E.J.
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Man fights partner?s family over gravesite
Parents want gay son?s body moved to family plot
By JOSHUA LYNSEN, Washington Blade
Kevin-Douglas Olive still remembers talking to his partner Russell Groff about his grave.
Groff wanted to be buried in a cemetery along the gentle slopes outside Knoxville, Tenn. It was a reasoned choice. The land is close to where both were raised and large enough to accommodate a second plot.
?We had this romantic notion of being buried next to each other,? Olive said. ?Forever and ever.?
But that dream is now in jeopardy. Groff?s parents, Lowell and Carolyn Groff, are trying to overturn their son?s will and move his body to the family cemetery in Severe County, Tenn.
Groff?s parents, who could not be reached this week by the Blade, have argued in court that the 26-year-old man didn?t know what he was doing when he completed his will. Olive said Groff had been estranged from his parents when he died.
Olive, a 34-year-old Baltimore resident, disagrees. He said Groff knew precisely what he was doing. And to move the body now, nearly two years after Groff?s death, is something Olive can?t bear to imagine.
?Moving him is not honoring who he was,? he said. ?It?s really ? it?s really disturbing.?
A Maryland court, which has jurisdiction over the dispute because Groff?s will was signed in the state, heard the case Sept. 25 and 26. A ruling is expected in October.
Olive said he?s hopeful, but increasingly anxious about the case that?s cast a shadow over his life.
?You just don?t know,? he said. ?You never know how a judge is going to rule. And we won?t know for three more weeks.?
No matter the ruling, though, the case isn?t expected to end in October. Olive said if he loses, he?ll appeal, and if he wins, Groff?s parents will appeal.
And even after the appeals are exhausted, the case could continue. Groff?s parents would have to overturn separate burial instructions before they could move the body.
Olive said the legal redundancy was intentional, and encouraged by Groff.
?We drew these up because we knew if he died before me, that we would be fighting like this,? Olive said. ?These documents were to protect me from his parents.?
Instead, the documents triggered a prolonged legal battle ? one that has left Olive with no time to mourn the passing of the first person he ?really loved.?
?I miss him so much, and I wish they would leave me alone,? he said. ?I wish they would go away.?
?He was the wisdom?
Olive and Groff met the week after Valentine?s Day in 1998, when Olive was 25 and Groff was 20.
?He was amazing. He was brilliant,? Olive said. ?I was the voice, he was the wisdom.?
Their relationship bloomed, and the two moved to Baltimore together in July 2000. Three years later, they were married according to local Quaker tradition.
Olive said the blissful marriage was interrupted in 2004 when Groff, who was HIV positive, fell ill.
Groff was hospitalized in October 2004, but seemed to recover. Olive said Groff was transferred to another facility to help his recovery, but soon developed new problems.
Groff was transferred to another hospital, where Olive could only watch as his partner faded.
Olive said Groff became so weak that he couldn?t leave his bed to urinate. To best help the man he loved, Olive would hold the bedpan for him.
?This is my soul mate, so I just did it,? he said. ?You don?t even think about it. You just do it.?
Eventually, a staph infection that originated in Groff?s gall bladder spread throughout his body, and on Nov. 23, 2004, he died.
?I just collapsed on the floor of the hospital, face down and shrieking,? Olive said. ?Part of me knew that was entirely inappropriate, but part of me didn?t care.?
In keeping with the burial instructions signed Nov. 18, Groff was interred in the West Knoxville Friends Cemetery outside Knoxville, Tenn.
Olive said the grave, located about 30 minutes from Groff?s childhood home, was to remain simple and clean. But Groff?s mother, Carolyn, made changes.
?She made it into this shrine that really offended the sensibilities of the Quakers,? he said, ?because we?re all about simplicity.?
Olive said Carolyn routinely decorated the grave. At one point, she posted a picture of Groff with his female prom date, plus a poem Carolyn wrote wherein her son essentially apologized for being gay.
?I was so insulted by seeing this,? Olive said. ?She was trying to paint him as this repentive person who was heterosexual, really.?
After seeing that picture and poem, Olive said he could tolerate no more and cleaned his husband?s gravesite.
?When I cleared the grave, that was the final straw for her,? he said. ?She filed the caveat and challenged the will.?
Not of sound mind?
The petition to caveat, filed in July 2005, says Groff didn?t know what he was doing when he signed his will.
It says Groff?s will was ?not read to or by him, or known to him? before it was signed. The petition also says Groff was not of sound mind when he signed his will.
The petition, signed by both of Groff?s parents, asks the Maryland court to invalidate the will.
Olive said he initially thought the legal challenge was baseless, and posed no threat.
?Everything was valid, and I thought that would be enough,? he said. ?But it wasn?t.?
Groff?s parents initiated a substantial legal challenge in an effort to move their son?s body to a Baptist cemetery.
Olive said he attended mediation with Groff?s parents, but the meetings served little purpose.
?They kept saying that Russell should be buried in their family plot,? he said. ?I kept saying ?It?s on paper.? They kept saying ?It?s not valid.??
At one point, Olive said Groff?s parents offered to end their challenge.
?They believe they came halfway because they said they?d move him to their plot and then allow me to be buried next to him,? he said. ?That?s all well and good, but that?s not what Russell wanted.?
