From the "You-Better-Watch-Out" department, an unacredited news item datelined Zanzibar on the internet: Zanzibar is aghast. A ghost named Popo Bawa is aggressively attacking people asleep at night, raping them. Half the population is comparatively safe however, as it prefers men.
"News of the Weird" in the Chicago Reader ( 7/27 ) reports Conservative Christians blocked an antibullying bill in the Washington State legislature because it might prevent them from scolding lesbigay students for their "immoral" lifestyle.
The Sun-Times ( 7/31 ) notes that Janet Jackson slipped into the Baton after her concert at United Center to, among other things, check out one of her impersonators. A good time was had by all but a fan quipped "Maybe she came in to learn how to be more Janet than Janet."
From the Tribune ( 8/1 ) : Dear Abby has a letter from the gay partner of a man involved in Republican politics who claims he is invisible when it comes to being introduced to any of his partner's acquantances in public. Abby's answer: "You are not too sensitive; you may have been too tolerant. Your love is afraid he will lose his status among his cronies by admitting that you are a couple, so he's being dishonest with them, with you, and himself."
The New York Times ( 7/31 ) highlights the one-year anniversary of Vermont's civil unions law by focusing on several male couples. Elgin Hodgins and Roger Phelps ( together 18 years ) and their friends, Gene Robb and Richard Jacobsen ( 25 years ) . The four met years ago through the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs and decided to have civil unions on the same day. Since July 1, 2000 Vermont has recorded 2,479 unions. Women outnumbered men two to one.
While we're on the marriage issue, the Sun-Times ( 8/2 ) and The New York Times ( 8/2 ) report differently on the same story about the new legal status of same-sex partners in Germany. The Sun-Times reports on two men at their "wedding" cutting a "wedding" cake. The New York Times more accurately calls it a same-sex partnership registration in that the new status denies them tax advantages of heterosexuals, and denies adoption rights.
From the " ( We've-had-to-create-a ) Boy-Scout-Watch" department: The Chicago Tribune ( 7/31 ) tells of a speech given by President Bush taped for the Boy Scouts National Jamboree which praises Scout values, their high standards, their strong family values and their strong character. The New York Times ( 8/2 ) tells of a large Boy Scout Council in Massachusetts that's going to allow gay scoutmasters under a new "don't ask don't tell" policy. Let's see if that works as well as the army's. Newsweek ( 8/6 ) devotes its cover to the Boy Scout issue. In the nine-page story, a number of things are pointed out: many of the youngsters themselves are indifferent to the issue...they're into camping and hiking. It's the National leadership ( on the one side ) and parents, ministers and rabbis ( on the other side ) who are in a swivet about the gay issue. The Girl Scouts have handled the whole issue more subtly and humanely. One issue not addressed: though mentioned in the article, the Bristish founder of the Souting movement, Lord Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, was almost certainly what today would be called a closeted homosexual.
The Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown warns pol Glenn Poshard to think twice about jumping into the Democratic campaign pool for the governor's race because of his problems with the lesbigay community.
