



• In Britain, authorities say they've foiled a plot to blow up plans traveling between the U.K. and the U.S. [NYT]
• The Rev. Fred Daley, a gay priest who claims a vow of celibacy, was supposed to head to Lesotho on an AIDS relief mission on Sunday but had his participation pulled by organizers at the Catholic Relief Services. The reason? Not that he was gay, says CRS, but that he's a gay rights advocate. "Sounds like 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'" [ABC News]
• In New York, a preacher is fighting to display Biblical passages on outdoor billboards. She bought and paid for the ads – which read "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womenkind. It is an abomination" – but when Staten Island's borough president saw them, he lobbied the billboard owner PME to remove them. PME, meanwhile, accepts plenty of ad dollars from the borough. [Pink News]
• In Missouri, Jolie Justus is set to become the the first openly gay state senator. [U.S. Newswire]
• In Arkansas, the Young Democrats elected as its president Hendrix University's Josh Blevins, the org's first openly gay leader. We've since been notified that the press release we referenced contained many factual errors, among them: Blevins is not, in fact, gay. Meanwhile, many of the quotes cited in the press release are apparently made up, as is the name of Blevins' school; it is Hendrix College. Further, he is no longer a student there. [PR Web]
• Also in Arkansas, candidates for the lieutenant governor position are battling over whether to make a campaign issue out of the the State Supreme Court's reversal of a ban on gay foster parents. [Advocate]
• In California, a gay synchronized swimming team from San Francisco was banned from the FINA World Masters Championships at Stanford University because of official Olympic rules, which state the sport is for women only. [Advocate]
This isn't the first time this has happened on Staten Island. In 2000 (I believe it was 2000. Definitely pre-9-11) Someone put up a billboard on Bay Street (the main drag on the north shore of the island where the ferry is) with some hate speech against gay people. It was quickly taken down at least. It's a shame to see this kind of bullshit stunt being pulled again. I'm glad this time it was stopped before it made it into public view. Although I don't think I like the way you made the borough out to sound sketchy with the last line of that post. Keeping hate speech off public billboards is a worthy cause whoever asks you to do it for whatever reason.
P.S. for anyone who reads that, Guy Molinari is not the borough president of Staten Island anymore and hasn't been for a few years. Jim Molinaro is. Guy was our BP for several years and before that he was SI's representative in Congress for years as was his daughter after him. I would tend to think he asked the company not to accept the billboard because of his long history of representing and understanding the true interests of the people of Staten Island and didn't have to resort to threats of withdrawing ad dollars as you imply. Especially since he no longer controls Staten Island's ad spending directly and that would be a pretty empty threat.