Schwarzenegger says Proposition 8 may violate U.S. Constitution
The governor’s decision to remain neutral in a federal challenge to Proposition 8 means no statewide official will be defending the measure in federal court.
Proposition 8 resurrected a ban on same-sex marriage, receiving 52% of the vote in the November election. The California Supreme Court ruled 6-1 last month that the measure did not violate the state constitution.
See Schwarzenegger says Proposition 8 may violate U.S. Constitution
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California appellate court rules La Crescenta property belongs to Los Angeles diocese
A California appellate court’s June 9 ruling was the latest in a series of recent developments that return disputed church properties to three California Episcopal dioceses.
On June 9, the San Diego-based Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that the Diocese of Los Angeles is legal owner of property currently occupied by St. Luke’s Anglican Church. The congregation had cited theological differences when severing ties to the Episcopal Church (TEC) in 2006 and realigning with an Anglican diocese in Uganda.
In unrelated agreements, displaced Episcopalians will return July 1 to two other disputed properties, St. John’s Church in Petaluma, in the Diocese of Northern California and St. Paul’s Church in Modesto in the Diocese of San Joaquin.
“The long history of the Episcopal Church in La Crescenta will continue with new leadership and the potential for sustained growth, and as an open source of full inclusion for all humanity,” Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles said June 9 after learning of the court’s decision.
“It is important that we preserve the essence of St. Luke the healer and the ongoing maintenance of the historic church building. It is a jewel in the crown of La Crescenta, and a blessing to the people of the Diocese of Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles: ‘property held in trust’ for wider church
The appellate court ruling affirmed a 2007 trial court decision that the church, located about 15 miles north of Los Angeles, was held in trust for the mission of both the local diocese and the wider church. In issuing the ruling, the ten-member panel cited a January 5, 2009 California Supreme Court decision, which returned St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach to the diocese. Attorneys in that case, New v. Kroeger, have appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
John Shiner, chancellor for the Diocese of Los Angeles, said a timeline for transition will advance in accordance with court procedures.
The Rev. Rob Holmann, rector of St. Luke’s Anglican Church, declined to comment June 10. “I know the general direction of the ruling, but I am withholding all comment until I see it” and until he could speak with attorneys, he told the Episcopal News Service.
A few days earlier, Holmann had told the Glendale News Press that he and the 200-member congregation “would very much like to stay” in the 83-year-old river-rock building, considered a cultural, architectural and historic local landmark.
Bruno said the future mission of St. Luke’s, now under his direct pastoral control, will be to focus on “deepening our understanding of what it means to be reconciled, welcoming and healthy people of God.”
Petaluma and Modesto: Episcopal congregations set to return July 1
After a bitter split and three years of “homelessness,” members of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Petaluma are returning July 1 to the 118-year-old church, the Rev. Norman Cram said in a telephone interview June 10.
“We are jubilant, overwhelmingly jubilant,” said Cram, priest-in-charge. “We celebrated our homelessness and we overlooked the inconveniences of living and worshipping out of a laundry basket but now that these things are almost behind us, it’s almost overwhelming.”
Citing disagreement over the ordination of a gay bishop, a majority of the 250-member congregation in December 2006 had voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Northern California but declined to vacate church property. They formed St. John’s Anglican Church, displacing about 55 continuing Episcopalians who initially met in homes.
The Rev. David Miller, rector of the Anglican congregation, had sought a transfer of his canonical residence to the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and was eventually deposed by the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, then bishop of the Diocese of Northern California.
Miller did not return ENS telephone calls June 10. Mike McIntosh, parish administrator for the disaffiliated group, said a news release would be issued eventually, but declined further comment. The congregation’s last service in the church will be Sunday, June 28.
The continuing Episcopal congregation eventually began meeting on Sunday evenings at the Elim Lutheran Church in Petaluma who “magnificently sheltered us,” said Cram. He added that he hopes: “to present a healthy Christian perspective of love, compassion and kindness to our community, to be the yeast for the values of unity and inclusiveness in Petaluma.”
