End Times and Current Events

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/04/world/same-sex-marriage-next-country/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
4/4/13
Same-sex marriage: Who will legalize it next?

(CNN) -- It's not just the United States grappling with the issue of same-sex marriage.

Many countries around the world are re-examining their laws, and some appear to be on the brink of changing them.

Senators in Uruguay approved a marriage equality bill Tuesday that puts them on course to be the 12th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

And this week, senators in France will begin weighing a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The bill, which has the support of President Francois Hollande, has cleared the lower house of Parliament.

It "would be a major advance for our country in terms of equality of rights," said the French gay, lesbian and transgender rights group Inter-LGBT. "The law must allow all couples to unite themselves as they wish and must protect all families, without discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity."

But like the United States, France is far from united on the issue. In January, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Paris to protest same-sex marriage. Most of France is Catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes the bill, along with social conservatives and other religious groups.

***Yet another Jesuitical, Hegelian Dialectic going on here...on one end, the gay right activists, and on the other end a pseudo-Christian group(RCC).

"I do not personally agree with gay marriage, as I am a Christian and believe what the Bible says about marriage being between one woman and one man for a lifetime," said CNN iReporter Oluwasegun Olowu-Davies, who shot video of the Paris march on his phone. "If your lifestyle doesn't allow you to conceive, there is a reason."

Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom is also considering legalization. In February, lawmakers in the House of Commons approved the second reading of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in England and Wales. (Scotland has its own legalization bill in the works, while Northern Ireland rejected a similar measure in October.)

More debate and more votes are still necessary before the bill can become law, but the wide margin of February's vote -- 400-175 -- suggests that it may have the support it needs to eventually pass. Prime Minister David Cameron is also in favor of the bill, despite opposition within his own party.

"I am a great supporter of marriage," Cameron said in the House of Commons. "I want to promote marriage, defend marriage, encourage marriage.

"The great thing about (February's) vote is that two gay people who love each other will now be able to get married, and I think that is an important advance. I think we should be promoting marriage rather than looking at any other way of weakening it."

A former British colony, New Zealand, could legalize same-sex marriage this month. After a marriage equality bill passed two readings in Parliament -- the latest in March by a 77-44 margin -- the third and final vote is widely expected to be a formality.

The public, however, might be more split than its lawmakers. According to a survey conducted last month by the country's largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, opposition to same-sex marriage has increased to 48%. That sentiment is more in line with nearby Australia, where lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against a legalization bill in September.

In Uruguay, the bill approved Tuesday by a 23-8 margin now goes back to lawmakers in the lower house of parliament. That house approved a different version of the bill in December.

In 2009, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. It was also one of the first Latin American countries to allow civil unions. Same-sex marriage is backed by President Jose Mujica and, according to one poll, the majority of the public.

But Argentina is the only country in Latin America that has legalized same-sex marriage, doing so in 2010. Brazil and Mexico, like the United States, have same-sex marriages only in certain states.

***As we all know, Pope Francis I is from Argentina...

Of the 11 countries where same-sex marriage is legal, eight are in Europe. The Netherlands was the first, in 2001, and it was later joined by Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Portugal and Denmark. Argentina, Canada and South Africa are the three non-European countries in the group.

There are no Asian countries where same-sex marriage is legal, but perhaps that might soon change.

Last year, a same-sex Buddhist couple married in Taiwan, where a legalization bill has been pending since 2003. Taipei is also home to Asia's largest annual gay pride parade, according to organizers.

The Supreme Court of Nepal ruled in favor of legalization in 2008, but those rights haven't been put into effect because the country's new constitution has been stuck in limbo for years.

In July, the Justice Ministry in Vietnam said it would consider a provision for same-sex marriage rights in an amendment to the country's marriage laws.

"It's time for us to look at the reality," Minister Ha Hung Cuong said in an online debate at the time. "The number of homosexuals has mounted to hundreds of thousands. It's not a small figure. ... They may own property. We, of course, have to handle these issues legally."

Gay marriage measure passes French Senate
Published: April 10, 2013 at 9:03 AM

PARIS, April 10 (UPI) -- A key article of a bill that would allow same-sex unions in France cleared the Senate on a 179-157 vote following 10 hours of floor debate.

"The vote on this article marks a victory in the fight against homophobia and for tolerance and democracy," said Francois Rebsamen, head of the Socialist group in the Senate, said in a statement after the vote Tuesday.

Despite efforts by Senate opponents of same-sex marriage, the measure was passed without amendments and on the first vote, meaning it won't have to be returned to the lower chamber for consideration, France's version of The Local reported Wednesday.

While the vote does not formally write same-sex marriage into French law, the Senate would have to reject the entire bill to prevent it from becoming law, officials said.

"The adoption of this article by a united Senate majority, puts an end to discrimination resulting from the sexual choices of our citizens," Rebsamen said.

The Senate is expected to vote on the entire bill in several weeks.

France's highest court, the Constitutional Council, which has the power to reject legislation if it is contrary to the country's constitution, already said it would accept what lawmakers decide, The Local.fr reported.

France would become the 12th country to legalize same-sex marriage if lawmakers approve the bill.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/04/10/Gay-marriage-measure-passes-French-Senate/UPI-23011365598992/#ixzz2Q6aHIbBf

Uruguay approves gay marriage, second in region to do so
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17694009-uruguay-approves-gay-marriage-second-in-region-to-do-so?lite=
4/10/13

MONTEVIDEO —  Uruguay's Congress passed a bill on Wednesday to allow same-sex marriages, making it the second country in predominantly Roman Catholic Latin America to do so.

Seventy-one of 92 lawmakers in the lower house of Congress voted in favor of the proposal, one week after the Senate passed it by a wide majority. Leftist President Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla fighter, is expected to sign the bill into law.

"I agree that family is the basis of society but I also believe that love is the basis of family. And love is neither homosexual nor heterosexual," said opposition lawmaker Fernando Amado of the center-right Colorado Party.

Uruguay is the 12th country to pass a law of this kind, according to Human Rights Watch. In Latin America, Argentina also has approved gay marriage and it is allowed in Mexico City and some parts of Brazil.

Roughly half a million people marched through Paris in January to protest the legalization of same-sex marriage, underscoring opposition to the measure in the heart of Western Europe.

In Uruguay, a nation of about 3.3 million people sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, critics of the bill included the Catholic Church and other Christian organizations, which said it would endanger the institution of the family.

"We are opposed to this bill because we understand it distorts and changes the nature of the institution of marriage," said opposition lawmaker Gerardo Amarilla.

Damian Diaz, a 25-year-old teacher who is in a committed relationship with a man, said he was heartened by the move.

"We're definitely going to feel now that we live in a place where we're recognized for who we are, where we get more respect and more acceptance," he told Reuters Television.

Does anyone else feel this has become a gay-obsessed society now?

http://news.yahoo.com/rainbow-rebellion-australia-gay-crossing-torn-023932289.html
Rainbow rebellion in Australia after "gay" crossing torn up
By Michael Sin

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians have taken to the streets to create rainbows with colorful chalk in protest after a rainbow pedestrian crossing in Sydney's main gay district was removed as a safety hazard, despite calls to retain it as a statement of gay pride.

Sydney's annual Mardi Gras gay pride celebration is one of Australia's biggest tourist draws, and the colorful stripes on Oxford Street were originally painted to recognize the 35th anniversary of the event in March for a one-month trial period.

But the crossing, which became something of a tourist magnet, was removed on April 11 despite a petition drive that netted 15,000 signatures and the support of people like former tennis star Martina Navratilova.

State officials said the crossing was dangerous, citing CCTV footage showing people lying down on the road to take photos.

In response, James Brechney, 29, chalked a rainbow crossing in the laneway outside his home and posted a photo on Facebook.

Now his "DIY Rainbow Crossings" page has garnered over 17,000 likes in under a week and prompted the chalking of similar rainbows on streets all across Australia and as far away as France, the United States and Germany. One woman posted a photo of a rainbow chalked on her legs.

"It was a celebration of the short-lived crossing that we had in Sydney and I'm just so thrilled it's taken off globally," Brechney said.

A YouTube video was even posted of men chalking rainbow stripes in front of the office of Duncan Gay, the roads minister in New South Wales state.

Gay said he was more than willing to take the criticism, but that the chalked rainbows themselves were potentially dangerous.

"Please be very careful where you place these crossings because a young child might be injured or even killed," he said.

But the movement appears set to continue, with calls for rainbow chalkings outside parliament in New Zealand, which is expected to pass a marriage equality bill later on Wednesday.

"Our chalk rainbows have overridden the memory of seeing that big ugly machine scraping off our Oxford Street rainbow," wrote one post on Facebook. "Let's keep our voice loud and beautiful - the world needs a lot of this right now."

The whole unbelieving world is gay!  ::)

New Zealand becomes 13th country to legalize gay marriage
4/17/13
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/17/17792194-new-zealand-becomes-13th-country-to-legalize-gay-marriage?lite=

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's parliament voted in favor of allowing same-sex marriage on Wednesday, prompting cheers, applause and the singing of a traditional Maori celebratory song from the public gallery.

It becomes the 13th country to legalize same-sex marriages, after Uruguay passed its own law last week. Australia last year rejected a similar proposal.

Countries where such marriages are legal include Canada, Spain and Sweden, in addition to some states in the United States. France is close to legalizing same-sex marriages amid increasingly vocal opposition.

Seventy-seven of 121 members of New Zealand’s parliament voted in favor of amending the current 1955 Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples to marry, making New Zealand the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to do so.

"Two-thirds of parliament have endorsed marriage equality," Louisa Wall, the openly gay opposition Labor Party MP who promoted the bill, told reporters after the vote. "It shows that we are building on our human rights as a country."

The bill was widely expected to pass, given similar support for the change in a preliminary vote held last month. It will likely come into effect in August.

The bill was opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and some conservative religious, political and social groups which campaigned that it would undermine the institution of the family.

The law makes it clear that clergy can decline to preside in gay marriages if they conflict with their beliefs.

New Zealand gave same-sex relationships partial legal recognition in 2005 with the establishment of civil unions.

"I have a boyfriend, so it means we can get married, which is a good thing," said Timothy Atkins, a student who was among a crowd listening to the hearing in the parliamentary lobby.

"It's important to be seen as equal under the law."

John_15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Fourth-Grader’s Reported Pro-Gay Marriage Essay: ‘If It Creeps You Out Just Get Over It’
http://news.yahoo.com/fourth-grader-reported-pro-gay-marriage-essay-creeps-161237839.html
4/26/13

An essay that was purportedly written by a fourth grader and subsequently uploaded to Reddit has captured quite a bit of attention. The short text -- one that is said to have come directly from the mind of a child -- addresses the controversial subject of gay marriage, telling opponents of legalization to just "get over it."

Posted by user "rafa3l2," an individual who claims to be the student's teacher, the message accompanying the image reads, "One of my 4th grade students chose gay marriage as his topic for a persuasive essay. This is the result. More sense than some adults."

The short essay, which argues why gays should be allowed to marry, makes the case that everyone should simply be happy for the "big moment" that marriage is in these individuals' lives.

ABC has more about the intriguing story:

"Why gay people should be able to get married is you can't stop two adult's from getting married because there grown and it doesn't matter if it creeps you out just get over it," the essay reads (spelling and grammar kept in tact). "And you should be happy for them because it's a big moment in their life.  When I went to my grandparents wedding it was the happies momment."

The written work concludes by calling for people not to judge others' lives. Here it is:

(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/rkjlhxI5j9pPmHCh3Kq7lg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/image1-587x620.jpg)

While the letter did get some structural and grammatical critique regarding how it was written, many commended the child's sentiment.

Of course, it's possible that the copy was written by an individual who isn't really in fourth grade; it's even possible that "rafa3l2" isn't a teacher. Then again, the errors present within the text do seem to add to its authenticity (again, those, too, could be fabricated).

Regardless, the letter is making a splash and, if it truly checks out, it's adding fodder for those who support same-sex nuptials.

For the most part, I pretty much firmly believe that these "guests" on these popular daytime "talk shows" are nothing but actors. I remember another daytime "talk show" pulling the same thing 20 years ago that Dr. Phil did recently.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/dr-phils-intolerance-for-the-ex-gay-community-94467/
4/25/13
Dr. Phil's Intolerance for the Ex-Gay Community

On April 1, 2013 Dr. Phil aired a show titled: "Shocking Mom Revelations." As a part of this episode, he interviewed a mother whose daughter identified as a lesbian. During the episode, the mother shared about her disapproval of her daughter's "lifestyle choice" and expressed a desire for her daughter to see a counselor to get help in exploring her same-sex attraction.

In shockingly un-therapeutic fashion, Dr. Phil flat-out shut the mother's opinion down, along with her Christian values, in favor for the simple explanation that "this is who her daughter is" and she should just accept it. Below is an excerpt from the letter we sent:

Dear Dr. Phil,

While we do not condone this mother's belief that homosexuality is simply a "choice" per se, science has recognized, through 100 years of peer-reviewed research, that homosexuality is in fact fluid for some individuals. For example, a recent study published in the prestigious Archives of Sexual Behavior journal titled: "Stability and Change in Same-Sex Attraction, Experience, and Identity by Sex and Age in a New Zealand Birth Cohort" (Dickson, van Roode, Cameron, and Paul, 2013) showed the experiences of same-sex attraction significantly decreased among women and men with increasing age. Similarly, prior research has shown that exclusive opposite-sex attraction is approximately 17 times more stable than exclusive same-sex attraction for men and 30 times more stable than exclusive same-sex attraction for women (Whitehead & Whitehead, 2011).

There is an abundance of scientific peer-reviewed research that shows homosexuality is not an enduring and immutable characteristic, thus proving the very statement that Dr. Phil said at the end of the episode: "I don't believe there is any such thing as an 'ex-gay'" as categorically false, unscientific, and defamatory to the thousands of former homosexuals, persons with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families.

Further, Dr. Phil's comment to the mother: "Your thought is, if she sees a competent counselor, they will unravel all this confusion for her and the false sense of security she has in romantic relationships with women and this will be clear to her that she's straight as a string and get on with her life" is an overly-simplistic statement for an esteemed psychologist such as Dr. Phil to make.

Finally, Dr. Phil went onto say to the young woman: "given that you have been molested, that really changes who you are. It causes you to think about things differently, and when it happens at a very young age, it can create some cognitive patterns that are just inaccurate and program you to make some bad choices in your life, it creates a wound that needs healing, and you really do need help with that."

It is entirely possible that this young woman's feelings of same-sex attraction is a result of this childhood abuse, yet, Dr. Phil completely left this theory out for a politically-correct explanation to the mother that "this is who she is" – implying that her daughter was born a lesbian.

Please allow me to remind Dr. Phil what the American Psychological Association said in 2008 regarding the etiology of homosexuality:

"There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation."

"There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation."

For Dr. Phil to not explore ALL the possible reasons why this young woman may be experiencing homosexual feelings is to directly contradict the best evidence from scientists, and thus, mislead the general public. I am certain that he would not do this intentionally. Therefore, Voice of the Voiceless respectfully requests that Dr. Phil:

1) Publicly apologize to the ex-gay community for implying that "we do not exist"
2) Set the record straight on a future broadcast that his statement about former homosexual and the etiology of homosexuality was his opinion, not scientific fact
3) Invite myself and other former homosexuals and ex-gays, and their families, on a future episode of the Dr. Phil show so that we may tell America about our lives.

After weeks of attempting to speak with the show's producers, legal representatives, and media relations spokesperson, all we received was the following statement: " Thank you for sharing your opinions with us. Dr. Phil and his producers stand by the statements he made on this show."

This "response" is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of former homosexuals, persons with unwanted same-sex attraction, and their families. Further, Dr. Phil's complete lack of respect for this mother's Christian values is defamatory towards the entire faith-based community who hold to traditional Biblical beliefs regarding homosexual behavior.

America's gay-marriage evolution: A timeline
5/3/13
http://news.yahoo.com/americas-gay-marriage-evolution-timeline-062500891.html

Nearly three-fifths of Americans want to legalize gay marriage. Just a few years ago, that would have seemed inconceivable

What a difference a decade makes. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 58 percent of Americans support legalizing gay marriage and only 36 percent oppose it. In 2003, it was the reverse: 37 percent favored same-sex marriage and 55 percent opposed it. How did we get here? Let's take a trip down memory lane...

October 15, 1971
Jack Baker and his partner James Michael McConnell are the first gay couple in the country to apply and sue for the right to get married. The Minnesota Supreme Court rules that marriage is "a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the procreation and rearing of children within a family." The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the case.

1977
Gallup doesn't ask whether people approve of gay marriage — it asks, "Do you think homosexual relations between consenting adults should or should not be legal?" A full 43 percent of those polled say no.

1988
Despite the birth of National Coming Out Day, only 11 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, according to polling data from the University of Chicago. 

May 7, 1993
Hawaii takes a step toward legalizing gay marriage when the state Supreme Court rules that a ban on same-sex marriages might violate the state constitution. Opponents later get around the decision by passing a "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment in 1998.

March 1, 1995
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt signs the Defense of Marriage statute to "deny recognition to marriages performed elsewhere that do not conform to Utah law." That includes same-sex marriages. 

1996
Only 27 percent of those polled say gay marriage should be legal.

September 21, 1996
President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

December 20, 1999
The Vermont Supreme Court rules in Baker v. Vermont that same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples.

April 25, 2000
The Vermont House of Representatives passes a bill to allow gay and lesbian couples to form civil unions.

2003
An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that support for gay marriage is up to 37 percent.

November 18, 2003
In a 4-3 decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that the state cannot "deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry."

February 12, 2004
Mayor Gavin Newsom demands that the San Francisco city clerk issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In August, the California Supreme Court rules that he exceeded his authority and voids 3,955 marriages.

February 24, 2004
President George W. Bush backs a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. "Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious, and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society," the president says.

February 28, 2004
Jason West, mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., follows Gavin Newsom's lead by solemnizing gay marriages outside of city hall. The state Supreme Court later issues a restraining order barring him and other village trustees from conducting same-sex marriages.

May 17, 2004
Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey, after being together for 18 years, become the first gay couple to get legally married in the United States, at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts.

November 2, 2004
Gay rights activists take a "right hook to the chin" as 11 states — Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, and Utah — pass bans on same-sex marriage.

September 7, 2005
The California Assembly passes a bill allowing same-sex marriages. Later that month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes the legislation.

November 7, 2006
Gay-marriage bans pass in seven states, but Arizona voters reject Proposition 107, a constitutional amendment that would have strengthened the state's existing laws banning same-sex marriage.

July 31, 2008
Gov. Deval Patrick clears the way for same-sex couples from other states to get married in Massachusetts by repealing a 95-year-old statute that "barred out-of-state residents from marrying here if the marriage would be considered void in their home state." The legislation was originally meant to prevent interracial marriage.

October 8, 2008
Connecticut legalizes gay marriage thanks to a 4-3 state Supreme Court ruling that says that an existing law banning same-sex marriage "failed to establish adequate reason to justify the statutory ban."

November 4, 2008
Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, is passed by 52.1 percent of voters in California. Estimates put the amount spent on campaigns for and against the proposition at $72 million.

April 3, 2009
The Iowa Supreme Court rules that a 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage "treated gay and lesbian couples unequally under the law," making the state the first in the Midwest to allow gay marriage.
April 7, 2009
The Vermont legislature overrides Gov. Jim Douglas' veto and makes gay marriage legal.

May 6, 2009
Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Maine pass bills in favor of same-sex marriage. In November, 53 percent of voters in Maine repeal the new law and make gay marriage illegal again. New Hampshire officially legalizes gay marriage in June 2009.

December 15, 2009
Washington, D.C., lawmakers legalize gay marriage.

December 22, 2010
After repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" law preventing openly gay men and women from serving in the military, President Obama tells ABC News' Jake Tapper that his "feelings are constantly evolving" on gay marriage.

June 24, 2011
A bill legalizing gay marriage squeezes through the Republican-led New York State Senate by a vote of 33-29. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs the bill into law, doubling the number of Americans who live in states that allow same-sex marriage.

October 1, 2011
The Pentagon allows military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages as long as they aren't at official Defense Department events and don't violate local laws.
February 17, 2012
Gov. Chris Christie vetoes a gay marriage bill in New Jersey and asks the legislature to "trust the people of New Jersey and seek their input by allowing our citizens to vote on a question that represents a profoundly significant societal change."

May 8, 2012
North Carolina passes an amendment that says "marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state."

May 9, 2012
President Obama becomes the first president to say that "same sex couples should be able to get married," although he disappoints gay rights activists by saying the issue should still be decided by the states.

November 6, 2012
For the first time ever, gay marriage is legalized by popular vote. The American Civil Liberties Union calls the passing of measures in Maryland, Maine, and Washington state a "watershed moment" for gay rights in America. In Minnesota, a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman fails to pass.

March 8, 2013
Bill Clinton writes an op-ed in The Washington Post saying that he regrets signing DOMA into law and now finds it "incompatible with our Constitution."

March 15, 2013
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) breaks with many in his party by declaring his support for gay marriage, saying that he changed his mind because his 21-year-old son is gay.

March 18, 2013
Hillary Clinton fuels rumors that she will run for president in 2016 by releasing a six-minute video announcing her support for gay marriage — a stance that is increasingly in the mainstream of American politics.

March 18, 2013
It's official: More Americans now support legalizing gay marriage than oppose it.

May 2, 2013
Governor Lincoln Chafee signs a bill passed by the state senate and house legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, the 10th state to do so. Several more states appear on the verge of doing the same.

Cuba President's Castro's niece in Philly for gay rights conference
5/3/13
http://news.yahoo.com/castros-niece-philly-gay-rights-conference-210644480.html

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The niece of Fidel Castro said Friday on a trip to Philadelphia that she believes Cuba and the U.S. will have normal relations one day, but she doesn't know when.

"I wish ... I was a magician or (one of those) people who knows everything. That's not the case," Mariela Castro said through a Spanish interpreter. But, she said, "that dream (is) going to be a reality someday."

Castro spoke during a tour of the city's historic sites one day before she plans to attend a gay rights conference. The U.S. State Department had initially denied Castro permission to attend the event, but relented earlier this week.

Castro visited the Liberty Bell — an icon of democracy — even as critics say her family has run a repressive Communist dictatorship for decades. Her father, Raul Castro, is Cuba's president and the brother of retired strongman.

Mariela Castro spoke briefly to reporters during her sightseeing tour. Asked about the health of her uncle and father, Castro replied: "They're wonderful, and I learn a lot from their example."

Commenting on the gay rights movement in the U.S., she said, "In this election especially, they showed that they form a very important vote in American society."

A married mother of three, Castro leads Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, which is part of the island nation's public health ministry. She is the country's most prominent gay rights activist, having trained police on relations with the LGBT community and lobbied lawmakers to legalize same-sex unions. She was elected as a deputy in Cuba's parliament in February.

On Saturday she'll speak on a panel at the gay rights summit sponsored by the nonprofit Equality Forum and receive an award from the advocacy group.

She also plans to hold a news conference Saturday evening.

Castro took in the sights on Friday with Equality Forum executive director Malcolm Lazin and a few others.

At the Liberty Bell, a ranger from the National Park Service explained its history and significance to her in Spanish. The group then stopped at a historic marker across the street commemorating some of the country's first demonstrations for gay rights before heading to tour Independence Hall.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/junior-italy-minister-removed-gays-133342835.html
5/4/13
Junior Italy minister removed after comment on gays

ROME (Reuters) - A junior Italian equal opportunities minister was removed from her post on Saturday less than 24 hours after being sworn in to the new coalition government, after she said gays invited discrimination by "ghettoizing" themselves.

The abrupt departure of Michaela Biancofiore to another ministry was a fresh reminder of just how delicate Prime Minister Enrico Letta's fledgling left-right coalition is.

Gay rights groups protested on Friday after Biancofiore, a parliamentarian from former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom party (PDL), was made an undersecretary in the equal opportunities ministry.

They accused her of having made comments they considered homophobic, a charge she denied.

Responding to the criticism, she told Italian newspapers on Saturday: "For once, I would like to see gay associations, instead of 'ghettoizing' themselves ... say something to condemn the recent spate of killings of women (in Italy). All they do is defend their own interests".

According to Italian media, her comments had upset Letta, particularly because he had appealed to members of his government just a day before to observe "sobriety" in their public comments and work as a team.

Biancofiore, who says she is opposed to gay marriage but supports "civil unions" to protect gay couples, was re-assigned to the civil service ministry.

Letta's government is made up of his Democratic Party (PD), Berlusconi's PDL and centrists led by former prime minister Mario Monti, an uneasy alliance pitting old political enemies against each other.

I was reading recently how as time has gone on, especially in recent years, companies have slowly but surely made their products more gender-neutral. For example, boys' toys like legos were shifting toward marketing towards girls by changing their products little by little, and even girls' toys like Ken/Barbie was marketed toward boys as well by shifting some things around.

Here's another example - recently, the Little Debbie Logo was changed for the 4th time - yes, the changes are just little and subtle(and not that big or anything), but nonetheless look at the 4th change in their history they've made...

(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kOd6R94UU8IV9tqBz.FuQw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/the-exchange/2e0e2aba-3da8-4c62-8572-c3ee83e01591_CL08561.jpeg)

The changes from the 3rd to the 4th photo are hardly noticeable, and even the changes from the 1st to the 4th photo may leave you scratching your head. But nonetheless as this link article explains, look at the shirt Little Debbie is wearing in the 3rd and 4th photos, compared to the 1st 2. And look at the COLLAR in the 4th photo compared to the 3rd one. Yeah, upon further review, you can see they have subtlely transformed Little Debbie into a masculine character - she's wearing a man's shirt(the collar in the 4th photo looks more man-like, compared to the one in the 3rd photo). And then the blue color shirt on the 3rd and 4th photos.

From what I've read, this has also been part of the homosexual agenda being conditioned on the masses for years and years - using images and marketing their products as such(ie-crossing gender lines).

Little Debbie Logo Changes So Subtle You’d Hardly Know the Difference
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/little-debbie-logo-changes-subtle-d-hardly-know-174453852.html

Mat_18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

The owners of McKee Foods are devout Seventh Day Adventists. SDA basically dominates the little town where the bakery is, Collegedale, which is a town next to Chattanooga. I've known more than one person who worked at McKee. The even cancelled a trucking contract with a company over it's truck driver getting caught on McKee property with cigarettes.

Seventh Day Adventists
http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,1827.msg5540.html#msg5540 (http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,1827.msg5540.html#msg5540)

http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-momentum-expands-2-midwest-states-200824694.html
5/8/13
Gay marriage momentum expands to 2 Midwest states

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Just six months after Minnesota voters turned back an effort to ban gay weddings, lawmakers are poised to make the state the first in the Midwest to pass a law allowing them.

The startling shift comes amid a rapid evolution of public opinion nationally in the debate over marriage. But with Minnesota and possibly Illinois set to broaden the definition to include same-sex couples, coastal states may soon have some company in enacting changes.

In November, voters unexpectedly defeated a measure that would have banned same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution, even after more than two-dozen states passed similar bans. That prompted gay marriage supporters to quickly go on offense.

Those efforts culminate Thursday with a vote in the state House that Democratic leaders assured would pass. With the state Senate expected to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could sign a bill as early as next week.

"We like to lead the way in Minnesota," said state Rep. Karen Clark, the Minneapolis Democrat sponsoring the bill.

In the past week, Rhode Island and Delaware became the 10th and 11th states to approve gay marriage. But so far, only legislatures in coastal or New England states have voted affirmatively for gay marriage. Except for Iowa, which allows gay marriage due to a 2009 judicial ruling, same-sex couples can't get married in flyover country.

Minnesota might go first, but Illinois could be close behind. The state Senate there voted in February to allow same-sex marriage, and supporters think they're close to securing the votes needed to get it through the House and on to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who says he'll sign it.

Although a few Republican politicians around the country have started to embrace gay marriage, the movement remains largely contained to states with Democrats fully in control. In the Midwest, only Illinois and Minnesota have Democratic-led statehouses. Democrats run the Nevada and New Mexico legislatures, but Republicans are governor in those states.

Democrats also control Colorado, but that state could only go as far as civil unions because of a constitutional amendment that blocks gay marriage. The same curb applies in Oregon, but a group has launched a drive to repeal the earlier ballot initiative.

Elsewhere, the political dominance of Republicans makes legalized gay marriage a difficult sell. Most of Minnesota's regional neighbors — Michigan, Wisconsin and both Dakotas — have entirely Republican power structures.

So far, only one Republican member of Minnesota's Legislature is a definite yes on gay marriage. But with the House vote looming Wednesday, the bill's backers said they would accept a handful of GOP-sponsored religious protections that could help them win over a few more Republicans.

Last fall's defeat of the gay marriage ban ended a nearly decade-long push by social conservatives for stronger prohibitions on gay marriage. But the massive activist and fundraising network built to defeat the amendment has now been harnessed to get it through the Legislature.

"Our opponents did us a huge favor," said Sen. Scott Dibble, the bill's Senate sponsor. "They really accelerated the whole issue."

Dibble and Clark are both gay. First elected in 1986, Clark says she's the longest-serving lesbian state lawmaker in the country. She first introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage in 1998, just a year after her colleagues approved a state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Dibble's Senate district, anchored in the city's trendy Uptown area, had the highest number of gay couples in Minnesota in both the 2000 and 2010 census.

It was the heavily populated Twin Cities area that delivered most of the votes against the constitutional gay marriage ban — making it part of the first electoral victories on gay marriage last November after years of losses. But the ban got huge support from more rural parts of the state, populated with higher concentrations of seniors, religious and socially conservative voters.

That's left gay marriage opponents to argue that the legislative push now underway is a case of pushing big-city values on small-town residents.

"The metro area shouldn't be allowed to force gay marriage on the rest of the state," read the flyer for a rally sponsored by Minnesota for Marriage, the chief lobbying group against the ban.

But in recent days, a handful of House and Senate Democrats from rural districts have announced plans to vote for the bill. Rep. Joe Radinovich, a 27-year-old freshman Democrat from the central Minnesota town of Crosby, acknowledged he would alienate some constituents when he votes for gay marriage.

"'I know there are people who voted for me last year that won't vote for me next year because of this," said Radinovich, who beat his Republican opponent by just 323 votes. "But I'm not going to start my political career by voting 'no' on something I know in my heart that I support."

Same-sex marriage underlines social change in Ireland
5/7/13
http://euobserver.com/lgbti/119963

BRUSSELS - A recent convention in Ireland on same-sex marriage has highlighted the depth of social change in a country that decriminalised homosexuality only 20 years ago.

The 100-strong constitutional convention - made up of citizens (66%) and legislators - in April found an overwhelming majority (79%) in favour of amending the constitution to allow same-sex marriage.

The gathering also was strongly in favour (81%) of changing laws to reflect different family structures and to give all family members the same rights.

The convention's findings must now be sent to the government, which then has four months to respond, with a referendum needed to change the constitution.

"This brings us to a 20-year cycle of dramatic social change for gay and lesbian people in Ireland," MP John Lyons, told this website.

An activist for gay and lesbian rights, Lyons said he told the convention that "the blood that flows through my veins is the same as yours. But yet you treat me - and people like me - differently."

Tiernan Brady, from Irish gay rights group Glen, said he was "very happy" about the outcome which he noted "did not come out of nowhere" but was the result of a long process of "visibility."

A lack of such visibility allowed the government of the time to insert - undebated - a clause into the Civil Registration Act of 2004 that said being of the same sex would be an "impediment to marriage."

That this would be unthinkable today is largely due to one campaigning couple - Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan - who wanted to have their 2003 Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland.

Their efforts in large part led to the civil partnership act, in place since the beginning of 2011. This act was "hugely significant," says Brady.

"We've had 1000s of lesbian and gay people celebrating their love and commitment around the country," he says. "Those are real gamechanging events in terms of attitudes."

A recent poll show that 75 percent of people support same-sex marriage.

According to Sarah-Anne Buckley, a social historian at National University of Ireland in Galway, the progressive legal changes in Ireland was the result of a series of factors over recent decades - including joining the EU in 1973, an increasingly vocal feminist movement, the economic boom of the 1990s and the weakening grip of the Catholic Church, largely due to sex abuse scandals.

Many of the restrictive social laws were made in the 1920s and 1930s. They proved enduring. Only in 1973 was a ban on married women working in the civil service lifted. Women were not allowed to sit on juries before this date either. Nor were single mothers entitled to social assistance. Contraceptives became available to everyone only in 1984. Divorce - limited - arrived in 1986. In 1991, it became illegal for a man to **** his wife. Two years later homosexuality was decriminalised.

But Buckley said it would be wrong to think that ordinary citizens of these times had views from the "dark ages" despite such laws.

"I think that people were of a more radical perspective but the media would not have been reporting their views. Censorship was very stringent right in to the 1980s," she said.

One contributor to the citizens' convention on same-sex marriage appeared to bear this out.

"The bar was set on the first day," said MP Lyons recalling Yvonne, a 70-year-old woman who took the floor in the debate.

"She would come from an era where one would think there would be a conservative view. And she was essentially saying: 'why are we even debating this issue? Surely Ireland has moved beyond this'," Lyons noted.

Transgender woman wins legal battle to marry
5/13/13
http://living.msn.com/love-relationships/the-heart-beat-blog-post?post=23565f02-b2f5-47c2-a691-21473c638124

One small step down the aisle could be a giant leap for Hong Kong’s sexual minorities.

She’s known only as W. Not many specifics are known about the Hong Kong woman, but this morning, her story made headlines—and history.  Now in her thirties, W was born a man but underwent surgery in 2008 to become a woman. Today, Hong Kong’s top court granted her the right to marry her boyfriend.

While the ruling falls short of allowing same-sex marriage, W is, of course, pleased with the groundbreaking legal win.

"I'm very glad that I can finally get married to my beloved boyfriend in Hong Kong,” she told reporters on a conference call.

In mainland China and in many other places in the Asia-Pacific region, same-sex marriage is illegal, but the law does allow transgender people to marry based on their new gender. China made the law official in 2003, and Hong Kong’s decision now follows suit. A transgender person born a male can marry a man, and a transgender person born a female can marry a woman.

News outlets have called the ruling a surprising “watershed” moment for Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.

W says she hopes the decision will help change society’s view of sexual minorities. In a statement read by W’s lawyer, Michael Vidler, she added that she’s been living “as a woman and been treated as a woman in all respects except as regards my right to marriage. This decision rights that wrong.”

The Court’s judges pointed out “it appears in the Asia-Pacific region, such marriages are permitted.” In addition to mainland China, transgender marriage is also legal in Singapore, India, South Korea and Japan, to name a few. Same-sex marriage is still a rarity in this part of the world, however.

As W reaches her lifetime milestone, Hong Kong’s decision is also a milestone in the fight for gender equality.

Brazil judicial panel clears way for gay marriage
http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/brazil-judicial-panel-clears-way-180958065.html
5/14/13

A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses.

The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples.

"This is the equivalent of authorizing homosexual marriage in Brazil," said Raquel Pereira de Castro Araujo, head of the human rights committee of the Brazilian bar association.

The Brazilian Congress, where a strong religious faction opposes same sex marriage, has not yet approved a law legalizing gay marriages. And the council's decisions are subject to appeal before the Supreme Court.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa said there was no reason for the government's marriage licensing offices to wait for the Brazilian Congress to pass a law authorizing same-sex marriage before extending the right to gays.

He noted that the Supreme Court in 2011 recognized stable homosexual unions, ruling that the constitution guaranteed them the same rights as heterosexual couples.

"Are we going to require the approval of a new law by the Congress to put into effect the decision that was already taken by the Supreme Court? It makes no sense," he said in comments quoted by the G1 news website.

The Supreme Court decision "is binding" and should be followed by the lower courts, he said.

Some offices have granted marriage licenses to gay couples and others have not. While some state courts have recognized same-sex marriages, the council's decision was the first to set a national standard.

"Since the Congress is so slow, and doesn't decide, the judicial branch took the lead," said Luiz Kignet, a specialist in family law at PLKC Advogados in Sao Paulo.

"The law is necessary, the judicial branch is not suppressing the obligation to have a law," he said.

But it is saying that same-sex marriage is constitutional, and the council's decision should accelerate the approval of a law formally authorizing homosexual marriage.

"When there is a law, everything is easier. The law regulates concrete cases for everyone," he said.

In theory, the council's decision could be challenged by the Supreme Court, but it is not likely to, said Kignet, saying it had reached a point of no return.

Brazilians Marcelo Sales Leite (L), and Roberto Fraga da Silva, hold hands as they get married in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 13, 2009. A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses.

