12.07.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 9:22 pm by pikapp44
New York State senate Democrats may have secured control of their chamber by bargaining away marriage equality.
Democrats won a two-seat majority in the chamber after decades of Republican rule, three conservative members of the caucus had threatened to defect to the GOP unless they received more power. But a handshake deal in New York City apparently gave the holdouts what they wanted, The New York Times reports.
For one, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, the concessions may have included postponing a vote on marriage equality until 2010 at the earliest, according to the paper.
New York assembly member Daniel J. O’Donnell, who is gay and carried a same-sex marriage bill that passed his chamber in 2007, told the Times that he expects momentum to continue for marriage equality regardless of what transpired.
“All civil rights movements have moments where they move forward, and moments of perceived setbacks,” O’Donnell, who represents Manhattan, told the paper. “If in fact our civil rights were bargained away, that’s deplorable. But in the end, I think justice and fairness will prevail.”
Still, Freedom to Marry’s executive director Evan Wolfson says its important to remain positive.
“Don’t buy into the idea that marriage is being put on the backburner,” he told Advocate.com “Politicians always float trial balloons. There are those who want us to surrender and walk away, and expect less. We’ve only just begun to fight, and we can’t give up before we’ve started.”
Alan Van Capelle, head of Empire State Pride Agenda, said he and his team were awaiting more details about the deal. “We would expect that any rumors that marriage equality was somehow a part of this deal are just that — rumors,” Van Capelle said in a statement. But, he cautioned, “civil rights should never be a bargaining chip in any political leadership battle, and we would be outraged if the issue of marriage equality was even part of the discussions.”
A same-sex marriage bill has yet to pass New York’s senate.
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12.04.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:14 pm by pikapp44
When Gov. Charlie Crist legally weds his longtime girlfriend Carole Rome on Dec. 12, St. Petersburg’s First United Methodist Church will be packed with cheering family members, friends and the most inside of Florida insiders.
Outside the church, in nearby Williams Park, hundreds of supporters of equal marriage rights—the outsiders of the Nov. 4 vote in Florida—will also cheer the governor and his bride. But it will be a double-edged celebration.
“We want to say ‘congratulations governor—when can I get married?’” said Lorna Bracewell, spokeswoman for Impact Florida, a grass roots activist group organizing the protest.
Impact Florida is a chapter of Join the Impact, a national movement formed by GLBT activists when state amendments banning same sex marriage passed in California, Arizona, and Florida in the Nov. 4 election.
Bracewell, a singer songwriter from Indian Rocks, Fla., lives with her partner of three years, whom she said she would love to marry.
“We’re very much in favor of marriage,” Bracewell said. “We’d just like that opportunity available to all Floridians regardless of gender or sexual orientation.”
The Rome/Crist wedding, she said, presents a “perfect opportunity” for same sex marriage supporters to point out the injustice and hypocrisy of Florida’s marriage laws.
“His decision to support Amendment 2 and his failure to speak out against it does represent his dropping the ball,” she said. “As the governor he’s supposed to be there insuring that the rights of all Floridians are protected.”
Crist announced his support of the anti-gay marriage measure in August, after originally saying he had a neutral, “live and let live” attitude about the issue. He had also ordered the State Republican Party to stop funding Florida4marriage.com, chief proponents of the measure. His conflicting statements, combined with looming rumors about his sexual orientation, have made him an ironic central figure in the gay marriage debate.
Those gay rumors boiled over when Crist announced his plan to marry Rome, while the bachelor governor was on Sen. John McCain’s short listed of for Vice President. The timing of the marriage plans appeared to some critics as if it could be a staged wedding, to solidify his “family values” image.
McCain went on to nominate Sarah Palin, and now the election is over—but the wedding is still on, and guests have received pink-and-cream invitations to the Dec. 12 nuptials, as well as to a lavish reception at St. Petersburg’s Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Rome has gushed about feeling blessed because of her love for Crist.
Bracewell says the demonstrators will form a candle light vigil near the resort, near the entrance to the reception at the Vinoy Resort. Impact Florida is asking demonstrators to wear pink shirts in honor of the wedding’s theme. They want it to be “a festive occasion,” Bracewell said.
Impact’s first demonstration was the national day of protest Nov. 15, where nearly 1 million people across the country demonstrated for equal marriage rights. Impact is organizing the Dec. 12 rally through its online social network, www.impactflorida.ning.com. More than 400 people attended the Nov. 15 protest in St. Petersburg; Bracewell said she hopes to double that for the wedding demonstration.
“Our ultimate goal is to see Amendment 2 repealed,” Bracewell said. “We know one demonstration is not going to accomplish the goal. But our goal is to be visible to let them see whose lives are being affected by amendment 2.
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12.03.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:09 pm by pikapp44
The Vatican has come out against a United Nations resolution that calls on all governments to decriminalize homosexuality. The resolution, Archbishop Celestino Migliore said, would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to the decline of heterosexual marriage, Reuters reported Tuesday.
“If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations,” Migliore said. “For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure.”
France will propose the resolution this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union. The Vatican is not a member, but it uses the Euro.
“No other religion in the world is granted this type of status on the world stage,” Catholics for Choice president Jon O’Brien told Advocate.com on Tuesday.
