Civil Unions Law in New Hampshire Goes Into Effect

In the early moments of New Year's Day, dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in New Hampshire as a new state law legalizing such arrangements went into effect after midnight. Organizers said 37 couples bundled up amid freezing temperatures for an outdoor ceremony on the plaza of the New Hampshire Statehouse—the building where the law was adopted and signed in 2007. "We've been together 20 years; we've been waiting for this moment for 20 years; finally the state will recognize us as we are," said Julie Bernier, who posed for photos on the Statehouse steps with her partner, Joan Andresen, before the ceremony. The Democrat-dominated Legislature enacted New Hampshire's civil unions law early last year and Democratic Gov. John Lynch signed it in May. The new law gives same-sex couples similar rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage without calling the union a marriage. New Hampshire is the fourth state in the nation to allow civil unions and the first to do so without a court decision or the threat of one. After making brief group vows together on Jan. 1, the couples walked through an archway decorated with rainbow ribbons and a "just married" banner to meet officials for individual ceremonies. As they walked through, fireworks from the city's New Year's celebration lit up the sky.

Study Reveals Gay Seniors Rely on Each Other When Ill

More than two-thirds of les-bian, gay, or bisexual senior citizens who participated in a recent study said that they have provided care giving to other LGB seniors during the past five years, creating networks of people who support each other when they are sick during their elder years. “These findings contradict old myths about elderly gay people leading lonely lives of quiet desperation,” said Dr. Robert-Jay Green, executive director of the Rockway Institute, a national center for LGBT research and public policy. “[These] seniors create vibrant communities of care that overcome the difficulties posed by discrimination or by greater levels of rejection from their biological families.” The study, published in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, revealed that 38 percent of participants reported they had received care from others, who were not health-care professionals during the previous five years, while 67% had provided care to their peers. “These results provide a glimpse of the social networks urban LGB seniors have established to cope with homophobia in their communities, rejection from their families, exclusion from the financial benefits of marriage, and in most cases, absence of children to take care of them in old age,” added Green.

Judge Puts Oregon's Domestic Partnership Law On Hold

A statewide domestic partnership law in Oregon set to take effect on Jan. 1 is now on hold pending a February hearing. Opponents asked the U.S. District judge to intercede after the Oregon secretary of state's office ruled in October that they had failed to collect enough valid signatures on a referendum to block the law, which would give some spousal rights to gay couples. Eight other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples, while Massachusetts is the only state that allows marriage equality. The Oregon law covers benefits related to inheritance rights, child rearing and custody, joint state tax filings, joint health, auto and homeowners insurance policies, visitation rights at hospitals, and others. It does not affect federal benefits for married couples. After the Legislature approved the domestic partnership law in 2007, opponents tried to collect enough signatures to suspend the law and place it on the November 2008 ballot for a statewide vote. State elections officials, however, said the effort fell 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 needed. “It's unfair our families once again are bearing the brunt of this ongoing struggle,” said Jeana Frazzini, a spokesperson for the state's largest gay-rights group, Basic Rights Oregon.

Domestic Partners Get Same Property Tax Break As Surviving Spouses

The California Supreme Court turned down an appeal on Jan. 3 by county assessors who challenged the state's domestic partnership law regarding property tax breaks among spouses, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled in October that registered domestic partners—same-sex couples, or unmarried straight couples in which one partner is at least 62—should be allowed to accept or inherit real estate from one another without new tax assessments. Geoff Kors, executive director of the Equality California, praised the court's action. "A surviving domestic partner should not lose the family home because he or she must pay taxes that a surviving married spouse does not," he said.

Pope Starts New Year Slamming Marriage Equality

Pope Benedict XVI marked the start of 2008 stressing family values with remarks in line with the Vatican's strong campaign against proposals to extend rights to same-sex couples or other unions outside traditional marriage. Taking an aggressive position in two overwhelmingly Roman Catholic countries, the Vatican has decried attempts by Italy's center-left government to give legal status to unmarried couples and denounced the Spanish social government for passing legislation recognizing gay marriage. Thousands marched in Madrid on Jan. 30 to defend the traditional family, with the pope praising the crowd via a live hookup.

Arizona's Domestic Partners Proposal Draws Support

State officials in Arizona have received an outpour of public comments regarding a proposal by Gov. Janet Napolitano's administration to provide domestic partner benefits to state government employees and retirees. Department of Administration officials on Jan. 2 were processing hundreds of e-mails and letters received right before the close of the comment period two days earlier, spokesperson Alan Ecker said. A tally made last December on about half of the comments indicated that more were in favor of the changes than against, but an update breakdown was not immediately available, he said. The domestic partners benefits proposal, which would change state employment rules, awaits consideration by a state commission.

Past of Gay Adult Film Star on NBC's Gladiators Revealed

Unbeknownst to the producers of NBC's new show "American Gladiators," one of their muscular, spandex-clad warriors, Alex Castro, who goes by the alias "Militia," has a resumé in gay adult films, wielding more “personal” clubs, the New York Post reports. "We were aware that the guy had a good physique and did some modeling and stuff like that," a show source says. "We were certainly unaware to the extent that he apparently exposed his body." Naked photos and a muscle worship film of Castro have appeared on gay porn sites, including Colt Studios. Scenes with Castro will not be edited out of the syndicated reality show, which has already been filmed.

More Young Men In New York City Getting HIV

New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released figures revealing that the annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, the New York Times reported. The increase has occurred while the city's overall rate of HIV infection and AIDS has been declining. Experts indicated that drug therapy treatments have made many of those infected more reckless and likely to have unprotected sex. "People who grew up watching their friends die of AIDS are a lot more careful than those who didn't," says Dr. Thomas Frieden, the commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

"He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop; he's certainly not alone in being a gay partnered bishop.v He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who's open about that status."

—Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in an interview broadcast on Jan. 1, regarding recent criticism of her church's consecration of V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

Canadian Students Want Gay Blood Donor Ban Stopped

A national student group in Canada has urged Canadian Blood Services to end the agency's blood donor ban on sexually active gay men, despite the agency's 2007 decision to decline donations from any man who has had sex with another man at least once since 1977, CanWest News Service reported. Canadian Federation of Students spokesperson Amanda Aziz called the policy "a form of institutionalized discrimination" and needs to be changed. The group decided to press the issue in 2006 and the cause has been taken up by universities across the country, most notably at University of Toronto and McGill University, said student activist Andrew Brett.

Once Discriminatory Arizona Nightclub Welcomes Gay Patrons

Embattled in a discriminatory dispute earlier in 2007 after it banned transgender patrons, a prominent nightclub in Scottsdale, Ariz. has changed names and become a dance club catering to a gay clientele. Anderson's Fifth Estate, which had a 25-year-run as a nightclub, reopened Dec. 28 as Club Forbidden. The venue's owner Tom Anderson recently lifted his ban on transgender customers and settled a dispute with a transgender woman named Michele deLaFreniere. He had banned deLaFreniere and her friends from the club in late 2006 after complaints from patrons that “men dressed as women'' were using the women's bathrooms.

Former Republican Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus (1926-2007)

Serving one 4-year term as the Republican governor of Wisconsin, Lee Sherman Dreyfus, who became an unlikely hero for gay-rights advocates in 1982, died at his Waukesha home on Jan. 2. He was 81. Dreyfus signed the nation's first statewide gay-rights law, making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment and public accommodations. "It is a fundamental tenet of the Republican Party that government ought not intrude in the private lives of individuals where no state purpose is served," he said in his remarks. "There is nothing more private or intimate than who you live with and who you love."