By Ramy Eletreby

Former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld, a longtime LGBT rights advocate, sent waves of confusion through the LGBT community recently as he launched his campaign to be the Republican candidate for governor of New York.

In an Aug. 28 interview with the Associated Press, Weld said, "I'm not for gay marriage." Last year, however, he participated in his friends' same-sex marriage ceremony and he strongly supported the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's ruling in 2003 legalizing same-sex marriage within the state, encouraging state legislators to accept marriage equality. In the AP interview, Weld said such acceptance was the only way lawmakers could legally deal with the ruling and that his participation in his friends' ceremony was because ''that's personal friendship. That's not a public official's position.''

"His recent statements represent a complete and disappointing reversal of his original position,'' Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's largest gay rights lobbying group, said in a statement. "The freedom to marry is about equality and New Yorkers are passionate about equality. Gov. Weld indicates that New Yorkers are not ready for same-sex couples to have the right to marry but our polling tells us otherwise."

"We are concerned and are still seeking clarification on his marriage comment," Tom Wahl, chairman of the state Log Cabin Republicans, told the gay publication New York Blade. "He was extremely strong in Massachusetts and performed its first civil marriage. We hope he will follow the same course of action here in New York."

Weld also failed to attend an Aug. 21 high-profile fund-raiser to benefit the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Youth, despite a yearlong promise to his neighbors hosting the event. Weld's wife, Leslie Marshall, told The New York Times that Weld "just had some meetings" and has been "suddenly really busy. [But, he has] always been a huge supporter of the gay and lesbian community and continues to be."

"If you're a Republican in this climate and you want to hold office, if you don't go along with their line, they will remove you," Cindy Powell told the Times. Teresa Hyndman said she was disappointed that Weld, "obviously felt the extreme heat from his party and decided not to come."

Playwright Terrence McNally and his partner, Tom Kirdahy, a gay rights lawyer, seemed more understanding of Weld's absence. "Would we like him to say he's in support of gay marriage? Yes," Kirdahy told the Times. "Does one comment mean he's not a friend to the community? No. I think most people in the community are mindful of the fact that it's an evolutionary process."

Michael Long, the state Conservative Party chairman, said he is concerned about Weld's past support for abortion and gay rights. Nonetheless, Long told the Times, he ''won't shut the door on him.'' The Conservative Party supported current Gov. George Pataki, who also supports abortion and gay rights.

Pro-gay State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is also a gubernatorial candidate.

AIDS Action Executive Director Becomes Head of D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration

On Aug. 25, the AIDS Action Foundation announced that Executive Director Dr. Marsha A. Martin would be leaving her post to head the Washington, D.C., Department of Health Services' HIV/AIDS Administration. The HIV/AIDS Administration distributes about $80 million for HIV-related programs, provides grants to area service providers, monitors programs, and tracks HIV and AIDS incidence throughout the District of Columbia.

Martin takes over for Lydia Watts who was fired in early August following an audit of the HIV/AIDS Administration by the district's inspector general. An Aug. 23 Kaiser Family Foundation report on the audit noted that the city's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been inadequate and poorly coordinated, with city officials not collecting and analyzing data and not supervising the organizations that provide services for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Martin served as executive director of AIDS Action since February 2002. Prior to that, she was special assistant to Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services. "In her tenure, Marsha has built a strong and capable team to which members of Congress, federal agency officials, and the White House look for reliable information and sound analyses of HIV-related issues," said Craig E. Thompson, chair of the AIDS Action Council board and executive director of AIDS Project Los Angeles.

"Ms. Martin brings with her a wealth of knowledge and considerable expertise in the field of HIV/AIDS. She has the skills that are needed to move the agency forward," D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams told reporters.

Not everyone is happy. "It's a disaster for the HIV community in D.C.," L.A. Weekly columnist and blogger Doug Ireland told the AIDS Combat Zone. "She's a collaborationist with the Bush-Rove Republicans who have done so much to hurt the fight against AIDS by their imposition of anti-scientific, obscurantist religious strictures and limitations on AIDS work."

Muslims Invite Gays; Sinister Ministers in L.A.

On Aug. 23, the National Black Justice Coalition received an official invitation from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to take part in the Oct. 15 Millions More Movement rally in Washington, D.C. NBJC had petitioned for inclusion in the event for months and was supported by straight allies, including longtime civil rights leader Julian Bond. The Washington, D.C.-based LGBT organization also plans on holding an LGBT rights rally at Freedom Plaza before the march.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles became a hotbed of activism this summer as conservative African-American ministers increased the visible shift from fighting for social and economic justice to a crusade for religious moral values.

Last month, the prestigious Baptist Ministers' Conference of Los Angeles and Southern California met with 52nd District Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in the heart of South Los Angeles to discuss his support for the gay marriage bill.

Led by Rev. L. Daniel Williams of New Covenant Baptist Church, approximately 60 black pastors grilled Dymally, a co-author of the bill. He asked them to consider his overall record before acting on their threat to withdraw their political support.

A couple of days later, an ad in a popular African-American newspaper announced a "Homosexual Crusade," to take place at the Southside Christian Palace Aug. 16-20. The gathering discussed "the homosexual agenda" and posed questions such as: "Does God love homosexuals?" and "Would you want your child to marry a homosexual?"

On July 22, the City of Los Angeles recognized Dr. Fredrick K. C. Price of the Crenshaw Christian Center by affirming the renaming a street in his honor. Openly gay City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, however, noted Price's anti-gay attitudes and stopped the council from waiving the city fee for the event. Last February, Price hosted a summit of black pastors, headlined by Traditional Values Coalition head Rev. Lou Sheldon, to help launch the High Impact Leadership Coalition, a group of mega-churches encouraging a Bible-based "Contract with America on Moral Values," including political opposition to gay marriage.

