MICHAEL: 'I'M NOT ASHAMED OF GAY CRUISING'

GEORGE MICHAEL is not ashamed of being spotted prowling a notorious homosexual pick-up spot in London last week (ends 23JUL06), insisting he's still a role model for young gays. See MICHAEL: 'I'M NOT ASHAMED OF GAY CRUISING'
Contactmusic.com, UK -

Sitcom`s gay joke about Cooper to be cut

Sitcom`s gay joke about Cooper to be cut
Monsters and Critics.com, UK - A joke about CNN journalist Anderson Cooper`s purported sexual orientation likely will be dropped from an upcoming US sitcom episode, a report says.

Nationwide Chain of Gay Bathhouses Adopts Health Guidelines

Nationwide Chain of Gay Bathhouses Adopts Health Guidelines
FOX News -  CLEVELAND - The owner of one of the nation's largest chains of bathhouses catering to gay men has agreed to a set of health guidelines at six of his clubs, including one in Cleveland.

SHOCKING SEX TO OPEN DUBLIN GAY FILM FESTIVAL

SHOCKING SEX TO OPEN DUBLIN GAY FILM FESTIVAL
GCN, Ireland - The opening film of this year's Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, John Cameron Mitchell's controversial 'Shortbus', has been called the most sexually graphic feature to come from outside the porn industry.

COME FOR GOOD CAUSES! Europe's first sponsored Masturbate-a-thon event in London 5th August

Europe’s very first Masturbate-a-thon will take place at Drop Studios in London. Participants ask friends and loved ones to sponsor them for a certain amount of money for every minute they masturbate during the Masturbate-A-Thon, or simply for having the nerve to turn up and take part!

In aid of global sexual and reproductive health agency Marie Stopes International and HIV/AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust, and sponsored by ID Lubricants (UK), the leading UK brand of personal lubricants, the event also aims to act as a public education device to increase the use of self pleasure as a strategy for safer sex. The Masturbate-a-thon seeks to raise awareness of, and dispel the shame and taboos that persist around, this most commonplace, natural and safe form of sexual activity.

Drop Studios will be transformed into a safe, comfortable and welcoming environment for participants, with soft lighting, softer furnishings, relaxing music and dedicated areas to suit all tastes, from solo booths, to men and women only group spaces and a mixed sex area for the truly adventurous.

“As a global family planning agency, at its core Marie Stopes International is concerned with promoting the individual's right to enjoy sex safely and, should they choose, without the risk of conception,” said Marie Stopes International’s Tony Kerridge.

“In our work all over the world, every day we see the consequences of fertile orgasms, in the form of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. So it is absolutely right that we associate ourselves with this initiative to promote this risk and consequence free method of sexual expression.”

ID Lubricants (UK) were asked to sponsor the event and Jane Bowles of ID highlights:

“We were delighted to ‘come’ on board. The use of personal lubricants such as ID is perfect as part of safer sex and masturbation. With ID Cream specifically developed for male masturbation and a variety of options available for male and/or female masturbation, such as ID Glide, ID Millennium and ID Pleasure to name but a few, people are sure to have sensationally smooth satisfaction. Lots of samples will be available at the event as well as educational literature and guides. So have some fun!”

The Masturbate-A-Thon is the brainchild to two American sexologists, Dr Carol Queen and Dr Robert Lawrence, and has run in the US for the past six years raising over $25,000 for women’s health initiatives and HIV prevention, education and treatment organisations.

People of both genders and sexual orientations masturbate... and most will be represented at the Masturbate-a-thon! This means that if you are not comfortable in a space with people who may be different from you, this is not an appropriate space for you. All participants must be 18 or over.

If you would like to register to take part in the event, or to obtain further information and sponsor forms visit www.masturbate-a-thon.co.uk or call 0207 017 8764.

 

Cold Case File: Gay Sex Led to Murder in Boston

Cold Case File: Gay Sex Led to Murder
EDGE Boston, MA -  Law enforcement authorities theorize that a gay sexual encounter led to the murder 14 years ago of a popular 39-year-old city planner.

Golden Girls winning respect, if not games

Golden Girls winning respect, if not games
Chicago Sun-Times, United States - When the Golden Girls walk on to the volleyball court during Chicago's Gay Games, they not only want to beat the other team, they also want to set an example.

Gay Pride organisers urge tolerance amid Israeli tension

Gay Pride organisers urge tolerance amid Israeli tension
PinkNews.co.uk, UK  As tension mounts on Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and inside Lebanon, the organiser’s of WorldPride Jerusalem insist their event will still go ahead and have called for tolerance in the region.

Anti-gay comment by party leader causes discomfort for Republicans

Anti-gay comment by party leader causes discomfort for Republicans
Yes! Weekly, NC -  Comments Guilford County GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley made on his blog comparing homosexuals to pedophiles have touched off a firestorm of debate and launched calls for an apology from advocacy groups across the state.

Don't Ask. Don't Tell claims another:

Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell claims another: The U.S. Army recently discharged a highly regarded Arabic linguist who was the target of an anonymous email “outing” campaign. Former Sergeant Bleu Copas was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., and was a member of the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division. A decorated Sergeant who received impressive performance reviews, Copas also performed in the 82nd Airborne Chorus. His dismissal, under the federal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel, brings the total number of Arabic language specialists dismissed under the ban to at least 55. Neither Copas nor his command know who was the source of the email campaign.

 

 

Guernsey may lower gay age of consent

Guernsey may lower gay age of consent
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -  Guernsey Chief Minister Laurie Morgan has signalled that the island may follow neighbouring Jersey’s lead in lowering the gay age of consent.

Episcopal bishop in Ark. OKs gay blessings

Episcopal bishop in Ark. OKs gay blessings
Houston Chronicle, United States -  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Episcopal churches in Arkansas can offer blessing ceremonies for gay couples, the state's bishop said in a letter to clergy.

For South African soccer players, getting to the Gay Games a huge victory

For South African soccer players, getting to the Gay Games a huge ...
ABC7Chicago.com,  USA -  The seventh Gay Games are well under way. Twelve-thousand participants from all over the world are in Chicago to compete against other gay and lesbian athletes.

Authoritative new research highlights a "gay pay effect", which ...

Authoritative new research highlights a "gay pay effect", which means that lesbians can earn 35% more than comparable straight women.

The figures are derived from the official Labour Force Survey, which since 1996 has collected information on gay individuals who live together.

But the researchers who conducted the analysis say there is no clear cut explanations for the startling pay premium enjoyed by lesbians.

"Everybody speculates about that," says co-author Alan Marin of the London School of Economics.See Authoritative new research highlights a "gay pay effect", which ...

 BBC News, UK

Chicago Cardinal Says Archdiocese in No Way Supports Gay Games

Chicago Cardinal Says Archdiocese in No Way Supports Gay Games – like this is a surprise, right? 

Jody Watley barred from talking about gays

A new study on LGBT health care shows that doctors react more negatively to women than to men who reveal they are gay.  See Jody Watley barred from talking about gays
The Advocate, CA

Jody Watley barred from talking about gays by Chicago radio station

V103, an urban Chicago radio station, in an interview with singer Jody Watley would not allow her to discuss her live performance at this year's Gay Games. See Jody Watley barred from talking about gays
The Advocate, CA

ASBO BOSS FINED GAY SEX BID

A COUNCIL chief in charge of issuing ASBOs was yesterday fined £300 for soliciting gay sex in a public toilet. Ian McGarry, 33, was nabbed when police raided the toilets, a known haunt for cottaging - gay men meeting strangers for sex. See ASBO BOSS FINED GAY SEX BID
Glasgow Daily Record, UK -

Gay hotel is top London hotspot

A gay hotel has become the number one place to stay in London, according to traveller review website trip advisor.com. Griffin House Holiday Apartments have only been opened for 6 months and top the list ahead See Gay hotel is top London hotspot
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Russia, France said to lift bans on blood donations by gay men

Russia, France said to lift bans on blood donations by gay men
New York Blade, NY - Russia is planning to lift its ban on blood donations from gay men, a Moscow-based gay rights is claiming, and France will follow suit, according to a published media report.

Lawyer reprimanded for rejecting gay client

A Christian barrister behaved unprofessionally after refusing to represent a gay client, a disciplinary tribunal has ruled. Mark Mullins was brought before the Bar Council after turning down a case of a refugee – see Lawyer reprimanded for rejecting gay client
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Gay teens: Safety can be issue

By BRIANA BALDWIN

Fresh Press

Homosexuals are more visible in American society today than in the past, but coming out has its risks, especially for teens.

Gay teens often are the targets of assault, discrimination and bullying by their heterosexual peers, according to the Aurora Center at the University of Minnesota.

Gay and lesbian youth are six times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual counterparts, according to data compiled by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). A gay high school student typically hears anti-gay slurs up to 26 times a day, and teachers will intervene only 3 percent of the time, GLSEN reports.

For some, the constant slurs are too much. GLSEN reports that gay teens account for 30 percent of teen suicides but only 10 percent of the teen population.

Philadelphia School District CEO Paul Vallas said the public schools receive few reports of gay-bashing. "We have more heterosexual problems," Vallas said.

The Aurora Center said teachers also can hassle gay students or fail to intervene when they see them being bullied or assaulted.

Vallas said that behavior is discouraged in Philadelphia schools.

"We do punish the faculty and remove them. I think the adults are passive, and I want them to be active instead of reactive when it comes to the students," Vallas said.

Vernard Trent, safety officer for the school district, said in at least one case, the verbal abuse directed against a gay student had violent consequences.

"We did have one situation in one of our schools when one student stabbed another student," Trent said. "He was gay and he was being tormented, so he carried a knife with him."

The Attic Youth Center in Center City offers a haven for teens, especially gay youth, to be who they are. One teen from the Attic speculated that those who abuse gays for their lifestyles and sexual preference may be insecure with their own sexuality.

"It could be true because insecurity of yourself can cause you to hate other people," the young male said.

Janet Tadesco, director of Philadelphia Office of Education Equity, works to create equality among students of different backgrounds and sexual orientation.

"I think for some kids the treatment toward gay teens is getting better; for some it's worse," Tadesco said. "Our schools aren't perfect, and it will take a long time to improve. It depends on how your school is run, the administration, or the students."

Now that there are more organizations supporting gay teens than in the past, more gay teens are coming out to their families and classmates, the Aurora Center reports.

"More students think that school is safer because of these programs," Tadesco said.

  See Gay teens: Safety can be issue
Philadelphia Daily News, PA -

Gay-marriage foes target strip clubs (not even straight guys are safe!)

COLUMBUS — A ballot issue proposed by backers of the constitutional ban on gay marriages would close strip clubs and adult bookstores at midnight and prohibit lap dancing.  Ere Gay-marriage foes target strip clubs
Dayton Daily News

Los Altos reverses ban on gay pride proclamations

Los Altos reverses ban on gay pride proclamations

San Jose Mercury News,  USA 

Surprised Los Altos business owners and residents celebrated the City Council's decision late Tuesday to reverse a ban on city proclamations related to sexual orientation.

By a unanimous vote, the council elected to rewrite the policy so that all proclamation requests will now be considered by the mayor.

``We feel vindicated,'' Los Altos business owner Peter Yessne said shortly after the decision. ``It's the best possible outcome and we're happy the City Council recognized they made an error and they were willing to change it.''

During a half-hour news conference before the council meeting, nearly three dozen business owners and residents called for the council to rescind the rule passed in February.

``We believe this city rule plainly discriminates against people based on sexual orientation,'' said Yessne, who wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with the message ``Proclaim equality Los Altos.''

``It is an embarrassment for many of us living and working in Los Altos and it belies a governmental commitment to all its citizens.''

The rule, Yessne continued, denied gays the same rights others have to request city proclamations.

City officials approved the ban after the Gay Straight Alliance of Los Altos High School asked the council for a third year in a row to OK a proclamation declaring June 7 Gay Pride Day in the city.

The council granted such a proclamation the first year the alliance asked for one, but denied similar requests the next two years.

At the time the rule was approved, then-Mayor David Casas argued that proclamations should be limited to city businesses or to honor citizens for good work. Three of the five council members agreed.

The move sent shock waves through the bedroom community of 28,000 and the Bay Area, capturing the attention of the media and the American Civil Liberties Union.

``We've really seen the (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community and Los Altos residents and straight allies and business owners step up to the plate,'' said Leslie Bulbuk, who works for the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, which educates elected officials about gay issues. ``Nobody likes hearing their city is a discriminatory place.''

Yessne said 57 business owners in the city signed a petition calling for an end to the rule.

Concerns raised by the Gay Straight Alliance about the procedure for obtaining a Gay Pride Day proclamation led Mayor Ron Packard to introduce a memo Tuesday asking the council to consider changing the rule.

Packard called for switching the rule with one that empowered the council to approve ``any proclamation in support of, or opposed to, any political or religious issues.''

``On a cost-benefit analysis, I see little advantage to continue the provisions as now stated,'' he wrote in the memo.

The council, instead, approved a modified version of Packard's suggestion that puts the power in the mayor's hands to issue proclamations.

Never mind the gay guy

Cleveland--A Republican ward leader says having a gay state representative candidate on the ballot can hurt the party's gubernatorial nominee and urges fellow party leaders not to support him. See Never mind the gay guy
Gay People Chronicle, OH -

Gay Military Suit Dismissed

(Seattle, Washington) A lesbian colonel, dismissed from the military because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has lost her bid for reinstatement in the Air Force Reserve. See Gay Military Suit Dismissed
365Gay.com -

UN Rights Commissioner Calls For Worldwide Gay Rights 365Gay.com

(Montreal, Quebec) The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Wednesday evening told an international conference on LGBT human rights that gays have a fundamental right to privacy and the right to live free of violence. 

Louise Arbour was speaking at the opening of the first International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, a four day event associated with the first Outgames in Montreal.

See UN Rights Commissioner Calls For Worldwide Gay Rights @ 365Gay.com

Beyer to address global LGBT conference Gay NZ

Georgina Beyer, the world’s first transgender MP, will address the first International Conference on LGBT rights, which opened in Montreal, Canada, last night, in association with the inaugural Out Games.  See Beyer to address global LGBT conference Gay NZ

Straight Kansan loves his rainbow flag

A bed-and-breakfast owner in Meade, Kansas, has created a tempest with the rainbow Pride flag, a gift from his son, that he hoisted three weeks ago next to the Stars and Stripes over his establishment. See Straight Kansan loves his rainbow flag
PlanetOut, CA -

Archdiocese's gay-marriage brief rejected

Sixteen months after the gay-marriage case was argued before the state Supreme Court, the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese filed a friend-of-the-court brief - which the court promptly rejected because it was late.  See Archdiocese's gay-marriage brief rejected
Seattle Times, United States -

Fire crew refused to staff gay pride stall

Nine firefighters who refused to crew a fire-safety stall at a gay pride event in Glasgow will have to wait until next month to learn their fate, their union said yesterday. See Fire crew refused to staff gay pride stall @ The Herald, UK – also
Firefighters face discipline case @vBBC News

'Alternative' gay games kicks off

ROWING, hockey, marathon, square dancing and best bondage or leather outfit competitions are all events at the first Out Games, preceded by the opening today of a human rights conference. See 'Alternative' gay games kicks off
The Australian, Australia -

Capt. Sparrow is gay? Shiver me timbers!

For weeks after we saw the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, a debate raged in my family about the bizarre behavior of the lead character, Capt. See Capt. Sparrow is gay? Shiver me timbers!
AZ Central.com, AZ -

Parks vote agrees on Scouts

The Fairmount Park Commission yesterday endorsed last week's move by the Street administration to force the Boy Scouts to vacate its headquarters on city land if it does not vow to stop discriminating against homosexuals. See Parks vote agrees on Scouts
Philadelphia Daily News, PA -

RI civil rights office files anti-gay discrimination complaint

A newly created position within the attorney general's office is targeting complaints of civil rights violations.

The first complaint filed by the Office of the Civil Advocate accuses a Warren woman of harassing a neighbor with AIDS because of his sexual orientation.

See RI civil rights office files anti-gay discrimination complaint
New York Blade, NY -

The First World Outgames Takes Off this Weekend in Montreal

The first World Outgames, a celebration of sport, culture and human rights, is set to begin this weekend in Montreal and promises to bring more than 12,000 athletes from around the world. See The First World Outgames Takes Off this Weekend in Montreal
247gay.com, CA -

Gay families express pride

Hundreds of families from all over the world will gather in Provincetown for Family Pride's annual Family Week, a week-long conference and family adventure from July 29-August 5 2006. See Gay families express pride
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Same sex couples inquiry told of Aussie discrimination

A national inquiry into financial entitlements for same sex couples has been told that gay and lesbian people are not eligible for many social security benefits that are available to heterosexual couples. See Same sex couples inquiry told of discrimination
ABC Online, Australia 

First Political Gay Group Founded in Helsinki

(Helsinki, Finland) - The first political LGBT association, Pink Rose, was founded in Finland during the Helsinki Pride 2006 at the beginning of this month. See First Political Gay Group Founded in Helsinki
247gay.com, CA -

Gay candidate seeks school board post in UT

f he's elected to the Murray Board of Education, gay rights advocates and a community historian believe he'll be the state's first openly gay school board member. See Gay candidate seeks Murray board post
Deseret News, UT

Gay-rights group wants apology from Ohio GOP Gov. candidate

The gay-rights group Equality Ohio called on Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell yesterday to apologize for and retract his statement that homosexuality is a "transgression against God’s law" that can be cured. See Gay-rights group wants apology from Blackwell
Columbus Dispatch, OH -

Report alleges US gay rights violations

Report alleges US gay rights violations
Southern Voice, GA –  A new report says the United States isn't doing enough to protect its gay citizens from discrimination and abuse and asks the United Nations to intercede.

Gay Teen Rally in Tennessee

The youth group of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church organized today's demonstration in response to an incident earlier this year where two homosexual teenage males from their church were harassed and called derogatory names while walking ... See Gay Teen Rally
WVLT, TN  & A hand-in-hand march down Gay Street Knoxville News Sentinel (subscription)

First openly gay candidate elected in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY For the first time in state history, an openly gay candidate is poised to become a member of the Oklahoma Legislature. See First openly gay candidate elected in Oklahoma
KTEN, TX -

Arrests made in Latvia Pride attacks

Fourteen people have been detained in Saturday's anti-gay attacks on activists and dignitaries during Pride celebrations in Riga, Latvia, the Baltic Times reported on Monday. See Arrests made in Latvia Pride attacks
Gay.com UK, UK -

UK Researchers launch tenth Gay Men's Sex Survey

Terrence Higgins Trust and Sigma Research launched the tenth annual National Gay Men’s Sex Survey yesterday. Last year 16,000 men in the UK took part and this year they hope to get an even better response. See Researchers launch tenth Gay Men’s Sex Survey
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Gay lover tells George: the wedding's off

To mark their ten years together, George Michael and his American lover Kenny Goss had been looking forward to an Elton John-style gay 'wedding' ceremony followed by a lavish party. See Gay lover tells George: the wedding's off
Daily Mail - UK, UK 

Board to debate gay marriage

The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors may take up one of the most hot-button political topics this fall as a resolution supporting gay marriage moves slowly toward the board's agenda.

Two supervisors -- John Gioia and Mark DeSaulnier -- have said they would support the resolution, which endorses civil marriages and opposes a constitutional amendment to ban it on both the state and federal levels.

But the measure will not likely be heard until at least September, when the board returns from its summer break. It will be in the thick of a midterm election season when the issue might figure prominently in races across the country.

See Board to debate gay marriage
Contra Costa Times, CA

Gay Nups Bills Pushed in NY, 4 Other States

 Gay rights advocates will continue to follow a strategy employing both litigation and legislation to win full marriage rights for gay couples in carefully selected states, according to a gay rights attorney considered the lead strategist for same-sex marriage.

Evan Wolfson, executive director of the same-sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry, said bills calling for legal recognition of same-sex marriage are pending and have a chance of moving forward in California, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine.

At the same time, court cases seeking to overturn laws that ban same-sex marriage are awaiting a final ruling in California, Washington and New Jersey, and similar cases are moving through lower courts in Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland and Oklahoma.

See Gay Nups Bills Pushed in NY, 4 Other States
New York Blade, NY -

Hizbullah conflict scuppers Jerusalem gay pride march

JERUSALEM --  A planned Jerusalem gay pride march that had angered the holy city's Jewish and Arab leaders alike has been postponed indefinitely because of Israel's conflict with Hizbullah, organizers said on Sunday.

World Pride 2006, a festival for gay, lesbian, transsexual, and transgendered people, was scheduled to take place from August 6 to 12, with the gay pride march billed as a highlight.

But the march has now been put off "because numerous participants expected from abroad have canceled their trips due to the worsening security situation," said a spokeswoman for Hothouse, one of the organizers. See Hizbullah conflict scuppers Jerusalem gay pride march
Middle East Times, Egypt -

Not Enough Gay Action in 'Superman Returns,' Says Kevin Smith

Not Enough Gay Action in 'Superman Returns,' Says Kevin Smith
Starpulse.com, CT - Comic book fan and filmmaker Kevin Smith has hit out at Bryan Singer's new Superman Returns blockbuster because the Man of Steel isn't "gay enough.

Fire service seeks new recruits in Edinburgh's gay bars

FIREFIGHTERS in the Lothians have launched a drive to bring more gay and lesbian recruits into the service. Posters have been distributed among the Capital's gay bars and clubs as part of the equality drive. See Fire service seeks new recruits in Edinburgh's gay bars
Scotsman, United Kingdom 

They're queer, they're here, we can get used to it

THOM FILICIA AND I WERE sitting on the couch talking. Suddenly, Carson Kressley and Ted Allen barged in.

“Is he boring you to death?” Ted asked.

“We’re here to save you!” Carson added.

Before I realized what was happening, Kyan Douglas was in the room too. He leaned over and said, “Don’t believe anything he says, he’s making up all these things in his head.”

Then Jai Rodriguez walked in.

For a minute, it looked like a scene from a “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” episode. But we were not in my messy living room and, more importantly, I am not a straight guy.

The big 100

Armed with their own expertise—Thom for design, Carson for fashion, Kyan for grooming, Ted for food and wine and Jai for culture, the Fab Five have been transforming style-challenged and culture-hungry men for three years now. “We’re not really changing or making them over, we’re bringing out the best in them. We sort of do that to ourselves all the time,” said Carson, who says he heeded Kyan’s advice on getting a haircut.

The show recently celebrated its 100th episode (“Only 7,947,000 guys to go!” Carson said.) and according to the Fab Five, viewers are in for more fun. Fun meaning shows filmed in Vegas, fun meaning lots of weddings and fun meaning a Freaky Friday-like episode where they all traded places. Carson, who had to play Thom in that episode said, “I painted a straight guy’s room pink and he liked it.”

See They’re queer, they’re here, we can get used to it @ INQ7.net

Canada's Gay troops suffer

Despite the Canadian military's progressive policies, gay and lesbian soldiers face a life of secrecy and isolation.

According to a letter from one gay soldier, obtained by Sun Media through an access to information request with the individual's name protected, homosexual troops face "negative" reactions to their sexual orientation within the ranks.

"I am part of a same-sex common-law couple within the Canadian Forces, and after declaring common-law status I found that my situation is very common across the Canadian Forces, although many couples prefer to remain in silence about their relationship and lifestyle," the soldier writes.

The soldier says the Family Resource Centre provides "exceptional service" to the military community as a whole, but doesn't specifically help non-traditional families.

"I know there are young soldiers who feel they don't belong."

See Gay troops suffer
Ottawa Sun,  Canada

Gay-wed split hurts cause, proves no guarantees in love

Gay-wed split hurts cause, proves no guarantees in love
Boston Herald, United States -

Just two years ago Julie and Hillary Goodridge - with their girl-next-door good looks and adorable child - became the perfect poster family for gay marriage in Massachusetts.

Straight talk on being gay & out in Halifax

Three gay Haligonians share their thoughts on stereotypes, the pride parade, acceptance, and being out in Halifax See Straight talk on being gay

The Daily News

Gay rights protest in Colorado Springs

Gay rights protest in Colorado Springs
KOAA, CO - The debate over gay marriage is taking center stage in Colorado Springs. Hundreds of gay rights advocates marched from Denver to the Springs this week to hold a rally Saturday night at Focus on the Family.

Flurry of Court Rulings, with More Ahead, on Gay Unions

Gay marriage came roaring back into the headlines this month with a series of court decisions and a congressional vote. Here's a look at what happened. @ Flurry of Court Rulings, with More Ahead, on Gay Unions, Los Angeles Times

NZ: Labour and gays: taboo or not taboo?

When Rosemary McLeod asked last week if Labour was preoccupied with gay issues, it was a pink rag to a bull. Here McLeod and Labour MP and gay activist Tim Barnett put their cases. See

Labour and gays: taboo or not taboo?
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand -

Feds Leave Cross Burning At Gay Home To Tennessee To Solve

(Athens, Tennessee) The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been called in to help solve a cross-burning at the home of a gay man three weeks ago. See

Feds Leave Cross Burning At Gay Home To Tennessee To Solve @ 365Gay.com -

2006 Gay Games Close To Controversy & Celebrity

CHICAGO Colorful ceremonies this afternoon marked the close of the Gay Games here in Chicago. Headliner Cyndi Lauper be-bopped around the stage at Wrigley Field wearing a rainbow-colored Statue of Liberty outfit. Also: 2006 Gay Games Closing Ceremony Chicago Tribune 2006 Gay Games Close To Controversy & Celebrity
CBS2 Chicago, IL -

Irish Government urged to debate gay adoption "ramifications"

The Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw has been called to initiate a debate on the “ramifications” of allowing gay couples to adopt in Northern Ireland.
See Government urged to debate gay adoption “ramifications”
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

UK Man forced out by homophobic hate

A MAN has revealed how he was driven out of his South Hampstead home by homophobic abuse. Paul de Lacey, 57, suffered four years of misery living in a Rowley Way flat, managed by South Hampstead Co-operative and later the Camden Council. See Tenant forced out by gay hate
Hampstead and Highgate Express, UK -

Cape Breton University prof suspended for anti-gay protest

SYDNEY -- A Cape Breton University history professor who declared his disgust for homosexuals on his website says he's been suspended by the school for two weeks. See CB prof suspended for anti-gay protest
ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada -

Gay group postpones WorldPride amid war

The organisers of the event, Jerusalem Open House (JOH), announced last night that the rally will no longer take place due to the demands it would be making on security which is currently caught up in escalating tension in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Gay group postpones WorldPride amid war talk
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Former Spokane mayor Jim West, kicked out for gay-sex scandal, died today

Jim West, 55, the former mayor of Spokane, Washington, who was recalled from office in 2005 because of an Internet gay-sex scandal, died Saturday. The cause was complications from recent cancer surgery, the Associated Press reports. See Former Spokane mayor Jim West, kicked out for gay-sex scandal ...
The Advocate, CA -

Panel on gay youths falls to veto spat

Governor Mitt Romney issued an executive order yesterday abolishing the longstanding Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth after lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill creating a new commission out of the reach of the governor's office.Panel on gay youths falls to veto spat
Boston Globe, United States -

Boston Talk Show Host Returns To Air Following Gay Slur

(Boston, Massachusetts) WRKO radio's John DePetro returned to the air Friday following a two day suspension and apologized for calling the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority a "fag".
Talk Show Host Returns To Air Following Gay Slur
365Gay.com -

Soulforce Completes 65-Mile Protest

Advocates of parental rights for gays and lesbians finished a 65-mile relay march Friday to protest what they said was Focus on the Family's manipulation of research data on the issue.Gay Rights Group Completes 65-Mile Protest
Forbes -

Silverstone happy gay rumour helped her keep love secret

Alicia Silverstone was so determined to keep her romance with Chris Jarecki private, she let the media spread rumours she was a lesbian. SeeSilverstone happy gay rumour helped her keep love secret
Irish Examiner, Ireland -

GAY-RIGHTS ADVOCATES OUTRAGED 2 charged for trashing lesbians'

POLAND -- Two local boys, ages 12 and 14, were charged with burglary, theft, aggravated criminal mischief and accused of a hate crime Friday in connection with a home vandalism incident that has outraged gay-rights advocates in Maine.

The boys are charged with breaking into a mobile home of a lesbian couple, breaking windows and causing thousands of dollars worth of property damage. Anti-gay messages were scrawled on the walls. Because the suspects are juveniles, police did not release their names.

GAY-RIGHTS ADVOCATES OUTRAGED 2 charged for trashing lesbians' ...
MaineToday.com, ME -

Bigotry drives out two victims

POLAND - Some will be tempted, when it's all said and done, to write it off as kids being kids. But what happened to Keri Fuchs and Linda Boutaugh was more than just a random act of vandalism by juveniles with too much free time on their hands.

It was a targeted attack on two women because they're lesbians. An attack that included anti-gay slurs spray-painted on a bedroom wall, smashed windows, upended furniture and - picture your own kid doing this - human feces smeared on the bathroom floor. See
Bigotry drives out two victims
MaineToday.com, ME

Hospital Hit With Gay-Bias Suit

A gay Methuen nurse is taking her bosses to federal court, claiming hospital administrators denied her spouse the same health coverage afforded to spouses of heterosexual co-workers, she said.
Hospital Hit With Gay-Bias Suit
International News Service, Australia -

Gay business group leader resigns

After six months on the job, Stephen Julien resigned as board president of the Atlanta Executive Network July 6, citing personal reasons including a love for endurance sports, according to a press release from the gay business group.Gay business group leader resigns

New gay channel plans November launch

A new general entertainment TV channel aimed at the LGBT community is planning to launch before the year is out. Pride TV - an independent venture - aims to be a channel "from the community to the community ...
New gay channel plans November launch
Digital Spy UK

Ky. high school OKs gay-straight alliance

After some gentle prodding from educators and gay rights activists, officials at Boone County High School in Florence, Ky., voted unanimously Wednesday night to allow a gay-straight alliance at the school.
Ky. high school OKs gay-straight alliance
PlanetOut

Law Firms Ramp Up Drive To Hire More Queers

Recruiting gay attorneys has become a big part of the initiatives launched by large law firms to diversify their ranks. But advocates caution that it will take much more than committees, brochures and networking .. Law Firms Step Up Gay-Hiring Initiatives
New York Law Journal, NY

UK's Channel 4 is to bring Wank-a-thon to TV

Channel 4 is to bring mass public masturbation to the small screen.

The broadcaster - once led by Michael Grade, dubbed "pornographer in chief" by the Daily Mail - has commissioned a documentary about the UK's first "masturbate-a-thon" as part of a series of programmes dubbed "Wank week", MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

In what must surely be one of the summer's more bizarre events, hundreds of people are expected to gather in a hall in central London on August 5 to pleasure themselves in aid of charity. The organiser of the event, the San Francisco-based Centre for Sex and Culture, has run mass masturbation events in the US for the past five years to raise money for safe sex groups and plans to replicate the formula in the UK.

Cameras from independent production company Zig Zag, which made Essex Boys for ITV1, will follow the organisers and participants for a 60-minute film, which has the working title of Wank-a-thon. It is expected to air on Channel 4 towards the end of the year. For more go here.

Gay community backs GPA's anti-religion ad

The gay community has backed an advert by the Gay Police Association (GPA) which attributed recent homophobic attacks to religious belief.

Scotland Yard is considering an investigation into the group after it placed an advertisement in The Independent’s diversity supplement which coincided with the EuroPride rally, displaying a pool of blood next to a Bible.  See Gay community backs GPA’s anti-religion ad PinkNews.co.uk

WORLD ACTIVISTS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF GAY IRANIAN EXECUTIONS GCN

Gay activists in Ireland and across the world called for greater protection of gay rights in Iran as the first anniversary of the public execution of two gay teenagers in the country is marked.

Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were publicly hanged on July 19 last year in Mashad, provincial capital of Iran's Khorasan province, on charges of homosexuality.

Asgari was accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. However the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), maintain it was a false charge designed to undermine public sympathy for the teenagers.  See WORLD ACTIVISTS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF GAY IRANIAN EXECUTIONS GCN

J'lem gay parade called off, other gay pride events will take place

J’lem gay parade called off
Ynetnews, Israel -  Open House announces cancellation of parade, which was scheduled for August 10, but says other gay pride events will take place as planned.

India HIV group backs gay rethink

India HIV group backs gay rethink
BBC News, UK -  The Indian government's HIV/Aids control body has backed calls for homosexuality to be legalised. The National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) said that infected people were being driven underground and efforts to curb the virus were being hampered.
Indian state AIDS body wants to legalise gay sex Reuters AlertNet

Gay groups say domestic partnerships must be preserved

Gay groups say domestic partnerships must be preserved
Bay Area Reporter, CA -  Like most members of Boston's LGBT community, Erika McLaughlin supports gay marriage and celebrated it as a victory for civil rights when her state of Massachusetts made same-sex marriage legal in 2004.

Canadian Gay & Lesbian Network Sold to Shavick Entertainment

VANCOUVER, July 20: Production company Shavick Entertainment has acquired OUTtv, a Canadian gay and lesbian television network, with plans to relaunch the channel under a new name and with a slate of new programming.

Shavick acquired a majority interest in 6166954 Canada Inc., the company that holds the license for OUTtv, previously controlled by Canadian broadcaster William Craig. Pink Triangle Press remains a minority shareholder and will be a Shavick business partner in the new operation. The production group Peace Point Entertainment will be also a partner.

See Canadian Gay & Lesbian Network Sold to Shavick Entertainment World Screen News

Prosecutors detail strategies to counter "gay panic" defense

 SAN FRANCISCO - A California man repeatedly stabs someone he brought home and receives the lightest possible sentence for the slaying.

Outside Atlanta, the man accused of bludgeoning a prosecutor to death gets off after arguing that he acted in self-defense.

A teenager in Alabama says unwelcome sexual attention caused him to shoot a college professor.

What the murder cases have in common, according to prosecutors and police officers who gathered here Thursday, is that each of the victims were gay or transgender, and the defendants successfully used that information to persuade judges and juries that it made them less culpable.

"The suggestion that criminal conduct is mitigated by bias or prejudice is inappropriate," said San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who organized a two-day national conference to counter the use of the so-called "gay panic" defense. "We can't outlaw it, but we can combat it."

Lawmakers in California and New York are considering bills to deter the common courtroom strategy of making a victim's sexual orientation central to a criminal defense. Both measures would require judges to remind jurors that bias toward the victim cannot influence their deliberations.

 See Prosecutors detail strategies to counter "gay panic" defense San Jose Mercury News

Scottish homophobic attacks spur gay protection calls

Scottish homophobic attacks spur gay protection calls
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -  The Scottish Executive is facing pressure to make homophobia a hate crime after new figures reveal a significant rise in anti-gay attacks.

GAY COP VERDICT APPEALED

GAY COP VERDICT APPEALED
The Santa Barbara Independent, CA -  City Hall will appeal a $431,000 jury verdict on behalf of a gay former Santa Barbara police officer, Ruben Lino, who claimed he faced discrimination and retaliation for speaking out against homophobic remarks made by some of his fellow officers.

Focus Fights Gay Charges

Focus Fights Gay Charges
365Gay.com -  (Denver, Colorado) The conservative Focus on the Family struck back Wednesday at allegations it "twisted" research on gays for its own political agenda.

Gay Games Organizers: Chicago Crowds Are Great

Gay Games Organizers: Chicago Crowds Are Great
CBS2 Chicago, IL -  CHICAGO There are just two days left before the Gay Games Closing ceremony, and organizers say the Chicago area deserves a gold medal.

Foreign competition

For many athletes outside the U.S., competing in the Games offers chance to prove themselves in sport while experiencing openness rare in their native lands  see Foreign competition @ Chicago Tribune

Polish Prime Minister rules out gay marriage

Polish Prime Minister rules out gay marriage
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -  Poland’s Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kcynski used his official assumption of power yesterday to declare the country a gay marriage free zone.

South Africa's Constitutional Court To Rule On Gay Estates

(Pretoria) If one partner dies without leaving a will what happens to the estate. It is a problem faced by same-sex couples wherever same-sex marriage is not yet legal, and one which will be tackled next month by South Africa's Constitutional Court.

The case involves a man whose partner's parents have fought him through the courts challenging his claim to the estate.

Mark Gory and Henry Brooks met in 2003 and soon began a relationship.  The following year they purchased a house and moved in together.  But, the house and most of the couple's other joint possessions were in Brooks' name.

They shared all expenses and soon after they purchased their home the couple exchanged informal vows and wedding bands at a celebration attended by Brooks' parents. 

Suddenly in 2005 Brooks died without leaving a will. Almost immediately Brooks' family began removing items from their home and eventually forced him to move out of the house.

See South Africa's Constitutional Court To Rule On Gay Estates
365Gay.com

MA Gov. Romney fires another gay (Milt is running so hard for the GOP Presidential nomination . . .)

Romney fires another gay
Bay Windows, MA -  Don Gorton said he believes that anti-gay bias and retaliation for whisteblowing may have factored into his termination by Gov. Mitt Romney from his position as a commissioner on the state’s Appellate Tax Board (ATB).

Detroit teen guilty of shooting man near gay bar

Detroit teen guilty of shooting man near gay bar
Detroit Free Press, United States - In a trial in which the only eyewitness kept changing his story, a Wayne County jury found a 17-year-old Detroiter guilty Wednesday of attempted murder in what police called a hate crime.

Gay Games Struggling To Woo Spectators

Gay Games Struggling To Woo Spectators
WBBM780, Chicago -  CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Aside from a few popular events, Gay Games VII has struggled to woo spectators so far this week. WBBM Newsradio 780's Bob Roberts reports some Gay Games veterans say the Chicago games has ...
Poor attendance blamed on distance, visibility Chicago Sun-Times

CBS Evening News plans July 23 profile of Presiding Bishop-elect Anchor Russ Mitchell interviews Katharine Jefferts Schori

A CBS Evening News profile of Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori is scheduled to air nationwide during the 6 p.m. newscast on Sunday, July 23, after last week's planned airing was pre-empted by breaking news. The profile centers around a July 13 interview conducted by CBS News anchor Russ Mitchell with Jefferts Schori on the campus of the General Theological Seminary in New York City. Should the profile be rescheduled due to time constraints, the segment will air at a later time, said producer Chris Hulme. Clergy and lay leaders may wish to make this announcement in congregations during July 23 Sunday services.

After 2 years, MA same-sex marriage icons split up

After 2 years, same-sex marriage icons split up

(By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff)

Two years after getting married, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in the state's landmark gay marriage case, are splitting.

 

Kidnapped, Raped, and Beaten

The experiences of a 25-year-old gay Iranian from Shiraz are typical of the repression suffered by ordinary Iraqi gay men. Throughout the interview, Nima referred repeatedly to the basiji-the thuggish Iranian parapolice deployed by the government as its sex police, spearheading the lethal anti-gay pogrom that continues in Iran, and which has been reported on extensively in this newspaper. See Kidnapped, Raped, and Beaten

Mixed Results on Gay Asylum Claims

Gay asylum applicants achieved two wins and one loss within the past month, as gay men from Mexico and Albania won chances for reconsideration of their petitions while a lesbian from Colombia was denied further review. See Mixed Results on Asylum Claims

US Defends gay rights record to UN:

US Defends gay rights record to UN: Bush administration defends rights record to human rights panel.

Couple In Landmark Mass. Gay Marriage Case Breaks Up

(Boston, Massachusetts) Julie and Hillary Goodridge, the lesbian couple who challenged the Massachusetts law banning same-sex marriage have broken up a Boston LGBT newspaper reports. Bay Windows reports that the couple confirmed the breakup through a spokesperson. The Goodridges were one of seven couples who challenged the marriage ban. See Couple In Landmark Mass. Gay Marriage Case Breaks Up @ 365Gay.com - USA

Optimism as Jersey Awaits Marriage Ruling

“New Jersey could be the first state in America where we not only win marriage equality easily, but where there's almost an overnight, or a fairly quick velvet revolution of acceptance.” That's the upbeat assessment of Steven Goldstein, the founding chairman of Garden State Equality that has provided critical public education and lobbying in support of the gay marriage lawsuit that Lambda Legal has litigated since June 2002. See Optimism as Jersey Awaits Marriage Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO 'Gay panic' defense tactic under scrutiny .

SAN FRANCISCO 'Gay panic' defense tactic under scrutiny See San Francisco Chronicle
A gay Atlanta man was bludgeoned to death and his confessed killer walked free after claiming he was forced into a sexual act and responded in self-defense.

Israel conflict blamed on gay community

Israel conflict blamed on gay community
PinkNews.co.uk The tension in Israel with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has nothing to do with foreign policy, the West, or terrorism, it is down to the gay community, according to some orthodox rabbis. Also: Jewish columnist criticises “disgusting” WorldPride PinkNews.co.uk

Boone County High School in Northern Kentucky Approves Gay-Straight Alliance

Under threat of being sued by the Kentucky Equality Association for delaying the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance, Boone County High School Official's give it a green light.

Florence, KY (PRWEB) July 20, 2006 -- Students at Boone County High School in Northern Kentucky celebrated victory after members of the Boone County High School Site-Based Council unanimously approved the formation of an in-school Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) last night.

The Boone County High School was under direct threat of being sued by the Kentucky Equality Association for delaying the formation of the club for over 3 months.

The victory however belongs to Nick Herweck, a student at Boone County High School, and a senior member of the Kentucky Equality Association.

Herweck had an unprecedented amount of support from organizations and groups across two states, including the AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, Eastern Kentucky University’s Pride Alliance, Northern Kentucky University’s Common Ground, Cincinnati’s Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a representative from Social Services, various community members, and the Kentucky Fairness Alliance filled the commons area of the school to support the formation of the Boone County High School Gay-Straight Alliance.

“It was both remarkable and wonderful to see various groups and organizations from two states in the same room to support such a wonderful cause; to make sure our gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, and questioning teenagers have a school club were they are accepted, and can talk freely in a non-threatening environment,” stated Jordan Palmer, President of the Kentucky Equality Association. Nick Herweck sets a positive example for all teenagers in being responsible and active environmentally, socially, academically, and politically; Nick is remarkable in every measurable sense of the word.

Note to editors:
The Kentucky Equality Association currently has more than 5,000 members and supporters throughout the commonwealth (as of May 30, 2006). The Kentucky Equality Association has three authorized chapters operating in the Bluegrass, Jackson Purchase, Northern, and Southeastern Regions of Kentucky.

The Kentucky Equality Association’s Advisory Council determines the Association’s platform, candidate political ratings, and chapter management.

 

Is Legal Analysis Going Out of Style?

Just hours after the New York Court of Appeals ruled July 6 that the state Constitution does not afford marriage equality to gay people, the Georgia Supreme Court issued its own marriage decision, unanimously ruling that a state constitutional amendment approved last year by voters there did not offend the “single subject” rule. See Is Legal Analysis Going Out of Style?

Delray commission approves gay rights measures

Delray commission approves gay rights measures
Delray Beach· A divided City Commission on Tuesday narrowly decided to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians in city government and offer benefits to domestic partners of employees.

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF HAWAII TO RECEIVE AWARD FOR GAY MARRIAGE LAWS

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF HAWAII TO RECEIVE AWARD FOR GAY MARRIAGE LAWS
Out In America, OH WASHINGTON - The National Lesbian and Gay Law Association will present Steven H. Levinson Associate Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court the "Allies for Justice Award" at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Bar Association on Aug. 4, in Hawaii.

Testimony: Andrea Yates, mother who killed five children, thought one would grow up to be a mute gay prostitute...

Testimony: Andrea Yates, mother who killed five children, thought one would grow up to be a mute gay prostitute...

Former BC politician taking over gay network

Former BC politician taking over gay network
Canada.com, Canada - Joy McPhail and her husband James Shavick announced Wednesday they have acquired majority control of OUTtv, a national digital cable channel aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) market.

NAACP confronts AIDS crisis in black community

NAACP confronts AIDS crisis in black community @ San Francisco Chronicle

Gay-themed film "Mr. Leather" coming out

Gay-themed film "Mr. Leather" coming out
Reuters -  Leather fans will hit the big screen early next year in "Mr. Leather," a documentary that examines an underground gay subculture.

BUZZED AGAIN: Oprah says she's not gay

BUZZED AGAIN: Oprah says she's not gay @ Louisville Courier-Journal, KY - Yes, Oprah Winfrey and her gal pal Gayle King are as tight as Paris Hilton’s low-riders - but that doesn’t mean they’re gay.

Gay Taiwanese sues parents, hospital over lockup

Gay Taiwanese sues parents, hospital over lockup
PlanetOut, CA - A Taiwanese university student has accused his parents of drugging his coffee, then committing him to a locked psychiatric ward after he told them he was gay, the Taiwan News reported Tuesday.

AP Newsbreak: Justice says gay marriage ruling imminent in WA

Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens said Wednesday that the court's long-awaited ruling on the constitutionality of the state's gay marriage ban will be issued before this September's primary, contrary to rampant speculation that the justices would hold off because of the topic's sensitivity.

"We have never held cases. I resent when people say that," Owens told The Associated Press following a forum for Supreme Court candidates. "It's not going to be very long. We're at the point now where I can say that."

The state Supreme Court heard arguments in March 2005 on 19 gay couples' challenge to the state's 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage. Two lower courts have said the ban is unconstitutional, but marriage rights have been on hold pending the high court's decision.  See AP Newsbreak: Justice says gay marriage ruling imminent

 

Backers of gay marriage more hopeful

Backers of gay marriage more hopeful
Monsters and Critics.com, UK -  Backers of legalizing gay marriage in the United States believe they have a chance this year to win at least one state referendum.

NYU Sociologist Denounces Focus on the Family's Misuse of her Research on Development of Children of Same-Sex Couples

NYU Sociologist Denounces Focus on the Family’s Misuse of her Research on Development of Children of Same-Sex Couples

Dr. Judith Stacey makes statement as Soulforce begins 1000 WATT MARCH, VIGIL & CONCERT to peacefully confront Focus on the Family's blatant anti-gay bigotry and discrimination. Nine families begin 65-mile relay march from Colorado state capitol to Focus on the Family Headquarters.

DENVER, CO (PRWEB) July 19, 2006 -- Wearing orange t-shirts that glowed brightly in the hazy mountain sun, nine Soulforce families gathered today to kick off the 1000 Watt March, Vigil and Concert, confronting the anti-gay misinformation of political power broker James Dobson and his multi-million dollar organization, Focus on the Family.

Joining the families for a press conference to kickoff the 65-mile relay march from Denver to the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs was Dr. Judith Stacey, a professor of sociology from New York University. Stacey’s research on the children of same-sex parents has been misquoted by Focus on the Family to justify discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families.    

Stacey reiterated for the assembled families and news media the basic conclusion of her research: “The sexual orientation or gender combination of the parents raising children does not have much impact on children’s development; the quality of the parents’ relationship and the quality of their parenting does.” Stacey concluded that although there can be slight variations, even advantages, to the development of children of same-sex parents, these were “differences, not deficiencies.”

Stacey contradicted the argument most often made in denying same-sex couples the equal rights and responsibilities of marriage: that children do better in families headed by heterosexual couples. “Whenever you hear Focus on the Family, legislators or lawyers say, ‘studies prove that children do better in families with a mother and a father,’ they are referring to studies which compare two-parent heterosexual households to single-parent households. The studies they are talking about do not cite research on families headed by gay and lesbian couples.” Stacey said the tragedy of this inaccurate quoting of legitimate research is that it has real negative effects on same-sex couples and their children. She cited the recent New York state superior court decision that used this unproven argument to deny same-sex couples and their children the rights and benefits of marriage.

“The bottom line is there is no research-based reason to deny rights to same-sex couples and their children. We should be passing laws and making policies that make life easier for all families -- not harder.”

Soulforce executive director Jeff Lutes, a family therapist and father of two sons with his partner Gary Stein, led the first leg of the relay march from Denver to Colorado Springs.

“We are marching from the Denver state capitol building to Focus on the Family’s headquarters because James Dobson’s lies make it into state houses and legislatures like this one all across the country and effect the lives of families like mine” Lutes said.

Referring to his 1 year-old and 9 year-old sons, who had joined their dads for the march, Lutes said, “And more importantly, James Dobson’s lies make it to children like mine, who are told their parents are sick, sinful and second-class. As a father who loves his family, that has to stop.”

Lutes continued, “Over the years, Americans have discriminated against people of color, against women, against mixed-race couples, against different religious groups -- all in the name of religion. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are just the latest group of Americans to be discriminated against on this basis. James Dobson, Focus on the Family and all Americans need to learn from history and put an end to religion-based discrimination once and for all.”    

The families then descended the state capitol steps and headed through downtown Denver towards the southern suburbs to begin the 13-mile first leg of the 65-mile relay march, carrying a banner that read, “Learn from history; end religion-based discrimination against our families.” In total, 34 families will take part in the march, each walking around four and a half miles.

This Saturday July 22 at 6 PM, actor Chad Allen and Judy Shepard, executive director of The Matthew Shepard Foundation, will lead a final 2-mile march from Rampart Park in Colorado Springs to the headquarters of Focus on the Family. The crowd will encircle James Dobson's headquarters, joining hearts and hands in vigil as they peacefully call on him to cease his defamation of the LGBT community. At 8:30 PM Broadway star Billy Porter will protest in song outside Focus on the Family, with an electrifying jazz concert that celebrates the lives of all people and loving relationships that seek the American dream. The entire community – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, their families, friends and supporters, are invited to the final march and concert.

To find out more about the Soulforce 1000 Watt March, Vigil and Concert, please see: www.soulforce.org/1000wattmarch.

Consistent with the first step in the principles of nonviolence taught by Gandhi and King, Soulforce researched and documented false claims by Focus on the Family about LGBT people, couples and families. That research is compiled in a booklet, entitled "A False Focus on My Family" and a DVD, entitled, "Dear Dr. Dobson". This powerful and eye-opening booklet is available free online at www.soulforce.org/article/false-focus-family and the DVD is available free to press upon request.

The goal of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.

Neo-Nazis threaten Latvia Gay Pride

Neo-Nazis threaten Latvia Gay Pride
PinkNews.co.uk, UK - Latvian authorities are considering cancelling this weekend’s Latvia’s Gay Pride in the capital of Riga amid threats of violence from Christians, nationalists and neo-Nazis.

The Chicago Tribune Covers the Gay Games. Does It Ever.

The Chicago Tribune Covers the Gay Games. Does It Ever.
NewsBusters -  The Chicago Tribune may not be, as its competitor the Chicago Sun-Times can boast, a "proud sponsor of Gay Games VII," but you wouldn't know it by its coverage.

Public Displays of Affection

Like most married couples, Brendan Fay and Thomas Moulton like to display their wedding photos. Unlike most couples, they broadcast their photos to the world — in lights on Times Square.

“Seeing ourselves on the Time Square billboard filled us with a sense of joy and hope,” Fay said. “Joy in remembering being granted our marriage license from Canada on July 4, 2003, and hope that the days of crossing borders for the right to marry would soon be over for LGBT New Yorkers.”

As part of its ‘Life Comes at You Fast’ campaign, Nationwide Insurance Company broadcast on Times Square this image of Brendan Fay and Thomas Moulton. The NYC couple were wed in Canada in 2003. Photo: GRCC. See Public Displays of Affection @ NY Blade

Film: More Fun Than a Bottle of Rum

Film: More Fun Than a Bottle of Rum Yo, ho, homo, a pirate’s life for me! Or at least that cute pirate captain over there.

Darren Hayes celebrates gay union

Former Savage Garden frontman, Darren Hayes, has ended speculation over his sexuality after he came out yesterday and revealed he has had a civil partnership.

The solo singer has often remained silent on his private life, but yesterday afternoon he published a statement on his website celebrating his civil ceremony with his partner of two years, Richard.  See Darren Hayes celebrates gay union PinkNews.co.uk

Growing up gay in Sudbury

Growing up gay in Sudbury
NorthernLife.ca, Canada -  When Jamie Solomon was attending high school a few years ago, he was called a “faggot” and other hurtful names. He was the only openly gay student at his school, and a target for bullies.

UN VOTE ON GAY RIGHTS

UN VOTE ON GAY RIGHTS
Sydney Star Observer, Australia -  The United Nations will vote this Friday on whether to allow gay and lesbian rights groups to have consultative status at the UN.

Canada accused of refusing entry to gay athletes attending the upcoming Outgames

Canada accused of refusing entry to gay athletes attending ...
queerplanet.co.uk, UK – The Canadian government is denying gay and lesbian athletes visitor visas for the upcoming Outgames, according to opposition MPs.

Queer Duck: The Movie is Sooooo Gay!

Queer Duck: The Movie is Sooooo Gay!
AfterElton.com - So goes the catchy theme song (sung by RuPaul) that introduced TV audiences to Queer Duck--America 's first cartoon series to feature homosexuality as its main motif

Wannabe shock jock pulled off air for anti-gay slur in Boston

DePetro pulled off air for slur
Boston Herald, United States -  Shock jock wannabe John DePetro has been yanked off the air for two days and ordered to apologize for calling embattled Big Dig chief Matt Amorello a “fag” yesterday on his morning radio show.

How women can avoid HIV: CDC data show no risk of HIV in lesbian sex

CDC data show no risk of HIV in lesbian sex: Sex with men, drug use are main transmitters

Richard Hatch baring all for 'Gay Movie'

Richard Hatch baring all for 'Gay Movie'
United Press International -  Richard Hatch, first-season winner of TV's "Survivor," is set to appear nude in the upcoming US film "Another Gay Movie," TMZ.

GOP Seeks Replay With Gay Marriage Vote

GOP Seeks Replay With Gay Marriage Vote
Washington Post, United States -  Undeterred by a decisive defeat in the Senate, House Republicans are moving ahead with a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, forcing lawmakers to take a stand just months before the election.

CT Lesbian Couple Files First Ever Malpractice Suit for gay "loss of consortium"

In what attorneys say is the first case of its kind since Connecticut legalized civil unions, a lesbian couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit Tuesday claiming botched cancer treatments damaged their love life. Margaret Mueller and Charlotte Stacey are accusing two doctors of treating Mueller for ovarian cancer when she actually had cancer of the appendix. They contend Mueller underwent years of grueling chemotherapy while the cancer spread. Married couples in personal injury cases commonly sue over damage to their love lives, or what is known as loss of consortium. See Lesbian Couple Files Malpractice Suit

Demonstrated For Gay Marriage Sailor Being Kicked Out Of Navy

Demonstrated For Gay Marriage Sailor Being Kicked Out Of Navy
365Gay.com -   (Washington) A petty officer who joined a New York City demonstration in support of same-sex marriage is being thrown out of the military.

ACLU Applauds House for Rejecting Discriminatory Constitutional Amendment

ACLU Applauds House for Rejecting Discriminatory Constitutional Amendment

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

 

Contact: Shin Inouye

(202) 675-2312

 

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the House of Representatives as it joined the Senate in overwhelmingly rejecting a discriminatory proposal to amend the Constitution to deny marriage protections to gay and lesbian couples and their children.  Today's move follows a similar rejection by both houses of Congress in 2004, and by the Senate last month.

 

"Today, the House joined the Senate in rejecting the use of the Constitution to discriminate against Americans," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.  "Election year politics should not be used to target gay and lesbian families.  As they have done before, the House today rightly rejected that ploy."

 

The House vote was 236 to 187, with one member voting present, which was - once again - far short of the two-thirds required to pass a constitutional amendment.  The ACLU noted that supporters of the discriminatory amendment gained no ground over their major defeat two years ago:

 

            *           The House vote in 2004 was 49 votes short of the two-thirds required for passage; today, the House vote was 47 votes short of the two-thirds required for passage;

           

            *           In 2004, 27 Republicans in the House voted against the discriminatory amendment; today, 27 Republicans in the House voted against the discriminatory amendment;

           

            *           In 2004, 36 Democrats in the House voted for the discriminatory amendment; today, only 34 Democrats in the House voted for the discriminatory amendment. 

 

"Today's vote makes clear that the political tactic of division and discrimination hasn't gained any new supporters," said Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.  "It's time for the House to start addressing the real problems of America and get the country on track."

 

For more on the ACLU's fight against the Federal Marriage Amendment, go here.

Belarusian Gay Activist Keeps Fighting the Dictatorship

Gay Belarusian activist Slava Bortnik is interviewed by GayRussia – and gives a rare insight into life – and life as a gay – in the country considered the most repressive in Europe See Belarusian Gay Activist Keeps Fighting the Dictatorship

CO update: Optimism on Both Sides of Gay-Marriage Debate

DENVER -- The safest bet in American politics in recent years has been a state ban on same-sex marriage. Since 1998, proposals to outlaw such unions have appeared on the ballot in 20 states, both red and blue, and they have passed everywhere by big margins.

Accordingly, opponents of same-sex marriage -- who prefer to call the issue "protection of marriage" -- are confident these days as they look ahead to the eight (or possibly nine) states in which the ban is expected to be on the ballot in November.

See Optimism on Both Sides of Gay-Marriage Debate
Washington Post, United States -

Fired gay teacher sues Lake Tahoe district

Fired gay teacher sues Lake Tahoe district
Gay.com, CA -  A popular math teacher has sued the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, alleging that her contract was discontinued as result of her sexual orientation.

Gay rights group: Dobson manipulated data

DENVER -- Members of a group supporting parental rights for gays and lesbians accused Focus on the Family founder James Dobson of manipulating research data to say gays and lesbians are not good parents, and began a 65-mile march Monday to confront him at his Colorado Springs headquarters. See Gay rights group: Dobson manipulated data
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Why gay marriage presses our panic buttons.

From Slate’s “What's happening in our readers' forum:” Why gay marriage presses our panic buttons.

ANCHORAGE GAY CENTER FINDS NEW HOME

ANCHORAGE GAY CENTER FINDS NEW HOME
Out In America, OH -  ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Gay & Lesbian Center of Anchorage has announced its plans to move to its new location at 336 East 5th Avenue in downtown Anchorage in late July.

Exposure to the Dangers of "Gay Beats"

Exposure to the Dangers of "Gay Beats" @ queerplanet.com.au, Australia -  It appears that the use of "beats" around Australia is becoming more and more common and is becoming a real concern for both residents and local police.

Sarasota Center is a haven for gay youths

Center is a haven for gay youths
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - The first time Bryan Hadley visited the drop-in center run by ALSO Out Youth, he had just told his parents and peers at Sarasota High School that he was gay.

Gay men molested in Aussie jail

Gay men molested in Aussie jail
Gay.com UK, UK – A gay male detainee held in South Australia’s Baxter Detention Centre claimed a Baxter guard molested him last year.

Families flock to city's gay festival

Nuns in wheelchairs, drag queens, and families of all ages united on Saturday for the fourth Oxford Pride event.

In scorching sunshine, Oxford's annual gay and lesbian festival in Oxpens Field attracted thousands of people.

 See Families flock to city's gay festival
Oxford Mail, UK -

Heat wave threatens Chicago Gay Games

A heat wave, with daytime temperatures of around 45 degrees Celsius, accompanied by high humidity, is threatening the health of athletes and spectators on the first day of sporting events for the 7th Gay Games in Chicago. Two tri-athletes have been treated for heatstroke and organisers have issued warnings in the media, advising participants to keep their intake of fluids high. See Heat wave threatens Chicago Gay Games Gay NZ

Foreign adoption sometimes good option for gay parents

For David Fisher of Dallas and his partner, the decision to adopt a child abroad came naturally. Waiting interminably on a list for a domestic adoption to come together was not an option. Nor, for various reasons, were the other avenues available to gay couples trying to start a family.

“We wanted a child, and all of the research we did said that after you adopt [from overseas], the concerns of not being able to bond or not truly feeling like the child is yours wouldn’t be an issue,” said Fisher. “They haven’t been.”  See Foreign adoption sometimes good option for gay parents
Dallas Voice

Leaning Left, but Not When It Comes to Gay Bishops

Leaning Left, but Not When It Comes to Gay Bishops

New York Times

Amid the heated debates over culture and religion in this country, All Angels Church in New York City has become a battleground that defies easy categorization.

The parish, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, clings to a staunchly conservative theology, even though it is in an overwhelmingly liberal diocese of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Many in the congregation of about 300 young professionals, artists and even homeless people are proudly liberal in their politics. But they do not seem to carry that liberalism into their plain sanctuary, bathed in warm sunlight on Sunday mornings.

“It’s a group that in large part tends toward theological orthodoxy, practical compassion and political liberalism,” said Todd Dorman, the church’s director of worship, who was once a lead singer in a rock band and who earned a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from Columbia University. “That is just a very lonely place to be.”

Grappling with the growing crisis in the Episcopal Church over homosexuality has especially tortured the parish, which will take a major step this month toward potentially cleaving itself from the denomination one day.

The parish will formally join the Anglican Communion Network, a group of conservative Episcopal churches. The idea behind the network is to establish what amounts to a parallel denomination that its leaders hope will eventually assume what they call the legitimate mantle of Anglicanism, the world’s third-largest church body, in the United States.

All Angels, which has three services on Sundays, including an evening service for homeless people, had already been withholding its $165,000 in annual dues owed to the Diocese of New York as an expression of its disapproval for the denomination’s consecration of a gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.

Whether the congregation, which began more than 150 years ago in the Episcopal Church as a mission to the poor, will actually go so far as to leave it in the coming months, as some traditionalist churches across the country have begun to do, remains an open question, one that will be weighed by its leaders. Other options include requesting placement under the authority of a more theologically conservative bishop in another diocese, or simply staying put in the Diocese of New York.

“Unity at what cost is the question,” said the Rev. Milind Sojwal, 45, a personable immigrant from India who has been the church’s rector since 2000. “I’ve warned my congregation to be thoughtful and prayerful and not be knee-jerk.”

The Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, has been long dominated by theological liberals. Ever since the consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives with his partner, as the leader of the Diocese of New Hampshire, the denomination has been engulfed in an internecine battle over homosexuality and how to interpret the Bible. Conservative Anglicans elsewhere in the world have threatened schism with their American brethren.

Several conservative dioceses have already moved to separate themselves from the Episcopal Church, as have some individual parishes. But so far the conflict has not come to open warfare in the Diocese of New York, in large part because of the conciliatory approach of Bishop Mark S. Sisk, who favors full inclusion of gays and lesbians in ministry but has sought to include those with opposing views in his diocese.

“I’ve not tried to impose anything on them, nor have they asked for anything I have refused,” he said of his relationship with All Angels. “I’m not trying to whip people into shape. I’m trying to work to get the job done.”

For his part, Mr. Sojwal said he was also reluctant to pick a fight with a bishop who does not really want to fight him.

“I have the mission of the church in front of me,” he said. “My job is to be a priest for this congregation.”

Whatever the outcome for All Angels, the decision-making process promises to be painful. Many in the congregation have gay friends and relatives, or move in circles where taking stances like the one their church has taken are often ridiculed.

“It’s this thing where your emotions and your relationships say one thing, and your theology says something else,” said Rebecca Fraser, 46, an English professor and self-described liberal Democrat who serves as the church’s warden. “If you want to talk about confusion, I’m just one confused puppy.”

Mr. Sojwal said his quarrel with his denomination’s leadership ran much deeper than attitudes toward homosexual acts — he differentiates between that and homosexual orientation in general, saying the former is proscribed in the Bible and not the latter. His main problem, he said, is he fears his church’s leadership has slid so far leftward in its theology that the authority of Scriptures and even the divinity of Jesus Christ has come into question.

“I would take 50 gay bishops over a church that denies the need for Jesus,” he said.

Mr. Sojwal said he did not feel completely at home in the conservative camp of the church either, where many do not believe in the ordination of women — something he supports wholeheartedly — and many leaders are men with politics much different from his own.

Mr. Sojwal said he believed many conservative Christians had elevated homosexual acts above all other sins. In his congregation, he said, sins like greed and materialism are of more pressing concern. “Jesus had nothing to say about homosexuality,” he said. “He has a lot to say about money.”

Nevertheless, he reads the Bible conservatively on homosexuality, saying he cannot find any way around the admonitions about it in the Old and New Testaments. Most in All Angels side with Mr. Sojwal in his reading of the Bible on the issue, but that does not mean they are at peace with it.

Jennifer Damiano, 33, who came to All Angels two and a half years ago, is one parish member who disagrees with its stance on homosexuality. Ms. Damiano is a lesbian who has been with her partner for seven years.

After she and her partner moved to the Upper West Side several years ago, they wandered into All Angels one Sunday. She said she was moved to tears by feeling the presence of God during the worship.

Since coming to the church, she said, she has read the Bible more than she did in her entire life. She joined a house church: a smaller group of fellow believers who meet during the week. She also became involved in the soup kitchen and volunteered for odd jobs around the church. Because her partner did not come to church with her most Sundays, her sexual orientation rarely came up.

At a breakfast meeting she had with Mr. Sojwal to discuss her desire to become a member of the church, she mentioned her partner. Mr. Sojwal told her some members had left over the church’s stance on the ordination of a gay bishop. But Ms. Damiano said she filed the issue away as unimportant compared with what kept her at the church.

“The presence of God is there like no other place,” she said.

She said she understood Mr. Sojwal’s point of view. But she holds out hope that attitudes on the issue will change one day.

“I think it’s really silly,” she said, “all this hoo-ha over this small issue.”

D.C. to require HIV names reporting

D.C. to require HIV names reporting: Critics fear new policy will discourage testing

Atlanta police crack down on trans prostitution

Atlanta police crack down on trans prostitution: Sting operation last month yielded 15 arrests in Midtown

Gay surf flick to premiere in US

AN Australian gay surf flick will have its world premiere at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in the US.

Tan Lines has been selected as one of 141 movies from more than 23 countries to screen at the festival this week.

The film stars unknown first-time actors Daniel O'Leary and Jack Baxter, who are both heterosexual in real life.

The film was directed, produced and written by Sydney-based Ed Aldridge.

"This sort of film is likely to do the festival circuit, usually for about a year or even two years," Aldridge said in Sydney today, before heading to the US for Friday's premiere.

The low-budget Australian film, shot around Sydney's northern beaches in January, tells of a young man's first gay love affair, born in secret in a small town he fears would never accept it.

"For me, this film has a much more accumulative effect and I hope it has some sort of broader thing to say about sexuality," Aldridge, 27, said.

See Gay surf flick to premiere in US

The Australian -

Businesses quietly embrace benefits for gay domestic partners

 If you'd like to get a rip-roaring argument started, bring up same-sex marriage. It is a hot-button wedge issue, an article of faith for both conservatives and liberals. It seems there is no middle ground.

But quietly and behind the scenes, objections to same-sex relationships are steadily being washed away in the business world. And not only is hardly anyone upset about the change, companies are lining up to make the switch.

Recently, the nation's largest equal-rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people released a report showing that, for the first time, more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500 countries in the United States offer domestic-partner benefits. If that comes as a surprise, you are not alone.

"I am amazed at that figure," says Gillian Lester, a professor of law at the University of California-Berkeley. "I really find that quite striking."

No kidding. Remember, this isn't the bakery down the street. This is Charles Schwab Inc., 3M and Home Depot. Why are they doing it?

"I think," Lester says, "it is good business. And I think the other 50 percent ought to be paying attention."

See Businesses quietly embrace benefits for gay domestic partners

Seattle Post Intelligencer

Roman Catholic Church's leaders in Scotland claim: gay law 'is threat to freedom'

LEADERS of the Catholic church in Scotland have branded new legislation banning denominational schools from teaching that homosexuality is a sin “totalitarian”, claiming it amounts to “thought control”. See Church: gay law ‘is threat to freedom’ @ The Sunday Times, UK A

Out and Gay: Enough games to go around

If gays want to play flag football or darts, Chicago is the place to be. If they are looking to see how they measure up against the best gay handball players or are looking for a rousing game of bridge, Montreal is the spot. Four years after the last Gay Games, there will be not one but two international gay athletic competitions this summer. In Chicago, Gay Games VII began Saturday and will continue through July 22. Then, from July 29-Aug. 5, Montreal will host the first Outgames.

The two nearly simultaneous events are the result of a bitter dispute, primarily over money and control, between the Federation of Gay Games and organizers in Montreal, where the Gay Games originally were slated to be held. That dispute led the federation to move the Gay Games to Chicago and prompted Montreal to stage its own games.

There long has been concern that holding two events would hurt both by diluting the pools of athletes and potential sponsors. But organizers of both events say they're attracting plenty of athletes.

About 12,000 are expected in Chicago, and the Outgames is expecting about the same number to participate in the games, an international conference, or both.

"There are enough gay people in the world to have [two] events,'' said triathlete Hector Torres, a radio station promotions director in Orlando, Fla. See Out and Gay: Enough games to go around @ Chicago Sun-Times -

New Revelations on Execution of Gay Teens in Iran a Year Ago

LONDON, July 16, 2006  –  As gays around world prepare to mark the first anniversary of the execution of two gay teenagers in Iran, there are new revelations about the execution of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni in the Iranian city of Mashhad on July 19, 2005, based on research by Simon Forbes of OutRage! and contacts inside Iran.  See New Revelations on Execution of Gay Teens in Iran a Year Ago

Kentucky college adds partner benefits

University of Louisville trustees voted Thursday to add workers' same-sex and unmarried heterosexual partners to the school health plan effective Jan. 1, becoming the first public university in Kentucky to do so. "From an economic-development position, this does send (a message) to the rest of the country that this is an enlightened institution," trustee Bill Stone, a self-described conservative, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. See  Kentucky college adds partner benefits

Nearly 50% Of Irish Gay Men Have Unprotected Sex

(Dublin) HIV/AIDS educators knew the safe-sex message was often falling on deaf ears but even they are expressing shock at the results of a newly released study on gays and the virus which causes AIDS.

The survey, conducted throughout Ireland shows that nearly half of those gay men questioned about their sexual practices were not using condoms.

Just as shocking the researchers also found the number of gay men being tested for HIV had fallen dramatically over the past four years.

In 2000 Nearly 70 percent of Irish gay men went for blood tests to determine their status. But by 2004 the number had fallen to less than 50 percent.

The survey was carried out for the Gay Men’s Health Project and presented at a recent Gay Health Forum in Dublin.

 See Nearly 50% Of Irish Gay Men Have Unprotected Sex  @ 365Gay.com 

2% of gay men in Hong Kong now HIV positive, figures show

The number of new cases of homosexuals contracting HIV has overtaken those of heterosexuals for the first time in 10 years, raising concern over the poor awareness of safe sex practices in this group.

Latest government figures found that the HIV prevalence among Hong Kong gay men is 2 per cent, about 20 times that of the Hong Kong general population.

The Centre for Health Protection has set up a taskforce with Aids concern groups to combat the rising number of HIV cases among the local community.

 See 2pc of gay men in Hong Kong now HIV positive, figures show

Eye on Gay Shanghai: Sexy men's underwear

As many articles have mentioned, MANifesto, “Shanghai’s sexiest menswear store” on Huaihai lu, had a fantastic opening party recently. However, what all publications failed to note was the quirky gay bar where the shop is located. Almost impossible to find if you're not in the know, Shanghai Studio, is bizarrely located in part of an underground car park. No one can say they accidentally stumbled into this bar (a phrase Shanghaiist hears all too often in gay bars)!  See video @ Eye on Gay Shanghai: Sexy men’s underwear
Shanghaiist, China -

Tension and Uncertainty Rising Around Second Gay Pride in Riga

RIGA, July 16, 2006  –  Latvian interior minister Dzintars Jaundžeikars went on record last week that the Interior Ministry would not be able to provide adequate security during this year’s Pride March, scheduled to be held on Saturday (July 22).

Jaundžeikars, one of the main opponents of last year’s Riga Pride, added that the upcoming march  is “the largest security risk since Latvia gained independence”

On the same day his  First Party of Latvia party colleage Armers Luvdiks, the vice-mayor of Riga, said in a radio debate on the Pride March that the Riga City Council should not allow the Pride March because of security risks and major opposition by the general public.

With less than a week to go, organisers have still not received official permission for the Pride March.

See Tension and Uncertainty Rising Around Second Gay Pride in Riga

Of gay love, athletes and Greek warriors

Of gay love, athletes and Greek warriors

Chicago Tribune, United States –

By Ron Grossman
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 16, 2006

Haunted by high school memories, I started to hum when I learned that "Beotia" would be the opening song for Gay Games VII, which got under way this weekend at Soldier Field.

It's a hymn of praise to the ancient Greeks, who would have been stumped by the assumption I grew up with in the 1950s: that homosexuals and sports heroes are separate species. Far from finding homosexuality and athleticism mutually exclusive, they considered gay sex an excellent training regimen and an inspiration for military valor.

The song "Beotia," which was composed for the start of this year's Gay Games, celebrates one of the most famous Greek military units, the Sacred Band, 150 pairs of warriors who were lovers.

"If there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made of lovers," the philosopher Plato had speculated, "they would overcome the world."

Somewhere between the days of the Sacred Band and my school days, Plato's idea was lost. As freshmen, we were lined up in gym class. A few assistant coaches went down the line, motioning the biggest boys to step forward. They became the guards and tackles of the junior-varsity team.

They weren't asked if they wanted to play football. It was assumed any normal, red-blooded boy would. Turning down the opportunity would have been tantamount to proclaiming yourself gay--and that meant immediate ostracism at Lane Technical High School, where athletes were worshiped as gods in a pantheon that recognized only macho deities.

Consider, for a moment, the possibility of some sort of biological basis for homosexuality. By what logic should we assume it is linked to a gene for not being able to hit a baseball or slam-dunk a basketball?

Yet an axiom of high school culture 50 years ago was that athletic ability and heterosexuality were bound intrinsically. One was considered prima facie proof of the other. You didn't want to be vulnerable to the reverse of that proposition--by looking dorky or uncoordinated.

One of the terrible side effects of prejudice is that it doesn't just put people down. It places blinders on their ambitions--telling them what they can and cannot be.

Statistically, some of my classmates had to be gay; the student body numbered 5,000. How many of them never realized potential athletic abilities because the adolescent culture told them gays and athletes are twains, predestined never to meet?

You couldn't sell modern homophobia to the ancient Spartans, who had the finest army in Greece. Like today's opponents of gay marriage, they thought the marital bond between a man and a woman was one of the pillars upon which society rested.

Yet they also saw a virtue in men having male bed partners. Spartan boys were raised with the single-minded focus of making them fierce warriors. As part of their training, they were paired with older warriors. As the ancient writer Plutarch put it, "They were favored with society of lovers from among the reputable young men."

Those gay unions were intended to foster a spirit that, in every generation, on every battlefield, the foremost thought in a Spartan's mind must be never to let down their city. "The boys' lovers also shared with them in their honor or disgrace," Plutarch explained.

The Spartans' military success made them the envy and role model of other Greeks. The city of Thebes formed the Sacred Band celebrated in "Beotia." Beotia is a region of northern Greece of which Thebes is the principal city.

The Gay Games are expected to draw athletes from 70 countries for eight days of competition in 30 sports.

The reasoning underlying the Sacred Band long outlived it. During World War II, the U.S. produced a series of propaganda movies titled "Why We Fight." They were designed to remind troops of family members whom they were struggling to protect.

The Thebeans anticipated that equation of bravery with feelings for loved ones. Members of the Sacred Band didn't have to conjure up images of a loved one they had left at home. On a field of battle, they stood side by side--warriors who were lovers.

It is said that the Sacred Band was never defeated until its last battle, when Greece lost its independence to King Philip II of Macedonia. Even then, the Sacred Band's final exploit moved Philip, father of Alexander the Great, to utter a sentiment that ought to serve as a dirge for all forms of prejudice.

Again Plutarch: "When after the battle, Philip was surveying the dead, and stopped at the place where the 300 were lying ... and learned that this was a band of lovers and beloved, burst into tears and said: `Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered anything disgraceful.'"

Cleveland health officials scrutinize opening of new bathhouse

CLEVELAND - City health officials want the owner of a new, upscale gay bathhouse to provide condoms, offer customers regular HIV testing and appoint employees to answer questions about preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

The Flex club, which is scheduled to open next month, will become part of a chain of six bathhouses extending from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Plans for the 50,000-square-foot complex inside a defunct Greyhound bus depot feature three pools, two saunas and a gym and include 110 cabana-like spa rooms equipped with cots and televisions, 18 hotel rooms and a restaurant.

