Handpicked News: Gay Blood Ban Finds Support, Starbucks Cancels Link to Conversion Therapy, Weird Science

Starbucks CEO Cancels on Church Linked to Conversion Therapy:

Starbucks CEO and founder Howard Schultz has cancelled an appearance at Willow Creek Community Church following an online petition that asked him to denounce the church associated with conversion therapy. According to the Chicago Tribune, Schultz was scheduled to deliver a talk Friday about “How Starbucks Fought for its Life Without Losing Its Soul” during an annual leadership summit sponsored by the Willow Creek Association in South Barrington, Illinois.

Weird Science:

From the lesbian sex lives of koala bears to the tendencies of — ahem — less endowed men, we take a look at some of the research in recent years with LGBT implications.With groups like the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association and their solid positions that sexual orientation is innate, it’s no secret that science is on the side of gay people. Admittedly, though, a remarkable statistic or an incredibly in-depth scientific study on something that seems ridiculous tends to catch our eyes. After Republicans raised a furor over a recent government study regarding penis size and the sexual tendencies of gay men, we decided to take a look at some of the most provocative, shocking, and not-so-shocking studies reported on Advocate.com.

Air France Refuses to Fly Failed Gay Asylum Seeker to Cameroon

LONDON. August 6, 2011  –  Joseph Kaute, the 43-years-old gay Cameroonian who was due to be deported from the UK this morning, is back at Harmondsworh detention centre this evening, thanks to Air France, the airline that was due to fly him from Heathrow back to Yaoundé via Paris.  It was the third attempt to deport him. “Air France refused to allow me to board,” Mr. Kaute told UK Gay News by telephone, this evening. He added that he was aware of the eleventh-hour campaign mounted yesterday evening to prevent the deportation, with representations made directly to Air France in both Paris and London.

Charla Nash’s New Face: Chimp Attack Victim Reveals New Post-Surgery Face On ‘Today’ 

Charla Nash, the woman who was horrifically mauled by a chimp in early 2009, is showing her new face for the first time on NBC’s “Today” Thursday. Nash, who is usually seen with a veil, showed the awful damage that a 200-pound chimp had done to her face when she revealed it on “Oprah” in 2009. The chimp, which was owned by a friend of Nash’s, tore off her nose, hands, eyelids and lips. Nash received a groundbreaking face transplant in Boston in May 2011. On Thursday, “Today” ran exclusive photos and video of Nash discussing the transplant, and her family sat down live with Ann Curry.

Gay Blood Ban Finds Support: Naperville Anti-Gay Group Pushes To Uphold Policy

Though the Naperville, Ill.-based anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)recently lost their 501(c)3, tax-exempt organizational status, the group, officially designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center last year, is keeping busy with a new campaign to uphold the federal ban against gay blood donors.

   

Tags: American Psychological Association, Charla Nash, Face transplant, Howard Schultz, Southern Poverty Law Center, Travis (chimpanzee), Willow Creek Association, Willow Creek Community Church