Greek Courts Rules Same-Sex Weddings Invalid
A Greek court ruled the country’s first homosexual weddings, celebrated last year despite official warnings, were invalid, the couples’ lawyer said Tuesday.
Last year, a gay and a lesbian couple defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the Greek Orthodox church to tie the knot on a tiny Aegean island, abetted by a local mayor.
The couples had said they took advantage of a loophole in Greek civil law, which does not specify gender in matrimony, and took vows in June at municipal offices on the island of Tilos.
See Greek Courts Rules Same-Sex Weddings Invalid
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Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay Marriage? Sort of.
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I was at a, err, opposite-sex wedding
over the weekend when one of the guests asked me, presumably as the member of the MSM on hand, why Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gets lambasted for being anti-gay marriage, while Barack Obama
The answer lies in tone and nuance.
It is true that Obama’s position is that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.” That said, he articulately advocates for the rights of gay couples on things like hospital visitation. See here, for example, starting at about 1:06: “When I sit down and read scripture and I think how would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit someone they love when they’re sick, I conclude that that is something that’s important.”
And it is possible that some portion of people suspect that Obama would favor gay marriage were it a politically viable position: He’s secretly with us, not like that nasty Miss California. And even if that’s not the case, he’s good on enough other stuff that he can get a pass on this.
Then there’s Miss California, whose now-famous answer to the question seems like instant, inadvertent beauty pageant satire. See Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay …
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-obama-and-…
“Miss California” Nailed on Countdown
Countdown’s Keith Olbermann has reported that Miss California, a Christian college student named Carrie Prejean, had a boob job paid for by the Miss California Competition. Talk about performance enhancing additives! And we thought she was such a good, church going gal.
In a move reminiscent of beauty queen Anita Bryant’s 1970s crusade against gay rights, Prejean has joined in a television ad campaign against gay marriage this week. Her move upset homosexual rights advocates, including a head of the Miss California pageant.
In the 1970s, another beauty queen named Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma, became a voice against homosexuality after leading a campaign to repeal a Miami-area gay rights ordinance. She was famously quoted as saying, “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail-biters.”
Keith Lewis, the co-executive director of the Miss California pageant, said Prejean was attended to by gay beauty experts before the Miss USA contest, and that he always knew her to be friendly to gays like himself.
Maybe it is time to take away her Miss California “crown?”
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/miss-californ…
Signing of gay marriage law changes the game at schools
The gay marriage bill signed into law by Gov. Jodi Rell on Thursday eliminates an 18-year-old provision that prevents schools from portraying homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, but legislators said the new measure is much to do about nothing.
State Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-27, said the new bill does away with language that can be construed as demeaning to gays from a 1991 equal rights act and is not a demand for schools to promote homosexuality.
“It doesn’t require it to be taught and it doesn’t say it can’t be taught,” he said.
The bill– which legislators said is a compromise between gay marriage opponents and supporters– comes six months after the high court ruled 4-3 that same-sex couples have the right to wed in Connecticut, rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples.
“My position is that religious liberties, as a fundamental right and a First Amendment right, are so important that we need to address any concerns of any group,” said State Rep. Bruce Morris, D-140.
In an effort to appease some gay marriage foes, lawmakers amended the bill to show they want to protect religious liberties. For example, it says religious organizations and associations are not required to provide services, goods or facilities for same-sex wedding ceremonies.
Many groups feared that the bill would somehow force schools to teach about homosexuality in sex education courses and limit parental control over the matter.
Parents can already prevent their children from participating in a sexual education course, even if the course does not teach about homosexuality, McDonald said.
Connecticut’s education statutes allot parents the right to give their children written permission exempting them from “family life education programs,” courses which would likely include any lessons on homosexuality and gay marriage.
