Timbre of a TimeFree Mind

[Dale Carpenter, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School]

In sum, a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage is not a response to any problem we currently have. The solemn task of amending the nation’s fundamental law should be reserved for actual problems. Never before in the history of the country have we amended the Constitution in response to a threatened (or actual) state court decision. Never before have we amended the Constitution to preempt an anticipated federal court ruling. Never before have we adopted a constitutional amendment to limit the states’ ability to control their own family law. Never before have we dictated to states what their own state laws and state constitutions mean. Never before have we amended the Constitution to restrict the ability of the democratic process to expand individual rights. This is no time to start. click here for FULL REPORT

NCDHR:The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) is part of a wider struggle to abolish "untouchability" and to "cast out caste". "Untouchability" and caste discrimination continue to be a brutal reality for more than 160 million Dalits living in India today, despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since India was born as a "democratic" and independent state.

"You must have firm belief in the sacredness of your mission. Noble is your aim and sublime and glorious is your mission. Blessed are those who are awakened to their duty to among those whom they are born." Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Recent photo of Mr. Darren

I've done it I'm back in school. I am taking Dreamweaver 2004 MX and Design Basics: Black and White. The Webpage design course is online and the Art class is on campus Tuesday and Thursday evenings (Portland Community College). I am very excited albeit nervous but I can feel my created juices bubbling up to the surface again. I have to give kudos to Darren for helping me to get to this point. I don't think that I would've come this far without his persistence, commitment and loyalty.

[Austin Business Journal]

Two large Central Texas employers -- Dell Inc. and IBM Corp. -- are among the country's 56 best major companies for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees, according to a new report. Round Rock-based Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM (NYSE: IBM) achieved perfect scores of 100 in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's third annual report card on corporate America's treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees.

Dell is the Austin area's largest corporate employer, with 16,000 workers. IBM is the Austin area's third largest corporate employer, with 6,300 workers. "Corporate America knows that fair treatment for employees is not just the right thing to do, it's good for the bottom line," says Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "These aren't movie ratings. An imperfect score could mean an unfair firing or families without health care."
LINK

[Statesman Journal]

A national gay-rights group is pouring money into Oregon to fight a proposed ban on gay marriage after deciding that this state represents one of its best shots at defeating a dozen similar measures on other state ballots this fall. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force donated $529,536 to defeat ballot Measure 36 on Oregon’s Nov. 2 ballot. The funds enabled opponents to raise nearly twice the amount as backers of the initiative.
LINK

[Gay News From 365Gay.com]

GOP Senate Candidate Allan Keyes Monday night refused to answer questions about a growing number of rumors that his daughter is a lesbian. Keyes, a Marylander who was parachuted into the race for the seat from Illinois, has been on the constant attack against gay issues and specifically same-sex marriage. At the Republican National Convention in New York Keyes said that homosexuality is "selfish hedonism." He made the remarks in a radio interview conducted by 365Gay.com's Michelangelo Signorile. (story)

Signorile then asked Keyes whether he considered Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney a "selfish hedonist."

"Of course she is," Keyes replied. "That goes by definition. Of course she is."
He then went on another talk show to say, "If my daughter were a lesbian, I'd look at her and say, `That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.' I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin, and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her to deal with that sin."
LINK

[Yahoo Business]

The gay and lesbian market is a market in transition -- or, perhaps, a market in maturation, according to "The U.S. Gay and Lesbian Market," a new report from market research publisher Packaged Facts. Written in collaboration with Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., a leading PR and marketing communications firm with special expertise on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, the report highlights the diversity within the gay and lesbian population -- families, seniors, people of color -- and the new sophistication with which marketers might address this demographic, whose buying power is projected to reach $610 billion in 2005.
LINK

Attorney General Jim Petro is the first state elected official to come forward opposing a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Petro says the vague language on the proposal makes it sound more intolerant than similar proposals in other states. The second line of the amendment says legal benefits would be denied to any unmarried couple. It's still not clear if the proposed amendment will appear on the November ballot.
Two of Petro's fellow Republican statewide officeholders support the amendment. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and Auditor Betty Montgomery in two years might be his opponents in the governor's race. Governor Bob Taft has not taken a public stance.

[The Guardian]

The Catholic Church blasted the government's plans to legalize gay marriage, saying Monday it would be like releasing a "virus'' into Spanish society.

The Cabinet is expected on Friday to pass a bill allowing same sex marriages, setting predominantly Roman Catholic Spain on course to join the vanguard of largely secular northern European countries that allow gay marriage or some version of it.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office in April heading a Socialist government with an ambitious agenda of social reforms, such as streamlined divorce and a relaxed abortion law. The church is furious, and spoke out Monday with some of its harshest words yet on one of Zapatero's boldest endeavors, gay marriage.

Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, said the church had nothing against homosexuals but feels a union of two people of the same sex is simply not a marriage.

Allowing this would create "a counterfeit currency in the body of society,'' Martinez Camino said in an interview on Spanish National Television.

Such legislation, he said, is like "imposing a virus on society, something false that will have negative consequences for social life.''

After Friday's expected approval in a Cabinet meeting, the bill goes to Parliament for debate.

Zapatero runs a minority government but is generally supported by two small leftist parties. The government says once the bill becomes law, gays would be able to start marrying next year.

That would mark a sea change for the country, where church officials admit that support has fallen in the generation that has come of age since the death in 1975 of Gen. Francisco Franco, whose right wing regime was closely linked to the church.

Polls say nearly half of Spain's Catholics almost never go to Mass, and a third say they are simply not religious.

A survey published Monday in the newspaper El Pais, which supports the Socialist party, said 62 percent of those questioned support gay marriage.

Spain would thus join Belgium and the Netherlands, which have legalized gay marriage. Sweden and Denmark have "civil union'' laws for same-sex couples, short of allowing outright gay marriage. However, in both of these countries the union can be blessed by the Lutheran Church, which is the official state religion.

[Ben Townley]

Attacks on London's lesbian and gay community have sharply increased over the last year, according to new figures from the Met Police. According to the capital's police force, homophobic attacks have risen by more than 10% in the last 12 months, with attacks including verbal and physical abuse.

Attacks rose from 1,365 in 2002 to 1,536 in the following twelve months the force says. However, it adds that the rise could be a result of increased confidence amongst the city's LGB community, rather than a spike in anti-gay feeling.

