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silverfoxesclub-digest
Wednesday, November 15 2000
Volume 01 : Number 046

In this issue:

-Gay Vets Dedicate Memorial
-getting rid of Navidad Virus
-To use the profile form on the Web
-Japanese Boss Sued for Touching
-Fw: Quebec
-New Parties. (humor)
-Brits battle over gay age of consent
-De-wafered
-Re: More Election Fun
-First Opera Experience - Summary

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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:56:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Edward

Subject: Gay Vets Dedicate Memorial

Edward
- ----------------
Gay Vets Dedicate Memorial

PlanetOut News Staff
Monday, November 13, 2000 / 05:09 AM

The American eagle wears a triangle on the "rainbow" granite statue dedicated by Arizona Rainbow Veterans -- the first of its kind in a National Memorial Cemetery.

As the world celebrated Veterans Day and Remembrance Day, Arizona Rainbow Veterans (ARV) on November 11 became the first U.S. gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) group to dedicate a military memorial in a National Memorial Cemetery. A simple oblong "rainbow" granite block about 33" long by 24" high, its inscription reads, "In Memory of All Veterans Who Served with Courage and Pride, Donated by Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America"; it features two triangles as well as a third on the breast of an American eagle. By following instructions of the National Cemetery Administration to the letter, the ARV had no problem in winning approval for their plan last year, and even obtained an endorsement from the conservative American Legion. That's in stark contrast to the suspicion with which simple wreath-laying ceremonies by GLBT veterans have been viewed in the past. ARV's newsletter describes the memorial and its dedication as intended "to honor the memory of all veterans who have fallen in our nation's battles, both at home and abroad. It will be a memorial to remember our colleagues who chose to risk their lives for their country while forced to be silent [about their sexual orientation]. It will be a memorial to our brothers and sisters who have given so much and who deserve recognition. ... For those who risked their lives every day in a world of bigotry to serve the country they loved. This is a memorial for those who have fallen to our country's enemies and those who have died at the hands of their fellow servicemembers."

Among the GLBT vets who worked for two years to develop the design, obtain its approval, raise $5,000 for its execution, and ultimately dedicate it, was ARV vice president Franc Gaxiola. While serving in the Air Force, Gaxiola was posted to Japan in 1992, shortly after the notorious bashing murder there of gay Navy man Allan Schindler [Ed. note: Visit the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Web site for a petition to keep Schindler's killer Terry Helvey in prison.] Gaxiola told the Arizona Republic that he determined that the best way to deal with his painful memories of military service was to do something positive for all servicemembers. He emphasized that the choice of a memorial to all servicemembers represented the desire of gays and lesbians in the military not for special treatment but for acceptance and equality.

Funds for the memorial came mostly in small amounts sent from all over the country, although a number of Phoenix businesses and organizations held fund-raising events. The memorial was able to be dedicated this past weekend as planned thanks to an anonymous local couple who put in $1,200.

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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:25:19 -0800 From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: getting rid of Navidad Virus

A million thanks are due to GRS, per the below, for helping those who had the Navidad problem destroy it ------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 17:16:21 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: To use the profile form on the Web

List members are invited to submit their profile, with picture if desired, to Ben Boxer. There is a Submission Form on the Web in the profiles section, but in order to use it, you MUST configure your BROWSER to send e-mail! Many people write saying they can't get the mail to go out by clicking on the Submit Button at the end of the form, and that is generally the reason why.

Otherwise, write to me (Ben Boxer) and I will send you an e-mail form for the profile.

Please browse through the profiles. You can find them by going to the Main Lobby (second page) of the Silverfoxes Clubhouse and looking for the List Button Bar near the top of the page. It's all linked there.

I am sending you there instead of to the actual pages because you should know how to navigate around the Clubhouse as that is where everything is located.

The Clubhouse will be moving to a new domain in a few days, but it will be easy to find the new location. More on that later.

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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 19:11:00 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Japanese Boss Sued for Touching

Ben Boxer comments: Japanese silverfox trapped by dog that don't hunt

Headline:
Japanese Boss Sued for Touching

(PlanetOut 11/13/00) Text:
Alleged advances from the chair of his company has led the "tarnished" employee to file Japan's first lawsuit charging gay sexual harassment in the workplace.

Japanese press reports on November 10 described a male-on-male workplace sexual harassment lawsuit in the southern city of Fukuoka which may be the first civil lawsuit of its kind, or at least a very rare instance. More frequently similar actions are criminally prosecuted there as indecent assaults.