As the dispute dragged on, a trial was scheduled and Olive was deposed. He said that step, in which an opposing attorney grilled him, was a difficult one.
?It really was hard,? he said. ?They were making me feel like I was a liar and a thief, and that I manipulated my partner. It just made me feel low.?
And the focus of the discussion, Olive said, was entirely inaccurate.
?It was made into my wishes versus their wishes,? he said. ?The fact that this was really Russell?s wishes was being ignored by everyone.?
At the trial this week in Baltimore, Olive twice took the stand. But even so, he said he didn?t get the opportunity to say everything he wanted.
?I didn?t get to talk about the relationship at all,? Olive said. ?It was all about the will.?
Case shows consequences of marriage inequality
Several people are helping Olive defend Groff?s will in court.
One of the witnesses, Rebecca Pickard of Baltimore, submitted a letter saying Groff was of sound mind when he signed his will Nov. 20, 2004.
She noted the will?s contents were read to him, ?and he acknowledged full understanding of it before signing the document.?
Groff?s brother, Walter Groff of Salem, Ore., also has sought to protect the will. He submitted a letter saying Lowell and Carolyn never accepted Russell?s relationship with Olive.
?It is my fear that this litigation has been brought about from the emotional distress that my parents have experienced with my brother?s untimely death,? he wrote, ?and problems between them that were never resolved.?
Olive said the letters have helped him defend the will and burial instructions.
?If I didn?t have all this stuff, I?d be screwed,? he said. ?I?d be totally screwed.?
But even with the paperwork, Olive said the court battle has been difficult.
?I?ve learned that just because you have the documents,? he said, ?it doesn?t mean too much.?
Olive said the experience has given him a new appreciation for activists seeking full marriage equality for gays.
?Our relationship was supported by so many,? he said, ?but it never occurred to me how important it is that the law supports us.?
If the couple had been legally married, Olive said, he wouldn?t be talking about a court battle. He?d be talking about how much he misses his husband.
?He took care of me,? Olive said. ?He really did take care of me. And I hope I gave him something equal, something close.?
? 2006 | A Window Media LLC Publication
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Another republican bites the dust
Rep. Foley Resigns Over Emails To Former Page
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
with files from the Associated Press - LINK
(Washington) Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., submitted a letter of resignation from Congress on Friday in the wake of questions about e-mails he sent to a former male page.
Foley, 52, had been considered a shoo-in for re-election until the e-mails surfaced in recent days. Considered a moderate Republican Foley was one of small number of GOP Congressmen who supported LGBT initiatives.
Unmarried, questions about Foley's sexuality had circulated for several years.
In May 2003, when he took the unusual step of calling a news conference to denounce a report in a South Florida alternative newspaper that he is gay. Foley refused to answer questions about the subject, saying his sexual orientation had nothing to do with is duties as a lawmaker.
Foley's stances on social issues such as abortion and gay rights differ from his party's. He is part of the Republican Leadership Council that was formed in 1997 by moderate Republicans to support candidates who are fiscally conservative but socially inclusive. Asked for investigations
In 2000 he introduced legislation to expand the federal government's role in investigating and prosecuting crimes based on sexual orientation, religion, gender or ethnicity.
Foley voted against his party in 2004 and again this year to thwart a federal amendment to the Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.
Campaign aides earlier in the week acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.
The initial correspondence took place in August 2005 after the boy gave Foley a handwritten thank you note before returning to Louisiana.
In his exchanges with the boy, Foley asked how old he was, what he wanted for his upcoming birthday, how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and for a photo.
The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.
"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."
Friday evening more emails, many graphic in nature emerged.
Foley's election opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, also called for an investigation.
Foley was running for re-election to a seventh term. He has represented his district, which includes West Palm Beach, since 1995. Florida Republicans could replace Foley on the ballot.
