TransNews Annex2007-09-18T08:01:15+09:00alfayoko200550th Anniversary of "West Side Story"Excite Blog米カリフォルニア州同性婚法案、シュワルツェネガー知事はいまだ拒否権行使を明言せずhttp://transnews.exblog.jp/6163824/2007-09-17T10:39:00+09:002007-09-18T08:01:15+09:002007-09-17T10:39:32+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 15, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET
(San Francisco, California) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to publicly say whether he will sign or again veto legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry in California.
The governor's silence is uncharacteristic. In 2005 he was quick to warn he would veto a similar bill. The measure passed anyway, and Schwarzenegger rejected it.
The current bill passed the Senate a week ago. Schwarzenegger has until October 14th to sign or veto the bill.
So far the only comments on the legislation have come from the governor's spokespeople and only in response to direct questions from the media. Even so the replies have been guarded.
On Friday Schwarzenegger's office told KPIX-television that the governor hasn't taken a position yet on the marriage equality bill.
But the spokesperson noted that, "He has said in the past on this issue he will uphold the will of the people, when they passed Prop. 22."
Proposition 22 was passed by the voters in the year 2000 to stop gay marriage, but the courts have ruled it only applies to marriages performed out of state.
Supporters and foes of gay marriage have mounted massive campaigns to lobby the governor.
Last week conservative groups were in Sacramento pushing the governor to veto the bill.
Next Tuesday supporters of same-sex marriage will hold rallies across the state. One of the largest is expected to be in San Francisco at the Gay Community Center.
In addition Equality California - the statewide LGBT civil rights organization - has begun gathering names for a petition it wants to present to Schwarzenegger. It hopes to have 10,000 names on it.
"A couple thousand signatures aren’t enough. The governor’s office just won’t pay attention. That’s why we need an all-out push," the group said in a statement.
The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act,
would amend the Family Code to define marriage as a civil contract between two persons instead of a civil contract between a man and a woman.
The measure also reaffirms that no religious institution would ever be required to solemnize marriages contrary to its fundamental beliefs.
California law already permits same-sex couples to register with the state as domestic partners, affording them hundreds of state protections.
However, same-sex couples in California and their families still are not eligible for more than a thousand federal protections offered to married couples, including family and medical leave, social security benefits, long-term care insurance and the ability to sponsor a partner for immigration benefits.
Meanwhile, the California Supreme court is expected to hear oral arguments late this year or early in 2008 challenging the state's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage. (story)
]]>Sean Penn to play gay politician Harvey Milkhttp://transnews.exblog.jp/6127643/2007-09-12T02:27:27+09:002007-09-12T02:27:27+09:002007-09-12T02:27:27+09:00alfayoko2005Movies
Penn to play gay politician Milk
BBC
Sean Penn has been lined up to play gay 1970s San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, and Matt Damon his assassin, in a new film from director Gus Van Sant.
Van Sant hopes to begin filming once a distribution deal is finalised.
But the uncertain start date may affect Damon's participation as Milk's killer, Dan White, trade paper Hollywood Reporter said.
Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco.
Usual Suspects
Van Sant has been lined up to direct a biopic of Milk for over 10 years.
Two years ago Superman Returns director Bryan Singer was attached to a separate Warner Bros project based on the Randy Shilts 1982 biography, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk.
This year the studio's art-house arm, Warner Independent Pictures, brought in Singer's Usual Suspects writer Chris McQuarrie to work on a new draft of the script.
But McQuarrie is currently working on the Tom Cruise drama Valkyrie, making production less likely to happen before Singer starts his Superman sequel, Hollywood Reporter added.
Damon would play White, who shot Milk and mayor George Moscone in 1978.
After serving five years of a seven-year sentence, White committed suicide in 1985.
]]>米アイオワ州地裁が同性婚を認める判決http://transnews.exblog.jp/6059837/2007-08-31T12:24:00+09:002007-08-31T23:22:54+09:002007-08-31T12:24:39+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
2007.08.31
Web posted at: 15:54 JST
- CNN
Iowa court rules same-sex couples can marry
Story Highlights
Six couples file lawsuit in 2005 after they were denied marriage licenses
Suit: Denials violated equal-protection, due-process under state constitution
District judge rules: Same-sex couples "may not be denied licenses to marry"
Court strikes down state law declaring marriage only between man and woman
(CNN) -- An Iowa district court ruled Thursday that same-sex couples can marry based on the state constitution's guarantee of equal treatment, court documents show.
The ruling was in response to a December 2005 lawsuit brought by six same-sex couples seeking to wed. They were denied marriage licenses and claimed such treatment violates equal-protection and due-process clauses in the Iowa constitution.
The court also struck down a state law declaring valid marriages are only between a man and woman.
The Iowa District Court for Polk County advances the case to the Iowa Supreme Court which will make a final decision on same-sex marriage, according to Lambda Legal, a gay and lesbian legal organization representing the couples.
The 63-page ruling, written by Judge Robert Hanson states: "Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 595 by reason of the fact that both persons compromising such a couple are of the same sex."
The law describing marriage as between a man and a woman, "constitutes the most intrusive means by the state to regulate marriage. This statute is an absolute prohibition on the ability of gay and lesbian individuals to marry a person of their choosing," Hanson wrote.