Claiming that, "My honor and pride have been tarnished," a 24-year-old Fukuoka resident filed his lawsuit in June in the Fukuoka District Court against the septuagenarian chair of the company where he worked from April 1997 through April 2000. The plaintiff seeks 3 million yen (US$28,000) in compensation and reinstatement in his job. He alleges sexual touching on four occasions, including while he was asleep on a business trip, and other advances on that occasion. He quotes the corporate chair as remarking on his resemblance to the girl who was the defendant's first love. He reacted to the touching by screaming and running away.

The plaintiff says that he then began keeping a diary of the harassment beginning in August 1999. He left that diary at the office in April, where it was discovered by the chair -- a discovery that allegedly led to his firing the following day. He called his firing a cover-up and claimed that the "irreparable" damage he suffered has taken away his will to live.

The defendant insists that he never made any sexual advances and that the plaintiff's dismissal was based on his poor job performance. The defendant admits that he may have touched the younger man's waist "to relieve stress."
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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 20:05:29 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Fw: Quebec

(Ben Boxer forwards this to the lists for the below. Please respond to him, not Ben.)

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "taurono1"
To: "Ben Boxer"
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 8:37 AM

Subject: Quebec

Hi Ben and Others,

You asked about the pro-gay stirrings in Quebec. Inspite of the presence of the Catholic church, Quebec as a Province, is ahead of any other Province in Canada including British Columbia as being progay. Even before our Charter of Rights granted protection for gays, Quebec legislator passed legislation tp protect gay and minority rights. Public sector emlpoyers off sam sex benefits as well as most private employers. The gay life in the gay village in Montreal is probably the best in North America ( do I sound biased)

Spend some time there and you'll know what I mean. Also, with your strong U.S. dollar it makes at $1.51 our Canadian currency (should I say Cdn peso), is a real bargain for travellers. The only down side is the sometimes reluctance of French Canadians to speak English to you (Canadians and foreign tourists alike). But the business community is very friendly towards visitors.

You can look at the following site for canada and find out more on Quebec. The mature, chubby French Canadians are wonderful!!

Ron (Edmonton)
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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 23:32:05 -0500
From: "luvhog"

Subject: New Parties. (humor)

For those who do not appreciate humor I would say. DELETE NOW and don't send complaints.

"Which Party do you like?"

A lot of voters are getting a little bored with the 2-party system. Even the Reform Party and the Libertarian Party aren't making much of a showing this year. So the editors at Shagmail have created a list of the Top Ten independent political parties we'd like to see in the 2000 Presidential election.

10. The Crack Party... We're split down the middle.

9. The Mouth Party... And you're invited to cum.

9. The Gay/NRA Party... We're here, we're queer. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?

7. The Pity Party... C'mon, we never win anything. Vote for us once, will ya?

6. The Private Party... No comment.

5. The Cocktail Party... Cock and Tail - does it get any better than this?

4. The Search Party... Looking for members.

3. The Keg Party... Dude, we could so totally run the country.

2. Non-partisan party... We believe in what you believe in.

And the number 1 independent political party we'd like to see:

1. The Beaver Party... Oh, forget it - we've already got Bush.
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Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 00:19:39 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Brits battle over gay age of consent

Headline:
Peers challenge ministers to insist on gay law

(by Sarah Hall in The Guardian, 11/14/00)

Text:
Ministers insisted they would force through measures to lower the age of consent for gay sex to 16 despite it being thrown out by peers for the third time last night.
The government plans to invoke the rarely used Parliament Act - which allows it to override the Lords if it defeats a bill - if peers do not back down before the end of this month.
While there is still time for the Lords' amendment to be overturned in the Commons and then returned to peers, the government privately anticipates the act being invoked for only the third time in a decade. It would also mean the bill would have to be rubber stamped by the new Speaker Michael Martin, one of just six Labour MPs who opposed the lowering of the age of consent.
The move follows the government's defeat last night by 205 to 144 over plans to reduce the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16. A second defeat by 139 to 124 followed as peers voted to extend the number of categories of people who could be prosecuted for abusing positions of trust.
Lady Young, the Tory peer who has crusaded against the change, successfully put forward an amendment which would keep the age of consent for anal sex for both boys and girls at 18 but allow any other homosexual acts to be committed at 16.
She said it would also prevent buggery of girls at 16 being legalised for the first time. "Our concern is to protect children," she said. "Sixteen-year-olds are children in law. By keeping the age of buggery at 18, we protect young 16-year-olds from the most dangerous of sexual practices."
The Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Russell, said students and young people favoured a change in the law, and older people opposed it. He told peers: "I believe this issue has done more damage to the reputation of this house in those quarters in which I move than anything else since Irish home rule (in 1911)." The debate also revealed divisions among clerics, with the Bishop of Birm ingham supporting the bill, and the Bishop of Chelmsford opposing it.
Lord Alli, the Labour millionaire and gay peer, likened Lady Young to a concerned grandparent who should leave a younger generation to "live our own lives.
"We are not asking for you to approve of homosexuality or homosexual acts. I am not even asking for you to understand why they happen," he said. "What I am asking you to do is to remove the penalty and weight of the law from those young men aged 16 and 17 who consent to have sex with other men. Surely there can be nobody, except those on the very extreme of this debate, who believe that we should criminalise 16 and 17 year olds for having sex by consent."
The cabinet office minister Lord Falconer, for the government, argued that the issue was one of equality, adding "far from providing the protection that the baroness claims that they (the amendments) will, the view of many people involved in that process appears to say they would have the reverse effect".
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Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 00:19:52 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: De-wafered

