-By Jennifer Vanasco, editor in chief, 365gay.com 11.18.2009

Joe.My.God. points to a new website seeking to out gay priests, as a response to Washington Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, which is actively working to stifle LGBT rightsin the District.

A press release on ChurchOuting.org says:

A new local Internet and social media campaign was launched today in response to increasing anti-gay attacks by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington and to a 57 page Pastoral Letter, which was passed today by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) affirming the national church leadership’s opposition to recognition of civil marriage between same sex couples

ChurchOuting.org is a clearinghouse for reports of priests who are openly gay men in social settings yet professionally closeted in their parishes. The campaign will also accept reports of heterosexual priests who are involved in romantic or sexual relationships, yet support the Archbishop’s efforts to harm lesbian and gay families.

The site, which is founded by political consultant Phil Attey, encourages those with knowledge of a priest’s closeted homosexuality to come forward.

- The San Francisco Chronicle

Want to repeal California’s ban on gay marriage? You now have five chances to get an initiative on the ballot.

Pay attention, ’cause this could get confusing. No less than five initiatives have been cleared for takeoff by the Secretary of State’s office. All five would repeal the current provision in California’s Constitution that limits marriages to between a man and a woman; and they all include a clause that would exempt clergy persons from having to perform a marriage ceremony if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

All five take aim at Prop. 8, approved by the voters last November, which amended the California Constitution to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman. The measure overturned a May 2008 state Supreme Court ruling that granted gays and lesbians the right to marry their chosen partners.

Each initiative needs the signature of 694,354 registered voters (eight percent of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election) by April 12 to qualify for the November ballot. Of course, not everyone thinks the issue should be brought back to voters that soon.

In the longshot department, there’s another marriage-related measure that’s floating around now: one that would make it impossible to divorce in California. You could still have your marriage annulled, however.

And in other ballot initiative news, UC Berkeley linguistics professor Georget Lakoff was also cleared to collect signatures for a measure that would change the requirement that a two-thirds majority of the legislature approve tax hikes or the state budget. The proposal would allow passage by simple majority. A recent poll showed that the measure, if placed on the ballot, would face an uphill climb.

Posted By: Marisa Lagos November 16 2009

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=51755#ixzz0X9GcP2Pn

- By MIKE GLOVER
AP Political Writer
November 17, 2009

DES MOINES, Iowa – Conservative leaders have promised to make gay marriage a central issue in next year’s legislative elections and governor’s race, and they’re considering a push to oust the Iowa Supreme Court justices whose ruling legalized same-sex unions.

Iowa Christian Alliance President Steve Scheffler said his group will focus first on lobbying lawmakers during the legislative session that starts in January to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Legislators who don’t support that effort could find themselves facing opponents recruited and financed by the alliance, Scheffler said.

“We’re going to encourage people, especially in key legislative races that are going to be competitive,” Scheffler said.

Gay marriage has been legal in Iowa since April after a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling that found a state ban on same-sex marriage violated the Iowa Constitution.

To amend the Iowa Constitution and overturn the law, lawmakers in two general assemblies — formed every two years after a general election — would have to approve a resolution that would then go to voters. If lawmakers approved it in the next legislative session and in 2011, the issue would go to voters in 2012.

But Democrats who hold majorities in both legislative chambers resisted taking up the matter last session, and if they do the same in the session that starts in January, the earliest the issue could reach the ballot would be 2014.

“I don’t see it as likely we get to this issue in the next session of the Legislature,” said Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

Gronstal said lawmakers are under enormous pressure with a projected shortfall of nearly $1 billion in the state budget, and they’ve already decided to shorten the next session to 80 days to save money. That rules out debate on a lot of issues, he said.

Despite Gronstal’s long-standing opposition to taking up gay marriage, Bryan English, spokesman for the socially conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, said his group hasn’t given up and plans to lobby legislators, including Democrats from more conservative districts.

“Everyone has their pressure point, and Mike Gronstal has a majority he wants to maintain,” English said.

The issue also has come up in the governor’s race, with some Republican candidates making gay marriage a focal point of their campaigns and accusing others of not being as committed to overturning the law. All the Republicans seeking the nomination oppose same-sex marriage and have criticized Democratic Gov. Chet Culver for not pushing to put the issue before voters.

Among the most outspoken has been Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, who has said if he were governor, he would issue an order blocking enforcement of the Supreme Court decision. Culver’s office has said such a move would be illegal.

State Sen. Jerry Behn, another Republican candidate for governor, has taken another approach, calling for voters to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices who will be on the ballot in 2010.

Under Iowa’s system, judges are appointed through a merit-selection process, then voters decide whether to keep them in office. Supreme Court judges are up for retention every eight years.

