By Ramy Eletreby

Supreme Court Nomination Sparks Controversy

President Bush's Oct. 3 nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Ellen Miers to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sparked outrage among many conservatives who are unconvinced that Miers is enough of a strict constructionist on issues such as abortion.

"If she does not exhibit these qualities in testimony before the [Senate] Judiciary Committee, Harriet Miers should be rejected," wrote conservative Pat Buchanan in Worldnet Daily. "That she is a woman, a good lawyer, a trusted friend of the Bush family, and a born-again Republican and evangelical Christian is not enough."

James Dobson, head of the anti-gay Focus on the Family, intensified the controversy when gave his reluctant backing, publicly suggesting that he had received private assurances from the White House that Miers would be the kind of justice the Religious Right could accept. That irked several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who thought the administration was giving more information about Miers to Dobson than to those constitutionally tasked with her confirmation.

LGBT reaction has been mixed. Based on a 1989 Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas questionnaire, some LGBT activists reacted positively to the nomination. They noted that Miers supported equal rights and increased funding for AIDS education, though she did not believe that the state's criminalization of gay sex should be repealed. "At the very least maybe she's sort of open to the idea of fairness," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

The question is, noted Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart: "Does Harriet Miers possess a clear commitment to equality and fairness for all Americans, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and those affected with HIV, and a judicial philosophy that will make that commitment real?"

Transgender Activist Honored

The Ford Foundation recently announced that Shannon Price Minter, National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director is one of the 2005 winners of the Leadership for a Changing World awards. The 17 awardees, chosen by a national selection committee from a pool of nearly 1,000 nominations, are individuals and leadership teams tackling some of the nation's most entrenched social, economic and environmental challenges.

"The LGBT community and we at NCLR have long understood the transformative contribution Shannon Minter has made to our community and the law," said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. "It is enormously gratifying and we are very proud to see those contributions acknowledged on a wider stage."

Gay Teens Coming Out Earlier

Gay teenagers are coming out at an earlier age, usually just before or after graduating high school, according to the Oct. 10 Time magazine cover story, "The Battle Over Gay Teens," which cites The New Gay Teenager, a book recently published by Harvard University Press.

There are now over 3,000 gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs on high school campuses, compared to 100 in 1997. The impetus to come out is linked with the increasing presence of gay youth in the media on television shows such as Desperate Housewives and in books like Rainbow Road, as well as a new subscription publication, YGA magazine (Young Gay America).

The boom may impact social policy. Last year, a UCLA survey found 57 percent of college freshman favor same-sex marriage compared to only 36 percent of adults. Additionally, a survey in The New Gay Teenager found that only 13 percent of gay youth would rather be straight.

However, a recent Harris Interactive poll conducted for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) shows that 90 percent of gay students polled say they have suffered from harassment or assault in the past year.

Los Angeles Archdiocese Releases Records on Child Molestation By Priests

Documents released on Oct. 11 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles indicate that the church allowed at least eight priests to continue having contact with children after receiving complaints alleging sexual molestation, according to the Los Angeles Times. Two years after they were first promised, 126 summaries culled from personnel files of 200 priests accused of sexual abuse were made public by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in an attempt to settle what could amount to $1 billion in over 560 lawsuits.

The Catholic Church has already spent almost $250 million to settle hundreds of claims in California, including paying $100 million to 90 alleged victims in Orange County, according to The Times.

The documents show that following complaints received during the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, priests were shuffled from parish to parish and often not removed from the priesthood until 10 years later. In one newly revealed case, for instance, documents show that Rev. Richard Henry was first accused of sexually abusing a young boy in 1980, but wasn't removed from the ministry until the Sheriff's Department launched an investigation in 1991. Henry pleaded no contest to four counts of lewd conduct with a child, and went to prison in 1993 for three years. But he wasn't removed from the priesthood until 2003.

L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley told the Times the document release was "little more than a public-relations ploy" and urged full disclosure. "The real question is why the archdiocese refuses to turn over grand jury-subpoenaed personnel records to prosecutors," Cooley said. "Three years ago, I urged Cardinal Mahony to provide the fullest possible disclosure of evidence of sexual abuse by clergy. Despite two court rulings ordering disclosure, Cardinal Mahony continues to claim 'confidentiality privileges' that no court has recognized. What we're looking for is evidence and investigative leads, not institutional mea culpas."