Civil Rights Group Calling for 'Modern Family' Gay Wedding: Marry Cam and Mitch!
5/15/13
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/civil-rights-groups-calling-modern-family-gay-wedding-192056247.html

The American Civil Liberties Union has finally weighed in on the topic that's been weighing on the national consciousness for far too long: Whether Mitchell and Cameron from "Modern Family" should tie the knot.

The civil-rights group launched a campaign Wednesday urging the public to "RSVP" to a "Modern Family" episode featuring a wedding between the show's gay characters, Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker, in hopes of persuading show creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd that such an episode would be a hit.

Oh, and they're also hoping to draw attention to the Supreme Court's upcoming decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, which restrict marriage rights.

"The freedom to marry is being advanced in American living rooms as much as in court rooms," ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said of the campaign. "As we wait for the Supreme Court to rule, we want to keep this issue on the minds and screens of Americans everywhere."

The ACLU hopes to attract 750,000 online supporters for the campaign (read it here), at which point the organization plans present its "guest list" to Levitan and Lloyd.

ABC had no comment for TheWrap on the ACLU's campaign. However, in March, Levitan told TheWrap that he'd be "happy" if "Modern Family" helped to overturn Proposition 8.

"If we played even the tiniest role in helping to defeat Prop 8 and giving all gay people the equal rights they deserve, then I'm a happy man," Levitan said.

Rudd endorses gay marriage
http://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-endorses-gay-marriage-20130520-2jx65.html
5/20/13

Kevin Rudd has endorsed gay marriage, changing his position on the issue.

"The secular Australian state should be able to recognise same sex marriage," Mr Rudd wrote in a blog post on Monday night. "This change in position has come about as a result of a lot of reflection, over a long period of time, including conversations with good people grappling with deep questions of life, sexuality and faith."

The former Prime Minister, who only last September voted against legalising same sex marriage in a parliamentary vote that lost 98-42, said his change of thinking had been precipitated by a recent conversation with a friend and former colleague, who came out as gay.

"He then tells me that one day he'd like to get married to another bloke. And by the way, "had my views on same sex marriage changed?"," Mr Rudd wrote.

Mr Rudd said that his long-held opposition to gay marriage had made him ''the last of the Mohicans'' in his family.

His last remaining concern on the issue was the welfare of children raised in gay families.

In explaining his change of mind, Mr Rudd pointed to the large number of heterosexual marriages that end in divorce and academic research that showed children raised by same-sex parents are not developmentally compromised.

''Finally,'' he wrote, ''as someone who was raised for the most important part of his childhood by a single mum, I don't buy the argument that I was somehow developmentally challenged because I didn't happen to have a father.''

The loving nurture of children is a more complex business than that.''

He called on the Coalition to follow Labor's lead and allow a conscience vote on the issue.

But the former Labor leader, who declined to run against the Prime Minister in an abortive leadership spill in March, said he was not seeking a leadership role in the national debate on same-sex marriage.

Instead, he said he was writing to make clear his change of position to his local constituents.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-endorses-gay-marriage-20130520-2jx65.html#ixzz2TrP26nMq

Gay marriage law strains UK Cameron's leadership, government
5/20/13
http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-law-strains-uk-camerons-leadership-government-165426413.html;_ylt=A2KJ2Ug43ppRfhEAbpPQtDMD



Gay marriage bill limps on after Tory deal with Labour
5/20/13
http://www.smh.com.au/world/gay-marriage-bill-limps-on-after-tory-deal-with-labour-20130521-2jxke.html

Church of Scotland Approves Gay Ministers

The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly on Monday passed a historic vote to allow actively gay men and lesbians to become ordained ministers.

After more than six hours of debate, more than 700 commissioners attending the Presbyterian church’s 2013 General Assembly in Edinburgh voted in favor of gay ministers, but in a mind toward compromise agreed to allow parishes that disagree to opt out of the new rules.

The decision will now need to be endorsed by the church’s 48 regional presbyteries and, if it survives the regional ratification, will become official at next year’s General Assembly.

Echoing similar controversies that consumed the life of the Presbyterian Church (USA) for more than a decade, the church’s new moderator, the Rev. Lorna Hood, said: “This is a massive vote for the peace and unity of the Church.”

The debate over gay ministers has been simmering in Scotland for years. It exploded in 2009 when the General Assembly voted to uphold the appointment of an openly gay minister, the Rev. Scott Rennie, to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen. That led two congregations and six ministers to leave the Church of Scotland.

In 2011, the General Assembly agreed to allow openly gay ministers appointed prior to 2009 to remain in their posts but placed a moratorium on further appointments of any gay clergy. Upwards of 60 congregations have already threatened to split from the Church of Scotland.

http://www.charismanews.com/world/39556-church-of-scotland-approves-gay-ministers

This is no different from 20 years ago over the Southern Baptist Convention's compromise with Freemasonry - even though they condemned it, they nonetheless left it up to their individual SBC churches to decide what they want. Well...the results have gotten incredibly rotten has time has gone on. They now have 33rd Degree Masons preaching on pulpits.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump...

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/08/12/3823575.htm?site=newcastle
Local gay couple to make marriage history(Australia)
8/12/13

Two Newcastle men who will make history as the first Australian same-sex couple to marry in New Zealand, say they were surprised and excited by Kevin Rudd's comments on gay marriage during the election debate.

Twitter activity peaked during the leaders' debate on Sunday night when the Prime Minister promised to introduce a Bill allowing gay marriage within the first 100 days if his government is re-elected, and permit a conscience vote for MPs.

Local vet Paul McCarthy will next week marry his partner of 11 years, Trent Kandler, in New Zealand, which has officially recognised same-sex marriage.

The couple won the wedding in a contest run by Tourism New Zealand.

Paul told 1233 ABC Newcastle's Jill Emberson the pair were both surprised and excited by Mr Rudd's commitment to marriage equality.

However, they are still going ahead with plans for their trans-Tasman nuptials.

"We ideally would love to be married at home and we hope that after last night's debate that may be more of a possible thing now," Paul says.

"But New Zealand were first and we've been waiting many, many years now to be able to say 'I Do' to each other and have our family and friends present.

"Next Monday, I'll be a married man!"

Paul and Trent weren't expecting Kevin Rudd to make such a strong statement on gay marriage, let alone set a time frame and allow a conscience vote.

"We were very, very suprised, to be honest," Paul says.

"We would like to think that the groundswell of pressure is reaching the powers-that-be, and that people are aware that there are so many people out there waiting for this legislation to come through.

"We were excited about the result."

Paul says he realises the nation is dealing with many important issues, but adds "for a lot of Australians, this is an important issue."

As for his own approaching wedding, the details have already been finalised.

"The suits have been chosen, the colour codes have been chosen, after much debate," Paul says.

"My partner has become a bit of a bridezilla, but we're working through that one!"

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/new-zealand-gay-weddings-begin-1-at-39-000-feet-1.1221909?utm_content=1.1221909&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=Feeds&utm_campaign=New_Zealand_gay_weddings_begin%2C_1_at_39%2C000_feet&localLinksEnabled=false&utm_term=News_RSS_feed
8/19/13
New Zealand gay weddings begin, 1 at 39,000 feet

Country became the first Asia-Pacific country, and only the 14th in the world, to legalise gay marriage

Queenstown, New Zealand: When Lynley Bendall and Ally Wanikau walked down the aisle to exchange vows, the fasten-seatbelt signs were off.

The couple celebrated the legalisation of gay marriage in New Zealand on Monday by getting hitched in a plane at 39,000 feet. Along for the ride was Jesse Tyler Ferguson, star of the ABC sitcom Modern Family.

Monday marked the first day same-sex couples could marry in New Zealand, where the law was changed back in April. About three dozen same-sex couples planned to marry in towns and cities throughout the country.

Bendall and Wanikau were flying high after winning a promotion by national carrier Air New Zealand.

They have been together 13 years and have three foster children.

Dozens of same-sex couples said “I do” Monday as New Zealand became the first Asia-Pacific country, and only the 14th in the world, to legalise gay marriage.

The Campaign For Marriage Equality said it ended an historical injustice and meant the love of all people was recognised as equal in the eyes of the law.

“A massive congratulations to the happy couples tying the knot today. Marriage equality has finally arrived in New Zealand,” spokesman Conrad Reyners said.

The amendment to the Marriage Act was passed by parliament in April but did not come into effect until Monday.

Two radio stations competed to host the first same-sex wedding, with the ceremonies broadcast live during their breakfast programmes.

In reality, the nuptials took place around the same time, at 8.30am Monday, after the government offices that issue marriage licences had opened.

Reverend Matt Tittle from Auckland’s Unitarian Church married one of the couples, Tash Vitali, 37, and Mel Ray, 29, who arrived at the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage trailing a rainbow banner.

“It’s history in the making,” Tittle said.

“Hopefully it will help other countries to do the same and help New Zealanders to realise that everyone has worth and dignity no matter who they love.”

Wellington couple Jonathan Major and Marshall Donnelly opted for a simpler wedding attended by half a dozen friends and relatives at a city centre registry office .

“It hardly seems real,” said Major before the ceremony began, as his teenage daughter Naeve joked: “It’s not too late to back out.”

However, conservative lobby group Family First said changing the Marriage Act was “an arrogant act of cultural vandalism” that politicians had pushed through without a public mandate.

“Social engineers including politicians and activists are expecting marriage supporters to drop their deeply held convictions because of the misguided decisions of politicians,” said national director Bob McCoskrie.

The Anglican Church has also asked its ministers not to conduct same-sex weddings pending a report to its general synod next year.

New Zealand decriminalised homosexuality in 1986 and has allowed same-sex civil unions since 2005.

The Department of Internal Affairs said the number of marriage licence applications downloaded from its website had tripled in the week leading up to the law change.

At least 31 same-sex couples planned to marry Monday, while enquiries about staging same-sex weddings in New Zealand had been received from Russia, the US, Hong Kong, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Guyana and Belgium.

Among the first to be married were Australian couple Paul McCarthy and Trent Kandler, who beat 300 other pairs to win a Tourism New Zealand competition.

Their wedding will not be legally recognised at home but McCarthy said he hoped that day would come and the ceremony at Wellington’s Te Papa museum showed “we don’t have two horns, we’re not freaks [and] that there’s nothing to fear from marriage equality”.

About 1,000 same-sex couples in Australia have indicated they plan to travel to New Zealand to marry, according to the Australian Marriage Equality lobby group.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the country would market itself as a same-sex destination.

“New Zealanders are incredibly tolerant of people with different lifestyles, so I’m very confident the industry will embrace this opportunity,” he told TV3.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/08/21/13/thailand-may-legalize-gay-marriage
Thailand may legalize gay marriage

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Reuters

Posted at 08/21/2013 5:13 PM | Updated as of 08/21/2013 5:13 PM

BANGKOK - On a sweltering Saturday night in Bangkok's Patpong entertainment district, a group of men spill out of a neon-lit bar blasting dance music. Among them is Aashif Hassan and his long-term partner, both visitors from Malaysia.

"We're celebrating tonight. Where we're from, it's illegal to be gay. Here we feel liberated," said Hassan.

Known for its laissez-faire attitude, Thailand has positioned itself as a holiday destination for gay couples and could soon be cashing in on another niche market if a proposed law makes it the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage.

Other Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei ban sexual relationships between men, but Thailand has become a regional haven for same-sex couples.

A civil partnership law in the works aims to give lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples the same rights as heterosexuals. One lawmaker sees it passing by next year.

Same-sex unions are not currently recognized under Thai law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. That stops gay couples applying for joint bank loans or medical insurance.

In 2012, a group of lawmakers and LGBT activists formed a committee to draft legislation recognizing same-sex couples. But critics of the law say it will not give a level playing field because it raises the age of consent to 20 from 17 for homosexual couples. For heterosexuals it is 17.

Rights activists have another problem: the law would force transgenders to register their birth gender on their marriage certificate. Thai law makes it impossible for people to change their gender on a national identification document.

Beyond legal aspects, some wonder whether Thailand, quite conservative in many ways, is really ready to blaze this trail.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1956 but considered a mental illness as recently as 2002. Many Thai Buddhists believe homosexuality is a punishment for sins committed in a past life.

Superficial acceptance

In one notorious case in 2011, Nurisan Chedurame, 24, was found dead on her village rubbish dump with her head smashed in. Local media quoted police as saying her involvement with another woman was the reason she was murdered.

That same year, two women thought to have been in a sexual relationship were shot in a rice field outside Bangkok.

A worrying pattern of violent crimes prompted the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to write to the Thai government in 2012 demanding that police stop dismissing gender-based violence as crimes of passion.

Anjana Suvarnanda, a co-founder of the Anjaree Group, an LGBT rights group, said violence towards lesbians was often blamed on the victims. Many turn to mainstream social networking sites like Facebook to air their grievances.

"Our inbox is overflowing with messages from women whose parents are pressuring them to marry men," said Anjana.

Thai film and television has no shortage of LGBT stars. But Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, a transgender rights activist and program officer at UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, in Bangkok, said acceptance is often superficial.

"The entertainment industry accepts us with open arms because we poke fun at ourselves and make people laugh. But if we want to be taken seriously in a field like medicine we are not afforded the same courtesy," Prempreeda told Reuters.

Her friends will hesitate to back the draft bill, she said, because they do not want to be identified by their birth gender.

Wiratana Kalayasiri, an opposition lawmaker pushing the civil union bill, said getting it on the agenda was tough as most members of parliament have conservative views on the issue.

"At first they bad-mouthed me and wondered if I would be struck by lightning for backing this," he said.

But many now see the merits of appealing to LGBT voters, he said, predicting the bill would pass in "less than a year".

Rights activist Anjana believes there is no time to waste.

When her friend collapsed and fell into a coma, it took hours for staff at a Bangkok hospital to attend to her.

"They insisted her husband sign the medical release form. Her partner is a woman, but the nurses refused to acknowledge this," said Anjana. "We urgently need the law to protect us. The rest, including less societal pressure, will follow."

http://news.asiaone.com/news/showbiz/first-gay-marriage-korea-stirs-controversy
First gay marriage in Korea stirs controversy
9/10/13

SEOUL - The first gay marriage in Korea on Saturday sharply divided the country, putting to the test its legal system and public tolerance of sexual minorities.

Film director Kim-Jho Gwang-soo and film distributor Kim Seung-hwan held a symbolic wedding in central Seoul. They have been partners for nine years.

The two men made their vows in front of guests reported to number about 1,000, including Kim-Jho's mother, movie director Byun Young-joo and civil activist Paik Ki-wan.

Their marriage, however, will not be formally recognised here, as Korea has not legalized same-sex marriage.

But Kim-Jho, 48, an openly gay activist, and his 29-year-old partner announced that they are now a married couple regardless of the law.

"It is important whether or not we become a legally bound couple. But more importantly, we want to let people know that gays can marry too in our society," Kim-Jho told reporters before the ceremony.

The newlyweds will seek legal approval for their marriage. They said they would consider filing a petition with the Constitutional Court if the government refuses to legally recognise their marriage.

Gay rights activists and some lawmakers have backed their decision, vowing to join the legal fight.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/19/20580271-pope-francis-says-church-cannot-focus-only-on-abortion-and-gay-marriage?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1
9/19/13
Pope Francis says church cannot focus only on abortion and gay marriage

Pope Francis said in an interview published Thursday that the Catholic Church cannot focus only on abortion, contraception and gay marriage, and that the moral structure of the church will “fall like a house of cards” if it does not find better balance.

The pope acknowledged in the interview that he has been criticized for not speaking more about those three issues, but he said that the church must “talk about them in a context.”

While the teaching of the church on those subjects was clear, he said, “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”

The pope’s remarks draw a contrast with both the doctrinal focus of his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and with church leaders in the United States and around the world who have urged him to speak more publicly about homosexuality, abortion and birth control.

“We have to find a new balance,” he said in the interview, published in Jesuit journals across the world. “Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

He added: “The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.” ???

The pope, since his installation in March, has focused on the poor and those on the margins of society. He has also drawn praise from some parishioners for gestures of humility and frugality. He has declined some of the trappings of the papacy, and personally returned the phone calls of some of the faithful who have written to him.

On homosexuality, the pope said that he used to receive letters in Argentina, where he was a cardinal before his elevation, who were “socially wounded” and felt that the church had condemned them.

“But the church does not want to do this,” he said. “Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: It is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.”

He went on: “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.”

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Acts 10:34  Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Act 10:35  But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Matthew 3:7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat 3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Mat 3:9  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Mat 3:10  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/09/momlessness_and_dadlessness_as_a_way_of_life.html
September 30, 2013
Momlessness and Dadlessness as a Way of Life

Former attorney general of Ohio Jim Petro and his wife have jumped on the "gay marriage" bandwagon because their daughter Corbin got hitched, so the fantasy goes, to another woman in Massachusetts. He joins another prominent Ohio politician, U.S. Senator Ron Portman, in recently discovering human rights our forefathers missed.

Many people don't believe two females are an authentic marriage, no matter how sincere, but the Petros are fully committed, parentally and politically, to the so-called "freedom to marry," as Jim said in recent newspaper editorials.

And he's willing to endorse the effort in Ohio to deconstruct marriage, now named "Why Marriage Matters Ohio" by the Human Rights Campaign affiliate, Equality Ohio, despite the lack of Ohio citizen support in recent polls, and also despite current marriage freedom and equality for people in Ohio. People can marry someone of the opposite sex, a right suddenly discovered by many ex-homosexuals. Same person, different perspective. Homosexual advocacy and the behavior itself are the stumbling blocks, not a lack of justice in Ohio.

Well, the Petros now have a grandson, and they are publicly cooing as most new grandparents do. Ecstatic or not, the reality is, this baby is actually the Petros' adopted grandchild -- no blood relation -- because their daughter's partner was the birth mother. The father? At the time of this writing, no one has said. Friend? Sperm donor? Who knows?

Oh, well, not important. An identifiable father in a boy's life, offering heritage, caretaking, known genetic background, wisdom, financial support, spiritual guidance? Dispensable, just as mothers are in the minds of two men who decide to be "parents." Just as children often are in the world of sexual liberals when they are not wanted.

But even when they are convenient, the children and their needs and rights are really not where the story begins and ends. The adults are the central figures in a play about "making me happy according to what I think I want today." The kids are essentially props to be trotted out, sadly, at events like "pride" parades. Yet at some point, children are not stupid and will figure this out.

No one needs to care who the other parent is, we are told. Asking the question displays immense bigotry.

But will it be bigotry motivating the Petro grandson, who at age six or so will most likely ask that awkward question, "Who is my daddy?" He will see children at school with moms and dads, and despite the best efforts of granddad, he will figure out the "dad" figure is missing, and no one will give him a straight answer, so to speak.

Dadlessness is a significant deficit in a child's life, but to do it deliberately, cavalierly, is close to child abuse. Every child deserves to know mom and dad. Homosexual parenting, deliberately excluding either a mom or dad, does not make sense, child-welfare-wise, and is frankly, cruel.

We are supposed to buy the fiction that "love is all that matters." But where's the love for the child? The structure of mom and dad is a foundation that others only mimic. Yes, it's a fact that moms and dads today too often do not stay together, but this doesn't justify same sex marriage or parenting. Just because the Mercedes has a cracked windshield, does not mean we also take a sledge hammer to the hood.

The social revolution does not end at the threshold of the new "gay" household, however. Advocates of homosexuality abound in primary and secondary education, and here's where they are having a dramatic and virtually unreported impact.

Your children are learning in the classroom that husband or wife, a mom or dad for their children, may be optional in their own futures.While sometimes an opposing viewpoint is allowed, in states where same sex marriage is legalized, the balance disappears. Marriage change puts the "gay" school agenda on steroids.

The insidious thing about same sex marriage is that it quickly becomes a weapon to force cultural change on everyone and to mess with the minds of vulnerable kids as early as possible. Little Logan will learn when he's seven that some people are born to be "gay" (despite a lack of science supporting this contention), that there's nothing anyone can do, and when he grows up, he will date and marry a girl or it might be a boy, and he's not supposed to stress out over the uncertainty of this emotional quicksand.

At age seven, he really dislikes girls, so does that mean he's "gay"? Logan doesn't know his future. Experimenting with the formative years like this is a recipe for deeply insecure children at a very basic level. Such insecurities won't be disclosed by many of them, because they won't know what "normal" is. They will have been taught that questioning the narrative means you are a hateful, horrible person, a "bully."

But free-floating guilt and denial of basic reality are the end products of school activism on homosexual "rights." Using the issue of bullying in school lessons, the ground is sowed with seeds of real and imagined mistreatment of past and future homosexuals. Simply punishing poor conduct of actual bullies isn't enough for the activists. Only re-education programs suffice so all children will welcome homosexuality.Those who don't are socially unjust bigots.

This propaganda, using children as guinea pigs, is the rotten fruit of same sex marriage as it has played out in Massachusetts and other parts of the liberal Northeast and West Coast and it may come to Ohio unless voters get wise. The daughters of future quasi-liberal politicians in Ohio and elsewhere will hear in school only one approved opinion, and it's not one that reveals the harmful truth about homosexual conduct, gender change chaos, and -- oh, yes -- prospective parenting options.

Because if same sex relationships are all about love, why are people bringing a third, unknown party into a relationship to be the "father" or "mother" behind the curtain? When this kind of love means you can never conceive a new human with the person you love, isn't this is a big clue that things were never supposed to be this way?

It's the ancient story. Humans insist on writing adisjointed tale, no matter what it costs us or our precious children. Yet some will nod approvingly and call this "progress."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AUSTRALIA_GAY_MARRIAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-21-18-25-07
10/21/13
Local Australian parliament debates gay marriage

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- A provincial Australian parliament began debating legislation on Tuesday that would allow same-sex marriages despite the threat of a court challenge by the federal government.

The Australian Capital Territory parliament began debating the bill that would create Australia's only law allowing gay couples to marry. It was likely to be passed later Tuesday with the support of lawmakers from the province's governing party, despite all eight opposition lawmakers in the 17-seat Legislative Assembly announcing they would vote against the bill.

Federal Attorney General George Brandis has threatened to challenge the validity of the law in the High Court if the bill becomes law and allows same-sex marriage in the national capital Canberra.

Australian federal law was amended in 2004 to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott opposes gay marriage and his coalition has thwarted federal bills that would have allowed legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

His sister Christine Forster disclosed on Nine Network national television on Tuesday that she is engaged to her gay partner of six years, Virginia Edwards.

Forster said the couple would not marry until they were able to do so in their hometown of Sydney, either because of a change to federal or New South Wales state law.

Forster said the prime minister supported her relationship. However brother and sister disagreed on whether same-sex relationships should be legally recognized as marriages.

"He's always said: `Well, I'll be there at the wedding, Chris,'" Forster told Nine.

Gay lobby group Australian Marriage Equality said thousands of same-sex couples from across Australia had shown interest in tying the knot in Canberra.

If the legislation is passed, the first same-sex marriage ceremonies could be held in Canberra from December.

Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said she had refused a request from the federal government not to allow same-sex marriages to take place until the High Court ruled on the law's constitutional validity.

"I think this is an issue that captured the imagination of people right around the country," Gallagher told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "The ACT has never been afraid to lead the way."

Australian Capital Territory legalises same-sex marriage

The Australian Capital Territory has become the first part of Australia to legalise same-sex marriage.

The ACT parliament passed a bill that will allow gay couples to marry, after a short debate on Tuesday.

Celebrants will now be allowed to marry same-sex couples inside the ACT, regardless of which state they live in.

Federal law, however, specified in 2004 that marriage was between a man and a woman, and the federal government is expected to challenge the move.

The move was passed in the 17-member ACT Legislative Assembly, backed by Labor and the Greens, with the Liberals voting against.

"There is no longer any excuse, if there ever was, to discriminate against same-sex couples in our community," ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher told the parliament.

"They are our children, our parents, our brothers, our sisters, our leaders, our business people, our mentors and our colleagues."

"More than anything, they are our equals. The Marriage Equality Act puts this fundamental principle and human right into law," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted her as saying.

Ms Gallagher said that the first weddings could take place by the end of the year.

'Invalid'
 
Attorney-General George Brandis, however, says the local law will face a legal challenge, because it is inconsistent with the national-level Marriage Act.

"It would be very distressing to individuals who may enter into a ceremony of marriage under the new ACT law, and to their families, to find that their marriages were invalid," a statement from the Attorney-General's Office said.

The ACT bill was amended shortly before it passed in an attempt to strengthen it against a potential challenge.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who leads a Liberal-National coalition, opposes same-sex marriage.

His sister, however, has recently disclosed that she is engaged to her female partner.

Last year, a bill allowing same-sex marriage was voted down in both houses of Australia's national parliament.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24619686

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gay-rights-gains-piling-battles-151937902.html
Gay Sodomy rights gains piling up; battles still ahead

Landmark bill advances, a candidate comes out: a whirlwind time for the gay-rights movement
11/5/13

NEW YORK (AP) -- In Maine, a congressman running for governor came out as gay. In Hawaii, lawmakers girded for a vote to legalize same-sex marriage. And in the U.S. Senate, seven Republicans joined the Democrats in a landmark vote to ban workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

From one end of the country to the other, the overlapping developments on a single day underscored what a historic year 2013 has been for the U.S. gay-rights movement — "the gayest year in gay history," according to Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, the movement's largest advocacy group.

Yet each of Monday's developments, while heralded by activists, revealed ways in which the gay-rights debate remains complex and challenging for many Americans.

Republicans, for example, are increasingly split on how to address gay-rights issues — some want to expand their party's following, while others want to satisfy the religious conservatives who make up a key part of the GOP base. More than 40 percent of Americans remain opposed to legalizing same-sex marriage. And even some prominent gays remain uncertain whether they should make their sexual orientation known to the world at large.

Mike Michaud, the Democratic congressman from Maine, said he came out to dispel "whisper campaigns" about his sexuality as the three-way race for governor began to take shape. Through his six terms, he'd never before spoken publicly about his sexual orientation, and he broke the news to his mother only hours before releasing his statement.

In Hawaii, where the state House is debating a Senate-passed gay-marriage bill, thousands of citizens have signed up to testify — and the majority of those who've spoken thus far oppose the measure.

And in Washington, even as gay-rights supporters celebrated the Senate's backing of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, conveyed his opposition and left it unclear whether the GOP-controlled House would even vote on the bill, known as ENDA.

Boehner "believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs, especially small business jobs," said his spokesman, Michael Steel.

Richard Socarides, a former Clinton White House adviser on gay issues, said he was on the Senate floor in 1996 when an earlier version of ENDA lost by a single vote.

"It's poignant for me that it's taken 17 years to get another vote on something as basic as workplace discrimination," he said.

"Even though we're making rapid progress on marriage equality, and the entire movement seems unstoppable, there are still big pockets of resistance," Socarides added. "It's going to cost a lot of money and require a lot of work to get us to where anti-gay discrimination no longer exists."

Monday's 61-30 vote on ENDA demonstrated that the Senate's Republican minority could not muster the votes needed to block the bill by filibuster. The legislation could win final Senate passage by week's end.

Current federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin. But it doesn't stop an employer from firing or refusing to hire workers because they are lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender. The bill would bar such discrimination by employers with 15 or more workers.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have approved laws banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 17 of them also prohibit such discrimination based on gender identity.

Sainz, a vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, said the most striking aspect of the ENDA debate was the division surfacing in the Republican Party — with several prominent GOP senators supporting the bill and yet Boehner signaling his opposition even before the Senate vote was held.

"There is no doubt that the American public is changing on this issue very quickly," Sainz said. "That's what makes what Boehner did today such a head-scratcher."

The Senate vote on ENDA was among a series of major victories for the gay-rights movement this year, highlighted by two Supreme Court decisions in June. One ruling cleared the way for ending a ban on same-sex marriages in California; the other struck down a 1996 law passed by Congress that banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Gay marriage is now legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia, and bills are pending this week that would add Hawaii and Illinois to that group.

If the House does indeed balk at passing ENDA, it could increase pressure from gay-rights activists on the White House to issue an executive order on barring anti-gay workplace discrimination by federal contractors. Gay rights groups have criticized President Barack Obama for refusing to take that step; he has been saying that congressional action would be preferable.

In Maine, Michaud made his disclosure by means of a written statement provided to The Associated Press, the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News. He referred to "whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls" aimed at getting voters to wonder whether he's gay.

"Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: 'Yes I am. But why should it matter?'" he wrote.

"That may seem like a big announcement to some people. For me, it's just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation mill worker or a lifelong Mainer. One thing I do know is that it has nothing to do with my ability to lead the state of Maine."

Michaud is in a tight three-way race with Paul LePage, the Republican incumbent, and wealthy independent Eliot Cutler.

MaryEllen FitzGerald, a pollster from Critical Insights in Portland, predicted Michaud's announcement would have little impact on the race for governor.

"He is a politician who has been in the public eye for a significant amount of time," she said. "I don't think his sexual orientation is generally going to be a factor."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ireland-hold-gay-marriage-vote-164808558.html#D7cdGab
Irish vote on gay marriage in 2015
11/5/13

Ireland is to vote in the first half of 2015 on introducing gay marriage, the Government has confirmed.

Five years after same-sex couples were first given the right to civil partnership a referendum will be held to extend full equality in relationships.

The Department of Justice will work on proposed constitutional reform with the Attorney General's office over the next 12 months.

"This is a matter that the Government considered this morning and accepted the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention that the question of gay marriage should be put to the people," Taoiseach Enda Kenny said.

"What Government decided was that by mid-2015 this question and a number of others would be put to the people."

Justice Minister Alan Shatter examining issues around marriage and Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald dealing with issues on adoption by gay couples.

The decision on the referendum was revealed following a cabinet meeting of the Irish Government after it had been recommended by the country's Constitutional Convention, a 12-month long examination into reforming areas of Irish politics and society.

It also comes 20 years after homosexuality was decriminalised.

The convention recommended in July that the constitution be amended to allow for same-sex marriage.

More than 1,500 couples have secured civil partnerships in Ireland since they were introduced in 2010.

Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin Denis Nulty said the debate is about the nature of marriage and the role of mothers and fathers bringing up children.

"To change the nature of marriage would be to undermine it as the fundamental building block of our society," he said.

Bishop Nulty said the Catholic Church will fight to have marriage retained as a unique bond between a man and a woman.

Kieran Rose, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), said the decision to hold a referendum was another historic step in 20 years' campaigning.

"The next step to ensuring equal citizenship for lesbian and gay people is to provide equal access to civil marriage through a Constitutional referendum," he said.

Noeleen Hartigan, programmes director for Amnesty International Ireland, said she hoped other human rights would also be looked at by the convention.

"This is the first step towards true marriage equality in Ireland. It is a tremendous achievement by the LGBTI campaigners and rights groups which have struggled so long to achieve recognition for this fundamental human right," she said.

Grainne Healy, chairman of Marriage Equality, said: "Marriage Equality is confident that the people of Ireland overwhelmingly support the extension of civil marriage rights to lesbian and gay people.

"This referendum is unlike most other referenda, it's not concerned with politics or economics, it's about Ireland valuing its citizens equally. Introducing marriage equality to Ireland would strengthen our reputation as champions for human rights and equality."

Mark Kelly, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said the support from the Constitutional Convention for the change in law was a clarion call for equality.

"When the people of Ireland vote on this issue in 2015, we will be participating in a final act of legal recognition of the full equality of our gay and lesbian colleagues and neighbours, friends and family," he said.

The Iona Institute, which describes itself as a pro-marriage, pro-religion think-tank, said bringing in the reform was about redefining marriage.

Spokesman Dr John Murray said: "This debate is really about the value we attach to a child having a mother and a father as distinct from two fathers or two mothers."

The Union of Students in Ireland said it would be asking its members to vote in favour in a referendum.

Mr Shatter said that the Government shares concerns raised by Tom Arnold, chairman of the convention, over poor voter engagement at referendums.

"The Government shares the concern of Tom Arnold, the Chairman of the Constitutional Convention that people be better informed in relation to referendums and is also concerned to ensure that questions put to the people in referendums give rise to no misunderstanding or confusion," he said.

"These are issues the Government will be giving further consideration to and it is also considering the possibility of a referendum commission being appointed earlier than has been the case up to now."

Gay weddings allowed before Australia court ruling
12/3/13
http://news.yahoo.com/gay-weddings-allowed-australia-court-ruling-064817822.html

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's first same-sex weddings can take place this weekend after the nation's highest court decided to rule next week on the law allowing gay marriage in the national capital.

The Australian Capital Territory government, which administers Canberra, passed legislation in October that allows same-sex couples to wed in ceremonies equivalent to those heterosexual couples are entitled to under federal law.

The federal government immediately applied to the High Court to quash the law. The court's six judges heard the case Tuesday and announced that they would deliver their ruling on Dec. 12.

The first weddings are scheduled to take place in Canberra on Saturday, the first opportunity under the legal conditions.

The federal government's lawyer Justin Gleeson told the court that having differing marriage laws in various Australian states and territories would create confusion.

The ACT government argues its same-sex marriage laws should stand because they govern couples outside the federal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Ivan Hinton and Chris Teoh, who attended the court hearing, plan to marry on Saturday. Hinton said he knew of at least 12 other same-sex couples who planned to do the same.

Hinton said he hoped that the court would not order an injunction to prevent any marriage before the legality of the legislation was settled.

But when the hearing ended, the federal government did not apply for an injunction and the court issued no orders.

Australian federal law was amended in 2004 to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. But it also specifically applied to heterosexual couples, and some lawyers argue that leaves states free to legislate for same-sex marriage.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott opposes gay marriage and his coalition last year thwarted two federal bills that would have allowed legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02rStatistcs.html

What is being pawned off on our children and grandchildren in public schools is the story that to be homosexual or lesbian is just another normal alternative lifestyle.

Any of you, who have children in public schools, it would behoove you to print out the following and mail it to the principal of your child's school, with a little note stating:

I don't know if the students at (name of school) are being indoctrinated that homosexuality is just another normal alternative lifestyle. If you have been, then you should print out the following and have it passed out to your students, as the truth must be told in order to preserve their health and avoid cutting off about 15-20 years of their life span.

If the authorities give you a hard time, I would take my child out of that school and put him/her in a private school, and if you cannot afford it, I would homeschool him/her. And you can tell that to the principal.

Or, you can wait until one day, your child comes home and says, "Mom, I think I'm homosexual."

I just heard that in the Los Angeles school district that the enrollments are considerably down (20-30,000) and has caused much grief to the school hierarchy, as the amount of money received is based on the number of students. Probably because more parents are homeschooling.


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The statistics on homosexuality and its effects
Some statistics about the homosexual lifestyle:

    One study reports 70% of homosexuals admitting to having sex only one time with over 50% of their partners (3).

    One study reports that the average homosexual has between 20 and 106 partners per year (6). The average heterosexual has 8 partners in a lifetime.

    Many homosexual sexual encounters occur while drunk, high on drugs, or in an **** setting (7).

    Many homosexuals don't pay heed to warnings of their lifestyles: "Knowledge of health guidelines was quite high, but this knowledge had no relation to sexual behavior" (16).

    Homosexuals got homosexuality removed from the list of mental illnesses in the early 70s by storming the annual American Psychiatric Association (APA) conference on successive years. "Guerrilla theater tactics and more straight-forward shouting matches characterized their presence" (2). Since homosexuality has been removed from the APA list of mental illnesses, so has pedophilia (except when the adult feels "subjective distress") (27).

    Homosexuals account for 3-4% of all gonorrhea cases, 60% of all syphilis cases, and 17% of all hospital admissions (other than for STDs) in the United States (5). They make up only 1-2% of the population.

    Homosexuals live unhealthy lifestyles, and have historically accounted for the bulk of syphilis, gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, the "gay bowel syndrome" (which attacks the intestinal tract), tuberculosis and cytomegalovirus (27).

    73% of psychiatrists say homosexuals are less happy than the average person, and of those psychiatrists, 70% say that the unhappiness is NOT due to social stigmatization (13).

    25-33% of homosexuals and lesbians are alcoholics (11).

    Of homosexuals questioned in one study reports that 43% admit to 500 or more partners in a lifetime, 28% admit to 1000 or more in a lifetime, and of these people, 79% say that half of those partners are total strangers, and 70% of those sexual contacts are one night stands (or, as one homosexual admits in the film "The Castro", one minute stands) (3). Also, it is a favorite past-time of many homosexuals to go to "cruisy areas" and have anonymous sex.

    78% of homosexuals are affected by STDs (20).

    Judge John Martaugh, chief magistrate of the New York City Criminal Court has said, "Homosexuals account for half the murders in large cities" (10).

    Captain William Riddle of the Los Angeles Police says, "30,000 sexually abused children in Los Angeles were victims of homosexuals" (10).

    50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals (10).

