SF Bay schools phase out gay-friendly curriculum
(Alameda) A San Francisco Bay area school board will use broad lessons against bias to replace a curriculum against bullying gay people that had become a national centerpiece in the opposition to same-sex marriage.
The vote by the Alameda Board of Education on Tuesday did little to ease tensions in the …
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?
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Six States To Consider Same-Sex Marriage This Year S
Bills to legalize same-sex marriage are expected to see action this year in Maine, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. In addition, the Iowa Supreme Court will decide a case that could legalize same-sex marriage there.
In California, the state Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in June on whether Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
Same-sex marriage currently is legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Internationally, it is legal in Belgium, Canada, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and Spain.
Three other U.S. states — Hawaii, New Mexico and Washington — are expected to consider passing civil-union laws this year that extend all or nearly all of the rights and obligations of marriage.e.
Such laws already are in place in California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon and Vermont.
The District of Columbia, Maine, Hawaii and Washington presently have laws that extend limited spousal rights to same-sex couples.
See Six States To Consider Same-Sex Marriage This Year San Francisco Bay Times
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Court appearance for accused in lesbian gang rape case
(Martinez, California) Two men and a teenager were formally charged Tuesday in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area.
Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, and Josue Gonzalez, 21, were charged with kidnapping, carjacking and gang rape in the attack last month in Richmond.
Hate-crime enhancements were added …
4 Arrested in lesbian gang rape case
(Richmond, California) Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian.
Officers arrested Humberto Hernandez Salvador at his Richmond home, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The 31-year-old is being …