City leaders say the club could help spark the economic revival of a desolate commercial block, but they also worry that the bathhouse could fuel a growth of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

See Cleveland health officials scrutinize opening of new bathhouse
Akron Beacon Journal, OH 

Young Christians hope prayers will push MPs to 'restore morality'

It's better to pray for elected lawmakers than to berate them, say the organizers of a demonstration Saturday that drew thousands of Christians to Parliament Hill.  more...

Colorado Springs hit with 'mooing' dog pro-gay ads

Colorado Springs hit with ‘mooing’ dog pro-gay ads. See More National News

Partner benefits slammed at school

Partner benefits slammed at school: Kentucky lawmakers get political with school's desire to improve.

Spain will add gays to curriculum

The gulf between Spain and the Vatican deepened yesterday when it was announced that pupils in the Catholic country are to be taught about same-sex relationships. Only days after the Pope's visit to Valencia, the socialist government unveiled plans for homosexuality to be part of a new school curriculum.

Pupils from the age of 10 will be taught about tolerating and respecting the diversity that exists within society. Alejandro Tiana, general secretary for education, said such teaching was necessary because "children need to learn there are various types of families".

See Spain will add gays to curriculum

Fabulous!: The Story of Queer Cinema premieres July 16 on IFC

Fabulous!: The Story of Queer Cinema makes its broadcast premiere on IFC on Sunday, July 16, at 10 p.m. Eastern. Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg's exploration of the history of gay and lesbian filmmakers telling their own stories on film includes interviews with a number of expert filmmakers and critics, including John Waters, B. Ruby Rich, Gus Van Sant, Christine Vachon, John Cameron Mitchell, Jennie Livingston, Marcus Hu, Heather Matarazzo, The Advocate's Alonso Duralde, and many more. For more information, visit www.IFCTV.com. (The Advocate) See Fabulous!: The Story of Queer Cinema premieres July 16 on IFC

Tom Cruise South Park Episode set for WEDNESDAY!

A Comedy Central spokesman has confirmed the South Park ‘Tom Cruise’ episode will repeat Wednesday.

Local gay Arabs organize to influence change in the Arab world.

HELEM: Local gay Arabs organize to influence change in the Arab world.

GOP official refuses to retract comment linking homosexuality to pedophilia

The chair of Guilford County, N.C’s Republican Party is refusing to back down from comments he made linking homosexuality with pedophilia. In his official GOP blog, "The Chairman’s Corner," Marcus Kindley decried the degrading of religion in American society: "We now say that homosexuality is OK. That it is natural. Yes, it is as natural as pedophilia," he wrote. See GOP official refuses to retract comment linking homosexuality to pedophilia

Lesbian Fire Chief Takes the Reins in The City of San Diego

San Diego’s new openly lesbian fire chief is trying to come to grips with being a gay role model now. “I’m kind of adjusting to it since this has all been finalized,” Tracy Jarman said in an interview. Jarman was selected by Mayor Jerry Sanders June 20 and approved unanimously by the City Council on June 26. She already was serving as interim fire chief following the resignation of former Chief Jeff Bowman.

Jarman initially turned down a request to be interviewed by the gay media and, after we got her to change her mind, she still answered “no” when asked if it’s “noteworthy” that the nation’s eighth-largest city selected an open lesbian as fire chief. “I think it’s really based on my leadership, my character, experience, the knowledge I bring to the position,” she said.

But then she paused. “I think—well, I don’t know,” she said. “I... Read More

Riewoldt in strife over slur on gays

NICK Riewoldt should make amends for a gay slur by starting a campaign to stamp out homophobia in the AFL, Victoria's gay lobby says.  See Riewoldt in strife over slur on gays
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia 

Gray, Gay, Together

SAN FRANCISCO - Like other gay men in their golden years, Jack Norris and Seymour Sirota had heard the horror stories.

An elderly lesbian couple are housed on separate floors of a nursing home and kept from seeing each other. A gay retired college professor feels compelled to keep his sexual orientation a secret after his roommate at an assisted living facility asks to be transferred. See Gray, Gay, Together
Hartford Courant, United States -

TN Supreme Court allows vote on gay-marriage ban

The Tennessee Supreme Court today declined to remove from the November ballot a proposed state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage in Tennessee.  more...

Pacer's father proud of her efforts for gay rights

 GAINESVILLE - A judge in Gainesville decided Friday that a White County High School gay support club must be allowed to meet on school property - and the father of the student who led the fight to allow the club says he is proud of his daughter for her efforts.

Bill Pacer said his daughter Kerry and her friends and fellow students fought hard for a good cause.

"The judge made the right decision," Pacer told AccessNorthGa.com. "He based his interpretation of the law on the Constitution and made the proper decision."  See Pacer's father proud of her efforts for gay rights
Access North Georgia, GA 

Straight or gay, men finding 'Prada' worthy

Straight or gay, men finding 'Prada' worthy
Arizona Republic, AZ -  Judging by its title alone, guys would tend to be as interested in The Devil Wears Prada as women might be in a movie called Mephistopheles Drives His Winnebago.

Gay Games afloat Sunday

CRYSTAL LAKE — There might be a certain irony — given what happened earlier this year — that event organizers for regatta-style rowing races to be held this Sunday chose the lake here, in part, because of its relatively calm waters.

Who knew that a group asking to use part of the lake for that day for races with less than 100 competitors would stir up, if not waves, at least a few ripples — and bring the relatively quiet town to the short attention span of the national media?

But the competitions in question are part of Gay Games VII Sports & Cultural Festival, and planners "were surprised that, in an age of increasing tolerance for differences of all kinds, some people were willing to appear on television making ofttimes absurd, discriminatory and hateful comments," said Kevin Boyer, board co-vice chairman and marketing committee chairman for the games.

The Chicago Sun-Times, a sister paper of The Courier news, is one of the sponsors of the games.

See Gay Games afloat Sunday
The Courier News, IL 

Gay caucus talks strategy

 U.S. Reps. Barney Frank and Allen Boyd told Florida gay activists Saturday that Republicans are pushing constitutional amendments against same-sex marriage and flag burning as "wedge issues" to rally social conservatives who will vote to keep a GOP majority in Congress.

Frank, a nationally known gay activist, said the Democrats have a crowd-pleaser of their own - raising the minimum wage - but that the White House and GOP leaders can stifle it.

 See Gay caucus talks strategy
Tallahassee Democrat, FL

7th Gay Games open in Chicago

CHICAGO, July 15 (UPI) -- Mayor Richard M. Daley welcomed some 12,000 athletes and tens of thousands of spectators to Chicago Saturday night at opening ceremonies for Gay Games VII.

More than 30,000 people attended opening ceremonies at Soldier Field to see comedian Margaret Cho, actress Megan Mullally, singer Jody Watley, DJ Frankie Knuckles, 400 dancers and a 350-member chorus.

Participants from 70 countries will compete in more than 40 sports at six venues in the city and suburbs through July 22, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Officials were concerned how an oppressive summer heat wave -- with daytime temperatures forecast near 100 -- would affect outdoor events like track and field, soccer, mountain biking and beach volleyball.

Singer Cyndi Lauper, the group Betty and singer Ari Gold were scheduled to perform at closing ceremonies at Wrigley Field.

  See 7th Gay Games open in Chicago United Press International

Michiganders gear up for Gay Games

FERNDALE - About 40 Michigan athletes scheduled to compete in Gay Games VII in Chicago gathered for a meet-and-greet at Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center on July 6. Bob Knight, who will compete in swimming and triathlon, and Leeron Kopelmann, who will compete in football, who first met last month at Motor City Pride, organized the event. See Michiganders gear up for Gay Games

Gayest Runway ever!

Gayest Runway ever! --As Bravo launches the queerest season of Project Runway—is that redundant?—we launch a brand-new weekly recap column that captures the wholesome camaraderie and chivalry of the show. (Kidding!)

Thousands gather for Gay Games

Thousands gather for Gay Games
Chicago Sun-Times, United States - Twin sisters Dee and Nono Grant, one gay and one straight, will play soccer together at the seventh Gay Games this week on a team called Bent Like Beckham.

Dallas Episcopal Diocese in rift over gay issues

Dallas Episcopal Diocese in rift over gay issues: Associated Press

Church's ad drive enlists

Church's ad drive enlists
Bible to fight anti-gay bias: MCC and Jewish gay activist want to create dialogue

GA High court silent on civil unions in Georgia

High court silent on civil unions in Georgia: Unanimous ruling upholds constitutional ban on gay marriage

Ford says AFA boycott stats are lies

Ford says AFA boycott stats are lies: As usual, Don Wildmon greatly inflates effect of American Family Assoc.

Gay Games VII: From vision to inheritance

Gay Games VII: From vision to inheritance
Bay Area Reporter, CA -  In gyms, on track and soccer fields, and in rehearsal halls, the legacy of the Gay Games and its ties to the Bay Area has been overflowing in the past few months as hundreds of athletes and performers prepare for their trip to Chicago.

Ban on foreigners with HIV puzzles US health experts

CHICAGO - In the early years of AIDS, when many people thought a deadly disease dubbed "the gay cancer" might be transmitted via drinking glasses or doorknobs, Congress added HIV to the list of infections that could prevent a foreign visitor from entering the country.

Nearly two decades later, as the international Gay Games begin in Chicago this weekend, the law still bars any HIV-positive foreigner from visiting the U.S., whether it is to play basketball, attend a business meeting or stand up in a family wedding.

Though immigration officials have granted a waiver to allow athletes to attend the games — just as they did in 1994, when the event was held in New York City — many health experts are frustrated and puzzled that the rule exists at all.

"The ban serves absolutely no scientific purpose," said Patricia Mail, president of the American Public Health Association. " ... This is strictly about politics."

Ban on foreigners with HIV puzzles US health experts
Houston Chronicle, United States 

A new intolerance visits Provincetown

PROVINCETOWN -- Town leaders here are holding a public meeting today to air concerns about slurs and bigoted behavior. And this time, they say, it's gay people who are displaying intolerance.

Police say they logged numerous complaints of straight people being called ``breeders" by gays over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Jamaican workers reported being the target of racial slurs. And a woman was verbally accosted after signing a petition that opposed same-sex marriage, they said.

The town, which prizes its reputation for openness and tolerance, is taking the concerns seriously, though police say they do not consider the incidents hate crimes.

``Hate language is usually the early-warning signal that could lead to hate-motivated violence," Town Manager Keith Bergman said. ``And before that happens, we try to nip it in the bud."

Gays have coexisted fairly peacefully alongside other residents in this community on Cape Cod's tip, home to a long-established Portuguese fishing colony.

Provincetown was recently re-certified for its ``No Place for Hate" designation by the AntiDefamation League, which worked with the town on tolerance issues in the 1990s after gays experienced some problems. But the town's ``No Place for Hate" group, set up to address incidents of bigotry, hasn't met in years.

``We have not had problems in a long time," police Staff Sergeant Warren Tobias said. ``I don't necessarily view this as a big problem, but it's certainly a blip on our radar screen."

Along the main shopping street and the wharf, residents of this 3,400-person town -- which swells to some 30,000 over the summer -- say tensions are rising in part because of strong feelings about same-sex marriage.

See A new intolerance visits Provincetown Boston Globe

Will Young : I'll marry like Elton

Will: I'll marry like Elton
The Sun, UK -  GAY pop star Will Young says he’d love to “do an Elton” and marry his boyfriend. But then he let slip that he is yet to meet the right man to walk down the aisle with - which is bad news for his current beau Conor.

Living with HIV more difficult after Katrina

Living with HIV more difficult after Katrina @ Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)

American teachers' union votes to support gay marriage

American teachers' union votes to support gay marriage
PinkNews.co.uk, UK - The American National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, has voted strongly in favour of supporting legal same-sex “marriages” and civil unions.

Gay Games Athletes Face Uphill Battle

Gay Games Athletes Face Uphill Battle
NBC5.com, IL - Each workout brings him closer to the Gay Games physique competition, which includes both a series of muscle flexing poses and a dance routine that requires he wear the bare minimum.

House revives anti-marriage amendment

Just in time for the midterm elections, the U.S. House of Representatives next week will bring back a 2004 bill that would create a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.

A version of what Republicans are calling the Marriage Protection Act died in the Senate when it fell short of the 60 votes necessary for passage.

The House version, written by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and co-sponsored by 129 members of Congress, contains language that appears to preclude any consideration of civil unions as well.

The bill reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

Competing legislation to deny marriage was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Louie Gohmert, D-Texas, who said he was uncomfortable with the possibility of banning civil-union and domestic-partnership laws. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, tossed out Gohmert's version in favor of Musgrave's more restrictive bill.

Openly lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., is leading the fight against Musgrave and the amendment by urging citizens to call their representatives. See House revives anti-marriage amendment

JOAN RIVERS GETS HER OWN GAY SHOW

JOAN RIVERS GETS HER OWN GAY SHOW
GCN, Ireland -  Word is that Joan Rivers is putting together her own talk show for the Bravo channel. It will feature the comedian host with a cast of gay boys and will be called Can We Dish?

Senator's gay bashing decried

Senator's gay bashing decried
Cincinnati Post, OH - A day after calling gays "the wrong kind of people," State Sen. Richard "Dick" Roeding continued his verbal barrage on homosexuals, calling a Republican group that advocates gay and lesbian rights "a bunch of queers.

Russia lifts gay blood ban

Russia lifts gay blood ban
PinkNews.co.uk, UK –  Gay Russians are to be allowed to donate blood, the country's Ministry of Health has revealed. The department reacted to campaigning from GayRussia activists Nikolai Alexeseev and Nikolai Baev.

SUPERMAN STAR HAPPY TO BE GAY ICON

SUPERMAN STAR HAPPY TO BE GAY ICON
Contactmusic.com, UK - SUPERMAN RETURNS star BRANDON ROUTH is happy for the superhero to be a gay icon, because he wants everyone to love Superman's "spirit".

In Nebraska and Tennessee, More Setbacks to Gay Rights

In Nebraska and Tennessee, More Setbacks to Gay Rights
New York Times, United States Opponents of same-sex marriage won victories yesterday in Nebraska and Tennessee, with courts in both states siding with efforts to amend state constitutions to prohibit such unions.

Gay-rights campaign in Colorado spurs political debate

Gay-rights campaign in Colorado spurs political debate
Bradenton Herald,  United States  - A gay-rights advertising campaign featuring a puppy that says "moo" has drawn scrutiny from some members of the Colorado Springs City Council, who said city light poles shouldn't be used for political statements.

No Privacy for Lance Bass at Gay Bar

No Privacy for Lance Bass at Gay Bar
ABC News - Lance Bass was spotted with "Amazing Race" star Reichen Lehmkuhl at Atlantic House, a gay bar in Provincetown, Mass. ... but so what?

New look website to help gay and bisexual men

New look website to help gay and bisexual men
Hounslow Guardian, UK - A new-look website has been unveiled aimed at providing better information for gay and bisexual men living in Hounslow. Run by the Gay Men's Project, westlondongmp.

Gay Dem group names new national leader

Gay Dem group names new national leader
Washington Blade, DC -  The National Stonewall Democrats announced July 7 that Jo Wyrick, the gay partisan group’s interim head, will serve as its new executive director.

Gay rights battles in schools pit freedoms against safety

Gay rights battles in schools pit freedoms against safety
Asbury Park Press, NJ -  For beleaguered school officials, summer brings a welcome break in the escalating culture war over homosexuality in public schools.

Lambda Legal Asks Court to Throw Out Case Seeking to Take Away Domestic Partner Benefits of Miami University Employees

'The real people who are helped by this benefit or harmed by its absence are the lesbian and gay employees and their families. Their health ought not be the source of fodder for a politician up for re-election.'  

(Oxford, OH) --- In papers filed today, Lambda Legal asked the Butler County Court of Common Pleas to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a legislator seeking to take away the domestic partner benefits of employees of Miami University because the legislator has no legal standing to sue.

"Mr. Brinkman has no legal standing to bring this lawsuit because it makes no difference in his daily life when the domestic partners of lesbian and gay university employees have health insurance," said James P. Madigan, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Midwest Regional Office in Chicago. "The real people who are helped by this benefit or harmed by its absence are the lesbian and gay employees and their families. Their health ought not be the source of fodder for a politician up for re-election."  

Today's brief argues that Brinkman has no standing to sue, because the University pays for its domestic partner benefits with privately donated funds, not with tax dollars or tuition.  He also has not shown that he suffered any direct impact that would be corrected if Miami University took away the health and dental insurance it currently offers to the domestic partners of university employees.  

Lambda Legal filed a motion in December 2005 to intervene on behalf of Professors Jean Lynch and Yvonne Keller, after the domestic partner benefits offered by their employer, Miami University, came under attack by the antigay Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). ADF, along with Ohio legislator Thomas Brinkman, is suing the university, claiming that its domestic partner benefits violate Ohio's antigay constitutional amendment, which limits marriage to a man and a woman.  The court granted Lambda Legal's request to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the two professors, given the impact that the decision of the case would have on them and their families.

In the case, Lambda Legal is arguing that Ohio's constitutional amendment does not apply to the university because it concerns only marriage and does not address the legality of domestic partnership benefits.

The case is Brinkman v. Miami University.

James P. Madigan, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Midwest Regional Office in Chicago is handling the case with co-counsel, Alphonse Gerhardstein and Jennifer Branch of Gerhardstein, Branch & Laufman in Cincinnati, OH.

 

Police quiz man over HIV infections

Police quiz man over HIV infections
The Age, Australia - A man accused of spreading the HIV virus through Melbourne's gay community will be interviewed by police in relation to 11 new alleged victims.

Faulty "Research" claim: Gay Rape And Murder Of Children, resurfaces in NZ

"Research": Gay Rape And Murder Of Children
Gay.com UK, UK - Research produced by discredited US psychologist and anti-gay campaigner, Dr Paul Cameron has been used by the Australian Christian Lobby in a submission to the NSW Adoption Act Review, currently looking at the issue of gay adoption.

Federal Court Says White County, Georgia School District Must Allow Gay-Straight Alliance to Meet

ATLANTA, GA  -  Today a federal judge issued a decision requiring White County High School to allow students in the gay-straight alliance club (GSA) to meet on campus.  The decision was cheered by the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case on behalf of the students in the club.

"This is a great victory for the lesbian and gay students and their friends at White County High School who will finally be allowed to meet and can begin to address the violence and harassment against gay students at the school," said Beth Littrell, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU of Georgia.  "But it's also a victory for all students who have been shut out of noncurricular school clubs and activities all year by the school's wrongheaded attempts to prevent the GSA."

After reluctantly allowing students at White County High School to form a GSA, the school district took the extraordinary step of purporting to shut down all noncurricular clubs in an effort to prevent the GSA from meeting.  The ACLU brought a lawsuit against the school district in February 2006, claiming that the school officials violated the students' rights under the federal Equal Access Act, which requires schools to provide equal treatment to all noncurricular clubs.  At a trial in the case, the ACLU proved that the school did not shut down all noncurricular clubs, but continued to allow several noncurricular clubs to meet. 

Today the court issued a permanent injunction against the school, requiring it to allow the GSA and other school clubs to meet.  The court's decision noted, "[E]xtracurricular activites have significant educational value.  PRIDE [the student's name for the GSA] was not the only student group that was prohibited from meeting on school premises during the 2005-2006 school year.  These other groups are also entitled to protection under the EAA [Equal Access Act].  Although plaintiffs have raised claims only on behalf of PRIDE and its members, the injunction would also pertain to other student groups that have been denied equal access."  Other clubs affected by today's decision include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Key Club and Students Against Drunk Driving. 

"This has been the best civics lesson ever," said Kerry Pacer, one of the founders of PRIDE.  "I couldn't believe the school was so unfair to us when all we wanted to do was to try to address the violence and harassment against gay students.  I'm relieved that the court is going to make the school let us meet."

Ken Choe, a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, added, "Student clubs are a critical part of a student's education. The Equal Access Act is important because it guarantees the rights of students to form all kinds of clubs - from GSAs to religious clubs." 

Federal courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of GSA's where schools tried to block their formation, upholding students' right to form the groups in Salt Lake City, Utah; Orange County, California; Franklin Township, Indiana; Boyd County, Kentucky and Osseo, Minnesota.

Gridiron Gay

Gridiron Gay
Bay Windows, MA - Is there more butt-slapping in gay flag football after a successful quarterback sneak or a long bomb is intercepted than there is when straight players are on the gridiron?

Foreign adoption sometimes a good option for gay parents

Foreign adoption sometimes a good option for gay parents
Dallas Voice, TX - Contributing Writer. For David Fisher of Dallas and his partner, the decision to adopt a child abroad came naturally. Waiting interminably on a list for a domestic adoption to come together was not an option.

Lots to learn for students on gay rights

Lots to learn for students on gay rights
Toledo Blade, OH - Pop culture may have gone Queer Eye-friendly, but too few teens got the memo. For gay and lesbian kids, school is still often hostile.

GOP Leader: Gay As 'Natural As Pedophilia'

GOP Leader: Gay As 'Natural As Pedophilia'
365Gay.com -   (Greensboro, North Carolina) The chair of Guilford County's Republican Party is refusing to back down from comments that link homosexuality with pedophilia.

CT Gay Marriage Lawsuit Fails

Gay Marriage Lawsuit Fails
Hartford Courant, United States -  A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday against eight same-sex couples seeking the right to marry, saying the state's civil union law already provides all the rights and protections of marriage.

Criminal record haunts gay publisher

Criminal record haunts gay publisher
Washington Blade, DC - The publisher of EXP Magazine, Jeff Balk, said he is working to save the gay publication after a Delaware radio talk show host exposed Balk’s criminal record.

Arkansas Judges Show New Yorkers Enlightenment

Arkansas Judges Show New Yorkers Enlightenment
Bloomberg -  Liberal New Yorkers may be surprised, but when it comes to enlightenment, their state's highest court could learn something from its counterpart in Arkansas.

Gay, Lesbian Center Goes High Tech

Gay, Lesbian Center Goes High Tech @
Gazette Newspapers, CA 

GAY COP VERDICT AGAINST Santa Barbara STANDS

GAY COP VERDICT STANDS:
The Santa Barbara Independent, CA - Santa Barbara Judge Thomas Anderle rejected City Hall arguments to set aside a $431,000 verdict awarded to former Santa Barbara city cop Ruben Lino, who claimed he was retaliated against for complaining about homophobic remarks by fellow officers.

Anti-Gay Group Claims To Have Ford Against The Ropes

Anti-Gay Group Claims To Have Ford Against The Ropes
365Gay.com - (Washington) The American Family Association says its boycott of Ford Motor Co. for supporting LGBT civil rights groups and media is driving the company under.

NATIONAL AFFAIRS EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Gavin Newsom on Gay Marriage

NATIONAL AFFAIRS EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Gavin Newsom on Gay Marriage
Rolling Stone -  I recently spoke to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom about the renewed push to outlaw gay marriage. Newsom, of course, made gay weddings a national issue by choosing to marry more than 2,000 same-sex couples at city hall in 2004.

Controversy over Gay Games rowing event wanes

Controversy over Gay Games rowing event wanes
Chicago Tribune, United States - Stopping for lemonade at the neighbor children's stand along the shore of Crystal Lake on Thursday, Mary Ryan said the controversy over this weekend's Gay Games rowing event has waned in the months

Montreal's Outgames hit with visa problems

Montreal's Outgames hit with visa problems
CTV.ca, Canada - Montreal's Outgames for gay and lesbian athletes is scheduled to start in a couple of weeks. But, some special invitees for a pre-Games Human Rights conference are having problems with Immigration Canada. Also: Tory gay snub alleged Calgary Sun

The trials of Bernard Baran

This story originally appeared in the June 18, 2004 issue of the Boston Phoenix.

A note on this story

This is the first in a series of planned collaborations between the Boston Phoenix and the Boston University Investigative Journalism Project, a graduate seminar led by professors Dick Lehr and Mitchell Zuckoff. This story was written and reported by their students Dori Berman, Carrie Lock, Richard Rainey, and Lindsay Taub. The names of children and their relatives appearing in this article are pseudonyms.

IF HE HAD pled guilty to lesser charges, Bernard Baran would be a free man today.

But because he denied that he committed the multiple acts of child abuse of which he was accused, Baran couldn’t cut his losses. He felt he couldn’t plead guilty to something he didn’t do.

Today, almost 20 years later, Baran sits in Bridgewater State Prison, waiting for a new team of lawyers to reopen his case and establish that he was a man falsely accused. As awareness grows in Massachusetts and throughout the nation that the innocent are sometimes unjustly convicted, Baran hopes for another chance at justice.

Hope — and the courts — are all he has.

ON SATURDAY, October 7, 1984, Bernard Baran was at a friend’s house when the phone rang.

It was his friend’s sister, and she sounded anxious. She was worried about her daughter, Tina, who attended the Early Childhood Development Center, in Pittsfield, where Baran worked as a teacher’s aide.

"Bernie," she said, "I heard they’re investigating some monster at the day care for molesting kids. Can you keep an eye out for Tina?"

Baran agreed, and quickly got off the line. Tina’s mother saw him as a protector, but Baran knew that investigators thought otherwise. He hung up and turned to his friend.

"Will you tell her? I can’t do it," Baran recalls saying that day, 20 years ago. "This monster they’re talking about is me."

Over the next four months, Baran, at that time a slender, 19-year-old high-school dropout, looked on helplessly as his life was dissected, then destroyed. He was arrested, tried, and convicted of abhorrent crimes. A gentle soul who enjoyed taking care of children, Baran came to be seen as a predator who fondled and sodomized more than a dozen young boys and girls in the classrooms, bathrooms, and back-yard shed of the day-care center where he worked.

 See The trials of Bernard Baran
The Phoenix, MA 

Here, Logo Grow as Their Ranks Shrink

(Multichannel News) _ The two U.S. cable networks currently catering to gay and lesbian viewers are looking to new shows and new platforms to grow their audiences and revenue, while a third, competing outlet was forced to go dark earlier this year.

It's very much business as usual for Logo and Here TV, whereas Q Television Network decided to throw in the towel a few weeks ago.

"The financial challenges that [QTN] faced proved too difficult, and I was simply unable to turn around the network," said QTN CEO Lloyd Fan, in a prepared statement.

See  Here, Logo Grow as Their Ranks Shrink
Mac Video Pro, CA -

Margaret Cho: She's the One That We Want

Margaret Cho has toured all across America with her hit shows I’m the One That I Want, Notorious C.H.O. and Revolution. Now she is ready to incorporate her best pieces in one performance that promises to be funny all over again. Cho has been doing some funny business for 22 years, and is considered a comedic genius.

In a field dominated by men, Cho has been one of only a handful of women with a huge fanatic following. She has won numerous awards and has taken her show on the road extensively. Recently, Margaret married artist Al Ridenour and began developing projects not targeted for the stage.

In the spring of 2005, Cho produced an independent film titled Bam Bam and Celeste. The film follows Cho ( Celeste ) and Bruce Daniels ( Bam Bam ) on a wild road trip from the Midwest to New York City. The film has appeared in film festivals but has yet to be picked up for distribution.

Margaret makes herself available through her writing on her blog, which has been a constant presence for the comedian. Margaret Cho is scheduled to appear at this year’s opening Gay Games ceremony held at Soldier Field on July 15. Her appearance will no doubt set the stage ( no pun intended ) for the citywide Olympic-style event. The following night, Cho will perform at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, doing a mix of new material as well as material she considers “classic.” This queen of comedy sat down to talk about dancing ( sort of ) , opening the Gay Games—and being an ass master.

Margaret Cho has toured all across America with her hit shows I’m the One That I Want, Notorious C.H.O. and Revolution. Now she is ready to incorporate her best pieces in one performance that promises to be funny all over again. Cho has been doing some funny business for 22 years, and is considered a comedic genius.

In a field dominated by men, Cho has been one of only a handful of women with a huge fanatic following. She has won numerous awards and has taken her show on the road extensively. Recently, Margaret married artist Al Ridenour and began developing projects not targeted for the stage.

In the spring of 2005, Cho produced an independent film titled Bam Bam and Celeste. The film follows Cho ( Celeste ) and Bruce Daniels ( Bam Bam ) on a wild road trip from the Midwest to New York City. The film has appeared in film festivals but has yet to be picked up for distribution.

Margaret makes herself available through her writing on her blog, which has been a constant presence for the comedian. Margaret Cho is scheduled to appear at this year’s opening Gay Games ceremony held at Soldier Field on July 15. Her appearance will no doubt set the stage ( no pun intended ) for the citywide Olympic-style event. The following night, Cho will perform at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, doing a mix of new material as well as material she considers “classic.” This queen of comedy sat down to talk about dancing ( sort of ) , opening the Gay Games—and being an ass master.

See Margaret Cho: She’s the One That We Want
Windy City Times, IL -

New EU presidency urged to protect gay rights

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) has published a list of demands for the new presidency of the European Union.

Finland will be in charge of the political body for the next six months after Austria’s rule since January came to an end, and ILGA has immediately produced a memorandum on gay issues for the country to follow.

The document addresses issues of cost cutting, enlargement, regulation, transparency, finance, policy, and external relations.

It calls on the EU to protect “fundamental rights and equality” and to ensure new and potential member states such as Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Croatia and Macedonia protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well as Third World and Middle Eastern countries.

The document also pushes for funding for LGBT organisations and projects and a strong clampdown on homophobia and racism on the continent. See New EU presidency urged to protect gay rights
PinkNews.co.uk, UK 

News we could not make up

·         Sen. Lindsey Graham Accused Of Fabricating Senate Debate Sent To Supreme Court…

·         Eric Alterman: “Novak Lied To Everyone In Order To Betray His Country On Behalf Of Rove And Company”…

·         Newspaper Drops Coulter's Column When “Conservative Readers Felt That Their Views Were Being Misrepresented”...

·         Sen. Russ Feingold: “New Orleans Looks Worse Off Than Banda Aceh Did A Year After The Tsunami”…

·         Deputy Attorney General To Senate: “The President Is Always Right”...

 

Ads Suggest Gay Relationships Can Be Moral

Ads Suggest Gay Relationships Can Be Moral
Christian Broadcasting Network, VA - "Would Jesus discriminate?" That question has been popping up on billboards, yard signs and newspaper ads around Indiana in a campaign organized by a Jewish gay activist and the gay-friendly Metropolitan Community Church.

'Gay Army' TV Series Axed in Poland Before Being Screened

WARSAW –  The Polish commercial television channel Polsat has dropped plans to screen the Danish gay reality TV series Gay Army, amid fears that the company would be hit by a massive fine from the Polish media watchdog National Radio and Television Council.

It was two weeks ago that Polsat announced that it would be screening Gay Army, a hit in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The six-part show follows a group of gays who are sent to a “boot camp” for training.  By the end of the series, the hope is that they will be able to fight with “real” soldiers.

Although unseen in Poland, Gay Army is said to have attracted a number of complaints to the National Radio and Television Council who announced that it would be “monitoring the show”.

 See 'Gay Army' TV Series Axed in Poland Before Being Screened

Spitzer vows support of same-sex marriage but...

Gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer may support gay marriage, but legalizing such unions won't be one of his top priorities, the Democrat said yesterday.

Appearing before the Daily News Editorial Board, Spitzer restated his pledge to back a law legalizing same-sex marriages in New York, which the state Court of Appeals last week ruled unconstitutional.

But the attorney general also indicated that he would not make the hot-button issue one of his administration's first challenges.

"I have said that I would propose a bill," Spitzer said when pressed on gay marriage. "Having said that, when you asked me at the very top [of the interview] what the priorities were, I think you heard my answer to that."

That answer was limited to reforming Albany and boosting the upstate economy.

Spitzer's careful wording seemed to reflect his desire to offer strong support for gay marriage, while also doing whatever he can to keep the potentially divisive topic from becoming a major campaign issue, experts said.

"It's not a vote-getter, even in New York," said political consultant Norman Adler, who cited jobs, taxes and the economy as the central issues this year. "So if you are running for office and want to focus in on voters' concerns, gay marriage isn't one of them."

Spitzer seemed to underscore the same point two weeks ago when he questioned former President Bill Clinton's decision to spend his early political capital in 1993 on the issue of gays in the military.

"What a disastrous way to begin a presidency," Spitzer said in an interview with News columnist Michael Goodwin.

 See Spitzer vows support of same-sex marriage but...
New York Daily News

Controversial Hayes Valley Housing Would Help Gay Community

San Francisco, Calif. (KCBS)  -- A controversial plan by University of California Berkeley to put over 400 housing units in the old U.C. Extension building in Hayes Valley got a boost Wednesday with the announcement of an agreement to set aside 80 of the apartments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors.

The project has come under fire from residents concerned about congestion, open space, recreation and architectural preservation.

KCBS' Barbara Taylor reported that Paul Olsen, president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association dropped by the steps of City Hall to hear the announcement about setting aside the units.

"Is it fair to take what has been a six acre publicly zoned site for the last 150 years, always to benefit the neighborhood and the city and turn that into what would become a mixed-use zone," he said.

However others support the project, including Assemblyman Mark Leno.

"This is a great sustainable project built on green principals," he said.

See Controversial Hayes Valley Housing Would Help Gay Community
KCBS, CA 

TEAM NASHVILLE HEADS TO CHICAGO FOR GAY GAMES

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The eyes of the world will be turned toward Chicago from July 15-22, as the city plays host to an international contingent of athletes, artists and spectators for the 2006 Gay Games, and among that group are fifteen athletes from Nashville who will compete under the Team Nashville banner.

"This is a real milestone for the GLBT community in Nashville," said Sam Felker, who along with his partner Keith Little, organized the Nashville contingent. "We are excited to have such a large and dedicated group of athletes making the trip to Chicago."

Felker and Little competed in the last two Gay Games in Amsterdam and Sidney and wanted to introduce others to the multi-cultural event that takes place in various international venues every four years.

"It is truly amazing when literally thousands of gay and lesbian athletes from all over the world assemble for the Games," said Little. "The camaraderie and fellowship at the Games are unlike any other athletic event - gay or straight - and everyone just has fun competing, spectating and making friends from all over the world." See TEAM NASHVILLE HEADS TO CHICAGO FOR GAY GAMES
Out In America, OH -

Health insurance proposed for domestic partners @ University of Louisville

The University of Louisville is considering offering health insurance benefits to the non-married domestic partners of U of L employees.

The school would be the first public university in the state to do so, said John Drees, a university spokesman.

Gay and lesbian as well as heterosexual partners would be eligible, he said.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay and lesbian rights group, 298 universities across the country offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners.

U of L trustees are scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to authorize President James R. Ramsey “to take appropriate action for the inclusion of domestic partners” in the university’s employee health insurance benefit policy. See Health insurance proposed for domestic partners of U of L ...
Louisville Courier-Journal, KY -

"Bullied" gay man secures landmark workplace ruling

"Bullied" gay man secures landmark workplace ruling
PinkNews.co.uk, UK - In a landmark Court of Appeal ruling William Majrowski, an alleged victim of homophobic workplace harassment by his manager, was granted the right by the Law Lords to pursue a case of "vicarious harassment" against the employers of his manager.

'I discovered my perfect husband was gay'

'I discovered my perfect husband was gay'
Femail, UK - Ferraris, Bentleys, a country mansion and two children. Lisa and her husband had it all - until the day he dropped a bombshell that destroyed their marriage.

Gay Rage Concerns In P'Town

(Provincetown, Massachusetts) For decades Provincetown has been one of the nation's most tolerant communities, making it popular with gays.

But now, according to the town's police chief, gays are showing disturbing signs themselves of intolerance and he wants to address it before the situation escalates.

Chief Ted Meyer tells the Cape Cod Times that he has received complaints of gay people calling straights ''breeders'' as well as racial epithets directed at Jamaican workers and a verbal attack directed at a resident who signed an anti-gay-marriage petition.

Meyer acknowledges that the complaints number only a handful and than none of them constitute hate crimes but he is nonetheless concerned.

''We don't have hate crimes, but we do have hate and nasty comments,'' Meyer told the Times. 

''We've got gay guys yelling out to straight people, 'you breeders coming here and bothering us,' and that sort of stuff. So it's kind of a reverse discrimination. And they worked so hard to prevent that from happening to gay folks in town.''   

Meyer said that he is determined to insure the incidents don't escalate. He's has called a public meeting of the town's ''No Place for Hate'' committee. The meeting will take place Friday afternoon.

See Gay Rage Concerns In P'Town @ 365Gay.com 

MA Legislature delays vote on same-sex marriage amendment

Legislature delays vote on same-sex marriage amendment

(By Andrea Estes and Russell Nichols, Globe Staff)

With energetic demonstrators chanting in the street, state lawmakers yesterday delayed a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage until after the November election.   How they voted    Delay frustrates amendment backers

Mass. Lawmakers put off gay marriage debate until November

Lawmakers put off gay marriage debate
Boston Globe, United States

State lawmakers voted this afternoon to put off a debate on gay marriage until Nov. 9, two days after the general election.

The delay is likely to cheer advocates of gay marriage, who believe that the more time they have to lobby lawmakers the better chance they have to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex weddings.

But the delay drew a condemnation from sponsors of the amendment, who accused the legislative leadership of trying to insulate lawmakers from a tough vote before the Nov. 7 election.

“This move shows the flagrant disregard for the will of the people by Senate President Travaglini and every legislator who voted to recess the convention until November,'' said Kris Mineau, president, Massachusetts Family Institute and spokesman for the ballot coalition, VoteOnMarriage.org.

The vote came at today’s Constitutional Convention after a four-hour debate on other issues, including a measure requiring health care for all Massachusetts residents. The convention voted 118-76 to send the health care amendment to a special study committee, effectively derailing the proposed amendment.

Earlier today hundreds of advocates on both sides of the gay marriage issue descended upon the State House, chanting and cheering and clutching colorful signs.

Supporters and opponents rallied on Beacon Street. On one side, opponents held green and white signs that said "Let the People Vote." On the other side, supporters clutched signs that said "Marriage Equality Works" and "I am Catholic and I Support Gay Marriage."

"I think this is the civil rights issue of our time," said Mea Geizhals, 19, of Mission Hill who arrived at 6:30 a.m. "It's nice to be a part of a movement that feels very pure."

But Thomas Good, 47, a landscaper from Dorchester who took the day off to protest today, said the decision should be left to the people.

"It's my blood-bought right to vote," said Good, holding a sign that said "Adam & Steve = 0 People/Adam & Eve = 6 billion people." "A man and a man cannot reproduce. It's unnatural. The fiber of this country is going down."

SKATER FROM THE HEART from Sydney

MATTHEW MASON HAD ONLY ICE SKATED A COUPLE OF TIMES IN HIS LIFE WHEN HE STARTED LESSONS IN SYDNEY FOUR YEARS AGO. THIS MONTH HE'S REPRESENTING AUSTRALIA AT THE CHICAGO GAY GAMES.

I’ve always enjoyed watching figure skating. I remember as a child wishing I could do it – but I grew up in Dubbo and there were no ice rinks.

The first time I saw figure skating live was at the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney. The first skaters who came out looked like they’d only been skating a few weeks.

I’d always thought I was too old to skate, but here were all these adults having a fantastic time, and the audience was so supportive. I remember thinking, “I could have done that with a bit of preparation. I want to go in the next Gay Games.”

The following Saturday, before the Gay Games had even finished, I went with my brother and a friend to Canterbury Olympic ice rink to have a go.

See SKATE FROM THE HEART Sydney Star Observer

GAY CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION PLACES 16 BILLBOARDS ACROSS NASHVILLE

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Soulforce, a LGBT civil rights group, has placed 16 billboards in and around Nashville, the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, condemning his support for the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex unions.

Soulforce's mission is to end religion-based discrimination of gays and lesbians. They state they want to show not all people of faith support the amendment.

The billboards are the organization's first foray into the same-sex marriage fight, featuring part of a speech given by deceased civil rights giant Coretta Scott King at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey on March 24, 2004, where she said, "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protections, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

The signs also include a photograph of Soulforce Executive Director Jeff Lutes with his partner and son. "Soulforce reminds Senator Frist's hometown that Mrs. King stood for the full equality of lesbian and gay Americans and against homophobia, especially homophobia in the black community," said Lutes. See GAY CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION PLACES 16 BILLBOARDS ACROSS ...
Out In America, OH

IL Anti-Gay Group Falls Short for Marriage Referendum

Conservative group Protect Marriage Illinois ( PMI ) fell short of the required valid signatures needed to place an anti-gay marriage referendum on the November ballot.

The right-wing group, which is led by Illinois Family Institute’s Peter LaBarbera, collected 345,000 signatures in order to place an anti-gay marriage referendum on the November ballot. A random sample taken by the Illinois State Board of Elections of roughly 19 percent of the signatures showed that only 91 percent were valid. Under state law, 95 percent of the signatures must be valid in order to get the green light to place the non-binding referendum on the ballot. Although the election board’s review showed that the anti-gay group is failing in its attempt to advise state legislators to ban all gay unions, that does not mean the issue is dead in the water.

According to Board of Elections spokesperson Dan White, proponents of the referendum will have the next few weeks to attempt to restore signatures deemed invalid and challenge the state’s findings. PMI will be able to state its case during an Aug. 11 meeting, and the board will reach a decision.

White said that it could come to a point where all submitted signatures will need to be verified by the Board of Elections. “We are really hoping it won’t come to that,” he said.

A group of opponents to the referendum has filed an objection to the signatures not included in the random sample, but the board has put a hold on its complaints. “At some point, that may have to be addressed,” White added.

Illinois law already defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

See  Anti-Gay Group Falls Short for Marriage Referendum
Windy City Times, IL

Salinas Council Supports Gay Pride Event

SALINAS, Calif. -- City councilmembers spoke out in support of the local gay and lesbian community on Tuesday.

For the first time, the council issued a proclamation supporting the Monterey County Gay Pride Festival, which takes place Saturday at the county fairgrounds. See Salinas Council Supports Gay Pride Event
KSBW Channel.com, CA

Florida's Orang County bars housing bias against gays

With little opposition from conservative Christian groups, the Orange County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a fair-housing ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays.

"It's the right thing to do," Commissioner Mildred Fernandez said. "Orange County is a county that's changing, and it's changing for the better." See Orange bars housing bias against gays Orlando Sentinel

Faiths in Jerusalem United Against Gay March

Faiths in Jerusalem United Over Gay March @ Forbes – Christian leaders condemned it. Jewish radicals put a bounty on participants. Muslim clerics threatened to flood the streets with protesters.

Study: 10% of London gay men have tried crystal meth

Study: 10% of London gay men have tried crystal meth
The Advocate, CA - Approximately 10% of gay men in London have used the recreational drug methamphetamine, according to a study published in the online edition of the journal Addiction.

Lawsuit alleges gay marriage ban initiative violates election laws

Opponents of a state gay marriage ballot question filed suit against the proposal Wednesday, arguing it violates referendum rules.

The suit was brought by a group of unmarried couples and contends the Protect Marriage Arizona initiative violates state rules that dictate ballot questions must be on a single subject or issue.

See Lawsuit alleges gay marriage ban initiative violates election laws Phoenix Business Journal

Anti-Gay Groups Target Gay Games

(Chicago) Illinois conservative Christian groups pushing for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state say they intend to demonstrate against homosexuality at Gay Games events in Chicago next week. Read more of Anti-Gay Groups Target Gay Games @ 365Gay.com   

Gay Pressure Forces Cancellation Of Caribbean HIV/AIDS Fundraiser

 Hardbeatnews, NEW YORK, N.Y., Thurs. July 13, 2006: It was billed as a concert to help raise much-needed funds to fight the dreaded disease, HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean community. But yesterday organizers of the Reggae Gold Live concert backed off from holding the event after gay activists threatened to protest the inclusion in the line-up of reggae acts, Beenie Man and T.O.K, whom they claim are homophobes.

In a statement yesterday, LIFEbeat, which was producing the event in association with Tonya Lewis and J.P. Taylor of E.A.R.S. Entertainment Group and Power 105.1 FM, announced the cancellation of the July 18 concert at New York’s Webster Hall, stating, “…the possibility of violence at the concert from the firestorm incited by a select group of activists makes canceling the event the only responsible action.”

See Gay Pressure Forces Cancellation Of Caribbean HIV/AIDS Fundraiser Hardbeatnews.com

Banton Danish gig met with gay protests

Banton Danish gig met with gay protests
PinkNews.co.uk, UK - Just a week after reggae artist Buju Banton was banned from performing in Brighton, gay activists in Denmark have protested against the singer’s scheduled gig in the country.

Jail for gang leader who killed gay masseur

Jail for gang leader who killed gay masseur
Wandsworth Borough Guardian, UK - The leader of a vicious gang who tortured a gay Thai masseur before stabbing him to death was jailed for life at the Old Bailey last week.

Gay Games: 3-2-1 ... GO!

Gay Games: 3-2-1 ... GO!
Windy City Times, IL: Get ready, Chicago, the biggest LGBT party our city has ever seen kicks off Sat., July 15, at Soldier Field. We’re talking energy, excitement and an environment that the Windy City has never seen.

Judge rules CT gay couples not harmed by civil unions law

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Gay and lesbian couples have not been harmed by the state's decision to legalize same-sex civil unions rather than grant them full marriage rights, a state Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

The plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling to the state's highest court.

"Civil union and marriage in Connecticut now share the same benefits, protections and responsibilities under law," Judge Patty Jenkins Pittman in New Haven wrote. "The Connecticut Constitution requires that there be equal protection and due process of law, not that there be equivalent nomenclature for such protection and process."

Connecticut became the second state in the nation, after Vermont, to allow civil unions. In 2005, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed, and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law, a bill legalizing civil unions but defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

 See Judge rules gay couples not harmed by civil unions law

Once-Daily AIDS 'Cocktail'

Once-Daily AIDS 'Cocktail': FDA's approval of Atripla means U.S. patients will be able to take a single pill each day to fight HIV. @ SF Chronicle

Split Over The Gay Games

Split Over The Gay Games: Dispute over finances fractures the Olympic-style competition into two separate events. @ SF Chronicle

NZAF 'delighted' with Fiji gay decision

 The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is “delighted” that the Fijian High Commissioner has confirmed that gay men will not be arrested for consensual sex in Fiji. MP Maryan Street, had sought clarification in light of an undated letter from the High Commission, published in Express newspaper, which claimed anti-gay laws were still enforceable, in spite of a Fijian High Court ruling that declared the anti-gay laws unconstitutional and unenforceable.

“This is a great step forward for the human rights of gay citizens and tourists as well as HIV prevention efforts,” says NZAF Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier. “In combination with existing human rights protections for gays and lesbians in Fiji’s Constitution, Fiji is now following a path to equality that New Zealand has helped to pave.”

The issue of gay men being arrested for consensual sex was highlighted after the Out Takes Reel Queer Film Festival offered a prize trip for two to Fiji. The Fijian High Commission’s letter conflicted with the ruling of Fiji’s High Court, and led to uncertainty over the legal situation faced by gay men in Fiji. See NZAF ‘delighted’ with Fiji gay decision
Gay NZ, New Zealand

Under Fire, Gay Mizzou Lacrosse Coach Finds, and Gives, Support

"I just don't understand why people seem so interested in my story."

That's what Kyle Hawkins (right), the now-openly gay head coach of the University of Missouri lacrosse team, has been saying since he came out on Outsports in June. The revelation of his identity has spawned an article in the New York Daily News that ran in newspapers across the country, a column on MSNBC.com, and a front-page article in the local Columbia Daily Tribune.

"The reality of who I am, I'm the coach of a minor sport. I'm not the head football coach at UCLA. I'm just amazed that anybody gives a crap", Hawkins says.

The reason is simple: Even more rare than the openly gay athlete is the openly gay coach. When Hawkins decided to reveal his identity on Outsports, he decided to take a leap that only a very small handful of men have ever taken.

Hawkins anonymously introduced himself as Frustrated_Coach on the Outsports discussion board on September 28, 2004, with a 1,500-word entry that said, "I am a head coach of a men's team sport at a major division one university. I am totally closeted, not married, totally gay and no one would guess." The guessing game started, pegging him as everything from an assistant football coach at an SEC school to a head coach in the Northeast.

For the next 20 months, while speculation swirled at Outsports (some even calling it a hoax), Hawkins slowly came out in his own private world. He told his assistant coaches he was gay and asked them to not share it with the team. He disclosed it to the team's faculty advisor, who said Hawkins had his support. He told his parents – strongly religious Southern Baptists – and he has not heard from them since.

Eventually, news of Hawkins' sexuality made its way to players on his team, and eventually their parents. That's when Hawkins was first forced to defend himself.

Four of the players, all of them seniors this coming year, voiced concern to the administration and asked that Hawkins be removed as head coach of their team. One of the players' parents are the presidents of the Mizzou lacrosse parent booster club, which organizes an incredible amount of support for the team including traveling to road games as far away as Oregon. The parents wrote a letter to the university administration asking that Hawkins be removed as head lacrosse coach. According to Hawkins, the university refused to share the letter with him due to "privacy issues," as the letter was not addressed to Hawkins.

Under attack and now involuntarily out to his team, Hawkins decided he no longer needed to conceal his identity. So, on June 10, with a post on the Outsports discussion board, he became one of the very few openly gay male coaches in the United States. And in doing so, he found the advice and support of openly gay soccer coach Dan Woog, Helen Carroll, sports project director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the entire Outsports community.

He also found support at home. While these four players have been drumming up support for Hawkins' removal, a "super majority" of his players support Hawkins remaining their head coach. Several lacrosse alumni have sent letters to the university in support of Hawkins.

To the university administration, according to Hawkins, his sexuality is a non-issue. Hawkins is a respected coach at Missouri and has built the lacrosse program into a contender. They won the Big XII division of the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference going away, posting a 10-8 record (6-2 in the division), and they posted a win in the first round of the post-season tournament. Hawkins says this was quite an accomplishment in what is supposed to be a rebuilding period for the team.

More of Under Fire, Gay Mizzou Lacrosse Coach Finds, and Gives, Support @ Outsports.com, CA 

Openly Gay RC Priest Heads to Africa to Combat AIDS

SYRACUSE, N.Y., July 11 - A New York priest who is one of the few openly gay Catholic priests in the world will spend 18 months in Lesotho, southern Africa, ministering to people with HIV and AIDS.

The Rev. Fred Daley said he initiated the assignment and it is not a punishment for disclosing his sexual orientation or criticizing a recent Vatican document that said men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should not be admitted to the seminary or ordained to the priesthood. See Openly Gay Priest Heads to Africa to Combat AIDS
Beliefnet.com, NY

GAYWHEELS.COM: GAYS LOVE SATURN SKY

GAYWHEELS.COM: GAYS LOVE SATURN SKY
Out In America, OH: ATLANTA - The 2007 Saturn Sky two-seat convertible has generated the most interest among gay and lesbian car shoppers and enthusiasts, according to Gaywheels.

Tasmania's Same-sex couples refused Family Court rights

Same-sex couples refused Family Court rights
ABC Online, Australia: Tasmania's gay and lesbian rights group is angry the Federal Government will not recognise the rights of same-sex couples who are separating.

Gay Bashing Victim Leaps To Death

Gay Bashing Victim Leaps To Death
365Gay.com: (London) A Blackpool man who suffered depression after a vicious homophobic attack that left him disfigured has plunged to his death from a railway bridge.

Gay women bankers less likely to be "out"

LONDON: Gay women working in the City of London's financial services sector are three times more likely than male counterparts to keep quiet about their sexuality, according to a survey published recently.

The study by recruitment firm The Blomfield Group found the City of London had made progress in terms of diversity, but remained a challenging place to work for gay people.

"The reluctance of women to come out as lesbians possibly reflects the fact that women already feel they have to fight hard to maintain equality with men," said Keith Robinson, managing director at Origin HR, part of the Blomfield Group.

The survey revealed an increase in the number of financial services employees who identified themselves as gay. But in the survey women were three times more likely than men not to disclose their sexuality.

See Gay women bankers less likely to be "out"
Stuff.co.nz

London firms becoming more gay-friendly - survey

LONDON (AFX) - Efforts by UK financial service companies to increase the diversity of their workforces have encouraged more gay and lesbian people to look for jobs in the sector, according to City recruitment firms Joslin Rowe and Origin HR.

In an anonymous poll of more than 20,000 City job candidates, 6.3 pct of respondents identified themselves as gay or lesbian this year, up from 5.9 pct in 2004, the recruiters said.

Joslin Row and Origin HR said the increase reflects a concerted effort by City banks and insurers to shed their image as overwhelmingly 'white, heterosexual and male' institutions.

'Times have changed and diversity is now a major watchword. The City knows it must attract the best talent from all walks of life and from around the world, said Joslin Rowe managing director Tara Ricks.

However, the recruiters said the number of gay and lesbian City employees, currently estimated at 55,000, needs to rise to 90,000 before the workforce matches the mix in London's general population.  See City firms becoming more gay-friendly - survey
Life Style Extra -

CA Court tackles gay vows

n a day of marathon legal sparring over gay marriage, a state appeals court Monday raised sharp questions about the fairness of California laws that bar same-sex couples from the right to legally wed.

A three-justice panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco repeatedly challenged Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger, who was defending the laws. The justices expressed concern about the state's argument that strong domestic partner protections are enough for gay couples seeking to validate their relationships.

While the justices also posed tough questions to gay rights lawyers, the court kept pressing Krueger on whether it is fair to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. California legislators put restrictive language in the state's family code in 1977, and voters in 2000 passed Proposition 22, which also limited marriage to a man and a woman and forbid recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.

See  Court tackles gay vows
San Jose Mercury News

Intolerance of Gay Pride to Unite Conflicting Religious Sects in

JERUSALEM — Christian leaders condemned it. Jewish radicals put a bounty on participants. Muslim clerics threatened to flood the streets with protesters.

Next month's international gay pride parade in Jerusalem was intended to bring a sense of cross-cultural unity to a city torn by conflict, organizers said. It already has been wildly successful — just not in the way intended — uniting the city's conflicting religions in anger against their plan.

"We consider this offensive and harmful to the religious integrity of the city," Sheik Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said Tuesday.

See Intolerance of Gay Pride to Unite Conflicting Religious Sects in ... FOX News

Daley says Gay Games could be test for 2016 Olympics WQAD

(KUTV) There was a possible hate crime over the weekend at the Jazzfest in downtown Salt Lake City. A man is seriously injured and witnesses say it’s because he's gay.

Josh Shuck says he was tackled and his head slammed against the ground. He now has two crushed vertebrae. He doesn't remember much from the fight but witnesses say it's a hate crime. See Daley says Gay Games could be test for 2016 Olympics WQAD

Conservative Chile more tolerant of gays Seattle Post Intelligencer

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Gay rights activists say they are finding greater public tolerance in one of Latin America's socially conservative strongholds and hope Chilean lawmakers will approve anti-discrimination legislation.

Chile's Congress is debating striking down regulations against "offenses to morals and good customs" that police have used to harass gays, even for behavior such as holding hands in public.

Activists say such treatment remains common. It was only in 1998 that Chile repealed a prohibition on sex between consenting, same-sex adults.

The issue of gay rights captured the country's attention in 2004 when the Supreme Court denied a lesbian mother and judge, Karen Atala, custody of her three daughters in favor of her ex-husband.

Emma de Ramon, Atala's partner and director of a gay parents advocacy group, said she believes there can be progress for gays under new socialist President Michelle Bachelet.

See Conservative Chile more tolerant of gays Seattle Post Intelligencer

Berkeley Sea Scouts appeal speech ruling

SAN FRANCISCO - The Berkeley Sea Scouts asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court decision requiring the group to pay berthing fees at the Berkeley Marina.

The California Supreme Court ruled in March that Berkeley did not violate the rights of the youth sailors connected to the Boy Scouts of America when it demanded marina fees because the group violates a city anti-discrimination policy.

The city revoked free berthing privileges for the Berkeley Sea Scouts because the Boy Scouts bar atheist and gay members, which violates the city's 1997 policy to provide free berthing to nonprofits that don't discriminate.

City officials told the Sea Scouts that the group could retain its berthing subsidy, valued at about $500 monthly per boat, if it broke ties with the Boy Scouts or disavowed the policy against gays and atheists.

The Sea Scouts, which teaches sailing, carpentry and plumbing, refused to do so and maintained that such an edict was unconstitutional.

 See Sea Scouts appeal speech ruling San Jose Mercury News

Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing Announces New Executive Director

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2006--Los Angeles-based Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing (GLEH), the nation's first nonprofit, affordable, multicultural housing development that will include a community service center supporting the needs of GLBT elders, for both residents and non-residents, has announced the hiring of Mark Supper as its new executive director. Supper comes to GLEH directly from Los Angeles-based Enterprise Community Partners where he served as director of development for its western region. Prior to that he served as interim chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles where he also held the title of vice president of resource development and communications.

"We are very excited to have Mark join our agency and take the helm at this critical juncture in our development," said GLEH Board of Directors Chair Carolyn Dye. "As we prepare to open the doors of our facility in Hollywood in early 2007 and move forward with our plans to assist local GLBT elders, we will rely on his vast experience, drive and passion for our mission."

Supper replaces former GLEH Executive Director, Brian Neimark, who was with the organization from its inception.

The $20.3M, 103-unit building located on the corner of Selma and Ivar Avenues in Hollywood, is designed to house individuals of mixed incomes under an affordable housing model. 30 of the units are set aside for people who are homeless, at risk of becoming homeless, or who are living with HIV/AIDS. The building broke ground in October, 2005, and is on schedule to open in the winter of 2007.

See Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing Announces New Executive Director

Group supporting domestic partnership measure given $250,000

DENVER - A group that wants voters to give gay couples many of the same rights that married couples have received a $250,000 donation from the brother of Fort Collins heiress Pat Stryker.

The gift from Michigan philanthropist Jon Stryker increased the total raised by Coloradans for Fairness and Equality to nearly $500,000, according to campaign finance reports.

His sister has said she also will support the group's efforts.  See Group supporting domestic partnership measure given $250,000 Contra Costa Times

Gay rights amendment voted down by city council in South Bend

Gay rights amendment voted down by city council
WNDU-TV, IN: South Bend, IN - A controversial human rights amendment was voted down by South Bend's City Council Monday night. The amendment would have added gays and lesbians to the city's anti-discrimination code.

Politician, newspaper charged with gay bashing

A local politician wrote a letter to his local newspaper in Farsund, southern Norway, saying he wanted a gay-free beach in the area. Now they've both been charged with promoting discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. Politician, newspaper charged with gay bashing
Aftenposten, Norway -

Gay Community Gets Housing Protection

Gay Community Gets Housing Protection
Central Florida News 13, FL: A new amendment to Orange County's fair housing ordinance adds, among other things, sexual orientation. The County Commission voted unanimously for the amendment to the 1983 ordinance Tuesday.

NRP-NU File No-Confidence Motion Over Gay Parade in Israel

NRP-NU File No-Confidence Motion Over Gay Parade
Arutz Sheva, Israel: (IsraelNN.com) The National Religious and National Union Parties have filed a no-confidence motion on the plan to hold an international gay pride parade in Jerusalem.

Duke Rape Accused Identified As 'Ringleader' In DC Gay Bashing

(Washington) A Duke University student charged with raping a female dancer has been identified as the "ringleader" in an attack on two gay men in Washington DC. More of Duke Rape Accused Identified As 'Ringleader' In DC Gay Bashing @ 365Gay.com 

Palestine and gay rights

Palestine and gay rights
The Advocate, CA: Is it racist to say that the Palestinian Authority is light-years behind Israel in terms of LGBT equality? And why is the highest-profile international gay rights organization boycotting WorldPride in Jerusalem in August?

Black gay bloggers protest artists scheduled for HIV/AIDS benefit

Black gay bloggers protest artists scheduled for HIV/AIDS benefit
Newsday, NY: A reggae concert meant to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS is coming under fire from some black gay bloggers and activists who are incensed that the lineup includes two artists they consider to be anti-gay.

Message from chorus is it's OK to be gay

Message from chorus is it's OK to be gay
Birmingham News, AL: The message delivered Monday by the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus was clear: It's OK to be gay. It's also OK to sing about it, as the 100-voice choir from Minnesota did relentlessly at the Alys Stephens Center

More news we could not make up - - -

·         Homeland Security Ranks Indiana As State With Most Terror Targets…

·         Scandal-Plagued Ralph Reed Promotes Himself As Candidate With “Stronger Values”...

·         Joe Lieberman “Doesn't Quite Get What Is Happening To Him”...

·         Today In Iraq: Double Suicide Attack, Beheadings, Shootings, Car Bombs, Mortar Attacks, Bus Ambush... what is that lioght at the end of the tunnel, Dick? The 5:42 to Grand Central?

·         Bush Admin. Judicial Nominee's Role In Interrogation Policies Ignites Opposition...

·         Geraldo Goes After Philadelphia Mobsters He Claims Wanted To “Whack” Him…

·         Mysterious Rogue Waves Leave Any Ship “Like A Cork In A Bathtub”...

·         Lobbyist Spending Hits Record High Again...

·         Snow Announces Gitmo Detainees Are Now Protected By Geneva Conventions: “It's Not Really A Reversal Of Policy”...

·         “Redneck Games” Draws Thousands To Watch Mud Belly-Flop And More...

·         Wall Street Journal News Staff Rage Against Editorial Page: “They're Wrong All The Time”...

Testicles: It's What's For Dinner

Testicles: It's What's For Dinner: Big Ride visits a Rocky Mountain oyster festival -- which just isn't the same anymore. Rubenstein. Chronicle

MARRIAGE VOTE UNCERTAIN: Few lawmakers willing to say how or if they'll vote

Supporters of a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts are concerned legislative leaders will block a vote to keep citizens across the state from deciding the issue.

It’s been more than two years since the first same-sex couples legally wed in Massachusetts, but the issue continues to make legislators squirm. Attempts to contact more than 20 House and Senate members from south of Boston found only four who would say in advance how they plan to vote.

And the question is whether they will get a chance to vote when the two houses of the Legislature meet tomorrow in a joint session called a constitutional convention because it will deal only with 21 proposed changes to the state constitution, including the gay marriage amendment.

In the lead up to the vote, supporters of the gay marriage ban, including Gov. Mitt Romney and the Catholic archdiocese of Boston, have tried to paint the issue as broader than a yes or no on gay marriage. Confident they have the numbers of votes for preliminary approval, they are fearful that legislative leaders will block a vote on the amendment, and they are arguing that Massachusetts voters should have the final say on gay marriage, not judges and politicians.

See MARRIAGE VOTE UNCERTAIN: Few lawmakers willing to say how or if ...
The Patriot Ledger, MA -

Possible Hate Crime Against Gay In SLC

There was a possible hate crime over the weekend at the Jazzfest in downtown Salt Lake City. A man is seriously injured and witnesses say it’s because he's gay. See Possible Hate Crime Against Gay In SLC
KUTV, UT 

Mass. marriage "bottom feeders" speak

Mass. marriage "bottom feeders" speak
Gay.com, CA: BOSTON -- When they spotted the mannequins in a Macy's department store window celebrating the city's Gay Pride week, Brian Camenker and other activists at MassResistance jumped into action.

Doug Blasdell: Work Out's Openly Gay Role Model

Doug Blasdell: Work Out's Openly Gay Role Model
AfterElton.com -

School to admit five year old trans girl

School to admit five year old trans girl: County's pro-trans policy among best in the nation, says Equality Florida.

Gay parade a little more staid than in past Wisconsin State Journal

Falcon River and Ruth Barrett marched in Sunday's Gay Pride Parade clutching a loose-leaf binder that contained, among other things, a copy of their marriage license and a copy of the letter informing them their marriage was no longer valid.

"We went to Oregon in the spring of 2004, after Oregon legalized same-sex marriage," Barrett said. "It was an extraordinary experience. I didn't expect it to change much since we were already a committed couple - but, after the ceremony, I felt so swept up in the emotion that, for the first time, I was a first-class citizen of this country."

Her partner, Falcon River, said the receipt of the letter that came after the Oregon law was declared invalid and, with it, their marriage, was an experience she called one of "unspeakable grief."

The Evansville couple said they plan to travel to Canada this fall to be remarried there.

So, Barrett and River marched Sunday as part of a joyful group that included an honor guard of "Dykes on Bikes" that included 14 motorcycles, about half of them Harley-Davidsons, a moped, and one male rider, presumably an honorary member of the honor guard.

The parade was somewhat less audacious than parades in previous years have been, possibly because the theme of this year's Madison Pride celebration was family and parents with their children were present in great profusion.

Among the marchers were delegations from several United Church of Christ and Unitarian-Universalist congregations, First Baptist Church, Unity of Madison and Shaarei Shamayim Jewish congregation.

See Gay parade a little more staid than in past Wisconsin State Journal

Lawmakers to weigh most serious challenge yet to gay marriage

BOSTON --Massachusetts lawmakers are gearing up for the most serious challenge yet to the state's historic ruling legalizing gay marriage, as courts in other states deal blows to same-sex marriage efforts.

House and Senate lawmakers will be weighing a series of proposed amendments to the state Constitution when they meet in a joint "constitutional convention" Wednesday, including one that would define marriage as the union of a man and woman.

The debate comes less than a week after New York's highest court rejected same-sex couples' bid to win marriage rights and Georgia's high court reinstated that state's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The goal of the Massachusetts amendment, which supporters hope to put on the 2008 ballot, would be to block future gay marriages in Massachusetts. More than 8,000 same-sex couples have taken vows since gay marriages began in May 2004.

Supporters of the question got a boost this week from an unlikely ally -- the Supreme Judicial Court, the same court that handed down the historic ruling legalizing gay marriage.

On Monday, the court ruled that the proposed amendment could go forward, provided it clear the remaining legislative hurdles. Gay marriage supporters had sued to block the question.

The only thing now standing in the way of the proposed amendment is the Democrat-controlled Legislature. The question must twice win the backing of a quarter -- or 50 -- of Massachusetts' 200 lawmakers, during the current session and again during the session starting in January.

"There is tremendous momentum going our way," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, who helped collect thousands of signatures for the proposed amendment. "The court has followed the constitution, now is the time for the Legislature to follow the constitution."

Mineau said he's confident that he has more than the 50 votes needed to push the question to the next legislative session. Most gay marriage supporters concede they don't have the votes to block it now.

"At the moment they would prevail but with time we believe we can turn more and more votes," said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. "With each passing week we have more votes."

Some gay activists have urged sympathetic lawmakers to use any parliamentary tactic they can to block the amendment, including simply adjourning the constitutional convention without ever taking a vote.

Gov. Mitt Romney, the state's most visible gay marriage opponent and a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008, has warned against the maneuver. Romney could call the Legislature back into session, but it's unclear if he could force a vote.

It's also unclear if the question will even surface on Wednesday. It's near the bottom of a stack of about 20 proposed amendments and lawmakers may simply run out of time and have to come back at a later date. Lawmakers would have to vote to continue debate past 9 p.m. and again to go past midnight. It's up to Senate President Robert Travaglini to decide when the convention would reconvene. That could happen any time before the end of the year.

 See Lawmakers to weigh most serious challenge yet to gay marriage
Boston Globe, United States 

Methamphetamine used by 10% of gay men in London

Methamphetamine used by 10% of gay men in London Aidsmap, UK: Approximately 10% of gay men in London have used the recreational drug methamphetamine, according to a study published in the online edition of the journal Addiction.

Anti-gay rappers headline HIV fundraiser

Anti-gay reggae rappers Beenie Man and TOK are slated to headline a July 18 concert in New York to raise funds and awareness about HIV/AIDS among people of Caribbean descent, prompting a coalition of black gay bloggers to launch an online campaign against the event. The concert is sponsored by LIFEbeat, which was founded in 1992 and calls itself the music industry’s charitable organization dedicated to reaching youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. The event is part of the organization’s Reggae Gold Jumpoff as part of its Sixth “Hearts & Voices Concert Series.”

But author, activist and blogger Keith Boykin, in a blast e-mail sent July 10, said the concert must be stopped because giving such anti-gay musicians a platform only furthers homophobia.

“As a black gay man, I've had enough of the excuses and the hypocrisy and the fear. I will not sit back quietly while a so-called AIDS organization gives a microphone and a stage to two musical groups that want to kill me,” he wrote on his website, www.keithboykin.com.

See  Anti-gay rappers headline HIV fundraiser

Southern Voice

Corporate giants flock to Gay Games

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Even before any weights are lifted, laps swum or races run, the Gay Games VII is looking like a big winner.

With more than $10 million worth of sponsorships already in hand -- and the possibility of a few million more to come -- this year's version of the alternative quadrennial sports competition is already the all-time money champion for any gay event in history.

The Games, featuring a lineup of many of the same sports seen at the Olympics, runs July 15-22 after kicking off at Chicago's Soldier Field. The Games has attracted a blue-chip roster of companies eager to hawk their brands -- and no event to date is more indicative of how mainstream firms have abandoned any inhibitions about marketing to gays.

See Corporate giants flock to Gay Games

MarketWatch -

NZ Govt plays down gay adoption issue

 Government officials are reviewing the rules around who can adopt children – a move that could take in the eligibility of gay and de facto couples.

The current law allows single gays and lesbians to adopt, but bans de facto and gay couples because they are unmarried.

Green MP Metiria Turei has drafted a member's bill to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt.

However the bill is sitting in Parliament's ballot, where only a small proportion of member's bills are drawn and introduced to the House.

Cabinet Minister Chris Carter, who is gay, told today's New Zealand Herald the Government was considering its position in relation to the bill and "talking about" whether it should introduce its own legislation.

See Govt plays down gay adoption issue

Stuff.co.nz

SC Gay Rights Billboard Grabbing Attention

Gay Rights Billboard Grabbing Attention WCSC, SC :
If your commute takes you along I-26, you may notice a new billboard in place. It's drawing attention to the upcoming vote in November on whether or not to ban gay marriage from the state constitution.

PlanetOut Inc. Flexes Its Marketing Muscle at the Gay Games

SAN FRANCISCO, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PlanetOut Inc.

(Nasdaq: LGBT), the world's leading media and entertainment company

exclusively focused on serving the gay and lesbian community, will flex its

marketing muscle at the upcoming Gay Games VII Sports and Cultural Festival

starting July 15 in Chicago with a series of special events planned

throughout the week.

    "A global event of this magnitude gives us the chance to showcase

PlanetOut's brands, products and services to thousands of athletes and

attendees," said Karen Magee, chief executive officer, PlanetOut Inc. "The

Gay Games is also an excellent opportunity for PlanetOut to connect our

advertisers to this market through our multi-platform, multi-channel

offerings. Our Gay Games sponsorship is an important element of PlanetOut's

commitment to and leadership in the global LGBT community."

    PlanetOut, and its flagship brand Gay.com, will maintain a highly

visible presence at Gay Games VII, including daily coverage of the events

and athletes. This coverage is expected to be among the most comprehensive

worldwide and will be available on dedicated pages on both Gay.com and

PlanetOut.com. "We are pleased that our in-depth, up-to-the-minute

reporting will enable our Gay.com and PlanetOut.com users who cannot be in

Chicago for the Games to be a part of this extraordinary event," said

Magee.

    PlanetOut will be sponsoring or hosting a number of parties, starting

with a media reception at the Chicago Hilton on Sunday, July 16.

More of PlanetOut Inc. Flexes Its Marketing Muscle at the Gay Games

Blog: Elton is right wing $$$ machine

Blog: Elton is right wing $$$ machine
Openly gay superstar is tied to anti-gay investor in Caesar's Palace in Vegas.

New Zealand Government may update law on gay adoptions New Zealand Herald

The Government is giving serious consideration to introducing legislation legalising adoption for gay and de facto couples, says Cabinet minister Chris Carter.

 

Under present law, individuals, including gays and lesbians, can adopt children, but because of the way the outdated Adoption Act is worded they can't if they are part of an unmarried couple.

 

Green MP Metiria Turei recently placed a member's bill into the ballot seeking to extend adoption rights to those in civil union and de facto partnerships.

 

Most member's bills placed in the ballot are not drawn and never get a chance to be debated.

 

Justice Minister Mark Burton said at the time he was "not unsympathetic" to the bill and would give it careful consideration if drawn. See Government may update law on gay adoptions New Zealand Herald

'Bruthaz' conference to address black gay issues

'Bruthaz' conference to address black gay issues: Express Gay News
(Ft. Lauderdale)

Sen. Antonioni opposes gay marriage amendment in MA

LEOMINSTER - State Sen. Robert Antonioni, D-Leominster, said Monday he will vote against a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in the state.

"I don't support an amendment to the state constitution, because I don't think it's a good thing," he said in an interview Monday. "I think it takes away from the goal of the legislature, which is to promote tolerance and fairness."

State legislators will debate during a constitutional convention Wednesday whether to move a citizen-initiated amendment forward.

It will have to pass two consecutive legislative sessions before gay marriage is put on the ballot in 2008, Antonioni said.

"I don't support putting it on the ballot," he said. "I think it pits people against each other really for no good reason."

See Antonioni opposes gay marriage amendment
Fitchburg Sentinel - Fitchburg,MA,USA

Prize offered to whomever kills gay person @ Jerusalem Gay Pride

Prize offered to whomever kills gay person

Ynetnews

Escalation in haredi resistance to WorldPride Parade in Jerusalem: Flyers denouncing parade distributed in mailboxes promise NIS 20,000 to 'whoever causes death to one of Sodom and Gomorrah people'
Neta Sela

In protest of the 2006 WorldPride Parade, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on August 10, hundreds of letters, advocating "death to Sodomites", were distributed to Jerusalem mailboxes on Tuesday morning. They promised NIS 20,000 to "anyone who brings about the death of one of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah."

The letter appeals to residents of the capital: "don't let them teach our children their impure ways."

 

The anonymous letter also suggests using Molotov cocktails against marchers and adds instructions as to how to make them at home. The explosives are nicknamed "Shliesel Special", in honor of the Haredi protester who disrupted the Jerusalem Pride Parade last year by stabbing three marchers.

The letter goes on to say, "During this parade, 300,000 corrupt animals are anticipated to march through the holy city of Jerusalem, waiting avidly for the chance to put themselves on display before our children and our sacred Torah. They will try as hard as they can to defile as many of our innocent children as they can."

 

A Practical Joke?

 

Members of the 'Red Hand for Redemption', who penned the letters, are unknown among the Haredim. Sources in the community told ynet that, to them, the letters seem like more a teenager's "practical joke" and said that "this is not the way of a community in the midst of a struggle."

Jerusalem city councilman Sa'ar Netanel (Meretz) said in response that "this is a worrying escalation and a license to kill. It needs to shock and appall everyone and cause everyone to ask himself whether he wants Jerusalem to take on the image of extremists who forget all humanity or to take on the image of marchers who only as for patience, tolerance and pluralism."

While denying responsibility for the violent letters, the Haredi community has distributed formal flyers in protest of the parade. The flyers contain implicit criticism of Shas as "representatives of religious parties trying to appease the international storm regarding this issue by negotiating to change the location of this defilement to Tel Aviv."

The flyers, hung all over the neighborhood, appeal to the Haredi community as well: "anyone with the ability to do so has the duty to do everything he can to smash the jaws of evil in any way that he can." The document was signed by the leading rabbis of the Haredi community.

Monday night, Jerusalem city councilman Sa'ar Netanel (Meretz), arrived at Meah Sha'arim and was chased out by furious residents. Netanel, the owner of a gay bar who is working with the Open House to organize the World Pride events, explains that he arrived in the neighborhood with a camera crew "to document the anti-Parade flyers and the whole phenomenon in general."

Netanel told ynet that he didn't think his arrival in the neighborhood would constitute a particular problem "because we arrived on a weekday, not during the Sabbath, so as not to create a needless uproar. It never occurred to us that anything would happen but, much to our surprise, within two minutes, Hassidic residents crowded around us and threatened us that, if we did not leave immediately, they would chase us out with stones. Since neither the crew nor I wanted to cause a commotion, we got into the car in order to leave." He continues, "Despite this, some of the Haredim tried to prevent our exit. In the end, we got out safely."