?365Gay.com 2006
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The Fall 2006 Banned Books Book Sense Top Ten Picks
1. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee (Harper Perennial, $12.95 paper, 0060935464; Deluxe Paperback Classic edition, $15.95, 0061120081) "One of my all-time favorite books is also on the list compiled by the American Library Association of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. Do yourself a favor and read Lee's novel, which examines prejudice and racial injustice and which reminds us of the difference one person can make." --Patti McCall, Queen Anne Books, Seattle, WA
2. GEOGRAPHY CLUB, by Brent Hartinger (Harper Tempest, $6.99 paper, 0060012234) "Repeatedly challenged by school districts, and in 2005 banned in a Tacoma, Washington school, Geography Club is one of the few young adult novels dealing with gay teens in a straightforward, engaging storyline. An important book for and about a group of young readers who have few other titles that speak to them." --Cheryl McKeon, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA
3. THE GIVER, by Lois Lowry (Laurel Leaf, $6.50 paper, 0440237688) "This book about a 12-year-old boy singled out by his community for a special role conveys a powerful message and should be read by all who are concerned about government going too far." --Elizabeth Taylor, Poor Richard's Books, Frankfort, KY
4. THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, by Helen Bannerman, Christopher H. Bing (Illus.) (Handprint Books, $17.95, 1929766556) "This edition of Bannerman's story features illustrations from Caldecott Honor-winning artist Bing and will be welcomed by all those who read it as a child or had it read to them. It spells out why the book fell into disfavor and how the illustrator viewed the story and how his work reflects it." --Dorothy Dickerson, Books & More, Albion, MI
5. THE BLUEST EYE, by Toni Morrison (Plume, $14 paper, 0452282195) "This novel from the Nobel Laureate is an absolutely brutal depiction of a young black girl's desire to be 'pretty.'" --Donna Hawley, Howard's Bookstore, Bloomington, IN
6. BRAVE NEW WORLD, by Aldous Huxley (Harper Perennial, $13.95 paper, 0060929871; Deluxe Paperback Classic edition, $13.95, 0060850523) "Huxley's novel of a utopian World State explains the world and creates characters with whom you will empathize. Beautiful!" --Katie Redding, Top Shelf Books, Palatine, IL
7. FOREVER, by Judy Blume (Pocket, $6.99 paper, 0671695304; Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $17.95 hardcover, 0689849737) "Blume's brilliance is that she writes frankly about teenage sexuality. But, beyond that, Forever is about teens taking responsibility for their lives and dealing with the consequences of their actions. Still controversial, this novel continues to speak to readers today." --Sweet Pea Flaherty, King's Books, Tacoma, WA
8. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, $8.99 paper, 059035342X) "God bless J.K. Rowling, who has brought millions of children and adults around the world to books and reading. Her Harry Potter books have set children's imaginations alight -- and have created an extraordinary new batch of both readers and writers of fantasy fiction." --Elisabeth Grant-Gibson, Windows A Bookshop, Monroe, LA
9. WE, by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Modern Library, $12.95 paper, 081297462X) "One of the very first dystopian novels ever written, and the only full-length novel ever completed by the Russian writer Zamyatin, who was constantly under arrest or exiled for his subversive writing. It's the story of D-503, a mathematician who falls in love and then must decide between his new love and his beloved state." --Michael Karpus, Books & Books at Bal Harbour Shops, Bal Harbour, FL
10. WHALE TALK, by Chris Crutcher (Laurel Leaf, $6.50 paper, 0440229383) "In a war between the jocks and the freaks, T.J. Jones gradually becomes a wise and fair 'Everyman,' representing all that is good in our society. This book should be required reading for every freak, geek, and jock living the American dream/ nightmare of high school." --Collette Morgan, Wild Rumpus, Minneapolis, MN
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GOP's Koering beats back primary challenge
The Advocate
Minnesota State Sen. Paul Koering, who came out since his last election, beat back a GOP primary challenge Tuesday from an anti-gay opponent, while same-sex marriage supporter Eliot Spitzer decisively won New York's Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Other gay and gay-friendly candidates fared less well in their primary battles Tuesday. Sean Patrick Maloney, an openly gay New York lawyer vying to be that state's Democratic candidate for attorney general, was bested by political scion Andrew Cuomo.
Fellow Democrats Anthony McCarthy and Mary Washington, who were trying to become the first black gay members of Maryland's House of Delegates, were also defeated.
"I think I won because I continued to run a positive campaign," Koering told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "In this race, I had everything thrown at me that could possibly be thrown at me and I still won."
Koering's opponent, Brainerd City Councilman Kevin Goedker, had said he asked voters to decide the race based on their values but said he was not opposing Koering because he's gay.
On Sunday, the Minneapolis Times-Star reported, Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage had leafletted cars at Brainerd-area churches to publicize Koering's failure to vote three years ago on a floor amendment to prohibit "the promotion or teaching of homosexuality" in public schools. The amendment failed overwhelmingly.
Meanwhile, Spitzer, who beat his primary challenger by an overwhelming margin, has said he supports marriage equality and will work to create legislation in New York granting it.
Copyright 2006 PlanetOut Inc.
margin of victory - 3,956-3,270
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Ga. ?parental permission? bill exported
Anti-gay group seeks similar legislation in five southern states
By DYANA BAGBY, Southen Voice
A Washington, D.C. based organization is using Georgia?s parental permission law as a template to get similar legislation passed in five southern states in its attempts to ban gay-straight alliance clubs.
The Family Policy Network is currently seeking lawmakers to propose legislation mandating parental permission for students to join any non-academic clubs such as GSAs in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas.
?The primary reason we believe legislation is necessary is because educators are in lock-step with the liberal social agenda, such as abortion and the homosexual agenda,? said Joe Glover, president of FPN.
?We need to guard the fox that?s in the hen house. Schools want to hide the fact they are involved in promoting deviant lifestyles,? he added.
FPN?s campaign, launched this month, is a direct result of a July 14 federal court ruling requiring White County High School in Cleveland, Ga., to provide space for a gay-straight alliance to meet on campus.
The ACLU sued the Georgia school district, citing the federal Equal Access Act, after the White County high school principal in 2005 banned all non-curricular clubs at the school to keep out the GSA, named Peers Rising in Diverse Education, or PRIDE.
?Georgia taught us something because the federal court wouldn?t ban the club,? Glover said. ?We?ve been looking for three years at crafting legislation to give parents awareness of these clubs and to allow parents to prevent participation if they so choose. It?s a no-brainer ? why not give parents this information??
Glover acknowledged the campaign has just gotten underway and no lawmakers have yet signed on to sponsoring such bills, but said the group plans to have people on board when state legislative sessions begin in January.
?Opt out? vs. ?opt in?
