Shalikashvili and Cohen: Rethink "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
In a January 2 op-ed in the New York Times, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General John M. Shalikashvili proposed the government take another look at allowing LGBT personnel to serve openly in America’s armed forces.
Faced with troop shortages, illogical reasons for keeping the ban, and the release of a new Zogby poll showing that 73 percent of service members don’t mind working alongside gays and lesbians, former Defense Secretary William Cohen followed suit later that day, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer essentially the same thing.

Massachusetts takes a Step toward banning Same-Sex Marriage
On January 2, while meeting in Constitutional Convention, the Massachusetts legislature voted to advance an amendment to the state Constitution that would make same-gender marriage illegal in the Bay State if voters approve the measure. The vote took place after intense pressure from outgoing Governor Mitt Romney and others, while new Governor Deval Patrick said, "I am disappointed by today's vote in the Constitutional Convention. We have never used the initiative petition to limit individual freedoms and personal privacy..."
The joint legislature must vote on the measure again in the 2007-2008 session, and it must receive at least 50 out of 200 votes, before the potential amendment could appear on a statewide ballot as early as 2008. Currently, Massachusetts is the only US state that allows same-sex couples to enter into legally recognized partnerships called "marriages."

GLAAD issues its Anti-Gay Defamation Offenders of 2006 List
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has released its Anti-Gay Defamation Offenders of 2006list. Last year’s offenders include Time magazine, the New York Post, Tucker Carlson, and Ann Coulter.

HRC's Look at 2006
The Human Rights Campaign has issued its Year in Review for 2006.

Columbia to offer DP Benefits
On December 18, the Columbia, Missouri City Council voted to provide health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of its municipal employees, without regard to the partners' genders. The partners must have lived together for six months, be at least eighteen years of age, and each pair will have to sign an affidavit affirming that they ""share the common necessities of life."" The benefits change is set to take effect in February.

New Jersey Domestic Partnership Bill Signed
Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey, signed the state's new domestic partner bill into law on December 21. The law goes into effect in February, but not in time for Valentine's Day, the day that do LGBT activists commemorate as Freedom to Marry Day. The law is the result of an October state Supreme Court decision that directed the Garden State legislature to provide equal rights to same-sex and opposite-sex couples that wish to legally unite. Lawmakers opted for ""civil union"" language over the more divisive ""marriage"" terminology.

Episcopal Parishes to secede over Gays
On December 17, two Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted to secede from the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA). The churches plan to join other Anglican Communion-affiliated conservatives that are forming a rival denomination in the United States.
Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church will align under the leadership of Peter Akinola, the anti-gay Anglican Primate of Nigeria.

Acceptance of gays by American dioceses is behind the split, e.g., the election of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

GenderPAC's 50 Under 30
The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GPAC) will release its 50 Under 30: Masculinity & the War on America's Youth report on December 14. 50 Under 30 ""documents a murderous tide of under-reported, gender-based violence that has claimed more than 50 young lives since 1995."

The overwhelming majority of these bias crimes are committed against people of color, and most victims are males presenting as feminine. The attackers are also often young, and many of the murders remain unsolved.
GPAC works to ensure that classrooms, communities, and workplaces are safe for everyone without regard to their gender, gender expression, or perceived gender. GenderPAC also promotes an understanding of the connection between discrimination based on gender stereotypes and sex, sexual orientation, age, race, and class.

Conservative News Site: Soy makes you Gay
According to WorldNetDaily columnist James Rutz, unfermented soybean products make people gay. ""Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion, and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products,"" writes Rutz.
Yes, James, that's why there are only 1.3 billion people in China.

KC Health Department to get HIV Liaison
In early December, the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department has appointed Martha L. Galutia as its new manager of the HIV Services Program and assistant to the director of the Health Department. The HIV Services Program administers public monies that provide medications and other services to people infected with HIV.

Gays go on Strike in A&E Comedy
Wedding Wars comes to A&E Monday. The cable network has produced an original comedy about two brothers: one a groom-to-be, one a wedding planner. When the future father-in-law, the governor, comes out against same-sex marriage, the wedding planner brother calls for a gay strike that goes national. John Stamos (ER) and Eric Dane (Grey's Anatomy) star as the siblings when Wedding Wars premieres December 11 at 8:00 PM CST.

Also Monday night, TNT will broadcast The Wizard of Oz at 7:00 and 9:15 PM CST.

Another Evangelical Pastor Outed
Protesting vigorously against LGBT rights from the pulpit leads to the downfall of another hypocritically closeted, self-loathing, evangelical preacher. Rev. Paul Barnes resigned from Englewood, Colorado's, Grace Chapel on December 10.
""I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy,"" said Barnes in a resignation video. ""...I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.""

Most Important Stories to the LGBT Community, 2006
MTV Networks' Logo channel will air its list of the most important stories to the LGBT community for 2006 at 8 PM CST December 9 on a program entitled CBS News on Logo Special Report: 2006 Year in Review. The list comes from a member survey of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA)