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 As U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill testifies before Congress today, Iraqi’s security is far from assured. Militias now targetting the socially marginalized could soon take their killing spree mainstream.
From: ForeignPolicy.com – BY RASHA MOUMNEH – When my colleague and I sat down last April with Hamid, an Iraqi man from Baghdad, his trauma-induced stutter said as much as the words he spoke. Huddled inconspicuously in a dingy restaurant, Hamid recounted how militia members killed his partner along with three other men, two kidnapped from their Baghdad homes, two slaughtered in the streets. The next day, Hamid said, “they came for me. They came into my house and they saw my mother, and one of them said, ‘Where’s your faggot son?’ My mother called me after they left, in tears. … I can’t go home.”
As the world hails Iraq’s supposed return to normality, the country’s militias — the same ones that spent years waging a sectarian civil war — have found a new, less apparent target: men suspected of being gay. The systematic killings, which began earlier this year, reveal the cracks behind Iraq’s fragile calm. Iraq’s leaders may talk of security and democracy from behind barbed wire in the Green Zone, but the surge of murders against gay men is a stark sign of how far Iraqi society still has to go. Continue reading Iraq’s New Surge: Gay Killings
 From: LezGetReal.com – by Paula Brooks – Voicing the ever-increasing concerns and frustrations that many of President Barack Obama’s liberal allies are feeling, Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy campaign manager during last years successful drive for the White House, said Yesterday he is “losing patience” with the White House over issues ranging from Obama’s handling of LGBT rights to his lack of leadership on health care reform.
Hildebrand told POLITICO:
“I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it’s doing right now… I’m not going to just sit by the curb and let these folks get away with a lack of performance for the American people,” he said, speaking of Washington’s Democratic leadership as a whole. “I want change just as much as a majority of Americans do, and I’m one of the many Americans who are losing patience.” Continue reading Top Obama Advisor says he is ‘losing patience’ with the White House
 From: GayRights.Change.org – by Michael A. Jones – Proving that love, tolerance, acceptance and equality don’t have to be mutually exclusive from religion, the Unitarian Universalist Association has launched a brand-spanking new Web site meant to cull together religious voices working hard for equal rights and marriage equality. The site? It’s aptly named “Standing on the Side of Love.” SSL for short. And “sizzle” if you put those consonants together.
And sizzling is what this site is. In addition to being a prophetic voice for LGBT rights, the site also hopes to turn intentions into action by organizing Unitarian Universalists (and other progressive religious folk) to work for marriage equality on both a state-by-state and national level. According to SSL’s director, Rev. Meg Riley, the site is meant to project the long-held principle that Unitarians share, which is a commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of all people. Continue reading Standing on the Side of Love, Working for Marriage Equality
 From: HealthNews.com – By: Lara Endreszl – Death, even when expected, is hard for anyone to deal with, but a suicidal death is often more difficult for friends, family, and loved ones to fathom. Oftentimes there are warning signs, in the form of depression or a mental illness, and other times suicide seems to strike seemingly out of nowhere. Regardless of the motivation behind it, suicide is the most extreme case of self harm and for those who are contemplating such an act, or for those left behind, there are numerous resources available 24/7 to turn to. And to promote those services and provide awareness to the nation, today begins National Suicide Prevention Week, marking the days leading up to and after National Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday September 10, 2009.
This year is the 35th annual National Suicide Prevention Week with the theme: A Global Agenda on the Science of Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery. Starting Sunday September 6th, communities across the United States are banding together to host events to spread awareness. Continue reading National Suicide Prevention Week
 Supervisor Harvey Milk, left, and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone during the signing of the city’s gay rights bill in 1977. From: The San Francisco Sentinel – BY ERIC BAILEY – The Los Angeles Times – The legacy of Harvey Milk has had a very good year.
Three decades after California’s first openly gay elected leader was gunned down in San Francisco City Hall, Milk has been celebrated by an Oscar-winning film, named to the state Hall of Fame and lauded by President Obama.
But despite those posthumous accolades, a legislative push to create a day of recognition for Milk became one of the most contentious issues in the Capitol this year. The proposal, which passed the Legislature on Thursday, is among more than a dozen gay rights bills offered in the aftermath of Proposition 8, last November’s ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.
Also on Thursday, the Assembly passed a bill that steps back onto Proposition 8 turf: It would require California to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states before the initiative passed. The Senate passed another bill that would expand protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender prison inmates. And lawmakers had already approved a resolution calling on Congress to repeal the decade-old Defense of Marriage Act.
