LONDON, May 21 (UPI)

Allowing openly gay soldiers to serve in the British military has not sparked any significant incidences or animosity, military experts said. According to experts and Ministry of Defense officials, the British military’s 2000 decision to allow homosexuals to serve hasn’t provoked the massive discord that many predicted would occur, The New York Times said Monday. Several unidentified Ministry of Defense officials told the newspaper the ability of homosexual soldiers to integrate into their military units offers hope for further acceptance. One expert said that a soldier’s homosexuality is likely seen as a weakness initially due to the rough nature of the military but never to a derogatory extreme. The military is a proving ground and the first thing people do is find your weakness and exploit it, researcher Nathanial Frank of California’s Michael D. Palm Center told the Times. If you’re gay, that’s your weakness and guys will latch on to that. But frequently this is no more significant a weakness than any other based on your accent, body type, race, religion, etc.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Trial Begins in Episcopal Church Dispute
Brownback, Huckabee Court Gay Marriage Foes

Orlando, FL (AP)

Longshot Republican presidential candidates Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee were well received by a socially conservative group who applauded their anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and pro-faith messages Saturday night.

Neither candidate mentioned topics like the Iraq war, taxes and health care during speeches in front of a Florida Family Policy Council dinner, instead sticking with a strong message on values. They received rave reviews from attendees, including Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who also serves as the Republican National Committee general chairman.

“I am completely blown away by the two men we heard tonight,” Martinez told the crowd of about 650 at the event.

The crowd, some of whom are looking for an alternative to major candidates like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, also seemed impressed.

“The top tier, in my estimation, does not fit the definition of what a true conservative has historically been in this country,” said Roy Tanner, 50, of Orlando. “If it is meant to be, these guys will break out of the pack. I’d be happy if either got elected.”

Both candidates urged the group to keep working on their efforts to put a gay marriage ban in the state’s constitution. The Florida Family Policy Council is leading a petition drive to place a proposed amendment on the 2008 ballot.

“You need to redefine the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman. It’s critical,” Brownback, a Kansas senator, said to loud applause. “We’ve got to be the rebuild the family. I’m going to be the president that’s the family president that helps rebuild this fundamental institution.”

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and former Baptist pastor, touted his voluntary covenant-marriage law he pushed for that makes divorce harder to obtain.

“I realized that the laws in my state were such that it would be easier to get out of a marriage than it was to get out of a contract for having purchased a used car,” Huckabee said. “We realized we need to make some changes.”

Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI)

A Fairfax County circuit court must decide whether 11 Episcopal churches were free to leave the Diocese of Virginia and join the Anglican Province of Nigeria. In a trial beginning Monday, the Episcopal Church and its Virginia Diocese are suing the 11 churches, their clergy and lay leaders for leaving last winter in a dispute involving an openly homosexual bishop, The Washington Times reports. Historian Robert Prichard of the Virginia Theological Seminary says the lawsuit may be the Episcopal Church’s largest ever in terms of the number of individuals and fair-market value of church properties involved. At the heart of the suit are millions of dollars in property that the 11 churches took with them when they left the Virginia diocese. A state law spells out that in a division within a denomination, the congregation can retain its property if a majority votes to disassociate. The diocese’s position is that if the congregation leaves the denomination, it forfeits ownership of property.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Warsaw Mayor OKs Polish Capital Gay Parade
OH Gov Says Gay Marriage Ban Hinders Worker Protections

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)

A gay marriage ban placed in Ohio’s Constitution during the 2004 presidential election would make it difficult for the state to outlaw discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the governor and his top lawyer said today.

Strickland, a Democrat, made his comments after signing an executive order that bans such discrimination against employees of the state government agencies, boards and commissions he controls. He said any bill that would extend similar protections to the private sector runs the risk of being unconstitutional.

“If legislation is crafted in such a way that is consistent with our constitution, I would be a strong supporter of that legislation,” Strickland said.

Kent Markus, the governor’s chief legal counsel, said the 2004 ban — attributed with helping deliver the bellwether state to President Bush that year — places broadly restrictive wording in the constitution that other states with anti-discrimination laws don’t face.

“You’d have to see whether there is some argument that someone can craft that the (anti-discrimination) proposal ‘approximates marriage’ — that’s one of the terms within the constitutional provision — and whether something what you’re doing conflicts with the provision that precludes that,” he said.

