2005’s Year of the Queer was chock full of sassy stories! More marriage equality battles erupted both here in Wisconsin and nationally. Closeted Republicans were unmasked around the country. A former Nazi now wearing the big tiara at the Vatican pulled a few anti-gay pages from Himmler’s play book. And a gay cowboy movie looks at year’s end to have a death grip on Oscar’s short hairs. So may great stories - so little room! Here are Quest’s picks for the top ten world & national and Wisconsin stories.
  And once again, we’ll pull out the crystal ball to make five predictions for 2006, but only after taking a quick peek at how we did in 2005. Let the dish be served!


1. Gay Marriage Erupts Worldwide.
At the beginning of the year only Belgium and the Netherlands legally recognized same sex unions. By the end of the year Spain, Canada and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales) had been added to the list. Over the summer the Scandinavian countries of Iceland and Norway expanded their domestic partnership laws. In November, South Africa’s Supreme Court had ruled in favor of gay marriage. And as the world puts on its New Year’s party hat, the Czech Republic and Austria are poised to recognize gay unions, with Ireland possibly joining the list by next Spring. Honorable mention also must go to China as the world’s most populous nation decriminalized homosexuality in 2005.
  Not that every country on the planet was racing to the pink altar: The eastern European countries of Latvia and Lithuania banned gay marriage. Poland elected anti-gay President Lech Kaczyinski who promised to “cleanse” the nation of its queer culture. Most disturbing of all were Iran and Saudi Arabia’s beheadings of convicted homosexual men and - just at this issue’s press time- women.

2. U.S. Gay Marriage Battle Yields Mixed Results.
American gay marriage supports had reasons to both cheer and cry throughout the year here. On the positive side, Massachusetts celebrated its first anniversary of same sex wedded bliss while Vermont put five candles on their civil unions anniversary cake. Connecticut legalized civil unions and the California passed gay marriage legislation, the first two states to do so without a court order hanging over elected officials’ heads.
  On the down side, Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger   vetoed the California bill, while voters in Kansas and Texas passed constitutional same sex marriage bans by wide margins. Other states including Arizona, Iowa and Wisconsin are in the process of passing amendment bills for ballot box review. And in late December, anti-gay forces in Massachusetts succeeded in validating a petition for a 2008 referendum on gay marriage there.
   The courts, meanwhile, had a field day with the marriage bans passed in 2004. Among the highlights: The Nebraska Supremes invalidated that state’s amendment, and Ohio and Michigan judge invalidated domestic violence laws and domestic partner benefits because of those states’ amendments. Appeals courts later overturned both rulings, with the losing sides vowing to continue their fights up the judicial ladder at the year’s close.

3. Bush’s Supreme Picks Filled With Gay Surprises.
The death of Chief Justice Rehnquist and the resignation of Sandra Day O’Connor gave President Bush the opportunity to nominate a several candidates to the nation’s High Court, all of whom have had lavender tints in their backgrounds. Bush’s initial success - mild mannered Chief Justice John Roberts - had worked on arguments to overturn Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2, many of which showed up in the court’s landmark 1996 Romer vs. Evans decision. Unsuccessful second pick Harriet Miers withdrew after the Religious Right howled over many things, including her pro-gay answers to a late 1970’s questionnaire and her “habitual spinster” status. The jury’s still out on Samuel Alito, although his collegiate pro-gay rights writings have taken a back seat to more recent revelations of his 80’s and 90’s advocacy to overturn the nearly 40 year old pro-choice Roe vs. Wade ruling.

