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Gay supportive groups were elated with the federal government decision that same-sex partners of victims in the attack of September 11 might qualify for benefits. It was an historic opening--yet the door was left swinging. Decisions on eligibility will be made on a case-by-case basis, taking state rules into account. In New York, there shouldn't be a problem, but consider Peggy Neff's situation. As the partner of a woman killed in the pentagon bombing, she received a letter of condolence from the state of Virginia--along with the news that she was ineligible for survivor benefits. Welcome to queer life: a cabaret of contradictions that play as progress. When The Voice asked several glbt groups to list the most significant events, the answers read like Dickens' description of the French Revolution: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
First, the good news: Maryland became the 12th state to add sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination laws; gays came out ahead in four out of five ballot initiatives; the President was shamed out of making a secret anti-gay deal with the Salvation Army; Congress finally allowed
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same studios that make gays prime-time icons excised homosexuality from the character played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind , no doubt because it might hurt his macho creds. The same public that believes we aren't treated fairly harbors fantasies of us as emblems of evil. Consider this year's spate of demonic outings, involving everyone from Hitler to Mohamed Atta. Why would John Walker join the Taliban? It must be because, when he was 16, his father reportedly moved in with another man.
In the gay life cabaret, one person's freedom is another's oppression. The movement's success has produced a class of homosexual gentlemen who work and play in relative safety, but the queer poor remain at risk, especially as they navigate a social welfare system that refuses to recognize their existence. The censoring of AIDS prevention ads in the Bronx, simply because they acknowledged the reality of homosex among men who don't consider themselves homosexual, was a glaring reminder of how wide the status gap between queers of different classes and
(Continued on page 2)
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Washington, DC to offer domestic-partner benefits to some city workers; the Netherlands became the first nation to grant full same gender marriage rights; Paris and Berlin boast openly gay mayors. Yet...
An anti-gay pogrom rages in Egypt, where more than 50 men arrested at a Cairo club have been subjected to harrowing show trials on charges of immorality. The Boy Scouts' war against gays goes on, as does the battle in mainstream Protestant denominations over fully accepting us into the fold. Our very nature has been called into question by a prominent psychiatrist who declared that some "highly motivated" homosexuals can change. The faith-based initiative that passed the House gives religious groups free rein to discriminate against us, while the law that would add sexual orientation to federal anti-bias statutes still languishes in Congress.
Meanwhile, in the media, our hyper-visibility came accompanied by a vicious--and validated--backlash. Eminem won his Grammy in part because the same hip types who support our rights also enjoy hearing us bashed on the radio. The
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