Church and Straight in CT
The Family Institute of Connecticut apparently blew too much money on Question 1 ads to afford a real lawyer.
We bet that’s why Pat Robertson’s non-profit firm, the American Center for Law and Justice, helped them bully the Connecticut Department of Children and Families into removing “open and affirming” churches from a list of gay-friendly resources on the department’s Web site on seperation of church and state grounds.
(No, really, the Family Institute of Connecticut accused someone else of misunderstanding the separation of church and state.)
“A handful of the links related to religious organizations considered to be — what are the words I want to use? — progressive on gay and lesbian issues,” explains Gary Kleeblatt, communications director for the DCF, who says the agency got a letter from the Family Institute inferring a lawsuit from Robertson’s team of cranks could be forthcoming.
Kleeblatt assures us the DCF is still “extremely enlightened to gay and lesbian issues. We welcome gays and lesbians to adopt. We also recognize there are gays and lesbians in our care. But we can’t be seen as endorsing any religious groups.”
Shirley Gadson, pastor of Bridgeport’s open and affirming Open Door Ministries, says, “I think that people have to realize Christ loves everybody and is open and affirming to everyone.”
Family Institute executive director Peter Wolfgang told our parent paper, the Hartford Courant, “We said all along that if same-sex marriage was imposed in Connecticut, the next thing that would happen would be an effort to reeducate Connecticut children.”
Yes, that’s right! First comes gay marriage and then comes … some constitutionally questionable links on the DCF’s Web site. Feel that? It’s the foundations of our society shaking!
fairfieldweekly.com
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Leading Gay Rights Groups Agree: March on Washington a Stupid Idea
Will those grassroots hecklers taking all the power away from mainstay gay organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, what with their push to repeal Prop 8 in California and their march on Washington efforts, it appears Gay Inc. is moving to the back of the bus on activism while the strap holders take over. Actually, this isn’t news: As Queerty has chronicled since our inception, the most prominent organizations have been losing the trust of gay Americans for years. But sure, their opinions still count! So where does Gay Inc. stand on these yahoos organizing big deal events all on their own?
Blogger Joe My God went looking for answers and began quizzing these groups on whether they backed October’s planned National Equality March.
So, do they?
Well to find out, you’ll have to read through their bleary, horrendously vague responses that are typical of the non-transparency these organizations regularly engage us with. See Leading Gay Rights Groups Agree: March on Washington a Stupid Idea
Queerty
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Arizona lawmakers seek to strip domestic partners of health coverage
Arizona lawmakers are moving to take away health insurance coverage for the domestic partners of state and university employees. These rights were gained by domestic partners only one year ago.
About 750 workers would be affected says the Department of Administration. If put into affect, the state budget would define “dependents” …
Tags: Dependents, Domestic Partners, Health Coverage, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Coverage, insurance, Lawmakers, Moving, State BudgetLambda Legal Applauds West Virginia Court Order Restoring Custody of Foster Child to Lesbian Mothers
“The West Virginia high court has done the right thing in ruling in the best interests of this child. We applaud them for rejecting the prejudice that would have removed her from the only home she ever knew,” said Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. “Children in West Virginia need parents to love and care for them and that’s what the state should want, too.”
Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the court on February 19, 2009, on behalf of Foster Children Alumni Association, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Eastern Panhandle, COLAGE (Children of Lesbian and Gays Everywhere), and Fairness West Virginia to urge the reversal of a trial court order removing the then year-old girl from the home of Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess. The removal was ordered after the couple indicated that they wished to adopt the child. The trial judge accepted the view of the guardian ad litem that the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) should only pursue an adoption placement for the child in a “traditional family,” consisting of both a mother and a father. The GAL also sought a statewide injunction barring foster children from being placed in gay homes. Friday’s ruling reverses this lower court finding, allows the child to remain with her foster parents, and permits the possibility that this home where the child has thrived eventually will be the adoption placement for the child.
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Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor
After months of living legal limbo, Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin’s marriage was finally declared legal several days ago by the California Supreme Court. But marital validation was no tonic for Gin, who wasn’t celebrating the landmark decisions on same-sex marriage issued last week by the California Supreme Court.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” he admits. “My husband and I are thrilled about that part of the ruling that affects us, but there are many other couples now who cannot share in the happiness that we were able to experience on our wedding day. I’m hoping that someday all of us can experience that same happiness.”
Gin and his husband, Christopher Kreidel, were part of the pool of approximately 18,000 gay people married after the California Supreme Court ruled a year ago that same-sex marriages were legal, but before the Proposition 8 vote last fall banned same-sex marriage.
