Friday, February 29, 2008
Barack Obama communicates directly with gay communities
The Obama campaign is lavishing some of its cash advantage on LGBTs with targeted ad buys in Ohio and Texas leading up to the critical March 4 primaries in both states (Rhode Island and Vermont also vote that day). According to Obama LGBT steering committee member Eric Stern, the campaign has just completed an ad buy with queer newspapers in the four largest LGBT markets of those two states -- Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas, and Houston.
Full-page ads will appear starting this Friday in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice, and OutSmart, which is Houston-based. Buying a full-page four-color ad that appears one time typically costs anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 in weekly publications. In the Gay People's Chronicle, for instance, the ad cost about $850, according to the paper's advertising manager; the same ad went for about $1,500 in the Dallas Voice.
The ads were the brainchild of Stampp Corbin, cochair of Senator Obama's National LGBT Leadership Council. Stern called the coordinated buy "the icing on the cake" in terms of the Obama camp's outreach to the gay community in Ohio and Texas. "It's a direct appeal to LGBT voters, asking for their support," he said, adding that the ad includes information about how people can get involved with the campaign. The Obama campaign has actively been trying to cut into the long-standing ties between gays and lesbians and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Stern paraphrased the message of the ad as a "call for the country to come together and unify around creating national progress toward equality for LGBT Americans."
Earlier today the Advocate reported that the Obama campaign was doing targeted ad buys in Ohio and Texas in advance of the primaries there on March 4th. According to the Advocate, "Full page ads will appear starting this Friday in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice, and OutSmart, which is Houston based."
"[Obama LGBT steering committee member Eric] Stern called the coordinated buy 'the icing on the cake' in terms of the Obama camp's outreach to the gay community in Ohio and Texas. 'It's a direct appeal to LGBT voters asking for their support,' he said, adding that the ad includes information about how people can get involved with the campaign. The Obama campaign has actively been trying to cut into the longstanding ties between gays and lesbians and Hillary Clinton."
The Ohio and Texas versions, according to Stern, "include specific information on voting in those states and how to get involved with the campaign locally." Stampp Corbin, the Co-Chair of the National LGBT Leadership Council, was the catalyst behind making these ads happen as a part of their efforts to mobilize and energize LGBT voters in Ohio & Texas.
viewed here
Thursday, February 28, 2008
the largest plasm screen for gay movies
The widest Plasma is here to take over your walls. Panasonic's 103 inch siblings are out in market to owe it to 150inch Plasma. It is restricted to only a 10 of them which has better wall mount configuration, improved video processing technology, anti-reflective coating, enhanced wireless presentation capabilities, more versatile media card redability and a dual HDMI board included as a standard feature.
viewed here
Is Daniel Johns gay?
'I'm not gay' ... Daniel Johns shows his true feelings. Picture: Cameron Tandy
FOR the past few years, there's been speculation about Daniel Johns' sexuality. But the Silverchair frontman wants everyone to know - he's not gay. At Monday's Big Day Out in Melbourne, Johns told the crowd in no uncertain terms that he's a red-blooded heterosexual male.
"I'm not f------ gay," he said between songs.
To show he doesn't care what anyone thinks, Johns wore a lacy garter on stage.
The talk about his sexuality has been around for years, but intensified this month when his split from wife Natalie Imbruglia became public.
Bjork throws usual tantrum
SHE'S always had a bad attitude when it comes to dealing with photographers, and Melbourne's Big Day Out was no different for Bjork.
During her performance, the Icelandic pop pixie had a tantrum midway through her first song.
She demanded that all the photographers in the pit in front of the stage be moved to the side because she didn't want to have to look at them.
The quirky songbird is well known for going berserk at photographers at airports around the world, most recently ripping a Kiwi snapper's skivvy in half when he tried to take a shot.
New York state accepts gay couples from elsewhere
A New York appellate court ruled Friday that valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized in New York, just as the law recognizes those of heterosexual couples solemnized elsewhere. Lawyers for both sides said the ruling applied to all public and private employers in the state.
Even though gay couples may not legally marry in New York, the appellate court in Rochester held that a gay couple’s 2004 marriage in Canada must be respected under the state’s longstanding “marriage recognition rule,” and that an employer’s denial of health benefits had discriminated against the couple on the basis of their sexual orientation.
“The Legislature may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled unanimously in rejecting a 2006 lower court decision. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”
For more than a century, the court noted, New York State has recognized valid out-of-state marriages. Moreover, it said that the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest judicial body, has said the Legislature may enact laws recognizing same-sex marriages. “In our view, the Court of Appeals thereby indicated that the recognition of plaintiff’s marriage is not against the public policy of New York,” the court held.
As a practical matter, the marriages of thousands of gay couples entered into outside the state have been recognized in recent years by many state and local agencies and by private employers for purposes of allowing health and life insurance coverage, child care and other benefits. But others have resisted doing so voluntarily, pending the outcome of numerous cases in the courts.
