Matt Foreman, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Task Force, steps down
SAN FRANCISCO The executive director of one of the nation’s leading gay rights groups has accepted a new job with a philanthropic foundation in San Francisco.
Matt Foreman has been at the helm of the New York-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for five years. In April, he plans to start working for the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund as head of the foundation’s gay and lesbian program.
At the task force, Foreman has been a prominent advocate for gay men, lesbians and transgender people in the U.S. on such issues as marriage and military service.
The Haas Fund awarded more than $19 million worth of grants to gay and lesbian non-profits over the last five years.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says it will undertake a national search for Foreman’s successor.
Court throws out suit brought by suspected lesbians expelled from school
RIVERSIDE, Calif. A judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed on behalf of two girls kicked out of a Christian school that suspected they were lesbians.
A judge in Riverside ruled Jan. 11 that the girls’ discrimination lawsuit had no basis in California anti-discrimination law.
The students and their parents sued California Lutheran School in Wildomar after they were expelled in 2005 because the school suspected the 11th-graders were having a relationship.
The private school views homosexuality as a sin and its code of conduct states that students can be removed for behavior that contradicts “Christian values.”
An appeal is expected.
Photos of teen water polo athletes posted on gay porn sites
SANTA ANA, Calif. Police are investigating how photographs of male high school water polo players ended up on several gay adult Web sites.
Some of the pictures were of boys as young as 14, and were juxtaposed next to photos of nude young men and graphic sexual content, The Orange County Register reported Saturday.
University of California, Irvine, police confirmed they are investigating whether a dispatcher, Scott Cornelius, photographed high school players for gay-oriented sites.
“We’re looking into the matter,” Police Chief Paul Henisey said. “We’re not exactly sure about what we have or what kinds of issues there are.”
Henisey said Cornelius remained on active duty. Cornelius did not respond to requests from the newspaper for comment.
It was not clear if posting the pictures constituted an offense.
“With free speech and photography, there’s a gray cloud in terms of what is legal, constitutional,” said state Assemblyman Jose Solorio, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Solorio said he would have the committee investigate the matter.
These articles appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 25, 2008