Testimony went late into the night last Thursday as supporters and opponents of gay marriage discussed a pair of bills before the Senate judiciary committee at the State House.

Bill S0136, introduced by Senator Leo Blais, R-Dist. 21, seeks to amend Rhode Island’s constitution to specify marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Bill S0147, on the other hand, calls for the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Though several bills supporting gay marriage have been introduced in the state Senate before, proponents of the current bill believe “that there is a better chance than in the past to have fruitful dialogue,” said Susan MacNeil, director of development and communications for the advocacy group Marriage Equality of Rhode Island.

The group has been working on the issue for ten years, but after the November election and the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which eliminated the right to gay marriage in that state, there has been an outpouring of public support for gay marriage, MacNeil said.

“People want to be part of the marriage equality movement,” she said.

Many of the Ocean State’s neighbors have already taken action. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts, while Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire have authorized civil unions. See Gay marriage bills duel in Senate

The Brown Daily Herald - 

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

Nearly three dozen major LGBT groups, including HRC, The Victory Fund, National Black Justice Coalition and the National Center for Transgender Equality, have begun a dialogue on ways to cope with declining financial support because of the struggling economy. Cost-saving options range from teaming up for health care, computer services and other administrative expenses to even combining groups with similar missions. Advocate.com

Sabino Arana, the hawkish first ideologue of Basque nationalism, must be spinning in his grave.

Arana exalted died-in-the-wool Catholicism and Basque racial purity. A century after his death, the Berlinale Panorama welcomes “Ander,” billed by sales company Latido as the first-ever gay Basque-language movie.

What’s more, it’s set in the Arratia Valley in Biscay, an idyllic spot, where, traditionally, real men are farmers, and farmers real men.

Pushing even a larger envelope, most of “Ander’s” finance comes from the Basque government, via Berdindu, its gay-lesbian service.

And the cream of Basque politicos — including Basque government president, Lehendakari Juan Jose Ibarretxe — turned out for “Ander’s” world preem on Jan. 30, when it opened the Basque Country’s Zinegoak 09 — the 6th Bilbao Gay-Lesbo-Trans Intl. Film Festival, playing to enthusiastic auds.

Roberto Caston, its writer-director, bridles slightly at the gay tag. Pic follows fortysomething Ander, a Basque farmer-cum-factory worker who breaks a leg. He hires a Peruvian immigrant, Jose (Christian Esquivel, “Che”), who inspires in Ander feelings he didn’t know he had.

“The film’s about solitude, which most of the characters suffer,” said Caston.

 See Latido unveils first gay Basque film
Variety, CA 

by Rabbi Ben Kamin, Spiritual Life Examiner

It was years ago that I heard a particularly poignant segment of the Hebrew Scripture chanted in the synagogue—the story, in the Book of Samuel—of the powerful boyhood friendship between Jonathan and David.  Jonathan was the emotional son of King Saul; David, the future king, was his companion and fast friend.  Their bond, described without restraint in the Bible, was robust:  Jonathan declares to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.”

It’s hard to let pass the unfolding passionate relationship between these two young scriptural heroes.  The romantic tension they shared was reinforced by the fierce and jealous hostility felt by King Saul against David; the paranoid monarch once even threw a spear at the lad.  Jonathan so adored David that he eschewed his role as prince and gave his heart freely to his friend.  His father’s disapproval did not repress his loyalty and devotion to his amour.

Granted, there are edicts in the earlier Book of Leviticus forbidding homosexual love; this is what makes the Jonathan-David affair so remarkable.  Here is an intense saga of love, rivalry, and Oedipal complexes all being driven by the force of homosexual tenderness.  There are deep implications of Jonathan feeling “empty” when David’s chair was vacant.

The Bible does not exactly mince words about the whole thing.  In First Samuel, Chapter 20, it describes an outdoor rendezvous between the two boys: “David arose out of the place…and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.”

Until David “exceeded?”  This is interpreted by some biblical critics as an explanation of David’s expressive weeping—that is, he ran out of tears.  However, the literal translation of the Hebrew is, unequivocally, “until David enlarged.”  One can have no illusions what the Bible is describing in this particular instance.   See Sorry, right-wingers, but King David was gay
Examiner.com -

MOBILE, AL–Integrity USA is disappointed but not surprised that thecommunique issued by the primates of the Anglican Communion earlier todayrepeated the all-too-familiar call for moratoria on the election of bishops in same-gender unions, rites of blessing for same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions.

“There’s an American superstition that ‘bad things come in threes,’” said Integrity President Susan Russell speaking from the Episcopal Urban Caucus Annual Assembly in Mobile. “And accepting the lumping together of these three issues in one moratoria package would be a very bad thing for the Episcopal Church as a whole and its LGBT faithful in particular.”

“Calling a halt to actions that violate the polity and boundaries of the autonomous national churches that are constituent members of the Anglican Communion is preserving the historic unity of the church. Scapegoating a percentage of the baptized by excluding them from a percentage of the sacraments of the Body of Christ is participating in the appeasement of bigotry. They’re apples and oranges.”

Russell continued, “Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is absolutely correct in stating that moratoria are a matter for General Convention in Anaheim this summer. Resolutions have already been submitted that would move the Episcopal Church beyond the non-canonical restraints imposed by B033 and forward on marriage equality. Integrity USA believes that General Convention will reaffirm that all the sacraments are open to all the baptized. We will be working with our allies to achieve that gospel agenda item next July.”

“Integrity encourages all concerned Episcopalians to contact their bishops and General Convention deputies and dialogue with them on these issues as they prepare for Anaheim,” concluded Russell. “The question on the table is whether or not we mean it when we renew that Baptismal Covenant’s promise to respect the dignity of every human being. Integrity is counting on the Episcopal Church saying, “We will with God’s help.”

Visit www.integrityusa.org/all for more information.

Gov. David A. Paterson has condemned the vandalism at a Bay Shore gay and lesbian center and said the state human rights commissioner would hold a public forum at the center this week.

In a statement Tuesday, Paterson called the vandalism “despicable.” State human rights commissioner Galen Kirkland will hold the forum at the center tomorrow at 3 p.m. 

It’s his second visit to Suffolk in three months. He held community discussions after Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death in Patch- ogue in November. Investigators say he was targeted by teens hunting for Hispanics to harass.

Donors have replaced the smashed windows and slashed tires on the van used by theLong Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Center in Bay Shore, which was attacked by vandals on Monday.  See Paterson condemns vandalism at Bay Shore gay center
Newsday, NY