Despite the ruling early last week upholding Prop. 8, he is not discouraged. He notes that Prop. 22, the long-standing gay-marriage ban overturned by the courts last May, passed in 2000 with 60 percent of the vote, while Prop. 8 passed with only 52 percent.
“I think it is still a very strong social issue on both sides in our society right now,” he says. “But the voting numbers show that as a society we’re moving in the right direction.”
Gin is an unusual public official in that he is gay, married, Asian-American — and popular at a time when California politicians are reaching new lows in approval-rating polls. After serving eight years on the Redondo City Council and four as mayor, Gin has developed a reputation as a classic old-school politician who listens patiently to residents, considers a wide array of arguments and interests before making a decision, and goes out of his way to avoid confrontation.
See Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor
LA Weekly
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Clinton Says His View On Gay Marriage Is “Evolving”
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: This afternoon in Toronto, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush shared a stage for a “conversation with presidents” at Toronto’s Convention Centre, in a ticketed event (with a hefty payday for both ex-presidents) that was open to the general public.
It was a fascinating discussion — these two 62-year-old men with a combined 16 years in the presidency, talking about current and past events as probably no one else alive can, for the first time in a public forum.
While President Bush mostly kept to his promise not to criticize his successor, he bristled at the suggestion — advanced by President Obama, among others — that Iraq distracted the nation from the war in Afghanistan.
“I don’t buy the premise that our attention was diverted” by Iraq, Bush said. “I think it’s false. Matter of fact, I know it’s false. I was there.”
And while President Clinton mostly kept to his promise to “thwart” efforts to get 42 and 43 to tangle with each other, he offered an interesting insight into his thinking on gay rights.
On the issue of gay marriage — which Clinton, like President Obama, personally opposes — Clinton said of his position: “Frankly, it’s evolving” as he sees more committed gay couples raising kids.
As ABC political director David Chalian has pointed out, Clinton isn’t the only Democrat whose position on gay marriage is moving.
Clinton also expressed optimism that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — which he helped enact — will eventually come off the books, allowing gay members of the armed services to serve openly.
“I think that time will lead to a repeal of this ban,” Clinton said.
That’s one of many areas where the former presidents disagree. But mostly, this event was a lovefest.
Clinton heaped praise on Bush for his AIDS initiative and the diversity of his Cabinet. Bush urged Clinton not to be so hard on himself over Rwanda.
Bush welcomed the audience to “the Bill and George show.” Clinton teased that while the pair was facing expectations that they would “devour each other,” “we’ll do our best to thwart them.”
See Clinton Says His View On Gay Marriage Is “Evolving”
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As more states take up…
As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions. With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality. “The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!” warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy “borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion.” “I’m not intending it to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people,” said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who established Californians Against Hate. “My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims.”
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CREDO Action is giving away some awesome stickers about supporting gay marriage -
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Illinois civil union bill advances
(Springfield, Illinois) A bill giving gay couples the right to form civil unions in Illinois is moving closer to a vote on the House floor, but time is running out.
The bill was approved by a House committee on Tuesday as the California Supreme Court released its ruling upholding a voter-approved …
Tags: Bill Advances, California Supreme Court, Civil Union Bill, Civil Unions, Gay Couples, House Committee, Moving, Running, Springfield Illinois, Unions In Illinois, VoteQuebec director sweeps awards for gay coming-of-age movie
Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan swept three of the four prizes Friday at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight for his film I Killed My Mother (J’ai tue ma mere).
The 20-year-old’s first feature won the Art Cinema Award, given by an international jury of independent cinema programmers and the SACD Prize for best French-language film.
Dolan also won the Regards Jeunes 2009 Prize, given to a first film by a jury of young cinephiles.
The remaining prize, the Europa Cinemas Label, was given to the Austrian movie La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel.
The Montrealer wrote and directed the coming-of-age movie, which is about a 16-year-old boy just discovering his gay sexuality and fighting with his mother, who constantly annoys him.
The film was one of the most talked about titles of the Directors’ Fortnight — a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival — and its first screening was greeted with a standing ovation.
Dolan, who has compared his Cannes experience to a fairy tale, said the awards left him speechless.
“I’m completely flabbergasted, we never thought we would win a prize,” Dolan told the French language all-news network RDI.
“I can’t begin to tell you how moving this is,” he added.
See Quebec director sweeps awards for gay coming-of-age movie Canada.com
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