Montana Supreme Court affirms lesbian parental rights
Last week Tuesday, the Billing Gazette reported that the Montana Supreme Court upheld Michelle Kulstad’s petition for parental rights of the two adopted children she raised with her female partner of 10 years.
Most notably, in a special concurrence, Justice James Nelson argued against discrimination:
“Naming it for the evil it is, discrimination on …
Tags: 10 Years, Discrimination, Female Partner, James Nelson, lesbian, Montana Supreme Court, Parental Rights, PetitionPhilip Hensher: Forget about a ‘cure’ for homosexuality
It grows increasingly hard to tell the difference between bishops of the Church of England and Paris Hilton. Bishops used to be thoughtful, retiring people, happy to spread the word of God through bring-and-buy sales, the Mothers’ Union and the occasional sermon. Nowadays, some of them have been bitten by the bug of publicity, and they just can’t seem to shut up.
One bishop in particular has been an absolute gift to the media on slow days for news. With no story whatsoever in sight, the office intern is instructed to call up Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, and ask him for his opinions on – well, it hardly matters. He will strike a moral pose, and many of us will wonder where on earth he gets it from. He is, frankly, a perfect scream.
In 2000 he said that having children in a marriage was not an “optional extra” and there was “a real lack” if people decided not to have children. Last year, he said Islamic extremism was turning parts of our cities into “no-go areas”, and complained about the amplified call to prayer. He has also denounced multiculturalism as “newfangled and insecurely founded” and in 2007 announced he wouldn’t be going to the Lambeth Conference, in protest at a gay bishop in America.
In a few months he is retiring, 10 years early, to set up a confederation of fundamentalist churches. In the meantime, he has been going round shedding a few more flaky ponderings like psoriasis. The latest, revealed in a newspaper interview, is on the subject of homosexuality, and it amazes me that Dr Nazir-Ali has taken so long to get round to his African colleagues’ favourite subject. Dr Nazir-Ali said: “The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature. We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
See Philip Hensher: Forget about a ‘cure’ for homosexuality
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/philip-henshe…
Deleware Gay rights bill heads to full state Senate
The state Senate next week will debate a bill adding sexual orientation to Delaware’s anti-discrimination laws.
Newark-area Democrat David Sokola says he’s grateful Senate leaders let him offer his own version of the bill.
Audio Here
During the past 10 years, similar bills have reached the Senate only to die in committee or as the result of a so-called “desk-drawer veto”, but Senate Insurance Committee members Wednesday voted 5-0 to send Sokola’s measure, which has the support of Governor Markell and key House leaders, to the full Senate.
Sokola says he expects spirited opposition from the bill’s opponents, but is confident the measure will pass. See Gay rights bill heads to full state Senate
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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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Time To Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
During his campaign for the White House, President Obama pledged that he would push to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) — the military’s policy that bars gay men and women from serving openly. Since taking office, however, Obama and other officials serving in his administration have pushed the issue to the back burner. When asked about addressing DADT in March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.” Ret. Gen. Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, told the President recently “not to add another controversy to his already-full plate.” On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopolous asked Jones if the policy would be overturned. “I don’t know,” he replied. In fact, the White House website recently watered down language on repealing the policy, replacing the administration’s commitment to “repealing” DADT with a commitment to simply “changing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way.” (The more definitive “repeal” language has since been reinserted.) At the same time, Obama has indicated that he remains committed to repealing the policy. Sandy Tsao, an Army officer who told her superiors last January that she is gay, wrote to Obama urging him to act on repealing DADT. Last week, Obama personally responded to Tsao, writing, “I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete. … I intend to fulfill my commitment!”
DADT STILL CLAIMING CASUALTIES: DADT continues to weaken our nation’s military. Last week, the Army sent National Guard Lt. Daniel Choi — a West Point graduate who served in Iraq and is fluent in Arabic — a letter informing him that he is no longer welcome in the U.S. military because he is gay. The Army said it was dismissing Choi for “moral or professional dereliction,” specifically for admitting “publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” Choi is one of more than 13,000 U.S. military personnel to be discharged because of DADT. This number includes those with special skills deemed “mission critical,” such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists like Choi. The Government Accountability Office found in 2005 that the cost of discharging and replacing servicemembers fired because of their sexual orientation during the policy’s first 10 years totaled at least $190.5 million — roughly $20,000 per discharged service member. While DADT cannot be repealed without congressional action, University of California associate professor Aaron Belkin notes that as president, Obama has the authority to suspend enforcement of the policy. Though it is unclear whether Obama will take this route (especially based on Jones’s advice), Choi said on MSNBC last week that he plans to “fully fight” his dismissal “tooth and nail.” “I believe that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is wrong, and what we really need to be encouraging soldiers to do is to don’t lie, don’t hide, don’t discriminate, and don’t weaken the military. That’s what we need to be promoting,” he said.