Aaron (fictional name), a resident of Meah Sha'arim tells that one of the residents recognized Netanel and immediately chased him out with shouts of 'Gevald'. "Meah Sha'arim is a lion's den," he warns. "People like him are forbidden to enter here. Why does he have to come specifically and on purpose to Meah Sha'arim?"

Netanel describes the experience as frightening and adds, "If I would have imagined that it might end this way, I never would have gone there at all." But he wonders: "How is it that a person is forbidden to film in the street? My conclusion is that they have no god."

The Meah Sha'arim neighborhood is considered the sanctuary of the Haredi community, many of whom are deeply opposed even to the existence of the state of Israel out of the belief that Zionism, because of its merging of Judaism and secularism, is heresy.

 

In recent weeks, with August looming ever closer and the WorldPride events, including the pride parade, still scheduled to take place in Jerusalem as planned, rabbis declared a total war against the events out of their belief that homosexuality is an abomination.

Haredi rabbis have stated repeatedly that they will prevent the Pride Parade at any price and have crossed internal party lines to join forces to prevent the march. Former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yossef himself, in a sermon last Saturday in Jerusalem, said that "on the day they announce (the parade), we'll have a demonstration, we'll protest for the honor of Torah and the sanctity of Israel."

 

The Rabbi explained that the Torah commands the nation of Israel to behave modestly, and not as in "the repugnant land of Egypt" where "woman married woman and man married man". He referred to homosexuals as "evil abominations."

State lawyer faces tough questions arguing against gay marriage

SAN FRANCISCO - A state lawyer who argued Monday that California's ban on same-sex marriage should be upheld for the sake of tradition endured tough questions from an appeals court.

Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger said a trial court ruling that declared the marriage laws unconstitutional should be overturned because homosexual couples are granted similar rights if they register as domestic partners.

Krueger said that unlike other states that have opposed gay unions in court, California does not maintain that marriage should be reserved for heterosexuals because of its role in promoting stable environments for raising children.

As a result, denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples who still can adopt children, sue for child support and assert other legal aspects of parenthood, does not discriminate as much as reflect long-standing attitudes about marriage's singular social significance, he said.

"It's not a mindless adherence to tradition. It's a meaningful adherence to a definition of marriage the way it has always been," he told a panel of the First District Court of Appeal.

Justice J. Anthony Kline commented more than once on the "inherent contradiction" in Krueger's reasoning, noting that the attorney general was "repudiating" the procreation argument while endorsing a separate category of domestic partnerships.

"So we have two kinds of marriage in California. We call one a domestic partnership, but it is really the same thing. It's a second-class marriage," quipped Kline, who was randomly assigned to the panel after two other justices - Stuart R. Pollak and Peter J. Siggins - recused themselves from the case.

The arguments came as the state appealed a San Francisco judge's decision last year clearing the way for California to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed. Gay nuptials were put on hold pending the appeal.

  More of State lawyer faces tough questions arguing against gay marriage
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA

Man Battles Illness To Compete In Gay Games

(CBS) CHICAGO Let the Gay Games begin.

Opening ceremonies are this week in Chicago, and the city is greeting the athletes with open arms.

CBS 2's Jon Duncanson introduces us to one man who has overcome a major challenge to compete.

For Douglas Graham Bates, who came to Chicago from Delaware, the Gay Games means so much to a man who just last October weighed 125 lbs. while suffering from advanced HIV.

He's in Chicago to compete in the physique competition or body building. At 50 years old, the Gay Games gave him a reason to fight back.

"It's not just an event for me. It's an affirmation of life," he said.

It's an affirmation for more than 11,000 participants, with opening ceremonies Saturday at Soldier Field and closing ceremonies a week later at Wrigley Field.

In between, athletes from 65 countries will compete at 33 city venues and three suburban locations. See Man Battles Illness To Compete In Gay Games
CBS2 Chicago, IL 

Colourful crowd proud to march

Some pranced, some danced and others walked quietly holding hands through downtown London in yesterday's gay pride parade.

More than 1,000 people took part in the colourful event, viewed by hundreds lining the parade route, that capped the Pride London Festival.

"We're very happy with the way things are going," said Kelly Ryan, a parade organizer and member of the Pride London board of directors.

Ryan said 25 groups had registered for the event, about the same as in previous years.

Many watching clapped and cheered. Some shouted support for parade participants.

 See Colourful crowd proud to march
London Free Press, Canada also Celebrations meet downtown London Free Press

Gay Pride dog show announced

Pampered puppies and polished pooches get preened to perfection in preparation for Pride dog show.

The annual Brighton and Hove Pride Dog show is scheduled for Sunday 9th of July, and is giving competitive canines a lot of bark about.

The competition runs the whole gamut of events, from the highly competitive and hotly contested, to the happened to be passing with my dog and just wondered …

The Pedigree classes are run under Kennel Club rules, and are taken very seriously. Other events such as doggy fancy dress and waggiest tail are really just for fun. See Gay Pride dog show announced
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

There's no anti-gay pogrom in Iran!

Google the word “Iran” with the keywords “gay” or “transsexual” and thousands of English-language articles and blog entries pop up, the vast majority generated after two young men were executed in Mashad, Iran, on July 19, 2005.

Within hours, gay neo-conservative jour nalist Andrew Sullivan, former editor of the New Republic magazine, wrote a blog account entitled “Islamists Versus Gays.”

The London-based gay rights group Outrage! posted a media release stating, “Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality.”

Gay political pundit Doug Ireland, a longtime journalist for the Nation magazine, also declared in his blog headline: “Iran Executes 2 Gay Teenagers.”

In cyberspace, this interpretation raced at the speed of light down the Internet information highway.

While Outrage! claimed that the Iranian Students News Agency had published an item on the morning of July 19, 2005, saying that the two young men were executed for consensual gay sex, even Human Rights Watch says the headline and the first sentence of the article make it clear they were hanged for rape, or “sodomy by coercion”— “lavat beh onf.”

And some anti-Iranian imperialist media monopolies—including the New York Times, Associated Press, Fox News Channel and Times of London—also mentioned that the two were executed for taking part with at least three others in abducting and gang-raping a 13-year-old boy at knife point.

Radio Free Europe—also no friend to Tehran—ran a lengthy report on Sept. 1, 2005, entitled “Iran: Is There an Anti-Homosexual Campaign?” The article concluded, “It is clear that officially and in practice, there is discrimination against homosexuals in Iran. However, systematic repression of homosexuals does not seem to be an issue.”

See There’s no anti-gay pogrom in Iran!
Bay Area Indymedia, CA 

Opposition Growing To Wisconsin Anti-Gay Amendment

(Madison, Wisconsin) A new poll suggests that voter support for amending the Wisconsin constitution to block same-sex marriage is declining.

Support and opposition to the proposed amendment is virtually a dead heat.  

The latest poll, sponsored by Wispolitics.com, a nonpartisan political news site, shows  49 percent supporting the amendment and 48 percent opposed.

The telephone survey was conducted June 18-19 of 600 randomly selected adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Previous surveys by other pollsters have showed for the amendment at almost 60 percent.

"The great thing about this poll is that it suggests our two years of grassroots voter education are paying off," said a statement from Fair Wisconsin the prime group fighting the amendment

See Opposition Growing To Wisconsin Anti-Gay Amendment

365Gay.com -

Gay executions under spotlight

Twenty-one anti-death penalty vigils around the world are planned for July 19 to commemorate last year's public hanging in Iran of two young men accused of homosexuality.

Before Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were executed in Edalat ("Justice") Square in Mashhad, they were held in prison for 14 months and lashed 228 times.

While the teenagers were accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, several human rights groups believe they were really executed for admitting to having had gay sex and that the rape charge was merely trumped up.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission asserts that over the next several months, a pattern emerged in which other young men were publicly executed in Iran as couples and/or the crimes they allegedly committed involved some form of sexual assault of another male.

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which demands the death penalty for gay sex. Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed. More of Gay executions under spotlight Gay.com UK

Today's news we could not make u p - even if we wanted to . . . and we wouldn't - want to, that is

·         China Censors Pirates Of The Caribbean Sequel... maybe Johnny is bit too gay for the, eh?

·         Fmr. GOP Leader: “I'm Not Sure What This Congress Has Accomplished”... neither are we – except for bringing us to the brink of ruin.

·         GOP Mayor: Boycott McDonald's For Advertising In Spanish... yeah – like McD’s is the problem – wait, let’s ban McD’s – then all the illegals will leave. . right?

·         Tony Snow: The Clinton Admin.'s North Korean Policy Was Offering “Flowers And Chocolates”... which is a whole lot more than Bush has offered.

·         Scientists Afraid Cure For Infertility Will Make Men Redundant… unless of course the men are gay!

·         Soccer Wives May Be Banned From Next World Cup... right.

·         Giuliani Stumps For “Firebrand Conservative” Santorum... – Rudi will do anything to win the nomination, eh?

·         Bush Plans To Veto Bipartisan Stem Cell Bill… rather let folks die and piss away the US lead in science. Hey, 12 evangelicals might not vote for him if he did the right thing.

·         ‘Religious Left' Leader: “Jesus Never Said One Word About Homosexuality, Never Said One Word About Civil Marriage Or Abortion”... really?

·         Magic Mushrooms Induce Effects “Descriptively Identical” To Religious Experiences, Say Scientists… if only Ralph Reed would hand some out to his minions . . .

·         New Letters Reveal Einstein Had “Russian Spy Lover” And Many Girlfriends... way to go big Al!

·         Bush Admin's New Hurricane Guidelines: “Nothing More Than Another Slap In The Face Of Louisiana”... – what else is new?

·         Iraqi Govt: End Immunity For US Troops...

New Mexico Police raid "like the gay Abu Ghraib"

As police force gay gym members to lie naked on the floor at gun point, questions are asked as to whether this was “overkill” for an alcohol inspection.

Suspecting gym owner Ron Cordova of selling liquor without a license, the New Mexico State Police, supported by the Albuquerque fire marshal's office stormed the gym and ran checks on all of its customers. One man was arrested on an outstanding warrant and five others were issued alcohol-related citations.

Following the raid, the fire marshal's office ordered the building closed, citing "numerous fire code violations".

The news website Gay.com report that a 57 year old man, Ronald spoke of his experiences that night in the gym; “There were about 35 of us there, and most were older men, some in their 70s, eating tacos and chatting,” Ronald said. “Most of us were fully dressed, because it's a legitimate gym with a sauna, but not a bathhouse.” More of New Mexico Police raid “like the gay Abu Ghraib”
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Dc Man convicted in killing of gay civic activist

Man convicted in killing of gay civic activist BUT Judge blocks evidence of possible gay bashing

Gay Foster Ban in Ark. May Rally Right Wing Vote

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The state Supreme Court’s rejection of Arkansas’ ban on gays as foster parents could turn this year’s election campaign into a sequel to the gay marriage debate that shaped the 2004 election.

Two years ago, Arkansans overwhelmingly passed an amendment banning gay marriage, and state Sen. Jim Holt was able to round up a surprising 44 percent of the vote in his run for the U.S. by running on that proposal.

Can the state Supreme Court’s ruling two weeks ago to throw out a ban on homosexuals serving as foster parents rally voters in the same way?

Republicans apparently think so.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson criticized the ruling and said he would support reviewing if any legislative action could be taken to reimpose the ban. Gunner DeLay, the Republican candidate for attorney general, within hours of the decision denounced the court, saying, “there is no substitute for what God and nature intended.”

Holt, now running for the state’s second highest spot, said the decision backs up his platform, which includes a call for a constitutional amendment barring gays from adopting or becoming foster parents.

Art English, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said the ban could mobilize conservative voters the same way the marriage amendment did in 2004.

 See Gay Foster Ban in Ark. May Rally Right Wing Vote
New York Blade, NY 

Barney 'Altered Immigration Law to Further 'Gay' Agenda,' right wing claims

See how low t hey will go: ‘Rep. Barney Frank's GOP challenger claims that Frank (D-Mass.) spent years fighting for changes to U.S. immigration law to ease a ban on homosexual foreigners entering the U.S., but those changes also made it easier for the 9/11 hijackers to enter and remain in the country. Full Story” @ CNSNews.com (right wing self-proclaimed ‘news service’).

"Gay Gene" debate opened again by Latter Day Saints in press

he Salt Lake City Tribune has published evidence that it says shows that people are not genetically born gay.

“When you assert that individuals are born gay and cannot change, people naturally jump to the conclusion that same-sex marriage is the only rational choice for same-sex attracted individuals,” the paper admits.

Since the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), which is the largest religious organisation in Salt Lake City, does not approve of gay marriages, it is lucky that the paper is able to come up with some “proof” to the contrary.

“The innate-immutable theory of homosexuality has no basis in science,” it heralds, continuing with the astonishing news that “the simplistic biological theory has been dismissed by all of the researchers whose studies have been cited to support the notion that homosexuality is so deeply compelled by biology that it cannot change.”

The scientist Simon LeVay weighs in to the debate. Apparently his work has often been mis interpreted as suggesting people can be born gay. The scientist is at pains to correct this interpretation; "It is important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality was genetic, or find a cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men were born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work."

If there is no genetic cause of homosexuality, the paper suggests that psychological factors must be crucial.

It details an experiment that another scientist, Mr Robert Spitzer has done, which involves using “re-orientation therapy” to turn gay people straight.

Apparently his study managed to persuade 44% of the gay women and 66% of the gay men involved in the experiment to have “good heterosexual functioning”.

89 percent of the men and 95 percent of the women studied reported that they were bothered “slightly or not at all by unwanted homosexual feelings.”

The writer, David Clarke Pruden concluded, “This is not to say that anyone chooses homosexual attractions nor do most of us choose many of the other challenges we face in life, but we do choose how we respond.”

He is the executive director of Evergreen International, a non profit Latter Day Saint organisation that provides resources and educational services for members of the church who are attracted to partners of the same sex.  See “Gay Gene” debate opened again by Latter Day Saints
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Fiji gay decision welcomed by NZAF

Fiji gay decision welcomed by NZAF
Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand

The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is delighted at reports that the Fijiian High Commissioner has confirmed gay men will no longer be arrested for engaging in consensual sex in Fiji.

“This is a great step forward for the human rights of gay citizens and tourists as well as HIV prevention efforts,” says NZAF Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier. “In combination with existing human rights protections for gays and lesbians in Fiji’s Constitution, Fiji is now following the path to equality that New Zealand has helped to pave.”

The news from Fiji follows celebrations in New Zealand this month for the 20th anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Act, which decriminalised sex between men in 1986. Ms Le Mesurier says this move was essential in ensuring early HIV prevention efforts in New Zealand were successful.

“The spread of HIV is facilitated by the prejudice, discrimination and marginalisation of minority communities,” she says. “Making gay men into criminals only serves to drive sexual activity underground, making it almost impossible to reach with safe sex information and life-saving condoms.”

With international health authorities warning of a potential HIV/AIDS time bomb threatening the Pacific, any efforts by governments and societies to lift suppression and silence around sexuality and HIV are to be commended and supported, Ms Le Mesurier adds.

Comcast Refuses to Offer Gay TV Channels

Here and Logo!

(KCPW News) According to the websites for two gay-oriented TV channels called Here! and Logo, Comcast Cable customers should be able get the content through on-demand services in Utah. But, as long-time Comcast customer James Hicks discovered, that's not the case:

"I went to 'On Demand' on my cable box and kept going back to the directions and to the website and going 'Okay, why isn't Here! here?'"

Hicks called Comcast customer support, which put him in touch with a company spokesman who told him it was "a business decision" not to offer the gay channels in Utah. In an email to KCPW, Comcast spokesman Ray Child offered only this terse written statement:

"Comcast does not offer Here and Logo in Utah, and we don't have plans to do so."

Comcast has refused requests for further explanation. Neither of the channels is exclusively adult content. Rather, they feature sitcoms, reality shows and small budget films with gay themes.

"People like to see themselves reflected in their entertainment," says Michael Aaron, editor and publisher of the gay and lesbian newspaper Q Salt Lake. "That's why gay and lesbian people flocked to Brokeback Mountain. They want to see something similar to their lives reflected on the screen."

Aaron is convinced there's plenty of demand for Here and Logo in Salt Lake to merit Comcast offering the gay channels. Absent further explanation from Comcast, Aaron has his own theory about the company's decision:

"I don't necessarily think it's because they're concerned about the raciness. Quite frankly the worst Here and Logo offer is probably rated-R and shown late at night. I think the decision has more to do with customers of Comcast concerned about gay and lesbian content that their kids might be able to see."

Here! and Logo TV are both available on satellite television in Utah. Unfortunately, Hicks can't install a satellite dish in his current location, but he plans to move soon and says he'll definitely ditch his decades-long subscription to Comcast in favor of more choice.

See Comcast Refuses to Offer Gay TV Channels
KCPW, UT 

Prince Edward Island Ceremony big step for gay rights: commissioner

Ceremony big step for gay rights: commissioner
CBC Prince Edward Island, Canada; PEI's first private marriage commissioner has performed his first ceremony, and he's calling it a significant step for gay rights on the Island.

Study: Circumcision cuts the risk of HIV infection

A study published Monday stated more than two million new HIV infections could be prevented over the next 10 years if African men were all circumcised. The report, in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, is built on data released last year that estimated male circumcision reduces HIV transmission from women to men by 65 per cent.

“We looked at what happened to the number of infections and the number of deaths assuming we achieved full coverage [every male was circumcised],” said Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser for the UN Program on HIV/AIDS, and co-author of the study. “We found there is a definite reduction in the number of infections and the number of deaths, in the range of 1.6- to 5.8-million people.”

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/Aids, which was involved in the study, is currently gathering information on the rate of circumcision and its social acceptability, to help countries decide whether they want to pursue a more active circumcision policy, said Ms. Hankins.

Somalia and Côte d'Ivoire already have very high rates of circumcision and low rates of infection, whereas others, such as South Africa, could significantly reduce their HIV infection rates if more men were circumcised, she said.

The UN is waiting on the results of two studies in Uganda and Kenya both due out next year before it decides whether to actively promote circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy.

“If the second trial comes in with the similar data as last summer's trial, then we will recommend that countries move forward on this,” Ms. Hankins said.

Researchers believe circumcision helps to cut infection risk because the foreskin is covered in cells that the virus seems able to easily infect. The virus may also survive better in the warm, wet environment provided by the foreskin.

“It's a very sensitive issue, and not just biologically,” said Ms. Hankins. “There are circumcising cultures, such as Jewish and Muslim cultures, and non-circumcising cultures, such as East and Southern Africa. There are cultural meanings to circumcision, and there needs to be acceptability studies to find out whether this is a procedure that countries would be willing to embrace.”

See Study: Circumcision cuts the risk of HIV infection @ Globe & Mail (Canada)

Forming lasting attachments

Forming lasting attachments: Gay parents can be a lifeline for older children in search of a new family

Party bisexual' phenom draws mixed reviews

Party bisexual’ phenom draws mixed reviews: A new openness or reinforcement of negative stereotypes?

D.C. to require HIV names reporting

D.C. to require HIV names reporting: AIDS, health groups agree to draft by city AIDS office

Wearing their labels

Wearing their labels: As teens become even more style conscious, gay youth are using fashion to announce their orientation to the world

St. Maarten gay bashing victim still recovering

St. Maarten gay bashing victim still recovering @ Cleveland Plain Dealer

San Francisco Asks California Court to Reject Gay Marriage Ban

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- San Francisco, which galvanized a national debate over same-sex weddings when it allowed gay couples to marry in 2004, asked a California appeals court to reject as unconstitutional a state law banning the unions.

California's domestic partnership law, which doesn't give same-sex couples all of the same rights as heterosexual married couples, created a separate system that denies gays and lesbians the social recognition that comes with marriage, Therese Stewart, chief deputy city attorney, said today at a hearing in San Francisco. She asked a three-judge appeals panel to uphold a lower court ruling that struck down the ban.

``It tells the world that California believes these relationships are as important as any other couples,'' Stewart said. Massachusetts is the only U.S. state to allow gay marriages. On July 6, courts in New York and Georgia rejected legal recognition of same-sex weddings while appeals of gay marriage bans in New Jersey and Washington are pending.

Last year's ruling rejecting California's ban followed lawsuits over San Francisco's decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 couples. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said there is ``no rational basis'' for California to exclude same-sex couples. He put his ruling on hold pending appeals.

See San Francisco Asks California Court to Reject Gay Marriage Ban Bloomberg

HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN ANTI-GAY SPENDING

HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN ANTI-GAY SPENDING: Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State has granted permission for PageOneQ to reprint this article on the top ten radical religious groups in the United States.

Together, these groups have an annual income in excess of $447,000,000. When the amounts spent nationally fighting for the Federal Marriage Amendment and the many state marriage amendments around the country are added to the $447 million, the amount spent by anti-gay groups In the United States easily exceeds half a billion dollars per year.

Special Thanks to Mr Boston for granting reprint permission and to Scott Hutcheson for assisting in the reprinting of this article. Scott's blog may be seen here.

Accuser stands by charge vs. gay daycare worker

Accuser stands by charge vs. gay daycare worker @ Associated Press

Faith Battles Fat

Faith Battles Fat: With bestsellers and networking, the Christian weight-loss movement is creating believers.

Gay Marriage Hot Topic in Governor's Race in CA

Sacramento, Calif. (KCBS)  -- Gay marriage has popped up as prominent issue in the governor's race.

At a breakfast fundraiser in San Francisco last Friday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said he backed gay marriage. "I believe every Californian, every American has the right, ought to have the right to grow up in a loving family and I would sign the Marriage Equality bill," he said.

Last year the California legislature became the first body of lawmakers in the country to legalize gay marriage but the bill was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who said it was up to the people and the courts, not the legislators to settle the issue. "You know the way I voted, the bills that I have signed and the bills I have vetoed. It's exactly where my position is," he said.

San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno, who first introduced the bill, plans a second attempt after the November election.

See Gay Marriage Hot Topic in Governor's Race in CA

KCBS

Controversy over 'gay' radio slur continues

Controversy over 'gay' radio slur continues @ The Guardian (U.K.)

Perils of being out in Africa

Perils of being out in Africa @ SAPA

Who discovered HIV: Gallo, Montagnier or both?

Who discovered HIV: Gallo, Montagnier or both? @ Dallas Voice

An organizer builds momentum for gay rights

Activists often talk about a long struggle to make change.

Not Steven Goldstein, the boyish face of gay and lesbian politics in New Jersey.

"Do we wake up every day expecting to hit a home run today? Yes," he said. "There's not a philosophy of, 'If you don't succeed today, tomorrow's another day.' Succeed today and succeed tomorrow."

Fortunately for Goldstein, he has not had to be especially patient.

Since he took the job of organizing the state's lesbian and gay residents into a cohesive political operation in 2002, the movement has had a string of seemingly easy successes, including a statewide domestic partnership law and seeing 10 counties offer benefits to domestic partners of county employees. Last year, an overwhelming majority of the state's lawmakers agreed to expand the rights granted under the state's domestic partnership law.

Even before Goldstein was on the scene, New Jersey was among the first states to give gays and lesbians full adoption rights and to ban anti-sodomy laws. It's also one of only five states that has not specifically banned gay marriage.

The defining moment of Goldstein's activist career could come any time as the state Supreme Court decides whether to allow same-sex marriages in New Jersey. Such marriages are currently allowed only in Massachusetts.

Goldstein, who started working with the gay-rights organization Lambda Legal before beginning the statewide group Garden State Equality in 2004, is confident marriage rights will be extended to gay and lesbian couples. In fact, he's so confident that's he's on to the next battle -- asking state lawmakers not to pass a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage if the court rules in favor of it.

Growing up in Queens, Goldstein, 44, knew he was gay, but did not tell anyone. Still, he said school bullies sensed it and taunted him and beat him up.

In 1980, as a freshman at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Goldstein decided to do something about it: He went to a group-therapy session aimed at teaching gay people to be straight.

"I literally went to one meeting," he said, but while there realized that being gay wasn't a choice. "I gave this soliloquy telling how every person in the group -- including the therapist -- how pathetic they are. And I left with a flourish."

It still took him about another 10 years to come out to his parents, who, he said, don't talk to him now.

The hyperkinetic Goldstein has had several careers, including being a lawyer for Congress and an investigative television reporter. He and his partner, Daniel Gross, in 2002 were the first gay couple to be featured on the New York Times' wedding pages.

As a producer for Oprah Winfrey's talk show in the mid-90s, he learned a trick of entertainment that guides his political strategy: "Unless you can interest people, you're never going to educate them," he said. So his town-hall meetings and sessions with lawmakers are more "Oprah" than C-SPAN.

When about three dozen Garden State Equality activists gathered last month before a day of lobbying lawmakers, he hammered home that message.

"You are people with compelling stories," he said. "Tell them about your lives. That's what people want to hear."

Goldstein warned, if anyone besides him talked about poll numbers or legal or policy minutia, he would interrupt. Then Goldstein, who is big on hugs and Borsht-belt humor, gave one more piece of advice: "We're fun people," he said. "A lot of us are gay. So let's be gay!"

State Republican Party Chairman Tom Wilson said Goldstein could reach out even more to his party, but that he's become an influential figure.

"He knows not to ask people to do things that are too hard," Wilson said. "He's got a great personality. He knows how to use wit and humor and guilt. He's a very quick study on people."

Goldstein's goal is to see gay marriage legalized in the state, protect it from a right- wing attack and then move on to his next career. Maybe then he'll work on an issue he said he cares about even more -- protecting Israel.

An organizer builds momentum for gay rights

Newark Star Ledger

Medical Report: Goodall opposes request for AIDS research on monkeys

Medical Report: Goodall opposes request for AIDS research on monkeys

Canadian Lutherans confirm same-sex blessings; Conference delegates reject appeal; congregations will get final say

Lutherans confirm same-sex blessings

Waterloo Record, Canada 

A potential hurdle to blessings for gay Lutheran couples was cleared during a weekend meeting in Waterloo.

It's almost certain now that some Evangelical Lutheran pastors will soon be offering the blessings, Rev. Michael Pryse, bishop of the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, said Saturday.

The synod, meeting in Waterloo last week, voted 197-75 to allow individual congregations to decide whether to bless same-sex couples who are committing to lifelong relationships.

Before the synod convention ended Saturday, opponents of such blessings appealed the decision but were voted down.

The synod's decision about blessings does not allow gay couples to marry in Lutheran churches. The United Church of Canada is the only mainstream denomination that will marry gay couples.

Before a Lutheran pastor can bless a gay couple's union, the pastor must consult the bishop and get a two-thirds majority approval from the congregation.

This approach has been dubbed the "local option" and affects about 204 congregations from Sault St. Marie to Halifax.

Rev. Frank Haggarty, pastor at St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kitchener, said he has recently had to turn down three gay couples who asked him to bless their relationships.

Haggarty said he expects to hear from them again soon and believes his 2,000-member congregation, one of the largest in Canada, would vote to allow the blessings.

"They're just a very caring group of people," he said.

But it will probably be September before the congregation can meet, discuss and vote on the issue.

Opponents of the "local option" argued the synod didn't have the jurisdiction to conduct the vote. They pointed out that a virtually identical motion was voted down at the church's national convention in Winnipeg last year.

The denomination's rules allow a synod to ask its National Church Council to refer the issue of jurisdiction to a church court.

On Saturday, delegates in Waterloo rejected a motion to ask the National Church Council to consider the matter.

Pryse, Eastern synod bishop, said if the church council decides on its own to refer the jurisdiction question to the church court, he will ask pastors to refrain from blessing couples until there is clarity.

But bishops don't have the authority to veto decisions made by synod delegates, so pastors might decide to go ahead despite Pryse's request.

Martin Vierula, a lay delegate and member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Waterloo, said his congregation wouldn't approve same-sex blessings.

"No way that would happen now or in the near future," he said.

Vierula, the president of the congregation's church council, said that congregation members adopted a statement two years ago saying they opposed same-sex blessings.

Some dissenting families left the congregation.

About a dozen other families, who didn't agree with theological direction the denomination seemed to be going, also left.

Rev. Raymond Schultz, the church's national bishop, said he believes jurisdiction over same-sex blessings resides with the national church.

"On the other hand, social change doesn't occur in societies unless somebody pushes the boundaries," Schultz said.

He said he views the Eastern Synod's vote as an act of civil disobedience akin to the civil rights movement in the United States which fought for equal rights for African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s.

Schultz declined to give his position on same-sex blessings.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada has more than 180,000 baptized members in more than 600 congregations.

In the 2001 Statistics Canada census, more than 33,000 Waterloo Region residents identified themselves as Lutherans.

Warren: Are We Winning the War on Meth?

Warren: Are We Winning the War on Meth?

Latest Report offers hope but omits LGBT voice

Lesbian tennis star wins Wimbledon

Amelie Mauresmo earns second Grand Slam title - See Lesbian tennis star wins Wimbledon

Woman settles with county over HIV diagnosis

Woman settles with county over HIV diagnosis @ L.A. Times

California Court Case Update

Woo v. California epitomizes the ultimate struggle to obtain personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Read more

Seth Kilbourn, EQCA political director, explains the importance of this historic case.  Read more

Click here to read today's developments from Seth Kilbourn who is at the courtroom.

Click here to see a list of organizations and individuals that filed Amicus Briefs
in support of marriage equality.

This month we feature commentary on the meaning of freedom as it pertains to marriage equality from leading LGBT activist and author Evan Wolfson.  Read "Why We Fight for Marriage Equality."

About Woo v. California

Today's developments in marriage equality case

Read Commentary by Evan Wolfson "Why We Fight for the Freedom to Marry"

Stonewall Democrats appoint new executive director

Stonewall Democrats appoint new executive director: Jo Wyrick led group on interim basis since March

Israel's Gov't faces no-confidence vote on gay parade

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef vehemently opposed to Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem, but ahead of Knesset vote Monday night, other Shas members assure: This is just a passing embarrassment, not a coalition crisis
Ilan Marciano

 

The planned Jerusalem gay parade continues to cause uproar – this time in the coalition: The religious Shas party has not yet decided whether or not to support the government when the Knesset votes Monday night on a no-confidence motion filed by United Torah Judaism opposing the World Pride parade scheduled for August in Jerusalem. Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef stipulated that the government clarify its opposition to the march and actively try to have the parade moved to another city, See Gov't faces no-confidence vote on gay parade

Ynetnews

Gay murder allegedly tied to reneging on sex payment

Gay murder allegedly tied to reneging on sex payment @ Mumbai Mirror (India)

Episcopal church faces crisis as 7 bishops rebel

Note: 7 out of more than 100 American dioceses is a pretty puny rebellion.

When the nation's Episcopalians elected the first woman to lead their church last month, it was the last straw for some conservative bishops.

In the two weeks since, seven bishops have set out on a course that could permanently split the family of churches descended from the Church of England.

Bishop Peter H. Beckwith, leader of the Springfield, Ill., diocese, wrote in a pastoral letter a week ago that the Episcopal church was "in meltdown," calling the current era "the lowest ebb of our beloved but beleaguered Church since perhaps the Civil War if not the American Revolution."

Beckwith has joined bishops in the dioceses of Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Calif., and South Carolina in asking Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury to allow them to find their own leaders from overseas. They don't want to recognize the church's newly elected presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada.

They say the issue is not just Jefferts Schori's gender; it's also what they consider her liberal stances, including on the issue of homosexuality.

If Beckwith receives the answer he wants from Williams, the Springfield diocese - which includes about 40 churches and 5,000 members in southern and eastern-central Illinois - could align itself with a theologically conservative Anglican primate from Africa or elsewhere.

Although the election of Jefferts Schori provoked the bishops' plea for separation, it is just the latest issue in the contentious debate over deep-rooted theological differences that has been growing in the Episcopal church, which is the American arm of the Anglican church.

"The whole question of human sexuality is not the question at all," said the Rev. Brant V. Hazlett, rector of St. John the Baptist in Mt. Carmel, Ill., on the eastern side of the state. "This is a question of theology - what is the authority of Scripture and who is the person of Jesus Christ within the church?"

The more high-profile issue of homosexuality has grabbed headlines since the 2003 election of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first openly gay bishop in the church. At the recent convention in Ohio, the rest of the Anglican world watched and hoped for an apology for electing Robinson, along with a promise that it wouldn't happen again. No apology came.

The 2.3 million-member American province that Jefferts Schori will lead for the next nine years is one of 38 provinces that make up the 75 million-member worldwide communion, and it is among the most liberal.

Of the 38 Anglican provinces, 22 have said their relationship with the Episcopal church has been impaired since Robinson's election.

That feeling is familiar to conservative members of the Episcopal church who say they feel increasingly abandoned by the national church.

"There is a large group of orthodox people in this church looking for a home or a sense of home," said Hazlett. "The liberal side of this church seems to be pushing us away, and this convention was the grand push."

Jefferts Schori, who allows same-sex union ceremonies in her diocese, is considered a liberal bishop. She recently used the phrase "mother Jesus" in a sermon, which infuriated orthodox Episcopalians such as Beckwith.

"That is just so in-your-face," Beckwith said. "It really tells me where she's coming from."

He said Jefferts Schori's gender was not the root of the problem.

"I have a problem with her lack of experience," he said. "I have a problem with her theology, a big problem with her theology."

In his recent pastoral letter, Beckwith said the failure of a resolution introduced by conservatives at last month's convention to declare the church's "unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved" was "very disturbing."

The Episcopal church has 111 dioceses. Springfield is one of three Episcopal dioceses in Illinois, and Missouri has two. About 14,000 members are in the Episcopal church in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, which serves the eastern part of the state. By comparison, there are 555,000 Roman Catholics in the St. Louis Archdiocese, and 40,000 members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in St. Louis County.

The problem for Beckwith and the other breakaway bishops is that no one knows whether Williams has the authority to grant their requests. An entire diocese has never before asked for alternative oversight, and Williams does not have the same authority in the Anglican church as the pope does in the Catholic church.

David Saad, a parishioner at St. Mary's in Robinson, Ill., said he and others at his church expected Beckwith's letter and welcomed it.

"St. Mary's is very conservative, very orthodox, and I don't know of any of our members who agree with the national church," Saad said. "Something had to change. We're all prepared for the next step."

But that next step is into uncertainty. Beckwith, who has been Springfield's bishop for 14 years, admits he has no idea what's going to happen. Nor does the Rev. Christopher V. Coats, rector of St. George's in Belleville.

Coats said that while he doesn't agree with Beckwith, "as long as he remains in the Episcopal church, he's my bishop and I have to abide by his decisions."

Even canon lawyers are stumped by the question of what happens next. One thing nearly everyone agrees with is that any satisfactory outcome will take years.

Some have predicted that if a foreign bishop were to agree to a relationship with, or oversight of, an American diocese, that diocese could be deemed "vacant" by the national church, and its bishop then could be replaced. Beckwith called that scenario "asinine" and "the worst kind of threat."

Ralph McMichael, canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, explained that the diocese of Springfield would have to become a diocese of its overseas church before the Episcopal church could declare it vacant.

And what happens to individual congregations that don't agree with Beckwith's conservative theology or his decision (approved unanimously by a committee of six clergy and lay people two weeks ago) to seek alternative leadership?

The Rev. Virginia L. Bennett, rector of St. Andrew's in Edwardsville, said the majority of her church members were not in favor of Beckwith's proposal.

She said that if her diocese eventually left the American church in favor of more conservative international leadership, "we would say that we are part of the Episcopal church and our diocese left us, and we would hope we could go knocking on the door - for instance of the Missouri diocese - and ask them to take us in."

Hazlett said the same might happen on the eastern side of the diocese. "Some parishes might decide to seek oversight from the diocese of Indianapolis," he said.

McMichael said Springfield diocese churches seeking refuge in Missouri would have to go through a long process of committees and approvals to extricate themselves from their home diocese.

This situation happened in reverse in 2004, when conservative parishioners at Church of the Good Shepherd in Town and Country voted overwhelmingly to leave the Episcopal church and align themselves with the Episcopal Church of Rwanda. After a legal battle, the Missouri diocese won back the church property, and the conservative group had to find other worship facilities. The Good Shepherd case is an example of the legal headaches over property that might loom in the Springfield diocese's future.

Sitting in his office in Belleville a few days after the Fourth of July, Coats pointed out that most of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence were Anglican and would become the first Episcopalians after the Revolution.

The rector spent eight months as an Army chaplain during the initial invasion of Iraq. History and his own experiences "show me that somehow, in the midst of turmoil, God will make it OK," he said.

"In the midst of the battlefield, there is hope."

ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221

See Episcopal church faces crisis as 7 bishops rebel St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Major Test For Gay Unions

Major Test For Gay Unions: First time constitutionality of marriage law has been debated in appeals court. @ SF Chronicle

Gay Pride Benefited Warsaw, Say Organisers

WARSAW, July 9, 2006  –  The suggestion from organisers of last month’s Warsaw Pride (Parada Równo?ci) that the event pumped as more 1.2 million PLN (€300,000) into the city’s economy from foreign visitors alone has been given short shrift by the city’s authorities.

Almost 1,000 foreigners visited Warsaw for the Pride, with each spending between €300-400 over the weekend.  Half of the visitors are said to have stayed in hotels during their visit.

“It was not only the hotels who earned this but also restaurants and pubs,” said Tomasz B?czkowski, the chairman of Fundacja Równo?ci.  “Hotels had no free rooms and taxi drivers hardly made it on time,” he added.

Now, organisers of Parada Równo?ci want the city council to participate to join in the organisation of the next year’s Parade, as is the case in other major European cities.

But city officials tap their foreheads and treat the suggestion as utter nonsense.

“If the city council were guided by the interest of the city and not the ideology of their party, I think they would support our Parade,” said ?ukasz Pa?ucki, one of the Pride organisers.

“After all it means millions of euros left in Poland by foreign gays and lesbians.”

  See Gay Pride Promoted Warsaw, Say Organisers
UK Gay News (press release), UK 

WI Poll finds fewer people now favor ban on gay marriage - now 50/50 split

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin residents are evenly split over whether to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage and civil unions, according to a new poll.

Four months before the question will be on the Nov. 7 ballot, support and opposition to the amendment is virtually equal throughout the state, according to the poll sponsored by Wispolitics.com, a nonpartisan political news site.

About 49 percent surveyed in the telephone poll conducted June 18-19 supported the amendment while 48 percent said they were opposed. The remainder were undecided. The poll of 600 randomly selected adults has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Other polls conducted earlier this year have shown a higher percentage in favor of the proposal, typically around 60 percent in favor and 40 percent against.

Mike Tate, campaign manager for Fair Wisconsin, said the new poll shows people are beginning to understand the problems with the ban.

See Poll finds fewer people now favor ban on gay marriage
Pioneer Press, MN

'We're not arguing under the 'good enough' protection clause --- it's the equal protection clause.' - Lambda lawyers in CA case

Lambda Legal Statement Concerning Today's Oral Argument in Lawsuit Seeking Marriage for Same-Sex Couples in California

(San Francisco, July 10, 2006) --- Statement from Lambda Legal Senior Counsel, Jennifer Pizer, concerning today's oral argument in Woo v. Lockyer  before the California Court of Appeal:

"The judges in California are not likely to make the same mistake that the New York Court made when it implied that different-sex couples and their children benefit somehow by maintaining a system that leaves same-sex couples excluded from marriage and unprotected," said Jennifer Pizer, Senior Counsel based in Lambda Legal's Western Regional Office. "California's Attorney General has acknowledged in the Woo lawsuit that nothing about gay people makes us unfit for marriage, and is arguing that the discriminatory status quo should remain because the comprehensive domestic partnership status is good enough. But, we're not arguing under the 'good enough' protection clause --- it's the equal protection clause."

Last Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals (the state's high court) ruled against Lambda Legal's plaintiffs seeking marriage. Though that case decision is final, Lambda Legal will be working with groups across the state to urge the state legislature to pass a marriage bill.  Decisions in Lambda Legal's lawsuits seeking marriage for same-sex couples are expected soon from the state high courts of Washington (argued with cocounsel Northwest Women's Law Center) and New Jersey. Lambda Legal is also awaiting a date for oral arguments at the trial court level for its lawsuit seeking marriage for same-sex couples in Iowa. A decision from the appellate court in California in Woo v. Lockyer  is anticipated within 90 days.

Shannon Minter is arguing before the Court of Appeal in Woo v. California and three other cases, representing Equality California, Our Family Coalition, and 16 same-sex couples. NCLR's cocounsel are Heller Ehrman LLP, Lambda Legal, the ACLU and the Law Firm of David C. Codell.

In addition to Senior Counsel Jennifer Pizer, Lambda Legal's Legal Director, Jon Davidson, is handling Woo v. Lockyer for Lambda Legal

Two gay couples marry in Spain during pope's visit

Valencia (dpa) - A gay couple and a lesbian couple tied the knot Sunday in Valencia during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Spanish city.

Jose Francisco Lamo and Luisa Notario pledged undying love to their respective partners as elsewhere in the city the pope said mass before a congregation of more than a million at the climax of his two-day visit to Catholic Spain.

During the service he praised marriage between man and woman as "a great good for all humanity."

"It may not please the pope, but two families have been founded here," a spokesman for the Lambda gay association said.

The marriages were celebrated in Valencia's town hall.

The timing was chosen specifically to criticise the church's stance on sexual morality and to promote the "diversity of the family," according to Lambda. See Two gay couples marry in Spain during pope's visit
Bangkok Post, Thailan

Nigeria to expedite action on bill against gay marriage - biased measure proposed by the "Christian Association of Nigeria"

The National Assembly would expedite action on the passage of the bill against gay marriage in the country.

The deputy speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Chief Austin Opara stated this at the inauguration of the South-South zone of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Saturday in Port Harcourt.

The bill was sponsored by the Christian Association of Nigeria.

Chief Opara however charged the leadership of the association in the zone to emulate its national leadership which has done very well.

The deputy speaker also stressed the need for Nigerians to be prayerful always as it is the only way to secure the multifarious problems besetting the nation, and made a donation of two million naira to the South-South zone of CAN.

In an interview with newsmen, the national Vice President of CAN, Bishop Mike Okonkwo described the inauguration as a huge success against the background of the number of Christians who turned out for the event.

He also commended the Rivers state governor, Dr Peter Odili for personally attending the occasion and assured of the continuous support of Christians to ensure the success of his administration.

Earlier in his welcome address, the zonal chairman of the association, Apostle G. D. Numbere said that the association has as its cardinal objectives the promotion of understanding, peace and unity among the various people and strata of society in Nigeria through the propagation of the gospel, as well as to act as liaison committee by means of which its member churches can consult together and when necessary make common statements and take common action.

The chairman also called for the provision of a secretariat as well as a guest house for the zone, provision of two station wagon and two 30-seater buses, office and communication equipment amongst others.

We’ll expedite action on bill against gay marriage - Opara
The Tide - Port Harcourt,Niger Delta,Nigeria

WI Gay Pride Parade Focuses On Family

MADISON, Wis. -- Madison residents celebrated the city's diversity Sunday with the 17th annual gay pride parade and rally.

The very colorful parade wound from the Britingham Boathouse to the Capitol and then down West Washington Street.

While spirits among the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community were high, the focus was on fun and family.

"We want people to see we are like them," said mother of three Nikki Baumblatt. "Who we love should not be something that determines equal rights or not."

Baumblatt is also the co-president of Madison Pride. See Gay Pride Parade Focuses On Family

WISC

SC Gay rights group starts campaign with interstate billboard

CHARLESTON, S.C. - A Charleston-based gay-rights group has started the campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.

The Alliance for Full Acceptance is paying more than $1,100 a week for a billboard on Interstate 26 encouraging people to vote no in November.

"Someone you know, someone you love ... is gay. They need your help in November," the billboard says.

Same-sex marriages are prohibited by state law, but supporters of the amendment say it is needed to prevent a judge from declaring that law unconstitutional as happened in Massachusetts, the only state where gay couples are allowed to marry.

In addition to the billboard, the alliance plans direct-mail, radio and television ads, bumper stickers and other means to get its message out.

"If South Carolina residents look into their lives, they'll see that there are people who they know and love who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, and those people need their support," said Warren Redman-Gress, the alliance's executive director. "There is an important vote in November, and those individuals will be drastically affected by that vote."

  See Gay rights group starts campaign with interstate billboard

The State

Anglican Bishop James Mwenda kicked out of Malawi, heads back home

Anglican Bishop James Mwenda at the centre of a controversy over the headship of the Diocese of Lake Malawi is going back home in Zambia, the church’s Archbishop Bernard Malango confirmed Sunday.
But Malango could not give further details on the development, saying he would issue a press statement Monday.
Mwenda’s enthronement as bishop of the diocese has stirred controversy since January. While some Anglicans support him, others favour Nicholas Henderson from England, who was rejected on grounds that he supports gay activities and does not have “sound faith.”
Some Anglicans confided Sunday that the church’s secretariat made the order for Mwenda to leave the country following the divisions that have rocked the church due to his enthronement.
“The secretariat made the decision last Thursday. Present at the meeting were Archbishop Bernard Malango, Northern Diocese Bishop Christopher Boyle and Bishop James Tengatenga,” said an Anglican faithful, a Mwenda sympathiser.
“The bishop will, therefore, be leaving tomorrow or Tuesday for Zambia,” said the source.
He said the camp that supports Mwenda is bitter with the decision, vowing it will also never support Henderson if the church settles for him.
Efforts to talk to Mwenda failed as he was reported to be celebrating mass, but a woman who answered the phone also confirmed that the bishop “would be leaving the country any day”. See Mwenda kicked out, heads back home
The Nation, Malawi, Malawi -

Mass. Court Backs Gay Marriage on Ballot

BOSTON Jul 10, 2006 (AP)— The same court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage ruled Monday that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban future same-sex marriages can be placed on the ballot, if approved by the Legislature.

The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by gay-rights supporters who argued that Attorney General Tom Reilly was wrong to approve the question because the state constitution bars any citizen-initiated amendment that seeks to reverse a judicial ruling.

The Supreme Judicial Court, with a landmark 2003 ruling, cleared the way for same-sex marriages to begin in Massachusetts in May 2004. More than 7,000 gay couples have married since.

The state Legislature is expected to take up the question Wednesday during a constitutional convention.

Citizen-initiated ballot questions must be certified by the attorney general and then approved by two consecutive legislative sessions. Before the marriage question could be placed on the 2008 ballot, supporters would need to win the votes of 50 lawmakers 25 percent of the Legislature in two consecutive sessions.

See Mass. Court Backs Gay Marriage on Ballot

ABC News

Ariz. marriage forces get ready to rumble

Forces of a proposed Arizona constitutional ban on same-sex marriage plan to challenge its inclusion on the Nov. 7 ballot, the Arizona Republic reported Friday.

The measure's backers, Protect Marriage Arizona, turned in 307,576 signatures on Thursday's deadline, nearly 200,000 them allegedly collected by volunteers. Only 183,917 valid signatures are needed to send the measure to voters.

Pro-gay Arizona Together vowed to bird-dog the verification process, which state officials have 15 business days to conclude.

"Considering that two-thirds of the money Protect Marriage Arizona raised was to pay signature-gatherers and that they've been struggling to gather signatures since March, we have substantial reason to wonder about the validity of their petitions," Kyrsten Sinema, committee chairwoman of Arizona Together, said on the group's Web site.

In addition, Arizona Together plans to file a challenge to the measure next week similar to one tried by pro-gay forces in Georgia. The state Constitution limits ballot measures to a single subject, and it violates that rule by both defining marriage and excluding certain groups from civil unions and partner benefits, Steve May, treasurer of Arizona Together and a Republican former state lawmaker, told the Republic.

 See Ariz. marriage forces get ready to rumble

Gay.com

Pediatricians Applaud American Academy of Pediatrics for Publishing Report Supporting Marriage and Parenting by Same-Sex Couples

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 10, 2006)— A study published in the July issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, finds that marriage can enrich the lives of children being raised by gay or lesbian parents. “The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-Being of Children,” written by Jim Pawelski, director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Division of State Government Affairs and several other members of the Academy of Pediatrics, supports the position of members of Pro-Family Pediatricians, a national coalition of more than 1,000 pediatricians, that same-sex couples and their children deserve the same protections as other American families.  The study comes as the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution later this month. The U.S. Senate firmly rejected the amendment in June.

Ellen C. Perrin, MD, one of the authors of the report and Chair of Pro-Family Pediatricians stated, "The scientific data overwhelmingly demonstrate that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of children's emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment. We conclude that civil marriage is beneficial to children, regardless of the gender of the parents, because it strengthens families and helps foster financial and legal security, psychosocial stability, and an augmented sense of societal acceptance and support." 

Legislation seeking to deny same-sex families and their children the same legal rights and protections guaranteed to all other two-parent families leads to a host of health care deprivations: limited hospital visitation, inability to authorize treatment, inadequate insurance coverage and other obstacles to health care and financial security for same-sex parents and their children.

“This study reaffirms that hundreds of thousands of American children are thriving in homes headed by same-sex couples and that discriminatory laws denying marriage and civil unions will only hurt families, not protect them,” said Dr. Ellen Perrin, “I hope that this scientific, peer-reviewed evidence will encourage lawmakers to abandon dangerous legislation aimed at banning marriage for same-gender couples and instead advance public policies that benefit all children and families.”

The 2000 Census found that same-sex couples are raising children together in 96 percent of all counties in the United States. Repeated medical and psychological studies have found no measurable difference in mental health, socialization or quality of relationships with parents between children raised by same-sex couples and those raised by married heterosexual couples. As such, organizations of health care professionals, such as the American Psychological Association, have adopted measures supporting same-sex marriage and parenting.

Kentucky Athletes primed for Gay Games

It's 7 a.m. at the Downtown YMCA, and Craig Pickering has been in the pool for an hour, his toned body racing from one end to the other.

Switching among the backstroke, the breaststroke and the butterfly, Pickering's workout is so intense that when he pulls himself out of the water, a muscle in his left leg twitches uncontrollably.

He lays poolside for a few moments, catching his breath, before diving back in.

Pickering -- along with 40 athletes from Kentucky and 150 from Indiana -- has spent months training for the Gay Games, an eight-day, Olympic-like event that begins Saturday in Chicago.

See Athletes primed for Gay Games
Louisville Courier-Journal, KY 

Rochester's Gay Community is Not Giving Up

They're not giving up; that's is the message Rochester's gay community is promoting this weekend. Just days after New York's highest court ruled against gay marriage the local gay community came out to show not only Rochester but the world the debate is far from over. It is an annual parade, first organized in 1994, this year, the crowd of approximately 1,200 people who participated were marching not only to show their pride but also to show they have not given up. As gay pride advocates lined up for the parade, you could hear them singing, “were going to the chapel and we’re gonna get married…” That message was clearly on the minds of many who participated in Saturday’s parade. The New York State Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled gays and lesbians do not have the right to marry under state law. “After the ruling this week, I think a lot of people have taken notice that we have a lot more work to do,” advocate for gays and lesbian right Amy Friends said. Friends is marching in the parade with members of her church, Spiritus Christi. She says the courts decision hurt her in many ways. “Financial securities and safeties and benefits that the Federal and State Government give when somebody signs a piece of paper and become married, because we cant sign a piece of paper and become married, we don't get the same thing,” Friends explained. Spiritus Christi performs several gay marriages a year but they are not legal. “We celebrate the marriages of gay and lesbian couples, as well as the marriages of straight couples,” Spiritus Christi Church Reverend Denise Donato said. “My only hope is that one day the state will also recognize that and legalize it.” Something many of these marchers are hoping for, “it's definitely not going away,” parade participant David Mcluckie said. “The next step is for the community to become stronger, we need to really rely on our allies and I think all things in time, equality will prevail.” There were a handful of protestors at Saturday's parade who say they oppose gay marriage because it goes against the church. President Bush also opposes the union. He has proposed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as that between a man and a woman. See Rochester's Gay Community is Not Giving Up

WHEC-TV

POPE IN VALENCIA: NO TO GAY MARRIAGES, YES TO RESPECT FOR THEM

(AGI) - Valencia, July 8 - The Pope also faced IMF issues whilst on the plane taking him to Spain. They happen to be the same facing the Spanish Church and the government there. "It's natural", he said, "for a man and a woman to be the ones to carry on the future of humanity". For Pope Benedict XVI, we need "to encourage the family because that is the true reality that gives hope to our future". But there are "problems and also points on which the Church cannot say no. A man and a woman are the ones to carry on the future of humanity, therefore we should put their relationship in a positive light, partly to better make this value understood". And "the Church cannot accept certain determined things, although it nevertheless wants to help and respect the people". From his side, the Holy See's spokesperson, Joaquin Navarro Valls, commented very warily on Zapatero not being present at tomorrow's mass. "I recall that Daniel Ortega came to the mass when we went to Nicaragua. During the communist period, Wojciech Jaruzelsky did the same. When we went to Cuba, Fidel did not stay away from the mass. Zapatero's presence was never mentioned during preparations for this visit, so whoever wants to come to mass can come". See POPE IN VALENCIA: NO TO GAY MARRIAGES, YES TO RESPECT FOR THEM Agenzia Giornalistica Italia

Aww: NYT Monday: Santorum is Senate's most vulnerable

NYT Monday: Santorum is Senate's most vulnerable!

10 Questions For Katharine Jefferts Schori

10 Questions For Katharine Jefferts Schori

TIME 

Rough waters aren't new to Katharine Jefferts Schori, 52, a former oceanographer who is the Presiding Bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. Bishop Katharine, as she's known, takes over a denomination rocked by controversy at home and abroad for its liberal stance on gay clergy. She talked with TIME's Jeff Chu about her mission of social justice, the relationship between science and religion and whether faith in Jesus is the only path to heaven.

What will be your focus as head of the U.S. church? Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus.

The issue of gay bishops has been so divisive. The diocese of Newark, N.J., has named a gay man as one of its candidates for bishop. Is now the time to elect another gay bishop? Dioceses, when they are faithful, call the person who is best suited to lead them. I believe every diocese does the best job it's capable of in discerning who it is calling to leadership.

Many Anglicans in the developing world say such choices in the U.S. church have hurt their work. That's been important for the church here to hear. We've heard in ways we hadn't heard before the problematic nature of our decisions. Especially in places where Christians are functioning in the face of Islamic culture and mores, evangelism is a real challenge. [But] these decisions were made because we believe that's where the Gospel has been calling us. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has come to a reasonable conclusion and consensus that gay and lesbian Christians are full members of this church and that our ministry to and with gay and lesbian Christians should be part of the fullness of our life.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who leads the Anglican Communion, wrote recently that a two-tier Communion may be a solution. What did you read in his message? The pieces that I saw as most important had to do with the complexity of the situation and the length of time that this process will continue. He's very clear that we're not going to see an instant solution. He's also clear about his role: it is to call people to conversation, not to intervene in diocesan or provincial life--which some people have been asking for.

There's much debate about whether science and religion can comfortably coexist. You're a scientist and a pastor. What do you think? Oh, they absolutely can. In the Middle Ages, theology was called the queen of the sciences. It asks a set of questions about human existence, about why we're here and how we should be in relationship with our neighbors and with the divine. And science, in this more traditional understanding, is about looking at creation and trying to understand how it functions.

What is your view on intelligent design? I firmly believe that evolution ought to be taught in the schools as the best witness of what modern science has taught us. To try to read the Bible literalistically about such issues disinvites us from using the best of recent scholarship.

Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven? We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

Pastoral work can be all-consuming. How do you relax? I run regularly. I like to hike, and I take one long backpacking trip a year. Flying is also a focusing activity. I come from a family of pilots, and it's always been part of my experience. It takes one's full attention, and that's restful in an odd kind of way. It takes your mind away from other concerns, not unlike meditation.

Do you have a favorite Bible verse? Chapter 61 of Isaiah is an icon for me of what Christian work should be about. That's what Jesus reads in his first public act. In Luke, he walks into the synagogue and reads from Isaiah. It talks about a vision of the reign of God where those who are mourning are comforted, where the hungry are fed, where the poor hear good news.

What is your prayer for the church today? That we remember the centrality of our mission is to love each other. That means caring for our neighbors. And it does not mean bickering about fine points of doctrine.

Candidates expected to be pressed on gay-marriage stance

 Stung by their setback in New York's top court, advocates for gay marriage are gearing up for a political battle to change state laws that could alter the landscape of this year's legislative elections.

The Court of Appeals' ruling last week — which left it up to the state Legislature to ultimately decide whether gay marriage should be allowed in New York — made it all but certain that candidates seeking office this year would be confronted with questions about the issue. What is uncertain, however, is how much traction the issue has with voters.

"We'd love to see this be a defining moment for a candidate, but I doubt very much that it is going to be an issue that is going to win a close race or not," said Ingrid Barnes, president of the Log Cabin Republicans' Hudson Valley chapter.

While gay marriage has, in other states, been an issue that's driven up voter turnout, Barnes and other observers of New York's political scene don't believe it will have the same impact here. In fact, it's likely to trail behind issues like education and property taxes as the most important to voters.

"It doesn't turn elections, but it is one where legislative candidates, because the courts threw it back at the Legislature, are going to be asked to go on record where they stand on this," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. "In a sense, it will become part of the mix for the fall campaigns."

Advocates for the gay and lesbian communities vowed to continue to press candidates on the issue and keep it alive through Election Day. In many instances, that effort begins with getting candidates to simply state a position— something many have been reluctant to do.

In the closely watched battle between state Sen. Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers, and Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both candidates, while expressing support for civil unions, have declined to take a stance on gay marriage.

  See Candidates expected to be pressed on gay-marriage stance
The Journal News.com, NY 

Same-sex partners seek Alabama court's OK on baby's adoption

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A Mobile woman raising a baby boy with the child's mother wants to adopt him as a second parent, a legal step of significance in a state that just passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.

Cari Searcy's partner, Kim McKeand, gave birth to the baby boy in December with the aid of a donor. Searcy then sought to become the adoptive parent of the child, who bears her last name. Adoption would give Searcy rights to make medical decisions for the child as well as securing the sense of family in their home.

But Searcy's application was denied in probate court May 3. McKeand said the judge ruled against adoption because Alabama does not recognize same-sex marriages. She said their case is now going to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.

"We're going to do whatever we can to get it passed here," Searcy said. "It is discouraging when we think about the current environment against gays in our state, but I have to believe that somewhere in our court system there are still fair-minded judges."

McKeand, 28, and Searcy, 30, who met at college in Texas and moved to Mobile five years ago, have real concerns about the medical care of the baby, Khaya Ray Searcy. The child was born with a hole in his heart and the first weeks were difficult.

"He had to have open heart surgery in Atlanta and we ran into some issues with my not being a legal parent," Searcy said. "It was really hard."

McKeand said she had to learn how to insert a feeding tube in Khaya's nose before they could bring him home from the hospital. Because she didn't feel comfortable doing the procedure, Searcy volunteered to learn. But the nurses would not teach her.

"They said, 'No, you're not the parent, Kim is,'" McKeand said. "Finally it took our doctor - the cardiologist - to step in and say it was okay."

See Same-sex partners seek Alabama court's OK on baby's adoption
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA 

Florida Gay marriage foes push petition, pro LGBT forces work to educate voters

As a Wednesday deadline looms for opponents of same-sex marriage, supporters are gearing up with their own campaign to make Florida's marriage laws gay-friendly.

Opponents of gay marriage, supported by the Florida Coalition To Protect Marriage, will pass around a flurry of petitions in the coming days to try to meet their deadline to get enough signatures to force a constitutional amendment question onto Florida's 2008 ballot.

The coalition has missed several self-imposed deadlines like this one, but chairman John Stemberger, of Orlando, thinks the group is getting close.

"Momentum has built up in the last few weeks," said Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, an offshoot of Focus on the Family, a national conservative Christian group. "This is our own internal push to finish the job."

Meanwhile, a Florida gay-rights group has begun a campaign to educate voters about the upcoming ballot.

Equality Florida says Stemberger's coalition is finding the signature-gathering process is not so easy.

"They have consistently failed to meet every self-imposed deadline," said Brian Winfield, communications director of the St. Petersburg-based group, which says it has 14,000 active supporters. "It's a lot more work than they thought it would be."

Still, Equality Florida knows the organizers are likely to get enough signatures by the deadline. In response, members are preparing their own campaign, called FairnessForAllFamilies.org, to oppose the amendment.

Equality thinks the majority of Floridians approve of gay unions: A poll the group commissioned last year found 55 percent of state residents favored "legal domestic partnerships" that would provide gay and lesbian couples the same benefits, such as health insurance, that married heterosexuals get. See Gay marriage foes push petition
Sun-Sentinel.com, FL 

For queens and country

Twenty years ago yesterday parliament scrapped the law banning homosexual acts - but some older gays still stay hidden. Anthony Hubbard reports.

John was a God-fearing army officer who cruised the public toilets looking for sex. He risked everything on those nights: his job, his reputation, his freedom.

He still did the bogs, though. One night he drove a bloke down to the beach at Island Bay and afterwards they found the car was stuck in the sand. Frantic digging rescued them from the darkness. What if they had been caught?

John, now in his 70s, recalls the time a fellow officer was caught in bed with a corporal. The officer went before the judge, and John, ironically, had to go as his official army friend at court. "I thought the corporal was quite cute," he remembers. The officer went to jail.

Perhaps it is not surprising that John can't quite come out even now, 20 years after homosexual law reform and 13 years after another law change forced the military to stop discriminating against gays. He is scared to have his name in the newspaper. Law reform doesn't free you from history or habit.

"I've come out to lots of people - I just haven't come fully out. But I don't seem to need to advertise the fact."

He is afraid that it will cause hostility, from one relative in particular. "I think if I came out the reaction would be, 'I always thought so.' We don't get on very well anyway."

John's conflict is evident: he fears the reaction of a person he thinks knows anyway; he doesn't want to alienate someone who is already estranged. See For queens and country
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand 

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Teens Prepare for UK's First 'Gay Prom'

LONDON, July 9, 2006  –  Gay teens from across the country will be converging on London next weekend for what is thought to be the very first “Gay Prom” to be held in the UK.

Targeted at teenagers aged between 16 and 19, Gay Prom UK is based on the already successful US models that exist in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The event is not being staged in a school gymnasium.  Organisers have opted for the famed Astor Bar and Grill, which is more used to hosting ‘A-list’ celebrities at post film premier ‘bashes’.

Teenagers themselves are organising the event and they hope that Gay Prom, 2006 will send a positive message to gay teens struggling to come to terms with their sexuality that being gay is perfectly normal.

“We hope to have an attendance of 350,” said Arfur Davison-Sharp who comes from Lydney in Gloucestershire and chairs the organising committee of five teens.

He stressed that the even was not a London event for London gay teens.  “There is a lot of interest in this event from all over the country,” he said.

  See Teens Prepare for UK’s First ‘Gay Prom’

How cool is this: London Zoo's Gay Day.. & debate on camp animals

EXCLUSIVE London Zoo's Gay Day.. & debate on camp animals

Sunday Mirror, UK 

EXCLUSIVE London Zoo's Gay Day.. & debate on camp animals

By James Fielding And Susie Boniface

LONDON Zoo is holding a special gay day - featuring drag queens and a debate on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

The event aims to promote gay and lesbian culture and raise awareness of endangered wildlife at the same time.

Thousands of same-sex couples are expected to pour into Regent's Park for the bash, called Gay Sunday at the Zoo.

High-profile gay celebrities have also been invited, including Sir Elton John, Dale Winton, Graham Norton and Erasure singer Andy Bell. Camp Little Britain star David Walliams has also been asked to attend.

Visitors will be met at the front gates by drag artists in platform heels and beehive wigs, and whisked inside to a cabaret bar. A jazz band, fronted by another drag queen, will belt out Frank Sinatra tunes as couples unwind in the VIP lounge and champagne and cocktail terrace.

They will be free to explore the zoo and pet cute animals, as fire jugglers entertain them.

Advertisement

 

Organisers, the London Zoological Society (LZS), say they're also planning to hold a discussion on the possibility of gay animals. London Zoo was selected as the venue for the Gay Sunday event because it's becoming a top gay date spot.

Organiser Joanna Green said: "This is a day dedicated to the gay community and hopefully it will go down a storm. It will be fun, educational and, of course, very, very camp.

"A walk through our tropical butterfly tunnel will add a romantic touch to the day. But people can also come face-to-face with African hunting dogs and a giraffe.

"We have 650 species of animal at the zoo, many of which are highly endangered.

"This day is all about celebrating gay culture and encouraging conservation.

"There will be a discussion from gay organisations and wildlife experts, debating homosexuality within the animal kingdom."

A LZS spokesman added: "We're in the final stages of drawing up the special guest list. Sir Elton will be top of the list, but everyone is welcome - the more, the merrier."

A spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall said: "I'm sure a lot of people will have a great day out."

Tickets for the September 17 event are £14.50 on the gate.

Gay Unions' Day In Court in CA

Gay Unions' Day In Court: Appellate court in S.F. will hear arguments Monday in several same-sex marriage lawsuits

Sutton to make stage-exit from NZ politics

The retirement of Labour MP Jim Sutton was expected to be announced today in a move hoped to give the party a new lease of life.

Mr Sutton, who first entered politics in 1984, will be replaced by Charles Chauvel, Labour's Ohariu Belmont candidate last year.

The development emerged at a function at Premier House yesterday when Charles Chauvel was introduced as Labour's new gay MP, the New Zealand Herald reported.

See Sutton to make stage-exit from politics
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand -

Little hoopla on 2nd anniversary of domestic partnerships in NJ

The two-year anniversary of domestic partnerships in New Jersey on Monday is not likely to get a ton of attention - largely because many of the folks it benefits hope it becomes obsolete.

The law, which took effect July 10, 2004, made New Jersey one of a handful of states to recognize same-sex couples.

The anniversary comes as many gay partners await a state Supreme Court ruling on whether they have the right to marry in New Jersey. See Little hoopla on 2nd anniversary of domestic partnerships in NJ
Press of Atlantic City, NJ

Episcopalians meet with bishop, debate separation Dallas Morning News

Episcopalians meet with bishop, debate separation

Dallas Morning News

By KAREN AYRES / The Dallas Morning News

Hundreds of Episcopalians from across North Texas gathered at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Dallas on Sunday afternoon with one question in mind: What is the future of their church?

Dallas Bishop James Stanton hosted the meeting amid widespread debate over whether the diocese and its 77 member churches should dissociate from the national Episcopal Church.

On the one side are traditionalists who believe national leaders have moved too far to the left on divisive topics including their support of female priests and gay clergy members. On the other side are those who support the changing direction.

Bishop Stanton, responding to calls for separation, said he plans to meet with each parish in coming weeks to discuss the issue, which has divided the 40,000 members of the diocese. He said a decision could be reached in October at the diocese's annual convention.

"I am trying to be a pastor to everyone," Bishop Stanton told the standing-room-only crowd. "That is an impossible job unless I have your trust and your faith. I need to be listening."

The meeting came less than two weeks after Christ Church Episcopal in Plano, one of the largest Episcopal denominations in the country, announced its intention to leave the denomination.

The Rev. David Roseberry, Christ Church's pastor, is part of an advisory committee that recommended a separation for the diocese after the denomination's national convention in June.

At that convention, the national group selected a female bishop who supported the consecration of a gay bishop three years ago in New Hampshire.

"We're going in two different directions," the Rev. Henry Pendergrass, another member of the advisory committee, said Sunday. "There is no middle. We feel like for the health and mission of the diocese, there has to be a disassociation."

Bishop Stanton wouldn't comment Sunday on whether he supports a separation, but he said he plans to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to establish a direct relationship with the worldwide Anglican Communion. That could allow the diocese to bypass the Episcopal Church and report directly to the larger Anglican Communion.

Many people who attended Sunday's meeting said they support separation plans, while others were more hesitant. Any large-scale separation would probably involve issues over church property, not to mention doctrine.

The Rev. David Houk, new rector of St. John's Church in Dallas, said parishioners are divided over the future of the church.

"It's the pickle we're in," Mr. Houk said. "It's a pickle of worldwide proportions in terms of us as an Anglican community. This process is going to be very hard because some people will get what they want and some people won't."

Dana Pope, a delegate at the national convention who attends St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Flower Mound, drew a standing ovation when she said she could only support a faith devoted to the Scripture.

"It's too hard being one body with two different views," she said.

Stephen Kidd, a youth minister at Transfiguration Church in Dallas, said he had no opinion on separation but wished the church would focus more on feeding the homeless and other social programs.

"I don't think it's a division that is insurmountable," said Mr. Kidd, who plans to become a priest. "It's colossally sad that this issue is enveloping the church."

The Anglican Communion has more than 74 million members in 160 countries. Its American branch, the Episcopal Church, has about 2.4 million members.

The Fort Worth Diocese voted to seek other leadership in the Anglican community after the national convention because Bishop Jack Iker does not recognize female priests.

Bishop Stanton said Sunday that he supports women in the clergy and considers the conflict more about the role of Scripture in everyday life.

"I have ordained women," Bishop Stanton said. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe it was right."

In a letter to parishioners, Bishop Stanton said he would appoint a panel to help him review feedback from churches. The Dallas Diocese stretches from Waxahachie to Texarkana.

"In recent years, [the Episcopal] leadership has valued diversity almost to the exclusion of any other principle," he wrote. "I believe that the leadership of the Episcopal Church has now stepped beyond the limits of diversity and is leading us to division."

Laura Allen, who has been a delegate at the diocese's annual convention for 37 years, stressed Sunday that no decisions have been made.

"A lot of people are panicking, and there is nothing to panic about," she said.

Bishop Stanton said that if a dissociation measure is introduced at the convention, delegates from every parish will have a chance to vote on it. He noted that approval might be required two years in a row for the split to go into effect.

In the meantime, the bishop said, he will meet with parishioners over the next several weeks.

"God willing, we will hold together," he told the crowd. "Please stay open to what God has in store, because we are his church."

E-mail kayres@dallasnews.com

Bringing the Church to the Court

Bringing the Church to the Court: Legal consortium hopes to align the law and society with conservative Christian views.

Martina Navratilova retires from tennis

Martina Navratilova retires from tennis: Out tennis great leaves court for final time at 50; Hero to millions.

Opponents stand firm on gay clergy

CONSERVATIVES in the Uniting Church vowed to fight on with a "campaign of civil disobedience" after conceding they had failed to dismiss a 2003 resolution approving gay clergy.

The national assembly of Australia's third-biggest church in Brisbane ran out of time yesterday, but will pass a proposal today or tomorrow saying that internal divisions meant it could not make any decision.

This leaves the controversial 2003 resolution 84 in place as the status quo.

The proposal acknowledges that the 2003 decision had caused "deep concern and disquiet", and regrets that many have already felt compelled to leave the church.

The result will leave the church nervously awaiting what one liberal called the most important meeting: the one the dissenters will hold on Wednesday to decide their response.

At best, the church faces continued destabilisation and an internal revolt. At worst, thousands of members and scores of congregations will depart.

See Opponents stand firm on gay clergy

The Age

Episcopalians on the breach

Episcopalians on the breach

New York Daily News, NY 

There's a new spin on an old joke making the rounds. It's about a beachcomber who finds a bottle in the sand and opens it, freeing a genie who gratefully grants one wish. The beachcomber asks for peace in the Middle East.

The genie calls that an impossible task and asks for an alternative wish. "Okay," says the beachcomber, "restore harmony to the Anglican Communion." The genie thinks for several seconds and then says, "Let's go back to that Middle East thing."

But for millions of Anglicans, and especially Episcopalians - the American branch of the global Anglican community - it's no joke. The challenge now is to restore peace and unity or to at least keep the Episcopal Church a full-fledged member of a denomination with 77 million faithful in 160 countries.

In a way, it is a dispute that pits the Episcopal Church - with its 2.3 million members divided into 111 national jurisdictions (dioceses) - against Anglicans nearly everywhere else. Of the 37 other provinces, or church territories, around the world, 22 already describe their relationship with the Episcopal Church as "broken" or "impaired."

The basic issue is one rocking several other Christian bodies: gay rights.

The crisis for Anglicans has been brewing for several years, but it came to a boil two weeks ago when Episcopalians, who meet nationally only once every three years, held their 75th general convention in Columbus, Ohio.

Even a carefully worded warning by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the titular head of the Anglican movement, did not ease tensions.

In a letter to delegates, Williams, who is considered first among equals among Anglican primates but cannot dictate policy like the Pope, outlined a grim choice for the U.S. church: Renounce gay bishops and same-sex unions or risk demotion to a "church in association," without a vote in Anglican affairs.

Instead, delegates defied a recommendation by a committee Williams appointed and refused to declare a halt on the election of gay bishops. They called only for "restraint." They also voted not to "repent," as another recommendation asked, for the elevation of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. His installation three years ago made him the first openly gay bishop anywhere in the Anglican world.

Moreover, the convention did not even vote on a proposal to stop blessing same-sex unions, yet another recommendation by the Williams committee.

If that weren't enough to widen the splits within the denomination, delegates elected Katharine Jefferts Schori, the liberal bishop of the Nevada diocese, to a nine-year term as presiding bishop of the U.S. church. The church's national headquarters are in New York, and when she is formally installed here this fall, it will make her the first female primate anywhere in the Anglican world.

About a dozen dioceses, ranging from Pittsburgh to Fort Worth, Tex., have announced that because of gay rights or Schori's election, they may leave the Episcopal Church and ask Williams to let them affiliate with Anglican jurisdictions more ideologically in tune with them. Theologically, there are no rules that would bar them from doing this.

Of the world's 38 Anglican provinces, only Canada and New Zealand have elected female bishops, and in the United States, six dioceses have announced that they won't accept Schori as presiding bishop. The Episcopal Church began ordaining women 30 years ago, something that still steams many conservatives, and three dioceses - Fort Worth, San Joaquin, Calif., and Quincy, Ill. - still refuse to recognize female priests at all.

Because of the lengthy, convoluted process involved in making any major policy changes, the gay rights dispute is likely to go on for years - not even the next scheduled Episcopal general assembly in 2009 is likely to bring peace.

In the meantime, the hubbub and confusion goes on.

It was something the Rev. James Cooper, rector of Trinity Church, the Wall Street landmark, addressed in a letter he wrote his flock last week.

"I hear people asking, 'What is really going on? And where does Trinity stand?'" Cooper wrote. Basically, he said, Trinity stands with the liberals and is continuing its dialogue with people who disagree.

"For now," Cooper concluded, "let us remember this debate has been with us for more than a generation, and we have of course maintained and grown our ministries in this period, even while we are engaged in this conversation."

No mention anywhere of a genie.

California appeals court to hear gay marriage arguments

 SAN FRANCISCO - In nearly two years since John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney took part in this city's same-sex marriage rebellion, the couple has filed three rounds of tax returns, buried a mother, vacationed in Europe and attended five weddings - four involving a bride and a groom.

These are the typical joys, sorrows and rituals of couples who have been together for nearly two decades. Yet for Lewis and Gaffney, one of 4,037 pairs whose San Francisco-issued marriage licenses were invalidated by the California Supreme Court, daily domesticity also brings reminders of the legal rights they do not have and are suing to secure.

"We took a vow at San Francisco City Hall to be together for better or worse," said Gaffney, 43. "It's hard because while we wait, we wait in a separate and unequal status."

The multi-pronged effort to make gay marriage legal in California inches another step toward resolution Monday, when a state appeals court in San Francisco will consider whether a trial judge erred in declaring the state's existing marriage laws unconstitutional.

The First District Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear six hours of arguments in as many related cases - four of them filed by the city and lawyers for 20 couples seeking the right to wed, and two brought by groups who want to maintain the status quo barring same-sex unions.

Although any forthcoming ruling is expected to be appealed to the state Supreme Court, advocates on both sides say the stakes remain high at the intermediate court. New York's highest court upheld that state's one man-one woman marriage laws on Thursday, shifting the gay rights movement's focus to other jurisdictions that might join Massachusetts in legalizing gay marriage.

