Court Tosses Gay Friends Ban

Georgia's top court has tossed out a judge's order that banned children in a divorce case from having any contact with gays or lesbians who are linked to the children's father. Justice Robert Benham wrote in the opinion Monday that the judge's order "flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children." The ruling stems from the 2007 divorce of Eric Duane Mongerson and Sandy Kay Ehlers Mongerson, who had four children during their 21-year marriage. A Fayette County judge had issued a ruling that banned the children from being exposed to their father's gay partners and friends.

(Associated Press)

Sears Draws Ire for Post-Retirement Choice

Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has drawn criticism from gay rights groups after announcing plans to join a think tank whose founder is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage.

Sears is the nation's first black female chief justice of astate supreme court and is considered a potential nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

She announced this week she will join the New York-based Institute for American Values when she retires June 30th. In announcing her future plans, Sears said her role at the institute would build on her work with the Georgia Supreme Court toward "strengthening the institution of marriage" by working to reduce the nation's divorce rate.

Gay rights advocates said they felt betrayed that she will be working part-time for the New York-based think tank. Institute president David Blankenhorn, critics point out, wrote in 2008 that changing the definition of marriage to accommodate gay couples "definitively undermines" the institution of marriage.

(Associated Press)

Newt Gingrich Predicts Judicial Battle

Newt Gingrich says that a major battle is brewing over judicial power. The former House speaker and Georgian - speaking at the University of Georgia's law school on Tuesday - says he was astonished by a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage in that heartland state. Gingrich calls the decision "outrageously wrong" and says it demonstrated "judicial arrogance." Gingrich is mentioned as a possible Republican presidential contender in 2012.

(Associated Press)

Protesters Shout at Warren During Ebenezer Sermon

Two women protesters shouted at Rev. Rick Warren shortly after he began his keynote sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta Monday.

One of the women, seen here pointing in the air, waved a yellow scarf, as she shouted, "Rick Warren is a bigot, Rick Warren is a bigot," at Ebenezer Baptist Church during the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Security officials tore the scarf from the woman's hand during the altercation, which took place shortly before 1:00 PM and quickly hustled both out of the sanctuary.

A few moments later, two male protesters stood up and turned their backs to Warren, and were also escorted out of the building.

The identity of the protesters was unclear, although several dozen demonstrators with signs held a protest outside the church earlier against what they said was Warren's positions on gay rights and abortion.

The group was larger earlier in the morning, but dispersed, according to reports.

Security personnel hurry one of the women out of the sanctuary at Ebenezer Baptist Church during the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Police and Sheriff Department details, and FBI and Homeland Security personnel showed a heavy presence in the vicinity of the church, and closed off streets surrounding the building.

Dozens of dignitaries attended the service, including Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, who gave a brief address.

Controversial minister to speak at '09 King memorial

The Rev. Rick Warren, whose selection to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month has drawn controversy, will be in the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church to deliver the keynote address at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service. The January 19, 2009 service on the federal holiday will mark what would have been King's 80th birthday. It will cap a week of activities to salute the civil rights icon, according to a schedule of events listed on the Web site for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Warren is pastor of the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Southern California and author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life." Obama's decision to include Warren in the inauguration has sparked an outcry from liberal groups and gay rights activists over the Southern Baptist's views on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

(Associated Press)

Rallies in Atlanta, U.S. protest Proposition 8

Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the California vote that banned gay marriage there.

At the Georgia Capitol in downtown Atlanta, more than 1,500 opponents of California’s Proposition 8 crowded the plaza and steps, spilling onto Washington Street.

Speakers led the crowd in chants during the Saturday afternoon protest.

“We support marriage equality,” said Carlton Eden, who attended the Atlanta rally with his wife, Claire, and three daughters. “We believe everyone should be able to marry.”

Another Atlanta demonstrator, Casey Calahan-Fitzgerald, said, “I think that we have a long way to go with gay rights, and people need to realize it’s not just supported by gay people.”

Nationwide, demonstrators cast Prop 8 as a civil rights issue. One sign in Boston read, “Gay is the new black.”

“Civil marriages are a civil right, and we’re going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens,” Karen Amico said in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading “Don’t Spread H8.”

Connecticut, which began same-sex weddings this past week, and Massachusetts are the only two states that allow gay marriage.

All 30 states that have voted on gay marriage have enacted bans.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of gay issues.