“Some of the religious organizations had an issue with the fact that a child wouldn’t have a choice but to sit and listen (to a lesson on homosexuality) in sex ed.,” said state Rep. Chris Perone, D-137. “The statute puts some of the control back into the parents hands.” See Signing of gay marriage law changes the game at schools
The Hour – Norwalk,CT,USA
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How Dumb IS THis? Church: Florists Should Be Allowed To Say No To Gay Weddings
So CT lawmakers are considering some changes to old state laws that were passed before the state supreme court made gay marriage legal. Unable to overturn that action, the “Connecticut Catholic Conference” are now embarrassing themselves with arguments like the one below. Like any of us would want to pay an anti-gay florist to do flowers for our wedding! DO these so-called Catholics realize how dumb they look?
Concerned that the state’s new same-sex marriage law would infringe on religious liberties, the Connecticut Catholic Conference today proposed some broad exemptions which it believes are necessary to protect those rights.
The law does not require Catholic priests — or any other clergy member — to preside over same-sex weddings.
However, the church is seeking additional exemptions. For instance, it wants to ensure that a florist opposed to gay marriage on religious grounds not be forced to sell flowers to a same-sex couple.
“Same-sex couples have their liberties protected fully. Religious people are wondering ‘how is this going to effect me?”‘ David Reynolds, lobbyist for the Catholic Church, told members of the legislature’s judiciary committee. Ee Church: Florists Should Be Allowed To Say No To Gay Weddings
Hartford Courant
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Mardi Gras returns to Galveston; Winter Party heats up Miami
Last February, Galveston Island rolled out the red carpet for a Mardi Gras celebration that showed the Gulf Coast to be home to one of Texas’ most gay-friendly small towns. Barely seven months later, the city resembled Atlantis, with most of it completely submerged.
But Galveston, as it did more than a century ago, is roaring back. This week, Harbor House — a bayside boutique of 42 rooms — officially reopened for business. Its older seawall-side sister, the Hotel Galvez, opened late last year, and another property, the Tremont Hotel (which on New Year’s Eve 2007 was sold out for a same-sex wedding) is set to be back in business by May.
And the city is already gearing up for Mardi Gras, with a 12-day celebration starting Feb. 13 and ending on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 24. The main event will be on Saturday, Feb. 21, with the Knights of Momus Grand Night Parade and the 24th annual Tremont House Ball (this time held at the Hotel Galvez). See Mardi Gras returns to Galveston; Winter Party heats up Miami
Dallas Voice, TX
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/mardi-gras-re…
BAN ON CIVIL UNIONS AT THE PUBLIC BOARDWALK PAVILIO N IN OCEAN GROVE, NEW JERSEY IS DISCRIMINATORY, RULES STATE DIVISION ON CIVIL RIGHTS
The Division ruled that the couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, have “probable cause” to claim that the ban violates New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination. Today’s opinion was based on the boardwalk pavilion’s being public by nature of its historic use, open to everyone for decades without restrictions. In fact, the Camp Meeting Association had for years advanced that very argument, by applying for – and receiving – state tax breaks under New Jersey’s “Green Acres” program that requires facilities to be open and nondiscriminatory to all.
As the Division on Civil Rights ruled today, the Camp Meeting Association’s ban was discriminatory because it has prohibited same-sex civil unions at the public boardwalk pavilion, but not opposite-sex marriages.
The decision in the latest in a series of blows to the Camp Meeting Association’s campaign to discriminate against same-sex couples. In September 2007, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ended the Camp Meeting Association’s tax breaks for the public boardwalk pavilion area, based on the Association’s discriminatory ban on civil unions.
Garden State Equality and Ocean Grove United have been relentless in leading grassroots opposition to the ban – Garden State Equality at the statewide level and Ocean Grove United at the local level. The couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
“Though we’re not home free yet, today’s decision by the Corzine Administration is a significant victory for liberty and justice for all in Ocean Grove,” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality. “The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has only itself to blame for pursuing a lawsuit that will cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars – and potentially millions of dollars in potential tourism to Ocean Grove, known across the country as a leading LGBT-friendly destination.
“The question is, how much more hell will the Camp Meeting Association, and its national right-wing extremist backers, put the good people of Ocean Grove through? We all know how this saga will wind up. The boardwalk will eventually be re-open to civil unions. Our side is winning juncture after juncture in this case because the law is overwhelmingly on our side. It’s time for the Camp Meeting Association to see the handwriting on the pavilion, and end its discriminatory ban now.”