Meanwhile, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said on NBC's Today Show on Oct. 13 that the priest abuse crisis in the church was "a homosexual scandal, not a pedophilia scandal" and that "It's homosexuals who are responsible for the abuse," according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Later in the interview, Donohue appeared to amend his statement about homosexuality: "I'm not saying homosexuality causes someone to be a predator. That would be malicious." On the Adelphia public affairs show Week in Review taped Oct. 14, Esther Miller, representing Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a national victims' advocacy and support group, refuted Donohue's allegation, saying "a pedophile is a pedophile." SNAP includes gay victims of priest abuse and their domestic partners, she said, adding that the Vatican's gay witch-hunt, prompted by the allegations of priest sexual abuse in the United States, is "just horrendous." Miller said SNAP would not take any money or settle their lawsuits until the Catholic Church has fully disclosed and taken responsibility for the extent of the alleged abuse. "We will not go away," she said. -- Karen Ocamb

Boykin Rejected at Millions More March

Despite a highly publicized invitation by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, when National Black Justice Coalition President Keith Boykin tried to speak at the Millions More March in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, he was turned away by anti-gay Rev. Willie Wilson, the march's executive director.

"It's a tragedy that one person stuck in the past can prevent our community from moving forward," Boykin told the Washington Post.

A separate LGBT rally at Freedom Plaza, planned as a parallel "unity" event after Farrakhan's invitation, became a protest after the rejection. "Ignorance, arrogance and back-stabbing will not be tolerated," Sterling Wilson, a gay activist who addressed the rally, told the Post. "If he wants a fight, he'll get a fight."

Black Men's Xchange (BMX) founder Cleo Manago, however, did address the Millions More March, according to the Washington Blade. BMX rejects the identification "gay" as a construction of the white gay community. Manago, the Blade reported, told the crowd, "I'm here to bring the perspective of a black man who is a same-gender loving black man." There is no word on how he was received by the crowd. -- Karen Ocamb

Tab Hunter Celebrates National Coming Out Day on Larry King Live

Oct. 11 marked the 18th annual National Coming Out Day during which thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and allies held workshops, speak-outs, rallies, and other kinds of events aimed at showing the public that GLBT people are everywhere.

To mark this special day, 1950s and '60s heartthrob, actor, writer, and producer Tab Hunter appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to speak about his secret gay Hollywood life and to promote his new autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: the Making of a Movie Star. Hunter, now 74, became one of the first major pin-up teen idols and a huge movie star in the 1950s with his boy-next-door wholesome good looks. ... Hunter appeared in such memorable films as Damn Yankees and Battle Cry, a pivotal Marine recruitment film, before he started having difficulty reconciling his Hollywood image with personal questions about his sexual identity.

"I was living two lives because in motion pictures I was a kid going, 'Wow, look at this! What's happening to me?' But at the same token I had all these feelings that were -- that I was trying to hold back and not knowing what to do with and expressing and not expressing," Hunter told King. Much of Hunter's frustration came from Warner Bros. constantly pushing him together with actress Natalie Wood together, casting them in several films and gracing magazine covers across the country.

Hunter discussed having a three-year relationship with fellow actor Anthony Perkins and how they had to cloak themselves. "I think he was more aware of, you know, like when we would go out to a movie or something like that," said Hunter. "I'm sure he was more aware of, you know, people saying things."

Bishop Gene Robinson: Take Back Religion

On Oct. 8, Gene Robinson, the world's first openly gay Episcopal bishop, addressed the Los Angeles "Outgiving" conference at the Bel Age hotel in West Hollywood. Giving out of gratitude, said Robinson, who grew up poor, "is the spiritual measure of your soul and how blessed you feel."

Robinson, whose installation two years ago prompted division in the Episcopal Church, said, "It is time we took our religion back. Right now it is easier to come out as gay than it is to come out as a Christian. [But] it takes religious people to fight back against religious people."

Talking about his installation, to which he wore a bulletproof vest, Robinson said he "never had a lot of experience with death threats." But, he told his frightened family, "there are a lot worse things than dying. I'm doing something I feel called to do."

Robinson also said he was "sick of all the talk about security" by the Bush administration. "Our anxiety is color-coded. We're getting bamboozled" when the government uses anxiety to make people "willing to give up more of our rights ... Let your giving be a rebellious act against those who would put us back in the closet." -- Karen Ocamb