Councilmen waver on new gay marriage bill
Porterville city councilmen rehashed a contentious issue Tuesday night — gay marriage.
Former mayor Cameron Hamilton proposed that council members show adamant opposition to a bill circulating among state legislators.
Senate Bill 54 proposes same-sex couples married outside the state, and before the passage of Proposition 8, are warranted the equal recognition as married spouses in California.
The council formerly engaged with a state issue on Sept. 2, 2008 by adopting a resolution supporting Proposition 8. The ballot measure, which was passed by California voters in November, codifies that marriage in California is only between a man and a woman.
This time the vote was not unanimous.
By a sliver — two in favor, two opposed, one abstained — council members allowed Hamilton to draft a resolution to approve or disapprove at a future meeting.
See Councilmen waver on new gay marriage bill
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UK Roman Catholic church-funded marriage agency backs gay and unmaried parents
Terry Prendergast, the chief executive of Marriage Care, claimed there is “no evidence” that children do better if they are brought up in a traditional two-parent family.
He claimed that those who live together out of wedlock are trying to lead good lives but find themselves “consigned to the dustbin” by the church.
His comments – to be made this weekend to Quest, a group of homosexual Catholics – go directly against the church’s teaching, which holds that homosexuality is sinful and that families should be based on the marriage of a man and a woman.
Mr Prendergast said: “We see, for example, that statistically children do best in a family where the adult relationship is steady, stable and loving – you should note here perhaps that I stress adult, not married, since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with heterosexual couples.”
He claimed that God was present in the relationships of married, homosexual and cohabiting heterosexual relationships where there was “commitment, consent and covenant”.
He went on: “They want to live good lives according to the precepts of the Gospels. They are an advert for the Church, an advert that the Church often ignores or consigns to the wastebin.”
See Catholic church-funded marriage agency backs gay and unmaried parents Telegraph.co.uk
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-roman-cath…
Two Los Gatos residents pledge $1 million to San Jose State University’s new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center
Los Gatos residents Larry Arzie and David Stonesifer have pledged $1 million from their estate to support San Jose State University’s new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center.
The center opened in the fall of 2008.
“They’re going to be a beacon and a lifeboat to a wide demographic of people,” Arzie said. “They’re there to help anyone who is questioning their sexuality.” Stonesifer graduated from SJSU in 1965 and Arzie graduated in 1966. “San Jose State is dear to our hearts,” Arzie said, “and so is this new center that’s opening up. The reason we did this is because money’s tight everywhere.” Arzie and Stonesifer owned the popular N. Santa Cruz Avenue home decorating store, The Porch, for three decades. They are well known in town for their philanthropy and have opened their historic home, La Estancia, to many nonprofit organizations, including the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Foundation and Jazz on the Plazz.
The bequest, Arzie said, is a way to encourage other alumni to include the LGBT Center in their wills. “This is something you look down the road on,” he said.
In addition to the $1 million bequest, Arzie and Stonesifer also made a small cash donation to help the center with immediate needs. See Two Los Gatos residents pledge $1 million to new gay and lesbian …
San Jose Mercury News * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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UK’s MSPs back new gay hate crime law
A new law to widen the definition of hate crimes to protect gay communities and disabled people has moved closer.
Holyrood’s justice committee has backed the bill being put forward by Green MSP Patrick Harvie.
The Scottish Government has already said it will support the bill, meaning it is now almost certain to become law.
Crimes motivated by hatred of gay or disabled people would be considered aggravated offences, meriting tougher sentences.
The Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Bill would bring Scotland into line with the rest of the UK.
The committee’s convener, Conservative MSP Bill Aitken, acknowledged concerns that it would create a two-tier justice system, with some victims having more rights than others.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/uks-msps-back…
Lawsuit over gay-marriage speech at LA City College spurs reactions
“God Hates Gays,” their signs read. Memories came flooding back of fleeing New Jersey after his mother discovered his sexual orientation and threw him out of the family.
The protesters appeared in support of Jonathan Lopez, a Christian student who has sued the Los Angeles Community College District, alleging that an instructor kept him from finishing a classroom speech about his religious beliefs and opposition to same-sex unions. Lopez has said he was discriminated against because of his religious views.
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Lawsuit over gay-marriage speech at LA City College spurs reactions
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Queers Finally Do It on Daytime TV
“Back in August 1988 when I was managing editor of the Philadelphia Gay News, an historic thing happened on a daytime soap called As The World Turns: a character (an interior designer, no less) came out as gay.
“These days, that would be cause for a big yawn, but back then it was monumental. Hank Elliot was the first gay male character on a daytime drama. He was played by the handsome Brian Starcher. There had been a lesbian played by Donna Pescow on another soap (All My Children), but she was gone by that point, vanished like many a controversial character in soapland. … As The World Turns is once again making gay history, although he’d probably ask why it took the show so long to do it. In the new gay male storyline, Luke, the son of Lily and Holden (who were teens when Marland was writing the show) is having an affair with town heartthrob Noah, a new arrival to the cast.
While poor Hank Elliot couldn’t even kiss his lover, who was dying off camera of AIDS after being rejected by his family, Luke and Noah are pressing lips over the place, and now they’ve actually taken a roll in the hay. That’s right, Luke and Noah are soapdom’s first gay couple to actually do what birds and bees and straights have been doing all these years. They’ve even been seen the next morning frolicking around shirtless. Their adventures are displayed all over the Internet.“
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Bigots file Petions to strike down new gay-rights ordinance - Is hate a family value in Kalamazoo?
KALAMAZOO – Petitions seeking the repeal of a newly adopted city ordinance that extends discrimination protections to gays and lesbians in Kalamazoo have been filed.
City Clerk Scott Borling said former city commissioner and current Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema officially turned over 189 pages of petitions that circulators said contained about 1,600 signatures.
Due to the New Year’s Day holiday Thursday, Borling said certification of those signatures will begin Friday.
Borling expects the process to extend into next week before it is officially determined that the petitions contain at least 1,273 signatures, the minimum Borling said are necessary to trigger reconsideration of the anti-discrimination ordinance.
Under the charter, if sufficient signatures are certified next week, the ordinance is immediately suspended and the Kalamazoo City Commission must either repeal the entire ordinance or put it on the ballot for city voters to decide.
That action must occur at the commission’s next business meeting, which would be Jan. 26.
The current ordinance expands existing housing and employment protections to include gays, lesbians and transgender individuals, protected classes that are not currently included in existing state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
See Petitions filed Wednesday in opposition of new Kalamazoo gay …
Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com, MI
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Alston Exec Is New Gay Rights Leader
Kenneth F. Britt, the executive director of Alston & Bird, has become co-chairman of the board of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights group. The HRC post caps Britt’s career as a gay rights activist in the community and at Alston & Bird, where he’s been the firm’s top administrator for 29 years.
Britt, 59, was elected to the two-year post Nov. 3, the day before Barack Obama was elected president. Britt said Obama’s election is propitious for the gay rights agenda, which is to gain the same protections and benefits that straight people enjoy.
“We got nowhere during the Bush administration,” said Britt, who is optimistic that equality legislation, which languished in Congress during the past eight years, such as a hate crimes bill and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, will see the light of day under Obama’s administration.
See Alston Exec Is New Gay Rights Leader
Law.com, CA -
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SFO’s new gay City Supervisor
Gay man, immigrant appointed by mayor; replaces pro-gay pol elected to Assembly.
Tags: Gay City, Gay Man, Immigrant, New Gay, New Man, Sfo, Supervisor