    Dr. Daniel Capron, a practicing psychiatrist, says, "Homosexuality by definition is not healthy and wholesome. The homosexual person, at best, will be unhappier and more unfulfilled than the sexually normal person" (10). For other psychiatrists who believe that homosexuality is wrong, please see National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

    It takes approximately $300,000 to take care of each AIDS victim, so thanks to the promiscuous lifestyle of homosexuals, medical insurance rates have been skyrocketing for all of us(10).

New York gGay parade

Close-up of one of the New York "Gay Parades"

    Homosexuals were responsible for spreading AIDS in the United States, and then raised up violent groups like Act Up and Ground Zero to complain about it. Even today, homosexuals account for well over 50% of the AIDS cases in the United States, which is quite a large number considering that they account for only 1-2% of the population.

    Homosexuals account for a disproportionate number of hepatitis cases: 70-80% in San Francisco, 29% in Denver, 66% in New York City, 56% in Toronto, 42% in Montreal, and 26% in Melbourne (8).

    37% of homosexuals engage in sadomasochism, which accounts for many accidental deaths. In San Francisco, classes were held to teach homosexuals how to not kill their partners during sadomasochism (8).

    41% of homosexuals say they have had sex with strangers in public restrooms, 60% say they have had sex with strangers in bathhouses, and 64% of these encounters have involved the use of illegal drugs (8).

    Depending on the city, 39-59% of homosexuals are infected with intestinal parasites like worms, flukes and amoebae, which is common in filthy third world countries (8).

    The median age of death of homosexuals is 42 (only 9% live past age 65). This drops to 39 if the cause of death is AIDS. The median age of death of a married heterosexual man is 75 (8).

    The median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65). The median age of death of a married heterosexual woman is 79 (8).

    Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered (usually by another homosexual) than the average person, 25 times more likely to commit suicide, and 19 times more likely to die in a traffic accident (8).

    21% of lesbians die of murder, suicide or traffic accident, which is at a rate of 534 times higher than the number of white heterosexual females aged 25-44 who die of these things(8).

    50% of the calls to a hotline to report "queer bashing" involved domestic violence (i.e., homosexuals beating up other homosexuals) (18).

    About 50% of the women on death row are lesbians (12). Homosexuals prey on children.

    33% of homosexuals ADMIT to minor/adult sex (7).

    There is a notable homosexual group, consisting of thousands of members, known as the North American Man and Boy Love Association ( NAMBLA). This is a child molesting homosexual group whose cry is "SEX BEFORE 8 BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE." This group can be seen marching in most major homosexual parades across the United States.

    Homosexuals commit more than 33% of all reported child molestations in the United States, which, assuming homosexuals make up 2% of the population, means that 1 in 20 homosexuals is a child molestor, while 1 in 490 heterosexuals is a child molestor (19).

    73% of all homosexuals have had sex with boys under 19 years of age (9).

    Many homosexuals admit that they are ****s: "The love between men and boys is at the foundation of homosexuality" (22).

    Because homosexuals can't reproduce naturally, they resort to recruiting children. Homosexuals can be heard chanting "TEN PERCENT IS NOT ENOUGH, RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT" in their homosexual parades. A group called the "Lesbian Avengers" prides itself on trying to recruit young girls. They print "WE RECRUIT" on their literature. Some other homosexuals aren't as overt about this, but rather try to infiltrate society and get into positions where they will have access to the malleable minds of young children (e.g., the clergy, teachers, Boy Scout leaders, etc.) (8). See the DC Lesbian Avengers web page, and DC Lesbian Avengers Press Release, where they threaten to recruit little boys and girls. Also, see AFA Action Alert.

The homosexual agenda

    The homosexual agenda includes desensitizing the public: "The first order of business is desensitization of the American public concerning gays and gay rights.....To desensitize the public is to help it view homosexuality with indifference instead of with keen emotion. Ideally, we would have straights register differences in sexual preferences the way they register different tastes for ice cream or sports games....At least in the beginning, we are seeking public desensitization and nothing more. We do not need and cannot expect a full 'appreciation' or 'understanding' of homosexuality from the average American. You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that homosexuality is a good thing. But if only you can get them to think that it is just another thing...then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won" (25).

    Part of the homosexual agenda is to get the public to affirm their filthy lifestyle, as one homosexual admitted in the October 1987 homosexual rally on Washington: "We are no longer seeking just a right to privacy and a protection from wrong. We also have a right -- as heterosexual Americans already have -- to see government and society affirm our lives" (27).

    Part of the homosexual agenda is to turn people from Christianity: "The teaching that only male-female sexual activity within the bounds and constraints of marriage is the only acceptable form should be reason enough for any homosexual to denounce the Christian religion" (1).

    Homosexuals knowingly lied (and still lie) about the 10% figure (i.e., homosexuals make up 10% of the population). As Tom Stoddard (formerly of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund) said, "We used that figure when most gay people were entirely hidden to try to create an impression of our numerousness" (17).

The true number of homosexuals

    The Kinsey study of 1948, which homosexuals often cite to say that 10% of the population is homosexual, actually says that only 4% of the population is exclusively homosexual. This study involved a disproportionate number of people who had been in jail for sex crimes (hardly a random sample of the population). Kinsey also did perverse studies involving young boys and ****s.

gays playing in public

"Gays" at a public manifestation in New York

    Current research shows that the true percentage of homosexuals is in the 1-2% range. Consider how small this number is when compared to most of the numbers above.

Homosexuals aren't discriminated against in employment, so why should they be a protected class?

    The average yearly income of a homosexual is $55,430.00 (most of which is disposable because no children to take care of!). The average of the general population is $32,144.00. The average of blacks is $12,166.00 (24).

    59.6% of homosexuals are college graduates. 18.0% of the general population are college graduates (24). Too bad they aren't smart enough to listen to God. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22).

    49.0% of homosexuals hold professional/managerial positions. 15.9% of the general population hold such positions (24).

Where's the job discrimination?

    References

    (1) Advocate, 1985.
    (2) Bayer, R. Homosexuality and American Psychiatry.
    (3) Bell, A. and Weinberg, M. Homosexualities: a Study of Diversity Among Men and Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978.
    (4) Cameron et. al. ISIS National Random Sexuality Survey. Nebraska Med. Journal, 1985, 70, pp. 292-299.
    (5) "Changes in Sexual Behavior and Incidence of Gonorrhea." Lancet, April 25, 1987.
    (6) Corey, L. and Holmes, K. "Sexual Transmission of Hepatitis A in Homosexual Men." New England J. Med., 1980, pp. 435-38.
    (7) Family Research Institute, Lincoln, NE.
    (8) Fields, Dr. E. "Is Homosexual Activity Normal?" Marietta, GA.
    (9) Jay and Young. The Gay Report. Summit Books, 1979, p. 275.
    (10) Kaifetz, J. "Homosexual Rights Are Concern for Some," Post-Tribune, 18 December 1992.
    (11) Kus, R. "Alcoholics Anonymous and Gay America." Medical Journal of Homosexuality, 1987, 14(2), p. 254.
    (12) Lesbian News, January 1994.
    (13) Lief, H. Sexual Survey Number 4: Current Thinking on Homosexuality, Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, 1977, pp. 110-11.
    (14) Manlight, G. et. al. "Chronic Immune Stimulation By Sperm Alloantigens." J. American Med. Assn., 1984, 251(2), pp. 237-438.
    (15) Morton-Hunt Study for Playboy
    (16) MsKusick, L. et. al. "AIDS and Sexual Behavior Reported By Gay Men in San Francisco." Am. J. Pub. Health, 1985, 75, pp. 493-96.
    (17) Newsweek, February 1993.
    (18) Newsweek, 4 October 1993.
    (19) Psychological Reports, 1986, 58, pp. 327-37.
    (20) Rueda, E. The Homosexual Network. Old Greenwich, Conn., The Devin Adair Company, 1982, p. 53.
    (21) San Francisco AIDS Foundation, "Can We Talk."
    (22) San Francisco Sentinel, 27 March 1992.
    (23) Science Magazine, 18 July 1993, p. 322.
    (24) Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1990.
    (25) "The Overhauling of Straight America." Guide Magazine. November, 1987.
    (26) United States Census Bureau
    (27) United States Congressional Record, June 29, 1989.
    (28) University of Chicago's Nation Research Corp.
    (29) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

This is an assault on a Catholic Church in Argentina by Sodomite's mostly woman... This is what is coming to America here soon...

****, swastika-bearing feminists assault praying men
 
Vicious anti-church protest includes sexual molestation

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/****-swastika-bearing-feminists-assault-praying-men/#Uw3ARfMYAZaEKD4v.99

Wow.

While this may seem to be good news outwardly, this "fight" is only going to get worse - looks like Australia is taking the opposite approach to what the USA is doing - the latter's USSC ruling said to let the states decide, while the former's high court says to let the federal government decide.

Again, this is only to intensify the dogfight.

http://news.yahoo.com/australia-39-top-court-overrules-gay-marriage-capital-015213530.html
Australia's top court overrules gay marriage in capital
12/11/13

Sydney (AFP) - Australia's High Court on Thursday struck down gay marriage in the nation's capital where dozens have wed under a landmark law, ruling that parliament must decide whether to approve same-sex unions.

Had the nation's top court upheld the Australian Capital Territory's gay marriage legislation it would have opened the door to similar laws being passed across the country, pressuring the government to make it legal at a national level.

In a unanimous decision, Australia's highest court ruled that the federal parliament -- not state and territory authorities -- had the ultimate say over marriage, and whether it was extended to same-sex couples was a matter for lawmakers.

"The Marriage Act does not now provide for the formation or recognition of marriage between same-sex couples," the court said.

"That Act is a comprehensive and exhaustive statement of the law of marriage," it added.

"Under the constitution and federal law as it now stands, whether same-sex marriage should be provided for by law is a matter for the federal parliament."

The decision means that the 27 couples who have wed since the ACT laws came into effect a month ago will have their marriages annulled as unconstitutional.

There were tearful scenes outside the court as those who had married digested the judgment, with Ivan Hinton describing it as "personally devastating" to have his vows to partner Chris Teoh overturned.

"In less than a week we've been married and we've been unmarried, at least on a legal level," he told reporters, fighting back tears.

"We're still married. I've made commitments to Chris to spend the rest of my life with him, through sickness and through health, in the good times and in the bad. Today's not particularly good."

Veteran gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome said the case represented major progress.

"Although there's been a defeat for marriage equality in the High Court today this week we've seen a much greater victory," an emotional Croome said.

"For the first time ever same-sex couples have married on Australian soil. That has been a huge step forward and one from which there is no return."

Instead of "protests or politics, or even laws and the constitution", Croome said the passage of the ACT laws had showed that gay marriage was about "love, commitment, family and fairness".

The ruling had also given campaigners a clear path forward, Croome said, putting the ball squarely in the parliament's court, and affirming "for the first time ever" that lawmakers "definitely" had the power to make same-sex marriage legal.

"Many people had assumed that until now but it has never been declared by the court," he said.

Others also took heart from the court's declaration that while the Marriage Act was restricted to male-female unions, the constitution did not inherently exclude same-sex couples from the definition of "marriage", underscoring that it was a political rather than legal issue.

Religious groups including the Australian Christian Lobby welcomed the ruling, saying gay marriage was irrelevant to most Australians and it was "time to move on".

Gay marriage has been explicitly outlawed in Australia since 2004, when then-prime minister John Howard amended the Marriage Act to specify that such unions were only valid between a man and a woman.

The conservative Tony Abbott-led government is opposed to gay marriage, despite Abbott's sister being a lesbian who is engaged and hopes to marry her partner.

Same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships in most states across Australia but the government does not consider them married under national law.

For legal purposes they are considered de facto couples and have exactly the same rights as married couples.

The UN tells India they can't ban gay sex because that would be illegal under UN treaty that they say India ratified. ::)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/us-india-rights-gay-un-idUSBRE9BB09V20131212 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/us-india-rights-gay-un-idUSBRE9BB09V20131212)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/facebook-gay-for-a-day_n_4439534.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
12/13/13
Facebook Users Go 'Gay For A Day' To Support LGBT India

Earlier this week, India reinforced its institutionalized discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals when the country's Supreme Court upheld a colonial-era law, previously struck down by the High Court in 2009, that criminalizes homosexuality.

In response, LGBT Indians and their allies are protesting the court's decision and expressing support for the community. Through a Facebook group called "Gay for a day!" users are changing their profile pictures "to one in which you are kissing someone from your gender in protest of the Supreme Court of India's ruling that criminalizes homosexuality."

Ugandan MPs pass life in jail anti-homosexual law

Uganda's parliament has passed a bill to toughen the punishment for homosexual acts to include life imprisonment in some cases.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25463942

Nigerian President Signs Anti-gay Bill Into Law

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has signed into law a measure that bans same-sex marriage and membership in gay organizations.
 
The law says anyone who participates in gay clubs or "makes public show of a same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria" commits an offense and faces up to 10 years in prison.
 
Anyone who enters a same-sex marriage or civil union contract could face up to 14 years in prison.
 
The new law drew protest Monday from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
 
In a statement, Kerry said the U.S. is "deeply concerned" about the law, which he said undermines the protections enshrined in Nigeria's constitution, and "dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association and expression for all Nigerians."
 
In contrast with many Western countries, anti-gay sentiment remains high in many African countries, and several countries have moved to tighten laws against homosexuality.
 
Last month, Uganda's parliament passed a bill that would make some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison. That bill is awaiting the signature of President Yoweri Museveni to become law.

http://www.voanews.com/content/nigerian-president-signs-antigay-bill-into-law/1829066.html

The developing/3rd world countries seem to be doing the opposite of what the developed/1st world countries are doing.

dont worry, soon all countries will be down to 3rd world level's

Nigeria begins arrests after anti-gay law passed

 Nigeria's parliament and president quietly approved the legislation, making the country the 38th in Africa to have laws persecuting gay people

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/10571788/Nigeria-begins-arrests-after-anti-gay-law-passed.html


Dozens arrested for being gay in north Nigeria

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24442385/dozens-arrested-for-being-gay-in-north-nigeria#ixzz2qOTSGjrm



1Ki 15:12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.


1Ki 22:46 And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.

Scotland Becomes 17th Country to Approve Same-Sex Marriages

Scotland voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to allow same-sex marriages, becoming the 17th country to give the green light to gay marriage despite opposition from its main church organizations. The Scottish government, which will hold a referendum on independence from Britain in September, said passing the same-sex marriage bill was an important step for...

http://www.charismanews.com/world/42676-scotland-becomes-17th-country-to-approve-same-sex-marriages

Uganda’s President to Sign Anti-Gay Bill Monday — First-Time Offenders Get 14 Years in Jail

Uganda’s president is expected to sign a controversial anti-gay bill that allows harsh penalties for homosexual offenses.

The Uganda Media Center said Monday that President Yoweri Museveni will sign the bill at 11 a.m. local time at his official residence.

The bill is popular in Uganda, but rights groups have condemned it as draconian in a country where homosexuality is already illegal.

The law punishes first-time offenders with 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the penalty for acts of “aggravated homosexuality.” The bill originally proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts, but that was later removed amid international criticism.

U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Museveni not to sign the bill, saying doing so would “complicate” the east African country’s relationship with Washington.

rest: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/24/ugandas-president-to-sign-anti-gay-bill-monday-first-time-offenders-get-14-years-in-jail/

Obama’s UN delegation tries to scrap parts of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Angry over not getting a same-sex-friendly definition of the family into a new UN document, the Obama Administration tried to delete language agreed upon by the founders of the UN and repeated in documents since then.

Regularly contentious in recent decades, the family has been a diplomatic football with one side eager to recognize “diverse forms of the family” while the other holds on to the understanding that the family is the “natural and fundamental group unit of society” taken directly from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Behind closed doors, US negotiators asked to replace the definition of family from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a lengthy new description of families that have “diverse forms and functions” and express “diversity of individual preferences.”

The proposed definition excluded the notion of the natural family, based on the union of a man and woman, as the norm for the procreation and upbringing of children. The US effort was ultimately rejected by UN member states.

The move puts the United States in an odd position.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has almost sacred status at the United Nations. It is regarded, together with the UN Charter, as a founding document of the new world order set in place after World War II.

What’s more, the UN definition of the family is reflected in the constitutions of nearly 120 countries.

US diplomats argued that extended families and single parent households are not included in the classic UN definition. Delegates from traditional countries understood the US argument as pretext to gain recognition for same sex unions because extended families and single parent households were always included in the UN definition.

Similar proposals from the United States, albeit never excluding language from the Declaration, were routinely included in UN documents until recently. But the General Assembly rejected the notion of “various forms of the family” at its last two sessions despite insistence from the European countries and the United States. Once thought to be inoffensive, the phrase has become embroiled in controversy because of western insistence on same-sex issues.

UN Member States are not taking kindly to the new focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual (LGBT) issues from the United States and European countries. Western countries have still to table a substantive resolution that addresses sexual orientation and gender identity and outspoken countries have limited themselves to campaigns to publicize LGBT issues internationally.

LGBT supporters are not the only ones frustrated with the United Nations. There is a trend of rolling back UN terminology that was uncontested until recently not only on LGBT issues but also related to sexual and reproductive health. Abortion groups are frustrated that they have lost ground at the UN. They are worried they will not be able to carry out their agenda into future UN policies.

US diplomats stirred controversy last year when they rejected language from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During negotiations over a resolution about women’s policies, US diplomats asked to delete a reference to the “inherent right to life, liberty, and security of person” of every human being, also from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obamas-un-delegation-tries-to-scrap-parts-of-universal-declaration-of-human

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-dolan-gay-marriage-150312090.html
Pope Francis wants church to study civil unions, Cardinal Dolan says
3/9/14

Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex unions, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.

According to Dolan, Francis wants church leaders to "look into it and see the reasons that have driven them."

"It wasn't as if he came out and approved them,"  Dolan said.  "He said, 'Rather than quickly condemn them, let's just ask the questions as to why [gay marriage has] appealed to certain people."

In an interview published last week by an Italian newspaper, Francis reiterated the church's longstanding opinion that "marriage is between a man and a woman." But, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety."

The Vatican moved quickly to clarify the comments.

"The Pope did not choose to enter into debates about the delicate matter of gay civil unions," Rev. Thomas Rosica, a consultant to the Vatican press office, said in a statement. "We should not try to read more into the Pope’s words than what has been stated in very general terms."

But according to the Catholic News Service, it was the first time a  pope has "indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions."

When asked for his own views on same-sex marriage, Dolan said he is concerned it could "water down" the sanctity of traditional marriage.

"It's not something that's just a religious, sacramental concern," Dolan said. "It's also the building block of society and culture. So it belongs to culture. And if we water down that sacred meaning of marriage in any way, I worry that not only the church would suffer, I worry that culture and society would.”

Dolan was also asked about Michael Sam, the Univ. of Missouri football player, likely an NFL draft pick, who recently came out as gay.

"Good for him," Dolan said. "I would have no sense of judgment on him. God bless ya. I don't think, look, the same bible that tells us that teaches us well about the virtues of chastity and the virtue of fidelity and marriage also tells us not to judge people. So I would say, 'Bravo.'"

Since being installed as pontiff in 2013, Francis has changed the tone coming out of Rome from one of exclusion to inclusion, irking some conservative Catholics in the process.

"I haven't sensed too much bristling among the conservatives," Dolan said. "They honestly will say, 'His style is a little different and might periodically cause us a little angst.' But in general they too seem to be rejoicing in what you might call the evangelical fervor, the good interest in the life of the church."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, don't let the term "civil unions" fool you - what they're really saying is that it's OK to be a "little" pregnant.

http://news.yahoo.com/australias-top-court-recognises-gender-neutral-sex-category-004428333.html
Australia's top court recognises 'neutral' third gender
4/2/14

Sydney (AFP) - Australia's highest court on Wednesday recognised the existence of a third "non-specific" gender that is neither male nor female, in a landmark ruling campaigners said will help end years of discrimination.

The High Court ruled that not everyone should be forced to identify as a man or woman when dealing with officials, saying some people could legitimately describe themselves as gender neutral.

"The High Court... recognises that a person may be neither male nor female, and so permits the registration of a person's sex as 'non‑specific'," it said in a unanimous judgement.

The decision ended a long legal battle by sexual equality campaigner Norrie to overturn a New South Wales state edict that gender is an inherently "binary" concept involving only men or women.

"I'm overjoyed," the Sydney-based activist said. "It's been a long time from start to end but this has been a great outcome.

"Maybe people will understand now that there's more options than just the binary. So while an individual might be male or female, not all their friends might be and maybe they might be more accepting of that."

The 53-year-old, who uses only a single name, was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1989 to become a woman.

But the surgery failed to resolve the Scottish-born activist's ambiguity about sexual identity, prompting a push for the recognition of a new, non-traditional gender.

Norrie made global headlines in February 2010 when an application to the NSW Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages accepted that "sex non-specific" could be accepted for Norrie's records.

But soon afterwards the office revoked its decision, saying the certificate was invalid and had been issued in error. At the time, Norrie said the decision felt like being "socially assassinated".

That sparked a series of appeals which resulted in the NSW Court of Appeal recognising Norrie as gender neutral last year, a decision which the High Court backed on Wednesday.

- 'Outdated notions of gender' -

The Human Rights Law Centre, which provided expert testimony in Norrie's case, said the court had "rejected outdated notions of gender" in the decision.

"Sex- and gender-diverse people face problems every day accessing services and facilities that most Australians can use without thinking twice," the centre's litigation expert Anna Brown said.

"It's essential that our legal systems accurately reflect and accommodate the reality of sex and gender diversity that exists in our society. The High Court has taken an enormous leap today in achieving that goal."

Brown said the decision did not mean people could simply identify themselves as "non-specific" and expect legal recognition.

Under the law, only a person who had undergone gender reassignment surgery could nominate themselves as "non-specific" after presenting medical evidence to back up their claims, she said.

Brown added that it remains unclear who gender-neutral people would be able to marry.

"No one has actually looked at that question legally," she said, adding that there were few international precedents for the decision.

In most states across Australia same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships, but the government does not consider them married under national law.

Germany last year passed a law allowing babies born with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female.

Several countries including Australia, Germany and Nepal also allow people to have an X on their passport rather than male or female, while social media giant Facebook recently moved to allow users to choose "other" gender options, such as "transsexual", "intersex" or "androgynous".

Activist group Gender Agenda said the court decision's impact went far beyond the legal system.

"Transgender, gender diverse and intersex people face high levels of stigma, social exclusion and discrimination," group director Samuel Rutherford said.

"To have the highest court in our land say the law recognises the reality of our existence is not only important in a practical way, but paves the way for achieving equality and freedom from discrimination."

That is just stupid. No matter what you do you cant change your gender at the genetic level. God made you male or female, you cant change that.

Romans 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Support for Gay Marriage Reaches All-Time High in Gallup Poll

A Gallup poll shows that the majority of Americans believe gay marriage should be legally recognized and should offer the same rights as traditional marriage.

The survey released Wednesday found that 55 percent support same-sex marriage, an all-time high for Gallup polling on the question, up from 27 percent when the research firm asked respondents the same question back in 1996.

"For proponents of marriage equality, years of playing offense have finally paid off as this movement has reached a tipping point in recent years - both legally and in the court of public opinion," said Justin McCarthy, a Gallup analyst. "Gay marriage supporters' game strategy has officially pivoted to challenging state bans in court."

When Gallup asked Americans if they supported same-sex marriage in 1996, 68 percent were opposed. Now that figure has decreased to 42 percent. However, gay marriage support has continued to rise since 2011 when the issue gained majority support for the first time.

The study found that support is highest among young adults, with 78 percent of those under 30 saying they approve, and Democrats, 74 percent of whom say they are on board. However, only 30 percent of Republicans think it should be legal and a majority of those older than 50 also oppose it.

McCarthy believes young Americans will likely continue to drive overall support at a consistent pace just like they have in recent years.

The survey also found that the the South is about evenly split on gay marriage, with 48 percent of Americans there saying marriage should be legal. But McCarthy notes that Southern states, most of which have constitutional bans on same-sex marriages, are the new target region for gay advocates.

"While the map of gay marriage is regionally diverse, it is not so in the South, where traditional marriage advocates still hold a majority of support. Public opinion in Southern states will be a barometer to observe, as the bulk of future legal battles will play out there in the months and years to come," McCarthy said.

Arkansas saw the legalization of gay marriages into the Bible Belt earlier this month but the state's Supreme Court suspended the ruling and halted the distribution of marriage licenses a week after a judge overturned the state's gay marriage ban.

Gallup's findings also come amid a slew of recent victories for gay rights advocates after two federal judges struck down bans on same-sex marriage this week in Oregon and Pennsylvania.

The May 8-11 poll of 1,028 American adults has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/support-for-gay-marriage-reaches-all-time-high-in-gallup-poll-120152/

Grassroots protest petition and letters halt Estonian homosexual civil unions bill

A small group of family campaigners has for the moment turned back an internationally-backed effort to create “civil union” legislation in Estonia. In a surprising turnaround, within 24 hours of the launch of a petition the bill has been withdrawn for further consideration and is not expected to be reintroduced until the autumn. The signature drive was a re-play of a similar outcome a year ago when 38,000 people said no to a bill that proposed to create “gay marriage” in Estonia.

In April this year, a group of forty parliamentarians tried again, bringing forward their Civil Partnership Act, the most recent of several efforts since 2005, that proposed to confer legal recognition on homosexual relationships, establishing that children can have “two mothers” or “two fathers.” Its supporters argued both that the bill was not exclusively aimed at same-sex partners and that it was in no way a prelude to the introduction of “gay marriage.” Opponents, however, said that the bill was specifically intended to “undermine the concept of family and the meaning of the basic values of our society.”

Perekonna ja Traditsiooni Kaitseks (Foundation for the Defence of Life and Family) launched a website asking concerned Estonians to send an email to parliamentarians “categorically” rejecting the bill. Within 24 hours of its launch, the petition had “gone viral” throughout the country and collected over 44,000 signatures and by today has sent over 182,507 letters to all 101 members of parliament.

Varro Vooglaid, the author of the petition and the head of the Foundation, told LifeSiteNews.com, “We started the protest campaign on 19 May and on that same day the first news came that the bill might not be passed before autumn. The message was repeated during the week.” The bill’s sponsors had originally intended to see the bill passed June 23rd before parliament’s summer break.

Responding to reports that some lawmakers were sending the emails directly to their trash files, Vooglaid said it is a “glimpse of the understanding of democracy of the kind of people who govern us. This is how much they actually care about the views and voice of the people.”

The letter read, “I categorically protest against the Civil Partnership Act!” It pointed to Section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia that says lawmakers are obliged to “protect the institution of the family as the foundation of the preservation and growth of the nation and as the basis of society.”

“And the family, according to the meaning of constitution, is founded upon the union of a man and a woman. Therefore, all members of the parliament who have sworn fidelity to the constitutional order are obliged to protect the institution of the family from ideologically motivated attempts of subversion and radical redefinition.”

The letter warned parliamentarians that their support for changing the definition of the family would have political repercussions in upcoming elections. “Should parliament, however, decide to proceed with the Civil Partnership Act, it has to be put on a  referendum, because adopting this law would mean the redefinition of the foundation of the society – something that only the people are entitled to do.”

A statement from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Estonian Orthodox Church supported the initiative, saying that instead of same-sex recognition parliament should enact legislation to support the “flagging institution of marriage and the traditional family”. The Orthodox statement called for strong state guarantees to protect “the whole family, consisting of husband, wife and the family, with the children born.”

The Orthodox Plenary said they “think it is extremely unfortunate that our country’s laws will directly contradict the laws of God, which are based upon the revelation to mankind in the Ten Commandments.”

“Really, our church does not see reason why the Estonian government needs to take such a step, which threatens to weaken our country and may cause us to lose respect for the country by a huge number of citizens.”

Vooglaid said that his group had communicated with the members of parliament “on numerous occasions the message that should they support the bill we will do all we can to mobilise tens of thousands of people not to vote for them.” Parliamentary elections are set for March 1, 2015.

This week, the European Forum of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Christian Groups held their annual meeting this year on a cruise ship making stops at Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm. This year’s theme, the group said, is “Sailing with Hope,” taken from a popular Estonian myth of a “white ship” that “brings freedom or takes people away to a better land.” During the conference a representative of Geikristlaste Kogu (the Estonian Association of Gay Christians) gave a featured presentation on “our hopes for the future.”

Asked why such a group would take such an interest in tiny Estonia, with a population of only 1.2 million and very few active Christians, Vooglaid said that Estonia is seen as an ideal “gateway” to Eastern Europe by homosexualist activists.

“Due to its almost completely destroyed Christian culture,” he said, the formerly majority Lutheran Estonia will be the means of “breaking down Eastern European cultural resistance”  to the homosexual and gender ideology.

Estonia is regularly described as one of the “least religious” countries in the world. The most recent statistics from the country found that 54 per cent of the population say they have no religion and 16.7 per cent are “unspecified.” 9.9 per cent are still Lutheran; 16.2 per cent of residents, mainly ethnic Russians, are Orthodox and 2.2 per cent are listed as “other Christian.”

“The homosexual movement knows that they have almost no chance whatsoever of succeeding in Poland, Lithuania or Latvia, and therefore they are trying to break a hole by attacking the moral foundations of the society in Estonia,” Vooglaid said.

A 2009 poll found that only 32 per cent of the population were supportive of same-sex “marriage”. 40 per cent of younger people approved, but only 6 per cent of their parents were in favour. By 2012 that number had dropped to 34 per cent overall. 51 per cent of ethnic Estonians and only 35 percent of Russians supported same-sex civil unions.

Vooglaid confirmed that the homosexualist movement wants to create the impression of being a “grassroots movement.” “The reality, however, is that the homosexual movement has almost zero popular support in Estonia,” he said. “Everything they are able to do is because of extensive support and funding from the European Union, the Soros Foundation (Open Society Foundation) and other interest groups that originate from outside our country.”

He added that the movement did not expect such strong and ongoing popular resistance. At least five attempts have been made since 2005 to introduce some form of same-sex recognition and all have failed. 

Vooglaid pointed to the escalating crisis in Ukraine and the fact that Estonia’s second largest ethnic population group is Russian, sent as settlers during the Soviet era. He said that representatives of religious organisations have warned parliamentarians that giving a legal recognition to the homosexual lifestyle could “bring about a serious security risk to the country.” It would “alienate a huge portion of the society from our legal and political system” and prompt them to look towards a possible alliance with the Russian Federation, “where respect for family values is gradually being restored.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/grassroots-protest-petition-and-letters-halt-estonian-homosexual-civil-unio

I know polls are rigged - but to be frank, there's just seems to be so much INDIFFERENCE among the public, ultimately - it's not that they're for or against it per se, but it seems like everyone is more concerned about their earthly material goods and entertainment than what's really going on in the world. It's also the same reason why this country has a non-natural born citizen in the White House.


Honestly - I'm surprised, why? B/c these "bible belt" churches largely use these Catholic bibles, which either turn a blind eye to or support sodomy. And for that matter too - the south/bible belt is where sports like football is the most popular - for example, you didn't hear any concerns from them over Michael Sam being drafted in the NFL(and him kissing his boyfriend on national tv after he was drafted). Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams, BTW(Missouri has alot of "evangelicals" there).

http://news.yahoo.com/laverne-cox-first-transgender-person-cover-time-170503455.html
Laverne Cox Is the First Transgender Person on the Cover of Time
5/29/14

Transgender actress Laverne Cox graces the cover of Time this week for a story about "The Transgender Tipping Point," just a month after the magazine took heat for failing to include her on its Time 100 list. 

Thanks to her work on Netflix's hit Orange Is the New Black — and a now infamous interview with Katie Couric — Cox has emerged as one the most well-known transgender faces in mainstream media. Along with fellow prominent transwomen Carmen Carrera and Janet Mock, Cox has spoken up about the bullying and phobia surrounding the T part of the LGBT movement.

"I realize this is way bigger than me and about a tipping point in our nation's history," Cox wrote on Facebook, "where it is no [longer] acceptable for trans lives to be stigmatized, ridiculed, criminalized and disregarded." She is the first transgender woman to be on the cover of the magazine.

Last month, Cox was left off of the Time 100 list despite being one of the highest vote-getters in online polls. That snub was seen as part of a longer history of ignoring the entire trans community in major media. The backlash lead to the hashtag #whereislavernecox trending nationally. "Laverne Cox’s absence on the list reflects our society’s failure to acknowledge the accomplishments and efforts of transgender women and transgender women of color in general," Kat Hache wrote at The Daily Dot.

Time didn't comment on those criticisms at the time, but it likely played a role in their decision to feature Cox for their cover story about transgender rights. (Time says the story was in the works for months.)

Cox's interview with Time is mostly pushing for respect and understanding. "A lot of it is just listening to transgender people, and taking the lead from trans-folks," she says. "It's really just about listening to individuals in terms of how they define themselves and describe themselves and take them at their word."

Cox also noted the troublingly high rate of violence against transgender people, particularly as it relates to race and class. "The trans-movement and the LGBT movement in generally really has to be a social justice movement where we look at issues of race and class and phobia in general," she said.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/culture/2014/05/laverne-cox-is-the-first-transgender-person-on-the-cover-of-time/371798/

Look at the Jesuit buzzword they said - SOCIAL JUSTICE!

Americans' Ideology and Age Drive Gay Marriage Views
6/6/14
http://news.yahoo.com/americans-ideology-age-drive-gay-marriage-views-133033956--abc-news-politics.html

 Ideology and a vast age gap mark public attitudes about gay marriage, supported in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll by 77 percent of adults under age 30 - vs. just half as many seniors.

Most Americans overall, 56 percent, support allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, not significantly different from the all-time high, 59 percent, three months ago, and a majority consistently since crossing that line in early 2011. Thirty-eight percent are opposed.

See PDF with full results and charts here.

Half also see gay marriage as a constitutional right, vs. 43 percent who don't - a key question making its way to the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court.

A string of federal courts have handed down rulings in favor of gay marriage since the high court found part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional a year ago . Gay marriages now are legal in 19 states and Washington, D.C.

Despite the flurry of court action, the issue's not on the front burner in this year's midterm elections: A third of Americans say gay marriage is important to their vote preferences, last on a list of eight issues. By contrast, 84 percent call the economy a top concern, and it's about seven in 10 apiece for the deficit, the new health care law and "the way Washington is working."

GROUPS - As noted, age and ideology are the biggest drivers of views on gay marriage. A statistical analysis holding other factors constant, including partisanship, finds that these two are the strongest independent correlates of attitudes on the issue.

Topline data in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, support that conclusion. In addition to 77 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds (63 percent "strongly"), gay marriage is broadly backed by 30- to 39-year-olds, 68 percent. That falls to half of 40- to 64-year-olds, and bottoms out at 38 percent of seniors.

Similarly, it's favored by 84 and 62 percent of liberals and moderates, vs. just 37 and 22 percent of "somewhat" and "very" conservatives, respectively.

While those two are the strongest independent predictors, partisanship and religion also bear a close relationship to opinions on gay marriage. Support is much higher among Democrats and political independents than Republicans (67 and 58 percent, vs. 37 percent, respectively). And just 28 percent of evangelical Protestants back gay marriage, compared with 61 percent of Catholics, 65 percent of non-evangelical Protestants and 82 percent of those with no religious affiliation.

Fifty-eight percent of whites overall support gay marriage, including, notably, 75 percent of white women with a college degree. Support is significantly lower among blacks, 44 percent. Hispanics fall between the two, at 52 percent support.

There's greater-than-average support for gay marriage among Northeasterners, college graduates, $100,000-plus income earners and opponents of the Tea Party movement. And support falls below a majority among Southerners, those who haven't gone beyond high school, those living in rural areas and Tea Party supporters.

METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone May 29-June 1, 2014, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,002 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including design effect.

http://news.yahoo.com/sponsorship-gay-pride-parades-rise-085937873.html
6/27/14
Sponsorship of gay pride parades on the rise

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In between muscular men in speedos gyrating to thumping dance music and drag queens decked out in formal gowns, Salt Lake City's gay pride parade also featured a few, more conventional participants: Some of America's most well-known companies.

From Starbucks to eBay to Macy's, the increasing visibility of corporations at the parade in Utah and at others across the country in recent years comes as same-sex marriage bans fall in the courts and polls show greater public acceptance of gay marriage.

In that climate, companies are finding that the benefits of sponsorship outweigh the risks of staying away, giving them a chance to make a statement in support of diversity and use it to help recruit and retain top talent who want to work for a business that supports LGBT rights.

"We understand there are people who might have different points of view on that," said spokesman Michael Palese at Chrysler, which has been a sponsor of the Motor City Pride Festival and Parade in Detroit, Michigan, for years and became a primary backer this spring.

