Anti-gay marriage effort advances
Maine election officials on Tuesday approved the question that would appear on the ballot if opponents of the recently enacted same-sex marriage law collect enough signatures.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced that the question that will appear on petitions is “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?”
Groups seeking to overturn the law, including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland; the Maine Family Policy Council of Maine, formerly the Christian Civic League of Maine; and Maine Marriage Initiative could begin circulating petitions seeking to put the question on the ballot as early as Friday.
“We most likely won’t have petitioners out until after Memorial Day,” the Rev. Bob Emrich of the Maine Marriage Initiative said Tuesday afternoon. “We have to get petitions printed and distributed around the state. We also want to make sure that folks are properly trained in circulating petitions.”
See
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/anti-gay-marr…
Former Catholic Bishop Of Milwaukee Says He’s Gay
NEW YORK — A Roman Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex and financial scandal involving a man describes his struggles with being gay in an upcoming memoir about his decades serving the church.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, said in an interview Monday that he wrote about his sexual orientation because he wanted to be candid about “how this came to life in my own self, how I suppressed it, how it resurrected again.”
Called “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop,” the book is set to be released in June.
“I was very careful and concerned that the book not become a Jerry Springer, to satisfy people’s prurient curiosity or anything of this sort,” Weakland told The Associated Press. “At the same time, I tried to be as honest as I can.”
See Former Catholic Bishop Of Milwaukee Says He’s Gay
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/former-cathol…
Gay marriage stalls in Catholic RI
(Providence, Rhode Island) Gay marriage could soon become the law of the land across New England – except in the heavily Roman Catholic state of Rhode Island.
A string of sudden successes for gay marriage advocates has left Rhode Island a political outlier. Maine became the fourth state in New England …
Orange anger at gay row
See Orange anger at gay row
Belfast Newsletter
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/orange-anger-…
Roman Catholic Bishop Tobin: Roamn Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage’ must end
“Abysmal” Catholic apathy must be overcome to oppose those who are “fiercely determined” to impose homosexual “marriage,” Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island Thomas J. Tobin has warned. Reasserting Catholic teaching on sexual morality, he also said that same-sex “marriage” will endanger religious freedom.
Writing in his April 23 column in The Rhode Island Catholic, Bishop Tobin spoke of a “relentless” political march towards homosexual marriage, with New England leading the way. “The supporters of gay marriage in Rhode Island are well-organized and well-funded. They’re fiercely determined to impose their politically correct agenda on all the citizens of the state – human history, culture and moral principles not-withstanding. Anyone who opposes them is quickly labeled a bigot,” the bishop observed.
However, he said the typical Rhode Island Catholic’s response was indifferent and cited not wanting to judge people. Tobin also said that Catholics give rationalizations about the decline of Catholic influence.
“[G]ay marriage will affect you and you should be concerned. And there’s a lot we can do,” the bishop wrote, proceeding to review reasons Catholics oppose same-sex “marriage.”
Bishop Tobin explained that “homosexual activity is unnatural and gravely immoral. It’s offensive to Almighty God. It can never be condoned, under any circumstances. Gay marriage, or civil unions, would mean that our state is in the business of ratifying, approving such immoral activity.”
The movement for same-sex “marriage,” he added, “seeks to radically redefine the most fundamental institution of the human race, the building block of every society and culture. From the beginning, marriage has been defined as the stable union of man and woman, designed by God to continue the human race through the procreation of children.
“Homosexual relationships are not marriage – never have been, never will be.”
Bishop Tobin introduced what he called the “champagne principle.” Saying that not every wine has the unique characteristics of champagne, the bishop argued that someone who relabeled a bottle of Chianti and tried to sell it as champagne would be arrested for fraud.
Similarly, those who seek to redefine marriage and “to usurp the title ‘marriage’ for their morally bankrupt relationships,” are “committing an act of fraud,”he charged. “It’s insulting to those who have entered the authentic, sacred and time-honored institution of marriage over the years.”
See Bishop Tobin: Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage‘ must end
Catholic News Agency – Denver,CO,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/roman-catholi…
If this is true, then perhaps America should skip havving an “ambassador” at the Vatican
Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.
