WTH? Sexual identity disturbance?

Thanks to eternalwytch for the heads up on this one

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros ($157,700) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his license withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his license for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

The judge ruling on the case in Catania, on the southern island of Sicily, said the actions of the defense and transport ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination" against Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights.

The behavior of the ministries led Giuffrida to have "a grave sense of mistrust towards the state," added the judge, who ordered them to pay him 100,000 euros of damages in his verdict issued on Saturday.

Giuffrida's lawyer said the case marked the first time the state had been punished for sexual discrimination, and he hoped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would "summon Giuffrida and apologize to him on behalf of the state and all Italians."

Giuffrida said the sentence was "a step forwards for civil rights because from now on what happened to me can't happen again."

Green Monday: Cycling pt 1, Fitting a Bike

I’ve really been thinking about the idea of getting a bicycle and using it (to start with) for shorter errands and trips. I’ll admit the raising gas prices is one reason, the environmental impact another, but a big reason is also that weighing in now at 157 (a 30 lb loss since Feb) it’s time to step up the fitness part of my day so I can have that nummy Culvers custard guilt free. :)

Okay, I admit, health is a good part of my reason too, even though living in Wisconsin the months it’s warm enough to get on a cycle is limited. So, with all of that in mind, I’ve been doing some research on buying, riding, and maintaining a cycle. There’s so much info, I think I will talk about bikes in several steps over a few posts. This first one will be about bike fitting.

Read the rest at Cycling pt 1, Fitting a Bike

Women and Words update: Objectively Speaking by Clifford Henderson

There's some great stuff over at the Women and Words blog this weekend. Clifford Henderson has a great post going on about character building that's not to miss. Go forth and check it out!
Cliffi here to talk about “The Big O.” Now, before you start salivating, or running for some privacy, let me warn you, it’s not what you might think.

It was one of those days. The writing wasn’t coming easy. Or, editing, I should
say. Eagle-eye Cindy Cresap, my editor, made the case that one of the
relationships in my novel needed a bit of beefing up. The chapter I was working
on today was crucial in that it’s the first time we see the two characters alone
together.

read the rest here!

Best Image Ever!!!

I am soooooo usng this image as my icon for lgbt justice! Thanks to the The Lesbian Said What?? blog for this treasure.

Moon's addition to "Post-a-rejection-letter Friday!"

A couple gems for Post-a-rejection-letter Friday!

A past regection for the novel that is coming out this fall with PD Publishing. Keep in mind this is the final response I got after seven months of waiting and having few responses to my polite email enquiries. That's okay, the next publisher I sent it to couldn't say enough things about how much they liked it.

I apologize for the the extreme delay in the review of your manuscript. I truly enjoyed your submission, and I believe it has great potential. However, it did not pass review, each reviewer felt that the ending was not fleshed out enough. They felt as though the ending came right in the middle of the story.

Here's one for anouther book that will be coming out through PD next year. The editor here was very nice about it, and I hope it might help others to not assume that because the publishers page says they sell something, that they actually want manscripts like it.

We have reviewed your submission and while we found the writing good and story line very well done, we feel that this story is not right for us. At this time, we are not accepting lesbian stories. Our readership has indicated that this genre isn't one they are looking for in a (publisher's name removed) book.

So there's a couple that I saved, though many I didn't. There was even one instance I never got through the door bcause I have one book cotracted with a publisher the editor said it would be a conflict of interest to even look at any of my other manuscripts. Honstly I am pretty happy at PD, so that's okay by me. :)

New Blog on Writing to Check Out!

A group of women writers (me being one of them, heh heh) have formed a writing craft-focused blog. The participants are: Andi Marquette, Clifford Henderson, India Masters, Jove Belle, Larkin Rose, Me, and Sandra Barret. The first post is up, and it's a great one by Andi, the travel goddess herself.

Women and Words

Been Absent - Back Now

I've been hanging over at my LJ blog, and neglicting this one. Now with the new blog sindication I think keeping both wouldn't be a bad thing. Likely there will be little here that you can't find at my LJ, but I may hold some suprises in me yet. Let's begin. :)