Behn, of Boone, has argued for replacing Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Associate Justices Michael Streit and David Baker when they come up for retention next year.

Other conservatives said they haven’t decided yet whether to join Behn in the effort, which would be difficult given how rarely voters opt not to retain judges.

“That’s a monumental task,” said English, of the Iowa Family Policy Center. “There’s a lot of anger across the state over what the court did and our current effort is to simply allow the people of Iowa to vote on marriage.”

Scheffler, of the Iowa Christian Alliance, took a similar approach.

“We don’t know for sure what we’re going to do with judges,” he said. “We haven’t made a definitive decision on what we’re going to do yet. We’d like to get involved.”

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

- www.washingtonpost.com

The D.C. Council officially agreed today to vote on the bill legalizing same-sex marriage on Dec. 1, clearing the way for the measure to head to Congress for its review around New Year’s.

Before the council put the bill on its December agenda, council members reiterated they are not likely to be swayed by arguments from the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington that passage of the bill as written would affect the church’s charitable work in the District.

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At large), chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said he has reviewed the concerns raised by the church and concluded the council bill is not that much different than same-sex marriage bills that have been enacted in other states.

“The church focuses on the right to discriminate, but refuses to consider the effect on the couple,” Mendelson said. “They provide these services in other states where same-sex marriages are permitted, I do not understand why they would not be able to provide them here.”

But in a letter to Mendelson last week, a top church official said the bill “does not allow Catholic Charities and other religious service organizations to freely function as religious service organizations in the District.”

Jane G. Belford, the chancellor of the archdiocese, specifically expressed concerns in her letter that the Catholic Charities would be required to give employee benefits to same-sex couples who legally marry as well be forced to participate in adoptions for gay couples.

Church officials say they would be forced to end Catholic Charities’ social services contracts with the city if the proposal is not changed.

Some gay rights activists dismiss the church’s concerns, arguing federal law governs employee benefits. They also note city law already mandates that gay couples be allowed to adopt children.

On the other side of the debate, some religious scholars and attorneys argue there are more exemptions for churches in the same-sex marriage bills that have been approved in other states than there are in the one being debated by the council. Connecticut’s law, for example, appears to shield some charities from having to abide by the same-sex marriage law, according to council documents.

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said today he wants Mendelson and Council member David A. Catania (I-At large), the sponsor of the same-sex marriage, to continue trying to work with the church to see if there is room for common ground.

But neither Mendelson nor Catania gave any indication they see room for compromise.

“I think it is important that we continue to have a discussion with the archdiocese and other churches as they wish,” Mendelson said. “But I do have to say, the way this issue has been approached by the archdiocese in the past week was tantamount to drawing a line in the sand and it may be hard for them to show some flexibility.”

In a sign of the worsening relations between the council and the church, Catania asked his colleagues today how the church could condone giving employee spouse benefits to “fornicators and adulters” – a reference to divorcees – but not same-sex couples.

After the council votes Dec. 1, it will have to take a second vote on the measure in mid -December. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has promised to sign the bill, but it still would have to survive congressional review.

– Tim Craig

By Anne Bartlett | November 17, 2009

- www.gaylife.about.com, November 16th, 2009

Window Media, the nation’s largest publisher of gay and lesbian newspapers, closed its doors Monday, becoming the latest print media outlet to evaporate.

Employees of Window Media, LLC, publisher of Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Houston Voice and a number of other gay and lesbian-focused trees, arrived at work to find the locks changed and a note saying the company had closed its doors. Steven Myers, co-president of Window Media in Washington, D.C., is expected to make comment later this week.

The Washington Blade celebrated its 40th anniversary last month.

By Meredith Heagney

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, November 11, 2009

Gay Episcopalians in central and southern Ohio can have their relationships blessed in church starting on Easter next year.

Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal announced at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio on Friday that he would lift the prohibition on blessing same-sex unions.

The diocese includes Columbus and the lower half of the state, a territory of about 25,000 Episcopalians in more than 80 churches.

To allay the fears of some conservatives, Breidenthal added that no priest will be required to perform a same-sex blessing.

The move follows a pair of votes tallied in July at the denomination’s General Convention in Anaheim, Calif. Delegates approved the consecration of openly gay bishops and a process that would start the development of liturgies for the blessing of same-sex unions.

In the second resolution, the denomination didn’t seem to go so far as to redefine marriage as something other than between a man and a woman. But it did say that bishops, especially those in jurisdictions that allow same-sex marriage or civil unions, “may provide generous pastoral response” to their gay members.

“In so doing, the Episcopal Church has effectively acknowledged that the godly union of two persons of the same sex — by which I mean the union of two persons who have vowed lifelong fidelity to one another and accept accountability to the faith community as a faithful household — can be blessed by the church,” Breidenthal said, according to an online copy of his speech.