The Met says that a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the capital's gay populace has helped more crimes be reported as victims do not fear a homophobic response from officers.

In the past, lesbian and gay victims of crime could have been wary of the officer dealing with them and unsure about the force's stance on gay issues and homophobic in general, although a publicity campaign across the city and Pride festivals has helped dispel this image.

As well as working with the Gay Police Association (GPA) and non-police organisations to liase with the gay community, the force, along with others across the country, have also helped implement a third party reporting system for victims who are still too nervous to come forward and report their attack.

Officers are still keen to encourage more victims to come forward.

"We don't want to underestimate the impact homophobic crime has on people's lives," a spokesman for the Met said, calling for more victims to come forward.

[Paul Robert Reyes]

Liberty University's School of Law Mission Statement: "Liberty University School of Law aspires to produce future leaders who are clear thinkers, skilled legal practitioners, and morally responsible leaders of society. Thus the purpose of the School of Law is to equip graduates in law with a superior legal education in fidelity to the Christian faith expressed through the Holy scriptures."

At first blush, Liberty University's School of Law Mission Statement appears innocuous, but it is actually a dangerous and radical declaration. Falwell is making no bones about his Law School’s mission, saying that graduates of the school "would be on the Judeo-Christian side of every issue."

Lawyers should strive to be on the constitutional side of every issue, not litigating with a sectarian religious agenda in mind. If Falwell's cadre of attorneys will be on the Judeo-Christian side of every issue, does that mean that they will petition the Supreme Court for homosexuality to be punished by death, as proscribed by the Old Testament? Will a Falwell divorce lawyer demand that an adulterous husband have his eyes gouged out to prevent lusting after any more women?

How can you teach tolerance, when you believe there is only one true and correct viewpoint? Falwell's fundamentalist mentality will preclude him from hiring professors who believe in abortion, gay rights and women's rights. Falwell's law school is destined to be a citadel of intolerance.

In our pluralistic society we don't need an influx of Judeo-Christian lawyers with their atavistic "black and white" mentality, thumping their bibles, and seeking to deprive us of our hard-fought won civil liberties when fundamentalists rule in Saudi-Arabia, Iran and the Taliban's Afghanistan women are treated like chattel, freedom of the press is abolished and adherents of minority religions are persecuted and even killed.

If fundamentalists ruled in this country, homosexuals would be imprisoned, women's rights would be set back twenty years, Top 40 radio would play nothing but insufferable ditties like Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life", and religious minorities would be second-class citizens.

[Mark Stricherz Christianity Today]

Whatever comment you make about John Kerry's Christianity, it will fit somewhere in the spiritual timeline of his life.

Critics say Kerry, a Roman Catholic, has all the form and ritual of religion but almost none of the doctrine. Others see a selfless public servant of iron-clad Christian conscience unafraid to stand his ground on moral issues in opposition to a cardinal or bishop.

The image-buffers in the Democratic presidential campaign don't often allow a spiritual light to shine very far into the interior of John Kerry. But on occasion, Kerry himself opens up. A few months back, as his presidential campaign plane flew over Oregon's Hood River, he stared out the window. Later at an outdoor rally, he exclaimed,

"I was flying down the Hood River and the gorges. I was thinking: God! I need to get back here!

"I was planning on doing a little windsurfing."

Kerry was on his Wheels Up for a Stronger America tour. During a three-day, five-event swing through the Pacific Northwest, during which Christianity Today trailed the Kerry campaign, this was the only time the candidate invoked God's name publicly.

For Kerry, windsurfing is one measure of his spirituality. In a 1998 interview with American Windsurfer, he said windsurfing is more spiritually fulfilling than playing hockey because windsurfing "allows nature to play with you in ways that nature doesn't involve itself with a hockey game."

In that interview, Kerry provided some of his most detailed public comments about his theological ideals:

"I'm a Catholic and I practice, but at the same time I have an open-mindedness to many other expressions of spirituality that come through different religions. … I've spent some time reading and thinking about [religion] and trying to study it, and I've arrived at not so much a sense of the differences, but a sense of the similarities in so many ways; the value-system roots and linkages between the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible and the fundamental story that runs through all of this, that … really connects all of us.

"I've always been fascinated by the transcendentalists and the pantheists and others who found these great connections just in nature, in trees, the ponds, the ripples of the wind on the pond, the great feast of nature itself."

[AP]

Two months after Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis ordained an openly gay man as a minister, the church is being sanctioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Associate pastor Jay Wiesner, who was ordained July 25 and installed as Bethany's associate pastor Aug. 1, said he anticipated the sanction. "It saddens me that the church is being censured, but I think we expected it because we broke the guidelines," Wiesner, 31, told the Star Tribune. "I'm sad they had to do something, but we understand why this is taking place."

Under the policy of the Chicago-based ELCA, anyone in a same-sex relationship cannot be ordained unless they remain celibate. Bishop Craig Johnson of the ELCA Minneapolis Synod said in a letter that he was "censuring and admonishing" the church, but said he would not take any disciplinary action until the ELCA can vote on two key issues.

Johnson said he had asked Bethany Lutheran not to ordain Wiesner at least until after the ELCA had decided whether to ordain those who are gay and in committed relationships, and whether there should be a rite for the blessing of same-sex relationships. The ELCA could vote on those issues next year at its churchwide assembly in Orlando, Fla.
In his letter, Johnson said the congregation had "willfully disregarded" his request. "You pre-empted the ELCA's process by your decision," Johnson wrote. "This has put ordained leaders in our synod and the larger church in a difficult position with their congregations.

"You have broken an important and vital covenant with your fellow congregations."

Wiesner, who previously was Bethany's pastoral minister for outreach, said he has received nothing but "overwhelming support" from the congregation since his ordination. "There are many gay and lesbian clergy who are unable to serve, and many are doing so in the closet, which is sad," Wiesner said. "Bethany has come to a conclusion that they want to be a positive influence in this process, with the hopes that the ELCA will move forward." The Rev. Steven Benson, Bethany's pastor, said Johnson's action against the church could have been more harsh. The letter represents a healthy compromise, he said. "He's crafted his response in such a way that we can continue to do ministry and mission while still remaining under the disapproval of the ELCA," said Benson. "He chose something in the middle. At least he didn't disband us."

Dominic

[Rob Moritz]

The state Supreme Court is to hear arguments today on whether to keep the proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

Arguments are set for 9 a.m.

