Deb Price from Creators Syndicate

Elderly Mother-in-Law Showed Value of Being Prepared for 12/03/2007

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

In retirement, some people take up golf. Others take up knitting. My mother-in-law — Joyce's mom — became a world-class paper shredder.

She'd always been determined to keep her financial information from falling into the wrong hands. Joyce has childhood memories of watching her tear canceled checks and credit card receipts into bits.

Then technology kicked in, adding a ...

Updated: Mon Dec 03, 2007

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Gay Truth-Squading in the YouTube Age for 12/17/2007

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Then: New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed a sweeping domestic partnership bill into law in 1998, explaining that he hoped it would "help to move society more in the direction of equal treatment for everyone."

Now: Republican presidential candidate Giuliani appeared on Oct. 17 on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" and said any rights for gay couples "s ...

Updated: Mon Dec 17, 2007

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This Holiday, Add Some Music -- and Magic -- to Your Life for 12/24/2007

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

It was "The Merry Old Land of Oz" — or, more specifically, my whistling of the cheerful 1939 tune — that prompted a wistful remark from a stranger as we stepped into an elevator.

"You know, I never learned how to whistle," the woman said as she hit the 11th-floor button.

That day, I learned there's really a lot more precious time between floors one ...

Updated: Mon Dec 24, 2007

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Gay Republicans Look Ahead With Hope, Fear for 12/31/2007

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

For more than three decades, Brian Bennett threw himself into Republican politics, including serving as a delegate to five national conventions.

The pro-life, fiscal conservative was also part of the "Austin 12," a group of 11 gay men and one lesbian who, in an historic meeting in 2000, shared the joys and difficulties of being gay in a session with George W. Bush, then the pre ...

Updated: Mon Dec 31, 2007

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2008 Off to a Promising Start for Gays for 01/07/2008

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

If it ends anything like it started, 2008 will be a remarkably good year.

As the clock shivered past midnight at the statehouse in freezing Concord, N.H., more than three dozen gay couples became the first in their state to secure marriage-like rights to protect their relationships.

Following Connecticut's lead in 2005, New Hampshire became the second state to offer civil unions w ...

Updated: Mon Jan 07, 2008

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Gay Partner Benefits Would Help Uncle Sam for 01/14/2008

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

A tsunami of empty desks is about ready to pound Uncle Sam.

Largely due to baby boomer retirements, the federal government is going to lose one-third of its full-time workforce over the next five years, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. That's a staggering 530,000 workers.

In the next two years, Uncle Sam needs to fill the spots of 23,000 nurses, 3,000 a ...

Updated: Mon Jan 14, 2008

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Parents Need to Tell Their Stories About Military's Gay Ban for 01/28/2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The three moms talk glowingly about their sons.

One son is Darren Manzella, a decorated Army medic who, while in Iraq, provided medical services to U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians during more than 100 street patrols in Baghdad.

Then there's Barry Winchell, a private first class who had just one more test to pass before achieving his dream of being an Army helicopter pilot.

...

Updated: Mon Jan 28, 2008

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The Ink-Stained Adventure of a Lifetime for 02/04/2008

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Despite plenty of experience with the thrill of being swept up by her partner's energy and latest gotta-do idea, Jan Stevenson was floored in 1995 by four words: "I bought the newspaper."

The paper was a gay monthly called "Between the Lines."

Its owner was ill and rightly sensed that Stevenson's partner, Susan Horowitz, could transform the small-scale but wort ...

Updated: Mon Feb 04, 2008

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Gay Republicans Hope McCain Pitches "Big Tent" for 02/11/2008

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

"No, no, no," Mitt Romney supporters cried out at the Conservative Political Action Conference as he announced he was ending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

A short distance away, a very different reaction could be heard at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the gay Log Cabin Republicans: "We did it!"

Romney had run a hard-right camp ...

Updated: Mon Feb 11, 2008

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First-Ever Program to Help Black Gays Get Elected for 02/25/2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When Joe Angelo ran for city commissioner of tiny Wilton Manors in South Florida four years ago, he pledged to control development, build a new city hall and clean up neighborhoods to fight crime.

But when he won, the headline in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel spotlighted his history-making traits: "Florida's First Gay Black Public Official."

"It was scary to see ...

