Same-Sex Marriage
Needs Open Debate

Vermont's latest effort to open public debate on whether to allow same-sex couples to marry suffered a serious setback almost before the it began with the revelation that all the members of a panel appointed by the Legislature to explore the issue back same-sex marriage.

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Interpreting Hazy Warnings About Pot and Mental Illness

By Paul Armentano
Smoking pot won't make you crazy, but trying to find the truth behind the recent rash of headlines regarding a supposed link between cannabis and mental illness might.

According to the Associated Press and other news sources, a new study in the British medical journal The Lancet reports that smoking cannabis - even occasionally - can increase one's risk of becoming psychotic. It sounds alarming at first, but a closer look at the evidence reveals that there's less here than the headlines imply.

Time to Give Transgenders Rights, Not Ridicule

Last summer, when my cholesterol count came back high, my wife signed me up with a personal trainer. "You'll like him," she said. "He's got an interesting story." Off I went to Bodies Under Construction, a fitness studio in Hollywood run by Mark Angelo Cummings and his wife Violet. Mark was short, balding and had a beard. He had a big smile and a quick wit.

During my first workout, Mark told me he was born with a "birth defect." "Really," I said. "You look perfectly healthy to me."

He explained that he was, after surgery and years of therapy. "I was born the wrong sex," he said. "I was born Maritza."

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Mayor Jim Naugle

Fort Lauderdale Mayor is at it Again

The Fort Lauderdale mayor had his assistant send out an e-mail that he was going to issue an apology Tuesday for his incredibly stupid and tasteless remarks about the gay community on the steps of City Hall. Figuring Naugle would issue some kind of apology, the media and activists gathered for the press conference. Ah, but all it really did was feed the mayor's ever-expanding ego.

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DeFede: Naugle Isn't Just Nutty Anymore

I'd like to take a moment to apologize to Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. In recent years I've often made fun of Naugle. I called him Nutty Naugle, whacky Naugle, Naugle the Demented, because of all of the crazy things he's said about poor people and minorities and gays and environmentalists. I now realize it was wrong of me to ridicule Fort Lauderdale's mayor. Naugle isn't a joke. He's not a clown and a buffoon. Well, actually, he may be those things too, but he's actually downright dangerous.

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