The drive to get the measure on the ballot was in response to a ruling earlier this year by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which said there is nothing in that state's constitution that prohibits civil unions between same-sex couples. The Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee gathered more than 200,000 signatures by the July 2 deadline to get the proposal on the ballot. Just 80,570 were needed. Several other states will consider similar proposals on their general election ballots, and it has also been an issue in the presidential race this year.

President Bush has called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

[The Data Lounge]

In a hotly contested presidential election many experts predict may be as close as (or closer than) the 2000 election, gay and lesbian voters angered by President Bush's support of an anti-gay amendment could play a pivotal role in putting swing states into the blue column, Reuters reported Monday.

In such battleground states as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where only a few hundred votes separated Bush from Democratic candidate Al Gore in 2000, mobilization by gay and lesbian voters could tip the balance in the favor of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry. Exit polls from the 2000 election estimated that about one million self-identified gay and lesbian voters chose Bush. "We're talking about a few thousand votes that could decide this election," Chrissy Gephardt, lesbian daughter of Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, told Reuters. "Given how close these elections have been, for gay and lesbian voters to come out makes a huge difference." San Francisco

[The Data Lounge]

Despite progress in the realm of legal rights for its gay and lesbian citizens over the last 20 years, France remains a deeply homophobic nation run by a president who has yet to make a significant commitment to equal rights, the openly gay mayor of Paris reveals in a new autobiography, according to Agence France-Presse.

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who made huge waves with a coming-out interview on national television in 1998, criticizes the government of President Jacques Chirac for its record on LGTB rights and Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy for his insinuation that Delanoe used his sexuality for political gain. The 54-year-old Parisian mayor also depicts a cultural silence surrounding homosexuality- especially outside of major cities such as Paris.

"Outside certain circles homosexuality is still something to be endured," Delanoe writes in Life, Passionately. "In small towns, and especially in the countryside, homos are condemned to secrecy. To be homo is to be different, from a minority- not like the rest," the Agence France-Presse reports. PARIS, FRANCE

(AP)

A complaint filed with a Canadian broadcasting council has prompted evangelist Jimmy Swaggart to say he regrets talking about killing gay men in a televised worship service.

Audio clips purporting to be of the Sept. 12 Swaggart service have circulated on gay-oriented Web sites, with Swaggart saying "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry."

"And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died," Swaggart says, to laughter and applause from the congregation.

A complaint was sent to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a self-regulating industry group that enforces broadcast standards, after a Toronto television station broadcast the service, said Ann Mainville-Neeson, the group's executive director.

Expressing regret, Swaggart is quoted in The Times-Picayune on Tuesday saying the remark "was a tongue-in-cheek statement best left unsaid. I won't make it anymore." Swaggart explained he was talking figuratively about killing: "I've said it about other people, including other preachers." Swaggart also dismissed contentions from gay advocacy groups that such language encourages violence against gay men and lesbians.

"Good gracious alive, it would be a long stretch of the imagination to come up with that," he said.
Even so, he said: "I was unwise in making the statement. All of us have made statements we wish we hadn't made. That was one for me."

[Mazal Mualem]

After 19 years of living together, former Meretz MK (Member of Knesset) Prof. Uzi Even and his partner Dr. Amit Kamah, were married last Friday at Toronto city hall. On the same occasion, they served as witnesses for the marriage of their friends, Yoav Kinias and Doron Azouri, a Givatayim couple who have lived together for eight years.

Now back in Israel, the two couples are gearing up for a struggle to win recognition as married (homosexual) couples from the Israeli Interior Ministry. On October 20, they are planning to hold a large wedding celebration in Tel Aviv, and then to undertake the campaign to win that recognition. "This wedding gives us recognition, so we can finally invite family and friends to celebrate with us," said Even.

Homosexual marriage is legal in Canada so, if necessary, the couples plan to petition the High Court of Justice to force the court to recognize the discrimination in the refusal of the Interior Ministry to register the legally binding Canadian marriage; and they want the court to note that not honoring the marriage would violate international treaties to which Israel is a signatory.

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz's office said no application for recognition of the marriage has yet been submitted but if it is up to Poraz, he would be happy to recognize the marriage. If the request comes in, said the office, Poraz will seek the counsel of the ministry's legal adviser. Even said he met with Poraz before the trip to Canada, and that as the minister, Poraz has the authority to recognize the marriage. "This will be a test of Poraz's integrity."

Even, who was the first openly gay MK, said he expects a long legal battle, "but somebody had to be first."

Kamah said that in addition to the ideological side of the campaign, there are practical aspects of marriage that include advantages for married couples denied to single people, such as the right to adopt and recognition by insurance companies of benefits for spouses.

"This is not merely symbolic," said Kinias. "It has a concrete significance for us. Just on the matter of a spouse being able to sign in case of medical procedures, it is important for us."

Despite the relatively tolerant attitude toward the homosexual community in Israel, the two couples say that when it comes to legislation, Israel has made no progress whatsoever when compared to Western nations. Kinias commented that, "Everyone comes along to the Gay Pride Parades, but when it comes to the official, legislative level, there has been no progress. We expected Shinui to forge the changes, but the disappointment has been great."

Even says that another gay couple also seeking official recognition of their union has been told that the Interior Ministry is waiting for the High Court to rule on another case concerning a lesbian couple who is seeking to register a child they adopted in the U.S.

[DAVID O'REILLY]

Citing legal errors, a United Methodist jurist has ordered a new hearing to decide whether the Rev. Elizabeth Stroud must face a church trial. Retired Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, who is overseeing the case for the United Methodist Church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, declared last week that a special church committee's indictment of Stroud - a Philadelphia minister in a relationship with another woman - was "null and void." Yeakel called for a new hearing to decide whether Stroud should face a trial that could expel her from the ministry in the United Methodist Church. The denomination bars the ordination of "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals."

