The Inquisitr » gay rights

Catholic Archdiocese In D.C. May Stop Social Service Programs Due To Gay Marriage Bill

AHN — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:37:06 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington says it will likely discontinue its social service programs because a same-sex marriage bill approved by a committee in the D.C. Council this week would force them to provide services to gay couples.

The full Council is expected next month to vote in favor of the bill, and Mayor Adrian Fenty has said he will sign it.

The legislation introduced in October by Council member David Catania, an independent and chairman of the Health committee, was reported out with amendments by the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary on Tuesday. It does not require religious groups to participate in gay marriages, and exempts them from the “promotion of marriage through religious programs, counseling, courses, or retreats.”

The Archdiocese said the exemption, revised by the committee from “the promotion of marriage that is in violation of the entity’s religious beliefs,” is too narrow. It said it would become vulnerable to lawsuits if it refuses to promote gay marriages in its initiatives such as adoption services, programs for the poor and benefits for same-sex employees.

“It is our concern that the committee’s narrowing of the religious exemption language will cause the government to discontinue our long partnership with them and open up the agency to litigation and the use of resources to defend our religious beliefs rather than serve the poor,” said Edward Orzechowski, president/CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese.

Catholic Charities serves 68,000 people in the city annually apart from the thousands who rely on the 93 social programs provided by the 40 Catholic parishes in the District.

National gay advocacy groups had hailed the committee approval of the gay marriage bill. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, has been rallying grassroots support for the measure, partnering with 200 members of the clergy in the District to hold an interfaith service in support of marriage equality.

The District earlier this year passed a measure recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. That bill was passed by a 12-1 vote of the Council.

The District already has a 1992 law allowing unmarried couples to register as domestic partners, but the statute only took effect in 2002 when Congress lifted a ban on using public money on the District’s domestic partner registry.

In September, a coalition of conservatives, including Bishops Harry Jackson and James Silver, filed a request with the District of Columbia Board of Elections for a ballot initiative next year that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. The initiative has the support of the Archdiocese.

Massachusetts and Connecticut were the first states to legalize same-sex marriages. Four states enacted legislation this year: Iowa, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. Main overturned its law this month in a referendum.

New York is set to vote on a bill before year’s end, while California may hold a referendum on whether to repeal Proposition 8, its ban on gay marriages.

The Dopeyness on Gay Marriage

Duncan Riley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:35:08 +0000

Gay marriage is a topic in the United States that will split many reasonable people. Being Australian, in a country that doesn’t even accept civil unions, maybe I’m not the best person to talk on the matter. But I will.

I don’t passionately believe in gay marriage on the basis that I believe in equal rights (although I’m favorable to that argument.) Instead I believe in gay marriage on the basis that the state marries people, and the state should never discriminate. If you seriously believe that marriage is between a man and a woman on religious grounds, you should also believe that the state shouldn’t be allowed to marry people,

Of course you’ll never here that from the anti-gay marriage folks.

If the religious ideal of marriage is based on a man and woman, then there should be no state based marriages, period. If we allow the state to marry people, as any good libertarian should, then the sexuality of the pair should be irrelevant.

As someone who has been in a heterosexual marriage (be it not much longer) I’ve never seen how two blokes getting married threatens my (soon to be ex) marriage. Indeed, if two blokes or two women are happily married and don’t get divorced, all the better for them.

If you disagree, leave a comment. But if you’re to the right, explain how the concept of small government fits with interference in marriage. Libertarianism means less Government, which to me means supporting gay marriage on the basis that Government shouldn’t interfere.

UPDATE: Maine Bans Gay Marriage

Duncan Riley — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:03:28 +0000

UPDATE: Maine has banned gay marriage. See updates.

The residents of Maine look likely to follow the lead of California and ban gay marriage with a ballot measure overturning legal gay marriage pulling to a bigger lead.

The Maine gay marriage vote asked Maine voters if they wanted to repeal a gay-marriage bill signed into law in May by Democratic Governor John Baldacci.