Lambda says the six couples are all in long-term relationship - one couple has been together for six years, another couple has been together for 17 years.
"Three of the couples are raising children, others are planning families, and all want the responsibilities of marriage and the protections only marriage can provide," according to the organization.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's decision, and we're going to ask for a stay," said Polk County Attorney John Sarcone.
He said his office will examine whether it's best to file a motion to reconsider. But barring a change in the court's opinion, Sarcone will appeal the ruling.
Co-counsel for the plaintiffs along with Lambda Legal, Dennis Johnson called the ruling "a significant step forward in recognizing the constitutional rights of all Iowans, and it's an amazing day for same-sex couples and their families all across Iowa."
]]>Gay and proud in Tokyo - Reuters Videohttp://transnews.exblog.jp/5973440/2007-08-15T08:50:39+09:002007-08-15T08:50:39+09:002007-08-15T08:50:39+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
SCRIPT:
In costume for this year's Gay Pride march in Tokyo.
While it may not be the main event of the year on the global gay calendar,
organiser Takashi Nakada says it's important that gay people make themselves seen.
SOUNDBITE Takashi Nakada, parade organiser, saying (Japanese):
"In Japanese society, many gay and lesbian people still hesitate to
come out. We hope many straight people watch this parade today and find out that gays and lesbians are out there, naturally, just like straight
people"
Japanese society, which is often seen as conservative, is undergoing an
awakening in terms of lesbian, gay and bisexual issues.
In June, Kanako Otsuji, backed by the opposition Democratic Party became
the first openly lesbian politician to run for parliament.
Although she was not successful in her attempt, her campaign did raise
awareness of gay rights in Japan.
Many of the 3,000 participants want a change in the law in Japan to
recognize same-sex partnerships.
SOUNDBITE Joe, female participant, saying (Japanese):
"Unlike some other countries, in Japan same-sex couples are not
officially recognized as spouses or domestic partners. This is causing a
serious problem because we can never treat our partners as family
members."
For today however, these issues have been set aside as revellers party in
downtown Tokyo.
The Visible Vote '08 on LOGO online]]>Japanese gay woman battles for upper house seathttp://transnews.exblog.jp/5884640/2007-07-30T03:43:40+09:002007-07-30T03:43:39+09:002007-07-30T03:43:39+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
By Elaine Lies Reuters - July 29, 2007
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman was battling to become Japan's first openly gay parliamentarian on Monday, with voting too close to call in her race for an upper house seat.
Kanako Otsuji, backed by the main opposition Democratic Party, said she hoped her campaign would raise awareness of gay rights in a society where many homosexuals remain in the closet.
"I feel we were finally able to express our feelings and turn them into votes," the 32-year-old told Japanese television.
"I really didn't hear any sort of critical voices when I was campaigning. I was welcomed warmly at my campaign stops."
Supporters waited anxiously for results late into the night at Otsuji's campaign office, located in Shinjuku Ni-chome, an area with several hundred gay bars in Tokyo's west.
Otsuji, who served as a local legislator in the western city of Osaka for four years until April, has said her decision to become a politician was inspired by the pain and isolation of the five years it took her to accept that she was a lesbian.
She revealed her sexual orientation in 2005, when already a legislator in Osaka.
In her autobiography, "Coming Out: A Journey to Find my True Self," she said: "I thought I could give courage to the most people by coming out."
If elected, she has vowed to promote a more diverse society and seek laws to prohibit discrimination, including against sexual minorities. In Osaka, she helped change laws to make it easier for same-sex couples to rent public housing.
Japanese media have increased coverage of sexual minority issues, but social acceptance remains limited and gays are still often shown as comic relief.
]]>Nationalism gains strength in Japanhttp://transnews.exblog.jp/5868444/2007-07-27T08:13:27+09:002007-07-27T08:13:27+09:002007-07-27T08:13:27+09:00alfayoko2005国内政治
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
TOKYO — — Yuko Tojo remembers her grandfather, Hideki Tojo, as a gentle man who wrote loving letters to his family and allowed her to tear through the garden with the servants' children. History remembers him as a war criminal, the World War II prime minister responsible for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yuko Tojo, 68, seeks a seat in the upper house of Japan's parliament to clear her grandfather's name. In elections Sunday, she is running as an independent, shunned by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that shares many of her revisionist views on Japan's wartime past. Even she is skeptical about her chances, and polls suggest that the LDP, led by unpopular Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is headed for defeat, too.
Whatever happens Sunday, the nationalistic ideas that Yuko Tojo and the LDP champion are likely to survive. Their platform once languished outside the mainstream: They want Japan to revise the anti-war constitution imposed by the United States after World War II. They want Japan to rearm its military and rewrite history, erasing bits about sneak attacks and massacres and replacing them with odes to patriotism and honor.
Such ideas were heretical in postwar Japan but have gathered public support in recent years as China has launched a rapid military buildup and North Korea has tested missiles and nuclear devices. The United States, which has borne the burden for Japan's defense, has encouraged it to rearm.
"No matter who wins the election, nationalism will grow in Japan," says Yan Xuetong, foreign policy professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University.