The controversy over the White County GSA prompted conservative Georgia lawmakers to propose a parental permission bill, the first such bill to win approval in the nation, according to officials with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) proposed the original legislation to require parents to give permission for a student to join any school club. Gay rights activists argued the bill was simply an attempt to keep GSAs out of high schools, noting that students who are afraid to be open about their sexual orientation with their parents would not ask for permission to join the clubs.
The Georgia General Assembly eventually approved a watered down version of Schaefer?s bill that requires all public schools to inform parents and guardians about what extracurricular clubs are available at their child?s school. If a parent or guardian deems a club unsuitable for their child, they can then ?opt out? the student from that club by signing a form and filing it with school officials.
Glover said FPN?s proposed legislation would require an ?opt in? requirement that would dictate parents and guardians give permission before a student can join any non-academic club.
FPN?s campaign is part of a movement to take back schools from what it deems as the ?infiltration of homosexual activists in schools,? Glover said.
?Kids go to school to learn how to read, write and about history ? and are not sent to pursue alternative, sexual lifestyles,? he said.
Alex Mason, a policy analyst with FPN, told the Christian news organization Agape Press in an Aug. 23 story that FPN?s proposed legislation would likely cause GSA club participation to decrease.
FPN has ties to the virulently anti-gay American Family Association, led by Donald Wildmon, as well as anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera, who is listed as a national adviser on FPN?s website.
Courts clear?
Glover said because courts are ?not consistent? when it comes to GSAs, passing state laws is the best way to ensure parents understand such clubs exist.
But Eliza Byard, deputy executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the courts are ?very clear? on the issue of school clubs, including GSAs, because of the federal Equal Access Act passed by Congress in 1984.
The law, originally passed to protect religious clubs in public schools, states in part: ?It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school ? to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.?
?There is no ambiguity there,? Byard said. ?It is disingenuous for FPN to claim there is a lack of clarity.?
Groups such as FPN that characterize GSAs as clubs devoted to sex are also part of the problem, she added.
?There are two really unfortunate things occurring here ? those who are concerned about GSAs are mis-characterizing what the clubs actually are ? they are certainly not the lurid gatherings they want to characterize them as,? she said. ?There is very poisonous misinformation about these clubs out there about these GSA clubs and the gay and lesbian life. Parents deserve a clear picture and not the misinformation groups like the Family Policy Network like to give.?
GSAs contribute to a better school climate, are created and run by students, and are constructive in helping students do better in school, Byard said.
Passing legislation such as the Georgia bill and that proposed by FPN is not effective in getting parents involved in their students? school life as anti-GSA advocates claim, Byard added.
?Passing such laws is intended to single out one group of people. Requiring parents to fill out a form forced on them by state legislators is not the most humane way for parents to be involved,? she said.
? 2006 | A Window Media Publication
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Walmart About to Feel AFA Wrath
David Kiley, Business Week
News that mega retailer Walmart has hired an ad agency specializing in gay media is, according to sources of mine, sending the American Family Association into overdrive over how to stage a boycott of the chain once the ads and support of gay events gets underway.
The AFA has been a thorn in the side of a few big companies. Though the effect of the boycotts and media campaigns staged by the conservative group is dubious, they can neverthless cause headaches and a certain amount of nervousness among marketers, car dealers and store managers.
The AFA, run by Rev. Donald Wildmon, has been boycotting Ford since late last year when the group's public pressure on the automaker prompted Ford to re-double its commitment to gay media and go out of its way to support gay organizations. Sure, Ford sales have been suffering. And the AFA takes credit for that. But I tend to think it's because of too few compelling vehicles rather than the wrath of God.
Walmart has been so conservative and such a friend to organizations like the AFA that it has at times refused to stock certain books the AFA found objectionable. And, of course, there is thought to be a substantial overlap in the constituencies of Walmart, Reverend Wildmon, The Republic Party and followers of Sean Hannity. So, this move by Walmart is a bold one to reach a boader customer base.
In an interview with Advertising Age, Justin Nelson, president of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, an independent organization with 24,000 members, said, "They [Walmart] has been viewed with some degree of skepticism by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, and it's important for them in terms of gaining market share to change that."
Walmart is plainly trying to boaden its appeal and be more competitive with Target in terms of image and connection to fashion and design. Walmart realizes that they need to carry more merchandise with better profit margins than is the case now.
The agency Walmart hired, Witeck-Combs, also does work for Ford-owned Volvo, Land Rover, and Jaguar, as well as American Airlines and Citigroup.
On its website, the AFA boasts that it has signed up about 510,000 people to boycott Ford. The Texas Ford Dealers Association, representing 78 dealers in that state, recently wrote to Ford complaining that they are inundated with e-mail, phone calls and letters complaining. And, the group stated, their customers were recently moved to step up their complaints when a Ford ad appeared opposite an article in The Advocate, a gay magazine, about gay polygamy.
I don't expect the AFA to have any impact on Walmart's decision-making any more than I expect Ford to cave on support of gay media. But we may as well get ready for a publicity push from the AFA against Walmart and the group taking credit for pushing Ford into such desperate straits that it is considering selling off Land Rover and Jaguar just to make Rev. Wildmon happy.
Copyright 2000-2006, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
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Flag Flap Draws National Attention
August 27 - A small Kansas town is in the national spotlight after it becomes the unlikely scene of a push for gay rights.