Ben Boxer comments: The rainbow sash becomes a badge of honor under such circumstances as those below. In the words of George W. Bush, "I wonder what Jesus would have done."

Headline:
Activists refused communion at bishops conference (The Advocate, 11/14/00)

Text:
A group of seven protesters attending a Mass Monday evening at Washington, D.C.s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that was part of the annual meeting of U.S. Catholic bishops was refused communion, The Washington Post reports. Peter Sonski, a spokesman for the shrine, explained at the beginning of Mass that the activists, who were wearing rainbow sashes, would not be allowed to receive communion. There are a few here who have said they plan to receive the Eucharist not as a sign of community but as a sign of protest, Sonski said. The protesters who approached the priest for communion were given a blessing but not allowed to receive a communion wafer. About 300 bishops were in attendance for the Mass. Another group of protesters was refused communion at a Mass on Sunday. The protests were part of a series organized for the bishops conference, which runs through Tuesday, by Soulforce, a gay group advocating nonviolence, and Dignity, a group for gay Catholics. About 200 members of the two groups held a silent vigil outside the conference earlier in the day Monday.
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Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:54:31 +0100
From: "SGMS"

Subject: Re: getting rid of Navidad Virus

Thanks to everyone for the praise ;o)

More seriously, I use my computer professionnally and because of my work I spend a fair amount of time online. I have also taken the decision to *not* use an antivirus and just rely on common sense regarding unexpected attachments. That makes my system particularly vulnerable to this kind of shit - and as we know only too well, shit happens!

The KAK worm outbreak nearly a year ago hit me hard, mainly because you didn't have to open any attachments to catch it. I would get it out of my system manually, and 5 minutes later I'd receive another e-mail infected with it. I figured that the only way for me to no longer get infected with this piece of shitware was to monitor its arrival and crunch it automatically. That meant writing a small piece of software myself because I didn't want to use a commercial package. Plus, the commercial AV editors hadn't yet come up with a solution...

Finding out how that thing worked was easy enough because the thing itself is in a human readable form. Just read the code and you know what it does. That enabled me to write AntiKAK and make it public a day or two *before* Symantec brought out their updates!

The Navidad problem wasn't quite the same. It was sent a few times to this list which enabled me to have a sample of it with which to inferct my machine IN CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, I then had to rely on other people's findings and read about it on other AV editors' sites in order to find out exactly what damage it does. So, my "NoNavidad" came out after commercial solutions, but at least it's free and it doesn't slow down your system! Also, it doesn't protect you from later infection - then again, nobody in his/her right mind is going to do the same thing again (I hope)....

Anyway, glad to be of some assistance.

GRS
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Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 09:43:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Edward

Subject: First Opera Experience - Summary

Well, with so many people giving me such great advice about Rigoletto, I thought it would only be proper for me to give my impressions of attending a live opera for the very first time.

- - Great music. The orchestra was fantastic. Very crisp, made the opera flow beautifully. (I do attend classical performances from time to time)

- - Very good singing. Very nice duets with soprano-baritone contrast. Since I was given enough information about the acts, I didn't need to look at the teleprompter for translations as much, only need to glance at it quickly and enjoy the singing. Felt the emotions of the songs through the singing and the music.

- - For the silverfox chasers: A great deal of silverfoxes everywhere! On stage, the part of Monterone was played by a gorgeous silverfox, Brian McIntosh.

My overall impressions is that I was very surprised how much I liked the opera, especially for someone who doesn't speak a word of Italian. Now, I want to go see more operas. I see part of the humor in this performance, taking some of the lyrics light-hearted, and some of the very serious side to it. This is something I thought I wouldn't like and now do.

Edward

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End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #46
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