One proposal before the Legislature would let transgender Californians alter their birth certificates to reflect a new identity. Others address property rights, employment issues and AIDS.
But the issue of a Harvey Milk Day — a strictly symbolic gesture — caused by far the largest public outpouring. Continue reading Proposed California Harvey Milk Day Causes Quite a Stir
 From: Boston.com – By David Sharp – (AP) PORTLAND, Maine—Election officials announced Wednesday that gay marriage foes surpassed the threshold of signatures necessary to put the state law on the November ballot, setting the stage for a furious, two-month campaign that will determine whether the number of states allowing same-sex nuptials shrinks to five.
Maine’s gay marriage law was supposed to go into effect on Sept. 12, but it was put on hold while the secretary of state’s office verified the number of signatures. With the signatures validated, Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday signed a formal proclamation putting the gay marriage law to a statewide vote Nov. 3.
“I fully support this legislation and believe it guarantees that all Maine citizens are treated equally under our state’s civil marriage laws,” Baldacci said. “But I also have a constitutional obligation to set the date for the election once the secretary of state has certified that enough signatures have been submitted.” Continue reading Fate of Maine gay marriage law in hands of voters
 Scientists were able to isolate two antibodies responsible for resistance to the disease in an African patient. The discovery could be key to the development of a vaccine.
From: latimes.com – By Thomas H. Maugh II – After nearly two decades of futile searching for a vaccine against the AIDS virus, researchers are reporting the tantalizing discovery of antibodies that can prevent the virus from multiplying in the body and producing severe disease.
They do not have a vaccine yet, but they may well have a road map toward the production of one. Continue reading Antibodies found that prevent HIV from causing severe AIDS
 From: LezGetReal.com – by Bridgette P. LaVictoire – The ad war in Maine has begun. Maine’s supporters of marriage equality have begun to air ads supporting the defeat of the voter veto attempt which has been largely underwritten by the Catholic Church in Maine and by the National Organization of Marriage from outside the state. While the majority of the money coming in to support the voter veto initiative, the majority of the money supporting the ads against this veto initiative is coming from within Maine. According to the latest polls, Maine’s population is almost evenly split between those who support marriage equality and those who oppose. Whether the ad campaign can affect this balance is something that will have to be seen.
The issue of the voter veto initiative may be one of those odd contests in New England where Prop 8 style ads are more likely to turn off voters than to get them out, and the donations given to this cause by the Maine Catholic Church has already become a problem for the clergy as many parishioners have looked upon the shuttered parochial schools and wondered why the Church can spend money on a political campaign while that is occurring.
The campaign to get the voter veto initiative has also caused problems for those who oppose marriage equality in part because the campaign to get this on the ballot cost them a lot of money while those who support marriage equality have been able to rest upon their money waiting for the day that the petition was certified.
 From: Huffington Post – by Michael Luongo – Baghdad, Iraq — This is my second time in Baghdad, and I have to admit, overall I have seen a lot of improvements. My first trip, in the summer of 2007 to do a large investigative report for New York’s Gay City News was during the height of the Surge, the U.S. military effort to calm the insurgency. It looks like it worked. Baghdad in the summer of 2009 is much easier to get around. What were once unknowns, on the other side of barrier walls I was always warned not to cross, are wonderful, beautiful places. Baghdad looks like Los Angeles crossed with Havana and New Orleans. The increased safety has also meant that nightlife has returned to Baghdad, from bars and restaurants on Abu Nawaz Street along the Tigris, to even belly dancing hotspots.
For gay men however, this increase in nightlife has created a tale of two cities. On the one hand, safety during the night meant that gay men, one part of reemerging cosmopolitan society, were throwing parties and becoming visible again. Unfortunately, that visibility created a backlash. Groups like the Mahdi Army seized on the resurgence earlier this year, killing gay men from the Sadr City area, a poor, deeply religious neighborhood in the eastern side of the city. Continue reading Baghdad’s Gay Community: A Tale of Two Cities
 Sponsors of Ref 71 ahd 121,486 signatures
From: The Washington Blade – OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – A referendum that could overturn Washington state’s “everything but marriage” domestic partnership law has qualified for the November ballot.
The secretary of state’s office said Monday that sponsors of Referendum 71 had 121,486 valid petition signatures – enough to put the newly expanded domestic partnership law to a public vote.
A secondary check of rejected signatures was not complete, so the number could increase.
The new law was supposed to take effect on July 26, but was delayed until the signature count was complete. Now, it won’t take effect unless it is approved in the Nov. 3 election.
The measure would expand existing domestic partnerships to give gay and lesbian couples all the state-provided benefits that married heterosexual couples have.
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