LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 (UPI)

An effort is taking place to coordinate California churches’ opposition to same-sex marriage, organizers say.

Campaign organizers are aiming to get 1 million Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, evangelical Christians, Sikhs and Hindus to post lawn signs supporting a state ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Proposition 8 is aimed at countering a state Supreme Court decision this year that struck down a ban on gay marriage.

“This is a rising up over a 5,000-year-old institution that is being hammered right now,” said Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church, an evangelical congregation in La Mesa, Calif.

Susan Russell, a priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., said not all faith leaders should not foist their views on all Californians.

“But I’ll resist to my last breath, vote, e-mail and blog their right to inflict their religious beliefs on the Constitution of the state of California.”

Political analysts say the interdenominational effort could change the way political coalitions are built in the Golden State.

“Pan-religious, faith-based political action strategies … I think we are going to see a lot more of (this) in the future,” said Gaston Espinosa, a professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI)

With the ceremony behind them, U.S. same-sex newlyweds Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi say they’re considering having children.

“We go back and forth” on having children, de Rossi, 35, told Poeple Magazine. “I don’t know if it’s our immediate future. It’s something we talk about every few months.”

U.S. television talk show host DeGeneres, 50, and former “Ally McBeal” actress de Rossi tied the knot in a secret, low-key Los Angeles ceremony last weekend in what some observers say is the highest-profile same-sex marriage so far in the United States. But now the couple are looking to the future, the magazine reported.

“(Having children is) something we would never take lightly and just say, ‘That would be fun,’” DeGeneres said. “It’s a lot of work and we recognize that. In a way, we want to be selfish because we love our life, but we know how much that adds to it.”

Ellen told People, “If they would be as pretty as Brad and Angelina’s kids, we might.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

DENVER, Aug. 21 (UPI)

Denver’s political convergence is under way with a conference of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender delegates before the Democratic National Convention.

The Stonewall Democrats, nearly 360 in total, have set up a four-day series of sessions to plan ways to promote an anti-bias agenda within the larger convention and in fall elections, The Denver Post reported Thursday.

“I think a lot of delegates, especially LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) delegates, are looking at how they can use the convention effectively,” said John Marble, spokesman for the Stonewall Democrats. “If we do this right, we can really use this as an organizing convention.”

The group expects to particularly work to defeat anti-gay-rights legislation in three states, Florida, California and Arizona, along with pushing to ensure “strong language” opposing LGBT discrimination be included in the Democratic Party national platform.

Jimmy LaSalvia, a spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, told UPI about 100 Log Cabin members and openly gay delegates, alternates and convention guests are expected to attend the Republican convention, but since Republicans do not track demographic groups in their delegate counting, there is no way to know for sure how many delegates are gay.

“We view the Republican National Convention as an opportunity to engage in conversations with our fellow Republican leaders,” LaSalvia said. “It’s by making our case and winning folks over to our side, our community will achieve full equality.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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LONDON, Aug. 21 (UPI) — Leo Abse, a longtime member of the British Parliament known for advocating gay rights and divorce reform, has died.

A friend reported that Abse, who was 91, died at Charing Cross Hospital in London late Tuesday, The Times of London reported.

Abse, first elected in 1958, represented Pontypool in Wales for almost 30 years.

As a legislator, Abse sponsored more Private Members Bills than any one else. The most notable was the Sexual Offenses Bill, which in 1967 decriminalized homosexual conduct between men over the age of 21.

Two years later, Abse succeeded in getting the Divorce Reform Act passed.

“He was a very distinguished parliamentarian and social reformer who has left an indelible mark on his country,” said Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary.

The Times said that after he left Parliament, Abse wrote a number of books, including a “psycho-biography” of Margaret Thatcher and one that looked at “an analysis of the repressed homosexual components of the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.”

Abse’s first marriage lasted more than 40 years, ending with his wife’s death. In 2000, he married Ania Zepulkowska, a Polish electrician almost half a century his junior, The Times said.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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LONDON, Aug. 19 (UPI)

A British author has written a book that posits the opposite of the so-called metrosexual man is a “retrosexual.”

Dave Besley’s new book, “The Retrosexual Manual: How To Be a Real Man,” urges readers to reject such metrosexual concepts as carrying purse-like bags, being flattered by attention from gay men and referring to men’s toiletries as “products,” The Sun reported Tuesday.

Besley wrote the retrosexual man instead engages in behaviors including rejecting foreplay in favor of having the woman send a text when she’s ready for intercourse and avoiding public crying at all costs.

The book says retrosexuals are not allowed to know the definitions of words such as manicure, pedicure, facial and exfoliation. They also must only give women compliments in such a way that denotes a lack of understanding — for example, Besley suggests men tell their women, “That’s a nice badge, brooch-type thing you’re wearing.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18 (UPI)

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that doctors cannot refuse to provide fertility treatments to lesbians.