Mr Obama was reportedly seeking to reward John F Kennedy’s daughter, who publicly gave her support to his election bid. She had been poised to replace Hillary Clinton as New York senator, but dropped out amid criticism that she lacked enough experience for the job. The Italian paper said that the Vatican strongly disapproved of Mr Obama’s support for abortion and stem cell research. The impasse over the ambassadorial appointment threatens to cloud his meeting with the Pope during a G8 summit in Itay in July. More
Clearly, the President should take his won sweet time about naming a new ambassador – I mean I am not sure we can afford to send one tot he Vatican anyway …
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-this-is-tr…
Children services policy gives preference to traditional marriage Lebanon Western Star
More lies form another Roman Catholic Group: there’s no evidence children adopted by Straight families do better than kids adopted by gay or lesbian families.
A new Butler County Children Services policy gives traditional couples preference over single parents or same-sex couples in fostering or adopting children.
The policy, adopted Dec. 8, states, “The purpose of adoption is not to provide children for adults who want them, but to provide for children families that give them the experience of intact married family life as much as possible.”
Children Services Director Michael Fox said they adopted the policy when he learned they didn’t have one in the midst of an effort by two gay men to adopt a 2-year-old child.
Fox said the policy’s goal is not to discriminate, but to give children the best chance at succeeding.
“Data-wise, and there’s tons of it, kids do better…when there is a traditional married couple,” Fox said.
See4 Children services policy gives preference to traditional marriage Lebanon Western Star
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/children-serv…
Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
Since California voters passed a ban on gay marriage, some supporters of the measure have found themselves squarely in the bull’s-eye of angry gay rights activists.
It’s no secret who gave money for and against the controversial amendment to the state’s constitution, known as Proposition 8. California’s secretary of state publicized the lists of contributors, which were picked up by local media and Web sites.
And in the aftermath of a contentious campaign, protests followed. In Los Angeles, would-be patrons of a popular Tex-Mex restaurant were greeted by furious protestors like John Dennison.
“El Coyote — millions in gay margarita money funding hatred,” Dennison yelled during the protest. “Boycott El Coyote!”
The restaurant owner’s daughter, Margie Christofferson, a faithful Mormon, had made a modest $100 contribution to the “Yes on 8″ campaign — and the restaurant’s gay patrons, like Edward Stanley, felt betrayed.
“I won’t be eating here,” Stanley said.
Business dipped about 30 percent at the height of the protest, and it still hasn’t returned to pre-protest levels. Several members of the restaurant’s staff — including many of its gay employees — have seen their hours cut back in response. And Christofferson, who managed the restaurant, has resigned.
Others Feel The Heat
In Sacramento, the owners of Leatherby’s Family Creamery found themselves part of the backlash when The Sacramento Bee printed the list of contributors. Dave Leatherby, a devout Roman Catholic father of 10, says he was responding to a direct request from his bishop to give generously.
“We gave $20,000 for Yes on Proposition 8,” he says.
And once that was known, retaliation was swift. “We soon started getting very nasty e-mails and letters and phone calls by the hundreds,” he says.
Leatherby says he was mystified, because the Creamery had always enjoyed good relations with the gay and lesbian community.
And he says something interesting happened when demonstrators arrived outside his shop: Business went up, instead of down. “The day they picketed us, there were about 15 picketers, and that day we had people waiting two hours to get into our restaurant for four or five hours,” he says.
Not every backlash story ends that way.
Richard Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Scott Eckern, director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, are devout Mormons. Both made contributions to Yes on 8, and both got demands for their resignations from gay rights protestors. They quit so their organizations wouldn’t face further controversy. Ironically, the film festival has been instrumental in introducing works by gay and lesbian filmmakers to a broader audience — and the musical theater included works by gay playwrights and composers.
See Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
NPR
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/backers-of-ca…
British Adoption Agencies To Accept Gay Applicants
As of January 1, it is no longer legal for agencies to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples from adopting children in England, Wales and Scotland, reports UK-based the BBC.
When England’s Equality Act became law in April 2007 it outlawed discrimination against gay people, but 11 religious adoption agencies were given a 21-month exemption from the law. Beginning in 2009, it is no longer permissible for those agencies to reject gay applicants. Religious, mostly Roman Catholic, adoption agencies decried the law, saying it went against their beliefs. One agency said it would close up shop. But five of the 11 agencies will now abide by the rule. Robert Pigott, the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, said the Catholic Church believed the rights of gay people were being placed above the rights of Christians.
On Top Magazine, OH -
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/british-adopt…