Tokyo political commentator Yoshiko Sakurai agrees: A victory Sunday by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) might slow the trend, she says, but won't stop it. Why:
•The LDP, controlled by a nationalist faction, will keep its grip on parliament's lower House of Representatives, which picks the prime minister.
•The LDP has pushed through parts of Abe's nationalist agenda, expanding the role of Japan's armed forces by sending troops to help in Iraq and Afghanistan, passing legislation intended to set the stage for revising the constitution, and approving school policies that stress "patriotic" education.
•Shintaro Ishihara, a nationalist who is governor of Tokyo, punishes teachers who won't follow the patriotic line in the classroom.
Even the opposition DPJ calls for Japan to build its defensive capability and to play a bolder role in world affairs by joining United Nations peacekeeping operations — regarded by past Japanese governments as flirting with constitutional restrictions on war.
The drive to revise the constitution dismays many Japanese, proud of their country's pacifist postwar record. "We have to protect" the constitution, says Hayato Uemura, 51, who sells software. "We shouldn't start war."
Japanese forces invaded and occupied China and South Korea before and during World War II. Right-leaning commentators such as Sakurai deny or downplay documented wartime atrocities such as the Nanking massacre, in which Japanese troops butchered thousands of Chinese civilians.
In 2001, Abe, then the LDP's acting secretary general, pressured national broadcaster NHK to censor a program on the Japanese military's wartime use of sex slaves (known as "comfort women"), according to the Asahi newspaper.
"We did terrible things during the war to foreigners and our own people. This is a fact," says left-leaning political commentator Minoru Morita. "We lost 3.1 million people and a third of our national wealth. It took us 25 years to recover. We learned we have to get along with the United States and China. Some of our politicians don't realize that."
Hundreds of Japanese teachers have refused to cooperate with what they see as coercive attempts to instill patriotism in youngsters and with the revision of Japan's history.
In Tokyo alone, 320 teachers have been punished — some docked pay or suspended — for refusing to salute the flag or stand for the national anthem, according to the Tokyo school board. Akira Suzuki of the school system's personnel department says the board is enforcing the rules, not political orthodoxy.
Tokyo middle school teacher Kimiko Nezu has been suspended so often that she expects to earn less than $17,000 of her $58,000 salary this year.
She says she's been punished for refusing to stand for the national anthem and for teaching her students about comfort women, despite repeated warnings to stay away from the taboo topic.
Nezu, 56, says nationalist pressure began in 1994 and intensified after Ishihara became governor of Tokyo in 1999. "I never imagined it would get this bad so quickly," she says. She was transferred this year to a school for the disabled in what she views as punishment. She expects to lose her job before her lawsuit against the school board is decided next year. "This is my way of being a patriot," she says.
Yuko Tojo has a different view of patriotism. She says she believes history, written by World War II's winners, needs to be revised to salvage the reputation of her country — and her grandfather. He was hanged in 1948 after being convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal. Her view: Japan invaded its neighbors and attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 because the United States was smothering Japan with economic sanctions. "It was a war of self-defense," she says. "Japan's history has been distorted."
A former housewife, Tojo has no gripe against the United States. Her 29-year-old daughter, who married an American and settled in Seattle, was upset when her husband left his job and joined the U.S. Air Force after the 9/11 attacks. "I told her this is the time his country needs him," Yuko Tojo says. "I told her his act was splendid."
Contributing: Naoko Nishiwaki
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-26-japan_N.htm
]]>Same-sex marriage from CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debatehttp://transnews.exblog.jp/5853995/2007-07-24T20:54:27+09:002007-07-24T20:54:26+09:002007-07-24T20:54:26+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
Part I: CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate transcript
COOPER: Our next question is on a topic that got a lot of response from YouTube viewers. Let's watch.
QUESTION: Hi. My name is Mary.
QUESTION: And my name is Jen.
QUESTION: And we're from Brooklyn, New York.
If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other?
COOPER: Congressman Kucinich?
KUCINICH: Mary and Jen, the answer to your question is yes. And let me tell you why.
Because if our Constitution really means what it says, that all are created equal, if it really means what it says, that there should be equality of opportunity before the law, then our brothers and sisters who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender should have the same rights accorded to them as anyone else, and that includes the ability to have a civil marriage ceremony.
Yes, I support you. And welcome to a better and a new America under a President Kucinich administration.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Dodd, you supported the Defense of Marriage Act. What's your position?
DODD: I've made the case, Anderson, that -- my wife and I have two young daughters, age 5 and 2.
I'd simply ask the audience to ask themselves the question that Jackie and I have asked: How would I want my two daughters treated if they grew up and had a different sexual orientation than their parents?
Good jobs, equal opportunity, to be able to retire, to visit each other, to be with each other, as other people do.
So I feel very strongly, if you ask yourself the question, "How would you like your children treated if they had a different sexual orientation than their parents?," the answer is yes. They ought to have that ability in civil unions.
I don't go so far as to call for marriage. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.
But my state of Connecticut, the state of New Hampshire, have endorsed civil unions. I strongly support that. But I don't go so far as marriage.
COOPER: Governor Richardson?
RICHARDSON: Well, I would say to the two young women, I would level with you -- I would do what is achievable.
