"Aid donors had put pressure on the government to free the pair." See full BBC story here.
The two men were convicted under a law dating back to colonial rule by Britain.
Many of Britain's former colonies have similar laws outlawing homosexuality; India overturned its anti-homosexuality law last year.
In Uganda, MPs are debating whether to strengthen the laws to include the death penalty for some gay people - a move which has infuriated Western governments and rights campaigners.
TPM story and video here.
Roy Ashburn, the California legislator who came out in March after years of operating as a "family values" Republican, is now speaking out in favor of gay rights.
Ashburn spoke on the state senate floor yesterday about a bill that could affect gay marriage, should it become legal in the state again.
"On a personal note, before I speak to the bill, I would not have been speaking on a measure dealing with sexual orientation ever, prior to the events that have transpired in my life over the last three months," Ashburn said, according to the Sacramento Bee.
"However, I am no longer willing or able to remain silent on issues that affect sexual orientation, the rights of individuals and so I'm doing something that is quite different and foreign to me."
In March, Ashburn was arrested for drunken driving. After a torrent of rumors that Ashburn -- a staunch family-values Republican who never voted in favor of gay rights -- had been at a gay club before his arrest, he came out as a gay man.
"I'm finding my way," he told a local news station after yesterday's vote.
He said he voted against gay rights in the past in order to keep his sexuality under wraps.
"I'm not proud of it," he said. He even spoke out in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
(Emphasis added.)
Francis Reynolds writes:
Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul put in his two cents about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last week, saying that in trying to hold BP accountable for the spill, President Obama has been "un-American in his criticism of business." After all, Paul says, "sometimes accidents happen."
As guest host of The Rachel Maddow Show, Nation DC Editor Christopher Hayes invites Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight to discuss why the libertarian Paul is coming to the defense of "one of the most corrupt examples of crony capitalism we have in this country." If the "very idea of government subsidies runs counter to the libertarian governing philosophy," is "the oil and gas industry—this enormous recipient of government largesse" really the most worthy recipient of Paul's free market defense?
See video here.
From TowleRoad here.
"Pelosi, in an interview with The Hill, stopped short of laying all of her strategic cards on the table. She wouldn’t say whether the House will take the lead on the issue or predict when the Clinton administration-era tenet would be repealed. But she made it clear ending 'Don’t ask, don’t tell' is at the top of her agenda. 'I don’t have any doubt that ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ will be a memory by the end of this year,' she said."
"Once the priciest ZIP code of all, Fisher Island has had foreclosures and falling values. But residents see sunshine on the horizon." Miami Herald story here.
From The Advocate here.
During a forum on Friday, a Democrat seeking to represent an area of west Florida in the state legislature defended gay parenting, while his GOP challengers all voiced support for the state's ban on adoption by gays.
Attorney Michael Steinberg received applause at the Tampa forum when he said Florida's 33-year-old ban on adoption by gays should be struck down. The five Republicans said children were best raised by a mother and father. . . .
From an email alert I received on this:
Dear Friend,
Yesterday, John Stossel took to the air on Fox News to defend the right to discriminate based on race. Yes, you just read that correctly. On Megyn Kelly's Fox News show, Fox News employee John Stossel said:
"Private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won't won't ever go to a place that's racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I'll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist."
Stossel is only the latest in a long line of Fox News personalities to divide America along racial lines, and it needs to stop. We need to send a message loud and clear -- first to Fox, and if it's unwilling to listen, to the sponsors who support it:
Enough is enough: Stop promoting racism on your network.
But Stossel didn't just argue for the right to discriminate. He went a step further, suggesting the "public accommodations" section of the Civil Rights Act should be repealed, thus allowing businesses to practice racial discrimination. This is the section of the law that prohibits a lunch counter from refusing to serve African-Americans -- a practice which was commonplace when the law was passed.
