Palin to Resign as Alaska Governor on July 26
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) announced this afternoon she will resign from office on July 26 and return to private life, a stunning decision by last year’s Republican vice presidential candidate to leave office before the end of her first term.
“We k
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Pulitzer-winner Kushner revels over Bachmann’s possible response to ‘Homosexual’ ads
Periodically each evening, the “smokestack”/LED sign atop the Guthrie Theater on Minneapolis’ riverfront lights up to spell out, in gigantic letters, “HOMOSEXUAL.” The word, along with others in the title of playwright Tony Kushner’s newest work have given the gay Pulitzer Prize winner pleasure recently. In the intro to an interview with CNN today, he speaks about how he felt first seeing bus advertisements for the Guthrie’s production of the play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” on streets in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s home state:
“I was excited to see a bus go by a couple of months ago when I first got to Minneapolis and the only words you could make out as the bus went by were ‘homosexual’ and ’socialism,’” Kushner says, adding that the first thing he did when he saw it was call his husband back home in New York City.
“He said, ‘Yeah, it’s great — You’ve come up with a perfectly shaped 14-word phrase of English that’s guaranteed to give [Republican U.S. Rep.] Michele Bachmann a heart attack, and it doesn’t even have an active verb in it.’”
Bachmann — a conservative who made national headlines during last year’s election when she called for an investigation into “anti-American” members of Congress (including then-presidential candidate Barack Obama) — is a vocal critic of gay rights and supports a federal ban on gay marriages.
“So it’s like … I feel good about that,” Kushner adds with a chuckle.
“The Intelligent Homosexual,” as t-shirts available at the Guthrie shorten it to, was commissioned by the Guthrie and gets its lengthy title from two 19th-century books: George Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism and Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It closes June 28
See Pulitzer-winner Kushner revels over Bachmann’s possible response … Minnesota Independent
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Obama Faces Gay Groups’ Growing Anger
The anger from gay rights advocates toward President Obama is starting to boil over.
On Monday, Joe Solmonese, the president of the establishment gay rights group The Human Rights Campaign, sent an angry letter to the president objecting to the decision by the Obama Justice Department to file a brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act.
“I realized that although I and other LGBT leaders have introduced ourselves to you as policy makers, we clearly have not been heard, and seen, as what we also are: human beings whose lives, loves, and families are equal to yours,” Solmonese wrote. “I know this because this brief would not have seen the light of day if someone in your administration who truly recognized our humanity and equality had weighed in with you.”
The Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, mandates (1) that the federal government not recognize same-sex marriages and (2) that states not be forced to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
Mr. Obama vowed to repeal DOMA as a presidential candidate but he has not taken any action to do so since becoming president. The Justice Department brief calls the legislation a “valid exercise of Congress’ power” and says it is “reasonable and rational for Congress to maintain its longstanding policy of fostering this traditional and universally-recognized form of marriage.”
“The government does not state why denying us basic protections promotes anyone else’s marriage, nor why, while our heterosexual neighbors’ marriages should be promoted, our own must be discouraged,” Solmonese writes in his letter.
He goes onto single out a portion of the brief referencing a case involving “marriage of uncle to niece” to support the Justice position.
“I cannot overstate the pain that we feel as human beings and as families when we read an argument, presented in federal court, implying that our own marriages have no more constitutional standing than incestuous ones,” he writes. See Obama Faces Gay Groups’ Growing Anger
CBS News -
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The Church and Gay Marriage: Are Mormons Misunderstood?
Last November, Jay Pimentel began hearing that people in his neighborhood were receiving letters about him. Pimentel lives in Alameda, Calif., a small, liberal-leaning community hanging off Oakland into the San Francisco Bay. Pimentel, who is a Mormon, had supported Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. And that made him a target. “Dear Neighbor,” the letter began, “Our neighbors, Colleen and Jay Pimentel” — and it gave their address — “contributed $1,500.00 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. NEIGHBORS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THEIR NEIGHBORS’ CHOICES.” The note accused the Pimentels of “obsessing about same-sex marriage.” It listed a variety of local causes that recipients should support — “unlike the Pimentels.”