"We respect their point of view as long as they respect ours," Palese said.

This weekend, some of the largest gay pride events are scheduled, including ones in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. They come just days after a federal appeals court ruled for the first time that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

At many companies, support for pride parades and festivals is being fueled by internal Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender councils who are given small budgets and freedom to spend that money where they choose.

The continued transformation of the parades from small, defiant, sexually daring protests to family-friendly, mainstream celebrations has been on full display this summer as new companies join businesses that have been supporting the cause for years.

In Salt Lake City, American Express workers carried giant letters that spelled, "Love=Love," the theme of the parade. JPMorgan Chase marchers wore T-shirts that said, "just be you." A Budweiser's semi-truck festooned with rainbow flags drove slowly through the parade, honking its horns.

At the 43rd Motor City Pride Festival in Detroit, banners were adorned with corporate logos, including those of General Motors, Ford, Comerica bank, Kroger and Whole Foods Market. Delta Air Lines employees handed out day packs, luggage tags and the same cookies that passengers get.

"They're recognizing that there's a loyal, reliable customer base," said Gregory Varnum of Equality Michigan, a group leading the fight for same-sex marriage rights in the state. "Advertising to the LGBT community is working. They wouldn't keep coming if it wasn't working."

The purchasing power of the U.S. gay and lesbian population was estimated to be $830 billion last year, up from $610 billion in 2005, according to a study by Witeck-Combs Communications, a marketing firm specializing in the gay marketplace.

Some years ago, Ford resisted a pushback from the American Family Association against its support of gay groups, Varnum said.

There have been no reports of organized boycotts against companies. Overstock.com, which was a first-time sponsor with a float in the Utah parade this year, has seen a bit of criticism in Facebook posts but no coordinated boycott, said Stormy Simon, the company president.

"It was important for us to show the support in the civil rights movement that every person is equal," Simon said.

The number of corporate sponsors and cash donations has doubled in the last seven years for the Utah festival. This year, cash donations reached $97,300, with much of that coming from 36 corporate donors, said Jen Parsons Soran, sponsorship director for the Utah Pride Festival.

In Boston, more businesses sponsor each year, leading to $143,000 in cash donations this year, a rise over recent years, but still less than the $186,000 in 2004, when there were fewer sponsors but larger donations, said Sylvain Bruni of Boston Pride, a group that organizes the parade.

TD Bank has been sponsoring gay pride parades and festivals in various cities since 2009. The company said it spends nearly $1 million annually on LGBT events and initiatives in the U.S. and Canada. This year, the company is sponsoring 20 gay pride parades.

"Having corporate sponsors out there at the forefront and seeing them provides greater opportunity and visibility to get the message out that it's OK to be gay," said Robert Pompey, a senior vice president and co-chair of TD Bank's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Allies panel.

Wal-Mart is joining in, too, sponsoring the New York parade — a decision made by stores in New Jersey, said spokesman Randy Hargrove.

The uptick in support comes as corporations increasingly display their backing for gay rights on social media and in ad campaigns.

Marriott International put pictures of well-known LGBT spokespeople wrapped around hotels in its #LoveTravels campaign. Macy's is selling T-shirts, hats and accessories with the slogan, "I stand on the right side of history" with sales going to help make gay marriage legal.

Some long-time festival-goers have bristled at how mainstream and corporate the parades have become, but Nick Morris of Utah said he welcomed them because the corporations are showing acceptance of the gay community.

"We need to be open and willing to accept them as they've accepted us," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/gay-pride-parades-across-us-draw-large-crowds-014644357.html
Gay pride parades across US draw large crowds
6/29/14

NEW YORK (AP) — Gay pride parades held around the nation Sunday drew huge crowds of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their supporters who celebrated after a year of numerous same-sex marriage victories.

As many as 1 million people packed the streets of the Chicago's North Side for the first gay pride parade since Illinois legalized gay marriage last month.

"I think there is definitely like an even more sense of pride now knowing that in Illinois you can legally get married now," said Charlie Gurion, who with David Wilk in February became the first couple in Cook County to get a same-sex marriage license. "I think it is a huge thing, and everybody's over the moon that they can do it now."

New York's Fifth Avenue became one giant rainbow as thousands of participants waved multicolored flags while making their way down the street. Politicians including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were among those walking along a lavender line painted on the avenue from midtown Manhattan to the West Village.

The parade marked the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the 1969 uprising against police raids that were a catalyst for the gay rights movement. The parade route passes The Stonewall Inn, the site of the riots.

In San Francisco, hundreds of motorcyclists of the lesbian group Dykes on Bikes took their traditional spot at the head of the 44th annual parade and loudly kicked off the festivities with a combined roar. Apple Inc. had one of the largest corporate presences, and chief executive Tim Cook greeted the estimated 4,000 employees and family members who participated. The parade drew more than 100,000 spectators and participants.

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and assorted state and local politicians rolled along Market Street along with gay city police officers holding hands with their significant others as their children skipped ahead.

For some veterans of the San Francisco parade, the event has lost some its edge as it gains mainstream acceptance.

"There's less partying," said Larry Pettit, who said he attended the first parade more than four decades ago. "There's less sex. Everyone's interested in politics and no one is having sex."

In Seattle, thousands of people attended the city's 40th annual Pride Parade downtown. This year's theme — "Generations of Pride," honors civil rights battles in the city that elected its first openly gay mayor last November.

Actor George Takei, who played in the "Star Trek" TV show and movies and is now an activist for gay and civil rights, was celebrity grand marshal of the Seattle parade.

A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of landmark rulings, one striking down the statute that denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages and the other clearing the way for gay couples to wed legally in California.

In the 12 months since then, the ripple effects of those rulings has transformed the national debate over same-sex marriage, convincing many people on both sides of the contentious issue that its spread nationwide is inevitable.

From the East Coast to the Midwest and the Pacific, seven more states legalized same-sex marriage, boosting the total to 19, plus Washington, D.C. The Obama administration moved vigorously to extend federal benefits to married gay couples. And in 17 consecutive court decisions, federal and state judges have upheld the right of gays to marry. Not a single ruling has gone the other way.

Other parades were held Sunday across the U.S., including in Minneapolis and Houston. Humbler celebrations were held in smaller towns and cities, such as Augusta, Georgia, while festivals were held Saturday in France, Spain, Mexico and Peru.

Among the marchers Sunday in New York were cousins Yaseena Oatis, 20, and Shayna Melendez, 22, from Plainfield, New Jersey.

"We're walking to celebrate, to be embraced being who we are around people who are like us, free to express ourselves," Oatis said. "Everybody has a different story about how they came out as gay, but we're all here."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101805507#.
Burger King sells gay pride Whopper
7/1/14

 Burger King has concocted yet another way to have it your way: a gay pride burger.

The Proud Whopper, as it's called, comes wrapped in a rainbow colored wrapper with this inscription: "We are all the same inside." It will be sold through Thursday at one Burger King restaurant on San Francisco's Market Street, that was at the heart of the route for last weekend's 44th annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade.

Burger King on Wednesday morning at 8 AM EST plans to post a two-minute video about the Proud Whopper on its YouTube channel.

 "It showcases who we are as a brand," says Fernando Machado, senior vice president of global brand management at Burger King. "It shows how we, as a brand, believe in self expression."

The inspiration behind the unusual burger wrap and video, he says, is Burger King's localized efforts to put into motion actions that support its recently-tweaked slogan: "Be Your Way."

 The move also demonstrates BK's desire to stay connected to its base of Millennial customers. Gay rights is an issue that reverberates strongly with many Millennials both inside and outside the U.S. Burger King also was a sponsor of San Francisco's gay pride parade. Machado says that's the first time Burger King has sponsored a gay pride parade in the U.S., though it may have sponsored some outside the country.

The downtown San Francisco Burger King sold "Proud Whoppers" last weekend, during the parade and also passed out some 50,000 rainbow Burger King crowns, that were worn by parade participants and spectators. The video, created by the Miami office of Burger King's ad agency David, captures customers discussing whether or not the burger, itself, is different. At $4.29 it costs the same as a conventional Whopper. And, indeed, customers ultimately discover the only difference is the rainbow wrap.

All Proud Whopper sandwich sales, Machado says, will be donated to the Burger King McLamore Foundation for scholarships benefiting LGBT high school seniors graduating in spring 2015.

http://news.yahoo.com/un-recognizes-gay-marriages-staffers-194318714.html
UN recognizes gay marriages for staffers
7/7/14

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations announced Monday it would recognize the gay marriages of all its staffers, in a major policy shift that opens the door for the spouses of homosexual employees to enjoy the same benefits as the husbands and wives of their heterosexual colleagues.

Previously, the United Nations only recognized the unions of staffers who came from countries where gay marriage is legal. Now anyone who marries in countries where gay marriage is legal is included.

The change means gay spouses of U.N. employees can get health insurance coverage and the chance to accompany spouses on their home leave every couple of years, among other benefits.

For Anna Guerraggio, an Italian citizen who works at the U.N. in New York, this means the certainty that she can now be joined by her girlfriend of five years without worrying about visas or immigration issues, or waiting for her partner, Flaminia De Agostini, to hear whether she got a job with a visa.

"If she doesn't get the job, then we get married and she benefits from my visa," Guerraggio said in a telephone interview from Italy, which doesn't recognize gay marriage.

UN-Globe, a group representing LGBT staffers at the U.N., had pushed for the U.N. to recognize gay staffers' marriages since 1997. It welcomed Monday's announcement as a massive step forward.

"Too many of us have suffered under the previous policy. Too many of us have been unable to secure, for example, residency visas and health benefits for our spouses because of a discriminatory policy that would refuse to recognize our legal partners," the group's president, Hyung Hak Nam, said in a statement. "Let us just enjoy this moment, this huge victory."

The new policy, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, became effective June 26, and will impact the U.N.'s approximately 43,000 employees worldwide. Employees of separate U.N. agencies, such as the children's agency UNICEF and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, are not affected by the change, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Ban has been an outspoken supporter of gay rights, openly denouncing homophobia in speeches around the world. He notably did so in Sochi, Russia, just before the opening of the Winter Olympics, when he condemned attacks and discrimination against homosexuals. The speech came at a time when activists and protesters had stepped up their campaign against Russia's law restricting gay rights activities.

"For a couple of years, the secretary-general has boldly spoken about equality for all people, and now he was bold enough to do it," Guerraggio said. "He is defending his own employees, and we appreciated that."

According to the Pew Research Center, gay marriage is legal in 18 countries, plus parts of the United States and Mexico. But prejudice remains deep in many countries. An extreme case is Uganda, which in February passed a law making gay sex punishable by a life sentence.

http://news.yahoo.com/uganda-court-invalidates-anti-gay-law-103858056.html
Ugandan court invalidates anti-gay law
8/1/14

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan court on Friday invalidated an anti-gay bill signed into law earlier this year, saying the measure is illegal because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.

The panel of five judges on the East African country's Constitutional Court said the speaker of parliament acted illegally when she allowed a vote on the measure despite at least three objections — including from the country's prime minister — over a lack of a quorum when the bill was passed on Dec. 20.

"The speaker was obliged to ensure that there was a quorum," the court said in its ruling. "We come to the conclusion that she acted illegally."

The ruling was made before a courtroom packed with Ugandans opposing or supporting the measure. Activists erupted in loud cheers after the court ruled the law is now "null and void."

The anti-gay measure provided for jail terms of up to life for those convicted of engaging in gay sex. It also allowed lengthy jail terms for those convicted of the offenses of "attempted homosexuality" as well as "promotion of homosexuality."

Frank Mugisha, a Ugandan gay leader, said the ruling Friday was a "step forward" for gay rights even though he was concerned about possible retaliation.

Ugandan lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, an attorney for the activists, said the ruling "upholds the rule of law and constitutionalism in Uganda."

Lawyers and activists challenged the anti-gay law after it was enacted in February on the grounds that it was illegally passed and that it violated certain rights guaranteed in Uganda's constitution.

The court ruled Friday that the activists' entire petition had been disposed of since the law was illegally passed in the first place. This means there will be no further hearings about the activists' argument that the anti-gay measure discriminated against some Ugandans in violation of the country's constitution.

Nicholas Opiyo, a Ugandan lawyer who was among the petitioners, welcomed the ruling but said there is still a missed opportunity to debate the substance of the law. "The ideal situation would have been to deal with the other issues of the law, to sort out this thing once and for all," Opiyo said.

A colonial-era law that criminalizes sex acts "against the order of nature," still remains in effect in Uganda, allowing for the continued arrests of alleged homosexual offenders, Opiyo said.

Lawmakers will likely also try to reintroduce a new anti-gay measure, he said.

Kosiya Kasibayo, a state attorney, said a decision had not been made on whether to appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court, Uganda's highest court.

The anti-gay measure was enacted on Feb. 24 by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who said he wanted to deter Western groups from promoting homosexuality among African children.

Although the legislation has wide support in Uganda, it has been condemned in the West and rights groups have described it as draconian. The U.S., which wants the law repealed, has withheld or redirected funding to some Ugandan institutions accused of involvement in rights abuses.

The ruling Friday may also win the Ugandan delegation a softer landing in the U.S. next week as it heads to Washington for a gathering led by President Barack Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/target-publicly-endorses-same-sex-marriage-145800032.html
Target publicly endorses same-sex marriage
8/6/14

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Target Corp. is adding its name to a legal defense of gay marriage, joining other large companies that are taking a stand, just four years after the retailer came under criticism for supporting a strident opponent of same-sex unions.

Target said it has signed a court brief backing marriage equality in a pending court case and publicly declared its support of gay marriage, a move similar to those taken by Starbucks, Intel and Apple.

"It is our belief that everyone should be treated equally under the law, and that includes rights we believe individuals should have related to marriage," Target Executive Vice President of Human Resources Jodee Kozlak wrote on the company's blog.

Target has come under fire in the past from gay rights activists who threatened boycotts after the retailer — along with Best Buy and 3M — donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to an organization that supported Republican Tom Emmer, a vocal opponent of gay marriage, in the 2010 Minnesota governor's race.

Target has worked to win back customers in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and has long offered benefits to the same-sex partners of employees.

Nearly all of Minnesota's biggest corporations declined to take a position on the 2012 state referendum to ban gay marriage except for General Mills, which opposed the ban. The referendum failed and the state Legislature passed a bill recognizing same-sex marriage in 2013.

Phil Duran, legal director of OutFront Minnesota, which worked to defeat the state's referendum to ban gay marriage, called Target "a powerful voice."

A spokeswoman for the Minnesota Family Council, which led the charge against gay marriage, predicted that the move will backfire.

"This is a very risky business decision and ultimately the wrong one because it is families that shop at Target," Autumn Leva told the Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/1qUU8DQ ). "People in Minnesota are still deeply divided on this issue."

The case in which Target has filed a brief combines legal actions in Wisconsin and Indiana. Federal judges overturned gay marriage bans in both states and state officials appealed. The case is scheduled for an Aug. 26 hearing in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Uhm, yes - no surprise, as Romans 1:18-32 says it all!

http://news.yahoo.com/religion-unimportant-most-lgbt-americans-132241382.html
Religion Unimportant to Most LGBT Americans
8/13/14

Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) are much less likely to be religious than non-LGBT Americans, according to a new Gallup poll.

Just less than half of LGBT Americans said religion is important in their daily lives, compared with about two-thirds of non-LGBT Americans. Moreover, about 40 percent of non-LGBT adults identified themselves as highly religious, compared with just 24 percent of LGBT adults. About the same percentage of LGBT and non-LGBT Americans said they considered themselves moderately religious (29 percent). But LGBT Americans were much more likely to identify as not religious at all: 47 percent considered themselves not religious, compared with just 30 percent of non-LGBT Americans.

Participants were categorized as "highly religious" if they said religion played an important role in their day-to-day life and they attended a religious service every week, according to Gallup. A person was considered "not religious" if they said religion is not important in their daily life and they seldom or never attended any religious service, according to Gallup. "Moderately religious" people reported that religion is important to them but they do not regularly attend services. [10 Milestones in Gay Rights History]

Part of the reason for the disparity in religiousness may be that LGBT individuals do not feel welcomed into religious communities whose doctrine does not support any kind of nonheterosexual relationship, Gallup representatives noted.

However, religious doctrine is not the only explanation for the difference in religiousness between the two groups: Gallup representatives pointed out that LGBT people may be more likely to live in areas where religion is less common, and more likely to adopt the same mind-set and practices of others in the area. 

Age may also play a significant role, according to a statement from Gallup. Overall, the U.S. LGBT population is much younger than the non-LGBT population, and young adults are less religious than any other age group in the United States. This could partially explain the lower rates of religious people among the LGBT group, according to Gallup.

However, even after breaking up the data by age, LGBT individuals are still less likely to identify themselves as religious. More than half of LGBT young adults (ages 18 to 34) reported they are not religious, while only 39 percent of non-LGBT young adults said they are not religious.

LGBT individuals were most likely to identify with Protestantism (35 percent), followed by Catholicism (20 percent). LGBT individuals were also much more likely to identify with a non-Christian religion (8 percent) than non-LGBT individuals (2 percent).

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Presbyterian Church voted to allow ministers to marry LGBT couples if their state has legalized same-sex marriage. If religious communities continue to become more accepting, the religious gap between LGBT and non-LGBT individuals may close, Gallup representatives said.

**Not if, but WHEN - it's only a matter of time before the 501c3 corporate church caves into IRS pressure.

The results of the poll are based on 104,000 telephone interviews with U.S. adults ages 18 or older between Jan. 2 and July 31.

http://news.msn.com/us/arizonas-pregnant-man-has-right-to-divorce-wife-court
Arizona's 'pregnant man' has right to divorce wife: court
8/14/14

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A transgender man who made headlines by giving birth to three children can divorce his wife of more than 10 years, an Arizona appeals court ruled on Wednesday, rejecting a lower court's decision.

A three-member panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals unanimously decided that the divorce can proceed because Thomas Beatie's 2003 marriage in Hawaii was considered legal in Arizona.

"As the Beaties' Hawaii marriage was lawfully entered in Hawaii and is not deemed void by Arizona law, the marriage is valid within this state," said Judge Kenton D. Jones, in the 12-page opinion.

The court's decision overturns a ruling made in March 2013 by a Maricopa County Family Court judge that blocked the divorce.

Judge Douglas Gerlach denied the divorce on the grounds that Beatie had not shown he was a man when he wed in 2003, and thus could not show he and his wife were a heterosexual couple. Same-sex marriages are not recognized as valid in Arizona.

Beatie, 40, was born a woman, but has lived as a man since his 20s after hormone treatments and surgery to change his gender. Beatie was legally allowed to change his birth certificate and other documents to reflect his being a male.

He first gained notoriety after stopping the testosterone treatments and deciding to have a baby when his wife was unable to conceive because she had a hysterectomy.

He made the rounds of national talk shows as the man with the thin beard and baby belly when he first became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in 2008. Two other children followed in the next two years.

Beatie filed for divorce in 2012, seeking dissolution of his marriage with plans to marry his new girlfriend.

Beatie attorney David Michael Cantor said he hopes that the appeals court ruling goes beyond this one case.

"People are going to have to get used to the fact that transgender people exist and they deserve the same rights and responsibilities that everyone else have," Cantor told Reuters.

"That includes the right to get married and the right to be divorced and the responsibilities that go along with all that."

Mexican state of Coahuila approves same-sex marriage

The northern state of Coahuila has become the second region in Mexico to officially allow same-sex marriage. Coahuila's congress approved changes to the civil code which give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including adoption. In Mexico, laws on same-sex unions fall under state legislation, and a number of them have divergent rules.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29028305

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/04/im-a-senior-gop-spokesman-and-im-gay-let-me-get-married/
I’m a senior GOP spokesman, and I’m gay. Let me get married.

By James Richardson September 4
James Richardson is a former spokesman and adviser for the Republican National Committee and Governors Haley Barbour and Jon Huntsman.

The federal government’s number crunchers believe some 21,318 same-sex couples call Georgia home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent accounting, and new research forecasts that as many as half would jump the broom within three years if allowed by their government.

I’m one-half of one of those aggrieved couples — denied, for more than five years, the social stability and legal protections of marriage. And, as a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee and adviser to prominent party figures, I’m also a professional political operative who’s helped install in government those who perpetuate marriage bias in America.

Throughout my career I’ve publicly advocated for the freedom to marry, urging the party for which I work to allow gay men and women to wed even as I never openly disclosed my personal stake. I’ve preached the small-government virtues of equal marriage, echoing a conservative case that had been made many times before by thinkers more eloquent and far brighter than myself. Never once did I write that I am gay.

For my admission here, I will alienate friends whose faiths regard my sexuality as culturally corrosive. I’ll suffer the snickering of those across the aisle whose politics regard my own as personally injurious. And conservative clients may regard me as a liability. After all, the tide is not as unidirectional as people say.

While the conventional wisdom holds that the public’s dramatic shift was driven primarily by expansive support among millennials, pollsters estimate that one-in-seven equal marriage supporters were once opposed to the convention. Nearly one-third of these belated boosters say they were won over through personal encounters with gay family members or friends, so the potential reward of convincing even one dubious neighbor is greater than the assumed risk of a diminished social orbit. And it’s okay if I alienate a Facebook friend or two.

It’s not always easy to love Georgia, or love in it. Our state constitution explicitly forbids same-sex unions, and the local economy remains defiantly sluggish. Yet in spite of its blemishes, my would-be groom and I are deeply committed to our community, one whose values of faith and family we share.

On Saturday we huddled with 90,000 of our closest friends in approaching-100-degree heat to cheer on the University of Georgia Bulldogs in the season opener. And this Sunday, as those before it, we’ll be in the pews of the same evangelical church we’ve quietly attended for years. We bless our suppers, we pay our taxes, and we own a home in the suburbs. Norman Rockwell would have thought us boring, because, frankly, we are.

But even if we failed, or refused on principle, to cross straight America’s bourgeois threshold for normalcy, gay people deserve the same the legal and moral considerations — and rights — enjoyed by all others. They are Americans whose rights were granted by God and the grit of their forbearers, yet they are forced to defend their love, and the various planes on which it may be judged (constitutional, cultural and economic), to distressing and revolting ends.

Still, America’s marriage detente is not helping anyone. Consider the numbers: Georgia rates 49th in the nation for joblessness, only narrowly edging the vastly-more-rural Mississippi to our west. Within just three years of legalizing same-sex marriage, according to a new white paper by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, upward of 1,000 out-of-work Georgians would find stable employment and the state treasury would bank $5.5 million in new sales tax revenue borne of a big gay dowry for an expanded hospitality industry.

**Just like the lying politicians say - "It's the economy, stupid!"

That’s revenue that could revitalize the state’s long-suffering transportation and education systems. More importantly, it’s money that won’t exist until (and unless) government gets out of the way of responsible gay couples wishing to honor one another and their families and communities in lifelong commitment.

But this isn’t, or at least shouldn’t purely be, a discussion of wages and government revenue. That confines broad ethical and constitutional questions to one merely about utility. Instead, this is a debate about individual Americans and the dignity their unions are necessarily due from their government. My partner and I are envious subscribers to the conventional, conservative family model; yet together, as two men wishing to grow grey and ornery in matching rocking chairs, we are consigned to “cohabitation” as a consequence of law. That’s unjust, and it’s uniquely painful.

On the foundational question of marriage’s value, to individuals and society, gay couples and the institution’s cultural conservative gatekeepers agree: marriage is deeply special. We wish to participate in earnest, to strengthen the institution that our straight peers are abandoning. Gay couples don’t want to rock the marriage boat — they only want a ticket for two to ride.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gay-rights-group-after-recent-victories-turns-to-a-new-frontier-the-south/2014/09/10/22c72a68-3761-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html
Gay rights group, after recent victories, turns to a new frontier: the South
9/10/14

NATCHEZ, Miss. — Just three months ago, Rob Hill was a Methodist pastor with a burning secret. But as a swampy heat took hold one recent morning, he put on a suit, climbed into his car and headed into this river town on a mission that would have been unthinkable not long ago: promoting gay rights in rural Mississippi.

It’s hardly the most audacious thing he’s done this year. In July, after 12 years in the clergy, Hill came out of the closet — not at an intimate gathering around his kitchen table, or to friends on Facebook, but at a news conference orchestrated by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay-advocacy organization that is pouring $9.5 million into an effort to push the needle of public opinion in the Deep South.

It is part of a broader shift within the gay rights movement, which has turned much of its attention away from same-sex marriage now that it is legal in 19 states and the District and is a question likely to be settled by the Supreme Court. The focus has shifted to improving job protections, passing local anti-discrimination ordinances, bolstering the rights of gay parents, reducing anti-gay bullying in schools and nudging change in places that have resisted it.

Hill is now the face of that campaign in Mississippi, a state that has remained largely untouched by the recent wave of gay rights victories. So all summer, he has been going from town to town like this, to coffee shops and living rooms, coaxing quiet gays into becoming a little louder and a little angrier, urging local officials to be on what he describes as the right side of history.

He has been encouraged by the initial victories — for example, when leaders in the coastal town of Waveland unanimously passed an anti-discrimination resolution, presenting the document at a meeting with a little rainbow flag printed on the bottom. But the road forward is steep. This is Mississippi, after all, a state that embodies the values of the Bible Belt.

That was apparent even in ­Natchez, a community of graceful antebellum homes huddled along the Mississippi River, known to be relatively welcoming to gays. But neither the mayor nor a well-known liberal alderman had accepted an invitation to meet with Hill on this trip. At a coffee shop, card-carrying liberals nodded vigorously as Hill spoke but hesitated when asked if they would propose an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Even many local gays expressed a reluctance to rock the boat, satisfied with a kind of truce that had been struck. At the Cotton Alley Cafe, a funky little restaurant with mismatched chairs and artwork cluttering the walls, owner Guy Bass said he was sympathetic to Hill’s efforts but unsure of how aggressive he wanted to be in asserting his presence.

“We’ve just lived our lives here,” Bass, 55, told Hill. “We’re not out, I guess, but everyone knows we’re gay, and they support our restaurant, thank God. We don’t shove anything down people’s throats, and it’s worked out for us.”

Bass’s partner for 35 years, David Browning, 53, put it a little differently: “It’s great here — as long as you don’t put the pinky out.”

But being open and demanding equal treatment is exactly what the Human Rights Campaign is hoping Browning and others in the region eventually will do. The group set up permanent offices in Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama this summer in the hopes of swaying public opinion in a region that has been resisting the tide of gay rights.

“The reality is that a lot of that progress has been limited to the coasts and a few bright dots in the middle,” said Brad Clark, head of the multi-state program, called Project One America.

There is reason for the group to be optimistic. Over the past year, eight small towns across Mississippi have passed resolutions meant to create a welcoming atmosphere for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Most of them passed unanimously.

The group’s work will probably run into resistance from organizations espousing more conservative social values that have traditionally had more sway here, especially since the Human Rights Campaign is a Washington-based group with ample resources and ties to the Democratic Party.

“States of the so-called Bible Belt are kind of the stronghold for our position for holding firm against some of what we sometimes refer to as the homosexual agenda,” said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council. “We intend to work closely with our allies there to resist some of these efforts.”

Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group based in Tupelo, Miss., that owns more than 200 radio stations across the country, said he was skeptical that the Human Rights Campaign would be successful. “Mississippians are not going to be swayed, I think, by this group coming in, in terms of their personal beliefs on GLBT,” he said. But he challenged the organization to try.

For now, though, the campaign is less of a fight than a soft pitch, made by charismatic characters such as Hill, 39, a lifelong Mississippi resident with a receding hairline and absorbing blue eyes.

While many friends knew he was gay, it was not something he broadcast publicly — the United Methodist Church does not allow openly gay ministers. Had he come out, he would have been forced to resign and surrender his credentials — a gut punch after so many years in the pulpit.

But last fall, the pressure of keeping this secret became too great a burden. He began to envision leaving, not just the church but Mississippi altogether. His partner of six years got a job in New York City, and the two were there, about to sign a lease for an apartment in Washington Square, when it simultaneously dawned on them.

“We had the paperwork in our hands and said, ‘Let’s not do it,’ ” he recalled. “We have friends here, family here, and the truth is it’s not a bad place. . . . We realized, this is our home. We shouldn’t have to leave it to live authentic lives.”

It was around that time that the Human Rights Campaign began its work in Mississippi, and eventually the group asked him to head the project. His job would be to meet lots and lots of people. He would help shepherd local resolutions and cultivate relationships with religious leaders — friendly and not — and collaborate with a lobbyist in the capital to resist anti-gay legislation and push favorable bills.

Hill quit the church and took the position. Since then, he has put on 15 pounds, which he attributed to stress. He has lost some friends and gained a whole lot more. He has all but stopped going to church. And he has become addicted to pulpy top-40 country music: Just outside ­Natchez, Hill cranked up the radio and shook his shoulders when the car radio blared Joe Nichols’s “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.”

His first stop was the Natchez Coffee Co., where taco soup was on the menu and a group of regulars huddled at a pair of tables — the liberals at one, the conservatives at the other. At the second table was a 79-year-old retired stockbroker from New York who was baffled that a Washington-based group would try to infiltrate this community of 18,000 residents.

“This is a perfect little town,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “There are no class distinctions. No crime. The kids generally grow up nicely with good educations. Why would anyone come in here and try to change it? Things are just fine.”

Hill’s purpose is not to challenge his foes but to find friends. So he had arranged a meeting with Mary Jane Reed Gaudet, a seventh-generation Natchezian and a local mover and shaker who is known for her embrace of progressive causes. She had assembled a group of local gays and activists, including the community-theater director who had caused a stir with his production of “La Cage aux Folles,” a musical centering on the lives of a flamboyant gay couple.

They told Hill that their town was surprisingly accepting. When a local publication outed an area official whose mother didn’t even know he was gay, the community hardly blinked, they said.

Hill asked if they would ­propose an anti-discrimination measure to the local board.

“It’s very accepting here, but it’s just not something you talk about,” Gaudet said, expressing her preference for “indirectly approaching conflicting feelings, whether it be race relations or gay and lesbian things.”

His final meeting of the day was more encouraging. Margaret Perkins, 56, whose family owns the local radio station, and her partner, René Adams, 48, said they were in favor of an anti-discrimination measure as well as more-binding state laws that would prevent employers from being able to fire employees for being gay.

Perkins recalled the times when she had held her tongue while her co-workers prattled on about their weekends, fearful she might slip up while telling some mundane story and inadvertently reveal she is gay. “Why should I act like I don’t have a life?” she said.

But the couple suggested a more circuitous route rather than directly taking a resolution to town leaders. Why not start with a pitch to the tourism board that being gay-friendly is good for business?

Hill said it was a good idea and agreed to come back another time, when the pair would throw him a fete to meet more locals — and perhaps set up a meeting with that progressive alderman he missed this time around.

http://news.yahoo.com/as-anti-gay-rights-leaders-export-ideas-abroad--human-rights-campaign--names-and-shames--them-223357579.html

America's gay rights battle goes global
As anti-gay rights leaders export ideas abroad, Human Rights Campaign ‘names and shames’ them

9/15/14

Starting in 2012, the leader of the most prominent American anti-gay marriage organization unexpectedly began adding a ton of stamps to his passport.

As federal judges struck down gay marriage bans left and right at home, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown appeared at meetings and marches for various anti-gay rights causes in France, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia and Australia — a surprising uptick in travel for the stateside activist. The result: In June, Brown’s group began discussing rebranding itself as the International Organization for Marriage, according to materials from a “March for Marriage” meeting in Washington, D.C.

Brown is just one of many in the American “traditional marriage” movement who are aggressively pushing their message abroad now that they face an increasingly tough sell at home. In so doing, he is making common cause with foreign activists whose anti-gay rights crusades are more robust — and more resoundingly successful — than America’s homegrown one. Among them are Americans who actively worked behind the scenes to support the passage of Russia’s law preventing gay people from adopting, as well as Uganda’s law that punishes homosexuality with up to a lifetime in prison.

The U.S. involvement in anti-gay rights international activity has become so intense that one of the premier gay rights groups in the country, the Human Rights Campaign, started a special “global engagement program” last year to track their activities and help gay rights activists abroad. The program has a $1 million budget for its first year and five full-time staffers. On Monday the group released its most comprehensive report on the internationalization of the American anti-gay rights movement.

The report, “The Export of Hate,” names the most prominent individuals and groups — Brown among them  —working to pass anti-gay rights legislation abroad.

“With anti-LGBT losses mounting in the United States, and with strong indications of increased activity abroad, more must be done to expose this work and the people doing it,” the report says.

The report calls out Scott Lively, an American missionary who traveled to Uganda to warn about what he described as the evils of gay people in the runup to the passage of the country’s law that punished homosexuality with death. (The law was later toned down so that the maximum punishment is life in prison, before the nation's highest court invalidated it.) Benjamin Bull, the chief counsel of the conservative legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom, is also cited for the alliance’s 2011 announcement that it would take its legal arguments against gay marriage overseas; it now supports groups that are working to uphold bans on same-sex marriage all over the world.

“Our primary focus is naming and shaming,” Jason Rahlan, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, said of the report. “My sense is a lot of Americans and even a lot of folks in the LGBT community have absolutely no idea this is going on.”

Some of the organizations profiled in the report have acknowledged in their own way that the line has moved irrevocably in the U.S. debate over gay rights. It’s been more than a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws allowing states to punish same-sex sex acts with prison, and the U.S. debate now revolves around whether lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have a right to marriage everywhere in the country, along with anti-discrimination protections at work.

Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom have given up on arguing that same-sex activities ought to remain criminal in America, and are instead focusing on preserving same-sex marriage bans. But in many other countries, including the 80 that outlaw being openly gay, the landscape is completely different — and much more welcoming to their arguments.

“Oftentimes they work under the radar and they mask their intentions,” Rahlan said of the American activists.

That’s why it took some piecing together for the group to notice that the National Organization for Marriage, which was pivotal in passing the same-sex marriage ban in 2008 in California, had gone international.

“They are a lot more active in the international space but are being very quiet about it,” said Becky Parks, the Human Rights Campaign’s associate director of global engagement.

“I have been so excited to be part of this new international solidarity movement in defense of marriage, children and family,” Brown wrote on NOM’s blog last year. He did not respond to an interview request about NOM’s international expansion.

Many of these overseas groups and individuals are expected to send representatives in October 2015 to Salt Lake City, Utah, for a World Congress of Families summit. The Human Rights Campaign will be watching the event closely, Rahlan said.

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen2/14b/GLSEN-Conference-040514/gay-history/index.html
LGBT movement organizing to mandate “gay history” in schools across America.

In California already. Starting now in Massachusetts. Their goal is to force it into schools nationwide.
POSTED: September 18, 2014

The push to require that “gay history” be taught in the nation’s is already in place in California and is now making headway in Massachusetts. The LGBT teachers conference brought in techniques that activists can use to expedite that process around the country.

The homosexual movement is organizing and strategizing to achieve their latest goal in the schools.

This is the sixth part in our series on this year's annual GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) Conference held in Boston in April 2014 which brought together LGBT teachers, school officials, and education activists (and their "allies") -- along with children as young as fifth grade -- where they outlined their latest tactics for the schools.

Why a push for “gay history” in schools?

“Gay history” is an important psychological tool that homosexual movement uses to convince schoolchildren that homosexual behavior is a normal and positive influence in society. By making it part of the school curriculum -- with lectures, exams, term papers, etc. – it becomes ingrained in kids’ minds. Thus, students would never question its legitimacy -- and legitimacy is an obsessive goal of the homosexual movement.

Perhaps more disturbing, “gay history” introduces deviant figures such as Harvey Milk (a sexual predator of teenage boys), pro-NAMBLA activist Harry Hay, and other “gay pioneers” (some of whom were pornographers) as legitimate historical figures worthy of admiration. Plus it often teaches kids the unproven political “quackery” that famous people such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Julius Caesar, and even Abraham Lincoln were homosexual.

For example, soon after the California law was passed, one LGBT social studies teacher in San Francisco in an interview with a high school newspaper gave a taste of what what “gay history” should include:

In considering the possibilities, [the teacher] described potential lesson plans featuring rumored gay authors such as William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman and famous court cases involving gay defendants like that of Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 court case that ended Texas’ sodomy law.

Gaining steam since the 1990s

That “gay history” push has been slowly but steadily progressing. Since the 1990s individual “gay activist” teachers have woven homosexual themes into their classes, including history lessons. Over a decade ago “gay history month” displays began to appear in “progressive” school districts, and that has spread across the country. For over a decade, national LGBT groups have trained teachers how to incorporate “gay rights” into history classes (example from 2001). (NOTE: This link is from the MassResistance blog – which Google still partially blocks!) But the goal has always been mandating it across the country.