The government, Stossel says, should be protecting the rights of businesses that want to discriminate -- not the rights of minorities facing pervasive discrimination.
Enough is enough: Stop promoting racism on your network.
This isn't the first time a Fox personality has treaded the line on race. Fox News operates under the direction of President Roger Ailes, a longtime political operative with a history of race-baiting and racially inflammatory campaign tactics. Glenn Beck, one of Fox's top-rated hosts, has repeatedly called both Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor "racists" who dislike white people and white culture, and hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly have also stoked racial insensitivity with on air-comments.
It's not just the hosts: In just the past week, Fox has also provided a platform for the extremist anti-immigrant group Americans for Immigration Control, which has been linked to white nationalist groups and drawn fire from the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for their anti-Latino rhetoric.
Enough is enough: Stop promoting racism on your network.
Now Stossel is adding to Fox's record of questionable rhetoric on race. At some point, this stops being a question about individual hosts or guests -- and starts to be a question about the whole network.
It's time for Fox News to be held accountable for the racially charged statements and racial insensitivity that it continually allows on the air.
Enough is enough: Stop promoting racism on your network.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Eric Burns
President, Media Matters for America
When the boy played with girly toys, the doctors instructed [the mother] to avert her eyes from the child.
According to a 2001 account in Brain, Child Magazine, "On one such occasion, his distress was such that he began to scream, but his mother just looked away. His anxiety increased, and he did whatever he could to get her to respond to him... Kraig became so hysterical, and his mother so uncomfortable, that one of the clinicians had to enter and take Kraig, screaming, from the room." . . .
At age 18, shamed by his childhood diagnosis and treatment, Rekers's poster boy attempted suicide . . . .
The Atlantic: 'Ricochet' hopes to make conservatism fun again — online. Story here.
From Wikipedia:
Reviews of Windows 7 were mostly positive, praising its usability when compared to its predecessor, Windows Vista. CNET gave Windows 7 Home Premium a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars,[76] stating that it "is more than what Vista should have been, [and] it's where Microsoft needed to go". PC Magazine rated it a 4 out of 5 saying that Windows 7 is a "big improvement" over Windows Vista, with fewer compatibility problems, a retooled taskbar, simpler home networking and faster start-up.[77] Maximum PC gave Windows 7 a rating of 9 out of 10 and called Windows 7 a "massive leap forward" in usability and security, and praised the new Taskbar as "worth the price of admission alone".[78] PC World called Windows 7 a "worthy successor" to Windows XP and said that speed benchmarks showed Windows 7 to be slightly faster than Windows Vista.[79] PC World also named Windows 7 one of the best products of the year.[80] In its review of Windows 7, Engadget said that Microsoft has taken a "strong step forward" with Windows 7 and reported that speed is one of Windows 7's major selling points particularly for the netbook sets.[81] LAPTOP Magazine gave Windows 7 a rating of 4 out of 5 stars and said that Windows 7 makes computing more intuitive, offered better overall performance including a "modest to dramatic" increase in battery life on laptop computers.[82] Techradar gave it a 5 star rating calling it the best version of Windows yet.[83] The New York Times,[84] USA Today,[85] The Wall Street Journal,[86] and The Telegraph[87] also gave Windows 7 favorable reviews.
I've seen these cartoons before but didn't know where they came from. Saw this story in Salon a while back. See website here (if you haven't already). Funny stuff.
Two years ago, I contracted with Home Depot to do some remodeling in my kitchen, basically replacing the cabinets and counters, installing a new sink, and adding/replacing electrical outlets. This project dragged on for months. As I wrote at the time, midway through the project:
It's been two months now since they came in and ripped the kitchen out. I have no sink, no counters, no cupboards, no dishwasher, no ice, no nothing, and the whole place is a mess with the new cupboards and the kitchen stuff lying around everywhere and all the furniture awry. . . .