On Sunday, dozens of activists showed up at the Lakeway Hotel in Meade. They were there to hold a protest against the rainbow flag hanging outside the hotel. As many as 80 protesters, including members of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, demonstrated against the flag. The Kansas Coalition for Equality was also there to hold a meeting and counter protest.
The owner of the hotel, J.R. Knight, put up the flag because his son gave it to him. After weeks of vandalism and verbal attacks, Knight says it may be time to give up the hotel to be with his son in California.
The story is drawing national attention. Knight has been contacted by producers interested in turning the flag story into a movie.
Gray Television Group, Inc. Copyright ? 2002-2006
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Oh my goodness- that's not the same Meade that makes telescopes???
:(
Meade Instruments Corporation, makers of Telescopes ? Binoculars ? Microscopes is based in Irvine, California.
Meade, Kansas
Population: 1,672 (2000)
Elevation: 2475 feet
Both the city and county were named for General George C. Meade, the Union commander at Gettysburg.
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The wrong side of the rainbow
MIKE HENDRICKS, The Kansas City Star
And her answer was, of course, ?somewhere over the rainbow.?
The rainbow flag that flies outside the Lakeway Inn, to be specific.
Or flew there, anyway, until recently.
Why would anyone do such a rotten thing?
J.R. presumes it?s because the rainbow has become a symbol of gay pride in recent years.
?He sent us this flag letting us know he?s missing us, over the rainbow,? J.R. says.
A sweet gesture, in other words ? but what followed wasn?t.
A photo of the flag suddenly appeared in the local paper.
And there it was noted that the rainbow had been adopted as a symbol of the gay community.
But the connection to gays is what disturbed some folks in Meade.
Jaws flapped. Business dropped off at the Lakeway.
But the Knights weren?t about to take the flag down, on principle.
To the preacher who told him the rainbow offended him, J.R. said something like ?take a hike.?
Besides, they had nothing against gays.
?We?re getting 200 e-mails a day,? J.R. says.
People are sending rainbow flags from around the world.
That way, the Knights will never run out of them.
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After reading the article, I find that I like the guy. I might even visit his B&B just to  :thebirdman: his nosy, assinine neighbors.
Lakeway Hotel - Bed and Breakfast Inn
115 N. Fowler, Meade, Kansas 67864
Toll-Free: 877-276-2700
Phone: 620-873-2700 - Fax: 620-873-2705
innkeeper@lakewayhotel.com
PO BOX 1029, Meade, Kansas 67864-1029
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Rainbow flag creates controversy
Tucker Jankosky
For J.R. and Robin knight, owning a bed and breakfast is everything they've always wanted. "We came here in search of our dreams, my wife always wanted a bed and breakfast and I always wanted a restaurant," says California native J.R. Knight.
But recently their dream has turned into a nightmare, all because of a flag they're flying outside. ?It's a rainbow flag - to some people it means friendship to some people it means gay pride," says Knight. But for knight, it was just a souvenir from his 12-year-old son.
Knight says the local Meade newspaper is trying to put him out of business and was frustrated when it ran an article about the flag and did not even bother to contact him regarding why he put it up. In fact, most people we spoke to in Meade said they didn?t even know what the flag meant until the article ran. But once word got around, the reaction was harsh.
Knight says the radio station has called him threatening to remove the restaurant?s commercials if he does not remove the flag. A local pastor stopped by said it was equivalent to hanging women?s panties on a flag pole. When Knight jokingly said he might consider that ? the preacher said he would have him arrested.
His business has suffered - down to only a few local customers. The folks in Meade who've boycotted say it's too offensive for them to eat there.
Local resident, Keith Klassen says the flag is a slap in the face to the conservative community of Meade. ?To me it's just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood. I can't walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that's saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don't," says Klassen.
Knight says it's not meant to be a gay pride symbol but he doesn't mind if that's how it's taken.
?Any gay or lesbian people that do stop by will be treated with the best service I can give you," says Knight
But despite the local ridicule and loss of business, Knight is determined to stand his ground. ?When this rainbow flag shreds, I will buy another one, and another one, and another one - just like my American flag, I'll buy another one."
Knight says his son gave him the flag after a trip to Dorothy's house, a museum about the Wizard of Oz. The flag reminded the boy of "somewhere over the rainbow."
? 2006, Media General, Inc.
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The Iranians are not the first to try this:
French stick to plan to ban English
Colin Randall, Paris
July 24, 2006
FRANCE'S battle to repel the invasion of English words and phrases has seen the French try to produce a new batch of official alternatives destined to be ignored.
At the Ministry of Finance in Paris, 40 experts discussed terms the French should be encouraged to use.
They were not concerned with such lost causes of Franglais as le weekend, le fast-food or le marketing. Aided by economic journalists, the Commission for Economic and Financial Terminology and Neology discussed options for a range of phrases, such as whether golden parachute should translate to parachute d'ore or parachute en or.
Eyebrows were apparently raised by the commission's suggestions for tougher constructions for a funded credit alternative ? already a challenge in English? derive de credit finance.
In the event, no agreement could be reached. The commission will have to reflect further before coming up with a list that then needs the endorsement of France's cultural watchdog, the Academie Francaise.
