Creating change confab in Wisc.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced the full program of performers being featured at "Power! Pizzazz! Slam and Jam!" a cultural event being held in conjunction with the annual Creating Change conference. The concert event will take place on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 9:30 p.m. in the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Milwaukee.
The performance will feature three emerging artists...Latin pop star Jade Esteban Estrada, slam poet Alix Olson, and folk rock artist Doria Roberts.
Event tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and may be purchased at NGLTF's Creating Change ( TM ) web site www.creatingchange.org or at Milwaukee's Outwords Books Gifts and Coffee. Creating Change is Nov. 7-11.
Supreme Court Again Zeros in on ADA
In the latest phase of an ongoing campaign to undo the Americans with Disabilities Act, hearings begin this week at the U.S. Supreme Court in a new round of legal attacks spearheaded by corporate employers, said Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a participant in the three upcoming cases. The corporate campaign against rights protections for people with disabilities has a new ally...the Bush Administration, Lambda said.
Chevron, Toyota, and U.S. Airways want the Supreme Court to throw out important protections that the ADA provides. Chevron argues it should be trusted when it says it is refusing to hire a disabled worker because it is looking out for his health. Toyota and U.S. Airways seek to avoid the accommodations the law currently requires them to make to allow employees with disabilities to continue working.
The three cases pit the corporate giants, supported by national pro-business associations, against disabled employees and their advocates. One key development in the latest phase of the campaign against the ADA is that, under the Bush Administration, the White House has switched sides. The Bush Administration has sided with Chevron and Toyota in their appeals ( and has taken no position in the U.S. Airways case ) .
Signorile Writes on Alleged 'Gay' Terrorists
Newsweek.com featured an Oct. 31 article by gay writer Michelangelo Signorile on the National Enquirer Nov. 6 story alleging the homosexuality of terrorist Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackings and the pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center "Investigators have never confirmed the line of inquiry. Yet that hasn't stopped the speculation: 'World Trade Center terrorist Mohamed Atta and several of his bloody henchman led secret gay lives for years,' reported the National Enquirer ... . This line of thinking brings back painful memories of sensational media stories that have time and again equated gay with evil...from the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to the Gianni Versace murderer Andrew Cunanan. The latest is a new book by a German scholar that claims that Adolf Hitler was gay.
"What, after all, should it matter to the FBI if Atta were gay? The fear is that such a line of inquiry seeks to establish, willfully or not, that murderous homosexuals...perhaps an entire network of them...are behind the terrorist attacks. ...
"From the McCarthy era purges of homosexuals throughout the government in the 1950s, to the investigations into the assassination of President Kennedy ... the notion of a dangerous homosexual conspiracy has reared its ugly head over and over again. What is perhaps most galling about the subject right now is that while there may be a keen interest in proving that the enemy was homosexual, there has been much less interest in showing the heroes and victims of the attacks in the same light."
Ad Firm Invests in Gay $
Bcom3 Group, parent company of Leo Burnett, D'Arcy, SMG, and more, announced the formation of Pangea, a multicultural marketing communications group whose partner companies specialize in the Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American, Urban and Gay & Lesbian markets. Also being formed is Tapestry, a full-service multicultural media company under the umbrella of global behemoth Starcom Mediavest Group.
To broaden its multicultural service offerings under the Pangea and Tapestry banners, Bcom3 is welcoming three new agencies to the group, two through exclusive affiliations ( one agency group specializes in the Asian-American market, the other in African-American media ) and one through a minority equity stake ( a gay & lesbian-focused agency ) .
Methodist Council Opposes Gay Clergy
The Parents Reconciling Network, a national organization of United Methodist parents of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender children, has issued a statement expressing "cautious support" because of the risk for bigotry and increased division as a result of the Judicial Council's ruling regarding the appointment of Gay and Lesbian United Methodist pastors.
The United Methodist Church's Judicial Council, during its Oct. 24-27 meeting in Nashville, affirmed that the denomination's Book of Discipline forbids the appointment of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" as pastors of local churches but goes on to spell out that actions to determine the good standing of clergy can only be undertaken by the annual conferences and cannot be made by bishops.
Under the ruling, heterosexual and closeted gay and lesbian clergy will not have their sexual behavior scrutinized. Only openly gay or lesbian clergy persons will be held to different standards. Although the ruling affirms the role of the annual conference, the danger is this process will succumb to regional moral politics, according to Reconciling Ministries Network.