Pimentel, a lawyer and a lay leader in the small Mormon congregation in Alameda, is markedly even-keeled. Yet the poison-pen note still steams him, even though in May the California Supreme Court validated Prop 8 as constitutional. He is bothered less by the revelation of his monetary contribution, which he stands by, than the fact that the letter’s author didn’t bother to find out that every other Saturday for 15 years, he or someone else from Alameda’s 184-member Mormon ward has delivered a truckload of hot meals to the Midway Shelter for Abused and Homeless Women and Children — one of the organizations the Pimentels allegedly wouldn’t support. “The church does a lot of things in the community we don’t issue press releases about,” he says. “And when people criticize us, we often just take it on the chin. I guess you could say I’m not satisfied with the way we’re seen.”
Across the country, that’s the dilemma facing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With 13 million members worldwide (by its own count), the LDS is the fourth largest church in the country, the richest per capita and one of the fastest-growing abroad. The body has become a mainstream force, counting among its flock political heavyweights like former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid, businesspeople like the Marriotts and entertainers like Glenn Beck and Twilight novelist Stephenie Meyer. The passage of Prop 8 was the church’s latest display of its power: individual Mormons contributed half of the proposition’s $40 million war chest despite constituting only 2% of California’s population. LDS spokesman Michael Otterson says, “This is a moment of emergence.”
See The Church and Gay Marriage: Are Mormons Misunderstood?
TIME
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Palin defends Miss Calif. from ‘malicious’ attacks
(Anchorage, Alaska) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is defending Miss California USA Carrie Prejean.
The former vice presidential candidate says in a statement, “The liberal onslaught of malicious attacks against Carrie Prejean for expressing her opinion is despicable.”
Prejean created a stir at last month’s Miss USA pageant when she said marriage should …
Tags: Alaska Gov, Anchorage Alaska, California Usa, Carrie, Malicious Attacks, marriage, Miss California, Miss Usa Pageant, Onslaught, Presidential Candidate, Sarah PalinJon Stewart and Mike Huckabee on gay marriage
Daily Show host Jon Stewart had Mike Huckabee on last night. The former presidential candidate has written a book titled “Do the Right Thing.” He also recently found himself criticized for comments he made about the gay rights movement on “The View.”
Stewart brought up social conservatism, saying he understands why abortion is such an contested issue. But he just doesn’t understand the reasoning behind gay marriage bans. Huckabee offers a typical line of defense, including lines like, “The only way that we can create the next generation is through a male-female relationship.”
See Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee on gay marriage
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‘Day without a gay’ protest fizzles
Activists had billed Wednesday as “a day without a gay,” when gays and lesbians across the country would call in sick, boycott shopping and show the impact of their absence from everyday life.
Designed to be a protest against the Nov. 4 passage of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, the day’s events drew only scattered support in the Bay Area, the heart of the gay rights movement, and also criticism.
Several gay and lesbian people said they couldn’t afford to take the day off, particularly in a tightening economy where many are concerned about their jobs. And in the Castro district, business owners were livid that people were encouraged to not shop during the holidays, a peak time for retailers.
“Our rights have been taken away as much as anyone else’s,” said Rich Boutell, who runs Whatever comics on Castro Street and whose marriage was thrown into limbo with the Nov. 4 election. He and his husband, Cougar Andrews, kept their store open and wished the “day without a gay” organizers had encouraged gay-allied individuals to patronize gay-owned businesses. “The whole purpose should be to support your own, not to boycott. If you’re going to have a protest, it should be a positive thing. The gay dollar is powerful.”
Those who did take off work said they did it with the cooperation of employers.
They included Glenn Coffee, 48, a Noe Valley resident who works at Macy’s and said the store has always been supportive of gay employees and the gay community. The main purpose, he said, of calling in sick was to show that “as a community, we can show we have worth.”
The day’s events prompted a mixed response, which might indicate that the gay rights movement is still finding its voice. Gay and lesbian people are included in ways never imagined decades ago, such as domestic partnership rights in states across the nation and being included by a presidential candidate in his election-night victory speech.
But there are also dramatic challenges. Thirty states, including California, explicitly ban same-sex marriage, and Arkansas voters recently passed a ballot measure to ban unmarried couples from adopting children, an initiative directly aimed at thwarting gay and lesbian parenthood.
Religious groups, students, business owners and shoppers all had different views of a day focused on gay rights.
A group of Bay Area Catholics gathered in the Castro district on Wednesday evening for a prayer vigil to atone for the actions of church leaders. Because Wednesday was also International Human Rights Day, they focused their efforts on the rights of gays and lesbians.
‘Day without a gay‘ protest fizzles
San Francisco Chronicle, USA
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