In a second complaint against the Camp Meeting Association, the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights today ruled there was no probable cause, based solely on the timing of the complaint by the same-sex couple involved there, Jan Moore and Emily Sonnessa. They filed their complaint once the Camp Meeting Association decided to ban both opposite-sex weddings and same-sex civil unions at the boardwalk pavilion, thus preempting the question of discrimination against civil union couples.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ban-on-civil-…
Business is Booming for America’s Most Popular Online Gay Wedding Resource!
Despite the November 4th passage of Proposition 8 in California and the bans on gay marriage in Florida and Arizona,” says co-founder Marianne Puechl, “the services through RainbowWeddingNetwork are thriving.”
The national web resource, RainbowWeddingNetwork.com, announces a vast update to its website as of December1, 2008. An array of interactive features are now available to site users, including social networking for couples in the planning stages, engagement announcements, and a zip code search for screened gay-friendly businesses within an active online Directory of over 5000 members. High graphic appeal and fresh content focused on GLBTQ wedding trends and legislative highlights will polish the new look. Most features will be free for site users.
RainbowWeddingNetwork.com was originally launched in 2000 and offered the nation’s first-ever Wedding Gift Registry targeted specifically for the LGBTQ community. By June 2001, the lesbian-owned company had achieved over 1 million hits to its website and had expanded its resources to include an online Directory of screened, gay-friendly wedding, travel and home-related businesses. The website has been upgraded once previously in its eight-year history; the fresh look was unveiled on December 1st highlights an addition of diverse resources newly available through the site.
“Despite the November 4th passage of Proposition 8 in California and the bans on gay marriage in Florida and Arizona,” says co-founder Marianne Puechl, “the services through RainbowWeddingNetwork are thriving. This speaks to the fact that our resources are needed now more than ever: we are a bridge for couples and advocates to find screened businesses they can trust… and likewise we provide direct opportunities for gay-friendly businesses to reach this booming target market.” She and her partner Cindy Sproul designed their business plan in 1999, and this year estimate a downstream revenue through their website of well over $7 million to their advertisers. “The fresh look of our site will be interactive, convenient and a lot of fun for our website users and for the businesses who are part of our Network. Moreover, the updated RainbowWeddingNetwork.com will continue to provide a degree of legitimization for the gay minority in America, concerning our fight for equality with regard to marriage.”
RainbowWeddingNetwork also produces many of the nation’s first Gay and Lesbian Wedding Expos and in recent years has presented twenty-five events in twelve states throughout America. The company plans to expand its Expo Calendar to ten additional events in 2009. In 2003 the company began publication of RainbowWeddingNetwork Magazine, the first full-color glossy dedicated to gay and lesbian weddings. The magazine is circulated throughout the nation.
For more information please visit http://www.gayweddings.us.com or http://www.RainbowWeddingNetwork.com. For information concerning national LGBTQ Wedding Expos, visit http://www.SameLoveSameRights.com and for additional same-sex wedding and marriage resources, visit http://www.RainbowWeddingNetworkMagazine.com.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/business-is-b…
Gay Star Trek Episode Finally Beams in at ‘Phase II’
The advanced fan film website, “Star Trek: Phase II,” is resurrecting a homosexual story-line deemed too risky for The Next Generation’s TV run.
The new online episode (“Blood and Fire”) goes live tomorrow and features a story by former Trek TV writer David Gerrold. While executives shot the story down as too controversial for broadcast originally, “Phase II” adapted the script for its recreated Original Series world.
The story features the nephew of James T. Kirk in a gay relationship with an Enterprise crewman as the ship faces an AIDS-like contagion and a threat from the Klingon Empire. It would seem Kirk would oppose California’s Prop 8 as the captain evidently agrees to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony for his nephew — if NCC-1701 survives.
See Gay Star Trek Episode Finally Beams in at ‘Phase II’
Wired News -
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/gay-star-trek…
