Huckabee Criticized for Comments on AIDS and Homosexuality

COMES BACK AROUND: Mike Huckabee must face comments he made in the past.

Former Arkansas Governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is learning how much extra scrutiny comes with being the frontrunner among Republicans on the eve of the primary season. Initially portrayed as a fresh face and a social conservative who “is not mad at anybody,” Huckabee is taking fire for comments in a 1998 book he co-wrote, where he compared homosexuality and environmentalism to pornography and necrophilia. The magazine Mother Jones reported Dec. 17 that in his book Kids Who Kill, Huckabee wrote homosexuality and pedophilia were “publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations.” He also wrote “Abortion, environmentalism, AIDS, pornography, drug abuse, and homosexual activism have fragmented and polarized our communities” and described gay activists as being on the “fanatically twisted fringes of American culture.” The book was written in the aftermath of a school shooting in Arkansas while Huckabee was governor. The Mother Jones report comes a week after details of Huckabee's comments in a 1992 survey went public, where the then-Senate candidate indicated he thought AIDS patients should be quarantined and Hollywood celebrities should solely foot the bill for AIDS research. AIDS advocacy groups and Jeane White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, have asked for a meeting with Huckabee, but have not heard back from his campaign.

Hate Crimes Measure Removed from Defense Authorization Bill

NOT YET: When The Matthew Shepard Act was added to the Defense funding authorization bill, House members opposed it.

Hope for a federal hate crimes law that would include sexual orientation and gender identity were dashed in December when Congressional leaders removed the language from a larger Defense Department authorization bill. The Hate Crimes language, called the Matthew Shepard Act after the slain Wyoming college student, passed the House of Representatives as a stand-alone bill on May 3 and in the Senate as part of the Defense authorization bill on Sept. 27. The provisions were added to the Defense funding authorization bill in the hopes that it would survive a promised presidential veto. In the House, however, that attach-strategy engendered opposition from conservative members opposed to the hate crimes provisions and from other members opposed to the war in Iraq. LGBT rights activists were furious. After more than ten years and several successful bipartisan votes, it is heartbreaking to fall short this close to the finish line," said Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “We call on the Senate to immediately advance a stand-alone version of hate crimes that matches the version passed by the House earlier this year and send it to the president's desk,” said National Lesbian and Gay Task Force executive director Matt Foreman.

In Face of Recruitment Challenges, Military Disregarding DADT

ISSUE? NOT SO MUCH: Superiors are ignoring “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Discharges for gay and lesbian soldiers are dropping dramatically as the U.S. Military struggles to keep troops in the ranks, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes reported Dec. 16. The segment featured an interview with openly gay Army Sergeant Darren Manzella, who has served a tour of duty in Iraq and is now serving in Kuwait. Manzella told correspondent Leslie Stahl that after receiving anonymous emails threatening him to “turn down the flame,” he went to his commanding officer and came out. In an ensuing investigation, Manzella submitted video of he and his boyfriend kissing, but instead of being thrown out of the military, he was told there was “no evidence of homosexuality” and to return to work. "The closest thing that I was given by my superiors was, 'I don't care if you're gay or not,'" Manzella told Stahl. “Many commands, like Manzella's, recognize that their lesbian and gay troops are instrumental in the work of defending our country,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the LGBT rights group currently representing Manzella. “Those commanders, who want to do the right thing and retain good troops, should not have their hands tied by this unfair law.”

Historian Alan Berube (1946-2007)

World War II scholar and MacArthur “Genius” grant winner Alan Berube, the author of the seminal 1990 book Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two, died Dec. 16 at the age of 61 from stomach ulcer complications. A college dropout, Berube began writing the book after a friend gave him hundreds of letters found in a dumpster written by gay GI's. The Lambda Literary Award-winning book was later made into a TV documentary, which itself won a Peabody Award. Berube is survived by his partner, John Nelson, his mother, and three sisters.

