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A gunman wearing black began shooting at a Tel Aviv gay and lesbian center called Café Noir Saturday night, killing three people and wounding at least eight more - other reports put the number of wounded as high as 15.
The shooter walked into the center during a meeting for LGBT teens. Most of the victims were very young, and many were not yet out to their families.
Police are searching for the gunman, and believe the incident was a homophobic attack rather than a part of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflicts.
Tel Aviv has an active LGBT scene, but several conservative groups in Israel frown on homosexuality.
The Jerusalem Postreports that police have ordered the closing of gay clubs all over the city as a safety precaution, and that one of the people killed was a youth counselor.
There is a short version of the story up at Reuters.
A story on Ynet News indicates that the attack took place during a regular meeting for LGBT teenagers. At least one witness says the gunman was masked.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York announced Monday that the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings this fall on "don't ask, don't tell" -- the first hearings held in the Senate on the military's gay ban since it was instituted in 1993. The House held hearings in the summer of 2008.
Gillibrand secured the pledge from the Armed Services Committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, but a repeal bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate.
“This policy is wrong for our national security and wrong for the moral foundation upon which our country was founded,” Senator Gillibrand said in a statement. “I thank Chairman Levin for agreeing to hold this important hearing. Numerous military leaders are telling us that the times have changed. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is an unfair, outdated measure that violates the civil rights of some of our bravest, most heroic men and women. By repealing this policy, we will increase America’s strength -- both militarily and morally.”
Gillibrand had been considering offering an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill that would have suspended discharges for the balance of the 111th Congress, but she determined that she did not have the 60 votes necessary to successfully overcome a filibuster.
Though no bill has been dropped in the Senate, a repeal bill is still considered Sen. Edward Kennedy's to introduce.
"Sen. Kennedy has been and continues to be the leader on this issue," said one Senate Democratic aide.
Senator Kennedy's office has said for months that the Senator is searching for a Republican cosponsor before introducing the bill, but he has no doubt been focused on achieving President Barack Obama's top priority, health reform. Kennedy is also contending with health issues related to his diagnosis of brain cancer.
In spite of the bill's absence, a spokesperson for Sen. Gillibrand said that the effort to build support for the moratorium had helped push the ball forward.
"The Senator feels that there's strong momentum toward full repeal," said Matt Canter. "That was always her goal from the beginning."
Amendments attached to the Defense Department reauthorization bill that would limit the extension of the federal hate-crimes law passed in the Senate on Monday afternoon.
The amendments were added by Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who gave a 50-minute floor speech on why current hate-crimes laws should not be extended to include gender identity and sexual orientation protections.
The Human Rights Campaign sent out an alert over the weekend after it became clear that Sessions was planning on attaching amendments to the bill. HRC called the attachments "poison pills" poised to "kill the bill," urging senators to vote it down.
The amendments require that hate crimes be identified and prosecuted on "a neutral and objective" basis, allow that the death penalty can be imposed on those who commit hate crimes resulting in death, and require heavier sentencing for attacks on military members and their families.
Another bill was passed by Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy that would limit hate-crimes prosecutions until a state's attorney general has established standards for applying the death penalty, according to the article.
Sessions argued that hate crimes appeared to be decreasing, and that the hate-crimes expansion bill -- known as the Matthew Shepard Act -- was attached to the Defense package too hastily.
"We need to be careful that statutes that become permanent parts of our criminal code are supported by evidence and principle," Sessions said. "I don’t think that our focus here is to deal with symbolic legislation that’s broad and could expand federal criminal jurisdiction beyond its historic role and where the facts do not support the need."
Seis de cada 10 gays y lesbianas dicen que la fe es parte importante de sus vidas, según una reciente investigación de un grupo cristiano. A la inversa, aproximadamente el 72 % de adultos heterosexuales describe su fe como una parte incorporada de su personalidad.
"La gente que retrata a adultos gays como ateos, hedonistas cristianos no refleja la realidad”, dijo Jorge Barna de Barna Group, director del estudio. "Una mayoría sustancial de gays cita su fe como una faceta central de su vida, considerándose a si mismos cristianos y asumen algún tipo de compromiso con la figura de Jesucristo".
Los realizadores del estudio sostienen que las conclusiones eran “sorprendentes”. Tras la controversia para realizar el sondeo, se ha descubierto los preconceptos que tiene la gente respecto de la fe de la gente homosexual.
De la muestra se obtuvo además que un 60% de cristianos heterosexuales lo han sido por cuestión cultural, en tanto que un 40% de encuestados gays eligieron serlo. Entre estos, un 47% de los encuestados heterosexuales volverían a elegir serlo, mientras que solo un 27% de gays y lesbianas volverían a elegir la religión católica en sus vidas.
Del estudio participaron 9.232 personas a quienes se les consultó sobre su orientación sexual, vía telefónica durante enero de 2007 y noviembre de 2008.
