Weekly gay news update

Gay news from the nets:

• The State of California's six Espiscopal bishops released a joint statement, opposing the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, up for vote this November. Saying that in spite of both their denomination and themselves remaining divided on performing same-sex weddings, that they believe it to be morally wrong for voters to overturn the civil right. The statement says the bishops do not believe that marriage of heterosexuals is threatened by same-sex marriage and that "Jesus calls us to love rather than hate, to give rather than to receive." [SFGate]
  
  
• The number of corporations with "perfect" policy counts for their practice towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees, investors, and consumers has grown from 13 in 2002 to 259 in 2009. The results and report are compiled yearly by the Human Rights Campaign and published as a handy consumer guide to choosing (even by category of product and service) which companies to support (or not) based on their policy. Several gay friendly blogs have noted that while the index is focused on company policy "quoted by the HR department", it does not take into account nor measure actual company practice--which, as maybe many of us know, can be very different from what is taught in corporate HR trainings. [HRC]
  
  
• Where the Wild Things Are--apparently--are in the unasked questions. Maurice Sendak, in an interview around his 80th birthday, came out to the New York Times:
  

  Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, “Well, that I’m gay.”“I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business,” Mr. Sendak added...He never told his parents: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.”...A gay artist in New York is not exactly uncommon, but Mr. Sendak said that the idea of a gay man writing children books would have hurt his career when he was in his 20s and 30s. [NYTimes]

• "Come out with your hands up!" Gay Italian police officers are planning a group "coming out" to support a fellow officer being investigated for involvement in a gay beauty contest and posing in his police uniform. " The investigation has caused tensions and renewed fears in homophobia, forcing more of the force to stay closeted. The mass "outing" is actually a first gathering of the first LGBT organization of Italian cops. “We’re coming out against creeping discrimination,” Cicchitti told theObserver, adding that the organization already has about 200 members...Cicchitti said the group will seek official recognition from the government. [Guardian]