Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign, today laid out the case for gay marriage, warning that the GOP will continue to lose young voters and the Northeast as long the party opposes it.

At a meeting in Washington of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights GOP group, Schmidt dismissed conservative arguments that allowing gay marriage would weaken the institution, as well as objections from religious conservatives, warning that they could turn the Republican Party into a “sectarian” party.

“For the party to be seen as an antigay, that is injurious to its candidates in places like California and Washington and New York,” Schmidt said.

He called heterosexual marriage “a tradition,”not a “creed.”

 See Senior GOP Consultant Backs Gay Marriage Washington Post

 

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Theater directors and students at more than 40 high schools across the country have selected a new show for their big springtime musical this year: “Rent: School Edition,” a modified version of the hit Broadway musical that, while toned down a bit, remains provocative by traditional drama club standards.

Too provocative, in the view of some high school officials and parents. At least three of the planned high school productions, in California, Texas and West Virginia, have been canceled after administrators or parents raised objections about the show’s morality, its portrayals of homosexuality and theft, and its frank discussions of drug use and H.I.V., according to administrators, teachers and parents involved in those cases.

“Rent,” which ran on Broadway for more than 12 years and in 1996 won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award, is based loosely on Puccini’s opera “La Bohème.” It centers on a group of artists, straight and gay, living in the East Village. Some are H.I.V. positive; some are drug addicts; some are in recovery.

None of these aspects have been altered for the high school version. The main changes are the deletion of some profane dialogue and lyrics as well as a song, “Contact,” that is sexually explicit. In “Rent,” that song accompanies the death of Angel, a gay drag queen with AIDS; in the high school version, his death unfolds in an earlier song.

The 2008-9 school year is the first in which the school edition of “Rent” — which was approved by the estate of Jonathan Larson, the “Rent” creator who died in 1996 — has been available to high schools.

 See 3 high schools cancel “Rent” productions amid objections over gay, HIV themes
The New York Times

Unfolding in the state Senate today: a proxy battle over same-sex marriage.

The Senate just reconfirmed three justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court, all of whom were among the five-member majority in Kerrigan v. Department of Public Health, which ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

There were objections to the justices from some Republicans, with many citing concerns about what they view as relative loose constructionism in interpretation of the state Constitution. But there wasn’t enough to make a difference.

Associate Justices Flemming L. Norcott Jr., Joette Katz and Richard N. Palmer were all confirmed by the same vote total: 28-7, with one senator absent. (The missing senator is Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, who has been absent from the Capitol since the death of his teenage son earlier this month.)

This conclusion isn’t hugely surprising. Senators don’t toss out Supreme Court justices all that often.

And the rumors of some grave comeuppance for those who support same-sex marriage have been, like those of Twain’s death, greatly exaggerated. Lobbying efforts to open the state constitution to a new convention (and thus to direct-initiative lawmaking and a gay marriage ban) or to unseat the pro-marriage chairmen of the Judiciary Committee have come up short.

See Same-sex marriage doesn’t cost justices
TheDay - New London,CT,USA

Unfolding in the state Senate today: a proxy battle over same-sex marriage.

The Senate just reconfirmed three justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court, all of whom were among the five-member majority in Kerrigan v. Department of Public Health, which ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

There were objections to the justices from some Republicans, with many citing concerns about what they view as relative loose constructionism in interpretation of the state Constitution. But there wasn’t enough to make a difference.

Associate Justices Flemming L. Norcott Jr., Joette Katz and Richard N. Palmer were all confirmed by the same vote total: 28-7, with one senator absent. (The missing senator is Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, who has been absent from the Capitol since the death of his teenage son earlier this month.)

This conclusion isn’t hugely surprising. Senators don’t toss out Supreme Court justices all that often.

And the rumors of some grave comeuppance for those who support same-sex marriage have been, like those of Twain’s death, greatly exaggerated. Lobbying efforts to open the state constitution to a new convention (and thus to direct-initiative lawmaking and a gay marriage ban) or to unseat the pro-marriage chairmen of the Judiciary Committee have come up short.

See Same-sex marriage doesn’t cost justices
TheDay - New London,CT,USA

A Catholic bishop is attempting to disown an adoption agency because it is to comply with new laws that require it to consider gay couples as potential foster parents. Catholic Caring Services, one of 11 Catholic adoption agencies in Britain, has signalled that it will abide by the Sexual Orientation Regulations that come into force on 1 January 2009, which prohibit fostering agencies from discriminating against lesbian and homosexual couples.

But Patrick O’Donoghue, the bishop of Lancaster, said the decision marked an “irretrievable breakdown” between the diocese and the agency and accused it of “capitulation” with “no attempt at resistance”. In a pastoral letter issued to clergy and lay people, the bishop said the charity was no longer Catholic and could not operate in the name of the Lancaster diocese: “All churches, parishes, schools and other Catholic organisations or societies are to have no formal associations with Catholic Caring Services and the new charity is no longer entitled to have access to diocesan collections.”The agency occupies four properties in Preston and the terms of their leases are to be reviewed according to the bishop’s letter. The bishop also suggested the agency might be asked to repay legacies and bequests left by Catholics.

Of Britain’s 11 Catholic adoption agencies, five are complying with the new regulations and one is closing its adoption service. The remaining five have yet to reveal their decision although two charities that were refused permission by the Charity Commission to raise objections to the new law have appealed to the Charity Tribunal.

The agencies find new homes for hundreds of children a year but a refusal to comply with the new laws would mean legal action or loss of funding from local authorities. However, the agencies believe accepting the new legislation involves violating church teaching.

 See Bishop hits out at adoption agency over gay couples rule
The Observer, UK