High courts in New Jersey and Washington state already are deliberating cases brought by same-sex couples. But it is California, home to more same-sex couples than any other state and where the courts and the Legislature have created one of the nation's most gay-friendly environments, where a ruling could have the most impact.

"California is the most diverse state in the country, and the gay community has achieved a kind of visibility and integration here that is unlike any state," said Jennifer Pizer, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund who is representing gay couples in both California and Washington. "People in California, including judges and legislatures, have had the opportunity to see our essential sameness."

The appeals that will be heard Monday were brought by California's attorney general and two groups opposed to gay marriage. They followed San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer's March 2005 ruling that the state's existing marriage laws violate the civil rights of gays and lesbians by denying them "the basic human right to marry a person of one's choice" and discriminating on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.

Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger said he plans to offer the appeals court the same argument he presented to Kramer: that until lawmakers rewrite the marriage statutes, California should adhere to a traditional definition of matrimony while offering a separate domestic partnership option that confers most of the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples.

See California appeals court to hear gay marriage arguments

San Jose Mercury News

Louisville woman among straights at Gay Games

Elizabeth Mortenson wasn't a competitive runner until this spring, when she and Scott Farley ran the miniMarathon together.

Mortenson, 20, ended up finishing in the top of her age group for the 13.1-mile race, held in conjunction with the Kentucky Derby Festival. Now, she's taking it to the next level, running the 26-mile marathon in the Gay Games.

Mortenson is heterosexual, as are an estimated 6 percent of the athletes participating in the Chicago games. See Louisville woman among straights at Gay Games

Louisville Courier-Journal -

NZ Gay law reform celebrates 20 years

The 20th anniversary of homosexual law reform is being celebrated as part of New Zealand's "growing up."

Homosexual law reform was an issue that divided the country, polarised public opinion and resulted in the biggest petition ever presented to parliament.

Photographic exhibition "What are you afraid of?" coincides with the anniversary, showing defining images of what many call a defining time in our political history.

"It wasn't just a matter of MP's debating in parliament it was something the community thrashed out...the community discussed at large and that actually changed society, that changed the world we live in," says photographer David Hindley.

As well as being a moment where New Zealand "grew up," it also caused huge ructions in a morally divided society.

 See Gay law reform celebrates 20 years

TVNZ

MA State Lawmaker firm on gay rights

Incumbent firm on gay rights

Boston Globe

NORWOOD -- On the issue of same-sex marriage, state Representative John H. Rogers of Norwood has been a lightning rod.

When he was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rogers filed so-called defense of marriage legislation that would have banned gay marriage. Gay rights activists targeted him and picketed a 2002 Massachusetts Bar Association dinner at which Rogers received a Legislator of the Year award.

Then, two months ago, the seven-term Democrat revealed in an interview in Bay Windows, a Boston-based newspaper that covers the gay community, that he will vote against putting on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.

It was a change that had constituents in Rogers's conservative suburban district flooding his office with angry calls and e-mails. At a public forum he organized, about 75 people lashed out at him for his stance on the amendment, which the Legislature is slated to vote on in a constitutional convention that convenes this Wednesday.

Gay rights activists, meanwhile, hailed Rogers's apparent defection as an important victory for their cause, and Bay Windows praised him for ``a courageous stand."

The 41-year-old House majority leader, a lawyer, says he's a bit puzzled by the firestorm, which has flared as he confronts his first election challenge since he won the House seat in 1992.

He says that in the 10 years he has been involved with the marriage question, there has been no change in his basic position: Marriage should be between a man and a woman, but civil rights of same-sex couples must also be protected.

``My core belief has remained unaltered, that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman," he said in an interview last week. ``But the question cannot be considered in a vacuum. It must be coupled with a new institution of rights and protections."

The proposed constitutional amendment, which goes before the Legislature because of an initiative petition filed by those opposed to gay marriage, does not include civil rights for same-sex couples, said Rogers, who asserts that the defense of marriage bills he filed in the past were on behalf of constituents.

In the Sept. 19 Democratic primary, Rogers will face Leah O'Leary of Norwood, a social worker and the founder of Norwood-Walpole Citizens for All Families, a group that promotes gay rights and acceptance of local gay families. The district consists of Norwood and four precincts in Walpole.

O'Leary, 59, the mother of a gay son, announced her candidacy before Rogers declared his opposition to the marriage amendment. She said she is pleased that the same-sex marriage question will not be an issue in the campaign, and she plans to talk about healthcare, education, housing, and closing corporate loopholes.

``Now we can move on to the bread-and-butter issues that Democrats talk about," said O'Leary, who has not run for elective office before.

Rogers said he is happy to discuss these issues. He said he is proud of his role in the passage of universal healthcare legislation this year, and he added he has consistently delivered state aid to local schools and councils on aging.

Marc Solomon, campaign director for MassEquality, the group leading the statewide fight to preserve same-sex marriage rights, said he does not think Rogers's stance on the amendment will hurt his reelection bid.

Solomon said MassEquality has not endorsed a candidate in the O'Leary-Rogers race, but added: ``We stand with legislators who vote against antigay amendments. That has been our policy in the past."

Kris Mineau -- president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which is fighting for the marriage amendment -- said members of the organization are disappointed by Rogers's stance. However, Mineau said Rogers has been consistent over the years in favoring marriage as exclusively for a man and woman, while also supporting civil rights for same-sex couples. ``He really has not had a change of heart," Mineau said.

In his district, Rogers has faced accusations that he switched because of pressure from gay rights supporters.

``This appears to be strictly a response to the pressure groups," said Ray Neary of Walpole, who supported Rogers in past elections. ``He was a man of principle and stood his ground. We always thought John would be a great protector of family issues."

Douglas Obey, a Republican running for state Senate in the district that includes Norwood, said it is probably not a coincidence that Rogers declared his opposition to the amendment shortly after O'Leary announced her bid for the House seat.

``It came as a real shock to a lot of people and a lot of organizations he has benefited from in the past," said Obey, a gay marriage opponent from Westwood who is running against Senator Marian Walsh, Democrat of West Roxbury.

Rogers dismisses suggestions that his stance on the amendment was made for political expediency. ``The politically safe thing for me to do is to go to one camp or the other, not alienate both camps," he said.

Natali sues HRC in SF over bias bar claim

A Castro bar owner found by a city agency to have discriminated against women and African Americans filed suit last week to overturn the findings, claiming they have harmed his reputation and businesses.   Read more

HIV-positive man pleads guilty

Prosecutor argues misdemeanor conviction isn't enough  as HIV-positive man pleads guilty for failing to disclose status

New HIV med is one pill once a day

New HIV med is one pill once a day @ New York Times

Officials get HIV tests to foster awareness

Officials get HIV tests to foster awareness @ Arizona Republic

Episcopal clergy in RI see parish continuity

Episcopal clergy in RI see parish continuity

Providence Journal

A rift between the Anglican Communion and the U.S. church is not likely to change day-to-day worship of the state's 30,000 faithful, local clergy say.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 9, 2006

BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer

These are uncertain times for the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church.

More than two weeks after the denomination's General Convention rejected a moratorium on the consecration of openly gay bishops -- but then urged dioceses to exercise "restraint" -- many of Rhode Island's Episcopal clergy are still scratching their heads and wondering where it will all lead.

Will the U.S. Episcopal Church be bounced out of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion because the convention failed to heed demands from African church leaders who want a more "Biblical" Episcopal Church that doesn't ordain gay people? Or did the convention give its newly elected presiding bishop just what she needs to keep the lines of communication open with other Anglican leaders?

Either way, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is expected to come under strong pressure from conservatives to tell U.S. Episcopal bishops that they are no longer welcome to attend the 2008 worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops known as the Lambeth Conference. It's a move that Archbishop Williams has thus far resisted.

One thing is clear: there's a broad consensus among the clergy in Rhode Island that no matter what happens at the international level, their parishes will continue as they always have.

"Yes, it would be a great loss if we were thrown out of the Anglican Communion, but I think the reality is that, for the vast majority of Episcopalians, what goes on at the upper levels of the church is removed from how people live out their lives in the parishes," says the Rev. William R. Locke, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pawtucket and one of Rhode Island's eight deputies to the convention.

The debate over the U.S. church's status in the Anglican fold goes back to 2003 when the General Convention shocked many leaders in the Anglican world by authorizing the ordination of the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history, V. Gene Robinson. When a number of African primates (highest ranking bishops) denounced the move and spoke of impending schism, Archbishop Williams created a commission to study how and under what circumstances the fellowship of Anglican churches could hold together.

The resulting Windsor Report recommended that the U.S. church leaders apologize and express their regret for the harm done to the overall unity of the church and declare a moratorium on consecrations. The report was not completely one-sided: it also chastized a handful of foreign bishops, who it said violated the "bonds of affection" that should exist in the worldwide church by visiting dissident conservative parishes in the United States to administer the sacraments without the permission of the local bishop.

RHODE ISLAND Bishop Geralyn Wolf was among nine U.S. bishops who visited with Williams in London on the eve of last month's convention. She says that in those talks the archbishop "assured us that he saw the Windsor Report as the framework" by which the Anglican churches can find common ground and live together.

"The question is," she said in an interview last week, "how do we live together in a global communion with very different cultures, ethnic understandings and national perspectives."

Bishop Wolf said she believes a moratorium on gay ordinations, which she worked on and actively supported at the convention, would have given the church "breathing room" to continue the conversations for at least another three years.

When that call was rejected by the deputies, Bishop Wolf feared an opportunity was lost. That is, until current Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and the new Presiding Bishop-elect Katherine Jefferts-Schori pleaded with deputies to pass a resolution calling on dioceses to exercise restraint. That move, they said, would give them something to take back to the other Anglican primates.

The plea from the two bishops failed to convince the Rhode Island clergy, who felt restraint would penalize gay people aspiring to be bishop. However, it did sway the state's four lay deputies, who voted for the resolution along with Bishop Wolf.

Bishop Wolf says she believes the resolution as approved fell short of what the Windsor Report indicated was the minimum that needed to be done, "but it was the best we could do."

WHAT NOW?

Archbishop Williams has said one solution may be a two-tiered Anglican Communion with some churches enjoying full status and others as associates, dependng on how much they subscribe to core Anglican beliefs.

Bishop Wolf says that idea got her thinking about another possible scenario for the Anglican Church of the future. Just as Judaism has different branches and expressions -- Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist -- it may be possible, she says, to have an Anglican Church with different "expressions."

"I think we have to recognize that in the Anglican world there are profound differences of opinion in the church today that cannot coexist as they are now, so the invitation to look at another way of doing things would be very helpful," she says.

Bishop Wolf acknowledged that she hasn't thought through how the idea of distinct branches would play out in Rhode Island, with more than 60 churches and an estimated 30,000 Episcopalians, but "should the communion move in that direction, I suspect we would find a variety of expressions in each diocese."

The Rev. Bettine Besier, who has been ordained for 16 years and serves as rector of St. Thomas Church in the rural village of Alton in Richmond, says that, as in the wider church, her parish is "very divided" and has people who are sympathetic to both sides.

Since she believes it important for the church to stay connected with the Anglican Communion, she says she was relieved the convention did nothing to further anger church leaders in other countries.

The Rev. Jo-Anne Drake, who in 1978 became the first woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest in Rhode Island and is now rector of the Church of the Redeemer on the East Side of Providence, says any split in the Anglican Church would be painful.

"I chose to be an Episcopalian because of these allegiances and associations," she says. "Those structures are vital to our unity. But unity at any price?

"No, you cannot subvert the Gospel for the sake of unity. I'll be honest. I see the concern and pain on both sides. I don't jump up and down hoping that one side will win and the other loses. I pray for reconciliation. But I would say that if the church were going to err, I would rather it err on the side of justice."

While the Rev. Drake and other clergy were "pleasantly surprised" and heartened by the convention's decision to elect the church's first-ever female presiding bishop, the Rev. John Alexander, rector of the East Side's St. Stephen's Church, says the election raises concerns for him.

"For those who question the ordination of women, it raises serious questions because the presiding bishop consecrates all the others who are elected bishops," he says. "It introduces an element of doubt that wasn't there before."

Father Alexander says it's far too early to speak of leaving the Episcopal Church, and he would definitely not go the route of St. Andrew and St. Philip Church (now the Church of the Apostles) in Coventry, which has broken from the diocese and is now under the jurisdiction of a bishop from Kenya.

"We are going to see what happens and what options come on the table. Whatever the parish does will be by dialogue and consensus. As for myself, I have no intention of exercising my priestly ministry in a context that requires me to accept less than full communion with the See of Canterbury."

The Rev. Neal Goldsborough, rector of St. John's in Barrington, says he thought the General Convention -- whose decision to elect a female presiding bishop left him very proud -- did exactly what anyone could have hoped.

Through their votes at Convention, deputies showed, he says, that they were not going to denigrate the work and contributions of gays and lesbians in the church but they also demonstrated that they wanted to be part of the wider communion.

It was a thoroughly Anglican stance, he says, which has a great deal of support among other churches in the Anglican communion including Scotland, Wales, Japan, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.

And having gone to seminary with Archbishop Peter Akinola, the conservative primate of Nigeria, Father Goldsborough says he believes that those conservative parishes that have spoken so freely about quitting their dioceses and placing themselves under the jurisdiction of an African bishop may want to consider the implications of such a move.

"Do Americans really want to be under the control of an autocratic sub-Saharan African bishop?" the priest asks. "I think not. One of the reasons the Episcopal Church was formed two centuries ago was that Americans didn't want to be under the control of a bishop in England."

rdujardi@projo.com / (401) 277-7384

Ga. companies score with pro-gay policies

Ga. companies score with pro-gay policies: Gender identity policies ‘new trend’ among businesses

Kolbe sees no chance to push immigration rights

Kolbe sees no chance to push immigration rights - Gay GOP congressman is in bi-national relationship

Editorial: The face of AIDS in rural America

Editorial: The face of AIDS in rural America: Harold Scott showed true courage by sharing his story of having AIDS in a little Tennessee town

Fort Bend County gay murder case remains open

Sheriff’s officials in Fort Bend County now know the name of a second suspect wanted in the murder of a gay man, but have not yet tracked him down. See Fort Bend County gay murder case remains open
Houstonvoice.com, TX -

Episcopal Church's new head is ready

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, recently elected leader of the Episcopal Church, is back in Nevada, adjusting to her new role. She isn't the only one.

Her selection — as a woman, a second-career priest (her first was in Seattle at the National Marine Fisheries Service), a bishop from a Western diocese and a supporter of gay ordinations — has shaken a church that was already painfully aware of the cracks in its global communion.

Five years ago, Jefferts Schori, 52, left Corvallis, Ore., where she had been assistant rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, to become the bishop of Nevada. Now, she is preparing to leave that diocese to become presiding bishop of the 2.2 million members of the U.S. church.

The Episcopal Church is one of 38 provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion. In 2004, conservative leaders of the communion issued the Windsor Report, which proposed that the Episcopal Church place a moratorium on the ordination of openly gay bishops and stop blessing same-sex unions.

As the church's General Convention ended last month in Columbus, Ohio, delegates approved a resolution that fell short of the Windsor Report's demands. The House of Deputies, at Jefferts Schori's urging, agreed to "exercise restraint" in electing bishops "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has proposed a two-tiered solution that would divide the Anglican provinces between "constituent churches" with decision-making privileges and "churches in association" without them.

Jefferts Schori recently spoke about her shift from science to the sacred and the challenges she will face when she takes office in November:

For Q&A see Episcopal Church's new head is ready Seattle Times

Move to end provocation defense for gay murders

Gay bashers who kill men who hit on them sexually will lose their defense of provocation if the Law Commission and Labor MP Tim Barnett have their way. See Move to end provocation defense for gay murders
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand 

Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits.

Gays at Globe told to marry or lose benefits @ Boston Herald
By Jesse Noyes

 

Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefits for gay employees’ domestic partners are being discontinued. Gay couples who want to keep their benefits must marry by Jan. 1.

A memo sent to the Globe’s Boston Newspaper Guild members, and obtained by the Herald, states that Massachusetts gay Guild employees can extend their benefits to their partners only if they marry.

An employee who currently covers a same-sex domestic partner as a dependent will have to marry his or her partner by Jan. 1 for the employee benefits coverage to continue at the employee rates,” the memo states.

The policy change at the Globe, which devotes extensive coverage to gay issues, opens a new can of worms in the Bay State as employers rethink their domestic partner benefits in the wake of the legalization of gay marriage in 2004.

Benefits for domestic partners were originally offered to gay employees because they couldn’t legally marry, said Ilene Robinson Sunshine, a lawyer at Sullivan & Worcester.

    Now that gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts companies that offer benefits to gay employees’ partners risk hearing cries of discrimination from unmarried straight couples.

Such concerns played a role in the policy change at the Globe, said Steve Behenna, the newspaper’s compensation and benefits director.

The Globe does not extend benefits to live-in partners of its heterosexual employees. Like many companies, it offered benefits to partners of gay employees because marriage was not an option for them. Now that gay marriage is an option in Massachusetts, Behenna said the paper could be more susceptible to claims of discrimination.Paul Holtzman, an attorney specializing in employment law at Krokidas & Bluestein, said you can expect more local companies to change their policies.

 “There is a trend towards doing what the Globe did,” he said. “A number of employers have taken the position that now that same-sex marriage is an option there is no longer a need to offer domestic partner benefits.”

As companies drop domestic partner benefits, gays who work in Boston but live in another state could be left in the lurch since they can’t legally marry, said Kevin Batt, an attorney who has handled gay marriage litigation.

Domestic partner benefits will continue for Globe employees who live in states where gay marriage is not recognized, Behenna said.

Despite national discord, San Luis Obispo Episcopalians stand united

Despite national discord, local Episcopalians united

San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA 

Amid controversy over the appointment of a female bishop who pushes for the inclusion of gays, county Episcopalians say they’re committed to acceptance

By Sarah Arnquist
sarnquist@thetribunenews.com

Photos

POLL: Do you agree with the choice of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new leader of the Episcopal Church?

Local Episcopalians are paying close attention to the fault line forming nationally around homosexuality within the church, but they say their congregations remain united in their mission to welcome all people.

Parishioners are talking about the decision of six dioceses to break away from the Episcopal Church of the United States because they could not support the ordaining of openly gay bishops and ceremonies for same-sex unions, said the Rev. Caroline Hall of St. Benedict's Episcopal Church in Los Osos.

"When something like this happens, it's a good time to tell people what the local Episcopal Church stands for," Hall said, "and we are, for the most part, a progressive and welcoming church."

St. Benedict's has a strong tradition of welcoming people from all backgrounds, said Hall, 51, who is openly gay and became the rector earlier this year.

"Certainly in this area," she said, "the Episcopal Church has become a place where gay people know they can be accepted."

Bob Pelfry said St. Benedict's inclusive interpretation of the gospel brought him to that church. The congregation is paying close attention to what's happening around it but is staying focused on its own mission, he said.

"Our focus at St. Benedict's has mostly been to affirm who we are," Pelfry said, "and our congregation right now is not split over these issues."

The Episcopal Church of the United States held its triennial General Convention in June and elected a new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who advocates for full inclusion of gay people and permits gay union ceremonies at her diocese in Nevada.

The convention passed a resolution urging restraint in electing gay bishops. But just after the vote, the Diocese of Newark nominated an openly gay priest for its bishop.

The American Episcopal Church is one of 77 members of the worldwide Anglican Community, the world's third-largest body of churches.

Days after the conference, the archbishop of Canterbury, who oversees the Anglican Community, wrote a letter that suggested the Episcopal Church in the United States either renounce gay bishops and same-sex unions or give up full membership in the Communion.

Following that letter, six American dioceses — including the San Joaquin Diocese in the Central Valley — announced their withdrawal from the U.S. Episcopal Church.

San Luis Obispo County's seven Episcopal churches are part of the El Camino Real diocese, based in Monterey.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in San Luis Obispo has fostered open discussions and forums about the church and homosexuality since 2003, when the Episcopalian delegation first elected an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, said the Rev. Barry Turner. People are tired of talking about it, but the issue won't go away, he said.

Episcopal tradition teaches that all people are welcomed and accepted by Christ and that the issue of homosexuality is peripheral to the church's overall mission, Turner said, the rector of St. Stephen's. Because of that, he added, it doesn't make sense for individual dioceses or parishes to split from the church.

"The church should be able to hold together with people of different views," Turner said.

The congregation at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atascadero is talking about the current controversy but has no conflict within itself, said church leader Carol Bruns.

"I'm thrilled that we have a woman bishop," Bruns said. "I think that really moves us into the 21st century."

St. Luke's has a solid tradition of welcoming gays and lesbians into its congregation, she said.

"Every time we do the Eucharist, the priest says, ‘This is God's table and all are welcome here,' and that pretty much sums up how we feel here."

 

Gay Marriage Fight Crosses the Hudson

Now that New York's highest court declined to legalize gay marriage last week, where's the next battleground?

Next door, in New Jersey. Gay rights advocates are storing hopes in that state's Supreme Court, which will most likely rule on the issue sometime this summer; a similar case is also pending in Washington State.

Lawyers on both sides of the issue said New Jersey might legalize gay marriage when New York did not.

"As a general matter, the court has maintained an expansive view of its Constitution," said Lawrence S. Lustberg, who argued before the New Jersey court in February in favor of gay marriage. "The focus has long been on safeguarding rights."

The New Jersey court usually applies a more flexible standard in discrimination cases than the New York court. And in arguments, the New Jersey judges did not dwell on child-rearing or the needs of parents, central issues in the New York decision.

Even if the court legalizes same-sex marriage, it might not reverberate nationally. "I'm not sure New Jersey will matter much in the nationwide contest over gay marriage, simply because of the reputation of the New Jersey Supreme Court," said Monte Stewart, president of the Marriage Law Foundation, which opposes gay marriage.

See Gay Marriage Fight Crosses the Hudson

New York Times -

Houston athletes are off to Gay Games in Chicago

The plane tickets are purchased. The hotel rooms are booked, and last-minute conditioning is underway. On June 8, a private pizza party to pick up team jerseys, and to hang out one last time before heading north to Illinois will be held.

Next weekend, Team Houston is going to Chicago for the Gay Games.

Held every four years, the first Gay Games took place in San Francisco in 1982, bringing together 1,350 participants in 11 sports. The games have increased in size since then: 2006 brings together 12,000 registered athletes from over 70 countries competing in 32 sports.

 See Houston athletes are off to Gay Games in Chicago
Houstonvoice.com, TX 

Separation of church and church

Separation of church and church

Tracy Press, CA 

The question of whether the church should allow gay clergy is driving a wedge between the conservative Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and its more-permissive coastal cousins in places such as San Francisco.

The diocese has 50 churches stretching from Lodi to Bakersfield. Along with three other conservative Episcopal dioceses in Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina that are strongly opposed to homosexuality, the San Joaquin diocese is asking for separate leadership from its more liberal U.S. counterparts.

The disagreement threatens to crack the 77-million-strong global Anglican Communion, which includes America’s Episcopal churches and others from around the world.

“We believe gay clergy is spoken against in the Holy Scripture,” said Father Stan Collins of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Tracy. Liberal Episcopal churches, he said, “say that scripture must be interpreted to meet the age.”

And that’s a philosophy Episcopal conservatives insist is not biblical, Collins said.

Some see the matter differently.

“That’s the same thing they said about Galileo,” said Sean McConnell, communications officer with the 82-church Diocese of California in San Francisco.

He thinks the San Joaquin diocese is using the issue to split from the larger church, much as the diocese used civil rights in the 1960s and women’s rights in the 1970s to threaten a split.

“They’ve been saying they were leaving for about 30 years,” McConnell said.

But he thinks diocesan leadership is serious this time.

McConnell said the “spirit” of scripture is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. The rest, he said, should be open to interpretation.

But the San Joaquin diocese isn’t budging. Representatives from member churches, called a standing committee, voted to back Bishop John-David Schofield’s anti-homosexual stance.

“This diocese basically stands on the premise right now that gay clergy should not practice,” Collins said.

“What’s happening in San Joaquin is that they’re saying they no longer have to abide by the cannons of the church,” McConnell said.

The infighting about gay clergy started in 2003, when openly gay bishop Canon V. Gene Robinson was chosen bishop of New Hampshire. It sent a shiver down the collective spine Anglican Communion, the U.S. branch of which is known as the Episcopal Church.

Last month, homosexuality was the hot topic at the General Convention of Anglicans in Columbus, Ohio, where a group that represented at least six conservative dioceses, including the San Joaquin diocese, found themselves outnumbered and defended their position.

But the final straw for conservatives came June 28, the same day the Episcopal Diocese of Newark nominated a gay priest as one of four men to be considered for bishop. The dioceses of San Joaquin, Pittsburg, South Carolina and Fort Worth, Texas, appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury — the church’s worldwide spiritual leader — to be freed from oversight by the presiding bishop of the American church. They said they wanted to answer to a different leader in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Only time will tell where it leads. But the philosophical schism has existed for years. For example, the Episcopal Church in San Francisco has blessed gay unions for 27 years, while the Diocese of San Joaquin still refuses to ordain women — for which both sides remain unapologetic.

“We have the largest number of ordained women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (people) in the country,” McConnell boasted.

Collins said the conservative appeal is not a true split, but a way the group and others can make a “statement” that they oppose gay clergy.

McConnell thinks the argument is an example of the vitality of the Episcopal Church.

“I’m not a doom-and-gloom guy,” he said. “The argument is a sign of the incredible strength and flexibility of the church, which might be considered a very liberal theory. But I think God is bigger than the scripture, the people and the church altogether.”

• To reach reporter Phil Hayworth, call 830-4221 or e-mail phayworth@tracypress.com.

Gay rights activist rejects Salvation Army statement of regret in New Zealand

A gay rights activist says the Salvation Army still hasn't come to grips with the damage it caused during the Homosexual Law Reform campaign.

This weekend is the 20th anniversary of the legislation.

The Salvation Army has issued a statement of regret saying it understands its opposition to the bill was deeply hurtful.

But activist Bill Logan says the statement is too light and too easy.

He says the Salvation Army played a leading part in a homophobic campaign, but it still doesn't understand the damage it did.

Mr Logan says the suicide rate went up during that period, but the Salvation Army does not realise that its actions claimed lives.

 See Gay rights activist rejects Salvation Army statement of regret Radio New Zealand

Jewish gay rights leader tells extremists: "our gentle innocent ... PinkNews.co.uk

A Jewish gay rights leader says that he will be ignoring threats from the religious communities within Israel to approach Temple Mount during the WorldPride march in Jerusalem next month.

Charles Merrill, 72, was reacting to a statement by Arab member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), Ibrahim Sarsur, who said: “ If gays will dare approach the Temple Mount during the parade, they will do so over our dead bodies.”

Mr Merrill, a cousin of the Merrill Lynch co-founder said: “I will be approaching the Temple Mount out of love and forgiveness to those who hate us. If the three major religions in the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) want us stoned to death as it dictates in their ancient scriptures, then our gentle innocent blood will be on their hands.

“Gays are the meek in society and love all of humanity." See Jewish gay rights leader tells extremists: “our gentle innocent ... PinkNews.co.uk

Synod affirms women bishops; debate draws mixed reactions

Synod affirms women bishops; debate draws mixed reactions

By Matthew Davies

[ENS, York, England] Ending centuries of tradition, the Church of England voted to welcome and affirm "the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church" after a two-hour debate July 8 during the Church's General Synod, meeting at York University, England.

The motion was carried after a vote by houses resulted in bishops voting 31 in favor and 9 against, clergy voting 134 in favor and 42 against, and laity voting 123 in favor and 68 against.

The motion affirms only the principle of women bishops, but in order to change the Church's canons so that women can legally be appointed to the episcopate, a two-thirds majority in each house would be required. Further debate on the issue is scheduled for July 10, when a motion that addresses the process of ordaining women to the episcopate will be presented.

The full text of the motion, moved by the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, follows:

"That this Synod welcome and affirm the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church as the Church of England has received it and would be a proper development in proclaiming afresh in this generation the grace and truth of Christ."

Synod voted last year to remove the legal obstacles that prevent women from becoming bishops over the coming years, the first legislative step in the process.

The February 2006 meeting of General Synod received and debated two reports on Women in the Episcopate and welcomed the assessments made of the options for removing those obstacles.

During an open debate before the July 8 vote, several Synod members raised concerns about the impact such a motion could have on ecumenical relations, especially in light of recent comments from Roman Catholic Cardinal Walter Kasper at the June House of Bishops meeting when he urged the Church of England not to approve women bishops because it "would immediately impact on the question of the unity of the Church and with it the goal of ecumenical dialogue."

The full text of Kasper's address can be found here.

The Rev. Jonathan Baker from the Diocese of Oxford spoke in opposition of the motion because "Cardinal Kasper is calling us to continue on the path to full visible unity," he said. "It is only the opinion of a majority of bishops to proceed and not an intra-Anglican thing. Our Roman Catholic friends have told us not to proceed ... because it calls into question what we as Anglicans have consciously said about ourselves and how others regard us."

Although a majority of Synod members approved the motion, "our bishops are divided on this matter," Baker noted, "and it will affect the Communion of the church at every level."

Also from the Diocese of Oxford, the Rev. Moira Astin said that the process of double listening -- to God and society -- is critical, adding that the perception of the Church of England with some of her secular friends is "out of sync."

"These repeated debates where we seem to go round and round and not go forward adds to that perception," she said. "They can't understand an institution that doesn't value the leadership gifts of women ... We have accepted that there is not a problem with women being priests, so it seems odd to me that we would not accept women leadership in the episcopate as well."

The Rev. Thomas Seville of House of the Resurrection religious community in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, claimed that there should have been more time to discuss the Rochester Report -- a survey of the theological issues concerning women bishops.

"How can a church which goes back on its ecumenical relations continue to be trusted to speak the truth?" he said. "We will be perceived as untrustworthy."

Dr. Paula Gooder of the Diocese of Birmingham explained that St. Paul was dealing with very similar issues as the Church today -- the question of unity. "All Paul was trying to do was to find a way for the church to be unified; what he was not saying was that we all need to agree," she said. "We must try to find a way to be this glorious body that we are called to be, and that does not mean we have to agree with one another."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, offered clarification for why the issue of women bishops is different to women priests. "There is a theory that the bishop is the animator of mission and therefore the ordination of women as bishops becomes a slightly different question as to the ordination of women of priests," he said.

Mentioning the ecumenical implications, Williams said that the documents produced by the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) provide a theology that the church must return to and make sense of. "We have a remarkably rich reflection on ordination on which we have agreed," he said. "But one ARCIC document implies that future questions about the ordination of women did not belong to the essence of the nature of ministry between our two churches. Another document recognized consensus on the ordination of women."

Williams said he hopes the two churches will be able to return to their "agreed and received deposit of the vision of ordained ministry. It will still be a deposit that enables us to keep talking," he said.

Bishop N. T. Wright of Durham, who with Bishop David Stancliffe of Salisbury has produced a document responding to Cardinal Kasper, conveyed his relief that Synod was now having the beginning of a theological debate on the issue because the opportunity has not arisen since the publication of the Rochester Report. "Theological debate is vital for the integrity of the church," he said. "To do things in an Anglican way makes us authentic Anglicans, not untrustworthy."

Upholding the importance of studying Scripture in the debate, Wright said that Mary Magdalene was the first person entrusted by Jesus to tell the Good News. "The Anglican tradition needs to go back to scripture and read it afresh with respectful engagement," he said.

Bishop Peter Forster of Chester spoke against the motion also because of the ecumenical impact and that not enough debate has yet taken place.

"We seem to be going round in circles," he said. "We don't want to produce an incoherent doctrine of the church with a divided episcopate. In our increasingly global world our relationship to the Anglican Communion will be of great importance. And we have not yet engaged in women's ministry as is necessary. To pass the motion would be premature and prejudice the debate that is just beginning."

The Rev. Canon Ann Stevens of the Diocese of Southwark said the big question is really about what God might be saying. "Then we need to let our understanding of that inform the practical details later," she said. "God has been sending the Holy Spirit on women as on men right from the beginning ... The gift of leadership is there; let's allow the Holy Spirit to express it."

John Ward, a lay member from the Diocese of London, reminded Synod of Jesus' commandment to "love you neighbor as yourself."

"Love for me is unconditional love and respect for someone for whom and what they are," he said. "It's a no-brainer to restrict women's ordination. It is a fundamental failure to love that woman for who she is, and that includes her gender ... If this motion is passed, the talking and rebuilding of the trust that has been lost over the last 15 years starts now."

Sister Ann Williams from the Diocese of Durham said that she cannot recognize women's sacramental ministry because "our Lord chose twelve men to be with him -- he did not include the women. I see that as a very strong guide as to the way we move forward."

 

Describing women in the episcopate as one step too far, Sister Williams said that she also would not be able to accept priests who have been ordained by a woman whose orders she does not recognize.

Williams argued against Wright's claim that Mary Magdalene was the first apostle. "She was not, she was the first evangelist," she said. "She was the first to go forward with the news of the resurrection and that is how I stand here. I do not need to be ordained to do that. I ask you to resist this because it will take us one step too far."

Two amendments, one asking for the words "welcome and affirm" to be replaced with "note," and another requesting additional text that notes "the possible ecumenical implications," failed after further debate.

Immediately before the vote, Sentamu reminded Synod members that they don't have to agree on everything. "Unity is not about us agreeing on every detail but how through baptism we are bonded in Jesus Christ," he said.

Thirty years ago, the Episcopal Church's General Convention voted to admit women into the priesthood and the episcopate. Fourteen of the 38 Anglican provinces currently make provisions for women in the episcopate. At present, there are 13 active and retired women bishops and bishops-elect in the Episcopal Church and three in the Anglican Church of Canada. The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, Polynesia and New Zealand, has one retired woman bishop.

Anniversary time to reflect on gay movement

Twenty years on, those who spearheaded the nation's gay rights movement are reflecting on the bitter campaign to legalise sex between men.

Today marks two decades since the Homosexual Law Reform Act was narrowly passed.

It came after a 16-month struggle between fundamentalist Christians and gay rights campaigners, and a fierce public debate.

Fran Wilde was the Labour MP who introduced the bill.

She says the march to Parliament by groups opposed to the law reform was like New Zealand's own version of the Nuremberg Rally.

An 800,000-signature petition was reported to Parliament without recommendation, after it was found many signatures were fake or obtained under duress.

 See Anniversary time to reflect on gay movement
Newstalk ZB, New Zealand

Spitzer pledges to back gay marriage Buffalo News

ALBANY - Eliot Spitzer, the front-running Democratic gubernatorial candidate, will propose, draft and sign a bill legalizing gay marriage if he is elected in November.

"He plans to make it a priority if elected," Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said Friday.

The two other candidates oppose gay marriage.

"If elected governor, I will work to ensure that marriage remains a relationship between a man and a woman," said Republican and Conservative candidate John Faso.

"I do not support gay marriage," said Democratic challenger Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County executive who hopes to force a September primary.

Their comments followed Thursday's ruling by the Court of Appeals - the state's top court - that the state law limiting marriage to a man and a woman was constitutional. The court said it was up to lawmakers to change the law.

The State Legislature has been reluctant to deal with the issue. Several bills that would have allowed gays to marry have failed to make it out of committee in either house in recent years.

Republicans in the Senate, with a 35-27 majority, may be reluctant to even consider the issue in 2007, said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at New Paltz State College.

"It's not likely to happen in my judgment," Benjamin said, noting that 2007 is an off year for elections.

"Republicans only respond outside their natural constituency if they feel threatened. This is a spark issue in their constituency," he said, and without elections they are less likely to try to broaden their appeal with a concession to supporters of gay marriage.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, doesn't support gay marriage.

Still, gay rights groups point out that recently enacted laws against hate crimes and discrimination against gays were once opposed by Republican senators who later changed their minds.

"It's going to be a tough battle. However, the [gay] community has made enormous progress, and I've seen enormous progress since I've been in the Legislature," said state Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, who is gay.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, hasn't commented on his position or the court's ruling.

 More of Spitzer pledges to back gay marriage Buffalo News

Gay high school to open doors to all 7Online.com

(New York-AP, July 7, 2006) - The city and a conservative legal group have settled a lawsuit in which the city was accused of violating laws against segregation by establishing a public high school for gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The city and a group calling itself the Liberty Counsel reached the settlement a week ago, agreeing that the Harvey Milk High School was open to students of any sexual orientation, said Kate O'Brien Ahlers of the city's Law Department.

"The city is pleased that the litigation involving Harvey Milk High School has been resolved," city lawyer Emily Sweet said in a statement released by Ahlers.

"Harvey Milk High School has always been open to all students and the terms of the stipulation are designed to ensure that all Department of Education staff and students are aware of the nondiscrimination policy," the statement said.

The Liberty Counsel and Democratic State Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx filed the lawsuit in August 2003 after the city announced a month earlier that the high school would be a publicly funded school for "gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning" youth.

The Liberty Counsel's lawsuit challenged the legality of funding a "gay" high school with tax dollars. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, the group said keeping heterosexual students out of the school would violate laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The school was an expansion of a two-room program that began in 1984 and formerly had been managed and financed by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a gay-rights youth advocacy group.

The Liberty Counsel released a statement Wednesday saying that the settlement requires school officials to acknowledge in materials that they cannot discriminate against straight students and to make sure staffers follow nondiscrimination rules.

Neither Diaz nor a spokesman for Liberty Counsel could be reached for comment.

See Gay high school to open doors to all 7Online.com

Free Media training for gay families

The state gay rights advocacy group Equality Texas has partnered with the national Family Pride Coalition and their OUTSpoken Families program to kick off the “Our Stories” educational training sessions, scheduled to make a stop in Houston July 9.

Equality Texas is inviting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents and their allies across the state to participate in a speaker’s bureau training session.

The Houston Equal Rights Alliance, a local gay rights group, has joined in the effort, and is supporting outreach efforts throughout the city as part of its ongoing advocacy campaign for gay Houstonians.

Officials believe the training sessions will give gay parents the tools necessary to become effective and knowledgeable speakers and advocates for family equality. They believe this will help the cause of gay families, since participants in the training sessions will be better able to lobby government officials for change. See Free training for gay families
Houstonvoice.com, TX -

+Marc Andrus on Communion and the Particular

California Bishop-Elect +Marc Andrus on Communion and the Particular

Following the Episcopal Church's General Convention, many of us in the Diocese of California disagreed strongly with the way in which some arguments about the relationship between our Province and the rest of the Anglican Communion were framed: either affirm justice for LGBT people and "walk apart" or continue to work to address global human suffering by remaining in the Anglican Communion. Surely these are not mutually exclusive, and so a group from our diocese is working to develop specific global mission initiatives that hold both commitments together. Our new bishop, +Marc Andrus, has written the following piece in response to our efforts, which I believe are worth sharing more widely.

Communion and the Particular

One of the questions that were asked over and over in the walkabouts in the Diocese of California had to do with the tension between inclusion at the local level, and the coherence of the Communion. As you know, my answer was that we need the Communion in order to address, from the stance of people of faith, challenges that have global dimensions, e.g. the environmental crisis. It is my belief that we do not need, though, to let go of our commitment to justice and being swept up in Christ’s great project of embrace at the local level in order to stay part of the same project at the level of the world. If our commitment is to the relief of global human suffering, locally and globally enacted, we will have a communion. When we baptize and confirm it is into the Body of Christ, not into the Episcopal Church. The remembering of this may help us recognize a communion that may be given to us by our common commitment to the reconciling work of Christ in the world; that is, those who are also engaged in this ministry, or who recognize in it the traits of Christ’s ministry, will recognize us as brothers and sisters. We will have surprises in this, and there will be tears of repentance as all see what could have been but for our self-imposed barriers, and laughter at the gift of shared life.

In the closed discussion of consents to the election of candidates to the episcopate, on the day before we saw Resolution B033, there was much talk of sacrifice. What, numbers of bishops asked, must we sacrifice in order to preserve the Communion. My contribution to this discussion was to share what I told the California deputation after B033 passed: for over a year I have been meditating on Jesus’ words, “Go and learn what it means, ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice.’” More and more I believe that Jesus was invoking two whole worlds of thought and resultant action. One derives from a false idea that there is not enough, that we must guard what we need and want, and that this guarding includes, paradoxically, giving up something proximate in order to preserve that which is most valuable.

The other life-world, that of compassion, is the world of abundance. In the phrase of mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme, the source of this abundance is the all-nourishing abyss. The face of Christ may be understood as the doorway into this abundance for us, making particular, familiar and accessible that which is universal and beyond description in language.

It is my belief that the new Christian era involves a call to live in awareness of the all-nourishing abyss, the mediating face of Christ, and the abundance of compassion that flows into life through this channel. This is not really a new message, except in its reference to the whole world.

I was an elementary school student when I first saw the achingly beautiful photographs of the Earth as seen from space, from the Apollo spacecrafts. My consciousness has been shaped by the presence of these images, but it is the generations born after me, my daughters and their cohorts, in whom the new consciousness of the whole is blossoming as naturally as their sexual orientations, or their right or left-handedness. So, it is to this new consciousness that our Gospel must be proclaimed.

The response to the need to be in communion and to hold onto our local commitment to justice and inclusion by this group of California Episcopalians is really brilliant. It confirms Sheila’s and my hopes yet again for ministry among you as your bishop, and fans the fires of the imagination for ministry. Let me offer a beginning dream that might contribute to your efforts.

One of my priorities in beginning my episcopacy with you will be the establishing of vital companion diocese relationships. It is my belief that it would be best if we were in two relationships at the same time, forming a kind of microcosm of the Communion (or the round dance of the Trinity!). I understand the Diocese of Indianapolis has done this. I suggested it in Alabama, but for various reasons the usual dyadic relationship has just been initiated there (and there is much good in this beginning, to be sure). I would think that we might look to Central and South America for one diocesan companion, and to Asia for another.

The relevance of this idea to your great work in progress is that I would hope that the microfinance of projects by marginalized LGBT people could be undertaken as completely normal ministry in the circling flow of love between the Diocese of California and its potential companion dioceses. By normal I don’t mean at all submerged, or hidden, but a recognized part of such mutual ministry.

The potential of this ministry being undertaken in a coordinated, diocese-wide way is that we in California not only gain a broad and in-depth understanding of these Communion partners, but, I think, we will also gain knowledge of ourselves as a whole. So, while I honor and encourage the already existing relationships between parishes in the Diocese of California and parishes elsewhere in the Communion, I hope we could focus considerable energy on the identification and encouragement of these new companion relationships, within which your efforts would, I trust, flourish.

Peace,

+Marc

 

Equality advocates look to California

New York activists staged rallies across the state on Thursday night as the community digested the discouraging 4-2 high court ruling upholding the state's biased marriage laws.

Throughout the day, LGBT groups and allies condemned the lightly reasoned majority decision, both for its end result and for its reliance on prejudiced notions of gay families.

And they looked to California, where equality advocates will argue on Monday for same-sex marriage before a state appellate court in San Francisco.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Matt Foreman called Thursday's decision "insulting", "tortured", and "intellectually strained".

The Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese characterised the majority analysis as "archaic" ,"rooted in ignorance and completely contradicted by the facts of today".

The ACLU said the high court "ignored the advice of the leading child health and welfare organizations as well as decades of social science research".

In San Francisco, the National Center for Lesbian Rights wrote that the courts in California are "unlikely" to follow New York's lead.

On Monday, NCLR legal director Shannon Minter will argue the case for same-sex marriage before a three-judge panel of the San Francisco area appellate court.

The court is expected to spend six hours listening to debate in a coordinated group of six marriage cases, led by the NCLR's Woo v Lockyer.

As Minter pointed out Thursday, California is well ahead of New York in terms of its civil rights policies, and now offers a domestic partner program that carries virtually all of the rights of marriage in the state.

Unlike in New York, the state's attorneys are not advancing specifically anti-gay arguments.

Instead, they are trying to insist that California already treats both gay and straight couples equally, and that retaining the historical definition of marriage is a harmless bow to tradition.

As they challenge the very concept of a separate-but-equal institution, Minter and his colleagues will be able to remind the court of what Minter called "a proud legacy of standing up for personal dignity and individual freedom".

In 1948, the California Supreme Court was the first state tribunal to rule that bans on mixed race marriages were unconstitutional, taking that unpopular stand fully 20 years before the US Supreme Court struck miscegenation laws throughout the country.

Long before the California cases make their way through the appellate court and into the California Supreme Court, marriage rulings will be handed down by two other top courts.

In Washington, marriage advocates have been waiting over 16 months for a decision in two combined marriage cases that were argued before the justices in March 2005.

By contrast, the New York Court of Appeals issued its ruling barely a month after oral arguments were conducted last May.

In New Jersey, oral arguments were held last February, and a decision is expected late this summer, perhaps in August. See Equality advocates look to California Gay.com UK

Standing ovation for Law Reform MP

A cheering, stamping and whistling standing ovation for Fran Wilde, and the first ever mayoral welcome for gays and lesbians to a formal civic occasion in their honour, marked the 20th Anniversary of Homosexual Law Reform in Auckland last night. See Standing ovation for Law Reform MP
Gay NZ, New Zealand 

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Gay marriage ruling should not be a surprise from cautious NY Court

Gay marriage ruling not a surprise

Elmira Star-Gazette, NY

Court moves cautiously as a rule, experts say.
By YANCEY ROY
Star-Gazette Albany Bureau
July 8, 2006

ALBANY -- Gay-marriage proponents might have been stunned that New York's top court ruled against them this week.

They shouldn't be.

After all, New York's Court of Appeals is exceptionally cautious when it comes to making policy. It often employs a coldly narrow review of the law, experts say. It's more and more willing to defer to the Legislature.

And throw in one factor that some were only willing to talk about privately: A judge who provided a key vote in denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is up for reappointment later this year.

Put them together and that's how you wind up with a decision in which perhaps the most liberal judge sides with the conservative ones in a 4-2 decision.

"This court moves glacially," said James Moore, a Rochester attorney who is a former Bar Association president and a former Court of Appeals candidate. "It was simply not realistic to think this court, given its current makeup, would be willing to jump off the cliff on this issue. People who say they were shocked by the decision just aren't facing reality."

The court ruled Thursday that the state's constitution provides no right to marriage for gays and lesbians, and that by limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples New York was not engaging in sex discrimination. Further, it said gay marriage was not a question for state courts but the state Legislature.

To have found otherwise might have been a bit out of character, analysts said. The court has ordered bold policy changes before, most recently in 2004 when it ruled the death-penalty law unconstitutional. But even with that issue, it took a handful of lawsuits over several years in which the court chipped away at technical flaws in the statute before it finally reached a decision that could have been made years earlier.

"It took them forever," Moore said.

But that's fitting with the court's bent. Even Chief Judge Judith Kaye often has said: "We try to make as narrow a decision as possible," Moore pointed out.

Case was a 'long shot'

"From the beginning, this case was a long shot," said Vincent Bonventre, an Albany Law School professor who has studied the court extensively. "This is not a particularly liberal, aggressive, activist, get-out-in-front-of-the-issues court. It's not in the vanguard of policy-making courts around the nation."

The court's composition is also a factor. Three of the judges who ruled against gay marriage -- all appointees of Gov. George Pataki -- are inclined to be deferential to the Legislature and governor, several analysts said. Robert S. Smith, Victoria Graffeo and Susan Read have to find a compelling reason -- a constitutional defect or persistent refusal to deal with a problem -- for the court to intervene. Put another way, a tie goes to the lawmakers.

Those three also have ties to the Pataki administration and state Republicans. Read was a former Pataki aide. Graffeo was a counsel to former Republican Attorney General Dennis Vacco. Smith was a substantial contributor to Pataki's gubernatorial campaigns.

Judge's vote questioned

Joining them was George Bundy Smith, appointed by former Gov. Mario Cuomo, a Democrat. The lone African-American on the bench, Bundy Smith has been described simultaneously as the most independent and the most liberal person on the court.

His term expires in September. (Court of Appeals judges get 14-year appointments, not lifetime such as U.S. Supreme Court justices.) Bundy Smith has reapplied. A coalition of former judges and prominent lawyers has written to Pataki urging Bundy Smith's reappointment. Pataki has never nominated a Democrat to the top court.

Some observers raised the reappointment only on an off-the-record basis. Others suggested that Bundy Smith might have been "reluctant to spit in the governor's face."

"I don't think this vote guarantees (Bundy Smith's) reappointment. But I think a vote the other way would have guaranteed no reappointment," said Stewart Sterk of the Cardoza Law School at Yeshiva University.

Gay-marriage proponents were counting on Bundy Smith's vote.

"By rights, we should have had him," said Sen. Tom Duane, D-Manhattan, the only openly gay New York state senator.

He noted that the seventh judge on the court, Albert Rosenblatt, recused himself from the case. Rosenblatt's daughter is a lawyer who has advocated for same-sex couples in California. Rosenblatt has been a swing vote on capital punishment and his presence could have changed the dynamics of the vote, Duane said.

"Things beyond our control interfered" in the outcome, he said. "Bundy Smith wanted to get reappointed and Rosenblatt recused himself."

But Bonventre, who has written several studies analyzing the judges' voting patterns, said it might be more complicated.

"George Bundy Smith is often times a question mark. He is so independent," Bonventre said. "He's not as easily understandable as the rest of them."

For example, he said that in a case that revolved around a university that barred a lesbian couple access to its married-housing dormitory, Bundy Smith wrote an opinion that suggested no constitutional right had been violated.

New retirement options for GLBT business owners

The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) has announced it is teaming up with Merrill Lynch and The Hartford’s retirement plans group to create various retirement opportunities for GLBT business owners, their employees and their families See New retirement options for GLBT business owners

Pap smears for men? Yep.

Would men be at higher risk of cancer as well? It turns out that the answer is yes - particularly on the delicate tissues of the anus and rectum. Sometimes these warts are visible, but often they are not. So how, pray tell, are we going to test for the presence of this virus, or early cancers? That's right, we're back to the Greeks; it's time for anal pap smears men. Look on the bright side; (1) it's just a tiny swab, (2) it's quick and easy, and (3) now you can tell your ex you finally had something smaller than him up your ass.

If you are a sexually active person of any gender, ask your health care provider about getting screened with a Pap. If they don't know what you are talking about, consider getting a new doctor. 

See  Pap smears for men? Yep.

Presbyterians torn over plan intended to resolve gay issue

Presbyterians torn over plan intended to resolve gay issue

Akron Beacon Journal, OH 

The Episcopal Church's split over homosexuality is getting worldwide attention, but a denomination of roughly equal numbers and stature in the United States -- the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- is similarly torn up by the issue.

And as with the Episcopalians, compromises have left both liberal and conservative activists unsatisfied.

The Presbyterian conflict entered a new phase when an assembly in Birmingham, Ala., in June approved a two-sided unity plan. For the conservatives, a church law remains in place that requires clergy and lay officers to limit sex to man-woman marriages -- in keeping with biblical teaching as it's been traditionally understood.

But liberals were granted new leeway for local congregations and regional presbyteries to sidestep that sexual law with particular nominees. So an openly gay minister or lay elder could take office if local Presbyterians hold the liberal position that the Bible is chiefly concerned with love and inclusiveness.

Now, both sides are spending the summer in strategy meetings, plotting the next steps.

The Rev. Michael Walker, executive director of the conservative Presbyterians for Renewal, said Monday that the ``decision to allow something as central as sexual morality to be a matter for local determination'' gutted Presbyterian principles.

Still, he urged fellow conservatives not to quit the denomination for now.

Walker spoke in North Carolina at Montreat Conference Center to 1,000 conservatives during the first of four conferences by groups that oppose the Birmingham plan.

The day that flock departed Montreat, about 260 Presbyterians arrived for a radically different ``Celebrating Common Ground'' rally, where supporters of the unity plan included presidents of nine seminaries and 16 moderators (titular heads of the denomination who are elected for limited terms).

One speaker, Barbara Wheeler of New York's Auburn Theological Seminary, thinks the Birmingham plan provides helpful ``space for the exercise of conscience'' and will ``wrest control of the church's agenda from a small number of groups that have a vested interest in keeping the church in combat mode.''

By Wheeler's estimate, two-thirds of active churchgoers still believe gay sex is sinful while a majority of clergy disagree. Moreover, activists on both sides are unwilling to relent.

Complete repeal of the gay clergy ban remains the long-term goal of groups like the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. Repeal requires approval from a majority of regional presbyteries and on the last attempt in 2002, 73 percent voted conservative.

Pope Decries Gay Marriage In Spain

Pope Benedict XVI hammered away at traditional family values Saturday during a quick visit to Spain, challenging a Socialist government that has angered the Vatican by instituting liberal reforms such as gay marriage and fast-track divorce.

Benedict will be in Valencia for about 26 hours to close a Vatican-organized gathering on family issues, and he wasted no time in defending the Vatican's vision of marriage as a union of man and woman.

"The family is a unique institution in God's plan, and the church cannot fail to proclaim and promote its fundamental importance," Benedict said on his arrival.

In a city festooned with flags and balloons bearing the yellow and white colors of the Vatican and brimming with pilgrims from around the world, the pontiff also prayed for 42 people killed in a Valencia subway derailment on Monday, a tragedy that added a tinge of sadness to his first visit here as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Even before arriving, the pope said on his plane that according to human nature, it is man and woman who are made for each other and give humanity a future. More of Pope Decries Gay Marriage In Spain
CBS News

MA ConCon marriage vote prospects 'fluid'

WITH SO MANY POSSIBLE SCENARIOS, INCLUDING NO ACTION, IT'S ANYONE'S GUESS WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE MASS. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ON JULY 12

One day after a religious coalition of clergy who support same-sex civil marriage charged Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley and local church leadership   read more...

Huckabee optimistic on reinstatemnt of gay parent ban

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said in Cedar Rapids today that he is optimistic his legislature will quickly reinstate a ban on same sex couples serving as foster parents.

He concedes that it would prevent Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter from serving in that role.

Huckabee was questioned about an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling. It struck down regulations banning placement of foster children with same sex couples. A law suit brought by four people argued the states ban was discriminatory. That view is shared by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist Minster, has said there is little doubt the legislature will reinstate the ban and that it will eventually be upheld by the courts.

Huckabee is not running for re-election in his home state because of term limits, and is testing the waters for a possible run at the Republican president nomination. Huckabee is campaigning for state legislative candidates during a swing through Iowa. See Huckabee optimistic on reinstatemnt of gay parent ban
WHO-TV, IA 

Sentamu calls for 'gracious magnanimity,' comments on Convention

By Matthew Davies

[ENS, York, England] The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, challenged the church to exercise "gracious magnanimity" July 8 during his presidential address at the Church of England's General Synod, meeting through July 11 at York University in England.

He also suggested that, although the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church clearly demonstrated that it is committed to mission, the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury, its response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report "fell short."

"Gracious magnanimity is the quality of the person who knows that regulations are not the last word and knows when not to apply the letter of the law," he said. "A church meeting may sit with the book of practice and procedure on the table in front of it and take every one of its decisions in strict accordance with the law of the Church; but there are times when the Christian treatment of some situation demands that the book of practice and procedure should not be regarded as the last word."

Sentamu, who attended General Convention for its entirety, noted that in spite of the hard work of the Special Committee on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, and numerous hearings, it failed to meet the precise request of the Windsor Report. "It left too much room  for doubt," he said, "and didn't stop the rumor and impression of doing 'our own thing.'"

The Special Committee "took the recommendations of the Windsor Report seriously," he continued. "But the Convention's legislative processes -- modeled on the House of Representatives and the Senate, and acting like them -- are not fit for the purpose of engendering good conversation ... And in the end they fell short."

Sentamu said he wished that Convention had heeded the words of the Rev. John Danforth, an Episcopal priest and former Senator and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who was the keynote speaker at the Presiding Bishop's June 15 forum: "Toward a Reconciled World."

During the forum, Danforth implored Convention that sexual orientation not be the centerpiece of the Episcopal Church.

"We have a higher calling, a more central message: that God was in Christ, was in the world, reconciling the world to Himself," Danforth said. "And he has entrusted us to the ministry of reconciliation ... Shift from the divisive issue of sexuality to [the] ministry of reconciliation."

Sentamu acknowledged, however, that Convention demonstrated its commitment to mission. "A Church that takes the Millennium Development Goals seriously," he said. "Poverty, world peace, HIV/AIDS, the living wage, young people, equality for all, are at the top of the agenda."

Proclaiming his belief that holy communication is part of Holy Communion, Sentamu said, "I am driven to exasperation when Christians don't disagree well and Christianly. The Christian, as St. Paul sees it, is the person who knows that there is something beyond justice.

"As far as justice goes, there isn't one of us who deserves anything other than the condemnation of God, but [St. Paul] goes far beyond justice," he continued. "[He] lays it down that the mark of a Christian in their personal relationships with their fellow human beings must be that they know when to insist on justice and when to remember that there is something beyond justice."

Toward the end of his address, Sentamu spoke about combating terrorism and offering a vision of wholeness in a "compelling and imaginative way" so that would-be suicide bombers would come to see this as their own vision.

"A vision that would turn them from outsiders, self-excluding and deluded despisers of others, into belongers; a vision which will help them to see that those they seek to destroy are their own brothers and sisters regardless of their religious affiliations," he said. "The way to do this is by drawing a large enough circle of love which includes them and us."

The full text of Sentamu's address can be found at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_76563_ENG_HTM.htm.

 

Clinton disappoints gay community over marriage

Presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton has disappointed the New York gay community by specifically leaving out any pledges on gay marriage in her call for equality for gay people.

Mrs Clinton, who is a New York Senator, was reacting to the judgement of the New York State Court of Appeals who ruled on Thursday that only a change in law would allow gay marriage and that banning gay marriage was therefore constitutional.

However, the wife of the former President, Bill Clinton, reiterated her support for civil unions for gay couples, similar to civil partnerships introduced in the UK in 2005.

"Senator Clinton supports full equality for people in committed relationships, including health insurance, life insurance and pensions, and hospital visitation and believes we have to keep working to reach those goals," a spokesperson for Mrs Clinton said yesterday.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force told the New York Times that Mrs Clinton's views would disappoint some in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trasngendered community). “All of these rights are important, but full equality means marriage equality, period.” See Clinton disappoints gay community over marriage
PinkNews.co.uk, UK

Gay plan divides Aussie's 3rd largest church

Gay plan divides church

The Age, Australia 

CONSERVATIVES in the Uniting Church were on the verge of departure yesterday, saying they were "disappointed, disillusioned and devastated", as Australia's third-largest church moved closer to confirming gay clergy.

The national assembly meeting in Brisbane will debate a new proposal that the church should not make any decision on the issue, which in effect confirms the controversial 2003 vote to allow gay clergy.

"It's a con job," said evangelical leader Steve Estherby. Dissenters will wait until the assembly ends on Tuesday to decide their response, "but they're not giving us any reason to stay", he said.

Mr Estherby last week told the assembly that it was making itself irrelevant and forfeiting its moral authority, and that people who trusted its processes would "just give up".

Outside, he said: "I have more respect for the extreme opposite end than the middle ground. At least they are doing what they believe, rather than opting for a quiet life."

The new proposal draws on three middle-ground proposals. It is based on recommendations from small-group discussions on Friday, when the 260 delegates broke into 25 groups. The assembly had heard eight proposals and 60 speakers in two hours.

Heather Watson, who chaired the group that developed the proposal, said there had been four responses: make no decision (13 of the 25 groups), make a decision, make a decision another time, and make only a pastoral statement. Some of the groups came to no decision.

The church has been divided since 2003 when the last assembly approved gay clergy, then apologised to the wider church for the manner in which it reached that decision.

Study finds GSAs make safer schools

LGBT youth advocates have long argued that gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are crucial to making schools safer for LGBT youth, and a study of Massachusetts schools published in last month’s issue of the journal Psychology in the Schools has proven them right. The study shows that there is a clear link between the presence of GSAs and decreases in suicide attempts and victimization rates among LGB youth (the study did not look at the impact on transgender youth). Child psychologist Carol Goodenow, one of the study’s authors, said that the data was culled from the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MYRBS) in 1999, a survey given to students across the state, and this is the first major study of GSAs using data from a representative sample of students at a statewide level.

“This is harder evidence, it’s more empirical evidence. It’s less subject to [criticisms that] ‘They just wanted to make the GSAs sound good,’” said Goodenow, who said past research into GSAs has relied on asking students their opinions about the impact of GSAs. In this study students were simply asked whether they themselves have ever attempted suicide or been victims of violence, and the authors used data from a 1998 survey of school principals to determine which schools had GSAs or other LGB support groups. Among LGB students rates for both suicide attempts and victimization were lower in schools that had GSAs.

Goodenow, who is also the director of Coordinated Health Education for the state Department of Education (DOE), cautioned that the study does not prove that GSAs make schools safer for LGB students. It is also possible that schools that are already focused on making schools safer are more likely to encourage the formation of GSAs.

 

More of  Study finds GSAs make safer schools

Gay, Underground, and Active in Iran

As lesbians and gays around the world prepare to commemorate the July 19 anniversary of last year's hanging of two teenage gay boys in the Iranian city of Mashad, Gay City News, with the aid of a Persian translator, spoke with an underground gay activist with the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) who lives in the Islamic Republic of Iran. See Gay, Underground, and Active in Iran @ Gay City News  

The 'Elite' May Help Defeat AIDS

The 'Elite' May Help Defeat AIDS: Infected but not ill, these "controllers" could hold the key to the cure.

HIV+ lecturer was really a fraud

A Pennsylvania lesbian who toured the country with her tragic story of being raped as a child and contracting AIDS has been arrested on fraud charges. Cassey Weierbach, 27, spent years lecturing at churches, youth groups, and medical conferences using what authorities say were fabricated lab records as evidence she had been diagnosed with AIDS.

Weierbach is accused of using the phony results to defraud Pennsylvania of $66,000 in medical benefits for the disease from 2003 onward. She also is accused of giving false information between 2004 and 2005 to at least three doctors, raising one physician's suspicions when she refused AIDS medication.

The state launched an investigation after Allentown's Morning Call newspaper ran a story in which local pastor Lois Randolph claimed Weierbach had defrauded her congregation. Weierbach fired back, telling the paper the pastor was out to make her life "living hell," asking rhetorically, "Do you hate me so much because I'm gay that you are willing to destroy my life?" See HIV+ lecturer was really a fraud

Superman's Universal Appeal

How else can a gay journalist begin a phone conversation with the openly gay composer and editor of Superman Returns without addressing the multi-leveled speculation that the new Superman is gay? See Superman’s Universal Appeal @ Gay City News

Women bishops approved in principle at Church of England's Synod

 [ENS] Ending centuries of tradition, a motion that welcomes and affirms "the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church" was carried by a majority vote by houses July 8 after a two-hour debate during the Church of England's General Synod, meeting at York University, England, July 7-11.

Bishops voted 31 in favor, and 9 against; clergy voted 134 in favor, and 42 against; laity voted 123 in favor, and 68 against.

The motion deals with the principle of women bishops. Further debate on a motion that addresses the process of ordaining women to the episcopate, is scheduled for July 10.

The full text of the motion, moved by the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, follows:

"That this Synod welcome and affirm the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church as the Church of England has received it and would be a proper development in proclaiming afresh in this generation the grace and truth of Christ."

A detailed ENS report will follow.

Gay Murder Convict Appeal Scotched

A gay man convicted of the 1981 murder of another gay man suffered a reversal of a federal court victory he had earlier won from U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor, when a 1st Circuit of Appeals panel unanimously ruled on June 27 that Posner had mischaracterized the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s review of the case.

Wayne Healy, who was 29 at the time, was convicted of the brutal stabbing murder of Richard F. Chalue, his former brother-in-law, in Chalue’s home. Healy, now serving a life sentence, claims that newly discovered evidence was withheld by the prosecution and could have changed the outcome of his trial. During the trial, he argues, prosecutors emphasized his sexual orientation and that of the victim, and they theorized that the murder occurred during sexual activity.

See Gay Murder Convict Appeal Scotched @ Gay City News

Man Charged in 2001 Garzon Murder

Nearly five years after the brutal, late-night murder of a 35-year-old costume designer and restaurant owner shook the gay and Latino communities in Jackson Heights, the New York Police Department made a startling announcement-a suspect had been arrested in the August 15, 2001 attack on Edgar Garzon, who lay in a coma for three weeks before succumbing to his injuries on September 4. See Man Charged in 2001 Garzon Murder @ Gay City News

Church's Code Keeps Jesus on the "Down Low"

Irene Monroe examines the myths behind The Da Vinci Code to illuminate the solid historical case for Jesus' 'Queerness' in the context of his culture's expectations -- and the prophetic and liberating word for the church today about the place of human sexuality in our life as God's created children. See Church's Code Keeps Jesus on the "Down Low" @ THE WITNESS

Reflections of a Friend and Advocate

Your first reaction after hanging up is to freeze. You sit there in silence, not knowing just what to feel, and then you begin to tremble as you suddenly realize that you are simply elated. You pick up the phone again and call his family just to make sure that they also have heard the news: A man has just been arraigned in their son's murder, a crime that has gone unresolved for five long, painful years. See Reflections of a Friend and Advocate BY ANDRES DUQUE @ Gay City News

Not gay, it's just super being heroic

A COUPLE of points: Firstly, Superman is not gay. Let's face it, if every bloke who got around wearing blue tights and suggestive knee-highs was accused of being gay we'd all be in a bit of trouble, am I right fellas? See Not gay, it's just super being heroic
Daily Telegraph, Australia -

'Panic' bill clears CA Senate panel

A state Senate committee last week approved a bill that would limit the use of so-called panic strategies by criminal defendants in murder cases.

The 4-2 approval by the Senate Public Safety Committee means the bill – AB1160 – now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee next month. The June 27 vote by the public safety committee was a victory for the bill's author, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View), who has been working on the matter for more than a year.

  See 'Panic' bill clears Senate panel Bay Area Reporter

Three Questions for the Archbishop of Canterbury

Here are three questions I would ask the Archbishop if I had the chance. I have asked each of these in other contexts, of other people. Since I don’t think the Archbishop will actually get these questions, answers with references to texts from anyone reading this blog would be helpful.

These questions concern matters of information and in the case of the second, unwelcomed silence. They concern transparency in governance and the Archbishop’s role in supervision. They concern who judges us, who provides the context, process and content of covenant discussions, and why the Archbishop does, or does not speak out on matters of concern.

The questions:
1. Who are the members of the “small working group?” that you speak of when you say, “I am grateful that the JSC of the Primates and ACC has already appointed a small working group to assist this process of reflection and to advise me on these matters (concerning the Episcopal Church and its responses to the askings of the Windsor Report etc) in the months leading up to the next Primates’ Meeting”?

As Archbishop you have every reason to seek advice and that advice can be as privately procured as you wish, of course. Given that this advice concerns The Episcopal Church and its decisions at General Convention, and the fact that the only American group publicly listed that you met with prior to Convention consisted mostly of conservative bishops, it would be helpful if we knew something of the make up of this group. Are there any members of The Episcopal Church in the group? Are there any progressives? Keeping the list secret may have its value, but secret advisory groups smack of star chamber.

(I have asked this question on the House of Bishops/ House of Deputies list… no definitive answer.)

2. Why have you said nothing publicly concerning the Church of Nigeria (Anglican)’s election of The Rev. Canon Martin Minns as bishop for CANA (The Convocation of Anglicans in North America)? Your “spokesperson” has, but you have not. Jonathan Jennings has said, “"This is not a welcome development, It's neither timely nor constructive. It further complicates an already complex situation.” So your spokesperson said something, but not you.

About the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Shori as Presiding Bishop you had this to say, “Her election will undoubtedly have an impact on the collegial life of the Anglican Primates; and it also brings into focus some continuing issues in several of our ecumenical dialogues.”

We have a personal cautionary word concerning the Presiding Bishop elect but not about Canon Minns, bishop elect of the Church of Nigeria. Your silence concerning things done in the Church of Nigeria is stunning.

3. Who is on the Covenant Drafting Group? This is spoken of in the paper “Towards an Anglican Covenant.” That paper recommends that the JSC “… establish a small covenant drafting group (CDG): perhaps ten members reflecting diversity in the Communion as to geography, culture and church tradition. JSC resolved that the Archbishop of Canterbury should appoint such a group in consultation with the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. Its function is to formulate a draft or a number of draft options accompanied by an explanatory text (to include the cases for and against such draft(s) and how the draft(s) would work in practice). In the meantime, it is intended that this paper should be used as the basis of an initial informal consultation, inviting input from interested parties especially other Communion bodies (eg IATDC, IASCOME, ACLAN, ecumenical commissions, the Global South). CDG is asked to submit preliminary work on a draft or drafts to a joint meeting of the JSC and the Primates in early 2007.” I would hope that the persons named to the Covenant Drafting Group will include persons from around the Communion, some of whom will be women and some lay persons.

Unless the reference to the Global South is a general one, it is reference to the group of Provinces that call themselves “The Global South.” This is the one clearly partisan group in this mix and it is highly inappropriate to include them without naming and including groups with other viewpoints. The leadership of that organization has excluded provinces in the global south (Brazil) because of their theological approach and has included in its leadership Primates who have unilaterally declared that they are out of communion with The Episcopal Church, dioceses in Canada, and have condoned and organized efforts to interfere in the life of the Province of The Episcopal Church.

Perhaps the CDG has not been named yet. If it has I have missed the notice. Still, the paper was published in March 2006 and the group is expected to report to the Primates in early 2007. Have the names been published yet?

Posted by Mark Harris at PRELUDIUM

Gouveia: Civil rights shouldn't fall to public whim

Gouveia: Civil rights shouldn't fall to public whim

Mansfield News

By Bill Gouveia/ An Inside Look
Friday, July 7, 2006

The battle over gay marriage in Massachusetts moves back to the Statehouse next week, as legislators prepare to convene a Constitutional Convention where a ballot initiative to ban homosexual marriage is scheduled to be debated.

    Of course, there is no guarantee the matter of gay marriage will actually be brought up. It is quite possible that some parliamentary maneuvering by those opposing the ballot question could prevent lawmakers from having to actually vote on placing the matter before the voters.

    Gay marriage opponents gathered more than the required number of signatures to place a binding referendum question on a statewide ballot. However, before the question can appear, it must be approved by at least 25 percent of the 200 members of the General Court in two consecutive years.

    There is no doubt whatsoever that more than 25 percent of the legislators will vote to place the question before the voters, if they are given the opportunity. So those who believe this ballot question has no place before voters are left no option other than trying to prevent the legislative vote from occurring.

    This has quite naturally raised howls of protest from the question's supporters who believe any attempt to prevent a vote on the matter would be tantamount to thwarting the right of the citizenry to vote. They are crying foul, claiming this matter should be debated and decided on its merits.

    That is a totally understandable position, but those taking it have not always followed the guiding principle behind it. It seems manipulating the system for your own political advantage is only a bad thing when the other side is doing it.

    President Bush, who decries Massachusetts as a state ruled by "activist judges", is a prime example of the hypocrisy inherent in today's politics. Bush has pushed for a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, and has called upon Congress to pass just that.

    Yet Bush does not treat every law passed by Congress with the same respect. During his six years in office, the President has never once vetoed a piece of legislation. Instead, he has discovered a political way to play the system and negate legislation without actually appearing to do so.

    Yet somehow, those who decry Massachusetts legislators perhaps using parliamentary procedures to sidetrack the gay marriage referendum don't see the similarities in these approaches. I guess it is all a matter of perspective.

    I find it amusing when the argument is made that we should just let people vote on this matter and settle it once and for all. Is this how we settle matters of law in the United States these days? Are civil rights and individual freedoms now up for a vote by the public?

    If the matter of allowing interracial marriage had been put on a ballot in many states years ago, it most likely would have failed. But fortunately, our country has a system full of safeguards.

    We don't make civil rights a matter of public opinion or preference. We do not base the liberties of American citizens on the changing whims of public sentiment. Rather, we have a judicial branch of our government that guarantees our politicians do not trade our founding principles for public support.

    So while utilizing parliamentary procedures to avoid taking action is hardly the preferred way for government to work - it is hardly a unique tactic. And if the end result is the rights of innocent Americans are upheld and preserved, then I not only condone the actions, I applaud them.

    Call me a Liberal if you want, but this goes much further than that. This is not about "activist judges", but rather about American principles. And no matter how the Constitutional Convention turns out, I have faith and confidence that the people of Massachusetts will remain true to those principles.

     Bill Gouviea is a columnist for the Mansfield News. He can be reached at AnInsideLook@aol.com.

Clinton's Remark on Ruling Irks Gay Rights Advocates

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sidestepped the controversy over gay marriage in New York yesterday, reiterating her support for gay civil unions and calling for "full equality for people in committed relationships" after the state's highest court rejected marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Mrs. Clinton's remarks, which made no specific mention of gay marriage, disappointed and even angered some gay rights advocates, who are now recruiting political leaders to push a gay marriage bill through the State Legislature.

The New York Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that lawmakers, not the courts, were the proper authority to consider the issue.

Some advocates said privately that they were particularly annoyed by Mrs. Clinton's use of the phrase "full equality," given that it echoes the phrase "marriage equality," which gay groups use to describe gay marriage.

See Clinton's Remark on Ruling Irks Gay Rights Advocates New York Times

Gay Marriage New York: The Aftermath

Need to fresher your news digest on yesterday's court ruling? Read this.

• If you weren't able to attend the Empire State Pride Agenda rally yesterday to protest the New York State Appellate Court's gay marriage ban decision, this new thing called "Internet video" lets you pretend like you were one of the sign-waving advocates in the crowd. [Good As You]

• The New York Times' displeasure with the court's ruling was all that could be expected. The lede says it all: "New York's highest court has harmed both the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and its reputation as a guardian of individual liberties by denying same-sex couples the right to marry." [NYT]

• And now that the gay marriage question has been decided by New York's highest court, what's a political party to do when it comes to reacting? [NYDN]

  More of Gay Marriage New York: The Aftermath @ Queerty

GAY MARRIAGE RULING SPECIAL COVERAGE From Gay City News

Gay Marriage Ban Found Rational
NY High Court Says Interests of 'Careless' Straights Key
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD 
Seizing upon an illogical argument previously embraced by the Indiana Court of Appeals, a majority of New York’s highest court ruled on July 6 that it is rational for the Legislature to have excluded same-sex couples from marriage in order to encourage heterosexuals, who might carelessly or accidentally conceive children, to marry.

Angry Thousands in Sheridan Square
BY ANDY HUMM
On the very evening of the day New York’s high court ruled them second-class citizens, thousands of angry LGBT people and supporters rallied in Sheridan Square to listen to denouncements of the Court of Appeals majority and remonstrations to demand the right to marry for same-sex couples from the Legislature in Albany.

Anger, Sadness Among Advocates
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
Advocates for same-sex marriage and gay couples who sought to marry expressed sadness and directed biting comments at New York’s highest court after it ruled that it is constitutional to bar same-sex couples from marrying.

New York Political Leaders React
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
State and local elected officials offered a range of reactions to the 4-2 ruling by New York’s highest court that it is constitutional to bar gay and lesbian couples from marriage.

 

Gay marriages in New York may hinge on next governor

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The chances of gay marriage becoming legal in New York next year will depend largely on who becomes the state's next governor, political observers said yesterday.

But there are no sure bets.

  See Gay marriages in New York may hinge on next governor Newark Star Ledger

Keeping their pride in Jerusalem

Only one month remains until the controversial WorldPride, a weeklong celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride. The event, slated to take place in Jerusalem from August 6 through 12, has been called by organizers Jerusalem's Open House "the largest civil rights demonstration in the city in years."

But this year's WorldPride has also succeeded in arousing the opposition of many Jerusalem residents and officials, as well as uniting, in their opposition, leaders of the city's Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions.

Particularly galling to some is the pride parade, which will be the public highlight of the event.

Last year's gay pride parade, which, according to the Open House, drew some 10,000 participants, was marred by violence when a haredi man stabbed three of the marchers.