4. Gay Republicans Tumble From Closets Across The Country.
It seemed you couldn’t swing a Shih Tzu without swishing into a closeted gay Republican in 2005. The fun started early when gay bloggers Mike Rogers and John Aravosis fingered Talon News’ White House reporter Jeff Gannon as a moonlighting, military-minded gay hooker calling himself James Guckert. The scandal touched on the alleged same sex proclivities of both White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, hotly denied by both of the middle-aged, dateless single men.
  Out on the left coast, the Gay.com chat room denizens Cobra82nd and RightBi-Guy turned out to be Spokane Mayor James West. Cruising on city computers on the taxpayer’s dime was not supported by the city’s voters, who turned West out in a special recall election in December. The recall brought an end to West’s more than two decades of actively opposing gay rights legislatively, even as he allegedly sexually harassed teenaged boys and offered young men government jobs in exchange for “special favors.”
  Congressional GOPers Mark Foley of Florida and David Drier of California were among several elected officials pulled from the closet by BlogActive, an outing site that scored its biggest surprise last summer when virulently anti-gay Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-Pennsylvania) Chief of Staff Robert Traynham was unmasked as homosexual.
  The closet cout-de-gras, however, was the post-resignation revelation that the disgraced, butch, bribe-taking Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego) has spent years engaging in “bi-married-curious” homo hook-ups. With so many queers cropping up on the right side of the aisle, the only honest, openly gay Republican in the House - Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona - apparently felt comfortable enough to call it quits after his current term expires.

5. Ratzi The Nazi Pulls Hardcore Homos From U. S. Seminaries.
After engineering his own rise with political moves that rivaled Karl Rove’s, newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI (aka former Hitler Youth Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) quickly set his sights on the priestly pedophilia scandal in the United States. Eschewing scientific evidence in favor of Biblical blather, Benedict rush-released a policy he had been crafting in his fourteen year role as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the late John Paul II. The policy declared men with “deeply rooted homosexual tendencies” were unfit for the priesthood. The Pope then named a team of investigators to review all American seminaries for compliance with the new rule.
  Less than a week after the anti-gay rule was officially unveiled, His Holiness cast a pall on World AIDS Day by permitting underlings to parrot an “official message” that opposed the use of condoms, blamed gays for the spread of the disease, while simultaneously praising the Catholic Church’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
  Benedict’s year-end nomination of Archbishop Pietro Sambi as papal nuncio (or Vatican ambassador) to the United States further alarmed many gay Catholics. Sambi was instrumental in a coordinated effort to scuttle the international gay WorldPride event from being held in Jerusalem while he served as papal nuncio to Israel.
  In all, Benedict’s actions earned him the “Anti-Gay Person Of The Year” awarded by the Washington Blade at year’s end.

6. Bible Bigots Bite Big Business For Gay Support.
Religious wackos worked overtime to intimidate major U.S. companies into backing off from their publically announced support of the gay community in 2005. Among the most notable battles: Kraft’s decision to support the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, Ford’s advertising in LGBT media and the Wells Fargo Bank’s pro-gay employee benefits policies.
  Kraft refused to back down out right. In an internal corporate memo to employees obtained exclusively by Quest last May and later reprinted worldwide, Executive Vice President Marc Firestone wrote about the controversy: “It can be difficult when we are criticized. It’s easy to say you support a concept or a principle when nobody objects. The real test of commitment is how one reacts when there are those who disagree. I hope you share my view that our company has taken the right stand on diversity, including its contribution to the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago.”
  Ford’s December reaction to a threats from the American Family Association - the same group that Kraft had stared down six months earlier about the same time as the AFA had begun to threaten a boycott of the car maker - was a model of how not to respond extremists. In an attempt to end what has been considered a public relations nightmare, Ford wrote to gay groups December 14 saying it would resume buying corporate ads in gay media, featuring all eight of the company’s brands, reversing a week-old decision to pull Jaguar and Land Rover ads in gay publications - a move that had coincided with the AFA’s announcement to drop the planned boycott.
  James Dobson’s announcement to pull all Focus On The Family funds from the Wells Fargo financial system apparently came after months of behind-the-scenes arm twisting of bank executives to end what Dobson claimed was the active pursuit of a “radical homosexual agenda.” Although Dobson later claimed “we certainly don’t expect corporate America to do our bidding,” he didn’t like the trade-off of Wells Fargo’s underwriting of FOTF’s anti-gay agenda while using a miniscule portion of the interest and service fees the bank collected to fund the other side.
  And if the above scuffles were not comical enough, don’t forget James Dobson’s gay baiting of SpongeBob SquarePants as the year began, followed almost immediately the kiddie cartoon “Postcards from Buster” drawing the wrath of the U.S. Department of Education for an episode briefly featuring two lesbian parents. And speaking of television...