What I think is achievable is full civil unions with full marriage rights. I would also press for you a hate crimes act in the Congress. I would eliminate "don't ask/don't tell" in the military.
(APPLAUSE)
If we're going to have in our military men and women that die for this country, we shouldn't give them a lecture on their sexual orientation
I would push for domestic partnership laws, nondiscrimination in insurance and housing.
I would also send a very strong message that, in my administration, I will not tolerate any discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: This next question is for Senator Edwards.
QUESTION: I'm Reverend Reggie Longcrier. I'm the pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina.
Senator Edwards said his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background. Most Americans agree it was wrong and unconstitutional to use religion to justify slavery, segregation, and denying women the right to vote.
So why is it still acceptable to use religion to deny gay American their full and equal rights?
(APPLAUSE)
EDWARDS: I think Reverend Longcrier asks a very important question, which is whether fundamentally -- whether it's right for any of our faith beliefs to be imposed on the American people when we're president of the United States. I do not believe that's right.
I feel enormous personal conflict about this issue. I want to end discrimination. I want to do some of the things that I just heard Bill Richardson talking about -- standing up for equal rights, substantive rights, civil unions, the thing that Chris Dodd just talked about. But I think that's something everybody on this stage will commit themselves to as president of the United States.
But I personally have been on a journey on this issue. I feel enormous conflict about it. As I think a lot of people know, Elizabeth spoke -- my wife Elizabeth spoke out a few weeks ago, and she actually supports gay marriage. I do not. But this is a very, very difficult issue for me. And I recognize and have enormous respect for people who have a different view of it.
COOPER: I should also point out that the reverend is actually in the audience tonight. Where is he? Right over here.
Reverend, do you feel he answered your question?
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: This question was just a catalyst that promoted some other things that wrapped around that particular question, especially when it comes to fair housing practices. Also...
COOPER: Do you think he answered the question, though?
QUESTION: Not like I would like to have heard it...
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: What did you not hear?
QUESTION: I didn't quite get -- some people were moving around, and I didn't quite get all of his answer. I just heard...
COOPER: All right, there's 30 seconds more. Why is it OK to quite religious beliefs when talking about why you don't support something? That's essentially what's his question.
EDWARDS: It's not. I mean, I've been asked a personal question which is, I think, what Reverend Longcrier is raising, and that personal question is, do I believe and do I personally support gay marriage?
The honest answer to that is I don't. But I think it is absolutely wrong, as president of the United States, for me to have used that faith basis as a basis for denying anybody their rights, and I will not do that when I'm president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Obama, the laws banning interracial marriage in the United States were ruled unconstitutional in 1967. What is the difference between a ban on interracial marriage and a ban on gay marriage?
OBAMA: Well, I think that it is important to pick up on something that was said earlier by both Dennis and by Bill, and that is that we've got to make sure that everybody is equal under the law. And the civil unions that I proposed would be equivalent in terms of making sure that all the rights that are conferred by the state are equal for same-sex couples as well as for heterosexual couples.
Now, with respect to marriage, it's my belief that it's up to the individual denominations to make a decision as to whether they want to recognize marriage or not. But in terms of, you know, the rights of people to transfer property, to have hospital visitation, all those critical civil rights that are conferred by our government, those should be equal.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break, but before we go we're going to show another candidate video. This one is from the Clinton campaign. And then when we come back from the break, we'll see one from the -- from Senator Edwards' campaign.
]]>California, US: Transgender inmate sues over prison rapehttp://transnews.exblog.jp/5846419/2007-07-23T15:26:41+09:002007-07-23T15:26:40+09:002007-07-23T15:26:40+09:00alfayoko2005トランス
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press
Fri Jul 20, 9:45 PM ET
Alexis Giraldo was born as a man but lives life as a woman. She takes hormones to feminize her appearance, a fact she says prison officials didn't care about even as her male cellmate repeatedly raped and beat her.
Now free on parole, Giraldo is suing the state prison system and several guards over the state's policy of assigning transgender inmates to men's or women's prisons depending on whether they have had a sex change.
"Prisons are violent places, and male prisons are especially violent places," said Greg Walston, a lawyer who took Giraldo's case for free and asked a jury this week for unspecified damages. "You take that boiling cauldron and you put one woman in there — which is exactly what happened here — and it's like throwing a fresh piece of meat into a lion's cage."
Giraldo, 30, claims Folsom State Prison guards ignored her complaints and returned her to the same cell until she was assaulted again, then placed in protective custody and moved to another facility.
Giraldo is suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for emotional distress and violating her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. She has asked Superior Court Judge Ellen Chaitin to order prison officials to come up with a new system for housing transgender inmates.
The Associated Press has a policy of not naming people alleging sexual assault. However, Giraldo has spoken out publicly and has been identified by a transgender rights organization that is advocating for her.
Several counties in California, including San Francisco, have created separate units specifically for transgender prisoners. But like other states and the federal Bureau of Prisons, California assigns inmates to prisons based on their genitalia rather than physical appearance.
Biological men who dress and act like women but have not had sex reassignment surgery can be assigned to a psychiatric prison like the one to which Giraldo eventually transferred or the general population of a regular men's prison, according to Walston.