Lynne Bowman, executive director of the gay rights group Equality Ohio, said marriage and employment are in no way linked in the Ohio Constitution. She said a bill is being prepared that would extend anti-discrimination to the private sector and wants the governor to support it.

“The governor certainly took a step forward today in protecting over 60,000 state workers,” she said. “Now we have 11 million other people in Ohio who deserve the same protections.”
For additional health information, visit OhioHealth

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WARSAW, Poland, May 18 (UPI)

The mayor of Warsaw rejected pleas to ban a gay parade in the Polish capital saying it poses no threat to morality, Polish Radio reported Friday. Warsaw’s Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz Walz, told Poland’s national radio she has no grounds to ban the Equality Parade of gays and lesbians, scheduled for Saturday. Walz said banning the gay parade would be in conflict with stands taken by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She was responding to the Catholic Youth Movement of the ruling coalition’s rightist League of Polish Families that asked the mayor to prevent organizers from staging the homosexual parade. Early this month, the Strasbourg court ruled Poland violated human rights when it banned a traditional homosexuals’ march in Warsaw in 2005. Polish President Lech Kaczynski was Warsaw’s mayor in 2005 and he banned the gay parade.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Floridian Adjusting to Transgender Role
NY Couples Celebrate Gay Marriage Ruling

NEW YORK (AP)

Michael Adams and his partner, Fred Davie, waited three years to find out whether their marriage in Massachusetts was legal. On Wednesday, they got an answer: Their wedding rings can stay on.

A judge ruled that marriages of gay couples from New York who wed in Massachusetts before last July are valid because New York had not explicitly banned same-sex marriages until then.

“We’ve been in limbo,” Adams said. “To learn that the marriage we cherish so much is legal, and recognized in Massachusetts and New York - well, we can’t wait to get together to pop open a bottle of champagne.”

Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow gay marriage in May 2004, but couples are barred from marrying in the state if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Adams and Davie, from New York City, wed in Lowell, Mass., in 2004. The New York Court of Appeals ruled on July 6, 2006, that New York law limits marriage to unions between a man and a woman.

The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders had asked for clarification of the status of New York couples who married in Massachusetts before that ruling.

In a May 10 decision, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly found that those marriages are legally valid, saying that same-sex marriages became “prohibited” in New York only on July 6, 2006.

“We’ve come such a long way,” said Adams, 45. “We know that we have a legally recognized marriage, and it’s going to open up new opportunities for us to be treated fairly, to get benefits we deserve as a couple.”

It was unclear exactly how many New York couples married in Massachusetts during the two-year period, but GLAD said it was “in the hundreds.” The group had previously said 173 New York couples were affected.

After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, hundreds of couples from other states went there to get married. But former Gov. Mitt Romney directed municipal clerks not to give licenses to out-of-state couples, citing a 1913 law that bars couples from marrying in Massachusetts if the marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Eight couples from six states challenged the law.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March 2006 that Massachusetts could use the 1913 law to bar gay couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont from marrying in the state because they had an “express prohibition” against same-sex marriage. The high court said it was unclear whether gay marriage was specifically banned in New York and Rhode Island, and sent that part of the case back to Connolly.

Connolly ruled in September that gay couples from Rhode Island have the right to marry in Massachusetts because gay marriage is not expressly prohibited there.

Gay rights groups praised Connolly’s most recent ruling.

But Michael Long, who heads New York’s small but politically influential Conservative Party, predicted Connolly’s ruling wouldn’t hold up in New York.

“It’s wishful thinking by some homosexual couples that the interpretation of a particular judge will change their status,” Long said. “The law in the state of New York is very clear - marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Long said the issue could wind up back in New York courts if the gay couples affected seek to press for marriage rights in their home state.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Steve Stanton may have lost his city job in Largo, Fla., after his decision to undergo a sex change, but the 48-year-old is adjusting to his transgender role.

Besides making appearances on TV shows like “The Daily Show” and “Larry King Live” since his dismissal, Stanton is seeking another city official job in his new identity as “Susan,” the Miami Herald said Tuesday.

Just like the position he once held in Largo, Stanton may soon find himself the city manager for Sarasota, Fla.

