op-ed
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
	latest posts   Has the Rainbow Flag Become Too Gay?   Five Years Ago Today   'Hate Crimes' Justice   'Ex-Gay' in San Francisco   Concerned Women for America: God's Army?

November 21, 2004

With five state unions about to ratify new contracts that allow gay workers to extend their benefits to domestic partners, several groups are likely to use the new law to challenge those benefits. The American Family Association of Michigan, which helped lead the fight for the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, said its passage prohibits the state from treating gay relationships as similar to marriages.
[Law challenges union benefits for gay pairs - Detroit News - 11-21-04]

Florida is the only state with a complete ban on adoption by gays and lesbians, either as a couple or as single parents. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union took its challenge of the ban to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to decide in early January whether to hear the case filed on behalf of four gay men raising Florida foster children they cannot legally adopt.
[Groups join forces to oppose state’s ban on gay adoptions - Sun Sentinel - 11-20-04]

Federal health officials are advising doctors to be on the alert for a rare sexually transmitted disease that is on the increase among gay men in the Netherlands and other countries.

The disease, lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, has been diagnosed in more than 90 gay men in the Netherlands, and cases also have been reported in Belgium, France and Sweden. The infection is caused by a variant of the bacterium that causes chlamydia and can be treated with antibiotics. But unlike routine cases of chlamydia, LGV can cause severe gastrointestinal distress, including inflammation and bleeding of the rectum and colon.
[Rare STD afflicting gay men in Europe - Indy Star - 11-21-04]

In Oliver Stone's three-hour drama, "Alexander," Colin Farrell, as the fourth-century Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, has a number of tender love scenes with his best friend, Hephaistion, played by a long-haired Jared Leto. In the film, which cost about $155 million to produce, Alexander is also married to Roxane, played by Rosario Dawson, but the marriage takes a back seat to his passion for his boyhood friend.
[Breaking Ground With a Gay Movie Hero - New York Times - 11-20-04]

There has been much talk about just how much traction the moral-issues agenda generated at the polls among black ministers. Some early media wisdom rendered the election as something of a church revival with the most solid Christian declared the winner. "Bush is a good Christian" was the refrain attributed to scores of black ministers voting for the president and apparently urging their flocks to do likewise. Some 20 percent of George W. Bush voters overall cited "moral values" as a cutting edge issue. Not everyone missed the point.
[Bush, the black vote and moral values - NewsDay - 11-21-04]

Robin Bodiford, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who lobbied county commissioners to pass the initiatives, had called for a walkout as Rodstrom accepted his award.

A week's worth of bickering among activists over whether to walk out -- and Rodstrom's own promise that he would make amends for his voting record -- arrived Saturday night with the presentation of the award.

But when Rodstrom's name was called, Bodiford was the only one to stand and walk away.
[Anti-Rodstrom walkout fizzles - Sun Sentinel - 11-21-04]