Conversation with a straight Presbyterian ally

In Isolated Utah City, New Clubs for Gay Students
Last January, nine High Schools in Utah had active Gay-Straight Alliances; last month, 32 did. ST. GEORGE, Utah — Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local High Schools here this fall, dozens of gay Students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city. It was a turning...

Quote Of The Day - Barb Anderson
"That is one of the tactics that they are using now, to say that by not legitimizing and normalizing Homosexuality, we are creating an atmosphere in the schools that is hostile to quote-end-quote gay kids. What they are doing is just the opposite themselves. They are creating an environment where these Children that are sexually confused suddenly become affirmed as a Homosexual or that they are born that way, and then these kids are locked into a lifestyle with their choices limited, and many ...

Barcelona Gay And Lesbian Monument Plans Outlined
Taking a page from Amsterdam's famed Homomonument, the city of Barcelona will erect a monument in honor of the city's gays, Lesbians and transgendered people who have "suffered persecution and repression throughout history," the AFP is reporting. Scheduled to be unveiled in February, the new monument will be pink and triangular in shape, much like its Dutch counterpart. Though the monument's location has yet to be announced, a spokesman for Barcelona's City Hall confirmed the square directly ...

Hopes for gay-rights gains shift to courts
WASHINGTON — Gay-rights Activists, acknowledging they will lose momentum for their agenda in Congress when Republicans assume control of the House this week, are pinning their hopes for further gains in 2011 on a series of incremental measures and a host of Federal Court cases. Last month’s historic Repeal of the ban on gays and Lesbians serving openly in the Military signaled an expanding political acceptance of fuller integration of gays into American life. Yet activists and obser...

UGANDA: Court Bans Media From Outings
A Ugandan court has ruled that local media may not name "suspected Homosexuals" and has awarded damages to those named by Rolling Stone, a newspaper unrelated to the U.S.-based music title. The request for the ban was filed by three people from Gay Rights group, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), whose pictures and towns of residence were published in a previous issue of Rolling Stone. High Court judge, Vincent Musoke-Kibuuke also ruled that the petitioners' lives were threatened since the story...

Something Special
In a recent response to my earlier post defending same-sex marriage, Robert George and his coauthors (hereinafter “George) argue that my attacks on their views have only strengthened them, by showing the unacceptable implications of a different view. It’s hard to resolve our disagreement, since each of us sees value in the world where the other sees none. It may be helpful to sort out the different claims that George is making. They tend to run together in his exposition, but they ar...

DADT Repeal Could Foreshadow GOP Generational Split
President Obama created a stir last week when he reiterated that while he doesn't support Gay Marriage, he still struggles with the issue. He said his views are "constantly evolving." In the Republican Party, the fracture over issues concerning Homosexual individuals revealed itself more clearly in the vote for Repeal of the 17-year-old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the Military. Of the eight Republican senators who voted for repeal, five are among t...

WaPo Ineptly Calls D.C. Gay Bars 'Stations of the Social Cross'
The Washington Post celebrated the first Gay Bar in populous Fairfax County with a splashy front-page article headlined "Rainbow flag aloft, Nightclub is Fairfax County's first gay bar." Next to the headline was a color picture of the Drag Queen "La Countess Farrington." Reporter J. Freedom du Lac may want to celebrate, but it's a poor choice of metaphors to compare the hot Homosexual night spots to the Crucifixion of Jesus. The inept religious metaphor came in compar...

Michigan Should Legalize Gay Marriage
On December 22, Obama signed into law a bill that Repeals Don't Ask, Don't Tell. This was a major victory for LGBT rights. However, the holy grail of LGBT rights is the legalization of Gay Marriage. Unlike Don't Ask, Don't Tell, gay marriage is making process at the state level, and is currently legal in only a few states. Most of them are in the northeast. In addition, it is legal in Iowa. Michigan should be among those states where same sex couples can wed. Opponents of gay marriage try to cla...

Didnt Take Long
I’ve always believed that those actively agitating to Repeal the Military’s Congress’ Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell law were less personally invested in the right of gay servicemembers to serve - they were serving already - than they were to a broader national agenda using military law (i.e., federal law) to accomplish what would not otherwise be achievable in the legislatures of the several states. Repeal of DADT was step one. Despite all of the Controversy, rep...

Much Fuss About Showers
You know, I turned on the radio yesterday as I was driving and was greated by some religious nut talking about how now that DADT had been repealed there was nothing to stop those predatory Homosexuals from assaulting our fine men in uniform in the showers.  Nothing about Lesbian assaults in the shower, tellingly…  It’s not just me either.  My better half turned on the radio and came home laughing about the stupidity of these buffoons.  My mom called me last night ...

RNC Candidates: Marriage Is Foundational In Our Lives, But Gay People Should Be Excluded
RNC Candidates: Marriage Is ‘Foundational In Our Lives,’ But Gay People Should Be Excluded During today’s RNC debate, all four candidates vying to replace current RNC Chairman Michael Steele reiterated their opposition to expanding marriage rights to gay and Lesbian people, insisting that marriage can only be defined as a union between one man and one woman. The frontrunners for the position — Steele and Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus — also walke...

