Senate gives nod to gay-inclusive hate crimes bill

The U.S. Senate voted 63-28 to attach gay-inclusive federal hate crimes legislation to the 2010 defense authorization bill. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D.-Mass., who first proposed amending U.S. hate crimes law to cover sexual orientation, issued a statement saying that the proposal would “[close] the flagrant loopholes that for too long have prevented effective prosecution of these shocking crimes that terrorize entire groups of communities across America.” Google/The Associated Press

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Greek Courts Rules Same-Sex Weddings Invalid

A Greek court ruled the country’s first homosexual weddings, celebrated last year despite official warnings, were invalid, the couples’ lawyer said Tuesday.

Last year, a gay and a lesbian couple defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the Greek Orthodox church to tie the knot on a tiny Aegean island, abetted by a local mayor.

The couples had said they took advantage of a loophole in Greek civil law, which does not specify gender in matrimony, and took vows in June at municipal offices on the island of Tilos.

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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 …

Pittsburgh Presbytery refuses to change policy on gay pastors

Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has a history of opposing gay ordination, has rejected a proposal intended to close a loophole that supporters believed could open the presbytery to openly gay pastors.

Officials of the presbytery don’t believe Thursday’s 125-54 vote signals a change in the presbytery’s views. They say commissioners found it too similar to a 2006 presbytery rule that church courts struck down.

The proposal from Bellefield Presbyterian Church, Oakland, was intended to counter a decision by this summer’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to allow the ordination of candidates who express “a departure from an ordination standard in matters of belief or practice.” The most controversial standard requires pastors to abstain from sex outside of heterosexual marriage. The Bellefield proposal required candidates to reply “yes” when asked if they upheld the “essential tenets of the Reformed faith” — which include beliefs about marriage.

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