Fury Over Obama’s Gay-Affirming Justice Picks

Social conservatives are calling on Congress to reject several of President Obama’s picks to the Department of Justice, including the No. 2 position of deputy attorney general, because they support gay and lesbian equality and the right of a woman to have an abortion.

Republicans on Capital Hill grilled David Ogden, nominated to be the deputy attorney general, at length about those issues at his Thursday confirmation hearing, reports The Associated Press.

Ogden filed a brief in support of the gay defendants at the center of the 2004 Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas which declared sodomy laws unconstitutional. Ogden has also defended organizations that support the right of a woman to seek an abortion.

“You’ve taken some very extraordinary positions, some left-leaning and unorthodox positions,” Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, told Ogden.

Evangelical groups, including the ardently anti-gay Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, have objected to Ogden’s nomination.

Similar concerns are being expressed over the nomination of Elena Kagan to Solicitor General. Kagan, who is openly gay, is being denounced for her support of open service for gay military personnel.

See Fury Over Obama’s Gay-Affirming Justice Picks
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National anti-gay group fights for Wyoming gay marriage ban

(Cheyenne, Wyoming) A national conservative Christian group has begun a telephone lobbying campaign in Wyoming in support of a gay-marriage ban in the state Senate.

Focus on the Family Action, of Colorado Springs, Colo., is pushing to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would stop the state from recognizing …

Focus Action lobbies in Wyoming on gay marriage

A Colorado-based evangelical group has launched a telephone lobbying campaign trying to influence a gay-marriage bill in Wyoming. Focus on the Family Action of Colorado Springs has been making telephone calls to voters in key Wyoming senate districts. he group is trying to drum up support for legislation that would let Wyoming voters decide whether to amend the state constitution to specify that the state won’t recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. See Focus Action lobbies in Wyoming on gay marriage
KRDO – Colorado Springs,CO,USA

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Survey: More Coloradoans embracing gay unions

Two years ago, by a 57 percent to 43 percent margin, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. At the same time, they also defeated a measure to allow civil unions.

Now, according to a survey released Thursday, more Coloradans appear to be embracing ideas such as civil unions and gay marriage.

A slim majority of Coloradans support gay marriage and four-fifths support gay civil unions, according to the survey commissioned by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in California, and conducted Nov. 10-16 by Harris Interactive with 502 Colorado residents.

GLAAD conducted a national poll, but Colorado was the only state the group polled separately. Even though California’s Proposition 8 to outlaw gay marriage is more timely, having passed in the November election, the group felt that Colorado’s history on gay issues and its being home to two opposing forces on the issue – Focus on the Family and the Gill Foundation – made this the best crucible for their research.

See Survey: More Coloradoans embracing gay unions
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO