"The FORTUNE 500 have overwhelmingly decided that including sexual orientation is in the best corporate interest and helps communicate corporate values to the estimated $660 billion annual domestic GLBT consumer market," stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum.

According to Gallup's May 2008 Values and Beliefs Poll, 89% of U.S. citizens believe gays and lesbians should have equal rights in job opportunities. There is currently no federal workplace protection based on sexual orientation. Twenty states include sexual orientation nondiscrimination in their workplace statutes.

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Born of a Kenyan father and an American mother, Senator Obama has worked his way up to the summit of American politics. His dashing good looks, solid academic credentials, courage, vision, sense of humour, outstanding oratory skills in transmitting his message of change and hope earned him a place in history as the first black to win the presidential nomination ticket of a major political party in the USA .He is firmly on course to further create history by emerging as the first black President of the United States of America.

His rallies have attracted record crowds in the USA. There could be no better to show what a global phenomenon he has become than his recent two week trip to the Middle East in Europe. King Abdullah of Jordan personally drove him to the airport, in Kuwait he aimed and scored a perfect three pointer in a basketball court before addressing American troops stationed there. In Iraq he met with Prime Minister Maliki, in Israel he met with Prime Minister Ehud Omert and other top political leaders, he met with Palistinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Afghanistan. In Germany he met with Prime Minister Mikael and addressed a record crowd.

Senator Obama has not hidden the fact that his father grew up tethering goats in Kenya to borrow the words he used in Germany. As aforementioned, Presidential elections in the USA are always of great interest to the rest of the world. Without thinking much about the eventual out come, there is definitely a whole lot that Africa can learn from the political exploits and message of Senator Obama.

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Maupin and representatives from the Bay Area Coalition Against the Briggs Initiative (BACABI) and The No on 6 Committee will be presented the Walker Award on October 9 at the GLBT Historical Society’s annual Gala event. This year’s event theme is “Modern History: From Milk to Marriage" and the event program will celebrate 30 Years of GLBT History from 1978-2008.

Named after Willie Walker, a co-founder of the GLBT Historical Society who passed away in 2004, the Walker Award honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to the civic, cultural and political life of the GLBT community. Past awardees have included Billie Jean King, the first woman named Sports Illustrated “Sportsperson of the Year”; Esera Tuaolo, the NFL all-star who played in the Super Bowl; and Phyllis Lyon and the late Del Martin, founders of the Daughter of Bilitis. In 2007, the organization presented the award to Dr. Margarethe (Grethe) Cammermeyer, PdD, RN, Colonel, USA. for her leadership in the fight against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

In 1976, Maupin’s “Tales of the City” serial in the San Francisco Chronicle was the first gay-themed fiction to ever appear in an American daily newspaper. The publication of "Tales of the City" in book form in 1978 marked a cultural turning point that many believe helped to launch the past 30 years of political and social progress for the GLBT community.

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SYNOPSIS
Set in Radio's Golden Age of the 40's, the cast of ABN's nighttime broadcast seems to have its own problems: when a death occurs in the station, it's all they can do to finish the evening's program. It's only sheer coincidence tonight's broadcast is a mystery thriller....or is it?

The play was written by Evan Storey and Laura Dickinson (additional material written by: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr, and Charlotte M. Russell)

It is directed by Evan Storey and Laura Dickinson

To Buy Tickets in Person
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Open Daily 12-8pm

Directions to the Show by Subway/Bus
Take the A/C/E to 42nd Street or the N/Q/R or 1/9 to Times Square.

While it will escape Ike's monstrous winds, Haiti's north-west coast is bracing for a fresh deluge, threatening the already battered country with worse devastation.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned of "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides over mountainous terrain".

The UN children's charity Unicef says some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hanna last week, while more bad weather will further hamper the aid effort there.

At 0900 GMT, the centre of Hurricane Ike was about 65 miles east of Great Inagua Island in the south-eastern Bahamas, according to the NHC.

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The International Gay Lesbian Football Association tournament is scheduled to take place June 14-21 next year. The city held the first ever Gay Soccer tournament in 1997.

"In addition to promoting good sportsmanship, it affirms our city's reputation as being inclusive and tolerant. We look forward to welcoming the world to our nation's capital," Fenty said.

This year, the Gay Soccer World Championship was hosted in London, with 40 teams representing 13 countries. The English side Stonewall Lions beat Argentinean side SAF Gay 5-0 in the men's final.

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By Susan King

ACTOR Derek Luke complains with ultra-mock seriousness that making Spike Lee's World War II drama, "Miracle at St. Anna," set for release Sept. 26, was like being in the real military.

"You never get a chance to go back to your trailer," says Luke, who knows he'll come up dry in this fishing trip for sympathy. Luke, who plays the key role of 2nd Staff Sgt. Aubrey Stamps in the movie, has nothing but admiration when he talks about Lee. "He shoots three or four or five cameras at the same time. He makes sure he gets every actor's reaction."

"Miracle at St. Anna," adapted by James McBride from his novel, revolves around four African American Buffalo Soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division who find themselves trapped behind enemy lines in a small Tuscan village after one of the men risks his life to save a young Italian boy.

Though he worked long days and weeks in Italy on the film, Luke ("Antwone Fisher") says it was a huge honor to be directed by Lee, especially since he got his big break as an actor in "Fisher," which was directed by Denzel Washington, thereby linking him to Lee in a six-degrees-of-separation sort of way. "Denzel has made more movies with Spike than anybody he's worked with. Denzel and Spike are like Bonnie and Clyde."

Lee, he says, "seems like a guy who likes rehearsal. But once you get the rhythm for the rehearsal and a rhythm for the word, then he allows you to improv if, in fact, it fits. If it doesn't fit, you'll hear it quickly."

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“The 2009 Corporate Equality Index shows that corporate America understands that a diverse workforce is critical to remaining successful and competitive,” said HRC Foundation President Joe Solmonese in a statement. “In the absence of a federal law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, it is up to employers to take the lead and implement policies that ensure all their employees are protected.”

Companies are achieving higher scores because the index is clearly no longer dismissed as just gay activism. In fact, most now view the index as an achievement. Those with perfect scores, crow a bit in a press release.

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Caroline Thibodeaux, a 39-year-old African American divorcee with four children barely survives as a $30 a week domestic for the Gellman family. Their 8-year-old son, Noah Gelman, who has recently suffered the loss of his mother and the arrival of a stepmother, idolizes her. Noah spends considerable time in Caroline’s basement domain equating Caroline’s importance and strength with that of the president of the United States. Although this tentative and touching relationship is shattered over loose change, Caroline, or Change is imbued with the confidence that change is possible; people are capable of working toward reconciliation and mutual respect.

Caroline, or Change is a remarkable piece of theatre in its coalescence of human struggle, passionate exploration of today’s critical issues and an exhilarating mixture of classical, R & B, Motown, Klezmer, and Negro spiritual music.

Producing a landmark Kushner play with our friends at Karamu Theatre brings together two of my fondest memories during my years at Dobama Theatre. During the 1990’s Karamu and Dobama shared a rich collaborative history bringing Cleveland audiences blazing productions of The Grapes of Wrath; My Children, My Africa; Distant Fires; Playland; and Fires in the Mirror. We staged the first “forced theatrical busing” when, during the intermission of 4 performances of My Children, My Africa, we bused audience members, via double decker buses, to the other theatre for Act II. (Joyce Casey, Artistic Director, Dobama Theatre)

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