The California attorney general's office, which is representing the corrections department and Folsom staff members also named as defendants in the lawsuit, said Friday it would not comment on the case.
Briefs filed by the state argue that Giraldo initially was in a consensual sexual relationship with her cellmate in violation of prison policy, did not report specific rape claims and refused offers to be moved to a different cell. Once she made it clear her cellmate was sexually assaulting her and prison staff found strangulation marks on her neck, she was removed to protective custody, the state maintains.
"Plaintiff alleges that he informed prison staff on a number of occasions about these events. However, the documentation maintained by prison personnel — including some of the defendants in this case — does not bear out these assertions," the state's brief states.
Teda Boyll, a retired guard and supervisor in California, testified for Giraldo as an expert witness Friday, saying that in her opinion Folsom officials failed to adequately investigate Giraldo's concerns and assure her safety.
"There are some warning signs," Boyll said. "When an inmate says, 'I am getting pressured for sex,' it means it is already happened or it is imminent he will have to provide nonconsensual sex to another inmate."
Giraldo was sent to Folsom for shoplifting and a parole violation in January 2006. She spent three months in the general prison population and another four in a single cell away from other inmates. She remained in the medical prison until she was paroled this month.
She testified Friday that she voluntarily had sex with her former cellmate, Jorge Villavacencio, for a couple of weeks but that she changed her mind after he became violent and possessive. She said that she informed a psychologist and at least three guards about her circumstances, but that they did not take them seriously.
"I'm like scared and frustrated that this happened to me," Giraldo said from the witness stand. "I'm a woman who got raped. ... I feel like people know and think of me as dirty. I feel dirty."
Villavacencio has denied raping Giraldo and is scheduled to testify for the state.
Valerie Jenness, a University of California, Irvine, criminologist who recently studied sexual assaults in California prisons, testified that 59 percent of the state's transgender inmates have reported being sexually assaulted, compared with 4 percent of the general prison population.
CNN.com Special Report
Uncovering America - Fighting for Acceptance
A Focus on the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Community]]>勢いづく「同性婚推進勢力」-米国 - 世界日報http://transnews.exblog.jp/5700413/2007-06-28T15:06:45+09:002007-06-28T15:06:45+09:002007-06-28T15:06:45+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
勢いづく「同性婚推進勢力」-米国
州憲法修正の州民投票を否決-マサチューセッツ州議会
(本紙掲載:6月27日)
]]>米世論調査:リベラルな考えに傾く米の若者http://transnews.exblog.jp/5698654/2007-06-28T05:00:22+09:002007-06-28T05:00:22+09:002007-06-28T05:00:22+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
June 26, 2007
Poll Shows Liberal Ideas Gaining With Young People
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN C. THEE
Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.
In a snapshot of a group whose energy and idealism have always been as alluring to politicians as its scattered focus and shifting interests have been frustrating, the poll found that substantially more Americans between the ages of 17 and 29 than four years ago are paying attention to the presidential race. But they appeared to be really familiar with only two of the candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats.
They have continued a long-term drift away from the Republican Party, and although they are just as worried as the general population about the outlook for the country and think their generation is likely to be worse off than that of their parents, they retain a belief that their votes can make a difference, the poll found.
More than half of Americans between 17 and 29 years old — 54 percent — say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. They share with the public at large a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with this group, and of the Republican Party. They hold a markedly more positive view of Democrats than they do of Republicans.
Among this age group, Mr. Bush’s job approval rating after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was more than 8 in 10. Over the course of the next three years, it drifted downward leading into the presidential election of 2004, when 4 out of 10 members of young Americans said they approved how Mr. Bush was handling his job.
At a time when Democrats have made gains after years in which Republicans have dominated Washington, young Americans appear to lean slightly more to the left than the general population: 28 percent described themselves as liberal, compared with 20 percent of the nation at large. And 27 percent called themselves conservative, compared with 32 percent of the general public.
Forty-four percent said they believed that same-sex couples should be permitted to get married, compared with 28 percent of the public at large. They are more likely than their elders to support the legalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The findings on gay marriage were reminiscent of a survey of voters leaving the polls on election day 2004: 41 percent of 18-to-29-year-old voters said gay couples should be permitted to legally marry, according to an exit poll at the time.
In addition, 62 percent said in the current poll that they would support a universal, government-sponsored national health care insurance program; 47 percent of the general public holds that view. And 30 percent said that “Americans should always welcome new immigrants,” while 24 percent of the general public holds that view.
Their views on abortion mirror that of the public at large: 24 percent said it should not be permitted it all, while 38 percent said it should be made available, but with greater restrictions. Thirty-seven percent said it should be generally available.
In one potential sign of shifting attitudes, respondents, by overwhelming margins said they believed that the nation was prepared to elect as president a woman, a black or someone who admitted to having used marijuana. But they said they did not believe Americans would elect as president someone who had used cocaine or a Mormon.
Mr. Obama has suggested that he used cocaine as a young man. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a candidate for the Republican nomination, is a Mormon.
By a 52 to 36 margin, young Americans say that Democrats, rather than Republicans, come closer to sharing their moral values, while 58 percent said they had a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while 38 percent said they had a favorable view of Republicans.