Meanwhile, Bishop Jerry Lamb of San Joaquin told ENS that discussions are underway with St. Paul’s Church in Modesto for return of that property by July 1, which several years ago affiliated with the Anglican Mission in America.
The Rev. Michael McClenaghan, rector, did not return ENS calls.
Lamb was already planning an organizational meeting, seeking lay leaders to begin the work of transition. “I have been making calls this week to laity who are or have been members of St. Paul’s and have signaled their desire to remain in the Episcopal Church,” he said in a statement posted on the diocesan website.
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Dismay Over Obama’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Turnabout
When Barack Obama sought the presidency, he pledged to reverse the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy preventing gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military. Yet on Monday, the Supreme Court rejected a gay Ohio soldier’s challenge to the law — with the legal backing of none other than the Obama Administration.
James Pietrangelo II, the former Army infantryman and lawyer whose case the high court declined to review, reserved most of his ire for President Obama instead of the court. “He’s a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar,” Pietrangelo said in an interview with TIME shortly after the high court declined to hear his appeal. “This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people,” he added. “If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately” upon taking office to begin working to lift “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Pietrangelo fought in Iraq in 1991 as an infantryman, and returned as a JAG officer for the second Iraq War, before being booted out in 2004 for declaring he was gay as he was readying for a third combat tour. He was representing himself before the high court. (See pictures of the gay rights movement.)
The Obama Administration, in its brief in the case last month, said a lower court acted properly in upholding the gay ban. “Applying the strong deference traditionally afforded to the Legislative and Executive Branches in the area of military affairs, the court of appeals properly upheld the statute,” argued Elena Kagan, who as Solicitor General represents the Administration before the Supreme Court. The bar on gays serving openly is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion,” her 12-page filing added.
The endorsement of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” by the Administration marks the latest rightward tack by Obama. The President denounced many of George W. Bush’s national-security policies during the campaign, but in office has adopted more conservative positions, including endorsing military commissions to try purported terrorists, and declining to release a second batch of photographs depicting alleged U.S. maltreatment of Iraqi detainees. His stance on “Don’t ask, don’t tell” may be more surprising, because Obama aides have made clear the President wants the ban lifted eventually. (Watch a gay marriage wedding video.)
Pietrangelo doesn’t buy the line from Obama aides — and the Pentagon — that they’re too busy grappling with a faltering economy and two wars to handle the gay ban right away. “It’s a complete lie that he has too much stuff on his plate — this is the guy who criticized Bush for not being able to multitask,” Pietrangelo says. “We have an old saying in the military — the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.” See Dismay Over Obama’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Turnabout TIME
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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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“TEST ME / for hiv” challenges assumptions about HIV risk in the Asian and Pacific Islander Communities
On May 19 2009, A&PI HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, APICHA will be joined by elected officials and community leaders on the steps of City Hall to launch the campaign and urge the public to take control. May is also Asian Heritage month.
Currently, A&PIs are the only racial/ethnic group in New York that have not experienced a decline in the number of new HIV diagnoses, but only six percent (6%) of A&PI New Yorkers report that their doctor recommended an HIV test. This presents a major public health concern that could have a far-reaching impact.
APICHA has identified limited access to HIV testing as a critical unmet need that requires the attention of doctors and the community. Often, doctors have preconceived assumptions about the sexual risk factors and lifestyle choices of A&PIs based on the stereotype of Asians as “the model minority.” APICHA seeks to change attitudes among doctors by encouraging A&PIs to begin the conversation in an effort to address this major public health problem.
The heart of the campaign will be a coordinated effort to have volunteers visit their doctor’s office wearing a tee shirt that reads “TEST ME / for hiv”. The action is meant to initiate conversation and create an opportunity to educate doctors about the discrepancy.