7. I Got My Gay TV!
2005 was the year that America finally got not one, but three cable channels of all-gay programming all the time. The Q Network, Viacom’s LOGO and Here! TV all debuted within months of each other.  LOGO can be found on the higher end digital tiers of many urban cable systems and national satellite dish programming, while both Q and Here! operate respectively as premium and pay-per-view channels.
  2005 also marked the end of two long-running premium cable series favored by the gay set: “Queer As Folk” on Showtime and “Six Feet Under” on HBO. Both series’ finales drew big numbers, reversing viewer erosion that reached as high as a 75% loss in viewership in “Queer As Folk’s” case.
  Additionally, broadcast TV saw a drop in gay characters among the fall series as well as the announcement that this would be “Will & Grace’s” final season. Openly gay Marc Cherry’s “Desperate Housewives”also has seen viewer fatigue.

8. Science Says It’s Genetic.
2005 was barely a month old when the first of a number of startling reports added weight to the theory that same sex attraction has a strong genetic component. An extensive study at the University of Chicago reported that genetics impacted behavioral patterns in 40-60% of the research project’s subjects. Later in the year a Swedish team showed the response to scent differed dramatically between gays and straights. Other studies showed differences in patterns of aggression among men coincided with sexual orientation.
  New studies also played the numbers game. Most dramatic with the exhaustive British study that announced 2-4% of all Britons were gay.
  In the animal world, Oregon researchers found 8% of rams are gay. Feathers flew when keepers tried to straighten out gay penguins in a Berlin zoo, while the Central Park Zoo’s famous gay male penguin couple Silo and Roy split up - over a female. Then again, Boston’s popular swan couple “Romeo & Juliet” turned out to be lesbians.

9. Protestant Denominations Continue To Struggle With Homosexuality.
Its a story that covers more than a year but once again mainline Protestant denominations such as the Methodists, the Lutherans and The Episcopals continued to struggle with their response to God’s gay people. Evangelical Lutherans considered then drew back from endorsing a resolution that would allow openly gay ministers to serve. Methodists eventually defrocked lesbian pastor Beth Stroud.
  The Anglican Communion came perilously close to schism as third world bishops called for the removal of openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson and the condemnation of American Episcopals for . Robinson traveled to England to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who called the encounter cordial yet candid.

10. “Brokeback Mountain” Breaks Gay Stereotypes.
The first media rumblings began in September when Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” took the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. In November critics in the U. S. began singing the praises of what some have dubbed the “gay cowboy movie.” A limited six screen opening in early December saw the record for average per-screen box office shattered. As Quest goes to press, the film continues to be the #1 per-screen average in the country for the third successive week.
  “Brokeback Mountain” has done more than win Golden Globe nominations, places on critic’s year-end top10 lists and Oscar speculation. Audiences of all sexual orientations are embracing what is a deeply moving, tragic and very personal story of unfulfilled love and expectations. The movie’s straightforward telling of its simple story of two men who happen to love each other, in fact, may do more for the LGBT civil rights movement in the next few months than all the carefully crafted, focus group-tested messages conjured up by the professional gay-for-pay activist crowd have done in the last few years.
  A greater irony still would be if “Brokeback Mountain” finally breaks the back of the Bible-based bigotry movement in this country.

Marriage bills, an ACLU lawsuit, RuPaul, the return of HIV, a bigoted alderman's anti-gay rants and more make Quest's picks for the top ten stories in Wisconsin in 2005. Here in descending order are our choices for the most newsworthy moments.

1. Wisconsin Anti-Gay Amendment Passes Senate On Party Line Vote.
December 7 saw SJR-53 pass in the state Senate on a party line vote. The likely inexorable process of the second passage of the proposed constitutional amendment barring legal recognition of all unmarried couples, gay or straight, had begun but on a distinctly different note. Democrats - particularly Sen. Dave Hansen of Green Bay and openly gay Sen. Tim Carpenter - found not only their voices but effective arguments showing up the Republican-sponsored bill for the cheap, mean-spirited political ploy activists have been calling it since its first introduction.
  Hansen’s turnaround was dramatic. A former amendment supporter, he could hardly contain himself and tried to offer an amendment to the bill before lead sponsor Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) could exercise his prerogative to explain why the bill supposedly was needed. Hansen’s passion was primed in part by a pro-amendment caller to his office who also encouraged an “open season on queers”in a recorded voice mail.
  By offering amendments encouraging Republicans to live up to their own empty rhetoric on marriage and so-called “family values,” Democrats were able to expose the amendment bill for the mean spirited, widely damaging cheap political ploy it was. The message also finally sunk in the the mainstream media who widely reported how the amendment’s passage would harm families of unmarried couples of all types.

