From the ‘Mistaken-Identity’ file: The NY Times (3-3) quotes Majed al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti prince and a fashion entrepreneur who, upon arriving in Milan, Italy, and seeing thousands of rainbow banners, announced amusedly, ‘I thought that Milan had turned totally gay.’ The flags were signifying the Italian peace movement. Gayness inferring peace-mongering—another idea for fundamentalists to latch onto.
PlanetOut Direct (3-6) reports that the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, formed to help gay and lesbian armed services members, has received a large increase in calls seeking assistance since the war on Iraq effort has started. SLDN believes it owes its present awareness to the recent firing of the Arabic linguists. A spokesman says, ‘A lot of servicemembers are being harassed and don’t want to be deployed and be thousands of miles away from home.’ SLDN also has a message for non-gay people suddenly ‘coming out,’ to avoid going to battle: ‘We won’t help them.’
From the ‘Extreme-Chutzpah’ file, 365Gay.com (3-6) reports on the rare case where you’re cheering on the relatives of a deceased gay man who wish to take all of the inheritance away from the lover. Dominic Dalton of London stands to inherit his elderly lover’s estate. Only trouble is, he murdered Bernard Murphy by strangling him with a dressing gown cord. Dominic says he was depressed and should not have to forfeit all that, umm, love and affection.
From the ‘Smarts-Under-Pressure’ file: 365Gay.com (3-4) says Raymond Spreng, a gay man who was victim to a homophobic beating by three assailants who followed him from a New York gay club, smeared his own blood on the three attackers. They were captured and their clothing confiscated as evidence.