Jar Berrios Out Of GLADD sold Out to ATT/Tmobile for 50G's

By JENNIFER MARTINEZ 

Following the resignation of Jarrett Barrios as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on Saturday, gay activists are calling for reassessment of the group’s policies and for more heads to roll over its backing of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile.

GLAAD’s board of directors will discuss by telephone on Sunday night whether to formally accept Barrios’s resignation.

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Barrios offered his letter of resignation Saturday amid a growing backlash in the gay blogosphere over GLAAD’s letter of support to the FCC for AT&T’s proposed $39 billion purchase of wireless rival T-Mobile. The letter was signed by Barrios, on behalf of GLAAD, and also by Justin Nelson, president of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

An article in POLITICO earlier this month pointed out that GLAAD was one of several liberal-leaning groups supporting AT&T’s bid that had received donations from the telecom giant — in GLAAD’s case $50,000.

GLAAD and Barrios did not respond to requests for comment regarding his offer of resignation.

Influential members of the gay community say they believe Barrios’s resignation is a positive for GLAAD, but that the organization may need to further clean house and revisit its advocacy for causes unrelated to gay rights.

“GLAAD certainly has an AT&T problem that isn’t going to go away when Jarrett leaves,” John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog and a leading gay rights advocate, told POLITICO.

Aravosis called for the resignation of another GLAAD board member, Troup Coronado, a former AT&T official and lobbyist. Coronado’s bio on GLAAD’s website said that from 2008 to 2010 Coronado worked as AT&T’s vice president for external affairs in Los Angeles. AT&T had identified Coronado as a lobbyist for the company as recently as 2006, but the company said in its 2008 filing that he was no longer representing AT&T as a lobbyist.

Coronado is “going to have to pack his bags and get on the same train Jarrett is taking,” Aravosis said.

Coronado could not be reached Sunday.

But when former GLAAD board co-chairwoman Laurie Perper appeared on Michelangelo Signorile’s Sirius XM radio show earlier this month, she alleged that Barrios had traded favors with Coronado for his support and then backed the AT&T/T-Mobile deal in return.

GLAAD immediately condemned Perper’s comments during the show, calling them “factually inaccurate, uninformed and misleading.”

“We are saddened and shocked that Laurie Perper would distort the truth to this degree,” the organization said in a statement.

Many gay activists say that the wireless mega-deal wasn’t an issue that GLAAD and other organizations should have been supporting and that the resignation of Barrios is a step in the right direction following the public outcry.

http://www.politico.com/

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Gay Iraqis Better Under Hussein: The gay Iraqi crisis

 Posted By Taylor Asen , Zach Strassburger   

In September 2006, Samir, an Iraqi doctor, fled from his home to Jordan just moments before family members came to torture and murder him for "dishonoring" the family by being gay. Samir spent the next few years fleeing from country to country. While working in a hospital in Jordan, he spotted his uncles searching for him just in time to slip out of his office and escape to Saudi Arabia, only to be tortured and nearly killed by Saudi Arabia's "moral police," sending him fleeing back to Jordan.

Unfortunately, the only thing uncommon about Samir's story is that it has a happy ending. With legal help from the Human Rights Watch and the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP),Samir safely resettled in the United States in December, 2009. But, unlike Samir, the vast majority of gay Iraqis have no access to legal counsel. Without it, they have little chance of navigating the resettlement system and getting to safety in the U.S. Even those Iraqis with legal help face the staggering challenge of staying alive during the lengthy resettlement process.

The consequences for gay Iraqis who fail to obtain refugee status are severe. Since 2004, hundreds of young men suspected of homosexual conduct have been abducted, tortured, and brutally executed with only a cursory response from Iraqi authorities. Our clients at IRAP and others provide appalling accounts of the violence: in one gruesome method of torture (and often murder), gay men have their anuses glued shut before being fed laxatives.

Although Samir was pursued by family members, the fanatical Mahdi Army is responsible for much of the violence towards gays. "Death squads" murder men, then leave their destroyed bodies in public as warnings to other gay men. Their brutality is matched only by their frighteningly systematic methods: before murdering their captives, the squads interrogate their victims, search through cell phones and demand information on each contact. In this climate, no gay Iraqi whose sexual identity is known to even one other gay man is safe. Another of our clients, Yasser, was kidnapped by a gang who had also kidnapped his ex-boyfriend and found Yasser's information in his phone. Though Yasser eventually escaped, the gang also seized his phone -- and the names and numbers of all of his gay acquaintances.

LGBT Iraqis seek refuge, but leaving for nearby countries is no guarantee of safety. The proximity of these neighboring nations to Iraq mean persecutors can simply follow fleeing refugees, as with Samir's near-encounter with his uncles in Jordan. And, while the violence toward gays is singularly horrific in Iraq, settling gay Iraqis in neighboring countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia (where homosexuality is illegal) is a poor solution.

