According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Brokeback Mountain garnered an estimated $2.4 million over last weekend from 69 locations, averaging a very strong $34,188 per site. The film has now grossed $3.3 million in 10 days. The previous weekend, the movie made a record-setting $109,485 average at five theaters in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. It's natural for a picture's average to drop significantly as it adds smaller markets. The movie has garnered several awards, including film of the year honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and The New York Film Critics Circle. Moreover, the movie received seven Golden Globe nominations—including best dramatic picture and nominations for actor Heath Ledger and director Ang Lee.
The Washington, D.C., council is expected to give final approval to a bill that would require same- and opposite-sex couples registered as domestic partners to fulfill a set of obligations and responsibilities that had applied only to married, heterosexual couples, according to The Washington Blade. The Domestic Partnership Equality Act of 2005 includes provisions regarding everything from alimony to debt assumption.
Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson, the first same-sex couple in the United States to receive many of the legal rights of marriage, are in the process of dissolving their historic civil union in Vermont, according to the Rutland Herald. The two women had been in a relationship for about 10 years.
In the first six weeks that civil unions were legal in Connecticut, 463 gay couples received licenses, the Associated Press reported. Many of that state's gay community have decided not to get a civil union, opting instead to push for full marriage rights.
Congress has put the lives of many Americans at risk in passing the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations conference report, according to a statement from the Human Rights Campaign. The organization said the measure cuts HIV/AIDS prevention programs, flat-funds most of the Ryan White CARE Act and even increases funding for failed abstinence-only programs. The bill passed through the House of Reps by a vote of 215-213 and is headed for the Senate.
Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., appealed to conferees on the Armed Services Authorization bill to drop a broadly worded provision that not only insulated the Boy Scouts of America from any federal actions against its anti-gay policy, but also interfered with practically all federal agencies.
LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants and asylum-seekers are under attack in a bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The statement declared the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act would, among other things, allow for the indefinite detention of immigrants.
LGBT delegates to the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa ( ICASA ) released a statement demanding attention to the 'continuous discrimination and marginalization' of their community regarding the fight against AIDS in Africa, according to a release from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. The declaration, entitled There is No HIV/AIDS Work and No Family Without Us, was addressed to African Ministers of Health, Directors of National AIDS Control Programs, and to Members of the Human Family.
Students at Princeton University, which is considered the most conservative of the Ivy League schools, have approved of same-sex marriage, 365Gay.com reported. On the first question of a survey, students voted 51 to 48 percent in favor of becoming involved in the gay marriage case. On the second question, 73 percent of undergraduates said sexuality should not matter when it comes to marrying.
In New York, Stephen Signorelli, who has pleaded not guilty to a grand larceny charge, has asked a judge to prevent the testimony of Frank Tassone ( his partner of 33 years ) because they are registered domestic partners in New York City and had a commitment ceremony during a cruise, Newsday reported. Under state law, husbands and wives are, in some cases, protected from testifying against one another; however, that law specifically excludes same-sex couples. In a plea deal earlier this year, Tassone implicated Signorelli and agreed to testify against him if the case goes to trial.