2. ACLU Files Same-Sex Domestic Partner Benefit Lawsuit.
Even as Republicans heated up the amendment battle, their decade-long refusal to allow consideration of same sex domestic partner benefits in the University of Wisconsin system and other state agencies came back to haunt them as the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit April 20 against the state of Wisconsin on behalf of six lesbian employees and their partners seeking domestic partner health insurance and family leave protections.
  “I worked as many hours and just as hard as my straight colleagues and coworkers.  I shouldn’t be denied the ability to provide my family with health insurance solely because my partner of 29 years is another woman,” Virginia Wolf, a minister and retired English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout said at the press conference announcing the action.
  Republican lawmakers responded by hiring the Alliance Defense Fund, James Dobson’s crack SpongeBob SquarePants legal defense team, to insert the Assembly into the lawsuit - the first time in U. S. history a governmental body has selected a religious-based organization to represent them in a civil rights lawsuit.
  Following the Assembly Republicans’ lead, a shadowy, apparently one-man, religious-based group calling itself the First Freedom Foundation later approached eight villages, towns and cities - the largest of which was Green Bay - to solicit them to file a similar motion to intervene, arguing that a ruling forcing the state to grant benefits in the case would force them to follow suit.
  In September, Dane County Circuit Court Judge David T. Flanagan threw out both motions, ruling that they would violate the separation of powers outlined in the state Constitution. Flanagan ruled that state law gives the Department of Justice the authority to defend the state’s interests, and the department is already doing so in the lawsuit. Flanagan also found that the municipalities and the Legislature had no compelling interests that met legal requirements.

3. “No On The Amendment” Coalition Develops Unprecedented Partnerships
In 2005 Action Wisconsin, the statewide LGBT civil rights organization, and its Milwaukee-focused counterpart Center Advocates forged a “No On The Amendment” Coalition that has brought national attention to the state's fight for marriage equality. The organizations brought unprecedented numbers of citizens to lobby against the bill in late January, when over 400 knocked on legislators’ doors, and again in November - with just a few day’s notice - when nearly 350 spoke or registered  against the proposed constitutional ban.
  Joining that partnership in February was the first religious-based anti-amendment organization, Christians For Equality, who mustered over 200 people of faith to a lobby day that month. Additionally, a multitude of mainline Protestant denominations that included the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutherans, The United Methodists. the Presbyterians joined numerous individual churches, fellowships and synagogues that went on record opposing the amendment throughout the year. The number of adherent members represented by those denominations now surpasses a half million. By contrast, The Family Research Institute’s Julaine Appling was able to produce only a little over 52,000 of her promised 75,000 signatures supporting the amendment at the sole hearing on the bill November 29.
  The “No On The Amendment” Coalition also boasted the support of several labor unions and dozens of social justice and progressive organizations from around the state too numerous to mention here. The full list is available on the Action Wisconsin website at: www.actionwisconsin.org.

4. RuPaulFest, er Pridefest Shatters Attendance
Billed in 2005 as Wisconsin’s “pride and joy,” the ninth annual PrideFest at the Henry B. Maier “Summerfest” grounds saw record-breaking attendance June 11-12. PrideFest officials claimed  that the official attendance figure was 21,368, a number that also included volunteers, free passes and other non-paid admissions.
   12,984 of that total attended PrideFest’s opening day. This year’s festival also scored a mix of gay and straight attendees. According to the Quest news team covering the event, most of those asked for the prime reason they were in attendance named the appearance of dance artist RuPaul as their reason for passing through the gates. The day’s lineup also featured disco diva Taylor Dayne and comedian Jason Stuart. Saturday evening saw half-hour waiting lines at admission booths outside the festival and similarly long lines at the beer ticket and ID bracelet stands, less memorable PrideFest firsts.
  The financial success, however, allowed PrideFest to pay off all of its remaining debt of $120,000 later that summer.  The success also quieted calls for the reform of the PrideFest organizational structure to permit a more open process in membership and leadership selection.
  It should be noted that a month later, RuPaul continued his/her successful sweep across the state by appearing at a Madison underwear party on the eve of that city’s official Pride Weekend. The July 16 event at the Majestic night club also set attendance records.

