Knowing Someone Gay/Lesbian Affects Views of Gay Issues Gallup.com -
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While 57% of Americans oppose legalizing gay marriage, Americans who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are almost evenly divided on the matter, with 49% in favor and 47% opposed. Among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay, 72% oppose legalized gay marriage while just 27% favor it.
The results are from a May 7-10, 2009, USA Today/Gallup poll, which asked Americans their views on a number of issues relating to gays and lesbians. Overall, a majority of Americans (58%) say they have a friend, relative, or coworker who is gay or lesbian — basically unchanged since Gallup first asked this question in 2003.
Examining personal experience by ideology, 71% of self-identified liberals say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian — far more than is true among moderates and conservatives, who align more closely with the national average.
Views of gay marriage are strongly related to ideology. But the increase in support among those who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian is not merely a reflection of the fact that liberals are more likely to know someone of same-sex orientation. Further analysis reveals that, when controlling for ideology, those who know someone who is gay or lesbian are significantly more supportive of gay marriage than are those of the same political persuasion who do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian.
Americans who know someone who is gay or lesbian are about evenly split between saying legalizing gay marriage will change society for the worse (39%) and that it will have no effect on society (40%). Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) who do not personally know a gay or lesbian person believe that legalized gay marriage will change society for the worse — far greater than the 48% of national adults who say the same. Only a small minority of Americans believe legal gay marriage will change society for the better, but those who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are three times more likely to say this than are those who do not know anyone who is gay or lesbian.
Experience and Acceptance
In addition to the findings on gay marriage, Gallup similarly finds those with personal experience with gay or lesbian individuals more accepting of same-sex relations in general. While a majority of Americans overall (56%) think same-sex relations should be legal, two-thirds (67%) of those who personally know a gay or lesbian individual say this. A majority (57%) of those who do not personally know anyone who is gay say gay or lesbian relations should not be legal.
Of those who say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian, 88% say they are comfortable around these individuals, compared to 64% of those who do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian. Among adults overall, fewer than 2 in 10 say they are uncomfortable around someone who is gay or lesbian, but that number increases to 3 in 10 among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay or lesbian.
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Hundreds protest anti-gay, anti-Jewish group’s arrival In RHode Island
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders turned out on street corners Friday in spontaneous opposition to the anti-gay, anti-Jew message of a tiny group of demonstrators from Kansas. More than 300 students from East Providence High School crammed one corner of the city’s busiest intersection at Taunton and Pawtucket avenues as school let out. Some gripped neon signs supporting gay people. During the school day, students also wore yarmulkes to support their Jewish classmates. At another corner, 100 or so people, including high school alumni, gathered, holding signs such as “Teach Love, Not Hate” and “Our Giant Signs are Better than Yours.” One even had a pink bunny suit on with “I Love Boys” written on his belly. On a third corner, five members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., carried epithet-laden picket signs, denouncing homosexuality and declaring, “America is doomed” for tolerating gays and Jews. Various counter-protestors chanted — “Go Home” or “Gay is the Way” — and for a short time the shouts unified in obscenities. “I know a lot of gay people in my family,” freshman Jayden DeCosta said. “It’s anybody’s right to do what they want.”
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As more states take up…
As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions. With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality. “The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!” warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy “borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion.” “I’m not intending it to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people,” said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who established Californians Against Hate. “My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims.”
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Self-proclaimed ‘Christian’ group asks to fight suit on gay marriage
A self-anointed ‘Christian’ group that raised – and spent – pent more than $37 million in leading the campaign to pass Proposition 8 is now seeking to formally fight a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning California’s gay marriage ban.
The Alliance Defense Fund filed court papers Thursday asking U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to allow it to defend the constitutionality of Proposition 8. Did you ever wonder how mnuch money they raised for ‘fighting gay marriage’ went to pay their own saleries?
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Gay marriage advocates to reach out to churches Ventura County Star
Ventura County advocates for gay marriage plan to visit churches and synagogues as part of their effort to put the issue back on the California ballot in 2010.
“We don’t want to get into screaming and yelling matches, we just want to tell our stories,” said Lisa Hughes, a member of Equality Ventura County’s faith outreach subcommittee.
Equality Ventura County met Thursday night at the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance offices in Ventura to discuss its next step, now that the California Supreme Court has upheld the voter-approved Proposition 8 prohibiting gay marriage.
EVC is a task force that was organized to defeat Proposition 8. Its mission now is to return the issue of gay marriage to the voters.
Hughes, 49, has a 16-year-old daughter who is gay. She believes her story will touch others in various houses of worship.
Hughes said they are not going to “preach to the choir” by speaking to church groups who already support gay marriage. They also will not be targeting fundamentalist churches.
The subcommittee’s plan is to visit area mainstream churches and host panel discussions on what it’s like to be gay, or to be the relative or parent of a gay individual.
See Gay marriage advocates to reach out to churches Ventura County Star * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Woman wanting to give Obama a letter opposing gay marriage is removed from airport press area
A black woman writer fromGeorgia newspaper who wanted to give President Barack Obama a letter opposing gay marriage was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One on Thursday shortly before he arrived at the airport.
She identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon, and said she is a “Roman Catholic priestess” who lives in Anaheim, Calif. She said she has White House press credentials.