“City managers are usually in the shadows,” said Stanton, who continues to receive treatments for his sex change. “We usually don’t generate this kind of interest.”

Stanton was the center of attention Saturday at a Washington event promoting transgender rights.

Stanton even admitted to the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times that she was surprised by the outpouring of support she received last weekend.

 

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Today’s Headlines
Court Mulls ‘Inferiority’ of Gay Unions
2 Charged in Stabbing Death of Gay Porn Producer
Judge Rules in ‘That’s So Gay’ Case

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP)

A judge ruled Tuesday that a high school student who sued after being disciplined and then mercilessly teased for using the phrase “That’s so gay” is not entitled to monetary damages.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Elaine Rushing said she sympathized with 18-year-old Rebekah Rice for the ridicule she experienced at Maria Carrillo High School. But, the judge said, Rice’s lawyers failed to prove that school administrators had violated any state laws or singled the girl out for punishment.

“All of us have probably felt at some time that we were unfairly punished by a callous teacher, or picked on and teased by boorish and uncaring bullies,” the judge wrote in a 20-page ruling. “Unfortunately, this is part of what teenagers endure in becoming adults.”

The law “is simply too crude and imprecise an instrument to satisfactorily soothe deeply hurt feelings,” Rushing said.

The case filed by Rice and her parents in 2003 brought widespread attention to a three-word phrase that some teenagers use to mean “stupid” or “uncool,” but has come under attack as an insensitive insult to gay people.

The Rices argued that a teacher violated Rebekah Rice’s First Amendment rights by sending her to the principal’s office and putting a note in her school file. During a trial in February, Rebekah Rice testified she said “That’s so gay” as a response to other students asking her rude questions about her Mormon upbringing.

Rushing said the school district was not liable for monetary damages because the law under which the Rices brought the lawsuit specifically excludes schools. In addition, she said that school officials are given wide latitude in deciding how to enforce non-discrimination provisions of the state education code.

The judge added that it didn’t make sense to have the referral stricken from the girl’s school record, since she graduated last year.

The lawsuit also accused the public high school of having a double standard because, it said, administrators never sought to shield Rebekah from teasing based on Mormon stereotypes. It also alleged that the Rices were singled out because of the family’s conservative views on sexuality.

Rushing rejected each claim, going so far as to suggest that the Rices had created a miserable situation for Rebekah by advertising their dissatisfaction with the school’s handling of the incident during her freshman year.

Neither the Rices nor their lawyer returned telephone calls seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

DALLAS, Pa. (AP)

Two men were arrested Tuesday and charged with killing a producer of gay pornographic movies.

Harlow R. Cuadra, 25, and Joseph M. Kerekes, 33, were arrested in Virginia Beach, Va., on warrants charging them with the death of Bryan Charles Kocis, state police said. Authorities did not specify a motive.

The body of Kocis, 44, was found in late January by firefighters responding to a blaze at his home in Dallas Township, north of Wilkes-Barre. An autopsy showed his throat had been slashed and he had been stabbed 28 times in the torso.

Investigators said the house was set on fire after he was killed.

Kocis’ company, Cobra Video, produces and sells gay porn.

He had been sentenced in May 2002 to a year of probation for possessing a videotape that showed him having sex with a 15-year-old boy. More serious charges were dropped when boy said he misrepresented his age to Kocis.

HARTFORD, Conn., May 15 (UPI)

Connecticut’s Supreme Court is considering whether civil same-sex unions have created a status inferior to full marriage for gays and lesbians. In closing arguments in Hartford Monday, the seven justices heard from lawyers for eight couples who claim there are parallels between racial discrimination lawsuits and the legal battle for gay marriage, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont have established civil unions for same-sex couples, while only Massachusetts authorizes full same-sex marriages. In New Jersey, many couples have complained they are being denied rights and benefits granted married couples, and are considering a lawsuit similar to the one now being considered in Connecticut, the report said. Jane Rosenberg, the assistant attorney general who argued for the state, told the judges full gay marriage should be left up to legislators and not determined by a court, and disputed civil unions are inferior to marriages. All those benefits, at least under state law, have been granted, she said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
Presbyterian Church Extends Ban on Gay Ministry
Magician Contrite for Slurs on Gays, Jews