5. HIV/AIDS Re-Emerges As Gay Community Concern In Wisconsin.
Following similar resurgences in major gay communities around the country over the last two years, the number of new HIV/AIDs in Wisconsin’s gay men’s community spiked significantly in 2005. The 16% increase in new Wisconsin HIV cases in the last  year might have seemed alarming enough, but the 48% rise among the state’s gay men, and the more than 50% surge in new cases among those under the age of 25 shocked  many gay community leaders and AIDS activists.
  “The resurgence is very troubling,” ARCW’s Vice President and CEO Mike Gifford told Quest. “Young gay men who did not live through the early days of this epidemic do not consider HIV a serious health threat.”
  AIDS Network’s Bob Power thought the new OraQuick test may be contributing to the statistical rise. “I hope that (part of the rise in new cases) is due to the increased efforts in testing with the rapid testing tool that is both convenient to use in non-clinical settings and reduces the number of people tested lost to follow-up,” Powers said.
  AIDS groups were heartened by the approval of $1 million in increased funding for HIV/AIDS services in the state’s 2005-6 biennial budget in July. Fundraising for AIDS prevention, health and social services continued apace with the combined efforts of ARCW and AIDS Network’s rides, walks and Holly Jolly Folly topping a million dollars as well, in a year when the Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita competed for donor dollars.

6. Milwaukee AlderBigot Mike McGee Enrages City’s Gay Community.
The ongoing antics of African American Alder Mike McGee caused the blood pressure of many in Milwaukee to surge in 2005, but none more so that the city’s LGBT community. McGee’s initial volley at a February 10 rally in defense of Frank Jude Jr.’s October, 2004 beating by off-duty Milwaukee policemen equated the Fox Valley resident’s assailants as “hate mongers and KKK killers” but then McGee singled out one of the dozen attackers as “a straight-up sick faggot.”
  The subsequent response from gay blogger and former IN Step publisher William Attewell focused the city’s attention on the anti-gay slur. The Milwaukee LGBT Center, which sits in McGee’s district, later chimed in admonishment but it was Sen. Tim Carpenter’s on-camera confrontation with McGee at another of the alder’s staged protests two weeks later that showed McGee up to be the cowardly, sniveling figure he is.
  “Why are you disrespectful? Why don’t you return phone calls?” Carpenter shouted.  “When will you apologize for using the term ‘faggot’ when referring to police officers? You’re an embarrassment.”
  McGee refused to acknowledge Carpenter, and instead ran off down the hall and into his office, trailed by Carpenter, TV cameras and reporters eager to capture the confrontation. Carpenter continued shouting to McGee after he went into his office “Why are you hiding?” The senator later explained that he had attempted to call McGee numerous times without success.
  McGee also caught the anger of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Common Council President Willie Hines not only for his anti-gay slurs but his use of derogatory terms for black women on the city’s talk radio.
  Later in the year, McGee was back on the city’s gaydar after two teenaged girls accused him of making anti-gay comments while showing a video of the February 23 confrontation during a bus trip the alder sponsored to the Millions More March in Washington, DC.
  In November, McGee was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in a suburban Wauwatosa Blockbuster Video parking lot. Once again the alder attempted to play the race card but to increasingly deaf ears.