So far, Mayor Uri Lupolianski has (unsuccessfully) tried on three occasions to bar this year's parade. In addition, City Hall has blocked funding to the Open House in past years, an action the courts have repeatedly ruled against. Just last month the municipality was ordered to pay the Open House NIS 350,000 from the city's cultural budget - funding to which the Open House was legally entitled and which it had been denied. The city was also ordered to pay NIS 30,000 in court costs. The mayor has stated that the city will appeal this decision.

Amid all the controversy, however, the Open House is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the program for WorldPride. The event will include the parade, as well as an array of conferences and events designed to "bring to light the diversity and achievements of the LGBT community." This will include a multifaith convocation with the participation of a gay Catholic priest, a lesbian rabbi and the world's only openly gay imam, as well as straight clergy. There will also be a conference devoted to issues of health in the LGBT community, a youth day with a visit to the Knesset (which aroused the ire of MK Otniel Shneller of Kadima), a conference on human rights with a solidarity rally at the security barrier, a beach party sponsored by the Tel Aviv municipality and a large Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat service at Beit Shmuel.

In addition, participants will enjoy various cultural events around the city, such as an LGBT film festival at the Cinematheque and LGBT art exhibitions in private galleries.

The Open House has raised $300,000 for WorldPride from private donors and foundations, mainly in the US. But this money is only for events organized by the Open House and does not cover the film festival and the art exhibitions, which are being funded independently.

According to the WorldPride Web site (www.worldpride.net), the Open House is a grassroots, LGBT activist organization founded in 1997 that is working "to make Jerusalem a place where people can be free to seek self-fulfillment." It provides direct services to the LGBT community as well as serving as an advocate for social change.

The cities chosen for WorldPride events were selected specifically because of their religious significance. The first WorldPride was held in Rome in 2000, and WorldPride Jerusalem will be the second international event.

"Most of the resistance to our movement is from faith-based arguments," says Noa Sattath, chair of the Open House, who will become the Open House's new executive director following WorldPride.

Speaking in accent-free English, which the native born Jerusalemite claims she learned from "watching TV," Sattath notes that the first WorldPride "started an interesting discussion in the Christian churches about the place of LGBT people in religion. I am sure that WorldPride Jerusalem will have the same effect. We are not against religion or religious people. A lot of our members are religious. But we want to confront some of the religious public with the reality of LGBT existence. We want to reclaim the language of faith and morality, to show we have an equal place in these spheres. I would like to point out that Jerusalem is the most religious city in the world with a LGBT community center."

More of Keeping their pride Jerusalem Post

Is the Communion too much bother?

The Church Times asks this question in its lead editorial, and suggests that the answer may be: Yes.

"The key benefit of belonging to an international communion is the opportunity it gives for the generous exchange of gifts and ideas among different cultures. If the factions in Anglicanism don't recognise Christ in each other - and for every Nigerian who wants to expel the "Global North", there is someone who wants nothing more to do with truculent African Primates - the game is not worth the candle."

In the same issue, the Rev. Giles Fraser offers his take on the Archbishop of Canterbury's new plan for a Communion-defining covenant:

The fear that many have goes something like this: sick and tired of the conflict generated by those who recognise gay relationships as having the potential to reflect the glory of God, he is proposing a Church where all controversial theology would have to be cleared with everybody else. This would be a Church where prophecy was impossible. It wouldn't be a biblical Church: it would be a stagnant pond.

Continue reading "Is the Communion too much bother?" »

From Daily Episcopalian

18 CITIES WORLDWIDE JOIN JULY 19 IRAN PROTESTS

At least 18 cities around the globe will hold demonstrations, vigils, and other events to mark July 19, the International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran. The latest cities to join the list are Mexico City, Warsaw, Poland, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The date of July 19 was chosen to commemorate the first anniversary of the execution of two teenage gay Iranian boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, in the city of Mashad.

The slogan for the global demonstrations is, “Stop Killing Gays! Stop Killing Kids!” The July 19 Day of Action has now been endorsed by the International Lesbian and Gay Association—which has called on all its 400 member groups in 90 countries to organize events on that day—and by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Also joining in the call to action are the International Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network, as well as COC in the Netherlands (the world’s oldest LGBT organization), the Nordic Homo Council (covering the Scandinavian countries), HOSI (Homosexuelle Initiative) in Austria, the Web sites GayRussia.ru and Gay Egypt, and the gay cultural workers’ association Tupilak in Sweden.

  See 18 CITIES WORLDWIDE JOIN JULY 19 IRAN PROTESTS @ Gay City News

No Hate Crime Charges In Cross Burning At Gay Home

(Athens, Tennessee) FBI investigators probing a cross burning in front of the home of a gay couple said Friday that even if the people responsible are caught they cannot be prosecuted under federal law.

The flaming cross was discovered by Brandon Waters on his front lawn earlier this week. (story)

See No Hate Crime Charges In Cross Burning At Gay Home
365Gay.com 

Indian gay prince out of closet, loses inheritance

MUMBAI (Reuters) - An Indian prince has been disowned by his family after he publicly announced he was gay in a country where homosexuality is outlawed by a 145-year-old law.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who belongs to one of the country's richest royal families that ruled the former Rajpipla principality in the western state of Gujarat, has been disowned for "activities unacceptable to the society," one disinheritance notice placed by his parents in a newspaper said.

See Indian gay prince out of closet, loses inheritance
Washington Post, United States -

HIV-positive men sought for program on serosorting

The United Kingdom’s North One Television will be interviewing U.S. gay and bisexual HIV-positive men in New York City for a program on serosorting, the term given to the practice of deliberately seeking sex partners of the same HIV serostatus as oneself. The interviews will be held September 26 at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in New York City. Anyone wishing to be interviewed for the documentary should contact Silke Abele at silke.abele@northonetv.com. (The Advocate)  See HIV-positive men sought for program on serosorting The Advocate

Gay pride events to turn political

With just four months to go before Wisconsin citizens vote on whether to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution, politics are taking center stage at this year's gay pride events.

Ban opponent Ed Thompson, former gubernatorial candidate and past co-chairman of the Wisconsin Libertarian Party, will give the keynote address at tonight's OutReach dinner, traditionally the kickoff event for Pride Weekend. OutReach is Madison's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender center.

It's a little tricky for Thompson because he's about to officially endorse Dave Magnum, a good friend of his, who is trying again to unseat U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin. Magnum supports the marriage amendment.

"That is the biggest problem Dave and I have," Thompson said. "I want to discuss that with him and hopefully I can change his mind. I don't think I will, though."

  See Gay pride events to turn political
The Capital Times, 

Black churches preach acceptance for gays, 102 congregations join inaugural 'Faithful Call' event for LGBT equality

More than 100 churches, most with predominantly black congregations, stood up last month for gays and gay rights as part of a nationwide event to bring gay worshippers into the fold.

Faithful Call to Justice, held in churches and synagogues across the nation June 24 and 25, was supported by a wide variety of denominations, including Baptist, Catholic and the United Church of Christ. The event was organized by the National Black Justice Coalition.

Organizers said the event’s theme — that gays have “God-given rights to life, love, liberty, and equal justice under the law” — reached more than 100,000 people.

More of Black churches preach acceptance for gays
Washington Blade, 

Special service for church-shopping gays

Special service for church-shopping gays @ CBC Prince Edward Island, Canada 

Clergy from across Prince Edward Island are holding a special church service this Sunday that invites the gay and lesbian community to join with other parishioners.

Leaders from five Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches organized the service because they say many gay and lesbian Islanders don't know which churches will welcome them.

"If this goes well this year, it would be nice if we could join [together] again in other years," said Jim Culbert, of the Kirk of St. James Presbyterian Church in Charlottetown, where the service is being held.

"It helps to build up the community. Some are nervous about coming to just a gay service in case somebody sees them coming into the church."

Culbert said having a combined event will also make it easier for Islanders who aren't ready to be open about their sexuality.

"With five churches invited, who knows who's coming," he said. "So you can come in, partnered or single, and you're not going to be pointed out."

The event is also a way for same-sex couples to church shop for ministers who will marry them.

Culbert is marrying six gay couples this summer.

Gay parade leaves Jerusalem?

Ultra-Orthodox politicians join Islamic movement, chief rabbi enlists pope. The result: Homosexuals, lesbians from across globe to apparently not march in capital. See Gay parade leaves Jerusalem?
Ynetnews, Israel -

Gay Activists Campaign Against Homophobic Reggae Stars

London, England (AHN) - Gay rights groups are actively campaigning against three allegedly homophobic reggae stars. The artists failed to comply with the agreement by still performing homophobic songs.

Recently, scheduled shows in seaside resorts by Buju Banton in Brighton, England and Beenie Man in Bournemouth, England were canceled due to lobbying by local gay activists.

Last year, the reggae industry agreed not to let their stars play or release songs advocating anti-gay violence.

This agreement involved the Stop Murder Music coalition, an umbrella group including OutRage!, the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group and Jamaican movement J-Flag, and major dance hall reggae record labels and concert promoters covering eight of the scene's leading stars.

Peter Tatchell of OutRage! told BBC that they had broken that agreement.

"As far as they are concerned, the truce is over," Tatchell said.

He added, "The campaign against them has resumed. We will maintain the truce with the other singers who have stuck by the agreement.

 See Gay Activists Campaign Against Homophobic Reggae Stars
All Headline News 

Gay Marriage and the Legislature NYC Independent Media Center

In yesterday's ruling upholding New York's ban on gay marriage, the State's highest court noted that its holding did not preclude the Legislature from extending "marriage or all or some of its benefits to same-sex couples."

But getting the State Legislature to act on this issue is highly unlikely, noted Chief Judge Judith Kaye in her dissent -- regardless of how a majority of New Yorkers may feel about the issue. [Read More] Gay Marriage and the Legislature NYC Independent Media Center

Top Business and Civic Leaders Unite Against Amendment to Revoke ...

165 of the state's business and civic leaders have signed a statement against a proposed constitutional amendment to revoke civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts. The community and business leaders, many of whom are speaking out publicly on the issue for the first time, urged the legislature to "reject the proposed constitutional amendment and, instead, move on to other important issues like strengthening the economy, improving our schools and protecting our neighborhoods." A complete list of signatories is listed below.

The bipartisan group of high-powered leaders includes CEOs and executives from key Massachusetts industries, including financial services, health care, higher education and tourism. The group includes the President and CEO, Chairman and four officers of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In all, 26 of the most powerful people in Boston as ranked by Boston Magazine signed the statement. The effort was organized by MassEquality, a statewide advocacy organization dedicated to preserving civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts.

"Business leaders agree. It's time for Massachusetts to move on," said MassEquality campaign director Marc Solomon. "The amendment is discriminatory, divisive and undemocratic. The legislature should move on and focus its energy on issues that help people like creating jobs and improving schools."

The Statement of Support signed by the 165 business and civic leaders reads:

"The Massachusetts Constitution, the nation's first and oldest, has stood as a beacon for fair and equal treatment under the law for every citizen. I believe we should not write discrimination into the Constitution, and I oppose efforts to amend the Constitution that would take away rights, including the right of gay and lesbian citizens to marry. I urge the Legislature to reject the proposed constitutional amendment and, instead, move on to other important issues like strengthening the economy, improving our schools and protecting our neighborhoods."

The complete list of 165 business and civic leaders who signed the statement of support is as follows (all signers represent themselves only and not any institution or organization to which they belong) is found here.

HIV rates climb among New York City's gay men

HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men are rising in New York City, climbing from 26% of the city’s total new HIV cases in 2001 to 39% through the first six months of 2005. See HIV rates climb among New York City's gay men
The Advocate, CA -  

Mid-hudson lawmakers in favor of civil unions Times Herald-Record

Albany - The top state court's ruling against gay marriage yesterday left lawmakers statewide deeply divided, but most in the mid-Hudson said some sort of legal union between same-sex couples should be allowed.

Marriage should be between a man and a woman, said Sen. John Bonacic, R-C-Mount Hope, but "I don't have a problem with civil unions."

Even Assemblyman Tom Kirwan, a conservative Republican from Newburgh, said lifelong couples, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation, should be afforded the legal rights of a civil union.

See Mid-hudson lawmakers in favor of civil unions Times Herald-Record

Episcopalians name 2 more nominees for bishop Newark Star Ledger

The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which gained national attention last week by including a gay man among its four candidates for bishop, announced yesterday that two more candidates -- both heterosexual -- will be added to the ballot through a petition process.

The new candidates are Newark's Assistant Bishop Carol Gallagher and the Rev. William Potter, rector of St. Luke's Church in Hope, Warren County, whose great-grandfather was bishop of New York.

Gallagher and Potter made it to the ballot via petition of five clergy and five lay people, after not making the cut in recent deliberations of the diocese's nominating committee. Yesterday was the deadline for petitions.

Last week, that same committee nominated the Rev. Michael Barlowe, 51, of San Francisco, who lives with his male partner of 24 years. That nomination came a week after the national Episcopal Church voted to "express restraint" when it comes to approving gay bishops who win their diocese's elections.

The committee also nominated the Rev. Mark Beckwith, 54, of Worcester, Mass.; the Very Rev. Canon Petero A.N. Sabune, 53, of Ossining, N.Y.; and the Rev. William "Chip" Stokes, 49, of Delray Beach, Fla. All three are married.

The election is Sept. 23. Approximately 460 clergy and lay voters will decide among the six candidates, said Kim Byham, president of the diocese's standing committee.

The Newark diocese has about 30,000 Episcopalians in northern New Jersey.

See Episcopalians name 2 more nominees for bishop Newark Star Ledger

ACLU probes NM gay-gym raid

A weekend raid by law enforcement officers of the gay Pride Gym in Albuquerque, NM, that left patrons "bullied, terrorized and humiliated" has prompted the ACLU and other groups to inquire into possible civil rights violations there.

 See ACLU probes NM gay-gym raid
Gay.com, CA 

Jerusalem Gay Pride to move to Tel Aviv?

The Israeli online news website, YNet, is claiming that WorldPride will be moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Unnamed police officials have told the website that the change in venue in very likely to happen, although apparently the “final decision has not (officially) been made yet”.

The official reason given for moving the parade is that the Jerusalem Police fear that they will not be able to cope with the “size and complexity of the event”, the website claims.

It quotes a police officer as saying that “Tel Aviv is more used to such events, and therefore it should take place there also this time”.

Given that the bustling capital Jerusalem is regularly host to a complex mixture of public and political events, this seems a strange reason for moving the WorldPride march. Political and religious back-stage wrangling is more likely to be the cause of any possible change of city.

The Trade and Labour Minister Eli Yishai said that there was "an issue of freedom of expression, but on the other hand there is also the public's benefit." He said that he supported the idea of moving it to another city because “leaders of the three religions are against it."

This proposed city change has sparked heated debate on message boards and in chat rooms. Avi from Jerusalem was disappointed that the event might be relocated; “I think the point is that there are a lot of homosexuals out there who are being terrorised by their communities. The Gay pride shows them that there are others too who are of the same inclination and it is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“This is exactly analogous to the status of Jews, especially those living in a minority”.

However, not all comments have been so tolerant of the WorldPride. One writer suggested, “change venue to Sedom and Gomorrah”! While Robert in Jerusalem said, “I am a secular Jew and oppose this offence to public morals … I wish more people opposed it in Tel Aviv too, but I also wish horses had wings”

“The abandoning of our gay brothers and sisters by ordinary people in Jerusalem to the hysterical ranting of the so called religious will come back to haunt us all,” Avi predicted.

“In our free society, sexual preferences are no one's business, least of all the corrupt religious establishment and their blind followers. If people are homosexual, that is their choice and we must accept them as such. Although none of us are homosexual, our family is planning to join the march as a mark of solidarity”


This development comes amid a rage of protest over the event. It has united religious Jews, Christians and Muslims, who have spoken put against the parade and are arranging a counter “Modesty Parade.” See Jerusalem Gay Pride to move to Tel Aviv? PinkNews.co.uk

Letter as published in Advocate: Gov't spying on gay groups -- from a former CT gay activist

It was reported in The Advocate and other papers, that our government, has now confirmed that it spied on gay student groups at various universities, including Southern Connecticut State University. Why? What happened to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

If they admit to this, whom else in the gay community have they targeted? Civil liberties groups such as the ACLU have been working overtime trying to expose all of this unconstitutional spying of innocent citizens, this in a time when our government demands more and more secrecy. We all want our government to do everything it can to keep us safe. This hasn't anything to do with spying on the gay community, nor anti-war demonstrators, nor religious groups like the Quakers.

Having volunteered for the gay community, I have seen a lot of funny things in my time. This is downright alarming. I've personally suspected that some efforts in Connecticut, including my own, in the gay community may have been infiltrated. In 2002, I personally held a peaceful demonstration against hate in Derby, CT. I was told that over 100 police officers were involved, allegedly because someone had threatened to harm us gays. Now I wonder what was really going on! I have recently learned that similar government spying may be going on up here, because of Canadian Patriot Act copycat law.

In any Democracy, especially in America, this is totally unacceptable behavior and the public should be morally outraged. Gays today, whom else tomorrow? Will we one day be blacklisted from obtaining employment or made into social outcasts, simply for expressing our opinions and exercising the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Bill of Rights? This is America, not the Soviet Union!

David Cappiello
Nanaimo, BC, Canada area [Formerly Stratford, CT]

http://www.advocate.com/letters_detail_ektid33200.asp

Uniting Church shows disunity on gay clergy

CONGREGATIONS in the Uniting Church who refuse to accept clergy in gay relationships would be encouraged to form their own network under a proposal at the church's triennial assembly yesterday. See Uniting Church shows disunity on gay clergy
The Australian, Australia -  

Anti-gay protesters target Outwrite

Anti-gay protesters have been gathering for the past three weekends at the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue in Midtown Atlanta in front of the popular gay bookstore, Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, holding up signs and shouting messages from a bullhorn, according to store owner Philip Rafshoon. See Anti-gay protesters target Outwrite

Southern Voice -

Female bishop's election continues to spur rift - rector expects split to come by end of October

Katherine Schori's election to bishop of the Episcopal Church in America was unexpected for some and also unwanted by many.

Rev. Bill Dickson, pastor of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, is among those with complaints. He said Schori's election goes against scripture, which Dickson said does not place women in higher roles in religion.

"The church globally has not decided yet that it's correct, it's right to ordain women into the priesthood," he said. "...I think it's terrible that our defenders of the faith, bishops, often times are not defenders of the faith."

While there are those contesting Schori's election, there are also those backing up the decision.

Bishop Gregory Ingram, with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said his denomination went through the same issue in 2000 and decided to elect their first female bishop.

"If women could raise money, if they could sit on boards [and] if they could go to school, why couldn't they become leaders at a higher level?" Ingram said. "Why couldn't they become bishops?"

Since the decision to elect a female bishop at the church, Ingram said the denomination has elected three more female bishops.

"We have had persons who have demonstrated competent and qualified leadership across the board," he said of the female bishops.

While there are those that support Schori as a female bishop, there are also those who argue against her based solely on her beliefs.

Rev. James Stanton, bishop of the Dallas Episcopal Dioceses, said Schori's consent to the appointment of an openly gay bishop and her permitting same sex unions in her diocese in Nevada fractured the church.

"This particular woman, her positions on these things are known and her positions are the same ones that got the church in this kind of trouble," he said.

Rev. Stanton said stances such as those are what urged other diocese across Texas and the United States to separate themselves from the Anglican Church.

"You can't uphold biblical teaching on one hand and then have leadership that is undermining that teaching," he said.

The spit from the church could become official before the end of October, according to Rev. Stanton.

E-mail bgreene@wfaa.com

See Female bishop's election continues to spur rift WFAA (subscription)

Mayersohn Pushes Bill To Help Rape Victims

Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn is spending the summer drumming up support for a controversial—but what she calls important—bill that would force those indicted on rape charges to be tested for their HIV status.
   Mayersohn, who represents Flushing, was responsible for the passage of the baby AIDS bill in 1996 that forced health officials to give newborn test results to doctors and parents. She was also instrumental in the partner notification law, which compels an HIV infected person to disclose the names of all who they have had sexual contact with. Now, she wants to help the victims of rape. See Mayersohn Pushes Bill To Help Rape Victims Queens Chronicle

Gabrieli's grab for the gays in Mass.

Who will get the gays on Primary Day? Former Clinton Administration official Deval Patrick and venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli are doing their best to woo the LGBT community. Patrick, an African-American, is uncompromising in his support of civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. A few months ago he went into a conservative black church in Boston and defended his support of same-sex marriage rights. And he was the only candidate in last week’s debate to say that he hoped that lawmakers didn’t vote on the anti-gay marriage amendment to be considered at the July 12 constitutional convention. Gabrieli supported same-sex marriage rights in 2002 when he ran as a candidate for lieutenant governor. He hosted MassEquality’s most successful fundraiser to date at his Louisburg Square home last year and lobbied legislators at the organization’s request. See Gabrieli's grab for the gays
Bay Windows, MA 

Study: Same-sex marriage bans harm children of gays

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics is confirming what same-sex marriage advocates have been saying for years: that marriage equality can only help the children of gay parents. See Study: Same-sex marriage bans harm children of gays
The Advocate, CA -  

Election Day seen as next milestone in gay-marriage debate

Election Day seen as next milestone in gay-marriage debate

The Journal News.com

ALBANY — Same-sex marriage might not play a major role in the gubernatorial race this year, but whoever gets the job will be in a powerful position to influence state law on the matter, political observers said yesterday.

With the regular legislative session over, and senators and Assembly members back home for re-election campaigns, it is unlikely politicians would address the issue at the Capitol this year, many said. Instead, activists said Election Day would provide the next milestone.

"I think the future of this debate really hinges on who's in the governor's office," said Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference, which applauded the Court of Appeals decision. "If it's Eliot Spitzer, we're going to have some work to do on our side here to retain the traditional definition of marriage."

Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner to replace outgoing Gov. George Pataki, has said he favors gay marriage despite the fact that his office represented the state in the case and argued to uphold current law. Spitzer has a huge lead in the polls.

Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, waging a Democratic primary, opposes gay marriage but favors domestic partnership rights. Republican John Faso, a former assemblyman, opposes same-sex marriage.

"Will a Governor Spitzer be able to sway the Assembly (Democrat) majority?" Poust said. "Does the Republican majority in the Senate move further to the right when they don't have a Republican governor?"

One thing is for sure, said Baruch College public affairs professor Douglas Muzzio, the current governor and Legislature will not grapple with the gay-marriage question this year.

"The new governor is going to provide leadership in one way or another on this," he said. "Certainly, this governor (Pataki) is not, and this Legislature is not going to act on this issue. It's too explosive."

It also is clear that social issues like gay marriage are not on the front burner, said Gerald Benjamin, a dean at SUNY New Paltz. As a conservative, Faso will stay away from that topic to woo more moderate voters. The best way to do that is by focusing on economic issues, he said.

Conservative Party chairman Michael Long said jobs and taxes will remain the top campaign issues but added that "now that the court has decided ... (same-sex marriage) is going to become part of the campaign. As we get closer and closer to Election Day, it (is an issue) that's going to become louder and louder."

As Long and others have pointed out, the new governor likely will appoint three judges to the Court of Appeals within his first year in office. That will shape future court cases as well.

Faso said he would "work to ensure that marriage remains a relationship between a man and a woman" if elected.

"Same-sex marriage runs contrary to the religious traditions of millions of New Yorkers of all faiths," he said. "I commend the court for its interpretation of the current law and for recognizing that this is an issue more properly decided by ... elected representatives."

Suozzi said the campaign for governor hinges on taxes and the economy. Gay marriage doesn't make the list.

"I hope this fight, as important as it is, does not distract us from the critical challenges for New York's future — the crushing burden of property taxes, the growing loss of good jobs and the widening educational disparities in our public schools," he said.

Australia's blood-ban challenger speaks

At 23, assembly worker and health volunteer Michael Cain of Tasmania, Australia, finds himself at the center of an international debate over whether men who have sex with men should be allowed to donate blood. See Australia's blood-ban challenger speaks
PlanetOut, CA 

Angelides Backs Gay Marriage Bill

Angelides Backs Gay Marriage Bill

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said Friday that if he unseats Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November he would sign a bill legalizing gay marriage in California.

Angelides talked about the issue the day after New York's high court upheld that state's one-man, one-woman marriage laws and as a California appeals court prepared to consider whether a trial judge erred in declaring the state's marriage laws unconstitutional.

"I would sign the marriage equality bill because I believe if we can get behind people to build a lasting relationship, that is a good thing," Angelides said at a news conference where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., urged voters to support him.

The California Legislature last year became the first lawmaking body in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying it was up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the matter.

The measure's sponsor, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, plans to reintroduce it in December after the election.

Clinton, who does not support gay marriage, refused to answer questions about Thursday's court ruling in her home state, but made a brief pitch on Angelides' behalf.

She said she had known Angelides since his days as head of the California Democratic Party in the early 1990s, when her husband, former President Clinton, was running against President George Herbert Walker Bush. That race, she said, mirrors the one Angelides is in now.

"He brought passion and commitment to a campaign that was on an uphill side," Clinton said of the 1992 race, adding that in taking on Schwarzenegger, Angelides "was unafraid when it looked like a hopeless cause because he believed California could do better."

Appearing with Angelides on Friday were other state Democrats: U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Angelides' primary opponent, Controller Steve Westly. Westly dismissed suggestions that he reluctantly supported Angelides after their bruising primary, which Angelides won 48 percent to Westly's 43 percent.

"California wants a change in Sacramento," he said. "We want a Democratic governor and we will have a Democratic governor come November 2006."

Bi today, gay tomorrow? The Times of India wonders

The Times of India has published an extraordinary story today, about the benefits of bisexuality. “A few years ago, Angelina Jolie famously said she enjoyed spending time with her female lovers. See Bi today, gay tomorrow? The Times of India wonders
PinkNews.co.uk, UK

Archbishop of Canterbury: address to General Synod on the Anglican Communion

Archbishop of Canterbury: address to General Synod on the Anglican ...
Anglican Communion News Service

I am glad to have the opportunity of offering in these few minutes a very brief update on the current situation in the Anglican Communion, particularly in the light of the recent session of the Episcopal Church's General Convention – which was, of course, attended by my brother Archbishop, who made an outstanding contribution to its discussions. The first thing to say is that the complex processes of Convention produced – perhaps predictably – a less than completely clear result. The final resolution relating to the consecration of practising gay persons as bishops owed a great deal to some last-minute work by the Presiding Bishop, who invoked his personal authority in a way that was obviously costly for him in order to make sure that there was some degree of recognisable response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report in this regard. I think that he – and his successor-elect – deserve credit and gratitude for taking the risk of focusing the debate and its implications so sharply.

However, as has become plain, the resolutions of Convention overall leave a number of unanswered questions, and there needs to be some careful disentangling of what they say and what they don't say. This work is to be carried forward by a small group already appointed before Convention by the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the ACC. And I have also written directly to every Primate to ask for a preliminary reaction from their province. The next Primates' Meeting in February next year will digest what emerges from all this.

You will be aware of a number of developments in the public arena in the last couple of weeks, notably the request from several US dioceses for some sort of direct primatial oversight from outside the US, preferably from Canterbury. This raises very large questions indeed; various consultations are going forward to clarify what is being asked and to reflect on possible implications. There has also been an announcement from Nigeria of the election by the Nigerian House of Bishops of an American cleric as a bishop to serve the Convocation of Nigerian Anglican congregations in the US. I have publicly stated my concern about this and some other cross-provincial activities.

A working party is also being established in consultation with the Anglican Communion Office and others to look more fully at the question of what sort of ‘Covenant’ could be constructed to fulfil another significant recommendation of the Windsor Report.

Mention of this leads me to say a word about my own published reflections in the wake of General Convention. In spite of some interesting reporting and some slightly intemperate reaction, this contained no directives (I do not have authority to dictate policy to the provinces of the Communion) and no foreclosing of the character and content of such a covenant. Were any such arrangement to be proposed, it would of course have to be owned by the constitutional bodies governing Provinces. The proposal has already been dismissed in some quarters as a capitulation to fundamentalism and in others as a cunning plan to entrench total doctrinal indifferentism.

Both characterisations are nonsense. Perhaps you will allow me a word or two of clarification and further thought on all this. When I said, as I did in my reflections, that the Communion cannot remain as it is, I was drawing attention to some unavoidable choices. Many have said, with increasing force of late, that we must contemplate or even encourage the breakup of the Communion into national churches whose autonomy is unqualified and which relate only in some sort of loose and informal federation. This has obvious attractions for some. The problem is that it is unlikely to bear any relation to reality. Many provinces are internally fragile; we cannot assume that what will naturally happen is a neat pattern of local consensus. There are already international alliances, formal and informal, between Provinces and between groups within different Provinces. There are lines of possible fracture that have nothing to do with provincial boundaries. The disappearance of an international structure – as, again, I have observed in recent months – leaves us with the possibility of much less than a federation, indeed, of competing and fragmenting ecclesial bodies in many contexts across the world.

A straw in the wind: in Sudan, there is a breakaway and very aggressive Anglican body that has had support, in the past, from government in Khartoum. Among the varied grounds advanced for its separation is the ludicrous assertion that the Episcopal Church of Sudan is unorthodox in its teaching on sexual ethics. Some mischievous forces are quite capable of using the debates over sexuality as an alibi for divisive action whose roots are in other conflicts. And churches in disadvantaged or conflict-ridden settings cannot afford such distractions – I speak with feeling in the light of what I and others here in Synod know of Sudan. It helps, to put it no more strongly, that there is a global organisation which can declare such a separatist body illegitimate and insist to a local government that certain groups are not recognised internationally.

So I don't think we can be complacent about what the complete breakup of the Communion might mean - not the blooming of a thousand flowers, but a situation in which vulnerable churches suffer further. And vulnerable churches are not restricted to Africa... But if this prospect is not one we want to choose, what then? Historic links to Canterbury have no canonical force, and we do not have (and I hope we don't develop) an international executive. We depend upon consent. My argument was and is that such consent may now need a more tangible form than it has hitherto had; hence the Covenant idea in Windsor.

But if there is such a structure, and if we do depend on consent, the logical implication is that particular churches are free to say yes or no; and a no has consequences, not as ‘punishment’ but simply as a statement of what can and cannot be taken for granted in a relationship between two particular churches. When I spoke as I did of 'churches in association', I was trying to envisage what such a relation might be if it was less than full eucharistic communion and more than mutual repudiation. It was not an attempt to muddy the waters but to offer a vocabulary for thinking about how levels of seriously impaired or interrupted communion could be understood.

In other words, I can envisage – though I don’t in the least want to see – a situation in which there may be more divisions than at present within the churches that claim an Anglican heritage. But I want there to be some rationale for this other than pure localism or arbitrary and ad hoc definitions of who and what is acceptable. The real agenda – and it bears on other matters we have to discuss at this Synod – is what our doctrine of the Church really is in relation to the whole deposit of our faith. Christian history gives us examples of theologies of the Church based upon local congregational integrity, with little or no superstructure – Baptist and Congregationalist theologies; and of theologies of the national Church, working in symbiosis with culture and government – as in some Lutheran settings. We have often come near the second in theory and the first in practice. But that is not where we have seen our true centre and character. We have claimed to be Catholic, to have a ministry that is capable of being universally recognised (even where in practice it does not have that recognition) because of its theological and institutional continuity; to hold a faith that is not locally determined but shared through time and space with the fellowship of the baptised; to celebrate sacraments that express the reality of a community which is more than the people present at any one moment with any one set of concerns. So at the very least we must recognise that Anglicanism as we have experienced it has never been just a loose grouping of people who care to describe themselves as Anglicans but enjoy unconfined local liberties. Argue for this if you will, but recognise that it represents something other than the tradition we have received and been nourished by in God's providence. And only if we can articulate some coherent core for this tradition in present practice can we continue to engage plausibly in any kind of ecumenical endeavour, local or international.

I make no secret of the fact that my commitment and conviction are given to the ideal of the Church Catholic. I know that its embodiment in Anglicanism has always been debated, yet I believe that the vision of Catholic sacramental unity without centralisation or coercion is one that we have witnessed to at our best and still need to work at. That is why a concern for unity – for unity (I must repeat this yet again) as a means to living in the truth – is not about placing the survival of an institution above the demands of conscience. God forbid. It is a question of how we work out, faithfully, attentively, obediently what we need to do and say in order to remain within sight and sound of each other in the fellowship to which Christ has called us. It has never been easy and it isn't now. But it is the call that matters, and that sustains us together in the task.

Conservative path offered on Episcopal training; Mass. seminary sees opportunity in schism

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff  |  July 7, 2006

In an illustration of the theological polarization that is sweeping across American Christianity, an evangelical Protestant seminary on the North Shore is launching a program to train as Episcopal priests students who consider Episcopal seminaries to be too liberal.

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary announced the plan as the Episcopal Church faces possible schism because its 2003 approval of an openly gay priest, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, as the bishop of New Hampshire has divided the denomination domestically and has placed it at odds with multiple African and Asian provinces of the Anglican Communion. Six dioceses in the United States are already attempting to separate from the Episcopal Church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested that the Anglican Communion explore creating a new covenant among its provinces with the option of a lesser status for a province, like the Episcopal Church, that wants to go its own way on major issues.

``We really are being opportunistic here," said Barry H. Corey, the academic dean at Gordon-Conwell, which is headquartered in South Hamilton and offers courses in Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; and Jacksonville, Fla.

``Given what's going on in terms of the schisms in the Episcopal Church USA . . . as churches depart, they are going to need training for their ministers, and they are probably not going to send them to Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, because those schools pretty much have sided with the liberal end of the spectrum."

Corey said Gordon-Conwell, a multidenominational seminary that currently has only a handful of Episcopal students, will offer ``an orthodox view of the Bible" to Episcopalians seeking a seminary ``that has not departed from biblical truth and the historic faith of the Anglican Communion."

He said Gordon-Conwell teaches that ``the practice of homosexuality within the church has been seen as unbiblical" and that ``the Bible presents a view of marriage that is not an evolving paradigm."

Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, was traveling yesterday and unavailable for comment, but his spokeswoman, Maria Plati, said that while ``there are a range of theological programs available to individuals . . . we are not familiar enough with the Gordon-Conwell program to make any comment."

Episcopal Divinity School, whose faculty and students have been strongly supportive of same-sex marriage, said it does not view Gordon-Conwell as competition, given the theological distance between the two schools. As an example of its liberalism, the Cambridge seminary has barred all on-campus marriage ceremonies, although it allows blessings, to protest the Episcopal Church's prohibition of same-sex marriage.

``It makes sense that they [Gordon-Conwell] would target the idea of going after conservative Episcopalians, just as we go after liberals of other denominations -- we look to attract people who are interested in liberal theological study," said Lawrence M. Wills, acting academic dean at Episcopal Divinity School, which draws about one-third of its students from other denominations. ``In the Protestant theological seminaries there is a huge spectrum . . . and we're definitely at the liberal end. What Gordon-Conwell is doing is not likely to compete with the students we're looking for."

Gordon-Conwell, which currently has only one or two Episcopalians on its faculty and a few dozen Episcopal students among a student body of 2,000, is planning to add courses in Anglican prayer, liturgy, and governance as it moves aggressively to recruit conservative students who might go on to serve in the Episcopal Church or in other Anglican parishes in the United States that have already split from the Episcopal Church or that might do so in the future.

Corey said the faculty at Gordon-Conwell, which is a multidenominational Protestant seminary, is discussing whether it will develop similarly specialized curricula for seminarians from other denominations, such as the Presbyterian Church, that are riven by controversy over homosexuality and other issues. The Anglican-Episcopal program, which will lead to a master's degree in divinity, was suggested by a West Newbury Episcopal priest, the Rev. William L. Murdoch, who is the New England dean of the Anglican Communion Network, a coalition of parishes and dioceses unhappy with the Episcopal Church.

The seminary is planning collaborations, such as visiting faculty or distance-learning courses, with the two most conservative Episcopal seminaries in the United States: Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin and Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Pennsylvania. Officials at those seminaries -- which are among 11 accredited Episcopal seminaries in the the country -- said they would welcome students from Massachusetts, but that they agreed to help Gordon-Conwell out of a recognition that many prospective seminarians will not relocate for theological education.

At least one other Protestant seminary in the United States has already launched a similar program. Northern Seminary, a Baptist institution outside Chicago, has a dozen Episcopalian and Anglican students in the first year of its new program.

``God is drawing the lines differently here in the early 21st century than in the 20th century, and people are not automatically going to their denominational schools," said Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, the seminary dean at Northern. ``An Anglican or Episcopalian who is on the evangelical end of the spectrum is going to feel more at home at a place like Northern or Gordon-Conwell than at a place like Seabury-Western [in Illinois] or Episcopal Divinity School."

Episcopal priests have to pass an exam and win approval of their local bishops to be ordained, but do not have to attend one of the 11 Episcopal seminaries in the United States. In Massachusetts, there are already Episcopal priests who study at Harvard Divinity School and Boston University School of Theology, for example.

The phenomenon of seminaries reaching out beyond their historic constituencies is likely to become more common, scholars said, as theological controversies continue to roil Protestant denominations. Also, with the rising age of seminary students, many are also unwilling or unable to relocate for education.

``You have a number of Anglicans or Episcopalians in the New England area who are looking for a theological education of a biblically faithful and theologically orthodox nature, and recognize Gordon-Conwell is capable of giving that," said the Very Rev. Robert S. Munday, dean and president of Nashotah House.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.  

 See Conservative path offered on Episcopal training
Boston Globe, United States 

Gay marriage dilemma: should civil rights of a minority group should never be subject to the 'will' of the majority?

BOSTON --When lawmakers meet Wednesday to decide the fate of an anti-gay marriage amendment, they'll be asked to choose between two dearly held democratic beliefs -- civil rights versus the popular vote.

Gay activists have long cast the argument for same-sex marriage in the language of the civil rights movement, likening their fight to the integration battles of the 1950s and 60s that sought to expand rights for blacks.

Central to that argument is the idea that the civil rights of a minority group should never be subject to the will of the majority.

Gay marriage foes have worked just as furiously to frame the argument around the equally powerful idea that voters should always have the last say -- especially on a question as central to society as the definition of marriage.

They argue that allowing a one-judge majority ruling from the state's highest court to toss out centuries of tradition without any say from voters is an affront to the very notion of a democracy.

In the two years since gay couples have been allowed to marry in Massachusetts, neither argument has been able to fully dominate the debate -- whether on Beacon Hill or around kitchen tables and coffee shops across the state.

Those competing views were on full view again this week.

On Thursday, a group of 165 civic and business leaders in Massachusetts -- including former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Legal Sea Foods president and CEO Roger S. Berkowitz -- issued a letter calling on lawmakers to reject the question, framing gay marriage as a civil rights issue.

"I believe we should not write discrimination into the Constitution, and I oppose efforts to amend the Constitution that would take away rights, including the right of gay and lesbian citizens to marry," the letter read.

The state's four Catholic bishops released their own letter in support of the amendment, which they said should be left to the will of voters.

"The debate over the meaning of marriage should not be limited to government officials since the magnitude of the issue calls for the full participation of the public," said the letter, to be read at Sunday Masses. "Neither the judiciary nor the legislature should substitute itself for the sovereignty of the people, especially on such a foundational matter as the meaning of marriage."

On Wednesday, lawmakers will be faced with the most serious challenge yet to the historic 2003 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that made Massachusetts the only state to allow same-sex marriage.

The amendment to the state constitution they will be asked to vote on would define marriage as the union of a man and woman, ending gay marriage in Massachusetts. The vote, if it happens, will occur in a joint session known as a constitutional convention.

Amendment supporters have already gathered more than enough signatures to put the question to voters in 2008, if lawmakers let it go forward.

The question needs the support of just a quarter of all House and Senate members -- 50 votes -- to clear that initial hurdle. A second hurdle would come during the new legislative session starting in January when the question would again need the support of 50 lawmakers.

Gay activists say lawmakers should use every opportunity to protect the hard-won right.

One way to accomplish that would be simply avoid a vote by shutting down the constitutional convention before the gay marriage issue is discussed. That would effectively kill the measure. Gov. Mitt Romney said he would study his options at that point, but it's unclear if he could force a vote.

It takes just a simple majority of lawmakers -- 101 -- to end the constitutional convention.

But backers of the question, including Romney, are demanding lawmakers take the vote and send the question to the 2008 ballot.

Romney, who is weighing a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, has found himself caught between the argument of civil rights versus the popular vote.

During a recent press conference, Romney called on lawmakers to let the question go to the ballot, arguing that under the federal Constitution, "who's going to tell us what a civil right is and what's not? Well, the people will."

In an interview later, Romney said, "I'm not saying that civil rights should be up to a popular vote."

See Gay marriage dilemma: civil rights versus the will of voters

Boston Globe

Six dioceses appeal

Six American dioceses have written to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking for “immediate alternative Primatial oversight”, with more expected to follow in the coming weeks. The call for alternative oversight does not mean the dioceses are withdrawing from The Episcopal Church, their leaders say, but connotes their desire to remain part of the Anglican Communion in the wake of the US Church’s rejection of the key sections of the Windsor Report.

On June 19, Bishop Jack Iker of Forth Worth informed the US Church’s House of Bishops that his diocese had appealed to Lambeth for “immediate alternative Primatial oversight and Pastoral Care following the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop.” Since the close of Convention, the dioceses of Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Springfield, South Carolina and Central Florida have followed suit. Other dioceses are expected to petition for relief as well following meetings of their conventions or standing committees. A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper they had taken notice of the appeals and were reviewing the situation. While united in their desire not to be under the oversight of Bishop Schori, reasons for the request differ. Two of the dioceses, Forth Worth and San Joaquin, do not accept the validity of women’s orders. South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Central Florida and Springfield, which do accept women’s orders, object to the new Presiding Bishop over her consent to the consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire at the 74th General Convention and her support for the blessing of same-sex unions in her diocese.

These actions led Central Florida to “question her ability to lead The Episcopal Church in the process of healing and restoration clearly outlined in The Windsor Report.” The actions of last two General Conventions had sparked a “constitutional crisis within The Episcopal Church,” Central Florida argued. It indicated a desire by The Episcopal Church “to ‘walk apart’ from not only the Anglican Communion but also the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ”.

See Six dioceses appeal
The Church of England, UK 

Gay Games VII - Opening Ceremonies

The Opening Ceremony of Gay Games VII will incorporate the legacy of tradition possessed by this moment, and make history as the event evolves before our eyes into a profound, kinetic representation of the global gay and lesbian communal experience.

Icons of the international gay and lesbian sports and cultural communities will lend their presence to the proceedings; giving personal voice to augment the impact of what is taking place on the field. Our community will manifest itself in unexpected ways, articulating the power and diversity of the world that we represent, and surprising the audience through the event.

This will be an experience not to be missed; as the Games will not return to the North American Continent for at least another eight years.

Be thrilled. Be surprised. Be Moved. Be there.

At Soldier Field, Lake Shore and Waldron Drives.

Visit the Website  See Gay Games VII - Opening Ceremonies
ChicagoPride.com,  United States

Let the Gaymes begin

Thousands of gay and lesbian and transgender and straight athletes will kick off Gay Games VII on July 14 by marching into Soldier Field -- Chicago's lakefront home of major sporting events since 1924 -- with their hearts set on breaking stereotypes and maybe even some records. See Let the Gaymes begin Chicago Sun-Times

Mixed response to call for two-tier Communion

REACTIONS from overseas Church leaders to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s June 27 call for a two-tiered Anglican Communion has elicited mixed responses from across the world. The House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria welcomed Dr Williams’ “Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today”, calling its analysis of the divisions within the Communion “quite lucid”. However, the Nigerian bishops were unpersuaded that an “elastic” accommodation could be found to an issue of conscience.

“The idea of a Covenant that would ensure this two-tier membership of ‘Constituent Churches’ and ‘Churches in Association’ is brilliant as the heartbeat of a leader who wants to preserve the unity of the Church by accommodating every shred of opinion, no matter how unbiblical, all because we want to make everyone feel at home.” The Nigerian bishops encouraged Archbishop Williams to “persuade those who have chosen to ‘walk apart’ to return to the path chosen by successive generations of our forebears.” However, if the American Church is unable to reform, it should be expelled from the Communion. “A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure. To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient.” Presiding Bishop Frank T Griswold cautioned The Episcopal Church against accepting at face value interpretations of Dr Williams’ paper that suggested the Anglican Communion was on the verge of disintegration. “God can always surprise us,” Bishop Griswold said, noting he was “greatly encouraged” by the call “to join together in exploring our Anglican identity.” He stated the “conclusion of this lengthy process is now unknown. Therefore is it misleading that some, in responding to the Archbishop’s lengthy theological reflection, have focused their attention on speculations about a yet-to-be-determined outcome.” The Primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, also warned against the “constant talk of schism,” saying such arguments do “not address the heart of the matter which is living with difference and otherness.”

He wrote on June 28: “A proper understanding of how the institutional life of the Anglican Communion has served our spiritual life and ministry is fundamental to avoiding a knee-jerk resorting to talk of schism whenever any disagreements arise among us.” The co-Primate of New Zealand, Archbishop David Moxon, rejected the suggestion Dr Williams’ letter was an ultimatum to the liberal wing of the Church. Those who are predicting a schism are “assuming what the covenant will say – and that has yet to be shaped. Their assumptions are premature.” Archbishop Moxon said he had faith in Dr Williams’ ability to find a solution acceptable to all. “Anglican Christianity has tried to say that we want a large room, of unity in diversity, which is clearly and simply described, and a covenant can do that,” he noted. Dr Williams’ paper recognised “a separation within the Communion is inevitable” that arises over the fundamental “authority of the Bible”, Dr Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney, said on June 28. “The presenting issue may be human sexuality but the real issue remains the word of God.

“Like him, I am not without hope that our future relationships can be sustaining and enriching. Unlike him, I think that the Communion has already become a looser network of churches with much in common but, unfortunately, much that separates,” Dr Jensen said. See Mixed response to call for two-tier Communion
The Church of England, UK

Plaintiffs in NY Gay Marriage Case Express Disappointment

ALBANY, NEW YORK (2006-07-06) New York's high court has ruled that current laws in the state do not permit gay marriage, and says its up to the legislature to change the statute to allow same sex unions. The news came as a great disappointment to the 44 couples who had joined to challenge the law.

In a four to two ruling, the court ruled that the state's constitution does not require recognition of same sex marriages, and that it's up to the state legislature, if it wants to, to change that law. The opinion was written by Governor Pataki's appointee, Judge Robert Smith, who said the court "believes the present generation should have a chance to decide the issue through it's elected representatives". See Plaintiffs in Gay Marriage Case Express Disappointment
WXXI, NY -

NY Politicians respond to gay marriage ruling

Politicians throughout New York State are speaking out about the gay marriage decision.

Governor George Pataki said he's satisfied with the ruling by New York's highest court that blocks same-sex marriage.

He released a statement saying he's also pleased that the court confirmed the Legislature is the right branch of government to make any change in marriage law.

Speaker Sheldon Silver was not as quick to make any remarks on the ruling. “I haven't seen the decision yet, we haven't seen the decision, what the court has ruled, so I think it would be premature for us to, you know, to put a full-fledged opinion out there," Silver said.

Both the New York State Health Department and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office have maintained that New York law prohibits same-sex marriage.

But, as a candidate for Governor, Spitzer said he supports gay marriage.

See Politicians respond to gay marriage ruling News 10 Now

The Christian tycoon who wants to ban gay marriage

John Prescott's genial host in Colorado is a billionaire conservative who has used his vast wealth and influence to promote his Christian viewpoint, to rally against gay marriage and fund an organisation that questions the theory of evolution. He has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates.

The Deputy Prime Minister claims he spent only two-and-half hours with Philip Anschutz over the entire July weekend he spent at his 35,000-acre ranch, Eagle's Nest, an hour from Denver. Mr Prescott said he went to satisfy an ambition to see a working cattle ranch - stirred by watching Westerns as a boy - and to talk with sugar-beet farmers about the state of their industry.

But if the MP for Hull East had time to dig a little he might have asked Mr Anschutz about Amendment 2, an ultimately failed ballot initiative he funded to overturn state laws that protected gay rights. The measure was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1996.

He might also have asked Mr Anschutz about the Discovery Institute, a "think-tank" he funds in Seattle that criticises Darwin's theory of evolution and argues for the involvement of a "supernatural" actor in the development of living things.

Critics accuse it of offering little more than a new spin on creationism and the institute was recently caught up in a notorious lawsuit about the teaching of creationism in schools. And over dinner at the ranch, complete with its own golf-course and formerly owned by the beer magnate Peter Coors, Mr Prescott could have raised the topic of the Media Research Council, a Washington-based group that attacks the liberal media and which, in 2003, was responsible for half of the complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission about alleged indecency on television.

The wealth of Mr Anschutz, 67, is huge and his interests are vast. Born in Kansas, he inherited his father's land and oil businesses before expanding them.

His empire includes sports teams - he owns the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team; a cinema chain; a film production company that has produced such films as Ray and The Chronicles of Narnia; oil; railroads; telecommunications and newspapers.

Forbes lists him as the 28th richest person in the US with a net worth of $7.2bn (£4bn) but, in 2002, Fortune called him the "greediest executive". See The Christian tycoon who wants to ban gay marriage @ Independent, UK 

Report: Same-sex marriage helps kids

Children of same-sex couples benefit when their parents are able to marry or form civil unions, according to a report commissioned by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-Being of Children," published Wednesday in the July issue of Pediatrics, concluded that civil marriage can strengthen families and help foster financial and legal security, psychosocial stability, and a greater sense of societal acceptance and support for kids.

The report underscores a large body of research showing that children raised by same-gender parents fare as well as those raised by heterosexual parents, and that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of a child's emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment.

The report also concluded that the rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage offer important support for children raised by same-sex couples. Among the findings:

The legal status of civil marriage promotes healthy families by conferring a powerful set of rights, benefits, and protections that cannot be obtained by other means.

Civil marriage can help foster financial and legal security, psychosocial stability, and an augmented sense of societal acceptance and support.

Legal recognition of a spouse can increase the ability of adult couples fosters a nurturing and secure environment for their children.

Same-gender couples are denied the right to civil marriage in every state except Massachusetts and the right to civil union except in Connecticut and Vermont.

The nation's largest organization for pediatricians knows what it's talking about: Marriage is good for all families," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese in a prepared statement.

"Every single credible child-welfare organization has said that sexual orientation has nothing to do with the ability to be a good parent. It's having a loving home that matters,"

Solmonese said.

The report comes at a time when anti-gay conservatives are vocal in opposing same-sex marriage, civil unions, and even same-sex adoptions. Although anti-gay forces have made strides in opposing marriage equality, they have been stopped by public opinion that is solidly in favor of letting gay men and lesbians adopt.

Florida has banned all gay men and lesbians from adopting since 1977, although they can be foster parents. Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples but not gay singles, and Utah prohibits all unmarried people from adopting, which amounts to a de facto ban on gay adoptions. Legislation introduced earlier this year that would ban gay adoption in Ohio was tabled in the state legislature due to its divisiveness.

A survey conducted in Missouri, Georgia and Ohio by Peter D. Hart Research Associates this year found that the majority of voters in each state oppose a blanket ban on adoptions by gay men and lesbians.

See Report: Same-sex marriage helps kids @ Gay.com

Today's news we could not make up

·         Judge Rules GOP Cannot Replace DeLay With Stronger Candidate...

·         New Firearm Law Gives Indiana Residents “Lifetime Handgun Permits”...

·         Road Crash Could Set Off Nuclear Blast...

·         Court Rejects $145 Billion Tobacco Suit; RJ Reynolds Stock Shoots Up…

·         Scholar: $50 Million Met Museum Painting Is A Fake...

·         Western Union Blocks Cash Transfers To Recipients With Arab Names...

·         Emmys Diss Tom Cruise By Nominating South Park Episode That Rips On His Sexuality And Scientology...

·         Oil Prices Set Record At More Than $75 A Barrel...

·         “Textbook Plagiarism,” “Very Misleading” Citations Found In Coulter’s Godless; Verbatim Lifts In Weekly Column…

·         Previously Ann Coulter Accused Of Plagiarism...

·         Bush Admits He Hasn't Attended Any Funerals For US Troops Killed In Iraq...

·         Arizona Sheriff On Fox News: I Make Illegal Immigrants Wear Pink Underwear And Listen To “Patriotic Songs”...

·         NY Post Wants Lay’s Coffin Checked...

 

Ruling could fuel gay-marriage debate

Court says law doesn't elevate marriage over other relationships

MADISON — A state law that hails marriage as "the foundation of the family and of society" does not elevate marriage over other relationships, an appeals court said Wednesday in a ruling that could add fuel to the debate over gay marriage.

"We do not read the legislature's recognition that marriage is an important and vital societal institution worthy of preservation and protection as a policy judgment that other intimate relationships are of lesser value or legitimacy," Judge Richard Brown wrote for the 2nd District Court of Appeals. "It does not attempt to privilege marriage over other intimate relationships."

The ruling comes as both sides of the gay marriage debate begin to campaign over a proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would outlaw gay marriage. The amendment, which already has received legislative approval, needs only voter support in November to take effect.

See Ruling could fuel gay-marriage debate Pioneer Press

Gay journalist Joe Dignan dies

Gay journalist Joe Dignan dies

Bay Area Reporter, CA 

Joe Dignan, a freelance journalist for several LGBT and mainstream publications – including the Bay Area Reporter – died unexpectedly Thursday, June 29. He was 49.

Mr. Dignan apparently suffered a heart attack; he collapsed at a gym in San Francisco last Thursday afternoon. A spokesman at the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office said that an investigation was continuing.

A native San Franciscan, Mr. Dignan decided to become a journalist later in life, said Phil Bailey, who had known Mr. Dignan since they were young.

"It was an unexpected career," Bailey told the B.A.R. last week.

Mr. Dignan was a general assignment reporter for the B.A.R. from 2001-2003. Among other assignments, he covered the LGBT Community Center's early financial troubles. The center's budget deficits ultimately led to the resignation of former director Brian Cheu and the hiring of Thom Lynch.

"Joe was the first reporter to talk to me when I became the director of the center," Lynch told the B.A.R. "There were many times that Joe frustrated me, and we often didn't see things in the same light. However, he was always kind and had an obvious passion for the community. He will be missed."

In addition to the B.A.R., Mr. Dignan wrote for the San Francisco Bay Times , the San Francisco Bay Guardian , Gay City News (New York City), and the Washington Post.

"He was so proud to see his byline in the Post ," Bailey said.

At the time of his death, Mr. Dignan had just covered the Compton's Cafeteria commemoration in San Francisco for Gay City News .

"I'm terribly shocked," Gay City News editor Paul Schindler told the B.A.R. Tuesday. Schindler said he had spoken by phone with Mr. Dignan last Thursday morning. "Joe had been a significant contributor of ours for the last three years."

Schindler said that Mr. Dignan covered events in San Francisco for the New York City paper, including the same-sex marriages permitted by Mayor Gavin Newsom and the ensuing court fight. He also covered the Democratic convention in Boston in 2004.

"He was a very solid citizen," Schindler added.

Community members also mourned his death.

"Joe was a great gentleman and a wonderful reporter with a keen interest in LGBT politics in San Francisco as well as the queer movement," said Cecilia Chung, deputy director of the Transgender Law Center.

Prior to beginning work as a reporter, Mr. Dignan volunteered for then-Supervisor Mark Leno, now a state assemblyman.

Several people, including this reporter, spoke with Mr. Dignan at the Pride media party June 22. He seemed happy and well.

Mr. Dignan is survived by his daughter, Mary, 13, of whom he was very proud. Bailey said that Mary, who frequently stayed with Mr. Dignan in the city, was now with family outside the Bay Area.

"I was very touched by the great love he had for his daughter," Lynch said. "You could see what a great kid she is, and she will clearly be a grand legacy for him."

"Joe was quite a character," Leno told the B.A.R. "He was often irreverent. But Joe was always passionate in his devotion to his daughter Mary, to his writing, and to saving his beloved St. Brigid Church."

"I know he was a devoted dad," Schindler said.

Siu-Mei Wong, another of Mr. Dignan's friends, said he was "very dedicated to the gay and lesbian community and always on top of issues."

One of Mr. Dignan's other passions was working for the preservation of St. Brigid Catholic Church, and he was chair pro-tem of the Committee to Save St. Brigid Church. The church was sold last summer to the Academy of Art University. The committee is seeking to have the building landmarked. Mr. Dignan worshipped at St. Brigid as a youth and his daughter had been baptized there. Wong also was involved in the preservation effort. In fact, it was Wong who had been trying to get a hold of Mr. Dignan when she called his cell phone and someone else answered. That's when she learned of his death.

Mr. Dignan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and Thacher High School in Ojai, in Ventura County. After college, he worked in theater as a stage manager and did other technical jobs, Bailey said.

Bailey said that a memorial might take place later this month.

Is size all that matters to Rowan Wiliams?

Anything But Straight

Wayne Besen

Anglican Caste System

Is size all that matters to the Anglican Church? It appears that the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury , is willing to steamroll gays to prevent a seismic schism that would decrease membership rolls. In a document titled “theological reflection,” Williams asked all 38 regional churches in the worldwide Communion to agree to a “covenant” that could stymie a church’s ability to elect openly gay bishops. Those churches that did not adhere would have their status downgraded and become second-class affiliates.

This plan would create an ecclesiastical caste system, with conservatives playing the role of

Brahmins, while GLBT affirming churches would become the new untouchables. Yet, it would still allow the demoted denominations to share in Communion.

Not surprisingly, such a convoluted compromise pleased neither faction. Six right wing dioceses declared they would bolt the Episcopal Church, while the Diocese of Newark named an openly gay priest as a candidate for Bishop.

What disturbs me about this debate is that Williams is known for his supposedly liberal views. So, if he sees gay people as equals before God’s eyes, how can he so easily relegate them to the back pews with an admonition to behave and be quiet?

The painful nature of this debate brings up existential questions that leaders such as William seem unprepared to face. For example, is the more successful church the one brimming with members based on bigotry or is it the smaller institution walking in righteousness?

While keeping the Communion together is a worthy goal, the price that conservatives are asking is too high for Anglicans of conscience to pay. Those who have embraced full inclusion of gay and lesbian leaders have embarked on a journey and have been enlightened. Once they see homosexuals as spiritual soul mates, it is impossible to go back into the darkness.

What Williams is essentially asking is that liberals subjugate wisdom and undermine understanding for the greater good. But in their hearts, liberals know that something so bad can’t truly be for the greater good. They are being asked to reconcile the irreconcilable and it will never work.

The Archbishop of Canterbury cannot expect progressive Episcopalians to look their gay friends in the eyes and then treat them as inferior. Gay people are either equal and deserve full inclusion, or they are not equals and deserve castigation. The search for middle ground in this equation is futile. If the church thinks Equal-lite is the solution, it is headed for a schism.

In a sense, this skirmish is no longer about gay people in the Anglican Communion. It is about whether the church is still a conduit for spiritual integrity and intellectual honesty. If members can no longer be true to their beliefs, then the institution will have lost much of its power and meaning. Is a church that dictates one’s conscience rather than allowing one to live as his conscience dictates worth saving?

Liberal Episcopalians should take comfort in the fact that history does not look kindly on splinter church groups that broke away because of intolerance towards minorities. The Southern Baptist Church will always have the stain and stench of slavery hanging over its biography. I can’t think of an instance where a religious group that chose the side of discrimination turned out to be right in history’s judgment. In recent years, for example, the Vatican apologized for its treatment of women and Jews. Although there is little hope that the current Pope will change his archaic views, his embarrassing actions will cause a future Pontiff to grovel over today’s abusive treatment of gays.

As a practical matter, most church-goers won’t even notice the missing malcontents if the Anglican Church splits. The New York Times reported that a Connecticut priest asked his flock how many of them had even heard of the Anglican Communion before the war over homosexuality erupted in 2003, and only a third raised their hands. Given this tenuous connection, it is hard to see how leaving the backward churches behind will cause significant trauma.

I’m not a marriage counselor, but my untrained eye sees a pretty good case for divorce. Many in the Episcopal Church have evolved into a new spiritual species and it will only be stalled by the Neanderthals that remain stuck in another era.

Yes, bigger can be better, but the Anglican Church may soon learn that the size of ideas matter more than the size of membership lists.

Far-right group convicted for gay hate pamphlets

The Swedish Supreme Court has convicted four right-wing extremists under hate crime laws for distributing anti-gay pamphlets outside a school.

The four handed out the leaflets together with three others in Söderhamn, 250km north of Stockholm. The leaflets claimed, among other things, that "HIV and AIDS appeared early in homosexuals, and their promiscuous lifestyles have been one of the main reasons for this modern plague gaining a foothold." See Far-right group convicted for gay hate pamphlets
The Local, Sweden -

Gay Jews to be welcomed at conference.

Inclusiveness is at the top of the agenda at the Movement for Reform Judaism’s biennial conference.

The theme for the conference is “counting all of us in”, and there will be sessions specifically aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews.

Rabbi Roderick Young, who is leading one of these meetings said; “LGBT singles and couples form an important part of the Jewish community.

"Sometimes the gay community has itself assumed that LGBT people are not interested in religion, since religious institutions have usually been so unwelcoming. However I think that it is vital that LGBT people should not let fundamentalists define what religion means for the rest of us.” See Gay Jews to be welcomed at conference.
PinkNews.co.uk, UK 

Cardinal decries 'pseudo' marriages

 Italy ponders legal recognition for unmarried couples (ANSA) - Rome, July 6 - A top Italian cardinal said on Thursday that by introducing laws giving legal recognition to gays and other unmarried couples Western civilisation was taking an "ugly" turn .

Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department, was speaking amid a tense debate in Italy over whether the country should follow other European nations down this road .

His warning also came two days ahead of the pope's visit to Valencia in Spain, where he will preside over the close of an international Catholic event organised to promote the traditional family. "Western society is on a slippery slope. The sense of God is being blurred," Cardinal Martino said, echoing a line taken on several occasions by Benedict during the first 14 months of his papacy .

The prelate said the trend towards 'gay marriage' or legal contracts such as the French PaCS (Pactes Civils de Solidarité) between unmarried couples was a sign of disintegrating morals and general confusion .

The dominant view that all forms of union could be put on the same level was disastrous, he said, because it brought into question the "meaning of being a man or a woman, the characteristics of love and sexuality" .

A survey published this week found that about nine out of ten Italians feel that certain rights guaranteed to married couples should also be granted to stable unmarried couples .

Some 81% of the sample contacted by the Focus magazine said this should also apply to gay and lesbian couples .

PaCS contracts, which began in France and are now an option in several European countries, establish a range of administrative and tax rights for partners. For example, they can inherit each other's property and be treated as next of kin in situations such as car accidents or when one of the couple goes to prison .

Urged by Italian gay rights associations and others, Premier Romano Prodi has said he will address these questions during the current legislature. This surprised some observers who expected that, as a practising Catholic, he would follow the Vatican line .

But he and advocates of PaCS in the centre left coalition insist that the contracts are not the same as marriage and they have ruled out full-scale gay marriages such as those possible in the Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands .

Equal Opportunities Minister Barbara Pollastrini reiterated this position in parliament on Monday, saying that stable couples, whether gay or heterosexual, needed to be regulated in some way. "Public opinion is calling for a wise, humane and reasonable recognition for unmarried couples," she said .

Much of the centre-right opposition is against PaCS and anything like them. Opponents say they are ruled out by article 29 of the Italian constitution, which says: "The Republic recognises the rights of the family as a natural union based on marriage" .

Rightist National Alliance Senator Riccardo Pedrizzi said that talk of bringing unmarried couples into the legal framework was nonsense .

"The whole point of unmarried couples is that they are not regulated by laws. If they are given juridical, institutional dignity, then they are put on the same level as marriage, thus violating the Constitution," he said . See Cardinal decries 'pseudo' marriages ANSA

Gay men with HIV symptoms may avoid testing

A study of HIV-negative gay men in Seattle shows that while most are aware that recent HIV infection can cause a bout of flu-like symptoms, most of the men still do not seek HIV testing when they’ve experienced the symptoms, AIDSMap.com reports. Writing in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, the researchers say that about 70% of the 150 gay and bisexual men they surveyed were aware that flu-like symptoms—including fever, fatigue, night sweats, rashes, nausea, and other symptoms—can occur two to four weeks after HIV infection. But only 39% of the men said they would seek screening with nucleic acid tests that can identify recent HIV infections if they experienced those symptoms. Twenty-three of the study subjects also reported having had a rash and fever lasting more than five days during the previous year, but only seven of them—about 30%—sought HIV testing. See Gay men with HIV symptoms may avoid testing
The Advocate, CA

Reform criticize gay marriage ruling

A Reform Jewish leader criticized a New York Court of Appeals ruling rejecting the right of gays and lesbians to civil marriage.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center, on Thursday called on the New York legislature to pass a law ensuring the right to civil marriage.

“Americans of all sexual orientations should be allowed the rights, privileges, joys and responsibilities of marriage,” Saperstein said. “The continued denial of the right to civil marriage for gays and lesbians denigrates those faiths that celebrate the unions of loving same-sex couples and, as a matter of religious principle, consider such partnerships worthy of not only blessing, but of affirmation by civil authorities.”

The group filed a brief on the plaintiff’s behalf in the case.

See Reform criticize gay marriage ruling
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY

Nigerians Issue Rival Lambeth Warning Over Gays

The Church of Nigeria will back a rival Lambeth Conference in 2008 if the Archbishop of Canterbury is unable to bring the recalcitrant American Church to account. In a statement released at the close of the Church of Nigeria’s House of Bishops meeting on June 28 in Abuja, the leaders of the largest church in the Communion stated that The Episcopal Church had rejected the key tenets of the Windsor Report. The “revisionists” had failed to grasp the “reason for repentance from the harm and stress they have caused this Communion.”

The American Church’s contumacy had impaired “the unity of the Church” the bishops argued, “by promoting teachings and practises that are alien and inimical to the historic formularies of the Church.” Holding a Lambeth Conference in 2008 was “questionable” under these circumstances. The good brought to the Communion by the gathering of Anglican bishops from across the Communion every 10 years should not be lost to the church, however, the bishops stated, calling upon the “leadership of the Global South” and the bishops of the African churches to do “everything necessary” to “put in place a Conference of all Anglican Bishops” in 2008. The call for a rival Lambeth Conference was conditional, the Nigerian bishops noted, and would be held only if “all efforts to get the apostles of ‘revisionist agenda’ to repent and retrace their steps” failed. A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper they were studying the Nigerian statement. While the Nigerian Bishops’ communiqué is the first formal call for a second Lambeth Conference, the exclusion of the American bishops from Lambeth has been an ongoing topic of conversation since 2003. Global South leaders have repeatedly stated they would not attend Lambeth 2008 if the Episcopal Church remained undisciplined for its actions.

The knowledge that their invitation to Lambeth was in doubt prompted the American bishops to endorse a last-minute compromise resolution on the Windsor Report at their June General Convention. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold framed the debate for the Bishops telling them “if we don’t have something substantial” to show in response to the Windsor Report, “it would be very hard for the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite us to the Lambeth Conference.” Dr Williams’ plans for the 2008 Lambeth Conference have evolved over the past two years. At the June 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, he stated the forthcoming meeting of bishops would be didactic, focusing on training and education of bishops. In his June 27, 2006, paper “The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today”, Dr Williams suggested the Conference would take on a more deliberative tone and address the Windsor Report’s call for an Anglican Covenant. “There is no way in which the Anglican Communion can remain unchanged by what is happening at the moment,” he wrote.

“But if we are to continue to be any sort of ‘Catholic’ church, if we believe that we are answerable to something more than our immediate environment and its priorities and are held in unity by something more than just the consensus of the moment, we have some very hard work to do to embody this more clearly. The next Lambeth Conference ought to address this matter directly and fully as part of its agenda,” Dr Williams stated. See Rival Lambeth warning
The Church of England, UK 

MSU gay-partner benefits challenged

LANSING -- A conservative group sued Wednesday to stop Michigan State University from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers and said the school is violating a 2004 amendment to the state constitution.

The American Family Association of Michigan filed the lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court and hopes to get a ruling setting a precedent that would block domestic-partner benefits at other state universities.

See MSU gay-partner benefits challenged

Detroit Free Press

Bishop beef: Episcopalian rift over new leader

NEWS- Bishop beef: Episcopalian rift over new leader

The Hook

BY LINDSAY BARNES LINDSAY@READTHEHOOK.COM

If religion and politics are two subjects verboten at the dinner table, diners might be well advised to avoid the topic of Katharine Jefferts Schori while passing the salt and pepper. Jefferts Schori is the newly elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and as first woman to hold that national post, she finds herself at the center of a heated political debate that's become particularly hot in Central Virginia.

Jefferts Schori's gender is not the problem; it's her stand on homosexuality. Asked recently by CNN if she believed homosexuality is a sin, she said, "I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts.

"Some people come into this world with affections toward other people of the same gender," she added, "and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender." Thus her vote three years ago to approve the first openly gay bishop in 450 years of Anglican history, New Hampshire's Gene Robinson. 

Opinions on Jefferts Schori's stance vary at Charlottesville-area Episcopal churches. "It's more pro than con, and no one is neutral," says the Rev. Julie Norton, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Keswick.

"It's mixed," says the Rev. Brian Vander Wel, associate rector of downtown's Christ Episcopal Church, which lost some of its congregation for opposing consecration of gay bishops based, he says, on "principle and Biblical authority."

That stand is marked by concern over how Jefferts Schori will affect the Episcopal Church-- an American body-- and its place in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Vander Wel says the new bishop is out of step with the Anglican Communion's governing body in England that in 2004 asked the Episcopal Church to express regret for consecrating Bishop Robinson and to place a moratorium on approving any more gay bishops.

 "This is a fatal blow in the Anglican Communion if the Episcopal Church does not comply," says Vander Wel. "The Anglican Communion will cease to be as it exists."

The man in charge of ameliorating those worries is Virginia Diocesan Bishop Peter Lee. As Virginia's representative at the tri-annual Episcopal convention that elected Jefferts Schori, he was also part of the body that levied a moratorium on consecrating any more bishops "whose manner of life is a challenge to the wider church."

Asked to clarify that language, Lee says, "I think by expanding the concept it takes away the focus on gay and lesbian people, but that's the context of it."

In spite of Jefferts Schori's support for the more vaguely worded measure, some of her area supporters are not happy with the resolution. "It's gay bashing," says Grace Episcopal parishioner Barclay Rives, "trying to be framed in delicate and evasive language."

Vander Wel, however, says the resolution does not go far enough-- because there are no built-in consequences for violating it. "The Episcopal Church is an undisciplined church," he says. "I have a little boy, and it'd be like saying don't throw food off your tray; and he throws food off his tray, and I don't do anything about it. There have to be consequences."

But the Diocese of Newark now has a metaphorical handful of Cheerios cocked and ready to test mother church. Just last week, on June 28, it nominated an openly gay priest as one of four candidates to be its next bishop.

That same day, the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, South Carolina, and San Joaquin, California-- all members of a dissenting group of dioceses called the Anglican Communion Network-- petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint a separate leader for them. 

The controversy has spurred talk of some individual churches breaking with the Episcopal Church altogether. "I've heard talk like that," says Grace Episcopal's Norton. "We're not splitting."

Would Christ Episcopal? Vander Wel would not comment. He does, however, say that Christ Episcopal's leadership has discussed joining the dissenting dioceses in the ACN-- a group that some speculate may one day supplant the Episcopal Church as America's representative in England.

"I can't speak for Jeffrey [Fishwick, Christ Episcopal's rector, who is on sabbatical], but the rest of the clergy think it's a good idea," says Vander Wel. "We'd be publicly putting our flag down and saying, 'This is where we stand.'"

Vander Wel is hopeful, however, that churches like his can ultimately remain Episcopal. "The Archbishop sees the need for provision in the Episcopal Church for those who disagree with the direction they're taking but want to remain in the Anglican Communion," he says.   

In spite of the divergent views, Virginia's Bishop Lee says the church has emerged more unified from this year's convention. "There have been public statements from the extreme right and left that they're opposed to [Jefferts Schori's election]," he says, "but the vital center is affirmed." 

PROUD TV & PNN RADIO TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF THE CHICAGO 2006 GAY GAMES

GLOBAL SPONSOR TO PROVIDE EXTENSIVE TELEVISION & RADIO COVERAGE OF SPORTS & CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Chicago, IL - Worldwide fans of the Gay Games will be able to view video coverage of the 2006 Chicago event on broadband, mobile phones and cable television thanks to a deal announced today with Gay Games Global Sponsor PrideNation Network (PNN). PNN Radio will also provide live radio updates throughout the event.

Proud TV will cover sports, cultural and ceremony events during the 8-day long sports & cultural festival in Chicago. Proud TV camera crews will work cooperatively with Gay Games Chicago organizers to tape the Opening Ceremony, 15 July at Soldier Field, and the Closing Ceremony, July 22 at Wrigley Field. Crews will record elements of all 30 Gay Games sports, cultural performances, celebrity and athlete interviews, and medal ceremonies. During the Gay Games, PNN will provide smart phone and podcast updates. Gay Games Chicago and Proud TV will use the videotaped footage for post-Gay Games television shows and a Gay Games souvenir DVD. Listeners can tune in online and through mobile phones to hear Gay Games updates provided by PNN Radio.

After the Gay Games, complete coverage will be available on Proud Television's local affiliate WGAY Channel 69 and Cox Cable Channel 20 in Key West. It will also be available via the Akimbo® set-top box (Proud TV Channel), online at www.pridenation.com, via Windows® Home Media Center (Proud TV Channel), and also via Apple® iTunes® podcast - enter "PrideNation" during an iTunes search.

"We're excited to be a part of this history making event", said AEU Media Group President Allen Edwards. "We are thrilled to be able to share with our viewers and listeners the quality content of Gay Games Chicago. We're honored to participate."

"In addition to traditional television broadcast, PNN brings Gay Games coverage into emerging platforms making the excitement and stories of the Games accessible to more people than ever before. It is amazing to think of catching Gay Games coverage on I-Tunes, mobile phones, internet, and on cable," said Brenda Schumacher, Broadcast Communications Director for Gay Games VII.

About Proud Television & PNN Radio Proud Television began as PNN TV back in February 1998 as the first GLBT broadband television network. Today, Proud TV is available in over 5 million homes in different viewing platforms. Proud Television is available online, mobile smart phones, through Video On-demand set-top boxes, as well as Apple's iPod, Google Video and Windows Home Media Center. Proud Television recently launched regionally in Key West, Florida on Cox Cable channel 20 and channel 69 WGAY as the first 24- hour "over the air" Gay Television network and will expand this fall into Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Proud Television and PrideNation.com is part of AEU Media Group LLC which also runs the number one 24-hour Gay Dance Station in the U.S. called PNN Radio. You can get more information about Proud TV and PNN Radio at www.pridenation.com.

About Gay Games VII Gay Games VII Sports and Cultural Festival will take place 15-22 July 2006. Over 12,000 athletes from more than 70 countries will compete in 30 sports ranging from softball to dancesport, swimming to tennis. The weeklong event will include band, cheerleading and color guard performances, chorus, an ancillary arts festival, and a series of community-organized social events and parties. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 15 July at Soldier Field, the lakefront home stadium of American-style football's Chicago Bears. Closing ceremony will be 22 July at Wrigley Field, the home of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, located in the heart of Chicago's largest LGBT neighborhood. Tickets are available at Tickets.GayGamesChicago.org.

Global sponsors of Gay Games VII include Lexiva; Logo; PlanetOut/Gay.com; Sirius Satellite Radio; Walgreens; Centaur Entertainment; Fleishman Hillard International Communications; Orbitz; McKnight Kurland Baccelli; The New York Times; Olivia Cruises & Resorts; Pride Nation Network; Windy City Media Group; Absolut Vodka; American Airlines; Apogee Strategies; Athletico; Chicago Free Press; Chicago Sun-Times; Ernst & Young; GLAAD; Genre; Human Rights Campaign; Lambda Legal Defense; QTG-Quaker/Tropicana/Gatorade; Sydney New Mardi Gras; Mate Magazine; Pink Magazine; QTG (Quaker/Tropicana/Gatorade); RCN; and Roosevelt University. Gay Games VII has more than 300 total sponsors.