APICHA hopes that the earned media in both mainstream and ethnic press and work with religious and community leaders will expand the discussion about HIV in various A&PI communities. The campaign will also disseminate information about the issue, and educate A&PI community members about obtaining an HIV test.
APICHA’s mission is to combat HIV/AIDS stigma and related discrimination, to prevent the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Asian & Pacific Islander communities, and to provide care and treatment for Asian & Pacific Islanders living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The organization was founded twenty years ago and remains the only Pan-Asian HIV/AIDS organization devoted to working with A&PI communities in New York City.
“I applaud APICHA for empowering Asian and Pacific Islanders to take control of their health,” said Dr. Monica Sweeney Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Health Department’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. “As long as there are people out there who are unaware of their HIV status, there is a great risk of transmission. If you do not know your status, you cannot access the care you need and you can unknowingly spread the virus to others. Everybody needs to know their status.”
APICHA’s Chief Medical officer and Executive Director will brief the media about the issue and the campaign at the May 19 press conference and can be made available for interview prior to the announced. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Patterson and other elected offices have been invited to attend the press conference.
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‘Outrage’ comes at pivotal moment in gay rights fight
“Outrage,” the biting new political documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick that opens today in Los Angeles, candidly explores the murky intersection between private lives and public conduct.Dick’s thesis is that Washington’s closeted homosexual lawmakers, most of them members of the GOP, staunchly — often stridently — oppose equal rights measures for gays because they’re anxious to conceal their own sexual orientation. He also shares a sentiment voiced by openly gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts who told the filmmakers that his Republican colleagues have “a right to privacy, but there’s no right to hypocrisy.”So in that spirit, the film does what no mainstream cinematic treatment of this issue has done before: It names names.
All the law and policymakers identified have previously been “outed” in print or online, but most either deny being gay or simply decline to comment on privacy grounds. Among those named in “Outrage” are veteran California Rep. David Dreier, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, ex-Louisiana Congressman Jim McCrery, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and ex-Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, whose notorious 2007 arrest on suspicion of lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s room effectively ended his political career.
See ‘Outrage’ comes at pivotal moment in gay rights fight
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Historic effort to boost HIV/AIDS testing in Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities.Set
NEW YORK, NY, – Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Inc. (APICHA) will announce the launch of “TEST ME / for hiv”, a historic effort to address a major discrepancy and public health problem – very limited access to HIV testing and increasing infection rates in the Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities.
On May 19 2009, A&PI HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, APICHA will be joined by elected officials and community leaders on the steps of City Hall to launch the campaign and urge the public to take control. May is also Asian Heritage month.
Currently, A&PIs are the only racial/ethnic group in New York that has not experienced a decline in the number of new HIV diagnoses, but only six percent (6%) of A&PI New Yorkers report that their doctor recommended an HIV test. This presents a major public health concern that could have a far-reaching impact.
The heart of the “TEST ME/for hiv” campaign will be a coordinated effort to have volunteers visit their doctor’s office wearing a tee shirt that reads “TEST ME / for hiv”. The action is meant to initiate the conversation and create an opportunity to educate doctors about the discrepancy.
APICHA’s Chief Medical officer and Executive Director will brief the media about the issue and the campaign at the May, 19 press conference. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and other elected officials have been invited to join in launching the campaign.
APICHA’s is the only Pan-Asian HIV/AIDS organization devoted to working with A&PI communities in New York City.
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Missouri’s first openly gay senator married over weekend
Jolie Justus, Missouri’s first openly gay senator, took her seat on the Senate floor as a married woman for the first time Monday.
But Justus’ marriage isn’t recognized in Missouri because of a 2004 constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters and legislators alike that mandates a marriage is between one man and one woman.
“Missouri is not ready for same-sex marriage,” Justus said Monday, though she also said she was “overwhelmed” with congratulations upon returning to work.
