Pro-gay marriage group spent big in Vermont

Vermont Freedom to Marry says it spent more than $293,000 lobbying lawmakers and the public on the same-sex marriage bill that was approved by the Legislature, far outspending its opponents.

In lobbyist disclosure forms filed Monday with the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, the pro-gay marriage group reported spending about $65,000 between April 1 and June 30 — some of it in the week leading up to the Legislature’s April 7 vote.

Take It to The People, which opposed the measure, spent about $10,000 altogether but none in the reporting period.

See Pro-gay marriage group spent big in Vermont Boston Herald

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Maine campaign heats up

With the prospect of a November referendum on same-sex marriage in Maine all but certain, pro-equality advocates are gearing up for a bruising battle to preserve the state’s marriage equality bill, signed by Gov. John Baldacci in May. Since January, Maine Freedom to Marry has been ramping up a vast field campaign to identify pro-equality voters. Without a presidential or gubernatorial race to bring voters out, Maine Freedom to Marry campaign manager Jesse Connolly said grassroots fieldwork is essential to finding voters who support marriage equality and to turning them out at the polls on Election Day.

“This campaign is really about having one-on-one conversations with Maine voters. … We’re raising money, we’re building a campaign, but we’re really excited about this great work the field effort has been doing,” said Connolly.

Yet campaign finance reports suggest that pro-equality advocates may face an uphill battle. Thus far, anti-gay activists have outpaced pro-equality advocates in fundraising. Much of that money has come from the national religious right organizations that backed the successful campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8 last year. See Maine campaign heats up

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A political fight over the rights of same-sex…

A political fight over the rights of same-sex couples is drawing nearer in Washington State.

Backers of Referendum 71, who want to overturn a new state same-sex partnership law, have made an appointment to file signatures with state elections officials Saturday afternoon.

Saturday is the deadline to collect 120,577 valid voter signatures and qualify for the Nov. 3 state ballot.

Protect Marriage Washington is the primary backer of R-71. Gary Randall of the allied Faith and Freedom Network said by e-mail: “We are gathering and counting signatures. I think we are making good progress.”

Protect Marriage has raised just more than $20,000 for a campaign that so far has been waged mostly through churches. Randall said the group is not anti-gay but pro-marriage. The group wants voters to reject Senate Bill 5688, the “everything but marriage” legislation that passed this year and adds about 250 rights of marriage for registered same-sex partners in Washington.

Defenders of the new state law, who call themselves Washington Families Standing Together, say they are ready to defend the third round of rights lawmakers added since creating the partners registry in 2007.

See Washington State braces for battle over same-sex rights

MiamiHerald.com -

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Sex toys and leather-clad men cause storm at student art gallery

LEATHER-clad men and a tiny crucifix-shaped sex toy have been branded too hot by a Melbourne TAFE and removed from a student gallery.

First-year visual arts student Steven Carter says his collage, cut from free gay and music street magazines, was unfairly taken down from NMIT’s student gallery in Preston, the Moreland Leader reports.

“There is nothing pornographic about the collage … it is about the objectification of men,” said Carter, of Preston.

“If it had been a man with women, no one would have complained.”

“The work was removed (following the instruction from visual arts department head Peter Kartsounis) without anyone even asking me.”

NMIT associate director of arts and social sciences Peter Lamburd in Fairfield said that the piece was removed because teachers believed it would be offensive to some people.

Pastor who opposes homosexuality may get Chicago City Council seat

he amens in full force, the choir in full throated glory, Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus takes the pulpit at New Life Covenant Church to urge his congregation to dream big.

“Because we can change a life, we can change a community,” he preaches. “Because we can change a community, we can change a city.”

The sermon sounds like a campaign speech, fitting because De Jesus, one of Chicago’s most influential Latino pastors, is making a controversial leap into politics as the choice of outgoing Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) to be his replacement on the City Council.

But, in a complicated blending of morality and politics, the pastor’s possible appointment has drawn protests from gay activists who object to other rhetoric used in De Jesus’ church that they say is not as uplifting — messages equating homosexuality with drug addiction and other social ills.
The activists call De Jesus “homophobic.” They worry that his appointment would give him the ability to control funds for agencies that serve gay clients and a platform to shape broader debates such as same-sex marriage.