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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>From today’s (October 10, 2007) Spokesman Review –<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Dear Abby Says She Supports Gay Marriage <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Lisa Leff <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Associated Press<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>October 10, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Jeanne Phillips (aka Abigail Van Buren)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a href="http://tinyurl.com/2feeh3">http://tinyurl.com/2feeh3</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>SAN FRANCISCO</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> – For
years, rumblings have surfaced on the Internet, conjecture about her casual
references to "sexual orientation" and "respect."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Now, Dear Abby is ready to say it flatly: She supports
same-sex marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"I believe if two people want to commit to each other,
God bless 'em," the syndicated advice columnist told the Associated Press.
"That is the highest form of commitment, for heaven's sake."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>What Jeanne Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren, finds offensive
and misguided are homophobic jokes, phrases like "That's so gay," and
parents who reject or try to reform their children when they come out of the
closet.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Her views are the reason she's being honored this week by
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national advocacy group that
provides support for gay people and their families. The original Abby,
Phillips' 89-year-old mother, Pauline, helped put PFLAG on the map in 1984 when
she first referred a distraught parent to the organization.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Jeanne Phillips, who formally took over the column when her
mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago, has continued
plugging the group, as well as its affiliate for parents with children who
identify as transgender, and a suicide hotline aimed at gay teenagers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"I'm trying to tell kids if they are gay, it's OK to be
gay. I've tried to tell families if they have a gay family member to accept
them and love them as they always have," she said Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Alert "Dear Abby" readers may have noticed that
the youthful attitude Phillips promised to bring to the column includes a
decidedly gay-friendly take on most matters.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>In a March 2005 column that touched a nerve with some
readers, for instance, Phillips came down unequivocally on the side of
scientists who say sexual orientation is a matter of genetics, not personal
choice. She advised a mother who had cautioned her 14-year-old daughter to keep
her feelings for other girls secret to "come to terms with your own
feelings about homosexuality."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Last year, addressing a groom whose gay brother refused to
serve as best man or even attend the wedding because he did not have the right
to marry, she made it clear her sympathies lay with the boycotting brother.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Accepting the status quo is not always the best thing
to do," she wrote. "Women were once considered chattel, and slavery
was regarded as sanctioned in the Bible. However, western society grew to
recognize that neither was just. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region>, the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> have recognized gay marriage,
and one day, perhaps, our country will, too."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Phillips, who lives in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los
Angeles</st1:place></st1:City>, said she isn't worried that aligning herself
with gay rights advocates will cause newspapers to censor or cancel the column,
which appears in about 1,400 newspapers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Her outspokenness on gay rights issues has never caused a
strong backlash, said Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate,
which distributes the column. It's possible some editors choose not to run the
segments dealing with homosexuality, but if so they have not complained to the
syndicate, Kerr said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"We get brouhahas all the time, and they haven't been
about Dear Abby," Kerr said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<div>
<p><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Seeya
round town, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City>.<br>
<br>
Tom Hansen<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place><br>
<br>
"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in
that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity,
their dignity and personhood,"<br>
<br>
- Coretta Scott King (March 30, 1998)</span></font> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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