Justus and her partner, Shonda Garrison, were among 17 couples that traveled on a bus over the weekend to get married in Iowa, the state that most recently legalized same-sex marriages.
“I’ve been fighting, as everybody knows, for equality for years now, and it would mean a lot to them to have us on the bus,” said Justus, D-Jackson County. “And to my partner and me personally, it meant a lot for us to be on the bus, too, because we wanted to have that moment with those 16 other couples, and I’m glad that we did.”
Some senators who voted for the 2004 amendment banning same-sex marriage declined to comment on the recent nuptials. Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, said: “I’m not going to respond to it.”
Missouri’s first openly gay senator married over weekend
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Roman Catholic Bishop Tobin: Roamn Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage’ must end
“Abysmal” Catholic apathy must be overcome to oppose those who are “fiercely determined” to impose homosexual “marriage,” Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island Thomas J. Tobin has warned. Reasserting Catholic teaching on sexual morality, he also said that same-sex “marriage” will endanger religious freedom.
Writing in his April 23 column in The Rhode Island Catholic, Bishop Tobin spoke of a “relentless” political march towards homosexual marriage, with New England leading the way. “The supporters of gay marriage in Rhode Island are well-organized and well-funded. They’re fiercely determined to impose their politically correct agenda on all the citizens of the state – human history, culture and moral principles not-withstanding. Anyone who opposes them is quickly labeled a bigot,” the bishop observed.
However, he said the typical Rhode Island Catholic’s response was indifferent and cited not wanting to judge people. Tobin also said that Catholics give rationalizations about the decline of Catholic influence.
“[G]ay marriage will affect you and you should be concerned. And there’s a lot we can do,” the bishop wrote, proceeding to review reasons Catholics oppose same-sex “marriage.”
Bishop Tobin explained that “homosexual activity is unnatural and gravely immoral. It’s offensive to Almighty God. It can never be condoned, under any circumstances. Gay marriage, or civil unions, would mean that our state is in the business of ratifying, approving such immoral activity.”
The movement for same-sex “marriage,” he added, “seeks to radically redefine the most fundamental institution of the human race, the building block of every society and culture. From the beginning, marriage has been defined as the stable union of man and woman, designed by God to continue the human race through the procreation of children.
“Homosexual relationships are not marriage – never have been, never will be.”
Bishop Tobin introduced what he called the “champagne principle.” Saying that not every wine has the unique characteristics of champagne, the bishop argued that someone who relabeled a bottle of Chianti and tried to sell it as champagne would be arrested for fraud.
Similarly, those who seek to redefine marriage and “to usurp the title ‘marriage’ for their morally bankrupt relationships,” are “committing an act of fraud,”he charged. “It’s insulting to those who have entered the authentic, sacred and time-honored institution of marriage over the years.”
See Bishop Tobin: Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage‘ must end
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oin the Impact protests ex-gay training
The latest foray by Exodus International, the country’s leading ex-gay ministry, into Boston was a relatively low-key affair, but the grassroots LGBT group Join the Impact Massachusetts and other activists turned out to protest and send a loud message of opposition to their teachings.
Exodus held an April 28 pastor training at Park Street Church to promote the organization’s message that gay and lesbian people can change their orientation and become heterosexual. Join the Impact held a protest across the street near Park Street Station, but following the speaking portion of the demonstration some of the attendees urged the organizers to move the protest closer to the church, within view of the Exodus training attendees. The protestors marched across the street into the Granary Burying Ground, an historic cemetery next to the church that houses the remains of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and the victims of the Boston Massacre, among other important figures in American history, and continued their protest there for about 15 minutes until a police officer asked them to disperse.
Exodus declined a request by Bay Windows for permission to cover the pastor training, saying the event was closed to the press. Exodus has held prior events in Boston, including a daylong conference in 2005 that also sparked a protest by LGBT activists (See “My day with the ex-gays,” Nov. 3, 2005).
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