Stroud has served as an associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown for the past five years. No date has been set for a new hearing. Yeakel informed the conference last week that its specially appointed investigation committee was improperly constituted when it voted 5-3 on July 23 to send Stroud's case to trial. The committee included two laypeople, whereas church law requires all members to be clergy, Yeakel noted in his Sept. 9 letter. With only six valid members, the committee lacked a quorum and its decisions were not valid, he said. LINK

[R Godwin]

Voters will decide whether to amend the Louisiana Constitution to ban gay marriage today. Also, local races are on the ballot. The amendment would prevent the state from recognizing gay marriages, regardless of whether they were performed inside or outside Louisana. The amendment would also would ban recognition of civil unions. If the amendment passes. as is expected, gay marriage supporters have vowed to go to the courts to challenge the amendment on the basis that it deals with more than one issue.
LINK

[Kevin Osborne]

When Cincinnati voters head to the polls in November, they will decide on a 14-word repeal of a charter amendment that hinges on a hotly contested debate about issues of discrimination and preferential treatment for gays and lesbians.
Citizens to Restore Fairness called the repeal essential to overturning a city law that penalizes homosexual and bisexual people.
LINK

[Robin Turner]


THE Archbishop of Wales has placed himself firmly in the liberal camp in the increasingly bitter split over gay sex in the world Anglican church. Dr Barry Morgan said, "In many countries of or world people are being persecuted simply because of their sexual orientation. "In fact there are 80 countries in the world which persecute gay and lesbian people through their penal codes with punishments ranging from death to mutilation and imprisonment. "We do not as a church want to do anything that adds to the suffering and marginalisation of such people."

The Archbishop was speaking this week at the Church in Wales governing body meeting in Lampeter. He made it clear he believes the church had a role in speaking on social and political issues. He said clerics were often criticised for not sticking to strictly religious issues. But he said, "The implication of that criticism is that the Christian faith has nothing to do with the issues of daily living but has to do with a relationship with God, separated from and abstracted from the problems of the world in which we live. "The very meaning of incarnation is that this God of Jesus got involved in the mess of daily living not by being religious but by touching the lives of those excluded by religious and moral political authorities."

The 70-million strong church is sharply divided, with Anglicans in some African and other nations strongly condemning same-sex relationships.
This summer when the Anglican Church of Canada affirmed the "integrity and sanctity" of gay relationships, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies derided it as "unacceptable to Bible-believing, orthodox Christians." And the consecration in the USA of the gay bishop Gene Robinson has caused several provinces to cut ties with America.
LINK

[GRAEME SMITH]
WINNIPEG -- The first day a homosexual couple ever tried to get a marriage licence in Canada was a cloudy Monday evening in February of 1974. Chris Vogel remembers walking into the basement of a government building in Winnipeg with his partner Rich North and asking a clerk for marriage papers.

"The registrar came out and said, 'This is a joke, right?' " Mr. Vogel, 57, said yesterday with a chuckle.

Three decades later, Mr. Vogel and others who challenged Manitoba's marriage laws are enjoying a last laugh. A court decision yesterday made Manitoba the fifth jurisdiction in Canada to allow same-sex marriages, and marked the first time the federal government made no attempt to block or delay such a ruling.

Mr. Justice Douglas Yard of the Court of Queen's Bench noted that at least 12 other judges have already decided that forbidding gays to marry would be unconstitutional and he endorsed that view.

"The traditional definition of marriage is no longer constitutionally valid in view of the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," Judge Yard said. Courts in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Yukon have issued similar decisions, and another challenge is under way in Nova Scotia.

The Manitoba court fell silent for a moment after Judge Yard gave his ruling. "Then afterward, everybody was kissing and hugging everybody else," said Patricia Lane, a lawyer for the three couples who opposed the law.

Later yesterday morning, some of Ms. Lane's clients visited the provincial Vital Statistics Agency and asked for marriage licences. They got a much warmer reception than Mr. Vogel received in 1974, said Laura Fouhse, 35, who plans to marry Jordan Cantwell, 37, in a church ceremony this weekend. They walked up to a counter and a smiling clerk handed them some forms to fill out. "Somebody had crossed out 'groom' and 'bride' and written 'party,' so they were probably expecting us," Ms. Fouhse said. "The woman behind the counter seemed very pleased."

Mr. Vogel said he and his partner were also happy about the decision, but for them it's a purely symbolic victory. They won't bother to make a return trip to the vital statistics office and get an official marriage licence, he said, because they already won earlier decisions giving them the same benefits as heterosexual common-law couples, which in Manitoba are equivalent to those of married spouses.

But the long fight was worthwhile, Mr. Vogel added. He and Mr. North were fresh out of university when they first decided to marry, inspired by a handful of U.S. activists who tried to do the same thing. Their clergyman was so nervous about the marriage that he drove into the countryside to mail the paperwork, hoping that the postal delay would give him enough time to perform the ceremony before anybody could stop him.

The ceremony happened without any problem, but a judge rejected the couple's attempt to make the marriage official. Advocates of same-sex marriage say the fight isn't over, however. They expect to launch challenges in all remaining provinces, and their biggest test comes on Oct. 6 when the Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to hear a reference about same-sex marriage submitted by the federal government. Ottawa asked the country's highest court to consider draft legislation that would change the definition of marriage in federal law.

[Associated Press]

Saturday is election day in Louisiana. Statewide voters will decide whether to add to the Louisiana constitution that would define legal marriage here as the union of one man/one woman. Proponents call it the "Marriage Protection Amendment." Others call it the "Gay Marriage Ban."

Other issues on the ballot in Southwest Louisiana include a hotly contested race for Third Circuit Court of Appeal. State District Judge David Painter is challenging incumbent Judge Billie Woodard. Another high profile race is the competition for Ward 3 Lake Charles City Marshal. Six candidates are vying for that post. If no one gets more than half the vote the two top contenders will be thrust into a runoff Nov. Secretary of State Fox McKeithen says voters who find their polling places flooded because of Hurricane Ivan may be directed elsewhere, primarily those who normally vote in Grand Isle or in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, which sustained the worse parts of the storm. McKeithen says preparations have been made to haul voting machines to dry ground if necessary.

[TheSanDiegoChannel.com]

free speech battle at Poway High School goes before a federal judge today, 10News reported. The federal suit said sophomore Chase Harper, 16, was suspended for expressing his "sincerely held religious beliefs," 10News reported.

Harper wore the shirt during and after the April 21 "Day of Silence," a national event held on high school and college campuses to protest discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The T-shirt had the words, "I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned" hand-written on the front and "Homosexuality is Shameful" on the back.

When Harper wore a similar shirt the next day, a teacher told him he was violating the school dress code and must remove the shirt or go to the office.

The suit contends the school's assistant principal said the shirt violated the code because it had homemade printing and was inflammatory. Harper was suspended after refusing to remove it.

