The Coors family and corporation have received condemnation from a variety of minority, gay and women's rights groups, environmental activists and student associations for their support of conservative organizations and their often overtly racist and homophobic comments. In response to the boycott and severe criticism, Coors began funding a variety of African-American and Latino organizations and even became the one of the first large companies to provide health benefits to domestic partners of gay employees in 1995. For more than two decades, Coors has recognized and demonstrated its respect for the company's gay and lesbian employees and customers. In 1978, the company adopted its non-discrimination employment policy towards lesbians and gays - one of the pioneering American corporations to do so. There is no connection between the policies, practices and contributions of Coors Brewing Company and those of Coors family members or any private family foundations.
Two independent foundations established by members of the Coors family, The Adolph Coors Foundation and The Castle Rock Foundation, have no investment in the Adolph Coors Company, the principal subsidiary of which is Coors Brewing Company. The foundation portfolios have not included shares of Adolph Coors Company stock since 1996 - and the company has never made corporate contributions to either foundation. The foundations, therefore, have no financial interest in, and do not profit from, Coors Brewing Company.
These actions allowed the company to pose as progressive while the family and its foundation continued to fund conservative, often anti-gay, organizations and initiatives: This strategy masked an ongoing funding pattern by the Coors family and foundation directly hostile to minorities, women and labor. The engine of that anti-minority effort is the free flow of cash to the establishment and maintenance of the Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, the Council for National Policy, and a variety of other Religious Right and far-right organizations.

Dearborn, Michigan) The Ford Motor Company Monday announced a massive HIV/AIDS program at its operations throughout the world. The company has had an innovative education program in South Africa since 1999 at its assembly plant in Pretoria. It will now be expanded to Ford operations in some of the most high-risk regions of the world, including China, India, Russia and Thailand. When two boys were enrolled at a Roman Catholic school in Southern California, word quickly spread that they were the sons of a gay couple. Parents of other children at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa demanded the boys be removed from the school. Eighteen parents wrote a letter complaining about the presence of the boys and arguing their admission violated Roman Catholic doctrine on homosexuality. Additionally,the objecting parents said they felt their children could not receive full-fledged instruction on faith with the two boys in the school. They said they could not see how a teacher could fully explain the church's policies on homosexuals without causing the two boys anxiety over their fathers' lifestyle.

Unmarried Same-Sex Couples Lose Health Benefits in Mass.
This looks wrong at first, but it's right
Health benefits for unmarried gay and lesbian couples are being dropped by many large employers in Massachusetts.
The companies say they're making the changes in the name of fairness. Seven months ago, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. The businesses say that if gays and lesbians can now be legally married, then they should no longer be entitled to special health benefits not available to unmarried, opposite-sex couples.
"We're saying if you're a same-sex domestic partner, you now have the same option heterosexuals have, so we have to apply the same rules to you," Larry Emerson, vice president of human resources for Baystate Health System, told the Boston Globe.
Other large employers that are dropping or phasing out health benefits for unmarried same-sex couples include Raytheon Co., Northeastern University, Emerson College, and IBM Corp.
Santorum has been active in welfare reform and government accountability. He is a pro-life conservative, favors legislation against abortion and homosexual acts, and believes that the U.S. Constitution allows states to enact such laws (contrary to the Supreme Court's current interpretation).
A sizeable controversy arose following Santorum's statements about homosexuality in an interview with the Associated Press taped on April 7, 2003 and published April 20, 2003. In response to a question on his position on how to prevent sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, Santorum described homosexual acts as part of a class of deviant sexual behavior, including incest, polygamy, and zoophilia, which threaten society and the family. Furthermore Santorum stated that he believed consenting adults do not have a Constitutional right to privacy with respect to sexual acts. Man is this pervert a real coo-a-loo nutszoid, or what?
Santorum said that the priests were engaged in "a basic homosexual relationship" with "post-pubescent men", and went on to express that he had "a problem with homosexual acts", that the right to privacy "doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution", that "whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," that sodomy laws properly exist to prevent acts which "undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family", and when asked "OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?" his response ended "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
Democratic politicians including the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates, gay rights advocates such as Dan Savage (details), and other liberal commentators condemned the statements, while Republican politicians, religious conservatives, and other conservative commentators supported Santorum and called the condemnations unfair. Some critics argued that Santorum's position may also affect heterosexuals, as Santorum said that he did not believe there is a Constitutional right to engage in private consensual sexual acts.
Santorum did not back down from his remarks, stating that they were not intended to equate homosexuality with incest and adultery, but rather as a critique of the specific legal position that the right to privacy prevent the government from regulating consensual acts among adults, because he does not believe that there is a Constitutional right to privacy.

