Gay Loggers for Jesus, Tea Partiers rally in Bozeman Montana

One freedom not taken for granted in Bozeman this Independence Day weekend is freedom of expression.

Two very different groups held morning parades down Main Street, beginning with the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus.

Organizers say the group celebrates what’s right about America.

Brian Leland, president of the group, said, :”We’re asking folks, shop on your way down Main Street, we have an entire hour to get from here to the courthouse. If you want to stop, get a cup of coffee, please do so.”

One logger said, “I think it’s awesome that people could come out here and raise protests and speak their mind and show their affiliation for whatever particular cause they belive in.

Another logger noted, “I think the 4th of July is a great day to come out and support the President of the United States, I can’t think of anything more patriotic.”

The second parade, the Bozeman Tea Party, brought in a larger crowd and a message far more critical of the status quo.

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Gay Loggers reach goal, to protest as planned

The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus will march on Main Street as planned July Fourth, the organizer of the group said Thursday evening.

Organizer Brian Leland had set a 5 p.m. deadline Thursday to reach his fundraising goal of $1,100, the amount of money the city of Bozeman estimates it will cost it to shut down the downtown thoroughfare for the morning protest.

Leland said Thursday evening that he had raised about $1,500. The $400 difference will be given to the local food bank, he said.

The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus was formed to protest how the city went about granting the Bozeman Tea Party’s request for a permit march down Main Street on July Fourth.

City staff initially denied the Bozeman Tea Party’s request to cordon off the street for two hours while they protested government spending, the growing national debt and taxes. But following pleas from members of the Tea Party, the Bozeman City Commission recommended 4-1 that staffers reverse their decision, which they did.

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The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

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Michael Jackson Memorial Confirmed For Staples Center July 7

LOS ANGELES — Organizers and representatives for the Jackson family have confirmed memorial services for Michael Jackson will take place Tuesday (July 7) inside the Staples Center. The announcement ended days of speculation about how the King of Pop would be memorialized.

Fans will be able to attend after registering for free tickets at StaplesCenter.com beginning Friday morning, and registration will run until Saturday evening at 6 p.m. On Sunday fans will be notified and receive information on how to pick up tickets on Monday. The registration process is elaborate and has caused the site to crash once already — but the Jackson family insisted on a process that was democratic and fair, taking into consideration the many fans expected to arrive in Los Angeles for the memorial.

“It was our wish to allow as many of Michael’s fans to be a part of the memorial, and we wish to thank everyone for their support and understanding at this difficult time,” the Jackson family said in a statement.

Only 17,500 tickets will be given away, with 11,000 entrants able to go inside the arena and the remaining 6,500 ushered just across the street to the Nokia Theater where the proceedings will be simulcast. There are no guarantees for fans who register online and only 8,750 people will be selected randomly by a computer-generated program. Each selected fan will receive two tickets and two wristbands.

No further details regarding the service were announced. At a press conference held outside of the Staples Center, Jackson family representative Ken Sunshine said the plans are still being developed. Sunshine said he hopes the ticket process is handed with “dignity” and that tickets not be resold or counterfeited.

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MTV.com

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The Gay Movement, After Marriage New York Observer -

On the night of June 26, two days before the gay pride parade would overtake Manhattan in honor of the 40th birthday of the Stonewall riots that are popularly imagined as the birth of the gay rights movement, a group numbering a couple of dozen mostly gay men and women found themselves crammed into the parlor floor of the West Village townhouse of John Connor, a former banker who lives with his companion, the designer Steven Gambrel.

It raged and stormed outside, while inside, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay person to win that office, thanked the group for coming.

They’d been summoned either because they had money or because they had influence in the “gay movement,” such as it is today, and the organizers of this affair needed their money and influence to stage a large national march for gay rights in Washington, D.C., this October.

The mood was intense, and hardly celebratory, despite the tremendous progress toward legalizing gay marriage in New York State that many of the attendees had been involved in.

“We want results,” Ms. Quinn said. “We want them now. We don’t want to be told any longer that we have to wait. ‘Cause look, in Albany? They said they couldn’t do marriage at the beginning of the session—that they had to get other business done first. And now it’s exploded in Albany. If they kept their promise from Day 1, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

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Se3nate Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote

New York’s annual Gay Pride parade was a colorful celebration of 40 years of progress toward civil rights for gays, but once the dust settled, gay couples who wish to marry in New York state remain thwarted.

A bill to legalize gay marriage in the state that saw the dawn of the gay rights movement is mired in political stalemate in the state capital Albany, where Democrats and Republicans are battling over control of the state Senate.

“I had hoped today’s march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It’s not,” Christine Quinn, the gay speaker of the New York City Council, said at Sunday’s Gay Pride parade. Held annually, this year’s event marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, which triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.

“We are disappointed. … But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting,” Quinn said at the start of the parade, which organizers said drew more than a million people.

Gay couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa and will be allowed marry in Vermont starting in September and in New Hampshire from January. Other states offer same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage.

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Reuters

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Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade

SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade, some in provocative costumes and outfits, but an increasing number of them pushing strollers.

“I feel like I’ve seen twice as many children as I saw last year,” said Joseph Bowik, who is a father to two children with his husband, David Bowik.

The Pride Family Garden, a small park cordoned off near City Hall to give parents a respite and an area for their children to play, saw more than 600 families last year, a record that appeared set to be broken during this year’s parade, organizer Meredith Fenton said.