This handout at the workshop shows some of the LGBT activists over the years that they intend to portray as heroic "historical figures" to schoolchildren.
   
California becomes first state to mandate “gay history” in schools

In 2011, California passed Senate Bill 48, the Orwellian-labeled “FAIR Education Act.” It requires that the “historical contributions” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans” be included in courses, instructional material, and textbooks in California Public Schools. Furthermore, the law includes prohibition of any “materials that reflect adversely” on LGBT persons or the movement. This onerous law was the result of a well-crafted campaign by the homosexual lobby, spearheaded by a homosexual activist state legislator, and actively supported by the liberal press.

This was such an abrupt change that Grades K-8 have been given until July 1, 2015 to comply, but high schools are required to move as fast as possible. Many California high schools are rolling out their new “gay” curricula this month – September 2014.

The conference workshop: Strategies to do it . . .

This year the conference had a special workshop to show teachers and activists how a “gay history” mandate was successfully effected in one school district in Massachusetts. Here’s how the conference program listed it:

    2.5 Reversing the Erasure of LGBT History
    Using Los Angeles Unified School District and Lowell School District as case studies, this workshop examines strategies for introducing vital LGBT inclusive history curriculum into schools.

    Presenter(s): Debra Fowler, Debbie Costello & Erin Kehoe, Lowell High School

This was one of the best-attended workshops of the conference. The room was full. The main presenter was Debra Fowler, who teaches English as a second language at Lowell High School.

The workshop was largely a how-to description of how Fowler and others were able to pressure Lowell High School in Lowell, MA to make “LGBT history” mandatory in the 11th grade. She is also the producer of a very slick and emotional video, “Through Gay Eyes”, which is also now a required part of the Lowell High School curriculum and was shown at the workshop. And they are taking steps to push this statewide (and eventually nationwide).

How they got the Lowell politicians & administrators on board

Fowler showed her video “Through Gay Eyes” to the workshop. Some of the messages in the video, which Fowler also talked about) are:

    Kids need to know they have a gay teacher.
    The teacher was uneasy about coming out to students, but did anyway.
    Boston TV News Anchor Randy Price "married" his boyfriend on the State House steps.
    The world is evolving and changing.
    It’s wrong to oppose people’s beliefs when they don’t affect you.
    Children shouldn't have to worry about growing up with a gay parent.

Fowler described her successful strategy for getting the politicians, school administrators, and faculty all to sign on to requiring “gay history” (and more) at Lowell High School. She said her emotional video “Through Gay Eyes” was used as a “catalyst.”

Starting in August, 2013, she made sure that as many students as possible -- and also the key politicians, administrators, and faculty –attended a screening of the video. Although the messages from the video do not have a direct relationship to “gay history” it gave them an emotional attachment to the cause, which was even more important. Then she had hundreds of students and faculty sign two petitions demanding that the video and “LGBT history” be included in the curriculum.

The final step was the Lowell School Committee. At the November 20, 2013 meeting she arranged to have the necessary items on the agenda, and she packed the room with supporters. The two petitions were presented to the Mayor, superintendent, and members of the School Committee to sign themselves, which they all did. All their agenda items were passed unanimously. Thus, the following was accomplished by Fowler and her activists:

    Lowell High School would require “gay history” in the 11th grade, starting in September 2014.
    The video “Through Gay Eyes” would be required in the middle and high school health curriculum.
    The School Committee officially endorsed proposed changes to the Massachusetts Common Core curriculum to include LGBT individuals and events in 11th-grade U.S. History courses statewide. That is the next big push for the LGBT lobby in Massachusetts, they’ve said.

After the School Committee vote, Fowler (left) posed triumphantly with the headmaster of Lowell High School. The photo was circulated on LGBT education sites.

At the workshop, Fowler acknowledged that she got a help from “gay” educators and activists in California. One important thing she told the group: “The lessons are not ‘stand-alone’ lessons,” she said. “The lessons are seamlessly woven into history.”

In closing, Fowler told the workshop, “Reach out to people who can make changes in curriculum. You have the power!”

Below is from the handout that Fowler passed out at the workshop describing their successful strategy. You can also download it here.

National group has already prepared LGBT history curriculum

The homosexual movement is not leaving anything to chance. They are already preparing course material for “gay history” mandates, as well as supplying it to individual activist teachers. GLSEN, the well-funded national organization that organized this LGBT teachers conference, is at the forefront of creating LGBT curriculum for all grades. 

GSEN is very serious about supplying your schools with "gay" history.

At the workshop, GLSEN passed out some materials, and they have been posting much more on their website. Here's a sample of what's being offered now to schools across America. From the GLSEN web site:

    LGBT History: stories & lessons for grades 6-12 (web page)
    LGBT History: stories & lessons for grades 6-12 (pdf file)
    LGBT History lesson for grades 9-12 (web page)
    LGBT History Lesson for grades 9-12 (pdf file)
    Incorporate LGBT history, themes and people into entire curriculum

"Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History Month." 18-page document passed out at the workshop. Exhaustive list of LGBT-themed books, websites, and course material targeting schoolchildren. Also includes strategies for introducing it into the schools and weaving it into regular class lessons.

How harmful are the recommended resources in this GLSEN document (above)? To point to just a few:

Kevin Jennings, former Obama "Safe Schools Czar" and founder of GLSEN, edited a gay and lesbian history source book for high school and college classes, Becoming Visible. Included is a chapter praising NAMBLA supporter Harry Hay, along with a portrayal of "gay cruising" (anonymous homosexual sex acts in public places) as a "civil rights" issue!

Another recommended book is Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg. Massachusetts Youth Pride honored Feinberg in 2005, inviting her to lead the youth parade. Besides being a radical transgender activist, she is openly communist and was then editor of Workers World.

Can this be stopped?

It can certainly be daunting that major US corporations like Google, Wells Fargo, McDonalds, Target, CitiBank, Disney, Mattel, IBM, and others are funding the homosexual agenda in the schools. But nevertheless, parents and citizens can do amazing things to stop this.

It’s entirely possible keep this from happening. The biggest problem on our side (besides funding) has been that parents have been unaware of what’s happening, are not armed with good information to counter the activists, and have no effective strategies for counteracting their slick lobbying effort.

We at MassResistance are working to help with that.  Exposing this is the start.

http://news.yahoo.com/providence-defends-former-mayor-parade-lawsuit-162523133.html
Providence: Mayor OK to send firemen to gay parade
9/23/14

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci did not violate the rights of firefighters ordered to drive a fire truck in a 2001 gay pride parade, a lawyer for the city argued to the Rhode Island Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A lawyer for the two firefighters told the justices that her clients' constitutional religion and free speech rights were violated when they were ordered to drive in the parade.

The arguments centered on the question of whether Cianci and his then-fire chief are immune from being sued over the decision. Cianci was forced from office in 2002 after being convicted of corruption. He is currently in the midst of a campaign to win back City Hall. Both sides said the timing of the hearing was coincidental.

Cianci sat in the front row during the arguments and occasionally chuckled as the justices and lawyers hashed out their arguments.

He was represented by the city's lawyer, Kevin McHugh, who argued that the city sent trucks to various parades as a matter of course, including the Columbus Day parade, Purim parade and others, and driving in the parade was part of the firefighters' regular duties of community outreach. He said no constitutional rights were violated.

McHugh called the case "ridiculous."

The firefighters' lawyer, Gina DiCenso, argued that the act of participating in the parade and driving the truck was a show a support for the parade, but the justices seemed skeptical.

"They're anonymous public servants," Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg said, comparing it to being called to fight a fire in a temple or in a mosque.

DiCenso said that when the men asked to get a substitute, they were not allowed to do so. The two firefighters drove the truck in the parade, but partway through were called away to a fire.

Outside the courthouse, Cianci said if elected, he would likely make the same decision again. He said he had no idea until recently that the case was still in court, and that he shouldn't have to still be faced with uncertainty about whether he'll have to pay damages in the case.

"From 2001 to 2014. That's a bit long, don't you think?" Cianci said. "Public officials who make decisions based on what they truly believe and what they think their job is should not be, 13 years later, in front of the Supreme Court."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/boys-skirts-protest-transgender-brazil-voudesaia_n_5863920.html
9/22/14
A Transgender Student Was Fined For Wearing A Skirt To School, So These Boys Wore Skirts In Protest

When a transgender student in Brazil was recently fined for wearing a skirt to school, a group of male classmates rose to support her in spectacular fashion — by all showing up at school wearing skirts themselves.

According to the U.K.’s Orange News, 17-year-old Maria Muniz, a student at Rio de Janeiro’s Colégio Pedro II, was fined by school officials who said that she was breaking a school rule that states that male students must wear trousers.

After the punishment, Muniz reportedly agreed to change out of the skirt. Little did she know, however, that a few of her classmates would soon put up a fight on her behalf.

Brazilian news outlet R7 reports that a group of about 15 boys showed up to Colégio Pedro II wearing skirts on Sept. 2 to support Muniz and her clothing choice. A photograph of the boys posing in their skirts has gone viral in recent weeks:

Muniz says she was moved by her classmates’ support.

"I am really happy about the way my classmates supported me and I hope it serves as an example to others to feel encouraged to do the right thing. I was always taught at school to accept who you are, I am only trying to live that,” she said, per Orange News.

On their part, school officials say that they are absolutely against “intolerance and discrimination,” and have said that they are open to discussing a change in their uniform policy, R7 reports.

"The sexual orientation is not important for us, all our students are equal," the principal of the school said, according to Orange News. "However, the uniform determines male and female clothing, but we will study a new manual of coexistence."

As the story of Muniz and her classmates goes viral, netizens everywhere have been showing their support for the teens with the hashtag #VouDeSaia, meaning "I'm going in a skirt" or "wearing a skirt."

“Such a beautiful display of working together to beat transphobia,” wrote one Twitter user Monday.

“Faith in humanity: RESTORED,” declared another.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-29325104
23 September 2014 Last updated at 07:56 ET
South Molton paper's homosexuality column criticised

A newspaper column that branded homosexuality "an aberration", linking it to the collapse of "great empires", has been criticised by gay rights groups.

The South Molton and District News article was written under the pseudonym Grave Turner.

Editor Paul Henderson said he stood by his decision to publish it but said he was not homophobic.

He confirmed police had questioned him after a complaint was made.

'Treated with sympathy'

The columnist has not commented on the issue.

The paper has a circulation of about 2,000 in north Devon, with the article generating five complaints since it was published on 3 September, said Mr Henderson.

Michael Halls, from the Intercom Trust, which supports the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans community, said: "We have a lot of respect for the idea of free speech and we don't want to stop people expressing views and opinions but this article is hurtful and offence and that is deplorable. It's also full of errors.

"I really wonder what the motivation of the author and the publisher could have been."

The article said: "Clearly homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon, that is nonetheless, an aberration.

"Such persons as suffer from it should be treated with sympathy and understanding.

'Anarchy take over'

"It was not homosexuality per se that caused the collapse of the great civilising empires of Greece, Rome, Britain, et al, but rather public acceptance of it was the exclamation mark that signalled the end of empire.

"Slowly, but surely, anarchy will take over."

Richard Lane, from Stonewall, said: "It seems that Mr Turner needs to spend a little bit more time re-reading his history books and a little less time writing unpleasant articles denigrating loving, committed same-sex couples."

Mr Henderson said: "It was very, very close to the mark. It has not broken any laws as far as I'm aware.

"I'm not anti-gay or homophobic.

"It has created interesting discussions and a full right of reply will be published in the next edition."

Mr Henderson said he had been questioned by Devon and Cornwall Police following a complaint to its diversity unit, but as far as he was aware no further action would be taken.

The force said it was aware of the article but was unable to provide further information until they had spoken to all involved.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/27/michele-bachmann-boring_n_5890646.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
9/27/14
Michele Bachmann Says Gay Marriage Is 'Not An Issue,' 'Boring,' At Values Voter Summit

Is even Michele Bachmann throwing in the towel on marriage equality?

For years, the GOP congresswoman from Minnesota has been a leader among Christian evangelicals and a vocal opponent of gay marriage. She not only supported a federal marriage amendment; she worked tirelessly as a state legislator in years past to get a an amendment on the ballot banning gay marriage in her home state's constitution. It finally got on the ballot in 2012 and was defeated. And then in 2013, Minnesota passed marriage equality.

Now Bachmann seems so disillusioned she’s got only one word for gay marriage: “Boring.”

Asked about gay marriage in an interview with me on SiriusXM Progress at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday, Bachmann said, “It’s not an issue," before walking off and adding, “In fact, it’s boring.”

This seems consistent with what she told Meghan McCain two weeks ago in an interview: "I think that was an issue, yeah. I think it was in the last election and the previous election, but I think, you know, it's changing now.”

Asked his response to Bachmann’s comments, the American Family Association’s radio host Bryan Fischer, broadcasting from the Values Voter Summit, strongly disagreed.

"Well, I’d have to know more about what Representative Bachmann meant when she said that,” he responded. “The debate is far from settled. We’ve got a long way to go. Unfortunately, there are people in the conservative movement who have sort of given up. There are even evangelicals leaders sending signals that the battle is over, that the battle is lost. ‘We’ll never be able to capture the millennials. They’re gone.’ I think it’s way premature for that. You know, when the homosexual lobby was 0 and 31 [having lost at the ballot in 31 states on marriage], the gay lobby didn’t quit. They didn’t give up. They didn’t do it. They didn’t give up, and neither are we.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/un-passes-resolution-behalf-lgbt-citizens-around-the-globe
UN passes resolution on behalf of LGBT citizens around the globe
09/26/14 05:32 PM—Updated 09/26/14 08:19 PM

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution for LGBT rights during its 27th session on Friday, the second-ever motion of its kind. The resolution, which was heavily promoted by the U.S., was sponsored by Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil and Chile. Countries from every geographic region in the world joined as supporters.

The action, which passed by a 25-14 vote margin after more than an hour of debate, condemns violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity across the globe.

“We are pleased to see that today the international community is visibly and publicly upholding the rights of LGBT individuals, and thereby we demonstrate ourselves as a global community respecting the rights of all,” said Ambassador Keith Harper, who represents the U.S. on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Still, since the resolution comes with no enforcement capability — it simply calls for a report from the U.N. high commissioner on LGBT rights abuses — it will likely largely be seen as a symbolic gesture, albeit it one that the U.N. has largely failed to make in the past. This resolution is only the second time the U.N. has referred to LGBT rights as “human rights.”

Not all of the reaction to the resolution was positive: Pakistan’s representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council called it a “divisive and controversial initiative.”

“We feel there is an attempt to impose uniculturality” that “runs counter to religious and cultural practices of some countries,” said Saudi Arabia’s representative during debate. “In my opinion, this [resolution] is a human rights violation.”

South Africa, considering their recent history of harsh anti-LGBT legislation, surprisingly backed the resolution. But Buzzfeed reports that insiders on the Human Rights Council say the African nation helped “water down” the resolution before lending its support.

A total of 21 countries either opposed or abstained from the resolution. Also — ironically in light of the sponsors of the resolution — Latin America accounts for almost 80% of the world’s reported murders of transgender people, with more than half of these deaths occurring in Brazil.

“The Human Rights Council has taken a fundamental step forward by reaffirming one of the United Nations’ key principles — that everyone is equal in dignity and rights,” said Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, after the vote. “This resolution puts the U.N. on a trajectory to address the discrimination and violence LGBT persons suffer daily across the world.”

“The council is confirming that LGBT people have universal human rights,” she added. “We know, of course, that the struggle is long, and that we will need the Council to focus on the violations we suffer for many years to come. But for now, we celebrate that the majority of States stood with us to declare, unequivocally, that human rights are for everyone, everywhere.”

While this resolution was passed on Friday, Russia’s Constitutional Court upheld their country’s anti-gay “propaganda” law. “This disappointing ruling legitimizes an unjust law created to target and oppress Russia’s LGBT community,” said Human Rights First’s Shawn Gaylord. “However the court makes it clear that the law’s application should be limited to cases involving minors."

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/10/01/?entry=1303
Republican Group Meets to Press Gay Rights

10/1/14

Big-name Republican donors and lawmakers are quietly gathering in Washington on Wednesday night for a first-of-its-kind conference dedicated to advancing gay rights, in a sign of how far and fast some within the party are evolving on the once divisive cause.

The conference, modeled after the kind of exclusive, polished and influential meetings held by the Koch brothers, is intended to build a permanent political infrastructure that can insulate nervous Republicans from conservative backlash on issues like same-sex marriage. It is being hosted by the American Unity Fund, a two-year-old group founded by wealthy Republican donors.

The two-day meeting will draw high-powered party figures like Theodore B. Olson, the solicitor general during the administration of George W. Bush, and Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; donors like Paul Singer, the billionaire chairman of the conservative Manhattan Institute, and Jon Kislak, a Miami businessman; and elected officials like Senator Mark S. Kirk, an Illinois Republican, and State Senator Dawson Hodgson, the Republican candidate for attorney general in Rhode Island. About 100 people, most of them donors, are expected to attend, said Jeff Cook-McCormac, a senior adviser to the American Unity Fund.

He called the meeting “a demonstration of how developed the center-right strategy has become to win freedom to marry for L.G.B.T. Americans.”

“This is no longer a few donors,” Mr. Cook-McCormac said. “This is a network of Republicans, many of whom are straight, who believe this is consistent with conservative values and want to be a part of the civil rights movement of their generation.”

The conference will feature panels dedicated to expanding gay rights, especially same-sex marriage, at statehouses and in Washington. (A sampling of the sessions: “Making Progress in Congress” and “Reaching Red States.”)

Single-issue advocacy groups, focused on everything from immigration to gun control, have a spotty record of reshaping the Republican Party’s agenda. But so far, Republicans backing same-sex marriage have found greater success, aided by wealthy donors, fast-changing public opinion and a growing air of inevitability surrounding the issue.

Marriage Rates Hit All-Time Low in United States

The number of American adults who have never been married has hit an all-time high. The latest date from 2012 shows one in 5 adults over the age of 25 fell into that category. In 1960, it was about in 10 adults.   

http://www.myfox28columbus.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Marriage-Rates-Hit-All-Time-Low-in-United-States-50293.shtml#.VD3_lPldXIY

Well, neither Apostle Paul(nor I) was/I married.

Seriously - from what I've been reading, one of the reasons it's hit an all-time low is b/c more people are co-habitating. It became the new norm since the 80's. The seeds were planted a long time ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11154321/How-America-learned-to-love-gay-marriage.html
How America learned to love gay marriage

American attitudes to gay marriage have been turned on their head in the space of a single generation
10/13/14

After a US Supreme Court decision this month, 30 of America’s 50 states will have gay marriage laws, which is testament to the sudden shift in attitudes towards same-sex unions in the US.

Two decades ago barely a quarter of Americans believed members of the LGBT community should enjoy equal marriage rights; now nearly two-thirds accept gay marriage.

This quantum leap cannot be explained by what sociologists call generational shift – that is older, conservative folk dying off and younger, more liberal people taking their places. Something more radical and unforeseen took place that precipitated a change in opinion that leapt across the generations.

So how did it happen?

The title of Bill Clinton’s legislation to allow gay people to serve in the US military told its own story: the gay and lesbian community could be tolerated, but only if it kept itself to itself.

“Don’t ask don’t tell” sounds ugly now, but at the time it was a hard-fought compromise with the generals who warned that gay soldiers would cause dangerous confusion on the front lines.

That bill showed how far attitudes still had to travel. The Democrats had a “no discrimination on basis of sexual orientation” clause in their policy platform since 1980, but in practice that was far more aspiration than actuality.

Defence of Marriage … 1996
Defying the increasingly vocal gay rights movement, Congress passed legislation defining marriage as “the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, and a spouse is a husband or wife of the opposite sex.”

Bill Clinton signed the bill into law but described it as “unnecessary and divisive”. His press secretary went further, calling it “gay baiting, plain and simple”, but it also reflected some hard political realities in an election year.

At the time, only 27 per cent of Americans said gay marriages should be valid, according to a Gallup survey of that year – and 68 per cent said not.

Ellen comes out, and loses out … 1997

TV comedienne Ellen DeGeneres comes out in an episode of her eponymous sitcom, only to have her show cancelled shortly thereafter due to poor ratings.

In an interview with Oprah at the time, Ellen said she felt “like a freak”. She has since become one of the most popular and recognisable figures in American pop culture.

And then along comes Will & Grace … 1998

It wasn’t necessarily obvious at the time, but in hindsight the NBC sitcom Will & Grace that featured a successful gay New York lawyer, William Truman and his (straight) best friend Grace Adler has been credited with playing a huge role in bringing gay culture out of the ghetto and into the mainstream. Speaking in 2012, before the Obama campaign officially announced it was backing gay marriage, vice president Joe Biden estimated that Will & Grace “probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”

Back in the real world, America gets its first openly gay congresswoman … 1999

The needle starts to move. Three years after the Defence of Marriage Act now 35 per cent of Americans support gay marriage, but 62 per cent still do not. In a sign of the (slowly) changing times, Tammy Baldwin becomes the first person to campaign for national office as an openly gay person and get elected, winning the 2nd Congressional district in Wisconsin.

Massachusetts become first state to pass gay marriage law … 2003

The proudly progressive state of Massachusetts becomes the first US state to strike down ban on gay marriage, a move that sends shivers across the conservative Deep South.

It is only in this year that the US Supreme Court, in Lawrence V Texas, declares that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

The power of pop culture … 2008

Does pop culture shape the agenda or just reflect it? Difficult to say, but a 2008 Harris poll indicated that real-life attitudes can be changed by on-screen events. Of those people who said they had recently changed their minds on gay marriage, over a third said their views were influenced by seeing gay or lesbian characters on TV.

Modern Family, which debuted in 2009 and prominently features a gay couple, has changed attitudes even further.

The Obama campaign remained unmoved … 2008

Barack Obama promised "hope and change", but his data-obsessed campaign managers didn’t dare to lead on gay marriage, even thought the direction of travel was clear. Now 40 per cent of Americans said they approved, and 56 per cent did not, but the final destination was still out of sight.

But the numbers did not … 2011

The tipping point. This was the year that graphs crossed: for the first time since 2003 when Gallup started regular surveys of attitudes to gay marriage more Americans said they approved of gay marriage than disapproved … and they have never looked back.

Although that’s not to say the argument is over …

More than half of Americans might now support same sex marriage, but that still leaves large pockets of America profoundly opposed to an idea they believe is undermining the social and religious fabric of the country.

They might be disparaged as bigots and crazies by the liberal left, but that only makes them holler all the louder.

Finally Obama catches up with the times … 2012

Having repealed "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" in 2010 and decided not to enforce DOMA, announcing his support for gay marriage was a logical step for Barack Obama. The president had “evolved”, his spin-doctors said, although Mr Obama credited listening to his teenage daughters and their young friends for his change of heart.

And Hillary followed suit … 2013

It didn’t take long. Barely weeks after stepping down as Secretary of State where she was forced to stay out of domestic politics, Mrs Clinton released a video saying the was all in favour of gay marriage.

It sounded a little opportunistic from a politician who clearly had one eye on the 2016 presidential contest, but Mrs Clinton positively bristled at the suggestion.

And DOMA got struck down … 2013

Only 17 years after the DOMA legislation was passed to defend a view of marriage that had stood “for 200 years” the Supreme Court rules the legislation unconstitutional in an impassioned opinion that said same-sex unions could no longer be treated as “second-class marriages”.
Barack Obama, who himself had come out in favour of same sex marriage only the previous year, called the lesbian couple involved from Air Force One. The conversation was broadcast live on television.

And then even the jocks joined in … 2013

It’s perhaps not surprising that the macho culture of American professional sports was late to the party but the impact of America’s first openly gay pro sports star was still not to be underestimated.

Jason Collins, a 34-year-old journeyman NBA basketball player, said he didn't want to come out but somebody had to do it. “I'm black and I'm gay … If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand’.

He was not the last. In February 2014, Michael Sam became the first NFL American Football player to come out – and he did it with quite a smash.

But the Supreme Court has still not had the final word … 2014

Public support for gay marriage is undeniably growing, but the US Supreme Court has remained cautious, moving with the times without dictating the tempo of change, as it had done with the Roe v Wade decision on abortion.

Gay rights activists want the Court to rule same-sex marriage to be a constitutional right – like abortion – to all Americans, in all states, but for now the justices have ducked the question. No one expects it to go away.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-eagan/samesex-marriage-support-_b_6055526.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Same-Sex Marriage Support Nearly Universal Among Entering College Students
10/27/14

The national landscape for marriage equality has changed considerably in the past month. On Oct. 6, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals on five different cases challenging lower courts' rulings that found same-sex marriage bans to be unconstitutional. The decision paved the way for same-sex marriage in five states immediately (Oklahoma, Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, and Indiana). Just a few days later, Idaho and Nevada joined the growing number of states allowing same-sex marriage. On Oct. 17, same-sex marriage bans in Alaska and Arizona fell with Wyoming following suit just days later.

Ted Olson, one of the lawyers in the landmark "Proposition 8" Supreme Court decision (Hollingsworth v. Perry), declared today that the "point of no return" on gay marriage has now passed. Indeed, it seems clear that the U.S. Supreme Court decision is signaling to the lower courts that it will not take up the issue of same-sex marriage any time soon, particularly if the lower courts continue striking down state marriage bans for same-sex couples.

As these state bans continue to fall, the federal government has announced that it would immediately begin recognizing same-sex marriages in all of 33 states. This decision follows the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013 (United States v. Windsor), which held that denying benefits to married same-sex couples was unconstitutional.

It is hard to believe that Congress enacted DOMA less than two decades ago. Right after that law went into effect, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute began asking incoming freshmen their views on same-sex marriage. Since CIRP first started asking the question in 1997, a majority of incoming college students have agreed that same-sex couples have a legal right to marry; however, it is remarkable how strongly incoming students now endorse this position. The CIRP Freshman Survey last asked this question in 2012, and three-quarters of first-time, full-time students (75.1 percent) agreed that same-sex couples have a legal right to marry, and the data suggest that nearly all (91.1 percent) of students who identify as "liberal" or "far left" hold this view.

Support of same-sex marriage among "conservative" and "far right" students has increased more than 20 percentage points since the question first appeared on the CIRP Freshman Survey. A near majority (46.4 percent) of students who identify their political ideology as "conservative" or "far right" now agree that same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry.

The largest gains in support of same-sex marriage have been among incoming students who identify their political ideology as "middle-of-the-road." In 1997, a bare majority (51.5 percent) believed same-sex couples should be permitted to marry. By 2008, more than two-thirds (67.7 percent) felt similarly, and that figure jumped another 10 percentages points by 2012 with 78.9 percent of "middle-of-the-road" students supporting same-sex marriage.

Today's college students do not just support same-sex marriage; they also support allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt. In 2013, 83.3 percent of all first-time, full-time college students agreed that gays and lesbians should have the legal right to adopt children.

Most individuals are more than mere single-issue voters, but given these numbers, it is interesting that some politicians continue to focus so heavily on social issues like same-sex marriage. The recent spate of court decisions in favor of same-sex marriage in the past two years, and particularly in the past four weeks, has caught up with public opinion. The political views of today's college students increasingly suggest growing divide with the "culture wars" being waged by social conservatives. Candidates running for political office who continue to emphasize social questions while doing everything in their power to impede progress on an issue such as gay marriage risk alienating this large bloc of potential voters.

The question regarding support of same-sex marriage appeared again on the 2014 CIRP Freshman Survey, and we expect to see even greater support for the issue. The 2015 Freshman Survey likely will be the last time the item appears, as the data make clear that support for same-sex marriage is nearly universal among entering college students.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/texas/article/Transgender-lawyer-in-Texas-embraces-change-5850186.php
Transgender lawyer in Texas embraces change
10/27/14

DALLAS (AP) — When lawyer Katie Sprinkle works at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, she occasionally runs into an acquaintance who, trying to place her, asks whether she has a brother who once worked in the public defender's office.

"No," she replies. "That was me."

After 16 years as a public defender, Sprinkle started her own firm a year ago — practicing law for the first time as a woman. While no organization formally tracks such things, Sprinkle is the only known openly transgender lawyer in Dallas County and one of just a handful across Texas.

In addition to her criminal defense practice, she's become a go-to lawyer for transgender issues at a time when transgender people are getting more attention than ever in mainstream media, yet remain one of the most misunderstood groups in the LGBT community. Sprinkle, 47, uses her unique perspective to empathize with clients and guide them through the legal challenges of transitioning genders.

Not all people who are transgender — which means your personal sense of being male or female doesn't match your assigned sex — choose to transition. For the 0.25 to 1 percent of the general population that does, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, transitioning is a years-long, emotionally intensive process that includes hormones, counseling, and in some cases, surgery.

When ready to live full-time as their new gender, transgender people need legal documentation to get a driver's license with their new name and sex on it. The paperwork isn't just a symbolic milestone; it's also a practical step that lets them present ID without fear during job applications, airline travel and credit card use.

Sprinkle works with three or four transgender clients a month and also hosts free legal clinics, offering a "critically important" service to transgender people, said Sprinkle's roommate Leslie McMurray, also a transgender woman.

"Getting your ID changed isn't a vanity plate," McMurray told The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1suiKlz ). "It's safety, security, affirmation."

Sprinkle said she first realized she wasn't like other boys at age 4 when she watched the original Batman TV series in the 1970s and idolized the superhero's female counterpart, Batgirl. By 11, she was trying on her sisters' clothes and makeup in secret.

**As you can see - the rotten fruits of television are out in the open. Look how many effeminate programming there is nowdays.

"I didn't have the vocabulary to say, 'I'm transgender.' I had no idea what that was," Sprinkle said. "There was just this persistent sense something was wrong."

Sprinkle said she learned to suppress her true self until she graduated law school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio in 1993. That's when she moved back to Dallas, got her own place and began dressing as a woman when home alone. After a few years, she ventured out in women's clothing to run errands, or when she felt brave, to the movies.

Publicly, she maintained her persona as a straight man. Once, a girlfriend asked why Sprinkle had women's clothing covered in trash bags in her closet. Sprinkle told her she stored them for her sister.

By the mid-2000s, however, Sprinkle's denial had morphed into severe depression. She ballooned to 220 pounds, which layered heavily on her naturally thin frame. She went to counseling, but for years she couldn't work up the nerve to confess why she was really there.

In 2011, Sprinkle finally accepted she was transgender. She was 43.

"I was expecting the fireworks to go off, the grand epiphany to blast my world apart, and it wasn't," she said. "It was just this peaceful acceptance."

That year, Sprinkle moved to Marble Falls, a small town about 50 miles northwest of Austin, to work in the Burnet County public defender's office while she transitioned.

She went on hormones and sought hair-removal treatment for her beard. She started highlighting and growing out her hair. She wore earrings and painted her toenails. But she still wore men's suits to work.

Locals thought she was a "crazy hippie boy from Dallas," she said. Inside, she felt like a 13-year-old girl, exploding with new hormones and gleefully checking out her new bust line in the mirror.

In 2012, she changed her name with the State Bar. The following year, she returned to Dallas to start her private practice out of her Carrollton home.

On a recent morning, Sprinkle lay on a reclined chair and winced as an electrologist wove a needle in and out of the skin along her jaw. She squeezed her hand into a fist and wiggled her toes, painted bubble-gum pink with white polka-dots on the largest one.

She endures such pain regularly for the results: a smooth, scruff-free face. Electrolysis procedures are among the ways Sprinkle maintains her appearance and propels her transition toward permanence.

These days, Sprinkle is 6-1 and lean, with shoulder-length blond hair and an angular face. She speaks in a light voice she's mastered through practice, striking a balance between her naturally deep pitch and what she calls the "Minnie Mouse" voice some transgender women use. Her style is feminine but understated: bareMinerals foundation, subtle eye makeup, loose dresses and a men's watch she's had for years.

In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and bowling with her roommate. And she's exploring the complicated world of dating. Since sexual orientation is distinct from gender identity, Sprinkle remains attracted to women. She was a straight man; now, she identifies as a lesbian.

**This is why the transgender movement being accepted in the mainstream is THE BIG piece to the whole sodomy movement(even more so than SSM) - b/c transgenders continue to be attracted to their respective opposite sexes from birth(all the way through their transformations). Which is why the pro-gay lobby hasn't accepted them for years(b/c their "sexual orientation" is straight).

But either way - what they do is an abomination to God(as the effeminate cannot inherit the kingdom of God).

At work, Sprinkle is one of six openly transgender attorneys licensed to practice in Texas, according to Houston municipal judge Phyllis Randolph Frye, the nation's first openly transgender judge. Frye said the timing of Sprinkle's transition was particularly unusual: Most trans lawyers transition before they graduate law school — or not at all.

"There aren't very many that I know of who transitioned after they've established a law practice because they're scared," she said, adding that she knows of about 40 lawyers who haven't come out because they're afraid of losing their jobs.

Sprinkle chose to start over under her new name when she opened her own practice, and now prefers not to publicize her former moniker. She said she felt petrified the first time she returned to the criminal courthouse, which she had once frequented in a suit. Most people, however, welcomed her back without issue.

"The only difference I see is she looks like a woman," said state District Judge Rick Magnis, who worked with Sprinkle in the public defender's office. "She's got longer hair and her voice is softer but other than that, she's the same person to me."

Sprinkle agreed. "I'm still the same smart *** I was before — I just have cuter shoes," she joked.

But these days, Sprinkle does more work in the civil courthouse as she takes on transgender clients looking to change their name and gender marker, the 'M' or 'F' at the bottom of Texas driver's licenses.

Recently, she sat in a courtroom and sifted through papers, preparing for the judge to call her case. Nearby, her client — a woman in a pant suit who works as a programmer analyst — waited out the final moments of her given name in silence.

The woman had already submitted fingerprints for a criminal background check and obtained recommendation letters from her doctor and therapist. This appearance before the judge was the final step in a two-month process to legalize her transition. Soon, she would officially be Helena.

Many judges across Texas, particularly in conservative counties, don't regularly grant gender marker changes. But Sprinkle said about a dozen judges in Dallas do — more than anywhere in the state.

At Helena's hearing, Sprinkle approached the bench, wearing a coral wrap dress and **** ballerina flats. "Good morning, judge," she said. Sprinkle then called on her client and asked her to confirm that she wasn't seeking a name change to avoid criminal prosecution. Helena vowed she wasn't.

The judge asked no questions and granted their request within seven minutes. Helena looked relieved. Sprinkle smiled.

"It's a very liberating moment for many," Sprinkle said. "Because now they feel like, 'OK, I can now move forward and be me.' "

http://www.ketv.com/news/creighton-university-to-offer-samesex-benefits/29362564
Creighton University to offer same-sex benefits
10/27/14

OMAHA, Neb. —Creighton University will soon offer health benefits to legally married same-sex spouses of its employees despite the objections of the local Catholic archbishop.

Creighton President Rev. Timothy Lannon announced the change Monday. He said 21 of the 28 Jesuit universities in the U.S. already offer similar benefits.

Lannon said Creighton continues to support the Catholic Church's teaching about marriage.

But he added the university is taking this step to meet the needs of its employees and remain competitive with other universities that already offer similar benefits.

Lannon outlined the decision in a letter sent to trustees. Below is the text of the letter obtained by KETV NewsWatch 7:

Dear Trustees,
This is to inform you that I have decided that Creighton University will extend healthcare benefits in 2015 to the same-sex spouses of our colleagues who have been legally wed in other states.

I have notified Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha of my decision, acknowledging his disagreement and disapproval of such a decision based upon a previous conversation he and I had.

Consequently, the decision was not made lightly. After much prayer and discernment, I believe the extension of benefits is the right thing to do at Creighton. The decision involves the tension between the Church's teaching on same-sex marriage and social justice concerns for the care and well-being of our colleagues' families.

Many other Catholic universities, including 21 of the 28 Jesuit universities in the U.S., have done the same. I asked the University Benefits Committee to consider benefits coverage for legally married same-sex couples. They were unanimous in supporting this change. The extension of benefits is not a statement of approval of same-sex marriages but rather an acknowledgement of our responsibility to serve the needs of faculty and staff who faithfully serve our students and patients every day.

This decision not only reflects a commitment to our colleagues, but our ongoing commitment to health and wellness. It is important in today's competitive workplace environment that values fairness and equal treatment and is consistent with our efforts to foster an inclusive, compassionate and respectful campus environment. Many major employers in the Omaha area as well as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the College of St. Mary all offer these benefits to their colleagues.

I anticipate that we may receive some negative media attention for this decision. Nevertheless, I believe it was the right thing to do.
Thank you for all you do for Creighton. See you at our board meeting next week.