The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - A federal judge dismissed obscenity charges Friday against a California pornography business, finding obscenity statutes unconstitutional in the case.
Because people have a right to view such material in the privacy of their own home, there's a right to market it, U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Lancaster said in dismissing the case against Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, both of Northridge, Calif., and their company, Extreme Associates.
Lancaster said prosecutors overstepped their bounds while trying to block the material from children and from adults who didn't want to see such material inadvertently.
The judge also found that the state cannot ban material simply because it finds it objectionable, based on the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2003 ruling that struck down a state ban on gay sex. The Supreme Court's ruled that the ban was an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

Dear Pastor:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination...End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev 19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16). Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your adoring fan,

(Washington) America's often fractious LGBT civil rights groups have put aside their differences and on Wednesday announced they would work more closely to achieve major civil rights goals. Following last November's election that saw the reelection of President Bush and passage of amendments banning same-sex marriage in 11 states the country's major gay rights groups began a soul-searching process about the future of the gay rights movement. In a joint statement by more than 20 national organizations the country's leading rights groups pledged to work towards a common goal.
"We play different instruments – lobbying, electoral politics, impact litigation, grassroots organizing, public education, media advocacy and more – and we are dedicated to playing them well. While our organizations vary in focus and strategies, we share a number of common priorities that will help shape and unite our work in the months and years to come." the statement said.
Among the groups signing the declaration were:
The Human Rights Campaign - the nation's largest LGBT rights organization
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, its oldest
Log Cabin Republicans
Stonewall Democrats
GLAAD
The ACLU
The National Black Justice Coalition
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
Lambda Legal
The National Center for Lesbian Rights
The Equality Federation
Freedom to Marry
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute
The Mautner Project
National Association of LGBT Community Centers
The National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
National Youth Advocacy Coalition
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
The National Latino/Hispanic LGBT Leadership.
The LGBT movement [is] "strong, it is determined, and it is gathering momentum every day," the joint statement declares.
"It has been only 18 months since the Supreme Court struck down the last remaining state laws that branded us as criminals, little more than a year since Massachusetts' top court ruled that same-sex couples could not be denied full equality in marriage, and mere weeks since California enacted the nation's most expansive domestic partnership law."
The document also notes that a recent Gallup Poll found that 89% of Americans support equal employment opportunity for gays and lesbians and that other polls show nearly two-thirds support the same opportunities for transgender Americans. But, it says there is a long way to go before the LGBT community arrivesat full equality. To that end the groups issued an 8 point mission statement.
"We must fight for equal employment opportunity, benefits and protections – and the federal and state laws that safeguard them"
"We must fight against anti-LGBT violence and for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal hate crimes law that already protects Americans based on race, religion and national origin.
"We must fight – in both the private and public sectors – for better access to health care and insurance. We must advocate for HIV/AIDS policies – including age-appropriate, LGBT-inclusive comprehensive sexuality education – that effectively address this epidemic at home and abroad.
"We must insist on safe schools, where youth can learn free from bullying, harassment and discrimination.
"We must fight for family laws that give our children strong legal ties to their parents.
"We must work to overturn the military's discriminatory anti-LGBT ban, which dishonors service members who serve their country with valor and distinction.
"We must continue to expose the radical right's efforts to advance a culture of prejudice and intolerance, and we must fight their attempts to enshrine anti-gay bigotry in our state and federal laws and constitutions.
"And we must continue our vigorous fight for the freedom to marry and the equal protections, rights and responsibilities that safeguard our families, strengthen our commitments, and continue to transform understanding of our lives and our relationships."
The joint statement also calls for grassroots action.
"Even the most vibrant, vital community can, over time, settle into a status quo. A movement cannot. And the success of our movement is measured not only in the hearts and minds we change, the allies we engage and the civil rights we secure, but in the strength of our collective commitment to the pursuit of enduring social, political and legal change that moves us ever closer to true equality."