In L.A., Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad led a protest of 150 people against the shooting of MTV/Logo's black gay series, Noah's Arc. Initially, the protest was over the lack of blacks behind the camera but later included the show's gay theme. After a crewmember was spat on, the show's supervising producer shut down production for that day. Production has since continued but Muhammad has yet to speak publicly regarding the event. He was recently arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for assault of an officer.

On a positive note, hip-hop recording star Kanye West announced that he changed his views after learning his cousin was gay. "It was kind of like a turning point when I was like, 'Yo, this is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays,'" West told MTV.

Unfortunately, however, the House of Blues recently booked anti-gay reggae singer Sizzla whose songs include lyrics that translate to "Boom boom, queers must be killed." -- Jasmyne A. Cannick

Katrina Devastates New Orleans

On Aug. 31, the day after Hurricane Katrina cut a devastating swath across the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, more than one million people were without electricity and clean drinking water. The death toll in Mississippi was 110, and presumed to go higher. Officials in Louisiana stopped counting, passing dead bodies floating in the flooded streets in an emergency search and rescue effort to save the living. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told everyone in New Orleans to abandon the historic, soup bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city, now 80 percent submerged with water still rising through a gaping 500-foot hole in the floodwall.

Adding to the horror of drowned streets clogged with human and animal bodies, sewage, chemicals, and snakes was the jolt that the famed aboveground cemeteries were also washed out. "At some point in time the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious disease issue," Mayor Ray Nagin said on ABC's Good Morning America.

"The devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming," Blanco said at a news conference, with "mile after mile after mile of homes inundated," only their rooftops visible from the helicopter. "What I saw today is the equivalent to what I saw flying over the tsunami area in Indonesia," Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told reporters. "There are places that are no longer there."

The economic damage could be astronomical with insured losses expected over $26 billion and unknown costs to the country from the region's damaged oil refineries. "This whole situation is simply off the scale," said William Lokey of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Gays with an attachment to the city were also emotionally devastated, such as author Christopher Rice who called New Orleans home with his mother, author Anne Rice before moving to Los Angeles.

"The French Quarter is the irreplaceable gay heart of the city and most of the gay men and lesbians who choose to live there don't own automobiles. People without cars were the least likely to evacuate and that has to mean that some of them are among the many who have now become stranded by the rising waters," Rice told IN by e-mail. "[New Orleans'] infrastructure was fragile to begin with. But it also gives generously of itself to the people around the country who visit it each year, including the scores of gay tourists who attend Mardi Gras celebrations and the Halloween benefit for Project Lazarus each year," Rice said. "It's creative spirit has given rise to the work of many gay and gay-friendly artists and writers. Its time for all of us to honor those contributions by helping this city rise up in its time of need" -- Karen Ocamb

To Help

American Red Cross
(800)-HELP-NOW
(435-7669) English
(800)-257-7575 Spanish
www.redcross.org

America's Second Harvest
(800) 344-8070
www.secondharvest.org

Controversy Over Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts Increases

While the nation turned its weary eyes to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, political Washington returned from the summer recess focused on the confirmation hearings for conservative Republican Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.

On Aug. 25 the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays denounced the nomination in a joint statement, despite Roberts' significant help preparing the attorney who won the landmark 1996 LGBT-rights case, Romer vs. Evans.

"For his entire adult life, John Roberts has been a disciple of and promoted a political and legal ideology that is antithetical to an America that embraces all, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people," said Matt Foreman, executive director of NGLTF. "He has denigrated the nature and scope of the constitutional rights to privacy, equal protection, and due process as well as federal government's role in confronting injustice. [He is] a mortal danger to equal rights for gay people, reproductive freedom and affirmation action."

People for the American Way announced their opposition on Aug. 24, with an accompanying 50-page report. (www.pfaw.org) "If John Roberts replaces Sandra Day O'Connor, the balance of the court will shift to the right for decades to come, imperiling Americans' constitutional rights and liberties," said PFAW president Ralph Neas.

Others, including the gay Log Cabin Republicans, said they would reserve judgment until after the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings. "Log Cabin will carefully study the record, writings, and testimony of Judge Roberts during this confirmation process, particularly as they relate to questions of basic fairness for gay and lesbian Americans," Log Cabin President Patrick Guerriero said in a statement.

Attention now shifts to the Senate Judiciary Committee, especially California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to ask questions that will reveal Roberts' philosophical and judicial beliefs. In a recent speech before the L.A. County Bar Association, Feinstein said, "It would be very difficult for me to vote to confirm someone to the Supreme Court whom I knew would overturn Roe vs. Wade and return our country to the days of the 1950s."

But liberal Roberts-watchers were concerned that Feinstein did not unequivocally say she would refuse to confirm instead of finding it "very difficult" if Roberts revealed he does not believe in a constitutional right to privacy. They were vexed that Feinstein's closed door meeting with Roberts last July on Capitol Hill ended with smiles and the senator's comments to reporters that she did not envision Democrats using the filibuster to block Roberts' nomination.

At the National Stonewall Democrats convention in San Diego on Aug. 26, Congressmember Maxine Waters mocked Feinstein's pledge to ask "hard questions" of Roberts during the hearings. "There are no hard or right questions," she said, "if you've already decided behind closed doors not to oppose him."

As IN goes to press, the hearings were slated to begin on Sept. 6.

-- Karen Ocamb