Asked if they were enthusiastic about any of the candidates running for president, 18 percent named Mr. Obama, of Illinois, and 17 percent named Mrs. Clinton, of New York. Those two were followed by Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, who was named by just 4 percent of the respondents.
The survey also found that 42 percent of young Americans think it is likely or very likely that the national will reinstate a military draft over the next few years — and two-thirds said they thought the Republican Party was more likely to do so. And 87 percent of respondents said they opposed a draft.
But when it came to the war, young Americans were more optimistic about the outcome than the population as whole. Fifty-one percent said the United States is very or somewhat likely to succeed in Iraq, compared with 45 percent among all adults. Contrary to conventional wisdom, younger Americans have historically been more likely than the population as whole to be supportive of what a president is doing in a time of war as they were in Korea and Vietnam, polls have shown.
The nationwide telephone poll — a joint effort by the New York Times, CBS News, and MTV — was conducted from June 15 to June 23. It involved 659 adults from the ages of 17 to 29. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for all respondents.
The Times/CBS News/MTV Poll suggests that suggests that Americans are conflicted in their view of the country. Many have a bleak view about their own future and the direction the country is heading: 70 percent said the country is on the wrong track, while 48 percent said they fear that their generation will be worse off than their parents But the survey also found that this generation of Americans is not cynical: 77 percent said they thought the votes of their generation would have a great bearing on who becomes the next president.
By any measure, the poll suggests that young Americans are anything but apathetic about the presidential election. Fifty-eight percent said they are paying attention to the campaign. By contrast, at this point in the 2004 presidential campaign, 35 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds said they were paying a lot or some attention to the campaign.
Over the past half century, the youth vote has, more often than not, gone with the Democratic candidate for president, though with some notable exceptions. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won his second term as president by capturing 59 percent of the youth vote, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls, and George H.W. Bush won in 1988 with 52 percent of that vote. But this age group has supported Democratic presidential candidates in every election since.
The percentage of young voters who identified themselves as Republican grew steadily during Reagan administration, and reached a high of 37 percent in 1989. That number has steadily declined ever since, and is now at 25 percent.
“I think the Democratic Party is now realizing how big an impact my generation has and they’re trying to cater to that in some way,” Ashley Robinson, 21, a Democrat from Minnesota, said in a follow-up interview after she participated in the poll. “But the traditional Republican Party is still trying to get older votes, which doesn’t make sense because there are so many more voters my age. It would be sensible to cater to us.”
The fact a significant number of respondents said they were enthusiastic about just two of the candidates — Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton — to a certain extent reflects the fact that both candidates have been the subject of a huge amount of national attention and have presented the country with historic candidacies: Mr. Obama is running to be the first black president and Mrs. Clinton to become the first woman. Other candidates could begin drawing attention from this group as the campaign takes a higher platform.
More significant, though, at least for Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama is the impression this group has of them. In the poll, 43 percent of respondents said they held an unfavorable view of Mrs. Clinton, a number that reflects the tide of resistance she faces among voters nationwide. By contrast, only 19 percent said they had an unfavorable view of Mr. Obama.
Marjorie Connelly, Dalia Sussman and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.
NY Times/CBS/MTV Poll (PDF)
47. Which comes closest to your view?...Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's relationship?
3/7-11/07 All adults
Marry 28
Civil unions 32
No legal recognition 35
DK/NA 5
6/15-23/07 Age 17-29
Marry 44
Civil unions 24
No legal recognition 30
DK/NA 3
48. Do you think being homosexual is something people choose to be, or do you think it is something they cannot change?
10/5-8/06 All adults
Choose 34
Cannot change 53
DK/NA 12
6/15-23/07 Age 17-29
Choose 43
Cannot change 50
DK/NA 7]]>米次期大統領有力候補エドワーズ氏の妻が、同性婚支持を表明http://transnews.exblog.jp/5682283/2007-06-25T15:33:34+09:002007-06-25T15:33:34+09:002007-06-25T15:33:34+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle Political Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007
Elizabeth Edwards, starring at the kickoff event of San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade, came out in support of legalized same-sex marriage Sunday -- taking a position that she acknowledged is at odds with her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards.
"I don't know why somebody else's marriage has anything to do with me," she said. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
Edwards' comments came after her keynote address before a standing-room-only breakfast attended by 300 people at the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, a key organization in the powerful gay political base in San Francisco.
The appearance by the candidate's wife -- witnessed by many local politicians, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris and City Attorney Dennis Herrera -- was hailed as a milestone in the 30-year history of the Gay Pride event, which had never been visited by a major presidential candidate or spouse.
California's presidential primary is Feb. 5, making it one of the earliest races in the country and a frequent stop for candidates and their families.
Edwards' embrace of same-sex marriage puts her in a position that differs markedly from her husband, the former North Carolina senator. Edwards said her husband, though having a "deeply held belief against any form of discrimination," supports gay civil unions, but does not support gay marriage.
"John has been pretty clear about it, that he is very conflicted," she said. "That's up against his being raised in the 1950s in a rural southern town. I think honestly he's on a road that a lot of people in this country are on. ... They're struggling with this. Most of the gay and lesbian people I know ... have seen their friends and family walking down that same road.