7. Milwaukee Company’s “Naked Boys Singing”
    Shutdown Saga Finally Peters Out.
The much-heralded Uncommon Theatre production of the cabaret revue “Naked Boys Singing” closed December 29 at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (MGAC), signalling the end of the first phase of a five-month saga of sometimes chilling and other times comical events.
  For six weeks prior to the show’s debut, ads focusing primarily on the nudity of the cast spread through the state’s gay media. However, an un-retouched cover photo of the cast on the August issue of Outbound triggered an attempt by at least one out-of-town night club to cancel a planned bus trip to the revue.
  The ads also brought out the naked fury of Milwaukee street preacher Drew Heiss who filed an open records request on August 2 to see if all the appropriate licenses for the production were in place. The MGAC applied for a small theater a license request just a day later, city records indicate. However, since the license had to be approved  by the common council, it was not in effect when the revue opened on August 11.
  A week later “Naked Boys Singing” was caught with its licenses down as the city’s vice squad shuttered the production. Director Mark Hooker claimed the shuttering was an unprecedented in the history of the show and that the police action was “mean spirited and homophobic” selective enforcement of a technicality. Within days, however, it was learned the revue had been shut down on at least four previous occasions in cities ranging from the gay mecca Provincetown to Atlanta.
  The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center subsequently filed at $630,000 claim against the city, most of which is for an alleged violation of the not-for-profits’ civil rights. The City of Milwaukee later backed down on the small theater license requirement for the MGAC after reviewing documents relating to the center’s not-for-profit status. The documents had been submitted with the earlier license request for a temporary Class B liquor license.
  On August 30 Mayor Tom Barrett called for both a review of the city’s licensing division and the police department’s handling of the shutdown. Barrett later met with about fifty interested gay community members at a town hall meeting at the Milwaukee LGBT Center.
  On October 29, a partially recast version of “Naked Boys Singing” re-opened for an eight week run. In November the international touring act “Puppetry of the Penis,” another show noted for its frontal male nudity, put on benefit show in support of the beleaguered Milwaukee revue.
  Much of the controversy was fueled by self-promoter extraordinaire Donald Hoffman. Hoffman serves as editor of the Milwaukee gay lifestyle monthly Queer Life and as the co-director of the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center.  Hoffman coordinated the MGAC’s placement of full page advertisements in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on August 31 and September 2 demanding a “public apology” for the shutdown and devoted two issues of front page coverage about the imbroglio in Queer Life.
  The next phase of the controversy will involve the settlement of the standing claim against the city. The failure of both the city clerk’s licensing office and the MGAC to exercise due diligence in the review of pertinent ordinances prior to processing the MGAC’s small theater license application request - the event that set in motion the subsequent chain of events - likely will weigh heavily on the final outcome.

8. Door County Hate Crime Charges Ruled A Bar Brawl.
It took ten months, divided the residents a gay-friendly tourist region and captured the interest of hate crime activists nationwide, but the week long trial of father and son Mark and Joshua Sawyer last April found them guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct but innocent of serious battery charges. The younger Sawyer was also found innocent on the hate crime penalty enhancer.
  Originally five men were charged with a variety of crimes, and four had the hate crime enhancer attached to their charges. Adam Bley pleaded guilty to a minor offense. Two others, Robert Wagner and Andrew Ostrand, pled guilty to lesser charges in plea deals that dropped the hate crime penalty. The elder Sawyer’s hate crime charge was also dropped in pre-trial negotiations.
  From the beginning the jury heard two widely divergent versions of what happened June 6, 2004 at Bley’s Tavern in rural West Jacksonport. Prosecutor Joan Korb attempted to lay out a scenario of terror caused by intolerant men who could not accept the fact that several gay men had chosen to be themselves in a rural tavern. Photos of the bloodied Day were offered in evidence. The gay men’s story was supported by Tina Ostrand who alleged Mark Sawyer’s use of the word “fag” triggered the fight.
  Defense attorneys Michael Fitzgerald and William Appel weaved a story that could only be described, according to one court watcher, as the gay version of the “uppity nigger” syndrome: openly gay men flaunted their lifestyle in front of intoxicated straight men, thus causing a fight that got way out of hand. A defense witness claimed Day ripped of his shirt as if he were professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and started the fight. Photos of Mark Sawyer’s severely brutalized face caused by a single defensive punch by Day were also shown to the jury.
  The prosecution did get the younger Sawyer to admit he barred the door, preventing the victims from leaving the fray.  However, Sawyer’s reasoning for blocking the exit was because he did not want Day and Groeschl to leave before the police arrived.
  In the end, Groeschl and Day’s failure to follow up with the police after the incident appeared to confirm the defense’s allegations, made most effectively by fellow assailant Ostrand, that the gay couple incited the brawl. Jury foreman William Sturdevant summed up his impression of the brawl as an liquor-infused affair. “I think it was just a matter of too much alcohol. The guys that were supposedly victims were just as culpable in starting the fight as anyone else,” Sturdevant said.