Recount Ousts Gay Mayor

Every vote counts. Just ask Gary Cloutier, who thought he was going to be the Bay Area's first openly gay mayor when he was elected on Nov. 6 by just a handful of votes to run the city of Vallejo, Calif. and sworn into the job. Cloutier's opponent, Osby Davis, demanded a manual recount, and election officials discovered Davis was ahead by just two votes, according to local station KXTV-TV. On Dec. 11, KCBS radio reported Cloutier asked a judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would have prevented Davis' swearing in, but was denied. Osby became mayor that evening.

Protestors Challenge Cameroon's Arrest of Gay People

Activists in France, South Africa, and the U.S. protested in front of Cameroonian embassies Dec. 10 to call attention to the African nation's pattern of harassment and unlawful imprisonment towards people perceived as gay. In Washington, D.C., Amnesty International and Liberation for All Africans, an African LGBT group, delivered a letter of protest to the Cameroonian diplomatic representation. As recently as November, three men were charged in a Cameroonian court with homosexuality after being imprisoned for three months without bail. In 2006, more than two dozen teenaged girls were expelled from school and imprisoned for their perceived sexual orientation.

Rights Group Challenges Government's Treatment of HIV-Positive Detainees

Human Rights Watch has released a report showing the US Department of Homeland Security fails to collect information to monitor immigrant detainees with HIV/AIDS and inadequately supervises the scant medical care that is provided. The report highlighted Victoria Arellano, a 23-year-old transgender detainee with HIV/AIDS who died in July in a San Pedro detention center. Despite vomiting blood and being too weak to sit up, the center's medical clinic suggested Arellano take Tylenol. “Without improved standards for medical care, strengthened external and internal oversight and meaningful accountability to the public, immigrant detainees with HIV/AIDS will continue to needlessly suffer, and in some cases, die in US immigration detention,” the report said.

Florida Set for Marriage Amendment in 2008

Here we go again. In a move critics say is a ploy to impact the upcoming presidential election, organizers of a gay marriage ban have secured enough votes to get a state constitutional amendment measure on Florida's Nov. 2008 ballot. We believe kids need a mom and a dad, very simply," said John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer leading the signature drive. "Moms and dads bring something different to the table. Dads are not optional." The Fairness For All Families Coalition is warning that if passed the amendment will impact Florida's senior citizens, who often prefer domestic partnership to remarriage for financial reasons.

“I want to get out, but not just out of Iraq, out of the Middle East, to a country that has respect for human rights. And for us... it will never be possible here."

—Rafi, a 25-year-old Baghdad man profiled in a Dec. 18 New York Times story on gay Iraqis

Anglican Leader Sticks to Position on Excluding Gay Bishop

The archbishop of Canterbury said Dec. 14 he will not reverse his decision to exclude a gay U.S. bishop from joining other bishops at a global Anglican gathering in 2008. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is barring the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, from attending the Lambeth Conference, held every 10 years and scheduled for July in England. Robinson's consecration in 2003 has nearly driven the 77 million-member Anglican Communion to schism, with Williams trying to mediate between supporters of Robinson and conservative forces which are leaving the church over the ordination of gays and lesbians.

No Divorce for Rhode Island Couple

But who gets the cats? A lesbian couple married in Massachusetts cannot get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island, the state Supreme Court ruled Dec. 7. The court, in a 3-2 decision, said the state's family court lacks the authority to grant a same-sex divorce because Rhode Island lawmakers haven't defined marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman. Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers wed in Massachusetts in 2004 and attempted to file for divorce last year in Rhode Island. "My civil rights, my human rights have been denied," Ormiston said after the ruling.

Friend of the Court Briefs Swamp California Marriage Case

There's a reason the California Supreme Court is taking time in deciding its gay marriage case—too many Friend of the Court Briefs. More than 145 groups have submitted 45 briefs either supporting or opposing gay marriage, a new record for the court. "We have a lot of material before us," Chief Justice Ronald George said Dec. 11. "There is a vast amount of literature to read." The Supreme Court took the case in Dec. 2006. All written legal arguments were filed by Nov. 15, George said, noting the court should hear the case in 2008, which could make marriage an issue in the November elections.

This page compiled by Christopher Lisotta from The Associated Press and other news reports.