Since when does having “White House press credentials” entitle a ‘reporter’ to hand deliver letters to a head of state?
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Marriage Equality and Religious Freedom Win in Key Statehouse Vote In New Hampshire
Committee of Conference votes to advance HB73
CONCORD Today the house and senate committee of conference in the New Hampshire legislature voted in favor of a compromise bill that will advance the freedom to marry while ensuring religious liberties.
HB73 is a bill that will uphold the Constitutional right to freedom of religion, while complimenting previously passed bills that grant marriage equality to same-sex couples. Today’s committee of conference decision treats gay and lesbian people as well as people of faith with dignity and respect. The conference committee report on HB73 is expected to be voted on by the full legislature on June 3rd.
“We remain confident that marriage equality will become law this year, and HB 73 is an important final step in that effort,” said Mo Baxley the Executive Director of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry. “Individual equality and religious freedom are New Hampshire values. We expect the House and Senate to now vote for HB 73 as reported out by the committee of conference. This is a very positive step and we remain optimistic that we will see legal protections for thousands of gay and lesbian couples signed into law by the Governor.”
The freedom to marry for gay couples, partnered with religious protections in HB73 is supported by Governor Lynch, the State Senate, the committee of conference, and the majority of New Hampshire residents.
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The New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition was founded in January 2001 and is New Hampshire’s Statewide LGBT education and advocacy organization. http://nhftm.org/
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Gay & Lesbian community responds to Gov. Gibbons veto
Monday, Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed SB 283-the Domestic Partner Bill that Revises provisions governing the rights of domestic partners. SB 283 would establish a Domestic Partner registry through the Secretary of State’s office where couples, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, could register their relationships with the state and enjoy the protections granted to spouses under Nevada Revised Statutes. State Senator David Parks introduced the bill in an effort to provide same-gender and opposite-gender couples the legal protection and obligations for one another not otherwise allowed under current law in Nevada.
Gibbons writes that he vetoed the bill based on his opinion that it violates Section 21 of Article 1 of the Nevada Constitution. He surmises the will of the voters expressed in Question 2-which amended the Nevada Constitution in 2002, to define Marriage as, “Only a marriage between a male and female person shall be recognized and given effect in this state,” without providing any basis for his opinion. Legal opinions expressed by experts in legislative testimony during hearings on SB 283, and the opinion issued by the Legislative Council Bureau contradict his reasoning. Gibbons also claims in his letter that couples can contract privately through “estate planning…living wills..and amendments to leases and deeds of trust.” “If legal contracts were as simple as Governor Gibbons claims, more people would enter into them-same-gender couples or otherwise. The process of drawing up legal documents is expensive, time consuming and easily challenged in court. There is no guarantee that these contracts will stand up in court. LGBT couples seek only to provide security for their partners and families and that the decisions they make for one another will actually be binding,” said, Jennifer Bolton, Center Board Vice President. See Gay & Lesbian community responds to Gov. Gibbons veto
KTNV Las Vegas * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender marriages thrive
This spring my life-partner and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary together. While some might say that 10 years of marriage is no big deal — even in this age of high divorce rates — clearly it is a milestone year, and especially for a gay couple like us. I should note from the start that I do not place marriage in quotation marks, as though ours somehow doesn’t measure up; our marriage is different in some ways and very much the same in others, but it is certainly not less. We know what a precious gift we have in each other.
Our love and commitment, in fact, are as strong and vital as in the best heterosexual marriages, often more so.
Why? Because like all successful lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) marriages, ours thrives despite formidable odds, any one of which would crush many heterosexual marriages. Little wonder LGBT friends and acquaintances tell us our 10 years is actually twenty, even 30 — in straight years.
No one should be surprised by this perception. In place of the myriad ways that heterosexual marriages are incorporated, supported, celebrated and promoted ours’ are denied, excluded, discouraged and condemned. Marriage of any type is, of course, not always easy, even if strong and under the best of circumstances. Imagine for a moment though people praying for your marriage to fail; widespread preaching and protesting against it; laws and constitutional amendments enacted that are overtly hostile to your family; hospitals blocking you from your spouse’s bedside; having your children torn from your life when your spouse, the biological parent, dies; or being unable to carry out your spouse’s final wishes. I could easily go on, and on.
See Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender marriages thrive
Tallahassee Democrat – * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gay? Lesbian? Looking fabulous and over 50?
The Sexual Health Team at Public Health Development are currently in the process of producing a guide about relationships/sexual health and the over 50s.
The guide will contain photography of individuals and couples that will tell some story about their relationship to sensuality, sexual expression, and sexual well being.
The models will have control over the shots – they can be subtle in nature or more edgy – depending on how people want to be.
Most of the photography is taking place in people’s homes, but it could also happen outside (it’s just weather dependant). The photography is taking place at the end of June.
The Sexual Health Team are looking for gay and lesbian couples and individual lesbians and gay men, aged between 50 and 80, who are willing to volunteer to be models.
If you think that you, or you and your partner fit the bill and would like to take part in this empowering project, contact Josanne Cowell, Sexual Health Advisor at Josanne.Cowell@manchester.nhs.uk or call her on 0161 882 2309.
See Gay? Lesbian? Looking fabulous and over 50?
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation – * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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