REPEAL DADT: Supporters of the discriminatory DADT often argue that repealing it would weaken the military (despite the fact that Arabic-linguists who are in short supply have been discharged because of it) and fragment unit cohesion. However, a bipartisan study commissioned by the Palm Center at the University of California last year found that “the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win.” Choi said that “the biggest thing” he is “angry about” is that the Army claims that his unit suffered “good order and discipline” because he is gay. “That’s a big insult to my unit,” he said. After he came out as gay and before he was discharged, Choi said that “so many people came up to me, my peers, my subordinates, people that outranked me, folks that have been in the Army — and this is an infantry unit, infantry men that — coming up to me and saying, ‘Hey, sir, hey, Lieutenant Choi, we know, and we don’t care. What we care about is that you can contribute to the team.’” Indeed, a December 2006 survey of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found that 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” Moreover, the American public doesn’t care either. According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, nearly two-thirds disagreed with the argument that “allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military would be divisive for the troops and hurt their ability to fight effectively.” Ret. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Hugh Aitken, who participated in the Palm Center’s study, has criticized Obama’s plans to allow the Pentagon to review the policy before deciding to act on any repeal. “There’s been enough studying throughout the years,” he said. “Creating a new study will not change the facts.”
RIGHT WING STILL OPPOSES A REPEAL: The ultra-conservative Center for Military Readiness (CMR), a group that opposes women and gays serving in combat, is leading an effort against repealing DADT and even trying to block gays from serving in the military altogether. The group’s president, Elaine Donnelly, told Congress last year that having gays serve in the military “sexualizes the atmosphere” because they “engage in passive aggressive behavior.” CMR also tries to muddy the waters with “gay horror stories” from the military, despite having acknowledged that such stories are “very difficult to find.” Prominent members of Congress continue to obstruct as well. When asked about DADT last Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered his support for it. “Right now the military is functioning extremely well in very difficult conditions,” he said, adding that “the policy has been working and I think it’s been working well.” Other members of Congress, such as Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), disagree. Sestak, himself a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, said of DADT recently on MSNBC, “We have to correct this. It’s just not right.” “I can remember being out there in command, and someone would come up to you and start to tell you — and you just want to say, no, I don’t want to lose you, you’re too good,” Sestak said.
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‘We still teach hate,’ says mother of murdered gay man
GARY — Judy Shepard doesn’t forgive the men who killed her son, but she doesn’t blame them, either.
Shepard, at Indiana University Northwest on Wednesday night to talk about the torture and murder of her son, Matthew Shepard, said she gets “the forgiveness question” a lot when she talks to groups.
Mostly, she’s just confused by the thought, but what she knows for sure is that the two men who brutally murdered Matthew — Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, who are serving life sentences — weren’t taught any better.
Thus, Shepard has made it her mission in the almost 10 years since his death to teach everyone possible that hate is a learned behavior that needs to be stopped.
“We still teach hate; it has to be a conscious decision to not go there,” said Shepard, invited to speak by IUN’s Center for Regional Excellence and Merrillville High School’s Socially Together and Naturally Diverse organization.
At times comical, Shepard described her home state of Wyoming as “not a hateful place at all,” but it is 96 percent white, with the rest of the 500,000-resident population either Native American or Latino. Even after the murder, Wyoming still hasn’t passed hate-crime legislation that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual specifics, though Laramie, where the murder took place, has an ordinance against it.
Indiana also doesn’t have hate-crime legislation specific to the LGBT community, either, and she pointed out it likely won’t happen until something is passed at the federal level. Nevertheless, she remains hopeful. See ‘We still teach hate,’ says mother of murdered gay man
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Federal action on LGBT hate crimes is past due
The Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., citing the successful use of Colorado’s hate-crime law in prosecuting the killer of transgender teenager Angie Zapata, is calling for federal lawmakers to do right by the late Matthew Shepard and other hate victims by passing a federal version. “Colorado got it right, first,” editorial board member Erika Stutzman writes. “President Barack Obama has said he will sign the bill if it passes in the Senate. More than 10 years after Shepard’s murder, it’s about time.” Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Thousands flock to gay marriage hearing in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine — Same-sex couples from around the state urged Maine lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow them to marry, while opponents asked that it be rejected. A hearing is being held today before the Judiciary Committee at the Augusta Civic Center.
Supporters outnumbered opponents roughly four to one as the legislative hearing got under way about 9:30 a.m. About 3,000 people filled the auditorium.
Click here to listen to the live testimony.
Kate and Erica Quinn-Easter of Stockholm said they have done everything they can do under the law to protect each other. They even were married in Massachusetts five years ago but that union is not recognized in Maine.
“During the past 10 years with lots of pieces of paper we’ve proven our commitment to each other over and over again,” Erica Quin-Easter said. “It’s time the state of Maine recognized our marriage.”
In addition to LD 1020, committee members also were scheduled to heard testimony on LD 1118 that would extend to people registered on the state’s domestic partner registry the same rights and benefits as those who are married but would stop short of creating civil unions. Rep. Leslie Fossel, R-Alna, the sponsor of the bill did not attend the hearing and no one spoke in favor of or against it during the morning session.
See Thousands flock to gay marriage hearing Bangor Daily News
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Judge reduces sentence for gay man’s killer
(Denver, Colorado) A Colorado man sentenced to 22 years in prison for the death of a gay man has had that sentence reduced by 10 years.
Jason Fisk pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of manslaughter and robbery in the death of Kevin Hale in 2005. He originally was charged with …
Tags: 10 Years, 22 Years, Colorado Man, Denver Colorado, Gay Colorado, Gay Denver, Gay Man, Jason Fisk, Kevin Hale, Manslaughter, Robbery