One report said that even when a phrase obtained fast-track approval ? telechargement pour baladeur for podcasting ? it was usually too late to stop the French sticking with the English version.
French terms the commission previously approved but were widely ignored include la bonne heure (happy hour), bloc-notes (blog) and dialogue en ligne (chat line).
Academie Francaise's Jean-Mathieu Pascalin says English is the language of business, but "the challenge is not to set ourselves against that but to preserve for French the capacity to find names for new notions. If the language loses that capacity, it will become cut off from reality".
TELEGRAPH
Copyright ? 2006. The Age Company Ltd
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/french...3593211519.html
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What I meant to say was that his published stories are not posted on the site anymore.
You can still buy the books there.
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... i actually have his first book, Reap the Whirlwind....
That is actually his second book. His first was "Bleading Hearts".
His published works are not available anymore on his web site and the versions that are posted on Nifty are very different from the final published versions.
As James said, his new web site is http://www.joshaterovis.com/. The steliko.com site is no longer active.
Killian Kendall Stories:
Bleeding Hearts
All Lost Things
The Truth of Yesterday
A Change of Worlds
Spin offs:
Reap the Whirlwind
Breaking Masks
Short Stories (related to the Killian Kendall series):
Eden Revisited - Adam's Story
Bright Things Come to Confusion - Seth's Story
Never Alone (should be read before "A Change of Worlds")
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Georgia Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
(Atlanta, Georgia) The Georgia Supreme Court Thursday overturned a lower court ruling and reinstated the a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
In a unanimous ruling the court said that the ban did not violate the state's single-subject rule for ballot measures.
The amendment was passed in 2004 by 76 percent of voters. Lambda Legal filed suit alleging the question put to the electorate was itself unconstitutional.
The suit said that the Georgia Constitution requires ballot initiatives pose a single subject at a time to voters, rather than covering multiple issues.
Lambda argued that the question had multiple issues, including the definition of marriage, the prohibition of the recognition of other types of unions between same-sex couples, an attempt to limit the jurisdiction of Georgia courts, and an attempt to limit the full faith and credit given to judgments and other proceedings from other states.
In May, Superior Court Judge Constance Russell, of Fulton County, agreed and tossed out the amendment.
Russell did not rule on issues related to gay marriage, but held instead that the measure violated the single-subject rule mandated by the state Constitution by asking voters to consider both same-sex marriage and civil unions.
The state appealed to the high court.
"To constitute a plurality of subject matter, an Act must embrace two or more dissimilar and discordant subjects that by no fair intendment can be considered as having any logical connection with or relation to each other." the state argued.
"The parts of the amendment are germane to one another and their common purpose of prohibiting same sex marriages in Georgia."
The high court agreed with the state's assessment. Even if the court had upheld the lower court ruling it would not have meant same-sex couples could marry in Georgia. The state has a so-called Defense of Marriage Act, enacted in 1996.
Gov. Sonny Perdue had given the court until Aug. 7 to rule. If it did not rule by then, or had upheld Russell's decision, he vowed to call a special session of the state Legislature to get the issue back on the ballot for the November election.
?365Gay.com 2006
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New York court declines to recognize gay marriage
July 6, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York State Court of Appeals refused to recognize same-sex marriage in a ruling issued on Thursday, saying the issue was a question for the Legislature to decide.
The New York case involved 44 gay and lesbian couples who filed four separate cases seeking to overturn as unconstitutional a 97-year-old state law that defines marriage as between a man and woman.
The couples claimed the law violated their constitutional rights because it defended sex discrimination. The cases were heard together by the court in Albany.
"We hold that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex," the appeals court said in its 70-page ruling. "Whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature."
In February, New York's law was upheld in a lower appeals court, forcing the fight to the State Court of Appeals.
It was one of several initiatives by gay rights activists across the United States, where gay marriage has been a divisive issue in recent years, particularly in the 2004 presidential election.
Massachusetts is the only state to permit gays to marry, while Vermont allows same-sex couples the rights and benefits of marriage but calls them civil unions.
In the November 2004 election, ballot measures were passed in 11 states to ban gay marriages.
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Proud to be out in force, in step
25 TH ANNUAL STONEWALL COLUMBUS? GAY-PRIDE PARADE
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Misti Crane, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
"It?s so cool. It?s just cool."
Nobody tried to beat him up, but they went after his former boyfriend during gym class.
And they started a rumor that Eblin had AIDS.
She said the perfect thing: "There?s nothing you could say that would make me stop loving you."
He wept then and fights tears today a couple of times along the way.
It?s overwhelming, he says, walking down High Street, surrounded by support.
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Seem that Grasshopper just picked up a couple awards from GayAuthors.org. I can't find any info on their web site, but the awards are posted on Grasshopper's story page
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Scan to donate
Foley's pathetic blame game
in News & Views
Posted
Foley's pathetic blame game
Hey, Mark Foley! Stop using sexuality to explain away why you're so screwed up. You're screwed up because you were a mess to start with, not because you drink too much (allegedly). You're a creep. Live with it.
