- www.FOXnews.com Feb 18, 2010

The Archdiocese of Washington has scrapped its 80-year-old foster care program, claiming it’s no longer eligible to serve as an adoption provider due to the District of Columbia’s pending same-sex marriage law.

Under the legislation, which legalizes same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital and which goes into effect March 2, all outside contractors must recognize gay couples in the District.

In a press release posted on its Web site Tuesday, the archdiocese, which opposes gay marriage, said it had no choice but to transfer its foster care program to the National Center for Children and Families, or NCCF.

“We regret that our efforts to avoid this outcome were not successful,” Ed Orzechowski, president and CEO of Catholic Charities, said in a statement.

The transfer includes seven staff, 43 children and their biological families and 35 foster families, according to the press release.

- www.theonion.com Feb 18th, 2010

MONTGOMERY, AL—A two-handed slam dunk by an openly homosexual man set off a chain of events this week that culminated in the legalization of gay marriage in nine states, including Mississippi and Alabama. “When I saw that dunk, I was like, ‘Whoa!’” said Alabama state Sen. Hinton Mitchem, adding that his office was flooded with calls and e-mails from constituents demanding legal recognition of same-sex marriages following the slam. “A guy with nasty moves like that should be entitled to the same fundamental rights as the rest of us.” On Thursday, the New York State Senate passed a resolution declaring that it would take a pretty sweet roundhouse kick from a gay mixed martial arts champion before it would allow homosexuals to marry.

By Carlos Santoscoy
Published: February 18, 2010

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is heading to Iowa to support an anti-gay marriage group.

Huckabee will be the keynote speaker at a February 24 fundraiser for the Iowa Family PAC, the political action committee managed by the Iowa Family Policy Center Action, the state’s most vociferous opponent of gay marriage.

The committee says it supports Christians who are “God-first” candidates. It has enthusiastically endorsed Bob Vander Plaats’ candidacy for governor.

While all Republican Iowa gubernatorial candidates have sided with social conservatives who are rankled at Democratic leaders for blocking a resolution calling for an amendment in the Iowa constitution that would ban gay marriage and reverse last year’s state Supreme Court order legalizing the institution, Vander Plaats, who often speaks about the issue at anti-gay marriage rallies, has a padlock on the issue. He’s pledged, if elected, to halt gay weddings with an executive order until the issue is decided by voters. Most analysts have said such a move would not be legal.

Huckabee is the presidential choice of social conservatives who attended September’s Value Voters Summit, the annual conservative meet up sponsored by the Family Research Council (FRC), an ardent opponent of gay and lesbian rights. Surprisingly, former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin trailed in fourth place.

The former Baptist minister does not believe gays should be allowed to serve in the military and supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual union.

In November, he told CBS’ Katie Couric that if you alter marriage to include gay couples “then there is really no limit” to how it might be defined and suggested polygamy would soon follow.

“Can we change it to multiple spouses?” he rhetorically asked. “If not, why not? You know, I hear people say, ‘Well, what would be wrong?’ What would be wrong, then, with a man having two or three or six or seven wives? Or a woman having six or seven husbands all at the same time?”

“If enough people believe that we should have – I’ll just use the illustration of polygamy – then we should accommodate that. Otherwise, are we being just as bigoted and intolerant and lacking compassion ’cause we don’t promote and accept and put a sanction on polygamy?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Seattle PI, Feb 17, 2010

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled an April 28 hearing on whether Washington state can release more than 138,000 names on petitions supporting a domestic partnership referendum.

Protect Marriage Washington unsuccessfully opposed a new law giving gay couples expanded rights. The group wants to shield petition-signers’ names from public release, saying it fears harassment by gay-rights supporters.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco previously ruled that petition signatures could be made public. But the petitions have remained under wraps pending appeal.

- Ken Williams – Editor in Chief | Wed, 02/17/2010, www.sdgln.com

AUSTIN, Texas – The attorney general in the Lone Star State is trying to do the Texas two-step and get invalidated a divorce recently granted to a lesbian couple.

On Feb. 10, a state district judge in Travis County granted a divorce to Sabina Daly, 41, of San Antonio, and Angelique Naylor, 39, of Austin. The women were married in 2004 in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal.

On Feb. 11, aides to Attorney General Greg Abbott went to court in an attempt to prevent the divorce.

“A divorce is an ending or a termination of a valid legal marriage,” Abbott told reporters yesterday. “In this instance there was no valid legal marriage recognized by the state of Texas. Texas can’t have a faulty precedent on the books that validates an illegal law.”