9. Veteran Activist John Quinlan Quits OutReach.
In September, John Quinlan, the Executive Director of  OutReach, resigned saying conflicts with the agency’s board of directors that made his ability to helm the community center untenable.
   The resignation came two months after local papers reported his continued leadership was under review .   Quinlan claimed initially he was not being forced out by OutReach’s board, but was discussing with them the conditions under which he would stay or go.  Following his resignation, Quinlan claimed that he returned from his family leave to find the locks changed on his office door. After negotiations with the board to resume his position, Quinlan asserted that he was subjected to micromanagement by board members.
  Quinlan remains a veteran Madison activist, with a long history of experience in the areas of civil rights advocacy, print and broadcast journalism, and community organizing experience.  Prior to his three year tenure at OutReach, he served as the director of the city’s Tenant Resource Center, public relations director at AIDS Network, and as an editor and freelance journalist for a number of state and national LGBT publications. He continues to host Forward Forum, a weekly talk show on WXXM-FM, in Sun Prairie, better known as “Madison’s Progressive Talk, The Mic 92.1.”
  Quinlan also has served on more than a dozen nonprofit boards and government committees, including as membership chair of the local Rainbow Coalition, president of the Fair Housing Council of Dane County, trustee for the ACLU of Wisconsin, president of the Wisconsin Community Fund, and co-chair of the city of Madison’s Study Circles on Race program.  He currently serves on the advisory committees for the Madison Mayor and the Madison Superintendent of Schools and Rainbow Families Wisconsin, on the civil rights coalition “Communities United,” and as secretary for the LGBT interfaith group “Coming Out, Coming Together.” In 2002, Community Shares of Wisconsin presented him its “Sally Sunde Award” for outstanding contributions toward social justice.
  Quinlan succeeded Debra Weill at OutReach, which has had a history of turnovers at the agency’s helm. Weill was fired in June 2002 by the board on a unanimous vote in her third year in the position. 

10. Sudden Passings Sadden Gay Wisconsin.
2005 saw several high profile members of state’s LGBT community and one long-standing tradition pass from the scene, a number of them suddenly.
  In March Green Bay activist Chuck Hubbard succumbed to a suspected case of meningococcal meningitis, a rarely seen inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord. Hubbard had been the Secretary of the Argonauts and the coordinator of the Argonauts’ Charities which provides emergency, last-resort funding for the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.
  Hubbard also has been a key organizer of northeast Wisconsin pride events in 2003 and 2004, an active member of Entertainers Against AIDS, and Rainbow Over Wisconsin. Hubbard played a key role in the success of ROW’s first ever fundraising banquet and silent auction in October, 2004.
  In May Rev. Lew Broyles, pastor of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Community Church and long time gay activist died of a  massive heart attack while visiting a friend in Mississippi. Broyles had just returned from a midday jog when he was stricken and was pronounced dead at the scene by local paramedics.
  Broyles hosted the Milwaukee public access cable program “Gay by God’s Will,” served as a member of the PrideFest Task Force and had been scheduled to lead the gay wedding ceremony at PrideFest. Broyles also recently had completed a video project with the Medical College of Wisconsin on LGBT health issues. At the time of his passing, Broyles served as the acting board chairman of SAGE-Milwaukee and had be a leading figure in the current revision of the LGBT senior citizens’ group’s By-Laws. Broyles also served on the board of HIT’s International Gay Bowling Tournament 25th Anniversary event.
  Two long time bar owners passed away in 2005. In July, John P. Wolfe, owner of the Wolfe’s Den passed away June 9 at his home. In August, Clarence Germershausen, owner of Milwaukee’s C’est La Vie died at age 74. Germershausen was more well-known in the community by his alter ego John Clayton.
  Finally a passing of another sort was far more festive. After 11 years OutReach’s Pink Party called it quits on New Year’s Eve. Even last minute driving restrictions and a rival gay rave didn’t dull the Pink Party’s swan song.