(AP)

Transgender Ga. official wins legal battle

Riverdale City Council member Michelle Bruce (top), Doraville City Council candidate Brian Bates, Decatur City Commissioner Kecia Cunningham and East Point City Councilmember Lance Rhodes. (Photos file or courtesy of candidates.)

Georgia's top court ruled in favor of a transgender politician who was slapped with a lawsuit by two political opponents who claimed she misled voters by running as a female.

The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling on Monday found that the two political opponents who filed the lawsuit failed to produce evidence of fraud, misconduct or illegal action after claiming that Michelle Bruce bamboozled voters by identifying herself as a female.

Bruce, who was believed to be the state's first transgender politician, landed one of four council seats in Riverdale, Ga. in 2003. Running unopposed, she pledged to attract more jobs and residents to the struggling town 12 miles south of Atlanta.

Last year, however, three people signed up to run against her, and she failed to capture enough votes to avoid a runoff against second-place finisher Wayne Hall.

The third- and fourth-place finishers, Georgia Fuller and Stan Harris, filed a lawsuit after the primary that identified Bruce as "Michael" and sought a new election.

It's unclear whether most voters knew of Bruce's transgender status before the lawsuit was filed. She has declined to say whether she has had surgery, but said she always identified herself as transgender.

"I'm Michelle," she said when the suit was filed. "I'm the same Michelle they elected four years ago."

Hall won the runoff, and Bruce blamed the lawsuit for her defeat.

Meanwhile, the complaint made its way through Georgia's legal system. In its decision Monday, the court ruled for Bruce and concluded that "none of these alleged irregularities is specific enough to cast doubts" on the election.

Gay rights groups said the lawsuit appears to be the first in the country that accused an elected official of lying to the public because he or she is transgender.

"I am not aware of any other case involving the issue of whether a transgender candidate is defrauding the citizens," said Cole Thaler, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a gay rights group.

Bruce's attorneys said they felt vindicated by the ruling.

Michael King, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said he was disappointed and surprised by the decision.

"We think there were significant irregularities and misconduct to reverse the election," he said.

On the Net:
Georgia Supreme Court: http://www.gasupreme.us

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the events that led up to the decision.

CDC: gov't underestimating AIDS spread

The number of Americans infected by the AIDS virus each year is much higher than the government has been estimating, U.S. health officials reported, acknowledging that their numbers have understated the level of the epidemic.

Experts in the field, advocates and a former surgeon general called for more aggressive testing and other prevention efforts, noting that spending on preventing HIV has been flat for seven years.

Since AIDS surfaced in 1981, health officials have struggled to estimate how many people are infected each year. It can take a decade or more for an infection to cause symptoms and illness.

"This is the most reliable estimate we‘ve had since the beginning of the epidemic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC‘s director. She said other countries may adopt the agency‘s methodology.

The new infection estimate is based on a blood test that for the first time can tell how recently an HIV infection occurred.

The new estimate relies on blood tests from 22 states where health officials have been using a new HIV testing method that can distinguish infections that occurred within the past five months from those that were older.

Yearly estimates allow better recognition of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For example, the new report found that infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users.

But they also lamented the CDC‘s finding that infections continue to increase in gay and bisexual men, who accounted for more than half of HIV infections in 2006. Also, more than a third of those with HIV are younger than 30.

Some advocates say that suggests a need for more prevention efforts, particularly targeting younger gay and bisexual men.

For years, AIDS was considered a terrifying death sentence, and since 1981, more than half a million Americans have died. But medicines that became available in the 1990s turned it into a manageable chronic condition for many Americans, and attention shifted to Africa and other parts of the world.

Last week, President Bush signed a $48 billion global AIDS bill to continue a program that he called "the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history."

But some advocates complain that CDC‘s annual spending on HIV prevention in the United States has been held to roughly $700 million since 2001, while costs have risen. (That‘s about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)

Whether more funding comes or not, the revised estimate clearly is a "wake-up call to scale things up," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who oversees CDC‘s prevention efforts for HIV/AIDS.

Some said more attention needs to focus on prevention among blacks, who account for nearly half of annual HIV infections, according to the new CDC report.

A recent report by the Black AIDS Institute concluded that if black Americans were their own nation, they would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with HIV.

"We have been inadequately funding this epidemic all along. We need to step it up," said former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta‘s Morehouse School of Medicine.