Up to a point, however, I was able to use the stove, mainly to make chili (easy), after which I'd wash the pan in the bathtub. Meanwhile I spent a lot of time and $$$ over at Flanigan's. A year ago or so (I'm guessing), the kitchen was fully operable again and all the inspections had been passed -- or so I thought.
Two weeks ago
, I received a letter from the City of North Miami, telling me the building permit had expired without a final inspection, and threatening me with a $500 fine if I didn't renew the permit within a month from the date of the letter. They also threatened to come in and rip out the new cabinets if I didn't comply. I was apoplectic. The next day I called Home Depot, which had been responsible for all the permitting.
Sure enough, Home Depot had dropped the ball (again), but they're diligently remedying the situation. This past week they sent me a permit renewal to sign and notarize, which I mailed back to them yesterday (i.e., immediately). It appears this will be processed in time to save me the $500 and my new cabinets. I look forward to a final inspection and getting Home Depot out of my life once and for all.
'In all honesty, [Dr. Rekers] should disassociate himself from these [anti-gay] groups.' - Rentboy LucienFrom The Advocate Online here.
The escort spoke to the Miami New Times at length Wednesday night, detailing his sexual exploits with Rekers, who had previously claimed the young man accompanied him to Europe to help haul his luggage. He told the New Times he provided Rekers with daily body rubs in the nude.
From The Miami New Times here.
In his first interview since New Times broke the story Tuesday, the 20-year-old escort, who prefers to go by the name Lucien, contradicts Rekers's contentions that he hired the escort to help carry his luggage and that he was trying to save the soul of a lost sinner.
From Wikipedia here.
In 1983 Rekers was on the founding board of the Family Research Council, a non-profit Christian lobbying organization, along with James Dobson and Armand Nicholi Jr.[3]' . . .
George Alan Rekers is an officer of NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality.[10] Despite NARTH's position as a secular organization, Rekers has testified in court that he believes the Bible is the infallible word of God, and that homosexuality is a sin.[11] His personal beliefs regarding homosexuality, according to the ACLU, interfere with his ability to give an unbiased professional opinion on LGBT topics, including gay adoption.[12] . . .
In 2008, Rekers was . . . an expert witness in In re: Gill, a case defending Florida's gay adoption ban. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cindy Lederman ruled against the state. In her decision, she said "Dr. Rekers’ testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers’ beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy."[13] . . .
More background from The Miami Herald here.
From TPM here.
The Minnesota Republican Party's official candidate to succeed Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is looking ahead to a 2012 run for President, is a staunch conservative well to Pawlenty's right who has a long history of "Tentherism," the attempts by the far right-wing to invoke the Tenth Amendment and nullify federal laws on various liberal initiatives. He has even proposed a state constitutional amendment that would allow federal laws to operate in Minnesota only if they were consented to by super-majorities of the state legislature.
State Rep. Tom Emmer picked up the official Republican endorsement at the party's convention this weekend, and he also walked away with the backing of Pawlenty himself. "We don't have any doubt about what Tom Emmer stands for or what his values are," Pawlenty said at the convention. "He is strong. He is steadfast. He is clear. ... He is going to be the next governor of the state of Minnesota." Emmer also has the support of Sarah Palin, who praised him just before the convention got underway as a "hockey dad" who once played for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks -- a move that may have been a tipping point, according to the Star-Tribune. . . .
An experienced builder and residential contractor with charm to spare, Anthony Sayers co-starred on the popular TV series Me, My House & I (W Network), and is back for the third hit season of The Unsellables HGTV). With a knack for transforming outdated and undesirable properties into beautiful real estate gems, the Jamaica native and George Brown College graduate has worked with some of the top building companies in Toronto, and after nearly two decades on the job, has garnered a dedicated client base, and a widespread reputation for quality craftsmanship.
Local and national gay-rights groups hold a public forum seeking repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' at Versailles Restaurant in the heart of Little Havana. - C.W. GRIFFIN [Miami Herald]
