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Today’s Headlines
Fugitive Suspected of Killing Farm Couple
Spanish Judge Who Denied Lesbian Woman Custody of Children to be Probed
MA Gay Marriage Foes Won’t Push for 2010 Ballot Question

BOSTON (AP) - Gay marriage opponents have decided not to mount an effort to put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot in 2010.

The amendment — which would define marriage as the union of 1 man and one woman — was rejected by the Legislature last month, preventing it from going on the 2008 ballot.

Kris Mineau of the group Vote-on-Marriage.com says opponents of gay marriage are aware that they do not have the backing they need in the current Legislature. But Mineau says they still have tremendous support among the general public.

Mineau says his group will target lawmakers in the 2008 election who opposed the amendment, especially those who changes their positions on same-sex marriage — preventing the measure from receiving the 50 votes in needed to advance to the ballot.

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MADRID, Spain (AP)

Spain’s judicial watchdog said Tuesday it is investigating a judge who denied a woman custody of her two daughters because she was a lesbian.

“Children have a right to a father and a mother, but not to two mothers or two fathers,” Fernando Ferrin Calamita, a judge in the southeastern city of Murcia, wrote in a custody case ruling last month.

Ferrin said the mother, who was not identified, “must choose between her children and her new partner,” according to leading Spanish daily El Pais and other media.

The judge went on to order the mother to relinquish the children by the end of June and said the father — her former husband — should have custody.

The couple divorced after the husband discovered the woman was a lesbian, the judge said.

“It is a homosexual atmosphere that harms minors and substantially increases the risk that they will turn that way too,” the judge added.

The judge’s decision goes against laws brought in by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2005 that allow for same-gender marriages and for same-sex couples to adopt children.

On Monday, 15 women’s and gay groups filed a complaint before the General Council of the Judiciary, which oversees the judiciary in Spain. The body said it was investigating.

The judge “can think what he likes, but he cannot dictate rules that go against the law,” said Silvia Jaen, the Secretary General of the State Federation of Gays and Lesbians.

A lawyer for the father told El Pais his two children continued to live with their mother.

In another case, Ferrin is allegedly trying to prevent a lesbian couple from adopting, news reports said.

In 1987, the magistrate raised a storm when he ordered the arrest of two women for showing a “lack of respect” by sunbathing topless on a southern Spanish beach, although they were not breaking any law.

WINDSOR, Ontario, July 24 (UPI)

A young man suspected of killing a bartender at a gay club in Ontario is now believed to have killed an elderly farm couple to get their truck.

Police warn Jesse Imeson, 22, is likely to be armed and should be considered extremely dangerous, the London Free Press reported.

The bodies of Bill and Helen Regier were found Monday in their farmhouse on the shore of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario. Their car, a gray 2006 GMC Sierra pickup truck with the license plate JK8334, was missing.

Windsor Police Superintendent David Pickford told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that two long-barreled shotguns were stolen in a break-in nearby.

Paul Whitehead, a criminologist at the University of Western Ontario, told the Free Press that Imeson is likely to be desperate.

He’ll be searching for opportunities, Whitehead said. He won’t probably think them out very well and will probably do some pretty dumb things that would make his apprehension more easy than it might be if he wasn’t under all this pressure.

Imeson is believed to have killed Carlos Rivera, a bartender at a Windsor club a week ago. Rivera’s car was discovered near the Regniers’ farm.

Copyright © 2007 by United Press International

 

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Today’s Headlines
WA Gay Couples Line Up to Register Unions
Man Ordered to Pay Ex-Wife Alimony, Despite Domestic Partnership

LOS ANGELES (AP)

A judge has ordered an Orange County man to continue paying over $1,200 a month in alimony to his former wife - even though she’s in a registered domestic partnership with another woman.

State marriage laws say that alimony ends when a former spouse remarries. So Ron Garber thought he was off the hook for the payments when he learned his ex-wife, Melinda Kirkwood, registered her new relationship under the state’s domestic partnership law.

But an Orange County judge decided that a registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Garber must keep writing checks to his ex-spouse.

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

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)

Gay and lesbian couples are lining up to register as domestic partners under a new state law.

Couples registered as domestic partners will get enhanced rights, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

But domestic partners aren’t getting all the rights that traditionally married couples have. And the registry is not the same as civil unions offered to gay couples in other states.

The domestic partner registry also applies to unmarried, senior straight couples.

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

 

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Today’s Headlines
Gay Rights Foes Confident They Can Force Vote
Sheriff: Public Sex Common In Florida

FLORIDA (UPI)

Public sex happens almost everywhere but most people do not notice, according to a Florida county sheriff’s department commander.

Last week, a Republican in the state Legislature was arrested for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a public park. The case is not that unusual, Cmdr. Doug Waller of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office told Florida Today.

Some parks and public restrooms have become known as good places to find homosexual partners, Waller said, but almost no public location has not seen at least some sex of one kind or another.

In Florida, some citizens’ groups have launched campaigns to increase police presence and remove shrubbery that could be used as cover in public parks known for sex.

But that may not solve the problem, the newspaper said, because sex can also happen at shopping mall restrooms and other locations.