The new estimate has been anticipated for a long time. The CDC began working on the new methods nearly seven years ago.

Late last year, advocates said they had heard the figure was about 55,000 and pressed the CDC to release it. Agency officials declined, saying they were submitting their research for medical journal review.

"These are extremely complicated statistical methods," and CDC officials wanted the work to be thoroughly reviewed by outside experts, Gerberding said. The CDC‘s findings are being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Until 1992, the number of diagnosed AIDS cases was used to predict how many people were newly infected each year. That method produced an estimate of 40,000 to 80,000. More recently, the CDC focused on infections among men who have sex with men, who account for about half of new HIV diagnoses.
___

CDC HIV fact sheets: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the CDC.

Judge sides against gay website

A federal judge has ruled against a gay rights Web site sanctioned by the Georgia Institute of Technology. The judge ruled that the Safe Space site cannot use language that discriminates against religions that condemn homosexuality. He called it a violation of the separation of church and state. University officials say the information has been off the site for a year.

Anglican "mother church" splits from Episcopal ranks

The "mother church" for Georgia Anglicans has decided to leave the Episcopal Church as the split in that denomination widens.

The Episcopal Church has been strained in recent years by the consecration of gay bishops and other issues. The Rev. Marc Robertson says, his congregation can no longer support the Episcopal Church.

"We find ourselves in disagreement with where the Episcopal Church is on these matters and also where they seem to be going," Robertson says.

Robertson's congregation has decided to place themselves under the authority of a conservative faction. Episcopal diocese spokesman the Rev. James Parker says, the congregation can't just quit.

"It's sad that we haven't been able to do as we have done for so many hundreds of years, maintain a big tent," Parker says.

The split sets up a potential legal fight over church property, including its historic downtown sanctuary, valued at $3 million.

Anti-gay article in student paper

Controversy is brewing at a Cobb County High School, after a student criticized gay people in the student newspaper. Kell High School senior Thomas Benjamin wrote an opinion piece saying gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry because they are victims of reproductive error or an unusual upbringing. The school’s principal said she reviewed the article before it was published but had no authority to censor it.

10th District to elect US Representative tomorrow

Tenth Congressional District residents head to the polls Tuesday to elect a replacement for late Congressman Charlie Norwood.

Two conservative Republicans are in this run-off: former State Senator Jim Whitehead of Evans, and physician Paul Broun of Athens. They beat out eight other candidates in June’s special election.

Athens-Clarke County Election Supervisor Gayle Schraeder is predicting an eight to 10 percent voter turnout. Columbia County Registration Coordinator Nancy Gay has a slightly more optimistic forecast.

"For the July 17th run-off, we’re predicting anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the registered voters to come out and participate in the run-off."

The main campaign issues revolved around local politics. Whitehead said he would favor the Augusta area for any funding opportunities, while Broun said he would serve the entire district and not just the needs of his hometown, Athens.

Gay pastor no longer on Lutheran roster

The gay pastor of Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church has been removed from his denomination's clergy roster. But the Reverend Bradley Schmeling says he won’t leave the pulpit. Schmeling says "The congregation issued a call to me in 2000 and as far as we are concerned, that hasn't changed." His decision to stay could open the 350-member congregation to disciplinary action by church authorities.

Gay Pride festival to draw hundreds of thousands

Georgia hosts one of the nation’s largest Gay Pride festivals this weekend. 300,000 people are expected to attend the Atlanta Pride festival. Two parades are on the schedule for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Some streets will be closed near Piedmont Park through the weekend.

Balloon Race

By Mike Savage
WPPR Demorest

In Northeast Georgia, Operators of hot air balloons are taking part in a race that covers hundreds of miles and uses an Interstate as its finish line.

Helen is known for its Bavarian charm and its Octoberfest celebration in the fall. The Alpine city also hosts what it calls the oldest balloon event in the South.

This year, three hot air balloons are racing from Helen due east to the Atlantic coast. Event Organizer Barbara Gay says the race is a grueling endurance test.

Gay says, “you will fly for three to four hours with the gas allowed in your basket. Then you land and you chase crew has to be with you when you land so they can give you new propane so you can take off again. This can go from 7 am to 9 at night.”

Gay says race rules prohibit night flying because it’s too dangerous. Organizers say the winner of the event is the first to cross any portion of Interstate 95 or is the farthest ahead at sunset Friday.