With 73% of all votes counted for the day (Maine voters voted for Governor and a variety of ballot measures), the Yes to Proposition 1 vote (ban gay marriage) was ahead 51.86% to 48.14%, a gap of over 16,000 votes.

Local media outlets are calling the vote as too close to call, however the trend has sided away from the No vote, which earlier lead the evening by a small margin.

Update: the gap widened again at 74% of the count to 51.93% yes.

Update 2: at 76% the gap is out to 52.13%.

Update 3: at 80% counted, yes is up to 52.47%. My maths might be rusty, but that’s nearly a neat 5% gap now. Sadly, yes looks like it will win.

Update 4: at 87% counted, yes is up 52.75%. It would be a miracle now for that lead to turn around.

Update 5: AP and local media now confirm that gay marriage is banned in Maine, as we’ve been reporting for nearly 2 hours. A sad day that even Maine won’t extend equality.

Obama Signs Bill Making Gay Attack A Hate Crime

AHN — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:34:07 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – Violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people is now among the list of hate crimes under a bill President Barack Obama signed into law Wednesday at the White House.

As an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, Obama said the change would protect people regardless of who they love.

Regarding the bill Obama said, “You understood that we must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones, but to break spirits — not only to inflict harm, but to instill fear. You understand that the rights afforded every citizen under our Constitution mean nothing if we do not protect those rights — both from unjust laws and violent acts. And you understand how necessary this law continues to be.”

Gay rights advocacy groups hailed the new law. Equality Forum founder Malcolm Lazin said it was timely because of rising incidents of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender Americans. The group cited 29 killings and more than 16,000 cases of hate crimes against gays last year.

Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoes bill with hidden f-bomb

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:32:34 +0000

California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have vetoed a bill with a hidden message to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

Ammiano had previously told Schwarzenegger to “kiss (his) gay ass” at a fundraiser, so the Governor may have been retaliating for the dis with the veto letter hiding the true message. The original poster reports that the governor’s office only had this to say when asked about the letter:

UPDATE: Aaron McLear from the governor’s press office just called. When I asked him if the Fuck You message was intentional, all he would say was “what a strange coincidence.” He was clearly being sarcastic.

The bill in question was to approve funds to finance the Port of San Francisco. Below is an enhanced pic of the letter, with f-word warnings for delicate sensibilities:

Schwarzenegger Signs Two Historic Gay Rights Bills

AHN — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:15:20 +0000

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills on Monday that add further positive momentum to the gay rights struggle. California’s top lawmaker signed a bill that to gives the state a day to celebrate fallen politician Harvey Milk and another recognizing the rights and benefits of legally married same-sex couples.

Schwarzenegger attached the following statement to the same-sex couple law: “As required by Proposition 8, California will not recognize such couples as ‘married.’ However, Senate Bill 54 will provide the same legal protections that would otherwise be available to couples that enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships out-of-state. In short, this measure honors the will of the People in enacting Proposition 8 while providing important protections to those unions legally entered into in other states.”

The announcement of his signature on the Milk bill is one that came as a surprise to many since Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year. His office declined to say what prompted the change in his position.

Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. According to the bill, Milk garnered his place in history as being the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in a major U.S. city. However, in 1978 he was assassinated by a disgruntled former supervisor.

Schwarzenegger Signs Two Historic Gay Rights Bills

AHN — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:14:58 +0000

Sacramento, CA (AHN) – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills on Monday that add further positive momentum to the gay rights struggle. California’s top lawmaker signed a bill that to gives the state a day to celebrate fallen politician Harvey Milk and another recognizing the rights and benefits of legally married same-sex couples.

Gays 1 Christians 0

Duncan Riley — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:25:27 +0000

You’ve got to hand it to these protesters at a gay marriage rights rally: they’ve got a point.

Group Requests 2010 Ballot Initiative To Ban Gay Marriages In D.C.