About The Gay Games The Gay Games was conceived by Dr. Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete, and was first held in San Francisco in 1982 with 1,350 participants. Subsequent Gay Games have been held in San Francisco (1986; 3,500 participants), Vancouver (1990; 7,300 participants), New York (1994; 12,500 participants), Amsterdam (1998; 13,000 participants), and Sydney (2002; 11,000 participants).

The Federation of Gay Games is the international governing body that perpetuates the quadrennial Gay Games and promotes the event's founding principles of Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best(tm). For more information, visit www.GayGames.org.

Chicago Games, Inc. is the host of Gay Games VII and is led by experienced civic leaders from Chicago's business, sports and non-profit sectors. For information about how to sponsor or participate in Gay Games VII in Chicago, visit www.GayGamesChicago.org, e-mail info@GayGamesChicago.org, or phone (773) 907-2006.

Muslim Leader Threatens Gay Activists Planning Parade in Jerusalem

Last week a top Muslim leader, Sheik Ibrahim Sarsur, who is also a member of the Israeli Kensett, warned gays that "if they dare to approach the Temple Mount during the World Pride 2006 parade in Jerusalem - they will do so over our dead bodies."

Charles Merrill, 72, a gay rights activist, defiantly replied, "I will be approaching the Temple Mount out of love and forgiveness to those who hate us. If the three major religions in the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) want us stoned to death as it dictates in their ancient scriptures, then our gentle innocent blood will be on their hands. Gays are
the meek in society and love all of humanity."

Merrill is one of thousands of homosexuals who will be taking part in World Pride 2006,
a gay event in the holy city of Jerusalem. The event, which is held in a different world city every four years, was to have been in Jerusalem last summer but postponed due to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza.

Sheik Sarsur warns that he will use all means at his disposal to stop the gay pride parade and festivities in a city that is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims, and may find such an event would defile the city's sanctity. Other religious leaders have also condemned the use of Jerusalem for political activism.

Merrill says he will be marching in Jerusalem on August 10th as a celebration of universal love, and love across borders. Merrill's same sex partner, Kevin Boyle, will remain in the USA to carry on in the event of Merrill's death at the hands of religious extremists.  See Muslim Leader Threatens Gay Activists Planning Parade in Jerusalem

American Daily -

Bloggers react to gay marriage court rulings.

 Bloggers react to state-court rulings knocking down gay marriage and wag a finger at Sen. Joseph Lieberman for potentially turning on the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, bloggers with manners are wishing George W. Bush a happy birthday. See Bloggers react to gay marriage court rulings.

Slate -

Two states say 'no' to gay marriage

NEW YORK – In a single day, two state high courts have ruled that same-sex marriage is not permitted in their jurisdictions.

Thursday, both the Court of Appeals in New York and the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that marriage in those states will continue to be defined as between a man and a woman. In the case of New York, any changes will have to be made by the legislature. And, the court denied that the state's 97-year-old definition of marriage violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. "New York's decision is a fairly narrow view of what guarantees the state constitution provides," says Jay Weiser, a law professor at Baruch University and the lead counsel in writing a brief in support of gay marriage for the New York City Bar Association.

New York and Georgia join Arizona and Indiana high courts, which have also said there is no constitutional right to gay marriages. So far, only the Massachusetts high court has ruled in favor of full same-sex marriage rights. Vermont permits equal marriage rights under civil unions.

"So far, the courts are mixed but the majority of cases have passed defense of marriage or constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriages," says Mr. Weiser.

The issue is likely to get embroiled in state politics. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) has said he would lobby the legislature for gay-marriage rights if the court ruled as it has. State Senate majority leader Joe Bruno (R) has indicated he's not opposed to civil unions.

See  Two states say 'no' to gay marriage Christian Science Monitor

Leaders oppose bid to ban gay marriage

Taking on Governor Mitt Romney and the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 165 prominent business and civic leaders are publicly calling for the Legislature to reject a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The group, which includes leading bankers, healthcare executives, lawyers, and leaders of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, has purchased an ad in The Boston Globe that says the amendment would ``take away rights." It urges lawmakers to ``move on to other important issues like strengthening the economy, improving our schools, and protecting our neighborhoods."

The signers include Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his wife, Myra; real estate developer Robert Beal; Mayor Thomas M. Menino; chamber president Paul Guzzi, and more than 20 members of the chamber's board of directors; architect Graham Gund; author Robert B. Parker; venture capitalist Richard M. Burnes Jr.; Boston Foundation president Paul S. Grogan; and Stacey Lucchino, who is married to Red Sox chief executive Larry Lucchino.

The ad, which is being paid for by the advocacy group MassEquality, will run on Monday, two days before a scheduled vote on Beacon Hill. State lawmakers are to meet Wednesday to consider the proposed amendment, which is backed by a coalition led by the Massachusetts Family Institute , an opponent of same-sex marriage . The amendment needs the support of 50 lawmakers during the current and next legislative sessions to reach the November 2008 ballot.See  Leaders oppose bid to ban gay marriage

Boston Globe

Gay banker to appeal in HSBC sacking case

Accusations that HSBC sacked a senior manager because he was gay resurfaced yesterday after lawyers acting for him said he would appeal against a ruling clearing the bank of wrongdoing. Peter Lewis lost his £5m lawsuit against HSBC in May when an employment tribunal rejected his claim of unfair dismissal.

The tribunal upheld four of 16 claims that Mr Lewis made against the bank and HSBC is seeking leave to appeal against these. Mr Lewis was sacked for gross personal misconduct in 2004 after an alleged sexual harassment incident at the bank's gym, which he denies.

See Gay banker to appeal in HSBC sacking case

Guardian Unlimited -

We are family, say Spain's first gay married couple

Emilio Menendez and Carlos Baturin consider themselves a family. They have been together for 30 years and married as soon as they could last year.

But the couple know they would not be welcome at the Catholic World Meeting of Families in Valencia this weekend because the Vatican has branded gay marriages like theirs "an eclipse of God".

Menendez and Baturin were the first gay couple to marry after Spain legalised same-sex unions, giving them the same rights as heterosexual couples.

"We are a family, we feel like a family, the public accepts us as a family," said Baturin. "If (the Catholic Church) specifically wants to exclude us, well then I don't want to go their party," he added.

Pope Benedict, who will make a flying visit to Valencia for the occasion, has stongly opposed gay unions as an expression of "anarchic freedom" and maintained that heterosexual marriages are "a pillar of humanity".

See We are family, say Spain's first gay married couple

China Daily -

Ruling Disappoints and Angers Gay Couples

So much for the rented yacht, the salsa band and the twilight ceremony in New York Harbor that would have celebrated the union of Alice Muniz and Oneida Garcia. The decision by New York's highest court today that quashed immediate hopes for same-sex marriage also dashed the plans of thousands of gay and lesbian New Yorkers.

Although the matching platinum engagement rings will stay on their hands, Ms. Muniz and Ms. Garcia must postpone, for now, the wedding they were planning.

"I can't tell you how disappointed we are," said Ms. Muniz, 33, a retired officer with the New York City Police Department who is raising two teenagers with Ms. Garcia, 36, a hotel manager. "In our eyes, we are married. It would have been nice if society could see us that way, too."

Their reaction was personal. But around the state, the ruling by the Court of Appeals drew responses almost as intense from those whose lives it would not touch so directly. While gay men and women who hoped to marry were disappointed — and some cited the court's language as especially troubling — those who backed their cause, like politicians and some liberal religious leaders, said they were also disappointed, while those who oppose gay marriage hailed the ruling.

  See Ruling Disappoints and Angers Gay Couples

New York Times

Tampa Gay Foe Seeks Fla. Senate Seat

 (Tampa, Florida) A Hillsborough County Commissioner who last year caused a furor by pushing through legislation to block the county from any recognition of gay pride has announced her candidacy for the Florida Senate. More of Tampa Gay Foe Seeks Fla. Senate Seat @ 365Gay.com 

A Canterbury Tale: US Episcopalians in Manufactured Schism

A Canterbury Tale: US Episcopalians in Manufactured Schism

Huffington Post

Peter Laarman

Whose side is the Archbishop of Canterbury on? That's what some moderate and liberal Episcopalians would like to know in the wake of Rowan Williams' rather chilly response to goings-on at the recently concluded Episcopalian convention in Ohio. Those goings-on included the election of a new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori.

The worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by Williams, certainly appears to be giving American liberals the back-of-the-hand treatment while extending a generous right hand of fellowship to dissident U.S. conservatives. There is some possibility that Williams will not even allow the new Presiding Bishop to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference -- a global gathering of all Anglican leaders that takes place once each decade. That would be a humiliating rebuke to the U.S. church.

On its face the fight is all about gender and sexuality. According to the Washington Post, Jefferts Schori once dared to use the expression "Mother Jesus" in a sermon; far worse in the eyes of conservatives, she allowed same-sex blessings to take place in the Diocese of Nevada, which she headed prior to her election, and she voted in the House of Bishops to endorse the consecration of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Alleged deviations like these have caused American conservatives to declare a state of schism within the U.S. church. Six of the denomination's 111 dioceses already say they do not recognize the new Presiding Bishop's authority. More are expected to do so before Jeffords Schori is consecrated at Washington's National Cathedral in November. So who will shepherd these departing American dioceses? The heroic defender of true faith among conservative Episcopalians is Bishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. The wily and ambitious Akinola has been busily extending his reach in the U.S., even appointing some American clerics (mainly those with big and wealthy parishes) to be his junior bishops in setting up what amounts to an alternative denomination. So here is a rich historical oddity: while conservative Roman Catholic hierarchs recently declined the idea of an African pope, conservative Anglican hierarchs actually seem to have selected one.

How very Evelyn Waugh to see some pink-white American church leaders, many of them xenophobes in their secular politics, eagerly putting themselves under the jurisdiction of an African prelate! But the irony isn't much discussed among progressive Episcopalians, committed as they are to a multicultural vision. After all, they must be thinking, we once "missionized" most of the conservative Africans, Asians, and Latins who now hold the balance of power within worldwide Anglicanism; we gave them the Bibles they now quote against us; we need to hunker down and try to make some kind of peace over this.

It's the old liberals' dilemma, ecclesiastical version. They fight dirty; we don't. They organize; we temporize. They seize the pendulum and give it a rightward shove; we wait meekly for the pendulum to swing back.

The liberals could at least point out -- and I hope that Bishop Jefferts Schori will be the first to do so -- how shamelessly the rift within the U.S. denomination has been manipulated and exacerbated for many years by a little-known but well-financed and quite deadly operation called the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD).

Created by cunning Schactmanites and by ex-CIA operatives during the time of Reagan's dirty wars in Central America, the IRD's core work plan has always called for dividing and disabling the larger Mainline Protestant denominations -- the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists, and Evangelical Lutherans -- using any means necessary. The means that has worked best by far is relentlessly flogging the issue of homosexuality and accusing religious progressives of departing from the true faith by preaching that God really does love everybody.

Thanks to the IRD's skillful fingering of this hot button through the different front groups it operates within each body, all four national denominations have been pretty much AWOL from the more urgent moral debates this moment: e.g., imperial wars of choice, torture, civil liberties, Katrina, climate change, and economic terrorism from above. The denoms just don't have the energy. Nearly all their attention and focus have been consumed by internal debates on matters Levitical.

I was reliably informed that the IRD operated right out in the open at the Episcopal convention back there in Columbus. And why shouldn't they crawl out of the woodwork and get kinda jiggy at this point? In Ohio they scored their biggest coup in a quarter-century of patient stalinoid boring from within.

One final irony: several of the guiding spirits in forming the IRD went on to create the intellectual foundations of the Bush-Cheney "dominance doctrine." So it's not that these folks doubt for one minute that Americans should rule the world; they are in fact quite passionately committed to taking up the White Man's Burden. It's just that in order for American dominance to be secured against all possible sources of domestic opposition, the liberal churches needed to be silenced. And for this purpose, what better CIA-like cover could possibly be contrived than multicultural deference to the spiritual interests and biblical views of the very same ex-colonials -- Africans, Asians, and Latins -- whose material interests and worldly aspirations our peerless American Empire will continue to shunt aside with total and utter contempt.

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 The worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by Williams, certainly appears to be giving American liberals the back-of-the-hand treatment while extending a generous right hand of fellowship to dissident U.S. conservatives. There is some possibility that Williams will not even allow the new Presiding Bishop to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference -- a global gathering of all Anglican leaders that takes place once each decade. That would be a humiliating rebuke to the U.S. church.

On its face the fight is all about gender and sexuality. According to the Washington Post, Jefferts Schori once dared to use the expression "Mother Jesus" in a sermon; far worse in the eyes of conservatives, she allowed same-sex blessings to take place in the Diocese of Nevada, which she headed prior to her election, and she voted in the House of Bishops to endorse the consecration of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Alleged deviations like these have caused American conservatives to declare a state of schism within the U.S. church. Six of the denomination's 111 dioceses already say they do not recognize the new Presiding Bishop's authority. More are expected to do so before Jeffords Schori is consecrated at Washington's National Cathedral in November. So who will shepherd these departing American dioceses? The heroic defender of true faith among conservative Episcopalians is Bishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. The wily and ambitious Akinola has been busily extending his reach in the U.S., even appointing some American clerics (mainly those with big and wealthy parishes) to be his junior bishops in setting up what amounts to an alternative denomination. So here is a rich historical oddity: while conservative Roman Catholic hierarchs recently declined the idea of an African pope, conservative Anglican hierarchs actually seem to have selected one.

How very Evelyn Waugh to see some pink-white American church leaders, many of them xenophobes in their secular politics, eagerly putting themselves under the jurisdiction of an African prelate! But the irony isn't much discussed among progressive Episcopalians, committed as they are to a multicultural vision. After all, they must be thinking, we once "missionized" most of the conservative Africans, Asians, and Latins who now hold the balance of power within worldwide Anglicanism; we gave them the Bibles they now quote against us; we need to hunker down and try to make some kind of peace over this.

It's the old liberals' dilemma, ecclesiastical version. They fight dirty; we don't. They organize; we temporize. They seize the pendulum and give it a rightward shove; we wait meekly for the pendulum to swing back.

The liberals could at least point out -- and I hope that Bishop Jefferts Schori will be the first to do so -- how shamelessly the rift within the U.S. denomination has been manipulated and exacerbated for many years by a little-known but well-financed and quite deadly operation called the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD).

Created by cunning Schactmanites and by ex-CIA operatives during the time of Reagan's dirty wars in Central America, the IRD's core work plan has always called for dividing and disabling the larger Mainline Protestant denominations -- the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists, and Evangelical Lutherans -- using any means necessary. The means that has worked best by far is relentlessly flogging the issue of homosexuality and accusing religious progressives of departing from the true faith by preaching that God really does love everybody.

Thanks to the IRD's skillful fingering of this hot button through the different front groups it operates within each body, all four national denominations have been pretty much AWOL from the more urgent moral debates this moment: e.g., imperial wars of choice, torture, civil liberties, Katrina, climate change, and economic terrorism from above. The denoms just don't have the energy. Nearly all their attention and focus have been consumed by internal debates on matters Levitical.

I was reliably informed that the IRD operated right out in the open at the Episcopal convention back there in Columbus. And why shouldn't they crawl out of the woodwork and get kinda jiggy at this point? In Ohio they scored their biggest coup in a quarter-century of patient stalinoid boring from within.

One final irony: several of the guiding spirits in forming the IRD went on to create the intellectual foundations of the Bush-Cheney "dominance doctrine." So it's not that these folks doubt for one minute that Americans should rule the world; they are in fact quite passionately committed to taking up the White Man's Burden. It's just that in order for American dominance to be secured against all possible sources of domestic opposition, the liberal churches needed to be silenced. And for this purpose, what better CIA-like cover could possibly be contrived than multicultural deference to the spiritual interests and biblical views of the very same ex-colonials -- Africans, Asians, and Latins -- whose material interests and worldly aspirations our peerless American Empire will continue to shunt aside with total and utter contempt.

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The worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by Williams, certainly appears to be giving American liberals the back-of-the-hand treatment while extending a generous right hand of fellowship to dissident U.S. conservatives. There is some possibility that Williams will not even allow the new Presiding Bishop to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference -- a global gathering of all Anglican leaders that takes place once each decade. That would be a humiliating rebuke to the U.S. church.

On its face the fight is all about gender and sexuality. According to the Washington Post, Jefferts Schori once dared to use the expression "Mother Jesus" in a sermon; far worse in the eyes of conservatives, she allowed same-sex blessings to take place in the Diocese of Nevada, which she headed prior to her election, and she voted in the House of Bishops to endorse the consecration of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Alleged deviations like these have caused American conservatives to declare a state of schism within the U.S. church. Six of the denomination's 111 dioceses already say they do not recognize the new Presiding Bishop's authority. More are expected to do so before Jeffords Schori is consecrated at Washington's National Cathedral in November. So who will shepherd these departing American dioceses? The heroic defender of true faith among conservative Episcopalians is Bishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. The wily and ambitious Akinola has been busily extending his reach in the U.S., even appointing some American clerics (mainly those with big and wealthy parishes) to be his junior bishops in setting up what amounts to an alternative denomination. So here is a rich historical oddity: while conservative Roman Catholic hierarchs recently declined the idea of an African pope, conservative Anglican hierarchs actually seem to have selected one.

How very Evelyn Waugh to see some pink-white American church leaders, many of them xenophobes in their secular politics, eagerly putting themselves under the jurisdiction of an African prelate! But the irony isn't much discussed among progressive Episcopalians, committed as they are to a multicultural vision. After all, they must be thinking, we once "missionized" most of the conservative Africans, Asians, and Latins who now hold the balance of power within worldwide Anglicanism; we gave them the Bibles they now quote against us; we need to hunker down and try to make some kind of peace over this.

It's the old liberals' dilemma, ecclesiastical version. They fight dirty; we don't. They organize; we temporize. They seize the pendulum and give it a rightward shove; we wait meekly for the pendulum to swing back.

The liberals could at least point out -- and I hope that Bishop Jefferts Schori will be the first to do so -- how shamelessly the rift within the U.S. denomination has been manipulated and exacerbated for many years by a little-known but well-financed and quite deadly operation called the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD).

Created by cunning Schactmanites and by ex-CIA operatives during the time of Reagan's dirty wars in Central America, the IRD's core work plan has always called for dividing and disabling the larger Mainline Protestant denominations -- the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists, and Evangelical Lutherans -- using any means necessary. The means that has worked best by far is relentlessly flogging the issue of homosexuality and accusing religious progressives of departing from the true faith by preaching that God really does love everybody.

Thanks to the IRD's skillful fingering of this hot button through the different front groups it operates within each body, all four national denominations have been pretty much AWOL from the more urgent moral debates this moment: e.g., imperial wars of choice, torture, civil liberties, Katrina, climate change, and economic terrorism from above. The denoms just don't have the energy. Nearly all their attention and focus have been consumed by internal debates on matters Levitical.

I was reliably informed that the IRD operated right out in the open at the Episcopal convention back there in Columbus. And why shouldn't they crawl out of the woodwork and get kinda jiggy at this point? In Ohio they scored their biggest coup in a quarter-century of patient stalinoid boring from within.

One final irony: several of the guiding spirits in forming the IRD went on to create the intellectual foundations of the Bush-Cheney "dominance doctrine." So it's not that these folks doubt for one minute that Americans should rule the world; they are in fact quite passionately committed to taking up the White Man's Burden. It's just that in order for American dominance to be secured against all possible sources of domestic opposition, the liberal churches needed to be silenced. And for this purpose, what better CIA-like cover could possibly be contrived than multicultural deference to the spiritual interests and biblical views of the very same ex-colonials -- Africans, Asians, and Latins -- whose material interests and worldly aspirations our peerless American Empire will continue to shunt aside with total and utter contempt.

 

Gay couples may soon be allowed to adopt kids

Proposals to allow gay couples to adopt children in Northern Ireland have been given a mixed reaction.

Health Minister Paul Goggins announced the planned reforms yesterday which, if given the go-ahead, would mean that both those who have gone through a civil partnership as well as unmarried couples - whether of a different sex or of the same sex - would be able to adopt.

An eight-week consultation period has been launched to set out proposals for changes needed to improve services after it was revealed only 79 adoptions took place last year, compared to 550 in 1970.

PA MagLochlainn, president of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, said the government had taken "a progressive step".

"In this matter I think the interests of the child are paramount.

"All studies show that children benefit from a loving family, even if its only one person.

  See Gay couples may soon be allowed to adopt kids
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom -

Letter to the Ed. of GAYNEWS RE: Warnetless Spying on LGBT Groups

I've volunteered for the gay community. I believed in my rights to free speech and freedom from unreasonable search as guaranteed by the Constitution. I felt these rights were being violated. They called me paranoid. I'm sad and quite worried. Most of my gay and lesbian peers ignore the issue and hope it will go away.

It has been reported in several papers that the ACLU has uncovered a massive program in which gay groups, including one at Southern Connecticut State University were targeted by federal agents, infiltrated and communications were monitored.  There may be much more.  When the government violates our most basic rights, claiming a need for security, one wonders how that translates into spying on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender citizens. 

Warrantless wiretaps, Patriot Act, opening mail without a court order, violating our medical records -- the list goes on and on.

Would we ever have imagined this scenario even 10 years ago?  In our "land of the free"?  It is vital that all members of the gay community and their family and friends contact their representatives and demand that this illegal and immoral activity stop, NOW.  Why?  Because warrantless spying today can easily turn into blacklisting and persecution tomorrow.

________

D Bengal  

Red Cross gay blood ban to be reviewed in tribunal

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS)’s ban on gay or bisexual men who have been sexually active within 12 months from donating blood is to be reviewed in a tribunal later this year.

The review was sparked by a complaint of discrimination against the organisation by Launceston-based gay man Michael Cain, who was denied the right to give blood in 2004. After months of considering submissions from both sides, the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner this week ruled the matter should proceed to tribunal.

Activists welcomed the decision, claiming it to be the first time in the world that a gay blood ban has “gone on trial”. The Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group (TGLRG) slammed the ARCBS for what it alleges is its “extreme” and “misconstrued” claims that “male-to-male sex is in itself a high-risk activity”, while Cain is calling on the ARCBS to implement a new donor screening policy “based on the safety of donors’ sexual practices rather than the gender of their sexual partners”, as is the case in Italy and Spain, whose policies were changed by government.

  See Red Cross gay blood ban to be reviewed in tribunal
SX News, Australia 

Nigerians cast doubt on 2008 Anglican world meeting

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Anglicans, stepping up their campaign against liberal reforms, have said the Anglican Communion would have little right to hold its next world assembly if some member churches continue to back a gay agenda.

The Church of Nigeria, in a statement posted on its website, also called on African and other Anglican churches in developing countries to hold their own assembly in 2008 if Anglican Communion liberals fail to repent for supporting what critics see as un-Biblical views.

The statement from the Communion's leading traditionalist branch followed one earlier this week saying that liberal churches supporting openly gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions were "a cancerous lump" that had to be cut out.

The Nigerian church's Episcopal Synod said in its statement that it "regrets the inability of the See of Canterbury to prevent further impairment of the unity of the Church.

"It therefore believes strongly that the moral justification for the proposed Lambeth Conference of 2008 is questionable."

 See Nigerians cast doubt on 2008 Anglican world meeting

Reuters South Africa, South Africa 

Sex change means Austria gets first gay union

Vienna - A supreme court ruling published on Wednesday means that for the first time ever in Austria, a marriage between two people of the same sex has officially taken place.

The case involved a man who underwent a sex change.

He then applied to be retroactively entered as a woman in the official register of births.

In the first instance, the Interior Ministry refused on the grounds that the plaintiff was married.

Same-sex marriages are banned in predominantly Catholic Austria.

The plaintiff - not named in the reports - then took the case to the supreme Constitutional Court.

Its ruling on Wednesday overturned the Interior Ministry's decree. See Sex change means Austria gets first gay union
Independent Online, South Africa - 13 hours ago
Vienna - A supreme court ruling published on Wednesday means that for the first time ever in Austria, a marriage between two people of the same sex has officially taken place.

Former governors speak out against gay marriage ban

MADISON — Former Wisconsin Gov. Pat Lucey considers himself a faithful Roman Catholic, still attending Mass each Sunday at age 88.
But Lucey, a Democrat, won’t be following the church’s advice when it comes to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban civil unions and gay marriage.

‘’I just can’t believe any rational human being would want to put that kind of thing in the Constitution,’’ Lucey said in an interview.

Lucey is one of four former governors, who last week together announced opposition to the ban, which voters will decide in a Nov. 7 referendum. Other former governors on the list include Democrats Tony Earl (also a Roman Catholic), Martin Schreiber and Republican Lee Sherman Dreyfus.

Conspicuously missing is Tommy Thompson, who is traveling and unavailable for comment, said Tony Jewell, a spokesman for the former governor, who also is Roman Catholic. Thompson’s brother Ed, who ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2002, is working actively to defeat the ban.

 

See Former governors speak out against gay marriage ban
Dunn County News, WI

Madonna's gay brother speaks up

Madonna's gay brother Chris Ciccone, who appeared with her in her documentary In Bed with Madonna, spoke to Attitude magazine about what it's like to be the gay brother of the gay icon.

Although he insists he is very proud of her, Ciccone confessed that it does bother him when men only to speak to him about Madonna.

The 46-year-old tells Attitude:

"A fan doesn't put me off; it just annoys me when the questioning continues."

"Sometimes I'll meet a guy at a bar and they won't stop talking about her."

" After the eleventh question, I'll say, 'That's enough.' "I'm not her. Call her up. You want to ask her that question, call her up. Give me a fucking break." See Madonna's gay brother speaks up
Gay.com UK, UK 

Caution as US priest is made Nigerian bishop

Caution as US priest is made Nigerian bishop

The Church of England, UK 

Conservative leaders in the United States have responded coolly to the election of one of their own as missionary bishop of the Church of Nigeria to oversee congregations in the United States. The bishops of the Anglican Communion Network have remained silent over Canon Martyn Minns’ election, with several hoping he will not to accept the proffered office on the grounds that it would violate the Windsor Report and place the conservatives at odds with a friendly Archbishop of Canterbury.

Among the major US conservative church groups, only Forward in Faith has publicly endorsed the election of Canon Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church, Fairfax, Virginia, as missionary bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Canon Minns’ election came in response to the failure of the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention to honour the requests of the Windsor Report and institute a ban on gay blessings and bishops, the Church of Nigeria announced, and was made at the June 28 meeting of the Nigerian House of Bishops in Abuja. “We have deliberately held back from this action until now,” Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria said, “because of our hope that the Episcopal Church USA would heed the cry of the Anglican Communion as expressed in the essential elements of the Windsor Report and the Dromantine Communiqué. “The elections and actions of their 75th General Convention, however, make it clear that far from turning back they are even more committed to pursuing their unbiblical revisionist agenda.” A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper the Minns’ election was “not a welcome development. It is neither timely nor constructive as it further complicates an already complex situation.”

The Bishop of Virginia, Peter Lee, called the election an “affront to the traditional, orthodox understanding of Anglican Provincial Autonomy” in a June 29 letter. “The request by Archbishop Akinola that Martyn be allowed to continue as rector of an Episcopal congregation while also serving as a Nigerian Bishop seems to me, at this point, to be impossible,” Bishop Lee wrote. Canon Minns told The Church of England Newspaper no date had been set for his consecration and that he continues to serve as rector of Truro, which remains part of the Diocese of Virginia.

Writing to his congregation, Canon Minns said he was “truly humbled by this honour”. However he noted his election “does not mean that Truro will be left without a rector. I’m not going anywhere. The vestry has endorsed my continuing as Truro’s rector until the rector search committee completes its job and a new rector has been selected.” Canon Minns’ election follows in the wake of division within conservative ranks in the wake of last month’s General Convention. While 24 bishops have endorsed a statement prepared by the Anglican Communion Network affirming their desire to honour the Windsor Report other conservative bishops have held back. Some have announced a “wait and see” approach to new Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori, while others are keeping their distance, perturbed by political manoeuvring by their brethren during her election. Four bishops affiliated with the Network voted for Bishop Schori with the express purpose of “bringing down the house of cards”. The four swung the close election to Bishop Schori, prompting a charge the three retired and one sitting diocesan bishops had behaved badly, and had acted with “unmitigated evil”.

Ga. Top Court Reinstates Gay Marriage Ban

 

The state Supreme Court reinstated Georgia's constitutional ban on gay marriage Thursday, just hours after New York's highest court upheld that state's gay-marriage ban. The Georgia Supreme Court, reversing a lower court judge's ruling, decided unanimously that the ban did not violate the state's single-subject rule for ballot measures. Superior Court Judge Constance Russell of Fulton County had ruled that it did. Seventy-six percent of Georgia voters approved the ban when it was on the ballot in 2004.

New York State's High Court Upholds Exclusion of Same-Sex Couples from Marriage

'Today's decision refuses to recognize that gay and lesbian New Yorkers and their families are full citizens of this state. But this struggle is far from over.'

(New York, July 6, 2006) --- The New York Court of Appeals (the state's highest court) issued a ruling upholding the state's exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.

In the prevailing opinion, Judge Robert S. Smith nonetheless wrote, "We express our hope that the participants in the controversy over same-sex marriage will address their arguments to the Legislature."

"Today's decision refuses to recognize that gay and lesbian New Yorkers and their families are full citizens of this state. But this struggle is far from over," said Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel at Lambda Legal and lead attorney on Hernandez v. Robles, one of four marriage cases decided today by the Court of Appeals. "The majority of New Yorkers recognize that it's only fair to allow same-sex couples to marry. We call upon Mayor Bloomberg and Attorney General Spitzer to fulfill their promises to work with state legislators to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry."

In her dissent, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote, "I am confident that future generations will look back on today's decision as an unfortunate misstep."

Lambda Legal filed Hernandez v. Robles in March 2004 seeking marriage licenses for same-sex couples in New York, arguing that denying them marriage violates the state constitution's guarantees of equality, liberty and privacy for all New Yorkers. The trial court issued its ruling in Lambda Legal's favor in February 2005, and New York City decided to appeal. The mid-level appeals court handed down its decision in the City's favor in December 2005, which Lambda Legal appealed to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals agreed to hear Hernandez v. Robles, then agreed to hear three additional cases concerning marriage for same-sex couples in New York, which the court combined into one oral argument on May 31, 2006.                                                                                                                                                                

The four cases that were decided today are: Hernandez v. Robles, argued by Lambda Legal with cocounsel Jeffrey S. Trachtman and Norman C. Simon of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel; Samuels v. New York State Health Department, argued by the ACLU with cocounsel Roberta A. Kaplan of Paul, Weiss; Matter of Kane v. Marsolais, argued by Terence L. Kindlon; and Seymour v. Holcomb, argued by L. Richard Stumbar. These lawsuits were all based on New York's state constitution, which means that today's decision is final and cannot be appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

"Our children don't understand why their parents can't get married," said Lauren Abrams, a plaintiff in Hernandez v. Robles with her partner, Donna Freeman-Tweed. "We hope that Mayor Bloomberg and Attorney General Spitzer will do what they said they would do and work with the legislature to make our state's marriage laws fair for all New Yorkers --- including lesbian and gay couples."

Lambda Legal has been working with Empire State Pride Agenda and the ACLU to increase public understanding and support for same-sex couples seeking to marry in New York. According to a poll conducted in March by Global Research Group on behalf of Empire State Pride Agenda, 53% of New Yorkers support marriage for same-sex couples in the Empire State. In May 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to open marriage to same-sex couples. A Boston Globe poll taken in March 2005 found that 56% of people in Massachusetts now favor marriage for same-sex couples. This percentage is nearly a mirror image of the 53% of people in the Bay State who had opposed such marriages just a year earlier in February 2004, before couples of the same sex could legally wed there. Spain, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands stopped denying marriage to same-sex couples nationwide, with South Africa scheduled to follow soon.

"The question for the Legislature is an easy one: whether to follow through on the support of the majority of voters in this state to end discrimination against their gay friends and neighbors," Sommer said.

All but one of the states bordering New York has some sort of statewide legal status for gay and lesbian couples: Vermont and Connecticut have civil unions, New Jersey created domestic partnerships, and Massachusetts offers marriage. Same-sex couples have been marrying in Canada, the state's northern border, for several years.

Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel at Lambda Legal, is lead counsel on Hernandez v. Robles. David Buckel, Lambda Legal's Marriage Project Director, and Alphonso David, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney, also worked on the case. Jeffrey S. Trachtman and Norman C. Simon of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel of New York are cooperating counsel.

ACLU Denounces New York High Court Decision Denying Marriage Protections for Same-Sex Couples

ALBANY - The American Civil Liberties Union today denounced the New York Court of Appeals decision upholding by a 4-to-2 vote a state law that bars same-sex couples from marriage and the hundreds of family protections provided to married couples.   

"We are disappointed by the court's decision, but we will continue to fight for marriage protections for our family," said Amy Tripi of Highland.  Tripi is raising a child with her partner of nine years, Jeanne Vitale.  

The court adopted justifications for the state law barring marriage by same-sex couples advanced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.  Pointing out that stable relationships between parents are important for children, that straight couples can conceive children by "accident," and that gay couples can only have children with advance planning, Bloomberg and Spitzer argued that straight couples need the stability of marriage, but gay couples do not.   

Accepting an argument that was rejected by the Arkansas Supreme Court just last week when it struck down a policy barring gay people from serving as foster parents, the court also found that the ban is justified because some people may think that children do better with a mother and a father.  To reach this conclusion, the court ignored the advice of the leading child health and welfare organizations as well as decades of social science research proving that same-sex couples are just as capable of being good parents as straight people and that their children are just as well-adjusted.    

"The majority of New Yorkers support marriage for committed same-sex couples.  Today's decision by the court is disheartening given this state's long history of tolerance and justice for gay and lesbian people and other minority groups," said James Esseks, Litigation Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project.

Chief Justice Kaye, joined by Judge Ciparick, wrote a dissenting opinion harshly criticizing the majority opinion, stating, "This state has a proud tradition of affording equal rights to all New Yorkers.  Sadly, the Court today retreats from that proud tradition."  The dissent further stated, "I am confident that future generations will look back on today's decision as an unfortunate misstep."  

The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, LLP brought a challenge to the New York law on behalf of same-sex couples from throughout the state.  The New York Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on May 31 in the ACLU case and three other cases seeking marriage for same-sex couples, including a case brought by Lambda Legal on behalf of couples from New York City and separate cases brought by couples from Albany and Ithaca.

"The court has had its say, but our efforts to end discrimination against gay and lesbian couples will continue," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.  "It is time for the legislature to act."   

Among the plaintiff couples in the ACLU lawsuit were:

* Cindy Bink and Ann Pachner of West Hurley, who have been together for 18 years.  Bink had to leave her job as a counselor at a community college, where she had worked for 17 years because the college did not offer domestic partner benefits.  Forced to search for a job that would allow her to cover Pachner on her health insurance policy, she finally found a job working for the City of New York that provides health care for both of them.   

* Regina Cicchetti and Susan Zimmer, who live in Port Jervis, recently celebrated their 35th anniversary.  Cicchetti has survived two life-threatening illnesses - breast cancer and a pituitary tumor - and says that she could never have made it through these crises without Zimmer's support. The couple wants the security of knowing no questions will be asked about their relationship should one of them be hospitalized in the future.

* John Wessell and Billy O'Connor of New York City celebrated their 27th anniversary earlier this year.  Now nearing retirement, the couple worries that they would be barred from visiting each other in the hospital or kept out of conversations about emergency medical decisions.  Although they have wills, they also worry that their wishes will not be respected when one of them passes away.  

"Lesbian and gay couples make long-term commitments and establish loving, supportive families," said Roberta Kaplan of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, who argued on behalf of the couples in the case. "There is simply no good reason for the state to refuse to provide equal family protections and equal status under the law to gay and lesbian New Yorkers.  I am confident that the courts and the legislature will come to recognize that offering the protections of marriage to one class of citizens while denying them to another is inconsistent with this state's core values and is unconstitutional."

Esseks and Sharon McGowan of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, Lieberman and Arthur Eisenberg of the NYCLU, and Kaplan and Andrew Ehrlich of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, LLP were the legal team representing the plaintiffs. 

Biographical information on all of the clients, the legal documents and other background materials about Samuels and Gallagher, et. al. v. New York Department of Health are available at www.aclu.org/caseprofiles.

 

Egyptian MPs round on gay film

The Egyptian parliament is to review a controversial movie after 112 MPs demanded yesterday that homosexual scenes be censored.

Critics and politicians have attacked The Yacoubian Building, saying it defames Egypt by portraying corrupt politicians, police brutality, terrorism and homosexuality. The film, based on a popular novel by Alaa Al-Aswany, made its debut in Egyptian cinemas two weeks ago.

"This film is spreading obscenity and debauchery, which is totally against Egyptian moral values," said Mustafa Bakri, an independent MP who led the campaign against the film. He told the Associated Press that MPs have demanded cuts to scenes deemed "profane." See  Egyptian MPs round on gay film @ Guardian Unlimited, UK ALSO Taboo-smashing film breaks Egypt records @ BBC News

GAY SURFER FLICK ARRIVES

A NEW FILM LOOKING AT THE LIFE OF A YOUNG AUSSIE GAY SURFER HITS THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE.

Finding an actor who looked 16, could surf and was willing to do gay sex scenes was always going to be difficult.

But for Ed Aldridge, the writer, director and producer of new Australian feature film Tan Lines, the success of the project hung off the casting of his lead character Midget and he was determined to get it right.

Midget is a 16-year-old surfer and party boy who falls in love with the older brother of one of his friends and is forced to come to terms with his homosexuality. The film is described as a coming of age comedy.

After a year of searching for the right Midget, Aldridge cast Jack Baxter, a 16-year-old skater boy from Surry Hills who could surf but had no acting experience. He wasn’t too keen on the sex scenes, but Aldridge felt he was perfect for the role and managed to convince Baxter to sign up.

“Jack was just the embodiment of Midget, which was quite scary,” Aldridge said. “He totally understood the script and the humour of it.”

See GAY SURFER FLICK ARRIVES
Sydney Star Observer, Australia -

Prescott under fire for anti-gay link

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott has come under fire from the gay community for his decision to stay with an American billionaire who is not only bidding to run a government licensed casino, but is also a well known for his anti-gay views.

This is just the latest in a long lines of scandals to have engulfed Mr Prescott in recent months and centres on his undeclared stay with senior civil servants on Philip Anschutz's ranch in July of last year. See Prescott under fire for anti-gay link
PinkNews.co.uk, UK 

Gay superheroes becoming mainstream

July 6, 2006 — In 1956, DC Comics introduced Batwoman as Batman’s love interest. Now, 50 years later, Batwoman has ditched her “utility purse” and come out as a lesbian.

DC Comics announced in May that it plans to resurrect the classic character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of a weekly series that began earlier this year.

Joe Palmer, Web site administrator for GayLeague.com, a Web site for gay comic book fans, said the new gay Batwoman is a step in the right direction. A homosexual superhero created by Superman’s comic book company can only help gay and lesbians in their struggle for acceptance, he said.

Superman’s sexuality has even been debated recently in the Los Angeles Times and The Advocate magazine, but gay comic book superheroes have been around for years.

Mainstream Heroes

See Gay superheroes becoming mainstream
Brownsville Herald, TX United States 

Hong Kong begins challenge to liberal gay sex ruling

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong court Thursday began hearing the government's appeal against a landmark ruling in a case that sought to lower the city's age of consent for gays from 21, lawyers said.

 Lawyers for the Chinese-backed government are trying to overturn a ruling in August last year that declared as discriminatory and unconstitutional a higher age of consent for gays than for heterosexuals, for whom consent is granted at 16.

 Homosexuals who break the law risk possible life in prison while heterosexuals face a maximum of five years.

 Billy Lam, a young homosexual who brought the case in August, is expected to counter the government's argument that sodomy under the age of 21 is equally prohibited for women as it is for men.

 Hong Kong only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991 and has been criticised for appealing against the ruling.

See Hong Kong begins challenge to liberal gay sex ruling
Nation Multimedia, Thailand 

Gay bashers turned vacation in tropics into a nightmare for ...

After months of working long hours at CBS television's "48 Hours," Ryan Smith decided to take a nice little vacation in St. Maarten with his boyfriend and other friends.

The April getaway was anything but nice.

The 25-year-old Sandusky native was brutally beaten by locals who first taunted the gay couple in a bar, Smith said. Police did not interview witnesses or gather evidence that night and then dragged their feet for weeks, he said.

The prime suspect was finally arrested two months after the attack, but at this point has been charged only with attempted manslaughter. Three others remain in custody.

"This is attempted murder," said Smith, who is back home in New York City recovering from his second brain surgery. "This was premeditated. They sat in a car and waited for us to get out of the bar. They ran us over with cars. They got out of the car and hit us with a tire iron, with anything they could."

Doctors told Smith that if the fracture on his skull had been just a centimeter over, he probably would have lost his ability to talk and comprehend what others were saying.

Smith occasionally struggles to find the right word or pronounce it correctly, but he is expected to make a full recovery. He works in the "48 Hours" planning department, researching and scheduling stories.

Also injured in the attack was Dick Jefferson, a senior producer at CBS News. Jefferson's injuries were less severe, and he was able to return to work shortly after the attack.

Jefferson, 51, who returned to the island after the attack to prod investigators, has often vacationed on the Caribbean island.

"There is a rising homophobia that I've never seen before," Jefferson said.

See Gay bashers turned vacation in tropics into a nightmare for ...
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH 

Gay in OK(LAHOMA)

Oklahoma City's 19th annual gay pride festival was held Saturday and Sunday under the slogan "We ARE The People." And though many danced, cheered and celebrated their pride at Sunday's parade, several gay students say it is an ongoing struggle to gain acceptance from family and peers.

"I have found that being taken seriously as a group of people is a true issue that many face," said Bret Gaither, psychology senior and former president of the OU's Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered and Friends student organization.

Celebrated internationally, the annual gay pride events commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in New York City, which launched the gay rights movement. The movement has helped gain many civil rights for non-heterosexuals over the decades, but prejudice against homosexuals in Oklahoma still exists, said Paul Robert Thompson, co-chair of the Oklahoma Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.

Gay in OK
Oklahoma Daily, OK 

Gay Meth Use Still a Problem

Crystal meth use is still a problem among gay men, despite reports that usage has decreased among the general U.S. population, according to a group of physicians.

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association says recent media coverage of a study which downplays the extent of methamphetamine use doesn’t take into account its use among gay and bisexual men.

A widely published Associated Press article reported in June on a recent study which found that just 0.2 percent of Americans are regular users of crystal meth. The study, titled The Next Big Thing? Methamphetamine in the United States, was carried out by the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project. See Gay Meth Use Still a Problem
EDGE Boston, MA 

QUEENS' REIGNS AT THE 19TH CONNECTICUT GAY AND LESBIAN FILM FEST

HARTFORD, Conn. - The 19th Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival ended its nine day run with over 2,000 viewers, films, parties and a silent auction. The Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival announced the winners of the Audience and Jury Awards from the film festival.

The new Spanish feature "Queens" by director Manuel Gómez Pereira won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. "Laughing Matters…More!" by Andrea Meyerson won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The Jury Prize for Best Short went to "Oedipus N + 1" by French director Eric Rognard.

The Festival ran from June 2-10 at Cinestudio in Hartford, Conn. Eleven programs of varied, challenging and entertaining content were showcased, featuring films, documentaries and short films from all over the world. For nine days, the Festival showcased the latest in LGBT film. Every year people from all over the state and beyond come to this celebration of Pride on film. See QUEENS’ REIGNS AT THE 19TH CONNECTICUT GAY AND LESBIAN FILM ...
Out In America, OH 

City, conservative group settle lawsuit over gay high school

NEW YORK -- The city and a conservative legal group have a settled a lawsuit in which the city was accused of violating laws against segregation by establishing a public high school for gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The city and a group calling itself the Liberty Counsel reached the settlement a week ago, agreeing that the Harvey Milk High School was open to students of any sexual orientation, said Kate O'Brien Ahlers of the city's Law Department. See City, conservative group settle lawsuit over gay high school

Newsday -

Top NY State Court's Ruling on Gay and Lesbian Marriage Is Awaited

New York's highest court is expected to rule today on what one legal scholar called a contest between judicial hearts and minds, a parsing of legal texts and private sympathies: whether to permit gay and lesbian marriage.

There are several directions the Court of Appeals could take, lawyers said. The most dramatic would be a clear affirmation that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, which would make New York the second state in the nation, after Massachusetts, to allow such marriages. In that event, the court could order the Legislature to rewrite the marriage law.

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, suggested that a majority of the six judges -- a seventh judge recused himself -- are personally sympathetic to what the plaintiffs are asking. Their decision, he said, will depend be how they read New York State's marriage law, the State Constitution and legal precedents, which are all different from those in Massachusetts. See Top State Court's Ruling on Gay and Lesbian Marriage Is Awaited
Civilrights.org, DC

Planned gay pride march sparks ire in conservative Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Jewish and Arab MPs in Jerusalem are often at odds, but they joined forces this week in protest at a common enemy - a massive gay pride rally which they fear will tarnish the reputation of their ancient holy city. "The residents of Jerusalem are attracted by the unique character of this city. There is no reason to harm this singularity for a simple exhibitionist desire," said MP and rabbi Yitshak Levi, quoted in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. Levi and Ibrahim Sarsur, an MP from the United Arab list, spent the past few days circulating a petition among Israeli deputies calling for the gay pride parade to be cancelled. World Pride 2006, a weeklong festival and rally for gay, lesbian, transsexual and transgendered people, is planned for August 6-12. The last such event, in Rome six years ago, drew around 500,000 people. A poll conducted at the urging of the two MPs suggested that only 12 per cent of Jerusalemites support the gay rally and that 69 percent oppose it. See Planned gay pride march sparks ire in conservative Jerusalem

Kuwait Times

Gay leader not daunted by Muslim threat

In response to MK Ibrahim Sarsur's threat that homosexuals who dare to approach Temple Mount during World Pride 2006 will do so over Muslims' dead bodies, Charles Merrill says 'I will be approaching the Temple Mount out of love and forgiveness to those who hate us'  See Gay leader not daunted by Muslim threat

Ynetnews -

Six-figure award for sacked gay jibe manager

A homosexual sales manager who claimed his boss called him "a wee poof" and said he looked "like a cream puff" could receive a six-figure sum in compensation, even though he was sacked from his company after only eight days.
Jonah Ditton, of Thornwood Avenue, Broomhill, Glasgow, has won his claim at an employment tribunal that CP Publishing was guilty of harassment and unlawful discrimination in terms of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.
The tribunal also ruled that the Glasgow company, which publishes entertainment guides, had made unlawful deductions from his wages and breached his employment contract.Mr Ditton told the Glasgow tribunal that, after applying for a job as an area sales manager in June 2005, he was interviewed by John Campbell, one of the com-pany's directors.
Mr Ditton, who was described as having "a sexual orientation towards persons of the same sex", said Mr Campbell asked him if he was gay and implied that if he admitted that he was, he might not get the job.
In the circumstances, Mr Ditton said he wasn't and was offered the job at a starting salary of £25,000 a year.
He was told that, with commission, he could earn up to £100,000 a year.
But as soon as Mr Ditton started his new job, he became "uneasy" about the attitude of another of the company's directors, Warren Paul who demonstrated "a level of intolerance towards ethnic minorities".
Mr Ditton alleged that he then found himself being subjected to offensive comments by Mr Paul which were directly related to his sexual orientation.
During staff training sessions, Mr Paul imitated Mr Ditton's English accent, using what Mr Ditton described as an effeminate and "camp" inflection.
The day after Mr Ditton started work, Mr Paul commented on a blue tie he was wearing. On being told that it was by Hermes, Mr Paul replied in a camp voice: "Oooh, Hermes." When he wore a cream-coloured suit to work, Mr Paul told him: "You look like a cream puff."
On the day Mr Ditton was sacked, he had attempted to join in a light-hearted discussion about marital relations but was told by Mr Paul to "shut it, you wee poof".
Mr Ditton was phoned that evening and sacked, after only eight days in the job, on the grounds that he was not "psychologically balanced".
In its written judgment, the tribunal said that Mr Ditton was "understandably appalled and upset" by his treatment.
CP Publishing, of Miller Street, Glasgow, which was not represented at the hearing, has been ordered to pay him £1033 for wages and damages for breach of contract.
The tribunal stated that "in respect of compensation for the unlawful discrimination", the award "may well run into six figures".
But it cannot be decided until a further hearing, when Mr Ditton will be required to produce medical evidence regarding the extent of illness caused by the treatment he received at the hands of his former employers.

A homosexual sales manager who claimed his boss called him "a wee poof" and said he looked "like a cream puff" could receive a six-figure sum in compensation, even though he was sacked from his company after only eight days.
Jonah Ditton, of Thornwood Avenue, Broomhill, Glasgow, has won his claim at an employment tribunal that CP Publishing was guilty of harassment and unlawful discrimination in terms of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.
The tribunal also ruled that the Glasgow company, which publishes entertainment guides, had made unlawful deductions from his wages and breached his employment contract.Mr Ditton told the Glasgow tribunal that, after applying for a job as an area sales manager in June 2005, he was interviewed by John Campbell, one of the com-pany's directors.

See Six-figure award for sacked gay jibe manager

The Herald

Episcopalian leaders balk at bishop

Episcopalian leaders balk at bishop

Union Democrat, CA 

Local Episcopal church leaders are praying for change after the first female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was appointed at the church's recent national convention.

Father Wolfgang Krismanits, of St. James Episcopal Church in downtown Sonora, thinks the church is approaching a crossroads with the June 18 decision.

Straying away from the Bible-based doctrine, a more "radical" belief system is emerging, with Nevada Bishop Jefferts Schori, 52, being a prime example, he said.

"This is an issue of theology, not sexism," he said. "We must be more concerned with what the Bible says rather than what culture seeks."

In the Episcopalian Church, women have been allowed to become priests and bishops for the past 30 years, but Krismanits can find no reference to that in scriptures.

"It is the goal of the church to show people there's a better way to live — the Bible way," he said.

Jefferts Schori supports ideas that are "way outside" the limits of Christian faith, Krismanits said. She is publicly known as being pro-abortion and finds Darwinian evolution more credible than biblical creationism. She is also most noted for her support of openly gay bishops.

"She's confusing people by preaching the Bible but supporting the opposite," Krismanits said. "God's love says ‘no' sometimes."

Three U.S. Episcopal dioceses that oppose allowing gay bishops voted Wednesday to reject the authority of Jefferts Schori, but stopped short of a full break with the Episcopal Church.

In separate meetings, the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, South Carolina and San Joaquin asked the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to assign them an alternative leader.

The years-long debate over gay ordination reached a crisis point in 2003 when the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, elected the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire.

Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan objects to the election of Jefferts Schori, who voted to confirm Robinson in 2003 and supports ordaining gays and blessing same-sex relationships.

"There are really two bodies within our church," Duncan said in a statement.

Duncan, who leads the U.S. conservative network, also said his diocese would seek permission from the top Episcopal legislative body for a new division within the church that would bring together dioceses with traditional biblical views.

Separately, leaders of the Diocese of South Carolina said "relationships have now been so strained" by church actions that the diocese needs to be under a new national leader.

The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, has also asked Williams to assign them a leader other than Jefferts Schori, but did so because it rejects the ordination of women. The Diocese of San Joaquin also does not accept women priests.

Father John H. Shumaker, of St. Matthews Episcopal Church in San Andreas, agrees with other leaders that he would have wanted a man elected, but respects the decision because it was decided in the proper manner.

He compared Jefferts Schori's appointment to the work of President Bush.

"I don't agree with the president about war, but as long as soldiers are there, I'll support the troops," Shumaker said. "It's the same thing with church. Though you may not agree, you respect the office."

A congregation has both men and women, and the American church may be responding to this reality by having the same mix of people leading it, he said.

Ultimately, Shumaker doesn't think there will be an uprising or that Jefferts Schori will be ousted because "it could all be part of God's mysterious plan."

"He doesn't always give us what we want. God gives us what we need," he said. "Maybe he's saying we need to deal with this."

Contact Sharon Marie Yep at syep@uniondemocrat.com or 588-4530.

Gay Arabs come out in Beirut

Lebanese police provided protection for the first ever gay Arab rights conference which was held several weeks ago in Beirut. The three-day conference of the group, called 'Helem,' received tacit support from Lebanese authorities as well as several non-governmental organizations.

One of the main goals of 'Helem' whose name is an Arabic acronym for 'Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders' is to pressure the Lebanese government to remove an article of its legal code which criminalizes homosexuality.

In addition, they hope to educate the public about homosexuality and the fact that it is not a crime, or a problem to be 'cured,' while many homosexual couples spend their lives together in loving, monogamous relationships.

“In Lebanon, they’re still trying to ‘cure’ homosexuality…So this event is a way for us to explain what homosexuality is," said George Azzi, a coordinator of the group, according to the BBC.

See  Gay Arabs come out in Beirut
Al-Bawaba, Jordan

FA urged to report The Sun over gay "nancy boy" slur

FA urged to report The Sun over gay “nancy boy” slur @ PinkNews.co.uk, UK: Gay campaigner Peter Tatchell has called on the Football Association (FA) to report The Sun to the Press Complaints Commission after the paper branded Portuguese midfielder, Cristiano Ronaldo, a “nancy boy.

McGreevey move cheers Plainfield's gay community

As former Gov. James E. McGreevey and his partner began moving into their new home last week, they joined one of the state's more vibrant and growing gay communities, in Plainfield.

Many of the renovations in the distinctive Tudor and Victorian cottages that dot the Sleepy Hollow area, just blocks from where McGreevey and Mark O'Donnell will live, have come from the area's gay and lesbian residents.

Plainfield is following the decade-long trend of some other communities in New Jersey -- including Maplewood, Asbury Park and the Camden County borough of Collingswood -- that have experienced "population booms among gay and lesbians," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a lesbian and gay rights organization.

Part of the reason for the influx, Goldstein said, is the "affordability of the suburbs. Gay people, like straight people, don't want to pay $1 million for a studio in Manhattan." Likewise, space is important, especially with an increasing number of lesbian and gay couples raising children, Goldstein said.

Just as important, he added, are New Jersey's progressive domestic-partnership laws; Plainfield also provides domestic-partnership benefits to gay and lesbian city employees. The city, Goldstein said, "is second to none in its embrace of the gay and lesbian community."

McGreevey, who abruptly left office nearly two years ago after disclosing he was "a gay American" who had had an affair with a man, remains a popular figure in this city of some 47,000 people.

"It's great," said Rebecca Williams, who is openly gay and ran unsuccessfully for Union County freeholder last year. "It only enhances the town and brings more folks in, folks who are gay, gay-friendly, etc." The fact that McGreevey chose Plainfield, "which is so racially diverse and very accepting, says something," Williams added.

At $1.4 million, McGreevey and O'Donnell's Georgian mansion with eight bedrooms and an in-ground pool is a bargain when compared with similar homes across the state.

The spot, set on 1.7 acres in one of the city's most affluent blocks, is within commuting distance of Manhattan, where O'Donnell works in finance; and is not far from the home of one of McGreevey's daughters, who is 4 years old and lives with her mother in Springfield.

See  McGreevey move cheers Plainfield's gay community
Newark Star Ledger, 

Longer life sees shift in focus for many HIV patients

Twenty five years since the first medical case reports of AIDS, a survey conducted by the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS (UKC) revealed that people living with HIV have greater concerns over the long-term effects of their medications than they do illness caused by HIV infection itself.

HIV positive respondents in the UK ranked long-term side effects as top of their list of concerns, with fears of illness caused by HIV infection taking second place. The short-term side effects of medication were the next priority and other concerns, including possible changes to lifestyle, frequency of medication doses and number of pills, followed respectively. The possible interactions between HIV drugs and other medications came bottom of the list of worries.

“Doctors often incorrectly assume that they know what motivates individuals to take their antiretroviral therapy,” said Professor Brian G Gazzard, consultant physician and HIV clinical researcher director at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. “The survey, conducted by the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS, is timely and indicates that the patients’ greatest concern is long-term toxicity rather than the ease of taking their medication or the interactions with other medications.  Perhaps not surprisingly, without current data, patients are concerned about the lack of information provided by doctors with regard to long-term outcomes, both in terms of toxicity and effects on health of antiretroviral treatment.”

See Longer life sees shift in focus for many HIV patients
Blacknet, UK 

Patrons say police raid at gay club went too far in Albuquerque

Ronald Alix, a 58-year-old gay man from Miami Beach, Fla., was seriously considering moving to Albuquerque - until a Saturday night run-in with state Special Investigation Division agents and Albuquerque Police.

Alix says agents used inappropriate force and offensive language after they raided a men-only exercise gym and social center near Downtown.

The establishment, Pride Gym, had about 35 male patrons when the doors burst open and agents with rifles ordered the men handcuffed and face down to ground.

Some of the men were handcuffed, including a handful of men in their 70s who before the raid had been wearing only waist towels, Alix said.

"Some of them had been wearing only towels, and they had fallen off. They had handcuffed nude 70-year-old men," Alix said.

He said the officers said they were investigating the illegal serving of alcohol.

Jim Plagens, deputy director for Special Investigations Division, which enforces alcohol regulations, said agents were targeting the gym because it advertises selling alcohol but does not have a proper license.

He also said handcuffing patrons in bar sweeps such as this is routine.

"If this was an underage club, we would be doing the same thing," Plagens said, citing officer safety from unruly patrons and patron safety from agents on high alert.

See Patrons say police raid at gay club went too far Albuquerque Tribune

Episcopal Blog Update

·         Akinola's alternative Lambeth: The Church of Nigeria seems to be planning to boycott the Lambeth Conference and to holds its own gathering unless the Episcopal, Canadian, and, apparently, English churches allow Archbishop Akinola to dictate their beliefs. A communiqué from its recent Episcopal synod is here.

·         Independence and a Pack of Cards: Well, I’ve more or less had it!

The pronouncements of the Synod of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican) grasping at an alternative worldwide meeting of Anglican bishops, compounding the various pronouncements of plea for alternative primatial oversight, a new province of the Episcopal Church, various disassociations, disgruntlements, and premature ejaculations concerning the thoughts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the announcement of the election of a bishop for CANA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Church of Nigeria, have led me to reconsider Alice’s evidence: …

IL gay marriage referendum faces challenge to get on ballot

Supporters of a non-binding referendum on gay marriage Wednesday formally challenged a preliminary finding by state election officials that the proposal lacks enough signatures to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The move by the conservative Illinois Family Institute came after the Illinois State Board of Elections reviewed a random sample of 64,000 of more than 345,000 petition signatures the group filed but found only about 91 percent of those signatures were valid.

State election law requires that more than 95 percent of the sample's signatures must be valid as part of the process to get the proposal on the ballot.

"We've found some questions about the process, so we're moving forward," said the group's executive director, Peter LaBarbera. "We're still very confident voters will see this amendment on Election Day."

Even if the Illinois Family Institute reaches the 95 percent threshold, gay-rights activists say they will still challenge the effort to place the proposal on the ballot. See gay marriage referendum faces challenge

Chicago Tribune

Springfield's Episcopal bishop signals split

Springfield's Episcopal bishop signals split

St. Louis Post-Dispatch,  United States 

The bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Springfield, Ill., which includes more than 40 churches in southern and eastern-central Illinois, released a pastoral letter Friday telling his flock that he will begin seeking alternative oversight for his diocese rather than submit to the authority of the church's newly elected presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Bishop Peter H. Beckwith's letter came in the wake of decisions last month at a churchwide convention that he said he found disappointing and embarrassing. Saying the Episcopal church is "in meltdown," Beckwith cited reasons that ranged from theological to personal for what he said was "the lowest ebb of our beloved but beleaguered Church since perhaps the Civil War if not the American Revolution."

One of Beckwith's complaints was with the election of Jefferts Schori, the church's leader for the next nine years and the first woman to head any of the 38 national churches that make up the 75 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion. Jefferts Schori, who allows same-sex union ceremonies in her diocese of Nevada, is considered a liberal bishop.

Three Episcopal dioceses - including Quincy, Ill. (one of the other two dioceses in Illinois) do not recognize female priests.

"What we appear to be saying in reality is that The Episcopal Church desires to be a member of the Anglican Communion but only on its own terms," wrote Beckwith in his pastoral letter. "No relationship prospers under that kind of orientation."

Reggae stars banned after breaking gay hate pledge

For a handful of Jamaican reggae stars accused of fomenting homophobia with their violently anti-gay lyrics, they were supposed to be the songs they would never sing again.

But a 14-year war of words between gay rights groups and Jamaican "dancehall" performers has erupted once again after campaigners said several artists had reneged on an agreement last year to stop using - and justifying - their gay bashing songs.

Concerts by two singers - Buju Banton and Beenie Man - were this week cancelled in Brighton and Bournemouth after complaints from gay rights groups.

Banton, whose 1992 song Boom Bye Bye brought the issue of dancehall homophobia to light by calling for "batty boys" or gay men to be shot in the head, set on fire or have acid poured over them, had been due to perform last night at a club in Brighton's gay district.

But the club, Concorde 2, said it was cancelling the concert after being told by the local authority that it risked losing its licence on the grounds that the performance could endanger public safety. … Outrage!, the gay rights group, said it will be seeking to stop performances in Britain by three Jamaican musicians, including Banton and Beenie Man, after compiling evidence that they were still singing songs with anti-gay lyrics.

See Reggae stars banned after breaking gay hate pledge

Independent

A first in Mozambique: Gay Rights Raised in Mozambican Paper

For the first time, a mainstream Mozambican paper has published an article by a prominent Mozambican journalist arguing in favour of gay rights.

Previously the question of homosexuality has been largely ignored in the Mozambican media, with the exception of occasional outbursts of homophobic nonsense by christian or moslem clerics.

But one young gay man, interviewed in the new publication "Matinal", claimed that Mozambican gays intend to present a petition to the country's parliament seeking the approval of gay marriage.

Prominent Radio Mozambique journalist Emilio Manhique took the issue up on his phone-in programme "Cafe de Manha" last Thursday. Some of the listeners who rang in to the programme were shocked - how could Manhique even raise the subject ? For them, homosexuality was so taboo that it should not even be discussed in Mozambican society.

Manhique has returned to the question in his weekly column in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mozambique", in which he argues strongly that gay people have "the right to be different".

"Homosexuality, contrary to what many people think, is not a disease", writes Manhique. "It's a question of sexual orientation. Nobody asked to be born homosexual, just as nobody asked to be born heterosexual, and nobody asked to be born black, white or Chinese".

"Less than 40 years ago in this country we were humiliated and despised because of the colour of our skins", recalls Manhique. "We were considered second class citizens".

"Today we point accusing fingers at people with a different sexual orientation", he adds. "And, if that weren't enough, we stigmatise them. Some, such as President Robert Mugabe, even call them dogs".

 See Mozambique: Gay Rights Raised in Mozambican Paper
AllAfrica.com, Washington

SOUTH Australia 'worst' for gay couples

SOUTH Australia is the worst state in Australia for recognising the rights of same-sex couples, its most senior human rights advocate has told a national inquiry.

Equal Opportunity Commissioner Linda Matthews has called for urgent reforms to "modernise this state's equal opportunity reforms and bring them into line with the protections already available interstate".

In a written submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Ms Matthews said South Australia had slipped from being a world leader in law reform to the "last of all the states and territories in Australia" to recognise the rights of homosexuals and lesbians.

See SA 'worst' for gay couples
Advertiser Adelaide, Australia

Depp suggests pirate character is gay

Johnny Depp says he likes the idea that his onscreen pirate character may, in fact, be gay. Depp plays Captain Jack in the latest instalment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, “Dead Man’s Chest.”

“I like the idea of Jack being ambiguous,” Depp said in an interview for Rolling Stone magazine. “Because women were thought to be bad luck on ships. And these pirates would go out for years at a time.” See Depp suggests pirate character is gay
Gay NZ, New Zealand 

Manhigut Joins Call to Prevent Jerusalem Gay Parade

(IsraelNN.com) The Manhigut Yehudit "Jewish Leadership" faction of the Likud Party has joined the call to oppose the International Gay Pride Parade set to take place in Jerusalem next month. The faction released the following statement:

"The abomination march embodies the destruction of morality and the dissolution of the family," a statement said. "The insistence on holding the parade specifically in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish nation, the city which represents faith, holiness and morality to all the world, is spitting in the face of the Jewish nation by the privelaged "golden youth."

The statement concluded, "We call upon all of the Jewish nation to join the struggle for the character of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish nation and prevent the parade from taking place." See Manhigut Joins Call to Prevent Jerusalem Gay Parade
Aruteez Sheva, Israel 

Co-dependence day: The right wing of American Episcopalianism wants the Archbishop of Canterbury to save it from its crazy modernist brethren.

Co-dependence day

Guardian Unlimited, UK 

Harold Meyerson

Maybe it's just the timing - the proximity to July 4, the day Americans celebrate their independence from Britain - that makes the sudden rebellion of half a dozen conservative dioceses within the US Episcopal church appear so, well, un-American.

But the spectacle of the leaders of the right wing of American Episcopalianism clamouring for the Archbishop of Canterbury to save them from their crazy modernist American brethren is about the closest thing to a revocation of the spirit of 1776 that we Americans have seen in a very long time.

Like most old-line Protestant churches in the US whose roots lie outside the South, the Episcopal church here has been growing steadily more liberal for a number of decades. In a sense, this evolution parallels some broader political shifts in American politics during the past 40 years, as both accredited professionals and moderate Republicans of the now-defunct Rockefeller wing of the party have tended to transfer their allegiance to the Democrats. And while not all professionals or Rockefeller Republicans were once Episcopalians, it is certainly true that Episcopalians were disproportionately one or the other or both.

America, of course, was always a land of many faiths. But by that most crucial of theological indices, highest median income of congregants, Episcopals came out on top for several centuries running. By the early 70s, this probably was no longer the case, as evidenced by the crack going around New York at the time that Jews had the income of Episcopalians but voted like Puerto Ricans. Today an apparent majority of Episcopal prelates vote like Puerto Ricans, too - that is, distinctly on the liberal side.

Three years ago, a decisive majority of the American church's bishops voted to accept the New Hampshire diocese's election of an openly gay bishop. Then, on June 18 of this year, the church's general convention elected Nevada's Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori to a nine-year term as the church's presiding bishop. Not only is Jefferts Schori the first woman to head a branch of the Anglican communion (the name for all the national churches affiliated with Anglicanism; if you're more comfortable with Marxist parlance, call it the Anglican international), but she has also allowed the blessing of same-sex couples within her diocese (in which, keep in mind, the largest city is that bastion of traditional morality Las Vegas).

Jefferts Schori is the very model of a modernist Episcopal. She entered the priesthood just 12 years ago, at age 40, after a career as an oceanographer. (Her husband is a theoretical mathematician.) As a young woman, she told the Washington Post, her religious faith deepened while she was reading "Heisenberg and Bohr and Einstein and the great physicists who talk about mystery". Studying marine invertebrates, she added, had heightened her awareness of "the great wonder and variety of creation".

All this has been too much for conservative Episcopals. Within a couple of weeks of Jeffert Schori's designation, six of 111 dioceses within the American church announced that they had rejected her authority, chiefly over the issue of her stance, and the church's, on gay marriage and ordination. Another five or so dioceses may follow, as well as some individual parishes.

Bishop Robert Duncan of the Pittsburgh diocese, one of the dissident six, told the post the traditionalists weren't leaving the church but were asking the Archbishop of Canterbury for "alternative primatial oversight" - that is, to designate some church leader from another country to oversee them for now.

It's this calling on Canterbury that seems so literally (or perhaps ancestrally) un-American. For even as the Church of England grew out of the political dispute between the Tudor monarchs and the Pope, so the Protestant Episcopal church in the US is a direct artefact of the American revolution. Two-thirds of the signers of the declaration of independence, whose anniversary we celebrate this week, were active or nominal Anglicans, and in rejecting the political authority of the king of England they could hardly have been expected to affirm the ecclesiastical authority of the king of England. The Protestant Episcopal church in America emerged in lockstep with the new nation.

Interstate conventions of the various dioceses began in 1784 and 1785, just as Americans were beginning to talk about drafting a real constitution for the fledgling confederation of states. The US denomination was formally organised in 1789, the year George Washington became the country's first president, and the first elected House of Representatives and Senate were seated.

In more recent times, Anglicanism, like many western religions, has experienced its greatest growth in the developing world - in Anglicanism's case, particularly in Africa, where cultural mores are not exactly in sync with those of the US. Nor are the African churches all that different from many of their more traditionalist western counterparts. Of the 38 national churches in the Anglican communion, only 13 ordain women as priests, and only three - the US, Canada and New Zealand - ordain them as bishops. Conservative church leaders from many nations have already made clear that they don't want the Rt Rev Rowan Williams, who as the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leader of the Anglican communion, to invite Jefferts Schori to the next gathering of the 38 nations' church leaders, scheduled for 2008.

And last week, Williams himself upped the ante with a "theological reflection" asking all 38 national churches to agree to a new covenant in which they would sacrifice some of their autonomy to the communion. Failure to do so, he added, could result in the relegation of the headstrong churches to a secondary status. This could conceivably lead to the creation of two separate and unequal Episcopal churches within the US - a dominant branch with Canterbury and a splinter that doesn't have many actual existing members but can nevertheless sit at the archbishop's elbow and yak into his ear.

None of this amounts to that consequential a story within the US, where the entire church, in all its wings and proto-wings, encompasses no more than 2.3 million Americans in a nation of 300 million. It matters because it reflects the tensions within the larger society (though time itself is impelling us towards the elimination of discrimination against gays and lesbians: among younger Americans, acceptance even of gay marriage now registers clear majority support in the polls).

What's really interesting about this story, though, is that 230 years after America announced its break with England, a group of what to the naked eye appears to be relatively normal Americans is not simply breaking with its church but appealing to the authority of the Church of England for a rescue. That's just not how we do it here. When Americans dissent, they walk; they devise indigenous (which should not be confused with ingenious) solutions; they form their own thing. How else could we have assembled the vast proliferation of sects, cults and loony ideas that are the very fabric of our land?

But instead of doing that, instead of establishing their own genteel, homophobic church like any good Americans, these guys are returning to the bosom of the Church of England? Where is the House Un-American Activities Committee when you really need it?

Syphilis cases soar 10 years after doctors thought it had been beaten

 Sexual health experts are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of cases of syphilis - fuelled by unprotected gay sex and an outbreak among mature women who are suspected of "swinging".

Official figures released yesterday show that the highly infectious sexually transmitted disease is making a comeback 10 years after doctors believed it had been eradicated.

The rise - 23% last year on top of 39% between 2003-04 - is partly attributed to the gay community practicing less safe sex than in the 1990s, according to experts at the Health Protection Agency (HPA). But among women the rise has been partly caused "by a couple of outbreaks in particular sexual circles among more mature women", said Professor Peter Boriello, director of the HPA's centre for infections.

See Syphilis cases soar 10 years after doctors thought it had been ... Guardian Unlimited

Bishops scorn US 'satanic attack' on church

Bishops scorn US 'satanic attack' on church

Independent Online, South Africa 

Nairobi - The Anglican Church in Nigeria on Tuesday rejected a proposal to accommodate divisions over homosexuality, calling instead for liberal churches in North America to be removed from the religious world body.

Last week in a message to Anglican Church leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the global Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, called for a dual structure of "Constituent Churches" and "Churches in Association" as a means of preserving church unity threatened by divergent opinions between conservatives who oppose homosexuals in the church and liberals who support them.

"One would have expected that those who had embarked on this religious misadventure would be encouraged to judge their actions against our well-established historic tradition," the Church of Nigeria said in a statement on its website.

"A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure," the statement added.

"To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient."

The Anglican Church in Nigeria, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola, is in the forefront of conservative churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America opposed to the ordination of gay priests and the blessing of same-sex unions.

With more than 17 million members forming the second biggest membership outside the parent Church of England, it is a major conservative force in the global Anglican Church.

The Nigerian church broke ranks with the US Episcopal Church in 2003 over its ordination of an openly gay priest as bishop.

Last year, the Nigerian church effected constitutional changes deleting all references to the mother church in England as the rift over homosexuals deepened.

It said the changes will allow it to set up missions outside Nigeria and cater for churchgoers unhappy with recent theological innovations encouraging practices which the Nigerians recognise as sin.

Akinola has condemned the blessing of same-sex unions and gay bishops as a "Satanic attack" on the church. - Sapa-AP

Gay rugby star on assault charge

Ian Roberts the former Australian rugby league champion turned actor has been charged with common assault after a domestic incident concerning his male partner at his Sydney home.

Although police have not yet named Roberts, they have admitted that a 40 year-old man had been charged with common assault and was due to appear in a Sydney court on Wednesday. See Gay rugby star on assault charge
Gay.com UK, UK 

Things fall apart: Rowan Williams's plea to the Anglican communion to hold together appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Things fall apart

Guardian Unlimited, UK 

Stephen Bates

Archbishop Rowan Williams's plea last week for measured discussion and lengthy contemplation over whether the Anglican communion should develop a mutually agreed covenant of core beliefs and then, eventually, perhaps, a looser structure of constituent churches and associated churches, seems to be falling apart within days.

The bishops of Nigeria are already demanding that those same liberals should be excised like a cancer from the body of the church. Their primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, criticised Dr Williams's letter even before he had read it. And some liberals, here and in the US, are beginning to ask themselves whether the worldwide Anglican communion is such a worthwhile body to belong to after all.

Akinola has already begun the process of anointing his own representative in the US, the Rev Martyn Minns (the English evangelical who ministers to a church in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC) as a bishop of the Nigerian church, putatively to lead like-minded conservatives in America - a move described by Lambeth as unhelpful. Not sure what Minns's rivals, such as the Rev David Anderson of the conservative American Anglican Council, or Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, for that matter, think of that, but at least Minns, after several failed attempts to get a mitre in an American diocese, has now achieved one from Africa.

Akinola has also questioned whether the next Lambeth conference of all the world's Anglican bishops, scheduled for 2008, at which Dr Williams fondly hopes the covenant might be discussed, should go ahead at all, or whether the orthodox bishops of the global south should rally to a meeting with him instead.

Half a dozen American dioceses are now queueing up to ask Dr Williams for alternative archiepiscopal oversight, because they either don't like the idea of a woman presiding bishop, or, as they state more openly, her liberal views, which coincide with those of the leadership and the majority at the recent general convention. None of the would-be break-outs has yet suggested Archbishop Akinola might be the best man to lead them, but that may be only a question of time.

They may even now be contemplating the words of Gerald Bray, another English evangelical bien-pensant and recent professor of divinity at a university in Alabama, in an edition of Churchman, the learned journal of the Church Society (Winter 2003): "Faced with a choice between a white American homosexual bishop and a black-skinned African archbishop ... the celebrant may look more like the church janitor than like any of his worshippers in the pews, but it does not matter."

Or, alternatively, they may be once again rueing Archbishop Akinola's hair-trigger response to any development of which he disapproves. His ego is a mountainous thing, almost insurmountable for them. When I was attending the US Episcopal church's general convention in Ohio a fortnight ago, one conservative told me: "It's not so much what he says but the fact that he doesn't tell us in advance what he's going to say, so we can tell him not to."

Even Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney sees the need to distance himself from some of Akinola's more extreme remarks about homosexuals being worse than beasts, in an interview this week on Australian radio.

The cost of a covenant, it is already becoming clear, may be too high. The idea has been around for a couple of years now, since publication of the Windsor Report, but it has taken Archbishop Williams's statement to focus minds. And, once they start thinking about what it might contain, it seems practically no one likes it.