The Vatican has a nonvoting seat at the U.N., but the Holy See’s opinions can be influential.
“Other major religions are granted a voice in the United Nations,” O’Brien said, “but they’re often treated as nongovernment organizations.”
While more nations, especially those in Latin America, are moving toward separating church and state, the Vatican’s stance may prompt other leaders from other religions to pressure political officials. Still, Catholicism is the only major religion with a mouthpiece at the U.N.
“You won’t find an imam sitting at the U.N. pretending that they’re a part of a state,” O’Brien added. “You don’t find that kind of manifestation in other world religions. We certainly have seen folks like the Mormons and those of extreme Muslim beliefs and überconservatives backed by the Vatican trying to form a lobby together.”
Italian newspaper La Stampa said the city-state’s stance was “grotesque,” figuring that the Vatican feared a chain reaction in legally instituting marriage equality, especially in Italy, where there is no law banning same-sex marriage.
“The French resolution … has nothing to do with gay marriage. It is about stopping jail and the death penalty for homosexuals,” Franco Grillini, president of Italy’s leading gay rights activist organization Arcigay, told Reuters.
Homosexuality is still punishable in at least 85 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, and Ghana. Some countries kill those who are found guilty of such an offense.
All the European Union member nations have backed France’s proposed resolution. Just this past weekend, the Catholic Church in England and Wales urged priests and churchgoers to be tolerant and welcoming to LGBT people in a new pamphlet being distributed across the country.
“The laudable change of tone is undermined by the homophobic content of the Catholic catechism and by the pope’s frequent endorsement of legal discrimination against lesbian and gay people,” U.K. gay rights advocate Peter Tatchell said in a statement on Monday. “The Vatican’s policy of denouncing loving, stable same-sex relationships risks undoing the good, kind intentions of this leaflet.”
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12.02.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:44 pm by pikapp44
Cyndi Lauper was supposed to conclude her world tour over the weekend with a concert in Caracas, Venezuela — but according to PerezHilton.com and a blog posting on one of her fan sites, the concert was canceled because of her support of gay rights.
According to the posting, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez canceled the concert because he “had fear of political protests.” He also allegedly opposed Lauper’s endorsement of President-elect Barack Obama and her outspoken support of gay rights.
Lauper is expected to comment on the canceled concert in a blog posting on her official website, www.CyndiLauper.com.
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12.01.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 7:22 pm by pikapp44
Monday, December 1, marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, AIDS educators and health professionals the world over are looking forward to a new direction and renewed dedication in fighting the world epidemic
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11.25.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 5:15 pm by pikapp44
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman Tuesday declared Florida’s 50-year-old ban on gay adoptions unconstitutional — a ruling state lawyers immediately said they would challenge.
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11.24.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 6:23 pm by pikapp44
In 2009, Sundance will celebrate 25 years of bringing together international cinema and a variety of cultures in Park City, Utah. But with California’s gay community reeling from the passage of Prop. 8, activists and filmmakers are suggesting a boycott of the festival and theater chain Cinemark, whose CEO donated a substantial sum to the marriage ban’s campaign.
Arguably the most important film festival in the United States and one of the most celebrated in the world, Sundance turns 25 when it opens on January 15, 2009. For fans of LGBT cinema, the festival that introduced queer classics including The Times of Harvey Milk and Longtime Companion and helped them become box office successes has always been a must-attend. But this time around, Sundance finds itself at the center of the backlash created by the passage of California’s Proposition 8.
Besides being the home of Sundance, Utah is the central hub of the Mormon Church, which organized its followers to support the amendment banning same-sex marriage in the Golden State and encouraged them to give generously to the cause. With many gays and lesbians enraged by Prop. 8’s passage, boycotts of all shapes and sizes have popped up, encouraging LGBT consumers to financially punish Prop. 8 supporters and their businesses.
Boycott Cinemark, a movie theater chain.
The boycott is also an issue for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which has a major presence at Sundance with its Queer Lounge, a networking venue and meeting place that’s become a major festival destination.
Neil Giuliano, GLAAD’s president, said his organization has no plans to pull out of the festival.
“We think that Queer Lounge and GLAAD have to be more visible than ever,” Giuliano said. “We have to ensure the LGBT community has a voice at Sundance. These film festivals are a critical way to achieve the goals of fair and accurate inclusion in the media, especially in the entertainment media.”
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11.13.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:50 pm by pikapp44
This Saturday, thousands of LGBT community and its allies across the country, spontaneously organizing themselves in a truly grassroots movement, will convene to raise the call for equality.
This Saturday Nov. 15, cities in every state.
http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/
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11.11.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:08 pm by pikapp44
In the wake of Proposition 8, pro-gay Equality Utah is taking the comments of Mormon Church elders as a signal to move forward with legislation that will expand the rights of gays and lesbians in the state, reports The New York Times.
Defending their members’ estimated $20-million contribution to the passage of California’s gay marriage ban, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said they are not antigay and wouldn’t deny certain legal protections to gays and lesbians.
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11.10.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:41 pm by pikapp44
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the fight for gay marriage was not over in California and suggested the state supreme xourt may in fact overturn Proposition 8.
“It’s unfortunate, obviously, but it’s not the end,” Schwarzenegger said of the measure’s passage.
“I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area.”
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