The symbol of Atlanta is a phoenix in honor of its resurrection after the Civil War from a train depot into a major city. The Southern Voice will also be rising from the ashes with the help of a $12,000 matching grant from the Lloyd E. Grant Foundation...Chris Cash, the former owner of the Southern Voice, and Laura Douglas-Brown, the former editor, began a movement to save the newspaper, even if it was under a new name. The two have been tirelessly working to get funds for the start up.

How to Raise a Tolerant Child

A tolerant person accepts diversity and doesn't prejudge others on the basis of religion, race, or gender. If we are to live in harmony with others and seek cooperative solutions to conflicts, we need to focus more on our common humanity than on our differences. Tolerance also involves being flexible and accepting that others have the right to be who they are. How a person treats those who appear different depends to a large extent on what he or she is taught in childhood. Here’s how parents can teach tolerance to children.

from: The Family Values Toolkit on beliefnet.com

The ABC networks Good Morning America has canceled a scheduled concert by performer Adam Lambert citing his "controversial" behavior at the American Music Awards this past weekend where he engaged in homoerotic behavior as part of his show.

And, relating to that - how many times do you see a marginalised person on TV and EVERY plot line about them has to be related to their marginalisation? I once joked that in the history of TV no gay man has ever worried about credit card debt. It has to be relationship worries or AIDS or homophobia. Yes, these are all important issues and should be represented on screen - but there is MORE to a gay man's life than being gay. And the same applies across the board - people aren't walking representation of their marginalisation. They are people - they are more than just a collection of (often poorly understood) issues and stereotypes.

I am a person. I have a rich full life. I am not a stereotype. I am not a collection of tired clichés. I do not think the same, speak the same, act the same or live the same as everyone else who shares my marginalisation. I am a person, not an Avatar of the gayness. There is more to my life than gay issues and gay worried and gay concerns. You do not know me just because you know I am gay. You cannot label or describe me just because you know what my marginalisation is. We're not a homogenous body. We're not a collection of issues.

American Idol star Adam Lambert has defended his same-sex kiss onstage at the American Music Awards on Sunday after angry viewers complained about his risque performance.

Janet Jenkins, the non-biological mother of 7-year old Isabella, was awarded full custody of the child in a Virginia court. She'll get custody on January 1.

Jenkins' ex-partner - Lisa Miller - denied visitation rights, and the judge in the case got angry. Miller refused to let Jenkins even visit Isabella - who was conceived while the pair were together - while the custody proceedings continued for months.

And that was enough for Judge William Cohen, who called the battle “a first-of-its kind parent custody change,” to eliminate any chance of Miller to have custody of her biological daughter.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and SAGE have just released Outing Age 2010: Public Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders, an update to the Task Forcea s groundbreaking Outing Age report issued in 2000.

On Nov. 4, 2008, when the polls closed on the West Coast and media outlets reported that California voters had passed Proposition 8, gay-rights supporters across the country were stunned.

The assumption among gay-rights supporters -- and the time frame that's often thrown around -- is that "in 20 years" we will have full equality. If anything, however, the Prop. 8 imbroglio and its legal fallout should serve as a reminder that equality isn't a once-and-for-all achievement. Rights can be rescinded, the ground can shift again. Nor is it an eventuality. Despite Martin Luther King Jr.'s assurance, the arc of history does not bend in any direction -- much less toward justice -- on its own.

Since its inception in 2003, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- PEPFAR -- has become the largest public health program in history.Created by President George W. Bush, it has distributed nearly $50 billion worldwide, mostly in Africa, to prevent the spread of HIV and to treat its victims. Over the last five years, the fund has provided care for 3 million people and prevented an estimated 12 million new infections. Even Bush's harshest critics do not deny that PEPFAR has been a huge success in combating the AIDS epidemic.

In spite of all that the program has accomplished, however, a persistent problem remains: the promotion of homophobia by African governments receiving American aid money. In no nation is this problem more acute than in Uganda, one of 15 PEPFAR "focus" countries that collectively account for half of the world's HIV infections. Homosexuality is considered a taboo in most of Africa, yet few governments have gone to the lengths of Uganda's in punishing it. The consequences are devastating not only for the people directly affected by these adverse policies but for the fight against AIDS in general.

In both her public and personal life, Parker has maintained high ethical standards and decorum in her years as an elected official.

Reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008, according to FBI data released Monday.

The Human Rights Campaign has released their annual 'Buying for Equality' guide that scores businesses and products based on their commitment to LGBT equality.

From the moment Adam Lambert graced the stage on American Idol, he was destined to be a star. Not only is the man incredibly talented, he knows exactly how to work a stage. Last night at the AMA’s he held nothing back and this of course brought the homophobes out full force.

We all know and love Adam Lambert and accepts him just as he is but tell my why does he have to throw his sexuality in our faces? It seems that he’s more uncomfortable about is own sexuality than we are. His performance tonight may have been a great performance we really couldn’t tell because all the grinding a guy’s face into his crotch and shoving another guys’ tongue down his throat over shadowed his great vocals.

What did Adam do on that stage that we do not see nightly in prime time? Somehow simulated sex acts between the opposite sex is not problematic but a little crotch grinding and a kiss is enough to set people right off, if it involves a gay man. When Adam first entered the spotlight, many of teen fans speculated that he might be bisexual, rather than face the fact that they were looking at adult gay male sexuality straight in the face. Well people, this is what it looks like and if you can tolerate simulated straight sex, you can damn well tolerate what Adam did last night.

If you are a Catholic and you want to be rid of your marriage, all you have to do is pay to make it go away. Oh, certainly there are some restrictions to it, but it boils down to a hypocritical belief that a ‘donation’ to the Church will buy you a religious divorce and, with the stroke of a pen, not only undo the work of God, but alter the time-space continuum and make it as if that marriage never happened...It is also a practice which violates the very argument that marriage is a sacred bond. If marriage is a sacred rite than none other than God himself should be allowed to sunder it. The Catholic Church should dispense with this practice forthwith. It is a violation of the very beliefs that they claim they are upholding by opposing marriage equality.

A gay 19-year-old student was beaten by eight boys last week in Liverpool's city centre for being "flamboyantly dressed".

The attack follows the gang beating of trainee policeman James Parkes, who was hospitalised with a fractured skull when he was set on by teenagers last month in the city's gay village.

The 19-year-old man told the Liverpool Echo how he was set upon in Lord Street last Wednesday by eight boys aged between 12 and 14, who shouted homophobic abuse at him while they attacked him.

He suffered a broken nose and was left covered in blood. He is due to undergo surgery next week.

He told the newspaper: “Sadly, it’s something that happens all the time in Liverpool, I expect it now.

Gay is the new Black is one of the most offensive slogans that the LGBT community has employed to help fight for their civil rights.If these claims originated with same gender loving people of color, it would be problematic but hardly the racial offense that it constitutes coming from Whites. There has been much tension between the GLBT community Blacks regarding gay rights, culminating in an all out attack after Prop 8. Ignoring that there are many in the African American community who have worked alongside gays and lesbians to fight for gay marriage, Black people were painted as uniquely homophobic.

It is fair to state unequivocally that gay is not the new Black or that gay rights are not the same struggle that is faced by African Americans, however; to deny that an oppression is occurring is simply an expression of heterosexist privilege. At what point does fighting for the right to live openly not considered a civil right? At what point do you decide that sexuality means that you should have a closeted experience?

Hollywood producers, take note: We’re nearly finished with a spec script for our own high concept cinematic event which tells the true, inspiring story of how a few gay men took their natural instincts for good skin and orderly kitchens and turned it into a career.

THE Federal Government is still toying with the possibility of overturning laws recognising same-sex civil ceremonies in the ACT.

TRENTON, N.J. - With a former prosecutor waiting in the wings to take over as New Jersey's first Republican governor in a dozen years, Democrats know time is short to push through a social agenda in the Legislature that includes legalizing gay marriage and the use of marijuana for chronic medical conditions.

This past Friday, I hung out with one of my buddies to eat pizza, talk politics and laugh at Sarah Palin. We went through our routine of taking up interesting political topics and eventually wound up discussing homosexuality. My friend asked if I knew that Bill Richardson had once said that being gay is a choice. I couldn’t believe it. This was a man who ran for president — in a Democratic primary. How could he have been so naïve? After extensive Googling, I discovered the governor later claimed he made a mistake. The problem is that thousands of people in America make this mistake every day. Many religious groups have created camps dedicated to turning gay people straight. As I thought of these groups, something sparked in my mind: What if they were right? What if being gay is a choice?