Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on
A colourful show of drag queens dressed in Chinese opera costumes was one of the festivities that marked Shanghai’s gay pride on Saturday, the first in China where homosexuality remains largely hidden.
A “Big Bash” barbecue Saturday — billed as the highlight of the week-long festival — went ahead as planned in a bar despite previous last-minute event cancellations by local authorities that marred the “Shanghai Pride.”
Drag and fashion shows and a ‘hot body’ competition took place at Cotton’s bar attended by at least 500 people, in a garden that was hidden from view by a rainbow banner covering the surrounding fence.
Later Saturday night, two fake gay marriages were to take place before people were ferried onto buses to go to an afterparty at a bar on Shanghai’s famous Bund promenade.
“We would have liked the whole week to go without cancellations, but today everything has happened as we wanted it to, so we’re happy,” said Kenneth Tan, spokesman for organisers Shanghai LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender).
Events for “Shanghai Pride” have been organised at private venues without a public parade — in stark contrast to similar events elsewhere in the world — to avoid attracting unwanted official attention.
But still, city authorities forced the cancellation of a film screening and a play during the festival, and the two venues hosting the “Big Bash” events Saturday had received calls from officials, according to Tan.
He said police had come to Cotton’s Saturday where expatriates and Chinese people mingled but soon left.
Liu Yang, a 27-year-old Chinese homosexual who was enjoying the shows Saturday, said he was amazed by the festival.
“I’ve never been abroad, and I have really wondered how such an event could take place so smoothly — I’m really nicely surprised,” he said.
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DC Panel Hears Arguments On Gay Marriage Referendum Washington Post -
The battle over same-sex marriage in the District moved to the city election board yesterday as supporters and opponents packed into a hearing room to debate whether the city should put the issue on the ballot.
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, which currently has two members and one vacancy, will determine whether voters should have a chance in a referendum to block a bill legalizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
The board heard four hours of testimony yesterday and is expected to make a decision Friday or early next week.
Both sides presented legal and political arguments about whether the same-sex marriage issue should be in the hands of voters or the politicians who represent them.
“All we are asking for is a public debate,” said the Rev. Dale Wafer, a supporter of the referendum and a minister with the Harvest, a religious community in Northeast Washington. “We are not afraid of a debate. All we want is a public debate.”
Philip E. Pannell, a longtime gay rights advocate and Democratic Party activist, accused referendum supporters of “advocating for a popular vote that will give vent to public homophobia.”
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Gay Couples Forced to Flee US Over Immigration Law
An estimated 36,000 Americans face a choice — separate or move abroad — because they can’t secure green cards for their partners like heterosexual spouses can., said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, citing information from the advocacy group Immigration Equality.
Bills have been introduced in Congress to treat same-sex partners like heterosexual spouses for the purposes of immigration but are likely to face a strong fight, both from gay marriage opponents and anti-immigration groups. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prevents immigration officials from recognizing gay marriages, even from states where they are now legal.
Proponents see the issue as a basic rights question, and Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, said he believes the best chance for the legislation is as part of a larger immigration bill.
But other immigration advocates want to keep the issues separate, fearful of bogging down an already tough fight. Kevin Appleby, migration policy director for U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the push for same-sex partners in immigration is about getting recognition in federal law for gay marriage — which he opposes.
”It’s an unholy marriage of the immigration debate and the same-sex marriage debate,” he said. ”It’s very combustible.”
Lown’s decision last month brought the issue to an unlikely place, a town of 90,000 where ranchers and roughnecks from the vast open lands come to do their banking and send their kids to the regional state college. The town’s only other recent brush with national fame came last year when it housed the hundreds of children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch in nearby Eldorado.
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Will Maryland recognize gay marriages?
Maryland’s attorney general is deciding whether gay marriages performed in other states will be legally recognized by his state, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler is a Democrat and a strong advocate for equal marriage. Maryland defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but …
Recognizing Same-Sex Marriage: Group Calls for Citywide Referendum in DC
A group of ministers and same-sex marriage opponents filed a request today calling for a citywide referendum on whether the District should recognize gay marriages performed in other states.
The group, Stand 4 Marriage, said it will begin collecting signatures to try to force the issue onto the ballot. Earlier this month, the City Council and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) agreed to recognized gay marriages performed elsewhere.
The opponents formally requested today that the Board of Elections convene a meeting to decide whether the issue is eligible for a referendum. If the Board agrees, the opponents will have to collect signatures from 5 percent of registered voters. If an election is called, the legislation will be stayed until that referendum occurs, the opponents say.