Who is the real Tim Gill?
He made a fortune at Quark. Now he has turned his focus to politics, philanthropy and mad-dog adventures
By Colleen O'Connor
Denver Post Staff Writer
The story of how philanthropist Tim Gill, who never liked politics, became the biggest donor in the most expensive and ruthless campaigns in state history is really quite simple. Someone made him very, very angry.
The last time he got this mad - when Amendment 2, repealing anti-discrimination laws for gays and lesbians almost became law - he forked over $1 million to create the Gill Foundation. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the foundation is the nation's largest charity devoted to issues concerning the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, with an endowment of $220 million.
This time - when a GOP legislator proposed requiring parental consent before schools could teach about certain kinds of human sexuality - Gill spent nearly $700,000 helping upset the status quo. While the November elections were an unqualified win for Republican causes across the country, the so-called "stealth campaign" fueled by Gill and other wealthy activists is credited with turning control of both houses of the Legislature over to the Dems. "It was fun," says Gill with his trademark toothy grin.
A competitive athlete and businessman, Gill is founder and former chairman of Quark Inc., the desktop and Internet software company he started from a two-bedroom apartment in Denver in 1981. He's a passionate civil-rights advocate who strongly supports both social justice organizations and educational institutions. And, at 51, he's very rich. Twice in the past eight years, he's landed on the Forbes 400 list of the nation's wealthiest people. In 1996, according to Forbes.com, his net worth was $425 million. Gill's ambition wasn't to keep accumulating piles of money but to give it away, using it as a tool to achieve his vision of equality for all, particularly gay men and lesbians.
That's why Rep. Shawn Mitchell's bill last year limiting schools' abilities to teach about all forms of human sexuality triggered his wrath. "That meant a teacher couldn't invite me to speak to the class because I'm a walking alternative sexual lifestyle," he says. "I was furious with Shawn. Absolutely furious. "I was convinced there was a collection of candidates who weren't representing the best interests of school kids, parents and Colorado citizens in general," he continues. "I was determined that everyone be made aware that these candidates weren't the right ones to represent them." Gill became obsessed.
Politics, for example, was the topic of his keynote speech to the annual luncheon of The Rocky Mountain Philanthropy Institute in August. Politics even invaded his fun, like his legendary Halloween party, "Hellywood," held this year in a vast tent in the Coors Field parking lot - a multimedia extravaganza where the tent alone cost $100,000. At the stroke of midnight, he raised his glass in the briefest of toasts. "To the defeat of Marilyn Musgrave!" he shouted. That was just a few weeks after his birthday, when Gill called friends around the country and asked them to skip gifts - "I'm maxed out," he said - and directed them to instead contribute to the campaign of Musgrave's opponent.
Musgrave, who co-authored the Federal Marriage Amendment, "is the epitome of evil for the gay community," says Ken Campbell, a close friend. "He really was feeling personally attacked, and he didn't like that." So Gill wrote checks, big fat checks with strings of zeros at the end. Some helped fund the group called Colorado Families First, which bought controversial ads targeting Musgrave - one showed a pink-suited actress playing the congresswoman stealing the watch from a corpse in a casket. Guy Short, Musgrave's campaign spokesman, called the ads "misleading" and "tasteless." Ted Halaby, Colorado Republican Party Chairman, told reporters that such ads were "a new low in politics." But Gill sees it differently. "Everything those ads said was correct, but they were said in a very graphic way that made people pay attention. They may not have liked it, but they paid attention. It made them think and talk. And in the end, making people think and talk is what it's about." Still, he lost that particular battle when Musgrave won.
Gill is a modest, understated guy who prefers jeans, although he did dress in suit and tie when invited to the White House by President Clinton. "He doesn't live up to anywhere near where his means would support," says Jon Stryker, president of the Michigan- based Arcus Foundation. Recently, Gill visited Stryker at his chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida, a trip that required taking connecting flights from Colorado. Puzzled, Stryker asked why Gill didn't take a private plane to avoid the hassle. "Basically, he's more interested in spending his money to change society than on himself," Stryker says. Gill's strategic philanthropy is effective, says Cheryl Jacques, former president of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington D.C.
"Tim Gill is a tremendous force for bringing about change and equality at every level," she says. "The Gill Foundation not only supports large organizations like the Human Rights Campaign that are doing national work in Washington, but they're right there for small, one-person, LGBT organizations doing equally critical work that supports ours." This year, the Gill Foundation awarded $1.7 million in grants supporting gay and lesbian groups. One of its programs, the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, awarded another $1.3 million in grants to nonprofits groups ranging from child care to the arts, with the strategic goal of building public awareness of positive contributions that gays make to American society. To receive this money organizations must have, or add, a nondiscrimination policy that includes gays and lesbians. They must also publicly acknowledge they've received money from the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado (GLFC).
In 2002, a year when nonprofits suffered most from economic recession, GLFC grants included $15,000 to the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture in Denver to sponsor its "Russian Revolutions" project; $15,000 to the Children's Advocacy Center for the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs to support its Stop Family Violence Campaign; and $14,850 in underwriting support to Colorado College of Colorado Springs. A large percentage of GLFC grants go to Colorado Springs, home of James Dobson's Focus on the Family. This is no accident. "For me, Colorado Springs, one of the more conservative areas of the state, is a test bed," says Gill. "If gay people have a larger presence there, will it really affect people's attitudes? You would hope it would, but it's a long-term project, and sometimes I think 'Will and Grace' has done more for gay rights than I've ever done." In 1999, Gill gave more than $30 million to his foundation, about half his income, according to "The Chronicle of Philanthropy."
He's not coy about how he made so much money. "I succeeded because I have a poor self-image," he says, relaxed in the living room of his elegant home near Denver Country Club. "At any given point I think I'm about to fail. Or, in some places, I think I already have failed. Some people's natural reaction to that is to get depressed and stop working. My natural reaction is to work harder and try to fix it." This work ethic trickled down from his Republican grandparents, farmers in early 20th-century Colorado. One grandfather raised sugar beets. The other grew wheat.
The eldest of three children born to a plastic surgeon and a homemaker, Gill grew up in the suburbs of Lakewood. As a teenager he developed a passion for technology, teaching himself programming first with simple games, then advancing to the challenge of a differential calculus program. Today, Gill trains regularly with weights. At 6 feet 2 inches, he's master of his trim and muscled body, adept at everything from paragliding to dog-sledding. But in high school, a growth spurt left him physically uncoordinated, and he was never any good at team sports, so jocks and cheerleaders blew him off. "All my friends were computer geeks," he says. "I was so not in the cool crowd."
He majored in math and science at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 1970s, a time of seismic social change that spawned liberation movements for women and gays, a time when he discovered his own homosexuality. Though painfully shy, Gill was not afraid to come out. He started his lifelong commitment to gay rights by joining the speaker's bureau of the university's gay liberation organization, speaking to students in psychology classes. Back then, homosexuality still was defined as a personality disorder. "A lot of the classes I spoke to were classes on abnormal psychology," he says. "I don't think of myself as abnormal, so in a sense you're going to abnormal psych classes to convince them you're not abnormal." After graduating, he landed jobs at tech start-ups and at Hewlett-Packard. In 1981, he borrowed $2,000 from his parents to start Quark. For the next decade, he focused only on building a global company.