AHN — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:41:14 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – A group of opponents of same-sex marriage have filed a request with the District of Columbia Board of Elections for a ballot initiative next year that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

The District began recognizing gay marriages on July 7, the end of a 30-day congressional review required after Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill providing same-sex couples who are married elsewhere the same rights of civil marriage in D.C.

The new law, which was passed by the D.C. Council on May 5, does not affect District’s 1992 law allowing unmarried couples to register as domestic partners. That 1992 statute, however, only took effect in 2002 when Congress lifted a ban on using any public money on the District’s domestic partner registry.

Stand4MarriageDC.com, a coalition of community leaders and pastors, says it filed its Defense of Marriage Initiative because the D.C. Council’s “redefinition of marriage will permanently impact D.C. businesses, schools, social activities, and the family unit without the voice of residents being heard.”

“The District of Columbia, with its nearly 600,000 residents, is unlike any other place in the world,” Rev. Walter Fauntroy said in a statement. “It is the seat of Democracy for the free world. It is unfortunate that its own residents are not allowed to participate in the democratic process.”

Apart from Fauntroy, Bishop Harry Jackson, ANC Commissioner Robert King, Rev. Dale Wafer, Bishop James Silver, Rev. Anthony Evans, Rev. Melvin Dupree and Elder Howard Butler are part of Stand4MarriageDC.com.

There has been a growing movement nationwide to grant gay couples the same rights and privileges as different-sex couples despite stiff opposition from conservative groups such as the National Organization for Marriage, which warns that gay marriages have an adverse impact on children and people of faith.

A total of six states now allow same-sex marriages, four of which adopted their statutes in the past five months.

Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriages, sued the federal government in July over the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which provides the federal definition of marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman. In California, there is a push to repeal the ban on same-sex marriages, Proposition 8, through a referendum in next year’s ballot.

Pro-Gay Group Sues To Keep Referendum From Washington State Ballot

AHN — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:07:45 +0000

Olympia, WA (AHN) – A gay advocacy group has sued Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed for allegedly accepting signatures in a referendum petition for a bill granting same-sex couples domestic partnership rights even if these signatures violated anti-fraud laws.

Conservative groups led by Protect Marriage Washington want to repeal a law, Senate Bill 5688, that grants more rights to state-registered domestic partners similar to those enjoyed by married couples.
Protect Marriage Washington has said the law “will demolish the state’s historical understanding and definition of marriage as that of uniting a man and a woman for life.”

Washington Families Standing Together filed the suit in King County Superior Court on Thursday, explaining in a statement,”Those trying to qualify Referendum 71 for the ballot do not think that families different than theirs should have these protections, so they are trying to overturn the law…Referendum 71 should only be on the ballot if it has qualified based on legally valid signatures. In order to ensure that it is not put on the ballot in error we needed to file a legal challenge at this point.”

But while WFS is alleging wrongly accepted signatures, Protect Marriage Washington has expressed concerns about a sudden spike in the number of rejections.

To quailfy for the November ballot, sponsors need 120,577 valid signatures and a rejection rate of no more than 12.4 percent. The current error rate is at 11.81 percent, majority of which were excluded because these could not be matched with a person’s voter registration file.

The Office of Secretary of State’s Elections Division is still in the process of checking the 137,689 signatures submitted. The review began on July 29, and has so far checked 88.19 percent. The number of accepted signatures as of Thursday night was 110,797, while rejections were at 14,834.

State Elections Director Nick Handy has predicted that the signature check will be completed by next Tuesday.

Lutheran Church Lifts Ban On Non-Celibate Gay Clergy

AHN — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:38:36 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The U.S.’s largest Lutheran denomination on Friday lifted a long-standing ban on the selection of actively gay and lesbian clergy to serve as pastors.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said it will permit congregations to hire homosexual men and women who are in committed relationships, after a vote of 559 to 451.

The decision was made during a biennial Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis yesterday among the leaders of the 4.6 million members.

