History Is on My Side, Says Calif. Justice Who Voted Against Gay-Marriage Ban

Carlos Moreno stood alone in May when he dissented from the decision upholding Proposition 8. But the California Supreme Court justice says history will prove him right — that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is illegal discrimination.

“Someday at some point my dissent will be the majority view in California,” he said during an interview in his San Francisco chambers late Wednesday. “I think that’s where the law is headed.”

“Equal protection is either equal or it’s not,” he added. “It’s not the kind of thing you can chip away at.”

Moreno, one of four justices to back same-sex marriage last year and the sole vote against Prop 8 this year, took time to talk to The Recorder about his votes, his brief moment on the Obama administration’s short list for the nation’s highest court, and U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s controversial “wise Latina” comment.

Moreno’s dissent in Strauss v. Horton, 46 Cal.4th 364, came at a touchy time for him. He had been contacted by the Obama administration a week earlier as a possible replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Since President Obama has officially stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, it could be assumed Moreno’s position on marriage and Prop 8 might be troublesome.

But, Moreno said, Obama’s vetters didn’t ask him how his Prop 8 vote — which wasn’t yet public — would go.

“They just asked if there were any high-profile cases — past or present, including on the trial court — that would be the kind of case that would draw attention.”

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Women’s Theatre Project plans lesbian-themed readings

The Women’s Theatre Project aims to please a segment of its audience with Girl Play, the company’s first Lesbian Play Reading Festival. Sixteen lesbian-themed short plays will be read at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. June 28 at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 2040 N. Dixie Hwy., Wilton Manors. Genie Croft, Steven Chambers, Karla DiBenedetto, Gail Garrisan and Marjorie O’Neill-Butler direct a cast of professional actors. Tickets are $10, and a specially created Luscious Lesbian Martini will be sold at both shows. Info: Women’s Theatre Project at 954-462-2334. See

Women’s Theatre Project plans lesbian-themed readings

MiamiHerald.com

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Gay Activists, Black Ministers Seek Common Ground in DC

WASHINGTON — When the District of Columbia city council voted 12-1 recently to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, a raucous protest led by African-American ministers erupted in the hallway outside council chambers.

Security officers quelled the pandemonium, but not before video and cell phone cameras captured images of the confrontation — with councilman Marion Barry, who cast the lone dissenting vote, predicting “civil war” over the issue in the D.C. black community.

Watching the commotion was the Rev. Robert Hardies, who happened to be in City Hall on another matter when the ministers stormed the corridor.

“I was heartbroken,” says Hardies, a gay man who is senior minister at the city’s historic All Souls Church, Unitarian.

“I had vowed to myself that after what happened in California, when the gay marriage issue came to Washington, D.C., we would do it differently and prevent the racial divide,” he said.

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SHOCK: New Hampshire lawmakers reject gay-marriage bill

New Hampshire lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill on Wednesday that would have made the state the sixth in the United States to authorize gay marriage.

The state’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted down the bill in a 188-186 vote, hours after its Senate approved the legislation 14-10 along party lines. An earlier version of the bill passed the lower chamber on March 26.

The legislature had been asked to approve language that would give legal protections, including the right to decline to marry same-sex couples, to clergy and others affiliated with religious organizations.

That wording was added by Governor John Lynch, a Democrat who promised to sign the bill if those changes were made.

The House vote against the governor’s amendment means the bill will be sent to a committee that will try to resolve the differences between the two chambers. It remains unclear how the governor would respond to any changes to his wording.

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