Then, in 1992, Amendment 2 passed, stripping gays of anti-discrimination protection. Extremely upset, Gill discussed the situation with his business partner, Fred Ebrahimi, who advised him to influence social change by giving away $1 million. "I was shocked!" says Gill. "I wasn't trained to be a philanthropist ... I didn't balance my checkbook or even open the statements. If I did, I'd have known that I could afford it. I had close to that much money in my checking account." He started the Gill Foundation in 1994. Since, it has spent more than $67 million. This year, the Association of Fundraising Professionals gave its "Foundation of the Year" award to the Gill Foundation, citing its innovative strategies and philanthropic leadership. "Tim is very much a role model for me," says Stryker.
"When we created the Arcus Gay and Lesbian Fund, we modeled it on the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado. Tim's idea of requiring organizations to have sexual orientation in nondiscrimination policies is something we've adopted, as well." In 1995, Kevin Jennings was a schoolteacher running the New York-based GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) out of his apartment. A $10,000 gift from Gill helped it grow into the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all LGBT students. "The gay community in its current form could not exist without Tim," says Jennings, GLSEN's executive director. "He created the infrastructure of national organizations like mine, and also in out-of-the-way-places where gay community centers never existed before." These days, when not focused on politics, Gill zeroes in on fun. He spends only about 20 days a year at the Gill Foundation. Otherwise, he's planted at his home computer about six hours a day, programming for the sheer thrill of it.
"I have a couple of websites," he says. "I snowboard and try to do fun things." One of his greatest joys is Scott Miller, his domestic partner of two years. A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Miller leveraged his business degree to work as an information-technology consultant. He now works as an event planner for Aspen celebrities because it frees him to travel with Gill. But in 2005 he intends to return to the corporate world. This year they traveled to Bora Bora, swam with lemon sharks, then flew to Auckland, New Zealand, where the adventure-seeking Gill decided they'd cable-jump off the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. "Before his presence in my life I'd never done this sort of thing before," says Miller. "So that I don't get scared, I have to be the first one to go. Then I don't stand around thinking about it." Gill's edgy sense of adventure is legendary.
"We'd be paragliding off mountains in Aspen, suiting up to go dog-sledding, or climbing down into a shark tank in Cape Town," says Campbell. "One day I asked him, 'Why am I always signing my name to a (release form) when I do something with you?"' This spawned the theme for Gill's three-day 50th-birthday bash, called "Full Release." Festivities included an eco-challenge competition: rock climbing, paint ball, mountain boarding, tug-of-war, obstacle course, and canoe races. "He's very competitive," says Campbell. "When we go snowboarding, he's not just doing black diamonds, he's off the trial going places he's not supposed to be. I'll be on the big groomed runs, and he's going through the trees." This September, Gill flew to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
In October, he and Miller flew to Paris for a friend's wedding, then stopped off in Boston so Gill could receive the "Spirit of Justice" award from Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. They spent Thanksgiving at Gill's 13,000-square-foot Aspen home, where their families met for the first time, enjoying a feast that concluded with Gill's homemade vanilla ice cream. In December, they flew to San Francisco, meeting with friends like James Hormel, gay philanthropist and former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. "We're walking the streets, talking about politics," says Miller, on his cellphone in San Francisco. "Politics seems to consume us, and we have to figure out a balance so we can focus on other interests." Like trekking Nepal or Bhutan, one of Gill's unfulfilled dreams. These also include seeing the Northern Lights, staying at an ice hotel and sleeping beneath the ocean at Jules' Undersea Lodge in Florida, featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous." But wherever the fun-loving philanthropist might be, his ultimate goal remains the same: equality for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. "I ran into him skiing in Aspen right after he said he was going to give away half his income," says Jennings. "I said, 'Wow, that's great.' He said, 'What am I going to do with all that money?' "Imagine the impact on this country if every wealthy person had his attitude. Poverty, discrimination and homelessness would be in the history books, instead of the front page."

