SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD WEIGHS COSTLY EXPANSION FOR LGBT STUDENTS
With everything from art classes, summer school and jobs on the chopping block this year, the San Francisco school board will decide this week whether to greatly expand school services, support and instruction on issues of sexual orientation.
The decision could cost the school district, which is facing a $113 million budget shortfall over the next two years, at least $120,000 a year – enough cash to cover the salaries of two classroom teachers.
The school board is expected to vote Tuesday on the fiscally controversial resolution calling for San Francisco Unified to add a new full-time staffer to manage “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning” youth issues in the district’s Student Support Services Department. – Source – San Francisco Chronicle
NEW JERSEY GAY RIGHTS GROUP TO CURTAIL POLITICAL DONATIONS
New Jersey’s largest gay rights group is suspending donations to political parties after feeling spurned by Democratic lawmakers who failed to pass a gay marriage bill.
Garden State Equality is also asking its 65,000 members not to contribute to parties.
The group has not said it will refrain from donating to individual candidates. – Source – WCBS-TV
CBS’ SUPERBOWL COVERAGE SETS RECORD TV RATING
Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most-watched program in TV history.
An estimated 106.5 million viewers tuned in to CBS to watch the New Orleans Saints’ nail-bitting 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts, according to Nielsen.
That tops the previous record of 105.97 million for the 1983 finale of “M*A*S*H,” which until Sunday stood as the most-watched program of any kind. – Source – The Daily News
RHODE ISLAND CANDIDATES PROMISE SUPPORT FOR GAY MARRIAGE
Three candidates running for Rhode Island governor are promising to sign a gay marriage bill should it reach their desk if they are elected.
Marriage Equality Rhode Island solicited the promise from Attorney General Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, both Democrats, and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, an independent.
The candidates have been invited to make their promise public at a Statehouse rally on March 3. – Source – Boston Globe
CHILDREN RAISED BY LESBIANS DO JUST FINE
Children raised by lesbian parents fare as well as they would in heterosexual households, new research suggests.
The finding, which comes from a review of essentially all studies on the topic of same-sex parents and the health of their children, helps to tease out politics and science on this highly divisive issue. In general, kids in both heterosexual and lesbian households had similar levels of academic achievement, number of friends and overall well-being.
Whether or not kids from homosexual households are more likely to have a non-heterosexual orientation is still unknown. But if there is a genetic component to sexual orientation, it would make sense that kids born to a lesbian mom, say, would be more likely than other kids to be homosexual, scientists say. – Source – Live Science
BRITISH TORY CAUGHT ON TAPE MAKING HOMOPHOBIC REMARKS
In a filmed recording of the meeting at Brentwood council, Cllr Parker appears to contribute to a conversation about consultations with homosexuals and domestic violence victims by saying: “The scream team will be conversing with the queen team.”
The remark drove Cllr Karen Chilvers, a Liberal Democrat, to make a formal complaint about Cllr Parker, who may now be called before the council standards committee.
Cllr Parker, who has served as a Conservative councillor for four years, originally defended the comment by saying it was the sort of “joke” often heard on television comedy shows such as Mock the Week. – Source – The Telegraph
GAY MAN MURDERED BECAUSE OF “GAY PANIC”
Rodney Greenland, 47, stabbed 36-year-old Simon Amers to death after Mr Amers stroked his leg, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Mr Amers was found naked and face down in a pool of blood in his flat, prosecutors said.
The men had both been drinking in Ipswich when they met in a pub late at night before going back to Mr Amers’s flat on July 27 last year, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said Greenland told police the men had agreed to go back to Mr Amers’s flat for a drink. – Source - London Evening Standard
GAYS AND LESBIANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO MARCH IN RUSSIA
Gay men and women should be allowed to hold public marches in Russia, St. Petersburg’s new ombudsman said Monday.
Alexey Kozyrev, a playwright, said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 gives everyone the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
“If you have the right, then why not stage a (gay rights) parade?” Kozyrev told RIA Novosti. – Source - UPI
IT’S TUESDAY … GET OVER TO DENNY’S !