Attorneys for the two women contend that the divorce is legal, but acknowledge that they expect litigation to continue.

The couple have said that their marriage grew rocky in 2007 and that they sought the divorce to settle business matters and family issues, including custody arrangements for their adopted child.

“If we stop fighting, there’s less stress on the family and less stress on the child,” Naylor told reporters. “It wasn’t about politics. It wasn’t about gay rights. It was about two people who had serious legal issues that needed to be resolved. A lot was accomplished in spite of the attorney general’s private political agenda. We came to peace.”

This is the second time that the attorney general has intervened in same-sex divorce. In October, Abbott tried to prevent two men from divorcing in Dallas. Abbott intervened before the decision was made, but the judge in the Dallas case dismissed the attorney general’s arguments and the divorce was decreed. The state has appealed the decree, hoping to overturn the men’s divorce.

Ken Williams can be reached at k...@sdgln.com or by calling (877) 727-5446, Extension 713.

February 17, 2010 /EIN PRESSWIRE/

Believing that homosexuals have it better in Austria, a heterosexual couple has applied for a gay marriage civil partnership, demanding the same rights that gay couples have.

On Jan. 1, the Austrian government – in order not to grant homosexuals marriage privileges but yet equal rights – introduced a registered civil partnership, which granted gay couples some of the legal rights of heterosexual couples. And with a civil partnership, getting a divorce is a much simpler affair.

And that sounds pretty good – and pretty modern – to one straight couple that doesn’t want to be bound by the country’s more stringent rules on divorce for traditional married couples.

Read more at EU Politics Today:

Latest Austria Discrimination news – http://eupolitics.einnews.com/news/austria-discrimination

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By Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com
02.16.2010

The progress of New Mexico’s domestic partnership bill came to a grinding halt Tuesday as the state senate finance committee voted 7-4 against forwarding the measure. Supporters of the measure vowed to work on it again in 2011.

“Realistically my sense is that it’s done for this year,” said Sen. Peter Wirth, the bill’s sponsor told the New Mexico Independent. “It’s gonna happen, it’s just a matter of when.”

The 800-page bill would grant the rights and responsibilities of marriage to unmarried gay or straight couples. The measure passed the state House last year but failed in the Senate.

The move by the finance committee strikes a blow to Gov. Bill Richardson’s vow to fight for the rights of gays and lesbians in his state.

By Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com
02.16.2010

At age 15, Terry Crow worked on a campaign to help get Missouri’s first woman elected to a state office. Now he’s looking to set his own historical first. Crow want to be the first openly gay man elected mayor in the state. He is running for the office in University City, home to Washington University.

“He’s a dad, a business owner and community activist who’s worked hard to make his home town a welcoming and progressive place to live,” said Chuck Wolfe, Victory Fund president and CEO in a letter endorsing Crow’s campaign. “Terry’s victory would show that LGBT leaders can be leaders for their entire communities, even in the heartland.”

Crow has an extensive and legal background. He currently is a partner in Crow Takacs law firm and owns several Great Clips hair salons in University Place.

“I love University City and the rich diversity it provides,” Crow wrote on his campaign Web site. “In fact, I believe our diversity is our greatest strength. It is because of that diversity that our next mayor must possess the ability to weigh the multitude of differing viewpoints and competing needs within our community to forge a consensus and move us all forward. Our next mayor must be positive and not negative. Together, our community can achieve greatness, even in trying times.”

- Tuesday, 02/16/10 CONCORD, N.H. (AP)

New Hampshire’s House votes tomorrow on whether to repeal the state’s six-week-old law legalizing same-sex marriage.

The House will also vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

The Judiciary Committee is recommending that the House kill both measures. Same-sex marriage supporters said gay couples have gotten married without any detrimental impact on society. They also said it would be wrong to enshrine discrimination in the Constitution.

Opponents said the consummation of same-sex unions can’t be spoken of in polite society. They also said voters, not lawmakers, should decide if the marriages should be allowed.

- Feb 9, 2010
Rep. Matt Windschitl

Iowa’s right wing is pushing for a vote on same-sex marriage. They’re using a new tactic.

In their decision, the Iowa Supreme Court cited state laws such as the anti-bullying law that includes protections for LGBT students.

So two Republicans in the Iowa House, Jason Schultz and Matt Windschitl, now want to remove protection for LGBT students to pave the way for an anti-same-sex marriage vote. They have filed the Exclude Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Students from Safe Schools Law.

Opponents of equality are showing just how desperate they have become. If other tactics don’t work, file a law that tells bullies to beat up LGBT kids. Simply, incite violence to get their way.

— David Taffet