God's blessings,
Timothy R. Lannon, S.J.
President

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/13/gay-acceptance-study_n_6153656.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
11/13/14
Gay Acceptance Is Rising Globally, Study Says

Around the world, it's getting more acceptable to be gay.

A new study says that acceptance of homosexuality has grown in 90 percent of countries surveyed over the last 20 years.

According to findings by social researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and the LGBT think-thank Williams Institute at UCLA, acceptance rose an average of .9 percent annually by nation.

"This study shows a clear trend toward increasing acceptance across the globe,” Andrew Park, director of International Programs at the Williams Institute, said in a statement.

Researchers ranked countries in northwestern Europe as the most accepting, "followed by the following clusters of countries: Australia/Canada/New Zealand/United States, Southern European countries, Latin American countries, former Soviet Union/Eastern & Central Europe, Asian countries, African countries, and majority Muslim countries."

Even within continents, attitudes varied greatly, research showed. For instance, in Africa, two percent of Ghanians accept gays and lesbians, compared to 38 percent of South Africans.

Researchers reached their conclusions by examining the results of hundreds of surveys on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in up to 52 countries since 1981, the study noted.

The report, "Public Attitudes toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights across Time and Countries," follows a recent study that indicated religious acceptance of gays is also on the rise.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26940690/americas-shift-attitude-toward-gays-started-at-work
America's shift in attitude toward gays started at work
11/15/14

WASHINGTON -- In the beginning, it was about money as much as rights.

Long before America started rapidly changing its mind about gays, corporate America set the stage. From companies such as Marriott, founded by socially conservative Mormons, to technology giants led by libertarian-minded gurus, business started thinking in the last decade that it was in its best interest to treat gays the same as straights.

That approach is now taking hold more broadly, as a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage for the first time, forcing politicians to jump on the bandwagon and likely changing the country's politics. While this social change is driven by many factors -- a new generation that's more open, an older generation adjusting to gays in their families and lives, courts opening the doors -- it first took hold at work.

Marriott International, for example, was founded by Mormon John Willard Marriott. By 1999, his son and successor, Bill Marriott, worried about losing highly trained employees to competitors and decided to start providing health benefits for partners of gay and lesbian employees.

"Bill Marriott got it immediately," said Apoorva Gandhi, Marriott's vice president of multicultural affairs. "He thought of it as a business judgment and a fairness judgment."

"It was really about attracting talent," said Bob Witeck, a marketing expert who's worked with the executives at American Airlines, Marriott and other big-name companies to provide same-sex benefits and ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
 
By easing into it, Marriott avoided the backlash that Walt Disney Co. suffered in 1997 when it offered same-sex benefits and allowed Gay Days at theme parks.

"They treated it as a business decision. They didn't make a public expression of it," Witeck said of Marriott. "They didn't put it out in a press release. ... That approach certainly helped."

Times have changed rapidly since then. Today, Marriott aggressively courts gay consumers. It sponsors floats in gay-pride parades. Its home page includes a section courting gay travel that features photos of men kissing. "At Marriott," it says, "there is no room for inequality."

"The backlash is almost nonexistent," Gandhi said. "Some people will say, 'I'm not going to stay with you anymore.' Where are they going to go? All of the hotel chains are doing this. The blowback does not ring true on this."

The need for a skilled high-tech workforce also drove the initial push for same-sex benefits elsewhere.

Companies didn't care whom employees slept with as long as they could write software programs and understood the fast-moving technology that would change American life.

"Tech companies were desperate for employees who could basically expand their business," said Cathy Woolard, the first openly gay City Council president in Atlanta, who now advises corporations on nondiscrimination policies and same-sex benefits.

"The tech companies were headquartered in Silicon Valley," she said, "and the places tech companies expanded were places like Austin, Texas, New York and Seattle, where you had large gay communities."

One such pioneer was the software company Lotus, which was later acquired by IBM. Apple was another.

Companies operating in multiple states also needed uniform rules.

That need drove more than 100 name-brand corporations such as Nike, Starbucks and Johnson & Johnson to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In a joint brief to the court, the companies cited "unnecessary cost and administrative complexity" and said the law "forces us to treat one class of our lawfully married employees differently than another, when our success depends upon the welfare and morale of all employees."

Corporate America also is speaking up in other venues.

When Arizona's Legislature passed a state law that would have allowed businesses asserting religious objections to refuse service to same-sex couples, Apple, American Airlines and many other companies threatened to withdraw investment from the state. Their arguments persuaded Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the law in February.

When Georgia debated similar legislation, the chief executive of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Richard Anderson, warned that the measure would cost local jobs as employers shunned the Peach State. His position helped quash the legislation.

The changes have been rapid.

When the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, started to rank gay-friendly policies with a Corporate Equality Index in 2002, 319 companies participated and 13 received top scores.

This year, 734 companies participated, and 304 received top scores.

Some big-name companies such as Apple, General Motors and Chevron got perfect scores. But billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. got a zero and energy titan Exxon Mobil got a negative score, penalized for actively working against internal policy changes to allow same-sex benefits, the report said.

"The report is inaccurate," said Richard D. Keil, a spokesman for the energy company. "Exxon Mobil's global policies prohibit all forms of discrimination in any company workplace, anywhere in the world. This includes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

In 2002, 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies provided explicit nondiscrimination protection on the basis of sexual orientation. This year, it's 91 percent.

Federal legislation to do the same passed the Senate a year ago but is stuck in the House of Representatives.

Corporate America is now rated by investors as well.

This year, Denver-based ALPS began offering investors a chance to buy shares in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the Workplace Equality Index. The index was created in 2001 by Denver Investments in response to requests from foundations and endowments looking to invest in companies with gay-friendly policies.

The 162 companies on the index have outperformed companies on the S&P 500-stock index from 2009 forward, data show.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30222550
11/27/14
School apologises over Bible and homosexuality worksheet

A Belfast school has apologised after complaints were made about a worksheet on religious views on homosexuality.

Hunterhouse College in Belfast has withdrawn the worksheet after the father of one student complained.

The three questions appeared in a Religious Studies worksheet.

The school said they have an ethos of inclusivity and the worksheet was part of a wider discussion on sexuality on both sides of the debate including extreme opinions.

The questions were in relation to 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 and were set by teaching staff.

They included:

What do these verses tell us about homosexuals?
Who else is included with homosexuals?
What hope is there for all these people?

(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79307000/jpg/_79307852_photo.jpg)

The BBC has seen a copy of the test which includes the bible passage and questions about homosexuality.
Andrew Gibson, the headmaster of Hunterhouse College, said that the worksheet had been withdrawn and that the school has approached the gay rights charity Rainbow Project NI for advice.

"This is in the introduction to Christian ethics centred around personal and family issues. As part of this, pupils are encouraged to consider a variety of attitudes to homosexuality," he said.

"The questions were set in house but they were in the context of the CCEA specifications. We have a very strong pastoral care system at the school and deal with issues around sexuality with great sensitivity."

Mr Gibson added that the school "got it wrong" by allowing the worksheet to be sent home individually and out of context from the rest of the class.

Gavin Boyd of the Rainbow Project said that the school was not to blame as this happens in most schools and comes from a lack of clarity in the syllabus.

"If any LGB child was sitting in that class and asked to list a bunch of people to associate with themselves including drunks and all these licentious people, it's horrible," he said.

line

**This article used a modern-day perversion - I replaced it with what the KJB says.

1Corinthians 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

line
"It was ill prepared and ill thought out as it actually could have amounted to an actionable claim of discrimination against the pupil,

"However, I'm confident no malice was intended and I'm impressed that the school have taken steps to quickly rectify the situation."

The parent who made the complaint has also praised the school's response to the issue and the steps it has taken since the incident.

Peter Lynas from the Evangelical Alliance said that while the "wording of the question could have been better" it is important to remember that most of the world's main religions are against homosexuality.

"It is important Christian values are taught in school and schools can sometimes feel pushed into a corner over these issues," he said.

In a statement, the exam board CCEA said: "We do not produce guidelines for schools on question setting."

http://news.yahoo.com/scores-russian-gays-seeking-asylum-us-173418304.html
Scores of Russian gays are seeking asylum in US
11/29/14

NEW YORK (AP) — Had he stayed in Russia, Andrew Mironov would be settling in to a stable job with an oil company, likely with a newly awarded doctoral degree in electrical engineering.

Instead, he faces an uncertain future in New York City as one of scores of Russian gays seeking asylum in the United States because of hostility and harassment in their homeland.

"In Russia, I would have gotten my Ph.D. this fall, had a job and health insurance," said Mironov, 25. "Now, here, I'm nobody."

Yet the sacrifices have been worth it, Mironov says, given the fears that lingered after he was severely beaten by several assailants in the lobby of a gay bar in his home city of Samara.

"Which is more important, happiness or success?" he asked over coffee in midtown Manhattan. "I would say happiness. I feel no fear here."

There are no firm statistics on the number of gay Russian asylum seekers; U.S. government agencies that handle applications do not report such details. However, the Department of Homeland Security's latest figures show that overall applications for asylum by Russians totaled 969 in the 2014 fiscal year, up 34 percent from 2012.

The increase is due in part to the worsening anti-gay climate in Russia, according to Immigration Equality, a New York-based organization which provides legal services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrants.

The organization says the number of inquiries it received from gay Russians seeking U.S. asylum has risen from 68 in 2012 to 127 in 2013 and 161 through Oct. 30 of this year. During that period, gay-rights gatherings in Russia were frequently targeted by assailants, and the parliament passed a law targeting "gay propaganda" that was widely viewed as a means of deterring gay activism.

Said Mironov of that law, "It helped homophobic people feel the government is on their side."

To get an application approved, an asylum seeker must present a convincing case that he or she has a "well-founded fear of persecution" in their home country. Russia's anti-gay policies and its record of anti-gay violence are factors that could strengthen an individual's case.

Aaron Morris, Immigration Equality's legal director, said most of the recent asylum inquiries came from gay men in their 20s and 30s who had been targeted by anti-gay attacks, while only a handful have come from gays or lesbians raising children.

"If you have kids, it can be really hard to leave everything behind," Morris said.

In several U.S. cities, programs have been launched to assist gay asylum seekers from Russia and elsewhere as they await processing of their applications, which can take six months or more. For the first five months, the asylum seekers are barred from taking paying jobs, so they often struggle to support themselves, even with resumes illustrating professional success in Russia.

In Washington, D.C., housing is among the major challenges, according to Matthew Corso, who has helped the DC Center for the LGBT Community create a program to assist people who are seeking asylum.

"We have no trouble finding them legal representation, but trying to find someone willing to give part of their home or money for food or transportation is not easy," Corso said.

Another group aiding gay Russian asylum-seekers in the Washington area is the Spectrum Human Rights Alliance, founded in 2011 by Russian immigrant Larry Poltavtsev.

Poltavtsev, who studied chemistry at the University of North Carolina in the 1990s, is frustrated by the rules that bar asylum-seekers from working. "It makes no sense because most of our arrivals have advanced degrees and speak good English," he said. "They're capable of being productive, paying taxes, but we are not letting them do those things while they're waiting."

Soon to join the queue of applicants are Andrew Nasonov and Igor Bazilevsky, longtime partners from the Russian city of Voronezh who wearied of threats, harassment and beatings and came to the United States in July. They're now assembling the paperwork for their case and getting Russian documents translated into English.

"Of course we are worried, but we hope for the best," Nasonov said.

Nasonov, 25, was a journalist and human-rights activist in Russia; Bazilevsky, 32, was a graphic designer. They hope to pursue those careers in the U.S. if their asylum applications are approved.

Meanwhile, they've been provided with lodging by a gay couple in a Washington suburb and took a step in October that would have been impossible in Russia — they got married.

"We were finally able to say that we are a real family — there are not enough words to describe how wonderful these feelings are," Nasonov wrote in an email.

"But of course, we are still faced with a lot of difficulties," he added. "It was hard to leave our relatives, friends, and parents behind in Russia. ... We have nothing here, and in many ways are completely dependent on the assistance of the people who surround us."

In New York City, many asylum seekers have received advice and support from Masha Gessen, a Moscow-born journalist and activist whose family moved to the U.S. in 1981 and who holds U.S. and Russian citizenship.

She said her family, as Soviet Jews, had group refugee status, allowing for an immigration process far easier than that faced by today's asylum seekers who must prove their individual case.

"There's no worse way to immigrate to the U.S. than the way these people are doing it," Gessen said. "You have nothing, and you have no right to work or public assistance. We've seen people end up on the streets."

View galleryIn this Nov. 19, 2014 photo, Russian emigre Andrew …
In this Nov. 19, 2014 photo, Russian emigre Andrew Mironov poses for a photo in New York. Had he sta …
She and her allies have lobbied the State Department to extend refugee status to LGBT people from Russia, but thus far to no avail. So for now, asylum seekers arrive unsure of their long-term prospects.

"After your tourist visa runs out, you're basically undocumented," Gessen said. "It can be hard to rent an apartment or get a cellphone. You have problems navigating everyday life."

The United States is among several countries favored as havens by LGBT Russians who emigrate from there. Canada, Finland and Israel are among the others. Gessen said the U.S. is more receptive than many Western European countries, and Aaron Morris, the Immigration Equality lawyer, said his legal team had been able to win approval for most of the Russian asylum cases that it has handled.

Morris commended the Department of Homeland Security for asking Immigration Equality to train its asylum officers on distinctive aspects of LGBT asylum cases. "They understand our community is a little different," Morris said.

Among the many pending cases is Andrew Mironov's asylum application, buttressed by photographs showing the injuries he sustained in Russia that required a hospital stay. He's not sure when he'll be called for an in-person interview but says his lawyer believes the case is a strong one.

View galleryIn this Nov. 19, 2014 photo, Russian emigre Andrew …
In this Nov. 19, 2014 photo, Russian emigre Andrew Mironov poses for a photo in New York. Had he sta …
Mironov has been in the U.S. since November 2013, spending his first night in a homeless shelter run by the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. He now lives in Brooklyn but continues to attend the church, which serves the LGBT community.

The past 12 months have been challenging. One obstacle, he said, is a chilly reception from many non-gay Russian immigrants in New York.

"Americans don't care if you're gay, but the Russians here, they still have a problem with it," he said.

Mironov worked for several months as a bartender at a restaurant in Manhattan but said his manager often mistreated him, calculating that he wouldn't complain because of his uncertain legal status. Now he's trying to establish a photography business, called Strekoza — Russian for "dragonfly."

"It's hard to not be sure about your future," he said. "In Russia, I'd planned my whole life out."

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/chinese-gay-dating-app-grows-15-million-users-120521945.html
Chinese gay dating app grows to 15 million users
12/1/14

BEIJING (AP) — By day, Ma Baoli was a high-ranking officer in a seaside city police force. By night, he ran a website for gay people to share experiences and where he spoke under a pseudonym about the pressure he faced as a homosexual.

After several years, the police force found out and told him he could not run a private website that was earning money from advertisements while serving as a police officer.

Ma chose his website, a move that later proved fruitful. His Danlan.org has spawned a Chinese-language dating app for men called Blued that has garnered 15 million users, 3 million of them outside China, over two years.

And last month, his company, Blue City, received $30 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capital company DCM Ventures. Ma hopes to use the money to expand abroad and possibly prepare for an IPO. He is also considering launching a dating app for lesbians.

In a country where the government considers any activism dangerous and where homosexuality has traditionally been taboo, Ma has managed to build his business partly by reaching out to government agencies and showing them he can provide a public service in spreading safe-sex messages.

In 2012, he was invited to meet with now-Premier Li Keqiang because of his AIDS prevention work.

Wu Zunyou, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases center, praised the app for its usefulness in conveying information to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community.

"It's very hard to receive so many registered users in such a short time," Wu told The Associated Press last week at an AIDS awareness event held by Blue City and also attended by local government officials. "None of our public awareness websites can receive such attention. This is a very important channel to be able to spread information about AIDS prevention among the LGBT community."

The app allows users to look for people by location or the last time they logged on. It also enables group settings so people can organize activities such as hiking or assembling a basketball team, as well as providing information from health authorities on locations for HIV testing and treatment.

Andrea Pastorelli, a policy specialist at the United Nations Development Programme, said the Chinese CDC had recognized the app's usefulness in reaching people they were unable to.

"They are having a real issue reaching out to the most marginalized people and in China that's where the epidemic is," he said.

"The fact that they have been able to attract this much money shows that there is interest in the so-called pink market," Pastorelli added. "Private companies are realizing that gay people exist and gay people represent a huge market."

An investment manager at the Beijing office of DCM Ventures who asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed that the company had invested $30 million in Blue City, saying its future outlook was promising.

"Five percent of the total population are LGBT people," she said. "Social attitudes toward gay people will become more and more tolerant in the future."

For Ma, 37, who goes by the online pseudonym Geng Le, the investment signals a shift in attitudes already among Chinese toward homosexuals.

Five years ago, his website Danlan.org would be regularly shut down. Today, that doesn't happen anymore, and it carries discussions on whether to legalize same-sex marriage, for example.

"I now feel more and more comfortable saying, 'Yes, I'm gay and yes, what I do is run a gay-themed website,'" he said.

Still, the app does provide privacy for people who are worried about others finding out about their sexual orientation by allowing them to use their smartphone to meet someone, he said.

A law against "hooliganism" that had been used to target gays was eliminated in 1997 and homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder in 2001, but some clinics still promise to "cure" people by offering conversion therapy that includes electric shocks. China does not recognize same-sex partnerships and no laws outlaw discrimination against homosexuals.

However, more organizations are being created in China that are specifically devoted to LGBT advocacy issues, and gay bars that once could only be found in bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai are increasingly opening up in smaller cities.

Ma quit his job as deputy director of a division of the Qinhuangdao police force in March 2012. He still misses being a police officer, his dream job since childhood. He says some former colleagues cannot accept what he is doing because they think homosexuality is "abnormal." Ma says he hopes to change their thinking.

Blue City employs about 40 software engineers, designers, salespeople and advocates.

"I would like to use the power of the economy to promote the LGBT community," he said. "In many ways, the economy can trigger changes in policies. So if, for example, I do this thing very well, if my users go from 15 million to many more in the future, if we can go public, I can tell the government: See, we can go public being a 'gay company' and we haven't caused you any trouble."

Wal-Mart Uses Corporate Dollars to Promote Gay Agenda

Walmart is increasing capitulating to the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. So says the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH).
 
The group is calling on Americans to urge Wal-Mart to stop promoting homosexuality and gender confusion (transgenderism) with its corporate dollars.
 
"During the Christmas season, we should focus on honoring God and His Son, Jesus, who came to earth to die for our sins," says AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera.
 
"Wal-Mart has done much good in the world, but celebrating politically correct sins—homosexuality and transsexuality—only dishonors God and incentivizes Walmart's own workers to embrace immoral and confused behavior patterns in their lives. Walmart needs to get out of the sin promotion business and at least return to neutrality on the homosexual/transgender issue."
 
Here's the backstory: Wal-Mart is now publicly pro-"gay" and giving major grants to homosexual/transgender events and organizations, including $25,000 to $50,000 to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund—a group that helps elect "out" homosexuals to political office, mostly Democrats.
 
Giving corporate dollars to "gay/trans" groups like GLVF helps Wal-Mart increase its score on the rigged "Corporate Equality Index" (CEI) put out annually by the homosexual group Human Rights Campaign.
 
Wal-Mart's pro-homosexual/transgender CEI score is now 90 percent—up from 40 percent in 2008. The world's largest company has embraced a pro-homosexual/bi/transgender agenda in recent years, especially after granting homosexual "domestic partner" employee benefits in 2013.
 
The CEI scoring system is completely biased against social conservatives: If Wal-Mart were to give a grant to a pro-family group like AFTAH that opposes homosexual "marriage" and male "transgenders" using female restrooms, it would lose 25 points according to HRC's rigged CEI scoring system.
 
The only way for Wal-Mart to get the 10 points it needs to reach a perfect "100-percent" score on the CEI scorecard is for it to provide "transgender health benefits"—paying for or subsidizing body-mutilating sex reassignment surgeries as an employee "health" benefit. AFTAH is calling on Americans to urge Wal-Mart to stop promoting homosexuality and gender confusion (transgenderism) with its corporate dollars.
 
TAKE ACTION: Call Wal-Mart's headquarters at 479-273-4000 or use their Contact Page to politely express your concerns about Wal-Mart "going gay" and turning its back on godly morality and traditional marriage.

http://www.charismanews.com/us/46528-wal-mart-uses-corporate-dollars-to-promote-gay-agenda

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/12/26/the_new_cold_war_is_being_fought_over_the_treatment_of_lgbtq_citizens.html
12/26/14
Europe’s New Gay Cold War

An old new power struggle is underway in Europe. With Russia on one side and the United States and the European Union on the other, the struggle is geopolitical—in Ukraine, violently so. But it is also ideological, a clash of values and cultures at the heart of which is the question of whether societies should integrate or ostracize their LGBTQ citizens. It is Europe’s new gay Cold War.

In countries aligned with the United States and the European Union, the general trend on LGBTQ rights is toward greater equality under the law. In 2014, the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland) became the 10th country in Europe to legalize same-sex marriage, and beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, Luxembourg will be the 11th. In 2013, Croatia, Malta, and Gibraltar made same-sex unions legal. In the coming years, Finland and Estonia will open up legal unions to same-sex couples, while Ireland will hold a referendum on the subject in May 2015.

One of the most admirable aspects of Obama-era foreign policy has been the decision to use American soft power to actively promote LGBTQ rights, including in Europe. Since I frequently meet with LGBTQ rights organizations in Eastern Europe, I have learned that many of them receive financial, logistical, and moral support from U.S. Embassies and NGOs in their countries, as well as from European embassies. Qesh in Kosovo, for example, receives assistance from USAID and the Finnish Embassy.

By contrast, the experience of being queer in Russia today modulates between miserable and brutish. It is illegal, through the legislation on gay “propaganda,” to speak openly of homosexuality in the street or to petition for LGBTQ rights. Gay people are hunted for sport, beaten, and raped—and the government chooses not to respond. The work of LGBTQ organizations is suppressed not only by the propaganda laws but also by legislation on the funding of NGOs, whereby groups involved in “political activity” and in receipt of foreign funding are subject to increased scrutiny from the Russian authorities. Streams of dissent are being choked as foreign media outlets, including CNN, are ceasing to broadcast in Russia, while non-state TV channels are closing.

As Mark Joseph Stern put it so succinctly in these pages, “By putting the government’s stamp of approval on rampant Russian homophobia, [President Vladimir] Putin effectively declared open season on gay people.”

Now Russian anti-gay influence is spreading in Europe. After Russia illegally and illegitimately annexed Crimea, its LGBTQ citizens found themselves subject to the anti-gay propaganda law, and the Pride parade scheduled to take place in Sevastopol this summer was canceled. “Before Russian occupation, it was really complicated to be a gay in Ukraine,” Maxim Kornilov, a 29-year-old resident of Crimea, told NBC News. “Now it's absolutely unbearable.” Moldova adopted an anti-gay propaganda law in 2013 (before overturning it); Kazakhstan and Belarus may be the next nations to adopt one.

Russia’s allies in Europe, particularly in the east, are also those least likely to care for the cause of LGBTQ equality. The counterprotests to this year’s Pride parade in Belgrade, Serbia, were widely covered in the Russian media. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban condemned E.U. sanctions against Russia, and, according to one observer, his increasingly anti-democratic government “has largely succeeded in advancing conservative values, which [tend] to exclude gay people.” In biology classes in Hungarian schools, students are taught that homosexuality is a mental disorder linked to HIV/AIDS, venereal disease, and risky behavior.

“[Putin] had nothing to offer to his former zone of influence,” Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, told BuzzFeed in a 2013 interview. He continued:

So what he’s telling them: “OK, Europe is promising you much more, it’s a better market, they might give you subsidies, they might give you lots of new opportunities and openings. But what you should know is Europe is all about gay rights. If you go to Europe, your family values will be undermined, your traditions will be destroyed. So we as Orthodox unity, we should stick together.”

Russia is indeed able to exercise influence through the Russian Orthodox Church, which claims exclusive jurisdiction over all Orthodox Christians living in the republics of the former Soviet Union. Its churches act as forums for hatred of homosexuality on a weekly basis. And, while it is true that Russia has so far used hard power only in countries on its periphery—notably dismembering Georgia and Ukraine in recent years—it does have some ability to use soft power to influence events in the heart of Europe. Most of the continent, including Germany, is heavily dependent still on imported natural gas, which arrives in pipelines originating in Russia.

Today, the distinction is clear. To align oneself with the United States and the European Union is to accept that one must implement anti-discrimination legislation and protect the rights of minorities—the latter being part both of the Copenhagen Criteria on E.U. membership and the European Convention on Human Rights—and to acquiesce to the use of U.S. money to fund NGOs that promote LGBTQ rights. To avail oneself to Russia as an alternative to U.S. and E.U. influence is to adopt the opposite view and perhaps accept Russian influence on the matter.

This not only goes for nation-states but for political factions, too. All across the continent, anti-European parties on the far right of the political spectrum are drawn to Russia as opponents of U.S. hegemony were pulled into the Soviet orbit during the Cold War. Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, has said that the European Union is an “empire” with “blood on its hands” for the crisis in Ukraine, where Putin was “unnecessarily provoked.” Farage also told GQ that Putin was the world leader he most admired.

The European parties that are most pro-Russian tend also to be anti-gay. UKIP does not support same-sex marriage, while the Front National’s Marine Le Pen took part in the anti-marriage-equality Manif Pour Tous demonstrations that rocked France in 2013. In response to the suicide of anti-gay essayist Dominique Venner—who shot himself at the altar of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in France—Le Pen said, “All respect to Dominique Venner whose final, eminently political act was to try to wake up the people of France.”

Farage and Le Pen represent two different political streams within the European right—Le Pen is a statist; Farage a libertarian—but their anti-gay, anti-E.U. agenda sits happily with that of Putin and his handmaidens in Europe. It illustrates starkly that the annexation of Crimea, the bloodshed in the towns and battlefields of eastern Ukraine, and the awakening of the consciousnesses of Russian minorities in the Baltic states is only one facet of the ongoing struggle in Europe. Just as important is the culture war, a battle where, mercifully, the United States and the European Union have the upper hand, but LGBTQ Europeans are still caught in the middle.

http://news.yahoo.com/italy-court-recognizes-child-born-gay-couple-first-180452022.html
Italy court recognizes child born to gay couple for first time
1/7/15

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has for the first time recognized the legal status of a child born to a gay couple in a ruling, made public on Wednesday, that challenges the country's official stance on marriage only being between a man and a woman.

Italy, where the Roman Catholic church still has a great influence on politics, does not allow gay marriage or civil partnerships but in recent months some courts and town councils have begun to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages contracted abroad.

The appeals court in Turin ruled that the birth of the child, conceived by artificial insemination and born in Barcelona to a Spanish and Italian lesbian couple, should be transcribed into the official records of the town where the Italian woman lives.

The ruling gives Italian citizenship to the child, who was born in 2011, and means it can come to Italy to be with the mother, who is now divorced from her Spanish ex-wife.

Same sex marriage is legal in Spain and a Barcelona court gave joint custody to both women.

The Turin court's ruling, which was issued in October but only made public on Wednesday, overturned a 2013 verdict that the birth could not be legally recognized in Italy.

The appeals court said it was acting in the "exclusive interests of the child, who has been brought up by two women which the (Spanish) law each recognizes as its mother."

The names and places of residence of the people in the case were not made public due to the sensitivity of the issue in Italy.

Vietnam Drops Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

Last week, Vietnam became the first country in Southeast Asia to support same-sex marriage when the communist country's National Assembly struck down the ban.

According to LifeSiteNews, the country's motivation to strike down the ban came from pressure to attract homosexual tourism and the influence of U.S. foreign policy, which features Ted Osius, an active homosexual, as the new US ambassador to Vietnam.

"We could get more support from civil society in Vietnam because the American ambassador is gay," said Luong The Huy, a lawyer with the homosexuality-advocating Institute for Studies of Society. "He promotes a very good image of a very successful person who is gay," he said.

Though the government does not ban the union, it still does not formally recognize it or provide any legal support system.

“It’s getting out that Vietnam is a more friendly place,” the director of a homosexual advocacy group called Utopia Asia told the Bangkok Post. “Gays in Vietnam are certainly becoming more open. It has not ruffled any feathers as it might in some other countries in Southeast Asia. It will have a positive effect on tourism.”

"[The law] indicates to everyone that Vietnam is opening up more and welcomes everyone," said the owner of Gay Hanoi Tours. "Vietnam is changing very quickly. There are bigger gay communities and gay events."

One apparent venue of "gay events" just so happens to be the American Club in Hanoi.

Vietnam lifting the ban stands in stark contrast to other socially conservative countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, which recently reaffirmed its ban on homosexual behavior in 2014 and reiterated that any attempts to lift the ban must be made by legislators, not judicial activists. 

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/vietnam-drops-ban-same-sex-marriage

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/golden-globe-goes-series-about-lesbians-adultery-sm-and-transgender-dad
Golden Globe Goes to Series About Lesbians, Adultery, S&M and Transgender ‘Dad’
January 12, 2015 - 3:24 PM

(CNSNews.com) – Hollywood, gay activists, and the media that cover them are crowing about Amazon.com’s Transparent show getting the Golden Globe award for Best Comedy on Sunday.

Actor Jeffrey Tambor who plays the lead character in amazon.com's series "Transparent." (Photo: Amazon.com)

“To have the best new show of the fall airing not on a television network, not even on a cable channel, but on a service where you can also buy underwear, that is a revolutionary moment,” Brian Stelter, CNN correspondent, said of the series.

The show, created by Jill Soloway, features three grown children and their father, who is a transgender woman. One daughter is married but has a lesbian affair. Another daughter likes S&M, illegal drugs, and three-somes. The son has multiple sexual relationships. There is much drinking, drug use, and sexual promiscuity and deviancy in the show.

In accepting the award, Soloway recognized her father, who is a transgender woman, and a transgender woman, who recently committed suicide, according to CNN.

“This award is dedicated to the memory of Leelah Alcorn and too many trans people who die too young,” Soloway said in accepting the award. “And it’s dedicated to you my transparent. My Mapa.

“You’re watching at home right now, and I just want to thank you for coming out because in doing so you made a break for freedom,” Soloway said. “You told you truth.

“You taught me how to tell my truth and make this show,” Soloway said. “And maybe we’re going to be able to teach the world something about authenticity and truth and love.”

“To love,” Soloway said as she hoisted the Golden Globe statuette.

Soloway also thanked Jeffrey Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com and owner of the Washington Post.

Jeffrey Tambor, the man who plays the transgender woman in the Amazon.com series and who won Best Actor in a Television Comedy, also touted the transgender community in accepting his award.

"Thank you for your courage," Tambor said. "Thank you for your inspiration. Thank you for your patience. And thank you for letting us be a part of the change."

Male Witches Celebrate First Same-Sex Pagan Wedding in U.K.



Janet, Lady Glamis, burned in 1537, and Janet Horne, burned in 1637, would be delighted at the change in Scotland these days, although much of traditional Christendom might have a different perspective. On Sunday, in Edinburgh, two male witches celebrated the first pagan same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom.

The BBC reported that Tom Lanting, 34, and Iain Robertson, 39, who have lived together for 12 years, tied the knot in a ceremony in Edinburgh’s 16th-century Marlin's Wynd. Both men are hedge witches; the ceremony included rituals such as handfasting, sharing mead and jumping the broom.

According to handfastings.org, handfasting literally means tying the knot: “After the bride and groom both declare their intent to enter into this union, the hands of the couple are clasped and fastened together with a cord or cords just before, just after, or during their vows are made to one another.” The site also explains that the ceremony isn’t exactly the type of commitment found in traditional weddings: “A handfasting can either be a legal marriage (depending on state law), or a commitment for "as long as love shall last.”

Lanting and Robertson stated:

    Getting married in a legal pagan ceremony means so much to both of us. The new equal marriage law means that we finally have equal recognition and acceptance of our relationship, and it opens the door for all LGBTI couples to take the same step. As hedge witches we always wanted to have a pagan marriage ceremony in line with our beliefs and it was really important to us to be able to share this ceremony with our friends and family.

Unlike England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, Scotland allows pagans to wed legally; the Pagan Federation in Scotland has celebrated heterosexual pagan marriages since 2005.

Louise Park, the presiding officer for the Pagan Federation (Scotland), who presided over the wedding, ejaculated, "I am absolutely over the moon to have been able to conduct Scotland's - and the UK's - first pagan same-sex marriage for Tom and Iain, who hold a special place in the hearts of Scotland's pagan community."

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/male-witches-celebrate-first-same-sex-pagan-wedding-uk

hmmm, what could possibly be next? Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters marrying Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

http://www.cnsnews.com/node/878251
Obama in State of Union: Same-Sex Marriage is ‘America at Its Best’
January 21, 2015 - 9:07 AM

(CNSNews.com) - When he was running for president seven years ago, and appearing in a nationally televised forum held by a Christian pastor at a Christian church, Barack Obama said he believed that marriage was a “sacred union” that was “between a man and a woman.”

On Tuesday night, in his State of the Union Address, Obama said that legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States is one of the things he has seen that represents “America at its best.”

“I still believe that together, we can do great things, even when the odds are long,” Obama said. “I believe this because over and over in my six years in office, I have seen America at its best.

“I’ve seen the hopeful faces of young graduates from New York to California, and our newest officers at West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs, New London,” he said. “I’ve mourned with grieving families in Tucson and Newtown, in Boston, in West Texas, and West Virginia.  I’ve watched Americans beat back adversity from the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains, from Midwest assembly lines to the Mid-Atlantic seaboard.  I’ve seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in 10 Americans call home.

“So I know the good, and optimistic, and big-hearted generosity of the American people who every day live the idea that we are our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper,” he said. “And I know they expect those of us who serve here to set a better example.”

On Aug. 17, 2008, two and a half months before the 2008 presidential election, Obama and his opponent, Sen. John McCain, were interviewed back-to-back by Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church in Southern California.

Warren asked Obama: “Define marriage.”

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” Obama said. “Now, for me as a Christian--for me--for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God's in the mix.”

“Would you support a Constitutional Amendment with that definition?” Warren asked.

“No, I would not,” said Obama.

“Why not?” asked Warren.

“Because historically, we have not defined marriage in our Constitution,” said Obama. “It's been a matter of state law. That has been our tradition. I mean, let's break it down. The reason that people think there needs to be a constitutional amendment, some people believe, is because of the concern that--about same-sex marriage. I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions. I do believe that we should not--that for gay partners to want to visit each other in the hospital for the state to say, you know what, that's all right, I don't think in any way inhibits my core beliefs about what marriage are. I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others, even if I have a different perspective or different view.”

On Nov. 1, 2008, just three days before the 2008 election, Obama again stated that he did not believe in same-sex marriage.

MTV asked him his view on Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Obama said. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them."

http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/126041/Pope-receives-Spanish-transsexual--girlfriend---update.html
1/26/15
Pope receives Spanish transsexual, girlfriend - update

Vatican City, January 26 - Pope Francis on Saturday received in a private audience a Spanish transsexual and his girlfriend after the man wrote to him saying he had been cast out of the church in his native city, Spanish daily Hoy reported Monday. The transgender male, Diego Neria Lejarraga, a 48-year-old former woman, wrote to the pope some time ago saying he had been "marginalised" by Church officials in the city of Plasencia, in the southwestern region of Estremadura, Hoy said. Neria, a believer and a practising Catholic, said he had been rebuffed by elements of the local clergy and claimed the parish priest had called him "the Devil's daughter", Hoy reported. Francis phoned him twice in December, setting up Saturday''s meeting in St Martha's House, the Vatican guesthouse the pontiff lives in, Hoy said. The pope has said the Catholic Church should be more accepting of gays but recently failed to muster a big enough majority of cardinals to change doctrine on the issue. Asked about the reported meeting, official Vatican sources declined to comment.

Yet another MK Ultra psyop...

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/report-bruce-jenner-transitioning-woman-160159121.html
Report: Bruce Jenner Is Transitioning to a Woman
1/31/15

Bruce Jenner's evolving appearance has been the source of speculation for more than a year, and now People reports that the former Olympian "will soon be living life as a female."

"Bruce is transitioning to a woman," a source close to the Jenner family confirms to the magazine. "He is finally happy and his family is accepting of what he's doing. He's in such a great space. That's why it's the perfect time to do something like this."

Another insider adds that Jenner will document his transition for a docu-series to be released later this year, a claimed backed up by Us Weekly and Variety's similar reports. "It will air when he is ready to be open about his transition," the source says. "But he's acting more and more confident and seems very happy."