Updated: Mon Feb 25, 2008

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School Kids Need to Learn the ABCs of Tolerance for 03/03/2008

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Kindergartner Jacob Parker brought home a "diversity" book bag that included a picture book called "Who's in a Family?"

The book shows a variety of families, including a mom-dad family, a family headed by a grandmother, an animal family and a family headed by lesbian moms. "Who's in a family? The people who love you the most!" the book ends.

In the sa ...

Updated: Mon Mar 03, 2008

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Retired Gay Ambassador Shows Courage Can Spark Change for 03/10/2008

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Ordinarily, the swearing-in ceremony of the newest U.S. ambassador to Romania wouldn't be a headline-grabber.

But the courageous insistence that day in September 2001 of Michael Guest, the first openly gay American to be confirmed by the Senate to be an ambassador, that his partner be acknowledged by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell underscored that the moment was anything but ordina ...

Updated: Mon Mar 10, 2008

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Longtime Ally of Gays to Step Into Governorship in New York for 03/17/2008

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Alan Van Capelle needed to know the legislative hopscotch that would lead the New York Assembly to pass gay marriage, he knew who'd be his best teacher: David Paterson, who'd been the state Senate Democratic leader before being elected lieutenant governor in 2006.

So over several late-night strategy sessions last year, the gay rights leader listened to Paterson help him plot his nex ...

Updated: Mon Mar 17, 2008

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Uncle Sam Should Work to End Anti-Gay Abuses Worldwide for 03/24/2008

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

After Korab Zuka founded a gay-rights group in Kosovo in 2005, he received threatening phone calls and emails and had his car vandalized.

"We are going to make you hold your intestines," Zuka, 22, recalls being warned. "We will (rape) your mother ... and we are going to cut your head off.'"

The police were indifferent to his cries for protection.

"I ...

Updated: Mon Mar 24, 2008

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Gay Congresswoman's Leadership Blossoms for 03/31/2008

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Middle-schooler Tammy Baldwin faced a problem:

A lady had complained that students trampled her flowers on their way to school. So student council member Baldwin worked with other kids on an outreach team to fence the flowerbed.

Solving problems through public service is deep in the Wisconsinite's "never doubt" DNA.

This year, Baldwin marks her 10th year as the ge ...

Updated: Mon Mar 31, 2008

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A Gay-Friendly Message to Mega-Churches for 04/07/2008

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Michelle Freeman fell in love with a woman 12 years ago, she felt compelled to leave her predominantly African American church.

"The last sermon I heard as a practicing Baptist was very anti-gay," recalls Freeman, 42. "I had internalized homophobia. But when I met Georgia, I wanted us to worship in a place where we could be ourselves."

Her partner, Georgia ...

Updated: Mon Apr 07, 2008

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Protections Can Be Fragile for Gay Partners for 04/14/2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The couple's move from New Jersey to Idaho was to help Robert Ryan finally break free of the dark depression he'd sunk into after narrowly escaping the collapse of the World Trade Center tower where he'd worked until the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Ryan was on the health insurance of his partner, Ralph Martinelli, a district sales manager for Konica Minolta Business Solutions. They'd fallen ...

Updated: Mon Apr 14, 2008

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California Governor Takes New Staring Role for 04/21/2008

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

My nominee for Best Ex-Actor in a Very Supportive Role: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a few simple sentences, the muscular Republican governor of California did some heroically heavy lifting for all Americans who believe in equal marriage rights for those of us who're gay.

Asked at the gay Log Cabin Republicans' recent national convention whether he would join them in opposing a propo ...

Updated: Mon Apr 21, 2008

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Courageous Gay Bishops Weathers Storms for 05/05/2008

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Ironically, we can feel the most spiritually alive when we're being battered by life's fiercest storms.

For Gene Robinson, such storms have struck twice: first, when he could no longer deny his homosexuality and divorced his beloved wife; and second, now, as the Anglican Communion battles over the place of gay people, a struggle that intensified in 2003, when he was consecrated as the na ...

Updated: Mon May 05, 2008

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Sneakiness wins in Michigan court for 05/12/2008

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Michigan voters headed to the polls in 2004 to decide the fate of a proposed amendment to the state constitution, they'd been told the following by its lead proponent:

"(This) has nothing to do with taking benefits away. This is about marriage between a man and a woman," said Marlene Elwell, campaign director of Citizens for the Protection of Marriage.

CPM's Website ...

Updated: Mon May 12, 2008

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