Jan 21, 2005   | COMMENTS     

A billboard on a busy road in Montgomery County proclaiming that gays can change their sexual orientation has shocked and offended local gay residents. The ad, sponsored by the group Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, is featured on a billboard on Route 355 south. It features a picture of a young man with the tagline, “Ex-Gays Prove That Change is Possible,” along with the group’s Web site address. Taryn Goodman, a heterosexual who works in Rockville and has many gay friends, said she was “shocked” by the ad. “The ad supports this stigma in society that you should change,” Goodman said. “I am of the mindset you should be who you are and want to be.” Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, the state’s largest gay rights organization, condemned the ad. “Ex-gay advocacy groups like PFOX are ‘universally rejected’ by all major psychological and health organizations,” Furmansky said. “They’re free to disseminate their information no matter how far out of the mainstream it is. But God forbid these people spend their time and money focusing on the genocide occurring in Sudan, the tsunami victims, or homelessness and joblessness … no, to them, homosexuals are the No. 1 threat to society, and that would be ludicrous if it weren’t so sad.” A PFOX representative did not return a Blade telephone call by press time.
JOE CREA

Alexandria gay group to award scholarship
The Alexandria Gay & Lesbian Community Association, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Alexandria, Va., is scheduled to award its first scholarship of $1,200 to a graduate of T.C. Williams High School, in Alexandria, Va. According to a news release from Alexandria GLCA, the award will be given to a student who has “demonstrated a commitment to human rights and equality through community service, elective academic focus, or membership in a LesBiGay-Straight Alliance.” The candidate, who must be a graduating senior, must also have a minimum grade point average of 2.0. Alexandria GLCA is planning to raise $20,000 for future awards. The group is planning a fund-raiser to be held on Feb. 3. at the Hard Time Café, 1404 King St., Old Town Alexandria, Va. Founded in 1983, Alexandria GLCA was meant to provide educational and social resources for gay people living in northern Virginia. As described on the organization’s official Web site, the group works to improve “the quality of life for the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community through social activities, political awareness and community service.” For more information visit www.aglca.org.
YUSEF NAJAFI

Gay man killed after being hit by bus, van
A 33-year-old gay man died on Jan. 13, at Howard University Hospital, in Northwest, D.C., shortly after being struck by a bus and then a van at about 7 a.m., in the 600 block of H Street, NW, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Mark Stephen Nederostek, a resident of Arlington, Va., was standing in the roadway when he was struck by a bus heading west on H Street. Nederostek was then knocked into the path of another vehicle that was heading east on H Street. Police said both vehicles and their drivers remained on the scene, and that the Metropolitan Police Department’s Major Crash Investigations Unit is handling the investigation. Nederostek was employed as the principal consultant for Keane Federal System Inc. He was born in Media, Pa., and had lived in Arlington for the past five years. [For more information see Nederostek’s obituary on Page 41.]
YUSEF NAJAFI

Gay rights advocates lobby to stop gay marriage ban
RICHMOND, Va. — Gay rights advocates desperate to slow momentum in a conservative Legislature for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages fanned out across Capitol Square last week, lobbying lawmakers, according to an Associated Press report. Already battling a law passed overwhelmingly last year that bars civil unions for same-sex couples, Equality Virginia this year is fighting against four bills that would ban gay marriage outright. “The longer we’re able to have days like this and present the true face of Virginia’s gay and lesbian community, we know we’ll win,” said Dyana Mason, executive director of the organization, the state’s leading gay rights group. In November, voters in 11 states approved constitutional amendments similar to Virginia’s proposal to restrict marriage to one man and one woman. Other states are pondering similar prohibitions.