By Charles Karel Bouley, Advocate
Our president lies about WMDs in Iraq and launches an unjust and unnecessary war. We are in debt beyond belief. Home prices are plummeting. Government spending is out of control. A woman?s right to choose is under attack. Gays are bashed regularly by members of Congress and the President. Americans are dying as we speak. We?ve lost the war in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden has not been captured, the Chinese basically own us, and goodwill toward Americans is at an all-time low. There can be no doubt there?s lot to talk about and a lot of upsetting events.
But what?s got the media on their heads?
Ex-Representative Mark Foley: a pervert. a congressman, a Republican from Florida who likes to hear about how 16-year-old boys masturbate, a leader who used his own power to seduce young pages and ex-pages. A man whose party covered up his behavior by saying ?bad dog, don?t do it again, bad.? Now there?s huge fallout, and the Republicans have cut and run from Foley faster than they say the Democrats want to do from Iraq and now.
The pathetic justifications have begun.
Foley is reportedly in rehab for alcoholism?a personal problem that no one in his immediate world even knew existed. Some have told reporters they don't even believe Foley is an alcoholic. But off to rehab he goes--you know, the place celebrities go when they want the public to forgive them for this or that transgression, or simply to hide out. Mel Gibson on an anti-Semitic rage? Rehab. Kate Moss coke-head? Rehab. An embarrassing car wreck in Washington, D.C., in the middle of the night? Rehab. Betray the public trust and try and seduce a child in your care? Rehab.
Oh, and the latest excuses du jour is that he?s gay and that he was abused as a child by clergy. Come on, Foley, it?s 2006. Who hasn?t been seduced by this or that clergyperson? But oh, no?more reasons to feel sorry for poor Mark. It?s not his fault.
Say it with me: Poppycock.
First of all, I wish he had not come out (like a coward, in absentia via a lawyer's statement). Great, just what we need: a pedophile who claims to be gay. Boy, doesn?t that feed into what America thinks of us already, at least conservative America. So now he?s hurt one or more teenagers, his party, his state, his family, and the gay community. What a slimeball hypocrite, like most of his Republican ilk in power.
Did I mention that he chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and was a cosponsor of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act? Can?t wait for John Walsh on CNN to explain away this.
First of all, the moment a 50-something congressman sent an e-mail to a 16-year-old asking for a pic, a huge red flag should have gone up. Did it? Nope. Dennis Hastert says he didn?t know how bad it was from just that exchange. Well, then, Dennis, you?re a blind idiot whose eyes might not even have opened wide if the e-mail had been sent to your grandson.
Hastert and other Republicans that knew of Foley's inappropriate contact with pages and ex-pages, and they didn?t do the right thing, the transparent thing. They didn't do anything, really. They did not, for one thing, inform key Democrats who also oversee the page program. They did not bring the appropriate people into the mix to solve the problem. Maybe they might have told Foley to shape up and then covered it up. And when the cover-up and scandal blew up, they cut and ran, and now Foley blames alcohol, being gay, and being molested; right-wing talk radio is blaming the Democrats (a dodge so ludicrous it's not even worth discussing).
OK, here?s the deal. I had sex at age 16 with men double my age. I was not molested, but it happened. And I?m gay. And up until my 40th birthday, I could have drunk Foley under the table. Now I have had sex with a 19-year-old. And good for me?he was totally hot and legally of age. But I turn my head the opposite way when passing by a high school where the jocks are on the field. Who needs that temptation? That being said, I have never tried to seduce anyone under age 18 via IM, text, e-mail, snail mail, in person or otherwise, even with all the demons in my own past.
But the worst part here is that Foley was in my House. He was in your House too. He was in the people?s House: Congress. The children, the pages, were in the care of "We the People. "And in our care these bastards let Foley's behavior go on and looked the other way.
And to try and justify this and blame your sexuality, your childhood--I?ll say here the same thing I said about good ol' Jim McGreevey: I am so sick of people blaming being gay for anything other than the fact they sleep with the person of the same gender. Stop using your sexuality to explain away why you?re so screwed up. You?re so screwed up because you?re a mess to start with, not because you sleep with a person of the same sex.
It?s like my old saying when referencing cocaine: They say it intensifies the person. Pople who take it say it really lets them be themselves to the fullest. Well, what if you're an asshole to begin with? Now you?re just an intense asshole. Great.
From all reports, Foley appears to be a pedophile, someone who wants to have sex with minors, and that's just plain wrong in America. If he wants to behave that way, he should live in Amsterdam where the age of consent is 14.
Want to know whether a kid uses a towel when he jacks off? Want to know if a girl has given him a hand job this weekend? Read his blog. If it?s not there, then guess what? It?s none of your business. In fact, it's none of your business in any case.
It's age-old scenario, really: the combination of an authority abusing his power and of a compliant victim who may have been afraid to just say no, or may have thought he'd gain some advantage from playing along. Older power figure, younger opportunist?you do the math. And whatever gender combination is involved doesn?t matter.
I won?t even go in to the congressional page program. Why in the age of electronic communications do we need teenage kids in Congress to act as messengers? Why not train cocker spaniels to run the halls? If I have a robot named Roomba that can clean my entire floor and then find its way back to its base, we can find Congressional robots to do the job. These pages have always been bait for lecherous old white men away from home with an inflated sense of self-importance. It's happened before to male and female pages. As long as the page program continues, it's likely to happen again.
Go online and watch Foley?s goodbye speech to some pages from years back--watch him well up with tears and your disgust will flow. Why? Well, you?d cry too if all your fresh meat was about to leave and become legal.