The Episcopal Church, a province of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has struggled with the issue of homosexuality for decades, but particularly since the consecration of its first openly gay bishop in 2003. Its move toward a more liberal policy has alienated some conservatives. Four dioceses and many individual congregations have left the denomination.

Among the stipulations, Breidenthal said: No blessings of same-sex unions can take place without his written permission, which will require 60 days notice. At least one of the people seeking the blessing must be a confirmed Episcopalian in good standing.

Counseling with the priest or a substitute will be required before the blessing.

Breidenthal also asked priests to engage in “significant conversation” with their congregations before offering the blessings.

His announcement was met with a standing ovation and no audible protest, said the Rev. George Glazier of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the University District.

Glazier said he had hoped to bless a same-sex union before he retired.

“I’ve waited for this for probably 30 years,” he said.

mhea...@dispatch.com

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Gay marriage advocates on Monday launched their effort to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban, hoping to become the first U.S. state to convince voters to approve gay people’s right to wed.

In the five U.S. states where gay marriage is permitted — Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont — the right was achieved through court and legislative action.

Every state where the issue has been put before the voters, gay marriage has been rejected, including California’s 2008 passage of the ban known as Proposition 8. Voters in Maine two weeks ago overturned a state law allowing same-sex marriages.

“All eyes are on California now,” said John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish, a California gay rights group, and one of the leaders of an effort to gather a million signatures in order to place the measure on the November 2010 ballot in California.

Signature-gathering began Monday after the state approved proposed ballot language.

The battle over the gay-marriage measure is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars on both sides of the issue.

Bigger gay rights groups including Equality California have expressed concern that next year’s election may be too soon to change enough minds to win the vote.

California’s Proposition 8, which limited marriage to a union between a man and a woman, passed with 52 percent support a year ago. The vote surprised gay rights advocates nationwide and handed a major victory to the social conservatives who oppose gay marriage.

California’s top court earlier last year had legalized same-sex marriage. The ballot language approved by the state to go before voters next year — if supporters get a sufficient number of signatures — states that the measure “reinstates (the) right of same-sex couples to marry.”

(Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Will Dunham)

- www.jonathanturley.org 11/16/2009

George Steven Lopez Mercado was a gay teen in Puerto Rico who was found on the side of a road partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered. The response of the police was reportedly horror . . . at his lifestyle.

George Steven Lopez Mercado

According to reports, the police investigator assigned to the case, Angel Rodriguez Colon, said that “people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen.”

The 19-year-old was found a few miles away from his town of Caguas.

Obviously, this detective must be removed from the case but it reveals a deeper seated problem in such cases. I have worked in Puerto Rico and was told by a gay Puerto Rican of the fear that he has from both police and vigilantes. This case would appear to reaffirm his concerns.

- www.gaypolitics.com Nov 13, 2009

Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri this week said in a veto statement that he worried about a “disturbing trend” in the weakening of heterosexual marriage, but now he says he’d be open to an omnibus measure that could grant substantial partnership rights to unmarried couples.

After vetoing a bill that allowed unmarried partners to plan one another’s’ funerals, Carcieri met privately yesterday with LGBT-rights group Queer Action of Rhode Island, and said that a domestic partners registry would be “something we should consider,” according to the Providence Journal.

Citing as a possible model the “everything but marriage” referendum that won approval in the state of Washington earlier this month, Carcieri said: “I don’t know enough, yet. All I am saying is I understand the circumstances. I understand the difficulties” that can arise for same-sex couples and others — such as widows living with widowers, and widows with other widows — outside the legal framework of a traditional marriage.

“Let’s see if we can find a way to solve that without discreet [pieces] of legislation every time something comes up. I just don’t think that is the right way to deal with it,” he said.

The spokeswoman for Queer Action responded that “we are interested in getting all of the rights, not just some of them.”

By Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate Nov 13, 2009

A committee markup has been scheduled for the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, which will provide benefits to the domestic partners of federal government employees. Markups are the process by which congressional committees finalize the language of a bill and then vote on the legislation. If the bill is voted out of committee, it heads to the floor for a full House vote.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will mark up DPBO on Wednesday, November 18, at 2 p.m.

Overall, next week will be a busy one for LGBT issues: In addition to the DPBO markup, the House Education & Labor Committee will mark up Employment Non-Discrimination Act legislation on Wednesday, November 18, at 10 a.m.

And on Thursday, November 19, at 9:30 a.m., the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Clifford Stanley, a retired general who has been nominated as undersecretary of Personnel and Readiness — a key post in the Department of Defense that oversees the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.