The denomination became the second mainline Protestant church in a month to relax policies prevailing over who may minister the faith.

Similar action was taken last month by the delegation of the Episcopal Church, easing the ban on the partnered gay bishops.

Lutheran Church To Vote On Gay Clergy

AHN — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:02:27 +0000

Minneapolis, MN (AHN) – A vote on whether to allow homosexuals to serve as clergy in the Lutheran Church is scheduled at a national assembly of delegates here Friday, but a technical move to make approval more difficult has already been turned back.

More than 1,000 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have gathered at the Minneapolis Convention Center to consider several “social statements,” proclamations of the organization’s beliefs on significant social issues. A proposal on human sexuality that would allow the ordination of openly gay ministers is receiving the most attention from the delegates.

The statement, “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” has been in development by a task force for eight years. Writing the proposal was not easy, acknowledged the Rev. Peter Strommen, chair of the task force.

“We knew when we accepted the call to serve on this task force that we would face challenges and controversies. Each one of us had experienced them in our local settings,” he wrote in a letter accompanying the document. “The hope of finding a clear path to full consensus among us on what was most controversial has not been realized. We have worshipped, prayed, reflected, argued, sung, laughed, sputtered in anger, dissolved in sorrow, fallen prey to discouragement, and been surprised by joy and hope.”

The lack of consensus was apparent Monday night, when delegates, with 57 percent of the vote, rejected a motion that would have required two-thirds of the delegates to approve the measure.

The seriousness of the issue requires a super-majority vote, the Rev. Gregory Pile, bishop of the Allegheny Synod, said during a two-hour debate. Ronald Pittman, a delegate from the Oregon Synod, countered that a previous action to bar same-sex candidates from ordination had required only a simple majority.

The outcome of the Friday vote will not fragment the church, the denomination’s leading religious official predicted. “Those talking about a dissension leading to division have not been listening to the church over the past four years,” said Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. “The intensity of the rhetoric has been diminished and replaced by a very thoughtful engagement.”

Report Warns Murder Rate Against Transgendered People Is Rising

AHN — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:49:12 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – A new report has found an estimated 200 transgendered persons were murdered from January 2008 to June 2009; which is enough to say that every three days a transgendered person is killed somewhere in the world.

The project was started by the international group Transgender Europe (TGEU) and the journal ‘Liminalis’ in an effort to track and combat violence committed against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and questioning (LGBT) community.

The project compiled at least 121 murder cases from 2008 and another 83 murder cases for the year-to-date. Preliminary results show that the murder rate for transgendered people is a global problem, effecting North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

“Furthermore that the number of reports of murdered trans people is increasing in the last years,” the report warns. “The majority of cases have been reported from Latin America and North America.”

The report shows Brazil is by far the most dangerous place in the world for the transgendered community. In 2008, 59 people were murdered while another 23 murders were reported so far this year. Last year, 16 transgendered people were murdered in the United States, the second most dangerous place on Earth.

While the report is an effort to document all crimes, even its authors admit to the limitations of compiling a survey while countries continue to avoid reporting hate crimes.

“Firstly, the collected data shows only those cases which have been reported,” report author Carsten Balzer wrote. “There is no data and no estimates available for the unreported cases.”

“Secondly, the data presented here does not show all reported cases worldwide, but only most of those, which can only be found on the Internet with some effort. Reports from local newspapers which have no web page are also missing,” Balzer adds.

Drew Barrymore Protests Proposition 8

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:57:28 +0000

This past weekend, Drew Barrymore took to the streets with fellow protesters on Prop 8 and swept through the streets, where she ended up getting hold of the microphone and telling the exhausted crowd “I will fight with you!” The protest had been 15,000 people strong earlier that night, starting at Silver Lake and ending up in West Hollywood about 8 and a half hours later.

I’m embarrassed, but I cried a little when I heard Drew speak to the crowd. I wonder what celebs will turn up during the National Protest Prop 8 protests on November 15th?