Even fleeing to countries like Turkey and Jordan carries intense challenges for gay men. Our clients report being harassed by officials assigned to help refugees; other reports show they have also threatened to deport these men or disclose their sexual orientation. Fearful of new threats of violence and harassment if they confess to local officials that they are gay, these men sometimes chose to stay silent and risk being sent back to certain death in Iraq, as LGBT status is the very basis of their persecution and refugee claims.

We do not need to tolerate death or torture for LGBT Iraqis: the State Department can immediately begin allowing these persecuted Iraqis into the U.S. through a program that expedites relocating at-risk Iraqi minority groups into America.

The Secretary of State should designate these gay men as "Priority 2" refugees, under the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act passed in 2008. "P2" status cuts months to years off the typical time of the resettlement process -- including bypassing waiting to be interviewed by the United National High Commissioner of Refugees to let them apply for refugee status directly at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq -- and lessens time gay Iraqis stay in danger in neighboring Middle-East countries. Reducing the number of interviews these vulnerable men have to go through to get refugee status would also decrease their risk of encountering a hostile local official.

Members of Congress have taken notice of the LGBT community in Iraq, and are demanding that Secretary of State Clinton act. In February, Senate Kristen Gillibrand and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, along with 42 of their colleagues in Congress, wrote Secretary Clinton urging her to help gay Iraqis in danger relocate.

America has a singular responsibility to protect these men. Although homosexuality was by no means permitted under Saddam Hussein's regime, only after the U.S. invasion did widespread anti-gay rhetoric and violence in Iraq reach a crisis point. Indeed, according to a BBC special investigative report, there is general agreement within Iraq's LGBT community that they were better off under the previous regime. While horrible in untold ways, the Hussein regime suppressed the very Shia extremists who are now driving the vast majority of attacks on homosexuals in Iraq. Congress, along with the LGBT and human rights communities, must continue to insist that Secretary Clinton use the power granted to her to ensure that Samir's story of survival becomes the norm, rather than the exception.

Taylor Asen and Zach Strassburger are students at the Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com

'Historic' UN Gay Resolution Passes: Who Voted For >Against

Posted By Robert Zeliger   

For the first time, the United Nation's Human Rights Council condemned violence and discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgender people today in Geneva. The move-- which was initially put forward by South Africa-- was applauded by gay rights supporters.

The resolution "expresses grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity" and calls for a study by the end of the year to examine discrimination against the gay community.

The U.S. ambassador to the council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, called it a "historic moment" for the United Nations, according to the Associated Press.

Nevertheless, the vote was close-- with the strongest opposition coming from African and Islamic countries. 23 nations voted in favor, 19 against, and 3 abstained.   

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com

Here's a rundown of which countries voted which way:

 Backed the resolution

Argentina

Belgium

Brazil

Chile

Cuba

Ecuador

France

Guatemala

Hungary

Japan

Mauritius

Mexico

Norway

Poland

South Korea

Slovakia

Spain

Switzerland

Thailand

Ukraine

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay

Opposed the resolution

Angola

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Cameroon

Djibouti

Gabon

Ghana

Jordan

Malaysia

Maldives

Mauritania

Nigeria

Pakistan

Qatar

Republic of Moldova

Russian Federation

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Uganda

Abstained

Burkina Faso

China

Zambia

Pres.Obama's View On Same Sex Marriage are 'Evolving'

BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON - Driving across the flatlands of Illinois with Barack Obama during the Senate race of 2004, Kevin Thompson sometimes found himself tutoring the candidate on gay rights.

Thompson, then a traveling aide, recalls long conversations about topics such as the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion that sparked the gay-rights movement, gay adoption and same-sex marriage, which Obama has, in the past, opposed.

Thompson, an Obama supporter, is skeptical about that last topic.

"To this day," he said, "I don't think Barack Obama has any issue with two people of the same gender getting married."

Now, Obama says his views on same-sex marriage are "evolving" and, as he runs for re-election, he is seeking support from gay donors who want to know his stance.

The White House would not comment on whether Obama is ready to endorse same-sex marriage. But one Democratic strategist close to the White House, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some senior advisers "are looking at the tactics of how this might be done if the president chose to do it."

Many gay leaders say that because the president has a strong record on issues they care about - prodding Congress to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which barred openly gay men and women from serving in the military, and withdrawing legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman - he is not under pressure to announce a change in his position before the 2012 election.

But with the political climate surrounding gay rights changing, some strategists see little political cost to a shift in stance. A handful of recent polls show that Americans, by a slim majority, now support same-sex marriage.

http://www.dispatch.com