But, according to 10News, other local school districts have similar policies regarding dress. For example, Sweetwater Union's dress and grooming policy states "clothing must not present ... a distraction which interferes with the education process." It goes on to say "no student shall ... wear clothing ... which express or advocate racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice."

Harper is suing for $25,000 in damage, claiming the school violated his freedom of speech.
LINK

[Worldnetdaily]

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble should be boycotted for its efforts to overturn a local law barring special rights to homosexuals, says Focus on the Family founder and chairman James Dobson. Dobson will urge listeners of his daily radio program today to stop buying two of the company's best-known products, Tide laundry detergent and Crest toothpaste.

His half-hour program reaches about 9 million listeners a week in North America.
LINK

[Gordon Prather]

If not getting nuked in your jammies is high on your priority list, then maybe your best bet is to vote for John Kerry.

Kerry has just endorsed last October's Brit-French-German agreement with Iran, whereby they pledged to facilitate "the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy" if Iran agreed to sign and abide by an additional protocol to their existing Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) already requires such transfers. Why was the Brit-French-German-Russian pledge necessary? Because for more than 20 years, the United States has prevented - and still seeks to prevent - such transfers to Iran.

Even before Bush declared "victory" in Iraq, the neo-crazies had begun making the same unsubstantiated charges about illicit nukes in Iran they had so effectively made about Iraq, hoping, thereby, to scare you soccer-moms into endorsing an invasion of Iran.

Next week the Bush Administration will try to convince the IAEA Board of Directors to refer the alleged Iranian nuke program to the UN Security Council for ''action.'' Bush wants a Security Council resolution - similar to the one he used as an excuse to invade Iraq - warning Iran of ''serious consequences'' if they are unable to convince him that they have no nuke ambitions.
LINK

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter.
He said the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council, not unilaterally.

The UK government responded by saying the attorney-general made the "legal basis... clear at the time".
LINK

[Nicolas Rothwell]

A MAZE of crowded, hostile streets surrounds the well-defended centre of Baghdad, much like the wilderness of threats and multiplying enemies that now confronts the American-led coalition in Iraq.

After the worst day of terror in the capital since the handover of power to the interim Government, with the seizure of Western hostages and the sabotage of Iraqi oil facilities at a new peak, it is at last clear how close the country stands to a breakdown of authority.

And with the American - and Australian - election cycles reaching their climax, the stakes are at their highest for two of the Western countries that decided to occupy and rebuild Iraq.

Behind the scenes, a protracted set of negotiations involving the American military, and aimed at striking workable deals in the most unstable regions of the country, have come to nothing, while the boldness of the insurgents and terror cells suggests that their efforts are coming to a well-orchestrated crescendo.

One immediate aim of the violence that has been reignited in Baghdad and surrounding cities is to shock and dismay the public in Western countries, and to secure the November defeat of the Iraq war's chief author, US President George W. Bush.
The Australian[September 16, 2004]

The homophobic lyrics of Jamaican reggae stars have hit the headlines, but what is the reality of being gay in a society where it is illegal to practise your sexuality?

Michael is verbally abused, threatened and spat at every time he leaves his home in Kingston, Jamaica, but the 20-year-old student considers himself lucky.

He has friends who have been beaten and stabbed because they are gay but, as yet, he has not been attacked. He knows it could happen anytime.

"My friends have been chopped up and all of that, you'd think they were a piece of meat in the slaughter house. It is terrible," he says.

Every time he goes out he is called a "battyman" - an abusive term for a gay man - and says the general attitude in Kingston is if you are homosexual you may as well be dead.
BBC NEWS

[REBECCA LIPCHITZ]

Since gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, some companies that had offered health benefits for domestic partners are now offering them only to married couples. The move marks a reversal of sorts, at least on the part of larger employers.

Over the past five years, a large number of major employers in Massachusetts those with 1,000 workers or more began offering health coverage to employees' domestic partners, said Cameron Congdon, principal at Towers Perrin, a Boston human resources consulting firm.

Studies show that giving domestic partners benefits usually costs employers up to an additional 3 percent. Once many companies discovered the relative low cost, they offered benefits for philosophical reasons, Congdon said.

But since gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts on May 17, more than half of the state's companies that had provided the benefit have changed their policies. They no longer offer domestic-partner benefits, providing them only to married couples both gay and straight.

Lowell Sun Online

[KRISTEN WYATT]

Where did Georgia's gay marriage debate go?

The firecracker issue dominated headlines and water-cooler talk during last winter's legislative session, but once the constitutional amendment was confirmed by lawmakers and sent to voters, both sides quieted.

The loudest supporters of the amendment, the Christian Coalition of Georgia, turned their sights to summer primary elections. On the other side, a coalition of nearly 100 groups that support gay rights had difficulty getting organized and raising money.

Now, less than two months before voters decide whether same-sex marriages should be banned in the state constitution, not just the law, both sides are weighing the best tactics for success in November.
AP Wire

[Geov Parrish]

Washington will be the next big battleground for gay marriage.

It was here and gone, one day's newspaper headline, but last week's Thurston County Superior Court ruling in Olympia--that the state's badly misnamed Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional--virtually guarantees that the question of gay marriage will go to the state Supreme Court.

When it does, expect fireworks.
Seattle Weekly

Toronto - A court in Ontario, Canada, has given the go-ahead for the country's first same-sex divorce in the Divorce Act after finding the legal definition of spouse to be unconstitutional.

The lesbian couple - identified only as JH and MM - had been together for about 10 years when they married in 2003, soon after same-sex marriages were legalised, and separated five days later.

"We believe this is the first gay divorce in the world," lawyer Martha McCarthy said. - Sapa-AP
IOL: North America: " Green light for gay divorce in Canada"

[HANK SCHOUTEN]

The Pope's views on Sunday sport and his suggestion the Civil Union Bill "violated God's plan for humanity" have prompted angry and bemused responses from lobbyists, politicians and sports administrators.
The Pope urged a delegation of New Zealand bishops, who were on a five-yearly visit to Italy, to "defend the sanctity and uniqueness of marriage". He said efforts to equate marriage between man and woman to other forms of cohabitation violated "God's plan for humanity".
Rationalists and Humanists Association secretary Paul Litterick said the Government should tell the Pope to stay out of New Zealand's business.
LINK

[Jodi Unruh]

The majority of the Eugene City Councilors is taking a stand against a constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian marriages. The council passed a resolution Monday night to oppose Measure 36.