SALEM, OR (AP)

It looks like two new gay rights laws that are supposed to take effect on Jan. 1 will be suspended until Oregon voters have a chance to weigh in on them in November 2008, according to the group that’s opposing the new legislation.

Gay rights advocates scored major victories in the Oregon Legislature this spring when lawmakers approved laws to ban discrimination against gays in work and housing, and to give same-sex couples most state benefits of marriage through legal domestic partnerships.

But a coalition of social conservative and church groups has been collecting petition signatures in hopes of blocking the measures. If they can collect 55,179 signatures by Sept. 26, the measures will be suspended until they can be voted on in the November 2008 election.

A spokeswoman for the referral campaign, former state Sen. Marylin Shannon, wouldn’t give out signature totals Thursday. But she said hundreds of volunteer petition carriers have been enjoying “awesome” success in their efforts to block the laws from taking effect.

“We’ve got 15,000 petitions out there and we’re printing more. I’m willing to predict that Oregonians will vote on this in 2008,” the Brooks Republican said of the referral campaign by a group called Defense of Family and Marriage Again.

The executive director of the state’s largest gay rights group, Basic Rights Oregon, said it appears that opponents will be able to round up enough signatures to keep the two laws on hold until next year’s general election.

“It’s unfortunate that a small group of people don’t agree with basic fairness,” John Hummel said Thursday.

However, Hummel predicted that gay rights supporters ultimately would prevail if the issues are placed before Oregon voters next year, since polls have shown a growing number of Oregonians back the two laws.

Shannon and other social conservatives began their referral campaign right after the Legislature approved the two gay rights laws. Shannon said she believes the domestic partners bill, in particular, violates the intent of Oregon voters who in 2004 adopted a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

In an interview Thursday, Shannon said last week’s ruling by a Multnomah County judge that the lesbian partner of a Portland mother is entitled to legal parental status is another example of gay rights backers in government trying to promote an “agenda.”

“People are exorcised by the fact that the Legislature and an activist judge threw out the votes of people” who supported the 2004 ballot measure banning gay marriage, she said.

Hummel, though, said the domestic partnerships law passed by the Legislature doesn’t equate to full marriage and that it was a compromise that most Oregonians can support.

“This is an attack on basic fairness and equality, and on all Oregonians being allowed to protect their families,” the Basic Rights Oregon spokesman said of the campaign by Shannon and the others to block the new laws.

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

 

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Today’s Headlines
Redmond Moves to Give Gay Partners Benefits
Washington to Star in ‘Bionic Woman’

LOS ANGELES, July 16 (UPI)

Hollywood actor Isaiah Washington has landed a new TV show on NBC after being let go from Grey’s Anatomy for making homophobic remarks. Washington will have a recurring part on the network’s new series, Bionic Woman, this fall, Zap2it.com reported Monday. He is slated to appear in five of the show’s first six episodes and has also signed a development deal for an action series with Universal Media Studios, the Web site said. He’s a wonderful actor … and he became available, new NBC chief Ben Silverman joked with reporters at a Television Critics Association event Monday. I started talking to him before he was available. … I didn’t have any idea — when he told me he was available, I was like: ‘What? I don’t understand. You’re a star on a huge TV show.’ I didn’t quite understand what was going on there. Washington was written off the ABC show even though he publicly apologized for his comments, sought counseling and taped a public service announcement about the power of words. Silverman said he thinks people will be able to put the controversy behind them once they see how good Washington is on the new show.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

REDMOND, Wash. (AP)

Redmond City Council has moved to provide domestic-partner benefits to gay employees.

Members voted unanimously last night to extend the city’s employee benefits to domestic partners defined under the state’s new domestic-partnership law. That law takes effect next week. The council asked to have the ordinance ready for its August 21st meeting.

The move comes under the threat from the national gay-rights group, Lambda Legal, which had threatened a lawsuit on behalf of 2 police officers.

The group said Commander Kristi Wilson and Lieutenant Betsy Lawrence have requested domestic-partner benefits since at least 2002.

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

 

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Today’s Headlines
Woman Says Sex Change Tax Deductible
Lesbian Moms Used Drag Queen’s Sperm

DONCASTER, England, July 17 (UPI)

A lesbian couple in Britain says the infants they each gave birth to were fathered by a gay drag queen they met in a nightclub. Stephanie Burns, 23, had asked friend and fellow lesbian Joanne Bartle, 40, to help her find a sperm donor, The Daily Mail reported Tuesday. When the pair found a willing donor in female impersonator Ryan Egeley, 21, Bartle decided she also wished to give birth, and with Egeley’s permission, both women became pregnant with his donated sperm. Burns and Bartle formed a bond during their pregnancies that blossomed into a relationship ensuring that children Elijah Jo, 13 months, and Martha Rae, 10 months, will grow up with a large family. Stephanie and I are so in love, Bartle said. Copyright 2007 by United Press InternationalThe kids brought us together properly. We were denying our feelings for each other until then. Starting out as friends was the best thing we could have done. We’re much stronger for it and we’ve got a special bond since having the kids. They’re our little angels.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International