- The Advocate Jan 2010

The half-naked body of a 51-year-old trans woman was found last week
in a vacant lot in the Montrose area of Houston, Texas. But reports
of Myra Ical’s death have been salacious at best, with mainstream
media referring to Myra as a man, saying the area where her body was
found was known by police to be frequented by prostitutes and drug
users.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Ruben Dario Ical “also went by
the name of Myra Chanel Ical” and that “he had numerous bruises and
defensive wounds, as if he had struggled against his attacker.”

Police told The Chronicle the area is “well-known spot where homeless
people camp and is frequented by prostitutes and drug users.”

Human Rights Campaign board member and Pride Houston president Meghan
Stabler submitted a strongly worded letter on behalf of the two
organizations to media covering Ical’s murder, urging reporters to
“use fair, accurate and inclusive reporting” when covering LGBT
issues.

Reads the letter: “On Monday January 18 the brutal murder of Myra
Ical occurred in Houston. She is a transgender woman but the media
continue to use male pronouns along with colorful statements about
being found in an area known for drugs and prostitution. This lazy
and irresponsible journalism shows the amount of ignorance about
transgender issues that is rampant among far too many reporters
despite the existence of resources to help them report accurately.”

The letter then links to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation’s Media Reference Guide.

A candlelight vigil in memory of Ical will be held in the lot where
her body was found.

For more in this story, please visit

For more information on the vigil, please visit

- SDGLN Staff | Mon, 01/25/2010

Last week Jane Lynch attended the Golden Globes with girlfriend, Dr. Lara Embry, by her side. Lynch and Glee were both nominated for awards and Glee won for best comedy or musical series but a comment made by Lynch went relatively unnoticed amid the celebration.

However, this week the online world is buzzing with marriage news first reported by New York Times Carpetbaggers, Paula Schwartz and Melena Ryzik. In addition to being proud of Glee’s victory, Lynch told the Times that she will marry Embry in May.

Embry has had her own share of recognition. Last year the National Centre for Lesbian Rights awarded her the Justice Award for her involvement in the high-profile same-sex custody lawsuit in Florida.

Additional details about the wedding are unavailable at this time.

By Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com
01.25.2010

A Michigan secretary of state candidate has transgender rights on his agenda – the rollback of transgender rights, that is.

Paul Scott, currently a Republican state representative, said in his announcement of candidacy for the position that he plans to reverse a policy that allows transgender individuals to change their gender on state-issued identification.

“I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance,” Scott wrote on his Web site.

According to The Grand Rapids Press, the policy dates to 2005. At that time, Michigan’s American Civil Liberties Union and Transgender Michigan worked jointly with the Secretary of State’s office to ensure transgender individuals can identify their chosen gender on the state’s driver’s licenses and ID cards.

By The Associated Press
01.25.2010

(San Francisco) Lawyers for two same-sex couples challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage rested their case Monday after showing videotape of a simulcast in which supporters of the ban said gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality.

The footage was shown as an example of the work of San Diego pastor Jim Garlow, who helped organize evangelical Christian support for the Proposition 8 ballot measure in 2008.

In one video rally led by Garlow, an unidentified pastor warned “the polygamists are waiting in the wings, because if a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman, the polygamists are going to use that exact same argument and they probably are going to win.”

An unidentified woman later said “a man wanting to marry a horse, brothers and sisters, any combination would have to be allowed.”

It appeared the lawyers were introducing the material to demonstrate the campaign for the ban appealed to religious-based, anti-gay bias to scare voters into supporting the measure.

The trial is the first in a federal court to examine if states violate the U.S. Constitution by preventing same-sex couples from marrying.

Proposition 8 sponsors objected to the video, saying the content of the simulcast was not controlled by campaign managers or leaders.

However, Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker allowed the material to be put into the record because the coalition of religious and conservative groups behind Proposition 8 paid for Garlow’s work.

In the six-minutes of footage shown for Walker, various people opined on the negative consequences of legalizing gay marriage. One unidentified speaker compared the potential social impact of “this social reengineering of marriage” to the way the 9/11 terrorist attacks made the world “a fundamentally different place.”