This isn't the first time that the Eugene City Councilors have passed a resolution like this. The most recent one was against the Patriot Act.

The councilors voted five to three to uphold a resolution against Measure 36. If passed, the measure would amend the Oregon constitution to state that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage.

The issue emerged after thousands of gay and lesbian couples got married in Multnomah County this year. A judge later voided those unions.
LINK

"The universe, open to the eye today, looks as it did a thousand years ago.... We see what all our fathers saw.

And if we cannot find God in your house or in mine, upon the roadside or the margin of the sea; in the bursting seed or opening flower; in the day duty or the night musing; in the general laugh and the secret grief; in the procession of life, ever entering afresh, and solemnly passing by and dropping off; I do not think we should discern him any more on the grass of Eden, or beneath the moonlight of Gethsemane." [James Martineau]

A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'f*cking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.

Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

Last week, the offices of Powell and Straw contacted Public Affairs, the US publishers of Naughtie's book, to say they would vigorously deny the claims if publication went ahead. But as no legal action was threatened, the US launch of the book, The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency, will proceed as planned this week.

Naughtie stands by his claims and is said to be privately delighted that Powell and Straw have reacted so violently to the suggestion that the former US general had fallen out with the 'neo-cons'.
LINK [Guardian Newspapers Limited]

[By George Dvorsky]

I'm a bit of a science fiction movie junky, so it was with great interest that I recently came across the results of a poll conducted by the Guardian about the best science fiction movies of all time. Sixty leading scientists were asked to rank their favorite science fiction films, a group that included such thinkers as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, quantum physicist David Deutsch, psychologist Steven Pinker and Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI.

As a futurist and transhumanist, I looked at their results with great anticipation and seriousness. The science fiction genre, sometimes referred to as speculative fiction, is a particularly valuable medium for engaging in prediction and foresight. It's an effective and entertaining way in which to portray plausible futures.

In fact, I often assess the successfulness of a science fiction film based on its ability to do exactly this. Movies such as Star Wars are fine from an entertainment perspective, but offer little in their exploration of the human condition. In my mind, the most important science fiction films are the ones that speak to humanity's relationship with its science and technology, and the risks and benefits they hold for the future. Really, it's future-realism that I'm after rather than fantasy.

Thus, given the prominence of the scientists asked, it was with great delight that I discovered my own personal favorite ranked at number one: Ridley Scott's 1982 classic, Blade Runner. Today, given the potential for radically redesigned humans, cloning and artificial intelligence, Blade Runner has never been more relevant nor more important.
LINK

Joining with members of trade and building unions throughout Oregon, the state's Labor Commissioner expressed his opposition Thursday to a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the Associated Press reported. In anticipation of a November 2nd statewide vote on Measure 36, the marriage amendment ballot measure, Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner spoke against a ban on marriage rights from a standpoint of workers' rights. "All working people should be treated fairly and equally," Gardner told the Associated Press, "and be able to share the benefit of that labor with their spouses and families." Link

It caught me by surprise. I turned around and there she was, arms wide open and coming directly towards me. We weren't that far apart but it seemed like she was coming toward me for a long time. It was one of those moments when time is meaningless and and what is about to happen is going to be very meaningful.

This was one of those instances. "I am so happy for you, Kevin....I can see you are very happy." "Of course I am, Mom" I answered nervously....But she continued, "I can see you are indeed very content and happy, I am so happy for you." It was during this time that we connected and I got one of those hugs that you can only get from your mother. The type that reminds me of just how beautiful our relationship was when I was her little boy and she was my world. "Thank you mom, I am happy." I tried to hide the watering in my eyes....I'm not sure I was successful.

Not very long ago I wasn't sure I would ever be happy again...But it has been revealed to me that time does heal. It may take years, but it does eventually heal. I never thought that I would be standing in a living room, in a different house, with a new life, a new hug from my mom. I did not think that I would have a life again...Certainly not one that I could enjoy.

A hug in a living room of a house that has become my home has helped me to see exactly how life can change. It reminded me that things always change...I won't ever feel the same way forever. That is the beauty of life. Change. A hug from a very important person on an ordinary day helped to define that for me.

LONDON (AP) - A commission seeking to resolve the Anglican Communion's crisis over a homosexual U.S. bishop and other gay issues wrapped up its work Friday and said it would publish its report Oct. 18. The commission, chaired by Irish primate Robin Eames, issued a brief statement as it ended a weeklong meeting at Windsor Castle, west of London. Before the meeting, Eames said the panel would probably "recommend radical changes in the ways Anglicanism relates to its different constituencies," but Friday's statement gave no further clues about the recommendations.

The commission is dealing with a deep split among and within Anglican national churches caused by the election of V. Gene Robinson, who has a male partner, as bishop of New Hampshire, and by the decision by a Canadian diocese to bless gay relationships. Robinson's election has left rifts within the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church of the United States, and some conservative churches in Africa and elsewhere have refused to meet with Episcopal Church leaders.

There have been calls to suspend the Episcopal Church from the global communion, and some Episcopal churches have formed relationships with African bishops rather than accept oversight from bishops who approved of Robinson's appointment. The commission said it would publish its report in London at the start of a meeting of senior Anglican officials. The Anglican Communion is an association of independent national churches with 77 million members. In the United States, eight of the 107 Episcopal dioceses have joined the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, created six months ago in opposition to denominational leaders.

This week, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles filed lawsuits against three breakaway parishes that aligned themselves with Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, head of Uganda's 8 million-member church who said he acted to uphold "biblical orthodoxy." On Sept. 15, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey will preside at confirmation services for 11 parishes in Virginia that have rejected their own bishop because of his support for Robinson.
link

[AP]

SANTA FE - Most of the 402 registered voters recently polled in New Mexico would oppose a law legalizing same-sex marriage.

The survey conducted by telephone found 62 percent of those polled oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, 28 percent support it and 10 percent are undecided, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Friday.

The poll was commissioned by the Journal and was conducted Aug. 27-Sept. 1 by Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc.

The poll results suggest same-sex marriage legislation in New Mexico would "fail miserably," said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc.

The poll found New Mexicans were more closely divided on same-sex civil unions. Forty-nine percent of those polled said they oppose same-sex civil unions and 44 percent support them. The poll found 7 percent were undecided.

Sanderoff said a proposal to legalize same-sex civil unions has a better shot of being approved. Civil unions would allow same-sex partners many of the benefits, rights and protections of marriage, but don't have the same status as marriage.