There is a question of how prescriptive such a covenant would be (and, if it's defined so loosely, what is the point of having it?) Last week, I interviewed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, the primate of Canada, on the day the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter was published, and he told me: "If the covenant helps collaboration, absolutely. But if it is exclusionary and disciplinary, that would be utterly inappropriate and un-Anglican and something I would not favour at all."

Later that afternoon, highly unusually, a senior figure at Lambeth Palace rang me nervously to ask how Dr Williams's statement was going down. I told him Archbishop Hutchison's response (and since the two of them had had a 90-minute meeting at Lambeth only four days before, Hutchison must have known what was on Williams's mind). Oh, said the senior Lambeth person, it wouldn't be exclusionary or disciplinary. That wasn't the idea at all.

Well, in that case, quite a few people around the Anglican communion have got the wrong idea about what the Archbishop of Canterbury is proposing. Not least of them, Peter Akinola. People are certainly starting to wonder how the covenant would work. Would it mean that member churches would have to give up their autonomy to make their own decisions, because other members of the communion might not like them? That seems to be the implication: no more openly gay bishops, certainly, maybe no more women bishops, possibly.

But what about something conservative evangelicals such as Archbishop Jensen would quite like, such as lay presidency - the administration of Communion by laymen, not ordained clergy? Would that be permitted, or would Archbishop Akinola - or someone else - have the last word on how they do things in Sydney? Fine, if it was something he approved, or could be persuaded to support, but what if not? Does everything have to move at the speed of the slowest, theologically, culturally, socially? That's a sure recipe for losing touch: in Archbishop Williams's words: "We have a special relationship with the cultural life of our country and we must not fall out of step with this if we are not to become absurd and incredible." He said that, of course, before he became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Would the Church of England itself be inclined, or able, to sign up to a covenant? Perhaps not the present, more liberal, general synod; but what about one from whom the liberals and Anglo-Catholics have withdrawn? More to the point, would parliament be prepared to endorse the necessary ecclesiastical legislation to approve a new, binding, covenant? MPs could have some fun with that.

If the church is taken over by the conservative evangelicals, how broad would it remain? And if they are in charge when Prince Charles becomes king, with his commitment to being a defender of faiths, would they feel happy to crown him? After all, some of them disapprove of ecumenical, or interfaith, services as it is. Where would that leave the old church's established status?

Liberals are beginning to wonder whether a covenant is something they could, or should, support with more than lip service. One of the less-noticed points about the US's new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, is that not only is she a woman, but she's also far from being a member of the Anglican communion's international circuit.

She's certainly not one of the old boy network. In fact, it seems, she has scarcely been east of the Rockies. She evidently does not feel huge allegiance to the idea of a worldwide brotherhood (or, presumably, sisterhood) if it conflicts with her idea of the church's priorities. When I asked her about the Episcopal church being thrown out she murmured merely that it would be "unfortunate". I suspect quite a few, even in the CofE, would agree with her and, asked to choose between New York and Abuja, might find the former more congenial.

These questions are all up in the air for now. Archbishop Williams would like them to be gently, academically, theologically, politely, collegiately, teased out over the next few years. Three years' experience should have taught him better by now. It does not look as if he is going to have that opportunity. Things are moving too fast. Can the centre hold?

Show stopped after gay protests

A concert by a Jamaican artist who released a homophobic song 14 years ago has been cancelled after protests.

The concert by Buju Banton, 32, was scheduled to take place at the Concorde 2, in Brighton's gay district, but was stopped by the venue.

His song, Boom Bye Bye, had lyrics referring to murdering "batty boys" - gay men - by shooting them in the head.

The venue said the show was axed after pressure from the council, police and members of the gay community.

Sussex police said officers were aware of anxiety in the community, but had no power to cancel the show.

"We supported the view that it would be desirable for the venue to take their own decision to cancel it," a spokesman said.

'Free-thinking venue'

The venue's website said: "Due to unprecedented pressure from the council, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered community and the police, Concorde 2 have been left with no choice other than to cancel."

It said: "Concorde 2 are concerned that by staging this event they will have their licence revoked and could have their premises closed down.

See Show stopped after gay protests

BBC News

Nigerian Anglicans want pro-gay churches excluded

ABUJA (Reuters) - The Anglican Communion's leading traditionalist branch, the Church of Nigeria, has condemned liberal churches backing gay bishops and same-sex marriage as "a cancerous lump" that should be cut out of the worldwide body.

Rejecting a proposed "two-tier" Communion to accomodate the liberals, the Nigerian church said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams should try to bring those churches back to orthodox Christianity rather than accommodate them.

Williams proposed last week to divide the 77-million strong Communion, the world's third-largest Christian denomination, into a core of like-minded churches and "associated" churches that could dissent on certain issues.

He suggested that after the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA) declined last month to repent for naming an openly gay bishop in 2003. Other churches, mainly in Africa, reject openly gay clergy as un-Biblical and condemn the ECUSA for acting unilaterally.

"A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure," the Church of Nigeria, second-largest Anglican province after the Church of England, said in a statement posted on its Web site.

"To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient," it said in a response to Williams.

The Church of Nigeria said Williams' proposal was that of "a leader who wants to preserve the unity of the Church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how un-Biblical, all because we want to make everyone feel at home."

"We encourage the Archbishop of Canterbury to persuade those who have chosen to 'walk apart' to return to the path chosen by successive generations of our forbears," it said.

SHIFTING LOYALTIES

The Anglican Communion, a loose federation of 38 national churches, has struggled since 2003 to hold together its liberal minority and the conservative majority -- mostly in Africa -- vigorously opposed to the naming of gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Williams' two-tier membership plan amounted to a veiled admission of an irreconcilable split within the communion.

The row is tearing the U.S. church apart. Six of its 110 dioceses have asked to be assigned somebody other than the newly elected Katherine Jefferts Schori, the first woman head of the ECUSA and a supporter of gay rights, as their leader.

Several Episcopal parishes have opted for African bishops as their spiritual authority rather than the liberal local bishop.

At the same time, the liberal Newark diocese has indirectly responded to the conservative pressure from abroad by naming an openly gay man as a candidate to be its next bishop.

The dispute over authority in the Communion threatens to spread to the Church of England, where liberals are talking about strengthening ties with Episcopalians in response to the way conservatives are forging international partnerships.

See Nigerian Anglicans want pro-gay churches excluded @ Scotsman

It's time to act locally to help people solve real problems

The op-ed piece below was written by an Episcopal priest and published

in the Indianapolis Star.

 

----------------------------------

 

Tom Ehrich

July 1, 2006

Now that Episcopalians and Presbyterians have allowed homosexuality to  dominate their national conventions yet again, is it time for rant,  lament, serious analysis? No, it is time to do what Jesus did: "Turn the other cheek."

Literally, turn away from overwrought national assemblies and  manufactured alarms, and look instead at forces that truly shape human  life and hope.

If a few partisans believe that the future of Christianity depends on  homosexuality, fine, let them fight about it. If some want to worry  about a late 19th-century construct called the Anglican Communion as  if it were a divinely inspired source of global norms, fine, let them  worry about what a Nigerian archbishop thinks. It is time for serious people to focus on serious matters.

It is time for the "common-sense middle" to chart local courses that  deal with real people, real pain and real possibilities, including the  lives (as opposed to doctrinal symbolism) of gays and heterosexuals.  It is time to do what Jesus did -- namely, ignore the Temple in  Jerusalem and go instead to where people's lives were at stake. In central Illinois, Episcopalians told me their bishop is obsessed  with homosexuality. Fine, let that be his obsession. Serious people  will look at continued decay of the region's industrial base, massive  joblessness, retraining of factory workers and opportunities for young  technology workers.

Serious people will look at failing marriages, loneliness, a  coarsening of the culture and an atmosphere of dread.

At their recent General Convention, Episcopalians stirred hope among  those frustrated by institutional paralysis when they elected a new  presiding bishop who comes from outside the mainstream. Katharine  Jefferts Schori is relatively young, serves a small diocese (Nevada)  in the West, has little experience in the concerns of the national  church, is described as smart and independent, and happens to be  female. Much was made of her gender, but my hunch is that her election  actually signaled a turning away from what one delegate called  the "old and tired."

And yet, days later, delegates found themselves once again trapped in  relentless partisanship over homosexuality. The air turned sour, and  people left Columbus, Ohio, muttering.

It is time, I think, for the serious to expect even less of their  paralyzed national bodies and to recognize that faith, like politics,  is profoundly local. Many people live nervously paycheck-to-paycheck, send children off to  inadequate schools, go to jobs they could lose tomorrow.

It isn't all dire, of course. People fall in love, start families,  learn skills, succeed in the small ways that matter, have wonderful  school experiences with inspiring teachers, and look across the table  at the remarkable gift of a faithful partner.

Good or bad, daily life is the business of Christian faith. It's why  Jesus wasted no breath on promulgating doctrine or establishing an  institution.

People have opinions and preferences, of course; but the heart of  faith looks like this: When a family member dies, church friends bring  food, not doctrines. When a woman weeps in church because her marriage  is failing, church friends hold her close. When a man loses his job  and fears his house is next, church friends give comfort and help him  find another job.

Those faith-driven instincts happen locally and have little to do with  denominational politics.

 

Gay revolution hits Cuba

The niece of Fidel Castro is defying her uncle’s beliefs regarding sexual orientation by leading a revolution of pro-gay laws in Cuba.

Mariela Castro is in charge of the government’s National Centre for Sex Education, from which she has promoted issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, in stark contrast to country’s macho society and homosexual witch-hunts of the 1960s and 1970s. See Gay revolution hits Cuba
PinkNews.co.uk, UK

Will Gays be Killed if they march in Jerusalem?

Even as the ties between Palestinian and Israeli politicians strained against the current crises in Gaza, religious officials from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities united Tuesday to oppose a gay pride parade in Jerusalem.

More than 50 prominent religious figures visited the Knesset's Interior Committee to urge MKs to stop the World Pride event, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem next month. Several right-wing religious MKs brought the coalition to the Knesset, asserting that "never before has the Holy Land seen such a union of religious leaders."

Representations of the gay-rights groups, including the Jerusalem Open House and the Coalition for Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender Rights called the coalition "dangerous" and "ugly."

"We will have our event, and our rights as human beings will not be trampled," said Sol Lev, a gay rights activist promoting the event.

"Their speech, what these people are saying, is a hate crime."

During the meeting, the religious figures urged the event's organizers to consider moving the parade to another city or canceling it altogether.

"I promise there's going to be bloodshed - not just on that day, but for months afterward," declared New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin, a representative of the Rabbinical Alliance of America.

"In America, we are outraged and disgusted over this event. There are millions of people who, with their bodies, souls and money, will stand against this... I will be here afterwards to remind you and to say, 'I warned you and you did nothing.'"

"If gays will dare approach the Temple Mount during the parade, they will do so over our dead bodies," said MK Ibrahim Sarsur (United Arab List- Ta'al).

Last week, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wrote to Pope Benedict XVI asking for the church to issue an official condemnation. While the pope has not commented on the event, an ambassador from the Vatican told the committee that "as a representative of the Holy See to Israel, I believe… holding this event would contradict the sacred nature of Jerusalem."

Other religious figures, including imams and several representatives from the Coptic church, also spoke against holding the event in Jerusalem.
"Go send them to parade somewhere else," said one Sufi cleric. "That place can become Sodom, and God can smite them there."

The international gay festival, Jerusalem World Pride, is scheduled to run for a week starting on August 6. It was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to last summer's Gaza pullout.

Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On called the group of religious leaders "a dangerous coalition." "It is a danger to democracy," she said. "Since when have we put Jerusalem on a pedestal?"

Only the Meretz MKs and one Labor MK, Shelly Yachimovich, spoke in favor of the event's taking place in Jerusalem.

MK Ibrahim Sarsur (United Arab List) told the committee that "these types of problems" don't exist in Muslim society. "Every man has the right to do what he pleases, but not if it offends others," he said.

MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism promised that if organizers of the World Pride parade agreed to hold the march elsewhere, he would utilize the new coalition of Jewish, Muslim and Christian officials to promote peace and brotherhood in Israel.

See Religious leaders protest gay parade

Jerusalem Pos

Lesbian couple receive anti-gay sperm

Sperm clinics are facing criticism over the way they use donations after one fertility organisation was reprimanded for breaking the terms of a donor’s consent by giving his seed to a lesbian couple, despite his stipulation that it not be given to same sex partners.

The London Women’s Clinic on Harley Street admitted the error after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) discovered the blunder, they were then suspended for three months.

The HFEA found that restrictions were broken five times since 1999 after the sperm was given to at least four same-sex partners, and later used again to produce a sibling. Both the father and the couple have not been informed yet. See Lesbian couple receive anti-gay sperm
PinkNews.co.uk, UK

MA Constitutional Convention set to tackle Gay Marriage July 12th

 MA Constitutional Convention set to tackle Gay Marriage July 12th
EDGE Boston, MA - 14 hours ago
Activists from gay rights organizations from Massachusetts are urging residents to contact their legislatures prior to July 12th to urge a "No" vote on a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state. See  MA Constitutional Convention set to tackle Gay Marriage July 12th
EDGE Boston, MA 

Gay adoption proposed in reform

Gay and unmarried couples in NI would be allowed to adopt a child for the first time under government plans to overhaul adoption legislation.

Health Minister Paul Goggins launched a consultation document on changes aimed at putting the needs of the child at the heart of the adoption process.

Other changes include a ban on over-50s adopting children under three, apart from exceptional circumstances.

Couples who want to adopt children from abroad will face higher costs.

Mr Goggins said he wanted to "make adoption work more clearly, consistently and fairly".

"I want to see more adopters recruited, agencies working better, and courts performing more efficiently," he said.

See Gay adoption proposed in reform

BBC News

Gay-themed S. Korean film banned in China

 SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's biggest movie at the box office, about a tyrannical king and his two court jesters, has been banned from Chinese theatres because it has subtle gay themes, a South Korean movie executive said on Tuesday.

"The movie 'King and the Clown' could not pass the deliberation process in China because of the homosexual code and sexually explicit language in the movie," an official with South Korean entertainment company CJ said from its Beijing office.

The movie has taken in more than $85 million in South Korea and sold about 12 million tickets in a country with a population of around 48 million.

Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder in China as recently as 2001 and is still a highly sensitive subject.

In the movie, which finished its run in South Korea earlier this year, the relations among the king and his two jesters are not well defined and there are no sex scenes, but a romance is implied.

The most heated the movie becomes is when the king shares longing looks with one effeminate clown as they put on a puppet show together.

See Gay-themed S.Korean film banned in China

Reuters.uk

Nigeria bishops scorn US 'cancer' BBC News

Nigeria's Anglican Church says the US branch of the church is "a cancerous lump" that should be "excised".

Nigerian bishops were responding to a proposal from the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams last week.

He had suggested the introduction of a two-tier system of church membership to avoid complete disintegration over the issue of homosexuality.

The US branch, known as the Episcopal Church, outraged conservatives by consecrating gay Bishop Gene Robinson.

There have also been disagreements surrounding church blessings for same-sex couples.

Division, not schism

Dr Williams has been attempting to straddle the bitter divisions, and last week proposed a solution.

He suggested that the Anglican Communion, which is the loose network of individual Anglican churches around the world, could be divided into "associated" and "constituent" provinces.

Under this system, the Episcopal Church would accept a lesser role to avoid a schism with the majority of more conservative churches.

Dr Williams urged both sides to heed the need for change, arguing that: "Neither the liberal nor the conservative can simply appeal to a historic identity that doesn't correspond with where we now are."

'Too accommodating'

In their statement, posted on two websites, the Nigerian bishops commend Dr Williams' idea as "brilliant as the heartbeat of a leader who wants to preserve the unity of the Church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how unbiblical".

 But they dispute whether the challenge is really to "fashion out a novel establishment that is elastic enough to accommodate all the extremes of the referred modes of expression of the same faith".

"A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure," they say.

"To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient."

Instead Dr Williams should persuade churches that chose to "walk apart" to "return to the path", say the bishops.

Ambition

The Nigerian Anglican Church is Africa's largest Anglican church, with an estimated 17.5 million members.

It has led traditionalist attempts to expel the Episcopal Church and, according to the BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott, has even hinted that it might have to take over from England the role of leading a truly Bible-believing Communion.

Our correspondent says this statement is a sign of their intent to lead other Anglican churches in opposition to the Americans at a meeting of what is known as the Global South in September - and perhaps at a meeting of all 38 autonomous Anglican churches next February.

See Nigeria bishops scorn US 'cancer' BBC News

Campaign to tackle gay bullying

London's mayor Ken Livingstone and a gay rights charity are launching a campaign to tackle homophobic bullying in schools.

They will urge education authorities to be more aware of bullying in the classroom and have produced a DVD to help teachers.

A conference will be held in London on Tuesday on the issue.

Stonewall spokesman Alan Wardle said homophobic bullying was sometimes difficult for teachers to tackle.

'Invisible and ignored'

The DVD has been produced by Stonewall and the Greater London Authority to introduce teachers to the subject.

Mr Wardle said: "Ofsted said a couple of years ago that homophobic bullying is one of the most difficult to tackle and quite often it's being ignored and [is] invisible.

"What we are doing is raising awareness of the issue.

See Campaign to tackle gay bullying

BBC News

Episcopal Church is cracking

Episcopal Church is cracking @ Bay Windows

Richard J. Rosendall

After last week’s General Convention of The Episcopal Church, held in Columbus, Ohio, gay attendees and their allies were taking a while to absorb its meaning. As friends of mine on the scene noted, the worst did not happen. No resolution was adopted expressing regret or apology for the election of Gene Robinson as a bishop in 2003. Nor was a resolution adopted halting the development of rites for same-sex unions. Also, gay-supportive Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada was elected the first woman presiding bishop.

On the other hand, the day after the Convention voted to reject the anti-gay Windsor Report, bishops (with help from Jefferts Schori, and using what many have called heavy-handed tactics) pushed through a resolution “to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation,” and to “call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”
Bishop Robinson writes, “The scene of gay and lesbian deputies, willing to fall on their own swords for the presumed good of the Church, voting for this resolution against their own self-interest was an act of self-sacrifice that I won’t soon forget.

“Keeping us in conversation with the Anglican Communion was the goal — for which the price was declaring gay and lesbian people unfit material for the episcopate. Only time will tell whether or not even that was accomplished.

Within minutes — yes, MINUTES — the conservatives both within our Church and in Africa declared our sacrificial action woefully inadequate. It felt like a kick in the teeth....”

The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, a leader of the right-wing forces, concluded a June 23 open letter to the Episcopal Church USA with this: “We assure all those Scripturally faithful dioceses and congregations alienated and marginalised within your Provincial structure that we have heard their cries.” That’s like a guy confiding in you that he intends to marry your wife after she divorces you. Akinola seeks reconciliation the way a predator does with its prey. This is not about theology, it is about power, and gay issues are merely a pretext for the power grab.

These are the makings of a schism. The Western branches of the Communion can hardly allow themselves to be overrun by medieval obscurantism in the name of unity. As Akinola himself stated after the destruction of Christian churches in northern Nigeria by Islamist thugs, “From all indications, it is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has [sic] been sadly misunderstood to be weakness.”

How right you are, Eminence. The impulse toward compromise on the part of tolerant progressives is exploited by intolerant conservatives who have no interest in compromise. There is no reason why continuing a conversation should require unilateral concessions. The appeasement in Columbus was reminiscent of the signing of the Munich Agreement by Neville Chamberlain in 1938. The difference in this case is that the appeased aggressor won’t bother to sign a phony peace agreement.

Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, contrasts Akinola’s obsession over homosexuality with his church’s relative silence regarding Nigeria’s “massive abuse of women, polygamy, female mutilation and stoning for adultery.” In the Gospel of John, of course, when the scribes and Pharisees cite Mosaic law calling for an adulterous woman to be stoned, Jesus replies, “Let the one who has not sinned cast the first stone.” But Akinola is far more in sympathy with the Pharisees.

The current acrimony’s roots lie in the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which, as retired Bishop John Shelby Spong writes, “was overwhelmed by a homophobic combination of first world Anglican evangelicals with third world Bible quoting Anglican fundamentalists.”

More recently, the Windsor Commission called for the 38 national branches of the Anglican Communion to endorse “current Anglican teaching.” To the contrary, Spong notes that the Anglican Church “has never recognized an infallible pope or an inerrant Bible,” and asks, “Would those Anglicans who have engaged critical biblical scholarship be asked to subscribe to the pre-modern mindset of some third world countries that oppose evolution, interpret the Virgin Birth as literal biology or view the Resurrection as a physical resuscitation?”

The problem is not disunity, but dogmatism. Some people are convinced that they have a lock on divine truth, and that it lies in a literal-minded reading of the Bible. This does not resemble Anglicanism. Others, who value the past two centuries of biblical scholarship as well as extra-Biblical sources such as the reality of God’s creation, recognize that as mortals we can never possess the knowledge of God, but can only seek greater understanding. As Bishop Spong observes, “Whenever growth occurs there is always conflict and dislocation.” This happened previously over the issue of women bishops. Quite simply, the children of the Enlightenment have to stand and fight for it.

The prophet Ezekiel spoke against false prophets: “They have misled my people by saying ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. Instead of my people rebuilding the wall, these men come and slap on plaster. Tell these plasterers: It will rain hard, it will hail, it will blow a gale, and down will come the wall.”

Let it come down.

Anglican gay row escalates amid Archbishop's plan PinkNews.co.uk

The row of gay bishops in the Anglican Communion has reached a new level this week after liberal clergy in the UK suggested teaming up with ideologically similar US churches, while the denomination’s most traditional church called for pro-gay congregations to be “excised.”

The proposals come in reaction to the head of the Anglican Church, Dr Rowan William’s idea of splitting churches between “associated” and “covenant” provinces.

But the Church of Nigeria says it is unfair to have to accommodate gay affirming churches, calling them “a cancerous lump in the body (which) should be excised if it has defied every known cure. To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient.”  See Anglican gay row escalates amid Archbishop’s plan PinkNews.co.uk

Gay man acquitted of date rape charges

 HONOLULU (AP) _ It took a jury less than ten minutes yesterday to acquit a gay man who was accused of spiking the drink of an acquaintance with a date rape drug and sexually assaulting him.

Honolulu nightclub owner 60-year-old Jack Law was found not guilty of three second-degree sex assault charges in Circuit Court. See Gay man acquitted of date rape charges

KPUA -

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More news we couldn't make up

·         AP: Bush's Foreign Friends Fading Away Fast...

·         CIA Shuts bin Laden Unit…

·         Ice Age Bones Uncovered In Central Los Angeles...

·         Scientists Say Asteroid Nearly Collided With Earth...

·         Pentagon Leaders Challenging Bush Admin's Iran Policy...

·         Resurgence Of Piracy Concerns...Japanese Cargo Ship And UN Vessels Attacked...

Rabbi Amar to Pope: Thwart J'lem gay parade

Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar asks Holy See to back efforts to block plans to hold J'lem gay parade
Neta Sela

 

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar on Tuesday sent a letter to The Holy See. What's in the letter? Neither a request for world peace nor a common prayer for merging Judaism and Christianity into one faith. In the letter, the rabbi asks Pope Benedict 16 to assist in efforts "to thwart the event of the world gay parade which will take place next month in Jerusalem."

 

"We were shocked to hear of plans to hold the world Pride Parade in the Holy City," rabbi Amar wrote, "The city which the entire world looks up to due to its holiness and glory, is now being attacked by evil people who wish to violate its honor and humiliate its greatness with deeds that theTorah despises, as well as all other religions. There is no need to elaborate about their plans and evil actions that bring humanity's dignity to the ground." "I ask his Excellency to object this terrible phenomenon, in the hope that the protest of religious leaders will guide lost souls who fool and harm themselves badly and will deter evil people from corrupting humanity," he added.

 

Amar expressed concerns over "bad influence" of the gay community on children and teenagers, who could be corrupted.

 

Amar said this is his opinion and the opinion of all religious leaders in Israel. "We need to have deterrence against this evil and express our objection to and disgust by these tendencies that never were so abundant."

More bigorty: Rabbi Amar to Pope: Thwart J'lem gay parade @ Ynetnews

Reporters grill Romney on gay issues, he starts to sweat a bit

June 28 press conference in support of a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex couples from marrying started off as a stage managed affair. Romney, Cardinal Seàn O’Malley, Bishop Robert McManus, Bishop George Coleman and Roberto Miranda, chairman of the VoteOnMarriage.org ballot question committee that introduced the amendment, issued statements calling on lawmakers to allow a straight up-or-down vote on the amendment at the July 12 constitutional convention. Yet when Romney opened the floor to questions, reporters in attendance pressed him hard on his support for the amendment, bringing up everything from the tradition of polygamy in Romney’s Mormon faith to the role of courts in ending segregation to the fitness of gay and lesbian parents. Romney’s relentless message discipline seemed to falter as his responses turned into a series of gaffes.

When asked by one reporter whether gay and lesbian couples could make good parents, Romney treated the whole subject of gay parenting as radioactive, taking pains to answer the question while avoiding any discussion of gay parents. More than anything else his comments radiated a sense of strong discomfort with the idea of gay and lesbian couples raising children.

“I believe the ideal setting for raising a child is where there’s a mother and a father, and the development of a child is enhanced by having the attributes of a male and a female part of their parents,” Romney answered. “And of course there’re going to be settings which don’t have that ideal characteristics, as the cardinal indicated, where there’s a single mom or single dad, or where there are grandparents raising children, and in many cases they’ll do just as well. And they’ll have wonderful children and they’ll have a terrific experience in raising their child. But the ideal setting for a society overall is a setting where there’s a mother and a father, and society therefore, every society I know of in the history of the earth has said the right kind of setting that we’re going to encourage and incentivise, recognizing there may be exceptions and there may be great single mom settings that are just as good as a heterosexual couple marriage, but overall on the averages society will be enhanced by having moms and dads associated with the development of a child, and that’s my view as well.”

The reporter, unsatisfied with this tortured response, asked Romney again whether he believed gay and lesbian couples could be good parents. “I think I just indicated that of course there are going to be a wide array of exceptions to the normal observation that children’s development is best enhanced when there’s a mother and a father,” Romney answered, taking care to not actually mention gay and lesbian couples.

Another reporter brought up Romney’s frequent jokes about his Mormon faith, such as at the 2005 Boston St. Patrick’s Day roast, in which he said he believes marriage should be between “a man and a woman and a woman and a woman” and asked whether the Mormon Church’s own history showed that marriage has evolved over time. Romney reacted as if the reporter had called him a practicing polygamist, and his response was so emphatic as to make one wonder whether the question had hit too close to home. Romney, also, in his response, compared the marriages of lesbian and gay couples with polygamy.

“No, I actually think that the view of marriage as defined by this country has been very clear, which is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, one man and one woman. I subscribe to that, I believe that, I believe it vehemently,” said Romney, “and I think that it’s a great effort, a great injustice by those people who today practice polygamy or those who practice same-sex marriage. I think it’s a huge error, and wrong and I think this country is right to define marriage as the institution between a man and a woman. That’s my personal view, has been from the beginning on this, and you know, we’ll let the people make the decision.”

Responding to an earlier question about the argument from same-sex marriage advocates that civil rights questions should not go on the ballot, Romney said he believed that civil rights questions could be put to a popular vote.

“Our constitution laid out how it is that the people are to vote and to speak, and when Kevin raises the question, ‘Well gosh, but you’re dealing with a civil rights issue, should that be allowed to be voted on?’ Actually we have a constitution. We can look in there and say, ‘Does it say here you can vote on matters unless someone can define them as civil rights?’ No. It says you vote on all matters in this country and we’ll decide what is a civil right and what’s not. Who’s going to tell us what a civil right is and what’s not? Well, the people will,” said Romney.

A reporter followed up by asking whether ending segregation in the South should have been put to a popular vote, since Romney had argued that civil rights issues should be put up to a popular vote. Romney immediately backpedaled, claiming he had not advocated putting civil rights issues on the ballot, and, inexplicably, seemed to confuse segregation with slavery.

“I didn’t say all civil rights should be put up to a popular vote. That is not what I said. What I said is that this is a nation that is ruled by people and the people make the decision. And what I wouldn’t want to do is to have people say, ‘Oh you can’t vote on this and you can’t vote on that,’” he responded, and then, seemingly ignorant of the history of the Civil War, said, “No, all things are ultimately decided by people, and the people of this country were very clear in their decision with regards to slavery, and that was it’s wrong and evil and that’s why it’s not here.”

Yet gaffes aside Romney, O’Malley and Miranda (who is best known for having compared the advent of civil marriage rights for same-sex couples with the devastation wrought by the 9/11 terrorist attacks) presented a united front calling for an up-or-down vote on the marriage amendment. Romney said that the vote at the upcoming constitutional convention would “not be a vote for or against same-sex marriage. No, it will be a vote for or against democracy.”

See more of Reporters turn up the heat on Romney

Red Ribbons for Cardinal Sins

Red Ribbons for Cardinal Sins: Every August a band of Catholic friends who call themselves the Cardinal Sins bike to raise money to fight AIDS

P'town Film Fest gets rants and raves

P'town Film Fest gets rants and raves: Sunburned reporters for In Newsweekly, Steve Desroches and Joshua Shea, file a joint report on the 8th International fest at the Cape's tip

Clean needle access clears Mass. Senate

Clean needle access clears Mass. Senate: A multi-year battle by AIDS advocacy groups For the Pharmacy Access bill appears to have garnered a veto-proof majority

Many gay teens are coming out at earlier ages

hris Krug had thought she was a lesbian from the time she was 8, but she felt certain after developing a serious crush on her best friend.

She was in the fifth grade at the time.

Krug formally came out a year later, as she started middle school. She casually mentioned it to a classmate on a Sunday. By Monday, students were shouting, "Christina's a lesbian," down the hallways at school.

"It was probably not the best way to go about it, but it happened," said Krug, now 16. "It was tough for a few months and then people were like, `Ah, we don't care.'"

Young people are coming out at earlier ages than they used to. In a society that increasingly promotes tolerance and diversity, many gay teens feel it unnecessary to stay closeted to peers accustomed to seeing openly gay individuals in school, politics and especially in the media.

To be sure, verbal and physical bullying are still a concern for gay teens. Many say they still hear homophobic remarks from teachers and classmates at school, where calling someone "gay" or "queer" continues to be the common insult slung by adolescents.

But gay kids now have numerous Web sites they can turn to for support. And they find others like themselves represented on the big and small screen.

See  Many gay teens are coming out at earlier ages
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN -

Castro's niece wants sexual tolerance

Castro's niece wants sexual tolerance: Effort to have government pay for sex change surgery is well received.

Camp Trans enters 14th year

A group of transgender activists from around the country is planning to protest this August’s Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival for its refusal to admit transwomen.

Camp Trans has been organizing against the weeklong festival since 1992, after an MTF attendee was asked to leave that summer’s event. The music festival’s policy is to admit only “womyn-born womyn.”

See Camp Trans enters 14th year

The Sodomite's Lament

This song is the result of talking with a bunch of former homosexuals that went through Christian Reparative Therapy to learn how to not be gay. I hope you'll think of this song the next time you watch yer Will And Grace reruns.  See The Sodomite's Lament @ Billy Bob Neck’s Blog

Superman ain't gay, he's queer

Superman ain’t gay, he’s queer From the spandex tights to his package of steel, Superman is no heterosexual... @ Bay Windows

Ulster's gay couples will be allowed to adopt

Gay and lesbian couples will be able to adopt children in Northern Ireland under proposals announced by the Government today.

Both those who have gone through a civil partnership as well as unmarried couples - whether of a different sex or the same sex - will be able to adopt under the planned reforms outlined by Health Minister Paul Goggins.

The move is part of a major overhaul of the adoption process in the province, although it is likely to meet opposition from several quarters. The consultation process lasts for eight weeks.

Mr Goggins said the proposals were designed to put children's needs at the heart of the process.

Speaking as he launched the consultation document, 'Adopting the Future', the Minister said it set out proposals for the changes needed to improve adoption services.

"I want to make adoption work more clearly, consistently and fairly," he said.

"I want to see more adopters recruited, agencies working better, and courts performing more efficiently.

"Above all, I want to see vulnerable children safe, in permanent families."

The number of adoptions in Northern Ireland has fallen significantly from a peak of over 550 in 1970 to an average of 150 a year now. Last year it was just 79.

Permitting adoption by civil partners and unmarried couples was introduced in England and Wales last year.

"I am confident that these reforms to adoption and permanence planning will transform the life chances of hundreds of children," the minister said.

"Adoption has a good record in delivering stable, permanent new families for children.

"Research shows that children who are adopted generally make very good progress through their childhood and into adulthood."

See Ulster's gay couples will be allowed to adopt

Belfast Telegraph

State Department HIV Policy Challenged

of color contingent at Sunday's LGBT Pride Parade saying the two were arrested after they briefly exited the march and then tried to rejoin the group.

Permits or Not, Trans Demo Held
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
Though they had no permit to march, roughly 500 people turned out for the second Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice on June 23.

After 20 Years, A New Chance
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
In a stunning reversal after more than 20 years of imprisonment, the conviction and life sentence of Bernard Baran, an openly gay man, on charges of molesting five children at a day care enter in 1984 were set aside on June 13 by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge.

A man denied a position in the U.S. Foreign Service because he is HIV-positive is entitled to a trial of his discrimination claim under the Americans With Disabilities Act, according to a June 27 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals. See State Department HIV Policy Challenged See State Department HIV Policy Challenged

After 20 Years, A New Chance

In a stunning reversal after more than 20 years of imprisonment, the conviction and life sentence of Bernard Baran, an openly gay man, on charges of molesting five children at a day care enter in 1984 were set aside on June 13 by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. See After 20 Years, A New Chance

Gene Compton's Cafeteria: Recalling a San Fran Stonewall

It was the place, deep in San Francisco's Tenderloin, where gay street hustlers, drag queens, and transsexuals could linger over a cup of coffee for hours. At Gene Compton's Cafeteria the food was cheap and the management tolerant. And Compton's was open all night. Then-back in 1966-there was no such thing as a gay rights movement. See Recalling a San Fran Stonewall

New York's Highest Court Set to Rule on Gay Marriages

In what one legal scholar called a contest between judicial hearts and minds, parsing of legal texts and private sympathies, New York's highest court is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to permit gay and lesbian marriages in the state.

 

There are several directions the Court of Appeals could take, lawyers said. The most sweeping would be a clear affirmation of a constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, which would make New York the second state in the nation after Massachusetts to allow such marriages. In that case, the court could order the Legislature to rewrite the state's marriage law.

 

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, suggested that a majority of the six judges deciding the case — a seventh recused himself — are personally sympathetic to what the plaintiffs are asking for. But the issue, he said, will be how they read New York State's marriage law, the state constitution, and legal precedents, which are all different from those in Massachusetts.

 

"The question will be where will their brains be," Mr. Gillers said this week. "The question is whether they can intellectually do what I think intuitively and emotionally they'd like to do."

 

Supporters have been waiting eagerly for the decision.

 

"On the one hand, if there is a victory in the case, it would be a great and historic day," said Roberta A. Kaplan, one of the lawyers who argued for gay marriage before the high court in May. "On the other hand, I'm sure we'll all look at this issue five years from now and say, what was the big deal? Because there is a clear line of authority now moving in our direction." One "friend of the court" brief arguing against same-sex marriage said that opposition "is not rooted in animus towards gay and lesbians," but in the conviction that "only opposite-sex unions can both create the next generation and connect those children to the mother and father who made them."

 

The court could also take a more administrative tack, by simply ruling that words like "husband" and "wife" in the marriage code should be changed to gender-neutral words like "spouse."

 

The decision expected today would combine four different lawsuits, representing 44 gay and lesbian couples around New York State. The highest-profile case is Hernandez v. Robles, in which five couples are suing New York City's clerk, who issues marriage licenses. It is the only case in which plaintiffs have won a victory in the lower courts.

 

In that case, state Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled in February 2005 that state marriage law violated the due-process and equal-protection clauses of the state constitution. The appellate division overturned her decision last December, saying that it was up to the Legislature to change the state's traditional views of marriage and family. That court called marriage between biological parents, "the optimal situation for child-rearing."

 

Neither side in the case was willing to handicap the outcome, but lawyers noted that the Court of Appeals has a long history of trailblazing, going back to a golden age in the 1920's under Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo.

 

Even now that Gov. Pataki, a Republican, has appointed four of its seven members, the court is still seen as one of the more progressive in the country, legal experts said.

 

Professor Gillers said that on issues that can be perceived as liberal or conservative, such as gay rights and the death penalty, the New York court's "center of gravity" is about the same as that of the high court in Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court.

 

 More of: New York's Highest Court Set to Rule on Gay Marriages @ New York Times

Voices behind the battle for gay-rights protections in South Bend

Participants describe why they believe gay-rights amendments necessary. Three of the following stories were included in South Bend Equality's study on discrimination. See Voices behind the battle for gay-rights protections in South Bend
South Bend Tribune, IN 

Howard Dean Rebuts His Critics

After several months of uncharacteristically tense relations between the LGBT community and Howard Dean, whose 2004 presidential bid enjoyed strong gay support, the Democratic Party chairman spoke to Gay City News last Friday in an exclusive interview in which he aimed to place recent controversies in context. See Howard Dean Rebuts His Critics

NYS Marriage Decision 'Likely' Right After Fourth of July

ANDY HUMM Reports in the Gay City News: “Roberta Kaplan, the dynamic attorney who was one of the leads arguing for the right of same-sex couples to marry before New York State's Court of Appeals in May, said that a decision in the case is “likely” to come down this coming Wednesday or Thursday  -July 5 or 6-unless the six out of seven high court judges who heard it are tied 3 to 3.” See NYS Marriage Decision 'Likely' Right After Fourth of July

2004 Michiana study finds allegations of gay discrimination

SOUTH BEND -- South Bend Equality, which was created to fight for amendments to the Human Rights Ordinance protecting sexual orientation and gender identity, conducted a study on gay discrimination in 2004.

The study included interviews with local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents who say they have faced discrimination in Michiana.

Catherine Pittman, an associate professor at Saint Mary's College and a member of SBE, and SBE member and former human rights commission member Gail McGuire, conducted the study, which received approval from an institutional review board. See 2004 Michiana study finds allegations of gay discrimination
South Bend Tribune, IN -

Gay people need our support against bigotry, Anglican church is ...

Gay people need our support against bigotry, Anglican church is ...
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom

By Alf McCreary

29 June 2006

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has urged members of the Anglican Communion to appreciate the role of gays in the Church.

In a letter issued yesterday to Primates worldwide, including the Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Robin Eames, he stated: "It is imperative to give the strongest support to the defence of homosexual people against violence, bigotry and legal disadvantage, and to appreciate the role played in the life of the Church by people of homosexual orientation."

His letter comes after last week's annual convention in Ohio of the Episcopal Church of the USA, which discussed the Windsor Report.

It was produced by an Anglican Commission chaired by Archbishop Eames, and aimed to point the way forward on handling diversity in the church.

Anglicanism faces a possible schism over the issue of homosexual clergy.

Dr Williams acknowledged that the debate following the consecration of practising gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the US posed challenges for unity within the Church.

He stated the strength of the Anglican tradition was in balancing between the absolute authority of the Bible, a Catholic loyalty to the sacraments, and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility, adding that, to accept these, "means that the enthusiasts for each aspect have to be prepared to live with certain tensions or even sacrifices." 

What do you know about sex?

For good or evil, The Inquirer's "Carnal Knowledge" column has survived its first year. To commemorate, we're offering a 13-item multiple-choice quiz so you can test your own Carnal Knowledge.

To read the columns this quiz is based on, see the links of links at the right, and another set at the bottom of this page.

What do you know about sex?
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA

UK's Sacked gays and lesbians still awaiting MoD payouts

Lesbian and gay military recruits who were dismissed from the forces when their sexuality became known are still awaiting compensation, a newspaper investigation claims.

The RAF, army and navy members who were told to leave prior to January 2000 when the UK’s ban on lesbian and gay personnel was lifted, have not received payment from the Ministry of Defence, despite the government accepting the actions taken were illegal.

The department promised compensation to sacked members after the law was changed, but according to The Observer, settlements have still not been finalised and are often as low as £3000, far less than they would have earned if they were still in the force. See Sacked gays and lesbians still awaiting MoD payouts
PinkNews.co.uk, UK –

Pennsylvania Anti-Gay Amendment Dies

(Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) A proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution to ban same-sex marriage, block civil unions and possibly curtail domestic partner benefits has died in committee. More of Pennsylvania Anti-Gay Amendment Dies @ 365Gay.com 

US reps ask Putin to condemn Russian gay-bashing

Fifty members of Congress from both parties joined in sending a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, urging him to condemn the antigay violence that occurred during pride celebrations in Moscow in May. The letter (reproduced below) accuses Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, of encouraging the violence by refusing to issue a parade permit and by announcing that the city's law enforcement forces would be unable to protect the marchers.  See US reps ask Putin to condemn Russian gay-bashing
The Advocate, CA 

Canadian Anglican leader lauds call for compromise on gay marriage

Canadian Anglican leader lauds call for compromise on gay marriage

Globe and Mail, Canada 

Canadian Anglicans will welcome a formal church structure to deal with the issue of same-sex marriage and female clerics as long as it does not include a "you're with us or against us" clause, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison said this week.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, recently called on the church's 38 leaders, or primates, to find a middle ground on contentious issues and mend the cultural divide between conservative and liberal elements of the church.

The proposal included an option to create two levels of church: full-membership provinces that adhere to the majority view, and lower-level adherents with their own rules.

Archbishop Hutchison, head of the Anglican Church in Canada, said in a telephone interview from England that most of the primates wanted a covenant, but said getting agreement on its wording would take years.

"We're now in a world with a huge variety of cultures. Some are traditional. Some are progressive. We're trying to reconcile that to a single consensus," he said.

Any covenant designed to discipline churches would not be supported in Canada, though, Archbishop Hutchison said.

"If people want a covenant that is much more definitive of who's in and who's out, then Canada would not want to be part of it. A covenant would allow people with different views to sit at the same table," he said.

A tiered system would be a "difference," but did not necessarily require the church to split, he said.

The concept of a covenant was suggested in 2004 in the Windsor report, which called for the U.S. church to apologize for appointing a gay bishop without fully consulting other Anglican bodies.

Responding to that report, Archbishop Williams's letter argued the church is not a sum of local communities, but has "a cross-cultural dimension" that is vital to its survival and requires an agreed structure in which church provinces would make a "formal, but voluntary, commitment to each other."

"There is no way the Anglican Communion can remain unchanged by what is happening at the moment," he wrote.

But the suggestion of membership levels is "a matter for concern" for Reverend Richard Leggett, professor of liturgical studies at the Vancouver School of Theology.

If forced to choose, Dr. Leggett said he would not sacrifice Canadian beliefs to be part of a global church.

"He [Archbishop Williams] seems to be weighing in on the side of more conservative voices for the sake of maintaining some sort of visible unity," Dr. Leggett said.

"I am an Anglican who would say I am not prepared to sacrifice the integrity of gay and lesbian Christians for the sake of organizational unity. We have historically dealt with serious issues without breaking the communion. The church holds differing views on abortion, contraception, divorce and remarriage, ministry of women."

The Bishop of Edmonton, Victoria Matthews, said a covenant could set limits on individual provinces and drive home the fact any decision has consequences for the church as a whole.

"It really says that the member churches need to take very seriously the decisions they've been making because there will be a cost," she said.

"Up until now, that hasn't been the case. I think they've been taking their decisions individually, as opposed to understanding they need to consult."

But that shouldn't detract from the church's acceptance of difference, she said. "We allow for ambiguity that often brings out a brilliance not found elsewhere," Bishop Matthews said.

The issue of same-sex blessings "is a difficult one," Archbishop Hutchison said. In Britain, he said, hundreds of same-sex couples are blessed by the church. Canada has placed a moratorium on such blessings until the general synod -- the church's governing body -- meets in June next year.

This comes only a few weeks after the general convention of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, elected the first woman to lead the church.

Oden loses Assembly race by 89 votes

 Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden has lost his June Democratic primary race for the California Assembly, the secretary of state's office reported Friday in Sacramento.

The official count shows Oden, one of the first out black gay mayors in the United States, trailing Steve Clute of Palm Desert by just 89 votes. The final tally was 11,903 votes to Oden's 11,814, state records show.

  See Oden loses Assembly race by 89 votes

With female bishop, reaction is mixed

With female bishop, reaction is mixed

St. Petersburg Times, FL 

First, about 30 years ago, came the ordination of female priests. Then, three years ago, V. Gene Robinson was ordained as an openly gay bishop.

Now the Episcopal Church is in the news for another controversial first: Katharine Jefferts Schori's recent election as the presiding bishop, the first woman to head any denomination in the Anglican Communion worldwide.

Reaction among local Episcopalians is mixed.

Dee Huss, senior warden at St. John's Episcopal Church in Brooksville, said, "As far as having a female, it really doesn't bother me that much, but it does in the context of the Anglican Communion (overseas).

"I'm concerned for the Anglican Communion (worldwide) and felt this would have been a good time to show more faith and reconciliation."

On the Sunday following the ordination, Huss and one other person, who was apprehensive about Jefferts Schori's lack of experience, spoke on the subject during the worship service.

Huss said her husband, Robert, was disappointed with the hierarchy of the church, "because how much voice do we have in it? The House of Bishops does the voting."

"I'm not going to leave the church about it," Dee Huss said. "I still have my faith. I'm just a little disappointed and surprised."

The Rev. William Bozeman, rector of St. John's, said this latest precedent-setting action will probably cause more schism within the denomination. In addition to the ordination of women and a gay bishop, earlier revisions of the prayer book and the hymnal caused consternation, too, he noted.

"Everyone thought (the prayer book and hymnal revisions) would be the end of the church" said Bozeman, 63. "I told the congregation that as long as Bishop (John) Lipscomb is heading the Southwest Diocese (of Florida), I don't believe there will be any ordaining practicing gay priests. However, he will be retiring in three years, so we will have to wait before we see any changes."

Only the United States, Canada and New Zealand have female bishops. When asked about the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship between the churches there and the European and African Anglican Church, Bozeman said, "We're still Anglican, and I think we always will be."

Annette Nelson is the senior warden at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Hudson and has been a member of the church for about 20 years. She said she had no problem with the election of Jefferts Schori.

"She was elected by a majority at the convention, and that's a good thing," Nelson said.

When asked about keeping in good faith with the Anglican Church, Nelson, who is married and a mother, said: "It's a good idea to have a good relationship with all denominations, and I think the Episcopal Church has been one of the forerunners in doing that. ... I think that Bishop Lipscomb is doing an excellent job in representing us, and I believe that he will handle it very judiciously."

Jefferts Schori was elected as presiding bishop June 18 on the fifth ballot in a 95-93 vote. The other six candidates were men.

Since February 2001, she has been serving as the ninth bishop of Nevada, a diocese of 6,000 members in 35 congregations. Before that, she was assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Ore., where she also served as pastors associate, dean of the Good Samaritan School of Theology and priest-in-charge at El Buen Samaritano. She was ordained a deacon and priest in 1994.

Born in Pensacola, the 51-year-old author of many vestry papers is an oceanographer and pilot. She is married to Richard Miles Schori, a topologist, and has one daughter, Katharine Johanna, 24, who is a second lieutenant and pilot in the Air Force.

Paul Blumenauer has been a member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Spring Hill for 18 years. He and his wife, Estelle, moved to Spring Hill from Northfield, N.J.

"I feel we have an excellent priest in Shanda (Mahurin, the church's first female pastor) and see no reason why we won't get the same kind of person in a bishop," he said of Jefferts Schori's election.

As for Jefferts Schori's controversial vote to ordain Robinson as the denomination's first openly gay bishop, he said: "If he's gay and has a calling, that's all right. The thing is he shouldn't have run because of (the consequences) to the church. But basically it doesn't bother me."

Blumenauer admitted that the election of a female presiding bishop will further disrupt the already divided church, but he said it's not a problem with him.

"The Episcopal-Anglican community and all the other Anglicans in the world, as well as England, are not in favor of women, but that's their problem," he said. "The question is: Do they have a calling, and can they do it?"

Blumenauer pointed out that since Mahurin became the spiritual leader at St. Andrew's in 2005, the parish has become more of a close-knit family. Membership has increased, he said, and there is more interest in serving with various ministries at the church.

"The number of parishioners who attend Sunday coffee hours and special events now fills the rooms," he said. "This has been unusual for us."

Pittsburgh Action Called Divisive

Pittsburgh Action Called Divisive
 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — July 2, 2006 — Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP) has characterized the resolutions passed by the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh on June 28 and the standing committees of five other dioceses as a divisive media event. The resolutions request “alternative Primatial oversight” (APO) from the Anglican Communion. The Pittsburgh statement also claims to be withdrawing the diocese from Province III, one of nine groupings of dioceses provided for by the canon law of The Episcopal Church. The requests for APO, first from the Diocese of Fort Worth, which issued its statement before the close of The Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention (June 13–21), and then, nearly simultaneously this past week, from Pittsburgh, South Carolina, San Joaquin, Central Florida, and Springfield, suggest that the requests are part of a coordinated strategy planned long before the church’s meeting in Columbus.
 
Statements made before the General Convention of The Episcopal Church by Network Moderator, the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, and other traditionalists set such a rigid standard that they ensured that The Episcopal Church would fail to satisfy the traditionalists. Whereas the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference, an “advisory and consultative body,” can be asked by the Archbishop to “enquire into, consider and report” on situations involving “dioceses in dispute with their provincial authorities,” the dioceses requesting APO and other Network dioceses are in dispute with virtually the whole of The Episcopal Church, not simply with its primate. Although the Pittsburgh Standing Committee used a recent reflection by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as support for its action, other Archbishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion have read the statement quite differently, with those of New Zealand even characterizing responses like Bishop Duncan’s as “a misrepresentation of his [Williams’] address.”

 
“This request is divisive, yet without substance,” said PEP President Joan R. Gundersen, “since our primate, the Presiding Bishop, has virtually no power and exercises no “oversight” over dioceses and their bishops. It is an attempt to create a media event, without regard to the genuine harm this does to parishes in the diocese, to The Episcopal Church, and to the Anglican Communion.” It represents a premature judgment of our Presiding Bishop-elect, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, of Nevada. The move by the Standing Committee has brought distress to Episcopalians committed to The Episcopal Church, as parishioners fear the organizational estrangement being sought by their bishop. It stirs up division and anxiety in the many parishes that are divided in their response to the recent church controversies and to the course of action being pursued by Bishop Duncan.
 
The alleged withdrawal of the diocese from Province III is even more disingenuous. Not only does the diocese already have little involvement in provincial affairs, but the Bishop of Pittsburgh well knows that the creation of provinces and the assignment of dioceses to provinces can only be done by canon of the General Convention. It would not be unprecedented for a diocese to ignore its province, but neither the Standing Committee nor the Convention of the diocese can remove the diocese from Province III; only General Convention can do that, and not before 2009. Creating a tenth province, as suggested by the resolution, likewise, can only be accomplished by General Convention. “A province of Network dioceses would be a pastoral disaster,” Gundersen suggested. “At least 13 parishes in this diocese have declined to be part of the Network and declared a commitment to The Episcopal Church. Despite assurances from the Standing Committee, these parishes, and similar parishes in other dioceses, either will be abandoned or forced into a being part of the Network against their will.”
 
The system of provinces that is now part of the organization of The Episcopal Church is less than a century old. One reason such a feature was discussed for many decades without being implemented was the concern that creating provinces might encourage the development of churches within the church. “The Network has often talked about creating an ‘orthodox’ church within the church,” explained Gundersen, “but the nineteenth-century arguments against dividing the church still apply today. The requests for oversight and withdrawal to a separatist province fly in the face of traditional Anglican willingness to worship together while allowing a broad spectrum of interpretations of Scripture and belief. It is a radical betrayal of the central traditions on which the Anglican Communion is built.”
 
On the Web:
This document:

     http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/html/2006-07-02divisive.htm 
PEP:
     http://progressiveepiscopalians.org
Action of diocesan Standing Committee:
     http://www.pgh.anglican.org/news/local/pittsburghaltoversight 
Panel of Reference:
     http://www.anglicancommunion.org/commission/reference/mandate.cfm
Archbishop Williams’ reflection:
     http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/41/50/acns4161.cfm
Statement from New Zealand:
     http://www.anglicanchurch.co.nz/Latest-News/Ultimatum-What-ultimatum.asp
The Episcopal Church:
     http://episcopalchurch.org
Constitution and canons of General Convention (i.e., of The Episcopal Church):
     http://www.churchpublishing.org/general_convention/index.cfm?fuseaction=candc
Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes:
      http://www.acn-us.org
 
 
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh is an organization of clergy and laypeople committed to the unity and diversity of The Episcopal Church, and of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. It is a member of the Via Media USA alliance.

So far: IL Gay Marriage Referendum Falling Short

An early review shows gay marriage opponents don't have enough valid signatures to get a measure on the November ballot, but that doesn't mean it can't still make it, a state Board of Elections spokesman said Monday.

A check of 64,000 signatures -- a 19 percent sample of more 330,000-plus submitted -- did not find enough registered voters to put a measure on the ballot that would ask voters if the state should amend its constitution to ban same-sex marriage, said elections board spokesman Dan White.

The requirement is that more than 95 percent of the sample's signatures be valid and gay marriage opponents had 91 percent, White said. It was the board's second check of a sample of signatures.

Peter LaBarbera, executive director of a conservative group pushing to get the gay marriage advisory referendum on the state ballot, said they would challenge the review's findings.

He said they knew it would be close and he said he believes gay marriage opponents will prevail in the end.

"It's far from over," LaBarbera said. See Gay Marriage Referendum Falling Short

Gay activists plan to fight constitutional marriage amendment

Gay-rights activists in Massachusetts are urging state residents to contact legislators in advance of a July 12 constitutional convention on whether gay marriage rights should be removed from the law.

"We need to make sure legislators hear from supporters of equality that discrimination should not be added to the constitution," said Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Executive Director Lee Swislow in an e-mail alert distributed July 3. GLAD is a New England gay advocacy group.

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, with the support of Boston's Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, encouraged the Legislature to schedule a vote on the proposed same-sex marriage ban.

"We urge that the legislators let everyone's voce be heard," O'Malley told the Boston Globe for a news article published June 29.

Same-sex marriage supporters say they will do whatever they must to see that the amendment is killed, leaving intact a 2003 Supreme Judicial Court decision that made Massachusetts the first state to make same-sex marriages legal.

See Gay activists plan to fight constitutional marriage amendment

Houstonvoice.com

African branch criticizes Anglican plan

African branch criticizes Anglican plan @ Seattle Post Intelligencer

NEW YORK -- Africa's largest Anglican church is criticizing a proposal from the archbishop of Canterbury for two-tier membership in the global Anglican fellowship, a plan aimed at keeping the group together despite differences over homosexuality and the Bible.

The bishops who lead the 17.5 million-member Church of Nigeria announced their stand in postings Sunday on a pair of Anglican Web sites.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - Anglicanism's spiritual leader - suggested last month that two levels of participation for the 38 branches of the Anglican Communion could be created.

Under that system, America's Episcopal Church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, would accept a lesser role to prevent a total break with a majority of Anglican churches, which are conservative.

The Nigerian bishops said Williams' "brilliant" concept sought to "preserve the unity of the church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how biblical, all because we want to make everyone feel at home."

But the Nigerians also indicated that total exclusion of the Episcopal Church may be required: "A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure. To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient."

The statement depicted the Williams plan as a "novel" design that's "elastic enough to accommodate all the extremes of preferred modes of expression of the same faith." Instead, it said, Williams should urge churches that chose to "walk apart" to return to authentic Anglicanism.

The Nigerians' statement is particularly noteworthy because their church is the biggest Anglican denomination outside the Church of England and is often seen as a leader among Anglican provinces in the developing world.

In a related move, Nigeria's church plans to consecrate Canon Martyn Minns, rector of a prominent conservative parish in Fairfax, Va., as its bishop to lead a United States mission that serves Nigerians in America and others dissatisfied with the New York-based Episcopal Church.

Meanwhile, six dioceses unhappy with the Episcopalians' rejection last month of an outright moratorium on consecrating more gay bishops have asked Williams for oversight from a bishop outside the Episcopal hierarchy.

Integrity, the caucus for gay and lesbian Episcopalians, released a weekend statement that expressed frustration with the Anglican wrangling over gay issues.

"We cannot live up to our call to be the body of Christ in the world if we're spending all our time, energy and resources arguing about how to be the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion" over the next few years, it said.

Integrity said the discussion provoked by Williams should include calling Anglicanism "to account for 30 years of failure to implement an authentic listening process" on the gay issue.

---

On the Net:

Nigerians' text at http://www.globalsouthanglican.org

Foes of gay marriage ban raise funds, not necessarily supporters

Foes of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage are accumulating more cash than they are supporters. New financial disclosure forms show that Arizona Together, the coalition to fight the initiative, has collected more than $523,000 since launching the campaign last summer. See Foes of gay marriage ban raise funds, not necessarily supporters
East Valley Tribune, AZ 

Arizona Anti-gay marriage leader dies in car crash

PHOENIX A woman who led the ballot effort to prohibit gay marriage and define traditional unions in Arizona has been killed in a rollover crash outside Seligman.

D-P-S says 58-year-old Lynn Stanley, the chairwoman of the Protect Marriage Arizona Coalition, died in a crash early Monday on Interstate 40.

Stanley was returning to Phoenix from Las Vegas, where she was visiting two sisters, at the time of the accident.

The Protect Marriage coalition collected some 300-thousand signatures to place its measure on the November ballot. See Anti-gay marriage leader dies in car crash

KVOA.com

Gay clergy issue splitting Anglican communion

Gay clergy issue splitting Anglican communion

ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada

The obituary-in-waiting for the Anglican communion goes something like this: A nearly 500-year-old worldwide fellowship of Christian churches splits apart over disputes about gay clergy — and American liberals get most of the blame.

It is a crisp, tidy farewell. But one that may not prove true, even as predictions of doom were rampant after the U.S. Episcopal Church wrapped up a gathering Wednesday without coming close to meeting demands of conservatives across the 77 million-member communion.

Powerful considerations — both practical and theological — still stand in the way of one of the biggest meltdowns in Christian unity since the Reformation, clerics and scholars say.

"The problems are very, very deep," said Canon Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., and a leader of the conservative bloc at the Episcopal meeting in Columbus, Ohio. "But I don’t share the view that it’s moving toward a decisive break. That’s not how we do things."

What is more likely, many experts say, is a continued erosion from within — an implosion rather than explosion.

This could fold Anglicanism’s big tent as we know it, the denominations rooted in the Church of England and roughly stretching across former British colonies and the old Empire. In its place, the 38 Anglican provinces including the Anglican Church of Canada might stay linked in name only, but go their own way on key issues including same-sex blessings, women clergy and the ordination of gay priests and bishops.

"Anglicanism, as we know it, would no longer exist," said Rev. Peter Moore, dean emeritus at the conservative Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa. "Something else would take its place."

The Episcopal delegates made it clear they relish their independence. An assembly of clergy and lay leaders rebuffed a proposal to temporarily halt electing gay bishops. In the final hours of the meeting, they approved a nonbinding, and vaguely worded, compromise resolution to "exercise restraint" when considering bishop candidates whose lifestyle "presents a challenge" to the communion.

But it falls far short of the moratorium proposal, which was suggested by top Anglican officials as a way to ease anger among conservatives following the 2003 election of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who lives with his longtime male partner. Anglican traditionalists, led by African clerics, consider homosexuality a violation of Scripture.

Representatives of gay groups elected to raise AIDS awareness in Cambodia

Six men have been chosen to represent a national network of gays to help raise awareness about the dangers of AIDS in Cambodia, an official said Saturday.

They were elected from 11 candidates fielded by local health organizations Friday, said Chuop Sok Chamroeun, a program officer of Khana, a nonprofit Cambodian group working to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS.

He said they would become "one voice representing MSM in Cambodia," using the term men who have sex with men.

More of Representatives of gay groups elected to raise AIDS in Cambodia
Washington Blade, DC 

Anglicans fight in church - literally - sort of

Anglicans fight in church

The Nation, Malawi, Malawi

The ongoing feud within the Anglican Diocese of Lake Malawi reared another ugly face Sunday when Christians fought with pangas during mass at the All Saints Cathedral in Nkhotakota.

The diocese has been rocked with problems after the Court of Confirmation rejected Reverend Nicholas Henderson from Britain as bishop on grounds that his name is associated with gay activities.

Retired Zambian clergyman Leonard Mwenda was appointed interim bishop, a move that angered Henderson’s supporters.

Eyewitnesses in Nkhotakota confirmed Sunday’s fight.

James Patrick Chibingwe, a member of the faction supporting Mwenda, said the fracas started on Saturday when some youths “threatened they would disturb prayers on Sunday.”

Chibingwe also alleged the youths, who went about chanting, threatened they would rough up Father Denis Kayamba and Canon Rodney Hunter, two priests aligned to Mwenda.

“Some of those people...for the pro-Henderson faction were not even Christians, and...their threats became a reality when they roughed up Canon Hunter right in the church. They grabbed him from the church to his house and we followed to rescue him,” said Chibingwe.

He said some of those people who grabbed Hunter, as he was starting the 7 am (0500 GMT) mass, wielded pangas and in the process harmed some people.

He said the fracas coincided with the impending visit to the mission of Mwenda who was supposed to conduct a Christian confirmation mass and tour some establishments.

But pro-Henderson arch-deaconry secretary Luke Matchiya said what provoked his faction was the coming of Mwenda to conduct a confirmation of Christians and tour the mission without waiting for results of the Panel of Reference instituted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to review the problem in the diocese.

Nkhotakota police officer-in charge-Clement Juwa, while confirming the fracas, said: “It is not a big problem, we have arrested the one with the chikwanje and we are investigating the matter. This matter is just being blown out of proportion by some individuals because of greed. They are telling people all sorts of stories and lies to fuel up things,” he said.

Juwa said when they saw that some people were creating problems at the church, the police went to Nkhotakota Pottery where Mwenda was residing to warn him against going to the cathedral. He also said he was not aware that Canon Hunter was beaten in the fracas.

A police officer who was at the scene confided that the pro-Henderson group sealed gates leading to the church and threatened to rough up both Kayamba and Hunter.

From London's thin pink line to the wilds of Peru The Age

GAYS, lesbians and transvestites paraded in cities around the world at the weekend to proudly state their sexuality.

Amid a fleet of gaudily decorated floats with blaring music and dancers, the marchers flowed down London's Oxford Street, past Nelson's Column to the Houses of Parliament.

"It has been great. Everyone was very accepting. There was no abuse, just support," Europride local organiser Emily said.

"This is a great public relations exercise for the gay and lesbian world."

See From London's thin pink line to the wilds of Peru The Age

As The World Turns has gay teenager

Late last year on As the World Turns, the character of Luke Snyder (Van Hansis) came out as a gay teenager. Gay viewers, used to mostly seeing gay characters in minor plotlines or portrayed as little more than walking billboards for some “issue” (think AIDS or intolerance) wondered if Luke's storyline might be something different.

It turns that was indeed the case, as Luke's storyline has been integral to the show during the past six weeks.

Since Luke's parents learned he was gay, viewers have watched the family struggle to cope with the news. His mother Lily (Martha Byrnes) has had a more difficult time than Luke's father, Holden (Jon Hensley). While Lily still clearly loved her son, she was confused and fearful for his future. She also wondered what she had done wrong--a common sentiment among parents. Holden had suspected the truth for some time, giving him time to adjust to the news and he has been his son's advocate ever since.

Luke himself has struggled with his mother's less than positive reaction as well as his own conflicts over who else to come out to and what his life will be like now. Overall, however, the show's treatment of his sexuality has been positive, realistic, and quite powerful.

 See As The World Turns has gay teenager

Clean needle bill sparks clash on Beacon Hill

Lt. Governor Kerry Healey’s June 22 press conference to speak out against the pharmacy access bill was clearly designed to position her as tough on crime and as a champion of public safety issues, but the GOP gubernatorial candidate was outgunned when she spoke on the steps of the Statehouse. As Healey, flanked by a handful of Republican legislators, addressed reporters, she fought to be heard over a crowd of about 60 supporters of the bill lined up across the street, carrying signs and chanting “Pharmacy access now!” and “Clean needles save lives!” throughout the entire press conference. And while she claimed the bill, which would decriminalize needle possession in the state and allow syringes to be sold in pharmacies without a prescription, would present a public safety hazard to both law enforcement and the public, the only criminal justice official present at the conference, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, spoke out at a counter press conference in support of the bill, arguing that it would likely increase officer safety.

Advocates of the pharmacy access bill, which was enacted by the House and Senate today and is set to go to Governor Mitt Romney’s desk, argue that it will reduce HIV transmission among IV drug users, and they say the evidence from the other 47 states where needle sales are allowed bears this out. AIDS Action Committee (AAC) cites a Connecticut study showing that that state saw a 40 percent decrease in needle sharing after needle sales were deregulated. Another study cited by AAC found that in cities that prohibit over-the-counter sales of syringes the HIV infection rate among IV drug users as twice as high as in those cities without a prohibition. Both Healey and state Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham), who also spoke out against the bill, agreed that the bill may reduce HIV infection rates but said they could not support it.

“Like Sen. Brown I don’t contest that that is not true. What I do say is that you need to balance public safety concerns with public health concerns, and in this case my view is that public safety concerns come out on top,” said Healey.

As evidence of the danger of the bill she invited Bob Myers, a Chelmsford resident, to talk about an incident last week in which his 10-year-old son, Rourke, and some friends found two hypodermic needles on the grass at Boston Common during a school field trip. Myers said that thankfully his son knew not to touch the needles and instead to tell his teacher, but he worried about the safety of other children who might come upon needles in public.

Ed Note: What does that have to do with free needles? What kind of man would deny a program that has been proven to save lives? Has he no decency? See Clean needle bill sparks clash on Beacon Hill

Running for President no matter who he kills: Romney vetoes clean needle bill

Gov. Mitt Romney announced June 30 that he had vetoed a bill that would have decriminalized the possession of syringes and allowed them to be sold in pharmacies without a prescription. HIV/AIDS advocates have lobbied for the Pharmacy Access bill, arguing that it would greatly reduce HIV infections among IV drug users, but Romney told reporters at a press conference that he believed the bill would exacerbate the problem of heroin addiction in Massachusetts.  See Romney vetoes clean needle bill

NYC has "No Specific Plan On More Gay Hiv Infections"

While they expressed clear concerns, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn offered no specific plan for responding to a city report showing that new HIV diagnoses among gay men may be increasing. See No Specific Plan On More Gay Hiv Infections

Japan's straight champion for gay rights: Meet Kaji from Kawasaki --

Meet Kaji from Kawasaki -- Japan's straight champion for gay ...

Mainichi Daily News

Modern Japan has hardly taken a positive view toward homosexuality until recently, but things are beginning to change, self-professed Coming Out Counselor from Kawasaki Yoshimi Kaji tells Yomiuri Weekly (7/9).

Kaji runs the Coming Out hotline, which has attracted over 130 distress calls since it started at the beginning of the year.

Men, women, parents, lovers have been among the callers, whose ages have ranged from their teens to their 90s. Many of the callers have been friends or family concerned that somebody close to them is homosexual.

"About a year ago, my son came out and told me he's gay. It was a real shock. Was there something wrong with the way I brought him up?" Yomiuri Weekly quotes one mom saying.Another mom's call went along these lines: "My daughter shuts herself off from the world. When I went to try and find out what was wrong with her, I discovered she's a lesbian. What should I do?"

A wife says: "I've been married for 30 years, but my husband and I have been sexless for a long time. I've only recently learned that my husband is gay. We haven't done it for so long and I find this out, so now I hate him."

A young man's call went: "My fianc? recently told me she's fallen for another woman. Will I still be all right to marry her?"

Friends and family dealing with the sexual orientations of those near them aren't the only people calling Kaji the Coming Out Counselor from Kawasaki. There are also plenty of men and women ringing in to work out the best way that they can take their first step out of the closet.

Kaji always had an interested in sex education. She did some volunteer work with AIDS patients, meeting many homosexuals and developing an interest in their causes. She studied sexuality at New York University, returning to Japan in 1996 with a conviction to improve the standing of homosexuals in Japanese society, as well as educating and enlightening heterosexuals about gay and lesbian issues.

"I really thought hard about what sort of role I could play, particularly as I'm not a lesbian, and figured out that I could became a bridge between the straight and gay worlds," Kaji, 44, tells Yomiuri Weekly. "I call myself a Coming Out Consultant."

More and more Japanese gays and lesbians are coming out of the closet and the deep-seated prejudices against homosexuality are becoming less pronounced.

Nonetheless, that's not to say everything is roses and many people who come out find their families and friends disown them, even if only temporarily. The weekly says many parents of homosexuals feel guilt, blaming their child's sexuality on faults with their parenting and hoping that something can be done to change the situation.

"Homosexuality is like being left-handed... It's something you're born with and there's no way you can 'cure' it," Kaji says. "It's when people start trying to forcefully 'cure' homosexuality that it creates mental problems for those involved."

Coming out can often be a harrowing experience for those doing it and those around them. If necessary, Kaji introduces people who can provide proper care.

"Homosexuals are a minority and it takes an enormous amount of effort for their family, friends and society to accept them for what they are," Kaji tells Yomiuri Weekly. "America's gay movement has succeeded in its search for rights by doing it that way. I'd love to be able to do the same thing in Japan." (By Ryann Connell)

Conflict strengthens, not divides, Episcopal Church

Conflict strengthens, not divides, Episcopal Church
Central Maine Morning Sentinel, ME

MAINE COMPASS: Robin Johnson

As an active member of the Episcopal Church and community, I attended the church's recent General Convention. The press has made much of the struggle at that convention over the still-controversial ordination of a gay Episcopal bishop in 2003 -- but there was much else that happened at the convention and the mood of the gathering was far from rancorous and bitter. In fact, my experience at the event was one of the most uplifting experiences of my life.

There is something completely grounding about starting every day with a Eucharist (Holy Communion) with about 1,500 other people. Beautiful music and meaningful conversation surrounding the events of each day lent themselves to the formation of bonds with people I hadn't met before, from all over the globe. Dialogue about the issues brought before the governing bodies, such as the election of bishops and interdependence in the Anglican Communion, was open and honest, without fear of reprisal. Most of us hoped to understand one another. While schism and antagonism have been identified as rocking the Episcopal world today, the General Convention and the concurrent Episcopal Church Women's Triennial Celebration spoke not just to those specific concerns of the Episcopal Church, but to concerns much broader and near and dear to all human relationships, beliefs and sensitivities.

For some time now, the consecration of Gene Robinson in 2003 as the ninth Bishop of New Hampshire has been all consuming, creating an atmosphere of grave concern to many, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and other members of the Anglican Communion. The ordination of outwardly gay and lesbian clergy has challenged the Episcopal Church, and has been under high scrutiny. At the conference, recommendations arising from Bishop Robinson's consecration held a high profile as the two governing bodies of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, wrestled with the implications of a proposed moratorium on such ordinations.

The combined House of Bishops and Deputies is the largest Episcopal legislative body to convene in the world; therefore, quick work could not be made of this emotional issue in a yes or no vote.

What people on the outside of the convention were led to believe was that the deliberation over the issue raised by Robinson's ordination was polarized and characterized by unyielding viewpoints. Yet the opposite was true; those whose faith was challenged as they tried to come to grips with controversial resolutions were continually nurtured by people with different viewpoints. Notes of support and caring between those in favor and those opposed were exchanged after emotional voting sessions. Indeed, one resolution expressed "regret for straining the bonds of affection" and asked "forgiveness as we seek to live into deeper levels of communion one with another." Not everyone is healed, but most can agree to disagree.

At the concurrent Triennial Celebration, women came together in support and love of our elected bishops and deputies as they worked long hours. Speakers such as Phoebe Griswold, wife of retiring Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, and Margaret Rose, Director of Women's Ministries, encouraged us to be intentional about drawing women and men with different points of view together for conversations that in small ways can start to mend greater fences.

"Any small calm thing that one soul can do to help another, to assist some portion of this suffering world, will help immensely," stated Clarissa Pinkola Estes in a collection of quotes circulated throughout our gathering. Riah Aba Al-Essal, the bishop of Jerusalem, spoke about how women on both sides of the wall dividing Israel and Palestine are encouraged to climb ladders and exchange pictures of their dead children to remind each other of what's at stake in that region's conflict.

We spoke openly about our faith at the convention, about our trust in God, and our conviction that we were all there for a purpose, and most agreed that to be gay or lesbian is second to being human with all the rights and privileges attached.

The ministry of reconciliation, eradication of extreme poverty and elimination of global AIDS are just a sampling of the goals we are working toward in the Episcopal Church of today. The church is alive and well and our collective vision has been neither dominated nor destroyed by the conflict that we've recently experienced. Indeed, my experience at the recent convention leads me to believe we have been strengthened by it.

Robin Johnson of Waterville is the Maine Diocesan Coordinator of the United Thank Offering, a global ministry which makes grants to those in need.

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CA State Supremes allow damages against those who spread disease to longtime partners

State Supremes allow damages against those who spread disease to longtime partners  see Court Rules On HIV Liability.

Rabbis: Stop Jerusalem gay parade

Haredim plan mass rally in protest of scheduled Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade; leaflet published by ultra-Orthodox community reads ‘we must do everything to banish this disgrace from Holy city’
Neta Sela

After Ultra-Orthodox rabbis declared a “holy war” on the Gay Pride Parade last week and following Jewish-Islamic cooperation to stop the planned Jerusalem parade, the campaign is moving in to the next stage: Distribution of leaflets and posting of ads.

See Rabbis: Stop Jerusalem gay parade

Ynetnews

Companies add same-sex benefits to attract, keep workers

The latest indicator of gay people's growing economic clout came last week in a report that found more than half of the United States' largest corporations now extend health insurance to employees' same-sex domestic partners.

The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that the number of Fortune 500 companies offering this benefit has doubled in six years, even as voters in 45 states have registered their opposition to gay marriage.

Moreover, the report found that large companies have more readily granted benefits to their workers' same-sex partners than have state and local governments. More than 250 companies are offering that benefit this year.

"They are light-years ahead because corporate leaders are making these decisions purely on a business model," said Joe Solmonese, the foundation's president. "Looking at the buying power of the lesbian and gay communities and the need to attract a diverse and talented work force, they've concluded that a fair and inclusive work force serves them best."

The tally of cities, counties and other government organizations providing health benefits to same-sex partners rose to 201 this year, up from 113 in 2000. Eight states grant some legal rights, including access to insurance benefits, to same-sex couples.

These findings echo similar results from Mercer Human Resource Consulting's annual benefits survey, said Kathleen Murray, a principal in the company's San Francisco office. It's all about talent, she said, "and getting the right people in."

See Companies add same-sex benefits to attract, keep workers
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, PA

Romney Biggest Contributor To SC Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, fighting for an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage has become the biggest contributor to a similar campaign in South Carolina a Boston newspaper reports.

The Boston Globe says that Romney's political action committee has given SCformarriage.org $5,000. 

The paper also reports that Romney, who has presidential aspirations in 2008, intends later this month to send out a fundraising letter on behalf of the group to about 150,000 South Carolinians.

In addition he is expected to headline an event for it after Labor Day.

The extent of his involvement with the South Carolina group is seen as the beginning of an attempt to build a national coalition of conservative groups - something he will need if he goes ahead with his quest for the GOP presidential nomination. See Romney Biggest Contributor To SC Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign
365Gay.com 

Cross burned at gay man's house in TN

ATHENS, Tenn. — The Meigs County Sheriff's Department is investigating a possible hate crime after someone burned a cross at the home of a gay man.

The cross, between 6 and 8 feet tall, was discovered by Brandon Waters, along with a derogatory message late Thursday at his home.