"It's frustrating, I know," she added, "but it's a long distance from where we are now to the pews of a Southern Baptist church. So, John's been as honest as he can about that."
Edwards said she has come to the conclusion that the marriage of another couple "makes no difference to me," just as it would make no difference in her opinion of a neighbor if he painted his house a different color.
"If he's pleasant to me on the street, if his children don't throw things in my yard, then I'm happy," she said. "It seems to me we're making issues of things that honestly ... don't matter."
Many at the breakfast where Edwards was enthusiastically received noted the stark differences between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on issues that matter to gay and lesbian voters.
All Democratic candidates support the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay people in the military, while none of the Republican candidates said they would support such a change.
All Democrats also support a measure recently passed in New Hampshire that allows civil unions. But the leading candidates -- Edwards, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama -- remain opposed to same sex marriage.
Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio, and former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska support same-sex marriage, but they are considered to have virtually no chance of winning the Democratic nomination.
In 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of the state law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The state Supreme Court has barred such marriages until it issues a final decision in the case. That decision is still pending.
This article appeared on page A - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle Sections CommentaryNews
]]>米シカゴ・プライド 45万人を動員(市当局者発表)http://transnews.exblog.jp/5681802/2007-06-25T13:24:37+09:002007-06-25T13:24:37+09:002007-06-25T13:24:37+09:00alfayoko2005LGB(TIQ)
By Jeff Long
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
June 24, 2007, 6:14 PM CDT
Mike Erickson stood with his two young daughters in the heart of Boystown on Sunday, enjoying the Gay Pride Parade for the first time-even though his brother had come out to the family more than 10 years ago.
Erickson, 49, of Evergreen Park, and his daughters, Ceili, 12, and Phoebe, 10, watched the dancers and marchers and floats, and wandered through the friendly crowd with grins of appreciation.
"I haven't seen anything yet that I wouldn't want them to be exposed to," said Erickson, as a float with bare-chested men dancing in tight shorts cruised by. "If you want to see a wild parade, come down to the South Side St. Patrick's parade."
"It's fun," Phoebe said of her day at Pride.
The girls' grins seemed to have as much to do with having a fun day in Chicago with their uncle Jon as anything else. They stayed with their dad at their uncle's place the night before, watching movies and visiting.
Jon Erickson, who would only say he is not yet 50 when asked his age, has lived in the Boystown area for about 15 years. He said Sunday that he was proud to have his nieces and brother there with him amid a crowd that city officials estimated 450,000.
"It's really more than a family thing," Jon Erickson said of having his nieces attend Pride. "Their first question was, 'What does the rainbow flag mean?' And I told them how everyone's welcome. And that gay people are everywhere. So, to have my family join me along with my larger family is what the Pride Parade is all about."
Police and organizers said Sunday afternoon that they knew of no major problems or disturbances during the parade, which began at about noon, wending north on Halsted Street from Belmont and back south on Broadway.
There were 250 registered entries for the 38th annual event-floats, decorated vehicles, and marching groups-according to parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer.
Former NBA center Jon Amaechi, who retired in 2004 after five seasons in the league and came out earlier this year in an autobiography titled "Man in the Middle," was the parade's grand marshal. The theme of the parade was "United for Equality."
Mike Erickson had always talked about attending the Pride Parade with his brother, but just never got around to it. He's glad that he did this year.
"I do things with my other brothers," he said. "This is a chance to do something with him, in his neighborhood." Elsewhere on the parade route, Taysha Bronaugh, 34, was enjoying the sights with her girlfriend, Demetria Jamison, 26.
"I come out here to show support," said Jamison. "And get support. I love the parade."
"I love it," added Bronaugh. "I love coming down. I like looking at the half-naked bodies, I'm not going to lie. Everybody's enjoying themselves. They're having fun."
NEW YORK: Religious groups including Christians, Jews and Buddhists led the New York gay pride parade, lending gravity to the often outrageous event that celebrates the night patrons of a gay bar in Manhattan resisted a police raid.
"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda I believe are blaspheming God's name."
Kleinbaum, who heads the world's largest predominantly gay synagogue, and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, were the parade's grand marshals Sunday, waving from his-and-hers convertibles.
The march took place days after the New York State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Governor Eliot Spitzer supports. Although the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate any time soon, parade-goers said they were cheered by the Assembly's action.
"This is one very important step toward full equality for all New Yorkers," Kleinbaum said.
As in past years, there was exhibitionism on display as the parade inched down Fifth Avenue and into Greenwich Village. Revelers gyrated in bikini briefs and marched in spike heels.
But the placement of the religious organizations near the head of the march — ahead of AIDS service groups and political advocacy groups — gave them unaccustomed prominence.
A Buddhist group carried signs that said "Construct Dignity in Your Heart" and "Don't Block Your Buddha."
The gay Roman Catholic group Dignity had a float and a giant rainbow flag. Jeff Stone, secretary of the New York chapter, said he was hopeful that the church would someday change its stance opposing homosexuality.
"We see that the opinion of ordinary Catholics is changing," he said. "Eventually what happens at the grass roots percolates up in the church."
Toni Cinanni of Perth, Australia, said she was surprised at the prominence of the church groups.