Gay acceptance ... it is just a matter of time
Frontiersman, Alaska
by Rev. Howard Bess
In 1950, the opinion was unanimous. Gay persons were sick. Their sexual activities were illegal and immoral. Gay persons were a special category of sinner that is automatically excluded from the Kingdom of God.
Gay people suffered through harmful psychotherapy; they were fired from their jobs; they were thrown out of the military; they were arrested for gathering as a group; they were beaten for no reason other than who they were.
In the mid-1950s Dr. Evelyn Hooker, psychology professor at UCLA, met gay people on the campus and detected no pathology. She successfully applied for a grant to study gay people. She studied gay men and a randomly selected group of heterosexual men. She found no significant differences in the mental-emotional health of one group over the other. Hooker's study was the first broad-based study of its kind. Her study was of enormous importance.
Twenty years later the American Psychological Association took homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses. The cause of gay acceptance has continued to gain momentum. In 1950, no one could have anticipated that recognition of gay marriages would be a core issue in American society in the early years of the 21st century.
The general population needs to be updated on what is happening. Recently, I attended the biennial meeting of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Salt Lake City. PFLAG is the largest chapter-based gay-rights organization in America. PFLAG has more than 500 local chapters. It is not a gay organization. Rather, it is an organization of parents, family and friends of gay persons. The mayor of Salt Lake City welcomed us to his city.
Over the three days of the gathering, I listened to bright, educated, dedicated people, who are leaders in the movement for full acceptance. I heard a lot of up-to-date information.
Families led by same-sex couples have always existed for a long time. They were tightly sealed in their closets. Now they are coming out in huge numbers. Having come out of their closets, gay families can now be objectively studied.
Gay couples are embracing children for their households at the same rate as heterosexual couples. While some of the children in gay households are from previous heterosexual marriages, the larger numbers are coming from adoptions and artificial inseminations. Being gay takes nothing away from the desire of a person to parent and procreate.
Gay couples have been rearing children long enough so that studies can now be made of children who grow up with same-sex parents. Broad-based studies show that children raised by two same-sex parents are in every way just as healthy and just as normal as children raised by heterosexual couples.
In 2004 the only barrier to full legal recognition and acceptance of gay marriages and gay families in the United States is religious prejudice. Churches can be just as prejudiced and bigoted as they would like. Our laws and American traditions allow religious people to set their own moral standards within their religious communities. Trying to write their standards into law, however, is unacceptable. Their prejudices are contrary to the very best research and facts available.
On this past Nov. 2, 11 more states voted to ban gay marriages. This result does not faze longtime gay-rights activists like me. We have learned to fail forward. Defeat provides the energy for eventual establishment of justice. The U.S. Supreme Court, no matter whom President Bush may appoint to our high court, will eventually overturn the gay-banning initiatives in individual states, including Alaska.
Twenty years from now we will look back and see how absurd our denial of gay rights has been.
One last note. PFLAG and others involved in the justice struggle have learned that we succeed young. Young people from 18-30 are overwhelmingly supportive of gay rights. Over the next 20 years a lot of opposition will die off and will be replaced by the more accepting young.
. The Rev. Howard Bess is the pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist Church in Palmer. He is the author of "Pastor, I Am Gay."

The = Used before noun phrases to denote particular, specified persons.

Equality = The state or quality of being equal.

Alliance = A connection based on common interests.

Mission = A body of persons sent to conduct negotiations or establish relations, and share knowledge.

TEAM = A group organized to work together.

TEAM has established some primary goals:

To increase Voter Registration.

To monitor and react to the conservative Christian Movement.

To monitor and react to bias in News Reporting and Other Media.

To Insure the Separation of Church and State.

To Assist Other Groups and Individuals in Obtaining Equality.

To Promote the Truth

To Mobilize Individuals to Be Active Participants in The Protection of Rights.

The Equality Alliance Mission (T.E.A.M) is a grassroots alliance.

This website is sponsored by Equality Alliance Mission (T.E.A.M). The Equality Alliance Mission (T.E.A.M) is a grassroots alliance. We are non-partisan and membership is FREE. Any and all donations are considered gifts and are not tax deductible.