Today’s Top Headlines

Texas School Keeps Clubs Off Campus To Block Gay Straight Alliance
UK Couple Lose Foster Care Right Over Anti-Gay Stance
International UK Cricketer Comes Out
US Catholic College Cancels Courses by Gay Priest

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Chestnut Hill College, a Roman Catholic institution in Philadelphia, last week told a gay priest who had been a popular adjunct there for several semesters that he was no longer welcome to teach the two religion courses he had been offered for the term starting this week. The college acted shortly after a Philadelphia man sent a letter to the archdiocese complaining that Chestnut Hill was employing Rev. James St. George, the gay priest. Father St. George actually has no problem reconciling his sexuality (and a long-term partner) with his faith, as he is part of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of the Americas, which split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s over a number of issues. Today it practices many Catholic rituals and shares some Catholic theology, but also permits priests to be married or gay.

Read the full story from USA Today.

International cricketer Steven Davies has received the support of his England colleagues and team bosses after becoming the sport’s first active professional player to announce that he is gay. Davies, a wicketkeeper-batsman with the county Surrey who has played in 13 limited-overs internationals for England, made his revelations in a newspaper interview with The Daily Telegraph published on Monday. “I feel now is the right time to be open about my sexuality. Those close to me have known for a while and have been nothing but supportive and understanding,” he told the England Wales and Cricket Board website.

Read the full story from CNN.

A British court has ruled that a Christian couple cannot care for foster children because they disapprove of homosexuality. Judges at London’s Royal Courts of Justice ruled that laws protecting gays from discrimination take precedence over the couple’s religious beliefs. Eunice and Owen Johns, aged 62 and 65-years old, had previously fostered children in the 1990s, but what one social worker described as their “strong views” on homosexuality raised red flags with authorities in the English city of Derby when they were interviewed in 2007.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

Corpus Christi’s Flour Bluff ISD has banned all extra-curricular clubs from meeting on campus to make sure it’s complying with federal law after denying a student request to create a gay-straight alliance. In a letter to Paul Rodriguez, the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi, who has supported Flour Bluff students’ efforts to create an alliance at their high school, Superintendent Julie Carbajal defended the decision and said the school was committed to “supporting the cultural diversity of all students in our community.”

Read the full story from the Texas Tribune.

Today’s Top Headlines

Rick Santorum Urges Boehner/GOP to Defend DOMA
NY Court Rules In Favor of Same-Sex Spousal Inheritance
National Organization for Marriage Mobilizes to Defend Anti-Gay Laws
Republicans Push for Anti-Gay Legislation in North Carolina

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Following the introduction of a bill in the N.C. General Assembly that would ban gay marriage in the state, many opponents of the legislation are relieved to hear they at least have President Barack Obama’s support. Republican senators in the state legislature said earlier this week they want to add an amendment to the state constitution that would ban recognition of gay marriage. But Wednesday, Obama said he believes it is unconstitutional to treat people differently, especially in the case of marriage, based on their sexual orientation. And he directed the Justice Department to stop defending the law in court.

Read the full story from the Daily Tar Heel.

It’s been a busy week for gays. Pres. Obama’s Justice Department announced Wednesday that they would no longer ask courts to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, a 90s-era bill that prevents the federal government from recognizing gay couples’ marriages. Although tens of thousands of gays are legally married in states like California, Iowa, and Connecticut, the federal government considers them “just friends.” That translates into hardships like extra tax burdens, a risk of deportation for bi-national couples, the inability to sue for wrongful death, and over a thousand other things.

Read the full story from NBC.

An appeals court ruled Thursday that the survivor of a same-sex marriage has the right to inherit as a spouse. A gay rights legal group called the decision the first of its kind at an appellate level in New York. It’s illegal for same-sex couples to get married in New York The appellate court decided, however, that J. Craig Leiby and H. Kenneth Rantfle’s 2008 marriage in Canada was legal. Therefore, Leiby is entitled to being recognized as a surviving spouse The two were married after being together as a couple for almost 25 years, court documents show Rantfle died in 2008 of lung cancer, leaving most his estate to Leiby.

Read the full story from CBS.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who is testing the waters for a presidential run in 2012, is blasting his fellow Republicans for timidity in defense of traditional marriage. He cites as Exhibit A: The relatively muted response to the Obama administration’s announcement it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. DOMA, as it is known, says states can refuse to recognize the same-sex marriages and civil unions performed in other states. The law defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Read the full story from USA Today.

Today’s Top Headlines

Maryland Senate Approves Same-Sex Marriage
House House Democrats Try to Repeal DOMA
Gaga Convinces Target to Give to Gay Groups
NY Gay Center Pulls Plug on Israel-Apartheid Event

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The Maryland State Senate passed legislation on Thursday night to allow same-sex marriage. The Civil Marriage Protection Act, approved by the heavily Democratic Senate on a 25-21 vote with strong support from the majority party, would effectively legalize gay marriage without forcing religious clergy to conduct marriages of which they disapproved. It had narrowly passed two preliminary stages of approval. Senator Richard S. Madaleno Jr., a Montgomery County Democrat and the senate’s first openly gay member, hailed the vote as historic.

Read the full story from Reuters.

sraeli Apartheid Week may be a week away but tension between Israel’s friends and foes around the world is already heating up. Speaking from New York City on Thursday, Michael Lucas, a popular gay columnist and porno producer with dual US-Israeli citizenship, told The Jerusalem Post via telephone interview that “I defeated a group of anti-Semites” who sought to equate Israel with the former South African apartheid regime at a slated anti-Israel event to be held at New York’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center.

Read the full story from the Jerusalem.

Lady Gaga is set to release a limited edition of her new single Born This Way at U.S. retailer Target after bosses agreed to donate to gay rights groups. The singer met with Target executives to demand they increase their support for equal rights charities, and make amends for previously supporting political candidates perceived as anti-gay. As a result of their meeting with the pop star, company chiefs have promised to give more to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community – and Gaga will allow them to sell a special edition of her hit. She tells Billboard.com, “That discussion was one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had in a business meeting. Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they’ve made in the past.

Read the full story from the Toronto Sun.

A Democratic member of Congress is going to push for repeal of the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage, following the Obama administration’s decision to no longer defend the statute. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said he will reintroduce his bill to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act when Congress returns next week. Last year, Nadler got 12o co-sponsors for his measure, called the Respect for Marriage Act. Nadler said he wants to “ensure that committed, loving couples can rely upon the legal responsibilities and security that come with the time-honored tradition of marriage.” He is circulating a letter, co-signed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to gin up more support for his bill.

Read the full story from USA Today.