"A civil union law would have an uphill battle, but would still have a chance," Sanderoff said.

Republicans, voters in eastern New Mexico, those who regularly attend church, conservatives and Hispanics were most likely to oppose same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions, according to the poll.

"Church attendance is a major predictor," Sanderoff said.

Those who favored gay marriage had no political affiliation or were registered as something other than Democrat or Republican. Those with higher household incomes and more education were also more likely to favor same-sex marriage and civil unions, the poll found.

The poll results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The registered voters polled said they were likely to vote in the Nov. 2 general election.
link

[AP]
A homosexual killer is leading police on a harrowing journey into an underworld they never knew existed. It's up to officer Lan to solve the case before another victim is found, but he must first confront his own prejudices against a gay brother he refuses to accept.

It sounds a lot like a hot new Hollywood teaser - only it's in Vietnamese.

Vietnam's favorite TV show, "The Crime Police," opens its new season this month by tackling a taboo topic and offering a lesson about tolerance. The plot is groundbreaking for this communist country where sex is mentioned only in whispers, homosexuality is still largely considered a disease, and the state tightly controls publishing and broadcasting.
click here for article

Iranian government has started to filter popular websites and weblogs in Iran, while the Internet is effecively the only unrestricted interactive medium accessable to Iranians. The purpose of stop.censoring.us is to provide official and unofficial accounts on Internet censorship in Iran so that International observers and activists have a beter picture about the situation of freedom of information in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
click here for site

Is the president at risk of losing a million gay and lesbian voters?
click here to read

"Certain moments in history require that a belief in fairness and equality not be sacrificed in the name of partisan politics; this is one of those moments. The national board's vote empowers Log Cabin to maintain its integrity while furthering our goal of building a more inclusive Republican Party. Log Cabin is more committed than ever to its core mission to build a stronger and more inclusive Republican Party. There is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, and that fight is bigger than one platform, one convention, or even one President," said Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Patrick Guerriero.
click here to read

[AP]

Catholic and Protestant churches are condemning a government decision to grant legal recognition to three LGBT rights groups. "It's sad that the government is giving its blessing to homosexuals," Roman Catholic Church spokesman Jesus Mora told a news conference. He said the government measure implies "that kind of behavior is acceptable." Link

[Paul Johnson]

Congress returns today from its August break with the House set to take up the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, among other bills and measures, before the November election.

The proposed amendment to the US Constitution would ban same-sex marriages. A similar measure failed in the Senate in July after Democrats opposed it and Republicans could not agree on whether it should also ban civil unions. Link

[OIA Newswire]

Three same-sex couples have attempted to defy Nova Scotia's Supreme Court decision to deny them marriage licenses. Their suit states that because the federal government did not oppose the Supreme Court rulings in three other provinces and the Yukon Territory that modified the previous definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, Nova Scotia cannot legally refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Nova Scotia's provincial government said it is waiting for the federal government to nationally legalize gay marriage before issuing licenses to its own same-sex couples.
link

[Andy Harley, OutInUK]

LONDON -- In the same week as The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that it would not "strike down" the armed forces' ban on private, consensual sodomy, known as Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Royal Air Force in the UK announced that it would participate in the Manchester Gay Pride Parade this weekend.

Rules preventing gays serving in the UK armed services were scrapped in 2000.
The participation for the RAF at Manchester Pride will be the first time the military has participated in a gay event.
Click here to read story

POPE John Paul II kept up his campaign against gay marriage, saying yesterday legal guarantees "cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage." The Pope made the remarks in a speech to the new Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See, Donald Smith. The text of the speech was released by the Vatican.In past months, he urged authorities to stop approving gay marriages, saying that they degrade the true sense of marriage between a man and a woman.
Herald Sun

Roses today...

[Evan Wolfson]

On the historic, horrific morning of September 11, 2001, John kissed his wife, Rosa, goodbye before heading to his job as an office-cleaner in the World Trade Center's North Tower. Rosa never heard from her husband again. After searching frantically for days, Rosa accepted the reality of his disappearance. She filed for a death certificate and arranged her husband's memorial service. Rosa received Workers' Compensation from the state and a small Social Security death benefit from the federal government. She contacted John's former employer, who arranged for receipt of his pension. Because John and Rosa had few assets, they had never seen the need for a will, nor did they have the financial means to hire a lawyer to prepare one. Nonetheless, John's assets, which included a small savings account, their home and a car, were given to Rosa by law.

That same morning, Juan kissed Ryan, his partner of 21 years, goodbye and headed to his job as a file-clerk in that same North Tower. Like Rosa, Ryan never heard from Juan again. Ryan applied for Workers Compensation and Social Security, but, unlike Rosa, he was told he was not eligible for those benefits because he was not Juan's legal spouse. Even though Juan and Ryan had taken some precautions to protect their commitment such as registering as domestic partners, designating one another as beneficiaries on insurance policies, and executing health care proxies and powers of attorney and even though Juan paid the same taxes as John, Ryan was not automatically entitled to any of the compensations given to Rosa. In addition to his emotional devastation, Ryan was financially devastated as well.

Why did Rosa have an economic safety net, while Ryan did not? The answer can be summed up in two words:

"I do." click here for entire article

[By Eric Boehlert Salon.com]

The Republican campaign gets ready for shock waves, as the former Texas official who says he pulled strings to get George W. Bush into the Air National Guard finally goes public.The campaign battle over Vietnam War records is still raging, but President Bush may soon be the one answering uncomfortable questions about his past service. Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has already sat down for a "60 Minutes" interview that will air a week from Sunday. A "60 Minutes" spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program does not discuss reports that are in progress.

Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he was "very ashamed" of getting Bush into the National Guard began circulating on the Web. He said the remorse was prompted by a recent visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, where he saw the names of thousands of other young men who did not enjoy the connections of the Bush family. Barnes made his comments in May and the video was posted on a pro-Kerry Web site in June, but word of it only began to spread widely last Friday.

click here for article

[Toby Johnson]

The answer to the "Gay Marriage Debate" lies in traditional Roman Catholic doctrine and old-time conservative political ideology.

The Catholic Church teaches that the "ministers" or "celebrants" of the sacrament of Matrimony are the two people who are marrying one another, not the priest. The priest is present simply to witness the marriage (and because it is a legal contract to record it) and to offer the community's blessing on the new life the pair has chosen to share together.

