When Gay Pride Day Takes Two Weeks

MADRID | As happens with many Spanish celebrations, Gay Pride “Day” has rather miraculously been stretched out into nearly two weeks of parties, performances, parades, rallies, exhibitions, conferences, and lots and lots of late-night festivities. When I arrived here from New York City nearly seven years ago, Orgullo, as the festival is known, was already a five-day extravaganza bursting at the seams with events and activities and non-stop socializing from which the city’s citizenry — gay, straight and undecided — often needed about five days to recover.

But Madrid has recently begun pushing the envelope even further by scheduling its pride parade a week after the typical last-weekend-in-June date respected almost everywhere else around the globe. By ceding this Saturday, June 27, to Spain’s provincial capitals for their local pride celebrations, Madrid now guarantees that all of Spain will be free to attend its parade and parties on the following Saturday, this year on July 4.

And indeed, attendance in recent years has reportedly topped 2 million, making Madrid’s Orgullo festivities likely the largest party in Europe of any stripe for four years running.

Which is not to say that this weekend, as the parades and parties are getting under way in other cities and towns across the country from Barcelona to Tenerife, that gay Madrid will staying in and resting up.

See When Gay Pride Day Takes Two Weeks

New York Times -

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Exemption for Religious Foes Of Gay Marriage Debated

As a growing number of states legalize same-sex marriage, there is growing attention on exemptions for religious institutions and individuals who find the concept morally objectionable and religiously untenable. This week, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) said he would sign legislation to make his state the sixth to legalize gay marriage if the legislature ensured religious protections.

Vermont and Connecticut have enacted laws that exempt clergy from performing same-sex marriages and give religious groups the right to refuse their facilities for same-sex marriage celebrations and allow them to refuse to provide insurance benefits to same-sex partners.

With those exemptions, said George Washington University constitutional law professor Ira Lupu on the legal blog Concurring Opinions, “religious conservatives and secular progressives now have the opportunity to reach political bargains.”

See Exemption for Religious Foes Of Gay Marriage Debated Washington Post * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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TA Gay Pride parade to swing to the sound of the ‘Wedding March’

The 11th annual Tel Aviv Gay Pride parade this summer will feature an event organizers believe to be the first ever for such an event anywhere in the world and certainly in Israel – two weddings, one of a gay couple and one of a lesbian pair.

A campaign will be launched on the Web site gogay.co.il seeking couples interested in being wed as part of the event to submit their candidacy.

A committee at the city’s gay community center will determine which two couples will participate in the historic event.

“The idea began with the thought that in the framework of the [city's] centennial celebrations, we wanted to do something substantive and deep to advance the community’s agenda,” said Yaniv Weizman, the adviser to Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai on gay affairs and a Rov Ha’ir city council member.

“The idea is to wed both a gay and lesbian couple on one of the stages during the parade,” he said, adding that the right to marry stands at the top of the gay community’s agenda, particularly as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party has raised awareness of civil union rights. See TA Gay Pride parade to swing to the sound of the ‘Wedding March’

Ha’aretz

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Integrity Applauds Robinson Inauguration Role

Integrity is delighted at today’s announcement of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson’s role in the upcoming Inaugural celebrations. Following on the heels of yesterday’s selection of the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins as the first woman preacher for the January 21st National Prayer Service, today’s news is yet another indication that we are entering an historic era of diversity and inclusion.

“Bishop Robinson’s selection by the President-elect to pray God’s blessings on the opening event of the Inaugural week is good news not only for gay and lesbian Americans but for all who share the audacious hope of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal,” said Integrity President Susan Russell.

“It also gives us hope that the age of an ‘America’s Pastor’ is behind us and that we enter a new era where diverse voices of faith speak from the particularity of their own experience of God’s grace, love and power. While there are many miles to go before we are done with racism, sexism and homophobia in this country, we look forward to Barack Obama’s inauguration, to Sharon Watkins’ sermon and to Gene Robinson’s prayers as signs of great progress and profound hope.