My Gay Online

One Texas-based judge is making her stance on her state’s refusal to grant same-sex couples the right to wed publicly known by nixing all marriage ceremonies in her courtroom.
Dallas County Judge Tonya Parker, who is openly gay and a Democrat, said her decision was based simply on equality. “I do not perform them because it is not an equal application of the law. Period,” she told the Dallas Voice.
Believed to be the first openly LGBT African-American elected official in the state’s history, Parker clarified her stance at this week’s Stonewall Democrats of Dallas meeting. Rather than turning couples away coldly, she passes marriage ceremonies on to other judges so they can be completed, NBCDFW.com is reporting.
“I use it as my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage inequality in this state,” she explained. “So I usually will offer them something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry. I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality, and until it does, I am not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people.’ And it’s kind of oxymoronic for me to perform ceremonies that can’t be performed for me, so I’m not going to do it.”

Gay marriage is all but legalized in Maryland with the legislature giving its final OK Thursday to the law that is awaiting the expected signature of the governor.
The state Senate voted 25-22 for the law. The vote comes less than a week after the House of Delegates barely passed the measure.
Maryland will become the eighth state to allow gay marriage when Gov. Martin O’Malley – who sponsored the bill – signs the legislation.
Opponents, though, have vowed to bring the measure to referendum in November. They will need to gather at least 55,726 valid signatures of Maryland voters to put it on the ballot and can begin collecting names now that the bill has passed both chambers.
Senators rejected some amendments to the legislation Thursday. Proponents warned that amending the bill could kill it because gathering enough support for altered legislation in the House would be difficult.

California’s gay marriage foes opted for a slower path to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its Feb. 7 ruling that the state’s ban on same-sex unions is unconstitutional.
The move gives opponents a longshot chance to reverse their legal losses before taking their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it also increases the likelihood that the case will stretch into 2013, well past the presidential election.
The court papers filed Tuesday ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case with an 11-judge panel. The court’s earlier ruling came from a three-judge panel that voted 2-1 to strike down voter-approved Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban.
“Generally speaking, we think the 9th Circuit as a whole deserves the chance to basically fix this because the decision is such an outlier, it’s really not representative of what the 9th Circuit’s thinking on this issue has been,” said Andy Pugno, legal counsel for the Protect Marriage Coalition.
The legal maneuvering comes as same-sex marriage continues to hold the spotlight nationwide, with New Jersey’s governor vetoing legislation last week that would have allowed such marriages in that state, while Washington’s governor signed similar legislation just days earlier.
In California, a majority of the 9th Circuit’s 25 full-time judges must vote to rehear the case with an 11-judge panel, a procedure known as “en banc” review.

Whether they will do that was open to question Tuesday.
Supporters of same-sex marriage were ready to continue the fight.
“We are ready to defend our victory whatever path this case takes,” said Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for Prop. 8′s challengers.
“Because our plaintiffs have the right to get married, which both the District Court and the Ninth Circuit vindicated, we oppose en banc review and will seek to bring that fundamental right to reality at the earliest possible time.”
In its ruling earlier this month, the 9th Circuit panel said Proposition 8 stripped away a previously established right for same-sex couples to marry in California without any social or legal justification other than bias against gays and lesbians.
Judge N. Randy Smith, a conservative appointee of former President George W. Bush, dissented, providing likely fodder for judges who may be inclined to rehear the case.
However, many legal experts predict there will not be sufficient votes within the predominantly liberal to moderate court to rehear the case. Plenty of conservative judges sitting on the nation’s largest appeals court, but Proposition 8 backers would need at least six who favor their arguments to land on the randomly selected 11-member panel.
“You really have to do a lot of psychoanalyzing of all the judges on the 9th Circuit to make that kind of call,” said Peter Keane, a law professor at UC Hastings. “There’s a lot of chess-playing here.”
That Proposition 8 backers would try their luck again with the 9th Circuit surprised Keane, but he also said they don’t have much to lose.
If the 9th Circuit rejects their maneuver, Proposition 8 backers are in a position to proceed to the Supreme Court.
But the added delays while the court considers the latest motion mean they would be unlikely to get to the top court before 2013, said Margaret Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara University.
“The only clear drawback is time,” Russell said. “If they don’t see that as a disadvantage, I don’t think it could hurt them.”
Even if the 9th Circuit takes the case but doesn’t reverse the ruling knocking down Proposition 8, Keane said dissenting judges could make persuasive arguments in favor of the gay marriage ban that could become “a little more ammunition” when the case gets to the Supreme Court.
“It could only hurt them if it came back a lopsided ruling against (Proposition 8), but even then, the Supreme Court will look at it with a totally fresh view,” Keane said.
There is no timetable for the 9th Circuit to conduct its vote, which takes place in secret, or to resolve a petition for rehearing.
Petitions for such hearings “are always a crapshoot in the 9th Circuit,” said John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University who supports Proposition 8.
The appeal develops detailed argument that the Circuit Court panel majority ruling misapplied or conflicted with U.S. Supreme Court rulings and the “conclusion of every other appellate court to address a federal constitutional challenge to the traditional definition of marriage.” Same-sex marriages remain on hold in California while Proposition 8 supporters proceed with appeals.