And what bothers me the most is all the piety. For the past six years, the Republicans have laid claim to be the only party that can protect us from terror, and they promised to do so while holding dear those family values that you yourself hold dear. They have attempted to grab God as their exclusive ally and champion, hinting or saying outright that Democrats are godless heathens with no values who want gay men to get married and adopt and then molest your children, the party that wants women to have the right to murder their unborn children, a party that breeds the kind of tolerance that breeds sexual predators.
Democrats, they say--they are still saying on talk radio right this minute--are the people who cover up sex scandals, like the one involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Never mind that both Clinton and Lewinsky were adults at the time. Well, thank you, Mark Foley, for proving what I?ve known for years: those who claim they are better and more moral than most people usually are those with the most skeletons in their closets?oh, and then they come out of them.
I delight in all of this, in the fall of a hypocrite. I don?t for a moment believe Foley was molested as a child by clergy--certainly not in the victimized way he's claiming. Why wait until now to reveal this? Truly, with all the scandal about the Catholic Church, why not rally to the defense of those who really were molested by sharing your past? There?s no shame in having been molested, it?s not a consensual act. To hide it when you?re in the public eye as a champion of exploited children and then to reveal it when you think it will shield you from responsibility for your own attempts at molesting--well, the hypocrisy stinks.
As for the gay issue, I can?t even address it. One more screwed-up fag. Great. Thanks, Foley.
And this ?bombshell? is not new. The Advocate has been reporting on Foley's sexuality for years, outing him in 1996 when he supported the Defense of Marriage Act (a time when his fellow Republican, Jim Kolbe, opted to come out and put his hypocrisy behind him) and opening his closet door again in 2003 when he had the audacity to call a press conference to condemn fully accurate (but, we now know, incomplete) reports about his sexuality. But no one wanted to listen. Except for a few brave Florida outlets, the mainstream press censored the story.
Just like in the Republican leadership in Congress, no one wanted to listen to the simple truth, because it might hurt poor Rep. Foley, a powerful man in Washington. He might get mad, as he did at that press conference. Foley did, however, abandon his 2003 run for U.S. Senate after the media brought up the 1996 Advocate story. Years ago Foley knew what might come tumbling out of his closet if it were shaken hard enough.)
What I want to know is, who is supplying these IM?s? Barring cooperation from Internet service providers combing through their servers in probable violation of privacy laws, we all know the only way to get IM transcripts is if one of participants saved them on either end. So did Foley save them as fodder for his late-night spankings, or did the pages save them--out of what, disgust? A sense of opportunity? Future ammunition for job security? No, I suspect these transcripts were kept for one reason and one reason only, and that reason is scandal?and here it is.
The Republicans have hurt the LGBT community for years. Now another Republican has done us a disservice by trying to join our ranks. Well, we don?t want you. Go back in the closet. And now they blame the Democrats for the timing of this scandal. Republicans can?t take responsibility for anything. Foley?s not responsible; some unnamed priest from some unnamed church at some unknown time did some unknown act, an act that has never been spoken of until now. Alcohol is to blame. Hastert blames Foley, other Republicans blame Hastert, the right-wing nuts blame the Democrats. Huh?
Here's who is to blame: Foley, now gone; Hastert, who should go. In fact, they all should go, everyone who had any whiff of Foley's lust for teens. It appears the Republican party is full of liars, warmongers, pedophiles, and shameless opportunists, many of whom hide behind their Bibles and their piety. Well, take that. And that. And that. Your days are numbered. The emperor has no clothes, and his knights are trying to get the clothes off the young pages.
Ick. It makes me want to take a shower.
We are five weeks away from an election, and there are so many real issues to deal with. If any good can come from this, let's hope it will open some eyes. Let's hope that voters will realize that these people are not any better or more righteous or more concerned than anyone else. In fact, they are just the opposite. If you can't be upset about 2,700-plus American deaths in a hellhole in the Middle East, maybe you can wrap your little heads around the fact that a member of the House wanted to wrap his body parts around the body parts of his page--and asked the teenager for specific size information as foreplay.
There are three things Foley is not, as far as I can tell: He is not a victim, he is not an addict, and he?s not gay. He?s a sick, power-crazed idiot completely removed from reality who operated inside an insulated bubble where he felt safe from harm, and his friends on the Hill helped him feel that way. Instead of rehab he should be in a jail cell with all those guys who were instant-messaging fake teenagers invented by Dateline. Yep, those guys are wrestled to the ground on camera and dragged off to jail. Most of them are labeled as sex offenders for the rest of their lives?and not even for instant-messaging real teenagers. Yep, they're in jail, where you or I would be if either of us were guilty. Foley, who instant-messaged a real teenager, is in rehab?and looking forward to a fat Congressional pension for the rest of his life.
Foley' s blaming alcohol for this gives alcoholics a bad name, just as his claiming to be gay gives us gays a bad name as well. He?s looking for any excuse, every day a new one. Well, stop. There isn?t an excuse. You?re a creep. Live with it. Find a bridge and start living under it, you lecherous old troll. But get out of our House, the people?s House, and stay out. And all those who knew about his behavior, do the same.
Advocate.com ? 2006 PlanetOut Inc.