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Today’s Top Headlines

In Compromise, Rhode Island Approves Civil Unions for Gay Couples
NY Town Clerk Refuses To Sign Gay Wedding Licenses
Southwest Pilot Apologizes For Anti-Gay Rant
Gay Marriage Supporters Plan Referendum in Maine

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Gay marriage supporters in Maine began laying the groundwork Thursday for another referendum on the issue, one day after Rhode Island lawmakers approved civil unions for gay couples. Gay marriage supporters say many have changed their minds since state voters overturned a same-sex marriage law in 2009. They said Thursday they’re filing paperwork with election officials to start the process of gathering 57,000 signatures to put the matter on the November 2012 ballot. Matt McTighe from Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders says polls show 53 percent of Mainers now support gay marriage. In 2009, gay marriage was rejected by the same margin.

Read the full story from the Wall Street Journal.

The Southwest Airlines pilot whose profane and offensive anti-gay rant was broadcast over cockpit radio, then shared around the world, has issued written apologies to his fellow employees. James Fritzen Taylor identified himself as the speaker on the tape, and sent a letter to the employees of the airlines accepting responsibility for the “derogatory” and “truly insensitive” comments. He asks forgiveness especially from Houston-based flight crews — on the tape, he described Houston as “easily one of the ugliest bases.”

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.

New York’s gay weddings victory lap has not extended to all parts of the Empire State, with a rural town clerk determined to not sign any same-sex marriage licenses. Barbara MacEwen, the town clerk in upstate Volney who is responsible for signing marriage licenses in the town, said she’s morally opposed to same-sex weddings and does not intend to affix her signature to any marriage documents for gay or lesbian couples.

Read the full story from Poitico.

Less than a week after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York, the Rhode Island State Senate approved a bill last night allowing not marriage, but civil unions for gay couples, despite fierce opposition from gay-rights advocates who called the legislation discriminatory. The bill, which already passed in the state’s House of Representatives and which the governor said he was likely to sign, would grant same-sex couples most of the rights and benefits that Rhode Island provides married couples. It was offered as a compromise this spring after Gordon D. Fox, the openly gay speaker of the Democratc-controlled House, said he could not muster enough votes to pass a same-sex marriage bill.

Read the full story from the Boston Globe.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Beebe First Arkansas Governor to Speak to Gay Group
Cuba Holds First Pride Parade
Catholic Church Denies Funeral For Local Gay Man
Michele Bachmann Campaigns Against Gay Marriage in South Carolina

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Michele Bachmann blasted President Barack Obama for not defending the Defense of Marriage Act. “You are not the Supreme Court,” she told more than 200 conservatives in a campaign stop here. “You don’t get to decide if a law is constitutional or not…the president refuses to stand for marriage. One thing we need to recognize in this country is that the family is the fundamental unit of government.” The Minnesota congresswoman is looking to increase her appeal to religious conservatives who make up a big segment of the electorate in this first-in-the-south primary. She faulted Obama for using executive orders to get around Congress on a range of issues.

Read the full story from Politico.

A funeral service for a gay parishioner that was canceled by a Catholic church will be allowed to take place, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. The church, however, has not communicated the decision change to either the family of the deceased man or the media. Local businessman and devout Catholic John Sanfilippo died last week after struggling with emphysema. Friends said Sanfilippo planned for the funeral mass to be held at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Little Italy, where Sanfilippo had attended for decades. Friends said he even left the church a large sum of money in his will.

Read the full story from 10News.com.

There were just a handful, but the dozen Cubans who took part in the country’s first Gay Pride rally Tuesday celebrated one more step on the country’s road to gay rights recognition. “We are not asking for anything, we’re only celebrating the fact that Cuba voted at the United Nations in favor of recognizing the rights of the gay community,” said Ignacio Estrada, one of the leaders of the Cuban Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People’s Rights Watch Group. The short march — along the 500 meters (1,600 feet) of Prado Avenue towards the seaside boulevard, the Malecon — took place without incident and broke up amid music and dancing under the amused eye of passers-by and tourists.

Read the full story from AFP.

Arkansas Democratic Governor Mike Beebe on Tuesday night became the first sitting governor of the state to speak to a gay rights group.Beebe, who won his second term in 2010, addressed the Stonewall Democrats in a packed church hall of more than 200 people. In the past, Beebe and the gay community have not agreed on many issues, including adoption rights and gay marriage, and the same was true on Tuesday night.

Read the full story from Reuters.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Battle Between Gay Groups and Arkansas Newspaper Heats Up
Gay Marriage Foes Appeal Ruling on Gay US Judge
Brazilian Judge Gives Approval for First Gay Marriage
Colorado Dems Hope to Follow New York’s Gay Marriage Success

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The gay marriage law that passed in New York late Friday night has its origins in Colorado politics—and Centennial State political implications for 2012. Colorado software entrepreneur and gay rights activist Tim Gill’s team was a major player in the effort, an effort that should continue in Colorado next year on both the state legislative and electoral fronts. While the New York state Senate became the first-ever Republican-led state legislative body to recognize same-sex relationships, Colorado Republican leadership killed a Gill-backed civil unions bill on a party-line vote in a House committee this year.

Read the full story from the Denver Post.

A Brazilian state judge on Monday approved what the court said is the nation’s first gay marriage. Sao Paulo state Judge Fernando Henrique Pinto ruled two men could convert their civil union into a full marriage. Brazil’s Supreme Court cleared the way in May for the recognition of same-sex civil unions, but stopped short of approving gay marriages. A court statement said Pinto made the decision based on the top court’s ruling on civil unions and on Brazil’s constitution, which outlines how a civil union can be converted into a legal marriage. Benjamin Polastri, a spokesman with the Sao Paulo state Attorney General’s Office, said it was not immediately clear if the ruling set a strong national precedent. Polastri also said the just-approved gay marriage was the first for South America’s biggest nation.

Read the ful story from the Washington Post.

Supporters of California’s gay marriage ban are appealing a ruling that a U.S. judge’s own gay relationship was no basis for tossing out his decision in support of same-sex marriage. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco last year struck down California’s same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8. He later openly discussed his own gay relationship after retiring from the bench earlier this year. Supporters of the ban now say his ruling was compromised and should be vacated. But Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware disagreed earlier this month, ruling that granting such a request would send a message that minority judges could not rule in civil rights cases.

Read the full story from Reuters.

A battle between gay rights groups and an Arkansas newspaper over an obituary is picking up steam after a near-truce fell apart. After saying they would review their policy banning the inclusion of life partners in free obits, the Batesville Daily Guard’s newspaper executives published an editorial defending the policy. Now the protests are going forward, and the central figure in the controversy, the gay life partner of a man who died from spinal meningitis, is threatening legal action from a hospital bed.

Read the full story from Reuters.