Since splitting with his wife of 23 years, Kris Jenner, in 2013, the reality star has grown out his hair, has been spotted with painted nails and wearing lip gloss and underwent surgery to pare down his Adam's apple. According to the source, Jenner decided to transition slowly in part to help his family adjust to the change. However, "not everyone is 100 percent on board," one insider says. "Different people have different reactions. But everybody loves him."

It does seem that whatever Jenner is going through, his stepdaughter Kim Kardashian gives him her full support. When asked about Jenner on ET, Kardashian simply made it clear that it was Jenner's life and he was the only one with a right to discuss it. "I think everyone goes through things in life, and I think that story and what Bruce is going through, I think he'll share whenever the time is right," Kardashian said.

In addition to Kim, Jenner has three other stepchildren, Kourtney, Khloe and Rob Kardashian. He also has six children of his own, Kendall and Kylie, with Kris Jenner, Brody and Brandon, with ex-wife Linda Thompson, and Cassandra and Burt, with ex-wife Chrystie Crownover.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/01/huckabee-gay-marriage_n_6589410.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
2/1/15
Huckabee: Gay People 'Can Be My Friends'

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said on Sunday that even though he opposes gay marriage for religious reasons, he has plenty of gay friends -- just like he has friends who drink, curse and enjoy ballet.

"People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessary my lifestyle," Huckabee said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I don't drink alcohol, but gosh, a lot of my friends, maybe most of them do. I don't use profanity, but believe me, I've got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet, opera -- it's not my cup of tea."

Huckabee, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, reiterated Sunday that he would like to run for the Republican nomination, joking that his ideal scenario would be for all other GOP candidates to drop out of the primary and let him win. He said his opposition to gay marriage is no more conservative than President Barack Obama's was when he won his first presidential term.

"Obama had the same position I had when he spoke about it in 2008, and for the same reason," Huckabee said. "He said it was because he was a Christian and because God is in the mix."

Obama's views on the subject have since evolved, and he said in 2012 that he supports same-sex marriage.

Republicans, particularly younger ones, have also been warming to the idea of gay marriage. But Huckabee said his views won't change "unless I get a new version of the Scriptures."

"This is not just a political issue, it's a biblical issue," he said. "It's like asking somebody who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/slovak-conservatives-fail-gay-marriage-ban
2/7/15

Slovak conservatives fail to cement gay marriage ban in referendum
Ban on gay marriages and child adoptions failed because the vote attracted less than the minimum 50% of voters necessary to make it valid

(http://i.guim.co.uk/media/w-620/h--/q-95/d46092c386ac31d2b18748de7bbc6da58491d4bf/0_61_3581_2148/1000.jpg)

Slovak conservatives failed to cement a ban on gay marriages and child adoptions in a referendum on Saturday because the vote attracted far less than the minimum 50% of voters necessary to make it valid, partial results showed.

Votes counted from 87.23% of the central European country’s voting districts showed turnout of just 21.07%, the statistics office said, far from the legal limit and well below expectations.

The EU member does not allow gay marriages or civil unions, nor adoptions by same-sex couples. The grassroots conservative movement that backed the referendum sought to strengthen those bans through a popular vote that would make it more difficult to change the legislation in the future.

The campaign was part of a conservatives’ push in Eastern European countries, including Hungary and Croatia, against what they see as overly liberal policies spreading eastwards in the two decades since the European Union expanded to include former Communist states.

Around 90% of those who took part in the vote said yes to the referendum’s three questions: whether marriage can only be a union of a man and a woman, whether same-sex couples should be banned from adoptions, and whether children can skip classes involving education on sex and euthanasia.

Liberal elites, gay rights activists and part of the media advised voters to defeat the referendum by not taking part, a strategy that worked.

The low turnout pleased the country’s gay community.

“I am happy for the result. The referendum was about limiting the rights of a minority by the majority, so it should not have taken place at all,” said activist Hana Fabry.

The group behind the referendum, Aliancia pre rodinu (Alliance for the Family), argued that the traditional family is under threat and points to an increasing number of countries, including neighbouring Austria and the Czech Republic, that allow various forms of same-sex unions, or child adoption by gay couples.

It put a brave face on the result, saying holding the referendum was a success in itself.

“The most important thing is that the family became the topic of the day and perhaps the topic of the year,” said the alliance’s Anna Veresova.

The referendum was backed by the Catholic church, a powerful institution in the country of 5.4 million people.

Slovakia is one of the most religious countries in Europe. But statistics show that the percentage of children born out of wedlock is only slightly lower than in neighbouring Czech Republic, which is one of the least devout nations in Europe, and the number of births per woman is even lower.

Final referendum results are expected on Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/jenner-drama-comes-pivotal-time-transgender-rights-081226504.html
2/10/15
Jenner speculation comes at key time for transgender rights

NEW YORK (AP) — Whether or not Olympic legend Bruce Jenner becomes its new champion, the transgender-rights movement is making remarkable strides on many fronts — ranging from mass-media visibility to legal protections. Yet despite the gains, activists say many transgender Americans, far more so than gays and lesbians, remain vulnerable to violence, discrimination and lack of understanding.

"We see transgender rights as the next wave of the work we need to do, after marriage equality," said Katherine Franke, director of Columbia Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

"Getting protections on paper is important," she said. "But the day-to-day lives of many transgender people won't be affected — they're unemployed, they're experiencing violence in the streets, in shelters, in schools."

Allyson Robinson, an activist working to end the military's ban on transgender people serving openly, said gains for transgender rights in some areas have triggered a backlash from some social and religious conservatives who feel they've lost the fight against same-sex marriage.

"Transgender people and their identities and communities are under siege right now on multiple fronts," she said, citing as an example recent bills proposed in state legislatures that would make it illegal for transgender people to use a bathroom that doesn't correspond with their biological gender.

The mix of advancement and adversity forms a backdrop to what promises to be an intriguing melodrama over the coming months regarding Jenner, the 1976 decathlon gold medalist who was featured on Wheaties boxes and more recently has appeared as a real-life stepfather on "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

Though Jenner himself has declined public comment, those in his inner circles have not challenged the mounting speculation that he is preparing to live as a woman and perhaps will appear in a new reality series about his transition.

His mother, Esther Jenner, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she had spoken with her son about his private and public journey.

"He said, 'I want to be honest about my identity, and I know this is coming out in the press,'" Esther Jenner said. "He started by saying, 'We need to have a long, serious talk.' I am at peace with what he is and what he's doing."

Among activists and bloggers who focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, there's widespread sentiment that Jenner alone should dictate the pace and the details of any disclosure he wants to make. Yet there's also keen interest in what sort of impact he might have were he to confirm a transition that would make him arguably the most famous American ever to openly identify as transgender.

Depending on how Jenner's story is presented and received, the revelation that a lauded athlete and member of one of the nation's most visible families is transgender could be comparable to the cultural shifts that accompanied the news that movie star Rock Hudson was gay and died of AIDS-related complications and that basketball great Magic Johnson, a heterosexual, was HIV-positive.

"In the long term, we'd say the disclosures were helpful for the movement to normalize homosexuality and bring better medical attention to AIDS/HIV," Franke said. "When celebrities came out as being members of these communities, it ended up shifting the national narrative."

The narrative at the moment, for transgender Americans, is complex. On one hand, they have many recent breakthroughs to celebrate, including:

— Several positive, high-profile portrayals of transgender people on popular TV shows, including the prison inmate played by Laverne Cox on "Orange is the New Black," and the transgender woman played by Golden Globe winner Jeffrey Tambor in "Transparent."

— Moves by at least nine states to ensure that health insurers cover transgender treatment that's deemed medically necessary. In a related move, the federal government ended a Medicare exclusion of coverage for services related to gender transition.

— Steps by some states to eliminate requirements that transgender people had to undergo surgery before being allowed to change the gender on their birth certificates.

— Moves by many schools and colleges to make transgender students feel more welcome — adopting new policies related to bathroom designations, sports teams, living quarters and other matters. Several women's colleges have adjusted admissions policies to accommodate transgender applicants.

— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's call in his recent state of the state speech for an amendment to the state's civil rights law to add discrimination protections for transgender New Yorkers. Discrimination based on gender identity is already prohibited in 18 other states.

However, Dru Levasseur, Transgender Rights Project director of the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, said new laws and policies aren't enough.

"For all the legal work we do, it's really a hearts and minds battle," he said. "The true test of our humanity is how much compassion and understanding we afford these people."

"It just comes down to explaining what it means to be transgender — how it's not a choice," Levasseur said. "It's a person coming to terms with who they are, and the hurdles they face on a systemic basis are immense."

The hurdles include a high rate of homelessness and family rejection among transgender young people, whose rates of suicide and attempted suicide far exceed those of other youth. There's also a persistent problem of violence, notably attacks targeting black and Latina transgender women.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, a leading national LGBT-rights organization, 13 transgender people were murdered in 2014 and four more so far this year, all but one of them black or Latina.

Part of the challenge for transgender people is that many other Americans don't know any of them personally. According to demographer Gary Gates of the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, an estimated 3.4 percent of American adults identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, while only one-tenth that many — about 700,000 — are transgender.

"Not many people know a trans woman or a trans man," said Dana Beyer, executive director of Gender Rights Maryland and former a candidate for state Senate. "I hope Jenner doesn't add to the weirdness quotient about us with this."

She fears that any TV show devoted to Jenner's physical transition might be a setback after her community's recent gains.

"I'm worried this reality series will focus on the physical transformation in a way that sexualizes us and brings us back to a time when that is what defined trans people instead of their humanity," she said.

"I'm hopeful," Beyer added. "But my worst fear is they will use language which will permeate the culture that is archaic, like 'becoming a woman' or transition 'into a woman,' and this will be a missed opportunity to educate that gender identity is a natural function of all human beings and sometimes it doesn't match up."

Over the weekend, Jenner was in an unwelcome spotlight as one of the drivers in a four-car crash in Malibu, California, that claimed a woman's life. The spotlight on him could grow more intense in the months ahead.

Allyson Robinson, who is policy director for the LGBT military group SPARTA, said she grew up idolizing Jenner in the 1970s and thinks his possible transition holds both promise for the transgender community and peril for Jenner personally.

"With great visibility comes great responsibility, and along with that comes a tremendous amount of pressure and anxiety," she said. "Transition is difficult enough, frankly, for many or most of us without the added pressure of having to represent an entire community of people to the great American public."

http://news.yahoo.com/oregon-governor-resists-mounting-pressure-resign-085601228.html
Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber announces his resignation amid scandal
2/13/15

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday, giving in to mounting pressure to abandon his office amid suspicions that his fiancee used her relationship with him to land contracts for her green-energy consulting business.

In a lengthy statement, the state's longest-serving chief executive insisted he broke no laws. He said the resignation would be effective Wednesday.

"Nonetheless, I understand that I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life," he said.

The decision capped a wild week in which Kitzhaber seemed poised to step down, then changed his mind, but ultimately bowed to calls from legislative leaders that he quit the state's top elected position.

The announcement is a stunning fall from grace for a politician who left the governor's office in 2003 and then mounted a comeback in 2010 and won back his old job.

Secretary of State Kate Brown, a Democrat like Kitzhaber, was expected to assume the office and become the first openly bisexual governor in the country. Unlike most states, Oregon does not have a lieutenant governor, and the state constitution puts the secretary of state next in line.

more

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/south-carolina-republicans-no-negative-marriage-equality
South Carolina Republicans: No ‘negative’ in marriage equality
2/21/15

South Carolina Republicans have weighed in on the issue of marriage equality in their state, and the majority see no negative in it.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans note that the legalization of marriage equality – which came to the state last November – has not negatively impacted them, according to new numbers by Public Policy Polling. That figure is compared to 60% of respondents who feel that legal same-sex marriage hasn’t impacted their lives at all and the 31% who claim it’s had a negative impact on their lives.

South Carolina famously became the 35th state where marriage equality became legal after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay a federal ruling that struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.

The poll results come as the Supreme Court gears up to take up the issue of national marriage equality when it hears all cases from the Sixth Circuit and as Texas grapples with the issue.

Similarly, a recent Marist poll shows that only 45% of potential South Carolina Republican voters find it acceptable for a candidate to oppose marriage equality.

Before it was struck down, South Carolina enacted a ban on marriage equality in 1999, which voters reaffirmed through an amendment in 2006.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/22/cnn-contributor-im-gay-and-i-want-my-kid-to-be-gay-too/
2/22/15
CNN Contributor: ‘I’m Gay. And I Want My Kid To Be Gay, Too’

Sally Kohn, a CNN contributor and progressive activist, says she hopes her 6-year-old daughter will turn out to be gay.

Kohn, who has previously described herself as a “butch lesbian,” copped to the preference in an opinion piece for the Washington Post.

“I’m gay. And I want my kid to be gay, too,” wrote Kohn, who also contributes to The Daily Beast.

Kohn defended her position, arguing that it’s normal for parents to want their children to follow in their footsteps, whether it involves extracurricular activities, political outlook or sexual orientation.

“More often than not, we define happiness as some variation on our own lives, or at least the lives of our expectations. If we went to college, we want our kids to go to college. If we like sports, we want our kids to like sports. If we vote Democrat, of course we want our kids to vote Democrat,” wrote Kohn, who lives with her partner Sarah Hansen and their daughter Willa Hansen-Kohn in the “liberal bubble of Park Slope, Brooklyn.”

Kohn made it clear in the essay that though she ultimately wants her daughter to be happy whatever her sexual orientation, she plans to do everything she can to encourage her daughter to avoid adhering to gender norms.

“When my daughter plays house with her stuffed koala bears as the mom and dad, we gently remind her that they could be a dad and dad. Sometimes she changes her narrative. Sometimes she doesn’t. It’s her choice,” Kohn wrote.

The activist highlighted her dilemma with a story about how her daughter recently developed a crush on an older boy who rides her school bus.

“Time will tell, but so far, it doesn’t look like my 6-year-old daughter is gay. In fact, she’s boy crazy. It seems early to me, but I’m trying to be supportive,” Kohn exclaimed.

When Kohn’s daughter said she wanted to buy the boy presents and a card, the essayist asked another student’s mother for advice on what to do.

“Bet it wouldn’t bother you so much if her crush was on a girl,” the mother told Kohn.

“She was right,” Kohn wrote. “I’m a slightly overbearing pro-gay gay mom. But I’m going to support my daughter, whatever choices she makes.”

Kohn has displayed a penchant for making controversial statements.

In an essay for CNN last summer, she argued that using the word “illegal” to describe undocumented immigrants was like calling an African-American “the n-word.”

An in an essay at The New York Times last month, which Kohn advertised on her website as “Butch Lesbian Mom Takes Daughter To Princess Makeover,” the pundit lamented that her daughter gravitates towards dolls and dresses rather than jeans and sports.

“Even in the midst of our hyper-liberal and hyper-diverse neighborhood with girls and boys of all kinds on display every day, it happened,” Kohn wrote. “Did I do something wrong? Is feminism mysteriously skipping a generation? Meanwhile, I have to bribe her to wear jeans.”

http://news.yahoo.com/us-names-first-envoy-gay-rights-211447354.html
US names first envoy for gay rights
2/23/15

Washington (AFP) - In a ground-breaking move the United States on Monday appointed the first US special envoy for gay and lesbian rights in a bid to help eradicate discrimination around the world.

"Defending and promoting the human rights of LGBT persons is at the core of our commitment to advancing human rights globally -– the heart and conscience of our diplomacy," US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

He named Randy Berry, the current consul-general in Amsterdam, as the new envoy, saying he believed Berry would "significantly advance efforts under way to move towards a world free from violence and discrimination" against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Berry's role will be to help coordinate US strategy on rights for gay people, as well as to highlight such issues around the world.

In some 75 countries, many of them in Africa, consensual same-sex activity is banned.

"Too often, in too many countries, LGBT persons are threatened, jailed, and prosecuted because of who they are or who they love," Kerry said in a statement.

"Too many governments have proposed or enacted laws that aim to curb freedom of expression, association, religion, and peaceful protest."

But he highlighted that many nations were beginning to recognize gay rights "so while this fight is not yet won, this is no time to get discouraged. It's time to stay active."

"It's time to assert the equality and dignity of all persons, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity," Kerry added.

http://qz.com/329575/chinas-homowives-are-becoming-unlikely-champions-for-gay-rights/
China’s “homowives” are becoming unlikely champions for gay rights
3/2/15

After her marriage was over, just looking at a wedding photo would make Qiu Xuan feel awful. The 29-year-old, a video editor at a communications company in Guangzhou, could tell by the picture that she wasn’t half of a happy couple that day, even though she was the one wearing a white veil.
The photo shows the bride and groom with their best man, who was standing in between them, hanging one arm over the groom’s shoulder, and leaning his head towards him. Qiu said her yearlong sexless and loveless marriage can be explained in that one image—her husband was in love with his best man, not her.

The term “beard” to describe a woman who is used, knowingly or unknowingly, to disguise her partner’s homosexuality has been used as slang in the United States for many decades.

But acknowledgement that such marriages even happen is a recent phenomena in China. In China, a “beard” is known straightforwardly as a  同妻(Tongqi), or ““homowife”—the abbreviation of “the wife of a homosexual” in Chinese.

There are millions of gay men married to women in China, academics believe. According to an estimate by Zhang Beichuan, one of the first Chinese scholars to study sexuality, China has 20 million male homosexuals of marriageable age—and 80% of them will marry a woman. In contrast, according to a 2010 Economist report, 15 to 20% of gay men in America have married heterosexual women.

The women in these marriages are quietly becoming an unlikely force in China’s nascent gay-rights movement. If men are free to openly have relationships with other men, sham marriages like theirs will no longer happen, they say. Being “homosexual is not wrong,” said Qiu in an interview. “What’s wrong is to marry a heterosexual to make a tragedy.”
Why China has millions of “homowives”

more

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-hunter/dr-ben-carson-i-support-civil-unions-gay-couples
Dr. Ben Carson: 'I Support Civil Unions for Gay Couples'
March 5, 2015 - 2:25 PM

CNSNews.com) - In a Facebook post following his interview with CNN’s “New Day,” Dr. Ben Carson issued a statement, apologizing for saying people who change their sexual orientation after going to jail shows that “being gay is a choice.”

“In a recent interview on CNN, I realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues,” Carson said. “I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended.”

As CNSNews.com previously reported, Carson said homosexuality is a “choice,” because “a lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight, and when they come out, they’re gay.”

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in his statement on Facebook: “I'm a doctor trained in multiple fields of medicine, who was blessed to work at perhaps the finest institution of medical knowledge in the world. Some of our brightest minds have looked at this debate, and up until this point there have been no definitive studies that people are born into a specific sexuality.

“We do know, however, that we are always born male and female. And I know that we are all made in God's image, which means we are all deserving of respect and dignity,” he added.

“I support human rights and Constitutional protections for gay people, and I have done so for many years. I support civil unions for gay couples, and I have done so for many years. I support the right of individual states to sanction gay marriage, and I support the right of individual states to deny gay marriage in their respective jurisdictions,” Carson said.

During the CNN interview, Carson indicated that civil issues like same-sex marriage should be left up the states.

“Here’s what I would do. I would do what the Constitution says. Constitution says: civil issue of that nature should be determined at the state level. Why does it say that? Because the judicial system at the state level has to answer to the people,” he said in the interview.

Carson also suggested that two people - regardless of sexual orientation - should be legally allowed to determine property rights and visitation rights.

“Here’s what’s important: Why do gay people want to get married? Because they want to have various rights – property rights, visitation rights,” he said in the interview.

“Why can’t any two human beings--I don’t care what their sexual orientation is--why can’t they have the legal right to do those things?” Carson asked in the interview.

In his Facebook post, Carson said “marriage is a religious institution.”

“Religious marriage is an oath before God and congregation. Religious marriage must only be governed by the church. Judges and government must not be allowed to restrict religious beliefs,” he said.

“I am not a politician and I answered a question without really thinking about it thoroughly. No excuses. I deeply regret my statement and I promise you, on this journey, I may err again, but unlike politicians when I make an error I will take full responsibility and never hide or parse words. As a human being my obligation is to learn from my mistakes and to treat all people with respect and dignity,” Carson concluded in his Facebook post.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cnsnewscom/obama-we-re-gay-americans-whose-blood-ran-streets-san-francisco
Obama: 'We’re The Gay Americans Whose Blood Ran in the Streets of San Francisco’
March 8, 2015 - 11:23 AM

From President Barack Obama’s speech yesterday in Selma, Ala., celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches:
That’s what it means to love America.  That’s what it means to believe in America.  That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.

For we were born of change.  We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.  We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people.  That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction -- because we know our efforts matter.  We know America is what we make of it.

Look at our history.  We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters.  That’s our spirit.  That’s who we are.

We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some.  And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth.  That is our character.

We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan.  We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life.  That’s how we came to be.  (Applause.)

We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South.  (Applause.)  We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.

We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent.  And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.

We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge. (Applause.)

We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.

We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway.  (Applause.)

We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of who “build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how.”  We are the people Emerson wrote of, “who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long;” who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”

That’s what America is.  Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others.  (Applause.)  We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past.  We don’t fear the future; we grab for it.  America is not some fragile thing.  We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes.  We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit.  That’s why someone like John Lewis at the ripe old age of 25 could lead a mighty march.

And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day.  You are America.  Unconstrained by habit and convention.  Unencumbered by what is, because you’re ready to seize what ought to be.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/gay-marriage-support_n_6835710.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
3/9/15
A Record Number Of Voters Support Gay Marriage, New Poll Finds

A record number of voters now support gay marriage, a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday found.

The poll shows that an all-time high 59 percent of American voters support same-sex marriage -- nearly double the amount of voters who supported it in 2004. Support has also increased among conservative voters, with 35 percent now saying they back same-sex marriage, an increase of 9 percentage points from April 2013.

Fred Yang, a Democratic pollster who conducted the survey with Republican Bill McInturff, told the Wall Street Journal that support for gay marriage was increasing among voters faster than attitudes towards interracial marriage, now supported by 87 percent of Americans.

Despite the increase in support among conservatives, the poll found that it's still unclear how a GOP candidate's position on same-sex marriage would affect their chances with the electorate. Fifty percent of Republican primary voters said that they would view a candidate who supported gay marriage less favorably, while just 19 percent said that they would view the candidate more favorably.

Republicans seem to be taking a somewhat softer tone on gay marriage, and the party's 2016 hopefuls recently have seemed reluctant to talk about the issue.

The poll comes as courts consider the legal fate of gay marriage. Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered probate judges in the state to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses even though a federal judge ruled the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court will consider next month whether state bans on same-sex marriage violate the Constitution.

The NBC-WSJ poll, conducted March 1-5, surveyed 1,000 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

http://news.yahoo.com/making-history-st-patricks-parade-welcomes-2-gay-181719924.html
Making history: St. Patrick's parade welcomes 2 gay groups
3/13/15

BOSTON (AP) — The St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston will make history this Sunday as two gay and lesbian groups join the fun.

The advocacy group Boston Pride and OutVets, a group of gay military veterans, have been welcomed by the organizers.

"This is a tremendous leap forward," Boston Pride organizer Sylvain Bruni said Friday.

Until now, gay rights groups have been barred by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council from marching in the parade, which draws as many as a million spectators each year. Twenty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the organizers' right to keep gays out.

But Brian Mahoney commands the council now, and he's shrugging off questions about sexual orientation.

Just like Pope Francis, he says, "Who am I to judge?"

This Sunday's parade through the traditionally Irish-American enclave also will be shorter than years past: So much snow remains piled on sidewalks after the brutal winter that the city has had to cut the route in half.

And for the first time in two decades, a Boston mayor plans to be marching, too.

"With this year's parade, Boston is putting years of controversy behind us," Mayor Marty Walsh said Friday.

Boston's mayors have boycotted the event since 1995, when the council took its fight to exclude gay groups all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. The justices ruled unanimously that it would violate the free speech rights of private citizens who organize a parade if they are forced to include a group that doesn't share its message.

"They're not going to shove something down our face that's not our traditional values," said the council's leader at the time, John "Wacko" Hurley, a year before the landmark 1995 ruling.

It would be eight more years before Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage, a trend that has since spread across most of the United States. Today, more than 70 percent of Americans live in states where gay marriage is allowed.

The council's current leaders voted 5-4 in December to welcome OutVets as one of about 100 groups in this year's parade. Boston Pride announced Friday that it also received an acceptance letter from the council this week.

"We're excited to be there," said Bryan Bishop, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who founded the group representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans. "We've received nothing but positive feedback, from the mayor all the way down."

Not everyone agrees with the change. While some Roman Catholic groups are still participating, others have pulled out, organizer Timothy Duross says.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/20/san-francisco-vs-birmingham-the-big-metros-with-the-most-and-fewest-lgbt-adults/
3/20/15
San Francisco vs. Birmingham: the big metros with the most and fewest LGBT adults

The San Francisco area, with its long history of gay rights and progressive politics, has the highest share of LGBT adults of any large metro in the country, according to a massive new Gallup survey out today that included interviews over the course of two years with 374,000 people. More than 6 percent of adults living in the Bay Area identify themselves this way. And San Francisco is followed, perhaps unsurprisingly, by Portland, Austin, New Orleans and Seattle.

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/03/dcpkt-az6u-93werf1pt-g.png)

San Francisco's lead isn't, in fact, enormous, nor all that far from the national average (about 3.6 percent of adults identify as gay). The difference between the largest and smallest gay populations among the 50 largest metros in the country is only a few percentage points — Birmingham comes in at at the bottom at 2.6 percent. But the list of cities that appear the least gay-friendly here is noticeably full of Southern and Midwestern cities in parts of the country where gay rights have not yet expanded as fast as they have in places like San Francisco (San Jose is an exception here). Birmingham's appearance at the very bottom is notable given the very public intransigence of public officials in Alabama lately on marriage equality.

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/03/d6dizaqeyu2o6ifpeqnowg.png)

This is a lot less geographic variation than we see with other demographic groups, a pattern mirrored at the state level, too. But these modest metro-level differences may matter to you even if you don't identify yourself as LGBT — or even know anyone who does — because acceptance of gays is a good stand-in for the broader degree of tolerance in a city.

If gays are welcome, so too often are other kinds of minorities (or simply non-conformers). These are places where social norms (as well as legal protections) discourage discrimination of many kinds. And Richard Florida has argued that it's no coincidence the tolerant cities listed above are among the country's most economically dynamic, particularly as the semblance of tolerance may play a role in making cities attractive to young and creative workers.

The distinctions between cities at the top and bottom here also might be more pronounced, Gallup suggests, if this SURVEY looked only at central cities and not metropolitan areas, sprawling geographies that include suburbs and exurbs. But you'd need to survey an even larger group of people to make that calculation. This factor no doubt matters, too:

These rankings could also reflect differences across metro areas in the willingness of residents to identify as LGBT to interviewers. LGBT people who live in MSAs where they experience greater levels of social acceptance and often the legal protections that come with that may be more likely to identify themselves as such compared with LGBT adults living in areas in which there is less acceptance of people of differing sexual orientations. While San Francisco may be one of the most desirable areas in the country for LGBT people to live, it also may be an area where residents feel more comfortable in identifying themselves as LGBT.

Gallup's full ranking is below. If you're surprised by Salt Lake City near the top, Gallup points out the otherwise conservative state recently passed a law that gives LGBT residents greater protection from employee and housing discrimination than they get in many states (that law, though, does include some religious exemptions).

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/03/m3clwpu5y0cpwdy2cngmtw.png)

Puerto Rico ends its defense of gay marriage ban
3/20/15
http://news.yahoo.com/puerto-rico-ends-defense-gay-marriage-ban-230234857.html

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - The Puerto Rican government will no longer defend a law that bans same-sex couples from marrying and does not recognize the validity of such marriages performed in other jurisdictions, the U.S. commonwealth's attorney general announced on Friday.

The announcement coincided with the filing of a government brief before the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, where the Puerto Rico law is being challenged.

The Caribbean island, which is a U.S. territory, said it would no longer defend Article 68 of its Civil Code which contains the same sex marriage rules.

"The decision recognizes that all human beings are equal before the law," Justice Secretary César Miranda said. "We believe in an equal society in which everyone enjoys the same rights.”

The move paves the wave for the recognition of gay marriages in Puerto Rico, and was welcomed by gay singing star Ricky Martin, who is beloved in his native Puerto Rico.

“Today is a great day for my island,” Martin said in a Twitter message. “My heart is beating out of my chest. How proud I am to live in a country of equality.”

Gay marriage bans have been toppled in a growing number of states following a Supreme Court ruling two years ago that invalidated a federal law that restricted benefits to heterosexual couples.

Oral arguments are scheduled before the U.S. Supreme Court next month on the constitutionality of gay marriage bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, a Democrat who is a practicing Catholic, said in a statement that the spread of laws in several U.S. states had pointed to an "undeniable consensus that does not allow discriminatory distinctions as that contained in our Civil Code with respect to the rights of same sex couples."

"Everyone knows my religious beliefs but political leaders should not impose their beliefs," said Garcia Padilla, who has defended the traditional definition of marriage in the past.

The decision by Puerto Rico came on the last day that it had to answer arguments presented by five same sex couples and the group Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, who were appealing a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Juan Perez Gimenez last October that dismissed their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Puerto Rico Civil Code.

Chile recognises same-sex civil unions

The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, has signed into law a bill recognising civil unions between same-sex couples. The law - which will come into effect in six months - gives same-sex and unmarried couples many of the rights enjoyed by married couples. Several Latin American countries already recognise civil unions.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32296246

http://news.yahoo.com/irish-vote-gay-marriage-landmark-referendum-110758359.html
High turnout seen favoring Yes in Irish gay marriage vote
5/22/15

By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish voters turned out in droves to cast ballots in a gay marriage referendum on Friday, with the high turnout likely to favor the Yes side seeking equality just two decades after the country decriminalized homosexuality.

With the once mighty Catholic Church's influence ravaged by child abuse scandals, opinion polls indicated the proposal would pass by as much as two-to-one, making Ireland the first country to adopt same-sex marriage via a popular vote.

Irish national broadcaster RTE said it appeared to have been one of the highest ever turnouts for a referendum in the country, with turnout likely to reach 60 percent in Dublin. Only 39 percent voted nationally in an unsuccessful bid to abolish the upper house of parliament in 2013.

"It's looking as if there's a strong vote in urban areas, which would be more beneficial to the Yes side," said Mattie McGrath, one of just two of Ireland's 166 members of parliament who campaigned for a No vote.

"It's all to play for tomorrow, but the Yes vote might shade it," he said. There was no national exit poll and the first indications of the result were expected mid-morning on Saturday.

Yes campaigners also said the high turnout was a good sign.

"[I'm] beginning to dare to hope," said Rory O'Neill, also known by his drag queen stage name Panti Bliss, who has been one of the faces of the Yes campaign.

The result may depend on whether younger voters, tens of thousands of whom registered as the campaign gathered momentum, turn out to cast their ballots.

The result, which will likely be declared late Saturday afternoon, may also reveal an urban/rural split. When voters legalized divorce by a razor thin majority in 1995, only five of the 30 constituencies outside Dublin backed the proposal.

International interest made the hashtag #VoteYes the top trending issue on Twitter and thousands of Irish expatriates made the trip home from Britain and as far afield as New York and Sydney to vote, groups encouraging the 'Yes' vote, using the hashtag #hometovote, said.

"I've been genuinely overwhelmed by the scale and the scope of the hometovote movement," said Joey Kavanagh of the Get The Boat 2 Vote group, as he and about 50 others made the eight-hour journey by train and ferry from London to Dublin.

"It's a very festive, celebratory atmosphere. At the moment we're hanging up posters in the lounge and stringing up balloons. People are just very eager to get back."

Gay marriage is backed by all political parties, championed by big employers and endorsed by celebrities, all hoping it will mark a transformation in a country that was long regarded as one of the most socially conservative in Western Europe.

The Catholic Church, whose doctrine teaches that homosexuality is a sin, has mainly limited its 'No' campaigning to sermons to its remaining flock, a marked contrast with active public opposition to similar moves in France and elsewhere.

Instead, lay groups have led the opposition, raising concerns over parenthood and surrogacy rights for gay couples. Many believe the recognition of the legal rights of same-sex couples in 2009 is sufficient.

"I don't think it's necessary because it's covered in the civil partnership arrangements," said Sean, a retiree voting in the leafy Dublin suburb of Blackrock. Only a couple of his friends were voting 'Yes', he said.

"I'm not convinced, I think it's wrong and I don't agree with it."

(Editing by Janet Lawrence, Bernard Orr)

Irish voters back gay marriage in 'social revolution'

Irish voters backed same-sex marriage by a landslide in a referendum marking a dramatic social shift in the traditionally Catholic country, government ministers and opponents of the bill said on Saturday. 

http://news.yahoo.com/ireland-appears-voted-same-sex-marriage-equality-minister-083328527.html

Obama uses 5-year-old to promote same-sex 'marriage'

That is disgusting, but what do you expect out of this sodomy loving devil

President Barack Obama’s evolution to wholeheartedly support same-sex “marriage” has turned a new leaf, as he used a five-year-old’s letter posted on social media last week to champion his administration’s aggressive homosexual agenda.

A Closer LookTweeting a letter to the president recently written by Yasmeen, her five-year-old niece, the girl’s aunt publicized her message for the world to see.

“A letter from my 5 year old niece,” the aunt posted on her Twitter account. “Right out of the mouths of babes!”

In the letter heralded by her aunt, Yasmeen asked Obama to “stop war” before urging him to forward his agenda to expand same-sex marriage to all Americans in every state.

“[P]lease give a speech to tell everyone that can marry who they want," Yasmeen pleaded to the president in her personal note made public.

Using the young and the innocent

Elated to see his LGBT “civil rights” campaign reach the youth generation all the way to preschool, Obama seized the moment to strategically promote his marriage-for-all agenda — the month before the United States Supreme Court rules on whether “gay” marriage will be legal in all 50 states.

In response to Yasmeen’s prompt for the president to be more vocal in promoting same-sex marriage for all in his speeches, Obama Tweeted his appreciation for her being on board with his campaign.

“Tell your niece I really like her letter,” Obama posted on his presidential Twitter account on May 22 just hours after the post from Yasmeen’s aunt. “Couldn’t agree more!”

‘Gay’ agenda fast forward

Obama’s progression to become what many in the LGBT community dub as “the first gay president,” has been evident during both his terms in the White House.

One year before announcing his evolution to support “gay” marriage, Obama , Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral  Mike Mullen sent a certification to Congress in 2011 to officially repeal former President Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to normalize homosexual behavior in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Not long after being elected to serve his second term in office, Obama made it clear to Americans that redefining marriage from coast to cast as a top priority of his administration. His administration has taken action since then to fast-track America’s acceptance of the controversial and unbiblical practice — oftentimes inciting state officials to break the law to promote its cause.

“[F]ormer Attorney General Eric Holder told state attorneys general that they could ignore state laws promoting actual marriage, and Obama has said that federal contractors must provide the same benefits to "married" same-sex couples that they provide to married heterosexual couples,” LIfeSiteNews.com reports.

Just last month, Obama signed an executive order to christen gender-neutral restrooms in the White House as a statement of its full-fledged support of the LGBT agenda.

When Obama took office in January 2009, only one state — Massachusetts — legalized same-sex marriage. Today, more than a year away from the end of the president’s second term, 37 states have legalized the controversial unions.

However, this rapid acceptance of same-sex marriage is not fast enough for the Obama administration, as White House officials are fully behind Supreme Court Justices who are looking to legalize the unions in all 50 states — an anticipated decision that is slated for next month.

Just last week, Ireland became the 20th nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationally, with Greenland close behind in its wake, becoming the 21th country to allow the highly contended unions nationwide. In the end of June, advocates of homosexual behavior are hoping that the U.S. will be number 22.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2015/05/30/obama-uses-5-year-old-to-promote-same-sex-marriage#.VWoLTkZrWk4

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/world/americas/with-little-fanfare-mexican-supreme-court-effectively-legalizes-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0
6/14/15
With Little Fanfare, Mexican Supreme Court Effectively Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

MEXICO CITY — His church turned him away, his family discouraged him from a public fight and the government of the state where he lives vowed it would never happen.

But it did. Hiram Gonzalez married his boyfriend, Severiano Chavez, last year in the northern state of Chihuahua, which, like most Mexican states, technically allows marriage only between a man and a woman.

Mr. Gonzalez and dozens of other gay couples in recent months have, however, found a powerful ally: Mexico’s Supreme Court.

In ruling after ruling, the court has said that state laws restricting marriage to heterosexuals are discriminatory. Though the decisions have been made to little public fanfare, they have had the effect of legalizing gay marriage in Mexico without enshrining it in law.

