Persecuted  Gays Seek Refuge in U.S.
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One  night in 2003, on the wintry streets of Kosovo, a group of thugs stalked and beat Gramoz Prestreshi almost to death. Police in the war-scarred Balkan province laughed and called him names. The emergency room workers made him mop up his own blood. It was a sordid but hardly unusual episode in...
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SANTIAGO, Chile -- Emma de RamÃÂ³n recently bought a condo here. But even before she moved in, she said, everyone in the building knew one fact about her: She's gay.
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TUCSON After escaping death threats in a town north of Baghdad, Nadhum Ali al-Hasnawi and his family landed in the United States six weeks ago as refugees, hoping to build a new life for themselves. But since its arrival, the family has rarely left their apartment. "It is like Iraq all over again...
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A group of gay Mormons is seeking an unprecedented meeting with the new church president and his counselors, hoping to begin a conversation and find ways to address the concerns of its members.
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An underground movement of gay  Orthodox Jews in Israel has created a website to help  homosexuals cope with living in a strict, religious community  that is often hostile to their lifestyle.
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Some 300 homeless dogs and cats, many left behind by owners who fled Lebanon during the Hezbollah-Israel war, will be heading to new sanctuaries in the United States for adoption, an animal rights activist said Friday.
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The Church of England's general synod will search for ways to avoid a split over homosexuality.
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In a direct challenge to the leadership of the U.S. Episcopal Church, an influential Anglican archbishop from Africa is exploring ways to allow American congregations upset over the election of a gay bishop to realign themselves under his jurisdiction.
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By Karen Owen, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.  Jun. 24--Local churches are being recruited by a faith-based program to befriend ex-convicts and help them stay out of jail or prison.   Fresh Start for Life Inc.
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Since emerging from the shadow of the prudish Soviet Union a decade ago, sexual minorities have fought to gain a foothold in Russian society. But Russian lesbians now say they are facing growing pressure from authorities to return to the closet.
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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued a report that sharply criticizes federal immigration authorities for rounding up asylum-seekers at the border, detaining them for months in prisonlike facilities and quickly dispatching them back to the countries they fled.
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Few constituencies are as eager for the Republican Party to falter this political season as gay-rights activists. Yet as they observe the Democratic presidential campaign and the rest of the electoral landscape, their high hopes often are mixed with frustration.
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While cities around the world hosted upbeat gay pride parades in recent weeks, human-rights activists kept watch on a contrasting set of developments: gays beaten by demonstrators in Moscow, convicted on sodomy charges in Cameroon, targeted by sweeping anti-gay legislation in Nigeria.
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Four more years of George W. Bush is a daunting prospect for many gay Americans, who see a president increasingly beholden to an evangelical Christian base bent on resisting gay equality.
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Mormonism's home is America, but most of its believers don't live here anymore.
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In addition to Wisconsin, three other states &#151; Arizona, Colorado and Virginia &#151; are viewed by gay-rights strategists as having closely contested campaigns this fall over proposed constitutional amendments that would ban gay marriage and civil unions. A brief look at the campaigns:
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Gay evangelicals come from a tradition whose leaders have led the fight against greater acceptance of homosexuals.