The Maryland House narrowly passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage on Friday, delivering a major victory to Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, who had proposed it. But its implementation remained uncertain as its opponents promised to take it to voters in November.
The bill, known as the Civil Marriage Protection Act, squeaked by in a 72-to-67 vote, drawing loud applause and cheers from proponents in the House. A similar bill failed in the chamber last year.
The measure still faces a vote in the Senate, where it is expected to pass, before Mr. O’Malley can sign it into law. But opponents have pledged to put in on the ballot for a vote on Nov. 6, a prospect that the bill’s supporters acknowledge is practically a foregone conclusion.
The vote, said Anthony O’Donnell, the Republican minority leader, amounted to “beginning a process, not ending a process. The citizens of Maryland will have the final say.”
The debate stretched for hours in the 18th-century, wooden-domed statehouse, and was punctuated by emotional entreaties by supporters of the bill, including several gay and lesbian delegates, who talked about their own lives, and other delegates who invoked Jim Crow laws.
“This is the civil rights issue of our generation,” said Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., a Democrat from Baltimore. “I’m overwhelmed,” Luke Clippinger, one of the seven openly gay members of the Maryland House, said after the vote. “My voice is still breaking.”
When asked what the vote meant to him, he said, “It means I’m here.”
After the vote, lawmakers who voted for the bill — mostly Democrats — gathered outside the chamber cheering and hugging one another. Soon after, Governor O’Malley arrived to congratulate the delegates. He embraced Mr. Clippinger.
The bill’s passage would make Maryland the eighth state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. It comes a day after New Jersey’s legislature passed a similar bill, though it was vetoed on Friday by Gov. Chris Christie. New York State legalized same-sex marriage last year, and this month Washington State did so.
In order to be palatable to delegates who were undecided, the bill was amended so that it would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2013, in order to allow the ballot process to take its course. Though Maryland is heavily Democratic, the party is sharply divided on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Of 98 Democrats in the House, as many as 30 — mostly more-conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs, and African-Americans from districts where churches are strong — had been undecided.
The bill’s passage was made possible by two Republicans, three Blue Dogs, and two African-American delegates, none of whom were initially supportive. In interviews, several of those delegates said that a key change from last year that won their support was language protecting religious institutions from being forced to perform marriages.
“People believe that it’s a sin for a homosexual to be married, but who are they to judge?” said Robert Costa, one of the Republicans who voted for the bill. “It’s up to God, not government.”
John Olszewski, a Democrat who was initially opposed to the legislation, said the religious exemptions made him feel comfortable enough to vote for the bill. Denying basic rights to folks just isn’t the right thing for us to be doing,” he said.
Several delegates said they had been warned by powerful parts of their constituencies that a yes vote would cost them in the next election, scheduled for 2014. Mr. Mitchell said it was a risk he was willing to take.
“I’ve heard all types of threats, that in 2014 at the ballot box, there would be revenge,” he said. “But when that day comes, I know that for the seven openly gay colleagues, if they are able to have the same rights as my wife and I have, then I know that my green vote was the right vote.”
Opponents said they were confident they could gather the signatures needed to place it on the ballot, about 55,000. If the referendum is successful, it would effectively repeal the bill.
A Washington Post poll published on Jan. 30 found that 50 percent of Marylanders supported allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry while 44 percent were opposed.
“This will go to the people, and the people will make the decision,” said Pat McDonough, a Republican who voted against.
Democrats argued that the bill should not go to a referendum because it is an issue of civil liberties that should not be decided by the majority. They said that integration probably would not have happened if left to a popular vote.