Friday’s ruling, legal experts said, was the first by an appellate division court, and would make the recognition of valid out-of-state gay marriages mandatory across New York. It was not clear whether Monroe County and Monroe Community College in Rochester, the employer in the case, would appeal.
Daniel DeLaus Jr., the county attorney for Rochester, said his office was reviewing the decision and would decide whether to seek an appeal.
Jeffrey Wicks, a lawyer who represents the plaintiff, Patricia Martinez, said that New York had recognized common-law marriages, even marriages of closely related people that might not be allowed in the state. “There’s a long tradition in New York of recognizing marriages that couldn’t be performed in New York,” he said.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Ms. Martinez, a word-processing supervisor at the college, hailed the ruling. The union called it “the first known decision in the country to hold that a valid same-sex marriage must be recognized.”
“This is a victory for families, it’s a victory for fairness and it’s a victory for human rights,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the N.Y.C.L.U. “Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York State: You are now husband and husband, wife and wife. Now we need to work toward a New York where you don’t have to cross state or country lines to get married.”
The New York City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, the first openly gay leader of the Council, also applauded the ruling. “If this is saying companies have to do it, it’s a tremendous step forward in recognizing the diversity of families in New York City.”
New York City already extends marriage benefits to workers in domestic partnerships, and under a law passed in 2002, it provides all city benefits and services to same-sex couples whose unions are recognized by other jurisdictions. But the city has no power to impose such rules on private companies.
In 2004, the Council adopted legislation sponsored by Ms. Quinn that would have required large companies doing business with the city to provide equal job benefits to domestic partners. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vetoed the bill, and while the Council overrode the veto, the mayor said it violated state and federal laws and would prove costly to taxpayers. He sued successfully to block it in a case decided in 2006 by the Court of Appeals.
Mayor Bloomberg’s office declined to comment on Friday’s ruling, saying it had not seen the decision.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo also declined to comment, noting that his office may be involved in an appeal as the traditional defender of state agencies. Monroe Community College is a branch of the State University of New York.
In the past, Mr. Cuomo has said that state law requires that marriages performed in other states, and in Canada, be recognized in New York.
In the case before the appellate division in Rochester, Ms. Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden, formalized their longstanding relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001, and were married in Ontario on July 5, 2004.
A few days later, Ms. Martinez applied to Monroe Community College for health care benefits for her spouse. In November 2004, the college’s director of human resources, Sherry Ralston, denied the application, contending that the state did not recognize the marriage as a matter of law and public policy.
Ms. Martinez sued in 2006, arguing that her constitutional and civil rights had been violated. A State Supreme Court justice, Harold Galloway, dismissed the lawsuit in August 2006, saying the state did not recognize same-sex marriages. The state, he wrote “currently defines marriage as limited to the union of one man and one woman.”
But the appellate court disagreed, citing the century-old “marriage recognition rule” applying to heterosexual couples and noting that the Court of Appeals had implied that the Legislature could adopt a law legalizing same-sex marriage.
In early 2006, the court said, Monroe Community College had begun extending health-care benefits to Ms. Golden under a new contract provision. However, the judges held, the plaintiff was entitled to unspecified monetary damages for the period during which the benefits were wrongly denied.
Image from Gayclic
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
new sexy swimmers suits
This is Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who won six gold medals at the 2004 Olympics.
And that ridiculous-looking suit he's wearing? He says it's a big reason that he has a chance to put on an even better show in Beijing.
The suit is called the Speedo Lzr Racer, and every American Olympic swimmer is expected to wear it at the 2008 Summer Games. Swimmers from about 50 other countries will wear it as well. (Suits for female and male swimmers are identical.) According to Phelps, who gave Speedo his input in designing the suit, it's the best swimsuit ever made.
"It literally feels like you are a rocket coming off the wall," Phelps said. "The water completely runs off the suit."
If that's the kind of suit you want at your community pool or at the beach, good news: You don't have to be an Olympian to get one, as they're on sale at the Speedo web site for the low, low price of $550.
The world's leading swimwear company Speedo, launched the first space age Olympic swim suit, the Speed LZR Racer. The hologram launch saw the world's fastest swimmer, Michael Phelps (USA) appear in London , New York , Sydney and Tokyo on the same day, the Speedo LZR RACER was revealed to a global media audience.
Celebrating its 80th Anniversary, Speedo unveiled the world’s first fully bonded, ultrasonically welded swim suit to be worn by the Australian Olympic Team when they swim for gold in Beijing.
American super swimmer Michael Phelps appeared in a spectacular Hologram before Australia’s own superstar, swim team captain and two time Olympic 1500m freestyle gold medallist Grant Hackett led a parade of leading Australians, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper, Eamon Sullivan, Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt and New Zealand stars Dean Kent and Moss Burmester.
Male LZR RACER BodyskinA fully bonded male performance bodysuit with an ultra low profile zip and silicone gripper at the ankle. Made from Speedo's ultra lightweight LZR Pulse fabric, the suit's LZR panels, core stabiliser and bonded seams all combine to reduce drag. Available in regular and longer body lengths.