Gay foe Palin launches PAC
(New York City) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin launched a political action committee Tuesday to help support candidates for federal and state office.
The committee, SarahPac, is dedicated to supporting “fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation,” according to its Web site.
Palin catapulted to fame last year as …
America’s top civil rights groups and legal scholars agree: Invalidate Prop 8
(San Francisco, CA, January 21, 2009) In the last round of an expedited briefing schedule, final briefs were filed today by both petitioners and respondents in the lawsuits challenging Proposition 8. The briefs filed today by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU responded to the more than 60 amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” briefs filed in the case last week.
Those amicus briefs highlight the extraordinary breadth of support for Petitioners’ argument that Proposition 8 is invalid. The supporters represent the full gamut of California’s and the nation’s civil rights organizations and legal scholars, as well as California legislators, local governments, bar associations, business interests, labor unions, and religious groups.
In amicus briefs filed last Thursday, the nation’s leading legal scholars argued that Proposition 8 is invalid because it seeks to eliminate a fundamental right only for a targeted minority, which cannot be done through the initiative process. Professors from the most prominent universities and law schools in California and the country authored briefs urging the Court to invalidate Proposition 8, including scholars from Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, University of California (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Hastings, Davis, Irvine), University of Southern California, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, University of San Francisco, Loyola Law School, Santa Clara Law School, Chapman University, and Pepperdine University.
A brief authored by Hastings Law Professor Donna Ryu and joined by 20 constitutional law experts, argued: “Proposition 8 represents the first time that the California initiative process has been wielded to abolish a fundamental freedom for an unpopular minority group and to alter the Constitution so as to mandate governmental discrimination against that group. In this way, Proposition 8 attempts to breach some of the most elemental textual and structural promises of our state Constitution. It revokes a fundamental right that, in the words of the Constitution, is “inalienable.” It dismantles constitutional equality for a single group of Californians – a group that, because of its history of oppression and stigma, is entitled to the highest level of constitutional protection against discrimination.”
Another brief authored by Professor Karl Manheim, one of the foremost authorities on California’s initiative process, stated: “Proposition 8 . . . improperly attempts to revise the Constitution by taking the unprecedented step of singling out a suspect class and depriving that class – and only that class – of a fundamental right.”
On January 15, 2009, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Court to invalidate Prop 8 were filed, arguing that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution, and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote.
Other briefs supporting the legal challenge to Prop 8 were filed on behalf of 652 current and former California legislators; dozens of bar associations, legal aid organizations; and numerous California municipal governments.
In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court held that laws that treat people differently based on their sexual orientation violate the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and that same-sex couples have the same fundamental right to marry as other Californians. Proposition 8 eliminated this fundamental right only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California Constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group. Proposition 8 passed by a bare 52 percent on November 4.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU filed this challenge on November 5, representing Equality California, whose members include many same-sex couples who married between June 16 and November 4, 2008, and six same-sex couples who want to marry in California. The California Supreme Court has also agreed to hear two other challenges filed on the same day: one filed by the City and County of San Francisco (joined by Santa Clara County and the City of Los Angeles, and subsequently by Los Angeles County and other local governments); and another filed by a private attorney. These three cases are jointly under review by the California Supreme Court.
Serving as co-counsel on the case with NCLR, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU are the Law Office of David C. Codell, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
On November 19, 2008, the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, and established an expedited briefing schedule, under which briefing was completed on January 21, 2009. The California Supreme Court has stated that it may schedule oral argument as early as March 2009.
The case is Strauss et al. v. Horton et al. (
S168047).
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Inviting Warren fits Obama’s inclusive ideals
By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON
GUEST COLUMNIST
SHOULD RICK WARREN be giving the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration?
You might think that after the months-long saga surrounding Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the president-elect would do whatever he could to avoid further pastor-politics dramas.
Apparently not. Inviting Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, Calif., and popular author of the “Purpose-Driven Life” series of books, has touched off a controversy.
During the Jeremiah Wright controversy I suggested that Wright needed to be seen within the context of the black church experience. In a similar way, it seems important to set Rick Warren within the context of evangelical Christianity in the U.S.
Warren embodies what many see as the new evangelical spirit. As an evangelical Christian, he is clear about his commitment to Christ and about conversion as the path. But Warren has parted company with fundamentalism and its political arm, the religious right, over its mean-spirited approach to politics and its fixation on abortion and homosexuality as the be-all and end-all.
Warren has emerged as an evangelical who puts both mouth and money on the line for AIDS prevention and care, issues of poverty and the global gap between rich and poor, and climate change. For this evolution Warren has incurred the wrath of those on the religious right. In the larger scheme of things, Warren represents an important shift in the influential evangelical world. This shift meant Obama captured support among young evangelicals who care about poverty, social justice and climate change.
While people on the fundamentalist religious right are incensed that Warren would agree to take part in the inauguration and give his blessing to a president who supports choice on abortion, folks on the other side are ticked off by Obama’s choice of the bearded, aloha shirt-clad pastor from Southern California because Warren has questions about gay marriage.
While Warren was not out in front on this, he supported Proposition 8 in California’s recent election, a measure that took back what California courts had granted, the right of gay people to marry. Warren is concerned about “redefining the 5,000-year-old institution of marriage,” which he sees as a foundation of human civilization. This has elicited charges that Warren has “defamed” gays. Others tagged Obama himself a bigot for daring to invite Warren.