“When I heard the judge pronounce us legally married, I burst into tears,” said Mr. Gonzalez, 41, who, like nearly all gays marrying in Mexico, needed a court order enabling him to exchange vows.

As the United States awaits a landmark decision on gay marriage by the Supreme Court, the Mexican court’s rulings have added the country to a slowly growing list of Latin American nations permitting same-sex unions.

more

Rev. Graham: USA 'Now Exporting The Acceptance of Immorality Via Our President'

In reference to President Barack Obama's trip to Kenya where, during a press conference he expressed support for gay rights and equated legal restrictions on homosexuality to Jim Crow laws and slavery, Reverend Franklin Graham said the United States was "now exporting the acceptance of immorality" through Obama.

"While visiting Kenya, Barack Obama publicly lectured Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta about gay rights yesterday [July 25]," said Rev. Graham in a July 26 post on Facebook.

"I didn’t know that we were sending our president halfway around the world to promote the gay & lesbian agenda!" he said.

"Samaritan's Purse has an office in Kenya and has worked there many years, and I can tell you that the churches in Kenya know what the Bible says about homosexuality -- it is a sin," continued Rev. Graham. "Sin should not be embraced, but recognized truthfully for what it is and for its serious consequences."

"God’s Word says, 'the wages of sin is death,'" said Rev. Graham.  "Thankfully though, sin does have a remedy -- forgiveness is available through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior."

"As a world leader, the United States of America is now exporting the acceptance of immorality via our president," said Franklin Graham.  "What will the cost of that be?"

During his July 25 press conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday, President Obama was asked about homosexual rights and he, in part, said "the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation." He then added, "as an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the history of what happens when people are treated differently, under the law, and there were all sorts of rationalizations that were provided by the power structure for decades in the United States for segregation and Jim Crow and slavery, and they were wrong."

For his part, Kenya's president said his country and the United States share "many values" but "there are some things that we must admit we don't share -- our culture, our societies don't accept."

"It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept," said President Kenyatta, whose country's population is 84% Christian and which has strong laws against homosexual behavior. In fact, 36 of Africa's 54 states have laws against same-sex acts.

"[T]he fact remains that this [homosexuality] issue is not really an issue that is on the foremost mind of Kenyans, and that is the fact,” said President Kenyatta.

Franklin Graham, 62, is the son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham.  Franklin Graham is president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and also runs the international Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse. Rev. Franklin Graham is married, has five children, and lives in Boone, N.C.  He regularly preaches in evangelistic crusades in the United States and around the globe.

http://cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/rev-graham-usa-now-exporting-acceptance-immorality-our-president

Gay marriage bill introduced to Australian parliament

A controversial bill to legalise same-sex marriage has been introduced to the Australian parliament. The private member's bill comes amid heated debate among government MPs about whether to change the law or put the matter to a plebiscite. The government's official position is that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33955375

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=35614
DORITOS RAINBOWS LAUNCHED TO PROMOTE THE RADICAL LGBT AGENDA
Geoffrey Grider | September 17, 2015 | 58 Comments

DORITOS IS PRODUCING RAINBOW-COLORED CHIPS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NONPROFIT IT GETS BETTER.

“And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel…” 1 Samuel 4:21 (KJV)

There is simply no escaping the New World Order’s push of the radical LGBT Mafia’s agenda. Even our beloved junk food is no longer safe from it’s insidious reach. Doritos Rainbows are a limited-edition version of its Cool Ranch-flavored tortilla chips to show the chip maker’s support of the LGBT community. The chips come in shades of green, blue, purple, red, and orange inspired by colors of the Pride flag. Who are the main consumers of Doritos products? The ultra-impressionable 18-24 year old age group. No surprise there. Since gays cannot reproduce, they must indoctrinate and recruit.

(http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/doritos-launching-rainbows-tortilla-chips-it-gets-better-project-lgbt-agenda.jpg)

Despite pockets of resistance in areas across the country, America as a nation has fully embraced the LGBT lifestyle and all it represents. From the United States Supreme Court, all the down to a maker of junk snack food, everywhere you look Sodom and Gomorrah are being brought back to life. We say that we are doing it to be tolerant, open-minded and inclusive, but nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that God’s restraining Hand has been taken away, our protective covering lifted in judgment against us, and we don’t even know it.

ICHABOD HAS BEEN WRITTEN ACROSS THE DOORPOSTS OF AMERICA

America in 2015 is not a Christian nation. Under Obama we have become a secular, pagan nation that worships all gods except the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. We have forgotten that God completely destroyed both Sodom and Gomorrah for doing less than we are doing right now. The glory has departed from America, and we cannot see it. In the Bible, Eli the High Priest of Israel, and his two wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas, brought God’s judgment upon their nation because of their actions. When Phinehas wife died giving birth to his child, they named the boy Ichabod, which means that the glory, God’s glory, had departed from Israel. That’s exactly where America stands right now. We are so used to having God’s blessing, favor and protection, which has made us the mightest nation on earth, that we have taken it totally for granted. We think we will always remain on top, but the wolf is already at our door.

We elected a Muslim president who right now, at this very moment, is flooding America with tens of thousands of ISIS war fighters. Obama calls them Muslim migrants, and they are being shipped to every state in our nation. What you are now seeing in Europe is only a very short time away from being an everyday reality here in America. Have you ever read how God judged nations in the Bible? He raised up other nations against them. What’s that, you say? You cannot imagine America overrun with Muslims and beheadings happening daily on our streets? Just think about that while you break open a nice, big bag of Doritos Rainbows chips. Just think about the myriad of health issues with artificial rainbow-colored food items.

“And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” Genesis 19:28 (KJV)

So eat up, America, stuff your face with cancer-causing junk food that glorifies the Satanic LGBT Agenda, force the states to perform same-sex sodomite marriage ceremonies, and keep killing millions of babies each year and sell their limbs for financial gain.

Because Judgement Day is coming.

http://news.yahoo.com/ireland-gay-marriage-law-comes-force-043531644.html
11/15/15
Ireland gay marriage law comes into force

http://news.yahoo.com/berlin-open-lgbt-refugee-center-194130876.html
Berlin to Open LGBT Refugee Center
By Samantha Cowan | Takepart.com
January 24, 2016 2:41 PM

While some European nations have installed barbed-wire fences or threatened to confiscate valuables to deter refugees, Germany’s welcoming policies have made it something of a promised land for many asylum seekers fleeing violence in nations such as Syria and Afghanistan. But LGBT refugees, who thought they could be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity once in Europe, have continued to face persecution.

After hundreds of reports of violence against LGBT refugees, German gay rights organization Schwulenberatung Berlin is set to open a center specifically for LGBT asylum seekers, Reuters reports.

“We have heard a lot of stories about discrimination and crimes against LGBT people in the last two years,” Stephan Jäkel, Schwulenberatung’s manager of refugee affairs, told Reuters. “They were frightened and scared after being beaten or spat on, and one survived a murder attempt. We heard a lot of horrible stories.”

Nearly 100 instances of violence against LGBT refugees were reported to the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany between August and December 2015. The Berlin center will house roughly 125 LGBT refugees, although the Schwulenberatung organization estimates there are 3,500 LGBT asylum seekers in Berlin alone.

Although Germany does not recognize same-sex marriage, it is widely considered a gay-friendly nation. But LGBT refugees have found that the mind-sets and cultural norms of fellow refugees from countries where being gay can be a death sentence didn’t immediately change once they entered the European Union.

“I thought, I am in Europe now. In Germany, I should not have to hide anymore,” Rami Ktifan, a gay Syrian refugee living in Dresden, told The Washington Post. Once Ktifan revealed his sexual orientation, he was subjected to verbal and physical assault, including an attempt to burn his feet, while living in a refugee center.

RELATED:  Phrasebook for Refugees Aims to Ease the Path to Asylum

Attacks on LGBT refugees are not unique to Germany—asylum seekers in Amsterdam have experienced similar assaults in refugee centers. But as Germany welcomed more then 1 million refugees in 2015, these instances are more common and speak to the broader difficulties of immersing a large group of people into a foreign nation with widely different values.

While the LGBT center, which opens in March, will provide a safe space for some refugees, others are attempting to integrate the newcomers into German culture through media. Television series Marhaba (“hello” in Arabic) teaches refugees about German cultural norms, from avoiding late-night phone calls to treating women as equals. Newspapers are also sending messages to refugees about Germany’s values of equality.

“You must forget what you learned at home about what is right or wrong,” commentator Harald Martenstein wrote to refugees last year in the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. “You must accept the equality of women. You must learn that homosexuals and Jews are just like everyone else.”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53168#.VrUN_TZRHIU
New stamps promoting LGBT equality worldwide unveiled at UN

4 February 2016 – The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) today unveiled a set of six commemorative stamps to promote UN Free & Equal – a global UN campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality launched and led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The new stamps, which celebrate the diversity of the LGBT community, mark the first time the United Nations has issued stamps with this theme. The set, which features two in English, two in French, and two in German, will be available as of tomorrow at UN Headquarters in New York, Geneva and Vienna. They can also be purchased online.

In an interview, the artist who designed them said he was very influenced by art from the first quarter of the 20th Century. Sergio Baradat, who is of Cuban background, explained that his style stems from his appreciation for French Art Deco and growing up in Miami.

“One of the stamps represents someone who is transgender,” Mr. Baradat told UN Radio, referring to the stamp that depicts a person with butterfly wings, an image he says represents a person “becoming who they really are, blossoming,” he said.

“We live in a world where even though [developed] nations have embraced marriage equality [and] LBGT equality, we still have a far, far, far way to go, but we are making some strides,” he added.

“There are some countries in the world right now where not only are we not celebrated or respected, but we are beaten and killed. And I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity using art, to use postage stamps as a vehicle – using art to change hearts and minds.”

He also stressed that LGBT rights are human rights and that all individuals deserve to be treated equally and fairly under the law.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/super-bowl-50-filled-with-illuminati-and-pro-lgbt-imagery-dominates-halftime-show/

Super Bowl 50 Filled With Illuminati And Pro-LGBT Imagery Dominates Halftime Show

Everything from rainbow-colored everything to the stage itself forming a cultic New Age cross whose center was a swirling chaos of confusion, the message was driven home. Super Bowl 50 was for the One World generation.
2/7/16

In these photos you can clearly see the obelisk-shaped platform combined with a cross, and a throng of people rushing in to symbolize the global embrace of the One World agenda.

Continuing in a vein that has now become firmly entrenched over the past few years, the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show was a non-stop cavalcade of pro-LGBT and Illuminati imagery pushing a One World sensibility. Everything from rainbow-colored everything to the stage itself forming a cultic New Age cross whose center was a swirling chaos of confusion, the message was driven home. Super Bowl 50 was for the One World generation.

In these photos you can clearly see the obelisk-shaped platform combined with a cross, and a throng of people rushing in to symbolize the global embrace of the One World agenda.

more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdbOmc5yxWk

‘Pastor Protection Act’ Unanimously Passes Georgia House

The Georgia House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill this week that protects clergy from punishment if they decline to perform same-sex “weddings.”

H.B. 757 was introduced last summer by Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, and found support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

“No minister of the gospel or cleric or religious practitioner ordained or authorized to solemnize marriages, perform rites, or administer sacraments according to the usages of the denomination, when acting in his or her official religious capacity, shall be required to solemnize any marriage, perform any rite or administer any sacrament in violation of his or her right to free exercise of religion under the Constitution of this state or the United States,” the bill reads in part.

In addition to churches, the bill also applies to religious schools, missionary societies and denominational conventions.

“The Pastor Protection Act is a simple reaffirmation of our bedrock principle of separation of church and state,” Tanner told reporters. “It makes clear that Georgia respects and honors the sacred oaths taken by our pastors, priests, rabbis and other clergy and that government has no intention of asking them to violate those oaths.”

Homosexual advocacy groups decried the move, opining that it grants a “license to discriminate.”

“It allows faith-based organizations to withhold services if they choose to do so,” Jeff Graham, the executive director of Georgia Equality, said in testimony before the Senate Rules Committee, which is considering a similar combined bill. “I am especially concerned that this bill will have a chilling effect on the state’s LGBT families.”

As previously reported, a homosexual activist has been calling for clergy nationwide to stop calling homosexuality sinful. According to the New York Times, Mitchell Gold of Faith in America told the publication last May that “church leaders must be made ‘to take homosexuality off the sin list.’”

During an appearance at a Alexander County, North Carolina Commissioner’s meeting last month, he stated that his New Year’s resolution for 2016 is to put an end to such teaching.
“It’s outdated. It’s misguided. It’s ill-informed. But worse, it is unbelievably harmful,” Gold stated.

Gold recently also penned a letter to the editor of the Taylorsville Times, stating that “The overriding reason … LGBT people suffer deep depression and are driven to suicide is because they feel they are broken—that they are sinners. I’ve come to the conclusion this religious teaching is one of the most harmful in our society today.”

The Pastor Protection Act passed 161-0 on Thursday.

“There’s a global threat to religious liberty occurring,” said Dr. Daniel Ausbun, pastor of First Baptist Church in Moreland in a column published in the Newnan Times-Herald on Saturday.

“Religious liberty is the freedom to believe and practice your faith apart from government interference.”

“We don’t want a government that imposes penalties for religious opinions of any kind,” he said. “The sad fact is, throughout Georgia, people of faith have had their right of free exercise of religion trampled, ignored and restricted.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/02/19/pastor-protection-act-unanimously-passes-georgia-house/

http://news.yahoo.com/shelter-120-gay-refugees-open-berlin-173802005.html;_ylt=A0LEVxR5bMtWzbcANF9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyY2Y2ZW8zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjExNjBfMQRzZWMDc3I-
2/22/16
Shelter for 120 gay refugees to open in Berlin

Italy's Senate voted Thursday to grant legal recognition to civil unions, as the last holdout in Western Europe took a compromise step to give some rights to gay couples after a bitter, years-long debate.

Premier Matteo Renzi described the passage of the bill Thursday as "historic." But gay and lesbian groups denounced the watered-down legislation as a betrayal because Renzi's Democratic Party sacrificed a provision to allow gay adoption in order to ensure passage.

The legislation, which must still pass the lower Chamber of Deputies, is nevertheless significant for an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country where the Vatican holds sway in politics and society, although Pope Francis remained conspicuously silent as debate raged in recent months.

The bill passed 173-71, well over the threshold necessary.

After being stalled in parliament for years, the legislation was spurred on after the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy last year for discriminating against gays. Ruling in favor of three homosexual couples, the court found that Italy had failed to provide gays with even the most basic rights owed to couples in stable relationships, including inheritance rights, and recommended civil union recognition.

The law grants same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples: the possibility of having the same last name, inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights and decision-making rights about medical care.

But it stops far short of authorizing gay marriage, which was passed last year in predominantly Catholic Ireland and was legalized as well across the United States. Last-minute changes removed references to the obligation of "faithfulness" in the relationship lest it be construed as equivalent to marriage, which the Catholic Church insists is a lifelong union between a man and woman.

More painful for the LGBT community was Renzi's decision earlier in the week to scrap the provision allowing gays to adopt the biological children of their partners. It was sacrificed to ensure support within Renzi's own Democratic Party and other necessary supporters, and even then Renzi put the bill up to a confidence vote — a common tactic in Italian politics to ensure that the majority closes ranks.

"We are outraged, angry, disappointed," said Marilena Grassadonia, president of Rainbow Families, the Italian association of homosexual parents. "We can't believe that in 2016 ... in a country like Italy which is so proud to be part of this Europe, that it's possible to make a law on civil unions without considering children who should be protected as Italian citizens and discriminated minors," she told The Associated Press.

Defenders of the bill insisted that the legislation preserved the right of Italian judges to grant adoptions to gay partners on a case-by-case basis, as has been the practice to date.

"Thanks to this text, the magistrates can still interpret the law on adoptions in the interest of the child to have a stable and continual relationship" with the non-biological partner, said Anna Finocchiaro, the head of the Democrats in the Senate.

Given the risk that the whole law on civil unions might have failed had the so-called stepchild adoption provision remained, "this was a wise choice," she said.

The center-right claimed a victory for having whittled down the original text.

"We prevented an anthropological revolution against nature," exulted Angelino Alfano, the interior minister and head of the New Center-Right party.

Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, lamented in an editorial Thursday that Renzi had forced senators to choose between their consciences and the government in imposing the confidence vote.

"It would have been better to not so heavily condition the freedom of conscience of the senators who will vote (with a few announced exceptions) not because of their intimate conviction of the quality of the law but out of loyalty or not to a political judgment of Renzi's executive," Avvenire said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-senate-civil-unions-lgbt-groups-unhappy-37187361 (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-senate-civil-unions-lgbt-groups-unhappy-37187361)

Study: Science Doesn’t Back Popular Views of Sexuality

Over half the people in the United States believe gays and lesbians are born that way, according to a 2015 Gallup poll. It can be professionally dangerous to believe otherwise, as former presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson discovered last year when he said homosexuality was a choice and was later pressured into apologizing.

But, Lawrence Mayer, a biostatistician, and Paul McHugh, a psychiatrist, both from Johns Hopkins University department of psychiatry, examined over 200 leading, peer-reviewed studies from social science, psychology, and biology and found science does not support much of what the general public, politicians, and policy-makers believe about homosexuality. Their 143-page review appears in the fall 2016 issue of the journal The New Atlantis.

Mayer and McHugh found no compelling evidence that sexual orientation was innate. Studies found some minor differences between the brain structure and functioning of heterosexual and homosexual people, but the findings shed no light on whether those differences were inborn or the result of environment and psychological factors. In other words, there was no scientific proof that people were born with same-sex attraction.

The researchers also found gay teens were not destined to a life of homosexuality. Longitudinal studies of adolescents showed sexual orientation often changed over time. One study found 80 percent of male adolescents who reported same-sex attractions no longer did so as adults.

Compared to their heterosexual counterparts, non-heterosexuals had an elevated risk for a variety of mental-health difficulties, including anxiety, substance abuse, and intimate-partner violence. Non-heterosexuals also had double the risk of depression and 2.5 times the risk of suicide.

For the small subset of transgender people, the rate of suicide soared to 41 percent, 10 times that of the general population. Gay activists attribute those mental health difficulties to the consequences of discrimination and stigma, but Mayer and McHugh found although social stressors contributed to the increased risk of poor mental health, they likely did not account for the entire problem. The researchers found a significant correlation between nonheterosexuality and childhood sexual victimization, a factor that may also contribute to the increased risk of mental-health difficulties.

Scientific evidence did not support the idea that a person could be a man trapped in a woman’s body, or vice versa. Studies comparing brain structures of transgender with nontransgender people did not find evidence for a neurological basis of cross-gender identification. “The consensus of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that a physically and developmentally normal boy or girl is indeed what he or she appears to be at birth,” the researchers wrote.

There was no evidence that sex-reassignment surgery improved an individual’s mental health. One study found sex-reassigned individuals were 19 times more likely to commit suicide.

In light of their discovery that in the majority of cases childhood gender identity issues did not persist into adulthood, Mayer and McHugh were particularly troubled over the way in which medical interventions such as puberty blockers for elementary school students and hormone therapy for high-schoolers who display gender identity issues are often promoted. “We are disturbed and alarmed by the severity and irreversibility of some interventions being publicly discussed and employed for children,” they wrote.

Mayer and McHugh concluded by pointing out that inconclusive and inconsistent research regarding homosexuality had left many unanswered questions and a need for much more research.

Their findings put them at odds with several major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), arguably the most influential pediatricians group in the country. In 2013, the AAP endorsed the healthcare standards of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which include affirming children’s gender dysphoria and delaying puberty with hormone therapy.

McHugh told The Daily Beast, which published an article criticizing his work as anti-LGBT, that politics and popularity mattered less to him than scientific fact.

“I believe that this is motivated out of an understanding of what science does and does not say,” he said, adding, “This is not the first time I’ve been contradicting traditions and, in these areas, I am saying that they do not have evidence-based medicine on which to back their prescriptions.”

http://www.christianheadlines.com/news/study-science-doesn-t-back-popular-views-of-sexuality.html

Johns Hopkins Scientists Offer Absolute Proof Gay Agenda's 'Born This Way' Is a Lie

The New Atlantis published a major report, "Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences." The report focuses on the higher rates of and explanations for mental health problems among the LGBT community and scientifically addresses some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender. It can be found here.

Written by Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D. and Paul R. McHugh, M.D., both of Johns Hopkins University, the report explores research from more than 200 peer-reviewed studies across a variety of scientific fields including epidemiology, genetics, endocrinology, psychiatry, neuroscience, embryology and pediatrics. The report finds that:

    The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property—that people are "born that way"—is not supported by scientific evidence.

    The proposition that gender identity is an innate, fixed human property independent of biological sex is not supported by scientific evidence. 

    Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood. There is little scientific evidence for the therapeutic value of medical interventions that delay puberty or modify the secondary sex characteristics of adolescents. 

    Non-heterosexual and transgender subpopulations have higher rates of mental health problems (anxiety, depression, suicide), as well as behavioral and social problems (substance abuse, intimate partner violence), compared to the general population.

"This report is about science and medicine, nothing more and nothing less," writes Dr. Mayer, biostatistician and medically trained epidemiologist. "Cultural and political trends should not influence the reality of the importance of dealing with these difficult and personal issues. As citizens, scholars, and clinicians concerned with the problems facing LGBT people, we should not be dogmatically committed to any particular views about the nature of sexuality or gender identity; rather, we should be guided first and foremost by the needs of struggling patients, and we should seek with open minds for ways to help them lead meaningful, dignified lives."

Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D. is a scholar in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University.

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Paul R. McHugh, M.D. is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and for 25 years was the psychiatrist-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"I dedicate my work on this report, first, to the LGBT community, which bears a disproportionate rate of mental health problems compared to the population as a whole. We must find ways to relieve their suffering," writes Dr. Mayer. "And above all, I dedicate it to children struggling with their sexuality and gender."

http://www.charismanews.com/world/59417-johns-hopkins-scientists-offer-absolute-proof-gay-agenda-s-born-this-way-is-a-lie

Gay pride flag launched into space 'to spread peace'

The rainbow flag that symbolises gay pride has been sent into space for the first time via a high-altitude balloon. Planting Peace, a US-based non-profit group that seeks to "spread peace in a hurting world", launched the flag near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 17 August. The balloon captured video with a GoPro camera as it floated 21.1 miles (34.1km) above earth for three hours. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37504749

World Bank Appoints Adviser for LGBT Community

The World Bank has appointed its first adviser tasked with promoting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues in its development work.

The newly created senior position is part of the bank's efforts to solidify its commitment to researching and curbing discrimination against LGBTI persons across the 136 countries where it has offices, it said on Thursday.

The initiative by the poverty-fighting institution comes at a time when discrimination against LGBTI people is facing increased scrutiny globally.

The bank, which makes loans in developing countries and conducts research, named Clifton Cortez to fill the position. With two decades of experience in development, Cortez most recently managed partnerships for the United Nations program on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS.

In recent years, the bank's research has increasingly turned to the economic impact of discrimination on LGBTI persons, the bank said.

This year, the Washington-D.C.-based organization has been collecting data on the socioeconomic status of LGBTI persons worldwide and launched several research projects on LGBTI discrimination.

The World Bank's announcement comes a day after the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) publicized a new rule barring its foreign aid contractors from discriminating against LGBTI persons in the services it funds.

Last month, the United Nations appointed its first independent investigator to help protect the community worldwide from violence and discrimination.

A U.N. report last year said hundreds of LGBTI people have been killed and thousands injured in recent years, in violence that included knife attacks, anal **** and genital mutilation.

OutRight Action International, a New York City-based group that advocates for LGBTI rights globally, said the new World Bank position was encouraging.

http://www.charismanews.com/world/60882-world-bank-appoints-adviser-for-lgbt-community

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/31/taiwan-is-on-the-verge-of-becoming-the-first-asian-country-with-marriage-equality/
10/31/16
Taiwan is on the verge of becoming the first Asian country with marriage equality

More than 4 billion people live in Asia. But not one of them lives in a country where people can get married regardless of their sexual orientation. LGBT rights supporters have long looked to liberal Taiwan to change that, and numerous recent developments signal that the country may step up.

On Saturday, more than 80,000 people took to the streets of Taiwan's capital, Taipei, as part of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride parade, according to numbers provided by organizers. Attendees described the event as charged with an unprecedented atmosphere of hope.

In October, lawmakers from Taiwan's new ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party, introduced a bill that would eliminate gender from the national constitution's definition of marriage, opening it to any two people. Taiwan's new president, Tsai Ing-wen, has vocally supported marriage equality in the past, and recent polls show that almost three-quarters of the Taiwanese people favor marriage equality.

The turning point, however, may have come by way of tragedy. On Oct. 16, a French professor who had lived in Taiwan for decades fell 10 stories to his death in what his friends said was probably a suicide. They said Jacques Picoux, who was 67, had fallen into a deep depression after cancer took the life of his partner of many years. Because of Taiwan's current laws, Picoux was not able to take part in crucial medical decisions during his partner's final moments and afterward could not legally claim the property the two had shared.

Picoux's death seems to have spurred DPP lawmakers to prioritize the new bill on marriage equality. According to political observers, the bill is expected to pass.

“We actually can see that there are about 66 legislators who will probably vote yes on marriage equality,” Pride Watch activist Cindy Su told London's the Guardian. “That’s a majority of 58.4 percent, the first time in Taiwanese history that we have more than half.”

[Here are the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punished by death]

The DPP came to power after decades ruled by the Kuomintang, which had opposed marriage-equality legislation. The DPP platform is driven by a desire for Taiwan to become more autonomous from China, which claims the island as its own. But the party also represents a younger, more liberal Taiwanese voter. Of marriage equality, party leader and now-president Tsai said, “Every person should be able to look for love freely and freely seek their own happiness.”

If Taiwan legalizes same-sex marriage, it will send a strong message across the region. Homosexuality is taboo in many East Asian countries, and it remains illegal in Malaysia, as well as across much of South Asia.

Yu Mei-nu, who drafted the legislation for the DPP, said the bill could become law by early next year. On the day after the publication of Yu's draft, Picoux's and his partner's ashes were scattered into the sea.

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/taiwan-set-to-legalize-same-sex-marriages-a-first-in-asia/
Taiwan set to legalize same-sex marriages, a first in Asia
11/9/16

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Su Shan and her partner are raising 5-month-old twins together, but only one of the women is their legal parent. That could soon change as Taiwan appears set to become the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

“Now, if something happens to the child, the other partner is nothing but a stranger,” said Su, a 35-year-old software engineer in Taipei. By contrast, either partner in a legally recognized marriage could make legal, medical and educational decisions, she says.

Taiwanese lawmakers are currently working on three bills in support of marriage equality, one of which is already listed for review and could be passed within months. Same-sex marriage also has the prominent support of President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female head of state.

About 80 percent of Taiwanese between ages 20 and 29 support same-sex marriage, said Tseng Yen-jung, spokeswoman for the group Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy , citing local university studies. Taiwan’s United Daily News found in a survey taken four years ago that 55 percent of the public supported same-sex marriage, with 37 percent opposed.

That’s seen as a reflection of Taiwan’s ready acceptance of multi-party democracy and other inclusive attitudes, as well as the fact that Taiwan’s 23 million people largely follow Buddhism and traditional Chinese religions that take no strong positions on sexual orientation or gay marriage.

more

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/25/sport/orlando-cruz-openly-gay-boxer-title-fight-orlando-salido-terry-flanagan/index.html
11/25/16
Orlando Cruz: Boxer dreams of becoming first openly gay world champion

(CNN)The bright camera lights highlight his carefully styled beard, rugged features and defined cheekbones. Orlando Cruz looks every inch the archetypal tough, Central American boxer.

Deeply embedded in two worlds -- boxing and Puerto Rico -- that are founded in machismo, Cruz has also become a gay icon to thousands.

On Saturday, Cruz has the chance to create history -- should he beat Britain's Terry Flanagan for the WBO lightweight title, the 35-year-old will become the first ever openly gay world champion.

Boxing, like many other sports, is yet to fully open its arms to the idea of a gay athlete, something Cruz has unsurprisingly experienced first-hand.

"I don't care if they say, 'Orlando Cruz is gay. ****.' I don't care," he defiantly tells CNN. "I look at my family when I walk in the ring. I look at my mum, sister, I look at my brother.

"I don't care, you know, I'm just focused on my family."

more

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/05/15/history-made-american-gods-features-tvs-most-explicit-gay-sex-scene-between-muslims/
5/15/17
History Made: ‘American Gods’ Features TV’s Most Explicit Gay Sex Scene Between Muslims

Sunday night’s episode of Starz’s fantasy drama American Gods featured two Muslim men engaged in what many television critics and observers have called the most explicit gay sex scene in TV history.

The third episode of American Gods, titled “The Secret of Snow,” saw Omani salesman Salim (Omid Abtahi) and The Jinn (Mousa Kraish) engaged in a nearly four-minute sex scene complete with full-frontal male nudity and CGI semen.

But according to showrunner Bryan Fuller, the scene required re-shoots because the first cut didn’t accurately capture the mechanics of gay sex.

“I was like, ‘Okay, unless he has a 12-inch, candy-cane c*ck and can f*ck around corners, his d*ck’s not getting in him,” Fuller said of his reaction to the initial cut, according to Vulture. “So you guys need to go back and figure out where holes are.”

Based on Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed 2001 novel of the same name, American Gods follows an ex-con widower named Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who joins the enigmatic and mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) as they traverse a United States filled with ancient mythological gods at war with the so-called “New Gods.”

On writing the sex scene for his 2001 best-seller, Gaiman says he found the process challenging as a straight man, having never before had gay sex.

“I simply went, Okay, well, I’m about to be writing gay sex without ever having had gay sex, but I’ve read an awful lot of books by an awful lot of people, I think I can do this,” Gaiman told Vulture. The book’s description of the sex scene reads: “It is an hour or more before the ifrit comes, thrusting and grinding into Salim’s mouth. Salim has already come twice in this time. The jinn’s semen tastes strange, fiery, and it burns Salim’s throat.”

Having read those lewd lines, Fuller said “We felt like for Salim, as a man coming from a country that throws you off the top of buildings if you’re gay, a blow job in an alley is probably his only sexual experience,” Fuller said.

“We felt like the djinn, in this romantic gesture, wanted to give him a more intimate sexual experience,” Fuller said of the mythical Islamic supernatural creature in the sex scene. “We wanted it to be incredibly visual and gorgeous. We wanted those things not to be lurid, but to be beautiful and captivating and for heterosexuals to watch the love scene between these two men and not go ‘Ew,’ but go, ‘That’s gorgeous.'”

Both Abtahi and Kraish, straight men who have known each other for a decade, said their friendship helped make the sex scene easier to shoot.

“Omid’s a genuine, real-deal, good-hearted human being, so that made it easier,” Kraish said.

“I think that friendship helped a lot with our comfort zone and the connection aspect of it,” Abtahi added.

The pair discussed boundaries and what wasn’t okay.

“We kind of winged it,” Abthai said. “We kind of loosely talked about it, and as actors, you talk about your comfort zone and ‘This is what I’m comfortable with and within these parameters, I’ll give you 110 percent.’ Then the director would be like, ‘Action,’ and you would have four orgasms, expecting a cut after any one of those, and it just didn’t happen.”

“This felt like an action movie,” Kraish said. “We wanted it to be real and we both wanted it to be about two men who are in love with one another.”

Fuller told Vulture he was pleased with the way the scene ultimately turned out.

“I hope there are Middle Eastern young men masturbating to that scene,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/viral/395357-stockholm-same-sex-traffic-lights/
Stockholm to splash out $12k on ‘same-sex’ traffic lights for Pride festival
Published time: 5 Jul, 2017 12:47

Stockholm will become the latest city to install ‘same-sex’ traffic lights during the city’s Pride celebrations. It joins London, Turin, Utrecht and Madrid in replacing the traditionally lonesome figure with a gay couple.

The traffic light displays will be temporarily installed for the Pride events in the Swedish capital, which runs from July 31 to August 6. There will be 48 sets of the lights installed in the city’s upmarket Östermalm district at a cost of 100,000 Swedish Krona ($11,750).

'Equal crossing': Female traffic lights receive mixed signals in Melbourne https://t.co/x3tTvOuxdrpic.twitter.com/ktsloG9jaK
— RT (@RT_com) March 8, 2017

“We are trying to find new ways of showing this is something that we think is important,” the city's deputy mayor, Daniel Helldén said, as cited by Expressen.

Other cities have taken similar initiatives in the past with Austria leading the charge in 2015.

not where I live but in Vienna they've had gay traffic lights for a few years :) pic.twitter.com/ILIbqYarN7
— sarah (@chrisftlouis) June 12, 2017

Earlier this year, Madrid also replaced the little green man with same sex couples for World Pride, which the city hosted between June 23 and July 2. The Spanish capital spent €21,747 to the lights at 72 crossing in the city.

Even the traffic lights are gay. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 #WorldPride2017#WorldPrideMadridpic.twitter.com/Rw5ozb5ZiJ
— Helen Highwater (@HighwaterDrag) July 1, 2017

#Madrid gets ‘gay friendly’ traffic lights for Pride pic.twitter.com/CnvjIzaqNd
— Nepareizais (@Nepareizais) June 6, 2017

“Through this action, and in partnership with social groups and parties, we are creating a symbolic element that conveys a message of diversity, which is a symbol of our capital,” Mayor Manuela Carmena said. “Traffic lights are intended to take care of citizens, and they had to reflect the city’s diversity.”

http://www.msn.com/en-za/news/world/germany-prepares-for-first-gay-marriage/ar-AAsEMGZ
Germany prepares for first gay marriage
9/30/17

Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende – two civil servants from Berlin – are set to become the first gay couple to marry in Germany on Sunday after parliament voted in June to allow lesbian and gay couples to marry and adopt children.

Same-sex couples in Germany have been able to register civil partnerships since 2001, but it was not until parliament voted for marriage equality earlier this year that full marriage equality was enacted. With that move, various differences between civil partnerships and marriage – principally that same-sex couples were not able to adopt children together - were finally erased.

Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to let parliament hold a free vote on same-sex marriages in June. While she voted against the move, a majority of MPs backed it, making Germany the 14th country in Europe and the 23rd worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry.

According to 2015 figures, some 94,000 same-sex couples live together in the country, with 43,000 in registered civil partnerships.

Kriele, 59, and Bodo, 60, have been at the forefront of campaigning for gay rights in Germany since meeting in 1979 in what was then West Berlin.

"This is an emotional moment with great symbolism," Kriele said. "The transition to the term 'marriage' shows that the German state recognizes us as real equals."

Joerg Steinert, who heads the Berlin branch of Germany's lesbian and gay association (LSVD) said being able to marry will have benefits for same-sex couples, including the right to adopt children. The first such adoption is expected to take place in Berlin on October 4, he said.

Some local authorities in Germany have enthusiastically embraced the prospect of same-sex marriages, even deciding to open their registry offices on a Sunday to conduct and celebrate the first gay and lesbian weddings.

Among them are the northern city of Hamburg and the Berlin district of Schöneberg, which has been the center of gay life in the German capital for more than a century.

Bermuda repeals same-sex marriage



Bermuda has become the first country in the world to repeal same-sex marriage.

The British Overseas Territory legalised same-sex marriage through a Supreme Court ruling in May last year. It ignored the result of a 2016 referendum where voters overwhelmingly rejected its introduction.

However, after a change in Government, the British-appointed governor John Rankin has now signed into law a Bill to restore the traditional definition of marriage.
‘Will of the people’

Rankin said he gave his assent “after careful consideration in line with my responsibilities under the constitution”.

The move was welcomed by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) as “encouraging news for supporters of traditional marriage worldwide”.

C4M Campaign Director Thomas Pascoe said: “This was the will of the people clearly expressed through the ballot box.”
Repealed

The decision to drop same-sex marriage left some politicians at Westminster questioning why the UK Government did not intervene to block the legislation.

Pascoe accused those who did so of showing “contempt for voters”.

Calling for intervention, Helen Goodman, Shadow Foreign Office minister, claimed the repeal was “shameful”, and Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, described it as “an absolute scandal”.
Civil partnership

An official spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said Mrs May was “seriously disappointed” about the move.

However, they said the Bill “has been democratically passed by the Parliament of Bermuda, and our relationship with the overseas territories is based on partnership and respect for their right to democratic self-government.”

Same-sex couples on the island will now be able to have a form of civil partnership.

The first jurisdiction in the world to repeal same-sex marriage was California, whose voters overturned a state Supreme Court decision that backed the redefinition of marriage in 2008. However the referendum decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court, in 2015.

http://www.christian.org.uk/news/bermuda-repeals-sex-marriage/