"I thought the religious groups had hijacked the parade," she said. "I couldn't put it together, religion and sexuality."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg marched with officials including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is one of the most prominent openly gay elected officials in the United States.
There were contingents of gay police officers and firefighters as well as ethnic gay groups including South Asians, Haitians and American Indians.
The annual gay pride parade, one of dozens that takes place around the world, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots when patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.
In California, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.
"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Mrs. Edwards said at a news conference before the parade started. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
She made the remark almost offhandedly in answering a question from reporters after she delivered a standard campaign speech during a breakfast hosted by a local political organization.
She conceded her support puts her at odds with her husband, a former senator from North Carolina who she said supports civil unions among gay couples — but not same-sex marriages.
"John has been pretty clear about it, that he is very conflicted," she said. "He has a deeply held belief against any form of discrimination, but that's up against his being raised in the 1950s in a rural southern town."
No serious presidential candidate for the 2008 election from either major political party has publicly supported gay marriage.
The New York Times
June 25, 2007
The Empire Zone
Personal Victory for Assemblyman on Gay Marriage
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
ALBANY — His sister Rosie is the celebrity in the family. (You may have caught her in “A League of Their Own” or on “The View.”) But Daniel J. O’Donnell, a Manhattan assemblyman, got his own dose of fame during the climactic Assembly debate last week over a bill seeking to legalize same-sex marriage.
Mr. O’Donnell, the bill’s sponsor, who is gay, fielded more than an hour of questions from his colleagues, many of them hostile. Then he gave an impassioned and highly personal speech that was by turns comic (“I want a license that all of you have; some of you have had it two or three times”) and poignant (“All gay people, when they realize who they are, live in fear”). His companion, John Banta, stood nearby, and they embraced after Mr. O’Donnell, below, finished the speech.
Not everyone was convinced. Assemblyman Brian M. Kolb, a Republican from Canandaigua, said he felt personally “threatened” by the legislation; Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn, suggested including a provision to legalize incest.
But the bill passed, 85 to 61, making New York only the second state in which one or both houses of the legislature have approved same-sex marriage legislation without being compelled by a court to do so, according to Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay rights advocacy group. (In the first, California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill.)
Though Gov. Eliot Spitzer supports the bill, Senate leaders declined to take it up. Still, gay rights advocates have hailed the Assembly vote as a huge symbolic victory.
“I mostly just thought about it as I was lying in bed at night,” Mr. O’Donnell, 47, said of his speech. “We walked on the floor with 79 votes. So to get to 85, people who were noes or maybes had to be swayed by the debate.” Afterward, he said, “some people told me that they couldn’t vote against me personally. Some people said they figured out that all the reasons to vote ‘no’ were political, and that they had decided to let their personal views dictate their vote.”
Boons for Consumers
At least two new pieces of law, should the governor approve them, are likely to make New Yorkers happy. One is the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, introduced by Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris of Queens after the nationwide flight delays in February. The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. of Long Island, requires that airlines provide water, fresh air, food and clean bathrooms if loaded planes are kept on the ground at New York airports for more than three hours.
“Passengers have long complained about declining service on airlines, but this is ridiculous,” said Mr. Gianaris, above, noting that during the February delays, some passengers were stuck on planes at New York City-area airports for hours at a time. “People in prison camps don’t get treated this badly.”
The second piece of legislation eliminates the 4 percent sales tax the city charges on clothing and shoes costing more than $110. City officials and business leaders argued that the tax gave an advantage to retailers in neighboring states that do not levy such a charge. The bill, sponsored in the Assembly by Herman D. Farrell Jr. of Manhattan and in the Senate by Frank Padavan of Queens, passed on Thursday — and will soon take effect at a department store near you.
City Lobbyists Weigh In
New York City officials managed to stall legislation that would have made it harder for them to lease buildings for school space as part of the city’s five-year capital plan.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan of Queens persuaded her colleagues to approve a bill that would require leased school facilities to go through the same approval process as newly built schools — including approval by the City Council and the state’s stringent environmental review process. Community and environmental advocates, citing past cases in which the city leased buildings on polluted or contaminated ground, said the reviews were necessary.
But city lobbyists have insisted that the more than 30 leased facilities in their plan do not require Council or state environmental approval, and that the buildings in question have been carefully inspected for any potential danger to the students who would occupy them. They also said that a lengthy review process would make it impossible to close leasing deals with the property owners. And they persuaded Mr. Padavan, left, the Senate sponsor of the legislation, to hold off.
“Contrary to what has been asserted, the School Construction Authority already conducts thorough environmental reviews as set by the State Department of Environmental Conservation,” said Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the city.
Advocates for the bill thought they had reached a compromise in the waning days of the session. The deal would have exempted the leases from the state environmental review process and instead required an expedited review involving testing water, soil and air on the properties.
“We had worked out what I thought was a kind of sensible compromise,” said David Palmer, a staff attorney with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
But the city eventually balked again. The sticking point? The bill’s supporters insisted that the City Council have a role in the approval process. “An environmental review process without a political process is almost worthless,” Mr. Palmer said.
Mr. Sklerov said the city “will continue to work with members of the Legislature and the environmental community to address any of their concerns.”]]>https://www.excite.co.jp/https://www.exblog.jp/https://ssl2.excite.co.jp/