The clips also included people saying that once same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, public schools stocked picture books that included gay couples as an example of different types of families.

“If same-sex marriage is legalized, then it must be taught as normal, acceptable and moral behavior in every single public school,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

The plaintiffs also introduced clips from promotional videos produced by other groups for distribution to churches during the Proposition 8 campaign.

In one, produced by the American Family Council in Mississippi, the chairman of the California campaign, Ron Prentice, spoke against same-sex couples raising children.

“Children need and deserve the chance to have both mother love and father love,” Prentice said.

Men and women “don’t bring to a marriage and a family the same natural set of skills and talents.” he said.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs rested their case after spending more than nine days presenting evidence on the meaning of marriage, the nature of sexual orientation, and the role of religion in shaping attitudes about both.

Prominent litigators Theodore Olson and David Boies asserted that Proposition 8 was a product of anti-gay bias without justification.

Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors called their first witness, a Claremont College political scientist.

Nicole Moss, another lawyer for those sponsors, said the defendants might call campaign manager Frank Schubert to the witness stand to dispute the inflammatory messages on the videotape came from the campaign.

- Empowering Spirits Foundation 1/22/10

Lawyers for two same-sex couples challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage plan to wrap up their case Friday following the incendiary testimony of a proponent who said he thinks gays are more likely to be pedophiles and that allowing them to wed would lead to the legalization of polygamy and incest.

Hak-Shing William Tam of San Francisco spent five hours testifying Thursday as a hostile plaintiffs’ witness to prove that bias toward gays fueled the 2008 campaign to pass the voter-approved measure, known as Proposition 8.

Tam, who was one of five individuals who signed on as official proponents of the ban and whose names appeared alongside ballot arguments for Proposition 8, acknowledged that he subscribes to beliefs about an alleged link between homosexuality and pedophilia posted on the Internet by a Chinese-American Christian group for which he serves as secretary.

“Do you believe that homosexuals are 12 times more likely to molest children?” attorney David Boies asked.

“Yeah, based on the different literature that I have read,” Tam replied.

Earlier in the trial, a Cambridge University professor testified that there is no evidence to suggest that gays are more likely to molest children than heterosexuals. Boies pressed Tam to cite books, articles or authors he had read to substantiate the views, but Tam said he could not remember specifics.

Others involved in promoting Proposition 8 have tried to distance themselves from Tam. During a news conference outside court, lawyer Andy Pugno, a lawyer for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that backed the measure, said Tam had “next to nothing” to do with the campaign.

Tam testified that he spent a lot of time working on the campaign and communicated with its leaders but modestly added he did not consider himself a major player. He said became an official proponent because of his concern that legalizing same-sex marriage would encourage young people to pursue gay partners.

“I think it is very important that children won’t grow up to fantasize or think about should I marry Jane or John when I grow up, because this is very important for Asian families.”

Under questioning by Boies, Tam also said he agreed with a statement on the Web site for the Chinese-American Christian group that said if same-sex marriage was treated as a civil right, “so would pedophilia, polygamy and incest.”

“And that is what you were telling people in encouraging them to vote for Proposition 8?” Boies asked.

“Yes,” Tam answered.

Tam said he drew that conclusion after reading an Internet article that claimed incest and polygamy were legal in the Netherlands, a country where same-same marriages became legal in 2001.

Boies: You are saying here that after same-sex marriage was legalized, the Netherlands legalized incest and polygamy?”

Tam: “yeah, look at the date, Polygamy happened afterward.

“Who told you that? Where did you get that idea,” Boies asked incredulously.

“It’s the Internet,” he said. “Another person in the organization found it and he showed me it…I looked at the document and I thought it was true.”

Polygamy is not legal in the Netherlands, but the idea that it is became an urban myth of sorts in 2005 after a man and two women signed a private “cohabitation contract” while wearing wedding garb. Consensual incest between adults is no longer prosecuted in the Netherlands, but close relatives are not allowed to wed.