"There are a lot of people that don't approve of it," the 23-year-old Waters told The Daily Post-Athenian, referring to being gay. "They are always bashing us. It makes me fearful of what could happen. I just want to live my life."

State fire officials were expected to arrive Monday to assist the sheriff's department in the investigation.

Sheriff Walter Hickman said if the burning is determined to be a hate crime, it could warrant federal charges.

"Right now we are looking at all angles," Hickman said. "It's a concern because it's a crime."

As far as he can recall, Hickman said the incident is the first of its kind in the county's history.

"There are a lot of people that don't approve of it," the 23-year-old Waters told The Daily Post-Athenian, referring to being gay. "They are always bashing us. It makes me fearful of what could happen. I just want to live my life."

State fire officials were expected to arrive Monday to assist the sheriff's department in the investigation.

Sheriff Walter Hickman said if the burning is determined to be a hate crime, it could warrant federal charges.

"Right now we are looking at all angles," Hickman said. "It's a concern because it's a crime."

As far as he can recall, Hickman said the incident is the first of its kind in the county's history.

See Cross burned at gay man's house
Knoxville News Sentinel (subscription), TN

"Gorgeous" gay community fills London with EuroPride

Around half a million people gathered in London this afternoon to celebrate EuroPride.

Gay politicians, campaigners and supporters including London Mayor Ken Livingstone, actor Sir Ian McKellen, Labour MEP Michael Cashman, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Duncan, and Outrage’s Peter Tatchell were just a few of the names leading the parade.

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from across London and other major European cities marched from Baker Street, through Oxford Street, down Regents Street and finished with a rally in Trafalgar Square.

Despite an anti-gay protest organised by Christian Voice, the event passed peacefully. See “Gorgeous” gay community fills London with EuroPride
PinkNews.co.uk, UK -

Anglican Archbishop of Perth: Love and generosity should guide fractured Anglican Church

Love and generosity should guide fractured Anglican Church
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia 

Roger Herft

THE careful portrait sketched last week by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, of the crisis facing the Anglican Church is to be welcomed for careful study and reflection. The responses made to the document so far have been predictable.

The focus of the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, on separation as inevitable is to be expected. This fits with a long-term agenda followed by the Diocese of Sydney for the Anglican Church nationally and internationally to be a loose federation of congregations. A polka-dot view of the church where like-minded individuals and groups who think and act in a homogenous way, who hear the word of God expounded by a leadership that excludes women from a teaching role, who follow a reformed, Protestant view of doctrine and who pursue ethical behaviour based on the "pure" view of scripture, is Sydney's ideal.

In the US, the document is seen as a betrayal of the call for the church to be fully accepting of gay and lesbian people.

There is no doubt that the pre-emptive action taken by the Episcopal Church in the US has seriously threatened the fragile nature of the Anglican communion. In suggesting a covenant as the "opting in" mechanism, Canterbury offers a two-tier structure of "constituent" and "churches in association" as a model of remaining in conversation.

One presumes that one category will have a better and more wholesome communion than the other. In Australia, our fiercely guarded autonomy makes agreeing to any national protocols hard enough - how we will agree to an international set of binding rules will require a miracle.

Some have suggested that the two-tier structure will lead to an inner sanctum - the children of light and the children of darkness. Canterbury warns both liberals and conservatives to be careful of making such sterile judgements.

To suggest that the controversy can be reduced at a fundamental level to the authority of the Bible and that the way in which we learn and follow God's will is to disregard the careful arguments put forward by Williams as he expounds the essential DNA of being Anglican.

"We do have a distinctive historic tradition - a reformed commitment to the absolute priority of the Bible for deciding doctrine, a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility that does not seek to close down unexpected ques In fact, Williams is at pains to point out that the essential characteristic of being Anglican is to refuse to see these elements that form faith in isolation from each other. The generous nature of Anglicanism which flourishes in paradox is threatened by such a determination.

Williams observes that "to accept that each of these has a place in the church's life and that they need each other means that the enthusiasts for each aspect have to be prepared to live with certain tensions or even sacrifices - with a tradition of being positive about a responsible critical approach to scripture, with the anomalies of a historic ministry not universally recognised in the Catholic world, with limits on the degree of adjustment to the culture and its habits that is thought possible or acceptable."

The Canterbury statement takes seriously the polarities that exist in the Anglican Church mingled with sinful, fallible global politics. Those outside the church are called to remember that the church has to respond to the current issues facing it not in the language of "rights" but in acknowledging what it is to live as those entrusted with the good news of God's saving grace in Christ in ways that honour this truth.

The language of divorce and separation seems to misunderstand the nature of what it means to belong to the church. None of us enter into this community because of our gender, sexual orientation, good works or righteous behaviour.

We are sinners called to be transformed into Christlikeness by the dramatic act of God in Jesus - his death and resurrection. In an act of divine initiative Jesus chooses those who belong. The marriage/separation/divorce analogy suggests a contractual arrangement where we can determine who is in and who is out.

The church of God called into being by the act of Christ must be particularly careful in its judgements and its exclusions - for, as Jesus reminds those whom he chooses, we are not called to respect or tolerate each other - but to love one another, particularly those we determine to be the "enemy".

The heat is on.

The gay and lesbian person is placed on the altar - the presenting cause of schism. While the church beats itself into a frenzy it may easily forget that its primary vocation is to love, to make judgements without deeply loving is to hate, and hate is a cycle that leaves the cross standing powerless - without resurrection.

The Most Reverend Roger Herft is the Anglican Archbishop of Perth.

A celebration of pride

The blustery wind made the huge rainbow flag billow fiercely, forcing a contingency of parade goers to grapple for a tight hold. Cars honked and people waved as the members and supporters of PFLAG made their way across the Airport Way intersection and through Pioneer Park to celebrate Pridefest 2006.

"This is Fairbanks putting its voice out," said Suzanne Noll, Fairbanks PFLAG chapter president.

The crowd consisted of parents and family and friends of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, hence the name, PFLAG. The turnout pleased visitor and keynote speaker, deputy executive director of PFLAG from Washington, D.C., Ron Schlittler. He said in the last month he'd been to a PFLAG rally in Washington that topped about 10,000 in attendance, to Pridefest in Anchorage with a few thousand participants and Saturday in Fairbanks with nearly 100 people.

See A celebration of pride
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, AK 

Solicitation just part of day laborers' lives

VAN NUYS - As they pass time on the corner of Kester and Oxnard streets looking for work, day laborers tell stories.

They talk about a man who drives by in the afternoons, pretending to need someone to mow the lawn, trim some trees or paint the garage.

What the man really wants is sex. And he's looking for a man to hire for the day.

"I tried to ask him what kind of work he wanted, and at first he said one thing, then another, so I didn't want to go," one worker recently said at the Van Nuys street corner.

"These days, you have to know who you are getting in the car with," he said. "These days, you better ask all the questions before you get in and go. Bad things can happen very fast."

With thousands of undocumented immigrants looking for work every day in Southern California, the practice of hiring day laborers for sex has some health experts concerned about the rapid spread of AIDS in the immigrant community.

For the past three years, outreach workers have handed out safe-sex booklets to men at Kester and Oxnard, near one of several Los Angeles-area locations listed on a Web site used by gay and bisexual men in search of sex.

The men using the Web site target day laborers because many of them are young, alone and desperate for money - especially after passing an entire morning without finding any work, said Dr. Frank Galvan, assistant professor at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles.

Surprised by the discovery of the Web site in 2004, Galvan began researching the practice across Southern California. What he discovered alarmed him.

In a survey of 450 day laborers at the various sites listed on the Web site, 38 percent said they had been solicited for sex while seeking work. Ten percent of them accepted the offer. A majority of those said they did not use condoms.

Of those who accepted the offer, 86 percent denied being gay. The same 86 percent said they agreed to have sex for money because they hadn't worked that day and needed the money.

During his research, Galvan was told laborers were sometimes threatened with deportation if they refused sex.

County health experts say that while the soliciting of day laborers is alarming, they are more concerned about the transmission of HIV and the use of crystal meth among gay and bisexual men across all communities.

Of the 450 day laborers surveyed, only one tested positive for HIV.

"I haven't received anything that suggests that we need to dramatically shift HIV resources to this issue," said Mario Perez, director of the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Program and Policy. "It's alarming that it's happening, but when the dust settles, we try to get to the men who are at a higher risk."

In Los Angeles County, HIV and AIDS among Latinos continues to increase. Health experts estimate 48 percent of all AIDS cases are Latinos, primarily among men who have sex with other men. New cases of syphilis also jumped 40 percent in Los Angeles County last year and of the new cases, 42 percent were Latinos.

Perez said if more day laborers are being solicited, those who are victimized would likely remain silent. He said the practice has been going on for at least eight years.

"We continue to be challenged with some cultural issues around homophobia, and the stigma and shame of AIDS," Perez said. "I still think there's shame and stigma to either being gay or being bisexual in the community, so those might be some deterrents of sharing their experience with other counterparts. We may never know the true extent of what's happening."

Galvan cautioned that his survey of the 450 day laborers was not conducted randomly. He said he visited five sites in Los Angeles and one in the San Fernando Valley - all of which were listed on the Web site.

But he and others aware of the practice say that if it is happening in Los Angeles, then day laborers across the country are likely being solicited as well.

"If it's happening in Los Angeles, then it's happening in New York and it's happening in Miami. We need everybody to know what's happening," said Victor Martinez, regional director for Bienestar, a nonprofit organization that works to fund education, research and policy for Latinos and HIV prevention.

Martinez, who presented Galvan's study in Sacramento recently, said it is not the agency's policy to judge the men if they accept the sexual advances. Their job, he said, is to warn the men they could contract HIV and to secure more funding through Los Angeles County Health Services for additional research.

"People still die of AIDS," Martinez said. "Especially our clients, because they don't have access to health care. Nobody talks about it, but they are the new faces of AIDS."

The Los Angeles Police Department said it was not aware of the practice, which did not surprise Martinez.

More of Solicitation just part of day laborers' lives
Los Angeles Daily News, CA -

Taboo topic homophobia met head-on

The nature of the question wasn't surprising. The ignorance behind it was.

Esera Tuaolo, a nine-year defensive tackle who disclosed he's gay two years after retiring in 2000, was appearing at the NFL's annual Rookie Symposium on Monday, the featured speaker at a session titled Diversity & Tolerance Training.

During one of his talks with four groups of 60 or so players, Tuaolo was asked if it's OK to call a gay man a derogatory term. Tuaolo started to answer, then stopped and looked around the conference room at La Costa Resort and Spa.

“The majority of the players were just shaking their heads like, what an idiot,” Tuaolo, 37, said later. “One guy, to tell you the truth, was like, 'I'm glad you're not on our team.' It started out as a negative thing, but it turned out to be a positive thing, if you know what I mean.”

Tuaolo said the question and the intent behind it confirmed that homophobia remains an issue in the NFL. But he quickly added that the response of the majority of the players was affirmation that the league has made progress on the issue.

Chargers quarterback Charlie Whitehurst was in the room when the question was asked, and he called it an “ugly” scene.

“I have tremendous respect for the guy,” Whitehurst said of Tuaolo. “He was kind of living a lie there for a long time, and I guess he had to do it. It definitely must have been tough for him. I think the majority of the players really took to him and accepted the fact that – one thing you learn quickly in the NFL is you don't question anybody who's been there and done it as a player, no matter what it is.”

See Taboo topic homophobia met head-on
San Diego Union Tribune, United States

Complaint may lead to blood donation policy changes

World-wide blood donation policies could be changed because of a Tasmanian man's complaint to the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner.

Michael Cain, from Launceston, was turned away from the Red Cross Blood Bank in 2004 because he had had sex with another man in the previous 12 months.

His complaint that the blood bank's policy was discriminatory has been referred to the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.

Gay activist Rodney Croome says there should be a new screening policy based on safe sex practices.

"Currently the Red Cross doesn't ask if you have safe sex or not, it simply assumes if you're straight you're safe and if you're gay you're not," he said.

"And that's the policy that we want changed because as we know some heterosexual people have unsafe sex and many gay men have safe sex.

See Complaint may lead to blood donation policy changes
ABC Online, Australia 

Gay seniors settle into a niche

SANTA FE — Jack Norris and Seymour Sirota feared ending up like a lot of older gay men they know — no children, partners dead or gone, families estranged, little to do but sit in their New York City apartments hoping the phone rings.

The couple tried retiring in Tampa but never felt comfortable there. They considered Sun City Center, Fla., until they heard about gay men who had moved in and promptly fled back into the closet. "We didn't want to go that route, not at this point in our life," Norris says.

RainbowVision, the nation's first retirement village aimed at gay men and lesbians, seemed a perfect fit. A visit to arts-happy Santa Fe, a high-desert cultural oasis with a gay-friendly reputation, sealed the deal. They put their Tampa place and Upper West Side co-op on the market.

Moving to a new $361,000, three-bedroom condo put Norris, 67, and Sirota, 79, on the leading edge of an emerging niche in the USA's booming retirement market. Communities tailored to gay seniors have been a dream, gay advocates say, ever since the gay-rights movement was born after the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York's Greenwich Village, a clash of police and drag queens after a raid on a gay bar.

But only recently have projects gotten off the ground: all-inclusive places like RainbowVision; conventional subdivisions that market homes or lots to gays; non-profit urban ventures that include affordable housing; and hybrids of all three.

A few have acquired land and are moving forward, says the American Society on Aging, including subdivisions in Pecos, N.M., and Zionville, N.C., urban condos and apartments in Boston and Los Angeles, and a lodge with cottages, town houses and nursing units in Santa Rosa, Calif.

See Gay seniors settle into a niche @ USA Today

More news we could not make up - honest . . .

·         Bush the reckless: The president quietly threatens to gut Social Security again, and the timing could be good for Democrats – but bad if it passes.

·         British Say US Is Violent, Money-Hungry, Uncultured Nation With Incompetent Leader.... – OK its not really news but how come they figured this out first?

·         Preteen Mag Accused Of Making Recruitment Pitch For US Army... – hey even Hitler signed ‘em up young – in the closing months of WW II . . .

·         Mormon Gov. Romney Faces Religious Controversy In Presidential Bid... ‘bout time.

·         “Textbook Plagiarism,” “Very Misleading” Citations Found In Coulter’s Godless; Verbatim Lifts In Weekly Column… - Say it ‘aint so, Ann!

·         Previously Ann Coulter Accused Of Plagiarism... No way! ;-))

·         The Colbert Report: “Let Me Simplify It For You. The NY Times Wants You And Your Family Dead”... – well that makes it easy to understand – but why did the agency thatconducted the spying put this info on its own website months ago? And why was it OK for the WS Journal to publish the same info – after the Bush Admin gave it to them?

·         Dept. Of Defense Invokes National Security Clause To Trump Lawsuit Over Sonar Said To Harm Whales... – whatever the gvt wants to do is based on national security. Because they say so.

·         GOP Lawmakers Demand Explanation From MPAA For “PG” Rating Of Christian-Themed Film... – like there’s nothing for them to do other than dither about movie ratings.

·         Archaeologists Say They May Have Found Noah's Ark... – and they’ll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge if ya want.

·         Georgia Allowing Ten Commandments In Courtrooms If Displayed With Other Documents... – bet there’s nothing from the Koran included.

·         Americans Lacking Friends To Confide In... – duh!

·         Red Cross Laptop With Data On Thousands Of Blood Donors Stolen... – aren’t you glad we can’t donate blood?

 

Superman gains stature as icon among gay men

Superman gains stature as icon among gay men
London Free Press, Canada 

CALGARY -- Could it be his secret double life? Is it because he's different? Or maybe it's just his rippling muscles and all that spandex.

A pop culture expert at Calgary's Mount Royal College says the lead character in the new Superman movie is receiving a lot of attention in the gay community and is rapidly gaining stature as a gay icon.

The reason for that is probably a mix of the superhero's closet life, his standing apart from the community and his looks, according to Lee Easton, who is researching what he sees as the Superman gay phenomenon in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.

Easton hopes to better understand how all men shape their identities in relation to popular pop-culture icons such as Superman.

Considering that DC Comics is bringing back Batwoman as a lesbian, should it really be a surprise that Superman has attracted the admiring gaze of the gay community? That's been the case for years, says Easton.

"There's this sort of double moment that these are not only figures that you can identify with but also sort of desire at the same time. Particularly in adolescents and older gay men like myself, oftentimes those male figures would be the most easily accessible sort of erotica available."

Even the American version of the television series Queer as Folk, filmed largely in Toronto, included a superhero theme. Two characters create a sexually explicit underground comic called Rage featuring a Gay Crusader superhero.

Despite the metrosexual appearance of the new Superman and the fact that Bryan Singer, the director of Superman Returns, is gay, the real homosexual icon in the superhero world has been Batman and his sidekick, Robin.

Ironically, even though Batwoman is coming back as a lesbian, she was introduced in the 1950s as a way to quell rumours about the true nature of the dynamic duo's partnership. "In Batman, in particular, in the movie last year, there's a great deal of attention paid to the way he crafts his very own leather costume and I think both leather and spandex have a long tradition in gay culture," muses Easton.

"There's some easy moments of identification."

Stephen Lock of Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere is participating in the study. He acknowledges there always appears to be some subtext going on in many of the stories.

"I think the generation of gay men that grew up on Superman and a few of the other comic superheroes probably read a lot of stuff into it that they recognized -- the whole double-life situation and running into 'closet-like' spaces," Lock says.

"A young gay male, when the hormones start kicking in and all his friends are noticing girls . . . he's noticing guys. There's this double fantasy thing going on where he says if I could be that, I could have that."

Officials with DC Comics, which owns the Superman franchise, were unavailable for comment on the study. But president and publisher Paul Levitz has been quoted as saying the Man of Steel is not gay.

This July 4th weekend

This July 4th weekend:

·         Look at this:
http://www.panoramas.dk/newspanos/f21-new-orleans.html

·         Read this:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/01/forgotten/

Integrity Replies to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Reflection

Integrity Replies to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Reflection

 

Integrity receives the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflection titled "The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today" as part of an ongoing conversation. Integrity President Susan Russell said, "Within Archbishop Williams’ suggestions of possible ways forward, there is the hope that in loosening some of the ties that bind us, we can as a Communion find a way to strengthen rather than institutionalize the bonds of affection that have historically united us as Anglicans."

Integrity is committed to being part of that discernment process and committed to continuing to call the Anglican Communion to account for 30 years of failure to implement an authentic listening process. In Archbishop Williams’ words, "It is true that, in spite of resolutions and declarations of intent, the process of ‘listening to the experience’ of homosexual people hasn’t advanced very far in most of our churches!" Integrity rejects the premise that the Episcopal Church -- having engaged in the hard work of dialogue, debate, and discernment during the past three decades -- has now acted precipitously in opening the episcopacy to qualified lesbian and gay persons.

Responding to Archbishop William’s statement that "we now face some choices about what kind of Church we as Anglicans are or want to be," Russell said, "The most important choice we face now is whether we will spend the next three years focusing on Mother Church or -- in the words of our Presiding Bishop-elect -- on Mother Jesus. We cannot live up to our call to be the Body of Christ in the world if we’re spending all our time, energy, and resources arguing about how to be the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion."  

Green MP submits gay adoption bill

Green MP submits gay adoption bill    

Green MP Metiria Turei has submitted a private member’s bill to Parliament to legalise adoption by same-sex couples, reports the New Zealand Herald. Currently single gays and lesbians can adopt but same-sex or unmarried couples cannot.

“It’s just prejudice, and there’s no reason for it,” said Turei. The bill, which would give civil union and de facto couples the same rights to adopt children as married couples, must first be drawn from the Parliamentary ballot, to be considered. Currently there are 30 private member’s bills in the ballot. See Green MP submits gay adoption bill

Gay NZ -

Divine divisions

Divine divisions

Guardian Unlimited

"It is not going to look exactly like anything we have known so far," the Archbishop of Canterbury said last week as he finally took the lead in the bitter dispute between the liberal and conservative wings of the Anglican communion that has dominated his three years at Lambeth Palace. It has been a painful spectacle, watching a philosophical liberal impaled both by what he felt was an obligation to observe the broker's role and his own conservative interpretation of the church's structure. After three years of much-criticised moderation that he began, scandalously, by withdrawing support from the gay canon Jeffrey John, Dr Williams has finally invited the 77 million strong international church to face up to the implications of its continuing row. These are uncharted waters, he warned, as he suggested a future involving the reconstruction of the church around inner and outer rings, with a hard core of national churches willing to sign up to a full doctrinal "covenant" of shared beliefs. And beyond it a ring of churches "in association", voiceless, accepting some - but not necessarily all - of the Anglican beliefs and disciplines set out in this proposed covenant.

Lambeth Palace appears to have grown increasingly frustrated that the liberals, principally the majority of the US episcopalian church, have refused to moderate their embrace of a homosexual as well as a heterosexual priesthood, and now have, in Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a woman leader who appears undismayed by the threat of schism. Many liberals, in Britain and North America, believe the archbishop is finally capitulating to the conservatives. They were encouraged in this view by the enthusiastic reception conservatives gave his proposals. For any covenant risks being an instrument of division, not unity, where a highly traditional version of Anglican doctrine will be agreed by a majority, leaving those who cannot sign up to it orbiting helplessly and without influence.

Lambeth's gamble is that, faced with the enormity of allowing the next 10 years to be dominated not by ministry but by schism, with all that implies by way of painful, wasteful rows and expensive lawyers, the US conservatives will have to face up to the fact that they cannot sustain themselves apart. With the prospect of meaningful negotiation, the liberals will back off too. At that point the two sides may finally begin to engage with one another, and try seriously to find a common way through their difficulties. If the US church calms down (the Canadians are cited as the model of temperate conduct), there is a chance at least for a world-wide lowering of the temperature. But it could all too easily go the other way. Here, the Church of England is already dangerously divided and open to ideas of parallel jurisdictions. Its traditionalists certainly appear ready to seize the opportunity, in tandem with the African churches and other conservatives, of capturing the heart of Anglicanism. It's not surprising, then that liberals are already talking of making common cause with the North American churches and warning that division could sever the church from the very top down to the humblest parish.

The best hope for avoiding the schism of which Dr Williams warned lies in redefining the argument. Lambeth would like the rival factions to understand that the row between two fundamentally opposing points of view is superficial. What happens next is not about gay bishops, nor same-sex weddings, nor polygamy. Rather it is about the church's architecture and the degree of autonomy enjoyed by its constituent parts. Faced with the terrifying idea of first establishing and then policing the doctrinal purity for the core churches implicit in the twin-track approach, the rival factions are being challenged to stop it happening. In the end, though, Dr Williams will have to choose between unity - and bigotry.

Straight up: Gay bar makes Ozzie GuillenTini

At least one gay bar in Chicago was neither shaken nor stirred by Ozzie Guillen's recent slur against a Sun-Times sports columnist. In fact, it's naming a drink after the White Sox manager.

The Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club, 3700 N. Halsted, a gay bar that features female impersonators, now has "The Effen Ozzie GuillenTini" on the menu.

The martini is made with assorted fresh fruits, vodka and served with a complimentary Sun-Times sports section for $8.50.

See Straight up: Gay bar makes Ozzie GuillenTini

Chicago Sun-Time

Missouri Episcopal members unshaken

Despite a ban on gay bishops and a growing rift in the Episcopal Church, ministers say the state’s churches are largely unchanged so far.

See Missouri Episcopal members unshaken Columbia Missourian

Georgia Congressmen Propose Legislation to "Encourage" Discrimination

The controversy over gays and Boy Scouts has surfaced again in South Georgia, prompting two Republican legislators to say they will introduce legislation aimed at inflicting financial punishment on the Bank of America.

Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) and Sen. John Wiles (R-Marietta) said the Bank of America Charitable Foundation sent a letter to the Alapaha Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America denying the organization’s request for a charitable contribution. The letter said the foundation was turning down the request because the Boy Scouts violated a “non-discrimination policy.”

Wiles and Erhart said they will draft legislation that will bar state government from doing business with companies that cite such “non-discrimination policies” when dealing with youth organizations. This ban would include Bank of America and its subsidiaries BA Merchant Services LLC, BA Venture Partners, Banc of America Investment Services Inc. and Banc of America Securities LLC.

“Our duty as elected officials is to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens,” Ehrhart said. “When a large, out-of-state corporation tries to use its resources to stifle those rights and obligate certain behavior, we have an obligation to act. Georgians’ and scouting’s values are not for sale and should not be subject to extortion by any entity.”

“Bank of America, like any company, has the right to support whatever causes it chooses,” Wiles said. “However, the State of Georgia also has rights – the right to stop doing business with corporations who refuse to support organizations who exercise their right to freedom of association.”

The whole story is available at the following link:  http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/homepage/local_story_138230721.html

Does this sound "impossible" in the 21st Century?  Want to make your voice heard?  Write the Congressmen at the addresses below!  Pass on comments to the Bank of America Charitable Foundation by e-mail.

You may wish to raise some of the following points in your e-mail or letter:

 

The Supreme Court determined that the BSA was a "private organization" in the 2000 Dale decision.  The BSA decided to bar gay and atheist youth and adults from membership in the following year.  In other words, the BSA elected to discriminate against gays and atheists.

The BSA is the only youth organization in America that practices discrimination that is not run by a religious group.

Federal, state and local governments, as well as most major corporations, have adopted anti-discriminatory policies in dealing with their workers, which include sexual orientation and religion.

Private foundations frequently enforce anti-discrimination policies in determining which organizations to receive grant funding.  It is up to the agency requesting funding to comply with the requirements of the foundation if it wishes to be considered to receive a grant.

The "freedom of association" of Boy Scout units is totally unrelated to funding supplied by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

The proposed legislation effectively discriminates against corporations that enforce anti-discrimination policies in dealing with youth organizations.  The proposed legislation amounts to extortion and is probably illegal.

RC Gay Adoption Controversy Redux

According to ABC News, Catholic Charities of Boston will shut its doors because of pressure from the Catholic Church, which opposes the Massachusetts law that protects the rights of gay couples to adopt a child. The charity has been in operation for 103 years, finding homes for tens of thousands of needy children.

"We find ourselves in a conflict," said the Rev. Bryan Hehir from Catholic Charities. "The religious, moral principles of Catholic teaching and practice clash with the political and civil regulations of the state." Gay Adoption Controversy @ Bgay.com -

CHILE CELEBRATES GAY PRIDE WITH HISTORIC PARADE IN SANTIAGO

Chile’s oldest homosexual rights organization joined other social groups to celebrate diversity at the country’s capital Sunday. The event coincided with international gay pride events taking place around the world in the last week of June.

“Today all of the minority groups are coming together to be the majority,” said Paul Bichon, 36. Using his stage persona of Paulette Favres, Bichon emceed the cultural show that featured drag queens, go-go dancers, musical acts and folkloric groups.

The festival, called Gay Parade of Chile, consisted of two parts: a cultural show and a dance party. The festival was held in front of La Moneda and began around 12:30 p.m. The event was sponsored by the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH). CHILE CELEBRATES GAY PRIDE WITH HISTORIC PARADE IN SANTIAGO
Santiago Times (subscription), Chile

FDA OKs 3-drug HIV combo pill

WASHINGTON -- The first three-drug combination pill to treat HIV as part of foreign AIDS relief efforts won federal approval Friday.

The twice-daily pills combine three drugs already widely used to treat human immunodeficiency virus -- lamivudine, zidovudine and nevirapine. The generic pill is made by India's Aurobindo Pharma Ltd.

The pills cannot be sold in the United States for patent and/or exclusivity reasons, although they meet all U.S. standards for safety and efficacy, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The pills are eligible for distribution in 15 other countries under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

See FDA OKs 3-drug HIV combo pill

Central Europe's 1st gay marriages

The first same sex marriages in Central Europe took place at registry offices across the Czech Republic as gay couples seized on the opportunity to take advantage of a long fought for change in the law.

The very first Czech "gay marriage" was between cook, Pepa, and railway worker, Karel, in the registry offices of the eastern city of Ostrava.

"It is the first registered partnership in the Czech Republic," proclaimed registrar, Jana Stancikova, who conducted the ceremony.

See Central Europe's 1st gay marriages

Police weigh banning J'lem gay parade

Jerusalem police are expected to decide this week
whether to allow a controversial international gay
pride parade to take place in the city this summer amidst growing international opposition to the event by an unusual coalition of religious Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the world.

The super-sensitive police decision, which will be
taken by Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter in
consultation with Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco, comes after months of simmering tension over the planned August event, with concerns growing of a violent showdown between extremist opponents of the parade and its participants if it goes ahead as scheduled.

The planned week-long international gay festival,
which was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed until August due to last summer's concomitant Gaza pullout, has been widely criticized by a coterie of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Jerusalem and around the world as a deliberate provocation and affront to millions of believers around the world.

Supporters of the event counter that freedom of speech enables them to hold the event in Jerusalem, as a symbol of tolerance, pluralism, and love for all humanity.

See Police weigh banning J'lem gay parade
Jerusalem Post, Israel -

Anderson Cooper gay or nay? Bet on it!

From the World of Woo - Jenny Woo - few stories were hotter than last week's disclosure that online gambling website, BetUS.com (See Web Site Here) had released odds on which celebrity would be first to come out of the closet.  Vin Diesel they had as the big favorite.

Well, Boys, you might be surprised to know this was the most read article here on Gambling911.com last week.  Many of you readers were wondering if Anderson Cooper might be a great value at a whopping 20-1 odds.

Hmmmm...One individual provided us with a hot tip related to Anderson Cooper, and as always this could be rumor.  I hope so since Anderson is such a hottie, especially with balloons wrapped all over his head.

See Anderson Cooper gay or nay? Bet on it!
Gambling911.com, FL -

Sir Ian McKellen is UK's 'most influential' gay

Hollywood actor Sir Ian McKellen tops the "Pink List" of the 100 most influential gay and lesbian Britons, published today to mark the culmination of Europe's largest pride festival. See Sir Ian McKellen is UK's 'most influential' gay
24dash.com, UK 

Sacked gays attack MoD on payouts

The Ministry of Defence has been accused of perpetuating discrimination against homosexuals by withholding compensation to servicemen and women sacked from the forces for being gay and lesbian. See Sacked gays attack MoD on payouts
The Observer, UK –  

'Gay wedding' MP attacks church

'Gay wedding' MP attacks church

BBC News, UK

Ben Bradshaw, the first MP to have a civil partnership ceremony, has criticised the Church of England for not recognising same-sex partnerships.

The 45-year-old Labour MP for Exeter tied the knot with BBC Newsnight journalist Neal Dalgleish in June.

He told BBC Radio 4 it was "the happiest day of my life".

However, Mr Bradshaw said the Church risked being sidelined by its refusal to recognise the unions which were legalised in December last year.

Mr Bradshaw said: "The priest who blessed us was breaking the rules.

"Those rules allow clergy to be prayerful with and about same-sex couples but they expressly forbid the blessing of civil partnerships.

"This is ludicrous and unworkable. And it's being routinely ignored by Anglican and Roman Catholic priests, many of whom themselves are gay and without whose ministry many parishes would collapse.

"They can't discipline or sack our priest who did our blessing because he is retired. But had he still been working he could have lost his job and his home."

More than 6,500 people took part in ceremonies in the four months after laws allowing civil partnerships were brought in.

Mr Bradshaw, who has been with his partner for 11 years, said few pieces of legislation have "spread so much happiness".

But he added: "If my oldest Italian friend, a devout Christian, who came to our civil partnership with her husband and children, could say in tears after the ceremony that she found it beautiful and that nothing in it had offended her Italian Catholic consciousness, then I fear the church is in danger of being left on the wrong side of history."

Hope for Episcopalians

Hope for Episcopalians @ Houston Chronicle

THE Episcopal Church has been in the news a great deal in the last several weeks. Our culture has a fascination with conflict, while demanding quick answers to complex questions that, in the church, take much discernment and time to process.

The cultural, ethnic and theological diversity within the global Anglican Communion create an atmosphere where conflict is inevitable. The Episcopal Church's unilateral decision to consecrate Gene Robinson, a practicing gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire, caused and highlighted already existing strains within the Communion. (The Episcopal Church is one of 38 provinces within the Communion.)

This is not a new challenge but one made more acute by our desire for immediate and definitive solutions.

The archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has rightfully said that "no member church can make significant decisions unilaterally" and expect no change in the nature of the fellowship.

The Windsor Report was commissioned by the archbishop in 2004 to examine significant challenges within the Communion caused by Robinson's consecration.

The archbishop's proposed "covenant process," issued last week, is essential in understanding a way to go forward together. While it is not helpful to speculate on a process that will take time to develop, I believe that the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas (one of six in Texas) is called to witness to the wider church that we may be unified beyond differences into a church that is about the work of the Gospel of Christ.

Through our congregations, our network of parochial schools and the Episcopal Health System, our work continues to be to educate, feed the poor, heal the sick and care for the most vulnerable among us.

Beyond our own communities, Episcopalians help to build schools and clinics in the developing world, work to reduce poverty through sustainable development, and provide education and assistance to the victims of HIV/AIDS, among many other ministries.

Our work as Christians — indeed, our calling — should not be compromised by disagreements.

The Episcopal Diocese of Texas is a part of the Episcopal Church in the United States and of the Anglican Communion. I intend to keep it that way. I believe Texas Episcopalians are called to make a witness as one church, recognizing that even within our congregations there are people of diverse opinions and diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. All are loved and abundantly blessed by God.

I have tremendous faith that this process will lead Episcopalians to a closer relationship with one another and with our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. We do not place our hope in the hands of conventions, committees and meetings, but with the salvation of Jesus Christ. It is in him that we find our unity.

THE RT. REV. DON A. WIMBERLY bishop, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, Houston

`A woman for her time' @ the Episcopal Church

`A woman for her time'
Charlotte Observer, NC –

FRED LEESON

Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. - From the sky to the ocean and nearly everything in between, Katharine Jefferts Schori uses her brain and faith to try to make sense of it all.

The self-described "recovering scientist" made the leap from professional science to religion in Corvallis, the Oregon city where she lived and worked almost half her life. On June 18, she became the first woman elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

It was a surprising moment for Jefferts Schori's friends in Oregon, who -- like the bishop herself -- assumed it was unlikely she would win because she was the first woman nominated for the nation's top Episcopal post.

"I'm overjoyed she was elected," said the Rev. Robert Morrison of St. James Parish in Lincoln City, who served on committees that supervised her training and ordination in 1994. "She's extremely bright and thoughtful. She's not afraid to ask the challenging questions."

Morrison said Jefferts Schori, who has a Ph.D. in oceanography, is "extremely curious about life but has the sense of always looking for honesty and accuracy."

Nor is she afraid to take stands on controversial issues.

As bishop of Nevada since 2001, she voted to confirm the church's first openly gay bishop, favors scientific inquiry into Darwinism and has criticized Congress as having placed costs of the Iraq war on the backs of America's poor.

Described by associates as quiet and thoughtful, Jefferts Schori does not back down from controversy, said the Rev. Margaret McMurren of Prince of Peace Episcopal Church in West Salem.

"She has the brains, the skills and the faculties to do this," McMurren said.

Jefferts Schori's experiences as one of the first women in the oceanography doctorate program at Oregon State University gave her a taste of "life on the margins," she said.

In numerous interviews, Jefferts Schori has recalled the time a captain of an oceanography vessel wouldn't talk to her as chief scientist because she was a woman. "That lasted about 15 minutes," she recalled.

Among her personal interests, Jefferts Schori is an instrument-rated pilot who used an airplane to cover her far-flung Nevada territory. Her daughter, Kate, is an Air Force pilot.

Jefferts Schori likes to hike and jog, and talk and listen.

"She draws people out," Morrison said. "When she hears differences of opinion, she looks for ways to effect reconciliation. She doesn't force her opinion on you, but she does challenge everyone, including herself, to think through what life is about."

McMurren said it is easy for some people to mistake Jefferts Schori's quiet demeanor as an indication that they are prevailing in a discussion.

"She's kind but tough-minded," McMurren said. "Her reasoning is based on a deep, personal, practicing faith."

After graduating with a doctorate from Oregon State, Jefferts Schori worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, where she concentrated on squid and octopuses. Morrison said she has always had strong religious feelings. Tightened federal budgets for science helped her decide to switch careers.

In a Las Vegas Review interview after she was nominated for presiding bishop, Jefferts Schori said the death of a friend in a plane crash while she was in graduate school led her back to church to look for answers.

Jefferts Schori falls into the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church. Comments on an Episcopal Web site from conservative church members criticized her short tenure as a bishop. One writer called her a "Boomer Bishop," suggesting that her liberal credentials appealed to that generation.

The Rev. Marianne Wells Borg, director of the Center for Spiritual Development at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, said Jefferts Schori "has the integrity, stamina and intelligence to do this work, not only nationally but internationally....I think she is a woman for her time."

"Revolt under way within Episcopal church" claims Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Six conservative Episcopalian bishops opposed to the liberal drift in the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion are asking for a trial separation, a move hinting at an eventual divorce over irreconcilable differences, some analysts say.

The bishops of the dioceses for Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Texas, South Carolina, Central Florida, Springfield, Illinois, and San Joaquin, California, appealed this past week to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to be assigned somebody other than Katharine Jefferts Schori as their leader.

Conservative Episcopalians say Schori, presiding bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church, would continue to steer the church away from its traditional teachings. She backs church blessings of gay relationships and voted to confirm Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop.

The move by the bishops underscores the tension within the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church USA between its conservative and liberal clergy, a schism rooted in views on scripture and church politics concerning homosexuality.

Their appeal suggests the gap between the two sides has grown too wide to bridge.

"It's overdue," said Steven Randall, who resigned as an Episcopalian priest in Maryland to protest Robinson's election. "They believe completely different things."

The appeal coincided with the nomination of the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, who is gay, as a finalist to become bishop of the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, and came as Williams proposed conservative dissenters in the U.S. church be allowed to stand apart from it as associate members.

More of  Revolt under way within Episcopal church Reuters

Strange Parliamentary Union Opposes Gay Pride

 (IsraelNN.com) In a somewhat unexpected move, members of the right-wing and Arab parties have joined forces against a common enemy, seeking to prevent the scheduled Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem. Strange Parliamentary Union Opposes Gay Pride
Arutz Sheva, Israel 

Fight over WI gay marriage amendment will be big

Except for the governor's race, the biggest campaign for this November may not be for a candidate or office at all. The fight over whether to write a ban on gay marriage and civil unions into the Wisconsin Fight over gay marriage amendment will be big
Wisconsin State Journal, WI -

NZ MP seeks to allow gay couples right to adopt

The furore that erupted over the civil union legislation could be re-ignited by an MP's bid to legalise adoption for gay and de facto couples.

 

As the law stands, individual gays and lesbians can adopt, but same-sex or unmarried couples cannot.

 

"It's just prejudice, and there's no reason for it," said Green MP Metiria Turei, whose Adoption (Equity) Amendment Bill was put into the private member's ballot last week.

 

The bill would give civil union and de facto couples the same adoption rights as married couples. They would still have to meet the current standard of being a "fit and proper person". See MP seeks to allow gay couples right to adopt
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand 

22 Sailors March in UK Gay Pride Parade

LONDON — As usual, the Village People's "In the Navy" rang out during London's annual gay pride parade on Saturday. For 22 of the marchers, it was true.

Wearing crisp navy blue jackets with gold striped cuffs, shining medals and ivory shirts, 22 Royal Navy personnel marched openly in uniform for the first time in the annual pride parade through central London.

See 22 Sailors March in UK Gay Pride Parade
Houston Chronicle, United States 

The baffling case of Jacko, the gay porn king, and bags of cash

While Michael Jackson holes up in Bahrain, his legal problems are piling up in California, where two lawsuits are casting new light on his bizarre lifestyle and lavish spending habits, as well as further eroding his rapidly depleting bank balance.

Testimony has now begun in a breach-of-contract trial in Santa Monica which pits Jackson against Marc Schaffel, his former associate and financial adviser. Mr Schaffel, who produced gay porn videos before forming business links with Jackson in 2001, claims the singer owes him $3m (£1.6m) in expenses, salary and cash loans.

Another lawsuit, brought by Jackson's former manager Dieter Wiesner, seeks £45m from the embattled former King of Pop and is due to be heard later this year. Both of the lawsuits are backed up by tape recordings of rambling and sometimes incoherent telephone conversations Jackson had with the two men.

Jackson did not appear in court but jurors were shown part of a videotaped deposition in which the pop star said he was sure he had paid Mr Schaffel what he owed him because Mr Schaffel "always seemed to be happy".

More of The baffling case of Jacko, the gay porn king, and bags of cash
Independent, UK -

Illinois diocese joins growing Episcopal rift

Illinois diocese joins growing Episcopal rift

Chicago Tribune, United States 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Two more Episcopal dioceses, including the Springfield, Ill., diocese, are distancing themselves from the denomination by seeking oversight from fellow Anglicans overseas instead of the American church.

Springfield Bishop Peter Beckwith said his diocese objects to Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who will be installed Nov. 4, because she supports ordaining partnered gays and blessing same-sex couples, among other reasons.

The Central Florida diocese also said last week that it was rejecting the authority of the bishop-elect. Dioceses in Pittsburgh, South Carolina, San Joaquin, Calif., and Ft. Worth did so earlier. The six dioceses want Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to assign them another leader.

The New York-based Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the global Anglican Communion, the association of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England.

Williams has been struggling to keep the fellowship unified despite deep differences over the Bible and sexuality.

Editorial - Crisis of Faith - Episcopal schism reflects wider culture war

Crisis of Faith - Episcopal schism reflects wider culture war
Dallas Morning News (subscription), TX

The Archbishop of Canterbury last week unveiled plans for a great divorce within the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion – or at least a formal separation from its American cousin, the Episcopal Church. The split that so many Anglicans have anticipated for so long finally appears to be upon the church – and North Texas Episcopalians are leading the way.

And, like many nasty divorces, this one has to do with sex.

The Episcopal Church, or ECUSA, is the 2.2-million member American branch of the global federation of churches descended from the Church of England. Liberals, who represent the mainstream in ECUSA's leadership, contend that homosexuality is not sinful and that offering gays and lesbians full affirmation is a matter of justice. The conservative minority argues that homosexuality is morally unacceptable and that saying otherwise is to reject the teaching of Scripture.

The recent election of Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a staunch pro-gay liberal, as the next presiding bishop of the national church caused some conservative dioceses and parishes – including the Diocese of Fort Worth and Christ Church parish in Plano – to declare their differences with ECUSA irreconcilable. They want to split with ECUSA but remain in communion with worldwide Anglican churches, which are overwhelmingly traditionalist on the issue.

The coming breakup will spawn innumerable court fights over ownership of property and assets in a church whose relatively small numbers belie its considerable material wealth.

More important, this sad turn of events tells us something important about religion and society. Conservatives in all denominations find they increasingly have more in common with one another than with liberals in their own church. The same is true for liberal Christians.

The battle over homosexuality is really a contest over the nature of moral truth and authority. It's the root cause of the culture war, in which the Anglican battle royal is merely one front.

Astonishingly, renegade traditionalist Episcopalians are seeking to unite under the headship of Anglican bishops in the Third World, where conservative Christianity is booming. At dinner last week, an elderly white Episcopalian from Fort Worth mused happily, "Well, I guess we'll go with the Africans." We live in interesting times.

First same sex marriages in Central Europe occurr across the Czech Republic

Prague - The first same sex marriages in Central Europe took place at registry offices across the Czech Republic on Saturday, as gay couples seized the opportunity to take advantage of a long fought for change in the law.

The very first Czech gay marriage was between cook, Pepa, and railway worker, Karel, in the registry offices of the eastern city of Ostrava.

"It is the first registered partnership in the Czech Republic," proclaimed registrar, Jana Stancikova, who conducted the ceremony.

The law allowing single-sex marriages, or registered partnerships, took effect on July 1. The Czech Republic is the first country in the region to allow same-sex marriages.

See Gay Czechs say 'I do'
News24, South Africa -

Romney helps push for SC gay marriage ban

Romney helps push for SC gay marriage ban

Boston Globe, United States 

Governor Mitt Romney, a leading campaigner to outlaw gay marriage in Massachusetts, is now involving himself in a like-minded effort in South Carolina, where voters will decide this fall whether to add a similar ban to their state constitution.

Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC, has given the South Carolina ballot campaign $5,000, its largest donation ever. He is the effort's first ``campaign sponsor," a distinction reserved for major contributors. Romney also plans to send out a fund-raising letter on behalf of the initiative to about 150,000 South Carolinians in the next few weeks. And he's expected to headline an event for it after Labor Day.

``We definitely appreciate the help of Governor Romney and his PAC," said Drew McKissick, state director for the campaign, SCformarriage.org.

Though Romney's involvement in South Carolina politics is not new -- his PAC has already made thousands of dollars in contributions to candidates and GOP organizations there -- the governor's active role in the campaign for a gay marriage ban illustrates the degree to which he is ingratiating himself in the state in advance of a possible 2008 presidential run.

Julie Teer, the political director of Romney's PAC, said the governor is trying to counter what he considers judicial activism. Gay marriage in Massachusetts was made legal by a 2003 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court here.

``Governor Romney believes marriage is between a man and a woman, and he has been fighting hard in Massachusetts and around the nation to protect the institution of marriage from activist judges," Teer said in an e-mail.

But the head of a coalition fighting the proposed gay-marriage measure in South Carolina warns that her state doesn't take kindly to outsiders interjecting themselves into local affairs.

``The thing is that South Carolinians want to hear from other Southerners and other people from South Carolina about what this is going to mean in our daily lives," said Asha Leong, campaign manager for the Fairness for All Families Campaign.

South Carolina holds one of the most important Republican presidential primaries, and Romney has made several trips to the state. His PAC just hired a fund-raiser and activist to build support there.

But some observers believe that Romney, in part because he's governor of the only state to have legalized gay marriage, could have a tough time winning over conservative primary voters. Mike Green, a South Carolina Republican activist, said Romney is smart to position himself as a visible opponent of same-sex marriage.

``In South Carolina, the person who's thought of as the most conservative will win the state nine times out of 10," Green said.

Green noted that McKissick used to be political director of the Christian Coalition, which he said could give Romney access to a vast network of conservatives.

The amendment is widely expected to pass in November. Romney's assistance in the effort comes as he pushes for a proposed gay-marriage ban in Massachusetts.

Gay Mountie duo gets hitched

Gay Mountie duo gets hitched

Calgary Sun, Canada 

YARMOUTH, N.S. -- A pair of Nova Scotia constables became the first male Mounties to marry each other yesterday.

Constables Jason Tree, 27, and David Connors, 28, tied the knot at a hotel in front of a justice of the peace and about 100 guests.

Guest Russell Robichaud said the service was relaxed, Tree and Connors looked great in their red serge "and couldn't stop smiling."

Despite all the publicity that has surrounded the nuptials, the couple said they want to keep the wedding private. They've said they never intended to stir up controversy.

Group wages battle against 'gay culture'

BOSTON – The minute they spotted the mannequins in Macy’s department store window celebrating the city’s Gay Pride week, Brian Camenker and the watchdog activists at MassResistance jumped into action.

The group quickly posted a photo of the window on their Web log under the caption: “Male mannequins with (apparently) enlarged breasts, one wearing a rainbow skirt.” Within days, Macy had removed the mannequins but left up a list of pride week events.

It was the latest victory for a group dedicated to battling what it characterizes as the aggressive gay and lesbian movement in Massachusetts, the only state to allow same-sex marriage.

The group continues to find ample fodder in that war, taking on gay-themed school texts, exposing what it says is the seamier side of the gay rights movement and nearly convincing Gov. Mitt Romney to eliminate a state commission for gay youth.

 Group wages battle against gay culture
Nashua Telegraph (subscription), NH

Ex-gay teachers' booth criticized

A booth representing ex-gay teachers at the National Education Association's convention in Orlando drew protests Friday from gay organizations that called it part of a plan to infiltrate the schools with anti-gay teachings.

"They have a right to be there, but it's part of a larger strategy of getting into schools and misinform people," said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a Miami Beach-based group that opposes ex-gay ministries. At the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus booth, the groups' founder said the caucus was created in response to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus, which also had a booth at the convention. See Ex-gay teachers' booth criticized
Orlando Sentinel, FL 

GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT AT NY'S TOP COURT

 ALBANY, N.Y. - New York State's highest court started hearing a case on May 30 that gay rights activists hope will overturn as unconstitutional a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The New York case is one of several initiatives by gay rights activists across the United States where gay marriage has been a divisive issue in recent years, particularly in the 2004 presidential election.

"There are 46,000 families of same-sex couples with children in New York and there is no dispute they are stable families who are excluded from the benefits of marriage," said Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who was representing many of the same-sex couples.

In more than two hours of argument before the State Court of Appeals, Kaplan said the court should change the state's ban on gay marriage just as in the past it threw out laws that had allowed marital rape and criminalized sodomy.

"Despite tradition, this court found that these laws were unconstitutional and didn't meet rational basis," she said.

More of  GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT AT NY'S TOP COURT
Outcome Buffalo, NY -

Episcopalians Shaken by Division in Church New York Times

Episcopalians Shaken by Division in Church

New York Times

Episcopalians Shaken by Division in Church

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Their parish, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, is solid and strong. It has 3,000 members, a historic stone building in good repair and a well-loved minister.

But to the Episcopalians at St. Luke's Parish in Darien, Conn., who gathered with their pastor to grapple with the past week's news about their denomination, it was as if their solid stone church had been struck by an earthquake.

To them and to many Episcopalians around the country, the long-vulnerable fault line running under the Episcopal Church had cracked wide open in one week. Six traditionalist dioceses and some individual parishes announced plans to break from the Episcopal Church because they could not live with a church that permits an openly gay bishop and ceremonies for same-sex unions.

In an opposing jolt, the Diocese of Newark named an openly gay priest as a candidate for its bishop, defying a plea for restraint just passed by a vote of the bishops and delegates at the Episcopal Church's triennial convention.

And the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, weighed in with a plan of seismic implications to ask all 38 regional churches in the Communion to agree to a covenant that could limit each church's autonomy. Those that do not agree could be given second-tier status in the Communion.

"So in other words," Martha Cook, a university professor and member of the vestry at St. Luke's, asked her pastor at the gathering, "the conservatives could literally take over our rightful spot in the Communion, and the majority of the American church would be on the outs?"

The pastor, the Rev. David R. Anderson, answered that while it was far from settled, "the scenario the traditionalists were seeking could actually come to pass."

"The vast majority of the Episcopal Church would be considered the 'off brand,' " Father Anderson said.

Bewildered conversations like this took place in many Episcopal parishes last week.

For parishes that identify with the right or the left pole on the issue of homosexuality, allegiances are clear. But the vast majority of parishes are somewhere in the middle, with members on each side of the debate who feel connected to the Episcopal Church and to Anglican tradition, said the Rev. William Sachs, a St. Luke's member who was recently named director of the new Center for Reconciliation and Mission at St. Stephen's Church in Richmond, Va.

"What's really going on in the pews of Episcopal churches is they don't necessarily want to align with either side," he said. "They want to get on with life. They want this thing resolved."

The six dioceses that announced their intention to break away — Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Central Florida, San Joaquin, Calif., and Springfield, Ill. — had long threatened to leave, and they constitute a small minority of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses and 2.3 million members.

But what really rattled the pews was the "theological reflection" issued in London on Tuesday by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury. He has written of his liberal views on homosexuality, but as primate of the Church of England, the "mother church" of the Anglican Communion, his primary task is finding a theologically justifiable route out of a seemingly irreconcilable conflict.

But some Episcopalians said they were shocked because the archbishop's statement came just six days after the Episcopal Church convention passed a resolution intended to mend fences with the Anglican Communion. The archbishop's statement raised the prospect of "ordered and mutually respectful separation" between churches that could not come to agreement, suggesting to many Episcopalians that they would eventually have to choose sides.

Donna Robinson, a parishioner at St. James Episcopal Church in Dallas, said: "Our church is kind of waiting to see what happens and trying to stay out of it until our backs are against the wall. I'm kind of dreading that part. I don't know what we'll do."

Frances Hart, a worshiper at St. Edwards Episcopal Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., said she had been e-mailing people and reading everything she could from each side.

"The middle, where I am, seems to be losing members," Ms. Hart said. "Quite frankly, I can't figure out why they can't get back to the middle."

Leaders of the Episcopal Church warned everyone not to jump to conclusions. They said it was possible for a covenant to be written broadly enough to encompass all sides, and for unity to be restored.

The Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, said, "We must never forget that God can always surprise us."

The parishioners at St. Luke's met in a lounge hung with an oil portrait of a rector who served the church from 1863 to 1912. Everyone in the room was white, many white-haired — a group atypical in the context of the global Anglican Communion, in which the typical member is now black, young and living in Africa.

"I used to be Communion über alles," said Judy Holding, a student at Yale Divinity School and a chaplain at Greenwich Hospital, "but now I'm asking, at what price Communion?"

Ms. Holding said later: "At a certain point for me, it's not worth the price. I would not sign that covenant if it means we have to compromise Christian love and social justice."

Father Anderson asked how many in the room had even heard of the Anglican Communion before 2003, when Anglican archbishops in places like Nigeria and Uganda began protesting the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

Only a third of the 30 parishioners in the room raised their hands.

David Kelley, whose parents were also St. Luke's members, told the gathering, "All this business of consulting with other churches in the Communion, I'm not aware of the African churches consulting with us."

But several St. Luke's members made it clear that they cherished their church's ties to the Anglican tradition. Charles E. Barnett said: "I, for one, get a great deal of comfort knowing we are a part of a worldwide expression of Christianity. The Book of Common Prayer is very important to me."

This is true for many Episcopalians, said David Hein, chairman of the department of religion and philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, Md., and a co-author of "The Episcopalians."

"We want to be in communion with the see of Canterbury, because that's really the link with Anglican history and theology and spirituality," Professor Hein said. "It gave us Samuel Johnson and John Donne and the great theologian C. S. Lewis. The Anglican tradition is very much a trans-Atlantic phenomenon."

Father Anderson closed the gathering with a brief sketch of Anglican history. Queen Elizabeth I gave the church the Book of Common Prayer, he told them, and the church came to be distinguished by its flexibility.

"We've never been bound by common belief, but by common prayer," he said. "Anglicans have always had a generous openness. I just feel that now there's a cold wind blowing. As someone here said tonight, it feels un-Anglican to me."

Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article, and Laura Griffin from Dallas.

Gay Canadian Mounties to marry in uniform

YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia - Two gay members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were to be married in a ceremony Friday night.

Dressed in their distinctive scarlet coats, RCMP constables Jason Tree and David Connors will exchange vows before a justice of the peace and a troop of other Mounties in their fabled red serge.

Reaction to the wedding — the first between two male RCMP officers in uniform — has befuddled the couple, who have been overwhelmed by interview requests from reporters and congratulations from well-wishers they have never met.

See Gay Canadian Mounties to marry in uniform
Newsweek -

London MEP Urges All to Come Out and Speak Up at EuroPride

As London hosts Europride 2006 this weekend, (Saturday July 1) thirty-five years since Pride first began in the capital, Green Euro MP Jean Lambert pledged her support for the events tackling issues of bullying, discrimination and homophobic abuse.

Ms. Lambert, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights, said she was pleased to see Pride taking place in a variety of European countries this month following the recent set backs in Moscow.

“Everyone is equal regardless of their sexuality, gender and race yet many EU Governments are failing to protect individuals and fully adhere to anti-discrimination legislation. Euro-pride really shows that it is time this changed,” commented Jean.

“If we are serious about justice and equality we need to ensure homophobic acts are seen as completely unacceptable throughout the world.  With half a million people expected to attend this year’s march along Oxford Street, Europride 2006 will show how important this is.

“Sadly we do have a way to go before we establish true equality and respect for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.  It’s time to come out, speak up and make it happen,” she concluded.

The march will assemble at the top of Baker Street at noon tomorrow (Saturday July 1) before VIP’s, including Sir Ian McKellen, lead the march down a new route along Oxford Street ending on Victoria Embankment.  Events will also take place in Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

■ The very first London Gay Pride march, on July 1, 1972, featured a march by more than 1,000 gay men and women down Oxford Street to Hyde Park.

Ric Weiland (1953-2006): Microsoft pioneer a major benefactor

Ric Weiland (1953-2006): Microsoft pioneer a major benefactor

Seattle Post Intelligencer

He was a quiet and modest man, but his contributions to the community spoke loudly of his passion for helping people in need.

Ric Weiland, one of the first five Microsoft Corp. employees, died Saturday at his Seattle home at the age of 53. The King County Medical Examiner's Office said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Weiland was a donor to local organizations such as the Pride Foundation, the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, United Way of King County and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and was influential as an active member of the gay community.

"He never wanted any special recognition for his giving," said Audrey Haberman, executive director of the Pride Foundation and a friend of Weiland's. "He loved the idea of helping other people. He had sort of a tremendous compassion in his life."

Weiland attended Lakeside School in Seattle with Microsoft co-founder and good friend Paul Allen. Allen and Bill Gates hired him in 1975, the same year they founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, N.M.

As one of just five Microsoft employees, Weiland was a lead programmer and developer for the company's BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces.

Weiland moved with Microsoft to Seattle in 1979. After a stint at Harvard Business School, he rejoined Microsoft in 1982 and worked as the project leader for Microsoft Works, the company's second-tier word processing and spreadsheet software.

"Ric was certainly a key contributor to Microsoft's early success and was a brilliant programmer," Allen said in a statement Thursday. "I have many fond memories of Ric and all the things we did together, and I will miss him."

After leaving Microsoft in 1988, Weiland dedicated most of his time to philanthropy.

He was a member of the Pride Foundation's board of directors from 1997 to 2002, and helped win the foundation's fight to get General Electric Co. to include sexual orientation in their non-discriminatory policy, Haberman said.

"He really understood ... the range of issues that strengthen the gay community," she said. "He will be tremendously missed, just because of who he was. ... Everyone who met him always liked him."

Weiland was a regular contributor to the Lifelong AIDS Alliance since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and ramped up contribution in the past few years, said Executive Director Tina Podlodowski, who worked with Weiland at Microsoft from 1984 to 1988.

"I think he made his philanthropic decisions as well as his business decisions," Podlodowski said.

One report estimated his total donations approaching $100 million.

Other organizations to which Weiland contributed include his undergraduate alma mater, Stanford University; the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network; the American Foundation for AIDS Research; and the National Audubon Society.

Weiland was revered and admired as an all-around great guy, and his contributions had a significant effect within the area of social justice and civil rights.

"One of the things I'm going to miss most about Ric is he had a very dry, very witty sense of humor," Podlodowski said.

"It's a death that hit all of us hard."

Survivors include Weiland's partner, Mike Schaefer, two nieces, two nephews and one grand-nephew.

The family asks that cards and flowers be sent to University Congregational United Church of Christ, where a private family gathering will be held today. A public service will be scheduled for sometime this summer.

Gay Microsoft original employee takes his own life

Leaders of a half-dozen gay rights groups mourned Friday the death of Ric Weiland, one of five original employees of Microsoft, who had given hundreds of thousands to support gay rights and the fight against HIV.

Weiland, 53, died last Saturday, June 24, in his Seattle home of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, the King County Medical Examiner's Office reported Friday. Friends say he suffered from depression, the Seattle Times reported.

"We are profoundly saddened by the death of Ric Weiland," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, in a statement released late Friday.

"Ric is someone who quietly, and with great humility, supported the work of many organizations dedicated to advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. The breadth and scope of this commitment was immense and unwavering," Foreman said.

Weiland attended high school with Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, and the duo hired Weiland in 1976 as one of the software giant's original five employees. Weiland worked as a program on BASIC and COBOL, two of Microsoft's original, signature computer languages.

Allen described Weiland in a statement as "very warm and thoughtful" and "a longtime friend," the Seattle Times reported. "Ric was certainly a key contributor to Microsoft's early success, and was a brilliant programmer. I have many fond memories of Ric and all the things we did together, and I will miss him."

Weiland retired from Microsoft in 1988 and became a benefactor, donating an estimated $100 million to various gay and HIV groups, along with his undergraduate alma mater Stanford University.

Kevin Jennings, Founder and Executive Director, Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), echoed Foreman's praise in a joint statement along with a half-dozen other gay leaders, issued late Friday by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"Ric Weiland was a sweet and gentle man whose generosity transformed the LGBT movement," said Jennings. "His magnificent gifts helped numerous organizations, including ours, to not only survive but to thrive. He never sought anything — attention, credit, fame — in return for his giving, which is the mark of a true philanthropist."

Weiland gave generously to the Pride Foundation, a Seattle-based fund that contributes to hundreds of gay organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Audrey Haberman, its executive director, said Weiland, who was a board member, will be sorely missed.

"Anyone who knew Ric would say he was amazing," Haberman said. "He gave new meaning to the word humility. Despite his tremendous professional and personal achievements, he specifically requested no special attention for his generous charitable gifts, or the hard work he did on behalf of Pride Foundation and many, many other organizations."

Survivors include Weiland's partner, Mike Schaefer; nieces Emily Smelser and Heidi Kupitz; nephews Fred Smelser and Henry Smelser; and grand-nephew Josiah Kupitz, according to the Post Intelligencer.

See Gay Microsoft original employee takes his own life
Houstonvoice.com, TX -

Couples dance the night away at lesbian; gay; bisexual prom; The Daily News; Canada

At her prom earlier this week, Kourtney Stacey was the only girl in a suit. Last night, the 17-year-old Halifax West grad was one of many.

Dolled up in a dashing pin-striped suit and white dress shirt, Stacey and her girlfriend, Alexa MacLean, arrived hand-in-hand at the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth Project's Gala Prom.

"It's queer prom. It's a lot more special," said Stacey, of Fairview. "It's a different vibe, and definitely more comfortable.

"We all know we're here for the same reason. We're all here because we're gay and we're proud. Not just that, but we want to have fun and be ourselves."

Still, no one cared that the two were the only gay couple at Stacey's high school prom Thursday night.

More of Hard to come out @ Couples dance the night away at lesbian, gay, bisexual prom
The Daily News, Canada 

Mixed Picture Emerges of Global Gay Rights

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.

"It shows there are still dangers in just being gay - and dangers in speaking out," said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

"You need people willing to stand up and claim their space, even against tremendous odds - country by country, city by city."

Ettelbrick's commission, along with other human rights groups and some members of Congress, are intensifying their efforts to monitor and protest abuses and oppression of gays and lesbians overseas. Results have been mixed. See Mixed Picture Emerges of Global Gay Rights
Times Daily, AL 

Minnesota Justices Cleared In Gay Marriage Allegations

(St. Paul, Minnesota) An investigation into allegations that Minnesota Supreme Court justices the court would not take up a challenge to the state's ban on same-sex marriage if a case ever came before them.

A bill that would ask voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage died in the legislature earlier this year.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson (DFL-Willmar) an opponent of the proposed amendment told a group of pastors in January that he had been told by more than one Supreme Court justice that the court would not take up the issue of same-sex marriages.

While such marriages are prohibited by law, proponents of a constitutional ban say the court could overturn the law at any time.

Johnson later said he had "embellished" the conversations and apologized to the Senate.

Nevertheless, the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards began an investigation into all of the justices on the court.

This week it announced its findings - saying that it found nothing improper.

"There is no evidence that any promises, commitments or predictions were made to anyone by any justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court concerning how any court might rule on any issue relating to the Defense of Marriage Act or any of the issues raised in Sen. Johnson's remarks," David Paull, the board's executive secretary, wrote in a letter to Golden Valley attorney Greg Wersal and state Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, both supporters of amending the constitution.

Republican Party spokesperson Mark Drake said the inquiry showed that Johnson was "repeatedly dishonest."

Gay marriage opponents have seen Johnson as the key obstacle to a full Senate vote on the amendment.

See Minnesota Justices Cleared In Gay Marriage Allegations
365Gay.com 

Effects of gay-clergy flexibility unclear - Neither side of Presbyterian debate satisfied

Effects of gay-clergy flexibility unclear: Neither side of Presbyterian debate satisfied

Houston Chronicle, United States

By RICHARD VARA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The decision by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to give local congregations flexibility in choosing gay and lesbian candidates for ordination left Presbyterians on both sides of the issue wanting more.

"Those in favor of ordination of homosexuals would say this is not nearly enough progress," said the Rev. Mike Cole, general presbyter of the Houston-based Presbytery of New Covenant. "Those who are against ordination of homosexuals will say this is a step in the wrong direction."

But Cole said the measure could "keep both sides in conversation with one another so that we can together discern what God's will is for our church."

Although the denomination's General Assembly last week granted the flexibility, national church law still outlaws noncelibate gay clergy because it requires "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" for all church officers.

Cole expects the impact of the so-called "local option" measure to be determined by a church court.

"The ultimate deciding factor will be when a presbytery or church decides to ordain someone that appears to be outside of constitutional standards and that is challenged and taken to a church court case," Cole said. A presbytery is a regional grouping of churches similar to a diocese.

Such a test case may be months or a year away, he said.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like other mainline denominations, is roiled by bitter debates between gay-rights liberals and conservatives who champion traditional morality and sexual ethics.

The "local option" measure was included in the "Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church" report submitted by a broad array of leaders seeking ways to keep the 2.3 million-member denomination united in the face of more than 20 years of divisive debate.

"I believe this action will not bring peace, unity or purity but just the opposite," the Rev. William Vanderbloemen said in an e-mail. "I believe this action will spark a season of unprecedented and litigious fighting, division and a continued watering down of what is essential to our faith."

The senior pastor of Houston's First Presbyterian Church said his Museum District church is "a growing congregation in the midst of an aging, dying denomination. I can only hope that the national church will drop this campaign to swerve from traditional, orthodox teaching and begin to focus on the critical issues of mission and bringing Good News to a despairing world."

The Rev. William C. Poe, a progressive and pastor of St. Philip Presbyterian Church in southwest Houston, said the decision would not change church operations a great deal.

The General Assembly measure clearly spelled out that local bodies were responsible for examining and approving candidates for church offices and that those decisions were subject to review by other, higher governing bodies such as courts, he said.

Like Cole, he expects a legal challenge.

"There will be a few people on one end of the church who will test the system by doing something and letting everyone know about it," Poe said.

But he is critical of conservative groups who are upset with the measure and threaten to leave the denomination or withhold funds.

"One thing being talked about is do we leave or do we stay, and if we are going to stay, how are we going to be staying?" Poe said. He said the General Assembly represents the will of the membership and not just the actions of national church leaders.

"My hope is that someday we will be able to realize that our umbrella is big enough to include people whom we are not including," he said. "It is my hope that we will reach a point where all active members of the denomination as we define them will be eligible for election and ordination for office."

The Rev. W. Casey Jones, conservative pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Pearland, said conservatives and even liberals are confused about the ramifications of the new measure.

"It may be possible that we (conservatives) lost, but we don't know yet," Jones said. "It depends on how this is interpreted."

The Rev. David Peterson, evangelical senior pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, said relying on church courts to resolve complex denominational issues is not a good idea.

"No one wants to use the courts of the church to decide theological and pastoral issues like this, but I think that is the 'bad' we have created for ourselves," Peterson said.

Nor is the measure likely to establish peace and unity in the denomination, he said.

"I don't think what happened at the assembly resolved much of anything for anybody," Peterson said. "It left both sides of the theological divide unsatisfied at where the church is. We have initiated for ourselves another two years of a holding pattern."

richard.vara@chron.com

Residents of Yarmouth, NS, nonplussed by marriage of gay Mounties

YARMOUTH, N.S. (CP) - Ronnie Devine doesn't know what the fuss is about. While cleaning his lobster boat Friday, the fisherman said he doesn't understand why people are still talking about the marriage of two gay Mounties in this bustling fishing port.

"It doesn't bother me one bit," he said as other fishermen were busy getting their boats ready to set sail.

"As long as they're doing their jobs properly, I couldn't care less about it."

The marriage Friday of the two Nova Scotia constables, held during a private ceremony at a downtown hotel, marked the country's first same-sex marriage between male Mounties in their trademark scarlet tunics.

Constables Jason Tree, 27, and David Connors, 28, recited their own vows before a justice of the peace and about 100 guests.

But the function was strictly off limits to the public.

See Residents of Yarmouth, NS, nonplussed by marriage of gay Mounties Canada.com

Pope slams gay marriage - again

Vatican City - Days before his first visit to Spain - where gay marriages are now legal - Pope Benedict XVI has stepped up criticism of the decision, saying gay marriage is damaging to the traditional family.

Speaking during a meeting with Uruguay's new ambassador to the Holy See, Maro Juan Bosco Cayota Zappettini, on Friday, the pope said families were "the key structure of society" and based on the "marital union between a man and a woman according to the plans of the creator".

He lashed out at "those who from certain media, disparage or ridicule the high values of marriage and the family, giving a boost to selfishness and disorientation rather than generosity and sacrifice, which are necessary to maintain the force of this true 'first cell' of mankind".

"If we are to encourage the family, help it fulfill its commitments, we must work for social cohesion and, above all, respect its rights which cannot be dissolved by other kinds of unions that seek to replace it," he said.

Benedict XVI will be in Valencia, Spain, on July 8 and 9.

'Culture is dismantling the family' and more of Pope slams gay marriage - again
News24, South Africa 

AK Democratic Gov. candidate also opposes gay adoption

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Beebe says that, if legislators can craft a ban on gay people becoming foster parents that's constitutional, he'll support it. See Beebe, Hutchinson Remark on Gay Foster Parent Ban
KATV, AR

Gay Pride comes to London

Thousands of gays, lesbians and transvestites from across Europe paraded through central London on Saturday to proudly state their sexuality See Gay Pride comes to London @ Reuters.uk, UK 

London's biggest gay parade

More than half a million people are expected to descend on Oxford Street tomorrow for the biggest gay parade in London's history. The annual Europride festival is returning to the capital for the first time since the event began in 1992.

It will bring traffic to a halt as it wends its way down Oxford Street and Regent Street with more than 80 floats.

London's biggest gay parade This is London

Fissures remain after Episcopal Church convention

Fissures remain after Episcopal Church convention

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

By Steve Levin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Episcopal Church ended its nine-day triennial convention neither rupturing relations nor reconciling with the worldwide Anglican Communion, but fissures in the relationship between the two were more evident than ever.

Those are sure to deepen after the events of the past week -- including the nomination as bishop of a gay priest, the effort to split off three dioceses, including Pittsburgh, into a biblically conservative province, and a proposal for a two-tier system of churches.

Although the Episcopal Church makes up just 3 percent of the more than 70-million member Anglican Communion, its decisions on gay ordination and same-sex blessings have made it the focus of the wider church.

In the days since last month's convention ended on a shaky note after it elected its first female leader:

Three dioceses, including Pittsburgh, are seeking to create a new biblically conservative province within the Episcopal Church. In addition, they joined two other dioceses in asking the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide them "alternative primatial oversight," saying they cannot remain faithful to the newly elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.

The traditionally liberal Diocese of Newark nominated as bishop an openly gay priest, the Rev. Canon Michael Lee Barlowe, who has lived with his partner for 24 years.

An archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, suggested that a future "covenant" among members of the 38 national churches in the Anglican Communion could include a two-tier system of churches -- those that adhere to the wider church's shared beliefs, and those that don't.

The Church of Nigeria elected a Virginia priest to be a missionary bishop in North America, ministering to alienated Episcopalians.

Collectively, the actions are the clearest sign yet that the knotty theological question of the inclusion of gays continues moving farther from resolution.

The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, an organization for gay, lesbian and transgendered Episcopalians, said the most frustrating part is the church's neglect of its mission, members and the Gospel.

"We are very good at talking but we are not very good at listening," she said. "At what point is the Gospel served by us continuing to beat each other with our talking points?"

Discussions almost always include Pittsburgh, the nexus of the Episcopal Church's theological conservatives. Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. is moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, a 3-year-old group of 10 dioceses and 900 parishes formed after the church's confirmation of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. It represents just 10 percent of the Episcopal Church's 2.2 million members, but is buoyed by biblically orthodox Anglicans in Africa and Asia, the most populous churches in the communion.

It was not surprising that some of the network's dioceses immediately sought alternative oversight since Bishop Jefferts Schori participated in Bishop Robinson's consecration and approved same-sex blessings in her home diocese of Nevada. Biblically orthodox Episcopalians believe homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture.

But the move to form a new province is unprecedented, according to the Rev. J. Robert Wright, historiographer of the Episcopal Church.

"There might be a group of leaders in the Episcopal Church who might seek formation of a new province," he said, "but not a diocese."

Bishop Duncan has said the province would enable conservative dioceses like Pittsburgh to join together, rather than remain dispersed among the church's nine present provinces.

The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, a professor of church history at Virginia Theological Seminary, said the Episcopal Church historically has relied on structural answers to deal with theological questions.

"Instead of figuring out how to reconcile competing theological claims, the church is trying to figure out how to adjust its structure to contain advocates of those differing views," he said.

The geographically grouped provinces' primary authority is to elect half of the church's 36-member Executive Council, which governs the church between its General Conventions.

However, the Rev. Dr. Harold Lewis, rector of Shadyside's Calvary Episcopal Church, sees something larger at work.

"This is all part of a master plan," said Rev. Lewis, who has called a Thursday news conference for diocesan clergy opposed to Bishop Duncan.

"This [new] province is going to be the so-called orthodox presence in the Episcopal Church," he said. "I think [Bishop Duncan] will try to make that new province, however small, the official Episcopal Church.

"The rest of us would be associate members."

It was a reference to the Archbishop of Canterbury's suggestion of a two-tier system in the communion, 38 autonomous national churches spread across six continents. As part of a covenant, "constituent" churches would limit their freedoms for the benefit of the wider church; "churches in association" could make independent decisions but would forfeit decision-making within the communion.

Developing such a covenant could take as long as nine years. But if the Rev. Barlowe is elected bishop of the Diocese of Newark, such debates may be moot.

The Diocese of Newark vote is scheduled for September. The Rev. Barlowe's election almost certainly would split the communion. He is one of four current candidates. Already, 22 of the 38 Anglican provinces have either "broken" or "impaired relations" with the Episcopal Church, stemming from Bishop Robinson's confirmation.

At their General Convention, Episcopalians agreed "to exercise restraint" by not electing candidates "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion." A special churchwide commission had requested a moratorium on any candidates living in same-gender unions.

One of the most vocal critics of the American church has been the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, archbishop of the 17-million-member Church of Nigeria. The church's election of the Rev. Martyn Minns, of the Diocese of Virginia, as a missionary bishop in the United States is sure to rankle many.

Rev. Minns will oversee about two dozen expatriate churches in the United States that were formed to provide an alternative to the Episcopal Church.

"We had deliberately held back from this action," the archbishop said in a statement. The actions at General Convention meant, however, that "far from turning back, [Episcopalians] are even more committed to pursuing their unbiblical revisionist agenda."

The last time missionary bishops were ordained was in 2000 when two, including the Rev. John H. Rodgers of Ambridge, were consecrated by the Anglican provinces of Rwanda and Southeast Asia. Such actions allow conservatives to oversee congregations that follow more traditional Christian doctrines but are located in liberal dioceses. Neither has been recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"I think a certain amount of nuanced evaluation with appropriate historical and ecclesiastical context is what's called for now," said the Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas, professor of mission and world Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

"Everyone's running off in different directions claiming authority."

 

(Steve Levin can be reached at slevin@post-gazette.com

ACLU Fights 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy

SEATTLE, WA 2006-06-30 Attorneys for an Air Force flight nurse who lost her job under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy were in federal court in Tacoma Friday.

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeks to reinstate Major Margaret Witt, a McChord reservist originally from Spokane. Her five-year relationship with another woman ended in 2003. That same year she was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal.

ACLU attorney Aaron Caplan says Witt has been a role model for other service members:

Aaron Caplan: "We don't think its fair to kick someone out of the military after a long and productive career simply because of her sexual orientation. At a time of war like this when we have a shortage of trained flight nurses its crazy to let our prejudices weaken our military." See ACLU Fights 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy
OPB, OR -