“The recognition of same-sex marriages in the District of Columbia is a bad idea for our citizens. At a minimum, it should not be allowed without the approval of voters,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor of Hope Christian Church “Thirty states in America have voted on whether gay marriage should be legalized, and every state has opposed it because legalizing gay marriage has significant consequences for society. It is only right that voters in the District of Columbia also be allowed to vote on this important issue before it is imposed on its residents.”
Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), the sponsor of the legislation to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere, said he is bewildered by Jackson’s strategy. Noting the District’s progressive reputation, Mendelson predicted District voters would reject efforts to stop same-sex marriage. See Recognizing Same-Sex Marriage: Group Calls for Citywide Referendum Washington Post – United States * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gay advocacy groups press Obama
Gay advocacy groups, disenchanted by President Obama’s inaction so far on campaign promises on their issues, are launching a campaign to get his administration to take a stand on the federal anti-gay marriage law.
The first federal lawsuit against a key section of the Defense Of Marriage Act was filed on last month by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders on behalf of eight same-sex married couples and three surviving spouses from Massachusetts. Obama’s Department of Justice until the week of June 22 to respond.
During his campaign, Obama promised to seek a repeal of the act, which allows states to not recognize gay marriages from other states. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reiterated the president’s position last month. He opposes gay marriage, but does support civil unions and equal treatment for gays. In recent weeks, New Hampshire and Vermont have moved to join Massachusetts in legalizing gay marriage.
In the grassroots effort, organizers are asking participants to print out a “flip flop card” with the statement, “President Obama, please don’t flip flop on DOMA!” and mail it to the White House.
“President Obama, the defense of this discriminatory and archaic law will be tantamount to nothing short of a flip flop from your previously stated intentions. We’re asking you Mr. President, to take a principled stand for equality under the law and be the bold leader that we voted into office,” Paul Sousa, who leads the Boston-based Equal Rep, said in a statement.
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Gay US reps want counting
51 US reps, including Frank, Baldwin, and Polis, urge the OMB to count gay marriages in the Census.
Ward 8 Democrats Act Ahead of D.C. Council Legislation
The District’s same-sex marriage debate continued yesterday in the basement of a library in Ward 8, the predominantly African American community that council member Marion Barry invoked in justifying his recent vote against a bill to recognize gay marriages performed outside of the city.
But yesterday, gay rights advocates declared victory in a key battle to set the tone for the issue when the Ward 8 Democrats voted 21 to 11 to support the legalization of same-sex marriage, in preparation for legislation expected to be introduced in the D.C. Council this year.
The Ward 8 vote came after almost two hours of discussion about religion, referendums and civil rights among the crowd of about 100 people at the Washington Highlands Library on Atlantic Avenue SW.
Barry, who was scheduled to speak for the opposition, did not attend. Sandy Allen, a former council member and president of the Ward 8 Democrats, said Barry told her he had a doctor’s appointment.
More than a week ago, Barry drew ire and praise when he was the lone dissenter in a 12 to 1 vote to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Barry, a civil rights icon and a longtime supporter of gay rights, said his vote represented the feelings of the predominantly black Ward 8 and, in a broader sense, most black people in the District.
Local gay rights advocates say there is some credence to Barry’s argument. A 2006 poll by a local group advocating same-sex marriage shows strongest opposition among black residents. Some of those sentiments were on display at yesterday’s Ward 8 discussion.
“We are not homophobic. We are not hatemongers. We love everybody,” said the Rev. Patrick J. Walker, chairman of a new task force of ministers opposed to gay marriage. The task force is part of the Missionary Baptist Ministers’ Conference in the region, which pressed Barry to vote against the same-sex marriage recognition legislation.
“It’s our position that this is an issue that should go before the people. Thirteen people . . . should not set the moral compass of this city,” Walker said, referring to the members of the council. He is the pastor of New Macedonia Baptist Church in Southeast.
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California Gay Marriage Backers to Try Again
Same-sex marriage backers in California, anticipating a loss in court, are preparing to make their case at the ballot box in 2010 rather than waiting until 2012.
“The right time is now,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told ABC News. “And if that means going back in 2010, I couldn’t be more supportive.”
“Wait almost always means never,” he added, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.
California voters approved Proposition 8 in November, a change to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Although a decision has not yet been rendered in the legal challenge to Proposition 8, many gay marriage proponents in California expect the state Supreme Court to uphold the voter-approved ban on new gay marriages while leaving intact the gay marriages performed in 2008 when a decision of the state’s High Court had temporarily legalized the practice.
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Greek court annuls gay marriages
(Athens) A court Tuesday annulled the only two same-sex marriages performed in Greece.
In June, Mayor Tasos Aliferis, on the island of Rhodes, performed the weddings after LGBT rights group OLKE said it had found a loophole in a 26-year-old update of the Greek civil marriage law that refers only to …