“Probably the biggest thing we’re hearing about this year from kids is the word ‘backlash,’”‰” said Fenton, who is the program director for Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), which joined the park effort.

“With Prop. 8 passing and the Defense of Marriage Act, there’s so much talk about gay rights, but what people keep asking is, ‘How will the kids of gay parents turn out?’ Those people are all asking about us.” San Francisco and Alameda counties are home to the second- and third-most same-sex couples who are parents in California, after Los Angeles, Fenton said.

Diana Castillo, 18, moved to Oakland this summer for an internship at Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere. Raised by her birth mother and her mother’s partner, she said growing up with two moms made her grateful.

See:

Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade San Jose Mercury News – Sean Maher – ‎
Video: Gay pride on the streets
Remembering Stonewall: 40 Years Later Gay Wired Gay Pride Parade Marks 40 Years After NYC Uprising WDIV

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Marriage fight looms IN mAINE

Opponents and supporters of gay marriage are laying the groundwork for a tough summer political campaign that experts say will put Maine in the national spotlight.

Organizers of an effort to overturn a new law legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine have hired the California public relations firm that ran the successful Proposition 8 campaign that overturned same-sex marriage there.

And supporters of same-sex marriage, who oppose the people’s veto effort, have hired a seasoned Maine political strategist who ran the successful Maine Won’t Discriminate campaign in 2005. That campaign fought a people’s veto of Maine’s gay rights law.

Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage in May, when the Legislature passed a bill and Gov. John Baldacci signed it into law. Opponents, led by the Catholic church and other clergy, immediately began the campaign for a people’s veto, which would ask voters to overturn the law.

Organizers of the people’s veto are attempting to collect 55,087 signatures of registered Maine voters to put the question on the ballot. The same-sex marriage law would take effect 90 days after the Legislature’s June 13 adjournment. But if the veto effort collects enough signatures before then, the law’s implementation would be stayed.

At least five political action committees have been formed to help raise funds to support the people’s veto effort. Two have been formed to oppose a people’s veto.

According to the latest filings with the state Ethics Commission, most haven’t raised money. But one, StandForMarriageMaine.com, has raised $60,000 from the National Organization for Marriage. The next filing deadline is July 15.

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Gay film festival keeps low profile Toronto Star

BEIJING–When China’s homosexual moviemakers decided to hold their fourth-ever film festival this year, they took pains to avoid confrontation with the cops.

They’d had confrontations before.

So this year, they didn’t issue any press releases. They picked a venue where they didn’t have to apply for a government permit. And they insisted on calling the event The Beijing Queer Film Festival.

“The translation of queer in Chinese is `ku er,’” explains film director Cui Zi’en. “In the Chinese language, it’s actually a less well-known word – a less provocative word than `gay.’”

The idea, Cui says, is not to wave flags in the authorities’ faces.

Yesterday, the five-day film festival opened in a village on the outskirts of Beijing without incident.

It’s no longer illegal to be gay in China: that ended in 1997.

In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association delisted homosexuality as a disease. But gay books and films remained banned here in China and the gay community continues to test the limits.

Cui and other organizers hope this week’s festival goes smoothly – and doesn’t get busted. Gay film fests in the capital were shut down in 2001 and 2005, while a festival in 2007 squeaked by under the radar.

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Maine Gay-marriage foes hire California firm that ran Prop 8

Opponents and supporters of gay marriage are laying the groundwork for a tough summer political campaign that experts say will put Maine in the national spotlight.

Supporters of the law have hired a seasoned Maine political strategist who ran the successful Maine Won’t Discriminate campaign in 2005. That campaign fought a people’s veto of Maine’s gay-rights law.

Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage in May. Opponents, led by the Catholic Church and other clergy, immediately began campaigning for a people’s veto, which would ask voters to overturn the law.

Organizers of the veto effort are attempting to collect 55,087 signatures of registered Maine voters to put the question on the ballot. The same-sex marriage law will take effect 90 days after the Legislature’s June 13 adjournment unless the veto effort collects enough signatures before then, which would put the law on hold.

At least five political action committees have been formed to help raise funds to support the people’s veto effort. Two have been formed to oppose the veto.

According to the latest filings with the state Ethics Commission, most haven’t raised money. But StandForMarriageMaine.com has raised $60,000 from the National Organization for Marriage. The next filing deadline is July 15.

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Redding officials ban gay pride group’s screening of ‘Milk’ Record-Searchlight

Redding officials won’t allow the Academy Award-winning movie “Milk” to be shown at a city-owned outdoor theater Friday as a part of a local celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

The showing was banned because “Milk” is an R-rated film.

“I think it’s common sense,” said Gerry Kersten, Redding’s director of support services. “If you’re going to show a movie anyone can see, obviously it needs to be appropriate for all ages.”

Mary St. John, director of community services for Planned Parenthood: Shasta Diablo, said she was disappointed in the decision made Wednesday, but she doesn’t think it was political pressure that led to the city’s order.

“It’s our mistake, really,” St. John said. “We were unaware of the city’s policy that says movies shown outdoors must be (rated) G.”

Kersten said the city was originally told by the organizers that the movie was to be a youth- or teen-friendly flick. It was only when city officials picked up the Wednesday’s Record Searchlight that they learned that the planned movie was the R-rated “Milk.”

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