The unanimous ruling said that under state anti-discrimination laws, doctors may not single out homosexuals, even for religious reasons.

The decision came in a San Diego County case in which two clinic physicians refused to provide fertility treatments to a lesbian on religious grounds and did not have the option of referring the plaintiff to another doctor.

The Los Angeles Times said the court ruled that if a doctor does not want gay women to have children then the doctor must not perform fertility procedures for anyone.

The San Francisco Chronicle said the decision, which came three months after the court ruled in favor of same-sex marriages, strengthened rules on discrimination against homosexuals for all businesses.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LONDON, Aug. 18 (UPI)

British intelligence agency MI5 is taking steps to improve conditions for homosexual employees and hire more gays and lesbians.

The agency has secured ad space in a gay-oriented graduate recruitment guide run by homosexual lobby group Stonewall and has set up a “network” to help gay MI5 staff, The Sun reported Monday.

Ben Summerskill, director of Stonewall, said he theorized the agency was looking to hire more gays because “people from all minority communities do have experience of getting on with people who are different, and of fitting in.”

“They are also good at doing these things in a way that is not conspicuous,” he said.

A source within the agency said it is seeking to “reflect the broad range of U.K. society it serves.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17 (UPI) — Popular TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has married her girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi, at their Los Angeles home, the couple’s representative says.

The unidentified representative told People magazine exclusively Saturday that the celebrity couple were married during an intimate ceremony attended by a scant 19 guests.

“Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles,” the representative said.

The couple, who have been dating since December 2004, exchanged handwritten vows during the ceremony.

DeGeneres announced in May during a taping of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that she and the former “Arrested Development” star decided to marry once California legalized gay marriage.

People said the 50-year-old talk show host said in 2007 that her relationship with the 35-year-old actress has been beneficial to them both.

“She’s taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I’ve taught her,” DeGeneres said. “We’ve both changed and grown, and we just feel like, ‘Oh, OK, this is completion.’”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) — U.S. President George Bush’s former campaign strategist, Karl Rove, says same-sex marriage won’t be as powerful an issue in this year’s presidential election.

Rove is credited by supporters and blamed by opponents for leveraging the emotional gay marriage issue to spur Republican voter turnout in Bush’s win four years ago. But with the economy in trouble, he says same-sex unions won’t generate the same kind of voter response for likely GOP nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

“It has a lower profile, but it will be an issue in people’s minds,” Rove told the newspaper. “The bigger issues will be the economy, terrorism, healthcare, energy.”

Rove said the same-sex marriage issue in the 2008 election will be part of “complicated algorithms” voters will use to choose between McCain and his probable Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Three states — Florida, California and Arizona — have initiatives banning same-sex marriage on the November ballot. But unlike 2004, analysts say the issue won’t have much of an impact on the presidential races in those states.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MUMBAI, Aug. 16 (UPI) — Gay activists in India say they want Britain to apologize for introducing anti-sodomy laws that still makes homosexuality illegal there.

Organizers were to call for an apology during their first gay pride march Saturday in Mumbai. It is part of a campaign to abolish Section 377 of the Indian penal code outlawing “unnatural sexual offenses,” The Independent reported Saturday.

The Indian law, adopted when Britain ruled the country, calls for up to 10 years in prison for engaging in oral or anal sex, the newspaper reported. India has kept the law since gaining its independence in 1947.

A draft copy of the apology statement says: “We call on the British government to apologize for the immense suffering that has resulted from their imposition of Section 377. And we call on the Indian government to abandon this abhorrent alien legacy of the Raj that should have left our shores when the British did.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15 (UPI) — Television personality Ellen DeGeneres reportedly is planning to marry her longtime girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi, this weekend in California.

Usmagazine.com said it has learned exclusively that the celebrity couple, who have been together since 2004, will exchange vows at a small, intimate ceremony in front of a few close friends and family members.

DeGeneres announced the engagement at a taping of her “Ellen DeGeneres Show” in May, shortly after the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry.

“It’s something that we’ve wanted to do and we want it to be legal and we are very, very excited,” DeGeneres said at the time.

De Rossi is best known for her work on the TV shows “Ally McBeal,” “Arrested Development” and “Nip/Tuck.”

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

BERLIN, Aug. 12 (UPI) — A onetime East German track star says steroids led her down the path to a sex-change operation that turned her from a woman into a man.

Andreas Krieger was a women’s shot put champion in the 1980s when he was Heidi Krieger but she tells CNN that her hormones were so altered by performance-enhancing drugs that she began to morph into a man.

“I felt much more attracted to women and just felt like a man,” Krieger said this week. “But I knew I was not lesbian.”

Krieger won the European women’s championship in 1986 and underwent her sex-change surgery in 1997.

Krieger said she was fed a steady regimen of steroids that her coaches told her vitamins. CNN said it is estimated that East Germany had as many as 10,000 athletes on steroids during its sporting heyday.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.