It’s a still a free country.
You are still free to preach against the alleged dangers of engaging in a homosexual lifestyle, as Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield did recently.
You are even free to assert — as Campfield did, incorrectly — that the HIV epidemic began when a gay airline employee had sex with a monkey.
Just don’t think you’re going to be able to go to downtown Knoxville, sit down for brunch at one of its better restaurants and enjoy the red flannel hash topped with poached eggs — because the proprietor just might refuse service to the likes of you.
Campfield, a Republican who represents the Knoxville area, has gained notoriety among gay supporters in recent days for sponsoring legislation some call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would ban discussion of homosexuality in elementary and middle schools.
He aired his assertions about the origins of HIV and AIDS during an interview on OutQ, a gay-themed channel on SiriusXM satellite radio, according to Tennessee TV station WBIR.
His hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, reported that on Sunday, Campfield walked into the Bistro at the Bijou restaurant for brunch and was told he wasn’t welcome by owner Martha Boggs.
“He’s gone from being stupid to dangerous,” Boggs told the paper. “It’s just my way of standing up to a bully.”
Boggs said the senator didn’t say much, but “left graciously.”
News Sentinel reporter Matt Lakin noted that a sign in front of the restaurant on Monday read: “Today’s Special: Fried Chicken. Crispy Chicken Livers. No Stacey.”
As of Tuesday morning, more than 900 people have “liked” a “Recall TN State Senator Campfield”page on Facebook, but Lakin notes that state legislators can only be removed by impeachment.
Campfield stood by his assertions in a blog post and mused about his treatment at the restaurant:
“In the 60′s my grandfather sat at the lunch counters with the blacks in Knoxville to help break up the segregation of the races. I guess some people still support segregation. Just segregation of thought. Some people have told me my civil rights were violated under the 1964 civil rights act in that a person can not be denied service based on their religious beliefs. (I am catholic and the catholic church does not support the act of homosexuality) I had not thought about that much.

“I just figured this is just another example of the open minded tolerant left. They claim tolerances for divergent points of view…..Until someone actually has one. Then they don’t know how to handle it.”

New Jersey lawmakers passed legislation Thursday to recognize gay marriage, making the state the eighth to do so and setting the stage for Gov. Chris Christie to veto the measure.

The 42-33 vote in the Democratic-controlled Assembly followed the Senate’s approval Monday and came after emotional speeches from both sides.

One lawmaker, Democrat Cleopatra Tucker, said that as a deaconess in her church, she had “struggled over this. …I really had problems and struggled with this.”

But she said she had decided to support the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act. “This bill today is not a religious issue. It’s a civil rights issue,” she said.

In the visitors gallery overlooking the floor, rival groups either gave standing ovations to speakers or sat in stony silence, depending on their leanings.

Republican Nancy Munoz said she had decided to vote against the measure after comments from her constituents convinced her that they opposed the measure. She said voters should get to make the final decision in a ballot referendum. “I trust the people of New Jersey and I say they should be allowed to voice their opinion,” she said as opponents of the act, dressed uniformly in bright red, burst into whoops and applause.

The reaction drew an angry lecture from the Assembly speaker, who threatened to have security evict the next person who violated his demands to stay quiet.

The bill now goes to Christie, presumably to be vetoed. Lawmakers have until the end of the legislative session in January 2014 to muster enough votes to override a veto. In the meantime, Christie has said he’ll back a referendum that would let voters decide the issue.

Seven states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage, and a gay-marriage bill in Maryland advanced to the House of Delegates floor Tuesday, with a vote expected Friday. Gov. Martin O’Malley supports the law, but it is unclear whether it will get the 71 votes it needs to pass. The bill has support from both parties, but the issue has divided state lawmakers along religious and racial lines, with some Christians and blacks opposing the measure.

A similar measure passed in the state Senate last year, but failed to clear the house. Opponents of the bill have announced plans to hold a referendum in November if it passes.

Patti Stanger says she’s extremely sorry for her homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks last night on TV — telling TMZ, she didn’t mean to stir the pot.

Patti tells us, “I am so sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone with my comments last night.”

Patti appeared on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” — when she said gay men are incapable of monogamy … adding, “There is no curbing gay men … I have tried.”

But gay men weren’t the only target of Patti’s unprompted criticism — she also generalized, “Jewish men lie.”

Bravo is also apologizing for Patti’s outburst — telling us, “Patti’s comments are notrepresentative of the network’s beliefs and opinions. We apologize for the offense it caused.”