Under cross-examination from Nicole Moss, a lawyer for Proposition 8’s sponsors, Tam said the opinions expressed on the Web site were his own and had not been approved by ProtectMarriage.com, the organization that ran the campaign, or submitted to its strategists for review.

“At any time during the campaign phrase or any phase for Proposition 8 did you have a role in drafting the official message for ProtectMarriasge.com?” Moss asked.

“No,” Tam answered, adding that his contact with the campaign’s staff was minimal. “I was acting independently.”

Shortly before Tam left the witness stand, Boies asked him if he had spoken to his lawyer during a 5-minute break in his testimony. Tam said he had.

“I said I felt like naughty boy being put in front of a classroom and being mocked at,” he said.

Plaintiffs lawyers expect to rest their case on Friday with testimony from a University of California, Davis psychologist who is scheduled to testify about prejudice against lesbians and gay men.

BY Kerry Burke, Katie Nelson and John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Thursday, January 21st 2010
Updated: Thursday, January 21st 2010, 10:17 PM

Via FacebookJohn Lea & ex-roomie Justin Waller (below) Related NewsA man was found brutally stabbed to death inside his Hell’s Kitchen apartment Thursday – and detectives are looking to question his live-in lover.

John Lea’s friends first went to his W. 46th St. pad Wednesday after the 41-year-old failed to show up to his job as an event planner with the New York Society of Security Analysts, police said.

Another pal returned Thursday with cops, who scaled a fire escape and broke through a window to gain access to the apartment about 2:30 p.m.

They found a ransacked apartment and a gruesome, blood-soaked crime scene in the bedroom.

Lea, wearing only boxers, was found lying beside his bed, his throat slashed and a massive gash on his head, police sources said.

His body had numerous other stab wounds that indicated he had fought for his life, the sources said.

“The bloody knife was right next to him,” one source said.

The killer covered Lea’s body with clothes and bedding, and locked the door on the way out – leaving Lea’s cat, Oreo, roaming around inside, the sources said.

“We’re, of course, devastated,” Lea’s father, John Lea, said from his Florida home Thursday night.

Friends and co-workers said the event planner with the boyish smile was gregarious, outgoing and always went out of his way to help people.

But that last quality may have led to his murder.

Investigators were trying Thursday to track down Lea’s lover, whom Lea allowed to stay at his flat after the two met recently at a nearby gym, friends and neighbors said.

A co-worker of Lea’s, Michael Herz, said the lover – identified by friends of the victim as Justin Waller – was “down on his luck” and was supposed to stay with Lea only briefly.

“A few days turned into a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a month. A month turned into two,” Herz said. “This weekend is when John was going to tell him he had to leave.”

Herz added of his slain co-worker: “He was an extremely giving person and, apparently, that’s what ultimately did him in.”

Neighbors of Lea’s said Waller was mean-spirited and could often be seen smoking outside the building.

“He creeped me out. We didn’t like having this guy hanging out,” said neighbor Chuck Graves, 42.

“I wanted to say to John: ‘What are you doing with him? Why did you let him into your life?’ But it wasn’t my place.”

Another neighbor and close friend of Lea’s said he saw Waller outside the building Wednesday, wearing jeans and a black North Face jacket.

“He was sitting on the stoop with a bunch of suitcases,” the neighbor said, asking that his name not be printed. “He didn’t say anything to anybody.”

A worker at the Hell’s Kitchen building recalled spotting Waller there Thursday morning, a police source said.

jlau...@nydailynews.com

With Rocco Parascandola and Henrick Karoliszyn

Read more:

By Mark Memmott, The Two Way NPR News Blog 1/22/10

Cindy McCain’s decision to publicly endorse the gay rights movement and in particular the NOH8 campaign’s efforts on behalf of same-sex marriage, puts her at odds not only with her husband, 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, but also with his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama.

That’s sparking some interesting commentary.