RNC Candidates: Marriage Is Foundational In Our Lives, But Gay People Should Be Excluded
During today’s RNC debate, all four Candidates vying to replace current RNC Chairman Michael Steele reiterated their opposition to expanding marriage rights to gay and Lesbian people, insisting that marriage can only be defined as a union between one man and one woman. The frontrunners for the position — Steele and Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus — also walked a tight rope of sorts, arguing that while marriage formed the foundation of American society, culture ...

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Battle Begins Over Attempt To Repeal Same-Sex Marriage
A coalition of outside groups including NOM, the Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family are preparing to launch their campaign to Repeal same-sex marriage in the New Hampshire legislature. With the GOP taking new majorities in both chambers, a Repeal is expected to pass easily. But getting to the super-majority needed to override the Governor's expected Veto may not come so easily. The magic numbers are 266 and 16 — two-thirds of the House and Senate, respectively — the number of...

Wash. Times Responds To DADT Repeal With Unhinged Anti-Gay Rhetoric
Wash. Times Responds To DADT Repeal With Anti-Gay Rhetoric Kuhner: DADT Repeal "An Act Of National Suicide." In a December 30 op-ed, Jeffrey Kuhner called the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell "an act of national suicide " : Mr. Obama - again with GOP help - succeeded in getting "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) repealed, enabling Homosexuals to serve openly in the Military. This is one of the most revolutionary and damaging acts ever done to a core American institution. It will decimate the great...

Ugandans win damages over anti-gay article
A Ugandan man reads the headline of the Rolling Stone newspaper, which calls for gay people to be hanged. Photograph: Stringer/AP A group of Ugandans identified as Homosexual in a newspaper article headlined "Hang Them" have won damages and a court injunction ordering the paper not to repeat the exercise, Human Rights groups said today. A High Court judge ruled that the story in the Rolling Stone newspaper, which printed addresses and photographs of some of the 100 people it named as "Uganda...

FRC Explains Decision to Skip CPAC
We left CPAC a couple of years ago (before GOProud was a twinkle in anyone’s eye) in part because we saw they were moving away from conservative principles and also because of a growing concern over the management of CPAC. We know many friends as well as former CPAC employees over the years and know how the place operates. I didn’t hear anyone here at FRC voicing surprise when a leading ACU official was caught embezzling a few weeks ago. GOProud only cemented our decision that we sho...

Dad and others keep up fight for anti-bullying bill
The bill has been named Matt's Law, for 14-year-old Matt Epling, who took his life in 2002 after being bullied by High School Students. Matt is one of 11 Young People in Michigan who have killed themselves over Bullying since 2001, including two during the last two months, according to Matt's father, Kevin Epling, who is co-director of BullyPolice USA, an anti-bullying Advocacy Group. "We're going to reintroduce Matt's Law," Epling said. "It will be re...

Inability to attract younger generation imperils gay church in Orlando
The pews were nearly full for the early Sunday service at Joy Metropolitan Community Church, but just about everybody in the sanctuary was male and most were middle-aged. Started in 1979, the predominantly gay Orlando church is imperiled by its inability to attract a younger generation of gay and Lesbian worshippers. Only about 20 of the 250 people who regularly attend the church are in their 20s and 30s, said the Rev. Lisa Heilig, interim pastor. "The truth of the matter is the church is eithe...

Danna Harman: No Way Out In Malta
Valletta, Malta In Malta, just like everywhere else in the world, not all marriages work out as planned. Sometimes the couple grows apart. Sometimes it turns out they were never suited to begin with. Sometimes one of the two falls in love with someone else. Just like other couples elsewhere in the world, some try to work it out for the kids, some try to work it out for their parents, and some try to work it out for themselves. And yet, at the end, a certain - and growing -- number eventually...

Uganda stops paper outing gays
A Ugandan High Court judge has ruled that media companies in the country should not publish the identities of people they say are Homosexuals. The decision was described as a "landmark ruling" by Gay Rights Activists. The case was brought against The Rolling Stone newspaper which last year published several lists of people its editor said were gay....

Gay-Straight Alliances
At New York Times, "In Utah City, New Clubs for Gay Students": ST. GEORGE, Utah — Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local high schools here this fall, dozens of gay students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city. It was a turning point here and for the state, w...

Delay sought on gay appeal
The Obama Administration asks the Ninth Circuit to put on hold its review of the constitutionality of the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy on Gays in the Military. New law cited. The Obama Administration has asked the Ninth Circuit Court to put on hold, for 90 days or more, its review of the constitutionality of the 1993 federal law that bars gays and Lesbians from serving openly in the Military.  In a motion filed Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers said the Pentagon...

Ex-Fla. Catholic priest writes of romance in book
Miami — A former Catholic priest from Miami who left the church after photos surfaced of him kissing his then-girlfriend is criticizing church leaders in a new book and calling their stance on priests’ romantic relationships hypocritical. Alberto Cutie — dubbed "Father Oprah" by the English-language media for his relationship advice — left the Roman Catholic Church in 2009 to become an Episcopal priest. Paparazzi photos of Cutie kissing Ruhama Buni Canellis, whom he late...

Quote Of The Day II - Father Cutie
"There are so many Homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them from ministry." - Father Alberto Cutie (his real name), in his new book which slams the Catholic Church as misogynistic and hypocritical. Cutie left the priesthood in 2009 after a Miami Tabloid photographed him Making Out with the woman who eventually became his wife. Prior to being outed as a heterose...