The Church doesn't perform the sacrament: the couple does.

And the way sacraments work is that they work if the people performing them believe they work. In the condemnation of the early Church heresy of Donatism, theologians held that the moral state of the priest didn't matter (and neither does the priest's approval or opinion of the marriage). The validity of the sacrament is in the belief of the receiver. The sacrament happens ex opere operato.

Remember in catechism class the nuns taught that if somebody is dying you should baptize them (whether you have any business doing so or not) and you should hear their confession if they want to confess to you (cause in their delirium they might think you're a priest). If people believe they are receiving a valid sacrament, then they are.

Gay couples who adminster the sacrament of Matrimony to one another do--ex opere operato.

It's the state, not the sacramental system or God, that is determined by legal rules. BUT the very basis of conservative political ideology is that the state should stay out of the private lives of individuals. Things like God, religion, sacraments--and personal relationships--are none of the government's business.

And they are correct about that.

The government's role is to witness and record the contract. And that's all. Certainly not to tell individuals who they can and can't marry.

So, ironically, according to Catholic teaching and Conservative (Republican???) political theory, gay couples who want to enter into a contractual relationship and concelebrated sacramental union can and do.

And the answer to the question "what does the Bible say about homosexuality?" lies in orthodox Protestant theology.

Central to the Protestant Reformation was the idea of "private interpretation of Scripture," i.e. it wasn't the officials of the Roman Catholic Church who should declare what the Bible says, but rather the Holy Spirit working in the souls of the faithful.

So what the Bible says and means is what it says and means to me, and to you, that is, what it means to the individual reader.

Fundamentalist preachers and TV evangelists have no more authority than the R.C. Church in this regard. They have no business telling other people what the Bible says; they can only say what it says to them. The rest of us are on our own also. When we read the Bible, what we get from it is what comes forth from our interior inspiration.

What the Bible says to homosexuals is what homosexuals get from reading the Bible. We naturally see that the taboos and primitive rules and primitive interpretations of biblical times have little meaning for modern, psychologically-sophisticated, rationally-minded, 21st century high-tech culture. And so what the Bible really says about homosexuality is what we, with enlightened minds and good hearts, understand. And that ought neccessarily be gay-positive.

Besides, Jesus's advice was to abandon all those old and numerous commandments of the books of the Law. One Commandment I give you, he said, Love One Another.

Isn't that simple?

The value of the gay marriage debate is that it demonstrates to young homosexuals that true love and stable relationship awaits them, not the isolation and loneliness that popular belief used to hold out as the inevitable future for homosexuals. How wonderful for such youth struggling to understand and cope with their burgeoning sexual orientation to find role models in the lesbian and gay couples who are coming forth to proclaim their commitment to one another and petition that their de facto legal and economic issues be accommodated in the law.

And the prejudice, meanness, and narrow-mindedness of the opposition to acknowledging the reality of gay relationships demonstrates to gay people at least--and maybe also to a sizable segment of psychologically- sophisticated non-gay moderns--that so-called conservative thinking and old time religion fail to encourage loving attitudes, harmonious behavior, and spiritual enlightenment.

This should remind the gay population how important it is that they lead exemplary lives of kindness, generosity, good citizenship, and integrity. Since people whom today we'd likely call by the inexact term "gay" have throughout time been the artists, cultural leaders, and spiritual guides on the "cutting edge" of human evolution, it's a good thing for contemporary homosexuals to be impelled to demonstrate and promote compassionate attitudes toward all racial, ethnic, and cultural minorities.

The struggle for same sex marriage is not about besmirching traditional arrangements but really about creating that "kinder and gentler society" the first George Bush had supposedly called for. It's about urging the majority of Americans to be compassionate instead of prejudiced, and kind and generous instead of petty and selfish.

[By Scott Tobias via The Onion]

Vincent Gallo has expressed himself in every medium and forum imaginable: as an actor in films such as Palookaville, The Funeral, and Trouble Every Day; as a Calvin Klein model; as a media personality; as a noted photographer and artist; and as a musician whose work ranges from garage to avant-garde to quiet solo ventures like 2001's When and 2002's Recordings Of Music For Film. But it was as the writer, director, and star of the auspicious 1998 debut feature Buffalo '66 that Gallo earned notoriety beyond independent circles, as well as an uncompromising reputation that has polarized moviegoers and...
Read full text here

[SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF]

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng yesterday appealed a Superior Court judge's ruling last month that keeping gay and lesbian couples from marrying serves no legitimate purpose.
King County Superior Court Judge William Downing found that the state's Defense of Marriage Act of 1998 -- which restricts marriage to a man and a woman -- is unconstitutional.
But the judge delayed implementation of his ruling until the state Supreme Court has considered the matter. Maleng's office yesterday appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Eleven out gays and lesbians are known to have participated in the Summer Olympics in Athens and seven of them won medals.
According to Outsports.com, openly gay Olympians included American equestrians Robert Dover and Guenter Seidel, British equestrian Carl Hester, New Zealand equestrian Blyth Tait, British hurdler Rob Newton, French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo, American tennis player Martina Navratilova, Spanish tennis player Conchita Martínez, Dutch swimmer Johan Kenkhuis, German fencer Imke Duplitzer, and German cyclist Judith Arndt.
Arndt won a silver medal in the women’s road race, Mauresmo won a silver medal in women’s singles tennis, Martínez won a silver medal in women’s doubles tennis, Dover and Seidel won bronze medals in equestrian team dressage, Duplitzer won a silver medal in women’s team epee, and Kenkhuis and his teammates won silver medals in the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay.
Arndt was fined $162 for “flipping the bird” as she crossed the finish line. She was upset that her lover, Petra Rossner, had been cut from the German road race team, she said.
Dover told reporters there were many more gay Olympians than the 11 known to be out.
“You spend a day with these athletes, and it becomes obvious that gay people are everywhere,” he said. “The reason many of them aren’t out is because they’re focused on their job during this time when sports is the number-one thing in their lives.”
— Rex Wockner

[Lloyd Thornhill and Bob Peacock]

We first met Bob and Lloyd when we travelled to Vancouver to march in the 2002 Pride parade in support of gay marriage. The couple became fast friends, as they shared their music and stories with us, and we went on to do some radio programs together. The Vancouver same-sex marriage advocates were part of the B.C. court challenge for marriage: a victory that the couple were finally able to enjoy last month.
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