For example, the conservative Pajamas Media writes that while many gay Americans supported Obama in the ’08 campaign because, in part, they thought he would act on issues they care most about, there’s been “a year of total inaction on any gay rights issues.” It sees “gay voter remorse” about the president.

The liberal Huffington Post, though, sees this as too-little-too-late on the part of Cindy McCain. “While there is much to praise in Mrs. McCain’s admittedly late arrival to the equal marriage struggle, the 700-pound silver elephant in the room is the fact that it is just that — her very late arrival,” writes journalist Michael Rowe.

The McCains’ daughter Meghan, a vocal supporter of the NOH8campaign, says she “couldn’t be more proud of my mother.”

To take the poll, go to

- By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 21, 2010

A gay man who was forced to undergo ‘reparative therapy’ to make him straight has given evidence before a trial on California’s gay marriage ban.

Ryan Kendall, 26, told the court his Christian parents discovered he was gay at the age of 13.

He said that he was forced to undergo the controversial ‘cure’ therapy for nearly two years as a teenager and was first sent to see a Christian therapist and then the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).

Kendall testified that the therapy had left him feeling suicidal.

He said: “I remember my mother looking at me and telling me I was going to burn in hell.

“I knew I was gay, just like I knew I was short and half Hispanic. I never thought those facts would change.”

He was cross-examined gently by an attorney for the opposing side.

Lawyer James Campbell asked him whether someone people voluntarily went to organisations such as NARTH to become straight, although Kendall said in his experience, people “don’t want to go” to such therapies.

The federal court is the first to examine whether the ban on gay marriage in California violates the constitution.

Also in court yesterday was Stanford University political scientist Gary M Segura, who testified that gays and lesbians do not have “meaningful degree of political power”.

According to the San Jose Mercury, he said: “There is no group in America ….who’ve been targeted by ballot initiatives more than gays and lesbians.”

Segura was referring to dozens of voter initiatives which denied or removed rights to gays, including the 33 states which have constitutional bans on gay marriage.

In cross-examination, opposing attorneys cited a number of influential gay figures, including John Perez, the new Speaker of the California Assembly.

Of US President Barack Obama, who promised a number of gay rights reforms in his election campaign, Segura said: “This is not a reliable ally.”

Lawyers for the two gay couples opposing Proposition 8 are expected to wrap up their case on Friday.

Today, they were due to call two final witnesses, one of whom is to be a hostile witness.

William Tam, a supporter of Proposition 8, had said that if gay marriage was allowed, “other states would fall into Satan’s hands” and that gays would try to legalise paedophilia.

He had asked to be dismissed from appearing in court. Lawyers for gay marriage are thought to have called him to show that arguments against marriage equality are founded in prejudice.

By The Associated Press
01.21.2010

(San Francisco) Lawyers defending California’s gay marriage ban produced campaign fliers and other documents Thursday showing some churches in the state opposed the 2008 ballot measure that established the ban.

Stanford University professor Gary M. Segura spent his second day on the witness stand under cross-examination by David Thompson, a lawyer representing Proposition 8 backers.

Thompson sought to undercut Segura’s earlier testimony that gays are politically powerless in the United States and to show U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker that some churches in the state campaigned against the gay marriage ban.

Gay marriage supporters are trying to demonstrate the campaign behind Proposition 8 was fueled by religious hostility and other animus toward gays.

Thompson also sought to counter Segura’s assertion that gays are the targets of more violent hate crimes than any other group, and that such events increased in California and nationally during the campaign for Proposition 8.

Thompson introduced as evidence news coverage of Proposition 8 supporters being assaulted, getting death threats and being subjected to economic boycotts to argue the gay rights movement lost support because of such incidents.

“Politically, it’s kryptonite, is that correct?” Thompson asked Segura.

Segura answered that he considered boycotts an acceptable political tool, but “organized violence or even broad disorderly behavior certainly has a negative impact.”

He said such behavior was “a cry for help or expression of frustration or maybe the ultimate expression of powerlessness.”

To watch the video, click here

http://vodpod.com/watch/2902478-prop-8-trial-re-enactment-1