Before looking at our new predictions lets see how we did in 2005. Here were the five forecasts: 1. The Anti-Gay Wisconsin Marriage Amendment Will Pass If Held In April. It didn’t happen but as we also suggested, all bets would be off on any later referendum. We’ll call that a pass. 2. PrideFest Will Have Another Successful Year. Did they ever! Score one for our crystal ball. 3. The Iraq Quagmire Will Slow Bush’s Revolutionary Domestic Agenda. It sure did, with Social Security restructuring, further tax reform and even the Patriot Act currently dead on arrival. We couldn’t have predicted how Hurricane Katrina would bust  Bush’s approval numbers worse  than a New Orleans levee but overall we were right on with this prediction. 4. The Moderate Middle of Wisconsin’s GOP Will Emerge in 2005. Well, if they emerged they were groundhogs. That was a miss. 5. Bush Will Get His First Supreme Court Nominee Opportunity. He got two, does that make up for the miss on prediction four?
  Putting on my brightest shade of Jeanne Dixon red, here are five predictions for 2006. Given its an election year, most of the predictions are political.

1. The Wisconsin Marriage Amendment Will Lose. The work the “No On The Amendment” Coalition has done thus far in organizing opposition to this bill is unprecedented among all the leg work done against these gay-baiting ballots to date. California  now looks to be referendum free, which mean all eyes will be on Wisconsin in November. Prior to that all wallets from both sides nationally will be emptying into the state’s pro and anti-amendment campaigns. The mixed religious messages of social justice versus marriage “protection”will mean a close vote among people of faith, but the underlying disgust for the state GOP’s strategy of a Rovian re-do of 2004 will tip the balance against passage. The greatest concern will be turn out. The bigger the voting numbers, the better our chances. My confidence in this prediction coming true is 80%.

2. The Democrats Will Regain Control of The Wisconsin Senate. The number of vulnerable GOP seats alone suggests the the possibility of a turnover, before any other factors are taken into account. But the electorate’s fear of two more years of God, guns and gays versus real progress on health care, energy and education will strengthen the desire for legislative houses divided. A number of in-district issues may cloud  the Dems chances however. Prediction confidence is 70%.

3. Governor Jim Doyle Will Be Re-Elected. He may not be pretty or slick, but when it comes to campaigning, Doyle is a seasoned veteran. He balanced an out of control, GOP-created budget deficit without excessive pain to the state’s taxpayers. Doyle’s overflowing election war chest plus Mark Green’s lack of statewide recognition will allow the incumbent to shape his challenger’s image into that of a Bush-Delay Congressional toadie held captive by his religious extremist base. Of course this prediction is based on a sub prediction: Green wins the GOP primary, assuming there even is one. Despite all the cards that have to stand up on this house, my confidence in this prediction is still 70%.

4. Republicans Will Barely Retain Control Of Congress. Again, the numbers of vulnerable seats plus the red-leaning redistricting following the 2000 Census make it tough for a majority change in 2006, no matter how low the President’s numbers go. If anything, dissatisfaction with the GOP is peaking way too early - even with all the scandals yet to be fully investigated. Look for meaningful troop reductions in Iraq by summer, with accompanying withdrawal rationales to match the WMD rhetoric that got us in there in the first place. Short of another natural disaster, the Republicans will regain the discipline they have appeared to misplaced recently. This time illegal immigrants will be the fodder for the GOP big guns. Even a senior citizen revolt over the Medicare D mess won’t help Democrats much as that boondoggle was a bipartisan effort. The net effect: a loss of Republican seats, but not Republican control in either the House or the Senate. My confidence in this prediction this far out, and with so many unknowns, is 60%.

5. Samuel Alito Will Be Confirmed As A Supreme Court Justice. The votes are there, both for the confirmation and the “Nuclear Option” to cut off filibusters forever. The Democrats will blink, but this will be the hard right’s final victory for some time. Prediction confidence is 70%.

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From the editor...
Mark Mariucci (aka ZA)
Publisher