SERIAL KILLER MAY HAVE KILLED MORE
The Philadelphia Enquirer reports that police are investigating whether a prominent Philadelphia banker slain in 1991 was the victim of a suspected gay serial killer arrested last week for the dismemberment-murders of two men in New Jersey.
The naked body of Peter Stickney Anderson was found May 5, 1991 in eight garbage bags stuffed in a 55-gallon drum and left on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Anderson, 54, married and the father of two children, had last been seen alive at a New York gay club.
The Enquirer reports five other dismembered bodies of gay and bi men had been found in roadside trash barrels in New Jersey, outside New York City and Connecticut between 1986 and 1994.
Police searching the Staten Island, N.Y., townhouse of suspect Richard W. Rogers Jr., discovered the mummified remains of human body organs. A New Jersey State Police spokesman said it was possible that some are Anderson's.
Bush opts out of
supporting Pride Month
A White House spokesman has said that President Bush will not be following in the footsteps of President Clinton by issuing a proclamation and designating June as Gay Pride Month. The spokesman said that the President believes everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, but he did not believe in politicizing sexual orientation.
David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, pointed out that since Bush became President he has signed proclamations designating Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Irish-American Heritage Month.
In sharp contrast, a statement from DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe reads: " ... There will come a day when the position of preeminence for the United States will not only rest on the human rights that it has championed for others across the world, but the rights and dignity she bestows upon her own citizens. The Democratic Party is deeply committed to fighting against the discrimination gay and lesbian Americans face. On occasion of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, our Party salutes all gay and lesbian Americans."
Gaybashers charged
with attempted murder
In Hawaii, Orion Macomber, 19, and Eamonn Carolan, 18, charged with a recent violent attack on a group of gay campers, will stand trial on charges of attempted murder.
Defense attorneys argued that although the actions were serious, it did not constitute attempted murder. Judge Trudy Senda disagreed, saying that the probable cause existed to try the suspects on all felony counts, including two charges of second-degree attempted murder, and one of first degree attempted murder.
Macomber and Carolan are accused of setting one tent on fire, while two men were sleeping inside, and pouring kerosene on a second tent, while shouting anti-gay slurs.
Sullivan fights back ...
Gay conservative, Andrew Sullivan, and queer columnist, Michelangelo Signorile, are currently waging a war of words, with the latter accusing the former of being a promiscuous hypocrite. Signorile accuses HIV-positive Sullivan of looking to indulge in unprotected sex with multiple partners, even though he once accused Bill Clinton of taking "sexual risks."
In a LGNY.com column, Signorile writes that Sullivan assumed a screen name on America Online with a profile that advertised for unsafe sex, and linked to Web pages where he posted photos of himself ( minus his face ) . After the disclosure, the ad and alias were removed.
Sullivan has responded to Signorile's accusations with an article entitled Sexual McCarthyism, which appears on his website andrewsullivan.com .
Sullivan warns gay men that the Internet is not a safe space, and that "a poisonous segment of the gay activist world is policing it for any deviators from the party line."
Sullivan does admit to having an AOL screenname/profile for meeting other gay men, and that he posted an ad on a site for other gay men devoted to unprotected sex. "The motive for doing so was simple," he writes, "For a few years now, I have tried to date and have sex only with other men who are HIV-positive. I am scared of infecting HIV-negative men; and I believe that sticking to men who are HIV-positive is one step I can take to avoid contributing to this epidemic.
"I have never hidden this fact; indeed, as Signorile was forced to concede, I have even written about it in my last book, where I describe the relief of finally having real sex with an old friend who was also HIV-positive.
"Signorile argues that it is possible for someone to be 'reinfected' with HIV, generating new strains that could possibly worsen or possibly ameliorate your health. I am aware of this theory and the slim reed of research it is based upon. I have discussed the issue with my doctors, and my current boyfriend and my last boyfriend, both of whom are HIV-positive. Again, there is space for disagreement about this question, but to me, the evidence seems weak and hypothetical.
"But whatever the genuine, scientific issue here, the question of whether to abandon condoms in sex between two self-disclosed HIV-positive people is a decision for those two people alone in private. It is no-one else's business."
WORLD NEWS
Israeli gays reach out
In a first move of its kind, Jerusalem's LGBT Community Center, the Jerusalem Open House, is providing detailed info in Arabic for the city's Palestinian gay and lesbian community. Jerusalem Pride events started June 5 with a celebratory reception at the LGBT Community Center. See visit www.gay.org .il/joh
South African boy dies
Nkosi Johnson, 12, South Africa's longest surviving child born HIV-positive, died recently at his home in Johannesburg. His last public address was at an AIDS conference in Atlanta, Ga., last October.