A chilling rise in anti-Semitism is erupting around the world, exacerbated by deniers who claim the Holocaustnever happened and fueled by the ease of spreading hate speech on the Internet.
The gloomy assessment came Monday as close to 400 people — including about a dozen Holocaust survivors and another dozen family members of survivors — gathered to consider how to combat anti-Semitism as survivors age and die.
It’s a problem around the world, said Hannah Rosenthal, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.
“We are seeing old-fashioned anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, blood libel, age-old stereotypes continuing, like the Holocaust never happened,” she said. “We’re seeing Holocaust glorification, where people are calling for a new Holocaust to finish the job.”
It’s especially prevalent on the Internet, said Howard Berger, senior adviser for external affairs at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. “You go on the Internet today and put in the word ‘Holocaust’ and come up with not just a few, but with thousands and thousands of websites that push hate against Jews,” he said.
The Internet is “used to promulgate hate to an alarming degree,” Rosenthal said.
Many websites even deny basic Holocaust facts, that Nazi Germanyexterminated an estimated 6 million Jews and thousands of others Nazis considered undesirable, such as gays and gypsies.
South Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors, along with Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, Berger said. But with the youngest — who were children at the time of the Holocaust and World War II — in their 70s, their numbers are declining.
As a result, new ways must be found to educate people, even though Berger said nothing comes close to hearing about the genocide from someone who lived through it. “When you watch a survivor’s testimony on film, it’s not the same as touching a human being and feeling what they went through.”
At the same time, experts and audience members who gathered atLynn University for the panel, sponsored by the Sun Sentinel and the Jewish Journal, said there are some reasons for optimism.
“The positive message is lots of people are interested,” said Andrew Rosenkranz, Florida regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, the organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism.
Rosenkranz said polling done by the ADL shows anti-Semitic beliefs are strongly held in about 15 percent of the U.S. population — a decrease from 25 to 30 percent decades ago. Yet, he said, while the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Florida is steady, they are getting more serious.
Audience members were troubled by the phenomenon. “There is definitely an increase in anti-Semitism,” said Buddy Hurley, a retiree who lives west of Delray Beach.
“I think it’s a real concern,” said audience member Eleanor Lipman, a retired teacher who lives part time west of Boca Ratonand part time in Montreal. “I’m energized by what I heard. Some people are trying to combat this plague.”

Matt Bomer has finally gone public about his sexuality, thanking his partner in an acceptance speech over the weekend.
As Towleroad is reporting, the “White Collar” hunk came out during Saturday’s Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, where he received the New Generation Arts and Activism Award for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Upon accepting the award, he thanked his partner Simon Halls and his three children.
“I’d really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry,” he told the crowd. “Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment.”
Bomer, 34, has previously declined to comment on rumors about his love life. “I don’t care about that at all,” he told Details in 2010. “I’m completely happy and fulfilled in my personal life.”
Halls is known in Hollywood circles as a power publicist.
Of course, Bomer has never lacked for gay appeal. Not only will he soon be seen alongside Mark Ruffalo and Alec Baldwin in the film adaptation of Larry Kramer’s HIV/AIDS drama “The Normal Heart,” the actor is also slated to play the older brother of gay character Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) on the hit TV series “Glee.” He’s also starred in the Broadway reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play “8″ about California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

Gov. Chris Gregoire handed gay rights advocates a major victory, singing into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage in Washington state, making it the seventh in the nation to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
Gregoire signed the bill in the state reception room in the Capitol, surrounded by gay rights supporters. It’s a historic moment, but same-sex couples can’t walk down the aisle just yet.
The law takes effect June 7, but opponents are already mounting challenges on multiple fronts.
Opponents planned to file a challenge Monday that could put the law on hold pending the outcome of a November vote. Separately, an initiative was filed at the beginning of the session that opponents of gay marriage say could lead to the new law being overturned.
The Democratic governor signed the bill as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who opposes gay marriage, was in town speaking with conservative voters.
Santorum planned to meet with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol later Monday.
Gregoire’s signature comes nearly a week after a federal appeals court declared California’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, saying it was a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appealsgave gay marriage opponents time to appeal the 2-1 decision against Proposition 8 before ordering the state to allow same-sex weddings to resume. The judges also said the decision only applies to California, even though the court has jurisdiction in nine Western states.
Washington state has had domestic partnership laws since 2007, and in 2009 passed an “everything but marriage” expansion of that law, which was ultimately upheld by voters after a referendum challenge.
Opponents said they would file a ballot challenge after Gregoire signed the measure that would require voters in November to either uphold or overturn the law. If the referendum gets enough signatures the law is put on hold pending the outcome of a November vote.
Separately, an anti-gay marriage initiative was filed at the beginning of the session, but the language is still being worked out so no signatures have been collected yet. An initiative alone would not pause the law.
Gay marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.
Same-sex marriage also has the backing of several prominent Pacific Northwestbusinesses, including Microsoft Corp., Nike Inc. and Starbucks Corp.
Legislative committees in Maryland heard testimony on gay marriage last week. Lawmakers in New Jersey are expected to vote on gay marriage soon, with a vote in the state Senate on Monday and a vote in the Assembly on Thursday.
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who is pushing for a public vote on the issue, says he’ll veto the bill if it comes to his desk. Maine could see a gay marriage proposal on the November ballot.
Proposed amendments to ban gay marriage will be on the ballots in North Carolina in May and in Minnesota in November.