Here’s what I think. Obama is doing what he said he would do, namely, reach across the culture-war divides, across the polarized minefield of American political life, to invite to the party someone who doesn’t agree with him on every issue. Some argue that Obama lacks the courage of his convictions on full inclusion of gays. It seems to me, rather, that Obama is remaining true to his convictions of a post-partisan, nonideological approach and style. After all, inclusion doesn’t really mean much if you include only those who already totally agree with you.
This is, remember, the man who wrote “The Audacity of Hope.”
“I believe any attempt by Democrats to pursue a more sharply partisan and ideological strategy misapprehends the moment we are in,” he wrote. And, “it’s precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country.” Inviting megachurch pastor Warren, who is also challenging old orthodoxies, fits these sentiments.
Personally, I can think of people I would prefer to Rick Warren for the role of inaugural prayer-giver. But Obama’s choice seems to me consistent with what he has said and his operative philosophy. Moreover, the attempt to reach out to more centrist evangelicals, whom Warren represents, is important. To claim that because Warren has questions about gay marriage means that he’s a bigot or that he has “defamed” gay people is a stretch.
Finally, it is important to note that Rick Warren is not being asked to take up a cabinet post or otherwise make or administer policy. He’s been asked to give a prayer. My hunch is that if this country has a prayer, it will be because we do find a path beyond ideological purity and rigid orthodoxy.
In closing, a personal note: I lost one of my most faithful readers last Sunday when 95-year-old Jim Jambor of Olympia died. Jim watched for this column, “the Saturday Special” as he called it, and seldom failed to comment. We’ll miss you, Jim!
See Articles of Faith: Inviting Warren fits Obama’s inclusive ideals
Seattle Post Intelligencer
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May didn’t realise Mercury was gay
Brian May has revealed that he did not realise Freddie Mercury was gay until several years after Queen formed.
The guitarist told the Daily Express that the famed frontman had a number of girlfriends during the band’s early days.
“I don’t think even he was fully cognisant in the beginning,” May said of Mercury, who died of Aids in 1991 aged 45.
“You’re talking to someone who shared rooms with Fred on the first couple of tours, so I knew him pretty well. I knew a lot of his girlfriends and he certainly didn’t have boyfriends in those days, that’s for sure. I think there was a slight suspicion but it never occurred to me that he was gay.
See May didn’t realise Mercury was gay
Digital Spy, UK -
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American Idol Contestant Turns Gay Porn Star
Some American Idol cast-offs have gone on to record solo albums, host television series, star on Broadway and one has even won an Oscar. Well now a former Idol wannabe has scored a new first by transforming himself from a reality reject into a popular new face in gay porn.
Working under the name Kirk Cummings, Zachary Travis has been showing off his God-given talents in a range of adult titles for studios including Falcon, Channel 1, Hot House and Studio 2000.
See American Idol Contestant Turns Gay Porn Star
Gay Wired, CA
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Eight Years After Coming Out as Gay, Hong Suk-chon Is Thriving
“I wanted to publish a book like this to celebrate 10th anniversary of my coming out, but it came a bit earlier than expected,” says actor Hong Suk-chon, celebrating the publication of his book “Design Your Own Restaurant” at “My Song Bar” in Itaewon.
In fact, it has only been eight years since Hong shocked the establishment by becoming the first celebrity to come out as a gay man.
The book, however, celebrates his successful transformation form suddenly-out-of-work actor to restaurateur. “I tried to write about how to make fewer mistakes rather than how to succeed. Because people had misconceptions about me, I endured the tough years with sheer determination.”
Hong, who found himself in a small rented room costing W350,000 (US$1=W1,375) per month eight years ago, has become the owner of restaurants worth W4 billion. First came Italian restaurant “Our Place,” then Thai restaurant “My Thai,” then Thai-Chinese fusion restaurant “My China” and then karaoke and wine place “My Song Bar.”
Hong says he turned to restaurants when his future as an actor began to look insecure. “To me, my restaurants are people. After I came out, I had to endure so much hostility. I missed seeing my friends and my supporters so much at the time. I thought if I open a restaurant, they could come and visit me. That is how I came to open my first restaurant, ‘Our Place.’”
What has it been like for him? “After I set my foot in the entertainment business, I only thought about popularity, money and fame. But I changed a lot after I came out in 2000. I still think it was the right thing to do. I had many difficulties since then, but because I’m an optimistic person, I didn’t run away but squarely faced the world. If I had run away at the time, I don’t think I’d be as happy as I am right now.”
See Eight Years After Coming Out as Gay, Hong Suk-chon Is Thriving
조선일보(영문판), South Korea
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Brad Pitt On Angie, Kids, Religion, Fame And Gay Marriage
Brad Pitt gave one heck of an interview to Rolling Stone for their latest issue. Angie’s babydaddy appears on the cover of the mag, and he discusses everything from his similarities to Tyler Durden in “Fight Club” to how Proposition 8 (California’s gay marriage
ban) drives him “mental.” See Brad Pitt On Angie, Kids, Religion, Fame And Gay Marriage
X17 Online, California
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