Politicians come out, play for NYC parade
Each of New York City's six mayoral candidates jockeyed to be seen at last weekend's Gay Pride Parade in Midtown, The New York Times reports.
With banners, megaphones and legions of gay supporters, each of the men tried to compete with the spectacular array of floats and marchers.
Both the Democrats and Republicans in the race have similar stances on gay issues, gay leaders noted.
The Democratic candidates are: Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, Public Advocate Mark Green, City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone and Fernando Ferrer, the Bronx borough president; the GOPers are Herman Badillo and Michael Bloomberg.
All support gay discrimination bans and oppose the Boy Scouts' ban on gay leaders or scouts.
1 million at SF Pride
San Francisco joined Chicago in seeing its biggest crowds ever at its 31st annual Pride Parade, drawing more than 1 million people, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Some 500 Dykes on Bikes lead off Queerific, which included 182 floats, bands and contingents. Parade organizers estimated that Pride revelers spent$150 million on hotels, meals and souvenirs.
Unlike Chicago, San Francisco kept its post-Parade activities, with a party and street fair.
Notable marchers included San Francisco supervisors Tom Ammiano and Gavin Newsom, and Sharon Smith, whose partner, Diane Whipple, was mauled to death by a vicious dog in January. First-time entrants included the Muslim group Al-Fatiha and a GLBT Armenian organization.
Gay historians face hostile workplaces at colleges, survey says
A recent survey suggests that colleges and universities aren't hiring new gay and lesbian historians, and they aren't giving tenure to existing faculty.
The findings came from a survey of more than 250 lesbian and gay historians.
The survey was completed by Marc Stein, an assistant professor of history at York University in Toronto, and chair of the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History ( an affiliated society of the American Historical Association ) .
Stein argues that gay history scholars have been "vulnerable to institutional, professional, and departmental discrimination."
According to the survey: "Overall, the data suggests that despite a significant increase in the number of lgbtq history Ph.D.s produced over the past decade, U.S. history departments have not made a commensurate increase in hiring such scholars to tenure-track positions. Unless change occurs, only about half of those completing PhDs in lgbtq history can expect to meet with success in gaining tenure-track or equivalent ( TTE ) employment. The rest are likely to find themselves working in part-time or temporary academic positions, in educational administration, in libraries and archives, in public history, or in other non-academic jobs."
For the full text of the survey report, see www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/2001/0105/0105aff1.cfm. The report also appears in the May issue of Perspectives, the newsletter of the American Historical Association. Dee the CLGH homepage at http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/oneigla/clgh.
PBS ignores protest over Boy Scout film
PBS has said a protest by conservative groups looking to stop the broadcast of the documentary Scout's Honor had "no impact," USA Today reports.
The anti-gay Culture and Family Institute and the American Family Association had conducted phone campaigns urging PBS stations not to show the film. The AFA said the film was a tool to "attack one of America's most beloved institutions."
Scout's Honor was shown last Tuesday, June 19, in more than 90% of PBS' markets, up from the usual 85%.
PBS spokesman Tom Epstein said the campaign "had no impact." He said PBS got a few hundred calls protesting the documentary and 75 e-mails supporting it.
AMA opposes
Scouts' ban on gays
The American Medical Association has expressed "overwhelming support" for a resolution calling for youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts to lift their bans on gays.
The AMA urged groups to end all "exclusionary policies," according to a committee that heard testimony on the issue.
Gregg Shields of the Boy Scouts told the Sun-Times, "We ask people to respect our rights to hold values and beliefs that may be different from theirs."
